selected reviews, listings, press releases,and posts by bloggers

art fair: PULSE miami, booth B-103

Thu, 1 Dec 2011 14:01:12 -0500

I will have new work on view at PULSE miami in booth B-103, with Schroeder Romero & Shredder. The work, a detail of which is pictured above and the full piece pictured on my home page is entitled The American Jobs Act, part 1.

On the surface, this drawing is deeply seductive. It offers a panoramic view of wheat, filling the picture plane with curving stalks nearly to the point of abstraction. But this natural scene is troubled by an incursion of locusts and the realization that the wheat on the right-hand side of the drawing has been denuded of grain. Moreover, like most of my drawings, this one is composed entirely out of minuscule, handwritten words -- in this case, those words are copied directly from President Obama’s jobs bill, which is currently being debated in congress. As the culmination of two years of research and political compromises, the bill represents an incredible amount of labor (and is about labor, as well). Yet few people will actually read this bill, even those debating its merits. It is as technical as it is long. Looking closely at this drawing, one can get snippets of this technical language. Stepping back, one can get a sense of its comprehensive breadth -- and the effort expended by the technocrats who worked on it. Ideas of labor, especially that which takes place underneath the level of everyday appreciation, are at the center of my work. This work transcends the visual delights of its composition because of this labor -- labor that goes vastly unperceived. The image of a plague of locusts beginning its own destructive labors offers an unsettling image as the actions proposed by this bill are dismantled and inaction becomes the rule of the day.

Location
PULSE Miami, booth B-103
The Ice Palace 1400 North Miami Avenue Miami, FL 33136 Media and Entertainment District
Fair Hours

Thursday, December 1
Private Preview 10am-1pm
open to public 1pm - 7pm

Friday, December 2
11am - 7pm

Saturday, December 3
11am - 7pm

Sunday, December 4
11am - 5pm

blog: the (t) files

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:00:52 -0400

written by Grace Ehlers
Tweet Birds of Youth, a work by New York artist Michael Waugh commissioned by T Magazine is one of the most timely works I have ever seen. What at first looks to be an etching of three Poe-esque eagles, in a tempestuous background, battling it out is actually thousands of intertwined twitter messages collected from the Egyptian Revolution in May. The design alone would have put the commission right in step with the rising Romantic Goth style trend for Fall; spurred by a series of lightly sadomasichistic runway collections from Louis Vuitton and others heavily influenced by Edwardian/Victorian dark romanticism, the enormous popularity of the Alexander McQueen retrospective this summer, and from what my astrological savante friend tells me, a shift into an era of Experimental Romanticism as we enter the Age of Pisces -- convincing when she related that the last time we were in the Age of Pisces was Europe’s Spring of Nations in1848, or in the same year when other dark, intellectual works came into fruition such as Edgar Allan Poe’s Eureka. Similarly, we find ourselves in a revolutionary era, with art and fashion turning darker and more heady from seasons past’s minimalism. Yet another reason to worship T Mag editor-in-chief Sally Singer.

blog: FASHION MAGAZINE

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:42:01 -0400

SNP’s word of the day: Micrography
BY SARAH NICOLE PRICKETT | AUGUST 22ND, 2011 | 1:00 PM
Word: Micrography
Meaning: Literally, “small writing.” Historically, a Jewish form of calligraphy that developed in the ninth century. Currently, a similar—but not so much religious—way of using tiny, tiny text to render large-scale art, often used by bored graphic designers.
Usage: “Did you see the micrography in yesterday’s Style mag? Perfect to a T.” (We’re punny today!)
You should know it because: Yesterday’s beautiful, near-perfect T Style Magazine (might as well tell you now, T editor Sally Singer is my Anna, my Carine, my everything) was also its hundredth issue. To re-imagine the T logo, as they do in every issue, they commissioned the micrography artist Michael Waugh. His work is stunning: a black T formed out of Edgar Allen Poe–like birds, appearing to have been painted with a feather’s tip but, on closer inspection, are comprised wholly of minute handwriting. What’s written are tweets—the Twitter kind, not the bird-emitted kind. And not just any typically meaning-free tweets, but the tweets from Cairo’s Tahrir Square last February, when Egypt revolted and the Mubarak government fell.
The interesting thing is that micrography, or microcalligraphy, was first practiced by Jews living in Egypt in the 10th century. Scribes transformed biblical writings into decorative patterns and marginalia. You can see some lovely old European examples here. Often the form not only matches but also gives expansive life to the content. In Waugh’s work, for example, the twisted birds are no mere aesthetic choice. They make me think of the Eagle of Saladin that flies on the Egyptian flag, adopted in their 1952 revolution, and of those wrathful birds that symbolize freedom, if by force, everywhere. It’s an image worth a thousand micrographic words, and more.
ILLUSTRATION BY LEWIS MIRRETT

READ MORE ABOUT ANNA WINTOUR, CARINE ROITFELD, MICROGRAPHY, SALLY SINGER, SNP'S WORD OF THE DAY, T MAGAZINE

publication: T: The New York Times Style Magazine

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 10:52:12 -0400

The above pictured work, Tweets from Tahrir, has been commissioned for the 100th issue of T Magazine.
Each issue of T presents an artist’s interpretation of the magazine’s logo, the fraktur T. My interpretation utilizes the traditional drawing technique that I have been using for about 8 years, micrography: in which tiny handwritten lines of text are used to create the lines of a drawing.
Tweets from Tahrir is made up entirely of tweets sent from Tahrir square during the Egyptian revolution in early 2011. There were an overwhelming number of tweets sent during the uprising, but my job was made easier by OR Books, which published a single volume of selected tweets. This volume creates a fast-paced, gripping narrative, following the events as they were reported by the citizen-journalists in the middle of the action.
My drawing takes the words of those citizen-journalists and places them into the context of its opposite, the mainstream journalism of The New York Times. In effect, the drawing documents a collision between these two types of journalism, a collision that is currently re-shaping the nature of journalism across the globe.
As I thought about the corporate logo of Twitter, a cute little bird, I thought about the serious, frightening, and liberating events that took place (and continue to take place) in Egypt and across the Middle East. And with those thoughts in mind, I decided to replace the bird icon of Twitter with raptors.
I ultimately drew what you see above, raptors fighting mid-air – raptors that have been twisted into the shape of the T logo – raptors that are made up of every single tweet published in Tweets from Tahrir. In order to fit all of these tweets into this work, I had to make it larger than the magazine. The full-sized piece is 49 ¼" x 41 ¾" (paper size). It exists as a full size pigment print in an edition of 12, produced by Supreme Digital. It will premiere at the EAB Print Fair with Schroeder Romero & Shredder Gallery.

article: HYPERALLERGIC

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:36:34 -0400

10 Underrated Artists From Brooklyn
by Howard Hurst on August 19, 2011

Editor’s Note: We asked critic Howard Hurst to provide us with 10 Brooklyn artists he considers underrated. Here is his selection. We will be asking many of our critics and writers for their own lists in the coming weeks.
Ok, so it’s the middle of August. The art world has, as per usual, largely checked out for the month. What this means is that there are tons of smaller projects that get to claim part of the spotlight. While Chelsea may be asleep, I’ve always find that the end of the summer presents itself as a golden nugget of opportunity for lesser known artists and curators to take over unoccupied gallery spaces, and to garner publicity usually hogged by larger commercial galleries.
In this spirit, and to help pass the hot summer hours, here is a list of my top 10 under rated Brooklyn artists presented in no particular order.
Paul Wackers
I’ve been a huge fan of Paul’s work for a couple of years now. Though he lives in Brooklyn, you might not guess that from his work which, though full of tension, has a sort of West Coast twang. His paintings champion the often uncelebrated details of life, combining bizaro landscape and whimsical abstraction. Like a stream of consciousness litany of the everyday, his paintings weave together desperate moments and locals into a patchwork of nostalgic feeling. A psychic vacation, his canvasses pull in and out of reality with dizzying speed. Though he shows with Morgan Lehman Gallery in Chelsea, we don’t see all that much from this guy.
www.paulwackers.com
Maya Hayuk
Hayuk is a pretty amazing artist and relatively ubiquitous in the Williamsburg artist community. Her studio (soon to be torn down) is in the brightly colored Monster Island studio building on Kent Avenue on Brooklyn’s waterfront. Her dizzying, weird, and often psychedelic paintings are all about good vibes. The first time I saw her work at Cinders Gallery it felt like I was getting shot in the face with a laser full of happiness. She is just finishing up a residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and is certain to continue to churn out awesome new work.
www.mayahayuk.com
Andrew Schoultz
Schoultz seems like a pretty low key guy, bearded and flannel adorned llike many of his contemporaries. You wouldn’t know it to look at his paintings. His paintings are like overwhelming moshpits of sacred regalia, mined from the official visual language of American politics. The symbols of mysticism treasured by our founding fathers are wielded by the artist like weapons, creating raucous scenes of chaos that are both critical and humorous.
www.andrewschoultz.com
Todd Seelie
Ok, so Tod Seelie isn’t realy underrated, in fact there’s a fare amount of hype surrounding his photography. He’s become somewhat of a media darling, and he has been written about more than once by New York Magazine, though he isn’t really well known in art world circles. A traveling photographer known for his coverage of underground parties, music and art events, he is a regular contributer to Fecal Face, and documents his exploits on his blog Suckapants. Never the less, I’m throwing him on this list because, whatever you say about him, his photographs are awesome. I’d love to see his work displayed on more gallery walls, something that I don’t think happens nearly enough.
todseelie.com
Eddie Martinez
Martinez is awesome, he’s a local painter, kind of typical of what you would expect, but in a good way. His works are messy, youthfull, full of a graffiti sensibility, but also expressionism. It’s weird that the first time I saw his work was at Art Basel Miami Beach, in an Art Positions booth, where galleries are selected to present one work of art. His triptych “The Feast” was pretty incredible. I would love to see more from this artist, especially in Brooklyn.
eddiemartinez.biz
Amy Feldman
Amy Feldman was recently included in Sharon Butler’s June, 2011 article in the Brooklyn Rail, “The New Casualists.” In her article Butler identifies a new breed of loosely affiliated artists that champion the informal, experimental and insouciant. Though this kind of story is easy to criticize for its generality, I think Butler has put her finger squarely on the pulse. Of the abstract painters discussed I think Feldman is easily the strongest. What I love about her canvasses is the level of abandon, the acceptance that less than perfect is sometimes just right.
www.amyfeldman.org
Martha Clippinger
Martha Clippinger is an art professor at Drew University in New Jersey and a resident of Ditmas Park, where she lives and works. She also runs an alternative art space, The Dirty Dirty, from her basement. Her art rides the line between painting and sculpture. Her use of found materials and sense of humor is underlined by a playful abstraction that is underlined by a relaxed southern attitude. It should come as no surprise that the artist originally hails from Georgia and is an acquaintance of Alabama artist and folk hero Butch Anthony.
www.marthaclippinger.com
Chelsea Knight
It’s hard to think of a more under rated yet accomplished young video artist. Knight recently completed a residency at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace Program. She also recently attended the Whitney Independent Study Program and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her installations tackle the dynamics of political and social control. Her subjects have included professional dancers, military instructors, prison inmates and the artist’s own parents. She encourages her characters to improvise, creating a tension between the personal and the scripted. The artist’s videos examine the ways in which both governmental and domestic forces control our emotional, political and social reality.
www.chelseaknight.com
Michael Waugh
Using a technique known as micography, the artist uses the written word as a substitute for the drawn line. His drawings pull from a range of sources from political manifestos to burocratic legal documents. Waugh’s delicate script winds around each page forming a host of iconic images. The subjects of his compositions mirror those of the text he appropriates. The dogs, eagles, tropes from romanticism and colonial era Americana that he illustrates all carry the hidden watermark of official approval. He shows at Schroeder Romero & Shredder and is an artist who deserves more attention than he gets.
michaelwaugh.com
Hisham Bharoocha
Hisham Bharoocha was first widely known as a musician. He was a founding member of cult favorite groups lightening Bolt and Black Dice. He makes music under the moniker SoftCircle. His psychedelic collage and installation work reflect the way images and thoughts have a habit of melting together in the mind’s eye. Rather than feeling fragmented, Bharoocha’s collages reflect the fluid relationship between personal experience and the reality of living in a media-statured world. The result is both organic and artificial.
hishamb.net
Tagged as: Amy Feldman, Andrew Schoultz, Chelsea Knight, Eddie Martinez, Hisham Bharoocha, Martha Clippinger, Maya Hayuk, Michael Waugh, Paul Wackers, Todd Seelie, Top 10 Underrated Artists

Press release: group show at Winkleman Gallery

Fri, 6 May 2011 18:00:16 -0400

through June 11th
opening reception, May 6, 6-8PM
Winkleman Gallery is very pleased to present Idée Fixe: Drawings of an Obsessive Nature, a group exhibition of black and white drawings by Man Bartlett, Astrid Bowlby, Jacob El Hanani, Dan Fischer, Shane Hope, Joan Linder, Aric Obrosey, Michael Waugh, and Daniel Zeller.
The drawings in Idée Fixe either build toward or seem to disintegrate away from complex systems and through what is obviously a time-consuming, perhaps even obsessive process. Running the gamut from highly photo realistic representation to abstractions that suggest imagined landscapes or fields, these works are created from intense, often repetitive gestures.
621 West 27th Street  New York, NY 10001  Ground Floor  Between 11th and 12th Avenues
t: 212-643-3152
Gallery Hours:  Tuesday - Saturday, 11 - 6 PM
image: Michael Waugh. detail from The Accumulation of Capital (from Luxemburg to Robinson). 2010, ink on Mylar, diptych, 100”x42” (each panel).

mention: TOP PICK at ARTCAT

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 14:15:43 -0400

Michael Waugh
TOP PICK
Schroeder Romero & Shredder  531 West 26th Street, 212 630 0722 Chelsea March 3 - April 9, 2011  Opening: Thursday, March 3, 6 - 8 PM Web Site
from gallery’s press release: Schroeder Romero & Shredder Gallery is pleased to invite you to the opening reception for Decline and Fall, a solo show of new works by Michael Waugh on March 3rd from 6 to 8 PM. Decline and Fall features large-scale drawings, video documentation of performance, and a new installation, all of which expose the act of reading as a melancholy act of accumulation – old-fashioned in a world dominated by sound-bytes and disposability. As with Waugh’s previous multi-disciplinary shows, these various works dovetail with each other through their use of language, text and prodigious amounts of labor. In each of the works on view, the hand of the artist (and the personal time it records) absurdly mirrors the vast ideas explored in the texts, namely various iterations of cultural collapse, both overt and implied.
Central to the exhibition are Waugh’s intricate drawings based on his exploration of micrography, a 9th century Jewish calligraphic technique where tiny handwritten words coalesce into representational images – images that in Waugh’s case range from portraits of turn of the century rowers, dogs of various breeds, and grand dynamic landscapes. Originally used to illuminate religious works, here Waugh uses secular texts such as Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and The Accumulation of Capital by Rosa Luxemburg to draw attention to how written language itself has become aestheticized and separated from everyday life. Waugh makes no attempt to summarize or interpret his source texts. By copying them word for word, or reading them verbatim in his performance works, he creates unashamedly monumental works grappling with large, sustained ideas, and his marathon-like labor can barely contain them.
Concurrent with Michael Waugh’s exhibition, the Shredder Gallery will present a show of work by Joseph Cornell, Witold Gordon, Leon Kelly, Louis Marcoussis, Man Ray, titled Les Devins.
Les Devins explores the magical narratives wrought from making ordinary objects extraordinary. On view are rarely seen works by Surrealist masters Joseph Cornell, Witold Gordon, Leon Kelly, and Man Ray, as well as the complete suite of 16 etchings from Louis Marcousis’ Les Devins. Among the works in the exhibition are the watercolor study for Man Ray’s masterpiece Leda and the Swan; Cornell’s playful astronomical inspiration for MoMA’s 1953 Christmas card; and Gordon’s quirky anthropomorphic collages. These artists read and interpret the signs and symbols of everyday occurrences, acting like mysterious soothsayers divining truths.
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