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On May 4th, Oliver and I will be participating in a talk at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin. I think it will be a good discussion. And there will be a very delicious dinner afterwards for $20 using organic, local ingredients. Click here for more details. Come and cheer on my nervous self! Here’s the promo bit from their website: Date: 5/4/2008 (Sunday) Time: 4:00 PM Location: Headlands Center for the Arts Ticket Info: $10 General Admission FREE for Headlands Members Eleanor Harwood, artist; Director, Eleanor Harwood Gallery Julio Cesar Morales, artist; Co-director, Queen’s Nails Annex Eleanor Hanson Wise, Co-director, The Present Group Moderator: Natasha Boas, curator and art advisor We all hear that the contemporary art market is booming with celebrity artists and star collectors, but what does that mean for the average person? We’ll talk to some Bay Area gallerists and art promoters who have established fresh approaches to the market, and take a look at how aspiring collectors can make informed choices about buying emerging art without breaking the bank. We’ll also talk about how artists can effectively participate in the market, in order to support themselves financially while remaining true to their ideals. Other topics of discussion will include approaches to curatorial practice in for-profit settings; how the art fair circuit contributes to buzz about regional scenes; and art practice and exhibition making as small business enterprises.

This past weekend we also went to the CCA open house to see our friend (and TPG #3 artist) Christine Kesler‘s work. It’s the end of their first year and they were showing off their work. Of course I didn’t take any pictures or write down anyone’s name, so it doesn’t make for a very good posting. The work seemed pretty mixed, though you could see how waves of influence pass up and down the hallway. Three artists had something that had to do with dollar bills. There was a good amount of proving one’s own sexuality, or at least presenting it in some way. And I think I saw at least two or three places that had some sort of concentric ring type things that sortof reminded me of tree rings. We also weren’t staying too long as my parents were with us and described the feeling as similar to the theme of No Country for Old Men. At the very end of the hallway, there was an artist named Elisheva Biernoff who was taking photos in her Arctic photo booth. I don’t know if the point was to show how much people love getting their picture taken, or to have some sort of situation where there is a setup for a formalized transaction between artmaker and art “consumer,” or it is to memorialize glaciers, or if she uses the arctic scene for some other project, but it seemed fun. I do especially love all sorts of dioramas- though it really flattens out in the photo. Oliver and I look like two big cartoon mountains rising from the horizon.

This weekend, went to the site of Earth Bay Kiln Bay Kiln from about a year ago. My parents were in town and my mom, a jeweler, is on a sea glass kick. I remembered from back when we spent quite a bit of time with Presley on this beach that this beach was particularly good for sea glass collecting, so I brought her here. To our joy, there are still reminants of Presley’s hand at play here, as they continue to disperse and wear. We thought it would be fun to post the where abouts of the beach so that anyone who was interested could go and see for themselves. It is a funny little beach in Berkeley. Very few if any people are often on the beach and it is really nice because you can look at the view, take a deep breath, and sit still by yourself for a moment. You may also want to check the tides if you are going cause it fills up at high tide. Enjoy! If you click on the image of the map it will go to the actual google map.

Text/ile is an edition of 51 woven representations of chromosomes created in black and white by Maggie Leininger. Leininger uses the woven form as a metaphor for the idea of multiplicity/multiples/repeats, creating hand woven textiles that examine the most basic structure of a human: the human genome. The work investigates the imagery of the chromosome itself, and how it is translated through the Jacquard loom to make fragments, segments, of information. Statement about Text/ile: The work I completed for this project immediately reminded me of Anni Albers work, especially when seen in color as depicted in my graphic digital image that goes to the loom for weaving. Weaving fascinates me as a mechanical process because it is one of the most overlooked processes, but without which we would not have sheets, towels, clothes, etc. This particular project allowed me the opportunity to examine the production mill using Jacquard looms which allow the weaver to individually control each thread of the warp. A traditional floor loom only allows weavers to control batches of threads in repeats from 2-36 threads at a time. So, a weaver has to have the ability to think in repeat design that produces a functional textile which usually means not having too many “floats” or long threads that are not tied down and can catch on objects within range thereby destroying the textile. Other factors come into play with weave structures too, such as how much color is seen from the warp and the weft which depends upon the density of the cloth (or how many ends per inch are in the warp and weft). Working in a production mill allowed me the opportunity to focus mostly on the design rather than the production. It also gave me a grave understanding of our current state of affairs in the textile industry in the U.S. which is diminishing rapidly as mills are relocating overseas to take advantage of cheaper labor. While this means that our clothes are as cheap as ever, it also means many skilled workers are out of jobs while also increasing our carbon imprint as we will now have to ship the products back to the U.S. for consumption. Bio: Maggie Leininger is an artist based out of Oak Park, IL who is interested in exploring visual relationships between microscopic structures and social systems by deconstructing/reconstructing patterns through weaving. Leininger attended the School of the Art Institute for her undergraduate degree and Arizona State University for her master’s degree. She currently teaches at Roosevelt University, Snow City Arts and other local non-profits agencies in Chicago, IL. In addition to an active studio and teaching career, she also enjoys spending time with her three children, riding her two horses and running alongside her husband as he trains for marathons and triathelons.

Richard Wittaker, editor of Works and Conversations, is someone I’ve admired since first coming across his magazine. Now even more so. After 15 years of publishing Works and Conversations on his own, never taking a penny for himself (sounds familiar), never using advertising, has partnered with Charity Focus. Together, they are giving up any last remnant of a business model and have changed to a gift economy. Using a pay-it-forward mode, you can subscribe for free and are welcome to donate at any time to help someone else receive a free gift of this magazine. You can also subscribe for the newsletter, which will include links to the full content of the magazine. As he says: “ours is a humble effort to be the change we wish to see in the world.” The magaizine is made up of interviews with a wide range of artists and everyday heros.

Oscar Diaz‘s calendar uses ink and time to expose the date. He uses the same process to show a plant “grow” over the course of 4 months. It makes me think of growing rock candy, but for a purpose. I feel like that is the ultimate description of when art and design meet. This was developed for part of the London design Festival show entitled, “Gradual” in 2007.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of browsing today and found another site devoted to creating a new interface between collectors and artists. Called “the Beholder” From it’s director, Suzanne Shade: “I’ve been really inspired over the last few years not only by what artists are creating, but how many people are first-time buyers of original art. I know there are many more of you out there who have yet to take the plunge, and I hope you enjoy looking and learning as much as I do. Please don’t hesitate to call or write with questions… a big part of the fun is learning about how art is created, how pricing works, and what makes it special to others.”

Artist Davin Youngs Explores Intersubjectivity through Photographic Portraiture, Shares results Online When: now Where: www.thepresentgroup.com The Present Group is delighted to present Davin Youngs’ edition of artist booklet sets entitled, “You were there too.” In this work, Youngs calls into question the idea of the portrait, exploring the dynamic relationship between the subject and the artist himself. An interactive, online version of “You were there too.” has just been released on The Present Group’s website for the public to explore. Also included in the online presentation is an artist statment on the project, an audio interview with the artist, a resource for related links to artists and works, and a space for discussion of the work. The artist himself will be participating in the discussion from March 23-29th. Scott Oliver reviews the work: “The effect is subtle, one of emotional mood rather than detailed biography…With childhood sufficiently distant and the twenty-year-old’s field of fuzzy possibility somewhat foreshortened [the late twenties are] a time marked by the dawning realization that life is finite. This is what You were there, too best captures. And the sense of impending adulthood (and accompanying melancholy) is made almost palpable as each participant recalls their history with Youngs and reaffirms the constancy of their relationship with him.” About the artist: Michigan native Davin Youngs lives, works and takes pictures in Chicago, IL. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Youngs has shown work both locally, internationally and in various online and print publications. His work often deals with the nature of relationships and how they are visually represented through the medium of photography. About The Present Group: The Present Group is like like a mutual fund that produces art instead of profits. As a private grant-giving organization, it enables a community of subscribers to support contemporary artists and receive original artwork in return. With The Present Group everyone benefits. Artists gain a new avenue of support. Subscribers receive exclusive and compelling works of art. The world gets an accessible resource and welcoming meeting place devoted to contemporary art. Contact: co-founder, Eleanor Hanson Wise, eleanor[at]thepresentgroup[dot]com, 510.419.0616

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What we are looking for: Proposals for projects that are reproducible in intent. Each piece can be a limited edition, an artist multiple, or either a part of or a document of a larger work. Our current edition numbers are under 100. We choose based on the piece’s Visual, Conceptual, and/or Experiential interest. The project will be made exclusively through The Present Group. We understand that similar themes and images may be used throughout your other work, however you agree not to create the exact project in the same form again.

Appreciation for Selected Artists: * $500 (This is an honorarium outside of the costs of creating the work-which we cover)

* 4 of the produced work for your own collection or to sell on your own.

* All the contextual information we create for your piece, including artist info, critiques, and video will remain free on-line as long as TPG exists

Deadline: We have a rolling submissions policy; we review proposals four times a year. The our next review date is ARPIL 9^th, 2008. Everyone who applies will be contacted by e-mail.

Download submission guidelines here: http://www.thepresentgroup.com/TPG-submissions.pdf

Click here for more information about The Present Group

You can use this space to share your thoughts on the work, ideas it brings up, anything you want to talk about. Unless you are spam. Then boo for you.

This time, we’re starting a new feature!!

Davin has agreed to check in with this board for the week of

March 23rd through 29th

in order to speak with you directly, answer any questions you may have, or field any comments in general.

Links to photographers from which Davin draws inspiration: JH Engstrom Mark Borthwick Collier Schorr Melanie Sciff Laura Letinsky Whitney Hubbs Gerhard Richter (painter) Blogging Photographers: Sannah Kvist Jason Nocito Shane Lavalette – photog who blogs about photogs. Fjord Photo project – Mentioned in the interview, a website started “in order to bring together a collection of notable photographers from the internet and [eventually] showcase their work in book form.” “I love the art books and fanzines that Nieves publishing makes. They are a constant source of inspiration.” ***************************** Links from Scott Oliver’s “The Space Between Us and Ourselves” Larry Sultan: Many parallels with Davin, in that they both often spend time photographing their parents. Read a review of his “Pictures from Home” and look at some bigger pictures here. Jim Goldberg: photographer whose dipicitons of street teenagers changed the way much of the way this country views children. “Raised by Wolves” is a multimedia book where the story is written by those depicted, as well as audio recordings, and photos taken by Goldberg “Photo Subjects Have Their Say”: Michelle Golden writes about the sudden unexpected “fame” on the subjects of well known photographers. Intersubjectivity: “Intersubjectivity is ‘The sharing of subjective states by two or more individuals.’ (Scheff 2006) …Intersubjectivity emphasizes that shared cognition and consensus is essential in the shaping of our ideas and relations.” ******************************************************** Some other related links: Photographers: Sally Mann – Her two well known series, “Family Pictures” and “Immediate Family”, depict her children as they transition from childhood to adulthood. Some have viewed the work as controversial in the sexual tension that is present in during these years. She and her children have both called the images “natural” and “innocent”. She sees her children as collaborators in the making of these images. A gallery of her work Emmet Gowen: A good portion of his photographs are of his wife Edith. David Sax writes an article about Photographers and their muses in the Smithsonian Magazine. Nan Golden has taken snapshot-style photographs in color almost exclusively of close people and friends in her life, even during very intimate moments. She considers her ability to group photos through the use of slideshows even more of her talent than the her talant as a photographer. Shows: A review of “Shoot the Family” a Mass Art show curated by Ralph Rugoff, director of the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco A similar grouping of photographers in “So the Story Goes” at the Art Institute in Chicago.

It’s an understatement to say that the people who surround us, especially those we call familiar, tell us a lot about who we are. Indeed it is difficult to imagine having any sense of one’s self without the presence of others. Perhaps this is why we associate solitude and isolation with madness. Certainly our ideas about individuality and personal freedom are dependent upon a group (and social and cultural norms within that group). But more to the point our identities are inextricably bound up in the relationships we have with others. We see ourselves reflected back to us in their actions and words, in the things they share or withhold from us, and in our misunderstandings as much as our unanimity. The constant influx of external information has an internal counterpart as we perpetually revise and update the story of our lives, constructing and reconstructing an image of ourselves that is responsive to our surroundings. Without this ongoing social process we would not so much lose ourselves, as lose our places. Then again, just who and where we are seem rather inextricable too. All this negotiating of the self in relation to others – what contemporary psychoanalysis has termed intersubjectivity – is at the heart of Davin Youngs’ photographic portraiture. Rather than focus exclusively on the literal subjects of his photos, or his own subjectivity as a photographer, Youngs prefers to concentrate on the dynamic space that arises between these, and more specifically, on the transactions that take place therein. Larry Sultan‘s Pictures from Home (1982-91) and Jim Goldberg‘s Raised by Wolves (1985-95) are significant precedents that come to mind, but the camera itself provides equal encouragement for such reciprocal approaches to photography. Creating simultaneous intimacy and distance, the camera’s lens lends itself to a certain reflexivity- a looking at looking. Of course this is all with the benefit of hindsight, but it seems inevitable that photographers would begin to think about the agency of their subjects and involve them more directly in the taking and making of their images, even as it complicates representation and challenges traditionally held beliefs about the camera’s objectivity. As with Sultan’s Pictures from Home, Youngs interest in creating a feedback loop with his subjects -opening up a space for the co-creation of meaning- began at home. In A Project with My Father (2007), Youngs initiated an e-mail correspondence with his dad wherein he asked pointed questions about their relationship. Just before and during this period of correspondence Youngs made portraits of himself and his father. He presented these, interspersed with text from their correspondence, and historical portraits of Youngs grandfather (his dad’s dad) in a right-to-left, scrolling narrative on his web site. Ultimately another transactional space is opened up here, that between the viewer and the artwork- or more precisely, between the viewer, the artist, and the subject. In You were there, too, Youngs focuses on his relationships with three long-time friends. In many ways the project is an expansion of A Project with My Father, but less didactic and more ambiguous. The final form is a set of three intimately sized booklets, each entitled with the name of their respective subjects: Jennifer, Sara, and David. Each contains portraits of these individuals taken over an undefined period of time (hairstyles, clothes, and eyeglasses change, and there is a sense these people have aged, even if only slightly). As with his father Youngs has prompted his friends to reflect on their relationships with him in writing, and again he has paired their words with his images. But this time his visage and questions are absent, allowing for only an implied presence. The effect is subtle, one of emotional mood rather than detailed biography. The text and images resonate with one another but do not provide much in terms of specific knowledge. Instead one is left with a feeling about each of the relationships depicted: stormy and perhaps unbalanced with Jennifer (the most forthcoming of the three); comfortably familial with Sara; somewhat cagey and reserved with David. But I do not quite trust these feelings. I know these portraits are partial, transitory, in-progress- permanently provisional. What strikes me more sharply about Youngs’ project is the shared awareness (consciously or not) of transition and change. All the people that make up this constellation of relationships- Jennifer, Sara, David, and Davin- are in their late twenties. My own late twenties might be best characterized as bittersweet. With childhood sufficiently distant and the twenty-year-old’s field of fuzzy possibility somewhat foreshortened it is a time marked by the dawning realization that life is finite. This is what You were there, too best captures. And the sense of impending adulthood (and accompanying melancholy) is made almost palpable as each participant recalls their history with Youngs and reaffirms the constancy of their relationship with him. While Youngs’ project is highly personal his process is certainly not. We may easily enter into it through our own experiences with the ubiquitous medium of photography. That is to say, unlike oil painting or welding most of us have used a camera, and even more of us have been photographed. And like Youngs, we use photography to document our relationships and fortify our memories so that we might always know where we have been. But photographs can raise as many questions as they answer. I have often looked into the two dimensional eyes of my younger self, studied my facial expression and body language and wondered, “who is that person!?” “What was I thinking about?” “How did I imagine my future?” Youngs seems to be accounting for this indeterminacy of photographs upfront, building it into the interpretation of his images as he invites his subjects to become participants, and his audience members to become witnesses. You were there, too, is not simply a reference to Youngs’ subjects, but to us as well- invoking the cameras’ special ability to act as our proxy while undermining our trust in its fidelity. What emerges is an oblique, complex and shifting form of self-portraiture, open to multiple readings. . Scott Oliver is a sculptor and project-based artist living and working in Oakland, California. His work has been exhibited at UCLA in Los Angeles, Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery in Portland, Oregon, and Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey. He has shown widely at local venues, including the Oakland Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco Arts Commission, Southern Exposure, and the de Young Art Center. In September of 2005 Oliver co-founded Shotgun Review, a web site featuring reviews of Bay Area art exhibitions, with collaborator Joseph del Pesco. Oliver was a 2007 artist-in-residence at SF Recycling & Disposal (a.k.a. the city dump) and will be teaching in the sculpture department at UC Berkeley this fall.

Davin Youngs was interviewed via Skype on February 22nd, 2008 by Oliver Wise and Eleanor Hanson Wise of The Present Group.

Listen: (39:20) [display_podcast]

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“You were there, too” is an edition of 45 three booklet sets by artist Davin Youngs. Youngs uses photographic portraits and answers to “relationship defining questions” to create these individual depictions of his relationships with three close friends. Michigan native Davin Youngs lives, works and takes pictures in Chicago, IL. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Youngs has shown work both locally, internationally and in various online and print publications. His work often deals with the nature of relationships and how they are visually represented through the medium of photography. Youngs on You were there, too. My photographs are an investigation of how the nature of my relationships with those I photograph is visually represented. Gesture, location, and position of subject raise questions about the ways in which my interactions with the subjects exist and the space we occupy, even as it relates to self-portraiture. Some relational elements are clear, while others are questionable. This is meant to be the case, with the only consistent elements being the presence of me and the subject, as well as an awareness of my medium. These are ideas I began exploring a couple of years ago when my father agreed to embark upon an interactive and photographic journey with me. The primary objective was to see in what ways my artistic medium could unpack our relationship using both words and photographs. I wrote a series of questions that I considered relationship defining or “things I would love to know”, and asked him to answer them via email. He responded willingly and with more beautiful answers than I had anticipated. I placed the words and photos next to one another to explore the ways in which they interact. After working with someone as close as my father and exploring our relationship through this process, I found interest in seeing how this worked with other relationships in my life. You were there, too. investigates the ways in which my relationships can be represented through words and portraits. The words are not mine, but serve as a dynamic representation of what the subject is willing to say, or not say about “us.” The camera sits between us, but serves as a literal lens through which to see the idiosyncrasies of our relationship and how we interact. Together, the words and portraits indulge the viewer in information they might or might not ask about the subject, the medium, and the picture taker. The results are three small books which visually represent small pieces of “us.”

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More about Davin Youngs: website, blog, myspace, flickr Online projects he’s a part of: The Ones We Love is an online portfolio of intimate portraits of those whom the photographers love. Fjord photo.org is collection of emerging photographers on the internet, eventually to be formed into a book. Anything is a self-editing collaborative magazine that lets its contributors freely add/edit any image or text to it, as often as they wish. In each of its 64 main pages, there is an area allocated for 1 image (left side) and 1 body of text (right side). Upon registration, each contributor is asked to choose whether they wish to upload image or text, and they are permanently assigned a random page (shared with another contributor). In addition to the 64 pages, visitors can also click on Show Me Anything!, which randomly combines any of the currently available images and text to create a ‘new’ page.

Maybe we’re just behind, but we just found out that we were mentioned on the Readymade blog in January! Thanks Readymade! (Click on image for Link to post) Also mentioned in the article was a project that is new to me, called 20×200— a la Tiny Showcase fame– it sells prints from artists at pretty darn reasonable prices. The editions are in runs of 200, 20, and 2, with bigger=better=shorter run=a lot more expensive as the main equation. The small ones are only $20, so it’s a pretty sweet entry point. It is interesting to see how all these projects, businesses, organizations are popping up to figure out ways to support more and more artists while aiming at generating more interest in collecting art at affordable levels. I listed many of these organizations back in the fall (here) when the Collective Foundation brought us all together at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for a little discussion. Are we helping to create a new and different market for art? Or will art become more designy to satisfy the designsponge crowd that wants to fill up its walls? Is that so bad? I am starting to think about all these ideas as I slowly slowly start to prep for a talk I’ll be giving at the Headlands Center for the Arts in May. More about that later. In other news, this morning we sent off TPG5 out of our home and into the great big United States Postal System. So soon they’ll arrive in your homes. Hip hip hooray!

Everything’s coming up Brian these days. If anyone’s in Baldwin City, Kansas these days, I’d recommend checking out the Art Affair Gallery at Baker University where there’s a showing of The John Talleur Print Studio residents (Brian’s one of them). And who’s on the postcard you may wonder? ummm…Brian. Here’s a preview of the show in the Baker Orange. The show runs until March 14th, 2008. Art Affair Gallery is at the corner of 7th and High St. in downtown Baldwin City In an article entitled “Strange Fruit”, Frank Tankard from Lawrence.com magazine Deadwood edition interviews the members of Fresh Produce, an art collective out of Lawrence, Kansas as they celebrate their first anniversary. Brian’s third in the interviews.

TPG5 artist Davin Youngs is a busy man. While working up the next issue, he is also showing at Estudiotres in Chicago. The show, entitled, “Thaw” brings the hope that winter doesn’t last forever. January eighteenth through March seventh – 2008 Opening reception: January eighteenth – six to ten pm 5205 N.Clark St., Chicago

I found this paragraph in Alice Waters’ new book “The Art of Simple Food.” She has such a lovely way of viewing the way she buys food, but I was struck by how she could just as easily be describing art produced through the subscription method. Just replace ‘farmers’ with ‘artists’ and you might not be too far from a vision of a future art world.

“When I started shopping at farmers’ markets, one of the best things about the experience was meeting farmers and learning from them – and influencing them, too, by asking if they could grow vegetables and fruits that has almost disappeared from commerce. After years of this weekly connection, I realized that I had become dependent on a family of friends – and they were dependent on me. By choosing to buy food grown locally and sustainably, in ways that are healthy and humane, I had woven myself into a community that cares about the same things. As a community, we share not only a commitment to protect our natural resources, but an appreciation for the value of food itself, a love for its taste and beauty and the deep pleasure it can bring by connection us to time and place, the seasons, and the cycle of nature.” -Alice Waters