Archive

Monthly Archives: August 2008

Provocative Visions at The Met

Provocative Visions at The Met

On view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through March 8, 2009, Provocative Visions: Race and Identity—Selections from the Permanent Collection features acquisitions made from 1992–2007. Many are on view …

Art21 Extended Play

Alfredo Jaar | Gramsci & Pasolini

Art21 Extended Play

Alfredo Jaar | Gramsci & Pasolini

EXCLUSIVE: Alfredo Jaar in his installation Infinite Cell (2004) in Santiago, Chile, and various works. Through installations, photographs, and community-based projects, Alfredo Jaar explores the public’s desensitization to images and …

Artists Respond at MCA San Diego

Artists Respond at MCA San Diego

Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet opened last week at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. The pioneering artist residency and collaborative exhibition project is the first of …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Contemporary Art Start at MoCA, Los Angeles

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Contemporary Art Start at MoCA, Los Angeles

Two weeks ago, from August 11-15, I had the pleasure of spending a week working with a number of outstanding art teachers at the MoCA, Los Angeles summer institute, Contemporary …

Remembering to Remember

Remembering to Remember

On view until September 21st at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a collection of J.M.W. Turner’s picturesque paintings of the harrowing sea as well as some ships and their …

New guest blogger: Mary Cook

New guest blogger: Mary Cook

Thanks to Sarah Sliwa for taking time away from her Belgian adventures to entice us with her delicious posts. Up next is Mary Cook. Mary is an artist who received …

2008 Lucelia Artist Award Nominees Announced

2008 Lucelia Artist Award Nominees Announced

The Smithsonian American Art Museum recently announced the nominees for their annual 2008 Lucelia Artist Award. The nominees are: Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, Mark Dion (both Season 4), Trenton …

Dialog:City Launches in Denver

Dialog:City Launches in Denver

Dialog:City, the exciting community-oriented, art-political showcase in Denver taking place concurrently with the Democratic National Convention, opened this past Friday at an outdoor party with Mayor John Hickenlooper in a …

It’s Not Only Rock ‘N’ Roll, Baby!

It’s Not Only Rock ‘N’ Roll, Baby!

“London.” Pet Shop Boys/Martin Parr. Earlier posts by Marc Mayer and Ben Street have noted the relationship between pop culture, art, and music as well as recent attempts to curate …

Cai Guo-Qiang Responds to Olympics Fireworks “Controversy”

Cai Guo-Qiang Responds to Olympics Fireworks “Controversy”

Over 34 million people watched the dazzling opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Days later, eager buzz-killers were quick to point out that deceptive “augmentations” were actually employed …

Sugimoto and Tryon at the Freer Sackler

Sugimoto and Tryon at the Freer Sackler

On view through January 25, 2009, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery exhibits 22 pastels by American landscape painter Dwight William Tryon (1849–1925) alongside six black and white photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto …

Art21 Extended Play

Matthew Ritchie | Apocalypse

Art21 Extended Play

Matthew Ritchie | Apocalypse

EXCLUSIVE: Matthew Ritchie discusses the apocalyptic themes in his videos The Iron City (2007) and Raphael (2007), featured in his upcoming exhibition The Morning Line (2008) for the 3rd Bienal …

Richard Serra at Film Forum

Richard Serra at Film Forum

Maria Anna Tappeiner’s documentary Richard Serra: Thinking on Your Feet (2005) screens at Film Forum in New York City through September 2nd. The 94-minute film follows Serra (Season 1) through …

Mel Chin’s FUNDRED in San Francisco

Mel Chin’s FUNDRED in San Francisco

Last Saturday, San Francisco Bay Area educators came together at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park to learn about FUNDRED/PAYDIRT, an important and compelling project initiated by Mel …

McElheny and Mies in Cabinet

McElheny and Mies in Cabinet

In the current “Underground” issue of Cabinet magazine, Josiah McElheny (Season 3) contributes an essay titled Nowhere, Everywhere, Somewhere.  The paper investigates a series of photographs and mock-ups depicting an …

Vija Celmins Wins the Roswitha Haftmann Prize

Vija Celmins Wins the Roswitha Haftmann Prize

Art21 artist Vija Celmins (Season 2) is the third woman to receive the Roswitha Haftmann Prize, first awarded in 2001. This prize is hailed as the most valuable award in …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Celebrating Four Months…

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Celebrating Four Months…

Looking back, the Teaching With Contemporary Art column is off to an exciting beginning in our first four months. Since early May, we have had the opportunity to feature writing …

Body Bakery

Body Bakery

Kittiwat Unarrom is the son of a baker and has a masters degree in fine arts. His medium is bread; his subject is human flesh. Since 2006, he has been …

Meat After Meat Joy

Meat After Meat Joy

Zhang Huan, My New York, 2002, still from video performance. Courtesy of Pierre Menard Gallery. One of the last shows I saw in the United States before leaving for Belgium …

CarbSmart

CarbSmart

It’s summertime and, if you believe the junk magazines—I see that InTouch stashed between the pages of your ArtForum—carbohydrates will ruin you and your chances of bikini (or board short) …

Maya Lin’s Confluence Project Continues

Maya Lin’s Confluence Project Continues

Last Thursday at the opening night party of the American Institute of Architects Gallery in Portland, Maya Lin (Season 2) presented an exhibit of drawings and models produced for her …

Update: Beautiful Losers in New York

Update: Beautiful Losers in New York

Beautiful Losers, the 2008 Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard film about contemporary art and urban creative culture, is currently showing at the IFC Center in Manhattan. Featuring a group of …

Art21 Extended Play

Ursula von Rydingsvard | Giotto

Art21 Extended Play

Ursula von Rydingsvard | Giotto

EXCLUSIVE: Ursula von Rydingsvard in her Brooklyn, New York studio. Ursula von Rydingsvard builds towering cedar structures, creating an intricate network of individual beams and sensuous, puzzle-like surfaces. While abstract …

U.S. Embassy in Beijing

U.S. Embassy in Beijing

On the occassion of the 2008 Olympic Games, the new American Embassy in Beijing opened last Friday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Though not as prominent as the architectural “monuments” of …

Quiet on the set: keep noise to a Minimum

Quiet on the set: keep noise to a Minimum

I was rereading a batch of the previous posts to avoid being redundant, but that won’t stop me from piggybacking. Ben Street’s post “Best Supporting Artists” reminded me of a …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Reality or Fiction at the Hirshhorn?

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Reality or Fiction at the Hirshhorn?

Another exhibition of contemporary art to see this summer in Washington D.C. is The Cinema Effect Part II: Realisms through September 7, 2008 at the Hirshhorn. A two-part exhibition, the …

New guest blogger: Sarah Sliwa

New guest blogger: Sarah Sliwa

Thanks to Emily Liebert for the plethora of enthusiastic and engaging posts. Next up is Sarah Sliwa. A former intern at Art21, Sarah is currently finishing her master’s degree in …

Isaac and Ellen

Isaac and Ellen

Like many people, I was saddened and surprised by the passing of two icons over the weekend: actor/comedian Bernie Mac and singer, songwriter, producer and musician Isaac Hayes. The image …

Electric Light Orchestra

Electric Light Orchestra

Subtler than the opening ceremony light show in Beijing, James Turrell’s (Season 1) new permanent light installation was recently unveiled at the Franklin Park Conservatory’s Palm House in Columbus, Ohio. …

Off the Page: Flat Daddies and Other Live Photographs

Off the Page: Flat Daddies and Other Live Photographs

On September 30, 2006, I read an article in The New York Times that I don’t think I’ll forget. “When Soldiers Go to War, Flat Daddies Hold Their Place at …

Welcome to the Good Life

Welcome to the Good Life

Until recently, it hadn’t crossed my mind that I could be Kanye West. I did a double take the first time I saw the advertisement one morning on a downtown …

Ursula von Rydingsvard in Wyoming

Ursula von Rydingsvard in Wyoming

  The University of Wyoming Art Museum recently mounted the exhibition Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational. Pictured above on the Museum’s terrace is “Doolin, Doolin” by Art21 artist Ursula von Rydingsvard (Season 4). This …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Positively Puryear

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Positively Puryear

There is no substitute for seeing Martin Puryear’s sculptures firsthand. Martin Puryear at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., spanning the museum’s two buildings, offers such an opportunity …

Cai Guo-Qiang at the Beijing Olympics

Cai Guo-Qiang at the Beijing Olympics

When the opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics kicks off today, the pyrotechnics spectacle silhouetting the “Bird’s Nest” Olympic stadium will spark familiarity to many in the art world. …

Art21 Extended Play

Mark Dion | “Herbarium Perrine (Marine Algae)”

Art21 Extended Play

Mark Dion | “Herbarium Perrine (Marine Algae)”

EXCLUSIVE: Mark Dion with Herbarium Perrine (Marine Algae) (2006) at his Pennsylvania home and studio. Mark Dion’s work examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Starting Friday: Guest TWCA Writer Julie Thomson

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Starting Friday: Guest TWCA Writer Julie Thomson

Starting tomorrow and for the next two weeks, Julie Thomson will be guest writing for the Teaching With Contemporary Art column. Julie is the Associate Curator of Education at the …