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Friday, December 21, 2012

Holiday Gift; Elliott Erwitt's Dogs

A heartfelt and original tribute to man's best friend, this collection focuses on Elliott Erwitt's distinctive photographs of dogs. Ranging from daring little imps to lumbering and gentle beasts, the photographer who has also been called the "Woody Allen of photography", delights in focussing his gift of observation on animals as well as humans - and, especially, on all-too-human situations. In Dogs, he captures all the diversity of the canine kingdom.

Elliott Erwitt, the son of Russian immigrants, was born in Paris and grew up in Milan. He lives and works in New York.

Elliott Erwitt's

Dogs

Courtesy of the artist and teNeues

This post is featured on the HuffPost

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

YUE MINJUN: L' Ombre du fou rire or The Shadow of giggles

Start your day with a good laugh with L'Ombre du fou rire, a series of paintings peopled by enigmatically laughing characters, the first major exhibition in Europe dedicated to the Chinese artist Yue Minjun.

Born in 1962 in the city of Daqing in Heilongjiang Province in China, Yue Minjun is an icon of contemporary Chinese painting. Considered one of the protagonists of "Cynical Realism," an art movement that emerged after the student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989, he began developing his own distinctive iconography in the 1990s, which combines pictorial references with historical references.

Yue Minjun's paintings are immediately recognizable: they are painted in bright colors on large canvases and featured almost exclusively laughing male figures, all which are self-portraits presented either as a single figure or replicated over and over again to form a battalion of grinning frozen-faced clones. These figures appear in grotesque poses or in mock execution scenes, creating an atmosphere of tension that oscillates between the lighthearted and the outrageous, the mundane and the excessive, offering an often implicit satire of contemporary Chinese society.

Yue Minjun's participation in the Venice Biennale in 1999 brought him worldwide fame and opened the doors of the international art market to him. Today, Yue Minjun is considered one of the most influential artists of his generation.

Yue Minjun, L'Ombre du fou rire is currently on exhibit at the Fondation Cartier, from November 14, 2012 to March 17, 2013.

Yue Minjun

L'Ombre du fou rire

Untitled, 1994

Sky, 1997

The Sun, 2000

AD 3009, 2008

Bystander, 2011
© Yue Minjun

I am Dragon-3, 2008
© Yue Minjun

Memory-2, 2000
© Yue Minjun

Untitled, 1998
© Yue Minjun

Water, 1998
© Yue Minjun

Portrait of Yue Minjun in his studio, Beijing, May 2007
© Yue Minjun
Photo courtesy Yue Minjun Studio

Courtesy of the artist and the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain

Yue Minjun, L'Ombre du fou rire

Fondation Cartier

November 14, 2012 to March 17, 2013

This post is featured on the HuffPost Arts & Culture

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Intricate and Fascinating: Amy Flurry and Nikki Nye's Paper Wigs for the Victoria & Albert museum

Paper-Cut-Project is a company based in Atlanta, and co-founded in 2010 by Amy Flurry with Nikki Nye. Flurry and Nye make paper styling props for high end fashion productions and their clients include Hermes, Cartier, Kate Spade, Christies, The Bay and the Cartoon Network.

Amy Flurry and Nikki Nye were commissioned a 16-piece collection of paper wigs for the Victoria & Albert museum's "Hollywood Costume" show that is currently on exhibit in London.

" We were approached last summer by the exhibit's curator, Deborah Landis, who wanted the hair to be representative of that particular character, but interpreted in a way that would elevate the overall experience for the viewer.
The draw to the wigs is a subtle one, but when they do catch your eye, you linger longer, you make out that this minimalist detail was painstakingly made in paper! "
~~~Amy Flurry

It took the artist duo Flurry and Nye a little more than two months to create 16 exquisite paper wigs.

Paper-Cut-Project

Amy Flurry and Nikki Nye

Courtesy of the artists, Amy Flurry and Nikki Nye

Paper-Cut-Project

Victoria & Albert museum's "Hollywood Costume"

October 20, 2012 - January 27, 2013

This post is featured on the HuffPost Arts & Culture

Thursday, November 29, 2012

GODDESSES AND SUBDITS; The exquisite artwork of Mariana Monteagudo

This post is my third one on Mariana Monteagudo's stunning doll sculptures. Her latex, ceramic and mixed-media dolls are intriguing and fascinating. Her artwork covers a wide range of expressions, from the pre-Columbian aesthetics, to fashion, pop culture, Japanese manga and mass-market toys.

Mariana Monteagudo is a Venezuelan artist who has been working on various series of Muñecas (Dolls) over the last decade. Muñecas is the generic term Monteagudo uses to describe her creations since 1998. She has received several awards, and her artwork has been featured in solo, group shows and fairs in Madrid, Miami, Chicago, Aruba, Caracas, New York, Sao Paulo, and other venues. Monteagudo's striking and unusual pieces have attracted the attention of many critics and her work is part of the MOLAA Museum in California, Everson Museum, NY, Cesar Gaviria Trujillo Collection, Columbia, among other contemporary art collections.

In my latest 2012 series, Goddesses & Subdits, I wanted to make an interpretation of the power of beauty and femininity over others. These goddesses, queens and princesses are at the top of their society. They look over their shoulders and watch us from another dimension. They are powerful, magnetic, proud, coquette, dominant and they know how to cast their spell....
~~~Mariana Monteagudo

Mariana Monteagudo lives and works in Miami, Florida. Her artwork is on display at JustMad Mia art fair, Soho Studios at The Wynwood Convention Center, Miami.

Mariana Monteagudo

Goddesses & Subdits

Courtesy of the artist

Goddesses & Subdits

JustMad Mia art fair 2012, Miami, FL

December 6 - 9, 2012

This post is featured on the Huffington Post