A maiden will I die

Possible Press

I contributed a piece of writing to the new issue of Possible Press, curated by Michelle Grabner. The Suburban will host the Chicago launch on Saturday, December 17, 7-9pm, in conjunction with Diego Leclery's Polar project.

The Supermale (for Doug)

Planned escape

I'm reading these signs of the infidel hates me (after K. Killian)

Topple the Table of Correspondences

I have a show opening on November 13th at 2nd Floor Projects in San Francisco. For more information, go here. A limited edition broadside will be produced on the occasion of the exhibition, and will include an essay by Scott Treleaven. Much love and thanks to Kevin Killian and Margaret Tedesco for bringing me out to the West Coast.

So they do not drown (for Mark)

Gas...telephone...one hundred thousand rubles

Young Werther versus The Immoralist

Liam vomiting ectoplasm

Minotaur

Caravaggio/Goliath

Scatology 2

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Intimacies

I will be exhibiting a new video, Ritual Action, May 25, 2011, which I made in collaboration with Tom Daws in a group show at Gallery 400. Thanks to Lorelei Stewart and John Neff for including us in the show. Information below:


Intimacies
Curated by John Neff and Lorelei Stewart
September 9-October 22, 2011
Reception: Friday, September 9, 5-8 pm


Elijah Burgher/Tom Daws | LaToya Ruby Frazier | Desirée Holman | Leigh Ledare | Laurel Nakadate | Michael Sirianni


In the six artists’ works in Intimacies the camera is an active agent in the creation of social events, not just a recording instrument in the hands of an autonomous documentarian. The primarily photographic and video works, some of which include painting and sculptural elements, focus on charged interpersonal encounters. Beyond serving as indices of such encounters, the included artworks reveal the reconfigured effects of such exchanges, disclosing the complexity of authorship, agency, and viewership in today’s world.

PEOPLE DON'T LIKE TO READ ART

I will have some sigil drawings in "PEOPLE DON'T LIKE TO READ ART" at Western Exhibitions in Chicago. Thanks to Scott Speh for including me in the exhibition. Information below.


Western Exhibitions will present the group show, “People Don’t Like to Read Art” in both Gallery 1 and 2, opening with a public reception on Saturday, July 9 from 6 to 9pm.

The title of the show takes its name from a 2009 drawing (not in this show) by Deb Sokolow that humorously reflects on some viewers’ aversion to reading text in visual art works. While the use of text in contemporary art is fairly commonplace, many of artists in this show move beyond the use of single words and phrases (though examples of this kind of work will be in the show) by working with paragraphs, lists, fully-formed narratives and book formats, asking viewers to take the time to actively read the work. 

The show includes works from several gallery artists: Nicholas Frank’s framed book pages from his ongoing biography, Adriane Herman’s vinyl appliqués of found to-do lists, John Parot’s paintings and drawings wryly reflecting on modern gay life, a currency collage from Mark Wagner, and narrative drawings by both Joe Hardesty and Deb Sokolow. 

Also included in this survey of works that incorporate the act of reading are several non-gallery artists who work in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, video, artists’ books, printmaking and collage, and hail from points in and outside of Chicago. We’ll be showing an artist book produced in collaboration with The Present Group from Rebecca Blakley (Oakland, CA); drawings and collages by Elijah Burgher (Chicago); sculpture by Simon Evans (Berlin); watercolors by Cat Glennon (Brooklyn); text drawings byMeg Hitchcock (New York); video and printmaking by Rachel Foster (San Francisco); drawings by David Leggett (Chicago); artist book/novel by Andy Moore (Chicago); collage/photos by Kirsten Stoltmann (Los Angeles); and artist books by Angie Waller (New York).

B-B-B-BAD

B-B-B-BAD
... an exhibition with attitudes.

June 30 - August 15

Anna Kustera Gallery
520 West 21st Street NYC

Opening Reception: Thursday June 30, 6-9pm

Featuring:
Adam Axel, Mattia Biagi, Keith Boadwee, Matt Borruso, Charles Browning, Elijah Burgher, Luke Butler, Wayne Coe, Steve Davis, Peter Eide, Scott Ewalt, Glen Fogel, Jonah Freeman, Martha Friedman, Paul Gabrielli, John Wayne Gacy, Joe Graham-Felsen, Gregory Green, Adam Helms, Lisa Kirk, Kristian Kozul, Scooter LaForge, Wes Lang, Karine Laval, Patrick Lee, Michael Magnan, Paul McCarthy, Adam McEwen, Bob Mizer, John Ensor Parker, Luc Sante, Ryan Schneider, Jeff Shagawat, Tara Sinn, Hank Willis Thomas, Wolfgang Tillmans, John Waters, Karlheinz Weinberger, Eric Yahnker

Curated by: Doug McClemont & Billy Miller

Info:
http://www.annakustera.com/
(212) 989-0082

Chromaticism

I have several sigil drawings in "Chromaticism" at NOMA Gallery in San Francisco. Info below.

Chromaticism

June 17th-July 23rd
Opening Friday, June 17th, 6-8pm

Elijah Burgher
James Chronister
Richard Kent Howie
Cybele Lyle

Curated by Liz Wing

NOMA Gallery
80 Maiden Lane, 3rd floor
San Francisco, CA 94108
Wednesday-Saturday, 11am-6pm and by appointment
t:  415 391 0200
info@nomagallery.com

God told me to do it (for Stanimir)

Mictlantecuhtli

Look over, sir, my almanack, and cross out my ill-days

The emerald tablet, smashed

Dead pine, Little Mountain

Dead child buried in the snow

The thief's journal

Rhymes with dead

K48 no. 8: ABRAK48DABRA

Hey all, I have a drawing in the new issue of K48, which also includes work by a number of folks that I greatly admire--Scott Treleaven, Paul P., David Benjamin Sherry, Scooter LaForge, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Light Asylum, and Teengirl Fantasy, just to name a few. I feel incredibly grateful to Scott Hug for asking me to submit a drawing to the issue. K48 is a labor of love for Mr. Hug, and it shows. You can order a copy here.

Notes on drawing

-Pattern recognition -- cooling of chaos into form -- Chaos as Id, "the It," primordial soup -- form as false mastery, language as primal technology --- dead trees: "close reading" of chaos -- attempt to render, master an object that resists imposition of form, explication of language

-Driver's view/passenger's view -- sideways attention: the margins of one's field of vision -- what is left behind, cast off, waste products of the focus required for main activity -- temporality, palimpsest, motion study, net -- overlaps, adjacent placements, more or less randomly generated, photographic slice, "word and image dust" (WSB2)

-World/pin-head/cut/virus/ghost of a flea -- sun-through-forest canopy/camouflage/broken alphabet/death-by-hanging

-Pulverize language to liberate new meaning -- from other side, emblematize repression of discursive frame (caption, series, chain of explanation) -- writing by other means

-To be everything/to rule everything -- control/no control --- elevation/ground -- all fours/upright on two legs -- Forrest Bess/Frank Stella

--Dead child buried in the snow

Friedrich the friendly ghost (negligence is violence too version)

Friedrich the friendly ghost (battle enhancer version)

Friedrich the friendly ghost (i'm sorry i'm an asshole version)

Friedrich the friendly ghost (headless version)

T-shirt for Imperfect Articles

Thanks to Noah Singer and Mike Andrews for asking me to do a t-shirt for their project, Imperfect Articles.  The shirt is based on this drawing and can be ordered here.

Queer Spirits

I have a group of drawings in AA Bronson and Peter Hobbs' forthcoming publication, Queer Spirits, which will be published by Creative Time. Copies can be pre-ordered here.











AA Bronson, a New York-based artist best known for his 25 years with the artists’ collective General Idea, has spent a lifetime queering the cultural world. Here he joins up with Toronto-based artist and academic Peter Hobbs to spin a tale in images and words of five performances, all titled Invocation of the Queer Spirits. From 2008 to 2010 Bronson and Hobbs brought together small groups of men—in Banff, New Orleans, Winnipeg, Manhattan, and Fire Island—in a secret group ritual that was different every time and yet always the same. Invoking the “queer” and marginalized histories of each site, the men performed something that Bronson has characterized as “a hybrid between group therapy, ceremonial magic, a séance, a circle jerk, and a quilting bee.” This book explores each site in five chapters of photographic images, primarily by AA Bronson, together with a brilliant and often humorous reflection on queer animals, forest rangers, shamanism, and park sex by Peter Hobbs. A group of drawings by Chicago artist Elijah Burgher completes the volume.

Imperfect Articles at Volta NY 2011

I will have a t-shirt and a batch of drawings from the past six months with Imperfect Articles at Volta NY the first weekend of March. Thanks to Mike Andrews and Noah Singer for asking me to do the shirt with them and taking my work.

Puking up ghosts (Liam)

Rex Nemorensis 3

Music for Torching

Really kind piece of writing about my work here.  Thanks to Adam Draper.  His blog, Music for Torching, is really amazing--lots of fantastic writing on the occult and his other enthusiasms.  I'll be spending quite a bit of time digging there...

Rex Nemorensis 2

Blake's Lucifer

None of all the things in the world would injure him

The sexual life of savages

Shitting devils

Roots & Culture: A Certain Ratio

I will have a number of sigil drawings in "A Certain Ratio" at Roots & Culture.  The exhibition opens on January 8th.  The other artists are Ryan Fenchel, Jonah Groeneboer, Shane Huffman, and Erin Zona.  Big thanks to Eric May for including me in the show.

K48 issue no. 8 Kickstarter

Scott Hug is raising funds for K48 issue no. 8: ABRAK48DABRA on Kickstarter.  To pledge funds, go here.  I'll have a drawing published in the issue, about which I'm terribly excited.

Self Publish, Be Happy: A Visual Meditation for the New Year by Scott Treleaven

Thanks to Scott for including one of my drawings in this.