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Upcoming events
related to my creative projects – music,visual, etc.
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UPDATE 02/20/2024:
It’s been far too long since I made an update here! I neglected to list a Baltimore show that Northern Liberties played, and while I know the odds someone would have relied on this site to know about such a thing, on principle I like to list things here so that the sinister sanity-eroding mind-control forces of “social media” don’t have a monopoly on all such things. So, with that in mind, here’s what I have coming up –
I will be present and accounted for at the 2024 Outsider Art Fair in NYC. The press preview is Thurs. Feb. 29 and the fair is March 1 – 3rd. I will be at the Raw Vision magazine booth, and I hope to see you there if you can make it! Details HERE!
SIMULTANEOUSLY, opening at Van Der Plas Gallery in NYC on March 1st., I have a large collaborative artwork with Anne Marie Grgich on exhibit. This is part of a solo show for Grgich which includes several collaborative pieces of which mine is one. I hope to attend the opening reception for this exhibit while in NYC! The opening is Fri. March 1st. 6 – 8 PM. 156 Orchard St.
Friday, March 8, Northern Liberties play in New Hope PA. at John and Peters, 96 S. Main St, with OK Buddy, Chiseled Lilies, and Grip on the World. Doors at 8 PM, $5 cover.
I will have four 5 x 7 inch drawings in a group exhibit titled “Beautopia,” curated by Anne Marie Grgich at IL Bosco/Wonder Gallery in Milwaukee, WI. The opening reception is April 6th, 5 – 8 PM, and the exhibit runs through July 6th. Address is 225 S. 2nd St. Other artists in the show are:
Fred Bell (WI), Christa Cianciolo (WI), Robert Collison (CA), Sandy Combes (WA), Tom V Davis (WA), Peter Dibuz (WA), Tim Fowler (WA), Anne Marie Grgich (WA), Kandace Manning (OR), Amy Marks (WI), Steven Mosely (WA), Danny Mansmith (WI), Alexis Ortiz (WI), Lori Santos (KA), Jennifer Stevens (WI), Cathy Ward (UK).
Meanwhile there are some exciting UPCOMING developments – I am going to be constructing 80 copies of a limited run of a book I worked on for all of 2023 titled “Fates of the Fairies,” written and drawn under the alter-ego Florina Phosphene V. I plan to work on these books this coming Thursday, the 22nd. These will be very limited run. 15 copies of the 80 will have hand-drawn one-of-a-kind covers. I plan to sell them in person initially and will place any remaining copies for sale here on my website in the “sales” section soon enough!
Chicago’s INTUIT Museum recently obtained two of my large scroll panels (panels 29 and 30) for the permanent collection, and I am quite thrilled about that!
I will add more soon and hope to make updates more regularly in the future! Thanks for reading!
UPDATE 10/05/2023:
A whole lot of things! Firstly, the Fall issue of Raw Vision magazine, which publishes in October, includes an article featuring my artwork and its context. The article was written by Tom Patterson, the result of several interviews. Raw Vision issue no. 116 can be ordered in print or digital HERE.
On TUESDAY OCTOBER 17th there will be a free screening of “Resurrect Dead: the Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles” at the Philadelphia Free Library. That’s at 1901 Vine St., in the Art Department which is on the 2nd. floor. Starts at 5:30 PM. It’s free, but you reserve a seat in advance HERE. This is the first in a series of film screenings at the Free Library Art Department. I will be on hand for Q & A.
On Sat. OCTOBER 21st & Sun. 22nd. I will be participating, along with Mandy Katz, in the Philadelphia Open Studios Tour. This is from 12 – 6 PM, at 4254 Viola St. Both me and Mandy will have a variety of prints, zines, books, and sundry items for sale or perusal alongside a vast array of original artworks!
On Mon. OCTOBER 23rd. BBC Radio 4 will premiere an episode of the podcast “Digital Human,” for which I was interviewed. The episode will be available for download internationally at 4:30 PM UK time – do the math for your own time-zones. I spoke with the host about Toynbee tiles, “culture jamming,” how it may be possible to find or enact flashes of genuine subversion in the era of social media soul-poison and rampant regressive authoritarianism masquerading and being packaged as “rebelliousness.” It as an interesting conversation and I can’t wait to hear it in its final edited form.
Fri. OCTOBER 27th., Northern Liberties play at Cousin Danny’s Lounge (5001 50th.) with Eteraz, Pure Terror & The Ire.
Sat. NOVEMBER 4th., The Great Cackler play WEIRDO FEST, at OG Pizza Front Lot, 2500 Frankford Ave. It’s free of charge, and starts at 3 PM with the amazing Layer Meat. We play at 4 PM, followed by Spectral Forces (5 PM) and Bark Culture at 6. All the music promises to be interstellar so please come early and stick around!
Fri. NOVEMBER 10th., Northern Liberties play at The Nail in Ardmore PA.with Ghost of Fu Kang Walker & Monsters Eat People.
Fri. DECEMBER 1st., Northern Liberties play at Century Bar in Philly (1350 S. 29th.) Details TBA.
Sun. DECEMBER 3rd., Northern Liberties play a rare ACOUSTIC set, details TBA.
I am hoping to play music out of Philly in the coming months! I feel like I’m playing a lot, but it’s all in Philly or close by (Ardmore) – let’s see what we can do!
I have an article about artist Charles Burchfield and his close and very forgotten artist friend, Francesco Daniele aka Frank Daniels, which is in the process of being peer-reviewed for potential inclusion in the Smithsonian’s Archive of American Art Journal. Fingers crossed on that one! I am very proud of the research that stands back of it, and excited to have uncovered some new and important details about Burchfield’s biography, not to mention bringing to light the life and work of Daniele.
In other news – the first review of the new Northern Liberties record is in! I think the reviewer liked it! It’s funny that they describe us as both a trio and a duo, and posit that we may in fact be “prog,” but it’s clear they’re impressed by our sheer tenacity if nothing else. I will take it! At YELLOW GREEN RED. Here’s the text if you’d prefer not to follow the link:
“DIYing your band is fun and easy for the first year, maybe two, but when you make it twenty-plus years, it becomes something greater, somewhere between commitment, obsession and durational performance-art. Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties are on their eighth full-length, self-released as is most of their discography, and their dedication is impressive no matter if the idea of an art-driven bass/vocals/drums trio sends you scattering to the exit or clamoring for more. In many ways, the comparisons to Lightning Bolt are glaring: noisy bass/drums duo with distorted vocals and a band member who does all of their eye-catching artwork in a signature style. To those of us who are questionably-socialized enough to really get into this kinda stuff, however, there are plenty of differences, as Northern Liberties’s songs are grandiose fantasy prog-rock epics filtered through crusty punk basements. One gets the sense that Northern Liberties don’t have access to a Guitar Center’s worth of vintage equipment or lavish budgets, so they make the available scraps and borrowed instruments come alive in spite of their humble origins, utilizing an affordable legend like Steve Albini to record. Cardboard LARPing post-hardcore metal for art freaks who were born that way. I can’t see Northern Liberties calling it quits at this point – even after they die, I’m sure they’ll be happily gigging in the underworld, to an audience that finally really gets it.”
I think that’s it for now! If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading, and thanks for taking a break from antisocial media to look at an actual website, an archaic artifact in the category of the rotary phone, belladonna eyedrops, and radium cocktail parties. If anyone is seeking any further information – details on some of these shows with “details TBA,” for example, please utilize that other archaic technic, EMAIL – I am at eulogycontact@hotmail.com . That’s right – hotmail. I have had the same damn email address since 1998 A.D. Keep ’em coming. See you around!
UPDATE 08/24/2023:
At long last – over a year after recording ten (then) new songs with Steve Albini in Chicago in March 2022, Northern Liberties eighth full-length record is DONE and ready to be released! Details on the above flyer, and advance tickets HERE! We launched a kickstarter campaign where you can get a copy of the record, and/or sundry pieces of band-related ephemera including the original artwork for the record release flyer pictured above! LINK TO THE KICKSTARTER HERE! Hope you can make the record release in person, but if not we hope to play some out of town shows soon, though extended touring is likely not in our cards at this stage in our existence. More news to come soon. My other band The Great Cackler have a show coming up in the Fall, I am writing and submitting some articles to various journals, drawn from my research notes, and there will be an article about my artwork in the Fall edition of the art magazine Raw Vision. So keep an eye and ear out for all of those things, and in the meantime I will be hoping to see you on September 28th!
UPDATE 11/15/2022
While in the UK in October I dropped off a box of 37 small drawings with Henry Boxer, and some of these are now included on my page at the gallery HERE. On November 9 I had an article about Gladys and Dorothea Cromwell published on the JSTOR blog, and that can be read HERE. The new recording by my band Northern Liberties is closer and closer to being shared with the world. We hope to do a record release show in the summer, when health and time and circumstances permit. The Renee Leshner art book & biography will soon exist. Crowdfunding campaign was a success and printing plans are underway now! New artworks are completed daily. And on and on! Thanks for visiting/reading! More below!
UPDATE: 9/18/2022
UPDATE: 5/9/2022
There will be more updates to come soon!
Northern Liberties have recorded a new album, our eighth. It will be titled “Self-Dissolving Abandoned Universe” and right now the artwork is in the layout stage. We recorded the ten songs in March with Steve Albini in Chicago. Global supply issues mean that the “release” of a DIY album such as this will take a while… the fastest turnaround time we’ve found for making records is 5 to 6 months, so by the time we have them, the songs will be a little aged. As they should be, they only improve with time.
My long-planned and long-dreamed of art book showcasing the work of my friend Renee Leshner is nearing the end of the layout stage. Hoping to do some kind of crowdfunding campaign for the printing of this book sometime this year. Work on the Mary Mowbray-Clarke/Sunwise Turn art book/bio is ever ongoing. The endless book! I recently have made some amazing archival discoveries, including a batch of letters and journals from Dorothea and Gladys Cromwell, which mean the world and beyond to me.
On the writing/research front, I had an article published by Hidden City Philadelphia on the life and work of Arnold Hayden Hendrickson. I am hoping to submit articles detailing obscured and arcane Philly art-stories to Hidden City on a bi-monthly basis, though we’ll see if I can keep up the pace. I have a list of what could be interesting future articles/topics lined up. My article about Hendrickson can be found AT THE LINK HERE. Thanks for reading!
I will have some artwork in a group show in the UK in October. I am very excited for it and hope to visit the exhibit while also doing some research excursions in England. Details forthcoming, watch this or another space.
All for now. More later, I hope.
Abortion is healthcare. Healthcare for all. All war is insanity. Ban the bomb. Resist all and every tyranny. Get off the internet.
UPDATE: 9/11/2021
It’s been about a year since my previous “news” section update, because I migrated the website to “wordpress” from a very archaic program called “Expression Web” and I’ve been struggling through the learning curve. Somehow the basics of copying and pasting text seem near impossible on wordpress but it seems like it might be working for now, hope it keeps up, so here goes…
Since last update a lot has happened. You already know that, but a lot has happened to me, also… some small part of which I’d like to share with you.
Firstly, I am happy to tell you that I have, for the first time in my life, something like “gallery representation” for my artwork. This is through Henry Boxer Gallery in the UK, and I am thrilled to be on a roster that includes some of the most illumined guiding-star blinding-light artists of the past and present such as Madge Gill and Nick Blinko. You can see my page on Henry Boxer’s website HERE: https://www.outsiderart.co.uk/artists/justin-duerr
If you’re interested in purchasing any works via Henry Boxer please contact the gallery!
As for upcoming HAPPENINGS in my sphere, I’m pleased to announce that I will have a display at the upcoming Art-in-the-Park arts and crafts fair in Allentown PA. This is scheduled for Saturday September 18, from 10 AM to 5 PM at West Park – 1526 Linden St. in beautiful Allentown PA. Details HERE: https://westpark-ca.org/events/art-in-the-park
Northern Liberties will PLAY A LIVE SHOW for the first time in over a year and some long months of pandemic-induced hibernation. This will be my first time back performing music in as long. We play at Johnny Brenda’s in Philly with the mighty STINKING LIZAVETA on Friday October 1st. Proof of covid-19 vaccination will be required to entry, obviously. Details can be found HERE!
While on the topic of Northern Liberties (the band), there was a very informative and worthwhile article on the daily bandcamp blog about the history of the legendary Inner Ear Studios in Arlington VA. where Northern Liberties recorded our 2007 album “Ghost Mind Electricity.” That album is features alongside a chronology of other recordings made at the studio over the years, very good company to be in. The article comes under the sad circumstances of the end of the studio, which will be razed to make way for an “arts district.” READ THAT ARTICLE AND LISTEN TO A SERIES OF SONGS RECORDED AT INNER EAR HERE!
My dogged and deep-dive research and writing in preparation for a biography/art book centered on Mary Mowbray-Clarke (1874 – 1962) is ever ongoing. I have a workable rough draft of a “volume one” prepared, but no leads on publishing prospects. It may be overly-long and overly-detailed for human consumption but I’ve been putting out feelers about the possibility of self-publishing as a hand-made magazine sort of thing, where subscribers would receive one chapter per month, printed in the style of a 20th century Modernist small-press magazine. Ultimately a slipcase would house the editions/chapters. This is somewhat in the daydream phase but I am in conversation with a book artist and book designer. So the dream is somewhat closer to reality.
On that note, Ohio State University, to whom I’ve donated some of the many archival papers accrued in the course of research, will present a virtual illustrated slide lecture on the history of the Sunwise Turn Bookshop on Wednesday October 6. It’s a subject I’ve come to know well and I’m very excited to share lots of stories and artifacts from the history of this groundbreaking women-led bookshop. You can find all the details about this presentation HERE: https://library.osu.edu/events/exploring-the-modernist-bookstore-sunwise-turn-with-justin-duerr-virtual-event
As many of you may know, and some of you definitely don’t, I’ve been undertaking a series of decorative painting projects in Philly and the surrounds in the past month or three. Price is $30 per hour plus materials. I have decorated doors, cabinets, shelves, window trim and more. Outside of Philly, one could also mail me items such as music boxes, jewelry boxes etc. I’ve developed a visual language style for this work that combines my years of craft-knowledge through housepainting with along with artwork techniques I’ve worked out.
Here is a before/after picture of a door done in this style:
Here’s a detail of a shelf:
Let me know if you’re interested!
I’d like to take the opportunity, while I have your attention (I didn’t lose you yet?) to tell you about a batch of old and, in the case of one song, new music I recently added to the bandcamp website. The circumstances of this are tragic. I was hoping to get this old demo added to bandcamp soonish anyway but my hand was quickened by bad fate.
My old friend “Ari” Kevin Burns, a brilliant story-teller, genuine soul, and unforgettable purveyor of morbid wit and oft-hilarious street-wisdom, died of an overdose just a few weeks after we’d reconnected after years of being out of touch. I wrote this little blurb for the bandcamp page for our old – and what was to be NEW band.
Mad Cow Disease was a band based in West Philly in 1997. We practiced in a big warehouse at 3105 Hamilton St., the old Rave Records warehouse. The primary song-writer and singer-guitarist was Kevin “Ari Kevin” Burns, who used to play bass with me in an earlier band, who never recorded anything, at a warehouse on Lancaster Ave. called Stalag 13.
Kevin wanted to work on some of his own songs, and me and my friend Joe became the rhythm section. We only played a few shows (probably less than five) but we had a lot of fun playing music and having adventures together. My friend Kevin Riley recorded a lo-fi demo at a new warehouse we were living at, 224 N. Camac St., from the 14th to the 18th of December 1997, using three Radio Shack mics and a stereo equalizer. We planned to do more.
When I left later that winter to work on fishing boats in Alaska, Kevin left town and I never saw him again, though he’d pop up on some of the social media sites over the years. Finally, in the summer of 2021, Kevin reconnected with me and Joe on social media and we were starting to work on some long-distance recordings. Tragically Kevin died suddenly after sending over what was supposed to be the first of at least an album’s worth of songs. Me and Joe hadn’t finished our parts yet when we got the news. We recorded the bass and drums in the days after his passing. That July/Aug. 2021 song is the final song here. ANY and ALL proceeds from this bandcamp will go to Prevention Point Philadelphia: ppponline.org. Thanks for listening!
I’ve donated $50 so fat to Prevention Point through funds from the bandcamp page. Someday I should write a book and in it I will tell you about what a gem Ari Kevin was and all the funny and tragi-comic and just plain weird tales of adventures we had in the Philly that was, the Philly of the mid 1990s. Here are our old tapes and the last song… eternally “in progress” –
https://madcowdiseasephiladelphia.bandcamp.com/releases
What else would you like to know about?
I finished an essay on the history of James Joyce’s Ulysses at The Sunwise Turn bookshop but forgot to make it SHORT. It turned out to be even longer than ULYSSES itself! KIDDING! But it’s long. 18,000 words and change. I may just put it up on my blog at some point. Let me know if you’d like to publish it, ha!
I am almost finished reading Fiona MacCarthy’s very good (a hint above “serviceable” and not bad at all!) biography of William Morris.
I made a “volume three” of my mixtape series, which is on soundcloud here:
https://soundcloud.com/user649093874/20210828-mix-number-03/comment-1477874029
Here’s the tracklist:
VOLUME THREE: August 28 2021
Introducing the Klacker King & The Purple Hearts “Invocation”
Sun Ra and the Blues Project/The Sensational Guitars of Dan and Dale feat. mems. of the Arkestra– Robin’s Theme
Electrelane – The Partisan
Yegor & Opizdenevshiye – Psychedelia Tomorrow (track 3)
The Do – Slippery Slope
The Creatures – A Strutting Rooster
Roky Erickson – The Hardest Working Man Around
Dysphoria – Everything Is OK Til It Ain’t
Mad Cow Disease – Untitled, In Progress, Interrupted
The Clash – Lose this Skin
Dysphoria was Kevin Burns’ solo project. His song mourns the loss of everyone.
I think that’s all for the moment – quite a lot, WHEW! Hope to update with more frequency as I get used to wordpress. Thanks for your time! See you next time!
Update-September 28, 2020
Just a quick update to note that I’ve begun a series of “auctions” on instagram as a benefit for a local food distribution program. These are for a series of hand-drawn postcards, drawn on the reverse of promotional postcards for my show at Intuit in Chicago last year. Please feel free to take a look at the instagram page – you don’t have to have an instagram account to send me a “bid” – you can simply email me at eulogycontact@hotmail.com ! CLICK HERE to redirect to my instagram page to see bidding and the latest series of cards as I post them each day! I began drawing these postcards in June and am finishing up the series now. Here’s a little write-up I made promoting the project:
Back in June I began drawing a series of postcard designs on the reverse of promotional postcards for my art show at Intuit in Chicago last year. I had 43 of these left over after only one person requested one in the mail when I posted about that on fb, ha! Anyway, I had been wondering what to do with these, and decided they would be ideal to use as a fundraiser – there are a lot of good places to send money, but I decided to do something super-local, so 100% of funds raised from the sale of these cards will go a neighborhood food distribution program, administered by my neighbor Lorraine, which has been working to deliver food to local residents since covid hit.
I plan to post FOUR of these cards per day. BID by sending a private message OR posting in the comments indicating which card you want – clockwise they are 1, 2, 3, 4. Bidding starts at $20 and bid increments are $5…. so if you are the second bidder you pay $25, third is $30 etc. At the end of each day I will let anyone who “won” their bid and you can pay me via paypal and I will mail you your card! Simple, I hope!? No limits on how many cards one person can buy! So feel free to bid on all four, your favorite two, etc. I will post a comment when the bidding is over! I considered doing this on eBAy but I think this will be faster and easier. We’ll see. Fingers crossed.
About the fundraiser: I am raising money for my neighbor Lorraine Gomez, who works tirelessly for the well-being of our local community/neighborhood. She’s been organizing grocery giveaways every week, several days a week on Parkside Avenue and also on 40th and Poplar streets. She is constantly on call for the people here whenever there is an urgent need – she does what she can to find a solution. I’m thrilled to be able to use my work to aid her work!
Born and raised in the neighborhood, Lorraine moved into and is repairing her childhood home. She devotes a massive amount of time and effort to foster health and liveliness in her community.
Here’s a little quote from Lorraine about the food giveaways she’s been running since COVID started:
“When COVID-19 hit the community of East Parkside it
hit hard. I had to do something. I reached out to
Ronald Allen who connected me with Amen Brown. I
reached out to The Carousel House Kim and Mandy from
Bartram’s Garden working together our Friday give
away came about.”
As you can probably tell, Lorraine has very little time for self promotion and the like. Thanks so much for helping out this local mutual aid project by purchasing an art-postcard!
More details about the giveaways here:
https://parksidejournal.wordpress.com/
https://parksidejournal.wordpress.com/…/the-centennial…/
https://www.facebook.com/pg/centennypark/posts/
Here are the first four in the series – as of 9/28/2020
numbers 1,2, and 4 are bid to $30, and number 3 (bird) is bid to $100.
In other news, I’ve been continuing to add the occasional excerpt from my work-in-progress biography/art tome about Mary Mowbray-Clarke on a blog at “medium.” I will also add other non-fiction and research related work there over time. That can be found via
THIS LINK.
On Thursday October 15 I will give a talk about my Mary Mowbray-Clarke art-research for the New City Public Library via zoom.
DETAILS HERE.
Thanks for visiting and reading! Please keep healthy and take care of each other! Remember to VOTE AGAINST TRUMP in November!
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