Archive for June, 2010
Monday, June 14th, 2010
New FAILE Print on Sale / Portugal Project Revealed
Faile’s studio during preparations for their 2008 exhibit, Lost in Glimmering Shadows. (Image via Faile)
A few short weeks after closing the doors to their Deluxx Fluxx Arcade, more news comes in from the FAILE camp. A new print goes on sale tomorrow, June 15 at 12pm EST via PaperMonster. Titled Ecstasy, the silkscreen will be one of the final releases from the Lost in Glimmering Shadows series, based on imagery from FAILE’s 2008 show in London. Keeping true to form, the 12 color signed, stamped and numbered edition of 175 was screened and painted in-house, and measures 25″ x 38″
FAILE have also announced more details on their upcoming contribution to Portugal Arte 10. From July 16 to 15 August 15, the Brooklyn-based artists will display Temple, a full-scale church in ruins, set in Praça dos Restauradores Square in Lisbon.
UPDATE: Here’s the print, released for $775 and sold out as of 6/15. Note that colors vary due to hand painted elements.
Monday, June 14th, 2010
Inside Out :: Ernesto Neto’s Largest Installation Opens in London
Ernesto Neto – anthropodino, 2009, commissioned for the Park Avenue Armory, New York, 2009 (Image: James Ewing via)
In what is being billed as his most ambitious exhibition to date, Brazilian sculpture artist Ernesto Neto will open a new site specific, all-encompasing environment at London’s Southbank Centre Hayward Gallery this Saturday, June 19. Viewers will act as participants, exploring a sequence of connected spaces that merge sculpture and architecture, at times recalling biological systems. For this new exhibition, Neto will create his first outdoor installations, including a sculptural pool that visitors will be allowed to enter.
Neto’s installation is part of The New Décor, an international survey of some 30 contemporary artists whose whose work explores interior design as a means of engaging with changes in contemporary culture.
Ernesto Neto – The Edges of the World / The New Decor
July 19 – September 5
The Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
Monday, June 14th, 2010
Rosson Crow’s Bowery Boys in Print
Along with Kristin Baker’s exhibit last December, Rosson Crow’s Bowery Boys was easily the best thing to grace the walls of Deitch’s main space during the gallery’s final season, and certainly their best of 2010 – and no, I have not forgotten about Shep or Kehinde’s shows – actually, maybe I have. Painted fast and free, the loose dripping paint of the Bowery Boys series captured and celebrated the history, creativity and renegade debauchery of several decades of the downtown New York scene, in a show that should have been Deitch’s last.
Whether you missed it when it happened, or saw it when it did, you should go buy Crow’s latest publication from the OHWOW imprint. 56 pages, hard-cover, with an essay by former Deitch director Kathy Grayson, who we expect and are eager to see working with Crow in the future. Get it here
The Nest, 2010 (Image via Deitch Projects)
The Cock, 2010 (Image via Deitch Projects)
Monday, June 14th, 2010
Barbara Kruger Goes Underground
Barbara Kruger has designed the London Underground’s latest pocket map cover. Kruger’s Untitled (Tube Map) depicts part of a standard tube map (the most recognized area of Zone 1) with station names replaced by emotions and other words that evoke feelings for select areas of the city. Piccadilly Circus is Irony, for example. The maps are available now.
Beginning in 2003 with a commission by Emma Kay, the Art on the Underground program has invited an international mix of artists to design covers for the city’s rail system. Past contributors include Richard Long, David Shrigley, Cornelia Parker and Gary Hume.
Richard Long’s 2009 effort, Earth. The six stacked lines symbolize Tube lines and a classical Chinese I Ching hexagram for Earth, with the black grid between them references the city’s Northern line.
Friday, June 11th, 2010
R.I.P. Sigmar Polke
(Image: Thomas Kellner, via)
Sigmar Polke has passed away from complications of cancer. Polke’s inprint can be traced back to his contributions to the Capitalist Realism movement that helped to revitalize contemporary art practices in post-war Germany. Though often recognized for his contributions Pop Art, his work wildly swayed between the figurative cultural appropriations of that style and abstraction. Polke was 69.
Thursday, June 10th, 2010
The Hole Opens for Business
After keeping the art geeks guessing, the official word on former Deitch directors Kathy Grayson and Meghan Coleman’s hit the masses today via the Wall Street Journal. On June 26 The Hole will open its doors at 104 Greene St. with the playfully titled, Not Quite Open for Business. With so much excitement over the shape of things to come, we’re eager to see who the pair have selected for their much-anticipated inaugural group show. So far, WSJ reports future exhibits with Mat Brinkman, Kenny Scharf and Dearraindrop, as well as several side projects including a back-room shop and a dating service for artists.
Our sincere congratulations go out to Ms. Grayson and Ms. Coleman as they take the plunge.
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
Thing Quarterly Collaborates with Chris Johanson + James Franco
Chris Johanson (Image via The Thing)
THE THING is gearing up to release the first installment of their new subscription cycle. Each year, the quarterly “periodical” collaborates with four artists to create limited art objects that each incorporates text. Issues 11-14 kick off with Chris Johanson, followed by fashion design team Doo.ri, artist Matthew Higgs, and will wrap up with actor/artist James Franco, who has shifted his recent focus to intellectual and artistic endeavors outside of acting.
To celebrate the launch of issue 11, Chris Johanson will host an event June 17 at SFMOMA, including video and musical performances. The event is free to Thing subscribers, or with museum admission. We’re not sure what Johanson has come up with for his issue yet, but have been promised that “guests can purchase Johanson’s…issue and put it to use while watching video projections of moonrises…”
Get your one year subscriptions here
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
New Record set for Walton Ford
Walton Ford’s Lisbon Rhinoceros, 2008 set a record for the artist at auction last month. (Image via Phillips de Pury)
As Marion Maneker has suggested, recent events indicate Walton Ford is fast on the rise, with his works crossing into blue-chip status. Last month Ford shook the auction market when Loss of the Lisbon Rhinoceros (estimated at $550-750,000) sold for $1,022,500 at Phillips Halsey Minor Collection auction, setting a new record for his work. The next day, Fords’ 2006 work La Fontaine, (also from Minor’s collection) took top-lot at Phillips Part II Contemporary Art sale when it sold for $746,500, far out-performing its original $250-350,000 estimate. Early this year, Wal-mart heriess’ Alice Walton’s Crystal Bridges Museum announced it had acquired Fords’ 11ft x 8.5 ft triptych, The Island, which first appeared as the centerpiece of his Oct. 09′ show at Paul Kasmin.
Walton Ford – La Fontaine, 2006. (Image via Phillips de Pury)
Walton Ford – The Island, 2009. (Image: Jeff Newman/TheArtCollectors)
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
Historic Haring Mural in Need of Rescue
The faded and damaged Haring mural as it looks today. (Image: Andrew De La Rue via Sydney Morning Herald)
The Art Newspaper reports that the last surviving mural Keith Haring painted entirely on his own, and the first project he completed with the assistance of a cherry picker, is in dire need of preservation. Painted in 1984 during Haring’s only visit to Australia, the mural occupies the wall of the former Collingwood Technical College in a Melbourne suburb. Last restored in 1996, the significant work has not been maintained for almost 15 years, and suffers from significant surface lifting and cracking of the paint. Estimates to stabilize the outdoor work are reported at A$25,000 ($22,000 US), with an additional A$1,000 ($900) for annual upkeep.
Several major Australian arts institutions and local municipalities have banned together to raise support for its restoration. “It is our own government who has lapsed in its duty of care,” said one spokesperson, noting that the building is owned by the Victorian State Government and that the mural sits on its heritage registry.
”Yarra’s mayor Jane Garrett said, “The mural is a part of Yarra and inner-Melbourne’s cultural and physical landscape—and we want to ensure it stays that way,” adding that interested parties were in the process of setting up a working group including representatives from the arts community and other interested parties to “discuss the mural’s future and come to a consensus on the most appropriate way to preserve it.”
The original mural in progress durning Haring’s 1984 visit to Melbourne (Image via The Art Newspaper)
In more productive news, a new series of Keith Haring adhesive wall graphics (pictured below) has been released by Bilk, with several different designs available from $18 – $55.
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010