January 2010
15 posts
8 tags
Rappers on Art #3: Jay-Z’s Hirst Reference
AW: Clearly not an occult symbol, as some bloggers would have us believe, Jay-Z’s replica of Damien Hirst’s ‘For the Love of God’ diamond-encrusted skull in his new music video, ‘On to the Next One’, carries symbolism of a rather different sort. Yes, it has the same symbolic meaning as his cars, jewels, wad, and girls: he is a very rich rapper with a very small penis. Incidentally, Jay-Z has...
7 tags
Vacuous Offensiveness
‘The title for Ceri Hand Gallery’s inaugural 2010 exhibition is taken from the song “Spasticus Autisticus,” penned by the legendary Ian Dury’.
‘A launching off point for an exhibition that underscores the oddball, frankly abnormal and “special” (as in “Special Olympics” special) qualities of artists’ pursuits, Spasticus Artisticus...
10 tags
Pornographic Banner?
‘Artist Fiona Banner has been invited to create an installation for Tate Britain, eight years after plastering the gallery’s space with a vivid description of a pornographic film.’
Vicky Shaw, Press Association, ‘Artist back at Tate after porn controversy’, The Independent, 18 January 2010 Read more:...
5 tags
Pioneering diagnostic technique
An Italian medical expert has discovered evidence of a range of health conditions affecting the subjects of some of the world’s greatest works of art.
‘Did Mona Lisa have high cholesterol? The medical afflictions that ailed the subjects of some of art’s masterpieces’ Daily Mail, 7 January 2010 Read more:...
6 tags
gilded wings to the language of art
‘All four artists are involved in a constant process of de-constructing and re-constructing imagery and as the shows [sic] title suggests, something has changed, been transformed and some form of alchemy has occurred that has given gilded wings to the language of art to make it travel further.’
Press Release, ‘By Chromed Hooves It Travels Now’, The Russian Club, 15.1.10 –...
4 tags
Sewellisms #9: weirdest simile ever
‘The press has been ecstatic over this first stage of what the museum calls its “Future Plan Transformation”; like dogs rolling in fox droppings, they rolled in hyperbole, declaring the display spectacular, heaving with luxury, the objects ravishing, glowing, opulent, unrivalled…’
Brian Sewel,...
5 tags
6 tags
Damien Hirst: Another bloody show
Damien Hirst: ‘These paintings are about my mortality, confronting death, maybe trying to mock it, whereas many of my previous works are about my immortality. I definitely believed I was going to live forever for a while back there.’
Damien Hirst: Dark Trees, Galleria Hilario Galguera, opening 16 January 2010 http://www.galeriahilariogalguera.com/newdata/english.html
AW: You...
9 tags
Sewellisms #8: Sexist Sewell
‘In the old wing of the National Gallery until well past Ash Wednesday The Hoerengracht by Edward Kienholz is on view, an installation mimicking a notorious street in the red-light quarter of Amsterdam. Exquisite in detail, it is an evidently melancholy contemplation of the means by which the loveless lust from which all men suffer can be sated if they dare.’
Brian Sewell, ‘The Great Gallery...
6 tags
Begging the question, does this mean anything at...
By subtly evoking questions of perception and legibility, Bend’s work aims to address the complexity inherent to these innocuous yet loaded forms.
Bend compliments these three sculptures with several new paintings that play on viewer’s expectations of how ready-made color and hard-edge abstraction should operate.
‘Hannes Bend: endlich’, Half Gallery (New York), JANUARY 15-FEBRUARY...
7 tags
If Mohammed can't come to the Met, make a mountain...
The New York Post - in an article called ‘“Jihad” jitters at Met - does its darnedest to make a story out of the fact that the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY) has rehung its Islamic Collection without including any of its images of the Prophet Mohammed. ‘Critics say the Met has a history of dodging criticism and likely wants to escape the kind of outcry that Danish cartoons...
Rappers on Art #2: Pharrell Williams
The funny thing is, if we would have put like all the original real pieces in there, like miniature Johnson and Johnson’s pink lotion, or miniature ketchup that you get from hotel room service, people would have come up to this exhibition and say, ‘um what’s the big deal, its just ketchup.’ Or, ‘what’s the big deal its just a cupcake.’
But it’s...
5 tags
When rappers discuss art
RZA ‘You know, when art imitates life is when sometimes we see things that we do in our artistic nature that reveal to us in life. And also sometimes we see things in life that reveals through art. You can look at a picture, something that somehow had nothing to do with you, but yet described everything that you about. That’s when we see a true revolution.’
RZA discussing his new...
8 tags
Ga Gah?
‘Based on Andy Warhol’s Factory, the Haus of GaGa is a collective who works on Lady GaGa’s clothing, stage sets and props’
‘Haus of GaGa’, ‘Gagapedia’, accessed 7 January 2010 Read more:http://ladygaga.wikia.com/wiki/Haus_of_GaGa
AW: Winner of the prizes for Most Pretentious Name for an Entourage, and Most Extreme Misconception of What Andy Warhol...
9 tags
Greater Curator: Shaquille O'Neal
‘throughout his career, O’Neal has capitalized on his size and strength to overpower opponents […] earning him nicknames such as Diesel and Superman. Now Shaq takes the opportunity to reflect on his size with an exhibition boasting works from microscopic to giant pieces […] The exhibition will include works in a variety of media that employ scale as a key component of their...