Slap!

Robert Rauchenberg

Poster for Tate, Retroactive 1 & Rebus.

Thomas Allen

Thomas Allen selects the pulpiest of pulp paperbacks and then lovingly slices out a figure from the cover, gently folds it into position, and constructs a witty scene around it. Foley Gallery, New York. (Michael Foley).

2010 Trend Spotting

Reinterpreting Old Masters

-references to Vermeer, Chan-hyo Bae and his Elizabethan costumes, Karen Knorr as well as Laura Letinsky's still lifes. Artists taking aspects of the classics and reinterpreting in their own way. As life speeds by and we loose touch with our history, artists are finding inspiration in the past.

Cameraless Photography

-cameraless photography sees even more. In photograms, images are created by placing objects on large sheets of photographic paper and exposing them to light -- the simplest things are transformed into abstractions of startling beauty. Perfected by Man Ray in the form of rayograms. Floris Neususs's vintage silver gelatin Photograms. He further departs from the conventional photogram by developing his images using a brush, sponge, or rag dipped into developer and then wiped across the paper to produce a controlled, painterly plane. Neusüss does not fix his prints, allowing his works to constantly change colors over the years. He recently retired as Professor in Experimental Photography, University of Kassel, where he has taught since 1971. Work of other artists experimenting with old cameraless techniques seem to be on the rise.

Sublimity

-photography which sets to evoke the fragility of nature/environment. Awe of our natural environment. Veronica Bailey's polaroids of the tropics which are slowly disappearing from our planet coincides with the medium she uses in her piece. Theme of time running out but also that it is a cycle and that its alright. Nicolas Hughe's sea scapes speaks of the vastness of the sea but also what they can hide. Both soothing but tragic.

Reference to the Classics II

Laura Letinsky's elegiac photographs of detritus on a table-top are both elegantly prosaic and art historically resonant in their reference to Dutch vanitas still life painting of the Seventeenth Century. Letinsky's choice of objects is compelling for the potential of both implicit narrative and the creation of visually challenging compositions. Lyrical and formal, the subjects are dissolved by varied colours of light, often set off against white walls and tablecloths whose angled shadows and subtle textures add a further dimension to Letinsky's unusual perspectival presentation: a glass perched precariously by the edge of a tabletop, a fruit hovering above its expected visual plane or a wilted flower gazing at its younger self in the trompe l'oeil of a tissue box. The vectors of Letinsky's composition defy gravity, definitive narrative and even the arresting temporality of photography itself. (James Hymann Gallery, London Art Fair 2010)

Reference to the Classics I

The Music Room & The Passage

Karen Knorr has been making photographs since the early 1980s, using a documentary style that recalls earlier traditions of portraiture and painting. One of Karen Knorr's recent series explores the famously austere minimalism of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye. This house, once built for wealthy patrons now luxuriates in its pristinely maintained, empty state as a museum of high culture. Unexpectedly, these spaces are occupied not by the foreseen human subjects but by birds, in playful transgression of the sanctity of this museum space.

Barry Cawston

The Books

Barry Cawston. Much of Barry Cawston's photography has both sociological and architectural elements and is why work for charities form the core of his photographic commissions. He travelled to Napoli to photograph an old building before it was torn down. Gorgeous colors and light. Although it is not about nature, makes us feel a sense of sublimity and fragility of life. Also about loosing the past and time, the end of print and other traditional methods of record keeping.

Micheal Stubbs for the Home

London Art Fair, Laurent Delaye Gallery Saville Row from a series of 8. VIRUS PRINTS. Silk screen prints with layers of lovely dense ink, gorgeous translucent effect. And they are affordable thanks to the recession...

Ceal Warnants

Warnants’ prints, and the books from which they come, are a response to childhood, as it seems to exist today. One reminisces about childhood as a Blyton-esque story: romanticised and idyllic. Quickly one glosses over the angst and growing pains. Today's children are not allowed such innocence. Juxtaposing old and new, sweet and unsavoury, these digital prints are sugar-coated in a classic style to make this, only slightly exaggerated, reality easier to swallow.

Stories for Bedtime

In 2006, the body of work ‘Stories for Bedtime’ was seized at a show by Hampshire's Criminal Investigations Department as it was alleged that the book had broken seven points of the law, including the Obscene Publications Act 1964 and The Indecent Displays Act 1959. However, the work was later released by the Crown Prosecution Service, without charge. Currently Warnants is working on the second title in the series, ‘On British Youth’.

I liked Shotgun Clare so much I took her home.

Frieze 2009 Highlights

It seemed Frieze was playing it safe this year. There were no big installations or sculptures filling up the big spaces. I mentioned to Sophia that they can't play it safe and have brilliance at the same time. So, out went the brilliance and in came the regurgitation of every artist known to sell, or emerging artists that didn't go as far as shocking but still tried to find out how to become a visionary. They even stooped as low to play on the public's heartstrings, showing several paintings of Michael Jackson- including the famous Jeff Koontz one with Bubbles... but Michael was all painted out black. That was a painfully obvious thing to do.

It was crowded; so hopefully that is a sign the market is on a rebound. Sophia (literally) ran into Gwenith Paltrow and we saw Valentino too.

It typical art we have seen at all the fairs: Anish Kapoor, Barry Flanagan, Marc Quinn, Ed Ruscha, Tracy Emin, Damien Hirst, Alex Katz, Julian Opie, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Wall, .... to name a few. A newspaper I picked up said the top 5 selling artists (or artists that the market has the most confidence in) were Gerhard Richter, John Baldessari, Bill Viola, Anish Kapoor, and Cindy Sherman.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Definitely the VIP lounge and the canapes and (virgin) cocktails were a highlight!
2. Got a name for you of some great collage work: Raphael Danke, 33 yr. old working out of Berlin. Shows at Sorcha Dallas Gallery in Glasglow. Sophia really liked one, but it was sold....
3. We saw one Wangechi Mutu collage that was big and dark.
4. There was a cool Marilyn Minter photo-painting of a model's feet soaked in silver paint.
5. There was a wonderful piece (didn't get the name of the artist) where a cast of a homeless person's torso (covered in a blanket) was the footing for a coffee table. the table was obviously to be used for the many glasses of champagne at the fair.
6. White Cube was one of the best booths, though a bit standard.

Some photos of things I liked:

Life-size bunny-man covered in pearls covered with a sheet. First image

There seemed to be a bit green-themed work. Another safe bet... but good to see the art world using their voice for the important things. This one was particularly powerful (and large). Second image.

by Paige Bradley

fallen princesses-dina goldstein

Last week's the Sunday Times-Dina Goldstein's photos place classic fairy tale characters into dark modern day situations. The "happily-ever afters" we all know are replaced by tragic conclusions and the Fallen Princesses find themselves facing the harsh realities of the 21-century. Snow White lives in a domestic nightmare, Little Riding Hood is obese and addicted to junk food. Aladdin's Princess Jasmine fights on the front line and the Little Mermaid is trapped in the aquarium tank.

musubi aoki

Welcome to Musubi Musubi World! Japanese prop maker, artist, stylist & art director. musubi

screen shot

Monochrome woodcut prints taken from video clips and computer screens demonstrate a fascination with speed and the passage of time. I've seen her work before & remember using one for a cover of a mix cd...Love the juxaposition of old and new technology, video, woodblock, printing methods. as if they belong to a futuristic world where old technologies have taken over the new. gorgeous when seen in full size, hard to appreciate when they are small. Alan Cristea Gallery London 2009

swissmiss

Reconstruction exhibit by Ruth van Beek at Foam. Van Beek collects random snapshots, passport photos, slides etc, folds them & cuts them to give the material new meaning. Van Beek treats the photos as objects. She cuts open the once treasured pictures and rearranges them to find what she thinks is the story behind the photo. The resulting image is a credible picture of something that never existed. Love the Dutch artists....look up Erwin Warum for more quirky Dutch art. 

ruth van beek

A picture is worth a thousand words...strange yet simply extraordinary photo collages by Dutch artist. 

big city bright lights

London Art Fair 2009

Business Design Center, Islington

London N1

In Tom Leighton's images, familiar streets & squares are deconstructed and recreated into an imaginary utopian city. Strangely familiar yet physically impossible, his kaleidoscope images capture both the beauty and hedonism of modern consumer culture. Images of Tokyo, London & New York.

3510 + VAT

Photo50

Business Design Center

London N1

Organized and edited by MFA Curating Programme at Goldsmiths, the theme of the exhibition is "coincidence". Photos drawn from a range of UK and international galleries.  Printed on jigsaw puzzles.

marxism at its best

Grapus was a collective of graphic artists working together between 1970 and 1991, founded by Pierre Bernard (studied under Henryk Tomasewski). All members of the Communist party, the group maintained political, social and cultural engagement. They rejected commercial/government clients and only worked with theatre groups, progressive town councils, art institutions and the communist party itself.

Grapus remained devoted to the immediacy of posters and leaflets and the use of handwritten text.  Using very low tech methods of collage and grainy photography for a raw and unpolished look. One of the reasons I love what I love today.

uniqlo: secrets to success

1) Uniqlo employees don't have desks.

2) Uniqlo meeting rooms don't have chairs.

3) The lights go out at 7pm. in all Uniqlo offices.

www.uniqlo.com/jp/