Beez and Honey

Lisa Yuskavage at David Zwirner

2011-09-30T09:40:00.000-04:00

Lisa Yuskavage
Triptych
2011
Oil on linen
Each: 77 1/4 x 70 1/8 inches (196.2 x 178.1 x 3.8 cm)
YUSLI0395

Why go any deeper when the surface is so pleasing? That's what I asked a skeptic at the opening for Lisa Yuskavage's long awaited exhibition at David Zwirner. I love everything about this painter and her work; the subject matter, the landscape, the art historical references, the palette of colors, the technique of ephemeral-like painting. Indeed she creates a world of heavenly delights. The fact that some of the biggest artists of our time, from John Currin to Chuck Close were at the opening suggest that they too have a great regard for Ms. Yuskavage and her delicious work.

Lisa Yuskavage
Outskirts
2011
Oil on linen
86 x 120 inches (218.4 x 304.8 cm)
YUSLI0393

Lisa Yuskavage
Afternoon Feeding
2011
Oil on linen
86 x 71 inches (218.4 x 180.3 cm)
YUSLI0406

Matthew Barney: DJED at Gladstone Gallery

2011-09-20T15:38:00.000-04:00

I love the work of Matthew Barney. Always have, and I think always will. Here in a new series called "DJED" Matthew draws inspiration from Norman Mailer's "Ancient Evenings".

From the press release:

"Ancient Evenings” is a multi-part project structured as a site-specific opera in collaboration with Jonathan Bepler, loosely based on Norman Mailer's 1983 novel of the same title. Set in ancient Egypt, Mailer’s novel chronicles the seven stages of the soul's progression through death and rebirth according to Egyptian mythology, as told through the story of one man. While Mailer's narrative focuses on the transformation of the human body, Barney enacts the recurring cycles of reincarnation through the use of an automobile, creating a contemporary allegory of death and rebirth within the American industrial landscape. The sculptures on view are both formally and conceptually related to the 1967 Chrysler Crown Imperial from Cremaster 3. Revolving around three generations of American automobile design, the "Ancient Evenings" narrative is rooted in the reincarnation of its leading protagonist, the Chrysler Imperial."

Iron, copper, bronze and lead are a departure from Barney's traditional materials, and the RED drawings (unfortunately I don't have an image) are to die for in their particularity.

Until October 22 at Gladstone Gallery 21st Street

Spencer Tunick on the Dead Sea in Israel

2011-09-19T08:45:00.002-04:00

Henrique Oliveira: A Brazilian in Paris at Vallois

2011-09-14T12:16:00.000-04:00

Galerie Vallois in St Germain des Pres is one of those few galleries in the neighborhood that show contemporary art, and show it well. Like Kamel Mennour, the artists that I've seen there are all very good at what they are doing, and they do BIG things. Henrique Oliveira is no exception it seems with his twisting and winding root sculptures that break through the floors and ceilings of this space.

Until October 9, 2011

code 2.0

2011-09-13T10:32:00.000-04:00

Launched last October by Laetitia Chauvin and Clément Dirié code 2.0 has made a great come back as an English/French magazine featuring articles about contemporary art. Worth taking a look...

Maison de la Chasse et de la Nature

2011-09-13T10:27:00.000-04:00

This museum has been revamped and now includes exhibitions of contemporary art that fits the theme of the hunt and nature. Francoise Petrovitch's drawings, paintings and sculpture fit right into the old world assemblage of taxidermy, weaponry, video and objects around hunting. I wondered though if the artist was commissioned to make these works or chosen because of the subject of her previously existing body of work...

The Seabass at Fondation D'Enterprise Ricard

2011-09-13T10:22:00.000-04:00

For the 13th Prix Fondation d'enterprise Ricard a group exhibition of the finalists featuring several works from each artist are on view until October 29th.

Corentin Grossmann, "Lolo Landscape", 2010, crayon de couleur et aérographe sur papier, 145 x 100 cm.

Click here for images from the exhibition.

St Moritz Art Masters 2011

2011-09-13T10:15:00.000-04:00

Ten days of art that at first I thought I could do in 2 days. Well I stayed longer, and it was well worth it. All throughout the Engadin, public art works, gallery exhibitions, cocktails, dinners, parties, artists talks and film were what composed a fun and truly ART filled weekend. Many Swiss artists had their turn in the spotlight and some from other parts of Europe, China, America and Latin America. Curated by Reiner Opoku, the third year of this wonderful festival entitled St Moritz Art Masters or SAM was definitely a highlight of the summer art scene. This year's theme, Lingua Franca - A Public Intervention, was curated by husband and wife duo Mr. and Mrs. Marc Hungerbuehler.

Artists

Aliabadi Shirin

169 KB

Armleder John

173 KB

Aslanian Vahakn

191 KB

Baum Jacqueline & Jacob Ursula

163 KB

Choi Jeong Hwa

137 KB

Condo George

165 KB

Diaz Alejandro

159 KB

Dokoupil Georg

171 KB

Espina Tomas

137 KB

Ma Jennifer Wen

163 KB

Martin Ferran

137 KB

Marty Urs

139 KB

Meese Jonathan

175 KB

Morris Sarah

170 KB

Netzhammer Yves

170 KB

Reusse Stephan

168 KB

Signer Roman

170 KB

Spinatsch Jules

167 KB

Stolte Fiete

188 KB

Turello Amedeo

169 KB

Wei Li

159 KB

Galleries

Gallery Bischofberger

139 KB

Gallery Cahn

167 KB

Gallery Caratsch

174 KB

Gallery Cardenas

140 KB

Gallery Gmurzynska

171 KB

Gallery Greve

165 KB

Gallery Tschudi

164 KB

Gallery Vann

164 KB

Gallery von Bartha

164 KB

Project Lingua Franca

Lingua Franca Long

234 KB

Lingua Franca Short

83 KB

Baum Jacqueline & Jacob Ursula

163 KB

Choi Jeong Hwa

137 KB

Diaz Alejandro

159 KB

Espina Tomas

137 KB

Ma Jennifer Wen

163 KB

Martin Ferran

137 KB

Art Collection

Julius Baer Art Collection - Video works

164 KB

Maybach Foundation

La Rentree: Catching up with art in Switzerland on the way back to NYC

2011-09-13T09:53:00.001-04:00

So after a long break from writing in this blog I'm back. It was an eventful summer, too eventful at times to stop and record all the art things that I saw.
Briefly, in Zurich, there was a great exhibition by Christina Scheublein Fine Art. Gathering quite a roster of good artists for a group show that opened recently, I was happy to see familiar faces like Tjorg Douglas Beer from Berlin in 863km , Stefano Cagol from Italy and Dimitri Horta from Zurich in Underworld by Galerie Utopia/Forgotten Bar.

To Look Forward To: Richard Serra @ Gagosian 24th

2011-09-13T09:43:00.000-04:00

Gagosian Gallery presents Richard Serra, again. Worth checking out this titan's new output in NYC. Wish I were there...

RICHARD SERRA
Junction, 2011
Weatherproof steel
13' 1/2" x 75' 1/2" x 49' 9 15/16" (4 x 22.9 x 15.2 m)
© Richard Serra. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Photo by Lorenz Kienzle

Born in 1938, Richard Serra is one of the most significant artists of his generation. His groundbreaking bodies of work in both sculpture and drawing have been celebrated with major retrospectives at The Museum of Modern Art ("Richard Serra Sculpture Forty Years," 2007 and "Richard Serra/Sculpture," 1986) and the current "Richard Serra Drawings: A Retrospective" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which will travel this year to SFMOMA and the Menil Collection in Houston. He has produced large-scale, site-specific sculptures for architectural, urban and landscape settings spanning the globe, from Iceland to New Zealand. In addition to his 2008 MONUMENTA installation Promenade at the Grand Palais in Paris, Serra conceived The Matter of Time, an eight-part permanent installation at the Guggenheim Bilbao in 2005.

Pics of Christmas in the Summer: A Conceptual bi-coastal art show by Derrick B. Harden and Laura O'Reilly

2011-08-29T10:20:00.000-04:00

Teddy Willoughby, Laura O'Reily, Derrick B Harden, Meghan Colman and Jasmine Levitt

Derrick & Laura O'Reily

Christmas in the Summer: A Conceptual bi-coastal art show by Derrick B. Harden and Laura O'Reilly

2011-08-17T04:54:00.000-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THE HOLE POP UP & CAPPELLINI PRESENT

“Christmas in the Summer”

NEW YORK TO LOS ANGELES

A conceptual bi-coastal art show

by Derrick B.Harden & Laura O’Reilly

Featuring Paintings by Kathy Grayson

Curators Derrick B. Harden & Laura O’Reilly, the newly appointed associate directing duo of The Hole art gallery on The Bowery are set to debut the first official “Hole Pop-Up" exhibition at Cappellini in SoHo, New York August 17th and December 2011 in Los Angeles, California. In a conceptual curatorial project about the experience of art, Laura and Derrick pair Kathy Grayson (former director of Deitch Projects and owner of The Hole Gallery) with N.Levi Lewis & Frederick McSwain (Cappellini/Poltrona Frau Group) for "Christmas in the Summer," a bi-coastal art show where you can't see the art for sale. The exhibition highlights both Cappellini’s mission to explore design between imagination and reality, and The Hole’s pursuit to fill the hole in the creative downtown community. All paintings are wrapped in gift wrap and tied up with big red bows, and an audio guide made by the curators offers your only intimation at what might lie beneath. Viewers walk into the bright red showroom like an eager kid on Christmas Eve who has to wait to open their presents until the next day-- or in this case when the show is over.

“Christmas in the Summer” is an art show inside an art show, featuring Kathy Grayson’s hidden paintings of abstracted and hacked pixilated stills ripped from television clips. Harden’s choice to constrain the viewers ability to actually see the paintings is a reaction to the free proliferation of imagery both in the art world and culture in general. “Christmas in the Summer” encourages the public to reconsider the machinery of the art gallery system that processes, packages and exports imagery chiefly to an unreachable exclusive income bracket. Conversely, the exhibition features paintings that reclaim available media images to personalize and re-imagine them, but then forces collectors to purchase the work if they want to ever see what it is.

Don’t worry, you won’t be left totally in the dark. Just because you can’t see the art, doesn’t mean that you won’t see the art: the visual show of pre-gift-wrapped paintings by Ms. Grayson is accompanied by a looped 20-minute audio tour of the exhibition. The central conundrum of the exhibition is the decision of the collector to ever make the painting and image public, thus controlling information and highlighting the luxury of privacy in our mobile media obsessed cultural moment. They may choose to never share their present with anyone.

The fun doesn't stop there: pre-order Dear Derrick & Laura O’s debut album “Christmas in the Summer” on www.xmasinthesummer.com, which of course you can’t hear! You'll just have to take their word for it.

NEW YORK: “Christmas in the Summer” August 17th- August 23rd, 2011
LOS ANGELES: “Christmas in the Summer” opens December 2011 at Cappellini
8950 Beverly Boulevard West Hollywood, CA

Press/VIP invite only opening reception Wednesday August 17th 7:00-9:00pm
Location: Cappellini 152 Wooster St between Houston & Prince, SoHo NY
Open to the Public: Thursday August 18th-Monday August 23rd
Hours: Weekday 11-7pm, Weekend 12-6pm

Press Contact: N.Levi Lewis levi.lewis@pfgna.com
Gallery Contact: poke@theholenyc.com 212 466-1100

TO ATTEND THE PRESS PRIVATE OPENING RSVP (AND RECEIVE SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS) EMAIL: POKE@THEHOLENYC.COM

Spencer Tunick in Belgium: FYI, you may need a translator :)

2011-07-14T12:44:00.000-04:00

...But the pictures speak a thousand words...

The July 4th Exhibition at Beez and Honey in Trinidad and Tobago

2011-06-30T14:48:00.000-04:00

The 4^th of July is one of the most important American national holidays. The artists in this exhibition all share something of the independence of America. Kristin Anderson, American, has created a video of a parade in Schoolcraft, Michigan, as well as still prints of scenes from the parade and the blue, white and red flag abstracted into a kaleidoscope, based on images taken on the same day as the parade. Anne Herzog (French) has a collection of small drawings showing the costs of American independence and nationalism; men in army uniforms in the desert somewhere. David Pierre (Trinidadian) offers up watercolors that touch on the effects of immigration and the postcolonial world, both the man-made and natural landscape, as well as the social and psychological landscape, as seen through the lens of America’s influence on the island.

Tal Shpantzer at Witzenhausen Gallery NYC and the Hamptons

2011-06-29T12:34:00.000-04:00

This artist will be all over NYC and the Hamptons this summer. Showing in Chelsea at Witzenhausen Gallery July 14 to August 12, Tal's work encompasses a range of subjects from the young, the old, innocent and not quite, with a style very much her own. Saturated with color, humor and humanity, her subjects reaffirm a link between the physical and spiritual realms.

Go see more at Art Market Hamptons too.

Juanli Carrion at Y Gallery

2011-06-24T13:50:00.000-04:00

Now that the rush is over from the opening night party, come down and see Juanli Carrion's extraordinary work at Y Gallery in video, prints and lightboxes that delight the eye while engaging in serious social commentary. Until July 31.

Back in NYC: Stephen Burks

2011-06-24T10:23:00.002-04:00

I've known this artist for years but I guess like any good relationship it only happens when both parties are ready. In Venice and Basel we met and smiled and this time promised to find out WTF each of us was doing in the art world. Yesterday he took me on a tour of his exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and then his first curated exhibition at the Museum of Arts & Design in Columbus Circle.

"Stephen Burks: Man Made" is the first exhibition of design at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Focusing on a creative collaboration between Stephen and his studio Ready Made Projects in NYC with basket weavers in Senegal, the exhibition offers videos about the process of creation, photographs by the artist of locals interacting with his exhibition of works in Senegal, lamps, speakers, tables, chairs and other decorative and functional objects made with the shape and idea of the basket. A series of interactive days where the artist and guests actually created things are over, but the exibition ends on Sunday so rush over there.

At MAD, Stephen has put together an exceptional exhibition of art and design along the idea of the hybrid; i.e. the influence of the ethnic on contemporary art and culture. "Stephen Burks: Are You a Hybrid?" includes work by American Indian artist Brad Kahlhammer, Charles and Ray Eames, Chris Ofili, Isamu Noguchi, Delphine Diallo, many others and by the artist himself. This exhibition goes till October 2, but run to see it!

Stephen Burks, Cappellini Love Table, 2008

Maarten Van Severen, Hybrid Cutlery, 2008

Zwelethu Mthethwa, Untiltled (from the series interiors), 2010

Basel Art Fairs

2011-06-24T09:51:00.002-04:00

What can I say about Zurich and Basel? In Zurich my friend Jean Gid Lee's husband German artist Thomas Kiesewetter had a show in the home of the gallerist from Greider Contemporary. On those previous links you can see the work. There were parties, of course, and people people people, but lots of nature too; fish in the lake, in the rivers, and trees and sunlight when it was not gray.

Basel was AMAZING. For me the Messe of Art Basel was almost like second home as I lived 10 minutes away. Liste was like my living room where I met people for coffee, a glass of cava, or a sausage :) as I stayed right around the corner from it. I did many dinners and parties and of course Kunsthalle for dancing but my camera's still broken so there are no pictures unfortunately, except these few from the Iphone.

"Eco gli due pazze" or something like that my friend texted me from his blackberry pic of us (me with Flavia) at Chez Donati the first night in Basel ;)

Anton Ginzburg: At the Back of the North Wind at the Venice Biennale

2011-06-22T07:26:00.000-04:00

Palazzo Bollani saw a comprehensive show of Ginzburg's new work. You can read more here. From Anton's website:

In developing this project, Ginzburg embarked on a three-part journey, commencing in the American North West (Astoria, Oregon), continuing to St. Petersburg and then to the White Sea, the site of the Soviet Gulag prison camps.

The exhibition will encompass four rooms and two floors and includes three large-scale sculptural installations, eight site-specific bas reliefs, photography, paintings, a video installation and a series of works on paper. Serving as the central narrative force for the exhibition, the film is a poetic and evocative record of the expedition to “map the void” and search for the mythological land of Hyperborea, “beyond the Boreas” (beyond the North Wind).

On the first floor of the palazzo there will be a series of photographs and works on paper, detailing and expanding upon the artist’s travel journal, revealing the process of developing the project, as well as artifacts from the artist’s explorations.

The exhibition, taking a form of the dreamscape, begins in the grand salon with an installation entitled Ashnest. In this work, a serpentine sculpture emerges from a vast, centrally positioned circle of ashes five meters (over 16 feet) in diameter. Sculptural elements, some up to four meters (13 feet) in height, will rise from the circle of ash and debris held by steel rods, traditional to anthropological museum presentations. Fragments of 40,000 year-old mammoth tusks will be juxtaposed and combined with sculptural elements developed from the micro CT scan of the human bone and reproduced in three-dimensional polyurethane structures. In a manner common to scientific practice, these objects will have been made whole based on computerized approximations of their original forms in combination with artistic invention. The resulting sculpture will become the embodiment of an alternative history, and will evoke a palpable sense of the mystery surrounding their origins. Ashnest will convey a feeling of the after effects of disaster and collapse. Eight molded panels, which once framed paintings in the palazzo’s interior, will contain site-specific bas reliefs of geometric masks and abstract motifs relating to the cosmogony of sculptural characters and references presented throughout the exhibition.

The second room will house two marble sculptures, Bone Totem Owl, carved from white Carrara marble, featuring a bronze-eyed owl, and the biomorphic Bone Totem 2, carved from black Belgian marble. Over two and half meters (8 feet) in height the sculptures reference shamanic totems while also drawing on the human bone CT scans represented in Ashnest. This room will also contain two large abstract paintings based on maps of potential locations of Hyperborea.

The last room will contain Hyperborea, a video installation that will document the journey attempting to locate Hyperborea according to its descriptions in literature, newspaper articles and mythology. The installation takes the viewer from the primordial, virgin forest of Oregon, to St. Petersburg and its eroding palaces and haunted natural history museum, and finally to the ruins of the Gulag prisons and archeological sites on the White Sea. Present throughout the installation is a cloud of red smoke that functions both as a metaphor for the exalted self and an expression of the collective unconscious.

The body of work began with the artist’s observation that mythological patterns were undeniably woven into the fabric of everyday reality – specifically in the tension formed between the actual and the potential – and was expanded by the concept of Hyperborea, a mythical region that has been recently claimed to be discovered on the White Sea in northern Russia. Hyperborea was originally described by the ancient Greek writer Herodotus as the land of the Golden Age, and was thought to be a place of pure bliss, perpetual sunlight and eternal springtime. It has been an inspiration for early modernist thinkers such as Nietzsche and Madame Blavatskaya, while acting as a central theme to the early twentieth century St. Petersburg poetic tradition of Acmeism — dealing with the “golden age of man.” Hyperborea continues to excite imagination of global media as the supposed birth-place of numerous cultures and nations.

The Black Arch: The Saudi Arabian Pavilion featuring Shadia Alem and Raja Alem at la Biennale di Venezia

2011-06-09T05:34:00.000-04:00

Thank God for youtube. Here you get an idea of this wonderful work, one of the best I saw at the Biennale. From Saudi Arabia, by two women; of course ;)

30 Days of Running in the Space: Ahmed Basiony for Egypt at la Biennale di Venezia

2011-06-09T05:23:00.000-04:00

Shot by "security forces" during the Friday of Wrath in Cairo in January of this year, Basiony's work lives on. Indeed, knowing his story adds a haunting element to the work, but even without the information about his untimely death at the age of 32 the viewer can feel the importance of this work, its role in revolutionizing a mindset and therefore its enduring qualities.

Image courtesy: http://artculture.com/venice-biennale-2011/ahmed-basiony-egyptian-art

Sigalit Landau for Israel at la Biennale di Venezia

2011-06-08T11:29:00.001-04:00

Deadsee. 2008.

What a wonderful woman and wonderful works she makes! She could not stop smiling at the party Kamel Mennour threw for her in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, with the Tintoretto's on the floor above blessing her below. Sigalit Landau's work for the Israeli Pavilion took you on a journey (through film, performance, sculpture, installation) that spoke not only of her personal inner world, but through water, soil and salt to the once vast Dead Sea and the conflicts surrounding that region.

Images courtesy http://www.1fmediaproject.net/2011/06/04/sigalit-landau-one-man%E2%80%99s-floor-is-another-man%E2%80%99s-feelings-israeli-pavilion/

Adrian Villar Rojas for Argentina at la Biennale di Venezia

2011-06-08T11:07:00.000-04:00

Big big big BIG concrete. Makes you think of a city. But this exhibition entitled "El asesino de tu herencia" (The murderer of your heritage) by Adrian Villar Rojas took your breath away, yes, almost like in a big city. Monumental in size, these figures made you think of other worlds and universes, while grounding you clearly in this world via the use of ubiquitous concrete!

Image courtesy http://venetiancat.blogspot.com/

Lee Yongbaek: Korean Pavilion at la Biennale di Venezia

2011-06-08T10:57:00.000-04:00

This artist's oeuvre extended to various media and each section of the pavilion excited the viewer in a different way. From the sounds of shattered glass and mirrors in one room to the hanging flowers of another, one could see that "Love is gone, but the scar will heal", the theme of Lee Yongbaek's exhibition.

Image courtesy: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/executive-lifestyle/celebrities-and-super-rich-change-the-face-of-venices-116-year-old-biennale/story-e6frg9zo-1226069685558

Stefano Cagol: Concilio at la Biennale di Venezia

2011-06-08T10:32:00.000-04:00

Inside the tiny Chiesa di San Gallo near San Marco's square was a piece entitled Concilio by Stefano Cagol. In some ways an extension of his recent exhibition in NYC, Stefano's film of fire and ice was an enthralling commentary on the solitude of man and the power of the elements.