Where are the Women?

AZUL SERRA

Presented by Braziliality

Braziality is a not-for-profit organization that supports and shows Brazilian Artists or Artists inspired by Brazil. Last night they showcased the Brazilian photographer/film maker Azul Serra's work in Camden Town. Azul Serra is a vibrant energetic young man with lots on his mind. His photography that in this case borders to journalistic photography is a turn for him. But now, when a lot of journalistic pictures are considered as Art, he is right on time.

"Where are the Women?" Azul wondered when he was photographing the stream of men crossing the Libyian border to Tunisia. There are men everywhere, as we can see on the pictures, were the women hidden? An interesting question.

Passport Control

While Azul Serra got to have this experience of being in a War zone he also got to feel the fright of being a war journalist and what they constantly go through to capture the events. At a certain time the journalists said, we will have to leave Lybia it is becoming to dangerous. Then the rebels pleaded and said that "Then we will be all on our own and we will be forgotten!". They negotiated that they would be more protected and the journalists stayed on, bravely. 

These photos are all taken this year at the end of February beginning of March.

The guy with the vision: Azul Serra 

Camden Town March 29th 2011

With Love to all the People that are migrating right now and living in fear.

Must the Libyan people receive Freedom!

Kristin

Beast

Beast (2008)

Watercolor on paper 61x46cm

HELENA GOLDWATER

Art First Projects

It is Monday and I am swamped by all the blogs I crave to write. Info from all the fantastic exhibits I have seen lately is piling up on my desk, growing like a little Beast on it's own...

Among other openings on Thursday I went to the private opening at the Art First Projects, I sort of invited myself in and they were kind enough to welcome me. 

Helena Goldwater's obscure small watercolor paintings that is hanging downstairs in the Gallery pulled me in. Looking at their neat details and precision, they have an initial depth that made me think of doomsday flowers. 

Closed Order 2 (2010)

Bouffant (2008) 

41 x 31cm, water colour on paper

At first glance Helena Goldwater’s paintings are delicate but intense watercolours of plant forms. Their attention to detail appears to record nature as a perfectly evolved endeavour. On closer reading however, they reveal hybridised forms, that begin to question truthful representations of the natural order, and in doing so present unidentifiable, biomorphic forms that inhabit in-between states of being. A sinister quality, or something rather humorous emerges, underpinned by the titles. This combination of qualities invites the viewer to experience a degree of discomfort, disrupted by pleasure.

Goldwater has been making performance art since 1989, and paintings since 2003, and in her paintings a concern with the performative is evident. Her watercolours reveal a dedication to the time consuming process of careful, almost obsessive depiction and conceptual exploration, that in themselves can be read as a ‘performance’ on paper. In both her practices she expresses a devotion to craft, utilizing water and paint as alchemical materials. Her performances, which often last many hours, echo her paintings, which take months to make, developing over time to inhabit something ‘other’ than the human realm.
     -Art First Project

Jaunty (2006)

The Three Disgraces (2010)

Fleshy parts (2009)

Closed order 3 (2010)

Hairy 1 (2006)

There is power in turning a subject we consider as beautiful into a grotesque reminder of our hybrid antennas. They looks slightly alive and carnivorous, don't you think?

With Love

Kristin

The $12 Million Stuffed Shark

The curious Economics of Contemporary Art

Don Thompson

This book is well read, well travelled, torned, scribbled in and lived with from New York to London.

With that, it doesn't mean that it will take as long for you to read it as it did for me.... 

During my "lifetime" with this book I did have the feeling at certain times that "through this book I will learn it all!" All about the intricate business of ART. I probably do not need to read another book about Art Business after this one.... just view and view Art....

But, as with everything, as soon as you skim the surface you know there is an ocean below.

Here comes some of the highlights from the "Shark in the water" book... as my two year old says when he sees it, since his favorite song to dance to is "Shark in the Water" by V.V. Brown (just had to write that...)

Ok... here we go with some of the hits:

"Modern Art is merely the means by which we terrorize ourselves"

              -Tracy Emin

"Never understand how insecure buyers are about contemporary art, and how much they always need reassurance"

               - Howard Rutkowski (Bonhams auctioners)

"You are nobody in contemporary art until you have been branded"

"What the rich seem to want to acquire is what economists call positional goods; things that prove to the rest of the world that they really are rich"

"I had reservations about making art a business, but I got over it."

              -Mary Boone, New York Dealer

"Artists who do not find mainstream gallery representation within a year or two of graduation are unlikely ever to achieve high prices or see their work appear at fairs or auctions or in art magazines."

"It takes a certain amount of nerve to act as though one knows what is good or, more important, what will be deemed good in the future. It's an article of faith in the art world that some people have an eye for it and some people don't; the disagreement arises over which do or don't"

            -Nick Paumgarten 

"In 1991, Saatchi funded and Hirst created 'The physical impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living'.... "I like the idea of a thing to describe a feeling. A shark is frightening, bigger than you are, in an environment unknown to you. It looks alive when it's dead and dead when it's alive"

"Hirst titles are an integral part of marketing his work"

"There are no rules about investment. Sharks can be good. Artist's dung can be good. Oil on canvas can be good. There's a squad of conservators out there to look after anything an artist decides is art.

            - Charles Saatchi

"Art is sexy! Art is money-sexy! Art is money-sexy-social-climbing-fantastic!"

              -Thomas Hoving, Former Dir. at the Met

I could go on and on but the weekend is coming up... and there are actually plenty of new books on my desk hungry for attention.

Yes to ART in the SPRING

With Weekend Love

Kristin

Golden Woman

Golden Woman (2010)

Chantal Joffe

Victoria Miro

I had an amazing day yesterday walking from Gallery to Gallery, enjoying myself terrifically.

Chantal Joffe at the Victoria Miro Gallery filled we with excitement and inspiration. One does feel great when one identifies with what one sees. The Narcissist is in us all! 

I, by the way like to see myself as the "Golden Woman" and don't you dare question it:)

Chantal Joffe must have had an incredible productive 2010, as you can see all of these were painted then. Filled with powerful output she has painted true artists, writers and literate figures.

All the ones below that are "Untitled" has been ripped of their original title, WHY?

I love titles, it makes it all feel more important, like the artist put a lot of thought behind their work. 

Luckily the Gallery workers gave me their intended titles so I could share them with you.

Isn't it a lot more fun when you think of Susan Sontag, Lee Krasner... Emily Dickinson/Bronte... Even though these are actually taken from photographs in magazines, and does not resemble accurately the "Person".

Untitled (2010)

"Dawn"

Untitled (2010)

"Lee (Krasner)"

Moll in the park (2010)

Blonde Girl in a Bikini (2010)

Couple Embracing (2010)

Untitled (2010)

"Lydia"

Untitled (2010)

"Emily (Bronte/Dickinson)"

Untitled (2010)

"Sarah"

These are large canvases all of them about 244 x 183.5 cm. 

I think this "Sarah" captured my attention the longest. Strong!

Untitled

"Susan" (Sontag)

"Characterised by Joffe's fluid style and deliberate distortion of scale and form that exudes psychological and emotional force; the restricted palette adopted in this series of works results in a presentation that is both looser and freer. Left deliberately untitled, these works are not portraits of single personalities but rather paintings, loaded with symbolism, acknowledging the rich history of the creativity of women who have profoundly impacted literature, artistic practice, and cultural thought."

       - Victoria Miro

What do you say, can you identify? Which one is your favorite?

Thank you Chantal Joffe for giving me some great moments in your world of accomplished use of OIL.

With Love

Kristin

The Last Resort

The last Resort (2011)

SLINKACHU

The Andipa Gallery

Beginning this week with some galgenhumor! I need it, you might need it. Look at it and laugh.

Slinkachu's "Little People Project" is funny, but then it also hits you with a feeling of people deserted, lonely and left out in the plastic city, that belongs to an Environmental disastrous planet... Oh, doomsday. 

This Monday is rough!

Slinkachu is an ARTECO artist and I am thrilled when I get to see such perky irony as here.

Have fun... with a shot of reality:

Fantastic Voyage (2011)

Swashbuckling (2010)

They're not pets Susan (2011)

The father says to his daughter who is holding her teddy while he is shooting the wasp...

It's All Fun and Games (2011)

Insert - It's All fun and games

Displeasure Beach (2011)

Ups and Downs (2010)

One day son (2011)

....All this will be yours...!

Riot (2011)

Bones (2011)

Boys own adventures (2011) 

These prints are selling like fresh bread right out of the oven in the Champagne streets of Knightsbridge.

Hope your week will be fab!

With Love

Kristin

Bloggers Day of Silence

Haunch of Venison

Ghost Series (2010)

Meekyoung Shin

TRANSLATION

The Haunch of Venison Gallery in London is one of the places that I looked forward to visiting, even the name is intriguing. The Gallery is fittingly located among some of the most prominent Galleries and inside a royal looking building next to the the Royal Academy of Arts, but after what I understand this is a temporary location while they are renovating their "Haunch of Venison Yard".

Meekyoung Shin's work is not what you immediately think it is. But, isn't that how it is about most things? You will need to learn, see and feel to know what you have been presented. Most things and people (hopefully) are more interesting the more you learn about it/them.

Ghost Series (2010)

Ghost Series, 2010

The Korean Artist Meekong Shin is playing a trick on your immediate appreciation of her work. She creates traditional Chinese Porcelain and Western Sculptures out of SOAP.

Golden Buddha (2010)

 Toilet Buddha Series (2010)

Venus (1998)

Crouching Aphrodite (2002)

Crushed Gilded Bronze Vase (2009)

By the new Interpretation of old work with the use of  the delicate material soap, Meekyoung Shin leaves you feeling slightly relieved from the seriousness of past dogma

The other exhibits at the Haunch of Venison right now are Paintings by Susanne Kuhn and Uwe Wittwer.

Have a fabulous day!

With Love

Kristin

Das Meeres und der Liebe Wellen

"Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen"

ANSELM KIEFER

White Cube, Hoxton Square

There is a whole world between the pop star Art of Richard Phillips's and Anselm Kiefer's dark poetry. But they have one thing in common and that is the White Cube Gallery.

The opening last Thursday was packed with onlookers and others who was just happy to hang out in front of the building drinking free beer. Yes, quite different than in NY where you would never be allowed to walk around in the street with alcohol and definitely not set up a free bar on a corner. It felt liberating to stand there in the crowd having a casual beer, before one goes in to experience the strength of "The Waves of Sea and Love". 

Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen (Detail)

Mixed media and gynaecological instrument on photographic paper

Artist Photo: Charles Duprat Courtesy White Cube

"The title of the exhibition 'Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen' (The Waves of Sea and Love), is from a play by the nineteenth-century Austrian writer and poet Franz Grillparzer. The play re-tells the classical myth of Hero, the Greek priestess, and Leander, her lover, who swam the Hellespont every night to be with Hero but eventually drowned. "

            -White Cube

In the world of bright colors and more uplifting art as a reaction to this time of "recession", Anselm Kiefer chooses to stay close to his nature of meaning and poetry. He manages to make you see the love in the big waves and the gynocological equipment. It looks hazardous, but at the same time it brings you to think of the power of two together, desire by the sea and creation.

"I hold all the Indias in my hand"

In the mediative smaller works on the second floor, Anselm is quoting the 17th Century Spanish poet Francisco de Quevedo. This seems more autobiographical with himself in the center of an endless ocean as an explorer. In the poem the man is supposed to hold a ring that bears a portrait of his lover. 

With Anselm Kiefer's work you need to be in the room to feel it's strength and meanings.

Immediately you feel a rush of YES, this is what it is. This is great Art. It's like your senses and pores opens up to welcome it in. A rush of addiction!

With Love

Kristin