Marcel Eichner at Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin

If you're in Berlin before November 13, this is an exhibition worth checking out. Until Oct 9, Thomas Kiessewetter is downstairs at CFA.

Pics from Conversations: Berlin->NYC NYC->Berlin

Previous pictures by Hans Dieter Sommer www.edition-sommer.de

Beez And Honey Presents Conversations: Monday October 4 in Berlin Mitte

Invite Design by Sven Hauserr

Beez and Honey Presents

Conversations: New York à Berlin

Berlin à New York

Curated by Nicollette Ramirez

Opening Party Monday Oct 4, 6 pm onwards

22 Mulackstrasse, Berlin Mitte

Performance by Michelle Isava

David Button drawing

Bodo Korsig metal sculpture

Uri Dotan video

Maike Paul photography

Sebastian Gross Ossa painting

Christopher Steadman video

Maureen Jeram painting

Hiroshi McDonald Mori mixed media

Juanli Carrion photography

To do an exhibition in Berlin, from a for profit stand point, may seem to some a fool hardy thing. All through my last sojourn in Berlin I heard time and time again, Berlin is a great place to create, not a place to sell art. Well I set out to prove this thesis wrong, as I knew, and heard from dealers, that an international clientele in fact supported many of the galleries in Berlin. And of course, coming from my non profit background, a for profit agenda was not my main motive for doing the show, but it certainly is a motive. And this inspiration to use Berlin as a frontier came from someone born in Israel, who spent years in NYC, and then moved to Berlin and started a very successful business in Mitte. He said Berlin welcomes innovation, welcomes ideas, and rewards it.

I love that Berlin rewards the intrepid collector too. It offers the collector an unadulterated experience of creativity. I love that Berlin is unapologetic, in fact revels in, its lack of material resources, and has fun, and parties. There are opportunities to find spaces, to pay little, and to create a lot. In that sense too, Berlin is like NYC in the 70s for an entrepreneur; opportunities to find spaces, pay little and create a lot. NYC at this time is at saturation point; all the spaces are taken and those that a free cost a lot. Artists are driven more and more to the periphery of the city, like in London, and Paris.

Berlin is unique in that it still offers its artists, and foreign artists, a home. Some of the foreign artists in NYC have come from Berlin and some artists in Berlin have come from NYC. On a very literal level this is what Conversations is about; the physical back and forth of artists between these cities, but also the creative connections and the exchange of ideas and energy between the two cities.

I must have met Bodo Korsig about 6 years ago. He had a studio on Spring Street in Soho and I was impressed by the massiveness of his work. Everything is just like him; big and manly. Even small pieces have that strong masculinity about them, which I love. Maike Paul is a similar case; a Berliner living and working in NYC. Hiroshi Mc Donald Mori made the opposite trek, from NYC to Berlin. David Button, originally from Miami, lived in NYC for 10 years and moved recently to Berlin. Maureen Jeram lived in upstate New York for several years and has lived in Berlin several years. She paints with a sensibility that echoes German tendencies in painting, while maintaining a fresh NYC edge. Christopher Steadman I met in Rome last summer, a friend of a very good friend of mine from NYC. He’s an international artist in the current global art world. Constantly moving between cities, his aesthetic is informed by a worldview that is unifying while at the same time bringing multiple points of views that are specific to him only. Michelle Isava is Trinidadian and her Berlin -> NYC connection comes from being in the right place at the right time, i.e. doing a performance workshop in Berlin after having met me in Trinidad and Tobago, our birthplace, and me living in NYC.  The same applies to Juanli Carrion, Sebastian Gross Ossa and, Uri Dotan whose work has a very German sensibility and who has me as the conduit between NYC and Berlin.

Conversations strives to bring the viewer into a very specific vision of what happens when two cities switch it up a bit, what germinates from the union of two similar yet separate seeds.

Exhibition ends Sunday October 10, 2010

THIS EXHIBITION IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY

NEW ADDRESS

GORMANNSTRASSE 8-9 / ENTRANCE MULACKSTRASSE  I 10119 BERLIN I FON +49 (0)30 28047528 I FAX +49 (0)30 28047529 I HECKING-SHOP.COM

MON-FRI 13-19 I SAT 13-18 I TUE CLOSED

CONTACT:

Nicollette Ramirez

+49 176 36730507

nicollette@beezandhoney.com

Warhol Stories and my upcoming exhibition, Conversations, in Berlin

I love these old stories about Warhol. He was uber cool. I say uber because Im in Berlin and typing on this German keyboard is no easy feat. Before I was in Paris looking at spaces in St Germain des Pres and Ile de la Cite. Seeing spaces is easier than seeing artists. Today I did studio visits with three of them, and that was no easy feat, running around from one neighborhood to the next, trying to figure out the bizarre Berlin numbering on the streets! But it was all good, and I think everyone concerned enjoyed it.
If you find yourself in Berlin during Artforum come check us out at 22 Mulackstrasse in Mitte. Its a cute space with even cuter art and the cutest artists from both sides of the Atlantic ;)
Conversations opens Monday October 4, 6 pm...

Bodo Korsig and Charles Arnoldi at Greenfield Sacks in LA

I heard this exhibition opening was PACKED to the gills, with over 1000 people attending.

Bodo Korsig, 'Erase Your Past', 2006, unique cast aluminum, 78 x 39 x 4 inches

Left: Charles Arnoldi, 'Era', 2007, oil on aluminum, 60 x 57 inches
Right: Bodo Korsig, 'Memory Fragments (5)', 2010, steel, 20 3/4 x 20 3/4 x 2 inches

Bodo Korsig, 'Memory Fragments (1)', 2010, steel, 20 3/4 x 20 3/4 x 2 inches (irregular)

Bodo Korsig will be one of the artists in my group exhibition in Berlin during Artforum:

Conversations: New York à Berlin

                        Berlin à New York

Curated by Nicollette Ramirez

Opening Party Monday October 4, 6 pm onwards

22 Mulackstrasse, Berlin Mitte

The Broadway Tony Award Winning Hit: Fela!

This is a play not to be missed. There's every permutation of art in here; stage design, costume design, music, dance, drama, light design, visual art. Patti Labelle performed and there were tears in the audience's eyes more than once during the show.Here are pics of the cast (including Ms. Labelle!) and the audience from the after party courtesy of Dr. Mark Gettes:

open end: bahar behbahani, maria zervou, miriam kruishoop, pépé smit, sanghee song at Witzenhausen Gallery

Bahar Behbahani

I've only been twice to this gallery in NYC but I'm convinced the guys at Witzenhausen Gallery, originally based in Amsterdam and now with a branch in NYC, have figured it out. Both shows were group exhibitions of a stunning calibre. The fall offering, all video art, confirmed my first notion of greatness. Featuring artists from various parts of the world I can only say go see it for yourself...

Maria Zervou

Nisian Hughes

Sanghee Song

Miriam Kruishoop

Pépé Smit. A Woman's Nature. Video. 4 mins 20 secs

Laurent Grasso at Sean Kelly Gallery NYC

Laurent Grasso. Studies into the past - Horn Perspectives. 2010. Oil on panel. 11 x 13.5 inches

More than one person commented on the variety of styles and media in Grasso's work. In the whirl of art openings last week, this show was a stunner indeed. I loved everything.

Nina Sagt Gallery Dusseldorf Presents NOMAD: No Way Back

Nomad at Ninasagt Gallery/ No Way Back/ 2010 from Ninasagt on Vimeo.

ISCP Artists Presentations

I visited my friends Jiandyin from Thailand and Juanli Carrion from Spain, in their residencies at the ISCP. Jiandyin did a presentation of their performance/video work and Juanli showed me the amazing work he's doing for upcoming exhibitions in Spain.