For all of the cool kids and collectors in the know. our new frame shop is officially opening the first week of January. if you can reach me on my cell or personal email, i'll give you the address.

So it has been over a month since i posted anything to my blog. oddly i haven't heard any complaints. Anyway, i have been running for a month. 

First to Miami for Art Basel, personally i thought it was great, it was serious and all of the hype and gimmicks were gone. it was all about the art, and there was plenty of beautiful stuff. It was so real and approachable for me. it finally gave me the sense that the beast could be beaten. Maybe the dealers will turn into people again. great year, great art, i wish i had stayed an extra day.

Second, New Orleans and Prospect 1. LOVED IT!!! i have worked in museums and galleries for years. i know what it takes to put up a show. this was so impressive on so many levels. but the number of venues and the quality of the work. everything, right down to the signage design. hats off to you New Orleans, for a city that has been through so much, you have given so much back. We, of course, were there as a surprise to me. Saskia took me for my 40th Birthday, our best friends Deane and Adrienne came along. i had the best time. we ate at some of the best places. i don't care who you are, you gotta go. i will never forget it. the whole thing was incredible. New Orleans, Deane takes his hat off to you.

So now i am in Atlanta, back from Christmas in Indiana and St. Louis, getting some writing done. (i am working on an article for Art Lies magazine) the new frame shop is ready and open. We are working like crazy, seems like around the clock. 2009 is days away, after the holidays clear we will be on to bigger and hopefully better things in the screwed up economy. 

stay tuned, i will be posting details on the grand opening of Get This! Gallery's new space, with one of my other great friends Drew Conrad as the opening act. not only will it be a show, it will be a party. no joke. 

This new cinder block sculpture is created from a piece of Douglas Fir that i reclaimed from the walls in the new studio after demolition. it is 6.5"x 3.25"x 3.25". i made 8 of them from the single piece of wood. the scale is very playful, and gives me many different options for presentation. i guess the first one is pretty obvious.

How cool is this?

Thanks Wade. if anyone knows anything about this please email me.

  Sunday I returned home from my new exhibition, "Building Futures" that opened last Thursday night at Indiana State University. i would like to thank everyone there for a wonderful week of beautiful weather and great conversations.

This show is a continuation of the architectural series that i have focused on for the last few years. the major departure is the inclusion of "raw" building materials juxtaposed with the actual elevation paintings from the Case Study series. Playing with content and construction materials along side role reversal, The works talk to each other and don't need to struggle for individual identities. giving each piece room to not only speak for itself, while complimenting it's neighbor in the main gallery.

The show is broken into three spaces. The media room was turned into a reading room. Adding my concrete and pine block shelving unit as well as the Audio Buffet, i put books in the room. maybe a little too literal, actually putting books about architecture and favorite artists on the shelves. the humor comes in when you realize the drawings on the wall are all on book pages. Including my earlier series of Ellsworth Kelly Re- drawings, that i haven't shown since Franklin Sirmans included them in the Atlanta Biennial in 2002.

The final installment of the show was a complete architectural dissection of a home i found in Terre Haute, Indiana. Just down the street from the University i discovered a very modern home that spoke to me from several blocks away. A beautiful bright red ranch with a roof line that reads like the current housing market's finance charts. i wanted to do a local home so the students could walk completely through the process with me. From the conceptual graph paper drawings and color studies, to the photo collages and final constructed painting. the series of 5 drawings and 1 large painting just over 9 feet long sit alone in a small 16x 16 ft. gallery space that is included in the main gallery yet separated by it's geometry. The space creates a focus on my process and continues to inform the rest of the show.

The show runs through November 7th, if your in the area.

Just got back for another trip to NYC. We only hit one opening on this trip. Dropped by Deitch to see Ridley Howard participating in a  group show. as to be expected, 2 beautiful paintings. sorry, my photo couldn't do them justice.

We were in town with friends from Atlanta who are preparing to build a modern/contemporary house. the whole reason for the trip was the Home Delivery show at MOMA. i have to say, it was worth the trip. very inspirational for someone as interested in residential architecture and building materials as i am. Of the 5 prototypes that were commissioned. this was my favorite, it was fantastic. it really was everything you need and nothing you don't. the only real problem i had with it was that it was so beautiful that i would feel bad putting a hook in the wall to hang my Ridley Howard.

The K-9 portfolio is available. The project consists of 9 screenprints created by First Hand Editions in Charlotte, NC. The portfolio includes 9 images of iconic furniture by Mies Van der Rohe, Warren Platner  and Eero  Saarinen. All of which are produced by Knoll. The portfolio is an edition of 40, with 5 A.P.'s and 3 P.P.'s. each print is signed and number on the reverse. Please go to Solomon Projects in Atlanta or to www.firsthandeditions.com if you are interested in the portfolio which retails for 1000.00.

so we spent last weekend in San Francisco and Napa Valley. had an amazing time. It was great to see SFMOMA again. it had been too long. great to see a concentration of California artists too. Bruce Connor, Wallace Berman, Baldessari, and of course Ruscha.

i found this massive pile of I-beams on the walk to dinner on Friday night. pretty impressive and quite inspirational. the wheels are turning already.

Napa Valley was great. saw some beautiful wineries, tasted some delicious bubbles and ate like a fool. it was so good. we also took in the Hess Collection it was nice to see a collection of Franz Gertsch prints. i forgot how large they were. 

all in all a fantastic trip with great friends. i wasn't ready to come home just yet. but of course i have that pile of I-beams to work on.

Sneak Peak

Sneak Peak of a future installation 

starting my blog

hi welcome to my blog, this is a new adventure for me that i am looking forward to. As many of you already know my framing operation has closed. Sorry, but the Saltworks building was sold rather suddenly forcing all of us to find new homes/studios.

i am happy to say we are all on our feet and moving forward. i have taken a new studio at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center in the old Nexus Press building. i am very excited about this space as it is the first time in several years that my studio is 100% dedicated to the fabrication of my work. i'd like to thank the Contemporary for allowing me to use such a great space.

new equipment has been arriving and i am hoping to be operational by August 14th. just in time to finish up the last few pieces for the show that opens at Indiana State Universities gallery on Oct 9th.

This show is going to be very exciting as it is an continuation of the Solomon Projects show last year. It will include modern houses from the area as well as the California houses that i am so fond of. 

stay tuned for exhibition photos and information about the other shows i am currently working on for next year. i also have news of new print projects. One of which will be released in the next few days.