Thursday, August 11, 2011

London Walks!






























Joanna Walsh, aka BADAUDE, the itinerant blogger and artist of many things French has taken her pen for a walk in London and, hey! at the Tate Modern. 

The book is an alternative walking guide to London.  "You travel through the city by atmosphere rather than by the souvenir shops," she says. "Although there are still a few pubs in there!"  Buy it direct from the Tate Modern or in Paris at Shakespeare & Company.  It's a steal at 8,99 Pounds or 10 Euros. Click to enlarge the photos.

From the book sale site:

London is best appreciated on foot. Packed with quirky observations and out-of-the-way treasures, this unique, hand-drawn guide reveals the charms of a city waiting for those ready to stop and look.

Badaude's intricate and witty drawings not only capture the unique architecture and atmosphere of London's streets, but also the way its inhabitants talk, dress and behave. With twenty-one suggested walks, three bus routes and one boat trip, London Walks! is the perfect companion for every urban explorer.

Badaude writes and illustrates a weekly column in the Times and her work appears regularly in the Guardian and The Idler. She has exhibited at the Port Eliot Festival, Shakespeare and Company and the Wellcome Collection.


Friday, July 29, 2011

Lucien Freud 1923 -2011



























British painter, grandson of Sigmund Freud, died this week.  See the article on theartblog.org. Photo of the artist in his London studio.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

East Enders State of Mind: Catching Up With Anglo Hysteria

Brits and Americans have had a long-running obsession with the BBC show EastEnders. 

Larry Jaffee, author and publisher of The Walford Gazette puts these folks on couch for an analytical session that gets to the root of the matter. 

"It's escapism," says Jaffee.  "...but it takes place in a zone where neighbors actually talk to each other.  Yes, there's sex, drugs and everything you might imagine but there's a sophistication about it in the way reality shows are sophistication.  That's the working class in all its glory.  And, it's ours."

Purchase the book, Walford State of Mind on Amazon.  (Also in a Kindle format).

From the publisher's release on the book and its author:

Walford State of Mind: EastEnders As Reported By The Walford Gazette is an irreverent new book that tells the story of the popular BBC series from the perspective of a quarterly fanzine.

 

The new book (ISBN: 978-0-615-42920-5) features the best of the Walford Gazette’s first 18 years and 72 issues, including contributions from Radio Times’ Andrew Collins (who tells what it's like to be an EastEnders scriptwriter; and renown musician/author Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), who tells how EastEnders saved his marriage, twice!

Walford State of Mind features analysis of the series’ best episodes and characters, and is the follow-up to Albert Square & Me: The Actors of EastEnders, featuring 52 exclusive interviews with current and past cast members (ISBN: 978-0-615-41015-9). 

Editor & Publisher Larry Jaffee tells: • how he was banned from the studio for three years for publishing photos in the 'Walford Gazette' under the headline 'ALBERT SQUARE TRESPASSER!" of an American woman who talked her way onto the set;
 

• how he conversed with Rupert Murdoch on why News Corp. should acquire the US rights to EastEnders when BBC America cancelled it;
 

• how he encouraged readers to send teabags to the president of BBC America when he told an Associated Press that “The joke around the office is the lesson from [EastEnders] is `Life is miserable and then you die.'"

“The publisher of the Walford Gazette, Larry Jaffee, is the best friend on this side of the Atlantic that EastEnders has ever had, a tireless evangelist for the show fighting for its availability on public television and cable despite setback after setback,” wrote Vanity Fair columnist James Wolcott in his blog.   

Walford State of Mind is available on Amazon.com, bookstores everywhere through Ingram, and www.wgazette.com           


Monday, July 11, 2011

YANA BYSTROVA: PARIS EN FLEURS




Yana Bystrova is giving new meaning to plein aire painting these days by French frying the great outdoors in a kind of liquid neon. The world should look this cool. The Paris-based, Kiev-born artist walks out into her own Strawberry Fields and serves up these fertile lands in a very hot juice. The results are graphic, hard-edged works that glow with an intensity that would have easily buzzed Van Gogh during his famous swoon in Arles.

A visit to Yana's Marais studio is a bit like an acid trip stoned on summer sunshine and lavender loaded breezes. Vibrating flowers, rolling and tilled fields populate the two-level loft creating open windows onto scintillating landscapes.

Newer works on round canvases fill the lower area, along with large Rorschach-test inspired canvases (pictured above) that combine abstract patterns with anagrams. Everything spills over in pop color, intimating seemingly drug-drenched puzzles that double as interior psych sessions. These canvases are a sweet industrial magic and light show for high IQs looking for a work out, a stroll through the magic mushroom kingdom.

But these are self-conscious art works, objects in and of themselves.  And Yana has long aimed at this kind of visual poetry, without the aid of any kind of hallucinogens.

The works also borrow from a range of printing notions and several of these works feel like they've been silkscreened or produced using woodblock printing. But no, says Yana, they are all done in "the middle of some field by my own hand."

These canvases typically sell for between 1000 and 3000 euros. You can contact the artist directly if you'd like to arrange a visit: Yana Bystrova Website.

Yana's electric landscares are currently on view in Champagne, France from 8 - 28 July in a group exhibition with the controversial theme of : Revolt of the Wine Growers.  Well it's actually Centenaire de la Révolte des Vignerons 1911 - 2011.  To visit: Coopérative Les Coteaux du Landion 10200 Meurville, France.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

MONEY & WARHOL & MONEY

Cy Twombly 1928-2011

Randy Kennedy writing in The New York Times on the idiosyncratic painter who had lived and worked in Rome since 1957 : "But Mr. Twombly, a tall, rangy Virginian who once practiced drawing in the dark to make his lines less purposeful, steadfastly followed his own program and looked to his own muses: often literary ones like Catullus, Rumi, Pound and Rilke. He seemed to welcome the privacy that came with unpopularity."

The New York Times Obit :  American Artist Who Scribbled a Unique Path
Photo of Cy Twombly : CS GRAPHI

Monday, June 27, 2011

THE ILLUSIONISTS: BY ELENA ROSSINI



The Illusionists is a feature-length documentary about the commoditization of the body and the marketing of unattainable beauty around the world.  (See the Kickstarter Page).

The film will explore the influence that corporations have on our perceptions of ourselves, showing how mass media, advertising and several industries manipulate people's insecurities about their bodies for profit.

The preoccupation with physical beauty is as old as time; what is different today is the central role that the pursuit of the perfect body has taken. It has become our new religion. Everyone is affected: boys, girls, women and men from Los Angeles to Tokyo, passing via Mumbai.

Almost 50 years ago, French philosopher Guy Debord wrote The Society of the Spectacle. In the book, he spoke about a consumer society obsessed with and drugged by spectacular images. It was eerily prophetic. The central importance that appearance has taken in our world is at the core of this film.

ELENA ROSSINI (writer, director & producer)
http://www.elenarossini.com

BABBLERS 2011

CLICK HERE FOR MORE BABBLERS.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Corrosion : Gavin Harrison

British fashion photographer and artist Gavin Harrison has just released his first fine art pigment print, Corrosion.  The print is 40 cm x 50 cm and printed by Mariela Cadiz in association with Burning Boy Press onto heavy German Etching paper using archival inks process. The edition is limited to 50, each signed, numbered and dated by Harrison.

Gavin, a professional illustrator and fashion photographer, says he fully embraced the freedom of self publishing and used all his skills to produce a rich, highly detailed work about portraiture and time. "I wanted to make this print for myself," he says. "For my own walls.  And to make something something that would work off vintage furnishings and contemporary design. A piece that brought together a collection of surfaces to reflect the world that I live in...and maybe some other people as well."

The artist pulled together a number of different media like aged paper, flaking iron, and a stenciled wall – oxidation in all its forms – and something iconic and British: The school boy photograph from the early 20th century.  The effect is nostalgic – an essay on decay, loss, memory and in the end, civilization. The result is dark but humorous and visually compelling.


Corrosion is available directly from Gavin Harrison for £120.00.  You can order the work here.

Gavin has long worked as a photographer for numerous fashion and editorial projects in the UK and internationally. His portraits of both men and women, sometimes whimsically attired and posed, are humorous, scintillating and extremely sexy.

See more of Gavin Harrison's work: http://gharrisonphotography.com/ 

Shop: http://gavinhemporium.bigcartel.com/
Etsy Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ukfoto
Blog: http://theeloquenceofwantoncuriosity.blogspot.com/

Burning Boy Press Paris produces limited edition fine art pigment prints for artists, photographers and designers in Paris.  We work with the finest technology and the highest quality papers.  We are also tri-lingual: English, French and Spanish.  Contact, click here.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Strange Positioning Systems Live From Zagreb, Croatia : Alexander Viscio's Inside Verbal Seed







































SPS is launching its live stream from Zagreb : Alexander Viscio's Inside Verbal Seed in collaboration with Galeria Michaela Stock, Vienna and Muzej Suvremene Umjetnosti Zagreb.  Live feed/stream: Thursday June 9th @ 1pm - EST/US.

Please see the live stream here: http://strangepositioningsystems.org/

Monday, May 30, 2011

BASEBALL STAMPS: RUBENS ROUNDING THIRD

 
Matthew Rose's Rubens Rounding Third, a unique art idea in a limited edition, signed and numbered print. These prints are produced on gummed paper, perforated and in an edition of 1000.  Size: 29.6 cm x 40.7 cm (11½ by 16 inches).  

SKIN DEEP : PARIS TATOO - AURELIE PRISSETTE AT KO-KEN GALERIE JUNE 2 THRU 30, 2011

Aurélie Prissette doesn't have a single tattoo on her (she says) but she's hooked on French people who do.

"I've taken hundreds of photographs of people and their tattoos – in their work places, the tattoo parlors, their homes – even their bathtubs. Skin, for these people is about performance, a sensual one, a private one." 

Above: "Viva Las Vegas," silver gelatin print (tirage argentique).

Aurélie presents her works at Kö-Ken Galerie, opening Thursday June 2, in an exhibition on the theme of "SKIN."  Two other artists, El Patman and David Law, touch upon fashion and flesh in this collective exhibition.

Address: Address: 107 rue des Couronnes, 75020 Paris - 01 43 58 68 65. Through June 30. The gallery is open every day from 3 PM - 8 PM.

To see more of Aurélie's photographs, click to visit her web site.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

CALL FOR SHOES!


Artist seeking shoes for large scale sculpture. Above: CG mock up for untitled shoe pyre sculpture.

Residency Unlimited has selected Melissa A. Calderon to launch the new community based program Residency Unlimited at Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education.

Her project is focused on shoes.

Bronx-based, multimedia artist Melissa A. Calderon is seeking donations of old shoes to be included in a large scale sculpture.  

The artist is looking specifically for women's high heel or work/dress shoes - dressy flats are acceptable as well. She's looking for 500 pairs.

This work will be done in collaboration with the students at Casita Maria during the artist's residency. The work will then be on exhibit this fall at Hunter College's new Spanish Harlem gallery in its inaugural exhibition curated by Puerto Rican artist Antonio Martorell and Curator Susana Torruella Leval.

For Drop Off Info & To Contact the Artist:
Melissa A. Calderon
www.melissacalderon.com
914.246.1851
melissaacalderon@gmail.com

Clare Strand: Sleight


























Clare Strand, Girl in Two Halves, 2008, fibre based lambda print, 144 × 150 cm

British artist Clare Strand opens Sleight at Brancolini Grimaldi in London Thursday May 26, 2011. the artist is interested in the paranormal, the magical and of course, sleight of hand. 

The exhibition will display for the first time the installation 'Ten Least Most Wanted' - a wry arrangement of ten vernacular images, chosen by Strand from her research scrapbooks. Also included is her new series Skirts, which features ten mysterious portraits of covered tables that invoke a feeling of concealment and denial.

Brancolini Grimaldi  43-44 Albemarle Street   London W1S 4JJ  T  + 44 (0) 207 493 5721

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

New York City 1985 By Corinne Bunzl


Paris-based photographer, Corinne Bunzl, recently exhibited a number of her black and white prints from New York City, circa 1980s at the Studio Harcourt benefit for Cancer Research in Paris.  This is one of her works – four good friends, working cigars and the side walk on the Lower East Side.  It sold along with several others of her prints.  This print is in an edition of 7.  Enquiries: Contact Corinne Bunzl.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Bin Laden Watches Himself On TV

It's clearly time for a little reflection for the global terrorist, who is reviewing his recent tee vee appearances and perhaps seeing how he might improve his image. He's already dyed the beard black and when on camera dons the pastel-colored robes that bring out the message of peace in his blood thirsty rants.

Article: Bin Laden's Videos.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Kate & Will By Mario Testino

When this photograph was first published on the net, a thread began with the question: "Why no nose rings?"

Taken by famed Kate Moss photo biographer Mario Testino, you have to give him credit for keeping it simple and give the Palace credit for not hiring Jurgen Teller.

The image was produced for the people, of course – an official portrait. Cropped on top and mid-chest, black and white, all smiles, white shirts (both open) the photograph portends equality (between William and Kate), simplicity, honesty and a bit of retro: The 1980s.  It's like they are greeting you at the door. Or at a party.  And there's a subtle sense that you or they are on drugs. They seem really happy to see you and reflect your joy at seeing them. 

Sunday, April 17, 2011

LOVE LETTER FROM PARIS


Ignatz loved Krazy Kat and Krazy loved getting the love kabosh with bricks. Would the French love bricks as much? Courtesy Estate of George Herriman.

READ LOVE LETTER FROM PARIS: THE ART BLOG.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Ashely : New Paintings At Galerie Claude Legrand Paris







































Ashley Ashford-Brown, an English painter who has long lived and worked in Ivry-Sur-Seine, France is exhibiting some of his most recent works – large canvases that echo ancient Celtic poems and iconography. The artist's work can be seen at: Galerie Claude Legrand, 49 Rue de Seine, 75006 Paris. March 31 - April 20, 2011.  (Click the invitation to enlarge).

We took the photo above at Ashley's studio in Ivry-Sur-Seine, in front of one of his massive canvases, during the annual portes ouvertes.  See see more of the artists work, click: Ashley Ashford-Brown.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

New & Improved: Jumbo-Sized Viagra




New & Improved: Jumbo-sized 6-liter bottle of Viagra (Only You), 2011 by MATTHEW ROSE.  Indeed: Six ways to have fun, on view at La Cave des Papilles, Paris. 

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

European Spiritual Film Festival Paris: March 25 - 27















Mei Ling, an idle young Chinese woman, lives alone in her flat, waiting for her lover. One day, she finds a little octopus in the kitchen sink. She decides to adopt it to avoid boredom. The octopus grows up...

Mei Ling by Stephanie Lansaque and Francois Leroy, is an animated film, produced in France (2009), and runs 15 minutes.  It is one of hundreds of films entered into the European Spiritual Film Festival, held in Paris – and on the Internet.  The final selections will be held in Paris from March 26th to 27th, 2011.

For the full program see: EUROPEAN SPIRITUAL FILM FESTIVAL.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Japanese Girl : Defense d'Afficher Project


Japanese Girl by One Little Bird, Leanda, a British artist, for the DEFENSE D'AFFICHER PROJECT.

Leanda is also selling signed prints to help support the people of Japan during this difficult time.

Download Japanese Girl and see other works from the DEFENSE D'AFFICHER PROJECT.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Wolfe Contemporary By Alexis Mackenzie

Alexis Mackenzie produced this hand-cut collage on antique paper – "Wolfe Contemporary", 2011 – for the Wolfe Contemporary art gallery in San Francisco.  Look closely.

FluxFest Chicago

Cecil Touchon, Director, The Ontological Museum, directed this photograph of participants of FluxFest Chicago, held recently in Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art.

Many participants of this festival also participated in and hosted ABAD exhibitions. The Fluxfest was spearheaded by artist Keith Buchholz. Click the photo to enlarge full screen. (It's a fisheye!). PHOTO © 2011 CECIL TOUCHON.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

STEPHEN COLBERT'S ART SPEAK


Give it a minute, then listen carefully. Stephen Colbert deconstructs art speak in a way that is thrilling, accurate and a piece of performance art.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Julie Sadler's: MagikGlasses


The wonderful kinetically kollaged world of Julie Sadler: MagikGlasses.

See her very animated Aviaria: Singing birds angling for your attention.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Cutting Edges: James Gallagher On Collage

                                         


GESTALTEN's new book CUTTING EDGES, a big fat book on contemporary collage, edited by James Gallagher.  Price: €39,90 | $60,00 | £37,50.

Cutting Edges documents the new heyday of collage in current art and visual culture. Today’s artists, illustrators, and designers are increasingly drawn to this artistic technique by the challenges of seamlessly melding traditional craftsmanship with skilled computer montage. They are not only composing a wide variety of visual elements, but are also deliberately omitting, deleting, and destroying them. This book is an inspiring collection of these unique examples of contemporary collage.

Artists include: Clara Mata, Cless, Jelle Martens, Matthew Rose, Paul Burgess, Dani Sanchis, David Plunkert, Molokid, Eduardo Recife, Lisa Eisenberg, Aprile Elcich, David Wallace, Free Fred, Max-o-Matic and many many other collage artists working across the planet.   MORE INFO HERE.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

YOU LIKE THIS







































This will probably get me in trouble.

Obviously, the combination of sex, underwear and Facebook is what makes Store Front Windows interesting, no? I understand. I'm sorry. This is a terrible post.

See more of this terrible stuff :
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/victoriassecret

FLUXFACE IN SPACE


This thing recently took off: FLUXFACE IN SPACE.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Keith Donovan: Travaux Récents At Michel Foëx Geneva


IMAGE: BATEAU 2010, 75 x 60 cm.

Keith Donovan
Travaux récents


Vernissage
Mercredi 2 mars 2011 de 18h à 20h


Exposition
Jusqu’au 16 avril 2011


Horaires
Mardi – Vendredi 14h 30 – 18h 30
Samedi 13h 00 – 17h 00


Galerie Michel FOËX
1, rue de l’Evêché
1204 Genève-CH
Tél : 022 311 26 86

Keith Donovan Web Site.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Thursday, February 17, 2011

RICK PROL: THE WAY BACK MACHINE

Rick Prol used to show his paintings in heavily littered alleys in the East Village in New York City.  Well before Berlin with its beat up buildings and unvarnished Eastern sector became hip, the rumble and rubble of the Lower East Side was the place that launched a thousand art careers.

In the 1980s, young painters just out of art school or fresh to New York City, were creating the next wave in the practically rent-free storefronts in Alphabet Land near Tompkins Square.  Since then dozens of books have been written about the time when painters returned to the art scene and an illustrated Age of Reagan as seen from street was born.

Another work, right, by Prol from his S.O.S. series. Acid green (the East River), broken bridges and dreams, whores on bicycles plunged into the muck. Going nowhere fast. The artist's cats and sailors, knives and nails punched through their bodies and their bicycles, and yes, sometimes their toilets, describes a tough world. But that, too, was New York.

Rick Prol Website.

Nice interview with Rick Prol by Trigger Magazine: http://triggermagazine.com/2005/02/rick-prol.html

The artist also participated in the 2009 exhibition at The Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery, A Book About Death.  Full disclosure: I wrote a profile of Rick Prol in the February 1986 edition of ARTS magazine.  You can download this as a PDF from Rick's web site (PRESS SECTION).

PHOTO: RICK PROL BY : Andreas Sterzing.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

FLUXFEST CHICAGO FEB 15 - FEB 20, 2011

FLUXFEST CHICAGO is here.  Included in this six-day gala of terribly interesting art works and performances are: Picasso Gaglione, Keith A. Bucholz, Simon Anderson, Darlene Domel, Reed Altemus, Andy Oleksiuk, Patric Lichty, Tulio Restrepo, Jessica Rutherford, James Calfani, Allan Revich, Kyle White, Mark Block, Neosho, Reid Wood, Jennifer Kosharek, Joshua Rutherford, Jeff Abell, Melissa McCarthy, Vivian Vassar, Don Boyd, Julie Jeffries, Adamandia Kapsalis, Joel Lipman, mIEKAL aND, Cecil Touchon, Sally Alatelo among many others. 

VENUE: MCA CHICAGO, 220 East Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Louise Bourgeois By Alex Van Gelder : Armed Forces At Hauser & Wirth Zürich







































Hauser & Wirth Zürich opens an amazing exhibition by Alex Van Gelder of the hands of Louise Bourgeois : Armed Forces.

From H&W: "Gnarled, sinewy and wrinkled with age, Louise Bourgeois’s hands were fascinating. Her hands are the subjects of portraits taken by the artist Alex Van Gelder, who, at Bourgeois’s invitation, photographed her at her New York townhouse during the last year of her life. The resulting portfolio of eighteen photographic prints will be on display at Hauser & Wirth Zürich from 12 February. 

"More than purely a portrait project, Bourgeois considered this collaboration to be an extension of her work. Through this series, she put forth her own physicality to be viewed as an element of her art, focusing on her hands as her tools.

"Clenched or cradling, her hands recall many of her works, from the entwined finger-like forms of ‘Clutching’ (1962), to the skein of lines of her ‘Insomnia Drawings’ and the poised spiders of her ‘Maman’ series. Van Gelder’s images are stark, showing just the hands against the black fabric of her clothes. They are flooded with intimacy and warmth, reflecting his closeness to Bourgeois and the trust she placed in him to work with her on this project."

The portfolio is printed in an edition of 10 and will be shown both on the walls of the gallery and also displayed in its original linen box. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, ‘Alex Van Gelder – Louise Bourgeois. ARMED FORCES’, published by Ediciones Polígrafa and Hauser & Wirth.

Opening Friday 11 February, 6 – 8 pm
Hauser & Wirth Zürich
Hubertus Exhibitions
Albisriederstrasse 199A
CH-8047 Zurich
Louise Bourgeois's hands by Alex Van Gelder.

STUFFED BUNNY SHOW


Eve-N-Odd Gallery  in St. Petersburg, Florida wants to know: Are you interested in making a stuffed bunny for the "Stuffed Bunny" show? Yeah?

Well, then, please follow these simple steps: 

Step 1: Make a stuffed bunny.
Step 2: Name yer bunny.
Step 3: Send a brief bio and picture of yourself or your art to Eve-N-Odd Gallery.
Step 4: Print, fill out and sign your consignment form--this includes pricing your bunny.
Step 5: Mail your printed, filled out and signed consignment form, your bunny and return postage cash or stamps (or paypal) and mail to:

Eve-N-Odd Gallery
645 Central Ave #11
St. Petersburg, FL 33701

Show will be Thursday April 14th 6pm to 9pm and will last about a month.  See the gallery, click here, darn it.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

MAD MAGAZINE MAIL ART PROJECT







































Al Jaffee is turning 90. Holy Krap. Who the hell is Al Jaffee?

On March 13, long-time MAD MAGAZINE writer/artist, creator of the Fold-In and Snappy Answers is going to be 90 years old! That means he was born in 1921. Horses were still shitting in the streets of New York and a year after the 19th amendment passed in the US, giving women the right to vote. No shit.

Well, according to famous illustrator, MAD Magazine contributor and Le Select layabout, Rick Tulka, to celebrate Al's birthday, the MAD staff are asking all fans (and non-fans too) to send in letters, cards, poems, drawings, paintings, sculptures, shopping lists - whatever - so they can pass them on to Monsieur Jaffee! "Be part of one of the latest jokes in a long line of jokes at MAD Magazine!" says Tulka. All works will be promptly dumped in the East River in fabulous New York City.  Only kidding.  They'll go straight to auction.  Only kidding. I really don't know what will happen to these pieces of mail, but maybe Jaffee will look at them and say, who the hell is Matthew Rose?

So, get busy and send something to this guy who wall papered our childhoods with funny fold out whatnots and jokes.

Deadline: March 1, 2011

Please send your birthday mail art works and best wishes to:
The Big Jaffee
c/o MAD Magazine
1700 Broadway
New York, New York 10019 USA