In a crowded marketplace, and especially during uncertain economic times, how can artists stand out from the pack? It helps to be a child prodigy or a former model or a convicted serial murderer, of course, but it’s not like you can just wake up in the morning and become any of these things. Welsh artist Lee Hadwin, however, has been lucky enough to distinguish himself by doing something the rest of us do every day: he’s been making a name for himself as the artist who paints in his sleep.
John d'Addario
John D’Addario is a veteran blogger (since 1996), adjunct professor of arts administration at the University of New Orleans, professional arts educator, photographer and man of the world. You can visit him at jonno.com.
Posted inNews
This Week In Lawsuits: SpongeBob’s (Not So) Nautical Nonsense
Former SpongeBob SquarePants lead artist Todd White’s slick website includes a section where you can keep abreast of “what’s going on in Todd’s fast-moving world”; currently, it includes clips about his various media appearances, side projects and celebrity [sic] endorsements. What you won’t find, however, is news about a curious series of back-and-worth lawsuits he’s involved in this month.
Posted inOpinion
The Art of Burning Man (But Is It Art?)
This week, hundreds of artists from all over the world will begin assembling one of the largest and most dazzling group art shows in the United States, or anywhere. Approximately 50,000 people will view the show during its week-long run, making it proportionately even more popular attendance-wise than the recent Alexander McQueen hullabaloo at the Met. So why don’t you know more about it? And why aren’t you there?
Posted inNews
The Beginning of the End of 5Pointz?
Some call it “The United Nations of Graffiti.” Its semi-official title, spelled out in giant letters on its main wall, is “The Institute of Higher Burnin,” though you’ll also find it described as “the world’s premiere ‘graffiti Mecca'” on its website. Now there are questions about how long it will last.
Posted inArt
Do You Know What It Means To Dream About New Orleans?
By the ordinary way of reckoning such things, there are considerably fewer artists participating in this year’s Prospect.2 biennial in New Orleans than in the event’s first iteration three years ago. But if artist and provocateur William Pope.L’s piece for the exhibition turns out according to schedule, there will be a lot more artistic visions on view around New Orleans this fall than the smaller number of artists might lead you to expect.
Posted inOpinion
Saving The Queen In Art and Image
Most of the works in The Queen: Art and Image, now on view at the National Gallery complex in Edinburgh and traveling to two other venues before opening at the National Portrait Gallery in London next spring, are perfect representations of the times during which they were created.
Posted inOpinion
A Century Later, Mona Lisa Is Still Here
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, and the Financial Times observes the occasion with a fascinating feature article that tells the tale of the theft of what was (then as now) the world’s most famous work of art
Posted inOpinion
On Bombshells and Public Art
A new Marilyn Monroe sculpture went up in Chicago but homegrown reaction to the sculpture has been “almost uniformly negative” … though you wouldn’t know if you were checking Flickr.
Posted inOpinion
James Franco Tries To Make Non-Visible Art More Visible, Even on TV
Thought that James Franco’s recent apparent breakup with art BFF Kalup Linzy meant that you wouldn’t be seeing quite as much of his grinning disembodied mug around as you have been during the last twelve months or so? Guess again!
Posted inArt
Crescent City, Signing Off
When Hyperallergic editor Hrag V. asked me to guest edit this site in his absence a few weeks ago and bring a little bit of the Crescent City to the Brooklyn-based blogazine scene, I thought it might be an uneasy fit: after all, as A.J. Liebling memorably said in “The Earl of Louisiana” (though perhaps most memorably in the intro to “A Confederacy of Dunces”), “New Orleans resembles Genoa or Marseilles, or Beirut or the Egyptian Alexandria more than it does New York.”
Posted inOpinion
Tuesday Art Video: Night(s) At The Museum
Carmageddon 2011 might chiefly be remembered as the big transportation nightmare that wasn’t: an accelerated work schedule, coupled with a couple million people in the Los Angeles area realizing they didn’t need to drive anywhere last weekend after all, meant that the anticipated citywide gridlock and marathon traffic jams never came to pass. Which is too bad, because we really like the idea of that little Franco-Flemish piggie at the Getty Center getting the day off to roam around the museum and visit his fellow masterpieces.
Posted inArt
Planking Around The French Quarter
As geopsychically wondrous as New Orleans is, it’s not exactly the most cutting edge of places; in fact, even in these days of instantaneous communication it sometimes takes ideas and trends a little longer to make their way down here than they do elsewhere. But although we might not be au courant, we do do things down here with a certain kind of panache.
