Works featured in "Are You Sure You Are You?"

Rafael Rozendaal
www.aestheticecho.com

Daniel Everett
Conversations With a Computer (triptych)
www.daniel-everett.com/conversations.html

Angelo Plessas
www.thehistoryofadecadethathasnotyetbeennamed.com

Andy Simionato
www.becausewhy.org

Mae Ueda
www.romanticus.com

Miltos Manetas
www.stupidforum.com

Rafael Rozendaal
www.iamveryverysorry.com

Guthrie Lonergan
9 Short Music Videos
www.theageofmammals.com/shortmusicvideos

Petra Cortright
more dancing dedux
alien abduction
www.petracortright.com/danceffx.html

Guthrie Lonergan
Artist Looking at Camera
www.theageofmammals.com/2006/artistlooking.html

Harm Van Den Dorpel
Resurrections
www.harmvandendorpel.com/resurrections.htm

Tara Sinn
Kaleidoscopes
www.tara-sinn.com
(Click projects, then click: Kaleidoscopes)

Cory Archangel
www.lollapallozathemovie.com (domain only, not exhibited)

"Are You Sure You Are You?" opens at SBG

A few pictures from Saturday night's opening...

'The Moons Ride Over', Adapted for Facebook by Jeff Gabel

In conjunction with 'Are You Sure You Are You?', our upcoming exhibition of new web art, Spencer Brownstone Gallery is delighted to announce the launch of gallery artist Jeff Gabel's new Facebook project, 'The Moons Ride Over'.

Based upon 'Salware: Oder Die Magdalena Von Bozen', a largely forgotten 1935 novel by Carl Zuckmayer which details the goings-on among a group of artists and intellectuals summering at a castle retreat in the South Tyrol, Gabel has translated and transposed large sections of the novel to the seemingly incongruous context of a Facebook site. Each character in the novel has been given his or her own Facebook identity and the artist has turned their often intense after-dinner debates into a series of posts and comments on each of the characters' pages.

Already well under way with his adaptation, Gabel is now opening up the project to contributions from Facebook members. Anyone with a Facebook account can view the novel-in-progress by searching Facebook for its main character Thomas Stolperer, or any of the characters from the list below. In addition, anyone can interact with the novel by requesting friendship with any of these characters.

CHARACTERS

Thomas Stolperer
Jeff Saltz (external narrator)
Magdalena Salwar Dej Stries
Firmin Salwar Dej Stries
Mena Morandell (or Menega, or Magdalena)
Grisi Himmelfahrt
Cordula Salwar Dej Stries (The Cow, or Lavacca)
Peter Insam
Matrona Salwar Dej Stries
Loisl Insam
Walt Cavanaugh (elderly man at the Albergo)
Michelle Marsh (elderly woman at the Albergo)
Jerry Fannin (baker's apprentice; bread eater)
Carroll Schraeder (innkeeper on Rittner Plateau)
Gary Kerr (boy carrying a milk can)
(More characters to come)

Jeff Gabel is an artist based in Brooklyn who has had four solo shows at Spencer Brownstone Gallery, most recently in September 2008. Best known for his pencil drawings of characters appended with often dramatically extended narrative explications, Gabel has also produced a series of unconventional literary translations and adaptations, of which this Facebook project is the latest. These projects have included comic-book renderings of a Stefan Zweig story, an animated video adaptation of Thomas Mann's 'Gladius Dei', and a translation of an Alma Mahler biography into a foul-mouthed 'American vernacular'.

Please contact the gallery for more information and images. Read more about the work of Jeff Gabel here, and about 'Are You Sure You Are You?' here.

'Are You Sure You Are You?' - Opening Saturday April 11th

The gallery will be closed this week for the installation of 'Are You Sure You Are You?', a new group exhibition focusing on some of the most interesting contemporary artwork being produced with web and computer-based technology.

Where a first generation of tech-savvy artists in the late 90's often focused on grand multimedia presentations to show off the seemingly unlimited possibilities of this new frontier, the artists in 'Are You Sure You Are You?' represent a more recent trend toward a smaller scale, often self-effacing and humorous employment of their chosen medium. This work makes less of a 'statement' about the technology itself, and instead uses it as a platform for ever more inventive and thoughtful content.

Participating artists include: Cory Arcangel, Daniel Everett, Petra Cortright, Jeff Gabel, Guthrie Lonergan, Miltos Manetas, Angelo Plessas, Rafael Rozendaal, Andy Simionato, Tara Sinn, Mai Ueda, and Harm van den Dorpel.

'Are You Sure You Are You?'opens Saturday April 11th, 6-8pm, and continues Tuesday April 14th through Saturday May 16. More info here.

'Being British' review, The Observer

Click above for review of 'Being British', the group exhibition at London's Stephen Lawrence Gallery that, as we noted below, contains work by Seamus Harahan. Article held here.

Seamus Harahan in 'Being British'

Seamus Harahan is included in a new group show opening this week at London's Stephen Lawrence Gallery. 'Being British', curated by Alice Correia, features work by ten artists including Shezad Dawood, Tracey Emin, Chris Ofili, and Xi Jian Jun, and seeks to explore "how the ‘national’, in its multicultural forms, is being depicted and questioned in art today...".

The exhibition opens Thursday March 19, 6–8pm, and continues through April 17, with a special conference taking place Wednesday 15 April, 10am–5.30pm, more info here.

Jane South extended through Armory Show!

We are pleased to be able to extend Jane South's critically acclaimed (see posts below) solo show to coincide with upcoming Armory Show. The Armory Show takes place March 5th-8th, more on that here, and more on Jane's show here and here...

Jane South in The New Yorker

From this week's issue....

Jane South Installation Shots Online

Check out our slide show of installation shots of Jane's South's current solo show at the gallery here.

Also, video walk-through posted here...

Jane South 'Critics Pick', Artforum.com

Click on the above, or go here to read Michael Wilson on Jane South's current solo exhibition at the gallery...

Jane South: 'Best In Installation'

From Time Out New York this week...

Opening tonight: Jane South

Here's your sneek peek of Jane South's show opening at the gallery tonight, 6-8pm, including the remarkable 'Untitled (Tower)', a monumental new floor-to-ceiling piece that Jane has been constructing in-situ over the past few weeks. 

Show continues through February 21st, more info here. We look forward to seeing you...

Upcoming at Spencer Brownstone Gallery: Jane South

That's your lot for 2008 at SBG, we will be taking a short break for the Holidays and, thereafter, the installation of a solo exhibition of new work by Jane South.

Jane's exhibition opens on Tuesday January 20th, 6-8pm, and will continue through February 21st. Read more on that here and look forward to seeing you in 2009...

Superlative Tessa Farmer extended through Dec 23rd

Tessa Farmer's show has been picked out by Jerry Saltz as one of the highlights of the year in art. Read the excerpt from his New York Magazine piece 'The Year In Superlatives' above, or follow this link for the full article.

Also, please note Tessa's show will be extended an extra week, through Tuesday December 23rd. More info here.

Anna Galtarossa at the Turino Triennale

For the second Turin Triennale (6 November 2008–1 February 2009) titled '50 Lune di Saturno' (50 Moons of Saturn), exhibition curated by David Birnbaum, Anna Galtarossa created an "Aconcagua" or a "Punk Mountain". A car-sized mountain, decked out in punk gear, which moves around the exhibition space by using sensors to detect walls, people and objects and every 5 minutes or so, the top of the mountain opens up and screams! The work is exhibited at Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona but you can take a look at a short video of it here: http://www.youtube.com/user/diplotaxis.
Another project of Anna's is "Il Mostro di Castelvecchio" (The Monster of Castelvecchio) which makes a nightly walk through the city (Verona, Italy). The Museo di Castelvechio recently started exhibiting contemporary art which led the artist to envision this monster as a welcome or an introduction to the "not-so-scary" world of contemporary art. The monster's hydraulic legs are moved by two people (stationed inside each leg) and led by guides with museum badges. The project was curated by Maria Rosa Sossai, Gabi Scardi and Camilla Berton and you can get a glimpse of it right here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a4t-qXt_ps

Tessa Farmer, New York Times

Ken Johnson's recent round-up of New York's gallery neighborhoods in the New York Times included an extended piece on Soho, including Tessa Farmer's current show at the gallery.

Click on the image above to read the excerpt on Tessa, and go here to read the full piece.

Tessa Farmer Kills Tinkerbell!

From New York Magazine 11/07/08...

Tessa Farmer installation images now online...

Installation shots of the gallery's current solo show by Tessa Farmer are now online here.

Exhibition continues through December 13th, read more here.

Zilvinas Kempinas interview on Museo Magazine

As reported previously here, Zilvinas Kempinas has a major new interview feature on Museo Magazine, the online art publication.

We are happy to report that the article has now hit the digital news stands, read Veronica Roberts' in depth interview with Zilvinas at this link.

Jeff Gabel on Artreview.com

Jeff Gabel is the featured artist on Artreview.com's project space this month.

The project space invites artists to present a work via Flash animation, and Jeff here uses a hand-drawn template of the Artreview website as the platform for another of his remarkable, ramshackle, heartfelt rants. Letting loose on himself, his day job, the commission, and other assorted woes, Jeff admits he is rarely more happy than "during infrequent drinking opportunities..."

An accompanying interview provides a fascinatingly frank insight into the artist's approach to work and life. Check it out at www.artreview.com/projectspace.