Archive for August, 2008
Saturday, August 16th, 2008
REVS…
holding on strong in NYC…
Saturday, August 16th, 2008
Hirst to Retire…
Well, not exactly. In a recent Sotheby’s online promotional video interview, Damien Hirst revealed plans to cease production of several of his hugely successful series by the end of 2008. These include the artist’s butterfly and spin paintings, medicine cabinets, and eventually his formaldehyde animals. The announcement comes just in time for Hirst’s self-consigned fall sale at Sotheby’s, where several works from the soon to be retired series will be on auction. Scheduled for September 15th and 16th, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever will feature 223 new works by Hirst, spanning his entire creative output, and is expected to garnish an estimated $130 million. Public viewing of the exhibition runs September 5th to 15th. In addition, all lots and estimates can be viewed online now at Sotheby’s.
Watch the interview here and a video preview of the auction here. Click through for more auction pics. Read the rest of this entry »
Friday, August 15th, 2008
Swoon Navigates the Hudson
Today marks the launch of Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, a massive mobile art installation developed by Swoon, in collaboration with several artists and performers. Building upon ideas first explored by The Miss Rockaway Armada, a fleet of seven handmade vessels have been constructed to look like a cross between boats and chunks of earth broken off from the main land, and floated out to sea. For three weeks, the ships will navigate down the Hudson River, starting in Troy, NY, bringing theatrical and musical performances to several towns along the way. On September 7th the group will hit their final destination – a constructed landscape outside of Deitch Projects along the East River in Long Island City, Queens. Here, a celebration will be held to commemorate the opening night of Swoon’s new gallery installation.
To commemorate the event, Paper Monster has released a new print (pictured below). Entitled Switchback Sisters, the silkscreen ink and stained edition measures 11 x 32 inches, signed and numbered by Swoon in an edition of 106. All proceeds will help support the many people contributing to the traveling project. Buy it here.
Scheduled Switchback Sea Stops (more to come?):
Troy, August 15, 8pm in Downtown Riverfront Park
Albany, August 16, 8pm in the Riverfront Park of Corning Preserve
Saugerties, August 20, 8pm at the Saugerties Lighthouse www.saugertieslighthouse.com
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
Neckface decends on L.A.
Cannibal Carnival, the newest exhibit by New York’s Nasty Neckface, opens this Saturday at New Image Art in L.A. This marks Neckace’s third time showing at New Image, with previous exhibits in both 2005 and 2006. Expect many grotesquely gory watercolor paintings, with a nod or two to the occult and horror. Be sure to attend the opening if you want to catch the action going on inside a caged in mini ramp, where skaters will encounter various tools of the street including knives, spray paint and alcohol
Opening Reception Saturday, August 16th, 7-10pm. Show runs till September 20th. New Image Art, 7908 Santa Monica Blvd. West Hollywood, CA 90046.
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Travis Louie @ Copro Nason
Travis Louie has a few great pieces in the current group show at Copro/Nason Gallery in Santa Monica, Ca. Often mistaken for graphite drawings, Louie’s acrylic paintings depict a fantasy land of humane monsters, posed for posterity in the style of 19th century Victorian portraiture. More after the jump, click on pics for larger view. Read the rest of this entry »
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Clare Rojas for Towa Tei
Clare Rojas contributed artwork to Motivation 7, a new dance music CD compiled by music producer (and former Deee Lite member), DJ Towa Tei. It is out now on Columbia Japan (so look for an import). This release marks the latest in a series of collaborations between the musician and the artists he is a fan of. Previous releases include cover art by Steve Powers (ESPO), KAWS, and Barry McGee. Click for more pics. Read the rest of this entry »
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Clayton Patterson Captures New York
For the past 30 years, downtown documentarian, Clayton Patterson, has been photographing and filming the history of New York City’s Lower East Side. From the gritty heyday of the 1980s, to recent post-Guliani gentrification, Patterson has captured it all. As stated by the New York Times, “He can’t stop, even after more than a dozen arrests by camera-shy police officers. He has amassed a huge day-by-day visual history of the area, told mainly through unpretentious portraits of its myriad and diverse faces: tenement kids and homeless people, poets and politicians, drug dealers and drag queens, rabbis and santeros, beat cops, graffiti taggers, hookers, junkies, punks, anarchists, mystics and crackpots.”
Now the artist’s work is the is the subject of a new documentary film, Captured, which offers a rare glimpse into one of the most historically relevant archives chronicling modern New York City. While there are no distribution plans set for the movie, keep an eye out for select showings. Next up will be an August 22nd screening at the New Museum in New York, followed by a Q + A session with Patterson and the film makers. The viewing coincides with museum’s Bowery Artist Tribute, an ongoing project documenting artists who have lived and worked around the Bowery in lower Manhattan.
Tix here. Click through for trailer and interview. Read the rest of this entry »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
Haring Replicia Gets an Original Treatment
Standing on the corner of Houston St. and Bowery in NYC, one can see this large replica of a 1982 Keith Haring mural. The piece was commissioned by the Keith Haring Foundation and Deitch Projects this past May, to commemorate the late artist’s 50th birthday. In the process however, an ever-evolving hot spot for taggers was covered up by the $30,000 project – until now. Recently, graffiti artist and former Haring collaborator, LA II decided to make his own additions to the replicated wall, spray painting in all the negative spaces with identifying tags and clusters of simple lines, much in the style and spirit of Haring.
The act was done as part homage and part protest. As a teenager, LA II, whose real name is Angel Ortiz, collaborated with Haring on many works. Despite the well documented relationship, Ortiz claims the Haring Foundation has continually denied him proper credit and licensing royalties for the art he helped create. In a New York Times article dated August 5th, Ortiz said “wanted to show the foundation: This is LA II, this is how it all started.”
The Foundation’s take on the situation is quite different, asserting Ortiz “was compensated for all the work he did with Keith Haring in Keith Haring’s lifetime.” As for their official stance on the additions to the mural, the message has come off somewhat mixed. The Times quotes executive director of the Keith Haring Foundation, Julia Guen, saying Ortiz was “respectful” in his modifications to the wall. However, in an article in The Villager, Gruen stated, “hell it was a little disappointing…We were hopeful it would not get tagged. LA seems to have some sort of beef with the foundation.”
Despite the ongoing controversy, one thing we do feel sure of is that the modified mural is certainly more interesting than the original replica. More after the jump, click pics for larger images. Read the rest of this entry »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
KAWS in ANP QUARTERLY
The new issue of free arts magazine, ANP Quarterly, arrives this week at select distributors. It includes a cover story and 14 page spread on KAWS, including a photo shoot in the artist’s studio by Terry Richardson, and an interview with ANP editor, Brendan Fowler. After so much new information being revealed in the June KAWS crossover edition of i-D and last week’s New York Times magazine (including details on forthcoming gallery shows, brand collaborations, and artist editions), it will be interesting to see what is dropped this time around. Click through for a few nicked pics of the inside spread (thanks ebay). Read the rest of this entry »
Saturday, August 9th, 2008
Richard Prince + Terry Richardson on Wives, Wheels, Weapons
Do you remember James Frey? He wrote a novel called A Million Little Pieces, that caused quite a stir within the publishing world when the Smoking Gun revealed his seemingly autobiographical account of a life of drug addiction was actually more fiction than fact. This also angered millions of Oprah fans, who had snatched the book up in lock step after the day-time host praised the novel on television and added it to her book club list. James Frey learned the hard way that while you you can stretch the literary truth, its best not to piss off of Oprah along the way. After a class action lawsuit, getting dropped by his publisher and agent, and a mass recall of the book, it seemed his career as an author was over – until now. After the controversy of being publicly discredited, Frey’s new novel, Bright Shiny Morning, is out via Harper Collins.
To accompany the novel, an artist book entitled Wives, Wheels, Weapons is being released by JMc & GHB Editions. This companion edition excerpts three stories of the same name from the novel, alongside a photo essay response by photographer, Terry Richardson. The book is available in both soft and hard cover editions of 1000 each, the later including a dust jacket by Richard Prince. Richardson, Prince and Frey will attend the release Sunday, August 10th, from 5-7 pm at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller in New York and will be available for signing.