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47 articles, 2016-04-29 12:12 1 7 Must-See Shows at Berlin Gallery Weekend It’s like an art fair, only way more spacious (and way less painful). 2016-04-28 20:05 6KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com
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2 Cushnie et Ochs Partners with Bandier, Pamela Love The label will launch a 10-piece activewear collection with Bandier and a jewelry collaboration. 2016-04-29 00:10 2KB wwd.com 3 Paul Simon, Regina Spektor, Maria Popova and Matthew Weiner Pitch in at Poetry Event Paul Simon, “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner, “Brain Pickings” founder Maria Popova and Regina Spektor helped the Academy of American Poets celebrate verse at Lincoln Center… 2016-04-28 22:56 4KB wwd.com 4 Feel Like This: Sam Johnson on Luis Garay’s Maneries 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 o... 2016-04-29 00:14 946Bytes blogs.walkerart.org 5 Mechanical Glamour - Magazine - Art in America As the Met’s Costume Institute opens an exhibition about the interplay between handmade and mass-produced fashion, Leonardo da Vinci’s sketch for a sequin-making machine evokes a longer historical view of the topic. 2016-04-29 12:12 19KB www.artinamericamagazine.com 6 amey kandalgaonkar's dark deco series imagines noir- shanghai shot during the day using ND filters, visually striking art deco structures are re-imagined as dark, foreboding scenes. 2016-04-29 08:45 1KB www.designboom.com 7 Call for Applicants: Walker Art Center Mildred Friedman Design Fellowship 2016–2017 The Walker is pleased to announce that its 2016-2017 Mildred Friedman Design Fellowship is now open for applications. APPLICATIONS ARE DUE: MAY 23rd Since 1980, the Walker’s Design department has... 2016-04-29 11:06 3KB blogs.walkerart.org 8 MVRDV + COBE open ragnarock music museum in denmark in roskilde, denmark, the collaborative team of MVRDV and COBE has opened ragnarock, a gold-studded music-themed museum. 2016-04-29 08:00 2KB www.designboom.com 9 Clearing the Haze: Prologue to Postmodern Graphic Design Education through Sheila de Bretteville Author’s preface: At the outset, this project was defined as an intensive effort to examine and reassess the work of Shelia Levrant de Bretteville. The initial motivation was driven by the connectio... 2016-04-29 09:56 982Bytes blogs.walkerart.org 10 EU Campaign Dear Friends, I’m sure you are also following with horror the rightwards drift and anti-EU sentiment brewing across Europe. The Dutch referendum... 2016-04-29 09:56 2KB tillmans.co.uk 11 Music legend Prince dies at age 57 Prince, a multitalented musician who came out of the Minneapolis scene and changed the world of music forever, has died at age 57... 2016-04-29 09:56 10KB blog.thecurrent.org
12 LAN architecture wraps contemporary town hall in france with double façade LAN architecture's approach to the interior revolves around overlapping spaces and capitalizing on transparency, light and reflection. 2016-04-29 06:15 2KB www.designboom.com 13 Alternate Senses of Tone and Pulse: An Interview with C. Spencer Yeh For Sound Horizon, our series of free in-gallery music performances, we’ve invited critic and Tiny Mix Tapes editor Marvin Lin to share his perspective on each installment of this three-part progr... 2016-04-29 09:56 946Bytes blogs.walkerart.org 14 diego sferrazza fargo armchair & two-seat couch for spHaus intended for use indoors or out, a curvaceous stainless steel frame supports a body of dry-flex polyurethane pillows. 2016-04-29 04:05 1KB www.designboom.com 15 Trevor Noah Discusses the Met Ball, the Daily Show and Life’s Lessons Ermenegildo Zegna dressed the comedian in a midnight blue three-piece suit for Monday’s Met Gala. 2016-04-29 04:01 6KB wwd.com 16 £18M Lucian Freud Family Portrait Heads Christie’s Defining British Art Sale Christie’s has revealed three stunning highlights by Lucian Freud, Lord Frederic Leighton, and Sir Joshua Reynolds from its upcoming June 30 “Defining British Art” Evening Sale 2016-04-29 03:08 2KB www.blouinartinfo.com 17 Q&A: James Borynack, Chairman & CEO, Findlay Galleries With the rebirth of Findlay Galleries, a 50-year-old family feud comes to an end 2016-04-29 02:43 7KB www.blouinartinfo.com 18 Bollywood Actress Priyanka Chopra To Dine With US President Barack Obama National Award winner Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra is going to dine with US President Barack Obama at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner this weekend. Priyanka will be dining with some of Hollywood's biggest names like Will Smith, his wife... 2016-04-29 02:05 2KB www.blouinartinfo.com 19 josé cardoso's play-doh people meld molded matter with portrait photos graphic designer and illustrator josé cardoso has completed a collection of headshots that blends classic photography and basic sculpting. 2016-04-29 00:02 1KB www.designboom.com 20 Bonhams Breaks 10 Records for Lebanese and Middle Eastern Art Bonhams broke 10 world auction records during its April 27 Middle Eastern and Lebanese Modern and Contemporary art sales in London 2016-04-29 00:01 2KB www.blouinartinfo.com 21 Lancel Taps Langley Fox Hemingway and Noah Mills for Spring The French leather goods maker is also celebrating its 140th anniversary with a road movie, an exhibition and a new book. 2016-04-28 23:52 1KB wwd.com 22 Royal Ascot Teams Up With Eight Milliners on Hat Collective Designers including Stephen Jones, Philip Treacy, Rachel Trevor Morgan, Edwina Ibbotson, William Chambers, Laura Apsit Livins, Lady Laura Cathcart and Harvy Santos took part creating one-of-kind-pi… 2016-04-28 22:53 2KB wwd.com
23 Amazon Posts Profits Amid New Products, Programs Amazon profits gained as the company expanded its assortment. 2016-04-28 22:51 2KB wwd.com 24 With Its New Building, SFMOMA Cements a Place on the World Stage The exterior of SFMOMA, which was designed by Snøhetta. It opens to the public on May 14. HENRIK KAM Pop open the champagne and ignite the fireworks! The 2016-04-28 22:38 17KB www.artnews.com 25 WY-TO architects' flat-pack disaster shelter for southeast asia the 'living shelter' is an affordable, collapsible unit that's easy to ship and can be assembled by small teams without tools. 2016-04-28 22:05 1KB www.designboom.com 26 Gisele Bündchen Wears Anthony Vaccarello for ‘Tonight Show’ Appearance Bündchen appeared on the show to promote the mass-edition copy of her book. 2016-04-28 22:02 1KB wwd.com 27 ‘Streetease’ Brings Mr. Brainwash and Seen to Opera Gallery Hong Kong Opera Gallery Hong Kong showcases the work of two street artists, Mr. Brainwash and Seen, in its latest exhibition, “Streetease.” 2016-04-28 20:52 2KB www.blouinartinfo.com 28 ‘Angkor Wat Soviet-Style’: Christophe Malcot on Photographing Chernobyl Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, ARTINFO spoke to photographer Christophe Malcot, whose latest exhibitions comprises of haunting black and white images of the site. 2016-04-28 20:46 4KB www.blouinartinfo.com 29 In Which Hip-Hop Ends Up Saving Itself: On Charlie Ahearn’s Wild Style Considering its status as a founding document of one of the twentieth century’s defining cultural phenomena, it would be easy to forget Wild Style’s origins in the high art ferment of New York's... 2016-04-28 19:03 933Bytes blogs.walkerart.org 30 Stay Ready: Lizzie Borden on the Post-Revolutionary Future of Born in Flames Released in 1983 during Reagan’s presidency and Ed Koch’s tenure as mayor of New York City, Lizzie Borden’s futurist, science-fiction feature Born in Flames (1983) imagines political activism t... 2016-04-29 00:14 938Bytes blogs.walkerart.org 31 2016 Sovereign Asian Art Prize Nominees Announced The 30 finalists for the 2016 edition of the Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Asia’s most established arts prize has been announced. 2016-04-28 20:03 3KB www.blouinartinfo.com 32 Armory Show Head Aims to Change Up Fair— The new head of the Armory Show has unveiled his plans for changing things up at the art fair, including integrating the modern and contemporary dealers. 2016-04-28 20:01 3KB news.artnet.com 33 Police Brutality in VR Proves It's a ‘Hard World for Small Things’ Filmmaker Janicza Bravo ditches dark comedy for headsets to tackle discrimination. 2016-04-28 19:40 4KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com
34 Berlin's Most Notorious Club Gets an Acoustic-Architectural Installation Berghain will become an audiovisual playground for German record label Raster-Noton’s 20th anniversary. 2016-04-28 18:45 3KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 35 iwan baan documents MAD's harbin opera house in china MAD architects has released a new series of photos by iwan baan, documenting its harbin opera house in northeast china. 2016-04-28 18:29 3KB www.designboom.com 36 Nadav Kander at Flowers Gallery, New York Pictures at an Exhibition presents images of one notable show every weekday 2016-04-28 17:13 2KB www.artnews.com 37 Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Portrait of Eva Hesse on Film A documentary about the artist opened at Film Forum in New York earlier this week. 2016-04-28 16:39 5KB www.blouinartinfo.com 38 fade task light by box clever leverages one piece of metal as much as possible accompanied by high performance LED system, the fade task light's intuitive dimmer and color temperature slider control on the iron base allows the light output to be precisely set to the color and luminosity. 2016-04-28 16:30 1KB www.designboom.com 39 At the Vatican, a Newly Refreshed Snapshot of Italy, Circa 1580 The Gallery of Maps – a 400-foot-long snapshot of Italy, circa 1580, with some later updates – is “a sneak peek of paradise,” the director of the Vatican Museums said on Wednesday. 2016-04-28 15:56 2KB artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com 40 Meet the Self-Described "Sign Geeks" Keeping Neon Alive An international photography group captures the illuminated nostalgia of neon signage with their most recent show at The Museum of Neon Art. 2016-04-28 15:10 5KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 41 Protest Group Lights Up Guggenheim's Facade The Gulf Labor Artist Coalition used light projections on the Guggenheim Museum's facade last night, in protest of recent breakdown in negotiations. 2016-04-28 14:41 2KB news.artnet.com 42 Can Visionary Art Also be Conceptual? | City of the Seekers Ed Ruscha recently called Dani Tull one of "LA's brightest new talent and truest voices," so you should be listening up. 2016-04-28 14:40 8KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 43 Free Arts NYC Celebrates Glenn O'Brien at Richard Prince-hosted Party The fête drew guests such as Jeffrey Deitch, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Claire Distenfeld, Nan Goldin, Rashid Johnson, Jemima Kirke, Marilyn Minter, and more. 2016-04-28 14:31 1KB www.blouinartinfo.com 44 Predicting the Tony Nominations: The Actors Some very deserving performances will not be acknowledged when the nominations are announced. There are very few shoo-ins. 2016-04-28 14:08 4KB www.blouinartinfo.com 45 L3P architekten renovates house lendenmann in switzerland in regensberg, a medieval township in northern switzerland, L3P architekten has renovated a two-storey building that was in desperate need of repair. 2016-04-28 13:20 3KB www.designboom.com
46 A New App Illuminates the Hidden Histories of Everyday Places 'Poetic Places' uses geolocation to hit you up when you happen across a place described or recorded in literature, poetry, and paintings. 2016-04-28 12:20 4KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com 47 NYC Manholes Just Got Way Cozier Artist Mark Reigelman moves his sculpture when cops drive by. 2016-04-28 12:15 3KB thecreatorsproject.vice.com Articles
47 articles, 2016-04-29 12:12
1 7 Must-See Shows at Berlin Gallery Weekend (1.00/2) Aleksandra Domanović, Substances of Human Origin (2015). Photo courtesy of the Varon Collection, Monaco. One weekend each April, galleries up and down Potsdamer Straße (and beyond) collectively tap their best artists, extend their hours, and stay open on Sunday, all in the name of promoting the cooperative Berlin art market. They call it Gallery Weekend Berlin , and this year, it takes place from April 29 until May 1. International collectors and art aficionados Uber around the city for a weekend trying to see it all, since they won’t be back in Berlin until mid-September for abc art berlin contemporary , Gallery Weekend’s sister event. In true Berlin style, few of the exhibitions yet have press releases, or really any information beyond the rare photograph. So, I did my best to speculate on what seem like the most exciting and worthwhile Gallery Weekend exhibitions. Petra Cortright, Bridal Shower (2013). Photo courtesy the artist and Societé, Berlin. Societé posts very little information on their website, so there’s little to know about Petra Cortright’s show—except what her studio told us, which is that the show is called Die Rose . (In German, that means “the rose” and not “die, Rose.”) The coupling of the internet artist with what might be the most esoteric gallery in Berlin is sure to pique the interest of lovers of immaterial, logged-in works. Djordjadze is fairly well-known in Berlin, especially compared to New York, where she’s only now gotten her first solo show, at MoMA PS1. She studied under the prolific German artist Rosemarie Trockel, and has since carved a name for herself with her minimal, functional design- inspired, sometimes surreal sculpture. Tomás Saraceno, Solitary semi-social mapping of SXDF- NB1006-2 by one Nephila clavipes – one week, one Tegenaria domestica – eight weeks and a pair of Cyrtophora citricola – one week (2015). Photo courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin, © Studio Saraceno The artist’s second show with Esther Schipper, a champion gallerist of conceptual art in Berlin, Aerocene conceptually builds upon Saraceno’s earlier work, Cloud Cities , a project that imagines a utopia structured after cloud formations, soap bubbles, and spider webs. The exhibition will kick off with a spider concert to celebrate the new works, which are made of spider silk and ink on paper. The winner of the 2014/2015 ars viva prize , Domanović is interested in the de- and re- contextualization of images—like these sculptures of American celebrities in former Yugoslavian Republics. Her work also probes into the ways citizens heal from traumas of collective memory, like 2010’s 19:30 , a juxtaposition of the former Yugoslavian evening news with a different kind of collective experience: techno raves. Her Gallery Weekend show is called Bulls without Horns , and will expand on her research-based practice to look at how animals have helped to shape human understanding, “From Archaic Greece into the Anthropocene present.” KTZ’s location in a full-on, fluorescently lit office building is either an example of Berlin creatives’ ability to reuse and repurpose spaces, or the most post-internet "office aesthetic" joke ever. For Gallery Weekend, they will show American artist Rachel Harrison’s American Gothic , a sculpture made using a cast of a Native American bust she bought on e-Bay. Wolfgang Tillmans, Studio Still Life, A (2013). Photo courtesy of Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne Besides extending the hours of Between Bridges , Tillmans’ gallery turned into a forum to discuss and plan how to help the European refugee crisis. During Berlin Gallery Weekend, the artist will also have his 12th solo show at Galerie Buchholz. Entitled Studio , the show will examine the artist’s relationship with the place in which he works. Galerie Eigen + Art will present Nicolai’s reflektor distortion. The multidisciplinary artist, who produces sound under the name alva noto and founded the “archive for sound and not sound,” Raster-Noton , works scientifically to find systems of making sound visually accessible. This installation will include a rotating bowl of water hit with sound frequencies, dealing with themes of reflection, distortion, and interference. Hiwa K, This Lemon Tastes of Apple, (2011). © Hiwa KPhoto courtesy of Hiwa K and KOW, Berlin KOW is a Berlin standout for its consistently international and political focus, and for their continuous support of documentary-leaning video works. Perhaps one of the only galleries with a written, coherent, and helpful press release as of the day of writing, the gallery’s words on the joint exhibition of Tobias Zielony and Hiwa K speak for themselves: “Acting unexpectedly, becoming an unscheduled political subject, contradicting the public narratives and regimes of visibility that make some voices sound legitimate and others not—this is what KOW’s solo exhibitions of Hiwa K and Tobias Zielony are about. More specifically both artists step into moments called 'crisis,' trace places and events of political upheaval and repression, and connect to involved people, stories and bodies.” Find out more about Berlin Gallery Weekend here . Related: Virtual Pop Star Hatsune Miku Performs “Live” in Berlin The Sickest Photos from the Berlin Festival of Light The Best of Berlin Art Week 2016-04-28 20:05 Alyssa Buffenstein
2 Cushnie et Ochs Partners with Bandier, Pamela Love More Articles By Cushnie et Ochs is expanding beyond its ready- to-wear , branching into activewear with a collection for Bandier and a limited-edition jewelry collection designed by Pamela Love. The jewelry will be available for pre-order on Monday, while the Bandier project will launch May 25 at Bandier’s five stores in New York and Dallas, and the company’s e-commerce shop, which ships globally. Branching into activewear isn’t a quantum leap for designers Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs, whose collection is defined by body-con dressing. The Bandier line includes 10 performance pieces — three leggings, three bra tops, two tank tops, a track pant and a jacket — made from an eight-way stretch fabric. The collection is being billed as luxury activewear, and includes double-face techniques as well as laser cut, cut-out details that tie back to Cushnie et Ochs ready-to-wear. “The realization that prompted this collaboration is that both Bandier and Cushnie et Ochs are dressing the same woman — a woman who now demands much more from her wardrobe,” said Bandier founder Jennifer Bandier. “Carly and Michelle, with their exceptional grasp of the female form, are the perfect partners to help move activewear into the fashion world.” Last year, Cushnie and Ochs sold a minority stake in their business to Farol Asset Management and a group of fashion insiders, including Gary Wassner, who is chief executive officer of industry factor Hilldun, and made a personal investment. As part of the transaction, Peter Arnold was installed as chief executive officer. At the time, Cushnie and Ochs said that they planned to use the funds to expand their brand and raise its profile. The Bandier and Love projects are the two most notable steps in that direction yet. 2016-04-29 00:10 Jessica Iredale
3 Paul Simon, Regina Spektor, Maria Popova and Matthew Weiner Pitch in at Poetry Event Dusting off poetry’s bookish reputation, an impressive lineup of artists enlivened their favorite verse with instruments, musicality and commanding elocution at Wednesday’s Poetry & the Creative Mind event at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones had to raise his hand like a stop sign four times to hold off applause as he sang his way through Countee Cullen’s “Yet Do I Marvel” and other works. And the crowd’s rousing response to Regina Spektor’s musicality even waylaid her. “I didn’t write them,” she demurred. In closing the Academy of American Poets-sponsored event with an impromptu performance of “American Tune,” Paul Simon began with, “I call this feeling groovy.” Unlike the master of ceremonies Elizabeth Alexander, a professional poet, the talent that took to the stage hailed from other disciplines. “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner, actress Amy Ryan, artist Lesley Dill, “Brain Pickings” founder Maria Popova, composer Mohammed Fairouz and Ruth Reichl each did their part. Fairouz translated from Arabic a one-stanza poem by Mahmoud Darkish, named it “Lullaby” and tapped Carla Dirlikov to sing it completely unamplified. Weiner said before reading “The Moose” by Elizabeth Bishop, “It’s a little bit long. You should be prepared for that.” Such caution seemed unwarranted given the silence in the auditorium. Afterward, Spektor allowed, “I think people who love poetry just have an optimism and a desire to see the beauty in the world. They are already more inclined to be supportive people. I don’t think you’re going to find a lot of a——s who love poetry.” She added, “I grew up in the Bronx and it would make me so happy to see those poems on the subway. You read a poem and it opens you up. It kind of tunes you to a channel and then you’re more likely to notice poetic things about other things that happen to you throughout the day.” Writing and recording new songs, Spektor still finds her own poetry above ground in the city. “A lot of the time I’m writing, walking the streets. I find New York endlessly inspiring with the amount of stories unfolding around you. You’re basically always in a tempest. If you get into the right state of mind, you’re in the center of the tempest. It’s peaceful and your feet are walking so there’s a rhythm. You just naturally hear melodies and see images that make you think of words. I don’t know who writes without walking.” At work on projects for the Dutch National Opera, the Pittsburgh Opera, the Washington National Opera and a symphony for the Abu Dhabi Music Festival, Fairouz sees music as a borderless form of poetry. “All cultures have music and it’s unifying. It serves a certain utilitarian purpose – to march off to war, to serenade one’s loved ones, to mourn the dead. But what is much more organic or elemental is that the human voice is a muscle,” he said. “We never ever hear about people talking about if swimming is unique to a certain culture, or is soccer unique to a certain culture.” Fairouz continued, “The ultimate answer to any culture whether it’s in the Arab world or rural America that says our culture is at risk, is ‘No, you actually can be part of the whole and not lose any of your individual reason for being.’ If you separate a line in Bach, you can listen to it and it’s gorgeous. The thing that makes counterpoint unbelievable is that when you combine it, you prefer to listen to it combined because it’s better. That’s where the world is headed whether people like it or not.” 2016-04-28 22:56 Rosemary Feitelberg
4 Feel Like This: Sam Johnson on Luis Garay’s Maneries 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, performance-based artist Sam Johnson shares his perspective on Maneries by Luis Garay in the […] 2016-04-29 00:14 By
5 Mechanical Glamour - Magazine - Art in America Sequined UGG boots. Advertisement Leonardo da Vinci’s unrealized design for a sequin machine is an oddity in the history of innovations that make erstwhile luxuries more accessible. Sequins are plastered on everything: flip flops, cotton T-shirts, canvas tote bags, sneakers— even Ugg boots. I became obsessed with sequined Uggs at the height of their popularity in 2011. I didn’t want to wear them, but I’d consider them from a distance. I’d stare at ads on subway platforms and admire the humorless earnestness of the high-low, pretty-ugly mashup. Did sequins camouflage the awkwardness of the Ugg boot or accentuate its simple shape? Did affixing reflective spangles to an otherwise schlumpy boot result in all-purpose, one-shoe-fits-all, budget-friendly footwear that you could wear to a black-tie event or to your local bodega? Three years later, in 2014, I stood in front of Ambrogio Bevilacqua’s mixed-medium Madonna and Child (1495) at the Sforza Castle in Milan. Mary’s dress is made of hundreds of hand- stitched sequins, some of the oldest that exist in Europe. Much of the surface is woven from gold and silver threads, including Mary’s hair; only the figures’ skin is painted. Staring at the work, I imagined the painstaking process of making those tiny disks before the task had been automated. The ubiquity of sequins today as a campy add-on to just about anything makes it hard to believe that five hundred years ago they would have been made of gilded metal and featured on a delicate work representing Jesus and Mary. The contrast between the artisanal techniques of the past and the mass production of today is the kind of distinction that provides fodder for “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” an exhibition opening this month at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. With over 120 pieces, the show looks back to the beginning of haute couture in the late nineteenth century, when it was a luxury alternative to clothes produced by sewing machines or in factories. As curator Andrew Bolton said at a press preview in February, haute couture depends on a binary opposition between the handmade and the mass-produced —and yet in reality the fashion industry frequently blurs those lines. “Proponents of the hand see it as symbolic of exclusivity, spontaneity, and individuality, while opponents see it as symbolic of elitism, the cult of personality, and the detrimental nostalgia for past craftsmanship,” Bolton said. “Likewise, the proponents of the machine see it as symbolic of progress, democracy, and mass production, while opponents see it as symbolic of inferiority, dehumanization, and one- dimensionality.” “Manus x Machina” presents hand and machine as partners rather than in opposition. While its focus is haute couture, the exhibition seems to offer a critical framework wherein something like glittering Uggs could be discussed alongside Bevilacqua’s sequin- encrusted Madonna and Child. The automation of sequin production has occupied me since I stumbled upon Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing for a sequin-making machine on WikiMedia Commons in late 2012. While the sketch was annotated by Leonardo as “macchina punzonatrice,” Italian historian Carlo Pedretti, who wrote extensive notes about Leonardo’s drawings, translated it as a “puncher device for the production of sequins. " 1 Sitting in my apartment in Brooklyn, I stared at the late fifteenth-century sketch on my computer screen, dumbfounded. I tried interpreting the way the pulleys and ratchet wheels would have worked, where the metal would have been fed, and how you would have cranked the mechanism to punch out the round disks. But I also wondered: Why had celebrated genius Leonardo made a sketch for a device that would produce something as seemingly insignificant as the sequin? Did people wear sequins in the fifteenth century? Was the machine ever made? Initial research seemed to indicate that Leonardo’s drawing had never been more than just a sketch. But I wanted to know more. My obsession with sequins turned into an obsession with Leonardo’s machine. If it had never been made, I wanted to make it, or a version of it. I would adapt his sketch into a sculpture to make sequins one by one, in contrast to how they’re churned out by the thousands per minute today. But I also knew I needed to learn about the sketch and the production of sequins. In 2014 I traveled to Milan, to meet with Leonardo scholars and fashion historians who I hoped would have answers to my questions. My first stop was the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. The seventeenth-century library houses the Codex Atlanticus , a bound set of drawings and writings that Leonardo produced from 1478 to 1519. It’s the largest compendium of its kind, comprising 1,119 pages in twelve volumes, with one hundred pages of writing and a total of 1,750 sketches and drawings devoted to engineering, hydraulics, optics, anatomy, architecture, geometry, and astronomy—including the sketch for the sequin-making machine. When I met him, Biblioteca Ambrosiana curator and Leonardo scholar Pietro Marani wore white gloves as he and his assistants took down a show of Leonardo’s musical instrument drawings from the Codex in a book-filled, dimly lit gallery. I asked him if a machine had ever been built based on the sketch I was researching. “We have no way of knowing,” he said. Furthermore, he explained, it isn’t known if the concept for the design was Leonardo’s own. For centuries, it was assumed that Leonardo had independently arrived at all the ideas in the Codex Atlanticus , but it’s now understood that, while some of the things depicted in the drawings were his inventions, others were copies of or improvements upon what already existed. “Leonardo always invented or modified machines according to the economy or the needs at the time,” Marani said. “He wanted to automate, to reduce the work of man.” Next, I went to Italy’s largest science and technology museum, the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, which houses around sixteen thousand historical objects in a former monastery. In the 1950s, many of Leonardo’s sketches had been translated into models—a hydraulic saw, a spinning machine, a bridge—and the matter-of-fact results were now on view at the museum. There, curator Claudio Giorgione explained that Leonardo’s status had been built up to mythic proportions over centuries. As a result, experts converting the sketches to models had been “too enthusiastic” in their attribution of every design to Leonardo. My research and conversations with several experts in Milan produced no evidence that Leonardo’s sequin machine was ever realized, and there’s probably no way of knowing for certain whether he came up with the idea on his own or duplicated or improved upon someone else’s concept. But I’m sure that Leonardo had sequins on his mind, and the experts I spoke to were confident that he sketched the machine while on retainer for the wealthy Sforza family. The House of Sforza ruled the duchy of Milan in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Duke Ludovico Sforza hired Leonardo in 1482. Leonardo’s job was to design solutions to technical problems in order to make his patrons’ lives easier or more pleasant, whether these innovations pertained to fashion or more practical concerns. Members of the Sforza family often wore sequins; historian Timothy McCall cites poetic descriptions of their sartorial choices: “According to Francesco Filelfo, [the duke] was a star emitting ‘shimmering luster’ who ‘shines brilliantly.’ . .. The ‘flashing and sparkling’ fifteen-year-old Galeazzo Maria Sforza thus seemed to be ‘shining more than the morning stars’ when he moved, according to an anonymous poet. " 2 You can even see Francesco Sforza, Ludovico’s father, wearing sequins in a fifteenth-century portrait. The brilliance of shiny ornaments was associated with fifteenth-century Italian ideals of nobility and the belief in light as a manifestation of the Divine. That’s why it’s likely that the Sforza family commissioned Leonardo’s sketch: sequins were a favored form of bling at the time because they were a symbol of power. The Sforza court in the late fifteenth century was rather like the runways of Milan Fashion Week today—it was where the trends of northern Italy emerged before being adopted by wider swaths of the population. And if Prada, Armani, and Bottega Veneta spawn countless bootlegs now, such counterfeiting occurred in the Renaissance, too, posing an annoying problem for the elite. For example, sequins (known in Italy as magete, sometimes zecchini , and very occasionally bysantini ) were made by well-respected artisans specializing in ars magietarum , or “the art of sequins.” 3 They were supposed to be either gilded or made of silver, but counterfeiters made them from cheaper materials. A 1482 petition issued by the Milanese Goldsmiths Guild denounced craftsmen who harmed the city’s reputation by producing sequins from copper and brass. 4 Makers of fraudulent sequins could be punished—a precursor to arrests and confiscations on New York’s Canal Street for peddling Gucci handbag knockoffs. The petition’s hand-wringing also indicates the high demand for sequins at the time. But even strict legislation couldn’t stop the counterfeiters. In fact, recently analyzed sequins from that period were found to be made of copper. 5 Many artisans also experimented with cheaper versions of precious stones made from tinted glass, crystals, foils, mirrors, and paste. An entire industry expanded around it. “In Milan, ‘the art of making counterfeit gems’ ( l’arte da fare geme contrafacte , according to one quattrocento document) had been practiced since the fourteenth century and received ducal protection and regulation in 1488,” McCall reports. 6 Perhaps while he was waiting for the sequin machine to be realized, Leonardo dabbled too. As McCall notes, “he was particularly interested in ingredients that would augment luster and sheen” to create shiny artificial pearls. 7 The technical innovation, experimentation, and automation we associate with Leonardo can induce knockoffs by making erstwhile luxuries easier to produce. Had Leonardo’s concept become a functioning machine, it would have become exponentially easier for aristocrats in the Sforza court to wear sequins, for better or worse. And eventually, as with everything, they would have been adapted for and worn by many others as well. Andrea Bilics, who founded Italy’s oldest sequin factory in 1946, has witnessed firsthand the technological evolution that has made sequins more accessible. I visited his facility on the outskirts of Milan on a warm day in June 2014, shortly after I’d gone to the library and museum for my research on Leonardo. In the factory’s attic, Bilics showed me the hulking hand-cranked machines that were used in the early days to punch sequins, a task which involved quite a bit of manual labor. He then walked me through a room that was thumping with the repetitive sound of the industrial hole-punchers that make sequins today. Those machines, he told me through a translator, can pump out thousands per minute in long strips or as individual disks in all colors, shapes, and sizes. Even though his company produces sequins in mass quantities, they are still purchased by high-end designers like Donna Karan and Marc Jacobs. Werner Sombart was a German economist who focused on shifts in consumer culture, especially in regard to fashion. In 1902, he wrote: It is the clerk’s greatest pride to wear the same shirts as the wealthy bon vivant, the greatest pride of the servant girl to don the same jacket as her mistress, of the butcher’s lady to own the same lush lingerie as the privy councillor’s wife. . . a trait that seems to be as old as social differentiation itself, a yearning that has never been so splendidly satisfied as in our age, an age in which technology no longer imposes any restrictions on contrefaçon , in which there is no longer so sumptuous a fabric nor so intricate a style that they cannot be imitated in pinchbeck straight away at a tenth of the original price. 8 Whether it was Leonardo’s machine or Bilics’s upgrades that made sequin production easier, these examples illustrate how the democratization of fashion is inextricably linked to mechanization. The history of the sequin exemplifies this trajectory. Thousands of years before the Renaissance, gold sequinlike disks, or coins, were sewn on King Tut’s burial garment to ensure he’d be financially secure in the afterlife. Even though sequined garments were worn during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, the King Tut discovery in the 1920s popularized them in the flapper era. Sequins were made of metal at that time, but technological innovation took off in the 1930s, when electroplated gelatin yielded a lighter version. The only problem was that they’d melt if they got wet or warm. Herbert Lieberman, owner of Algy Trimmings Co., then one of the largest sequin producers in the United States, worked with Eastman Kodak to develop acetate sequins, which reflect light beautifully but are breakable. In 1952, the DuPont company invented Mylar and Lieberman adopted it: Mylar could surround colored plastic sequins and protect them in the washing machine. Eventually, acetate was abandoned for the more durable and cost-effective, but less sparkly, option that is still in use, vinyl plastic. 9 With each innovation in production, the shiny disk became less of a prized possession and more of a commonplace thing—a shift in cultural currency. Today, fashion writer Emilia Petrarca has observed, it’s satisfying to see how sequins can toggle between mass-produced ubiquity at Old Navy and the exclusivity of runway looks by designers like Marni, Prada, and Sonia Rykiel, 10 thus disrupting any attempt at categorization. As Bolton, curator of “Manus x Machina,” said at the press preview, haute couture and ready-to- wear are increasingly embracing each other’s practices and techniques. He cited a Chanel autumn/winter 2014–15 wedding dress as a perfect encapsulation of the intersection between hand and machine. The design of its train was sketched by hand, then altered with software to make it look pixelated. The dress is made from scuba knit—a fully synthetic material—that was painted by hand, studded with rhinestones using a machine, and then embroidered by hand with pearls and gemstones. Over the 450 hours of work that went into producing the garment, hand and machine worked in tandem. Karl Lagerfeld, Bolton said, described the result as “haute couture without the couture.” The industrial reproduction of clothing created confusion about how to parse the distinctions between high and low fashion. The collision of these worlds dissolved more rigid tropes, making it harder to tell the difference between a chintzy, inexpensive prom dress from the mall and a one-of-a-kind couture gown. We’re rightly outraged when Forever 21 exploits small independent designers by stealing their work. We grimace when it knocks off a high-end design. 11 But what about when the script is flipped and Hedi Slimane trolls Forever 21 and offers up a $3,490 Saint Laurent Paris dress that’s almost identical to one already on the floor of Forever 21 for under $50? 12 Depending on who you talk to, the industry is either adapting or imploding. “Democratization [of fashion] signified a lessening of the marks of social distance, a muting of the aristocratic principle of conspicuous consumption, along with the new criteria of slenderness, youth, sex appeal, convenience, and discretion,” writes historian Gilles Lipovetsky. He goes on to say that over the last one hundred years fashion has not eliminated signs of social status, but diminished their importance by prioritizing personality. 13 Fashion is no longer about high and low, authentic or fake, but about being distinctive and alluring. Frequently, clothing is made in unsustainable, environmentally harmful and gluttonous ways. Usually it can be traced back to the automation we’ve embraced—so we should always be aware of what and how we consume. That said, greater access to all kinds of clothing is liberating. As Lipovetsky notes, when you can’t tell what’s “real” or “authentic” and what’s “fake” or a “copy,” those categories lose their power to maintain their restrictive boundries. When I walk down the street in New York, I see established hierarchies falling apart. What does it matter if your sequins are gilded copper or real silver or your mink coat is authentic or a knockoff if you like how you look? Take, for example, the clothing designer Dapper Dan and his iconic 1980s allover print Louis Vuitton and MCM outfits. Worn by music celebrities like Bobby Brown, Salt-N- Pepa, and Eric B. & Rakim, these customized pieces weren’t made by Louis Vuitton or MCM. Rather, they were inspired by the status symbols created by those designers, adapted for another audience, made to order, and eventually confiscated by order of now Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor for copyright issues. 14 Among Dapper Dan’s avid followers, his clothes wound up with more influential social currency and street cred than the status symbols that originally influenced him. Plus, his allover prints came full circle to influence those designers’ collections today. We default to thinking there’s “real” and “not real,” but there’s also a different kind of real. Dapper Dan made clothes that were derived from recognizable luxury brands. He created a new real, and with that he brought forth a fresh form of legitimacy. From where I stand, those derivatives aren’t inferior or static—they contribute equally to the conversation. And that conversation is about self-expression. It’s about non-gender-specific shape-shifting, about mixed-up invention and reinvention. It’s about not differentiating between basic and fancy. It’s about being made well and sustainably by a reliable source. It’s about amusing wearers and their friends. It’s about high mimicking low and low mimicking high in a state of cannibalism and anarchy. Like it or not, that’s where we are in 2016. As I work toward realizing Leonardo’s design for a sequin-making machine in my own way, I’ve come to hold a mythologized view of this Renaissance man. I want to believe that, even in the fifteenth century, he would have surmised the automation instigated through his sequin-making machine would bring forth a radical shift in cultural currency. I’d also like to believe that Leonardo would respect today’s stylish bricoleur who, like him, is filled with the urge to experiment, play, and cross boundaries. With the shiny disks I churn out from my yet-unrealized, Leonardo- inspired sculpture, I’ll create my own knockoff version of sequin-covered Ugg boots and wear them proudly. I think he’d be into it. “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 5–Aug. 14. 2016-04-29 12:12 by Sarah
6 amey kandalgaonkar's dark deco series imagines noir- shanghai architect-turned-photographer amey kandalgaonkar transforms shanghai buildings into noir- influenced stills in his latest series, ‘dark deco’. shot during the day using ND filters, visually striking art deco structures are highlighted against a moving sky. final effects were tweaked in post-production, resulting in a collection of evocative shots filled with mystery and darkness. 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. 2016-04-29 08:45 Amey K
7 Call for Applicants: Walker Art Center Mildred Friedman Design Fellowship 2016–2017 The Walker is pleased to announce that its 2016- 2017 Mildred Friedman Design Fellowship is now open for applications. APPLICATIONS ARE DUE: MAY 23rd Since 1980, the Walker’s Design department has maintained a graphic design fellowship program that provides recent graduates the opportunity to work in a professional design studio environment. Selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants, fellows come from graphic design programs throughout the United States and abroad representing a diverse range of design programs, such as Art Center College of Design, California Institute of the Arts, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Eastern Michigan University, Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, NC State University, Rhode Island School of Design, Royal College of Art, Werkplaats Typografie, and Yale University, among many others. WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR: Ideal candidates will be firmly grounded in visual design principles and the print design process with some experience in interaction design. In addition to print-based projects such as exhibition identities, wayfinding, and collateral materials, this year’s fellow will also work on select online publishing initiatives. The fellow will join an accomplished team of professionals known for creating industry-leading work. Immersed in the Design department, which includes Editorial, Photography, and Videography, fellows gain a deeper understanding of design, work on projects with rich, interesting content, and are expected to produce work to the highest standards of design excellence. See samples of previous fellow’s work here and in this video highlighting 75 years of Walker design. The fellows will also be key contributors to the Design department’s blog, The Gradient —so an interest in the discourse of graphic design and contemporary culture is highly desirable. Fellows are salaried, full-time employees and are involved in all aspects of the design process, including client meetings and presentations through production and development. Duration of fellowship: September 1, 2016 – August 31, 2017 HOW TO APPLY: For consideration, submit the following materials by PDF attachments only: 1. a letter of interest; 2. a resume, including names and contact information of 3 references; 3. a PDF portfolio containing 8–10 examples of graphic design work (total file size can be no larger than 19 MB, otherwise your file will be rejected). Email application packets to [email protected]. If you do not receive an automatic confirmation of your application, please send another note to the same email address, without any attachments. No phone calls please. For more information, visit our fellowship page. Also check out the Walker’s job listing. April 23, 2016 2016-04-29 11:06 By
8 MVRDV + COBE open ragnarock music museum in denmark in roskilde, a danish city located 30 kilometers west of copenhagen, the collaborative team of MVRDV and COBE has opened a gold-studded music-themed museum. named ‘ragnarock’, the 3,100 square meter institution acts as the gateway to a larger regeneration of the surrounding factories. the transformed site will form a music oriented district that also includes a high school and the headquarters of the roskilde festival. envisioned as a museum of pop, rock, and youth culture, the cantilevered structure also houses an auditorium, various administrative facilities, and a bar. the institution plugs into the adjacent factory buildings, standing on four legs which take visitors up into the museum and auditorium above. internally, bright red studs contrast the raw concrete, distinguishing between the new and the old. externally, the golden aluminum façade pays homage to flamboyant lead singers, while the vivid red interior is reminiscent of a guitar case’s velvet lining. ‘ragnarock is the translation of rock music into architecture; the energy, the defiance, the statement. loud and in your face!‘ says MVRDV founding partner jacob van rijs, ‘it’s not just the looks though. the relationship between ragnarock and the original halls creates spaces that will breed a new generation of rock stars in a hugely creative environment’. the design seeks to immerse visitors in the life of a rock star, combining a traditional museum format with immersive exhibitions. a red carpet greets visitors, while elevators symbolize the rise to fame, bringing guests up to a performance space suspended in the air. the inevitable fall is represented by the decent towards the bar at the lower level. the building itself also becomes an stage, with performances either facing the large public plaza on one side, or the refurbished industrial halls on the other. the cantilevered structure also houses an auditorium for live performances the design seeks to immerse visitors in the life of a rock star ‘ragnarock’ is located in roskilde, a danish city located 30 kilometers west of copenhagen 2016-04-29 08:00 Philip Stevens
9 Clearing the Haze: Prologue to Postmodern Graphic Design Education through Sheila de Bretteville Author’s preface: At the outset, this project was defined as an intensive effort to examine and reassess the work of Shelia Levrant de Bretteville. The initial motivation was driven by the connection of the rise of feminist voices in design, the Woman’s Building, postmodern design, and experimental pedagogy. We recognize that many female designers worked […] 2016-04-29 09:56 By and
10 EU Campaign Dear Friends, I’m sure you are also following with horror the rightwards drift and anti-EU sentiment brewing across Europe. The Dutch referendum should be the final wake-up call, alerting people to the real risk of the UK’s EU referendum resulting in a victory for Leave. The official ‘Remain’ campaign feels lame and is lacking in passion. It also lacks an active drive to get voters registered – and with the deadline already falling two weeks before the referendum, this should be an urgent priority. I want to get involved and actively campaign. In particular, I want to work towards maximizing turnout among younger voters by focusing on the first, crucial step: voter registration – the deadline for which is June 7! So anyone who hasn’t registered before this date has no chance of having a say, no matter how strongly they feel about the issue. So the really crucial date is June 7. Everyone’s grannies registered their vote long ago, but students no longer get automatically registered by their unis. This is because of a new law brought in by the Conservatives that makes it possible for them to disenfranchise up to 800,000 students, who as a group tend to move around a lot more and so drop off the voter register easily. I feel that we have reached a critical moment that could prove to be a turning point for Europe as we know and enjoy it – one that might result in a cascade of problematic consequences and political fall-out. Firstly, the weakening of the EU is a goal being actively pursued by strongmen like Vladimir Putin and European parties on the far-right. Brexit could effectively spell the end of the EU. It’s a flawed and problematic institution, but on the whole it stands for a democratic worldview, human rights and favours cooperation over confrontation. It could prove to be a one-in-a-generation moment. Can you imagine the years of renegotiations for undoing treaties, and all the negativity that would surround that. In the past weeks myself and assistants at my London and Berlin studios and Between Bridges worked on these texts and designs. Please feel free to share these posters, they work as print your own PDFs, or on social media, or in any other way you can think of. I consider them open- source, you can take my name tag off if more appropriate. Let’s hope for the best - but hope may not be enough Wolfgang download all posters as .pdf for home-printing HERE download all posters as .zip for social media sharing link to share this site on social media: http://tillmans.co.uk/campaign-eu 2016-04-29 09:56 Wolfgang Tillmans
11 Music legend Prince dies at age 57 Prince, a multitalented musician who came out of the Minneapolis scene and changed the world of music forever, has died at age 57. According to a statement from Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson, “on April 21, 2016, at about 9:43 am, sheriff’s deputies responded to a medical call at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen. When deputies and medical personnel arrived, they found an unresponsive adult male in the elevator. First responders attempted to provide lifesaving CPR, but were unable to revive the victim. He was pronounced deceased at 10:07 am. He has been identified as Prince Rogers Nelson (57) of Chanhassen.” We are continuing to follow this story and will add updates as they become available. One of the greatest stars in rock history, Prince bridged rock and R&B to fuse a “Minneapolis Sound” that helped define the music of the 1980s. With over 100 million albums sold worldwide, Prince is one of the best-selling artists of all time, widely cited as an influence by artists from the worlds of pop, R&B, rock, hip-hop, and beyond. Born Prince Rogers Nelson in Minneapolis in 1958, Prince remained a lifelong Minnesotan and had a profound impact on the community here. With the hit movie and soundtrack Purple Rain , he turned First Avenue from a hot local club to an international music landmark. Artists including Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis went from Prince collaborations to performing and producing chart-topping hits that spread the “Minneapolis Sound” across the musical landscape. Prince’s genius seemed to arrive fully formed, almost as if by magic: he released his debut album ( For You , 1978) at the age of 19, and its eponymous follow-up, released the following year, made him a breakout success with instant classics like “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and “I Feel For You.” He wrote, played, sang, and produced the entire collection himself, adding to the sense that somehow lightning had struck in Minneapolis. It had, but recently released compilations like Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound (Numero Group) and Twin Cities Funk & Soul (Secret Stash Records) shone a long-overdue spotlight on the small but tight-knit and inventive local R&B scene that spawned Prince. Once Prince was out of the gate, there was no stopping him. Prince was made for the ’80s, and the ’80s were made for him. Seriously funky but also pop-friendly, Prince was at the forefront of artists who deployed synthesizers and samplers in conjunction with traditional rock instrumentation to create music that felt completely liberated — sexy and fun. “Sexy” was part of Prince’s playbook from day one: he knew how to tease his fans into a frenzy on record, on stage, and, crucially, on screen. His provocative antics earned priceless condemnation from the voices of conventional morality (“Darling Nikki” inspired Tipper Gore to found the PMRC ), and Prince — dressing as flamboyantly as the decade demanded, with a regal flair he might have learned from James Brown — played his bad-boy/pretty-boy role to the hilt. Purple Rain represented Prince in full flower. While some fans and critics argue that Sign “O” the Times (1987) represents an even greater artistic triumph, Purple Rain ‘s vast commercial success was not incidental to its epochal achievement. “When Doves Cry” epitomized the unique power of Prince; at decade’s end, critic Dave Marsh wrote that it “may have been the most influential single record of the 80s.” A stripped-down, percussive track with a vocal that’s so understated it’s sometimes half-spoken and — to the astonishment of music insiders who thought they knew how to make a record — no bass track, “When Doves Cry” seemed to break all the rules of pop songcraft, and yet Prince turned it into such an intoxicating single that it shot to number one for five weeks, holding even Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” at bay. Simultaneously, Albert Magnoli’s gloriously shameless film defined Prince’s personal mythology and made him one of the greatest pop icons of a decade that had more than its share. Set in Minneapolis, the film depicted First Avenue as a hot spot on the order of Studio 54; instead of driving along Highway 1 as they might have done in an L. A. movie, Prince and his costar Apollonia hopped on a purple motorcycle and cruised out into the Minneapolis suburbs to get “purified in the waters of Lake Minnetonka.” To this day, touring acts are visibly thrilled to discover that First Ave actually is a great club, that it actually does look like that (okay, not the dressing rooms), and that it remains the center of a thriving music scene. Though he never had another smash album as big as the Purple Rain soundtrack, Prince remained a dominant commercial force throughout the ’80s and early ’90s, producing #1 hits ranging from the hard-flirting “Kiss” (1986) to the novelty “Batdance” (1989) to the sparkling “Cream” (1991) while cycling through various band configurations and sounds. The early ’90s marked a crucial point of transition in Prince’s career. He formed a fresh band — the New Power Generation — and released music that increasingly delved into hip-hop, meeting with a mixed reception. If some fans started to sense an identity crisis, they were affirmed by Prince’s 1993 decision to change his name to the unpronounceable glyph (“Love Symbol #2”) that had served as the title to the 1992 album ironically containing the single “My Name is Prince.” The 1993 release of a two-disc greatest hits collection also served to cap a remarkable run on the charts that ended with 1994’s #3 hit “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World,” Prince’s last single to date to crack the American top ten. The mid-90s marked the end of Prince’s relationship with his label Warner Bros. — after releasing a quick series of low-selling albums to fulfill his contractual obligations, he broke from the label in 1996 — and the beginning of his famously tumultuous relationship with the Internet. The iconoclastic perfectionist saw the Internet’s potential as a tool to allow him to independently manage his own fandom and distribute his own music, but he also grew increasingly concerned about the danger of having his material freely bootlegged. Prince was the first major artist to release an album on the Internet (1997’s Crystal Ball ) and from 2001-2006 ran the pioneering NPG Music Club to sell his music online by membership; but following the closure of that site, he became increasingly negative about the Internet, complaining that other sites (notably, YouTube) were benefiting by unauthorized circulation of his material. In an infamous 2010 statement, the online pioneer declared that “the Internet’s completely over.” Releasing music both independently and through various short-term deals with major labels, in the late 90s and the first decade of the 2000s Prince released a flood of new material ranging from the obscure (the instrumental N. E. W. S. in 2003) to the consciously commercial (1999’s Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic and 2006’s 3121 ). He reclaimed his given name when his Warner Bros. publishing contract ended in 2000, and his widely-praised Super Bowl halftime show in 2007 proved to the largest possible audience that he was still a fiery live performer. In the 2010s, Prince stepped back into the public eye in a way rarely seen since the ’90s. He formed another new band — the all-female 3RDEYEGIRL — and played rapturously reviewed shows with them at venues ranging from Minnesota casinos to London living rooms. He “took over” an entire episode of Arsenio Hall’s talk show , and duetted with Zooey Deschanel on a new song he premiered on a post-Super-Bowl episode of New Girl. Perhaps most surprisingly, Prince re-signed with Warner Bros. Media coverage of the deal focused on the promised new music and Purple Rain reissue, but a telling detail of the press release is that the deal gave Prince ownership of his Warner Bros. masters. The artist who wore the word SLAVE on his cheek during a 1993 legal battle with his label was a free man. Most recently, Prince released a pair of HITNRUN albums recorded at Paisley Park, and was performing solo “Piano & a Microphone” shows at venues around the world. He debuted the format with two intimate performances at Paisley Park in January. “I forgot,” he said as he momentarily became overcome at one show, “that sometimes music is emotional.” He was writing a memoir , which was expected to be published next fall. Artists associated with Prince are still active. Revolution drummer Bobby Z holds an annual benefit concert at First Avenue, childhood friend and collaborator André Cymone just released his first new music in decades , NPG drummer Michael Bland is a busy performer and producer…the list goes on. A new generation of local performers are exemplifying the ’80s-era spirit of cross-genre fertilization and collaboration, now with a strong and adventurous hip-hop scene that’s produced the area’s best-known current artists. Prince remained aware and supportive of what’s going on. In a classic Prince moment, he showed up backstage when the local supergroup GAYNGS played First Ave in 2010. Prince picked up a guitar and played a little, but ultimately declined to take the stage; some reported hearing him make a comment to the effect of, “Looks like they’ve got it under control.” Prince’s legacy in Minnesota is multilayered — from his early collaborations with neighborhood bands, to his towering hits that put Minneapolis on the world’s music map, to the venues he founded (Paisley Park and the former downtown club Glam Slam), to the enduring contributions of musicians he played with, to the example the Minneapolis Sound set for the dynamic scene of today. Perhaps most importantly, though, Prince’s music is evidence — to the world, and to Minnesotans ourselves — of the diversity of our state, and of our music. When you listen to Prince, you hear the influences of all the artists he grew up with: black, white, funky, rocking, groovy, prickly. It’s not the sound of Minnesota’s lonesome prairie, it’s the sound of our dense cities. This utopian artist proved that music truly can break barriers — if u want it 2. Portions of this article were previously published here . We’re gathering your thoughts: What do Prince and his music mean to you? Visit this page to send us your thoughts and memories of Prince . 2016-04-29 09:56 Jay Gabler
12 LAN architecture wraps contemporary town hall in france with double façade paris-based firm LAN architecture has just completed a new town hall in saint-jacques de la lande, near the capital of britanny, rennes. the approach to the scheme has created an efficient and contemporary landmark for the city center and at the same time, the layout is a nod to the long architectural history of city halls. the building is wrapped in two façades the building is based on two squares, the exterior envelope is defined by two layers; each one responding to a different function. the outer layer is wrapped in steel and simultaneously provides a protection from the sun and the second, ‘thicker’ façade for thermal performance. the architecture of each side of the building creates a specific relationship with each bordering street the approach to the interior revolves around overlapping spaces and capitalizing on transparency, light and reflection. ‘the architectural project is based on an image of unity, reassurance, and clarity that fosters a strong sense of identity without falling into the cliché of emblematic representations of power.’ comments the design team at LAN. as a result, the building acts as a catalyst for social interactions. the interior was developed as a light-filled space with overlapping spaces wrapped in wood slats, a fluid sense of circulation enables people to naturally move around from one office to the full and the empty spaces surrounding the central hall make it natural and intuitive for users to move from one office to another. the hall’s double height seeks to connect the core of the building with the secondary entrance from the upper square. a fluid sense of circulation enables people to naturally move around from one office to the other the approach to the scheme has created an efficient and contemporary landmark for the commune light is filtered through to the lower teaching rooms 2016-04-29 06:15 Natasha Kwok
13 Alternate Senses of Tone and Pulse: An Interview with C. Spencer Yeh For Sound Horizon, our series of free in-gallery music performances, we’ve invited critic and Tiny Mix Tapes editor Marvin Lin to share his perspective on each installment of this three-part program. While his first two pieces were informed responses to work by musicians Mary Halvorson and Vicky Chow / Tristan Perich, he concludes with an in-person […] 2016-04-29 09:56 By
14 diego sferrazza fargo armchair & two-seat couch for spHaus minimal and elegant, the ‘fargo’ series armchair and two-seat couch are precisely executed furnishings by italian industrial designer diego sferrazza for spHaus. intended for use indoors or out, a curvaceous stainless steel frame supports a body of dry-flex polyurethane — both durable and hydrophobic. removable fabric and leather covers are available for both models. fabric and leather coverings are available for both the armchair and couch 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. 2016-04-29 04:05 www.designboom
15 Trevor Noah Discusses the Met Ball, the Daily Show and Life’s Lessons He still attended the event, though, and found himself rubbing elbows with the movers and shakers in entertainment and fashion. “Last year, nobody knew me,” Noah said during a fitting for this year’s gala at his West Side office. “The first time you go, you’re afraid. You don’t want to touch anything or bump into anyone. You’re looking at the exhibits and then Beyoncé and Jay Z walk by. So you start introducing yourself to people you already know. “Beyoncé, it’s Trevor, nice to meet you. How do you spell that? Is that French? Oui, non? It’s not normal.” Hanging out with musical royalty is a far cry from Noah’s modest upbringing in Johannesburg, where he was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother, and came to terms with his mixed race heritage — which has become a recurring theme for his comedy routines. On this day, the 32-year-old is being fitted by a master tailor from Ermenegildo Zegna, which created a midnight blue made-to-measure three- piece suit for him to wear to the Metropolitan Museum of Art gala. Upon entering his office at “The Daily Show” studios with its exposed brick walls, leather chairs and memorabilia cases, he immediately turns on four television sets tuned to different channels — potential material for that night’s show — as well as a stereo that plays soft blues tunes in the background. The “functional, gritty” office includes a workout machine that he can jump onto and do some upper or lower body resistance work when he gets a free minute or two. Hopefully by the end of the day, those stolen moments will add to 30 or 40 minutes of working out since Noah is too busy to make it to a traditional gym. Free time is a luxury Noah doesn’t have much of these days. In addition to “The Daily Show,” the comedian still keeps up a jam-packed schedule of stand-up shows around the U. S. and internationally, is writing a book and has a live-in girlfriend, the model Jordyn Taylor. Although his time for the fitting is limited, Noah is gracious, funny and endearing as he tries on the ensemble with both a navy and a white shirt, a blue or black formal tie and two different pocket squares. While his final choice was still up in the air, Noah was leaning toward the navy shirt and tie. “It’s more dramatic,” he said. And it’s different from what he wears on television everyday. For “The Daily Show,” he has a contract with Tiger of Sweden, which outfits him in his wardrobe of choice — suits. But he’d been exposed to the Zegna brand during a visit to the company’s store in Dubai and the relationship blossomed from there. “I don’t commonly wear a three-piece,” he said. “I’m used to wearing a suit more casually. I’ll wear them with sneakers. When you wear a three-piece and you say, ‘Oh this? I just threw it on,’ people know you didn’t.” He said growing up in South Africa, he always wore a suit as a uniform to school, hence the love affair. “I grew up wearing suits and I’m comfortable in them,” he said. “I actually find it liberating. When you grow up poor, you don’t have a lot of options when it comes to clothing, and wearing a uniform was the equalizer. You could never spot the poor kid or the rich kid — we were all the same.” And at the Met Gala, “We’ll all be equal again — Zegna put me on an equal level,” he said. But inspecting the custom Trevor Noah label on the inside of the jacket, he added: “This destroys the re-gifting options.” Although Zegna doesn’t have a table at the gala, it will be in attendance since it is dressing several other male celebrities including Paul Rudd, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Future. Even though Noah admitted he doesn’t know much about fashion, he joked: “I like clothes. I think they’re a good invention. Things get interesting without clothes.” And he admits to having Champagne taste when it comes to his wardrobe. “I have two weaknesses,” he said. “First, I have expensive taste without knowing it. If you put a row of T-shirts in front of me, I pick the $80 one. It’s a curse.” The second? “Women’s shoes,” he said. Although that might raise an eyebrow or two, Noah said it stems from growing up with a single mom who “loved shoes but couldn’t afford them. So we went to yard sales and church sales and she was very good at picking the good shoes. I learned from her. I can pick a women’s shoe quicker than a man’s shoe.” Now that he’s hit the big time, does Noah ply his mom with Christian Louboutins? “No, she has too many shoes now,” he said. “And besides, she always said if you buy shoes for a woman, she’ll use them to walk away.” Stories such as these will undoubtedly be part of Noah’s book, due out in November. He described it as a “collection of stories about growing up in South Africa” that will include some “fun anecdotes and some painful stories — the pieces of my life that have built the foundation for who I am today.” When he’s not jotting down memories, he continues to charge ahead with his “Daily Show” hosting duties and his stand-up routine. “Stand-up is not a job for me, it’s taking time off. It’s a great way to see America.” He said that until he started traveling the country with his comedy show, he didn’t realize the nuances of all the different cities and towns. “Stand-up is great for that, you travel and meet people and you get to eat in different places. In some places, they just refuse to eat healthy, but that just adds to the texture.” Noah tries to lead a healthy life but that doesn’t help solve his most vexing problem. “I have a big ass,” he said, “and it doesn’t correlate with the shape of the rest of my body. But where God cursed me with a big ass, he blessed me as a sample size on top. And then this face…” he said, admiring himself in a full-length mirror before laughing. But Noah is more than just a handsome face. Although his chosen field is comedy, his childhood experiences in apartheid South Africa make him a complex character. “My life has been funny, yes, but there’s a lot of funny in pain,” he said. “And my life hasn’t always been a joke — but I still find ways to laugh.” 2016-04-29 04:01 Jean E
16 £18M Lucian Freud Family Portrait Heads Christie’s Defining British Art Sale Related Venues Christie's Artists Lucian Freud Lord Frederic Leighton Frederic Leighton Christie’s has revealed three stunning highlights by Lucian Freud , Lord Frederic Leighton , and Sir Joshua Reynolds from its upcoming June 30 “ Defining British Art ” Evening Sale in London which will mark the launch of the auction house’s 250th Anniversary Celebrations. The three major figurative paintings, all from major private collections, include Lucian Freud ’s “Ib and Her Husband” 1992, Lord Frederic Leighton ’s “Golden Hours” 1864, and “Portrait of Lucy Long, Mrs George Hardinge” by Sir Joshua Reynolds, P. R. A. Lucian Freud ’s intimate family portrait is being offered with an estimate in the region of £18 million, Lord Frederic Leighton ’s masterpiece of British Aestheticism, appearing at auction for the first time in 100 years, has an estimate of £3-5 million, and the Sir Joshua Reynolds an estimate of £2-3 million. These three paintings will be included in a Loan Exhibition presenting outstanding British art works that have been handled by Christie’s in the last 250 years. The “Defining British Art: Loan Exhibition” will open free to the public from June 17 to July 15. Commenting on the sale, Jussi Pylkkänen, Global President of Christie’s International, said: “On the night of 30 June here in London we will hold a landmark sale of major paintings and sculpture to celebrate our 250th year.” “The auction will be the first sale of its kind to span four centuries of great British painting from Sir Joshua Reynolds to Frederic, Lord Leighton and Lucian Freud. Our specialists from across the globe have worked together to curate what promises to be a fascinating overview of the very best of British Art.” For more information visit the Christie’s website here 2016-04-29 03:08 Nicholas Forrest
17 Q&A: James Borynack, Chairman & CEO, Findlay Galleries Related Venues Wally Findlay Galleries International, Inc. Wally Findlay (left) & French post-impressionist artist Édouard Cortès/ Archives Founded in 1870 in Kansas City as Findlay Art Rooms and renamed the Findlay Galleries after expanding to Chicago and beyond, the venerable art dealer was split into two in the 1930s as the result of a family falling out. Now, with Wally Findlay Galleries having acquired David Findlay Jr. Gallery, the two are once again one. Last year, David B Findlay Jr. approached James Borynack, chairman and CEO of Findlay Galleries, to explore a possible merger. David Jr. died before it could be realized. But Borynack, who has a long history with the Wally Findlay Galleries, having worked there as an executive before buying and owning it from 1980 through 1985, selling it back to the family and becoming owner again in 1998, finalized the deal this year. He shares his story with BLOUIN ARTINFO. You were a longtime employee and executive of the company when you acquired the Wally Findlay Galleries in 1998. Could you share the details of this development? I joined WFG in 1972, and by 1980 acquired the New York Gallery as a franchise from the parent company, Wally Findlay Galleries International, with an option to acquire the other five galleries in Palm Beach, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Paris, and Tokyo. However, by 1985 the parent company was moving in a different direction with its representation of art and I sold WFG New York back to Mr. Findlay. That same year I joined Phillips Son & Neal, now Phillips Auction House, as its North American President. When Wally died in 1996, his estate approached me about a potential sale of the business, and after considerable evaluation, I acquired the business for the second time, closing the transaction in 1998. David B. Findlay Jr. approached you for a merger last year though his family didn’t know about it. Could you share the story? David (Jr) and I had been casually acquainted for more than 35 Years. When it became a very real possibility that we might move Wally Findlay Galleries into the same building as his gallery, I called David to ask if he had any objections. His perfect response was, “I think it’s great, we need more Findlays in the building.” Ever the gentleman! A few weeks later he stopped by WFG on 57th Street and we opened a dialogue about merging the galleries with the acquisition of David Findlay Jr Gallery by Wally Findlay Galleries. I have known the Findlay family of art dealers throughout my 44 years in the art business. I believe David felt I had the capacity and foresight to make a steady and successful merger of their 34-year history of specializing in American art with our expertise in a mix of European, Modern and global contemporaries. At 82, David was thinking about the next phase for the continuation of his gallery’s distinguished reputation in the art world. Needless to say, he was also eager to see that his daughter and partner in business was happy in her continuation as Director. Unfortunately in early September, David died peacefully in his sleep and his well-laid- out plans never got to the family table. What was the reaction of Lee Findlay Potter, daughter of David Jr., to the proposed merger? Lee was somewhat surprised to hear about her father’s discussions with me when she and I first talked. Unaware that David had kept our discussions to himself, I believed a family representative might contact me to further the acquisition of his gallery. When I heard in confidence that Lee was considering her options with regard to how to move forward after David’s passing, I reached out to her. Things happen for a reason. It is quite obvious that there was full support for Lee to complete the discussion and we all agreed on every aspect of the acquisition and merger. In regard to addressing concerns, we put considerable effort into working through integration-related questions and were able to agree on a clear integration and growth plan. Employees left who had to and others are in business as usual. The gallery is one again though the ownership is no longer with the family. Would you like the name to reflect the change? It may seem unusual, but as we discussed I have owned Wally Findlay Galleries twice. The first time was from 1980-1985. The second time began in 1998 and will continue until a very long time from now when it will pass to my family. Though we may be the second family to steer the business, it will always be Findlay Galleries. With 146 continuous years in the art business, there’s no need to reinvent a winning marriage. Lee Findlay Potter, daughter and senior colleague of her father, David Jr, will retain the position of Director and Artist Liaison, focusing on the development of new artists and estates. This will be in addition to her ongoing and outstanding camaraderie with our current stable that she has been so instrumental in developing. Lee is a highly recognized name in the scope of American Art and our collaboration is paramount for the future of Findlay Galleries. What are your plans for the gallery now? Our plans are to continue with most of the artists we currently represent and to increase our emphasis on building our contemporary stable of artists and estates. Importantly, we will continue to build and represent our collection of period works from the 19th and 20th centuries, including the masterworks of European and American artists. Our unity will enable Findlay Galleries to provide a level of diversification that has been a mounting call from the many thousands of both our collectors and potential first-time purchasers. We are now prepared to provide those options to our clients. What genre of art would the new gallery focus on? This is a merger of expansion, not consolidation. We will continue to represent the mix of schools, genres, and periods that each gallery had been known individually for. Together we will perhaps introduce exciting new areas that we feel will enrich and benefit our clientele. With our newly designed two floors of 12,000 square feet of exhibition space in New York and our 22,000 square foot gallery in Palm Beach, we have the ability to manage considerable growth. If necessary, perhaps there’s another expansion in sight for the near future. Could you share something about the grand opening of the gallery? We are currently in the replanting stages for the main opening in mid-September 2016. Our combined spaces in New York are still in somewhat of a flux with construction nearing completion on the 7th floor. Although the 8th floor is totally functioning as a gallery, renovations will begin there in June as we then occupy the newly completed 7th floor. By mid-September, both floors will be fully operating as one. Of course, we are open for business until then nonetheless. Follow@ARTINFOIndia 2016-04-29 02:43 Archana Khare
18 Bollywood Actress Priyanka Chopra To Dine With US President Barack Obama National Award winner Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra is going to dine with US President Barack Obama at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner this weekend. Priyanka will be dining with some of Hollywood's biggest names like Will Smith, his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, Kerry Washington, Shonda Rhimes, Kim Kardashian's model sister Kendall Jenner among others. The non-profit White House Correspondents' Association, whose members include the reporters, producers, camera operators and other journalists regularly covering the White House, traditionally hosts this annual dinner to raise money for journalism scholarships. Priyanka, who found the global recognition with her character Alex Parrish in the American TV series "Quantico", was invited to the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner with US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. The international star has now bagged a place in 2016 Time magazine's 100 most influential people's list alongside Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and singer Nicki Minaj, among others. In a recent interview with TIME, Priyanka explained that as a young actress, she was treated as a dime a dozen. "I don't want to be called an actor, I don't want to be called a star. I think that the movies that I do, I'm irreplaceable and the boys are replaceable," says Priyanka. Follow@ARTINFOIndia 2016-04-29 02:05 Bibhu Pattnaik
19 josé cardoso's play-doh people meld molded matter with portrait photos in homage to the gory visual effects found throughout artist chris cunningham and david cronenberg’s most famous films, graphic designer and illustrator josé cardoso has completed a collection of headshots that blends classic photography and basic sculpting. as a low budget tribute to old-school special effects from movies like ‘videodrome’ and ‘rubber johnny’, the porto- based artist mixes hand-sculpted play-doh with digital photographs to create strange and surreal portraits of himself, his family and his friends. these ‘faces’ bear warped and distored shapes crudely molded from malleable materials, seamlessly integrated into images of real human figures. while undeniably eerie and curiously bizarre, the images include strangely familiar facets of reality that are both recognizable and alien at the same time. 2016-04-29 00:02 Nina Azzarello
20 Bonhams Breaks 10 Records for Lebanese and Middle Eastern Art Related Venues Bonhams Artists Farid Aouad Ayman Baalbaki Kahlil Gibran Bonhams broke 10 world auction records during its April 27 Middle Eastern and Lebanese Modern and Contemporary art sales in London, reflecting the ever-increasing global demand for Middle Eastern modern and contemporary art. The combined sales broke 10 world records for 7 artists from the Art of the Lebanon sale and 3 from the Middle Eastern Modern and Contemporary Art sale. “It’s been a ground-breaking sale,” said Nima Sagarchi, head of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern art at Bonhams. “Despite the fact that many of the artists are well-established, both in Lebanon and elsewhere, this is the first time that many of them have come to the market. “A number of pieces have been purchased by Lebanese buyers and in many ways it’s a great homecoming for the country’s modern and contemporary masterpieces. But it also marks a turning point in the importance of Middle Eastern art on an international stage.” The top lot of the Middle Eastern sale and the highest price achieved overall was Egyptian artist Hussein Bicar’s “Nubian House,” which sold for £319,300 against an estimate of £70,000- 100,000, setting the record price for a modern Arab painting sold in London. Lebanese artist Kahlil Gibran’s painting “Portrait of Mrs Alexander Morten” was the top lot of the Lebanese sale, selling to a Lebanese institution for an impressive final price of £182,500, almost 10 times the original estimate of £20,000-30,000. Other highlights included the sale of Lebanese artist Farid Aouad’s “Opera Garnier” for £74,500 against an estimate of £40,000-60,000, and contemporary Lebanese artist Ayman Baalbaki’s “The Beirut City Centre Egg” for £86,500. 2016-04-29 00:01 Nicholas Forrest
21 Lancel Taps Langley Fox Hemingway and Noah Mills for Spring Lensed by Viviane Sassen at the Villa Noailles in Hyères, the new ad is to be unveiled in an outdoor campaign in France on May 4, before hitting newsstands two days later, appearing first in Elle magazine as well as M, Le Monde’s weekly supplement. Photographed against the villa’s modernist lines, the ad features the house’s Charlie handbag, Le Huit – a bucket bag, and Le Graphic, a soft briefcase for men. Coming for fall, Hemingway and Mills will also appear in what the brand dubbed an “interactive road movie.” It is to be done with the viewers’ participation, a spokesman for the label teased, and will see the duo travel to Deauville, Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Cannes, five cities that have played a role in the brand’s history. Around the same time, a traveling exhibition is to kick off, tracing Lancel ’s past via vintage styles, photos, videos, and also some interactive games. On Sept. 14, the storied leather-goods maker is expected to publish an anniversary tome, written by Laurence Benaim with the participation of a series of artists who are to get carte blanche in portraying its history. 2016-04-28 23:52 Paulina Szmydke
22 Royal Ascot Teams Up With Eight Milliners on Hat Collective More Articles By Designers including Stephen Jones, Philip Treacy, Rachel Trevor Morgan, Edwina Ibbotson, William Chambers, Laura Apsit Livens, Lady Laura Cathcart and Harvy Santos took part creating one-of-kind-pieces for the annual races. “Royal Ascot is about formal daywear and that is unusual in fashion,” Jones told WWD. “The Royal Ascot style guide has rules which have returned formality to style and elegance. It’s like a ‘hatty’ Christmas, birthday, Easter all rolled into one for me.” Jones took his cue from literature with his creation, which was made with sinamay, crin and silk rosettes. It was inspired by the idea of going for a walk on the moors with the Scottish poet Robert Burns. The designer, who recently completed pieces for the Rolling Stones’ “Exhibitionism” show at Saatchi Gallery in London, added he has a book due out in November. Called “Souvenirs,” it will be published by Rizzoli. Butterflies were Cathcart’s muse, with red ones festooned onto a black woven straw base. “It evokes the spirit of the Ascot social butterfly as well as the English summer season, when bright young social butterflies spread their beautifully colored wings,” said Cathcart. “I wanted it to be feminine as well as chic and practical for watching the serious racing.” The designs are priced from 425 pounds, or $619, for a hat by Cathcart to 1,625 pounds, or $2,637, for a style by Ibbotson and are available for purchase at Fenwick of Bond Street. “Royal Ascot has always been a highlight of the racing calendar and a fashion event in the British summer season,” said Mia Fenwick, head of buying at the Fenwick department store. “This year Fenwick celebrates our 125th anniversary on Bond Street and we have always been the destination for hats, but in the last few years there has been a really exciting new energy in millinery.” 2016-04-28 22:53 Lorelei Marfil
23 Amazon Posts Profits Amid New Products, Programs More Articles By Amazon’s first-quarter profits totaled $513 million or $1.07 per diluted share, and compared with a net loss of $57 million, or 12 cents, a year ago. Net sales increased 28.2 percent to $29.1 billion, up from $22.7 billion a year earlier. The company is looking for second-quarter net sales between $28 billion and $30.5 billion, or growth of up to 32 percent. International retail sales accelerated, with increased customer engagement and customer purchases. Chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky attributed that to Prime subscribers rolls that increased “at a high clip.” He noted that last year, Prime subscriptions were up 51 percent year over year in 2015. An increase in variety on the site was another key driver, said head of investor relations Phil Hardin. “What that means for our Prime customers is that there is more they can choose from — it makes Prime more valuable. For sellers, it means they sell more.” In the past year, Amazon introduced a number of new products and initiatives, from new devices (a new Kindle and two Alexa-enabled devices) to an increasing foray into film, music and video, including “Style Code Live,” a daily live fashion and beauty show. It also expanded Prime Free Same-Day Delivery from 11 to 27 U. S. metropolitan areas and began the Amazon Payments Partner Program that enables Amazon Payments on external e-commerce sites . Although it was not discussed on today’s call with investors, Amazon in the past year also began rolling out a number of private label apparel and accessories lines , which are poised to capitalize on holes in the retail assortment and compete with basics and fast fashion retailers, which traditionally have not been widely represented on the site. Chief executive Jeff Bezos did not speak during the call, but in a release, he said that Amazon devices were the top-selling products on Amazon, and highlighted the popularity of Fire tablets, the Fire TV Stick and the Echo. “We’re building premium products at non-premium prices,” he said, “and we’re thrilled so many customers are responding to our approach.” 2016-04-28 22:51 Maghan McDowell
24 With Its New Building, SFMOMA Cements a Place on the World Stage The exterior of SFMOMA, which was designed by Snøhetta. It opens to the public on May 14. HENRIK KAM Pop open the champagne and ignite the fireworks! The staff of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art deserves to celebrate. Their $305 million expansion and renovation project, designed by the Norwegian firm Norwegian firm Snøhetta, is a triumph. They have completed a building that can compete on the world stage, bolstered the museum’s finances with a $610 million capital campaign, and added more than 3,000 works to its collection. Its opening on May 14 will mark the start of a new art era for the City by the Bay. Let’s not get carried away, though: when the celebrations are over, some tough work will have to begin, because even as the building delights, its initial hang is uneven and, in places, awkward. There are resplendent, gilded shows of forces, masterpieces to make you swoon, but there are also missed opportunities, oversights, and disappointments. It may take some time to figure it all out. An interior view of the building, with a wall drawing by Sol LeWitt. First, though, the magnificent building. It is gigantic, with a total of 235,000 square feet of space spread across floors—170,000 of that, over seven floors, is devoted to exhibitions. That is two and a half times the 70,000 that SFMOMA had before the renovation, and it is just about equal to the combined exhibition space of two New York big kahunas: the Museum of Modern Art (125,000) and the new Whitney Museum (50,000). A museum space race is afoot across the United States. SFMOMA is now billing itself as the largest museum of contemporary art in the country. And they’re not wrong. In terms of gallery space, its only real rivals are MASS MOCA (200,000 square feet) and Dia:Beacon (240,000), but both of those are very different beasts, concerned with the long-term display of very large works rather than collecting. Soon, MoMA’s planned Diller Scofidio + Renfro–helmed expansion will add another 50,000, just barely edging out SFMOMA’s figure. The new SFMOMA is not only huge; it is also grandly scaled. This is architecture that can elegantly handle the massive crowds that will no doubt materialize, not least because locals have been without their museum for nearly three years as construction took place. There are roomy lobbies and wide hallways, and ample space around and between pieces. But thankfully—blessedly—this is also architecture that stays almost entirely out of the way of the art. Galleries are varied, sensible sizes and rectilinear. The lighting is superb. There are warm, blond wood floors, and staircases that are positioned wisely, narrowing slightly as they ascend the slightly curved building. Walking up and down them, one curses MoMA’s mall- like crisscrossing escalators. With this structure, Snøhetta joins the ranks of the world’s top museum designers. Lichtensteins in the Fisher Collection. And the art? The initial hang of SFMOMA’s holdings is a shock-and-awe performance— exhilarating in its run of big names, and occasionally baffling in the way it has been spread about. Patrons provide the unifying curatorial theme, with many sections displaying the collection of Gap founders Doris and Donald Fisher, and others highlighting works donated or promised to the museum by more than 200 collectors as part of a Campaign for Art. About a third of the 1,100-work Fisher Collection, heavy with American and German postwar art, is on view. After mulling the option of establishing a private museum, the couple decided in 2009, before Donald died, to place it on loan to the museum for 100 years. They have also given a substantial, undisclosed sum for the construction of the museum. It is an intensely (almost hilariously) blue-chip selection of work—big money, male, and white, in other words. The Fishers collected quite a few artists throughout their career, amassing deep holdings, and at SFMOMA many pivotal figures get a room (or two or three) to themselves. There are glorious rooms, one flowing into the next, of Ellsworth Kellys, two for Andy Warhol (one of early paintings, including a primo 1963 Triple Elvis [Ferus Type] and another of late portraits, with two classic “fright wig” self-portraits), two for Chuck Close (one would have been more than enough), two for Anselm Kiefer, two for Gerhard Richter (one of abstractions, the other of photo-realistic works), and one each for Carl Andre, Frank Stella (later work, looking wonderfully out of place after galleries of Minimalism), mid-to-late Philip Guston, a key Bruce Nauman flashing neon, Brice Marden, Alexander Calder, Andrea Gursky, Dan Flavin, Sigmar Polke, Agnes Martin, and more. Works by Willem de Kooning in the Fisher Collection. If you think you are spotting a trend here, you are correct: the only woman getting a room of her own in the Fisher section, which ranges across large parts of four floors, is Martin. The Martin room is beautiful, a quietly stunning chapel of a gallery, with seven flat walls angled in almost a complete circle, each one holding a single masterwork, covering decades of her work. But the overall male-centric display is a shame. The Fisher loan is undeniably generous, providing SFMOMA with the caliber of art that is well beyond the reach of even the most well-funded institutions these days (the figure of $1 billion has been bandied about as to its worth), but shown on its own it becomes a portrait of the tastes of two collectors, and the upper-echelon of the art market, rather than an exhibition that meaningfully engages history or makes nuanced connections. Thankfully, the terms of the Fisher loan state that a monographic display of the collection must be organized only once a decade. The rest of the time, Fisher works can be augmented by pieces from the rest of SFMOMA collection and a richer tale of postwar art can be told. (The loan agreement states that Fisher-designated galleries must always contain at least 75 percent Fisher works.) To just scratch the surface of possibilities: the Fishers bought very strong Joan Mitchells, which could be united with another in the collection for a very solid room of her art, ditto for Lee Krasner, and the museum’s Eva Hesses could join the party in the 1960s. At left, two works by Puryear. At right, a Therrien. And even in the relative monoculture that is the Fisher Collection, there are a few canny curatorial moments, like the pairing of Robert Therrien and Martin Puryear, the former’s red, jagged shaped canvas Untitled (Bent Cone) (1989) rhyming perfectly with the latter’s smooth, curving 1990 untitled sculpture, both riffing on Phrygian caps. (That match was also made in SFMOMA’s 2010 exhibition of the Fisher collection.) And just off the Kelly rooms, there is a gallery showing Days on Blue (1974–77) , a delicate and ice-cold sculpture made with propped planes of steel and glass by Christopher Wilmarth, who is less than a household name. Déjà vu strikes in the nearby galleries of works coming to the museum through its Campaign for Art— more Kiefer, more Polke, more Richter, and the like, plus little groups of Bay Area figuration (Joan Brown, Wayne Thiebaud, and David Park among them, but not nearly enough), of Jasper Johns and Rauschenberg, and of Abstract Expressionism. (Again, it is going to be a breath of fresh air when that work can be hung with the Fisher material.) The Martin room, with seven works from the Fisher Collection, dating from the 1950s to the 1990s. In another tiny room sit works by European greats, like Picasso, Bacon, and Léger, though prewar modernism is not a strength at SFMOMA, and judging by the prices being recorded in the field and absent a kind donor, it may never be. There are a few showstopper moments in these Campaign for Art rooms. Two galleries of prime 1960s Richard Serra prop pieces provide one. (Though it would be great if the wire stanchions were a touch more discrete.) Ed Ruscha’s modestly sized red painting Evil (1973) provides another—its title is spelled out in sharp, angled block letters painted by the artist with his blood. It is on the seventh floor, focused on recent art acquired through the Campaign for Art, that things turn disastrous. One arrives to the sight of Richard Prince’s infamous Spiritual America rephotograph of a young, nude Brooke Shields, Martin Kippenberger’s crucified wooden frog, a Jeff Koons equilibrium tank, a Cady Noland cut-out sculpture, and a Christopher Wool abstraction, among others. This is a grouping that could be found anywhere in the world—the house of a wealthy collector without any real defining taste (beyond an interest in investment-grade art), an auction house, or an art fair, but it is here in SFMOMA, in the opening show, apparently representing the best the museum has to offer. Works collected through the Campaign for Art, on the museum’s seventh floor, including pieces by Larry Clark, Richard Prince, Mike Kelley, Cady Noland, Martin Kippenberger, and Jeff Koons. It gets bleaker. The great Charlie Ray’s admittedly impressive, 2012 solid steel sculpture, tranquil and disturbing, of a woman asleep on a bench (an affecting sight in a city in the midst of a housing and homelessness crisis), leads into what would seem to be a very obvious configuration of art concerned with identity, made by minorities, with Glenn Ligon (his stately neon sign glowing “America”), Mark Bradford, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, David Hammons (a basketball drawing propped on bricks), Nicole Miller, Brad Kahlhamer, and Ai Weiwei, among others. That leads into a lackluster room of market-favored, process-leaning abstract painters like Tomma Abts, Raoul De Keyser, Garth Weiser, Mark Grotjahn, and Sergej Jensen, among others, and the great sculptors Ron Nagle and Vincent Fecteau, all crammed together. Grotjahn pops up again a few steps away in a slightly more intriguing context, a duel with Bradford, each of them grabbing two walls. Later on we are shown minor pieces by Doug Aitken, Rachel Harrison, and Dana Schutz. Again and again throughout the museum, I kept waiting for the funk and weirdness to show up. Even casual art fans—the types that go to a few museums a year, and maybe take in the odd art fair—will be well-acquainted with most of the work on the seventh floor. So why show it all again in such a bland way? Richard Serras. In contrast, the Whitney presented a remarkable model for a collection hang last year, when it inaugurated its new building in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District with “America Is Hard to See,” a ranging group show that set red-meat masterpieces, obscure side dishes, and little-known treats side by side. It still skewed white and male, but it assembled a broader look of 20th- and 21st-century art, one populated by fruitful detours and forgotten episodes. It was electric, and it invited you to return repeatedly, to become acquainted with other rare episodes. The SFMOMA display mostly invites you to genuflect before its greatness. There are, at least, promising hints of more-inventive approaches down on the second floor, as in a juicy room on the human figure that leaps from hometowners Robert Bechtle and David Park to Romare Bearden and Njideka Akunyili Crosby. Elsewhere, the Bay Area shapeshifter Joan Brown, who transitioned in her too- short career from thick, brushy figurative paintings to tightly outlined Pop-inflected portraits, meets the mad collagist Jess. Another gallery champions, in high style, the underrated California conceptualists. But here, too, the déjà vu sets in. An area with works given to the museum in the past by the Anderson family has Rauschenbergs and Johnses, Oldenburgs and Warhols, whom we have seen up above, in both the Fisher and Campaign for Art sections, and there is more Ab-Ex, which would have looked rather nice with the paintings up above. A view from the seventh floor of the building. If one wanted to get indignant about this patron-focused approach, one might say that it exemplifies a core problem of the art scene at the moment, as collectors exercise outsize influence on institutions. But these scattered hangings can be fixed. A newly great museum collection is aching to be shown in its greatest form, and it will be, once the patrons’ wishes are shrugged off and works are hung alongside one another. Enough grumbling. The new SFMOMA really is an embarrassment of riches. At one point, I happened upon a fellow writer from New York in a jewel-like exhibition of Paul Klee paintings and we marveled that, after each walking around for a few hours, briskly, we had yet to see the whole building. It just kept going! There was not another person in sight, and new surprises seemed to await around every corner. That is a wild feeling, one that I have only ever had inside the vast MASS MOCA. Speaking of those riches, there are also significant, sprawling photography galleries. And there are cozy outdoor spaces where you can take in views of the city or tap on Snøhetta’s rippling fiberglass façade. And there are black-box spaces, which show video works by artists like William Kentridge and Shirin Neshat to very fine effect, a state-of-the-art “white-box” performance space, and, frankly, sexy bathrooms whose walls and floors are painted an ecstatic red. The old lobby at SFMOMA, with a new staircase and a Calder mobile. Besides the thematic shows, the second floor is also home a compact history of modern and contemporary art from 1900 titled “Open Ended.” Altogether, it is work the new ticket price of $25, which is the going rate at MoMA, as well. Having said that, and acknowledging that this is probably a losing battle, I would beseech museums to chill out on the price hikes, which make it increasingly difficult for even well-off families to visit. Peg admission to the price of a matinee movie ticket or, better, make it suggested—maybe knock a floor or two off of expansions to create an endowment to subsidize fees. Working our way down, this brings us, finally, to the first floor. In the entrance area of the old building, designed by Mario Botta and finished in 1995, Snøhetta has axed the grand staircase, replacing it with a much-lower-key wood one, to move the masses up more smoothly into the museum’s new lobby. Richard Serra, Sequence , 2006. Over on the first floor of the new building is Richard Serra’s looping Cor-Ten steel sculpture Sequence (2006). It stands 13 feet tall and weighs 200 tons, and it is so hulking that the expansion had to go up around it, after it had been installed. It is pretty much set there for all time, and has been extensively written about in the press. Visible from the street, it is now the defining symbol of the new SFMOMA—august, brand-name, big, and expensive. Joan Brown, After the Alcatraz Swim #1 , 1975. However, if the museum is to become a lasting and vital member of the city’s diverse community, and not just its moneyed patrons, it needs to become the opposite of that Serra: nimble, quick-thinking, and open to change. I would propose as a role model Joan Brown’s punchy 1975 painting After the Alcatraz Swim #1 , on view on the museum’s second floor. Perhaps fresh from a swim in the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay, a woman is standing next to a fireplace. A fire is burning, and she has one arm across the mantle, and the other on her hip, akimbo. She is staring upward—daydreaming, maybe. There’s no telling what she will get up to next. A slide show of the newly renovated SFMOMA follows below. Richard Serra, Sequence , 2006 A 1975 Joan Brown. Design works from the collection. A view from the seventh floor of the museum. A Serra. Richard Serras. A view from the seventh floor of the building. The museum’s conservation space. A Rachel Harrison and a Doug Aitken. A Brad Kahlhamer. Richters in the Fisher Collection. Computers in the design galleries. Richters from the Fisher Collection. Matthew Barney. Works collected through the Campaign for Art, on the museum’s seventh floor, including pieces by Larry Clark, Richard Prince, Mike Kelley, Cady Noland, Martin Kippenberger, and Jeff Koons. Kiefers. Polkes. Richters. British sculpture from the Fisher Collection, including work by Richard Long, Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, and Richard Deacon. An interior view of the building, with a wall drawing by Sol LeWitt. Later Stellas in the Fisher Collection. Stella, Andre, and LeWitt in the Fisher Collection. Carl Andres with Dan Flavins glowing in the distance. LeWitt. George Segal and Wayne Thiebaud. Lichtensteins in the Fisher Collection. The Martin room, with seven works from the Fisher Collection, dating from the 1950s to the 1990s. Christopher Wilmarth, Days on Blue , 1974–77. Ellsworth Kellys in the Fisher Collection. The old lobby at SFMOMA, with a new staircase and a Calder mobile. Chris Johanson. Kellys in the Fisher Collection. Calders from the Fisher Collection. LeWitt. At left, two works by Puryear. At right, a Robert Therrien. Works by Willem de Kooning in the Fisher Collection. 2016-04-28 22:38 Andrew Russeth
25 WY-TO architects' flat-pack disaster shelter for southeast asia singapore-based WY-TO architects put their expertise to the test to create a shelter solution for the asian pacific region, where a staggering 42.9% of natural disasters occur. the ‘living shelter’ is an affordable, collapsible unit that’s easy to ship and can be assembled by small teams without tools. the ‘shelter’ is naturally ventilated and doesn’t require a level surface to be built upon the ‘shelter’ is based on the kampung house, typical of southeast asia. it features openings that ensure natural ventilation, can be built on uneven ground, and all included components can be dismantled and reused post-emergency. besides privacy and security, ‘living shelter’ incorporates basic needs such as solar electricity, water collection, and multi-purpose furnishings. WY-TO architects’ design will be presented at the 2016 venice architecture biennale, and is currently seeking project funds through indiegogo here. 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. 2016-04-28 22:05 www.designboom
26 Gisele Bündchen Wears Anthony Vaccarello for ‘Tonight Show’ Appearance More Articles By Gisele Bündchen walked her last runway show a year ago, but the model (and superhealthy eater) has managed to stay busy. Last night, Bündchen appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” donning an outfit from Anthony Vaccarello ’s Fall 2016 collection. Bündchen is promoting the mass-market edition of her Taschen book, which is being released May 10. (At $69.99, the new edition is a steal compared to the original’s $700 price tag.) She discussed her retirement plans with Fallon, telling him that she’s focusing on “being the best mom I can be.” The model also took the chance to show off her runway walk and teach Fallon how it’s done. “First things first: with the chest forward, squeeze the belly in, stomach in, shake the hips,” she said. Easy as that. Vaccarello was recently named the newly appointed creative director for Yves Saint Laurent , and will show his first collection for the brand in September. He has put his eponymous brand on “pause” for the time being. 2016-04-28 22:02 Kristen Tauer
27 ‘Streetease’ Brings Mr. Brainwash and Seen to Opera Gallery Hong Kong Related Venues Opera Gallery Hong Kong Artists Seen UA Mr. Brainwash Opera Gallery Hong Kong showcases the work of two street artists, Mr. Brainwash and Seen, in its latest exhibition, “Streetease.” Together, these artists highlight two distinct strands of gallery-level street art, with Seen representing a history of the movement stretching back to its beginnings as a clandestine youth movement in New York in the 1970s, while Mr. Brainwash represents the post-millennium and post-Banksy movement of street art. Seen (Richard Mirando), like many of the early graffiti artists, started in the movement painting on New York City subways trains in his very early teens, becoming part of the first group of graffiti artists (alongside Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat) to start working with galleries. The Seen works appearing at Opera Gallery show the influence of another figure whose work featured in those early street art gallery shows in the 1980s, Andy Warhol. In works such as “Popeye” and “Wonder Woman,” Seen combines the obsession with American comic books that can be seen in Warhol’s early work and in series like “Myths,” 1981 with the aesthetics of the early New York graffiti movement. Mr. Brainwash (Thierry Guetta), in contrast, finds more inspiration from the more mocking and wry work that is associated with Banksy, who made a documentary on Guetta, “Exit Through the Gift Shop” (2010). Although initially dismissed as a sort of Banksy-lite, the works featuring in “Streetease” highlight the distinctive aesthetic of the artist’s work, with its splashes of brightly- colored paint and focus on mixed media works. Together, the two artist’s work offers a retrospective of current street art in miniature, the past and present of street art. 2016-04-28 20:52 Samuel Spencer
28 ‘Angkor Wat Soviet-Style’: Christophe Malcot on Photographing Chernobyl Related Venues The Private Museum The year 2016 marks the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster where three decades ago explosions and fire at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, brought devastation resulting in mass evacuation and radioactive matter being spread across much of Europe. To commemorate the event, Singapore’s The Private Museum and French-born, Singapore- based photographer Christophe Malcot have collaborated on “Chernobyl Today,” an exhibition of Malcot’s photos taken in 2015 in Pripyat. On April 26, the day of the 30th anniversary of the nuclear leak disaster, ARTINFO spoke to Malcot about the exhibition and his experiences photographing a nuclear ghost town. Excerpts: When I was a kid, during the Cold War, “1984” by George Orwell was required reading. And I like architecture. Put the two together and the ex-Soviet Union becomes a treasure trove of larger-than-life hubristic and propagandist monuments and buildings, some of whose excesses can be extremely photogenic. The Duga-1 early-warning radar system (featured in the exhibition) is one such amazing structure. Beyond this, I am sensitive to the dichotomy of degeneration and regeneration. And so the fact that nature after the Chernobyl disaster has been able not just to adapt but to flourish again, made the subject much more compelling. I was a student in France. Our government famously tried to reassure the population by demonstrating with the help of scientists and weather reports that the nuclear cloud had stopped at the border. It felt like a (bad) joke but when you are 20, you feel invincible. And so I remember not being unduly worried; and totally unprepared. You cannot go to Chernobyl without preconceptions: Nuclear catastrophe, ghost city, Soviet era... My first impression though was totally unexpected: Being virtually alone in Pripyat, surrounded by unkempt vegetation, immediately brought the temples of Angkor Wat to my mind. I felt like a modern-day Henri Mouhot (the French explorer who rediscovered the temples of Angkor). I spent three days in Angkor in 1994 when live minefields and the Khmer Rouge’s low- intensity guerrilla war kept visitors away. Then, 50 visitors would have been a busy day. The vegetation had again taken the upper hand and the temples were more hidden and more mysterious than they are today. Pripyat was Angkor Wat Soviet-style. The heaviness was gone. Both conceptually and visually, Chernobyl is a subject that I believe lends itself naturally to black and white, so I was already inclined to shoot in it before heading there. It was the end of May and I was actually worried about the weather, as I did not want to shoot under bright blue skies. Luckily, when I arrived it was pretty overcast, which brought out interesting shades of gray. The other important factor is that the dominant colors in Chernobyl are white, gray, brown and green. I immediately felt vindicated shooting in black and white as I was really not losing much color- wise. I think that behind these photos of ruins and decay, there is a double message: one of humility and one of revival. The trees, plants and animals overtaking the city are proof that life ultimately wins. However bad or desperate a situation may look, there is hope. But Pripyat is also a clear reminder that man cannot play the sorcerer’s apprentice at will. As in Fukushima, we were lucky, it could have been much worse. As the world is slowly awakening to the dreadful reality of climate change, I think these photos are also a reminder of our fragility. Last but not least, everybody should remember that life is short; Pripyat was 16 years old when she was evacuated and died, so make the most of it! Live your dreams! 2016-04-28 20:46 Samuel Spencer
29 In Which Hip-Hop Ends Up Saving Itself: On Charlie Ahearn’s Wild Style Considering its status as a founding document of one of the twentieth century’s defining cultural phenomena, it would be easy to forget Wild Style’s origins in the high art ferment of New York’s 1980s Downtown scene. Sampled and interpolated for decades by everyone from “conscious” rap standard bearers Black Star to commercial giants like the […] 2016-04-28 19:03 By
30 Stay Ready: Lizzie Borden on the Post- Revolutionary Future of Born in Flames Released in 1983 during Reagan’s presidency and Ed Koch’s tenure as mayor of New York City, Lizzie Borden’s futurist, science-fiction feature Born in Flames (1983) imagines political activism ten years after a “social-democratic war of liberation.” The film was shot using somewhat guerrilla documentary techniques, includes found footage from international news and is set to […] 2016-04-29 00:14 By
31 2016 Sovereign Asian Art Prize Nominees Announced Related Venues Christie's Artists Alfred & Isabel Aquilizan Baptist Coelho GARY-ROSS PASTRANA Joan Ross Rosanna Li The list of 30 finalists for the 2016 edition of The Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Asia’s most established arts prize for mid-career artists, has been announced. Following a change in rules in 2015, sculptors were eligible for the prize for the second time, and three-dimensional works - such as a sculpture made of human hair and a skull formed from spring roll paper - make up a third of the 2016 finalists. Last year, Cambodian artist Anida Yoeu Ali won the prize for her photography-cum-performance piece “Spiral Alley,” featuring the artist wearing a giant centipede-like outfit inspired by Islamic and Buddhist religious dress. This year’s nominees include Sri Lankan Pradeep Thalawatta, whose “Routine Wash” series, was previously described by ARTINFO as depicting “a man with his face covered in white lather, a form of whiteface that critiques assumptions about race and ethnicity.” Another artist shortlisted is the Philippines’ GARY-ROSS PASTRANA , whose work we described as “loaded with poetic intensity.” The works will be exhibited at The James Christie Room, Christie’s from May 9 – 12, 2016. and the Rotunda on Connaught Place from May 21 – 31, 2016, and winners will be announced, and works auctioned off, at a Sovereign Asian Art Prize Gala Dinner, which will take place at Four Seasons Hotel on June 3. The full list of nominees is: Latthapon Korkiatarkul, Thailand Sherman Ong, Singapore Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, Philippines Bani Haykal, Singapore Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, Australia Toshiyuki Kajioka, Japan Shakila Haider, Pakistan Miti Ruangkritya, Thailand Imhathai Suwatthanasilp, Thailand Mark Salvatus, Philippines Aditya Novali, Indonesia Cha Min Young, Republic of Korea Baptist Coelho , India aaajiao, China Ong Kian Peng, Singapore Teppei Kaneuji, Japan Pradeep Thalawatta, Sri Lanka Eiji Sumi, Thailand GARY-ROSS PASTRANA , Philippines Bagus Pandega, Indonesia Joan Ross , Australia Urich Lau Wai-Yuen, Singapore Piyarat Piyapongwiwat, Thailand Rosanna W. H. Li, Hong Kong José Drummond, Macao Hanifa Alizada, Afghanistan Azizullah Hazara, Afghanistan Richard Streitmatter - Tran, Vietnam Mia Wen-Hsuan Liu, Taiwan Arin Rungjang, Thailand 2016-04-28 20:03 Samuel Spencer
32 Armory Show Head Aims to Change Up Fair— He's compared the global Art Basel fair enterprise to a generic Marriott hotel, and he's likened looking at art in a tent, as we do at Frieze art fairs, to eating chicken from a bucket. And now the new Armory Show director (and former artnet News editor-in-chief) Benjamin Genocchio has unveiled his plans to shake things up at the 22-year-old New York fair's March 2017 edition. The main change Genocchio plans is to tear down, to some extent, the wall between modern and contemporary galleries, which have for the last eight years been segregated. Contemporary dealers have set up shop on Hudson River Pier 94, while modern art dealers showing their wares on Pier 92, where foot traffic has in recent years been dramatically lower. Of the just over two hundred exhibitors at the 2016 edition, 56 were on the modern pier. A distinction between the two piers will remain, though. The main galleries section, now including both modern and contemporary offerings, will be on Pier 94, while Pier 92 will house the "Insights" section, which will be solely 20th-century works. Some of the large-scale projects will also be on Pier 92. Another step is the introduction of “Platform," a sector that will consist of large works and performances, some of them new commissions, which will take advantage of the large industrial space and will be spread across both piers. This echoes sections in other fairs international and regional, like Art Basel's “Unlimited" and Expo Chicago's “In/situ. " Some previously unused parts of the piers will be put into use, say the fair's organizers. Bid goodbye to the geographic focus of the “Focus" section next year, which the fair has devoted to a new part of the world each year for the fair's last seven editions ( Africa and Asia got the nod in recent years, for example). Instead, that section will now invite a curator to select galleries that will show “new or rarely seen artworks" by “today's most compelling artists. " While other fairs (such as Art Basel and Frieze) are set on global expansion , heightening competition for attention and top galleries, not to mention deep-pocketed visitors, Armory has remained resolutely a once-a-year, one-city affair. The previous director, Noah Horowitz , who decamped in 2015 for the position of Americas director in the Art Basel empire, strengthened the lagging fair, which its owners, Merchandise Mart Properties, had been offering for sale in 2012. The test for Genocchio is to see if he can build on Horowitz's improvements, and he has done nothing if not set the bar high. Follow artnet News on Facebook. 2016-04-28 20:01 Brian Boucher
33 Police Brutality in VR Proves It's a ‘Hard World for Small Things’ All photos courtesy of Wevr When filmmaker Janicza Bravo began researching the death of a cousin asphyxiated by Brooklyn cops in the summer of 1999, she was incensed. “I looked him up and there were two articles about the incident, one in the Daily News and one in the Post. One was a couple of paragraphs, the other was just one, but both were very much about the event. Neither was about who he was, where he came from, his life, his children, or his partner,” Bravo tells The Creators Project. “That was really heartbreaking to me, you know? That a person could live a full life and be deduced to one or two paragraphs about how they lost their life.” Bravo feeds on these feelings, tackling police brutality in her virtual reality directorial debut, Hard World for Small Things , which screened first at Sundance , then at the Tribeca Film Festival’s Virtual Arcade this year. When viewers strap on a headset, they are transported to the backseat of a convertible, cruising around Los Angeles with a group of friends who discuss their lives, dreams, and the books they have read. The film cuts to the quick by imbuing its characters with life and personality, making tragedy, when it strikes, all the more heartbreaking. A prolific young writer and director, Bravo made her filmmaking debut in 2011, with the VICE - produced comedic short Eat! , and her 2014 film Gregory Go Boom , starring Michael Cera, won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. For her first foray into VR, Bravo delved into unfamiliar territory, trading her signature dark comedies for a heartfelt examination of injustice. “I have no interest in making work that makes people feel bad about who they are,” Bravo says. “It’s not what I’m interested in. But I am interested in making work that challenges perceptions of oneself. I thought the most compelling way to tell this story was to introduce the viewer to a community that I don’t think most viewers have experienced. I really thought about it as a front row seat into a community.” Anthony Batt, co-founder of Wevr and an executive producer on the film, thinks the act of witnessing is one aspect that makes Hard World for Small Things incredibly moving. “People have an elevated experience in Janicza’s piece right when they get in the car and it pulls away. When you’re immersed, it feels like watching a memory or reliving part of a dream, and something happens in the brain that elevates it. When you add a tragic element or important moment, it affects you differently than it would watching it on a screen ten feet away or on a phone at arm’s length,” he says. Bravo imbues the medium with so much heart, leveraging first-person perspective to such poignant effect that it comes as a surprise that she was averse to the idea of VR filmmaking at first. “A lot of it came from feeling like this space is very technical, cold, and lacking a heartbeat. I didn’t feel like it had as much soul as I would want,” she says. But once they started work on the piece, Bravo realized VR more closely mirrored rehearsing a play than shooting a film. The process relies on blocking and chemistry to create dynamic scenes, since in a 360-degree environment, what you see is what you get. The result is a stunning, multi-dimensional glimpse into her characters’ lives. “At its core, Hard World is essentially supposed to be more than that one paragraph. It’s supposed to be a little more meat on a full life,” Bravo says. Click here to follow Janicza Bravo on Instagram. Related: LA Exhibit Traces 25 Years of Artistic Responses to Police Brutality VR Takes Center Stage at Tribeca Film Festival 2016 "Browntourage" Takes a Stand for Female Artists of Color 2016-04-28 19:40 Kara Weisenstein
34 34 Berlin's Most Notorious Club Gets an Acoustic-Architectural Installation Screencaps by the author Berlin’s club mecca, Berghain, might be infamous for its downstairs "orgy room" and drug-fueled techno parties, but the building is equally notable for interior architecture. With 60-foot ceilings and rows of large pillars, the industrial space seems like something out of a science fiction film—a mixture of Alien and Blade Runner. For the 20th anniversary of German record label Raster-Noton , from tonight through April 30, Berghain’s acoustic- architectural space is getting transformed into an audiovisual installation called White Circle. In collaboration with the art and technology group ZKM , Raster-Noton invited four of its artists—Alva Noto, Byetone, Frank Bretchscneider, and Kangding Ray—to contribute to the development of this audiovisual composition. Each artist’s composition is an “independent, self-contained concept,” though the works will use ambient and drone as sonic reference points. Each of the works exist as visuals as rhythmic flickers in a circular array of white tubes of light, which react to each of the artists’ audio pieces. “All works will be based on the idea of ambient music, a music that wants to make (palpably) tangible the acoustic space as well as the visual stimulus,” Raster-Noton announces. “ White Circle was exclusively conceptualized for ZKM's Klangdom (Sound Dome), which is made up of 47 speakers distributed [throughout] the room. By means of the control software Zirkonium, these speakers can be played, turning sound itself into a sculptural spatial experience.” Given the post-industrial, near-cyberpunk atmosphere that is Berghain, White Circle should give an even more futuristic feel to the whole experience. The club has always been about the marriage of sound and visuals, so the installation will conceptually distill that down into a mesmerizing audiovisual experience. white circle /// raster-noton 20 anniversary /// zkm karlsruhe from Michael Wolf on Vimeo . White Circle is part of Raster-Noton's larger 20th anniversary celebration, which includes an artist showcase in the main Berghain space, and its upstairs space Panorama Bar, on April 29th. The concerts open at 7:00 PM and run through midnight with performances from Atom™, Dasha Rush, Emptyset and Grischa Lichtenberger. There will also be performances by Alva Noto, Byetone, Kangding Ray, Kyoka, Donnacha Costello, as well Marcel Dettmann, Credit 00, Magda and Nastia. Click here for tickets and information, and click here to see more of ZKM’s work. Related: A Morphing Mural Is Changing Colors in Norfolk An Interactive Installation Lets You Manipulate Time and Space Light Art Festival Bathes Blighted Baltimore in A Sea of Color 2016-04-28 18:45 DJ Pangburn
35 iwan baan documents MAD's harbin opera house in china MAD architects has released a new series of photos documenting its harbin opera house in northeast china. taken by acclaimed architectural photographer iwan baan, the images were taken during the region’s extremely harsh winter, where temperatures can fall as low as -30°C (- 22°F). the photos form part a new series of images featuring local residents alongside visitors to the sinuous structure. ‘harbin is very cold for the most of the year, so I envisioned a building that would blend into the winter landscape as a white snow dune arising from the wetlands,’ says ma yansong, principal architect and founder of MAD architects. ‘opera design normally focuses on internal space, but here we had to treat the building as part of its natural environment — one outside the urban context.’ the opera house is situated along the songhua river and is surrounded by wetland landscape image © iwan baan iwan baan sought to capture the transformative quality of the opera house during the city’s harsh winter months — the building’s sculptural form and white aluminum cladding echoes the adjacent frozen riverbank. in the images, the photographer captures tourists, dog walkers, and local ice fishers who frequent the public spaces of the harbin cultural island despite the extremely cold conditions. members of the public can access the building via hidden pathways carved into the exterior façade, allowing it to double as a public pavilion. these paths lead to an open amphitheater and observation platform offering sweeping views of both harbin and the adjacent river. a behind-the-scenes film has also been released by NOWNESS, where iwan baan explains his process for photographing the opera house. the short documentary illustrates the power of architectural photography and states how baan strives to capture the present moment of a place instead of creating a timeless scene. ‘I’m not trying to create timeless images that could be in any moment in time,’ says the photographer. ‘they should always have a strong connection to a specific place, time, people, context, or culture.’ the building took five years to complete image © iwan baan the form of the building evokes a response to the location’s natural elements image © iwan baan timber walls climb up the main stage, illuminated by the skylights above image © iwan baan interiors are clad with a combination of glass and timber image © iwan baan surfaces alternate between smooth and faceted – referencing the region’s billowing snow and ice image © iwan baan 2016-04-28 18:29 Philip Stevens
36 Nadav Kander at Flowers Gallery, New York Nadav Kander, The Polygon Nuclear Test Site XII (Dust To Dust), Kazakhstan , 2011, C-print. COURTESY FLOWERS GALLERY Pictures at an Exhibition presents images of one notable show every weekday. Today’s show: “Nadav Kander: Dust” is on view at Flowers Gallery in New York through Saturday, May 7. The solo exhibition presents the latest series by the Israeli artist, which “explores the vestiges of the Cold War through the radioactive ruins of secret cities on the border between Kazakhstan and Russia,” according to the press release. Nadav Kander, The Polygon Nuclear Test Site XII (Dust To Dust), Kazakhstan , 2011, C-print. COURTESY FLOWERS GALLERY Nadav Kander, The Polygon Nuclear Test Site VII, Kazakhstan , 2011, C-print. COURTESY FLOWERS GALLERY Nadav Kander, Kurchatov VII (Ashes To Ashes), Kazakhstan , 2011, C-print. COURTESY FLOWERS GALLERY Nadav Kander, The Aral Sea III (Fishing Trawler), Kazakhstan , 2011, C-print. COURTESY FLOWERS GALLERY Nadav Kander, The Aral Sea I (Officers Housing), Kazakhstan 2011 , C-print. COURTESY FLOWERS GALLERY Nadav Kander, The Aral Sea Diptych (Sea Bed), Kazakhstan , 2011, C-print. COURTESY FLOWERS GALLERY Nadav Kander, Priozersk XVI (Reeds), Kazakhstan , 2011, C-print. COURTESY FLOWERS GALLERY Nadav Kander, Priozersk XIV (I Was Told She Once Held An Oar), Kazakhstan , 2011, C-print. COURTESY FLOWERS GALLERY Nadav Kander, Priozersk I (Military Housing), Kazakhstan , 2011, C-print. COURTESY FLOWERS GALLERY Nadav Kander, Kurchatov I (Scientific Research Facility), Kazakhstan , 2011, C-print. COURTESY FLOWERS GALLERY Nadav Kander, Graveyard near Kurchatov, Kazakhstan , 2011, C-print. COURTESY FLOWERS GALLERY 2016-04-28 17:13 The Editors
37 Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Portrait of Eva Hesse on Film Related Venues Film Forum Artists Eva Hesse In a 1970 interview with the art historian Cindy Nemser, Eva Hesse succinctly described her position as an artist. This self-assurance was not something that came easy for Hesse. Throughout her diaries, which will be published by Yale University Press in May, she is constantly wrestling with her own feelings about her work. “In painting I get so close then change, destroy alter — whether it is just a particular painting — or a whole idea,” she wrote, in typically staccato prose, in 1964. “It is never quite seen through to the end. I get distrustful of myself and renege, cancel out. To be able to finish one, a series and stand ground — this is me this is what I want to say.” In the same diary entry, Hesse explicitly links her work and life. “In personal relationship too in one form or another I would destroy or take my respite. Boredom dissatisfaction with other person were defense mechanisms — they made anything real prohibitive.” It’s easy to understand why Hesse would be prone to prohibiting the real. Born in Hamburg in 1936, at the age of 2 she was sent, along with her older sister, to the Netherlands via Kindertransport in an attempt to flee Nazi Germany. Six months passed and then the two girls were reunited with their parents — the family eventually immigrated to New York City in 1939. In 1944, her parents separated; a year later, Hesse’s mother killed herself by jumping off the roof of a building. After attending Pratt, the Cooper Union, and later Yale (where she studied with Josef Albers), with a stint working for Seventeen magazine in between, Hesse met the artist Tom Doyle, with whom she fell in love. A year later they were married, and four years later they were divorced — the same year her father died. But despite it all, Hesse kept working. “She never let anything stop her,” said Karen Shapiro, the producer of “ Eva Hesse ,” a documentary about the artist’s life that opened at Film Forum in New York this week. “Everything was there to stop her, at every stage in her life, and she didn’t let that happen. She kept going.” The film mainly focuses on Hesse’s most active period, the decade between 1960 and 1970, when she was in New York. Using excerpts from Hesse’s dairies both sonically (read by the actor Selma Blair) and visually, the film takes an intimate approach to telling the artist’s story. Additional interviews with artist friends from the period (including Robert and Sylvia Mangold, Mike Todd, Richard Serra, and Dan Graham), collectors, curators, and family provide context for her work and personal relationships, which were often intertwined. “Her life had plenty of drama,” Marcie Begleiter, the film’s director, said. “But we’re talking about this person because of the great art, how it’s still vital today. The uniqueness and newness of what she did. That’s why we look at the life.” After studying Hesse’s papers, which are housed at Oberlin, Begleiter wrote a play, “Meditations: Eva Hesse ,” which was staged in 2010. That project brought Begleiter and Shapiro together, and they decided to make a film about Hesse’s life. “We knew that we were both passionate about it, that the work and the woman were really compelling,” Begleiter said. “But we were surprised in talking to all the people who knew Eva how much she was still a part of their lives.” “They would talk in an interview and it felt like Eva was in the other room,” Shapiro added. “That’s how present she is in their lives.” Hesse’s most important relationship, and maybe the most complicated, was with the artist Sol LeWitt. He is often mentioned in her diaries, and their letters, which are prominently featured in the film (the voice of LeWitt is performed by the actor Patrick Kennedy). “Even though [the relationship] was complicated on some level, it was not on another level,” Shapiro said. “They were dear friends. That’s what made it so special. They could say anything to each other.” In many of the letters, LeWitt actively pushes Hesse, encouraging her not to stop, to keep working. “We didn’t have the opportunity to interview Sol for the film, but we needed his presence there,” Shapiro said. (LeWitt died in 2007.) Compiling all this information into what Begleiter refers to as a “portrait” of Hesse took almost four years. “There were times during the process where Karen and I looked at each other not sure how we would move forward,” Begleiter said. But they only had to look to their subject for inspiration. “It was thinking about Eva — we were committed to finishing the film for her. But also, with everything she dealt with — it was tougher stuff than this.” 2016-04-28 16:39 Craig Hubert
38 38 fade task light by box clever leverages one piece of metal as much as possible fade task light by box clever leverages one piece of metal as much as possible fade task light by box clever leverages one piece of metal as much as possible all images courtesy of box clever designed by san francisco based firm box clever, the ‘fade task light’ works in an environment with it’s fluid and adaptable articulated arm. accompanied by high performance LED system, the intuitive dimmer and color temperature slider control on the iron base allows the light output to be precisely set to the color and luminosity. at the rear an integrated USB port in the base keeps mobile devices charged and ready to go. the ‘fade task light’ is available in four unique color and die cut pattern configurations. the deceiving single piece of metal has two bend points the slim profile comes in four different colors the bends hide the necessary cables to power the LED 2016-04-28 16:30 Piotr Boruslawski
39 At the Vatican, a Newly Refreshed Snapshot of Italy, Circa 1580 VATICAN CITY — According to the director of the Vatican Museums, the best way to appreciate the newly restored Gallery of Maps – a 400-foot-long snapshot of Italy, circa 1580, with some later updates – is to stroll through the corridor at sunset during a summer afternoon, “when the light is honey-colored” and the scent of flowers wafts from adjacent gardens through open windows. “It’s a sneak peek of paradise,” the director, Antonio Paolucci, told reporters at the official presentation of the work on Wednesday evening. “A long and complex restoration,” as he described it, has refreshed the maps’ colors and brought lost details into focus. The restoration, which was completed this month, had become a necessity as the maps, painted in fresco with details added “a secco” – or after the fresco had dried — were gradually detaching from the walls, in part because of the flow of tourists passing through the gallery on the way to the Sistine Chapel, said Arnold Nesselrath, a chief curator at the Vatican Museums. Some of the maps were cracked, scratched and blotchy, while dust had settled in the cornices and stucco. Restorers and decorators worked for nearly four years both on the maps and on the ceiling, a mélange of stucco reliefs and paintings. The gallery, on the west side of the Belvedere Courtyard, was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII in 1580, according to the Vatican, and the overall plan was entrusted to Ignazio Danti, a Dominican friar who was the papal cosmographer and mathematician. Artists who worked on the project under Danti included Girolamo Muziano, Cesara Nebbia and the Flemish Bril brothers. The gallery is a “historical archive” that catalogs church property and narrates battles and other scenes, said Maria Ludmila Pustka, the director of the painting restoration laboratory at the Vatican Museums. “Danti was precise, there is nothing arbitrary” to the layout, she said. Some of the maps were reworked over the years, including under Pope Pius IX in 1851. Glazes and glue that had been applied in these modifications were removed under the restoration. 2016-04-28 15:56 By
40 Meet the Self-Described "Sign Geeks" Keeping Neon Alive Carlos Vargas “Saints and Sinners” Española, New Mexico. Image courtesy of #SignGeeks No matter what era you were born into, the alluring warmth and flickering glow of vintage neon signage is undeniable. Our attraction to these bent and illuminated glass tubes is due, perhaps, to an appreciation for a craft that seems inaccessible to most—they're science meets design meets applied urbanism. While the existence of classic neon signs is slowly disappearing, self-described "sign geeks," with the intent to document and share these beautifully crafted pieces of art, are keeping the glow alive. The international photography group exists primarily in the digital realm, aiming to capture these historical neon works in their natural habitats, to share amongst themselves and enthusiasts alike. Marc Shur “El Ray” Reno, Nevada. Image courtesy of #SignGeeks The Creators Project caught up with Sharlynn Vee, one of the members of Instagram's #SignGeeks to talk about their most recent group exhibition at The Museum of Neon Art (MONA) in Glendale, CA, and how the social media group is formed. “#SignGeeks came together through appreciating for each other’s work in the early days of Instagram, sometime in mid-2011,” Vee tells us. “We had a small group of friends who were vintage sign obsessed and by interacting with each other on Instagram daily, we got to know each other. Lennie Locken suggested that we start our own hashtag because we’re all such geeks about signs, and #signgeeks was born.” Sharlynn Vee “Western Appliance” San Jose, California. Image courtesy of #SignGeeks “Popularity has never been our goal.” Vee tells The Creators Project, “Our hashtag was initially a means to keep track of our close friends’ posts, but #signgeeks has become a popular hashtag. The hashtag is a helpful tool in locating cool shots of vintage signs, but now you may have to spend a little more time filtering out unrelated images and porn. There are a lot of people on Instagram who post photos of vintage signs, but not everyone is cut out for our group. There are currently 79 members in the #SignGeeks group.” Mercedes Mancillas “The Palms” Portland, Oregon. Image courtesy of #SignGeeks While their focus is mainly on vintage neon signs, Vee admits that sometimes it's difficult to deny some of gorgeous, psychedelic lettering and design of plastic or crafted signs from the 60s and 70s, even if they aren’t shaped out of neon glass tubing. “We come from all walks of life, ages, and nationalities.” Vee explains, “Photographing vintage signs is what brought us together… The worst feeling for a Sign Geek is to arrive at a location to shoot a beautiful sign and that sign has been removed or replaced with a hunk of poorly designed backlit plastic. Maintaining neon is expensive, so we always praise business owners who keep up their signs.” The relationship with the MONA goes back to 2014, when the Sign Geeks had a show at SPACE Gallery in Pomona. Shortly after, Vee tells us that Museum director Kim Koga had approached her to put on a collaborative show with MONA soon after the museum’s grand opening. “I immediately contacted Marc Shur, was the design genius behind our Pomona show and also the genius art director and design wizard behind our current MONA exhibit, and we started having brainstorming,” Vee explains. “Marc Shur, Carlos Vargas, and [I] accepted submissions and made the selections that are now hanging in the exhibit. The process took about seven months from beginning to end.” Steve Spiegel “Blue Spruce Lodge” Gallup, New Mexico. Image courtesy of #SignGeeks “Seeing our group’s work hanging in MONA, along with all those beautiful glowing pieces of history, feels amazing,” Vee says. “We even have our own #SignGeeks neon sign at the entrance of the exhibit, crafted by my favorite neon artist in the world, Michael Flechtner. This experience has been the ultimate dream come true and the response has been incredible. Over 300 people attended our opening reception, and it was the largest attended #SignGeeks group event in our history. About 85% of our exhibitors flew in from all over the U. S. and abroad to attend and to spend the weekend shooting signs all over the L. A. area in organized group outings. It was truly a memorable and emotional experience for us all.” Tim Anderson “OK Used Cars” Kingman, Arizona. Image courtesy of #SignGeeks The Sign Geeks' exhibition is on view at the MONA until June 19th, 2016 Click here to visit #Signgeeks on Instagram Related: Hong Kong's Farewell to Thousands of Neon Signs Iconic Movie Posters Reinterpreted As Neon Signs Neon Retrospective Asks "Have You Read the Writing on the Wall? " 2016-04-28 15:10 Hannah Stouffer
41 Protest Group Lights Up Guggenheim's Facade On Wednesday evening, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York hosted a series of projections on its facade. However, the message was not its own. Earlier this month, the museum suspended talks with the Gulf Labor Artist Coalition , a group that has taken issue with the reported substandard living conditions of the workers planning the construction of the museum's satellite location in Abu Dhabi . From a makeshift control center assembled in a van outside the museum, the coalition's affiliate group Global Ultra Luxury Faction (G. U. L. F.) projected a series of messages on the outside of the building. "You broke trust," one of their complaints declared. "1%," read another. Later that night, the group wheeled their installation to the Park Avenue residence of William L. Mack, chairman of the Guggenheim's board. In a blog post on G. U. L. F.'s website , the group cites this move as a "clear message to the trustees of the Guggenheim Foundation," stating that the "cynical marriage of ultra-luxury art and ultra-low wages is null and void. " Among the images the group projected were layered headshots of the museum's trustees, which included Mack, and former president Jennifer Blei Stockman, among others. Tina Vaz, a spokesperson for the Guggenheim, told artnet News in a phone interview that, after six years of negotiations, "this latest action by GULF labor is another example of their willingness to attack the Guggenheim for easy publicity versus pursuing a program of thoughtful advocacy. " She continued, "Their demands are not only beyond the Guggenheim's direct line of influence but beyond the influence of any single arts institution. We are leveraging our advocacy and our influence to its fullest, but these issues that they are focused on, such as recruitment fees, living wages, and the right to organize, are highly complex and involve many players at the highest levels of the governments—not only in the UAE, but also from countries workers are migrating from. Resolving these issues are beyond the scope of influence of any one institution. " Vaz emphasized that the group "refuses to acknowledge the progress that has been made" in the past six years, saying, "We truly believe that our presence in the region has made a difference. " See more images below. Follow artnet News on Facebook. 2016-04-28 14:41 Rain Embuscado
42 Can Visionary Art Also be Conceptual? | City of the Seekers Installation view of Odyssey (transcendental object at the end of time), 2015, Monofilament, viscous oil, plastic tubing, tinted glass mirror, wood, mixed material, dimensions variable In the late 19th century, Southern California attracted misfits, idealists, and entrepreneurs with few ties to anyone or anything. Swamis, spiritualists, and other self-proclaimed religious authorities quickly made their way out West to forge new faiths. Independent book publishers, motivational speakers, and metaphysical- minded artists and writers then became part of the Los Angeles landscape. From yogis, to psychics, to witches, City of the Seekers examines how creative freedom enables LA-based artists to make spiritual work as part of their practices. On the surface, visionary and conceptual art are very different. The first seems more organic, while the latter requires a certain amount of intellectual deliberation. But as artist Dani Tull shows, visionary and conceptual art are actually quite similar. In conceptualism, the presented idea can strive to be more important than the product, while the visionary process of practicing spirituality through art can be more important than the actual object, too. In this way, Tull converges two superficially separate modalities—the conceptual and the experiential— revealing that any genre of art can be visionary, and vice-versa. But Tull isn't fond of the term "visionary art" or any other self-identifying labels he believes overly stylize and fetishize their own cultures. Feeder (houndstooth), 2015, Oil on linen, 60"x48" (All images courtesy of the artist) "Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an art snob. I participate in and position myself in the contemporary art business fully aware of how shady it can be," he says. "But I would take the sanctity of a well- lit white room to experience a work of art over the hoopla of the dusty Burning Man playa any day. " That's not something you'd expect to hear from most mystically-minded artists in Los Angeles, but thankfully, Tull has shattered the stereotype with art that reflects the true complexity of someone brought up in the SoCal sprawl. Sunnsett Triipp (for Olivia), 2015, Oil on linen, 60” x 48” With an MFA from Stanford University and a BFA from The San Francisco Art Institute, Tull was recently singled out by in Wallpaper. In 2009, Tull curated Aspects of the Archaic Revival , a group show featuring international artists inspired by allegories, psychedelics, and magic. Its title was inspired by Terence McKenna's 1992 book, The Archaic Revival: Speculations on Psychedelic Mushrooms, the Amazon, Virtual Reality, UFOs, Evolution, Shamanism, the Rebirth of the Goddess, and the End of History. But over the course of the last two decades, Tull's art has been conceptually-based, though he's always worked from a place of personal experience. Lately, he's aimed to create work that transcends that, though, examining areas of consciousness that are beyond the limits of identity. "The path and process of my work has never been linear," Tull says. "I used to worry about it, because there’s a general desire to brand artists, but for the most part, I have chosen to follow my interests as they unfold. Now, with some years behind me, I’ve got a better view [...] and see the way past bodies of work and ideas circle around and are in fact interconnected in elegant and unexpected ways. " Untitled (Convergence view), 2012, 38”x42”x42” carved wood, encaustic wax, inlaid enamel, oil paint, aqua resin Right now, Tull is working on several different projects including a series of sculptures called Convergences —tripodal forms constructed from carved cast acrylic and wood panels, joined together to create an axis. These forms appeared to Tull in his "liminal zones," or within the periphery of his field of perception. "For a few years I just kind of felt the presence of this thing while bringing it closer into focus," he says. "When I could finally see what it was, I spent a lot of time thinking about it. It felt familiar and connected to nature and natural processes. I recognized it as an archetypal form, but not one in the common lexicon of archetypes. I sensed this form was articulating some complex ideas in a nonlinguistic way and that it could make the leap physically as a sculptural form. I began to build these sculptures by hand while trying not to overthink their meaning. As exotic as their arrival might seem, I kept the process engaged with formal and aesthetic concerns while keeping a footing in historical context. This is really interesting to me, navigating through and straddling that place where mystical experience intersects with formalism and contemporary art issues. " Untitled (Convergence view), 2012, 38”x42”x42”, carved wood, encaustic wax, inlaid enamel, oil paint, aqua resin. Throughout his life, Tull has had a variety of mystical experiences. As a youth, they were tied to typical SoCal pursuits such as skateboarding, surfing, and playing in bands. "They brought my awareness to the theatrics of ritual and ceremony; something I am still very aware of both my participation in the current spiritual renaissance of LA as well as the pomp of the art world. " More recently, however, Tull has participated in community gatherings for consciousness explorers that have a strong correlation to indigenous and Amazonian traditions. "The experiences are extraordinary and deeply profound," he says. "But as much as I am in pursuit of authentic spiritual experiences, I am equally interested in the histories and mechanics of fringe spiritual movements and 'guru' personality cults. I like where the lines get blurred from total theatrics to something real or at least real enough: it confirms my belief that creativity and imagination are viable and legitimate tools for accessing mystical states and to transmute energy. " Though Tull says he enjoys drifting between being an atheist/agnostic and a theosophist/gnostic, he's ultimately anti-dogmatic, with a strong allegiance to nature. "But it’s funny, somehow people seem to think that I have a disciplined spiritual practice, and I don’t," he says. "If anything, my practice is my art, and I have total devotion to making my work. Outside of that, I might be a dabbler of self-curated esoteric pursuits. " Standing here, we are leaning beyond the edge realms (Convergence), 2015, Encaustic wax on carved cast acrylic, wood pedestal 38” x38” x33” In terms of a connection between LA and visionary art, Tull says there's the danger of a stigma that arises from the so-called New Age movement, which can be kitschy. He prefers to pay attention to the actual geography of Los Angeles and California, which he believes is literally and spiritually on the fringe. "For artists, the city’s geographical spread fosters a maverick sensibility and meditative space," he says. "For artists, I think LA is the most interesting city in the world at possibly the most interesting and important time in human history. Something is stirring here and it’s kicking up some of LA’s eccentric histories—it’s soupy and iridescent, a vortex of shifting gradients, cross-pollinating our creativity and dreams in unexpected ways, like a hazy cosmic jive. "And while California has long been a hotbed for consciousness exploration and fringe spiritual movements that have intersected with the arts, I believe the current global state of embedded technologies, hyper-connectivity and information-driven culture is evoking a deeper subtext that can be seen as an impulsive return to analogue systems: the handmade, abstraction, mystical experience, and an exploration of esoteric modalities. I see my work as both an interface and agitator within the interplay of these analogous fields. " >>>> 2016-04-28 14:40 Tanja M
43 Free Arts NYC Celebrates Glenn O'Brien at Richard Prince-hosted Party Related Artists Richard Prince Marilyn Minter Rashid Johnson Dustin Yellin Glenn O’Brien, an art, music and fashion writer who was once a member of Andy Warhol's Factory, was honored on April 27 at Free Arts NYC ’s 17th Annual Art Auction in New York. Richard Prince hosted the fête, which drew guests such as Jeffrey Deitch, Annabelle Dexter- Jones, Claire Distenfeld, Nan Goldin, Rashid Johnson , Jemima Kirke, Tali Lennox, MARILYN MINTER , Stella Schnabel, Christy Turlington, Dustin Yellin , Olivier Zahm and many more. The evening included a live auction led by Paddle8’s Alexander Gilkes, where Tony Shafrazi picked up a piece by Richard Prince , while a bidding war over a Jonas Wood work culminated in it going for $57,000. Proceeds from the evening will go toward benefiting Free Arts NYC’s educational arts mentoring programs for underserved youth and families. To view pictures from the party, click on the slideshow. 2016-04-28 14:31 Michelle Tay
44 Predicting the Tony Nominations: The Actors Related Events Tony Awards 2016 When you see Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s virtuoso turn playing dozens of characters in the solo comedy, “Fully Committed,” you leave the theater assured that he will get a Tony nomination for his performance. And then you start considering his competition for one of the five slots: Frank Langella (“The Father”), Gabriel Byrne (“Long Day’s Journey into Night”), James Earl Jones (“The Gin Game”), Jeff Daniels (“Blackbird”), Mark Strong (“A View from the Bridge”), Clive Owen (“Old Times”), Tim Pigott-Smith (‘King Charles III”), and Sam Rockwell (“Fool for Love”). And that doesn’t even include Jim Parsons (“Act of God”), Al Pacino (“China Doll”), and Bruce Willis (“Misery”) who are not as likely to make the cut. As Elaine Stritch so succinctly put it: “There’s so much fucking talent in this town.” True enough. That means, of course, that some very deserving performances will not be acknowledged when the nominations are announced. There are very few shoo-ins. Indeed, there are probably only two when it comes to lead actor in a play: Langella and Strong are probably assured of a spot. The rest of the above will hope the theatrical gods are on their side. That’s also true among the actresses in dramas who are under consideration, only one of whom could be considered a near-lock for a nomination: Lupita Nyong’o, the Oscar-winning actress (“12 Years A Slave”) who has made a stirring Broadway debut in “Eclipsed,” Danai Gurira’s drama about female captives in war-torn Liberia. Among those who have a good chance to join her company are Jessica Lange (“Long Day’s Journey into Night”), Laurie Metcalf (“Misery”), Michelle Williams (“Blackbird”), Sophie Okoneda (“The Crucible”), Nicola Walker (“A View from the Bridge”), and Andrea Martin (“Noises Off!”). In such a strong field, one surmises there’s won’t be room for Linda Lavin (“Our Mother’s Brief Affair”), Cicely Tyson (“The Gin Game”), or Keira Knightly (“Therese Raquin”). The musical categories are a bit less competitive. Both Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom, Jr. are sure bets for “Hamilton.” It would be surprising if Benjamin Walker (“American Psycho”), Alex Brightman (“School of Rock”), and Danny Burstein (“Fiddler on the Roof”) were left off the list. So that leaves Zachary Levi (“She Loves Me”), Andrew Keenan-Bolger (“Tuck Everlasting”), and Josh Young (“Amazing Grace”) to usurp one of those places. And what to do with the male stars of “Shuffle Along,” which includes Brian Stokes Mitchell, Joshua Henry, Billy Porter, and Brandon Victor Dixon? The Tony administration committee has yet to rule on their categorization. The competition becomes even fiercer among the women vying for nods. There are two probable nominees: British newcomer Cynthia Erivo who is also considered the front-runner for her triumphant debut in “The Color Purple,” and Philippa Soo, who plays the staunch spouse in “Hamilton.” Audra McDonald, who holds the record for the most Tony wins at six, is also likely to be nominated yet again for “Shuffle Along.” And the season also yielded especially strong performances from Jessie Mueller (“Waitress”), Laura Benanti (“She Loves Me”), Carmen Cusack (“Bright Star”), Sarah Charles Lewis (“Tuck Everlasting”), and Ana Villafañe, whose Gloria Estefan in “On Your Feet!” invariably brings the audience to do just that. Stritch had it right. That makes difficult the job of the Tony nominators, a group made up of about 40 professionals drawn from realms of theater and academia. The secret and weighted balloting for the nominees will take place on Monday night, May 2. Then the Tony voters, a pool of 846, will have their turn at determining the winners, to be announced on June 12. 2016-04-28 14:08 Patrick Pacheco
45 L3P architekten renovates house lendenmann in switzerland L3P architekten renovates house lendenmann in switzerland with contrasting façades all images by sabrina scheja in regensberg, a medieval township in northern switzerland, L3P architekten has renovated a two-storey building that was in desperate need of repair. owing to structural damage and numerous makeshift interventions, a simple overhaul of ‘house ledenmann’ was no longer possible. therefore, working in close cooperation with local authorities, the design team decided to partially demolish the house and restore its original volume. the distinctive new elevation presents sweeping views across the picturesque landscape two half-timbered elevations and a vaulted cellar have been preserved, while three sculptural multi-family houses have been constructed behind the building’s historic northern façade. however, the characteristics of the three apartments have been established through the distinctive new elevation to the south, which presents sweeping views across the picturesque landscape. the contrast between the opposing façades made it possible to develop a dynamic interplay of proportion, light and materiality. multi-family houses have been constructed behind the building’s historic northern façade the new intervention consists of grey spruce wood that wraps around the new building — incorporating the preserved façade, and reshaping the original volume. the semi-transparent wooden sheeting is covered with irregular ornaments, dissolving into a delicate envelope that lends the scheme a playful collaboration between light and shadow. furthermore, a light-guiding fireplace in the attic, a cantilevered bay window, and sliding doors incorporate vernacular elements and restructure the dwelling’s outer skin. a series of large white spaces welcome external views through large openings internally, small wooden paneled chambers establish a peaceful and serene atmosphere while forging a strong connection with the area’s history. surrounding these chambers are large white spaces that welcome external views through generous openings. simultaneously, a variation in levels and ceiling heights turns the sequential perspective of building into a three-dimensional journey with ever-changing sightlines. a variation in levels and ceiling heights turns the building into a ‘three-dimensional journey’ a light-guiding fireplace is found at the uppermost storey deep red tiling has been used in the bathroom generously proportioned living spaces are found throughout the design a vaulted cellar has been preserved as part of the renovation 2016-04-28 13:20 Philip Stevens
46 A New App Illuminates the Hidden Histories of Everyday Places Images via Poetic Places Walk around any city and you'll find indications of its past, be they buildings, place names, or other markers. But a lot of its stories, both historic and in fiction, will be hidden. A new app called Poetic Places , by Sarah Cole in collaboration with the British Library , helps people discover the locations that inhabit various poems, paintings, and works of literature. The app uses GPS and push notifications to let people know when they've happened upon a space of significance. They can then view archive material, information, and paintings associated with it. "I’m really interested in how content—be it art, writing or something else entirely—can reach people when they’re not expecting it, rather than them having to seek it out," Cole explains to The Creators Project. "Tours can be great experiences, for example, but we have to set aside time for them whereas I wanted to explore serendipitous discovery with minimal effort from the users. I was also intrigued by narratives of place and how we access them. There might be numerous depictions of any given place, both visual and written, but how might we discover them whilst there, and how might they change our perception of that place? " All the material and content in the app, which currently only works in London, was sourced from open archives, collections, museum websites and their Flickr accounts, anything that could be used freely under Creative Commons licenses. Choices of places to include were also swayed by items that were out of copyright, due to both the practicality and expense of clearing them, but also to highlight the vast amount of information in the public domain that can be used creatively. Cole says that part of the aim of the app, as well as helping people discover histories they might not know, was also to create a "replicable project. " "I wanted to demystify apps for others and demonstrate what can be achieved with only a little time and money. " "Building an app from scratch obviously has its benefits but can require substantial resources and technical expertise. As such, I decided to see if could utilise a DIY app-building platform to make Poetic Places myself," Cole notes. John S. Muller, ca. 1715–1792, German, active in Britain, Vauxhall Gardens shewing the Grand Walk at the Entrance of the Garden and the Orchestra with the Music Playing, after 1751, Etching and engraving, hand-colored, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection After trying various platforms Cole found GoodBarber gave her what she needed without being to difficult to negotiate or too expensive. "By combining maps, entires, and triggering I was able to create something that works on both iOS and Android devices, looks good, might survive OS updates, and works the way I want. And I didn’t have to code anything to do it. " Cole has added content to the app outside of London and plans to go worldwide, too. And, although at the moment it's mainly historical, is also looking to include contemporary poets and writings. So, if you're heading out for a psychogeographical drift around London, Poetic Places can help augment the experience and point out some of the fictions the spaces you're journeying through inhabited. It not only brings some revelations to bear on where you are, it's also an exercise in what can be achieved working with free resources and a limited budget. You can meet Sarah Cole and have a Poetic Places demo at the Creativeworks London Festival on Friday, April 29 at Kings College. Book your free place here. Related: You Can Get Followed for a Day in This Privacy-Shattering Performance Robots Reveal the Most Popular Art on Instagram This Museum Displays Stolen Artworks in Augmented Reality 2016-04-28 12:20 Kevin Holmes
47 NYC Manholes Just Got Way Cozier Images courtesy the artist If you've spotted a small grey house in the middle of a New York City street, only to have it disappear minutes later, you're not hallucinating. You've likely seen a new project from Brooklyn- based artist Mark Reigelman II , entitled Smökers. Part-sculpture and part-performance art, it's a tiny cabin on wheels that the artist has been rolling over New York City's steaming manholes. This creates the unexpected illusion of a mini hearth sending smoke up the house's little chimney right in the middle of major Manhattan throughways. "As the installation was not sanctioned or permitted the installation durations vary from 30 seconds to three hours depending on location and time," Reigelman tells The Creators Project. In a video of the work in action, he and partner Aaron Fleury can be seen quickly moving the 350-lb sculpture off the road as a police car approaches. "This created a beautiful ephemerality to the work, a sense of the fleeting, echoing the nature of the steam itself," he continues. The name Smökers comes from a German toy, also called a räuchermann , that burns incense and jets the smoke from a man's mouth, a house's chimney, etc. Reigelman thought of them when looking at the large orange cones that channel New York City's emerging steam "These tubular chimneys offer some sense of spectacle and mystery, but for the most part are one more obstacle in traversing the city," he says. By placing Smökers in the city, Reigelman theorizes that he "forces spectators to reconsider the framework of a city’s infrastructure, and redress the functionality and activation of public space. " Reigelman spent four weeks building the 6’ wide x 8’ long by 8’ tall mobile installation with carpenter Andrin Widmer, designing a metal chimney inside the house to protect its wood construction from the steam. He has so far installed on Broadway and Grand St. in Soho, 1st Ave. and 12th St. in the East Village, and Park Ave. and 27th St. in Midtown. The fact that it can show up anywhere, anytime, and disappear before the cops come and take it away, creates "a beautiful ephemerality to the work, a sense of the fleeting, echoing the nature of the steam itself," Reigelman says. See more of Mark Reigelman's work on his website . Related: New York City Takes Public Art to the Digital Realm [NSFW] New York Graffiti Artist Speed-Hacks City Wi-Fi 'Projection Napping' Puts Sleeping Giants on NYC Buildings 'On Broadway' Is a Stunning, Data-Driven Portrait of Life in New York 2016-04-28 12:15 Beckett Mufson
Total 47 articles. Created at 2016-04-29 12:12