This is my last post. Thank you for your loyal readership over the past six months. My internship at the Chinati Foundation has come to an end, and I’ve left Texas to return to the Midwest. I can tell I’ve reacclimated to the colder weather now that temperatures above 30 degrees feel warm. If you’ve enjoyed [...]
The Marfa Book Company’s spare, beautiful installation of works on paper by Ian Hamilton Finlay—a Scottish poet, writer, artist and noted gardener who died in 2006—creates an environment that encourages study and contemplation. Finlay’s works offer provocations both visual and literary, and — in conjunction with the exhibition — organizers Tim Johnson and Caitlin Murray [...]
Marfa is full of curious things, and the Ayn Foundation is one of the most curious. The windows of the two storefronts of the old Brite Building downtown are covered with white screens. There’s a number of unused buildings with covered-up windows around town, so it’s easy to drive or ride a bike by the Brite Building [...]
In a little casita not far from downtown Marfa, Catherine Cox is working diligently to set up her studio, which she’s named Marfa Made Paper. After spending three and a half years as the studio and residency director at Dieu Donné Papermill in New York, Cox moved to Marfa late last year to establish her [...]
The last NYC vs. Marfa post was so popular that I decided to try it again. See if you can guess which photos feature Marfa and which picture scenes from New York. Answers are at the end of the post. PHOTOS ANSWERS 1) Boutique on Thompson Street, SoHo, New York 2) American Museum of Natural History, New York [...]
The Chinati Foundation is located on 340 acres of the former Fort D. A. Russell, which closed following World War II in 1946. Barracks, latrines, mess halls, a gymnasium and two artillery sheds now house permanent art installations. It was the intention of Donald Judd, the Chinati Foundation founder, to create an exhibition on the site’s military history for [...]
This summer, Ballroom Marfa hired a new curator, Mike Bianco. He replaces Alicia Ritson, who began the graduate program at the Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies this fall. Although he’s new to Ballroom, Bianco’s time in Marfa goes back half a decade. He first came to Marfa in February 2005 to intern [...]
In her review of Kate Carr’s October 2009 exhibition at Box Gallery for Art In America, Harmony Hammond positioned the artist as a feminist foil to minimalism. Although Carr’s work fits into a minimalist aesthetic, she uses materials traditionally considered feminine, such as fabric. Hammond emphasized Carr’s creative process—her repetitive layering of materials. The layered fabric, Hammond wrote, “calls up [...]
The Chinati Foundation holds its annual October open house weekend this Thursday through Sunday. You can read all about the museum-sponsored events on the foundation’s website, but it’s way harder to track down information on all the other things going on in Marfa. For this post I’ve tried to piece together listings of all the non-Chinati-related events [...]
For many travelers, the most convenient way to get to Marfa involves flying to El Paso and then driving three hours east. The short trip from the El Paso International Airport down Airway Boulevard brings you to Interstate 10, lined on either side with discount boot stores, gas stations, fast-food drive-throughs and big-box retail outlets. [...]
Texas-based artist Peter Rand took footage from a Donald Judd exhibition at Tina Kim gallery in New York and overlaid sound from the Double Rainbow viral video. It’s a simple concept, but it works so well (as evidenced by 20,000 views to date). Watch Rand’s video here. Rand agreed to answer a few questions [...]
When it comes to making sculptures, Matt Wedel likes to keep it real. “I am interested in the work not trying to be an illusion of something,” he says. It’s immediately apparent from the seven ceramic sculptures on display at Second Floor that the artist has an affinity for truth to materials. Wedel [...]
There’s one week left to see Native American Works on Paper at the El Paso Museum of Art. After five months of display, the exhibition in the museum’s first floor Gateway Gallery closes September 19. Unfortunately, the Gateway Gallery is closer aesthetically to El Paso’s Cielo Vista Mall (complete with light and sound filtering in from the adjacent museum gift [...]
You’ve come to expect insightful commentary and hard-hitting reporting from No Country for Old Interns on Glasstire.com, and this post is no exception. The Chinati Foundation may house permanent installations by renowned contemporary artists, but the museum is also home to six cats, all former strays. Up to this point, no serious scholarship has been [...]
To create Timelapse: 54 Days, Lincoln Street, Marfa-based artist Martha Hughes completed 54 paintings of the same subject—her kitchen table. Over the course of a year, Hughes photographed the table every day. Then she set to work painting. The artist describes this series as a reflection of her interest in time, but [...]
The free summer programs for children offered by Ballroom Marfa and the Chinati Foundation make me wish I were a kid again. The programs involved absolutely no pipe cleaners or Popsicle sticks, and no finger painting. With close assistance from adults, kids used real equipment for detail-oriented and highly skilled activities such as machine sewing and beat mixing. My [...]
Mona Garcia is exactly what non-Texans expect a Texan to be. A native Houstonian, she comes from oil and ranching families. She’s polite, but unafraid to speak her mind. And Mona’s a bona fide raconteur. Despite all of her Texan eccentricities (Texantricities?), for 37 of her 73 years Mona lived outside the United States. I [...]
For those of you who watched Bravo’s Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, Peregrine Honig needs no introduction. If you didn’t watch, check out Keith Plocek’s weekly recaps on Hustletown, his Glasstire.com blog. Honig took a few minutes out of a recent busy afternoon to answer some quick questions as NBC Universal attorney Maile Marshall listened in. No [...]
No single person has left as indelible a mark on Marfa as Donald Judd. The Judd logo (see above) is plastered all over downtown. Take a stroll along Highland Avenue, Marfa’s main drag, and you’ll spot the brilliant red, sans-serif letters of the Judd Foundation logo on at least four storefronts. Stop inside the Hotel Paisano gift [...]
Last month I took a break from Marfa and traveled to New York to volunteer for a week at 101 Spring Street. The Judd Foundation recently finished de-installing Donald Judd’s former residence in preparation for a three-year, $25 million renovation project. This historic building, located on the corner of Spring and Mercer streets, is literally falling apart. [...]
