text by Stas Chyzhykova
Artsy's inaugural online auction with Sotheby's closes tonight. Input / Output features phenomenal pieces by leading emerging artists and contemporary art's pioneers. I am sharing my 5 favorite works from the sale that are collector "must haves:"
1: Richard Prince's Untitled (Portrait) from his recent Instagram series has already become iconic following the block-buster solo show at Gagosian London. In this new body of work, Richard Prince—the master of reappropriation—uses the “selfie” as a central framework. He elevates this ephemeral imagery to explore issues around the “cult of the self,” while subverting the fleeting nature of social media. By adding his own comments to each work—often pulling phrases directly from television advertising—he incorporates another element of “self” into the portraits. The series was recently exhibited at Gagosian Gallery in London. Bid here.
2: Robert Heinecken, a precursor to appropriation and one of the most significant figures in contemporary photography, founded the photography program at UCLA. A work from the very same edition, Cybill Shepard/Phone Sex, was included in Heinecken's retrospective at MoMA in 2014. In this sculpture, Heinecken takes advantage of the flagrant presence of commercially produced, life-size cut-outs. He humorously manipulates the pop culture imagery, exaggerating its provocative nature to lay bare the ties between photography, sex, and consumerism. Bid here.
3: The inclusion of Mark Flood's Apple 6 comes on the heels of his recent solo show at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Flood's works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art; the Menil Collection, Houston; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Apple 6, a large scale painting, is a reminder of Apple's un-disputable impact on our every day life and culture. Bid here.
4: Michael Manning Full Forever; Let Her Go is a captivating diptych that was originally created using touch-screen tablets and image software such as Photoshop, and then translated into 3-D. Manning was recently included in the New Museum's exhibition "First Look: Brushes", focusing on artists who paint with the computer. Bid here.
5: Parker Ito embraces technology and the Internet, disrupting the trajectory of traditional art-making. Due to its highly reflective and textured surface the artwork changes color depending on the viewer's vintage point and if photographed with a flash. In “The Agony and the Ecstasy” series, Parker Ito explores the gap between digital and physical engagements with works of art. Capitalizing on the reflective quality of 3M Scotchlite fabric, Ito’s work resists photographic documentation and takes on new life when translated from the gallery space to the computer screen. Bid here.
Text and list by Stas Chyzhykova of Artsy. Input / Output is closing tonight, Friday, October 30th, at 9PM PT, so now is your last chance to bid. All works will be on view at Fused Space in San Francisco from October 22 to October 30, 2015.