Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Look, in the phone booth, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's NYC WiFi!

  A “Superman” phone booth, one of three that will remain on West End Avenue in Manhattan. Credit Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times    

That's right, Jimmy, telephone booths to become free wifi hotspots all over New York City.  Thanks Bill de Blasio.  Great idea!  Read all about it, Lois:

 

 

Monday, November 3, 2014

Pot Hole Flower Project : Chicago Artist's Glorious Road Work

 FLOWERS IN THE STREET: ART BY JIM BACHOR/CHICAGO

From THIS IS COLOSSAL : Artist Jim Bachor (previously) continued his guerilla effort to remedy Chicago’s pothole problem by creating a number of flower mosaics in streets around the city. Bachor installed four mosaics through this fall while the weather cooperated, but as things get wet and cooler we’ll probably see a bit less of his, uhm, street art. I’m not sure if any of these are still around, but he keeps a list of photos and addresses where each piece was installed. Bachor opens a new exhibition of mosiac art at Packer Schopf Gallery titled “Jentaculum” early next month.

MORE PHOTOS FROM JIM BACHOR AT THIS IS COLOSSAL

Friday, October 17, 2014

Friday, September 26, 2014

Post Card From Paris: Lost For Words - Nuit Blanche, Oct 4, 2014



Download a high resolution PDF of this poster to print at home, office, art museum, or somewhere in the world: LOST FOR WORDS.

If you would like to see a catalog/price list: LOST FOR WORDS CATALOG.

Have a Twitter, FB or something else - Please share....

Saturday, September 20, 2014

The Cairo Dish Painting Initiative

PHOTO: LESLIE MCALLISTER, creator of the Lost Art Project

The Cairo Dish Painting Initiative is a project by writer/artist Jason Stoneking :

From Jason Stoneking's Facebook page on the project

About

The Cairo Dish-Painting Initiative is a collaborative art project launched by Jason Stoneking for the purpose of helping to beautify the Cairo skyline.

(Arabic below)
The Cairo Dish-Painting Initiative is a project launched by Jason Stoneking, in cooperation with the Artellewa Art Space, as part of his residency there in the fall of 2014. It was inspired by a conversation with Egyptian artist Hany Hommos on his balcony in Cairo, when he said that the endless sea of dirty brown satellite dishes made the skyline depressing to look at. Jason suggested that maybe something could be done about this that would be fun and empowering for the people in the community. So along with the help and support of the entire Artellewa team, Jason and Hany made their way first to the roof of the Artellewa building in the Ard-El-Lewa neighborhood of Cairo, and painted the satellite dishes in bright, day-glow colors. The plan in the coming weeks is to approach several other buildings in the area about painting the dishes on their rooftops. And in time, the hope is that this idea would catch on and spread across Cairo. That the citizens of this vibrant city would help brighten their skyline, and announce to the world that the signals of hope, happiness, and free expression are the ones that they want to receive.

مبادرة تلوين أطباق القاهرة
مشروع أطلقه جيسون ستون كينج بالتعاون مع مساحة فن آرت اللوا على هامش مشاركته في برنامج الاقامة الفنية بآرت اللوا في خريف 2014
استوحى جيسون المشروع عبر محادثة دارت بينه وبين الفنان المصري هاني حمص في شرفة منزله، عبر هاني خلالها عن ضيقه من هذا البحر الممتد من أطباق الاستقبال الصدئة والذي يجعل الأفق يبدو كئيبا، فاقترح جيسون هذه المبادرة التي تجمع ما بين المتعة وتدعيم المجتمع، وبمساعدة فريق عمل آرت اللوا أنطلق جيسون وهاني إلى سطح مبنى آرت اللوا في منطقة أرض اللواء كخطوة أولى، وقاما بتلوين أطباق الاستقبال بألوان ساطعة وبراقة، وتتركز خطة جيسون خلال الأسابيع المقبلة على إعادة التجربة عبر عرض الفكرة على الجيران من قاطني المباني المجاورة في منطقة أرض اللواء، ويأمل أن تنتشر الفكرة والمبادرة عبر أرجاء القاهرة، فبهذه الطريقة يمكن لسكان هذه المدينة النابضة بالحياة أن يضيفوا بريقا إلى أفق مدينتهم ويعلنوا للعالم أن إشارات الأمل والسعادة وحرية التعبير هي الإشارات التي يرغبوا في




Monday, August 4, 2014

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.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

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/

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

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).

Thursday, July 10, 2014

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.

Monday, July 7, 2014

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.


Wednesday, July 2, 2014

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


Wednesday, June 25, 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

Friday, June 6, 2014

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.

Friday, May 30, 2014

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