All posts filed under: Art

Kerry James Marshall, African American Art New Frontiers

Published by VAGA Editor

The work of Kerry James Marshall is centered on African American life, culture and history. His body of work explores new frontiers in racial politics, socio-economical issues and the artists’ own feelings & views about social responsibility. Marshall was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1955 and later relocated to South Central, Los Angeles near the Black Panthers headquarters. Marshall grew-up in a country in which there were not many black artists to reference and “black studies” were in their early stages. Through his work, the artist has committed himself to compensating for the absence and invisibility of black culture. The artist attempts to reconcile African American art and culture with images of western ideals in his paintings by highlighting black identity within their historical context and the current socio political situation. Video courtesy of Museo Reina Sofia, Painting and Other Stuff, 2014 For Marshall there is an evident gap in the [Western] art history archive. We can define his whole body of work as a counter-archive, reading between the lines of mainstream culture during the …

6 Genre-Bending Artists You Should Follow on Instagram

Published by jamesonz

Instagram can be a gold mine for creative inspiration, but it sometimes feels like artist accounts on the ubiquitous social media platform are more self-promotional than authentically engaging. With 400 million active users, it can be hard to find quality content outside the tropes and cliches. Here’s a roundup of some of our favorite artists using Instagram in unique ways — from digital installations to math-infused origami masterpieces. @prismspecs New media artist and programmer Grayson Earle is constantly breaking down boundaries between tech and art with interactive exhibitions and hand-crafted digital games. The process, from conceptual sketches to halfway-completed hardware, is documented on his Instagram account alongside a heavy helping of glitch art and tongue-in-cheek tech humor. People Pattern #loop #glitchart #generativeart #netflix #videoart @illuminator99 @saddestlunch A video posted by Grayson (@prismspecs) on Jan 28, 2016 at 8:32pm PST Earle is based in Brooklyn, where his work was most recently shown in the AgitProp! exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum.   @sopopomo Manila-born, Texas based artist Dan Lam and her friendly [and touchable] neon-hued sculptures.  A …

Mirror for the Middle Class: Artist Duane Hanson in Retrospect

Published by jamesonz

Winning over the general public isn’t always a good thing in the art market, where popularity with the middle class frequently translates to poor sales among wealthy patrons and art collectors. So it’s fitting that the late sculptor Duane Hanson’s body of work is seeing a resurgence of interest just as the middle class — the subject of his life’s work — slowly erodes in the face of technological innovation and industrial automation. Brushed aside by the tastemakers of the seventies, Hanson’s startlingly life-like portrayals of average Americans have been called “achingly beautiful” by The Guardian, drawing comparisons to Edward Hopper and other classic realists. Editorial attention tends to play up the time-traveling effect the works have on the viewer. The appeal is part fashion tourism, part self-recognition. While the clothing choices are garish and the moments captured depressingly banal, the imortalization of seemingly meaningless moments is bound to resonate with the selfie generation (or the older generations trapped in it with us). Pieces like “Young Shopper” and “Tourists II” have a certain voyeuristic appeal, …

Illustrator Valeria Petrone Plays With Witty Characters And Odd Situations

Published by tamara

The world of Valeria Petrone is filled with many characters. They animate the illustrations she draws for adults in magazines and for children in books. From men and women with big observant eyes to cats, dogs and birds casually striking a pose; the cast is deliciously enchanting and entertaining. The artist is an illustrator with many talents. She juggles from children’s books to serious editorials for magazines, newspapers and ad campaigns from Italy, the UK and the US. She keeps a humorous style whether she’s designing for an informative article or a playful story. Valeria Petrone is often commissioned to create an atmosphere to go along a text. Her methodology consists of letting her mind wander while reading the text. While doing so, images come to her mind.  She associates these snapshots to the words and then begins drawing. The set-up and characters express an idea or a feeling. We could imagine the entire story by only looking at the imagery. The main character is always put in a situation that makes us wonder about …

Sculptor Ben Young Illuminates the Underpinnings of Islands

Published by jamesonz

“I spy something blue.” So reads the punchline to one of those lonely island gag cartoons in The New Yorker, where two castaways sit back to back on an island barely big enough for themselves and a lone palm. On first glance, the austere combinations of concrete and plate glass on display at Kirra Galleries might remind us of these sorts of lonely island cliches. The difference is in the depths — isolated rock faces and quasi-volcanic outcrops push up from opaque cubes, which seem to simultaneously imprison and define the land masses within. Whatever associations poured concrete might hold with brutalism melt away under the soft embrace of cut glass. Originally a New Zealander with a background in boatbuilding, artist Ben Young began glass cutting as a hobby inspired by his father’s humble garage-shop art projects. Combined with a boatmaker’s propensity for 3D modeling and meticulous handcrafting, Young began developing sculptures inspired by his experiences with the sea through boating and surfing at a young age. It’s only recently, however, that his work has …

Painting for Paris: Art World Response to the Paris Attacks

Published by jamesonz

The aftermath of the November terrorist attacks against the French people saw the world light up with support and solidarity. #prayforparis sentiment still runs strong weeks later, as citizens of the world react against the senseless violence on exhibition across Europe, America, and the Middle East. While no amount of hope can bring back the 100s lost at the Bataclan concert hall, artists across the world have struck back through their work and brought the world together around symbols of peace and togetherness; most notably the Eiffel Tower peace symbol, now as common a sight on canvas as spray-painted in the streets. We’ve gathered some of the most inspiring drawings, paintings, and Internet artwork created in response to the Paris attacks. In a particularly intriguing comic response, cartoonist Joann Sfar broke the fourth wall of his regular slice-of-life comic Instagram to share his vision of France with his national audience. “I am so sad many English speaking friends did not understand my cartoon. I did not write against your beliefs or against spirituality.” — @joannsfar Provocateur …

Art Basel Miami Beach: Leading Galleries, Big Parties

Published by jamesonz

Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) is back and bigger than ever this year. 267 galleries are scheduled to exhibit, alongside countless more screenings, parties, and unofficial events. Gallery-hoppers will find an unforgettable mix of high art, cultural experiences, and no-holds-barred Miami-style partying. (And of course, champagne on the sand.) The ABMB’s crown jewel this year will be a $10 million Willem de Kooning, Untitled IV. The gallery holds an impressive collection of de Kooning’s drawings and paintings, all well worth the price of admission on their own account. Miami is widely regarded as the center for Latin American art in the US, so it’s no surprise that a strong contingent of galleries will be making the journey north from South America. Galería Elba Benítez and Galeria Nara Roesler, among others, will be bringing hundreds of Latin American artists between them, including some compelling installation work. Keep an eye out for the politically-infused sculptures of Antonio Dias, whose sculpture series based on ballot boxes should be particularly resonant in this tumultuous election season. On the other side …

Bright and Personal: the Gouache Paintings of Mogu Takahashi

Published by jamesonz

Japanese artist Mogu Takahashi embodies the best of the outsider art trend. Tilted perpectives, personal subjects, and child-like scrawl burst from the pages of her popular guache drawings. Subjects that seem ordinary — flower pots, pajama pants, persian cats — become sublimely colored compositions that remind the viewer of the excitement only a child (or child at heart) can have about their surroundings. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the self-described self-taught artist’s biggest collaborations have been creating objects for children; including collaborations with Little Red Stuga in Sweden as well as Japanese fashion line Chambre de Charme. Takahashi’s deceptively simple characters and creations find an especially appropriate home in houseware collaborations, decorating the sorts of household objects she frequently studies on paper. Take a look at her online store for a beatiful gallery of ceramics and other household objects brought to life with carefully-placed eyes and subtle brush textures. What’s really captivating about Takahashi’s work is the element of daily practice invoked in projects like her daily journals, which are available in full at her website. For …

Stephen Shore

Art Books Under Glass: Paris Photo 2015

Published by jamesonz

PEACE FOR PARIS Due to recent tragic events, the 19th edition of the Fair has closed. Paris Photo is holding its 19th edition this November, with over 147 galleries and 27 publishers presenting both contemporary and historical work within the Grand Palais. Visiting photography buffs and book lovers can expect a feast of the senses beneath the Palais’ high glass ceiling, filled with opportunities to see work from a truly international mix of sources. The wide-ranging collection of exhibitors will feature a mix of current artists represented by galleries including Stephen Bulger, Sprueth Magers and Stephen Daiter. Organizers of the Paris Photo event have pulled some new tricks out of the hat this year, including BOOK MACHINE, an installation of 30 books hand-designed exclusively for Paris Photo through an international call for submissions. We recommend in particular the work of Stephen Shore, a legendary documentarian of American life and landscape who was among the first practitioners of the “diaristic snapshot” style. Also keep an eye out for a compelling series of works by postwar Japanese …

Artist Massimo Uberti Uses Beaming Neons To Trace Make-Belief Rooms In Space

Published by tamara

A room within a room designed with luminescent neon tubes. Massimo Uberti plays with our senses and our perceptions by creating in-situ installations. The Italian-based artist redefines the habitable space with neon doors and walls that seem to open to an imaginary dimension. The conceptual artist, Massimo Uberti, hand blows and bends neon tubes to compose the outline of the edges and corners of a room. The geometrical lines also mimic door entries, furniture and ceilings. All the elements are either placed on the floor or hung with invisible wires specifically engineered for the art pieces. The lines the artist traces in the space imitate a drawing, as if he had sketched everything before our arrival. With irregular lines and a combination of 3D and 2D constructions, the artist is inviting us to enter his vision of an underground world ruled by iridescent lights and a minimalistic aesthetic. Uberti’s purpose is to trigger a reflection upon entering the space he created; the light up room within the real room is meant to blur the limits of space. He intentionally …

Poetic Computation: The Handmade Computers of Taeyoon Choi

Published by jamesonz

Designers praise Apple for covering their circuit boards in clean, curved skins. Consumers demand software that is unobtrusive and hardware that is small and tucked away. The rising Internet of Things fills the human habitat with computers that are only distinguishable from analog objects by the intelligent behaviors they exhibit when no one is watching. In a market driven by invisibility and utility, the handmade computer installations of New York and Seoul-based artist Taeyoon Choi are more likely to remind the casual observer of “toys” than “machines.” Toys and art have a core value in common, so far as the general public is concerned; no one expects them to “do” anything. Well, nothing productive anyway. While the tasks that occupy Choi’s computers are often inscrutable (animating cutlery at Ikea, conducting measurements of personalised time), it is not their whimsical programming but rather the bright colors and blinking circuit boards that make it challenging to categorize the objects as computers. Apps and user interfaces that feel alive and welcoming are normal in day-to-day life — even expected. However, the general …

LADYFAG, NEW YORK’S NOCTURNAL GODDESS

Published by Juliana B

The statuesque gender-bending Madame of the New York night scene, Ladyfag, arrived eight years ago, first selling vintage wares and later becoming mesmerized by the allure of the city after dark. Photographed by Anna Bloda, Make up Azra Red. The statuesque gender-bending Madame of the New York night scene arrived eight years ago, first selling vintage wares and later becoming mesmerized by the allure of the city after dark. In the beginning, Ladyfag ventured out solo, enrobed in a myriad of her own looks from Transylvanian embroidered robes to Ricardo Tisci’s Givenchy later on. She danced with arms flung in the air, her shaggy armpits laid bare. The night became her playground as she headed out to iconic venues like Hiro, APT and Happy Valley. It was on one of those fateful nights that NYC nightlife and legendary club kid, Kenny Kenny found her at the center of the dance floor. He hired her on the spot to dance for him at Happy Valley (thrown by him and Susanne Bartsch.) “Both of us are self-created …