The most speculated upon artist of Art in the Streets was none other than the mysterious and supremely talented Banksy. Not “officially” announced on the initial roster of artists involved in the MOCA exhibition, rumors buzzed in art land that the acclaimed director of the Oscar nominated Exit Through The Gift Shop would be the “special guest” appearing in the exhibition. Banksy didn’t disappoint as he brought the “heavy weaponry” back to the city that held his Barely Legal show in 2006. Banksy brought many […]
From our first look at the epic “Art in the Streets” exhibition yesterday, you should have gotten the idea of how complex and expansive the setup really was. We now have time to bring you some in depth looks at some of the juiciest parts of the show starting with a look at the Brazilian twins Osgemeos. Take a look some detailed pics after the jump of the corridor of the MOCA that they transformed with their signature speakers, colorful paintings, and a crazy install […]
Jasper Johns, who many consider to be the world’s greatest living artist, is set to unveil a show at Matthew Marks Gallery that includes eleven sculptures which he created over a five year period, as well as twenty recent works on paper. This is the largest body of sculpture the artist has completed in the span of his career, which has lasted more than fifty years. The majority of the sculptures are based on the numerals 0-9 and is first made by wax. Johns […]
At this year’s Pulse NYC, LA’s Mark Moore Gallery showcased talented Belgian artist Cindy Wright. Wright’s work seems to follow from the long tradition of Dutch and Flemish still-life paintings, portraying simple objects illuminated upon a dark background. However, Wright’s compositions—like her showstopping painting of a glistening cube of uncooked chunks of bacon or another of a rotting piece of fruit—are at once realistic and abstract, beautiful and hideous, depending on how and from where the pieces are viewed. Take a look at other images […]
This morning, the Los Angeles MOCA lifted the veil of secrecy on its highly anticipated “Art in the Streets” exhibition. This first major U.S. museum survey of graffiti and street art is the brainchild of Jeffrey Deitch (along with associate co-curators Roger Gastman & Aaron Rose) and was certainly one of the first enticing possibilities that came to AM’s mind when we first heard of his unconventional hiring as MOCA’s director early last year. Despite the inevitable quibbling about who was and who wasn’t included […]
A 23 foot tall, 20 ton bronze teddy bear from Urs Fischer was recently installed in New York at the Park Avenue plaza. The signature sculptural piece entitled Untitled (Lamp/Bear) from the young Swiss artist will be in place for public consumption until it goes on the block next month at Christie’s where it’s expected to fetch over $10 million dollars. To install the work, the auction house had to get six city permits and pay to reinforce the floor so that it could take […]
We were excited to see three new works by Japanese painter Hideaki Kawashima at this year’s Armory Show, especially because they were at the booth of Los Angeles’ Richard Heller Gallery. Heller previously showed Kawashima along with several other Tomio Koyama Gallery artists as part of a Japanese group show in late 2008; however, we had not heard of Kawashima showing with Heller or any other U.S. gallery since then. The three new paintings at Heller’s Armory booth, although instantly recognizable as being by Kawashima, […]
AM stopped by the LES district last week in New York to catch the latest show from Jonathan Viner and Elizabeth McGrath held at Sloan Fine Art (previewed). Jonathan’s exhibition Computer Science tugged at our heart as it brought back nostalgic memories of a time that has faded from our view by taking us on a retro journey when our parents were young, cool and of course rocking the over-sized electronic systems. Viner’s style seemed to capture that tinted and earthy style of the seventies […]
As you know, there is a little show called Art in the Streets set to open to the public this weekend in Los Angeles. Besides work inside the MOCA and the surrounding walls, some artists like Invader here could not resist hitting up other parts of the city with their work. Take a look at more detailed pics of this tiled piece in Culver City as well as another piece in Echo Park after the jump…
Our friends at the Safewalls x Cirque du Soleil project have been celebrating the art of the circus poster since late last year, commissioning Cirque-inspired pieces by the likes of Ricardo Cavolo, El Mac, Jon Burgerman, Jason Limon, Shag, Sweet Toof and Glenn Anderson with upcoming works by Tara McPherson, Ron English, Travis Louie and Miss Van. For each city that Cirque du Soleil performs in, Safewalls commissions three artists to create a piece, which is then printed into a regular edition of 300 prints and […]
Perhaps foreshadowing his own fate, Ai Weiwei’s chilling last blog entry before it was taken down went as follows: “What can they do to me? Nothing more than to banish, kidnap, or imprison me. Perhaps they could fabricate my disappearance into thin air, but they don’t have any creativity or imagination. And they lack both joy and the ability to fly.” As the world unites in support of the safe and immediate release of the famous artist and activist after his recent detention (now missing […]
With a mastery of color and layering at it’s core, Erik Parker’s work assaults the senses in a deeply visceral way. Blending rawness with whimsy, the New York-based artist brought his newest body of psychedelia to colette in Paris a couple weeks back. Playing the part of stylistic chameleon, much like his last solo, Endless Anytime (covered), sidetracked from his signature amorphous figuration to focus on more classical still life compositions, Re-Upped sees the artist take yet another new direction with a series of acrylic […]
