Weekly Roundup

Laurie Simmons, "Day 8 (Lying On Bed)," 2011. Photo: Mustafah Abdulaziz for The Wall Street Journal.

In this week’s roundup, Laurie Simmons shows us her love dolls,  Collier Schorr is backstage at Barneys New York, Yinka Shonibare MBE inspires live action origami, and more.

• Laurie Simmons‘s The Love Doll: Days 1-30 will soon be on view on the Bowery, inaugurating Salon 94’s renovated gallery in NYC.  The Love Doll series explores Simmons’s past examinations of the dollhouse, and engages with adult fantasies and fetishes, infused with an even more potent sense of desire and regret. The exhibition will run February 15 – March 16.

• Carrie Mae Weems‘s work is on view in Posing Beauty: African-American Images from the 1890s to the Present, a photography exhibition that explores the ways in which African and African-American beauty has been represented in the media historically and in contemporary times.  The exhibition considers the idealization of beauty in Western art and image-making through photography, video, fashion and advertising.  The show is at the Newark Museum through April 28, 2011.

• Collier Schorr‘s photography has been selected for the Barneys New York Backstage Spring 2011 campaign which features unique black and white images taken backstage at the world’s most prestigious fashion shows in New York, London, Milan, and Paris.  The black and white theme will be carried across all Barneys channels for several weeks, along with deployed QR codes into both traditional and interactive media to add another dimension to the backstage experience.

• The work of Louise Bourgeois is currently on tour in Asia with The Absolut Art Collection, a celebration of art, creativity and popular culture that includes works by several well-known artists.

• Inspired by Yinka Shonibare MBE‘s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle currently adorning Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth, the National Maritime Museum (UK) will hold a series of events, debates and workshops in a nod to his original work.  One highlight will be a live action origami recreation of the battle of Trafalgar.  The events will take place on February 26 and 27.