Art and Tech Update: Wonderful Town

A couple weeks ago Paul Hill (Art & Tech editor) and I made our way to New York for the opening of Sadie Benning's video Play Pause at the Whitney Museum (organized by Tina Kukielski, senior curatorial assistant at the Whitney). As some of you might recall, Sadie shot and edited Play Pause while she was an artist-in-residence in Art & Tech between 2003-2006. The video premiered here at the Wexner Center in 2007 as part of Suspended Animation, Sadie's first major solo museum exhibition, which also included her colorful, large-scale paintings.  Last week Roberta Smith wrote a glowing review of the video in the New York Times.



The video looked terrific installed in the Whitney's lobby-level gallery and the opening was great fun. It quickly became a family reunion with 10 Art & Tech alum there to celebrate Sadie. Of course, I couldn't resist the opportunity to get a group photo.



Click on the image to find out who is who. Pictured are Jem Cohen, Ellen Spiro, Martin Beck, Lucy Raven, Elisabeth Subrin, Jennifer Reeves, Sadie Benning, Cecilia Dougherty, Paul Hill, Emily Roysdon, Jennifer Lange, Josiah McElheny, and Eileen Myles (who technically didn't work in Art & Tech but who contributed an incredible essay to Sadie's Suspended Animation exhibition catalogue).

The next day Paul and I hit the Chelsea galleries, culminating with an opening at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery of yet another former Art & Tech artist, Phil Collins, who was showing photographs, a lovely slideshow presentation of his ongoing free fotolab project, and his newest video, a telenovella titled soy mi madre. (www.tanyabonakdargallery.com)

Other highlights of our whirlwind visit were Tacita Dean's exhibition at Marian Goodman Gallery, Robert Longo at Metro Pictures, and the discovery of some interesting video artists in The Generational: Younger Than Jesus at the New Museum.

Paul and I aren't the only ones on the road this spring, so check back for an update (and maybe another group photo) from studio editor Mike Olenick, who will be attending the PDX Film Festival in Portland, Oregon where he plans to attend the screenings of Art & Tech artists Ben Russell, Sam Green, and Deborah Stratman.