Scott Campbell, Things Get Better, (Installation View), courtesy OHWOW Los Angeles

A solo exhibition of work by artist Scott Campbell is currently on view  at OHWOW Los Angeles, featuring a series of large-scale ink wash paintings on paper, depicting invented objects, particularly makeshift tools, textual subversions, and intriguing figurations found in the world of underground and prison tattoo culture.

(more…)

Scott Campbell, Our Secret (2012), courtesy the artist and OHWOW

Scott Campbell, whose Saved Tattoo parlor in Brooklyn is a destination for ink aficionados such as designer Marc Jacobs, has in recent years branched out into the contemporary art world, presenting bodies of work that dynamically comprise the “alternative” aesthetic and draftsman’s expertise of his trade. Using an array of unique materials, such as US currency and ostrich eggshells, employing a highly technical creative process born from the precision of tattooing, Campbell’s work rests comfortably in the space between high and low, art and fashion, gallery and street.

(more…)

Aurel Schmidt

Downtown for Democracy and OHWOW have teamed up for a new book, The Pocket Guide to Politics. Providing an approachable entry point to politics for the average citizen, last night’s launch party took place in the Standard Hotel’s Boom Boom Room in New York. Aaron Bondaroff of OHWOW welcomed art world figures like Aurel Schmidt, André Saraiva, Terry Richardson, Bill Powers, Dustin Yellin, and Peter Coffin, while Donald Cummings of the Virgins played a piano tune, Kilo Kish rapped on the bar, and Nate Lowman DJed throughout the night.

(more…)

–>
Installation view. Via OHWOW.

In his first solo exhibition on the west coast, Brooklyn-based artist Daniel Arsham presents three bodies of works in the fall, the ball, and the wall. Shifting between sculpture, painting, and installation art, the works included demonstrate the diversity of Arsham’s ideas, while each enacting the subtle theatricality which has come to characterize his practice. Arsham has been identified by many sources as a rising star in the art world following his high-profile collaborations with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company choreographer Jonas Bokaer, and fashion designer Hedi Slimane. His works shift our perceptions of space, time, and the basic scientific tenants which order our embodied experience. Soft folds of fabric emerge from hard, flat walls; drips seem to slow down time and defy their natural gravitational pull; paintings confuse and distort scale.

–>
Daniel Arsham, Hiding Figure (2011). Via DesignBoom.

(more…)

Agathe Snow, Hear No Evil, See No Evil (2008-2011). All photos on site for Art Observed by Alexandra Bregman.

OHWOW’s It Ain’t Fair lived up to its name as a successful destination apart from the Art Basel main fair last week. Located in Miami’s Design District, the show featured 20 artists in the fourth consecutive curated group show by OHWOW, this year’s theme: Materialism. As explored in Marxist philosophy, materialism at its most literal, tangible entity, focuses on the tactile rather than the abstractly metaphorical. Experimental materials served to manifest the ideology, with David Benjamin Sherry’s sand-filled photograph frame, Justin Beal’s use of plexiglass and plastic wrap, and the unique approach of Angel Otera, peeling and reapplying paint. “There’s not a bad piece in here,” said Operations Director Lydia Ruby. By Saturday evening, the gallery had sold most works on view, and had noted the remarkable curiosity and intellectualism overheard in the showroom.

(more…)

Will Ryman’s Roses being installed on Miami Beach. Image via The Art Newspaper.

Art Observed is on site for this year’s 10th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach which officially runs December 1–4, with previews and parties throughout the entire week beginning on Tuesday, November 29th. More than 260 galleries from around the world will be representing over 2,000 artists, not including the several satellite shows taking place simultaneously across Miami, including NADA, SCOPE, Pulse, and the original Art Miami—twelve years Basel’s senior. Attracting 46,000 visitors in 2010, the fair is expanding every year, with various collaborations and special additions celebrating its 10th. The Swiss-based Basel art fair installment in Miami has evolved into something that may have lost some of its innocence from its earlier days but in the end has become the definitive closing party for the art market’s year. There have been many previews and summaries of the fair, the following is our view of the week to come.

Hennessy Youngman, still from ART THOUGHTZ: Relational Aesthetics. Via Youtube.
Youngman will be speaking at NADA Deauville Beach Resort on Thursday at 5 pm.

(more…)

José Parlá, Character Gestures (2011). Via JoséParlá.com

Miami-born, New York-based artist José Parlá‘s current solo exhibition at OHWOW Gallery in Los Angeles blurs the line between street art and action painting. Entitled “Character Gestures,” the show at OHWOW synthesizes the ‘low’ of the urban graffiti sensibility with the ‘high’ of process-based painting as it emerged out of the material and conceptual legacies of Abstract Expressionism. Rather than reading as personal expression of an interior world, though, the paintings, drawings, and sculptures on view function as an archive of the the visual material that emerges from social-spatial politics of the street, their surfaces palimpsests.

More text and images after the jump… (more…)

Ryan McGinley, Tom (Golden Tunnel) (2010), via OHWOW Gallery

On view now through August 27^th is “Post 9-11” at Los Angeles’s OHWOW Gallery. The group show features works by  New York-based artists who have in common both their rise to fame in the years since 9/11, and outspoken work that addresses sex, drugs, and the general decadence of the New York art scene at the time. Dan Colen, Terence Koh, Hanna Liden, Nate Lowman, Adam McEwen, Ryan McGinley, Agathe Snow, Dash Snow, and Aaron Young  all have work represented in this show that aims to chronicle their relationships, collaborations, and responses to external circumstances of the past decade.

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

A laser cut Powell Peralta (skateboard company) reference – All photos by Ava Rollins of Art Observed

New York based artist Scott Campbell made his West Coast debut last night at Los Angeles’ OHWOW Gallery. The show’s title, Noblesse Oblige, implies that whoever claims to be noble must conduct their life accordingly. Campbell harnessed thousands of bills of cut currency to transform tattoo subculture iconography into delicate and tempered work. In exhibiting a chronicle of imagery, Campbell suggests a fine art context for the genre.

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

Another view of the main lobby, A Scott Campbell “tropical fantasy” (represented by the Miami based OHWOW Gallery) is the top center work

Art Observed was on site at the Soho Beach House Miami during the week of Art Basel Miami Beach for a tour of the 150 work art collection assembled for the private club and hotel.    Keeping a close connection with the artistic community has been an important part of the strategy for the Soho house brand, which has multiple locations in England as well as in New York and newly in Los Angeles, Berlin and Miami Beach.   This week marked the first Art Basel Miami Beach for the location and it hit the ground running,  hosting some important events such as dinners for White Cube and Victoria Miro galleries and a W Magazine event.

A John Baldessari on the left and a Friends With You on the right, in a hallway on the main floor

More story and images after the jump… (more…)

Art Observed kicked its shoes off to experience The “Island” trip; a one night, site-specific exhibition on a deserted island in front of the Mondrian hotel. The mysterious event, which did not disclose its departure point until the day of, was organized by Shamim M.Morin (LAND) and Aaron Bondaroff/ Al Moran  of Miami’s OHWOW gallery.  The demand was needless to say very high for this event, and as such, the queue for the boats was a bit reminiscent of some of the final scenes in the movie Titanic.  The project however, was by most accounts, extremely special.  The installation featured works of fifteen artist including Terence Koh, Hanna Liden and Luis Gispert.  A boat brought the guests from the Mondrian hotel to the Flagler Memorial Island where artists “were doing site-specific projects in the foliage, sandbars and water”.

more images after the jump…

(more…)

Robert Lazzarini and his work Brass Knuckles (2010) at OHWOW.

Art Observed was in the Miami Design District for the opening of IT AIN’T FAIR 2010, a group exhibition organized by the art gallery O.H.W.O.W during Art Basel Miami Beach 2010.  The show introduces recent work from emerging and established such as Agathe Snow, Kaws, José Parlá, Aurel Schmidt, Scott Campbell and others. The Miami based OHWOW is clearly a pervasive element of the week’s events.  The gallery was founded by Al Moran and Aaron Bondaroff and has been coordinating multiple events during the week.

More images after the jump…
(more…)

Tiermetabolismus V (Katzchen) by Jonathan Meese at Bortolami Gallery, Art Basel Main Fair, Hall B, Booth I-09.

Art Observed will be on site as of today for the ninth edition of the America’s biggest contemporary art fair: Art Basel Miami Beach which will open to the public on Thursday December 2 and will run through Sunday, December 5.

The main section of the fair will house over 180 galleries and over 40,000 are expected following the December 2nd opening.  Annette Schönholzer and Marc Spiegler are the main fair organizers alongside its main sponsor UBS with Cartier, NetJets and AXA Art as the associate sponsors.  While Art Basel is still the main draw, the NADA Fair (the New Art Dealers Alliance) up the road at the Dauville Beach Resort will open to the public Thursday December 2. It will run through Sunday December 5 and also should not be missed.

Untitled (Art Fair Floor) by Ryan Reggiani.  Kate Werble Gallery at Nada Art Fair, booth 312.

The fair week is notable for its bridging of the Latin American buyers with American and British art centers as well as its uniquely intense amalgamation of social, media, fashion and other spheres of influence into the business of selling art.

The global art market seems to have stabilized this year and the main fair, along with its very significant satellites, should be met with lively buying this round.  Beyond this, all around Miami, the social calendar will be infused with events to the point where there is little chance to avoid regretfully missing something.

A view of an installation by Terrence Koh at The Island, an event during the week (see bel0w).

More text and related links after the jump… .

(more…)

–>
Neckface, “Into darkness”, Crowd oustide on Halloween night at OHWOW Gallery, 2010. Via Michael C. Hsiung

With “Into Darkness,” Neck Face imparts many layers of his wonderful psyche upon the OHWOW audience, including takes on violence, music, optimism and addiction. His acerbic, Pettibon-esque drawings remain engaging, as always, and are the highlight of the show. An intelligent coupling of this series with a selection of collage and large, text-based paintings with his imagery provided a balanced presentation of his work at the Los Angeles venue’s installation. OHWOW’s sophisticated and discerning curatorial decisions transcend the chaos-over-saturation possible in the undertaking of this Halloween debut.

More text and links after the jump…

(more…)

Scott Campbell Skull Cube, 2010 via OHWOW

Thursday’s opening for Scott Campbell’s current show, If You Don’t Belong, Don’t Be Long, with OHWOW at 109 Crosby was inspired by the dreams of art students everywhere. There were celebrities, models, art superstars, and just plain crowds lining up at the door to see the work. Those in attendance, to name just a few, were Dan Colen, Aurel Schmidt, Nate Lowman, and countless others.  In addition to the block seeming to be the place to be at that moment in New York, the art set new standards for the artist and also helped to further establish Miami’s OHWOW gallery in New York.

Crowd at Scott Campbell’s opening April 29th, 2010. Photo By Oskar Proctor

More text, photos, and related links after the jump. . . (more…)

The entrance to Art Basel Miami Beach 2009

“There’s a lot less ornament and a lot more substance,” declared Micky Wolfson Jr., founder of Miami Beach’s Wolfsonian Museum – this phrase sums-up many reflections on the eighth edition of Art Basel Miami Beach closed on Sunday, December 6 where smaller parties dominated and collectors purchased cautiously. In keeping with tradition edgy Contemporary pieces were bestsellers at Art Basel Miami Beach with larger, museum-targeted pieces dominating the booths along with traditional works by Popular Latin American artists such as the Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco. Interestingly, while many Asian and European buyers skipped the fair, additional Portuguese speakers were hired to aid Latin American buyers who were out in force.

Santigold performs at the Raleigh Hotel

Much more text, images and a full round-up of related links after the jump….
(more…)

An excerpt of an earlier collaborative performance at The New Museum’s Younger Than Jesus show

On November 20th, ArtObserved attended a Performa event that was unlike many others. The evening started out engulfed in the crowd of stylish audiences, which noisily filled the small entrance lobby and occasionally poured out onto the sidewalk for a smoke or some air. As many languages resonated across miniature gallery, anticipation seemed to rise to a crecendo. Needless to say, The Kitchen filled to capacity.

The artist, a young French native who is now based in Berlin, shuffled in and out of the performance space beyond the large black doors. Hurried, yet composed, he let escape an occasional smile to the public.

More images and text after the jump…
(more…)