Spotted: New Art on Gossip Girl

Although having Georgina back on the show (in her own words, "You can tell Jesus that the bitch is back") is quite exciting, so are Lilly Bass's new art purchases each week. A few weeks ago she was buying a Cecily Brown for her bedroom. This week a new piece by Doug and Mike Starn appeared on the wall that separates the kitchen from the rest of the apartment. It is one of their snowflake pieces, with three snowflakes vertically. I wonder how Rufus feels that she uses an art consultant, when he is in the art business himself, owning a gallery in Brooklyn...

Mike + Doug Starn

First stop on last weekend's trip to New York was a subway ride to the South Ferry stop at the tip of Manhattan to see Mike and Doug Starn's permanent installation. If you go, note that the South Ferry stop (1 & 9) and Winterhaven stop (R&W) are connected underground, so you can take any of the lines. The art itself is in the South Ferry stop and is inside the the turnstile, so you'll want to go in.

The installation reflects many of the Starn's photography styles, translated into industrial strength materials appropriate for high traffic.

There is a piece using translucent decaying leaf as the subject that is similar to the Starns' Black Pulse series.

The largest installation is similar to the Starns' Structure of Thought series. The originals are created by layering wax, encaustic and varnish. The subway version gives a similar feel (noted in the close-up photo), complete with the layering effect, though in this case under layers of some type of acrylic (my guess).

Not everything is familiar. The Starns include mosaic work and cut metal walls -- all tied together by the theme of nature.

The Starns were also featured in yesterday's New York Times Sunday magazine, where you can read about their huge contruction, Big Bambu, at Talix in Beacon, NY. We know Talix best for their works casting sculptures -- especially very large scale.

20x200: What have you done for me lately?

This past spring I was OBSESSED with Jen Beckman's 20x200. (For those who haven't heard, new editions of 200 selling for $20 over the internet, http://www.20x200.com/.) I managed to get both of the special editions by the Starn Twins and re-arranged my schedule so that I was available to buy immediately when the e-mails went out announcing new works. It seemed like back in May, all the new editions were selling out quickly, some in a matter of minutes.

However, over the past month, it seems like the new prints haven't been selling that well and very few editions sell out. Even I, the 20x200 addict, stopped buying. What has happened?

I think several things:

1. While the ecomony has collapsed, I am not sure how much of an impact this has had on the market for $20 works of art. Although if people are now bringing their lunches to work, a $20 print might be considered a luxury item.

2. The birds. You all know what I am talking about. For a while, it seemed like EVERY print was somehow bird-related. If you are not a complete bird fanatic, this becomes a stale self-parody pretty quickly.

3. Quality of the work. While there have been a few good works recently, including "Hank Williams' Bed, Georgiana, Alabama" by Scott Eiden (shown here), I haven't found many things that seemed as interesting as earlier editions.

4. Enough is enough. Honestly, how many 8x10 artworks can you have? We have sort of reached our limit.

5. Larger editions. I think this is the beginning of the end. If editions of 200 have not been selling out, why do editions of 500 for $50? Although I didn't take any economics in college, this doesn't make any sense to me.

Anyway, it was fun while it lasted. Next!

Collect(ive/ions)

As we are gearing up for Art Basel Miami, I started to think about our collective buying patterns and how much overlap there is in our collections. Although none of us have the same image of an editioned print or photograph (except for benefit prints), we often buy work by the same artists, sometimes even part of the same series. It actually gives some depth to our personal collections, and the collective collection would probably make an interesting show- as much about the art as the social connections. Here is a list of artists that are in the collections of more than one of us (again, benefit prints aren't represented here). (If I left any out, please add them in the comments.)
Christiane Baumgartner
Erik Desmazieres
Lalla Essaydi
Claes Oldenburg
Julian Opie
Judy Pfaff
Stephen Sheffield
Doug and Mike Starn
Kate Sullivan
Kara Walker