Archive for the 'Exhibition' Category
Friday, August 21st, 2009
Urban Deconstruction @ Guy Hepner Contemporary
KAWS, Limited Time Only, 2006.
Art showman and prominent dealer, Guy Hepner, is hosting a unique show of 6 paintings by the icons of ‘urban’ art, KAWS, Mr. Brainwash and Bansky. Opening August 24, the show is historically relevant, bringing three globally significant artists together from private collections in one gallery. If you have not stopped by and experienced Hepner’s new Robertson location, this is the perfect opportunity to get acquainted. Following Urban Deconstruction, Hepner is mounting a solo show by photographer Russell Young. KAWS’ grandiose Limited Time Only, an acrylic on canvas rendition, features an homage to Goya with the disruption of his witches from the 18th Century masterpiece entitled ‘Linda Maestra, Plate 68 of Los Caprichos’.
Monday, August 17th, 2009
Making Something from Nothing :: Beautiful Losers Released in UK, Inspires London Exhibit
Ivory Serra – Installation View of Alleged Gallery, 2001 (via: Watch This Space)
If you are reading this, chances are you are already familiar with Beautiful Losers, the traveling art exhibit turned documentary film celebrating a group of artists who emerged out of New York’s Alleged Gallery in the early 90s, joined together by the DIY aesthetics of punk rock, hip-hop and skateboarding. The marks of artists like Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey, Geoff McFetridge, Mike Mills and Harmonie Korine are widely acknowledged in popular art, design, film, and fashion. Now, a new exhibition in London takes up the Beautiful Losers calling to “Make Something From Nothing,” featuring a group of emerging UK artists.
DIY London Seen, an exhibition documenting the work of, and inspired by the artists featured in the film, opened today, coinciding with Beautiful ‘Losers UK DVD release and run at the London Institute of Contemporary Arts. Organized by Watch This Space, the show features a group of young London artists whose work embodies the spirit of the film, alongside the photography of original Loser, Cheryl Dunn, and Ivory Serra, who documented the rise of the Beautiful Losers’ artists throughout the 90s. DIY London Seen runs August 17 – September 5 at 2009 at The Market Building in Covent Garden.
DIY LONDON SEEN
August 17 – Sept 5
The Market Building
Covent Garden
London, UK WC2 8RF
Participating Artists: Arran Gregory, Aidan O’Neill, Best One, Chrissie Abbott, Clare Shilland, Charlie Woolley, Cheryl Dunn, Gustav Svanborg Edén, Graham Hudson, Harry Malt, Ivory Serra, Jethro Haynes, Marc Silver, Marcus Oakley, Niall O’Brien, Nick Jensen, Robin Clare, Sam Ashley and Toby Shuall, Ricky Adams, Rita Bored, XXXXXX, Mat Pringle and Sam Szulc
Monday, August 17th, 2009
Quality Art Still Sells :: Joshua Liner’s Summer Show
James Roper (Images © Jeff Newman/TheArtCollectors)
The current mantra being echoed in auction house halls and on dealers’ calls is that despite the slowdown in art buying, there is still a strong audience and market for quality works of art. As the dust settles over the mediocre, Joshua Liner further proves which side of the fence he falls on with the opening of an overwhelmingly strong show this past Saturday. Liner’s Summer Group Exhibition includes many well-known painters, highlighted by Radioheads’ longtime visual guru, Stanley Downwood, Greg Craola Simkins, and Dave Kinsey, along with some very recognizable younger talents who have gained fast followings, like Chloe Early (who also shows with London’s Stolen Space) and Cleon Peterson (a member of Shepard Fairey’s Studio Number One design team).
Chloe Early (Images © Jeff Newman/TheArtCollectors)
Equally deserving are some of the lesser known bold new additions to the gallery including James Roper, Ryan McLennan and Tristram Lansdowne. Not surprising, there was a noticeable buzz amongst the crowd, who shared in the refreshing excitement of such a vast and impressive lineup. And with many of the works already sold, there’s proof that collectors will still open their wallets for undeniably and irresistibly good art.
Read on for our exclusive photos from opening night and full list of participating artists. Click images for larger views.
Friday, August 7th, 2009
Ad Hoc Bids Farewell
Video: Brooklyn Street Art
Tonight, Ad Hoc Art opens its last exhibition, appropriately one of their strongest to date, with a joint show from Armsrock and Chris Stain. While Ad Hoc and its Peripheral Media Projects print shop are not disappearing altogether, they will be trimming much of their 49 Bogart St. Brooklyn space and scaling back operations as a formal gallery to focus on the more sustainable aspects of their business. So, while the gallery that showed early support to young, emerging artists like Swoon, Judith Supine and Bast will cease to exist, the individuals and spirit behind the organization will continue on through alternative projects and collaborations requiring less of a financial burden. Co-founder and Owner, Garrison Buxton sent out a lengthy and heartfelt letter, explaining the current state and future vision for Ad Hoc, which we excerpt after the jump:
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
Paul J Kneale @ Studio Gallery
In a new site-un-specific project conceived for Toronto’s Studio Gallery, Paul J Kneale explores the change between inform and form in a work that is both installation and event. Drawing on the familiar to create a psychologically dissonant experience, the work positions its subject at the threshold of our process of expressing meaning through material. For No One opens August 13th:
Paul J Kneale – For No One
August 13 – Sept 10
Studio Gallery
294 College St., 2nd Floor
Toronto, ON M5T1R9
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Island Hopping with Dalek
After recently completing his largest free-standing piece to date, commissioned for the opening of Hurley’s new Laguna Beach store, Dalek (James Marshall) now finds himself in Hawaii, taking a week to prepare new work for the upcoming show, 2D: The Art of 2Day, at SoHo Mixed Media Bar. Images from both events (courtesy of Hurley and Curatedmag) provide an insightful look into Dalek’s creative and technical process.
2D: The Art of 2Day opens Friday, August 7, during First Friday Art Walk in Honolulu. In conjunction with the event Dalek and event sponsor In4mation have created a limited edition t-shirt and print, with proceeds benefiting The Contemporary Museum of Honolulu, the only museum in Hawaii devoted exclusively to contemporary art.
Next up for Dalek will be a UK exhibit at the influential Elms Lester’s Painting Rooms in London with Amsterdam-based artist, Delta. The show opens August 28 and runs to September 26.
Read on for pics and video Read the rest of this entry »
Friday, July 17th, 2009
Clayton Brothers’ New Gallery + Museum Exhibitions
Topsy Turvy Times of Cockamamie Mumbo-Jumbo, 2009. 84 x 144 inches.
The Clayton Brothers open a much anticipated show in Los Angeles tomorrow, July 18. Judging by the large mixed media on canvas works shown here, we expect the duo to unleash an ambitious exhibit, which slated to fill both the east and west spaces at Patrick Painter Gallery’s Bergamot Station location. This one is not to be missed.
The Claytons are also scheduled for their first major museum exhibition at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Wisconsin. Rob and Christian Clayton: Inside Out will run from Sept. 10 – Dec 19, 2010.
Spacey Still Life with Protective Pigeons, 2009. 84 x 48 inches.
I’m Just Joking, 2009. 84 x 84 inches.
Clayton Brothers – Jumbo Fruit
July 18 – August 29
Patrick Painter Gallery2525 Michigan Ave., Unit B2
Santa Monica, CA 90404
info@patrickpainter.com
All Images © Clayton Bros./Patrick Painter Inc.
Monday, July 13th, 2009
Get Over It at Show & Tell, Toronto
Greg Lamarche – Risk, Reward, 2009. Paper Collage.
Get Over It, on view at Show and Tell Gallery in Toronto, features the art of Steve Powers, Greg Lamarche, and Greg Gossel. While the show successfully groups these artists together along the themes of typography and iconography, Lamarche’s contributions strike us the most. Powers’ are largely remainders from previous exhibitions with V1 and Collette, and Gossel’s again seems too familiar, which may not bother a new and unfamiliar audience. Read on for images from the show.
Read the rest of this entry »
Sunday, July 12th, 2009
Lawrence Weiner at Regen Projects II
Lawrence Weiner – PLACED ON THE TIP OF A WAVE, 2009. Image: Regen Projects
Regen Projects presents a series of new works by famed conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner with the show PLACED ON THE TIP OF A WAVE. Not surprisingly, the work of the same name beautifully adorns the white wall outside of Regen Project’s second gallery space on Santa Monica Blvd (Weiner has utilized the exterior of the gallery for previous shows as well). The exhibit runs until August 15, 2009.
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Jeff Koons Keeps Criticism Alive with Serpentine Survey
Jeff Koons with Triple Popeye, 2008. Image: Getty Images via Telegraph
There has been plenty written lately on the turbulence of the art market. Major auctioneers are noticiably scaling back on guarantees and offerings from contemporary art titans like Hirst or Murakami, whose seemingly unstoppable growth finally appears to be tapering off. Even Jeff Koons, whose rise to fame predates both of the above mentioned artists by more than a decade, has been affected by the market slump. In April, 2009 the NY Times reported that one of Koons’ five Hanging Heart sculptures was quietly sold for $11 million in a private sale. This was little more than a year after he set the world record for a living artist when Gagosian Gallery bought another color from the same series for $23.6 million during Sotheby’s November 2007 contemporary evening sale (view auction result here).
In the midst of all this pop art-star uncertainty, Serpentine Gallery is hosting Jeff Koons’ first public (nothing’s for sale) gallery exhibition in London. Jeff Koons: Popeye Series presents a survey of works conceptualized by Koons and painstakingly executed by the employees of his some 100 person NY studio team. The focal point of the show are Triple Popeye (2008) and other recent paintings infusing iconic cartoon characters in a hyper dense mash-up of abstracted imagery generated with computer aid, but meticulously painted by hand (not Koons’ own). Also on view are the artist’s well-know cast aluminum “inflatables” sculptures that take on the appearance of cheap mass-produced plastic pool toys. These have been updated and combined with “readymades” – that’s Koons-speak for every-day household items like a stepladder and garbage can.
For more than twenty years, Jeff Koons has been the subject of much praise and ridicule. His ultra-modern style of pop has been simultaneously applauded as some of the most culturally relevant and revolutionary art being made today, and attacked for being intellectually void, utterly low-brow kitsch that epitomizes the speculative glitz of the last several years. This new show is no different. Writing for the Telegraph, Richard Dorment suggests that “Koons’s subject matter may appear to be innocuous, but he is the most subversive artist alive today.” Adhering to the more cynical view, is the Guardian’s Adrian Searle, who says Popeye Series “is art for a world with deep pockets and a short attention span.”
Via Channel 4
Taking the middle ground is art critic Michael Glover, who calls the show “a mind-numbing spectacle…quite difficult to know whether to laugh or to cry at,” and that “it seems preposterous, almost beyond the most absurd critical joke, that anyone should take this stuff seriously at all, or have the gall to stick the label of art on it.” Yet, In the same breath he ponders the notion that “Koons wants to get rid of all that kind of old-fashioned guilt by making an art that is readily approachable, understandable and enjoyable. He wants to be entirely non-judgmental. He doesn’t want people to have to feel that they are nervously looking up at something that they don’t quite understand. He doesn’t want people to have to think and worry about pesky things like meaning. What you see is what you get. Koons brings us all together, in one big happy family. He makes us feel good about ourselves in the presence of art.”
Should Jeff Koons be heralded for democratizing art for the masses, or chastised for ushering in an over-inflated balloon of meaningless and shallow art? Koons himself might agree with both sides of the critical spectrum, and has said his art should readily evoke immediate reaction and not be contemplated or deconstructed for deeper meaning. Talking with Glover, Koons reflected on his own works: “They don’t have to bring anything with them other than exactly what they are, and they’re perfect for that experience because it’s about them…I want people, when they look at my art, to have engaging moments. I want them to feel that everything about their lives is perfect – their history, their culture, their selves. Everything is in play. Everything is possible…”
Jeff Koons: Popeye Series
July 2 – September 13
Serpentine Gallery
Kensington Gardens
London W2 3XA
Lead Image: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images via Telegraph. Triple Popeye painting with Acrobat (Lobster): Ray Tang/Rex Features. All other images: Serpentine Gallery/Jeff Koons.