GEOMETRIE VARIABLE

SHAG

Introducing SHAG, A New Retail Store and Fine Art Gallery in NYC
Specializing in Sexy One-of-a-Kind Design for the Home and Body

One of the largest underground economies in America revolves around sex, yet it continues to remain a stranger in the public eye. Evoking old Hollywood charm with a modern twist, SHAG – a new “sexy shop” in Williamsburg, Brooklyn – unites sex and art by creating an environment that is inviting, playful, and open to all. At the most basic level, SHAG is a retail store and fine art gallery – offering local artists a place to experiment and sell sexy objet d’art for the home and body. It also functions as an event space and creative hub for the community where hands-on workshops, art-related classes and photography services will be available for positive exploration of sex and togetherness in all relationships.

SHAG is located on the corner of North 6th and Roebling, in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It is the brainchild of Samantha Bard and Ashley Montgomery-Pulido, who wanted to expand the traditional sex toy store into an open, inviting and educational experience. According to Bard, “Artists and designers are often reluctant to experiment with taboo subjects and new mediums because they are worried about commercial viability. We created SHAG as a place where people can go and not be afraid to try something new.”

Products * Nearly all of the store’s inventory is locally made and bridges the gap between fine art and commercial retail, giving consumers the opportunity to own functional one-of-a-kind pieces of art. SHAG also prides itself in knowing what’s sexy. Handcrafted and commercial sex toys, intimacy aids, homemade massage oils and lubricants will line the aisles of the shop. However, home décor and tabletop items such as dinnerware, linens and shower curtains will be available as well as jewelry, clothing, lingerie, and other unique products for the home and body. The founders of SHAG are also developing their own line of products including: handcrafted platinum silicone dildos and plugs; lubricants and toy cleaners; lingerie and sleepwear; and various types of “SHAG Bags” – i.e. intimacy kits.

Art * SHAG is interested in supporting the local art community by creating a platform through which artists can uninhibitedly express themselves. The shop will host five exhibitions a year and boasts a talented troop of local artists including painters, photographers and sculptors whose work investigates sexuality, gender and identity. A few of their featured artists for the upcoming year include: Jess Levey; Rebecca Loyche; Sandra Mack-Valencia; Hiroki Otsuka; and Chris Smith.

Services * With Bard’s extensive knowledge in casting techniques, SHAG will offer a range of custom castings to meet the demands of the most creative client. Pregnant belly castings make for a beautiful keepsake while personalized dildos – functional silicone replicas of the clients’ “member” – are perfect for gifts, gags, or long distance relationships. SHAG will also provide photography services including boudoir, fantasy, and couples photo shoots, where clients can live out their fantasy in front of the camera.

In addition, SHAG will host educational programming for the public through seminars and lectures addressing complex issues related to sex and relationships as well as discussions on contemporary art and how it relates to our society. Art-related classes and workshops on body painting, embroidery and air-brushing will be available as well as “Cast Your Partner” – an intimate workshop for couples to explore each other through casting techniques. SHAG will also function as an event space, hosting everything from baby showers to scavenger hunt bachelorette parties.

Background * Samantha Bard has a background in fine art and eight years experience working with sculpture and casting techniques – experimenting with plaster, rubber, ceramics and plastics. Virtually all of her fine art work focuses on sexuality, intimacy and desire with an emphasis on revealing what is concealed in our culture. Ashley Montgomery-Pulido is the founder of Nitty Gritty Concepts – a financial management consulting firm that works with entrepreneurs and business owners across a wide range of industries.

www.weloveSHAG.com

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CITIES OF GOLD AND MIRRORS

Cyprien Gaillard   Sprüth Magers Berlin   november 20 2009 - january 16 2010

Sprüth Magers Berlin is delighted to present an exhibition by French-born, Berlin-based artist Cyprien Gaillard evolving around his work ‘Cities of Gold and Mirrors’ (2009). This 16mm film develops the artist’s interest in contemporary landscapes as complex sites of loss and potential, manifested through architecture, monuments and history.

‘Cities of Gold and Mirrors’ takes place principally in and around the Mexican city of Cancún, and consists of a sequence of five parts accompanied by a particular looped recording of ‘Le Feu de St. Elme’, by Haïm Saban and Shuki Levy (1982). The city of Cancún, founded in 1970, offers Gaillard a landscape perpetuated by a spirit of anachronism and ruin. As hedonistic young American tourists, the ‘spring breakers’ returning to the US with little but addled recollections, invoke a contemporary discourse of decadence and decay, so the modern hotels built of steel and glass upon the physical ruins of the mighty Mayan Empire articulate an historicized vision. Within the film’s non-narrative structure, a spirit of displacement presides; the city is a palimpsest, and time and space are displaced in the moment of the spectacle and the delirium of the carnival.

Cyprien Gaillard works across a range of media, including film, video, photography, sculpture and live performance. Between vandalism and minimal aesthetics, romanticism and Land Art his practice oscillates between a resistance to the notion of archaeology as fixed or passive, and a suspension or relocation of time and place. His recent works has been concerned with deconstruction of post-War modernist architecture, and the demise of Utopian ideals on which such structures were founded.

The artist’s archeological approach towards found imagery, nature and architecture, can be observed in his series of works ‘Geographical Analogies’ and ‘Fields of Rest’: both juxtapose a sequences of polaroids taken in various locations to each other. They draw analogies based on collective memory, for instance between natural sites in Mexico or Egypt, or Second World War bunker architecture on the coastline of Normandie and housing projects in the Bronx – whether it be for their visual correspondences or their geological placement, highlighting in each photo the same sense of fragility and liberating it from its original connotations.

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GERT & UWE TOBIAS AT THE BREEDER

Gert & Uwe Tobias

Opening: Thursday 19 November 2009, 8-10pm
Duration: 19 November 2009 - 24 December 2009
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday 12-8 pm & Saturday 12-5 pm

The Breeder is pleased to announce the second solo show in Athens of Romanian artists Gert & Uwe Tobias.
The Tobias brothers are highly acclaimed for their large size coloured woodcuts and have been praised as revivers and innovators of this lost arts and crafts printing technique. The woodcut printing method had been left to oblivion decades ago in the artistic milieu and has been invigorated to its highest grandeur by the artists. Their work has been built upon a modus operandi which origins date back to the 1st century and which regained importance in Europe in the 15th century with the work of German Albrecht Dürer, while later was linked with the Expressionists.
Gert & Uwe Tobias oeuvre is to its most extent biographical and highly influenced by Romanian folk art, mythologies, fairytales, Socialist Architecture, Cubism, Expressionism, Dadaism, contemporary graphic design and advertisement. The ornamented features of their woodcuts can also be found in works by artists of “High Modernism” (in Gauguin or Matisse, for example) and in more recent art (Mark Tansey, Kara Walker, Peter Kogler etc). In their diverse production of images one comes across surreal, dark and burlesque type of figures which are recurrent in their work; and which are evocative of their past childhood. Circus like figures are composed into abstract shapes and blended with words that give them a symbolic character.

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FUTURE MAP

An artwork by Celine Fitoussi

Future Map is an annual survey show exhibiting the best cutting edge talent from the graduating year at University of the Arts London. Reviewing all the graduate and postgraduate courses in art, design, fashion and communications, a panel of industry experts chose works they feel best represent the next generation of creativity.

Future Map has acted as a  launch pad for many successful contemporary artists including: Robert Rush who was selected for New Contemporaries; Zoe Mendelson, has been awarded a Jerwood Drawing Prize, as well as commissions for the Foundation Cartier and Modern Painters; Raqib Shaw has since exhibited at Tate, Victoria Miro, the National Portrait Gallery and is in the collection of MoMA; Naglaa Walker’s work has been exhibited at Rokeby gallery, featured in Portfolio and won a Jerwood Photography Award.

Now in its twelfth year, Future Map is a strong brand, with a reputation for being the first to showcase the most hotly tipped rising stars of the future. Because of the talent scouting nature of this exhibit, Future Map has a steady following of industry insiders including top UK and international gallerists, curators, collectors and critics.

This year Future Map will be held at Alex Dellal’s gallery, 20 Hoxton Square Projects. The selection panel will include Alasdhair Willis of Established & Sons design firm, Caroline Daniel, Assistant Editor of the Financial Times and a third, yet to be named artist.

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PARTNERS & SPADE

Picture extracted from purple diary

Partners & Spade is a shop/gallery/studio space located at 40 Great Jones St. in Manhattan that houses a smörgåsbord of curios, objets d’art, eccentric bric-a-brac and enough whimsy to make you feel like you’ve stepped into the living room of a fiercely cool grandparent’s house. Founded in 2008 by art lovers Andy Spade (the founder of Kate Spade and Jack Spade) and Anthony Sperduti (a former advertising creative director) the “conceptual and experiential” storefront is a must-visit for anyone with a glint in their eye and an affinity for beautiful oddities. The space, freshly re-installed for November and December, features sights motley as: a Will Cotton sculpture of piled up pastel-frosted cakes; a tall garden of succulents, vintage microphone stands, and African sculptures; Rene Ricard paintings; records that run the gamut from France Gall to Soiled Mattress and the Springs; tattered “Ghost Ships” by Robert Hawkins; vintage oil cans, rare Japanese erotica from Irving Zucker Art Books; custom-made axes (and an axe rack) by Peter Buchanan Smith’s Best Made Co… and that’s not even scratching the surface. When asked where Partners & Spade procures their wares the reply was – somewhat cryptically – “Literally everywhere.”

Although many of the featured works are by well-established artists (i.e. Will Cotton, Rene Ricard, Gordon Hull,) the space also seeks to feature works by artists who are young in age and career. A glass case of pottery is primarily the work of emerging artists Devin Dougherty, Victoria Morris, Heather Levine, and Ian McDonald. Even ten-year-old artist Marika Thunders has had her t-shirts featured in-store.

For the wee artists and budding aficionados Partners & Spade offers monthly (and free) Avant-Garde Preschool classes where kids can learn about art – show & tell style – from the masters. Other cool things the store has to offer are a collection of “Backdated Confidence Trophies” that you can engrave with your name (fake it until you make it style), drawers of individual found photographs grouped into categories like “People with Dogs,” and a collection of Spade/Sperduti curated found photography booklets with titles like “The One That Didn’t Get Away,” “Ethyl,” and “Accidental Twins.”

This November Will Cotton (whose celestial Rococo visions are like Jean-Honore Fragonard meets Alberto Vargas meets Candy Land) will be baking an assortment of treats in-store on Sundays that will be available for artistic (or regular) consumption.

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BLESS YOU

JEON JOONHO

2009.11.20(Fri) - 12.25(Fri)

Jeon Joonho is one of the key figures that have brought Korean contemporary art to the attention of the international contemporary art community since 2000. His international reputation was cemented by a series of video works that show people walking around inside the pictures depicted on various national currencies.

In one of his best-known works, The White House (2005-2006), a person is seen entering the White House on the American twenty dollar bill. A short while later, the person starts painting out the building’s windows and doors, eventually rendering it entirely window- and door-less, and thus creating an image of the White House as being closed and insulated from the outside world. The video ends with the painter, ladder in hand, walking off the screen. This combination of humorous actions (the painter in the dollar bill) and incisive political critique (the White House out of touch with the world) is typical of Jeon’s work, and it has won him many fans at large international art exhibitions, including the inaugural Singapore Biennale.

Born in Busan, Jeon worked in various professions before relocating to London to study at the Chelsea College of Art and Design. As a result of his British education, Jeon’s works possess a typically English appeal to logic and cynical humor. They also possess the traits of the young generation of South Koreans who directly experienced the “Seoul Spring” and the related democratic movement that swept through their nation in the early 1980s: the resistance to the powerful, the craving for a better future, and the continued critical stance towards society even after that dream was lost.

The exhibition “Hyper Realism,” which was shown in different forms at New York’s Perry Rubenstein Gallery in 2007 and South Korea’s Arario Gallery in 2008, was a large show that brought together a great number of Jeon’s works to date. Jeon initially became famous for his video works, but in fact he is first and foremost a sculptor. In “Hyper Realism,” his video pieces were shown at the same time as numerous large sculptures: A portrait of a faceless General Douglas MacArthur, endlessly repeating, “I shall return”; an animation showing people climbing over a fence attempting to escape from North Korea into China; a video work about the famous sculpture, Statue of Brothers at the War Memorial of Korea, in Seoul; a statue of Kim Il-sung made entirely from ground Alupram tranquilizer tablets). The majority of the works involve political and historical elements, but Jeon is not using them to make direct interventions into large historical narratives. Rather, as the artist explains, he is interested in how it is the “individual memories and intentions” that exist in each of our hearts that eventually create the great whirlpool that is history. His work hints that power and myth lie latent in each of our hearts, in every age, and because of them there is a risk that mere personal psychological circumstances could lead to even the most terrible of nightmares becoming a reality.

In this exhibition, the keyword replacing “Hyper Realism” is “Magical Realism” and it influences the entire show. “I want to express the reality of our age through art—and not by some formulaic method,” the artist says. “That perspective on reality will be mixed with fantasy and dreams and become transformed into dream-like poetry.” Art is always concerned with things that can be seen by the eye and things that cannot; and it is always concerned with the application of delicate metaphors in the places that can be seen to suggest those that cannot. The art that succeeds in connecting with its viewers’ hearts and minds is surely the art that speaks a language anyone can understand, that uses elegantly humorous metaphors, tempting viewers with projections of themselves to catch a glimpse of its grand narrative. In the midst of unhappy times, when we might become distracted by power or ambition, the innocent hope and willingness to believe in a dream has the potential to make happier parallel worlds a reality. The title “Bless You” might be a message from Jeon to those contemporaries of his and ours who still have not learned to see that alternate realities really do exist.

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THE NEW MUSEUM CONTREVERSY BY JERRY SALTZ

The conflicts of interest between the New Museum and billionaire mega-collector Dakis Joannou have hit the fan. When it was announced in October that the New Museum would showcase Joannou’s famous collection of contemporary art — which includes stars like Maurizio Cattelan, Jeff Koons, Terence Koh, and Urs Fischer — that it would occupy three floors of the museum, and that it would be curated by none other than Mr. Koons (who has 40 works in Joannou’s collection), the art world cringed at the insiderness of it all. But people were also deeply intrigued and excited: Everyone has been hearing about this fabled collection for years. It was fervently hoped that the New Museum knew what it was doing getting this deep inside the belly of the market beast.

Museums have always depended on the kindness of collectors and shown their art. No biggie. As long as shows like this are done with transparency, there’s no problem. In this case, many didn’t like the facts as they were displayed. Bloggers, particularly Modern Art Notes’s Tyler Greene, harped on the lack of ethics, saying it was wrong for the New Museum to engage in this sort of exhibition at all. Then what might have seemed like whining turned serious.

An A1 New York Times story today dissecting the whole business cited a belief among critics that the museum now maintains “a dizzyingly insular circle of art world insiders.” In this case, the circle looks something like this: Joannou, a New Museum trustee, is friendly with Lisa Phillips, the museum’s director. Her curator, Massimiliano Gioni, has worked previously with Joannou, and he oversaw the current three-floor Urs Fischer show. Urs Fischer has curated shows for Joannou; Joannou also owns a good deal of Fischer’s work. Fischer’s art dealer is Gavin Brown, who also represents Elizabeth Peyton, Jeremy Deller, and Steven Shearer, all four of whom have had solo shows at the New Museum since it re-opened less than two years ago. I like that the art world isn’t regulated. I have seen Joannou’s collection and it is incredible. Still, when you add in Koons as the curator here the whole thing just breaks down. If only the museum would have either curated the collection itself or gotten someone else to do it … (Right now at the UCLA Hammer Museum, artist Robert Gober has organized a show of visionary painter Charles Burchfield which is fantastic and totally untainted.)

It is a joke, by the way, to think that Joannou’s collection will increase in value after being shown here. If anything, using three floors of the New Museum will overexpose the art and decrease its value.

I love that we have an institution that is essentially saying, “Damn the rules. Other museums aren’t putting enough great contemporary art on view, so we’ll do it any way we can!” This important institution has grown with the times. It is thankfully not the New Museum of old. This is as it should be. I sorely want to defend the New Museum for making such a brazen move. Unfortunately, the museum may have outsmarted itself, and in an effort to eclipse other local institutions and fill a hole, it acted with hubris, leaving itself open to bitter complaints of dodgy, decadent soul-selling. I trust the New Museum. Sadly, it may now have a problem with its credibility. Earlier this year Phillips told Green, “In Dakis’ case … challenge and experimentation have been part of his approach, which is similar to ours.” Regrettably, the art world now thinks that the “experimentation” the New Museum is engaging in is somewhat mad, and that the institution has been badly compromised. I hope this is untrue.

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BERMUDA TRIANGLE

Spring Projects presents Bermuda Triangle a four-person exhibition of newly commissioned works by some of the UK’s hottest emerging talents; set designer and illustrator Gary Card, artist Bruce Ingram, and a series of collaborative projects between photographer Jacob Sutton and set designer Hana Al-Sayed.

Taking its title from a region associated with paranormal experiences and unexplainable circumstances, the exhibition sets out to explore new territory combining artists with seemingly disparate backgrounds whose collective interest is to create an unexpected artistic experience, which defies familiar categorization. The artists’ works share a process-orientated approach, investigating notions of material transformation and visual experimentation.

Gary Card creates a dramatic entrance to the exhibition via a huge cave-like environment constructed out of white Plasticine, the interior walls consisting of individual naive face formations, is reminiscent of the Sedlec Ossuary (Kostnice), in Kutna Hora * with a comical twist. Stark artificial lighting illuminates the interior in contrasts to the works’ malleable surface, creating an experience which is both fantastical and edgy. Cards’ trademarks, his use of colour and texture, which employ an unbridled aesthetic that utilizes a combination of visual mediums and aesthetics, are some of the elements evident in this piece, which marks the beginning of a special series of unique custom made pieces for interior spaces.

Scattered throughout the 3,000 sq ft gallery space Bruce Ingram presents a series of pieces; rock-geode sculptures, suspended orbs and a gigantic tree-like sculpture. His intricately detailed, collaged pieces provide richly textured surfaces, combining ‘real’ and manufactured elements which make reference to a new age aesthetic that the artist uses in a tongue in cheek way. His works investigate themes of transformation and fakeness, comprising objects from everyday life, reorganized into otherworldly sculptural forms. His jewel-like objects are mixed with stark elements of household lighting and crudely applied physical texture which creates a tension between aesthetic values, nostalgic and futuristic elements, creating an uncomfortable edginess and material dynamism.

Jacob Sutton and Hana Al-Sayed present a film and collection of photographs which investigate the material metamorphosis of an object through the process of human intervention. Their images which capture apparently trivially constructed processes are translated in their photographs and film to moments of epic quality; Toppling oil drums full of milk and exploding balloons of powder act on bodies with very real force. Fast photographic exposures capture the structure within these explosive moments as simple materials abandon their static form to become something sublime. The subjects within the works are used to provoke a single action, which then in a domino-like effect create a chain reaction of unfolding events.

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CANDY MAGAZINE

Brett Lloyd seen as Miss Betty Page

Candy Magazine the first fashion magazine ever to be completely dedicated to celebrating cross dressing features photography from Bruce Weber, Terry Richardson and shoots styled by Kim Jones and Robbie Spencer. This is one coffee table must that makes the usual glossies look like your granny’s reading matter.

With Rome’s mayor recently caught with a transvestite and England’s tabloids following the saga of Katie Price’s new man’s penchant for cross dressing - Candy Magazine couldn’t have picked a better time to launch its irreverent yet fabulous pages. Take a peek at the behind the scenes video featuring Luke Worrall below…guys we LOVE the soundtrack.

Features include Boy George, Quentin Crisp, Fran Lebowitz, , The Deadliest Transvestites in Cinematic History and shoots such as Candy Darling by Kimball Hastings and Bruce Weber, Rodarte by David Armstrong, Angel Marlowe by Ariadna Pedret and Terry Richardson and Christian Lacroix by Karim Sadli and Robbie Spencer.

Candy Magazine is a personal editorial project from Luis Venegas, a Spanish is a Creative Director, Editor and Publisher based between Madrid and Barcelona. He’s previously collaborated with with fashion designers such as Thierry Mugler, and luxury brands including Carolina Herrera and Loewe.

In 2008, at the invitation of Christian Lacroix, Luis Venegas was also one of the five jury members of the Prix Decouverte of the prestigious photography fair Les Rencontres D’Arles. Click on www.byluisvenegas.com/abou to see Luis’ other editorial projects entitled Fanzine137, EY! and Magateen.

Candy Magazine’s Fall-Winter 2009/10 issue is out now in a limited edtion of 1000 Copies.

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THE VELVET UNDERGROUND ULTIMATE VISUAL BIOGRAPHY

The Velvet Underground is the ultimate visual biography of the greatest rock band in history. The new hardcover tome was lovingly and exhaustingly compiled by Johannes Kugelberg who managed to unearth a staggering amount of never-before-scene images. VMAN had a chat with Kugelberg about our shared favorite group.

I am such a Velvet Underground freak and completist and there was so much in the book I had never seen before.

I wanted to make sure that even like hardcore fanatics hadn’t seen like 80% of the stuff that was in there. The choices in the book was obviously trying to get the most amazing photography you ever could, and try to find as much stuff that hadn’t been seen by, anybody really, and we lucked out several times finding these amazing caches of unseen images.

Would you describe yourself as a hardcore fan?

There’s a shockingly absurd photograph that my mom has at her house of me at the age of five holding the Velvets and Nico album. My nanny’s son was a rock and roll fanatic in the 60s, and it was a slippery slope from there. I have listened to the Velvet Underground every week, I can easily say since I was 12 years old. There’s never been a week when I haven’t spent some time with some sort of Velvet’s recording. And, to me the velvets are one of the greatest art statements of the 20th century.

From all of the lost images you discovered, what is one of your standout favorites?

Tracking down Adam Ritchie with the help of my dear friend John Savage was an absolutely amazing visual epiphany. Adam is a superb photographer who lives in London and who basically spent six months in New York from around August of ‘65 to like February, March of ‘66 and basically hung out with the underground film makers and the Velvets and the Warhol scenesters and photographed everybody; and these photographs haven’t been seen by anybody for 42 years. So of all the photographs in the book, I would say the shots that Adam Richie took of the Velvets playing at the Psychiatrist’s Convention on the 11th of January with the shadows up on the wall is the one that just kicks my ass every time I look at it.

The Velvet Underground: New York Art is out now on Rizzoli.

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LIT

November 14 – January 9, 2010
Opening: Saturday, November 14, 7 – 10 pm

Group exhibition with works by assume vivid astro focus, Dan Attoe, Terence Koh, Agathe Snow, and Mark Titchner

In the deep of Berlin’s cold winter, day and night are virtually reversed, and while the road to Damascus steers clear of Prussia, the road to Siberia goes right through Berlin. Seediness becomes illuminated, the virtuous clarity of day is profaned, and Gargantua and Pantagruel rise from the dusty shelves of Bakhtin fans’ libraries to liven things up and tease the carnivalesque out of a slothful populace. True, the North Pole is colder, and darker, but it hasn’t seen Berlin’s particular shade of muted, misty, ubiquitous grey. No wonder the city either hibernates, or packs into the frothing, lascivious, speed-laced cum-cyborg techno bars and clubs the city is infamous for.

Neuronal death may be the cause of seasonal affective disorder. And yet studies have shown that mice deprived of light on a regular basis live up to 22% longer than their blissfully circadian rhythmic counterparts. Like Eos, who asked Zeus for eternal life for her lover, Tithonus, but forgot to ask for eternal youth, are we doomed to the shadow of long years lived in winter’s darkness, our brains slowly atrophying? When dusk’s boney fingers creep ever closer to dawn, squeezing out the last remaining drops of human decency from the day, at least we have the slightly anodyne effect of artificial and neon light.

There is something so innocent and naïve, all Americana about neon light – a quaint failure to keep up with the complexities of modern advertising and an informed consumer, and the gall to make simple, equivocal proclamations like “Girls Girls Girls,” “Hot Donuts,” or “Open.” “Lit” pays tribute to the pleasurable insomnia of neon light, its vexing yet inviting buzz , and its false promise of the quaint and simple, eternal light of youth, which, all too disingenuously, advertises a world-turned-upside-down inside the strip clubs, roach motels, bodegas, casinos, waxing salons and circuses it adorns. Near cult-like revelations abound: Mark Titchner’s altar of burning candles – like the grave of the unknown soldier – on carved, found text entitled “Plateau Aurora Borealis” is a monument to the “New Sincerity” ; the naughtiest of subject matter meets with immaculate white radiation in Terence Koh’s “Big White Cock”, and a sound and light installation by Agathe Snow warns repeatedly “I don’t know but I’ve been told… Eskimo pussy is mighty cold.” With his neon rendition of a naked chick on a motorcycle, Dan Attoe’s 2007 neon suggests “A Simpler Time,” where negotiating the precipice between “What we want to be” and “What we pretend to be” (two of the text bubbles in the work) has an easy solution: “Get ripped ‘n’ Let ‘er have it”. Perhaps the most succinct of the bunch is the neon and colored mirror abstract portrait of Ice T’s girlfriend, Coco,” big on top, big on the bottom and cinched in the middle, by assume vivid astro focus. Unlike the real Coco, however, the neon sculpture leaves something to the imagination, and like the curves of its eponym, turgid and maxed-out with the latency of explosion, it fittingly bears the title “Coco Coco, Bzzz bzzz bzzz.”

“Lit”, featuring neon and light works by assume vivid astro focus, Dan Attoe, Agathe Snow, Mark Titchner, and Terence Koh, will be on view at Peres Projects.

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FRANCOIS NARS AT COLETTE

Du 9 novembre au 5 décembre.

À l’occasion des 15 ans de la marque NARS, François Nars, concilie ses deux passions, la photographie et la cosmétique dans un livre, intitulé 15 × 15, incluant des photos de stars maquillées en NARS. De véritables photos d’art où le make-up est roi! On y retrouve ainsi Marc Jacobs, Naomi Campbell, Amber Valletta, etc.

Du 9 novembre au 5 décembre, ces photos seront exposées et disponibles à la vente chez colette. 100% des bénéfices de la vente du livre seront reversés à une association choisie par chaque personnalité (Marc Jacobs/AmfAR ; Naomi Campbell White Ribbon Alliance ; Olivier Theyskens/CARE…)

Extracted from Colette