- New York Times Style section wizens up to net art, profiles Ryder Ripps. Naturally Adrian Chen writes the feature. From Ripps, “The Internet is just a ton of different people,” he said. “So, being good at knowing how to equally access these people to speak to them is being good at the Internet.” [New York Times]
- Bill Davenport has made a listicle of the top ten painters in Houston, noting “how few really good painters there are in this city…” Let’s see if he gets any challengers. Davenport also introduces us to a new painting term, “new-nothing abstractionists”. [Glasstire]
- Just as we would like to see the Guggenheim put a woman in its rotunda for once, Carolina Miranda would like to see the Whitney or the New Museum finally put on a show of Puerto Rican/Nuyorican art. [twitter]
- The Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome is at risk of closing due to budget cuts. [Artnet]
- Brooklyn artists might want to put Pittsburgh on their list of potential next destinations. The Pittsburgh Biennial is expanding and trying to raise awareness about their city as an art hub. They’ve got the Andy Warhol Museum, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh Glass Center, Carnegie Museum, and the Pittsburgh Filmmakers and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (PCA). [The Art Newspaper]
- What do the men who pick up the stuff we drop in the subway find? A stuffed rabbit, for one. [Animal New York]
- Somebody’s putting pink donation boxes on the streets, possibly for donations and possibly for plunder. [Bowery Boogie]
- New York Times Dining Critic Pete Wells ruminates on the aesthetics of plating and how it’s influencing cuisine. Stunt dishes are on the rise (the burger with a length of bone embedded in the patty; the chicken Parmesan on a pizza stand), as is camera cuisine (people who study food movements through pictures alone). My favorite bit in this piece, though, is the account of how food nerds attack if you post anything less than a beautiful picture.
I got a taste of this shutter-shaming myself when I tweeted a picture of a trout a restaurant had served me. My point was that the dish was a mess, as carefully presented as a basket of dirty laundry. Never mind that: Twitter reacted to the ugliness of the image, not the broken tail of the trout. One person asked if I’d been taking pointers from Ms. Stewart. Whether you’re on Twitter, Instagram or your own blog, the message is clear: Don’t take pictures in a restaurant if you aren’t going to make the place look good. [New York Times]
{ 5 comments }
What do you mean by “Naturally Adrian Chen writes the feature”? Is Chen the Boswell to Ripps’ Samuel Johnson?
Bill Davenport’s article illustrates the perils of being a critic in a small scene: It should be called “Five Artists in Addition to the Five I Usually Write About and/or Have Personal Connections To (and Sorry to the Ones I Put in the Second Tier).”
It is astonishing that Mark Flood keeps showing up on “hot emerging artists” lists. He has been exhibiting since 1981. That is a lo-o-o-ong emergence.
Yeah, I could have been more clear. It just seems like there are three main freelance writers with an interest in art and tech that get published by mainstream publications; Adrian Chen, Kevin McGarry and Kyle Chayka. If I were asked who I thought would be the best pick for Ripps I’d say Adrian Chen. He’s written a couple of times about The Jogging when he was at Gawker and I thought he had smart things to say. Obviously those two figures are very different, but in the media world, they fall into a similar pitch world.
As for Davenport – that enormous disclaimer at the end of his piece about all his connections is a little ridiculous. He also goes so far as to say the list is limited to painters, which is probably redundant for anyone who can read the title. I didn’t know too much about any of the artists but Mark Flood. I like Francesca Fuchs work, Davenports wife!
I know Davenport from my Texas days so I’m kidding him a bit. Still, when I left (20 years ago next May), essentially the same group predominated. Of his top ten, only four weren’t overwhelmingly familiar names, and they were in the slots 7-10. Consistency over the years isn’t necessarily a vice, art-wise, but I’d have a hard time getting out of bed to write that same article for two decades.
The Houston painter I liked best was Perry House, who is in Davenport’s second tier. A De Chirico-esque semi-Modernist who is slightly out of step with the city and the times, but in a good way. His work changes from series to series, and from jpegs at least, it looks like he’s still keeping it fresh.
House’s gallery’s website has a good range of different periods of his work: http://www.dma-art.com/#!perry-house/c22cz
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