Ballroom Marfa

Suprise show: CSS! Next weekend, May 27!

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:05:34 +0000

CSS playing Webster Hall last year. Courtesy of mga.

We’re way excited to have über fun Brazilian band CSS play a benefit concert for us on Sunday, May 27. That’s in 13 days! Less than two weeks! Memorial Day weekend! Get your head in the game! Tickets $10, show at the Capri, total dance party. (Also if you’re looking for a distraction, check out their tumblr, where I spent 1-3 hours today, browsing videos and gifs of L7 and Jodie Foster.). –NI

At the Drive-In posters, drying on the line

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 00:22:02 +0000

Photo by Stefaan duPont, April 2012

In-town promotional posters for At the Drive-In, drying on the line. Designed by our superstar rad intern and artist Rosa McElheny and spraypainted by pals Stefaan duPont, Sarah Murphy, and our gallery manager, Hilary duPont. Thanks to Stefaan for the great image — check out more photos from Stefaan and Sarah’s sojourn in Marfa and roadtrip across the States here. –NI

Aritmetiche Architteture Sonore

admin — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:40:45 +0000

Roberto Pugliese, whose incredible installation A Voice In the Desert is currently humming in our courtyard, is about to open a new solo show at Studio La Citta in Verona, Italy. Arithmetical Sound Architectures continues the artist’s investigation of the “relationship between architectonic space and sound conveyed by mathematical laws.” This time, instead of culling data from the internet, the pieces use data drawn from the physical parameters of the installation itself, from “the architectural measurements of the room hosting the work, to the acoustic resonance present in the room itself, and to the length of the steel cables to which the speakers are fixed.” Read more about the show here, and check out this review of Roberto’s work from NY Arts Magazine. Sounds good, looks good! – RM

Photo: Studio La Citta

Climate as Culture: Art, Imagination and Social Change

admin — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:11:09 +0000

Cape Farewell, an interdisciplinary project of David Buckland, just opened a new show at the Espace Fondation EDF in Paris, France. Titled Carbon 12, the show is a counterpart to Ballroom Marfa’s fall 2012 exhibiton, Carbon 13, also curated by Buckland. Both shows ask artists to think about, respond to, and propose solutions for the global climate change crisis. Read more about the exhibition and accompanying conference here, and more about Cape Farewell on their website. Can’t wait for Carbon 13! – RM

Mountain Man redux

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:55:00 +0000

It’s weird, as the music person here at Ballroom, sometimes I don’t get to enjoy the concerts in the moment, because I’m kind of a nervous person and always running around making sure everything’s running smoothly. Such is what happened for me at the Feist show, and I kind of missed the opening band, Mountain Man, who I’d never heard of. But we bought the record, and whoa, it’s pretty stunning. I’m trying to hunt down their origin story, learn more about them, but the whole thing’s a great reminder about how much amazing music and how many treasures are out there. WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED. –NI

“If you could steal any artwork in the world to have up in your home, what would it be?”

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:38:57 +0000

Photo: pingpongdeath, via Flickr

What a question from this totally awesome interview with Anthony Discenza, Oakland-based artist whose eerie and totally awesome piece, A Viewing: The Effect, is on view now as part of Data Deluge. In case you can’t see the piece here in Marfa, you can also catch it at SFMOMA, where it is on view as part of the exhibition Descriptive Acts through June 17. Cool! – RM

Robert D. Junior

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:33:44 +0000

Photo of Roberto Pugliese’s A Voice in the Desert by Robert D. Junior. Where is he from, who is he, we love his photos. They are rad (be sure to check out his photo of Matthew Day Jackson’s Sculpture for My Right Hand and every single shot from At the Drive-In). Just saw that his book, You Will Live Forever, a series of photographs exploring architectural apathy and personal isolation, is available from Shabazz Projects. Yours for $8, and only 100 copies printed. –NI

Anthony Gormely: Facts and Systems

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:46:44 +0000

British artist Anthony Gormely, whose work will be included in Ballroom’s upcoming exhibition Carbon 13, has a new show up in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Facts and Systems is a special project of the White Cube gallery, and the recent work included in this show is a counterpart to a concurrent retrospective at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil. Check it all out here! –RM

Here comes the summer!

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:45:16 +0000

Ballroom’s Associate Curator Erin Kimmel, Gallery Manager Hilary duPont, and Drive-In Project Manager Melissa McDonnell outside the gallery.

Today was so lovely outside we had to stop and admire this agave plant! A sign of full-on spring-almost-summer, the agave grows its mast and flowers only once in its life. (I should add that the title of this post comes from here).

Science on the back end, or: What you’ll be doing tomorrow night

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:55:53 +0000

Lake — Erin Shirreff, 2012 Colour video, silent

Board member, artist and awesome guy Matthew Day Jackson just curated a show, Science on the Back End, that opens tomorrow, May 1, at Hauser & Wirth in New York. As Matt says in his curator’s statement (written “from a hotel in Frankfurt unable to sleep”):

I am not a curator. I merely selected the five artists for this exhibition and left to them the decision of which artworks to present. These artists inspire me. Their artistic reality is full, expansive, and not contingent on the studio environment. … I neither suggested nor requested specific works for the show. My interest lies instead in the larger creative impulse that the six of us share and the way in which each one of us processes and reorders our life experience into formal strategies, according to our personal priorities. I believe those formal strategies develop as we systematically gain knowledge through the experience of life every day, and they become a language we use to communicate with each other and the larger world.

The lineup includes five of our personal favorites (and almost all Marfa alums): Larry Bamburg, Marc Ganzglass, Rosy Keyser, Erin Shirreff, and Nick van Woert. Don’t miss it. Tomorrow night, May 1, from 6 to 8 pm. Show runs until June 16. –nicki