C-MONSTER.net.

Nature break.

Administrator — Sat, 17 May 2008 16:58:12 +0000

Everglades mangroves. Best viewed large. (Photo by C-M.)

Posted by C-Monster.

Photo: Lee Bul at Lehmann Maupin in NYC.

Administrator — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:44:44 +0000

One of Bul’s floor sculptures. (Photo by C-M.)

I love a show where you can clomp your dogs all over the art. If you do, too, go check out Lee Bul’s trippy installations over at Lehmann Maupin in NYC. The show is up through June 14th.

Posted by C-Monster.

The Digest. 05.16.08.

Administrator — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:41:08 +0000

The art paparazzi get to work. (Sublime photo by eugenio_gp.)

Bush has made the ultimate sacrifice during this war: he’s given up golf.
Renaissance painting by Domenico Beccafumi broken in two at London’s National Gallery. The best part of this story is the sidebar: a list of pieces of art that have been damaged or destroyed by accident. More here.
Ickier than a Damien Hirst: Thai artist Kittiwat Unarrom makes dismembered body parts out of bread. Perfect for fans of Saw. (Via NotCot.)
Polaroid lovers: A show of Robert Mapplethorpe’s Polaroid pictures at the Whitney.
A list of pieces by Rauschenberg that you can see in NYC right now.
Calling all portraits. The Smithsonian is having a competition. And there’s a $25,000 prize.
Photo Essay: The tribal arts and textile show in NYC.
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center gathers more than 300 Marilyn Monroe-themed works for exhibition.
A film about Lawrence Weiner. What we learned: he hates Helvetica. (Via Coudal.)
At Carnegie: Industry in art.
The General Accounting Office tells the Smithsonian to shape the hell up. Ever wonder why the Smithsonian is so fucked? This little paragraph in WaPo should explain why: “The Board of Regents is a 17-member voluntary body with representation from the executive, judicial and legislative branches, as well as the public. The membership includes the U.S. chief justice, the vice president, three members each from the House and Senate and nine citizens. Only Congress can remove a regent.” (The GAO report, courtesy of MAN.)
Looks like the Barnes will be moving to Philly. More here and here.
Getting trippy and blobby: In the studio with Ernesto Neto.
New Photojournalism Book: Robert Frank, by Steidl.
Graff of the Day: Rubio in France. See a full set.
Now you too can be the proud owner of a Shepard Fairey laptop. Likewise, for a mere $7, you can buy an Obey sticker pack and redecorate the laptop you already have.
Photos from Insa’s show in Luxembourg.
Blandifying NYC: Development pressure in the West Village is at an all-time high, reports Bloomberg.
Photo Essay: Oscar Niemeyer’s Museu Contemporânea de Niteroi. (Via Coudal.)
An interesting Modernist rethinking of rural Latin American architecture: Casa en el Campo by Benjamín Murúa and Constanza Infante in Chile.
Architects debate what to do with Eero Saarinen’s Bell Labs building in Holmdel, N.J.
Folding façades.
Building a house on a sharp incline means you gotta put in a lotta stairs: the Tolo House by Alvaro Leite Siza in Portugal. (Via NotCot.)
The Air Hostesses of Yesteryear.
Your moment of dude. (Via VSL.)

Posted by C-Monster.

Adbusting: New Firefox plug-in replaces ads with art.

Administrator — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:32:52 +0000

Before: The Guardian’s art and architecture blog page with advertising.

After: That same page with art. So soothing!

How to put it delicately? Advertising sucks. And thankfully, there are mad-genius artist types in the universe who are working on dealing with this scourge. Brooklyn-based artist Steve Lambert, a senior fellow at Eyebeam, has, for the past year, been developing a Firefox plug-in that replaces Internet advertising with images of art.

The widget is based on a popular ad-blocking software, with added layers of coding that allow websurfers to see art rather than ads. Lambert, who has worked on other anti-advertising projects in the past, including Budget Gallery in California, and the Anti-Advertising Agency in NYC, came up with the idea three years ago. But he didn’t begin serious work on the project until about a year ago, when he got the hackers at Eyebeam to help write code. (Here’s the list of people who have contributed to the project.) In addition to the Eyebeam folk, other tech types have also been involved. “I’ve had groups of people get together every week or two weeks and we have pizza and beer and work on this,” explains Lambert. “There’s a guy at Bank of America who works during the day but then he comes over at night. He really has a great spirit about it.”

The plug-in is still in the beta stages, but I’ve been testing it out for several days and am happy to report that it kicks ass. (All of the screengrabs in this post are from my websurfing travails.) Seven out of ten times, the widget, formally known as Add-Art, effectively replaces all advertising with images of art. At other times, it just leaves ad spaces blank. The art, unfortunately, does not click through to an arts site. But no matter, Add-Art vastly improves the visuals on any websurfing experience. Ultimately, Lambert is seeking to create up-to-date galleries by guest curators that will be rotated in and out of selection every two weeks. “Right now, the plug-in replaces most ads and sometimes it leaves things blank,” he says. “But that’s fine with me. At least you’re not seeing ads.” Hallelujah to that.

Lambert will formally “unveil” the plug-in next Thursday, May 22nd, at 7:30 p.m., at the New Museum. In the meantime, you can download Add-Art here.

Click on images to supersize. More before-and-after pairings after the jump.

Before: ArtForum, a site that is purportedly about art, has a news page that never shows any. Though they do show plenty of logos for commercial galleries.

After: Much better! The tacky logos on the right have been successfully blocked, while others have been replaced with a little Gustav Klimt. What a relief!

* * *

Before: Behold…the Miami Herald’s Visual Arts section. The arts stories on this page look about as enticing to read as a government report on tax reform. In fact, the only visual elements on the page are the SCREAMING ORANGE MARLINS ADS that make me want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon.

After: Thank Jehovah! A little Klimt just cleaned this puppy right up! Now the Herald has a Visual Arts site that looks like it’s about, well, visual arts.

* * *

Before: Here we have the Old Grey Lady. And while the paper is actually a good example of a well-done interactive arts site (lots of pics, audio, video, slideshows), it’s also laden with ads. On this page, a story about auction sales by blogosphere favorite Carol Vogel has ads above and to the side that overshadow that nice Rothko with messages of: buy, buy, buy…a gas-guzzling car that will help send the planet to its ultimate demise.

After: Much more dignified! Rothko is now in good company.

* * *

Before: The New York Post’s Entertainment Page. (Gotta have at least one lowbrow entry in the group.)

After: Okay, the tacky red banner is still tacky, but the page is made infinitely better by removing the bubble-gum pink animated ad for Xanadu on the right. Now I can read about the Sex and the City movie in peace. Whew.

Posted by C-Monster.

Calendar. 05.15.08.

Administrator — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:54:58 +0000

Dalek (bottom) in NYC. (Photo by shoehorn99.)

In Washington, D.C.: Dalek at Irvine Contemporary.
In NYC: Sofía Maldonado at Magnan Emrich, opens today.
In NYC: Lynn Cazabon at Schroeder Romero, opens today.
In NYC: Noise/Art at KS Art, opens Friday.
In NYC: Concrete Alchemy tour kicks off in Brooklyn, Friday starting at 8 p.m.
In NYC: Curating 2.0, a talk about how the Internet is redefining photography, in Dumbo, on Friday at 6 p.m.
In NYC: Titi Freak and Tim Biskup at Jonathan Levine, opens Saturday.
In NYC: Robert Hardgrave at Joshua Liner, opens Saturday.
In NYC: APAK at Giant Robot, opens Saturday.
In Jersey City: Hector Canonge, Richard Lathrop and Tim Evans talk about urban sprawl, as part of the show Mapping Sprawl at the Jersey City Museum, tonight at 6 p.m.
In Boston: Parti Wall: Hanging Green at 90 Wareham Street in South End.
In Milwaukee: Devotion to Threat at Woodland Pattern.
In Chicago: A book signing and sticker show for the launch of the new book Peel: The Art of the Sticker, Friday at Rotofugi.
In Chicago: Paul Goldberger will talk about the challenges facing historic preservation at the Harold Washington Library Center tonight at 6 p.m.
In L.A.: Matt Furie and Albert Reyes in Killing Time at GR2, opens Saturday.
In L.A.: Christopher Finch talks about his new book on Chuck Close at MoCA Pacific Design Center, this Saturday at 4 p.m.
In L.A.: Murakami at Blum & Poe, through June 14^th.
In S.F.: Tree Show IV, a group show, opens at GR-SF on Saturday.
In Seattle: Robots: A Designer’s Collection of Miniature Mechanical Marvels at EPM/SFM, opens tomorrow.
In Barcelona: Frank Plant at Galería Contrast, opens today.

Posted by C-Monster.

The Digest. 05.15.08.

Administrator — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:08:50 +0000

Bonks, in L.A. (Photo by G@b13L.)

“Michel Gondry Entertained for Days by New Cardboard Box.” (Via AFC.)
Mark Bradford’s Help Us, a rooftop installation at Carnegie International, is viewable on Google Earth.
The photography of Juliane Eirich.
An ad for Brita: “Last year, 16 million gallons of oil were consumed to make plastic water bottles.” The ad neglects to mention how many gallons of oil were consumed to make plastic water filters. (Via NotCot.)
The Smithsonian is gonna be in a movie. With Ben Stiller. No word if it had to sleep with the director to get the part.
It’s all about the Benjamins…A story on why Clementine Gallery in NYC is being shuttered: “By October of 1996, they had amassed the princely sum of $60,000— enough to cover their expenses for the first year. (Now, 12 years later, they have to sell at least $80,000 every month to cover expenses.)” (Via Bloggy.)
Where China and Africa meet. The photography of Paolo Woods.
From the Department of Who Knew?: Rauschenberg won a Grammy.
Plus, Jed Perl of the New Republic is no fan of Rauschenberg: “As for his art, it stank in the 1950s and it doesn’t look any better today.” Jack Shafer at Slate agrees. (Via AJ.)
More Rauschenberg: Video of the artist talking about Erased De Kooning.
Rich people still spending insane amounts of money on art: Francis Bacon triptych sells for $86.3 million.
In related art-buying news… The best blog headline of the week: “The Most Expensive Ejaculation Ever Auctioned.” Update: I just learned that May is National Masturbation Month. How apropos.
New ad campaign for Miami sells the city as high-end art and design destination. One hotel owner isn’t so sure about the plan: “Art is nice, and it adds to our culture and it sells condos. But it doesn’t sell hotel rooms. Sex sells.”
Bust of Caesar found in French river.
The Daily Show on the media’s obsession with white, working-class voters, which includes a special report called the West Virginia Douche-Off.
Urban decay: Hotel edition. (Via MAN.)
Graff of the Day: Baradon and Grino in Moscow.
A Q&A with Troy Lovegates, aka Other, which includes a nice selection of images of his work. (Via Ekosystem.)
The Eyes Have It: A.J. Fosik sculpture at White Walls in S.F.
Art21 has a round-up of architectural videos, including a tour of the Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in real life…and Second Life.
What can you do with a 7’10” wedge of space in Antwerp? Build a four-story house.
A 1927 bus garage in Moscow to be turned into a gallery.
Bone china rings.
Chihuahua in a scuba outfit. (Via Coudal.)
Your moment of Salvador Dalí, What’s My Line? edition.

Posted by C-Monster.

Photos: Josh Dorman at Mary Ryan in NYC.

Administrator — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:30:48 +0000

Detail: Dangerous Intersection, 2008. (Photos by C-M.)

Photos from the opening of Josh Dorman’s solo show, Babel, at Mary Ryan Gallery in New York City. The show is up until June 21st.

Click on images to supersize. More after the jump.

Dangerous Intersection, 2008.

Detail: A Cautionary Tale, 2008.

Encyclopedia of Drowned Things, 2007.

Mirror Pool, 2005-2008.

Gameboard I, 2006.

Posted by C-Monster.

The Digest. 05.14.08.

Administrator — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:50:32 +0000

Los Reyes del Mambo in Madrid. (Photo courtesy of SpY.)

Zak Smith’s daily sketchbook.
But will he be biting himself? Vito Acconci to deliver New School commencement address.
New York mag has an excerpt of the De Kooning bio, An American Master, in which Rauschenberg swings by and asks to erase one of his drawings. (Via MAN.)
Photo Essay: Robert Rauschenberg’s Time covers.
Plus: Art to Go looks back at moments in pretty recent history when Rauschenberg wasn’t so popular, while NPR has audio of an interview with the artist, as well as a bit of music he composed, as part of his obit profile.
I’d like you to meet your cellmate, “Tiny”: Asian antiquities expert arrested on fraud charges, stemming from SoCal museum raids this past January.
~~Artlog.net~~ Artlog.com has a brand spanking new function on their site that could serve as a good hub for organizations doing open calls for artists. If you’re an organization doing an open call, put your stuff up there…and if you’re an artist, check it out…
The Brooklyn Museum has a super rad, comprehensive online exhibit of Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.
When museums rent their art for money. Yeah, they’re talkin’ about you, Louvre.
Staff cuts at the Getty.
Harvard Art Museums to unveil new Renzo Piano designs for a new building this weekend.
Robert Storr in Frieze magazine, on the power of patrons: “Eli Broad’s plan for sharing his collection with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art while holding onto it in perpetuity is a glaring example of ‘what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine’ deal-making in the philanthropic domain.” (Via Eyebeam.)
The Telegraph’s Richard Dorment on the Turner Prize nominees: “For the first time in many years, the Turner Prize shortlist looks to me like a dud. First, the four shortlisted artists struck me as unusually - and irritatingly - similar.” And, the kicker: “It’s the kind of modern art that pundits pay deference to and that deep down nobody really likes.” Plus: Bloomberg and the Guardian help sort out who is who.
More on Susan Dessel getting censored by the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences in N.J.: Heart as Arena and Winkleman.
When paintings cost more than houses: Lucian Freud painting sells for $33.6 million at Christie’s and sets price record for a work by a living artist (via AJ). The Kaufmann Desert House sells for $15 million.
Graff of the Day: A Flickr set of the Schmitz Park Bridge in Seattle.
Ad Deville of Skewville and Ali Ha will open the doors on their Factory Fresh gallery in Brooklyn in early June.
Marty caps Shepard Fairey on Houston Street in NYC in broad daylight.
Daze released in Scotland.
Architectural billings are flaccid.
National Geographic has a photo essay on architecture in China.
Charles and Ray Eames introduce their new lounge chair on NBC in 1956.
A White Forest in a Grey Field by Junya Ishigami in Tokyo.
Here’s what that fancy hotel yuck-ifying Manhattan’s Lower East Side looks like from the inside.
The day in graffiti merch: Graffiti’d furniture and graffiti’d dishware.
More street art as advertising, this time for Vespa in Montreal. Creepy-looking photos here.
Me love: Nico Nico animated gifs.
Your moment of bad ideas.

Posted by C-Monster.

R.I.P. Robert Rauschenberg.

Administrator — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:06:38 +0000

A Rauschenberg piece at Songs For Sale at Deitch, in 2006. (Photo by third uncle.)

Robert Rauschenberg 1925-2008. Read the NY Times obit. See the photo essay. Plus: Bloomberg, AP, Chicago Trib, L.A. Times, Reuters and the Captiva News-Press.

Posted by C-Monster.

Calendar. 05.13.08.

Administrator — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:24:37 +0000

Michael de Feo in Miami’s Wynwood arts district. (Photo by C-M.)

In Beacon, N.Y.: Michael De Feo, Elbow Toe, Cycle, Lady Pink + many other artists do a live paint jam at 510 Main Street, starting Saturday.
In Huntington, N.Y.: Jae Hi Ahn at Alpan Gallery.
In NYC: Neo Rauch at David Zwirner, through June 21^st.
In NYC: The Art of Moroccan Textiles at Cavin Morris.
In NYC: Elizabeth Peyton at Gavin Brown, through May 17^th.
In NYC: Yong Ho Ji at Gana Art, through May 24^th.
In Washington, D.C.: Joe Shannon: Realism Surrealism at the American University Museum.
In Washington, D.C.: The work of Eero Saarinen at the National Building Museum, through August 23^rd.
In Chicago: Richard Rogers lecture at the Art Institute of Chicago this Thursday at 6 p.m.
In Santa Fe: Comic Art Indigène, a look at American Indian comic art, at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, through January 9^th.
In L.A.: Uncommon Gardens at Thinkspace.
In London: Grayson Perry: Unpopular Culture at the Hayward. See a video interview with Perry here.
In Madrid: Alexandre Arrechea, Suicide Landscape, at Galeria Casado-Santapau, opens tomorrow.
In Madrid: Rodin at Fundación Mapfre.

Posted by C-Monster.