Friday afternoon picked up right where Thursday evening left off (covered). Members of the Contemporary Art Center (CAC) were invited in at 6 pm for a one hour open bar, prior to Shepard’s artist talk at 7 pm. The talk was moderated by show curator Pedro Alonzo, and covered a wide range of topics from the last 20 years, beginning with the creation and dissemination of the original Andre the Giant sticker, all the way up to and including Shepard Fairey’s ongoing legal struggles with the AP. The talk was accompanied by a slide show displaying much of Shepard work on the streets, and also featuring sneak peeks at 9 or 10 pieces from the upcoming collection of portraits to be exhibited at Deitch Projects in May (previewed). After the talk, Shepard took a few questions from the crowd, and also took time to meet his fans in person for some photos and autographs.
As Shepard Fairey’s retrospective museum show “Supply and Demand” landed in Cincinnati this past week for the final stop of the tour, AM was on hand to take part in all of the opening festivities! The fun kicked off Thursday night at the Contemporary Art Center (CAC), where about 125 people were on hand for a very special evening of cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and dinner with Shepard and Amanda Fairey. The guests in attendance were treated to a very private sneak preview of the show. In attendance were members of the Director’s Circle of the museum, trustees, staff, friends and family, members of the Obey crew, and a few out of town guests who loaned pieces for the show.
This was a great opportunity to intimately experience the show before the overwhelming crowds descended upon the museum on opening weekend. It was also an excellent chance to speak to Shepard and Amanda with a much smaller, less demanding crowd than was to follow on Friday evening. Top that off with excellent food, great company, and a friendly and welcoming museum staff, and the night was destined to be an enjoyable and memorable one.
Art critic Charlie Finch just posted on artnet one of the first reviews of the 2010 Whitney Biennial, which officially opens tomorrow. As each Biennial is an attempt to take the pulse of contemporary art in America, it is usually a challenging show, spanning all mediums, which typically offers at least something of interest for any art lover. However, it seems that Finch thinks a little more highly of this Biennial, ending his review “This is not only the greatest of Whitney Biennials, it is the greatest show ever produced by the Whitney Museum.”
We’re looking forward to seeing and judging the exhibition for ourselves very soon, so check back for our coverage. In the meantime, we have artnet’s installation images, and pics and video from the Whitney website, all after the jump…
Shepard Fairey (featured) is ready to debut his “Supply & Demand” retrospective at the Contemporary Art Center (CAC) in Cincinnati this week. The third leg of this traveling show will be a treat for all the folks in the Midwest as events kick off for the public with an opening party on Friday at 8pm. As usual the man with a plan is already beautifying the urban landscapes of Cincy as he did (here & here) with the previous stops at ICA Boston and Warhol Museum.
Get there early as there will be an exclusive print available only at the show. Image after the jump.
Last week, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal premiered an exhibition by Canadian artist Marcel Dzama called “For a Thousand Tricks”. From what we saw at the David Zwirner booth at Art Basel, the show looks to be a wild one. Filled with his signature illustrative style using nostalgic references contrasted by the irony of politics and eroticism, Marcel always finds very subtle ways to bash his points home.
Check out the middle of this video for a quick glimpse at his exhibition. The show runs from now until April 25th.
With the Super Bowl coming up next weekend, per tradition, the mayors of the two participating teams’ cities will make a symbolic bet on the outcome of the game. It’s hard to imagine them topping what the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art are betting though. The IMA nd NOMA have agreed on a bet in which both are wagering a prized painting from their collection - the IMA is betting a J.M.W. Turner painting, “The Fifth Plague of Egypt”, (seen above) while NOMA is betting Claude Lorrain’s “Ideal View of Tivoli” (seen after the jump).
Before anyone gets too outraged though, the painting will be sent to the winning team’s city museum on a temporary loan.
It appears Los Angeles has now added themselves to the mix (joining Santa Monica and Beverly Hills) for possible locations of Eli Broad’s planned art museum. If you remember, one of the goals of Deitch after being named the director of MOCA was to convince Broad, one of his biggest supporters to keep his major contemporary art collection in LA. Howeever, one has to wonder why Broad, who has donated millions to LACMA and MOCA, would not just add his collection to those major institutions instead.
The lot in question is on lower Grand Avenue, right next to Redcat. There’s no doubt that it would make for a pretty awesome downtown with Walt Disney Hall, MOCA, and planned Frank Gerhy-tower designed hotel, housing, and retail development all on the same street.
Tate Modern continues its “Tateshots” series with a video tour of their “Pop Life” show (covered). Their selection for the guest tour guide is none other than Jonathan Yeo, whose controversial portraits and artwork often utilize pornographic imagery. Jonathan gives us his unique take on some of the “erotic” elements of “Pop Life” from Jeff Koons to Andy Warhol.
Following our studio visit with Mike Shine last week (here), AM headed down to San Francisco to check out the fruits of his recent labors for SFMoMA’s 75th Anniversary. Much as flotsam will accumulate in the ocean, creating a massive and no longer disjointed whole, the Mike Shine Show was part Fastelavn carnival, part three penny opera and part interactive installation. With carnival games and creepy clowns, Shine’s latest experience successfully brought back the fun and wonder of art to both parents and children alike, an even tougher feat in the world of stuffy museum settings.
After visiting Mike Shine’s outdoor carnival for SFMoMA’s 75th Anniversary, AM ducked inside to catch one last look at Barry McGee’s massive clustered installation (previewed). Consisting of hundreds of drawings, personal pictures and patented patterns, McGee’s exhibit truly conveyed the multi-faceted breadth of his works. Arranged in a seemingly haphazard, though obviously well thought out manner, Twist’s install was literally bulging at the seams, seemingly so that one would assume it was on the cusp of giving birth or expelling a whole new body of work to last till the next anniversary show.
Jeffrey Deitch & Kembra Pfahler via Monstersandcritics.com
Following MOCA’s stunning announcement yesterday that Jeffrey Deitch will be taking over their director, the first interview with the gallerist has come out. Tyler Green conducts an incredibly insightful and fascinating Q&A where many of the questions we raised when we first broke the story were answered as well as some that we didn’t think about. For example, Deitch touches on being forced to disclose what pieces he has in his extensive collection, whether he will be restricted from showing any artists he has worked with in the past, what will happen to his gallery, what priorities he has for MOCA, what his personal long-term plans are, etc…
The Museum of Contemporary Art has confirmed that Jeffrey Deitch will be its new director.
We’ll have more details as they become available, but the appointment marks a step into new and controversial terrain: Deitch becomes the only art dealer/gallery owner to assume leadership of a major U.S. museum as MOCA eschews the usual approach of drawing from the ranks of established museum directors and curators or from the world of academia or other nonprofit ranks.
“I think that the news out of MOCA is, frankly, stunning,” said Selma Holo, director of USC’s Fisher Museum of Art and director of the university’s International Museum Institute. “Deitch has done amazing work as an extremely innovative art dealer. At the same time, we would be remiss not to ask ourselves how he and MOCA are planning to make the transition from the world of commerce and its values to another universe. One understands that these worlds blend, but there are still or should be some lines that are not crossed.”
Some interesting chatter coming out ahead of the press conference on Monday to announce the Los Angeles MOCA’s new director. One of the top candidates is none other than Jeffrey Deitch, whose booth we recently visited at Art Basel Miami. If he’s confirmed (he’s got a good shot, seeing Eli Broad is probably backing him, two major galleries in LA back him - Javier Peres of Peres Projects and Blum & Poe, and his gallery confirms Deitch is in LA right now for “meetings”), it would be a pretty bold choice, albeit an unusual one considering no major museums in the US are headed by a former gallery owner as directors usually have an academic or nonprofit background.
Although Deitch would bring some pizazz to the position, there are some doubters who wonder whether he can fund raise the millions of dollars needed to keep the museum going or convince major donors to contribute their collections. That doesn’t even include the mind-blowing amount of potential conflicts of interest and scenarios that could play out. For example - if he uses his influence to promote artists that he represents into museum collections, will this be viewed as favoritism or just a natural progression? will donors refuse to donate unless given special treatment at his gallery? will he be forced to close his gallery?
This will make for an interesting start to next week…
Following his recent recreations of his historic Art Shack at Art Basel Miami and the Museum of Craft and Folk Art earlier this year, Mike Shine starts off 2010 proper with yet another installation, this time at the prestigious SF MoMA. Debuting on the eve of their 75th Anniversary Show, the “Mike Shine Show” will run from January 16th to the 17th. Mike recently sent us a couple photos of the mural he’s working on, see the second process pic after the jump.
