Walking Piece

Walking Piece, 1966 / Image courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio inc.

Yayoi Kusama in one of her performance art pieces entitled Walking Piece. Stay tuned for an interview and more photos of Yayoi Kusama in the upcoming issue of AUTRE - out this week. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter to find a copy!

Parra

With its vibrant color, curvaceous lines, and eccentric, distinctive imagery, the bold and playful work of Dutch graphic artist Parra has garnered a substantial cult following since it first appeared in the 1990s. Parra's cartoonlike, hybridized characters and free-form typography have become iconic, while his hand-drawn approach to graphic design has landed him high-profile collaborations with companies like Nike and InCase. For this exhibition, his first in a U.S. museum, Parra is taking over SFMOMA's second-floor landing with an expansive mural that showcases his irrepressible post-Pop design style. On view until July 29, 2012.

MIMMO ROTELLA Retrospective

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Mimmo Rotella was perhaps the very first street artist. His art is shown and exhibited around the world, but in 1951 Rotella (born in Catanzaro, Calabria, 1918; died in Milan 2006) was one of the first to turn the language of art upside down by using materials from the urban environment, particularly advertising posters, which he collected then changed by lacerating them. Mimmo Rotella is thoroughly avant-­‐garde. In 1949, while he was searching for new forms of self-­‐expression, he even invented a phonetic poetry made up of sounds and words without any sense, for which he coined the term “épistaltique language." He spent time as an artist in residence in the United States, where he met Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Pollock and Kline. He was later to meet de Kooning and Rothko in Rome in 1960. But in 1953 he underwent a crisis during which he stopped painting, saying that “everything in art has already been done." It was in 1954 that he had what he called a “Zen illumination." He discovered the advertising poster as a means of expression and invented the tearing method that he was to use for the rest of his life. By carrying out what he called “double décollage” – first detaching the poster from the wall, then tearing it in his studio. A retrospective of Mimmo Rotella will be on view at the Tornabuoni Art Gallery in Paris from March 30 to June 9, 2012

Warhol and Cars: American Icons

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Warhol and Cars: American Icons is the first exhibition to examine Warhol’s enduring fascination with automotive vehicles as products of American consumer society. This exhibition features more than forty drawings, paintings, photographs, and related archival material spanning from 1946 to 1986 include the famous BMW M-1 racing car that was hand-painted by Warhol. Warhol and Cars: American Icons is on view at the Andy Warhol Museum on May 13, 2012.

ELIZABETH PEYTON at Regen Projects

Elizabeth Peyton, What Wondrous Thing Do I See (Lohengrin; Jonas Kaufman), 2012

Regen Projects announces a solo exhibition of new works by Elizabeth Peyton. For her sixth show with the gallery, Peyton will show paintings, works on paper, and prints (etching and monotypes). Her work has included portraits of artists, musicians, historical figures, occasional athletes, and more recently still lifes, all derived from life or from photos. The show will be on view April 6 to May 12 at Regen Projects - 9016 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA.

Love, Life, & Fashion

Two of the most important people in fashion and design today, Ruben and Isabel Toledo have just released a book which "is a rare look into the mind, life, and journey of one of our generation’s most coveted fashion designers, Isabel Toledo. From the nostalgic and permanent in­fluence of her upbringing in Cuba and the serendipitous love that materialized her vision and fueled her conviction, to the timeless mark she continues to make on the fashion industry....." Ruben who translates Isabel's visions into illustration which then bring her designs to life, first laid eyes on each other since they were thirteen, have been collaborating for over two decades and their romance and love has offered an explosion of creativity. The book, entitled Roots of Style: Weaving Together Life, Love, and Fashion is available now.

Clifford Owens Demands Sex from Audience at MoMA PS1

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This is the last weekend to see Clifford Owens first exhibition, entitled Anthology, at a New York museum – MoMA PS1 – which is comprised of photography, video, and live performance. Anthology features performances scores—written or graphical instructions for actions—that Owens solicited from a multigenerational group of African-American artists. Twenty-six major artists have contributed scores, nearly all of whom composed new works specifically for Owens and his project. This weekend will prove especially challenging when he will "demand sex" from the audience/viewer. This Sunday, for his last performance, Kara Walker has written the score: "French kiss an audience member. Force them against a wall and demand Sex. The audience/viewer should be an adult. If they are willing to participate in the forced sex act abruptly turn the tables and you assume the role of victim. Accuse your attacker. Seek help from others, describe your ordeal. Repeat."  Clifford Owen's performance commences at 3 p.m. on the second floor of MoMA PS1 this Sunday, March 12. 

Paradise Lost

Raymond Unger, born in Hamburg, Germany, who comes from a family of well known painters and is well know for his fantastical, palette knife style, stands in front of his painting Paradise Lost which won the 2011 International Lucas Cranach prize. The painting will be on view as part of a group exhibition of the winners of the prize which is awarded every three years. The theme for 2011 was "human images" and dealt with societal satire and surreal alienation. The exhibition will be on view from March 9 to May 13 at the Cranach Foundation in Wittenberg, Germany.