Shepard Fairy «120!» - Retrospective

Shepard Fairy «120!» - Retrospective at Mondo Bizzarro Gallery in Rome. "...Mondo Bizzarro Gallery is credited with having organised the first large Shepard Fairey exhibition in Italy, in 2011 that paid tribute to American street artists. We now offer a retrospective of works which include limited editions and unique pieces spanning from way back in 1997 up to the present day and which include over 120 pieces signed by Obey. This unmissable exhibition is a must-see for anyone who wants to get closer to the masterpieces of an ultra-contemporary artist like Shepard Fairey, who succeeds in marrying sensitivity with creative genius."

Boîtes aux lettres

Boîtes aux lettres - the letter boxes of Saint-Martin-d’Abbat. (fr)

Other Bodies: A Collection of Vernacular Photography

Other Bodies: A Collection of Vernacular Photography at ZieherSmith. "...65 found photographs spanning the American 20th century, celebrating its conspicuous beauty and encapsulating a lifestyle of exquisite hubris, baffling habits and poetic leisure. Focusing on the eerie and bizarre found in everyday life, including odd family units, perverse couplings of awkward figures in vaguely familiar places, and solo views of predominantly male figures, the patina of the vintage prints are often enhanced by blurring caused by misfired flash-bulbs, over and double exposures, crude processing and care-worn edges. This singular grouping invites the viewer to see a crooked world through straight and narrow eyes and 65 ostensibly unrelated (and virtually untraceable) sources reinvented as a new, fleeting narrative."

Underground: Russian Photography 1970s-1980s

Gennady Bodrov... Untitled, 1988. From the exhibition Underground: Russian Photography 1970s-1980s at Nailya Alexander Gallery in New York, NY. "...During the Khrushchev’s cultural thaw, nonconformist art and literary movements, involving such figures and activities as Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Josef Brodsky and samizdat, had a great impact on the evolution of Russian photography in the 1970s, and laid the foundation for a new generation of photographers during glasnost and perestroika in the 1980s. Photographers in the exhibition challenged the government-prescribed optimistic style of socialist realism by photographing forbidden topics, and like other unofficial artists, they risked personal safety in pursuit for individual expression and freedom. In the 1970s, Boris Mikhailov, a pioneer of Russian conceptual photography, used the medium to reflect skepticism about both approved photography and the false realities it presented."

Another Family

Lens Culture... Another Family - photographs and text by Irina Popova. "...They were living in a darkness, mixing day and night, behind the thick curtains, descending to the street only to ask for some money for the cheap alcohol (they already couldn’t buy any drugs). Their daughter was with them all the time and she was looking at all this with wide-open eyes, tried to touch and to taste everything. They fed her with expensive artificial milk, dragged her away from dangerous things, changed her diapers and said, 'Anfisa, stop. Anfisa, go to sleep!'" More... Works by Irina Popova at her personal site.

Crazy Horse

From Zipporah Films... Crazy Horse by Frederick Wiseman. "...Inside Paris’s Crazy Horse cabaret – the most famous nude dance show in the world. Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman explores one of the most mythic and colorful places dedicated to women, the Crazy Horse – a legendary Parisian cabaret club, founded in 1951 by Alain Bernardin. Over the years it has become the Parisian nightlife ‘must’ for visitors, ranking alongside the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre." Also... Crazy Horse aka Désir at Film Forum in New York.

China Blue

Lost Art... China Blue.

Joseph Sterling: 30 Years of Photographs

Joseph Sterling: 30 Years of Photographs at Charles A. Hartman Fine Art. "...This exhibition of more than 25 images reveals the artist's range and embraces both the famed series, The Age of Adolescence - a documentary masterwork exposing the life and milieu of the pre-Vietnam War era American teenager - and a variety of other imagery, including important photographs from the Pictus Twistus and Bird’s Eye View series."

The Boxer

Terayama Shuji... The Boxer (1977) at UbuWeb Film & Video. "...In mid-career, while he is on a winning streak, and in the middle of a fight he is winning, a young boxer is revolted by the violence of the game. He allows himself to be beaten up and quits the match and the sport. He also leaves his wife and child and lives alone with his moth-eaten old dog, all the while losing his sight. Years later, he is hunted down by a young man who is ambitious to become a prize-winning boxer. Persistence pays off, and he eventually persuades the ex-boxer to be his manager and trainer. The boy begins his rise to success, though he has a stormy relationship with his manager."

Weegee: Naked City

Weegee... Girl Wearing Hat Laughing in Movie Theater (ca. 1945, vintage gelatin silver print). From the exhibition Weegee: Naked City at Steven Kasher Gallery. "...The exhibition takes its cues from the title of Weegee's first book, Naked City, which became a bestseller, made Weegee famous, and transformed him from a journalist into an artist. It was a title with many implications. The city and its citizens exposed. The bare truth. A city that fills you with hungers, lusts, passions. A city ready to frolic. A city that makes you think bad thoughts." Also... Weegee: Murder Is My Business at the ICP and Naked Hollywood: Weegee In Los Angeles at MOCA.

Soto: Paris and Beyond, 1950–1970

Soto: Paris and Beyond, 1950–1970 at the Grey Art Gallery, New York University. "...A key figure of the Paris avant-garde in the 1950s and ’60s, Jesús Soto (1923–2005) is widely recognized for his groundbreaking innovations in color theory, serial composition, and movement in art. Less well-known is the wide range of styles and mediums that he explored early on. Drawing inspiration from optics and serial music, Soto employed repeating geometric forms and superimposed surfaces to convey a sense of physical displacement. In deconstructing the notion of stability, Soto radically transformed the relation between object and audience. Encouraging viewers to interact physically with his work, Soto engages them as active participants in the process of perception."

Diane Arbus & August Sander

Diane Arbus & August Sander at Edwynn Houk Gallery. "...Exhibiting Diane Arbus’ photographs for the first time since 1982, Edwynn Houk Gallery premiers her work in Zurich by pairing a selection of rare, vintage prints of her oeuvre with the artist she credits as her greatest influence, August Sander. Arbus first encountered Sander’s work in the Swiss magazine DU in 1960. Although both photographers achieved widespread recognition only after their deaths, they are by now firmly positioned as seminal and canonical artists within the history of photography."

Steve McCurry: Watching and Waiting

Steve McCurry: Watching and Waiting at Soulcatcher Studio. "...'Most of my images are grounded in people. I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a person's face. I try to convey what it is like to be that person, a person caught in a broader landscape, that you could call the human condition.'"

Sun Ra: Brother from Another Planet

Sun Ra: Brother from Another Planet (2005) at UbuWeb Film & Video. Essential viewing. "...Punk film legend Don Letts presents the Sun Ra story in all its glory, combining powerful footage of Ra and his legendary Arkestra, interviews with band members shot at their famous group house in Philadelphia, and testimony from Archie Shepp, Amiri Baraka, John Sinclair and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore."

Kenosha's Lost Industries: Photographs and Corporate Materials, 1850s-1990s

Kenosha's Lost Industries: Photographs and Corporate Materials, 1850s-1990s. "...From the 1850s to the 1970s abundant water, a lake port, and railroad corridors crossing Kenosha and Kenosha County, Wisconsin impacted the growth of industry. Kenosha’s development was essentially connected to its strategic location on the western shore of Lake Michigan and in the urban corridor between Milwaukee and Chicago. Kenosha manufacturers gained access to cheap midwestern natural resources of iron, copper, wood, coal and water. These simple facts were the primary cause of Kenosha County’s industrialization. Larger markets were created as products reached more remote places."

Abandoned Yugoslavian Monuments

Abandoned Yugoslavian Monuments by Jan Kempenaers at The Coolist. "...While Yugoslavia has long since dissolved, abandoned monuments remain that recall the nation’s glory in the second world war. Photographer Jan Kempenaers has traveled throughout the Balkans to photograph these wild, strange structures that have lost much of their cultural relevance. In various states of disrepair, these monuments (some buildings, other sculptures) represent an era of modern and brutalist architecture that defined this time period in the socialist East. Today, they appear alien, odd and empty, stark reminders of a struggle long since forgotten by a nation that no longer exists."

Barbara Lynn - What'd I Say

Barbara Lynn - What'd I Say (Live, 1966, Flash Video 03:32). Whoa! Our new favorite old performer. Also... Barbara Lynn: Girl With Guitar at Cha Cha Charming Magazine. "...Self-accompanied on electric guitar, she possesses a style that is unique - raw, yet polished; emotional, yet calm; organic, yet sophisticated. As a live performer she is tireless, but her lifelong fear of flying has prevented her from accepting all but one offer to gig in Britain. At her sole live show in the UK, I was there to see Barbara Lynn."