B/R/S 135, the final episode

That's the end of Big Red and Shiny. Issue 135 is the end. Love it or hate it, it was a great place to publish reviews without major pressure. I'll miss it. My review of Rivane Neuenschwander is in 135. I'm smitten with that show weeks after seeing it, which is better than most shows I see. Hope everyone gets to see it.

Saw Anna Hepler and the Wadsworth's traveling show of American moderns on paper (also reviewed in B/R/S 135) up in Portland ME. The Portland Museum of Art is such a badly designed space, but everything they have up is wonderful and important, so you overlook the cramped spaces and narrow hallways-as-gallery. They have a nice Vuillard nude and a hybrid book painting from Anselm Kiefer that should be seen. Unfortunately I went on a day when the commercial galleries were closed, so I missed a few other things I wanted to see.

The print/drawing/paper New Works show is up at the MFA. Man did that department get the short straw in the new MFA redesign. They use to have what's now the Torf Gallery and the space next to the musical instruments. Today, they have 30% of the space in the Brown gallery. Either way, the show has some great work in it. 6 Christiane Baumgartner prints, a 95 Jasper Johns print, Julie Mehretu, and Michael Oatman’s collage Exurbia. A nice group for such a small room.

I think the best part of being in the MFA right now is the random crap you see due to the redesign. Upstairs in what will be the contemporary wing is Kara Walker, plastic wrapped Jonathan Borofsky, and a ton of plywood.

It's quite fetching.