Monthly Archive for November, 2008

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Calendar. 11.18.08.

By c-monster on November 18, 2008 in C-Monster, Calendar, Galleries and Graffiti. 1 Comment

Barry McGee at Modern Art in London. (Photo by Practise.)

Hey Folks: Crazy day today. Digest will be back tomorrow. xox, C.

In Pittsburgh: Barry McGee gives a talk at the Kresge Theatre at Carnegie Mellon University, as part of Life on Mars, the 55th Carnegie International, today, at 5p.m.
In Philadelphia: Eric Doeringer, Bootlegs, Homages and Recreations, at the FUEL Collection, through Dec. 28.
In NYC: Andreas Gursky at Matthew Marks, through Dec. 23rd.
In NYC: Keith Haring’s Ten Commandments at Deitch Projects, through Dec. 21.
In Washington, D.C.: Women by Women, a juried exhibit of work by women photojournalists, at Sewall-Belmont House and Museum, opens Thursday.
In Miami: Isaac Julien and George Osodi at the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, through April 25.
In Denver: Nathan Abels, Stills, at Rule Gallery, through Jan. 10.
In L.A.: William Hundley at Kindsey Desforges, opens Saturday.
In L.A.: Louise Bourgeois at MoCA, through Jan. 25.
In L.A.: Ed Templeton and Matt Leines at Roberts & Tilton, in Culver City, through Dec. 13.
In Basel: Balkanology: New Architecture and Urban Phenomena in South Eastern Europe at the Swiss Architecture Museum, through Dec. 28.

Tags: Barry McGee, modern art.

Lost in A Maze in Brooklyn.

By c-monster on November 18, 2008 in C-Monster, Galleries, Installation and New York. Closed

Through the looking glass: The bubble mirrors on the ceiling made for fun photographing. (Photos by C-M.)

Disorienting times call for disorienting art. Factory Fresh, in Brooklyn, has a gallery-sized maze that leads viewers around bends and into dead-ends, all covered in various layers of sensory-overload paint. A collaboration between Celso, infinity, former Keith Haring collaborator LA2 and the mysterious Stikman, the maze takes the concept of the graffiti-covered alleyway and turns it into a total funhouse. (Full disclosure: Celso is my partner-in-crime, romantic and otherwise.) One of my favorite touches was the ceiling, where the artists installed bubble mirrors that delivered a warped viewing experience of the entire scenario.

The show is up through Dec. 2nd.

Click on images to supersize. More after the jump.

Continue reading ‘Lost in A Maze in Brooklyn.’

Tags: brooklyn, celso, Factory Fresh, infinity, LA2, stikman.

The Digest. 11.17.08.

By c-monster on November 17, 2008 in Architecture, C-Monster, Los Angeles and The Digest. Closed

The Hollyhock House, (mostly) by Frank Lloyd Wright. (Photo by C-M.)

Because what the world needs now is a Damien Hirst-directed music video. Plus: Damien Hirst jeans. Which makes me wish someone would make Judy Chicago thong underwear.
Thomas Kinkade, the movie.
Architecture versus art smackdown: The Art Institute of Chicago will be installing benches in its new wing so that you can look at the art. Not so you can stare at the nice views. So there.
Some Chelsea galleries need to learn a thing or two about a concept called service.
16 photos of German brothels. I love the outdoorsy décor of #10.
How auction houses sex up their financial results. In related news: sales have been in the crapper. And Tony Shafrazi doesn’t mind.
A really good idea or a really bad one: Emmanuel Perrotin starts up art investment company to finance expensive new works.
Looking Around interviews MASS MoCA director Joe Thompson about the museum’s totally trippy Sol Lewitt drawings, in one and two parts. He also has a nice piece about Lewitt’s work here. In a related photo essay: Edward Lifson has pix of the installation process.
Ai Weiwei’s bicycles.
R.I.P. Grace Hartigan.
The newly-revamped Fountainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach (originally designed by Morris Lapidus) has reopened – with works by James Turrell and Robert Rauschenberg.
A nice art world comeback to Prop. 8 in Culver City.
Pfizer using graffiti in an ad campaign. And it’s not for boner drugs. (Ekosystem.)
Today’s Graff: Highraff in Brazil.
New York Mag says that what the U.S. needs now is a new WPA. And some bridges by Santiago Calatrava.
VirtualTourist names the Top 10 Ugliest Buildings. Boston’s brutalist City Hall comes in at Number One. Also on the list: Paris’s Montparnasse Tower and Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral, which I kind of appreciate for its take-me-to-your-leader qualities. (Merci, Yvonne.)
The NY Times is really digging Gehry’s new Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.
Coop Himmelb(l)au’s L.A. High School #9: Also looks like an Olympic diving platform. Edward, back to you…
When bricks resemble lace. (Scroll all the way to the bottom. That last photo is a trip.) A similar visual meme can be found here.
Your moment of white-guy rasta.

Busy. Busy. Busy.

By c-monster on November 13, 2008 in Announcements, C-Monster, Los Angeles, Sculpture and USC/Getty Fellowship. 3 Comments

Victorious Youth, a Greek bronze from roughly 300-100 BC. (Photo by C-M.)

Hey Folks: This Annenberg/Getty fellowship is keeping me on the run about 14 hours a day and I’m seriously wiped. So, no Digest today or tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the Getty Villa‘s Victorious Youth, above. Hubba hubba.

xox, C.

Tags: getty villa, victorious youth.

USC/Getty Fellowship Day 11: Architectural bathrooms

By c-monster on November 13, 2008 in Architecture, C-Monster and USC/Getty Fellowship. Closed

Genius Loci: The pooper at Thom Mayne’s architectural firm, Morphosis.

Tags: genius loci, morphosis, thom mayne.

Q&A: Bert Rodriguez talks about rubbing art patron feet at Frieze.

By c-monster on November 12, 2008 in C-Monster, Performance art and Q&A. 2 Comments

You missed a spot: Artsy foot rubs by Rodriguez at last month’s Frieze Fair in London. (Images courtesy of Bert Rodriguez.)

For five days during the Frieze Art Fair last month, Miami artist Bert Rodriguez rubbed feet. His performance piece – Where You End and I Begin, for Miami’s Fredric Snitzer Gallery — consisted of giving art patrons 10-12 minute foot massages over the course of a week. The piece was a spectacle, attracting a full roster of clients (including Guardian critic Adrian Searle), as well as hundreds of onlookers. When he undertook the project, Rodriguez didn’t know the first thing about massaging, much less feet. But he quickly learned, consuming loads of lavender-scented massage oil in the process. Earlier this week, he made himself available via telephone to answer a few probing questions about the experience, including what it was like to rub his gallerist’s toes and which culture has the grossest feet.

C-M: How were the feet?
BR: Some were incredibly fucking disgusting. There were times where I honestly felt like I was going to vomit.

How bad was it?
Some of the feet I rubbed were swollen and bruised and there was black shit under toe nails. I was like, “Can’t you take a sponge or a toothbrush and scrub underneath that nail? I don’t think those colors exist in nature.” There was one man, his skin was falling off in my hands. His feet were fossilized. And then there were the odors. In some of the photographs, you can see that I’m turned away from the person.

Who had the best feet?
Mostly Asian women. They were perfectly smooth and well-kept. They were the most hygienic when it came to their feet. The Italian women also had very nice feet.

And the worst?
I don’t want to be an asshole, but the British really don’t take care of themselves. That’s always been a stereotype. Just like the teeth.

Continue reading ‘Q&A: Bert Rodriguez talks about rubbing art patron feet at Frieze.’

Tags: Bert Rodriguez, Frieze, Where You End and I Begin.

Calendar. 11.11.08.

By c-monster on November 11, 2008 in C-Monster, Galleries, Installation, New York and Street Art. Closed

Celso, Infinity and Stikman. (Image courtesy of Factory Fresh.)

In NYC: A Maze, with Celso, Infinity, Stikman and LA2 at Factory Fresh in Brooklyn, opens Friday at 6 p.m.
In NYC: The 25th anniversary of the release of Wild Style, party this Thursday at 8:00 p.m. The film will also be screening at Film Forum, starting Friday.
In NYC: José Parlá at Cristina Grajales, through Dec. 20.
In NYC: Richard Avedon at Pace/MacGill, opens today.
In NYC: Chris Cosnowski at Lyons Wier Ortt, opens Friday.
In NYC: Joan Miró at MoMA, through Jan. 12.
In NYC: Ad Nauseum Lyceum’s Hear Nor Stare at chashama UWS, through Dec. 7.
In Dallas: Olafur Eliasson, Take Your Time, at the Dallas Museum of Art, through March 15.
In Palm Springs: Against All Odds: Keith Haring in the Rubell Family Collection at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
In London: Ai Weiwei at Albion Gallery, through Friday.

The Digest. 11.11.08.

By c-monster on November 11, 2008 in C-Monster, Painting and The Digest. Closed

The Transportation of Psyche by Zephyrus to the Palace of Eros, c. 1808-1809 by Pierre Paul Prud’hon at the Norton Simon Museum of Art. (Photo by C-M.)