Archive for February, 2012
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Tomokazu Matsuyama Edition Release
Snow Globes by Tomokazu Matsuyama from The Standard Hotel on Vimeo.
This Thursday, The Standard Hotel Shop will release their latest artist edition, this time collaborating with Tomokazu Matsuyama. While no images of the product have surfaced yet (update – we were just sent the above video), we expect to see a snow-globe based on Matzu’s paintings. The release will be in an edition of only 30, so best grab one quick. Those in the NYC area should drop in for the launch event and after party.
Past collaborations have included products by Julia Chiang KAWS, Barbara Kruger, Ryan McGinness, Jose Parla, and Rostarr.
Thursday, February 16th, 2012
Print/Out: MoMA surveys contemporary printing
Martin Kippenberger, Content on Tour (Inhalt auf Reisen), 1992, Screenprint mounted on plywood, with unique alterations by the artist, 70 7/8 x 59" (180 x 150 cm). Publisher and printer: Edition Artelier, Graz, Austria. © Estate Martin Kippenberger, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne. Photograph: Lothar Schnepf, Cologne.
Earlier this week I attended the opening reception for Print/Out, MoMA’s latest exhibit to highlight printing practices, this time, surveying contemporary projects and series of the last two decades. Culled almost exclusively from the museum’s Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, the exhibit is as visually compelling as it is informative. A section devoted to the work of Edition Jacob Samuel, highlighted by a display and video demonstration of his portable aquatint box and Marina Abramovic portfolio, offers a rare glimpse at the technical artistry of the print master and his practice. In Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), Kara Walker’s solid black silhouette figures find new context, silkscreened against reproductions of an 1886 publication of Civil War prints. Selections from Damien Hirst’s 1999 Last Supper portfolio remind me why he was once interesting. Danish collective Superflex (who launch a solo show at Peter Blum next month) have set up a functioning workshop, inviting visitors to create replicas of iconic modern lamp designs by selecting a design and pasting computer print outs onto small wooden box frames. The works will be periodically hung from the gallery’s ceiling, growing an installation of art reproductions over time. The participatory piece in flux may just compel me visit again in a few weeks.
Jacob Samuel’s portable aquatint box.
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
R.I.P. Mike Kelley
The latest reports confirm that artist Mike Kelley , who was found dead in his L.A. home Tuesday, did commit suicide. Kelley’s creative roots trace back to his involvement as a college Michigan student in the self-dubbed “anti-rock” group, Destroy All Monsters. He departed the performance based band in 1976 to pursue a degree from Cal Arts. Since then, Kelley had gained prominence as a contemporary and multimedia artist, collaborating with Paul McCarthy and Tony Oursler. In 1992, his self portrait, Ahh…Youth, featuring the artist surrounded by raggedy away of stuffed animals, graced the cover of Sonic Youth’s biggest commercial success, Dirty.
Kelley’s work is slated to appear in the 2012 Whitney Biennial. He was 57 years old.
Rest in Peace.