A Designer Looks at Art, Architecture and Everything
Robert Miller Gallery presents an exhibition of Italian photographer Walter Niedermayr images. Widely exhibited internationally, Niedermayr’s oversized multi-panel photographs feature a stark contrast through scale. Massive mountainous landscapes or architectural elements dwarf human figures and establish a dialogue between man and the environment.
What They’re Not: The Paintings of Christopher Wool at Galerie Micheline Szwajcer from 29 January – 14 March, 2009.
Ann Goldstein writes about the work here.
The Richard Misrach exhibition titled On The Beach closes at the Henry today. The show is on a two year tour travelling from Honolulu to Atlanta. Misrach captures beaches, oceans, sunbathers and swimmers photographed from an extreme omniscient perspective.
Turns out Josiah got his start here in the Pacific Northwest however was immersed amongst the sea of other regional and national glass artists. Gallery owner Donald Young picked him up and he kick-started a career in NYC. Unfortunately I missed Josiah speak at The Henry last year. I would have enjoyed hearing him talk about the cosmos and it’s relation to his elaborate sculptural object/chandeliers. One of my clients went and told me it was incredible, mind altering, and changed her perspective about her relationship in the cosmos!
Apparently Josiah was awarded a residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University where he collaborated with OSU cosmologist David H. Weinberg on a model of the Big Bang.
Josiah’s works from the Total Reflective Abstraction series are also incredible to look at. These works are shown at a few gallery websites including Andrea Rosen.
Above: from Flickr.
Melbourne based photographer, Andrew Curtis, uses the light emitted by mobile phones to illuminate his subjects face in a new series called ‘Cell’. C-type color photograph prints available at Christine Abrahams Gallery.
Artist website here.
Extended exposure photographs capture the artist’s movement while skateboarding, at night. The Dark Skate series at DCKT Contemporary, July 23 – September 13, 2008.
Quilty offers up full-on skullduggery at GrantPirrie through August 30. The work is just < ok > for me however I’m looking forward to what follows the menacing skull imagery and portraits. See his next exhibition at Jan Murphy Gallery.
Dale Frank exhibition, Some Boring Paintings, 2008, at Roslyn Oxley9 from June 26 – July 12, 2008.
It seemed of little wonder anecdotally, 2008 varnish on canvas 200 x 260 cm
Petrina Hicks exhibition at Stills Gallery from June 18 – July 19, 2008.
Lambswool, 2008 from The Descendants
After I saw Katharina Grosse’s work for the first time, I thought Dale Frank abstraction meets Sun7 process. All the energy of graffiti combined with a child-like obsession for massive scribbles of color.
I prefer the effect of Katharina Grosse’s work on interior spaces, especially museums. Museum Directors must hold their breath when Grosse gets an exhibition approval … which walls will she flood with color … what walls will remain blank?! What about floors? Probably part of the contract to stay away from certain materials too. And most importantly, how do we de-install this?
I love this stuff.
Official artist site here.
Number of works on canvas at Gow Langsford.
Sam Leach is exhibiting at Nellie Castan from May 8-31, 2008.
peacock and sputnik
2008
oil on linen
135 x 95cm
paradisaeidae
2008
oil & resin on copper
30 x 20cm
Official artist website here.
Robert Polidori exhibition, Versailles, at Edwynn Houk Gallery from April 17 – June 14, 2008.
Robert Polidori, Napoleon Recoit a Finkelstein, Reza Bey, 27 Avril 1807, Ambassadeur de Perse, Peinture de Francois-Henri Mullard, Versailles, Attique du Midi 2005
Robert Polidori, Salles d’Afrique, Painting of Louis XVI by Callet, Versailles
Robert Polidori, Vue of Parterre du Midi, Versailles
“The opening night of an exhibition by the photographer Bill Henson featuring images of naked children was dramatically cancelled after police visited the Paddington gallery to investigate child pornography claims.”
Read the full story at the Sydney Morning Herald website.
The Roslyn Oxley9 website was offline for a number of hours during the gallery shutdown. The site went back online last night without access to the Bill Henson artist portfolio section. Soon afterward they submitted a Media Statement which was sent out via email and available at their website.
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Media Statement
Friday 23 May 2008
Statement on behalf of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery and Bill Henson
After much consideration we have decided to withdraw a number of works from the current Bill Henson exhibition that have attracted controversy. The current show, without the said works, will be re-opened for viewing in coming days.
Bill Henson is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists and is internationally respected. His works are held in every leading art institution in Australia and are included in the collections of a number of the world’s most prestigious art museums. The Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Victoria have both recently held a retrospective of 30 years of the artist’s work.
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery will remain closed while the current exhibition is re-hung.
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Melbourne based photographer Simon Obarzanek’s series of portraits titled 80 Faces was shown at IMA@TCB (The Institute of Modern Art at TCB Building), April 11 – May 11, 2008.
Each black and white image features a portrait of a young persons face, neck and shoulder, similar to a passport photo. At first glance the styling seems minimal, but that changes when you see a number of the images grouped together. All the photographs resonate with an otherness which comes from a stylized process of selecting ‘interesting’ faces and shooting every model in a rigorous manner. The artist’s focus is on shape, scale and proportion of features. Attributes like freckles, lips and ears become isolated and take on a surreal emphasis. Juxtaposition of the images heightens this sublime effect.
Simon Obarzanek is represented by Karen Woodbury Gallery. You can see work from 2007 here, and the images from his 2006 exhibition here.
I forgot to add this title to my last Books from Australia post. McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art is the definitive guide to Australia’s visual artists. Touted as both a scholarly reference and an easy browse, the book is a hefty 1200 pages. This will tip the scales at the airport if you try to bring it back in your luggage.
The editors have done a great job listing 1,000s of artists, with concise biographical information for the majority of the artists and elaborated descriptions for well known artists like Boyd, Perceval, Shead, Smart, etc. Believe it or not, this isn’t 100% complete. There are still artists missing from the guide; not just new artists — mid-career too. That’s not a criticism at all. This is a great resource. The art scene is growing rapidly in Australia and it’s difficult for a book of this scale to keep up with the times. Maybe they could publish an annual soft-cover update …
$295 + shipping. Ship this behemoth by boat. Air mail cost would be frightening.
The Ryan McGinley exhibition, I know Where the Summer Goes, just ended at Team Gallery. This past weekend the exhibition opened at Ratio3 in San Francisco; they started pre-selling quite a while ago so there are only about 3 images left.
Official artist site here.
