Takashi Murakami's exhibit has been on display for a while now but I came across it again after my visit to the site. Billed as the Japanese Andy Warhol, Murakami's works touches upon popular culture, high art and low art, and contemporary Japanese society. Oh how I wish I could see this exhibit. Spain anyone? :)
Check out this installation at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Cai Guo-Qiang's I Want To Believe deals with ideas of transformation, expenditure of materials, and connectivity.
American artist, Christopher “CK” Wilde chooses an expensive medium for his art - money. His work explores the relationship between art and commerce with undertones of economics and politics. Building upon found images, CK Wilde cuts out shapes from paper money from around the world to create a colourful collage.
Sell Out - A musical from Malaysia that revolves around two characters named Eric (a product designer) and Rafflesia (a bottom-ranking arts show host) and their battle between retaining their artistic integrity or finally selling out for fame and fortune.
It peaked my interest as I came across it while doing research for my Global Arts paper. It's won a few awards and is quickly becoming recognized by many international film festivals. Sell Out looks pretty entertaining.
1. DMG Gallery Exhibition @ UTSC: meeting point (March 17 - April 26)
Such a great exhibition that's currently being held at the DMG gallery! Since I'm partially lazy and should probably be writing my papers here is the exhibition description taken from the website.
Meeting point features internationally recognized contemporary artists whose works construct or metaphorically imply a range of social relationships between two people - intimacy, disagreement, love, friendship and competition, to name a few. This art encourages direct social interrelation, subjective experiences and ensuing narratives that are sometimes personal and always point to real life.
From Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s Fucked Up Lover (2001), in which conversations about compilation tapes are remarkably revealing of couples’ relationships, to Laura Belém’s Diplomatic Talks (2009), where paired heads of coins from different countries set up an imagined dialogue that may either be diplomatic or intimate, the works in Meeting Point represent a reconstructive, hopeful experimentation by artists frustrated by art of all kinds remaining discrete from social contexts.
In this way, Meeting Point offers an optimistic angle for current artistic debate. The exhibition brings together major works by Canadian and international artists who has previously shown in the Venice, Lyon, Havana, and São Paulo biennials. In addition, their work has been exhibited at the Carnegie International, ICA London, the Barbican, and the Palais de Tokyo. Despite such exposure, many of these works will be new to Canadian audiences, particularly those of the included artists from Brazil.
Now if only this could happen on the Bloor/Danforth line.
3. Fine Art Student Union (FASU)
Lastly, to any University of Toronto FAH or VIS students (or if you have any friends in these disciplines) out there, I'm running for the position of FAH Events Coordinator for the 2009/2010 academic year and need your votes!!
Elections will be taking place on Thursday, April 2nd at 3pm at the UC Art Centre.
If you could help me out I would really, really appreciate it and love you foreva and eva!! xo
This is kind of cheesy but I thought it was cute when I saw this on my friend Clara's profile, I just couldn't resist! It's quite fitting since Paulo and I hit up the AGO today for an assignment. The Impressionists out there will appreciate this one!
"I had no monet to buy degas to make the van gogh. I tried anyway because I had nothing toulouse!"
When I should have been reading about Manet and an article by James Rubin entitled The Artist as Subject: the Paris of Édouard Manet. I actually went on a blog break and came across this wicked Kanye West video for his song Heartless. It’s not his next single, Amazing will be. He is dropping the idea since there’s another video out there that’s doing the same technique.
I had this idea to relate Kanye West to Impressionist painter Édouard Manet in order to relieve my guilt for procrastination. In my research I found that both approach the expression of art in a similar fashion. Manet took his own world as subject matter for painting, declaring a social position and artistic attitude much like Courbet. Manet’s art had captured something of a modern consciousness where his visual and social experiences were coextensive. He referred to his hometown and always put his origins and loyalties on display. Manet’s name was associated with radical, avant-garde destruction to tradition and throughout the decade received lots of criticism for his painting style, particularly for his paintings Déjeuner sur l’herbe and Olympia. Manet painted with Monet and Renoir at Argenteuil where they influenced each other a lot and shared an interest in modern subject. A critic named Louis Gonse considered Manet to be the "father of modernism."
Édouard Manet - Déjeuner sur l’herbe and Olympia (1863)
If you really think about it Kanye West is not so different in producing music and clothing instead of paintings. His lyrics are similar in Manet’s subject matter in that he rhymes about what he’s about and his experiences and loyalties. His recent album 808s & Heartbreak pushes the boundaries of what is considered to be acceptable in rap music. On the subject of criticism, Kanye has been dubbed “Mr. Controversial” and has received a plethora of criticism during his career about his political lyrics and his memorable Bush line during the Hurricane Katrina fundraiser. Kanye West’s music videos are an art form of their own. They are iconoclastic and innovative going above and beyond to produce an effective visual to illustrate what he raps (or sings) about. Like any artist they become influenced by their peers and their environment this is not any different in the hip-hop world. Kanye has been influenced by producer RZA from Wu-Tang Clan, Daft Punk, Michael Jackson, and Jay Z just to name a few. He has worked with numerous artists throughout his career who have shared his creative vision and have integrated it into their works of art. Kanye West has been considered to be one of the most commercially successful "back-pack" rappers. (Back-pack rapper: Person who raps about real life stuff that matters and his experiences. He is true to himself while rapping and uses his head and heart to write not simply with a pen and producing meaningless words). Perhaps Kanye West is our modern day Manet?
So there you have it: Art history meets Hip-hop. I wonder if Professor Carney would appreciate my juxtaposition? McCleary would for sure!
Images 1. en.wikipedia.org 2 & 3. fadis.com 4. prettymuchamazing.com 5. youtube.com (Screenshot of a fanmade typographic video for Amazing)
Something to look forward to next fall (I realize this is a while away!) when getting ready for the fall fashion season is an upcoming photography exhibit put on at the AGO entitled “Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, the Condé Nast Years, 1923–1937.”
Edward Steichen is considered one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century. He was an American photographer who was born in Bivange, Luxembourg then immigrated to the United States in 1881. He was a photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator.
Image: www.flickr.com
Steichen became the chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair who shaped the look of celebrity and fashion photography in the 20’s and 30’s which later revolutionized Fashion photography when he photographed the creations of iconic designers of the time, including Chanel, Lanvin, Poiret, and Patou.
The exhibition will showcase more than 200 photographs taken by Edward Steichen. Mark those calendars, the exhibition will run from October 3, 2009 – January 3, 2010 and am sure it will not disappoint.
Is it just me, or does he not look like
Dob in the Strange Forest, 1999
Super Touch
The World of Sphere, 2003
Lotus Flower (Pink), 2008
Dumb Compass, 2008
Something to look forward to next fall (I realize this is a while away!) when getting ready for the fall fashion season is an upcoming photography exhibit put on at the AGO entitled “Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, the Condé Nast Years, 1923–1937.”
