web tracker
the art collectors » Uncategorized

Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Monday, September 20th, 2010

Art for Tibet Benefit


Pema Reznin – The light of my homeland, 2009, Mixed Media, 35″x40″ Estimate: $25,000.

Online bidding for the Art for Tibet 2 benefit is underway, culminating in a silent auction and closing party Sept. 25 in New York. A few highlights from the 100+ contributing artists include works by Pema Renzin, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Kenji Hirata, Bill McMullen and Shepard Fairey, and actor Richard Gere. All proceeds will benefit Students for a Free Tibet. Bid here now, or attend the closing party during the final hours this Saturday.

Art for Tibet Benefit 2 Art Auction & Party
Sept 25, 5-10pm
Union Gallery Annex
353 BroadwayNYC


Tomokazu Matsuyama – Kirin-Tiger, 2008. Gicleé print, 36.7″ x 26″. Estimate: $600.

Bill McMullen – Songs The Lord Taught Us, version 2,  2010. Poplar,  25″ x 13.5″ x 1.75″. Estimate: $1500

 

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Tonight’s NY Openings


Matthew Day Jackson – The Tomb, 2010 (Image via Peter Blum Gallery)

It’s September again and here in New York that means the gallery season has begun. Here’s a few openings on our radar for tonight:

Marianne Boesky – Jay Heiks – Inanimate Life –  In creating this multimedia series of works that explore processes of evolution and regeneration, corrosion and decay,  Heikes was inspired by Douglas Coupland’s description of the year following the end of the world from his 1998 novel Girlfriend in a Coma. Heikes was particularly affected by the line “ten million pictures fall from ten million walls,” which alludes to the end of art and culture, as we know it. “I never put too much stock in the fact that any of these mediums were truly dying because I saw them as corpses dragging themselves through the streets to rehabilitation centers, only to be reborn more grotesque and perverse than before,” Heikes said in reaction to the text.

Peter Blum – Matthew Day Jackson – In Search of (Soho) / The Tomb (Chelsea) – The Whitney Biennial and Greater New York alum presents a new body of multimedia and sculptural works based on his 2009 residency and exhibition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology List Visual Arts Center.

Morgan LehmanOpening Ceremony –  The gallery presents its inaugural exhibit in a brand new and expanded Chelsea exhibition space
The group show includes works by each of the gallery’s eighteen represented artists including Laura Ball, Eric Beltz, Andrew Schoultz, Paul Villinski, Paul Wackers, Ryan Wallace, and others.


Eric Beltz – Timber Beast, 2010 (Image via Morgan Lehman)

David Zwirner – John McCracken – New Works in Bronze and Steel – The esteemed sculptor of minimalist geometric forms presents his first bronzes alongside new stainless steel works.

Pace Galleries – 50 Years of Pace – The gallery celebrates its 50th year with a multi-site exhibition of some of the key masterpieces that have passed through their doors, featuring loans from important public and private collections worldwide. With works spanning more than a century and a selection of rare archival materials, the four separate exhibits will shed light on some of the landmark exhibitions and sales from the gallery’s extensive history. Covering the gallery’s engagement with Pop art, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalist Art and the Post-Modernist, to contemporary art in the 21st century, some artists included are Pablo Picasso, Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Willem De Kooning, Mark Rothko, Mondrian, Giacometti, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Jasper Johns, Dan Flavin, David Hockney, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Duke Riley.

Bryce Wolkowitz – Airan Kang – Light Reading – The South Korean artist unveils her first U.S. solo show, presenting her “Digital Book Projec”t for the first time in New York.

FAILE Prints & Originals Book Launch and Show (151 Orchard St.) – The street art turned gallery duo open the doors to a temporary pop-up shop and sell hand-customized versions of their new book, along with a selection of long sold out and sought print editions.

Posted by ATARMS | Filed in New York City, Openings, Uncategorized | Comment now »

 

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

Remembering 9/11



The twin beacons of light eminating from lower Manhattan and illuminating the New York night sky this week are a somber reminder of those who lost their lives in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Currently in its eighth year, the memorial was spearheaded by  Creative Time in partnership with the Municipal Arts Society and artists Julian LaVerdiere and Paul Myoda.

To commemorate the installation Creative Time has released two editions with LaVerdiere and Myoda. Towers of Light Triptych consists of three digital c-prints measuring 13×15.5 inches each, available in a signed and dated edition of 100 for $1500. Also available is Towers of Light Over the Empire, a single image from the series priced at $500. All proceeds will help support Creative Time’s future public art projects. Order here


Also worthy of mention is NY based artist Eric Parnes‘ sculpture, Two (pictured above). Comprised of twin plexiglass towers filled with World Trade Center debris collected from Ground Zero on the day of the 9/11 attacks, the piece serves as a startling commentary on the conflicted nature concerning the preservation and exhibition of artifacts associated wartime atrocities.
 

Monday, September 13th, 2010

Phaidon Relaunch

Phaidon has just relaunched their website. The esteemed art book publisher’s new site moves expands beyond an online store and enters the blogosphere with a revamped format including regularly updated sections devoted to architecture, art, design, food, photography, and video. We’re particularly interested in seeing how the site’s Edit section develops, which promises to deliver a look at “what Phaidon Editors are clicking on this week on the web.”

Posted by ATARMS | Filed in Publications, Uncategorized | Comment now »

 

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Accidents Will Happen :: Barry McGee Hits Houston Street


(All images and text © Jeff Newman/TheArtCollectors)

After a month away overseas (more on that to follow), I’ve come home to New York. Before leaving I had gotten word that Barry McGee and company would be coming to the city sometime soon to lend their treatment to the Houston Street mural wall on the Lower East Side. I thought for sure I would miss it, but returned earlier this week to learn I had made it back just in time. So, after several weeks of being absent from TheArtCollectors, I couldn’t have imagined a better way to jump back into things. I hope you’ll agree.

In an amazing twist, life imitated art in New York Sunday night when Barry McGee and crew descended on the Houston Street wall. Beginning at midnight, McGee, together with longtime collaborator Josh Lazcano (Amaze), began a massive spray-painting spree, bombarding the surface with hundreds of simple red tags. Working through the cover of night, the team created the ultimate graffiti writer’s roll call and a strangely beautiful, if not challenging piece of commissioned abstract art. By dawn, it would go much farther than even they could have imagined.

In the coming weeks, reactions to the piece are sure to be mixed, and it didn’t take long for questions to begin. Police made their first visit around 2am, clearly not knowing what to make of the Tony Goldman sanctioned property previously occupied by a Ketih Haring replica, a meticulously illustrated mural by Os Gemeos and the design heavy graphics of Shepard Fairey. No, this couldn’t be legit, this couldn’t be art. After a minor interruption a permit was produced and the police were on their way. They’d be returning though.

By 4am (with some added contributions from Chino) Twist and Amaze had completely filled in the wall with the names and crews of graffiti writers past and present. Seeing the project near completion, spectators, assistants and overseers had left the scene, leaving the artists free to “touch up” a few things. They were soon disrupted by a carload of ass-shaking club girls who briefly hijacked the sidewalk for a personal photo op. Acting as official photographer, Martha Cooper quickly stepped in keeping control over the site, and we turned our cameras on the drunken booty bunch. Barry and crew entered the frame. However amusing it was, this was clearly not how those involved had intended to end the night. Whatever – DFW – this bullshit would all be over soon and they could get back to what they were here for and waiting till dawn to complete.

4:45am and back to work. As it ascended to a few of the harder to reach spots, the buzz of the boom lift was suddenly drowned out by screeching tires. We turned our heads left just as a passing SUV smashed full force into a graffiti-adorned box truck, briefly taking flight and coming to rest on its side. The smell of oil and gasoline filled the air as it trickled out and drenched the pavement. “Call 911,” “Get that fucking cigarette away from here!” A few passersby rushed in and attempted to tear back the shattered windshield to reach the driver. Trapped on his side in an airbag filled compartment, they eventually opted to use the back end as an escape hatch. Bleeding from his forehead, but able to walk, he was pulled from the rear of the vehicle and helped into an ambulance.

By 5am the street was blocked off by police and fire department, bringing more unwelcome attention to the wall. Ordered down from their perch, the artists were subjected to another round of police scrutiny, this time focusing on their recent early morning final additions and concerns regarding the exact zone the work permit covered. Things seemed uncertain, if not dismal over the next hour.

What the hell had just happened? Walking west from the wall, a few hundred feet down the street to the accident and back up again, I started to take it all in – the totaled truck flipped on its side, the broken glass, the flashing lights and sirens all set the backdrop of 850 sq. feet of graffiti. I felt a certain sort of chaotic energy and unnerving excitement, as if one of Barry’s frenetic gallery and museum installations had spontaneously slammed full force into the middle of Houston Street. By 6am he and his mates were in there clear and off to the airport to get the hell out of New York City. Me? I walked up the block and back home where I couldn’t fall asleep for another three hours.

READ ON FOR MORE IMAGES Read the rest of this entry »

 

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

No Sleep Till Moscow…

I’m off to the airport in an hour for the start of a one month trek through Russia, Poland, and Belarus to trace my family’s past and have a bit of fun along the way. For part of the journey I’ll be searching out our Jewish heritage (or the loss of it?). Aside from my maternal grandmother and grandfather most of my mother’s family was wiped out when the German army marched into the small towns of Divin and Kobryn in eastern Poland (now western Belarus in the Brest region).  So, I’ll be off the map for a little while and you probably won’t hear from me for the next month or so. Maybe I’ll turn the site over into my travel diary for a bit when i return. We’ll see. With such heaviness ahead, the rest of the trip will be dedicated to general antics and seeing what sort of trouble i can find. Call it my Fear and Loathing is Illuminated. Until then, enjoy the rest of summer….

Posted by ATARMS | Filed in Uncategorized | Comment now »

 

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Interview :: TAC Talks with Curator Mónica Ramírez-Montagut about KAWS


(All Images: Jeff Newman/TheArtCollectors, except where noted)

Despite years of circumventing mainstream art circles and rarely showing his work publicly, KAWS has built up a massively dedicated following of collectors who obsessively seek out his creations, from limited edition toys and clothing, to even more elusive original paintings and drawings. After eight years of absence in the U.S and five years since exhibiting internationally, 2008 marked the artists’ return to gallery walls. With three consecutive solo shows in Miami, New York and Los Angeles, KAWS unveiled entirely new bodies of work that signaled a young artist on the verge of his most productive phase to date.

His most recent display is is no exception to this trajectory. On June 27th, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Connecticut, opened the doors to KAWS’ first solo museum exhibition, providing a retrospective look at his graffiti roots, fine art, and commercial projects, as well as brand new sculptural and installation pieces that stand as his largest and most ambitious to date.

TheArtCollectors spoke with curator Mónica Ramírez-Montagut about the process of creating the landmark exhibition. Read on for the conversation, click images for larger views.

Read the rest of this entry »

 

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Preview :: Around Town with Viva La Revolucion


JR installation in progress (Image: Geoff Hargadon)

Here are early images of several works in progress for the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s upcoming Viva La Revolucion exhibition, including a glimpse of outdoor pieces in progress (sanctioned and not) and museum installation shots from Os Gemeos, Swoon, Shepard Fairey, Barry McGee, Space Invader, JR, and Vhils.

In addition, Invader has unveiled a trailer for The Space Invader Walk, a virtual piece which will be presented in the museum as a movie. Watch it here:

Viva La Revolucion: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape opens this week with a members preview ($20 non-members) Saturday, July 17, and general admission beginning on the 18th. On Thurs, Aug. 12 the museum hosts a party featuring live music from Wavves (for the kids). (Click through for additional images)


Os Gemeos (Image: Allasia Brennan)


Space Invader (Image: Invader)

Read on for more…. Read the rest of this entry »

 

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

Absolut ESPO + Aoshima

Absolut Vodka has teamed up with Stephen Powers and Chiho Aoshima for a new promotion called The Absolut Art of Sharing. For the campaign each artist has contributed two designs to a series of four unique drink pitchers. From what we can tell, they’ve been released in various sizes for different markets (1Liter in US, 700ml in Europe/New Zealand, 750ml in Mexico), making it a bit hard and confusing to collect them all if you are that obsessive or that much of a drunk. So far, only 3/4 designs have been released in the 1L and 750ml sizes, so your best bet is to go for the 700ml set, which so far have hit a limited number of specialty stores in the UK, France, Belgium, and Greece. If you are that inclined to figure it all out, check the antics on this Absolut collector’s forum, where we ganked most of these pics from. Oh, and there’s always the easy way – ebay.

Posted by ATARMS | Filed in Design, Product, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

 

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

Must See :: Blu’s Big Bang Boom


BIG BANG BIG BOOM – the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

If you haven’t seen it yet, street art animator Blu has just unleashed another inspired short film. The frame-by-frame animation represents new ground for Blu, with the seamless incorporation of found three-dimensional objects into his already well know style of stop-motion surface animation. The project was completed with assistance from ARTSH.IT, with sound design by Andrea Martignoni, who has collaborated with Blu on previous animations. Impressive, bleak, and a must see.

Posted by ATARMS | Filed in Film, Graffiti, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »