On Stage in Osaka: Actor Prints from the MFA Collection

On Stage in Osaka: Actor Prints from the MFA Collection. "...On Stage in Osaka: Actor Prints from the MFA Collection includes distinctive prints made during the nineteenth century in Osaka that have never before appeared in an exhibition. Until recently, interest in Japanese prints has focused primarily on the works made in Tokyo (called Edo until 1868). From the late seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries, artists in Edo produced single-sheet woodblock prints of subjects including actors, beautiful women, historical scenes, and landscape. The Osaka print tradition, by contrast, concentrated almost exclusively on the Kabuki theater and featured an exaggerated, caricature-like quality that almost certainly influenced major Edo artists such as Sharaku and Toyokuni I."

Cindy Sherman: A Play of Selves

Cindy Sherman: A Play of Selves at Metro Pictures. "...Created in 1975, A Play of Selves is a visual tale of a young woman overwhelmed by various alter-egos working at odds within her and her final conquering of self-doubt. Acted out with 16 separate characters, the 71 photgraphic assemblages mark Sherman's earliest explorations of her ground-breaking use of herself as the subject in staged photographs.
Sherman originally shot hundreds of photographs of herself costumed as the various characters in dozens of poses. After cutting out the individual images from black and white prints, she used an elaborately organized, hand-written script to organize the images into the 4 act 'play.' The piece was first shown at the artist-run, alternative space, Hallwalls, in Buffalo, NY in 1975 where Sherman was a founding member as a student at Buffalo State College."

Dave Anderson: Rough Beauty

Dave Anderson... Her Public Face (2004). From the exhibition Dave Anderson: Rough Beauty, November 8 - December 22, 2006 at Stephen Wirtz Gallery in San Francisco, CA.

Clip from 'Wild Guitar'

Clip from 'Wild Guitar' (.wmv video 02:15). "...Bud (Arch Hall, Jr.) auditions for two record producers (Arch Hall, Sr. and director Ray Dennis Steckler) in Wild Guitar (1962)."

Konga Joe

Arch Hall Jr. & The Archers... Konga Joe (.mp3 audio 02:18). Flip side to the single 'Monkey In My Hat Band' (1959, Signature 12014).

Chen Jie: Material Fetish

Chen Jie: Material Fetish, December 2 – December 31, 2006 at Long March Space. "...The works are contemporary paintings, their concept is contemporary art. The reading which the paintings give rise to seemingly challenge the viewer to go beyond the boundaries of the painting and consider other relationships. But in exact opposite to this idea, the works of Chen Jie are directly readable – or in other words, to an outside observer, his works are only the effort of manual labor, a product with little relationship to artistic elucidation or the idea of art and society, serving only as a final image 'product' which is suitable viewing. However, the works’ central tenant is quite stable, one can feel the implication of the reproduction of images – a type of narcissism and self dramatization – a process of competition in trying to outdo oneself."

Feme

Feme - Works by artists Nellie Mae Rowe, Sindy Lutz, Anne Cox, Linda Anderson, Xenia Zed, Barbara Schreiber and Carolyn Mae Lassiter at Barbara Archer Gallery in Atlanta, GA. "...Barbara Archer Gallery presents Feme, an exhibition featuring seven female artists. Feminine imagery is explored in a variety of media including painting, drawing, printmaking and mixed media. Highlights include newly acquired works by esteemed self-taught artist Nellie Mae Rowe. Also on display are Sindy Lutz’s provocative drawings of the human form, and Anne Cox’s mysterious assemblages, ripe with female iconography. This exhibition showcases the inarguable diverse talents of women artists represented by Barbara Archer Gallery."

Banana Fish

Shonen Knife... Banana Fish (.mp3 audio 02:03). Quirky little tribute to the manga 'Banana Fish' written and drawn by Akimi Yoshida. Also... Boyfruit - A Banana Fish Fansite.

Trailer for Manufactured Landscapes

Trailer for Manufactured Landscapes (QuickTime Video, 2006, directed by Jennifer Baichwal). "...Manufactured Landscapes is a feature length documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Burtynsky makes large-scale photographs of 'manufactured landscapes' – quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines, dams. He photographs civilization’s materials and debris, but in a way people describe as 'stunning' or 'beautiful,' and so raises all kinds of questions about ethics and aesthetics without trying to easily answer them.
The film follows Burtynsky to China as he travels the country photographing the evidence and effects of that country’s massive industrial revolution. Sites such as the Three Gorges Dam, which is bigger by 50% than any other dam in the world and displaced over a million people, factory floors over a kilometre long, and the breathtaking scale of Shanghai’s urban renewal are subjects for his lens and our motion picture camera." More Works by Edward Burtynsky at his personal site.

Fred W. McDarrah: Artists and Writers of the 60s and 70s

Fred W. McDarrah: Artists and Writers of the 60s and 70s at Steven Kasher Gallery in New York, NY. "...Fred W. McDarrah was the primary photographer and picture editor at The Village Voice during that newspaper’s first thirty years (and he is still with The Voice as consulting Picture Editor). McDarrah was the eyes of The Voice. His pictures were the graphic expression of the United States’ first, largest and most spirited alternative weekly as it recorded - and helped create - the most vibrant decades of the greatest city in the world. Besides his work for The Voice, McDarrah also photographed for his own book projects, starting with The Beat Scene, 1960, and The Artist’s World in Pictures, 1961, followed by more than a dozen other profusely illustrated books. His in-depth knowledge and passion for New York’s overlapping art, writing, music, and theater scenes are the foundations of this exhibition."

Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s

Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY. "...With harsh candor and biting humor, the portraits in the exhibition dissect a Weimar demimonde of prostitutes and profiteers, war veterans and war widows, performers and poets. The Verists themselves were part of this shattered world, mingling in the crowd with former aristocrats, middle-class doctors, and businessmen. Their powerful images serve as mirrors to a glittering yet doomed society. With Hitler's rise to power in 1933 and the end of the Weimar Republic, artists lost their teaching positions, their work was banned, and many of them went into exile."

Girl

Beck... Girl (.mp3 audio 03:29).

Shaker Visual Poetry (Gift Drawings & Gift Songs)

Shaker Visual Poetry (Gift Drawings & Gift Songs) at UbuWeb. "...Between 1837 and 1850 ('known as the Era of Manifestations') the Shakers composed (or were the recipients of) 'hundreds of visionary drawings - really [spiritual] messages in pictorial form,' writes Edward Deming Andrews (The Gift To Be Simple, 1940). 'The designers of these symbolic documents felt their work was controlled by supernatural agencies — gifts bestowed on some individual in the order (usually not the one who made the drawing.' The same is true of the 'gift songs' and other verbal works, and the invention of forms in both the songs and drawings is extraordinary, as is their resemblance to the practice of later poets and artists."

Laszlo Layton: Cabinet of Curiosities

Laszlo Layton: Cabinet of Curiosities at Joseph Bellows Gallery. "...His two series of natural history subjects visually borrow from 17th, 18th, and 19th century illuminated science and zoology books. These books were illustrated with artists' engravings, lithographs, and drawings of the specimens. Layton says, 'What these illustrations may have lacked in scientific accuracy they more than made up for in artistic expression.' The use of photography to document living creatures makes 20th century natural history books much more scientifically accurate, but Layton is inspired by the romantic charm of the earlier representations."

The Apple In My Heart

Yoshitomo Nara + graf A to Z... The Apple In My Heart - Yoshitomo Nara profile by Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun. (jp)

Art is Hell

A new site design for Art is Hell - works by Tony Calzetta and Gabrielle de Montmollin; one of our favourite contemporary photographers.

Photographic History of Winther Motors

Photographic History of Winther Motors at the Wisconsin Historical Society. "...Martin P. Winther formed the Winther Motor and Truck Company in Kenosha in 1916. From 1916 to 1927, the company manufactured everything from four-wheel drive trucks to sporty automobiles, snow plows, rail cars and mechanical posthole diggers. With just an eighth-grade education, Martin Winther and his brother Anthony became prolific inventors, patenting almost 300 car- and truck-related mechanical devices in their lifetimes. The photographic history of the Winther Motor Company gives unusual insight into manufacturing at the time."

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from gmtPlus9 (-15).

The Gamma Goochie

The Gamma Goochie Himself... The Gamma Goochie (.mp3 audio 02:00).

Nobody Knows

Midnight Eye review... Nobody Knows (2004, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. "...Like his previous film Distance (2001), which involved an Aum-like cult, Hirokazu Kore-eda's Nobody Knows was inspired by a real case of child abandonment in Tokyo, 1988. As with Distance, the headline event being referenced serves as purely the catalyst for a much more personal tale. With Nobody Knows, Kore-eda took the real case, mulled it over in his head for fifteen years and used it as only the skeleton around which he built this piece of fiction, filmed with a documentary eye. The plot is simple: scatty single mum Keiko (television talento You) and 12-year-old son Akira (Yagira in the performance that made him the youngest ever Best Actor winner at Cannes) move into a nice new apartment in Tokyo. What the landlord doesn't know is that Keiko has three other children hidden in her flat, reserved Kyoko (Kitaura), rambunctious Shigeru (Kimura) and the youngest sister, Yuki (Shimizu). When Keiko takes off with a new boyfriend, Akira is left with the responsibility of managing the household and looking after his younger siblings."

Grete Stern: Dreams

Grete Stern: Dreams. "...Grete Stern, born in Germany had to flee from the Nazis in 1935 and went to live in Argentina. She was educated in the School of Applied Arts in Stuttgart as a graphic designer and photographer, something quite unusual for a woman in those days. Among many professional activities, in 1948 she was invited to work in a woman's' magazine called 'Idilio.' There she would illustrate with photo montages the section called 'Psychoanalysis will help you.' Her work consisted of representing the dreams that the readers would submit. Grete Stern worked nearly three years on this project and produced nearly 150 pieces."

Ray Johnson: En Rapport

Ray Johnson: En Rapport, November 2 - December 23, 2006 at Feigen Contemporary in New York, NY. "...En Rapport focuses on a significant body of Johnson's collages that reference other artists, his peers and his friends. Ray Johnson positioned himself in relation to other artists and structured relationships with them more than any artist working from 1955 to 1995. The exhibition premiers an important group of works from the Estate never previously shown. A text by William S. Wilson is included in the catalogue.
A seminal figure in the Pop Art movement, Johnson was one of the earliest artists to use celebrities as subject matter. Johnson was introduced to the burgeoning American avant-garde at Black Mountain College in the late 1940's, where he studied painting with Josef and Anni Albers and worked alongside Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Richard Lippold, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Robert Rauschenberg. In 1948, he moved to New York and became active in the downtown art scene where he exchanged ideas with his neighbors, Cage and Cunningham, and acquaintances Jasper Johns and Cy Twombly."

Glow In The Dark

The Bongos... Glow In The Dark (Fetish Records 45, 1980, .mp3 audio 02:02). From Little Hits.

Manet and the Execution of Maximilian

Manet and the Execution of Maximilian at MoMA. "...Between 1867 and 1869, Edouard Manet completed a series of compositions depicting the execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. Maximilian, a member of the Hapsburg family of Austria, had been installed in power in Mexico by Napoleon III of France in an attempt to recover unpaid debts and establish a European presence there. This endeavor failed miserably, ending with the execution of Maximilian and two of his generals by firing squad on June 19, 1867. The execution was by order of Benito Juárez, who had been displaced as president when the French took control of Mexico."

Shepard Fairey: Rise Above

Shepard Fairey... Study in Propoganda. From the exhibition Shepard Fairey: Rise Above at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Los Angeles, CA. "...In Shepard Fairey’s newest exhibition titled Rise Above the artist continues a highly charged visual discourse that attempts to reveal and skewer abuses of power, governmental hypocrisy, and loss of civil liberties. Inspired by one of Fairey’s favorite punk bands, Black Flag, the title refers to lyrics that call for people who are dissatisfied with the system to rise above the problems to provoke change, or work outside of it. 'Jealous cowards try to control... rise above, we're gonna rise above.' Peace advocacy and the questioning of power and authority are dominant themes."

Ossário - arte menos poluição

Alexandre Orion... Ossário - arte menos poluição. Tunnel Max Feffer, São Paulo, Brasil.

Song of India

Song of India by Miki Alcalde (The Digital Journalist, November 2006). "...I'm looking at her, but she doesn't know it. She's looking at me, and she thinks I don't know. I'm just two meters away, facing her. I don't want to say anything, I don't want to smile; I can feel everything, and yet it seems as if my mind is somewhere else. I cannot be invisible, I cannot look into her eyes. But I can wait. The feeling I get in this slum area is something that grabs my heart. She is moving around now, talking to her two children, both crying. Behind me people go by; nothing is happening. I cannot leave. And she comes back, where it all started, this time a banana is in her hand; everything is the same, but not quite… this time I have no option, so I raise my camera and take the picture, put down my camera, look behind her; she looks at me, then looks at what's behind her, then looks at me again, as I'm leaving."

The Lotus-Eaters: Photo Murals by Jeff Cowen

Lens Culture... The Lotus-Eaters: Photo Murals by Jeff Cowen. "...In his latest show of all new work, titled The Lotus-Eaters, Jeff Cowen is exploring complicated ideas with repetition of images, variations on repetitions, double-takes, positives and negatives, organic growth and multiplicity of similar things that are each different and unique yet part of a species or sub-species. Repeating patterns of dots often arise, as do patterns of flowers, leaves, branches and weeds. We see eyes going astray, eyes open and closed, caught between wakefulness and dreaming, veils and shadows."

Dilmohammed

The Madeira... Dilmohammed (.mp3 audio 02:07).

Elle est Party

The Giant Robots... Elle est Party (.mp3 audio 02:27). From the album Too Young to Know Better... Too Hard to Care on Voodoo Rhythm Records.

Betye Saar

Betye Saar... Black Girl's Window (1969, mixed media assemblage). From Betye Saar at the Arts Conservations Archive. Also... Betye Saar: Migrations/Transformations at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York, NY. "...In seventeen mixed media collages and assemblages, Saar narrates seventeen distinctive journeys. By layering carefully selected clues - a gold button, an African mask, a slave ship diagram, a weathered photograph, a pressed leaf, a tattered American flag - she constructs fictional biographies of nameless characters that represent the historical passages of millions. Haunted by memories of Africa or the trauma of the Middle Passage, Saar's journeys remind us that history is not simply the recording of past events - it is a living, breathing entity, filling the space of our present and shaping contemporary identities."

Japanese Urban Landscape

Alan Thomas... Japanese Urban Landscape. "...Beyond the entertainment districts, the pachinko parlors, and the crowded department stores, Japanese cities are uncannily silent. Walking through their stillness, one begins to discern the peculiar geometries of urban Japan. These photographs take the measure of Japan’s spaces where they are most easily overlooked: the architecture of its back streets, the layered density of ordinary neighborhoods, the ephemeral effects of constant building and rebuilding."

Gary Usher: In Search Of The Endless Summer

Don't miss Gary Usher: In Search Of The Endless Summer - broadcast last night and currently available in the Audio Archives at Radio Rumpus Room. "...we salute the genius of the late Gary Usher, a Sixties songwriter, musician and producer who is viewed as the patron saint of surf and hot rod music. Joined with songwriting talents such as close friend Brian Wilson (they co-wrote 'In My Room' and '409,' among others), Usher became a pivotal figure in the surf'n'drag genre. He was the mastermind behind the Hondells, Dick Dale's hot rod LPs, the Super Stocks and literally dozens of other bands. Later he would go on to produce three Byrds albums ('Younger Than Yesterday,' 'The Notorious Byrd Brothers' and 'Sweetheart Of The Rodeo') and bands like Chad & Jeremy, Sagittarius and the Peanut Butter Conspiracy."

Works by Maureen Gallace

Maureen Gallace... My Brother's House (2006, oil on panel). From Works by Maureen Gallace at 303 Gallery in New York. "...Gallace's accounts take place in and around her hometown of rural Connecticut and family summer vacations on Cape Cod. 'Winter, Easton, CT' 2006, is inhabited by three red barns in a snowy valley. The simple structures stand against dark blue mountains that give way to a rosy dawn sky. Gallace's paintings are rendered in deliberate, considered strokes, each of which is essential to holding the delicate light and space she has constructed. 'Her spare landscapes trigger viewers' thoughts and feelings more successfully through form and color and brushstroke than would a photographic transcription.'" (Alan G. Artner, Chicago Tribune, July 7, 2006)

Lola Alvarez Bravo and Her Circle

Lola Alvarez Bravo and Her Circle - Photographs by Lola Alvarez Bravo, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Tina Madotti, Paul Strand, Hugo Brehme, Mariana Yampolsky, and Edward Weston at Throckmorton Fine Art in New York, NY. "...Lola Alvarez Bravo (1903-1993) began her photographic career in the midst of the artistic and political ferment that followed the Mexican Revolution. She has since become known as Mexico’s first female photographer with a career spanning more than fifty years. Her work is considered exceptional both for its remarkable range and for its compelling quality."

Twilight: Photography in the Magic Hour

Twilight: Photography in the Magic Hour, 10 October - 17 December 2006 at the Victoria and Albert Museum. "...This exhibition focuses on eight contemporary artists whose photography and installations are made at, or suggest, the fleeting state of the world at dusk. It explores a time of day and a quality of light that presents technical challenges but also embodies a haunting mood and the possibility of narrative intrigue or psychological tension.
At twilight, the colour and quality of light go through rapid and dramatic changes. For photographers, who are highly attuned to the subtleties of light, this is a particularly significant and poignant time. The artists in the exhibition have all made work that focuses on the end of the day and investigates twilight, as distinct from night."

Works by Liang Yue

Liang Yue... Snow White (2005, Edition of 3). From Works by Liang Yue at ShanghART in Shanghai, China. "...Liang Yue’s photographic work negotiates the complex symbolic terrain between exteriority and interiority, memory and reality, and the public and the private. Her open-ended series of photos Several Dusks (2003) and Lily’s Afternoon (2003) focus on moments drawn from ordinary life, yet a sense of foreboding pervades all of them. Liang Yue observes and elaborates on a uniquely ambiguous, uneasy assortment of Shanghai’s public space, but with a detached and remote viewpoint. The images are shut in twilight, just before nightfall, and are linked to an elusive time and the question of presence. The snap-shot aesthetic makes it difficult to think of it as specific to a single place. The recurring images are a partial and instant view of the city. Her scenes of distant frenzy co-mingle possibility and problem, and leave the viewer uncertain about their specific mood and theme. The contrast between familiarity and strangeness is greatly pronounced, and it is precisely this feeling of contradiction that makes her photos so fascinating and attractive."

Stop And Listen

The Shagg... Stop And Listen (.wma audio 02:34).

Douglas Bourgeois: Disparate Situation

Douglas Bourgeois... Home Of The Brave (2006, collage and oil on illustration board). From Douglas Bourgeois: Disparate Situation at Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans, LA. "...Bourgeois chose 'Disparate Situation' as the title for his exhibition because juxtaposition and clashing between elements kept becoming manifest in the collages. Bourgeois has created collages most of his life but has rarely exhibited them. The artist feels that collagist methods have been an undercurrent in his paintings for a long time. Collage is like sketching for Bourgeois and often serves as the best method for him to find routes to the subconscious and ineffable mysteries of existence.
Bourgeois's meticulously rendered work reveals an incredible craftsmanship wedded with a mysterious ability to express the artist's vision through obsessive attention to detail. He combines his technical rigor with a far ranging grasp of the iconography of late 20th and early 21st century culture. As noted by art historian Isabelle Loring Wallace, Bourgeois 'purposefully adopts certain hallmarks of an unsophisticated, self-taught esthetic—frontality, inconsistent scale, awkward perspective, the absence of facture, brilliant color—often deploying them in conjunction with references and motifs (voodoo, oil refineries, local musicians) that mark him as the product of a specific place. Yet his choice of subject matter and theme just as often exceeds and undermines the regionalism to which he seems to subscribe.'"

Say Mama

The Legends... Say Mama (.wma audio 02:35, Ermine E-39, 1962).

Original Trailer for Mark of the Vampire

Original Trailer for Mark of the Vampire (.wmv video 02:03, 1935, Directed by Tod Browning). "...Vampires seem to be connected to an unsolved murder in Mark of the Vampire, the sound remake of London After Midnight starring Bela Lugosi." MOTV is on TCM Underground late this Friday night.

Massimo Giacon: S.P.Q.R.

Massimo Giacon: S.P.Q.R. at LipanjePuntin Artecontemporanea. "...Since 1980, he has been working in Milan as a cartoonist, illustrator, designer, artist and musician. Since the early eighties, he has been at the centre of an Italian cartoon renaissance, which has produced magazines such as 'Frigidaire,' 'Alter,' 'Dolce Vita,' 'Cyborg' and 'Nova Express.' In 1985 he started working with an architect's studio, Sottsass Associati, honing his design skills by working with Matteo Thun, Studio Mendini, Sieger design, and for Memphis, Artemide, Alessi, Swatch, Philips, Ritzenhoff and Telecom."

Jamie

Happy Birthday to my son Jamie - 11 years old today.

Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan

Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan at the NYPL Digital Gallery. "... More than 1,000 images encompassing 1,200 years of Japanese book art, including Buddhist sutras, painted manuscripts, portraits, landscapes, calligraphic verse, and photographic books, with related drawings and woodblock prints."

Works by Kyle Fokken

Works by Kyle Fokken of Minneapolis, MN. "...My work is based on a love of antique toys from the late 19th and early 20th centuries as viewed from a modern perspective. We are drawn to relics that trigger memories of days gone past, both bitter and sweet. In my artwork, I fuse this nostalgia with naïve 'visionary' art. Folk art, 'visionary' and 'outsider' art are often made by people with few materials in which to make art other than industrial packaging and scrap material. I infuse this 'outsider' aesthetic into my artwork through my use of found objects and rough construction. Like these artists, I’m not a 'junk sculptor' because my focus is not on the found object itself, but on how I can use it in my work to fulfill my vision."

Jonathan Borofsky: Human Structures

Jonathan Borofsky: Human Structures, November 02 — December 23, 2006 at Deitch Projects, 18 Wooster Street, New York, NY. "...Human Structures, Jonathan Borofsky’s first gallery exhibition since 1992, will open at Deitch Projects on Thursday, November 2nd. The exhibition features two new bodies of work developed over the past seven years in the artist’s Maine studio. The new sculpture fuses the conceptual and humanistic sides of the artist’s work. The major work in the exhibition is a Human Structure, composed of 366 life-size galvanized steel genderless figures all interlocking together to form an organic, yet modular 44 x 11 foot and 18 foot tall freestanding structure. The exhibition also features a second large Human Structure, composed of several thousand colorful, translucent male and female polycarbonate figures again all connecting together to form a freestanding molecular-like spatial structure."

Terayama Shuji: Experimental Image World, 7 Volume Collection

Terayama Shuji: Experimental Image World, 7 Volume Collection. "...Poet, playright, theatre director, filmmaker, essayist, agitator and lover of all things anarchistic, chaotic, and truthful, Terayama Shuji (1936-1983) is one of Japan's most revered and respected artists. In the heady and extremist Japanese art scene of the late '70s, Terayama created a number of unforgettable and highly controversial films. Emperor Tomato Ketchup is his epic, sexually revolutionary and hallucinatory work from 1972 in which 'magical women act as the initiatory, yet protectively maternal sexual partners to children. The children, in revolt, have condemned their parents to death for depriving them of self-expression and sexual freedom; they create a society in which fairies and sex education are equally important and literally combinable.'" - Amos Vogel, Film as a Subversive Art. New at UbuWeb.

Temple of Invention: The History of a National Landmark

Temple of Invention: The History of a National Landmark, July 1, 2006 – July 1, 2007 at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. "...This exhibition honors the museum’s historic home on the 170th anniversary of its cornerstone being laid by President Andrew Jackson and the completion of its glorious renovation. Begun in 1836 and completed in 1868, it was the third public building constructed by the new nation in its capital city. This landmark was praised by Walt Whitman as the 'noblest of Washington buildings' and is considered to be one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the United States."

The Soviet Photomontage, 1917-1953 and Alexander Rodchenko, Photo-Art

The Soviet Photomontage, 1917-1953 and Alexander Rodchenko, Photo-Art. "...The Moscow House of Photography has been setting up annual exhibitions of Alexander Rodchenko’s oeuvre for the last ten years. Specialist of the museum conducted some thorough research of the master’s archive, and it took them four years just to scan all the negatives. In 2004 the Moscow House of Photography gave an award to Rodchenko for his outstanding contribution to world art — in his lifetime he never received a single award. It was handed over to his heirs, a wonderful family, which works as a single research institute and which largely helped the public to form an adequate overall picture of Russian photography that had appeared in the 1920s-40s. The heirs decided that they will spent the money on a monograph about Alexander Rodchenko, which will be officially presented at the exhibition’s opening.
Russian 20th-century Avant-Garde is a unique phenomenon not only for Russia, but for the world as a whole. The dazzling creative energy, displayed by the masters of this great epoch, still inspires contemporary art and every one of us when we look at the works that appeared in the age of Russian Modernism. Alexander Rodchenko was doubtless one of the major aesthetic innovators of the time who deeply influenced the spirit of the era. Painting, design, theatre, cinema, printing, photography… — all these spheres in which the powerful talent of this very beautiful and strong man manifested itself were transformed, opening up completely new ways of development."

She Cracked

The Modern Lovers... She Cracked (.mp3 audio 02:38).

Pol Turgeon: Corpus Herbarius

Pol Turgeon: Corpus Herbarius, November 3-26, 2006 at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles, CA. "...For more than twenty five years, Turgeon has profaned the international environment by unabashedly inseminating magazines, corporate brochures, book covers, posters and annual reports with his iconoclastic pieces of art. It is a perplexing and unresolved enigma that these horrific images have managed to gain Turgeon more than two hundred awards worldwide and have been selected repeatedly by juries for art annuals such as the prestigious American Illustration or the Communication Arts Annual." More Works by Pol Turgeon at his personal site.

Bubble

Trailer for Bubble, directed by Steven Soderbergh. From Bubble at HDNet Films. "...The first of six films by Steven Soderbergh for HDNet Films, BUBBLE centers on a murder mystery in a small, economically depressed Ohio town. Starring non-professional actors from the location’s surrounding area, the film explores the romantic tragedy that unfolds in a love triangle between three workers in the town’s doll factory. BUBBLE premiered at the 2005 Venice International Film Festival, and screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival."

Parasitic Haze: The Burden of Consiousness

Kathie Olivas... Conjoined (24"x36" - oil on canvas). From Parasitic Haze: The Burden of Consiousness, works by Kathie Olivas at Copro/Nason Gallery in Santa Monica , CA. "...Sugary treats, dichotomous dreamlands, and the cute and corrupted all find their way into the brief calm before the rebellion featured in Kathie Olivas's art exhibition, Parasitic Haze: The Burden of Consciousness. This series of paintings and sculptures focuses on imperfect characters that parallel a vision of post-apocalyptic conformity, uniquely documenting their own stories in a mysterious brave new world."

Galerie Hamer

Joop Plasmeijer... Hommage aan de Schilder Willem Westbroek (2002, olieverf/doek, 60x50 cm). From Galerie Hamer in Amsterdam. (nl)

András Hajdú D. - Mayday, Mayday, Mayday

András Hajdú D. - Mayday, Mayday, Mayday at Galeria Origo in Budapest. "...András Hajdú D. was born in Budapest on 3rd August, 1981. He completed a course in press photography at the Educational Center of Népszabadság in 2004. Currently he has been studying English as a fourth-year university student, and working as a photo journalist for the the leading hungarian internet content provider [origo]."

Los Rockin Devil's

Los Rockin Devil's... Bule Bule (.mp3 audio 02:21). From the album Los Sensacionales Rockin Devil's: Bule Bule (1965) by Los Rockin Devil's. "...The legendary Los Rockin Devil's band has existed for almost 40 years, sprouting from the early days of the Mexican rock revolution. With its sharp and energetic rock tunes and ballads, it holds its title among the top rock favorites of their era, which includes the likes of Los Rebeldes del Rock, Los Freddy's, and Los Teen Tops, to say the least. The Los Rockin Devil's uncanny magnetic sound allowed for over a dozen different albums to be published and a spot in several movies, a feat not achieved by their musical colleagues."

El Mongol

Los Locos del Ritmo... El Mongol (.mp3 audio 03:06). Don't miss... Los Locos del Ritmo - El grupo iniciador del rock and roll mexicano de jóvenes para jóvenes.

New Works by Mr. Hooper

Mr. Hooper... Milhous (2006, Acrylic on Canvas). From a selection of New Works by Mr. Hooper. "...For years while I was doing comix and graffiti, I operated under several pseudonyms. I never intended to be a painter who operated under a pseudonym. However, I had a teacher in college who addressed everyone by their last name. The parallel between me being Mr. Hooper and the character on Sesame Street (also named Mr. Hooper) was irresistible to my classmates. The nickname stuck with me and I began to sign prints and eventually paintings with Mr. Hooper. My given name is Tim Hooper but you can call me Mr. Hooper - everyone else does."

MF Gallery

Martina Secondo Russo... Portrait of Divine. From MF Gallery in New York, NY. Works by Martina Secondo Russo and Frank Russo (and friends).

Blackstock's Collections: The Drawings of An Artistic Savant

Blackstock's Collections: The Drawings of An Artistic Savant. "...In collaboration with Seattle's Tributary Books, Garde Rail Gallery is proud to produce a book that introduces Gregory Blackstock's world to a broad audience. Published by Princeton Architectural Press, and with an introduction by Garde Rail Gallery's Karen Light-Pina, Blackstock's Collections is completed with writings by Gregory, and one hundred or so images of his work." Also... Savant artist's remarkable list-like drawings are winning recognition by Sheila Farr, Seattle Times art critic.

RIP: Mose Tolliver

RIP: Mose Tolliver. "...The folk artist Mose Tolliver, whose self-portraits and vivid images of nature, people, animals and the female form were done with humble house paint and made him one of the leaders of the modern-day Outsider Art movement, died here on Monday (October 30, 2006). He was in his 80s."