Showtime: Michael Portnoy @ Wilfried Lentz Gallery

Also in Rotterdam the new art season is approaching. Wilfried Lentz will open next Thursday with a solo show of American artist, musician, actor, and director of behavior - Michael Portnoy whose practice spans dance-theater, vocal power-tools, Relational Stalinism, reptangles, abstract gambling, the improvement of biennials and Icelandic cockroach porn. Pretty impressive stuff, if you ask us.



The show's title is Script Opposition in Late-Model Carrot Jokes, referring to a specific genre of jokes, which have been first proposed by cognitive linguists Chlopicki and Petray in early 80s to undermine then emerging computational models of humor analysis. These jokes, further developed by others in the field, depend on a preponderance of background incongruities, blunt omissions, faulty script switch-triggers, “gray” implicature, and missing links in inferencing.



During the opening there will be a presentation starting at 5:30 pm sharp with Michael Portnoy and humor theorists Olivier Brems and Tim De Mey. Reservations for the presentation are recommended since there is limited space to attend.



The show is running through October 8th - don't miss it!

Brussels Art Days IV

The 4th edition of Brussels Art Days will take place during the weekend of 10-11 September 2011, throughout which galleries will be open from noon to 7 pm and shuttle service will make sure that your eagerness to absorb as much visual stimuli as possible isn't diminished by any other physical or mental activity than the absolutely necessary one. If you still have any energy left at the end of the day - might be doubtful -, you can join the art crowd at The Egg for one hell of a party.



And what are the must-see shows?

You obviously should not miss any of the big names:

Almine Rech will present solo of Richard Prince's, called The Fug;

Jan Mot will be showing new works by the Mexican born and LA-based artist Mario Garcia Torres;

and Charles Riva Collection will have on display selected works by Paul McCarthy.



Artists - photographers will fill many of the other renowned galleries:

Xavier Hufkens will present the London-born and NY-based photographer Adam Fuss,

Rodolphe Janssen the young LA-based rising star Walead Beshty;

Baronian Francey shows landscape photographer Florian Maier-Aichen;

and Barbara Gladstone presents solo of French artist Jean-Luc Mylayne.



Amongst the other very promising shows are certainly:

I've got you under my skin, Carlos Aires' solo at Aeroplastics;

Kabul Time and Other Works by Jens Haaning (whose Turkish Mercedes is shown above) at D+T Project;

Little did they know by Antoine Bouillot at Alice;

and

Charlotte Beaudry at Aliceday,

Steven Baelen at Elaine Levy Project,

Michael Van den Abeele at Elisa Platteau & Cie,

Jonathan Callan at Hopstreet,

Gintaras Didziapetris at Tulips and Roses.



(For full list consult the Brussels Art Days website)

Art Nocturne in Antwerp

The holiday months are as good as over and the autumn art season is about to begin everywhere. In Antwerp, the galleries are getting ready to present some of their best race horses during Nocturne on Thursday 8 September from 6 to 9 pm.



We're looking forward to see "The Bermuda Triangle Is A Fraud" a project from Berlin-based artist Steve Schepens, on view at Galerie Van De Weghe.

Next door at Maes and Matthys, Lieven Segers' "iamleaving" triggers equal interest.

Couple of streets further Tim Van Laere presents the great Rinus Van De Velde (see image above), together with Peter Rogiers.

The American Kim Jones can be found at Zeno X.

And finally: don't miss Mark Luyten at Micheline Szwajcer.



For the more adventurous, willing the explore beyond the obvious territory of the Antwerp "south", there's Base Alpha in Borgerhout - showing Michèle Matyn - which should not be missed; and Fifty One Fine Art Photography with a solo of Saul Leiter.



Enjoy and get in the mood for the adjacent weekend event: the Brussels art parade!



(The complete program of all the galleries can be consulted via the Nocturne Calendar)

Thanks Everyone

Hey Everyone,



I hope you all survived the terrible hurricane/tropical storm that hit the east coast of the US this weekend. We only lost power and had some nearby trees fall down but that was it. Friends in VT and NC were much more hard hit. :-(



Anyway, thanks to the few of you who donated to Mira's List after my last post. I really appreciate any donation, even if it is small, like $5. It all helps to keep this blog going.



I have some new things to tell you about but will save that for later this week or weekend....lots of deadlines coming up in September and October so if you are thinking about applying for a residency or grant, now is the time to get those applications out there.



More later....love y'all!

Mirabee

Showtime: V&B @ Galerie 10

"The Study, The Work, The Oeuvre and The Collection" is a show of artistic duo V&B, opening this Friday at Galerie 10 in Utrecht.

V&B is the shared working name of Alex Jacobs and Ellemieke Schoenmaker, who started their collaboration in 2007 in Los Angeles. Their work deals with the relationships between the artist, the gallery and the collector. Ideas are transformed into photoshop collages and then turned into paintings, sculptures and installations. Using themselves and their friends as models, V&B try and comment on the art world in the broadest sense of the word.

"All we wanted was to be able to try things and to make mistakes. And if it didn't work out or if people didn't like it, it wouldn't matter because V&B are already dead."