Object(ing): The Art/Design of Tobias Wong

The Museum of Vancouver is pleased to present the first time solo exhibition of internationally acclaimed Vancouver-born artist Tobias Wong who committed suicide in 2010 at the age of 30. Wong’s work defied categorization, as he engaged with a range of art processes from installations, performances, and furniture making to product and fashion design. He was cheeky, playful, witty, and clever. He appropriated, manipulated, manufactured, mass-produced, and re-issued objects, pouring new meanings into them. Like many pioneers, his art both seduced and upset. Object(ing): The Art/Design of Tobias Wong opened yesterday and is on view until February 24, 2013 at The Museum of Vancouver. 

Marc Molk: The Blue Sky Upon Us May Well Fall Apart

"Divination is a noble ambition, an infinite nostalgia. The power of predictions, be they good or bad, is the same as the power of memories, be they faded or vivid. Clairvoyants promise a blue sky, several times a day, to anyone. But we all know that the blue sky upon us may well fall." It is this presage esthetics that pervades Marc Molk’s first solo show in Paris.The artist, whose lives are many, goes for the neglected art of allegory in a spiritualist register, where melancholia has put on golden clothes, ball garments. His mixed technique explores various states of pictorial matter, from large nuanced colourwashes to thick highlights. Often, he puts on a certain degree of naivety to tackle disenchantedly sentimental subject matters. Marc Molk: The Blue Sky Upon Us May Well Fall Apart is on view from September 27 to November 3, 2012 at Da End Gallery, 17 rue Guénégaud, 75006 Paris.

Eric Yahnker At The Hole Gallery

The Hole gallery presents the first New York solo show by LA based artist Eric Yahnker. For the past two years Yahnker has been preparing his massive drawings and sculptures for this exhibition, and it represents the culmination of his recent explorations. The works in this show range from meticulous, two-foot colored pencil and graphite drawings to towering ten-foot works on paper; from tiny sculptural interventions to massive three dimensional arrangements. The pieces en masse form a lyrical and disturbing poem – which takes the title Virgin Birth ‘N’ Turf – about the state of the union and our contemporary American moment. Virgin Birth ‘N’ Turf is on view until October 6 at The Hole Gallery, 312 Bowery, New York

RETNA New Works At Michael Kohn Gallery

Michael Kohn Gallery presents an exhibition of new paintings, works on paper and site-specific installations from artist Retna. Born and bred in Los Angeles, Retna has come to art world attention from his critically acclaimed participation in Art in the Streets, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Retna has a particular interest in the visual writings of ancient cultures, from Arabic and Persian to Hebrew and Native American. Both hieroglyphics and the graceful tradition of ink calligraphy inform his paintbrush while the angles and curves of his improvised alphabet echo the architecture of a mosque or Asian temple. Retna was invited into the gallery to transform both the interior and exterior spaces with his complex system of multi-layered lettering in an installation of murals and paintings like the above customized Rolls Royce. RETNA: New Paintings and Works on Paper will be on view until October 27, 2012 at Michael Kohn Gallery, 8071 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles.

[MUSIC VIDEO] Tamaryn 'Heavenly Bodies'

New Zealand born singer Tamaryn, now based in San Francisco, along with her main collaborator and producer Rex John Shelverton, release a psychedelic music video for the track Heavenly Bodies from the album Tender New Signs due out October 16 on the Mexican Summer label. Tamaryn says, “In making this record, I hoped to transcend the mundane world, by living in a new one of my own creation....now it's time to invite everyone else in it with me.” 

SOMEDAY ALL THE ADULTS WILL DIE!

Someday All The Adults Will Die is a comprehensive overview of punk graphic design, surveying imagery produced before, during and after the punk years, and drawing upon previously unseen public and private archives and collections. Punk and post-punk graphic design is illuminated by examples of homemade cassettes, 'zines, posters, handbills, records and clothing. Highlights include original artworks by Gee Vaucher, Linder Sterling, Jamie Reid, Gary Panter, John Holmstrom, Raymond Pettibon and Penny Rimbaud alongside numerous anonymous artists. Someday All The Adults Will Die will be on view until November 4, 2012 at the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London.

Andy Warhol Film San Diego Surf Released After 40 Years

San Diego Surf was filmed in La Jolla, California, about 30 miles down the coast from Los Angeles, in May, 1968. It was filmed in color on 16mm with two cameras, manned by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey, and featured Superstars Viva, Taylor Mead, Louis Waldon, Joe Dallesandro, Tom Hompertz, Ingrid Superstar, and Eric Emerson, plus Nawana Davis and others. Its loose narrative concerns an unhappily married couple (Taylor Mead and Viva) with a baby who rent their beach house to a group of surfers.  One of the last films in which Warhol had direct involvement, San Diego Surf was the first time Warhol had made a movie in California since the early Tarzan and Jane Regained, Sort of…in 1963. The month after San Diego Surf filming was completed, Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas, which virtually ended his work behind the movie camera. The film is being released by The Andy Warhol Museum, who holds all the copyrights to this film which has never before been publicly shown. The film will be shown publicly at The Museum of Modern Art from January 23 - 28, 2013.