Last posts on contemporary art

Curiouser and curiouser at Waddesdon

2012-05-26T12:54:00+02:00

Devoted art lover or not? You might want to consider a trip to Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire where the latest experiment in juxtaposing ancient (or rather neo-renaissance) and modern is on show. I was able to make a trip there yesterday afternoon.

Exhibited in the gardens are 33 'responses' to Chardin's painting 'House of Cards' which is to be found within the Manor. They have been made by as broad a cross-section contemporary artistic luminaries as you are likely to find in any public gallery. Names like Gormley, Koons, Kapoor and inevitably Hirst (whose works here are available to buy if you happen to have several million handy), plus slightly less well-known names: Serra, Judd, Tony Smith and even a Rothschild.

Without knowing the context, as the explanatory leaflet had yet to be provided, we were unimpressed by Serra's huge cube of balanced corten steel plates. 'House of cards' is at the centre of the show and seeks to establish its theme, which is that nothing is at it seems. Its uniform, rusty massiveness failed to delight us, unlike several of the other pieces we saw.

Some impressed partly by their sheer technical sophistication. Steel can now be laser cut with microscopic precision into the most delicate of filigree patterns.

Granite can be transformed into paradoxical mirrors. A monolith weighing 6.7t has been polished by Kapoor into intersecting hemispheres that reflect an upside down world.

Smith's 'Moondog' is named after a New York poet and musician and a Joan Miró painting. It weighs almost two tonnes, and had to be installed on grass that could not be disturbed to more than six and a half inches. Like a house of cards, it balances precipitously, its massive forms making an engaging counterpoint to the rococo ornament all around it.

Turner prize winner Tony Cragg defies gravity but does not delight the eye with his pile of tyreish turds, 'Wirbelsäule' (spine):

Robert Indiana's steel 'Love' is close to classical statues of Venus and Cupid.

Eva Rotschild's 'Meta' evidently works with the house of cards theme. The result is a pleasing interplay of sharpness and curves.

There's a lot more we didn't have time to see or photograph, including an inevitably bifurcated pig and a spotted mini (Hirst) and a huge steel teapot that perfectly matches the 'Alice in Wonderland' theme that Christie's have adopted in their video which publicises the show. The exhibition benefits from being set amid the natural forms of the formal gardens at Waddesdon, which as we left, seemed themselves to take on sculptural qualities.

You have until 28 October to catch the exhibition, which officially closes at 5pm (although we wandered round in tranquillity until almost 6.30)

See also an excellent FT article with an interview with Jacob Rothschild.

Bazar

2012-04-24T00:56:00+02:00

L'installation Bazar avec... présentée à la Chapelle Saint-Loup de Saint-Loubès est constituée d'œuvres et objets personnels, augmentés durant l'exposition d'éléments apportés par les visiteurs.

The installation Bazar avec... presented at the Chapelle Saint-Loup in Saint-Loubès consists of works and personal items, increased during the exhibition of items brought by visitors.

Bazar avec… Alexandre Roudeix, Aurélie Martinez, Emmanuelle Maura, Pierre Lepec, Catherine Cousy, Siona Brotman, Anouk Dykmeyer, Emmanuel Beau, Lou Dykmeyer, Luc Detot, Louna Rhabri, Aza Rhabri, Caroline Baurès, Nathalie Cailhault, les enfants Adrien, Ainhoa, Anaïs, Anaëlle, Adonis, Antoine, Arthur, Benjamin, Chahine, Clément, Clara, Léo, Leïla, Noah, Ohiana, Shana, Thomas, Titaïna, William, Yasmine, Mélina avec Caroline B., Anaïs Paupion, Emma Manquist, Anaïs Vernon, Mathilde Liron, Enola Larroche, Anaïs Prévoteau, Matéo Sebileau, Ilona, Nathan, Gabriel, Madame Dupuis, Louna Maussion, Clara Petit-Lafon, Mathias Sauvage, Antoine Chelle, Elsa Militon, Célia Pierre, Océane Lafon, Tomas Rodriguez, Lou Sébille, Clémence Le Mignon, Dylan Mégrier, Mathéo Baudot, Hugo Aguer, Lila Andry, Thibault Banos, Lou Baron, Eléa Barraud, Axel Blanchard, Lana Blanchard, Tom Carrot, Noah Cazes, Amel Chentit, Natacha Delpeuch, Lenny Dufau, Léa Faure, Enzo Filatreau, Valentin Fontaine, Marion Fontan, Anaïs Fourcade, John Fourcade, Sarah Frisach, Manon Geiller, Emilie Guery, Charline Guillot, Maïlys Justine, Inès Lahmaza, Arnaud Lopez, Raimy Pecyna, Marine Maroteaux, Madame Bel-Cruz.

Matériaux et dimensions variables, 2013

©Alice Raymond 2013

EXPOSITION à SAINT-LOUBES, DU 2 AU 10 FEVRIER 2013

L’individu et le collectif, le don et l’abandon, la construction et l’occupation sont des questions soulevées dans ce Bazar proposé à la chapelle du prieuré. Dans une tentative de délimitation d’un territoire, les éléments installés se perdent entre un statut d’œuvre exposée et celui d’objet. L’habitat précaire abrite une sorte d’arrêt sur le temps, où tout prend valeur de souvenir.

Les visiteurs peuvent participer en déposant dans le bazar des éléments similaires à ceux déjà proposés (couvertures, tissus de leur grenier, dessins), mêlant leurs souvenirs à ceux de l’artiste et laissant à chacun la possibilité mentale de se les approprier tous.

Le titre du projet s’allongera avec le nombre des participants : Bazar avec…

Les objets sont récupérés par leur propriétaire après l’exposition.

EXHIBITION SAINT LOUBES, FRANCE, FEBRUARY 2-10, 2013

The individual and the collective, gift and abandonment, construction and occupancy are the issues raised in this Bazaar. In an attempt to define a territory, the installed items are lost between the status of a piece of art and that of a displayed object. The precarious dwelling houses a sort of stop in time, in which everything is worth remembering.

Visitors may participate by filling in the Bazaar with their own elements, similar to those already proposed (blankets, fabrics, their attic, drawings) combining their memories with the artist's and giving everyone the opportunity to mentally appropriate them all.

The title of the project will expand with the number of participants: Bazaar with...

Items brought by the participants will be returned at the closing of the exhibition.

more info: http://ateliersprieure.eklablog.com/exposition-7-p505277

Unit

2012-02-03T00:04:00+01:00

Unit #3, Installation / Performance,Art Live Fair, Coconut Grove, 2012

see here Video by Neal Hecker

Installing a sculpture / Providing an intimate space

Organizing my studio / Sharing my space

Facilitating the two by two / Sharing my walls

Accepting the working over / Growing the collective piece

Focusing on the meeting in the working process / Keeping track of each one by one

Giving the piece away / Keeping the process going

All rights reversed © Alice Raymond

_____________________________________________________________________________

UNIT #2

Performance, Dimensions Variable, Miami, 2012

Film by Jayme Gershen>Link: https://vimeo.com/51169548

All rights reversed © Alice Raymond & Jayme Gershen

Issues with borders, laws regarding to art transportation, nomadic life and creation.

_____________________________________________________________________________

UNIT

Solo show at Dimension Variable, Miami, FL

January 14 - March, 2012

http://dimensionsvariable.net/2011/12/22/unit-alice-raymond/

All rights reversed © Alice Raymond

Work based on invitation to form a collection with the artist.

Unit consists of :
Jenny Brillhart, Annie Hollingsworth, Jet Sargent, Stephanie Marie, Chad Cunha, Jacqueline Soir, Domingo Castillo, Leyden Rodriguez, Frances Trombly, Randolph Gonzales, Paul Steen, Per Nyström, Adler Guerrier, Jayme Gershen, Emmett Moore, Larry Newberry, Sabine Herrmann, Carol Jazzar, Misael Soto, Alice Raymond.

Jet Sargent

Kind of Untitled, Cross Stitches and Lexicon on small table

"I am a firm believer in not taking oneself too seriously".

By combining the soft comfort of cross stitching with the depravity that lives in my brain, life makes a little more sense."

Jacqueline Soir

Untitled, 3 digital black and white photographs

Jacqueline Rios "Soir" was raised and live in Miami, born in Nicaragua. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor degree in Fine Arts from New World School of the Arts with a focus on Photography. Her work is mostly staged photographs with obscure figures that represent metaphors for the unconscious and the hidden, personality and the soul, life and death, human nature.

www.jacquelinesoir.blogspot.com

Jenny Brillhart

Intercontinental Hotel Vent, 2011, Painting on wooden structure

Brillhart’s work is concerned with a dialogue between made and found spaces and forms, and their relationship to place, structure and organization. She uses traditional methods of still life, studio practice, photography and paint to inform each object or painting, bringing to it a new history and diary of existence, and then proposing to forward that record to future, unknown contexts. These objects are therefore always in flux, whether made or found, and striving to stay in keeping with the initial impulse of authorship, making, or purpose. The formation of objects and materials reveals a process of adding and subtracting on purpose or in err, in an attempt to balance or level ideas of beauty, form, structure and narrative.

Brillhart was born in Keene, NH. She received her BA from Smith College, then attended the Art Students League in NY and went on to receive her MFA in from the New York Academy of Art. She lives and works in Miami, Florida.

Brillhart's most recent solo show was at Dorsch Gallery in 2011. In 2010 she showed new work with Kuckei + Kuckei Gallery in Berlin and she was chosen for New Work Miami at the Miami Art Museum, curated by Rene Morales and Peter Boswell. Brillhart recently participated in group shows at venues including The Naples Museum of Art (Naples, FL), David Castillo Gallery (Miami, FL), the Anhaltinischen Gemäldegalerie Museum in Dessau, Roemerapotheke Gallery in Zurich, The Art Gallery at Government Center in Miami, Morgan Lehman Gallery in NY and CT, and ArtCenter/South Florida in Miami Beach. Her work has been published in The McKinsey Quarterly, New American Paintings and Miami Contemporary Artists. She was awarded the Chestler Foundation Grant and a Vermont Studio Center grant.

www.jbrillhart.com

Carol Jazzar

Exploring youth in my head and with my hands, Text based collage, September 2011-January 2012

Annie Hollingsworth

Sketch for Elegua costume, 2012; Sketch for Shango costume, 2012; Sketch for Swange costume, 2012

At the end of 2011, my dance company Mayami Folklorico pulled together a diverse group of folkloric dancers and drummers for our first full-length show. As the production progressed, it became clear that this show had a life of its own. With only a week left for rehearsal, the pieces I had expected to produce fell away, leaving me with something very different than what I had originally planned. It was a volatile transformation marked by an indecent marriage proposal, a clash between spiritual philosophies, and a major shift in casting—an appropriate finale for a show whose purpose was the union of Haitian and Cuban Folklore (and all of their attendant energies). I could never say which show would have been better, the one I had expected or the one that was actually brought into form, but in the end life was given to only one.

The three "lost" pieces have remained as persistent ideas. Alice was there in the cafe on the day that these particular pieces were first proposed, so for Unit I've sent her color swatches for the costumes that were never finished. In traditional dances, the color combinations and geometric patterns of the costumes name the deity or group of spirits embodied on stage.

Chad Cunha

Preservation boxes, Found card board, hinges, lock, key, magnets, 2011

Chad’s work investigates instances of oscillating energy between concepts, visuals and perspectives.

http://cargocollective.com/chadcunha

Leyden Rodriguez

Frame, paper, wood

Frances Trombly

Primed Canvas, Handwoven Canvas, gesso, 23 X 23 inches

Born in Miami, Florida where she lives and works, Frances received a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and completed residencies at the Capri Palace in Anacapri, Italy in 2009 and the Vermont Studio Center in 2007. Trombly has exhibited throughout the US, as well as venues abroad, including an installation at Socrates Sculpture Park in New York and numerous group exhibitions.

Recent solo exhibitions of her work include: Not Paintings, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica (2011); Everything and Nothing, Goldie Paley Gallery, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia (2011); Paintings, Girls’ Club, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (2010); A Point From Which to Start, Galeria Casas Riegner, Bogotá, Colombia (2010); Thinking of Things at David Castillo Gallery, Miami (2008); and Frances Trombly, Kevin Bruk Gallery, Miami (2006).

Her work has been featured in various publications including Art + Auction, Art Papers, Sculpture Magazine, Surface Design Journal, and The Los Angeles Times and is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Florida, as well as in private collections throughout the United States. In 2009, she received a South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual & Media Artists.

http://www.francestrombly.com

Randolph Gonzales

Alison, Pyrography

I’m from Albuquerque. Been in Miami for 9 years. My art is based on pure feeling, of all things on earth. Some things move m

Uganda Modern Art with No Limits

2011-03-29T17:32:00+02:00

Sometimes when we put limits to our creativity,we tend to shortchange ourselves. Creativity should not have limits-i.e. African art should look like this, you should use these colors,that is offensive "political correctness from insecure people", etc.
Don't let people tell you how to be creative-create and let them judge afterwards and always allow criticism as its your driver to success. Its only losers that hate criticism-even great prophets like Jesus and Mohammed(peace be upon them) had critics.
Always enjoy your art-have fun and don't try to please [critics] as you'll never come out of the conformity cocoon. Break the rules when creating Art, don't limit yourself to mental slavery-remember your brains are there to be used and not suppressed from thinking beyond the norm...
I believe in a parallel universe, were they're multiple billions of copies of everything living on this planet, maybe another copy of you, could be living like this...hahaha!

alien planet

Alien planets could be very colorful -remember that all light has color regardless of the planet in our universe-though some light cannot be visible with naked eyes-what you might consider to be darkness(pitch black) is not the case-that's why night vision technology in its infancy,green is the most visible color-in 5-years time it could be all the primary colors RGB.

alien planet

What is so strange, is that we're all made of the same stuff but in a different chemical arrangement-all living things and weird burning planets have carbon as a common element..

So, when you die, its not your end, remember that in the beginning you were just a drop...now your solid bones-what I'm trying to say is that you're infinite because our universe started with a bang with the intention of expanding and your part of the same stuff that makes the universe. However, I'm not sure of other universes, as they're Billion.....Billion...Billion......................Billion other universes. maybe, the chemistry is different.

Maybe this could be the original you on another planet -hahaha.. Maybe in our parallel universe, weird things happen..

I believe we're all holograms and that's why we have fucked up holograms like yoweri museveni, Hosni Mubarak, Paul Kagame,Muammar Gaddafi, etc.

This Art is a continuation from the last post-inspiring Uganda students of Animation. Just like I said before, think dark and break the rules,don't chicken to experiment, because art is all about experimentation,always make sketches-planning is the key to success.

This chopper is somewhere in the virunga Area..

Let's play Art this year....I look forwards to posting some animation here sometimes this year!

The space vehicle landing...

In this issue, I'll continue from where I stopped last time...

This Art is not the usual stuff I normally do, its just that I'm trying to escape from the mindset of my usual work(3D Animation). I wanted to put out some stuff, so that Ugandan students of Animation at Makerere university can be inspired to do dark 3D art.

armada of futuristic transporters

In this piece, I was inspired by Professor Stephen W. Hawking, life in the universe documentary, Maybe some planets have life and no gravity-everything just floats, while the ground spins, endlessly-I reckon with such planet, the technology could be 1 million years superior than ours.

Outer space station

maybe, on some planets this is how they eat...

Maybe, this could be the way people on other planets go to toilet-a bit like barbecuing oneself...

transportation on planets similar to ours could be something like this...

Maybe..maybe, some planets could look like this. In next issue, I'll try to imagine how the people(Aliens) might live...

To be continued

joram jojo