If my mother walked into the Tate Modern today, she would be exulted. In China, sunflower seeds are a staple delicacy especially reserved for Chinese festivities. From October 12, 2010 until May 2, 2011, over a million handmade sunflower seeds spread across the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern in London. It is the latest installation by Chinese conceptual artist Ai Weiwei. “Sunflower Seeds” is made up of millions of individually sculpted and painted porcelain seeds handcrafted industrially in the city of Jing De Zhen in China. “Sunflower Seeds invites us to look more closely at the ‘Made in China’ phenomenon and the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today.” Wonderfully clever and definitely therapeutic for the soles. Scroll down for a minute conversation between Ai Weiwei’s and Frieze. Continue Reading More »
There is a somewhat desolate feeling to the block of 29th Street that Fred Torres Collaborations calls home. Stepping off the dusty street, full of as many auto body shops as galleries, I felt both expectant and uneasy. This feeling only increased when I stepped into “Tall Tales” an exhibition of new drawings by Kristofer Porter and Christopher Davison. It is clear from the outset that both artists are incredible draftsmen. There is a shared sensibility, which looms thick and dark in the white walled gallery. Porter’s nightmarish cartoons are as expressive as they are surreal. Lost souls jostle and cling to one another fixed somewhere between terror and delight. Davison’s work is a study in psychic tension, where mythic archetypes rain supreme. The mystical thrust of his diminutive drawings and collages is staggering. Continue Reading More »
Walking into the HQ of the Conflux Festival in the East Village, it’s easy to believe you’re at an arts festival. The white walls display squares of paper adorned with graphic designs and text in inoffensive fonts, and there are attractive and creatively dressed women and men sipping wine and the ubiquitous cheap beer that has become an unfortunate staple of art gatherings nationwide. Continue Reading More »
From Saturday, Oct. 9 to Friday, Oct. 29 BAMcinématek fêtes one of the preeminent living directors, Olivier Assayas, with a complete retrospective of his work to date. This 20 film series, titled Post-Punk Auteur: Olivier Assayas, celebrates the vibrant career of the former film critic turned filmmaker with his early short films, pastoral family pieces, genre-upending techno-dramas, and rarely screened documentaries. This momentous retrospective caps off a banner year here in New York for the director: his newest film, the five-hour-plus epic Carlos, (2010 screening: Oct. 23 & 24) received some of the best notices of his accomplished career when it premiered earlier this year at Cannes before also being selected for the New York Film Festival; and he curated Assayas Picks at this year’s BAMcinemaFEST. As he did for BAMcinemaFEST, Assayas will appear in person at BAM for Q&As. Continue for more on Assayas. Continue Reading More »
Hermann Pitz at Galerie Thomas Schulte (installation view)
Team Gallery (installation view)
As Frieze is taking shape in London and Art Basel in Miami is right around the corner, Berlin’s Art Forum just opened yesterday and runs until October 10th. In it’s 15th edition, the Fair is held in the grand Palais am Funkturm, with beautiful ballroom interiors, a charming setting to experience art sans the “market” craze. With local and international participants there is also an interesting program of art talks including: Current Trends in Museums: Susannne Gaensheimer (Director MMK Frankfurt am Main), Joanna Mytkowska (Director Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw), Bartomeu Marí (Director MACBA, Barcelona), Matthias Mühling (Head of Collections Art after 1945, Lenbachhaus, Munich). Public/Private Collectors’ Panel: Erika Hoffmann (collector, Berlin), Harald Falckenberg (collector, Hamburg).
Greg Bogin, Accumulation of Meaningless Moments, 2010. Leo Koenig (NY)
The participating galleries this year is more enthusiastic than before and maybe because they’ve gone through a pendulum swing in the art market, the range of contemporary works that is being shown is both exciting and freshly dynamic. Here are some of the gallery highlights from Berlin and New York. Lots of images below, so it might take a minute to load. Continue Reading More »
Expressing ideas about art in a theoretical or systematic fashion is a quick way to either set yourself up for a failure or a tired and clichéd success. I don’t want either of those. Art is such a great outlet to ask questions you don’t need an absolute answer to. I think there are too many currents in the art world focused on creating these neatly packaged systems to engage with art. The academic world (MFA programs) has put a lot of energy into celebrating and championing a dry formulaic way of experiencing and creating art. I’m more interested in allowing for diverse ways of interacting with the art. I don’t want to tell people what to think about what I create, rather I expect a willing viewer to intersect and interact with something I have made. I don’t want anyone to walk away with the feeling of ‘oh I get it’, and then that’s it. (Keck)
I recently came across Erika Keck’s mixed media installations at Envoy gallery in the Lower East Side. I was somewhat disturbed by the intensity of her work, but also captivated by the spontaneity of how each piece was conceived. If anything, I think her installations need more space for them to breathe and to do it justice. The following is a Q & A between Erika and Envoy.
RSS
