(text courtesy of Julie V. Iovine) British architect John Pawson was in town recently, conferring with a client about their new apartment in one of Richard Meier's Perry Street towers and supporting another whose film was premiering at the Museum of Modern Art. He took time out for a coffee to talk about the upcoming show of his work at the London Design Museum opening on September 22, as well as his new home for the museum--announced last month--within the repurposed Commonwealth Institute, aka the Parabola Building, a swoopy 1962 white elephant designed by RMJM in West London. (Also going on the site is a controversial Rem Koolhaas-designed apartment building.)

Pawson. (JVIovine)

Pawson beat out a list that included British familiars David Chipperfield, Haworth Tompkins, Caruso St. John Architects, Stanton Williams, Tony Fretton, and the Dutch firm Claus En Kaan Architecten. Director Deyan Sudjic, the author of several books on Pawson and a close friend (the architecture circle in the UK is pretty small and tight) said that in choosing Pawson he was sure to have an architect "who will bring out the best of this remarkable building."

Pawson has been given the job of transforming the "Parabola Building" into the new home of the London Design Museum. (Courtesy LDM)

From Pawson's description, the show Plain Space promises to be an architect's architecture show that's not academic, focusing on materials--no surprise considering the man favors four-inch-thick marble slabs for his kitchen counter and 45-foot single-plank floorboards in the parlor--and process. Plain Space will avoid show and tell through models and pre-occupancy photography in favor of a more immersive experience. "At my age, I had to ask myself, Why an exhibition now?" said Pawson. "Ten years ago, the reasons would have been more obvious, now it's more like, What's the point? For me, the answer was to make it something people will learn from, to make it something about space, to make it feel like you are walking into architecture, and to make it get across how architecture gets done."

The Novy Dvur Monastery. (Richard Davies)

Sculpture, bear, wolf with a blowout? Who knows or cares, it's cool.

Back in the day arms dealer and all around rich sketchy art lover Adnan Khashoggi was the king of bling.    Hookers came and went, nations were destroyed and Texas interior "artist" Michael Reese designed  insane private jets.

Philippe Petit was a true radical.  An artist.  He still looks great!  

I never stopped loving polaroid.  Back in the day Robert Mapplethorpe was one of their first photographers to be sponsored-how cool is that? 

The Highland media corridor just got more fashionable.    A few steps away from the D Pet Hotels and across the street from AMMO is the new James Perse store.     A beautifully curated retail experience.   Influential stores should snap up any extra space available.   This strip is going to the bomb in about a year.    All images by Jorge Oswaldo.

Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin retrospective at Foam Museum Amsterdam
starts Aug. 19

Frida rocks.

Met Joel Knoernschild the designer and creative director of KZO and Creative Growth for Everybody.    He rolled in on a bad ass Bianchi with a leopard seat so I knew he had mad style.   When I started chatting with him he told me a little about his projects.      Check him out.


 Project Overview:
Creative Growth for Everybody is a collaborative project launched by Creative Growth, The News and The Kneornschild family. The objective of the project is to provide the artists at Creative Growth the opportunity to showcase and distribute their works to a broader audience, particularly to the fashion industry.
The first series of Creative Growth for Everybody consists of 15 artworks printed on men's and women's cotton T-shirts and T-shirt dresses. (The tees are made in USA). It will be launched for Spring 10, sales beginning in July 09 and to be shipped to stores in late October. It will feature the artworks of Olga Bielman, Dan Miller, Donald Mitchell, Aurie Ramirez, Dwight Mackintosh, William Scott, Kerry Damianakes, William Tyler and Gerone Spruili.
Creative Growth for Everybody is a long-term collaborative effort that will continually inspire, excite and open eyes---in the way great art does.

About Creative Growth:
Creative Growth is the oldest and largest nonprofit visual art center in the country, providing arts programs to adults with developmental, physical, mental, and emotional disabilities. Creative Growth provides a stimulating environment for artistic instruction, gallery promotion and personal expression. The more than 120 adults enrolled in the program create imaginative, beautiful, and finely crafted works, and receive proceeds from their sale.
Artwork fostered in this unique environment is included in prominent collections and museums worldwide.


The News Inc:
The News Inc was founded by Stella Ishii in 2000. The showroom is well recognized for its modern, practical approach to fashion, and its family of individualistic, forward-thinking emerging designers. Prior to launching The News, Stella was the President of Staff USA which was established in 1994. During that time, the showroom and gallery spaces showcased several exhibitions including shows for Creative Growth and the Creative Growth artists.


The Knoernschilds:
Joe and Cindy Knoernschild were the original founding partners of Billabong USA in 1983. They parted ways with Billabong in 1999 to create Hurley International. Joe was Hurley's International Director; responsible for expanding the company's vision in Japan, Europe and Australia. After retiring in 2004, Joe was on the faculty at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising from 2005-2007. In 2007, Joe and Cindy helped their son Joel launch men's wear line KZO.
The Knoernschild's were introduced to Creative Growth by Stella Ishii in 2009. Being avid supporters of the arts, the family immediately decided to help execute upon the Creative Growth vision, providing their resources and passions to this collaborative project.

August 15 - 21, 2010
Opening Reception: Sunday, August 15, 2010, 6 - 9PM
Steve Turner Contemporary is pleased to present WET PAINT 2: Nine Young LA Artists, a one week exhibition featuring recently created works by talented local artists. These artists -- Michael Carter, Patricia Fernandez, Matthias Merkel-Hess, Nicole Miller, Jesse Mockrin, Joshua Nathanson, Sean Sullivan, Brendan Threadgill and Cody Trepte--will present work in a range of media include video, drawing, photography, sculpture and painting. The process of selection began immediately following last year's inaugural edition of WET Paint, and during the course of the last year, over two hundred and fifty artists were considered.

WET PAINT 2 will be on view with extended hours (11 to 9), from Sunday, August 15 through Saturday, August 21, 2010 with the opening reception on Sunday, August 15, between 6 and 9. The exhibition may also be viewed by chance or appointment from Monday, August 9, through Saturday, August 14. There will be two artist talks each night during the run of the show.

Steve Turner Contemporary is a contemporary art gallery based in Los Angeles that represents the work of emerging and established contemporary artists. Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11- 6. Please contact the gallery for further information.

Contact: Steve Turner, steve@steveturnercontemporary.com, 323.931.3721

Found these cool cats at Yoyogi Park in Harajuko.  So fun to watch them dance around.

Article by Emma Allen for Art Info.

NEW YORK-- Maximilian Le Cain once wrote that for experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger, cinema "is an evil force" that can be used to "exert control over people and events." His filmmaking, she said, "is carried out with precisely that intention." Perhaps this is why Italian fashion house Missoni has hired the legendary octogenarian artist to create a video promoting their fall collection, hoping that the "Scorpio Rising" director's magick will hypnotize a horde of buyers into wearing the company's signature prints this upcoming season.

And hypnotize it may. The film, shot in Anger's psychedelic, overlay-heavy style, captures 11 members of the Missoni family as they disport against a black background and occasionally in in a pastoral setting, done up in wigs and looking somewhat bewildered. The film has a distinctly cultish atmosphere, recalling the mystical goings-on in the artist's previous films, from "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome" (1954) to "Scorpio Rising" (1963) and "Lucifer Rising" (1970-81) -- the last of which features a soundtrack that Bobby Beausoleil, a murderer involved with the Manson Family, recorded in prison. This association gives the ad an unusual creepiness, and the blending of the cult of high fashion with evocations of actual cults brings to mind Joan Didion's "White Album" description of the time she shopped for a dress for Linda Kasabian to wear to the Manson murder trial.

With its spooky soundtrack by Koudlam and "Twin Peaks"-ian imagery, this campaign is notably discrete from Missoni's past artist-collaborations. The photographs that Ryan McGinley made for the house in 2009 -- of attractive, sun-dappled models, beautifully-garbed and perched atop moving pick-up trucks (a riff on the artist's 2004 image "Dakota Hair") -- are far cheerier. And while Juergen Teller's 2010 portfolio relies heavily on Richard Billingham's moving family photos of his obese mother and alcoholic father in "Ray's a Laugh," the glamorous Missonis, not surprisingly, look far more carefree, lounging at home, surrounded by and wearing their own designs.

Muscle cars, gold, Biarritz and the luxe casual style of LA are all inspirations for Designer Jerome Mage's new company March la.b    Photographer Dimitri Coste shot a gorgeous mood book for them.    Here is the video featuring his insane green Shelby Mustang

     

March LA.B

MARCH: For the symbolism of the month, for the number 3, for its 3 founders.

MARCH: For the combination of the names - Marhic, Mage, and Chatel

LA.B: For Los Angeles and Biarritz - Two cities ignoring the delineations of time and distance to create a

new transversal time zone.

Men of many passions, Jerome Mage and Alain Marhic have a clear vision and a true understanding for

accessories, their field of expertise. With the creation of March LA.B, their positioning is extremely

simple: to create product that they love.

Jerome Mage in Los Angeles, California and Alain Marhic in Biarritz, on the Cote Basque, have made

their vision reality... elegant watches for a sartorialist man; a man of character, chic and eclectic in his

taste. A neo- gentleman true to the spirit of Alain Delon, James Hunt, or Steve McQueen, functional yet

refined, the March LA.B accessories line is a tribute to these icons.

March

Alain MARHIC

A sports enthusiast and a father of four, Alain Marhic is a man who has cultivated his passions founding 2 windsurfing

academies in Brittany during the early 1990's as well as having had a successful modeling career. He joined the Quiksilver

group in 1999 working at their world headquarters Cote Basque, near Biarritz. Eventually assuming the position of Director of

Operations for the eyewear and watch divisions. With a vast business experience as well as an eye for design, fashion, and

product development, Alain developed an acute sense of brand management working for a global giant in the action sports

industry. In 2008, he made the audacious decision to leave everything behind. Driven by his passion for product he started the

March LA.B odyssey. He is its founder and CEO.

Jérôme MAGE

At 20 years old Jerome Mage left France to come to live indefinitely in Los Angeles, California where he quickly found himself in

charge of the creative direction of a major action sports eyewear company. An expert in mixing fashion and technology, he

founded his design agency in 2001. Since then, he has built a client list of devoted action sports companies such as Burton

and Quiksilver. Passionate about history, especially all things related to the French 1st Empire period, Jerome Mage is an

atypical designer. He can be seen behind the wheel of his powerful Mustangs, blasting T-Rex glam rock on the California

highways or window-shopping at the Antiquarian Louvre Market while in Paris. He is a man of contradictions and passions, a

true dirty dandy with a hint of retro-futuristic. He is the Creative Director of March LA.B.

Joseph CHATEL

MARCH LA.B Business angel. 

.

Anton Corbijn directs Rowan Joffe's screenplay on the novel by Martin Booth.    Always loved Anton's photographs.   If you have ever seen a U2 Album cover you know his work, I think he shot almost all of them.   In addition to insane photographs for Depeche Mode , Nick Cave, and Tom Waits.     I read that he is really tall, and that's why all his images have that perspective, almost like he is on a ladder.   Anton also directed one of my favorite music films, CONTROL in 2007.

In the American, he directs George (I'm never bad in anything and already have my first OSCAR) Clooney.    Crimes, assassins, romance,  ahhh, I love it.   

press summary:   Alone among assassins, Jack is a master craftsman. When a job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected for this American abroad, he vows to his contact Larry that his next assignment will be his last. Jack reports to the Italian countryside, where he holes up in a small town and relishes being away from death for a spell. The assignment, as specified by a Belgian woman, Mathilde, is in the offing as a weapon is constructed. Surprising himself, Jack seeks out the friendship of local priest Father Benedetto and pursues romance with local woman Clara. But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate.

Craig McDean- amazing photographer/ amazing director

LAUNCH Lounge will feature Complimentary Cocktails, Wine Bar, Desserts, Music, and Hand-made appetizers by renowned chef Fred Eric.

Beer sponsored by Peroni / Grolsch, Wine selected and sponsored by Silverlake Wine, Non-alcoholic beverages sponsored by Honest Tea and Icelandic Glacial Water. Media Sponsor Monster Children Magazine.

Featuring original artwork by Mark Acetelli, Kelsey Brooks, Elow, Fumiko Amano, Carla Azar, Philippa Blair, Todd Carpenter, Victor Castillo, Lola Del Fresno, Dalek, Laurent Dareau, Michael Dotson, Gregory Euclide, Shane Guffogg, Mercedes Helnwein, Christopher Martin Hoff, Jeff Koegel, Ivo, Mel Kadel, Dean Karr, Rebecca Lowry, Siuan McGahan, Miguel Osuna, Kill Pixie (Mark Whalen), Travis Lampe, Jason Macaya, Christopher Mercier, Travis Millard, Jessica O'Dowd, Vanessa Prager, Bryan Ricci, Michael Rosenfeld, Christina Shurts, Jennifer Beedon Snow, Gretel Stevens, Jon Tarry, Miss Van, Melora Walters, Edward Walton Wilcox, and others.   

Guests will also have an opportunity to bid on specialty items in the Silent Auction, including hand signed and numbered limited-edition prints (some with starting bids as low as $100.00) - by artists Dee Dee Cheriel, Shepard Fairey, Friends With You, Camille Rose Garcia, Steven Gilmore, Mercedes Helnwein, Curtis Kulig, Samuel Lowder (FrePres), Claw Money, Mark Mothersbaugh, Mark Ryden, Todd Schorr, Kathy Staico Schorr, Kent Williams, and others.

Paris France, Coca-Cola light set up an installation with Karl Lagerfeld.  Amazing.  Pink tie Karl dolls by Tokidoki.   

photography & bottle by Karl Lagerfeld. project Coca-Cola light France by Wolkoff et Arnodin.

SPOCK SHOOTS.   No, seriously Leonard Nimoy has been a showing photographer for over a decade.    He is also a huge collector and supporter of contemporary art.    Love him.

Article courtesy of CHARLES McGRATH  for The New York Times
Picture by: Matthew Cavanaugh for The New York Times


Leonard Nimoy asked residents of the Northampton, Mass., area to show their true selves. Behind him, left: Ira, an ad executive, and Robin, a graphic designer. More Photos »
Mr. Nimoy, who for more than 40 years was Spock, the pointy-eared, half-Vulcan science officer on the Starship Enterprise, has been an accomplished photographer for nearly that long, and his work has been collected by several museums. He has been taking pictures since he was 13, when he developed them in the family bathroom in Boston's West End, and in the early 70's he studied at the University of California, Los Angeles, with Robert Heinecken, a conceptual photographer so rigorous, Mr. Nimoy said recently, that he thought if you happened to see a body falling from the sky, you would be wrong to take a picture of it unless you were already embarked on a study of objects moving through space. Anything else was mere photojournalism.
In the mid-70's Mr. Nimoy even considered quitting acting and taking up photography full time, and now, at 79, he says he is finally finished with movies and television. "I was really done a long time ago," he said over lunch in a cafe at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art here. "But I agreed to make that last 'Star Trek' movie because I thought the Spock character hadn't had a chance for closure."
Still, though Mr. Nimoy has long been at pains to distance himself from "Star Trek" in his photographic work and his life in general -- at one point even writing a book called "I Am Not Spock" -- the Spock persona has proved to be as hard to escape as the Klingon prison planet. "The issue of crossing over from one territory to another -- it's always met with skepticism," he said.
Michael Kusek, who posed for Mr. Nimoy's most recent project, "Secret Selves," wearing borrowed dog tags, swigging from a bottle of Jim Beam and generally trying to look tough and street-wise, said of first meeting the photographer: "There he was with that voice that has been in the background culturally my whole life. I blew my cool." He added: "When I was a kid, I was always doing Spock. I can still do the eyebrow thing."
"Secret Selves," an exhibition of 26 color photographs, 11 of them life size, opens at Mass MoCA here on Saturday; it is Mr. Nimoy's first solo show at a major museum. He got the idea for it from the passage in Plato's "Symposium" speculating that humans were originally double-sided creatures, split apart by jealous gods and doomed forever to seek their lost other halves. Over a couple of very long days in 2008, he photographed 95 or so residents of nearby Northampton, Mass., who had been encouraged to reveal their hidden natures any way they chose.
In a foreword to the catalog (which includes 62 more photographs and a DVD documenting the shoot), Joseph C. Thompson, the director of Mass MoCA, writes, a little loftily, that despite a "haunting overabundance of id," the photographs remind him of "caryatids -- columns that cross-dress as figural sculpture."
He adds: "This equivocation between's the subject's plastic, almost sculptural presence, and its literal groundedness, makes for compelling work, all the more so since these are our neighbors caught there." Or, as one of the participants put it, the whole "Secret Selves" experience was "kind of like being at an awkward costume party." A few of the subjects came forward in response to a newspaper article about the project, but most were rounded up by Richard Michelson, who owns a local gallery and is Mr. Nimoy's primary dealer. Both in real life and on the museum wall they form a fairly representative cross-section of Northampton, an artsy college town known for its vigorous gay and lesbian community and for harboring a generous share of eccentrics and free spirits.
A local painter showed up for his session with Mr. Nimoy as a sort of wood sprite, covered in leaves and mud, and a foster-care mother parted her fur coat to show that she was wearing nothing underneath. One woman came with a sheep. Another, a psychotherapist, wielded a chainsaw. A rabbi came bare-chested and wearing leather, and Barry Moser, the well-known engraver and printmaker, immediately stripped naked and posed with his English mastiff. A transgendered former Marine appeared in a cancan costume. And a father and son posed together, dad dressed as a gangster and his teenage son, for some reason, as a shark -- or more precisely, as he points out on the DVD, a shark with arms that shoot lasers.
"I tried to get some bankers, but they all turned me down," Mr. Michelson said. "They told me they were just as boring on the inside as they are on the outside." He did manage to recruit the mayor of Northampton, who showed up with an electric guitar, and the chief executive of an advertising firm, who had dressed himself as a wizard.
Because of some of his previous work -- especially "The Full Body Project," nude photographs of plus-sized women -- several people showed up expecting just to take their clothes off, Mr. Nimoy said, and there were some others he felt uncomfortable with. "I sensed something too intensely felt, and I just didn't want to get into that territory," he said. "But mostly I was surprised by people's openness and vulnerability. I had no idea what to expect."
Typically, Mr. Nimoy chatted with his subjects for a few minutes, and then, not unlike a film director, encouraged them to express their inner selves. Most responded warmly and immediately, though Matt Mitchell, the wood sprite, said that at first he had trouble with Mr. Nimoy's instruction.
"He wanted me to pose like a tree and I was like: 'A tree? I'm supposed to be like the earth itself.' " (Mr. Mitchell had initially been reluctant to pose, he added, until he realized that in his own work, painting portraits of Americans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, he asks people to expose themselves in a very similar way.)
For at least two of the subjects, the experience of being photographed proved transformative. A writer who posed with a violin but had to be shown how to hold it has since taken up the instrument for real. And Tammy Twotone, the transgendered former Marine, decided to stop living a double life. "During the day I would switch back to living the life of a male," she explained at Mr. Michelson's gallery, joking that she was Clark Kent during the daytime and Rita Hayworth at night.

"Bingo Night in The Promised Land" brings together the works of British artist(s) Miss Bugs, Los Angeles newcomer Hips and Hair, and Australian street sensation Reko Rennie.

Miss Bugs is a collaboration founded in the early part of 2007; consisting of two people - boy and girl - Miss & Bugs.

In this transitional body of work, Miss Bugs draws initial influence from the imagery of religious icons and paintings. Playing within the limitations of the composition that is characteristic of religious images of the Virgin Mary, modern throwaway imagery is mixed up with the symbolic, to create powerful visions of the female form. The decorative element, black graphic line and flatness are intrinsic to the work. The figures are depicted with veiled or partly masked faces and the eye is drawn to the delicate hands. The slight distortion of scale gives the figures an otherworldly feel and warps the modern idea of conventional beauty.

New on the scene is Los Angeles based artist, Jonathan Bussiere, also known as Hips and Hair. Hips and Hair's work combines stencil with images of pin-up girls in newspaper collages, dripping with bloody paint splatters. His work can be described as a morphing of modernist cubism while lending itself to a 80's palette with a New-Wave feel. "...I often wrestle with pop-culture ideals of beauty and find myself both enthralled with certain images, but despising them at the same time..."

Reko Rennie is a Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay/Gummaroi man, who was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1974.  Through his art, Rennie explores the traditional symbology of indigenous flora and fauna. Rennie's artwork goes beyond the frame and reflects his love and history of working directly onto walls. His work is patterned with repetitions of native flora symbology that renders a language of wallpapered interiors. This contrasts with Rennie's beginnings as a street artist in Melbourne. Rennie utilizes the indigenous language of geometric motifs that are specific to the Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay/Gummaroi people. These associations are key to Rennie's focus on what it means to be an urban aboriginal man in contemporary society.

SHOW RUNS AUGUST 7 - SEPTEMBER 4, 2010

New Image Art Gallery                  
7908 Santa Monica Blvd.         
West Hollywood, CA  90046               
T: 323.654.2192              
www.newimageartgallery.com
Open Tuesday - Saturday, 1pm to 6pm

I love ELLE Creative Director Joe Zee.  So funny and talented.  What a character. You have to love a man who can poke fun at himself.   It's hot in a good way.  It's CHANEL.

Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte are collaborating with LACMA on their experimental project/ Cell Phone Stories.   Pretty cool.  

Part fashion, sunset and wildfire. Part high school yearbook.  Always inventive, never redundant, Steven Meisel sets a dramatic stage for the new Balenciaga campaign.

By Emilie Gouband for ArtInfo France

PARIS-- After five years of renovations, the house that Jean Cocteau bought with the French actor Jean Marais in 1947 in Milly-la-Forêt, about 30 miles south of Paris, is finally open to the public. Having lived there for the last 17 years of his life with his companion, Edouard Dermit, the writer and director worked on some of his greatest projects under its roof, including the film "Le Testament d'Orphée" and the poem "Le Requiem."

In his book of autobiographical sketches and reflections, "La Difficulté de l'Etre" ("The Difficulty of Being"), Cocteau described this house as a refuge: "It gives me an example of the absurd and wonderful stubbornness of plants. Here, I find memories of previous countrysides where I dreamed of Paris, just as later, in Paris, I dreamed of fleeing elsewhere. The sun and the water decorate the walls of my room with their false moving marble. Spring rejoices everywhere." After extensive renovations, the property now offers a unique exhibition space as well as re-creations of the rooms in which Cocteau lived.

The ground floor serves as an introduction to Cocteau with an illustrated biography, video images of his self-portraits, drawings, illustrations, and various photographs of the artist in his house with Dermit and his friends. Also on this level, the grand salon has been kept intact, featuring Christian Bérard's large-scale painting "Oedipe et le Sphinx Jouant aux Cartes" ("Oedipus and the Sphinx Playing Cards"), inspired by Cocteau's play "La Machine Infernale," above the black leather sofa.

On the second floor, Cocteau's study and bedroom have been re-created so accurately that it feels as if he had just gotten up and left the room. From wall coverings and picture frames to personal touches -- boxes of pencils and a bulletin board cluttered with tacked-up photos -- these rooms give a vivid sense of his daily life.

Nearby on the same floor are two small rooms with an eclectic assortment of original drawings by Proust, Chaplin, Satie, and Picasso. There are also two exhibition spaces. The first, devoted to temporary exhibits that will change on an annual basis, currently displays a chronological overview of Cocteau's non-literary work, while the second presents portraits of the poet by artists such as Man Ray, Bernard Buffet, Modigliani, and Warhol.

The hall has been transformed into a projection room where the public can watch Cocteau's films, including "La Belle et la Bête" (Beauty and the Beast)(1946), "Les Parents Terribles" (1948), and "Le Testament d'Orphée" (1960), in addition to various films made about Cocteau.

Outside, the sculpture garden still features one of the busts from the set of "La Belle et la Bête." And the pleasures of the countryside that drew Cocteau to this place can be found in the orchard and woods, where he used to stroll with his dog. Photograph by Erica Lennard and photo of Cocteau in front of his house July 1963 courtesy of Cocteau Committee.

Reprinted from ARTFORUM/ article by Amy Taubin

TAMRA DAVIS'S DOCUMENTARY Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child might make you weep (it did me) and might help you better appreciate a painter whose work matters enormously in the history of late-twentieth-century art. It achieves these ends largely though an abundance of footage of its subject at work and with a long interview that Davis videotaped in Los Angeles in 1986, two years before Basquiat's death.

The painter and the filmmaker were friends; they had a rapport and intimacy that allowed Basquiat to be remarkably open, although it should be said that he is almost always open on camera, even when he openly shuts down at a perceived slight or stupidity. "It's Samo--Mr. Samo," he says with a flash of anger when, on a segment (circa 1980) of the cable access show Glenn O'Brien's TV PARTY, O'Brien mispronounces the graffiti tag that Basquiat shared with his high school friend Al Diaz. SAMO©, which is pronounced with a hard "A," is black slang for "same old shit," but as critic and musician Greg Tate noted in his brilliant 1989 essay "Nobody Loves a Genius Child: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Flyboy in the Buttermilk," "it also invites the cruel and punning to identify the writer as Sambo"--in other words, to put his/her foot in the same old shitty racist associations. The SAMO© tag was fixed to enigmatic bits of poetry, filled with just such slippages and contradictory meanings. This linguistic strategy became a central element in Basquiat's painting practice. Explaining to an interviewer why his canvases are full of crossed-out words, he says, "The fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them more." Countering the charge that he simply copied de Kooning or Twombly, he says that what he paints is "someone's idea going through my new mind." He lingers on the last three words, surrounding each of them with just enough silence so that, as we hear them, we also see them as they would be spaced out on a canvas.

Except for the extended interview with Basquiat, which she fragments and returns to throughout the movie, Davis follows a linear path, charting Basquiat's ten-year career from his entrance to the downtown art scene as SAMO© in 1978 to his death from a drug overdose in 1988. In no way does she try to emulate Basquiat's explosive style or the sense of suspended time and space in his painting, although the movie's lively editing owes something to the bebop-laden sound track. "I like all kinds of music," Basquiat says. "But bebop is my favorite." Conversely, I would have preferred that Davis linger on at least a few individual paintings in her quick-cut montages of gallery shows and the painter's various studios. Yes, his output was astonishing; at his death, Basquiat left about one thousand paintings and an equal number of drawings. The movie gives a sense of how driven he was, how it seemed as if he aimed, by sheer volume, to assure himself a place in the pantheon of twentieth-century painters, when in fact he achieved that position by virtue of a necessarily smaller number of masterpieces, produced in the early and late stages of his heartbreakingly short career.

In addition to the footage of Basquiat (there is one remarkable close-up of the artist at work paired with a voice-over explaining that he held his tools exactly as he had as a child at the Brooklyn Museum school, and this, combined with his visual sophistication, is what made his line so distinctive), the film succeeds through an assembly of highly articulate talking heads: colleagues and friends Fred Brathwaite (better known as Fab 5 Freddy), Julian Schnabel, and Kenny Scharf; critics Nelson George and Rene Ricard; the great historian Robert Farris Thompson, who explains that Basquiat "excavated black history in his paintings. . . . Like a Native American shaman, he says, 'I walk with you' "; dealers and curators (in order of their appearance in Basquiat's life) Diego Cortez, Annina Nosei, Bruno Bischofberger, and Larry Gagosian; studio assistants and girlfriends.

Davis relies on Basquiat's first significant girlfriend, Suzanne Mallouk, now a psychiatrist, to make connections between the artist's personal life and the pressure of a career that exploded overnight, and she admirably walks a fine line between clarity and discretion. The film is perhaps too reticent about Basquiat's drug use (one might come away with the impression that drugs only became a problem in the last years of his life, which is not really the case). The movie, on the other hand, doesn't pull any punches in its discussion of the racism of the art world. Hilton Kramer puts the nail in his own coffin with his assessment that "[Basquiat's] contribution to art is so miniscule as to be nil" and that the only reason for the painter's success was that "liberals need to make a gesture." MoMA curator Ann Temkin explains somewhat ruefully that museum curators are uncomfortable with work that looks new because they are so immersed in the art of the past. This problem, of course, didn't stop major American museums from showing Basquiat's contemporaries Schnabel and David Salle during the 1980s' return to painting. What was "new" about Basquiat's work was the place from which his painting spoke--that of the black American male artist. Basquiat was so upset at being snubbed by museums that he got his devoted and astute collectors Herbert and Lenore Schorr to offer both MoMA and the Whitney a painting. The offer was refused; according to the Schorrs, one of these institutions told them that "the painting wasn't worth the space." I only wish Davis had been able to add Tate's voice to this discussion. In "Nobody Loves a Genius Child," Tate comes out swinging. The essay takes its title from the Langston Hughes poem that also opens and closes Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child. He was a genius, he was radiantly sad and radiantly angry, and he is much missed.

-- Amy Taubin

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child opens July 21 at Film Forum in New York. Filmmaker Tamra Davis will appear at 8 PM for the July 21 and 22 shows; Fab 5 Freddy will appear at 8 PM for the July 23 show. For more details, click here.

Interview with artist Tokujin Yoshioka

Sensing Nature
Place: Mori Art Museum
Date: 2010. July 24.~ November 7.
Tokujin Yoshioka Design

■ Please tell us about your new work.

In recent years, I have been studying the essence that human beings would sense. It is neither arranging nor minimizing the forms, but integrating the phenomena and the low of the nature into the design, and see how it would affect and inspire ourselves.
Because I believe there is a hint for the future somewhere in-between the essence of the design and the nature, I would like to pursue designing  works with this aspect.

The Snow is a 15-meter-wide dynamic installation.
Seeing the hundreds kilograms of light feather blown all over and falling down slowly, the memory of the snowscape would lie within people's heart would be bubbled up.
This work would show unimaginable beauty by capturing the irregular movement of the nature. This is designed after the installation in 1997 that expressed the "snow" by the concept of the color "white".


■ What kind of materials did you use?

The material is feather, which I believe is the lightest material of the present day.
The snowscape created with the feather would be more like the memory of snow lying with people rather than the actual snow.


■ The "Waterfall" will be exhibited to the public for the first time in Japan. Please tell us about this work.

"Waterfall" is  the world's largest optical glass table created after the "Chair that disappears in the rain," undertaken for the Roppongi Hills in 2002.
The work is created with a 4.8-meter huge optical glass, which is the material also used for the space shuttle. It overwhelms the audience by its appearance that seems as if the water falls energetically off a sheer cliff.


■ Do you consider your new work as design or art?

I believe everything related to the creation, not only art and design but also even fields like science and cuisine, will be discussed on the same stage due to the globalization of today.
In this belief, I do not think I need to clarify if my works are art or design.
I always have solid idea of what I would like to express first rather than having the category, then let it free to be categorized by each viewer.
What is the most important to me is not my work to fit into one specific category but to inspire or talk to people's heart.


■ The theme of the exhibition is to rethink the Japanese perception of nature, which is to question how the unconscious power to sense the nature and the value of nature in Japan would affect the contemporary art and design. What is the value of nature that you believe?

I do not really know about the value of nature in Japan, but what I would like to do is not to reproduce the nature but to know how human senses function when experiencing nature.
The most beautiful things I believe in this world is what is reproducible, accidentally born, and disorder that cannot be understood by the theory. I believe the nature is the ultimate beauty in this world.
The sunlight, soft breeze, and the harmony that leaves create, the variety of the essence in the nature touches our emotions. I intend not to reproduce them, but to pick the element that inspires our heart and integrate it into the deign.　

I didn't get to see the installation in person, but the work is elegantly complex and delicately decadent at the same time. Here is the video.

I love this room at the Mori Museum.    Spectacular view and the exhibit is cool too.

The Mori Museum in Roppongi is gorgeous.    It is in a new skyscraper and overlooks the city below.   Nova and I went to check it out, a cool Dino show was up.   I shot these cool heads.  A little edgier than the Museum of Natural History.   Can't expect anything less.
   

Natalia Brilli is an artist and designer based in Paris.   The Belgium born designer is a former accessories designer at Rochas under Oliver Theyskens.  Here is her amazing collection of leather covered musical instruments and objects.

http://www.nataliabrilli.fr/natalia_brilli.html

Popped in to REGEN PROJECTS to see the new Walead Beshty show.   Really good.  Picture Industry : Entertainment industry, the metaphor is this town.   Show opens tonight- 2 thumbs up!

Went to the LAND benefit last night at Sunset Tower.    Land is a great organization that collaborates with organizations and commissions projects with artists.    (see their info below)  Lots of cool collectors, supporters and art lovers were out and about.   It was a beautiful night.     Shamim M. Momin, Angela Robins, Jessica Trent, Shawn and Simran Kaleka, Yasmine Rahimzadeh, and the Hammer's Naima Keith were there.  LAND WEBSITE

Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) is a non-profit art organization founded in 2009 by LAND Director/Curator Shamim M. Momin, former contemporary curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and board member Christine Y. Kim, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art (LACMA).
LAND is a public art initiative committed to curating site- and situation-specific contemporary art project, in Los Angeles and beyond. LAND supports dynamic and unconventional artistic practices using a tripartite approach:
• Commissioning public projects of site- and situation-specific works with national and international contemporary artists
• Collaborating with a variety of institutions and organizations, such as universities, museums, and theaters as well as other types of spaces, industries, and entities
• Offering additional programs such as performances, workshops, residencies, discussions, and publications
LAND is an ongoing endeavor with three primary types of annual programming: LAND 1.0 projects are large-scale, multi-artist, multi-site exhibitions and single-site group exhibitions, LAND 2.0 projects feature a new commission by a single mid-career or established artist, and LAND 3.0 projects feature new work by lesser known or emerging artists.

Glen is one of my favorite fashion photographers.    Love his light, composition and style.

A Milk Gallery Project

"Ieri, Oggi, Doman"
by Titziano Magni

Photo Exhibition | July15th-August 20th
Opening Reception |Thurs, July 15th |7pm-10pm
 
Milk Gallery 
450 West 15th Street, NYC
 
R.S.V.P.
magni@milkstudios.com
 

Art and Music. One of my favorite combos.  Psyched for this.     Alt Press gave me my start shooting EMINEM.    They have supported so many artists and musicians along the way.    Should be fun!!!

ALTERNATIVE PRESS MAGAZINE 25TH ANNIVERSARY ART SHOW
Exhibition Dates: July 10 - 24, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 10, 8 - 11pm
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 12 - 6pm


Merry Karnowsky Gallery is proud to present a group exhibition
of work by iconic artists from the music scene in celebration of
youth-culture magazine Alternative Press' 25th Anniversary.
The exhibition will include original works of art by Tim
Armstrong (Rancid), Jordan Buckley (Every Time I Die), Shepard
Fairey, Joby J. Ford (The Bronx), Black Francis (The Pixies), Colin
Frangicetto (Circa Survive), Camille Rose Garcia, John
Gourley (Portugal. The Man), Anthony Green (Circa Survive),
Shawn Harris (The Matches), Matt "Portland" Hay (Nora), Derek
Hess, Adam Jones (Tool), Marilyn Manson, Shirley Manson
(Garbage), Travie McCoy (Gym Class Heroes), Liz McGrath (Miss
Derringer), Marc "Porter" McKnight (Atreyu), Tara McPherson,
Andy "The Butcher" Mrotek (The Academy Is...), Matt Skiba
(Alkaline Trio), Morgan Slade (Miss Derringer), Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance), Pete Wentz
(Fall Out Boy) and more.
Since 1985, Alternative Press has been an important independent voice for music fans looking for
more than the commercial option. What started out as a local fanzine more than 25 years ago
has developed into an internationally distributed magazine covering the contemporary punk
scene. The paintings, drawings, photography and sculpture in the exhibition reflect the diversity
that has appeared in the pages of Alternative Press over the last quarter-century.
"I have been witness to so many changes over the years in the publishing world. A constant has
been the talented artists each year," says publisher Norman Wonderly. "This exhibit showcases
amazing musicians whose talent extends beyond the music stage."
For

2009 c/o 303 gallery. Love his abstract  landscape.

  I don't know if I will be wearing these out, but they are so fun, whimsical and sculptural.    

Critically acclaimed designer Marloes ten Bhömer produces shoes that are both provocative and otherworldly. Her work fuses artistic and technological experiment in order to discover shoes anew. Ten Bhömer's work has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally and she gives lectures about her work worldwide. She takes on challenging commissions from galleries and private clients.  (text courtesy of Marloes ten Bhomer)

"If the key commandment of glamorous, upscale shoe design for women is to amplify and exaggerate the curves of the human foot, ten Bhömer's shoes are riotous and sensuous sinners" Shumon Basar, design and architecture 

critic.

 

Marloes site

One of Doug's cool custom lightboxes from late 2009.   rocks NOW!

Simon Davidson likes fast cars and spends his life traveling around the world shooting them.   Years ago Simon used to assist me and we spent many hours driving on the road.   Nights were spent in dive bars shooting portraits and days driving along route 66 on assignment.  Trolling neighborhoods looking for a shot.    It was one of the best trips of my life.   His sincere manner and conversational skills made the time just fly by and helped in putting our subjects at ease.    "You ain't from around here?" was pretty much heard everyday.    He was a fellow adventurer.   Now he is one of the best photographers I know.   Based in Sydney - check out his work.