Friday, July 9, 2010

Reasons to visit St Louis besides beer

I saw from Hyperallergic that the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts is putting on a show for Ann Hamilton. I love Ann. I was introduced to her by the brilliant Ren Weschler. Ren and I were bouncing ideas around for a show we did back in 2007 and he was like, "You know who you should call? Ann Hamilton." I think I said something like, "Uh. How?" To which Ren was like, "Oh, here's her phone number." Which, still, to this day, kind of blows my mind. That guy's iPhone is golden. He pretty much knows everyone in the art world. The best thing about Ren though, is that there is no pretention. He's just really, wildly, intensely interested in art and artists. Ren gets it in a way that artist's tend to get it, that is to say, he's not an artist but he thinks like one. And of course, he really is an artist when you consider his writing, so, there you go. I love Ren's series about Hockney's iPhone paintings. He's one of a handful of people that much on the inside to recieve directly this work and I love that he shares.



Anyway. Ren set up a panel discussion that year for the Chicago Humanities Festival with Ann Hamilton, Lucy Lippard, and Tara Donovan (whom we ended up showing - Donvan, that is) and Ann came to our opening night. Much like my experience with Judy Pfaff, Ann was someone I simply did not want to let go. She was intensely engaging without being overbearing. I simply wanted to keep talking with her. About anything. I hope I get down down to St Louis before next year to see her new work. I hope one day that we might show some of her work. It's tricky, though, as she does a lot of installation. You essentially have to get up-front funding to pull that off. I'm looking at you major investors in Chicagoland. Let's make this thing happen here!

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