Les With Bees by Holly Lynton

If the decidedly summery weather of late (not to mention the delicious luxury of the just-past, extra-long Memorial Day Weekend) has you itching to take some time off and get out of the city, we here at Jen Bekman Gallery have a couple of awesome art pilgrimage suggestions (or perhaps “art road trips” is more appropriate, in the interest of sounding a little more carefree and leisurely).

First and foremost: Works by Holly Lynton will be featured in a show at the Storefront Artist Project in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, titled Selections from the Cultural Corridor, which opens this coming Saturday, June 5th 2010.

This year marks the 5th installment of the annual Cultural Corridor exhibition, a project conceived of in 2006 by Peter Dudek, the former director of the Storefront Artist Project, who envisioned the area between NYC and Bennington, Vermont as a rapidly developing “Cultural Corridor,” featuring such arts landmarks as Storm King, Dia Beacon, and MASS MoCA, as well as an ever-expanding and incredibly diverse population of artists. The exhibition presents a sampling of work by these artists who work, live, or are in some way connected to this region, and serves as a terrific way to get a glimpse into the fascinating arts culture that exists just beyond NYC proper.

Wall Drawing 610 by Sol LeWitt

This year’s show was co-curated by Dudek, and Susan Cross, which leads us to our second, related art-visit-recommendation. Cross’ day-job is as curator for (the just-a-short-drive-from-Pittsfield) MASS MoCA, another fantastic arts institute along the “Cultural Corridor”, where the hugely ambitious, (and out-of-control-amazing) show, Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective is currently on view.  The exhibit is made up of 105 (!) of LeWitt’s wall drawings, spanning more than 30 years of his career (!!), has an entire building (27000 square feet!) dedicated to it, and will be on view for 25 years—until 2033. (!!, yet again).

Though there is obviously no rush to get to the LeWitt, may we suggest that you swing by both The Storefront Artist Project and MASS MoCA some time in the next few weekends? Selections From the Cultural Corridor is a much more limited engagement, open Saturdays and Sundays only, from June 5th to the 27th, and both shows are absolutely worth the trip.

The Details:

Selections From the Cultural Corridor
Storefront Artist Project
On view: June 5th – June 27th, 2010
Hours: Saturdays and Sundays, noon – 5 p.m.
124 Fenn Street, Pittsfield, MA

Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective
MASS MoCA
On view until 2033 (the year)
87 Marshall Street, North Adams, MA
Hours: 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., closed Tuesdays

The gallery will be closed from Saturday, May 29 through Wednesday June 2, 2010 for the Memorial Day Holiday. To tide over your artful appetite over the weekend, I found these AMAZING (ok, in my opinion) illustrations in Art Review’s May issue last night. I apologize in advance for the low quality scans, though I am pretty sure that that this low tech presentation is the best way to display them. (If anyone can tell me who produced these drawings, I would be ever-so-thankful! I can’t find any information about the artist, and literally cut them out of the magazine in excitement, so I could scan and post them here before taking note of whom to credit.)

Next week, once you’re fully rejuvenated, come by for Gregory Krum’s exhibit, ...Practice…, on view till June 27th. Till then, enjoy the sun!

The governor recently announced that he plans to cut the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) budget by 40%. This funding is described by the NYFA as, “the glue which holds the state’s rich cultural community together…” The cut would not only affect NYFA (a great resource for artists and art-organizations alike) but museums, theaters, dance companies, film and literary festivals, after-school and education programs and other cultural initiatives and institutions throughout the state.

Here’s the quick overview of the budget numbers: The governor’s proposal slashes the NYSCA grants budget from $41.6 million to $25.2 million, making it the largest state agency cut. What’s difficult to calculate, based on this number, is how many other jobs will be lost, the ways this will impact tourism in the city and state, and the repercussions of how slashing arts funding will negatively affect communities.

So, what can you do? Sign the postcard petition being organized by NYFA. Their office at 20 Jay Street in DUMBO Brooklyn has plenty of postcards available and you can stop by, fill them out, and they will take care of the rest.

If you aren’t able to get to NYFA in person, they can also help you find the information for your local officials. Simply email your zip code to ssherman@nyfa.org and they will get you in contact with the relevant person in your district. You can also just print and mail the postcard below:

Download [PDF] and print out the SAVE THE ARTS IN MY COMMUNITY postcard.

Let’s not let important funding for the arts be cut! As we all well know, artists and arts institutions struggle for resources and opportunity as it is, and state funding is essential to the state’s continued cultural vitality.

Ty Carries His Arm into His Pick-Up Truck by Nina Berman

The past three months have flown by quicker than we could imagine, and the Whitney Biennial is suddenly coming to a close.

If you still haven’t managed to stop in and have a look at Nina Berman’s incredible photographs, we strongly recommend that you do! You have just about a week to make the trip before the show ends on May 30.

If your work schedule prevents a regular-business-hours visit, (or if you are just a night owl), from May 26 – May 28, the Whitney will be open to visitors 24 hours a day (how awesome is that?), as a part of artist Michael Asher’s project for the Biennial.

To celebrate the culmination of the show, Nina Berman has put together an event for the Whitney’s My Turn, a series presenting performances, lectures and discussions by Biennial artists to the public. The museum’s website invites us to “join [Berman] as she brings the war home in a unique format for a night of dialogue and interaction.”

This event is free with museum admission, and no special tickets or reservations are required, so be sure to make an appearance, (and then stay on at the Whitney until midnight if you’re so inclined!)

The Details:
My Turn: Nina Berman
Friday, May 28th at 7:30 p.m.
The Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street
New York, NY 10021

Tortuga by Colleen Plumb

If you find yourself in Miami in the next few months, be sure to head on over and check out Colleen Plumb’s work in a new group show at Dina Mitrani Gallery. Curated by Orlando Estrada, the show is titled Disposable: Nostalgia for the Still Image, and will be on view from June 12 to August 28.

This show presents a reference to the obsolete disposable film camera and a connection to the disposable quality now associated with digital picture making. Disposable will feature eight emerging and mid-career photographers whose work addresses the connection between photography and memory and how this relationship is being transformed.

Photographs for many are a means of preservation—little relics from times past. These artifacts are treasured safeguards of our fleeting memories. The development of digital picture-making devices and technology has warped our perception of images. It is certainly thanks to the nature of digital photography that people are photographing more, but often without the same emotional connection to the object that the traditional processes produced.

The show features work by:
Danielle Bender
Grant Willing
Humberto Torres
Kyle Ford
Luis Lazo
Abner Nolan
Samantha Salzinger
Colleen Plumb

Disposable: Nostalgia for the Still Image
Dina Mitrani Gallery
On view: June 12 – August 28, 2010
2620 NW 2nd Avenue, Miami, Florida 33127

Colleen is also participating in the preview and panel discussion, “How digital technology affects artists using the photographic process to create their work.”

Saturday, May 22, 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Panel Speakers: Orlando Estrada, Colleen Plumb and Samantha Salzinger

If you can’t make it down to Florida, be sure to take a look at the amazing editions that Colleen has available at 20×200.

The Rema Hort Mann Foundation is organizing its 15th Annual Art Crawl – The Lower East Side: a event whose proceeds will benefit both cancer patients and visual artists, hosted by Whitebox.

The event will take small groups on guided tours of some amazing LES galleries, selected by art collectors Susan and Michael Hort. It will also feature incredible guides, including artists Jules de Balincourt and Christopher Mir, collectors Susan Hort, Michael Hort, Jamie Hort, and George Robertson, and art adviser Michael Sellinger. Tours are free-form and very casual—there is no fixed itinerary, but you’re sure to see some awesome work.

The crawl will take place this coming Sunday, May 23rd. Registration is at 2 p.m. at Whitebox, followed by a wine + cheese reception at 5 p.m. in the same location (329 Broome St., between Bowery and Chrystie). Crawl tickets go for $100, and raffle tickets (you can win books! food! art!) are only $10.

Buy your tickets for this terrific event (for a terrific cause!), and if your group doesn’t make it to JBG (now open on Sundays), make sure to stop by, say “hi”, and have a look at Gregory Krum’s ...Practice… while you’re in the neighborhood.

Zermatt (2007) | 18” x 13” | Archival Pigment Print

Sarah Fones of the The New York Times T Magazine Blog, The Moment writes about Gregory Krum’s ...Practice… exhibition.

Photographic evidence — say, the kind of indefatigable proof that one has, in fact, visited the Great Wall of China — typically suffices as testament to having actually been there and done that. The photographer Gregory Krum (who is also the director of retail for the shop at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum) has been to the base of the Matterhorn and has seen the tombstones erected there in a climbers’ cemetery. The photos he took are on display as part of his first solo exhibition, “…Practice…,” at Jen Bekman Gallery in SoHo. These images, along with shots of flowers, dust, still-lifes and interiors also seek to illuminate something inherently more tenuous: devotion. “The idea behind the show is those things that become true solely by belief,” he says.

Belief is twofold in this instance, with Krum both exploring the confines of his own (in the guise of photographer) and that of others (embodied in inanimate objects left behind). The tombstone portraits, for example, are literal markers of a failed endeavor. Five interior shots evocative of Dutch still-lifes, including a tiny bedside porcelain skull (a nod to the tradition of vanitas) and a copy of Alcoholics Anonymous, examine the extent to which all manmade objects more literally communicate meaning. An orange rind might imply a sense of inevitable decay, while Ettore Sottsass’s Memphis-style lamp — not to mention Krum’s own corkboard of inspirations — impart the boundless capacity for human innovation and endurance. Finally, a series of 24 small photographs of devotional, sculpturelike offerings convey the idea of repetition and quotidian ritual, or as Krum puts it, “the daily practice.” Just as the spiritually inclined are compelled to participate in these rituals, so the artist is consumed by the desire to create.

Such belief systems are self-reflexive, Krum explains, and in fact the show itself became a sort of meta example of his own devotion. It also coincided with Krum’s fascination with the kind of books that act as personal bibles, outlining an artist’s rules of conduct and recasting the process as a daily spiritual/intellectual/aesthetic regimen. “A particularly good one is Gerhard Richter’s The Daily Practice of Painting,” Krum notes, “from which I ultimately stole the title of the show and postcard design.”

Read the article full article and view the accompanying slideshow here. ...Practice… is on view through June 27th, 2010.

After a recent conversation with Youngna Park of Hey Hot Shot! on the topic of reviewing portfolios, and my recent experience reviewing portfolios at last week’s New York Photo Festival, we thought it might be helpful to write a few tips for reviews from the reviewer’s prospective. These are, of course, only my opinions and I can only share my own my experience—but hopefully this offers some insight into what we, as reviewers, look for.

Let me start by saying I love (love, love) doing reviews and studio visits (studio visits being a different beast). I relish spending time with artists and working with them on projects. Working with them, however, is the key phrase here. As someone from the gallery world I get a lot of pre-planned presentations by artists who hope to exhibit at the gallery. Ideally, the review is primarily a dialogue; the artist should have questions for the reviewer, and also be able to—and want to—discuss their process and work. While wanting to exhibit your work is a great end-goal to have—an essential part of the review process is being open to—and wanting to hear both positive and negative feedback.

What to bring:
I like to first suggest that artists bring at least two bodies of work for review, and even a third if the work spans a large breadth. One body should be work that they feel is finished; a second should be work-in-progress with specific questions or challenges they’d like to address. The third can be a looser and less-formed body of work, and is often a way to observe how the artist formulates a new project. I’m primarily talking about photographers and artists making works on paper here, which can be printed and carried to a review.

How to present your work:
If you have a book of your work, i’d love to see it. But, make sure you also still bring in prints. It’s much harder to work with a bound book than it is to move prints around—and often editing and moving images around can drastically change how you, or I, see your work. Books and exhibitions are also laid out very differently, and as a curator of a gallery, it’s important to be able to see work both individually and in various pairings. So, if you do not have prints made and are planning to attend a review—make them!

How much work to bring:
As I mentioned earlier, I recommend bringing three bodies of work, if you have three series or projects. But, that doesn’t mean we’ll have time to look at, or discuss, 80 prints. The best thing you can do before coming is edit the work down—even within each project.

Start off with a series of no more than twenty images. Order the prints as you want the reviewer to look at them, and have questions ready for when you arrive at prints you definitely want feedback about. Explain your statement while going through the work to save time. By explaining what you were trying to achieve in making the work it can help guide the conversation, and whether you are or are not achieving what you intended. If the reviewer doesn’t know where the work is coming from, it’s hard to give feedback beyond pace, color and basic technique—and the review, at best, should be about both about the prints you bring, how you present them, and the idea behind the work.

You can always bring extra prints in case we have more time (that third body of work I mentioned earlier), but make sure each series is well-edited before you arrive.

What I’m looking for:
As a reviewer, I’m looking to be a soundboard for ideas, and also to impart some of my experience from the gallery world to you. Most reviewers have worked with many, many artists, whether they are editors, artists themselves or other gallery directors. When I (and other reviewers) meet with you, we’re not expecting to see a perfectly executed concept that can be explained in a short review. We’re looking, instead, to be excited by projects—even if they are not a perfect fit for our galleries, publications or institutions. The majority of us are there to help, through experience and critique, and want to feel like we can offer feedback beyond connecting your work directly to gallery walls.

Connecting you to institutions and galleries:
On that note, while I (and other reviewers) cannot give out the names of specific galleries you should submit your work to, I can try to steer you in directions for the appropriate types of venues for your work. A lot of artists ask for introductions to other galleries and art institutions, but out of respect to my fellow associates, who are often flooded with artists, I do not offer direct contacts. That said, the web can be a very handy tool. Galleries usually have submission policies and contact information online, which is a good place to start your research.

Too often, artists come to me looking for a contact (or a chance at an exhibition) rather than being open to critique. By doing this, you leave out the chance for your work to excel through critical examination. Be open, but question what we say—ask why?

Lastly, make sure you get the most out of the review by giving your reviewer the tools to best help you. Stay upbeat, bring work you’re excited about, make a list of questions, prepare prints to the best of your ability and have an open mind. The more open you are, the more you have to gain, and won’t feel discouraged if someone says the work is not right for them, but is able to help the project, or your artistic process, in another way.

I hope you’ll share your experience attending reviews in the comments, or other tips if you too have been a reviewer of other people’s portfolios!

On the surface, Gregory Krum’s photograph, Cherifa Tree, made with his Blackberry, may seem to be just another picture of a plant, but in reality, it denotes the complicated and fascinating relationship between Jane Bowles and her Moroccan lover.  Bowles, considered one of America’s most prolific fiction authors and playwrights of the 20th century, had quite the interesting love life. Krum’s series references the lesbian love affair the author engaged in with her Moroccan servant, Anima Bakalia, more commonly known as Cherifa.

The saucy romance began when Jane moved with her husband—yes husband—Paul Bowles, to Tangier, Morocco in 1948. The story goes that Cherifa controlled Jane through a voodoo “spy plant”, which Krum alludes to in Cherifa Tree. Through the spy plant, the housekeeper utilized a talisman of blood and pubic hair to keep Jane under her charge. The author did not relinquish her loyalty to Cherifa, over a lifetime of alcoholism and serious partying, until her death in 1973. Paul Bowles maintained that Cherifa was responsible for his wife’s mental and physical deterioration and rumor has it that she poisoned Jane. For pictures of Jane Bowles and Cherifa, take a look at these photographers on her husband’s website and to see Chrerifa Tree in-person, come into the gallery to see Krum’s exhibition, ...Practice….

Untitled (Whales) by Gregory Krum

We here at Jen Bekman Gallery are thrilled to present ...Practice…, a new show of work by Gregory Krum, and his first solo exhibition in New York.

Titled after Gerhard Richter’s book The Daily Practice of Painting, ...Practice… embraces Richter’s convictions about art and art making. In a series of carefully grouped photographs, Krum explores the ways in which truth is derived simply by virtue of belief.

Of Krum’s work, Jen Bekman notes:
I cannot articulate what makes Greg’s work so magical for me. That formal qualities and deep intellect inform his practice doesn’t justify the way that it seems perfectly acceptable for me to allow his truths to serve as impostors for my own memories. But does that matter, really? Is memory about experience and belief, or an emotion?

If you can’t make it to NYC, you can also see the work online. Two editions of Gregory’s work are also still available on 20×200.

For those of you who are in New York, in addition to the opening on Friday, Associate Director Jeffrey Teuton will also be giving a talk about Greg’s work at the tail-end of this Sunday’s Gallery Walk, from 2-5 p.m. beginning at Invisible-Exports. Click here for more info and to RSVP.

...Practice…
37 Photographs by Gregory Krum
Opening Reception: Friday May 14, 2010, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
On View: May 15, 2010 through June 27, 2010
Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
New York City, 10012

Sand No. 98 (2006/10) by Gregory Krum | 18” x 13” | Archival Pigment Print

A few treasures from the Internet to get you through the week:

The Frick has a bowling alley!

Check out the installations and paintings by Jacob Dahlgreen.

I just have to post this- Jeffrey Deitch after getting a bloody nose at the Shepard Fairey (yawn) swan song Deitch opening- the video. I think a little blood helps butch up a pink suit.

Dave Harper is killing it with awesome clips for Best Link Ever at Art Fag City. This week is good but nothing beats this!

Donald Judd library online! All I know is intern Casey G. spent the better part of a night on this site.

Reverse volume bowls by Mischer Traxler are the perfect thing to add to my odd fruit/vegetable mold collection. (not kidding)

Flying Spaghetti Monster or Spaghetti Cat?

Mamma Andersson at Zwirner. Go see it.

Great new Darren Almond photogravures at Crown Point Press. They are not on the site just yet, but you can catch a glimpse in the new Artforum.

William Powhida is giving a lecture on Surviving the Art World Using the Art of Sorcery on May 14.

The photography world is headed to DUMBO in just two short weeks for NYPH, but even before then, a handful of great shows are already on display. You can see two of those in a single space if you head over to Umbrage Gallery, where several works by Birthe Piontek are included in an exhibition that opened last night and remains on view through June 26th as part of The Portrait As Allegory.

From the Series Sub Rosa by Birthe Piontek

The gallery writes:

The Portrait As Allegory is an exhibition that examines the work of three artists who utilize the figure metaphorically in service of a broader discourse on the human experience. In addition to exploring the personal identities of their subjects, these portraits simultaneously become vehicles which speak to a variety of social, historical, and familial histories.

Piontek’s Sub Rosa photographs include portraits of adolescents in a state of reflection and anticipation. Using romantic symbols for femininity and the loss of innocence (fallen locks of hair, flower petals, milk), Ms. Piontek fashions a modern-day fairy tale narrative, but offers no moral to the story. What captures this young girl’s gaze?; what is to come for this character? We are left with beauty and suspense.

This exhibition shares the space with Graphic Intersections, a collaborative photographic described as a “photographic relay of images inspired by one another” based on the Surrealist and Dadaist game, The Exquisite Corpse. Each image affects and inspires reaction to the next, and includes photographs by Scott Eiden, Cara Phillips, Jane Tam and Grant Willing among many others.

The Portrait As Allegory & Graphic Intersections
Umbrage Gallery
On view through June 26, 2010
111 Front Street, Suite 208
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Hours: Monday – Friday, 12 – 6 p.m.

Vantasy by Ryan Humphrey

Please join us on Sunday, May 16th from 2-5 p.m. for a leisurely afternoon stroll to a few of our favorite LES galleries led by JBP’s own Philae Knight. The group will meet at 2:00 p.m. at Invisible-Exports and finish up at JBG, where you can relax with a glass of wine and a brief talk by Associate Director Jeffrey Teuton about the work of Gregory Krum, whose solo exhibition, ...Practice…, will be on view.

Artists Penelope Umbrico and Ryan Humphrey will also be on hand to talk about their work and exhibitions at LMAK and DCKT galleries, two stops along the way.

Space is limited so please RSVP to info@jenbekman.com by Saturday, May 15th.

JBG LES Gallery Walk Schedule
2:00 – Invisible Exports: A Vernacular of Violence, Group Show
2:30 - Stephan Stoyanov Gallery: Future Tense, Group Show
3:00 – LMAK: As Is, a solo exhibition by Penelope Umbrico (artist will be in attendance)
3:30 – 11 Rivington: Hilary Berseth, a solo exhibition by Hilary Berseth
4:00 – Salon 94 BOWERY: T-Shirt Paintings: Hippie Punk, a solo exhibition by Richard Prince
4:30 – DCKT: Early American, a solo exhibition by Ryan Humphrey (artist will be in attendance)
5:00 – Jen Bekman Gallery: ...Practice…, a solo exhibition by Gregory Krum

We look forward to seeing you; don’t forget to RSVP and reserve a spot!

Did you hear the news? We’re heading out west for our annual 20×200 Collectors Confab and you’re invited! Jen and a few members of the 20×200 team are excited to meet you—West Coast collectors—on Tuesday, May 4th from 6 – 9 p.m at Chronicle Books in San Francisco. We’ll be serving wine and beer along with a few nibbles, and perhaps have a surprise or two for you too. Many of our Bay Area artists will also be in attendance, so come say hello and have a drink on us!

Space is limited, so make sure you RSVP to rsvp AT 20×200 DOT com.

Who: West Coast Collectors, Artists & Team 20×200
What: Collectors Confab
When: Tuesday, May 4th, from 6-9 p.m.
Where: Chronicle Books | 680 Second Street, San Francisco, CA

Reid’s Farm by Derek Henderson

We’ve quickly reached the one month mark of Hey, Hot Shot!, and I decided to delve back into the archives of gallery shows past with a special look at 2008 First Edition Hot Shot Derek Henderson. A 40” x 50” print of Reid’s Farm by Henderson used to hang in the office and I was mesmerized by it. I relished the times when I could be alone in the office and take as long as I wanted to gaze at the image in silence.

There is a certain type of work I gravitate towards, and I tend to shy away from anything involving people (just a personal thing). However, there is something magical about this photo to me. At first, the subject matter seems straightforward—and Derek’s entire Mercy Mercer project is indeed a documentation of the Waikato River in New Zealand and its people. But where so often documentary work easily hands you the story, Derek has crafted a project that both tells of a community while simultaneously creating images that allow for the viewer to create their own narrative. While recently flipping through the pages of Derek’s gorgeous book of this series, on each page, I created a new story of my own making.

Even with my aforementioned aversion to people-focused work, I find the portraits magnetic. In Reid’s Farm, contemporary folk are surrounded by contemporary objects like nylon fold out chairs, yet the work takes me more to the Hudson River Valley painters than to anything contemporary.

On this note, I am pleased to share that Derek has forthcoming solo show at the gallery. You can visit his site or find his book here for a sneak preview at what you may see on our walls.

Also, don’t forget: Hey, Hot Shot! is open RIGHT NOW! Since its inception in 2005, Hey, Hot Shot!, the premier international photography competition, has provided one hundred and twenty-nine photographers from all over the world with unrivaled exposure, support and recognition. This year marks the 5th anniversary of the competition and the 7th anniversary of Jen Bekman Gallery.

In addition to the hallmark awards of past competitions, this year we are offering a $5,000 honorarium and five Curator’s Choice Awards. The deadline for submissions is August 22, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. (EDT) and there will be only one season of competition in 2010, so apply now!

The 2010 New York Photo Festival (NYPH) is rapidly-approaching and we’re excited to spend a few days walking ‘round the cobblestone streets of DUMBO, listening to an excellent line-up of panels, and seeing some sure-to-be stellar exhibits. In addition to the panels, book-signings, exhibits, awards and parties that surround NYPH, each year, the festival also offers photographers an opportunity to have their work reviewed by photography-world experts. Associate Director of Jen Bekman Gallery, Jeffrey Teuton, will join a broad range of photo editors, gallery directors, museum curators, photography critics, commercial photography agents, publishers, art book packagers, and graphic designers as one of this year’s reviewers. Jeffrey will be reviewing portfolios on Thursday, May 13th as part of NYPH 2010. For a full list of reviewers and a review schedule, please visit the NYPH ’10 Portfolio Review.

The Portfolio Review will take place for three days of the festival, from Thursday, May 13th – Saturday, May 15th. The actual festival will take place from the 12th-16th with the main festival sites scattered around DUMBO for the third straight year. The festival will also expand its programming and pre-festival activities, for the first time, into other parts of the city.

Untitled by by Marc Garanger

There will be two review sessions each day: a morning session from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm and an afternoon session from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Reviewers are available for reservation on a first-come, first-served basis and attendees are entitled to five one-on-one sessions with the reviewers over the course of three days. So, if you’re looking for critical feedback on a recent or ongoing project, make sure to reserve a spot!

Flamingo by Colleen Plumb

All of you Midwesterners or anyone who might be near Milwaukee, WI before July 5th should stop in to the Milwaukee Art Museum and have a look at the work of Colleen Plumb, on view as part of the museum’s permanent collection. The building draws plenty of attention itself, since the museum happens to be housed in the amazing work of art that is the Quadracci Pavilion by Santiago Calatrava . The opening and closing of the space’s “wings” is worth the trip alone.

Milwaukee Art Museum
On view through July 5, 2010
700 N. Art Museum Drive
Milwaukee, WI 53202
Website

We’re busy preparing for Gregory Krum’s upcoming solo-show but we were excited to stop and see that Sight Unseen, an online magazine founded by two former editors of I.D., has featured a peek inside Gregory’s “perfectly appointed” Brooklyn home. In addition to being a fantastic photographer, Gregory daylights as Director of Retail at the Cooper-Hewitt Shop in New York, curating one of the city’s best spots for design shopping.

Gregory’s certainly got a knack for mixing high-design with thrift store finds to create a space that is uniquely his own. Throughout the house you will find Italian chairs and a custom-made bed frame mixed in with eclectic objects, art found at a thrift store, and several of Krum’s own photographs.

The slideshow is accompanied by an article on Gregory’s experience as an artist, in design retail, and details about his upcoming exhibition ...Practice…, which opens May 15th at Jen Bekman Gallery.

Gregory’s sold out edition Chateau Pool can be spotted behind this plant with a pair of googly eyes (an homage to SNL).

Make sure to check out the full tour on Sight Unseen and then head over to Gregory’s 20×200 page to see his four gorgeous editions.

Jen Bekman artists Holly Lynton and Kate Bingaman-Burt served up a double dose of visual goodness on the virtual pages of Daily Candy this week. Holly’s photo, Les, Amber, Honeybees, New Mexico, 2008 is included in “Femme Photographer,” a selection of images curated by Women in Photography founders Cara Phillips and Amy Elkins. The slideshow exhibits a breadth of work being made by contemporary women photographers, many of whom have been interviewed at greater length on WIP. Holly’s honeybees make a special mark on New Yorkers this spring, as the ban on urban beekeeping has just been lifted. Perhaps we’ll see more folk like Les in and around our fair city soon, but for now, you can enjoy her image online.

Les, Amber, Honeybees, New Mexico, 2008 by Holly Lynton

Ms. Bingaman-Burt notes “black chucks are bad workout shoes” in an illustration accompanying this morning’s Daily Candy weekend guide, which highly recommends you go out and pick up a copy of Kate’s new book, Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today?” Also the name of her long-running website, which documents her purchases of both the mundane and the occasional indulgence, Kate’s book delights in its printed form. Or, as DC puts it, “Because buying it is delightfully meta.” Signed copies are available if you order directly from Kate’s website.

Kate Bingaman-Burt in Daily Candy’s Weekend Guide

Installation view of Carrie Marill’s Visual Aides at Jen Bekman Gallery

As the weather has suddenly become perfect for wandering aimlessly around our fair city, we’ll be keeping the gallery open for an additional day each week, on Sundays. Next time you’re out on your Sunday stroll, please do stop in from noon – 6 p.m. to enjoy our art-filled (and air-conditioned) oasis.

Currently on view (through May 8th) is Carrie Marill’s Visual Aides (above). The works may look sweet from afar but come in, take a closer look and you’ll discover subtly camouflaged social and environmental issues, which Marill has painted into these vintage French learning aides.

Paris by Gregory Krum

After that, on May 14th, is the opening of Gregory Krum’s ...Practice…; we’ll have plenty of details as the show approaches. Gregory’s recent 20×200 edition, Paris, depicts a the quintessential summer dream, and had our own Sara Distin scouring the web for houseboat rentals on the Seine. If this is any indication, we are in for a dreamy summer show.

We hope to see you at 6 Spring St. in the coming, warm weekends!

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring St.
New York, NY 10012
(New) Hours: Wed – Sun, 12 – 6pm