Joshua Abelow set out to create a personal, visual archive through his blog, ART BLOG ART BLOG, but within a year he was getting up to 900 hits a day from over 125 countries. Less than two years later, the blog has materialized into a physical, artist-run gallery space, ART BLOG ART BLOG, with nine independently curated exhibitions, open through October 29, in a donated space located in Chelsea at 508 West 26th St, Floor 11.
Abelow is a young artist, who after receiving his BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1998, decided to move to New York. Before moving, he wrote a letter (yes, by post) to Ross Bleckner, an artist whose work he discovered and admired while in school. About a month after Abelow moved to Bushwick in 1999, Bleckner offered him a job as a studio assistant. For the next seven years Abelow worked for Bleckner before moving on to obtain his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI. After a few more stops down the road and all over the world, Abelow ended up back in his hometown outside Baltimore, MD. ART BLOG ART BLOG emerged in early 2010 as an important way for Abelow to build a community over the web and engage with artists in other cities. Now back in New York, Abelow maintains his blog as a diaristic visual journal, with daily posts including other artists’ work, book and album covers, posters, personal work and personal photographs, poems and quips, and more. I had a chance to sit down with Joshua Abelow, as well as the curators of the upcoming exhibition, Can I Get a Witness? to find out more about the project.
Amanda: How did you start the blog? Where do you find your material for the blog?
Joshua Abelow: I never blogged before I started ART BLOG ART BLOG, in fact, to me, blogging seemed like a silly thing to do, even “blog” is a funny word. I guess I never set out to create a “blog” so much as an archive, a means of keeping a visual journal for myself. It’s a way for me to engage and document what is being made around me and to share this information with others.
I find a lot of material simply by sifting through my emails. I am on the mailing lists of a lot of galleries, so I often find out about other artists’ works through the Internet. The material I post is a mix of other artists’ work and my own personal contributions. I take a diaristic approach to posting...I see it as a visual radio show and in that sense it is important for me to update the site regularly. It also gives me something to do when I’m waiting for paint to dry and I don’t feel like sharpening pencils or stretching canvases or whatever.
I find the blog format interesting because of the immediacy. Instant contact with a relatively wide audience is the exact opposite of what it’s like to be alone in the studio all day. I was very surprised when I realized the blog had a following, that other people were actually visiting the site on a regular basis.
Do you read other blogs? Also, I find a lot of art-related blogs to be criticism-based; do you read any art criticism?
I look at a few other blogs like, AH HOLE AH HOLE (published, or rather curated by Tisch Abelow and Dakatoh Savage), which I find to be very humorous and clever. It is more like an art project than a blog – I’d love to see it projected on a big wall every morning when I wake up. I also look at ANABA, KCLOG and HKJBLOG regularly.
As for art criticism, I like to read what my peers’ are writing. I enjoy 16 Miles of String, (Andrew Russeth) because it’s art criticism from a younger point of view and he covers a lot of stuff that bigger publications overlook.
How did “ART BLOG ART BLOG”, the blog, turn into “ART BLOG ART BLOG,” the gallery?
Ross Bleckner invited me to use his studio space to organize some shows for the summer and fall. Rather than make it some sort of ego trip, I decided to make it a group effort and share the opportunity with as many people as possible. I’ve invited several individuals and groups to curate shows in the space. Jon Lutz (Daily Operation), NUDASHANK, and Regina Rex have all presented exhibitions in the space thus far. I picked them because I’m a fan of their work and I wanted to see what they would do with the Chelsea space and I thought other people would want to see as well.
It’s funny and interesting to see a blog go 3D. The exhibition space is a direct extension of the blog, which is why I gave it the same name. There’s a lot of hard work going into this and, of course, it would not be possible without Ross’s generosity (thank you Ross!). It would also not be possible without all of the talented people involved. The spirit of the project is one of generosity: the space was a gift from one artist to another, which is a gift to many other artists. It’s exciting to be exhibiting work by both emerging and established artists, unknowns mixed in with bigger names. In a way, this is reflective of the Internet – a weird flattening device that levels the playing field. This project, both the blog and the gallery, provides me with a chance to examine this moment as we proceed further into the 21st century.
Amanda: In Can I Get a Witness? Who are the artists involved? What sort of work can the viewer expect to see (painting, video, etc)?
Tisch Abelow / Jashin Friedrich / Dakotah Savage: We are exhibiting works by Joshua Abelow, Matt Connolly and Joachim'YoYo' Friedrich. We also have a reading corner featuring artists books by Kevin Gallagher, Lukas Geronimas, The Kingsboro Press, Davida Nemeroff and Eric Veit.
How was the show curated? How did the three of you work together to create a cohesive exhibition?
We started with a long list of potential artists, originally thinking of having a larger group exhibition. As we narrowed down the candidates, we realized we wanted to have a smaller show to highlight specific artists and their work. It became clear that Matt, Josh, and YoYo's work cosmically related. We found it interesting that the artists whose work was the strongest together happened to be 'the men in our life.' The curatorial process came about only in the most natural way. Including the reading corner is a way for us to support other emerging artists we admire and because punk lives.
Like, Josh, I imagine the ART BLOG ART BLOG space as a physical manifestation of the blog. How does Can I Get a Witness? relate to the Internet? Can you draw any comparisons?
Art Blog Art Blog--the blog- is a continuous parade of images of art; it brings the viewer daily, sometimes hourly, updates- a self-creating, ever-evolving context. We don't see Can I Get A Witness? relating to the Internet per se except, perhaps, in an inverse way-- If anything, an exhibition with actual art hung on actual walls is in opposition to the pervasive virtuality of today. There are, however, visual parallels between our show and our blogs, especially AH HOLE AH HOLE, which emphasized repetitive color, shape and text.
Do you read any blogs?
We read ART BLOG ART BLOG, Jashin's Tumblr and AH HOLE AH HOLE, which is co-curated by Dakotah and Tisch.
Can I Get a Witness? curated by Tisch Abelow, Jashin Friedrich, and Dakotah savage, opening on Thursday, July 14, will be the fourth exhibition at ART BLOG ART BLOG. Abelow plans to have five more shows through October 29. Up next for Joshua Abelow is a solo exhibition at Tomorrow Gallery in Toronto, Canada, who will also be publishing the book, “Painter’s Journal," a diaristic journal in six parts about Abelow’s experience as a young artist moving to New York at the turn of the century.
ART BLOG ART BLOG is located at 508 West 26th Street, Fl 11. Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 12-6pm. More info: www.artblogartblog.com
