Personism

Gallery Update: Berman Show Extended Thru 9/8 + Press Mentions

In case you don't keep up with the gallery's blog, I wanted to let you know that Nina Berman's Purple Hearts exhibition has been extended through Saturday September 8th.

The show is featured in once more in today's (Friday August 31) New York Times, in the Art Listings section, a follow-up to the excellent review and accompanying slideshow that ran last week.

Additional press includes Der Spiegel both English and German editions, Liberation (France), and The New York Daily News, in the most unlikely places: Bill Gallo, in the Sports section, and Rush & Molloy in their gossip pages.

For a more comprehensive round-up, including pull-quotes and online coverage, check out the Press category of the gallery blog.

If you're in NYC, please come by and see the show. We're open Wednesday through Saturday from Noon-6pm:

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
New York, NY 10012

A Bit of Advice

For those of you who end up on my site because you're wondering how to remove a tattoo at home (and holy smokes, there are a lot of you), here's a bit of advice:
DON'T

Someone Left My Cake Out in The Rain

Donna Summer, vintage 1978, sings MacArthur Park

SOME people refuse to pop their YouTube cherries, which I understand, but c'mon. It's freaking Donna Summer! How can you say no?
I had no idea how absurd the lyrics to MacArthur Park actually were until digging up this version with karaoke subtitles. Nor did I know that it had so much history until this moment right here when I felt driven to publicly shame Ms. Amy Ross into watching it so she could be like "Oh riiiight I totally know that song." Because she so totally does. You all do, right?

Note: If someone can find me a modern day version of Donna's jumpsuit, I will don it and make my karaoke debut. (We all have our own shameful pop culture deficits, do we not? What's yours?)

Alec Soth: Asked and Answered

Azzedine Alaia, fancy-pants Parisian, photographed by mandal-wearing Minnesotan Alec Soth.

I've developed a little writing sideline to keep me busy in my copious free time. Back in April I wrote about art for everyone in GOOD Magazine, which was followed by a review of Where We Live, both the Getty exhibition and its accompanying book, in the Summer issue of photo-eye Booklist.

My most recent journalistic endeavor is an interview with the brooding, complex and reclusive Alec Soth in the Fall Issue of Booklist. We discuss his edition of Magnum's Fashion Magazine and its chi-chi Paris debut at length and touch upon other provocative subjects like nerds, sweatshirts, champagne and Where's Waldo.

Trust Your Gut

Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet

Q: Shakespeare’s Hamlet is about a young man who doesn’t respond to his first best instinct, which is to avenge his father’s murder by killing his uncle. If Hamlet had listened to his gut, how would the play be different?

A: This is not a scientific kind of question. But the play would have been shorter and probably fewer people would have been killed.

- From Through Analysis, Gut Reaction Gains Credibility, in today's New York Times

B-E-K-M-A-N

My name: Jen Bekman. That's B-e-k-m-a-n. No "c".

Not: Beckman, Benkman, Berkman or Beckmann.
Neither: Mr., Mrs. or Miss
Nor: Jan or Jens*
Not even Jens Lekman.

As I've previously mentioned, I registered jenbeckman.com and set it up to automatically re-direct to my actual website. I get email sent to that address as well. However, if you DO email me at that address, and if your email to me opens with "Dear Ms. Beckman" and you actually want something from me, you're not off to a good start. (Your best bet: "Dear Jen", sent to the correct address.)

This cranky post brought to you by hundreds of "Jen Beckman" and "Jen Benkman" queries that sent people to my site today.

*There are three people in the world who can get away with Jennifer or Jenny. You are probably not one of them.

Links: NYT Review of Nina Berman @ JB

• Nina Berman - Art - Review - New York Times
  This background provides the context for Ms. Berman’s photographs, which are themselves tip-of-the-iceberg images. No matter what the viewer’s political position, the images add up to a complex and desolating anti-war statement.
  (tags: ninaberman purplehearts gallery exhibition photography photojournalism jenbekman bekman iraq war)

I Miss You

Found on Etchy.

I have about 5 or 6 half-written drafts of posts that I can't seem to coax into something publishable. Aside from the fragments already there, I've been thinking about the Fall, and about the war and about how much I hate August.

I've had a bunch of long days mostly working on stuff I can't stand - digging through stacks of paper, invoices, receipts. Trying to be organized, although it seems that everything about my personality utterly resists it.

Right now with all my energies focused on projects with unyielding deadlines, I don't have much left over for the blog. I miss it, and I'm frustrated that I can't come up with much to say. This is not one of those "I'm sorry for not posting" posts, but rather one about the fact that I feel sorry for myself that I can't.

The Blogging of Art

Collages by Amy Ross.

All of a sudden a lot of the artists I work with seem to be blogging, and the timing couldn't be more perfect. I'm still swamped with all my various projects, which is why this is only my 9th post so far for the month of August. I keep writing blog posts in my head as I'm trying (usually unsuccessfully) to fall asleep, or (reluctantly) wake up, or while I'm in the shower (where I usually come up with my very best ideas). It's just a matter of shoe-horning the actual writing time into my day - till then enjoy these other blogs by JB co-conspirators.

Collages by Amy Ross

Amy Ross started blogging when we were out in the Hamptons, picking up my slack and reporting on Scope extensively.

Now that she's back in Boston, she's kept at it. Recently she's been featuring her new collages. They were the sleeper hit of Scope: gallerists, curators and other stylish attendees snapped up multiples of these affordable little gems. Grace Bonney featured them over on design*sponge yesterday, putting the collages and Amy's blog is in the spotlight. (We're working on doing a collage edition for 20x200, stay tuned for details on that.)

A daily purchase drawing by Kate Bingaman-Burt

Kate Bingaman-Burt is a long time blogger who was on hiatus for a bit, but now she's back at it over on Obsessive Consumption, and she also maintains a blog for her students at Mississippi State: Crap Detector.

Palm Aire by Tema Stauffer

My biggest blogging surprise came from Tema Stauffer. Her blog, Palm Aire is a well written diary of her personal experiences, with liberal doses of art and photography in the mix.

Homeland Security Blanket by Jessica Vitkus

Winning the award of person I'd most like to see blogging is master crafter Jessica Vitkus. Her recent Craft the Vote slideshow on Slate was featured on Boing Boing and in a slew of other blogs too. Jessica is not only crafty, she's a great writer who's published books, written for TV and now can occasionally be heard on the radio. She was born to blog, I just haven't quite been able to convince her. Yet.

Links: Good Eats

• Gahm Mi Oak - W. 30s - New York Magazine Restaurant Guide
  Mmm, Korean food is yumminy.
  (tags: restaurants korean nyc food)