Hilma af Klint Paintings for the Future at the GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM jameskalm 2024-10-23 | Hilma af Klint Paintings for the Future at the GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM
Pat Steir Blue River and Rainbow Waterfalls at HAUSER & WIRTH jameskalm 2022-11-17 | James Kalm has spent decades resisting the “consumer society’s” desire to eradicate and, secondarily, commodify art history. To that end, he’s endured attacks from the “subjugated” (that he should present only the “new”), and continued his mission of attempting to document some of the most significant painters and visual artists of his era, in New York. Pat Steir has loomed large in the last half century, and it is little wonder that she is still considered by many, as a leading force in carrying on the legacy of Abstract Expressionism. “Blue River and Rainbow Waterfalls” is the artist’s latest presentation, (her first show with Hauser & Wirth), and confirmers Pat’s position as a major contemporary painter. This show is composed of a group of signature “Waterfall” paintings, in which the artist has employed new devices and composition elements that highlight the creative possibilities of her method. Also presented is the mammoth “Blue River,” a mural scaled work that fills an entire wall and even pushes the notion of the New York School’s idea of “scale” to the max. A musical introduction is provided by Alice Valentine @thealicevalentine. This program was recorded November 11, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Painting in New York: 1971 83 Organized by Ivy Shapiro at KARMA jameskalm 2022-11-07 | James Kalm, is a passionate enthusiast of local art history, so when he heard reports of a “Blockbuster” mostly abstract painting show featuring many of the greatest New York painters of the 1970s he started chomping at the bit. However, life has a tendency to get in the way. Tedious work in the studio, Travels to Las Vegas for nuptials, and a bout of some ungodly stomach illness, left a tiny remaining window of opportunity to catch and record video. But your reporter, rebounded, pedaled to the bottom of the East Village, and slipped in on the last day of “Painting in New York: 1971-83”. This presentation features works by over 30 female painters and is a great documentation of the originality, innovation, and significant contributions made by these artists. Other important shows that dovetail with this project, might include the 2007 show “High Times Hard Times: New York Painting 1967-1975” and a couple of pop-up shows last spring in Chelsea titled “9th Street and Beyond” at Hunter and Dunbar. The show brings together works by Emma Amos, Ida Applebroog, Jennifer Bartlett, Betty Blayton, Vivian Browne, Cynthia Carlson, Martha Diamond, Louise Fishman, Suzan Frecon, Nancy Graves, Cynthia Hawkins, Mary Heilmann, Virginia Jaramillo, Jane Kaplowitz, Harriet Korman, Lois Lane, Helen Marden, Dindga McCannon, Ree Morton, Elizabeth Murray, Ellen Phelan, Howardena Pindell, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Faith Ringgold, Dorothea Rockburne, Susan Rothenberg, Joan Semmel, Jenny Snider, Joan Snyder and Pat Steir. A musical introduction is provided by Sara. This program was recorded November 5, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Theresa Daddezio Reworlding at DC MOORE GALLERY jameskalm 2022-10-01 | James Kalm believes in the grace of the “serendipitous meeting,” and if one is paying attention, how it can enrich our lives. As part of his ongoing project of documenting the New York art world (particularly Brooklyn), your correspondent has logged in several tours of the Bushwick Open Studios weekend. During one such outing, he stumbled into the studio of Theresa Daddezio. Being impressed, the work and artist stuck in his head. A couple of years later, through a mutual friend, Kalm is reintroduced to Daddezio, and makes another studio visit, to be informed that the artist is scheduled for a one person show at the prestigious DC More Gallery in Chelsea. “Reworlding” is the artist’s second show with the gallery, and presents a series of works completed in the last year and a half. These pictures develop themes the artist has worked with consistently for some time, but display a greater mastery of means, color, composition and technique. Theresa, gives viewers a strolling explication of the show and discusses her ideas about the current state of abstraction, the rich legacy of female artists of early Modernism, and her relationship to the Hunter Color School. This program was recorded September 22, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Paola Angelini and Xiao Hanqiu at LYLES & KING jameskalm 2022-09-18 | James Kalm is out on the 2022 Armory Show weekend (which coincides with this season’s kickoff) when he catches a glimpse of a pair of “exhibition of interest”. Paola Angelini’s “Newborn From Ashes and Fire” is a small group of works whose inspiration sprang from the Apocalypse Tapestry, a medieval masterpiece woven in the Fourteenth Century. Angelini’s pieces references a plethora art historical sources including contempory Italian painters, and pittura metafisica (Metaphysical Painting). The artist renders her figures in high keyed colors on a ground that might appear as crumbling fresco. Xiao Hanqiu depicts gently toned cropped body parts, animals and flowers combined and juxtaposed to create mysterious sexually laden surrealist snapshots. A musical introduction is provided by Pinc Louds. This program was recorded September 11, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Luke Murphy Industrial Incandescent Brian Belott Reassembler 3 at CANADA jameskalm 2022-09-09 | James Kalm returns from his summer hiatus, jumps on his trusty bike, and heads to Tribeca to capture one of the premier season debuts for the 2022-23 art season. Luke Murphy continues with his exploration of LED panel-based works, but with a new attention to abject, or rugged found objects as bases. Some of these works have a sense of the mechanical high-tech, invading and piercing the realm of the old, scavenged and authentic. Brian Belott is one of the first artists documented by the Kalm Report, and your correspondent has followed his career with interest since. “Reassembler 3” is a selection of what the artist calls his “pandemic collages”. These works are composed of found pages from children’s books, and 1960s magazine layouts. The color and fragility of the paper evokes a memory of bygone days and the mythical “happy days” of the 1960s.Viewers are then invited to cross the street for a scan of the new Canada space with a show titled “Notions” featuring works by: Michelle Segre, Azikiwe Mohammed, and Mie Yim. A musical introduction is provided by Adjua Ajamu. This program was recorded September 8, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Spencer Lewis “JACQUES Pink and purple paintings for my dad” at HARPER’S jameskalm 2022-07-05 | James Kalm’s last errand before the holiday was an intended to visit Chelsea to record some video of a Spencer Lewis show at the Vito Schnabel Gallery. Vito’s was closed early for the holidays, but your dogged reporter kept pedaling around until he reached 22nd Street, and low and behold, there in the front window at the new Harper’s, was a Spencer Lewis painting, and a whole show titled “JACQUES (Pink and purple paintings for my dad)”. With about twenty minutes left before closing, your correspondent whipped out the camera and caught views of this very provocative painter’s work. “JACQUES (Pink and purple paintings for my dad)” is a selection of large-scale gestural works on jute, which present mixed media abstractions, and show the artist’s latest developments regarding his color harmonies and compositions. Though recalling classic Abstract Expressionism and “action painting” these works push into new territories of facture, paint handling and hue. This program was recorded July 1, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Peter Gallo: Blood & Flowers at SEAN HORTON PRESENTS jameskalm 2022-06-13 | James Kalm has his own self-declared mission of attempting to bring to his world-wide audience the most provocative and innovative art (especially painting), being displayed in New York City. After something like seventeen years, over 1500 programs, and many millions of views, your correspondent, is continuing his project with the Summer 2022 season. Peter Gallo first appeared on the Kalm Report about ten years ago, but his work was known to this reported before then. “Blood & Flowers” continued the artist’s development with his signature use of found, “abject” supports, and urgent paint handling. In the gallery’s press release, they describe a painting thus: “Driving and Crying (2017—2022) seats a small painting of a weeping figure in a chair; the scene is equal parts Marian apparition and late-night intoxication.” It’s only a bit ironic that they also go on to mention one of Gallo’s favorite colors is Baker-Miller pink which, when looked up on Wikipedia states: Baker-Miller Pink, also known as P-618, Schauss pink, or Drunk-Tank Pink is a tone of pink which has been observed to temporarily reduce hostile, violent or aggressive behavior…” Gosh, I’m feeling less aggressive already. A musical introduction is provided by Pinc Louds. This program was recorded June 4, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Gary Petersen New Paintings at McKENZIE FINE ART INC jameskalm 2022-06-09 | James Kalm has had the good fortune (been “blessed”) to have been engaged in the New York art scene long enough to be able to follow the career arcs of many, many artists, over decades. In a sense, your correspondent has had a front row seat as local art history is being formulated. The work of Gary Peterson has been known to your reporter since before the turn of the millennium, and it has been rewarding to see how it’s evolved. This latest show at McKenzie presents new paintings that clarify and develop the painter’s ideas. Shapes are more sophisticated, compositions are sliced and diced in more unexpected ways, line functions as both a demarcation and a color form, and the role of color is expanded not only through greater intensity, but more complex relationships of hue and contrast creating a painted space that is unique. All this is accomplished while paying homage to preceding generations of jazzy, hard-edge abstractionists like: Stuart Davis, Al Held, Elizabeth Murry, and Shirley Jaffe. A musical introduction is provided by Exit Plan NYC. This program was recorded June 4, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Ninth Street and Beyond: Part II The Geometric at HUNTER DUNBAR jameskalm 2022-05-30 | James Kalm has been otherwise occupied, and slow to edit video programs recently. “NINTH STREET AND BEYOND: 70 YEARS OF WOMEN IN ABSTRACTION: PART II: The Geometric” at Hunter Dunbar should be considered one of the seasons most timely exhibitions. This expansive show is the second of two exhibitions (the first dealing with “gestural abstraction”), and traces the arch of geometric, minimal and reductive abstraction in America from the late 1940s to today. It presents works by over 70 artists representing three generations of women. A list of included artists would be unmanageable but, the shortest of short lists contains: Lee Krasner, Alma Thomas, Yayoi Kusama, Louise Nevelson, Agnes Martin, Elizabeth Murray, Betty Parsons, and Charmion Von Wiegand. A musical introduction is provided by Gabriel Mayers. This program was recorded May 19, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Ouattara Watts Paintings at KARMA jameskalm 2022-05-11 | James Kalm has been bumping in to the work of Ouattara Watts since some of his first presentations here in New York in the early 1990s. Although a native of the Ivory Coast, Ouattara studied in Paris for a decade, before moving to New York at the invitation of Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1988, and has been painting here for the last twenty-five years. The artist creates large pictures that are a conglomeration of materials, techniques and references, that keep the viewer mystified, and the sensual observer satisfied. The canvases are fabricated from collaged fabrics, photos, patterns, the use of decorative boarders, and geometric figures with mysterious number sequences, to structure areas of distressed colors. As the title of one painting implies “Traveler of the Cosmos” Watts collects timeless ideas from all over the world, and depicts them briskly, as if the paintings are pages from his galactic travel log. This program was recorded May 5, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Kenny Scharf: WOODZ ‘N THINGZ at TOTAH GALLERY jameskalm 2022-05-07 | James Kalm is back in the streets of the east side of the Lower East Side to visit an exhibition by Kenny Scharf. “The way things become meaningful is a function of time,” and, it seems that as one generation begins to wane, the consideration of its contributions are reevaluated, and their “meanings” are established. Scharf is one of a handful of artists who came out of the East Village scene and were associated with the iconic FUN Gallery. Indeed, Scharf is credited with coming up with the name “FUN”. Since that beginning, Scharf has gone on to create a recognizable body of work that melds Street Art/Graffiti, Cartoon Pop, with a savvy fluency in Kid Culture. “Woodz “N Thingz” presents a body of work that is of a more “mature” subject matter, thou it’s cloaked in the artist’s “Hanna-Barbarian” characters. “…latter day ecological threats and the looming certainty of global crises have come to seep into his canvases like liquid metal”. The awareness of this crises is apparent in whimsical images of forests, where every piece is sentient, and all nature is part of a great green cartoon. Perhaps these pictures are merely a sobering plea to sanity, that when things have arrived at this state, it’s to late to cry, so you may as well laugh… This program was recorded April 30, 2022. An introductory musical performance is provided by ABRACADABRA TRIP. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Jean Michel Basquiat: Art and Objecthood at NAHMAD CONTEMPORARY and Patti Astor jameskalm 2022-04-25 | James Kalm has been running around the Downtown art scene longer than he ever should ever admit to. As a young artist, newly arrived in New York City, it happened that his first job after his GI Bill subsidy at the Art Students League ran out, was working at Utrecht the art supply store in the East Village. Lunch hours were spent touring this new stretch of galleries and clubs. The earliest and most recognized venue in this enclave was Patti Astor and Bill Stelling’s FUN GALLERY. Though Jean-Michel Basquiat had received attention for displays in other locations, it was at the FUN GALLERY that he became part of an avant community of artists that changed American art history. “Art and Objecthood” curated by Dr. Dieter Buchhart, is an exhibition that focuses on that part of Basquiat’s oeuvre employing aggressive sculptural, and assemblage elements. Although these “objects” still maintain their identities as things (doors, windows, mirrors, punching bags), they’re nevertheless subsumed into the artists world of color, drawing, and poetic writing. This program was recorded April 17, and 22, 2022. A musical introduction is provided by Greg Morgan. Links to other YouTube programs mentioned in this video are below. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk Patti Astor’s True Storyyoutu.be/1NCQQwFyxgc Patti Astor, Fab 5 Freddy, Jean Michel Basquiat- Art in the Streets - MOCAtv Ep. 18youtu.be/kSEAyxs6MEQ Art in the Streets at MOCA (James Kalm Report, 2011) youtu.be/a8OmaRjoRGg
Kyle Staver Tout Court at HALF GALLERY jameskalm 2022-04-12 | James Kalm is out tracking artistic happenings in “Alphabet City” and stops into Half Gallery to view “Tout Court” the latest presentation of works by Kyle Staver. Your correspondent has been keeping fans informed of developments in the work of Staver for several years now, and it has been interesting to observe the increased recognition and reception she’s receiving. A world of goddesses and heroines surrounded by anthropomorphized wildlife, elegant color, in dramatically light scenes make up a group of paintings at the main gallery. Up the block we slip in to look over a series of relief “objects,” (intimate fired clay tableaus) that act as studies and variations of the larger paintings. All the artist’s work bares the unique mark of her hand and an urgent directness to representation. A musical introduction is provided by Marley. This program was recorded April 9, 2022 #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
THE 2022 WHITNEY BIENNIAL QUIET AS IT’S KEPT jameskalm 2022-04-01 | James Kalm continues his tradition with a casual walk-through of the 2022 Whitney Biennial. Titled “Quiet as It’s Kept” and curated by Adrienne Edwards and David Breslin, this is the eightieth iteration of this unique exhibition, and presents the works of sixty-four artists and collaboratives. To quote from the press release “…originally slated to open in 2021…, before the pandemic and shutdown with their reeling effects, before the uprisings demanding racial justice and before the questioning of institutions and their structures. While many of these underlying conditions are not new, their overlapping, intensity, and sheer ubiquity created a context in which past, present, and future folded into one another.” This exhibition is contained mostly on two floors of the Whitney Museum, the sixth, which is partitioned into video theaters, galleries and painted black, and the fifth, which is open, arranged with free-standing dividers and painted white. This design is meant to exemplify and enhance the coming together of contrasts. Some of the artists featured in this show are: Jason Rhoades, Rayyane Tabet, Steve Cannon, Harold Ancart, James Little, Matt Connors, Alex Da Corte, Jane Dickson, Pao Houa Her, Veronica Ryan and Charles Ray. A musical introduction is provided by InCircles. This program was recorded March 30, 2022.
Joe Bradley Bhoga Marga at PETZEL jameskalm 2022-03-28 | James Kalm brings viewers along for a leisurely Friday afternoon stroll-through of “Bhoga Marga,” the most recent presentation of works by Joe Bradley. Bradley seems to have led a charmed life, at least in regards to his painting career, having received a one-person museum exhibition at PS1 only three years after graduating from Rhode Island School of Design. In 2014, the artist was featured in the watershed painting exhibition The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World at MoMA (curated by Laura Hoptman). Known for his “trickster” shifts in modalities and referencing disparate catagories of painterly history, Bradley is always thought provoking, despite the attractive pleasantness of his production. A musical introduction was captured that features Max Lee. This program was recorded March 18, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
RICHARD HAWKINS THE FORREST BESS VARIATIONS AT GREENE NAFTALI jameskalm 2022-03-22 | James Kalm has been mystified with the paintings of Forrest Bess since first encountering the work in the early 1980s. And being part of the Williamsburg art scene (where Bess is considered a paint wielding demigod), it was with some trepidation, that your correspondent decided to investigate “The Forrest Bess Variations”, a selection of paintings by Richard Hawkins. While some responses to the show have questioned the ethics or need to reinterpret Bess with statements like “What an unfortunate folly for all involved,” and “No one can do a Bess better than Bess,” this reporter realizes that with the woeful lack of any serious art history currently being taught in the “institutions of higher education,” any means that might create some interest in Bess’s work among a younger generation is welcome. A musical introduction is provided by “Frances”. This program was recorded March 12, 2022. A link to the 2012 Forrest Bess exhibition at Christie’s and the Whitney Museum is below. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunkForrest Bess at CHRISTIE'S and the WHITNEY MUSEUMyoutu.be/kQiPAhNvZpY
OUTSIDER ART FAIR NEW YORK 2022 jameskalm 2022-03-09 | James Kalm returns for what has become a “yearly highlight”. Being a sucker for the marginal, outlandish, bizarre, vulgar and the uncultivated, your correspondent has been a fan of outsider art (art brut, visionary art, art of the insane etc.) since looking through a store window in SoHo in the late 1970s, and seeing Henry Darger’s works at the Phillis Kind Gallery. Although, the 2021 Outsider Fair was canceled due to Covid-19, the 2022 iteration is a welcome relief and signals a long awaited return to normalcy. Kalm brings viewers along for a stroll through the fair with pit stops to discuss various artists with Steven S. Powers, and Raphael Rubinstein. If there is an underlaying mood to much of the newly debuted works, it might be described as the “suppressed, transgressive erotic”. A musical introduction is provided by InCircles. This program was recorded March 5 and 6, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
David Kramer …I Am The Boss of Me at FREIGHT VOLUME jameskalm 2022-03-07 | James Kalm likes to keep an eye on artists who he’s covered in the past. Tracking the career developments of cultural producers might give viewers a general idea of the direction of aesthetics or contemporary trends within a milieu. Your correspondent has been watching David Kramer’s work since making a first acquaintance with it during the heydays of the Williamsburg art scene. Since that period, Kramer has evolved from a performance/installation artist, to Neo-Pop painter, to hook rug weaver. Despite all these changes, the artist has maintained a sense of humor and attention to America’s ideology of kitsch situated somewhere between cynicism, incredulity, and skepticism. Perhaps, with the overwhelming problems facing humanity today, a shrug of the shoulder, and a laugh are the only reasonable response. This program was recorded February 26, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Rick Prol Empty City at JAMES FUENTES jameskalm 2022-02-22 | James Kalm sometimes believes Walter Benjamin’s assertion that “nostalgia is but another form of depression”, then, there are other times… Your correspondent has watched the work of Prol since his emergence in the rough and tumble heydays of the early East Village scene. With the passage of time, long term witnesses have watched as the EV went from the audacious upstart, challenging SoHo’s aesthetic hegemony, to 1980s transgressive trendyville, to late 80s cultural dumpster fire, to “the scene whose name should not be spoken”. Finally, about thirty-five years after all the shenanigans that caught art aficionado’s attentions, the institutional reevaluation has begun in serious. In all that time, Rick Prol has continued to produce a reflection of his dystopic hometown, a vision of a dark city, empty train tracks, and the painter troubadour, on the verge of self-annihilation. This suite of works were painted in December 2021, and seem to have distilled decades of experience to a broad handling of color and composition. Prol gives viewers a brief interview in which he elucidates recent developments. A musical introduction is provided by Brian Mannix. This program was recorded February 19 and 21, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Cosmic Geometries Organized by Hilma’s Ghost at THE ELIZABETH FOUNDATION jameskalm 2022-02-15 | James Kalm has been interested the notion of “sacred geometry”, Platonic forms, and diagrams of Ontology since the bad old days of the psychedelic 60s. He has written about the tendencies of the New Mexico Transcendental artists, the Northern Baroque mystic Robert Flood, and other practicers of the alchemy and Hermetic tradition like Hilma af Klint, Agnes Pelton, and Paulina Peavy. Cosmic Geometries organized by Hilma’s Ghost (Sharmistha Ray and Dannielle Tegeder) at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts presents works by over twenty-five artists (mostly women) who all explore aspects of abstraction that have to do, more or less, with a profound concept of mystical geometry. Using various compositions based on the square, circle and triangle these artists display the infinite possibilities of variation and expose why these ancient forms are so rich in possibilities for contemporary use. Artists included are: Natessa Amin, Yevgeniya Baras, Lisa Beck, Biren De, Grace DeGennaro, Evie Falci, Anoka Faruqee & David Driscoll, Rico Gatson, Diana Guerrero-Maciá, Xylor Jane, Valerie Jaudon, Laleh Khorramian, Julia Kunin, Marilyn Lerner, Anne Lindberg, Mahirwan Mamtani, Carrie Moyer, Stephen Mueller, Sky Pape, Dorothea Rockburne, A.V. Ryan, Laurel Sparks, Barbara Takenaga, Jackie Tileston and Johanna Unzueta. This program was recorded February 10, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Leon Kossoff A Life In Painting at MITCHELL INNES & NASH jameskalm 2022-02-09 | James Kalm jumps on the bike, pedals through below freezing weather and heads to the heart warming domain of “A Life In Painting” at Mitchell-Innes & Nash. As one of the stalwarts of the “School of London” Kossoff is recognized for his exuberant use of paint and the baroque torquing of his his subject matter. This exhibition which presents works from a thirty-year segment, and features several impressive portraits of friends and family, as well as landscapes from his London neighborhood. A musical intro is provided by Guitar Andy. This program was recorded February 5, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Ashley Bickerton at LEHMANN MAUPIN and O’FLAHERTY’S NYC jameskalm 2022-02-04 | James Kalm has been bumping onto the work of Ashley Bickerton since the mid-1980s. So, despite the freezing drizzle, the covid omicron surge, and the deep winter blues, your correspondent had to jump on his bike and make it to a cross town marathon of Bickerton exhibitions. Having followed Ashley’s work since his breakthrough, it’s been elucidating to see the arch of development, and the changes of aesthetic approach employed by the artist over these last thirty-five years. “Seascapes at the End of History” present the latest series of sculptural works from the artist, and reveal a returning to, and expanding on, the artists more formal, even “minimalistic” precedents. Last week Kalm sleazed into a Bickerton opening at the trendiest new venue in the East Village/Alphabet City, O’Flaherty’s. These new digs are a project of Jamian Juliano-Villani, Ruby Zarsky and Billy Grant, and the popularity of the opening bares testament to Bickerton’s continued relevance to younger generations of artists. “A Remote Summer of Their Own” is a “mini retrospective” with mixed-media works going back to the 1990s. This program was recorded January 28, and February 3, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Bill Jensen Stillness/Flowing at CHEIM & READ jameskalm 2022-01-26 | James Kalm has been looking at the work of Bill Jensen since the late 1970s, yet this body of mostly new works exposes fresh directions in the artist’s development that are stunning. Well known for his work that extends abstract expressionistic ideas of painterly incident, and the discovery of psychological meaning through the manipulation of pigment and surface, some of these works employ various geometric forms used since antiquity to describe spiritual states. In the “Wheel Rim Compass” series, circular mandala forms are imposed onto rugged amorphous grounds, presenting an image of contrast between chaotic nature, and a perceived order of spiritual totality. As an explanation, the artist invites your correspondent into the backroom for a view of a reacquired 1977 painting that has inspired these works. A musical introduction is provided by Jimmy Celeste. This program was recorded Jan. 20, 2022.
Chris Martin New Paintings at ANTON KERN jameskalm 2022-01-17 | James Kalm is praying for a return to some kind of normalcy, and what better way to encourage that than to drop in for an opening of a dear friend, Chris Martin. Though behind masks, many of Brooklyn’s most engaged artists were in attendance for what, after two years of Covid-19 “lock-downs” felt like a reunion. As one of the most recognized painters to have emerged from the Williamsburg milieu, Martin has perused his unique vision of painting while maintaining a strong bond with the New York School tradition. Most of these pictures have been completed since the beginning of the pandemic at Chris’s upstate studio. The subject matter of star gazing, planet photographs and diagrams of constellation, might lead viewers to conclude that Martin is contemplating the cosmos, perhaps not only with an eye towards graphic possibilities, but also with an appreciation of the finite condition of mortality (?) A musical intro is provided by Guitar Dennis. This program was recorded January 14, 2022. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Kour Pour at SHRINE and SARGENT’S DAUGHTERS jameskalm 2021-12-23 | James Kalm likes to keep an eye on artists he’s become acquainted with over time. Initially seeing Kour’s work a few years ago, your correspondent was interested in seeing how it’s developed, and the new twists incorporated in its concepts and fabrication. These works employ a wide range of media, many of them primitive techniques for mass reproduction (block printing, silkscreen and stamping) along with additional flourishes that are added by hand to create paintings that echo traditional “Asian motifs”. Pour indexes an encyclopedic knowledge of textile and carpet design to create a pan-Asian domain of subject, with references that never settle in an actual culture but float as an encompassing ideal of the “nonwestern”. Around the corner and up the block we pop in to see “Jane Freilicher and Thomas Nozkowski: True Fictions” curated by Eric Brown at the Milton Resnick Pat Pasloff Foundation. This show contrasts the works of two New York painters, of different generations working in an intimate scale. Though operating in the dialectic modes of realism and abstraction, Freilicher and Nozkowski show how good painting crosses aesthetic boundaries. A musical introduction is provided by Robert Leslie. This program was recorded December 2, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Neo Rauch The Signpost at DAVID ZWIRNER jameskalm 2021-12-07 | James Kalm, despite his engagement with the show “On The Bowery” at Zürcher Gallery (which uses two of his map paintings as the show’s spine) finally has found time to edit this visit to Neo Rauch’s exhibition “The Signpost” at David Zwirner. Since late in the last century, Rauch has been known for his large scale Social/Surrealistic paintings. As a founding member of the “Leipzig School” he has been credited with the invention of “Post-Socialist Painting”. This trend has slyly mocked, and satirized the image of Eastern European collectivist propaganda. These works show the continued evolution of the painter’s approach, both as an example and critic of East Germany’s aspiration to high culture. The paintings, some massive, display Rauch’s signature figuration, his oblique references to German history, and a more profound painterly richness. This program is introduced with a musical clip provided by Wickids. This video report was recorded November 18, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Brice Marden: These paintings are of themselves at GAGOSIAN jameskalm 2021-11-30 | James Kalm knocks off work in the studio early, pedals into Chelsea, and is faced with a dilemma. Does he record the Brice Marden show, or does he record the Neo Rauch show? Marden takes precedent, and your correspondent strolls with viewers through what for this seminal New York painter, feels like a summing up, and at the same time, a new beginning. The show opens with glances at “Rocks” a massive seven by twenty-two-foot work that the artist pursued from 2008 till 2021. Pieces in the main gallery show why Marden has been considered a significant force in painting for nearly half a century. These canvases display a subtle color palette, many based on gray-green fields, but linear overlays, in rich colors, create unexpected yet elegant harmonies. A smaller gallery features ink drawings. A musical accompaniment is provided by Incircles. This program was recorded November 18, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Stanley Whitney: Twenty Twenty at LISSON GALLERY jameskalm 2021-11-24 | James Kalm is out for an extended art tour through Chelsea, when he finally makes it in to capture views of the latest offerings from Stanley Whitney. “Twenty Twenty” presents recent works completed during the last year. These works seem more simplified and dramatically explicit. Whitney’s blocks of color are larger and more broadly painted. Thin washes of oil paint are in some passages layered, showing underlaying scrims of color, at other points, the color is transparent and glows like stain glass. The exquisitely intuitive color harmonies play off each other with beautiful slightly discordant notes, recalling Thelonious Monk’s Jazz (Monk and Munch is the title of a major series of smaller paintings here). This exhibition bares testament as to why Whitney is considered by many as one of New York’s master abstractionists. A musical introduction is provided by Greg Banks. This program was recorded November 6, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Chris Johanson at MITCHELL INNES & NASH jameskalm 2021-11-19 | James Kalm scoots across Manhattan, and slips into “Considering Unknow Know With What, Is, And” the latest offerings from Chris Johanson at Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Kalm has been watching the developments in the works of Chris Johanson for a while, and relates to his North Western aesthetic. This show presents an installation constructed from recycled lumber, and 70’s hipster furniture design. The large-scale paintings on “recycled canvas” present a swirling psychedelic mélange of various figurative and abstract images. Kalm snags Chris after the closing, and asked about the idea, and source of “recycled canvas”. A musical intro is provided by No Grudge. This program was recorded. November 4, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Manoucher Yektai at KARMA jameskalm 2021-11-08 | James Kalm, being an art history nurd, loves to discover underexposed artists, and try to bring their work to a broader worldwide audience. Manoucher Yektai was an immigrant from Iran who arrived on the Downtown scene in the mid-1940s, and was the first Iranian painters to receive serious critical attention within the New York School. Having studied in Paris for two years before arriving in New York, Yektai never completely renounced the traditional themes of that milieu, and for the remaining sixty seven years of his painting career, he maintained a figurative element as the subject matter in his work. Using exuberantly thick oil paint, the artist painted still life and landscape motifs with his canvases on the floor, and responded in a unique way to the challenges posed by the “Action Painters”. In his painterly intensity, Yektai has been compared to contemporaries Leon Kossoff, Frank Auerbach, Karel Appel and Franz Kline. This program was recorded November 4, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
David Salle: Tree of Life at SKARSTEDT jameskalm 2021-10-26 | James Kalm makes his way to the Upper East side and previews the latest offerings by 1980s art star David Salle. “Tree of Life” features a series of works using a repeated group of images, motifs and devices that combine references to 1950s cartoons, art brut, German Expressionism, and New York Action Painting. Woven within these webs of reference is a narrative retelling the “battle of the sexes” story, at least in its wholesome, Post War American, version. This program was recorded October 15, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Georges Mathieu at PERROTIN jameskalm 2021-10-18 | James Kalm admits to (GASP…) a certain amount of painterly chauvinism. Perhaps because of his early indoctrination into the New York School’s ideology of existential paint-slinging, he’d always perceived the work of Georges Mathieu with a level of skepticism. However, after experiencing this museum quality exhibition, your humble correspondent is persuaded to reevaluate his biases. Gorges Mathieu is an essential character in the history of Post World War II French art, and represents a take on the concept of action painting, that was paralleled in the New York scene by the likes of Kline, de Kooning and Pollock. This exhibition presents several, rarely seen, massive pictures that show the ambition, and scale of this artist’s intentions. By pairing a sense of the performative, with a visceral feel for the materials of painting, Mathieu creates a juncture that would manifest historically as performance art on one branch, and material painting on the other. A musical introduction is provided by SECONDSET. This program was recorded October 14, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror at THE WHITNEY MUSEUM jameskalm 2021-09-28 | James Kalm is honored and excited to bring viewers along for this strolling homage to one of America’s most recognized and cherished artists, Jasper Johns. This show features iconic works from all the artist’s periods, and is a “mirror image” of its twin at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Since his very first show with Leo Castelli in 1957, Johns (who is now in his early 90s) has been the harbinger of a profound shift, not only in American, but worldwide visual culture. Beginning with his classic maps, targets, alphabets and numbers, observers will witness the ingenious innovations, conceptual leaps and cultural prognostications that have kept Johns at the very crest of the American art world. A guest explication of a “Cantenary” painting is provided by Jerry Saltz. This program was recorded Sept. 23, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
John Currin Memorial at GAGOSIAN jameskalm 2021-09-24 | James Kalm has been recording events, in the New York art scene long enough to have witnessed a paradigm shift. Because of the restrictive photo policy of the Gagosian Gallery, when last he attempted to cover an opening of works by John Currin (2010), he had to go on the DL (down Low) and use the “spy cam”. Fast forward a decade, and the Gagosian Gallery has realized the value of photos/videos on social media sites. Today, rather than shutting down unwanted recorders, they’re encouraging them. Now the challenge is the internal “algorithms” and community standards censors, attempting to control the reach of “free speech” vloggers on the internet. “Memorial” is John Currin’s latest collection of paintings. With his signature verve, Currin presents, these provocative works featuring female subjects whose bodies are erotically exaggerated to comic grotesqueness, cavorting in suggestive poses, that challenge every principal of modesty. The artist has rendered all this in grisaille, as if these figures were statues in Gothic cathedrals, creating a comic conflation of the sacred, and the profane. A musical introduction is provided by Greg Banks. This program was recorded September 16, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
RON GORCHOV at CHEIM & READ and VITO SCHNABEL jameskalm 2021-09-18 | James Kalm has admired the work of Ron Gorchov since arriving in New York in the late 1970s. Gorchov’s inimitable “saddle shaped support” his binary compositions, and intuitive color sense have left a rich and lasting legacy for abstract painting. This program is a reporter’s strolling soliloquy through the “Last Paintings: 2017-2020” at Cheim & Read, and “Spice of Life” at the Vito Schnabel Gallery. The “Last Paintings” presents the final distillation of the painter’s work which was achieved after an intensive sixty some odd years of investigation. “Spice of Life” is a compilation of works going back to the early 1970s, and maps the arch of Ron’s technical evolution with regards to his paint surfaces, color, and urgency of expression. A musical introduction is provided by P.J. Kogan. This program was recorded September 14, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
PHILIP GUSTON 1969 1979 at HAUSER & WIRTH jameskalm 2021-09-09 | James Kalm is back from an end of summer hiatus, with a renewed vigor for his sixteenth season of the James Kam Report. It is this reporter’s pleasure to bring viewers glances of the historic exhibition “Philip Guston 1969-1979” at Hauser & Wirth. Having been intrigued with the paintings of Philip Guston since the late 1960s, your correspondent has kept an eye out for any chance to document examples of the work. This historical exhibition presents Guston’s late works which, despite the misguided attempts by cancel culture to stifle the public’s opportunity to view these controversial works, and despite the postponement of a multi museum retrospective, demonstrates why Philip Guston has become an iconic presence on the contemporary painting scene. The first gallery selection is composed of works foregrounding the hooded “Klansmen” pieces that caused his traveling retrospective to be “postponed”. The second gallery features his very late works musings on approaching death, the futility of art, and man’s inhumanity to man. A question-and-answer discussion with the artist’s daughter, Musa Mayer, begins this episode. A musical introduction is provided by Piers Lawrence. This program was recorded September 8, 2021 #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Andrew Cranston Waiting for the Bell at KARMA jameskalm 2021-08-08 | James Kalm doesn’t do requests, but occasionally, a wave of pleadings comes his way making it hard to resist. Such was the case with Andrew Cranston’s “Waiting for the Bell” at Karma. A selection of large-scale works using rabbit skin glue and bleach present landscapes, some as if seen through the haze of memory, others fresh as snapshots from yesterday’s visit to the coast. These paintings use areas of mottled coloristic scrims, playing off figurative vignettes. A group of jewel-like, intimate still lives, and figure studies on book covers, display a color pallet reminiscent of Les Nabis, a transitional group of French painters from the late 19th Century (particularly, Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard). Though evoking echoes of the Symbolists, there is also a feeling of a humble domestic satisfaction and tranquility that may be why this show seems to resonate with victims of the current pandemic. A musical introduction is provided by Adjua Ajamu. This program was recorded August 3, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Kevin Reinhardt KR3 at HALF GALLERY jameskalm 2021-07-27 | James Kalm was out last night after a day in a sweltering studio, trying to cool off and get back to some kind of “new normal”. He found himself drifting through the lower end of the East Village, when he spotted a rare Monday evening opening at Half Gallery. Kevin Reinhardt was debuting “KR3”, a group of minimalistic dye paintings of slat blinds and a sculptural portrait of Lucia Joyce (1907-1982) (daughter of the iconic James Joyce) on her 114th birthday. These pieces reference Lucia’s schizophrenic diagnosis and treatment by Carl Jung. Although there’s an austere minimal quality to the works, there’s also a Post Pop, deadpan sense that amplifies the summer ennui and ads a dimension of quotidian pathos to the show. Kalm captured a moment with Bill Powers explicating points of the work. A musical introduction is provided by Kaws. This program was recorded July 26, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
“TIME=ƎMIT” by: Neal Megson, Genesis P-Orridge & Breyer P-Orridge at NO GALLERY jameskalm 2021-07-20 | James Kalm, on a steamy mid-summer Sunday afternoon, biked to the lowest part of the Lower East Side, and cajoled Casey Gleghorn at the brand-new NO Gallery NYC, into providing viewers with an impromptu tour/discussion of “TIME=ƎMIT” a three-person solo exhibition by: Neal Megson, Genesis P-Orridge & Breyer P-Orridge. Since their passing in March of 2020, many foundational notions that informed their practice have attracted the attention of the “mainstream.” Beginning in the late 1970s P-Orridge charged into the uncharted territory of the ideology of gender, individuality, creativity and its social implications. This intimate selection of cut-ups, sculpture, fetish objects, paintings/drawings and Polaroid’s capture the avant-macabre of the P-Orridge legacy. A link to a 2010 performance by P-Orridge at PARTICAPANT INC. is below. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunkyoutu.be/l6qhHUDQJLw
Jorge Galindo & Julian Schnabel Flower Paintings at VITO SCHNABEL jameskalm 2021-07-06 | James Kalm has been watching the evolution of Julian Schnabel’s painting practice since his arrival in New York in 1979. “Flower Paintings” pairs Schnabel with long time friend and admirer Jorge Galindo, for an exposition into current modes of thinking regarding one of art histories most revered subjects, the floral still life. Having met Galindo in Madrid in 1991, these two artists have been acquainted for thirty years, and share a penchant for technical experimentation, robust materialism, and exuberant brush work. This program was recorded June 26, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
NO NATURE Peter Acheson & Gandy Brodie at STEVEN HARVEY FINE ART PROJECTS jameskalm 2021-06-10 | James Kalm continues a conversation with Peter Acheson after a brief pause of nine years…The focus of this renewed yack session was the exhibition “NO NATURE” a two person show paring Peter with the legendary Gandy Brodie. Though perhaps not a household name, among the painting cognoscenti, Brodie represents a unique vision, and a contradictory maverick. During his brief career as a figurative painter, which coincided with the late phase of Abstract Expressionism, Brodie nonetheless produced works that meld image with substance, content with painterly form. Before his move up the Hudson Valley over a decade ago, Acheson had been a pioneer in the development of the Williamsburg art scene, and remains close friends with many of today’s superstar art celebrities from the “burg”. This program contains a discussion between your correspondent, Steven Harvey and Peter Acheson regarding the nature of “NO NATURE” the implications of scale, and the notion of the “ambitious amateur” in American art history. A musical introduction is provided by the Eric Paulin Quintet. This program was recorded June 5, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
d/Reconstruct at ATELIER ON SPRING GALERIE jameskalm 2021-06-05 | James Kalm leaves his bike in Brooklyn, and drives east on the Long Island Expressway through the Memorial Day drizzle, to visit an old friend in Ouster Bay. “d/Reconstruct, 6 artists inspired by architecture” is the second exhibition curated by Jerelyn Hanrahan at Atelier on Spring Galerie. Your correspondent conducts a strolling interview with the curator, discussing the artists, and works in the show, their practices, and how they are inspired by architecture. Hanrahan also dishes on her background in the East Village art scene. Works on view include: Peter Dudek's conceptual works, Dennis Gordon (who lived with Jerelyn and Steve Buscemi on 10th Street in the East Village), Mary Ann Strandell’s large paintings and lenticular prints, Gwyneth Leech's New York construction site paintings, Bill Carroll with his series of stencil spray painting, and Jerelyn Hanrahan, who debuts a series of plein-air paintings focusing on extraordinary Mid-Century Long Island houses. A musical introduction by Robert Leslie is included. This program was recorded May 30, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Don Voisine at McKENZIE FINE ART INC jameskalm 2021-05-21 | James Kalm has always believed that being an artist means being a supportive part of the creative community. To that end, your correspondent has tried to follow the work and developments of artists from his local milieu. Since the late 1990s, working as an artistic commentator at publications like the Brooklyn Rail, NYArts, and since 2006 with his two YouTube channels, Kalm follows artists, and has established an extensive archive of these creators. This latest presentation of works by Don Vosine (mostly finished during the Covid-19 pandemic), are an intriguing yet subtle progression from one of New York’s most recognized “formalist” painters. Voisine makes a stroll through with Kalm, and discusses various notions of “dynamic composition,” color saturation, and even a special blue paint the artist imported from Australia. Longtime friend, Katherine Bradford, makes a cameo appearance. A musical introduction is provided by The Meetles. This program was recorded May 16, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Rose Wylie Which One at DAVID ZWIRNER jameskalm 2021-05-12 | James Kalm scooted to Chelsea through drizzling rain to capture some views of Rose Wylie’s “Which One” at David Zwirner. Wylie (born 1934) is a legend within the British art scene, and this show is the introduction of her work to the New York audience. Having first experienced Rose’s work at a FRIEZE Art Fair a couple of years ago, your correspondent has kept an eye pealed for more opportunities to see what this painter was up to. This group of Ab-Ex scaled works presents her urgent painterly response to Mexican Retablos paintings as well as some obscure lyrics from forgotten Beatles songs. A musical introduction is provided by Piers Lawrence. This program was recorded May 8, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Nature Morte at THE HOLE jameskalm 2021-05-06 | JAMES KALM ADMITS HE HAS A FETISH, a painting fetish. Since the beginning of the Kalm Report, about seventeen years ago, he has followed his passion, and reported extensively on the practice of painting. For the last several years, The Hole has annually organized large exhibition featuring mostly painting. These two traditions are brought together for this season’s show “Nature Morte” features over sixty artists, and James Kalm brings viewers along for an extended stroll through, with spontaneous comments on some of the trends and currents in contemporary painting and sculpture. Artists included are: Aaron Elvis Jupin, Adam de Boer, Adam Parker Smith, Aleksandra Waliszewska, Allison Schulnik, Amanda C. Baldwin, Aurel Schmidt, Austin Lee, Barry McGee, Botond Keresztesi, Bryant Girsch, Charline Tyberghein, Chason Matthams, Chris Johanson, Christian Rex Van Minnen, Dan Attoe, Daniel Gordon, David Benjamin Sherry, Donald Baechler, Emily Mae Smith, Eric Yahnker, Fernando Botero, Gao Hang, Ginny Casey, Guy Yanai, Henry Gunderson, Henry Hudson, Holly Coulis, Ivan Seal, James Ulmer, Jon Young, Jonathan Chapline, Josh Smith, Kevin Christy, Koichi Sato, Laurens Legiers, Lucia Love, Lydia Blakeley, Mark Posey, Matthew F. Fisher, Matthew Hansel, Molly Greene, Nick Dahlen, Nicolas Party, Oliver Clegg, Paul Wackers, Pedro Pedro, Robert Lazzarini, Rosson Crow, Roxanne Jackson with Jefferson Nelson, Royal Jarmon, Ryan Travis Christian, Samantha Rosenwald, Sean Landers, Stephanie H. Shih, Stevie Dix, Taylor McKimens, Theo A. Rosenblum and Chelsea Seltzer, Thomas Lerooy, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Ulala Imai, Valerie Hegarty. This program was recorded April 18, and May 2, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Peter Williams Black Exodus at FREIGHT+VOLUME jameskalm 2021-04-27 | James Kalm peddles to the debut opening of Freight+Volume’s new space in Tribeca to view Peter William’s “Black Exodus”. This presentation is an urgent, whimsical, take on “Afrofuturism” a notion of an exodus of “people into unexplored climes in outer space and parallel dimensions.” These humorous depictions are jammed with patterned areas of high-keyed color, and juxtapose nineteen sixties sci-fi comics imagery, with art historical and political references. A musical intro is provided by Justin Congo King. This program was recorded April 23, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
The Modernist Vanguards: John Graham Willem de Kooning & Arshile Gorky at SHIN GALLERY jameskalm 2021-04-23 | James Kalm askes: If Arshile Gorky, and Stuart Davis, were the first two of New York’s “Three Musketeers,” who was the third? If you don’t know, or can’t remember, it’s probably because the enigmatic John Graham attained the status of “outsider” by ascending from the very belly of the Modernist Beast to something beyond, something invisible, something “Hermetic”. Born Ivan Gratianovitch Dombrowski in 1886 Kiev , he escaped the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution, renamed himself, and immigrated to the USA. He landed in New York in 1920 and through his studies at the Art Students League made connections with artists who would become the foundations of the “New York School.” An early champion of European Modernism, he wrote “Systems and Dialectics of Art” in 1937. He discovered and organized early exposure for Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner and Willem de Kooning, and just as Abstract Expressionism was gaining worldwide recognition, dropped modernism to pursue obsessive neo-classical portraits of wounded goddesses and witches. Also included are works by Arshile Gorky (some of questionable authenticity), and a pair of rarely seen de Koonings. A musical intro is provided by Piers Lawrence. This program was recorded April 17, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunkHere's the link to my 2005 review of John Graham published in the Brooklyn Rail:http://www.lorenmunk.com/writing/tag/2005
Katherine Bradford Mother Paintings at CANADA jameskalm 2021-04-19 | James Kalm has been documenting the exhibitions of Katherine Bradford on YouTube for fifteen years. During that time, viewers have watched as her recognition and reputation has become international. On April 17, 2021, a brisk early spring evening, half an hour after closing time, Canada’s Phil Grauer accommodated an “un-masked” walkthrough of Katherine’s latest show “Mother Paintings”. On this gracious stroll, Bradford chats about her artistic musings, the role of mothers during the pandemic, and paint-head trivia. This latest selection of paintings has been called “masterful” and the artist’s close descriptions and explanations of both technical and aesthetical decisions are insightful. A musical intro is provided by Kid Krill, and was recorded on Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg Brooklyn. This program was recorded April 17, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Wilhelm Sasnal at ANTON KERN GALLERY jameskalm 2021-04-14 | James Kalm was back in midtown for the first time in nearly a year, doggin’ the East Side, when he stumbles into the “preopening” of Wilhelm Sasnal’s “New Paintings and a Film” at Anton Kern on East 55th Street. These paintings float in an undifferentiated, and nonchalant world of visual tropes, grabbing images from recent art history, and juxtaposing them with I-phone and internet pics of happenings in California culture. The spontaneous, and casual process of fabricating these paintings might be analogous to the conceptual manifold and disinterested approach Sasnal is known for. This program was recorded April 8, 2021. A musical intro is provided by The Sammy Buttons Experience.#jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
Mike Olin Infinite Get at PENINSULA ART SPACE jameskalm 2021-03-28 | James Kalm (like most of you) has spent a winter of discontent. But with the first day of spring 2021, he finds himself just blocks away from his Red Hook Brooklyn loft, ogling paintings by Mike Olin. Having first encountered Olin’s work around fifteen years ago in Bushwick, and being intrigued with its “oddness,” Kalm has kept an attentive eye out. Olin has received critical attention for his employment of found abject objects, kitschy materials, grungy surface effects, and a hipster-shaman interest in the alchemical and spiritual side of painting. Olin gives viewers a strolling interview regarding some of his ideas, and the history of painting in Brooklyn. This program was recorded March 21, 2021. #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk
