Nils Norman, Temporarily Permanent Monument to the Occupation of Pseudo Public Space, 2009

Art and nature

Summer is here — at least for those of us in the Northern hemisphere — and we're ready to celebrate the great outdoors, but without forgetting art. In this issue, published in partnership with The Daily Beast, we look at the nature-dreaming paintings of Julie Heffernan in a solo show in LA. We also check in with the first New York quadrennial of public art, PLOT/09: The World & Nearer Ones — which our friends at Creative Time have produced for the newly re-opened and mysterious Governors Island in New York Harbor.

- Paul Laster, Managing Editor

FEATURE

This summer, Creative Time launches New York's first public art quadrennial, PLOT, with The World & Nearer Ones, an exhibition on Governors Island featuring 19 individual artists and artist collectives from nine different countries. Minutes away from Manhattan and Brooklyn by ferry, Governors Island in New York Harbor was home to the US military for more than 200 years, but now its fortresses, officer's houses, chapel, theater, and other sites hold contemporary art. Exhibition curator Mark Beasley divides the work, which engages the island's history and future, between indoor and outdoor locales — making the discovery of the artists' projects an adventure.

Light and sound are popular mediums for several of the featured artists. Anthony McCall uses video projectors and haze machines to construct parallel sculptures that move slowly through the darkened Saint Cornelius Chapel and eventually, almost imperceptibly, trade places with one another. Krzysztof Wodiczko presents a video installation — deep in a dark, dank munitions room in old Fort Jay — of a candle flame that flickers with the voices of soldiers recalling the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Elsewhere, Susan Philipsz amplifies sound from an outdoor speaker, singing "By My Side" from the musical Godspell, asking, "Where are you going? Can you take me with you?" of the not-so-distant Statue of Liberty.

Judi Werthein incorporates another symbol of American patriotism, the national anthem, into the two-channel video installation La Tierra de los Libres (The Land of the Free), which captures two views of Columbian refugees singing their own lively version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Adam Chodzko tackles patriotism, or at least duty, with his video installation Echo; presented in the ballroom of the former Officer's Club, it mixes tales of a swapping game, which "military brats" supposedly played, with imaginary reflections by current staff and both newly shot and found-film footage. Contrastingly, The Bruce High Quality Foundation satirizes the island's resurgence as an art destination and the current economic death of the art world in Isle of the Dead, a 19-minute zombie film shot and screened in the abandoned movie theater.

Keep reading for the entire feature »

REVIEW

Alluring and timeless, Julie Heffernan's paintings are self-portraits that place her in an enchanting world of make-believe. Heffernan's new works on view at Mark Moore Gallery in Santa Monica, California, portray the artist merged with nature and society in surreal, psychological ways. In one, she wears a headdress of birds perching in woven branches, holding an extravagantly plumed beast in her hand, while surrounded by construction tractors at her feet. In another, she is woven into a fantastic forest of fruit, while tiny lions and tigers play below.

Referencing historical painting, Heffernan uses a process called "image streaming" to construct her subjects. "Before I'm actually sleeping, as I relax and get out of the conscious mind, pictures will flood into my head, kind of like a movie," she said. "It's not like daydreaming or remembering. They're spontaneous pictures that I just sit back and watch. And then I'll fall asleep. When I wake up, it's at that point where the images start to stream in, and out of those, I'll usually 'see' something."

The resulting sensuous, penetrating paintings present an allegorical realm where beauty is eternal and dreams come true.

- Paul Laster

Julie Heffernan: What Holds Up is on view at Mark Moore Gallery though July 3. View more of Heffernan's work in an image gallery at The Daily Beast.

NEWSWIRE

In Venice, Peter Greenaway takes Veronese's figures out to play (New York Times)
The British filmmaker theatrically transforms Paolo Veronese's celebrated masterpiece The Wedding at Cana through digital processes.

Q&A with Turner Prize-nominated artist Mike Nelson (Flavorwire)
The installation artist has recreated his haunting NYC project A Psychic Vacuum in a new book from Creative Time.

Paint made flesh: Figurative painter John Currin (ExpressNightOut.com)
Artist John Currin discusses the relationship between flesh and paint, his preference for female subjects, and the influences of pop culture and Danish pornography on his work.

£30,000 for a £70 grocery receipt? (Daily Mail)
Pakistani-born artist Ceal Floyer is attracting ridicule over the Tate Britain's purchase and display of her supermarket receipt, which she envisions as a monochromatic still life.

An interview with LA-based painter Cole Sternberg (Flavorwire)
Sternberg's works may appear messy, but are in fact laid out to convey detailed narratives, be it a representation of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" or a particularly unforgettable break-up.

Master works get room to breathe with Cleveland Museum of Art expansion (USA Today)
The museum opens the first part of a three-part, eight-year expansion, designed by architect Rafael Vinoly, allowing it to display more of its collection.

An astronaut goes from walking on the moon to painting it (New York Times)
Apollo astronaut Alan L. Bean, who walked on the moon nearly 40 years ago, has recaptured his experience in art.

Spencer Tunick corrals 300 naked people in front of a Montauk lighthouse (Flavorwire)
On location by the sea, Tunick discusses his future projects, and the tricky nature of organizing hundreds of unclothed people in public places.