Saw some work this weekend that's worth talking about.

Doug Aitken at Regen Projects

Aitkens film, Migration, is simply profound. You can catch two screenings of this film. One shows indoors while the gallery is open. The other plays outside, sun down till sun up, complete with sound and all. Both experiences are unique. Inside you'll find the film playing on a miniature billboard that stands about 12 feet high and 30 feet wide. It's inside a large open space and makes for an enjoyable viewing experience. Outside is nice, simply because ,where else can you find a profound film playing outside through all hours of the night.

The film's main premise focuses on various wild animals confined, one at a time, within the rooms of roadside motels. There's the obvious tension between the animals and their small confines, however, I see a greater message regarding the ways we adapt to our own surroundings. Their tension comments on our own complacency and domesticity.

Olaf Breuning at Micheal Benevento Gallery

The work on display, basically, centers on the physical nature of paint. Through a series of photographs, paintings, and sculpture, Breuning plays with the nature of paint as it responds to the body and identity, gravity and surface. While at first glance the work comes off simple and straight-forward, Breuning still manages to create tension, ambiguity, and multiple reads.

Feeling emotionally overwhelmed, at the time, due to my own doubts, fears, and frustrations concerning art, this exhibit was a breath of fresh air. In fact, after viewing his site, I thinkBreuning may be my new favorite artist. Check him out if you haven't already. His body of work is vast, combines many mediums, and is both visually interesting, and highly conceptual.

Also, The Hive Gallery in downtown, threw a theme show on Saturday night. Based on the Tarot, it was show complete with entertainment and booze. The Hive has always supported the outsider art scene, so they get a pretty good mix of talent. Much of the work seems to celebrate the joy of art. It may not involve the same rigor as the shit we're put through, but none the less it's creative, not Wall Street.