facebook | twitter
 For their Biennale debut, the Union of Comoros is in participation with a project, Djahazi, by the Italian artist Paolo W. Tamburella. Comoros is a small series of islands located off the coast of Mozambique in East Africa, and Djahazi gets its name from the classic wooden boats the Comoros people used for centuries to transport goods and heavy cargo through the Mozambique Channel and the Indian Ocean. After the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the international use and presence of the Comoros islands greatly decreased. The djahazi vessel, however, remained a propitious means of transport within the African industry until 2006 when modern freight methods subverted these traditional modes. The boats were forsaken at the docks of Moroni, the main port of the Comoros, and continued to deteriorate on the sea floor.  For the Biennale project, Tamburella resurrected and restored one of the twenty-eight boats found on the sandy ocean floor of the port. With the help of local Comorians, Tamburella restored the vessel to its original state. During the last decades of the djahazi's use, it was common to see the boats carrying modern cargo containers from large ships to the port of Moroni. As a gesture towards the tradition, Tamburella has loaded a shipping container inside the restored djahazi. In Venice, the vessel is exhibited at the waterfront of the Giardini entrance. As described in the project summary by Octavio Zaya, "[the restored Djahazi] will stand as a metaphor for an ambivalent globality, bringing together hope and despair, hyper-rationalization and avant-garde extravagance, anti-modern nostalgia and exuberant narratives of progress, emergence and emergency..." While these semantics are, perhaps, idealistic, the Djahazi project is a simple and delicate gesture towards the power of tradition in today's post-modern world. | |||||||
|
Posted by Arden Sherman at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (5) | E-mail This
Rosemarie Fiore is drawing with fireworks, low explosive pyrotechnic devices such as color smoke bombs, jumping jacks, monster balls, and ground blooms, to name a few. The artist recently exhibited several of these large scale works on paper in a solo show at Priska C. Juschka Fine Art in New York. The artist's incendiary process of exploding and containing live fireworks over paper reveals her remarkable aesthetic control over the combustible material. Photographs of this process recall Hans Namuth's photographs of Jackson Pollock slinging industrial paint onto canvas and the indelible images of Richard Serra hurling molten lead against the walls of his studio.
Fiore ignites her chosen explosive inside a bucket or other container, which is inverted on the paper. The explosions create strokes and sunbursts of vibrant pigments, including magenta, ochre, rust, and copper, all varying in saturation and intensity. Gunpowder marks and sooty burnt surfaces provide visible traces of the detonation. Fiore overlaps and collages the best effects on large sheets of the same paper, repeating these actions a number of times. The final works are heavy and contain multiple layers of collaged explosions, resulting in abstract compositions and fields of color described by Robert Schuster of the Village Voice as "op art visions of the cosmos." Fiore has often worked out of action, considering each process a performance and documenting it by video and photograph. She has used repurposed machines and has previously painted and drawn with a modified floor polisher, a windshield wiper, and a Scrambler (the multi-armed amusement park ride). She received her B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1994 and her M.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999 and has also shown at the Gallery Bar and the Winkleman Gallery in New York. | |||||||
|
Posted by Rebekah Drysdale at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Kutlug Ataman, a winner of this year's Abraaj Capital Art Prize, recently awarded at Art Dubai, recorded a performance entitled Strange Space using himself as subject wandering through the desert blindfolded and barefoot. The performance, part of his most recent project Mesopotamian Dramaturgies, was inspired by a classical Mesopotamian folk tale, in which the hero is blinded by the love of the female character and condemned to walk the desert searching for her, only to burst into flames when they finally encounter one another. Ataman uses this ancient tale to symbolize the coming together of East and West, or as the fair's catalogue states, "as a metaphor for the encounter of modernity and tradition, for their reciprocal attraction and the trauma this attraction may cause." | |||||||
|
Posted by Rebekah Drysdale at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
Vanessa Beecroft's newest performance, VB64, took place at Deitch Projects on March 6th, the second day of the New York Armory Show. Once again, the controversial Beecroft and the equally, though differently, controversial Kanye West joined forces (the two staged a collaborative listening event for the debut of 808s & Heartbreak, at which West's music plays and Beecroft's models pose). Their previous collaborations have been highlighted in a fall issue of The Fader magazine. VB64 interwove live models and gesso sculptures, an amalgam of equally passive living and lifeless forms. The white body paint on the models matched the gesso on the cast sculptures, and both animate and inanimate bodies boasted the slim, fashioned figures for which Beecroft's performers have become notorious. Artforum's investigative critic Rhonda Lieberman described the event in terms that are as eerie as they are clinical. "Effectively aestheticized, abstracted by the gessolike spackle, the women were literally ornamental figures," she writes, "their breath unobtrusive, their movements very, very slow." West, who is producing the film of VB64, reportedly flew in from Paris just to appear at the performance, his presence further clouding Beecroft's weird half-mainstream, half-elusive mystique. Though the performance has ended, the sculptures (including wax and gesso figures not made for the performance) will be on view at Deitch through April 12th. A video of VB64 will also be projected in the gallery space throughout the exhibition. | |||||||
|
Posted by Catherine Wagley at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Gladstone Gallery is presenting the work of Puerto Rico-based artists Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla. The artists have been working together sine 1995 producing films, installations, performances, and sculpture. They expose the complicated dynamics of contemporary geo-political realities while engaging with history. The exhibition, Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on Ode to Joy for a Prepared Piano, features an early 20th century Bechstein piano that Allora and Calzadilla have carved a hole in, rendering two full octaves inoperative. A performer stands in this void and must play the instrument both upside down and backwards while at times physically moving the piano along a path throughout the gallery. Hourly performances of the Fourth Movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, commonly known as Ode to Joy, by several pianists take place on Tuesdays through Saturdays. This musical composition has long symbolized human fraternity and universal brotherhood, and is today the official anthem of the European Union. The incomplete version of the ode (due to the hole) probes the relationships between composition and meaning, while tracking political and artistic sentiments. Allora and Calzadilla have had several solo exhibitions around the world, including at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and Serpentine Gallery in London, and Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Stop, Repair, Prepare will remain at Gladstone Gallery until February 21st. | |||||||
|
Posted by Rebekah Drysdale at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (4) | E-mail This
 South African-born artist Robin Rhode works in a variety of media, including performance, photography, sculpture and video that centers on his personal experiences as a young man growing up in Johannesburg suburbs. The artist uses and alters everyday objects that reference South African products or that embodies a personal or social connection to the artist. The artist's newest body of work continues his interest in exploring narratives where he uses only the most basic of materials to complete his ideas. Recently, the artist has expanded to 16mm film and sculpture and has created a collaborative performance in Rheims, France, with professional dancer Jean-Baptiste Andre and violinist and cellist Didier Pertit. This year, the artist presented Empty Pockets at the Perry Rubenstein Gallery in New York City , an exhibition that debuted in Johannesburg in March and at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing in April. Rhode has exhibited internationally, including notable shows with Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
On October 8th, LACMA opened Contemporary Projects 11: Hard Targets--Sports and Masculinity, a survey exploring the intersection of masculinity and sports in contemporary culture and artistic practices. Curated by Christopher Bedford (himself a player of rugby and American football), the show poses athleticism not in diametric opposition to artistic expression, but rather as a kind of male-dominated theatrical spectacle of gender performance. In Bedford's accompanying exhibition article, he noted, "This new interest among practicing artists in the imagery of and materials associated with men's sports can be traced to the increasingly polymorphous depictions of star athletes in the media. More and more often, popular magazines such as Sports Illustrated and ESPN the Magazine publish portraits that lavish as much attention on the bodies and apparel of male athletes as has traditionally been accorded female models and celebrities endorsing cosmetics, clothing, and perfumes." This hypersexualization, or offering up of the male body and identity for consumer culture, is on the one hand liberating, yet also a cause for concern. While women have long been objectified as a means to fuel commercial desire, now it appears men are subjected to the same unflinching, and unattainable vision. Yet the implications of imposing such unattainable ideals upon masculinity are apparently a new subject for consideration, the implications of which still as of yet unknown.  Continue reading "Hard Targets: Masculinity and Sports @ LACMA" » | |||||||
|
Posted by Sasha Lee at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (2) | E-mail This
 Transit Antenna is a diverse group of creators, bound in space and time to each other and a 40 foot metro bus named Walter. Traveling across North America, the mobile living experiment, which consists of seven people, featuring writers, filmmakers, painters, chefs, musicians and a dog, are all living on the road for a two year journey. Now six months into their travels, Transit Antenna, launching from Charleston, SC, are currently in Portland, Oregon. You can track them at anytime via their wikimap. The nomadic group may seem like a throw back to the sixties with their free spirits, overgrown beards and desire to just be on the road, but there is much more than meets the eye. The group is capturing their experience through writing, painting, filmmaking, photography and most of all through a loose network of social collaborators that spread across the US, sharing what they know and can do with whomever they come in contact.  The group, which is affiliated with Deitch Projects, Redux Contemporary Art Center, DailyServing.com and Fat American is mostly fueled on private donations, hard labor and free vegetable oil for the bus. When asked, why are they doing this project the group has replied, "for the challenge of living on the road, of living frugally, and of finding ways to support ourselves. For the excitement of seeing the country, of meeting engaging people, of exploring the periphery of America where culture doesn't get handed down from cultural imperialists-it grows dynamically from the people up. We're doing this for the possibility of creating community on the road, of developing collaborations that will fuel our creative practices..." Visit DailyServing.com and TransitAntenna.com often to find the location of the crew and to catch up on all of their recent projects and videos. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 There's a SunTek that makes window films for impact resistance and solar protection, tubular polycarbonate skylights, computer cases and power supplies, auto-marine upholstery, pools and spas, valves for petroleum piping, and innovative beauty products. And then there's SunTek Chung who makes images of identity forged from concepts about culture and technology. Like all of his photographs, SunTek makes a real space for us to examine. He challenges the integrity and meaning of artifacts that are marginalized by their own popularity. In his image The South The South, a drunken motorcyclist minds his business on the stoop of his marsh shack facade, drinking tall boys out of his well-traveled cooler. He's surrounded by pine bark mulch, the remnants of the oldpine forest. Set in the door of his shack is a strange southern flag. The yin and Yankee colored Saint Andrew's Cross holds the symbols of heaven, earth, fire, and water, made white like the stars. The background of the Korean flag, the color of cleanliness and light, has been changed to red, the yang spilled all over the flag. The purity of the cause is questioned and the white flag as a symbol of truce or peace has been subverted. There's a skewed parallel between South Korea and the Confederacy that the drunk is not required to explain. But, there's a spirit of rebellion and autonomy in freedom from both government control and communism. The stereotype of the Asian imitation of American things is subverted. The Korean and American products are interchangeable and impure. Displaying the Confederate flag is an inflammatory issue, especially in the South, where it remains common. Because it represents both oppression and rebellion, it's rightly capable of offense. Remaking that flag gives us a fresh vision of a cultural artifact, challenging information extrapolated from stereotypes and simplistic understandings. Ignorance and biases become apparent and silly, but remain a real part of identity. SunTek now resides in Richmond, VA, where he obtained his BFA in sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University. He went on to study at Yale University for his MFA and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His work has been featured on the cover of Beautiful/Decay, displayed in a solo show at P.S. 1 in New York, and exhibited across the U.S. and internationally. | |||||||
|
Posted by Celie Dailey at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 A collection of works by acclaimed Australian artist, Mike Parr are currently on show at Anna Schwartz Gallery, Darlington. Entitled Milk, the exhibition takes form as a photographic montage, documenting various performance, installation and pictorial works by the artist. Some particularly memorable represented pieces include the shocking Cathartic Action: Social Gestus No. 5, where Parr appears to be amputating his own arm by hacking into a prosthetic one, and the Emetics (Primary Vomit Series), which sees the artist vomiting a series of red, blue, and yellow paints. Parr is known for the masochistic nature of many of his performances with titles that are often very literal in meaning. These include Crush Some Meat in Your Hand, Pull Hairs in Your Armpit and Hold Your Breath Underwater for as Long as Possible. Parr studied at Queensland University and East Sydney Technical College. He has been exhibiting his work for nearly 40 years, where it has appeared on both a local and international scale at institutions including the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Japan, the Guggenheim, New York and Museo de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro. In 1997 he was awarded the SponsorÃs Prize at the Sapporo 4th International Print Biennale. | |||||||
|
Posted by Annette Michalski at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 The photography, video and performance works of artist Kelly Nipper proclaim the material proof that is inherent to photography and lens-based media at a time when most artists are determined to prove the falsities of the medium. Nipper explores the human relation to time, space and dimension, usually carried out through the choreographed acts of her subjects. The artist often works against normal photographic expectations, leaving her viewers void of the satisfaction that comes from the release of a climax or the capturing of a spectacle. Instead, Nipper engages her viewers with quiet, unassuming, though philosophically rich, images that investigate the empirical nuances of life. Nipper lives and works in Los Angeles and is an M.F.A. graduate of the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, Calif. This year, the artist will present an exhibition with the Anna Helwing Gallery in Los Angeles. Previous exhibitions include "Bending Water into a Heart Shape" at the Galleria Francesca Kaufmann in Milan, Italy, and "shotgun and a figure 8" at the Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Santa Monica, Calif., which was reviewed by Artforum (2001). The artist has performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in California, PERFORMA07, and she has received the Alberta Prize for Visual Art from the Alberta duPont Bonsal Foundation. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 A collaborative team of Melbourne artists known as DAMP have created Scene 1, an interactive installation currently on show at the Kerry Gardner & Andrew Myer Project Gallery within the Heide Museum of Modern Art, Victoria. Consisting of three large painted wooden panels, the work depicts the artists posing in a conceptual freeze frame similar to the biblical nativity scene. Holes have been cut where their faces should be in order to allow for the audience to insert theirs instead. Photographs of spectators in this positioning can be taken and displayed on the gallery wall, allowing them to remain as part of the work. DAMP have been operational since 1995, and are frequently changing in members. Their projects are often performative in nature and rely on audience involvement, thus blurring the barriers between art, artist and audience. They have had various solo shows across Australia and have appeared internationally within group exhibitions at venues including Gallery Side 2, Tokyo, Basekamp Gallery, Philadelphia, Serpentine Gallery, London and UKS Gallery, Oslo. Members who took part in the creation of Scene 1 include Jonathan Bailey, Martin Burns, Olivia Dwyer, Sharon Goodwin, Ry Haskings, Spiro Kalantzis, James Lynch, Lisa Radford, Sean Samon, Dion Sanderson, Blair Trethowan, Masato Takasaka and Neil Wilson. | |||||||
|
Posted by Annette Michalski at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Kicking off this February at the Australian Centre for Photography Paddington, will be the exhibition "William Yang: Claiming China". Held in conjunction with the City of Sydney's Chinese New Year Festival and the 2008 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the display celebrates the work of acclaimed Chinese-Australian artist William Yang. While open about his homosexuality, Yang's work often controversially touches on issues regarding both his heritage and sexual preference. Within this exhibition Yang's photos explore his forced assimilation into Australian culture and the repossession of his Chinese background. Yang was born in Queensland as a third generation Australian. He is a multitalented individual, having worked as a playwright, a photographer and performance artist. He has been awarded several prizes including the 1993 International Photographer of the Year Award at The Higashigawacho International Photographic Festival, Japan as well as numerous awards, nominations and special mentions for his poignant documentary "Sadness". He earned a Bachelor of Arts - Architecture and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters both from the University of Queensland, and has widely exhibited both locally and internationally at institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Torch Gallery, Amsterdam and the San Diego Museum of Art. | |||||||
|
Posted by Annette Michalski at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Curated by Thibault Sandret of Glam Trash Pop and hosted by Virginie Sommet's Studio/Gallery 173 on Canel Street is the exhibition "Don't Call It Street Art," which will be on open to the public beginning this weekend on Dec 15th. The group show celebrates Street Art through photography, painting, collage, graphic design and live body painting. By taking the art out of its urban context and hanging in a gallery the work becomes legalized as well as institutionalized. Sandret hopes that by placing the work in the space of the gallery, people will allow themselves to slow down and take a look in a way that may otherwise not happen when quickly passed on the streets. Artists included in the show include Ogi, COL & Veng, Nathalie Hamelin, Iris Arnaud, Gary St Clare, Hugo Martin, Jake Dobkin and Alexandra Zsigmond. | |||||||
|
Posted by DS at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Artist Jon Brumit produces socially-based collaborative projects that investigate interaction through tools, instruments and loosely structured scenarios which by default have unpredictable outcomes. Neighborhood Pubic Radio is a collaborative artist-run radio project featuring Brumit that aims to give people a forum via local radio to voice their opinions, concerns or interests as artists, activists, musicians and community members. NPR has been featured in Punk Planet magazine, Artforum, and the Chicago Reader, it will be included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. Brumit has exhibited with the Lisa Dent Gallery in San Francisco, Space 538 in Portland, and the Richmond Art Center in Richmond, CA. The artist is also involved with the collaborative projects Van Boven and Sliv & Dulet Enterprises and has received funding from Creative Work Fund and CEC ArtsLink. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Los Angeles artist Dawn Kasper is currently exhibiting a morbid series of photographs, Life and Death, at Hollywood's Circus Gallery. The sleek photographs in the exhibition document performances in which Kasper compulsively enacts her own death. Kasper's preoccupation with life's temporality has led to a diverse span of mock deaths over the last three years: she has enacted her own impalement, choked herself, bled herself, and imagined her body's decomposition. She staged a fatal car crash at Anna Helwing Gallery in 2004 and she was thrown out with the trash in a 2004 performance for Zurich's Migros Museum. Life and Death is the first exhibition to show all the documentations of her gruesome performances in the same space. When seen together, the photographs each read as scenes in a surreal drama and the show's glitzy, theatrical aura nicely accentuates Circus Gallery's Hollywood locale. Kasper received her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1999 and graduated from UCLA's MFA in New Genres program in 2003. Since then, she has shown in Los Angeles, New York and Zurich. | |||||||
|
Posted by Catherine Wagley at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Performance artist Andrea Fraser has long been acclaimed as provocateur, leading a unique style of performance art coined as "institutional critique." The artist has conducted many famous performances, such as the 1989 work "Museum Highlights," where the artist posed as a Museum tour guide under her stage name Jane Castleton at the Philadelphia Museum. During the piece the artist walked different groups around the institution using grandiose verbiage often associated with overly intellectualized critics, art historians and gallery directors. Perhaps her most controversial work to date is "Untitled" (2002) a videotape performance where Fraser had a 60 minute sexual encounter with a prominent art collector through a contractual agreement. The artist proposed the piece to the Friedrich Petzel Gallery and asked them to facilitate an agreement between the artist and the patron in which the patron participated in the production of contemporary art through a sexual act in a hotel room. In the end, the patron paid $20,000 for the work in the form of an unedited videotape of the performance, and one other copy went on view at the Friedrich Petzel Gallery. The New York Times Magazine reviewed the work and reflected both its art historical position and its opposition by many in the New York community. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (1) | E-mail This
 The Moti Hasson Gallery in New York City is currently presenting "Waking the Dead," a new body of work by Canadian-born, New York-based artist Jillian McDonald. The exhibition will include a special performance on Halloween night. Within the show, the artist has produced several videos and a series of photographs which feature images that are derivative from a variety of horror films. In the work above, "Horror Makeup (2006), McDonald films herself transforming into a zombie as viewers gaze upon the transformation on an otherwise 'normal' subway ride. In reference to placing herself in the work, Mcdonald states "My presence in the work is not autobiographical. I think it's clear that my image serves as a deliberate subject who enacts shared fantasies or fears." McDonald received funding the exhibition in part by a grant from Pace University, and created the work through residencies in New York at The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Workspace Program, The School of Visual Arts, and The Western Front in Vancouver, Canada. The artist received her MFA from Hunter College in NYC, and has complete exhibitions worldwide including works with Jack the Pelican Presents, NYC, Soap Factory, Minneapolis, and upcoming exhibitions with 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA, and Bjornson Kajiwara Gallery in Vancouver. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (2) | E-mail This
 Parisian artist Prune Nourry's work investigates elements of many current social and scientific issues such as genetic modification, stem cell research, fetishes and the commodification of the human form. The artist conducted a project of celebrity led fetishes with dogs and other pets as well as pet-baby substitution piece. For her latest work "Adoption Day," the artist will conduct a performance piece scheduled for today in Regents Park / Central London presented by Jaguar Shoes. For this performance the artist has created five figurative silicone sculptures that are designed to be a hypothetical genetic hybrid baby. These sculptures will each be accompanied by a nanny and will travel from different parts of London, the performance will end with a series of family photo sessions including the newly created family addition. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Cuban-Dominican artist Quisqueya Henriquez opened his first major museum survey exhibition at the Bronx Museum of the Arts yesterday evening. "The World Outside: A Survey Exhibition 1991-2007," showcases the artist's sculptures, installations, drawings, photographs, videos and light/sound works created over the past two decades. In addition to the exhibition, Henriquez was featured in this month's ARTnews magazine. The artist's work investigates social environments through cultural cliches, invoking sensory experiences of urban life through his multi-disciplinary works. The artist, who is currently represented by David Castillo in New York City, studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana, Cuba and the Universidad Autonoma De Santo Domingo (USAD) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Henriquez has exhibited in the Centro de Fotografia de la Isla de Tenerife in the Islas Canarias, Spain and Proyecto de Arte Contemporaneo, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico, among countless others. The artist is now in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami, the Henry Buhl Foundation and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
| |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (1) | E-mail This
Bay Area artist, entrepreneur and organizer Marc Horowitz gained national attention when he wrote "Dinner w/ Marc 510-872-7326," his actual name and cell number, on a dry-erase board, which was published in a Crate & Barrel catalog. Soon after, calls poured in, and Horowitz began "The National Dinner Tour," a traveling, dinner-eating, cross-country adventure. Since, the artist has produced several projects, including "The Errand Feasibility Study," featuring Horowitz riding a mule in downtown San Francisco while doing various tasks such as making a bank deposit. After a short stint at the San Francisco Art Institute, Horowitz and long-time collaborator, Jon Brumit founded Sliv & Dulet Enterprises, a conceptual company dedicated to solving problems by creating products such as the "office in a tent" and services such as the fog removal initiative for the Golden Gate Bridge. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 During the preparation of "Nest," a new exhibition on view at the Deitch Projects' 76 Grand Street gallery, artists Dash Snow and Dan Colen invited 30 volunteers to spend three days shredding 2,000 New York City telephone books in a grimy and most unusual installation. The group spent midnight to 8 a.m. each night wading in waist-deep shredded paper, creatively destroying everything in their process by drinking, peeing and painting while spending quality time together creating their dwelling. This performance was based on previous incidents where the artists rent a hotel room, shred phone books, string up the sheets, turn on the taps and take drugs such as mushrooms, cocaine and ecstasy until they feel like hamsters (read article in NY Magazine). Since the events took place, the gallery has remained in the condition the artists left it and will be on view for the public until August 18. Although Snow and Colen create very different works independently, Snow's work is grounded in photography and Colen's in painting. Both artists bear a gritty, raw and rebellious sensibility in their work. Snow has exhibited recently at Sutton Lane in London and Rivington Arms in NYC. Colen, a previous DailyServing feature, recently exhibited "No Me" at Peres Projects in Berlin and "Secrets and Cymbals, Smoke and Scissors (My Friend Dash's Wall in the Future)" at Deitch Projects and Peres Projects in Los Angeles. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (9) | E-mail This
 Gelitin, the Austrian-based group of four collaborative artists, is participating in the group show "Das Hamsterrad" (the hamster wheel) this year at the Venice Biennale. For the exhibition, Gelitin built a wooden construction of embracing arches that tower in the gallery space. A smaller and slightly less complicated version of the structure was also presented this year with a performance called "Bunter Abend" at Deitch Projects in New York City. These are just a few of the projects that the group has accomplished this year. Others include "The Dig Cunt," a multi-day performance produced by Creative Time held on Coney Island, and "Das Kakabet," an exhibition with Galerie Nicola von Senger in Zurich. The artists have been exhibiting together internationally since 1993 and are currently represented by Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris and Miami and Gagosian Gallery in London, among others. Gelitin was a previous DailyServing feature, included for their 200-foot-long and 20-foot-high pink bunny sculpture constructed in the hills of Artesina, Italy. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (1) | E-mail This
 Dieter Appelt is one of Germany's most influential photographers and videographers. Since 1982, the artist has taught photography, film and video at the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin. In the late 1970's and 1980's, the artist's work was centered on performance art, and his photography developed out of the documentation of his performance. Often, the performances took place within constructed nature-based sculptures or sets and dealt with issues related to primal endurance and decay. This was in part because of the experience of returning home from World War II to find the decomposing bodies of soldiers in neighboring fields. Drawing an obvious influence from artists such as Joseph Bueys, Appelt regards his works as sculptures of time as he often places himself in endurance-testing positions. Appelt has been exhibiting works since the 1970's and has exhibited extensively in Europe. Major solo museum exhibitions for the artist have occurred at the Guggenheim in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Staatliche Museum in Berlin. The artist is currently represented by Galerie Guy Bartschi is Geneva. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 A new multi-media extravaganza exhibition titled "a very anxious feeling" by assume vivid astro focus (avaf) is on view with John Connelly Presents in New York City. The exhibition contains three environments within the gallery and includes 3-D wallpaper, a corridor of music, flashing neon sculptures, video and a room with a series of music-related performances. A featured installation titled "Four-letter words" is comprised of wrapped objects and text-based wallpaper with provocative words such as BUSH, HOMO, PRAY, ANAL and HOPE. The gallery also converted the store-room basement into an extension of the show that features five abstract neon sculptures. In addition, the exhibition contains a re-installed series of work from a previous exhibition titled "absorb viral attack fantasy" with Hiromi Yoshii in Tokyo. assume vivid astro focus is led by artist Eli Sudbrack and is said to contain many members who are all born anytime between the 20th and 21st centuries in various parts of the world. This year, (avaf) will exhibit assume vivid astro focus XVIII with Deitch Projects as a follow up to the widely popular exhibit in 2003. (avaf) will also be featured this year in "Destroy Athens" at Athens Biennial and "Space for The Future" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (1) | E-mail This
 "Zivildienst Kunstprojekt, Kunstprojekt Zivildienst" translates to "Social Service Art Project, Art Project Social Service" and is a new series by Canadian artist Althea Thauberger at John Connelly Presents in New York. Long periods of research in social and political developments led the artist into collaborative performances that intend to reveal a particular group consciousness and civil responsibility. Thauberger collaborates with various social groups, engaging them with exercises and meetings designed to help promote group discussion about their relevant social issues. The artist usually presents her work as video, performance or photography. Thauberger is currently a doctoral candidate in communications at the European Graduate School in Saas Fee, Switzerland, and is an MFA graduate of the University of Victoria in Victoria, B.C. The artist has recently exhibited with Basis Voor Acuele Kunst (B.A.K.) in the Netherlands and Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson experiments with visual arts, theater and music to create live performances. Kjartansson's work often references modes of aggression, masculinity and dominance. In 2003, the artist recreated a scene from a period of Danish colonization in Iceland where a Danish merchant is shown beating a native Icelandic peasant. The image above depicts a knight that is exposed representing sexual power and playing a piano that emits sounds of groaning women. Kjartansson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland (1976), and attended the Icelandic Academy of the Arts painting department (2001) and the Royal Academy in Stockholm, Sweden (2000). Kjartansson exhibited "Colonialization" with the Galleri Kling & Bang and is currently exhibiting "Samviskubit/ Guilt Trip" at Galleri i8 in Reykjavik, Iceland. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Icelandic artist Katrin Sigurdardottir's work creates imaginary spaces within another space. Sigurdardottir deals with scale to create a relationship between the work and the viewer. She uses architectural structures to bring together nature and design, allowing the viewer to participate with the work. Her most recent exhibition, open now with P.S.1 in New York, depicts an artificial landscape where the viewer must climb a ladder to view the created space. Currently, Sigurdardottir is seen as one of the most influential artists of Iceland. She received her MFA from Rutgers University and since has shown with Art Basel in Miami, the Renaissance Society in Chicago, Fonds Regional d'Art Contemporain de Bourgogne in France and Galleri i8 in Iceland. In 2005, she was one of the recipients of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant for the Arts. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Demetrius Oliver uses his body to explore social issues of race, history and culture. Large digital c-prints depict a variety of simple, yet compelling, images of the artist interacting with loaded objects and materials such as coal and white cream. The artist also draws pictures on his own body, such as railroad tracks across his hands and small ships on his finger nails, as well as creates significant works in sculpture and performance. Oliver confronts issues that deal with the history of African-Americans by directly using these images as metaphors for problems that seem to remain to some degree unsolved. The artist is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Master of Fine Arts Program (2004) and since has exhibited works with the Inman Gallery in Houston. He is currently exhibiting in Pulse New York and has had museum exhibitions with the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina (2006), and the Contemporary Art Musuem of Houston. Oliver has participated with Project Row Houses in Houston and is a Core Fellow with the Glassell School of Art. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 In a recent exhibition at The Moore Space in Miami, artists Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla created a room-sized architectural sculpture titled "Clamor." The large, white structure is ambiguously designed and references chamber, bunker or space-cave architecture. During a performance in the gallery, a group of musicians played various elements of war songs from multiple geographic locations and historical periods simultaneously out of the structure. The artist duo has been working together since 1995, producing a variety of works in sculpture, performance, architecture and social and public relations. Allora is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2003), and she attended the Whitney Independent Study Program (1999). Calzadilla attended Bard College for his MFA (2001) and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1998). Last year, the artists exhibited with S.M.A.K. (Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst) in Ghent, Belgium, and Land Mark, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France. Allora and Calzadilla received grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the Penny McCall Foundation. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 A member of China's new wave of influential artists, Cao Fei has developed an expansive young career featuring works in performance, photography, video, writing, and sound art among other projects. Taking in the mass influence of western culture in the east, the artist reflectively constructs images that offer insight into the current state of this optimistic country. The video still shown above is from a series title "Hip Hop" and exemplifies several Chinese lay individuals' engaging in what seems to be awkward hip-hop stances. Other works such as the "COSplayers" depict young people dressed as Japanese anime characters acting out scenarios in the landscape of Cao Fei's home city, Guangzhou. The artist attended the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (2001), and was a member of the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes) fellowship program (2005). In 2006, Cao Fei exhibited PRD "Anti-Heroes" at the Museum Het Domein, Sittard, Netherlands, and "Hip Hop" with Lombard-Freid Projects in New York City. This year, the artist will be featured in "World Factory: Resistance and Dreams" at the San Francisco Art Institute. Cao Fei has been featured in the NY Times, and was reviewed last year by ArtForum. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (1) | E-mail This
 German artist Janaina Tschape produces video, sculpture, photography and drawings as she works through fragmented narratives that exist somewhere between reality and fiction. Ideas of the female body are explored through wearable sculptures, fabricated to mimic fleshy organic bio-morphic material. The photographs and videos take place in luscious botanical settings that aid to the dreamlike quality of each character. The artist was born in Munich and spent most of her adolescence in San Paulo, Brazil. Tschape is a graduate of the School of the Visual Arts in New York City (1998), and she attended the Museu de Arte Moderna Artist Residency in Salvador, Brazil (1994). Last year, the artist exhibited "Melantropics" at The Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Louis, and had a solo exhibition with Galeria Fortes Vilaca in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 2007, Tschape will exhibit with Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in New York City and The New Art Gallery in Walsall, U.K. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 One of Brazil's most famous artists, Ernesto Neto creates room-sized environments for the viewer to navigate through and interact with. By using light, stretchable fabrics and organic shapes, filled occasionally with scented spices, Neto's work allows the viewer to experience the work through all senses, creating a spatial labyrinth for the journey through the passages in the room. Currently, Neto is collaborating with Merce Cunnigham on an exhibition called "Dancing on the Cutting Edge," where his sculptures become sets and costumes for the choreographer at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. He exhibited with the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia (2004) and worked with Carnegie International (1999). Neto was the Brazilian artist for both the Biennale of Sydney (1998) and the Venice Biennale (2001). ArtForum has reviewed his work several times, including his exhibition with Galerie Max Hetzler in 2004. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Photo, performance and video artist Mary Coble creates work that addresses the social issues associated with gay, lesbian and trans-gendered individuals. The images evoke physical pain that references the emotional strain many ambi-sexual individuals constantly endure. Her 2005 performance with Conner Contemporary Art in Washington, D.C., received strong opinions after the artist endured a 12-hour marathon of inkless tattooing, covering the back side of her entire body with the first names of more than 300 gender-based hate crime victims. Mary Coble graduated in 2004 from George Washington University and since then has had exhibitions and performances with Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, d.u.m.b.o. art center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Artist's Space in New York City through Performa'05. In 2007, Coble is scheduled to have a performance with the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York. View video of Mary Coble's inkless tattoo performance "Note to Self" (2005) here. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
Austrian-based artist group Gelitin is comprised of four artists -- Wolfgang Gantner, Ali Janka, Florian Reither and Tobias Urban. The artists are internationally known for their ambitious and absurd projects and performances. Pictured above is a giant 200-foot long and 20-foot high bunny sculpture, stuffed with hay in the hills of Artesina, Italy. The pink bunny was installed in 2005 and will remain in place, left to decompose until 2025. In 2005, the group exhibited arguably the world's largest urine-based icicle during the Moscow Biennale with a work titled "Zapf de Pipi." Viewers were asked to step into a room built off of a second-story window in the gallery and urinate into a bucket. This would freeze before hitting the ground, eventually forming the world's first museum ice sculpture. In 2006, Gelitin exhibited "Group Therapy" with MUSEION, Museo d'arte moderna e contemporanea in Bozen, and "Hugris" with the Kling & Bang Galleri in Reykjavik. To view the video of "Rabbit" the bunny sculpture, including images from Google Earth, click here. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (2) | E-mail This
 Austrian artist Erwin Wurm currently has an exhibition titled "I Love My Time, I Don't Like My Time" at the Frye Museum in Seattle, Washington. The exhibition features work from the '90s to 2006. Wurm's humorous work has a reputation for challenging the traditional notions of sculpture. His works are often exhibited in the form of photographic documentation of temporary sculptures created with the interaction of a participant. The image above is from a series titled "Instructions on How to Be Politically Incorrect," which depict scenarios of personal invasion as individuals search for bombs in humorous and unlikely places. Other works include "One Minute Sculptures" in which viewers follow the artist's instructions by combining their own body with common objects to create temporary sculptures. Wurm has shown internationally with more than eight exhibitions in 2006, including works with MUMOK in Vienna, Austria (on view now) and the CAPC Musee d'art Contemporain in Bordeaux, France. In 2005, the artist was reviewed by both Artforum (January) and Flash Art Magazine (January-Febuary). Wurm continues to live and work in Vienna and New York. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Zhu Ming is a performance and conceptual artist whose work is time based and usually involves physical extremities. Often performing inside of a custom made balloon, the artist will undergo certain actions that reference both his Chinese heritage and the futility of communication. In the 1990s Ming joined other artists to form Beijing East Village; this area was often considered the most experimental of the artist villages of that time. Many of his contemporaries from that area, including Zhang Huan, have become internationally renowned artists. Although Ming has not presented any major solo exhibitions as of recent, he has participated in several pivotal group exhibitions. Group exhibitions and performances this century include "Liquid Sea" performance at the Contemporary Museum of Sydney, Art2003, Chinese Contemporary, London, and "Cut In-Photos and Videos" China Artscene Warehouse, Beijing. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Luis Gispert produces evocative photographs, multimedia installations, and sound sculptures that highlight an investigation of "high culture" notions through hip hop references. Gispert is a graduate of Chicago Art Institute in film (1996), and from the Yale School of Art in sculpture (2001). The following year Gispert exhibited in the Whitney Biennial, and in 2003 the artist had a solo exhibition with the Whitney Museum. This was followed by exhibits in Art Pace, San Antonio and the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College. Gispert is currently represented by Fredric Snitzer Gallery in Miami and by Zach Feuer Gallery in NYC. The artist also directed the film "Stereomongrel" with L.A. based filmmaker Jeffrey Reed. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 09:55 PM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This
 Marc Horowitz is a San Francisco based conceptual artist who works in a variety of mediums from photography to absurd video and performance. Horowitz is the co-creator of Sliv & Dulet Enterprises, a conceptual company staffed with thirty artists posing as business people to developing problems for people's solutions. National Dinner Tour is a recent project that has been featured on dozens of radio stations, newspapers, and national and international television programs because the artist is on tour to simply dine with strangers. Marc Horowitz photography is represented with Yooprojects in San Fran, and on November 20th the artist will hold a lecture at Portland State University. | |||||||
|
Posted by Seth Curcio at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Discussion (0) | E-mail This |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |