Brooklyn Museum's May 3rd Target Saturday: "JAPAN in Brooklyn"

Please be sure to check out this month's Target First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum. This is a FREE event so please don't miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of amazingly talented Japanese artists from different mediums. See information below for further details.

ON Gallery opening in the desert, 2008. Mixed Media. Photo courtesy of artist
6 p.m.–8 p.m. Music
Hall of the Americas, 1st Floor

Han'nya Teikoku Trio and Sizzle Ohtaka contemporize the traditional melodic sounds of the Japanese shakuhachi flute.

6 p.m.–7 p.m. Performance
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Forum, 4th Floor

Japanese performance and installation artist ON Megumi Akiyoshi discusses her work and invites the audience to participate in her "vending machine" performance piece. Free tickets (30) are available at the Visitor Center at 5 p.m.

6 p.m. Film
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor

A movie star traverses over 1,000 years from medieval Japan to the space age in pursuit of love, in the anime Millennium Actress (Satoshi Kon, 2001, 87 min., animated, NR). Free tickets (340) are available at the Visitor Center at 5 p.m.

6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m. Hands-On Art
Education Division, 1st Floor

Practice calligraphy with special pens and ink. Free timed tickets (380) are available at the Visitor Center at 5:30 p.m.

7 p.m. Curator Talk
Meet at the entrance to Utagawa, 1st Floor

Joan Cummins, Curator of Asian Art, gives a Sign Language–interpreted talk in Utagawa. Free tickets (30) are available at the Visitor Center at 5 p.m.

7:30 p.m. Young Voices Talk
Meet at the entrance to the Arts of Asia, 2nd floor

Join Student Guides for "Looking at Art," an interactive gallery talk that helps visitors develop critical skills for understanding iconography and symbolism in Asian art.

8 p.m. Young Voices Talk
Meet at the entrance to Utagawa, 1st Floor

Student Guides Justin Bacharach and Annie Wiswell discuss the Utagawa school and pop culture.

8 p.m. Film
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor

Utamaro and His Five Women (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1947, 90 min., NR) explores the relationship between a woodblock print artist and his muses in late-eighteenth-century Japan. Free tickets are available (340) at the Visitor Center at 7 p.m.

9 p.m.–11 p.m. Dance Party
Public Plaza, Outside Museum

DJ Twix infuses hip-hop hits with the flavor of Korea and Japan's K-Pop and J-Pop. (Please note: Rain location is Hall of the Americas, 1st floor.)

10 p.m.–10:45 p.m. Music
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor

Pianist Toru Dodo and his trio illuminate jazz music Japanese-style.

Due to limited capacity, some programs require tickets.

There will now be three ticket distribution times: 5 p.m. for ticketed programs that begin before 8 p.m.; 5:30 p.m. for Hands-On Art; and 7 p.m. for ticketed programs that begin at 8 p.m. and after.

Lines for tickets often form 30 minutes before tickets are distributed.
Programs subject to change without notice.
Free general admission and $4 parking (flat rate), 5-11 p.m.
Museum galleries are open until 11 p.m.
Cash bar, food concessions, and Shop open until 11 p.m.

For more information visit the Brooklyn Museum's homepage by clicking here.

Avisca Fine Art Gallery participates in Art Walk 2008, Marietta Square

Friday May 2, 3-8 PM

Join us for wine and cheese and our featured artist, Tamara Natalie Madden.

Art Walk is a free, self-guided tour of Marietta Square galleries, museums, cultural venues,restaurants and businesses on the first Friday of every month. Look for blue ribbon to identify each participating venue.

Trolley tour of the square starts at 5 PM.

Avisca Fine Art Gallery
507 Roswell Street
Marietta, GA 30060
770.977.2732
www.aviscafineart.com

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CALL US AT 770-977-2732
EMAIL: contact@aviscafineart.com

All text and imagery courtesy of Avisca Fine Art.

"The Universe of Keith Haring" at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival

The creator of some of the most popular, enduring images of late 20th-century art, Keith Haring was also an iconic figure of the downtown New York scene in the '80s. Christina Clausen's documentary offers an affectionate, deeply personal glimpse into Haring's life, from his early years growing up in a small, conservative Pennsylvania town to his heyday as a world-renowned artist, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Madonna, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol. Haring's family and childhood friends offer anecdotes about the artist's early years, when he basked in '60s pop culture and developed a penchant for drawing, but it is the recollections of the '70's and '80s New York art scene that form that heart and soul of this documentary. Combining music of the era, photo stills, and audio excerpts from interviews conducted with Haring himself, Clausen brings the sights and sounds of these decades vividly to life. Yoko Ono, Junior Vasquez, David LaChappelle, and gallery owner Tony Shafrazi are among those who offer insight into the significance of Haring's work as well as their personal memories of their friendship with him. The film also examines Haring's oft-repeated maxim that "art is for everyone," his then-controversial decision to open Pop Shop (a store in SoHo selling merchandise with Haring's images on it), and his openness about his AIDS diagnosis at time when few were willing to discuss the disease publicly. The Universe of Keith Haring does not, however, dwell on Haring's untimely death at the age of 31-rather, it celebrates the spirit of his life and his art, which continue to have a lasting influence.

Co-hosted with NewFest: The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival.
--David Kwok


Wed, Apr 30, 9:30PM Pace University

Thu, May 01, 6:30PM AMC Village VII 3

Fri, May 02, 6:00PM AMC Village VII 3

Sun, May 04, 11:30AM AMC Village VII 3

For information on ticket prices as well as the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, please click here.

Hope to see you there!!

All imagery and text courtesy of The Tribeca Film Festival site.

Canvas Paper and Stone Opening Reception for Joseph Paul Fox's"Mystery in Black: A Cosmic Journey"

Vilomorph, black wood painted by Joseph Paul Fox
Photo credit: Greg (Bean) Fitzgerald.
All Rights Reserved

Opening Reception: Friday, May 2, 2008, 6-9pm

Location:
Canvas Paper and Stone Gallery
in The Bradhurst @ Strivers Row
2611 Frederick Douglass Blvd, Studio 2N
between 139th & 140th Streets
New York, NY 10030
212-694-1747

For more information, including directions, please click here to be directed to the gallery's site.

The exhibit runs through May 24, 2008.

All text and imagery courtesy of Canvas Paper and Stone Gallery.

"Barkley L. Hendricks : Birth of Cool" on Youtube

If one word could ever describe the artistry and beauty of Barkley L. Hendricks works if would that of "cool." In his first ever career retrospective, Philidelphian born Hendricks is best known for his life-sized portraits depicting urban people from the urban northeast. His work expands from 1964 to present and still speaks to a wide audience today. Be sure to check out this exhibit before it ends; the information is listed below for the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of Cool
February 7- July 13, 2008
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
2001 Campus Drive
Durham, NC 27705
nasherinfo@duke.edu

To be directed to the Nasher Museum's site, click here.

The 008 X Upper Playground ="Morning Breath Obama Print"

The 008 and UP Partner with Morning Breath to Support Barack Obama

SAN FRANCISCO, April 24, 2008 – In an ongoing effort to secure Democratic hopeful Barack Obama's presidential bid, The 008 and Upper Playground have collaborated with Brooklyn-based Morning Breath to create a new limited screenprints of the duo’s portrait of Obama. The Morning Breath poster is part of an ongoing series of artist collaborations in support of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

The Morning Breath limited screenprint is now available for purchase through www.upperplayground.com. The poster will be signed and numbered by Morning Breath and are made at a limited quantity of 200, and retail at $200. Each poster is a pre-sale item and will not ship until May 21, 2008. All proceeds from the sales of each design from the Morning Breath Obama poster will go directly to creating more campaign T-shirts, posters and stickers by other artists in support of Obama's bid for President. The previous Munk One poster design was used in bus shelter and billboard advertisements throughout Philadelphia prior to the primary in Pennsylvania.

The 008 and Upper Playground are also pleased to announce an Obama Campaign Poster Art exhibition featuring all the artists who have and will be contributing poster art for the Barack Obama 2008 campaign. In the past two months, Upper Playground endorsed Obama’s campaign by creating posters featuring artwork from The Date Farmers, Mac, Sam Flores, and Munk One, as well as printing T-shirts with Shepard Fairey’s Obama poster graphics to help support the campaign. The exhibition will feature work from the Upper Playground collaborations, as well as work from the biggest names in contemporary art that will soon announced. The 008 and Upper Playground will announce full details, exhibiting artists, and location in the next month.

For more information on Morning Breath (www.morningbreathinc.com) and their endorsement for Obama, please visit www.upperplayground.com.

The 008, Morning Breath, and Upper Playground would like to thank everyone who continues their support of the Barack Obama campaign.

About Morning Breath
Morning Breath, Inc, consisting of Doug Cunningham and Jason Noto, is a creative studio focusing on visualization, illustration, and design. Their works break through the clutter by delivering fresh and innovative creative solutions targeted to the youth culture. In addition to commercial projects, Morning Breath is actively involved in the arts and has had several successful gallery show nationwide. In all of their creative works, Morning Breath continually strives for the balance of art, design, and advertising.

About Upper Playground
Based in San Francisco, California, Upper Playground was founded in 1999 and has become a leader in today’s progressive art movement with its innovative apparel line and art gallery, FIFTY24SF. Recognized as a catalyst for the fusion of fashion with art, Upper Playground produces apparel lines bi-annually and features designs from notable local and international artists. The apparel line is sold nationally and internationally in over 300 boutiques and online. Upper Playground’s FIFTY24SF Gallery showcases art from some of the best contemporary artists in the world with its monthly art exhibits. Please visit www.upperplayground.com for more information.

###

Media Contact:
Lisa Revelli
Director of Public Relations
Phone: (510) 387-3097
Email: pr@upperplayground.com

All information provided by The Upper Playground.

Bronx Museum of the Arts/First Fridays Present "Urban Noise: Rockers, Punks and Beyond"

WHEN:FRIDAY, May 2, 2008

TIME: 6:00-10:00pm

WHERE: South Wing—Lower Gallery

ADMISSION: Free

SPECIAL GUESTS: The Bangers and Dragons of Zynth.

The Bronx Museum of the Arts presents the newest and brightest stars of the rock and roll scene. Please be sure to come out and support this program which is part of thge museum's LAUNCHING FIRST FRIDAYS series.

Photo courtesy of the Bronx Museum of the Arts.

Sound of Art Presents "SCRATCH.BOMB.SPIT.BREAK", 05/03/08

The SCRATCH.BOMB.SPIT BREAK. exhibit is an ultra personal foray into the soul and psyche of this world-renown illustrator, graphic designer and painter, JOE BUCK. The venue for the festivities is none other than the Harlem trailblazing sneaker and apparel spot Vault.

Joe Buck is a product of Hollis, Queens which was an early hotbed of Hip-Hop music. In the words of Joe Buck, this art series is comprised of “elements of my life mainly pertaining to Hip-Hop; the music, the art, the words, and the dance." That spirit is very much in evidence in pieces such KRS-ONE, HIP POP KILLS and JIMI HENDRIX.

It is only fitting that this function be held at Vault which is Harlem’s largest retailer of independent street-wear brands. Most of the brands sold at Vault were founded by artists such as Stash, Futura, Shepard Fairey, M. Tony Peralta etc…. Wayne Oliver, Vault owner, is a progressive thinker who believes in the importance of art as it relates to the community from which it springs.

Oh yeah...there will be drinks and vibes and stuff

SATURDAY-MAY 3RD 2008
5PM-9PM
VAULT:
2498 FREDERICK DOUGLASS BLVD.
(133RD-134TH STREETS)

To RSVP, go to rsvp@soundofart.net

All text and images courtesy of Sound of Art.

The Deitch Projects Presents AFTER THE REALITY 2, 04/05-05/03/08

April 05, 2008 — May 03, 2008
76 Grand Street, New York

Deitch Projects is pleased to present, After the Reality 2, an exhibition curated by Tokyo gallerist Hiromi Yoshii, featuring work by Yosuke Bandai, Enlightenment, Daisuke Fukunaga, Ujino Muneteru, Yukiko Shibata, Akira Shimidu, Koichi Toya and Nobuyasu Sato. They are among the most intriguing new Japanese artists to have emerged after the generation of ‘Superflat’ – the Japanese post-modern art movement championed by Takashi Murakami. With the exception of the art collective Enlightenment, who are godfathers to the emerging generation, all of the artists are showing their work in New York for the first time.

The artists in the exhibition share an interest in addressing the way culture has changed since 9/11. After the Reality, was an idiom proposed by art critic Kentaro Ichihara to describe this new post-9/11 attitude. This is the second exhibition on this theme presented by Deitch Projects and curated by Yoshii. The first took place in July of 2006, and included such artists as Yoshitaka Azuma and Koichi Enomoto, who went on to achieve further international recognition.

For more information on this exhibit and The Deitch Projects, click here.

Photo and text courtesy of The Deitch Projects.

The Deitch Projects Presents SUBSTRACTION, 03/29-05/24-08

March 29, 2008 — May 24, 2008
18 Wooster Street, New York

SUBSTRACTION, an exhibition of abstract painting curated by Nicola Vassell, opens at Deitch Projects on March 29, 2008. This exhibition shows how today’s abstract painters are updating New York School abstraction with the energy of the streets, and the jam-packed frequencies they dispense. The title “substraction” is meant to invoke the reductive and sub or “low” influences these artists draw on: the tougher, darker and dangerous. Think subway, subwoofers and sub-prime.

Instead of an overly academic, esoteric approach to abstraction, these artists reinvigorate the more performative abstract tradition that comes to them from Yves Klein or Jackson Pollock. They are heirs to the grittier abstraction of Lucio Fontana and Robert Rauschenberg, whose tire track drawings may have been direct inspiration for Aaron Young’s “Burnouts”. These artists are more inspired by Andy Warhol’s oxidation paintings than his Marilyns, and more enthusiastic about the sculpture of John Chamberlain than that of David Smith.

For more information on this exhibit and The Deitch Projects, click here.

Photo and text courtesy of The Deitch Projects.

Brooklyn Museum Presents Japonisme in American Graphic Art, 1880-1920

Bertha Lum (American, 1879–1954). Rain, 1908. Color woodcut on cream, thin, Japanese wove paper. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 63.108.2

April 16–October 12, 2008
Visible Storage ▪ Study Center, 5th Floor

Commodore Matthew Perry’s 1853–54 voyage to Japan not only reestablished diplomatic and mercantile relations between that country and the West for the first time since the seventeenth century, but also opened the floodgates for cultural exchanges that would profoundly affect Western art. In the ensuing decades, Japanese artifacts poured into Europe and America, appearing in exhibitions, import shops, and art collections, as well as in articles and books. Western artists began incorporating Japanese motifs, aesthetic principles, and techniques into their work—a phenomenon known by the French term “Japonisme.” This widespread fascination with Japanese objects dovetailed with late-nineteenth-century artistic developments, including the interest in foreign cultures as well as reformist impulses. Japanese art’s emphasis on beautiful design and hand-craftsmanship, for instance, resonated with the “art for art’s sake” philosophy advocated by the Aesthetic Movement as a remedy for the ills of modern industrial life. Progressive styles such as Impressionism also gained inspiration from Japanese prototypes in revitalizing Western pictorial traditions.

Japonisme in American Graphic Art, 1880–1920 explores the myriad manifestations of Japonisme in a selection of rarely seen American works on paper from the Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection. Concurrent with the so-called “Japan craze” in America was a renewed interest in graphic arts: as watercolor, pastel, etching, and other graphic media came to be appreciated for their artistry and expressivity, they also reflected the impact of Japanese art. Color woodcuts by late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century masters such Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Kuniyoshi were avidly collected in the West and served as particularly influential models of stylistic and technical innovation for American artists. (Examples of such prints are on view in the special exhibition Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770–1900, through June 15, 2008, and in the online exhibition Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.)

Inspired by their encounters with the arts of Japan, the artists featured in Japonisme in American Graphic Art, 1880–1920 adopted Japanese subjects and design elements, embraced Eastern aesthetic principles, and sometimes even traveled to Japan to study its cultural traditions firsthand. Their resulting works demonstrate the variety and breadth of Japanese influence on American graphic arts at the turn of the twentieth century.

Japonisme in American Graphic Art, 1880–1920 was organized by Karen A. Sherry, Assistant Curator of American Art.

www.brooklynmuseum.org

Text and photography courtesy of Brooklyn Museum webpage.

INSIDE OUT @ Rush Arts Gallery and Resource Center

Rush Arts Gallery & Resource Center
526 West 26th Street, Suite 311
New York, NY 10001
(p): 212.691.9552
(f): 212.691.9304

Gallery Information:
info@rushartsgallery.org

Hours:
11 am-6pm
Tuesday-Saturday

Click here to be directed to Rush Arts Gallery and Resource Center's main page.

Photo courtesy of Rush Arts Gallery and Resource Center.

HOWARD L. BINGHAM, THE RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE: The 1974 Ali vs Forman Fight

HOWARD L. BINGHAM, THE RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE
(Courtesy of the artist and M+B, Los Angeles)

M+B
612 N. Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
310-550-0050
email: info@mbfala.com

Opening Night:
April 19th, 7-9p

Exhibit runs from April 19th-May 31st

For more information, visit here to M+B webpage.

ChinaSquare/NEXT ART FAIR Chicago

ChinaSquare Gallery
Booth 7-9077
Merchandise Mart, Chicago, April 25-28, 2008

SHOW HOURS
Thursday, April 24 — Preview Opening
Friday, April 25 — 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday, April 26 — 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Sunday, April 27 — 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Monday, April 28 — 11:00 am – 4:00 pm

LOCATION
Next art fair will take place on the 7th floor of the Merchandise Mart, located at 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654.

All photos courtesy of ChinaSquare.

"World Stage : China" Catalogue Available at Kehindewiley.com

Kehinde Wiley's "World Stage: China" catalogue is available at kehindewiley. com.

Published by The John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Roberts & Tilton, and Deitch Projects. This publication accompanies the 2007 exhibition at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. It includes essays by Jennifer Jankauskas, Greg Tate and Paul D. Miller ( better known as Dj Spooky), and features 19 full color images of Kehinde Wiley’s paintings.

All text and photos courtesy of Kehinde Wiley's Myspace page.

What exactly is 'bad painting?'

'Bad painting' is named for a small group of artists with no fixed agenda who created messily painted figurative images as a reaction against Minimal art and Conceptual art in the 1970s. They were well named!


Cumming, Robert (2001). Art: A Field Guide (pg. 379). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Is this really Hanes' New Campaign?

Allegedly, this campaign is being used for Hanes Original Tagless Comfort underwear “Because the world gives you enough tags.”

My opinion, the concept was very artistic and orignal but the delivery was not the best.

*Faggot portrays same-sex relations, s&m, sex toys, alcohol and vanity (cosmetics).

*Nigger portrays usage of drugs, guns, prisons, blue-collar jobs, and references about being HIV positive.

*Pak!, a racist name for a person of Pakistani origin, you see references to tanks, bullets, bombs and pigs.

What are your thoughts about this campaign? Do you hate it or love it? Seriously, I doubt Hanes would even approve of such usage of racist and derogatory language and if so this campaign would never be ran in the States.

Frozen Grand Central

This is artsy Freeze Tag at its finest!!! I can't even get my friends together for a potluck dinner.

Killah Priest- Stained Glass Theory

Hip-Hop is still the most innovative musical genre out there. Always and forever!!!

Kanye West @ MURAKAMI exhibit-The Brooklyn Museum

Whitney Museum Presents Whitney Focus: Interviews with the 2008 Biennial Artists

In celebration of the 2008 Biennial season, The Whitney Museum of American Art has decided to launch Whitney Focus which is an original video programming series. Whitney Focus showcases on exclusive interviews with artists Waled Beshty, Jedediah Caesar, MK Guth, Fritz Haeg, Ellen Harvey, Charles Long, Neighborhood Public Radio and Bert Rodriguez. Please sure to either view these videos on YouTube, Blip.tv or subscribe to their video podcasts through iTunes.

The video listed above is that of Neighborhood Public Radio (NPR). Enjoy!!

Please sure to check back for videos of the remaining 2008 Biennial artists.

i hate women...by woman: photographs by Carlos Cook

I thought I was only going to Brooklyn for a baby shower but I ended up running into the most amazing exhibit by photographer Carlos Cook. Check out the information below pertaining to this beautiful yet brutal portrayal of NYC women and the fashion that sometime holds them hostage....

Check out his scandalous & marvelous upcoming opening at the new art space/coffee shop Frank White April 1st through April 19th.The show entitled I HATE WOMEN…BY WOMEN is filled with tongue in cheek images that manage to pull off a chic, New York fashion aesthetic–all the while begging to answer the question-Are women their own worst enemies? Are women so competitive that they must assassinate each other’s character?

Opening: April 12, 2008 from 7:00-10:00 p.m.

Open bar.

Location: Frank White 936 Atlantic Avenue at St. James Place, Brooklyn, NY 11238

Nearest subways: C train to Clinton-Washington Avenue.2/3/4/5/b/d/m/n/q/r Train to Atlantic-Pacific Street

Hours of operation: Monday-Friday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sundays: 9 a.m. to 3p.m.

Contact phone number: 718.622.0840

Admission price: Free to the general public

If you have any further inquiries please contact: Marisol@scandalousmarvelous.com

All photos and exhibition text courtesy of blog.scandalousmarvelous.net.

Artillery Magazine/18th Street Arts Center Presents ART NIGHT, 04/12/08

Artist, Kyungmi Shin

ARTNIGHT

Saturday, April 12, 6-9pm

100% OTHER: ARTISTS AND PSYCHO-DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITIONS
Curated by Tyler Stallings

Main Gallery: Opening Reception for artists 6-9pm

April 12 – June 13, 2008
An art exhibition that tracks the connections and separations between our changing cultural landscape and our oftentimes lagging civic outcomes.

Artists include: Matthew Bryant, Cheryl Gilge, Perry Vasquez, Reggie Woolery, Yasuko and in our Project Room

RICH, an installation by Kyungmi Shin, 18th Street Artist Fellow

WORLD STAGE, Outdoor Stage, 6:15-8:30

LA's African American poetic and musical ensemble comes to Santa Monica hosted by

Michael Datcher with spoken word by Mr. Foster, jazz performer Hillard Street, and neo-soul/jazz by Nailah.

Open Studios for International and local Artists
(selected list)
Barbara Drucker, California Lawyers for the Arts, Clayton Campbell, Continuum Studio, Diane Meyer, Electronic Cafe, Highways, Ian Haig (Australia)
Ichiro Irie, Judith Margolis (Israel), Marco Tadic (Croatia), Marcos Castro (Mexico), Michael Barnard, Otis (MFA Public Practice Program)

Marketing Corner
Come out and learn about our neighboring organizations that are doing some amazing things as well:
Organizations include:
SPARC, Virginia Avenue Park, Artillery Magazine, Tu Ciudad Magazine

Bar Hosted by HPNOTIQ and IZZE sparkling juice

Check out 18th Street Arts Center by clicking here.

All images and text courtey of 18th Street Arts Center.

What is Avant-garde?

Avant-garde is that art that is innovative as to be ahead of the mainstream art of its time and rejected as unacceptable by the official system and institutions. Most work that is currently called avant-garde by the official museum and gallery system is not - simply because once officialdom adopts it and blesses it, it becomes part of the mainstream. The heroic period of the modern avant-garde was 1880-1960.

Cumming, Robert (2001). Art: A Field Guide (pg. 379). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

the violin lady in front of whole foods, p street between 14th & 15th, washington, dc

for my contribution she allowed me to photograph her. i'd say it was a fair trade..

iheartartblog@randall scott gallery "i am who i pretend to be"-cara ober

this exhibit is on display until april 12, 2008. i happened to stumble into this gallery during a weekend excursion in the nation's capital. this is one show you would not want to miss. check out pics belong as well as artist info and links to the gallery and the artists. enjoy!!!











Artist Info:

Cara Ober painting

I find beauty in all the wrong places. In my paintings, a bird, a dictionary definition, and a dirty stain can all function together to create a holy icon and an ironic joke. In the work that I do, I aspire to create the paradoxical, awkward, and enigmatic quality of heartfelt poetry on a graffitied bathroom wall. In the work, I desire to see the world as it really is: gorgeous in contradiction, funny in absurd blather, and authentic in poignant longing.

Of course, my conception of validity is entirely subjective, based on my suburban upbringing, my sense of humor, and my own tunnel-vision rebellion. Although I prefer to hint at my opinions rather than dictate, to tease rather than to rant, I intend my paintings to be provocative statements to challenge conceptions of beauty, value, and truth.

As I work, my paintings constantly generate new questions for me, and, as discoveries are made and truths revealed, more questions arise, invalidating earlier judgments. I allow myself to playfully harvest imagery from bourgeois forms of adornment: wallpaper, textiles, tattoos, and graffiti, allowing narratives to organically evolve. Whether heightened metaphor or harebrained anecdote, I craft my visual narratives with the cheapest, silliest, ornamental nothings I can find, partly because I believe these ideas are culturally biased and, in part, because they are my birthright.

The formal questions that torture and delight me center on the unique range of marks the viscous media of paint affords me, and the awkward juxtaposition of linear drawing with it. I work in layer after layer, building up a surface, erasing past verdicts, and then looking back on buried decisions with nostalgia. Unselfconscious and hastily made marks intrigue me the most, but must compete with contrasting ordered systems for an argument to be raised on the canvas.

What do I want? Who do I love? How much is too much? How much can I stand to lose? The universal questions, for me, are the most personal, and, the more bewildering the answers to these questions, the more gratifying the search.

Cara Ober earned her MFA from MICA in 2005, focusing on a series of abstract narrative paintings, which still feed her current body of work. Ober graduated from the American University in Washington D.C. in 1996, where she majored in Fine Arts.

A painter, teacher, and writer, Ober exhibits her work locally and nationally, most recently in Washington, DC at Flashpoint and The Randall Scott Gallery, and in Baltimore at Gallery Imperato and Maryland Art Place. In the past year, Ober has also shown her work at the Riviera Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA, Artizen Fine Arts in Dallas, TX, the Karin Sanders Gallery in the Hamptons, NY, and in The Red Show in Ferrara, Italy.

Cara is a 2006 MD Artist Grant recipient for painting and took second prize in the 2007 Bethesda Painting Awards. Other projects include curating ‘The Jolly Cowboy’ at the DC Arts Center as part of a Warhol grant for emerging curators, and ‘Quintessence’ at Paperwork Gallery in Baltimore. Cara teaches art at MICA, Towson University and Johns Hopkins University and writes art reviews for various art publications like Art US Magazine, Art Papers, Gutter Magazine, and her own art blog, BmoreArt.

Please click here for Randall Scott Gallery.

Please click here for Bmore Art blogspot.

MURAKAMI@ The Brooklyn Museum, April 5-July 13, 2008

April 5–July 13, 2008
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, 4th and 5th Floors

The most comprehensive retrospective to date of the work of internationally acclaimed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami includes more than ninety works in various media that span the artist’s entire career, installed in more than 18,500 square feet of gallery space.

Born in Tokyo in 1962, Murakami is one of the most influential and acclaimed artists to have emerged from Asia in the late twentieth century, creating a wide-ranging body of work that consciously bridges fine art, design, animation, fashion, and popular culture. He received a Ph.D. from the prestigious Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he was trained in the school of traditional Japanese painting known as Nihonga, a nineteenth-century mixture of Western and Eastern styles. However, the prevailing popularity of anime (animation) and manga (comic books) directed his interest toward the art of animation because, as he has said, “it was more representative of modern day Japanese life.” American popular culture in the form of animation, comics, and fashion are among the influences on his work, which includes painting, sculpture, installation, and animation, as well as a wide range of collectibles, multiples, and commercial products.

The exhibition © MURAKAMI explores the self-reflexive nature of Murakami’s oeuvre by focusing on earlier work produced between 1992 and 2000 in which the artist attempts to explore his own reality through an investigation of branding and identity, as well as through self-portraiture created since 2000. Two works examining these subjects were a part of a group show, My Reality: Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation, presented at the Brooklyn Museum in 2001.

Among the works included in this large-scale survey tracing the trajectory of Murakami’s artistic development are many of his acclaimed sculpture figures including the 23-foot-high Tongari-kun (2003–4); Miss Ko2 (1997), a long-legged waitress who has become one of the artist’s signature characters; and Hiropon (1997), a Japanese girl jumping a rope created by milk spurting from her gargantuan breasts. Among the paintings on view will be Tan Tan Bo (2001), as well as Tan Tan Bo Puking—a.k.a. Gero Tan (2002).

Tickets for © MURAKAMI are $10 for adults, $8 for older adults and students with valid ID; children under 12 are free. © MURAKAMI tickets include the cost of general admission and are available at the Brooklyn Museum Visitor Center for the day of purchase. Tickets can also be purchased online.

© MURAKAMI is organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

The Brooklyn presentation is made possible by DLA Piper with additional support from the Barbara and Richard Debs Exhibition Fund, the Arline and Norman M. Feinberg Exhibition Fund, and the Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Exhibition Fund.

DLA Piper Logo

New York Magazine Logois exclusive print media sponsor. Ovation TV Logo is TV media sponsor.

The Los Angeles presentation was made possible by endowment support from the Sydney Irmas Exhibition Endowment. The exhibition and publication are made possible by generous support from Maria and Bill Bell. Major support is provided by Blum & Poe, Los Angeles. Generous additional support is provided by Steven and Alexandra Cohen; Kathi and Gary Cypres; Gagosian Gallery; Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris and Miami; The Norton Family Foundation; Dallas Price-Van Breda; Janet and Tom Unterman; Ruth and Jacob Bloom; Marianne Boesky; David Teiger; The MOCA Contemporaries; The Japan Foundation; and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

For more information on this exhibit, please click here to be directed to the Brooklyn Museum's website.

All images and text courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum website.

GEN ART Film Festival, April 2-8, 2008

The Gen Art Film Festival is a weeklong celebration showcasing independent films by today's most talented emerging directors.

7 stellar premieres followed by
7 spectacular after parties at New York's hottest night spots.

EXPERIENCE CINEMA
LIKE NEVER BEFORE

For more informationa pertaining to schedule and tickets price, click here to be directed to Gen Art's webpage.

Revelations: New Works by Francks F. Deceus and Charly Palmer @ Canvas Paper and Stone Gallery, April 2-30, 2008

WHAT: Revelations: New Works by Francks F. Décéus and Charly Palmer

Canvas Paper and Stone Gallery is pleased to feature Francks F. Décéus and Charly Palmer, established artists who reveal, examine and deconstruct societal beliefs of identity in their work.

Décéus was featured in 100 New York Painters, a survey of contemporary artists and in 2004, and was selected by curators at the Brooklyn Museum to participate in the exhibition "Open House: Working in Brooklyn", an exhibition considered to be the largest survey ever devoted to contemporary Brooklyn-based artists.

Palmer, a successful graphic designer and illustrator with his own design studio and Fortune 500 clientele, has been the recipient of significant commissions including official posters for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan, as well as for the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, his state of residence.

A Studio Talk is scheduled for Saturday, April 26, from 4-6PM at the Gallery.

WHERE: Canvas Paper and Stone Gallery

2611 Frederick Douglass Blvd, Studio 2N
between West 139th and West 140th Streets
New York, New York 10030
212.694.1747

WHEN: Exhibit Dates: April 2 through April 30, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, April 4, 2008 from 6-9 PM.
Studio Talk: April 26, 2008: 4-6PM
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, noon to 6pm and by appointment.

For information call 212-694-1747 or email: canvaspaperandstone@yahoo.com.

To view event posting on ARTslant, click here and search for CanvasPaperandStone.

Official Press Release for "Revelations: New Works by Francks F. Deceus & Charly Palmer"

Revelations: New Works by Francks F. Décéus and Charly Palmer

February 29, 2008 — New York) Canvas Paper and Stone Gallery is pleased to feature Francks F. Décéus and Charly Palmer, established artists who reveal, examine and deconstruct societal beliefs of identity in their work. The Opening Reception will be held on Friday, April 4, from 6:00 - 9:00PM. An Artist Talk will be held on Saturday, April 26 from 4-6PM. The exhibition will run from April 2 through April 30, 2008 in the Gallery at 2611 Frederick Douglass Blvd, Studio 2N in Harlem, New York 10030. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, Noon to 6PM, and by appointment. Francks F. Décéus Featured in 100 New York Painters, a survey of contemporary artists, Décéus paints and allows his audience to interpret his meaning though his work is heavy with political and sociological innuendo. This is how he describes the pieces in Revelations which are from his "Pilgrimage from Scattered Points” series. "I have always been interested in events and issues that affect large groups of people simultaneously. The question at the root of the statement is what does it take to change a collective mentality? ... I often wonder if there were no way to differentiate one person from the other, how would we define ourselves, if we were all the same?" In 2004, Décéus was selected by curators at the Brooklyn Museum to participate in the exhibition “Open House: Working in Brooklyn”, an exhibition considered to be the largest survey ever devoted to contemporary Brooklyn -based artists. Charly Palmer A successful graphic designer and illustrator with his own design studio and Fortune 500 clientele, Palmer's fine art work is clearly allegorical. Using newsprint scraps of slave auctions and civil rights events to create complex, pictorial compositions in a technique and style that is unique and readily identifiable, Palmer states “I feel blessed to be ... an instrument that provokes, evokes thought and or dialogue. I believe that my job is to create something that moves the viewer.” During his Carlos period, Palmer’s work illustrated more abstraction and spontaneity, and less restraint. This Revelations exhibit while fusing his differing styles will maintain his artistic trademark — hidden messages. Palmer has been the recipient of significant commissions including official posters for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan, as well as for the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, his state of residence. Canvas Paper and Stone Gallery continues to lead the way in Harlem’s cultural arts renaissance by producing an ever-changing array of imaginative and thought-provoking contemporary exhibits by established and emerging artists. Past exhibits include work by TAFA, Deborah Willis, Ray Llanos, Eric Henderson, Diane Waller, Dianne Smith, Mary Heller, and Aleathia Brown. Viewers are welcome to access additional information and a copy of this press release on canvaspaperandstone.com.

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NYTimes.com: The Topic is Race; the Art is Fearless

Art

The Topic Is Race; the Art Is Fearless


Published: March 30, 2008

IN the 1970s the African-American artist Adrian Piper donned an Afro wig and a fake mustache and prowled the streets of various cities in the scowling, muttering guise of the Mythic Being, a performance-art version of a prevailing stereotype, the black male as a mugger, hustler, gangsta.

In the photographs that resulted you can see what she was up to. In an era when some politicians and much of the popular press seemed to be stoking racial fear, she was turning fear into farce — but serious, and disturbing, farce, intended to punch a hole in pervasive fictions while acknowledging their power.

Recently a new kind of Mythic Being arrived on the scene, the very opposite of the one Ms. Piper introduced some 30 years ago. He doesn’t mutter; he wears business suits; he smiles. He is by descent half black African, half white American. His name is Barack Obama.

On the rancorous subject of the country’s racial history he isn’t antagonistic; he speaks of reconciliation, of laying down arms, of moving on, of closure. He is presenting himself as a 21st-century postracial leader, with a vision of a color-blind, or color-embracing, world to come.

Campaigning politicians talk solutions; artists talk problems. Politics deals in goals and initiatives; art, or at least interesting art, in a language of doubt and nuance. This has always been true when the subject is race. And when it is, art is often ahead of the political news curve, and heading in a contrary direction.

In a recent solo debut at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery in Chelsea a young artist named Rashid Johnson created a fictional secret society of African-American intellectuals, a cross between Mensa and the Masons. At first uplift seemed to be the theme. The installation was framed by a sculpture resembling giant cross hairs. Or was it a microscope lens, or a telescope’s? The interpretive choice was yours. So was the decision to stay or run. Here was art beyond old hot-button statements, steering clear of easy condemnations and endorsements. But are artists like Mr. Johnson making “black” art? Political art? Identity art? There are no answers, or at least no unambiguous ones.

Since Ms. Piper’s Mythical Being went stalking in the 1970s — a time when black militants and blaxploitation movies reveled in racial difference — artists have steadily challenged prevailing constructs about race.

As multiculturalism entered mainstream institutions in the 1980s, the black conceptualist David Hammons stayed outdoors, selling snowballs on a downtown Manhattan sidewalk. And when, in the 1990s, Robert Colescott was selected as the first African-American to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, he brought paintings of figures with mismatched racial features and skin tones, political parables hard to parse.

At the turn of the present millennium, with the art market bubbling up and the vogue for identity politics on the wane, William Pope.L — the self-described “friendliest black artist in America” — belly-crawled his way up Broadway, the Great White Way, in a Superman outfit, and ate copies of The Wall Street Journal.

Today, as Mr. Obama pitches the hugely attractive prospect of a postracial society, artists have, as usual, already been there, surveyed the terrain and sent back skeptical, though hope-tinged, reports. And you can read those reports in art all around New York this spring, in retrospective surveys like “Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution” currently at the P.S 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, in the up-to-the-minute sampler that is the 2008 Whitney Biennial, in gallery shows in Chelsea and beyond, and in the plethora of art fairs clinging like barnacles to the Armory Show on Pier 94 this weekend.

“Wack!” is a good place to trace a postracial impulse in art going back decades. Ms. Piper is one of the few African-American artists in the show, along with Howardena Pindell and Lorraine O’Grady. All three began their careers with abstract work, at one time the form of black art most acceptable to white institutions, but went on to address race aggressively.

In a 1980 performance video, “Free, White and 21,” Ms. Pindell wore whiteface to deliver a scathing rebuke of art-world racism. In the same year Ms. O’Grady introduced an alter ego named “Mlle Bourgeoise Noire” who, dressed in a beauty-queen gown sewn from white formal gloves, crashed museum openings to protest all-white shows. A few years later Ms. Piper, who is light skinned, began to selectively distribute a printed calling card at similar social events. It read:

Dear Friend,

I am black. I am sure you did not realize this when you made/laughed at/agreed with that racist remark. In the past I have attempted to alert white people to my racial identity in advance. Unfortunately, this invariably causes them to react to me as pushy, manipulative or socially inappropriate. Therefore, my policy is to assume that white people do not make these remarks, even when they believe there are not black people present, and to distribute this card when they do.

I regret any discomfort my presence is causing you, just as I am sure you regret the discomfort your racism is causing me.

Sincerely yours,

Adrian Margaret Smith Piper

Although these artists’ careers took dissimilar directions, in at least some of their work from the ’70s and ’80s they all approached race, whiteness as well as blackness, as a creative medium. Race is treated as a form of performance; an identity that could, within limits, be worn or put aside; and as a diagnostic tool to investigate social values and pathologies.

Ms. Piper’s take on race as a form of creative nonfiction has had a powerful influence on two generations of African-Americans who, like Mr. Obama, didn’t experience the civil rights movement firsthand, and who share a cosmopolitan attitude toward race. In 2001 that attitude found corner-turning expression in “Freestyle,” an exhibition organized at the Studio Museum in Harlem by its director, Thelma Golden.

To read the article in full, please click here

All photos and text courtesy of NYTimes.com.