Ray Johnson Show

Re:Happening

2011-04-11T21:01:00.003-04:00

Buckminster Fuller Eat Your Heart Out

Katrina Song

2011-02-20T19:58:00.002-05:00

The Show's Up!

2011-02-02T19:40:00.004-05:00

Come by Over Easy Cafe to See It!

Or drop in at 25easypieces.blogspot.com
to see the collages on line and learn more
about the exhibition.

Sebastian

The Ray Johnson Show is NOT Dead

2010-06-19T21:27:00.004-04:00

January 26th, 2011

Easy Pieces

2010-06-19T21:26:00.012-04:00

coming to a cafe near you
the month of February at Over Easy Cafe on Broadway in downtown Asheville

Print out in Color and Hang Up in Your Favorite Hang Out Spot in Town

2010-06-19T21:26:00.010-04:00

("These are not the droids you're looking for," hand waving mesmerizingly)

Postal Art Exercise, Collage Mind Workshop

2010-06-19T11:53:00.006-04:00

Curator's Write Soon, Goon Card

2010-06-19T11:53:00.003-04:00

If You Die, Cunard

7 Things Ray

2010-06-19T07:39:00.003-04:00

Collage Mind Workshop Exhibit

2010-06-18T21:14:00.002-04:00

Parents Viewing Collage Show, Miles' Collage on Post

2010-06-18T21:13:00.000-04:00

Finn's "Moticos" Collage

2010-06-18T21:12:00.001-04:00

Kaleigh's Collage

2010-06-18T21:11:00.002-04:00

on basement wall, outside Thomas Wolfe House

Rhianna's 3-D Collage

2010-06-18T21:10:00.002-04:00

Field Trip

2010-06-18T21:09:00.000-04:00

Miles, Finn and Kaleigh in Pack Square

Collage Mind Workshop

2010-06-15T17:08:00.003-04:00

Co-Leader Janet Hurley, of True Ink, talking with students

Going,

2010-06-15T17:07:00.004-04:00

Going

2010-06-15T17:07:00.003-04:00

Gone

2010-06-15T17:07:00.001-04:00

Got Those Ray Show Blues Again*

2010-06-15T17:06:00.002-04:00

Hey Sailor, What Ship?

2010-06-15T17:05:00.005-04:00

Glyphs

2010-06-15T17:05:00.001-04:00

When in Doubt, Reverse It!

2010-06-15T17:04:00.003-04:00

End of the End

2010-06-15T17:03:00.005-04:00

Write Soon, Goon!!

2010-06-13T08:43:00.004-04:00

Vaudevie Opens the Night

Write Soon, Goon audience

2010-06-13T08:43:00.001-04:00

Earl Braggs reads his 911 poem

2010-06-13T08:42:00.003-04:00

Keith Flynn reading from his Lost Sea

2010-06-13T08:41:00.001-04:00

Pink James Dean & Ray Johnson

2010-06-13T08:40:00.004-04:00

Thomas Butler & Corey Magouirk

Utah Green warming up

2010-06-13T08:40:00.002-04:00

Keith getting a little surreal

2010-06-13T08:39:00.000-04:00

You are Cordially Invited to...

2010-06-11T13:45:00.007-04:00

Write Soon, Goon!...

a night of poetry, surrealism, performance, cabaret and spirits...

Come and Say Your Goodbyes to the Ray Show

at BMCM+AC, 56 Broadway, Downtown Asheville,
starting this Sat. night at 7

with Earl Braggs, Keith Flynn, Vaudevie, Thomas Butler & more

Looked in the Mirror Lately?

2010-06-05T18:46:00.002-04:00

Last Week of the Ray Show!!

Imagine Inventing Yellow (M.C. Richards)

2010-06-04T12:27:00.004-04:00

Yellow Door, Carolina Lane

Write Soon, Goon

2010-06-02T07:24:00.000-04:00

Closing Night Poetry Reading and Performance,
June 12

S.A. Griffin with his Poetry Bomb, End of Show Theatrics

2010-05-27T20:22:00.003-04:00

Curator of Ray Show with Poetry Bomb (Feeling Pretty Excited About It)

2010-05-27T20:21:00.001-04:00

Postcard for Recent Collage Show

2010-05-27T13:21:00.002-04:00

Ray Show Card # 5 (Front)

2010-05-27T13:17:00.005-04:00

Ray Show Card # 5 (Back)

2010-05-27T13:17:00.001-04:00

Ray Show Card # 4 (Back)

2010-05-27T13:15:00.002-04:00

Ray Show Card # 4 (Front)

2010-05-27T13:14:00.002-04:00

Ray Show Card # 3 (Back)

2010-05-23T07:08:00.003-04:00

Ray Show Card # 3 (Front)

2010-05-23T07:07:00.006-04:00

Dr. Frances Beatty Before Her Lecture at BMCM+AC

2010-05-23T06:46:00.005-04:00

Photo by Alice Sebrell

Another Ray Show Card

2010-05-23T06:39:00.003-04:00

Back Side of Postcard Sent to BMCM+AC

2010-05-22T08:27:00.004-04:00

"99% is Shit"

Ray Johnson Show postcard

2010-05-22T08:26:00.002-04:00

(front side)

Note from curator: In every exhibition catalogue you'll find a pair of postcards slipped in. We ask you, in the spirit of Ray, to send one card to a friend and send one back to us, altering and adding as you see fit. Here begins a small show of the pieces that have arrived so far.

Sent to Charter Weeks in 1967, as Part of Ray's Correspondance School

2010-05-16T09:27:00.004-04:00

Envelope

Contents of Envelope

2010-05-16T09:27:00.001-04:00

Back of Envelope

2010-05-16T09:24:00.003-04:00

Poetry Bomb Landing in Asheville

2010-05-15T09:23:00.003-04:00

Dr. Frances Beatty to Talk about Ray Johnson at BMCM+AC

2010-05-14T15:24:00.002-04:00

BMC Mural (in Progress), Merce

2010-05-12T16:01:00.001-04:00

Carolina Lane, around corner of new 5 Walnut wine bar

Asheville Vaudeville

2010-05-07T20:29:00.006-04:00

Intermission, in the alley

Thomas Butler, Caught in the Act

2010-05-07T20:29:00.004-04:00

Asheville Vaudeville, last night at the BeBe Theatre

2010-05-07T20:28:00.000-04:00

Thomas Rain Crowe

2010-05-01T14:50:00.002-04:00

..listening to last night's poetry fest

Pat Riviere-Seel Reads at Cathy Smith Bowers' Poet Laureate Reading Last Night

2010-05-01T14:43:00.006-04:00

Cathy Smith Bowers (& Friends) Coming to BMCM This Friday

2010-04-25T19:55:00.003-04:00

Upcoming Collage Workshop for Teens

2010-04-13T21:33:00.002-04:00

2010-04-13T21:21:00.003-04:00

2010-04-13T21:20:00.002-04:00

2010-04-13T21:20:00.001-04:00

Collage Mind: A Collage Workshop
for Rising 8th graders thru Rising10th graders

What happens when you take two things that seem unrelated—llke, say, visual art and writing, collage art and poetry, non-fiction and creativity, Black Mountain College Museum and Art Center and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial site—and mix them all up in a one week camp? We’re not sure, but we know it will be something new and exciting.
We’re also sure it will help all of us to enter into what Beat Generation novelist William S. Burroughs called “the third mind”—where inspiring poems, short memoir pieces or lively personal essays are born. Participants will begin the week at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center by exploring the art of collage artist Ray Johnson, one of the seminal figures of the Pop art Era and student at the Black Mountain college in the early 40s.
Tuesday through Friday will offer time at both the BMCMAC and the Wolfe Memorial, for writing, making collage art, and having great conversations about creativity. Poet Sebastian Matthews, curator of the Ray Johnson exhibition, From BMC to NYC: The Tutelary Years of Ray Johnson, will take the lead on poetry, beginning with his workshop, 7 Things Ray Can Teach Us About Poetry. In the house that Asheville’s most famous novelist, Thomas Wolfe, made famous with his barely fictionalized novel Look Homeward, Angel, Janet Hurley and camp participants will explore the creative non-fiction genre—where murkiness and clarity are inspirational.
To cap the week, participants will share their writing and art in a public reading and art show at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Visitor Center.
How Much? $170.
Where? Thomas Wolfe House and Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.
When? Monday, June 14-Friday, June 19, 10:00 am-3:00pm
The workshop is limited to 12 participants and scholarship assistance is available.

The Death of Ray Johnson

2010-04-12T21:13:00.008-04:00

This painting by Mark Bloch was unveiled, after 15 years, at his Secrets of the Ancient 20th Century Gamers at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery. It was there from March 18 to April 2 2010. Bloch is looking for a buyer to give it a permanent home! He would like to sell it to someone who loved Ray as much as he did. And misses him as much as he does.

Ray Marquee

2010-04-12T16:32:00.001-04:00

Photo by Alice Sebrell

Tonight!!

2010-04-07T08:36:00.001-04:00

at the Fine Arts Theatre

2010-04-05T11:45:00.002-04:00

How to Draw a Bunny

2010-04-05T11:42:00.003-04:00

(Back Flap, Correspondence, an Exhibition of the Letters of Ray Johnson NCMofArt (1976))

Art Walk tonight!

2010-04-02T08:18:00.001-04:00

Ray is in the Bag!

2010-04-01T22:44:00.003-04:00

Photo by Charter Weeks

2010-03-29T20:54:00.003-04:00

Sacred Space

2010-03-23T20:24:00.003-04:00

Photo by Emilia Phillips

The Coolest Party Ever Thrown?

2010-03-22T19:10:00.002-04:00

Photo by Alice Sebrell

2010-03-21T19:13:00.004-04:00

My Top 5 Favorite Moments from Last Night's Re:Happening

2010-03-21T18:01:00.006-04:00

5. Gene and Meg out in a canoe, three hours before the event begins, tying huge white balloons to cement blocks and anchoring them in a cluster on Lake Eden. At night, they will project images onto them, including old footage of Merce Cunningham’s dance troupe.

4. Clare dancing under black light, wearing only florescent paint, the old lodge pitch black, Kima’s amazing trance music filling the space. Viewers scatter around the space on couches, on the floor, or up on the staircases on either side of the performance space—a sphere of white beneath Clare’s slowly moving, flowing form.

3. Looking up at around 10:00 and realizing that the Dining Hall is jammed full of hipsters and art lovers and musicians and kids and folks who remember the old BMC-days, volunteers running food to the dozen tables, Chef Mark whipping up one of his stunning “bites” by the kitchen; then looking out at the screened in porch and to the deck outside (the spheres are lit up like angels on the water) and seeing even more people moving around in the night, talking and drinking, passing from one art event to the next.

2. (and I must confess I didn't make it to this event by, hearing about it from one side of the dining hall and missing the actual moment by the time I pick my way through the crowd) BUT… Jinx has lifted a friend up in the air 40 feet on his crane, and the man is playing "air" guitar, hanging over the crowd, jamming out into the night.

1. Out with Emilia and Alice making sure everyone finds a parking space, around 6:30, the sunny day at its glorious height, a slight breeze in the air. Two stilt-walking artists dressed as huge doves sway and dance in slow-down pantomime along the dirt road, circling each other, side-stepping cars, knocking wooden wings as they cross, their white feathers flapping in the wind. Hanging out with them for half an hour, watching them slip back behind the old stone buildings.

Lake Eden Transformed

2010-03-21T09:19:00.005-04:00

Installation piece by Gene Felice and Megan McKissak (these balloons were used at night as screens to project images onto; stay tuned!)

Ray in Dadaland

2010-03-18T13:12:00.003-04:00

Greetings from Daddaland:
Fluxus, Mail Art and Rubber Stamps

Stendhal Gallery
New York, New York

April 15-May 29, 2010

http://stendhalgallery.com

2010-03-17T08:57:00.004-04:00

Re-Happening: A Feast for the Senses
a fundraiser for Media Arts Project and Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center This Saturday, from 6-11. Dinner, live performances from area artists and musicians, after-dinner drinks and dessert!! Be there or be a Bucky ball

See You Out at the Lake!!

2010-03-16T20:10:00.003-04:00

view from screened-in porch, Lake Eden

20th Century Gamers

2010-03-16T20:08:00.003-04:00

Mark Bloch's new exhibition

Mark Bloch's latest

2010-03-12T21:56:00.002-05:00

Shot by Friend at Ray Opening

2010-03-12T20:49:00.002-05:00

Shadow # 1, Emilia Phillips

Mark Bloch, in a recent email:

2010-03-12T16:56:00.003-05:00

One time Ray sent a message in a bottle. It had his address on it and some kid found it and wrote to Ray. Ray was so excited! He loved that kind of stuff. To him that was the absolute essence of what he was trying to do and what excited him about correspondence. But unfortunately the kid's mom wouldn't let him correspond with Ray and so Ray was very very disappointed. I'll never forget: his exact words to me on the phone were "AND HERE THIS KID HIT THE JACKPOT BUT..."

I always found it touching how much he cared and how disappointed he was and also how his perception of it was that this kid hit the jackpot. An all expenses paid correspondence with Ray Johnson—founder of the New York Correspondance School!!!! I just love that! And the kid did hit the jackpot, the poor bastid.

Self Portrait with Rimbaud

2010-03-12T16:46:00.001-05:00

BMC Students in Dance Performance

2010-03-10T07:32:00.003-05:00

"Happenings" are a form of participatory new media art, emphasizing an interaction between the performer and the audience. Breaking the fourth wall between "performer" and "spectator", it replaces criticism with support. While it includes everyone present in the making of the art, the form of the art depends on the engagement of the audience, for they are a key factor in where the performers' spontaneity leads. There are no set rules, only vague guidelines that the performers follow based on surrounding props. Unlike other forms of art, "Happenings" are ever-changing. Because only chance determines the path the performance will follow, there is no room for failure. As Kaprow writes in his essay, '"Happenings" in the New York Scene', "Visitors to a Happening are now and then not sure what has taken place, when it has ended, even when things have gone 'wrong'.

Dining Hall, Lake Eden

2010-03-08T18:07:00.001-05:00

Saturday Night at BMC

2010-03-08T18:03:00.002-05:00

Ray Mat, Way In

2010-03-07T18:52:00.001-05:00

Back Way In, Ray Mat 2

2010-03-06T19:12:00.000-05:00

Krista Franklin Leads "Visual Poetry" Workshop at BMCM+AC

2010-03-05T13:55:00.005-05:00

Photographs by Alice Sebrell

Krista Franklin Looking at Work form Workshop Participants

2010-03-05T13:54:00.000-05:00

Work from Workshop

2010-03-05T13:53:00.000-05:00

Old Sign, BMC Books

2010-03-04T10:50:00.003-05:00

Ursula Gullow Reviews the Ray Show in Mountain Xpress

2010-03-03T07:31:00.003-05:00

I heard a viewer say, "This looks like a Warhol," upon glancing at the piece, JamesDean/Rimbaud, which shows both men with bold stripes of pink rendered in marker across their faces. Considering that the piece was made in 1956-58 and predates Warhol's iconic pop paintings by half a decade, it is certain that Johnson influenced his friend's popular artwork, as artists who run in similar circles tend to do.

Much of the work should be regarded as physical relics of actual art pieces. Johnson's postal performances, for example, had a lot to do with the actual mailing and receiving of letters and envelopes he created. With that action removed, the letters are now what remain of the original art piece. There are several on hand to check out in this exhibit, and even some that Johnson had created in 1943 — two years before he attended Black Mountain College.

There are so many facets to Johnson as an artist, and his personal life in many ways was also an art piece...To see a collection of this importance in such an intimate setting is a privilege indeed.

For whole review:
http://www.mountainx.com/ae/2010/030310new_yorks_most_famous_unknown_artist/

Ghostly Ray

2010-03-02T15:43:00.002-05:00

Seen Through Back of Display Window Banner, inside Looking Out into Late Afternoon Light

Ray Show gets its first review

2010-03-01T19:28:00.005-05:00

from Raleigh Rambles:

The kernel I found that connected all these essays? Nothings – empty shells of meaning – e.g. nonsense – that serve as markers and triggers for the kind of nonlinear art experience Ray Johnson wanted you to have. William S. Wilson talks of “the surface concealed only by another surface.” Julie J. Thomson finds their roots in “the gap, an element emphasized by Albers in his teaching,” and makes the valid and often repeated connection between Ray’s study of Taoism and these ideas. Kate Dempsey makes it clear Ray wanted to avoid specific meanings, sending messages in bottles to be partly constructed by the finder. Sebastian reminds us that Ray was “an autodidact student of Buddhism and a self-described disciple of John Cage’s cultivation of chance occurrence. “ Julie Thomson describes the performances Ray created entitled “Nothings:” they “interrupted the Happenings, opening up a space amidst the busy environments and experiences of the Happenings.” Ray brought Zen and his unique fusion of life and art into American art, and made his mark with great gifts and energy.

for whole review:
http://raleighrambles.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/ray-johnson-tracking-deep-currents/

Thanks, John Dancy-Jones!

BMCM Bathroom Triptych

2010-02-27T19:47:00.002-05:00

Opening Night, from the Street

2010-02-27T19:41:00.001-05:00

The Show is Up

2010-02-22T08:05:00.001-05:00