Art Hag

Objets d'Art | News

~Feminist artist Nancy Spero passed away on October 18th at the age of 83.  Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1926, Spero studied at the Art Institute of Chicago where she met her husband, painter Leon Golub, whom she was married to for 53 years (!) until his passing in 2004.

The pair moved to Paris in 1959 and settled in New York City in 1964.  In response to the Vietnam War, Spero created The War Series (1966-1970), drawings depicting "fighter planes and helicopters as giant, phallic insects, the series linked military power and sexual predatoriness, but also included women among the attackers," (from NYTs obit). 

In 1969, Spero joined Women Artists in Revolution (WAR), which protested "sexist and racist policies in New York City museums," ("they picketed the Whitney Museum, among other institutions, for failing to represent women," Artnews).  In 1972, she was a co-founder of Artists in Residence (A.I.R.) Gallery, an all-women cooperative in Soho, now located in DUMBO.  In the mid 1970s, she decided "to focus her art exclusively on images of women, as participants in history and as symbols in art, literature and myth."

I learned about Nancy Spero after seeing Chiara Clemente's 2008 documentary Our City Dreams which followed Spero along with four other woman artists (Swoon, Kiki Smith, Ghada Amer, Marina Abramovic) based in New York City.  In the doc, Spero came across vibrant, charming, intelligent, and strong.  Learn more about Our City Dreams at imdb.com.  Read Spero's obituary in the NYTs here.  And learn more about Spero at artnews.com.

~This past weekend The New York Times had a short article on the sad rise and fall of the Bellwether Gallery.  After opening the gallery in Brooklyn in 1999, owner Rebecca Smith was profiled in a Times piece titled How to Become an Instant Art Star.  Smith moved the gallery to Chelsea and 2004, and when the economy tanked, found her business struggling and closed it last June.

Now living in Greenwich, Connecticut with her fiance, Smith is "slowly selling off her art collection" and planning her next move.   "She says she's done with the art world and she's no longer transfixed by its glamour."  She's considering writing a book.  Just a thought - you may not want to title it How to Become an Instant Art Star.  Read full article at nytimes.com.

~And finally, if you're in or planning to be in Phili soon, check out Malcolm McLaren's Shallow 1-21 at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.  McLaren edited and looped footage from vintage, obscure sex films and paired the clips with his music creating "musical paintings."  The end results are 21 short videos totaling 86-minutes in length when watched throughout. 

Many of the videos in Shallow (the ones that don't contain nudity) screened outdoors on a jumbo-tron in the middle of Times Square during the summer of 2008, courtesy of Creative Time.  The current exhibition is the first time that the film will be shown in its entirety in the U.S.  McLaren used his keen eye (and ears) to create films that are truly stunning, mesmerizing and beautiful.  Learn more at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts' website here.  Through January 3, 2010.

Art Directors Club | Young Guns 7 Competition

Currently on view at the Art Directors Club Gallery on West 29th Street are this year's fifty winners of the ADC Young Guns 7 competition.  The ADC Young Guns competition is a bit like AIGA Three Sixty Five 30's bratty but talented younger sib.  The competition is open to anyone 30 and under with at least 2 years experience under his/her belt working in advertising, design, illustration, and photography.  The winning entries definitely feel younger than those at AIGA and tend to lean on the twee, hipstery side.  Moleskin awards $1,500 in grants to three top entrants and publishes a limited-edition book of the winning works.  Mario Hugo and Fx&Mat each received $250 grants while Siggi Eggertsson's cool, graphic, pop-inspired designs received the top honor of a $1,000 grant.  Congrats to all the winners!

The Art Directors Club was founded in 1920 and has served "as a barometer for the constant changes and developments in visual media and communications."  The Young Guns award was introduced in 1996.  According to the ADC's website, "ADC Young Guns honors the vanguard of creative professionals who let loose their imaginations, shattering conventions and breaking boundaries with a dash of brilliance and personal flair."  Previous Young Gunners serve as the selection jury and choose the new crop of winners.  Past Young Guns winners include Stefan Sagmeister (YG1), Mike Mills (YG1), and Ryan McGinness (YG2). 

Learn more about all the ADC Young Guns 7 winners and see samples of their work at adcyoungguns.org.  Read more about the ADC Young Guns competition here.  See pics of some of my favorite entries below.  On view at the ADC Gallery at 106 West 29th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues) through November 6th.

Siggi Eggertsson, Chelsea Girls (recreation of movie poster)

Siggi Eggertsson, Coke Side of Life posters

Keren Richter, illustration for Boost Mobile Summer Concert Series poster

Bianca Wendt, Catalogue for Maison Martin Margiela (personal work)

Ben Wiseman, Criterion Collection's Breathless DVD packaging

Jim Stoten, illustrations for Gomez album art (left) and illustration for The Fader article on White Stripes videos (top right); Will Staehle, Design and collage Hi/Bye, from his Silhouette Masterpiece Theatre Collection (bottom right)

Yoko Furusho, Health Virus (top) illustration for Lp and P and Melancholy of a Japanese Girl (bottom) illustration for Dpi Magazine

Laura Carlin, illustrations/book art for translation of Le Grand Meaulnes for Folio Society

Kitman Keung, Love Green Recycle Bin created for Dwell's Kitchen Ecology Exhibition in Los Angeles (June 2009)

Veronica Fuerte, Brands (personal work)

Sam Weber, illustrations for Toronto Soulpepper Theatre posters

Oliver Munday, Who the Hell Is Angela Davis, poster for event at Maryland Institute College of Art

Three Sixty Five 30 | AIGA Annual Design Exhibition 30

Founded in 1914, AIGA is the oldest and largest professional association for design, representing "more than 22,000 design professionals, educators and students through national activities and local programs developed by 64 chapters and 240 student groups." 

The AIGA National Design Center on lower Fifth Avenue currently has on view selections from Three Sixty Five 30, The best design from 2008, the organization's renowned, annual design competition.  Widely known as "the most selective statement on design excellence today," the competition is judged on "aesthetic judgments and an evaluation of communication effectiveness."  The jury (made up of design pros from agencies throughout the U.S. as well as from Toronto and Stockholm) takes into consideration each project "within the context of its purpose, content, objective, audience and resources."  Out of over 3,700 entries, AIGA selected to exhibit 182 to represent the best in communication design for 2008.

The competition was broken down into seven categories: Informing, Packaging, Promoting, Entertaining, Branding, Experimenting (sorry, I didn't get any pics from this category), and Book Design (which I did not see at the exhibit but you can see online).  There were so many great examples of great design.  Not surprising, Pentagram and Stefan Sagmeister had multiple entries.  See my photos below of some of my favorite entries and see much more at AIGA's website at designarchives.aiga.org.  Through November 25th.

BRANDING: 826 Valencia Products, San Francisco, Creative Directors: Jill Robertson, Jason Schulte

BRANDING: Maison Theatre Platform, Montreal, lg2boutique, Creative Director: Claude Auchu

BRANDING: Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), New York, Pentagram, Creative Director: Michael Bierut

ENTERTAINING: Obsessions Make My Life Worse and My Work Better, New York, Sagmeister, Inc, Creative Director: Stefan Sagmeister

ENTERTAINING: 2009 Desktop Calendar, Minneapolis, Studio on Fire, Creative Director: Benjamin Levitz

INFORMING: A_B_peace & terror etc. The computational aesthetics of love & hate, London, The Luxury of Protest, Creative Director: Peter Crnokrak

PACKAGING: TCHO Luxury Chocolate packaging, San Francisco, Edenspiekermann, Creative Director: Susanna Dulkinys AND Stripes Thunderstick packaging, Austin, McGarrah Jessee, Creative Director: David Kampa

PACKAGING: Coca-Cola Aluminum Bottle, San Francisco, Turner Duckworth, Creative Directors: Bruce Duckworth, David Turner

PACKAGING: Everything That Happens Will Happen Today CD, New York, Sagmeister, Inc, Creative Director: Stefan Sagmeister

 
PROMOTING: Art + Activism Lecture Series, Venice, CA, UCLA DMA, Creative Director: Henri Lucas

PROMOTING: Curl Conscious Campaign, New York, Bumble and bumble, Creative Director: Helen Steed

PROMOTING: Hugo Fleury, Montreal, lg2boutique, Creative Director: Claude Auchu

PROMOTING: In Our Nature Tour, Berlin, Creative Directors: Stefan Guzy, Bjorn Wiede

PROMOTING: Love Yourself, New York, Creative Director: Taber Calderon [My personal favorite. Love it!]

PROMOTING: Pearl Street, Lafayette, CO, Steve Bullock Design, Creative Director/Illustrator: Steve Bullock

George Grosz | David Nolan Gallery

Another show worth trying to catch before it closes on Saturday is George Grosz, The Years in America: 1933 - 1958 at the David Nolan Gallery in Chelsea.  This is the first major U.S. retrospective of the artist's work during this time period.  Grosz was a German painter and caricaturist who brutally lampooned the German bourgeoisie and military in his early work.  In January 1933, after being declared a "degenerate artist" and before Hitler took power, Grosz fled Berlin and emigrated to New York.

During his first two years in New York, instead of creating the scathing social and political commentaries he was known for, Grosz painted "street scenes and cityscapes."   According to the exhibit's press release, "One widely held opinion states that Grosz lost his much-admired audacity upon immigrating to New York; that he miraculously turned apolitical during the crossing aboard the Stuttgart in January 1933, while Nazi henchmen were ransacking his studio in Berlin... it appears as though after Grosz's immigration there is little left of his fearlessness, his fiery agitation... He not only escaped from a regime that saw him as an enemy; he also left Germany in bitterness about the country's workers' movement and intellectual left who yielded to the Nazis almost without a fight... He could not, nor did he want to, comment on the situation in America with the same acerbic wit that he had used to chastise Prussian militarism."

Unfortunately, the new-found optimism that came from his move didn't last long.  By 1935, personal and professional frustrations along with brewing problems back in Germany, and Europe as a whole, led Grosz to "pessimism and depression" and back to darker works.  The years leading up to World War II had Grosz "depict[ing] the apocalypse" and creating what he called  "images of hell." 

In complete contrast to the artist's cynical pieces are his serene paintings of nudes posing on Cape Cod beaches.  Grosz painted landscapes and sand dunes on the Cape during peaceful visits there with his wife and two sons.  Though drastically different from his politically charged works, these calm, romantic pieces are an important part of Grosz's oeuvre during his years in America (and again show that the artist is not entirely all doom and gloom).  Not surprisingly, these were criticized and dismissed by those who preferred his "witty, extremely critical political" work.

After living and working in the U.S. for "more than half of his artistically productive life," Grosz returned to Berlin where, only a few months after his return, he died in July 1959.  Learn more about George Grosz, The Years in America: 1933 - 1958 at Davidnolangallery.com.  Learn more about Grosz at moma.org.  Through October 31st.

George Grosz, God of War, 1940

George Grosz, Cain or Hitler in Hell, 1944

George Grosz, Nude in Dunes, 1948

George Grosz, The Grey Man Dances, 1949

George Grosz, The Painter of the Hole II, 1950

Hung Liu | Nancy Hoffman Gallery

I only learned about the Hung Liu exhibit, Apsaras, at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in Chelsea last Friday.  Fortunately, I was in the neighborhood, so I dropped by to see the show before it closes on the 31st.  I'm so glad I did!  I wasn't familiar with Liu prior to seeing this exhibit, and I am very happy to have caught it and to have finally learned about the artist and her work.

Born in Changchun, China in 1948 Liu grew up in Beijing under Mao's rule.  Straight after high school, Liu was sent to the country to work alongside peasants in the fields for four years.  While there, Liu photographed and drew the farmers and their families.  In 1972 she attended Beijing's Teachers College and studied art and education.  In 1975, after graduating, she began teaching art both at a school in Beijing as well as on television on a children's show straightforwardly titled How to Draw and Paint. In 1984, after studying mural painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and waiting four years for her passport, Liu moved to the states to study visual arts at the University of California, San Diego.  Liu currently resides in Oakland.

Perhaps an early influence for her current exhibit, Apsaras, was a "trip to northern China to paint landscapes" in July 1976 (from the exhibit's press release).  During this trip, Liu experienced first-hand "one of the largest earthquakes to hit the modern world," which killed 242,000 people.  In May of 2008, Liu returned to China for two solo exhibitions of her work in Beijing.  This time around, the massive 8.0 magnitude Sichuan Earthquake ravaged southern China killing approximately 90,000.  Apsaras is a collection of paintings Liu created "depicting people in the aftermath of the Sichuan quake."

These paintings, while heartbreaking, raw, and emotional in their vivid depiction of the survivors'  "grief, shock, confusion, stunned silence, courage, and mourning," show a bit of hope with the addition of apsaras flying close to the victims.  Apsaras are "traditional images of Buddhist flying angels" or "heavenly nymphs."  The inclusion of these angels does not feel disjointed, precious, or cloying.  As the press release states, "the images of birds, flowers, and religious iconography Liu circulates within her otherwise photo-derived visual fields are more like prayers than provocations, attempts to repair a picture broken by war, famine, social chaos, or, as in these paintings, earthquake."  

Liu studied ancient Buddhist iconography painted on the walls of the thousand-year-old Dunhuang Caves, or "caves of a thousand Buddhas," in the late 1970s.  The caves "contain some of the finest known examples of Buddhist art, including countless flying angels..."  It feels as if Liu is offering her distraught subjects apsaras to protect them from further devastation and to help them persevere and find peace.  Learn more about the Apsaras exhibit at NancyHoffmangallery.com.  And learn more about Liu at the artist's website kelliu.com.

Hung Liu, Apsaras - White, 2009

Hung Liu, Apsaras - Red, 2009

Hung Liu, Apsaras - Blue, 2009

Hung Liu, South/Summer, 2009

Hung Liu, Richter Scale, 2009

Hung Liu, Rescue, 2009

A Way Beyond Fashion | Apex Art

On view until Saturday at Apex Art in Tribeca is A Way Beyond Fashion, a small exhibit displaying the work of 11 artists and/or designers that "analyzes the shifting boundaries between art and fashion design."  The artists/designers in the exhibit "blur the lines between the two disciplines" and along with questioning individuality and identity they "revise some key technological, ecological and socio-economic issues of our day."  The exhibit's curator, Robert Punkenhofer, states in the exhibition notes, "For A Way Beyond Fashion, my primary intention was to find works on the periphery between art and fashion.  Together, the explored issues - relating to communication, identity, technology and ecological sustainability - provide exciting fashion themes, which in turn are analyzed from the perspective of art." 

Designer Rudi Gernreich "whose level of conceptual depth and radicalism" inspired Punkenhofer to curate the exhibit, introduced the "unisex design concept" at the 1970 World Expo in Osaka, Japan.  Along with "thematiz[ing] sexual identity as an important aspect of fashion," the pioneering Gernreich also "experimented with technology, toyed with unusual fabrics, including vinyl, plastic and paper, and created the space suit and military look."

One of my favorite designers, London-based Hussein Chalayan, often incorporates technology into his clothing designs.  On view is his 2007 LED Dress made of "Crystallized Swarovski Elements," LED lights, and chiffon/silk overlay.  The dress actually lights up like a Christmas tree!  The Absent Presence (2005), a 5-screen video piece created by Chalayan and starring fashion fave, Tilda Swinton, plays on a flat-screen television beside his LED Dress.  Originally shown at the Venice Biennale, the video shows a future that includes "fashion scans" that "access private data and track consumer behavior." 

Highly inspired and influenced by the "indigenous population of the Yucatan and other areas of [her native] Mexico" Carla Fernandez "challeng[es] the role of fashion and design in creating cultural identity."  Along with Pedro Reyes, Fernandez created Square Clothes for Round-Minded People (2009) which consists of "seven pieces of clothing featuring a strictly geometric design of squares and rectangles."  The very cool and contemporary pieces are made of wool, suede and cotton and hang from the wall on steel hangers.  Accompanying videos demonstrate the multiple ways in which the garments can be worn.

New York-based Jenny Marketou created ParKour (wear), 12 wearable paper dresses emblazoned with advertising slogans like "Fragile" and "Freedom is the new luxury."  Marketou hopes to show with her brightly-colored, paper, tent dresses (that remind me of Stephen Sprouse) "how the human body is reclaiming the public space through fashion." 

Japanese artist Takehiko Sanada enlisted 500 volunteers to cultivate their own cotton which he used to create Hou/Jun (2008) which means "healthy and happy."  He used the yarn along with wire and sculpted delicate human forms.  According to the exhibit's notes, the process of creating the sculptures helped Sanada attain "the state of an 'enriched heart and mind' where he turns a fragmented, hectic world into an infinitely layered and interconnected life encapsulated in the 'eternal time,'" a contradiction to the fast-paced and soul-crushing fashion industry.

Since I often bemoan the commercialization and dumbing down of fashion - every tasteless starlet now has a clothing line and every velour tracksuit-clad mall-rat proclaims herself a fashion expert, or worse, a "fashionista" (Have you ever noticed how the people who bandy that word about the most are usually the least fashionable?) - I'm glad that these artists and designers are aiming to take the art form to an intellectual and socially responsible level.  Learn more at apexart.org.  Through October 24th.

Rudi Gernreich, Scarf (on left wall), 1960's, and Takehiko Sanada, Hou/Jun (right), 2008

Hussein Chalayan, The Absent Presence (left), 2005, and LED Dress (right), 2007

Carla Fernandez, Square Clothes for Round-Minded People, 2009

Jenny Marketou, ParKour (wear), 2009

Best in Show | Margarida Correia at White Columns & Paulina Olowska at Metro Pictures

I'd make a terrible mother.  I really would.  Not only am I incredibly selfish and immature, I have a tendency to choose favorites.  Coming from a family of 5 sisters, I should know how unfair and basically uncool this is, but I  can't help myself.  I still play favorites.  I always feel a twinge of guilt when I go to group exhibitions and find myself giving more time and attention to one artist over the others.  It happened to me yesterday when I went to check out the Registered group show at White Columns.

The show features the work of four artists "selected from White Columns' online Curated Artist Registry."  The artists, who are currently not affiliated with a NYC gallery, include Elena Bajo, Margarida Correia, Gregg Evans, and Claudia Weber.  Bajo works with found materials and presents an installation with a slide projector pointing at a tall stack of white papers.  Correia presents two series of photographs taken from an ongoing project called Things, "in which she photographs the interiors of friends' homes in Lisbon, Portugal."  Evans presents photos from a series called The Things I Once Owned that include images of an old Christmas Card, a day planner containing autographs from the band Le Tigre, and a picture of his father.  Weber "recontextualizes materials and forms within existing architectural spaces" creating abstract, mixed media installations.

I was really drawn to Lisbon-born/New York-based artist Margarida Correia's photos of her friends' collections of heirlooms, family photos, childhood pictures, adolescent possessions, books, antiques, and tchotchkes.  I liked her juxtaposition of  "images from past and present... to establish a continuity of the subject's personal history."  Correia's images are packed with details and offer up several, vivid stories about her friends' lives, then and now.  Learn more about the Registered show at whitecolumns.org.  And check out Correia's website at Margaridacorreia.com.  Through October 24th.

I also found myself bitten by the favoritism bug about a week ago when I went to see the group show at Metro Pictures.  On view were Polish-born/Berlin-based Paulina Olowska's large-scale collages; Los Angeles-based Stephen G. Rhodes' multi-media, twisted take on the Disney ride "The Hall of Presidents," featuring video, painting, sculpture, photography, and drawing; and Chicago-based Catherine Sullivan's new, single-channel film LULU - Or: To What Ends Does the Bourgeoisie Need Despair, inspired by the 1978 love affair between silent-film siren Louise Brooks (also known as Lulu) and the creator of Oh! Calcutta!, Kenneth Tynan.   Sullivan's work combines footage from Brooks' classic film Pandora's Box, a 1971 televised production of Oh! Calcutta!, and original film created by the artist.

Again, I found myself drawn to one artist's work - this time Paulina Olowska's five, poppy, autobiographical collages.  The pieces feature "a young couple riding in a vintage Volkswagen convertible under a large umbrella that shields them from the dynamic and dangerous: taxes, former loves, desires, doubts and the past."  I was first drawn to the large, silk screened collages' punchy graphics and campy imagery, and was further reigned in by their sardonic, cryptic messages.  Learn more at metropictures.com.  Closed October 17th.

Margarida Correia, Eduardo Benamor, 2008

Margarida Correia, Tipi, 2008

Margarida Correia, Espingarda (Rifle), 2008

Margarida Correia, Estante (Shelves), 2006

Margarida Correia, Luis Nobre III, 2006

Paulina Olowska, Ambiguity could have been avoided here, 2009

Paulina Olowska, Car Mobile Collage, 2009

Paulina Olowska, Few chances of going wrong wrong, 2009

Paulina Olowska, People disliked him because he had no patience with those who held different opinion from his own, 2009

Happy 50th Guggenheim!

Just a quick note: to honor the 50th anniversary of its opening, the Guggenheim, or the Guge, as I like to call it, will be offering free admission all day today (Wednesday, October 21st) with various, special events going on throughout the day (open until 5:45pm).

Also, at dusk, the Empire State Building will be lit in red, in honor of the color Frank Lloyd Wright originally intended for the museum.  Sneak out of work early and join in on the festivities!  Learn more at cityguideny.com.

The Bichon Frise in Art | Art Since the Summer of '69

One of the most despicable people I've ever had the misfortune of knowing owned a Bichon Frise.  Being an avid dog lover, I was surprised to find myself momentarily disliking the dog, and even the breed as a whole, due to this one dog's detestable owner.  Yes, I'd somehow found a way to make an innocent dog guilty by association.  I fortunately snapped out of my misguided fog of contempt and stopped judging the little, white, fuzzy-wuzzy pupster since he can't help that his owner is a jerk-ass with no redeemable qualities (can you tell I really don't like this guy?).  Sadly, though I've overcome judging the little doggie (and his brethren) based on his vile human companion, I do still always think of that loathsome "man" whenever I see a Bichon Frise. This may sound crazy, but it almost, almost, prevented me from going to see the small exhibit The Bichon Frise in Art currently on view at Art Since the Summer of '69 in the Lower East Side. 

Edward J. Shephard Jr., the proud owner of two Bichon Frises himself, started a website in 1996 focusing on "depictions of the Bichon Frise in various works of art spanning over 2,000 years."  The current exhibit presents some of these images alongside artwork featuring "ancestors of the breed, as well as other works that Shephard has deemed to be possible depictions of the Bichon Frise or its ancestors." 

Gaining popularity in the 16th century, the Bichon was a favored breed among French and Spanish royalty.  It's reported that King Henry III of France took his Bichon with him everywhere and carried it along in a specially made basket "that he hung with ribbons from his neck"  (from the press release).  Goya, Titian, and Sir Joshua Reynolds have all depicted the diminutive, regal lap-dogs in their work.

Along with images culled from Shephard's 14-year project, Art Since the Summer of '69 also asked artists Franz Beckenbauer, Josh Blackwell, Marcel Dionne & A. Joakimsen, Vidya Gastaldon, Bjarne Melgaard, and J. Penry to create new pieces to display in the show.  As the press release for the exhibit accurately sums it up, "This historical narrative is not only a great resource for Bichon Frise lovers, but for dog and art lovers everywhere."  See gallery's website at artsince69.com.  See Shephard's on-going, in-depth and lovingly curated The Bichon Frise in Art website at http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~eshephar/bichoninart/bichoninart.html.  Through October 25th.

Jean-Honore Fragonard, Girl With Dog, 1770

Marie Laurencin, Portrait de Mademoiselle Chanel, 1924

Installation view

Installation view - Josh Blackwell, MA Wig/Hat 2 (top center), 2009

Francine Spiegel | Deitch Projects

If All Hallows' Eve can't get here quickly enough for you, a trip to see Francine Spiegel's Mud And Milk at Deitch Projects might help you get your fright on.  The RISD grad and upstate New York-based painter amalgamates "imagery from monster magazines, horror films, or her own performances" creating Frankenstein-esque canvases and female subjects resembling "gory super-heroines" (from press release).

To create some of the imagery incorporated into the seven paintings in Mud and Milk, Spiegel enlisted ten friends and fellow artists to costar alongside her in a goo-filled, slimy, messy performance she choreographed and staged at Deitch.  Judging from the large-scale photos documenting the performance currently on view in the front of the Deitch space on Grand Street, Spiegel and her volunteers had the mother of all food fights including: "10 pounds of grits, 5 jugs of pancake syrup, 10 squirt bottles of grape jelly, 5 bottles of Pepto-Bismol, 20 buckets of tempura paint, 20 cans of whipped cream; plus silly string, shaving cream, Fruit Loops, flour, Kool-Aid, glitter, pie, marshmallow Fluff, fake arms, fake blood and chocolate syrup." 

This list of ingredients was not arbitrary - Spiegel selected these items for her performance based on information she gathered from "Fangoria Magazine's behind-the-scenes horror movie ingredients" and food fetish websites.   As the exhibit's press release states, "Taking the ingredients out of the male-manipulated world of porn and using them to make feminine and feminist works of art, Fran's results were somewhere between the erotic and the horrible."  Being OCD, I didn't see the eroticism in the pictures of women thickly covered in multiple layers of ick, though I did see the B-movie horror aspect.  The final paintings are disturbing and frightening but also a bit cheeky.  And though the women from the performance who made it into the final paintings may look a frightful mess, they look nothing like victims - a welcome twist on the traditional horror/slasher flick stereotype of female characters.  Learn more at Deitch.com and read a Q&A with Spiegel at villagevoice.com.  Through October 31st.

Francine Spiegel, Alderville, 2009

Francine Spiegel, Midnight, the stars and you, 2009

Francine Spiegel, Nellie, 2009

Francine Spiegel, Westworld, 2009

Jack Pierson | Cheim & Read

Whenever I hear the name Jack Pierson, I think of photographs of scantily clad, young men.  I know that's not entirely fair seeing as Pierson has had an impressive career as a multi-media artist, working not only in photography, but video, collage, and sculpture as well.  So I was happy to finally see some of Pierson's sculptures in person for the first time at Cheim & Read, which is presenting Abstracts, a series of his recent abstract sculptures.

Born in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1960, Pierson received his BFA from Mass Art in 1984.  He was part of the Boston School, a group of photographers including Nan Goldin, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Mark Morrisroe, and David Armstrong, who were either classmates or friends who often intimately photographed each other and their social circle throughout the early 80's (similar to Ryan McGinley as of late).  Pierson, who now splits his time between New York and southern California, often creates autobiographical works and addresses "nostalgia and melancholia, memory and loss," (from the press release).  His works currently on view are "intentionally non-objective and non-literal" and "attempt to move beyond a singular interpretation." 

In previous works, Pierson has taken old "commercial signage" and "vintage lettering" and created "word-sculptures" - readable signs and/or compositions.  Here, Pierson takes pieces of the same materials and repositions and rearranges them and places them into groups and formations "so that narrative is no longer recognizable."  For instance, there are a couple of pieces that are basically composed with several, multi-colored "O"s, zeros, and circles - and though one is interestingly titled Her ancient solitary reign, neither display definitive narratives.

On the exhibit's press release Pierson says of his works, "Some are abstractions, some calligraphic, and some are cantations.  The subject... is the same as the subject of all my work: hope."  I'll buy that explanation.  For me, Pierson's colorful, quirky, abstract sculptures exude charm and exuberance.  Learn more at cheimread.com.  See more of Pierson's work at artnet.com.  Through November 14th.

Jack Pierson, Abstract #11, 2008

Jack Pierson, Abstract #15, 2008

Jack Pierson, Abstract #18, 2009

Jack Pierson, Flourish, 2009

Jack Pierson, Her ancient solitary reign, 2009

Jack Pierson, NICE, 2009

Osang Gwon | Arario Gallery

Arario Gallery in Chlesea is the fourth location of the Arario Gallery family.  Founded in 1989 by businessman and art collector, Ci Kim, in Cheonan, Korea, there are also branches in Seoul and Beijing.  Arario exhibits art by well-known as well as up-and-coming Asian artists.

Currently on view at the West 25th Street location is Seoul-born and based artist Osang Gwon's Deodorant Type, a series of frighteningly life-like photo-sculptures.  The 35-year-old Gwon developed his photo-sculpture technique, which he calls Deodorant Types, while studying at Hong-Ilk University in Seoul.  A sculpture is composed of pink foam cut and formed into his subject's body-shape and then covered in thousands of color photos he's taken of his sitter.   The artist "meticulously shoots every inch of his sitter's clothing, skin and hair while also paying close attention to their facial expressions and postures."  The results are creepily realistic and resemble people mummified in strips and strips of packing tape tightly wrapped around every inch of their bodies.  Most of the figures on exhibit are life-size, but the first one you see upon entering the gallery is over 8-feet-tall, and there are two mini versions on view as well.

Gwon's work may look familiar to fans of the English band Keane.  While Gwon was working on a month-long residency in Manchester, England, the band commissioned him to create Deodorant Types of each member for the artwork of their album Perfect Symmetry.  See pictures of the process, the results, and read a short Q&A with Gwon at creativereview.co.uk.  Read another interview with Gwon where he  discusses his work process in detail at flavorwire.com.

Gwon's Deodorant Types are fascinating in their construction and their real-ness.  In the spirit of Halloween, I'd hate to be left alone in the gallery overnight with these guys - especially Metabo, the chain-saw wielding gal.  Learn more at ararionewyork.com.  Through October 24th.

Osang Gwon, Blu Ray S (left) and Blu Ray (right), 2009

Osang Gwon, bbd babidi boo, 2009

 
Osang Gwon, Untitled, 2009

Osang Gwon, Metabo, Rimowa S, Rimowa B (left to right), 2009

Osang Gwon, W, 2009, Uma (cat), 2008-2009

Frank Stella | Paul Kasmin Gallery

Paul Kasmin currently has on view Polychrome Relief, a series of abstract sculptures by Frank Stella.  While some of Stella's larger, brightly-colored pieces in the collection resemble psychedelic explosions, his more subtly-hued works can actually appear somewhat zen.

Born in 1936 in Malden, Massachusetts, Stella graduated from Princeton in 1958.  Upon graduating, Stella moved to New York City where he began his painting career and later, around the mid 60's, began working in print making.   Stella was inspired by the flat surfaces found in the works of Jasper Johns and Barnett Newman and has declared that painting was “flat surface with paint on it – nothing more,” (from the artist's website). 

Much like his current, frenetic sculptures featuring twists and extensions in steel tubing, his paintings featured "a fine sense for geometry and many of his early paintings used straight or curved lines, often in arcs, to excess," (also from his website).  Looking at his lively, multi-faceted sculptures that appear to be practically bursting off the wall, "composed of coils, lattices, and geometric volumes," (from Polychrome Relief's press release) it's hard to believe that the same artist has favored working with flat surfaces.

After a retrospective of his work at MoMA in 1970 (he was the youngest artist to receive this honor at the time), Stella began working in three dimensions in the mid 80's.  Stella continues to work and live in New York and shows internationally.  A major retrospective of his 50-year career is planned for 2013 at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.  Check out the artist's website at Frankstella.net and read a brief interview with Stella at newyork.timeout.com.  See Paulkasmingallery.com for more details on Polychrome Relief.  Through November 7th.

Frank Stella, K.37, 2008

Frank Stella, K.17, 2009

Frank Stella, K.81, K.51, K.54, 2008

Frank Stella, K.17 (hanging), and Circus of Pure Feeling for Malevich: Four Squares, 2009

Eric White and Daniel Davidson | Sloan Fine Art

I hate writing about shows I've seen that have already ended - not giving readers a chance to check out the exhibits in person if they choose (Bad, Arthag!  Bad!).  I didn't realize when I dropped by Sloan Fine Art on Rivington Street this past Saturday that it was the last day for Eric White's LP and Daniel Davidson's Double Stuff, two impressive exhibits by two talented Brooklyn-based artists.

White's LP featured recreations of album covers that connect "with the viewer via humor and nostalgia while encouraging us to question the reality we are being fed," (from press release).  Inspiration came to White in the form of a dream set in a record shop which "brought this obsession with music together with his love for nostalgia, appreciation of absurdist humor, and longtime fascination with alternate realities."  The pieces in LP were created by White taking "imagery and associations of music and album covers and filter[ing] them through his own vision and experience... reinterpret[ing] each original record." 

The oil paint recreations of the album covers are spot-on, aside from some adjustments made by the artist, are actual size, and contain "cultural commentary," "personal demons," and "silly jokes."  While I admittedly am not familiar with a few of the original albums, I did know Get the Knack though the band's faces were obscured by thick gobs of paint - suggesting they are "garbled by information overload" - under the phrase "Too Much Content."  I also recognized Fleetwood Mac's Rumors, though Mick and Stevie were transformed into jarring, cubist-cum-cut-and-paste figures posed beside the text, "Terrified of Most."  Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, White received his BFA from RISD in 1990.  Learn more about White and see more of his work at his website ewhite.com.

Double Stuff featured San Francisco-born Davidson's "mirror drawings," a technique the artist discovered when he "accidentally closed his sketchbook on a wet drawing.  Seeing the reproduction on the opposite page appealed to his fascination with symmetrical imagery and led to the idea of creating one half of an image and then 'printing' the other." 

Davidson's 33 watercolor pencil on paper works were appropriately all symmetrically hung on one, white wall.  The pieces featured images stemming from his "childhood memories to his every day life," and were "rich with political and social commentary."  Davidson perfectly reproduced Diane Arbus' Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967 as well as The Guinness Book of World Records' Heaviest Twins record-holders.  He also meticulously depicted the Brooklyn Bridge, a chandelier, a pair of YSL cage shoes, a heavily-populated class photo, Queen Elizabeth II, Kim Jong-il, Richard Nixon, McDonald's fries, and Kermit the Frog.  Davidson received his BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 1990.  Learn more about Davidson and see more samples of his work at his website danieldavidsonart.com. 

Both artists incorporate skill, humor, and a love for pop culture into their works, making for two enjoyable exhibits.  Check out Sloan Fine Art's website here to see the pieces from both exhibits. Closed October 10th. 

Eric White, Get the Knack, 2009

Eric White, Faces, 2009

Eric White, Rumors, 2009

Eric White, Greatest Hits, 2009

Daniel Davidson's Double Stuff exhibit

Daniel Davidson's Double Stuff exhibit

Daniel Davidson's Double Stuff exhibit

Kurt Kauper | Deitch Projects

To celebrate our Commander-in-Chief's recent (and surprising) Nobel Peace Prize win, head on over to Deitch Projects on Grand Street and see Kurt Kauper's portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama. 

Kauper was born in 1966 in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Based in New York City, Kauper presents portraits of the first couple that are uncommonly very neutral, placing the president before a backdrop of bland suburbia and the first lady in a parking lot setting.  Kauper rightfully finds contemporary images of Obama "either absurdly reverent or disturbingly demonizing," so he decided to "make political paintings without didactic content."  Kauper wants to present Barack and Michelle Obama in total neutrality and let viewers see the couple in their own personal way.

The portraits are good representations of the handsome and charismatic first couple and a refreshing, human look at the Obamas.  Learn more at Deitch.com.  Through October 31st. 

Kurt Kauper, Barack Obama

Kurt Kauper, Michelle Obama

Robert Frank | The Met

Head over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and check out Robert Frank's The Americans.  The exhibition commemorates the 50th anniversary of the release of the Swiss photographer's book The Americans and features all 83 images in it that Frank shot during a cross-country road trip between 1955-56. 

Born in Switzerland in 1924, Frank moved to the states in 1947. In The Americans, Frank intently documented America and its people through his street photography, depicting real, candid moments while simultaneously capturing "the pervasive racism in the country, the alienation of youth, the growing dissatisfaction with political leaders, and the skepticism about the rising consumer culture," (from exhibition notes). 

Frank's cross-country trip and the production of his book were made possible by his receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955.  Frank appropriately bought himself a Ford and hit the road.  In 1956 he developed 767 rolls of film containing 27,000 shots which he edited down to 1,000.  After more whittling down, he ended up with the final 83 photos that were published in the book.  Jack Kerouac, who wrote the introduction for The Americans, aptly described Frank and his work in a very Kerouac-sort-of-way, "With the agility, mystery, genius, sadness and strange secrecy of a shadow photographed scenes that have never been seen before on film... The humor, the sadness, the everything-ness and American-ness of these pictures!"

The initial release of The Americans in 1959 was met with dissension and deemed "anti-American." Though the book gained a cult-like following, especially among other photographers and artists, and was considered "prescient and revolutionary," Frank became disenchanted by the attention it received and moved on to film-making shortly after its release. 

With his exceptional eye, Frank documents in The American's beautiful, black-and-white photos a telling narrative and commentary on this country's history and people which make you question whether or not we've actually progressed much.  See metmuseum.org for more info.  Through January 3, 2010.

R.I.P. Irving Penn

I know this is a bit delayed, but I couldn't let the week end without mentioning the sad passing of legendary fashion photographer Irving Penn on Wednesday at the age of 92.  Known for his simply composed, no-nonsense, elegant photos of models (including several unforgettable shots of his wife Lisa Fonssagrives), artists, writers, and celebrities, Penn contributed a staggering 150 covers for Vogue during his 50+ year relationship with the magazine and its publisher, Conde Nast.

Born June 16, 1917 in Plainfield, New Jersey , Penn studied drawing, painting, and graphic/industrial design at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia (now the University of the Arts) from 1934 to 1938.  He was mentored by Alexey Brodovitch, the former, highly influential art director for Harper's Bazaar.  After brief stints as the director of advertising design for Saks Fifth Avenue, and as a painter in Mexico, Penn returned to New York in 1943 and worked as the assistant to Alexander Liberman, the art director for Vogue.  In 1946, Penn became a staff photographer at Vogue, and the rest is fashion/art photography history.  Read the NYT's obituary here and see a few selections of Penn's work there and at Style.com.

Open House New York

Here's a reminder that the 7th annual Open House New York is taking place this Saturday and Sunday (October 10-11).  All programs are free and first-come-first-serve at the designated times (unless prior registration is required).  Check out the schedule at www.ohny.org.

This is a once a year opportunity to gain access via guided tours at several participating historic buildings, landmarks, museums, churches, and even a few private offices, studios and residences!  A few sites I've visited during past OHNYs include the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum on East 61st Street.  Built in 1799 as a carriage house and then converted to a hotel in 1826, the old-timey structure is one of the oldest buildings in Manhattan and certainly stands out on the block it shares with modern buildings.  The Grand Lodge of the Masons on West 23rd Street in Chelsea serves as the meeting place for the centuries-old organization, the Freemasons.  The overly ornate rooms are a bit creepy-in-an-asylum-sort-of-way, and I kept expecting Homer Simpson and his fellow Stonecutters to barge in wearing robes and bellowing their theme song.  The tour of sculptor Tom Otterness' Brooklyn Studio was great.  The affable and welcoming Otterness himself leads the tours, and discusses his work and creative process, answers questions, and lets visitors see up-close his many cutesy sculptors spread out around his spacious studio (see some pics I took last year below).

If I wasn't so lazy and was willing to tolerate the crowds this year, I'd check out:

Fourth Arts Block at 61 E 4th Street @ 2nd Ave, Manhattan

Saturday at 12:00, 2:00 and a 3:00 talk - Reservations required.  Learn about the artsy neighborhood's history with the area's master documenter, Clayton Patterson.  The City of New York sold 8 properties on East 4th Street in 2005 for $8 (!) to arts groups and designated the block an official Cultural District. 

Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn

Saturday and Sunday 12:00 and 3:30 tours - Cemetery open from 8-5.  This 478-acre cemetery is the final resting place for several notable New Yorkers.  "A dreaded sunny day, so I'll meet you at the cemetery gates..."

Illy Push Button House, Little West 12th Street/9th Ave, Meatpacking District

Saturday 10:00am-11:00pm, Sunday 10:00am-7:00pm / Saturday and Sunday open talk with Andrea Illy and architect Adam Kalkin at 10am.  Built in 2007, The Push Button House is a shipping container, which at the push of a button, opens up to a fully furnished 5-room apartment!  Sadly, something tells me one room in The Push Button House is probably larger than my entire shoe-box apartment.

MTA Substation, 225 West 53rd/Broadway, Manhattan

Saturday 11:00 and 1:00 - open dialogue/tour with Robert Lobenstein, the General Superintendent Power of Operations of NYC MTA Transit.  Tour the MTA power station that opened in mid-town Manhattan in 1904.  It might be fun (and a little nerdy) to see the massive infrastructure that is the source of my frequent tardiness and frustration.

From 2008 Tom Otterness OHNY tour

From 2008 Tom Otterness OHNY tour

From 2008 Tom Otterness OHNY tour

Hjortur Hjartarson at More North

More North is a sleek and chic gallery and design store in Tribeca showcasing the minimal and elegant works of Scandinavian artists and designers.  On Tuesday night it played host to an opening for Icelandic artist Hjortur Hjartarson. 

Evoking Iceland presents 23 beautiful, abstract, landscape paintings by the Reykjavik native.  The "heavily textural works... composed of several layers of paint and glaze" depict the various climates of Hjartarson's home-base Reykjavik as well as New York City.  The artist states, "New York inspires me because it is like a central station in many ways: art, food, people. business... very colorful."  Very colorful succinctly describes his canvases as well.  Though at first glance the paintings appear to be hazy and fuzzy mixes of colors, your eyes soon adjust and images or feelings of seasons, Central Park,  green fields, bodies of water, snowy landscapes, and urban skylines can be visualized. 

Extended viewing of Hjartarson's canvases give his pieces an organic yet surreal and dreamy feel.  See morenorth.com for more details.  Through December 6h.

More on More North ~ located at 39 North Moore Street, the store features sleek and modern furniture, glassware, ceramics, and art objects created by Scandinavian designers and companies including Artek, Knoll, Marimeko, Olby Design, Royal Copenhagen and more.  The 3,800-square-foot space was designed by KOKO Architecture and Design and is a clean, airy, and serene space.  Definitely drop by for a visit the next time you are in the neighborhood.  You can find more info on the store here.  See a few photos I took below.

Hjortur Hjartarson, Cold Painting, 2009

Hjortur Hjartarson, Manhattan Skyline, 2009

Hjortur Hjartarson, Summer Painting, 2009

Glass display at More North

More North with Hjortur Hjartarson's Clay, 2009, in background

More North staircase with Hjortur Hjartarson's Reflection III, 2007, in background

More North table display and Hjortur Hjartarson's Reflection in Blue, 2009, in background

George Boorujy at PPOW & Simen Johan at Yossi Milo

I thought it would be fitting for the post directly after Where the Wild Things Are be about exhibits featuring actual wild things.  PPOW is currently showing Geoge Boorujy's Migratory Drift while Yossi Milo has Simen Johan's Until the Kingdom Comes on view.  Both artists depict wild animals in imagined, bleak landscapes that in actuality, are probably not too far from reality. 

New Jersey-born Boorujy "uses a naturalist's eye to depict iconic North American animals and landscapes, presenting a vision of life on the continent that is at once foreign and familiar."  While Boorujy's animals initially look realistic and natural, if you look closer, you'll notice that the poor things are mutated, missing limbs, and basically looking seriously bummed out.  Boorujy's landscapes "exhibit evidence of change.  Not only has the climate and ecology shifted in these places, so has the interaction and behavior of their inhabitants both human and animal."  The drawings emit an uneasy vibe and clearly something is off and not quite right in the images.  Whether the answer is a negative or positive effect on the evolution of the subjects is left up to the viewer to decide.  Learn more at ppowgallery.com and find out more about Boorujy at his website Georgeboorujy.com.  Through October 24th.

Until the Kingdom Comes is an ongoing project Norwegian artist Johan started in 2004.  Based in New York City since 1992, Johan "depicts a natural world hovering between reality, fantasy and nightmare.  Merging traditional photographic techniques with digital methods, Johan's images are crafted over time and may include a synthesis of landscapes from various geographical locations and animals photographed in captivity or in the wild." 

Johan's animals are inserted into some pretty ominous-looking environs where they look unnatural and out of place.  Johan's photos and sculptures "blur[s] the boundaries between the real and the unreal, re-imagining worlds that, much like our own, are forever a mystery.  Majestic animals in fantasy landscapes are set in relief against a darker reality."  See more at yossimilo.com and learn more about Johan at his website Simenjohan.com.  Through October 31st.

Both shows are sad reminders that our jerky, selfish actions not only effect our lives and surroundings, but ultimately those in the animal kingdom as well.

George Boorujy, Bluebird, 2009

Geore Boorujy, Chira-Mante-Kamui, 2009

George Boorujy, Horse, 2008

George Boorujy, Pronghorn II, 2008

Simen Johan, Untitled #137 (Lamb), 2006

Simen Johan, Untitled #150 (Black Chickens), 2009, and Untitled #153 (Buffalo), 2008

Simen Johan, Untitled #154 (Snakes), 2008