Greg Singer's Blog

2010-12-15T15:41:00.006-05:00

Finally, some new work:

The Miracle of Dimensional Lumber, 2010
gilded wood, paint and mahogany

Some of My Best Friends are Art Handlers, 2010
insulation foam and blue tape

Summer Salon 2010

2010-07-15T15:33:00.005-04:00

June 28th marked the opening of the latest exhibition in the Pratt Art and Design Dean's gallery. For this show, the goal was to broaden the scope of the gallery and to raise the level of awareness on campus. More than 20 artists are represented in this salon show and I am particularly proud that so many different Pratt departments are represented. It includes works by emerging artists from Fine Arts (Samuel Evenson, Jeanne Wilkinson), the Associate degree program(Sara Jones, Dean Dalfonsoo, Jenna Lucente, Jamie Powell, Phyllis Rosenblatt)Foundation Art(Cindy Klumb), Architecture (Ronnie Parsons and Gil Akos), Institutional Advancement (Charlotte Savidge), Art and Dance Therapy( Linda Siegel and Bob Wolf), Math and Science (Cindie Kehlet), Academic Advisement(Jennifer Perry Shingelo and Yours Truly), Multimedia Services (Chris Arabadjis), Facilities Management (Kaloyan Ivanov), Continuing and Professional Studies (Iviv Olenick), History of Art and Design (Elizabeth Meggs), and the Pratt Center for Community Develpoment (Michael Bogdanffy-Kriegh). Whew! Here are some images of the exhibition:

Michelle Hinebrook and Lisha Bai in the Dean's Gallery

2010-02-22T20:32:00.005-05:00

February 1st through February 26th. 2010

Michelle Hinebrook is the Assistant Chairperson of Graduate Communications design. She received her MFA in Painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI and her BFA from the College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI. Hinebrook’s paintings have been featured in over thirty group exhibitions, several solo shows and is included several public and corporate collections. Lisha Bai teaches Printmaking and Internship at Pratt. She earned her MFA from Yale University and her Bachelor’s degree from Washington University.

This exhibition includes 4 paintings by Hinebrook, which are complex, rich, and beautiful abstractions reminiscent of photographs taken through a powerful microscope. Bai's floor installation is a frighteningly disorienting piece of optical art. In relation to each other, the works serve as reminders that craft and wit still have a place in contemporary art. Much stronger connections can be seen in the work on their respective web pages: www.lishabai.com and www.michellehinebrook.com .

Michelle Hinebrook and Lisha Bai will be on view February 1st through 26th. Upcoming shows in the Dean’s Gallery will be former Dean Frank Lind (March 1st through 26th); Digital Arts MFA candidates Jeyoung Lee (March 29th through April 2nd), Harim Song (April 5th through 9th), Heajin Seo (April 12th through 16th), and Jung Yuen Shin (April 19th through 23rd); and recent Graduates of the Pratt’s Associates Degree program (April 26th Through May 7th). The Dean’s Gallery is located on the 4th floor of Main Building

Laurel Voss and Rainy Lehrman in the Dean's Gallery

2010-02-22T20:16:00.006-05:00

From December 21st, 2009 through January 29th, 2010 the Dean's gallery showed new work by Laurel Voss and Rainy Lehrman.

Laurel Voss is the Assistant to the Chairperson of Pratt’s Industrial Design department. She has an MFA from California College of the Arts and a BFA from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her works are abstractions on paper with vaguely botanic themes. Rainy Lehrman teaches Woodworking and is the Fine Arts Woodshop Technician. She earned her MFA from Pratt in 2008 and has a BFA from RISD. For this show, she has excavated the floor of the gallery in search of artifacts from the room’s history.

Here are some images from the show:

Rainy Lehrman

detail of the excavated objects

Laurel Voss (about 8 ft by 8 ft)

Eternal Return at Nurture Art

2010-02-08T14:50:00.001-05:00

Curated by Tyler Wriston and Christine Spangler, this latest show at Nurture Art revolves around Friedrich Nietzsche’s notion of Eternal Return, which is the idea that every occurrence, every moment happens over and over again, sort of a secular reincarnation paired with a circular view of history. Write the curators, "by applying Nietzsche's existential definition of a continuous return to every passing moment - thereby making those very moments palpable, intransient and solidified - one can transform an otherwise abstract notion into something paramount and hugely consequential." I am not so sure that the work in this show is “hugely consequential,” but it does have a certain quality that makes this exhibition enjoyable. Another common translation of Niezsche’s ewige Wiederkunft is eternal recurrence, and that perhaps would have been a better title for this show, given that the majority of the work stresses the repetition of a material or mark.

The first piece one sees upon entering the space, Thomas Lendvai’s installation is pleasing both aesthetically and mathematically. It occupies a closet-sized room, in what is essentially the foyer leading to the gallery, where the viewer finds a column of boards cut at precise angles so that they rest on the floor and lean against the wall. But, after discarding his/her coat, the viewer enters the main gallery to find that the piece is actually the sculptural-illusory version of the magician’s assistant sawn in half. The boards continue into the main space, jutting out into the viewing area like the posts of a long-abandoned pier. The result is surprising and beautiful, and will likely cause anyone who has ever built anything to marvel at the accuracy of the miters.

Tara Parsons’ Dental Records is a clever and witty pun, in which the artist has replaced the filament from 100 floss containers with dental Xrays on microfilm. Each box is pretty compelling on its own, but they seem like an edition rather than a single piece made up of a recurring material, especially when one considers that they are for sale individually. Parsons has other work that would have been more appropriate, including a collection of handmade latex airplanes which would have echoed the repetition in the other work and reference Nietzsche’s existential pathos.

Joy Curtis’ group of Amphibological Displays, irreverent mirrored acrylic constructions plopped on the floor of the gallery, are less intriguing. This is not to say that they are lesser art objects, but there is less intellectual involvement. Their interplay of reflection and transparency creates a disorienting optical effect that calls into question the integrity of the wood floor and alludes to the crystalline Fortress of Solitude from the Superman films of the 1980s, but they have little in common with the other works in the show.

The most conspicuous piece is Jonathan Brilliant’s installation of countless pale wooden coffee stirrers that, held together only by tension and friction, reach from the floor to the skylight to form a sort of hollow, sagging column reminiscent of Ernesto Neto. The sheer multitude of tiny stirrers forces an association with Tara Donovan’s toothpick pieces, but this recollection sets up a comparison from which Brilliant is not likely to emerge the victor. Once the viewer gets past the engineering feat required in its production, there is not much else to look for. Similarly, the one-dimensionality of the fingerprint drawings by Judith Braun and Ruben Lorch Miller’s video of a tunnel leave the viewer wanting more.

In direct contradiction to the size and airiness of Brilliant’s piece, two small meditative ball point pen drawings by Cody Tepte, titled for the amount of time it takes to create them, seem heavy and contemplative. Laid down in strokes of nearly perfect equal length, the ink completely obscures the surface of the paper. Most people fail to realize the depth, complexity, and beauty of black ballpoint ink, which is actually a glossy deep eggplant with copper highlights. The obsessive and repetitive nature of Tepte’s drawings makes them the strongest pieces in the show, but also the most fitting to the theme. There is a quiet futility to the process, like scratching daily hash marks into prison cell walls.

Eternal Return is on view until February 12th.

2010-01-27T12:14:00.000-05:00

Dean's Gallery Shows

2010-01-08T11:07:00.013-05:00

Since October 2009, I have been acting as the curator of the Art and Design Dean's Gallery at Pratt Institute. The mission of the gallery is to showcase a talented but often under-appreciated sector of the Pratt community, the many emerging artists who make up our faculty and staff.

Monthly exhibitions will feature groups of artists selected on the basis of compatibility, conversation, or tension between their works. The work will not always be aesthetically or conceptually similar. It may not even be from similar genres. As a primary goal is to illustrate interactions across the visual arts, it is my hope that exhibitions will include works by painters and sculptors, but also illustrators and graphic designers.

Submissions are open to all members of Pratt’s faculty and staff who fall into the category of Emerging Artist and those who might not ordinarily have opportunities to exhibit their work in a gallery setting. There are many artist faculty members who enjoy quite a bit of success and notoriety. I hope to present the work of those artists whose work has not yet had as much exposure.

The first show was a group show I called Opening Day, featuring the artists Francy Caprino, Scott Malbaurn, Melissa Barrett, Kenneth Browne, Cecilia Almeida, Scott Zimmer, and Philip Graziano.

Here are some images of the show:

Scott Malbaurn

Francy Caprino

Scott Zimmer and Philip Graziano

Melissa Barrett

Cecilia Almeida

The second I put together was two fantastic young artists whose work I think really had a great, fun dialogue, Natalie Lanese and Josua Longo. Lanese's work is mostly collages of black and white found images layered over colorful patterned fields. Her imagery includes traditional societal representations of gender roles and feminity/masculinity; but also humorous vignettes that reference science fiction, urban decay, and just plain old americana. The fields of zig-zag petterns only serve to isolate the images from their context and emphasize Lanese's skill at organizing a picture.

Josh Longo makes plush monsters that are at once cute and terrifying, touchable and unapproachable. They make you want to hug them, if only you could get past their teeth, and the frank depiction of their bodily orifices.

Here are some very low resolution images from the show; much better images are available on their websites.

2009 Elections

2009-11-04T09:31:00.002-05:00

Wow. These are exciting times in which we live. Last night's election results were pretty rough. Bloomberg won a third term as Mayor of New York, as expected. But he only got 51% of the vote to Bill Thompson's 46%, which was unexpected. I certainly didn't think Thompson had the chops to come that close. Perhaps that is what you get when only 1.1 million people vote in a city with 8.3 million inhabitants. The biggest issue in this year's race wasn't commnity development or taxes or bike lanes (though these things were certainly brought up). I think a vast majority of New Yorkers actually think Bloomberg does a pretty good job; the real voting issue seems to have been anger at the mayor for changing the law to allow himself to run for a third term. Having heard Thompson in the debates, I feel pretty confident that he would have been utterly thrashed in the polls without this cloud hanging over Bloomberg.

There were a few other things that I found interesting in the mayoral race. The first was that Rev. Billy Talen, the Green Party Candidate, actually came in fourth, behind the Conservative Party candidate, Stephen Christoper, who I have never even heard of. I voted for Reverend Billy, but the campaign I had the most respect for was C. Montgomery Burns. The basic idea was to point out two things: that, like Burns, Bloomberg is a billionaire autocrat that is out of touch with the needs of real people; and that if Thompson is the best the Democrats can find to run, you might as well vote for a maniacal cartoon character.

Also on the Ballot once again was Jimmy McMillan from the Rent is Too High party (recently shortened from The Rent is Too Damn High), but for some reason, AP listed his party affiliation as "Other" on the election results . What is this about? They had no problem coming up with an appropriate acronym for the fringe Right to Life party and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. On that subject, I was impressed that candidates from Socialist parties got 5,000 votes, which is more than half of those cast for Rev. Billy.

Across the river, Ben Corzine lost New Jersey's gubernatorial race to Chris Christie by about 100,000 votes. I don't really care about this race, except that President Obama spent a lot of time campaigning for Corzine and also for Creigh Deeds, who got spanked in Virginia, instead of campaigning for the rights of Same-sex families in Maine. I am truly saddened that the Question 1 passed, repealing Maine's law recognizing same-sex marriage, and I'm starting to wonder when Obama is going to follw through with any of the progressive ideas on which he campaigned. Reading the results this morning was like Prop 8 all over again.

On a happier note, a Democrat was elected to New York's 23rd Congressional district after the republicans started to eat their young. Dede Scozzafava, the slightly liberal Republican, should have won this race easily, but instead of just letting it happen, the neo-conservatives got behind the conservative party candidate, Doug Hoffman. Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Rush Limbaugh backed him while "more maistream Republicans" like Newt Gingrich backed Scozzafava. What happened to the good old days when Gingrich was the radical right? How far right has the GOP been dragged when Gingrich is consisdered mainstream and reasonable? Anyway, Scozzafava pulled out because she was training behind the other two, but instead of throwing her support to the Conservative, she endorsed the Democrat!

Mike Womack at Zieher Smith

2009-02-13T10:30:00.003-05:00

I went last night to the opening of Mike Womack's new show at Zieher Smith Gallery in Chelsea. I have great respect for Mike's work, but I also know that it requires a certain degree of space for viewing and that opening night in Chelsea is kind of a zoo. So I made sure to get there early. Fortunately, from the outside, the gallery looked closed due to the lights being lowered for the installation. This kept the crowds down until about 7:15.

Upon opening the door, one hears a distinctly pleasing mechanical whirring which draws the viewer past the banal contraption in the entry area, around the corner, into the main gallery space, where a complicated and beautifully crafted mechanical television works feverishly at the task of displaying archival footage of the infamous Hindenberg Zeppelin. The sound comes from a motor that drives twelve shafts by way of an elaborate belt system. On each shaft ride 40 mirrors precisely angled to catch the light from a strip of LEDs across the room to create the image.

The footage is ghostly and ominous. It recalls a time of great pride technological innovation and at the same time offers a foreboding look at what can go wrong. I didn't see the image of the Hindenberg crashing (I don't think Womack included it) but it isn't needed. That image is so ubiquitous that any picture of any zeppelin conjures it automatically.

The television machine is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. It is difficult at first to suppress the impression that Womack made this thing just to prove that he could. But it soon begins to sink in that the piece has something to say. Like the earlier Heat is not Made of Tiny Hot Things (2006), Metronome plays with the pseudo-scientific fragmentation of light. But unlike that piece, there is no great reveal, no man behind the curtain. Heat is not Made of Tiny Hot Things presented the viewer with a grid of reflected colors, the source of which was unknown until the viewer turned to exit the space. Metronome gives no clues as to how the illusion is created, and is confounding.

The final piece in the show Nothing Can Be Perfectly Empty is another contraption, similar in construction as the first but far more effective. This apparatus returns to the great reveal, presenting the viewer at first with only a lens focused on a pattern of red, blue, and green dots, an optical experiment that recalls Moholy -Nagy's optics sculptures from the 1930s. Then one takes in the whole of the structure. This is a Rube Goldberg device designed to capture the viewer's attention. The supporting architecture of the piece is so overbuilt that it is clearly more than functional, plus it includes odd flourishes in shape reminiscent of a Dr. Seuss invention. Without revealing the secret of how the images are created, let me just add that Nothing Can Be Perfectly Empty , like the show as a whole, is terribly satisfying in the end.

For images see www.ziehersmith.com and soon www.mwomack.com

An exciting time for Museums in NYC

2008-07-29T13:44:00.002-04:00

Generally speaking, I don't get excited about NYC museums. The Met is old and boring, the Guggenheim is way too expensive, I have hated every Whitney Biennial this millennium and MOMA just doesn't get it. But this summer is a different story. The Met has Jeff Koons on the roof; MoMA just opened a show about pre-fab housing, one of my favorite genres; The Whitney has a show on Buckminster Fuller, the last great renaissance man; and The Guggenheim has Luise Bourgeios. Check back for my impressions of these shows: all I have to do is sell my jeep to afford the entry fees.

New Work February 2008

2008-03-06T09:27:00.000-05:00

OK- Here are some images of the work I completed at Vermont Studio Center in February, 2008.

The Debate (whether or not we affect the weather), 2008
marble and fir, dimensions variable

Stationary Front, 2008
styrofoam, fiberglass, aqua-resin, paint
24" x 14" x 2"

Ink drawings on watercolor paper, 15" x 22" each
These drawings are each 6" x 9", correction fluid and sharpie on newspaper.

First Post

2008-03-04T16:45:00.000-05:00

Ok. Here is my first post of this Blog. This seems like a much faster way to keep people up to date on my work and what's going on with me. The next post will be images of the work I did at Vermont Studio Center in February.