#the way holly is effectively wearing nancys old dress....

[wheelercore]

So funny how both rosemary "constume" scenes were nancy's clothes. Els s1 pink dress and robins s4 pennhurst outfit. And that paralleled hollys pink dress in s4 sitting happy on front of the mantleplace. El calling nancy "pretty" and the "rose is hot" bathroom graffiti in hawkins middle s2 (and mike getting in trouble in the same season for graffiti in the bathroom at school). Nancys ballerina necklace plus robin feeling choked by nancys clothes plus el literally being choked by the ud vine on front of the rose door... Wait wait wait waut.....

[ihni]

Just another night at Motel 6 on Cornwallis

(On AO3)

Motel 6 on Cornwallis is close enough to Hawkins for it to only take a ten minute drive to get there, but out of the way enough that there are no watchful eyes or nosy neighbors. The building is old, the rooms run-down. But it’s cheap, it’s clean, and it’s perfect for privacy; for clandestine meetings and dealings that may or may not be on the right side of legal.

Seated on a surprisingly soft bed with an unsurprisingly ugly bedspread, Billy looks towards the window when the sharp light of a car’s headlights from outside travels across the room, illuminating the tacky 60’s interior in increments. There is a sound of tires on gravel, and then a moment of silence once the engine is turned off. He leans back on his elbows, shakes his hair out. Spreads his legs just so in his tight jeans. He’s freshly showered, dressed in one of his nicest shirts which he has unbuttoned halfway down his chest. He knows he looks good. Still, he takes one last look in the mirror that hangs over the dresser, to make sure he paints the kind of alluring picture he aspires to.

Perhaps the person in the car outside also takes the time for a couple of finishing touches, because it’s almost a minute before there’s a sound of a car door opening and closing outside. Another couple of seconds before footsteps move towards the door.

Billy asked for the room furthest away from the office, the one with the most privacy. His car is parked outside. The person approaching definitely knows that he is here – and why.

He clears his throat. Pastes a smile onto his face. When there is a tap on the door, he keeps his voice low and husky when he calls out, “Come in.”

The door opens to reveal Karen Wheeler, dressed to the nines in a red dress with a low neckline. Her hair is expertly done up and she’s wearing make-up as if she’s on her way to attending a gala instead of an extramarital affair in a dingy motel. She’s even wearing high heels.

Must have been a bitch to walk with those on the pebbles outside.

She has a handbag slung over one shoulder, which she hangs on the back of a chair as she closes the door behind her and walks into the room. Her smile is a little wobbly – nerves, probably – but she doesn’t hesitate.

Neither does Billy.

“Mrs. Wheeler,” he purrs and makes a show out of looking her up and down. “Looking good.”

Her face doesn’t color – she’s wearing too much make-up for that – but she averts her eyes bashfully for a second. When she turns back to face him again, she’s biting her lip and there’s something hungry in her eyes. Something that makes the smile on Billy’s face falter slightly.

Still, he stays on the bed as she approaches. Doesn’t move as she kicks off her shoes and leans down over him, and barely even flinches as she puts a knee on the edge of the bed, right between his legs. She leans forward, opens her mouth on an exhale and goes in for a kiss …

And jerks to a halt when Billy’s hand catches her wrist, effectively stopping her hand inches from his face, where she was reaching out to touch him. A wrinkle of confusion appears between her eyebrows – and this close, Billy can see the other wrinkles on her face, the small ones that speak of years passing.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, leaning back a bit.

He is still smiling, but it’s no longer seductive. No, the smile on his face now does not reach his eyes. “What’s wrong?” he repeats, with a disbelieving huff. “One would think you’d be able to answer that yourself, Mrs. Wheeler.” He wrenches her hand up between them, showing off the gold band that’s still around her ring finger. “Tell me, does your husband know where you are right now?”

Karen splutters and yanks out of his grip. Billy lets her. He sits up and continues, “Do your children?” He cocks his head to the side mockingly. “Nancy, Michael and little Holly.”

“What …?” Karen starts, backing away, her eyes are darting around the room. “What is this?”

He stands up, but stays by the edge of the bed. “That’s a good question, actually. A married woman, showing up at an old motel in the middle of the night. Dressed like that.” He nods towards her outfit, and one of her hands flies up to cover her cleavage. “Meeting with a teenager, the same age as her daughter.”

“No,” Karen says, voice wavering. “No, that’s not …”

“But it is,” Billy interrupts her. “Isn’t it? You know very well that I’m in Nancy’s class. Hell, we competed for Valedictorian. And yet, you and your friends showed up at the pool every day, looking to get a piece of me.” He gestures with his hands, holds them away from his body. Puts himself on display. “Well, here I am.” He gives her another once-over, barely hiding his contempt. “And here you are.”

“Stop it.”

He laughs. “Stop what? I’m just telling you the truth the way I see it. The way anyone with eyes would see it, if they knew.”

The color drains from her face, visible even under the layers of foundation and rouge. “You … You wouldn’t …”

“Tell?” he finishes for her, and taps a finger to his chin as he pretends to think. “I don’t know. What would I have to gain by telling anyone?” She relaxes a fraction, at least until he continues, “Then again, what would I have to gain by keeping quiet? Seems to me, the only one who has anything to lose here, is you.”

She is shaking now, looking far from the confident woman who entered the room a couple of minutes ago. “What do you want? Is it money?”

He laughs, long and hard. “You’re asking the wrong questions, Karen. Ask yourself what your family wants. I’m sure your husband would like for you to be faithful to him. And I’m sure your kids would prefer it if you didn’t fool around with someone who goes to school with them – I’m pretty sure they’d hate that, actually, because they don’t even like me much. And little Holly, well …” He cocks his head to the side again. “I’m sure she just wants her mommy to be home with her instead of whoring around.”

Karen opens and closes her mouth a couple of times, indignant but speechless, and Billy shrugs. “But sure, money won’t hurt.” He motions to the room around them; the ugly wallpaper, the outdated décor. “I did shell out for the room, after all.”

Turning her back to him, perhaps to hide whatever expression is on her face, Karen walks up to the chair and reaches for her handbag. Her hands are shaking when she rifles through it and she won’t look at him when she emerges from it with a handful of bills which she slams down onto the table by the window.

“Thanks,” he says, making her flinch with how close he’s gotten while she wasn’t looking – because life has taught Billy to move silently, when needed – and reaches out for the bills. He doesn’t count them, just pockets them blindly and takes a step back from her.

Her back is still to him, and as he walks around her to get to the door, she turns so he won’t see her face.

“Feel free to peruse the room,” Billy says mockingly. “It’s paid for the night, and I’m sure you have a lot of things to think about.”

With his hand on the door handle, he hesitates. Swallows. And then says, seemingly to the wood of the door, “You know, my mom left me and my dad when I was … I think, a couple of years younger than your son.” There’s a soft gasp behind him, which he ignores. “She’d be the same age as you, Mrs. Wheeler. Maybe younger.” He takes a deep breath. “This is the kind of shit that can break a family. I advise you to think long and hard about what you have. And what you were willing to throw it all away for.”

And with that, he opens the door and walks out.

No one sees him leave. There are no watchful eyes or nosy neighbors here. It’s just another night at Motel 6 on Cornwallis.

[caveartfair]

The 15 Best Booths at Art Basel in Miami Beach

This year’s edition of Art Basel in Miami Beach features 268 galleries from 35 countries, located in the newly reconstructed Miami Beach Convention Center. While many hewed to typical fair conventions—pristine white walls and a concrete floor—the more ambitious presentations ran wild. From a bodega to a backyard, artists’ imagined spaces dramatically altered the mood, infusing a sense of fun and intimacy into the behemoth of a building. Below are 15 of our favorite presentations.

Josh Lilley

Nova, Booth N24

With works by Derek Fordjour

Installation view of Josh Lilley’s booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018. Photo by Nicholas Knight. Courtesy of Josh Lilley.

Josh Lilley transported five tons of pea gravel to the convention center in order to transform his booth into a faux-backyard lot. Rusty metal siding lines the walls. A pair of sneakers hang by their laces from a beam above the booth. Together, these elements transform the typical, white-walled booth space into a gritty, atypical art venue within which New York–based artist Derek Fordjour has mounted highly textured paintings that depict cheerleaders, marching band members, and tailors. A sculpture, Burden Cycle (2018), consists of an elevated and light-studded steel wheel. Altogether, the presentation is both raw and celebratory, carnivalesque yet thoughtful. It also subtly considers ideas of labor—such as the divides between people who erect siding or lay gravel, and those who make and sell paintings.

P.P.O.W

Kabinett, Booth E16

With works by Carolee Schneemann, Martin Wong, Ellen Cantor, and David Wojnarowicz

Installation view of P.P.O.W.’s booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018. Courtesy of P.P.O.W.

In 1993, artist Ellen Cantor curated “Coming to Power,” an all-women exhibition at David Zwirner. The included artists ranged from Alice Neel and Nicole Eisenman to Yoko Ono, Louise Bourgeois, Nancy Spero, and Carolee Schneemann. Each used sexual imagery, complicating typical ideas about women’s desires. Such themes are present, too, in Cantor’s own artwork. In a light pink–painted booth, P.P.O.W features her drawing and painting. One canvas, American Dream (1990), depicts nude women fanning out from the center of the composition.

“Her work often deals with marketing of female sexuality and romance through cinema…and re-examining those histories to make them more personal and authentic,” said gallerist Trey Hollis. As of Tuesday afternoon, the gallery had placed works by Cantor ($12,000), along with David Wojnarowicz ($10,000–$300,000), Betty Tompkins ($6,500–$43,000), Robin F. Williams ($12,000–$35,000), and Ramiro Gomez ($35,000).

Kurimanzutto

Kabinett, Booth F17

With works by Nairy Baghramian, Daniel Guzmán, Haegue Yang, Jimmie Durham, Sarah Lucas, and Abraham Cruzvillegas

Autokonßtrukschön #14, 2018. Abraham Cruzvillegas kurimanzutto

Everyday objects rest against Kurmanzutto’s booth wall, each painted half-pink and half-green: a pair of skis, a shovel, an oar attached to a gardening implement, a bundle of sticks. It’s difficult to tell, however, if some of the pieces are actually functional. Altogether, the objects comprise one cohesive sculpture, autokonßtrukschön (2018), by artist Abraham Cruzvillegas (who will also stage a performance throughout Art Basel’s duration). The artist’s early life inspired the work. “His family moved to Mexico City, to an empty place. They started building up their house out of nothing, finding different materials,’” explained gallerist Daniela Zárate. The work celebrates such scrappy making—whether in architecture or fine art. A much flashier aesthetic prevails in Exacto (2018), a wild sculpture by Sarah Lucas that comprises a red office chair with LED beams shooting out of it.

Pace Gallery

Galleries, Booth D8

With works by Peter Alexander, Robert Irwin, Christo, James Turrell, Mary Corse, Larry Bell, John McCracken, and Craig Kauffman

Installation view of Pace’s booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018. Courtesy of Art Basel.

Pace Gallery’s elegant booth presents work by eight West Coast Minimalists in a presentation entitled “Lightness of Being.” Each sculpture and installation considers light, space, and surface (“finish fetish”). Mary Corse’s Untitled (Electric Light) (1968/2018) consists of a bright, light-filled plexiglass cube atop a plinth. It quietly buzzes and flickers, making art out of energy. The James Turrell piece on view, VARDA (03) (2017), is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. At first glance, it resembles an oval of pink light against the booth’s wall. As the viewer walks closer, it becomes clear that there’s actually a hole in the wall (of indeterminate depth), out of which the light radiates. As with much of Turrell’s work, it’s less about optical illusion than about staring into the abyss.

The gallery, said Pace Gallery senior director Ben Strauss-Malcolm, wanted to “shape a highly curated booth that allows people to stop, look closely, and truly perceive the work in front of them—a breath of fresh air at an art fair.” Each of the included artists were “creating at the forefront of new materials and exploring light in profound and truly pioneering ways.”

Petzel Gallery

Kabinett, Booth B15

With works by Joyce Pensato, Maria Lassnig, Jorge Pardo, Corinne Wasmuht, Dana Schutz, Dirk Skreber, Allan McCollum, John Stezaker, and Yael Bartana

Installation view of Petzel Gallery’s booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018. Courtesy of Art Basel.

This winter, Petzel Gallery will debut new artwork by Dana Schutz in New York—the artist’s first exhibition at the gallery since her 2016 painting Open Casket became the center of controversy in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. The gallery teases that upcoming show with one new Schutz canvas, entitled Presenter (2018). In the powerful and disconcerting picture, a female figure stands, her pants down, over a red spotlight. Her breasts are highlighted in a blue box, and a giant hand clamps at her mouth—she’s being censored, sexualized, and humiliated.

Around the corner (in its designated Kabinett section), Petzel has mounted cheeky canvases by British artist John Stezaker. Stezaker finds old paintings—of rivers, ships, and verdant hills—and distorts them via incisions and other techniques. The works in the booth all look like they’ve been ruined with gaping holes. If the value of these found works was questionable to begin with, Stezaker imbues them with significant humor (and a rejuvenated price tag). By Wednesday evening, the gallery had sold work by Maria Lassnig, Jorge Pardo, and Corinne Wasmuht, in addition to a few Stezaker canvases.

Thierry Goldberg Gallery

Positions, Booth P9

With works by Tschabalala Self

Installation view of Thierry Goldberg Gallery’s booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018. Courtesy of Art Basel.

28-year-old artist Tschabalala Self has turned Thierry Goldberg’s booth into a bodega. A checkerboard floor lines the ground, and a round, convex mirror—generally used to catch shoplifters and thieves—hangs in the back corner. In keeping with the theme, Self has created two medium-density fiberboard sculptures that resemble milk crates, one blue and one red. A painting on the wall, entitled Racer (2018), depicts a man crouching in front of a shelf full of Tide bottles. (His jacket itself features a Tide bottle on its back.) It’s a neat trick, as Self makes a small space within the bustling art fair resemble your average corner shop and egg-and-cheese purveyor. Of course, her work costs a bit more than a stack of Maria cookies. And yet the gallery has done brisk business; within the first hour of opening, it had sold everything on offer, with one painting heading to the Art Institute of Chicago.

Peter Blum Gallery

Survey, Booth S16

With works by Joyce J. Scott

Installation view of Peter Blum Gallery’s booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018. Courtesy of Art Basel.

MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient Joyce J. Scott turns beads—generally decorative elements—into powerful, frightening sculptures. Peter Blum Gallery held an exhibition of her new work at its New York space last month and wanted to show, in its Miami presentation, how the Baltimore-based artist’s practice has progressed over her long career. The booth features Scott’s work from the 1970s through 2000s. Mammie Wada III (1978–81) resembles a witchy doll. A dark face protrudes from a woven green body, decorated with batches of multicolored beads—and bone. A horn emerges from the end like a tail. Mammie Wada IV (1978–81) features actual hair. A later work, Perfect Piece (1991) (the name itself a play on language that objectifies women) situates a beaded female form atop a hunched, beaded mountain.

Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects

Galleries, Booth H11

With works by Sean Duffy, Liz Glynn, Raffi Kalenderian, Esther Pearl Watson, Jedediah Caesar, Hayv Kahraman, Karl Haendel, Monique van Genderen, Kim Dingle, Genevieve Gaignard, Stanya Kahn, Samuel Levi Jones, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Ruben Ochoa, Rodney McMillian, Andrea Bowers, Arlene Shechet, Hugo McCloud, Sadie Benning, and Ellen Berkenblit

If artists aren’t typically at home in the art fair setting, Genevieve Gaignard has gone ahead and created her own little domestic nook. In a corner of Susanne Vielmetter’s booth, she has placed a floral sofa atop a light brown rug. A sculptural white cat sits on top, completing the sense of coziness. Gaignard has also installed wallpaper and added a shelf, birdcage, and two photographs—self-portraits of herself with an impressive 1960s haircut, wearing a matronly pink dress. In her exhibition, Gaignard effectively creates a new persona via a fabricated domestic setting.

In the shelf and birdcage, viewers will find two ceramic figures. To make them, Gaignard spliced together the heads and bodies of different dolls—one intended to be African-American, the other white. Gaignard repainted their skin so they’d look African-American: She’s amending the fact that, too often, only white women see themselves reflected in dolls. “She’s a mixed-race person, so to me, a lot of the work is about passing,” said gallery director Ariel Pittman. “Not just in terms of racial identity, but also class and cultural identity.”

Galerie Nathalie Obadia

Galleries, Booth G15

With works by Shirley Jaffe

Installation view of Galerie Nathalie Obadia’s booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018. Photo by Dawn Blackman. Courtesy of Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris / Brussels.

The prize for loveliest solo painting presentation goes to Galerie Nathalie Obadia, which is exhibiting a sizeable Shirley Jaffe retrospective. Twenty-two canvases that span 1956 through 2007 tell a colorful story of a New Jersey–born artist whose aesthetic significantly shifted from gestural abstraction to blocky, geometric compositions. A 1964 painting, The Red Diamond, features multicolored shapes and brushstrokes soaring diagonally across the composition—a turning point between Joan Mitchell–esque fields and more geometric work. During a trip to Berlin in the early 1960s, Jaffe “discovered the whole Bauhaus,” said gallerist Charlotte Ketabi-Lenard—a revelation that informed her later style. The last canvas, Squares (2007), features two rectangles at the bottom, boxed in by interconnecting brown lines—paintings within paintings.

Annely Juda Fine Art

Kabinett, Booth B6

With works by Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Naum Gabo, Darren Lago, Anthony Caro, Tadashi Kawamata, André Kertész, Leon Kossoff, David Nash, Yuko Shiraishi, Suzanne Treister, David Hockney, Nigel Hall, Jannis Kounellis, and Kasimir Malevich

Installation view of Annely Juda Fine Art’s booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018. Courtesy of Annely Juda Fine Art.

Darren Lago presents some of the fair’s most fun, Pop-infused artworks at Annely Juda’s booth. Stealing a page from Marcel Duchamp’s playbook, he takes everyday objects—a vacuum, a blender—and combines them into assisted readymades. Blender Balloon (1999), for example, looks like a bright-red balloon with a plug and a blending attachment. Electrolux Guitar (2006), whose materials are listed as “vacuum cleaner and electric guitar,” features playable strings down the appliance’s handle and body. Lago makes his Duchamp worship clear with Fountain (2000), which merges a urinal with a vacuum cleaner—another likely art historical reference, this time to Jeff Koons’s 1980s Hoovers.

Casey Kaplan

Galleries, Booth C27

With works by Sarah Crowner, Kevin Beasley, Matthew Ronay, Simon Starling, Matéo López, Kevin Beasley, Hugh Scott-Douglas, Giorgio Griffa, Geoffrey Farmer, Garth Weiser, Haris Epaminonda, Jordan Casteel, and Liam Gillick

Installation view of Casey Kaplan’s booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018. Courtesy of Casey Kaplan.

Casey Kaplan is exhibiting three sculptures by New York–based artist Kevin Beasley, who will have a solo presentation at the Whitney Museum of American Art this winter. Two are large-scale mixtures of resin; raw Virginia cotton; altered housedresses, kaftans, and T-shirts; and nylon fasteners. The old clothing contributes texture and color to the work—like brushstrokes made of fabric—and looks fossilized under the shiny resin finish. Beasley transforms sartorial items into gestural marks as he chips away at hierarchies that separate fashion and art, sculpture and painting. (The works are also impressive simply for their literal heft.) Nearby, Matthew Ronay offers a lighter counterpart with small, brightly painted sculptures that suggest surreal, miniature worlds of lumpy trees, hills, and valleys.

Gladstone Gallery

Galleries, Booth E5

With works by Keith Haring

Installation view of Gladstone Gallery’s booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018. © Keith Haring Foundation. Courtesy Keith Haring Foundation and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels. Photography by Andrea Rosetti.

Installation view of Gladstone Gallery’s booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018. © Keith Haring Foundation. Courtesy Keith Haring Foundation and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels. Photography by Andrea Rosetti.

Gladstone has built a temple to Keith Haring: a red-and-black room located off its main booth, a yellow lantern dangling from its ceiling. Some of the Haring works on view inside have been seen since their 1980s making. One black plinth supports a yellow terracotta vase, held up by sculptural red crocodiles. Another supports a four-part paper screen: Against a yellow background, fish swim in the sea, and figures with mermaid tails and wings fly through the air. Each artwork features Haring’s trademark thick, black-lined doodles. From a window outlined with red snakes, viewers can peer back into the main fair. The presentation posits Haring’s energetic iconography as an almost spiritual, mystical language. On Wednesday, the gallery reported that it had sold all of the works, for prices ranging from $300,000 to $1 million.

Galerie Jocelyn Wolff

Galleries, Booth D19

With works by Katinka Bock and Miriam Cahn

Installation view of Galerie Jocelyn Wolffe’s booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018. Photo by Katinka Bock. Courtesy of Galerie Jocelyn Wolffe.

Katinka Bock’s minimalist sculpture is a spare reprieve from Art Basel’s glitz and spectacle. The German artist creates objects that fuse ceramics with other elements, often literally elevating a material that’s historically used to make bowls. In Frida und Friedrich, Paris (2018), for example, a hollow steel rectangular prism supports two wilting, hollow ceramic tubes. The title implies some romance, albeit very abstracted: two commingling bodies, perhaps, resting on an upturned bed? One darkly funny piece, Warm K-Karpfen (2018) features a bronze bird lying, as though dead, atop a radiator. The Miami audience, not in much need of home heating, will hopefully get the joke. “Katinka is quite known in Europe, but not so much on this side of Atlantic,” said her Parisian gallerist Jocelyn Wolff. The winning work spotlighted here could change that.

Tiwani Contemporary

Nova, Booth N25

With works by Zina Saro-Wiwa

Installation view of Tiwani Contemporary’s booth at Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018. Photo by Celeste Ricci. Courtesy of Tiwani Contemporary.

If you want to look at pictures of food, search Instagram. If you want to watch people eat, go to the Tiwani Contemporary booth. There, you’ll find television screens playing British-Nigerian artist Zina Saro-Wina’s video series Table Manners Season 1 (2014–16) and Table Manners: Bush Tales #1 (2018). In the films, members of Nigeria’s indigenous Ogoni group eat corn, fish, and food less familiar to a Western audience, such as egusi soup (made from ground melon seeds). The noshers (a bare-chested man in front of a blue background; a woman in a brightly patterned top) all look directly at viewers as they chomp away. The audience watches a simple daily ritual—consumption—transformed into art.

Sies + Höke

Kabinett, Booth F13

With works by Sigmar Polke, Ajay Kurian, Claudia Wieser, Julian Charrière, Marcel Dzama, Michael van Ofen, FORT, João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva, Henning Strassburger, Federico Herrero, Talia Chetrit, Gilbert & George, Gerhard Richter, Konrad Lueg, Naufus Ramirez Figueroa, and Julius von Bismarck

“Gilbert & George came up in the ’60s, and they said that they are the sculptures. They made themselves sculpture,” said gallerist Tine Lurati. In its Kabinett presentation, the Düsseldorf-based gallery has mounted an exhibition of sculptures by the pair, as well as work by Konrad Lueg, Sigmar Polke, and Gerhard Richter. All explore that same dictum—that humans themselves can be art. For his part, Richter created a mirror, Spiegel (470-1) (1981)—the viewer’s reflected body becomes part of the artwork itself. A particularly fun Sigmar Polke sculpture (Rennende Schere, 1996) features a pair of small scissors mounted upright, with high-heeled legs instead of blades. And Gilbert & George imply how simple it is for artists to take an object, skew it, and turn it into art with As used by the sculptors (1972)—simply a wine glass with a bent stem.

from Artsy News