Tag: Art News

LONDON.- The
work of Stuart Pearson
Wright (b. Northampton 1975) reflects a search for lost identity. One of
the
first children born in the UK by artificial insemination the artist
feels that
the process has created an ‘identity void’ which his work attempts to
deal with.
Wright’s new series of paintings at Riflemaker –
shown alongside a film installation
featuring Keira Knightley – explore and dispel the stereotypes of
masculinity
and femininity as depicted in films, books and comics; specifically in
the
stories and myths of the American West. Choosing
portraiture in an era when it
was not always seen as a legitimate part of contemporary art, and a
winner the
BP Portrait Award aged just 26, Wright has spent much of his career
attempting
to subvert traditional portrait painting. He distorts his subjects,
employing
his own features and those of his fiancée in meticulously painted and
stylised
characters set in pulpy, fictional situations.  On view
until 26
June.

NEW
YORK,
NY.- The Salmagundi Club will host the third
annual American
Masters at SCNY on May 7th, featuring many of the nation’s finest
artists – from
Richard Schmid to John Stobart. Proceeds from the show and sale will
benefit the
Salmagundi Club, one of New York City’s oldest and most valued historic
art
institutions. The 2010 American
Masters welcomes back many of last year’s artists and several new faces
as well.
The show and sale includes works from artists Bill Anton, Christopher
Blossom,
Scott Christensen, David Leffel, Walter Matia, Dean Mitchell, Thomas
Quinn,
Tucker Smith, Curt Walters and 37 others. Artists new to the show
include Nancy
Guzik, Quang Ho, Kevin Macpherson, Daniel Pinkham, and Daniel
Smith.

NEW
YORK,
NY.- Video work by
artist and filmmaker Shoja Azari will be on view at Leila
Taghinia-Milani Heller (LTMH)
Gallery from May 4 though 27,
2010. SHOJA AZARI: ICONS, the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York
City,
will feature six new video works, which examine the role of saints and
heroes in
modern society. A fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Sam
Bardaouil, Dr.
Hamid Dabashi, and Benjamin Genocchio will accompany the
exhibition.  The Icons
series, 2010, is comprised of five video works and five photographs on
light
boxes that appropriate popular posters of saints in Iran. Inspired by
how
Renaissance painters humanized religious figures, Azari seeks to make
icons
resonate in a new way.

SYDNEY, AU – ‘Luminaries’ is a new solo
exhibition
by renowned British artist Pam Glew, and here she will be bringing her
own brand
of iconic imagery to a surprising Sydney location from May 6, 2010 at
Bicker
Gallery. This will be the first time Glew has exhibited in Australia –
her work
already features in important collection in Europe, USA and the Far
East. The
artist has been featured in various Urban Art shows in London, Los
Angeles and
Paris. ‘Luminaries’ will be her 9th solo exhibition.

NEW YORK, NY (AP).- A 1932 Pablo Picasso
painting of his mistress has sold for $106.5 million, a world record
price for
any work of art at auction. “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” which had a
pre-sale
estimate of between $70 million and $90 million, was sold at Christie’s
auction
house on Tuesday evening, May 4th,  to an unidentified telephone bidder.

There were nine minutes of bidding involving eight clients in the sale
room and
on the phone, Christie’s said. At $88 million, two bidders remained. The
final
bid was $95 million, but the buyer’s premium took the sale price to
$106.5
million.

BERLIN.- As part of the celebrations for
the
Mexican Independence Bicentennial and Revolution Centennial, President
Felipe
Calderón attended the exhibition entitled: Frida Kahlo Retrospective at
the
Martin Gropius, during his state visit to Berlin, Germany. Accompanied
by his
wife Margarita Zavala and Foreign Affairs Secretary, Patricia Espinosa
Cantellano, the Mexican president highlighted the importance of the art
of this
Mexican artist, whom he regarded as a link between Germany and Mexico.

NEW YORK, NY.- The spring 2010 exhibition organized
by
The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is
American Woman:
Fashioning a National Identity, the first drawn from the newly
established
Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Met. The exhibition, on
view
from May 5 through August 15, 2010, explores developing
perceptions of the
modern American woman from the 1890s to the 1940s, and how they
have
affected the way American women are seen today. Focusing
on
archetypes of American femininity through dress, the exhibition
reveals
how the American woman initiated style revolutions that mirrored
her
social, political, and sartorial emancipation.

WASHINGTON, DC.- Some of the most compelling photographs
taken by renowned 20th-century American poet Allen Ginsberg
(1926–1997) of
himself and his fellow Beat poets and writers—including William S.

Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, and Jack Kerouac are the
subject
of the first scholarly exhibition and catalogue of these works.
Beat
Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg explores all facets of
his
photographs through 79 black-and-white portraits, on view at the
National
Gallery of Art, Washington, from May 2 through September 6, 2010.

HONG

KONG.- Hong Kong-based artist Simon Birch has created Hope
and
Glory, one of the most ambitious multi-media art projects ever
undertaken in
Hong Kong. The unprecedented scale of the show, filling the 20,000 sq ft

metaphorical world – a conceptual circus – created by the artist.