Banksy's Olympics


Banksy comes back in full swing and celebrates his Olympic Games with new murals that have appeared overnight in various locations in London. Politically charged, these new works are the artist's response to the British government to "clean" the city's walls before the Games start. 

Sexy, Free & Single

Sexy, Free & Single - Suju Music Video

Information:
Super Junior is still going strong with their 6jib aka 6th studio album "Sexy, Free & Single" which is also the title for their lead single. For this comeback, member Heechul won't be joining them as he is currently serving the army while Kangin finally comes back after 3 years of serving. This will also be leader Leeteuk's last participation before he joins Heechul. Anyhow, this new single brings a new heat to the dance floor as the song features catchy groovy tunes and the lyrics literally describes their current situation now as individuals and as a group. It is already expected to top the charts as there are millions of ELFs who support them around the world.

Yves Saint Laurent brandlift by Hedi Slimane has started


Saint Laurent Couture Salons / Place François 1er


dOCUMENTA (13) : an overview

"Tara Bogart: A Modern Hair Study" at hous projects in New York


Bogart is an artist whose passion for photography emerged early in life in her native Milwaukee. Inspired by an archival image of Felix Nadar’s Hair Study while visiting the National Library of France, she has created a series of intimate portraits of women. Focusing solely on their backs and their hair, she forces the viewer "to contend with all of the peripheral things that make each woman unique."

"Tara Bogart: A Modern Hair Study" is on show at hous projects gallery in New York.

D-L Alvarez / MATRIX 243 and the loss of innocence at the The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive



D-L Alvarez: The Closet #13 and #14, 2006–07; graphite on paper; 17 ½ x 21 ¼ in. each; courtesy of Derek Eller Gallery, New York.


D-L Alvarez’s first solo museum exhibition presents a haunting meditation on the violent end of innocence. Alvarez, an Oakland-based artist, focuses on the uncanny moments when social and domestic deviance collide. 

In Alvarez’s drawing series, The Closet (2006–07), we see an abstracted image of Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978), repelling the attacks of a masked psychopath while trapped in a closet. The character’s expression of horror is echoed by the drawings’ highly fractured compositions, which appear to be the result of some kind of electronic interference or degraded technology. 

The Closet is shown with Something to Cry About I and II (2007), patchwork bodysuits made of children’s clothing arranged over wooden armatures. The ominous draping is both vulnerable and sinister, evoking the footed pajamas of cartoon-addled kids as well as the grisly outfits and other mementoes that the notorious murderer Ed Gein fashioned out of corpses’ skins. 

With these two projects Alvarez explores the aesthetic guises that sometimes mask unspeakable horrors. His drawings and sculptures conjure the psychic breaks that both constitute and disrupt identity. 

MATRIX 243 is organized by Assistant Curator Dena Beard. The MATRIX Program at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive is made possible by a generous endowment gift from Phyllis C. Wattis and the continued support of the BAM/PFA Trustees


Antonio Saura, The Retrospective at the Kunstmuseum in Bern


Antonio Saura: Dora Maar (1983), Öl auf Leinwand, 162 x 130 cm, Genf, Sammlung Philippe Setton.
© succession antonio saura, © 2012, ProLitteris, Zürich



Self-educated, Saura (1930-1998) began his artistic career in 1947 under the influence of Yves Tanguy and Joan Miró. In search of a “true landscape of the unconscious,” he started producing his first surrealist works from 1950 onwards. Subsequently he stayed in Paris for quite a while (1954-1955). Since 1956 he began to develop an individual style that is distinct on account of its expressive structure and strongly gestural character in the thematic series Damen 7 (Ladies 7) and Selbstbildnisse (Portraits). In his comprehensive oeuvre Saura repeatedly reveals his interest in other artists' expression such as Diego Vélasquez, Francisco de Goya, and Pablo Picasso.

The retrospective presented at the Kunstmuseum of Bern, focuses on all phases of the artist’s creative development, represents his large series of pictures through key works, and, not least, explores facets of his illustrative and graphic oeuvre. Additionally, also sculptures by the artist are on show. It is an ambitious project, concerning the first large-scale retrospective since the landmark 1979 exhibition organized by Ad Petersen at the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum while Saura was still alive.


On show until 11 November 2012.

José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros is a funny artist



The Lady 
Oil on canvas
12" x 9"



And They Lived Happily Ever After
(Princes) 
Acrylic on canvas
7.8" x 7.8"



And They Lived Happily Ever After
(Princesses) 
Acrylic on canvas
7.8" x 7.8"




The Throne 
Acrylic on canvas
17.7" x 23.6"




War Dirty
Acrylic on wood
14" x 11"


José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros is represented by La Luz de Jesus Gallery in L.A

2ne1 I Love You

I Love You - 2NE1


Information:
After Dara hinting the title of their next single to be "I Love You". It turns out to be real as the queens of KPop 2NE1 is now back with a new track. It is not that upbeat as their other singles like "I Am The Best" but it is on a whole new level. They're currently on a "New Evolution" Tour and hopefully they will perform this song. On a side note, the intro sounds like a Lady Gaga song but with different style. 

English Translation:


When you feel like there’s no way out
Love is the only way
Only be good to me
Only always smile at me
I said oooh, don’t make me jealous
Oooh, don’t make me become obsessed
I’m still scared of love
So give make me trust you
I said oooh, don’t make me jealous
Oooh, don’t make me become obsessed
I Love You
I Love You
All day, I keep thinking about you
All day, I just stare at my phone that’s not ringing
Why don’t you know my heart being like this yet?
I still don’t know your heart either
At thoughts of you, I can’t go to sleep at night
I think of you with the moonlight and I confess my heart
Why don’t you know my heart being like this yet?
I still don’t know your heart either
Look at me now
Look at my heart
It’s burning like this
Please hold onto me right now
Before it’s too late eh eh eh eh
I Love You
I Love You
Don’t stop the love song
I will sing for handsome you every day
I say yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
I say yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Don’t stop the love dance
I want to spend this night with you
I say yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
I say yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Look at my heart
It’s burning like this
Please hold onto me right now
Before it’s too late eh eh eh eh
We can’t go wrongbring it back
Don’t play the cat-and-mouse game with me
Let’s become a bit more honest
I said oooh, don’t make me jealous
Oooh, don’t make be become obsessed
I’m curious where you are and what you’re doing
Are you annoyed by me being like this?
I said oooh, don’t make me jealous
Oooh, don’t make be become obsessed
I Love You everyday
Don’t get away
Take me away
I Love You everyday
In everyway
I Love You
Why don’t you know my heart being like this yet?
I still don’t know your heart either
I Love You everyday
Don’t get away
Take me away
I Love You everyday
In everyway
I Love You
Why don’t you know my heart being like this yet?
I still don’t know your heart either








David Hockney on "Late November Tunnel, 2006" painting





This is why Youtube is amazing actually, to give the opportunity to everyone to listen to great artists speaking about their art.

This is a very interesting piece of video where David Hockney, the British Master, talks about  “Late November Tunnel, 2006″ and other paintings from the series, including later works he created on iPhones and iPads. They were featured in the beautiful and overwhelming exhibition earlier this year at the Royal Academy of Arts now showing at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Quote of the week: Travis Mathews on James Franco's next project

"We're staying pretty mumsy on the specifics for now, but I can tell you that it's going to ruffle some feathers." Travis Mathews about James Franco's collaboration on their "Homo-Sex-Art-Film"

Ai Weiwei - Never Sorry Trailer US Version

Popular artist Julian Opie opens new show at Lisson Gallery in London

Julian Opie, Woman in high heels with telephone, 2012, Vinyl on wooden stretcher, © Julian Opie and Lisson Gallery.

Lisson Gallery announced an exhibition of new work by Julian Opie. In the broadest single display of his practice to-date, Opie employs the concise vernacular of modern media, depicting new subjects in previously unexplored mediums as well as self referentially developing ideas from his early works.

Opie is an artist of international significance widely recognised for his distinctive contribution to contemporary art over the last three decades. His artistic preoccupation is the investigation into the idea of representation and the means by which images are perceived and understood. He reinterprets the vocabulary of everyday life, opening a discussion between the slick visual language of modern society and art history.

The exhibition includes a striking series of walking figures, which have increasingly become an important part of the artist’s practice. Simplified to the point of becoming human ‘logos’, walkers in vinyl are displayed in an extended line, recalling Egyptian friezes. In an intriguing and radical development for the artist, he has captured unknown passers-by from the streets of London rather than working with personally known subjects. The unwitting subjects reveal themselves in movement, captured in the moment, exhibiting their own idiosyncrasies in the way they carry themselves. Walking figures are also captured as still images on inlayed granite and stone.

Opie’s choice of medium is key in drawing attention to the physicality of his portraits. Two major new bodies of work mark a technical departure for Opie and juxtapose modern and classical sources. A group of mosaic portraits explore the relationship between sculpture and painting by emphasising the materiality of the imagery. This relationship is taken further in a series of painted busts on plinths in the same room, which beguilingly unite sculptural forms with flat imagery. The busts are the result of the artist’s use of three-dimensional scanning, a meticulous process that involves laser scanning the subject’s head from various angles. The resulting image has then been simplified, formed and dipped in resin, and then hand painted by Opie. Though created using cutting edge technology, the busts are also rooted in traditional sculpture dating back to the Roman period and beyond.

Opie’s interest in traditional portraiture, in painting and sculpture, is evident throughout the show, with subjects frequently adopting poses and props inspired chiefly by 17th and 18th Century English, Dutch and French portraits. The open book in the hand of one subject depicted in inkjet on canvas traditionally symbolises religious dedication whereas the type of material and how it is draped around other subjects in the same series, conveys their social standing and refinement.

Opie’s animations instil the fields of portraiture and landscape painting with a new sense of life and dynamism. A series of six digitally animated landscapes on LCD screens, complemented by an internal soundtrack of natural sounds, offer a window into the idyllic pastoral landscape of central France. While his landscapes are presented in a vertical format that calls to mind the Japanese landscape prints of Hiroshige, the medium is directly inspired by advertising and signage. In Daisies. (2012), a patch of flowers bob and sway in the breeze as insects buzz from flower to flower. Other screens capture similarly tranquil moments such as airplanes passing through the night sky, and a cloud of gnats hovering in the dusk sunlight.

The ambience and evocativeness of these scenes is echoed in the film, Winter. (2012), which invites the viewer on a journey through the beauty of a bleak winter day. Compiled of over seventy digital sketches, the film is accompanied by a specially commissioned score written by Paul Englishby (award winning composer for An Education and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day), resulting in an immersive and cinematic experience that merges romanticism with contemporary style. This film is accompanied by three glass works which provide snapshots of the same landscape at different times of year.

A monumental double-sided LED sculpture of a galloping horse mounted on a plinth, rises above the walls of the gallery’s sculpture courtyard. The animation - high enough to be seen from the street outside the gallery - becomes part of public life like the equine monuments around London that it directly references. Opie has a number of public art works around the city, including Ruth walking in jeans. (2010) in Regent’s Place and 3 men walking. (2008) in the sculpture park at No 30 St Mary Axe “The Gherkin”. The latter will be joined by three of Opie’s sculptures from his Caterina dancing naked. series during the summer, coinciding with Opie’s exhibition at Lisson Gallery and a multiple panel installation at the maternity ward of St Mary’s Hospital.



Munch Brunch - unknown artist


Pierre Huyghe's bees in Arles and in Kassel


Pierre Huyghe, "Colony Collapse", 2012, Featuring Marlon Middek & Danny Jöckel. Les Rencontres d'Arles | LIONEL ROUX.


Pierre Huyghe: Untitled, 2011-2012, alive entities and inanimate things, made and not made, dimensions and duration variable |
Commissioned and produced by dOCUMENTA (13) with the support of Colección CIAC AC, Mexico; Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la création, Paris; Ishikawa Collection, Okayama, Japan |
By courtesy of Pierre Huyghe; Marian Goodman Gallery, New York - Paris; Esther Schipper, Berlin |
Photo: Nils Klinger

LABoral, in Gijon Spain showcases an exhibition on music video



Chris Cunningham, Madonna. Frozen, 1998. Warner Music Group. 

From 3rd July LABoral the exhibition space in Gijon, Spain is showing eCLIPSe, an exhibition engaging on a journey through the creative world of music videos with a selection of the 50 videos which, throughout history, are considered to be crucial for an understanding of a discipline. It has been consolidated as both a form of artistic expression in itself and as an intersection between the visual arts and cultural industries.

The year 1975 is considered to be a pivotal moment in the history of music. Queen, the British band, released the single Bohemian Rhapsody, accompanied by what was probably the first video in history aware of its status as a medium. Years later, in 1983, Michael Jackson and his legendary Thriller paved the way for the video as a concept and as industry support for music publishing. Since then, and initially thanks to the television channel MTV which required every single released by record labels to be illustrated with audiovisual backing, video clips have earned undisputed respect.

The video as a form of artistic expression is included in visual arts and, in some cases even viewed as avant-garde, although the functions it serves as a music video - namely that of promoting a song, group or singer – ought not to be forgotten. Many of the advances in the visual production of the most widely respected arts, such as film, were originally created and tested in the music video world, even its narrative rhythm has set standards for the spectator. Likewise, the inextricable bond with the language of advertising is also evident.

At LABoral’s Mediateca Expandida in Gijon, Spain, a space dedicated to experimenting with new forms of distribution and access to art which is capable of pushing the boundaries of the conventional exhibition, the exhibition traces a historical path and also include monographs on two of the most seminal video directors: the Frenchman Michel Gondry and British Chris Cunningham. Amazing !

Alexander McQueen Autumn/Winter 2012 Campaign inspired by David Bowie?



I heard that Sarah Burton had been inspired by David Bowie for her latest collection. Well, it looks like the latest Alexander McQueen's campaign for the Autumn / Winter 2012 collection is also inspired by Ziggy Stardust. Have a look ! I think these visuals are great !