Ryan McGinley @ Team Gallery

Untitled (Black Bear) 2007 c-print 24 x 20 inches edition of three $ 6,000

ARTmostfierce loves the photos of Ryan McGinley.

April 3rd – May 3rd 2008
Reception on Thursday April 3rd at 6:00PM

Photos courtesy of Team Gallery

Dusk Flip Smoke Strip
Ryan McGinley
2007, c-print, 7 x 5 inches

$2,500.00

Fireworks Hysteric
Ryan McGinley
2007-08, c-print, 40 x 30 inches

Ryan McGinley’s “snapshots” have been evolving steadily since his guerilla show at 420 West Broadway in 2000. In the intervening eight years he has moved away from an artistic practice that was the soul of casual and towards an elaborated production schedule that raises the ante on “being there.” McGinley has gone from being perceived as the hottest young photographer in town to being considered a serious artist with a rare gift for creating enduring color photographs — photographs that show us the best of youth. The title of this exhibition, taken from an early B-side by Belle & Sebastian, is more than just a piece of poetic musing. McGinley does, in fact, know where his summers go. In the summer of 2007, for example, he traversed the United States with sixteen models and three assistants, shooting 4,000 rolls of film. From the resulting 150,000 photographs, he arduously narrowed down the body of work to some fifty images, the best of which are on display here at the gallery.The inspirational images for the project were culled from the kinds of amateur photography that appeared in nudist magazines during the 60s and early 70s. McGinley would sit with his models and look through all of the ephemera of the period that he had collected, discussing with them the mood that he was hoping to capture that day. McGinley had chosen a very specific itinerary that would bring his troop through the incredible range of landscapes that are available across the US and carefully planned a battery of activities, sometimes orchestrating the use of special effects. He has always been quite fond of fireworks and fog machines and in this new work they play a major role.The very artificial constructedness of the project allows for situations in which the models can both perform and be caught off guard. The resultant pictures of nude young men and women playing and living in the great outdoors are innocent yet erotic, casual yet calculated. McGinley’s photographs are included in the collections of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and many others. The 30 year-old artist has had solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of Art and at PS1 in New York, in Spain at the MUSAC, and last year mounted an ambitious public project in conjunction with the Kunsthalle in Vienna.

Check out this show! It is a must!

http://www.teamgal.com/exhibitions/131

Pulse Art Fair

The Pulse Art Fair was quite good. See below some highlights of the show.


At P.P. O.W. Gallery booth they were some great pieces.
The work of Julie Hefferman, Carolee Schneemann and Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz were ARTmostfierce favorites.


JULIE HEFFERNAN Self Portrait as Slow Growth, 2008oil on canvas, 86 x 56 inches

CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN Nude on Tracks1975/2005, 1 of sequence of 5, archival Giclee print on Hahn rag with pigmented ink, 18 x 26 inches

WALTER MARTIN & PALOMA MUÑOZ Blindness , 2007c-print35 x 69 inches

I really liked the elegant chandelier that artist and old friend of mine Yeni Mao was commissioned to create for the Pulse VIP lounge. In my opinion it was quite beautiful. Yeni also has some affordable pieces in limited editions available at Art Ware Editions. See link below for more info.

Bobby Neal Adams

c-underbelly C print edition 1/3 72 x 27 1/4 inches

At the Schroeder Romero Gallery booth the photographs of Bobby Neal Adams were not to be missed due to their size and visual effect. The airplane images on the air at different locations explore its relation with the environment and surroundings below. They have a dramatic effect and gives the urge to hop in a plane and disappear! Quite nice indeed!

Bobby Neal Adams
Venus C print edition 1/3 72 x 27 1/4 inches

http://www.schroederromero.com/

http://www.yenimao.com/

http://www.artwareeditions.com/

http://www.ppowgallery.com/artists.html

The Armory Show New York City @Pier 94

These are some highlights of the 

Armory Show.

At Cheim & Read Gallery booth, Jenny Holzer had a whole booth  dedicated to her work and it was quite impressive . 



This Vic Muniz Diamond Series photo was just spectacular and so was the price tag that it sold for !

$175,000.00 USD ...yes folks money is still 

running around in NYC.

What recession?

At The Deitch Projects Gallery Booth

This painting from Ryan McGinness was a dream and you can be looking at forever finding new images each time. Somebody took it home for a cool $85,000.00 USD

Mickalene Thomas had some great pieces spread throughout the Armory.

This painting in particular adorned with Swarowski crystals was just beyond words ...Magnificent!

Rumor was that the price tag was $120,000.00. Not bad right?

CerealArt has the wrestlers sculpture in case the wallet is short for a cool $10,000.00 USD edition of 40.

Mary HeilmannGhost Palette, 2008Archival Pigment Inkjet Print on Hahnemule German Etching35" x 26"Edition of 45 + 20 APsCourtesy of the artist, 303 Gallery, New York, Hauser & Wirth, Zurich London

John WatersStudy Art, 2007Cibachrome20" x 30"Edition of 45 + 15 APsCourtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York

ARTmostfierce  toured   as a  VIP the Armory Show . The benefits prints above By John Waters (my Favorite) and Mary Heilman look pretty good. The prices are $2,800.00 USD.

The Armory Show runs from March 27-30, 2008 and has about 150 International Galleries

featuring new art by living artists.

http://www.thearmoryshow.com/

http://www.deitch.com/artists/index.php

SCOPE NY @ Lincoln Center

Here are some highlights from SCOPE NY Art Fair.



Corey Arnold
The Wave (Bering Sea, Alaska)
Chromira C-Print 2003

This photograph is my favorite of all the Art Fairs combined. Corey Arnold photographs are mostly taken while working in a fishing boat at sea. Considered one of the most dangerous jobs, the photos are quite stunning, full of energy and edgy. keep an eye on him. Sara Tecchia of Sara Tecchia Gallery and Risa Needleman epitomized what costumer service and pleasant gallery atmosphere should be . Their gallery booth rocked more than a boat at sea in so many ways. See link below and pay them a visit!


Carlos Betancourt -The Hedge 2007
Giclee print
Keep a close eye on this Puerto Rican artist. During Miami Art Basel 2007 he had a great installation on display.His photos are insanely delicious and extremely colorful in every meaning of the word. See the link below and for more of this fiesta art!




Judith Larsen
Ocula-2007, Iris print on Somerset velvet paper
63'' x 73 ''
At the RHYS Gallery booth we found the work of Judith Larsen quite mesmerizing. See link below for more info.

Bahk Seon Ghi

Point of View Table, 2007

At Regis Krampf booth this installation was just brilliant! It was made mostly with chunks of coal and fishing wire . The shadows effects and space created within was worth seeing.

See link below for more artist and gallery info.

http://www.saratecchia.com/artists/corey_arnold/
http://www.carlosbetancourt.com/

http://www.rhysgallery.com/

http://www.krampfgallery.com/

Paul Lee'' Arm's Length'' @ Peres Projects LA

1.Sculpture-soda can,light bulb, magnifying glass, coal,string, Xerox, spray paint4 x 6.5 x 5.25 (10.2 x 16.5 x 13.3 cm)
2.
Untitled (can sculpture), 2008Paul LEE
Sculpture – soda can, coal, light bulb, string, Xerox, spray paint4 x 4 x 6 inches (10.2 x 10.2 x 15.2 cm)


ARTmostfierce recommends that if you are visit La La Land during March 1- 29,2008 , stop by Peres Projects and check out this show. Paul Lee uses everyday objects and gives them more character and personality almost indicating the posession of a soul into the objects.
Very interesting media to collect in a current art wold oversaturated with photography.
Check it out and say hello to my friend Richard Lindinsky manager of Peres Projects.
Also check out DADDY magazine a publication by Peres Projects getting quite popular.
Please find below links for Peres Projects and DADDY magazine.
Enjoy!

http://www.peresprojects.com/home_berlin.php?location_id=1

DADDY 1
http://www.daddythemagazine.com/magazines/daddy-1/
DADDY 2
http://www.daddythemagazine.com/magazines/daddy-2/
DADDY 3
http://www.daddythemagazine.com/magazines/daddy-3/
DADDY 4
http://www.daddythemagazine.com/magazines/daddy-4/
DADDY 5
http://www.daddythemagazine.com/magazines/daddy-5/

Peter Hujar'' Second Avenue @ Matthew Marks

ARTmostfierce really liked this show. ''Second Avenue'' by Peter Hujar demonstrates and exemplifies how some photographs endure time and with it develop a classic expression and lasting impression of its subjects.

This series of photographs taken by Peter Hujar in his studio located at 189 Second Avenue at East 12th street. All of Hujar images display a distinct realism unseen in other photographers of the era. They eschew the fashion backdrop and pose for the recurring ,bare, cracked wall of his Second Avenue studio.They focus on a beauty that comes with mortality which never verges towards the manipulative or grotesque . His work always reflects a  unique empathy, whoever the subject might be.

http://www.matthewmarks.com/index.php?n=2&c=7&e=452&l=&im=1

Hye-Rim Lee ''Crystal City'' @ Max Lang Gallery

ARTmostfierce loved this show!

not only for its innovative content and imaginery but because pushes its boundaries of video and photography.

 ''Crystal City'' is a fantasyland where dream and reality mix. It is an spectacle of sexually charged stimuli in which Toki -a highly stylized curvaceous warrior cum-vixen who draws upon the japanese tradition of Manga , Korean animamix and Western ideals of sexuality and beauty. The prints are gorgeous, elegantly mounted on plexi- glass without borders and have the look of an Apple  Computer product. Extremely cyber!

This show is a must see ...don't miss it!

Bert Teunissen @ 20 x 200

Jen Beckman is on fire again this week ! This week edition is by the one and only Bert Teunissen. It is a great image and selling quite fast!
For $20.00 USD is a bargain!Go and get one.


Again folks this one is for collectors keepers... not flippers


ARTmostfierce really likes Bert Teunissen photos. He also has limited editions for sale at Aperture for those more concern with the signature right on the print.
Happy Easter!

http://www.20x200.com/

http://www.aperture.org/store/prints-detail-w.aspx?ID=611

Chinese Art Record at Sotheby's

Lot 11, Zeng Fanzhi, Mask Series No. 11 (triptych), 1996, Signed in Chinese, Oil on canvas, Each: 23 5/8 by 19 3/4 in.; (60 by 50 cm.). Est. $800,000/1 million. Sold for $ $1,217,000. © Sotheby's Images.


ARTmostfierce has been under the weather for the last week.In the meantime check out the last results from Sotheby's Art Asia .

Sotheby’s fifth sale of Contemporary Art Asia: China Korea Japan in New York brought a solid $23,210,525 (est. $23.1/33.4 million) and was highlighted by Zeng Fanzhi’s Mask Series No. 11, 1996, a triptych showing the strivings of individualism amidst the communist collective that was latent but still present during the Cultural Revolution of Zeng’s youth, which sold for $1,127,000 to a European buyer (lot 11, est. $800,000/1 million). Li Huayi’s Autumn Mountains, 2007, which shows a dramatic mountain vista dominated by a mist enshrouded natural bridge and steep waterfalls and merges both Chinese ink painting with Western modernism, set a record for a Chinese Contemporary ink painting at auction when it sold for $451,000 (lot 161, est. $350/450,000). Other artist records were set today for Huang Gang, Guo Jin, Li Jikai and Qiu Xiaofei, among others.

Xiaoming Zhang, Vice President of Chinese Contemporary Art department, said: “We were very pleased with the results of today’s sale, which was a healthy reflection of this still new market in New York, where we launched sales two years ago. Over 80% of the works sold, and of those works, approximately 80% of them exceeded or achieved prices within their estimates. Today’s results were very consistent with the results of one year ago, and we saw a greater diversity of artist names dominating the top list of works – Zhao Wuji (Zao Wou-Ki), Zhang Xiaogang, Zeng Fanzhi, Yue Minjun, Yan Peiming, Zhou Chunya, Su Xinping and Tang Zhigang. There was a very international profile of buyers, with strong participation from Asia, America and Europe.”

Other highlights of the sale included Zhao Wuji (Zao Wou-Ki)’s Quand Il Fair Beau (When the Weather is Lovely), 1955, a wonderful example of his work from an important period of his career when he was a central figure in Parisian artistic circles of the 1950s, which achieved $690,600, selling to an American dealer (lot 78, est. $450/550,000); Zhou Chunya’s Two TT, 2007, which shows two German shepherds in profile, realized $690,600, selling to an American Private collector (lot 139, est. $400/600,000); Su Xinping’s Sea of Desire, 1997, depicting a middle-aged businessman with a purposeful stride and determined gaze, brought $541,000, selling to an Asian Private collector (lot 99, est. $120/180,000); Yan Pei-Ming’s 1998 portrait of Mao, 1998, one of the many paintings he has completed on the subject of the great leader, brought $481,000, selling to a European Private Collector (lot 55, est. $400/600,000); and Tang Zhigang’s Children in Meeting, 2004, which sold for $457,000 to a European Private collector (lot 14, est. $250/350,000).

Brave New Landscape

Photos by Leah Oates

ARTmostfierce enjoys always looking for new emerging artists. Well folks here is a few  for those who like me are looking for the next big thing. My personal favorite here is Leah Oates who I had the pleasure of finding at the Pool Fair during Miami ART Basel. Her use of the light box as a medium to express her photography is quite stunning. If you happen to be near Pittsfield, Ma., I suggest you check it out. If not check out their websites listed below and for Leah Oates...you can also contact me.

Oh by the way you can also see Leah's photos at the new NBC series Lipstick Jungle..Go Leah!

Brave New Landscape
Leah Oates, Julie W. McCarthy, Lisa Vollmer, Eric Korenman and Jason Houston.
March 8-April 5.
Hours: Saturday & Sunday, 12-5pm, or by appointment.
Storefront Artist Project, 124 Fenn Street, Pittsfield, MA. (413) 442-7301
Panel Discussion: Sunday, March 30, 2pm.*

‘Brave New Landscape’ showcases the work of five distinct photographers: Leah Oates, Julie W. McCarthy, Lisa Vollmer, Eric Korenman and Jason Houston.
Although none would consider themselves landscape photographers per se, landscape coyly figures in their disparate work simultaneously as foreground and background. This exhibition is in part about the way landscape plays a role in each artist’s work and in turn how it influences the reading of the images. Often used as a backdrop to the primary subject mater, the landscape revealed in these photographs comes across as being in flux, unstable and absurd. Together as a group the images in this exhibition render the landscape as a state of mind rather than a representation of a place and time.
A sense of the unreal looms about, even in the work of the most straightforward photographers here. Yet there is also an uncanny discernment of something familiar in the air. The visual elements, sometimes including the human figure, viscerally reference the real world. In effect the images become dreamscapes imbued with waking moments.

Leah Oates
Out of the five photographers Leah Oates’ work explores landscape the most. Hers is a search for space that resonates with a questionable past and exists in spite of what has been imposed upon it. To a certain degree her work tells of an acceptance of circumstances that continue to shift and change. Often by double exposing negatives Leah fuses natural and man made landscape into a mutant form. The layered and fragmented landscape in Leah’s photographs brings an element of chance and with it a disquieting transientness. Inherently, Leah’s work contains a subtle commentary on the effects that human consumption has on nature while at the same time postulating a subversive kind of beauty.

Julie W. McCarthy
Julie captures visual sceneries where nothing seems as is. She molds the aperture’s optic field into a dreamy yet eerie space by photographing with a specialized, selective focusing lens. As a consequence her images appear as either moving towards the viewer or away in space. This trajectory is further enhanced by the black and white mostly monochromatic printing which gives the work an ephemeral quality. The skewed perspective and proportions give Julie’s landscape a gravitational pull. Looking at her photographs one cannot resist being swayed into their intimate if not nebulous space.

Lisa Vollmer
Landscape need not be natural as evident in one of Lisa Vollmer’s photographs, “LDS Mormon Visitor’s Center”. This image is a representation of a representation of a very specific landscape, one that conveys a world in itself for Mormon adherents. In her work Lisa conceptualizes the notions of contemporary documentary photography by carefully planning where and how the photo sessions take place. Often this gives her images the appearance of being staged and the resulting theatricality lends the landscape a grandiose prominence. The landscape in Lisa’s work along with the subject matter she places in it uncovers a macrocosm where faith is the final frontier.

Eric Korenman
Eric Korenman’s images hint at hidden aspects of nature both environmentally and of the human psyche. The views photographed by him refuse to be captured ordefined. Eric’s landscapes depart from his typical work of evocative, beautifully detailed portraiture and interior architecture photographs. Turning his lens to the outside surroundings he invites the natural world to enter the image on its own terms. Frequently leaving the camera’s aperture open for long exposures he lets the passage of time truly become an essential element of the composition affecting the photograph’s very mood. As a result Eric’s photographs manifest a mysterious landscape in a constant state of morphing.

Jason Houston
Jason Houston’s photographs from the documentary series ‘Farmer’ draw the eye to the to the substance of farming – the land itself. Removed from a documentary context the images here foster a surreal texture brought on by certain compositional elements. Jason’s work eloquently expresses the human desire to care and cultivate earth. Intriguingly one of his photographs appears to be especially ‘un-landscape-like’. Taken from the inside of a pick-up truck and obscured by a dirty windshield which frames a view of a field with trees in the distance the landscape here appears melancholy and strangely out of reach.

Brave New Landscape has been organized by Monika Sosnowski, a photographer and an independent curator.

*In conjunction with the Brave New Landscape exhibition Julie McCarthy’s photographic series Saints and Sinners will be spotlighted in the back/office space of the Storefront Artist Project. Also on view throughout the exhibition will be Leah Oates’ artist books and Eric Korenman’s additional “Deep Pond” studies.
A panel discussion with the artists is scheduled for Sunday, March 30th at 2pm. The artists will discuss their work and the state of contemporary photography.

Artists websites:
www.leahoates.com
www.juliewmccarthy.com
www.lisavollmer.com
www.korenman.com
www.jasonhouston.com
www.monikasosnowskiphotography.com

Nina Berman @ 20 x 200

Photo: 9-11-02 by Nina Berman

ARTmostfierce loves 20 x 200 !

Another big score from Jen Beckman featured last week in the New York Times.

Wednesday Edition is from the fierce photographer Nina Berman.

The photo is tilted 9-11-02 and  is part of the Homeland Insecurity series

This one is for the collection of keepers ... not flippers!

Nina's work is just fascinating and has a great deal of social consciousness.

Go and get one!

http://www.20x200.com/art/2008/03/91102.html
http://www.ninaberman.com/

Channel ...errr Client #9

ARTmostfierce felt relieved and vindicated when Governor Elliot Mess (former Ness) Spitzer resigned today.

I do not like to mix politics with my favorite topics but , this one was too hard to be ignored.

Betraying the voters of NY State like me, people that thought that he was a man of integrity and do the right thing, turns out to be another crooked Ivy League, wealthy, old boys club, white man with a sense of entitlement!

This one got me fool folks. If I was Silda , Lorena Bobbit would not have one on me!

Let's not even discuss the fact about our former Governor trying to have sex without a condom with a whore!...hypocrite...ha!

Well ...he is out and March 17, 2008(I will celebrate with green beer) we will have David Patterson as a new Governor.

Some men (including some dear gay male friends...you know who you are ) think first with their dicks and as with Spitzer there is always a  price to pay for it.

Keep your dick in your pants.

AMEN

Hot ART Market Cools...OFF!

Photo : ''Cooling Off'' by Ruben Natal-San Miguel , Boston 2007

ARTmostfierce is beginning to sound like a broken record but, since Miami Art Basel everybody involved in business and art like mua knew what we are experiencing now ....recession?

I think that the Art businesses are fighting back by offering shows with several editions at different price points and offering what is considered to many as Classic Modern Good Investments vs Emerging Trendy Overpriced With Questionable Value.

Now where does that leave the second category ...back to the drawing board or to school to obtain a MFA to achieve validation and wait for the next flourishing of the ART market?

Most galleries right now are starting to showcase a new and fresh approach towards the public by bringing in better quality shows with the right goods and content not to mention, a more realistic and affordable price tag .

Please see below an article from Crain's Business New York by Miriam Kreinin Souccar .

Enjoy!

The art market frenzy that made art students into stars overnight, spawned scores of fairs around the world and turned young investment bankers into major collectors may be coming to an end.
For the first time in years, New York dealers are reporting weaker sales, hesitant buyers and difficulty keeping up with the high rents in Chelsea, the center of the New York art scene. A few galleries in the bustling neighborhood are already subletting space to make ends meet, and insiders are concerned that some of the 400 galleries there could fail.
“Everyone is feeling a slowdown,” says Michel Allen, owner of an eponymous gallery in Chelsea. “People are still buying, but it's a much more difficult sale.”
Sales were down 10% overall for Ms. Allen this past fall over the previous year and sales in certain segments of her business, like photography, have stopped altogether.
Sundaram Tagore, whose Chelsea gallery represents hot international artists like Hiroshi Senju and Natvar Bhavsar, says sales in January fell around 25% from the same time last year. And David Maupin, of the Lehmann Maupin gallery in Chelsea and the Lower East Side, has reported a 50% drop in sales of work by younger artists whose pieces sell for less than $20,000, and a decline in sales of works priced at less than $100,000.
“Things just aren't selling in a certain range,” Mr. Maupin says. “Last year was very different at this time.”
Cold feet
Collectors have cold feet for a number of reasons, dealers say. But the most prevalent factor is the overall economic downturn, especially on Wall Street, where a lot of the new buyers have been coming from. Those newly minted millionaires, who now face shrinking bonuses or layoffs, were the ones spending wildly for emerging or midrange art.
To be sure, there is still a lot of money circulating in the art market. Many dealers say that though the frenzied buying has died down, they are having no trouble selling their most expensive pieces. There are now so many collectors around the world that losses from Wall Street collectors can easily be replaced by sales to entrepreneurs in Hong Kong.
“While the American population is holding back from acquiring more artwork, a lot of our clients living in Asia are acquiring more,” Mr. Tagore says.
Still, many gallery owners are anxiously awaiting sales results from The Armory Show, the city's biggest contemporary art fair, which runs March 27 through March 30.
Mixed results
Other recent fairs have had mixed results. The Art Show, a prestigious, 20-year-old fair sponsored by the Art Dealers Association of America, which ran in Manhattan from Feb. 21 through Feb. 25, attracted only 10,000 visitors this year, down from last year's 15,000. Still, according to Linda Blumberg, executive director of the ADAA, a number of the participating galleries sold out their booths.
Dealers who exhibited at both the Palm Beach 3 contemporary art fair and Art Basel in Miami this year say times have definitely changed. Mr. Tagore says he didn't make a sale until the last afternoon at Palm Beach. “Last year there was a frenzy. This year people were dragging their feet,” he says.
Michael Sellinger, a principal at Cottelston Advisors who produces a show in conjunction with Art Basel called Mash, says clients wanted to delay payments on works.
To stay afloat during the uncertainty, some gallery owners are cutting costs and even sharing their space. Kathleen Cullen started renting out a room in her 2,000-square-foot Chelsea gallery last October, shaving a third off of her $6,500-a-month rent. Ms. Cullen is considering taking on a second tenant.
She predicts that galleries in Chelsea will close if the downturn continues. “The number will be edited down,” Ms. Cullen says. “Before, everyone wanted to be a gallerist because it was considered a glamorous profession.”

Las Vegas... New ART MECCA?

ARTmostfierce loves when Art and Architecture are incorporated to work together in order to create beauty,good design, form and function for the world to see and experience. The MGM Mirage in Las Vegas has engaged in a $40 million public arts program recruiting extraordinary talent for for its Architectural Design and Public Art.

Is Las Vegas destined to become an ART mecca? Next Destination for ART Basel? Will the Gallerinas end it up moonlighting as Showgirls on the side? Who knows?

This is what the New York Times Article by Steve Freiss says:

In a boisterous town legendary for shining the spotlight on Elvis, Sinatra and Celine, it’s a safe bet that few could have envisioned these names as Strip attractions:

Maya Lin. Henry Moore. Frank Stella. Jenny Holzer. Nancy Rubins.

And more. In Las Vegas. Really.

As unlikely as it may have seemed
And more. In Las Vegas. Really.

As unlikely as it may have seemed even to them, those celebrated artists are the headliners of an ambitious $40 million public arts program initiated by MGM Mirage, the city’s biggest resort corporation, with the goal of promoting Las Vegas as a destination for the art world.

Works by those and other artists, variously commissioned and acquired, are destined to dot an $8 billion, 76-acre development called CityCenter that MGM Mirage is constructing on the Las Vegas Strip. The site is expected to open late next year with a 4,500-room hotel-casino, five nongaming boutique hotels and residential towers, and a 500,000-square-foot retail district.

MGM Mirage recruited an all-star architectural lineup to design the buildings, including Daniel Libeskind, Rafael Viñoly, Norman Foster and Fred W. Clarke of Pelli Clarke Pelli.

Jim Murren, president of MGM Mirage, said the company decided to assemble an art collection too, to signal that CityCenter was a departure from the themed megaresorts that surround it on all sides.

“We’re going to create an art program that will be important on a global scale, that will have some meaning to Nevada, that will have some meaning to the environmental sensitivities we’re trying to accomplish here,” Mr. Murren said. He said that each CityCenter structure was expected to be certified by the Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environment Design program.

“This will not be a collection of precious pieces from some bygone era but a collection that is approachable, of big scale,” Mr. Murren said of the art. “We need to make a big statement.”

Among the works commissioned for CityCenter are a 133-foot-wide cast-silver representation of the Colorado River that will hang over the central resort’s registration desk. It was designed by Ms. Lin, best known as the creator of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

Ms. Holzer has created a 245-foot-long L.E.D. installation with her trademark axioms that will snake through the porte-cochere of a condominium-hotel called the Harmon. Richard Long, a British artist, is furnishing a pair of 80- by 50-foot mud drawings that will loom in the lobbies of a pair of angular residential towers called Veer.

And Ms. Rubins has fashioned an outdoor 85- by 65-foot sculpture from a variety of seafaring vessels that might be viewed as a steroidal version of a boat assemblage she did that was suspended over the plaza at Lincoln Center in New York in the summer of 2006.

MGM Mirage has also purchased older contemporary pieces, like a marble version of Moore’s sculpture “Reclining Connected Forms” (1969-74), which Mr. Murren said cost at least $7 million.

Another big acquisition is “Typewriter Eraser Scale X,” one of three Pop sculptures of that title by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. MGM Mirage officials declined to name the price tag for that work or identify the seller of either piece. Both will be positioned in park areas on the CityCenter campus.

Read more about on link below!
http://http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/08/arts/design/08publ.html?em&ex=1205208000&en=ef373ebddf0eb828&ei=5087%0A

Is rather distressing to see projects around the world and around this country take shape, get developed and built without the bull*#$t and bickering still going on over Ground Zero (former World Trade Center) .Thanks to the greed and mediocrity of developers like Larry Silverstein delays and fighting over money reigned over making a true statement of subliminal Architecture and Public Art.We can only hope that Santiago Calatrava's design for the train station will save the day.

Nothing with the magnitude and excitement has happened here since The Gates happened.

One event coming up this summer (keep an eye on ) is the New York City Waterfalls in Lower Manhattan by artist Olafur Eliasson . Inspired by the Niagra Falls in Upstate New York , the falls will be conceptually created at five different locations. Please click on link below so you can see how ingenious and exciting this project is going to be.

Please feel free to vent about this topics like I just did.

http://www.nycwaterfalls.org/

http://www.olafureliasson.net/exhib_proj.html

Opening Night at the Whitney Biennial: The Art Crowd Is Not Impressed

Mika Rottenberg's Valkyrian milkmaids.

New York Magazine

by Alexandra Peers

It was hip to be squared at the opening of the 2008 Whitney Biennial last night, where a slew of artists in the sculpture-heavy show went for big raw boxy installations. Think the skeletal frame of a house, cubes of cracked glass, a resin block, a pool-size bin of kitty litter, slices of offices and rooms and houses. With its organic materials and echoes of architecture, the show sometimes looked like Janson’s History of Conceptual Art meets Home Depot. We're not sure what it all meant, but don’t miss Mika Rottenberg’s cool ramshackle barn in which you watch videos of Valkyrian milkmaids and baying goats.

As a whole, the hometown show (more than half the artists now live in New York) wasn’t quite wowing the crowd. “It could have used a jolt of sexy painting," Artkrush editor Paul Laster complained. There was not much politics, even less sex. The dominant aesthetic was so tentative and half-done that one rival institution’s curator wondered if artists racing to make deadlines hadn’t finished. Then an SVA professor thoughtfully explained: “It’s what they’re teaching in schools now. It’s non-iconic.”

Buzzy works included the powerhouse lobby office from Jason Rhoades (the gifted L.A. artist who died of heart failure in 2006), Phoebe Washburn’s room-size ecosystem run on Gatorade, and Eduardo Sarabia’s witty storage room of art knockoffs by Koons, etc., which thoughtfully included an order catalog. Said Chelsea dealer Robert Goff: “It’s awesome — because it looked finished.” —Alexandra Peers

ARTmostfierce will go this weekend to see it and give his 2 cents opinion!
http://www.villagevoice.com/art/0810,351176,351176,13.html

Vik Muniz Talks!

ARTmostfierce Recommends:
Vik Muniz
Talk and Book Signing
Sponsored By the Aperture Foundation

Thursday, March 13, 2008
8:15 p.m.

92nd Street Y School of the Arts
Buttenwieser Hall
1395 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York
(212) 415-5749

Don't miss it. Buy the book and get it signed!
ARTmostfierce will see you all there!.
http://www.vikmuniz.net/
http://aperture.org

SCOPE New York

ARTmostfierce liked ''molto bene'' SCOPE Miami 07 during Basel and recommends to pay a visit to Scope New York 08 during March 26- 30 , 2008 At the Upper West Side,Lincoln Center . Finally something is happening in the Upper Wild West! OH...and for the Downtown Divas please, do not claim getting a nosebleed coming up here! Check link below for schedule of events. And if you need a map of the area because you never come up here, please advise..Ha!
For those who experienced SCOPE Miami let me know your thoughts.



http://www.scope-art.com/

Photography Rules! #3

ARTmostfierce 3rd stop was The Pace Wildenstein Gallery on West 25th Street to see the new photographic series by Lucas Samaras titled "NYC Chairs"on view from February  21- March 29, 2008. 

Samaras created this works over the past year going around NYC finding chairs and then back at the  studio manipulate the images ''dressing them up'' to make them more luxurious, dramatic and provide them more identity. He turns an every day  familiar object of use, most times discarded ,  into object of desire. The photos are done in two sizes: 22'' x 36''- 3/4'' for $18,000.00 USD and 8''-1/2'' x 14'' for $1,000.00. The whole show was curated in such way that the same exact smaller image was below the larger version. 

Artmosfierce thought that it was such a clever way to demonstrate that the artist wanted to have a smaller and  way most affordable edition for the public to acquire. Again... way tempted but, the plastic money was left at home. The show is interesting and it shows how most galleries are beginning to embrace the price point of artworks in this  current fluctuating economy. 

The final stop for the day was to see Michel Francois at  Bortolami Gallery. The sculptures look rather fragile and not too strong in content. What was interesting was the series black and white photographs group in series under one single large frame. These same images were reproduced and neatly stacked on the floor for you to take home...YES FREE! A very kind and conceptual idea formerly  used by  one and only Felix Gonzales -Torres.

The show is on display from February 21- March 27, 2008. Go and get your FREE prints (see above) frame them and give them as a wedding gift, birthday gift or put them on Ebay for sale...Ha!

http://www.bortolamigallery.com/francois/francoisfeb084.htm

http://www.pacewildenstein.com

Photography Rules! #2

ARTmostfierce kept on going in the Photography burn out tour!

Next stop, Silverstein  Gallery Rosalind Solomon, '' Inside out"

This is such a great show folks! Ms Rosalind is quite a Fierce Lady! 

From her days in Wash. DC when her former husband was a member of the Carter Administration till now, Rosalind has such an incredible range of work. Some of her photos can be compared to Diane Arbus easily. Some of her prints are unique for the 70's and 80's. Her photographs of all dolls  are quite stunning , some crazed dolls with missing limbs represent her obsessive concern about family illness. Her self portraits deal with the issue of self image and feminism. ARTmostfierce had the pleasure of meeting Rosalind today and get and image signed (cool). The pricing was quite reasonable it ranges from $5,000.00-$15,000.00 USD (not bad for such an experienced and good artist). Show runs from March 1- April 5, 2008.

Special thanks to Zoe Strauss for recommending this show in her blog. It is a good one folks, a must see!

The Brian Finke Flight Attendants  show at Clampart (see blog # 18   ) just rocks! ARTmostfierce was very tempted about getting one of the  two images offered. One 40 x 40 for $3,500.00 USD, the 20 x 20 for $2,000.00. Thank God I left the plastic at home!  

Photography Rules! #1

ARTmostfierce did a quick gallery tour this afternoon in Chelsea (no motorcade mafia) in dark shades and a hoodie (not the out of rehab look either!) and found some ART shows worth mentioning. This will be done in a couple of blog series only about this tour (too much to tell).

Photography as a media, keeps dominating the walls in most fierce (meaning trendy) galleries. The white framing still rules (even though is not my favorite choice at times). Now there is a new Trend picking up...''the light box''. ARTmostfierce always liked this way of displaying images. While at ART Basel Miami (Pool Fair) I loved the photographic work of Leah Oates which included some fabulous light boxes. It is such a great way to display ART and think about it girls, it is a great subtle light source in your home if placed right you might not need that Ikea or West Elm lamp (I prefer Artemide, Flos or some good vintage lamp). The final effect is almost cinematic and quite striking!

At Yossi Milo Gallery, Muzi Quawson, ''Pull Back the Shade''demonstrates the effect of the light box. The artist followed Amanda Jo Williams (mother of twins and musician) for four years documenting her life, young motherhood, domesticity, social alienation and interactions with other people. The photos in particular do not have the best photo quality finish (resolution) and even if they were trying to have the raw appeal of Zoe Strauss or some of Nan Goldin's for $10,000.00 USD, still don't meet the price tag. What saves the show it is the fact that the light box and the story behind it gives the aura of a cinematic experience and gives you the illusion of a short documentary film (indie). This show came from the Tate in London shown there only as a slide show. It is still quite striking to walk in a room full of large light boxes! Oh by the way...there is a Yossi Milo North (small new gallery) right behind the (hallway) of Yossi Milo (South?). Kind of North Korea and South Korea...you decide!