Four Current Faves for Friday

1. My current favorite exhibition up in Chelsea (yes, yes, I know: shameless, unbridled favortism) ends today actually. Here's what Roberta Smith writes about it in The New York Times:

SARAH PETERS In an impressive first show, this artist revisits several pictorial conventions of colonial America — the portrait, the mourning picture and the landscape — with antic results. Her weapon of choice is black ballpoint pen backed by pencil, deployed in a fidgety yet gossamer cross-hatch style whose precedents include Edward Gorey and the early work of Jim Nutt and Sue Williams. Winkleman Gallery, 637 West 27th Street, Chelsea, (212) 643-3152, winkleman.com, closes today. (Smith)

What can I say? It's a great show.

2. My current favorite YouTube video was a tough call. The John Edwards "Hair" video came close, but in the end I have to go with "Thriller":




See my thoughts about this in the comment threads (don't want to spoil anything here).

3. My current favorite comment on this blog...hell, it's got to be among my favorite comments on any blog anywhere, is this combination poignant commentary and brilliant parody of artspeak by Henry on yesterday's thread:

The whole artworld is violently anything-goes. Why should anyone be surprised or bothered when anything went? The conservative press is still trying to put Andy Warhol back in the bottle. Nobody takes them seriously. The liberal press isn't going to bite the hand that pours them drinks.

All the Korean lady needs to do is reject the notion that artificial qualifications can be conferred on an individual by the patrimonial industrial-education complex of the Hegemon, and take a stand for her individualism and unique creative and feminist vision as an authentic multicultural alternate to the restrictive orientalism of the west, blah blah. All the Documenta people have to do is say they were exploring issues engendered by the collapse of faith among the people in the wake of the controversies at Enron and the World Bank, yada yada.

Get out of jail free. Everyone in the Greek Chorus will say "oooooh ... exploring issues ... nice ... I'll try a martini next ... I mean ... explore the issues raised by the juxtaposition of gin and vermouth, which are two commodities created for self-medication by the oppressed working classes of pre-industrial London in previous centuries but have recently been elevated into the realm of the elite by the framing techniques of various pouring and imbibing rituals, and the inclusion of sophisticated vegetation like the olive, which normally represents world peace, but when pickled in such volatile spirits, takes on many of the aggressive connotations of the shark Hirst created in the latter stages of the twentieth century, dramatically summarizing an era of genocide and despotism during which the American hegemon asserted itself on the international stage...".

4. My current favorite visual joke. Thanks to Ondine for forwarding this gem. Since Texas has been having so much rain, a designer has created new shoe styles for the fashionable ladies undaunted by global warming:

Have a great weekend all!