REVIEWS
"Robyn Menzel and Spencer Livingston, proprietors of Space Gallery, both address the erotic in their work; Menzel's paintings emphasize realistic detail and smoldering sexuality (as in the skywardly staring, cigarette-fingering reclining subject of Bed Spread, (2003), while Livingston's veer towards a more stark naked objectivity (complete with well-delineated nipples and lush depictions of pubic and armpit hair). Collectively, their gallery celebrates sexuality in events like their "Photo Club Art Happenings" ("mingle & watch a live photo w/ nude models," suggests their ad), "Fetish Nites" and shows in which the theme is "shameless nudity" (as in the "Origin of the World" exhibit in September 2003). And lest the artists (or models) think that coyness will be tolerated, their brochure warns that "Art with fig leaves will not be considered." Phil Oppenheim, Art Papers. "There is a new gallery in New Orleans called SPACE, and it's just what the city needed. There aren't many galleries that are truly experimental or user-friendly, so I was very curious to see what SPACE had to offer.
" Very different are Spencer Livingston's portraits at Space Gallery, D. Eric Bookhart, Gambit "Don't we all wonder about the origin of the world, at one time or another? Well, maybe, but I would think more ponder the reason or even the necessity for our existence. Perchance, still more consider the prospect of our extinction. Whatever, Space Gallery's "The Origin of the World" sets out to create a stir similar to the one caused by Courbet's painting by the same name. Spencer Livingston, one of the included artists, says Space invited artists to contribute work they felt would be difficult to show in a conventional milieu because of its sexual nature. You learn something new every day, because I didn't think sexual content would be a deterrent for work to be shown in New Orleans. Although, it is true, all those corporations might have difficulty in the conference room if they were surrounded by spread-legged, naked people on their walls. So, Livingston is probably right about sexual nudity's correct place but apparently found it to be just right for his salon style gallery. However, much of the 2D art in "The Origin of the World" is not at all risque' and just might find its way into a corporate office, or even a doctor's office. Although, maybe even Robyn Menzel's careful brand of photorealism might be a little off in a waiting room, but only because the nude black woman reclines on a bed with a cigarette, a no no for sure... A lot of the paintings on display are by Spencer Livingston, and from the looks of things, odd is his modus operandi. Not just his choice of subject matter, but his sense or disregard of perspective, which makes for a slightly naive style of painting. A diminished view of a blonde standing in open robe next to a bed in "The Very Special Room" challenges our ability to know whether she is very short or just underage. In addition to a peculiar vantage point, Livingston's use of a predominance of a scumbled white palette to describe the interior as well as the figure makes this painting one of his better efforts. Another of Livingston's paintings, "Sistine Chapel Floor" also favors pale tones in a nearly abstract vision, showing two partially visible figures reclining on the floor. I guess they're imitating that which is above, in earthly fashion. And so, we thank Mr. Livingston for perpetuating "The Origin of the World" and for giving us a deviation on art and life history." Marian McClellan, New Orleans Art Review. "Spencer Livingston, the least likely looking new wave performer (in most of a three-piece suit) is the lead singer and sax player and he fairly burns a room with his intensity, a paradox considering how much of his material is black-comedy and even parody (though the sort of parody that is a better example of the parodied genre than the genre generally offers for real.). . . Livingston's songs are immensely intelligent and right, as well as witty. . . His finest moment was a song called ‘Strung Out', in which Livingston portrays a junkie attempting to communicate, as the accelerating threat of the musical noise rises around him. (A) band your really have to hear." Rock Adam (Ralph Adamo), Gambit.
"Works by few of the artists generate excitement. . . Among the exceptions is. . . Spencer Livingston, who has two very provocative, but dissimilar works -- a sculpture and a collage -- on view. Livingston's sculpture, "Cube No. 17", is an arrangement of plexiglass prisms with veils of wavy, irregular color trapped inside. In this work, we see a sharp, deliberately created tension between crystalline perfection and the free-form effects of chance. "Livingston's collage, ‘Problems of Everyday Life', is intended as a 'functional, utilitarian piece of art' and includes the printed admonition, ‘Let's all say "Down with aesthetics and bourgeois decorative art!' . Toward this end, Livingston has cleverly brought together commonplace objects, including a crossword puzzle, on which the viewer is invited to test his word power, and a scratchpad, on which it is possible to leave telephone notes." Roger Green, The Times-Picayune.
"Ballistics is Spencer Livingston's vehicle for the unique brand of rock propaganda he chooses to espouse. . . ‘The Pope is a Man' is a loping blues satire that rides on Raeburn's tom slugging and Livingston's irreverent lyrics and vocal delivery. The more punkish ‘Strung Out' is a manic high energy free-rap that degenerates in a plasmic slur of the junkie's lament with Livingston eventually lying onstage in a wasted heap." Rick Oliver (Rico), Wavelength.
"Radio 1917, the work or filmmaker Spencer Livingston, was a mostly coherent, symbol-tinged documentation of , as I saw it, the sexual maladjustment of a young couple. "Beginning with the wedding day, following the start of the couples' discontentment up to the metaphorical ending, the film leaves open several interpretive avenues as to what actually transpires between husband and wife. "While this reviewer does not feel that wordless films truly exploit the screen's full potential, Livingston, one must admit, has produced a work of a certain potency without a word uttered. One has in ‘Radio 1917' an uncomplicated but arresting idea effectively communicated in film images." Ray Bono, Kite.
"New Orleans has never been short of musical artists also gifted in the visual arts. "We have abstract guitarists, such as Earl King and Clark Vreeland, who also create abstract paintings. Spencer Livingston, yet another guitarist (perhaps more ‘Late Modern' than abstract) utilizes garter belts and jet-age plastics for his sculptural pieces and the writings of Trotsky for his graphic works. "You can catch the Ballistics guitarist/saxophonist/tunesmith ("Surfin' Communist Guerillas", "Naugahyde", "Rita's Legs", and numerous others) at the R. Mack Gallery on Magazine Street where he will present three films and performance pieces, including "Passionate Means to Desperate Ends". One piece we've seen by the artist is a cube of clear lucite, injected through the center with red dye and encircled by a lace garter belt--just the thing for a dentist's waiting room or your grandmother's dining room table. "Ballistics premiered a t Tipitina's. Big mistake. Some of the Tipitina's employees threatened to quit if ever another new wave band was allowed in the place. Hippies, you see. Free spirits, open to the new and novel. Big mistake but mission accomplished anyway. "Appearances are almost always deceiving. Any reader doubting this ancient maxim need look no further than Billy Zoom, lead singer with X, Keith Morris, lead singer with the Circle Jerks, and Spencer Livingston, the brains and guitarist behind New Orleans' own Ballistics. "No normal, red-blooded American girl would fear to have her mom and dad meet any of these three gentlemen. The music they play may be rough and rowdy, but these boys are as wholesome-looking as Mr. Rogers. Not one of them has dyed his hair purple. Their fingernails are clean. I personally spoke with each one of them this week and found their manners faultless. "Mr. Livingston was born under the most creative and articulate of astrological signs, one which we will not reveal for fear of offending those members of the audience born under the other eleven somewhat shiftless and boring zodiacal designations." Bunny Matthews, The Times-Picayune.
"Is this art? That is a question which the observer must answer. There are ideas being communicated here, along with a sense of playfulness that is very effective in capturing one's attention. "Are the conceptual artists the true visionaries? Is it the process which is important, and not the product. Spencer Livingston speculates, in this piece, ‘Art should be a verb, maybe, because it's in the process that art exists. All the great paintings in the world are merely tire tracks in the mud, faint traces of the sleek roaring European sports cars that we know as the Act of Making Art.'" Barbara P. Tytell, Kite .
"Funny." Al Shea, Gambit.
"It's the more extreme bands, punks on one side and experimentalists on the other, that have the most to lose from the disappearance of regular outlets for adventurous music. Bands like Ballistics may never have mainstream audiences, but there have always been people interested in hearing them, and this more explorative audience is being left out in the cold." Steve Alleman, Gambit.
"The problem with my trying to say anything about this band is that, more than most bands I've heard, I'm not quite sure what they're up to. On the one hand, Ballistics are a strong, witty and accomplished set of players doing all original material in several rock veins. On the other hand, and not detracting a bit from the pleasure of the music, what they really seem to be about musically is a sort of criticism of rock music, especially new wave; academic criticism that is. Their song ‘Sublimation', for example. Their act threw a Zen finance major from Tulane who was standing next to me into a state of hostile confusion. Could New Orleans have spawned a Zappa-esqe band of its own?" Ralph Adamo, Gambit.
"Livingston took the stage at the Beat Exchange wearing a flashy suit, his trademark red- and-white patent leather shoes, his battered Stratocaster (covered with streaks of fingernail polish from singer/dancer Kathy B.'s frequent attacks on him with her nails while they writhe together during his solos) and a pair of handcuffs dangling from his left wrist. After the second song, an unknown young woman jumped onto the stage from the audience, whispered into his ear, and handcuffed herself to him. Unfazed, Livingston handed her a percussion instrument, and played the rest of the set jerking her arm back and forth as he played, and dragging her around the stage as Ballistics went into their altered-consciousness frenzy. During the intermission, a cab was sent to Livingston's apartment for the key, which he had neglected to bring with him. After being unlocked, the blissful young woman was hustled away by her embarrassed escort, who declined to stay for the second set. Too bad; it was even better than the first." Claire de Lune, Bus Plunge.
"No-wave Spencer Livingston--multi-media extravaganza." Tonya Coyle, Wavelength.
"Workspace Loft, Inc. was the most interesting art phenomenon to show up in Albany, New York in this century, according to art historian Ken Johnson. Spencer Livingston, who was a core member of the group, continues to be an inspiration for the Workspace group people who are in touch with him. Musician, filmmaker, playwright, artist; Livingston anchored our musical shows by presenting actual musical compositions. While the group was conceptualizing everything and remaking the genres, he had highly crafted films for the film shows, ephemeral theatre pieces for the theatre shows, real theatrical movement pieces for Dances Moderne. An energetic innovator, Livingston led the charge fronting the Workspace band. He will always be famous for organizing the first international poetry boxing match, and the questions and ideas presented in his one-man ‘Seditious Dreams' gallery show still resonate. Never cynical, never tricky, Livingston's art is a place you can go for solid nourishment. So now here are all these paintings. You are in the right place. You can be sure this is the real thing. Ed Atkeson and Joachim Frank, Remembering Workspace Loft.
"‘Seditious Dreams', a new multi-media show by Spencer Livingston, is the most recent installation in the Workspace Gallery. "According to Webster's dictionary, the noun ‘sedition' means ‘incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.' The ‘lawful authority' in this context may be read as: the art school, the art historian/scholar, the board of directors of museums and so on. "The movement of resistance against established norms of art is not something with which we are unfamiliar. But there is a basic difference between such ‘resistance movements' as Impressionism and the resistance of Livingston. Such art movements were attempts to broaden or redefine the concept of aesthetics and the re-evaluation of what can be called art. "Livingston attempts here to reject the concept of aesthetics altogether. To make art not to make art. Livingston does not/cannot make art. Arriving at this juncture, Livingston realizes that his message could best be expressed via art. The ‘artworkings' by Livingston are exercises, games, tests, all demanding of one's perceptual abilities and yet humorously poking fun at the very act one is engaged in. "The focus of the show is actually the written essays; the accompanying artwork serves to humorously illustrate his written work. ‘You, Too, Can Draw Like El Greco' allows one to engage in the ‘creative process' itself: with pantograph in hand, one may carefully steer the point and make an exceptionally realistic rendering of this great master's work. This engaging of the viewer runs throughout the show as reflected in such pieces as ‘Test Your Technique', ‘The Art History Quiz', ‘What's Wrong With this Picture', ‘The You Have to Learn the Rules Before You Can Break Them Myth', and ‘Paris in the the Spring'. "Seditious Dreams is a gentle upheaval. The show as a whole was delightfully refreshing, especially for those who take art too seriously." Juliana Harris, Kite.
Television criticism takes all forms. You may express your grievances by shouting at the TV. I like typing (shouting, too). New Orleans artist Spencer Livingston likes oil and horsehair. At 6 tonight -- just in time for the White Linen Night extravaganza in the Arts District-- an exhibit of paintings by Livingston will open at SPACE Gallery, 4528 Magazine St. Scheduled to hang through the end of the month, the 15 works feature images Livingston has taken from WDSU-Channel 6 newscasts. The show's title: "Helena Moreno Reporting." A reporter and sometimes-anchor at WDSU since November 2000, Moreno is the subject of every painting. Livingston said he began the Moreno series about a year ago, and quickly realized a linkage to previous paintings he'd done with revisionist religious themes. "There's something about her," he said. "It's an image of this angelic presence. She brings peace to this tragedy." Likening Moreno's public image to an iconic figure such as Marilyn Monroe, Livingston said the paintings -- which are dark and scary, but not as dark and scary as some of his other work -- aren't intended as portraits. "Some of them are crude," he said. "Some are painted in a primitive style. They're not all consistent. "I would like her to see them. She might not like some of them. They're not glamour shots. She's very beautiful. I could do a straight portrait of her and she would look fabulous. That's not what I'm doing. I'm painting the TV screen." Livingston is employing a little artistic license when he's saying these are not glamour shots. Some of the images are downright creepy. In one painting, Moreno is depicted standing in front of a studio-display graphic of an oncoming automobile. A hideous, ghostly figure looks out from the car. The words "Fatal Hit & Run" headline the scene. In another, Moreno is seen as a pale specter with Michael Keaton-as-Betelgeuse eyes. The WDSU on-screen graphic says, "Live." Livingston said the distorted appearance of the images is due mostly to the fact that his TV isn't hooked up to cable. He gets WDSU the old-fashioned way, via the frequently distorted airwaves. Then he either photographs the screen or makes a quick sketch to capture the moment. In a way, he said, "Helena Moreno Reporting" offers commentary on the news-gathering process. "I like the idea that these images have gone through so much processing," he said. "It's kind of like what the news does anyway. I'm doing the visual equivalent of what the news does with content. "The event happens. The news people show up and interview somebody who was there, who tells them what happened. Then it comes to the anchor, and eventually you get some version of what may or may not have actually happened. "Helena Moreno goes to these scenes, the videotape is edited in the studio, then transmitted through the airwaves to my rabbit ears. It's changed visually by my TV screen. I make drawings or take notes, then do the painting. "It's the old telephone game." Contacted by telephone, Moreno deferred comment to Mason Granger, WDSU's general manager. "I don't want to say anything about this," said Granger.
WDSU's media silence on this issue is understandable. TV stations are skittish-unto-paranoid about unsolicited contact between viewers and on-air personalities, and most TV news workers can tell harrowing stories about weird mail, scary phone messages and odd in-person encounters. The corporate parent of one local station holds an annual workshop to coach the station's reporters and anchors on how to identify potentially dangerous communication from the public. Stations are advised by security experts never to acknowledge questionable contact with a viewer -- the theory being that any recognition, good or ill, would only encourage potential stalking behavior -- except to quickly report such contact to law-enforcement authorities. Communicator, a trade publication of the national Radio-Television News Directors Association, addressed the stalker problem in an October 1999 article by Michael Lisi. As quoted in the story, Connie Kirkland, sexual assault service coordinator at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., said that TV news-workers' visibility, accessibility and practiced likeability make them targets for unhinged fans. TV news' emphasis on a cosmetically pleasing presentation also encourages unwanted attention from some unstable viewers, she added. "The stalker misreads cues, comments and looks because he wants there to be a connection so badly," said Kirkland in the Communicator story. "It's a combination of perception, accessibility and fantasy. When you get that combination going, trouble starts." Such issues are an unfortunate fact of life when your image is publicly promoted as a beneficent-yet-hard-nosed, empathetic-yet-spunky bearer of news and other information. A little digging into Livingston's art career also gives pause. Several paintings displayed on his Web site contain graphic and disturbing imagery, and his bio there begins, "Livingston's career has been highlighted by censorship battles, political debate, and often dangerous performance pieces." Among his career highlights is a Tipitina's performance by Ballistics -- a band in which he performed a couple of decades ago -- that resulted in the group being permanently banned from the storied music venue. Given those bad-boy bona fides, it seemed appropriate to ask the artist if he ever had any serious run-ins with the law. "I'm an attorney," he said. Dave Walker, The Times-Picayune.
Bad shoes and white water. Closed doors, departing trains, runaway girls. The drugs and the women, the maudlin young hands: What you hold right now has been said many times and many ways. What you hold right now I've been up until daylight thinking about: a song of the past, a blues, a laugh-- finally a night that lasted too long. Questions of shifting pulse and unsteady desire. Some men will stay awake for women, some for money; others for cocaine or young boys. I'll stay awake for Spencer Livingston, because I've seen him through the blues bands and the solos and I've seen him on the floor with his beat-up stratocaster screaming rock and roll. I've heard his new band and called it, in print, the best he's ever put together. I've listened to this new record and even in the hokum jive, the odd solos, strange orchestrations and unexpected arrangements I hear clearly the unbent connection to the tradition that killed Bessie Smith and Robert Johnson. If the songs sound impossibly light-hearted and mocking, at this hour I imagine I hear through them--and my images are sweat and bloodstains, falling rains and clear blue eyes. I know some starlight night when we're by the water in New Orleans the ships will come in and the gulls will sleep; when the moons rise, we'll open this bottle and share a single glass. At 3 A.M., during the band's last set, I'll dance you across the shadowed square until stumbling and bursting we fall beneath the cypress tree-- enveloped in darkness. I will kiss your breast as you drain the crystal. Finally lost, the sweet jazz and my poison wine will be our last tastes of pure pleasure. At the Cafe, Livingston lights a cigarette and takes the band through the night's last blues. Richard Kelly, Kite, reviewing "How You Play This Game, Anyway?"
EXHIBITION HISTORY
June 2007 "Pop Goes the Dada" Spencer Livingston & Missy Graham, The Big Top Gallery, New Orleans.
Oct. 2006 "Workspaced Out: a Thirty-Year Introspective", major retrospective of the work of the Workspace Group, including a visual art exhibition and three evenings of film shows by Livingston. Albany Center Galleries and Albany Public Library.
Sept. 2003 "Origin of the World" Group show of nude SPACE Gallery figure painting . New Orleans
August 2003 "History of Mexico" Oil Paintings. SPACE Gallery New Orleans
August 2003 "Rigorous and Tender" Film show. SPACE Gallery New Orleans
April 2003 2nd annual Tennessee Williams Literary Quarter Scene Festival Art Show. Oil paintings. New Orleans
April 2003 Firlefanz Gallery Inaugural Exhibition Albany, N.Y. Oil Paintings.
March 2003 "Bible Study". Solo Exhibition of Oil Paintings SPACE Gallery New Orleans
August 2002 "Helena Moreno Reporting" Solo Exhibition SPACE Gallery of Oil Paintings. New Orleans
July 2002 "Artist and Model" Solo Exhibition of Oil SPACE Gallery Paintings New Orleans
June 2002 SPACE Gallery Inaugural Group Exhibition SPACE Gallery Paintings and Sculpture. New Orleans
April 2002 Tennessee Williams Literary Festival Quarter Scene Art Show. Oil Paintings New Orleans
March 2002 University of Mobile Art Gallery Juried Mobile, AL Exhibition. Oil Painting.
Feb. 2002 "Artist and Models: Self-portraits with Poet's Loft Collaborators" Solo exhibition, Oil Paintings. Hot Springs, AR Oct. 2001 West Bank Art Guild. Exhibition of Oil Gretna, LA Paintings and Slide Lecture.
April 2001 "Quiet Blade Productions Presents" Films Zeitgeist by Spencer Livingston and Robyn Menzel. New Orleans
Jan. 2001 New Orleans Art Association Annual Hansen Gallery Juried Exhibition. Oil Painting. New Orleans
Nov. 2000 Orleans Ink Studioworks. Solo Exhibition, New Orleans Oil Paintings.
April 1999 "Jade Green Low Rose" Premier of Ballet Loyola University written, recorded and choreographed by Performing Arts Center Spencer Livingston. Performed by Loyola New Orleans Ballet Company
June 1997 Retrospective: Solo Painting Exhibition, 150 Zeitgeist Works New Orleans
May 1996 "100 Secrets of Great Oil Painting--And Cafe' Marigny How to Avoid Them". Solo Exhibition, Oil New Orleans Paintings.
Sept. 1990 "The Bear" Performed in Chekov's Play True Brew Theatre New Orleans
May 1990 Southern Playwrights Festival. Directed and Contemporary Arts Performed in First Place-Winning Play Center "Snakehead" New Orleans
June 1982 "Too Hot" Group Exhibition. Sculpture and Scheurich Gallery Serigraphs. New Orleans
Dec. 1980 "Gator Film Festival" Five Films. Tipitina's New Orleans
August 1979 Films and Installation R. Mack Gallery New Orleans
Jan. 1979 "Contemporary Louisiana Photographers" Contemporary Arts Photographs and Serigraphs Center New Orleans
Sept. 1978 Stockade Villager's Show. Photographs Schenectady, NY and Etchings.
July 1978 "An Evening with Spencer Livingston" Workspace Loft Films and Film Theory Lecture Albany, NY
April 1978 "April Fool's Day Film Festival" Workspace Loft Albany, NY
March 1978 "Six Graphic Artists" Etchings The Eighth Step Albany, NY
Feb. 1978 "Seditious Dreams" Solo Exhibition of Workspace Gallery Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Collage, Albany, NY Written Essays and Machines.
Nov. 1977 "Passionate Means to Desperate Ends" Chapter House Theatre Film accompanied by live music performance. Albany, NY
Nov. 1977 "Eat" Group Invitational Painting Show Workspace Gallery Albany, NY
Sept. 1977 "Small Films" Film Show. Workspace Loft Albany, NY
Sept. 1977 "Group Sex Show" Paintings Workspace Gallery Albany, NY
Aug. 1977 Green Mountain Arts Collaborative. Bennington, VT Film Show.
July 1977 Green Mountain Arts Collaborative. Bennington, VT Paintings and Assemblage.
April 1977 "Two Swell Pals Show Fine Flics" Workspace Loft Films by Livingston and R. Durlak Albany, NY
March 1977 "Second Annual Group Photo Show" Workspace Gallery Photographs Albany, NY Jan. 1977 "Radio/1917" Film Show. Workspace Loft Albany, NY
Jan. 1977 "Bicentennial Kitsch" Group Show Workspace Loft Collage Albany, NY Dec. 1976 "Films for You" Film Festival Workspace Gallery Albany, NY
Nov. 1976 First Annual Group Photo Show Workspace Gallery Photographs Albany, NY
Nov. 1976 Experimental Film Forum. Film Show Saratoga, NY and Lecture.
Nov. 1976 "Other Films" Non-narrative Films by Workspace Loft Livingston, R. Kelly, M. Harris.
Oct. 1976 "The Presidents' Faces" Solo Exhibition of Workspace Gallery Drawings, Paintings, and Collage. Albany, NY
Sept. 1976 "Five Filmmakers" Film Show Workspace Gallery Albany, NY
Sept. 1976 Film Show and Lecture The Eighth Step Albany, NY
August 1976 "Spencer Livingston and Diane Workspace Gallery Klimkowsky". Paintings and Prints Albany, NY
August 1976 "Films and Related Struggles for Vision" Electronic Body Arts Studio Film show, Installation, Visual Games. Albany, NY |