spotted tonight in the 23rd Street 1/9 subway station

My first thought was, this is Chelsea, and some of our neighbors have interesting ways of showing affection, but then it occurred to me that the message could have been meant literally, a la Valerie Solanas. Gulp.

And oh yeah, for those who collect such details, or just for the record, the sign seems to have been re-constructed from one of the MTA's advisories about service disruptions.

Normally I don't do posts about shows of established galleries or established artists, since they are usually covered by so many others in the (established) media, but sometimes I find an excuse to make an exception. The current show at PaceWildenstein 25th Street, "Logical Conclusions: 40 Years of Rule-Based Art," provides one of those excuses. I am excited about it for the quality of the work, the quality of the installation and the quality of the curating. I think it would mean a lot to anyone, artist or fan, interested in the art emerging today, perhaps especially when that work seems to reject all rules.

But not surprisingly, in a contemporary art world which has rejected all schools, its youngest generation is also represented in this show.

I totally agree with Barry, who said it felt like a very good museum show. Maybe we should spring for the handsome catalog.

The press release describes the general idea, beginning:

A remarkable group exhibition featuring more than 50 fundamental works by key artists from the 20th century who use objective systems to explore the complex and chaotic realms of the subjective . . . .

RSG Prepared Playstation (RSG-THUG2-1) 2005 large detail

Sol Lewitt Wall Painting #231 - The location of a quadrangle first drawn 1974 detail

Tara Donovan Untitled (Pins) 2004 37" x 37" x 37" detail

intense bar scene from last year's competition

Dunno exactly why, but this sounds like a wonderful thing.

The promoters (yeah, that sounds so big-deal), M.River and T.Whid, have their explanation:

It might be interesting if an art idea conceived in a bar could use a bar as a site and context for said art idea and it's been a long hard winter.

But I like the sense of place and proportion provided by the description of the first prize:

Win a $100 bar tab [at the event's venue, Greenpoint's Bar Matchless]

This year Inka Essenhigh and Steve Mumford will be the judges.

For images from last year's event, go to MTAA.

[image from MTAA]

This graffito was found inside the boy's room in one of the large Chelsea gallery/studio buildings today.

Alexander Ross untitled 2004 oil paint on canvas 96" x 85" detail

Alexander Ross is in the main gallery at Feature through most of April. My visit was unfairly short today, but I have to admit a gut attraction for the detail of his new grotesque, very sculptural paintings, especially the luscious green parts, which are built up like isobars.

The Feature Gallery site hasn't been updated for a while, so for images of Ross's work, see Miami's Kevin Bruk Gallery.

[overheard in one of the aisles at the Armory show the week before last]

Near a wall displaying some of the less extreme of Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs, an almost painfully-thin, elegantly-dressed Upper-East-Side matron of a certain age was explaining her aesthetic preferences to a friend:

I never liked any of his work, except for the really, really early photographs with the leather and penises.

11th Avenue and 22nd Street, Saturday, March 19th

I'm gratified to see that someone has found an honest use for these dummy buttons which are found all over the city. The Department of Transportation installs them to make pedestrians feel that DOT cares, but I understand (based only partly on personal experience) that they actually aren't connected to anything.

but not the Pope's scene at all (detail of Robert Gober installation at Matthew Marks)

Robert Gober's exhibition of several dozen new works at Matthew Marks (his first New York show in eleven years) is absolutely stunning. Even with the large room pretty crowded with visitors this afternoon (long lines waiting to peer into the two spaces behind doors left only slightly ajar) the atmosphere was very subdued, even reverent. As usual, his art is very much about our increasingly-damaged world, even though there's never any shouting.

Robert Gober has produced a large-scale installation of new sculpture exploring questions regarding sexuality, human relationships, nature, and religion, all informed by the current political climate. The artist conceived this new body of work over a three-year period, beginning shortly after the events of September 11, 2001, and culminating shortly after the recent presidential election.

Whatever.

Spotted this afternoon on West 22nd Street, which is lined with a section of Josef Beuys's "7000 Eichen" [note basalt column and barely-visible trunk of young oak tree in photo; also, a very tot bicycle and a detail of a Paul Richard conceptual installation visible on a pole beyond].

The Las Vegas contemporary art gallery Dust showed a number of small sculptures by Curtis Fairman at -scope New York last week. The piece on the left is titled Attar; that on the right, Ari. The work is made up of quite ordinary materials, assembled together as found or slightly altered, such as kitchen bowls, spiral wrist bands bicycle light lenses and fishing floats. They carry their clean, toy-like beauty modestly, but they aren't easily forgotten. So here they are, a week after I first saw the sculptures. I like them a lot.

I'm shocked that he hasn't shown work in New York before, but that will probably change now.

Fairman lives and works in Las Vegas, but to see additional work, look at the Rebecca Ibel Gallery in Columbus, or Google image search his name.