ARTIST BRIAN ALFRED – Interview 1 > 5 mins

A few years back, he started to do well as an artist, first with New york art dealer Max Protetch, then Mary Boone, and then to London’s mega gallery, Haunch of Venison. You can see his work on his website paintchanger.com. His work is a very distinctively skillful blend of painting, collage, and digital images that early on, focused on landscape but I first know him for his portraits that I saw in Mercer St. Medical, and worked back through his output to the work he is best known for. He was admired by his peers, known for extreme focus on his subject, a relentless work ethic and was approached by New York art dealers before he graduated. He’d encountered real interest for his work real fast, and deservedly so. The influences on his work run from Hokusai and Japanese woodblock print art to Warhol and Ruscha but of course there’s more. (he grew up in Pittsburg PA) His work is clear, precise, and had gone though a palpable change since 9/11. It has, in many ways become neo-Orwellian. He has continuity in his aesthetic, but is not afraid to follow his own side roads when it comes to painting.

For the first time in his life not only could he afford it, he did have health insurance. He decided to shop for a family physician because he was married with children on the way. His choice of a physician turned out to be a life changer in ways he just never imagined. He talks about it in some detail in this video.

What makes Brian unique is his total lack of having a family physician, ever, until he was referred to Daryl Isaacs through another artist. Brian discusses his experience as a an artist/patient of Dr. Isaacs, the brilliantly quirky internist that has been adopted for many artists and cultural figures as their doctor of choice. (Pro-choice?)(of course!)

Directed by Paul H-O 2011 All Rights Reserved

Brian Alfred is represented by The Haunch of Venison Gallery of London, Geneva and New York.
Music by Don Chambers
Production Assembly NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR SALE – NON-COMMERCIAL WORK ASSEMBLY

My version of Dr. House is real. New documentary at square two is in reality in pre-production, a drama with 27 hours of real-time video about Dr. Daryl Isaacs, the uniquely brilliant and prolific internist, gives me his story of the struggle with the American medical establishment fix – all specialists and no GP’s. He demonstrates in check form the insanity of “for profit health insurance’ companies”, Isaacs’ massive patient load, and the surprising facts behind his inclusion in the hit film – SUPERSIZE ME, by then documentary director, Morgan Spurlock.

The Mercer Street Medical Case begins as a New York real estate nightmare, because Daryl Isaacs loses the lease on his medical practice and must move by the end of May. It was April and I began shooting the initial shock for Dr. Isaacs, at his request, and for two months the story just got more tense as Mercer St. Medical boxed it’s files and equipment for a brutally fast exit for an unknown destination. Do they find another space without breaking up like a ship on a reef? Test mashup from inside Mercer Street Medical, as I move in, and the staff prepares to move out. Now the real work begins for all of us, as I try to find out the root cause for the good doctor’s spiral of anxiety over the health of his practice and his profession as a family doctor.

Paul H-O shoots and directs part one & two. 2011 – A Filmlike Films and GalleryBeat Media Production Music by Don Chambers of Athens, Georgia

Here’s the card. The line-up. The locator map. Curated by Henry Sanchez and including Phil (Brainpan) Beuhler, Carla (RunningDear) Gannis, Eve Andrea Laramee, Eto Otitigbe, then around the block to Curator Sanchez. Mash that landscape, boys and girls! Now if the L rain is running on Saturday the 5th… The equivalent of a good review is ‘preview’, and I say do the preview, so do it.

While many in the hoch-kunst elite and it’s hopefuls would rather turn a blind eye (the other is tone deaf) to the union-busting attempts at the lower wage scale employees of Sotheby’s – the online art zine HYPERALLERGIC seems pretty busy looking at the not pretty picture of big ticket art, and producing content on it’s discontents. I’m liking it. I recommend it, even if one of it’s sponsors is part of the problem.

It was a short blast at the busy studio with Grace during the Dumbo Arts Festival. During the tie I was there, about 30 mins, she had about 8 visitors and it was early in the day. GalleryBeat first interviewed Grace back in 1998 during “Voyeur’s Delight” organized by Franklin Furnace and Grace co-curated.

She has a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with Honors. Received the RISD scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Upon graduation, she was awarded a residency with the Empire State Studio Program in NYC, then moved to Venice, Italy and studied with Emilio Vedova at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice.

Five solo exhibitions with the Anita Friedman Fine Arts gallery in NYC, and two exhibitions with the Pentimenti gallery in Philadelphia. Group exhibitions included White Columns, Momenta Arts, The Alternative Museum, The National Arts Club, Supreme Trading Space, HP Garcia gallery, Pierre Menard gallery [Boston] etc. with the most recent being at ArtJail in NYC’s Lower East Side.

Co-curated [with Barbara Rusin] the well regarded show “Voyeur’s Delight” at Franklin Furnace in conjunction with a panel moderated by Martha Wilson, and guest edited the Magazine “New Observations”.

Ms. Roselli’s work has been reviewed in Fine Art Magazine, Metropolitan Home, Village Voice, Time Out New York, New York Times, Art Matters, Quarto 31 [Columbia University Press] and Lusitania Press.

Sono Osato, artist. This is a short studio visit and taping I did during the 2011 Dumbo Festival in late September. It’s fascinating to see the array of old manual typewriters and calculators that are gutted to create buoyant metal core mixed media assemblage, along with new paintings that incorporate some metal elements but conveys her deep involvement with the roots of visual language in a passionate freeform style that I would describe as “beautifully beyond”. It’s the here and now but the history of how visual language can seem like a slow volcanic eruption. Sono has shown her work extensively on the West Coast and is represented by The Brian Gross Gallery in San Francisco. Also in the clips – photographer Jung Nam Lee and at the end is a clip from the GalleryBeat Talk Show at the The Brooklyn Museum with Lisa Levy and Pat Daughtery. Music by Ben Neill and GB opening edited by Garett Holden.

Note: Sono Osato is part of the GalleryBeat production team, a loose knit group of creative volunteers I naturally am supportive of, because friendship and community make what I do possible.

Sponsored by The Brooklyn Museum, Filmlike’s Guest of Cindy Sherman, Superfine, Spacial Rehab, Rabbithole Studios, Sixpoint Brewery, ConcreteTV, Rafik Video, Gramercy Flowers and all the contributors to the GB Funderparty.

The live talk show, Cooking with GalleryBeat @ The Brooklyn Museum was a thumbs up success with guest stars Sanford Biggers, Spencer Tunick and wife Kristin Bowler, Ann Carr, Robin Cembalest, and Dr. Daryl Isaacs. It all happened on the museum’s October 6 Thursday Night programs that features what is now more diverse than they had ever planned. Dr. Lisa and me brought our hi-lo info/entertainment for the first time to The Rubin Pavilion, all due to Sally Williams of Public Relations, Eugenie Tsai, the Head Curator, and Museum Director Arnold Lehman. Special thanks to Osaro Hemenez of BM AV, Jim Kelly of BM Security, and Marcus Romero of BM PR.

It was pretty smooth even though we hit snags and traffic getting the equipment and crew there early enough for there not to be some staff wondering if we could set up in time to crank the show on time. It was close enough for the house to fill up, but stick to their seats for the 100 minutes it took to start with Stanford and steam all the way to Dr. Isaacs.

We’ll be bringing on the webcast of the show once it’s edited. Thanks to the best crew GalleryBeat ever had! Pat Daughtery (the NEW dad!), Lisa Levy, Phil Buehler, prime Funderparty/production mover/shaker Sono Osato, Samantha Schlaifer, Debra Kowalski, Tamara Weg, Melissa Misla, Roger Adams, Tziporah Edery. Great photographs by Phil Beuhler, Savannah Spirit, Jung Nam Lee and Jennifer Chin. I’m sure there’s more but for now this has to do. More to come and many to thank. We pulled it off and it was beautiful.

Photo by Savannah Spirit

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This event is co-produced by BM’s Press Relations and Curatorial Departments with special thanks to Director Arnold Lehman.

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SCREENING of THE GUEST OF CINDY SHERMAN

Saturday, Sept. 17TH

7PM to 11:30PM

Screening begins at 8:30

Correction – the gallery is named Pierogi 2000 is now corrected on the headline – sorry!

Odd Nerdrum, the Norwegian artist sentenced to two years in jail for tax evasion, won’t be allowed to keep painting in prison. He’s appealing his sentence, but if it stands, the 67-year-old Nerdrum will have to leave his brushes and easels behind.

Newspaper Aftenposten reported that the Justice Ministry has stressed that convicted prisoners aren’t allowed to continue their business activities while held in custody. For someone like Nerdrum, who has lived off income from sales of his artwork, his passion for painting will thus conflict with regulations governing prison terms.

It’s different for other convicts, who have been allowed to paint, read or conduct approved hobbies as a means of passing the time in jail. Aftenposten noted that convicted robber Johnny Thendrup, for example, sentenced to 13 years in prison for the commando-style NOKAS heist in 2004, took up his old hobby of painting while his case was pending. He has since continued to paint while incarcerated at the Ila prison for high-risk criminals outside Oslo.

Nerdrum, however, won’t be able to do the same since his painting falls under the “business activity” category.

Nerdrum faces a tough appeal, since the court ruling against him was so strong and made clear that the court didn’t believe Nerdrum’s explanation for millions in undeclared income. Legal analysts continued this week to marvel over how tough the ruling and Nerdrum’s sentence were, and his own defense attorney seemed to agree.

“I have the impression that the court didn’t believe Nerdrum was credible,” Staff told Aftenposten. “Therefore he must prove his innocence.”

It was just earlier this year that another Norwegian artist, Vebjørn Sand, was proposing that Nerdrum beawarded the right to live in Norway’s state-funded honorary home for leading artists called Grotten. Now it appears the state may wind up covering his living expenses after all, but under vastly different circumstances. Nerdrum has repaid taxes and fines owed and maintains his innocence, saying he wouldn’t have been able to paint if he had paid any more attention to numbers. The court seemed to believe that Nerdrum knew exactly what he was doing when he failed to report proceeds from art sales.

While many in Norway support relatively stiff prison terms for tax evasion, Nerdrum has won support and sympathy in artistic circles. Editor and publisher Anders Heger, for example, said he’s long worried that authors and artists, many of whom earn very little and don’t have the funds to spend on lawyers and accountants, are expected to file tax returns like those of large businesses. Heger noted how author Agnar Mykle also landed in major tax battles with the authorities, and he thinks tax issues in general are problematic for artists.

So does art professor Øivind Storm Bjerke. “There of course shouldn’t be exceptions for geniuses,” Bjerke toldAftenposten. “Artist Edvard Munch also had long discussions with the tax authorities.” But he called Nedrum’s prison term “strict,” and several others think there should be separate tax systems for business and cultural pursuits.

Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund