Artlog / In Focus

Ray Johnson… Dali/Warhol/and others…

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:33:29 -0400

Picked for: 2009-07-03

Ray Johnson… Dali/Warhol/and others… ‘Main Ray, Ducham, Openheim, Pikabia…’, will reveal the shared interests and iconography of Ray Johnson, Salvador Dali, and Andy Warhol. The exhibition will feature an exciting selection of previously unexhibited collages by Johnson that will show his distinct and incessant layering of re-appropriated imagery from Surrealism, high culture, and Pop Art. The three artists all exploited celebrity – both their own and others’ – and constructed powerful personae that were an integral part of their work. While Dali and Warhol sought the limelight in order to promote their art, Johnson was more interested in dodging in and out of it and became famous for being ‘unknown.’

Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe: Black Acid COOP

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:01:49 -0400

Picked for: 2009-07-02

Deitch Projects is pleased to present Black Acid Co-op, the third collaborative project of Justin Lowe and Jonah Freeman. Their first installation Hello Meth Lab In The Sun (with Alexandre Singh), commissioned by Ballroom Marfa, consisted of a labyrinthine assemblage of rooms, hallways, closets and observation platforms. A variation entitled Hello Meth Lab With A View then traveled to The Station in Miami, FL, curated by Shamim Momin and Nate Lowman and produced by Eleanor Cayre, where it was installed in a duplex apartment. Their new piece continues the themes of previous versions specifically that of alchemy in a modern context and community, ritual and psychosis.

Connect Weekly - Independence Day by staff

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:47:12 -0400

Hey Artloggers, welcome to the Weekly Connect Newsletter. The 4th of July is upon us and the typical summer torpor is settling over the art world in New York City in spite of the uncommonly poor summer weather. So we are looking across the country and highlighting art shows near 11 of the most spectacular sites to view America’s most explosive fireworks displays (with some help from Travel + Leisure).

Despite the summer slowdown in openings, great events and interesting exhibitions are happening all summer. In this holiday week alone, there are NYC openings at D’Amelio Terras, Jeff Bailey Gallery, Greene Contemporary, Frederieke Taylor & Deitch and San Francisco openings at Andrea Schwartz , David Cunningham, room for painting room for paper and Needles and Pens

Don’t forget to check our multi-city event Picks, “in focus” blog and the event directory! With nearly 5,000 events, the directory continues to grow with your help. Remember, just register (it’s free), and start adding your openings, art fundraisers, and art events today!

Tables and Chairs

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:14:41 -0400

Picked for: 2009-07-01

Originally this show was supposed to be about a moving truck going cross-country packed with art from Los Angeles. We’d invite a bunch of artists to contribute something and drive a truck around collecting pieces. When it was full, we’d drive eastward, show up in New York and put something together. This is basically what happened, minus the U-haul. Tables and Chairs brings together nine LA-based artists paired with selected works by Alice Hutchins. This show grew from associations in artworks that share an interest in abstraction, geometry, interaction, and dissolution.

Give Them What They Never Knew They Wanted

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:24:48 -0400

Picked for: 2009-07-01

Former Vogue editor and fashion icon, Diana Vreeland, once declared, “Give them what they never knew they wanted.” Referring to this expression, the title of the exhibition plays on the current condition of the art market, challenging criteria for collecting work while also acknowledging its commoditization. Celebrating creativity in its many forms, the exhibition embraces eclecticism.

Hannah Cole - Instant Sublime

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:17:40 -0400

Picked for: 2009-07-01

Hannah Cole’s work explores the distracted American state of mind. In Instant Sublime, she investigates the disconnect between an individual’s physical presence and emotional state during a single instant in time. In the chaos of urban life, driving is one of the few remaining acts of ritual and solitude. Drawing from personal experience, Cole uses different views from inside a car as a metaphor for the relationship between interior life and the world outside.

America's Next Top Artist - Seriously! by staff

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:20:56 -0400

For the past year, art insiders have been talking (not so positively) about reality television coming to art and now Bravo, teaming up with Sarah Jessica Parker, has finally started casting of its untitled artist reality show. (image by Banksy)

The casting call: “How do you go from struggling, emerging or even semi-established artist to selling a complete show for $198 million? It’s a big art world out there, but maybe this is one place to start! If you’re an emerging or mid-career artist with a unique, powerful voice that demands a bigger stage – well. . . Here. It. Is.”

Casting Calls for The Untitled Art Project are as follows:

LOS ANGELES Saturday, July 11 & Sunday, July 12, 10 AM – 2 PM LAXART www.laxart.org

MIAMI Tuesday, July 14, 10 AM – 2 PM Fredric Snitzer Gallery www.Snitzer.com

CHICAGO Thursday, July 16, 10 AM – 2 PM School of the Art Institute of Chicago Sullivan Galleries, 33 State Street www.saic.edu

NEW YORK Saturday, July 18 & Sunday, July 19, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM White Columns www.whitecolumns.org

Affordable Art Weekly: Adopting a Homeless Puppy for your Wall by staff

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:08:57 -0400

The Fine Art Adoption Network (FAAN) exists with the genuine goal of connecting art not only to an audience, but to actual owners. The organization makes no profit from its sales, which, in fact, are not really even sales. Instead, artists give up their precious works to perfect strangers with the belief that, like the tiny Boston Terrier you adopted for your tiny East Village apartment, they will go to a deserving home.

How it works: Artists selected by FAAN can post up to six images on the website, then members of the network simply make their case for wanting to own that artist’s work. The free membership also allows “adopters” to contact artists from all over the country about their art.

- Emily Snyder, Artlog Contributor

THE ART MARKET | ART BAZAAR

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:47:00 -0400

The ART BAZAAR is an OPEN CALL to ALL ARTISTS on Saturdays and Sundays, beginning July 4th thru August 16th, who wish to display and sell their artwork at Lyons Wier Gallery. The gallery doors will open at 8AM for artists to install their work and the ART BAZAAR will open to the public at 10AM. There is no price structure, no visual filter for inclusion and no politics for entrance other than a willingness to show up, step-up and sell the work.

Iran Inside Out @Chelsea Art Museum by staff

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:03:58 -0400

The groundbreaking and timely exhibition features 35 artists living and working in Iran alongside 21 others living in the Diaspora. Iran Inside Out is an examination of the means through which a young generation of artists is reconciling the daily implications of cultural and geographical distances with the search for individual artistic expression. The exhibition offers an unexpected insight into the artistic energy of a culture that is constantly evolving as Iranians living both in and out of the country, come of age living and working in contentious societies. While half of these artists such as Vahid Sharifian, Barbad Golshiri, Farideh Lashai and Jinoos Taghizadeh reside in Iran, the other half including artists such as Shirin Neshat, Shahram Entekhabi, Mitra Tabrizian and Shoja Azari has been interspersed in the Diaspora.

Exhibition details here

Motion Portrait

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:14:21 -0400

Picked for: 2009-06-27

Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to announce Motion Portrait, a solo exhibition of new works by the New York based French street artist known as WK Interact. WK’s ephemeral artwork includes wheat pastes and large-scale murals of figures in high-contrast black and white; each piece is site-specific and his imagery is always placed in accordance with its surrounding environment. In addition to mixed-media pieces containing found objects and WK’s trademark style of distorted figural imagery, Motion Portrait will also feature a group of large-scale paintings.

Yinka Shonibare @Brooklyn Museum by staff

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:56:13 -0400

Last night was the opening of the the first major survey of the work of Yinka Shonibare, the British-based, Nigerian artist, whose art explores the relationship of contemporary African identity to European colonialism includes sculpture, paintings, large-scale-installations, series of photographs, and films.

Yinka’s gallery, the Chelsea staple James Cohan Gallery, describes his work as a “collision between irrational mysticism and logical reason that occurred in society during the eighteenth-century enlightenment period. The artist’s work often concerns itself with the history of colonization and its ensuing struggles”

A highlight of the show and something not to miss is found hidden in the permanent sets of the 18th and 19th century Period Rooms (4th Floor) where Yinka has discreetly placed several of his colorful headless characters.

This week’s newsletter on magnificent gardens left out the 1-2 combo of a trip to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and the Brooklyn Museum. This show is up thru 9/20

PLOT 09: This World & Nearer Ones

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:08:03 -0400

Picked for: 2009-06-27

PLOT is a new public art quadrennial, produced and presented by Creative Time. This World & Nearer Ones is the first edition of PLOT, and will be held this summer on Governors Island. 19 artworks by an A-list of international, contemporary artists will be presented. The exhibition is free and open to the public Friday-Sunday. This World & Nearer Ones includes only site-specific artwork. Artists selected for the show were asked to respond to their sites on Governors Island.

'No Soul For Sale' - Olympics of Nonprofit Art Groups is in Chelsea This Weekend by staff

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:11:31 -0400

“If a marauding spacecraft were to visit Manhattan in the next four days and beam up the former Dia Art Foundation headquarters in Chelsea, a large chunk of the world’s nonprofit art spaces would disappear too. From now through Sunday the four-story Dia building on West 22nd Street, with its wide-open spaces and capacious made-for-art roof, is serving as a gathering spot for more than 40 alternative galleries and organizations, with a geographical spread ranging from Rabat, Morocco, to Marfa, Tex. They’ve come together for an event — an un-art fair, nonexhibition, sort of convention — called “No Soul for Sale: A Festival of Independents.” It was organized by a New York City nonprofit called X Initiative, which was started earlier this year by a group of artists, curators, and collectors, led by the Chelsea dealer Elizabeth Dee.” http://artlog.com/events/4112-no-soul-for-sale-

Artlog Artists in Concert

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:31:17 -0400

Picked for: 2009-06-25

The exhibition Four Artists in Concert arose out of Music & Art, a concert series highlighting emerging new music ensembles and visual artists. In collaboration between Performing Arts at CAM and Artlog.com, the concert series took place at Chelsea Art Museum during the fall and winter of 2008/2009. Visual artists from across the globe were invited to submit work through the arts community site artlog.com, emulating the themes of the concerts.

A Walk in the Park: Outdoor Sculpture at PaceWildenstein

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:38:10 -0400

Picked for: 2009-06-25

A Walk in the Park: Outdoor Sculpture at PaceWildenstein features a dynamic selection of monumental outdoor sculpture by seminal figures in modern and contemporary art, including Alexander Calder, John Chamberlain, Jim Dine, Jean Dubuffet, Lee Ufan, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Lucas Samaras, Joel Shapiro, and Kiki Smith. Adjusting the frame of reference and context in order to encompass architecture, people, and traffic, and using materials that withstand the harsh conditions of climate, the artists included in this exhibition have redefined the public landscape.

My Summer Show

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:07:48 -0400

Picked for: 2009-06-25

The artists in the exhibition represent a wide range of backgrounds, spanning generations and countries of origin. Though some of the artists (John Bock, Manfred Pernice, Sergej Jensen) are already well known internationally, a number of them-such as Jenny Monick, Alex Hubbard, Markus Amm-are early in their careers. My Summer Show demonstrates that, notwithstanding current trends, abstraction remains an integral language to contemporary artists.

Connect Weekly - Sculpture Gardens by staff

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:54:38 -0400

Hey Artloggers, welcome to the Weekly Connect Newsletter. With hopes of the summer sun finally replacing the rain, we are highlighting a series of sculpture gardens, partially inspired by the recent opening of the High Line (pictured above in it’s previously semi-wild state in a photograph by Jesse Chehak). The gardens listed down below use the absence of confining museum walls to heighten the experience of viewing sculpture. At each location, the forces of nature are constantly at work interacting with the art, creating a unique viewing experience for visitors on any given day.

We would also like to highlight some exciting events taking place this week starting with Thursday’s opening reception of a special exhibition of artists selected from Artlog at the Chelsea Art Museum. Then on Friday, join us for the next Artlog Summer Series event at the New York Historical Society.

NO SOUL FOR SALE – A Festival Of Independents

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:31:57 -0400

Picked for: 2009-06-23

The X Initiative, which has taken over the former building of the Dia Chelsea space, brings together 30 of the most exciting, creative and respected not-for-profit centers, alternative institutions, artists’ collectives and independent enterprises from around the world to present their artists. At the opening on June 23, Mexico City-based artist Martin Soto Climent orchestrates a performative sculpture involving the public drinking more than one thousand beers.

Seeing is Believing: The Art of Shaping Perception

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:17:38 -0400

Picked for: 2009-06-22

Adam Gopnik will moderate a discussion between artist Chuck Close and magician Mark Mitton about the shaping and manipulating of perception. The conversation, which benefits ArtsConnection, the not-for-profit arts-in education organization, will be held in conjunction with the exhibition Chuck Close: Selected Paintings and Tapestries at PaceWildenstein’s West 25th Street gallery.