A pop-up exhibition and zine release by UK photographer Dan Boulton showing work from his long term project documenting the skateboards at London's notorious rough and ready Southbank. On view for one night, August 24, at Book and Job Gallery, 838 Geary Street, San Francisco.
American Sugar, a solo exhibition by J.M. Giordana, takes a confrontational look at America's addiction to sugar, sex, and insulin. Giordino's photographs and sculptures are also aiming to reintroduce "pop" to Balitmore's art scene. American Sugar is on view until August 31, at CA Gallery, 440 E Oliver Street Baltimore, Maryland
Cindy Sherman's amazing retrospective is currently on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
On view now at Galerie Piece Unique in Paris Marcello Cinque's giant octopus sculpture that fills almost the entirety of the space. In his monochrome sculptures, white, black, red or blue, Marcello Cinque experiments new materials such as elastic paint and sponge rubber. This material, being able to wrap and roll around itself as if squeezed out of a thick tube of paint, can create real “post-lunar” forms which nullify the laws of gravity. On view until Setember 8, 2012 at Galerie Piece Unique 4 Rue Jacques Callot, Paris.
Peres Project, Il Giardino dei Lauri and Citta' della Pieve are present Alex Israel's first solo show in Italy, at the Museo Civico Diocesano di S. Maria dei Servi in Citta' della Pieve (PG), Umbria until October 1st, 2012. Continuing with Property, an ongoing body-of-work, Israel has rented his newest prop sculptures from the legendary Italian film studio Cinecittà. He selected an array of replica Styrofoam and fiberglass antiquities and objects, iconic and anonymous, drawn from an amalgam of cultures, eras, and narratives, and composed them in dialogue with each other and with the unique venue.
In-your-face, achingly simple, deceptively frank, the work of Christopher Wool is so very New York. Though he owes a debt to abstract expressionism and pop art, he completely transcends—even demolishes—these genres. Whether it’s a text-based painting or an abstract spray-painted piece, his work is immediately engaging. Wool questions painting, like many other artists in his generation, but he doesn’t provide any easy answers. “The harder you look the harder you look,” he puts it in one of his word paintings, and that is an excellent example of how he states the obvious whilst provoking us to think deeper about what seems obvious. This September a new monograph will be available on Taschen – In over 400 pages, all of Wool's work phases are covered in large-scale reproductions, accompanied by production Polaroids and installation photos by Wool himself. Essays and analyses by Glenn O’Brien, Jim Lewis, Ann Goldstein, Anne Pontégnie, Richard Hell, and Eric Banks.
Josh Nemec is a San Francisco based artist. This Friday his exhibition, entitled Hero Complex, which "depicts the psychological and social responses of a nation obsessed with heroism," will be on view at Book and Job gallery in San Francisco. Complex will on view for one night August 17 , 2012 at Book and Job gallery, 838 Geary Street, San Francisco.
The Hole gallery in New York presents an end of summer exhibition by artist and musician Adam Green. Green will fill the galleries with painting, sculpture, and his feature-length film The Wrong Ferrari screened on continuous loop in Gallery 3. Houseface will be on view August 16 through August 25, 2012 at The Hole, 312 Bowery Street, New York
Carolee Schneemann is a pioneer in many artistic disciplines. Having consistently challenged concepts of sexuality and gender identity in the fields of painting, sculpture, installation art, video art and, most importantly, performance with key works such as Meat Joy (1964) and Interior Scroll (1975), Schneemann broke new grounds within the Happening and performance fields subverting taboos facing women artists in the 60s and 70s. Schneemann will install three major video installations at during this year’s Summerhall Festival in Edinburgh– ‘Precarious‘ (2009), ‘Devour‘ (2003) and ‘Infinity Kisses – The Movie‘ (2008) as well as displaying a never before exhibited photographic series where she performed ice skating naked in London while holding her cat.
Artist Barbara Kruger's installation at the Hirshhorn Center on view now.
Artist Benjamin Hollingsworth will be having a show with Christopher Lusher at Blank Gallery in West Virginia on August 10. Photograph by Christopher Lusher
Disasterland is Mexican artist Rodolfo Loaiza's tribute to pop culture, fashion, animation, horror films and the undeniable attraction of celebrity. The stage is set for fantasy to collapse and surrender to the inevitable apocalypse of 21st century Hollywood. Fairytale characters continue to dominate his latest project –this time caught in the headlines of our favorite tabloid stars. Continuing his penchant for cleverly depicting the "uncouth" customs of our dichotomous society, Rodolfo explores what would happen to our fables if they were flesh and blood and confronted with the frenetic and excessive world of fame. Who among them would prove susceptible to the excesses of drugs, alcohol, harassment or vanity? On view through September 2 at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, 4633 Hollywood Blvd, CA.
LA-based duo Io Echo is playing tomorrow, August 9 at Dilettante - featuring a special screening of the new short film by Harmony Korine Caput. Caput is scored in part by Io Echo. RSVP to io.echo.la@gmail.com, Dilettante 120 North Santa Fe Avenue, Los Angeles
A beautiful portrait of Lee Miller by Man Ray. Man Ray |Lee Miller: Partners in Surrealism consists of approximately 115 photographs, paintings, drawings and manuscripts that explore the creative interaction between Man Ray and Lee Miller, two giants of European Surrealism. This is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on the pair’s artistic relationship. On view at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco until October 14, 2012.
Aviator Mirrors by Nigel Coates available at Grey Area
Exhibition view of Yayoi Kusama's Guidepost to the New Space. To mark Kusama’s retrospective at the Whitney, the Museum has collaborated with the Hudson River Park Trust and Gagosian Gallery to present a special art project near the Whitney Museum’s new building site in the Meatpacking District.
Elad Lassry, Women (065, 055), 2012. Part of HIGH LINE BILLBOARD. Installation view, Edison Properties, West 18th Street at 10th Avenue, New York. On view August 1 – September 7, 2012. Photograph by Austin Kennedy. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line.
Installation view of Patrick Carpentier's piece, Somewhere, at the 8th annual Biennial of Photography and Visual Art of Liège
Never before published in its entirety in English, The Address Book is a key and controversial work in Sophie Calle’s oeuvre. Having found a lost address book on the street in Paris, Calle copied the pages before returning it anonymously to its owner. She then embarked on a search to come to know this stranger by contacting listed individuals—in essence, following him through the map of his acquaintances. Her written accounts of these encounters with friends, family and colleagues—juxtaposed with Calle’s photographs—originally appeared as serial in the newspaper Libération over the course of one month in 1983. As the entries accumulate, so do the vivid impressions of the address book’s owner, Pierre D., while also suggesting ever more complicated stories as information is gifted, parsed, and withheld by the people she encounters.hen Pierre D. learned about the work and its appearance in the newspaper, he threatened to sue (and demanded that Libérationpublish nude photographs of Calle as a reciprocal invasion of privacy). Calle agreed not to republish the work until after his death. Part conceptual art, part character study, part confession, part essay, The Address Book is, above all, a prism through which desire and the elusory, persona and identity, the private and the public, knowledge and the unknown are refracted in luminous and provocative ways. The Address Book can be purchased here.
You probably haven't heard the one about the artist and the Russian millionaire sitting at a bar, right? No, you probably haven't. If you happen to be in New York City please kindly check your wallet – any recent single dollar bills you might have received as change might be a collectable piece of artwork worth up to $2,000. Artist Skye Nicolas' curious new series, featuring a small heart with the words "Buy Some Love" stamped on a U.S. dollar bill, is currently circulating through Manhattan. These specially marked dollar bills are being collected and swooped up by the likes of art collectors and notable fashion personalities. So, the one about the artist and the Russian – an allegory on Nicolas' website describes a little more about the series: "An artist and a wealthy Russian art collector were having drinks at a hotel bar after having attended an art auction earlier that evening. Upon paying for their beverages, an unusual dollar bill slips out of the artist’s wallet that catches the ever curious eye of the wealthy art collector. 'What’s this?' he inquired, picking up the crisp dollar bill. 'New work' said the artist smiling. The back of the fresh note had been embellished with a small red heart, ink-stamped right at the center of the U.S. dollar note. It simply read 'Buy some Love', rendered in a pleasing greeting-card-like font. The art collector paused to relish this playful little piece of art that he now carefully held with the tip of his fingers at the edges. It began to tickle his impulsive art buying senses, activating a familiar excitement that stimulated his voracity and passion for art collecting. 'I love it!' he declared. 'It’s simple, incredibly witty, and says so many things on so many levels. How much?', he asked the artist as he sifted through his luxurious but slightly tacky calf skin leather wallet. 'I have… five hundred, fifty-three dollars! Please, I must have this.'' "Buy Some Love" is a unique statement on the reassignment of monetary value and a deafening critique of the current world of art collecting and how not impervious the super wealthy are to the mysterious charm of trendy modern art. Skye Nicolas, who was born in Manila in 1974 and lives and works in New York, wonders further: "If a dollar bill was purchased for five hundred dollars as a work of art, would a hundred dollar bill stamped with the same little red heart be worth five thousand?" A word to New Yorkers: if you happen to find one these dollar bills hold on to it! A word to wealthy art collectors in New York City – Skye Nicolas might have taken your wallet. Text by Oliver Maxwell Kupper for Pas Un Autre