DAILY NEWS, VIEWS, REVIEWS, INTERVIEWS
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James Kalm makes a pilgrimage of fandom to the book launch party for Jerry Saltz's latest literary endeavor 'Seeing Out Louder'. The sequel to 'Seeing Out Loud', this edition features reviews, essays and thought pieces that display the wit and observational acuity that have established Saltz within the top 50 most influential individuals in the contemporary art world.

Going on the DL (Down-Low), James Kalm ventures into Pace/Wildenstein to record unauthorized footage of David Hockney's first ... read more...

"Cave Painting," organized by Bob Nickas, brings together works by 40 artists who are engaged with picture-making manifested within a painting practice. This show follows another with the same title that was presented in Berlin at PSM Gallery in June 2009 that evolved as a result of Nickas's research for his book, Painting Abstraction, published by Phaidon Press.

CAVE PAINTING INSTALLMENT #1
Oct 2nd - Oct 31st 2009
Gresham's Ghost
New York

James Kalm braves fall showers and trains his way to the Bowery's New Museum for the first major museum exhibition by Urs Fischer. Lionized as one of contemporary art's most distinctive talents, Fischer earned the New York spotlight in 2007 by cutting a hole in the floor of Gavin Brown's Enterprise and digging out tons of dirt leaving a gaping crater for visitors to climb into and explore. As an astute observer of spatial perception, and a master of digital technology with a mischievous sense of... read more...

James Kalm treks into Marlborough Chelsea for the second one-man show by the eccentric abstract painter Steven Charles (until 4 November). Three days earlier, your reporter biked to West Harlem for an impromptu studio visit and interview with the artist. Charles discusses his recent investigations of figurative subject matter and accumulative sculpture.

James Kalm has been watching the work of Frank Stella since his days as a student in the far West. This icon of New York Modernism presents Polychrome Reliefs as his statement of where painting is today. Though not properly reliefs, nor paintings, these extravagant works employ the latest in high tech composites, stainless steel and lustrous lacquers. These works juxtapose curving organic forms with pierced and engineered struts and ribbing, contrasting the mechanical with the romantic and cont... read more...

James Kalm makes a must-see stop during the opening night of the 2009 season in Chelsea for this double bill. Both Kara Walker and Mark Bradford have gained recognition for their work with paper, cut silhouettes for the former and grand scaled collage for the latter. Walker weaves a narrative derived from the history of slavery and repression, while Bradford imbues his work with an abject elegance capturing the essence and life of contemporary urban neighborhoods. This film includes an interview... read more...

James Kalm climbs to the top of the pile of tires in this reinvention of Allan Kaprow's Yard at the debut exhibition of Hauser & Wirth New York. William Pope. L adds his own narrative text using a Barack Obama imitator, and flashing lights in this restaging. Upstairs we tour an in-depth collection of posters, prints and documentation tracing the historic arc of this Happening which was originally created in this very location in 1961.
Allan Kaprow YARD 23 September – 24 October 2009 Hauser & ... read more...

James Kalm partakes in the press preview for this icon of American Modernism. Over 20 years in the making, this exhibition surveys the lesser known but perhaps more profound side of O'Keeffe's work, her abstraction. Beginning with her discovery and eventual relationship with Alfred Stieglitz in 1916, O'Keeffe was thrust in to the stratosphere of the New York art scene. She was at the forefront of pursuing a type of organic abstraction that Stieglitz championed as America's contribution to Modern... read more...

James Kalm has been a fan of Dave Hickey for years. The polemical Hickey has received a MacArthur Genius Grant, and used his ideas and prestige to establish a creative enclave at the University of Nevada at Los Vegas. Hes a provocative commentator on contemporary art, an essayist delving into deconstructivist theory, and a correspondent chronicling the American scene who melds the breadth of Mark Twain with the ultra-hipness of Hunter S. Thomson. This lecture was delivered at the School of Visua... read more...

James Kalm, despite the daunting task of trying to capture the grand spectacle of 113 openings, muddles on, and brings viewers a select few of the exhibitions on offer. Drawings and recent paintings by Raoul De Keyser and the Afro Margin drawings by Chris Ofili begin our tour at David Zwirner. Heading north, we pop in for a glance at the double shows of Kara Walker and Mark Bradford at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. and then slip in at Sonnabend to catch a look at the Photo-Realistic Surrealism of Matthe... read more...

James Kalm drifts into Soho to kick off the new season with a pair of highly anticipated exhibitions. Tauba Auerbach's HERE AND NOW/AND NOWHERE presents five bodies of work that are all related to the duality of space, the here, and, time, the now. Illusionistic paintings are contrasted with Auerglass, a custom made pipe organ. Kehinde Wiley explores the photographic medium with Black Light, a series of digitally manipulated photos that continues his studies of young black males. Using various l... read more...

James Kalm catches up with conceptual artist Ward Shelley on the closing day of his exhibition 'Who Invented the Avant-Garde and other half truths'. This exhibition presents three bodies of recent work: 'Archive', an installation of hundreds of idea boxes that represent an externalization of the artists mind, 'Sleeper Experiment' in which the artist is exposed to a computerized voice repeating donated texts from viewers, and the 'Timeline Paintings' which trace the developments and derivations o... read more...

James Kalm combines a couple of exhibitions that have yet to find a slot in the roster. Dennis Oppenheim is a stalwart of the Soho art community, a participant in Land and Body Art. This show at Janos Gat Gallery features proposals for large-scale public works that hover somewhere between sculpture and architecture. Mitchell-Inness & Nash presents Allan D'Arcangelo Paintings 1962-1982. D'Arcangelo (1930-1998) is one of the greatest if under recognized Pop masters. This is his first New York retr... read more...

James Kalm documents some of the New York galleries that have been forced to close because of the current recession: Salander O'Reilly, Rivington Arms, Museum 52, 31 Grand, Bond Street Gallery, Mehr Gallery, Kinz Tillou & Feigen, Feigen Contemporary, The Proposition, BUIA Gallery, Moti Hasson, Clementine Gallery, Heist Gallery, Fruit and Flowers Deli, Werkstatte Gallery, Guild and Greyshkul, Bellwether Gallery, Plane Space Gallery, Phillips de Pury & Co's gallery, Cohan & Leslie, Feature Inc, Ca... read more...

James Kalm visits the Lafayette House, a loft on the Bowery and a newly painted mural on Houston and the Bowery as well as the memorial exhibition at Deitch Projects in and attempt to document some of the important final locations in the short life of Dash Snow. Since the 2007 cover story in New York Magazine that launched him to the pinnacle of bohemian chic, Dash snow was seen as an avatar of hip. Long-standing drug and alcohol problems and a tumultuous family life (Snow was the scion of the i... read more...

James Kalm anxiously pursues this enlightening exhibition by one of the masters of the Modernist canon. Although he stayed near home, and rarely sought out the avant-garde, James Ensor became the Godfather of Northern Expressionism. His unique subject matter, brilliant draftsmanship, and sensitive yet urgent use of materials and colour distinguish him as an inspiration of much 20th century art. Organized by Anna Swinbourne, Assistant Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, MoMA.

James Kalm celebrates the 300 episode of the Kalm Report by inviting viewers once again to join him on the down low challenging not only the strictly enforced no photo policy of New York's most powerful art gallery, but teaming throngs of perusing art lovers. Curated by the worlds pre-eminent Picasso scholar, John Richardson, 'Mosqueteros' highlights the late, often derided paintings of this twentieth-century master. It will certainly be judged as one of the season's most influential and well at... read more...

James Kalm returns to Atlanta Georgia to allow viewers to take advantage of a generous invitation to visit one of America's most impressive art collections. Bill Arnett and his son Matt have amassed one of the largest collections of vernacular African-American art in the world. In Part II we see major works by the legendary Purvis Young of Miami, and a sneak peek at the preparations for a sculptural exhibition of Lonnie Holley. In this section of the interview, Bill Arnett discusses the influenc... read more...

James Kalm travels to Atlanta Georgia to allow viewers to take advantage of a generous invitation to visit one of America's most impressive art collections. Bill Arnett and his son Matt have amassed one of the largest collections of vernacular African-American art in the world. Featuring works from artists like Thornton Dail, Purvis Young and Lonnie Holley, the Arnetts are committed to the further study and advocacy of this vibrant but widely overlooked aspect of American visual art. Part I incl... read more...

James Kalm has been watching the progress of this extensive installation for weeks. Black Acid Co-Op is the collaboration of Justin Lowe and Jonah Freeman, and this piece explores the dark manic recesses of meth-lab culture and its analogues relationship to middle America and the glamorous New York art world. Entering the basement, visitors ascend through a labyrinth of burned out trailers meth-labs and art galleries in a journey through an hellatious environment of cultural debris.

James Kalm drifts through Downtown Manhattan and records a couple of exhibitions of interest. Jonathan Borofsky has been a presence on the international art scene since the late 60s. His installations and counting practice were unique, but with Five Large Paintings he's given up counting and taken up the paint brush. Across town we drop in for the opening of Carrie Moyer. This recent selection of paintings displays Moyer's sense of elegance and a knowing employment of painterly devices recalling... read more...

James Kalm brings viewers along as he peddles through a Thursday night double bill. Banks Violette is one of New York's most provocative young artists. Deriving much of his imagery from the banality of Heavy Metal cliché, the main piece for 'Not Yet Titled' at Team Gallery is 'Zodiac', a ghostly recreation in cast salt of the motorcycle his friend Steve Parrino drove to his death.

Across town in Chelsea we slip in to see Jessica Stockholder's 'Sail Cloth Tears' at Mitchell, Innes & Nash. Sto... read more...

James Kalm makes his way to the Thursday night power-opening of Chuck Close. These massive portraits are Post-Modern icons that meld ideas about photography, abstraction and celebrity worship into a heady mélange of color line and inside the art world politics. Recent paintings include the artist's daughters and the former president Bill Clinton. Larger black and white wool tapestries reproduce examples of the artists photo portraits, and present huge images that are as rich in velvety texture ... read more...

James Kalm visits the latest offerings from a well-known proponent of the Pictures Generation, Robert Longo. Coming on the New York scene like gangbusters in the late 70s, the cool kids of the Pictures Generation were seen as fashionable radicals melding deadpan representation appropriated from photos and the mass media with a hermetic post conceptual theory. With this body of drawings, the artist has moved away from his large figures and is instead focused on the effects of atmosphere in landsc... read more...

James Kalm anxiously returns to the Metropolitan Museum for the debut of The Pictures Generation. As a young artist he witnessed the rise of this group first hand. Deriving their images from photographic sources, their philosophic underpinnings from the French Deconstructionists and their attitudes towards presentation from commercial and corporate campaigns, the Pictures artists ascended the heights of art world stardom in short order. Their assimilation of the mass media and use of nontraditio... read more...

James Kalm goes west, to bring viewers an exhibition double bill. Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida have created a stir that reverberates throughout the New York art scene. Though working with unique individual means, their excruciating examinations of art world norms reveals the faults and foibles of our materialistic and celebrity obsessed view of current artistic success. Dalton's installation questions the basic notions of value, while Powhida probes the structures of power assigned by the... read more...

James Kalm joins throngs of celebrity seekers and connoisseurs of the crappy in paying tribute to the Crown Prince of Kitsch, John Waters. 'Rear Projection' is the latest selection of Water works combining his love of cinema, and his unique take on Pop Art, larding it with a wickedly perverse sense of humor. Presented along with the photographic works are several sculptures that display a sardonic appreciation of everyday products. BONUS FEATURE: Allegiance to Satan. Are there dark unseen forces... read more...

IT WENT VIRAL! Due to popular demand, James Kalm is releasing 'Was the New Museum Punked' into general circulation. After its appearance on facebook (site of its exclusive debut) Hrag Vartanian, scooped a flurry of local bloggers who ran the story, many of whom, without properly crediting their source. Its description at facebook is: A banner stating "Please New Museum Show My Work" was hanging from the buildings facade at the press preview for 'Younger than Jesus'. It was soon removed, but acro... read more...

James Kalm slides through the night to the Chelsea opening of 'Spring in Park Lane', recent paintings by cult favorite Thomas Trosch. With an exhibition resume stretching back years, Trosch is still an acquired taste. Combining the unlikely elements of fashionable high society damsels, narratives that might be borrowed from British soap operas, and a sumptuous technique, the artist produces works redolent of history and oil paint. With an underground reputation among painters, Trosch's works nev... read more...

James Kalm slips in five minutes before closing and goes on the LD (Low-Down) to bring viewers a brisk walk-through tour of this historic Manzoni Retrospective at Gagosian Gallery. Piero Manzoni is perhaps one of the most influential proto conceptualists. This exhibition places his groundbreaking work in a chronological context with other artists like Yves Klein, Alberto Burri and Willem de Kooning. Probably best know for his Artists Shit (Merda dartista) and Base of the World Manzoni died at ag... read more...

James Kalm slips into Chelsea to capture a brief glimpse of 'Missing Pictures', the latest series of paintings by Dana Schutz. Since her emergence, Schutz has attracted the attention of critics, curators and collectors with her endearingly quirky expressionistic views of daily life and take-offs on classic Americana. The new work features the inclusion of acrylic staining accentuated with oil paint, creating a fluid membrane reminiscent of watercolor. Featuring an interview with Brett de Palma. ... read more...

James Kalm slides into Chelsea for an intimate preview of 'Crisis Creation', Erik Parker's latest selection of works at Paul Kasmin. The new work features intense color and a new precision in the rendering of cavorting figures that dissolve into masses of psychedelic pattern. Returning for the opening we glimpse Leo Koenig trying on a cape, and interviews with Simon Cerigo and Erik Parker (who, due to half-assed production values, was recorded at Dana Schutz's opening a week later).
... read more...

James Kalm wanders through the unusual installation of Kenneth Anger bringing viewers along for a brief glimpse of the first major survey of his work in over ten years. Kenneth Anger (b.1927) has been a cult classic, producing some of the most legendary underground films of the last half century. As a native Californian with deep ties to Hollywood, Anger's innovative use of saturated color, Pop, and Rock and Roll soundtracks and mysterious allusions to rituals, celebrity and subcultures, have di... read more...

James Kalm returns with viewers to take a more concentrated look at Martin Kippenberger’s estimable legacy as a painter. Receiving his first recognition in the late seventies as a painter and draftsman and despite the various projects and installations he engineered, Kippenberger maintained a consistent practice as a painter. This exhibition chronicles his graphic versatility as well as his masterful facility with the medium. These talents were incorporated in Kippengerger’s provocative chal... read more...

James Kalm is graciously allowed to document this, the first major retrospective of Martin Kippenberger at MoMA. This exhaustive survey covers works from the early eighties to shortly before Kippenberger's death in 1997. In Part I, Kalm focuses on the installations, and highlights the artists influential status in what has currently been termed Pathetic or Abject Art. Featuring an extended interview with Ulrich Strothjohann, Kippenberger's longtime collaborator and project consultant.

Martin... read more...

James Kalm, in his attempt to provide viewers with the most comprehensive art fair coverage available, ventures uptown to take in SCOPE New York. This fair features a broad cross section of young galleries with a Post-Modern tinge, many featuring conceptual objects in lieu of painting. A visit to the special project Cheap, Fast and Out of Control presents a version of Relational Aesthetics tuned for local hip slackers.

James Kalm continues his circuit of art fairs 2009 with this visit to PULSE. Featuring an international roster of established and emerging galleries the PULSE fair has an edgier sense than the Armory show yet maintains it high standards. Featuring glimpses of works by Kim Dorland, Robert Crumb, Marcus Linnenbrick, Allison Schulnik and many others.

James Kalm returns to the Armory Show to peruse the newly added Modern pier. In this episode viewers can glimpse works by Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Philip Guston, George Grosz as well as many contemporary examples, like Anselm Keifer and Cecily Brown. The epilogue presents Kalm's observation as the most tiresome cliché of this fair season, so far, neon text pieces.

James Kalm strides up the West Side Highway to Pier 94 for this years edition of the Armory Show. Despite tremors of the recession and fear of a collapsing financial market, revelers, dealers and collectors are out in force to take in the latest offerings from the art market. This is the first of an anticipated series of reports to document the Armory Show and its ancillary fairs and goings on.

James Kalm scurries through a busy Thursday night of gallery openings in Chelsea to document this debut of Lisa Yuskavage's recent paintings. Presenting lusciously painted images of young voluptuous women, the content balances precariously between the obviously pornographic and cutesy sweet realm of girly pulp. This ambiguousness has provoked critical attention and prompted Yuskavage to be considered at the cutting edge of contemporary figuration. Featuring interviews with Lisa Yuskavage, Jerry ... read more...

James Kalm brings viewers along for a jog through some of the current shows at Manhattan's Upper East Side Galleries. To complement his Downtown exhibition at Gavin Brown's Enterprise, we visit Michael Werner and view more new paintings by Peter Doig. We then zip into
Zwirner & Wirth to catch a viewing of conceptual constructions by Fred Sandback. This pioneer of spatial and volumetric projections uses the meager materials of yarn, wire and string to create his sculpture. Finally we sneak in b... read more...

James Kalm scuttles between three galleries to bring viewers a brief overview of the recent paintings and older drawings of Ellsworth Kelly. Kelly is a seminal figure within New York's formalist abstract tradition. His simplified shapes and pure color were a harbinger of Minimalism's reductivist tendencies, but his sensual palette and organic forms set him apart as a unique force in establishing a more austere version of abstraction. The drawings from the late fifties and early sixties show the ... read more...

James Kalm gets into a Brooklyn vibe with this doubleheader gallery visit. Second Nature, a three-person show at Metaphor Contemporary Art, features artistic interpretations of our relationship to the natural world. Painters Lauren Gohara, Timothy McDowell and Amy Talluto use diverse means to depict their takes on our environmental and psychological bonds to the planet. Scooting to Williamsburg's Hogar Collection, viewers are invited to examine the unusual paintings of Peter Fox. With a personal... read more...

James Kalm makes a short Friday night tour of West 27th Street and captures views of some of todays most provocative artists. Dropping in first at Derek Eller Gallery, we ogle the amusing, sometimes shocking sculptural installation of Peter Caine. Space aliens, Yetis and mechanical ape-people all huddle in an igloo performing unmentionable rituals. In the back gallery we were treated to a couple of paintings by the Swedish artist Per Enoksson. These examples display a disturbing yet humorous con... read more...

James Kalm slips into Soho to view the debut exhibition of Susan Hefuna's, 'Knowledge is Sweeter than Honey' and the Fluorescent Furniture and Archival Works of Vito Acconci. The screens and drawings of Egyptian/German artist Hefuna elaborate a concept of the hidden and the unhidden, and elicit various levels of interpretation. Experimental furniture that blurs the boundaries between functionality and sculpture and archival documents of pioneering performances make up the portion of the exhibit ... read more...

James Kalm pedals to 57th Street to view the Harkness exhibit in its last week. Hilary Harkness employs a hyper-detailed technique that recalls the works of old masters Bosch, Altdorfer and Bruegel. Placing many of her paintings in WWII settings, these pieces also present an over the top depiction of female sexual fantasy with blatant references to Lesbianism, Sadomasochism and dominatrix practices.

James Kalm encounters yet another of the "Young German Painters" who have monopolized sizable chunks of Chelsea's exhibition space during the last two months. Jonathan Meese along with André Butzer, Daniel Richter and Neo Rauch, all seem focused on restoring a type of massive painterly expressionism which has been sourly lacking from kowtowed New York artists. DICTATORBABY... is Meese's parody of an assimilation of politics by art. These heavily pigmented mixed media works present a whimsical t... read more...

James Kalm was at the opening of Jeff Koons' exhibition at the Met. He talked to the artist about his work and quizzed him on the current state of the art market.

Jeff Koons on the Roof
Until 26 October
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York

Andre Butzer
Until 3 May
Metro Pictures
519 West 24th Street
New York NY 10011
T +1 212 206 7100

Take a wonder around the Scope art fair in New York with guide James Kalm.