This week, the doctor recommends a discussion about local government to help with all your political ailments, plus the first ever Chelsea Sound, an art and music festival; a Public Art Fund artist talk; a round table about art writing; avant-garde animation, and more.
October 2012
Posted inArt
The Fantastic and Revelatory Story of Art and Black LA
On first glance, some may wonder why MoMA PS1, a New York contemporary art museum, has just opened a historical exhibition of art from Los Angeles. But as MoMA PS1 curator Peter Eleey explained at the press preview last week, the show in question, Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980, actually has a connection to the New York institution.
Posted inArt
Curating for the World, Times Square’s Sherry Dobbin Talks Art
Times Square is one of the things New Yorkers love to hate. It has come to be one of the most defining aspects of our great city but it repeals its inhabitants with the reputation of being a kitsch-filled tourist magnet with little to offer other than discount deals on Broadway shows and garish billboards that scream “BUY STUFF!” But what most people don’t think when they ponder Times Square is art, but Sherry Dobbin is working to change that.
Posted inOpinion
Why You Should Read Sarah Thornton’s Top 10 Reasons Not To Write About the Art Market
This doesn’t happen very often. It’s highly unusual for someone in an industry to critique its inner workings.
Posted inArt
Experiencing Emily Noelle Lambert’s Personal Creative World
Sitting on one of Emily Noelle Lambert’s free-form, functional sculptures and surrounded by other found wood sculptures, huge canvases, and smaller paintings tucked around her Heart Heat exhibition at Lu Magnus, I had the distinct feeling that I entered into the artist’s personal world, a place where color, form, and balance skillfully link the two and three dimensional art objects all around.
Posted inArt
Painting for Bollywood
PUNE, INDIA — Last summer I was offered an interesting project by a good friend, film director Sachin Kundalkar. He was about to start shooting his Hindi film Aiyyaa and asked me to create paintings for the movie. Kundalkar is a brilliant storyteller and director, and before this major Bollywood project, he had directed and written a couple of award-winning films in the Marathi language. A fan of his directorial style, I agreed to be a part of the project. Last week, the film was released in India and also in some international cities.
Posted inSponsored
The Art & Absinthe Guide to Brooklyn
Pernod Absinthe Superieure, creator of art history’s most inspirational spirit, has teamed up with WAGMAG, the Brooklyn art guide, to bring you mobile interaction with the thriving arts community of Brooklyn, NY.
This app features WAGMAG’S monthly gallery and events listings, as well as the best cocktail lounges in the arty-party nabe of Williamsburg. The app features GPS mapping guiding you to the nearest art-and-drinks hot spots, and Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare integration so you can know who is where and what’s happening – right now.
The Art & Absinthe Guide to Brooklyn has just been improved to offer an even better user experience, with easier navigation and more geo-location capabilities.
Posted inArt
Revisiting the Radical Energy of 1968
Currently on view at the Oakland Museum of California is The 1968 Exhibit, which focuses on the culture of that unforgettable year. Organized by the Minnesota History Center, the Atlanta History Center, the Chicago History Museum, and the Oakland Museum, this expansive show explores the tumultuous year whose highlights include human space travel, the assassinations of both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the rise of the Black Panthers, the Beatles, and hippie culture, the first wide use of plastics, and many other things.
Posted inOpinion
Required Reading
This week, the difficulty of selling stolen paintings, what art forgers paint in their down time, Picasso’s 17 year old lover, the “meaning” of hotels, the state of political art, the lives of the 1%, and more.
Posted inFilm
Ethnic Cleansing: Colorblind Casting in Cloud Atlas
Last month, British actor Jim Sturgess sent a tweet to his 40,000 followers which read: “Yellowface? Blackface? Pinkface? Pinkberry? Blueberry? Strawberry? Bananas? Frozen Yogurt? All the toppings? … Lovely!” The message was Sturgess’s veiled response to recent criticism of his role in the upcoming science fiction epic Cloud Atlas. Sturgess, along with stars Halle Berry, Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, and Hugh Grant plays not one but six different characters in the movie.
Posted inArt
Dreaming in Argentina When Juan Perón Was President
There are a many reasons to go see Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop, curated by Mia Freeman, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Yves Klein leaps into the void and Lyndon Johnson’s nose grows long and pointed (would that this would happen to all politicians who lie to their constituents!). Freeman presents the work in thematic groups, such as “Politics and Persuasion” and “Novelties and Amusements.
Posted inArt
The Four Horsemen of a New Detroit
DETROIT — Detroit faces the best/worst of times. It teems with inventive artists and entrepreneurs whose work and presence generate solid philanthropy and investment. At the same time, increasingly severe budget cuts are hitting schools, police, firefighters and transportation systems hard; poverty and crime remain high. Understanding the city’s open land mass (roughly 143 square miles with a population of just over 700,000 — compare this to Manhattan with about 34 square miles and over 1,600,000 residents) helps to make sense of things.
