WHITNEY BIENNIAL 2012

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Charles Atlas (b. 1949). Still from Turning (live mix) with Antony and the Johnsons, 2004. Image courtesy the artist and Vilma Gold, London

Sculpture, painting, installations, and photography—as well as dance, theater, music, and film—will fill the galleries of the Whitney Museum of American Art in the latest edition of the Whitney Biennial. With a roster of artists at all points in their careers the Biennial provides a look at the current state of contemporary art in America. This is the seventy-sixth in the ongoing series of Biennials and Annuals presented by the Whitney since 1932, two years after the Museum was founded.

Allegoria Sacra

The Art Gallery presents the Australian premiere of Allegoria Sacra by the internationally celebrated artist collective AES+F. This spectacular video work is, in essence, a digital painting which seduces and overwhelms the viewer through its visual and aural splendor. Allegoria Sacra is inspired and named after a painting by the Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, which is believed to represent purgatory. In purgatory all souls wait for the Last Judgment. For AES+F, the modern international airport, as a place where people are suspended in time and place, is the contemporary allegory for purgatory. Allegoria Sacra (see trailer after the jump) is now on view until June 3, 2012 at The Art Gallery of South Australia.

Richard Prince & Picasso

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Artist Richard Prince stands in front of one his paintings at the Museo Picasso Málaga for an exhibition entitled Prince/Picasso.  No other contemporary artist could reinterpret Picasso in this particular way. Prince "approaches Picasso by using a tactic of radical cannibalisation of the artist, causing the spectator to feel alienated. By distancing us in this way, we are warned to revise our perceptions and conventional views on sexuality, eroticism and desire." Price/Picasso is on view at the Museo Picasso Málaga until May 27, Palacio de Buenavista San Agustín,8  29015 Málaga, Spain

Lise Sarfati: On Hollywood

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The Rose Gallery in Los Angeles is currently presenting two exhibitions of photographs by Paris based Lise Sarfati.  On view now until March 26, a series of photographs, entitled On Hollywood, is a unique and intimate survey of women in and around Hollywood and starting March 31, another series that explores the identity of women in a post-modern suburban landscape, entitled She, will be on view until May 8, 2012. Visit the Rose Gallery to learn more.

Word Above the Street

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A rendering of work for the Water Tank Project, featuring art by Ed Ruscha

Word Above the Street, a New York-based non-profit organisation, plans to transform 300 rooftop water tanks across New York City into works of art to raise awareness on the global water supply. For 12 weeks during the spring and summer of 2013, the Water Tank Project will host works by artists including Ed Ruscha, Lawrence Weiner, Tony Oursler, Marilyn Minter and Carrie Mae Weems, as well as rapper Jay-Z.

Warhol 15 Minutes Eternal

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Its been 25 years today since Andy Warhol died in a New York hospital and he still permeates popular culture.  This year we will see an explosion of Warhol related exhibitions and retrospective due to the anniversary of his death. On view now the MMK in Frankfurt, Warhol: Headlines, is the first exhibition to cover this type of subject in his oeuvre. Starting in March Affirmation Arts in New York will presentConfections and Confessions, which will include over 50 rare and unique photographs of the artist.  And also starting in March a massive retrospective exhibition of Andy Warhol's artwork will tour five Asian cities over the next three years – Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal will open in Singapore first and then to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing in 2013 and Tokyo in 2014.

Bruce LaBruce's Obscenity Show Hugely Controversial

With a priest's face suggestively covered in semen, actress Rosy DePalm biting down on a rosary, and naked nuns, Bruce LaBruce's new show at LaFresh Gallery in Madrid is inciting immense fury among Catholics and conservatives who are calling the exhibition of 50 photographs blasphemous and depraved. See photos from the show and protesters after the jump. "Obscenity" will be on view until April 4, 2012 at LaFresh Gallery in Madrid, Conde de Aranda, 5 28001.

The Aesthetics of The Photobooth

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When the first photobooths were set up in Paris in 1928, the Surrealists used them heavily and compulsively. In a few minutes, and for a small price, the machine offered them, through a portrait, an experience similar to automatic writing. Since then, generations of artists have been fascinated by the concept of the photobooth. From Andy Warhol to Arnulf Rainer, Thomas Ruff, Cindy Sherman and Gillian Wearing, many used it to play with their identity, tell stories, or simply create worlds. Behind the Curtain - the Aesthetics of the Photobooth, an exhibition created by the Musée de l’Elysée, is the first to focus on the aesthetics of the photobooth. It is divided into six major themes: the booth, the automated process, the strip, who am I ?, who are you ?, who are we ?. Provider of standardized legal portraits, it is the ideal tool for introspection and reflection on others, whether individually or in groups. By bringing together over 600 pieces made on different media (photographs, paintings, lithographs and videos) from sixty international artists, the exhibition reveals the influence of the photobooth within the artistic community, from its inception to the present day.

Art of Elysium's PIECES OF HEAVEN Auction

Chris Heads, UNTITLED 11, 2011

The Art of Elysium, which bridges philanthropy with contemporary art, will be holding an auction, in partnership with Christies, on February 23 entitled Pieces of Heaven, featuring an amazing array of artists from Andy Warhol to Pas Un Autre's very own Adarsha Benjamin. February 23, Smashbox Studios, 1011 N. Fuller Avenue Hollywood, California 90046

Worn to be Wild: The Black Leather Jacket

A notable upcoming travelling exhibit has just been announced at the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin which pays tribute to the black leather jacket. The exhibit, entitled Worn to be Wild: The Black Leather Jacket, will explore its roots from being worn by aviators during WWI, to bikers, to its modern-day designs from fashion houses such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Gianni Versace. The exhibition will run June 16 to September 3, 2012 at the Harley Davidson Museum.

Making Faces

Portland, Maine – On view at the Portland Museum of Art, two newly acquired portfolios by Berenice Abbott and Robert Doisneau, filled with portraits of famous artists and actors of the mid-20th century, prompted this look at the art of photographic portraiture. Drawn from the Museum’s growing collection of celebrity portraits, the exhibition of 35 works will examine the way in which appearance, poses, and props help to define the public perception of an artist’s work, whether it be on the stage or in a museum. Making Faces: Photographic Portraits of Actors and Artists is on view until April 8 at the Portland Museum of Art, Seven Congress Square, Portland, Maine.

Mike Kelley Dead From Apparent Suicide

Pictured above, Abbey Meaker photographs a piece by Mike Kelley at Art Basel Miami last December. Mike Kelley, who has reportedly ended his own life at 57 years old, was an artist with an outsider spirit who found himself not only on the inside of the art world, but on the top, and found it too hard a cross to bear. Kelley's work involved found objects, textile banners, drawings, assemblage, collage, performance and video. He often worked collaboratively and had done projects with artists Paul McCarthy, Tony Oursler and John Miller. Kelley was often associated with the concept of abjection, "the state of being cast off." Photograph by Natalia Vuley.

John Cage Turns 100

Art by Daniel B. Sierra

American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist John Cage, who died in 1992, would have been 100 this year and there are a slew of events to celebrate the centenary – including EVERYDAYJOHNCAGE in the city of Rimini, Italy where every single day of 2012 from January 1st to December 31st a viral system distributes publicly and privately, fragments and materials related to John Cage, and  an exhibition entitled Things Not Seen Before: A Tribute to John Cage, a visual art exhibition at Tempus Projects, organized by Independent Curator Jade Dellinger. Inspired by a line from a letter the curator (as a student – in the late 1980’s) received from the late, great composer concerning the work of Marcel Duchamp, Cage noted: “I am not interested in the names of movements but rather in seeing and making things not seen before.” Visit www.johncage.org to see all events.

LES AMIES DE PLACE BLANCHE

Originally published in 1983, Les Amies de Place Blanche, rereleased by Dewi Lewis Publishing, focuses on the transsexual community living around the Place Blanche district of Paris in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The book established Christer Strömholm’s reputation as one of the leading photographers of the twentieth century. ‘This is a book about insecurity. A portrayal of those living a different life in that big city of Paris, of people who endured the roughness of the streets. This is a book about humiliation, about the smell of whores and night life in cafés. This is a book about the quest for self-identity, about the right to live, about the right to own and control one’s own body. This is also a book about friendship, an account of the life we lived in the place Blanche and place Pigalle neighbourhood. Its market, its boulevard and the small hotels we resided in. These are pictures from another time. A time when de Gaulle was president and France was at war against Algeria. These are pictures of people whose lives I shared and whom I think I understood. These are pictures of women – biologically born as men – that we call ‘transsexuals’. As for me, I call them ‘my friends of place Blanche’. This friendship started here, in the early 60s and it has been going on for 22 years.’ – Christer Strömholm, 1983. The book includes the original essays by Strömholm and publisher Johan Ehrenberg as well as newly commissioned texts by Jackie and Nana, two of the women who feature in many photographs in the book. The introduction is by Hélène Hazera, a leading French journalist, actress, director, and television producer who is also a transsexual. Available now in the UK and in the US next month.