The art of Alfredo Martinez

"I met Basquiat a few times, but we didn't really know each other. He would have paid more attention to me if I was a big-titted blonde."

Images: The Proposition

Ryszard Kapuściński, RIP

At a certain point, Kapuściński, was Poland's only foreign correspondent and was responsible for 50 countries. An amazing writer who can make you giggle the water up your nose and has a such a keen eye for description that can completely creep you out. I'll have to get reading more of his work...

Everything you wanted to know.

Canadian Diaspora and Art: Tonight!

**Should I Stay or Should I Go? Canadian Artists in the Diaspora**

*Alissa Firth-Eagland, Pierre Tremblay, Gareth Long, Will Kwan, Stephen
Fakiyesi*

Panel Discussion: *Monday, January 29, 2007 at 6pm*
Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Hart House, University of Toronto

A panel discussion on the migration of Canadian visual artists into the international context. The discussion will focus on the effects of international residency opportunities and graduate programmes, artdealership in art market cities, and consider national representation through expatriot artists at major art events and biennials. The relationship between economic and cultural migration will be addressed to gauge the position and options available to Canadian visual artists and students.

*Panelists:*

*Alissa Firth-Eagland *has initiated artistic and curatorial partnerships between Scandinavia and Canada. She recently completed a curatorial residency at the Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art. In 2007, she will present Finnish and Swedish video works at the 20th Images Film and Video Festival in Toronto.

*Pierre Tremblay *is a coordinator of le Fresnoy, a postgraduate residency in Tourcoing, France. He currently teaches in the Image Arts Department of Ryerson University, Toronto and has previously taught at Parsons School of
Design in Paris.

*Gareth Long *is currently completing his MA in Fine Art at Yale University. Exploring the formal space between video and sculpture has been a focus of his independent work and projects with the 640 480 collective. He has translated video in books and lenticular photographic prints.

*Will Kwan *is the Snider Lecturer in Humanities at University of Toronto-Scarborough. His work is included in the 2007 Biennale de Montréal and was recently a resident researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, Holland. He has presented work at the 2003 Venice Biennale.

*Stephen Fakiyesi *will be included in AAHLuminex show at the Art Gallery of Mississauga and is collaborating on a childrens book. He recently completed his MA in Fine Art at the University of California-Los Angeles where he focussed on print making.

The panel will be moderated by *Tejpal S. Ajji*, curator in residence at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery.

--

Afterall, it's a small place.

10 points for David Hammons

Gotta love this.

The New Leipzig School

This New York Times article, though about a year old, details the rise of European painting in the German city of Leipzig. Hailed as the first significant art movement of the 21st century, the painters led by Neo Rauch have taken quite a traditional approach to painting and in doing so have created something new and fresh. Or at least the art world thinks so. I have mixed feelings. Though ever since seeing Tim Eitel's work, I've been quite seduced by it. Austere, quiet and dreary - it has a specific type of Eastern European poetic that rhymes just right.

Image: Tim Eitel's Liegender courtesy of Eigen + Art

Comet McNaught

The brightest comet ever can be easily seen be the naked eye especially by those in the southern hemisphere. Check the wiki page for instructions how to see it for yourself.

Photo: Wikipedia

The End of The World

So they updated the doomsday clock BUT The End of The World is still funny.

Thelma Golden speaks about comics

Link

VAI AVANTI

VAI AVANTI

Honda: Cog

See also The Way Things Go by Fischli & Weiss and Rube Goldberg

Project Row Houses

Houston artist Rick Lowe and his Project Row Houses is perhaps one of the the most inspiring art projects I have heard of, read about, and thought about all 2006 long. Inspired by the painting of John Biggers and the vision to answer the question "what are you doing to make things better?", Lowe weaves a tight a relational narrative. Brilliant.

Read the NY Times article or visit the official website.

St. James, Director for Special Projects for the State of Eternity

Daniel Baumann came by the gallery today and talking with him and Ann Webb about some work I made in Korea, it boggled my mind to forget this dude's name. Today I found him again:

James Hampton.

What is love?

Super cheddar, stinky and loving it.

Too Much

Too much.

There's a biennale that opens every 3 days. So they're making a biennale that deals with that very matter.

Avatar portraiture by net pioneers 0100101110101101.org

One of the the craziest design websites I have seen in a while has the gayest preloader ever.

Bad t-shirts are so good.

I know what exactly what I would do with this font. Magic.

Too much that I can't even bring myself to write. The internet is so unreal and the world of objects, physical exchanges and realness is reigning.

Above: Tal R, Melody, 2003 --- Saatchi Collection

6th International Caribbean Biennial

I was reading a book in the book store today after having a tea with Shaun this evening. The book was a whole bunch of interviews with living artists. I decided to read about Maurizio Cattelan. And stumbled into an adventure starring: Olafur Eliasson, Gabriel Orozco, Tobias Rehberger, Pipilotti Rist, Vanessa Beecroft, Rirkrit Tiravanija and others... 6th International Caribbean Biennial

Photo: Vanessa Beecroft

Wheat Rice Millet Barley Rye Corn Oats

Rockonski is pleased to present the newest multiple produced by studio artist Tonik Wojtyra. Wheat Rice Millet Barley Rye Corn Oats (The Seven Grains) is a 14k solid gold cast of a common one inch button pin. The work is being issued by Rockonski in a signed and numbered limited edition of 7. Each button costs $777 dollars. It may purchased in NYC Novemeber 17-19 through Art Metropole at the The NY Art Book Fair or directly at www.rockonski.com

Small, round, and shiny is at once recognizable as a button pin. Its material lends the piece a number of meanings: part fashion, part art and part do-it-yourself homage. Polished, monotone, and missing a graphic statement like most buttons, the piece presents a blank, yet reflective, statement about statements. In his own words Tonik suggests: "It's quite simple, man: I had this idea for a solid gold button and then I went and I made it. I showed it to a few people. They want to touch it. I don't know what it means but I've been thinking about environment lately: granola, organic food, Greenpeace, give-a-hoot-don't-pollute and all that. It's sparkle is star shine like and there's seven of them; seeds for the beginning of history you know what i mean?"

It's the new millenium. Snap out of candy land kids.

How much will it cost?

For years and years we've been hearing about the degradation of the ozone layer, the destruction of the oceans and the polluting of the air and lots of people are doing lots of things about it. Now, finally, it seems we've finally put it into a language that everybody cares about: money.

Displacement (with Chinese characteristics)

Will Kwan presents his latest project Displacement (with Chinese characteristics) in Shanghai at the Shanghai Duolun MoMA. Juxtaposing earth work conceptualism against the rebuilding and rise of China, Will creates a massive yet ephemeral earth work. The change and shift of the local Shanghai landscape, aided by the banks no doubt, takes form of a huge logo: a sly commentary about the change and shift of the global landscape. Though it's probably not large enough to be seen from space with the naked eye, a little geotagging would make it as easily found as it's conceptual patriarch Spiral Getty. In a way, it's an parallel comment like that of Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror in New York (for another few days).

If you're in Shanghai, there's an opening on Friday night at 19:00.

Image from: Shanghai Duolun MoMA

Inspiration

Bots, readymades, and curating

Just go and read it for yourself. For the geek and artist in you, it's just... brilliant.

Genius, autism and the male biological clock

Karen van Hahn makes a fairly potent argument that males, like women, have a biological clock ticking away. The revelation that men who seed a child over the age of 40 are nearly 6 times as likely to have a child with autism as compared to men under the age of 30. All Saturday morning I was kind of bummed out by that news. I've had it in my mind to have kids when I'm 48 or so. I'm not financially equipped nor am I nearly grown up (read: responsible) enough to have steady girlfriend and the thought of having a child before my late 40's just doesn't gel well. So I was bummed. But things always have silver linings. And I worked that Saturday long and hard and when I came home again there was an email from Camillo marked with a subject of "Inspiration". The email containted not one but two links. The silver lining turns out to be the opportunity, at an advanced age, to father a savant. And then I thought that might suck anyway... but then I thought about all the "healthy" people I know. I think I need some retards in my life.

-

Image: Sabina Sciubba, lead singer of The Brazilian Girls, speaks 6 languages and mixes them lovingly in her lyrics.

2 things

After a long time of not doing it, it snowed again.

*

I have a hotel booked in Miami.

Photo: Alec Soth

Flat Daddy

Reading my morning news over at Tyler Green's blog I come across a very interesting post about Niagara Falls and the photography of Alec Soth. So I go check out his blog and get to the topic of: Flat Daddies. The American National Guard is providing paper cutouts to the familes of deployed service members as a way to ease the pain of separation. Supposedly, it's working but it's bizarre.

What would you die for?

I just want to ask a question
Who really cares?
To save a world in despair
Who really cares?

Who's willing to try
Yes, to save a world
Yea, save our sweet world
Save a world that is destined to die

© Marvin Gaye

-

The only thing on my mind today.

English and it's web

Just What Is It About English That Makes It So Ensaring, So Sticky?

Driving home yesterday

I saw a sign for a mechanic's garage that simply stated We do brakes... if you can stop.

Sunday Sighting

But is it thievery?

An interesting story about a couple Indian thieves in Kyrgyzstan. The thieves use hypnosis on the bank tellers who then willingly hand over cash amounts. It's a wonderful Jedi mind trick but is it theft if the money is handed over willingly? Is the hypnosis as violent as a gun crammed against the cranium?

Little Superstar

Thanks to Graeme for the link.

Cocaine Karaoke - September

Psychedelic Spaniard

Santiago Calatrava is just amazing. I didn't realize that he was responsible for the Allen Lambert Galleria at BCE place in Toronto but I do now. His designs are both organic and natural looking because of their immediate references to nature (the BCE ceiling reminds me of palm trees) but they also seem to create a landscape fit for aliens. Looking at his designs one gets the feeling this is not for planet Earth. They are reminscent of Gehry's Bilbao and Disney designs but I think they, at least on surface, take a more radical departure from the norm. Two residential projects are note worthy: 1. The Turning Torso in Malmo & 2. A yet to be built residential highrise in New York City are both very bold.

*applause

Why is art important?

Jerry Saltz in the Village Voice answers some big questions. He does an excellent job too. No further comment.

Image:

Diego Velázquez
Dwarf Sitting on the Floor (Don Sebastián)
1645, oil on canvas, 106x81cm
Collection of The Prado, Madrid, Spain

Banksy in the City of Angels

Banksy is at it again.

he says:

1.7 billion people have no access to clean drinking water. 20 billion (sic) people live below the poverty line. Every day hundreds of people are made to feel physically sick by morons at art shows telling them how bad the world is but never actually doing something about it. Anybody want a free glass of wine?

All this regarding... a painted elephant?

The elephant looks wicked. But its logic is a stretch. Maybe you can use the system to subvert it but you can't be against the system and be within the system. (Or can you?) I understand he doesn't like the art world but he's not exactly feeding the poor with his scathing critique is he? His binary critical art stance is kind of tired. It's so... 20th century, so... last millenium.

I'm sitting here comfortable in my 1st world home giving Banksy the gas face.

Photo: Marissa Roth for The New York Times

The art of Tara Donovan

Tara Donovan is a little bit like Brian Jungen, in that she takes common everyday objects and puts her alchemical touch on to them, and poof! out comes a seductive visual experience.

What intrigues me about both Donovan and Jungen, is that they are essentially making readymades: twisted and altered readymades. All is reinvented but nothing is really "invented". It's interesting to me because it inverts Duchamp's wish to infuse art with a degree of cerebrality - which at the time of The Fountain in 1917 was lacking - because of the high visual nature within the reigning aesthetic at the time: cubism. Donovan, more so than Jungen, uses visuals to outwit intellectualisms. I can't say that's a bad thing either.

Photos : Ace Gallery

1000 Cars

Video game replays as a psychedelic music video. Quite elegant in bits.

from the trash...

from: kwhoneybaby@gjmxobgbj.nu
to: me
subject: Hey Tommie Check Out This Watch

I had a meeting to attend to, and I needed something classy yet professional to wear. One of my friends told me about your
website and I've seen him wearing one of your watches, but I was still sceptical to buy a replica watch. I took my chance
though, and ordered a Rolex from your website. When I received it, I was definitely impressed, but wasn't sure if my
associates would be able to tell it's a replica. But when I showed up to the meeting, they couldn't take their eyes off of
my new watch. This watch gave me what I was looking for, classy style, with a touch of professionalism.

- Timmy S.,

Go To http://www.yeallowsparkz.com

---

Best piece of spam I ever got.

*

Exciting times we live in friend... Today was so beautiful, I could pour out an entire novel about the shine of today's moments. But I'm le tired.

Addressing Orientalism

Jamelie Hassan's recent exhibit Orientalism and Ephemera had me thinking and I bought Edward Said's seminal masterpiece Orientalism and I've been reading it and have been made aware of ideas of human race divisions on an entirely new level. It is a tough but interesting read so it's a bit of a joyful thing to read about some guerrila performance art aimed at American art star Matthew Barney and his lovely European wife, Bjork at Barney's opening at the SFMOMA. Interesting. It's nice to have some real world examples to help me understand all this... I'll be sure to get back to reading Orientalism.

Jermey Laing

If you're like me, you're a little bit tired of t-shirts and strategically torn jeans that pass as fashion on our streets, then you'll be happy to look at what Jeremy Laing is creating. Perhaps it's not street fashion per se but it is fresh. And I'm terrifically happy to see it. A Toronto kid no less. Laing launches his Spring/Summer 2007 collection at 11 am, Saturday, September 9 2006 at 601 Studios - 601 West 26TH Street, 16th Floor, New York, NY. If you're in the area, go check it out for me.

My brother... Bogus

Amen

Cocaine Karaoke - July!

So I finally got my self organized and got me a flickr account and have uploaded my photos there. Thanks for the fun times.

The painting of Luc Tuymans

Personally, I'm not feeling Luc Tuymans aesthetic a whole lot, but some other people are... some of his pieces have a nice type of ephemeral, nostalgic glow - like they are representing the not too distant future.

Image: www.artserver.be

Don't Give Up

Jacob Miller - Roman Soldiers of Babylon

Thanks Camillo.

2 things for tomorrow...

Okay, the 1st is Cocaine Karaoke July 2006 Edition...




The second is a small art piece in... a show. one by one is a benefit to help some down and out youth in Kenya. Works on the theme of change, including one by yours truly, are being raffled off for the cause. So come out, blow some dough, buy some art, make an investment, make a friend, and don't go home alone.

Zaha Hadid's London 2012 Olympic Games Aquatic Centre

Started kissing everything in sight...

I've been super lazy on this blog. And I'll continue to be super lazy on it as long as the summer is here and I'd rather spend every minute possible in the sun sweating & smiling. But here's 3 links for you to check out:

1. Oliver is killing it with summer tunes.

2. For anyone in Miami with a tongue for Africa, go have photographic taste.

3. Check out El Michels Affairs instrumental of the Wu's C.R.E.A.M. Lovely.

Photo: my studio, late at night on June 21, 2006.

Will Kwan in Porto, Italy

The amazing Will Kwan has something happening in Italy. I'm totally too far to check in to it, but if you're anywhere closer... it's probably quality. Go, have a look, and let me know about it. More info:

AROUND

Bernardo Giorgi
Carl Michael von Hausswolff
Will Kwan
Henrik Plenge Jakobsen

a cura di Gigiotto Del Vecchio

30 Giugno fino al 15 Settembre 2006
Opening 30 Giugno, 18:00

Galleria Enrico Fornello
Via Paolini, 27 - 59100, Prato, Italy
Tel.+39.0574462719
www.enricofornello.it

++++++++++

AROUND

Bernardo Giorgi
Carl Michael von Hausswolff
Will Kwan
Henrik Plenge Jakobsen

curated by Gigiotto Del Vecchio

30 June - 15 September 2006
Opening 30 June, 6pm

Galleria Enrico Fornello
Via Paolini, 27 - 59100, Prato, Italy
Tel.+39.0574462719
www.enricofornello.it

Mobb Deep Video Special

Shook Ones Pt. 2


Put em in Their Place


Cobra


In the culture of hip hop, where posturing is sometimes seemingly everything, it's always refreshing to see Mobb Deep do their best. They don't shift their image, they don't play nice for kicks, they aren't rhyming about the newest fashion but instead they consistently do what they're excellent at: posturing as the toughest tough guys in hip hop. The Shook Ones Pt. 2, my personal favourite, is a super straight forward video. The director weaves short street narratives with straight up shots of Havoc & Prodigy addressing the viewer. The weave is uncluttered and just seems to honour the uncluttered rhymes and dark beats. Cobra, makes a nice little reference to La Haine or maybe they just shot that video in Paris. Either way, branding strategists take note.


Your crew is featherweight / My gun shots make you levitate.

I'm baaaaaaaaaack

Sometimes I fantasize about living on the side of a mountain in Asia, twirling cherry blossoms in my fingers and stuff, but then I get online and it's nicer being a hermit while still connected to the entire universe. Hello World.

The above image is an early map of the Internet - from back when it was still known as ARPANET and everything. It's from March 1977 actually. That's not that old considering color monitors weren't common place back then.

I need some help putting together a map of a complex community. Holla!

Image via: Visual Complexity

Cocaine Karaoke in June

dress to get killed...

Tyrus's grin

He's gonna be a trouble maker.

Locked Out - Day 14

I haven't had steady internet for 14 days now.

I'm still alive.

Barely.

I'm disjointed. Relationships seem severed, slightly. I feel out of touch. I can't google things, and can't waste time checking stuff needlessly, I don't know who has messaged me on myspace. Email all of a sudden has taken a back seat to telephone. Telephone is more immediate, less mediated, and more live. The reliance on phone in a way, has freed me. But I know I'm constricted in a different way.

I haven't been downloading music or getting steady porn or reading my blogs and net hook ups are brief; when I do get internet, I download my email and send my email out. The computer is less terminal and less communication hub and more tool. My work, when I use this tool for work, is focused. When I force music out of this harddrive, the music seems purposeful. It's also because I'm on a Mac now. It's apples and oranges. It's a computer but it's pedigree is else.

Poland plays Germany. I don't know what time. To check online seems laborious. I wish I could turn on the TV. No TV. No Cable. I'm at a internet cafe anyway. Different mediums for different purposes.

Mediums & Massages. It all kind of makes more sense now, Marshall.

Damn I need a neck rub.

It's been hectic.

Minor deadlines. Visitors from foreign places. A hunt for a new place to live. Then my computer dies. Dang. Deadlines are dead. The mini heat wave rolls through. Visitors go. I move. Then I buy a Apple 12" PowerBook G4.

Can you say flux?

My new place is lovely. 2 rooms, no roommates, sunny, a balcony and small little jaunt from the park, and just past the park all the shopping I'll ever need. However, my new place is in need of a love seat, some chairs, a table, and a dish rack. Buy me a Marc Newson designed Dish Doctor. I love you.

P.S. Damian Hirst is at it again in a big way.

The painting of Dana Schutz

Twister Mat


Sword Rack


Death Comes To Us All

Kineko Ivic, in introducing the painting of Dana Schutz to me, described her work being painted by a person who is "obviously a genius." I looked her up and wasn't convinced. It's witty and smart but for me it kind of echoes too greatly of early 20th surrealism. It has a similar wimsy to that of Marcel Dzama but also shares Dzama's certain lack of cerebral lack of engagement. Where Dzama is an illustrative painter to the point of seeming to be an illustrator stuck in the art world loop, Dana Schutz seems to be milking Dali-esque devices like strange landscapes inhabited by wierd objects. Even though, she's young and important painter in the 2006 art world. Which either makes me think the art world is messed up or I'm just not understanding something that everyone obviously is... so I started looking for positives in her work. In Death Comes To Us All I really enjoy the elegantly rendered hand holding a cigarette with the elegant mess of a torso on the figure; that yellow pylon and the matching street stripe complementing one another like bricks and mortar. I began to enjoy her lyrical rendering juxtaposed against her lyrical messes, even though they heavily relying on de Kooning devices. But I'm still not hailing her as an obvious genius. Her art, like so much art, is still investigating the bleakness, the strangeness of life, the inevitableness of death in life, and just more or less offers little hope. Perhaps that's why the art world acknowledge's her as important; perhaps the world of 2006 in general can identify with those ideas than their positive counterparts.

Images from: Saatchi Gallery

May Cocaine Karaoke

Cocaine Karaoke - Saturday May 27, 2006 - not my dog - Deejay Gramera & Deejay G-Spot - 10pm - $5 or whatever - 1,000,000 milligrams = 1000 grams = 1 kilogram -

"What's Going On / What's Happening Brother"

In the month of May I...

Welcome to Tonik World. We're everywhere where you are... this week I can be found all over.

1. On Thursday May 18th in the evening, I'll be in the East end. Don't call it a comeback but gltss cofounder Shaun Dhani and I will be doing a collabo live painting for I AM A WILD PARTY in the Toronto Free Gallery at 660 Queen St East. You can thank Zinc Roe for the fun. Should be right on and far out... come by and I'll buy you a beer.

2. A little more central in the city on Friday May 19th in the morning, from about 8:30 to 10:30 or so, at 247 Augusta Avenue in Kensington Market, I'm going to be having a bit a Happy Birthday sale. I'm not telling you what I'm selling - you'll just have to come by and see, yeah?

3. And finally on Queen west west, on Sunday May 21st all day long, at Paul Petro Multiples + Small Works at 962 Queen St. West, Paul Petro is going provide the music and I'm selling all my t-shirts, my Gucci sunshades, my furry Kangols, my shoe collection, all my Polo, my Italian suit, and all my socks and dirty underwear. Okay, maybe not my socks and undies but I'm selling my entire wardrobe. At the end of the day I'm going to kick back a portion of my profits to Youth Assisting Youth and everything. So come for the tunes, buy some art from Paul or just come and get me naked. I'm Selling The Shirt Off My Back.

Bisoux,

tonik

Chris Ofili's "The Blue Rider"

Dubbed as Ofili's sculptural debut and/or his blue period, The Blue Rider happened late 2005 at Contemporary Fine Arts in Berlin. The dots seem to be gone and the blue is creepily deep. The installation shots of the exhibition, with dark floors, white walls and blue works makes the space look oceanic or even heavenly. Just what is about blue?

Photos: Jan Bauer, CFA Berlin

Glenn Ligon in Artforum

Glenn Ligon has this wicked way of working with text. I'm not too crazy about some of his work, but when you can pull off text art, not many artists can, then you have my respect. Ligon's Warm Broad Glow above,is proof he can get it just right. Read Richard Meyer's artforum essay about it all, it's worth it.

Photo: Rick Gardner via artforum.com