Saturday, December 24, 2011

Post Cards From The Edge at Cheim & Read, New York City






























Post Cards From The Edge : The preview show for the Visual AIDS exhibition at Cheim & Read, 547 W 25th St, New York opens on January 6, 2012. Proceeds from the sale of postcard sized artworks – each anonymously shown – benefits Visual AIDS. 

FULL LIST OF ARTISTS HERE.

Show Details below:


BENEFIT SALE - $85 EACH
Saturday, January 7, 2012
from 10:00 - 6:00 (Buy four, get a bonus fifth)
Sunday, January 8, 2012
from 12:00 - 4:00 (Buy two and get a bonus third)
Take a guess: Over 1500 anonymous displayed postcard-size masterpieces.

First-come, first-served. $5 suggested admission
Cash, check, credit card (MC/VISA/AMEX) accepted.
Proceeds benefit
Visual AIDS.


PREVIEW PARTY
Friday, January 6, 2012
from 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Sneak Peek: The only opportunity to see the entire exhibition. No sales.

Admission, payable at the door, includes a raffle ticket for the chance to pick the FIRST postcard that evening. Participating artists attend free.


Postcards From the Edge is a Visual AIDS benefit show and sale of original, postcard-sized works on paper by established and emerging artists. All works are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. The works are signed on the back and exhibited so the artists' signatures cannot be seen. While buyers receive a list of all participating artists, they don't know who created which piece until purchased. All proceeds support the programs of Visual AIDS.
Visual AIDS utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving the legacy -- because AIDS IS NOT OVER!

More information and installation shots from previous exhibitions: http://www.thebody.com/visualaids/current/postcards2012.html

Friday, December 23, 2011

Market: Islamabad, Pakistan

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

OCCUPY THIS

 


LETTER FROM PARIS: OCCUPY THIS

BY MATTHEW ROSE

Pssst…Can we talk about money? I keep on getting press releases from Phillips de Pury about all the wonderful things they’ve sold, the auction records they’ve broken – Richard Prince’s “Cowboys and Girlfriends” portfolio fetching $146,500; Andy Warhol’s “Grapes” topping $104,500 – and the next pot of gold waiting in the auction markets in New York and London. And if it’s not from an auction house, the emails chime in from the art fairs in Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Geneva or galleries in India, Hong Kong or some new white cube that just opened here in Paris.

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE FROM THE ARTBLOG.


(Left: Shepard Fairey's Occupy Wall Street design supports the 99 Percent, although we're pretty sure he's a 1 percenter.)

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)



























No one like him, Christopher Hitchens.  He lived his life in full view, glass of whiskey and a cigarette at the always ready. His death, too, was very nearly televised. Irreverent, and all that stuff.  You could not say he was deluded.  Hitchens had a wide awake point of view. And he kicked ass often. RIP, Mr. Hitchens.

Ian McEwan writes a beautiful piece about his friends last few days in The NYT.

Some of his reverberations are captured on video from Vanity Fair are here.  Or you can read the full New York Times Obituary for Christopher Hitchens.

Friday, December 16, 2011

GEORGE WHITMAN : THE SPIRIT OF SHAKESPEARE & CO, PARIS







































I've met George Whitman many times over the years here in Paris and have always enjoyed his cantankerous and poetic expectorations, literary and other.  He manned the cockpit in the Left Bank bookstore, Shakespeare & Company, and stamped my books with vigor and humor.  He will be missed. 

An angel. Bless you George.

George Whitman (1913-2011).  He was 98. 

Read the full article/obituary:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/books/george-whitman-paris-bookseller-and-cultural-beacon-is-dead-at-98.html?_r=1







Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Les Affaires For Xmas From Keep Calm Gallery London








































From Keep Calm Gallery in London: Les Affaires.

Like a shopping mall from hell and high water, Matthew Rose takes on the vast consumer/consumption subject with a surreal tour through the commercial center of his mind with Les Affaires.
Expertly produced by Mariela Cadiz and Burning Boy Press in Paris, Les Affaires brings consumption and all its myriad expressions to a neat explosion. Here, Freud (lower left corner) considers the expansive narratives from behind a silhouette of Popeye-as-Buddah. A family ponders a side of beef, a salesman dangles a naked blue girl in offering from his battery-as-desk (a housewife's head). A child's arms are weighed on a scale. One of a large pair of hands beholds a fashion plate – her own head morphed into a construction of pipes topped by a fan – while the other hand readies a pen for signing over something of value.

Indeed value is explored and remade as acts of gloating, comedy and narcissistic wonder and feeding. Matthew Rose's Les Affaires, a print based upon an enormous collage takes 'business as usual' to startling new heights and frighteningly new depths.

"I live on a market street in Paris," says the artist. "This happens every day."

  • Limited edition of 100
  • Signed, numbered, titled and dated by the artist
  • High quality giclee print
  • 310gsm Hahnemuhle fine art etching paper
  • 750mm by 700mm (29½ by 27½ inches)
Price: £150.00
Unframed

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Doris Salcedo : Topography of War



















 


































































































Doris Salcedo. 8 th International Istanbul Biennial. Istanbul, TK, 2003.  

This work takes reference from conditions of forced displacement and how it equals to a form of incarceration, which artist Doris Salcedo calls a “Topography of War”. For this project, I worked on the design of the supporting structure and the sequence of installation that was undertaken in Istanbul with 1600 chairs on an empty space between two buildings. See more images here.


Tuesday, December 6, 2011

JOHN HIMMELFARB : UNSHAKEABLE

Unshakeable is a documentary about the art and life of Chicago-based artist John Himmelfarb. John began exhibiting his work way back in 1968, and has made it his living ever since. In that time, art trends have come and gone by the dozens, but John has never chased them. Art is his business, and he’s done it his way. It’s time to share with the coasts what the Midwest has known for decades, John Himmelfarb’s work is UNSHAKEABLE.

The film is being funded by artists and like-minded supporters of the arts on Kickstarter.org. See the project: UNSHAKEABLE, and if you want to be a film producer, put in $25 or more towards the production of this film about the great artist John Himmelfarb.

Superstore by Walmart & Friends –Jalandhar, India

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Photo: Kuni Takahashi for The New York Times

A Best Price store Jalandhar, India, a wholesale store that is jointly owned by Wal-Mart and Bharti, a retailer in India. 

Family run shops in India are being driven out of business by these new super stores, according this article in The New York Times. While these large retailers help with food distribution, the local economies often suffer. Protests have increased.  Read the article.


Friday, December 2, 2011

THE ARTBLOG'S PHILLY SAFARI ON KICKSTARTER

..... The artblog, an online journal of contemporary art writing edited by Libby Rosoff and Roberta Fallon, has launched a safari.  An art safari that seeks to cut the brush and whack the bush in the contemporary Philadephia art scene.

To make this happen the artblog has launched a Kickstarter campaign. And the good news is that the group is only $400 shy of its $2500 goal.  Take a look at the magazine, then the campaign, then toss in $10 to make it happen.  
For a $40 donation, you will get a Matthew Rose stamp sheet, Rubens Rounding Third, signed, dated, numbered. And, hey! A 2011 tax deduction!