Month: January 2010

ICE ICE MAYBE / Never Can Say Goodbye

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No Longer Empty is putting on a show called Never Can Say Goodbye at the (now defunct) flagship location of Tower Records at East 4th street and Broadway in money earnin’ Manhattan. I am excited to be collaborating with Brent Birnbaum in the show, as part of Ted Reiderer’s NEVER RECORDS installation.

Ted will be realizing a grand, multi-artist installation in which he will create a simulation of a long forgotten relic of the 20th Century: the record store. Ted’s project, called NEVER RECORDS, will include work and merch from a whole bunch of artists:

Richard Hambleton | Ted Riederer | Josh Shaddock | Stephanie Syjuko | Brent Birnbaum | Shane Caffrey | Nicholas Brooks | Ryan Sullivan | Doug McQueen | Allison Hester | James Rubio | Richard Barnes | Ted O’Sullivan/Rebecca Potts | Michelle Matson | Brendan Carney | Arturo Vega | Tom Sanford | Johnny T. Yerington | Chris Yerington | Jay Ivcevich

Where I come in is in collaboration with Brent Birnbaum. During the opening reception for the show, Brent will appear dressed as Vanilla Ice (c. 1990 of course) and do a performance which he calls ICE ICE MAYBE. The performance will resemble an “in store appearance,” where Brent will assume the character of Rob Van Winkle’s 1990’s cross-over hip hop villain/scapegoat Vanilla Ice, and he will autograph some ICE ICE MAYBE merchandise, which I had a hand in creating. I am not exactly sure whether or not he will spit some white-boy flava, but I guess there is a chance, depending on how “full of 8-ball” he is. Either way, I know for a fact that Brent has a full array of V.I.P. Posse dance moves.

For my part, I have made a couple of my poster paintings in support of Brent’s vanilla vision. One of the posters is to publicize the performance (pictured above) the other will be reproduced in 8X10 form and autographed for fans willing to wait in line and thus “participate” in Brent’s Rob Van Winkle re-awakening.

Never Can Say Goodbye will open on January 15th from 6-8PM, and be open for at least a month. No firm end date has been established as of now. The show will be in the old Tower Records location on the northeast corner of East 4th street & Broadway.

In addition to the artists participating in NEVER RECORDS, the following other artists are also contributing to Never Can Say Goodbye:

Tom Sanford

PATRIK AARNIVAARA

PATRIK AARNIVAARA

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A Monument Which Needs a Shape, Which Needs a Story, Which Needs a Text, Which Needs Letters


Johan Berggren Gallery is very pleased to announce a solo exhibition of Malmö based artist Patrik Aarnivaara (b. 1977). For his exhibition, Aarnivaara continues to investigate the concept of an idealized Monument both from its permanent and historical vs. temporal and contemporary aspects and constituents. Throughout the two gallery spaces and in between a red and a blue light, Aarnivaara arranges a sequence of sculptures, images, texts and collages – elements that could be seen as parts of an inquiry into the textual, material, mythical and temporal aspects of such a Monument.

A meandering thought process starts which leaves traces, which ends up in an ideological form, which progresses, which entrenches, which seeks openings in shapes and stories, which moves into a dead-end. A thought of a Monument which needs to move within what forms and materials that is available or remains still. A thought moving through this and that, now and then, yes and no, blue and red, establishing similarity and community through its need for a shape – which needs a story, which needs a text, which needs letters.

In his earlier sculptural installations Aarnivaara has staged narratives or propositions that reflect on the relationship between political ideas, art, architectural theories and geometrical shapes. The sculptures have consisted of assorted objects, texts, models and images – often displayed on table-like, triangular, supporting structures. New to this exhibition is the abstracted and self-supporting quality of each and every element in the exhibition. Every individual work carves out a well-defined space for itself, while still performing on a communal level, further enhancing the collective environment and adding to the spatial complexity.

Johan Berggren

Ida Kvetny

PINEAPPLES ON THE LOOSE, A GOAT HEAD AND THE MEETING OF THE SEVEN STARS

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Charlotte Fogh Contemporary is happy to present Ida Kvetnys soloexhibition; Pineapples on the loose, a goat head and the meeting of the seven stars, featuring new paintings, sculptures and installations.

The universe of Ida Kvetny is an explosion of energy. Twisting and interlacing lines. Spaces that overlap. Techniques that succeed one another. Abstract forms, strong colours and expressive brushstrokes are mixed with drawings of ethnical masks, plants, psychedelic patterns and stencils. Acrylic, marker, spraypaint, water, metallic and neon colours. All layered or side by side like one big chain reaction.

Ida Kvetny expands her paintings in combination with the sculptures to an elaborated form of painting. Both the two- and three dimensional artworks fundamentally have the same patterns and construction. Like the paintings, the sculptures are created by layers of different forms, tecniques and materials, and functions both as bases for the paintings and autonomous. Ida Kvetnys artworks are a natural force, where culture meets nature, where abstaction, figuration and the process of automatical drawing enables ideas of the unconsious to develop.

Ida Kvetny (b. 1980) lives in Copenhagen after studying three years abroad. She is educated from The Funen Art Academy 2002-2004, Edinburgh College of Art 2004-2006, and she has received her MA from Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in London in 2007.

She received the Young Artist of the Year 2007 award from Ledernes Hovedorganisation. In 2007, she participated in the group exhibition Comix! at Brandts in Odense, Denmark, in Mad Love – Young Art in Danish Private Collections at ARKEN Museum of Modern Art 2007 and in a group exhibition at the Museum of Art, Seoul National University in Korea. Recently she participated in the exhibition ” To The Wall” at Kunsthal Charlottenborg.

”Pineapples on the loose, a goat head and the meeting of the seven stars”  is the last exhibition in Denmark before Ida Kvetny for one year joins an Artists in Residency in Los Angeles.

Charlotte Fogh

“I LIKE THE WORK, BUT MY WIFE IS STILL CONCERN. PLEASE KEEP ME INFORM ABOUT NEW WORKS.”

GARDAR EIDE EINARSSON / MARIUS ENGH / MATIAS FALDBAKKEN

“I LIKE THE WORK, BUT MY WIFE IS STILL CONCERN. PLEASE KEEP ME INFORM ABOUT NEW WORKS.”

braskart

“When the question is raised, of writing an introduction to a book of a creative order, I always feel that the few books worth introducing are exactly those which it is an impertinence to introduce. I have already committed two such impertinences; this is the third, and if it is not the last no one will be more surprised than myself. I can justify this preface only in the following way. One is liable to expect other people to see, on their first reading of a book, all that one has come to perceive in the course of a developing intimacy with it.”



– T. S. Eliot: “Introduction”, Preface to Djuna Barnes: Nightwood, Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1937

“As my admiration for the book has not diminished, and my only motive for revision would be to remove or conceal evidences of my own immaturity at the time of writing – a temptation which may present itself to any critic reviewing his own words at twelve year’s distance – I have thought best to leave unaltered a preface which may still, I hope, serve its original purpose of indicating an approach helpful for the new reader.”



– T. S. Eliot: “Note to Second Edition”, Preface to Djuna Barnes: Nightwood, Faber and Faber, London, 1949


Throughout the course of the exhibition works by the artists can be seen in exhibitions such as:

Standard

PUT YOUR FINGER ON THE BUTTON

PUT YOUR FINGER ON THE BUTTON
WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS

Alex Prager , Alma Carmina Márquez , Amanda Marsalis, Ashira Siegel, Brandy Eve, Cheryl Dunn, Deanna Templeton, Jeaneen Lund, Kassia Meador, Laura Flippen, Rebecca Wright & Susanne Melanie Berry.

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New Image Art Gallery

Wynwood Burns Art Basel!!

Photos & tekst Marta Cooper::
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I spent the first week of December in Miami basking in the heat generated by hundreds of spray cans,
paint rollers and brushes wielded by an army of graffiti and street artists who had descended on the Wynwood
area of Miami for an incredible painting & pasting extravaganza. While more formal galleries catered to
the high end collectors across the causeway on Miami Beach as part of Art Basel, the streets of a lesser
known neighborhood called Wynwood were oveflowing with artists from everywhere doing their thing.

I was lucky enough to be able to photograph two different wall painting projects going on at the same time. One
of them, Primary Flight, founded by Books IIII three years ago, has matched walls within the community with
artists who wanted to decorate them and procured paint for doing so. The other project, new this year, was
spearheded by Tony Goldman of Goldman Properties, a developer with a history of starting up successful arts
districts including Soho in the 70’s.

Goldman purchased a group of unpromising looking two story former shoe warehouses in Wynwood and
decided to turn them into a street art museum. By teaming up with Jeffrey Deitch, he was able to entice a
star-studded selection of artists to come to Miami during Art Basel and paint day and night. What an incredible
photo op!!  Here are some of the walls in progress. Will post some Primary Flight ones in the following blog.
Unfortunately I didn’t stay in Miami long enough to see many of the finished walls but I’m sure there are lots of
photos of them on other blogs.

Martha Cooper`s blog @ 12ozProphet

Futura 2000

OBEY

Barry McGee (Deitch)

Kenny Scharf

Clare Rojas (Kavi Gupta)