Archive for February, 2010
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
MOCA Cleveland Hosts Major Survey of Contemporary African American Art
Romare Bearden, Conjur Woman, (Image: © Romare Bearden / R.T. Miller Jr. Fund, 2001 Collection of the Allen Memorial Art Museum)
In a critical event, MOCA Cleveland is currently playing host to the first ever public survey of contemporary African American art in the Ohio region. From Then to Now : Masterworks of Contemporary African American Art, features 27 artists, sourced from important regional collections – The Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, the Akron Art Museum, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Progressive Corporation, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Kara Walker, Untitled, 1998, (Image © Kara Walker / Collection of the Progressive Corporation)
Beginning with works from pioneering figures of the 1970s and 80s, such as Romare Bearden and Alma Thomas, From Then to Now continues to the present, with prime examples of works by artists including Lenardo Drew, Alison Saar, Willie Cole, David Hammons, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, René Green, Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley. TAC applauds MOCA Cleveland and curator Margo Ann Crutchfiel for presenting this unprecedented exhibition.
Kehinde Wiley, Passing/Posing, (Image: Collection of the Progressive Corporation, Mayfield Village, OH.)
From Then to Now : Masterworks of Contemporary African American Art
Jan 29 – May 9, 2010
MOCA Cleveland
8501 Carnegie Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44106
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Sotheby’s Evening Sale Results
Selling for 3,500,000, this 1983 oil by Willem De Kooning was the highest grossing lot at Sotheby's Feb 10. London Contemporary Art Evening Sale
With Sotheby’s February 10 Evening Sale winding to a close in London, the first results are in for this winter’s round of contemporary art auctions. Here’s the rundown:
Top 5 Grossing Lots (winning bids before buyer’s premium):
1. Willem De Kooning Lot 71: Untitled XIV, 1983 – £3,500,000
2. Yves Klein Lot 22: F 88, 1961 – £2,900,000
3. Lucio Fontana Lot 38: Concetto Spaziale, New York 26, 1962 – £2,700,000
4. Peter Doig Lot 51: Saint Anton (Flat Light), 1995-6 – £2,500,000
5. Piero Manzoni Lot 58: Anchrome, 1958 – £2,500,000
Highest Grossing Artists (totals before buyer’s premium):
1. Lucio Fontana – £10,140,000 (7 Lots)
2. Yves Klein – £5,000,000 (3 Lots)
3. Lucian Freud – £4.070,000 (4 Lots)
4. Willem De Kooning – £3,500,000 (1 Lot)
5. Peter Doig – £3,350,000 (2 Lots)
Check One World Art for additional analysis.
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has just launched an online reading room, where they are gradually making available a full range of electronic facsimiles of museum publications spanning their history. LACMA’s initial offering comprises ten early exhibition catalogues, mostly from the 1960s, and serves as an invaluable academic resource.
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Philly Valentine :: Steve Powers Completes Year Long Love Letter
(All Images via A Love Letter for You)
Steve Powers celebrates the completion of his ambitious Philadelphia-based Love Letter project with a series of weekend-long events. On Friday, Feb. 12, a special exhibit documenting the year long planning and creation of the multi-site public mural project will open, followed by a book signing on Saturday at Exit Skateshop. But the real treat will go down on Valentine’s Day, when Powers himself hops aboard a privately chartered elevated SEPTA El train to MC (“working on my train announcer chops,” he hints) a special Love Train Tour of the 50 rooftop murals that comprise the installation. The tour will be followed by a reception at SEPTA’s Grand Mezzanine. Space is limited for this event and tickets are required.
More info on Love Letter here and here and check these images of some of the final touches on the project.
Event and ticket info below.
A Love Letter for You art show opening
Friday, February 12th, 5:30-8:30
1226 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia PA.
A Love Letter for You book signing
Saturday, February 13th, 5 – 7pm
Exit Skateshop
825 North 2nd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123
(215) 425-2450
Valentines Day Love Train
February 14th, 3-6pm
Departs from Love Park, Fairmount Park Visitor’s Center
16th St. at JFK Blvd.
Tickets: $40 per person/$75 per couple.
To purchase contact the Mural Arts Tour Office at 215.685.0754
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Paul McCarthy’s Pig Island
Out now, is Paul McCarthy’s Pig Island, a 164-page project released with ArtReview magazine. The publication, which documents the past five years of the prolific artist’s work, is being sent to all print subscribers and is also available for purchase online and at newsstands accompanying the magazine’s January/February issue. The issue also features a profile on McCarthey and is available in a fantastic and free digital format (as well as back issues to 2006) here.
Check the videos below and watch McCarthy video works on the invaluable UbuWeb
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)
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Hilter Takes on Deitch
By now, most of us have grown accustomed to the ever expanding list of Hilter parodies appearing on YouTube. Taking on everything from Obama health care to Kanye and Conan, the former führer has vented his ever growing contempt for all things pop culture. There’s even Hitler getting angry over his own parody videos. Now, “Mein Curaror” breaks into rage after learning that Jeffrey Deitch will take over as the new director of LA MoCA. With Hitler denouncing “that fucking Eli Broad, dandy suits and cheesy glasses, Barry McGee’s bid sad heads, Vanessa Beecroft’s tit parade” and “little Shepard Fairey’s ripoff propaganda,” this one is a real gem.
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Dual European Exhibits for Lawrence Weiner
(All Images © EACC)
With his early influence in the Conceptual Art movement, and with the written word having established a popular presence in Contemporary Art (Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holtzer and Tracy Emin to name a few), Lawrence Weiner’s continuing contributions are as vital today as they have ever been.
Open now through March 28, 2010, are two European exhibitions by Weiner. BAK (Utrecht, Netherlands) presents Dicht Bij, a solo exhibit that continues FORMER WEST, the institution’s long-term research and educational initiative commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by exploring the impacts the event has had on the arts in the Western half of Germany. An edition, produced in a limited number of 300, is on sale at BAK for €8.
Simultaneously, the Castellón Center for Contemporary Art is hosting Weiner’s Under the Sun, comprised of a new exhibit and permanent public sculpture in the city’s El Pinar park.
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Ai Yamaguchi at Mizuma Art, Tokyo
Ai Yamaguchi opens Kiyu, a solo installation of new works at Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo (Ichigaya Tamachi location), this Wednesday, Feb. 10. Here, we present images from her installation with the gallery during the 2009 Art Fair Tokyo.
(All Images © Ninyu Works)
Ai Yamaguchi – Kiyu
Feb. 10 – March 10
Mizuma Art Gallery
2F Kagura Bldg., 3-13
Ichigayatamachi Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0843
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Kiki Smith Comes to Brooklyn Museum
Kiki Smith – Singer (detail), 2008. (Image © Kiki Smith. Courtesy the artist and PaceWildenstein. Photography by Volker Dohne/Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York)
Kiki Smith – Soujourn opens Feb. 12 at The Brooklyn Museum (NY). The site specific installation loosely follows the life cycle of a female artist, reaching beyond the autobiographical, drawing on a variety of universal experiences, such as birth and death, religion, mythology, spirituality, and inspiration.
The show is a bit of a departure for Smith, who is widely know for her sculptural work. In an interview with NY1, she reflected, “Primarily, this is a drawing show, which is really an exciting opportunity for me, because I rarely have that chance to just show graphic work. And it’s sort of punctuated a little bit by sculpture but the sculpture is to just ground the room or something like that and the pieces are more like in some other realm or something like that…you make works and they’re all autonomous works, but they all also have the opportunity to be dynamic and play with one another and be in relationship to one another. And so each time you install something, it’s like making theatre in a way and so each part become, has its own, maybe like agency or something like that. Each part becomes active and alive, but the story as a whole then emerges out of that.”
Kiki Smith – Sojourn
Feb. 12 – Sept. 12 2010
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11238