FLAG Art Foundation wanted to do a show on how scale is used in contemporary art. To find a curator who was up to this huge task, they went to the bench. Seven-footer and NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal took on the assignment which included big names and big pieces. Chuck Close, Ron Mueck, Jeff Koons, Elizabeth Peyton, Corban Walker and Cindy Sherman are among the dozens of artists represented.
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March 2010
March 30, 2010
March 29, 2010
The Anxiety of Influence
My friend Anya Liftig did something amazing this weekend. As you may know, the MoMA is featuring Marina Ambramovic's 'The Artist is Present' retrospective. As part of the show, Marina gives people the chance to sit face-to-face with her as part of an installation. Sit there as long as you want. And Anya did. In what Anya calls, 'The Anxiety of Influence' she sat there ALL DAY, dressed up like one of her major influences. Check out the post-performance interview with Anya Liftig.
March 25, 2010
He's Going to Jump!
Well, not quite, but that's the stir that Antony Gormley’s first New York City public-art piece—life-size casts of
his own body strategically placed on buildings and pathways in and
around Madison Square Park has created by passerby. Take a look!
March 23, 2010
Art Handling Olympics
The explosive growth of the art world over the last decade has been fueled by rich new collectors, shiny new galleries and sprawling new museum wings. The gears and the grease that keep this big machine humming are people who can be generally described with less glamorous phrases: underpaid, uninsured, overworked and sweaty (not to mention, often heavily tattooed, bearded, hung over and burdened by loan payments for their M.F.A. degrees).
These are the art handlers, an often-invisible international underclass of blue-collar workers, most of them aspiring artists trying to pay the bills. But on Sunday afternoon at a bare-bones gallery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a group of them finally got a chance to grab a little glory. And even better, they got a raucous public forum in which to mock gallery owners, curators, collectors, artists, critics and just about everyone in the art world, not excluding themselves.
The event, the first-ever Art Handling Olympics – a combination roast, Jackass-style stunt extravaganza and beer fest – drew a crowd of about 200 people at its height who came to the Ramiken Crucible gallery to watch a dozen four-man teams (art handlers are, by and large, male, and, by and large, large) go head to head, demonstrating their skills with a lot of fake art and untold amounts of bubble wrap.MoMA Adds @ Symbol to Permanent Collection
The worlds of art and digital are coming even closer together thanks to the MoMA's acquisition today of the @ symbol. Unlike some other ephemera, the Museum didn't pay a penny for the symbol, nor will it claim exclusive rights to its use.
"The appropriation and reuse of a pre-existing, even ancient symbol--a symbol already available on the keyboard yet vastly underutilized, a ligature meant to resolve a functional issue (excessively long and convoluted programming language) brought on by a revolutionary technological innovation (the Internet)--is by all means an act of design of extraordinary elegance and economy."
March 22, 2010
Biennial Twitter Tour
Whitney's Biennial team is hosting a Twitter Tour to take a select group of bloggers with a behind the scenes and curated experience. If you won't be able to attend, follow the above feed tomorrow at 2:30p EST to experience the Biennial in 140 characters or less, live!
March 18, 2010
Who Loves Photography?
I do! That's why it kills me that I won't be able to attend this weekend's AIPAD show (arguably the most important photography show in the world) at the Armory where 70 of the world's leading photography galleries present a wide range of museum-quality work from 19th century photographs to cutting edge contemporary.
March 17, 2010
March Madness
In the spirit of tomorrow's tip-off of the NCAA March Madness tournament, Modern Art Notes is having some fun with its own tournament. Welcome to the annual America's Greatest Living American Abstract Painter Tournament. Each day this week, the site will host match ups to vote on. Today's head-to-head features:
- No. 1 Ellsworth Kelly vs. No. 32 Pat Steir
- No. 8 Christopher Wool vs. No. 25 Sam Gilliam
- No. 9 Mary Heilmann vs. No. 24 George Condo
- No. 16 Louise Fishman vs. No. 17 Ross Bleckner
March 15, 2010
SXSW Bound
I'm heading to SXSW this week. Last year marked my inaugural trip to Austin and it was a truly great experience. There is so much music out there and this event gives me a chance to load up my iPod with great tunes for the next year.
