Archive for June, 2007

French estuary on display

Saturday, June 30th, 2007

Via Estuaire 2007

Once a center of naval activity, the newest and certainly most eye-catching bateau on France’s Loire estuary is armored with a shell of mirrors, reflecting the riverbank’s factories, natural marshes… and resident gigantic floating plastic duck? Florentijn Hofman’s “Canard du Bain”, a titanic incarnation of every child’s favorite yellow bath time friend is absurdly placed within a dingy, industrial habitat. A cartoon-like beacon, the river-bound sculpture injects a certain lightheartedness into the milieu. If it were not so innocent looking, its size would suggest that it could wipe out a nearby cluster of sailboats in a single gulp. (more…)

Newslinks for 6.25.07

Friday, June 29th, 2007

Identity of Graffiti Art ‘Splasher’ Possibly Discovered [NYTimes]
Future Design of 166 Perry Street Pays Homage to Artists [NYTimes]

Poor but sexy Berlin

Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

In 2003 mayor Klaus Wowereit dubbed Berlin “poor, but sexy” in an attempt to sell British businessmen on the leaps and bounds the city has taken in cultural production. Artists, designers, and hangers-on are drawn to the city by the cheap rent, an abundance of artist run spaces and, of course, dance parties that last until happy hour the next day. The number of exhibition spaces has exploded with a consistent influx of artists and designers, and galleries are now moving further afield from more established areas like Charlottenburg and Auguststraße to Brunnenstraße and various warehouse spaces strewn around the city. Brunnenstraße, a well worn section of Mitte once deemed ungentrifiable, is now home to boutiques, bars, New York escapees, and a rash of young galleries. (more…)

Sharpies, skulls and Spade (Jack)

Tuesday, June 26th, 2007

Bill Powers curated a small show called Drawings in Books sparked off by a book signing for painter Brad Kahlhamer at Jack Spade, the sweetest little general store on the lower east side at the Bowery Hotel. Bill Powers and his wife, Cynthia Rowley, have long been involved in the contemporary art scene and a hefty book collection to prove it. Not only do they own some hard to get limited edition books featuring work by artists such as Jeff Koons and Yoshimoto Nara, but each book shown here has a doodle or sketch inside of it. These scribbles are an interesting artifact, a condensed squiggle that embodies celebrity, artwork and a personal message. (more…)

Newslinks for week of 6.11.07

Thursday, June 14th, 2007

Billionaire Collector Eli Broad Expecting Price Drop at Basel [Bloomberg]
Art Buying Frenzy Increasing Fine Art Storage Business [WSJ]

Fashion and art-world collide on dance floor

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

On Wednesday, June 6, the Whitney Museum of American Art played host to ART PARTY, a charitable event whose proceeds benefited the Whitney’s 40-year-old Independent Study Program, at Skylight Studios. The guestlist featured an array of celebrities who ran the gamut from Ivanka Trump and Kate Bosworth to Freddie Prinze Jr. and Moby. The music of DJ La Jauretsi powered the event while visual performances by Joshua Light Show and Bec Stupak dazzled guests with a spray of dreadlocks and fluid hula hoop movements. The affair’s dresscode, “Hippy Chic”, revealed refreshingly whimsical pieces by Hervé Léger worn by Arden Wohl, by ThreeAsFour worn by Genevieve Jones and, of course, a slew of damsels garbed in the host’s Max Azria summer frocks. (more…)

Serra's monumental "Forty Years" review at MoMA

Friday, June 1st, 2007

Running June 3 – September 10, The Museum of Modern Art’s retrospective exhibit of the work of Richard Serra brings forty years worth of sculpture, often gigantic, to the museum’s forefront. On Tuesday night, LVMH hosted a dinner in honor of the new MoMA’s most ambitious sculpture exhibition to date. The opening of Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years drew over 500 guests to the midtown museum. Among them were painters Brice Marden, Frank Stella, and Chuck Close and a clutch of connoisseurs in the form of Larry Gagosian, Veronica Hearst, and Lily Safra. Beginning at the inception of the artist’s career in the late 1960s, the exhibit features his work with nontraditional materials like neon, rubber and lead, and moves chronologically through the many phases of Serra’s sculpting. (more…)