SEEING SPOTS BEFORE YOUR EYES

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GAGOSIAN GALLERY HOLDS WORLDWIDE EXHIBITION OF TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF SPOT PAINTINGS BY ARTIST DAMIEN HIRST

The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 by Damien Hirst opens Thursday, January 12th. 


Most of the paintings are being lent by private individuals and public institutions, more than 150 different lenders from twenty countries. Conceived as a single exhibition in multiple locations, chronicaling the whole of Hirst's creative range "from the first spot on board that Hirst created in 1986; to the smallest spot painting comprising half a spot measuring 1-1/2 inch (1996) to a monumental work comprising only four spots, each 60 inches in diameter; and up to the most recent spot painting completed in 2011 containing 24,781 spots that are each 1 millimeter in diameter, with no single color ever repeated."

photo: Artlog.com

Damien Hirst has a reputation as the British Artist that outdid Andy Warhol as a businessman and Jeff Koons as a master of kitsch and I agree.  Hirst is offering a free personalised spot print to the first person who is willing to travel to every Gogasian Gallery around the world and sees everyone of the 11 exhibitions. Another reason is that Hirst actually only painted 5 of the estimated 1,400 spot paintings since 1986.


I must admit that each painting is equally cheery, modern looking and graphically optomistic and psychologically, yes, it triggers the penny-candy on paper strips that one could buy for a treat in our childhood memories.  


And...yes there is an APP for that - the 3rd issue of the Gagosian App for iPad will also launch in January providing an interactive, in-depth look at the series of approximately 90 of the 300 spot paintings


Three of the 11 venues for this exhibition will be at the Gagosian galleries, 980 Madison Avenue,  555 West 24th Street and 522 W 21st Street in Chelsea opening on January 12th and closes on February 18th 

"Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L'Amour Fou

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I'M IN LOVE WITH HIM AGAIN...

photo: Gogasian gallery website

At the exit of "Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L'Amour Fou" is an excerpt from a letter the artist wrote to his mistress and model Marie-Thérèse Walter in 1936. Rather than refer to her by name, Picasso interlocked the M and T of her first name to create a sign that functions as both monogram and symbol: "I see you before me my lovely landscape MT," Picasso wrote, "and never tire of looking at you, stretched out on your back in the sand, my dear MT I love you. MT my devouring rising sun. You are always on me, MT mother of sparkling perfumes pungent with star jasmines. I love you more than the taste of your mouth, more than your look, more than your hands, more than your whole body, more and more and more and more than all my love for you will ever be able to love and I sign Picasso."

"...Yet "L'Amour Fou" isn't merely a series of portraits or variations on a theme. The exhibition is an impassioned visual love letter, a poem from an artist to his model, mistress, muse and obsession—his l'amour fou, or "mad love." And it proves that the subject of Picasso, no less than that of love, is inexhaustible." WSJ

FRANCIOS BARD Edgy Portraiture IMHO

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Photo/Artchick1

While visiting the FRANCIOS BARD exhibition at Axelle Fine Art, the model for one of the artist's paintings arrived unexpectedly at the gallery (photo above). The portrait of his hands is a typical composition by Bard.

"His paintings are of the simplest of all subjects, be it a shoe, a leg, a torso, a foot, a dog, or a face, which will take on a tragic and magnificent dimension. He manages to translate all his intimate emotion into a two-dimensional art work; each painting is an endless exercise of composition, rhythm and struggle, and the use of multiple layers of oil accentuates the feel and dynamic mood.

Bard’s paintings can be described as edgy. There is a dark, urban quality to his paintings that evoke both a sense of danger, loneliness and alienation of modern urban life."

Impressive is the uncanny skill of the artist in capturing an exact  fabrication of the textures of all the inanimate objects that appear in each painting. BARD's process of application of oil paint, the scraping and scaring marks to the canvas is unexpected and a wondrous deviation from most traditional European painting of this genre, This technique allows the work to move forward, albeit derivative, into the realm of new Contemporary Art for the 21st Century.

Axelle Fine Art is located at 525 West 25th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues).

ART AS A METAPHOR FOR MEMORY

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photo/artchick1     Artist: Lori Feld "The Sky Is Falling"

"...I especially explore and visualize the concept of 'the other'. These paintings and drawings are deliberately intimate, while containing fetishistic figures that are emotionally confrontational and exaggerated in their 'otherness'..." says LORI FELD, artist, "The Sky is Falling" exhibition at the Claire Oliver Gallery in Chelsea.

These works are mixed media paintings that incorporate colored pencil drawings on rice paper or hand-colored one of a kind prints with additional collage, thread, encaustic, beeswax, lace, charmingly imbued with no lack of inspiration and endearing imagination.

 "Having deciphered some of the imagery, the symbolism remains far more felt than understood, more disquieting than soothing" 

A mystical replication of an 'other world' awaits you for the viewing.

Lori Feld

"THE SKY IS FALLING"

Claire Oliver Gallery - Closes - Oct 7th, 2010 

DALE CHIHULY: BLOWN GLASS AS A VEHICLE FOR SCULPTURE

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Artist: Dale Chihuly - photo: Marlborough Gallery

I remember the first time I saw an exhibition of this artist's work way back in the day when SOHO was the art world capital in NYC.  How wonderful, I thought, this glass, this glowing glass sculpture back lit in a dark gallery. Exquisite!

Dale Chihuly, who was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1941, has become an internationally celebrated personality in contemporary art and design whose prominence in the field of contemporary studio glass is unmatched. He is a generous and charismatic individual with a forceful personality, who ceaselessly promotes himself and his material—glass—to audiences around the world. He has championed the use of blown glass as a vehicle for sculpture, focusing on the vessel in his explorations of color and form.           

An exciting exhibition of his work opens at the Marlborough Gallery in Chelsea, 545 W 25th Street, on September 16th, 6-8PM and continues through October 16th.

This is a remarkable installation at the Marlborough Gallery, Chelsea, one that you too will remember.

50 YEARS AT PACE GALLERY BLOWOUT EXHIBITION

PACE GALLERY Chelsea/James Turrell Holograms

AND A GIFT TO THE ART COMMUNITY...

A catalogue with a foreword by Arne Glimcher, founder, and more than 250 full color illustrations will accompany the exhibition.

In addition, an iPhone application designed to complement 50 Years at Pace, featuring audio clips of artists and art historians, and a walking tour of public works in Manhattan, will be available to download from the lTunes Store, free of charge.

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, The Pace Gallery  presents a multi-

venue retrospective of the gallery’s history highlighting the many artists, exhibitions, people, literature and ideals that have influenced its narrative over the past five decades.

Opening Receptions will be hosted in each gallery from 5:30-9 p.m. on Thursday, September 16, 2010. 

50 Years at Pace will bring together some of the key masterpieces that have passed through Pace’s doors, featuring  loans from important public and private collections worldwide.

With works spanning more than a century and a selection of rare archival materials, 50 Years at Pace will shed light on some of the landmark exhibitions and sales from the gallery’s extensive history. 

Each gallery will explore a different aspect of Pace’s history: mini-reprises of groundbreaking thematic  and historical  exhibitions will be on view at 57th Street; the gallery’s enduring relationship with Pop art and Abstract Expressionism will  be highlighted at 25th Street; contributions to Minimalist Art and the Post-Modernist movement will be featured at 22nd Street; and Pace’s commitment to Contemporary art in the 21st century will be showcased at the gallery’s *new location on 510 West 25th Street.

EXHIBITION:  50 Years at Pace

September 17th through October 23rd

FREE - 5 EXICITING EXHIBITIONS

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I know that the ART market has taken a beating along with the entire economy, being dragged kicking and screaming down to the edge of the abyiss, yet there is hope, because there are always ART Exhibitions to view...Exciting shows are listed below my fabulous photo that I took on Saturday in Chelsea on Tenth Ave.

"it don't cost nothin' to look"...Damond Runyon

SO LOOK HERE:

• Picasso/Gogosian Gallery
• The Women/Cohen Collection/Sothebys
• Patti Smith/Robert Miller Gallery
• Universal Gym/Gladstone Gallery
• Ophelia/Mike Weiss Gallery