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Picasso Raffle, Baby

“I just want a Picasso in my casa, no, my castle,” raps Jay Z in his appropriately titled song “Picasso Baby.” Jay Z’s song most certainly stirs up a desire to own some Picasso art bling, which is becoming increasingly important nowadays for the rich and famous. But is such a thing possible for someone who isn’t a wealthy rapper?

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“Picasso Baby,” One More Time

Jay Z’s “performance art film” may be debuting on HBO tonight, but if you weren’t cool enough to be invited to missed his live performance at Pace and are craving something a little more real, there’s Michael Mahalchick. He’s currently performing “Picasso Baby” for six hours straight at Louis B. James gallery on the Lower East Side. He’ll be there until 6 pm today. Go.

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Jay Z’s “Performance Art Film” to Debut on HBO

Earlier this month, Jay-Z set up a daylong operation at Pace Gallery in Chelsea, where he rapped at members of the art world for six hours. Participants included Lawrence Weiner, Mickalene Thomas, Klaus Biesenbach, and the grandmother of performance art, Marina Abramović, among many others. The result, his “Picasso Baby: A Performance Art Film,” directed by Mark Romanek, will air this Friday, August 2, at 11 pm Eastern time on HBO.

Posted inArt

The Artist Is Not Present But the Brand Sure Is

CHICAGO — Every performance online and off is essentially about energy. Marina Abramović knows this, and so after her 2010 endurance-based performance at MoMA “The Artist is Present,” she disappeared in order to train with shamans in Brazil where she learned more about energy, and took time to heal. After reading fellow Hyperallergic reporter Jillian Steinhauer’s “Jay-Z Raps at Marina Abramović, or the Day Performance Art Died” last week, however, I’ve been thinking about the idea of the artist’s brand as being present rather than the artist herself, and how that affects Marina’s arguably new-age-y reasonings around “energy” and being present.