Playing Art

These are playing cards from a Russian Prison. They were printed by hand on newspaper. Quite beautiful if you ask me. Found at Some Trajectories

On the Road

I've always been a big Jack Kerouac fan and also a follower of the work of Ed Ruscha. I heard about this project a couple months ago and I was very anxious to see it materialize. From the Gagosian gallery website:

The original novel was published in 1957 and it's about a group of crazy young people who just travel back and forth across the United States. Sometimes they hitch-hike and sometimes they drive cars. They steal cars and just want to be on the road the whole time. I've always liked that notion.

--Ed Ruscha

In 1951, Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road on his typewriter as a continuous 120 foot-long scroll, feverishly recording in twenty days his experiences during road trips in the United States and Mexico, which he began with Neil Cassady in the late 1940s. On the Road was finally published in 1957, and Kerouac was immediately acknowledged as the voice of the Beat Generation, a new group of writers, including Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, who became known for their embracing of radical free-verse style.

Ed Ruscha's singular art has recorded the shifting emblems of American life in the form of Hollywood logos, stylized gas stations, and archetypal landscapes. His wry choice of words and indirect phrases mines the perpetual interplay between language as a physical thing and language as a transparent medium. During the sixties, he created a series of cheaply printed photographic books as deadpan meditations on the romantic vision of the road epitomized by the Beats. His typologies of the urban environment of Los Angeles included Twenty-six Gasoline Stations (1963) and Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966). In Royal Road Test (1967), he brought the word and the road together in a conceptual prank by documenting himself dropping a vintage typewriter from a speeding Buick.

Over the last couple of years, Ruscha has turned his attention to On the Road, resulting in his own version of Kerouac's Beat bible. Kerouac's entire text appears accompanied by black and white photographic illustrations that Ruscha has either taken himself, commissioned from other photographers, or selected from found images to refer closely to the details and impressions that the author describes, from car parts to jazz instruments, from sandwich stacks to tire burns on a desert road.

Coinciding with "Ed Ruscha : Fifty Years of Painting" at the Hayward Gallery in London, Gagosian is pleased to present an exhibition of selected illustrated spreads from this special version of On the Road, along with a bound copy of the limited-edition book.

On the Road is published by Gagosian Gallery and Steidl. The leather-bound book comprises 228 pages, signed and numbered by the artist in an edition of 350 and presented in a slip-case.

Vladislav Delay - Toive

Vladislav Delay - Toive from Lorenzo Sportiello on Vimeo.

Here is a music video that is just like some junior-chemistry-set-experiment filmed close-up. It is the music video for Toive by Vladislav Delay. It was directed by Carolina Melis and Lorenzo Sportiello, crackmilk produced it. It is quite beautiful, however, I'm not too into the music so I played something from my library and sat back and enjoyed.

Perpetual Storytelling Machine

“Perpetual Storytelling Apparatus” by A project by Julius von Bismarck & Benjamin Maus

"The “Perpetual Storytelling Apparatus” is a drawing machine illustrating a never-ending story by the use of patent drawings. The machine translates words of a text into patent drawings. Seven million patents — linked by over 22 million references — form the vocabulary. By using references to earlier patents, it is possible to find paths between arbitrary patents. They form a kind of subtext. New visual connections and narrative layers emerge through the interweaving of the story with the depiction of technical developments."

More info here....

Niall McClelland

Not sure where to begin with Niall McClelland. His work is prolific, dark, immense and at times, graphically poignant. But don't just take my word for it, see it here.

Dali & Disney?

Disney and Dali - Destino from Jayme Johnson on Vimeo.

Sorry, but the video was removed. However you may still read about below. Maybe you can find it elsewhere.

I really never thought I would post something Disney but here it goes...This is “Destino” a short film collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali. Originally started in 1946, the project was either halted because of financial reasons or because of the content being too extreme. Finally in 2003 (57 years later), a team of Disney animators finished what Dali started and the film made its way around some film festivals. Check out one of the most unique animation collaborations ever made.

Saying it was disproportionate.

The sculptural work of Ian Pedigo is another body of creations that utilizes found objects. In his work one can see an exploration of earth and plastics, natural vs. manmade, and even the transitioning between these two worlds. His sculptures are made of found materials, whose components not only create a dialogue within themselves, but also with each other and the space in which they inhabit.

Timothy Nolan

Timothy Nolan creates some minimalistic and angular works. Whether it's installations, drawings, collage or paintings, all his pieces use a similar tonal palette which I am quite fond of.

Cross Sections

"Brad Eberhard is a painter’s painter, exploring the boundless potential of image making in the medium of abstraction. Working with great facility using oil and acrylic and paper, Eberhard’s new works on paper straddle the boundaries between painting, drawing and collage. The compositions begin in the spirit of organic evolution; as with his paintings, the artist incorporates found images, tearing and erasing in an organic fashion. In much the same way as a draftsman’s or biologist’s “cross section” exposes the invisible networks of a more complex system, Eberhard’s aim is to begin to expose not only something unseen by the viewer, but also to illustrate connections between the works. The collages are playful, serious, complex and simple, portraying beauty and conceptual depth with great confidence."

(From the Press release from Thomas Solomon Galery.)

Brad Eberhard - CROSS SECTIONS

Thomas Solomon Gallery

October 17 – November 14, 2009

Reception for the Artist: Saturday October 17, 2009 6:00 – 8:00 PM

Art Review 2009 Power 100 list

The highly anticipated annual Art Review Power 100 list was just released on Thursday. The list this year reflects the fundamental changes that the global financial crisis has unleashed onto the art world. Almost a third of the entries are new to the list. Previous top artists and collectors have had steep drops. Steadily rising up the ranks are powerful and networked curators that have a huge influence on what gets seen and promoted.

The criteria used for the list include influence over the production of art, relevance to the art market and contribution to the art world over the past year. Hans Ulrich Obrist, the director of London’s Serpentine Gallery, takes the top spot in this year’s list, while superstar artist Damien Hirst, the previous #1, plummets to #48. Charles Saatchi, who topped the list in 2002, now occupies the 72nd spot. Gallery and museum directors occupy the top 4 rankings. Collectors on the list have suffered this year, due to their diminished pocketbooks and subsequent declining influence in the art world.

Top 100 list:

1. Hans Ulrich Obrist

2. Glenn D. Lowry

3. Sir Nicholas Serota

4. Daniel Birnbaum

5. Larry Gagosian

6. François Pinault

7. Eli Broad

8. Anton Vidokle, Julieta Aranda & Brian Kuan Wood

9. Iwona Blazwick

10. Bruce Nauman

11. Iwan Wirth

12. David Zwirner

13. Jeff Koons

14. Jay Jopling

15. Marian Goodman

16. Agnes Gund

17. Takashi Murakami

18. Alfred Pacquement

19. Peter Fischli & David Weiss

20. Mike Kelley

21. Barbara Gladstone

22. Steven A. Cohen

23. Dominique Lévy & Robert Mnuchin

24. Adam D. Weinberg

25. Marc Glimcher

26. Amy Cappellazzo & Brett Gorvy

27. Cheyenne Westphal & Tobias Meyer

28. Ann Philbin

29. Matthew Higgs

30. Matthew Marks

31. Tim Blum & Jeff Poe

32. Gavin Brown

33. Ralph Rugoff

34. Liam Gillick

35. Anne Pasternak

36. Dakis Joannou

37. John Baldessari

38. Isa Genzken

39. Paul McCarthy

40. Michael Govan

41. Eugenio López

42. Cindy Sherman

43. Ai Weiwei

44. Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

45. Annette Schönholzer & Marc Spiegler

46. Diedrich Diederichsen

47. Richard Prince

48. Damien Hirst

49. Bernard Arnault

50. Massimiliano Gioni

51. Amanda Sharp & Matthew Slotover

52. Joel Wachs

53. Victor Pinchuk

54. Udo Kittelmann

55. Marina Abramović

56. Michael Ringier

57. Gerhard Richter

58. Richard Serra

59. RoseLee Goldberg

60. Kasper König

61. Roberta Smith

62. Monika Sprüth & Philomene Magers

63. Germano Celant

64. Emmanuel Perrotin

65. Peter Schjeldahl

66. Beatrix Ruf

67. Okwui Enwezor

68. Nicolas Bourriaud

69. Karen & Christian Boros

70. Isabelle Graw

71. Maurizio Cattelan

72. Charles Saatchi

73. Jerry Saltz

74. Jasper Johns

75. Louise Bourgeois

76. Thaddaeus Ropac

77. Mera & Don Rubell

78. Thelma Golden

79. Sarah Morris

80. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

81. Anita & Poju Zabludowicz

82. Paul Schimmel

83. Jose, Alberto & David Mugrabi

84. Sadie Coles

85. Daniel Buchholz

86. Victoria Miro

87. Maureen Paley

88. Johann König

89. Nicolai Wallner

90. Maria Lind

91. Massimo De Carlo

92. Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi & Maurizio Rigillo

93. Rirkrit Tiravanija

94. Toby Webster

95. Long March Space

96. Nicholas Logsdail

97. Harry Blain & Graham Southern

98. Claire Hsu

99. Peter Nagy

100. Glenn Beck

Chinese Box

Paul Sietsema , Collection, 2009

Amanda Ross-Ho , “Double Negative Carrier (Cornucopia)”, 2009

Kaari Upson, Untitled, 2009

Overduin and Kite presents “Chinese Box,” a group exhibition featuring: Artists: Trisha Donnelly, Vincent Fecteau, Barry Johnston, Seth Price, Amanda Ross-Ho, Paul Sietsema, Kaari Upson

"The exhibition title refers to John Searle’s symbol processing machine model (1980): the Chinese box, or Chinese room. Searle’s argument addresses the distinction between processing information and understanding, emphasizing that highly intuitive or nuanced ideas cannot be communicated through a fixed system. Rather than functioning as a key or umbrella for the works in the show, the title sits alongside the artworks as another point of information to be considered with the works. It can also be read as relating to the gallery and the situation it sets up between the viewer/visitor and the object of contemplation. The title also refers to the ornamental boxes whose form supersedes any contents the box might hold."

Venue: Overduin and Kite, Los Angeles

Exhibition Title: Chinese Box

Date: October 4 - October 31, 2009

Francisco Infante-Arana & Nonna Gorunova

The work of Russian Artist/Photographers, Francisco Infante-Arana and Nonna Gorunova is utterly amazing. Most of their work uses mirrors and the environment, and boy do they choose beautiful places, but I was completely captured by these above photos. It looks as though it is Aluminum foil but I can't be too sure.

Phillip Low

Phillip Low has added a couple new sculptures to the gallery of Maryam Nassir Zadeh. Again, I am more drawn to the composition and structure of these images than I am to the work itself. See more from a previous post, here.

Again...

Well, Chad Hagen has a hat trick here on Heart of Glass. From Nonsensical Infographics to Object i-v, now comes Squarething. Mr. Hagen is now officially the most posted artist on this blog. Kudos!

Gatherings

"Lena Wolff is a Bay Area artist who works in paper cut, pinpricks and collage on paper. She draws from folk-art traditions, anthropomorphic fables, organic abstractions and veneration for the natural world." Beautiful. Just beautiful.

Jünior Taxi

Jünior Taxi, the work of London based designer Chris Thompson, has some digital collage/illustrations that caught my eye. See more here.

Eileen Quinlan

Angular, composed, layered, etc. Great experimental photography by Eileen Quinlan.