Archive for the 'Europe' Category
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
Barry McGee in Venice
Barry McGee has quietly opened a new solo show at Worshop Arte Contemporanea, a new gallery in Venice, Italy. The show marks a continuation of the artists shift in presentation. Rather that engulfing space in wall to wall panel installations, McGee is increasingly moving toward single isolated pieces, consisting of clusters of paintings on wood or framed photographs, and a greater use of white backgrounds as opposed to his past practice of overwhealming viewers with dizzying geometric color patterns. Recent exhibits at Modern Art (London) and Ratio 3 (San Francisco) also signal this move. The show runs through October 14.
Barry McGee
Sept. 3 – Oct. 14
Workshop Arte Contemporanea
Dorsoduro 2793 / A, 30123
Venezia, Italia
All text © Jeff Newman/TheArtCollectors
Images via Workshop Arte Contemporanea
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
Time Before Time – Matt Leines in Italy
Our friend Matt Leines is set to open his first solo gallery show in Italy, at Galerie Patricia Armocida, Milan. Matt he has been largely absent from public view lately, having taken time off to regroup and hone his practice. Though Time Before Time includes many pieces that have appeared in previous exhibits, the show is a welcome introduction for a new audience and serves as dialogue between old and new,. Presenting earlier illustrations from the past few years along side more recent works, Leines offers us an honest and self-critical personal statement of a young artist striving to improve his craft and reflecting on his growth.
Matt Leines – Time Before Time
Nov. 25 – Feb. 14
Galerie Patricia Armocida
via Bazzini 17, 20131 Milano – IT
Friday, November 5th, 2010
KAWS @ Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris / Spongebob Print Release
(All gallery images via Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin)
KAWS‘ Paris outing offers the opportunity to witness his latest fixation with large-scale sculpture. After the debut of the giant black Accomplice at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, here we note the side-by-side accompaniment of a gargantuan pink Accomplice (both in an edition of 3, plus 1 Artist Proof). Aside from the massive dissected Companion at the artist’s Tokyo store Original Fake, Galerie Perrotin is the stage for an uber-scale brown 5 Years Later Companion (ed. 3 +1 AP). What truly marks this show is the ultimate evolution of brilliant colossal sculptural works, leaving the paintings in relative shadow. For the first time, KAWS has produced multiple immense sculptures for a solo gallery exhibition – an impressive offering indeed.
Together with the monumental 5YL Companion currently on display in Hong Kong, as well as the edition of life-size Chums, this exhibition clearly signals the direction KAWS is taking towards titanic renditions.
UPDATE: Just a few short hours before doors opened to the preview of the Editions|Artist’s Book Fair in New York last night, the Aldrich Museum announced the release of a new KAWS print at their booth. Priced at $800 the 20″x20″ edition of 100 depicts the artist’s rendition of the Spongebob character (image below) and is KAWS’ first print since his 2007 Dissected Companion edition. After the fair’s end, twenty remaining prints will become available via Art + Culture Editions.
KAWS – Kawsbob, 2010 print released by Aldrich Editions. (Image © Jeff Newman/TheArtCollectors)
KAWS, Pay the Debt to Nature
Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin
76 rue de turenne 75003, Paris
11/6/10-12/23/10
Friday, September 17th, 2010
Todd James in Madrid
Todd James‘ new exhibition, Great Adventure, opens September 22 at Galeria Javier Lopez in Madrid, Spain. For a review of his last show, a joint exhibit in Copenhagen with Barry McGee, click here
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Banksy Applies Pier Pressure
(Image and video via Banksy)
Looks like Banksy’s gone to the English Channel to stage his latest commentary on the disaster in America’s Gulf Coast region. Amidst the heavily trafficked attractions of the Brighton Pier amusement park, the world’s most recognized political prankster has installed a modified children’s ride, featuring a dolphin trapped in the muck of a leaking BP crude oil barrel and tangled tuna net. Video documentation surfaced on the artist’s site last night along with images of several other new pieces (including the ones pictured below), and in typical Banksy form, it is perversely humorous. Entitled Pier Pressure, the clip is set to the backdrop of old time carnival calliope music and depicts two children eagerly mounting the suffering animal while their guardian happily snaps a cell phone picture.
Monday, July 12th, 2010
Barry McGee + Todd James Reunite in Copenhagen
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 😉
Read on for images from the show… Read the rest of this entry »
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
Recap :: Art 41 Basel, Switerland
Lawrence Weiner – Cat. 1006, hanging opposite the entrance to Art Basel. (Image © Lindsay Pollock)
This year the day job winds to a close one week too late for me to have made it over for Basel. I wasn’t there. These fine people were.
Monday, June 14th, 2010
Inside Out :: Ernesto Neto’s Largest Installation Opens in London
Ernesto Neto – anthropodino, 2009, commissioned for the Park Avenue Armory, New York, 2009 (Image: James Ewing via)
In what is being billed as his most ambitious exhibition to date, Brazilian sculpture artist Ernesto Neto will open a new site specific, all-encompasing environment at London’s Southbank Centre Hayward Gallery this Saturday, June 19. Viewers will act as participants, exploring a sequence of connected spaces that merge sculpture and architecture, at times recalling biological systems. For this new exhibition, Neto will create his first outdoor installations, including a sculptural pool that visitors will be allowed to enter.
Neto’s installation is part of The New Décor, an international survey of some 30 contemporary artists whose whose work explores interior design as a means of engaging with changes in contemporary culture.
Ernesto Neto – The Edges of the World / The New Decor
July 19 – September 5
The Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Peter Funch’s Babel Tales Addendum
(All images © Peter Funch, courtesy V1 Gallery)
Since 2006, Danish born photographer Peter Funch has immersed himself in New York City, vigorously documenting the metropolis’ bustling streets. His recent works are a manipulation of both time and space, built from thousands of individual photographs shot at the exact same vantage point over a long span of time. Through this process, Funch conjures images that are as much anthropological as they are fictional, capturing real, existing spaces that seamlessly commingle with fictitious moments in time that never truly existed.
Babel Tales Addendum opens May 7 at V1 Gallery, Copenhagen. With 41 panoramic works that run the line between reality and fantasy the exhibit signals the conclusion of this four year exploration. Click images for larger views.
Peter Funch – Babel Tales Addendum
May 7 – May 29
V1 Gallery
Flæsketorvet 69 – 71
1711 Copenhagen V, Denmark
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
McGee + HuskMitNavn to Exhibit Together
Barry McGee will be exhibiting under his Lydia Fong monker at Alice Gallery (Brussels, Belgium), alongside Danish artist HuskMitNavn (Remember My Name). While both are known for their work in street and fine art settings, The Last Night marks the first collaboration for the artists. The joint exhibition opens March 25.