Tuesday, April 30, 2013

NEW INC. BLOG POST BY TRIBECA FLASHPOINT CEO HOWARD TULLMAN

READ THE WHOLE POST HERE: http://www.inc.com/howard-tullman/slow-down-it-might-save-your-business.html

Sunday, April 28, 2013

TULLMAN COLLECTION ARTIST WILLIAM POWHIDA'S NEW SHOW AT CHARLIE JAMES REVIEWED IN LOS ANGELES TIMES

Review: William Powhida wryly eyes the business of art

By Holly Myers Thursday, April 25 2013

William Powhida's "Bill by Bill" as installed at Charlie James Gallery. (The artist and Charlie James Gallery)

So rare is good satire in contemporary art that its appearance - as in the newest exhibition of William Powhida, a New York-based artist who is fast evolving into one of its sharpest practitioners - makes one inclined to stand up and applaud.

The show, called "Bill by Bill," at Charlie James Gallery, combines the motif that has become Powhida's trademark - the trompe l'oeil painting of a sheet of paper covered in handwritten notes - with a series of artworks conceived on the basis of unspoken but eminently recognizable formulas.

There's "Informal Materialism" (a chunk of scrap wood and a sheet of paint-stained canvas); "Asset Class Painting" (a trio of blurry, colorful abstractions); "A Taxonomy of Forms on a Shelf" (a cube, a sphere and other glazed ceramic objects lined up in a row); "A Hypothetical Word or Phrase in Neon" (simplified, perhaps for ease of fabrication, into an underscore or strike-through mark); and, what may be my favorite, "A Taxidermied Animal in a Box," which is just what it implies, complete with foam peanuts.

The works themselves are not slapdash cracks but dutifully, even earnestly constructed objects, largely indistinguishable from the classes of works that they mock. At a glance, it all reads as your typical group show.

The real pleasure lies in the trompe l'oeil notes that Powhida pairs with each work, which detail the concept, process and cost involved in language that playfully derides the absurdity of each of these tropes while occasionally exposing the darker economic conditions underlying them.

Of "DIY Informalism," a clumsy mélange of bent-up stretcher bars and torn, paint-dripped canvas, Powhida writes: "Idea: To play around with some studio junk and stuff from the hardware store to make a few awkward objects ~~without thinking~~ intuitively with feeling!" (In a gratifying sidebar, Powhida alludes to the Hammer Museum's recent biennial, which was loaded with just this sort of work.)

Of "Post minimalism," a row of tall, slickly finished sculptural columns based on economic statistics, he notes: "Idea: Have the fabricator make some bar graphs into 'purely' formal objects. Then apply some Kantian aesthetic logic and ~~separate~~ strip the content from the forms. Income inequality is too political anddepressing."

What saves the work from grating sarcasm or smart aleck cleverness - toward which the artist has erred in the past - is a curious undertone of sincerity. Powhida is not mean-spirited or bitter but seems genuinely driven to understand his subject: the internal mechanisms of this peculiar social and economic ecosystem. How does the art world work and how should we feel about that? How much of ourselves should we reconcile to it?

He clearly takes these questions seriously. If he didn't, his excoriation wouldn't be nearly so funny.

Charlie James Gallery, 969 Chung King Road, (213) 687-0844, through June 8. Closed Sunday through Tuesday. www.cjamesgallery.com

CONGRATS TO OUR GOOD FRIEND JASON BRETT ON THE NICE "INFO JUNKIE" WRITE-UP IN CRAIN'S AND FOR THE PLUG FOR THE PERSPIRATION PRINCIPLES

Info Junkie: Jason Brett, Big Things Inc.

By Laura Bianchi April 29, 2013

Jason Brett, 59, is founder of Chicago-based Big Things Inc., which two years ago launched MashPlant.com, a digital classroom. He spent three decades as an actor, writer, producer and director. "I keep my TweetDeck running to tap into education technology trends and teacher feeds."

Local focus: "Windy City Live" (WLS-TV/Channel 7) "is an easy, breezy hour of really well-produced local television that's capable of going national." National news: "I am a CNN junkie. Anderson Cooper has become the voice and conscience of our times in the tradition of Rather and Cronkite. Not quite the gravitas, but such are the times."

Guilty pleasure: "Rock documentaries on Showtime, HBO and PBS: 'It Might Get Loud,' 'Crossfire Hurricane' and the Kennedy Center salute to Bruce Springsteen."

Favorite radio show: Temporary host Rick Kogan on WBEZ/91.5-FM's "Afternoon Shift." "He has an encyclopedic knowledge of Chicago. He's a great storyteller and student of the human condition in the great tradition of Studs Terkel."

Bookmarked blog: "Perspiration Principles" at Inc. online,

from Howard Tullman, CEO of Chicago's Tribeca Flashpoint

Academy. "It's the most sage, digestible business information

out there. Nobody knows startups better."

His bookmarked websites: "AviationWeather.gov—I'm a pilot—and NASA.gov. I have been following the Mars Curiosity rover like a Led Zeppelin groupie."

Recent fiction read: " 'After the Sucker Punch' by Lorraine Devon Wilke. It's about a young woman's forensic journey to understand her relationship with her late father."

Music on repeat: "I never get tired of listening to the Beatles."