This exhibition of the finest examples of the Art Museum’s permanent collection coincides with the Art Museum’s 100th Anniversary and the publication of the book 100 Years/100 Works of Art: An Introduction to the Collection of the Grand Rapids Art Museum. This publication, featuring 100 works of art in the permanent collection, presents the Museum’s most treasured resource. The book and exhibition provide information about the meaning and aesthetic value of the collection as we begin a new century of community engagement and education at the Grand Rapids Art Museum.
The show runs through February 7, 2011.
Above is show:
Office of Frank Lloyd Wright
Eugene Masselink
American (b. South Africa), 1910–1962
Eight-fold Screen,1956
Stained walnut with paint and gilt
Museum Purchase
Scott Richards Contemporary Art in San Francisco has something to satisfy all art loves with a sugar addition. Sweet Tooth, a group show, opened last week and highlights artists who portray the subject of candy and desert. The general premise follows the question – why have so many artists chosen to follow this subject matter?
On December 2, 2010, the latest works by New York-based Todd James will go on view at Alice Gallery in Brussels. Entitled Infinity Lessons, the show promises trademark James – loose figure painting and a unique take on war. Some the maritime and navy influenced work from the preview strikes our fancy.
We covered the basics of Glen E. Friedman’s Fuck You Allstop in San Francisco late last month. The show continues through December 31, 2010, at 941 Geary, San Francisco.
Highly recommended. A series of images from the show follows on after the jump.
UK-based Hush is just a few days away from his debut exhibition in the Big Apple – opening on November 19, 2010. To prepare, we caught up with him for a short Q&A.
A bit about the upcoming exhibition -
White Walls is pleased to present Found, the New York debut exhibition by UK-based artist, Hush. The artist continues his examination of the vitality and transient nature of mark making, tagging and graffiti. Transitioning these street art practices to the studio setting, the artist creates a body of work that brings to light the essence of “action painting” and “pure expressionism”. The new collection of work is comprised of 25 mixed-media works ranging from small to large sized pieces and installation, and a limited edition hand embellished print (50). The momentous three-day event is produced by renowned San Francisco gallery, White Walls, a recognized leader in the Urban Contemporary genre on the West Coast. The opening reception for Found will be held at Angels Orensanz Foundation, For Contemporary Art on Friday, November 19, 2010 from 7–10PM. The exhibition will be on display through November 21, 2010 and is free and open to the public.
Hit the jump to check out our interview with Hush.
Running concurrently with the Copley exhibition, works by Robert Lazzarini take up residence of Paul Kasmin’s second location at 27th Street. Entitled Friendly-Hostile-Friendly, the show presents photo based wall sculpture exploring realistic-situation shooting targets employed by law enforcement. Some of the works bare the wounds of use – bullet strikes from various weapons.
Lazzarini is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Paul Kasmin Gallery presents a rare opportunity with their exhibition, X-Rated, featuring the work of William N. Copley. Born in 1919 (-1996), Copley – who chose the moniker CPLY – first showed these works in 1974 at the now defunct Huntington Hartford Museum at Columbus Circle. The paintings included were produced between 1972 and 1974. They depict the seedy side of old 42nd street, the libidinous and joyful.
The paintings represent a shift in Copley’s work, a move toward more humorous narrative.
X-Rated remains on view through December 11, 2010.
With SOMA, the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin presents an installation by Belgian artist Carsten Höller that appeals to all senses. Canary song fill the room as well as the smell of Reindeer. With SOMA, Carsten Höller (born 1961 in Brussels), has created his most complex and elaborate installation to date. The living protagonists of the exhibition are formed by twelve reindeer, twenty-four canaries, eight mice and two flies.
In our humble opinion, this is one not to miss. Betye Saar, whose often challenging work seeks to reveal marginalized or hidden histories, offers just under 30 new works – 4 years of studio work – no small feat for an 84 year old artist.
From the gallery -
Betye Saar: CAGE, A New Series of Assemblages & Collages will be on view from November 6 to December 23, 2010. This ambitious installation of twenty-one mixed-media assemblages and seven collages represents four years of intensive studio work by the eighty-four-year-old Californian. Over the years, Saar has collected various cages from flea markets, yard sales, and antique shops; these ordinary household objects now comprise the foundation for a series centered on forms of containment and confinement. In Saar’s art, the cage is a signifier of physical incarceration and a metaphor for social, psychological, spiritual, economic, and historical exclusion. But, consistent Saar’s affirmative outlook, the cage is also a bold symbol of resilience and survival. The assemblages and collages in Betye Saar: CAGE also share with her other works a global perspective interlaced with the artist’s personal interest in metaphysics, magic, mystery, legends, and superstitions. The questions of repression, disenfranchisement, and resistance that dominate the lives of many people around the world are fused with lessons from US history, African spiritualism, and the rich visual traditions of Afro-diasporic art.
Washington D.C. has gone full swing into the street art gallery movement with the latest exhibition at Irvine Contemporary. Street/Studio 2.0 (which is Irvine’s second major street art show) brings work by Shepard Fairey, José Parlá, Swoon, Romon Yang (Rostarr), David Ellis, Chris Mendoza, James Marshall (Dalek), and Gaia to the District. The exhibition is hosted at both Irvine Contemporary’s primary space (1412 14th Street) and the Montserrat House (2016 9th Street).
From the gallery -
Street/Studio 2.0 showcases the multiple practices of artists who work across a continuum of sites and mediums that include street mural works, studio works in all mediums, gallery and museum exhibitions, digital production tools, and documentation and distribution on the Web. The artists works–in any medium and wherever they appear–form a dialog with the city and engage us with responses to the energy, conflicts, and joys of urban life.
Our exhibition last year, Street/Studio, showed how artists working in this new continuity of practice understand their works as always being site-specific, made for the spaces that frame them, regardless of the cultural categories defining where art should appear.
Street/Studio 2.0 further advances a broader view of art today as artists now develop their work in a continuity of practice spanning works in all forms and locations, digital media and software, and the Web. Street/Studio 2.0 presents leading artists who have been innovators in new categories of art, creatively recoding the recombinant DNA of culture into new forms that respond to urban life.
On view through December 18, 2010.
Work from the exhibition follows after the jump. All images are courtesy of Irvine Contemporary and the associated artist.
