On Saturday, November 12, renowned performance artist Marina Abramović brought her manifesto to Grand Avenue, as the artistic director of MOCA’s 2011 gala, An Artist’s Life Manifesto. Abramović arrived with 85 performers to serve as human centerpieces on dinner tables and enough white lab coats, her prescribed gala-tent attire, to outfit the 750 guests who attended.
Painting by Annabel Graham
Stephen Friedman Gallery presents an exhibition of early and recent work by Catherine Opie. Opie is considered to be one of the most important American photographers of her generation. This is her fourth solo exhibition at the gallery and follows her highly acclaimed solo mid-career surveys at the Guggenheim, New York in 2008-2009 and at the ICA, Boston, earlier this year. Shown here for the very first time is an early group of portraits from the artist's black and white 'Girlfriends' series and a major new body of landscape photographs, taken at sea. On view until January 23, Stephen Friedman Gallery, 25-28 Old Burlington Street, London.
New Photographers presents five artists exhibiting in New York for the first time. The artists are not linked thematically or stylistically, but what they have in common is their distinctive approach to photography and the originality of their images. In this show, each body of work creates its own context. Artists include CHRIS LEVINE, YUJI OBATA, SCHELTENS AND ABBENES, PATRICK SMITH, TEREZA VLCKOVA. New Photographers is on view at the Danziger Gallery, January 12 through February 25, 527 West 23rd Street, New York.
The Woodsist record label announces the upcoming release of the fourth album by mysterious U.K. based, lo-fi act The Doozer. The Woodsist record label, which was started by one of the founding members of the Brooklyn based band the Woods, is a making a name for itself in the dissemination of low fidelity, folksy acts such as Kurt Vile and Sun Araw. The name of the album is Keep It Together and it will be released on January 31st.
“Distance is where the heart is, home is where you hang your heart” is an intimate collaboration between two near-strangers—Zackary Drucker, the LA-based photographer, video and performance artist, and Amos Mac—the creator and publisher of Original Plumbing. Executed over a long, snowed-in Christmas weekend at Drucker’s childhood home in Syracuse, New York, the images combine elements of personal history, performance documentation, and exhibitionism. The resulting intervention is also an experiment in cross-identity representation; a dialogue between Mac, a trans man, and Drucker, a trans woman. The exhibition marks the official release of this unique suite of 25 limited-edition photographs, a number of which appear in the first issue of Mac’s new publication, Translady Fanzine. "Distance is where the heart is, home is where you hang your heart" is on view at the Luis de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles until January 22.
Recent drawings on prison stationary by artist Wes Lang who will be presenting new works in an upcoming show in Zurich, entitled Hell Raisers, opening January 9 at Galerie Lang & Pult. The show, curated by Olivier Mosset, also includes artists Vincent Szarek, Steven Parrino, Drew Heitzler and Jeffrey Schad. He
Jack Kerouac's recently discovered novel The Sea is My Brother
An assortment of creative relics at David LaChapelle's studio in Los Angeles. LaChapelle's first fully representative retrospective, entitled Thus Spoke LaChapelle, is currently on view at the Galerie Rudolfinum until February 26. Photograph by Adarsha Benjamin
Martin Parr’s collection of photobooks is one of the finest to have ever been assembled and The Protest Box, published by Steidl, is a box set which brings together five books from that collection as facsimile reprints. Parr has selected diverse books which each deal with the subject of protest in quite different ways. From the documentation of various protest movements to the actual book being a form of protest, all these reprints are gems within the history of photographic publishing. A few are known but many are new, even to the connoisseur of photography books. All these books are virtually impossible to locate, so these reprints will make a substantial contribution to our understanding of this sub-genre of the photobook. The box set is accompanied by a booklet which includes an introduction by Martin Parr, an essay discussing the wider context of these books by Gerry Badger, and English translations of all the texts in the books.
Amsterdams Blauw is the denim collection by Scotch & Soda.The Spring/Summer 2012 women’s collection will be the third Maison Scotch Amsterdams Blauw collection and is entitled ‘The Great Escape’. A line of high quality denims, inspired by Japanese and American denim esthetics, but with its own fresh twist.
Brooklyn based artist Andrew Birk has a solo show in Mexico City at the Preteen Gallery entitled You Are What You Eat and All You Eat is Pussy. On view unto February 1, Preteen Gallery, Joaquin Velazquez De Leon 58-5, Col. San Rafael, Mexico City.
Rita Sousa and Ivano Salonia of Iloveyouwhenyousmile, based in Amsterdam, have released their first video. A stunning, enigmatic portrait.
“RJ installed a mirror above his bed so he could watch himself fuck. In my opinion, any sane woman who came over to fuck would roll their eyes and leave but he fucks weirdos so I guess it’s par for the course. I think it’s pretty cheesy but to each their own, I guess. One thing he didn’t take into consideration was that our ceiling is slanted ‘cause it’s a converted attic. So, when he installed the mirror and laid on his bed, he looked up and because of the slant didn’t see the bed but instead saw the doorway on the other side of his room. Fucking hilarious oversight!!! So, he has to lie upside down on the bed so he can see himself. To demonstrate the needed position, Rob pretended to buttfuck Ledger on the bed. Because RJ fucks young girls, I installed a sign that said, “WARNING- Objects in mirror are younger than they appear.” He wasn’t impressed but everyone else in the house got a good laugh.” From the journals of photographer Ben Pobjoy
Crime scene photographer Weegee exhibition at the International Center of Photography. Weegee: Murder Is My Business will be on view from January 20 to September 2 2012, International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street.
Fredericks & Freiser gallery in New York presents The Syphilis of Sisyphus, a new short film by Mary Reid Kelley with artist Patrick Kelley. The exhibition includes a wall-sized projection with costumes and drawings used in the film’s creation. Reid Kelley’s second solo exhibition at Fredericks & Freiser encompasses a heightened level of visual complexity as it continues her exploration of language, history, anomie and sexual politics. On view until January 7.
Jeans is the first publication that concentrates on the early work of the Swiss photographer, Karlheinz Weinberger. An extra-large format, this new book, published by the Swiss Institute in New York, is a facsimile of the artist’s self-made portfolio. Jeans focuses on the artist’s fascination for men in blue jeans, an article of clothing whose scarcity in post-war Switzerland and close association with America implied more than a fashion statement.
Adriano Batista, editor of the very cool fashion blog Fucking Young!, with a copy of Autre.
Pola Thomson Spring/Summer 2012 collection photographed by Alexandra Waespi
