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Wangechi Mutu will never experience the heated backlash that Kara Walker experienced. No one will call Mutu the "patsy of the white art establishment," accuse her of selling fellow black artists down the river, or launch a letter-writing campaign to keep her artwork from being shown. There are good reasons for this: unlike Walker, the Kenyan-born Mutu does not share the slavery lineage of African-American artists and she does not make work with a lucid historical context. Yet Mutu's work is often as disturbing as Walker's, reconfiguring sexualized representations of women and creating visceral collages that appear more pornographic than critical. Continue reading for the complete DailyServing article by Catherine Wagley.
Continue reading "Destroying Prettiness: Wangechi Mutu and Kara Walker" » | |||||
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Posted by Catherine Wagley at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (1) | E-mail This
 Videomaker Sadie Benning began making films at age sixteen with her Fisher-Price Pixelvision toy camera, a gift from her avant-garde filmmaker father. In her early videos from the 1990s, she retreated to the comfort of her bedroom to film intensely personal single channel videos exploring the themes of emerging sexuality and lesbianism. Experimental filmmakers like Benning loved the black and white grainy images and box frame of the Pixelvision, despite it's failure on the general market. These videos were referred to as "Pixelvision" videos, and the artist was seen as a pioneer of "Pixelvision". In 1993, her videos appeared at the Whitney Biennial. In 2007, the Wexner Center organized "Sadie Benning: Suspended Animation," which was her first museum retrospective. Now showing at Toronto's Power Plant is Benning's 2006 video, Play Pause, directed in collaboration with Solveig Nelson. This two screen video installation is made from hundreds of Benning's drawings which follow anonymous urban figures through public and private city spaces. Throughout the course of a day, the characters move through a city resembling Chicago, engaging in quotidian city activity which then leads to drinking and dancing at night. The video ends at the airport at dawn with a security guard scanning bags and two people having sex on the wing of the plane as it takes off. Play Pause is similar to Benning's earlier work in that it follows characters as they go about the process of defining themselves and their sexuality. In addition to her film and video practice, Benning is a former member and co-founder of the band Le Tigre. | |||||
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Posted by Rebekah Drysdale at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 This week marks the beginning of the 2008 New York art fairs (complete list). The most notable of them, The Armory Show, features 150 of the world's top contemporary art galleries showcasing the latest in today's artwork. The show historically dates to 1913, where the first International Art Fair took place in New York's 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets. The vintage fair marked the first time in history that an American audience caught a glimpse at "Modern" art, which was predominately being made in Europe at the time. The Bridge Art Fair New York (which will take place in Chelsea) is an independent expose that runs in Berlin, London, and Miami simultaneously with the other fairs in those cities. Bridge is popular among up-and-coming art buyers, because they strive to cost-effectively sell the works of both established and emerging artists. Pulse: New York offers an alternative to the typical art fair. While approximately sixty galleries will be exhibiting their best artists and works, a number of performances, installations, multimedia and happenings are also scheduled as part of the "Impulse" segment where the winning artist receives a $1500 cash prize. Frere Independent, a not-for-profit arts organization whose mission is to provide artist awareness has organized two special additions to this year's fair agenda: DiVA, which is the first fair dedicated to digital and video artwork and Pool Art Fair, a "meeting ground" for collectors, dealers, and the general public to view works by emerging artists who have yet to gain gallery representation which will take place in the rooms of the infamous Hotel Chelsea. Most of the fair festivities commence on Thursday, March 27th and will continue until Sunday, March 30th. | |||||
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Posted by Arden Sherman at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 For his first show with Freight +Volume in New York, Canadian artist Kim Dorland will be presenting several new paintings in the exhibition "North," in which he explores placing figures in various surroundings. Born in Alberta, Dorland draws his imagery from his native landscape in large-scale representations of a forgotten mid-century suburbia and its surroundings, ennobling the banal. His settings are as much the subject of his canvas as are Edward Hopper's peripheral locales. Dorland's strong compositions are punctuated by a high chroma palette and executed in a non-traditional media mix of oil, acrylic, and spray paint. His immediate and confident brushwork, along with the use of thick impasto combine to depict the familiar in a vibrant and unexpected way. Dorland received his B.F.A. from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver and his M.F.A. from York University in Toronto. He has had several solo exhibitions, having shown at Angell Gallery in Toronto and Kasia Kay Art Projects in Chicago. "North" will open on April 5 and will be Dorland's first exhibition in New York. | |||||
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Posted by Rebekah Drysdale at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 The objects of sculptor Peter Iannarelli are seemingly commonplace in nature, yet the artist cleverly liberates the forms through the tinkering of their materiality. By utilizing both logic and abstraction, Iannarelli reduces the forms to a common denominator linking and balancing concept with form. The work, which is seemingly accessible to a wide audience, offers depth beyond its initial appearance. Using the familiar materials, the artist draws the viewer into the work and then flips the meaning in a way that re-contextualizes both the physicality and the meaning of the object. Also, the work is often summed up by a clever title which neatly puts together any conceptual loose-ends. Peter Iannarelli received his BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. He has attended the DIA Center as a visiting artist and has a grant recipient of the Vermont Studio Center. The artist has a forth coming exhibition at Van Brunt Gallery in Beacon, NY and recently exhibited at the Dorsky Museum in New Paltz, NY and the Albany Center Gallery in Albany, NY. | |||||
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Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Pocket Room has recently opened in Antwerp. Why new galleries continue to open, while the local art market continues to shrink, is anyone's guess. Maybe it's the image of success postulated by the other new galleries that spur them on. Let's hope it's the pure love of art that has inspired Pocket Room to open their doors. To kick start this new gallery, they have turned to an elder statesman of the Antwerp art scene, Guy Rombouts. Over the last 20 years, as one part of the artist team Rombouts/Droste, he has developed a visually-based alphabet, based on squiggles and color. He recently developed this into a fun Web site entitled "AZART". This exhibition marks a turn to a more traditional sculpture making practice. Using odds and ends found around the house, it recalls the work of the Belgian artist Rene Hayvaert. The combining of two objects into one sculpture appeared in Belgium in the mid 90's with the work of Dutch artist Jan Vos. With his insistence on not gluing, welding, or nailing, Rombouts seeks to leave room for the possibility of life within the sculpture, rather than locking it into a lifeless position. Although this stance does require some balancing, pinching, and clamping, it makes it all the more important that Rombouts is able to find the proper fit for the disparate objects. Works on view include a hammer fitted with a rolled up piece of paper for a handle, cribs turned into cages, and a cane made into a chair. In one of the most poignant works, three table clamps squeeze each other in position, allowing the sculpture to reach for the sky. This piece works as a metaphor for what the Antwerp art world could be. Here each part supports the other, allowing for unlimited potential. Rombouts has previously shown at Gallerie Tanya Rumpff, Holland and Zeno X, Belgium. Guy Rombouts at Pocket Room, February 17-April 5th. | |||||
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Posted by Dennis Anderson at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 The exhibition "Feral" which opened this weekend at the Luggage Store in San Francisco is a collaborative show created by artists Monica Canilao and Swoon. Through the construction of immersible environments, the artists create a domain "populated by wicked women and feral girls." They use wood, paint, paper, and found materials in the fabrication of their mystical and spontaneous world. Canilao is interested in the passage of time and the exploration of space, home, community, and life. She uses expendable materials, such as paper and fabric, in the composition of her stitched and interwoven collages and sculptures, finding life and energy in items made by hand. Canilao received her B.F.A. in Illustration from California College of Arts and has exhibited in San Francisco at the Onsix Gallery and 111 Minna Gallery. Brooklyn-based artist Swoon blends photography, traditional printmaking techniques, portraiture, and figurative drawings in the creation of her worlds, often populated by street people and characters based on her friends and family. Her subjects are realistically rendered and engage in typical pedestrian and urban activity. The inhabitants of this imaginary universe move through a cityscape of bridges, water towers, and fire escapes. Swoon's brilliant use of positive and negative space gives life to her cut out creatures. Swoon has exhibited at Deitch Projects and MoMA's P.S.1 in New York, but is best known for integrating her imagery into the city landscape. Inspired by traditional graffiti, she uses the city as her canvas, as well as engaging in street parties, poster campaigns, and billboard alterations. In New York City she has recently placed several hidden peepholes throughout the metropolis where, once stumbled upon, viewers are able to catch a glimpse of a secret and dream-like place. The installation "Feral" will remain at The Luggage Store until April 26, 2008. | |||||
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Posted by Rebekah Drysdale at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
And Larry makes three. Over the last month London has had the privilege of hosting new work from three of the father figures of contemporary art. Besides Ed Ruscha and Larry Clark, there was also Lawrence Weiner. Weiner's exhibition took place at Lisson Gallery, and just ended last week. These guys have inspired generations of younger artists, by continually producing challenging new work over a 30 year career. Weiner's exhibition came on the heels of his first American retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. This time Weiner focuses on emphasizing his command of the formal concerns of artistic presentation. Visually stunning in the use of vibrant hues, this exhibition also sharpens the sociological implications that have always been present in Weiner's work. "FIRST MOVE, SECOND MOVE, THIRD MOVE", suggests that the first move should be to circle the wagons, establishing a protected personal space. Only then, will we be prepared to go out and deal with societal structures. "OFFSIDES", uses two vertical lines as a formal devise to bracket the text, while not confining it. Thought of in a social context, it establishes opposition. It can refer to expanding to new territories or taken negatively, being on the wrong side. "FOUND BY CHANCE AFTER ANY GIVEN TIME FOUND ALONE AFTER ANY GIVEN TIME" The operative words here are, "Found" and "Alone". Found refers to others, while alone stresses the individual. This highlighting of the personal should not be taken in the, "Me Generation", sense of the word. Larry's too much of an old hippie for that. Rather, he's asking us to consider how our personal choices affect society. Weiner began his career with the pioneering conceptual art dealer, Seth Siegelaub, later he worked for years with Leo Castelli. Currently he works in whatever contexts he finds interesting, while remaining fiercely loyal to those he respects. Demonstrating continuing curiosity, Weiner also has a super cool website, "HOMEPORT", and all this at 66. Lawerence Weiner, "OFFSIDES" Lisson Gallery, February 6, - March 15. | |||||
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Posted by Dennis Anderson at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Houston-based artist Robert Pruitt makes beautifully crafted work, but his exceptional craftsmanship is only a tool for exploring the ways in which African Americans have been represented throughout history. An exhibition of Pruitt's new work, titled Two Tears in a Bucket: Considering The Alcubierre Metric, is currently on display at Mary Goldman Gallery in Los Angeles. The exhibition presents a series portraits on Kraft paper. Predominately rendered in orange and black, the portraits exude an introspective confidence, but they also suggest a disturbing coalescing of misrepresentation. In Pruitt's work, Historic imagery merges seamless with contemporary imagery. The Alcubierre Metric, also known as Alcubierre Drive or, in Start Trek terms, "warp drive," is a mathematical speculation. Alcubierre Metric proposes a measure of space time in which you can travel faster than light, something that Pruitt hopes to do through his current work. Speeding up the dialogue surrounding representations of African Americans may, hypothetically, launch us into the future. Pruitt is a member of Houston collective Otabenga Jones & Associates, which participated in the 2006 Whitney Biennial. Pruitt has also shown at the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. Two Tears in a Bucket opened on March 15thand runs through April 19th. | |||||
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Posted by Catherine Wagley at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 At Gagosian Gallery's New York location, an all-star cast of appropriation artists have joined forces to present a haven of prefabricated art objects. Prefab includes work by Richard Prince, Rudolph Stingel, Rosmarie Trockel, Sherrie Levine, Martin Kippenger, Mike Kelley, Jeff Koons, Richard Artschwager, and Alighiero e Boetti. Together, the often tongue-in-cheek work of these nine artists begins to look surprisingly serious, especially since all the work in the show adheres to painting’s traditional rectangular format. Prince's unapologetic appropriations, for instance, become more severe next to the residue of Stingel's Styrofoam. The exciting aspect of Prefab is its integration of seemingly unlike artists. Sherrie Levine's conceptually steeped re-photography has never been this smoothly related to Jeff Koons' flamboyant fabrications, and Alighiero e Boetti has never seemed so closely related to the over-intellectualized genre of prefabricated art. The timing of Prefab is also interesting, giving the current trajectory of these artists' careers. Prince is coming out of a retrospective at the Guggenheim; a survey of Stingel's work was recently on display at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as other national museums; Trockel's work was featured in a traveling IFA exhibit; Koons' sculptures dominate the third floor of the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum. Prefab makes these artists, many of whom have become canonical art world figures, seem relevant and contemporary again. Prefab runs through April 19th. | |||||
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Posted by Catherine Wagley at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 In a two-part show for Howard House in Seattle, Gretchen Bennett presents her own work in "Hello," located in the front of the gallery, as well as curating "Supernature," located in the center gallery. Bennett is best known for her interest in urban iconography and her downloadable and printable sticker series. For "Hello," she chooses to re-examine through drawings the widespread imagery of the ill-fated lead singer of Nirvana, universal pop icon Kurt Cobain. Methodically and meticulously penciling line-by-line single video frames of her subject collected from YouTube, the artist presents colorful and luminous drawings of the drug-addled musician. By stopping motion and revealing the painstaking precision of her own hand, Bennett refreshes our view of the ubiquitous iconic image, giving us a more personal look at the star without becoming sentimental. In the center gallery of Howard House is "Supernature", curated by Bennett, which examines the notion of the perfect landscape in the works of Saul Chernick, Andrew Guenther, Matthew Day Jackson, Alexander Kantarovsky, Robert de Saint Phalle, Suzanne Walters, and Aaron Williams. Instead of presenting a romantic and idealistic view of the natural world, the artists assert the idea that the perfect landscape can be found in artificial or abandoned settings. The show is a collection of assembled topography in the form of paintings and installations which act as landmarks or "places" for the viewer to examine. In contemporary society, we become increasingly detached from the experience of authenticity or purity in the natural world. This mediated view of our world is not Nature, but Supernature, and can offer us a new kind of authenticity. Gretchen Bennett received her M.F.A. from Rutgers in 2001 and has exhibited widely on both coasts. She has had a solo show at Amo Gallery in Washington, and has exhibited at PS122 Gallery in New York City. | |||||
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Posted by Rebekah Drysdale at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 For her first LA solo show, painter Korin Faught will be exhibiting a series of twenty two oil on canvas paintings and drawings at Corey Helford Gallery from March 22-April 19, 2008. Faught is influenced by mid-century modernity, both in fashion and interior design. She depicts young and stylish couples and twins together, but not necessarily engaged with one another. They seem slightly self-conscious and distracted, their gazes often divergent. She uses a neutral palette, which is complemented by highly diffused indoor lighting and a formal composition. However, this neutrality is enhanced by the subtle depth seen in the white of her palette. In "The Couple," her ability to depict an entire range of color can be seen in the suggestion of the pinkish skin underneath the sheet, the warm white of the wall, the coolness of the blouse, and the patterning of the pillow. Faught received her B.F.A. from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 2004 and has previously exhibited at Merry Karnowsky Gallery and Gallery Nucleus in California. She has also been featured in the Italian magazine Abitare and on Juxtapoz.com. | |||||
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Posted by Rebekah Drysdale at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 The Whole of Everything,a recent collection of works by Del Kathryn Barton is currently showing at Karen Woodbury Gallery, Richmond. Often of a dark, fantastical nature, Barton's paintings, sculptures and ink works portray child-like characters, mutant creatures and deranged human forms. Best known for her vibrant water colours, Barton's monochromatic, whimsical ink works also make a prominent appearance within the exhibition, and depict a sexualized fusion of fantasy worlds and naked bodies. Barton currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College of Fine Arts, Paddington, where she later worked as a drawing lecturer. She has won various awards for her art practice, and most recently became the winner of this year's prestigious Archibald Prize - for a self portrait with her two children entitled You Are What Is Most Beautiful About Me, A Self Portrait With Kell and Arella. Her work has appeared in various solo and group exhibitions around Australia, while also appearing internationally in 2002 within Half a World Away: Drawings from Glasgow, Sao Paulo and Sydney, at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Centre, New York. | |||||
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Posted by Annette Michalski at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Israeli sculptor Zadok Ben-David brings his internationally acclaimed exhibition Blackfield to Australia. Currently showing at Annandale Galleries,the display includes large scale works replicating the human form and a monumental 5000 piece installation consisting of miniature flower and plant sculptures. Each of the small pieces that make up the work are painted black on the front and tinted in various colours on the reverse side. This is intended to deceive the audience's vision as they slowly rotate around the installation and view the work changing colour right before their eyes. Ben-David was born in Yemen before immigrating to Israel later that year. He studied at Bezalel Academy of Art & Design, Jerusalem, Reading University and St. Martin's School of Art, London. He has received various awards including the 2005 Tel Aviv Museum Prize for Sculpture and the 2007 Grande Premio at the XIV Biennial Internacional de Arte de Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal. He has been commissioned to create a sculptural work for the Beijing Olympics and has exhibited largely on an international scale at spaces including 121 Gallery, Antwerp, Galerie Albrecht, Munich, and Ambrosino Gallery, Miami. | |||||
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Posted by Annette Michalski at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 The current exhibition at Kips Gallery, Fay Ku: A Survey of Works 2004-2008 curated by Brendon MacInnis, demonstrates Ku's most significant works to date. Ku's exhibit coincides with Asian Contemporary Art Week in New York, which runs from March 15-24th. The Brooklyn-based artist is simultaneously showing at Sam Lee Gallery in Los Angeles in a two-part group exhibition, her part titled, Deviance. Born in Taiwan but raised in suburban America, Fay Ku's work explores the dichotomy of two worlds. Her sparse graphite, watercolor, and ink drawings on paper display Eastern influences, at times referencing the Japanese woodcutting technique, ukiyo-e or "pictures of the floating world," though the subject matter is purely her own. Children and women figure predominately in Ku's work, often presented precariously straddling the divide between myth and reality. Because of the scale of Ku's chosen canvas and the subject matter therein, the viewer is forced to investigate every minute limb and figure floating among the large stark white paper. In Deviance, there is a metamorphosis of Ku's subjects where feminism, coquettishness and innocence are faced with uncertainty and the treacherous adult world. Fay Ku received her MFA from Pratt Institute (2006) in Brooklyn and bachelor's degrees in visual arts and literature from Bennington College, Vermont (1996). | |||||
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Posted by Arden Sherman at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Corey McCorkle is one of the eighty-one artists currently exhibiting in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. His video about The Knickerbocker Greys, a historic after-school leadership program for children and teenagers, is being shown at the Park Avenue Armory (not coincidentally the location of the Knickerbocker Greys' weekly meetings). McCorkle studied Architecture at Pratt Institute, ultimately receiving a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He earned an MFA from the University of Chicago. McCorkle's work - a mix of architecture, sculpture, installation, and traditional documentary technique - explores utopian communities and zones of public space. He has documented his travels to a dilapidated zoo in Istanbul in which feral dogs have overtaken the facilities designed to house wild animals. He has studied townships in Moray, Scotland, the nineteenth-century Oneida Christian Perfectionists (located in Oneida, New York), and Auroville, a self-contained community located in southern India. His altered photographs and well-crafted sculptures and installations demonstrate his understanding of these specific zones throughout history while also sparking the viewers' interest in such off the radar niches. McCorkle's journey to Cambodia in search of a mystical white calf named Preah ("God" in Khmer), who apparently cures a variety of ailments with his lick, was documented with vivid photographs carefully displayed in a meatpacking warehouse, focusing not on the cow but the power and contingency of belief. In Rouge, McCorkle creates a bridge between Art Nouveau and socialism. He created a replica of the staircase of Victor Horta's "Maison du Peuple," a historic Brussels building built in 1896 - 99, whose architecture was flamboyantly Art Nouveau. It served as a public meeting house for the Belgian Socialist party under much controversy; it was subsequently torn down in 1965. McCorkle's title, Rouge, juxtaposed with the smooth white wooden and polyester surface serve as a monument of both transition and timelessness. | |||||
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Posted by Arden Sherman at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (2) | E-mail This
 Through the medium of ceramics artist Kim Simonsson questions the role of the child and nature in the modern world. Often referencing Manga cartoon imagery, children and sometimes animals are presented in Simonsson's work to challenge tradition, cultural habits and beliefs for both the East and West. These traditions are also challenged through the artist's choice of material. Simonsson uses ceramics to draw a parallel with decorative China figurines and traditional ceramic craft of the West, updating both by saturating them in elements of pop-culture. Simonsson graduated from the University of Arts and Design, Helsinki, Finland (2000). Recent solo exhibitions in Finland include Galleria Huoltamo, Tempere, and Arabia Gallery Helsinki. The artist is also represented by Nancy Margolis Gallery, NYC, and has received project funding from the Stina Krook Foundation and the Svenska Kulturefonden. | |||||
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Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (1) | E-mail This
 Opening tonight at James Cohan Gallery in New York City will be a collection of works by Japanese artist Tabaimo. The new work comes after her successful commission for the 2007 Venice Biennale, and continues the use of everyday Japanese imagery mixed with darker views of sex and violence. The main work at James Cohan is titled public conVENience, a five-channel video with floor to ceiling images. The artist, barely into her thirties, has now exhibited in over 15 countries and has been included in the Yokohama Triennale, the Sao Paolo Biennale and the Biennale of Sydney, Australia. Upcoming exhibitions include Japan's Yokohama Museum in 2009 and Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London, in 2010. | |||||
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Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Australian artist Sam Leach, who received his Bachelor of Economics from Adelaide University in 1993, is interested in how wealth is communicated through architectural spaces. There is often an ambiguous attitude towards the pursuit of wealth, and a sense of alienation in its presence. In contemporary culture, corporate spaces must balance a healthy display of success without being too overbearing or excessive in the eyes of the visitor. Several interior features have come to be seen as "corporate," such as halogen lights, brushed steel elevator doors, and polished beech boardroom tables. This same ambiguity towards wealth is seen in 17th-century Dutch still life painting, which is full of symbolic references to mortality, wealth, and corruption, including skulls and spoiling luxury foods. Sam Leach, who also received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from RMIT in 2003 and is in the process of completing his Master of Arts (Fine Arts) at RMIT, combines his economic and artistic interests in his exquisite still life paintings for the Sullivan + Strumpf Fine Art show titled Negentrophies. He chooses preserved game animals, insects, skulls, and other objects indicative of wealth as his subject matter. The artist states he is "investigating how the aesthetics of corporate space convey attitudes towards wealth and power using the conventions and principles of Dutch painting as a frame of reference." The artist paints darkly lacquered, fascinatingly detailed and hauntingly beautiful images of animals and relics. Meticulous attention is paid to each subject, echoing the fine calibration seen in nature. He encases each painting in a layer of glossy resin, recalling the glossy expanses of polished stone seen in corporate spaces. Through exquisite lighting and compositional simplicity, Leach evokes the transience of life and wealth. Leach was voted one of the '50 Most Collectable Artists' by Australian Art Collector magazine in 2007 and 2008. The exhibition Negentrophies will be showing at Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art in Sydney from March 18 - April 6, 2008. | |||||
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Posted by Rebekah Drysdale at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Portland, Oregon-based photographer Mark Hooper is currently exhibiting ten large-scale color photographs for the exhibition Here:There at Quality Pictures in Portland. The artist was included in the 2006 Oregon Biennial, held at the Portland Art Museum, for his acclaimed series "Lewis and Clark, Quantifying Nature," and has worked commercially for such advertising titans as Nike, Microsoft, and Miller Brewing. He has been published in several periodicals, including Esquire, Newsweek, and Vanity Fair. The exhibition at Quality Pictures contains ten 48" x 60" photographs that comment on the ideas of change and it's affect on man's physicality, psychology, and spirituality. Hooper photographs abandoned architectural spaces, vacant parking lots, nature, and any site he feels evokes an awareness of entropy. He occasionally adds props, such as an upturned chair or a pile of rope ascending vertically out of the frame. Through expert lighting and careful staging, the artist creates meditative images that have a sense of desolation. The artist often includes a solitary figure, thus referencing the passage of time and mortality. Also at Quality Pictures is Interspace, a video installation by Laura Fritz. Both exhibitions will be on view until April 26th. | |||||
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Posted by Rebekah Drysdale at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Italian-born artist Angela DeCristofaro opened a exhibition entitled Wake, featuring a new series of paintings at Commissary Arts in Venice, California yesterday evening. The exhibition is continuation of ideas and images explored in her 2006 exhibition titled Totality Shaped Out of Nothing which was exhibited at the Metro Gallery in Pasadena, California. Freely appropriating images and ideas from contemporary culture, the artist often layers wedding cakes, water towers and vintage clothing styles in her figurative compositions. DeCristofaro moved from Italy to Southern California in the 1970's and returned to Italy to complete her BFA in painting and drawing at L'istituto D'arte e di Restauro in Florence. The artist has exhibited at Sonrisa Gallery in Los Angeles, Randon Gallery in Highland Park, California and the Italian Cultural Institute Gallery in San Francisco. | |||||
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Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (1) | E-mail This
 The San Francisco-based directing duo, Encyclopedia Pictura, has recently completed a nine month video and animations project that was shot at Deitch Studios on the bank of the East River in Long Island City. The members of Encyclopedia Pictura, Isaiah Saxon and Sean Hellfritsch, worked with musical artist Bjork to produce her latest video project, Wanderlust, created in 3D. The video, which contains large scale mechanical puppets, detailed costumes, original concept paintings and sculptures, corresponds to Bjork's fourth single off her latest album Volta. The video will be presented this Thursday March 13th, at Deitch Studios, and will include a behind-the-scenes look at the video's production. Encyclopedia Pictura has successfully completed several video and video-music projects through Ghost Robot, but this work with Deitch Projects marks their first gallery project. | |||||
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Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Roni Horn is currently exhibiting her photographic series of taxidermied Icelandic wildfowl at Hauser and Wirth Colnaghi in London. The artist attended the Rhode Island School of Design and received her M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art in 1978. After completing graduate school, Horn journeyed to Iceland to explore the geological activity that takes place in a location virtually untouched by globalization forces. She has since made several Icelandic adventures, and continued to photograph the wildfowl for this long-running series. The artist has had several solo exhibitions, including those at Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and Kunstmuseum Winterthur in Winterthur, Switzerland. The manifestation of Horn's work takes various forms, including works on paper, installations, books with her own images and text, and photographs. She has openly attributed her lack of media specificity to "growing up androgynous," which prevented her from associating with any singular gender identity. For the exhibition, Horn photographed the backs of wildfowl at close range against a monochromatic background, in the style of a conventional studio portrait. She presented these in doubles, a powerful conceptual and aesthetic tactic. The images of the bird's melanistic markings are curious, much like the stuffed birds they represent, questioning the strange art of preparing and preserving the skins of dead animals. The accurate imaging of the bird's fascinatingly mundane physiognomies points to our rather limited knowledge of life. The quizzical nature surrounding her work is an attempt to make the viewer responsible for their presence, and to create a more direct experience. As the artist herself states, "I want to make sensible experience more present." | |||||
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Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Photographer, video and installation artist Sue de Beer creates work that references experiences related to high school and adolescents. de Beer's work centers on haunting narratives that resonate with the tragic emotional state of a post-Columbine youth, often focusing on the engagement of first time activities such as sexual experience and drug use. The artist is a graduate of both Parsons School of Design (1995), and Columbia University (1998). In January 2004, the artist appeared in a four page spread in Artfourm, and later that year she was featured in the Whitney Biennial. Recent solo exhibitions include Sandroni Rey Gallery, L.A. and Kunst Werke, Berlin. The artist's video work has been selected for screenings with the MOMA Gramercy Theatre, NYC, and The American Academy in Berlin. | |||||
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Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Currently showing through March 29th at Deitch Projects in New York City is Tim Noble and Sue Webster's collaborative exhibition titled Polymorphous Perverse. This is a recreation of an exhibition installed at the Freud Museum in London in the fall of 2006. The artists met while studying at Nottingham Trent University and have previously exhibited at PS1/MoMA, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Centro de Arte Contemporaneo de Malaga. The central piece of the show is a kinetic sculpture based on Freud's assertion that children are "polymorphously perverse," meaning that they display a tendency to achieve sexual gratification out of nearly anything. This nascent sexuality is suppressed by socialization within a culture that believes in the denial of genitality to the young, leaving dormant ideas of sexuality that persist into adulthood. Thus, the "mature" sexual adult is in a subconscious state of conflict between a desire to satisfy a wish and a fear of doing so. The sculpture at Deitch Projects is constructed of a workbench, on which mechanized objects composed of childhood toys are placed and activated by viewer presence. When activated, the converted toys generate a series of sexual interactions our culture now regards as perverse. While a conventional response would perhaps be an initial squeamishness, a more open-minded view would allow for the existence of infantile gratification. Noble and Webster force the viewer to address his or her feelings about repressed sexuality by confronting sex-negative social structures and Freud's concept that the libido is the primary motivational force in the self. | |||||
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Posted by Rebekah Drysdale at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 In his current exhibition at Simon Lee Gallery in London, the American Artist/filmmaker Larry Clark takes a departure from the focus of his previous works. While his earlier series "Tulsa", "Teenage Lust" and the film, "Kids", took a hard unblinking look at teenage sex and drug use. This new series entitled simply, "Los Angeles 2003-2006", follows the life of Jonathan Velasquez, a teenage Latino skater from East Los Angeles, through his adolescent years. Velasquez seems comfortable allowing the "old man", (Clark is 36 years his senior), to hang out with him and his friends as they go about having their fun. Remember your own youth, don't we all wish we could still have this much fun. Clark's previous series work in a similar vein to that of his photographic contemporaries such as Nan Goldin and Dash Snow. Each of them investigates the culture of sex and drugs. The departure that Clark makes with this new series is that no overt sex or drug use can be seen. In their previous works Goldin, Snow and Clark, left one with a feeling of hopelessness and despair. This time Clark closes in on his subject, snapping close-up photos that seem to reveal the inner workings of the teenage mind, showing the hope and belief of a promising future that comes with new freedom. The rebel attitude is still evident however, especially in the tee shirts they wear. Their shirts pronounce themselves as, "Misfits", "Ramones", "Gringo" "Zero", "Lower Class Brats", these kids seem certain that they can make a difference. They probably don't realize the weight they are taking on their shoulders, but this sort of confidence is to be encouraged. Maybe that's what comes from finally being able to grow a little mustache. Larry Clark is also represented by Luhring Augustine, New York. | |||||
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Posted by Dennis Anderson at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer and Louise Lawler have joined forces in a viral public art project. Since early February, the artists have been disseminating art work throughout Los Angeles - Kruger and Sherman via billboards, Holzer via posters, zip screens and stickers, and Lawler via sound and broadcasts. The above video shows Holzer's zip screen "Truisms" as it loops at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. The multi-location, multi-media exhibition, titled "Women in the City," was arranged to coincide with the opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum and is being sponsored by the Broad Art Foundation, the Pasadena Arts Council, and the Francois Pinault Foundation. Work by Holzer, Kruger, and Sherman is currently on display at the Broad Contemporary, and all four contributing artists have been influential art world figures since the 1980s. Emi Fontana, who curated "Women in the City," is the organizer of West of Rome, a project that supports art work that engages the city and the public. "Women in the City" re-envisions the ways in which Kruger, Sherman, Holzer and Lawler engaged social and political spaces in their work, literally putting their work into prominent urban locations. | |||||
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Posted by Catherine Wagley at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 An exhibition of Martin Schoeller's photographs will open at Ace Gallery on March 5th. Schoeller, who won the Life Magazine Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for new talent in 2000, makes each feature of his subjects vividly distinctive. The show at Ace Gallery will feature Schoeller's photographs of female body-builders, large format images in which each woman is pictured from the stomach up. With vapid, grey backgrounds, the photographs are all about the women's grippingly well-defined features. Schoeller worked with Annie Leibovitz from 1993-1996. Like Leibovitz, he often photographs celebrities and has shot for a variety of high-profile magazines, including Rolling Stone, GQ and Vogue. Unlike Leibovitz, whose images often create environments around their subjects, Schoeller's work has less to do with context and more to do with staring his subjects in the eyes. In addition to Ace, Schoeller has shown work at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Boston, at Bernard Toale Gallery, also in Boston, and at Hasted Hunt in New York. His most recent show at Hasted Hunt, which included piercing photographs of Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, and Terence Howard, closed on February 23, 2008. Schoeller, who was born in Munich, Germany, currently lives and works in New York. "Female Bodybuilders" at Ace Gallery will run through April. The exhibition's exact closing date has not yet been announced. | |||||
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Posted by Catherine Wagley at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 The Gagosian Gallery is unarguably one of the most successful contemporary art galleries of our time. The current exhibition of works by the Los Angeles-based artist Ed Ruscha gives us new reason to delve into history and understand what it takes to become a historically important artist. Ruscha seems to intuitively know which new galleries would go on to claim their place in art history, and he wants to show his work in that context. His list of exhibitions includes Ferus Gallery in 1963, Nicholas Wilder Gallery 1967, Texas Gallery 1973, MTL 1978, Galerie Rudiger Schottle 1978, and Galerie Tanja Grunert 1984. Although these galleries may not be household names, a quick check will make it clear, (considering the other artists they showed early in their careers), that these are ground breaking establishments, and they've all shown Ruscha. Another thing that sets Ruscha apart from the field, he doesn't follow trends, he sets them. Quite possibly the first artist to make work using exclusively text, (his earliest text pieces are from 1963), clearly predating Laurence Weiner, Martin Maloney and Christopher Wool. While most artists wanting art world recognition move to New York, Ruscha stayed home in LA. He along with John Baldesarri, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman and a few others trusted the future of LA. He also shares with Nauman and McCarthy a restless creative spirit, producing work in all mediums available. Maybe not good for the market originally, but it's certainly not a problem for them now. Fast forward to the present day. For his current exhibition at Gagosian, Ruscha again heads into new territory. Unafraid to challenge his own previous ascertains, this time he picks works from his own history, and pairs them with his new version of the original. "Tool and Die", "Tech-Chem", and "Trade School" take on a whole new meaning when combined with fences, buildings and barbwire. The original works done in nostalgic black and white have now been updated with futuristic color. Ruscha Ed Ruscha, at Gogasian Gallery, London until March 20, 2008 | |||||
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Posted by Dennis Anderson at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Currently on view at Sprueth and Magers in Cologne, Germany are the photographs of German artist Nina Pohl. Testing the physical boundaries of truth within the photographic image, Pohl creates dynamically constructed photos which challenge the authenticity usually associated with photography. Painting is a core component in the artist's practice and is used as tool to further call into question the concept of reality in photography. The artist has completed solo exhibitions with Galerie Sprueth and Magers and Kunstverein Heilbronn in Heilbronn, Germany. | |||||
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Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (1) | E-mail This
 UK born sculptor David Spriggs creates work which explores both the deconstruction and systematic ordering of forms in space. Spriggs creates his dynamic work by layering sheets of transparent film which contain drawings and paintings that are specifically spaced apart to appear to be three dimensional in form. The combination of layers allows the viewer to walk around the work to see it fully in the round. The Spriggs received an MFA in Sculpture at Concordia University in Montreal and his BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. His exhibition, 'Archaeology of Space' is currently on view at The Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Lethbridge, Alberta and will be exhibited again this May at Rodman Hall Arts Centre Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario.The artist has exhibited with Leo Kamen Gallery in Toronto and the Third Avenue Gallery in Vancouver. | |||||
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Posted by Seth Curcio at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This |
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