After successful solo shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Barcelona, along with an impressive installation at Parque Lage in Rio, artist Tofer Chin brings his first show, “Totally,” to New York’s Lu Magnus Gallery.

Chin, utilizing a combination of photography, painting, and sculpture, works with a keyhole perspective that draws the viewer in by only seeing a portion of what’s behind, forcing him or her to question their sense of perspective. The lines is his painting “31 White Lines on Black” appear to jump out at you, just as the stalagmites of his sculpture “23 White Stalagmites on White” seem to jut out of the wall.

The exhibition, which runs through March 25, is filled with blacks, whites, and neons, is evocative of the 80’s skate culture native to Chin’s Southern California. Using florescent lighting to illuminate the gallery space adds to a warped and distorted sense of perception for his audience, altering the picture plane and adding another dimension to Chin’s works.

“This exhibition is a culmination of the past 10 years of my work utilizing painting, photography, sculpture, and installation. I’m bringing the viewer to my world, as I see it, broken down to it’s basic fundamentals: number, color, and form. Big cities such as Los Angeles and São Paulo fuel me – It’s only natural that this exhibition debuted in New York City!”

Finding beauty beyond the surface – in story, background, and individuality – has been the hallmark of casting director Jennifer Venditti‘s work. Life+Times paid a visit to her SoHo studio for a conversation about her career in the high fashion world with the likes of Rodarte and W Magazine, as well as her 2007 documentary, Billy The Kid.

Grand Opening

The Miami Heat opened the 2011-2012 season with a rematch of last season’s NBA Finals in Dallas. It didn’t take long for James and Wade to show the defending champion Mavericks and the rest of the league which club is the team to beat.

Coming off a devastating overtime loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder the night before, it took another extra period for the depleted Denver Nuggets to escape the Minnesota Timberwolves, 103-101, on Monday night.

The Nuggets began the contest short five rotation players, including Nene Hilario (calf injury), Danilo Gallinari (ankle), Rudy Fernandez (back) and restricted free agent Wilson Chandler – who returned from his stint in China and will resign with the Nuggets- who watched the game with Denver executives, patiently waiting for clearance to play. So the outcome of Monday’s matchup against Ricky Rubio (16 points, five assists) and the Wolves rested on the shoulders of Ty Lawson, Aaron Afflalo and the Nuggets’ reserves.

Things started off slow for Denver in the first half as they lost Lawson (13 points) to a sprained ankle in the second quarter and steadily declined in the third when the Nuggets lost their cool and control of the game. They had a 76-69 advantage, when Andre Miller, who had 12 assists off the bench, became upset over an offensive foul and continued to argue with at the officials. Miller’s lack of restraint ended up costing Denver another player, as his heckling eventually lead to his ejection. Behind Kevin Love’s 22 points and 13 rebounds, the Timberwolves capitalized off the Nuggets miscues and went on an 11-2 run to take the lead. But Denver never wavered. Al Harrington (31 points) was huge off the bench, with an arsenal of shot fakes and body shakes, he wedged his way into the paint for layups and complemented those plays with some crowd-raising 3-pointers. His trey from the right corner tied the score at 93 with 1:37 remaining in regulation, but his teammate Afflalo missed a contested 17-foot jumper at the buzzer that would have given the Nuggets the win. In overtime, Afflalo made sure that if a second opportunity arrived to win the game, he would not miss.

With 33.7 seconds left in the extra period, the four-year veteran guard out of UCLA remained poised as his No. 6 was called upon -again- by Nuggets’ head coach George Karl. This time, Afflalo moved closer to the rim, spinning past the Wolves’ Luke Ridnour (12 points, six assists) and lifted a floater that found the bottom of the net to put Denver ahead for good. Afflalo finished with 20 points and five rebounds and became the Nuggets unsung hero of the evening. Much has been said about Denver’s lack of a closer, since Carmelo Anthony departed for the New York Knicks. And while Afflalo missed the shot in regulation, to only redeem himself in overtime, it looks as if he wants to the man with the ball down the stretch.

“That is the entire battle, who’s willing to want that shot and deal with the consequences,” Afflalo said in the post-game interviews. “I was so [mad] that I missed the first one. My opportunities for those situations have been rare this season. I knew I could get my shot off on Ridnour, without him really thinking he could block my shot. It’s good to win a close one…I don’t have to have a good game going or anything special. I just love the moments.”

In celebration of 15 years of Parisian boutique Colette, Craig Redman, also known in the digital space as Darcel Dissapoints, has created over 150 iterations of icons in both fashion and music to adorn the shop’s interior. Here, the artist provided Life+Times with exclusive images of his re-creations of everyone from Tom Ford to Yves Sait Laurent to Karl Lagerfeld in his signature egg-shaped persona.

All-Star guard Deron Williams eagerly anticipated the New Jersey Nets rematch against Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks, yesterday. So much so, that Williams’ had the game circled on his calendar.

16 days ago, on Feb. 4th, Lin torched Williams and the Nets in his Madison Square Garden debut for 25 points and seven assists. Following the game, the Nets point guard took full responsibility in helping to spawn Linsanity and offense to those on Twitter who disparaged his performance against the undrafted guard out of Harvard. The Twitter rants became all the motivation Williams needed to even the score with Lin and make the Knicks star guard look, well, “Lin-significant.”

Williams attacked Lin early and often from the opening tip, to erupt for a season-high 38 points, including scoring 18 in the third quarter, and a career-high eight 3-pointers to lead the Nets over their tri-state rivals’ Knicks, 100-92, at the Garden.

Lin finished with 21 points, seven rebounds, nine assists and four steals, but Williams was far superior on this night, as he inflicted the majority of his damage from behind the arc. Late in the third, the three-time All-Star and Olympic gold medalist scored 12 consecutive points, including a four-point play and two 3-pointers, to the chagrin of Knicks fan Spike Lee. Williams’ stellar performance not only helped New Jersey (10-24) snap a five-game losing streak against New York (16-17), but further reiterated that he’s the best point guard in the Tri-State.

“I think it’s an amazing story,” Williams told reporters about Lin. “He was going to get cut the next day and then [to] come out and play the way he did against us and just keeps it going the way he has. Even tonight [Lin] had a great game, and it’s going to get overshadowed because of mine. He plays great basketball. It’s definitely a tremendous story.”

iTunes

In one of the most entertaining games of the truncated NBA season, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook strikingly combined for 91 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Denver Nuggets 124-118 in overtime on Sunday.

As impressive as Durant’s career-high (and NBA-best) 51 points on 28 shots performance and Westbrook’s complementary 40 points was- Serge Ibaka’s outing equally dazzled the sellout crowd at Chesapeake Energy Arena. The Serge Protector channeled Dikemba Mutombo’s defensive prowess to post his first career triple-double with 14 points, 15 rebounds and a career-high 11 blocks to become the 14th player in franchise history (Thunder/SuperSonics) to record such a game and the first to do so with double-digit blocks.

Together, the trifecta became the first set of teammates in NBA history to record a 50-point performance, a 40-point night and a triple-double in a single game. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Durant and Westbrook are just the third pair of teammates in league history to record 50 and 40 and the first tandem to score at least 40 points apiece in the same game since Michael Jordan (44) and Scottie Pippen (40) did it for the Chicago Bulls in 1996. With two NBA scoring titles to his credit, KD recorded the sixth 50-point game in franchise history.

Both Durant and Westbrook were in rare form, and temporarily silenced any notion of the duo not being able to co-exist. The dynamic duo combined to score or assist on 60 of OKC’s 71 points in the second half and overtime, equaling the Nuggets output through the final three quarters. The Thunder’s unprecedented performance can easily be attributed to KD and Westbrook’s All-Star contributions, but Ibaka is the unsung hero. His interior defense erased a litany of OKC miscues and wiped their slate clean with his Mutombo-esque finger-wag after each rejection. Offensive production may get the glory, but defense wins games.

The Thunder have won nine consecutive home games this season, which is their longest home winning streak since moving to Oklahoma City. The last time they won nine in a row at home was during the 2004-05 season when the franchise was in Seattle.

All Photos: Danny Dewes