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Friday notePad: 11.20.2015

By Peggy Roalf   Friday November 20, 2015


“My mother shaped my view of the world and inspired me to embrace spontaneity and capture the unforced. To show with her is such an honor for me and validates my journey as a photographer.” —Mary McCartney

Exhibited together for the first time, the photographs of the late Linda McCartney and her daughter Mary explore the connective tissue of family, common experience, and a love of the photographic medium. 

Spanning three decades, works by the photographers are organized to reveal moments derived from relaxed interactions with family, a dazzling array of celebrities—among them Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Kate Moss—and everyday life. Rather than distinguishing between works by Linda or Mary, the installation proposes their vision of the world as one. 

Linda McCartney | Mary McCartney: Mother DaughterOpening reception, Friday, November 20, 5:30-7:30 pm at Gagosian Gallery, 976 Madison Avenue, NY, NY. Above: Linda McCartney, Stella and Paul, Sussex, 1983, courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Info

 


Opening tomorrow night, at Jonathan LeVine Gallery: Gary Taxali: Hotel There, a series of new works by the Toronto-based artist.

Described as “reinvented pop art,” Taxali’s vintage-inspired characters and hand-drawn typography originate from an aesthetic influenced by Depression-era graphics and printed ephemera, such as comics and advertising. His multidisciplinary technique results in colorful compositions grounded in an innate social commentary. Following the success of his first career retrospective in Ontario last summer, Taxali now presents thirty new works inspired by his recent travels. He speaks of the experiences that inspired this new work:

“In the last 18 months I have visited Asia three times (China twice, India once), and the long journeys to these faraway places have impacted me artistically. The works in this exhibition harken (either literally or conceptually) to moments of fear, isolation, excitement, and cultural divides that I experienced. Airport gates and hotels are somber reminders of this. We are simultaneously connected and divided. That is, the sameness of the human condition is underscored by its overt differences. From a human standpoint we are all one, but from a place of self-reflection, travelling is not only a futile reprieve from the present moment, it’s a vehicle of awareness to our own, unique selves. In this way, there is no “there” because everywhere is “here”. Yet we persevere because we all know on some level the journey is not to a location, it’s to us. Life’s purpose is self-knowledge, and the voyage its vessel. Hotel There awaits your check-in."

Gary Taxali: Hotel There. Opening reception, Saturday, November 21, 6-8 pm. Jonathan LeVine Gallery, 529 West 20th Street, NY, NY. Visit Gary Taxali's studio in this video, The Art of Whimsey

 

Also this weekend, the Brooklyn Museum celebrates Coney Island:
Coney Island | Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008 
William Merritt Chase, John Henry Twachtman, Joseph Stella, Milton Avery, Reginald Marsh, Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, Weegee, Bruce Davidson, Coney Island carousel animals and sideshow ephemera, Daze and Swoon. 

Stephen Powers | Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To a Seagull)

Forever Coney | Photographs from the Brooklyn Museum Collection 
George Bradford Brainerd, Lynn Hyman Butler, Anita Chernewski, Victor Friedman, Kim Iacono, Sidney Kerner, Harry Lapow, Nathan Lerner, Jack Lessinger, H.S. Lewis, John L. Murphy, Ben Ross, Stephen Salmieri, Edgar S. Thomson, Arthur Tress, Irving Underhill, Breading G. Way, Eugene Wemlinger, and Harvey R. Zipkin.

Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY. Info Photo: Harvey Stein, The Hug: Closed Eyes and Smile, 1982. Copyright/courtesy the artist


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