Theater of Natural Curiosities and Further Adventures of the Monkey God July 29, 2006

Poets Martine Bellen and Jasmine Dreame Wagner present multi-disciplinary readings of new work, collaborating with visual artists and musicians in a one-night performance and week-long group show.

Saturday July 29th, 2006
@PSII Gallery
13-03a Jackson Avenue
7 PM

**Further Adventures of the Monkey God: A Choral Symphony
Martine Bellen, Poet, and Dave Sewelson, Saxophonist
Accompanied by Paintings by James Graham

**The Theater of Natural Curiosities Presents:
Cabinet of Natural Curiosities Performing
Towing and Melting by Jasmine Dreame Wagner
With Rachel Hartman, Matthew Trygve Tung, Kathy Wasik,
Anne Guthrie, Joseph E. Martin and Ryan T. Martin
Accompanied by Illustrations, Prints and Paintings by Jasmine
Dreame Wagner, Matthew Trygve Tung and Katherine Mangiardi

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Further Adventures of the Monkey God: A Choral Symphony

Martine Bellen is the author of five collections of poetry including The Vulnerability of Order, Copper Canyon Press; Tales of Murasaki and Other Poems, Sun & Moon Press which won the National Poetry Series Award; and Places People Dare Not Enter, Potes & Poets Press. GHOSTS! will be published fall/winter 2006 by Spuyten Duyvil Press. Ms. Bellen’s poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies including This Art: Poems About Poetry, Copper Canyon Press (2003) and The Convergence of Birds: Writing Inspired by Joseph Cornell, DAP (2001). She has been a recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Fund for Poetry, and the American Academy of Poets Award. She is a contributing editor for Conjunctions.

Dave Sewelson has performed in Jemeel Moondoc's Jus Grew Orchestra, Noise R us, Mofungo, The President, Konk and Illuminati. He was a founding member of the Microscopic Septet. He has also played with Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, Saheb Sarbib, John Zorn, Roy Campbell, Elliot Sharp, Dee Pop, Frank Lowe, Pat Place, Billy Bang, Walter Perkins, Bobby Radcliff, Clayton Thomas, Kyosuke Otsuka, Norah Jones and many more. Sewelson is currently involved in several projects including: William Parker's Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, Fast 'N Bulbous (the Captain Beefheart Project), and The Reunion of The Microscopic Septet.

James Graham started painting and drawing at the Art Students League of New York, and studied at the School of Visual Arts, the New York Academy and with Carlos Castaño. Graham has focused solely on his artwork since 2001 after ending a twenty-year career on Wall Street as a trading system programmer. Previously, he worked in boat yards, sail lofts, fishing boats, drove a bulldozer and repossessed cars.

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The Theater of Natural Curiosities Presents
Cabinet of Natural Curiosities Performing
Towing and Melting

Jasmine Dreame Wagner's writing has previously appeared in the Indiana Review, The Seattle Review, The North American Review, The Columbia Review and is forthcoming in the Colorado Review. Her photographs of the Nevada desert and the abandoned Soviet nuclear submarine base in Paldiski, Estonia have appeared on the Unpleasant Event Schedule and her zines and art books, a series entitled Songs About Ghosts, have been featured in exhibitions at the San Jose Museum of Art and at Boise State University. A graduate of Columbia University, she will be a resident at The Hall Farm Center for Arts & Education in Townshend, Vermont, during the summer of 2006 and will be joining the MFA program at the University of Montana in the fall.

The Cabinet of Natural Curiosities performs experimental folk chants and effects-laden instrumentals, weaving ghost stories and historical ballads through a patchwork of field recordings, classical guitar, alto recorder, bells and tribal percussion. This evening, the Cabinet will feature the voices of Rachel Hartman, Matthew Trygve Tung and Kathy Wasik, Anne Guthrie (french horn), Joseph E. Martin (percussion) and Ryan T. Martin (guitar). For more information, visit http://www.cabinetofnaturalcuriosities.com

Matthew Trygve Tung was born, raised, and educated in San Francisco, California and completed his BFA in printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute. Through suites of etchings, intricate ink drawings, and handcrafted artist's books he seeks to examine and expose overarching themes of impermanence as embodied by both built and natural landscapes. His work has been a part of group exhibitions at several San Francisco galleries, including Live Worms Gallery, Balazo 18 Art Gallery and at The Luggage Store as part of their annual Short Cuts series. He is now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Katherine Mangiardi studied fine arts at Vassar College and at the Glasgow School of Art and has shown her work at The Studio/The Arts Exchange in White Plains, NY, and at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. She writes: My paintings have often been described as ethereal and haunting. In an age of machine generated reproductions I have become obsessed with artifacts, specifically antique garments that embrace the importance of process and the human touch.

Official Website: http://www.psiigallery.com