NASHVILLE, TN.- The Frist Center for the Visual Arts will feature seven works by Korean kinetic artist U-Ram Choe in an exhibition opening to the public Feb. 19, 2010. “U-Ram Choe: New Urban Species” will be on view in the Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery through May 16, 2010. U-Ram Choe’s kinetic sculptures are made of delicately curved sections of wrought metal, joined together in movable parts that are driven by motors to expand, contract, or otherwise suggest the autonomic motions—such as breathing or swimming—of such primitive life forms as plants and single-celled aquatic creatures. The intricate workmanship and graceful movements of these mechanical sculptures offer viewers an unparalleled visual delight.
Diana Thater Creates Complex Visual Environment at the Santa Monica Museum of Art
SANTA MONICA, CA.- The Santa Monica Museum of Art presents Diana Thater: Between Science and Magic. Working in film, video, and installation, Diana Thater has been an innovator in her medium for 20 years and is best known for creating complex visual and spatial environments. Between Science and Magic is a simple, and beautiful, interpretation of “movie magic”—a century-old expression that still conjures the mythology of Hollywood filmmaking. Diana Thater: Between Science and Magic opens on January 16 and continues through April 17, 2010. Thater’s new and innovative piece recreates, and repositions, a seminal moment in Los Angeles history, when downtown LA was being dreamed into a gilded metropolis and a theater district was built to rival New York’s Great White Way. Between Science and Magic is filmed in the famed Los Angeles Theatre, one of the most elaborate of the movie palaces built between 1911 and 19
Pushkin Museum to Offer Picasso Retrospective
MOSCOW (EFE).- Moscow’s Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts will inaugurate Feb. 25 an exhibition devoted to Malaga’s universally acclaimed painter, with works on loan from the Picasso Museum in Paris, currently closed for remodeling, the Russian museum’s deputy director, Zinaida Bonami, said Wednesday. In this large-scale show dubbed “Moscow. Picasso,” not only will the best-known paintings and engravings by the Spanish artist be on display, but also his sculptures and ceramics. “The museum’s works are on a world tour and we expect the Moscow project to be something special, since it will be the biggest retrospective ever of the 20th-century master, exceptional for his artistic temperament and experimental diversity,” Bonami told the RIA-Novosti news agency. Exhibited together with the works from the French capital will be the Pushkin collection, including the masterwork “Acrobat on a Ball.” The organizers of the exhibition plan to show what they call Picasso’s “Russian dimension,” in
Incisive Overview of African Americans as Artists and Subjects at Babcock Galleries
NEW YORK, NY.- Babcock Galleries presents “African Americans: Seeing and Seen, 1766 – 1916,” an incisive overview of refined and controversial fine art and popular culture images of African Americans as artists and subjects. Bitter brutality and cruel caricature alternate with respectful revelations and positive portrayals of the status of African Americans. It may be said that all portrayals become betrayals in revealing the motivations and prejudices of their creator, and the images in this exhibition offer telling insights into the prevailing notions of the period. Each work is not only a signpost of the complex nature of our cultural forbearers, but also a harbinger of the ongoing struggle for equal rights in the United States. Tess Sol Schwab, Assistant Director at Babcock Galleries and curator of this exhibition, points out that African American history “can be catalogued by the racist and derogatory
David Risley Gallery Presents a Solo Show by Tamar Guimaraes
COPENHAGEN.- David Risley Gallery presents a solo show by Brazilian, Copenhagen-based artist Tamar Guimarães. The Latin/Portuguese title of the show, ‘Dura Lex Sed Lex, no cabelo so Gumex’ (The law is hard, but it is fair— if only you wear Gumex in your hair) quotes a Brazilian advertising campaign from the 1960‘s, which with an appropriate amount of humour, brings together political authority and the worlds of advertising and consumption. Guimarães’ work is research based, often making use of found material and associative narrative threads. Thinking of documents as palimpsests, her practice proposes historical narratives as contingent and fluid, as spaces from which one can speculate on the
New Work by Brooklyn Artist Brian Alfred at Haunch of Venizon
NEW YORK, NY.- Haunch of Venison New York presents ‘It’s Already the End of the World’, a solo exhibition of new work by Brooklyn artist Brian Alfred. Opening on January 15 2010, the show will feature 14 new paintings, collage works, and a major new video work. Alfred’s work is inspired by his interest in globalization, civil unrest, political and social opposition, and influential figures and locations. The animation will feature multiple soundtracks by musicians Flying Lotus, Ghislain Poirier, Roberto Carlos Lange, and many others. Alfred’s new body of work comments on how our perception of the world is altered by the ubiquity of information. His paintings and animations explore how the world has changed through
Clark Art Institute Offers Exhibition of Highly Mysterious Works of Art
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- Since its invention in the first half of the nineteenth century, photography has been used for documentary purposes, faithfully recording the details of archaeological artifacts, works of art, and natural specimens. Appearing to be no more than bearers of information or certificates of authenticity, many such photographs are not as simple as they might seem at first glance. The exhibition Material Witnesses: Photographs of Things considers how documentary images, while retaining a certain “visual truth,” are also highly mysterious works of art. Material Witnesses is on view at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute January 15 through April 11. Drawn from the collections
13 New York Area Artists to Show their Work at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art
PEEKSKILL, NY.- The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (HVCCA) in Peekskill, NY, will present in.flec.tion- new works by 13 New York area artists, meeting monthly to share open, incisive dialogues in the tradition of the artists’ salon. The show opens on February 28 and runs through July 26, 2010. The exhibit is a watermark for The Artists’ Club, a community of emerging painters, sculptors, and video artists who have gathered for the last year and a half beyond the purview of galleries and curators. They share a passion to grow and improve through intensive peer discussions, critiques, and mutual trust. The idea began at HVCCA, a young museum committed to profiling cutting-edge contemporary art. Discussions focused on the creative process, precedents impacting contemporary works and the need for the artist to produce work regardless of commercial challenges. The talks were in the best tradition of the 1950s salons establi
Lesley Heller Moves to the Lower East Side and Opens New Workspace
NEW YORK, NY.- Lesley Heller Gallery is moving to the dynamic Lower East Side and will become Lesley Heller Workspace. This new dual-exhibition venue combines a commercial gallery with an independently curated project space. Using this framework, Heller will provide an opportunity to experience the work of established and renowned artists alongside the work of emerging talents. The Workspace seeks to create a vibrant cross-generational dialogue about art and culture among collectors, curators, artists and critics alike – a rare undertaking in a commercial gallery setting. Heller will offer her clients a broad range of artistic expression to choose from and will encourage the building of diverse and compelling collections. Gallery One will hold a solo show by Catherine Howe and gallery two will show The Wells Street Gallery Revisited: Then and Now curated by Jason Andrew. The latter show is a juxtaposition of works from the late 50s and the present by artists associated with
Overview of Michael Smith’s Work Presented at Ellen de Bruijne Projects
AMSTERDAM.- Michael Smith (Chicago, 1951) has an impressive exhibition and performance history that began in the mid 1970s. He attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 1970 and 1973 and graduated from Colorado College in 1973 with a degree in painting. Soon after graduation he became intrigued by Vito Acconci’s performance art, William Wegman’s videos and the theater of Richard Foreman. Smith is best known for his performances, installations, drawings and videos, but his artistic career also includes puppet shows, commercial and cable television skits, stand up comedy and comic publications. Intertwining the worlds of art, American entertainment and the everyday, Smith uses humor to articulate and emphasize the banality and hype of mass consumer culture. Taking visual elements from American television formats such as music videos, commercial advertisements, sitcoms and game shows, Smith’s videos and performances take place in a slowed down world, once-removed fro