Powered by Bravenet Bravenet Blog

Tag Board

Robert: Tomio Koyama Gallery, Franz Ackermann, Stephan Balkenhol, Tom Friedman, Ernesto Neto, Gelitin, Tokyo Gallery
Robert: Tony Wight Gallery, Olio, collage, Tamar Halpern, Pablo Helguera, Arturo Herrera, Shinique Smith, John Sparagana, Dannielle Tegeder, West Loop gallery
Robert: Paula Cooper Gallery, Sophie Calle, Take Care of Yourself, Venice Bienale, love letters
Robert: Pablo Picasso, Gagosian Gallery, Mosqueteros, paintings
Robert: Guild & Greyshkul, gallery, emerging artists, painting, sculpture, video, performance
Robert: Gana Art Gallery, Korea, The Garden at 4 AM, Hieronymus Bosch, Paul Laster, Renée Riccardo, Korean art
Robert: Galerie Denise Rene, Paris, geometric abstraction, Kinetic Art, Tinguely, Soto, Agam
Robert: Donald Young Gallery, video art, film, Gary Hill, Bruce Nauman, Rodney Graham, Art Institute of Chicago
Robert: Galleria Continua, Beijing, Paris, San Gimignano, Tuscany, museum, exhibition

Please type in the four characters shown in the black box.

Tuesday, November 10th 2009

12:00 AM

A Chicken Coop at Conner Contemporary Art?

Washington DC's Conner Contemporary Art is currently displaying acclaimed artist Koen Vanmechelen's "Cosmopolitan Chicken Project (DC)." This is the Belgian artist's first show in the U.S., and it definitely shows off his unique ideas and skills.

While the modern art era has broadened the definitions and blurred the limits and lines of "art," lessening the shock value of seemingly-outrageous or bizarre creations, Vanmechelen's exhibition is a one-of-a-kind approach to conceptual art that triggers many reactions.

Precisely his point, the artist, whose Washington DC exhibition is part of an ongoing "Cosmopolitan Chicken Project," has been systematically crossing every chicken breed to create a "world-mongrel chicken" (as he calls it). Vanmechelen's wacky initiative raises important questions about genetic engineering, globalization, and individuality (among other things).

His exhibition at Conner Contemporary Art includes taxidermy, video, photography, drawings, and paintings (whose tempera paint is made from eggs laid by the artist's own bred chickens).

To read the full article about "Cosmopolitan Chicken Project (DC)" on Artdaily click here.

To read more about Conner Contemporary Art, click here.

0 Comment(s) / Post Comment

Friday, October 16th 2009

1:24 PM

Central Booking in DUMBO

A new gallery has opened in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood. The appropriately (and humorously) named "Central Booking" is dedicated to print and book art. The gallery's founder, Maddy Rosenberg, is a long time book artist and independent curator. Central Booking is currently displaying works by an eclectic group of 130 artists, including Mary Frank, Joan Snyder and Jay Bolotin.

As Rosenberg states (in an article from The Art Newspaper):

...Central Booking bears little resemblance to a traditional book store. The first of the gallery's two rooms is reserved for curated shows of work by artists who make prints but also explore other mediums; the current show, "Natural Histories", contains pieces ranging from a sawbox by Steven Daiber that is filled with pine cones wrapped in wood prints of a natural history text ($5,000), a non-print-related installation of scavenged metal and natural debris by Judy Hoffman ($25,000), and a limited-edition copy of “A Book of Works”, an unfinished 1993 book of poems and photographs by Ana Mendieta (loaned by the artist's foundation, it is the only piece in the gallery not for sale).


Image from Central Booking


Furthermore, Rosenberg is optimistic about the increasing popularity of book art and hopes to keep the project going even after the current venue closes in April.

She continues,

...With book art appearing more and more regularly in exhibitions and art fairs over the past year—and with Gagosian gallery opening its own Madison Avenue shop of artists' books and limited editions—there are signs that the recession-friendly medium has been slowly gaining traction. "I feel the most dynamic, interesting, experimental work is going on in books because it doesn't have a huge tradition or baggage.”

0 Comment(s) / Post Comment

Monday, September 28th 2009

12:28 PM

Great shows at great galleries

Two of my favorite shows up right now in Chelsea:


September 10 - October 17, 2009

0 Comment(s) / Post Comment

Wednesday, September 16th 2009

11:08 AM

Up next... Gagosian takes over the world


Bloomberg reported last week that mega-gallerist Larry Gagosian was in plans to open a new space in Paris.  This news comes on the heels of a recent announcement that there will be a new Gagosian in Athens, Greece this month.

Currently, Gagosian has locations in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, London, and Rome.  

Gagosian’s presence in Paris has to do with its funding of the complete catalog of Pablo Picasso sculptures, begun by the artist’s granddaughter, Diana Widmaier Picasso, in 2003. The research team is based in offices above Cartier’s flagship store in the Place Vendome.

“The project started with the appreciated support of Gagosian Gallery,” Diana Widmaier Picasso, who lives in New York, said in an e-mail. Asked if the gallery planned to open in Paris, she wrote, “ Larry Gagosian is not willing to communicate on the subject at the moment.”

Gagosian’s funding of the sculpture catalog could help give collectors access to Picasso’s work, said dealers. This summer, the gallery’s 522 West 21st Street branch in New York mounted an exhibition of late paintings by Picasso, curated by the artist’s biographer John Richardson, that attracted lines of visitors. A 1968 “Musketeer” painting by Picasso sold for $14.6 million at Christie’s, New York, in May. 

0 Comment(s) / Post Comment

Friday, August 28th 2009

7:33 AM

Zane Lewis at Mixed Greens

MIXED GREENS GALLERY
531 WEST 26TH STREET NEW YORK, NY 10001
TEL : 212.331.8888
INFO@MIXEDGREENS.COM

ZANE LEWIS
WATCH ME SLOWLY DEATH

August 20 - October 3, 2009
Opening: Thursday, September 10, 6-9 PM



Mixed Greens is pleased to present their second solo exhibition of new works by Zane Lewis. In Watch Me Slowly Death, Lewis juxtaposes religious imagery with high-fashion advertisements to create portrait and still life paintings that modernize and recontextualize their historic roots.

Lewis creates still life pieces out of fashion posters, ads and mirrors, rather than the fruits and flowers used in 17th and 18th Century Vanitas paintings. In one series, Chanel posters appear to be ripped from cosmetic counters, crackling and wilting+in their frames. The result is a reinterpretation of the genre. Instead of capturing a moment in time and alluding to inevitable decay, Lewis creates a situation that not only references decay, but participates in it. All of the posters and ads in his work are distressed; their sexy, slick images are crumbling and defaced by Lewis’ hand.

In another series, hundreds of iconic Chanel ads are layered, cut, and reassembled to create a portrait of Jesusin a crown of thorns—a vision of excess culminating in the most universally understood image of death. At first, the piece appears a jumble of materials, a map of constellations or a graffitied wall. Upon further inspection, the piece is a collage of ads that sell the ideas of youth and seduction. To create these works, Lewis never uses a brush, but rather, like a surgeon, cuts his pieces with a knife, each gesture subtractive and nihilistic. Then, when a piece is ready, he drips and pours paint to react like bodily fluids and humanize his subject again. Much like Jack Villeglé, Lewis tears and recombines advertisements to reflect reality and comment on contemporary culture.

Allusions to death and the impossibility of eternal youth culminate in two very large portraits on mirror: one of a skull, the other of Jesus in a crown of thorns, bleeding paint from his eyes. However dark the undertones, there is a balance created by Lewis’ poetic streak—a pure, romantic and sincere love of paint, art history and the fashion ads he destroys.



0 Comment(s) / Post Comment

Wednesday, August 19th 2009

10:43 AM

Marianne Boesky's terrace

Gallerist Marianne Boesky is most known for her gallery (of the same name), which is located in Chelsea.  Just above the gallery is an apartment Boesky calls home.  The building has a great and hard-to-come-by New York feature - a rooftop terrace - that offers incredible views of the city.  However, the infamous High Line project, which seemed like it would never actually come to fruition, is located just five feet from Boesky's terrace.  When the second phase of the High Line project is finished, strollers on the elevated walkway will be just steps away from touching Boesky's very own oasis.  NYMagazine reently did a feature on the renovation Boesky and lanscape designer Paula Hayes did on the terrace to give the space more privacy and a greater sense of calm.  


 
0 Comment(s) / Post Comment

Thursday, August 13th 2009

10:14 AM

Zach Feuer

Zach Feuer Gallery in Chelsea - current show:
Kate Levant, highsweep, 2009, Plastics, wood, rubber, fiberglass, broken glass, aluminum and aerosol enamel


Kate Levant
Blood Drive
Exhibition Dates: July 16 - September 4, 2009
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Friday, 10-6
Blood Drive: September 2-3, 1:30-7 pm

Zach Feuer Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition compromised by Kate Levant.  The exhibition, opening July 16, will conclude with a blood drive at the gallery on September 2 and 3.  To register to donate, please contact the gallery at info@zachfeuer.com.  In addition to work by Kate Levant, the show will include contributions by Noel Anderson, BOBO, Brian Faucette, Michael E. Smith, Elaine Stocki and Jacques Vidal.

click here to view the press release
0 Comment(s) / Post Comment

Wednesday, August 5th 2009

8:48 AM

in the wake of the plunge...

(image courtesy neatorama)



Last week I saw an AP article that reaffirmed the well-known news that galleries are suffering.  Just like many other small businesses, galleries across the country are closing or coming up with other options to save money - 


"Art gallery owners across the country are finding they have a tough sell these days.

With houses going up for auction, unemployment continuing to rise and the threat of layoffs seemingly ever-present, many gallery owners in art communities such as Scottsdale, Ariz., Santa Fe, N.M., Portland, Ore., and New York City are closing shop, going broke to stay open or drastically changing the way they do business.

"Art is a very discretionary sort of object, and we are in the worst recession arguably in the postwar era," said Jay Bryson, a global economist with  in Charlotte, N.C. "Obviously somebody who has lost their job in a factory in Indiana probably is not buying art.""

0 Comment(s) / Post Comment

Wednesday, July 29th 2009

9:35 AM

... On finding the great galleries of the world

Typically on this site I focus on one gallery at a time.  I have been to many galleries around the world, and while I tend to enjoy them all, some just stand out - that's why I write about them here.  However, as anyone interested in the art world knows, it can be just about impossible to stay abreast of all of the art news going on in the world - exhibitions, fairs, artists, and more more more... it seems that if I take a vacation then I miss so much and I'm back to square one.  And on top of that, there are so many art publications, websites, and news outlets out there that one can get very overwhelmed.  So here is my list of top five resources for the art world - they may not be the most popular, or most recognized, but they tend to give me a really well-rounded idea of what's up:

1. MutualArt.com - of all of the websites that feature art information (and we know there are lots!), this one is my pick.  The interface is smooth, they tailor recommendations to your set preferences, and their archive seems to be endless.

2. ArtForum - the Bible of the art world - this periodical, thicker than it used to be, stands the test of time.

3. The New York Times (arts section) - with the world's best critics on their writing staff, the paper covers international art (not just NYC), and often has some sweet human interest stories


4. Cabinet - for the theory lover in me - this small quarterly periodical offers a multi-disciplinary focus on themes... each one is like a little research packet

5. Bidoun - a fairly new magazine focusing on art and culture from the Middle East - it has become a hit with artists - I know it seems weird to put in my top 5 - but don't knock it 'til you try it
0 Comment(s) / Post Comment

Wednesday, July 22nd 2009

8:54 AM

Mary Boone



After her first two artists, David Salle and Julian Schnabel became wildly popular, gallerist Mary Boone was dubbed the "The New Queen of the Art Scene" in the 1980s.  Originally with its location in SoHo, Mary Boone Gallery now has two locations - one in Chelsea and one on 5th Avenue.

Once associated with the art boom of the 1980s and all that excess and later demise that accompanied that boom, Boone has recovered and now represents well-known, as well as emerging, artists.

The list of artists represented includes:

Ai Weiwei
John Altoon
Perre Bismuth
Ross Bleckner
James Lee Byars
Patty Chang
Francesco Clemente
Patricia Coffie
Will Cotton
Eric Fischl
Chie Fueki
Luis Gispert
Peter Halley
Hilary Harkness
Jacob Hashimoto
Imi Knoebel
Terence Koh
Barbara Kruger
Barry Le Va
Liu Xiaodong
Aleksandra Mir
Marc Quinn
David Salle
Keith Sonnier

0 Comment(s) / Post Comment