Jennifer Allora And Guillermo Calzadilla-Charcoal Dance Floor

Jennifer Allora was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1974. Guillermo Calzadilla was born in 1971 in Havana, Cuba. Collaborating since 1995, Allora & Calzadilla approach visual art as a set of experiments that test whether ideas such as authorship, nationality, borders, and democracy adequately describe today’s increasingly global and consumerist society. Their hybridized works, often a unique mix of sculpture, photography, performance, sound and video, explore the physical and conceptual act of mark making and its survival through traces. By drawing historical, cultural, and political metaphors out of basic materials, Allora & Calzadilla’s works explore the complex associations between an object and its meaning.
The charcoal dance floor was created in February of 2003. It depicts a bunch of young club goers dancing. It was made on the floor of an art gallery and allowed for people to walk all over it and scuff it up. After a while, the artwork was all messed up and the drawing had disappeared.
I really like this piece of art. I think it tells a really cool story about a piece of art that the artist basically allowed to be ruined inside of an art gallery. I think these artists are 2 very unique ones, but have a knack for creating art that is appealing to its viewers


-O.D.

I really like the piece charcoal dance floor created in Feburary of 2003. It shows the artist didn't care about ruining a piece of their on artwork. Dancers alone scuff up and ruin the floor on which they are dancing so when people were allowed to walk on the piece they themselves were ruining the floor and the art. I think it is pretty courageous of the artist to let this happen to their work. I don't know if it was meant to be on purpose but I do find it very interesting that what they did was create such a unique floor with dancers and playfulness alike.

- Owen

Staten Island Museum and Philadelphia Museum of Art

Over Thanksgiving break I was able to attend an art exhibit near my home in Staten Island, New York. Even though I've lived in Staten Island for almost 20 years, I've never went to the museum once before a few weeks ago. After visiting the museum, it has opened my eyes to a lot of great art. Visiting the museum has also made me wish that I appreciated the museum more while I was home and went to see it more often. Such great art was available to see for basically my whole life right under my nose ! Nevertheless, I decided to attempt to make up for lost time as I explored the Staten Island Museum just a few weeks ago.
The origin of the art collections of the Staten Island Museum date from 1905 and cover a broad range of artistic styles and periods. Most of the objects, collected to promote the public's interest in historical and contemporary art, fall into two categories: those that reflect the history, people and culture of Staten Island and those that reflect broad world civilizations. 

-O.D.

Over Thanksgiving break I visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia. It is a pretty well known Museum in PA, but I must say the Museum was a lot bigger then I expected. The Museum holds great works of art from Hemmingway, Abbot, Joyce, and even companies that create furniture, glass and various forms of installation art. My favorite piece at the Museum had to be the Horse and Man Armor. Its armor made from the 1500's for Duke Eulrich of Wurttemberg. It was my favorite piece because it was done so well and the armor completely covers both the man and horse. Its also interesting that the armor dates back to the 1500's. It is a great piece to the Museum.  The Museum had other great works and pieces also but bar far I was most impressed by the armor on my visit. 

- Owen 

Mark Lombardi- Global Networks

Mark Lombardi lived from 1951 to 2000. He was an American Neo-Conceptualist and abstract artist who specialized in drawings of uneven geography. He's an artist that does a lot of map-making in his works.
Lombardi called a lot of his works and diagrams "Narrative Structures". In his historical diagrams, each node or connection was drawn from news stories from reputable media organizations. His elaborate drawings chart the complex relationships behind some of the world's biggest and most complex scandals. Unfortunately, Lombardi committed suicide in 2000.

-O.D.


Lombardi is an interesting artist because his style was very different. Also the fact that he committed suicide shows that Lombardi may not have been all mentally there. Although he is known for his artwork. His "Narrative Structures" was truly historical for they were complex diagrams that outlined scandals. It is very different, and I don't know if I would really consider it a specific type of art. I'm not a critic but I still respect Lombardi for what he has achieved as artist for this time.

- Owen

Dave Hickey- "Custodians of Culture-- Schoolyard Art: Playing Fair Without the Referee"

Dave Hickey was born in 1939. He is an American art and cultural critic. He has written for many American publications including Rolling Stone, Art News, Art in America, Artforum, Harper's Magazine, and Vanity Fair. He is currently Professor of English at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and Distinguished Professor of Criticism for the MFA Program in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of New Mexico.

During his podcast, he compared selling art to a famous basketball player named Julius Erving. He said that Julius always played by the rules, even in the schoolyard, because of his great will and desire to be a professional basketball player one day. He urged artists and art sellers to do the same thing when it came to art, in order to preserve the integrity of all artworks. He said that even though their isn't a "referee", people should still play by the rules and do things the right way.

-O.D.

Whats interesting about Hickey is that he didn't care for the fame or fortune of art, but he cared about the quality and how it came across. His example of Erving being a professional who played by the rules is truly inspirational to all of us. Hickey's true love for art is so important to Hickey he wanted people to play by the rules meaning he wanted their to be morality in the art world especially with trading and buying art. Hickey is a great inspiration for all of us and if art is going to be preserved for its integrity we need to all listen and believe Hickey.  

- Owen

Andrea Zittel- Installation Artist

Andrea Zittel was born in California in 1965. She is an American sculptor and installation artist. She received a BFA in painting and sculpture in 1988 from San Diego State University, and an MFA in sculpture in 1990 from the Rhode Island School of Design. In her PBS video, Zittel talks about her mission as being an installation artist. Zittel’s sculptures and installations transform everything necessary for life—such as eating, sleeping, bathing, and socializing—into artful experiments in living. Influenced by modernist design and architecture from the early part of the twentieth century, the artist’s one-woman mock organization, “A–Z Administrative Services,” develops furniture, homes, and vehicles for contemporary consumers with a similar simplicity and attention to order. Seeking to attain a sense of freedom through structure, Zittel is more interested in revealing the human need for order than in prescribing a single unifying design principle or style.Her “A-Z Pocket Property,” a 44-ton floating fantasy island off the coast of Denmark commissioned by the Danish government, contrasts the extremes of a creative escape with the isolation that occurs when a person is removed from society. One of her specialties is her uncanny ability to alter and examine aspects of life that are for the most part taken for granted.


-O.D.

Zittel is an interesting artist because she created pieces that weren't only art but were ways of living. Her one piece the giant installation where a person could eat, sleep, bath, and doing everyday things was amazing. She revolutionized the way a person could live by having it all contained in one small compartment. She is very inspiring and very creative. The 44 ton floating island was truly amazing. It was mind blowing because it weighed 44 tons! That to me is simply amazing and the fact that it actually floated on the water was just a massive piece of art. Her contrast of the extremes is inspiring and very motivating for anyone trying to become an artist or someone who wants to deal with installation art. 

-Owen

Nicolas Bourriaud- How Art Reprograms the World

Nicolas Bouriaud is a French writer, art critic and curator who was born in 1965. He co-founded, and from 1999 to 2006 was co-director of, the "Palais de Tokyo, Paris" together with Jerôme Sans. He was also founder and director of the contemporary art magazine "Documents sur l'art", and correspondent in Paris for "Flash Art" from 1987 to 1995.

"How Art Reprograms the World" is a recent essay written by French writer and curator Nicolas Bourriaud. The author discusses how, since the early nineties, an ever increasing number of artworks have been created on the basis of preexisting works; more and more artists interpret, reproduce, re-exhibit, or use works made by others or available cultural products. This is one of most famous works, and obviously helped him gain the great amount of recognition by people all across the world.

-O.D.

"How Art Reprograms the World" is interesting because Bourriaud explains how art is being reproduced or created already by preexisting pieces. It's interesting because it implies just a full cycle of reproduction. Since the early nineties its been done and is working is actually revolutionizing the art industry. It's amazing because you wold think works of art being redone and refurbished would get old and out dated but they actually have caught on and Bourriaud has stumbled upon something actually quite extraordinary.

- Owen

Banksy-graffiti

Banksy is the name of a British graffiti artist, who identity is unknown. He combines irrelevant dark humor with graffiti done in stenciling. His artwork has been featured on streets, walls and bridges of cities throughout the world. His work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. According to Tristan Marco, Banksy was born in 1974 in Bristol, England. Banksy is known as one of the most famous graffiti artists of his time.

I really like Banksy's work a lot. I think its very creative and interesting. It makes you put things in a different light. I also like that many of his works are exhibited all around the world. It gives everyone a chance to take a look at his work. His work is done in great detail, which makes it that much more realistic.

-O.D.


When I first saw Banky's work, I liked it right away. I am a big fan of graffiti and I think Banksy is one of the best in our time. Not only is he a great artist, he's work has such great meaning and importance. Many of his works are done on regular buildings but are about war, peace, starvation, and even the oil problems the world is having. Not only is Banksy a graffiti artist he is a speaker to the world showing through his art that people and countries need to change. They all have deeper meaning then what they are actually shown. His work is really inspiring and the fact that his pieces are all around the world shows his work is doing more then just being graffiti on the wall.

- Owen