neotericfineart

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Poetry and Prose Night - Thursday, June 20

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Neoteric regular James Ryan aka Olde Sake is featured here in this awesome little video my Mike Fresh, with a look into his work ethos and recording method. Beautiful production, great work guys!

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Neoteric is kicking off the summer season with a blockbuster memorial day weekend party Saturday and Sunday. Please enjoy - INSIDE: -"In Memoriam" juried art show, an exhibition themed around "memorials" featuring many local artists, this weekend only! -"The Inner Stylist" Jaymes Westfall's collection of Native American memorabilia, vintage, eclectic, rare and unique items. Succulent creations by Kaltropic. -Exhibition by Julian Goldstone Urquiza, featuring butterfly wing collages. -"Opera Series" exhibition by Daxopus, featuring pigment compositions on clay tablets. - Memorial to Tim Lee, local beloved artist and antique dealer, a special collection honoring his life and art. OUTSIDE: - MUSIC ALL WEEKEND! Starting after 5pm Saturday: DJ Nik Da Greek, San Joaquin, Jet Set Renegades Reputante, more TBA Sunday: Hot Pockets, Blind Prophet, NEGK, Mike Terra+Brian Best, laser mapping by Dario Pantosin and very special guest DJ from Argentina : Favio M (Shufflemood-Krad Records,ARG)! - Local food BBQ, with produce provided by Amber Waves Farm and beer by Montauk Brewing Company - Tori Praver Swimwear Trunkshow -Aerial yoga, demos and classes with Skybody Systems including silks, trapeze and aerial hoops. - Artist-Made Mini-Golf, a wacky course designed and built by local artists.

FREE before 6pm, $10 Admission after 6pm both days ITS SUMMER! JOIN US IN RINGING IN THE SEASON NEOTERIC STYLE!

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RIP Tim Lee

Tim was a kind, thoughtful and talented artist with a wonderful eye. Through his shell sculptures, handpicked industrial antique collection, lighting design and interior photography, Tim brought a remarkable sensibility to any project. He was a fixture here at the gallery, and we will memorialize him and his spirit with a dedicated installation for memorial day. Rest in peace.

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OPEN CALL TO ARTISTS

"In Memoriam" Juried Group Show: Memorial Day Weekend May 24 - 28, 2013 OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, MAY 24th Open call to all artists: In the spirit of Memorial Day, Neoteric Fine Art is calling for art  that serves as a specific memorial to any subject, keeping relevant to a theme of remembrance and respect. Artists may submit up to (3) pieces for consideration, of these (1) may be selected for the juried final show. Upon inclusion, there will be a $25 participation fee due at delivery of works. A guest judging panel will declare a "best in show", who will then receive a future exhibition within (1) calendar year at the gallery. All submissions must be JPEG images, sent to info@neotericfineart.com by Sunday, May 19th at 5pm. Artists will be notified of their inclusion in the show by Tuesday, May 21st. Works in all media are welcome, with a size limitation of 4' x 4' for flat media, and 4' x 4' x 4' for sculptures.   HOW TO SUBMIT: Please send images of up to (3) different, original artworks as JPEGs to info@neotericfineart.com. Only numbered, editioned prints are acceptable. Please include your name, the title(s), medium, date completed, dimensions, and price. Only flat works under 4' x 4' and sculptural works under 4' x 4' x 4' (approximately) will be accepted. All works on paper must be appropriately framed. INCLUSION PROCESS: After the initial submission process, artists that have been selected by the directors will be notified of their inclusion on Tuesday, May 21st. All art must be delivered to the gallery, ready to hang, not later than Thursday, May 23rd at 5pm. An entrance fee of $25 is due upon delivery of the artwork. The gallery will maintain a 50% commission of any sale. Only one artwork will be exhibited. JURY PROCESS: A panel of guest jurors to be determined will judge an overall "best in show" artist, who will be awarded a semi-solo exhibition at Neoteric Fine Art to take place within (1) calendar year. The artist will be notified of award on Tuesday, May 28th. IMPORTANT DATES: Submission Deadline: Sunday, May 19th Notification of Inclusion: Tuesday, May 21st Work due at Gallery: Thursday, May 23rd, 5pm Opening Reception: Friday, May 24th Art pickup: Tuesday, May 28th, 5pm

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James Katsipis: #COLDWATERSURFERSERIES, opening reception April 26th, 6-9pm. Check out the new press in this weeks East Hampton Star:

http://easthamptonstar.com/Lead-C/2013409/Auteur-Cold-Surf

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LAST WEEKS EAST HAMPTON STAR ARTICLE! CHECK IT OUT!

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The Mad Professor Pockets, presenting a little "Math Magic" at the Neoteric Symposium II last friday night.

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Dan "San Joaquin" Asselin Takes Climate Change to Obamas Doorstep. From This Week's EH Star...

He Helped Move A Movement

South Fork native was bus organizer for rally in D.C.

By Christopher Walsh | February 21, 2013 - 11:59am

Dan Asselin, second from right, served as a volunteer bus organizer for Forward on Climate, a rally to combat climate change held in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. Brian Goodwin

    The largest climate rally in the nation’s history happened in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, and the movement to mitigate climate change has Dan Asselin to thank for some of the estimated 50,000 attendees.     Mr. Asselin, a musician who grew up in East Hampton and has performed at venues including Neoteric Fine Art in Amagansett, served as a volunteer bus organizer for the Forward on Climate rally, which was spearheaded by the groups 350.org, the Sierra Club, and the Hip Hop Caucus. One hundred fifty buses brought approximately 7,500 people from 30 states to the rally, said Mr. Asselin, with buses leaving from locations throughout New York City and Long Island. One, he said, carried a contingent from Hurricane Sandy-ravaged Far Rockaway, Queens.     “Sunday was pretty amazing,” Mr. Asselin said of the rally. “At one point, we were standing in front of the White House, the entire mass of people was coming down Pennsylvania Avenue, and it was endless.”     The rally, he said, “is about showing the Obama administration and, really, the entire U.S. government that this is important to us. It may not be on their radar, but it’s on ours.”     At the forefront of the climate change mitigation movement, said Mr. Asselin, are efforts to halt the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which would transport synthetic crude oil from Canada to multiple points in the United States, and a campaign, beginning with colleges and universities, to divest from fossil fuel companies.     Mr. Asselin pointed to Bill McKibben, an author, activist, the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College in Vermont, and founder of 350.org, as a primary inspiration for his activism. “350.org is decisively leading the way in advocating for a sane response to climate change,” he said. “They’re responding to some really discouraging political apathy and avoidance across the board. People, citizens from all across the country, are responding to that.”     Mr. McKibben, said Mr. Asselin, “kind of wrote the book on climate change.” Indeed, Mr. McKibben’s books include “The End of Nature,” an early warning about climate change published in 1989, and “Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet” from 2010. “The idea of a climate that was warming due to human causes had been around,” Mr. Asselin said, “but he put it on the map in a real way.”     Mr. Asselin, who lives in Brooklyn, referred to his roots on the South Fork as another motivating force behind his passion for environmental activism. “Growing up in a rural environment is what makes me feel so connected to this issue. I know, just from doing outreach, that a lot of people in the city don’t see the connection,” he said.     Similarly, he and some others of his generation — Mr. Asselin is 26 — are sometimes frustrated by their peers’ apathy. “That’s why things are how they are,” he said. “My generation is politically apathetic. And I was too, until this issue lit me up. I know that state very well. It’s a sad place to be.”     But, he added, “it’s not completely their fault. They see the political system is really corrupt. They think their voice doesn’t matter. The relationship between corporations and the federal government is messed up. But this generation is really capable of organizing itself. We had 112 on two buses; all of them paid online and were ready to come down at 7 a.m. on a Sunday. So there’s some hope.”     And while 50,000 is a modest figure relative to some previous rallies in Washington, that number is both a milestone and one that may be surpassed as 350.org carries out its mission to build “a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis,” according to its Web site.      For Mr. Asselin, the Forward on Climate rally was personally fulfilling as well. “I’ve been so completely immersed in the coordination and planning for the buses,” he said, “and all the responsibilities that go along with that, that being there was a very personal experience.”

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Now a monthly series, the "Neoteric Symposium II" is another round-table of short presentations by local artists, curators, professionals, hobbyists, thinkers etc..in the "PechaKucha" format - 10 minutes, 10 slides. This months presenters include: Scott Bluedorn - "Vormiculture (worm farming)" Mark Crandall - "Hoops 4 Hope" Denise Lassaw - "The Art and Life of Ibram Lassaw" James Ryan - "Cymatics: Visible Sound" Serge LeComte - "The Philosophy of Logic" Bring an open mind! Refreshments will be served! $10 / Free for members*

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Soak Hides and Olde Sake, burning down the house last Friday at the Freak Show! Amazing night thanks to NEGK, Blind Prophet, Shadi, Phil farrell, Matt Schmitt, James Ryan, Dario "Dadio" Pantosin for the laser mapping, and Chloe Gifkins for the photos!

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An Interview with San Joaquin

Last friday, San Joaquin (aka Dan Asselin) played a show here at the gallery, formally releasing his new album "One-Take Zeroisms". Dan or (San) is not only an unbelievably talented musician and song-smith, but also one my best and oldest friends. I ask him a few questions here about his latest recording effort and what is next on his horizon:

Where did this album "One-Take Zeroisms" come from? What does the title mean?

That's a good question.  I wish I had a more poetic answer about where it came from.  It came about 90% out of necessity to have a representation of what I sound like now-a-days.  I've changed a lot over the years as a performer and songwriter, and most of it has gone undocumented, that is, without recorded evidence. I've avoided recording in the past with the help of an intense fear of it, a lack of money and a perfectionistic paralysis, topped off by an insatiable distractibility.  But those days are over, mostly.  The other 10% is that, looking back over all my material, the thread that holds it all together is the emotional ground from which all my songs are written: a deep feeling of lacking something, of being without.  Not very noble.  "Zero" comes to mind as the corresponding mathematical concept. Empty space to be filled. So the songs are "Zeroisms."  They're "1-Take Zeroisms" because I recorded each song in one take, with one mic, without any additional tracking. 

What were your influences and inspirations in making the album?

I was really influenced by phone conversations -- more like coaching sessions -- with Darwin Deez, who kept saying "man you gotta record something and just give that shit to people and just get on the road and just play, play, play, play, and good things will happen."  Darwin also looked at early drafts of a bunch of the songs and helped me make them stronger.  So his poetic choices and sensibilities were very much in the air, but I'd be surprised if anyone could locate an aesthetic similarity between us.  We couldn't be more different musically I think, though I admire and respect his stuff a lot.  The old blues guys were on my mind, too.  Remembering that one mic and one take was how they recorded back in the day.  In some ways, that's all that's needed.  In terms of my musical idols -- Jeremy Enigk, Eddie Vedder, Peter Gabriel, Tom Waits, etc --   I tried to just focus on the physical act of singing and playing and let my natural sound come out without being hindered by my ability to impersonate.  That's hard work; arguably impossible.   

Can you describe your song writing process?

Most of the time I'm just walking along and there's some flash of personal insight -- some glimpse of clarity about a relationship or some struggle I'm having -- and suddenly the emotional journey of a song appears all at once in my, I don't know, body? Imagination? Not sure where it is located... I can only describe it as a shape of some kind.  The song has its own shape before it comes into fruition and if I'm writing a lot of songs at the time I can perceive a new shape really crisply and commit it to lyrics and music surprisingly quickly. Usually in a few hours I've constructed the backbone of the song. Rhyming and all that, and choruses and trying to be catchy is more of an intellectual process that's happening parallel to the intuitive process.  It's a separate, more mappable and predictable type of creativity that if I'm not careful can take over and destroy the unconstructed beauty a song is trying to communicate.  My songs -- I think all songs -- are better if they're like 80% mysterious and instantaneous, and like 20% formalized and clever.  A song needs to be somewhat equipped for battle analytically, or else it can alienate certain types of listeners.  Even if someone is wooed by your song live, if your lyrics are not speaking to them intellectually and the melodies are so-so, their brain will end up chomping it up on the recording and they will realize that they feel disconnected from it when you're not there emoting it in real time. I hope that doesn't happen on "1 Take Zeroisms."  I tried to give it as much straightforwardness as I could for that very reason.  People still might feel disconnected from some tunes.  Sorry.      Whats your favorite song on the album and why?

Weirdly, I want to say "Dream Song 1 (Island)."  I doubt I will ever play it live without it being requested because it's a little too heavy emotionally for most people's tastes I think.  But why it's my favorite is because I barely wrote it.  The song essentially appeared.  I woke up with all the images in my head from a really vivid dream I had just had, and for the first time in my entire life, the melody -- that main verse melody -- just appeared in my head upon waking.  I started humming it still in bed and was like, "Hmmm, I should probably write this shit down.  Nah, I'll just go back to sleep.  No, I really should write this down now or I'm going to forget." So I got up, grabbed my guitar and had most of the song down in about a half hour. Then it was okay to go back to sleep.  I wished that happened more often. 

What is the future of San Joaquin?

The future of San Joaquin is tied to our climate future.  That's the way I see it.  If we continue to live in a world where, despite climate instability and its consequences, people still desire to come to performances and keep listening to recordings on their own, I will keep making it the central activity of my life to provide that.  If we're all scrounging around for food and fighting off zombies, you can bet I won't be pontificating in my room about how to craft the perfect song.  I will be out there on the front lines, on the zombie side. Hahahaha.  Just kidding, I will be on the human side.  So, in a hotter but basically livable world, San Joaquin will be a fully fledged, touring band focusing on text-based albums, like the album I've been working on based on New York City tenement life in the 19th Century.  In Apocalypse-land, I'll be trying to help out wherever I'm needed, and remembering that "Hey! Nobody promised us a rose garden, damn it! This is life. Shit is hard. Look at one page of any history book." 

Check out www.sanjoaquinmusic.com for more info!

San Joaquin, Photos by Mia Berg

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This Friday! For the last event of the year, and last of the music series, Neoteric Fine Art presents the "Neoteric Symposium", a show-and-tell of multiple presentations by local people on a variety of interesting topics. Based on the popular "PechaKucha" format (as presented by the Parrish Art Museum), the symposium will aim to provide a forum for ideas and introduce the people behind them. A listing of presenters will be available on the gallery website www.neotericfineart.com. For the second part of the night, local singer and songwriter San Joaquin (aka Dan Asselin) will perform from his newly released album "Zeroisms", from 9-10:30 pm. This combined event is a fundraiser for further aid to Hurricane Sandy charities, with a suggested donation of $10.

Scheduled Speakers: Dan Asselin - (Advocate for Climate Change Awareness, 350.org) Breahna Arnold - (Fine Art and Metalcraft) Scott Bluedorn - (Vermiculture - 'Worm Farming') Paul Brooke Jr. - (Photographer, Montauk Fishing) Andrea Cote - (Performance Artist) Rossa Cole - (Ecological Artist) Vaughn Cutillo - (MTK Brewing Company) Jody Gambino - (Wire-wrap Jewelry) With more to be announced... Please join us!

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So, I guess we made it through the end day of end days. The opening last friday was as brilliant as armageddon could possibly be, the show is up until January 15 (or longer), come check it out!

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Neoteric Booth at Red Dot, Art Basel Miami 2012

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"Tatanua"

found materials, 2012

This is a wearable mask I built from all found materials, in imitation of the "soul mask" tradition of New Ireland, an island close to New Guinea. It was a logical further step from the mask-assemblages I started making 2 years ago. I continue to be fascinated by Polynesian/Oceanic cultures and their creative ingenuity with materials and form. The idea behind the mask is the "sarcastic" imitation of these isolated cultures using their found organic materials, and how my found, artificial materials mirror their process in modernized, open society.

-Scott Bluedorn

More on Tatanua (Soul Masks) from New Ireland:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatanua_mask