Giant Inflatable Yellow Ducks Wandering In China

Good morning contemporary art lovers! 

A month ago, one could see a giant inflatable duck, the "Rubber Duck", made by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman. The inflatable yellow duck 16.5 meters high was floating for two weeks on the waters of Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. Since the installation in Hong Kong, others are inspired such like the one dabbling in Tianjin on June 1st.  

Artist took his inspiration from an old picture (1989). A picture on which one we could see four giant yellow ducks figuring a column of tanks stopped by just one single man. This picture became emblematic of the bloody suppression of the democratic movement of Chinese students, crashed into the blood 4 June 1989, the authorities banned any commemoration Tuesday.

As one can imagine the work caused sensation in China in Hong Kong but also in Hangzhou, Wuhan ou Tianjin. Real estate developers were quick to settle on their land imitations of volatile to attract customers. To the chagrin of the Comunist Party. Chinese netizens have diverted censorship which prohibited typing on the internet the words "big yellow duck". Nearly a quarter of a century after these events, the anniversary of Tiananmen remains a significant date for the scheme, which has a draconian censorship on social networks. But even if the commemoration of this anniversary is forbidden, inflatable ducks are for sale on Tabao, China's largest online auction site. The prices range from 2,800 yuan (350 euros) for the smallest to 149,800 yuan (18,800 euros) for a sample of 20 meters.

Art meets Fashion

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
If fashion helps to make the spirit of an era, it may be the best way to capture art. Art and fashion have always been linked, with designers sketching from live model muses in the same manner as classical artists. The runways where designers display their creations have even become art performance, as they collaborate with visual artists and musicians. More and more frequently, museum directors curate exhibitions about designer collections or fashion photographs, while in auction houses vintage pieces of haute couture go under the gavel alongside antiquities. There remains very little difference between a classical painting and a piece of Haute Couture; they both stand today as a definition of luxury and commercial demand. The emerging cross overs are multifaceted and varied....

READ MORE

http://www.hautefashiondaily.com/art-meets-fashion

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!!

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

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.

 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 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.

Cakes, chocolate and candies

Good evening contemporary art lovers!
As you may know it was my b-day a few weeks ago. I was definitely inspired! Did you know that many artists used candies or chocolate to made their works?? Regression to the past, desire to be in a world out of any preoccupation (like the childhood), volition to point a society corrupted by mass consumption, economic disparities or any kind of problems related to food and malnutrition...

Born in 1981, Vincent Olinet is a French artist who lives and works between Brussels and Singapore. His works of art, mostly photographs or sculptures, make us thinking to a fantasy world: we have in mind the pirates's boats and treasures, the Sleeping Beauty Castle... He's obviously inspired by Walt Disney and all the other fairy tales! He said once: "I like to make shiny, colorful art pieces that appeal to our dreams and urges but actually deal with decay or disillusion". His sculptures are made of real ice sugar and flour, cake decorations and doilies, however the main base of his cakes is polystyrine...

Many conceptual artists also use chocolate as a source material for making pieces of art. Vik Muniz, a Brazilian photographer born in 1961 and best known for his portraits of Marilyn Monroe or Liz Taylor made of diamonds, also produced several pieces which are his "Pictures of Chocolate"! This series reproduces well-know imagery and famous portraits in chocolate syrup painted over a light box. His process is to take picture of his "creation" just before the melting of the chocolate. Works of art made by Chuck Ramirez, an American artist who lives in San Antonio and who is best know for his giants "portraits" of purses, call attention of desire and gluttony and point economic disparities. He makes chocolate boxes made out of chocolate but they are always empty. As if he wanted that we maybe pay attention to emptiness of a certain part of our society...

Some other prefer candies... Felix Gonzales-Torres, a Cuban artist, combines his personal experiences, his reflexions on art history, his views on politic...His work is the reflection of his life in the society. His "Candies Piles" are monumental and very attractive for the viewer. They are also interactive artworks since people are allowed to take some candies from the pile and supposed to eat them. It is never totally stable and constantly refreshed... Born in Bourges (France) in 1965, Laurence Jenkell is fascinated by the alchemy of sugar. Declination and sublimation of candies are the main purpose of her work.

All of those works look appetizing and joyful but they are actually full of social and economic symbols. Olinet's cake breaks down, Muniz's photograph is a reproduction of a weel-known image, Ramirez's chocolate box is empty, Gonzales-Torres's pile isn't stable, Jenkell's sweet refers to sugar which can disappear and change all the time...

The New Luncheons on the Grass

Good evening contemporary art lovers!
As you may know The Luncheon on the Grass painted by Manet in 1863 was one of his most controversy paintings. A naked woman sitting between two well-dressed men should be ashamed and not so confident! This painting inspired many artists such as Cezanne or even Picasso. More recently numerous artists reinterpreted the Manet's painting in their own ways...

Alain Jacquet, a French artist representative of the American Pop Art movement, was one of the first artists who made his own vision of the Manet's Luncheon. Painted in 1964, his Luncheon on the Grass, a diptych, is a silkscreen on paper laid on canvas. The difference between both is obviously the technique. Jacquet was focused on the study of the dot and of the screen. Here are depicted a gallery owner, an art critic and a painter. In the style of the Impressionists it's beautiful from afar and it's less easy to see the details when you are closer.

In 1982, John De Andrea, an American sculptor, made a beautiful sculpture inspired by the Manet's painting. He is associated with the photorealist, Verist and superrealist schools of art. He pays attention to all the details of his sculptures. Here hair, brows and pubes are made into plastic scalps a few strands a time. Moles, tiny veins and scars are revealed by the oil polychrome. Clothes are taken apart and reassembled on the fully painted bodies...

Rip Hopkins is an English photographer who made photoreportages and documentaries in many countries. For him, photography is a tool with which one he can reveal intellectual and aesthetic expression. This photography was exhibited in 2008 at the Paris Photo Art Fair in Paris. The naked male figure is a response to the Manet's female figure. Both are directly looking at the viewer without any gene neither embarrassment. It's also a dialogue between the past and the present...

New York-based artist, Mickalene Thomas explores notions of beauty through works of art made of rhinestones, acrylic and enamel. She inspired by many different sources such as the 19th century Hudson River School, Manet, Matisse, Bearden... Her "Dejeuner sur l'Herbe: Trois Femmes Noires" depicts three figures who aren't typically seen in the canon of figurative painting and influences of Black Popular culture and Pop Art are obvious. The interesting thing is that one of the figures is actually in the style of a man dressed in drag. This work of art was commissioned by the MoMA and will remain on view on the window of the 53rd street entrance until December 2010.

Pepe Smit lives and works in Amsterdam. Her photographs are full of cynicism, humor, sexual references, taboos... All of her pictures seem to be very joyful and sweet but after having looked a few minutes their darker side appear.  Here are represented a mother and her daughter. They are both wearing pink pretty dresses with roses. The role of the male figure is reduced to a simple object which is supposed to help women in their everyday lives: he's naked and his back, covered with a tablecloth is their kitchen table. It's easy to say that this picture was made by a feminist artist!

Did it make you hungry?...

Outdoor New York City (part III)

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!
The summer has definitely started and what better than wandering in the Sun... On your way to Battery Park, which is one of my favorite spot in NY, you will find three beautiful sculptures. And then it's up to you whether you have a lunch at Cipriani or a sandwich in the Park!

Exhibited in front of the 140 Broadway (Liberty Place), the Red Cube made by Isamu Noguchi defies the laws of gravity. This sculpture has been made in red painted steel in 1968. The Cube is surrounded by trees and skyscrapers which, with the vertical height of the cube, draw viewers's eyes upwards. Here is the question of the relation between art and architecture. The Cube seems floating in the air while the building are solidly placed. Noguchi said: "The sculptor is not merely a decorator of buildings but a serious collaborator with the architect in the creation of significant space and of significant shapes with define this space".

Across the street is another huge sculpture made by Mark di Suvero. Called Joie de Vivre this red steel structure is about 70 feet high and is a series of tetrahedrons that are open at the ends. The sculpture located in the Zuccotti Park, best known as Liberty Plaza Park, was a gift from Aggie Gund ( president of the Museum of Modern Art) and her husband Daniel Shapiro (lawyer). About this sculpture di Suvero said: "After 40 years I finally get a piece in Manhattan and guess what. Most people who saw it came from New Jersey".
In the same area you will also see a man sitting on a bench all made in bronze! Double Check, made by Seward Johnson in 1982, shows us a man checking the contents of his briefcase as a real businessman like those you can meet here...

Go a little bit further on Broadway and you will come face to face with a charging bull! Standing 11 feet tall, measuring 16 feet long and weighting 7 000 pounds, this sculpture was made in bronze by Arturo di Modica. The bull is the symbol of aggressive financial optimism and prosperity. The bull is leaning back on its haunches and its head lowered as if ready to charge. It's the unofficial symbol of the Financial District.                                                                                        

And for those who may aren't interested by wandering in the city or nibbling in front of the sea they can also go shopping!

Outdoor New York City (part II)

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!
Today is a beautiful and sunny day, the perfect day for a little promenade! So if by any chance you decided to go out this afternoon, I would like to advice you and give you some nice spots to discover. Here we go, this is the second part of "Outdoor New York City".

Start your promenade in Midtown East and go directly to the United Nations Headquarters. You will see this enormous bronze of a 45-calibre gun whose the barrel is tied. This twisted gun is exposed on display of the United Nations sculpture garden, next to the Visitors's Plaza. Made by Karl Fredrik Reutersward and given by the Government of Luxembourg, this sculpture, which symbolizes the nonviolence, is a part of the UN Human 2000 Peace Initiative.  

In 1996, Italy gave such a beautiful gift to the United Nations: "Sphere within Sphere", a bronze sculpture of a diameter of 3.30 meters made by Arnaldo Pomodoro, an Italian sculptor specialized in the casting of gigantic volumes. This sculpture represents  a reflexion about the difficulties of the modern world and it symbolized by the fractured surface of the outer sphere which reveals the inner one. There are several versions of this sculpture: in the Vatican Museums, Trinity College in Dulin, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C. ...

In the same area, on Park Avenue Malls between 52nd and 53th streets, you can see several sculptures made by Mia Westerlund Roosen, an American artist who explores voluminous curves, palpable surfaces and the sensual body. She used lead, encaustic, and textiles to study genre identity until her practice matured. Concrete stucco is now her favorite medium, it allows her to create molded pieces that retain a sense of vulnerability despite their significant corporal mass. Unfortunately her sculptures will be exposed until the end of august.

End of the cultural part, it's time to drink a little glass of wine... Go to Benoit, a French restaurant, on 55th street between 5th and 6th!

Hermaphroditism and transsexualism

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!

Hermaphroditism and transsexualism in the arts; what interesting subjects... There are two different types of hermaphroditism: physical and psychic. Extremely rare in humans, a simultaneous hermaphrodite is an adult organism that has both male and female sexual organs. Incompatible with the biological gender binary, he/she usually can later change into the alternate sex. "Hermaphroditic" has been replaced by "Intersexual" in medicine. A psychic hermaphrodite is someone who feels both male and female but who only has the genitals of one sex. Most often a psychic hermaphrodite goes to the surgery...

Regarding the origins of the greek myth, Hermaphroditus, a remarkably handsome boy, was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite. The Naiad Salmacis fell in love with him and tried to seduce him but she was rejected. She surprised him when he thought she was gone, kissed him, held him in her arms and asked the gods never separate them. Her wish had been granted and he had been transformed into an androgynous deity by union with her. The most famous example of "its" representation has been made in marble by Borghese and is shown at the Louvre in Paris.

If there is an artist that we could be describe as a psychic hermaphrodite, this is Pierre Molinier, a French artist who lived in the first part of the 20th century. Andre Breton and the Surrealists were interested by all of his paintings which were very sensual, erotic and matched with their idea of a "convulsive beauty". But when Molinier has started creating his own photomontages, much more erotic and esoteric, the Surrealists didn't followed him anymore. When he imagined himself as a hermaphroditic shaman he animated groups of young androgynous people. Most often his photographs were self-portraits of himself as a woman. On this picture, he represented himself as "the" shaman with fake boobs, high heels, mask and his erect penis. Focusing on using his body as a model, we can say that he is a precursor of body art and has probably inspired many artists such as Cindy Sherman.

As for those who have been operated on, they are magnificently represented by the photographs made by Nan Goldin, an American artist. She started her first solo show by showing her photographic journeys among the city's gay and transsexual communities. Through her pictures, she shows us another side of the transsexual communities. Most of the time, they are photographed in their own place, in intimate situations. Most often presented in the form a slide show, her pictures are a kind of personal diary which would be public. But the icon of transsexuals is still Amanda Lepore whom real name is Armand and who was diagnosed as transgender. She is an amazing model, fashion icon, performer and one of David Lachapelle's muses...

Love, sexuality, eroticism, mixture of genders...will always be a source of inspiration for artists.
Especially with the video and the digital photograph since they can give free rein to their imagination...
Even if sometimes we just don't get it!!

Outdoor New York City

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!
What a perfect day to go on a promenade on the streets of New York City! And there are so many sculptures to see on your way... Let me show you some examples of those sculptures and I hope I will give you the envy to go out and having a look on it!! Wear your sunglasses and let's go out...

This massive 35-foot sculpture has been made by Damien Hirst and is exposed on Park Avenue between 53rd and 54th streets. Titled "The Virgin Mother", the sculpture depicts a pregnant woman however the different layers of her skin are removed on one side to expose the foetus, muscle and tissues layers, the skull... "The Virgin Mother" was bought by Aby Rosen, a real estate magnate who wanted to exhibit his new purchase on the courtyard of one of his properties, the Lever House. A second copy has been made for installation at the Royal Academy or Arts in London.

Stay in Midtown West and go further on the corner of 55th street and 6th avenue, you will find the amazing and famous red "Love", a twelve-foot Cor-ten steel sculpture, made by Robert Indiana, an american artist. Originally designed for a Christmas card for the Museum of Modern Art, the first exhibition of this image as a sculpture was in New York City in 1970. The "Love" sculpture has been reproduced in a variety of formas and there are several versions of this sculpture: in Tapei, Taiwan or also in Shinjuku, Japan.

On your way to go the West Village, you will see this beautiful sculpture, "Gay Liberation", which has been made in 1979 by George Segal, an american artist, to celebrate the gay and lesbian rights movement and commemorate the beginning the gay liberation. The sculpture, made in bronze and painted in white, depicts four figures: a standing male couple and a seating female couple, in the middle of the Christopher Park. It was commissioned by the Mildred Andrews Fund which is a private Cleveland-based foundation that supports public art.

Now you are in the West Village, it's 5pm on thuesday afternoon, you ended up your promenade and it's time to have a glass of wine on a pretty terrasse!

Love is in the air...

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
I am in a lovely mood today, therefore, I want to talk about love and love of art! I am not usually a romantic at heart but this year maybe Valentine's day will inspire me...

Love is all around us, love is all we need but... as Magritte painted it, love is blind! This is a personal interpretation of his painting untitled "The Lovers". The faces of the lovers are covered by a veil which probably symbolizes the mystery of love. Who can affirm that they perfectly know everything about love? Our lovers are never completely known to us and passion might make you crazy. Here lovers are totally devoted to one another.

Love can be blind but love also gives you inspiration. A proof of this is that many artists weren't able to work without their muses/lovers next to them. Unica Zurn who was an amazing german surrealist drawer lived with Hans Bellmer, he was a famous surrealist artist. He studied the female body and its representation and he was accepted by the Surrealists because of his references to the female beauty and the sexualization of the youthful form. His photographs, sculptures... were very erotic, almost pornographic, and frequently disturbing. Most often, he used dolls to create his sculptures and photographs. But sometimes, Unica's body was taken as a model, a model whose body was bound and strained to meet the requirements of the artist. However, very so often the lover is not the only one to be represented...

In the contemporary art scene, Jeff Koons and Ilona Staller (the "Cicciolina", hungarian-born porn star) was one of the most famous couple. 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", most of these 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.

Happy arty Valentine's day contemporary art lovers.
I wish you a wonderful evening...

Snowing session!!

Good evening contemporary art lovers!
When I woke up this morning I expected to see snow falling through my window. I love the snow, it reminds me my childhood in Verbier! New York under the snow... it's freezing but it's so beautiful! And I am not the only one who likes it...

Better known for his portraits of Amanda Lepore or other celebrities, David LaChapelle is also an amazing creator of images. Here, he shows us two female legs wearing hight heels, made of ice and sticking out or a pile of snow, in the middle of nowhere. Titled "Chanel on Ice", this photograph is interesting because the subject is very sexy, very sensual, very "hot" but the material that he used is "cold", ice and snow. It is an interesting contrast between the two worlds of fire and ice. Fire under ice... beware of distant women maybe they are hot!

Michaela Gleave is a young artist who lives and works in Sydney. She is interested in working on the peripheries of sensory perception, everyday climate and natural phenomena (cloud, light, rain, snow...). Her installations question the relationship we have with our surroundings and are most often at the junction between art and science. She tests the boundaries of perceptual experiences. "Snowdrift" is an installation that she made in 2009 on the front lawn of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. This installation also raises the question of temporality and duration of life of a work of art.

British born sculptor, photographer and environmentalist, Andy Goldsworthy creates both temporary and permanent sculptures by using natural and found objects. He uses flowers, mud, pinecones, snow, stone... and lets nature gives ideas of what to make. However he tries to organize compositions instead of randomly placing objects. He wants to understand nature and being a part of it, as well as participating as intimately as he can. As his sculptures are most often ephemeral and transient, photography takes an important part in his work.

Ready to go skiing? I've never skied in US before, maye I should try... Who knows if I could find an amazing installation or sculpture!

Human body as a contemporary art medium??

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!

Did you ever read this amazing book entitled: "When I was a work of art" written by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt? The story is about a desperate man who wants to kill himself and is "saved" by a megalomaniac artist who convinces him  to become one of his works of art. The artist proposes him to buy his body and  soul, to transform it into a work of art with a market value regardless of its beauty. The man accepts the deal involving surgery and lets himself be dehumanized and exposed in front of everybody. The question is: can he totally forget his soul, his mind, hie life as a human being? He tries to get away from the artist with the help of a young woman whom he is in love with to recover his lost conscious. The story takes place in a narcissistic world where one worships the appearance and semblance... in other words, our world. This book is very interesting because the author raises a real question and the story happens to be almost true...

Most of you know what "Body Art" means. But do you know who Tim Steiner is? Tim Steiner,  a 31-years-old swiss young man, had his back tattooed by Wim Delvoye, a Belgium artist, and sold for 150.000 euros in September 2008. The tattoo represents a Madonna with a skull above her head and took 35 hours of work. The deal was made between the artist, De Pury et Luxembourg gallery and Tim and they all shared the profit. The buyer is allowed to expose Tim as a work of art 3 or 4 weeks per year, and also to scalp Tim's skin upon his death in order to keep the work of art...

Gina Pane,  a French performer, staged her body and tested its pain limits. Her first body interventions questioned the personal relationship to nature. She then executed geometrical paintings, sculptures and installations determined by the relationship of the human body to nature. Known in the 70s, the public subsequently took an important part in her work and became the witness of her performances.

Self-injury is a plastic element used for pictorials goals. All that remains of her work are a series of photographs and her forever mutilated body (she cut her arms with thorns roses or razor blades, she climbed a ladder covered with glass cell but bare feet...). But she isn't the artist who has gone furthest in processing body...

Orlan is a famous French artist who lives and works in Paris. She was one of the first artists working on her own body. In 1964, she produced a series of several photographs, "Body Sculptures", on which she presents herself with different masks and costumes.  Then she did a particular performance, "The artist's kiss", during the 1977 FIAC in Paris. Basically anyone can buy an artist's kiss. The concept of the artist as an object had led her to a series of nine surgeries for one of her most famous performances "The Reincarnation of St Orlan" that happened between 1990 and 1993. Surgeries were filmed and broadcasted in institutions throughout the world such in Centre Pompidou in Paris, Sandra Gering gallery in New York... Her goal was to acquire the ideal of beauty as suggested by men who embellished women though art (the chin of Botticelli's Venus, the nose of Jean Gerome's Psychee, the lips of Francois Boucher's Europa...). She chose these characters based on stories these women are associated with rather than because they represented an ideal of beauty...

I personally had a piercing, and a tattoo, and I want a second one but I'll stop here!!
However, feel free to express yourself...