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Work of the Week: This Sporting Life, September 1978 by Larry Fink
The perspective of the camera angle is lower than the praying mantis and, in doing so, this normally insignificant insect becomes larger than life. Fink’s angle switches the roles of the human and the bug. We can see how the mantis must view its world.
The binary sort
In a process rife with self-reflection and self-awareness, Wangechi Mutu gives particular thought to traditional “clear-cut” categories like African/European, white/black, male/female, archaic/modern and religious/pornographic. She seems preoccupied with the binary, but instead of opting for one over the other, he splices together her own mutated view to create a “post-human” chimera.
Work of the Week: The End of eating Everything by Wangechi Mutu
The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University presents artist Wangechi Mutu’s first animated video, created in collaboration with recording artist Santigold and co-released by MOCAtv on YouTube. The 8-minute video, The End of eating Everything,marks the journey of a flying, planet-like creature navigating a bleak skyscape. This “sick planet” creature is lost in a polluted atmosphere, without grounding or roots, led by hunger towards its own destruction. The animation’s audio, also created by Mutu, fuses industrial and organic sounds.
A Fantastic Journey, About to Begin
Wangechi Mutu was at the Nasher Museum recently to install her solo exhibition, Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey. Over the course of three days, the artist created a large drawing on the entrance wall. In her work, she often combines found materials and magazine cutouts with sculpture and painted imagery
The perfect blanket
The image above is a closeup of a blanket from Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey (opening Thursday, March 21).
These blankets have many uses, perhaps most recognizably in relief efforts by humanitarian organizations around the world.
The artist Wangechi Mutu chose this soft, malleable material to transform the gallery and to build the root structures for her trees here at the Nasher Museum. Different colored threads from recycled materials make each blanket unique.
Amateur Blogspot: Days 4 and 5
The installation best in keeping with the theme of this year’s show, the 100th anniversary thing, was Francis Naumann’s homage to Marcel Duchamp’s famous modernist work, Nude Descending a Staircase. Creatures of all shapes, colors and sizes, from Mel Ramos’ pinup nude, to Peter Saul’s little green Dali’s, descended en masse and in vivid color. Men, women, cartoon characters and hermaphroditic models all got into the act. Many of the works were made specifically for this exhibit, others were brought together by Naumann, a longtime dealer and Duchamp enthusiast.
The Amateur Blogspot: Armory Day 3
Along with the Armory, and the pier (don’t get me started again), there are numerous other venues during Armory week where galleries, artists, museums etc. provide exhibitions and purchasing opportunities to an art starved public. Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips all hold their contemporary auctions during Armory Week. The Independent Art Show is in Chelsea on West 22nd Street, there is a video art fair at the Waterfront New York Tunnel (a very cool space in a gallery/mall setting), Volta on Mercer Street, and god knows what else. And for all the art junkies who just didn’t get enough during the day by the time the shows close at 7pm, many of the galleries time new show openings to coincide with Armory week, so that you can continue your art day on into the night.
Barkley L. Hendricks, Illusionist
Opening events can be crowded and loud, not the best time to take in a new art exhibition.
But the recent event for American artist Barkley L. Hendricks’s solo exhibition, Heart Hands Eyes Mind, at Jack Shainman Gallery was a party before the party started. The most dazzling and cool guests (14 of them, in nine new paintings) could only exist on a Barkley L. Hendricks canvas. The human party guests, fashionably late, were immediately drawn into the work on the walls.
The Amateur Blogspot: Armory Day 2
So the unspoken dirty little secret that separates those on the outside from those on the inside is the odd fact that the Armory Show is not at the Armory, and the show that is at the Armory Show concurrently to the Armory Show, is The Art Show. Not just an art show, but The Art Show, run by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA).It is the 50th Anniversary of the ADAA show, at the Armory, but it is the 100th Anniversary of the Armory Show. At the Pier. Those poor unlucky Sneetches who confuse the two are forced to remove their stars (look it up). So having hung at the Pier for Day 1, I toured 67th Street Armory on Day 2 of Armory Week, which really refers to the show at the pier. … Nevermind.