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69 articles, 2016-05-11 06:02 1 Morning Links: Maurizio Cattelan’s ‘Him’ Edition Must-read stories from around the art world 2016-05-10 08:53 2KB www.artnews.com
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2 2016 American Package Design Awards (1.05/2) Makers, sellers and marketers are challenged as never before to convey the message, promote the brand, close the deal. Think fragmented... 2016-05-10 18:00 1KB gdusa.com 3 Turning Snow: Olga Viso on Martin Friedman’s Legacy Martin Friedman, the Walker's director from 1961 to 1990, passed away in New York City on May 9, 2016. When I began my tenure at the Walker in early 2008, it had been almost 20 years since Martin... 2016-05-11 04:53 839Bytes blogs.walkerart.org (1.02/2)
4 Art Production Fund Toasts Ugo Rondinone’s ‘Seven Magic Mountains’ in Nevada APF’s Casey Fremont, Doreen Remen and Yvonne Force Villareal took their art world (1.02/2) friends to the desert on Monday. 2016-05-10 21:41 3KB wwd.com 5 Jeff Koons and Google Unveil Phone Case Collaboration On Monday night, Jeff Koons and Google unveiled their top-secret collaboration: a $40 phone case that performs excerpts from Swan Lake. 2016-05-10 21:40 1KB wwd.com (1.02/2)
6 Martin Friedman, Walker Art Center Head, Dies— Friedman oversaw the construction of a new building and the opening of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, which has been emulated by many institutions. 2016-05-10 16:32 3KB news.artnet.com (1.02/2)
7 More or Less Than One: C. Spencer Yeh’s Sound Horizon To spark discussion, the Walker invites Twin Cities artists and critics to write overnight reviews of our performances. The ongoing Re:View series shares a diverse array of (1.00/2) independent voices and o... 2016-05-10 22:51 941Bytes blogs.walkerart.org
8 daniel libeskind installs musical labyrinth in frankfurt square designed by daniel libeskind, in collaboration with cosentino, the work - titled 'musical labyrinth' - is located in the plaza of frankfurt’s alte oper. 2016-05-11 02:14 2KB www.designboom.com 9 The Shape of Doo-Bop to Come: Steve Lehman and HPrizm On Saturday, May 7, the Steve Lehman Octet will bring its spectral harmonies and cascading rhythms to the McGuire Theater. Lehman is a jazz stalwart, guided by algorithms and an abiding musical in... 2016-05-11 04:53 881Bytes blogs.walkerart.org 10 Listening Mix: Devendra Banhart & Friends LISTENING MIX provides a musical preview for artists visiting the Walker. Combining their work with sounds from a variety of contextual sources, LISTENING MIX can be experienced before or after a pe... 2016-05-11 04:53 941Bytes blogs.walkerart.org 11 Second Thoughts: Fred Sandback and the Virtual Line How does an exhibition accrete meaning, gain relevance, or shift shapes over time? In the 2016-05-11 04:53 860Bytes blogs.walkerart.org
12 Masahiko Uotani Calls for Formation of Global Forum at WWD Beauty CEO Summit Talk of innovation and authenticity flows at the summit. 2016-05-11 00:59 3KB wwd.com 13 bonaventura visconti di modrone builds housing for haitian street children the decision to employ local workers and artisans exclusively led to the direct participation of the entire community and to the creation of a facility that belongs to the area and to its architectural and cultural context. 2016-05-11 00:15 4KB www.designboom.com 14 Summers of Rock — Magazine — Walker Art Center Launched in 1998, the Walker’s now-annual Rock the Garden festival has gone through plenty of changes—from its inception as an intermittent, on... 2016-05-10 22:51 12KB www.walkerart.org 15 rafael de cárdenas' prismatic neon jungle pops-up in the miami design district maison&objet americas 2016 kicks off in miami with 'neon jungle', an immersive tropical lounge designed by rafael de cárdenas in the miami design district. 2016-05-10 23:20 2KB www.designboom.com 16 sebastian leon’s furniture for atelier d’amis elegantly references the construction sites of NYC atelier d’amis's inaugural collection cleverly infuses the vocabulary of the construction site through each furniture piece — from the reinterpretation of rebar as table legs, to pinion elevators referenced in armoires. 2016-05-10 23:05 3KB www.designboom.com 17 Michael Kors and ‘Hamilton’ Actor Leslie Odom Jr. Talk Charity at Town & Country Philanthropy Summit The summit also featured ‘Hamilton’ star Leslie Odom Jr., who spoke about his scholarship from the Princess Grace Foundation. 2016-05-10 23:03 4KB wwd.com 18 What is a Contemporary Collection? Thoughts on the Walker Moving Image Commissions and the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection The Walker Moving Image Commissions is an online series in which five artists responded to selections from the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. Premiered in the Walker Cinema and released for a... 2016-05-10 22:51 1KB blogs.walkerart.org 19 Bonhams to Offer Reddihough Collection of British Modern Art Bonhams will offer important works from the collection of Cyril Reddihough, one of Ben Nicholson’s major supporters, at its Modern British and Irish Art Sale in London on June 15, 2016 2016-05-10 21:02 2KB www.blouinartinfo.com 20 KUKA robots and timo boll return as comrades in orange intelligence the latest installment in the ongoing boll and KUKA saga, orange intelligence marks the unity of man and machine. 2016-05-10 21:01 1KB www.designboom.com 21 Projected Illustrations Turn the World into a Cartoon An abandoned hospital gets illuminated with art in the new music video for Jumo's "Désert. " 2016-05-10 20:40 3KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 22 dominique perrault inaugurates mechanics hall for the EPFL french firm dominique perrault architecture (DPA) has completed a new mechanics hall (ME) for EPFL - ecole polytechnique fédérale de lausanne - the renowned research institute and university in western switzerland. 2016-05-10 20:02 4KB www.designboom.com
23 How Design Could Change the Refugee Crisis Multifunctional refugee shelters, data visualizations of asylum seekers, and much more at Design and Flow's exhibition at Design x NYC Week, "Transitions: Migration and Travel. " 2016-05-10 19:50 7KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 24 Willy Le Maitre, Cézanne's 3D Heir? THE DAILY PIC: 2016-05-10 19:37 1KB news.artnet.com
25 Princess of Thailand’s Sirivannavari to Debut Pop-up at La Rinascente The temporary store will be open from May 18 to June 14. 2016-05-10 19:03 1KB wwd.com 26 Adidas Sets Online Business Lifestyle Magazine The new site, GamePlan-A.com, exalts a “sports-inspired” business lifestyle. 2016-05-10 19:02 1KB wwd.com 27 prototype samsung galaxy surfboard provides real-time connectivity to surfers at sea samsung galaxy surfboard is activated by inserting a ‘galaxy S7’ smartphone with connects to a screen on the deck with built-in LED lights. 2016-05-10 17:55 1KB www.designboom.com 28 Artie Vierkant at New Galerie, Paris Pictures at an Exhibition presents images of one notable show every weekday 2016-05-10 17:40 1KB www.artnews.com 29 Dennis Basso, QVC, Laura and John Pomerantz Honored as FIT’s Designer of the Year, Helps Raise $1.7 Million More than 600 people showed up to support FIT at its annual gala Monday night at The Plaza. 2016-05-10 17:39 5KB wwd.com 30 New Heights in Harlem: Blue-Chip Galleries Open Spaces Uptown Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, Elizabeth Dee Gallery, and Broadway 1602 inaugurate new spaces in the neighborhood this month. 2016-05-10 17:32 2KB www.blouinartinfo.com 31 Christina Aguilera Shows Off New Pierced Lavender Hair The singer unveiled an edgy new hairstyle on the show Monday night. 2016-05-10 17:28 2KB wwd.com 32 Cubic Landscapes Are the Stuff Dreams Are Made Of 'Inception' meets B.o. B's 'Flat Earth' conspiracy in the surreal works of Petey Ulatan. 2016-05-10 17:25 2KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 33 125 Artists Explore the New Feelings of the Future The Los-Angeles-based Institute for New Feeling put out a ma. 2016-05-10 17:25 3KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 34 zaha hadid architects' 582-606 collins street tower melbourne the ‘582-606 collins street’ tower is ZHA’s first project in melbourne. the scheme would feature a façade composed of sculptural, curved columns. 2016-05-10 17:15 2KB www.designboom.com
35 This Magazine Challenges Mainstream Notions of Gender and Identity Posture is empowering queer designer, artists, and models to be seen by their own community. 2016-05-10 16:50 4KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 36 Warhol Authentication Service Adds Haring and Basquiat to Roster In November, Richard Polsky launched an authentication company devoted to Warhol, and recently announced that he has added Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat to the roster. 2016-05-10 16:36 5KB www.blouinartinfo.com 37 Starter Launches Mass Market Marketing Campaign The campaign features Devon and Leah Sill and Eric Decker. 2016-05-10 16:36 2KB wwd.com 38 The Peripheral, the Edges, the Off-Screen: A Conversation with James Richards James Richards recently presented a cinematic program in collaboration with Leslie Thornton on the occasion of the Walker premiere of Thornton’s Moving Image Commission They Were Just People (2016... 2016-05-10 19:11 959Bytes blogs.walkerart.org 39 the splint lighthouse sea hotel by flavio martella and filippo lorenzi overlaps the cliffside's surface the splint lighthouse sea hotel by flavio martella and filippo features a horizontal structure that responds to its natural environment. 2016-05-10 16:01 3KB www.designboom.com 40 Michael Benson, Cofounder of The Photo London Fair, Isn’t Aiming it to be The Biggest, Just The Best Michael Benson, Cofounder of The Photo London Fair, Isn’t Aiming it to be The Biggest, Just The Best 2016-05-10 16:00 6KB www.blouinartinfo.com 41 Artists Control Each Other's Body Parts with Their Minds Artist Diva Helmy and neuroscientist Greg Gage make unbelievable art out of a DIY neuroscience interface kit. 2016-05-10 15:55 3KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 42 You're Never Too Old to Dance to Iggy Pop At Munich's Ballet Festival Week, "The Passenger" provides a mean soundtrack for ballet dancers over 40. 2016-05-10 15:45 3KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 43 Inside Harvard’s Incredible Collection of Rare Pigments | Conservation Lab What’s behind art history’s most radiant hues? Sea snails, cow urine, and mummy flesh, apparently. 2016-05-10 15:40 7KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 44 Sonic Youth visits the Walker Before they headed to the Minnesota State Fair last night for a rain-soaked concert with the Magic Numbers and The Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth stopped by for a tour of the Walker galleries with Perform... 2016-05-10 19:11 789Bytes blogs.walkerart.org 45 Heaven and Hell Meet in Hieronymus' Hometown A 'Garden of Earthly Delights' and more emerged at the Het Noordbrabants Museum in the Netherlands for 'Hieronymus Bosch: Visions of Genius.' 2016-05-10 14:55 5KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 46 Costume Designer Erica Nicotra O’Neill Launches Lavinia & Co. Costume Designer Erica Nicotra O’Neill launched dress line Lavinia & Co. at a Hollywood house party on Saturday. 2016-05-10 14:47 2KB wwd.com
47 Joseph Gordon-Levitt Shows His Support for U. S. National Parks The T-shirt and other products help commemorate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. 2016-05-10 14:41 2KB wwd.com 48 Jodie Foster to Kick Off Kering Women in Motion Talks in Cannes Participants in the series of talks will also include Susan Sarandon, Geena Davies, Juliette Binoche, Salma Hayek Pinault and Chloe Sevigny. 2016-05-10 14:35 1KB wwd.com 49 Dan Flavin Lights Up Dia Beacon See Dia Beacon's stunning new permanent installations of work by Dan Flavin, Walter De Maria, and Bruce Nauman. 2016-05-10 14:06 3KB news.artnet.com 50 New York Indian Film Fest Opens With 'Let’s Dance to The Rhythm' The 16th edition of the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) opened on Saturday night at Skirball Center for Performing Arts with the film Let’s Dance to the Rhythm, also the New York premiere of the 2015 Bardroy Baretto-directed Konkani-language film starring Vijay Maurya,... 2016-05-10 13:46 3KB www.blouinartinfo.com 51 'DOOM' Is Violently Reimagined with a Claymation Cat Filmmaker Lee Hardcastle's reimagines 'DOOM' with a cat giving hell to demons and monsters. 2016-05-10 13:45 2KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 52 A New Photo Exhibition Takes a Hardcore Look at Life in the South Julia Fox’s 'PTSD' photos are not pretty pictures. 2016-05-10 13:35 3KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 53 Enter 'Spirited Away,' 'Howl's Moving Castle,' and 'My Neighbor Totoro' in VR These immersive experiences let you dive into worlds of Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli magic. 2016-05-10 13:30 2KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 54 bates masi divides american family home into interconnected courtyard pavilions every interior space within the family home by bates masi architects is connected to the exterior on two sides. 2016-05-10 13:21 2KB www.designboom.com 55 The World’s 30 Best New Buildings Listed by RIBA The World’s 30 Best New Buildings Listed by RIBA in UK 2016-05-10 13:11 2KB www.blouinartinfo.com 56 5 Artists to Remind You That Summer is Coming Artworks to cheer you up get through rainy Spring weather. 2016-05-10 13:00 3KB news.artnet.com 57 Manufacture New York Blossoms in Brooklyn In September 2015, MNY became part of the Manufacturing Innovation Hub for Apparel, Textiles & Wearable Tech in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. 2016-05-10 13:00 9KB wwd.com 58 Suzy Delvalle Is President of Creative Capital Suzy Delvalle has been named the new president of Creative Capital, a nonprofit organization that's conferred $40 million in grants. 2016-05-10 12:48 2KB news.artnet.com
59 Kienholz’s ‘Five Car Stud’ Will Be Shown at the Prada Foundation in Milan Edward Kienholz, "Five Car Stud," 1972. COURTESY FONDAZIONE PRADA Edward Kienholz's Five Car Stud, which is owned by Milan's Fondazione Prada, will be 2016-05-10 12:47 2KB www.artnews.com 60 Philadephia Museum of Art Showcases African Collection Spanning Fashion, Architecture and Art Penn Museum Showcases African Collection Spanning Fashion, Architecture and Art 2016-05-10 12:21 1KB www.blouinartinfo.com 61 New Heights: 2016 GE Aviation Leadership Summit We created an inspiring leadership event for a mighty industrial company. Challenge For the past few years, Real Art has partnered with GE Aviation to create a memorable annual leadership summit. The theme this year, “eXperiment to eXpectation,” embodied the spirit of a company focused... 2016-05-10 11:39 2KB realart.com 62 American Beauty: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and the Case of the Missing Flag Robert Rauschenberg at his retrospective exhibition at the National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D. C., 1976. GIANFRANCO GORGONI/WWW. GIANFRANCOGORGONI 2016-05-10 11:18 24KB www.artnews.com 63 Andria Hickey Named Senior Curator at MOCA Cleveland Hickey. MARIA BARANOVA MOCA Cleveland announced today that Andria Hickey will now be a senior curator at the museum. She is expected to start her new position 2016-05-10 11:10 1KB www.artnews.com 64 Rachel Maclean Will Represent Scotland at the 2017 Venice Biennale Maclean. COURTESY ZABLUDOWICZ COLLECTION The British Council Scotland announced today that Rachel Maclean will represent Scotland at the 2017 Venice Biennale. 2016-05-10 10:43 1KB www.artnews.com 65 Jude Law to Star in ‘Obsession’ on London Stage The new play, based on the 1943 Luchino Visconti film, will show at the Barbican Center in London in 2017. 2016-05-10 10:42 1KB artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com 66 Statue Destroyed by Man Taking Selfie The latest piece to fall victim to an ill-considered photo op is a statue at Lisbon's Rossio train station. 2016-05-10 10:15 2KB news.artnet.com 67 London Shows Mark Visionary Artist François Morellet’s 90th This year marks the 90th birthday of French abstract painter and sculptor Francois Morellet, one of the most important artists of 20th century geometric abstraction and the founding member of Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV). 2016-05-10 10:05 5KB www.blouinartinfo.com 68 Yayoi Kusama Will Transform Your Airbnb Room Art-world star Yayoi Kusama has launched a competition with Airbnb and Tate Modern that will see the space of one lucky winner getting the Kusama treatment. 2016-05-10 07:00 2KB news.artnet.com 69 Ai Weiwei Films in Israel and Gaza Ai Weiwei is visiting Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza in order to conduct interview for his upcoming film on the refugee crisis in the Middle East. 2016-05-10 06:51 4KB news.artnet.com Articles
69 articles, 2016-05-11 06:02
1 Morning Links: Maurizio Cattelan’s ‘Him’ Edition (1.10/2) Maurizio Cattelan, Him , 2011. COURTESY SOTHEBY’S ACQUISITIONS AND COMMISSIONS Who bought Maurizio Cattelan’s Hitler sculpture Him for $17.2 million on Sunday at Sotheby’s? No one knows, still, but as one Sotheby’s consultant put it, “There are all sorts of conspiracy theories.” [ Page Six ]For his Monumenta commission, Huang Yong Ping is “occupying” the Grand Palais with an installation meant as a metaphor for the rise and fall of power. Most of the installation is the skeleton of a snake that weighs 133 tons. [ The Art Newspaper ] LIVES Martin Friedman, the former Walker Art Center director who radically expanded the museum’s reach to include dance, performance, and film, died yesterday at age 90. “Martin understood that the power of a museum comes from giving voice to artists as well as showcasing their art,” Adamn Weinberg, the director of the Whitney Museum, said. [ Minneapolis Star Tribune ] ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN The Fondazione Berengo in Venice is planning the first Zaha Hadid retrospective since her death earlier this year. The show will open on May 26, to coincide with the Venice Architecture Biennale. [ The New York Times ]The Cooper Hewitt Museum has announced this year’s National Design Awards winners. Moshe Safdie, the urban planner and architect, won the lifetime achievement award. [ Artforum ] MUSEUMS Martine Syms discusses her show at the ICA London. “I have said it before and I will continue to say that I don’t think art is the most effective form of protest. I don’t think it changes policy, I think it changes discourse, and discourse can change ideas, and for me that’s what it’s about: having that space for conversation,” she said. [ The Guardian ]Following the news that the Metropolitan Museum of Art is planning layoffs, a planned $600 million expansion for the museum has been put on hold. [ The Architect’s Newspaper ]At the American Law School’s annual course on museum law, appropriation, drones, YouTube videos, and brand control were some of the many topics discussed. [ The Art Newspaper ] EXTRAS You can now apply to have Yayoi Kusama redo your bedroom. Thanks to a partnership between AirBnB and the Tate Modern, Kusama can fill your room with dots. [ The Huffington Post ]If you must, please have a look at one artist’s art selfies at Frieze New York. [ Vogue ] 2016-05-10 08:53 The Editors
2 2016 American Package Design Awards (1.05/2) Makers, sellers and marketers are challenged as never before to convey the message, promote the brand, close the deal. Think fragmented audiences, information overload, media clutter, global competition, economic dislocation, changing practices and preferences. Package design and related disciplines are increasingly the difference makers in advancing the brand and influencing the purchasing decision. The outstanding work showcased here – from 200 elite design firms, design departments and production companies – is testimony to this phenomenon. Our annual competition celebrates attractive graphics, of course, but more importantly the power of design to forge an emotional link with the buyer at the moment of truth. Beauty + Personal Care Health + Wellness Wine, Beer + Liquor Food + Beverages Electronics + Computers Music + Entertainment Home, Garden + Industrial Sports, Toys + Games Babies + Children Animals + Pets Fashion, Apparel + Accessories Luxury Packaging Sustainable Packaging Private Label Packaging P-O-P, Posters + Signs Hangtags, Labels + Shopping Bags Logos, Identity + Branding Students Click on the name of an individual firm to see their winning projects 2016-05-10 18:00 GDUSA Staff
3 Turning Snow: Olga Viso on Martin Friedman’s Legacy (1.02/2) Martin Friedman, the Walker’s director from 1961 to 1990, passed away in New York City on May 9, 2016. When I began my tenure at the Walker in early 2008, it had been almost 20 years since Martin Friedman had retired. As the institution’s third and longest-serving director, Martin was legendary and his influence foundational. Indeed […] 2016-05-11 04:53 By
4 Art Production Fund Toasts Ugo Rondinone’s ‘Seven Magic Mountains’ in Nevada (1.02/2) Coachella aside, the fashion and art crowd rarely retreats to the desert. Though on Monday afternoon, some of the art world’s biggest players were swarming around Ugo Rondinone’s “Seven Magic Mountains,” an installation of seven soaring limestone sculptures erected outside Las Vegas. “It’s like a breath of fresh air after Frieze [New York art fair],” said Yvonne Force Villareal, cofounder of Art Production Fund, which collaborated with the Nevada Museum of Art on the exhibition, being eyed by a throng of Champagne-touting spectators. The installation, a series of boulders pilings painted in surreal day- glow colors, which pop across the arid landscape, is one of the most ambitious land art works in the past 40 years. “It’s our biggest project, too, and Vegas had the space and need for public art on this scale.” Dressed in a white maxidress from Tommy Hilfiger with a pair of matching gold chain bracelets on each arm, she heeded Rondinone’s requested attire. Unfortunately, the white-only- please dress code memo wasn’t publicized, so many guests wore vibrant fashions as an homage to the rainbow-favoring Swiss artist. Nevada Museum of Art board trustee Denise Cashman posed against a Malibu Barbie pink boulder in a shirtdress of the same hue, while other attendees donned various iterations of “Mad Max” desert-chic. Nearly everyone had the good sense to wear Western boots that quickly accumulated a patina of dust. “We do things differently out here in the desert,” said Cashman. As attendees sipped Dom Pérignon in the baking sun, APF executive director Casey Fremont assured a concerned gentleman that a 35-foot cairn whose boulders each weigh an average of 40,000 pounds wouldn’t topple over on him. “Don’t worry. It’s solidly built, sir.” “Everyone can relate to balancing stones. Every child has tried to do this with a pile of rocks,” said Rondinone, before receiving the key to the city. “I hope you all fall under the spell of the magic mountains. Viva Las Vegas!” More than 200 guests including gallery owners Sadie Coles, Barbara Gladstone and Eva Presenhuber; APF cofounder Doreen Remen; Nevada Museum of Art executive director and ceo David B. Walker, and its curatorial director and curator of contemporary art JoAnne Northrup; Nicholas Baume; Leo Villareal; Marlies Verhoeven Reijtenbagh; Simone Battisti, and Natalie Kovacs headed to dinner at presenting sponsor Aria Resort & Casino’s Bardot Brasserie. At the entrance, a table displayed mini-boulders in seven colors — part of a limited- edition series, each priced at $500. To inspire swift sales, the works went up to $1,000 the following day. Being a savvy shopper, Beth Rudin DeWoody immediately ordered the full set upon walking in. “I’ll take one of each at today’s price please.” 2016-05-10 21:41 Rebecca Kleinman
5 Jeff Koons and Google Unveil Phone Case Collaboration (1.02/2) More Articles By On Monday night, Jeff Koons and Google unveiled their top-secret, purportedly game- changing collaboration: a $40 “live” phone case that performs excerpts from “Swan Lake.” The duo celebrated the device — which transmits a new “live” ballet background to Android phones each day — with an event at Spring Place that drew Amy Sedaris, Jeffrey Deitch, and Hari Nef . It seemed odd for an art event to be staged just a day after both the Frieze and NADA art fairs had closed. But, for the projects’ participating ballet dancers — husband-and-wife duo Troy Schumacher and Ashley Laracey — Monday was their only day off. “I think this could have been one of the hardest things — [the ball] is precious and I didn’t want to drop it – your hand gets really sweaty holding onto the ball the whole time,” Laracey said of dancing with the objet. Koons, who appears to have never seen sassy repertoires like “Don Quixote,” said that he chose “Swan Lake” for its “sensual and classic qualities.” Though in commissioning a choreographer as cool as Schumacher — who has previously linked with directional labels including Marques ‘Almeida and Thom Browne — the boundaries could have been limitless. 2016-05-10 21:40 Misty White
6 Martin Friedman, Walker Art Center Head, Dies— (1.02/2) Martin Friedman, who oversaw Minneapolis's Walker Art Center for three decades, died on Monday at 90 at his home in New York City. As the institution's third and longest-serving director, he oversaw the construction of a new building and developed a beloved new public space, the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. During his career, he instituted forward-looking programs highlighting performance and new media, ahead of many other American museums. Friedman had undergone chemotherapy treatment, but a family friend tells the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that congestive heart failure was likely the immediate cause of death. Born in Pittsburgh, Friedman earned an MA in studio art and art history at the University of California at Los Angeles. After teaching high school and college art classes in LA, he won a fellowship to study African art in Belgium. He was hired as a curator at the Walker in 1958, and succeeded Harvey Arneson when he departed for the Guggenheim Museum in 1961. Friedman was then just 36 years old. While a Walker curator, he had already distinguished himself with exhibitions like The Precisionist View in American Art (1960), including Stuart Davis, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Charles Sheeler. Friedman also commissioned a new museum building designed by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, which opened in 1971. Art historian Barbara Rose is quoted on the Walker's website , stating that Barnes's building was "designed on a human scale for people to move through at a leisurely pace and for artists to show works in without having to compete with the architecture. " One of his signature achievements was the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, a public-private partnership that opened in 1988 on an 11-acre plot across from the museum, and contained the now-iconic sculpture Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Known for engrossing installations that he hoped would spread what he called the "thrilling" effect of contemporary art, he also took a personal interest in the museum's interns and trainees, as Rothfuss recalls in a remembrance on the museum's website. While editing a text of hers, he once admonished her, "You're not writing for Artforum ," she recalls. He was also known for fastidiousness. "I could have killed him three times a week because he was so relentless," former Walker curator Graham Beal, now retired director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, told the Star-Tribune. "But from Martin I learned that you don't start with compromise in mind. You start with what you want and don't settle for anything but the best. " Friedman left the Walker in 1990, after which he advised the Nelson Atkins Museum, in Kansas City, on sculptural acquisitions as well as advising and curating public art for New York's Madison Square Park. The museum has published a series of recollections by Friedman on its website, including accounts visits to Minneapolis by John Cage and Marcel Duchamp , and a trip to New York to meet Joseph Cornell. More are to come. Follow artnet News on Facebook. 2016-05-10 16:32 Brian Boucher
7 More or Less Than One: C. Spencer Yeh’s Sound Horizon (1.00/2) To spark discussion, the Walker invites Twin Cities artists and critics to write overnight reviews of our performances. The ongoing Re:View series shares a diverse array of independent voices and opinions; it doesn’t reflect the views or opinions of the Walker or its curators. Today, Mark Mahoney, host of Sound Grammar on Radio K, shares his perspective on C. Spencer […] 2016-05-10 22:51 By
8 daniel libeskind installs musical labyrinth in frankfurt square daniel libeskind + cosentino install musical labyrinth in front of frankfurt’s alte oper all images by wonge bergmann to accompany a 24-hour opera experience, the german city of frankfurt has installed an abstract map that serves as a visual representation of the unique event. designed by architect daniel libeskind, in collaboration with cosentino, the work — titled ‘musical labyrinth’ — is located in the plaza of frankfurt’s alte oper. on may 21 and 22, 2016, the city will open the doors to 18 unusual concert venues, setting the stage for 75 consecutive opera performances. the musical experience is titled ‘one day in life’, and has been curated by libeskind and organized by the alte oper concert hall. ‘musical labyrinth’ is located in the plaza of frankfurt’s alte oper as visitors approach the main square, they encounter a 289 square meter landscape etched with libeskind’s original concept sketch for the project. the platform is constructed from 80 black dekton slabs etched in white relief. the lines of the drawing illustrate a labyrinth within the city, indicating points that correlate to the addresses of the different venues — each location a metaphor for 18 of life’s basic conditions. the public are invited to walk on and interact with the installation as a piece of public art. ‘every city creates its own structure through dreams,’ says libeskind. ‘the streets we walk on and the topographies we experience exist simultaneously in reality and mystery.’ using the map as a starting point, members of the public are free to explore the event’s various concert locations — several of which are held in locations not normally accessible to the public. ‘this installation will be the core element of the project, and its role will be fundamental while the concerts are being held,’ continues daniel libeskind. ‘starting from today, people are now invited to walk through the labyrinth and interact with the structure.’ see designboom’s previous coverage of the installation, and more on the ‘one day in life’ event, here. the lines of the sketch illustrate an imaginary labyrinth within the city various points correlate with the addresses of the different concert venues image © studio libeskind 2016-05-11 02:14 Philip Stevens
9 The Shape of Doo-Bop to Come: Steve Lehman and HPrizm On Saturday, May 7, the Steve Lehman Octet will bring its spectral harmonies and cascading rhythms to the McGuire Theater. Lehman is a jazz stalwart, guided by algorithms and an abiding musical intuition which carried the Octet’s most recent release, Mise en Abîme, to the top spot on the 2014 NPR Music Jazz Critic’s Poll. At the same time, […] 2016-05-11 04:53 By
10 Listening Mix: Devendra Banhart & Friends LISTENING MIX provides a musical preview for artists visiting the Walker. Combining their work with sounds from a variety of contextual sources, LISTENING MIX can be experienced before or after a performance. For his two-evening event this weekend, Wind Grove Mind Alone, singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart has gathered a group of collaborators, contemporaries, mentors, and friends. It wasn’t so long […] 2016-05-11 04:53 By
11 Second Thoughts: Fred Sandback and the Virtual Line How does an exhibition accrete meaning, gain relevance, or shift shapes over time? In the “Second Thoughts” series, Walker curators reconsider earlier presentations of art, articulating new or refined conclusions. Here, Jordan Carter writes about how the discovery of a 1977 book of line drawings by American artist Fred Sandback (1943–2003) prompts new thinking about the artist’s sculptures made using yarn or elastic cord. […] 2016-05-11 04:53 By
12 Masahiko Uotani Calls for Formation of Global Forum at WWD Beauty CEO Summit Masahiko Uotani, president and chief executive officer of Shiseido Co. Ltd., made a call for a global industry forum in order to share ideas at the WWD Beauty CEO Summit in Palm Beach, Fla., on Tuesday. “The forum can be a platform where our companies can discuss noncompetitive and industrywide issues, such as sustainability, and share industry perspectives,” he said. “With so much change, we’d all benefit by thinking as an industry about our shared responsibilities — by being change, not just responding to change.” Back during his time at CocaCola Japan, Uotani said beverage makers would periodically meet — eventually deciding to standardize the size of the outer carton boxes. They also opted to collaborate in times of emergency, following the Fukushima disaster in 2011. Jody Pinson, vice president of merchandising for beauty at Wal-Mart U. S., echoed the sentiment, calling for beauty companies to innovate in a sustainable way. Pinson acknowledged Wal-Mart lacks credibility in color cosmetics primarily because of its lackluster store presentation, which the store is working to correct. The business — founded on principals of “stack it high and watch it fly,” sells 1.6 mascara’s per second and carries 1,750 lip products. Elizabeth Taylor’s White Diamond is still the number-one fragrance at the store. Pinson expects more future sales to come from the Hispanic population, 46 percent of which she says are under 35 years old. On the financial side, Patrice Louvet, group president of Procter & Gamble beauty, admitted the business’ acquisition spree of beauty brands a decade ago was a mistake. “We overextended ourselves,” Louvet said. “We were out of touch with reality of where to create value. We lost sight of the core.” Louvet also admitted a misstep with Olay, saying that the company “should have been focusing like a laser,” on expanding Olay Regenerist, which only 5 percent of U. S. women had tried. The word of the meeting was authenticity. “If it’s not relatable, they’re not following you,” said Nudestix founder and president Jenny Frankel. “The notion of authority changed fundamentally and permanently,” said William Lauder, executive chairman of The Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. “Anyone can be an authority.” Digital was another theme of the day. At Ulta Beauty , the digital experience has boosted sales, said David Kimbell, chief merchandising and marketing officer, who said customers who shop in store and online spend two times more money. “They feel a sense of beauty happening with the services in the store,” Kimbell said. At YouCam Makeup, there were 295 million brand product trials in three months. During that period, four million users clicked through to Elizabetharden.com, the first brand to partner with YouCam. Users on the app are highly engaged — they visit the app on average 15 times per month, and there are 30 million photos taken with Perfect Corp.’s apps every day. The business also runs the YouCam Perfect, YouCam Nails and Beauty Circle applications. Even though U. S. department store sales are down, Sarah Quinlan, senior vice president and group head of market insights MasterCard Advisors, signaled out the U. K. and Middle East as hot spots. 2016-05-11 00:59 WWD Staff
13 13 bonaventura visconti di modrone builds housing for haitian street children bonaventura visconti di modrone builds housing for haitian street children (above) aerial view of the complex all images © marco cappelletti between 2014 and 2015, right after graduating, italian architect bonaventura visconti di modrone was invited to anse-à-pitres, a small village in the sud-est department of haiti, to build a housing complex for ayitimoun yo, an N. G. O. that helps local street children. a meeting with the N. G. O founders fostered the idea of designing an anti- seismic building for the children, that could also serve as a resource to help them feel welcome and part of a family again. kids playing in the free covered space in between the houses the N. G. O wanted a space that would be easy to control, in which the children could sleep and carry out their daily activities. the children, on the other hand, would need different areas; an indoor space to share with their housemates; a veranda to do their homework and spend time with their close friends; a lateral big open space to share with all the others. this subdivision is important considering the fact that there are children of different age and background. since it was important for the building to fit within the local architectural context, two of its typical elements were adopted: the lakou settlement and the haitian rural house. the first is a traditional way of arranging the houses around a central courtyard; this was reinterpreted by placing the houses in a line and leaving a big open space between the buildings. the second is a simple and clean rectangular-shaped house, with an open veranda that is cheerfully decorated and covered with a pitched roof. in the haitian culture, the pitched roof especially means respect and acceptance, so it was included repeatedly, creating the characteristic shape of the uninterrupted cover. the main open space between the first two houses where kids gather and play the haitian climate is very hot and humid, so the roof structure is detached from the houses, allowing fresh air to breeze through and providing natural ventilation. some of the project details, such as the color of the bricks and of the concrete platform, were chosen directly by the children through workshops, helping them to personalise their future houses and strengthened their feeling of ownership. by investigating and reinterpreting the local architectural context they were able to design a building well integrated with the surroundings. the houses are surrounded on all four sides by free space the main issue faced during the construction was the organization of the logistics; many of the materials needed were brought in from the dominican republic, mainly in the capital city of santo domingo, which is a one-day trip from the construction site. furthermore, because of diplomatic issues between the two countries, it has been difficult to clear the goods through custom and transport them to the site. all the other materials and components were customized on-site by local craftsman. the decision to employ local workers and artisans exclusively led to the direct participation of the entire community and to the creation of a facility (site; place) that belongs to the area and to its architectural and cultural context. view of the front verandas, private spaces that are dedicated to homework and other activities the inner spaces are painted in light blue to create a calm and relaxing atmosphere kids playing in the second free open space front view of the complex with kids playing in the main open spaces while others are doing their homework if, needed the inner spaces can be used as classrooms too the space has been divided to meet the kids psychological needs of different spaces designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here. 2016-05-11 00:15 Bonaventura Visconti
14 Summers of Rock — Magazine — Walker Art Center Launched in 1998, the Walker’s now-annual Rock the Garden festival has gone through plenty of changes—from its inception as an intermittent, on-the- street jam to a 10,000-fan party on the Walker hillside, a two-day festival to, in 2016, a one-day, two-stage affair at Boom Island Park. Here’s a look back at the varied and vibrant history of what’s traditionally been considered the launch of the Twin Cities’ summer concert season. The Jayhawks headlined the inaugural Rock the Garden—preceded by the Steve Millar Band and the Hot Head Swing Band —in an event that was deluged by rain, sending scores of fans into the Walker lobby to await a break in the clouds. Returning to the stage, Gary Louris, in a green Lacoste windbreaker, a Flying V strapped around his neck, enthusiastically fronted the band for this historic first-ever RTG. After a year off, the fledgling festival returned, with a killer lineup: Sonic Youth headlined, with Stereolab and Sunship Sextet opening. Walker senior performing arts curator Philip Bither’s recollection of the show: “Kim Gordon’s hair blowing in the wind, stoically beautiful in the midst of Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo’s sonic squall storm force of Sonic Youth playing a blistering set.” Band members would return several times: Gordon gave a talk on Yoko Ono’s influence in 2001; Ranaldo performed in 2004 as part of the group playing a live score for Stan Brakhage’s films; and, in town to play the 2006 Minnesota State Fair, the entire band stopped by the galleries to check out a solo show by their friend, Cameron Jamie. Medeski Martin & Wood got top billing in a year that saw Iffy (a side project of the late Run Westy Run co-founder Kirk Johnson) and Marc Ribot and Los Cubanos Postizos open the show. “Beloved—and missed—locals Iffy, along with Ribot’s ‘fake Cuban’ band, nearly stole the show from MMW,” recalls Performing Arts associate curator Doug Benidt. Jazz trio The Bad Plus —featuring drummer Dave King —heated up the stage in a year when Andrew Broder, aka Fog , opened and Wilco , fresh off the release of their heralded album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (which earned a perfect-10 rating from Pitchfork ), headlined. The array of bands, especially Wilco’s performance, is “perhaps my best musical memory of all Rock the Gardens,” says the Walker’s Bither. David Byrne ’s attire matched his RTG 2004 set, which Bither calls “masterful” and “elegantly thrilling.” The former Talking Heads frontman arrived for an afternoon soundcheck on a bike wearing knee socks and pinstriped overalls. Later, when he hit the stage, he wore white and brown saddle shoes and matching gray work pants and shirt, embroidered with a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.—from King’s 1967 book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? —on the back. Byrne headlined, preceded by local opener Barb Cohen (co- founder of Brother Sun Sister Moon) and Brooklyn’s Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra. Touring around the album Who Is This America? (Ropeadope), Antibalas ’s horn-heavy brand of Afropop stirred crowds with numbers like “ Pay Back Africa ” and its sharp-edged commentary on American politics, “ Indictment .” Remembers Benidt, “The Fela-riffic Antibalas groove really set the stage nicely for the globally eared David Byrne performance.” Bither remembers Byrne , with full funk-adept rock band plus the New York–based Tosca String Quartet , “wailing into the setting sun his own very moving version of Verdi’s ‘Un Di, Felice, Eterea,’ and soon after kicking it with a blistering version of ‘Burning Down the House.’” Four years before winning dual Grammy awards, Bon Iver opened Rock the Garden as the “local” act. Bither remembers the singer-songwriter “mesmerizing everyone within hearing distance.” After the set, Bither spent time hanging out with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon backstage, “discovering what a regular, sweet guy he was. We talked about everything, including basketball and Eau Claire, and he reminisced about the mind-opening shows he’d seen at the Walker as a young guy.” Vernon was in good company: on the bill with him were Cloud Cult , The New Pornographers , and Andrew Bird . 2008 also marked the first year of the Walker’s ongoing partnership with 89.3 The Current to copresent Rock the Garden. When an epic squall appeared on the horizon—complete with lightning, no friend of the electricity-conducting stage and equipment—2008 Rock the Garden coordinator Ellie McKinney nervously signaled to Andrew Bird that she needed the microphone to announce a rain delay. “As soon as I finished, I looked out into the crowd for the first time and realized a man in the front row was screaming ‘NOOOO!’ in slow-mo. Then I heard the boos,” McKinney says. “I was being booed. Booed by 10,000 people. As I walked off that stage—my first and only time onstage in front of 10,000 people—Andrew said to me, ‘I forgot my shoes up there.’ And then came a call on the radio: ‘I think your fly was down.’” Soon after, as Bither recalls, “The dramatic dark clouds broke open for a fantastic sunset behind the city skyline as Andrew returned to the stage.” By reorienting the stage to face the Walker hillside for its 2009 edition, Rock the Garden’s capacity increased by around 3,000 fans. “Turning the stage toward the grassy amphitheater really made the event feel more natural and convivial,” says Benidt. The lineup: Solid Gold , Yeasayer , Calexico , and headliners The Decemberists. Betsy Carpenter’s top Rock the Garden moment came in 2009 when The Decemberists performed Heart’s “Crazy on You.” “The female lead singers were wearing white business suits with peplum jackets and were belting out the lyrics while enacting the most bizarre stage moves,” the former Walker visual arts curator recalls. “The audience was going crazy with the requisite head-banging and hand gestures, and the band seemed to be having a blast. It was just so surprising and incongruous.” OK GO hit the confetti cannon in 2010, a year that saw the LA-based foursome play in the biggest RTG lineup yet, along with Retribution Gospel Choir (featuring Low’s Alan Sparhawk), Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings , and MGMT . “2010 was my favorite Rock the Garden to date,” says Benidt. “The blend of sounds and killer performances really made for a long and oh so beautiful day.” In a sequined aquamarine dress with white fringe, Sharon Jones , along with her Dap-Kings, was a crowd-pleaser, especially so for one audience member. Minneapolis’s then-Mayor RT Rybak took to Twitter , punning: “Sharon Jones, former prison guard, has Rock the Garden crowd in custody. Love her sound!” Rain—drenching, all-morning rain—nearly put the kibosh on this year’s concert. But the show went on, as the Walker hillside turned to mud as Tapes ‘N Tapes , Booker T. Jones , Neko Case , and My Morning Jacket wrested the stage away from the dreary weather. Yeti boots: check. Scarf: check. Cape: check. In proper rock star attire, My Morning Jacket front man Jim James “put the ‘rock’ into Rock the Garden,” as Bither put it, “in both great and ridiculous ways.” With 2012’s nearly all-local lineup— Howler , tUnE-yArDs , Doomtree , Trampled by Turtles , and The Hold Steady — the tenth edition of Rock the Garden didn’t disappoint. “It’s great to be home, and in such a beautiful part of our city,” THS’s Minnesota-raised front man Craig Finn told the crowd of more than 10,000. At the 2011 concert, he was in the audience, but this year he was on stage: “Thanks for making another of my dreams come true,” he said. Right out of the gate, Rock the Garden 2013 was met with bad weather, but we made the most of it, and spectacularly so. Facing a rain- (and lightning-) delay, opening act Dan Deacon had a suggestion, “I can play in the garage.” As Benidt later wrote, “What ensued in the depths of the parking garage is one of the most spontaneously joyous performance moments I have witnessed. Electro Pied Piper Dan Deacon led an ecstatic dance party with thousands of wet and ponchoed people—all dancing, drinking, and feeling the relief of being dry just for a moment.” Yet, Deacon’s buzzed-about underground rave wasn’t the only landmark moment of 2013’s concert. Back outside after the weather cleared, the Duluth trio Low used its entire 27-minute set to play one song, a drone version of 1996’s single “Do You Know How to Waltz?” Front man Alan Sparhawk concluded the set with three now-infamous words: “Drone, not drones.” More than a few angry fans immediately went online to share their reactions. Afterwards, an unapologetic Bither took to the Walker blog to compare the set to Stravinsky’s riot-inducing premiere of The Rite of Spring in 1913, noting that the annual concert event “grew out of a 50- year old Performing Arts program at the Walker dedicated to new sounds, new movements, and new forms of theater and interdisciplinary art, where traits like innovation and audacity rank high.” RTG 2013 also marked a homecoming for Bob Mould , who co-founded the punk band Hüsker Dü here in 1979. His rousing set included classics from both his 1990s band Sugar and his solo work, including the new song, “ The Descent.” Blazing through their sets, Silversun Pickups and alt-rockers Metric wrapped up the 2013 festival in memorable fashion . In 2014, Rock the Garden expanded into a two-day festival , kicking off on Saturday with sets by Lizzo (whose single “Batches and Cookies” became the festival’s unofficial anthem ), Jeremy Messersmith , Best Coast , Matt and Kim , and, headlining, hip-hop pioneers De La Soul Memphis-based Valerie June opened up Sunday’s concert, bringing her distinct brand of “organic moonshine roots music.” Following her were Kurt Vile and The Violators , Doomtree emcee Dessa , the ever-prolific Guided by Voices , and Spoon . Local favorite Lizzo said that being a part of Rock the Garden made her feel like a “ gift- wrapped package with glitter coming out of the top .” May we suggest a cherry on top as well? With Spoonbridge and Cherry just across the street in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, it’s only fitting that the 2014 edition concluded with headliner Spoon . Again presented as a two-day festival, RTG15 saw a momentous first day: the reunion of 1990s Minneapolis punk trio Babes in Toyland , as well as showstoppers by young St. Paul phenoms thestand4rd , followed by Lucius , Courtney Barnett , and Conor Oberst. All the way from Glasgow, headliners Belle and Sebastian regaled audiences with tales of their trip to Minneapolis—including a dip in Cedar Lake—and wrapped the night with an on-stage dance party/singalong to their classic, “The Boy With The Arab Strap.” Before taking the stage at Rock the Garden 2015, the members of Lucius took a private tour of the Walker’s International Pop exhibition, stopping to spend a bit of extra time with a particularly inspiring work, Evelyne Axell’s Ice Cream (1964), which graces the cover of the band’s 2014 album Wildewoman . The final day of RTG15 aimed for diversity of styles and geographies: New York’s The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger (with Sean Lennon) , Oklahoma roots rocker JD McPherson , Lagos-based Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 (the son of, and band that backed up, Afrobeat sensation Fela Kuti), seminal punk band Babes in Toyland , and Washington State indie band Modest Mouse . This year’s festival brings eight bands to the Mississippi riverfront for one unforgettable day of music. Due to renovations at the Walker and Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, we’re moving to Boom Island where, backdropped by the downtown skyline, we’ll hear from LA punk quartet Plague Vendor , local hip-hop supergroup GRRRL PRTY (Lizzo, Sophia Eris, Manchita, DJ Shannon Blowtorch, and Quinn Wilson), Missouri’s Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats , Hippo Campus , M. Ward , Poliça (fresh off their United Crushers album), Chicago’s Chance the Rapper (whose highly anticipated release Chance 3 comes out May 13), and headliners The Flaming Lips. One day, two stages, eight bands. We hope to see you on the island , and back on the newly renovated Walker campus for Rock the Garden 2017. 2016-05-10 22:51 www.walkerart
15 rafael de cárdenas' prismatic neon jungle pops-up in the miami design district rafael de cárdenas’ prismatic neon jungle pops- up in the miami design district all images by kris tamburello maison&objet americas 2016 kicks off in the vibrant city of miami for the second consecutive year, taking over two halls at the convention center and engaging in exhibitions and activities across the city. for the occasion, rafael de cárdenas — the 2016 maison&objet americas designer of the year — celebrates the city’s culture of luxury, pleasure and indulgence by adding an immersive tropical lounge to the stylish miami design district. located just one block away from the historic moore building, the ‘neon jungle’ pop-up embodies the m&o americas 2016 theme of ‘wild’ with a prismatic oasis of vibrant lights and jungle foliage. visitors are invited to lounge on a pixelated landscape of custom-created modular furniture by de cárdenas and his multi-disciplinary practice architecture at large, or dance in a labyrinth of mirrors and palms. purple luminaries trace the perimeter of reflective surfaces, emitting a cool glow throughout the space. two hot green, three-dimensional neon signs with the acronym RDC/AAL (rafael de cárdenas/architecture at large) greet visitors at the main entrance. as part of the event, a different flavored popsicle from local company poplab is released every weekday evening, wrapped in bespoke de cárdenas-designed packaging. additionally, a musical soundtrack is spun nightly, emanating from a mirrored plinth set deep within the neon jungle, realized by the team at deft union. the temporary ‘neon jungle’ venue — created in collaboration with creative director alexandra cunningham — is open from tuesday may 10th through sunday may 15th. a prismatic oasis of neon lights and jungle foliage infills the space visitors are invited to lounge on a pixelated landscape of custom-created modular furniture guests can dance in a labyrinth of mirrors and palms a musical soundtrack emanates from a mirrored plinth set deep within the neon jungle maison et objet americas 2016 runs from may 10 to may 13, 2016. the event brings the interior design and home decoration communities from north and south america to the vibrant city of miami. this second edition takes over two halls at the miami beach convention center, with an outreach of events, exhibitions and activities planned for across the city throughout the week. 2016-05-10 23:20 Nina Azzarello
16 16 sebastian leon’s furniture for atelier d’amis elegantly references the construction sites of NYC sebastian leon’s furniture for atelier d’amis elegantly references the construction sites of NYC atelier d’amis strives to create designs that go beyond luxury furniture, rather, rendering them as pieces of conversation for the home. founded by furniture entrepreneur philippe boccara, artist and designer sebastien leon, and interior architect valerie pasquiou, atelier d’amis’s inaugural collection ‘laisse béton’ was conceived by leon and pasquiou after they observed the neverending turmoil of the streets of new york city — where the french creatives now reside — that are constantly torn apart by construction sites. ‘there is a certain beauty and unity in the architectural skeleton of construction,’ observes sebastien leon ‘which offers a stacked X-ray of structural elements, floor after floor.’ for valerie pasquiou, ‘concrete is the raw material of new york by excellence, which I felt should be glorified by bringing it to the world of fine furniture‘. the ‘laisse béton’ series is characterized by the duo’s reinterpretation of rebar to create legs, grids formations employed in tables, and pinion elevators referenced in armoires, cleverly infusing the vocabulary of the construction site through each furniture piece. the collection is made from selected ultra-thin and resistant concrete-finish ceramic plates supported by brass plated tubular steel, marrying the worlds of industrial, contemporary and high-end furniture. ‘vestry’ armoire from the ‘laisse béton’ collection visibly references pinion elevators found on construction sites leon’s accompanying ‘pipeline’ collection takes visual influences from the brass sections of symphonic orchestras. ‘french horns, trumpets, and tubas strike me first as sculptures, and then as instruments,’ sebastien leon says, whose other forms of artistic expression include sound sculptures and polyphonic installations. ‘I have often used brass pipes in my sculptures as a way to carry sound and was captivated by the idea of drawing on this same aesthetic to form a furniture collection.’ a longtime practitioner of meditation, leon also used the art of zen rock stacks to create the geometry of his sofas, perpetually searching for balance between all elements. ‘pipeline’ is composed of a variety of individual elements that allow for multiple configurations. the ‘pipes’ are made from brass, forming the structure of each seating and ottoman system, accompanied by robust, rounded cushions available in a selected palette of nova buck and leather. the two furniture collections ‘laisse béton’ and ‘pipeline’ are previewing at jean de merry gallery in west hollywood until may 27th, 2016. the tubular structures of each design references the brass sections of symphonic orchestras ‘si’ sofa system from the ‘pipeline’ collection the ‘si’ sofa system features a structure that references the pipes of an organ 2016-05-10 23:05 Shuhei Senda
17 Michael Kors and ‘Hamilton’ Actor Leslie Odom Jr. Talk Charity at Town & Country Philanthropy Summit More Articles By The worlds of luxury and charity converged Tuesday at Town & Country’s third annual Philanthropy Summit held at New York’s Historical Society. The event drew an eclectic mix of corporate types, foundation leaders, designers, journalists, entertainers — does Dorinda Medley from Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York” count? — and generally wealthy people. Upon arrival, guests were handed a paper agenda, name tag and iPad, which housed a digital agenda of speakers and bios, a fancy yet somewhat redundant touch. Aside from delving into issues ranging from cancer research, water conservation, private wealth and hunger, the day acted as a sort of “coming out” or debut for T&C’s newly crowned editor in chief Stellene Volandes , who led a panel on supporting the arts. Jay Fielden , Esquire editor in chief and editorial director of T&C, introduced Volandes, who took the to stage to speak with “ Hamilton ” star Leslie Odom Jr. and Toby Boshak, the executive director of the Princess Grace Foundation . The actor, who plays Aaron Burr in “Hamilton,” won a Princess Grace award in 2002, which provided him with a stipend during his senior year at Carnegie Mellon University. “Let’s talk turkey, they gave me $15,000. That was a big deal,” Odom said, explaining that the award not only allowed him to finish his schooling, but also gave him “encouragement” to continue his craft and “affirmation” of his talent. Odom, who is nominated for a Tony for Best Performance by a lead actor this year, expressed how important it is for him to “stay connected” to the winners of the Princess Grace awards. “I go to the awards gala when I can each year. I want to meet these kids because they might be in the position to give me a job,” he said. “I want to meet them because we’ll be working together, and the talent is extraordinary.” Later in the day, designer Michael Kors addressed an issue close to his heart on a panel called: “The Hunger Crisis: Are We Making Progress.” “I’m interested in results,” said Kors , who first got his start fighting hunger at God’s Love We Deliver, where his contributions helped rebuild and expand their Greenwich Village headquarters and then with the World Food Programme, where proceeds from his Watch Hunger Stop campaign have helped feed more than 10 million schoolchildren. As far as meal preparation, Kors’ competitive streak often comes into play. While he’s not that precise at chopping, when it comes to packing the meals, he’s like that “I Love Lucy” episode where Lucy and Ethel are wrapping chocolates on the conveyor belt. “How many did we pack? Is that the most meals anybody packed?” he found himself asking. “You can be competitive in philanthropy,” he said. Blaine Trump, lifetime vice chairman of the board of directors of God’s Love We Deliver, said the organization has started freezing meals since so many of their clients have doctor’s appointments and other things they need to tend to. “Most of our meals are frozen and they can have a warm meal when they’re ready,” said Trump, noting that in June, God’s Love will deliver its 18 millionth meal. When moderator Alina Cho asked whether zero hunger is achievable in our lifetime, Elisabeth Rasmusson, assistant executive director of the World Food Programme, said, “Absolutely. We are producing enough food in the world today. It’s about ensuring that everybody has access to food. It’s about distributing food. It’s about making sure that we don’t waste food because we don’t have ways of storing it or transporting it. We’re wasting 40 percent of food.” 2016-05-10 23:03 Alexandra Steigrad
18 What is a Contemporary Collection? Thoughts on the Walker Moving Image Commissions and the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection The Walker Moving Image Commissions is an online series in which five artists responded to selections from the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. Premiered in the Walker Cinema and released for a limited run online, the Moving Image Commissions were initiated in May 2015 with premieres of work by Moyra Davey and James Richards that focused […] 2016-05-10 22:51 By
19 Bonhams to Offer Reddihough Collection of British Modern Art Related Venues Bonhams Artists Henry Moore Winifred Nicholson Alfred Wallis Bonhams will offer important works from the collection of Cyril Reddihough, one of Ben Nicholson’s major supporters, at its Modern British and Irish Art Sale in London on June 15, 2016. Described by Bonhams as “one of the finest collections of British Modernist art to come to auction,” the Reddihough Collection includes key works by major figures in the history of British Modernist art such as Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore , Barbara Hepworth, Winifred Nicholson , and Alfred Wallis among others. Highlights of the collection include Ben Nicholson’s “Painted Relief” 1941 (estimate: £400,000- 600,000) and “1928 (Pill Creek)” (estimate: £200,000-300,000), the original plaster model for Henry Moore ’s 1945 “Reclining Figure” sculpture (estimate: £150,000-200,000), Winifred Nicholson ’s 1925-6 painting “The Warwick Family” (estimate: £60,000-80,000), and Dame Barbara Hepworth’s 1947 oil and pencil on board “Study for Group” (estimate: £50,000 - 80,000). Bonhams Director of Modern British and Irish Art, Matthew Bradbury, said, “Cyril Reddihough’s patronage was, of course, very important to Nicholson financially, but the story of their relationship is really one of a great friendship as we can see in the personal works within the Reddihough collection. The major acquisitions which provided Ben with such security were rewarded with personally dedicated, at times esoteric and always thoughtful pieces. “Gifted works, inscribed by Ben appear regularly in the collection from the 1920s onwards and include the beautifully crafted Bus Ticket, regular and varied Christmas tokens also sent from Barbara Hepworth and numerous memento drawings and prints of trips taken together. The Reddihough Collection presents the largest ever single owner group of works by Ben Nicholson to appear at auction, an unprecedented opportunity for collectors to engage with one of the most significant collections of its type to ever come to market.” 2016-05-10 21:02 Nicholas Forrest
20 KUKA robots and timo boll return as comrades in orange intelligence KUKA robots and timo boll return as comrades in orange intelligence KUKA robots and timo boll return as comrades in orange intelligence all images courtesy of velvet ‘orange intelligence’ is the latest installation in the ongoing saga of ‘KUKA’ robots alongside german table tennis player timo boll. since boll and KUKAs’ first competition a lot has changed. now, rather than being set against one another as rivals, the duo become comrades. human sensitivity meets pure industrial power in synergy and collaboration. welcome to the future. the ‘orange intelligence’ campaign was created by velvet media and design. designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here. 2016-05-10 21:01 www.designboom
21 Projected Illustrations Turn the World into a Cartoon Images courtesy of Meskaprod Screeching chords and fluttering synth leads rise over a sequence of stark LED animations projected throughout an abandoned hospital in western France. A collection of talented artists, each engaging a different medium, collaborated to create the new music video for French electronic music producer Jumo 's new single, " Désert ," and it shows. The video was directed and produced by French filmmaker collective, Meskaprod , alongside multimedia studio Cela Collectif (of which Jumo is a part). While the producer was working out songs for his upcoming Nomade EP ( Nowadays Records ), his crew was out collecting drawings and animations to use during his live show. The collective eventually had the idea to use video projections to inflate the illustrations and screen them on the sides of buildings and from a moving car onto the ocean and trees. The entire video was shot in real time using a 5500-lumen video projector and a Sony a7S Mark II “because it can film in very, very low lights, and ‘sees’ better than the human eye, without degrading the image too much,” says Meskaprod co-Founder Lucas Mokrani Delaval. The abstract line drawings in the video are collection of works by visual artist Nina Guy , animator and graphic designer Clement Leveau , and cartoonist Gregory ‘MyFuckinMess’ Guibert. The projected animations are simple and satisfying to watch, with the glow and contour of Miyazaki characters. Illustration by Nina Guy Delaval tells The Creators Project, “Our goal was to create a link between the light and the urban space, and try to re-appropriate this space to tell our story. Entities leaving their dark, agonizing empty building to cross the city and reach a new way to escape. It's also a way to bring these 'dead' spaces back to life, and to project what's in our mind on it. The whole EP is based on a nomadic idea.” Check out "Désert" below: You can check out more of Jumo’s music on Soundcloud here. View more work from Meskaprod on their website, here , and for more from the Cela Collective, click here. Related: Virtual Organisms Writhe in Generative Music Video "Tehraj" Kia Labeija Slays in Pillar Point's New Music Video [Premiere] The Singer Is the Canvas in This Projection-Mapped Music Video Watch A Projection-Mapped Music Video Shot In One Take Pop Art Projections Turn This Music Video into a Living Lichtenstein 2016-05-10 20:40 Nathaniel Ainley
22 dominique perrault inaugurates mechanics hall for the EPFL dominique perrault inaugurates new mechanics hall in switzerland for the EPFL image © vincent fillon / dominique perrault architecture / adagp french firm dominique perrault architecture (DPA) has completed a new mechanics hall (ME) for EPFL — ecole polytechnique fédérale de lausanne — the renowned research institute and university in western switzerland. the previous structure was constructed by the zweifel + stricker + associates team in the early 70s, during the campus’ first phase of development. however, the site’s original masterplan has since been revised on a number of occasions, and in 2011, DPA won a competition to rebuild the hall. the new mechanics hall is situated on EPFL’s campus in lausanne image © vincent fillon / dominique perrault architecture / adagp the new building covers a surface area of more than 19,000 square meters, spread across one basement level and five storeys above ground. the structure houses the administrative offices of the department of engineering, as well as some office space for the department of biology. conceived as ‘a large-scale experimental playground’, the scheme consists of two wings connected by a large central atrium. with their own technical and circulation networks, the wings serve as two separate buildings — both respecting the site’s original layout, while playing with subdivisions and double heights. façade modules are divided into three vertical panels, two of which can slide laterally image © vincent fillon / dominique perrault architecture / adagp a monochrome color palette is established, with raw concrete and metal walls, cement, and PVC flooring, while exposed services reference the building’s scientific purpose. individual offices occupy a peripheral strip along the external façade, organized around a centrally positioned atrium that serves as the scheme’s ‘beating heart’. here, stairways and corridors flow diagonally from one level to the next, and from one side to another. the dynamic façade uses a metallic mesh that evokes an appropriate sense of mechanics image © vincent fillon / dominique perrault architecture / adagp the façade comprises a metallic mesh that evokes an appropriate sense of mechanics and engineering at work. its modules were pre-built in a factory before assembly, and are made up of two layers: an inner skin offering thermal insulation and soundproofing, and an outer envelope ensuring solar protection. the modules are divided into three vertical panels, two of which can slide laterally — allowing them to be deployed in front of the glass panes. to optimize thermal comfort, the mobile units are generally operated via the building’s automation system, but can also be maneuvered manually. stairways and corridors flow diagonally from one level to the next image © vincent fillon / dominique perrault architecture / adagp the building covers a surface area of more than 19,000 square meters image © vincent fillon / dominique perrault architecture / adagp the structure primarily houses the administrative offices of the department of engineering image © vincent fillon / dominique perrault architecture / adagp the scheme preserves the existing axes that traverse the campus image © vincent fillon / dominique perrault architecture / adagp at night, the building is gently illuminated from within image © vincent fillon / dominique perrault architecture / adagp client: swiss confederation represented by the council of polytechnic schools delegation for the operations: EPFL – ecole polytechnique fédérale de lausanne location: campus EPFL, lausanne, switzerland architect: dominique perrault architecte, design-build project with steiner SA artistic direction and design: gaëlle lauriot-prévost local architect: architram consultants: preface sarl (façades), betica SA (mechanical electrical), daniel willi SA (structure), dsilence SA (acoustics), duchein SA (sanitary system) site area: 15,500 sqm / 166,840 sqf built area: 20,800 sqm / 223,889 sqf construction dates: summer 2012 – may 2016 2016-05-10 20:02 Philip Stevens
23 How Design Could Change the Refugee Crisis All images courtesy of Design and Flow. Change is in the air at the Design and Flow (D&F) Transitions: Migration and Travel exhibition at Industry City for NYCxDesign Week 2016. The New York-based design platform, co-founded by Hala A. Malak and Reina Arakji, has culled together environmentally and socially conscious work from 12 artists, organizations, and innovators to spark a discussion about current conditions of migration and asylum-seeking. "We feel that it is very relevant to invest in projects that actually create a long-term social change," Malak tells The Creators Project. This year, Malak says, "we are looking at how design can play a role in facilitating migration and travel with a special focus on refugees. " The Ghata, a refugee shelter designed by architect and professor Rabih Shibli, is the impressive heart of D&F's initiative. Built outside of the exhibition itself, with its light brown plywood exterior and its unmistakable perfume of freshly shaven wood, the Ghata stands out from the surrounding architecture of industrial Brooklyn. "It was designed as a multifunctional shelter: it's easy to build, it's easy to deconstruct," says Malak. According to the co-founder, the structure takes a mere six hours to build and only three to deconstruct. As such, "it counters initiatives, like the Ikea initiative , which are great on paper but cannot be implemented easily," she says. The design has, in fact, already been implemented to widespread success in the refugee camps of the Beqaa in Lebanon, and will soon be rolled out into camps in Jordan. In the Beqaa, eight of the Ghatas are currently in use, protecting refugees from the elements in the fertile valley: Shibli has designed the Ghata so as to weather rain, wind, and even snow. While the structure is multi-use, so far the primary function of the Ghata has been to provide schools for the thousands of refugee children in the camps. "Education is fundamental," says Malak. "And [The Ghata schools] have managed now to provide education for over 3,700 children in the Beqaa and do it in a really great, affordable, and sustainable way. " Part of the Ghata Project is to also encourage refugees to construct these shelters for themselves. The project promotes the use of materials that are local and easily accessible and the design is highly adaptable to any given location. In the Beqaa, for example, the structures are constructed of finished plywood walls and steel supports and bases, while the New York structure has been adapted to be constructed of principally unfinished plywood and four-by-fours The Ghata also allows for the customization of the structures so that, in contrast to the stark exterior of the recreation on display at Transitions: Migration and Travel , the Beqaa Ghatas burst with color, courtesy of their young occupants. Says Malak, "It's really beautiful. " The Ghata, while physically and symbolically the giant of D&F's NYCxDesign Week exhibition is still just one among 11 other projects laboring along similar lines. "We wanted to bring in projects that were really relevant to either create awareness, conversation, or real design interventions," Malak comments. If this last category of design is dominated by the Ghata, the first two are the primary focuses of the other works. Lucify 's " Visualizing European Migrant Crisis " interactive map, for instance, uses open-source data to show the diachronic movement of asylum seekers arriving in European countries. The dynamic visuals of Lucify's project, available both online and on mobile devices, have in turn inspired custom-made scarves from Slow Factory , in collaboration with D&F. The designers have overlapped a NASA image of Europe with the open data visualized by Lucify. As is customary with Slow Factory, the scarves are made with 100% eco-friendly and fair trade silk. Fashion mobilized towards social change is represented in the show by Mary Mattingly 's now famous Wearable Homes and Jahnkoy 's Playground of Da Americas a.k.a. Hood Buys Everything project. Mattingly's designs combine highly functional fabrics—complete with UV- protection, waterproofing, and temperature regulation—with the concept of a design that one can literally live and survive in, such as her wearable sleeping bag or her wearable flotation device. Jahnkoy, the selected Parsons School of Design student winner for this year's exhibition, blends sustainable design with the practice of traditional craftsmanship to create stunning, armor-like sets made from a combination of recycled plastic bags and Swarovski crystals. 200 Grs 's powerful Sift sculpture, meanwhile, represents the painful, frustrating, and harrowing experience of being a refugee by placing dozens of pounds of pins unto a suspended sieve. The scattering of pins that break free from the stifling pressure of the masses represent the process of crossing boarders, of receiving asylum. In addition, 200 Grs collaborated with D&F to create five other products that reify the refugee experience. D&F also collaborated with Amelia Black to launch her individually sourced ceramic sets and with Choux à la Crème for their "Paper Emergency Kit," a hand-silkscreened collection of "essential paper & communication survival skills. " Obeida Sidani's Al-Manfa (Exile) and Azra Aksamija' s Cultural Transfers make up the more conceptional side of the show. Sidani's installation comprises 25 frames, lasting one second each, that use Arabic calligraphy to tell a story about the emotional and physical impacts of migration. Aksamija's work repurposes anti-Muslim imagery, used in posters and other forms of popular protest across Europe, into road signs critiquing these polemic reactions. The show is underscored by Karim Douaidy 's composition, "You're Not Supposed to Be Here. " Finally, there's Design To Improve Life 's winning project, the "Welcome Suitcase. " Made by school children in Denmark, this suitcase includes games, handmade books, and puppets to help welcome refugee children and teach them a few things about a kid's life in Denmark. Design and Flow's exhibition for NYCxDesign will remain on view until May 17. D&F will also be hosting a series of panels and discussions at the Parson School of Design and the Portraits of Change launch reception and party. Find more information about all of the above on D&F's Facebook page. Related: How Artists Are Addressing the Syrian Refugee Crisis Beyond Vivienne Westwood: When Designers Become Activists Virtual Reality Journalism Puts You Inside the Refugee Crisis 2016-05-10 19:50 Sami Emory
24 Willy Le Maitre, Cézanne's 3D Heir? THE DAILY PIC (#1547): Two years ago, Willy Le Maitre showed lenticular prints at Canada gallery in New York. Instead of using them to show barely different views of the same scene, to make it look 3D – think of the little images that used to come in Crackerjack boxes – Lemaitre used his lenticulars to collide two utterly different images. This month, Lemaitre is back at Canada with more of the same, except that it feels as though he has really perfected his new medium. (Click on my image to see a video of the work in situ.) Instead of switching back and forth between the two images, duck- rabbit-wise, Le Maitre's viewers are now more thoroughly caught in a transitional space between them, as though trapped in some kind of hideous malfunction of the Star Trek transporter beam. Folk dancers in Eastern European costume merge seamlessly with someone who seems to be fixing a KFC sign – or rather not seamlessly at all, but rather all- and-only seam, all the time. It's like the apotheosis of all the modernist montages and collages that hopped to blur the world's usual boundaries, but never really could. (They always read as bits of stuff glued together in the most standard way.) Indeterminacy has been one of the crucial bywords of modern art, at least since the time of Cezanne and Picasso. Now Le Maitre has delivered on those masters' promises. 2016-05-10 19:37 Blake Gopnik
25 Princess of Thailand’s Sirivannavari to Debut Pop-up at La Rinascente Sirivannavari, the women’s label founded by Sirivannavari Nariratana , the Princess of Thailand, is debuting a pop-up shop at Milanese department store La Rinascente. Opening from May 18 to June 14, this will be located on the store’s fourth floor dedicated to women’s wear. The pop-up shop will carry the latest collection of the luxury Thai label, which was founded in 2005. For spring, Nariratana, who studied fashion at Paris’ École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, was inspired by the Versailles Castle to design a lineup incorporating a range of art references from the Romantic and Impressionistic periods. The collection is focused on the combination of rich graphics and details with sculptural shapes. It includes a tulip dress; a blazer with rounded shoulders; a gown with a bodice embroidered with 3-D flowers, as well as a bolero jacket showing gooseberry-like embellishments. Sirivannavari operates a flagship at Bangkok ’s Siam Paragon shopping mall. 2016-05-10 19:03 Alessandra Turra
26 Adidas Sets Online Business Lifestyle Magazine More Articles By The digital magazine replaces a five-year-old blog, and is targeted as much at the general public as the group’s 56,000 employees. “If we can do handstand pushups just as well as any man in the company, who says we can’t hold our own on stage next to top executives? That’s empowering,” writes Olivia Rotenberg, who works in the communications department at Reebok. The site includes first-person articles from assorted Adidas staffers sharing tips on career advancement and how to maintain a positive attitude, for example. Mixed in are interviews with experts, including a sports psychologist and fitness executives such as Florian Gschwandtner, chief executive of start-up Runtastic. An Adidas spokesman said members of the public are invited to submit articles, which will be curated by the group’s corporate communications department. While the content is meant to inspire and educate, it also builds the reputation of Adidas and acts as a subtle recruitment tool, the spokesman added. Content on the hub can be shared on the company’s intranet as well as on Twitter and LinkedIn “to grow the community,” Adidas noted. 2016-05-10 19:02 Miles Socha
27 prototype samsung galaxy surfboard provides real-time connectivity to surfers at sea prototype samsung galaxy surfboard provides real-time connectivity to surfers at sea prototype samsung galaxy surfboard provides real-time connectivity to surfers at sea all images courtesy of samsung samsung and advertising company leo burnett created the ‘samsung galaxy surfboard’ – a prototype that provides live connectivity to surfers at sea and in real time. the korean electronics company partnered with johnny cabianca, to shape the unique project that took a year and a half to complete. the surfboard is activated by inserting a ‘galaxy S7’ smartphone with connects to a screen on the deck with built-in LED lights. this allows it to display twitter messages with a predefined hashtag as well as graphics with real-time information on the direction and intensity of the wind and the series of oncoming waves. 2016-05-10 17:55 Piotr Boruslawski
28 Artie Vierkant at New Galerie, Paris Artie Vierkant, Rendition Two (Profile) , 2016, dye sublimation print on aluminum. AURÉLIEN MOLE/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND NEW GALERIE Pictures at an Exhibition presents images of one notable show every weekday. Today’s show: “Artie Vierkant: Profile” is on view at New Galerie in Paris through Saturday, June 4. The solo exhibition presents a new two-channel video as well as prints of stills from the video. Artie Vierkant, Profile , 2016, two-channel HD video, installation view. AURÉLIEN MOLE/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND NEW GALERIE Artie Vierkant, Rendition One (profile) , 2016, dye sublimation print on aluminum. AURÉLIEN MOLE/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND NEW GALERIE Artie Vierkant, Rendition Two (Profile) , 2016, dye sublimation print on aluminum. AURÉLIEN MOLE/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND NEW GALERIE Artie Vierkant, Expression Space, Neutral (Profile) , 2016, dye sublimation print on aluminum. AURÉLIEN MOLE/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND NEW GALERIE Artie Vierkant, Reflection (Profile) , 2016, dye sublimation print on aluminum. AURÉLIEN MOLE/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND NEW GALERIE Artie Vierkant, Entry (Profile) , 2016, dye sublimation print on aluminum. AURÉLIEN MOLE/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND NEW GALERIE Artie Vierkant, Reach (Profile) , 2016, dye sublimation print on aluminum. AURÉLIEN MOLE/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND NEW GALERIE Installation view of “Artie Vierkant: Profile,” 2016. AURÉLIEN MOLE/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND NEW GALERIE 2016-05-10 17:40 The Editors
29 Dennis Basso, QVC, Laura and John Pomerantz Honored as FIT’s Designer of the Year, Helps Raise $1.7 Million More Articles By As the Designer of the Year honoree at Monday night’s Fashion Institute of Technology’s annual awards gala, Dennis Basso was a centrifugal force of hugs and air kisses. Like much of what he does professionally, the occasion was personal. Many friends and guests wore Dennis Basso gowns, and the sellout 600-person crowd helped to raise $1.7 million for FIT. Hilary Rhoda (who appears in the designer’s new ad campaign) and her husband Sean Avery attended the dinner, as did loyalists like Ivana Trump, Denise Rich, Yaz and Valentin Hernandez, Deborah Norville, Paris Hilton and her sister Nicky Hilton Rothschild and Neil Sedaka. The black tie event also saluted Laura and John Pomerantz as Patrons of the Year, and QVC as Retailer of the Year. During cocktails, Basso said, “It is such an unbelievable feeling and a feeling of accomplishment. And it’s for such a great cause. FIT. We raised $1.7 million tonight for FIT. People are here to support me. As opposed to having a celebrity-filled night, tonight has a personal feeling — that’s what’s so important.” Susan Davidson, Steve Sadove, Adrienne Vittadini, Pamela Fiori, Amsale Aberra, Bill and Mandy Dillard, MaryAnne Morin and Elizabeth and Jeff Peek also showed up for the gala hosted by FIT president Joyce F. Brown. True to form, Basso was deeply involved for the past few months with the planning of The Plaza event, helping Susan Holland with the décor and selecting the menu and Mahir-designed flowers, according to his husband Michael Cominotto. “He’s really very humbled by his alum giving him this honor. On and off, he talks about FIT a lot. He liked it very much.” Denise Rich recalled how one of the first times Basso showed his furs was in the garage of her Aspen home. Noting that the designer now has an outpost at the Little Nell Hotel in her ski town of choice, Rich said, “I’m so proud of him for how he started and how he has evolved. His clothes are beautiful too.” Being at the Plaza for Basso was a flashback for Paris and Nicky Hilton, who once modeled there as teenagers for one of the designer’s fashion shows. Having known Basso her whole life, Paris Hilton said, “He was always Uncle Dennis to me. I always just thought he was fabulous. He was cute and poised. He always dressed my mom’s friends in the most beautiful clothes. I always loved him as an inspiration for fashion.” Enthusiastic as she was about Basso’s new collection in his Madison Avenue store, Hilton has her own label to keep track of. With 17 product categories, Hilton said she will launch her 21st fragrance this summer and antiaging skin care line for Millennials. QVC announced a scholarship program for seven FIT students. “We’re in seven countries so it’s for seven students. It’s a $5,000 scholarship per year per student,” said Michael George, president and chief executive officer of QVC. “FIT works hard to be affordable but even our market rates are too much for some of our students to afford,” said Dr. Joyce Brown. “I’m so proud of my wife and what she has accomplished,” said John Pomerantz. “Laura and I have been married for 40 years. For the first 20, it was always Laura being introduced as John Pomerantz’s wife. For the second 20 years, it’s been John, he’s the husband of Laura Pomerantz.” “Laura is one of the dominant people in the mall-leasing business,” said Bill Dillard 2nd, the head of Dillard’s Inc. and a golfing buddy of John’s. “Dennis took a chance on us when we were a small start-up company two-and-a-half decades ago before it was a smart thing to do,” said QVC’s Michael George. “Twenty-five years ago, I thought, who’s watching that? I don’t know but I want to be on TV,” said Basso, who observed that seeing many of the guests at the Plaza wearing his gowns was like being in a “moving museum…whether or not you are wearing my dress, you are all still pretty.” FIT’s Brown said, “I love his passion. His extravagance. His moxie. His heart. For Dennis, too much of a good thing is just the place to start.” She introduced Basso as “the son of a New Jersey produce importer” and a “scrappy, risk-taking entrepreneur. He was a kid with a dream.” During the cocktails, Carol Alt described Basso’s straight-to-the-chase way of dealing with people, “Thank God you’ve got your own real hair. It’s so hard to dress women when they don’t have their own real hair. He sees all the secrets.” While many of the gown-wearing women in the crowd went for knockout looks, Alt is working on one of a different kind — producing a documentary about legendary corner man Lou Duba, the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone’s trainer “Mickey” in the “Rocky” films. “He’s 94 and has been doing this since the 1930s. He started out as a spit boy and he became one of the greatest trainers of all time. The thing that is so great about him is it’s really a family story — the entire family is involved.” 2016-05-10 17:39 Rosemary Feitelberg
30 New Heights in Harlem: Blue-Chip Galleries Open Spaces Uptown Related Venues Elizabeth Dee Gallery Broadway 1602 Tempo Rubato Gavin Brown's Enterprise Artists George Segal Tom Burr Rosemarie Castoro Tomer Aluf Paul P. Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, Elizabeth Dee Gallery, and Broadway 1602, in collaboration with Tel Aviv–based Tempo Rubato and Zurich-based Freymond-Guth (which is also expanding to Basel in June), inaugurate new spaces in Harlem this month. It’s not the first time ambitious gallerists have set up shop in the neighborhood—Christian Haye ran the Project gallery, in a former disco on 126th Street from 1998 until 2002—but the blue-chip presence is unprecedented. The new joint effort, located at 211 and 213 East 121st Street, “is the fruition of a long relationship,” says Tempo Rubato’s Guillaume Rouchon, who worked at both Broadway 1602 and the Daniel Reich gallery before opening his Tel Aviv space in 2011. “Chelsea is lacking in spirit, and the Lower East Side is completely saturated with young galleries,” he says of the decision to open in Harlem. For the inaugural exhibition, Broadway 1602 is presenting a show that “creates a new context for George Segal’s seminal pieces,” explains gallery founder Anke Kempkes. “We are showing his work alongside that of international contemporary artists such as Pawel Althamer and Tom Burr , and creating unexpected juxtapositions with the work of other artists from the 1960s, such as Idelle Weber, Rosemarie Castoro , Sylvia Palacios Whitman, and Lenora de Barros.” Tempo Rubato’s inaugural, salon-style presentation includes New York–based artists Tomer Aluf , Paul P., and Oren Pinhassi. 2016-05-10 17:32 Sara Roffino
31 Christina Aguilera Shows Off New Pierced Lavender Hair Does “The Voice” have a quota for platinum- blonde pop stars? On Monday night, the show’s season 10 judge Christina Aguilera edged away from her traditionally light locks and embraced a different color of the rainbow. While candy-colored hair and braids are very on-trend at the moment (at least among the festival-going set), she added an alt-angle to her new lavender hue, accessorizing a single front braid with a cascading row of piercing-style hoops. Hairstylist Chris Appleton showed off his work on Instagram with a detail shot, and Aguilera’s makeup artist Etienne Ortega kept the look matchy-matchy, giving her a dark purple lip and lilac eyeliner. Aguilera shares judging duties on the NBC competition show with Blake Shelton, Pharrell Williams and Adam Levine, and last night she also shared with a fellow blonde pop star. The show’s erstwhile judge Gwen Stefani and Shelton performed the debut of “Let Me Break Your Heart,” their new romantic duet. Stefani joined him on stage wearing a mesh floral fishtail gown by Australian designer Jamie Lee. The pop-punk is no stranger to mixing around her beauty look, either: in March she headed to Tokyo Fashion Week to promote her new album, performing with black dip-dyed hair on display. @xtina tonight on the @nbcthevoice Hair by me #hoops Makeup @etienneortega Color @bshahk Styling @simoneharouche A photo posted by Chris (@chrisappleton1) on May 9, 2016 at 6:44pm PDT @nbcthevoice #goaheadandbreakmyheart @blakeshelton ❤ Gx @officialdanilohair @gregoryarlt A photo posted by Gwen Stefani (@gwenstefani) on May 9, 2016 at 6:42pm PDT 2016-05-10 17:28 Kristen Tauer
32 Cubic Landscapes Are the Stuff Dreams Are Made Of Images courtesy the artist You don't need a totem in the fantastical worlds of Petey Ulatan , because it's obvious that these twisted landscapes are dreams. Inspired by the iconic bending city scene in Christopher Nolan's Inception and fueled by B. O. B.'s public comittment to Flat Earth Theory , Ulatan bends already stunning landscapes into physics-defying cubic formations that look like what you'd see in a Star Trek holodeck simulation if you zoomed out. "I discovered this technique by just playing around," Ulatan tells The Creators Project. "I failed a few times at first, then I got the hang of it. It actually took me a while— about six months—to get it down to a science. " To create the effect, Ulatan drops photos he's taken himself or grabbed from Google Images into Adobe Photoshop, then duplicates the layer and changes its orientation. Throw a layer mask on a portion of the image and select whatever areas you want to cubify, and you're golden. "For some images, I would mask out the sky and add another layer of another photo of a sky to create the illusion that it’s coming from one world," Ulatan suggests. He finishes each image off with filters in Adobe Lightroom to nail their dreamlike qualities. Check out real locations in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and more made into dreams in Ulatan's images below. See more of Petey Ulatan's work on his website and Instagram . Related: Forgotten Legends In the Land Of The Hyper Surreal Haunting Installations Create Surreal Fantasy Landscapes Leandro Sanchez Light Paints Surreal Spirits In Desert Landscapes Surreal Short Film Bends A Greenhouse Into A Shapeshifting Jungle 2016-05-10 17:25 Beckett Mufson
33 125 Artists Explore the New Feelings of the Future Kim Laughton, Siliconscious Modern routines suck, and we can all agree on that. Stucked in stressful jobs, living alongside boring people in loud cities, we often require escapes, fleeting as they are. At least there's the Los Angeles-based Institute for New Feeling , which aims to help Angelenos out. Exploring new way of feeling, the experimental research clinic uses various methods—including treatments, retreats, research studies, and wellness products—to provide their customers with one-of-a-kind, art-focused therapies. Recently, the Institute published FELT BOOK , an online publication and exhibition that features the works of over 125 artists who subtly highlight how art can affect day-to- day well-being, maybe influence us to reach nirvana, or at least share some insights towards doing so. “We’re a three-person collective but interested in broader forms of collaboration—this project came from an impulse to ask other artists to approach our core interest in 'new feeling,' to see what they might come up with,” co-founder Nina Sarnelle explains The Creators Project. “The instructional form of the FELT BOOK is inspired by Fluxus as well as the many styles of instructions we encounter today, like YouTube tutorials, eHow articles, DIY publications, technical diagrams, home remedies.” Rick Silva, Quantum-click(TM) to hide active plane Beyond the creative freedom of the simple and open-ended prompt, the works submitted were asked to not only propose activities or processes for the viewer, but to also innovate and generating this so-called 'new feeling.' “We were interested in artists who approach new feeling through new technology, new ways of communicating, new political or environmental realities, etc.; artists who integrate conflict and contradictory ways of feeling; artists whose work looks nothing like ours, or like each other,” she tells us. “We’re also thinking about this old fashioned idea of art as 'therapy'—What happens if we convert any artwork into a therapeutic exercise?“ Rollin Leonard, YES/NO The last week, the institute celebrated the book's digital launch by unveiling a massive group show that features a wide range of works. With videos, texts, sculptures, and limited edition garments on one side, and interactive and web-based works on the other, it attacks the theme from many angles. Each works offers up its own aesthetics and mediums, but still ends up with sharp visual instructions on where medicine, spirituality, and art meet. Check out a selection from FELT BOOK below: Theo Triantafyllidis, FOMO fbX Eva Papamargariti, Three Domestic Events Against Boredom Casey Kauffmann, Reflexive Validation Therapy Annabelle Arlie, Talk to me about your experience Adam Ferriss, Dead Pixel Burial Kit The FELT BOOK exhibition is on view at Werkartz multidisciplinary arts complex , in Los Angeles’ art district, until May 24. Click here to learn more about the Institute for New Feeling. Related: A Digital Surgeon Cuts a New Perspective on the Human Body As Digital Art, Contaminated Water Looks Beautiful Body Drawings Capture the Worst of "The Mondays" | Monday Insta Illustrator 2016-05-10 17:25 Benoit Palop
34 zaha hadid architects' 582-606 collins street tower melbourne at the end of last year, zaha hadid architects unveiled their tower proposal for the city of melbourne in australia. the ‘582-606 collins street’ tower – ZHA’s first project in melbourne- is one step closer to receiving the go-ahead with construction as it has been announced that the scheme has been referred to victoria’s planning minister for approval without consideration by the city of melbourne’s future committee. working with local-practice plus architecture and developed by landream, the design of the 54-storey mixed-used tower features a façade composed of elegant colonnades of sculptural, curved columns. a delicate filigree gently envelops the building, with the scheme designed to use 50% less energy than a conventional mixed-use tower, this filigreed façade contributes to a reduction in the direct solar gain of the building and emissions. evolving from the city’s distinctive urban fabric, the organization of the form is influenced by its mixed-use program, converting the building’s overall volume into a series of smaller stacked ‘vases’. central to the concept is the break-down of the vertical volume by the design team to establish a coherent relationship between tower, podium and surrounding streetscapes. additionally, each ‘vase’ gently tapers inwards to offer additional open space at its base. within the proposal there is a significant proportion of the ground plane given over to public realm, with external area dedicated to a plaza accessible 24 hours a day. 2016-05-10 17:15 Natasha Kwok
35 This Magazine Challenges Mainstream Notions of Gender and Identity Rashaad Newsome and the Winners of the King of Arms Ball. Photo by M. Sharkey As queerness has progressively found its way into the world of mainstream fashion—whether through public figures, fashion trends, or trans and gender nonconforming models—it’s inherently radical sensibility has become increasingly normalized. Posture magazine aims to take back the gaze of the outside world and celebrate queer counterculture for all of its manifold beauty. Founded by Winter Mendelson in 2013, Posture is a digital and print platform exploring identity, gender, and sexuality through fashion and art. But unlike the mainstream dilution of queer aesthetics that can be found in contemporary fashion, Posture and the subjects it elevates are on an even playing field. While fashion might have a longstanding tradition of being shaped by queer hands and minds, the reality of its relationship to actual queer bodies is more complex. “When we're talking about white gay men designing clothes for women to fit a (size zero) Western ideal of beauty, that is not diverse or inclusive,” challenges Mendelson. “There are definitely designers and brands out there making conscious decisions to include QT/POC individuals and those outside of the standard sample size on the runway, but I feel that it is fair to state that the industry is incredibly bleak in that regard.” Posture Mag Issue 2 Cover featuring Rashaad Newsome. Photo by M. Sharkey While the fashion world is happy to book trans and GNC models when androgyny is “in,” it’s still far from actually valuing what it means to be non-binary in a binary world. “Ideas are more often than not taken from the 'queer underground,' stripped of their political meaning and purpose, and then re-presented to a mainstream audience for empty consumption,” Mendelson laments. In its most recent issue, Posture empowered models, designers, and artists to be seen by their own community through editorials like “The Morlocks,” in which a handful of individuals on all facets of the race/gender/identity spectrum were transformed into mutants, celebrating and delighting in the inherent otherness of having a queer body and the radical act of living authentically. Jeffrey Michael Anderson. Photo by Chris Callaway “ Posture is interested in fashion-as-activism in the sense that we feature designers who call into question traditional understanding of beauty, identity, function, gender, feminism, and the body,” Mendelson tells The Creators Project. “We feature and collaborate with designers who create for people outside of preconceived molds for how one is taught they must dress in order to look attractive or feel confident.” In the political, social, and technological landscape of our modern world, where new generations are born “within the matrix,” outside the limiting views of their predecessors, Posture is a reflection of that desire to take back the gaze, to see and be seen honestly. “Because of the internet, our ideas on gender and queerness—and how we express those things aesthetically— will constantly be in flux,” Mendelson insists. “Life becomes a lot easier when you realize you aren't alone and that there are others out there creating work on subjects that matter most to you. Collaboration and solidarity change the world.” To learn more about Posture , click here . Related: A New Art Show Tracks Queer Life in Everyday Portraits 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' Gets a Queer-Feminine Overhaul A 'Queer' New Gallery Breaks Down Art World Walls 2016-05-10 16:50 Dream Dommu
36 Warhol Authentication Service Adds Haring and Basquiat to Roster Related Artists Andy Warhol Jean-Michel Basquiat Keith Haring “Everyone lives in fear right now in the art market. No one will authenticate anything,” Richard Polsky told ARTINFO in an interview late last year. An expert on Andy Warhol ’s market, Polsky was alluding to the gap left by the disbanded Warhol, Haring, and Basquiat authentication boards, dissolved in 2012 because of costly legal battles. (Most notably, Joe Simon-Whelan sued the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board in New York City over a 2007 decision, resulting in a reported $7 million in legal fees.) Enter Polsky’s Andy Warhol authentication service. In November, Polsky launched a company devoted to Warhol, and recently announced that he has added Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat to the roster. ARTINFO spoke to the authenticator about giving his imprimatur to genuine works by the art-market triumvirate. Well, the Warhol authentication business got off to a good start with a fair number of clients. But then I started noticing that for every call about Warhol, I’d get two or three asking about Basquiat and Haring, whose authentication boards closed within months of Warhol’s. Suddenly, you have three artists who are certainly the most important and collected artists around, and three of the most prolific, without anybody to certify the work. There is an opportunity here. Here is a chance to provide something that no one else is providing in the art world. I have written about them in a number of books, such as “Art Prophets” [2011] and in art-market guides in the 1990s. Since then, the markets for both of them exploded. You know that Adam Lindemann Basquiat painting that might have broken the $48.8 million sales record? But when it comes to authentication, on the one hand, I can say I am one of the leading Warhol experts in the world. No, my knowledge isn’t on the same level for Haring and Basquiat. But the bottom line is, I can do the job. You ask yourself as an authenticator, do I understand the key elements to their work, the imagery, the material, the methods? After studying it quite a bit, I decided I can do this, and I can do this well. It may sound a little arrogant on my part, but I feel like, I wouldn’t stick my neck out if I didn’t think I could. The upside to Warhol is that the work is heavily documented and there’s a lot to refer to, like a catalogue raisonné, which is not complete yet. There are a lot of exhibition catalogues, too. If someone calls me up and tells me they have a “Marilyn” painting, it is very easy to check up on that. And beyond documentation, even though Warhol worked in a serial format, there are still telltale signs for how he made them and each one is unique. Now Basquiat — a little trickier. Shorter career, in terms of how much work is out there. Yeah, there are catalogues and a catalogue raisonné. There is again a fair amount of documentation, but in some ways it is easier to fake a Basquiat than a Warhol. The marks Basquiat made and the materials he used were all over the place. Even in that Basquiat movie, Julian Schnabel, who is the director, went to the Basquiat estate and asked to borrow some paintings to hang up in the scenes. They wouldn’t do it, they said no. So Schnabel made his own Basquiats. And they look pretty good! I’m just saying that if you have a facility for painting and have been around his work, they could be faked very convincingly. But with authentication, you go to provenance do the detective work. Now Haring is the most problematic of the group, because he was the most prolific, I’m guessing. When he did those subway drawings, he says in his diaries it took him two to three minutes to do one of those. You can imagine if someone is working that fast, how much work he can turn out. And when he was diagnosed with AIDS, he worked even harder and put out more work. The problem with both of them is that they gave away a lot of work that wasn’t documented. People would come to Basquiat’s studio — dealers, collectors, fans — and if you showed up with cash and said, “I really love that painting,” he would say it is supposed to go to Mary Boone, but you’d hand him the envelope with cash, he’d give you the painting. Things got out there in a very unprofessional manner. Now with Haring, Haring’s line is unique in the art world. By that I mean if he draws a barking dog, he could do it in one continuous line. He would never go back and never erase, whether it is a little sketch or a large painting, it was one continuous line and one continuous gesture from left to right. So you get suspicious when you see erasures or going backs. Also, he would work on tarp, but if you see something and there are none of those grommets, those circular holes, again, it’d be a red flag. You have to know the materials. 2016-05-10 16:36 Noelle Bodick
37 Starter Launches Mass Market Marketing Campaign Starter is taking its message to the mass market. The sports brand owned by Iconix Brand Group on Wednesday will unveil its first marketing campaign in more than five years for the activewear line that is sold at Wal-Mart. The last campaign was in 2010 and featured quarterback Tony Romo. Starter once again turned to football players for its latest iteration, with the New York Jets Eric Decker and the Houston Texans’ Devon Sill serving as faces of the brand. But the images in the “Starting Is….” campaign do not emphasize the football connection and instead focus on fitness and health. The dots are filled in with motivational words such as “triumphant,” “small steps,” “brave” and “anywhere.” “We thought they’d be perfect for this campaign,” said Bill Hackett, senior vice president of Iconix’s Sports Division. “We want to embrace everyone from the marathon runner to the person looking for motivation to walk around the block.” Sill is pictured with his daughter Leah, six, who was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma in 2014 and given a 50-50 chance to live. She recently went into remission, won an ESPY award for her courage and helped raise more than $1 million for cancer research. In September 2014, the Cincinnati Bengals kept Sill on the practice squad so he could retain health benefits to pay for his daughter’s treatment. “When you think of the story of Leah and how he fought for her cause, it’s a great connection back to the brand,” Hackett said. Decker was raised in a small Midwestern town and connects well with the Wal-Mart consumer, Hackett said. “It’s less about him being a New York Jet and more about him being an athlete. He’s a good-looking guy from a small town and half of the Starter shoppers at Wal-Mart are women.” The men’s and boys’ merchandise is targeted to men between 25 and 64 and boys under the age of 13 and is Wal-Mart’s opening price activewear label, Hackett said. The campaign will be promoted on social media because the vast majority of Wal-Mart shoppers use mobile devices. Digital and print advertising will also be part of the plan, Hackett said. Both athletes will complete blog posts for the Starter web site, which is being relaunched with this campaign. There will also be fitness tips to help people get started on their fitness journey. 2016-05-10 16:36 Jean E
38 The Peripheral, the Edges, the Off-Screen: A Conversation with James Richards James Richards recently presented a cinematic program in collaboration with Leslie Thornton on the occasion of the Walker premiere of Thornton’s Moving Image Commission They Were Just People (2016), as well as the opening of the exhibition Less Than One. Richards’s own Moving Image Commission, Radio at Night (2015), can be viewed online for a limited run as well […] 2016-05-10 19:11 By
39 the splint lighthouse sea hotel by flavio martella and filippo lorenzi overlaps the cliffside's surface the splint lighthouse sea hotel by flavio martella and filippo lorenzi overlaps the cliffside's surface the splint lighthouse sea hotel by flavio martella and filippo lorenzi overlaps the cliffside’s surface all images courtesy of flavio martella lighthouses are monuments of vision, as a symbol they suggest guidance and orientation. ‘the splint’ by flavio martella and filippo lorenzi builds upon this theme by introducing a lighthouse sea hotel that responds its natural environment. the design features a long horizontal settlement located upon the surface of the rocks facing the sea. the watchtower is featured at the centre, establishing itself as the reference point and centrepiece of the complex network. a view of the bar facing the sea the linear design of the project reacts to the protected area of plemmirio. it acts as a barrier against the informal built environment that spreads out from the city of siracuse. the hotel includes a portico at the front of the building that looks out onto the sea. part of the structure overlaps the surface of the cliffside, allowing visitors to walk out partially over the edge. the hotel includes a portico at the front of the building that looks out onto the sea ‘the splint’ is designed with the image of a solitary figure in mind. the guest of the hotel is intended as a hermit reflecting the proposed concept that the designers had in mind. they state that ‘isolation is an attitude towards the appreciation of the mythical sicilian soil and its majestic mediterranean atmosphere’. each space of the project is still an intrinsically integrated part of a meaningful, all-encompassing order but, at the same time, it can appear as one single metaphysical setting. the project by lavio martella and filippo lorenzi was created in response to a competition hosted by YAC- young architects competitions. reception swimming pool garden the hotel is built with a solitary figure in mind sauna the ascensional dynamic of the lighthouse is counterbalanced by the settled horizontal stage part of the structure overlaps the surface of the cliffside the linear design of the project reacts to the protected area of plemmirio the watchtower is featured at the centre of the design designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here. 2016-05-10 16:01 F Martella
40 Michael Benson, Cofounder of The Photo London Fair, Isn’t Aiming it to be The Biggest, Just The Best Related Events Photo London 2016 Venues Somerset House Photo London Artists MICHAEL BENSON Michael Benson, cofounder, Photo London/ Photo London Photo London is only a year old but has already become the talking point in the global photography community. At a time when the medium of photography is perhaps at its most animated period ever due to unceasing technological innovations and deepening human reach, the fair hopes to become the platform that all stakeholders can come to for mutual interaction. With a carefully curated program of talks, events, exhibitions and symposia, it has become a draw not just for photography specialists but also laymen interested in the art. The fair venue, Somerset House by the river Thames, too has special significance because it is believed it was here that the term “photography” was coined in 1839 by Sir John Herschel. The fair’s cofounder, MICHAEL BENSON , who is also the director of Prix Pictet, the international photography prize founded by the Pictet Group in 2008 (also the sponsor of Photo London 2016), answered a few questions for BLOUIN ARTINFO on the possibilities with the medium, as well as with the fair. With the first successful edition giving you a great platform to surge ahead, what are your long- term plans for Photo London? Long term we plan to make Photo London the best photography fair in the world. Not the biggest. Just the best. We also plan to extend our programme of satellite events and to add a programme of events, exhibitions, talks and symposia throughout the year in order to maintain momentum between the fairs. Could you sum up the highlights of the second edition of Photo London? Could you talk about the special commissions, or any other special projects that one must not miss at this year’s fair? For us, the galleries are a major highlight. Photo London has grown to incorporate 94 internationally outstanding galleries, and we are welcoming new exhibitors from all over the world, from the great photography centers of Europe and North America to more unexpected places, including Helsinki, Tehran, Istanbul, and Buenos Aires. Thanks to the support of Maja Hoffmann’s LUMA Foundation, our public programme distinguishes us from all other art fairs, even more so this year. We will run three major exhibitions. For the first time ever, Michael Wilson has agreed to loan work from his private collection to a fair and this enables us to present a selection of portraits by Turner Prize- shortlisted artist Craigie Horsfield. Our long-time collaborator and friend Olga Sviblova will curate Photo Provocation, a show of work by Sergey Chilikov from the collection of the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow. The London-based street photographer Matt Stewart will present his work in the extraordinary subterranean Deadhouse space. And finally, I am delighted to announce that the legendary Don McCullin will be the Photo London Master of Photography 2016. To mark this, we will produce a special exhibition of Don’s work in association with Hamiltons [gallery, which represents McCullin] and there will be a rare opportunity to hear him in a public conversation with Simon Baker at Somerset House on May 19. We will continue our practice of commissioning new work. Two young stars of the London art scene, Walter and Zoniel, will create a huge ambrotype portrait by turning the Deadhouse into a camera obscura. Rankin has created a photography machine that automatically takes your portrait in the style of... Rankin. And Martin Parr will install a caravan on the River Terrace, from which his helpers will dispatch the kinds of foodstuff that you will wish had stayed in the pages of his book. Our talks programme is curated this year by Bill Ewing, former director of the Musée de l’Élysée, a museum in Lausanne. Bill has assembled a stellar group of 33 speakers, including Richard Misrach, Ed Burtynsky, Nick Knight, Nadav Kander, David Maisel, Mary McCartney, Katy Grannan, and Graham Nash. Tickets are selling briskly, so Bill has obviously done his job well. For the first time this year, we will introduce a short programme of films on photographers that will include the new [Robert] Mapplethorpe documentary, “Look at the Pictures,” as well as films on Bill Cunningham and Vivian Maier. Does Photo London have any plans to have an affiliate fair? We don’t do affiliations. We may do our own thing somewhere else, but let’s make sure we do London brilliantly first. In the age of the selfie and Instagram, how does a photography fair remain unaffected to present the medium as a fine art genre? It doesn’t. It changes to accommodate new forms. What are the most exciting trends in the genre of photography these days? Two paradoxical things: On the one hand, the extent to which photographers are incorporating new technologies in their work and are using it to break down the barriers between, say, print and moving image. And on the other, the trend of photographers who have grown up in the digital world returning to the roots of photography and exploring the early processes of image capture and printing. Historical photographs continue to throw light on important yet visually not-so-well-known events of human history. Does Photo London have any dedicated program for historical photography? Not in particular, although we are keen to be seen as an increasingly important venue for historical photography, which is particularly well represented in this edition. — Photo London runs May 19 -22 at Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA. For details, visit photolondon.org Follow@ARTINFOIndia 2016-05-10 16:00 Archana Khare
41 Artists Control Each Other's Body Parts with Their Minds Images courtesy the artist In visual effects master Douglas Trumbull’s ( 2001: A Space Odyssey ) last feature film, the 1983 proto-cyberpunk Brainstorm , characters create an interface that allows humans to feel the sensations of others. Norway-based artist Diva Helmy ’s use of the Human to Human Interface (HHsI) isn’t nearly as precise as this fictional one, but HHsI does allow humans to manipulate and control others, to a certain degree. With technical development and production by Greg Gage , HHsI allows one individual to wirelessly control the arms of multiple bodies with their brain signals. In a recently released short film titled The Controller , Helmy shows one person controlling another, then another person controlling five. While electrodes are easily seen in the video, HHsI also features an Arduino board, MuscleSpiker shield (which allows users to control things with their muscles), a TENS unit (nerve stimulator), 9-volt batteries, and radio frequency modules. The project was begun when Helmy and Gage spoke over Skype last summer about a possible collaboration. The Human to Human Interface already existed , but the two wanted to modify it so it could be used at a larger scale in an artistic context. It now features one controller and ten controlled user units. “The idea was to create an experience in which gallery visitors could use the device and form a physical and wireless network of electrical discharge between each other, one that forced the controlled users to simultaneously mirror the behavior of the controller,” Helmy tells The Creators Project. “The interface presents an exploration into the world of neuroprosthetics and forced control of others’ nervous systems through technology.” Helmy and Gage are interested in the notion of losing control over one’s own body, and what happens as a result. The Controller , like a science experiment of sorts, is collaborative: two people perform one task—such as playing music—through one body. “The device transfers the brain signal of one person to the ulnar nerves in the arms of several individuals,” Helmy explains. “The first human’s EMG signal (neurological activity in muscle cells) is recorded as they move their arm. The value of the signal activates the nerve stimulators via radio frequency which then sends an electrical sensation through the arms of the controlled bodies forcing them to move based on when the first individual sends a brain signal to move their own arm.” All arms move simultaneously based on controller’s brain signal. The wireless signals can be sent between the units up to a distance of 65'. And Helmy says that the technology could support 100 controlled users. As neat as it is, there is something about the device that might stoke the fears of the paranoid. Keep in mind, though, that this neat technological voodoo kit requires several components. So it’s not as if unseen forces will be controlling us anytime soon, if ever. Well, at least not physically. Click here to see more of Diva Helmy’s work, and here to check out more of Greg Gage’s electrophysiology work. Related: Change Your Sex in Virtual Reality Amputee Gets Two Mind-Controlled Robotic Arms Artist Manipulates Water With The Power Of Her Mind 2016-05-10 15:55 DJ Pangburn
42 You're Never Too Old to Dance to Iggy Pop Mature dancers Peter Jolesch and Martina Balabanova in The Passenger with choreography by Simone Sandroni and music by Iggy Pop. Image courtesy of Bayerische Staatsoper. © Wilfried Hösl A professional ballet dancer usually reaches the end of their career around their mid-30s, a justifiable milestone considering the years of intense training and daily performance that their bodies undergo. Not far removed from the intense routine and lifestyle of an Olympic athlete —or even 1970s rockstar—ballerinas and ballerinos alike are often contrived to leave the pirouettes and plies to younger talent. That’s why, for one German opera company, it wasn’t so difficult to imagine a ballet composed to the lyric-fueled music of the almost 70-year-old punk rocker Iggy Pop: The Passenger. Based on the track from Pop’s 1977 album Lust for Life , the 25-minute contemporary ballet was chosen to be presented within Ballet Festival Week , a long-running event that takes place at Munich’s opera house Bayerische Staatsoper. Ivan Liska, Judith Turos and Peter Jolesch dance in The Passenger with choreography by Simone Sandroni and music by Iggy Pop. Image courtesy of Bayerische Staatsoper. © Wilfried Hösl. But a song that came out at the height of punk—with the likes of Ram Jam's "Black Betty" and The Clash's "48 Hours"—seems like an unlikely match for the classical roots and elegance of the ballet. Bayerische Staatsoper’s associate artistic director Bettina Wagner-Bergelt doesn’t think so. “The lyrics indeed accompany the ‘story’ of life and life’s journey on this planet,” says Wagner-Bergelt, who has been researching ballet specifically for dancers over 40. Ivan Liska in The Passenger with choreography by Simone Sandroni and music by Iggy Pop. Image courtesy of Bayerische Staatsoper. © Wilfried Hösl. “Iggy Pop’s hard rock also had a retrospective function,” says Ivan Liska, the piece’s lead dancer, retiring this season. “Over the past 50 years, I’ve danced to the music by Orlando di Lasso and J. S. Bach, as well as, to music by Arvo Pärt, Hans-Joachim Hespos and Schnittke. Iggy Pop was just one more step of this musical adventure.” In 2014, the German government agreed to fund Dance On , an industry-wide endeavor to expand the performance space and appreciation for dancers over 40. Now developing six choreographies, highlighting the unique aesthetics and movement of mature dancers, the initiative plans to tour internationally, changing the way that dance is viewed. Led by Madeline Ritter, the Dance On Ensemble currently has six principal dancers, all 40-plus. “I personally think it will become a great success,” Wagner-Bergelt tells The Creators Project. Whether the "The Passenger" is a song embracing the wandering spirit of all things punk, or the perfect soundtrack for the journey of life, Liska says the performance of The Passenger presents “all three seniors as very powerful memories of bodies.” To find out more about Dance On, click here. Related: Life-Sized Photographs Expose the Brutality of Ballet Bodies [Exclusive] 'Bolshoi Babylon': A Look Inside Russia's Greatest Ballet This Is What Happens When Joy Division Meets Ballet 2016-05-10 15:45 Catherine Chapman
43 Inside Harvard’s Incredible Collection of Rare Pigments | Conservation Lab The pigments in the Forbes collection come from all over the world, and some are stored in their original delicate glass containers. Photo: Jenny Stenger, © President and Fellows of Harvard College. In art institutions across the globe, time machines and investigation rooms exist behind closed doors. Dusty artworks go in and come out looking centuries younger; artists’ secrets are brought to light; and hidden, unfinished images emerge from behind famous compositions. Every week, we'll peek beneath the microscope and zoom in on the art of preservation, where art meets science and just a little bit of magic: this is Conservation Lab. Behind glass walls, a long row of cabinets at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies exhibits a dazzling color spectrum of 2,500 hues. Walking alongside the extensive display of pigments, you’ll find brilliant purples turning into vivid reds, leading to yellows, then blues—which, in turn, guide you back to purple. As the color wheel unfolds, so does the rich history of paint production. The Straus Center is part of the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is the oldest such art conservation facility in the United States. Its pigment collection is crucial to researching and treating works of art. Ten years ago, for example, the Straus Center was able to identify that certain pigments used in three paintings attributed to Jackson Pollock were not available until after the artist’s death. The materials collection, including the Forbes collection of pigments and the Gettens collection of media and varnishes, at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums. Photo: Zak Jensen, © President and Fellows of Harvard College. In addition to the ever-growing pigment display—which contains the treasures amassed by Edward Waldo Forbes, an early director of Harvard’s Fogg Museum, as well as more modern samples—the Center’s materials collection also counts over 1,000 other objects, including binding media, historical scientific equipment, and minerals and stones dating back to antiquity. Below, we unlock the cabinets with senior conservation scientist and Straus Center director Narayan Khandekar, and take a look at some of the most intriguing items. All photos by Harvard Art Museums, © President and Fellows of Harvard College, unless otherwise noted The collection includes this large rock of lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. “Ultramarine was created by mining the lapis lazuli stone from quarries in Badakshan (now Afghanistan) in the Middle Ages. It is still available as a pigment,” notes Khandekar. Natural ultramarine can be found in the Virgin’s mantle in Sandro Botticelli’s The Virgin and Child from 1490 (left), a tempera painting in the collection of Harvard’s Fogg Museum. “Lead-tin yellow was used extensively until around 1750 and was not rediscovered until 1941,” cites Khandekar. The poisonous, lemon-colored pigment was frequently used by Vermeer in his draperies. “Murex purple, also called Tyrian purple and red whelk, was used in Greek and Roman times for dyeing togas, and in the Middle Ages for decorating manuscripts,” explains Khandekar. The purple dye, made from a liquid secreted by mollusks found on Mediterranean shores and on the European Atlantic coast, fetched high prices, since production crawled along at a (sea) snail’s pace—no more than a single drop of colorant could be extracted from each animal. Photo by Jennifer Aubin, © President and Fellows of Harvard College. The above microsampler , which pairs a hypodermic needle and a microscope in order to collect tiny paint samples from works of art, was created in the 1930s by the Fogg Museum’s first scientist, Rutherford John Gettens. At left, the rare pigment Zafferano di Aquila, made from “Aquila” saffron, a special variety of the highly sought after plant that is grown exclusively in Italy, and is known for its particularly intense color. At right, cadmium yellow, a toxic color used in Lego and other toys until the 1970s. This pigment has one of the best names in the business: dragon’s blood. Its origins, disappointingly, are far from fantastical; the bright red resin is made from rattan palm trees. Someone, at some point in history, thought, hey, here’s an idea—let’s make paint out of crushed up mummies. Mummy, or Egyptian Brown, peaked in usage during the 18th century, in British painting especially. The “raw materials,” however, were a hot commodity long before that , as mummy powder was believed to have all kinds of magical healing properties and were a mainstay in 16th century European apothecaries. “In the course of at least 300 years of trade, an unrecorded number of archaeological objects was destroyed in order to make pigment,” says Khandekar of the highly unethical practice, whose popularity finally petered out in the early 1900s. Photo by Jennifer Aubin, © President and Fellows of Harvard College Speaking of questionable practices, Indian yellow was originally made from the urine of cows fed exclusively on mango leaves. The reddish pigment named carmine, above, is made from an acid that can be extracted from cochineal beetles. And it isn’t just used for art: it might be in your food and cosmetics , too. The bright, alluring substance known as copper aceto-arsenite is a highly toxic powder that was once used to exterminate rats in Parisian sewers (hence its colloquial name, Paris green ). As a pigment, it was prized by Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters, including van Gogh. His 1888 Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin —another emerald green enthusiast—made ample use of the color, and is part of the Fogg Museum’s collection. Photo by Jennifer Aubin, © President and Fellows of Harvard College When it comes to bright hues from more contemporary times, these fluorescent pigments cry out for attention. With so many materials worthy of note, it’s hard to know when to stop—but we’ll quit rummaging for now, and cue the fade to black. Photo: Jenny Stenger, © President and Fellows of Harvard College. To learn more about the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, go here . Related: Microscopic Slivers of Artworks Reveal Hidden Truths | Conservation Lab Vivid Color Projections Revive Faded Works of Art | Conservation Lab Layer by Layer Reconstructions of Old Master Paintings | Conservation Lab The Art of Mending Ceramics Disasters | Conservation Lab 2016-05-10 15:40 Noémie Jennifer
44 Sonic Youth visits the Walker At the concert they anounced they were heading to Mickey’s dinner in downtown SP so I guess the got the whole tour of hotspots. That photo is awesome. Their set was pretty good, but it seemed like most of the people came to the show to see the Flaming Lips. Despite that, they rocked out anyway. 2016-05-10 19:11 By
45 Heaven and Hell Meet in Hieronymus' Hometown Central panel from Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, via Wiki Commons It’s been one hell of a homecoming for Hieronymus Bosch. The Het Noordbrabants Museum stayed open continuously for 39 hours over the closing weekend of Hieronymus Bosch: Visions of Genius to give visitors one last, long look at the exhibition that brought the majority of the master’s works back to the town where he painted them. Never before has an art show in the Netherlands sold as many advanced tickets; more than 220,000 people descended on den Bosch since Visions of Genius opened in February 2016 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death. The crowds around the paintings remained deep throughout the night of May 7th, each many-headed huddle a testament to the enduring fascination of Bosch’s own monsters. Detail from Hieronymus Bosch’s The Last Judgment, via Wiki Commons In addition to gathering an unprecedented number of Bosch’s works, the exhibition reunited the panels of several triptychs—sawn apart and scattered over the centuries—including the celebrated Wayfarer Triptych. The brilliant achievement of the little-known regional museum allowed audiences to see the fullness of Bosch’s vision for the first time. You can’t look away. Nude figures cavort inside eggs and shells, are fed or eaten by nefarious humanoids; unlikely orifices are stuffed with flowers. More than one person is stuck shunting around a copulating couple in an enormous mussel strapped to a back. The weirdness of Bosch’s work has been attributed to equally outlandish causes, including the artist’s involvement with a secret sex cult or the psychedelic influence of moldy bread. Bosch’s work is often called ‘psychedelic,’ an indication of how difficult it is to actually describe. Bosch captures—perhaps more than any other artist—the mutable world, life driven relentlessly by sex and death, and consciousness caught between imagination and the brutish facts of the flesh. Detail from Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, via Wiki Commons The fascination of looking at these paintings is in seeing more than it is possible to see, and seeing it all at once. Bosch compacts massive distances, rendering both foreground and background in hyper-detail; the miniature dramas hovering around the frame are as gripping as the central events. In the middle ground behind Saint Christopher, a man is seen lynching a bear in a perverse echo of the Saint himself, dangling a fish he’s caught on a line; beyond this a naked figure, only millimeters high, flees a crumpled white mass at the edge of the river, and a fire burns in the distant blue hills. Hieronymus Bosch, Saint Christopher, c. 1490–1500, Oil on oak panel, 113.7 × 71.6 cm, via Wiki Commons Hybrids abound—unicorn dolphins frolic in heaven and rat-faced lizards impale the damned. Reptilian fish emerge from dark waters in The Creation of the World , like Bosch had an uncanny intuition of evolution. Evil was there from the beginning; even in Eden creatures devour themselves or each other. The life Bosch conveys is mutable, relentlessly driven to survival and sex. Bosch’s paintings merge reality and fantasy, heaven and hell, flesh and flower. He gives us the end and the beginning at once. Symmetry, though, is not the point. In Bosch’s Last Judgment , almost everyone is heading for hell. Hieronymus Bosch, The Last Judgment, ca. 1495-1505, Bruge, Groeningemuseum, via Wiki Commons The boundary between paradise and eternal damnation is a churning confusion of bodies, and even the instruments of angels have become the instruments of torture. Up high, close enough for God to hear him scream, a man is strung upon a harp and played by a devil with long white claws. Bosch himself never made it to heaven or hell; the all-night run on Visions of Genius shows that we still haven’t been able to let go of him here on Earth. Hieronymus Bosch, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, c. 1500–10, Oil on oak panel, 38.6 × 25.1 cm, via Wiki Commons Hieronymus Bosch: Visions of Genius was on display at the Het Noordbrabants Museum from February 13 to May 8, 2016. Click here for more information. Related: Bosch’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ Becomes an Animated Computer Simulation Visit Bosch's 'Garden of Earthly Delights' Inside a Gorgeous Web Tour Step Inside 'The Garden of Emoji Delights' 2016-05-10 14:55 Olivia Parkes
46 Costume Designer Erica Nicotra O’Neill Launches Lavinia & Co. Costume designer Erica Nicotra O’Neill saw a void in the Los Angeles apparel market for feminine everyday dresses that harkened back to her grandmother’s wardrobe in post-WWII Sicily (think Claudia Cardinale on a bicycle), so she decided to launch Lavinia & Co., which made its debut over the weekend at a Laurel Canyon house party hosted by Amelia Fleetwood, Apple Via, Patrik Milani and Zoe Cassavetes. Named for her children Lavinia, 3, and Cassius, 1, the line of dresses and smocks is an alternative to the “casual lifestyle” lines that pervade Los Angeles. “I started feeling like there’s this cult of [T-shirts] and sweats. Dresses have become like dress-up as opposed to normal things to wear,” said Nicotra O’Nell, an FIT grad and former commercial stylist whose film credits include “Tanner Hall.” “It was from doing movies that I realized you could make the things. Right after I did the film ‘The Truth About Emanuel’ with Jessica Biel, I was inspired by her ethereal wardrobe.” While pregnant with her daughter, she took time off and started to design the line, which includes three styles, a fitted dress called the Annbel, a gathered blouson dress called the Rooney — named after “Tanner Hall” star Rooney Mara, who was wearing a similar style when they met — and the Cottage Smock pinafore with a matching headscarf that also comes in girls’ sizes. Made with cotton, rayon, heavyweight jersey and some vintage fabrics, the line is mostly made in downtown Los Angeles. Retail prices range from $345 for an eyelet Annabel dress, $289 for a rayon Rooney and $79 for a smock. The line launched online this weekend in addition to the home trunk show, where shoppers included Minnie Driver and Marisa Tomei, but Nicotra O’Neill is also excited about its wholesale potential. “My intention is to do it slowly in terms of styles. I’ll do these three silhouettes in different fabrics, and add a skirt, top and lightweight three-quarter-sleeve jacket. I’m sticking with a California temperature in terms of seasons.” 2016-05-10 14:47 Marcy Medina
47 47 Joseph Gordon-Levitt Shows His Support for U. S. National Parks Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt is showing his love for the country’s national parks. Hit Record, an online production company founded by the entertainer, has created a line of T-shirts, hats, a onesie for babies and a tote bag highlighting the National Park Service, which is celebrating its centennial this year. This marks the first creative project between Hit Record and the National Park Foundation, the official charity of the national parks. The products will be available online at store.findyourpark.com starting this summer. The T-shirts will retail for $30, the hat is $26, the onesie is $20 and the tote bag is $24. “Camping in Yosemite National Park with my family was one of my favorite activities growing up and I’m honored to be a part of the Find Your Park movement,” said Gordon-Levitt. “The Hit Record community was truly inspired by the history of the parks, paying homage to the past while looking to the future as a creative collective with some very cool initiatives that cross over art, music and fashion.” “People might not traditionally associate art, film, and music with our national parks, so through our partnership with Hit Record we are opening people’s eyes to all that a park can be,” said National Park Foundation president Will Shafroth. “And not only that, we’re also helping people discover all the different ways they can help support our national parks. Whether it’s a T-shirt or a coloring book, these new items will help more people connect with parks.” The project was developed as a partnership between the National Park Foundation and Grey New York. Launched in March 2015, Find Your Park/Encuentra Tu Parque is a public awareness and education movement to inspire people to discover and support America’s national parks and community-based programs. 2016-05-10 14:41 Jean E
48 Jodie Foster to Kick Off Kering Women in Motion Talks in Cannes Foster made her Cannes debut 40 years ago at age 13 in Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” which won the Palme d’Or award at the festival that year. This time around, she will be presenting her fourth directorial feature “Money Monster,” starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Other speakers scheduled during the fortnight include Susan Sarandon and Geena Davies, recipients of the 2016 ‘Women in Motion’ awards ; Juliette Binoche; Salma Hayek Pinault , and Chloe Sevigny. This is the second year of the program, whose goal is to support women professionals within the film industry 2016-05-10 14:35 Joelle Diderich
49 49 Dan Flavin Lights Up Dia Beacon Historic works from the Dia Art Foundation's collection are back in the spotlight at Dia Beacon, which unveiled new permanent installations of work by Walter De Maria , Dan Flavin , and Bruce Nauman on May 7 during its annual spring benefit. The new installation marks the US debut of De Maria's 360º I Ching/64 Sculptures , a large-scale work Dia commissioned in 1981. The piece fills the long corridor of Dia Beacon's De Maria galleries with 576 white lacquer rods on a bright red carpet. The arrangement, which explores every possible combination of broken and unbroken lines, is inspired by the I Ching , an ancient Chinese book of philosophy and divination. Related: "Dream House" Is Dia's First Purchase With New Acquisition Fund From Contested Sale The first of Dia's basement galleries has been given over to Flavin's 1973 work, Untitled (to you, Heiner, with admiration and affection) , an early barrier piece that forms a fluorescent green fence dividing the space, and is named after Dia Art Foundation founder Heiner Friedrich. The work debuted in 1973 at Kunsthalle Köln, but was not shown again until 2001. It appeared in "Dan Flavin: A Retrospective," a travelling 2004–07 exhibition organized by Dia. The work was put on display at Munich's Pinakothek der Moderne before returning to the US for the current presentation, its first at Dia Beacon. Related: Celebrate Dan Flavin's Birthday Today With 5 of His Most Memorable Fluorescents Here, the rows of columns that break up the architectural space glow in otherworldly fashion. Overwhelmed by the green light, your eyes compensate by slowly adjusting to a narrow wedge of daylight seeping in from nearby windows. In the adjoining Nauman gallery , the space has been reconfigured into a somewhat- claustrophobic maze to show Left or Standing, Standing or Left Standing (1971), on view for the first time in over a decade. Dia is also revisiting the 2001 work, Mapping the Studio I (Fat Chance John Cage) , Nauman's multi-screen projection of video footage of creatures running about his empty studio at night. The works from all three artists nicely complement the other works on view, from John Chamberlain 's "Combines" to Michael Heizer 's imposingly dangerous North, East, South, West voids, as well as last spring's Robert Irwin show, Excursus: Homage to the Square ³ , on view through 2017. Follow artnet News on Facebook. 2016-05-10 14:06 Sarah Cascone
50 New York Indian Film Fest Opens With 'Let’s Dance to The Rhythm' Related Venues Skirball Center for the Performing Arts The Konkani film takes place in the Goa, when the southwestern Indian state’s musicians performed in the jazz clubs of Mumbai and strongly influenced the music of Bollywood cinema. The central characters played by Lawry and vocalist Dona are patterned after Chris Perry, known in Goa as The Man with the Golden Trumpet, who introduced jazz to Konkani music and took it to a new level, and Lorna Cordeiro, The Goan Nightingale, whom Perry discovered. The plot of the film incorporates 20 popular Konkani songs from the period, mostly written by Perry, in an effort to spotlight the largely unrecognized contributions of the Goan musicians. “We are thrilled to be able to share these films with the New York audience. Three of the feature films are National Award winners. And out of the nearly 40 shorts we are showing this year, there are two National Award winners,” adds Aseem. The NYIFF festival is widely recognized as the oldest, most prestigious Indian film festival in the United States, showcasing some of the greatest talents working in the diaspora. NYIFF is running from May 7 to 14 at a variety of prestigious New York City venues, including the Skirball Center for Performing Arts. The festival will feature 40 screenings (35 narrative, 5 documentary) - all seen for the first time in New York City. In addition, the festival will also feature five programs of short films. The festival highlights various cinemas of India's different regions. All the films are subtitled in English and some of the languages this year include Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telegu, Assamese, Haryanavi and Urdu. This year’s festival will feature a couple of sidebars --NFDC restored first films of filmmakers and a three-generations sidebar, films of Bimal Roy, Basu Bhattacharya and Aditya Bhattacharya. Talking about the festival, IAAC founder Aroon Shivdasani says, “The 2016 festival features a wide array of films from all over the South Asian diaspora. This year our films reflect the reality of India, dealing both with LGBT issues that have surfaced in the supreme court and on the streets, as well as strong feminist films dealing with female infanticide, child marriage, domestic abuse, trafficking and several other key issues that affect women in a world that still leans towards chauvinism.” Follow@ARTINFOIndia 2016-05-10 13:46 Bibhu Pattnaik
51 'DOOM' Is Violently Reimagined with a Claymation Cat Screengrab via The reboot of DOOM , the beloved and influential FPS game of old, is imminent (out May 13). To mark the occassion, British claymation artist Lee Hardcastle has made an officially sanctioned animated nod to the original video game via his signature gory clay. But the protagonist in Hardcastle's version is... a cat. Claycat, in fact, instead of the traditional 'Doomguy.' Hardcastle, who's tagline is "I make claymations that are not for children," is known for making very gruesome and bloody stop-motion animations, like an ultraviolent Simpsons couch gag that riffs on the horror movie You're Next. What with DOOM being about fighting off hellspawn on Mars, there's plenty of violent imagery to work with on its own, which Hardcastle does amply. Intercut with the first-person perspective from the game, Claycat tools up, dons a space marine outfit, and starts laying waste with a pump action shotgun/chainsaw/pistol to classic villains like the belching cacodemon. It's clearly made with a fan's love and attention to detail. Hardcastle has previously remade John Carpenter's The Thing but with children's character Pingu. Sadly, it that had to be taken down so he did it again but with Claycat. Now, Claycat stars in another grisly remake and it's equally as entertaining and just as brutally violent. Hardcastle's posted some behind-the-scenes pics and videos on his Instagram if you want to check out more. Click here to learn more about the artist. Related: Demon Guts and Future Guns: Designing the New 'DOOM' Play 'Doom' with Instagram Filters and a Selfie Stick in This Amazing Mod Simpsons Fan Creates a Bloody, Beautiful Couch Gag 2016-05-10 13:45 Kevin Holmes
52 A New Photo Exhibition Takes a Hardcore Look at Life in the South Julia Fox, "Baptism. " All images courtesy of the artist. In 2015, photographer and fashion designer Julia Fox took for Louisiana, camera in tow. Needing what she called “a sabbatical” from the city, she traversed the American South and shot what she witnessed. Part of what she captured appears in her new photo show, PTSD at Magic Gallery. Curated by friend and collaborator, Richie Shazam , the exhibition features a series of hardcore photographs and an iPhone video that Fox describes as art that shows audiences “a reality so far from theirs.” “The raw honesty of this work drew me in and her ability to construct relationships and shoot from the hip—the photos are so vibrant and have so much life,” Shazam tells The Creators Project. He adds, “I wanted to build this strong story around the work and create an interior- exterior experience where you feel you are getting into the brain of Julia Fox. She sees the beauty in America’s backyard.” Julia Fox, "Pinky" The hazy reportage style of her C-print photographs is situational. There are two images for every one mood or person captured, a form of representation Shazam explains as a “conscious coupling that gives you an experience of Louisiana that speaks to the post-Katrina devastation of not just the physical landscape, but also the personal self-destruction.” Says Shazam, “Within the conscious coupling you see the trials and tribulations of all the people.” "Imperfect Harmony" depicts both an arm being injected with heroin, and a white cat caught, mid-motion, in the middle of a street peering ahead. "Pinky" is both the name of a woman moving frantically in bed and the color of the sky seen midday. "Baptism" is a man showering and a fire burning. Julia Fox, "RIP" The six-minute camera phone video, The First Time , shows Fox lying in bed sharing an intimate moment with a female figure. It’s hard to make out exactly what they are saying, but Shazam installed a bed inside the gallery to allow viewers to sit or lay and experience the work in a similar way in which it was created. “In the video she is detailing her intimate sexual feeling,” explains Shazam. “The video adds intimacy to the room.” Beyond the references to Bayou culture, urban and rural decay, the installation and photographs seem to question the possibilities and contradictions of emotion and life. “This show brings forth a narrative that is clear, simple and clean and allows you to explore your feelings,” Shazam notes. “I want people to not just be spectators but to really walk away knowing what PTSD means.” He adds, “We all have to constantly deal with life events that trigger us.” Julia Fox, Imperfect Harmony Julia Fox, Sinner To learn more about the artist, click here . Related: In Cold Love: Richie Shazam and Friends Brutalize Notions of Lust 6 Must-See Shows During Frieze New York [NSFW] Jonathan Leder's New Polaroids of Powerful Women 2016-05-10 13:35 Antwaun Sargent
53 Enter 'Spirited Away,' 'Howl's Moving Castle,' and 'My Neighbor Totoro' in VR Images courtesy Fire Panda A triple threat of Studio Ghibli magic is now available in VR form. Scenes from Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro leap from the silver screen into three dimensions, thanks to a series of demos made by UK designer Nick Pittom of Fire Panda and distributed by We Are VR. T he experiences include a stunning view of the Howl's titular castle strolling through a mountainside landscape, a walk among the soot sprites working in Kamaji's boiler room in Spirited Away , and an atmospheric meeting with Totoro in the forest before he boards the cat bus. While the first two experiences are completely passive, the third allows some degree of interactivity, allowing users to hand Totoro an umbrella and receive a package of seeds, as the main character Satsuki does in the film. " Totoro was an experimental piece intended to further explore the way in which a traditional 2D animated style could be a compelling VR experience," reads the official description of the experience. While watchers are clamoring for full feature films captured this way, Pittom tells The Creators Project that there are, "No plans to extend them for now. They were fun fan projects mainly and I've taken them as far as I want to for now. " Fire Panda has a number of other VR experiences in development, including the VR ER , and a popular VR recreation of the Apollo 11 mission. A number of vloggers have demonstrated the experience over the last few days, each narrating their own feelings during the experience and nerding out about the Studio Ghibli films. If you'd rather focus on the visuals, one of the less talky videos comes courtesy of ParaPlaysVR, which you can watch below. See more of Fire Panda's work on the official website. Download the demos to try them yourself on WeArVR. Related: Studio Ghibli's Animation Software Is Now Free Meet the Young Animator Channeling Studio Ghibli in Pakistan [Exclusive] Watch Miyazaki Do Calisthenics Here's What a Miyazaki Theme Park Might Look Like 2016-05-10 13:30 Beckett Mufson
54 bates masi divides american family home into interconnected courtyard pavilions occupied by a family in matinecock, new york state, bates masi + architects has developed this suburban home defined by its close reference and relationship to its green landscape and the site’s original heritage. its design is based on quaker settlements, the form of the scheme divided into a series of modest-sized gabled structures, each one focused inward on its own garden courtyard. the form of the entire dwelling has been divided into a series of modest-sized gabled structure establishing a sense of space and orientation to nature, every interior space is connected to the exterior on two sides. the layering of programs from exterior to interior to courtyard breaks the boundaries between them. each volume has a sculpted roof that funnels light and air into the center of the structure. the choice of materials references the early quaker settlement buildings in the area – seen in the shingle coursing and pitched roofs. a limited number of materials are carefully detailed to accentuate the geometric form of each pavilion. a pronounced shadow line traces around each building and articulates the scale of the oversized shingles and under-coursing layer. on the roof, the shingles are an ideal material as they accommodate tapering courses that follow the roofs compound pitches. weathered metal straps on the ceiling further emphasize this geometry the idea of the pavilion is evident; the structure’s inverse form is carved out of the earth to create a lower courtyard at the basement level. planted retaining walls slope down to let light and air into the lower level. similarly, a sloped, depressed area forms a destination in the landscape, where a grove of trees grows and creating a contemplative area. overall, the architects’ strategy of introducing modern touches and a rich palette of natural materials has created a contemporary yet comfortable living space. every interior space is connected to the exterior on two sides invisible corners seen throughout the home open completely to the generous garden each volume has a sculpted roof that funnels light and air into the center bedroom with an invisible corner open up to the garden 2016-05-10 13:21 Natasha Kwok
55 55 The World’s 30 Best New Buildings Listed by RIBA Related Venues RIBA Architecture Gallery Artists Zaha Hadid DAVID CHIPPERFIELD The world’s 30 best new buildings have been listed by the Royal Institute of British Architects as it launches its first global architecture award. RIBA said the 30 projects are from 20 countries, from China to Colombia, Ireland and Azerbaijan. They include buildings in which to live, work, learn and worship. They were selected from hundreds of entries made by about 50 countries. The 30 will be visited by the RIBA awards committee this summer. They will be further whittled down to a shortlist of 2o winners of RIBA Awards for International Excellence, buildings worldwide that stretch the boundaries of architecture. Six finalists will be chosen by the jury before the winner is announced in December 2016. The jury, chaired by Roger Rogers, has just been joined by Billie Tsien, founding partner of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. The winner will be a “the most significant and inspirational building of the year” that shows vision and improves the lives of its users and physical context, RIBA says. Under like any previous RIBA award, such as the Royal Gold Medal and Stirling Prize, the RIBA International Prize is open to any qualified architect in the world. The list includes buildings by ‘starchitects’ DAVID CHIPPERFIELD , Bjarke Ingels and the late Zaha Hadid. Her company is nominated for a cultural center in Azerbaijan and an education club in Hong Kong. The 30 vary in size and budget, including urban infrastructure, private homes, cultural and civic spaces, religious centers and academic buildings. For this inaugural award, buildings must have been completed within the past 3 years. For each year after, the window is narrowed to projects finished within two years. 2016-05-10 13:11 Mark Beech
56 5 Artists to Remind You That Summer is Coming Does this unseasonably chilly and cloudy weather have you down? Here in New York, spring might not have gotten the “April showers bring May flowers" memo—or is just a month behind— but we're here to remind you that summer is just around the corner, we promise. Though it feels like a lifetime away, there's plenty to look forward to: from flowers to BBQs to days spent by the pool, we rounded up a few artists to jog your memory of the warmer days ahead. BBQ: Robert C. Jackson Who doesn't love a summer BBQ with burgers, hot dogs, beer, and the occasional veggie burger? American artist Robert C. Jackson 's work Burgers is a way to visualize all of the treats you'll be consuming in the coming months. Jackson's realistically painted towers of burgers will have you craving summer snacks in no time. Toss your sad desk lunch aside. Tan Lines: Tom Wesselmann Tan lines come and go, but the ones in Tom Wesselmann's Helen Nude screenprint will last forever. Whether or not you appreciate a good tan line IRL, you most likely enjoy time spent in the sun. Wesselmann uses these patches of pale skin throughout his work to highlight the female form and add an extra erotic layer to his imagery. Let this work serve as a reminder to always put on sunscreen because—while you generally can't avoid tan lines—at the very least, you can avoid sunburns. Flowers: Alex Katz Sick of bodega bouquets and ready to get outside to pick some fresh flowers? Remind yourself of all the time you'll be spending in the garden with Alex Katz's screenprint White Roses. These flowers are sure to last a lot longer than traditional arrangements and will brighten up any room, thanks to Katz's deceptively simple take on flowers highlighted by his minimal and flat use of color. While your summer garden may be a bit more colorful than his screenprints, take some inspiration from his works and pick flowers with a similarly restrained approach. Very classy. Pools: David Hockney We don't know about you, but this dreary drizzle has us daydreaming of getting splashed in the pool—not by raindrops from umbrellas and taxis. The colorful scene in David Hockey's Swimming Pool lithograph will remind you of a leisurely day spent by the pool, cocktail in hand. A classic motif for the Californian artist, his masterful use of many shades of blue evokes the refreshing appeal of a dip in the water. Tah-dah: you are now officially California dreamin' on a cold spring day. Drinking: Andy Warhol End your hot summer daydreams with a revitalizing drink in hand. It's a pleasant way to end the day anytime of the year, but nothing is more relaxing than taking a moment to yourself, cold beverage in hand, after a long commute. Andy Warhol's Committee 2000 print will serve as a splashy reminder of rooftop cocktails to be had. Cheers to summer! 2016-05-10 13:00 artnet Galleries
57 Manufacture New York Blossoms in Brooklyn MNY began in 2012 as a production incubator led by Bob Bland, who is the organization’s founder, chief executive officer and driving force. In September 2015, MNY became part of the Manufacturing Innovation Hub for Apparel, Textiles & Wearable Tech, an innovative fashion manufacturing and design hub in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, created in great part from a $3.5 million investment from City Hall. Located at Liberty View Industrial Plaza, the Manufacturing Innovation Hub, initiated through the New York City Economic Development Corp., will eventually occupy 160,000 square feet to provide research, design, development and manufacturing resources for New York’s emerging designers and apparel manufacturers. Last month, MNY became part of the U. S. Department of Defense and Massachusetts Institute for Technology’s sweeping $315 million public-private project called the Revolutionary Fibers and Textiles Manufacturing Innovation Institute aimed at keeping the country at the forefront of fiber and textiles innovation. It will be located at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in Cambridge. Under the banner Advanced Functional Fabrics of America, the consortium comprises firms from several industries and fields, including fashion groups VF Corp., New Balance and Nike and textile manufacturers Milliken & Co., Buhler Quality Yarns and Inman Mills. The project also encompasses 52 companies and 32 universities, colleges and other schools, including the Fashion Institute of Technology. MNY’s Bland will serve as the deputy director of apprenticeships and internships and will establish a regional training hub for New York. In a wide-ranging interview and tour of the Brooklyn facility, Bland explained that her specific role is to create a national apprenticeship program, but her goals are far more grand. “The Institute is about the convergence of technology and commercial fashion,” she said. “We’re the only founding team member from the fashion industry. Academics can take a very research- driven focus without much attention paid to commercialization. We’re going to focus on making new innovations commercially viable, ultimately creating business and jobs in the city and country.” Bland said on the training and educational front, she feels it’s important to not just provide traditional four-year undergraduate degrees in the field, but also provide “alternate learning pathways other than traditional four-year undergraduate education.” As for MNY’s cooperative and hands-on approach to sourcing and production, Bland said, “A lot of people have the perception that small-based manufacturing is less professional than bigger- batch manufacturing, and that isn’t always true. Bigger isn’t always better. Wearable opportunity is another opportunity along with sustainability to see a convergence of a redefining of values in the fashion industry that will result in a tighter, leaner industry that will be able to be more effective, more responsive to the customer and will be able to create better-paying jobs as result here and hopefully around the world.” Bland said the apparel and textile industry , one of the largest in the world that provides employment opportunities and economic foundations in many countries, also has a major environmental impact on the world. “We have to take responsibility as an industry for our economic…and environmental impact on the world,” she said. “We have the opportunity to shape the fortunes of the globe.” MNY’s Liberty View facility takes up much of the fourth floor right now with 15 companies on sight and another 60 companies it’s working with throughout the city and country in areas such as wearable technology, research and development, product development, and business and sustainability consulting. “We have a diverse team within MNY,” Bland said. “What we’ve given the industry so far is more than one perspective on what this industry wants and is needed, and that’s something that will have to continue.” MNY has pattern-making, sample-making and fabric sourcing as an original service it’s providing, and in the processes, is “trying to steer companies toward domestic manufacturing and product.” “We have launched over 90 brands out of our product development and incubator,” Bland said. “Many of our brands are now in their second and third seasons and they’re still going strong. They learned a lot working with us and they’ve been able to go out on their own. It’s been very gratifying.” Bland noted that MNY started with women’s wear and now has a wide range of products, from yarn production to bridal design and manufacturing. “Now that we’re part of the consortium that just won the $75 million grant from the [Department of Defense] that’s resulting in a formal partnership between us and the Fashion Institute of Technology, where over the next five years we’re going to be building a completely unprecedented workforce training program for local Sunset Park residents that’s at the convergence of traditional fashion manufacturing and wearable technology,” Bland said. “So this is going to create a whole new class of jobs that never existed before — areas like programming, machine tech, user experience in making a garment or producing fabrics.” A major aspect of the companies on premises or that are clients, is a cooperative, collaborative approach to the way they operate. Many of the young entrepreneurs on the walk-through spoke of the inspirational and practical benefits of this method. Daniel Silverstein, who runs Zero Waste Production, uses only leftover fabrics and materials to create and produce his sportswear line. Silverstein explained that he gets a majority of his materials from “a cutting room 10 blocks away that literally lets me take all I can carry and a friend’s swimwear company gives me waste fabric.” “All materials come from New York,” he said. “My design aesthetic has a certain time and place, but I’m finding the more wearable side of things, as well.” Nica Annette Rubinowitz runs Artifact, a yarn and fabric firm on-site that uses only natural dyes and materials to create its product. “We sell yarn and fabric to some people here, and also make custom textiles,” said Rubinowitz, who is also the educational coordinator for MNY. She moved Artifact from Red Hook to Liberty View about a year ago and has seen her business grow as a result. “Manufacture New York has its own ecosystem,” Rubinowitz said. “What we’re doing is collaborating and spreading the word. We couldn’t be in a better place. The space is extremely affordable and you’re also getting the opportunity to interact with a bunch of interesting people doing exciting things. It’s a great example of something that’s a great idea on paper that’s actually being implemented really well.” Artifact uses natural materials such as mushrooms, plants and vegetables from a local dye garden, and other local sources, as she shows materials in process and work-table areas where she also conducts classes. The plan is for MNY and the Institute to take five floors of the building that is undergoing $100 million in improvements by developer Salmar Properties. The first two floors are now being developed for retail, with Bed Bath & Beyond, Buy Buy Baby and Saks Off 5th committed to opening stores. Bland noted that part of wearable technology is biomaterial and material science and how it pertains to sustainability. This includes classes it already teaches on bio-leather, and could include areas such as bacterial printing, mushroom spores that are going into packaging that Ikea has already implemented, embedded circuits and interactivity built into fibers, fiber batteries and fiber circuits. In a broader sense, Bland said, “Manufacture New York’s role is in redefining manufacturing in New York City. We can create messages, we can create movements, but it’s ultimately up to the business owners to make a decision and collectively decide to reshape fashion manufacturing in New York. What we have encouraged them to do is reduce their overhead, to find alternatives to Manhattan to have a more fiscally sustainable business.” “There’s also a lot of a younger people adopting fashion manufacturing businesses, especially in specialty businesses,” she added. “What Manufacture New York can provide is a redefinition that will allow them to grow their businesses under proper margins.” Once the DOD-led Institute gets going, she sees wearable technology and textile innovation as an opportunity for manufacturers “to change their game, diversify their client base and recognize urban manufacturing as a niche that can be cultivated.” 2016-05-10 13:00 Arthur Friedman
58 Suzy Delvalle Is President of Creative Capital Suzy Delvalle has been named the new president and executive director of Creative Capital. She replaces the nonprofit organization's founder and current president Ruby Lerner, who has been at the helm for 17 years. The foundation was created in 1999 to support the gap in arts funding after the National Endowment for the Arts terminated substantial individual grants four years prior. Nearly 2,000 people applied the first year. "This says a lot about the need that is out there, about the pent-up demand," Lerner said in a 1999 interview with the New York Times. Each year, Creative Capital accepts 46 applications from thousands of applicants; grant recipients can expect up to $50,000 in direct financial funding. (In the nonprofit's initial iteration, 60 artists were selected with grants totaling no more than $20,000.) Under Lerner's tenure, Creative Capital has shifted its focus on expansion in recent years, funneling its energy in fundraisers to support annual retreats for the selected artists. Given Delvalle's track record, the new director is certainly a good fit in extending the nonprofit's institutional direction. Notably, her time as director of external affairs and development at El Museo del Barrio in New York helped the museum secure city, state, and federal funding. Previous Creative Capital awardees include Lorraine O'Grady in 2015, Theaster Gates in 2012, and Kalup Linzy in 2008. Linzy's project, Keys To Our Heart , described by the artist as a satirical gallery and museum video project, has since screened at the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1. “It's a privilege to be chosen," Delvalle said in a statement. “I've long admired Creative Capital's unique approach to arts funding and am honored to follow in Ruby Lerner's footsteps. " Delvalle starts her new position in June. Follow artnet News on Facebook. 2016-05-10 12:48 Rain Embuscado
59 Kienholz’s ‘Five Car Stud’ Will Be Shown at the Prada Foundation in Milan Edward Kienholz, “Five Car Stud,” 1972. COURTESY FONDAZIONE PRADA Edward Kienholz’s Five Car Stud, which is owned by Milan’s Fondazione Prada, will be exhibited in Italy for the first time, in a Kienholz retrospective that opens May 19 at the foundation. Five Car Stud ranks as one of the most controversial and elusive works of contemporary art from the second half of the 20th century. A life-size sculptural installation that depicts a gang of white men wearing Halloween masks attempting to castrate a black man while his white girlfriend vomits in horror, the scene is illuminated by the headlights of five cars, gathered in a circle around the center of violence. The artist made the piece between 1969 and 1972, and showed it only briefly in his lifetime, at Documenta 5, held in Kassel, Germany the same year the work was completed. (Kienholz died in 1994; Five Car Stud was the last piece he made solo before beginning an artistic collaboration with his wife Nancy, which would last until his death.) The piece quickly took on the feeling of a myth, known only by a few grainy, black-and-white photographs of its original installation. Five Car Stud was purchased by a Japanese collector and sat in storage for some 40 years before finally resurfacing in a show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2011. At the time, the museum offered the following warning about Five Car Stud on its website: “Please note that this work contains images of explicit violence and nudity.” 2016-05-10 12:47 M.
60 Philadephia Museum of Art Showcases African Collection Spanning Fashion, Architecture and Art Related Venues Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art is staging five exhibitions that show off the range of the artistic oeuvre from the African continent over the centuries. Titled “Look Again: Contemporary Perspectives on African Art,” the major survey focuses on the diversity of materials, techniques, and traditions used in art across West and Central African cultures. For instance, “Three Photographers/Six Cities,” running from April 30 through September 25, presents contemporary photography of African cities by Akinbode Akinbiyi (Nigerian, born 1946), Ananias Léki Dago (Ivorian, born 1970), and Seydou Camara (Malian, born 1983); while “Vlisco: African Fashion on a Global Stage,” which runs from April 30 through January 22, 2017, showcases the bold and colorful patterns of the firm’s luxurious yet traditional fabrics. And “The Architecture of Francis Kéré: Building for Community,” on view from May 14 through September 25, is a site-specific installation that introduces showgoers to the architect from Burkina Faso whose work emphasizes the collaborative and collective nature of building, responding to local cultures, knowledge, materials, and technologies. The works are drawn from the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Penn Museum. 2016-05-10 12:21 BLOUIN ARTINFO
61 New Heights: 2016 GE Aviation Leadership Summit We created an inspiring leadership event for a mighty industrial company. Challenge For the past few years, Real Art has partnered with GE Aviation to create a memorable annual leadership summit. The theme this year, “eXperiment to eXpectation,” embodied the spirit of a company focused on solving some of the biggest challenges of our time. With an amazing program and line-up of speakers, GE Aviation tasked Real Art with helping them deliver an event that would inspire their people to go bigger, faster, and farther than ever before. Solution We knew we had to bring a new energy to the event this year. Our logo redesign gave the experience a fresh face and we transformed the space to match the new approved theme. From printed materials to the inspirational kick-off video, we helped GE execute an event that embodied the company’s history of innovation and set the stage for new, exciting initiatives. Scope Identity Working from the predetermined theme of “eXperiment to eXpectation,” we developed a new logo treatment that conveyed notions of innovation and forward-thinking execution. Meeting Space Transformation Real Art transformed the daytime meeting space, sourcing decor and centerpieces for the tables and recommending lighting and drapes. We designed posters and banners to familiarize the audience with the new look and help with wayfinding. Providing a graphic template for presentations, we also designed a printed program that worked in conjunction with a branded notebook waiting for guests at their tables when they arrived. Inspirational Kick-off Video We concepted and produced a video to set the tone and share the agenda for the day. Working with key themes, we created a visual introduction that highlighted upcoming speakers, built up excitement, and encouraged engagement with the audience. Results Incorporating the iconic paper airplane, everything we created was designed to inspire. From the custom logo, to the colorful installations soaring overhead, to the planes ready for flight at each place-setting—we took this event to new heights. 2016-05-10 11:39 realart.com
62 American Beauty: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and the Case of the Missing Flag Robert Rauschenberg at his retrospective exhibition at the National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D. C., 1976. GIANFRANCO GORGONI/WWW. GIANFRANCOGORGONI. IT/COURTESY ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG FOUNDATION R obert Rauschenberg kept only one major example of his earliest, most influential body of work, the Combine paintings he made between 1954 and 1961. Short Circuit (1955) is similar to other works from the period; it incorporates sculptural elements with both painting and drawing and combines abstraction with images and objects plucked from the young artist’s world. But it was not included in his breakout exhibition, in 1958 at Leo Castelli Gallery. And though it was published in a couple of catalogues, Rauschenberg didn’t loan it to his 1976 or his 1998 retrospective, and he declined its inclusion in curator Paul Schimmel’s exhaustive Combines exhibition of 2005. Its appearance at Gagosian Gallery in 2010, two years after the artist’s death, was the first time the work had been seen in public in over 40 years. (It was wisely acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago .) Despite its low public profile, this Combine has had an extraordinary history and is a pivotal work of postwar American art. But Short Circuit ’s significance is based not solely on what is included in it, but also on what is missing. Short Circuit is made of classic Combine ingredients: thick brushstrokes, a lace curtain, a scrap of polka-dotted fabric, postcard images of a Renaissance painting and Abraham Lincoln, a word scramble, a program from an early John Cage concert, and a Judy Garland autograph, all affixed with paint to a chassis made of scrap wood and cupboard doors. Behind those doors Rauschenberg hid two smaller paintings, by two then-unknown artists: one was a landscape by his ex-wife, Susan Weil, and the other was a U. S. flag by his then-partner Jasper Johns. Johns made over 40 paintings of the American flag beginning in the mid-’50s, none of which was shown publicly until his first solo exhibition, also at Castelli, in 1958. Do the math. Short Circuit was created for an exhibition in early 1955, which makes the flag painting in it not just the first flag painting Johns showed, but likely the first flag painting he made. The flag embedded in this Combine is one of the most important paintings in contemporary art history, and also one of the most valuable. It upends the commonly understood story of how Johns and Rauschenberg worked together and influenced each other, and of how Johns conceived his most significant work. Or it would, if it were still there. Johns’s flag was stolen out of Short Circuit in 1965 and has never been recovered. Rauschenberg eventually replaced it with another painting, titled Johns Flag , a copy by his close friend and collaborator Elaine Sturtevant. This is the flag seen first at Gagosian, and then in Chicago, that made me wonder what happened to the works—both the Combine and the original flag within. Conflicting accounts of the disappearance of the Johns flag scattered in the footnotes of art-history texts and exhibition catalogues over the years do not help. People (or dealers, curators, and critics, anyway) don’t know what happened to a major work by two major artists of the day, and they seem not to care, content to pass along inaccuracies or offhand dismissals. Where is the original flag that would rewrite art history or bring an easy $100 million at auction (or both), and why isn’t there an all-out, Gardner Museum Vermeer–style hunt for it? Short Circuit , 1955, displayed with closed doors. COURTESY ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG FOUNDATION/ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO I wanted to address, if not answer, these apparently ignored questions, and so I set out to find the Short Circuit flag. Beginning in 2010, I searched archives and emailed and interviewed every person I could find who might have firsthand knowledge of the Combine, its creation, its history, and the circumstances of the flag’s disappearance. And what I found affected the way I view Johns and Rauschenberg’s work, their relationship, and their place in history. Rauschenberg’s Combines are very much products of his life and surroundings at the time of their making. The early ones especially, and Short Circuit most definitely, are loaded with personal, autobiographical, and even private esoteric references, which critic Yve-Alain Bois derided as “semantic traps,” good for little more than “keeping art historians busy for generations to come.” And here we are. First, a little background. Rauschenberg married Susan Weil in 1950, over the objections of her father, who did not think Rauschenberg was the marrying type. The couple lived in a studio apartment on New York City’s Upper West Side, where they made art, cyanotypes on blueprint paper, and a baby—Christopher, born in the summer of 1951, when Rauschenberg was at Black Mountain College. Rauschenberg spent much of 1952 in North Carolina, then, in the fall, took off to Italy with fellow Black Mountaineer Cy Twombly, while Weil stayed stateside to file for divorce. Twombly and Rauschenberg came back to New York in 1953. The painter Jack Tworkov had chosen one of Rauschenberg’s black paintings for inclusion in the New York Artists Annual (better known as the Stable Annual) at Eleanor Ward’s Stable Gallery. Rauschenberg and Twombly subsequently showed at Stable together, and Rauschenberg worked at the gallery as a maintenance man. Eventually, he met and took up with Jasper Johns, another aspiring artist. In 1954 Johns helped Rauschenberg make a collaged, freestanding, screenlike prop for a Merce Cunningham performance. Called Minutiae , it is one of the first Combines, though it spent most of its early life strapped to the roof of John Cage’s Volkswagen tour bus and wasn’t shown in a gallery until 1976. Rauschenberg showed red paintings at Charles Egan Gallery, many of which contained fabric, images, and brushstrokes similar to those of Short Circuit. Tworkov once again chose a Rauschenberg painting for the second Stable Annual. Meanwhile, Johns destroyed most of the work he’d made up to and during 1954. When the third Stable Annual rolled around, in April 1955, the gallery invited Rauschenberg to exhibit his work again. He wanted to invite other artists to be in the show, but the gallery wouldn’t allow this. And so Rauschenberg conceived of the work that came to be known as Short Circuit as a way to smuggle his curated picks into the Annual. He wrote letters to Weil and Black Mountain buddies Ray Johnson and Stan VanDerBeek, inviting them to make works for inclusion in his piece. In an email to me, Weil called Rauschenberg’s gesture sweet and generous. (Photocopies of Rauschenberg’s invitations to other artists to contribute to Short Circuit were shown alongside the work in a Finch College Museum group show in 1967, but these letters have not turned up since.) Short Circuit contained two small doors that, when opened, revealed the work of the two artists who agreed to participate: Johns and Weil. (A more pointed story was told by Castelli in a 1973 interview with Smithsonian archivist Paul Cummings: Rauschenberg proposed Johns and Weil for the show, but the vetting committee of artists from the previous Annual rejected them.) Short Circuit , with open doors, featuring a Susan Weil painting and Elaine Sturtevant’s reproduction of a Jasper Johns flag. COURTESY ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG FOUNDATION/ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO Rauschenberg was included on the Stable Gallery artist list; Johns and Weil were not. There is no works list, recorded account, or installation image showing Short Circuit in the show, but the story goes that the Combine doors, which have arrows and instructions to open them, were only ajar at the exhibition opening. Rudy Burckhardt took the first and only known photograph of Short Circuit in its original form. The open doors show Johns’s flag and a brushy scene painted by Weil. In 1955 Johns was making Flag , the one we know, the one at MoMA, which the artist claimed to have dreamed about and then woken up and made. The art historian Leo Steinberg’s prediction that Rauschenberg would generate “dissertations galore, including of the fine print in the newspaper scraps that abound in Rauschenberg’s pictures,” applies to Johns as well. Flag is commonly dated 1954–55, but in her 1977 infrared imaging analysis titled “The Infra- Iconography of Jasper Johns,” art historian Joan Carpenter tells of a visitor to MoMA in the ’70s who noticed Flag contains a newspaper fragment clearly dating from 1956. The work was repaired after being damaged during a party in the studio, the artist explained. Similarly, I dated a fragment integral to the field of stars in the flag to a news report about the Eisenhower campaign from late May 1955, after the Stable Annual had closed. Whether or not Johns had begun Flag before he made the Short Circuit flag, he had not finished it by that time. The Short Circuit flag came first. Rauschenberg made many Combines, including one he called Plymouth Rock , but which is officially untitled. Like Short Circuit it is full of autobiographical and familial references. There is a stuffed hen below a picture of Rauschenberg’s sister as a small-town beauty queen, a washed-out head shot of Johns, a photo of an infant Christopher, and a heartbreaking note, obviously added later, in Christopher’s kindergarten scrawl (“I hope that you still like me Bob cause I still love you. Please wright me back love LOVE Christopher.”) Rauschenberg and Johns frequently altered and added to works that sat in their Fulton Street studios for years before the spotlight fixed on them in 1958. There is no mention of Short Circuit in any account of the momentous 1957 visit Leo Castelli and his wife Ileana Sonnabend made to Rauschenberg’s studio, where they first met Johns and offered him a show on the spot. (Rauschenberg got the next one on the schedule.) Short Circuit figured into no reviews of either artist’s debut exhibitions; if anything, their supporters officially ignored Rauschenberg and Johns’s collaboration and took care to differentiate the artist-couple and their work. Cornell University included Short Circuit in a group show about assemblage that opened in March 1958 and was on view during Rauschenberg’s debut at Castelli and just after John’s own premiere, which made him into an overnight star. Alan Solomon, who organized the Cornell show, would go on to curate both precocious artists’ solo exhibitions at the Jewish Museum, in 1963 and 1964, respectively. Solomon never referred to Short Circuit again, and his shows put an early critical emphasis on the artists’ independence and differences from each other, in both practice and personality. At the time of the Cornell show, Combines were still not called Combines; they were “assemblages” or “constructions.” Much later, Calvin Tomkins wrote in the New Yorker in 2005, Johns would remember coming up with the term Combine. Rauschenberg remembered otherwise. Short Circuit , too, was not yet called Short Circuit ; the first mention of that title was at the Finch College show in 1967. Both Solomon’s Cornell exhibition checklist and a 1958 inventory in Castelli’s archive refer to the piece as “Construction with J. J. Flag.” Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg at Gemini G. E. L. in Los Angeles, 1980. TERRY VAN BRUNT/COURTESY ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG FOUNDATION I n 1961 Rauschenberg and Johns broke up rather bitterly over irreconcilable professional, aesthetic, and romantic conflicts. They each owned significant amounts of each other’s works, but only one work was the subject of an agreement over its fate: Short Circuit. This agreement came to light in 1962, when a dispute arose over the sale of images of Short Circuit by a subscription slide service called Portable Gallery Press. Editor Albert Vanderburg wrote that Short Circuit was an example of a more established artist giving newcomers a “helping hand” with their careers. That prompted Rauschenberg to deny Portable Gallery permission to sell slides of the Combine. (They had taken pictures of the piece while documenting other artworks in Castelli’s Lower East Side warehouse.) Vanderburg complained that the decision was part of a “cover-up of political maneuvering.” That charge, according to a tale Vanderburg loves retelling, including in an email to me, prompted Castelli to call him a “bitch” on the phone. In response to Vanderburg, Johns wrote a letter, published in the December 1962 issue of the Portable Gallery Bulletin. It is a powerful declaration of an artist’s agency, and his only public statement about Short Circuit : Dear Sir: I’ve always supposed that artists were allowed to paint however-whatever they pleased and to do whatever they please with their work—or not to give, sell, lend, allow reproduction, rework, destroy, repair, or exhibit it… Rauschenberg’s decision was part of a solution of differences of opinion between him and me over commercial and aesthetic values relating to that work. The painting itself has been publicly exhibited at least twice and, I believe, slides of it have been used in connection with public lectures. The solution to these differences of opinion was to not show, publish, or sell the work with Johns’s flag in it. In Vanderburg’s own telling on his website, Portable Gallery decided to offer the Short Circuit slide for free to purchasers of their 1963 Pop art slide package. As for Short Circuit itself, the piece stayed in Castelli’s warehouse, at 25 First Avenue in downtown Manhattan, until at least 1965. From this point there are two slightly different versions of the story, both of which come from Castelli. The first is the public one, which Castelli told Michael Crichton in an interview for the Whitney Museum’s 1977 Johns retrospective catalogue, and which echoed through the writings of New Yorker scribe Calvin Tomkins. According to this version, and the Castelli Gallery’s paper trail, the Short Circuit flag was stolen sometime “before June 8, 1965,” which was a Tuesday. The date Castelli gave the insurance company was June 6, a Sunday. Line that up with Crichton’s footnote on the “curious historical incident,” in which “one day, [Castelli] examined the painting and discovered that the Johns flag had been stolen.” But it was only “years later,” Castelli told Crichton, that “a dealer—we do not need to say who”— brought a flag to the gallery for authentication, a flag which Castelli recognized immediately as the missing Combine flag. The dealer said he couldn’t leave the work with the gallery, and, Castelli said, “he was very insistent, so I said, ‘Well, all right.’ I never saw the painting again.”But in June 1965 Castelli filed a report with the NYPD 9th Precinct, which covers the Lower East Side, stating the theft occurred on April 15, nearly two months earlier. Edward Meneeley, an artist, photographer, and the publisher of Portable Gallery, recalled to me a very tense spring and summer in 1965, when he was shooting works for Ileana Sonnabend in the same warehouse where Castelli stashed Short Circuit. Meneeley “and everyone else” who had access to the warehouse were asked several times, he said, if they knew, saw, or heard anything about the missing flag. This sequence fits better with Castelli’s second version of the story, which is really the first. It comes from a transcript of a 14-hour oral-history interview for the Archives of American Art, conducted by Paul Cummings in 1973. Though it was digitized in 2011 and is now readily available online, the transcript used to be restricted, and reviewing it required Castelli’s permission until 1993. (Castelli died in 1999.) In this telling, a dealer sought to authenticate “a very pretty flag of Jasper Johns’s”: So he came with the flag and there it was, the flag that was inside the painting! I sent somebody down to the warehouse, and I told them to open that case and see if the painting of the flag was there, and it wasn’t there. So I said, “This is a stolen flag, so please leave it here.” He said, “No, it’s been given to me by somebody who would suffer direly if I didn’t give it back to her… please let me take care of it. I’ll get it to you.” I said, “Alright, if you promise that you’ll take care of it and get it back and straighten it out with her.” I never got it right back. He made a terrible, hysterical scene and said, “I must have the flag back.” . . . and the flag disappeared for good. It would seem that when they learned of the theft, Castelli and company scrambled to figure out who was involved. When they couldn’t get the flag back by June, a police report and an insurance claim (according to Castelli’s notebook it was for “JJ,” not “RR”) were filed. In the copy of the report he left behind, the insurance agent, named Mellors, noted the flag’s dimensions (13¼ by 17¼ inches) and upped the initial value from $5,000 to $12,000. Mellors said that, in addition to the Johns, a small 1964 Roy Lichtenstein sculpture edition was also missing. The following week the gallery sent a cursory note to the Art Dealers Association of America that read, “Enclosed please find a photograph of the Rauschenberg work from which the Jasper Johns flag was stolen,” but with no titles, dates, details, or dimensions. According to the Art Loss Register (ALR), which was the successor to the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR), whose Stolen Art Alert list was the successor to the ADAA’s registry, no report of a missing Rauschenberg or Johns comes close to matching the Short Circuit flag. It is here that the narratives of Short Circuit and its flag inevitably diverge. There is no contemporary record of Rauschenberg or Johns’s response to the flag’s disappearance. In a 2011 lecture on Short Circuit , Art Institute curator (now director) James Rondeau said, “Bob actually called Jasper and said, ‘Jasper, the flag is missing. What do we do?’ And Jasper, according to the literature and my interviews, says two words: ‘Call Elaine’ ”—meaning Elaine Sturtevant, an appropriation artist who had been making direct copies of work by Andy Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Johns. Sturtevant and Rauschenberg were friends. They posed together in the buff for a re-creation of Duchamp’s Adam and Eve in 1967, the same year they also shared a bill, along with Rauschenberg’s new boyfriend, dancer Steve Paxton, on the School of Visual Art’s fall performance calendar. To the many inquiries I’ve made to Johns over the years of my search for the Short Circuit flag, he responded once to say he had no involvement in the decision to replace his flag with Sturtevant’s, a decision that stems from 1967, the year Rauschenberg fielded a request from Finch College Museum curator Elayne Varian, who wanted to include Short Circuit in a traveling exhibition, “Art in Process: The Visual Development of a Collage.” In the thin catalogue for that show, Rauschenberg posed with Short Circuit , its door propped open, but the cupboard was still bare. “Because Jasper Johns’s flag for the collage was stolen,” Rauschenberg wrote in the catalogue, “Elaine Sturtevant is painting an original flag in the manner of Jasper Johns to replace it. This collage is a documentation of a particular event at a particular time and is still being affected. It is a double document.” A double document at least. The future tense of Rauschenberg’s statement sent me looking for reviews of the ten venues for Varian’s show. If Sturtevant’s flag got in there in time, no one saw it, because according to all reports, Short Circuit ’s doors were nailed shut. Diptych of Rauschenberg and his dog Laika in Rauschenberg’s Lafayette Street studio, New York, ca. 1967. WILLIAM S. WILSON/COURTESY ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG FOUNDATION C harles Yoder, a Rauschenberg assistant, remembers seeing Sturtevant’s flag in Short Circuit in 1971. Castelli called it “ugly” in his 1973 oral-history interview. According to his notes in the Smithsonian Archives, curator Walter Hopps, who organized a Rauschenberg retrospective in 1976 at the National Collection of Fine Arts, held out hope that the original flag might be found in time for the show. When that didn’t happen, Rauschenberg wrote that he might paint a replacement himself, both “to rid myself of the bad memories surrounding the theft” and because he “need[ed] the therapy.” The only existing photo of Short Circuit with Johns’s flag is in the catalogue, but in the last draft of the exhibition checklist, Hopps dropped Short Circuit from the show. Other curators who visited Rauschenberg’s studio lamented the Combine’s condition or its unavailability. It was not until Paul Schimmel’s 2005 to 2007 traveling show of Rauschenberg’s Combines that a full color image of Short Circuit with Sturtevant’s Johns Flag was published. It turns out Sturtevant’s flag was installed higher than the original, in order to accommodate a stamped label strip below it that reads, “The original Jasper Johns Flag was stolen in 1965. It is replaced by an original Sturtevant 1967,” which clears that up. And what of the original flag? In 2010 I called Ivan Karp, Castelli’s longtime consigliere, who told me that the dealer who had gone to Castelli in 1965 to authenticate the stolen flag was Robert Elkon, and that his client, so to speak, was Gertrude Stein (of Madison Avenue, not Rue du Fleurus). Elkon and Stein both ran secondary-market galleries; the former died in 1983, but the latter is still around and dealing. (Elkon and Stein had been embroiled in a lawsuit in 1993 over the 1967 sale of a Chagall gouache, which turned out to have been stolen from the Guggenheim in 1965. The museum, hoping to avoid publicity and suspecting an inside job, had never reported the painting’s disappearance. Stein, Elkon’s estate, and their buyer agreed to pay the museum in a confidential settlement.) Stein and I spoke many times over the years I spent looking into the flag, most often when I dialed from unrecognized numbers. Though I never pressed, I came to believe that she did indeed have some firsthand knowledge of the Short Circuit flag. The last piece of evidence I found, Castelli’s previously restricted 1973 interview, was the most startling. This was not because Castelli offhandedly fingered Elkon and Stein in his story, or because of the matter-of-fact way with which he declared, “The flag disappeared for good.” I doubt he didn’t care; he must have known what happened to the flag, or known someone who did. What really caught me by surprise was Castelli’s candor in stating what seems obvious, but which was denied or refuted for so long. CASTELLI: There were three people that were the gallery: myself, Rauschenberg, and Johns. As a matter of fact it was Rauschenberg hyphen Johns, because they seem to be sort of always mentioned in the same breath: Rauschenberg and Johns. As a matter of fact, later on Johns got (there were other reasons too) got so irked by this constant coupling that occurs that he—this is certainly one of the reasons why he broke with Rauschenberg. CUMMINGS: Really? CASTELLI: Because he just did not want to be constantly mentioned in the same breath as Rauschenberg. Well there were other reasons of course, they started diverging also on aesthetic grounds and so on. Rauschenberg did not approve of the direction that Johns was taking and Johns didn’t approve of what Rauschenberg was doing. Rauschenberg-Johns. These two great artists had diverged, but before that, they were totally in sync, influencing each other and developing and making their work together. Short Circuit and its flag were the fulcrum of their relationship and their early practice. And it was gone. After reading Castelli’s interview, I called Stein one more time, for the first time in almost a year, and asked her if Castelli and Elkon could have simply quietly sold the flag back to Johns, at which point Stein hung up on me. I guess we’ll never know. Greg Allen is an artist, writer, and filmmaker, and has published his blog, greg.org: the making of , since 2001 . 2016-05-10 11:18 Greg Allen
63 Andria Hickey Named Senior Curator at MOCA Cleveland Hickey. MARIA BARANOVA MOCA Cleveland announced today that Andria Hickey will now be a senior curator at the museum. She is expected to start her new position there in September. Hickey comes from the Public Art Fund, where she was recently promoted to curator. There, she organized shows of work by Danh Vo, Hank Willis Thomas, and Oscar Tuazon, among others. Prior to starting at the Public Art Fund as an associate curator in 2011, she held positions at Art in General in New York and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. In her position at MOCA Cleveland, Hickey will oversee a staff of four. Together, they will build out the museum’s exhibition program.“I am thrilled to be joining MOCA,” Hickey said in a statement. “With the museum’s growing programmatic reach and dedication to artists and community- building, this is a fantastic opportunity to create meaningful exchange with a broader global art world. I look forward to working with the institution to create a platform for artistic research, cross-disciplinary experimentation and civic engagement. Now more than ever museums like MOCA are spaces that can position contemporary art as a vehicle for dialogue, actively responding to the changing needs of artists both near and far.” 2016-05-10 11:10 Alex Greenberger
64 Rachel Maclean Will Represent Scotland at the 2017 Venice Biennale Maclean. COURTESY ZABLUDOWICZ COLLECTION The British Council Scotland announced today that Rachel Maclean will represent Scotland at the 2017 Venice Biennale. The Glasgow–based artist’s project is being commissioned and curated by Alchemy Film and Arts in partnership with Talbot Rice Gallery and the University of Edinburgh. Maclean’s Venice Biennale commission will be a film work. Her videos, which have been shown at London’s Zabludowicz Collection and Glasgow’s Tramway gallery, feature fantastical narratives that are mostly staged in computer-generated settings; Maclean plays every character. Shot in candy- colored tones, her videos combine language borrowed from the Internet, centuries-old tales, and the aesthetic of Teletubbies.“It is hugely exciting to be representing Scotland at the Venice Biennale,” Maclean said in a statement. “I am honored to be participating in such a significant international event and can’t wait to get started on the new commission.” 2016-05-10 10:43 Alex Greenberger
65 Jude Law to Star in ‘Obsession’ on London Stage LONDON — Jude Law will star in “Obsession,” a new play based on the 1943 Luchino Visconti film, at the Barbican Center in London in 2017, the theater announced on Tuesday. The director will be Ivo van Hove, whose production of “ The Crucible ” is now showing on Broadway. Mr. van Hove was nominated for a Tony Award for best director this year for his production of “A View From the Bridge.” The film “Obsession” was an adaptation of the 1930s crime novel “The Postman Always Rings Twice” by James M. Cain, about a man and woman who are having an affair and plot to murder the woman’s husband. The production will be part of a 2017 residency from Mr. van Hove’s theater company, the Toneelgroep Amsterdam , at the Barbican. Other plays in the residency include “Roman Tragedies,” a mashup of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” “Coriolanus” and “Antony and Cleopatra”; and “After the Rehearsal” and “Persona,” a double bill of plays based on Ingmar Bergman films. The director’s adaptation of Visconti’s 1969 movie “The Damned” will have its world premiere at the Festival d’Avignon in July. 2016-05-10 10:42 By
66 Statue Destroyed by Man Taking Selfie The selfie continues to endanger the world's collection of fine art. The latest piece to fall victim to an ill-considered photo op is a statue of Dom Sebastiao, who ruled Portugal from 1557 to 1578, at Lisbon's Rossio train station, reports Reuters. The 126-year-old statue shattered after a 24-year-old man reportedly knocked it over while climbing on it to take a photograph. The suspect, who has not been named, is said to have attempted to flee the scene before being apprehended by police. A spokesperson for Infrastructure Portugal told the Daily Mail that he did not know when the statue would be repaired. Before the unfortunate incident, the sculpture was perched in a niche between two doorways at the station, which is a protected monument. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. Last May, a pair of tourists damaged a statue of Hercules in the northern Italian city of Cremona while taking a photograph with it. In 2014, an Italian student tried to pose sitting in the lap of a 19th-century cast of an ancient work at Milan's Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, only to smash the sculpture in the process. Some museums have taken steps to protect their art by banning selfie sticks , which extend the reach of the photographer, and may increase the likelihood of inadvertently striking a work of art. (Even without selfies, accidents happen, like the boy who lost his balance and punched $1.5 million painting , or the woman who tripped and smashed an ancient Greek vase .) Russians in particular have embraced the selfie in a less-than safe manner , with a spate of selfie-related deaths (including at least one by tiger), prompting government officials to issue official selfie safety guidelines . For our money, however, the best selfie-gone-wrong story is still the American exchange student who got trapped in a giant marble vagina on a German college campus. It took 22 firefighters to rescue the young man, who certainly got more than he bargained for in his quest for the perfect Facebook photo. Follow artnet News on Facebook. 2016-05-10 10:15 Sarah Cascone
67 London Shows Mark Visionary Artist François Morellet’s 90th Related Venues Annely Juda Fine Art The Mayor Gallery Artists François Morellet Francois Morellet This year marks the 90 th birthday of French abstract painter and sculptor Francois Morellet , one of the most important artists of 20 th century geometric abstraction and the founding member of Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV). In this milestone year, Morellet’s life, legacy, and influence is being celebrated with no less than 11 solo exhibitions in 8 countries, including three concurrent solo exhibitions at Annely Juda Fine Art and The Mayor Gallery, both in London, and Dan Galeria in São Paulo. The Mayor Gallery in London and Dan Galeria in São Paulo have collaborated on an exhibition showcasing a selection of 32 important abstract geometric works made by the artist in his studio in Cholet between 1969 and 1974, with the exception of a painting exhibited in Zagreb in 1962. Christine Hourdé of Mayor Gallery says: “We are showing 16 works acquired from the artist, [drawn] from the secondary market and from the collection of Henri Chotteau. We thought it would be a nice tribute to the artist to run shows at the same time, celebrating his birthday with different periods of his work.” According to Hourde, the group of work that includes the silkscreen on board “4 trames de tirets du bleu au vert pivotées sur un côté” 1971 “shows how the effect of undulation can be achieved with a simple system: with 2 colours (blue and green) placed in vertical bands then staggered, the artist multiplies the form to obtain a vibration effect and a graduation from light to dark, top to bottom.” With the wire mesh work “3 trames 0º, -22º5, +22º 5” 1971, Hourde explains that “Morellet rejected the sensitive side of the pictorial technique, to be accurate and ‘anti-impressionist’ as Theo van Doesburg used the expression in 1930 in Manifesto for Concrete Art.” “As in using silkscreen printing, he took ownership of an existing industrial material, wire mesh, that he used in different sizes of wires and thickness of mesh, with works which dated from as early as 1959. In this work, three fine mesh plaques are superimposed in three different angles (see title) on a black painted wooded frame to give an amazing visual effect of network,” Hourde adds. The exhibition at Annelly Juda Fine Art features 16 new and recent neon works and paintings made between 2005 and 2016, including the major neon sculpture “Cercle à demi-libéré n°1” (2013) and the 100 x 100cm acrylic on canvas on wood “Strip-teasing 4 fois n°10 (2016)” According to Annelly Juda, most of Morellet’s more recent works are based on a white or black square canvas, with “Contresens no 2” introducing red neon to create a dramatic effect. “The work “Lamentable ø 5m blanc” is one of the most important works in the exhibition. The hanging neon lights have featured in many of François Morellet’s iconic works and the choice of title reflects his immense sense of humour, which is a recurring theme in all of his works,” Juda explains. “In many of his works Morellet plays with different angles of specific degrees and the often random effect this has on the outcome of his works. He feels that as soon as he has chosen these random angles, the work develops by itself without his influence. With the work “Rococoncret n°4” Morellet hangs the canvases at different angles and introduces elements of the circle creating a fascinating way of how the eye travels around the work.” Throughout his five decade career, Morellet has challenged the boundaries and expanded the very definition of abstract art, creating mind-bending optical effects consisting of complex geometric grids and patterns generated using mathematical systems combined with elements of chance. In his quest to “end the conventional artistic practice of canvases, paintbrushes, an easels,” Morellet also began experimenting with unconventional materials such as neon and tape – what he described as “modern materials that hadn’t been ‘polluted’ by traditional art.” Commenting on his methods and motivations, Morellet has said: “The plastic arts should allow the spectator to find what he wants, in other words what he brings to them. Artworks are picnic areas, places where you take potluck consuming whatever you have brought along.” “In order to channel my sensibility as an ‘Artist’, I did away with composition, removed any interesting aspects of execution and rigorously applied simple, straightforward systems that could develop in a completely random way by means of participation.....” The Francois Morellet exhibitions are at The Mayor Gallery until May 27 and Annely Juda Fine Art until June 24. 2016-05-10 10:05 Nicholas Forrest
68 Yayoi Kusama Will Transform Your Airbnb Room Do you like Yayoi Kusama 's work? Are you currently renting out a room in Greater London? If so, you are about to get very excited, because the biggest artist in the world has teamed up with Tate Modern and Aibnb to create one of the most amazing competitions we've ever heard of. Kusama's latest project will take place inside an apartment of one incredibly lucky London-based Airbnb host, whose property will get spruced up by one of the most expensive artists in the world , for free. Considering how much money many guests would be willing to pay to spend the night in a Kusama-designed room , this prize pretty much amounts to winning the (art) lottery. There are currently no further details as to what the actual design for the chosen bedroom will look like, but the Japanese artist is well-known for her polka-dot and mirror environments (her oft-instagrammed Infinity Room being the most famous one), so it is safe to say that the room will look amazing and colorful. Prospective winners have until tonight, 11:59 p.m. British Summer Time to enter their details on the Tate's website. The winner will be notified on Thursday. This unique competition has been launched to celebrate the opening of the new Tate Modern next month , and the prize also includes tickets for the winner and a friend to attend the opening party of the museum's extension on June 16. It also coincides with Kusama's forthcoming exhibition at Victoria Miro Gallery in London, in which the 87-year-old artist will exhibit a set of new sculptures, paintings, and mirror room installations. Although this competition is pretty unique, the use of Airbnb rooms for artistic purposes is becoming more and more prevalent. In February, coinciding with its exhibition " Van Gogh's Bedrooms ," the Art Institute of Chicago recreated the room that the legendary artist inhabited in Arles, and listed the property on Airbnb . That same month, and coinciding with a show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York , the Marcel Broodthaers Society of America offered a studio apartment through Airbnb “in honor of the great Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers" which contained a small archive of memorabilia related to the artist's career. Follow artnet News on Facebook. 2016-05-10 07:00 Lorena Muñoz
69 Ai Weiwei Films in Israel and Gaza The socially-engaged artist Ai Weiwei , who is currently working on a documentary film on refugees , landed in Israel yesterday, May 9, to conduct a series of interviews for his upcoming film project. Ai visited Jerusalem and the West Bank, and was planning on traveling to the Gaza strip today, but was initially denied permission to enter, as reported by the independent Israeli news blog HA-Makom . Following the blog's report, which was picked up by other Israeli news outlets and made waves on social media, the artist and his crew were finally granted entry. Ai had arranged a three-day stay in the Gaza Strip, and coordinated the trip with the Israeli production company Highlight, which is filming on location with the politically engaged artist. As Israel marks its Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism tomorrow, May 11, immediately followed by Independence Day on May 12, the crossing will be shut off for three full days starting tonight due to heightened security procedures. Ai and his film crew were planning on staying in Gaza until the border reopens. The IDF's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (CoGAT), who is responsible for issuing entry permits to Gaza, is obligated to grant entry into Gaza only for the members of international press who hold state-issued press IDs. Ai and his team are not considered journalists. In addition, the daily paper Haaretz reports that according to CoGAT, Ai and the film crew did not apply for their permissions in due course, and that a speedy procedure was underway. A CoGAT's spokesperson responded to Ha-Makom 's report, saying “On May 3rd, we received said request to enter Gaza, just several days prior to the planned arrival. As in the case of every visit to Gaza, the request has to undergo inspection by security officials, and due to the short notice, we were unable to do so. We have now sent an urgent request to the Israeli Security Agency, but the request will not be taken care of before Independence Day, so the team will have to stay in Israel for a few more days. We can't promise their entry to Gaza, but we promise to take care of the request. " However, rather than a few days, permission was granted in a matter of hours, on Monday evening. Ai and the film crew will be heading to the Gaza Strip today. Ai has started the visit with interviews in Israel, and met with Member of the Knesset Ayman Odeh, of the Joint List, and Hagai El-ad, executive director of B'Tselem , the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, to talk about the state of both the Palestinian refugees as well as refugees worldwide. Following the interviews, he headed to the West Bank, and filmed at refugee camps around Bethlehem. Since relocating to Berlin last year , around the same time that the refugee crisis has reached devastating proportions, Ai has made countless trips to refugee camps in Greece and Macedonia, and has even opened a studio on the island of Lesbos, an entry point to Europe for refugees making the perilous journey from Turkey to Greece. While attempting to leverage his celebrity to highlight the plight of refugees, Ai has also staged certain gestures that came under fire for being too crass, like creating a photograph of himself lying on a beach, recalling a shocking photo of drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi. He's also hung life vests on the façade of a Berlin concert hall during the city's film festival, and then invited guests at a gala there, including Hollywood actress Charlize Theron, to pose wearing emergency thermal blankets . Based on first-hand accounts rather than attention-grabbing aesthetics, the documentary he is currently filming could very well be a thoughtful and candid—not to mention historically valuable— report on the Middle East refugee crisis. "I did hundreds of interviews," Ai recently told Reuters in Bern, Switzerland, where he was speaking to reporters at the opening of "Chinese Whispers," an exhibition of contemporary Chinese artists from the collection of Uli Sigg at the Paul Klee Center . He plans to release the film in 2017. Follow artnet News on Facebook. 2016-05-10 06:51 Hili Perlson
Total 69 articles. Created at 2016-05-11 06:02