There is a good chance that you have been hearing a lot about Ettore Sottsass – the revolutionary, incendiary and boundlessly creative postmodern Italian designer and architect. If you are in the design world, you may say that the Sottsass renaissance is already starting to recede – from the flood of interest that came after his death in 2007. For others, you may be curious: who is Ettore Sottsass and why is everyone talking about him? If you don’t know his name, you may be seeing a lot of his designs: on social media, a peculiar lamp on someone’s desk, or an alien-like bookshelf in a friend’s home. What is there to know about Sottsass? The most important thing to know is that he was a complete anomaly – a planet on its own bizarre axis. His limitless exuberance was a breath of fresh air compared to the stodgy, boring design of the 1970s and 80s, and his referential palate extended to American Jazz, beat poetry, and 1940s Indian architecture. Indeed, Sottsass got his start revolutionizing mundane, everyday utilitarian objects and machinery, from typewriters to corkscrews. However, it was his founding of the Memphis Group and his subsequent furniture designs that earned his praise and vitriol. Love him or hate him, Sottsass’s designs will be forever iconic of his singular vision of reinterpretation and creative anarchy. Click here to read more.
Six Dark and Dangerous Gallery Exhibitions On View Now In New York
1. See Delta blues musician, gravedigger and artist James ‘Son Ford’ Thomas's incredibly crude, but morbidly beautiful sculptures that are often made with real teeth and hair, on view at 80WSE Gallery 2. Female pop artist Marjorie Strider begs you to come hither and see some of her early masterpieces on view now at Broadway 1602 3. Deborah Kass reimagines Andy Warhol's 13 Most Wanted Men at Sargent's Daughters 4. Viewer DISCRETION...children of BATAILLE, curated by Kathleen Cullen, presents a group show of artists as disparate as Hans Bellmer, Max Snow and Picasso for an exhibition that explores erotica and the "permutations of our own desires." 5. Seth Price presents almost 80 works of art, with mediums such as airbrush and polymer paint, at Petzel Gallery 6. Los Angeles based photographer Torbjørn Rødland gets religious and erotic with his tongue-in-cheek, groin tingling work on view at Algus Greenspon.
Go See Tom of Finland's Comprehensive Retrospective at Artists Space in New York
"The Pleasure of Play" is the most comprehensive Tom of Finland survey exhibition to date, including more than 190 drawings, gouaches from the 1940s, over 300 pages of collages, as well as early childhood work. Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen; Finnish; 1920, Kaarina – 1991, Helsinki), is considered to be the most iconic gay artist of the 20th century. 25 years after his death, the wide-reaching cultural impact of his work, in comparison to his global status, has only been infrequently presented, examined or discussed. Go see "The Pleasure of Play" at Artists Space until August 23, 2015 at Artists Space, 38 Greene Street, New York City. Click here to see our tour of the Tom of Finland Foundation.
Artist Brad Phillips Leaves a Suicide Note Before the Opening of His Exhibition at Freddy Gallery In Baltimore
Tomorrow, Freddy Gallery in Baltimore will open "Problem Is You," a group exhibition featuring three artists: Aaron Carpenter, Philip Hinge, and the very much alive (but maybe not well) Brad Phillips. Instead of a traditional statement about the exhibition and the artists, the gallery offers a morbid, but brilliant, suicide note penned by Phillips, which probably sums up the exhibition more than any standard press release could. If you don't follow Phillips on Instagram, you should - it is an extenuation of the artist's unique practice that ranges from delicate near-photorealistic paintings to text based play-on-words to prose - his book Suicidal Realism is out now on the Swimmer's Group imprint. In the following suicide note, Brad Phillips offers his disdain for the mechanics of the art world and he narrates a spiritual journey of selfhood and artisthood in the midst of self doubt, depression and addition. Click here to read Brad Phillips' suicide note.
Trish Tillman "Insoluble Bonds" @ Asya Geisberg Gallery
Asya Geisberg Gallery presents "Insoluble Bonds," an exhibition of sculptural assemblage by Trish Tillman. This will be the artist's first solo exhibition in New York. Tillman marries colorful ropes, flinty costume jewelry, strips of leather or fabric, and hair alongside industrial components as a means of exploring notions of gender play, ritual, and the presentation of the self. Elements alternately hang, drape or penetrate, often mirroring each other in symmetry, or opposing hard with soft, flow with stasis, or gravity with banality. Within her unique sculptural vocabulary, each boundary surprises - via attraction, repulsion, symbiosis, permeation, or thwarting contact. "Insoluble Bonds" will be on view until July 3, 2015 at Asya Geisberg Gallery, 537b West 23rd Street New York, NY
Watch Legendary Artist Jack Walls Talk About His New Exhibition at Rare Gallery In New York
In the above video, legendary New York artist Jack Walls talks about everything from his early experiences with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe to the AIDS crisis and his exploration as an artist. On view now at rare bookseller Glenn Horowitz's RARE gallery, the exhibition of new paintings, and the African carvings that inspired them is the first in a series of artist spotlights. The exhibition will be on view until June 27, 2015 at RARE Gallery, 17 West 54th Street New York, NY
Read Our Interview With Dutch Photographer and Artist Isabelle Wenzel →
German-based artist Isabelle Wenzel creates colorful sets on which to enact bodily performances, the evidence of which appear only as fixed photographs. These final images depict women’s bodies fragmented and abstracted like mannequins whose limbs have not yet been pieced together. In the following interview, Wenzel discusses her process, philosophies, and next projects. Click here to read the interview.
Brady Corbet, Waris Ahluwalia, and Guy Aroch Tell Us What To See at the Northside Festival in Brooklyn, from our Friends at The Mirror Cube
The Mirror Cube is a new happenings site that features events recommended by artists that range from photographers to painters to filmmakers, all in support of promoting a community of art-centric conversation. Here, three of their artists share with Autre the acts they're looking forward to at this year's Northside Festival in Brooklyn, which kicks off today: Photographer Guy Aroch endorses Lower Dens with TEEN at The Music Hall of Williamsburg on June 11. The Baltimore-based indie pop band Lower Dens is touring in support of their new album, Escape From Evil, and they'll be joined by Brooklyn alt-rockers TEEN. Actor Brady Corbet endorses The Very Best with Heems at McCarren Park on June 12. The Afro-Western duo of London DJ/producer Radioclit and Malawi singer Esau Mwamwaya, who perform under the name The Very Best, will be joined by Queens-based rapper Himanshu Suri--aka Heems. Jewelry Designer and Actor Waris Ahluwalia endorses Blonde Redhead at Warsaw on June 13. The alt-rock trio of Kazu Makino and twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace will play a show at the pop-up music club at the Polish National Home in Greenpoint. For more happenings recommended by artists, visit The Mirror Cube.
Tongues Untied at the MoCA Pacific Design Center Navigates Desire, Love and Loss to Explore Sexual and Political Repression
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, presents "Tongues Untied," an exhibition titled after the landmark film by poet, activist, and artist Marlon Riggs. "Tongues Untied" presents a selection of works from the museum’s permanent collection by John Boskovich, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and others, alongside Riggs’s deeply personal and lyrical exploration of black gay identity in the United States. Made during a historical period marked by the onset of the AIDS crisis, the works navigate desire, love, loss, and mourning to engage and question sexual and political repression, expression, and deviation. This exhibition coincides with the 30th anniversary of the City of West Hollywood and is presented in concert with a celebration of its activist history. Tongues Untied will be on view until September 13, 2015 at MoCA Pacific Design Center.
Enoc Perez's Picasso Inspired Exhibition Opens Tonight @ Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Paris
a peek at Enoc Perez's studio in New York
“In these paintings, Picasso’s body of work becomes a pictorial genre, like portraiture, landscapes and still lifes”, explains Perez, who used photographic self-portraits posted by women on social networks (Instagram, Twitter) as the basis for his variations on the work of Picasso. Anonymous faces, new digital muses metamorphose into Olgas, Marie-Thérèses, Doras and Jacquelines in the silvery, monochrome palette of Enoc Perez. This approach is founded on resolving the contradiction between the feminine manner in which the women present themselves and the resolutely masculine gaze that Picasso cast on his subjects, which alternated between desire, cruelty and tenderness. “For me, painting has the capacity to offer conflicting visions of the world while preserving its power”, explains Perez, who, with this new series of paintings, attempts to reinvent Cubism in the moment of Instagram, Facebook and other social networks. Click here to read our interview with Perez and here to see a studio tour. The exhibition at Galerie Nathalie Obadia will be on view until July 25, 2015 at Galerie Nathalie Obadia.
Kim Gordon "Design Office: The City Is A Garden" @ 303 Gallery in New York
303 Gallery presents "Design Office: The City Is A Garden," the gallery's first solo exhibition of new works by Kim Gordon. In this new body of work, Gordon's primary concern is the radical change in the landscape of New York City over the past several years. For the past 20 years Chelsea has been a center of urban renovation, including the opening of the highline in 2009. Small parks appear randomly in the middle of a street. Outdoor sculptures often accompany the arrangements. The new lushness of New York would seem to reimagine NYC as a city for the people, as well as a more attractive landscape for new consumers. Kim Gordon "Design Office: The City Is A Garden" will be on view until July 24, 2015 at 303 Gallery.
Richard Phillips Will Be Showing New Paintings At Gagosian Athens in Greece
In his paintings, Richard Phillips engages the complex web of human obsessions to do with sexuality, politics, power, death that are constantly exploited in mainstream media. Subjecting popular images to a range of classical painterly techniques, he estranges their familiarity and thus imbues them with new meaning. Photographic images of politicians are re-cast in neon, while supermodels are represented as academic paintings, as if to augment their status as pop icons. Over and over again throughout his work, the glossy idealism of advertising propaganda is subverted by his underlying resistance to its blatant seduction. Departing from the more photorealistic tendencies of recent years, in his newest works Phillips culls celebrity portraits, retro textbook illustrations, logos, and Op Art motifs to produce compressed images in an electric palette. Richard Phillips at Gagosian Athens will be on view until August 1, 2015, 3 Merlin Street Athens 10671
Autre Rewind: Read Our Interview with Olaf Breuning and See His New Exhibition On View Now At Metro Pictures
Always a beguiling social pundit, Olaf Breuning has created an immersive installation of steel sculptures and large photo collages to continue his discerning humor and astute visual language. These new works identify the artist’s mind and studio as conspicuous sites of transformation and production, where surges of stimuli from daily life are methodically registered, metabolized and repurposed. Click here to read our interview with Olaf Breuning on the eve of his first solo show in the Middle East in 2013. His current exhibition of work, entitled The Life, will be on view until July 31, 2015 at Metro Pictures.
Nobuyoshi Araki Shows New Photographs Tinged with the Self Realization of Impending Death at the Taka Ishii Gallery In Tokyo
“I’m now seeing things from the side of death. I’m looking at the world from the other side of the sky. That’s why it’s mirrored.” – Nobuyoshi Araki. This spring, Araki started shooting 6×7 color positive film and black and white photographs with date inscriptions in a diaristic manner documenting daily events and his emotions regarding life and death. In the current series, Araki presents everyday scenes in mirrored images to express the sense that he now sees the world from the side of death, i.e. the other side of the mirror. In 2013, after experiencing the onset and removal of prostate cancer and the death of his beloved cat Chiro, Araki suffered from central retinal artery occlusion and lost sight in his right eye. Despite this loss, he has continued to produce photographs at a prolific pace, transforming his sadness and thoughts on death into fuel for shooting photographs. This series is his first foray into shooting images with his perspective from “the other side.” The exhibition will be on view until June 20, 2015 at Taka Ishii Gallery Photography / Film in Tokyo.
We Love Björk's Incredible 360 Degree Interactive Virtual Reality Music Video for Stonemilker
In a continuation of Björk’s pioneering use of technology, Stonemilker, directed by Andrew Thomas Huang, explores the potential for virtual reality as a performance platform outside the scope of a traditional music video. Press play, use the toggle to spin around and immerse yourself in the title track off Björk’s current album Vulnicura and the beautiful Icelandic coastline.
Radek Szlaga 'All the Brutes' @ Harlan Levey Projects
Who was it again that wrote every time he came to Brussels, he had to think of the plundered richness of the Congo on which this city was built? From Park Cinquentenaire, to the stately avenues Louise and Tervuren, King Leopold II’s Museum for Central Africa, there are countless buildings, sculptures and squares across town, which directly or indirectly remind us of the country’s colonial past. This makes the capital of Europe a perfect setting for Radek Szlaga’s exhibition "All the Brutes" on view now at Harlan Levey Projects. The show consists of a selection of works from his on-going series, which digs into Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness; a work that has become the textbook example in colonial studies of a caricatured depiction of Africa. Szlaga hasn’t followed Conrad to the Congo, but spent two months in Brussels on a residency this year exploring the links between the heart of Europe and the heart of darkness. In case any Belgian viewers might object to a body of work dealing with the Congo that’s painted by an artist who has never been to Africa, let’s remind ourselves that Leopold II never placed a foot on Congolese soil as he uprooted it. Besides, Szlaga’s aim is not to present some anthropological view on Congo, but to explore, in a pictorial way, how the novel is engrained in our collective imagination, whether that is through literature, cinema, painting or in daily life (like the all too often quoted: “The horror! The horror!”). Radek Szlaga 'All the Brutes' will be on view until July 11, 2015 at Harlan Levey Projects, 46 Rue Jean d’Ardenne Straat, Brussels.
Devendra Banhart South American Tour Film by Adam Tullie
Devendra Banhart and the band -- Matthew Compton, Josiah Steinbrick, Todd Dahlhoff, Noah Georgeson, Rodrigo Amarante -- on their 2014 South American tour. Film by Adam Tullie, set to home demos and poem by Devendra.
Huma Bhabha Presents a Pantheon of Broken Gods, Totemic Cyborgs, and Animalistic Demons @ Salon 94 Gallery In New York
In Huma Bhabha’s third exhibition at Salon 94, the artist presents new work in both of the gallery’s downtown spaces. In each installation, Bhabha draws from an expansive trove of references that cross genres, centuries, continents and mediums. Her inspirations are non-hierarchical, coming as much from popular horror movies and science fiction as from ancient artifacts, religious reliquary, Modernist sculpture and German neo-expressionism. The work can be read as an encyclopedic memory that maps, retraces, and re-imagines cultural history as an active interplay between decay and renewal. The exhibition will be on view until June 28, 2015 Salon 94, 12 East 94th Street New York.