Batman inspired Thierry Mugler boat - The Thierry Mugler Spire Speedboat

Speed-freaks and fashionistas will dig the Batman boat by runway designer Thierry Mugler modeled by Spire Boat Builder, set to debut in September this year in the 2011 Monaco Yacht show. The boat is a blend of nostalgic 50s era chrome and tailfin-inspired car aesthetic with the comic book style of Bat mobiles. But designing for a floating lifestyle maybe a new trend.

Aquariva by Marc Newson

Batman inspired Thierry Mugler boat - The Thierry Mugler Spire Speedboat

Speedboats and yachts have become the new luxury art objects after Gagosian Gallery launched Aquariva by Marc Newson which combined Italian riviera chic from the 60’s with the best of aerodynamic design by Riva

Batman inspired Thierry Mugler boat - The Thierry Mugler Spire Speedboat

Other nautical inspirations include the Greek billionaire art-collector Dakis Joannou’s Jeff Koons-commissioned work for his yacht Guilty. Koons’ idea came from WWI  boat-camouflaging techniques called razzle dazzle, or razzle camouflaging, but his angular abstract shapes also recall pop-art by Roy Lichtenstein.

The Jeff Koons' designed boat for Dakis Joannou

Dennis Ingemansson designed green concept boat

Dennis Ingemansson designed concept boat

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.

And thus, in the middle of last week, the world got the first look at Jeff Koons’ curatorial debut: “Skin Fruit: Selections for the Dakis Joannou Collection.” On how he chose the pieces for the exhibition, Koons told SPREAD ArtCulture: “I did everything very intuitively. I’ve known Dakis since 1985, and from meeting with him and following the collection from that time, I just wanted to try and capture what I felt represented his interests and his ambition and broadness in collecting contemporary art…but very intuitively.”

SPREAD ArtCulture: Is this your first of many curating efforts?

Jeff Koons: I think artists always curate their own work, but I have an Ed Paschke show that will open in about two weeks that I will curate that I brought together. But it’s like anything: When you’re creating an artwork, you’re just following your interests, and in curating, it’s the same thing. But it’s intuitive, there’s a lot of great work. Some of the best art pieces, some of the best works in the collection, aren’t here. Maybe they’re on loan or it’s an artist’s work that didn’t it within this context of looking at the body.

SAC: How did you choose the pieces in this show and under what context?

JK: It’s just my intuition. I would go through the collection and choose works that I felt represented Dakis’s desire with the collection, and I would go back through and go over them again, and I would find that I was always coming up with the same things. And I made models of the museum; I would lay things out and they developed their own relationships, and it’s just the same when you’re following your own ideas and creating your own works that this happens. It got to a point where if I would try and move something on one of the floors, and take it from one location to another, for me, it just wouldn’t work.

Some of the artists we were able to speak to at the opening, such as Terence Koh, were far less articulate about their involvement in the show:

A sculpture by Terence Koh

SPREAD ArtCulture: Tell me about your involvement in Skin Fruit.

Terence Koh: I was just chosen.

SAC: What are you working on now?

TK: Drinking water.

Koh was the only artist to have sculptures, as well as paintings, in the show.

Some patrons, such as the Chelsea behemoth Tony Shafrazi, were able to weigh in with the learned authority of and award-winning curator (Shafrazi was the recipient of Rob Pruitt’s “Best Group Show” in 2009 at the first ever Art Awards):

"Noodles" by Urs Fischer

SPREAD ArtCulture: What do you think of the show?

Tony Shafrazi: I love the show! I think it’s an eclectic wonderful representation of what’s going on. Dakis is a great collector, and has been for many years, and you see such a great mixture of young, new work, such as been selected from a great many things. I love this Fischer piece right here (Urs Fischer’s “Noodles”), don’t you just love it? It’s one of my favorite pieces in the place. Every piece in here is interesting.

Charles Ray's "Aluminum Girl"

"Fall '91" by Charles Ray (foreground); Terence Koh's "Chocolate Mountains" (background)

Charles Ray's "Revolution Counter-Revolution"

A piece by Downtown favorite and partner of the late Dash Snow, Dan Colen

Dan Altmejd's calamitous "Giant"

Maurizio Cattelan's very bland and largely pedantic "All," an eight-piece installation featuring life-size body bags carved from Carrara marble

"Untitled (Jack)" by Paul McCarthy, which could be a prop straight out of Kubrick

A wonderfully whimsical and weird colloboration by the team of Paul McCarthy and Paula Jones

A wonderfully whimsical and weird colloboration by the team of Paul McCarthy and Paula Jones

There seemed to be a very even split among opening-night patrons as to whether or not the show was a success. Check it out for yourself until June 6th and let us know what you think.

"Untitled" by Urs Fischer, Marguerite de Ponty 2009. Mixed mediums.

There’s something to be said about an artist who doesn’t take himself too seriously, whose whimsical approach to his art can shine forth and resonate in those who know little about his previous work, connecting them to the piece as much as the adept patron.

“Marguerite de Ponty,” Urs Fischer’s new exhibition that recently opened at the New Museum, has, in certain instances, just the right amount of charm to accomplish this. There are several sculptures, over the course of the three-floor exhibit, whose malevolent disposition—a lamp post that looks like it was melted in an inferno, a piano seemingly dismantled by baseball bats, and crutches that appear to have been stolen from their owner and glued to the floor just out of reach—is quelled by magnificent pastoral hues.

"Noisette" by Urs Fischer, Marguerite de Ponty 2009. Mixed mediums.

“Noisette” is another piece that is sure to be a crowd pleaser for the weekend gallery warriors and keeps visitors to the museum on their toes–a pink latex tongue that pokes out of a 3-inch glory hole in the wall and wiggles around briefly before disappearing for an indeterminate amount of time, thanks to laser technology. It ends up being a contribution that feels arbitrary and like little more than a Surrealist joke.

“Last Call Lascaux,” an exact, actual-size color image of the space printed as wallpaper, is the going favorite among visitors. This too is pink, the result of photographing the entire white empty space—ceiling and skylight included—inch by inch without adding more lighting. The trompe l’oeil is clearest when you examine the public-safety signs. By law they could not be removed, so they’re shadowed by images of themselves. In all, it is as if Mr. Fischer had discovered a space within a space and it were, literally, a twilight zone.

The show dies when it reaches the second and final floor, the exception greeting you as you step off the elevator. “abC” is suspended from a steal i beam that visitors pass by when entering the final floor. A bird that appears to be perched on a moon rock with a chain around its neck? This piece could be the anchor on Dakis Jonnaou’s Jeff Koons-designed yacht “Guilty.” It’s a compelling piece that may just be elevated to this level of acclaim by the rest of the free-standing statues that make up the remainder of the exhibit.

"abC" by Urs Fischer, Marguerite de Ponty 2009. Cast aluminum, steel chain, iron particles.

“Service à la Française,” a 51-piece installation of polished stainless-steel boxes in different sizes; the five exposed planes of each are printed with highly detailed color images of five views (front, back, side, and top) of everyday articles, enlarged to many times their normal size. They include food, children’s and dog’s toys, books, a ladder, and many more.

It’s fun to walk through these objects, as it doubles as a house of mirrors, but in the end, you’re able to find your way out, and the whimsical pieces staged on the higher floors seem detached from the rest of the show. But Fischer, in his first US solo show, didn’t act alone: the show was curated by New Museum veteran curator and Director of Special Exhibitions, Massimiliano Gioni.

“Service à la Française” by Urs Fischer, Marguerite de Ponty 2009. Silkscreen on mirrored chrome steel.

So, was the show a triumph for the young Swiss wunderkind? It’s hard to say. Gioni and Fischer decided against a career survey, opting instead to showcase work from the last two years in a much more domesticated outcome. There were no massive holes jackhammered in the middle of the gallery as he did at Gavin Brown’s space in “You,” nor was there anything akin to 2005’s “Bread House,” which is exactly what it sounds like. He played it safe, and it shows.

New York still has some hope left for 2009: Roni Horn and Gabriel Orozco both have shows opening in the next few weeks, at the Whitney and MoMA respectively.

When Greek industrialist Dakis Joannou’s prodigious modern art collection arrives for its tour at the New Museum in February 2010, it will have a new curator to ensure a smooth run. Jeff Koons, the artist whom Joannou credits with his involvement in the art world after experiencing “Equilibrium,” will oversee  the production of the show and, in the tradition of Urs Fischer before him with “The Generational: Younger Than Jesus,” will use the entire museum as his new manifestation. This new role will bring carte blanche to Koons to exhibit the work as it has never been seen, which is quite fitting for the collections’s first visit to the US.

Along with the ubiquitous Koons works spread throughout the exhibition, there will be a considerable sampling of the modern-art tour de force, including work from Takashi Murakami, Vanessa Beecroft, Ashley Bickerton, Allan McCollum, and Gabriel Orozco, among many others.

Joannou has been expected to exhibit his collection at the museum for nearly a decade.

"Guilty," the 110-foot yacht Jeff Koon's designed for Dakis Joannou. Photo courtesy of monacoeye.com