The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz

In December 2010, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington made headlines when it responded to protests from the Catholic League by voluntarily censoring an excerpt of David Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly from its show on American portraiture. Why a work of art could stir such emotions is at the heart of Cynthia Carr's Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz, the first biography of a beleaguered art-world figure who became one of the most important voices of his generation. Wojnarowicz emerged from a Dickensian childhood that included orphanages, abusive and absent parents, and a life of hustling on the street. He first found acclaim in New York's East Village, a neighborhood noted in the 1970s and '80s for its abandoned buildings, junkies, and burgeoning art scene. Along with Keith Haring, Nan Goldin, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Wojnarowicz helped redefine art for the times. As uptown art collectors looked downtown for the next big thing, this community of cultural outsiders was suddenly thrust into the national spotlight. The ensuing culture war, the neighborhood's gentrification, and the AIDS crisis then devastated the East Village scene. Wojnarowicz died of AIDS in 1992 at the age of thirty-seven. Carr's brilliant biography traces the untold story of a controversial and seminal figure at a pivotal moment in American culture. Available now.

L'Enfant Terrible Adam Cullen Dead at 46

L'Enfant terrible Australian artist Adam Cullen is dead at 46.  He had stated that he had painted to the music of punk bands such as the Meat Puppets, Black Flag and the Butthole Surfers. Cullen painted such things as dead cats, 'bloodied' kangaroos, headless women and punk men, many of which represent what he termed "Loserville".

Cross Pollination: The Art of Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Throughout his creative life, Lawrence Ferlinghetti (b. 1919) has drawn inspiration from themes that have inspired artists for centuries. This exhibition will focus on some of the major areas of inspiration in Ferlinghetti’s work, reflected in writings, paintings, and graphic works. The four themes include: 1) Her-Woman, the Sea, Liberation/Pacifism and Art and Literature. With assistance from City Lights publishers, poems and text will accompany the visual art. Cross Pollination: The Art of Lawrence Ferlinghetti will be on view until September 23, 2012 at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art,  551 Broadway, Sonoma, California

JILL MAGID: The Status of the Shooter

Yvon Lambert gallery presents The Status of the Shooter, the third solo exhibition of the american artist Jill Magid. The exhibition will take place at the Yvon Lambert Gallery until the 28th of July 2012. The Status of the Shooter is the search for a body amid the moral panic and institutional response to a school shooting. Galerie Yvon Lambert, 108 rue Vieille du Temple, Paris

CLAXONS

Haunch of Venison presents Claxons, a group show curated by art critic Walter Robinson. The show will feature works by ceramic artist Elisabeth Kley, glass artist John Drury, painter Robert Goldman and Robinson. The exhibition aims to present underrepresented artists with an idiosyncratic sensibility. The title of the show Claxons (or loud horns) refers to the idea that artists create dissonance and cacophony. “It’s about letting oneself be carried along by events rather than trying to steer a clear path,” explained Robinson. “Each artist’s work is disturbed, either through subject matter that focuses on outcasts or through execution of materiality.” Claxons will be on view until August 17 at Haunch of Venison, Chelsea, 550 West 21st Street

Mauricio Guillén: Avenida Progreso

The work of the Mexican-born artist Mauricio Guillén (b. 1971) encompasses film, photography, text works and objects. Guillén combines personal experience with the conceptual strategies he uses to explore how images and language influence our understanding of culture and history. The chief focus of the exhibition at the MMK Zollamt will be Guillén’s most recent 16-mm black-and-white film "Avenida Progreso", for which he returned to Mexico City, where he spent his childhood and teenage years. The film story leads the viewer through the districts of Polanco, Irrigación and Oceanía to the end of the Avenida Progreso. A professor of philosophy and aesthetics is the main protagonist in this anachronistic journey along streets of which many bear the names of such European philosophers and literary figures as Goethe, Byron, Marx, Tolstoi and Aristoteles. In this film, Guillén investigates social and cultural differences within a society that is undergoing a process of change but nevertheless still reflects the impact of the cultural import brought about by colonization. Questions about the emergence and distribution of knowledge and education in society are of key importance to the artist’s work. The film will be supplemented by photographs and text works.
 Opening Friday July 27 at the MMK Zollamt, Domstraße 10 60311 Frankfurt, Germany, 

Love, Commas and Asterisks

Blum & Poe and legendary musician Van Dyke Parks present a selection of work by Maurizio Vetrugno, his first one-person exhibition in Los Angeles. Vetrugno’s practice alters everyday objects, such as cloth and tools, into wry commentary on popular culture of a bygone era. Hand-made, embroidered textiles, woven in Laos, depict the distinctive designs of vinyl record sleeves from the 1950s-1980s. The selected album covers reference the legacies of exotica, modernism, glam rock and the golden age of graphic design in music. Fashion has been a continuing influence on Vetrugno’s work, as exemplified in his female portraits woven in monochromatic hues of blue and green. Sources for these works derive from black and white images taken from fashion magazines of the same time period as the album covers. Models such as Twiggy evoke mid-century popular culture and become self-referential in the works -- the cloth “wears” the model. There is a lushness and preciousness to these labor-intensive textiles, whose technique co-opts and contradicts the Pop content. Maurizio Vetrugno: Love, Commas and Asterisks will be on view until August 25, 2012 at Blum & Poe, 2727 S. La Cienega, BLVD

Mark Flood The Hateful Years

On view this month at Luxembourg & Dayan gallery in New York, works by Punk propagandist Mark Flood who has been making art for the last three decades in his unique style of commentary on contemporary culture that is both shocking and witty. The show, entitled Mark Flood: The Hateful Years will be on view from July 18 through September 29, Luxembourg & Dayan, 64 E 77th St

Jenny Holzer SOPHISTICATED DEVICES @ Sprueth Magers

Sprüth Magers London presents a solo exhibition of work by Jenny Holzer. The American artist finds ways to make narrative a part of visual objects, employing an innovative range of materials and presentations to confront emotions and experiences, politics and conflict. Entitled Sophisticated Devices, this exhibition provides a survey of Holzer’s practice, encompassing her spray paint canvases, granite benches, LED works, painted signs, and cast plaques. Sophisticated Devices is on view until July 28 at Sprüth Magers, 7A Grafton Street, London

Brett Whiteley’s London Years

Brett Whitley's Studio

A new exhibition explores the late artist Brett Whiteley’s art and life from 1960 to 1967 when he was largely based in London. Key abstract works from this period as well as paintings from his Bathroom, Christie and London Zoo series, and the Endlessnessism monoprints of conversations with the artist Francis Bacon are featured in this exhibition at the Brett Whiteley Studio in Surry Hills, Australia. This remarkable body of work displays all the dexterity, imagination and ambition of a prodigious talent still in his 20s. On view from Jul 13, 2012 to February 13, 2013, The Brett Whiteley Studio at 2 Raper Street, Surry Hills, Australia