Matisse, Picasso, & Modern Art in Paris ~ The T. Catesby Jones Collections at the VMFA and UVAM

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - The University of Virginia Art Museum presents Matisse, Picasso, and Modern Art in Paris: The T. Catesby Jones Collections at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the University of Virginia Art Museum. This exhibition reunites works of art that were given in 1947 as bequests to two Virginia institutions, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) and the University of Virginia. The selection of 88 works from the Jones collections at VMFA and the U.Va. Art Museum includes masterpieces of modern French art from the years 1904–1946. On view 30 January through 24 April, 2009.

The exhibition encompasses many of the key artists, innovative styles, and central themes that emerged and developed during a crucial period in the history of modern art. The artists represented include such figures as Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Raoul Dufy, Juan Gris, Jacques Lipchitz, André Masson, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Georges Rouault.

“The show concludes with the tragic and transformative World War II period, when many of the best-known French modernists fled Paris for New York. Jones was personally acquainted with several of these emigré artists, including Masson and Lipchitz, and he continued to collect their newest work until the time of his death in 1946.”

The collector T. Catesby Jones (1880–1946) came from a family with a long and distinguished history in Virginia’s Tidewater region. He graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in the class of 1902 and had a prominent career in New York as an admiralty lawyer. Jones' greatest passion was modern French art. He collected the work of his favorite artists in depth and across media: not only paintings and sculpture but also drawings, prints, artists' books, and textiles. In 1947, the paintings, sculptures, and some works on paper went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, of which Jones was a trustee. In the same year, his very significant holdings in prints and illustrated books went to the University of Virginia; a major portion of that gift was transferred to the U.Va. Art Museum in 1975.

Catalogue - Matisse, Picasso, and Modern Art in Paris is accompanied by a comprehensive, fully-illustrated 150-page catalogue. It contains essays by the co-curators, Matthew Affron, curator of modern art, U.Va. Art Museum; and John B. Ravenal, Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, VMFA; and scholarly entries on 24 artists in the exhibition by current and former U.Va. graduate students.

Matisse, Picasso, and Modern Art in Paris will be presented at four venues in Virginia in 2009-10: the University of Virginia Art Museum (Jan. 30, 2009 – April 24, 2009); Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester (Aug. 15 – Nov. 29, 2009); William King Regional Art Center in Abingdon (Dec. 11, 2009 – Feb. 21, 2010); Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond (April – June 2010).

Visit The University of Virginia Art Museum at : www.virginia.edu/artmuseum

SOURCE: AKN

Tim Biskup x T9G Exhibition: TOKYO

STITCH Gallery
1F Mezon Daikanyama
11-8 Sarugaku-Cho
Shibuya
150-0033 JAPAN

The Art of Fashion Week: The Viridi-Anne 2009 Fall/Winter Showroom

WHO: Tokyo-based designer Tomoaki Okaiwa

WHERE: Paris Fashion Week 2009

WHAT: "The Chrysalis"

WHY: For fashion, of course!

agnes b. Collection Book

Known as a heavy weight in the fashion industry, agnes b. has put together a collection of photography and modern art into a sleek and simplistic coffee table book. The book features works from Man Ray, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Futura and may others. It is now available via Turntable Lab for $49 USD.

Phillips de Pury & Company's Sale Saturday@Phillips of Contemporary Art

LONDON - Phillips de Pury & Company announced the first of four yearly Saturday@Phillips sales to be held on March 14 at the company’s London galleries. This highly anticipated sale will feature a mix of contemporary and urban art, design, photographs, jewelry, watches and toy art. A large selection of contemporary art and photographs in this sale will be offered with no reserve which means that no minimum sale price has been stipulated by the seller. Property offered with no reserve often creates a unique opportunity for buyers to acquire high-quality works at very reasonable prices.

The sale will comprise a section of urban art with works by celebrated artists Blek le Rat, Banksy, Paul Insect, Faile, Swoon, KAWS. Highlights include Faile’s Forbidden Love estimated £6,000-8,000; Banksy, Soup Can (Yellow) with a pre sale estimate of £4,000-6,000; and four prints by Shepard Fairey Obey, 89, 95, 99, 04 estimated between £2,500-3,500.

Top-quality photographs and will be offered including works by Iranian artist Abbas Kiarostami, Untiled #51 and Untitled #29 both estimated £1,500-2,500; Massimo Vitali, Marina Carrara di Torre Fiat #0151, with a pre-sale estimate of £3,000-4,000; Nan Goldin, Jessica and Simon making love, estimated £4,000-6,000.

Design lots include Ron Arad’s Schizzo chair, 1989, estimated £4,000-6,000 and excellent 20th Century gems such as Charlotte Perriand’s Bench dated 1969 estimated £6,000-8,000; Eero Saarinen’ highly collectible Womb sofa from 1970s with a pre-sale estimate of £2,000-3,000; Gio Ponti’s pair of small benches estimated £3,000-5,000; Ettore Sottsass’ Teodora chair estimated £2,000-3,000.

One of a kind Erickson Beamon jewelry will be offered with estimates ranging from £250 to £1,900. Partners Vicki Beamon and Karen Erickson have been at the forefront of the fashion industry and the eight pieces offered at this sale were inspired by the 2009 spring fashion collections. The Forest themed pieces have a safari, African tone using yellow gold and large stones in brown and khaki colors, while the Garden pieces are more ethereal in pastel hues.

The sale will also include cutting edge works to be offered with no reserve, an exceptional chance to purchase quality works at affordable prices. This section includes works by Os Gemeos, Beth Campbell, Simon Evans, Lisa Kereszi, Tina Gillen, Diane Arbus, Chiho Aoshima. Visit Phillips de Pury & Company at : http://www.phillipsdepury.com/

SOURCE: AKN

MICHAEL MAHALCHICK-for what it's worth....

MICHAEL MAHALCHICK
For What It’s Worth

January 23 – February 22, 2009
Opening reception Friday Jan. 23, 6-9 PM

For his third solo show at CANADA, Michael Mahalchick presents, “For What It’s Worth". Mr. Mahalchick, widely known for his cast of thousands performances, musical scores for contemporary dance and large scale fabric sculptures, breaks new ground with this new body of exquisitely detailed assemblages and sculptures.

Mr. Mahalchick has dumped the contents of his psychic everything drawer onto the surfaces of his “canvases”.The catalogue of materials is democratic and perversely nonhierarchical. Rhinestones, driftwood, string, cellophane Kraft singles wrappers, fishing lures, drug paraphernalia, Haagen-Dazs sticks, pictures cut from various magazines and spent toilet paper tubes are all lovingly affixed to easel sized supports. Mr. Mahalchick’s sophisticated arrangements, with deep allusions to cubism, are confounded by nursing home level craft.

Mr. Mahalchick is part of the lineage of Robert Rauschenberg, Bruce Conner and Isa Genzken. Employing the space of abstract painting Mr. Mahalchick transforms his motley collection of materials into montages of emotional and cultural resonance. It may be tempting to laugh at the absurd material decisions, the crazy layering of meanings and the puerile ballsiness, but we are also asked by the quiet seriousness of the work look a little deeper. The use of toilet paper tubes, for example, at first seems almost embarrassing, the level of self-exposure too great. In Mr. Mahalchick’s collages the conventional desire to wish away the mundanely sordid aspects of our bodies is allowed space of quiet recognition.The fact that our own bodies and desires are aided and abetted by the crappiest mass-produced things is, in fact, universal and we are liberated by recognizing ourselves in what at first seems so tacky and wrong.

“For What It’s Worth” is a celebration and ritual offering to the collective ewwwwww. Mr. Mahalchick’s scavenged materials, low and despised, are offered proudly for our inspection and praise. The valueless is in fact the most valuable thing here. The cast off refuse of our throw-away culture is given dignity by the transformational imagination of the artist. In this way Mr. Mahalchick is a problem solver, a real go to guy for life’s stickiest problems. And when Mr. Mahalchick asks what’s it worth, our snap guarded answer of “nothing” slowly gives way to an affirming, Everything!

Michael Mahalchick has recently participated in the "In Practice" Program at the Sculpture Center in Long Island City, shown in group exhibitions at David Zwirner in New York, Kantor/Feuer in Los Angeles and Kate MacGarry in London. He received his MFA from the California Institute of Arts and is currently living and working in New York City.

Gallery hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 12 - 6 PM

CANADA
55 Chrystie Street
NY, NY 1002
212 925 4631
canadanewyork.com

SOURCE: CANADA

CHINASQUARE-Lin Yan: REMAKING

ChinaSquare Gallery is pleased to announce Lin Yan 林延 : Remaking. Opening Thursday, February 5th, the solo show features new work from Lin Yan's Remaking series, all inspired by the words of President Barack Obama. Her most recent works, "Remaking", "This Nation", "Brick by Brick", "In and Out," made of Chinese paper, ink, wax and wood, juxtapose materials from her birth place of Beijing with her current home of New York. While traditional Chinese painting materials (paper and ink) are the foundation of her work, the crumbled layers of soft, handmade paper create a paradoxical post-industrial feeling. Examining and reflecting on the ramifications of China's rush to modernity, she balances restlessness with the tranquility of her materials. Her work investigates the relationship between Chinese traditional painting and modernist abstraction, as well as that between postmodern appropriation and ancient technical rigor, encompassing memory, time and history.

"And above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for 221 years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand."
- Barack Obama

Lin Yan, born in Beijing to a family of distinguished artists, is a graduate of The Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Among the first wave of Chinese students to study abroad as China opened its doors, Lin studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before coming to United States in 1986. Exhibited and collected by museums worldwide, her work has received much acclaim from Art in America, Art News, Art AsiaPacific, The New York Times and will be shown in a group show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Feb. 5 - Aug. 10, 2010. Remaking will run through February 28th and a fully illustrated brochure accompanies the exhibition.

On view from February 5-28, 2009

Opening reception: February 5, 2009, 6-8pm

ChinaSquare Gallery | 545 West 25th Street | New York, New York | 10001

SOURCE: CSNY

David Bergman's 1, 474 MP Presidential Inauguration Photograph

New York photographer David Bergman snapped 220 photos using his Canon G10 and the result was a 1,474 Megapixel image of Barack Obama's Presidential inauguration. The complete image can be viewed by clicking here.

The Photography of Kazuhiko Kawahara

Digitally morphing the outlook of your conventional building, Japanese architect/photographer Kazuhiko Kawahara manipulates various images to create his distinct architecture style. The works can be attributed as a method to prototype certain projects rather than following the traditional norm. Clarifying his unorthodox kaleidoscope style furthermore, Kawahara seamlessly meshes ordinary structures into a rather unique form of expression. Click here for more pictures of Kawahara's work.

Yeah Yeah Yeah! All this means is that Kawahara is an expert at using Photoshop; nothing more nothing less. His work is very similar to Flip Dujardin in his usage of the kaleidoscope effect yet he seems to execute it well.

Source: designboom

S.O.A Presents "BREAKING THE MOLD WITH AIRWALK" 01.27.09

BREAKING THE MOLD WITH THE SOUND OF ART
The Sound of Art was called upon by the legendary sneaker brand, AIRWALK to help them celebrate the limited edition return of the Desert Boot.

The Sound of Art brings its motley crew of artists and their talents to "bumrush" this soiree. They're customizing the AIRWALK sneaker boxes with their art...topping off a unique,intimate experience with innovative sculptures. What the outcome will be.. well see if you make it onto the guest list and see for yourself...

First 150 RSVPS, "GET IN" and...
First 150 arrivals get a pair of the limited edition Desert Boots

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
7:00pm - 10:00pm
HOTEL ON RIVINGTON
107 Rivington St.
New York, NY

*if you have already rsvp via AIRWALK no need to rsvp via Sound of ART
Venue: CLICK HERE TO RSVP FOR THIS EXCLUSIVE SOA EXPERIENCE....

SOURCE: SOA

Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego shows Javier Ramires Limon ~ Cerca Series

SAN DIEGO, CA - The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego opened Cerca Series: Javier Ramírez Limón at its La Jolla location. The exhibition, curated by MCASD Assistant Curator, Lucía Sanromán, features photographic works by the Tijuana-based artist Javier Ramírez Limón, and will be on view through May 10, 2009. Javier Ramírez Limón is the fifth recipient of MCASD's annual purchase award honoring regional artists of exceptional promise.

Ramírez Limón mines the ground between photography as straight journalistic document and as a source for conceptual and poetic interrogation. He attains this through breaks and alterations in the image's representational façade that take various forms: textual application, digital manipulation and, as for this Cerca Series, the pairing of two independent bodies of work to create a third.

The exhibition presents two documentary photography series that--separately and using distinct photographic techniques and conventions--document different moments in the process of migration and adaptation of Mexican communities in the Southern United States. Ramírez Limón's color portraits in the series Mexican Quinceañera (2006-2008) capture central characters in real festivities celebrating the 15th-birthday of adolescent women living in San Diego County, the equivalent to Sweet 16 parties in the United States. These images are brought together with black-and-white landscape photos from the series De Altar al Sásabe (2007) taken in an area of the Sonoran desert known as Altar, a remote and dangerous region where illegal migrants and drugs are smuggled north.

Ramírez Limón conceptualizes these pairings as a form of infiltration of the social and ethnographic content of one series into the other. This transforms the new pairings into a temporal narrative about migration but also a more allusive and open-ended reflection upon the subject. The landscapes infiltrate or seep into the cultural discourse of the Mexican Quinceañera series, becoming a backdrop to that celebration and its characters, while offering a shorthand social history of a community. Ramírez Limón's work insinuates a suggestive and intimate mode of observation upon a social phenomenon whose face is dominated by stereotypical media representations.

Javier Ramírez Limón lives and works in Tijuana. He studied photography in Mexico City and New York and has exhibited in biennials, festivals, and solo and group exhibitions, including Encuentros Abiertos de Fotografía (Buenos Aires, 2000); Reconstrucción de Familia at Fluss Gallery (Viena, 2000); In this place at Art in General (New York, 2004); Viva Mexico at Zacheta National Gallery (Varsovia, 2007); Laberinto de miradas, Nueva Foto Documental Iberoamericana (Mexico City, 2008); and Proyecto Cívico at Centro Cultural Tijuana (Tijuana, 2008).

Visit The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego at : http://www.mcasd.org

SOURCE: AKN

SCION, SHIN TANAKA AND GIANT ROBOT ENGAGE READERS WITH UNIQUE TEMPLATES

Scion, Asian and Asian-American pop culture magazine Giant Robot and artist Shin Tanaka bring cut-out fun to all ages and paper toy enthusiasts alike through special templates included in select Giant Robot issues.

Tanaka’s first template appeared in Giant Robot issue 56 which also featured an interview with the artist himself. The second template followed in issue 57 which is out now, and the third will be featured in issue 58 which hits streets on February 9, 2009. Readers can cut out the templates and fold them following the simple instructions to make their own robots. Readers who create all three figures can assemble them to create Tanaka’s larger “4-in1 Robot” commissioned by Scion.

Tanaka, who was born in Fukuoka, Japan, is an artist who creates imaginative paper toys, figures and sneakers with precise details. When he was younger, he began creating paper sneaker replicas with complete detail because he could not afford to buy all his favorite shoes. Since then he has collaborated with Nike, Adidas and Reebok to create custom footwear and exhibited in Berlin, Hawaii, and Portland, Ore. He recently participated in the Kennedy Center’s show “Japan! Culture + Hyperculture.” Tanaka offers most of his fun templates for free at his website http://shin.co.nr/ where fans can download them, to print, build and customize.

Like Tanaka, Scion encourages personalization and free thinking. Scion continuously supports artists and brings their work to new audiences as customization and creativity are some of the brand’s core values.

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

About Giant Robot:
Giant Robot Magazine began in 1994 as a stapled-and-folded zine and has grown into a full-fledged bi-monthly magazine available at most stores and newsstands. Giant Robot opened its first store in 2001, and formulated a combination of pop culture goods, ranging from Japanese import toys, graphic design and art books, and monthly art exhibitions. Giant Robot has since opened stores and galleries in San Francisco and New York City, and also operates a restaurant called gr/eats in West Los Angeles.


SOURCE: Lucy Beer-Elemental Consulting

THE ART OF STORAGE: Assouline x Goyard Limited Edition Trunk

After an already successful collaboration, Parisian company Goyard and publishing giant Assouline link up for a limited edition white leather trunk with Goyard's signature monogrammed pattern. As an added bonus, enclosed inside each trunk is a full collection of 100 Assouline books featuring photo-biographies of Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton and many others. Check it out at Revolve Clothing.

Source: Nitrolicious

The Art of Audi

WHATIFTHEWORLD/GALLERY-THE STATUS OF GREATNESS BY XANDER FERREIRA OPENING WED 28 JAN 18H0

THE ART OF THE POST: Royal Mail's Classic Design Stamps

A set of 10 stamps celebrating classic British 20th century design has been released by the Royal Mail. Like celebrations are nothing new, the United States Postal Service issued Eames themed stamps last year. What’s exciting is the range of objects - from fashion to aviation - represented. A wonderful cross section of design.

via Dezeen

Preview of YSL/Berge Auction

For fifty years Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge actively collected art, amassing a collection of some 700 works over the period. Included are paintings by Picasso, Goya and Mondrian. Housed in the pairs Paris’ apartment, the collection has been kept relatively private, the Laurent truly living with his art. Christies will be auctioning the estate this year, and Wallpaper* has published a “preview” of the expected lots. This is far less a preview than a view into Laurent’s living space. And, ultimately, the joy of the images comes in that.

via Selecticism

OKOK Gallery= AMBACH & RICE?

Ron English Inauguration Billboard in Los Angeles

Located on the corner of Pico and Fairfax in Los Angeles right beside a supermarket.

Source: Jetset Graffiti