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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Lisa Tomasetti: Behind the Scenes with the Australian Ballet

In her first exhibition at James Makin Gallery, renown photographer Lisa Tomasetti presents a series of images of the Australian Ballet, having been granted exclusive access to photograph the Ballet over several years on their international tours to Tokyo, New York, and Paris. Taken out of their usual context the Ballerina's dance, pirouette and leap through the gritty city streets, as Tomasetti creates riveting images that fuse high gloss performance with coarse urban reality.

With an eye for unconventional juxtapositions, Tomasetti has cast her athletic subjects in a new light, that of the urban everyday. The works also display her almost classical sensibility toward the qualities form, composition and light through photographs that nonetheless retain their essential spontaneity.
~~~Marguerite Brown, Gallery Curator, 2013

Lisa Tomasetti is a highly acclaimed photographic artist, and also film stills photographer capturing iconic images of films such as Shine, The Saphires, and Star Wars Episode II. Her visual art is in major national collections such as the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, and many more.

Lisa Tomasetti

Behind the Scenes: The Australian Ballet on the International Stage

Cygnets on 6th Ave, 2013

Courtesy the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne

NYPD, Reiko Hombo, 2013
Courtesy the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne

The Highline, Amber Scott, 2013
Courtesy the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne

Time Square, Reiko Hombo, 2013
Courtesy the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne

Cygnets, 2013
Courtesy the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne

Downtown Tokyo, 2013
Courtesy the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne

Imperial Palace, Amber Scott, 2013
Courtesy the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne

Shinagawa Station, 2013
Courtesy the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne

Lisa Tomasetti

Behind the Scenes: The Australian Ballet on the International Stage

James Makin Gallery, Melbourne

March 7 - 30, 2013

This post is also featured on the HuffPost

Thursday, March 7, 2013

PARIS HAUTE COUTURE; A Magnificent Exhibition

For the first time ever in Paris, fashion capital of the world, an exhibition is bringing together a hundred haute couture dresses and outfits by designers such as Worth, Doucet, Poiret, Lanvin, Chanel, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Grès, Jean Paul Gaultier, Lacroix, Alaïa and many more.... Organized in collaboration with the Galliera Museum - under the artistic direction of Olivier Saillard - the Paris haute couture invites the viewer to admire these exceptional garments, chosen from the most beautiful pieces in the museum's collections. A unique opportunity to discover a number of masterpieces, many of which have never been seen before.

Haute couture was born in Paris in the mid-19th century and since then generations of designers have transformed this supposedly frivolous discipline into high art, drawing on the skill of thousands little hands, like those of the embroiderers and plumassiers (feather workers), whose work in the shadows has kept alive the traditions that help maintain Paris' influence on fashion all over the world.

The exhibition enjoys the exceptional support of Swarovski. This close collaboration began in 1900, when the designer Worth created garments embroidered with Swarovski crystals. Jeanne Lanvin, Gabrielle Chanel and Elsa Shiaparelli made sparing use of these crystals, whereas in the 50s, Jacques Fath and Cristobal Balenciaga used extravagant amount of crystals in their collections.

PARIS

HAUTE COUTURE

Alaïa, bandage dress, 1990

Balenciaga, 1967
© Photograph rights reserved / Mairie de Paris

Christian Dior, Palmyre evening gown, F/W 1952
© Photograph rights reserved / Mairie de Paris

Lanvin, Concerto, winter 1934-1935
© Photograph rights reserved / Mairie de Paris

Jérôme, evening gown, c. 1925
© Photograph rights reserved / Mairie de Paris

Details, Jérôme, evening gown, c. 1925
© Photograph rights reserved / Mairie de Paris

Patou, Nuit de Chine
© Photograph rights reserved / Mairie de Paris

Worth, Tea gown, 1895
© Photograph rights reserved / Mairie de Paris

Lacroix, 1991
© Photograph rights reserved / Mairie de Paris

Madeleine Vionnet, evening gown, 1924
© Photograph rights reserved / Mairie de Paris

Madeleine Vionnet, Dress c. 1931
© Musée Galliera, Ville de Paris, rights reserved, 2013

Christian Dior by John Galliano, Sheherazade evening outfit, S/S 1998
© Photograph rights reserved / Mairie de Paris

Schiaparelli, evening gloves, C. 1936.
© Photograph rights reserved / Mairie de Paris

PARIS HAUTE COUTURE

Hotel de Ville, salle Saint-Jean, Paris

March 2 - July 6, 2013

To view the installation, click here.

Courtesy of the Musée Galliera and the Mairie de Paris

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Discover the Seven Deadly Sins at the Vice Versa Hotel

Opened in July 2012, the Vice Versa Hotel in Paris stands out for its original decor created by Chantal Thomass. The famous fashion designer was not only inspired by the 7 Deadly Sins to decorate the different floors of the Vice Versa Hotel, she also turned the reception into a corner of paradise and the hammam into a real but comfortable hell!

This luxurious boutique hotel has 37 rooms spread over 7 floors and each floor is a cardinal sin with a theme reflected from floor to ceiling. Passionate, Anger is tinged with red and black, and decorated with paintings tagged or guns on the carpet. Consisting of gold, statues and marble floors, Pride plunges you into an atmosphere of Etruscan palaces. Laziness can be felt in a rustic and very bucolic decor. Envy stirs up all desires with its very Parisian fashion accessories. Avarice leads in areas where bank notes are in abundance on the walls, ceiling....

Discover the Vice Versa Hotel, a dreamlike decor for a unique stay.

The reception area

Gluttony room

Avarice

Envy

Anger

Lust

Pride

Laziness

Hammam

Courtesy Vice Versa Hotel Paris

This post has been published on the HuffPost

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Michael Eastman: Havana, where decay meets beauty

Michael Eastman's Havana series exposes the colorful and crumbling interiors and exteriors of Cuba's capital. The details of these pictures make them fascinating and poignant: ghostly rectangles of lighter color on walls where paintings once hung, beach chairs that stand in for finely carved furniture, laden clothes lines hanging amongst chandeliers, above intricately tiled floors. But these deteriorating rooms and facades also tell a larger story: these are the homes of the successful and rich, who were knocked off their pedestals by the revolution and whose country, abandoned by its Russian supporters and blockaded by America, still has very little in the way of material goods.

While his photographs may provoke nostalgia for the glory days of Havana, Eastman's emphasis is on the subtle grandeur of these buildings in ruin, the beauty inherent in decay.

Michael Eastman is a self taught photographer, known for his large-scale photographs of the world's most beautiful cities including Rome, Paris, and New Orleans. He lives in St. Louis.

Michael Eastman's Havana series is currently on exhibit at Michael Hoppen Contemporary, UK.

Michael Eastman

Havana

Michael Eastman: Havana

Michael Hoppen Gallery, London

February 13th to March 16th, 2013