Culture wars have become a part of thoughtful discourse today, unlike the bloody battlefields that characterized the 1970s in America, when this form of argument first arose. At that time, artists and academics were re-defining the production and meaning of art on parallel with the redefinition of identity in terms of race, ethnicity and gender. Ethnic groups shaped separate combat zones that promoted the … Read the full Story >>
In two weeks, August 15, 2018 will mark the 49thanniversary of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair—advertised as “three days of peace and music.” For $18, and hours spent in epic traffic jams on roads leading to Bethel, New York, 400,000 and more people gathered on the fields of Max Yasgur’s farm to listen to the best rock music of the era. Jimi … Read the full Story >>
Duane Michels | Empty New York continues through May 31 at DC Moore Gallery. 535 West 22nd Street, NY, NY. It was a fortuitous event for me [to discover the work of Eugene Atget in a book]. I became so enchanted by the intimacy of the rooms and streets and people he photographed that I found myself looking at twentieth –century New York in the early morning through his … Read the full Story >>
According to the wall text in the exhibition R. Crumb: Lines Drawn on Paper, at Society of Illustrators, Robert Crumb’s mother told him that reading comic books would addle his brain, or words to that effect. He might have taken this as a metaphor for life; after drawing his way through and out of childhood, through and beyond a job creating cute cards … Read the full Story >>
A rare art book produced in 1927 by Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero, which many scholars regard as a key work in the field of artist books is expected to be reprinted as a nearly exact facsimile. Depero Futurista (Depero the Futurist), a key work in the history of books as art objects, is a monograph of the artist's works in painting, graphic … Read the full Story >>
The 25th Anniversary issue of Hasselblad House Magazine, Volume 3, 1974, features an article by Ostend B. Wejerfelt (below) about bringing the Hasselblad to market in New York City. The official product launch took place on October 6, 1948, with Victor Hasselblad and the head of Willoughby’s presenting the model 500C to members of the press at the New York Athletic Club. After the introduction of … Read the full Story >>
The seemingly casual views of ordinary structures and almost featureless landscapes that comprise the photographic work of William Christenberry are anything but offhand. Paging through two books published by Aperture almost 25 years apart (Southern Photographs 1983) and William Christenberry (2006) offers an almost clairvoyant view of how this artist has approached his life-long subject: the landscape and the vernacular structures and signs … Read the full Story >>
The legacy of Keith Haring, one of the most celebrated New York artists of the 1970s and ‘80s, is being marked by a major art event to honor the 50th anniversary of his birth. Art dealer Jeffrey Deitch, who represents the artist's estate, together with the Keith Haring Foundation, hired a team of artists to recreate a mural that briefly flagged the … Read the full Story >>
Greetings from the jungle of screaming monkeys, love struck cicadas and well-camouflaged snakes. It’s great to be back on the Osa Peninsula, working again with leafcutter ants, my vegetarian collaborators in this eat-and-be-eaten habitat. Ok, they have scissors for faces, but they don’t bite, sting, or spray formic acid like other ants do. Beware, though, if they judge you illegally parked on their superhighway, they’ll … Read the full Story >>
Wednesday, July 13, 6-8 pm: Power Tools at Candace Madey Power Tools, an exhibition of artists who reference tools in their work, and by extension, explore a history of objects and their symbolic and practical importance for individual and collective agency. The exhibition further considers our dissociated relationship to tools and a consumer culture that has largely relinquished the skills required to make, repair, … Read the full Story >>
What do you do when the economic downturn downsizes your workload and your prospects? If you're creative, dedicated, and motivated, like a group of photographers in Portland, Oregon, you get together and offer services to a worthwhile non-profit organization. Here's a report by Lisa Scardina, whose husband Steve is one of the organizers of PhotoForce, which opens an exhibition of their work for the … Read the full Story >>
Every year, it seems, another woman well beyond “a certain age” emerges from the shadows as a most talked about newcomer to the art world. This year it is surely Rose Wylie, who received an OBE on Queen Elizabeth II’s annual Birthday List. Wylie received the Order of the British Empire medal in recognition of her unique artistic practice, which draws on cultural areas … Read the full Story >>
Tuesday, February 26 The Open Show New York #5, 7-9 pm: Arlene Gottfried | Bacalaitos and Fireworks. The Half King, 505 West 23rd Street, NY, NY. RSVP Artist talk, 6:30 pm: Benjamin Lowy. Aperture Gallery and Bookstore, 547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor, NY, NY. Donation $5 suggested/Free with student I.D. Opening reception and book signing, 6 pm: James Prosek | Ocean Fishes. National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park … Read the full Story >>
Continuing through December 20: The Center for Book Arts Celebrates 40 Years, with exhibitions that characterize the influence of an organization that promotes active explorations of both contemporary and traditional artistic practices related to the book as an art object. This weekend, founder Richard Minsky offers a Master Class that will cover imagery, text, intention, architectural, haptic, temporal, material, referential, metaphoric and other aspects … Read the full Story >>
This just in from CREATIVE TIME: A herd of horses has been unleashed in Grand Central Terminal. Grazing in Vanderbilt Hall, they move at a pace perhaps too slow for the needs of a commuter, seeming to ask us to slow down. To take a second. To look. Visitors are suddenly lured into a pasture of altered perception as they come upon this visually evocative herd of Soundsuits— … Read the full Story >>
Warm and sunny as it is today, it's still too early to plant herbs in my window box - but it's never too soon to check out the next wave of urban farming opportunities in town. While Michelle Obama's White House garden is the most visible entry in the sustainable agriculture movement, New York has firsts of its own, starting with Greenmarket. In 1976, … Read the full Story >>
The 2014 season for grants and awards for photographers is underway, and the roster of programs is long. Following is a capsule version, with links to organization websites. The information below, arranged by submission deadline date, is provided by grants organizations. Note to photographers and educators: If you see that I have overlooked an important program, please contact me. A revised version … Read the full Story >>
Fairy Tale Fashion, an exhibition currently on view at The Museum at FIT, offers a view of the fantastical and, for the most part inaccessible, fashions inspired by those unforgettable stories that filled our childhood imaginations. Organized by associate curator Colleen Hill, the show presents a spectrum of beguiling clothing and accessories from the 18th century to the present, with many of the … Read the full Story >>
It has been over a year since the U.S. State Department lifted its travel warning against visiting Oaxaca, Mexico. This had been a death sentence to the economy, which is largely dependent on tourism. Hotels were empty, restaurants empty, tour buses empty, pockets empty. Flash forward to the end of last December. The streets are now full of vendors selling an explosion of colorful … Read the full Story >>
Special Events Monday, June 13-Thursday, June 23 Typographics, an 11-day design festival devoted to contemporary typography, with talks, workshops, and tours focusing on where typography is today and where its future may lie. It will be held at The Cooper Union, 41 Cooper Square and 7 East 7th Street, NY, N. Info June 13-June 19 Look3 Festival of the Photograph. Various Locations, Charlottesville, VA … Read the full Story >>
