Liliroze

A light Saturday post for a wonderful long weekend.
These pictures are just filled with a haunting beauty that I wanted to share. I don´t know much about this French Photographer but you can look at Liliroze´s web site to see more of her Art.
I actually discovered her on the A Red Lipstick blog.
We are throwing a Summer opening Party here by the beach on Memorial day and we are being promised a glorious Sun, by the weather goddesses!
Have fabulous Summer launch weekend!
Love! Kristin

Sojourn

Search (2008)

KIKI SMITH

Yesterday, my boys and I was supposed to spend a hot summer day in Connecticut with friends. But then my girlfriends son got sick and the plans shattered. I thought, better get the most out of the day anyway, and since I was in the mood for action and as usual had my mind on Art, Art, Art. I dropped my 3 year old off at school and cruised into Brooklyn Museum with my 19 month old to see the Kiki Smith show, that I had been eager to see for a while.
I have been fascinated by Kiki Smith´s art since I saw the "Identical twins" piece at MoMA in 2005. Kiki Smith though has already had a three decade career, and still does look quite young. She is thought of as an American Artist, but she was actually born in Nuremberg (1954) which is a charming old city that i often visit, especially since that is where my Man was born as well.

Annunciation 2008

Most pieces here are from 2008. That must have had an incredibly productive year for her, or is she always this active I wonder?

Singer 2008

cast aluminium

"Kiki Smith: Sojourn draws on a variety of universal experiences, from the milestones of birth and death to quotidian experiences such as the daily chores of domestic life.....

...In Sojourn, Smith, who is known for a psychologically acute, non-narrative approach to constructing installations, begins from the position of the adult female artist and cycles through a series of experiences and artistic genres that venture far beyond the autobiographical. Religion, mythology, and spirituality surface repeatedly throughout Smith’s work, and in this installation, the Annunciation is used as a metaphor for identifying the unknown and unexpected sources female artists draw upon for inspiration. Sojourn presents a variety of work by the artist in a range of media, including unique sculpture, cast objects, collage, drawing, and photography."

Brooklyn Museum

(insert) her bouquet 2007-8

I love this bird... and somehow I did not write down the title, if you go to the museum please let me know!

(insert) Heute (now) 2008

Wood, Glass

It might be hard to see in this picture but the glass flowers in the coffin are stunning.

I was incredibly lucky this lovely guard named Geraldine was there. She played games and entertained my boy so I could have some time to enjoy the art. Sometimes New Yorkers can nearly shock you with their care, it makes you feel so glad you live here. Not only did she care about children she made sure I and others did not miss out on the most fantastic and fun part of the whole exhibit. The puppets placed in the 18th Century Period rooms in the Decorative Arts section. I would have totally missed out on this, if it was not for Geraldine. Just this section alone is worth a trip out to Brooklyn Museum.

Seated puppet 2008

Walking puppet 2008

The only thing I missed about this exhibit is that I wished it was longer, and maybe that is the intention of the show "Sojourn"? it is all just temporarily....

Utopian Treasure Jungle

(insert) Mandala, 2010 

Ming Fay

Next door to the Saramouche Gallery on Orchard Street is the Lesley Heller Workspace. At the moment they are showing the artist Ming Fay´s work in their Gallery 1. 

The exhibit is like a breath of flavor after coming in from the "Grid" of the Manhattan streets. An enchanting and playful garden, but not without an underlayer of a slightly morbid sense. Like magnificently beautiful flowers can cultivate on the most artificial ground.

Flame plant 2010

Quotes from Ming Fay´s Statement:

I consider myself a scientist of sorts and my studio a laboratory. I continually research and collect natural forms that have specific symbolisms, usages and aesthetic intrigue. The artwork is an outgrowth of my inventory of seeds, herbs, bones and mysteries objects. In time I decipher some of their usages both metaphorically and literally and start to investigate new forms that I have heard about but never seen.

As I went deeper into the realm of symbolic plant forms that fulfilled human needs or desires, I started to invent and make my own discoveries of forms related to concepts of reproduction, rejuvenation and other human desires. These hybrid inventions while still realistic in form do not represent a specific natural species. They are often the result of a composite of characteristics and also contain personal and a collaged form of symbolism....

....the concept of a garden as a symbol of abundance, paradise and the location for the ultimate artificial utopian treasure jungle.

(small insert) Flame Plant Buckeye Wall Installation, 2010

(A bit unsure but I think this is part of) 

Square Fruit Vine, 2010

Not the easiest exhibit to capture with a camera but limits are often fun to deal with, like in this instance.

I guess I should actually say the abundance is hard to capture... but it is bewitching... 

.....like that poisoned apple!

The Mediated Subject!

Oliver Lutz
The Mediated Subject (exhibition view)
Courtesy Scaramouche NYC

OLIVER LUTZ

Friday I had one of my Gallery days. I started out with having lunch with adorable Alice Lutz at Cafe Gitane (my favorite Nolita Cafe), before I wandered over to the Lower East side to see her husbands show at the Saramouche Gallery. One of 8 (?) small, but interesting Galleries on Orchard Street. Alice went home to pack and take a flight to London for the opening of the "Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera" a Tate Modern show, that one of Oliver Lutz's larger pieces will be part of.

At first I did not quite understand this show, but Lorin Prince (the director) and David from the Gallery are enthusiastic and wonderful storytellers. It was like a "Russian doll" revelation, the more they said the more I felt connected to the art.

Monochrome paintings dominate the gallery space. Infra-red surveillance cameras trained on each are connected to a bank of video monitors. They reveal a figurative under-layer of appropriated images beneath the canvas´s inky blackness, transgressing a modernist space of non-signifying reflection.....

.... The Mediated Subject investigates the disorienting affects of representation. Lutz´s gallery surveilance system places the viewer in direct relation to the canvas´s figurative scenes...

(words by the Gallery)

Oliver Lutz
Leg (installation view), 2010
Acrylic on canvas, CCTV system
60 x 75
Courtesy Scaramouche NYC

Oliver Lutz
Research Facility 1, 2010
Acrylic on paper
22 x 28
Courtesy Scaramouche NYC

It is fascinating for me to see a canvas that at first sight shows you a lurid black emptiness to then reveal deep thought through stories underneath. You know the artist has developed a new impressive technique and you know that it has depended on strict discipline and determination.

Oliver Lutz
Mittagessen,(installation view), 2010
Acrylic on canvas, CCTV system
60 x 88
Courtesy Scaramouche NYC

Now I am excited to hear how the opening at the Tate will go. The idea behind the show is "the unseen photographer" what could be a more perfect event for Oliver Lutz? There are no small names that will be associated to this show either; Man Ray, Nan Goldin, Walker Evans, Helmot Newton... 

Humans=Cockroaches

Sin titulo, 2007

Cockroach wings on canvas. 51 x 61,5 cm

Unique Edition

"What is the difference between cockroaches 

and human beings???"

FABIAN PENA

What can be more

ArtEco 

than Fabian Pena?

"Cockroaches are witness to our daily lives,

...it's a material that I can easily find...

and it's cheaper than paint"

Pena to New York Times (May 4th 2010)

What a remarkable idea

Such morbid beauty.

I am in awe!

Butterfly from cockroach wings.

A Wondrous Museum

GUSTAVE MOREAU MUSEUM

PARIS

Earlier ARTINFO posted a question about "what's your favorite museum?" and immediately I thought of the Guggenheim. The question though kept lingering and I started thinking of my New Year weekend in Paris. Our rocking L'Amour Hotel was luckily very close to the Gustave Moreau Museum so I was fortunate enough to get a taste of this wondrous museum.

Gustave Moreau was a symbolist painter that turned his home into a museum in 1903, and he kept his still standing apartment on the first floor.

The most remarkable about this museum is the perfect disorder, the paintings are basically on top of each other fighting to be noticed, and the winding stairs leaves me speechless! 

Autoportret (1850)

Gustave Moreau (1826-1898)

The Apparition (1874-5)

Galatea (1880)

Andre Breton Supposedly said about his discovery of the museum at age 16:

"Influenced forever my idea of love"

La Toilette (ca 1885)

Andre Breton was also one who defended the artist when he was being scorned. But Moreau is respectably seen as a mentor to the Fauves group, led by Matisse. He is also recognized as a predecessor of Surrealism.

Moreau said, referring to the Fauves;

"I am the bridge over which some of you will go."

Matisse said about Moreau:

"He didn't set his pupils on the right road, he took them off it. He made them uneasy.... He didn't show us how to paint; he roused our imagination"

& so he is, Moreau is still rousing my imagination:)

With Love Kristin

COCOON

Sonya (Female character in Dostoyevsky´s Crime and punishment)

EDVARDA ASLAKSEN BRAANAAS

Today is Norway´s National Day "Hipp Hipp Hurra" and I therefore would love to bring forth a wonderful Norwegian Artist to you. Since I started this blog I have met a lot of inspiring people and Edvarda is one of them. I am so excited to have been introduced to you Edvarda:)

What would Jesus do

While I am going through Edvarda´s paintings I am thinking. Wow! This is bound to be difficult.

How am I going to pick the right ones to show you when there are so many great exciting paintings to pick from?

I came down to these 7 paintings and here is why.

"Sonya" From the Dostoyevsky series, because she is one of my favorite characters, and "Crime and Punishment" is my favorite Dostoyevsky novel. The innocence - the red shoe....

One of the great factors with Edvarda is that she paints stories like in:

"What would Jesus do"

This is one of Edvardas main works. We are invited to a party set in a church, where the scene is very much reminiscent of the renaissance-master Leonardo da Vinci’s fresco ”The last supper” from the end of the 14th century. Although there is a strong parallell to LDV, the scene created by Edvarda also has several marked differences.When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the twelve. And while they where eating, he said ”I’ll tell you the truth, one of you will betray me”Edvarda uses this very famous story and recreates the scenario in the painting, but the ritual itself has a different character. The episode in WWJD? is a representation of man in a worldly role, as opposed to a religious role, from conception until death. Whether we are male or female, old or young, we are all part of humanity, all playing a part in the good and evil of our time. As human beings, we must all bear the consequences of sin and betrayal, whether we are Peter when the cock crows for the third time on Easter Day, or whether we are the man or woman of today. Edvardas message is not one of condemnation and judgement but of acceptance and understanding. As she deals with multiple scenarios and plays with codes from both past and present, her intention is to create a motif that exists independent of time - a motif that we can relate to, both as people of today, and in the future. The characters who meet us in WWJD? are like puppets in a puppetshow. They are controlled by the puppet-master, and this puppet-master is none other than the artist herself. Edvarda’s masterpiece is built upon one of the most influential stories of our time, and by adding touches from her own life and personal experiences to the classical scenario, she creates a  work of art which gives us a visual enlightenment of modern reflection and understanding.

(Taken from her web site)

Revealing virginity

"Revealing Virginity" I picked for it´s honesty, the landscape reflecting the subject. At the same time as I feel sorry for the woman being revealed, I also feel the strength of the union between the women. There is a sense of both fear and harmony.

Cocoon

"Cocoon" My man calls me "Schmetterling" so this is an obvious choice for me... When I see this I think the world is at their feet but not without struggle, friendship, fashion and passion.

Airport 2050

"Airport" Seeing the Guggenheim like edifice in the background I am thinking yes bring more of these buildings into the future of Airports. Traveling is a passion and I hope it will be this stylish in the future, right now the airports close to me are all dreary.  

Hermanas

"Hermanas" makes me immediately think of friendship and laying the truth bare, to trust in one another. Although i think it possibly could be two other things... Girls from the Spanish city Hermanas or based on a movie called "Hermanas" directed by Julia Solomonff about two sisters.

Young girl in the position of doing nothing

"Young girl in the position for doing nothing" I picked for its fantastic humored sexuality.

As you understand my choices are completely subjective and I have not even touched her drawings... which has amusing titles like "I am a low woman, I´m a violent woman" "Bad Ass" and "We are walking a fragile path".

You just have to go and look at her enormous productivity yourself: Edvarda

Once again Edvarda so happy I was introduced to you:)

We are all connected

Time for a trim

MARC JOHNS

It is Friday and I feel like laughing and smiling so I thought I would share some imaginative drawings with you. Every second day or so there pops up an e-mail with one of Marc Johns drawings on it and they always make me feel better. If you want to join me in on some remarkable dry humor do it here.
If you plan to buy one of his drawings, do it as quickly as you see it, they seem to go like hot sweet rolls.

Attach A to B and everything should be peachy.

I am the happiest

This moustache is dangerous

I am a bit shy

We are all connected, and shall remain so.

Gentlemen of Bacongo

Playboys of Bacongo

DANIELE TAMAGNI

Last night we were fortunate enough to be invited by Gilbert C. Maurer to the International Center of Photography´s Award dinner. Mr. Maurer who is an avid Art and Architecture enthusiast received the Trustees Awards.

One of the others that received an Award last night was the charming Daniele Tamagni for Applied/Fashion/Advertising photography.

"The Gentlemen of Bacongo" series: 

celebrates the Congolese culture of La SAPE, a French acronym for La Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes. The sapeurs, as they are called, sport ostentatiously dapper suits and fedoras, made all the more striking by the abject poverty of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As it says in the Danielle Tamagni bio page from ICP

The pictures has such Strength, Vitality, Character, Charm and refreshing Attitude that I am left with a WOW! These guys shows the world, it is a lot more fun to be fashionable!

You can buy the photo book by clicking here. I most definitely will:)

Landscape as Appearance

Landscape 1

Levi Van Veluw

Another Dutch Artist 

This one doing wonders to his appearance

My work amounts to small researches into the valuations we assign to the things around us and the associations they engender in this way. Although these underlying reasons are not immediately apparent in the work, a very specific unsettling reaction is invoked in the viewer. Although the cause of this reaction is a mere piece of grey carpet, it is logical that people react to it in this way as the viewer is essentially forced to review his commonly-held notions about  this material.  The image succeeds in shifting the viewer’s perception, be it in a very small way and about an unimportant subject.

From Levi Van Veluw´s web site

Levi Van Veluw has achieved success in a very short time.

Not strange, this is Mind-Blowing!

Below, are more of his

Self-portraits