Libby Hartle
Nest, 2008
cast paper

The show closed yesterday, but I wanted to put up an image and provide a link to a few more photos I took. The nest above was made through a rather laborious process of turning found paper and collage detritus into castable paper pulp. That pulp was then used in molds made from real twigs. My crooked photo of some of the process documentation is below.

Emily Noelle Lambert, Forest through the trees, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 78 × 54 inches

Attention, all art fans converging on Chicago this week! I know I should have posted this earlier, but our dear friend Emily Noelle Lambert has a solo show of paintings and works on paper at Thomas Robertello Gallery opening Friday, April 25 from 6-9pm. You can't go wrong with someone James and I have been continuous fans of since 2003.

Henry Moore and Donald Judd

Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons

Here are two shots by me of Franco Mondini-Ruiz's art piñata at Frederieke Taylor Gallery.

My college French got a bit of a workout with ArtCat's latest client: the New Galerie de France. It's our first client in Paris, and the first one with a bilingual site. We now have clients in New York, Chicago, London, Paris, and Berlin. Los Angeles should happen soon, but nothing is live yet.

Clockwise from top left: Ghost Squadron. For search and rescue; National Reconnaissance Office. Dragon is code for infrared imaging on advanced KH-11 satellites; Desert Prowler. May represent Groom Lake, Nev., a k a Area 51; Special Projects Office. Oversaw F-117A stealth fighter support; 4451st Test Squadron. Stealth fighters; 413th Flight Test Squadron. Possibly referring to simulated or real electronic threats against aircraft. [From the NY Times, image and caption provided to them by Trevor Paglen]

Set your recorders. The artist Trevor Paglen will be on The Colbert Report Monday night to talk about his new book titled I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World. It's an exploration of the patches and emblems created by various "secret" organizations funded by the confidential $32 billion portion of the Defense Department's annual budget.

Visit this New York Times article for more on the subject.

Related: James's post on Trevor Paglen's solo show at Bellwether in November 2006.

How can you go wrong with a combination like Yoko Ono and Tony Feher?

Develop Don't Destroy is encouraging people to show up at the Brooklyn Museum on Thursday, April 3rd, 6:30-8:30pm to protest the museum's choice of honoree for its annual fund raiser: developer Bruce Ratner. He is the developer of the infamous Atlantic Yards project, which has resulted in the use of eminent domain on behalf of a private entity to displace a huge number of people and tear down historic structures such as the Ward Bread Bakery building. Note that the New York Times is now reporting that, despite the billions of subsidies promised so far, the project might be scaled back due to the shrinking bond and credit markets. That won't bring back any buildings or help the people and businesses that have already been forced to move.

If you're interested in some very detailed information on the project and Mr. Ratner, I have pasted below a copy of an open letter from attorney Michael D. D. White that I received via Chuck Yuen and Meredith Allen. This is my favorite paragraph:

Ratner should not be confused with an erstwhile robber baron who did ill a long time ago and is now dispensing funds after the fact to atone and get into heaven. Ratner is doing his damage to the community now and this "honor" from the Museum is a mechanism to further damage the community.

[Note: the comments have been closed on this post due to spammers loving it for some reason.]