Opening tonight in Tokyo, at the Matchbaco Gallery, wunderkind Chinese photographer Ren Hang will present new photographs taken in New York City. A new publication featuring works from this series will be published by Session Press and distributed by Dashwood Books. Ren Hang "New Love" will open tonight at Matchbaco Gallery and it will run until July 25, 2015.
Ishiuchi Miyako 'Frida' @ Michael Hoppen Gallery In London
"Frida" by Ishiuchi Miyako is a photographic record of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe and belongings. She respectfully sifts through the remaining ephemera and in doing so makes intimate revelations about one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists. Frida will be on view until July 12, 2015 @ Michael Hoppen Gallery, 3 Jubilee Place, London
Read About Our Adventure With Legendary Filmmaker and Spiritual Mystic Alejandro Jodorowsky at His Apartment in Paris →
"I don´t think with ideas, but with my testicles. I don´t search, I ejaculate." This is just one of the many gems offered by legendary filmmaker and spiritual mystic Alejandro Jodorowsky in Adarsha Benjamin's interview with the famous auteur. On the occasion of the release of his new epic book, entitled Where The Bird Sings Best, we have dug this story and interview out of the archives. Originally published in Autre Issue 2, Adarsha Benjamin tells her story of running, jet lagged through the rainy streets of Paris to find Jodorowsky's apartment. Click here to read the full story and interview.
Tianzhuo Chen Performance at the Palais de Tokyo
Palais de Tokyo presents the very first solo exhibition in France of Chinese young artist Tianzhuo Chen, one of the most promising artists of his generation. Tianzhuo Chen uses a colourful, grotesque and kitsch imagery, dominated by direct references to drugs, LGBT hip hop, the London rave scene, Japanese Butoh, voguing in New York and the fashion world, to forge an intimate connection between his works and the collapse of moral attitudes and beliefs we see around us. The exhibition will be on view from June 24 to September 13, 2015 at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
Jaakko Eino Kalevi Unveils Another Strange and Wonderful Music Video
Finnish artist Jaakko Eino Kalevi has unveiled a music video for the track "Double Talk" off his first full length album, which was released this week. Back in April, Autre featured another music by Kalevi – for the track "Deeper Shadows" – which was equally as surreal and slightly unsettling.
Micaela McLucas 'Cirrus' @ Castor Gallery In New York
Castor Gallery presents "Cirrus," an exhibition of photographs by London-based artist, Micaela McLucas. McLucas’ photographs document her offbeat perspective of daily life by attempting to blur the lines between reality, and fiction. Set in a parallel world of fantasy and altered existence, her explorations of daily life become a realm of foreign familiarity and surreal monotony. McLucas uses her photographs as not only a reflection of her own dream-inspired environments, but also as a manipulation of her daily routines and life. 'Cirrus' will be on view until July 1, 2015 at Castor Gallery, 254 Broome St, New York.
Here Are Autre's Highlights from Art Basel 2015 in Switzerland
Art Basel 2015 is officially open to the public today in Basel, Switzerland. Art Basel has been described as the ‘Olympics of the Art World’. Approximately 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa show the work of more than 4,000 artists, ranging from the great masters of Modern art to the latest generation of emerging stars. The show's individual sectors represent every artistic medium: paintings, sculpture, installations, videos, multiples, prints, photography, and performance. Here are our highlights from the 2015 Art Basel in Switzerland, which will be in full swing until June 21, 2015. photographs courtesy of Art Basel
Chloë Sevigny Creates An Ex-Boyfriend Zine for the I Never Read Art Book Fair in Basel
Zines are really hot right now. If you haven't made one yet, maybe you should. The latest zine to come off the press comes from Chloë Sevigny who has released a little chapbook with photographic collages of all her ex-boyfriends. The zine was published on the occasion of the I Never Read Art Book Fair, which is being held alongside the Art Basel festivities in Switzerland. Entitled "No Time for Love," the zine is published by venerable cool zine publisher Innen. The I Never Read Book Fair will be on view until June 20, 2015 in Kaserne Switzerland.
Ettore Sottsass: A Master of Postmodern Italian Design →
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.