"Escape Hotel Stories" by Francisca Matteoli

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!
A few days ago I've been invited to a party hosted by Assouline, the famous publisher. It wasn't exactly a party but rather a cocktail in the honor of Francisca Matteoli whose the new book is entitled "Escape Hotel Stories".

Chilean-born with Scottish origins on the mother side, Francisca, spent her childhood in South America. She's now living in Paris after spending many years in Brazil. From all of those trips, she retained a deep love and admiration for Nature, the beauty of landscapes, the serenity and the inspiration she could find... She wrote many travel essays and books. Her last travel book is based on some of the world's most stunning hotels and follow in the footsteps of influential writers and inspirational artists who took refuge in many different places equally serene and inspiring. She brings us into her own world and reveals us all her favorite places where each time a hotel developed a unique relationship with its surrounding universe.

Credit: Assouline
To buy this wonderful book: 
http://www.assouline.com/9781614280477.html

INterview with Michaela Gleave

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!
Michaela is a young Australian-born artist (1980) whose work questions the passage of time and the relationship to the nature...


1 – Dear Michaela, what made you decide to become an artist? Who are those who influenced you?


« The first job I remember wanting to have as a child was to draw pictures of animals, but growing up in remote and regional Australia being an artist wasn’t something I ever thought of as a possibility.  I didn’t see any contemporary art until I was 18 and spent a gap year in Europe, and experiencing installation art for the first time was tremendously exciting.  I remember a work at the Tate St Ives that included a sea of rotting carrots, and one in Paris which was a giant blanket cubby that had to crawled through on hands and knees.  I was also lucky enough to stumble across the Venice Biennale when travelling through Italy and saw the work of Ann Veronica Janssens.  She had filled the Belgian Pavilion with cloud, completely arresting the viewer’s experience of time and space.  The use of the viewer as a physical agent in these and other works, and the dissolution of the traditional gap between audience and object dramatically changed my perception of what art was and the possibilities available to an artist. »


2 – Some of your works question the passage of time and our relationship with the nature. Environmental problems are important to you?


« I think time is the ultimate sculptural material, virtually impossible to manipulate in any real sense, so the suggestion I saw in Jansenns’ work that this might be possible through art was an important formative moment for me.  Time is a crucial element in my works and generally I have very little desire to make things which will last, due mostly I think to the futility of attempting to do so in the face of infinite time and space.  Creating things which unfold in real time, unmediated experiences of an actual event occurring before the viewer, has always been a key focus of my practice. I aim through my work to connect the viewer to things that are larger than themselves and I’m not interested particularly in making work about people, rather in exploring that which exists just beyond the realm of human perception as a means of questioning how it is that we see, interpret and engage with the world around us.  On a personal level I have a deep love for the natural environment – the beauty inherent in nature far outstrips anything that can be created – but I see the role of the artist as one of asking questions, not dictating answers.....


READ MORE: 
http://www.hauteliving.com/2012/05/haute-art-exclusive-interview-with-australian-artist-michaela-gleave/

‘The Scream’ Is Auctioned for a Record $119.9 Million

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
wwooowww One thing's certain is that the art market is doing well. Here is a great article wrote by Carol Vogel about the new record for a work of art in an auction house:


"It took 12 nail-biting minutes and five eager bidders for Edvard Munch's famed 1895 pastel of “The Scream” to sell for $119.9 million, becoming the world’s most expensive work of art ever to sell at auction. Bidders could be heard speaking Chinese and English (and, some said, Norwegian), but the mystery winner bid over the phone, through Charles Moffett, Sotheby’s executive vice president and vice chairman of its worldwide Impressionist, modern and contemporary art department. Gasps could be heard as the bidding climbed higher and higher, until there was a pause at $99 million, prompting Tobias Meyer, the evening’s auctioneer, to smile and say, “I have all the time in the world.” When $100 million was bid, the audience began to applaud.

Scream, E. Munch, 1895, courtesy Sothebys

The price eclipsed the previous record, made two years ago at Christie’s in New York when Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” brought $106.5 million. Munch made four versions of “The Scream.” Three are now in Norwegian museums; the one that sold on Wednesday, a pastel on board from 1895, was the only one still in private hands. It was sold by Petter Olsen, a Norwegian businessman and shipping heir whose father was a friend, neighbor and patron of the artist. The image has been reproduced endlessly in popular culture in recent decades, becoming a universal symbol of angst and existential dread and nearly as famous as the Mona Lisa....."


READ MORE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/arts/design/the-scream-sells-for-nearly-120-million-at-sothebys-auction.html?_r=1&hpw
ALSO:
http://www.hauteliving.com/2012/05/haute-art-“the-scream”-by-edvard-munch-is-a-new-record-for-sotheby’s/

Domingo Zapata!!! Artist to watch...

Good evening contemporary art lovers! A
Domingo Zapata is a Spanish-born artist (1974) who maintains studios at the historic Bowery Hotel in New York City, the legendary Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. He’s well-known for his works which explore themes of sexuality, opulence, and vitality. Texts and visual cues can also be included in his works that attracte many of the world’s most prestigious collectors. He’s an “artist to watch” and he will announce the details of his first museum show in the coming months.

1- Domingo, have you always wanted to become an artist? Who are the artists who have influenced in your youth or the works of art that have thrilled you?
“I have always been a painter, an artist throughout all of my life. I choose to do this fulltime now and all the experiences I had in the past have contributed to what I create today. Paul Cezanne to me is the master of Modern art! From him Picasso developed and open all the new doors to my inspiration… I try to learn about Cezanne everyday looking for answers and bring it contemporary using today’s techniques.”


2 - You explore themes such as sexuality, opulence, vitality through colorful, bright and joyful paintings. What message would you like to pass on through your art?
“I am using a more urban approach with mixed-media, influenced by the streets near where I stay and the time I have spent in New York. I love using vintage posters and imagine what would happen to them if they were posted in the street. What would street artists do to them? How the weather might affect them.
Polo horses remind me of my youth and love for horses.
Bullfighting is a passion that I even practice when I go back to Spain at my friend El Litri’s estate (he is the best bullfighter in the world and one of the nicest people I know). He is my inspiration for this motif....


READ MORE: 
http://www.hauteliving.com/2012/04/haute-art-domingo-zapata-or-the-one-who-runs-the-art-world/


www.dzapata.com/

Rob Wynne !!!

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
I'm very pleased to present an interview of Rob Wynne, a good friend of mine and an amazing artist....

www.robwynne.net/

1 - Dear Rob, could you please introduce yourself and tell us what is your background? How did you become an artist?

As a young child I had dyslexia - which made it extremely difficult to READ. Oddly, I could read music very easily……but knew that I would not be able to excel as I wanted in that field. I could draw and when it came time to go to college, I went to Art School (Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn NY) After a long period of making abstract paintings - I took a long pause and redirected my work to TEXT, challenging my childhood issues, and began working with NARRATIVE . The ability to change my mind and point of view was for me a life changing experience.

2 - Words mean a lot to you. They are the main subject of your art, why?

See ABOVE!!!

3 - Why did you choose to use glass a main material?

I am NOT a classically trained "glass artist" about 15 years ago, I was making an exhibition for Holly Solomon, my dealer at that time. It was called "SLEEPWALKING" and was loosely based on an early 19th century Opera, "La sonnambula"  I had wallpapered the entire gallery and made large scale silkscreen paintings on fabric….I wanted to have a pair of GLASS FEET - to convey a sense of being and not being present. Not knowing anything about glass working , I was put in touch with a trained technician…and was able to make the FEET. After that I just started hanging around the glass studio and watching and picking up bits of technique. I was then invited to be a "visiting artist" at Pilchuck in Seattle, which is the mecca of the studio glass art movement in the USA. I started to just fool around with GLASS and tried to use it in unorthodox ways. That said, working with glass is collaborative, insofar as you cannot do it alone. I have worked with a crew of assistants since then…always trying to break rules and embrace the imperfection in glass making, which runs contrary to the typical techniques used.

4 - How do you position yourself compared to Jean-Michel Othoniel and Angelo Filomeno who also use glass in their works?

Vis a vis Othoniel and Filomeno, whom I admire very much…..I think the commonality that we share is that we are NOT "glass artist's" in the traditional sense. Interestingly the range of contemporary artists using glass as a material in their work is fairly substantial: ie: Kiki Smith, Beverly Sims, Robert Gober, Mary Carlson, Joan Jonas (in performance), etc. - some Modern Masters like Duchamp( The Bride Stripped Bare) and Pollack ( who mixed glass in his pigment) also used glass. For me, glass is another material to experiment with, albeit, one that does need a large amount of knowledge to handle.

5 - How do you place yourself in the contemporary art market? Do you feel any affiliation to one movement or another?

I don't place myself in the Art Market…I just try to make things that interest me.

6 - Could you please tell us about your collaboration with Dior?

The Architect Peter Marino ( a collector of my work) approached me through JGM.Galerie some years ago about doing a piece for the flagship DIOR boutique in Paris. Peter is in charge of the design of DIOR world wide. He has since then asked me for pieces for other DIOR venues. They typically tell me the perimeters and then I give them drawings  of various ideas in my Poured Glass work. Et Voila!

Thanks a lot my dear Rob. It's always a pleasure

Isa Genzken: Rose II - New Museum

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
Each time I walk by the New Museum, seeing the twenty-eigth feet tall rose that is standing in front of the facade reminds the roses made by Will Ryman. For those who may don't remember Will's roses were blooming on Park Avenue for four-six months in the beginning of 2011. At this time all the New Yorkers were living in the Wonderland!

Will Ryman's roses on Park, NYC

Isa Genzken is a German-born artist who was born in 1948. She lives and works in Berlin. She studied fine arts and art history in Hamburg and was the subject of a major retrospective in 2009 in Cologne and then in London. She used to be married to Gerhard Richter who was her teacher. She is best know for her sculpture Rose (1993). It is a single long-stemmed rose made from enamelled stainless steel that towers eight metres above Leipzig's museum district. A second version Rose II (2007) is standing in front of the facade of the New Museum. 

Genzken's Rose in Leipzig

Genzken is one of the crucial figure of the Post-war contemporary art scene. Her works, sculpture essentially, are made of many different materials and media such as video, photography, film, works on paper and canvas, collages and books. The replica of the first sculpture Rose is her first public artwork in the United States. She's trying to explore through her work the way in which each one perceive objects, images, nature... She integrates the notions of architecture, nature of mass culture by creating unique works has the enormous scale.

Genzken's Rose II in NYC

Looking back on that experience, she has commented, “To me, New York had a direct link with sculpture… (It) is a city of incredible stability and solidity.” The installation of Rose II can be seen as a tribute to a place Genzken continues to love.

"The Spirit Level" at the Gladstone gallery

Good evening contemporary art lovers!
The Gladstone gallery is one of my favorite gallery in NYC. For those who like Minimal and Conceptual art. They represent artists such like Sol Lewitt, Dan Flavin, Banks Violette, Donald Judd, Fausto Melotti, Robert Ryman, Damian Ortega, Mario Merz and many others.... Ugo Rondino, who is also represented by the gallery is the curator of the new exhibition. Ugo Rondino is a major Swiss artist who was born in 1962. His installations, which often include a performance by the artist himself and keep track video, depict a central character, alter ego of the artist, a clown, a figure of sadness and disappointment. Once he said: "I'm an artist first—but I like to have other people's art around me."

The Spirit Level is a group show featuring 19 artists curated by Ugo Rondino. The exhibition takes places in both galleries: the one on 24th street and the one on 21st street and is organized like an initiation. One advices you to start your visit at the 21st street space with Peter Buggenhout's three and leaning constructions, parrafin-coated crepe-paper leaves made by Martin Boyce, black printed-stars by Joe Bradley, two particolored, unstretched canvases by Sam Gillian...

In the other gallery one can see the three giant - four-foot-high - penises made by Sarah Lucas and made of bubblegum-pink,plaster and rubber. In another room Hans Josephson's small odalisques are grouped with Alan Shields's large triangular canvases. Works exposed balance each other even if they seem paradoxical at first. they are captivating, erotic, fun, innocent ...

Exhibition just opened a few weeks ago and will be on view until April 12!!

MoMA presents "Cindy Sherman"

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
To those who might have decided to go to NYC for Eastern, there is one exhibition you definitely have to see! At the Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor. This exhibition is curated by Eva Respini, Associate Curator, and Lucy Gallun, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Photography. Cindy Sherman is an American-born artist who lives and works in New York. She's well known for her conceptual portraits in which ones she's the only model, always disguised and masked!

Throughout her career - more than 30 years - she has captured herself in a range of guises and personas which are at turns amusing and disturbing, distasteful and affecting. she was always interested in the role of women in society, human behavior, to society of consumption and its impact on human... She has created a myriad of characters using wigs, costumes, makeup or other accessories. To make her photographs she had to stage herself in enclosed places, in the middle of intersections, in public places... 

Bringing together more than 170 photographs, this retrospective survey traces the artist’s career from the mid 1970s to the present. The exhibition will explore famous themes such as artifice and fiction; cinema and performance; horror and the grotesque; myth, carnival, and fairy tale; and gender and class identity.

Sherman has selected films from MoMA’s collection, which will be screened in MoMA’s theaters during the course of the exhibition. Exhibition will be on view until June 11th!!

Guggenheim presents “Choices”, a major retrospective of John Chamberlain.

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
This exhibition is curated by Senior Curator Susan Davidson and supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Chamberlain was first celebrated at the Guggenheim in a 1971 retrospective. This show examines over than one hundred works made during his sixty-year carrer. One can see works from Chamberlain’s earliest monochromatic iron sculptures and experiments in foam, Plexiglas, and paper, to his final large-scale foil pieces, which have never been shown in the United States.

John Chamberlain is an American-born artist who was born in Indiana in 1927. He briefly studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the avant-garde Black Mountain College. He created energic, dynamic, and vibrant sculptures hewn from disused car parts that can remind us sculptures made by the French-born artist Cesar . They both brought the Abstract Expressionist style of painting into three dimensions. Chamberlain created originale and unique sculptures not only by the materials he used but also because he painted them ! There are examples of airbrushing from the 1960s, drips and pours from the 1970s, sandblasting from the 1980s, and freehand and stenciled patterns from the 1990s forward. The  sculptures range from the size of a fist to the girth of a generous hug to the height of a tree. Most recently he used vintage cars. The sculptures grew in scale and possess a new-found gravity. He was often inspired by small sculptures that served as models for larger ones.

He's an outsider. He's not related to any particular art movement and he's well-known as a standard-bearer of sculptural practice. Chamberlain's inherent creativity was enhanced by a passion for music and language, which gave way tot he noted color and movement in his works. His work is represented in many major public collections. He also made abstract colour paintings, films, and photographs. John Chamberlain: CHoices opened at the Guggenheim on February 24th and will remain on view through May 13th, after which it will travel to Bilbao, Spain. 

                                                        

Pepe Smit !!!!!

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!
here is the an interview of a young an wonderful artist Pepe Smit... I let you discover her work...

http://www.pepesmit.com/recent_work_video_picnic.html

1- Dear Pepe, tell us about yourself, what is your background and who inspired you when you were young?

I come from The Hague, my father was a filmmaker and my mother a set dresser. I have always seen my mother make all kind of things. I think this has helped me to believe you can make almost anything yourself. I always make my own film and photo sets and I like to make things look good with very little money and a lot of tricks...

2 - What is the impact of the Luncheon on the Grass made by Manet on you?

"Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe" by Edouard Manet made a real stir when it was first exhibited at the "Salon des Refusés" in Paris in 1863. The impertinence of the naked woman sitting between the two dressed men was of a totally different order than the aesthetic nudes known in the arts at that time. The woman stares provocatively at the viewer and in doing so she makes the viewer into a voyeur and accomplice.  In my video I reverse these roles: the man is naked and the women are having a picnic. Just like the work of Manet the video carries a provocative tone in which the viewer is challenged to form an opinion. Making the spectator an accomplice is something I that is very appealing to me and many times I have used this in my work.

3 - Why have you decided to make your own one?

The use of naked woman in art is something that interests me. Manet in a way questioned this role. The most degraded naked woman are perhaps naked woman used as furniture. In the seventies the artist Allen Jones made a coffee table out of a female doll, but also the Milkbar in Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orangeis full of women who serve as furniture. The masculine furniture in the my work can be understood as a hitherto missing counterweight in art history. I thought it would be a way humorous revenge these women.

4 - In yours, the man is naked and the girls are eating on his back like a dinning table. Is it just like a joke or did you want to convey a deeper message?

In the work we see two women and a naked man. The naked man is hardly a character, he is degraded to a "prop": a side table that provides the women with all kinds of decadent and luxury items. In spite of their unbridled lust for extravagant luxury such as lots of champagne, chocolates, cakes and fruit, they cannot suppress boredom. This is pure decadence but also something that could have taken place anywhere, anytime: women who can afford to look beautiful in expensive clothes, who can eat and drink whatever they want, spending all day gossiping and laughing with a friend. They are trophy wives who serve as a status symbol or, later in life, like the woman in this video, have ones been trophy wives and are now obliged to forfill this role forever. A state of being which inevitably leads to enormous boredom.

5 - What do you think of Feminist Art? do you feel any affiliation?

Growing up in the seventies I was raised between feminists. Being independent was a must. But nowadays I notice that a lot of women (especially the Nouveau Riche), to whom freedom and independence is totally normal, independence and freedom do not mean much anymore. They throw it all overboard to stay home and bake cookies with the kids in their expensive kitchen on their Gucci boots. And I myself like to do things like that to. Sometimes. I like my position to be on the sideline. I see what happens and I see the weirdness and the humor of it but I could be doing the seem thing myself. So I try not to be judgmental, I just want to reveal even to to fillet everyday things like gender roles, power relationships and stereotypes. In a humorous way and with sugar-sweet venom. I do feel affiliation with some feminist art. I like Dana Wyse for instance, Cindy Sherman and also the Guerrilla Girls girls. But in general I like art or I don’t, regardless if it was made by a man or a woman. Because my name is also a man’s name people often think that my work was made by a man. It can be quite a surprise when they find out I’m a woman!

Rafael Barrios takes Park Avenue!

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
To all the Upper East Siders who walk everyday on Park, I think I can answer to a lot of questions you may have. From the Waldorf Astoria to the Park Avenue Armory, 10 sculptures made by Venezuelan artist Rafael Barrios, born in Louisiana in 1947 and grew up in Venezuela. He's now living between Paris, caracas and Miami. He's the second latin artist invited to participate to this event after Fernando Botero.

The inauguration of the sculptural display will be schedule on the night of the March 2, just before the opening of ADAA (the Art Dealers Association of America that takes place from March 8 through March 12). Characterized for its geometry and conceptual approach, the ludic work by Barrios is an exploration of fundamental principles of perception-such as dynamism, balance, and distortion-that stems from the reinterpretation of elemental abstract forms from everyday life. In this sense, the works that stand out are his well-known sculptural series of tables, chairs, and doors. Not lacking in humor, these works explore the sense of three-dimensionality. His works, made of stainless and acrylic lacquer are definitely made for being outside. 

Those monumental and geometric forms are a wonderful trompe l'oeil with a profound playful sense.

happy belated valentine's day

LOVE IS IN THE AIR!!!

Love is all around us, love is all we need and even if I’m not usually a romantic at heart I might be inspired by Valentine’s Day. It was originally a feast organized by the Catholic Church and destined to celebrate physical love. Father Valentinus, dead on February 14 (one doesn’t know what year exactly), gave his name to this event. During Renaissance and Classicism, artists painted lovers, love stories and their paintings were full of erotic and sexual symbols. In the modern and contemporary art scene it’s not uncommon that artists choose their mistresses to be their muses. Some of them also work together on one unique piece.

Jeff Koons (an American artist born in 1955) and Ilona Staller (the “Cicciolina”, a Hungarian-born porn star) were one of the most famous couple that worked together. Known for his giant reproductions of banal objects such as balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror finish surfaces, Koons also made a series of paintings, photographs and sculptures that showed the couple in various sexual acts: Made in Heaven, a series that aroused much controversy and critics, specially during the first exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1990. Most of the works were unveiled in 1991. These works of art describe Koons’ excursion into the world of glamour-porn and are the witness of their love and their passion. Many works from this series were destroyed by Koons himself as a result of these events and the exhibition at the Guggenheim has been questioned several times and finally canceled. This series is one of the most important of his work and according to him the most sincere, the most radical and the most risky.

Less risky but equally radical, work made by Sophie Calle (a French artist born in 1953) is like a diary, her diary. She is a visual artist, a writer, a photograph, a movie director…. She uses many different mediums to produce art pieces extremely provocative and subversive. No Sex Last Night, also known as Double Blind, is a personal and intimate movie that traces, like a diary, an escapade with her lover Gregg Shepard (an American photographer born in 1949) from the East coast to the West coast of the US. This road trip will ended up in a wedding chapel in Las Vegas. There are two versions of the videos: when Gregg films Sophie makes comments in French and the other way around. This picture was taken from a video made after reconciliation in bed! She invites the viewer to get into her universe that question relationship between human being. One no longer speaks of individual identity but of the identity of the couple…

One of Sophie’s video was exhibited in the same show (Emporte moi, Sweep me off my feet, Mac/Val, Vitry, France, 2009) than The Kiss made by Ange Leccia (a French artist born in 1952).  He’s best know for his photographs and videos. He’s also a painter, a movie director and has made a lot of installations. Through this installation, Leccia shows us his own interpretation of the feeling and the signification of love and kiss. A kiss is an act extremely intimate and decisive in a loving relationship, isn’t it? This installation is made with two big brutes that face each other, like two human mouths just about to kiss each other. They don’t touch each other, which intensifies excitement and arousal that precedes the first kiss. Pink color and brightness also give to this work his strength.

Rose remains essentially the symbol itself of love and passion. It’s a privileged gift given by all lovers all over the world. Will Ryman (an American artist born in 1969) knew how to do justice to this beautiful and mysterious flower. Well known for his huge and figurative sculptures that represent some kind of caricature of the human race, he brings us, with his roses, to a wonderland that might reminds us the one of Alice. In 2011, a public exhibition took place on Park Avenue. An exhibition in favor of the roses. They were gigantic, the height of a human being of average size. The colors are vibrant, bright and cover all the tonalities from pink to red. Furthermore it’s not uncommon to see ladybugs, dragonflies and other small beasts climb along the stems… About the exhibition he said: “With these roses I wanted to do something that was larger than life and site-specific. In my work I always try to combine fantasy with reality. In the case of The Roses, I tried to convey New York City’s larger than life qualities through scale; creating blossoms which are imposing, humorous, and hopefully beautiful »[1]

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!

---

[1] http://willryman.com/pdf/the-roses.pdf

The Ten Commandments at the Discovery Time Square

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!
The parchment was discovered with 900 other manuscripts in 1947 in Khirbet Qumran in Transjordan. Property of Israel, the parchment will be exhibited only two weeks at the Discovery Time Square until the January 2nd and will be a part of a new exhibition: “Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times” curated by Risa Levitt Kohn.

This very small document (18 x 3 inches) is the oldest known text of the ten Commandments, the most complete and best preserved. Time after time, the parchment became darker and the ink was discolored. The scroll can’t be exposed under the light and is usually kept in a safe in Israel. Experts date it 51 BC but his author remain unknown. Many scholars believe that all the manuscripts, including the Ten Commandments one, were written by members of a sect who broke away from mainstream Judaism and lived in the desert.

The scroll was discovered by a young shepherd. He threw away a pebble in a cave and it broke a crock. When he came the day after he realized that he found an archeological siteThat’s how the parchments could have been showed to the world. 

Damien Hirst invades the world!!

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
As you may know Damian Hirst is about to invade the eleven galleries that Gagosian owns all over the world. To those who thinks that he is way too exposed, well too bad for you because his Spot Paintings will be exhibited in January 2012 all in the same time in the galleries. 


Ten years ago, Hirst started thinking about how he could dominate the world. As the Tate Modern and Saatchi didn't want to be a part of his project, he asked his art dealer to be his sponsort. After like six months of intensive researchs, 300 paintings will be hung on the walls of the eleven galleries. if some of the paintings will be on sale, most of them are lended by private collectors. these will be exposed in the closest gallery to where they are. For example paintings that belong to European collections will be exhibited in the London gallery. Most of the circular ones are located in the East Coast of the US. They will be exposed in New York. 
The Spot Paintings series represent the battle between handmade and industrial work. By far one can say that these paintings were made by a machine. But the closest you are the more you realize they were handmade. One can see holes made by compasses, lines of pencil... 


Damien Hirst "The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011" will open simultaneously in Paris, New York, Beverly Hills, Romw, Athens, Geneva, Hong Kong and London on January 12th and will end in February/March, depends on locations.

Miami Art Basel 2011

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!
As you may know, the 10th edition of Art Basel Miami will open next week. Let's what's gonna happen and what has to be seen...

To mark its 10th edition, Art Basel Miami Beach will inaugurate a new collaboration with the Bass Museum of Art on the Art Public sector, which will transform Collins Park with unique artworks and performances by renowned artists and emerging talents. For the first time, Art Video will be presented in SoundScape Park on the large-scale outdoor projection wall of the New World Center, designed by Frank Gehry. The free public viewings will be part of a number of special events and performances taking place across Miami Beach for the duration of the show to celebrate the 10th edition. 

The Margulies Collection

A must seen: The Margulies Collection. Housed in a large, newly converted warehouse in the Wynwood Arts District near downtown Miami, the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse is an extensive collection of contemporary and vintage photography, video, sculpture and installation, from the holdings of prominent Miami collector Martin Z. Margulies. 1 st of December: Opening of the exhibition "Visions" at the Daniel Azoulay Gallery. "Thoughs, Mediations and Acts" by Xawery Wolski a the Diana Lowenstein Gallery. And of course the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Miami Art Museum...


Enjoy C u then...

"HEAVEN" by Philippe Perrin

Good morning contemporary art lovers! Philippe Perrin is a fantastic French artist, most known for his sculptures of monumental scale weapons, handcuffs, knifes, razorblades, American punches... Expanding everyday objects gives them a new meaning, another interpretation and it's even stronger when it comes to weapons. His references are provided by the gangsta aesthetic but also by the classic literature and romantic poetry. He perfectly knows how to be provocative, cynical, and manipulative while remaining charming and seductive.

"Heaven", 2006, on view at the church of St Eustache.

"When an object or its image is made considerably larger, the primary message disappears leaving space to another message of identifical form and different contents." Heaven is an enormous and impressive sculpture that actually represents barbed wire made out of aluminium. By expanding barbed wires, guns, knifes... he gives to those weapons another dimension. Oversized and immobile, they appear deprived of their murderous potentiality. One forget their violent killer function and one focus on the beauty of the objet itself. Here he puts the emphasis on the relationship between religion and weapons. Religion wouldn't it be a weapon? It might be if one thinks about all the wars that started from a religious quarrel. Heaven wouldn't it be the exact representation of the Jesus Christ's crown-of-thorns? If not why would a church takes the responsability of showing a huge weapon such as this one?

Exhibition on view at the church of St Eustache in Paris until November 20th...

Retrospective of Maurizio Cattelan at the Guggenheim's

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers! As you may know, Maurizio Cattelan is an Italian-born artist (1960) who lives and works in New York. Well-know as a provocateur and a prankster, he's also a tragic poet who creates some of the most disturbing, interesting, shocking and funiest sculptures of our times. His work is satirical, caustic, humourous, but deeply serious and intense in its scathing cultural critique. Through his sculptures he tries to reveal contradictions and problems of today's society.

Installation view

One won't forget his performances (such as: Errotin, the rabbit , 2000. He persuaded his galerist Emmanuel Perrotin to be dressed like an enormous pink rabbit with a giant pink phallus for one entire month), his hyperrealistic sculptures (like The Ninth Hour, 1999, that represents the Pope Jean-Paul II hit by a meteorite and sold at Christies for $3 million.) or his obessional use of taxidermy that presents a state of apparent life premised on actual death (such as Novecento, 1997: a taxidermy horse with leather slings qnd lmetal frame that is supposed to be hanging from the ceiling.)...

Architecture of the museum lends itself perfectly to this exhibition. In the same vein as Duchamp his work is full of ready mades that he uses in his own special way. The main installation hung from the ceiling seems to be so light and fragile! Most of the works he produced since 1989 can be seen here. Exhibition runs until January 22nd...

"Uncursed"! Yoko Ono at the Lelong Gallery

Good evening contemporary art lovers!
Uncursed: a super cool exhibition that's actually an installation of of doors and figurative transparent sculptures. Very conceptual and incomprehensible for the most of the viewers this show however must be seen!

The Road Of Hope

Once Yoko said: " when we were children, we learnt at our elementary school how the warrior, Shikanosuke Yamanaka, vowed to endure seven misfortunes and eight sufferings, thereby giving all the negative things to him that would have been given to the people of the city. I was so impressed with his selfless devotion to people, I wanted to be like him when I grew up. Then I realized that so many challenging situation were given to me in life. Much later, I wondered if it would not be better to ask for seven good fortunes and eight treasures... which I promptly did. It changed my life".

How do they stand on the floor of the gallery by themselves? What is it supposed to be behind each door? Why is there a transparent sculpture almost next to each door? Do they have their own signification? Are they supposed to figure the eight treasures Yoko talked about?? So many questions asked as soon as one gets into the gallery...

TRICK OR TREAT

Good night contemporary art lovers!
While everybody is looking for the perfect outfit, while children are only thinking about stealing candies from their neighbors, while storekeepers are asking themselves how to decorate their stores this year, don’t forget that humor, dressing-up, jokes and self-derision are also extremely present in contemporary art. How many of us have already faced Duane Hanson’s sculptures and laughed at their mistake? How many of us have been lost in Fabien Verschaere’s fantastical paintings? How many of us have been scared by Cindy Sherman’s clowns? How many of us have desired to play with Maurizio Cattelan’s mobiles? However behind these works that are funny, easily understandable at first, playful, darker preoccupations are often hide.

Duane Hanson, an American-born Sculptor (1925-1996), created hyper-realistic lifecast of people made out of resin, polyester, bronze, fiberglass and often textiles, clothes and everyday life items. Most often sculptures are the exact representation of ordinary people who don’t stand out of the crowd and are placed in everyday life situations. Who haven’t spoke to the sculptures at least once?! Who haven’t ever run into one of them in a museum or during an exhibition? And one laughed of itself when the mistake is realized. However Duane’s goal is to put the emphasis on social problems and preoccupations. His sculptures usually represent a girl next door, a neighbor or a co-worker such the character of some of his most well known pieces: Bowery Relicts (1969); Supermarket Lady (1969); Florida Shopper (1973); Cleaning Lady (1972). They are touching, fragile and give off sensibility and feelings. Subjects, who are from the American middle class, are represented respectfully, simply and realistically. Their hopes, doubts, needs are discernible as like their resignation.

The dreamlike, magical and fantastical world of Fabien Verschaere, a French-born artist (1975), has his mysterious part, his dark side too. One’s getting lost into the marvelous world of his paintings and through the fairy tales and symbols that inspire him. His black and white (for the most part) paintings are filled up with clowns, dwarfs, fairies, devils, ghosts, Chimeras half demoniac – half fantastical. Associated to playing cards or dices those figures are as many symbols that mean that life is nothing but gambling, a perpetual fight between the world of living and the world of dead. His work is sensitive, intimate and very personal. He brings the viewer into his own world where fairies, mermaids, devils, clowns, goblins, pixies… live all together, a world based on its own paradoxes. At first funny and readable, his paintings reveal a multitude of details and references that do their reading more complex such as: Video Games (2009), Fake Legend (2009) and Novel of Life (2009).

If Verschaere’s clowns can be disturbing, Cindy Sherman’s ones  are clearly frightening and scary!! She’s an American-born artist who is known for being the mother of the post-modern photography. Through her self-portraits, which have to be seen as conceptual pieces, she questions the role attributed to the women in our society and criticizes in an acerbic way the middle age housewife of the sixties and seventies. The Clowns (2003-2004) series can be read as an answer to the attacks of 2001. Therefore her point would be to keep smiling whatever happens and still thinking about what can be next. Sherman’s clowns don’t seem to be nice and joyful. They seem to wear a mask, a mask of a hypocritical and individualistic society. Viewers don’t know anymore if they should laugh, cry or question themselves. Should one appreciate her photographs just the way they are or should one try to read between the lines?

Satire is also very popular among contemporary artists and Maurizio Cattelan, an Italian-born artist (1960), is well known for his satirical, caustic and biting sculptures such as The Ninth Hour (1999) which depicting the Pope Jean-Paul II struck down by a meteorite. His sculptures are shocking, paradoxical, humorous and ironical and his work is made of performances, provocations and embezzlement. Untitled (2001) simply represents a whole on the ground from where a little man comes from. One doesn’t pay attention at the first sight however it questions the viewer who doesn’t know what to make of it. This sculpture actually represents the artist himself while he’s breaking the museum as a criminal making an assault on a private and historical institution.

These artists, in their own way, chose to express their doubts, their questions, their rants… through some funny and humorous works that are also ironic and caustic in the mean time.

Loft In The Red Zone: A Tribute To 9/11

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!
Curated by Marika Maiorva, aka known Marikama Dado (her artist name), this touring exhibition aims to honor the memories of the tragedy and to create a better understanding through art. Most the artists who were living downtown in Tribeca, Soho, Battery Park, Financial District, Little Italy and Chinatown found their homes, studios, artworks and lives destroyed. Works shown here reflects their feelings. Over 30 local and international NYC artists made over than 50 pieces for this incredible mix- media exhibition.

Sandra Rubel, oil on canvas, 2005.

 Exhibition takes place in the historic house of JP Morgan, which became a condominium, on the corner of Broad street and Wall street.   Walls of the loft are in their natural state and rough. Once you get into the loft you immediately feel all the intensity of the works, the artists's pain and suffering. Felling and emotion bump into each other in our mind and overwhelm us. There is no words to describe atrocity of what happened but the artworks are a good testimony.

Tunji Dada, mixed medium, 2001.

Tunji Dada created a beautiful installation, beautiful even through the horror of the subject. The sculpture is entitled Les Demoiselles de Nueva York and represents females bodies tied together by the neck. Bodies are made of cotton gauze, latex and make up. Figures really looked like rests of human bodies. Eyes are closed, mouths are shut and arms dangle along the bodies.  Also red stains make think of real blood...

This exhibition was made possible thanks to an artist's initiative, Marikama Dado, and fiscally sponsored by a non-profit art service organizationand is supported by many compassionate individuals and establishments. On view until the end of September.