Newsroom

“The idea came out of being couch-ridden with a broken leg on a TV-viewing binge…”

February 28, 2013

A fresh review of North of South, West of East, the multi-channel narrative film that premiered here at Ballroom as part of our 2011 fall visual arts exhibition, AutoBody. The write-up also features a brief Q&A with director Meredith Danluck, excerpted below.

“The idea came out of being couch-ridden with a broken leg on a TV-viewing binge while reading about durational cinema from the 1970s,” said Danluck over a phone conversation to her home base, New York City. “I wanted to see all the characters outside of their dramatic moments, the dead time and spaces in between became interesting and full of potential.”

Linda Matalon’s echo echo

February 27, 2013

Ballroom alum Linda Matalon‘s solo exhibition echo echo opens 27 February 2013 — that’s tonight! — at Blackston in New York.

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Untitled, 2011, 22 x 30 inches, graphite and wax on paper

Blackston is pleased to present echo echo, Linda Matalon‘s first solo exhibition with the gallery. A reception for the artist will be held on Wednesday, February 27th from 6 to 8 p.m.

Matalon‘s exhibition presents a range of two-dimensional works where spatial relationships, temporal associations and material process interplay within and between works to evidence the sublime in art-making. In Matalon‘s works on paper, complex surfaces, while subtle at first glance, are worked with a rigorous hand: drawing with wax, scraping, graphite, mark-making and rubbing are all integral to the work, as is physicality and time. A sculptural approach to building up or breaking down surfaces, distress and erasure is clearly at work, but in the precarious balance between mark and surface, a delicacy prevails: a balanced territory where space and time flatten and expand.

The works in this exhibition speak to liminal space, where the resonance between pieces adds to the inherent contingency of any individual piece. Further, in showing her work Matalon mixes pieces and mediums from different time periods to generate a new, comprehensive whole. …

Read more about the exhibition at the Blackston website

Rashid Johnson’s Shea Butter Has Arrived

February 26, 2013

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“You could listen to the Blakey album while you’re putting on shea butter and reading the Ellis Cose book. Maybe you would kind of understand how I came to make it. Because that’s how I made it, by listening to the album, reading the book and y’know, putting on shea butter which I kind of consistently do throughout the day, which is why my skin is so soft.”

Rashid Johnson discussing his work The End of Anger, 2012 in an interview with the BBC. Click below to watch the full interview.

Second Jeff Mangum Show Added!

February 22, 2013


Jeff Mangum live in Athens, GA in 1997

Ballroom Marfa and Tiger Mountain are pleased to announce that we have added a second Jeff Mangum performance on March 31, 2013. Doors for this later show will open at 10pm at the Crowley Theater in Marfa, Texas.

Mangum is the singer and principal songwriter of the legendary band Neutral Milk Hotel. Tickets for the 7:30pm Marfa show are sold out.

Tickets are $20, and are available from the Ballroom Marfa online shop and at the gallery starting at 12pm CST on Friday, February 22, 2013.

Please note: No photography and no recording permitted during the show, including cell phones. $1 from each ticket goes to benefit Children of the Blue Sky. Special thanks to Jennifer Bell, Daniel Chamberlin, the Crowley Theater, Rob Crowley, Tim Crowley, Marfa Recording Company and Jack McFadden. Photo of Jeff Mangum by Corey Greenwell.

New Eleanor Friedberger Music!

February 21, 2013

Now available in the Ballroom Marfa store: The new Eleanor Friedberger 7-inch single recorded at the Marfa Recording Company, featuring a crew of Marfa players — the Cashiola brothers, Chris Hillen and Brian LeBarton — known from local bands like Candles and Hotel Brotherhood. Colt Miller of the Cobra Rock Boot Company accompanies Eleanor with banjo and pedal steel, adding the finishing touches to the session’s classic West Texas vibes. Click here to read more.

“I’ll Never Be Happy Again” b/w “Dallas,” is out now in a limited edition of 500 on Ballroom Marfa. The A-side is also available as a download on iTunes.

For more information, please visit Eleanor Friedberger on .

Scenes from Ballroom Marfa’s Valentine’s Dance featuring Gary P. Nunn + Primo Carrasco & Friends

February 19, 2013

Valentine's Dance with Gary P. Nunn, 15 February 2013. Photo by Lesley Brown. Gary P. Nunn show, 15 February 2013. Photo by Lesley Brown.

Scenes from Ballroom Marfa’s Valentine’s Dance with Gary P. Nunn, 15 February 2013. All photos by Lesley Brown.

The Gary P. Nunn performance was made possible by the generous support provided by Janie and Dick DeGuerin.

Special thanks to David Beebe, The Big Bend Sentinel, Biff Bolen, Primo Carrasco, Ross Cashiola, Daniel Chamberlin, Rob Crowley, Dirk Fowler, Cristina Garces, Marfa Public Radio, Marfa Recording Company, Tom Michael and Gary Oliver.

Beer generously donated by Big Bend Brewing Company.

Primo Carrasco & Friends, 15 February 2013. Photo by Lesley Brown.

Primo Carrasco & Friends, 15 February 2013. Photo by Lesley Brown.

Lots more photos after the jump!

Classic Gary P. Nunn from 1974

February 15, 2013

The Lost Gonzo Band featuring Gary P. Nunn, performing his “London Homesick Blues” in 1974 at Willie’s Second Annual Independence Day Picnic in College Station, Texas. HISTORY.

Don’t miss Gary with Primo Carrasco & Friends here at Ballroom Marfa tonight! 7pm doors; 8pm show. Tickets $10 at the door. [en español]

Baile de San Valentín con Gary P. Nunn + Primo Carrasco & Friends

February 13, 2013

Gary P. Nunn poster, designed by Dirk Fowler

Por lo que parece, la historia de amor más duradera en la vida de Gary P. Nunn es con el estado de Texas.
Aunque él nació en Oklahoma, su trabajo se caracteriza por la creación de canciones inspiradas en su
profundo afecto por el Estado de Lone Star. El legendario compositor ofrecerá en breve su repertorio a los
residentes de una de las ciudades más románticas del Trans-Pecos. Únete a nosotros aquí en Marfa, en el
día del Baile de San Valentín el Viernes, 15 de febrero 2013.

Nunn es conocido por su canción “London Homesick Blues” una balada cantada desde el punto de vista
de un músico country varado en Inglaterra, suspirando por los armadillos, la música country y las mujeres
atractivas con las que Texas es a menudo asociada. Esta canción fue convertida en éxito por Jerry Jeff
Walker y David Allan Coe, y más tarde, inmortalizada como tema musical de larga duración para la PBS,
escaparate de la música en directo de la Austin City Limits.

Integrado en la región, Nunn encontró su lugar tocando el teclado con The Fabulous Sparkles, una banda
de garaje con nombres tan destacados en la escena del West Texas de los 60 como Joe Ely y Jimmie Dale
Gilmore. Después de mudarse a Austin para obtener la licenciatura en farmacia en la Universidad de Texas,
Nunn se involucró en el emergente country independiente tocando el bajo para Michael Martin Murphy y
Willie Nelson.

En poco tiempo se sintió en casa con la Lost Gonzo Band, volviendo con Jerry Jeff Walker en 1973 con
Viva Terlingua!, un disco que ocupa con Honky Tonk Heroes y Shotgun Willie un lugar dentro de los clásicos de la música country progresiva. Es también un homenaje conmovedor como era de esperar a uno
de últimos enclaves del auténtico espíritu Big Bend.

Nunn haría otros tres álbumes con Lost Gonzo Band y luego comenzó a actuar bajo su propio nombre
en los años 80. En consonancia con el espíritu que lo definió desde el principio, él dio un nuevo enfoque
práctico a su carrera en solitario, evitando grandes discográficas, lanzando su propia música y dirigiéndose
hacia registros cercanos a Campfire Records, un sello discográfico independiente con base en San Antonio
con quien ha publicado nueve álbumes.

Como declaró en Amarillo Globe-News el año pasado,

“He sido independiente desde el primer día … Hubo un tiempo en el que uno no podía grabar un disco a
menos que tuviera un contrato discográfico, pero yo dije, ‘¿Por qué ?’ Así que siempre he hecho mis propios
discos

“Realmente, en mi mente, siempre he tratado de trabajar para una industria de la música en Texas, y
siempre he tratado de ser un ejemplo para los que vienen después, para que sepan cómo las cosas pueden
hacerse de manera independiente. “

Su obra más reciente One Way or Another de 2012 cuenta, con su primera actuación “Couldn’t Do
Nothin’ Right”, una de sus canciones más conocidas por ser el single del álbum de debut de Rosanne Cash
en 1979.

Nunn nunca ha escondido su amor por Texas, y el ex gobernador de Texas, Mark White lo nombró
Embajador Oficial de la Humanidad en 1985. En 1995 fue incluido en el Paseo de la Fama de West Texas,
y en 2004 en el Salón de la Fama de Texas.

La atracción por esta tierra va más allá de patriotismo y el compositor se ve apoderado por una pasión de la
que todo el público podrá disfrutar y sentir cuando Nunn y su banda se unan a nosotros aquí en Marfa para
una noche de amor en el West Texas con motivo del día de San Valentín.

Gary P. Nunn tocará en Ballroom Marfa a las 8 pm del 15 de febrero. Entradas $10 en la puerta.

On Location With Rashid Johnson

February 12, 2013

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On location at the Marfa shoot for Rashid Johnson‘s video work, set to debut at his New Growth solo exhibition at Ballroom Marfa on 8 March 2013.

From left to right: Samuel Lee Roberts (dancer), Rashid Johnson (artist), Erin Kimmel (Associate Curator), Alex Ernst (Assistant to Rashid Johnson) and Robert Davis (Rashid Johnson Studio Fabricator).

Rashid Johnson on Wikipedia; Rita Ackermann on Hauser & Wirth

February 11, 2013

Rashid Johnson New Growth

If you’re looking to read up on Rashid Johnson before New Growth opens here at Ballroom on March 8, perhaps his Wikipedia page is not the best place to start. As Glasstire reported from Johnson’s talk at the Art Aspen Preview Party this past August,

It was kind of odd to see Johnson introduced as a “post-black” artist. The notion perhaps came from his Wikipedia entry, which he immediately dismissed, saying as he started “whoever wrote my Wikipedia entry is totally wrong.”

So perhaps your time will be better spent curled up with one of the many PDFs available from the artist’s press archives at the Hauser & Wirth or David Kordansky Gallery websites. Ian Bourland’s “The Brother from Another Planet” [PDF] seems like a good place to start.

And speaking of Hauser & Wirth, Vulture has a profile of their new West Chelsea gallery space in which former Chinati artist-in-residence Rita Ackermann offers the following assessment of the organization’s frank approach to art dealing:

“You can be a great artist but still make really horrible decisions,” says Ackermann, who felt that, when she met Marc Payot, the also-Swiss head of Hauser & Wirth in New York, “it was the first time in my life when I had spoken honestly and completely with a dealer.” Payot tells her, she says, “This is a better one, that is a worse one, that is a piece of shit.”

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