Via Culturebot I just learned about ArtHome which sounds like a good organization for artists to investigate.

ArtHome helps artists build assets and equity through financial literacy and home-ownership.

We foster long-term stability in the American Arts and Culture sector by harnessing the economic power of real estate and equity on behalf of individual culture workers.

Through our dynamic financial literacy and home-buying curriculum, and through the creation of home buying programs, access to innovative loan products and down payment assistance, we are building a unique and complementary support structure for American culture.

The founders are the theater artist Aaron Landsman and Esther Robinson of Creative Capital fame.

Midden (installation detail), 2006
ink on cut paper

This is in a good group show called DRAW*ING (dro'ing) n.

I wrote about an installation the artist had in Gallery Joe's room at Scope in March 2005.

Here are two painting highlights from Twist It Twice, curated by Franklin Evans, at Moti Hasson. These were on either side of one corner of the room.

Wendy White
Faintly with Rays, 2006
acrylic and spray paint on canvas
24 × 46 1/2 inches

The artist has a solo show coming up at Sixtyseven, and is in a group show at a new LES gallery called V&A.

Paul Pagk
untitled, 2005
oil on linen
24 × 25 inches

[bottom photo from Moti Hasson's website, top one by me]

Reto Boller
Untitled (AC-06.2), 2006
Acrylic lacquer on aluminum
30.7 × 38 × 0.2 inches

I saw this in a group show titled I may be some time... at James Nicholson. It was my favorite piece, and made me very annoyed that I missed his solo show at the gallery. Here is an installation shot from that show:

plus a Brooklyn Rail review.

John White Cerasulo
Untitled, Near Litchfield, 2005
watercolor on paper
26 × 19 inches

This watercolor was in Air, a group show curated by Amy Sillman, at Monya Rowe.

Simone Huelser
Untitled, 2006
Color copies, wheat paste
Dimensions variable

This was in a group show at Hudson Franklin titled Best Played with a Straight Face. According to the gallery, the artist photographs different buildings, digitally manipulates them, has color copies produced and then wheat pastes them to the wall to achieve the pattern she wants.

[All photos courtesy of the respective galleries.]

From Crain's NY:

A major public art project will be unveiled in January as part of the mayor's plan to draw more tourists to New York City during the winter months.

Artist Doug Aitken plans to create a "cinematic art experience that will directly integrate with the city's architecture, while enhancing and challenging viewers' perception of public space."

The project, which will be filmed entirely in New York City, will be projected on the facades of The Museum of Modern Art from Jan. 16 through Feb. 12.

While I'm recommending music, this show on BBC Radio 1 is one of my favorites, especially for the mini mixes.

I barely know what Grime is except by example, but my current gym listening consists primarily of a podcast I found at grimetime.de, from Berlin. Check it out.

Related: How cool is it that the BBC has a magazine called collective that writes articles on things like grime?

James Hopkins, Consumption and Consequence, 2006

This was one of my favorite pieces in a smart group show at James Cohan Gallery titled A Brighter Day.

Related: Click opera on shelves and art. While you're there, check out his excellent post on the White House's purposefully middlebrow (at best) graphic design. It's dirt style without the irony!

Two items from other blogs:

• James on all of the Democratic politicians in New York saying Israel can do whatever it wants to Lebanon, including its civilians
• Tom Moody on Daily Kos saying he's not interested in writing about what's going on in the Middle East

The former are "old school" politicians, and people like Markos Moulitsas Zúniga of the Daily Kos are supposedly the next wave. If acting as if our government's foreign policy in the Middle East has nothing to do with our lives is considered an appropriate position for Democrats, I don't see much point in getting involved to help them get elected. As Tom Moody says, New Yorkers who were here for 9/11 have a bit of trouble acting as if our lives have nothing to do with our government's activities in foreign countries.

If they win, we get people like Hillary Clinton as leaders? Some win. Even Rupert Murdoch is throwing fundraisers for her.

The only person whose campaign interests me right now is Jonathan Tasini. He is challenging Hillary in the New York Democratic primary. People like Atrios and Daily Kos are all over Joe Lieberman's challenger, but have been silent on this one. Appararently they think Hillary Clinton -- pro-Iraq War, pro-PATRIOT ACT, anti-gay marriage -- is just fine.

I just saw this image on Christopher Reiger's blog:

Red-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens)

along with others he took on a visit to the Monongahela National Forest in eastern West Virginia. Check out this post for his thoughts and more photos.

We spotted some lovely drawings of such creatures by him at the recent Salon de Expace #3 at AG Gallery.

Check out this LA Times article:

Thousands of Americans whose vacations and business trips to Lebanon have degenerated with sickening speed into stints in a battle zone remained stranded here under Israeli bombardment Monday, their frustration and anger mounting because the U.S. government hasn't gotten them out faster.

...

The frustration has been intensified by news that other countries have already pulled many of their citizens out of Lebanon, efficiently and free of cost. A ferry chartered by the French government carried about 800 of its citizens and several dozen Americans to Cyprus on Monday. The U.S. military evacuated about 60 Americans by helicopter Sunday and Monday.

Other nations have packed people into rented tour buses and driven them over the mountains to Syria. The U.S. State Department has warned Americans against traveling to Syria.

The main U.S. evacuation plan involves a Pentagon-contracted cruise ship, the Orient Queen, due to arrive in Lebanon today to ferry people to Cyprus. The ship can carry about 750 passengers for the five-hour trip. Defense Department officials said other private ships were likely to be hired as well.

Americans have been told to wait for a telephone call that could come in hours — or days. They've also been told they can't board a ship unless they've signed a contract agreeing to repay the U.S. government for the price of their evacuation.

Israel is effectively a client state of the U.S. in the area, and receives more of its foreign aid budget than any other country. Couldn't Bush tell them not to bomb the capital city while the U.S. is trying to evacuate Americans?

Related: this brilliant blog post from Huffington Post on the focus on pretty long distance shots of explosions rather than dead bodies, plus a letter from Beirut by Walid Raad.

Over the weekend I updated the code for ArtCal so that you can now see things by neighborhood, or just look for exhibitions at museums or non-profits.

Via Crain's NY I learn:

The Metropolitan Opera has received a $1 million gift from Marie Schwartz, an advisory director on the Met's board, to fund a new contemporary visual arts gallery being planned for its lobby.

The gallery, which will open Sept. 22, will be called "The Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met," after Ms. Schwartz and her late husband. Dodie Kazanjian, the art writer for Vogue, has been hired to curate the gallery.

The space will display original works of art with opera themes. Six artists, including Cecily Brown and Barnaby Furnas, have already produced works for the first exhibition.

The Met's press release is here.

It says that the works in the inaugural exhibiton are "inspired by the heroines of the season’s six new productions." They are:

• Cecily Brown (Suor Angelica in Il Trittico)
• John Currin (Helena in Die Ägyptische Helena)
• Barnaby Furnas (Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice)
• Makiko Kudo (Princess Yue-yang in The First Emperor)
• Richard Prince (Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly)
• Sophie von Hellermann (Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia).

Other artists planned for future exhibitions include David Salle, Verne Dawson, George Condo, and Wangechi Mutu.

Let's hope the visual arts programming isn't as conservative and dull as the musical (Tan Dun?) and design decisions have been as long as I've lived in New York. This list doesn't make me jump up and down with excitement, but I would hardly expect the Met to display artists that haven't been endorsed by the market. We wouldn't want the Met patrons exposed to unfamiliar "brands." (I must admit I'm not familiar with Makiko Kudo though.)

Via the BBC, here is a photo of Mozart's widow Constanze in 1840 in the Bavarian town of Altoetting when she was 78. She is the first person on the left.

Jonathan Podwil, Huey, 2006
film loop still

James and I are big fans of the work of Jonathan Podwil.

I'm happy to announce that he has a new website, hosted by ArtCat. Check out the video works, as he did a great job of getting those to a nice web-ready size.

If you want to see a work by him in person, he is in a group show at Plane Space in the Village through July 30.

Michael Salter, Styrobots, 2006
Styrofoam packing materials, glue

This comes from a show at Jeff Bailey Gallery titled Men and Materials, described as

combining everyday objects, vintage and new, coveted and discarded, craft and fine art materials

Here are my picks for tonight's openings in Chelsea:

• Jessia Ciocci at Foxy Production
• Celebrity at Sixtyseven

In addition, other 27th Street galleries like ATM and Wallspace have shows that look worth a visit, plus we may drop by Jeff Bailey and Buia. Check out ArtCal for all you need to know.

No, I'm not dead. Just slowed down by the weather (except today) and a huge number of projects.

As a follow-up to my post on Galapagos planning to lobby for aid for emerging artists, here is a good article on the Galagos site on why this is important, titled Canaries in the goldmine: The emerging arts in New York City.