DOUGLAS GORDON: The End of Civilisation

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Gagosian Gallery presents The End of Civilisation, a major film installation by Douglas Gordon.In The End of Civilisation, a grand piano burns at a remote site deep in the Cumbrian landscape. This lushly green and desolate locale overlooking the boundary between England and Scotland was once the border of the Roman Empire. The grand piano, emblematic of high culture as both a finely crafted instrument and a beautiful sculptural object, is destroyed at the primeval edge of civilization. With this symbolic conflagration, Gordon re-enacts an ancient local tradition of igniting beacons as an admonition or communication. Inspired in part by the journey of the 2012 Olympic torch across the British Isles, The End of Civilisation is both a celebration and a warning—of fire as a symbol of optimism and hope, but also of risk, danger, and destruction. The End of Civilisation is on view from September 8 to October 13, 2012, Gagosian Gallery, 522 West 21st Street, New York, NY

Wounds by Jaber Al Azmeh

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For the opening of the fall season, Green Art Gallery in Dubai will be presenting Wounds, a series of works by Syrian photographer Jaber Al Azmeh. This series began and evolved along with the revolutionary movements happening in Syria during the crucial first ten months that the country was in turmoil. Photographing individuals from his social circle, including those who were actively part of the revolutionary movement, Al Azmeh asked his subjects to re-enact and perform the stories that they had witnessed or heard about from what was happening in the streets. As the protests and violence increased, Al Azmeh along with many other activists and critics of the current regime had to leave their country for their own safety. Isolated and left with only stories that he heard about the events unfolding within Syria, Al Azmeh eventually became the protagonist of his own work, re-enacting and photographing himself as he transformed from social observer to social activist. Wounds will be on view from September 10 to October 29, at Green Art Gallery, Al Quoz 1, Street 8, AlSerkal Avenue, Unit 28

Anna Fidler: Vampires & Wolfmen

Portland, OR—Charles A. Hartman Fine Art presents Vampires and Wolf Men, the stunning latest body of work by Portland-based artist Anna Fidler. Seeking to construct a myth surrounding characters from the past, and using as source material photographs culled from the Oregon Historical Society, Anna Fidler creates monumental portraits of individuals from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that transfer the energies of the past into contemporary topographies of the fantastic and the mundane. In paintings that feel at once ephemeral and precise, Fidler’s exquisitely balanced renderings of persons both prominent and unknown create a subtle but powerful tension as these figures are recreated as vampires and werewolves. Fidler’s work offers commentary and dialogue with our twenty-first century fascination with a subject that is both timeless and of-the-moment. Vampires and Wolf Men will be on view from September 5 to September 29, 2012, at Charles A. Hartman, 134 NW 8th Avenue, Portland, Oregon

Robert Crumb: The Sketchbooks

Taschen has released 1,344 pages of artist Robert Crumb's hand-picked selections from his notebooks.This six-book boxed set is the first collection of Robert Crumb sketches to be printed from the original art since the hard-bound, slipcased, seven volume series issued by the German publisher Zweitausendeins between 1981 and 1997. The edition by Taschen has been personally edited by Crumb himself to include only what he considers his finest work, including hundreds of late period drawings not published in previous sketchbook collections. Robert Crumb: The Sketchbooks. 1982-2011 is now available by Taschen.

Paul McCarthy: Propo

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"Between 1972 – 1983, I did a series of performances which involved masks, bottles, pans, uniforms, dolls, stuffed animals, etc. After the performances these objects were either left behind or they were collected and stored in suitcases and trunks to be used in future performances. In 1983, the closed suitcases and trunks containing these performance objects were stacked on a table and exhibited as sculpture. In 1991, I opened the suitcases and trunks photographing each item. The group of photographs in their entirety was titled PROPO," says Paul McCarthy. Hauser & Wirth presents n exhibition of over 60 photographs by Paul McCarthy. This selection, many of which have only been seen before in publications, is taken from the artist’s large group of more than 120 photographs, collectively known as ‘PROPO’. Propo is on view until October 20, 2012 at Hauser and Wirth, Limmatstrasse 270 8005 Zurich 

[FIRST LOOK] Kurt - A 16mm Film By Adarsha Benjamin

Starring the likes of Henry Hopper, Nina Ljeti, Ericka Clevenger, Avalon Ainsley, Clark Phillips, Alex Levine this trailer is sneak peak at a 16mm feature film by Adarsha Benjamin that explores the life of Kurt Cobain. Currently titled Kurt, watch the cast of characters take on Cobain's characteristic angst and melancholy that culminates with Henry Hopper destroying an old electric organ.

Jim Jarmusch & Jozef Van Wissem Announce New Album

Filmmaker/guitarist Jim Jarmusch and composer Van Wissem released the album, Concerning The Entrance Into Eternity, this past February and they've now they have announced their second album of the year entitled The Mystery of Heaven, due out on November 13 via Sacred Bones. After the jump see the music video for the track The Sun of the Natural World is Pure Fire directed by Diego Barrera that references references mythology, the elements, and symbolism.

The Graphic Design of Tony Arefin

A new exhibition at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, England is a comprehensive survey of work by Tony Arefin (1962–2000), a graphic designer who emerged during the late 1980s as one of the most important figures in the British art world. With his numerous catalogues for institutions such as the Serpentine Gallery, ICA, Chisenhale Gallery and Ikon itself, Arefin had achieved such art world dominance by the early 1990s that design critic Rick Poynor described him as ‘single-handedly processing the print needs of the entire British art scene’. Comprising early publications from the YBA movement to seminal advertising campaigns for corporate clients such as IBM, Ikon’s exhibition reveals the intuitive genius of Arefin’s work. Arefin & Arefin: The graphic design of Tony Arefin will be on view between September 12 and November 4, 2012 at Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square  Brindleyplace, West Midlands, United Kingdom

[MUST LISTEN] Isaac Delusion

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Jules Paco and Loic Fleury are Isaac Delusion – a mysterious, brilliant musical export from France. The title track from their 2012 EP release Midnight Sun(listen below) is a dreamlike, cinematic pop masterpiece. Its one of those tracks you literally can't stop listening to and pine for the first time you heard it. The duo has just release a new track, entitled Early Morning, from an upcoming album due out soon on Craki Records.

Dan Colen Monograph with Text by Harmony Korine

This artist’s book documents Dan Colen’s 2011 exhibition at Gagosian Gallery in New York, as well as his June 2012 Gagosian exhibition in Paris. Drawing from mass media, local environment, and subculture, Dan Colen’s art imbues the ordinary, the disenfranchised, and the tribal with provocative new status. This publication includes over fifty new works, including Colen’s series of Grass, Gum, Confetti, and Stud, with extensive details of the works. There is also text by Harmony Korine. Now available by Rizzoli.

Julia Holter Music Video For Goddess Eyes I

Julia Holtercollaborates with José Wolff on Video for Goddess Eyes I. Julia Holter and visual artist José Wolff share Los Angeles as home and worked together on a video for Holter's Sea Called Me Home, an earlier piece in Holter's repertoire. When Wolff approached Holter to create a video for Goddess Eyes I from her 2012 album Ekstasis, the two embarked on a journey to divine the celestial / human mystery of the song. "The first thing that came to mind was an image that gradually deteriorates with visual noise, echoing the sonic noise present in the song," says Wolff. "We go from lightness to darkness, away from a structured, fabricated place and into raw territory." The video is Holter's fifth (but not final) from Ekstasis. Fresh off a string of shows with Sigur Ros, Holter picks up touring at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, New York this Friday, August 31st making her way down the coast to the Hopscotch Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina.

New Works by April Wood

April Wood is a metalsmith artist working with the complex relationship between food and the body. Wood is interested in the ritual process of eating and the tools societies use to feed one another. For the artist, eating is a form of consumption, which can span a range of emotions, from pleasurable to horrific, from overindulgent to controlling. In this way Wood’s larger discussion on food’s often contradictory role in the contemporary society relates to the Collections Selections theme of excess. Her Feeding the Hunger sculptures become activated performances when placed in a person’s mouth. April Wood: New Works is on view until December 2, 2012, at AMOA-Arthouse, 3809 West 35th Street