Rob Pruitt’s Andy Monument, in NYC’s Union Square. Reminds me of all the buskers who paint themselves silver and pose for money. I will give it this: it goes nicely with the TGI Friday’s situated across the square. (Photo by C-M. Hat tip to Yvonne.)
Archive for the 'Sculpture' Category
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Untitled, 2011, a sculpture made of acrylic and wood, by Barry McGee. Part of the artist’s solo exhibition, New Work, on view at Modern Art in London, through August 13. (Image courtesy of Modern Art.)
First of all: R.I.P. Cy Twombly. A nice obit by Randy Kennedy in the New York Times. Plus: Jerry Saltz’s tribute, complete with reference to his own cock.
- S.F.: BAN6: Visual Arts Exploration, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts — where you can see heavy metal-inspired quilts. Opens Friday at 8pm.
- S.F.: Anthony Sneed, Grand Illusion, at the Shooting Gallery. Opens Saturday at 7pm.
- Chicago: Michael Rea, Soirée, at the Elmhurst Art Museum. Opens Friday, in Elmhurst.
- Miami: Home Dream Home, at Praxis International Art. Opens this Saturday at 7pm, in the Wynwood Arts District.
- Miami: Merzbau Now, a group show, at Fredric Snitzer Gallery. Opens Saturday at 7:30pm.
- NYC: Showpaper Presents: The Community Services, with Swoon, UFO 907, Leon Reid IV, Posterboy, Adam Void, Skewville, Celso and many others, at 285 Kent Ave in Williamsburg. This evening at 7pm.
- Plus…Find the rest of my New York picks over at Gallerina!
Leviathan, 2011, by Anish Kapoor, at the Grand Palais, through June 23. (Photos by Vincent Desjardins. With a hat tip to Yvonne Connasse.)
Untitled – Monumento Series, by Miguel Andrade Valdez.
Not wanting to ever be accused of producing timely coverage on this blog, I wanted to take a minute to ruminate on a video by Miguel Andrade Valdez I saw in Galería Revolver‘s booth at the Armory Show last month. It dovetails perfectly with my current Peru obsession, as well as my continuing interest in supremely absurd public works. In fact, recently, I’ve been immersed in photographer Mario Silva’s book Lords, Pyramids and Replicas: Images from the North Coast of Peru, in which he chronicles the influence of pre-Columbian art in contemporary architecture. If you’re into vernacular everything, his book is an absolutely stunning documentation of blended styles and motifs — from Moche forms to graceful Art Deco to that school of design a friend of mine lovingly refers to as “the South American bizarre.” Plus: it contains a two-page spread on bizarre traffic circle sculptures in northern Peru.
Which brings me right back around to the Armory: Andrade Valdez’s video Untitled – Monumento Series is a chaotic, rapid-fire visual compendium of the monuments that occupy Lima’s traffic circles and pedestrian malls. They range from the forgotten to the futurist, the Spanish Mediterranean to the brutal, the Modernist to the I-don’t-know-what. (Check out the weird blue things at about 2:50. They re-emerge later in the video as well.) Interestingly, in looking at all of this, the trapezoid emerges as a very popular shape — perhaps because it’s cheap and easy to construct (and resistant to earthquakes), perhaps because it’s a common motif in pre-Columbian Peruvian architecture. Also popular: brutalism. Of all of the monuments shown, my favorite have to be the bizarre pipe organ thingies, shown in the image above, which appear to be a decorative collaboration between various Soviet bloc architects and the guys in charge of the local water authority.
If you’re into all things design, consider watching Andrade’s video more than once. He has turned up some amazing stuff — a fantastic tribute to all of the things in our landscape we might see but rarely take the time to examine.
Find Miguel Andrade Valdez’s website here. Special thanks to Carlos Díaz at Ojjo for the tip on Mario Silva’s book.
Donald Judd’s Untitled, wood boxes from 1976, at the Dia: Beacon. (Image by the Dia Art Foundation, via ArtInfo.)
A boutique display window in SoHo. Making me think those Judds in Beacon would look smashing with some slutty heels on them. (Photo by Ben V.)
Daily Time Slices for MF, 2010, by Laurie Frick. Part of the solo exhibit Sleep Patterns at Edward Cella Art + Architecture in Los Angeles. (Image courtesy of Edward Cella; via the Los Angeles Times.)
- NYC: Rirkrit Tiravanija at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, through April 16.
- Austin: The Dead Milkmen and many others, at MWTX Party at the East Side Drive In, this Saturday, starting at 11:30am.
- L.A.: Henry Taylor at Blum & Poe in Culver City, opens Saturday.
- L.A.: Ed Ruscha at Gagosian Gallery, through April 9.
- L.A.: Some Assembly Required, at Jack Rutberg, through April 30.
- London: Chantal Joffe at Victoria Miro, opens Saturday.
- London: Skewville, Slow Your Roll, at High Roller Society, opens Friday.
- London: Elbow Toe (Brian Adam Douglas), Due Date, at Black Rat Projects, through April 8.
- Milan: William Kentridge, at Lia Rumma, opens Saturday.
SoundSuit in Motion, by Nick Cave. Part of the exhibit Nick Cave: Meet Me At the Center of the Earth, at the Seattle Art Museum, which opens on Thursday. (Image courtesy of SAM.)
First, A Little Self-Promotion: I’m speaking on a panel about the changing media landscape this Wednesday, March 9 at 6pm at the UJA in New York City, as part of an event organized by Smith College. The line-up includes lady journos from the New York Times, ABC, CNN and the AP. Admission is $30 ($20 if you’re a member of the Smith College Club of New York). If you’re into all things media, please come!
- Portland, Ore.: Alex Felton, Kevin Abell and Israel Lund, Yucks, at Ditch Projects, opens Saturday at 7pm.
- S.F.: Pablo Guardiola, Jet Travel, at Romer Young Gallery, opens Saturday.
- S.F.: Game Over: Video Game-Inspired Art at Giant Robot SF, through March 30.
- S.F.: Ben Eine at White Walls Gallery, opens Saturday.
- Oakland: Splendors of Faith/Scars of Conquest, at the Oakland Museum of California, through May 29. While you’re there, check out the companion show, Contemporary Coda.
- L.A.: Jesse Reding Fleming, Desert, at The Company, in Chinatown, opens Saturday.
- L.A.: Retratos Pintados, hand-painted vernacular portraits from Brazil, at RoseGallery in Santa Monica, opens Saturday.
- L.A.: Clare Rojas, Inside Bleak, at Prism in West Hollywood, through April 2.
- Chicago: The Age of Aquarius, at the Reniassance Society, opens Sunday.
- Miami: Hernan Bas at Fredric Snitzer Gallery, opens Saturday at 7:30pm.
- NYC: Maya Bloch at Thierry Goldberg Projects, through April 3.
- NYC: Gary Baseman, Walking Through Walls, at Jonathan Levine Gallery, through April 2.
From Jon Rafman’s series The 9 Eyes of Google Street View, Berwick Rd. Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, which was on view as part of the exhibit Free, at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, until late this last January.
Last month, I launched a semi-regular series devoted to the way the human figure is depicted in contemporary art. This month, I continue it by looking at a number of works I’ve seen recently in museums, galleries and even on the street.
I want to begin this particular round-up with a look at Jon Rafman’s work, which is pictured above, and explores, among other things, the nature of travel. Rafman has ‘traveled’ the world through Google Street View and brought back the screen shots to prove it. This series along with the rest of the show, raised a lot of questions about the future of our online lives: Namely, will we eventually experience art, travel, and relationships exclusively online? How will the virtual experience differ from real-life? How is our view of other people colored by the internet? Certainly, we’re still figuring out the answers to some of those questions. But Rafman’s found imagery speaks to the abilities as well as the limitations of the web.
Find other images after the jump. All photos by me unless otherwise noted.
Continue reading ‘The Figure in Contemporary Art: Miscellaneous Round-Up.’
A piece of Gordon Matta-Clark’s graffiti truck, from 1973. Matta-Clark was inspired by graffiti in the early ’70s — before it had caught on with the mainstream art world. (Photo by C-M.)
The 1970s were not kind to New York. There was a middle class exodus to the suburbs. The Son of Sam was terrorizing the town. The city was bankrupt. Which, in a way, made the place an ideal spot for artists — who could take over empty SoHo warehouses for dance performances and attack derelict buildings in the Bronx with chainsaws, all without anybody batting an eyelash. The current David Zwirner exhibit 112 Greene Street: The Early Years (1970-74) examines this history — specifically, the story behind the alternative arts spot that gave rise to a number of figures, among them sculptor and conceptualist Gordon Matta-Clark. (Most interestingly, he was able to make a real live cherry tree grow in 112′s by-all-accounts-nasty basement.)
For those who relish examining a period when the city was entirely bereft of velvet ropes and gaggles of Sex and the City wannabes, this is definitely the show for you. It is heavy on Matta-Clark, containing evidence of some of his early building slicing experiments, but also has some compelling sculptures by Richard Nonas and Alan Senet. In addition, to anyone interested in the history of graffiti, the show is an absolute must-see. Matta-Clark had a heavy duty interest in the art form — letting Bronx teens tag up his van and documenting early tags on the subways in pieces he called Graffiti Photoglyphs. (See the photos below.)
You’ve got until the end of the week to catch the show. 112 Greene Street runs through this Saturday, Feb. 12.
Continue reading ‘Photo Diary: ’112 Greene Street’ at David Zwirner Gallery, in NYC.’