Jews and Midcentury Modernism

Princess Phone, by Henry Dreyfuss

Both native-born artists and émigrés, most of whom made indelible contributions to American visual culture after fleeing Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in the 1930s, will be highlighted. The exhibition will underscore that these designers, individually talented as they were, did not work in isolation, and that their impact on American architecture and design was rooted in the networks they forged, influential schools and artist colonies they helped found, museum initiatives they shaped, and corporations they modernized with new products, buildings, and advertising campaigns. Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism will be on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum from April 24 to October 16, 2014, 736 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA.

Julian Meagher @ Merry Karnowsky Gallery

Julian Meagher’s most recent collection of paintings emerged from a chance encounter with a scuba diver hunting for discarded longnecks that litter the seabeds of Sydney Harbor. Ghostly glass artifacts of past foreshore carousing,these salvaged vessels prompted the artist to explore the binary nature of modern masculinity through the tinted glass of inherited history. Pairing still lifes of reclaimed bottles with intergenerational male figure studies, Meagher examines the subtle shades of masculine strength and fragility that underlie the peculiar compulsion of Australian drinking culture. The Sky Still Breaks will be on view from April 5 to May 5 at Merry Kanowsky Gallery, 170 S. La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California. 

"An Idea of Beauty" at Center for Contemporary Culture

Modernity carries alienation and mistrust, as we are increasingly mistrustful of our senses. Beauty no longer carries the same weight as it once did, but eight artists attempt new reflections on the qualities and possibilities of "beauty". Including Vanessa Beecroft, Chiara Camoni, Andreas Gefeller, Alicja Kwade, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Isabel Rocamora, Anri Sala and Wilhelm Sasnal. An Idea of Beauty will be on view until June 28 at Palazzo Strozzi, 50123 Firenze, Italy. Text and photography by Yanyan Huang. 

Support Birdshit

Inspired by Chekhov's The Seagull with elements of Ginsberg's Kaddish, BirdShit is a multimedia performance piece that combines theater, dance, video, live and pre-recorded music, and a few surprise elements. BirdShit has been commandeered by artist and musician, Nina Ljeti, choreographer, Chloe Kernaghan, and NYU Graduate Film students Joshua Richards, Zach Kershberg and Tine Thomasen, under the guidance of James Franco. Go here to donate.

[photos] Kenneth Anger Icons @ Sprüth Magers London

Sprüth Magers London is delighted to present an exhibition of work by the iconic filmmaker and artist Kenneth Anger, in his second solo show at the London gallery. Icons will bring together an archive of photographs, scrapbooks, letters and memorabilia from Anger’s personal collection, offering an insight into the unique vision of an artist widely acclaimed as a pioneering and influential force in avant-garde cinema, whose influence extends through generations of film makers, musicians and artists. Icons will be on view until April 20, 2013 at Sprüth Magers, Address 7A Grafton Street, London. Photographs by Adarsha Benjamin. 

Inevitable Figuration at the PECCI Center

Inevitable Figuration at the PECCI Center for Contemporary Art

A selection of painters from 1960s to the present. Painters draw upon the past while experimenting with present challenges to image-making. Curated by Marco Bazzini and David Ferri. Works by Richard Aldrich, Mamma Andersson, Helene Appel, Michael Bauer, Luca Bertolo, Joe Bradley, Peter Linde Busk, Pierpaolo Campanini, William Daniels, Avner Ben-Gal, Thomas Helbig, Merlin James, Rezi van Lankveld, Katy Moran, Marco Neri, Alessandro Pessoli, Tal R, and Matthias Weischer. On view from March 24 to July 8, 2013 at Pecci Center for Contemporary Art, Prato. Viale della Repubblica, 277. Text by Yanyan Huang and photograph by Marco Annunziata

Paddle 8 Holds Auction To Support Friends in Deed

Paddle 8 Holds Auction To Support Friends in Deed cecil_beaton

Virtual auction house Paddle 8 is currently holding a sale to support Friends In Deed. The sale includes a number of recognized artists and works from the Friends In Deed archive, including some stunning photographs by David Armstrong, Cecil Beaton, Robert Mapplethorpe, Bert Stern and more. Friends In Deed is a crisis center providing emotional and spiritual support for anyone with a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS, cancer or other life-threatening physical illnesses, any caregivers, family and friends of those who are ill, and anyone dealing with grief and bereavement. All of their services are free of charge. Bidding is now open and ends April 8th at 3pm EST (sign up or registernow to access bidding).

The Player at Museo Marini Marino

The Player (journey into contemporary passions) is a small selection comprising of international mid-career artists from the collection of Sandra and Giancarlo Bonollo. Comprising of philosophically intimate objects effused with the theme of travel. Globes positioned in a snail-shell whirl espouse many-worlds theories, as do photographs of allegorical space and time. Quietly haunting, the show is an orchestration of journeys and possibilities. This journey takes you across invisible borders, across separate timelines and back again. The Player will be on view until April 6 2013, at Museo Marini Marino, Piazza san Pancrazio, 50123 Florence, Italy. Text and photography by Yanyan Huang

Rita Ackermann's "Negative Muscle" at Hauser & Wirth

In Rita Ackermann's art, the systematic and the accidental are kept in a state of constant dialogue and debate. Balance and the effort to achieve it have become the main focus of her process, and a kind of magical flux has become both the subject and condition of her art. Nowhere is the alchemy of Ackermann's work more vivid than in the group of seventeen paintings made between the years of 2010 and 2013 and presented in Negative Muscle, the artist's first exhibition with Hauser & Wirth in New York, opening 5 March 2013.The exhibition takes its title from the very first painting Ackermann made following an intensive collaboration with filmmaker Harmony Korine on 'Shadow Fux', their 2010 exhibition of jointly-made collages at the Swiss Institute of Contemporary Art, New York NY. Negative Muscle will be on view until April 20. 2013 at Hauser & Wirth, 32 East 69th Street, New York. photographs by Annabel Graham

Reckless Project No. 1 With Oliver Osbourne @ Cura

Reckless_Project_With_Oliver_Osbourne_Cura

Cura is a magazine, publishing house, and project space. British artist Oliver Osborne shows his leafy paintings for Cura's inaugural basement show. Reckless Project No. 1 with Guest Oliver Osbourne will be on view until March 25, 2013 at Cura, via Ricciotti, 4, Rome. Text by Yanyan Huang and photograph by Marco Annunziata