Objet d'Art: Cupid's Lie

DAMIEN HIRST, Cupid's Lie, Gold

To inaugurate the Hong Kong exhibition space, Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present “Forgotten Promises,” an exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by Damien Hirst. Forgotten Promises - Jan 18 - Mar. 19, 2011 at the Gasgosian Gallery, Hong Kong.

Exotic Regrets by Aoi Kotsuhiroi

I received an image over the weekend of the fascinating first chapter of sartorial sculptor, poet, and conjurer Aoi Kotsuhiroi's new collection entitled Exotic Regrets. As in past collections, Kotsuhiroi, based in the South of France, releases imagery of her new collections in chapter's to express gravity and anticipation. www.aoikotsuhiroi.com

Big Shots

Paloma Picasso by Andy Warhol

"Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids of Celebrities" provides a look at a lesser-known but seminal body of work by the artist who was dazzled by celebrity and found much of his inspiration in the photographic image. Comprised of over thirty Polaroids of subjects ranging from Debbie Harry to Yves St. Laurent and Giorgio Armani to Yoko Ono, the pictures were taken between 1970 and 1986 on Warhol's favorite camera - the Polaroid Big Shot. Created by Polaroid for practical purposes like the quick creation of I.D. cards and passport pictures, the camera's fixed focal length and point-and-shoot mechanism were perfect for the snapshot-loving artist. www.danzigerprojects.com

Mannerism Versus Modernism

Hans Hoffmann, An Affenpinscher (detail), 1580, watercolor and gouache on vellum. Kasper Collection, New York.

The Morgan Library & Museum presents over one hundred drawings and photographs from the collection assembled by American fashion designer Herbert Kasper—known simply as Kasper. The collection, exceptional for its distinctive character and superb quality, is being exhibited to the public for the first time. Mannerism and Modernism: The Kasper Collection of Drawings and Photographs is being held at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City through May 1st, 2011.

Folk Art: The Clay Skulls of James "Son Ford" Thomas

Photo by William Ferris, 'James "Son Ford" Thomas and Clay Skull, Leland, 1971' Collection of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art

Grave digger, blues musician, and dark, mystic soul of the south, James "Son Ford" Thomas made skulls from clay collected at the banks Mississippi's Yazoo River, often using authentic human teeth. His art mirrored, or was a catharsis, from the constant nearness of death at his job digging graves. "We all end up in the clay" was Thomas' oft quoted philosophy on life. The cemetery was probably a great place to pick up teeth too.  You can find his work at various blues museums throughout the south.

Text by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

For Your Pleasure

Almost 18+ For Your Pleasure

At this years Art Rotterdam TORCH gallery will offer a stage for a special performance and presentation of the project Almost 18+ (for your pleasure) by TINKEBELL. These works display a wryly ironic commentary on the contrast between the worlds of pornography and public debate. Seated in a chair designed by renowned designer Marcel Wanders she will devote her time at the fair embroidering lovely flowers, butterflies and birds on images of humiliated teenage girls. More info here.

Brass Tears: Experpts from the Travel Diaries of Dustin Lynn

Brass Tears: Dustin Lynn
Brass Tears: Dustin Lynn

"And with a soft kiss I bid my adieu to Casa Voyageurs and Casablanca, speeding galliantly towards the Atlas Forrest and the ancient Medina of Fes (Fez) with the Brass Tears of Ted Curson in my ear, seat 5f, compartment 1, express train 119. Enshallah."

Text by Dustin Lynn

Timm Ulrichs: Keep out of the exhibition!

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The Kunstverein Hannover and the Sprengel Museum Hannover present one of the most comprehensive surveys of the work by the concept artist Timm Ulrichs (born 1940). Timm Ulrichs’ oeuvre not only has an undisputed art historical importance, but has also gained a new relevance against the backdrop of contemporary art production. This joint exhibition project is thus not only occasioned by Timm Ulrichs’ 70th birthday and five decades of artistic activities in Hannover, but also by the significance of his work, which is still pertinent in the context of recent contemporary art through the increased recourse to conceptual paradigms. The double exhibition encompasses his early works from the nineteen sixties to recent productions that have been developed especially for this exhibition. November 28, 2010-February 13, 2011 Opening Saturday, November 27, 2010 at 5 pm at the Sprengel Museum Hannover at 7 pm at the Kunstverein Hannover. (SITE)

Tableau Vivant: Ulla von Brandenburg

Ulla von Brandenburg, 'Geister Ghosts,' Image Courtesy of Chisenhale Gallery/ Studio Voltaire

Ulla von Brandenburg's artworks are within the penumbra of tableau vivant, or 'living picture,' a nineteenth century mode of image making that includes costumes, elaborate lighting, and the immutable stillness of one or more actors. Brandenburg was born in Germany in 1978, but now lives and creates in Paris. "Working with drawing, painting, textiles, film and installation von Brandenburg investigates historical socio-cultural practices including the occult, magic, early psychoanalysis and modernist theatre..." Her works are now on display at the London Art Fair - through the 23rd. www.londonartfair.co/uk

Autodidact: Jorge Santos

Jorge Santos-Mail Order Bride

"[Self taught artist] Jorge Santos was born in 1959, and spent his childhood in Luanda, Angola on the coast of Africa. In 1975, Angola exploded in the violent political turmoil of decolonization forcing Santos' family to flee the country. At the formative age of 16, Santos found himself thrust into the equally turbulent and unknown culture of Lisbon, Portugal as that country slid into its own revolution. The national struggle paralleled Santos' own personal one and fueled his passion for drawing. At this early stage, pencil drawing, the most simple and direct form of expression, perfectly suited his complicated and dramatic images and expressed his unique vision." The George Billis Gallery will be presenting works by Jorge Santos at the 2011 Los Angeles Art Show which starts today and ends on January 23rd.

Objet d’Art: Dr. Lakra

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Presented in collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, this will be the first solo exhibition in New York by Mexican tattoo artist Dr. Lakra (b. 1972, Mexico). For this exhibition, Lakra will create a site-specific wall drawing spanning 360 degrees of the gallery, shown alongside works on paper and selections from the artist’s collections of found objects. In these works, Lakra uses drawing as the most immediate artistic impulse to invoke fundamental human urges like sex and violence. Using a range of source material, from anatomy textbooks to magazine pin-ups and comic strips, Lakra looks to Mexican and international art historical traditions, as well as the contemporary iconography of tattoo art and borrows a rich sense of satire from his early interest in cartooning. Creating a transformative visual overload, Lakra merges representation with an invented universe, as works transcend categorization and challenge social norms. Dr. Lakra is on view from February 25 – April 24, 2011 at the Drawing Center in NYC.

Laurel Nakadate: Only the Lonely

Laurel Nakadate is known for her works in video, photography, and feature-length film. This is Nakadate's first large-scale museum exhibition and will feature works made over the last ten years in all three media, including her early video works, in which she was invited into the homes of anonymous men to dance, pose, or even play dead in their kitchens, bedrooms, and living rooms. Laurel Nakadate: Only the Lonely is on view January 23, 2011 - August 8, 2011 at the Moma P.S. 1.

IANNIS XENAKIS: COMPOSER, ARCHITECT, VISIONARY

Iannis Xenakis, 'Philips Pavilion,' 1958 postcard 4 x 6 in. Iannis Xenakis Archives, Bibliothéque nationale de France, Paris

Now on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, this exhibition features the role of drawing in the work of Iannis Xenakis, a major 20th-century figure who brought together architecture, music, and advanced mathematics. A contemporary of fellow avant-garde composers, including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, and John Cage, Xenakis also created revolutionary designs while working with modern architecture pioneer Le Corbusier. Many of Xenakis's innovations in music and architecture were realized first on paper, resulting in hundreds of striking graphic documents that exemplify how the drawing process was used as a means of "thinking through the hand." The exhibition, the first in North America dedicated to Xenakis's original works on paper produced between 1953 and 1984, includes more than 60 rarely seen musical scores, architectural drawings, conceptual renderings, and samplings of his innovative graphic notation. Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary is on view at the MOCA through Feb 4th, 2011.

X-Ray Art: Nick Veasy

Nick Veasy "The Finger"

In a "world obsessed with image," UK based artist Nick Veasy is on a peregrination to find the beauty so rumored to be only "skin deep." In a mysterious, fortified radiation safe structure called "the black box" is where Veasy creates most of his X-Ray images. The above fuck you image entitled "The Finger" and other works by Veasy will be on display at the the 11th Annual Los Angeles Art Show that runs from Jan. 19th to the 23rd. www.nickveasy.com

Performance Art: Chris Burden

"747" January 5, 1973 Los Angeles, California, at about 8am at a beach near the Los Angeles International Airport, I fired several shots with a pistol at a Boeing 747.

In 1971, during one of his most famous pieces, Chris Burden had his assistant shoot him in the arm from a distance of 5 meters with a riffle. “At 7:45 P.M. I was shot in the left arm by a friend. The bullet was a copper jacket .22 long rifle. My friend was standing about fifteen feet from me.” His life is seemingly an extreme case of Dadaist impulses and an insatiable thirst for danger; as well as the warm hard-on milking of the brain for adrenaline. Burden currently lives and works in Los Angeles.  You can find a book, an overview, of his works, here.