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.
Los Angeles’ art scene is all the more elevated by the emergence of Rivera & Rivera Gallery, located downtown. Their latest offering features Retna, an artist on the cusp of an explosive career trajectory. With underlying major critical support, Retna is shifting to the foreground of museums and serious collectors alike. In a bold move, Rivera & Rivera utilizes their entire gallery space in a thunderously glorious installation that signifies the magnitude of Retna’s voice. Every inch is transformed by the majestic visual landscape. In a fabulous knock-out of an exhibition, Retna and Rivera & Rivera are clearly ushering in a definitive art show.
Sir Gerald Kelly (English, 1879-1972), Portrait of Mr. Frick in the West Gallery, 1925, oil on canvas. 48 x 40 in. Frick Art & Historical Center, Pittsburgh, PA
In this LA Times article, American art collectors are singled out as emerging in scholarly significance. Contrasted to older traditions, American collecting has evolved briskly, though failing to reach a mainstream level of visibility amongst the popular culture. In the last decade, the Internet has made it possible for young collectors to hone their taste and create highly-personalized art collections. Speaking from experience, the web has facilitated many aspects of serious collecting, including creation and utilization of channels like this blog and our forum. As American collectors begin to be studied, it’s a certainty to expect that there will be vast differences among us, yet astounding commonalities may also come as a surprise. With new forms of art such as ‘toys’ by KAWS and more galleries bravely appealing to nascent collectors, it’s an exciting time for art. As collectors, American or not, we each share a passion for art; a heritage that is established in the most classical notion of holding something beautiful, or at least endlessly fascinating, in our possession.
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….
(All Images: Jeff Newman/TheArtCollectors, except where noted)
Despite years of circumventing mainstream art circles and rarely showing his work publicly, KAWShas 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.
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)
Brush Strokes, a joint exhibit from Barry Mcgee (under his Lydia Fong moniker) and Todd James opened this past weekend at V1 Gallery, Copenhagen. Though there are only a couple of collaborative moments, the themes explored by the two long time friends are a perfect match. Mcgee’s street photography and tag-like block lettered text paintings act as a crucial declaration of identity alongside confusing geometric patterns that mimic the mind numbing, dumbing down effects of constant entertainment and media bombardment. Laying somewhere between Saturday morning cartoons and a Noam Chomsky dissertation, the happy faced war planes, bloody sword wielding tanks and gumball filled soldiers of Todd James’ cartoon drawings provide a darkly satirical commentary on the culture of violence and militarism spoon fed by western media in easily digestible packages.
This is not the first time McGee and James have show together. In 200o the two worked with fellow graffiti turned gallery artist, Stephen Powers (ESPO) on their Indelible Market installation at the University of Pennsylvania Institute of Contemporary Art. The trio expanded the concept for Street Market, a large scale exhibition with Deitch Projects the same year, and were later reunited for the Beautiful Losers museum exhibitions.
Up next for McGee – Looks like he’ll be coming to New York soon 😉
Videos for all the Art Salon Talks from Art 41 Basel Switzerland are now available to view or download on the fair’s website here. The above conversation, “Collector Power – Who Has It and Who Doesn’t,” between Josh Baer, art advisor and publisher of the Baer Fax art industry newsletter, and heavyweight collector Adam Lindemann is worth a watch (click pic to launch video).
Tracy Emin’s My Bed (1998), one of the 200 works of art Charles Saatchi plans on gifting to the British government.
Outspoken advertising and art collecting tycoon Charles Saatchi has announced plans to gift his London gallery and some 200 works of art to the British government upon his retirement. While terms of the donation have not yet been ironed out and Saatchi has not specified a retirement date, the deal would put an estimated $37.5 million worth of art, along with Saatchi’s 70,000 sq ft exhibit space (to be renamed The Museum of Contemporary Art, London) in the nation’s hands. Statements from the gallery clarified that no charges would fall on the nation’s taxpayers, nor would Mr. Saatchi himself receive any tax benefits from the gift.
While the works to be donated may serve as hefty building blocks for a new museum, ultimately its success as a major public art institution will rest on what government agencies are given the task, who is brought in to curate and direct, how new works will be acquired by the collection, and in doing so, what will be purged.
Absolut Vodka has teamed up with Stephen Powersand 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.
