Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category

Marilyn Minter’s Inspiration for Show on Perspiration

Monday, August 30th, 2010

By Kiša Lala

Marilyn Minter, Trickle, 2010 C-Print

Marilyn Minter, Trickle, 2010 C-Print

Far from the sweaty sidewalks of New York in the cooler climes of Gstaad, better known for its ski resorts, Marilyn Minter is co-curating a show with Fabienne Stephan titled SWEAT. The show at Patricia Low Contemporary includes works by Matthew Barney, Kate Gilmore, Mika Rottenberg, Cindy Sherman and Kiki Smith among others – with depictions of the skin’s secretions ranging from the erotic to the mundane.

Cindy Sherman : Untitled  1985

Cindy Sherman : Untitled 1985

Sweat is the conditional response of our skins, the body’s largest organ: try as we might to mask the hint of arousal and exertion, the thin wet odorous film is a primitive and instinctual expression of our latent desires, a Pavlovian reflex to fear and sex. While Minter’s work explores the erotic surface tension of dirt and sweat, Kiki Smith’s work is one of abstract crystallized droplets, and Ryan McGinley photographs a runner in the saintly glow of exhaustion.

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Nick Knight pays tribute to i-D Magazine’s 30th Birthday

Monday, August 16th, 2010
Nick Knight -self-portrait (2006)

Nick Knight, Self Portrait (2006)

By Kiša Lala

For its 30th anniversary this August, the now venerable, i-D magazine, has just released three birthday editions shot by photographer Nick Knight. The collectible issues with staggered release dates are titled Then (Pre-Fall), Now (Fall) and Next (Winter) with Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Lady Gaga as cover stars.

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Emerging Art Fairs: Reinventing a Global Language with Art

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

By Kiša Lala

New York The Armory Show 2010 © Gabriele Heidecker, Berlin

Barry Friedman Ltd. Work: Gottfried Helnwein, NY, The Armory Show 2010 © Gabriele Heidecker

Art fairs, with their aggregation of art dealers forming a one-stop shopper’s marketplace for art, attract high-spending collectors, generate greater sales, and have to some extent replaced galleries with their increasing drawing power. Before the recent market collapse, the frenzied demand for new art had peaked with the proliferation of smaller, budding art fairs. Some as satellites to the major European events, the biennials, art festivals and fairs such as Basel, Venice, Documenta, catered to lesser known, emerging artists. Even more notable are the fairs that have sprouted in Asian countries and off the map destinations, creating alternate markets for art, challenging the existing western hegemony – such as the Shanghai Contemporary, Art Dubai, Art Summit New Delhi and SP-Arte in Sao Paulo.

Berlin based photographer, Gabriele Heidecker has been documenting this new trend for the last few years, as a follow-up to her already published volume Art Affairs, containing candid behind-the scenes images of such events as Art Basel Miami Beach, London’s Frieze, ARCO Madrid, FIAC Paris, Art Cologne, which serve as watering-holes for artists, dealers and high-rolling investors alike. Heidecker’s photos reveal the subtext of commerce under the carnival-like atmosphere of the fairs, making us wonder if the transformative value of art is subsumed by its monetization.

11 Fieze Art London 2004 ©  Gabriele Heidecker, Berlin ART AFFAIRS, Nr.65 -art affair_S063_2

Lady on the floor, Frieze Art London 2004 © Gabriele Heidecker

I met Gabriele Heidecker aptly enough, on a plane from India to the Emirates as she globe-trotted between art events in Kolkata to Art Dubai and Sharjah, which are emerging capitals in the nexus of new art in the Middle East. I asked Ms. Heidecker about her new book in progress.

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Inside SPREAD: Nick & Chloé – Elsinore

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

By Helen Shih

Photo: Nick & Chloé/Bernstein & Andriulli

Photography duo Nick & Chloé take you into a dark world inspired by Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet for their photo-story “Elsinore” in the latest issue of SPREAD|Artculture magazine. The setting of the play is Elsinore, the Danish royal castle where the young prince Hamlet struggles with the recent passing of his father, King Hamlet, and the many deaths that ensue in his desire for revenge.

Nick & Chloé’s modern interpretation takes place in a Paquebot-style machine factory built in the 1960s in the French suburbs. Notes the photographers, “We thought it was the perfect location to echo Hamlet’s home, Elsinore. The map is a clue, indicating capitalism and industry. We also wanted to echo the end of an empire, a feeling of crisis.”

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Tania Camille Nasser: Video Girls

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Tania Camille Nasser

Things are happening quickly for 24-year-old Tania Camille Nasser, the winner of the Student Fine Art – Single Image category of The New York Photo Awards. Winners were announced mid-May, and less than a month later her first solo show opens today at the Witzenhausen Gallery in New York. Entitled “Video Girls,” the project aims to analyze black and hip-hop culture and deconstruct the women who wish to star hip-hop music videos. The six portraits are an exploration of identity and self in an age where music videos splash moving images of flashy lifestyles and overt sexuality. Nasser’s portraits, in contrast, are quietly taken in the homes of each “Video Girl.” Nasser applies the hair and make-up herself, engaging the subject in conversation before the shoot. The production of the portraits are subdued and a far cry from the glamor and pull of hip-hop music videos.

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The World of Rock Bids Farewell to a Legend: Jim Marshall

Monday, March 29th, 2010

The tightly knit world of live music photographers said goodbye to one of their own last week, as word came in of Jim Marshall’s premature death. At John Varvatos’s Spring Street showroom, where Marshall was expected to appear to promote his new book, Match Prints, alongside collaborator Timothy White, the mood was understandably somber. Timothy White called Marshall “royalty in my line of work.” (more…)

Skin Fruit: Jeff Koons’ Curatorial Debut at the New Museum

Monday, March 8th, 2010

By JRS

In 1985, when billionaire Greek industrialist Dakis Joannou bought the first piece of his now world-renowned contemporary art collection—a basketball signed by Dr. Jay submerged in a tank of water and simply titled “Equilibrium”—it started two chain reactions. One, Mr. Koons would never have to worry about people buying his work again, as Jonnau has been very successful in buying up most of it for his monolithic museum in Athens. Secondly, Joannou would be very adept in helping to solidify emerging artists and future greats (Terrence Koh, Cindy Sherman, Takashi Murakami), as well as helping to shape the very nature of collecting. (more…)

Erwin Olaf at Hasted Hunt Kraeutler

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

By JRS

The "Hotel" Series by Erwin Olaf

Through March 20, 2010, Chelsea’s Hasted Hunt Kraeutler gallery will be displaying the latest exhibition by Dutch sensation Erwin Olaf. “Hotel, Dawn & Dusk” is a retrospective look at the photographer from 2004–2009, and focuses on his attention to his subjects at their most intimate. (more…)

DENIM – Curated by David Rimanelli

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

By JRS

DENIM – Curated by David Rimanelli

DENIM – Curated by David Rimanelli

I once asked shuttle loomer and denim aficionado Matt Weintraub to explain, in as few words as possible, what was behind the complex mystique fueling the denim craze. He wrote me, “I prefer my denim raw, thick, and selvage. Raw means the denim has not been pre-distressed. It’s going to get beat up over time. Every crease, bend, and crinkle is going to reflect your personal story. Whiskers will build, honeycombs will form, and edges will wear. But this is exactly as it should be, as each fade and tear will remind you of where you’ve been.” (more…)

E(ART)H

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
By Kiša Lala
Antony Gormley, Amazonian Field, 1992, Terracotta, Courtesy of the artist and White Cube, London

Antony Gormley, Amazonian Field, 1992, Terracotta, Courtesy of the artist and White Cube, London

One way to combat the unusual winter cold in London, while griping about climate change, is to curl up under a handmade rug and a hot water thermos in the portico of the Royal Academy of Arts at 6 Burlington Gardens, where Sketch has opened a pop-up café to coincide with the exhibition Earth: Art of a Changing World funded by GSK Contemporary. Above me – while I nibble oysters and sip champagne, seated on recycled cardboard chairs -  is CO2morrow, an LED-lit, virus-like installation clinging to the façade of the building, showing the fluctuating levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. The display (by Lutyens and Marianantoni) is fed by data from external monitoring systems, and inspired by the idea of a zeolite, a scrubber molecule that “scrubs” CO2 from pollutants, which may be yet another engineered hope for our future.

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