Back from NYC! (Day 4 summary)

The final summary from the NYC trip...

SUNDAY
Sunday started out with a peaceful sit in the park next to The Brooklyn Museum (they didn't open until 11am, and I arrived early, so I took the time to outline the manual for my upcoming exhibition, Complete with Illustrated Manual - I'm so excited!).


Once inside, we (classmate Robb Fladry and I) went to the Jesper Just exhibition of video works, which was a highlight of the trip - it was some of the most interesting work of the whole weekend.

Then, we went upstairs to check out the Gilbert and George exhibition which was also interesting because it was digital art by people who seemed to have only a surface/minimal understanding of the software - it brought about some good discussion about value, archival standards, etc.


Following this museum, we grabbed a bite to eat, and I was off to the airport to catch my flight back to Tampa! What a whirlwind of art overload in just 4 days! I'll be processing this stuff for a while.

See also:
NYC Day 1
NYC Day 2
NYC Day 3

Back from NYC! (Day 3 summary)

SATURDAY

We started off by visiting USF faculty, Elisabeth Condon's, studio in Brooklyn.

Then it was off to do some more studio visits/artists talks with a photo-realistic painter, Ben Weiner


and Siebren Versteeg, who had interesting multimedia work based on scripting computer code.

We also stopped by The Kitchen to catch some interesting Alix Pearlstein video installations.


The surprise that topped off Saturday was a somewhat unexpected visit to Jeff Koons' studio! He wasn't there, but it was still fascinating to tour the "factory." The picture I have here isn't from our actual visit, but it looks pretty much the same, just different paintings on the wall. We weren't allowed to take photos, so this is the best I could find.


The rest of the day was spent searching for the TKTS booth that is not in Times Square (yes, there are 2 locations), finding it (after it was closed), trying to get back out to Brooklyn for another USF faculty's show, Julie Weitz, only to find that the 2nd train we needed to take was transformed into a magical shuttle bus that was not going to get us there in time. After finding some consolation in french toast, again, I went to bed exhausted!

Back from NYC! (Day 2 summary)

Technically I returned from NYC Sunday night, so let's see if I can remember it all...
This is a run-down of all the stuff we did the 2nd day we were there.

FRIDAY
We started off at the Museum of Modern Art, where we saw some Rauschenbergs that relate to our class work
,
a Lichtenstein, that I had to do the tourist thing with,
,

and the famous Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (I just had to mention it because it's the first time I've seen it live)
,
but my favorite exhibition there was definitely Looking at Music.


On our walk to the next place, we found these great Hello Kitty Sculptures. I'm not smiling because a crying kitty is serious.


Next, we went to the Whitney Museum of American Art where we were lucky to take in a big exhibition of Paul McCarthy work
,
and talk with one of the artists, Corin Hewitt, featured in a special exhibition, Seed Stage. He has built a lab/studio in a gallery on the main floor, and he'll be working there 4 days/week for 3 months.

After that, we went to a bunch of openings in Chelsea, and the most notable was Donald Moffett's Easy Clean. This image shows one of his paintings he creates with a pastry-chef's frosting tip and oil paint. It was tough not to touch these!



After all this art-ing and walking, it was another night where I fell into bed exhausted.

1st week Grad school DONE & Going to NYC!

Well, I've completed my first week of grad school, and am sufficiently over-whelmed. I have a "Contemporary Thought" class that requires 1 full day per week just for reading the articles required for class (the professor suggests using Saturdays). I have a "Graduate Seminar" class that surprised us with a required trip to NYC in October (I'll get to that in just a moment). Then, there's the "Intermediate Drawing" class in which I am assisting a professor and a "Directed Study" course, so we'll see what fun surprises I'll be challenged with in my studio time. It's been overwhelming, but good - I came to grad school to be challenged, and they are definitely holding up their end of the bargain!
Tampa is a very hot and humid place right now (we're in our hurricane season), but I'm told time and again that the weather will improve soon. Other notable Florida items: there are little lizards everywhere, people are generally shocked and do not believe me when I say I don't have a car, and voter registration ends Oct 6th here! (I didn't realize how spoiled I was in MN where you can register the day of the vote)
Finally, as I mentioned before, I am going to be taking an unexpected trip to NYC October 9-12, 2008. If anyone is currently in NYC or knows someone there with a spare couch or floor space, please let me know... I am small, polite, and unobtrusive. I'm hoping to cut costs by finding some way to crash for free, or at a steep discount - any thoughts or suggestions are welcome!