Objets d'Art | Photography

Here's a quickie round-up of some photo shows I've checked out recently...

~Philip Andelman, Three Days in Paris at Milk Gallery: Hello Nasty! I LOVE the Beastie Boys! I'm a longtime fan of their music and videos (I still listen to classics Paul's Boutique and Check Your Head regularly in their entirety), I agree with the causes they fight for, and I love their sense of humor. When I learned that director/photographer Philip Andelman (who has directed videos for biggies like Jay Z and Beyonce) photographed Michael Diamond, Adam Horowitz and Adam Yauch for three days last June in Paris alongside their old friend, director Spike Jonze, and new friends The Dead Weather (Jack White's other side project), I rushed to check out the pics in Three Days in Paris. As Andelman explains, he "documented what he describes as 'high jinks' with the bands—who had met each other for the first time the week before in a London hotel lobby and were joined in Paris by director Spike Jonze" (from Nowness.com). It's clear that the Beasties had lots of fun hamming it up for Andelman while playing petanque in the Palais Royale, baking baguettes in a patisserie, and mugging for the camera dressed in berets and Breton striped shirts. Andelman's black-and-white photos also capture the boys having dinner with Jonze and The Dead Weather posse, horsing around at the Ritz, and visiting the Louvre. Andelman also shot Jack White and co. onstage and backstage at La Cigale. Three Days in Paris will make you envy Andelman and wish you could hang with the musical bunch in the City of Lights. Learn more at milkstudios.com and nowness.com. Through May 29th.

~Alex Guofeng Cao, Decompose/Recompose: Resurrect at Stux: Alex Guofeng Cao's first solo exhibit in NYC, Decompose/Recompose: Resurrect, at Stefan Stux Gallery consists of large-scale black-and-white images of celebrities composed with grids of thousands of copies of teeny-tiny images of a related celeb. For instance, a large image of "Marilyn Monroe decomposes into strings of repeated pictures of JFK, or of the Mona Lisa" (from the press release) and a large Andy Warhol portrait breaks down into multiple copies of his silk-screen portrait of Mao Zedong and vice versa. "These finely produced photographic mosaics, inspired by Cao's interest in similarly pieced works from Greek and Roman antiquity" are reminiscent of Chuck Close's photorealist grid paintings and make "the pixel itself a new, self-conscious carrier of meaning itself, and not merely a structural support for its expression." As the shows press release explains, "The process of decomposing the original image allows it to re-emerge with a new lease on life; to be resurrected..." Learn more at Stuxgallery.com. Through May 29th.

~Richard Barnes, Animal Logic and Murmur at Foley Gallery: In Animal Logic, Richard Barnes gives the viewer a "behind-the-scenes look at the curatorial process of evaluation and representation" (from show's press release). Barnes shows the taxidermied animals in hokey museum dioramas either "placed behind glass or in front of a painted scenery, draped in protective sheathing or crated" conveying "a tension between their original wild, living context and the imitation thereof as approximated by their current containers." In an interesting contrast, on view in the back gallery is Barnes' Murmur, a series of black-and-white photos documenting the flight formations of starlings in a suburb of Rome. The massive, pixelated patterns the swarms of birds form against vast, cloudy skies are haunting and dramatic. Learn more at Foleygallery.com. Through June 5th.

~Osang Gwon, Deodorant Type at Doosan Gallery: Four Deodorant Type photo-sculptures by South Korean artist Osang Gwon are view at Doosan Gallery. These eerily life-like sculptures date from 1999-2010 and are constructed in the same meticulous fashion as the ones Gwon presented at Arario Gallery last October. Learn more at Doosangallery.com. Through June 5th.

~Mohamed Bourouissa, Peripheries at Yossi Milo: Algerian-born, Paris-based photographer, Mohamed Bourouissa's depicts "the tensions and issues affecting daily life for young people living in the suburbs of France" via staged photos shot in "carefully scouted locations, such as apartment building rooftops or subway stations, with specially selected models and strategically placed lighting" (from the press release). The carefully planned images explore "the social and economic issues of the area in which the artist grew up, while questioning stereotypes about life in the suburban territories of Paris and other cities in France." Peripheries shows another side of France that tourists generally don't get to see. The tension acted out in some of these photos is fierce, unnerving, and cinematic. Learn more at Yossimilo.com. Through June 19th.

Andelman - The Beasties contemplating patterns in the sky, 2009

Andelman - The Beasties playing petanque in the Palais Royale, 2009

Andelman - Adam observes Adam and Mike preparing baguettes, 2009

Andelman - The Beasties outside the bakery on Rue St Dominique, 2009

Andelman - The Last Supper, 2009

Andelman - Spike, Adam, Mike, and The Dead Weather posse in the women's room at the Ritz pt.2 (left), 2009; Spike throws Mike over his shoulder as the evening comes to an end (right), 2009