Broadcasts: Three Day Weekend Presents "The Gallery is Closed"

Engaging directly with this shared global experience of pandemic-motivated social distancing, Blum & Poe Broadcasts, Dave Muller, and Three Day Weekend present an online group exhibition titled The Gallery is Closed. A number of artists and members of our community have contributed personal drawings and public signs that announce closure and reflect a multitude of absent voices and voices in waiting. Projected on images of our empty galleries, collective signs of closure offer a portrait of this moment, and the empathy, hopefulness, and resolve of our community.

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Gailyn Saroyan, Light, 2016
Lightfast colored pencils on paper
9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches
© Gailyn Saroyan
Fred Tomaselli, March 16, 2020, 2020
Gouache, collage, inkjet print on watercolor paper
11 x 12 inches
Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, NYC and White Cube, London
Dave Muller, Smile, Junior, Smile, 2020
Acrylic on gessoed linen
18 1/8 x 16 1/4 inches
© Dave Muller
Lisa Anne Auerbach, The Meow, 4/20, 2020
Photograph
20 x 16 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Gavlak, Los Angeles
Joshua Aster, Quarantine, 2020
Egg oil tempera on linen
25 x 15 inches
© Joshua Aster
Kristin Calabrese, Reverse Gentrification, 2020
Egg oil tempera on linen
21 x 17 inches
© Kristin Calabrese

Muller writes:

By April 25th Blum & Poe will have been closed for five weeks (about the length of a gallery show). I’ve always been interested in the gallery as a framing device and in exhibitions that call the ‘neutrality’ of the exhibition space into question.

Does the light in the icebox really turn off when the door is closed? 

Mimi Lauter, Consequential Landscape, 2020
Soft pastel and oil pastel on paper
10 x 12 inches
© Mimi Lauter
Grace Muller, Closed Sign (For Now), 2020
Photo collage of ink on typewriter paper
12 x 48 inches
© Grace Muller
Helen Chung, Looking Out Looking In, 2020
Acrylic paint and printed photo
48 x 36 x 2 inches
© Helen Chung Archive
Scott King, Dave Help Me (Religious Poster), 2003
Screen print
47 1/4 x 31 1/2 inches
Courtesy Herald St, London
Lauren McKeon, Sinkers, 2020
Lead, burnt chamomile
2 x 2 x 1 inches
© Lauren McKeon
Darcy Huebler, thisway thatway, 2019
Acrylic on wood panel
30 x 24 inches
© Darcy Huebler
Lauren McKeon, "Day 43" (2020), Instagram video, from the series Every Day. For more from this series: https://www.instagram.com/gunkholer/

From what I hear, Sam Scharf, B&P’s Manager of Exhibitions (in LA) has been dropping by weekly, collecting/sorting out the mail and doing whatever it takes to maintain things there. And I ponder… In a way, for the last month the gallery has inadvertently reenacted Robert Barry’s Closed Gallery works of 1969, or Yves Klein’s empty gallery work The Void of 1958. Maybe there’s been a B&P gallery swap like Michael Asher’s Morgan Thomas at Claire Copley Gallery Inc./Claire Copley Gallery Inc. at Morgan Thomas, from 1977. It’s hard to differentiate online, and gallery swaps are now commonplace. A withdrawal from the art world à la Lee Lozano? Maybe B&P has been enacting a light & space performance; a private Robert Irwin or James Turrell. Perhaps that’s where we’ve been for the last month or so.

Samuel Scharf, 2622 Pasadena Ave, LA, CA 90031, 2020
Watercolor and pencil on paper
20 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches framed
Joshua Aster, Freefall, 2020
Egg oil tempera on linen
25 x 15 inches
© Joshua Aster
Aram Saroyan, “I wanted..." , 2016
Lightfast ink on paper
4 1/2 x 7 inches
© Aram Saroyan
Ari Marcopoulos, Robert, Mabou, 2019, 2020
Carbon transfer on paper
11 x 8 1/2 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Fergus McCaffrey Gallery
Mark Hagen and Mars Hagen, Untitled cover #170, 2020
Pencil on paper, digital color
8 1/2 x 11 inches
https://www.instagram.com/comics_from_mars/
Dorit Cypis, Collar Coliseum (Corona time), 2010/2020
Video
TRT: 56 seconds
© Dorit Cypis
Dorit Cypis, "Collar Coliseum (Corona time)", 2010/2020
Dave Muller, Doghouse #1, 2020
Acrylic on gessoed linen
20 x 14 inches
© Dave Muller
Dave Muller, Doghouse #2, 2020
Acrylic on gessoed plywood panel
17 x 11 inches
© Dave Muller
Gailyn Saroyan, Outside, 2016
Lightfast colored pencils on paper
9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches
© Gailyn Saroyan
Ana Prvacki, At The Tips Of Your Fingertips (towards a clean money culture), 2007
Video
© Ana Prvacki
Lauren Spencer King, Italy, 2020
Watercolor on paper
7 x 5 inches
Courtesy of Regards Gallery, Chicago
Helen Chung, Sorry, We're Still Closed, 2020
Acrylic on canvas
28 x 22 x 1 3/4 inches
© Helen Chung Archive
Ana Prvacki, "At The Tips Of Your Fingertips (towards a clean money culture)" (2007)
Amir Zaki, Artist, 2020
Digital image
2 x 2 5/8 inches
© Amir Zaki
Fred Tomaselli, March 14, 2020, 2020
Gouache, collage, inkjet print on watercolor paper
11 x 12 inches
Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, NYC and White Cube, London
Luciano Perna, Closed for Nervous Breakdown, 2020
Photo print on acrylic glass
48 x 36 inches
© Luciano Perna
Kathy Butterly, Street Shot, 2020
Photograph
Dimensions variable
© Kathy Butterly
Mark Hagen and Mars Hagen, The 2000 Socktopus, 2020
Pencil on paper, digital color
8 1/2 x 11 inches
https://www.instagram.com/comics_from_mars/
Strawberry Saroyan, First Zoom Date: 7 Weeks into Shelter-in-Place Lockdown, 2020
Video
TRT: 05:31 minutes
© Strawberry Saroyan
Strawberry Saroyan, "First Zoom Date: 7 Weeks into Shelter-in-Place Lockdown" (2020)

What to do now?

I’m asking artists and other cultural producers to contribute signs of closure (created or found, or something in between) to be displayed inside and outside a virtual recreation of B&P LA. The virtual doors of B&P LA will ‘open’ on April 25th, then we’ll ‘install’ works on a virtual model of the gallery and show photos of the installation on B&P’s website, along with photos of the individual works. The result will look much like the exhibition sections of the current B&P website.

The exhibition will continue to expand and share new work during the course of its run, and will be on view as long as the galleries in Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo remain closed.

After that, I imagine, The Gallery is Open.

Aram Saroyan, Noom, 2017
Retrieved digital image from twitter
Dimensions variable
© Aram Saroyan
B. Wurtz, Untitled, 2020
Photograph
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures
Mark Hagen and Mars Hagen, Cover for "Attack of the Crappy Coronavirus", 2020
Pencil on paper, digital color
11 x 8.5 inches
https://www.instagram.com/comics_from_mars/
Sam Durant, Sorry We're Closed, 2020
© Sam Durant
Joshua Aster, Teardrops Advancing, 2020
Egg oil tempera on linen
25 x 15 inches
© Joshua Aster
Luciano Perna, CHIUSO - Will be back sooner or later., 2020
Color photo face mounted on acrylic glass
48 x 36 inches
© Luciano Perna

Three Day Weekend is a roving project space operated by Dave Muller. Exhibitions are generally three days long, occurring on holidays and their weekends (there are always exceptions).  While currently based in Los Angeles, Three Day Weekend has organized shows in Houston, New York, Vienna, Tokyo, Malmo, and London. Three Day Weekend was established in early 1994 in downtown Los Angeles.

Scott King, THIS IS SHIT, 2020
Screen-print on 270gsm paper
16 1/2 x 23 3/8 inches
Courtesy of Herald St, London
Lisa Anne Auerbach, Dave Muller, Anon Entry Tactic, 2020
Acrylic on wall
15 feet 4 inches x 16 feet 9 inches
Courtesy of the artists
Tom Burckhardt, Thought Forms, 2020
Watercolor and text on paper
11 x 8 inches
© Tom Burckhardt
Anthony Burdin, Desert Mix Underground Studio KDOP Scum 500, 1995
Pencil on paper with thrift store frame
20 x 24 x 1/2 inches
© Anthony Burdin
Scott King, A Balloon for Me, 2020
C-print
17 3/4 x 11 7/8 inches
Courtesy Herald St, London
Mark Hagen and Mars Hagen, Untitled cover #14, 2020
Pencil on paper, digital color
11 x 8.5 inches
https://www.instagram.com/comics_from_mars/
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