Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Four Artists from Pinar (Cuarto Artistas Pinarenos), Fri. Oct. 3 @ Cernuda Arte





Four Artists from Pinar (Cuarto Artistas Pinarenos)

Opening Reception: Friday, October 3, 2008, 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.

Cenurda Arte pays tribute to Pinar del Rio artists Giosvany Echevarria, Irina Elen Gonzalez, Juan Miguel Suarez and Ramon Vazquez with this group presentation of great talents, which at the same time is a showing of solidarity towards the impacted region of Pinar del Rio, Cuba which experienced substantial damage by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

For more information, please visit:
Cernuda Arte
3155 Ponce de Leon Blvd
Coral Gables, FL 33134-6825
305.461.1050
www.cernudaarte.com

Image 1: Irina Elen Gonzalez, Maternity, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 29 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches
Image 2: Ramon Vazquez, Love Ceremony, 2006, oil on canvas, 57 x 43 1/4 inches
Image 3: Giosvany Echevarria, Hills of Vinales, 2007, oil on canvas, 31 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches
Image 4: Juan Miguel Suarez, Ready to Fight, 2008, oil on canvas, 47 1/2 x 39 1/4 inches

Musee d'Art Contemporian de Montreal presents Friday Nocturne, October 3, 2008




PERFORMANCE
This Friday, Jérôme Minière presents his project Auto Playback
in collaboration with video maker Dan Popa.

The show starts at 7 p.m. in Beverley Webster Rolph Hall.
Capacity in the hall is limited.

The performance will also be simulcast on two giant screens located
next to the bar and on the exhibition gallery level.


BAR
Two bars will be open from 5 to 9 p.m.
The bar outside Beverley Webster Rolph Hall is open during the performance.
Cash only at both.

EXHIBITIONS
All galleries on the south side of the first floor are open.
Musée staff will be on hand to answer any questions you may have.

Enjoy the evening!

Source: Musee d'Art Contemporian de Montreal

Betty Blayton "So It Is With Us"-Canvas Paper and Stone Opening Reception, Oct. 2, 2008




Betty Blayton
So It Is With Us - 40 Years of Selected Works
Presented by Canvas Paper and Stone Gallery

Canvas Paper and Stone Gallery
2611 Frederick Douglass Blvd, Studio 2N
bet. West 139th and 140th Streets
Harlem, NY 10030-3497
www.canvaspaperandstone.com

Exhibition Dates: October 1st - November 22nd

Opening Reception: October 2nd 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Image: Betty Blayton, It's Mine, Monoprint

Monday, September 29, 2008

Emil Nolde Retrospective opens at the Grand Palais in Paris



PARIS - German expressionism is a new subject in France. Emil Nolde (1867-1956), one of the main representatives of the movement, has never had a retrospective. For the first time in France, an ambitious exhibition pays homage to this great figure of modern art by bringing together ninety paintings (including the polyptych Life of Christ from the Nolde foundation in Seebüll, Germany) and seventy watercolours, engravings and drawings. This ensemble is presented in a chronological sequence divided into themes (The Enchanted Mountain, A Country, Fighting Years, Bible stories and legends, Graphic Work, Berlin Night, World, Homeland, ”Fantasies” and “unpainted painting”, The Sea). For the general public, it will be a discovery; and for connoisseurs, a unique opportunity to see paintings brought together from all over the world illustrating his entire oeuvre. On exhibition through 19 January, 2009.

Source: Art Knowledge News

Art Lies Issue No. 59 now available!




Issue No. 59, Fall 2008
Death of the Curator: A Forensic Analysis of Curatorial Practice

Whenever there is a rupture in the traditional fabric of cultural production, it is not unusual to cry hypothetical wolf. The death of the author, the death of the object, the cyclical zombification of painting, the collapse of the power of the critic: aphorisms abound and rebound, eventually comforting us through inevitable reification. But what if we were to shelve the ivory ping-pong paddles and take up, for instance, full contact paintball? It would certainly liven up the debate—and the playing field. In this spirit, Art Lies,in conjunction with Guest Editorial Contributor Julieta Aranda, hereby announces the Death of the Curator. This is not a coup d'état , mind you, just a “modest proposal” of sorts. Why a forensic analysis…because of its clinical connotation—because of the folds, overlaps and sutures that complicate the distinction between current curatorial and artistic practices.

— Anjali Gupta, Editor, Art Lies

Art Lies, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization established in 1993, publishes a contemporary art quarterly that provides a forum for the critical exploration and examination of current art production, practice and theory. Art Lies is funded in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Houston Endowment, The Brown Foundation, The Tocker Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, Houston Arts Alliance and our members.

Art Lies | PO Box 1408 | Houston, Texas | 77251-1408 | 832 366 1388 | info@artlies.org.


Source: Art Lies

EVIDENCE OF A LOST ERA / CUI GUOTAI




EVIDENCE OF A LOST ERA

CUI GUOTAI

Curated by Robert C. Morgan

October 1 - November 1, 2008

Opening reception on October 2, 2008, 6:00 - 8:00 pm



ChinaSquare Gallery New York
is pleased to present Cui Guotai's first U.S. Solo show, EVIDENCE OF A LOST ERA, curated by Robert C. Morgan. Evidence of a Lost Era will be on view October 1 - November 1, 2008, with an opening reception Thursday October 2nd, and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Robert C. Morgan. Cui Guotai's large-scale expressionist-style paintings express a remarkable irony, questioning and deconstructing China's planned economy. Cui Guotai depicts evidence of a lost era, a disappearance of an industrial age in China, built on disillusionment.

Cui Guotai reveals the signs of a partial history, a history of frantic production where goods and commodities were produced less with an intention of economic stability than as a strategy to maintain a salutary appearance to the world outside. Many of the recent paintings are done in black and white and therefore suggest a newsprint veneer, a concealment of reality reminiscent of Picasso's politically-charged painting of Guernica from the thirties. The bridges, tunnels, and smokestacks appear dreary and empty, without function, without hope of revival. They confront us with the emptiness of another time, another period of history, invariably tied to idealist hopes and aspirations, yet removed from China's present-day image of slick entrepreneurship.

Cui Guotai was born in Shenyang Province in Northeast China in 1964. A graduate of the Northeast Normal University, Ginghua University and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Cui currently lives and works in Beijing. His work has been shown extensively throughout China, was in the 2nd Beijing Biennial and a solo show at Beijing's National Art Museum of China. His work is currently on view in Half-Life of a Dream: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Logan Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Robert C. Morgan is an international critic, artist, curator, and lecturer in New York City, who is focused on the problems of the artist in an era of accelerating globalization. He is the recipient of the first Arcale award in Art Criticism and a Fulbright senior scholar. In addition to his many books and literally hundreds of essays (with translations in 17 languages), Professor Morgan has curated over 60 exhibitions, and is Consulting Editor to The Brooklyn Rail, Contributing Editor to Sculpture, and a New York Correspondent to Art Press (Paris).

A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies this exhibition. For more information please contact the gallery at info@chinasquareny.com.

Source: China Square NY

Friday, September 26, 2008

GEORGINA GRATRIX "MASTER COPY" CLOSES THIS SAT. 27 SEPTEMBER @ WHATIFTHEWORLD GALLERY





Whatiftheworld / Gallery

First Floor, 208 Albert Rd.
Woodstock 7925
Cape Town, South Africa
Viewing Hours:
Tues - Fri 10.00 - 16.30 / Sat 10.00 - 15.00
Closed Sunday + Monday

T: +27 (21) 448 1438
M: +27 84 414 4554
E: info@whatiftheworld.com

Source: WHATIFTHEWORLD/GALLERY

Gallery Talk and Q&A with The Franks at Rowland Contemporary: Sat., Oct. 4 from 1-3 pm



This event is part of the Department of Cultural Affairs Chicago Artist Month to be held during Fulton Arts Walk. The information for the Q&A is listed below. Please come out to support The Franks. Enjoy!

Rowland Contemporary
1118 W. Fulton Market (312 421 6275), on the corner of Fulton Mkt. and May St.

Image Credit: The Franks

Thursday, September 25, 2008

California science museum reopens with green theme


SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- It is not the strongest nor the smartest species that survive, Charles Darwin once said, "but the one most responsive to change."
The new facility is being heralded as the greenest museum building in the world.

Amid the menagerie of brightly colored and well-camouflaged creatures on display at the new California Academy of Sciences, it may be the building itself that best illustrates Darwin's assertion.

What's being heralded as the greenest museum building in the world opens to the public September 27. The new academy in Golden Gate Park is insulated with nontoxic, second-hand jeans and capped with a 2.5-acre living roof planted in native wildflowers. Thousands of live species of flora and fauna and 20 million specimens are housed in the building.

On a recent afternoon, an albino alligator snoozed on a heated rock, schools of silvery sardines slipped along the aquarium glass, a boisterous group of penguins followed a wet-suit-clad scientist, and a 160-pound sea bass swam slow circles with a pair of moray eels.

The museum opened several exhibits a week early, offering a sneak peak to museum members. That's how third-grader Sammy Hitomi, 9, ended up nose-to-nose with a bright red fish from the South China Sea.

Peering into the world's deepest live coral exhibit, forehead to the glass, Sammy said that the highlight of his day thus far was the spiky lionfish. He still remembers creatures he encountered as a 3-year-old at the academy's old building.

"Cool" was the word Sammy chose to describe the new building. "It's got dirt all around it," he explained.

Famous Italian architect Renzo Piano designed the California Academy of Science's $488 million building. From the outside, the structure's elegant profile blends in with the city's rounded green hilltops and the park's expansive lawns.

"With this design, Renzo wanted to lift up the landscape and slide a museum underneath it," said Frank Almeda, the museum's senior botany curator, standing atop the roof. The wild strawberries and other species planted there will capture 3.6 million gallons of rainwater each year, preventing storm runoff and providing habitat for local wildlife.

Inside, visitors look up through shiplike portals to the sky.

On the ground floor of the rain forest exhibit, tropical fish swim in the flooded roots of trees. Then an elevator takes visitors up into the canopy where birds fly free in a giant glass dome.

In the piazza, the breeze that ruffled a woman's skirt was not air conditioning but cool Pacific Ocean air blowing in through the building's skylight portals, which are opened and closed using a high-tech system of temperature monitors and computers. Photovoltaic solar cells generate up to 10 percent of the building's already low energy needs, and recycled steel provides the building's structural skeleton.

The U.S. Green Building Council is poised to give the museum a "LEED platinum" rating, the council's highest mark for sustainability.

The new academy is not likely to be a favorite hangout for creationists or climate change naysayers. It was designed to investigate two basic questions: "How did life evolve?" and "How will it survive?"

And almost 150 years after Charles Darwin wrote his seminal book, "On the Origin of Species," 38 percent of Americans in a 2005 poll said they would prefer that creationism, rather than evolution, was taught in the country's schools.

The National Academy of Sciences calls evolution "the central concept of biology," and all exhibits at the museum underscore that message.

In the African Hall, alongside taxidermy dioramas, a wall panel takes passers-by through the centuries of Homo sapiens' evolution from that continent. Further on, a children's game allows kids to play with wooden replicas of Galapagos finches.

A dizzying digital tour of the cosmos at the Morrison Planetarium uses the most current data from NASA satellites to recreate stars and planets, and remind viewers how rare habitable real estate is in the universe.

"I want people to leave this place knowing that life is special and that we have to do all we can to preserve it," said Greg Farrington, the academy's executive director.

Source: CNN

"DO NOT GIVE WAY TO EVIL" Official Book Launch at the Bronx Museum






Wednesday, October 1, 2008
5:30-7:30 pm
BRONX MUSEUM

Music by the Legendary DJ Disco Wiz


powerhousebooks.com | powerhousearena.com
powerHouse Books, 37 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Tel: (718) 666-3049
email: info@powerHouseBooks.com

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Artist Lectures at ICA, University of Pennsylvania



Whenever Wednesday: Lecture: Kate Gilmore
Wednesday, September 24 @ 7pm

The young video artist and sculptor, recently returned from the American Academy in Rome, will discuss her ICA installation, built of locally available materials, as well as her earlier work, which pushes the boundaries of both canonical and recent feminist art and performance.

Source: ICA

Art Quote of the Day.....



"Creativity takes courage."

-Henri Matisse (1869-1954)

More From Scion: Installation 5 Art Tour Kicks Off In Detroit



Installation Five
Scion Art Tour: Detroit

Opening Event
Saturday, October 4th, 2008 | 7-11pm
©Pop Gallery | 4160 Woodward Ave. Detroit, MI 48201 | WWW.CPOP.COM

With Self Portraits By
AJ FOSIK | ALEX HORNEST | ANDREW SCHOULTZ | ANDY HOWELL | ANGELA BOATWRIGHT | ASYLM | BLEK LE RAT | CHRISTINA M. FELICE | CODAK | EDWIN USHIRO | EL YEM | ERIBERTO ORIOL | EYE ONE | FRANCESCO LOCASTRO | FRENCH | GEOFF OKI | IAN LYNAM | J.SHEA | JAMEL SHABAZZ | JEFF SOTO | KELSEY BROOKS | KOFIE | LISA ALISA | LOGAN HICKS | MARK MOTHERSBAUGH | NICHOLAS HARPER | PATRICK MARTINEZ | PETER BESTE | RETNA | RICK RODNEY | ROB ABEYTA JR. | RON ENGLISH | SABER | SAGE VAUGHN | SKYPAGE | STORMIE MILLS | TESSAR LO | TOO TALL JAHMAL | TODD TOURSO | USUGROW | WILL BARRAS | YOSKAY YAMAMOTO

Attending Artists:
Nicholas Harper and Rick Rodney

Music by
Frankie Banks

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Richard Armstrong appointed director of the Guggenheim


Richard Armstrong, a specialist in American 20th century art and the former director of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, was named the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Guggenheim Museum on Tuesday 23 September. On the eve of his appointment he gave an interview to The Art Newspaper outlining his vision for the New York museum and its overseas branches.

Mr Armstrong will head a global network of museums in Venice, Bilbao and Berlin, and will direct the organisation’s flagship museum in New York, filling the posts long held by Thomas Krens who stepped down in February after two decades. Mr Armstrong, 59, had led the Carnegie since 1996, and in June announced that he would retire by the end of the year. He takes up his new post at the Guggenheim on 4 November.

He told The Art Newspaper that the vision he presented to the search committee consisted of adding intellectual heft to the Guggenheim, empowering the curators, and finding new ways to make the museum relevant, especially to younger audiences. “My concern was that all the museums, and New York maybe foremost, be seen as exemplars of great intellectual enterprise. The search committee felt the same way and responded.”

While the board remains committed to enhancing the museum’s connection with Asia and Latin America, there does not seem to be “a big appetite at present to keep adding sites to the operation,” Mr Armstrong says. Getting a handle on Abu Dhabi, where a new Guggenheim branch is scheduled to open in 2013, will be a challenge, he says. There is, he adds, interest in improving the focus on the programme in New York, where most of the Guggenheim’s board members live.

Mr Armstrong says he intends to more fully integrate the branches and increase their ability to generate and share exhibitions. He also intends to develop partnerships with major museums outside the Guggenheim network. “To me, Tate looks like the most logical long-term partner,” he says, citing the current Louise Bourgeois retrospective co-organised with Tate and Pompidou (at the Guggenheim New York until 28 September). He will meet with Tate director Nicholas Serota in London in October.

Richard Armstrong joined the Carnegie as a curator in 1992 after 12 years at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York where he co-organised four of that museum’s influential biennials. Mild-mannered and known for his fiscal prudence, his appointment marks a return to more traditional museum leadership after Thomas Krens’s revolutionary and often controversial expansionism.

William Mack, chairman of the foundation board, says that “Richard Armstrong has the wisdom and demeanor—as well as the knowledge, stature, and status—we sought in a new leader for the Foundation.” President Jennifer Stockman, who co-chaired the search committee with Mr. Mack, says that his leadership is based on “artistic vision, diplomacy, and inspiration.”

Mr Krens transformed the Guggenheim from a “boutique institution” into one of the world’s most recognised museum brands, but attracted sharp criticism for the franchise-like partnerships he established around the world. He clashed with former chairman Peter Lewis, the largest donor in the Guggenheim’s history (he had given $77m), who left in 2005 after the board failed to heed his advice that the museum should shore up its finances and operations in New York rather than continue to expand overseas.

In 2005 Mr Krens announced that chief curator Lisa Dennison would be his successor as director of the New York museum, but she left after less than two years to become vice-president of Sotheby’s North and South America. The Guggenheim had difficulty recruiting a successor to serve under Mr Krens, who stepped down earlier this year as head of the foundation to act as the consultant overseeing development of the Guggenheim branch in Abu Dhabi, designed by Frank Gehry. Mr Armstrong says the trustees decided to recombine the positions of director and foundation head, “but getting a director at Fifth Avenue [in the future] is a possibility. That is not a closed proposition,” he adds.

The schedule of exhibitions now in place includes retrospectives of Catherine Opie, Kandinsky and Frank Lloyd Wright to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the newly-renovated landmark. (The announcement of Mr. Armstrong’s appointment came the day after the unveiling of the $26m renovation. Speaking at the ceremony, Mayor Michael Bloomberg quipped: “It’s one of the best facelifts I’ve seen on Fifth Avenue, but it’s probably not the most expensive.”)

Next, Mr Armstrong plans to find ways of exhibiting the little-seen permanent collection. He believes museums should show their treasures, and if a solution cannot be found within the restrictive Guggenheim, then he may seek other means of getting the works out of storage.

He says the museum has collected well in contemporary art, but the strategic plan calls for filling gaps in the early modern collection, such as Matisse, Malevich and others, and the museum also needs to improve its holdings of art from 1940 to 1975. Mr Armstrong notes that the only way to expand in these areas is by attracting gifts from patrons. The board also has identified Asian and Latin American art as areas to explore. But what distinguishes the Guggenheim from many other museums, he says, is its ties to early modern non-objective art. “That quest for utopia that so distinguishes the best political and aesthetic aspects of Europe from 1880 or 1890 onwards is really very deep in the psyche of the institution. And that has power today, as well,” he adds.

Most of all Mr Armstrong says he wants to add “gravitas of purpose” to the institution. He told the search committee that “through the curators, the institution will reassert itself as a place of high intellectual ambition, and they responded to that. That’s an intangible that is absolutely essential because that’s the credibility factor,” he says.

Source: The Art Newspaper

Hot Off The Press-Montreal Museum of Fine Arts presents " The Role of Music in Warhol's Work Explored "



Montreal - For the first time in the historiography of Andy Warhol (1928-1987), the exhibition-event Andy Warhol Live, presented from September 25, 2008, to January 18, 2009, will explore the all-pervading and fundamental role of music and dance in the artist’s work and life. Music is an essential narrative element that is present throughout the exhibition and will guide visitors as they rediscover Warhol’s work. From this unusual angle, viewers will be treated to a chronological and thematic reading, from the film music Warhol discovered in his youth to the disco scene at Studio 54, the legendary nightclub that opened in 1977, where he was one of the most famous regulars.

The exhibition will bring together some 640 works and objects, paintings, silk-screens, photographs, works on paper, installations, films, videos, album covers, as well as objects and documents from the artist’s personal archives. It will juxtapose Warhol’s major emblematic works (Elvis, Marilyn, Liza Minnelli, Grace Jones, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Debbie Harry, the Self-portraits and the Campbell's Soup Cans) with other, lesser-known works (album covers, illustrations, photos and Polaroids). There are also the artist’s films, including Sleep and Empire, as well as the Screen Tests of the musicians of the famous Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol’s TV and video clips produced for groups like The Cars and Curiosity Killed the Cat. The exhibition Warhol Live is produced by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in partnership with The Andy Warhol Museum, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.

The works come from The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and from leading public and private collections in Europe and North America. A collection of some fifty album covers belonging to Montreal collector Paul Maréchal will be presented together for the first time. It includes The Velvet Underground & Nico, Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones), Love You Live (Rolling Stones), Silk Electric (Diana Ross), Aretha (Aretha Franklin) and Rockbird (Debbie Harry).

While Warhol’s interest in music comes across highly anecdotally and briefly in his Journal and his numerous interviews, music and its representation in his work is remarkable and predominant: it is an invisible yet essential component.

From a drawing in 1948 for the cover of Cano – the student magazine at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, which depicts an orchestra in the “blotted line” technique – to the celebrity portraits of Mick Jagger, Liza Minnelli and Prince, Warhol created dozens of portraits of twentieth-century pop icons, from Elvis to the Rolling Stones, from the Beatles to Michael Jackson, throughout his career. From 1949, the year he arrived in New York, to 1987, the last year of his life, he also illustrated some fifty album covers, from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake to Aretha Franklin, Count Basie, Artie Shaw, the Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones, Diana Ross and Blondie. Attesting to Warhol’s changing commissions and affinities, the thread that runs through this iconography reads like a history of postwar American musical tastes, from classical to jazz, rock, pop and soul, disco and hip-hop.

In Warhol’s world, music goes far beyond mere iconography. Warhol orchestrated the “All Tomorrow's Parties” at the Silver Factory, providing an ideal, ephemeral stage for Edie Sedgwick, his moving muse and first alter ego; he served as a producer for the Velvet Underground; he made an artistic contribution to Merce Cunningham’s choreography Rain Forest; he turned Studio 54 into an extension of his studio. Set to music, the invisible art that animates bodies and situates beings in space and in their time, he imagined the entire work of art that was Exploding Plastic Inevitable. He imagined himself in Sculpture Invisible. He used music in his films and filmed concerts. He produced music videos and met with musicians, notably for Interview, the magazine he founded in 1969. And above all, through the play of mirrors and osmosis he projected on his contemporaries, he himself became a rock star equal to Mick Jagger or Debbie Harry, his final inspiration.

Exhibition Design

Guillaume de Fontenay’s exhibition design will evoke some of the highlights in this relationship between art and music through reconstitutions that, while not exact re-creations like “period rooms,” will provide a closer look at the Silver Factory, with a mise en scène by photographer Billy Name, the multimedia show Exploding Plastic Inevitable to music by the Velvet Underground, Silver Clouds created for Merce Cunningham’s choreography Rain Forest to music by David Tudor, and the musical ambience of Studio 54, a veritable extension of Warhol’s studio from the 1970s to the end of his life.

Curators
The exhibition is curated by Stéphane Aquin, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Emma Lavigne, curator at the Musée national d’art moderne/CCI, Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Matt Wrbican, archivist at The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. Greg Pierce, assistant curator, The Andy Warhol Museum, put together the exhibition’s film and video programming.


Source: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Monday, September 22, 2008

Scion Presents: Tokyo Nonsense



SCION PRESENTS: TOKYO NONSENSE - Curated by Gabriel Ritter


Los Angeles -September 2008 - Scion Installation L.A. is pleased to present TOKYO NONSENSE, a group exhibition featuring new work by 11 young Japanese artists who live and work in Tokyo. The exhibition will include works by Ichiro Endo, Taro Izumi, Ai Kato (akaai madonna), Sachiko Kazama, Iichiro Tanaka, and the six-member artist group, Chim↑Pom.

The title, TOKYO NONSENSE, not only refers to the city itself but also references the word “nonsense” in the context of Japanese popular culture, connoting so-called “modern decadence”and the rebellious, anti-establishment spirit of the 1960s student protest movement. The work ofthese 11 young artists reflects both Tokyo’s frenetic energy and the banal realities of everyday city life. The exhibition will consist of more radical forms of expression such as performance,video, and installation art in addition to more traditional mediums such as drawing, painting, and woodblock printing.

Within the Japanese vernacular the word “nonsense” has assumed various meanings throughoutmodern history, often associated with radical expression that challenged the dominant discourseof the moment. In the early 1930s, “nonsense” was included in the phrase ero-guro-nansensu,which the Japanese mass media used to label decadent and salacious popular culture (literature,film, theater) that was viewed as a threat to traditional family values. Then in the late 1960s,“nonsense” became the rally cry for the disaffected Japanese students who protested to expresstheir frustration with the current political and social situation at home and abroad. The rebelliousspirit evoked by the word “nonsense” in Japan continues today, reincarnated and rearticulated bythis group of young artists working in Tokyo. Their work simultaneously reflects the precedent setby the “nonsense” of the 1930s—labeled as absurd and meaningless by the dominantdiscourse—while dismissing the dominant discourse itself as pure “nonsense,” reminiscent of theprotest tactics employed in the 1960s.

In order to articulate this duality, many of the featured artists have chosen to work outside the traditional gallery/museum system by turning to radical forms of expression such as performance,video, and installation art. The six-member artist group Chim↑Pom creates video and sculpture that capture an irreverent, raw energy that was born on the streets and back alleys of Tokyo.While their performances evoke vulgar adolescent pranks, the growing social consciousness in their work is evidenced by their recent project disarming minefields in Cambodia. Kazama Sachiko is best known for her black-and-white woodblock prints that parody Japanese history,politics, and social issues with a healthy sense of irony and sarcasm. The work of Izumi Tarotakes its form as video, installation, and drawing characterized by the use of found objects and alow-tech, do-it-yourself aesthetic. In his humorous yet ultimately defeatist works, the artist quietly vents his feelings of frustration through futile games and nonsensical play. The performances and mural paintings of Endo Ichiro rely on the artist’s body to communicate his intense optimism and spirited calls for change. Utilizing the energetic motto “GO FOR FUTURE!,” Endo’s work explores the future’s endless creative possibilities through the limited means of the present. Kato Ai (akaai madonna) has amassed a cult following through her live painting performances in Akihabara,where the she paints directly onto the side of her parked van. The means of executing her girlie,anime-inspired paintings share the vitality of a street performer, while creatively circumventing the traditional gallery system by exhibiting her works directly to the public. Lastly Tanaka Iichiro creates humorous, understated works in a variety of media that seemingly deny having any serious meaning. These deceptively simple works skillfully “turn meaning on its head,” blurringthe line between the absurd and the profound.

Curating this exhibition is Gabriel Ritter, an independent curator specializing in contemporary Japanese art. His curatorial projects include Out of the Ordinary: New Video from Japan at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2007) and Rinko Kawauchi: AILA at the UC Riverside Museum of Photography (2005). He has also contributed catalogue essays to the latest monographs of the artists Makoto Aida and Koki Tanaka.

The opening reception takes place October 4, 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM and will run through October 25 at the Scion Installation L.A. Gallery, 3521 Helms Ave. (at National), Culver City, CA 90232.There will be live performances by Ai Kato (ai madonna) and Ichiro Endo and a live DJ set by DIGIKI (Tokyo Fun Party). All artists will be in attendance at the exhibition’s opening reception.

Dedicated to fostering independent artistic expression, the Scion Installation L.A. Gallery is aspace that allows artists to explore their creative visions. The new Scion Installation Gallery hosts art shows and art-related events for cutting-edge artists from across the globe. Due to success and growth, the Scion Installation L.A. Gallery recently moved from its Washington Boulevardl ocation to Helms and National near the Hayden Tract area. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM and by appointment -310.815.8840. For more information,visit www.scion.com/space.

About Scion:
Scion is the newest line of vehicles from Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc. Developedwith a new generation of youthful buyers in mind, Scion’s mission is to provide distinctiveproducts, the opportunity to personalize, and an innovative, consumer-driven process at theretail level. The Scion brand features three groundbreaking models: the xD subcompactfive-door; the xB, an urban utility vehicle with an iconic shape; and the tC sports coupe. Formore information, visit www.scion.com.

Source: Lucy @ Elemental Consulting

Mariano Vivanco's "Ninety Five Chapel Market" at PrintSpace Gallery, East London



This exhibition kicked off London's Fashion Week. Enjoy!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Opening Sunday at MOMA - "Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night"



The most anticipated show for me has to this show right here. While working at The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, I had the privilege of working on the van Gogh show a few years back; I was not allowed to touch the actual art work due to insurance purposes but I worked on the lighting and set-up. Its amazing how when you view something in a textbook versus real time it tends to change your whole perspective of the object. I was so nervous looking at this painting and being in the same room that I was moved to tears. Never in my lifetime would I have ever expected to actually work at an institution that would house such for a period of time. MOMA states "Gain new insight into one of the nineteenth century's most influential artists with this unprecedented exhibition on Vincent van Gogh's nocturnal and twilight compositions. The New York Times says Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night "provides a view of the tenderness, urgency, and brilliance at the core of his art, as well as the openness to nature that set it aflame."

This show runs from September 21-January 5, 2009 and tickets can be purchased at:

The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
(212) 708-9400
MoMA.org

Picture credit: Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night over the Rhône. 1888. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Gift of M. and Mme Robert Kahn-Sriber, in memory of M. and Mme Fernand Moch, 1975. © 2008 Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY. Photo: Hervé Lewandowski

Art off the Main Art Fair in NYC 14 Days Away

Brooklyn Museum Opens Selections of Contemporary Art



Brooklyn, NY - More than forty works from the Brooklyn Museum’s expanding collection of contemporary art will go on long-term view on September 19, 2008, in 5,000 square feet of space newly renovated for this purpose. With contemporary works ranging from Andy Warhol’s Fragile Dress, 1966, to Mickalene Thomas’s A Little Taste Outside of Love, 2007, 21: Selections of Contemporary Art from the Brooklyn Museum will focus primarily on work produced since 2000, particularly from the richly diverse artistic community of Brooklyn.

This installation marks the first time in a decade that the Museum has dedicated space to the long-term display of selections of its collection of contemporary art and reflects a renewed emphasis on the acquisition and presentation of recent works.

The Museum’s director Arnold L. Lehman states, "The revitalized contemporary art program at Brooklyn is managed by an exceptional team of curatorial specialists under the leadership of Eugenie Tsai, the John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art. With the generous support of a number of the Museum’s Trustees and friends, this team has already made remarkable progress in acquiring important new works with a particular emphasis on works made in the twenty-first century and created by artists of color. At the same time, our curators have taken a strong lead in the presentation of the Museum’s dynamic exhibition program."

Donald Judd, Claes Oldenburg, and Do-Ho Suh. A new installation of three wax sculptures by New York artist Petah Coyne will be on view in the fifth-floor lobby gallery August 6, 2008, through July 2009, to coincide with the opening of the new contemporary galleries. Two of the three sculptures are recent gifts that will be on view for the first time.

Among the recently acquired works in the contemporary installation will be a painting by the Miami-based artist Hernan Bas titled Night Fishing, which will also be included in the Museum’s forthcoming exhibition on the artist, on view February 27–May 24, 2009; a sculpture by Kara Walker titled Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006, that explores racial stereotyping through imagery drawn from the antebellum South; the Brooklyn artist Valerie Hegarty’s painting Fallen Bierstadt, inspired by the Museum’s renowned work by Albert Bierstadt, A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie; a mixed-media sculpture by the Jamaican artist Hew Locke titled Koh-i-Noor, similar to another version of the subject in the Museum’s recent exhibition Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art; and twenty-five photogravures by Olafur Eliasson, a Danish-Icelandic artist, who is showing New York City Waterfall, a public art project currently on view in the East River. Other artists represented include Amy Sillman, Kiki Smith, Nari Ward, Chester Higgins Jr., Sol LeWitt, Kehinde Wiley, Terence Koh, Seher Shah, Simon Norfolk, Jules de Balincourt.

The Brooklyn Museum has collected contemporary art since the mid-nineteenth century when a bequest from Augustus Graham, one of the Museum’s founders, endowed a "Gallery of Fine Arts" accompanied by funds allocated for the annual purchase of works of art by living American artists. In 1855 the initial commission went to Asher B. Durand, whose painting The First Harvest in the Wilderness inaugurated the Museum’s collection. In the early twentieth century, the Museum continued to acquire contemporary art, and in 1934 it established a Department of Contemporary Art. Contemporary works were exhibited in galleries in the West Wing in the 1990s. Since 2001, contemporary art has been integrated into galleries throughout the Museum, especially in American Identities: A New Look.

The contemporary galleries installation is organized by Eugenie Tsai, John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art, and Patrick Amsellem, Associate Curator of Photography. The Petah Coyne installation is organized by Tumelo Mosaka, Associate Curator of Exhibitions.

In addition to Jesper Just: Romantic Delusions, two additional contemporary exhibitions will be presented this fall: on view September 19, 2008 through January 4, 2009, organized by Patrick Amsellem; and Gilbert & George, on view October 3, 2008 through January 11, 2009, coordinated by Judy Kim, Curator of Exhibitions.

A variety of public programs will be presented in conjunction with the opening of the new galleries and will be featured on the Brooklyn Museum’s Web site at : www.brooklynmuseum.org .

Source: Art Knowledge News

Saturday, September 20, 2008

BROOKLYN MODERN at The powerHouse Arena, Sept, 26, 2008




Friday, September 26, 2008, 7-9PM
The powerHouse Arena
37 Main Street, Brooklyn
RSVP: rsvp@powerHouseArena.com

www.powerhousearena.com

Last chance to see Frida Kahlo @ San Francisco's MOMA



The time is rapidly winding down before the Frida Khalo exhibition leaves SFMOMA; the last day is September 28, 2008. A special $5 advance timed ticket is required for general (non-member) admission to Frida Kahlo. This ticket is in addition to regular SFMOMA admission and is applicable at all times. For more information, visit:

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third Street (between Mission and Howard Streets)
San Francisco, CA 94103
Telephone: 415.357.4000
Fax: 415.357.4037
www.sfmoma.org

Image credit: Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (Autorretrato con collar de espinas y colibrí), 1940 Nickolas Muray Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas at Austin © 2008 Banco de México, Trustee of the Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Av. Cinco de Mayo No. 2, Col. Centro, Del. Cuauhtémoc 06059, México, D.F.

International Arts Expo opens at Washington, DC Convention Center



WASHINGTON, DC - The Second Annual International Arts Expo will be held at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center from September 19 – September 21, 2008.
A percentage of the event's proceeds will go to supporting Life Pieces to Masterpieces, a nonprofit dedicated to assisting and inspiring young black men in the Washington, DC area through art. Other beneficiaries include Howard University's Armor J. Blackburn University Center Director Discretionary Fund and the Washington Project for the Arts.

Image: Conrad Andrews - "R.I.P."- 32 x 40 inches- acrylic on canvas- Courtesy Art Appreciation Foundation

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Think Outside The Box: Matt Stuart

Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM) Exhibits ~ Narrative Figuration Paris ~



VALENCIA, SPAIN -
Narrative Figuration was never proclaimed as a movement as such. It grew out of the initiative of art critic Gérald Gassiot-Talabot and artists Bernard Rancillac and Hervé Télémaque who worked together in July 1964 to set up the exhibition “Mythologies quotidiennes” at the Paris Museum of Modern Art. Over these years, Narrative Figuration set itself apart from the social neutrality of the Paris school and the formalism of American Pop Art and denounced all forms of alienation in contemporary life.

At a time when Pop Art was triumphing at the Venice Biennale (Rauschenberg was awarded first prize for painting in June 1964) and generally making its presence felt in Europe, “Mythologies quotidiennes” brought 34 artists (Arroyo, Bertholo, Bertini, Fahlström, Klasen, Monory, Rancillac, Recalcati, Saul, Télémaque, Voss…) who, like their American counterparts, put contemporary society and its images at the core oftheir work. A few months later, the Salon de la Jeune Peinture was disrupted by the mass arrival of young artists (Aillaud, Arroyo, Cueco, Recalcati, Tisserand…) who had set themselves the goal of making art once more a tool for social change.

Narrative figuration was a powerful force, attracting painters from very different artistic and geographical backgrounds in the 1960s (those mentioned above, but also Adami, Erró, Fromanger, Stämpfli, la Coopérative des Malassis…) who, working from images taken from photography or film, advertising, comic strips or even classical painting, produced works which twisted the original significance of these images and gave them unexpected meanings, suggested other narratives and highlighted their political implications.

Gilles Aillaud Vietnam, La bataille du riz, 1968, huile sur toile, 200 x 200 cm., Private Collection Courtesy Galerie de France, ParisThe effervescence of the late sixties led the most militant painters in the movement to take an active part in politics and, in particular, in the events of May ‘68 in Paris.

Exhibition: Bringing together over one hundred paintings, objects or films, “Narrative Figuration Paris, 1960-1972” is an exploration of the sources of the figurativerevival which marked the history of art in the sixties in Paris.

The exhibition, which can be seen as the best way to remind the public of the inventiveness of these founding years, reconstitutes the creative environment of these works, which were sparked by the cultural and social ferment of the sixties. Following a dynamic circuit focusing on the major themes common to most of these artists, the exhibition is divided into clearly separate sections.

1) The Origins of Narrative Figuration (Prémices)
2) The exhibition “Mythologies quotidiennes” (1964)
3) Objects and Comic Strips
4) The Art of diversion
5) Painting is a detective novel
6) A politic figuration.

Source: Art Knowledge News

Random Art: The Staircase at the Louis Vuitton Store, Via dei Condotti, Rome



This particular night was as "invitation to take off." Enjoy!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

T.Magic Solo Exhibition September 2008



"Loaded With Meaning" is an independent solo exhibition mounted by one of the UK's most colourful talents, T.Magic. It takes place from September 26, 2008, until October 5, 2008, at The Loading Bay Gallery, Old Truman Brewery, London and features over forty new works consisting of original paintings, photography, sculptures and silk-screens.

Pieces in the show explore Magic’s dark social commentary. His theme: the London Council Estate. Drawing inspiration from experiences growing up in what the 24-year-old street artist describes as ‘The Black Hole,' which he feels is a distinct and unknown territory isolated from the rest of society. “It’s a world of the displaced where no-one from outside enters and where the inhabitants stay; an area synonymous - in the public mind - with poverty, crime and ethnic conflict."

A pivotal aspect of the self-proclaimed therapists works is the idea of escapism from such harsh realities. His unique style of art exalts in the power of colour, contrast and composition.

After two successful exhibitions at The Air Gallery in Mayfair - along with counting Jay-Z and Pharrell Williams as fans of his art - T.Magic’s work is internationally recognized as some of the most interesting and thought-provoking contributions to the contemporary art scene of recent times.

Visitor Information

Free Admission

September 26, 2008 – October 5, 2008 (11am – 7pm daily)

The Loading Bay Gallery, Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL

Nearest tube stations: Liverpool Street Station or Aldgate East

Ruby Mag #32 is online!


Check out the new issue (#32). It includes 8 great artists: saya woolfalk, noah doely, karina peisajovich, daisuke ichiba, gala bent, karly wildenhaus, kristina collantes and estelle hanania.

www.ruby-mag.com.ar

Images by Saya Woolfalk

The Art of the Fashion Photographer: Michael Thompson's "Straight Shooter"







Fashion Photographer Michael Thompson, who is linked to French Vogue, Vanity Fair, the Gap, Tiffany & Co and Chanel, states that his work is "all over the place in terms of light and subject matter." This aesthetic is learned from his mentor Irving Penn (known for his use of simplicity) and tends to use very strong and graphic subjects. Already having witnessed his first U.S. solo exhibition, Thompson is now at Hasted Hunt and is on view until October 25th; an artist reception is being held on September 11th.

HASTED HUNT Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10011
11 AM - 6 PM Tuesday - Saturday and by appointment

T: 212.627.0006 F: 212.627.5117
E: info@hastedhunt.com

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Artist You Should Know: Earl Patrick



In 1989, my heart and spirit were touched with an inspiration to create art. It provided a channel, as well as an obligation, for me to vividly communicate to the world and open new ways for a better understanding. A self-taught artist who spent 25 years of my life preparing for the American dream and the next 17 years redefining it. I pay homage with my ideas and labor to all of my spirits. To all of the people who have passed through me and made me the person I am and will be. I respect where I come from, where I have been and where I am to go.

The artwork is a conjunction of found objects. I work mostly with collage and decoupage. The artwork moves into the large arena of combining various isms and disciplines weaving history, social, cultural studies and literature into a blend of instinctive spontaneous creations of art.

PICURES:
(clock-wise from top left)

"Storefront Church"
Acrylic, oil pastels, found objects, paper and ink cut-out drawings decoupage on wooden vegetable crate ends, 9.5 x 12 in.

The artist, Patrick Earl.

"Johnnie-Earl"
Collage of fabrics, acrylic, paper collage, lipstick decoupage on wood

"Joseph's Coat of Many Colors"
Acrylic, collage of shirting fabric on canvas 12 x 24 inches

Source: Bleu Mag

Book of the Week: Studio Olafur Eliasson. An Encyclopedia, Art Edition











Limited to 200 numbered copies, delivered in a luxurious clamshell box and each signed by the artist, the Art Edition features a special cover custom made by Olafur Eliasson: a high gloss polished and cold formed steel plate imitating the prismatic effect of raindrops falling into water. Based upon an experimental design studio located in Berlin, this book encompasses Eliasson's installations, photographs, sculptures as well as architectural projects to date. The steel plated, 528 paged hardcover is available in October 2008 and retails for $1,000.00. For more information, visit TASCHEN books.

Source: Taschen