The SOUTH FRENCH BROADS @ KRONOS!!!

"If Frank Zappa and Minutemen front man D. Boone had ever gotten trapped in an elevator together with a bass, drum set, and an arsenal of toy pianos, slide whistles, samplers, and harmonicas they might have produced something a bit like the music of the SOUTH FRENCH BROADS. The duo is from Asheville, North Carolina, and they pound out songs that swing from noisy, discordant circus music into bassy-funk jams and back again. But as the saying goes, a slide-whistle solo is worth a thousand words--so you should probably stop reading this and just go see them!" --Arts & Entertainment/ Smart Bets

The SOUTH FRENCH BROADS are an eclectic 2-piece ensemble that incorporate bass, drums, sax, harp, vocal, and sound toys into an energetic mix of rock, punk, jazz, comedy, and theatrics. Based in Asheville, NC, the duo has been playing the local scene to a steadily growing following and has been branching out to NYC and even Staunton, Virginia! The energy onstage is incredible as Radix pounds the drums with punk rock abandon tempered with lush jazz stylings--all the while playing the sax, one-handed, on selected numbers. Alex scurries around looping bass lines to enable the addition of harmonica and various toys. While seasoned musicianship is apparent, the duo seek foremost to entertain with a variety of styles, stories, and a fast-paced set of pieces that rarely reach three minutes. Oddly original!

@ KRONOS Art Gallery... (Of course!)
FRIDAY, MAY 2nd
8PM (sHaRp!) 3 bucks!

LEA @ KRONOS!!!

LEA, Washington DC's favorite singer/songwriter, will perform this SUNDAY, April 27th @ KRONOS! With a lovely voice and fantastic, funky originals, supported by jazz bassist extraordinaire Wil Power, she is a complete delight! The concert begins @ 8PM!

POETRY @ KRONOS!!!

"A bludgeon of words, a verbal explosion..."

The always controversial, provocative (and often hilarious) poetry and stream of consciousness assaults of KRONOS's fearless leader KEVIN POSTUPACK.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23rd @ 7:30PM.

KRONOSTOCK 2!!!

KRONOS's ANNIVERSARY MESSAGE...

WHAT IS ART'S PLACE in a society where the contestants and judges on "American Idol" are household names, whereas the average American would be hard-pressed to name five contemporary artists (Thomas Kincaid notwithstanding); where music and art programs are routinely cut from public schools for budgetary reasons. What lesson does this teach our present and our next generation regarding the value of art itself and its very reason for existing? Is the education of a largely uneducated public vis-a-vis art the responsibility of the artists who must become de facto teachers as well? Throughout history, art has always been one of the hallmarks of a civilized, progressive society, so what has happened to us here in America at the dawn of the 21st century? How has art become so watered down, so dilluted to the point of being as palatable and easily digested as baby food? Instead of an enthusiastic public of art lovers trying to keep up with the latest artistic directions, it is the artists themselves who through self-censorship and self-monitoring (with an eye fixed on marketability) have weakened and in many cases destroyed the very thing that should be unalloyed and pure. And what of the artists who press on with their singular vision in the face of overwhelming pressure to conform? Instead of being recognized and celebrated as heroic individuals in an age of conformity they are uniformly ignored and often relegated to a marginal existence of obscurity. Well, it is time for both the artists and the public to step up to the plate. For the artist, to forego the cheap and easy successes in favor of the grander vision. For the public, to demand more of themselves (and of the artists), and to realize that art is not made in a vacuum and that they (the public) are a part of this continuum of artistic expression. By supporting the arts and indeed the artists, by buying their work and putting it on their walls they are keeping the artists alive, and helping them and art itself to flourish.


This essay was reprinted from the very first issue of SAMIZDAT (April/May 2007) because the message it conveys is as timely as ever.


For a further inquiry into the state of modern art please check out "ART GALLERY 101".

HIGHLIGHTS from the CURRENT SHOW!

KRONOSTOCK!!!

KRONOS's ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!

Yes, it's been a year of rebellion, and to celebrate, KRONOS will have its BIGGEST SHOW YET! 23 ARTISTS!!! Our SOLO ARTIST is MARY BETH BELLAH--"PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT" (radical, political, experimental fiber & quilt art!) And in "The Collection" room 22 exciting local, regional, and national artists including Ashley De Angelo, Denise Kanter, Leslie Banta, Charlene Schillinger, Travis Frye, Karen Snarr-Beiler, Eddie Moone, Brian Boyd, Chico Harkrader, Joan Belmar, Jesse James Calderon, Robert Stuart, Diana Young, Cristina Alana Goncalves, Ezekiel Woods, Jennifer Parker, Eliza Martin, Piper Brown, Dave Moore, Janly Jaggard, Dante Alighieri, & Kevin Postupack! Photography (pinhole camera, stereoscopic, erotica), sculpture, abstract and figurative painting & drawing, glassware! PLUS, the always groovy tunage of DJ par excellance MC Brian Boyd (w/ special guest K-PAQ)! FRIDAY, APRIL 11th 6pm--??? Food, drink, art, music, door prizes! Nobody throws an opening like KRONOS!

FOLLOW-UP...

This is the sequel to yesterday's blog (the subject of which has haunted us here at KRONOS for the past day).

The following are two follow-up letters, the first sent to the san francisco art institute, the second to the david zwirner gallery in New York City...


to the sfai:

Regarding abdessemed's exhibit you are a disgrace for even showing this, for even considering it! The sfai has publicly announced to the world that it is morally bankrupt. Your credibility is gone and whoever organized the show should resign in shame and rethink their place in the world.


to the david zwirner gallery:

To keep adel abdessemed as one of your artists states very clearly that you are morally bankrupt and that your credibility is gone. If the other artists on your roster had any backbone or conviction they would tell you what to do with your gallery!


Kevin Postupack
Director KRONOS Art Gallery

BIG CITY ART GALLERIES' MORAL BANKRUPTCY

KRONOS found out about an EXTREMELY DISTURBING thing today in the world of art that all artists should be aware of. (Go to todayinart.com to learn more.) The Walter & Mcbean Galleries (a part of the San Francisco Art Institute) recently held an exhibit that is reprehensible on so many levels as to be mind-boggling. A so-called "artist" named adel abdessemed was given an exhibit there which consisted of videos he made of a goat, a horse, a fawn and other animals chained to a wall and then bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer. The art gallery published the following blurb about the "artist" and his exhibit:

"Each killing occurs so quickly that it's difficult to determine definitively what has happened. Do these incidents represent slaughter or sacrifice? What are their social, cultural, moral, and political implications? Or are such questions now verging on irrelevance, as if something else altogether were taking place (or about to), something wholly other, unforeseen, unexpected? At once intimate and spectacular, abdessemed's work aims to convert the banal into the dramatic. Transforming everyday materials and images into unexpected and sometimes shocking expressions, his inventive gestures, as if by alchemy, work to undo dominant modes of perception and entrenched sociocultural norms--they work, in short, to generate new relevance for radical ideas and actions. Actively defying social, cutlural, moral, and religious taboos, abdessemed contrives to subvert common sense and knowledge, received wisdom, and established biopolitical systems."

Now if this isn't the BIGGEST CROCK OF SHIT that KRONOS has ever read! Once again, these are snuff films of animals being bludgeoned to death in the name of art! From this perspective I guess one can define Mengele's experiments at Auschwitz as art, and that adel abdessemed is in fact a "Mengelist"! This to KRONOS is almost unbelievable! (And once again the only kind of "modern art" to make it to the mainstream media is gratuitous shock-art while the REAL ARTISTS are still ignored en masse.) KRONOS deplores this utterly, and we urge thinking people everywhere to write letters of reproach and condemnation to the Walter Mcbean Galleries (exhibitions@sfai.edu) and the David Zwirner Gallery in NYC (angela@davidzwirner.com) which is unfortunate enough to represent adel abdessemed.

In closing, we include a copy of the letter KRONOS Art Gallery sent to the above two galleries:


Are you kidding me with your bullshit blurb regarding this so-called "artist's" horrendous exhibit (rightfully canceled--but the question is raised as to what "gallery" would be so fucked-up as to entertain this as "art" in the first place)? Instead of an exhibit and words of praise this freak should be arrested and forced to undergo psychological examination. People who kill defenseless animals without remorse, especially in a ritualistic way, are not artists but SOCIOPATHS! It just proves once again that the so-called high-end big city art galleries have their heads so far up their asses that they wouldn't know art if it bludgeoned THEM to death!... Now THERE'S an idea!

Kevin Postupack
Director KRONOS Art Gallery

Quote of the Month (April)

"Indeed, life is a battle."
--Vincent Van Gogh