Toilet Paper Mag Exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo

Good morning contemporary art lovers!

"Following Christian Marclay’s semi-permanent installation on Palais de Tokyo’s front building, the seven windows will feature Toiletpaper magazine starting June 2013.

Founded by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari in 2010, Toiletpaper is a magazine of only pictures which investigates our contemporary obsession with images. It results from the digestive process following an overdose of visual consumption. Aesthetically, one can mistake the content with commercial photography as TP’s pop iconography creates attraction and manipulates our vision the way advertising does. But there is a twist: aToiletpaper image has absolutely no superego; it explores in an apparently harmless way our most intimate, hidden, unspeakable desires and urges. Each picture in the magazine is carefully constructed within a specific mental environment. It is evaluated, judged, transformed until it reaches the Toiletpaper status, conveying a mix of unexpected disturbance and uncanny ambiguity which could define the TP style (if such definition is possible). Since the magazine was born three years ago, Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari managed to go constantly beyond the pages, imposing Toiletpaper as a way of life and sidetracking into other fields to test the strength of the images. In today’s digital era strong content gets shared, tweeted, blogged and re-blogged. Toiletpaper rolls out a similar process in real life: deprived from their original context, images get onto t-shirts, mugs, jackets, disk covers, they live several lives and keep meddling in everyday imagery, printing into people’s subconscious. In that sense, Toiletpaper is fundamentally democratic as it needs to be confronted to massive diffusion to check the pictures resistance to time and the power they reach affecting popular imagination.

The project at the Palais de Tokyo is entirely part of this diffusion process. No picture is shown in the art space; after being digested, images from several issues are splashed onto the spectacular seven front windows of the building, in an intriguing composition that infiltrates everyday life as it is visible both from the inside and the outside. It allows the images to seep into the public street space and to parasite the restaurant’s living experience.

TOILETPAPER images have been reviewed by weekly and art magazines worldwide and appeared in special issues of magazines such as Vice and Hunger. TOILETPAPER was also exhibited on the High Line Billboard in Chelsea, NYC in May, 2012. The same year, images taken from the first six issues have been published by Damiani in an anthology, together with selected narrative texts, that was reviewed in The New York Times’ Top 10 Photo Books."

'Luminarium' United Nations Geneva, Switzerland

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
From Monday 10 to Friday 14 June 2013, tourists and Genevan saw and walked through a 1000 square meter inflatable sculpture made by British artist/architect of air Alan Parkinson. Parkinson lives in France and works both there and in Nottingham, England.
On view in the grounds of the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, the 'Luminarium' sculpture was designed to challenge diplomats, UN officials, school children and communities to think more creatively about how to make the work of the Human Rights Council better understood and applied around the world. 

CHANEL & NRDC at Larry Gagosian LA

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers! On Friday, May 31st, CHANEL and The Natural Resources Defense Council celebrated The Technology of Earth with a benefit dinner at the home of Larry Gagosian in Los Angeles.

Hosts Janet Friesen, Jane Kachmer, Kelly & Ron Meyer, Lauren & Benedikt Taschen along with benefit committee members Kate McGrath & JJ Abrams, Bob Barth, Dayna & Steven Bochco, The David Geffen Foundation, Jo Ann & Charles Kaplan, Jena & Michael King, Deborah McLeod, NBCUniversal, Eva & Bob Shaye, Ira & Godeleine Ziering, Rosanne Ziering joined guests including Bella Heathcote*, Tobey Maguire & Jennifer Meyer, Emma Roberts* & Evan Peters, Rachel Bilson*, Chelsea Handler, Cindy Crawford* & Rande Gerber, Emily Mortimer*, Haley Bennett*, Rosanna Arquette, Rosetta & Balthazar Getty, Angela Lindvall*,  Shiva Rose, Peter Morton, Eva & Bob Shaye, Colleen & Bradley Bell among other for an intimate dinner and live auction of a Walton Ford painting. Guests were treated to special performances by Karen O, Patti Smith* and Pharrell Williams.*indicates guests dressed in CHANEL

ABOUT:The Natural Resources Defense Council is a leading environmental advocacy group driven by a simple principle: people and our planet deserve to be protected.  Using science, law, policy and the political power of our 1.4 million members and activists, NRDC endeavors to build a cleaner energy future, protect against pollution, defend endangered wildlife and lands, and develop sustainable communities for generations to come. Our lawyers hold polluters accountable in court, our scientists back them with facts, and our policy experts design solutions that are changing our world.  This evening’s event celebrates another key driver of change: the power of art and technology as an instrument to create a cleaner and healthier planet.

CHANEL, the international luxury goods company, was founded in France by Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel in 1924.  The company, which is privately held, offers a broad range of luxury products, including Haute Couture, Ready-to-Wear, fragrance, cosmetics, leathergoods, accessories, Fine Jewelry and Watches, through a U.S. network of 24 boutiques and approximately 90 locations at select retailers. Haute Couture collections are presented exclusively in Paris. CHANEL maintains 151 boutiques and shops worldwide, including the legendary House of CHANEL on the rue Cambon in Paris. Under the guidance of designer Karl Lagerfeld, the House of CHANEL remains dedicated to luxury, fashion, style and image.

PHOTOS: http://www.bfanyc.com/events/6339

From Italy with love: Milla Jovovich performing at the 55th Venice Biennale

Good morning contemporary art lovers! 

This year all eyes were on her at the opening of the 55th Venice Biennale. Actress became a work of art by getting settled in a giant glass cube. Installation/performance took place in the beautiful Barnabò garden just across from Palazzo Grassi on the 28th of May from 2pm to 8pm. This 5 hours performance was orchestrated by artist Tara Subkoff.

Jovovich and Subkoff recently collaborated with Italian clothiers Marella. In the glass cube/dressing room Jovovich was wearing clothes from their maverick collaboration, Future/Perfect, a pop colour line of dresses and jackets. She performed the ultimate consumer and was only allowed to communicate with the crowd and to order stuff using her iPad. “Milla’s dressing” was initially clean: there was only a transparent desk and a bed. But for 5 hours she was ordering a huge quantity of objects: from artworks, to garments and accessories from  the Marella collections  online. The artworks  that Milla ordered online are part of an exceptional endorsement of many contemporary designers and artists : from Richard Phillips, Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha, Yoko Ono, Barbara Kruger, Lisa Yuskavage, Julian Schnabel, Karen Kilimnik,John Baldessari, Cecily Brown and Rick Tiravanigia.

Born in 1972, Tara Subkoff is an American artist, actress, and fashion designer. She has acted in over 30 films and has shown at the Paris Couture shows. She is well-known for her performances/installations such as the piece exhibited at the Bortolami Gallery in NYC. The performance consisted of over 50 women aged 7 to 70 years. Most recently Tara created a performance piece with one opera singer at the United Nations building in NYC.

Steven Sebring RevolutionS the art world!!!

When I got into the Armory to see his Revolution opening on Lex a few weeks ago, well how could I describe what I saw and how could I talk about it?!… The only words that came right in my mind when I first looked at it were like: WAOUH - BOOM - EXPLOSION - ATOMIC - REVOLUTION - FRIGHTENING - FEAR - EXCITEMENT - EROTICISM - ATTRACTION - SEXUALITY - SENSUALITY - DISTURBING - OBSESSION - CONVULSIVE BEAUTY - TRANCE - AND ROCK'N'ROLL … 

For the really first time in my life I felt confused. I've got so many different feelings that all came in the mean time by only watching a work of art. I was shaking, feeling warm and cold, impressed, envious, excited… well my only advice would be to check it by yourself! Each of his work is the combination of painting-photography-dance-music-theater-fashion… sound and smell might be the two only things that were missing. But luckily for us we were able to watch many videos related to the works on a huge screen while drinking a really good glass of red wine. So in a way he made it!

Featuring a wonderful, nice and easy to reach girl that everybody knows, Coco Rocha, he showed us a large panel of incredible and never-seen-before works. Coco who's a supermodel well-known for being involved in the art world, struck the pose and danced  - she is a professional dancer, Irish dance - for Steven like two-three years ago when they started woking on this project. Coco wasn't the only one who was striking the pose for him at that time. Another Coco had to be quiet too! Coco Karol who was the dancer painted in white in the revolving set and  the model for the nude descending stair case photos. Steven's son appeared in one of the videos and a male model too. Why two years of silence? Well it might be because Steven simply invented a new way of capturing images!! Until now they obviously had to be very careful as successfully inventions attire envious people. 

Model: Coco Karol

He built a sort of "igloo" in his studio inside which one models strike the pose, dance, act or whatever the artist want them to do. But THE THING is that he is able to shoot them in like one second as the stage of the "igloo" is surrounded by cameras. I didn't even count them there are so many! (hhmm yes I have been there and I saw it!!! ) Each camera shoots or films each different sides of the model. 43 cameras for example will give you 43 different pictures of the same model striking one and only one pose. If Duchamp might use to need many hours of work to paint his Nu Descendant Un Escalier, it only took Steven five seconds to shoot Coco Karol descending stairs to get the kind-of-the-same result.

The videos were really cool with some touches of both classicism and modernity. One of my favorite: Coco Rocha wearing a black outfit whose the skirt kinda looked like a "cage". An amazing dress designed by Malgorzata Dudek who already has been called the new Alexander Mc Queen!! It reminded me Gauthier designs and one of the most famous Chanel advertising featuring Vanessa Paradis as a bird in a cage. Those who remember it will understand me…

Model: Coco Rocha

The Red Series is, according to me, the most impressive. Coco Rocha is wearing a long red dress that floats in the air at every moment of her moves. Can you picture her dancing and spinning around? She is like a goddess, the goddess of the dark side of Steven's mind? If only one could get into his crazy-creative but very nice mind! The color red means passion, love, sex, eroticism but also evil, hell, fire, tension. Also the beauty of the model could be the face of the Evil, or the incarnation of Life. Question is: on which side is she and to whom is she gonna give birth…

Model: Coco Rocha

Steven Sebring, more that just an artist to watch, to me a real genius who clearly invented a 3, 4 even 5D work of art: it is a photograph that looks like a painting whose the main character is a fashion model dancing on stage and playing a character. What else? You feel the movement, you feel the wavy dress floating around you and you are even able to hear the music that goes with it if you really pay attention and get into it…

One-on-One with Tom Everhart

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!
I recently had the honor of meeting Tom Everhart at an opening of his new exhibition organized by the AFA Gallery. Tom is a really nice and interesting artist who’s willing to talk about his art, making himself easy to reach. It was a real pleasure for me to learn more about his art, about him and the way he works. In 1980, Tom was introduced to cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, the man behind the beloved Peanuts comic. Schulz taught Tom his signature style, and made him the only fine artist authorized to use his characters. Since then, Tom’s Peanuts-themed paintings have become as iconic as the comic. “I never made it past that first blown up drawing of his strip. I sat in front of it for hours. I don’t even remember leaving it,” Everhart said of his inspiration. Here is my one-on-one with this incredible artist:

How did you come to becoming focused on the Peanuts?

It was after a long relationship with Mr. Schulz where he shared his teachings of his strategies of process and picture making.

As an artist known for works featuring characters from Schulz’s comic strips Peanuts, would you consider yourself more like a painter or like a cartoonist?

I have absolutely no background in cartooning, so the only thing I consider myself is a painter.

How would you position yourself compared to artists such like Roy Lichtenstein, whose paintings feature comic-style speech bubbles, or the Japanese artists who draw inspiration from Manga comics?

Well the only thing I have in common with Lichtenstein is that a lot of our imagery is based on cartoon subject matter but his painting were predominantly concerned with popular culture and graphics that accompanied that period of time where as my work is about events in my life.

read more: http://www.hauteliving.com/2013/05/one-on-one-with-artist-tom-everhart/360630/