Cindy Sherman Retrospective

Untitled Film Still #25, 1978

Cindy Sherman (American, b. 1954) is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential artists in contemporary art. Throughout her career, she has presented a sustained, eloquent, and provocative exploration of the construction of contemporary identity and the nature of representation, drawn from the unlimited supply of images from movies, TV, magazines, the Internet, and art history. Working as her own model for more than 30 years, Sherman has captured herself in a range of guises and personas which are at turns amusing and disturbing, distasteful and affecting. A retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, on view starting February 26, brings together more than 170 photographs and traces the artist’s career from the mid 1970s to the present.

Tea Time With The Rodnik Band

The Rodnik Band just premiered their A/W 2012 collection at the Mayfair Hotel, arriving in a specially designed 3 wheeler Morgan race car, in London for London Fashion Week and its evident they've knocked it out of the park again with a contrasting punk meets tea time collection that includes some pretty brilliant handbags thrown into the mix. Photograph by Alex Lambrechts

Teenage Hallucination

Director/writer team Gisèle Vienne and Dennis Cooper have been collaborating as a pair on theater projects since 2004 and are now presenting their 2011 series, entitled This Is How You Will Disappear, of haunting productions, puppets and portraits at the Centre Pompidou in Paris as part of the Nouveau Festival – a mind-blowing survey of contemporary creation. The exhibition for Pompidou, called Teenage Hallucination, will be on view February 22 to March 12, 2012.

Hippopotamus Clutches & Stalactites

Continuing its tradition of amazing window displays, multibrand boutique Dover Street Market (an initiative of Comme Des Garcons) in London has commissioned Paris based fashion designer Damir Doma to create a temporary window display for  for its Spring/Summer 2012 collection. Damir Doma, in collaboration with Parisian design and production studio Les Diplomates, using ancient cave formations as inspiration, have created a giant stalactite like structure made from wood that was burned by hand that will ultimately contrast against the pale linen and bright golden garments by the designer. There will also be a limited edition collection of 10 clutches made from rare hippopotamus skin exclusively available at Dover Street Market. You can see the window display February 24 to March 16 – DSM, 17-18 Dover Street, London.

Warhol 15 Minutes Eternal

andy_warhol_dead_25_years

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.

Roxanne Lowit's Nightlife Diary

For the last 30 years Roxanne Lowit has been taking backstage and nightlife photographs of some of the biggest luminaries in the world of fashion, culture and art. Lowit started taking pictures in the late 70s with her Kodak 110 Instamatic, photographing her own designs at New York fashion shows. She was soon covering all designers in Paris where her friends — models like Jerry Hall — would sneak her backstage. It was there that she found her place (and career) in fashion. On view now at the members only Parlor Club in New York, where Lowit recently celebrated a birthday, are 26 of her photographs and coming up at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art in April she will have her firs solo show in Russia. See more photographs after the jump. Roxanne Lowit: Iconic will be on view at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art from April 12 to May 15, 2012

Castles in the Air

German artist Hans Haacke poses next to his artwork entitled Helmsboro Country, on the opening day of his retrospective exhibition, 'Castles in the Air', at the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid, Spain. Hans Haacke (Cologne, 1936) is considered a pioneer of what has come to be known as institutional critique, a branch of conceptual art that emerged at the end of the 1960s. He received his training and resides in the United States. His art moves from pure conceptualism at the beginning of his career towards a more critical discourse in later years. Haacke's pieces question the mechanisms and functions of cultural, political and economic institutions, which serve as active tools in the construction and transmission of identitary and ideological values that bolster the discourse and the expansion of globalisation. He constructs systems of relations using literal elements taken from daily life, the critical meanings of which become apparent upon the symbolic collision that occurs when they are juxtaposed. The underlying intention is to reveal, more than to denounce, the relationship that exists between art and social behavior. Castles in the Air is on view at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid until July 23, 2012 Santa Isabel, 52 28012

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.

Nick Haymes' Unflinching Portrait of Teenage Angst

Selections from the book - email correspondence between Gabe Nevins and Harmony Korine

Nick Haymes first met Gabe Nevins on an editorial assignment in the summer of 2007. Gabe had just wrapped up his lead role in Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park, in which he had played a teenage skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard. Gabe had never acted prior to starring in the film; he had heard about Van Sant's casting call from a skateboard store and initially auditioned as an extra. Meeting the teenager, Haymes recalls: "Initially, Gabe was fairly shy, but it quickly transpired that he had seen some of my skateboarding images online and an instant friendship was struck. When the assignment was over, I approached Gabe about the possibility of working on more photographs as there was something entirely captivating about him and his energy." A new volume, published by Damiani Editore, tracks the highs and lows of Gabe's teen years, from stardom to emotional breakdown and homelessness. On Wednesday, March 1st, from 6.00 to 8.00 pm, Haymes will be signing the volume at Dashwood Books in NYC.