Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Monday, December 30, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Secret world: A poem by Ross Smirnoff
I want to live in a secret world.
I want to have a girlfriend but never be seen with her in public.
I want to create true art, but never show it to anyone.
I want to live in a secret house, where no one will find me.
Of course, I want my cats with me.
Only in secrecy will my real work begin.
I want to have a girlfriend but never be seen with her in public.
I want to create true art, but never show it to anyone.
I want to live in a secret house, where no one will find me.
Of course, I want my cats with me.
Only in secrecy will my real work begin.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Crystal Fairy: A Review by Ross Smirnoff
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Frances Ha: A Review by Ross Smirnoff
Living in New York City in 2013 is an enormously expensive enterprise. Between rent, transportation fare, food costs, bare necessities, you're lucky if you get to experience the real luxuries of life, such as, great dining, travel, new clothes, and shopping. But what Noah Baumbach's latest film Frances Ha explores more than all these realities is what truly matters in life, real connection with other human beings. Which is why we fall in love with Greta Gerwig (co-writer with Noah Baumbach,) who play's a 27-year old dancer from Sacramento named Frances, trying to survive as an artist in New York City. We encounter her experiences through a variety of relationships including, her best friend, boyfriends, and roomates, as well as brief encounters with a dance teacher and friends of friends. All throughout, we are entranced by Gerwig, who uses the film as a stage for her incredible spontaneity and talent. She moves us, as we are enriched by her funny randomness, and quick witted banter. We follow her as she travels, from apartment to apartment, city to city, and country to country. All the while, we are entranced by her flaws which include, acne, laziness, and boredom. The viewer falls with her, but is also inspired that despite her lack of "reality" in her thinking, she never compromises her artistic soul. She doesn't cave in and take a job beneath her, rather she is constantly striving to maintain her integrity despite many failed attempts to make her dream come true and become a dancer in a company. Instead, her teacher urges her to consider her choreography which she praises. In the end she achieves the success of finding her true voice as a choreographer of dance, landing on her two feet, which is fitting for a dancer. There's still a lot more work for Frances to do in this world, but at least she has a start and the belief in herself as a person. Faith in ourselves is the most important road to happiness.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Year In Review
Just wanted to update you a bit. My article was just published http://www.classicalite.com/
My friend Logan K. Young is the editor in chief of Classicalite.com
So far three of my articles have been published and one about my artwork.
http://www.classicalite.com/tags/ross-smirnoff
http://www.classicalite.com/tags/ross-smirnoff
I also was in two art shows.
Sapient Headquarters in Boston and a group show at The Greenpoint Gallery.
Future publications are in the works. A little too early to announce. I also have an Etsy storefront coming soon.
Ross Smirnoff
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Friday, December 13, 2013
Inside Llewyn Davis: Interpretation by Ross Smirnoff
Inside Llewyn Davis directed by the Coen Brothers is about
a young and talented but strained folk singer and guitar player who like all artists
is on an undefined quest of artist discovery.
The story takes place in Greenwich Village, 1961 pre-Dylan. The artist in question is Llewyn Davis who
is playing solo after losing his music partner to suicide. There’s some fine acting in this film. The scope of the narrative takes place
through the eyes of the main character, thus the title reflects the viewers
perception of the entire movie through a protagonist. I don’t think the Coen’s intend you to like
this character, however they allow the viewer of the film to become slowly
invested in his dilemma as we see through his eyes how every relationship is hijacked by some existential devil pulling the strings making his
journey far more difficult to complete.
The film becomes a metaphor of the artistic experience, without the
fame, success, and glory. In fact, the
Coen brothers constantly force their character down a road of broken, empty,
and fragile delays until at one point in the film, he declares that he is
quitting, and that he is “tired.” It’s
at this point of no return, it seems that the figure of Bob Dylan comes in the
very end of the film playing the Gaslight for the first time while Lewyn Davis
heads out the exit door to get his faced bashed in by the metaphysical
representation of God, or so I interpret. While Dylan’s playing in the
background with his soulful music that turned him into an artistic icon, Llewyn Davis is on the floor in the alleyway
spitting up blood from his mouth. The
irony of the story peers off the screen through Dylan’s music and the filmgoer
is left contemplating all the symbolism that the Coen Brothers put in the film. A
lost box, a lost cat, a lost soul. Llweyn Davis is the Ulysses, as they continue to obsess about how the hero must struggle and maybe in the end still never really
make it to their desired destination even though they try with so much effort
to get somewhere. Then Dylan arrives, the chosen one in artistic paradise almost without
effort, like natural. Perhaps, the
directors point is you’re either "the dude" or your not and the sooner you except that
and just stop trying, and instead do, your destiny will be what it is, and was
always meant to be.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut
A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut was the last work while
living by the late American Master. In
terms of the kind of books that Vonnegut wrote, this comes off as his farewell
to the world. Is there any hope for us
in the end? Probably not, the author
speculates as he comments on the growing population of humans, the lack of
finite oil which keeps us buzzing around at 100 mph in our fancy cars as we blow
the atmosphere to hell in a hand basket. So where does one, especially the late master
see the silver lining in this thing we call life? He sees it, of course, in art, but he recommends
that one should not get a degree in it because how’s an artist supposed to make
a living at it. But he defends art as
being our true virtue because it helps your soul grow. Other than that he says, our purpose is just
to sit and fart around. Which is why
Vonnegut has such a wide readership of fellow humanists, socialists, and intellectuals. It’s because he give us the truth like a
doctor diagnoses a patient’s disease. In
this case, we’re the patient being force-fed a bunch of lies by our oligarchical powers that that drive us constantly to war for no other reason
than to perpetuate our world domination.
Vonnnegut, the true artist, is our doctor, telling it like it is for the
sake of reasonable people’s sanity, and he recognizes that our numbers our
declining as well. A Man Without A
Country is his manifesto on survival. The
author urges us to read the classics, understand the world, but also recognizes
that there isn’t much hope in the end for humanity. And that’s why it’s so brilliant. We are left chuckling, sometimes disturbed,
perhaps a bit frightened of what the future holds for us. But the author at the same time says who
really gives a fuck. We are all headed
to the mortuary eventually so get your kicks on while you can. Unfortunately, the author passed in 2007 and
we lost our nations greatest voice of sanity.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Squandered Moments Forgotten by Ross Smirnoff
Awaken to your higher self.
Failures galore, never bore. Sunday, December 1, 2013
Top Ten Art Exhibits in New York City 2013 – The Best Art Review
Scoping the streets of New York was infinitely rewarding
this year when you take into consideration all the galleries and all museums
that on a daily basis every New Yorker is provided easy access. I’m choosing 10 exhibits that if had not seen
this year I would not be as informed on the dilemmas that are currently being
faced in the world of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and
video. There were many exhibits’ that
offered thought provoking methods. My top ten compromises the best experiences
and the most compelling exhibits that I saw this year.
1. Come Together Surving Sandy curated by Phong Bui at
Industry City in Brooklyn provides a survey of 21st century
Art. All mediums of work are represented
in a show that will go down in importance for capturing the current condition
in art and will be remembered one hundred years from now as significant the 1913 Armory Show
is today.
2. Anselm Kiefer Morgenthau
Plan at Gagosian Gallery was a feast for all senses. Kiefer implements his thick impasto paint
technique to create large-scale multi-media painting’s that are extraordinary
to look at. Their meaning is embedded in
the cultural anxiety of post-world war II Germany, but what’s most fascinating
is the artist’s aesthetic vision that comes across in in sculptural use of
materials.
3. Jean Michel Basqiuat at Gagosian Galllery earlier this
year was nothing short of a blessing from the gods of painting. I remember seeing his exhibit at the Brooklyn
Museum in 2005 and was inspired by the work.
The artist has become mythologized in the art world thanks to Julian
Schnabel’s brilliant movie starring Jeffery Wright. Basqiuat died at age 27, so there is not
much work of his in the world, making retrospectives a rare event.
4. I’m a big fan of
Surrealism, you know Breton, Dali, Miro, those guys. Drawing Surrealism at The Morgan Library was
a must see this year and displayed the full scope of Surrealism and how the
idea stretched outwards globally making it as far as Japan in it’s artistic
conquest from the late 1920’s to early 1940’s.
This was a survey that displayed the full development of it’s
progression in packed two room gallery.
5. "I met someone in a deli" is a classic New York saying implying a long story come
afterword. But literally I met a guy
in a deli who I had seen earlier in the
night in Chelsea. He advised me to see
this show before it closed. I went and
now I realize that "someone in a deli" was heaven sent.
Ashley Bickerton Mitchondrial-eveviral at Lehmann Maupin Gallery on the
Lower East Side was one of those exhibits that you will be talking about 5
years from now saying “I remember this show in 2013.”
6. Michael Williams is a young painter who works in Brooklyn
and has had a few solo shows with Canada Gallery in the Lower East Side. Each show has been refreshing to see the artist’s work to evolve. His current
work, paintings created on the computer, printed on canvas, then
painted over is a breath taking fresh approach to art in the 21st
century, and his pictures are often very humorous.
7. Draw Gym at Know
More Games in Carroll Gardens was written up in the New York Times by Roberta
Smith. Subsequently, I felt compelled to
see the show, curated by eccentric artist Brian Belott. The show is a survey of “underground” art
that is currently being made by well-known artist such as Chris Marrtin, and
Joe Bradley. It also surveys many up and
comers and could be classified as a show that displayed a modern movement away
from painting and focus on drawing which is a more direct medium, and one could
say the stimulus of all creativity.
8. Gravity and Grace: Monumental works by El Anatsui at the
Brooklyn Museum was a sculptural meca exhibit.
His work which I document on my blog is large scale installations
created with wire and found materials such as bottle caps. He also makes sculptures with wood. They larger wire works are hung from high on
the walls and allowed to fall how they may.
The result creates a new perspective of the work every time they’re
hung.
9. When I was in
Graduate School I had a studio visit with Glenn Goldberg. He is a calm and composed communicator which
you could easily say to describe his paintings as well. This exhibition at Jason McCoy Gallery on Madison Avenue displays Goldberg’s
experimentation with painting and use of icons such as, teddy bears, and birds
to create iconic images with arabesque motifs. . The result is a decorative
pleasure house and a unique creative effort.
10. To complete my
list, although very hard because I’m leaving out many other great exhibits, I
have to go with Chuck Webster at Betty Cuningham gallery in Chelsea. I went back to this exhibit twice to get the
full scope of the enterprise. The second
time I went I got lost in one of the large panel paintings and was struck by
the artists ability to manipulate the materials to create painting strokes with
energetic ferocity. While maintaining a balance of form and substance. This displayed a sense of continuity of
abstract expressionism while mutated for the 21st century absurdum.
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