Monthly Archive for December, 2007

Page 4 of 5

The Digest. 12.07.07

By c-monster on December 7, 2007 in C-Monster, Graffiti, Street Art and The Digest. Closed

Work in progress by Santiago Rubino, outside the Fountain Fair.

The Miami Herald isn’t allowed to say the word “buttplug.”
From the Department of No Duh: There are too many fairs, reports The Art Newspaper.
Coverage of the Rubell breakfast: They forgot to mention the piles of latex gloves. (See my report here.)
The Basel alternative arts round-up.
They’ll take anything under a million. As long as it’s big.
Even the hot dogs are selling well at Basel. (Via Art Observed.)
Basel Video of the Day: The Claw by Arcangelo Sassolino.
There are people who collect art and don’t make a big to-do about it.
Movin’ Out: Is it the beginning of the end of Chelsea as a gallery district?
The Day in Art Hyperbole: “Jeff Wall is arguably the most important photographer on the planet.”
Oh, that’s where I left it: Long lost Michelangelo sketch found in the Vatican. (In related news: Taschen is publishing a giganto book of his work.)
The Met rearranges the furniture.
Visual Nuggets: Barefoot sneakers.
More signs of the coming apocalypse: The Manhattan neighborhood that was once home to the Vault and the Clit Club will now be getting it’s very own Apple store.
A graphic novel round-up.
Couples that poop together stay together.
More on the rising art industrial average in India.
Wishful thinking: An animated video about the future of America’s highways from 1958.
In L.A.: Grafuck at Gallery Nucleus.
In N.Y.: Bharti Kher at Jack Shainman Gallery.
In Boston: Oliver Lutz at Vargas-Suarez Universal.
In Brisbane: Warhol at the Gallery of Modern Art.
Your moment of light: Minsk edition.

Posted by C-Monster.

The Damien Hirst Award for Creepiest Buffet: The Rubell Collection

By c-monster on December 6, 2007 in Basel Frazzle, C-Monster, Florida, Food and Miami. 4 Comments

In the Rubell Collection’s backyard, there was a trough — and I mean a trough — of hardboiled eggs served for breakfast during the gallery’s opening. Not only was the smell, um, intense, I imagine that it had the negative effect of turning those art industry types into bigger gasbags than usual.

People were actually eating them — using latex gloves.

One person, however, was not enthused by the grub on offer.

Continue reading ‘The Damien Hirst Award for Creepiest Buffet: The Rubell Collection’

Tags: art basel miami beach, hard-boiled eggs, jennifer rubell, rubel collection.

Money to Burn. Patrick Mimran.

By c-monster on December 6, 2007 in Art, Basel Frazzle, C-Monster, Miami and Photography. 1 Comment

See it large.

Posted by C-Monster.

Overheard at Art Basel Miami Beach

By c-monster on December 6, 2007 in Basel Frazzle, C-Monster, Miami and Overheard. 3 Comments

“Wait ’til you see the penis thing!”

“Forty-five thousand? Really?”

“I’m so lost.”

Most repeated expression of the day: “…and, you know, the artist attended Yale, and s/he’s been on the cover of…”

Eva + Adele at Art Basel.

Paul McCarthy’s chocolate buttplug Santas. I hate to admit this, but they smelled really good.

Continue reading ‘Overheard at Art Basel Miami Beach’

The Digest. 12.06.07.

By c-monster on December 6, 2007 in Art, C-Monster and The Digest. Closed

Live from Miami Beach: I Hate You Art by Felix Curto.

It’s as if Hemingway had been writing about art fairs: “Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full.” —Ernest Hemingway, A Clean Well-Lighted Place.
Running of the Bulls at Pamplona + Alexander Calder + High Prices=Art Basel. More here and here.
Photos from the initial stampede.
And I Quote: “Everyone is pressed up against the glass at 11:59:59. And when they open the doors, it’s like wildebeests trying to cross the river while the crocodiles snap at them.”
Attack of the Basel corporate sponsors.
OMG, Basel is about parties, not art.
Chinese art hot, hot, hot at the Basel Frazzle.
The day in bizarrely named art fairs: NADA (which means “nothing” in Spanish) ain’t so bad, reports ArtInfo.
Because the world doesn’t have enough art fairs: A new one for L.A. (Via Art Observed.)
I poop on you: Some background on Paul McCarthy’s buttplug chocolate Santa.
Marc Trujillo likes to paint “everyday purgatories.” No word on whether he’s painted an art fair.
Artworld Smackdown: Photographers of Marlboro ads versus Richard Prince: “If I italicized ‘Moby-Dick,’ then would it be my book? I don’t know. But I don’t think so.”
Studio Gangster: Espo has a new book.
Dear Museum Wankers: What’s with the no-photo policies? Museums are public institutions that accept public money—as in my taxes. If I want to shoot a dead fish, I should fucking well be able to. You guys all blab on and on about creating “interactive art” exhibits that “engage the public,” yet you won’t allow photos. Stop freaking out about intellectual property rights and lame-ass merchandising and start letting people record and share the art.
Is it me, or does that recently auctioned Mesopotamian lioness look a lot like a Thundercat?
Visual nuggets: Merkz + Girod’s library in Maastricht.
The Tate Modern gets a buttload of money from the gummint. More here.
The photographs of Chien-Chi Chang.
The art industrial average is on the upswing in India. (Via Arts Journal.)
When art imitates the present: Conjuring a “decadent, doomed world” at the Wallace Collection.
Suburban Tokyo nightscapes by Tomoyuki Sakaguchi.
In Chicago: The New Authentics at Spertus.
In London: Permission to Paint at the Leonard Street Gallery.
Your moment of hardness: all walking like.

Posted by C-Monster.

Two must-see Miami museums (and one cemetery).

By c-monster on December 5, 2007 in Basel Frazzle, C-Monster, Incisive Reportage, Miami, Museums, San Suzie and Travel. Closed

Detail of a painting in the entry foyer at the Elián González House.

You’ve popped into the Jorge Pardo show at MoCA, you’ve zipped through the Herzog & De Meuron exhibit at MAM, not to mention the 40-plus galleries in Wynwood. But if you think you’ve seen everything there is to see of Miami’s institutional culture, you are sorely mistaken. A short drive out of the Bermuda Art Triangle, to Little Havana, will take you to three exhibits that are not only fascinating, but have the added benefit of highlighting some of the most spectacular bottom-of-the-barrel episodes in the history of U.S.-Latin America relations. Do not leave Miami without a visit to the Elían González House, the Bay of Pigs Museum, and Woodlawn Park Cemetery & Mausoleum, where you can deposit flowers at the graves of both Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza and Cuban tyrant Gerardo Machado. You want travels in hyper-reality? This is it.

Stop #1: The Elián González House.

Yes. You can visit it.

Conveniently situated around the corner from the always-bustling Islas Canarias Cuban restaurant (don’t miss the mariquitas with mojo de ajo), the museum is situated in the actual house where the six-year-old Elián lived during his four-month stay in the United States in 2000. The four-room cottage is a monument to Elián, containing a copious number of photocollages of the young boy, as well as the complete collection of his wardrobe and toys. The museum, which charges no admission but accepts donations, is run by Elián’s great uncle Delfín, who obligingly shares first-hand stories about the whole sordid drama.

Elián’s old bedroom.

Continue reading ‘Two must-see Miami museums (and one cemetery).’

Tags: anastasio somoza, bay of pigs museum, carlos prio, elian gonzalez house, gerardo machado, Miami, woodlawn park cemetary.

The Digest. 12.05.07.

By c-monster on December 5, 2007 in C-Monster, Street Art and The Digest. Closed

Celso in Miami. Photo by C-Monster.

Reporting live from Art Basel, the art industry’s way of selling culture to all those newly-minted hedge fund managers.

Get ready to shred: Basel trying to get all edgy-like with Concrete Waves, a 70-foot half pipe ramp for (invited-only) skaters.
Oh, there’s art at Basel, too. See a slideshow here.
And I Quote: “…with his brown eyes, full lips and smoothly shaven head, [Basel director Samuel] Keller is what one friend calls ‘the most famous baldy in the world.‘” What a load of hooey. This is the most famous baldy in the world. (By the way, anyone else find T Magazine’s website as annoying as I do?)
The Day in Obvious Stories: The obligatory omigod-God-Basel-is-so-big story. Followed closely by the obligatory holy-shit-there’s-so-many-damn-fairs story.
From the Department of Who Knew? Miami, the Capital of Latin America, is big on Caribbean artists.
Miami restaurants you can maybe get into.
CultureGrrl will be working on her tan.
Um, that Banksy show at Vanina Holasek in NY? Not Banksy.
Gap founder unveils design plans for his museum in S.F. The verdict? Well, it looks museum-y.
In the wake of the Christoph Büchel fracas: Mass MOCA is now back to having shows, with Anselm Kiefer now on view.
But is it as cool as Zhang Huan’s meat suit? Pinar Yolacan shoots women in dresses made with extras he picks up at the butcher.
Make your own LED menorah.
Murakami exhibit setting records in L.A., especially with first time visitors, who think they’re at Disneyland.
In France, American Apparel ads have more titty.
Rem Koolhaas working on Manhattan “mid-rise,” so called, no doubt, so that it doesn’t scare any of the local community boards.
Video of the Day: The White Truffle Shuffle.
In London: Photographer Peter Hujar at ICA and Open Studio, a street art group show.
In Paris: Toy Comix at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.
In L.A.: Snow Angels at Thinkspace.
In New York: Modernist Czech photography at the Guggenheim.
In Seattle: Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery first-year anniversary.
In San Francisco: UglyCon at Giant Robot.
In Tokyo: Yoichi Yokoyama at the Mori Art Museum.
Thank you, Juxtapoz, for the love.
In honor of Basel: Your moment of partying.

Posted by C-Monster.

Need to get into the Art Basel Vernissage?

By c-monster on December 4, 2007 in Basel Frazzle, C-Monster, Random Linkage and San Suzie. Closed

Thank goodness scalping is alive and well in Miami.

Posted by C-Monster. Reported by San Suzie, our far-flung correspondent.

A narchitecture tour of Miami.

By c-monster on December 4, 2007 in Architecture, Basel Frazzle, C-Monster, Incisive Reportage, Narchitecture and San Suzie. 16 Comments

The architectural cognoscenti have long hailed Miami for its treasure trove of Modernist and Art Deco buildings. But like Los Angeles, Tijuana and the outskirts of Cali, Colombia, the city is also home to a flourishing, lesser-known school of 20th century architecture known as “narchitecture”—buildings that look as if they were commissioned by drug dealers. (For the record: it is my esteemed colleague, Rosa Lowinger, who baptized this important, if unheralded, movement.)

Narchitecture is the pit bull of architecture. It grabs you by the (eye) balls and doesn’t let go, marrying a bevy of Mediterranean styles—neo-Classical, Spanish Revival and Fascist—with the vernacular American school known as Contemporary McMansion. The structures are big, overly-decorous and unabashedly gaudy, and, in their placement, show a complete disregard for their environment. The style veers heavily towards the monumental and its decorative motifs include Spanish tile, Roman-style arches and lots and lots of Italianate columns. It is an architecture that says, “Look at me. But don’t ask what I do.”

If you’re in town for Art Basel, don’t miss an opportunity to get on a boat and see Miami’s many fine examples of residential narchitecture.

Herewith, a visual tour (click on the photos to view them large):

Make it big: What narco would be caught dead in a simple, five-room cottage? In narchitecture, size definitely matters.

Narchitecture takes facets of Classical architecture and pumps up the volume. Why let just one Corinthian column do the job when you can have clusters of four?

Continue reading ‘A narchitecture tour of Miami.’

Tags: Miami, Narchitecture, narco-architecture, narcotecture.

The Digest. 12.04.07

By c-monster on December 4, 2007 in C-Monster and The Digest. Closed

Reporting live from Art Basel, the Burning Man of the art industry. Photo by Mike Beange.

Are you a tortured artist? Take the test and find out.
More ways to spend money at Art Basel: hire an art advisor to tell you what to buy. If you can’t afford one, then read the NY Times’s rules for buying art, which mainly involve kissing a lot of art-dealer ass. Grody. (Via ArtObserved.)
Sympathy for the Art Industry: NY Mag spanks Miami artists for daring to suggest that all the Basel hullaboo isn’t everything its cracked up to be.
The art industrial average seems to be in good shape for Basel.
And I Quote: “…I don’t know any serious collector who is in as an investor.” I’m sure they all buy selflessly just for the love of art.
The story that no one gets tired of telling: Basel, it’s, like, totally huge.
In related news: Basel, it’s, like, totally exhausting. And: Basel, it’s like totally difficult to get into…if you’re a gallerist. Everyone else can just fork over $100.
While some bloggers are yapping about being at Basel, other bloggers are yapping about why they don’t go to Basel. Either way, everyone’s yapping about Basel.
Where all the cool kids at Basel are hanging out: Mango’s on the Beach.
Newsflash: New York City sucks if you’re an artist.
Art world smackdown: Art to Go versus Peter Schjeldahl.
Dubliners p.o.’d over Norman Foster’s proposed tower for U2: “It could potentially be an incongruous blot on the skyline.”
Mark Wallinger wins Turner Prize, which, interestingly enough, was awarded to him by Dennis Hopper. (Via Arts Journal.)
The Day in Art Hyperbole: Stedelijk Museum director Rudi Fuchs says that having a work of art vandalized is like “being raped.” (Via Arts Journal.)
Things that journalists should never be allowed to do: Use the word “dragon” in any story relating to Asia. (Also, knock it off with using “fiesta” and “caliente” every time you guys write about Hispanics. It’s getting boring.)
No such thing as bad publicity: No one has talked about the New York Public Library this much in years.
Strange fruit.
The growing trend of art caves.
The latest thing to bring on the impending destruction of humanity: server rooms.
In Beijing: Grems at Parcour2 Galerie.
In Grenada: An underwater sculpture garden.
Your moment of hot air: special Basel-frazzle edition.

Posted by C-Monster.

Monthly Archive for December, 2007

Page 4 of 5

The Digest. 12.07.07

The Damien Hirst Award for Creepiest Buffet: The Rubell Collection

Money to Burn. Patrick Mimran.

Overheard at Art Basel Miami Beach

The Digest. 12.06.07.

Two must-see Miami museums (and one cemetery).

The Digest. 12.05.07.

Need to get into the Art Basel Vernissage?

A narchitecture tour of Miami.

The Digest. 12.04.07

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