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Spring 2010 Editorial Preview

My work is driven by the desire to understand and interpret the human condition, human dynamics/relationships by exploring the “spaces in between.” I find myself constantly needing to defy the canvas edge and envelope the space beyond the boundaries, incorporating into the images elements of truth and fiction such as text, collage, and assemblage in both a serious and playful manner. Through this process I offer psychologically charged explorations of these complex relationships and in doing so, draw the viewer into a provocative world of sexual politics.

The Sound of a Silent Dialogue

Rebecca Horn is a major representative of the contemporary German art world, and has been well-known since the early 1970s for her numerous performances that sought to improve communications with others and develop a rapport with nature. Following her participation in the Documenta V show in her 20s, Horn has energetically explored one new territory of art after another, thus capturing the fascination of not only audiences of visual art, but dance and film enthusiasts. The devices Horn wore to enhance physical perceptions in her early performances developed into independent, kinetic-mechanical sculptural works.

Shades of Blue

Artist Laurance Rassin, director of the New Blue Riders, is teaming up with the Durst Organization and Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl (CCOC) to create awareness and funding for not-for-profit organizations through Simply Blue, his first major solo show at Condé Nast’s exhibition space in Manhattan. The exhibition, curated by Lanny Powers, is open to the public from April 28 to June 4, with a cocktail reception on May 6, to be held at the Condé Nast Building. For this exhibition, the artist has put together a virtual parade of canvases and objects that reflect an inquisitive mind and a mature application of recognizable style and working methods.

Manners of the Body

The earliest performance piece of Bai Chong-Min that I knew about was Lugu Lake, which was a collaboration with Wu Wei-He in 2002. It was part of the “Long March” projects on feminism. It could be easily concluded from Lugu Lake that the cloth dolls and clothes styles were all making an analogy to the “body bundling and packaging” approach, which was popular in performance art in 1980s. Lugu Lake took place in the context of regional tradition: the funeral ceremony of the Mosuo matriarchal society in Li Jiang, Yunnan Province. Bai was invited in 2005 to do a piece, The Selling of Tao Te Ching, as part of the Performance Project of Da Shan Zi Art Festival, and carried out in the 798 Art District.

Reign of Humor

My drawings, sculptures, and installations serve as visual comedy, or a form of concrete poetry, and can mostly be credited to a failed attempt at mastering the English language. To me, rhyme, homonyms, puns, and euphemisms are more historically vital discoveries than fire. Although I interject social satire and politics into my work at times, my main focus involves stretching language, and utilizing wit as a true medium, alongside graphite, cotton balls, and colored pencil. Originally starting out in journalism, some of my earliest influences were traditional political cartoonists from Honore Daumier, to Thomas Nast, to Paul Conrad, with their ability to poetically quantify daily current events and global issues....

Walk the Walk

My art practice is invested in creating a free space for contemplation that lends itself to mutual understanding and the promotion of non-violence. My work has taken a variety of forms including performance, installation, photography, film, video, text, sculpture, and sound. For the 13th annual DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival, feel free to join me in Gut #5: Witness Walk, a performance and sculptural installation project. During the festival, I will distribute white chocolate Humvees in a wandering performance. In the spirit of gift exchange, the festivalgoers and I will collectively dissolve these war vehicles by consuming them together.

…Yet You’re My Favorite Work of Art

An intriguing group exhibition, My Funny Valentine: A Tribute to Chet Baker curated by the outsider Tchera Niyego, featured Carl Andre, Ilsabé von Dallwitz, Jennifer Contini Enderby, Rudi Keimel, Ayşe Küçük, Robert Le Biez, and Michelle Sakhai. The subject matter of the exhibition explores the nature of love, and perception, visual and otherwise, in relation to the theater of passions and life. Niyego utilizes the talent of her artists to investigate the circumstance, psychology and the blueprint that comprise the performance of love. Captivated and inspired by Chet Baker’s tale of love and ardor, Niyego is almost effortless in her selection of artists who recreate the beauty of Baker’s blues in this omnipotent and wicked show.

Structure of the Malleable

Navedenga is an installation of the room-size sculpture Navedenga (1998) by Ernesto Neto (born 1964), one of the most influential Brazilian artists working today. Navedenga was acquired in 2007, and is on view for the first time at the Museum of Modern Art from January 22 to April 26. The installation is organized by Doryun Chong, associate curator, and Nora Lawrence, curatorial assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, the Museum of Modern Art. Since the late 1990s, Neto has been creating enveloping sculptural environments using translucent stretch fabric. Navedenga, an important early example from this ongoing body of work, is a large-scale sculpture constructed from Lycra fabric, Styrofoam, and sand....

Winter 2010 Editorial Preview

Until the End of the Road

Ric Blackshaw: First off, could you tell me a bit about your background, and what inspired you to begin making street art and street interventions?
Roadsworth: I’m actually a musician by training, but growing up I was exposed to visual art in different forms partly because my mother was an artist, and many of her friends were artists as well. One of my first babysitters for example, would take us to art galleries and get us to draw and make stuff out of clay. Throughout most of my life, my primary focus has been music, but I always took a side interest in visual art.

Thought in the Street

Masha Sumtsova: Who are you and what do you do?
Gaia: My name is Gaia. I am a street artist currently enrolled in art school in Baltimore. The work that I am most known for is based in block printing utilizing animal motifs generally as an emotive, or signaling tool. My work is very much founded in a tradition of narrative, amongst other things.I am generally concerned with methods and situations of domination. I mean I guess my work is informed by the Christian, Western approach to animals, which in turn is a reflection of our approach to the other.

Spatial Seduction

While artist David Kastner’s paintings, photographic prints, light installations, and wall sculptures have the swirling energy of many abstract works, they also suggest something quite different: the murmuring of numerous voices beneath each layer. The artist’s work has changed greatly over the years, and is seldom truly abstract. He courageously goes beyond the given and familiar, pioneering new techniques and materials in order to expand his own vision. The works on display at his recent solo exhibition at the Broadway Gallery in New York were no exception. Experiencing life feels like inhaling fresh air. It’s not like you take a book, read a chapter, and you’ve gained this or that.

Spread Your Wings

I first experienced New York City without being able to speak. Coming from Japan, I felt the language and culture were barriers, and it was as though I had a communication disability. Street art broke that wall for me. In the media studies, I agreed with Marshall McLuhan’s idea that media is an extension of the body: street art is my media and the extension of my body that enables me to communicate with the city; it is my language.

Public Enemy

I have a problem with public advertisements. Unlike TV, radio, the Internet, or magazine ads, people are forced to look at public advertisements. It’s naive to think these campaigns are harmless. These ad campaigns are aggressive. Aggressive because the public’s voice is marginalized. Aggressive because only those who can afford the space are allowed the use of these very public outlets. Aggressive because these campaigns represent a system that has been relentless in its attack on the environment and the poor. A system that puts monetary gains over all else.

A Journey to the Truth

The number 3 is a magic number. From religion to the arts and even the sciences, systems of belief are what categorize people into various communities. Depending on the “god” of our focus, whether it includes worship of an art object, a deity, or what lies inside a petri dish, we are, or we choose what we become, according to what we believe. Experiencing life feels like inhaling fresh air. It’s not like you take a book, read a chapter, and you’ve gained this or that.Thus, we congregate with those who share our passions, our views, and we are often aloof, and sometimes worse, to those with dissimilar views, systems, and rituals.

The Orthodox Art

Above the mahogany Colonial night-table in the Pendleton House of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum), a small painting by Alonzo Chappel depicts Roger Williams stepping from his boat to greet and smoke a peace pipe with the Narragansett sachems. This idealized image of the hopes for “what cheer, netop” (hello, friend) goodwill among settlers and natives seems, for me, to capture the tone and mood of the entire collection throughout the galleries, buildings, nooks, and crannies.

Abstraction Adventures

Abstraction and the bravery it took to embrace and intently explore it, when she began in 1915, sets Georgia O’Keeffe at the front of American modernist artists and artists around the world. It was the beginning of many revolutions of the 20th century; in 1912 Kandinsky had painted the first completely abstract oil painting and Malevich in 1915 painted Black Square.

Tips & Picks - Artist Reviews

Julie Umerle

American-born artist, Julie Umerle, lives and works in London. She studied at Parsons School of Design, New York and University College Falmouth, Cornwall, and exhibits internationally.

Marina Cuccus

Cuccus’ paintings contain such active marks.

Kimberly Berg

In the world of mysticism and sacred culture, woman is the center of the universe.

Symona Colina

Exuberantly colored in bright blues, oranges, pinks, light purples, Colina’s work gives the immediate feeling of a children’s book.

Carla Elena

Artist Carla Elena transforms horses in her vision onto canvas with diligent yet carefree brush strokes.

Sabine Helgesson

Helgesson’s pieces often concentrate on the human figure, depicting anonymous bodies hollowly, almost seemingly transparent, as if the background is seen right through them.

Harrie Sijbers