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Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Erik Parker in Copenhagen


(All Images: Anders Sune Berg, courtesy Faurschou CPH)

Faurschou Copenhagen is currently exhibiting new works by New York based painter, Erik Parker. Along with his previous exhibit at Paul Kasmin (NY), Parker’s tightly rendered, candy-colored psychedelia are easily his most accomplished works to date. As the show’s title suggests, Adapt signals an artist who, after more than a decade of patient development and experimentation, has reemerged with a bold and compelling style that no doubt can catapult him to increased notoriety.

Read On For More Images Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by ATARMS | Filed in Artist Talk, Europe, Exhibition | 2 Comments »

 

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Jeff Koons and David Byrne: 77

Here we see a young Jeff Koons in candid conversation with musician, David Byrne. The chat took place at 52 Bond Street, widely known for housing many artists during the 70s, and located just across the street from CBGB, where Byrne’s band, The Talking Heads grew their early following. While the video title suggests the talk took place in 1975, references to Jimmy Carter’s upcoming presidency and celebrating New Year’s at a NY strip club indicates it most likely occurred in early January of 1977, just two months after The Talking Heads signed with Sire Records. Their first album, Talking Heads: 77,  was released in September of that year.

In more timely news, on April 10 Byrne and Fatboy Slim will release Here Lies Love, their collaborative concept record about first lady of the Phillippines, Imelda Marcos. Listen to Please Don’t, the first single, here (via Stereogum)

Posted by ATARMS | Filed in Artist Talk, Interview | Comment now »

 

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Tomokazu Matsuyama at Frey Norris, San Francisco


(All Images via Frey Norris Gallery)

Around the turn of the century 20th century, the U.S. embarked down a road of increasingly restrictive immigration policies, including the Chinese Exclusion (1882) and Emergency Quota Acts (1921, 1924). Such foreign policy effectively stifled the influx of immigrants, while appeasing growing nativist concerns. Included here was the Gentleman’s Agreement (1907), a mutual arrangement whereby the U.S. would not extend such restrictions to Japan, as long as the island empire agreed to cut off all further emigration to the U.S.  And while the goal was partly to cool relations between the two nations, competing imperialistic hungers eventually reignited tensions that sparked the Pacific front of the Second World War. By 1942 FDR had signed Executive Order 9066, forcibly relocating over 100,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps. It was only in 1988 that the federal government acknowledged the prejudice of its past policy, paying over $1.5 billion in reparations.

With In Case You’re Lost, Tomokazu Matsuyama not only works towards reconciling the cultural tensions of his own Japanese-American identity, but addresses larger issues of nationalism and global relations. Here is a complex mix of autobiographical and socio-political commentary.

Surrounded by new paintings are the show’s centerpieces – two large-scale sculptures that contemplate notions of cultural heritage and nationalism, flip-flopping symbols of American and Asian identity. Wherever I Am, a life-size reworking of Frederick Remington’s Bronco Buster, recasts the famed late 19th century American sculpture with a Japanese-pop sensibility, replacing the iconic cowboy rider with a Playmobil character. Chogen, based off the original 13th century Japanese treasure,  substitutes the praying monk’s prayer beads for beer cans and cigarette butts, and his original meditative state, for a glazed-over drunken one.

Speaking of the new sculpture, Matsu notes, “I wanted to keep that rigourous, very expressionistic feature but flip to an American context, so what I did was I made him an alchoholic – like a drunk man in a sports bar…From a distance, he looks somewhat fanatic like its original. Close up, you’ll see his eye focus is gone and he’s just drunk. The eyes are actual glass eyes, made of gold leaf inside with the addition of my painting color scheme of neon pink and dark brown. The sculpture looks aged and few centuries old but the material used to paint it looks like 70s auto paint…[colliding] aged with the contemporary art material.”

Tomokazu Matsuyama – In Case You’re Lost
Frey Norris Gallery
4
56 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

 

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Last Chance :: Josh Keyes’ Fragment


(All Images Jeff Newman/TheArtCollectors)

Over the past few years Josh Keyes has fast built an almost fanatic collector base, with his last four shows selling out prior to opening. With Fragment, the Portland based painter further solidifies his appeal, as a waiting list of over 400 eager fans clamored for a chance at the ten 40″ x 30″ acrylic panels on view. Most of these paintings continue the familiar themes Keyes’ has been honing in on, with one piece taking on new ground – the plainly titled  Self Portrait as an Old Man.

What makes Josh Keyes great is his mastery of both the overt and covert. First, there’s the hook. Through meticulously rendered and graphically compelling imagery, with obvious environmental and political connections, his works are instantly accessible. Yet, the complexity of these works, with deeper concerns borderlining on the metaphysical, is what makes them so compelling.

Josh Keyes – Fragment is on view until Feb. 13 at Jonathan LeVine, New York. Read on for our images from the show. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by ATARMS | Filed in Artist Talk, Closing Soon, New York City | Comment now »

 

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Lowride to High Art :: Dzine at The Bass Museum

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(All Images © Jeff Newman/TheArtCollectors)

Chicago based artist, Dzine (Carlos Rolon) appropriates the aesthetics of lowrider “Kustom [car] Kulture” into high art circles. In doing so, he redefines these objects, deeply rooted in Chicano ethnic and communal identities, as vibrant and viable works of sculpture.

As noted by Denise M. Sandoval in Cruising Through East Los Angeles: Chicano Lowrider Stories, “lowriders can be seen as embodiments of Mexican-American or Chicano social history, a heritage that is often misunderstood by other segments of the American populace…and speak to the creation of cultural space[s] within the urban environment…”  While celebrating this heritage, Dzine simultaneously urges the viewer to see beyond such connections. “On one level its a folkloric tradition, but its also just one degree away from a Mariko Mori sculpture,” the artist reflected. “To put my work in a different environment where people might look at it as its Starke or Gerhy did it, is to make it aesthetic rather than sociological – to see this like I do, as a sculpture (Paper Magazine; Carlo McCormick, May 2008).

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Dzine’s works are currently on view at The Bass Museum of Art, Miami (he also had a new work on display earlier this month with Deitch Projects at Art Basel, Miami – pictured below). The most innovative piece in the exhibit it a customized chandelier, tricked out with 24 karot gold, crystals, speakers, velvet, and rear view mirrors. Here, Dzine has flipped his usual method appropriation on its head, taking a high culture status symbol and reworking it into the lexicon of the street. With such compelling and instantly accessible works of art, we can’t help but imagine one of his wheeled-wonders bulldozing over Damien Hirst’s Diamond Skull. Here’s to wishful thinking.

Read on for our extensive images – click for larger views. Read the rest of this entry »

 

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Pot-Art :: Warhol Foundation + Paul Morrissey Sued For Torture

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Director Paul Morrissey is also named in the lawsuit against the Warhol Foundation

A family is suing the Andy Warhol Foundation for $300,000 in damages, claiming the art icon tortured their late father when he was 14 years old while filming him smoking pot for a short silent film. The lawsuit argues that the Foundation, along with director, Paul Morrissey are still profiting from DVD sales of All Aboard to Dreamland Choo Choo, where the footage appears, and goes as far as to call the film “child pornography.” Click here to read the full text of the complaint filed in Pennsylvania.

Info: Courthouse News Service via Art Tactic

Posted by ATARMS | Filed in Artist Talk, Legal | 1 Comment »

 

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Reach for the Sky :: Tomoo Gokita at Honor Fraser, LA

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(All Images © Honor Fraser)

With Heaven, Tomoo Gokita reaches deeper into the metaphysical, further deconstructing the figurative forms that have come to occupy his works less and less. The increasingly abstract canvases in his second solo show with Honor Fraser (Los Angeles) also mark a shift in technique, substituting monochrome black and white gouaches for blue and white acrylics.  On view now through Dec. 19. Read on for more images – click for detailed views.

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Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by ATARMS | Filed in Artist Talk, Los Angeles, Uncategorized | Comment now »

 

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

McGee, Powers, James to Reunite

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(Image © Jason Schmidt)

We’ve heard that Barry McGee (TWIST), Steve Powers (ESPO) and Todd James (REAS) will soon be reuniting to create a new version of their legendary Street Market installation with Deitch Projects. The 2000 exhibit (along with Indelible Market, its predecessor at the University of Pennsylvania Institute of Contemporary Art) remains not only a defining moment in these artists’ careers, but like the influence Haring and Basquait had before them, a turning point for the recognition of street based art within mainstream contemporary arts.

This is going to be huge.

 

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Kaws X Kiehls Arrives

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(All Images © Jeff Newman/TheArtCollectors)

Check out these new displays featuring KAWS’ designs at Kiehl’s flagship NYC store. As previously reported, the artist and luxury beauty company have teamed up, creating a limited edition moisturizer to benefit Rx Art. While the product is available now in three sizes,  you may want to hold off till next week when KAWS gift boxes and shopping bags will be available in store.

100% of net profits will benefit  RxArt, a New York based nonprofit which invites well known artists to decorate hospitals and children’s medical centers. No word yet whether KAWS will be creating one of these installations, but his youthful imagery and cartoon references would be perfect fit.

Posted by ATARMS | Filed in Artist Talk, Benefit+Fundraiser, Design, Product | 2 Comments »

 

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

New Day Rising :: Sashie Masakatsu at Mizuma, Tokyo

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Moon, 102 x 76 inches, 2009.

Sashie Masakatsu creates visions of a post apocalyptic future, where fallen Japanese civilization reemerges in imposing orbs of cultural detritus, hovering above decayed and desolate urban landscapes. We were first clued in to his paintings when some small works were displayed at Giant Robot 2, Los Angeles as part of their 2007 Gesai exhibit. At last year’s PULSE Fair Miami, we watched as several of our TAC members frantically snatched up all available pieces on view with Mizuma Gallery.  On Nov. 28 the Tokyo based gallery launches “De Facto Standard,” a solo exhibit of new paintings, including those previewed here.  – Click images for detailed views.

See our previous news on Sashie’s recent 20th Century Boy T-Rex inspired exhibit here.

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Monster, 2009, 76 x 64 inches.

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Mushroom, 13 x 10 inches, 2009

Posted by ATARMS | Filed in Artist Talk, Asia, Exhibition | Comment now »