Change of art.

Art speaks to everyone regardless of political inclinations. Knowing that, MoveOn.org, the progressive website, challenged its members to create art celebrating Barak Obama’s presidential candidacy. Chosen from over 1,000 original works of art submitted, the 31 finalists are now on display at the Manifest Hope Gallery in Denver, coinciding with the DNC convention. While Obama may not be your pick for president, I assume most would be hard-pressed to not find beauty in many of the finalist’s work. It is a welcome change to the traditional political imagery crowding magazines, newspaper and websites.

Fashion forward.

The illustrator Robert Fontanelli had an all-too-quick show in Chelsea last week that I, unfortunately, missed. A friend sent me pictures on his iPhone of Fontanelli’s drawings which led me to his site. His work is a combination of fashion illustration and homoerotic imagery mixed with the fetishism of all things mid-century modern. Some of the images are sexy (“Storage”) while others are, somewhat, disturbing ("Rape of Red Eames Chair #1"). All of them are, in my humble opinion, brilliant.

Object of desire.

Gary Hustwit, who created the wonderful, must-see film Helvetica has announced a new film that I am eagerly anticipating. Debuting in 2009, Objectified is a documentary about industrial design. The film features some of DWR’s favorite designers: Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Hella Jongerius and Karim Rashid. It aims to “document the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives.” I am equally excited about the film’s logo, which features the Panton chair. They’re blogging about the film here.

Scholars of Shaker culture.

For 40 years, Faith and Edward Deming Andrews collected Shaker art, amassing what is believed to be one of the most comprehensive collections of Shaker materials ever assembled. The Andrewses’ story, from acquiring and ultimately disposing of their collection, is the subject of a traveling exhibit, “Gather Up the Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection.” In addition to showing more than 200 objects, some of which have never been on display before, the exhibit examines the Andrewes’ involvement – as scholars, collectors, and dealers – of Shaker art.

The Andrewses have been credited with being among the first to recognize the unique contributions of the Shakers to American culture. “The story of how they acquired and eventually disposed of their collection is a fascinating tale of intrigue.”

Through October 31, 2008, the exhibit is at the Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Contact them for additional tour locations. For a review by “Antiques and the Arts,” click here.

Destroying a classic.

The above image, I’ll admit, caused me to wince. I thought, “who would do such a thing to such a perfect design?” The answer is Mark Wentzel, an artist in Georgia represented by Project 4 Gallery in Washington, D.C.  His “XLounge” is a conceptual piece focusing on the “masterful design of the Eames Lounge Chair and its significance today.” It is a statement on the chair and America’s consumption of products.

Good W(Ork).

How fantastic are these city maps by Ork Posters? I’ve always been fascinated with maps and their designs and colors. These maps, created by Jenny Beorkrem, reinvent the city map as graphic and modern art.  And while two of the cities I’ve called home (SF and NYC) are included, my hometown of Baltimore, regrettably, has not made the cut.  Hopefully, their collection will expand.  At $27 a screen print, they’re affordable and a perfect gift, whether you’re representing the Tenderloin or Brooklyn.

Skateboard headboard.

I just had to share this picture of a DIY project my partner and I took on, to make a headboard out of designer skateboards. I started with a Min bed, bought at a DWR warehouse sale, and collected decks to go with the colorful theme of the room.  Featured are three limited edition Jeff Koons boards for Supreme, a Ryan McGinness board, a Donny Miller board and a purple deck my mother got me at Colette in Paris.  Yes, that’s Prince and Michael Jackson.  The result is a perfect pop of fun for any young boy’s room, or in this case a room for a man longing for his youth.  If you have any DIY headboards we’d love to see them.  Send the blog team an email.

Murakami in Los Angeles.

If you’re in Los Angeles this fall and want to see Takashi Murakami’s work, don’t fret if you cannot get hold of Kanye for a private home visit.  The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA will run a three-part show of the artist’s various creations from October 29 through February 11. The 20,000 square-foot exhibit will house painting, sculpture, installation and film.

According to MOCA “the first portion will be an immersive, theatrically lit environment, recreating the annual ‘Wonder Festival’ comic market convention. It will feature many of Murakami’s acclaimed large-scale otaku-inspired figure projects of the late 1990s, including a new version of Second Mission Project Ko2 (2000-07). The second section will comprise a grid-like shelving display of all of Murakami’s merchandise, including multiples, collectibles, and maquettes, among other items. The final section will trace Murakami’s artistic development since 1991, including early works that engage branding and the evolution of his signature character, DOB.”

Louis Vuitton will be setting up a shop selling the artist’s handbag and accessories collaborations with the venerable luxury brand.  Surely, they’ll not be included in the price of admission.

100 homos.

Design Within Reach has always had a significant gay following. That goes without saying. So of course we fell in love with Don Florence’s “100 Homos” exhibit at Boltax Gallery in Shelter Island when we read about it on Towleroad. The pop portraits depict 100 name homosexuals, many of whom are famous in the art and design worlds: Jonathan Adler, Andy Warhol and Todd Oldham all made the cut. They’re great pop for $1,800 a pop. PDF of the portrait list is available here. [pdf]

High-flying art.

Molly Peck just sent me a link to something very strange and beautiful, two of my favorite adjectives.  The French artist Hubert Duprat shies away from traditional artist tools and creates his work with much more interesting materials: gold spangles, turquoise, opals, diamonds and caddis fly larvae. Yes, he makes art with bugs.

Cabinet magazine has stunning photos of the work and an interview with the artist up from their Spring issue. In the wild the flies create larvae casing from spun silk and found particles of sand, fish bone and the like. In Duprat's world the extremely adaptive buggers (ha, ha) play with finer materials resulting in living jewelry. It’s avant-garde art not for the squeamish.

Trailer talk.

Last week I headed over to Piedmont with a colleague from Design Within Reach to attend an art talk. The talk was with Lucinda Barnes, Deputy Director, Programs and Collections from the Berkeley Museum of Art and Andrea Zittel, a contemporary artist with an impressive catalog of work. Zittel’s sculptures and installations transform everything necessary for life—such as eating, sleeping, bathing, and socializing—into artful experiments in living. Blurring the line between life and art, Zittel’s projects extend to her own home and wardrobe. Andrea’s A-Z roots date back to  the early 90’s when a friend hired her to help him find a boyfriend. She gave him pointers on everything from home decorating to what shoes to buy.

We were invited to the talk to hear about BAMs newly acquired trailer from Andreas’ show commissioned for the SFMOMA in 1995. Andrea is such an engaging and interesting artist, I won’t begin to try and put her words in here, but please check out more about her here. She’s just starting up a stint at the Headlands Center for Arts and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Keeping art under wraps.

The New York Times has a piece this week about Christoph Buchel, a Swiss artist best known for his conceptual pieces and large-scale installations. Collaborating with Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachussetts, the installation has been going on since last fall. Roughly nine months of work and still the entire installation is not finished! In fact the process has been halted due to increasing budgets and increasingly complex demands from the artist. (Like burning, and then hanging, a fuselage from a 767 from the ceiling. How on earth does one “plan” for something like that?)

So, what to do about an installation that’s close to done and taking up the museums largest exhibit space? Well, Mass MoCA has figured that out (maybe). They’re opening up the doors to share the unfinished show, but they have decided to cover it up with tarps. Viewers will be allowed to wander amongst the art, but will have to rely on their imagination to fully appreciate the show. Their intention is to show the public how museums work with artists as well as to show their risky nature. It all sounds way cooler than my desk job. Such a unique dilemma, I’d really love to see the show for myself.

Art and tattoos.

One of the best parts of living in NYC is the fact that art is everywhere. Many of the world’s greatest museums are housed here, many major artists and galleries reside here and you cannot escape art even if you tried in Manhattan. A Lichtenstein tile mosaic is housed in a grimy subway station and graffiti art abounds on sides of trucks and building walls. 

When you find art in a nontraditional setting it can be quite a revelation. This happened to me recently in a tattoo parlor of all places. Troy Denning and his wife own Invisible New York, a tattoo parlor that masquerades as an art gallery. Their current exhibit features the work of Damion Silver, a Boston-based graphic artist. His work uses “recognizable found images,” such as BART cards, and encompasses “paintings - both traditional and custom cut, illustrations, etched glass, and screened wood.” It is definitely worth checking out. Getting a tattoo, that one’s up to you.

The best corsage ever.

   

Last night I was invited by SECA to an artist talk with Los Angeles based artist Karen Kimmel. This was my first time seeing her work but now I'm definitely a fan. Her art is collaborative, conceptual and crafty. Last night we learned about the different artists (needlepointers, crafters, engineers, art schools, etc) that she's worked with, saw some of her past work and heard about her collaborative process. At a past show in LA she made stencils out of plexiglass that were then affixed to the wall of a gallery. These could be pulled off the wall to be used as a paddle in an art auction. After the auction the stencils were then taken and an Ikebana style art piece was made with the flowers coming out of the cutouts in the stencil. Wow, for sure. One of the highlights last night was seeing a partner of hers creating floral, wearable art and then giving them out. I got to walk away with a laser cut, stenciled wristband with unique flowers woven through it. It was tied to my arm with a suede strap that had her initials stamped on it. Karen, with her amazing attention to detail, is a woman after my own heart.

Her most recent project was working with the artists at Creative Growth, a gallery in Oakland. Creative Growth Art Center serves physically, mentally and developmentally disabled adult artists, providing a stimulating environment for artistic instruction, gallery promotion and personal expression. You can see their art here. Her next project is to work with a school for the hearing impaired in Scottsdale. I can't wait to see what comes out of this collaboration. There's so much to Karen and her art, read more about her here.

Design Life Now.

Sandra Hansel, DWR’s regional director of sales, gave out a great holiday gift this year: membership to the Cooper Hewitt Museum. A gaggle of DWR folk met a few weeks back to check out Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006, which is running through July 29th. According to the Cooper Hewitt "the third Triennial brings together the experimental designs and emerging ideas—including animation, new media, and fashion, robotics, architecture, product, medical and graphic design—at the center of American culture from 2003 to 2006."

Included were many of my favorites.  Kid Robot displayed past collections of toys, complete with a giant Dunny that museum visitors could color with chalk. DWR fave Emeco was featured, showcasing their handcrafted chair as sculpture. Thom Browne, who is reinventing men's fashion one nerdy suit at a time, was the fashion highlight. Another DWR vendor, Humanscale, was spotlighted for Niels Diffrient's Liberty Chair.  Other notable inclusions: Herman Miller, Make Magazine, Rem Koolhaas and Tobias Wong.

If in NYC please check the exhibit out. They've even got a blog!

Promising Art

 

The Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Arts (SECA) has an exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art every two years, showcasing the very best in local art. When I attended the SECA opening two years ago, I was blown away by the energy and caliber of the work. The exhibitors are selected from the extraordinary pool of talent in the Bay Area. After a comprehensive review process, including studio visits with approximately 30 artists, the winners are chosen by SFMOMA's curatorial team, in conjunction with SECA members. It's a thrill to see local art get on the walls of a major institution like the SFMOMA, so when I found out it was coming again, I cleared my calendar.

I attended the opening reception last Friday and got the chance to see the art shortly after it was hung, and I even got to talk to some of the artists. It all seemed so low key and exciting at the same time. The five artists showcased are very different in style, ranging from video to sculpture to large-scale, mixed medium paintings. One of the artists, Amy Franceschini, showed a conceptual piece about urban gardening that, if I'm not mistaken, she is launching for real with the help of SF Board of Supervisors President, Matt Gonzalez. I'm a believer, ready to plant the radish seeds I got as part of her installation. The photo above is by video artist Kota Ezawa.

Seeing the young energy on the walls of the MOMA is really worth your time, there are also some great lectures in tandem to the show that you can check out here.

Picasso and American Art

If in New York between now and January 28th then please do yourself a favor and go see the "Picasso and American Art" exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art.  The show focuses on Picasso's influence on nine very different and very popular American artists: Max Weber, Stuart Davis, John Graham, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, David Smith, Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns.  By juxtaposing the paintings of Picasso and the Americans, presenting them side by side, the Whitney allows you to see both Picasso and American art in new, different ways.

If you can’t get to NYC in the next week or so, do not fret.  The exhibit is headed to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis as well.

P is for Perfect

My friends are having babies left and right these days and I never know what to get those little buggers for gifts.  A few weeks ago the perfect solution to my baby gift problem fell into my lap in the form of Jargon Boy’s M is for Modern alphabet flashcards.  It is a gift that is affordable, educational and modern!  The cards are a way to learn the alphabet while familiarizing yourself (and the kid, too) with iconic design terms from the modern age. A is for A-frame and P is Pop-Art.  Or P could be for Perfect, which this set is darn near.

Warholidays

Andy Warhol is everywhere this Fall, thanks to Barneys, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.  Window-dressing legend, Jonathan Adler-husband and Barneys’ creative director Simon Doonan has concocted some of the most impressive window designs seen in a long time, all revolving around the bewigged pop art legend.  He wallpapered Warhol portraits in one window with naked models wearing glasses and grey wigs.  In another he depicts Warhol’s early years with a silver Christmas tree and rows of his fashion illustrations.  But it is the window inspired by the artist’s obsessive compulsive behavior that delivers the goods: It features a shelving unit in the shape of Warhol’s head that’s lined with jars of buttons, dishware and soup cans. Barneys will also be selling actual Campbell’s soup, but in a Warhol palette of extreme color.

Barneys entire holiday campaign is focused around the artist and that means much of the merchandise is as well.  The must-have part of the collection has to be the Levi’s wax-coated Factory jean printed and embroidered with famous Warhol images.  They’ll retail for $185.

Warhol once wrote that “being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.” Nearly 20 years after his death the Warhol brand is stronger than ever and it seems his 15 minutes are going nowhere.

Forever Young

For about the last two years I’ve desperately tried to recapture the joy of my childhood by purchasing small, colorful, material objects made expressly for play. Yes, I’m talking about toys. Doubting that I’ll ever actually grow up, I’ve begun to once again collect toys in my 30s. I was a toy fanatic growing up. Star Wars. Had them all. G.I. Joe. Ditto. Thundercats, Transformers, Go-Bots, Legos. Check, check, check, check. And now I am the same way with everything Kid Robot sells. I have the kubricks covered in Charles and Ray Eames’ iconic prints, I have a Marc Jacobs designed monster in a trench coat and I have a mini, plastic, Karl Lagerfeld. Yes, a Karl Lagerfeld toy.

While in Vitra’s NYC showroom a few months back I was told about the impending reissue of six wooden dolls designed by Alexander Girard in 1963. My heart skipped a beat. Girard, a Herman Miller designer and one of my favorite textile designers, had created kooky wooden dolls and Vitra, a company I adore, was reproducing them? Sign me up.

“Toys,” said Girard, “represent a microcosm of man’s world and dreams; they exhibit fantasy, imagination, humor and love.”  They also make an aging man feel like a little boy every once in while. And you don’t have to look far: DWR just launched the full line.