Letter From Kiev - Today's Home : Putin Toilet Paper

Amongst the souvenir items, tents and lemonade stands in Kiev's Maidan, the Independence Square where demonstrators were shot and killed last year, are rolls of Vladimir Putin Toilet Paper, probably for sale.  July 6, 2014: From The Economic Times.

Refugee Land Art - Bringing Tibet Home: 20,000 Kilos Smuggled Out of Tibet By Artist Tenzing Rigdol Documentary Film.

Scott Blake's ShopDrop in Omaha Target Store

Scott Blake, an Omaha, Nebraska artist has gently turned shoplifting around and dropped his limited edition, signed and numbered silkscreen printed tee shirts at an Omaha, Nebraska Target store.

The tee shirts are typical of the artist's subversive artwork. Blake created "bar code" art years ago: He's made a bar code portrait of Andy Warhol out of Campbell's Soup Can barcodes. He's done Marilyn Monroe out of DVD bar codes from her films. Scan the barcode and a scene from her film plays.  And he's upgraded his tech portraits with QR codes.  

Blake's Shopdrop tee shirt was purchased (see above) by the artist's friend, Larry Ferguson, for $13.90 and Mr. Ferguson even saved $1 on the purchase.  The shirt comes a signed and dated and numbered tag. The sale will go towards Target's bottom line earnings in the upcoming quarter.  Check out more of Scott Blake's intriguing work here: http://www.barcodeart.com/

EVERYTHING TOUCHES EVERYTHING: SUICIDE SPECIALS

http://artillerymag.com/everything-touches-everything/

MH-17 Wreckage Analysis

Piece of wreckage from the Malaysia Airlines jet downed over eastern Ukraine last week shows damage, including shrapnel holes and blistered paint, that is consistent with a hit from a fragmenting warhead, according to consultants with IHS-Jane’s.  

Here's an analysis of the wreckage from the point of view of a ballistic and missile expert looking at the fragments impact on the skin of the airplane. Analysis.

Photo: Noah Sneider (The New York Times).

Metamorphic at Converge Gallery: 11 July - 2 August 2014

Metamorphosis is the governing process of life: Change. In “Metamorphic” Converge Gallery presents seven artists whose works deftly explore the vast metaphor and process of change using a range of materials reclaimed and re-purposed from their original context.

Cast off, found and everyday objects are married thoughtfully here with post-modern artistic concerns – concerns that dig away at meaning in an oftentimes meaningless world. The results by these international artists offer a fresh and startling perspective on an often stale worldview. 

"Metamorphic" thrusts us into a very contemporary philosophical (and often humorous) dialogue, launching us into a new and challenging visual landscape that upends our experience with our familiarity with these “things we know.” Our awareness is reframed; we are transported to a different if not unique perspective.  Familiarity will never be the same again.

"Metamorphic" is curated by Kasey Lyon, assistant director, Converge Gallery.

Works by Hope Kroll, Matthew Rose, Will Kurtz, Brock Dent, Timothy Allen Miller, Chad Andrews, & Ron Lambert will be on display.

The exhibition opens on Friday, July 11 at 6 PM and will be on view thru Saturday, August 2.

See : Converge Gallery.

Paris Photo: Victor Matussiere Studio In Montparnasse

The vibrant world of Victor Matussiere, young French photographer whose portraits, and photos covering art, fashion, product design, graphic arts, still life and the everyday are quite the buzz.  Victor runs a gorgeous studio in Montparnasse. He's funny and serious and a technical pro. And quite the cook!  See if you can spot him in the kitchen photo above. See more of his sensational work here:  Victor Matussiere Studio.

Joseph Nechvatal's Velvet Love At Galerie Richard, Paris

Joseph Nechvatal. nOiseanusmOs,  2011. Paint on white velvet, 112 x 168 cm.

It is fair to say that Warhol owned Campbell’s Soup cans, Coke bottles and Marilyn the way Pollock owned paint drips, Hopper hotels and lonely diners, and Koons polished steel balloon poodles. It might also be fair to say that Joseph Nechvatal, an American artist who works in both New York and Paris, and takes a post-conceptualist approach to art making, owns a human aperture – the anus.  prOtOcOls nOn (nO rules), Nechvatal’s current Paris exhibition at Galerie Richard, brings together seven large format works of cosmic anal images produced via his homemade computer virus. Nechvatal employs a system of computer-assisted robotic spray guns to paint the final pieces on luscious white velvet canvas.

More:  Joseph Nechvatal's Velvet Love

Galerie Richard
74, rue de Turenne
Paris, France  75003
May 30 – July 19, 2014

Henri Cartier-Bresson at FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE

Henri Cartier-Bresson, "Courses de chevaux, Thurles, Tipperary County, Munster, Irlande," 1952. © Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos. Courtesy Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson.


Henri Cartier-Bresson at FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE June 28–September 7, 2014

FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE Recoletos Exhibition Hall
Paseo De Recoletos, 23  28004 Madrid Spain 

www.exposicionesmapfrearte.com

His genius for composition, extraordinary visual intuition and ability to capture the most elusive and significant instants as they happened made Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. Throughout a career spent crisscrossing the world, turning his gaze on the great moments of history, he mingled poetry with a powerful sense of testimony.

His work falls into three main periods. During the first, from 1926 to 1935, Cartier-Bresson fraternised with the Surrealists, began working as a photographer and went on his first major trips. The second, from 1936 to 1946, was marked by his political commitment, his work for the Communist press and his experience in films. The third, 1947 to 1970, covered the creation of the cooperative Magnum Photos to the time when he stopped doing photo reports.

This retrospective exhibition of the photographer known as "eye of his time" retraces his career chronologically throughout the selection of vintage prints. It presents his most iconic works as well as the unknown ones.  It aims to give a new focus on his career going beyond the idea of the "decisive moment" that until now has been the key to understand his work. It reveals us that there was not just one but several Cartier-Bressons

FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE Recoletos Exhibition Hall
Paseo De Recoletos, 23  28004 Madrid Spain

Royal Secrets In The Queen's Body Fat : Laura Porter

Laura Porter, American conceptual artist/sculptor, recently exhibited several large-scale sculptures at l'Espace des arts sans frontières, in Paris.  The works, installations of found industrial materials are wonderfully puzzling and demand inquiry.

Here's the artist standing in front of her large work made from a found dental chair and other material.  The results are exotic and haunting.

Installation views of the exhibition are here.

Besides, Royal Secrets, the artist has launched a number of great exhibitions (and great titles) such as: Slack, Pervert's Tailgate, Swamp Meat, Pro Jet, Confectionery, Sourdough, Slax, Manswers for Mobsters, Not Sure, My Day at the Mall.

The artist, right, in front of the shadow of her piece in Paris. 

Her titles for works are intriguing and poetic and the works never cease to thrill.  Porter is pushing the limits of what sculpture and an aesthetic experience can be.  See more of Laura Porter's work here: Laura Porter.

Deconstructing The Sayre Barn: Photographs by Ulf Skogsbergh – Opening, Saturday, 12 June 2014

 
“Deconstructing the Sayre Barn: Photographs by Ulf Skogsbergh” is a full on installation of photographs that examine the Sayre Barn, part of the Southampton Village Historical Museum.

The opening takes place Saturday, June 14 from 4-6 PM at the Barn at the Rogers Mansion Museum Complex, 17 Meeting House Lane, Southampton, Southampton Village.

"The restoration of the Sayre Barn, is a major project undertaken by the Museum," says Skogsbergh, an internationally known photographer and musician/composer who lives on the East End of Long Island.  "The Barn is reopening to the public with an installation of my large-scale photographs relating to the barn and farm tools, once housed in the barn."

Skogsberg notes that the space is enormous but his photographs which measure up to 13 feet for this exhibition will likely fill it: "Right now I have two 4x13 ft to finish but but I'm showing 32 prints  in all – and most are about 48 x 60 inches - with eight photos 8 ft long or larger."  The artist's enormous super high resolution features are collected widely in Europe, particularly Switzerland.

According to the Museum: "The 1825 Sayre Barn was under reconstruction for one year and will reopen with an exhibit of photographs of the Sayre Barn taken before the barn was dismantled. Mr. Ulf Skogsbergh specializes in highly-detailed, large format photography (20-plus feet in length).  His works are well-known and collected throughout Europe."

The exhibition will remain open through October 18, 2014.

See more. Visit: Ulf Skogsberg web site.

For more information: http://www.southamptonhistoricalmuseum.org/special-events

COUET - Planète - Synchromie - Jazz: Opening PARIS 3 Juin 2014

ANDY'S MUSEUM

The front entrance to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Credit: Abby Warhola

Mad Men : Collage on Canvas (Saatchi Gallery)

#madmen  ...   Body Electric Showdown entry for Saatchi Gallery Online.  Now in the Round of 300 (out of 3000 or so).

Mad Men, Collage on canvas, 29 x 21 inches. 2013.  (Collage by Matthew Rose).

See more here: http://www.saatchiart.com/art/Collage-MAD-MEN/17209/1744042/view

#LAURA SPOUTING IN #PARIS

#LAURA SPOUTING IN #PARIS

Click image to enlarge!

Habitatation in Bklyn @ Russell Janis Salon

A new boutique salon has just opened in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  Here writing and art and home wares, privisions, prints and good vibes are all housed in a cool new space.  Address: 29 Manhattan Avenue (on Devoe St) 11211.   Currently Habitation, an art exhibition with: Louise Eastman,
Kathleen Kucka, Janis Stemmermann and Wendy Small.

See the virtual art tour here: Habitation Art Exhibition Virtual Tour.

See everything else here: http://www.russelljanis.com/

No Big Macs in Crimea

 

 

McDonald’s has closed its restaurants in Crimea, citing logistical problems after the region was annexed by Russia. Credit James Hill for The New York Times.  See the New York Times article: Life in Crimea after Russian Annexation.

SCOPE NEW YORK 2014 OPENS 6 MARCH

IMAGE: MATTHEW ROSE, SECOND NATURE, 2009.  COLLAGE ON WOOD, 56 x 56 CM 
 
SCOPE New York
312 West 33rd Street
New York, NY 10001
Converge Gallery • B03 • 570-447-5778

First View and Press Preview
Thurs | March 6 | 3pm – 6pm

Show Hours
Fri | March 7 | 11am – 8pm
Sat | March 8 | 11am – 8pm
Sun | March 9 | 11am – 7pm

Trey Speegle: Drink Up With Michelle Obama @ The New Museum

From Trey Speegle: "MICHELLE OBAMA VISITS THE NEW MUSEUM (...and signs my painting!) Last month my friend, artist and curator Pierre Bernard Francillon, asked me to participate in WAT-AAH!‘s “Take Back the Streets” exhibit at the New Museum along with 12 other artists like Kenny Scharf, Shepherd Fairey, and Swoon. WAT-AAH! water was started by former ad exec Rose Cameron with the intent to get kids to drink more water in school so...." More here: https://trey-speegle.squarespace.com/010113

Trey will exhibit his work with Converge Gallery at the Scope Art Fair NYC 2014, March 6 - 9.  

BEATLES ROOF TOP PERFORMANCE ATOP APPLE RECORDS IN LONDON: LAST DANCE 45 YEARS AGO TODAY

 

From Alan Parson: 45 years ago on this date, The Beatles performed together for the last time on the roof of Apple Records in London. In honor of this I'm sharing with you a rarely seen photo. That's me to the right of the cameraman in the orange shirt and black suit.