Transitions features large-scale still-life photographs and video installation by photographer/director/cinematographer Samuel Bayer. In this latest body of work Bayer uses both video and photography to explore consequences of man-made actions and natural occurrences. Bayer uses the butterfly to argue that complex structures and vexing situations are a dramatic catalyst in building depth, character and ultimately, beauty. Bayer does this by staging magnificent creatures on the outside of a cocoon while inside, a transforming event occurs. The event within is at times violent, painful and tragic. Yet Bayer believes that dramatic transitional experiences are keys to yielding beauty, creativity and achievement beyond belief.
The video installation is based on a documentary film Bayer is currently directing about a young man named David Anguiano. At a very young age David was severely injured. Since that injury David has been through a world of physical and emotional trauma yet, somehow, has managed to maintain an uplifting spirit and has literally found his voice through the arts. David, now 20, has taught himself how to play the guitar and is an accomplished actor. For the past five years David has written and directed plays for hospitalized children. Because of his involvement with The Art of Elysium and their volunteers, David has had the opportunity to direct a variety of actors including Eva Mendes, James Franco, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Kristen Dunst and many others in his annual Christmas play. They all call him a genius.
It’s been some time since I’ve gotten around to posting here, but this one’s important. This Thursday, July 28 Joshua Liner Gallery will be hosting a silent auction fundraiser for Assistant Gallery Director, Tim Strazza, who was recently diagnosed with MS. Tim cannot work at the moment and all funds generated will help offset his growing medical bills as well as day to day living expenses. Tim is a wonderful guy, and as a testament some great artists and friends have donated art towards the evening, including pieces by Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Ian Francis, Dave Ellis, Ron English, Dave Kinsey, Marc Dean Veca, Mars-1, Greg Lamarche, Tony Curanaj, Tomokazu Matsuyama and Damon Soule. With works ranging from substantial original paintings and drawings to prints and editions, there’s something for everyone. Bids will start low! Every dollar counts! Hope to see you all there.
A blog has been set up and images of the works available are slowly trickling in. Check it here
The Strazza family has also set up an additional donation site here
Joshua Liner MS Fundraiser
Thursday, July 28, 2012
7-10 pm
Joshua Liner Gallery
548 W. 28th St
NY, NY 10001
Hypebeast and HighSnobiety recently unveiled a view into the KAWS collection I’ve been focused on building for the past several years, including an interview that covers a bit of the journey up to this point. Shot by Brandon Shigeta, the photos present works in a variety of mediums including ink, watercolor, pastel, acrylic, bronze, resin, wood, and vinyl. Here are some exclusive photos that were reserved for this space:
Nefariously clever Nouar is on the eve of letting us taste her latest visual treats at the Corey Helford Gallery, Culver City’s jewel. We’ve been fans for years, having interviewed the artist when she exhibited with Jonathan LeVine Gallery. Today, her evolution continues to provide delectable interplay of a highly personal narrative. The works in “Internally Yours” feature three-dimensional sugary confections, gelatin dessert molds and a bright, beguiling color palette that lure the viewer in. However, like Jeff Koons’ brightly-colored balloon animals, the characters have a significance beyond their deceptively innocent appearance. “For this show,” Nouar says, “I used food as a visual metaphor to symbolize how dangers are hidden, and how we don’t see them coming until it is too late.” For example, in her painting “Sweet Entrapment,” a bright-pink gummy bear smirks at the doe-eyed brunette trapped inside its stomach.
‘“Internally Yours” represents the idea of confinement, submission and eternity,” Nouar explains. “Sometimes, we find ourselves in situations we don’t want to be in. It feels like the world has swallowed us up whole.”
The techniques used in this exhibition were inspired by the 2009 group show at Corey Helford Gallery,“The Multi-Plane Show”, for which artists were asked to paint transparent panes in order to achieve a three-dimensional effect. “For my submission, I wanted to utilize the idea of actually being able to see through an object to see what is inside or behind it,” Nouar says. “After several attempts to tint the glass, I realized I would have to create a new transparent layer altogether. Thus I begun experimenting with sculpting and casting resin to achieve the effect I wanted in the final finished piece.”
Don’t miss the special ‘takehome’ tidbits on opening night.
The joint booth of Massimo de Carlo and Carlson at The Armory Show was a reminder of the galleries’ cornering of several marque names of the New York scene.
A stellar example of one of Arron Young’s frenetic weaves of motorcycle burnouts, looping across a blistering sunset of color on aluminum, was the clear standout. With this continuing series, rooted in live performances whose aftereffects yield tangible works, Young has accomplished a near perfect melding of concept and material creation.
Works by Nate Lowman (who has called himself an image thief) and Rob Pruitt (who has actually been accused of being one) were cleverly hung side by side. Both are artists of appropriation, as well as recent collaborators.
Lowman’s Axis of Evil reproduces a partially complete newspaper crossword. Taken together with its functional title (a reference to the post 9-11 war jargon of President Bush), the image suggests the degeneration of journalism into an entertainment industry and the quickly dying medium, along with news medias’ capitulation in propagating government rhetoric, with the puzzles’ blacked out areas symbolizing censorship and information control.
Rob Pruitt’s piece also dug up a metaphor for extinction. A pair of his signature glittery Panda Bears are a self portrait for an artist who was once himself an endangered species, and has resurfaced in the last decade with a carefully plotted resurrection that is nothing shy of an allegory for the life and death of careers in the finicky celebrity art world. Ultimately, these images (which he has reproduced versions of over and over again since launching his comeback) were a reminder that at his best, Pruitt is an artist of ideas. From his now infamous cocaine buffet to the Annual Art Awards concocted with Guggenheim, watching his moves over the last several years has been more stimulating than much of the visual material he has created.
Also on view were works Dan Colen, Rashid Johnson, Christian Holstad, Roberto Cuoghi, Piotr Uklański, Rudolf Stingel, Yan Pei-Ming, Jim Shaw, Roland Flexner, and John Armleder.
As is the case with any shopping mall of contemporary art, The Armory Show was a mixed bag of delightful hits and lackluster misses. Here are few memorable standouts on both ends of the spectrum. Read on for TAC’s hits and misses… Read the rest of this entry »
Los Carpinteros‘ installation of recent works was a welcome extension to the Cuban duos’ recent show with Sean Kelly. Four “architectural” watercolors encircled a melting chrome lantern, some serving as an extension to their new Rumba Muerta sculpture series. These are not merely the artists’ concept sketches, but an integral part of the Carpinteros’ overall message making, creating an extended narrative history to the primary sculptural works that were on view at the gallery’s main space. In Nueve Tabores Cuadrados pristine red congas are illustrated perfectly intact and prior to their meltdown into a bright liquid pool of red. A “blueprint” for Sala de Lectura Ovala shows preliminary plans for a reading room. Taken together with the final gallery construction which is still void of any books, the pieces relate to information control and media suppression of authoritarian political systems and are particularly relevant given the current crackdown on opposition movements in several nations including Egypt, Bahrain and Lybia.
Leandro Elich’sSubway consisted of a metal subway door recessed into the wall, with a video screen serving as its window, part of his video window series. A minute and a half silent loop of commuters Though not as nearly as mesmerizing as his 1999 Swimming Pool, a somewhere between a clever and kitschy take on voyeurism.
Though nothing special, a new study painting on paper by Kehinde Wiley and small scale sculpture were a reminder that following the shuttering of Deitch, the artist has been snatched up by Kelly and is now in the company of Marnia Abramovic, Antony Gormley and Gavin Turk to name a few.
Love it or hate it, KAWS’ solo Armory exhibit with Honor Fraser drew a ton of reactions. From Artinfo’s Top 5 Worst of Show, to the pre-openign six-figure sale of a single piece installation of 21 circular canvases, there is no ignoring that the once underground artist is on a fast trajectory towards becoming a major pop star, complete with accolades and criticisms the likes of Murakami or Koons.
For the newly initiated, we can see the appeal of such playful mastery of youth culture appropriation, and likely homages to the abstraction of iconography employed by the likes of John Baldessari and Elsworth Kelley. However, for the longtime admirer, yet another batch of Spongebob paintings, further extrapolating the cartoon character into fragmented abstraction, felt like a rehashing old ideas that lacked the same energy and inventiveness of his similar Michelin Man canvases from a decade ago. Long story short – Same idea, new character. Flanked by a massive Accomplice vinyl sculpture, the display left us hoping for something new beyond mere size, and eager to see the day when KAWS combines his new found ability at large scale industrial fabrication with some fresh ideas.
The halls of The Armory Show were aglow with neon and light last week. Vapid spectacle or successful minimalism? Here’s the best, and the worst, for your judgement.
Kira Kim, I Love U, 2009
Ivan Navarro
Ian Hamilton Finaly, Zimmerit Haunting Wood Nymph, 1992
Jeppe Hein, Please, 2008
An He, What Makes Me Understand What I Know? No. 1, 2009
