Baltimore Sun: School 33 wins $100,000 national grant: Contemporary art gallery aims to use Robert Rauschenberg Foundation money to transform building, fund projects by Mary Carole McCauley
With its bell tower, arched windows and handsome red-brick facade, the structure at 1427 Light St. looks like what it once was — an elementary school. Nothing about the 1890 building suggests that for the past 33 years, School 33 has been one of Baltimore’s premier showcases for contemporary local art. That’s about to change, thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation that will help enhance the reputation of the nonprofit, city-run arts group with its neighbors, throughout the city and nationwide.
The New York-based foundation is scheduled to announce Monday that School 33 is one of nine small and midsize arts groups across the U.S. to win awards aimed at fostering innovation and collaboration in the spirit of Rauschenberg, the pioneering painter and graphic artist who died in 2008.
“The last two years have been really hard for nonprofit arts centers,” says Rene Trevino, School 33’s exhibitions coordinator. “This grant is huge because it helps us to transform ourselves. It’s a platform to really change. It’s incredibly rewarding to receive this kind of recognition and to have someone say, ‘We’re excited about what you’re doing, and here’s something to help you move forward.’ ”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/bs-ae-school-33-20121208,0,6355854.story
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New York Magazine: Jerry Saltz’s Top 10 Art Picks of 2012
1. Clint and the Chair – A new genre of performance art—call it “Neo-Verity”—became shockingly vivid and visible in front of tens of millions this year. The first manifestation appeared the evening of August 30, when Clint Eastwood staged his infamous empty-chair performance at the Republican National Convention. Instead of playing out a highly scripted, rehearsed scene of political pseudo-reality, Eastwood seemed to split reality in two onstage: As Republican stalwarts willed themselves to see an American icon elevating irony to new heights and sticking it to the president, everyone else saw a party marooned in a self-replicating, self-fortifying private reality.
Read the rest at http://www.vulture.com/2012/11/jerry-saltz-top-ten-art.html
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New York Times: Breathing Life, and Art, Into a Downtrodden Neighborhood by Lizette Alvarez
Ski, a New York graffiti artist, swirled a can of spray paint, blasting a riot of neon in this once-forlorn slab of Miami called Wynwood. A few doors down, in a pop-up store, another artist, Asif Farooq, was selling an array of firearms — actually cardboard replicas for those who like everything about a gun except the shooting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/us/wynwood-in-miami-getting-a-new-life-and-art.html?hp&_r=0
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VIDEO: Tour Art Basel Miami Beach’s Best Booths With ARTINFO’s Benjamin Genocchio
Of all this week’s fairs in Miami, none has more to offer than Art Basel Miami Beach, whose sheer size makes it all the more essential to have a trusted guide leading the way through its hundreds of booths. In this video tour, ARTINFO editor-in-chief Benjamin Genocchio talks to the gallerists and artists behind his favorite booths at the fair, including Ivan Navarro — whose mirror and neon sculptures at Paul Kasmin’s booth caught the eyes of many, including P. Diddy — Los Carpinteros’s work at the Sean Kelly booth, and a Yayoi Kusama installation of mirrored balls. http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/845866/video-tour-art-basel-miami-beachs-best-booths-with-artinfos
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What Weekly: Minás Konsolas: ArchiteXture
On a cool fall evening, artist and gallery owner Minas Konsolas, 59, and his wife and business partner Peggy Hoffman show us their family portraits, including formal black-and-white photographs of Konsolas’ dignified Greek parents and grandparents and paintings of Hoffman’s regal Maryland ancestors.
http://whatweekly.com/2012/11/29/minas-konsolas-architexture/
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Art Fag City: SEVEN- The Fair We Enjoy by WILL BRAND
There’s not much point in comparing SEVEN, the boothless, 7-gallery satellite fair in Miami’s Wynwood district, to Art Basel Miami Beach. It has no roving carts of champagne, no collectors’ lounge, and no dealers with hungry eyes sitting watch over their wares. When we visited for their party on Thursday, there was a distressing lack of Diddy. The attitude there—and we say this every year—is simply different.
Multiple times, walking through the fair, perfect strangers struck up conversations about the art. When the fair offered free paella to anyone walking through the unguarded, admission-free entrance Thursday night, the next table over was filled with local skater kids, who seemed to just happen to be in the neighborhood. http://www.artfagcity.com/2012/12/08/seven-the-fair-we-enjoy/
