fanatics

Drama of the Gifted Child:
The Five Year Plan
June 28 - August 30, 2009
Opening reception, Saturday, June 27, 7-9 p.m.
David Burns, curator

The exhibition consists of new work by ten of Los Angeles’ emerging artists, all Southern California art school MFA graduates of the last five years: Dan Bayles, Spencer Douglass, John Knuth, Julie Lequin, Julie Orser, Marco Rios, Amy Robinson, Christopher Russell, Kelly Sears, and Bari Ziperstein. The exhibition is organized by David Burns, a member of the artist collective Fallen Fruit and the former Assistant Curator at the Armory.

The works included examine these artists’ recent work as a process by which they explore the relationship between an often-hyped academic training and the raw demands of a career. The exhibitions consists of videos, sculptures and installations and reflects the various practices of artists trained in the new millennium, after 9/11 and after the crash of what appeared to be an unendingly growing international art market.

Each of the artists selected could be characterized by the combination of their studio practice and growing exhibition record, however considered as a group, each of the projects in the exhibition generates a larger internal and external dialogue. The work is bold and experiments with its materials and messages. Representing some of the more outstanding emerging artists in Los Angeles right now, Drama of the Gifted Child: the Five Year Plan suggests the relationship of artists to career goals and academics that has fostered the opportunity for success as a contemporary artist today. Each of these artists employs a bold directness that is hard to deny.

(P.S.: The Drama of the Gifted Child is a GREAT book. There is writing on artists, such as Buster Keaton, therein.)

To Tweet or Not to Tweet, That Is the Question

Looking back at the past thirty years, I see the pattern of my initial reluctance to embrace the technology of the modern world. First, I had to learn to drive a car, though some of my friends tell me that I still drive like a Russian peasant. Then, there was an especially embarrassing moment when I heard for the first time the word ‘fax' and mistook it for, hmmm...an unprintable profanity, and that's how l learned about the existence of fax machines. When I started to do my Art Talk, I would write and edit the text on an old-fashioned typewriter, until an assistant of mine eventually persuaded me to start working on a computer, so I got a used one, courtesy of her husband.

Now, years later, I am spending most of my working hours staring at a screen, reading and sending an endless stream of emails. Every time my program is broadcast, I receive responses from people who hear it on the air as well as from those who get the email version text plus images and links that goes to over 5,000 people on the Art Talk mailing list. Several weeks ago, a new feature was added to the Art Talk page on the KCRW website, where listeners can now post their comments. Slowly, very slowly, I've come to the understanding that I must have a website of my own, and as luck would have it, one of the participants in my Art Collecting class, Good Samaritan that he is, took it upon himself to build one for me.

Meanwhile, I'm still trying to make sense of all the fuss over yet another mysterious way of communicating these days Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So, I'm asking you to help me decide: Is it worth doing? And if so, which one do you think I should choose, or should I embrace them all? It would be great if you would post your comments online.

With all the wonderful advantages that technology provides, there is still no substitute for face-to-face interaction in real space, in real time. Tomorrow, Wednesday April 29, at 7pm, I will be moderating a panel discussion at the Getty Center about ‘Ethical Dilemmas in the Conservation of Modern and Contemporary Art.' Ironically, many works made from new and untested materials create more problems for conservators than traditional artworks made hundreds of years ago. Many contemporary works of art were not intended to last, however, as they enter museum collections, we are forced to confront this paradox: how to preserve a work of art which is not supposed to last? In my opinion, it was smart to throw out Damien Hirst's deteriorating shark and replace it with a new one, but what would you do if the famous (or if you prefer, infamous) work of Italian artist Piero Manzoni, his 1961 Merda d'artista small cans of his feces started to leak? Do you replace it, and if so, with what?

All that and more will be discussed tomorrow night by a panel of experts, including conservators, collection managers and curators. I invite you to attend this free event, but you will need to call (310) 4407300 or make a reservation online. And if you tell them that you are an Art Talk/KCRW listener, you will be given not only preferential seating, but a souvenir as well. How about that? I also suggested a bottle of Russian vodka for each of you but, alas, was told that it's illegal...

Ethical Dilemmas in the Conservation of Modern and Contemporary Art
Wednesday April 29, 7pm
Harold M. Williams Auditorium, Getty Center

If you’d like to share your thoughts on today’s show, you can post your comments on today’s show page at kcrw.com/arttalk

Edward Goldman is an art critic and the host of Art Talk, a program on art and culture for NPR affiliate KCRW 89.9 FM

All recipients will be announced December 31, 2008. Projects should be completed January 31, 2009.

He will review each application.

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