a la Mickey SmithLeave it to Mackil to hunt down SPECULUM and send it my way. Any word with two U's is so... Inspiring enough to post on this limp old blog.

a la Mickey SmithLeave it to Mackil to hunt down SPECULUM and send it my way. Any word with two U's is so... Inspiring enough to post on this limp old blog. 

Jim Mackil

Library Science :: Opens Saturday

    I'll be installing a new Believe You Me floor at Artspace in New Haven this week. Library Science opens Saturday. Bonus - I get to photograph for a few hours in the attic of The Institute Library next door for a new body of work. If you get to New Haven, be sure to stop both places!

Believe John Waters

"We need to make books cool again. If you go home with someone and they don't have books, don't fuck 'em. Don't sleep with people who don't read!" - John Waters

Bare Facts

Bare Facts, 2010

TONIGHT! (Jeff Johnson's favorite expression.)

Aperture Foundation's 2011 Benefit, Auction, and SNAP! Party

The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers, New York, NY

Bound to be a fun evening, especially if we get to see Karl Lagerfeld 

in the flesh. What to wear, what to wear...

(More) Bibliomania

October 7 - December 11, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, October 14, 6 pm - 8 pm
Visual Art Center of New Jersey

Bibliomania examines the myriad ways contemporary artists treat the book as subject matter. This exhibition will challenge viewers to consider the evolving roles and meanings of the book in today’s world.


Exhibiting Artists
Richard Baker
Thomas Broadbent
Ryan Brown
Joy Garnett
Nina Katchadourian
Brandon Lattu
Björn Meyer-Ebrecht
Abelardo Morell
Mickey Smith
Jude Tallichet

Land of Tomorrow :: Louisville Photo Biennial

Retirement Ceremony + 
Known Knowns, Known Unknowns, Unknown Unknowns
A few lovely drawings by the late Stephen Irwin flank the entrance to the show.


Tell You What is on view at Land of Tomorrow through October 30th. We heard that the September 23rd opening was a great evening, we're sorry we missed it...Mickey will fly to Luhvul Friday to attend the LOT Louisville Photo Biennial reception.

Land of Tomorrow is an amazing space with great staff, volunteers and interns. Not to mention strong. They helped install the floor of 3000+ books. 

The exhibition is a Leo Weekly's Daily Staff Pick and the Courier-Journal has more information on the Louisville Photo Biennial events. Take a walk on the spines of books at LOT this Friday, October 7th, reception beginning at 6pm.
  

This post brought to you by Heather from a sunny & warm MN.

Art Platform :: Los Angeles

Untitled No. 5 (Recession) 2011

Art Platform – Los Angeles 
INVISIBLE-EXPORTS - Booth 818

Friday, September 30, 2011
3PM – 5PM Opening Preview
5PM – 9PM Vernissage Party benefiting the Hammer Museum,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Museum of Contemporary Art.

Saturday, Oct 1 • 11AM – 6PM
Sunday, Oct 2 • 11AM – 6PM

Monday, Oct 3 • 11AM – 4PM

a la Mickey Smith

Occasionally I receive photos from friends ( + strangers) "a la Mickey Smith". I love them. Oh yes, and "a la peanut butter sandwiches!", along with Heather Everhart at the helm, the blog is back.

Chad Richardson

David Enblom

Louis Menand

Earth Day

Collocation NATURE is being produced in Germany this month. We're still on schedule for installation in the first week of June! 

there's something i've been meaning to tell you...

I've been meaning to tell you that the show of the same title is up at Marty Walker Gallery in Dallas, Texas. The show closes tomorrow. There is a great slideshow of all the text based art up on the Marty Walker blog.

München, Germany

Apologies for falling from the face of the earth, into facebook. (It's evil.) Until a few weeks ago I didn't realize this blog had a single reader... So I'm back and will make an effort to post once a week. 

I'm definitely in production vs. exhibition mode, a welcome change. New projects coming up, along with some new work on the Volume project. Recently I took a last minute flight to Munich and spent five thrilling days in the Franz Mayer studio. (A photo album is up on  facebook.) The public art project I'm working on is a Collocation called NATURE. Sixteen 40 x 60 inch glass panels to be mounted in the new Biomedical Sciences Building at the University of Florida this June. (As if you needed another reason to head to Gainesville this summer?)

This is my first major public art commission, and although I have been on the other side of the desk for this process, I must admit the learning curve is oh so high. I'm relishing in the challenge and will be sure to keep the blog update with a few progress reports... Promise. 

Part of my  team in Munich - Michael and Klaus working reviewing samples fresh from the kiln at Franz Mayer.

Close up of the type sandblasted into the glass. Not sure if you can tell, but there were three different painting styles to choose from... 

Vyborg Library

If you're traveling through Russia, be sure to stop at the Vyborg Library...

Mickey's President

Fellow gemini and Mick, young Mickey Siegel, stayed up past his crib time last night to watch Obama make history!!!!

On a visit to the Lincoln Memorial at the start of the Iraq war, inspired by Lincoln's words, my Kiwi husband asked me "how did this country get so far off track?" A simple, profound question. Come January, Obama is sure to deliver an inaugural address that will lead us to be a better country, more active citizens, and inspire generations to come. YES WE CAN.

MORE BOOKS for Everyone

MORE BOOKS went up on 20x200.com yesterday. An interview went up on the 20x200 blog today. I love working with Jen Bekman and her crew and highly recommend this experience to any artist. This sort of instant gratification is hard to come by working alone in the studio... 

"We are upstate with mom + bob now. Just made mom run to town so I could log in here at McDonalds to get a piece of art... I GOT THE LAST ONE! [$20]"

"Gorgeous, funny and I bought. In fact, I was driving from Witchita to St. Louis on my way to NY and bought on my iPhone on the side of the road. See you Nov 14."

"OMG. I SO didn't mean to buy it, but it was just so fucking turquoise. I couldn't resist. Damn you!"

More thanks to everyone who snatched up a print! Hope to see you all at Invisible-Exports on November 14th!

Cinque Terra

Next time you're in Italy, don't hike the Cinque Terra. Swim. I plan to post a link to more images from Italy + St. Petersburg next week. Too much to say, too little time.

Installation: Saint Petersburg

A note from Saint Petersburg... Yesterday the exhibition was installed at the Pushkin Dom. The juxtoposition of the contemporary and classical is appropriately poetic.

Details, Details

Before it comes off the stands... The August 2008 issue of DETAILS printed a few Volume images to illustrate a lovely piece by Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon. Clearly I need to add Oakley Hall's Warlock to my reading list. No reason to be sadder than necessary.

Marine Wedding Revisited

Nina Berman's iconic image from the Marine Wedding series has been extensively published and written about. We all agree - it is one of the most profound, important photographs of our time. I truly love this image. This morning I was reading old entries on the Hey Hot Shot! blog and came across Tyler Ziegel and Renee: one year on, published in The Sunday Times last May. 

Going, going, gone?

In June, I considered photographing the collection at Columbia's Medical Library. A staff librarian told me the journals had either been sent to deep storage or to the dumpster just weeks before.

This afternoon I went with my snappy camera to scout at the NYU Medical Center Library. (Pictured above.) I had been forewarned, but the empty stacks were eerie. The NYU journals were sent to the dumpster about two months ago. 

Librarians have predicted Volume will be an important document in ten years. New York, as always, is ahead of her time. 

My brain knows much more than I do.

Clearly. At the moment I am photographing Columbia's Psychology Library, working on a proposal for the University of Florida's new Biomedical Sciences building (squeak squeak!), re-reading the vision chapter in A Natural History of the Senses, and yesterday stumbled upon a brilliant article in The New Yorker about insight and the brain by Jonah Lehrer that you want to read. Unfortunately it is not available online, so you'll have to pick up the July 28 issue if you want to read it... Below is an excerpt to wet your appetite. 

"The most mysterious aspect of insight is not revelation itself but what happens next. The brain is an infinite library of associations, a cacophony of competing ideas, and yet, as soon as the right association appears, we know. The new thought, represented by that rush of gamma rays in the right hemisphere, immediately grabs our attention. There is something paradoxical and bizarre about this. On one hand, an epiphany is a surprising event; we are startled by what we've just discovered. Some part of our brain, however, clearly isn't surprised at all , which is why we are able to instantly recognize the insight. 'As soon as the insight happens, it just seems so obvious,' Schooler said. 'People can't believe they didn't see it before.' "