23 events are taking place today! For complete details on venues and programs, visit http://access.art21.org/find-an-event-near-you/

Wednesday, October 14
10:30am Santa Monica High School (Compassion)
11:00am Department of Art & Art History (Transformation)
12:00pm Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute (Transformation)
12:00pm Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (Systems)
12:00pm Visual Arts Dept. Emory University (Transformation)
2:45pm Nyack Public Schools (Transformation)
3:00pm Potomac High School (Transformation)
4:00pm NCAD (Fantasy)
4:30pm Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania (Systems)
5:30pm Association for Visual Arts (Transformation)
5:30pm Grand Valley State University (Transformation)
5:30pm Herron School of Art and Design (Transformation)
6:00pm Art Department, California State University, Sacramento (Systems)
6:00pm deCordova Sculpture Park + Museum (Transformation)
6:00pm Friends of the Ringling Museum Library (Compassion)
6:30pm Colby College Museum of Art (Transformation)
6:30pm SUNY New Paltz (Compassion)
7:00pm Big Car (Transformation)
7:00pm Denison University (Transformation)
7:00pm Portland Community College (Fantasy)
7:15pm Mills College (Compassion)
7:30pm Colby College Museum of Art (Systems)
9:00pm Northern Illinois University, School of Art (Fantasy)

Jeff Koons with "Rabbit" (1986) at "Pop Life," Tate Modern.

It’s not cool to be depressed by the brazen commercialism of certain facets of the art world, yet you’d have to have a heart of stone not to leave Pop Life, the new exhibition of post-Warhol contemporary art at Tate Modern, without feeling that at least a little part of you had died. Not that it’s all bad, by any means, but the sheer glitzy glibness of it all did make the gurgling Thames, far below outside the café windows, seem more inviting than ever.

The story doing the rounds is that the show was originally going to be called Sold Out – a much better title, given most of the artists’ exploration and sometimes celebration of the evils of commerce – but one of the artists took offense. (Part of the fun of the show is working out which one was haughty enough to do so). It’s a less misleading title, too; those coming in expecting Pop Art will be half disappointed. Despite the opening salvo of Warhols, the relationship to popular culture – always glancing at best in Pop Art – peters out halfway through, replaced by the kind of buyer-friendly slam-bang conceptualism Russian oligarchs used to buy back in the olden days. Its appeal is in the suddenness of its anachronism.

Pop Life tracks the extrapolation of something Andy Warhol said about making money being the best form of art. Like everything Andy Warhol said, that probably should be taken with a mouthful of salt, but it’s made literal by many of the works here. How about an actual shop in an art gallery, rather than making work about commerce (Keith Haring’s Pop Shop, recreated here along with DJ and dinging cash register)? How about actually using a Hollywood star in a work of art, rather than just making work about Hollywood stars (i.e. Takashi Murakami’s pop video of Kirsten Dunst singing The Vapors’ Turning Japanese, directed by McG, of Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle notoriety)? How about actually having sex with an art collector for money, rather than figuratively whoring oneself out (Andrea Fraser’s untitled 2003 video of exactly that)? Frankness is all. Subtlety is out.

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For complete details on venues and programs, visit http://access.art21.org/find-an-event-near-you/.

Tuesday, October 13
9:00am Borough of Manhattan Community College/City University of New York (Compassion)
11:30am The Galleries at Moore (Fantasy)
12:00pm Portland State University (Transformation)
12:00pm University Galleries of Illinois State University (Transformation)
12:30pm University of Oklahoma School of Art & Art History (Transformation)
1:00pm Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Systems)
2:00pm The Interactive / Media / Design (I/M/D) department of KABK (Systems)
4:00pm University of Maine at Augusta (Compassion)
5:00pm Carnegie Mellon School of Art (Systems)
5:30pm University of New Mexico Art Museum (Compassion)
6:00pm Sheboygan Visual Artists (Transformation)
6:30pm Ulrich Museum of Art (Fantasy)
7:00pm Catherine J. Smith Gallery (Transformation)
7:00pm Living Arts of Tulsa (Systems)
7:00pm Westchester Community College Center for Digital Arts (Fantasy)
7:30pm Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University (Fantasy)
8:00pm Kutztown University (Transformation)

James Turrell, "Ganzfeld Piece (Modell)", 2008. Courtesy of Kunstmuseum-Wolfsburg © James Turrell. Photo: Zooey Braun

• A new installation by James Turrell (Season 1) — a light-filled space in the tradition of his Ganzfeld Pieces — will open at the Wolfsburg Art Museum in Germany on October 24. The Wolfsburg Ganzfeld Piece is the largest installation ever implemented by the artist in a museum, measuring 700 square meters, and comprising two rooms (Viewing Space and Sensing Space) that merge into each other. The exhibition runs through April 5.

• A video and sound installation by Paul Pfeiffer (Season 2) is also on view in Germany at the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum. Titled The Saints, the piece is based on original film and audio material from the 1966 Football World Cup, “the most important sporting event in postwar European history.” Continues through March 28.

• The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has announced six finalists for the 2010 Hugo Boss Prize, including Season 5 artist Cao Fei. Read more about the prize in the New York Times.

• Zig Zag, a group exhibition at Sperone Westwater, features works created between the late 1960s and early 1970s. Taking its title from a 1966 sculpture by Alighiero e Boetti, the show spotlights the activities of a generation of American and European artists whose work reflects a similar rejection of traditional aesthetics in favor of new forms and process. Sculpture by Bruce Nauman; and a selection of black-and-white photographs by William Wegman (both Season 1) are included. Runs through October 31.

• Through December 30, The Kreeger Museum in Washington, D.C. is exhibiting work by the South African artist William Kentridge (Season 5) and Russian artist, Oleg Kudryashov. Kentridge and Kudryashov: Against the Grain consists of 40 to 50 objects drawn from D.C. area collectors.

• I Am Also Not My Own Enemy, an exhibition of new work by Season 1 artist Shahzia Sikander opens at Pilar Corrias Gallery in London on October 16. Sikander’s latest video Bending the Barrels (2009); a large-scale multimedia work consisting of text upon a pictorial surface; and a selection of paintings and drawings form the show. On view through November 21.

• According to The Art Newspaper, Whitechapel Gallery in London will devote the next series of displays in its Collections Gallery to works from the Dimitris Daskalopoulos Collection. Artists in the collection, which consists of over four hundred works, include Matthew Barney, and Louise Bourgeois (both Season 2).

• Season 5 artist John Baldessari has written a piece for the travel section of The Guardian. This list of the artist’s favorite spots in his hometown of Los Angeles begins with hidden gems in area museums. Read the article here.

Thanks to Bryce Dwyer for his series of enlightening posts on artist residencies around the country. Follow his adventures with InCUBATE here.

Up next is Nathan Townes-Anderson, an artist and teacher based in Ithaca, New York. Townes-Anderson’s recent work focuses on intersections of art, music, and celebrity in the culture of the 1960s. He has held positions at the Brooklyn Museum and the Ecole d’Humanité in Goldern, Switzerland. He received his M.F.A. in 2009 from Cornell University, where he is currently a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Art. He can be found on the web at www.nathantown.com.

Events are taking place from the Hague to India today! For complete details on venues and programs, visit http://access.art21.org/find-an-event-near-you/

Monday, October 12
9:00am International School of The Hague (Compassion)
10:00am Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (Transformation)
12:00pm Parsons the New School for Design (Fantasy)
1:00pm Governor’s School for the Arts (Systems)
2:00pm Ivy Tech Community College (Fantasy)
5:00pm College of Architecture, Texas A&M University (Transformation)
5:00pm University of Mississippi Department of Art (Systems)
6:00pm Oklahoma City Museum of Art (Fantasy)
7:00pm Art, Resources and Teaching (A.R.T.) trust (Transformation)
7:00pm Wired 4 Art (Fantasy)

Jack Kerouac pictured with his novel, "On the Road." Courtesy of Gerry Nicosia via Atlantic Community Blog.

Art21 is traveling with you! There are 58 Access ’09 Happenings this weekend! To find an event near you visit this site. Thank you all for your enthusiasm and support—we are excited too!

• The first Season 5 episode of Art:21, Compassion, premiered this past Wednesday on PBS! If you missed this episode, never fear —Art21 is still here and online, streaming full episodes of Season 5 for a limited time on the PBS video portal, the day after each episode is aired. Episodes will also be available for download via iTunes (link opens in iTunes).
• Stay tuned for next week, October 14th, the Season 5 episode Fantasy will be broadcsst on PBS at 10:00pm (ET). Be sure to check your local listings. If you happened to miss the Art21 Blog Flash Points topic revolving around Fantasy, visit this link.
• Do you collect cultural artifacts? Bryce Dwyer, in his post Public Collectors, writes about a project run by Marc Fischer in Chicago. It began with the notion that there are all sorts of things that libraries, museums, and other institutions that store cultural objects don’t incorporate into their own collections….
• Bryce also interviewed Urban Homestead and a few of its past residents. Check it out here.
• Extra Extra! Watch all about it! Check out this week’s Art21 Video Exclusive—Josiah McElheny | History & Originality

Wood on the stove at Urban Homestead, 2009. Courtesy Nance Klehm.

Urban Homestead is a residency run out of Chicago-based ecologist Nance Klehm‘s home. Residents stay with Nance for various periods of time and help keep the home running. This includes working in its huge yard garden, herding quail, and helping compost among other things. According to the website, Urban Homestead “is a residence that is open to working travelers and out-of-towners for stays of a few days to a few weeks and sometimes a few months. It fills the niche of people who find themselves in Chicago perhaps working on art or research or cultural connections who want to live in an urban immigrant neighborhood in a house that has an ecological emphasis.”

Nance invited two past residents to answer my questions with her. The first is Peter Olsen, enrolled at the Jutland Art Academy in Arhus, Denmark and currently on a self-study course in Chicago. He was resident for three weeks in September 2009. The second is Sarah Kavage of Seattle, WA, resident for one week in May 2009.

Bryce Dwyer: Do you see a connection between the practice of homesteading and artistic practice in general?

Nance Klehm: Homesteading is part of my artistic practice. Homesteading inherently involves constant creative problem solving.

Sarah Kavage: I would say that connection is through physical labor, learning by doing, and creating something that exists in physical space.

BD: Would you describe a past resident’s project and speak about how the ecology of the residency influenced it?

SK: I was at the Urban Homestead to do preliminary research on an art project about agricultural production, exchange and distribution, which will begin with the purchase of 1000 bushels of wheat on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Being immersed in the Urban Homestead prodded me to think more deeply about what I was doing, and how to use this project to create real nourishment and abundance. There was a grounding and a clarity that came from being in a space that was a whole system – where I wasn’t just a consumer, but a part of a cycle. I weeded the garden and these weeds became dinner for me and Nance, two chickens and a bunny. The chickens made eggs for breakfast. Our dishwater watered the plants. Our poop (eventually) became manure. It was glorious to think about all that was happening on this little tiny speck of land in the middle of one of the largest urban areas in the country. If you asked me, I’d say, “Of course you get out of life what you put into it,” but the Urban Homestead was a physical lesson in actually doing that.

Peter Olsen: The projects I normally do take place in the area that surrounds me and in public space, so I was very influenced by staying here. First, the location of the residence: an interesting Mexican neighborhood [Chicago's Little Village -BD]. An area you have to face and forces you to think about a Mexican society placed in Chicago. Gangs, Mexican families, Spanish and tortillas everywhere. No white people but me (and Nance). While living in this area I got a very different view of Chicago than if I had lived anywhere else.

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EXCLUSIVE: Artist Josiah McElheny discusses the relationship between artworks and the context in which they were created, highlighting the distinctions between history and the personal and interpretive reinvention of historical facts.

Josiah McElheny creates finely crafted, handmade glass objects that he combines with photographs, text, and museological displays to evoke notions of meaning and memory. McElheny’s work takes as its subject the object, idea, and social nexus of glass. Influenced by the writings of Jorge Luis Borges, McElheny’s work often takes the form of historical fictions. Part of McElheny’s fascination with storytelling is that glassmaking is part of an oral tradition handed down generation to generation, artisan to artisan. Sculptural models of Modernist ideals, these totally reflective environments are both elegant seductions as well as parables of the vices of utopian aspirations.

Josiah McElheny is featured in the Season 3 (2005) episode Memory of the Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century television series on PBS.

VIDEO | Producer: Wesley Miller and Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera & Sound: Kurt Branstetter, Joel Shapiro, and Tom Bergin. Editor: Jenny Chiurco. Artwork Courtesy: Josiah McElheny. Special Thanks: Donald Young Gallery, Chicago and MoMA QNS, Long Island City.

Earlier this week, with help from the fabulous team at PBS, we added the complete Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century series—16 full episodes from Seasons 1 through 4—to the PBS Video portal. This, of course, was only the beginning. Season 5 episodes will be added throughout the broadcast season for a limited period of viewing on the morning after the national broadcast, every Thursday in October.

The PBS Video portal, launched earlier this year, offers free and immediate online viewing of full-length episodes from PBS’s wide range of programming. One of the many things that we love about our relationship with PBS is the opportunity to participate in such resources—resources that are vital in presenting content to as wide of an audience as possible.

Art:21 is in good company over there, sitting next to videos from POV, Craft in America, Austin City Limits, and many other amazing PBS programs.

With a Season 5 DVD and Blu-ray release set for the end of the month, there will be plenty of ways to catch episodes from our latest season: you can watch the broadcast on PBS, set your DVR to watch the episodes at your convenience, catch a preview screening in your community, and now watch episodes straight from your computer. So, what’s it going to be?