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| London, Miami and Art in America December, 2007 Happy New Year. I end 2007 on a good note, happy to say. My Torture exhibition, which opened at Toomey Tourell Gallery in January 2007, has had a pretty good run so far, and there is still more to come. You'll be pleased to know that I am working on a new body of work (so that I'm not forever associated with Torture) which also includes an amazing billboard project as well as a book, the details of which I will share in my next update. Following a successful and fascinating exhibit at Art Beijing with Michael Petronko Gallery in September, the show went on to London in October, at the invitation of Bridge Art Fair, and finished the year, again with Toomey Tourell at the Bridge Art Fair in Miami during Art Basel. The cherry on top was a great review by the renowned Peter Selz in the December 2007 issue of Art in America. Thanks for all the support and encouragement throughout the year. Have a happy and healthy New Year. Till next year. Clinton |
| Torture on the Road Art Beijing There were two things that really struck me. The first was, as one Chinese woman told me (through a translator), she thought the original Abu Ghraib images were just anti-American propaganda by the Chinese government. Upon seeing my simulated images, it dawned on her that what happened at Abu Ghraib must have been real. The notion of simulations serving to make real what the actual images failed to do was something I never would have occurred to me. The second was that unlike either England or America, the Chinese seemed to have no qualms about allowing their children to study the images, which many did quite intently. >>Art Beijing Photos: Reactions |
| Bridge Art Fair, London >>Bridge London Art Fair |
| Bridge Art Fair, Miami >>Bridge Art Fair, Miami |
| Most Recent Reviews/Commentary Peter Selz, Art in America >>Peter Selz, Art in America, December 2007 |
| Art Basel: Miami 2007, Clinton Fein, and The Abu Ghraib Prison Tortures Anyway, the piece that really impacted me was located in the Bridge Art Fair at the Catalina Hotel, where all the hotel rooms became galleries. As you would walk from hotel room to hotel room you looked at what each gallery had to offer. With in this labyrinth of art, The Toomey Tourell Gallery showed Clinton Fein's Torture Exhibition [...] [...] I casually saw two huge photographs of Abu Ghraib tortures in the hallway of the hotel, we continued to stroll in to the room where the gallery was showing Clinton Fein's work. As you walked into the room you saw four people talking, but it was as if they were not there because the most eye-catching piece of art was Fein's "Rank and Defile 1." Right after I saw the photograph, I turned around to see the other pieces in the room, but I couldn't keep my eyes off the picture. ...more Patricia Helena Micolta, Eclectic Fusion, January 13, 2007 |
| Art Basel - Bridge Art Fair Opening Sprinkled through the Collins Avenue hotel's faintly musty halls were Clinton Fein's in-your-face, politically-charged digital depictions of torture that you couldn't pass without a glance or thought, even if you wanted to. On the first floor, a 60-by-45 shot showed a naked model of an Abu Ghraib prisoner with a sack over his head on his knees forced to perform oral sex on another. ...more Miami New Times, December 7, 2007 |
| Oh My Ami Though in the higher category, the three standouts of the week were works by photographer Clinton Fein (showing at Toomey Tourell who had stands at two fairs). The work, a partial commentary (sort of a brutal homoerotic take) on Abu Ghraib, were striking, visceral and bloodied bodies, masculine, pretty raw stuff. Nothing else quite like it in the fairs. ...more TJ Norris, UnBlogged, December 11, 2007 |
| Bridge: Chicago fair launches first London edition Spread across five floors of the Trafalgar Hotel in the shadow of Nelson's Column, the Bridge Art Fair is offering a range of contemporary work from paintings to video. First launched in Chicago, mainly with local dealers, the fair has expanded with editions in Miami and New York; this year it comes to London for the first time with over 70 dealers, as well as rooms devoted to individual artists' displays. Determined to make an impact, the fair has not shied away from promoting controversial works. [...] [...] In one of the artist's project rooms, Clinton Fein (517) has re-enacted the photographs of US soldiers abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib in his own high resolution, wall-sized prints. ...more Helen Stoilas and James Knox, The Art Newspaper, October 12, 2007 |
| Pointing Fingers Twas the Night After Christmas Iraq still a quagmire, he felt a strong urge To tout the success of Petraus' surge If not for the violence and political mess No one could argue the scale of success. So goddamn upsetting he wanted to cry Or break a few laws, maybe eavesdrop or spy On citizens, idiots, who thought they were free Duped by "reporters" who wrote for a fee. The flag waving patriots who've never seen war Were clinging at straws like they had once before Christmas Eve fun for the troops in Iraq Their kids home alone, simply shit out of luck. First Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld then Ashcroft and Meyers Gone were the assholes that started the fires Ridge and Alberto now just ghosts from the past His legacy dead, for the die have been cast. Twas the Night After Christmas: Expanded |
| Kids Who Kill Dogs Not much to say about this loser that hasn't already been said. The new rising star of the Republican presidential hopefuls is a former governor of Arkansas with a few choice attributes that make him the perfect Republican. He equates homosexuality with pedophilia and necrophilia (perhaps an association made by spending too much time in Church), refused to retract his absurd 1992 comment that people with AIDS should be quarantined, and is one of those self-appointed soldiers for Christ, to whom the fringes on the religious right gravitate like flies to feces. As revelation after revelation of the CIA's torture policies under the Bush administration swirl with headline grabbing attention, Mike Huckabee released a Christmas campaign ad in which he states: "What really matters is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ." ...more Kids Who Kill Dogs: Expanded |
| My 10th Anniversary!!! Since most people would qualify me as single, I began to think of the ramifications. My choosing to be single is a perfectly legitimate social choice. When I made the decision to refrain from long-term relationships, I forfeited the opportunity for my friends and family to celebrate my choice. There have been no registries, no toasters, no fabulous silverware, or any of the items that are usually given to help sustain a new relationship. As my siblings married, they were given gifts designed to strengthen their bonds, but really just saved them having to go out and buy a bunch of shite for the house. I never received anything, despite my household being just as plagued by bachelorhood, and just as capable of benefiting from many of the same upgrades, simply because I've chosen to avoid contractually binding myself to a long-term, supposedly monogomous nuclear family structure. ...more My 10th Anniversary: Expanded |
| Unbearable in Sudamn "She got a very light punishment...Actually, it's not much of a punishment at all. It should be considered a warning that such acts should not be repeated." Thus spake Rabie A. Atti, a Sudanese government spokesman referring to the conviction and sentence of British teacher, Gillian Gibbons, who was sentenced to 15 days in prison and a deportation. She could have spent months in jail and been lashed 40 times, after she allowed her 7-year-old pupils name a class teddy bear Muhammad. Call me multiculturally insensitive, but isn't lashing a woman forty times just slightly more offensive than naming a stupid teddy-bear Muhammed? Unbearable in Sudamn: Expanded |
| Rupert and Rudy Giuliani's response to the Judith Regan lawsuit, was to dismiss it as sounding like a "gossip column story," and one not worthy of his response. That strategy might have worked for George Bush Senior when asked about his adulterous affair, but Giuliani might not be so lucky. For one, even his Republican opponents are already all over it, and more importantly, it's not only a gossip column story, it's a lawsuit alleging criminal conduct on behalf of News Corp. executives in the name of protecting the presidential ambitions of Rudy Giuliani. It makes sense really. The smutty programming produced and aired by Fox coupled with the smutty lifestyle exemplified by Giuliani is a match made in heaven...or hell. The only thing worse than a world run by George Bush and Dick Cheney, would be one run by Rupert Murdoch and Rudy Giuliani. ...more Rupert and Rudy: Expanded |
| Drowning in Hypocrisy Much like her decision to sponsor legislation that would desecrate the constitution by criminalizing flag burning, Feinstein has shown her true colors yet again. Waterboarding, a torture technique that Mukasey refused to state unequivocally was just that, despite calling it "personally repugnant," has been considered a war crime for over a century under the United States and international law. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, refused to vote in favor of Mukasey, stating that: "The president says we do not torture, but had his lawyers redefine torture down in secret memos in fundamental conflict with American values and law." Drowning in Hypocrisy: Expanded |
| The Genius of Genus Annoyingly, I missed the world premiere owing to a wildcat strike by technicians over proposed pension revisions (who would have thought, in France?), but the performance I did end up seeing was nothing short of genius. - Joby Talbot - Benjamin Wynn (Deru) - Genus - A small sample of Genus |
| Contact Information MICHAEL PETRONKO GALLERY 646-536-7362 478 West Broadway New York, NY 10012 Michael Petronko michael@michaelpetronkogallery.net GALLERY HOURS: Tuesday - Sunday: 11 a.m. - 6.00 p.m. Monday by appointment |
| This is a monthly online newsletter by Clinton Fein. You receive it because we're friends, family, know one another, or you have requested to be on this list in order to keep up with what I am up to. If for any reason, you don't want to receive this, please just hit your reply button and enter the word "Unsubscribe" in the subject line, and your name will automatically be removed from the list. Clinton Fein Email:  I try and send out updates about once a month, but am not alway able to be so fastidious. I will respond to all and any emails I get from anyone, so please respond when you can. Feedback is not just welcome, it's encouraged. |
