I Can Spell // Sorry, Time Out Chicago magazines

Artist applications for I CAN DO THAT are due in 1 week!

If you live in Chicago, you will be seeing this (or a variation of it) around. Most likely hanging at the eye level of a hobbit.

Note to ransom note-makers: The “D” was surprisingly difficult to find. Note to no one in particular: The figure is from a scan of a photocopy of a cut-out print-out of a scan of a print of an intaglio etching I made a few years ago. I am my own Richard Prince.

I’ve added new buttons on the sidebar to make it easier for you to follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn (which I desperately need to update), and more. You’ll be kept up to date with all that I find is interesting. And thank you for following / visiting this blog in the first place! Thanks to you, when I Google myself (don’t front—we all do it) now, I actually show up on the first page of results. Nothing short of a miracle considering there are about a billion (this is a fact) Jenny Lams in the world; I even know two others (one of them is an aunt of mine, but technically I came first, since she married into the Lamily). Continue being awesome!

Lucky 13 and More Numbers

Two show-related matters:

One: Beginning in October, via social networking sites, in person, and here, I’ve been asking you who you think is the most overrated contemporary artist. I’ve received over 100 responses, not including the responses to those responses in what devolved into some very strange feuds (photography haters? who knew?). My main takeaway from sorting through all the answers? It’s amazing how many times people misspelled “Damien Hirst,” and it’s amazing how many ways in which that name can be misspelled. In honor of the Friday the 13th opening date for I CAN DO THAT, I present to you:

Your Top 13 Overrated Artists:

13 – (tie) Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Peyton, Jackson Pollock, Karen Kalimnik, Lady Gaga, Matthew Barney, Peter Max

6 – Cy Twombly

5 – Banksy

4 – Tracy Emin

2 – (tie) Damien Hirst, Thomas Kincaid

1 – Jeff Koons

Thoughts on the results?

Two: The artist application deadline for I CAN DO THAT is two weeks from yesterday! Submit!

And two not related to the show:

Ein: Does art school matter? Find out with the artists behind The Drop Out Kids in my latest piece for Sixty Inches From Center (Part II to this article).

Zwei: Flight tickets booked! This artist will be on the lam in: Beijing 5/4 – 5/9, Shanghai 5/9 – 5/15, and Hong Kong 5/15 – 5/22. I’ll be visiting artist studios, art galleries, art fairs, and more, and I’ll be sharing my shenanigans with you while I’m there in Hong Kong and back in the States (a plague o’ both your houses, Great Firewall! ETA after returning from the trip: there are ways around it!). …I’ll also be in the Ladies’ Market haggling for more of those $3 plastic red watches that stop working after several weeks and at this point are pretty much just chunky bracelets with numbers on them.

And it starts

If you check this blog regularly even when I haven’t made a new post (and for that I love you), you might’ve noticed some changes to the row of tabs above. The reason?

My next show, I CAN DO THAT!

Everyone: Save the date. The show opens Friday the 13^th, April 2012.

Artists / “artists”: Currently accepting submissions until March 5. Check out the open call and apply here.

Everyone again / “everyone” / “again”?: Spread the word. Invite yourself to the event and then invite your friends / acquaintances / random people whose Facebook friend requests you reluctantly accepted. This is going to be good.

Of cool-makers and rule-breakers / Words

For those who celebrate the [best] holiday [of the year], I hope you had a grand Chinese New Year. For those who don’t celebrate, I still hope you had a grand Chinese New Year. Because even if you don’t believe in the lunar calendar, the lunar calendar believes in you. Or something.

Since I’ve been asked, I thought I’d clear things up: yes, I write all my own press releases and anything else that involves, well, words. (Which means, yes, I sometimes refer to myself in the third person.) (You, too, can have press releases written about you in the third person! That’s one of my services! Shameless self-promotion! But not really because this is my blog!)

On the subject of writing, check out my latest Sixty Inches From Center article here and take a look inside Arow, a new artist collective that’ll convince you all is right with the world. Or, at least, with Chicago’s underground art scene and all its crazy cool kids.

Most importantly, stay tuned for an announcement regarding my next show! As with Exquisite Corpse, there will be an open call for artists. Excitement.