Ian Svenonius: Supernatural Strategies

Musician and writer Ian Svenonius presents a coffee talk on Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group. In this presentation he will give a preview of his forthcoming publication, which functions as an instructional guide for would-be stars, a warning device, a philosophical text, an exercise in terror, an aerobics manual, and a coloring book. Svenonius is the host of the talk show Soft Focus, the author of the collected essay volume The Psychic Soviet (Drag City, 2006) and the frontman of iconic bands such as The Nation of Ulysses and The Make-Up, which have been invited to reunite for this year's All Tomorrow's Parties "I'll Be Your Mirror" festival in London. This event is organized by Wendy Yao (Ooga Booga) in conjunction with First Among Equals and as a lead-in to Excursus III: Ooga Booga opening September 26, 2012. Ian Svenonius will present his talks this weekend May 13 at 2 p.m. Institute of Contemporary Art @ University of Pennsylvania.

Nude Man Forsblom & Jay Johnson @ Gagosian Opening For Richard Avedon In New York

New York’s spriteliest interior designer, Brock Forsblom, became so inspired at the opening of Richard Avedon: Murals & Portraits last Friday night, he stripped naked to pose in front of the Warhol gang. He in turn inspired hundreds of photographs taken by the mob-scene crowd, which included fellow interior designer Jay Johnson, twin brother to Warhol’s former partner Jed Johnson, and one of the original Avedon subjects. In these large-scale murals and the smaller, related portraits of the 1960s and 1970s, Avedon sought to depict the spirit of the times, a spirit that clearly lives on.

See the exhibition at Gagosian’s West 21st St. Gallery, New York. On view through July 27. photographs by Temo Callahan

Richard Avedon's Murals & Portraits @ Gagosian New York

Opening today at Gagosian New York, Richard Avedon's Murals & Portraits. Against the backdrop of America's social and political transformation, Avedon began to create four photographic murals between 1969 and 1971 which would be unprecedented in scale and pointed in subject. Between 20 to 35 feet wide and comprising up to five panels, the murals revealed a striking new format in which subjects were positioned frontally and aligned against a stark white background. This intensity of characterization and confrontational aspect typifies Avedon's portraits; his subjects exist larger than life, stripped of all artifice by an unflinching eye. His mural groupings featured emblematic figures: Andy Warhol with the players and stars of The Factory; The Chicago Seven, political radicals charged with and acquitted of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention; the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and his extended family; and the Mission Council, a group of military and government officials who governed the United States' participation in the Vietnam War. Murals and Portraits will be on view from May 4 to July 6 at Gagosian, 522 West 21, New York.