A Karachi art exhbit where nothing is for sale

KARACHI: Sivim Naqvi, the assistant curator at Clifton’s Gandhara-art Space, named her first singularly curated show “Whitewash” because, in her words, “none of this work is permanent. It’s all going to be whitewashed over.”

In a polka-dot kameez, Naqvi appears younger than her 24 years, but she is solemn and earnest about the mission of this show. “We talked a lot before we started working. We wanted to question value and exchange, to address what is personal space and public space, what is studio versus gallery,” she said.

In Whitewash, the works of art cannot be separated from the gallery itself, because the art is the gallery — or rather the art is the gallery walls, as altered by paint, projection or literal deconstruction. None of the pieces can be purchased, and once the show closes and the walls are repaired, they will cease to exist.

The concept of unsaleable art in a commercial gallery is not groundbreaking, but it is unique in Karachi, where, according to 24-year-old Karachi artist Reem Khurshid, “galleries are about pushing a product, not owning a space.”

Keep Reading.

Oxford Mississippi’s Cats Purring Art Collective (eat your heart our Jeffrey Deitch!)

This has been happening practically under my nose (give or take a couple of hours northeast) and I have not been paying enough attention–definitely a sign that I spend too much time on etsy. But I consider this further proof that Mississippi is among the more awesome *states* (of existence). So, here is our answer to Dash Snow, Ryan McGinley, Aurel Schmidt and the like, as featured in Impose magazine.

Photos shamelessly stolen from Cats Purring tumblr site.

Atlanta’s Young Blood Gallery, part 2

This is the second part of my interview with owners of Atlanta’s Young Blood Gallery, Kelly Teasley and Maggie White. With backgrounds in art and social work, they began Young Blood as a D.I.Y. gallery in their living room in 1997. Following media hype (Lucky magazine and the Handmade Nation documentary, among others) and much community support, Young Blood Gallery and it’s complementary, all-handmade boutique now nestles among a bike shop, a bakery and an all-vegan restaurant in one of Atlanta’s hippest neighborhoods. Part 1 of this interview lives here, and I’ll post part 3, the final portion of the interview, soon.

Jolene, the three-legged Young Blood mascot

Keep reading at Juxtapoz.

Living Walls Conference: Debate Continues

In the comments section of the Burnaway article…

There’s this, from MTM:

“My disappointment with the City is not in the lack of public work or ’street art’ but in the lack of discourse about it especially after this very egocentric grand stand of self professed street art is largely over.

I’m not sure if the conference or Pecha Kucha presentations approached any of the important questions about the act of graffiti and it’s place in art history because I didn’t attend. But from a outsiders critical and curatorial perspective, I think the project lacked some grounding and rigor. There were questions that occurred to me over the course of the thing and I wish there was more discourse about it here. Instead all I hear is “what a great party that was!” So if nothing else, yeah, it was a great gathering.

Ginger Williams’s Nesting Dolls

Ginger Williams-Cook, the Jackson, Miss. artist, interviewed on my Juxtapoz blog a few months back, is blowing up the blogsphere with her pop-culture nesting dolls. Besides a slew of design, art and personal blogs, she’s been featured on Current TV and has upcoming spots in the New York Daily News and MSNBC.

For more on Ginger’s work, check out her website. Here are some pics of her latest rock stars:

The Golden Girls