Blogs Centerpoints

Beach Blogging.

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If the images on this page are any indication, fatherhood is a pretty cool thing for Andy Beach. A former Walker design intern (before they were called fellows), he now lives in South Philadelphia with his wife, another former Walker design intern, and their one-year-old daughter Elsa. When not plying his trade at Urban Outfitters, [...]

andybeach1.jpgIf the images on this page are any indication, fatherhood is a pretty cool thing for Andy Beach. A former Walker design intern (before they were called fellows), he now lives in South Philadelphia with his wife, another former Walker design intern, and their one-year-old daughter Elsa. When not plying his trade at Urban Outfitters, he dreams of opening a shop dedicated to one or some of his passions. In introducing Andy as Off Center‘s guest blogger for the next few weeks, I’ll let his own images and biographical notes suggest just what that shop might sell.

Andy Beach

B.1976

Collects vintage modern design: furniture, toys and books.

Favorite places in Minneapolis: Matt’s Bar, Grand Bakery (before it was a restaurant). Taqueria on E. Lake St. Always wanted to open a store in that space. Was heart-broken to find someone put a restaurant in there. But, at least it’s a nice place for breakfast.

Favorite Walker exhibition: Robert Gober.andybeach31.jpg

Has a piece of Arturo Herrera’s wall painting in his basement (from Painting at the Edge of the World).

Would like to have seen the Walker’s Idea House project. Would like to see another one.

Is sick of lofts, condos and redevelopment.

Last favorite project… Helping [his wife] Erin design some kids clothes. Going to be starting my own blog, about wanting to be a shopkeeper and obsessing over details of vintage modern design, furniture and toys for kids.

I’m also pretty nuts about eBay. It’s a serious love-hate relationship though.

New work by Robin Rhode

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The BBC has posted flash animations of three new pieces by South African artist Robin Rhode. Less political than his earlier work, he still has that witty interplay between the second and third dimensions. Rhode’s first US show was our Latitudes in 2003. While he was here he did a residency with the Walker Art [...]

The BBC has posted flash animations of three new pieces by South African artist Robin Rhode. Less political than his earlier work, he still has that witty interplay between the second and third dimensions.

Rhode’s first US show was our Latitudes in 2003. While he was here he did a residency with the Walker Art Center Teen Arts Council (WACTAC), and as part of it he did a teen-assisted art project that was exhibited around Minneapolis on bus-shelter posters (to see some, go to the WACTAC link above and click on “Storage”). Showing teens interacting with drawn scenes–a pair of kids conversing, their words appearing above their heads until the air is cluttered with their arguments; an office overflowing with papers from a printer; a skateboarder doing tricks on what’s actually a wall, etc.–each was created in offices that were about to be gutted for the Walker expansion. Below is Skateboard.

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Centerpoints 3.7

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Robot concierge: What should Giant Robot founders Martin Wong and Eric Nakamura do while they’re in Minneapolis October 5? Posters at the GR forum are offering tips: lunch at Seward Cafe, a show at the Triple Rock, a visit to SOOVAC, The Soap Factory, and Robot Love. Anything else? (Also, check out Martin and Eric‘s [...]

susanreckfordchuckupclose.jpg Robot concierge: What should Giant Robot founders Martin Wong and Eric Nakamura do while they’re in Minneapolis October 5? Posters at the GR forum are offering tips: lunch at Seward Cafe, a show at the Triple Rock, a visit to SOOVAC, The Soap Factory, and Robot Love. Anything else? (Also, check out Martin and Eric‘s blogs.)

Tortillart: A Flickr gallery of tortilla-based art. My favorite: a portrait of Frida Kahlo.

Kinetica: Explore London’s kinetic art museum online.

Crafted Close: An item of note from the New Jersey Crafts Annual, a detail of one of Chuck Close’s self-portraits in merino wool, by Susan Spencer Reckford (above).

Attack of the Giant Robot!

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[Click to enlarge] The Walker-as-robot metaphor gets literal next month as the annual Student Open House welcomes Giant Robot magazine founders Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong for an artist talk. To promote the event–which also features kung fu films, music by Birthday Suits (with former members of Sweet J.A.P.), and big-screen Mortal Kombat battles–Walker designer [...]

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The Walker-as-robot metaphor gets literal next month as the annual Student Open House welcomes Giant Robot magazine founders Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong for an artist talk. To promote the event–which also features kung fu films, music by Birthday Suits (with former members of Sweet J.A.P.), and big-screen Mortal Kombat battles–Walker designer Scott Ponik turned to a friend, Souther Salazar, to create an original artwork. I emailed Souther, who illustrated a GR cover last winter and is friends with the magazine’s founders, to see how the drawing came to be. His reply:

i came up with the design by asking scott to tell me about the walker, the event, about minneapolis this time of season, the trees, the animals, and anything else he could think of. scott gave me a list, told me about the leaves on the ground, the state bird, the look of the walker center, and many other things.

after reading his list and looking at the pictures he sent, i sat sat down and drew everything that came to mind. i made the giant robot logo into a real robot that eric and martin are inside of, piloting it on their way through minneapolis. the 2-man band, the birthday suits are slightly ahead of them on the bridge. i had them all coming in from the left because that’s the side of the paper i started on, and their destination, the walker center, on the right, because that is where i finished.

Get a free button created from the illustration at the October 5 event.

Further Souther: Don’t miss this series of process photos of the installation of one of Salazar’s murals or the artist guest-blogging for Giant Robot.

Centerpoints 3.6

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High art: Just after Willie Nelson’s bust for pot and psilocybin mushrooms, artist JSG Boggs–whose hand-drawn dollar bills earned him a Supreme Court trial and praise from Ira Glass–was arrested for meth possession. Cubicle racer: This one’s for coworkers Adrienne, Meara, Ronnell, and anyone else who faces the drudgery of hauling boxes with a dolly–a [...]

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High art: Just after Willie Nelson’s bust for pot and psilocybin mushrooms, artist JSG Boggs–whose hand-drawn dollar bills earned him a Supreme Court trial and praise from Ira Glass–was arrested for meth possession.

Cubicle racer: This one’s for coworkers Adrienne, Meara, Ronnell, and anyone else who faces the drudgery of hauling boxes with a dolly–a handtruck chair!

Design Populi: Vote now for the Cooper-Hewitt’s People’s Design Award. You can nominate and vote on your favorite hand-made or mass-produced design products.

New MacArthur grant: Congratulations to 2006 MacArthur Fellows, a diverse list that ranges from composer John Zorn and violinist Regina Carter to astrophysicist Matias Zaldarriaga and nature illustrator/author David Carroll.

Banksy backlash? UK guerrilla artist Banksy has been heralded blogwide–and in his first US solo show in Los Angeles–but is a backlash a’comin’? Animal rights activists decried his use of a painted live elephant (which LA animal services officials ordered him to scrub clean) in the LA show, he got “banksied” by another artist who installed his own work alongside Banksy’s, and a top art blogger offers a “mea culpa” for his role in the artist’s online hype.

“Robin Rhode” TV spot: South Africa’s Robin Rhode, whose first US show was the Walker’s 2003 How Latitudes Become Forms is getting a lot of attention lately for his site-specific chalk and charcoal drawings on flat surfaces. He’s even been “blatantly ripped off” by Nike. Watch a Walker Channel webcast of a panel discussion on contemporary art and Africa featuring Rhode.

Centerpoints 3.5

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Sad snow globes: Our Spoonbridge and Cherry snowglobes have long been a Shop top-seller, but I wonder if we’d sell more if they were… bleaker. Behold the peculiar and lonesome snowglobes of Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz. Richter’s cathedral window: Gerhard Richter has been commissioned to recreate a 20m-tall stain-glassed window blown out during World [...]

0020.jpg Sad snow globes: Our Spoonbridge and Cherry snowglobes have long been a Shop top-seller, but I wonder if we’d sell more if they were… bleaker. Behold the peculiar and lonesome snowglobes of Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz.

Richter’s cathedral window: Gerhard Richter has been commissioned to recreate a 20m-tall stain-glassed window blown out during World War II. Inspired by his painting 4,096 Colors, the window in the Cologne Cathedral will consist of 11,500 handblown glass squares–at a cost of around 400,000 euros.

Minneapolis, tech city: Popular Science rates our fair burg as the Top Tech City in America due to our top ranking in innovative transportation solutions and fourth-place rating in energy technology. “The city fell above the 50th percentile in every category measured, a broad-based showing of tech savvy that set it apart from the competition. With everything averaged together, there is no city in America where a culture of high technology has a more pervasive presence.”

Warhol in Canada: The Walker-organized exhibition ANDY WARHOL/SUPERNOVA: Stars, Deaths, and Disasters1962-1964 is now on the road; at its current venue, the Art Gallery of Ontario, there’s a special curatorial relationship. While former Walker curator Douglas Fogle curated the exhibition, filmmaker David Cronenberg is adding his own spin as guest curator. In an interview with the Guardian, he discusses his thinking.

August stories…

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In his new blog, St. Paul-based photographer Alec Soth relays a series of weird coincidences–and, like that six degrees of Kevin Bacon thing–they involve the Walker. Ten years ago, walking along the banks of the Mississippi shooting photos for his Sleeping by the Mississippi series, Soth came upon a man painting with an easel. Writes [...]

auguststories.jpgIn his new blog, St. Paul-based photographer Alec Soth relays a series of weird coincidences–and, like that six degrees of Kevin Bacon thing–they involve the Walker.

Ten years ago, walking along the banks of the Mississippi shooting photos for his Sleeping by the Mississippi series, Soth came upon a man painting with an easel. Writes Soth:

He told me that he lived on a houseboat on the river. He said it was a cheap way for an artist to live. It seemed so romantic. I was terribly jealous. I told my girlfriend I wanted to live on a houseboat. She said no.

The story may have inspired this photo, but it turns out the painter was none other than Rob Fischer, who was part of a Walker three-person show in 1998, and whose work–a glass-roofed boat sculpture–looks a lot like this shot by Soth (both works are in the Walker collection).

But that’s not the coincidence part: when the pair bumped into each other at a party recently, both men had the identical happy announcement, which he represents with a photo:

Rob is holding his baby girl. She was born on August 9th. Her name is August.

My baby boy was born on August 4th. His name is also August.”

Congratulations to Rob, Alec, Augusts, and their families.

Also: Are there other examples of artists blogging you know of–and I mean context-providing blogging not overt art-hawking blogs? If so, let us know.

Images: Alec Soth’s St. Genevieve, MO (2002), top, and Rob Fischer and Co.

Centerpoints 3.4

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Un-requiem for Daniel Pearl: Minimalist composer Steve Reich‘s “Daniel Variations,” debuting October 8 at the Barbican, is the “most political work of his career.” It came out of a meeting Reich and the parents of journalist Daniel Pearl who was abducted and beheaded by Islamic militants in Pakistan in 2002. Based in part on Pearl’s [...]

reichpearl.jpg Un-requiem for Daniel Pearl: Minimalist composer Steve Reich‘s “Daniel Variations,” debuting October 8 at the Barbican, is the “most political work of his career.” It came out of a meeting Reich and the parents of journalist Daniel Pearl who was abducted and beheaded by Islamic militants in Pakistan in 2002. Based in part on Pearl’s writings, passages from the biblical book of Daniel, and references to Pearl and Reich’s shared Jewish heritage, the work isn’t a requiem for the slain journalist but aims to emphasize his humanity. A centerpiece of Reich’s 70th birthday celebration, the work is a bit of a departure. Says Reich, “When the piece first begins, you might think: can this really be Steve Reich? It’s much darker, not at all what I’m known for.”

Politically engaged art: Jazz great Charlie Haden, a contemporary and friend of Ornette Coleman, discusses his outspoken politics with Amy Goodman, including his views on Vietnam and his 1971 arrest in Lisbon for dedicating his “Song for Che” to the “Black peoples’ liberation movements in Mozambique and Angola and Guinea-Bissau”–people fighting Portugal’s colonization.

Virtual Huyghe: The Tate Modern created an impressive interactive online tour of Pierre Huyghe’s first UK solo exhibition Celebration Park. The show closes September 17.

New artist grant announced: United States Artists, a new charity “designed to get support directly into the hand of working artists” (as the Walker’s Philip Bither told the New York Times) offers $50,000 to working artists–no strings attached. Where can I sign up? You can’t: a panel of artists, curators and critics is reviewing the 300 nominees sent in by 150 anonymous arts leaders around the US. (The organization’s executive director, by the way, is none other than former Walker development director [and Duluth, MN native] Kathie de Shaw.)

Strenght and Nisdom: It’s the thought that counts, but when tattooing a prayer on your back, proofread first.

RIP Bill Stumpf

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His Ergon chair, the first ergonomically designed piece of office furniture, revolutionized how we work–or at least our posture from 9 to 5–leading the way to the Aeron chair he co-designed and a raft of knockoffs. Minnesota-based designer Bill Stumpf passed away last week after complications during stomach surgery. Stumpf had a long history with [...]

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His Ergon chair, the first ergonomically designed piece of office furniture, revolutionized how we work–or at least our posture from 9 to 5–leading the way to the Aeron chair he co-designed and a raft of knockoffs. Minnesota-based designer Bill Stumpf passed away last week after complications during stomach surgery. Stumpf had a long history with the Walker, from a 1974 panel discussion as part of The Design Process at Herman Miller to his inclusion in the 1983-84 exhibition A Serious Chair to a 1998 reading of his book The Ice Palace That Melted Away: Restoring Civility and Other Lost Virtues to Everyday Life. Condolences to his family and friends…