is this real?

New Bedford Open Studios

96 artists in 14 locations are participating in the 6th Annual New Bedford Open Studios. This is an event you don't want to miss!

New Bedford Open Studios includes a great breadth of work, not just in media but also style, including traditional as well as contemporary works. The settings in which these works are viewed are also diverse including, historic mills throughout this port city and vintage buildings that include a former... church. Direct interaction with artists affords visitors the chance to gain greater understanding into how and why the work they are viewing was created.

Saturday October 2 (10-5)
Sunday October 3 (11-5)

Celebrate the handmade. Great art! Great Food! Great City!

Go to www.newbedfordopenstudios.org to see a list of artists and locations. Maps can be found at all locations as well as the New Bedford Visitors Center on 33 William St.

Also check out "Sample" at Gallery X 169 William St. New Bedford featuring participating artists. This show opens Thursday September 9 (AHA! night) though October 3 and there'll be a Closing Reception Thursday September 30 from 6-8.

ELK presents Vince Aletti

I was going to write that I wasn't familiar with Vince Aletti, but on further inspection, I guess I am. Dude does the photo stuff for The New Yorker as well as countless other New York publications, not to mention working as an adjunct curator for the I.C.P. But enough with my not so unfamiliarity, read a much better description of what this new Elk zine entails from the mind of Jocko Weyland below.

"Poetic pairings as aphrodisiac, unspooling like a visually syncopated scrapbook of young male pulchritude. Dudes who were cool and looked cool without trying too hard. Blue-collar, white ethnic, from another time and place, and with an air of un-self-consciousness woefully missing in this day and age. The taboo and suppression of the era mixed with the thinly veiled and sometimes completely unmasked homoerotic nature of these striking portraits evinces a different world that burbled beneath mainstream society prior to today’s anodyne homogenization on one hand and muscle queen grotesquerie on the other. At play is a refreshing almost wholesome lubricity that pays tribute to decidedly not cheesy handsomeness in all its iterations. Pomade and brilliantine abound, as do moles, salient collarbones, strong necks, smooth chests, hairy chests, shiny backs, nice biceps, heavy brows, wide lips, Roman noses, and dark eyes. The opposite of perfect, and that’s a big part of their appeal and what makes them perfect… Kustom Kar Kommandos, Caravaggio, Tom of Finland, and the less baroque side of George Platt Lynes all come to mind, but more universally this is a celebration of eternal male attractiveness."

Release and Signing this Saturday, September 18th, at Printed Matter from 5-7PM

Preview

Here's a quick preview of Amigos 004. Hint, it's a blog, in print format. Also, we're working on having a killer release party for this so stay tuned!

General Public Library

The General Public Library is a library/reading room project organized by Art in General Designer in Residence Mylinh Nguyen. From September 16-November 13, 2010 the Storefront Project Space will serve as a reading room and will also be available online. The project will start off with the contributions from artists and the like that Nguyen has invited to contribute publications, such as Ooga Booga, Kingsboro Press and Nieves. Visitors to the reading room are also encouraged to donate a favorite book. Throughout the course of the exhibition, as visitors create their own selection of favorite books, the library will filter all donations into a catalog of the top 200 most popular books. These books will be added to the General Public Library permanent collection after the duration of the project. Nguyen also made (along with Kristian Henson), my favorite zine at Ooga Booga, Big Wave Zeen. I hope to check out this latest endeavor!

LA Redux

Visited LA recently and was overjoyed to visit Ooga Booga!


They have a sweet window installation right now by Jim Drain. The light coming in was amazing.


And some babe was picking up a copy of Prospects, which is available for purchase at the store and also here.



Nick's zine Kona is also available there! Or check it out on Nick's site here!