[FASHION FILM] Pierre Balmain S/S 2013 Collection

The Pierre Balmain Spring/Summer 2013 collection is inspired by glamour under the sun, notably the grand hotels of Nice and the French Riviera, the chic styling of iconic French actress Jeanne Moreau as seen in Jacque Demy’s classic 1963 film La Baie des Anges, and the renowned Parisian club in the 80s Les Bains Douches. With a palette of graphic black & white mixed with sun-kissed brights, the women’s pieces strike a balance between strong tailoring and delicate romance; the perfect coral lace dress, feminine shorts, peasant skirts, worn with classic biker or tuxedo jackets. While the men’s provides featherweight playboy essentials; the slim tailored jacket, fitted cardigan, and the perfect shirt signed with a fine black stripe. See the amazing fashion film starring model Anna Selezneva. 

RIP Japanese Director Kōji Wakamatsu

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Kôji Wakamatsu has passed away this morning in Tokyo. The 76-year-old director was injured when he was struck by a taxi while crossing a busy Tokyo intersection. He never recovered from the injuries. Koji, who directed Go, Go Second Time Virgin and Ecstasy of Angels was one of the most important directors of the Pinky film (pink eiga), a genre known for its copious amounts of horror, sex and violence often folding in elements of rape and bondage.

[FIRST LOOK] Reptile Youth New Music Video by Rei Nadal

Copenhagen based Reptile Youth have invited ten directors to each direct a video for their new album. For the latest video, for the track Dead End, they have invited Rei Nadal. Rei Nadal is an artist based in Barcelona. Born in Sevilla, Spain, Nadal went on to complete a fashion design degree before beginning an internship with fashion brand American Perez. She has garnered attention for her unique and intriguing esthetics. She intersperses imagery from fashion editorials, art photography, and video, alongside candid self-portraits and text. As part of the annual CMJ 2012 music festival, Reptile Youth will give four performances, starting with one gig at Alphabet Lounge, October 17th , followed by shows @ Spike Hall, Webster Studio and finally @ Drom – Nicky Digital Showcase on October 20th. 

Gregory Siff Matter of Time at Gallery Brown

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Gallery Brown presents Matter of Time, an exhibition of new paintings, works on paper and sculpture from artist Gregory Siff. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Gregory officially made Los Angeles home in 2009 where he has since established himself as a recognizable cultural influence. Gregory’s distinct handmade style merges unique elements of abstraction, street, and fine art; his technique coalesces the voice of a fearless child with the wisdom of a seasoned warrior. His influences include Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, RETNA, Ray Johnson, RISK, David Shillinglaw, Louis XXX and his father. Matter of Time is an examination of fame, idolatry, memory, determination, kingship and heart. Gregory's half-whispered thoughts are painted out in full roars on found material, handmade panel and canvas. Matter of Time will be on view from October 20 to November 10 at Gallery Brown, 140 South Orlando Ave, Los Angeles, CA 

Kembra Pfahler's Fuck Island

Opening night of Kembra Pfahler's solo exhibition Fuck Island which was on view until October 14 at Participant Inc. in New York. Fuck Island is a protest anthem, love song, and manifesto written for her band, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. As Pfahler describes this song-as-exhibtion: “It’s the first annual Karen Black cock festival. But it’s really more like a happy funeral. We are celebrating the death of the patriarch, and you are all party to this secret.” photograph by Walter Wlodarczyk

Antoni Muntadas at Jeu de Paume

Jeu de Paume organizes a major exhibition by the internationally recognized artist Antoni Muntadas (Barcelona, 1942), one of the early practitioners of conceptual and media art. The show will survey Muntadas' prolific career, from the seventies to present days. His art practice spans four decades, in which he has utilized actions, video, photography, multi-media installations, publications, public art, the internet, radio and other media to address key political and social issues of our time. Incorporating in-depth research and astute readings of cultural situations, his incisive works have addressed ideas such as the relationship between public and private, the flows of information along the media landscape, and the inherent power of architecture and other social frameworks. Muntadas. Entre / Between will be on view until January 20, 2013 at Jeu de Paume, 1 place de la Concorde 75008 Paris

Richard Kern New Book, Exhibition

Created in collaboration with Japanese hair salon/publishing house Salon Shizen a new book featuring photographs by Richard Kern, entitled 10:41, it features new images of young bodies "frolicking in the leafy Connecticut countryside." The series features very  prominently Kern's favorite symbole of youth and nubile eroticism: the cell phone; hence the name of the book is the time on most everyone's phone  when he took them and put them in a pile. The book is is available at Salon Shizen and Opening Ceremony. Come March, Kern is set to release Shot By Kern, his first Taschen book in four years, chronicling his experience doing a video series for Vice called Shot By Kern, in which the magazine films his shoots and interviews his models. The monograph is to be accompanied by an hour and 20 minutes of footage and a New York exhibition some time in the next year.

M/M (Paris) Carpetologue

Commissioned from M/M (Paris) to celebrate both their twentieth anniversary and the publication of the definitive monograph of their work, the exhibition of elaborate rug designs acts like a condensed catalogue - or Carpetalogue - for M/M's practice. Michaël Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak originally established M/M (Paris) as a graphic design studio in 1992. Their close associations with the music, fashion and art worlds have led to their becoming one of the most distinctive and acclaimed creative voices of their generation, within graphic design and beyond. The hand-knotted wool carpets, specifically produced for the exhibition by Abhishek Poddar in Varanasi, India, will be sold as limited editions through the gallery. The monograph, M to M of M/M (Paris), written by Emily King, designed by Graphic Thought Facility and with a foreward by Hans Ulrich Obrist, will be published by Thames and Hudson and launched during the exhibition. M/M (Paris) Carpetologue 1992 to 2012 will be on view until December 15 at Libby Sellers Gallery, 41, 42 Berners Street, London.

PRIVACY Exhibition at Schirn Kunsthalle

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Private—a word from the past, or so it would seem these days. A word of hardly any relevance in an era when everything—from one’s favorite recipe to one’s current relationship status—is posted on Facebook. Exhibitionism, self-disclosure, the delight in telling stories, showing off, and voyeurism are the social strategies in today’s world—a world that has long since undergone a structural transformation of the public sphere. In contemporary art, domestic scenes and personal secrets are mirrored in photographs, Polaroids, cell phone photos, objects, installations, and films. The familiar and intimate are put in the picture. Through a consideration of numerous contemporary approaches the Schirn investigates the dwindling private sphere and the “publicness of the intimate.” Aiming her camera through a rear courtyard window, Merry Alpern captures blurred scenes of hurried sexual encounters; in his romantic video piece Akram Zaatari explores an online chat between two men; and Fiona Tan combines private snapshots from different countries to create large tableaux. The exhibition undertakes memorable excursions to the fragile borders between the self and the other. Other artists include Dash Snow, Mark Morrisroe, Ai Weiwei and Marilyn Minter. Privacy will be on view from November 1, 2012, to February 3, 2013 at the Schirn Kunsthalle, Romberg, 60311 Frankfurt

[FIRST LOOK] Music Video for Casket Girls' Track Sleepwalking

Presenting the music video for Casket Girls' track Sleepwalking, shot and edited by Kevin Canavan entirely on a broken VHS camcorder. The Casket Girls are a new three-piece band hailing from Savannah, GA. Comprised of Ryan Graveface (Black Moth Super Rainbow, The Marshmallow Ghosts, Dreamend) who wrote and played all the song structures, and newcomers, Elsa and Phaedra Greene, who wrote and performed all of the vocals. On Sleepwalking, the band's first release, the unique collaboration bears to be more than the sum of its parts - as the girls' haunting and upbeat pop sensibility imbues Ryan's inspired instrumental musings with such a sense of purpose that you must wonder how one could exist without the other. But, The Casket Girls happened - as most things do - by accident. Ryan was visiting his future home, and in walking through one of the city's 22 squares, he happened upon two girls playing autoharp and singing bizarre songs. He watched from afar, eventually approaching them with the idea for the band. Ryan had been (and still is) obsessed with the Shangri-Las, and the sisters personified his desire of a far darker and more complex version of the 60s group. 

Shai Yehezkelli Forever Sweat-Beads on View in Tel Aviv

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Israeli artist Shai Yehezkelli's painting is busy, rhythmic and fast, wild and free. He works on various surfaces, some of which he finds in the street, and his paintings shifts from "bad painting" to subtle poetic touches. His palate is full of pinks and reds, as if leaping out of a painting by Mattisse. The images span a wide range of references and quotations, each of them disrupt or alter the source; the pitchers look like disrupted quotes of still life painting. Yehezkelli paints with and within art history, but also beyond it. Rough handwritten captions, sometimes written in Hebrew and sometimes in English, convey political and inter-textual messages. When all of those are displayed side by side, the aggregate of captions and titles turn into a discourse on art, which is as valuable as the language of the painting itself. An exhibition of new works entitled Forever Sweat-Beads will be on view from October 18 to November 24, at Julie M. Gallery, 10 Betzalel Yafe St, Tel Aviv, Israel

Walter Pfeiffer's Scrapbooks

Walter Pfeiffer’s Scrapbooks from 1969 to 1982 are a very unique Wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosities). Pfeiffer’s Polaroids and photographs alternate with miscellaneous objects – newspaper clippings, postcards, packaging, tickets – and brief punning notes. Pfeiffer assembles all of this into a large collage full of surprising references and comparisons that is both a visual diary and creative foundation of his artistic work. In his scrap books, Pfeiffer’s keen view of Eros, Zeitgeist and popular culture, his disrespectful humor as well as his appreciation for the poetry in the mundane and banal, are sharply revealed. They offer a view into Pfeiffer’s meandering and playful universe and are a contemporary document that captures the Zeitgeist of the 1970s and 1980s with ephemeral elegance. Walter Pfeiffer's Scrapbooks 1969-1985 is available here.