The Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver To Show 'Flesh and Blood' Recent Work by Shary Boyle

The Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver To Show 'Flesh and Blood' Recent Work by Shary Boyle

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:37 PM PST

Vancouver, BC.- The Contemporary Art Gallery is pleased to present "Flesh and Blood", a major touring exhibition of recent work by Canadian artist Shary Boyle. Through drawing, sculpture, painting, writing and performance Boyle creates installations that examine a range of psychological and emotional situations rooted in a fictional world. Her position is at once feminist yet poetic, located within dreamlike states. Tense with troubled emotions, possessing an expressive immediacy and poised between grace and strangeness, her portraits and ‘genre scenes’ read as allegories of the human condition. 

The Royal Ontario Museum to Host "Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008"

The Royal Ontario Museum to Host "Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008"

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:38 PM PST

TORONTO.- The Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) presents Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008 . The exhibition, which garnered record-breaking attendance in its recent European engagements, showcases 150 portraits, including classic images from Vanity Fair’s early period and photographs featured in the magazine since its 1983 relaunch. A collaboration between Vanity Fair and the National Portrait Gallery, London, the exhibition is curated by Terence Pepper, Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, and David Friend, Vanity Fair’s Editor of Creative Development. Vanity Fair Portraits is presented by the Bay and will be displayed in the Roloff Beny Gallery on Level 4 of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. The ROM will be the only Canadian venue to display Vanity Fair Portraits, and this will be its first showing in eastern North America. 
Throughout its 95-year history, Vanity Fair magazine has helped define the public persona of some of the most influential individuals in the world. The exhibition brings together a collection of captivating images of cultural icons from the magazine’s vintage and modern periods. Sitters range from Claude Monet, Amelia Earheart and Jesse Owens to David Hockney, Arthur Miller and Madonna, as well as legendary Hollywood personalities from Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo, to Demi Moore and Tom Cruise. The magazine’s mix of artistic seriousness and popular celebrity means that portraits of writers, artists and leaders of the avant-garde will be displayed alongside images of actors, musicians and athletes, providing a fascinating range of high and popular culture. 

“We are delighted to bring Vanity Fair Portraits to the ROM. Across its history, the magazine has been a barometer of the cultural mood of the time. This exhibition succeeds in channelling a mixture of the bygone days of Hollywood glamour, as well as newsmakers in art, business, politics and sport - all captured by some of the best portrait photographers in history. We are grateful to the National Portrait Gallery in London and Vanity Fair magazine for the opportunity to show this beautiful exhibition in Canada. It will be the centrepiece in an upcoming series of programming on the nature of celebrity,” said William Thorsell, ROM Director and CEO. 

Vanity Fair Portraits was mounted to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the modern-era magazine and the 95th anniversary of the original magazine’s founding. The exhibition is divided into two parts, 1913-36, the magazine’s early period, and 1983 to the present. In addition to the portraits, the exhibition will include vintage and modern editions of Vanity Fair magazines. 

The magazine was launched in 1913 by visionary publisher Condé Nast and editor Frank Crowinshield. From its inception, the magazine strove to engage its cosmopolitan and discerning audience with the vibrant modern culture that sparkled at the beginning of the 20th century. The birth of modernism, the dawning of the Jazz Age, and the 1913 Armory Show that introduced avant-garde art to the American public, all marked the beginning of this sophisticated new era. Vanity Fair magazine became a cultural catalyst, introducing and providing commentary on contemporary artists, personalities and writers. 

In these early years, Vanity Fair was the showcase for what was to become the most accessible art form in the 20th century, and an alluring array of portraits were commissioned from the greatest photographers of the period. Edward Steichen (1879-1973), the magazine’s chief photographer for 13 years (from 1923 to 1936), became America’s leading photographer of style, taste and celebrity. Steichen is best remembered for his timeless images of actors, whose likenesses in print and onscreen helped shape popular culture during the first quarter of the 20th century. A selection of his iconic photographs will be shown in the exhibition. 

From the magazine’s beginning, British, Irish and American literary figures were frequently profiled in the magazine along with their writings. Among the vintage portraits shown in the exhibition are iconic images of H.G. Wells, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Rebecca West, Ernest Hemingway and George Bernard Shaw.

Vanity Fair Portraits offers a rare opportunity to see some of the definitive portraits of the Jazz Age. Memorable images of men and women of the day are presented, such as Albert Einstein, Collette, Pablo Picasso and English playwright Noel Coward, whose images were captured by legendary photographers such as Martin Hölig, Cecil Beaton, Baron De Meyer, Man Ray and Edward Steichen. 

In 1936, Vanity Fair suspended publication, laying dormant for almost half a century. In the early 1980s, the vibrant cosmopolitan spirit streaming through the culture of the time persuaded Condé Nast Publications to resurrect the magazine. Once again, the magazine succeeded in immortalizing the newsmakers of the day - individuals of talent, stature and culture who were firmly embedded in the popular culture. And, as in the early period, portrait photography was the graphic bedrock of the magazine. Tina Brown, editor from 1983 to 1992, notably imbued the magazine with a mixture of personality profiles and first-rate reportage. When Brown moved on to the New Yorker in 1992, Graydon Carter took the editorial reigns at Vanity Fair and expanded the magazine’s coverage of news and world affairs, and, amongst a variety of new franchises, inaugurated the now annual Hollywood Issue along with the much-celebrated annual Oscar party. 

The section of the exhibition representing the period 1983 to the present illustrates how the revived monthly followed in the tradition of its first editor, Frank Crowninshield, and commissioned the world’s leading portrait photographers, among them Helmut Newton, Nan Goldin, Herb Ritts, Harry Benson, Mario Testino, Bruce Weber and Annie Leibovitz, Vanity Fair’s principal photographer since 1983. Leibovitz, the most famous imagemaker of her generation, first came to prominence while she was working as a photographer for Rolling Stone magazine, eventually becoming chief photographer. Her Vanity Fair covers have left us with unforgettable images of prominent figures in American pop culture.

Exhibition highlights: 
From vintage to contemporary prints, Vanity Fair Portraits captures viewers’ imagination, taking them on a journey of nearly 100 years of popular culture. The glamour of the golden age of cinema shines in portraits of American actresses Gloria Swanson, Anna May Wong and the Gish sisters; an incandescent portrait of Jean Harlow three years before her death; and beloved icons of the silver screen, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. With a nod to modernity – a significant element of the magazine’s inception - the Jazz Age is represented by classic studies of trumpeter Louis Armstrong and entertainer Josephine Baker. The selection also includes unpublished images, including a portrait of 1930s actress Alice White by Florence Vandamm and a study of Weimar era artist George Grosz by Emil Bieber. 

Bringing the exhibition to the 21st century, we are invited to look into the eyes of firefighters near Ground Zero (2001); a powerful image of actress Hilary Swank running on a beach (2004) and Annie Leibovitz’s Hollywood Issue cover (2001), featuring Nicole Kidman, Catherine Deneuve, Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Vanessa Redgrave, Kate Winslet, Chloe Sevigny, Sophia Loren and Penelope Cruz. From the world of music, portraits of Philip Glass (2002) and Liza Minnelli (2002) are juxtaposed with images of Run DMC (2005) and Radiohead (2000). 

Vanity Fair’s iconic photographs continue to make news. Post-1983 cover images include the Reagans dancing (1985), a very pregnant Demi Moore (1991), a formal portrait of President George W. Bush’s Afghan War Cabinet (2002) and, most recently, actresses Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley photographed nude (2006). Exclusive to the ROM is a Jonathan Becker portrait of Conrad Black with his wife, Barbara Amiel.

Annie Leibovitz Retrospective: A Photographer's Life 1990-2005 at C/O in Berlin

Annie Leibovitz Retrospective: A Photographer's Life 1990-2005 at C/O in Berlin

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:40 PM PST

BERLIN, GERMANY - C/O Berlin, International Forum For Visual Dialogues presents the work of photographer Annie Leibovitz in the exhibition A Photographer’s Life  C/O Berlin presents “A Photographer’s Life” as first and only venue in Germany.

'Forrest Gump', Chaplin's "The Kid" to be preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry

'Forrest Gump', Chaplin's "The Kid" to be preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry

Posted: 29 Dec 2011 09:58 PM PST

WASHINGTON, DC - Bambi, Forrest Gump and Hannibal Lecter have at least one thing in common: Their cinematic adventures were chosen by the Library of Congress to be preserved in the world's largest archive of film, TV and sound recordings. The registry began in 1989 under an act of Congress and now includes 575 films. Its aim is not to identify the best movies ever made but to preserve films with artistic, cultural or historical significance. Previous titles chosen range from "The Birth of a Nation" to "National Lampoon's Animal House." A majority of the 25 titles chosen this year for inclusion in the National Film Registry are lesser-known — including silent films, documentaries, avant-garde cinema and even home movies. The Library of Congress announced the selections Tuesday. Films must be at least 10 years old to be considered for the registry. Among the lesser-known titles chosen this year, "A Computer Animated Hand" (1972) by Pixar Animation Studios co-founder Ed Catmull was one of the earliest examples of 3D computer-generated imagery. The one-minute film shows a hand turning, opening and closing. 

Photographic Retrospective of Artist-Actor Leonard Nimoy

R. Michelson Galleries Hosts Photographic Retrospective of Artist-Actor Leonard Nimoy

Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:06 PM PST

NORTHAMPTON, MA - Artist/actor Leonard Nimoy has been a photographer most of his life He first experienced the magic of making photographic images as a teenager in the early 1940’s. "I was about thirteen," he says, when he discusses his attraction to the family camera, a bellows Kodak Autographic, which is a cherished part of his collection to this day.   His darkroom was the family bathroom in their small Boston apartment.   His subjects were family and friends. Nimoy’s first enlarger was a do-it-yourself number built around the same time as the family Kodak.

Elo: Inner Exile ~ Outer Limits on View at MUDAM in Luxembourg

Elo: Inner Exile ~ Outer Limits on View at MUDAM in Luxembourg

Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:13 PM PST

 

LUXEMBOURG - The exhibition Elo (“now” in Luxembourg parlance) presents a snapshot of contemporary production in Luxembourg. Organised by Mudam, it exhibits works mostly produced specially for the exhibition by artists brought together by the independent curator Christian Mosar.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Shows Los Angeles Photography 1945 -1980

The J. Paul Getty Museum Shows Los Angeles Photography 1945 -1980

Posted: 25 Dec 2011 08:04 PM PST

Los Angeles, California.- As part of the region-wide 'Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980' initiative, The J. Paul Getty Museum is pleased to present "In Focus: Los Angeles, 1945–1980", an exhibition of photographs from the permanent collection made by artists whose time in Los Angeles inspired them to create memorable images of the city, on view at the Getty Center through May 6th. The photographs are loosely grouped around the themes of experimentation, street photography, architectural depictions, and the film and entertainment industry. Works featured in the exhibition are from artists such as Jo Ann Callis, Robert Cumming, Joe Deal, Judy Fiskin, Anthony Friedkin, Robert Heinecken, Anthony Hernandez, Man Ray, Edmund Teske, William Wegman, Garry Winogrand, and Max Yavno. 

Drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection, including several recent acquisitions inspired by the Pacific Standard Time initiative, the exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to familiarize themselves with a broad range of approaches to the city of Los Angeles as a subject and to the photographic medium itself. One of the most well-known works in the exhibition is Garry Winogrand’s photograph of two women walking towards the landmark theme building designed by Charles Luckman and William Pereira that has come to symbolize both Los Angeles International Airport and midcentury modern architecture in popular culture. Though a quintessential New Yorker, Winogrand made some of his most memorable photographs in Los Angeles, where he chose to settle in the final years of his life. Also included in the exhibition is Diane Arbus’ dreamily lit photograph of Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland park in Anaheim. Although technically not located in either the city or the county of Los Angeles, Disneyland—and Arbus’ photograph—continues to capture the notion of entertainment and fantasy that has come to be so intrinsically associated with the city.

Other photographers in the "In Focus: Los Angeles" exhibition who produced the majority of their most creative work in the city include Edmund Teske, with his experimentation in the darkroom and his complex double solarization process; Robert Heinecken, with images that are equally complex but often incorporate existing printed materials, such as negatives; Anthony Hernandez, whose portraits of Angelenos on the street emphasize the isolation of the individual in an urban environment; and Anthony Friedkin, who combines his passions for surfing and the Southland beaches in his photographs. The inclusion of three photographs from Judy Fiskin’s earliest photographic series, Stucco (1973–76), provided the impetus for a monographic presentation of the artist’s complete photographic work by Getty Publications. Entitled Some Aesthetic Decisions: The Photographs of Judy Fiskin and featuring an introductory essay by curator Virginia Heckert, the book will be published concurrently with this exhibition. "In Focus: Los Angeles" is the tenth installation of the ongoing In Focus series of exhibitions, thematic presentations of photographs from the Getty’s permanent collection.

The J. Paul Getty Center, in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, is a campus for cultural institutions founded by oilman J. Paul Getty. The Center sits atop a hill, connected to a visitor's parking garage at the bottom by a three-car, cable-pulled tram. With more than 1.3 million visitors annually, the Getty Museum is one of the most visited art museums in the USA. It is one of two locations of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the second being the ‘J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa in Malibu’, dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. The ‘J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Centre’ is the branch of the museum specializing in "pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts; and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs". Besides the Museum, the Center's buildings house the Getty Research Institute (GRI), the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation, and the administrative offices of the J. Paul Getty Trust, which owns and operates the Center. The Center was designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Richard Meier and includes a central garden designed by artist Robert Irwin. GRI's separate building contains a research library with over 900,000 volumes and two million photographs of art and architecture. Originally, the Getty Museum started in J. Paul Getty's house located in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, when in 1954, he expanded the house with a museum wing. In the 1970's, Getty built a replica of an Italian villa on his property to better house his collection, which opened in 1974. After Getty's death in 1976, the entire property was turned over to the Getty Trust for museum purposes. However, the collection outgrew the site, which has since been renamed the Getty Villa, and management sought a location more accessible to Los Angeles. The purchase of the land upon which the Center is located (a campus of 24 acres on a site in the Santa Monica Mountains, surrounded by 600 acres kept in a natural state) was announced in 1983. The top of the hill is 900 feet (270 m) above Interstate 405, high enough that on a clear day it is possible to see not only the Los Angeles skyline but also the San Bernardino Mountains to the east as well as the Pacific Ocean to the west. The Center opened to the public on December 16, 1997. After the Center opened, the villa closed for extensive renovations, and reopened on January 28, 2006. The Center museum building consists of a three-level base building that is mostly closed to the public and provides staff workspace and storage areas. Five public, two-story towers on the base are called the North, East, South, West and the Exhibitions Pavilions. The Exhibitions Pavilion acts as the temporary residence for traveling art collections and the Foundation's artwork for which the permanent pavilions have no room. The permanent collection is displayed throughout the other four pavilions chronologically. The first-floor galleries in each pavilion house light-sensitive art, such as illuminated manuscripts, furniture, or photography. Computer-controlled skylights on the second floor galleries allow paintings to be displayed in natural light. The second floors are connected by a series of glass-enclosed bridges and open terraces, both of which offer views of the surrounding hillsides and central plaza. Sculpture is also on display at various points outside the buildings, including on various terraces and balconies. The lower level (the highest of the floors in the base) includes a public cafeteria, the terrace cafe, and the photography galleries. Visit the museum's website at ... www.getty.edu/museum/

Elvis at 21 ~ Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Elvis at 21 ~ Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Posted: 26 Dec 2011 08:31 PM PST

RICHMOND, VA.- Fifty-six dramatic 1956 photographs of Elvis Presley on the brink of international superstardom - including intimate images taken in Richmond - are being shown in Elvis at 21 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA).The black-and-white photographs taken by Alfred Wertheimer show a baby-faced Elvis just as his career began but before he was a recognizable rock-and-roll icon. Elvis at 21 is the first national traveling show of Wertheimer's photographs, which have been described as the stuff of music legend. Master printer David Adamson produced new pigment prints for the exhibition. Developed collaboratively by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), Govinda Gallery, and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the exhibition is made possible through the support of HISTORY™. 

French Realism Highlights Art Gallery of Hamilton Exhibition Season

French Realism Highlights Art Gallery of Hamilton Exhibition Season

Posted: 26 Dec 2011 08:48 PM PST

HAMILTON, ON, CANADA -  The Art Gallery of Hamilton’s Fall 2011 exhibition season offers a closing salute to its French Connection year with a stunning display of nineteenth-century French Realist paintings alongside three intriguing exhibitions drawn from private collections. On view through January 15, 2012, Masters of French Realism showcases works by various French painters associated with the central nineteenth-century artistic movement Realism, which achieved its most coherent expression in French painting. At the centre of French Realism was Gustave Courbet (1819–1877), represented in the exhibition by two landscape paintings. While Courbet’s Realist representations of peasants and labourers were motivated by strong political views, other French Realists, such as Philippe Rousseau (1816-1887), found both popular and critical success with their naturalistically painted humble subjects. 

Yayoi Kusama's Flower Sculptures Brighten the Jardin des Tuileries for the Winter

Yayoi Kusama's Flower Sculptures Brighten the Jardin des Tuileries for the Winter

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 09:05 PM PST

PARIS.- The Jardins des Tuileries in Paris has been enlivened by Yayoi Kusama's vibrantly colored Flowers That Bloom at Midnight, a series of unique largescale sculptures. This is the first time that these sculptures are seen in France. The presentation by the Musée du Louvre - which coincides with Kusama's major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou-is consistent with the museum's ongoing initiative to integrate contemporary art into its broader historical and cultural programme. This special project has been realized with the support of Gagosian Gallery. Flowers have continued to populate Kusama's imaginary since the beginning of her career, and it is evident that the gay yet monstrous flower sculptures of today have their origins in the surrealistic specimens that pervade the landscapes of her early paintings. 

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Shows Interactions Between Painting and Photography

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Shows Interactions Between Painting and Photography

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 08:10 PM PST

Santa Fe, NM.- "Shared Intelligence: American Painting and the Photograph", a major exhibition that addresses the anxious, yet highly productive relationship between painting and photography in 20th-Century American art is on view at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum until September 11th. This exhibition of more than 75 paintings and photographs focuses on the work of American painters for whom the photograph has been essential, beginning with the acclaimed 19th century realist Thomas Eakins and continuing through to contemporary art, including such masters as Georgia O’Keeffe, Frederic Remington, Charles Sheeler, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Chuck Close, David Hockney and Sherrie Levine. Major works by such ground-breaking photographers as Eadweard Muybridge, Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Cindy Sherman and Margaret Bourke-White will also be included.

Shared Intelligence brings together approximately 75 photographs and paintings by artists for whom the two mediums were essential to their practices, such as Robert Bechtle, Chuck Close, Thomas Eakins, Sherrie Levine, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cindy Sherman, Charles Sheeler, Ben Shahn and Edward Steichen.  The exhibition pairs paintings and photographs to demonstrate specific relationships between the two media and how painters consistently turned to photography to invigorate aspects of their work. In the beginning of the 20th Century, photographers felt obligated to justify their use of the camera as a means of expression.  Today however, the question is no longer Can photography be the equal of painting? but rather Has the photograph supplanted painting’s position in the hierarchy of the art world? Certainly it is nearly impossible to imagine a contemporary artist whose work is untouched by the camera, if only as a means of reproduction.  And yet, the photograph’s role in modern art goes far beyond reproduction or even as a source of subject matter.

Photographic seeing, the way the lens freezes, flattens, enlarges and crops the world, conditions all visual representations.  Above all, there is no way of escaping the the camera’s service to the vast legal, scientific and economic systems of knowledge that categorize and regulate modern existence itself. The exhibition intends to refute the idea that painting from a photograph is some sort of failure of imagination or technique - rather the two mediums enrich each other.  Ultimately, the exhibition emphasizes the role of the artist as picture maker, rather than as either painter or photographer.  In opposition to modernist critics such as Clement Greenberg and John Szarkowski who have tried to establish the autonomy of painting and photography, a crucial theme of this exhibition is the way in which the two mediums have always intersected and spilled into each other.  Painting has used the camera repeatedly to reinvigorate itself, just as photography has been equally enriched by a dialogue with painting.

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, opened to the public in July 1997, eleven years after the death of the artist from whom it takes its name. Welcoming more than 2,225,000 visitors from all over the world and being the most visited art museum in the state of New Mexico, it is the only museum in the world dedicated to an internationally known American woman artist. One of the most significant artists of the 20th century, Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was devoted to creating imagery that expressed what she called “the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it.” She was a leading member of the Stieglitz Circle artists, headed by Alfred Stieglitz, America’s first advocate of modern art in America.  These avant-garde artists began to flourish in New York in the 1910s. O’Keeffe’s images—instantly recognizable as her own —include abstractions, large-scale depictions of flowers, leaves, rocks, shells, bones and other natural forms, New York cityscapes and paintings of the unusual shapes and colors of architectural and landscape forms of northern New Mexico. The Museum’s collection of over 3,000 works comprises 1,149 O’Keeffe paintings, drawings, and sculptures that date from 1901 to 1984, the year failing eyesight forced O’Keeffe into retirement. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum is the largest single repository of O'Keeffe's work in the world. Throughout the year, visitors can see a changing selection of these works. In addition, the Museum presents special exhibitions that are either devoted entirely to O’Keeffe’s work or combine examples of her art with works by her American modernist contemporaries.  The Museum also organizes exhibitions of works by her contemporaries, as well as by living artists of distinction.

Over 140 artists other than O’Keeffe have been exhibited at the Museum, such as Arthur Dove, Sherrie Levine, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center opened in July 2001 as a component of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. As the only museum-related research facility in the world dedicated to the study of American Modernism (late nineteenth century – present), it sponsors research in the fields of art history, architectural history and design, literature, music and photography.  Its annual, competitive stipend program awards six stipends to qualified applicants who can spend three to twelve months at the Research Center, which makes its library, collections and unique archives accessible to researchers worldwide as well as to its in-house scholars. The Museum and its Research Center are both Pueblo Revival-style buildings located two blocks from the historic Santa Fe Plaza and were renovated in 1997 and 2001, respectively, by Gluckman Mayner Architects, New York.Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/

The Emmanuel Fremin Gallery to Exhibit Surrealist Photographer Giuseppe Mastromatteo

The Emmanuel Fremin Gallery to Exhibit Surrealist Photographer Giuseppe Mastromatteo

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 09:10 PM PST

New York City.- The Emmanuel Fremin Gallery is pleased to announce its grand re-opening in its new, larger Chelsea space located at 547 West 27 Street, suite 508. The gallery's first vernissage will be held on January 5th 2012 from 6-8 pm, introducing a 5 week solo show for Italian born artist Giuseppe Mastromatteo for his "Indepensense" series (which will close on February 12th). Following a wide acclaim reception in 2011 at Art Hamptons, the AAF, Greenwich Art Fair and Red Dot Miami, this will be be the first solo show for Giuseppe in the United States. Giuseppe Mastromatteo was born in Italy in1970 . After a period spent as a recordist's assistant inside a record company, he graduated from Accademia di Comunicazione di Milano in art direction. He writes about the Arts, teaches Advertising at various significant academic institutions, and collaborates with the Triennale Museum of Milan in the role of art director. Since 2005 his works have been exhibited at the Fabbrica Eos Art Gallery, Milan as well as at national and international art fairs. He currently lives and works in Milan. 

"Small Worlds"

The Toledo Museum of Art Displays "Small Worlds"

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 09:55 PM PST

Toldeo, Ohio.- The Toledo Museum of Art is pleased to present "Small Worlds" on view at the museum through March 25th 2012. As its name suggests, "Small Worlds" brings together intricate, charming, disquieting and thoughtful works of art on the smallest of scales. Each of the engaging works creates an intimate space or environment and shows scenes which are familiar but perhaps slightly askew. The five contemporary artists represented offer us more than 40 small worlds rendered as relief paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs. There also are video and art installations, a fully functional 65-square-foot house, and objects created specifically for this show that, in some cases,incorporate facets of the Toledo Museum of Art and its environs. The concept of “world” is both universal and highly personal because our worlds are shaped by individual experiences and imaginations. The intricate, intriguing works in Small Worlds explore the realms of the home, the studio, the neighborhood, the city and the natural world, said Amy Gilman, curator of contemporary art, associate director of the Museum and organizer of the exhibition. “These works encourage the viewer to consider space and perspective in different ways,” says Gilman. 

Lawrence Schiller to Present "America in the Sixties & Marilyn Monroe"

Lawrence Schiller to Present "America in the Sixties & Marilyn Monroe"

Posted: 18 Dec 2011 06:12 PM PST

NEW YORK, NY - Legendary photographer, journalist and film director Lawrence Schiller will bring the Harrowing Sixties back to life when he opens an historic exhibit of his photography at Pop International Galleries on May 15.  This is the first time the exhibit has been shown in the United States and will be open from May 15 through June. Images are available to collectors in limited editions, which have been reproduced as originally printed in color or silver gelatin and some select images in platinum. 

The Kopeikin Gallery to Show Kevin Cooley's Large Scale Photographs

The Kopeikin Gallery to Show Kevin Cooley's Large Scale Photographs

Posted: 18 Dec 2011 06:20 PM PST

Los Angeles, California.- The Kopeikin Gallery is pleased to present " Kevin Cooley : Take Refuge", on view at the gallery from January 7th through February 11th 2012. The exhibition features large scale photographs and videos evoking human struggles in the harsh and unforgiving, yet sublime, natural world. This body of work was created in disparate locations including the Arctic territory of Spitsbergen and the American West as well in more ordinary places such as New York City and Los Angeles. Referencing the Romantic movement in art and literature, the work attests to both the fear and longing nature inspires. Kevin Cooley is primarily a photo and video artist who does freelance assignment work as well. 

The Hangram Design Museum Shows a Major David LaChapelle Retrospective

The Hangram Design Museum Shows a Major David LaChapelle Retrospective

Posted: 17 Dec 2011 07:43 PM PST

Seoul, Korea.- The Seoul Art Center is pleased to announce the retrospective of the acclaimed American artist and photographer David LaChapelle on view through February 26th at the Hangaram Design Museum.  Hugely anticipated, this is LaChapelle’s second Asian museum retrospective after a widely successful reception in Taipei, Taiwan in 2010. With nearly two hundred works, it will present the most comprehensive selection of LaChapelle’s photographic works ever seen in Asia, spanning over twenty years of his artistic career from the 1980s to 2011. LaChapelle is known internationally for his exceptional talent in combining a unique hyper-realistic aesthetic with profound social messages. Alongside his earlier works commissioned for fashion and celebrity editorials, the exhibition will showcase LaChapelle's recent artworks such as The Raft of Illusion, the site-specific installation Chain of Life and his most recent work Gaia. 

LaChapelle’s photography career began in the 1980s showing his artwork in New York City galleries. His works caught the eye of Andy Warhol who offered him his first job as a photographer at Interview Magazine. Since then, LaChapelle has worked for the most prestigious international publications such as Italian Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ and Rolling Stone, photographing personalities as diverse as Madonna, Lance Armstrong, Uma Thurman, Elizabeth Taylor, David Beckham, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hillary Clinton, and Muhammed Ali, to name a few. In 2006, LaChapelle decided to leave the world of publishing and magazines to return to where he started, creating work for exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. LaChapelle has been the subject of exhibitions in both commercial galleries and leading public institutions around the world. He has had solo museum exhibitions at the Barbican Museum, London (2002), Palazzo Reale Milan (2007), MALBA Museum, Buenos Aires (2007), Museo del Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City (2009), and the Musee de La Monnaie, Paris (2009), among many others. In 2010, he mounted two record-breaking solo shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, Taiwan and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel. In 2011, he has had a major exhibition of new work at The Lever House, New York, and a retrospective at the Museo Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (open through March 2012).

After establishing himself as a fixture in contemporary photography, LaChapelle decided to branch out and direct music videos, live theatrical events, and documentary films. His directing credits include music videos for artists such as Christina Aguilera, Moby, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, The Vines and No Doubt. His stage work includes Elton John’s The Red Piano and the Caesar’s Palace spectacular he designed and directed in 2004. His burgeoning interest in film led him to make the short documentary Krumped, an award-winner at Sundance from which he developed RIZE, the feature film acquired for worldwide distribution by Lion’s Gate Films. The film was released in the US and internationally in the Summer of 2005 to huge critical acclaim, and was chosen to open the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.

David LaChapelle continues to be inspired by everything from art history and street culture, to the Hawaiian jungle in which he lives, projecting an image of twenty-first century pop culture through his work that is both loving and critical. He is quite simply the only photographic artist working today who has transitioned flawlessly from the world of fashion and celebrity photography to be enshrined by the notoriously discerning contemporary art intelligentsia.

The Seoul Arts Center, literally the Hall of Arts, is a cultural center in Seocho-gu, the southern area of Seoul, South Korea. Measuring in 12,0350 m², it consists of many different halls and centers for many diverse art forms. It began construction in 1984, and was fully opened in 1993. It was started with the intention of bringing a more solid aspect to the Korean arts and cultural scene, and to bring the Korean arts to an international level. It consists of the main Festival Hall, Calligraphy Hall, Music Hall, Arts Center, Center of Archives, Education Hall which are all housed indoors, and the Circular Plaza, Street of Meetings, Traditional Korean Gardens, an outdoor Theater, and a market place. The central venue, which is the Opera House, was built basing designs on the traditional hat for Korean men, the "gat", worn during the Joseon Dynasty by grown men who had passed the gwageo. The Music Hall was designed with the idea of a Korean fan in mind. The Hangaram Design Museum within the Seoul Arts Center is sSituated in the east wing of the Center, and opened its doors in 1990. It concentrates on modern and contemporary art enabling younger people to enjoy their visits. Measuring in at 15,434 m², its first and second floors are connected so that major works of art can be displayed without difficulty. The museum uses natural lighting installed in ma