Results tagged “art”

Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Damon Dash has fallen from grace and reinvented himself as the host of a Tribeca salon where artists and artsy people do artistic things and smoke weed. Does that mean he's the new Andy Warhol?

Jeffrey Dietch, controversial art dealer and founder of Manhattan's Deitch Projects gallery has been named director to Los Angeles's Museum of Contemporary Art. MOCA, which sagged with the economy last year, is putting its money in the hands of a savvy businessman, hoping Deitch can save the non-profit cultural institution from sure financial ruin. So why are museum people whimpering that the dealer will commercialize their precious shrine to modern creativity?

After eight years of work costing more than $50 million dollars, The Metropolitan Museum is set to relaunch its Islamic Galleries in the Fall of 2011, but when the new rooms open, don't expect to see any paintings of the Prophet Mohammed.

Not a fan of regular graffiti? Well what about polite graffiti? In other words: cutesy street art. WWD reports that Rome-based visual artist Finley is making at least two city dumpsters less of an eyesore today (though we suppose that depends on your taste).

In October we were all introduced to Art the cat, a stray that somehow got himself into the engine of an SUV where he was taken on a two-mile drive, ending in the Bronx. He was extracted by Emergency Service Unit detectives, and was down one of his nine lives. Now Art needs a human's help again — the Daily News reports that he's doing well and is looking for a home.

The tops of 500 New York City taxis are about to become an art exhibit on wheels. Throughout January, the Las Vegas-based company that owns about half of the city's taxi-top ads will install 14- by 48-inch artworks by Shirin Neshat, Alex Katz, and Yoko Ono above cabs, the Times reports.

Following last year's unauthorized holiday art show at the Columbus Circle Subway Station, Mat Benote and Jordan Seiler have curated another one — which went up at about 1:30 this morning.

Artists aren't moving across the East River — they're moving across the Hudson River, according to the Daily News. The tabloid reports that Newark, New Jersey boasts an emerging artistic community with a growing number of galleries and art institutions. “I thought downtown Newark resembled downtown L.A. before it was what it is now,” said gallery owner Saloman Anaya, 34. “We used to have derelicts and craziness on the streets, but that all changed.”

Artist Hulbert Waldroup was arrested Friday for installing a sculpture outside a Harlem gallery, purportedly without permission from the gallery's owner. The Jersey City artist put his work "The Gates" — which consists of two 10-foot tall antique iron gates decorated with hand-painted offensive street signs reading, "No blacks, No Jews, No Gay!" among other messages — in front of the Heath Gallery on Tuesday and was arrested when he tried to retrieve it.

Following a lot of noisemaking by artist/activist Robert Lederman after his two recent arrests on the High Line, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe has personally assured him there will be no more trouble. Quite the change of tune considering it had been reported that Benepe personally ordered his arrest earlier this month!

A group of Palestinian and Israeli families who have lost loved ones in the inexorable conflict have united to present a traveling exhibit of editorial cartoons that address the situation. The show, called "Cartoons in Conflicts," opened in Chelsea last night, and organizers say the cartoons are "meant to promote peace, tolerance and understanding... portraying complicated and challenging ideas with just a few penstrokes." Some of the 40 artists involved include Nobel laureate Pat Oliphant, Pulitzer Prize winner Jim Morin, syndicated political cartoonist Jeff Danziger, and The New Yorker's Liza Donnelly, as well as international artists No Rio of Japan, Plantu of France, El-Roto of Spain.

Yesterday Robert Lederman and fellow ARTIST member Jack Nesbitt were both arrested on the High Line for hocking their art — specifically, they received 5 summonses for vending without a Parks permit. In 2001 they were both plaintiffs in a Federal lawsuit that overturned the Parks permit requirement for artists. Since then no permit has been needed to sell art in public parks.

Artist Jason Polan, who has been drawing every person in NYC, is getting so close to his goal. Well, he's drawn 8,300 people... so he's having a "One Tenth of a Percent Event" over the next few days. Want to be in his line of vision when he's drawing his next few New Yorkers (even David Byrne's been captured)? He'll be at The Museum of Modern Art today from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. drawing people — and making stops at The American Museum of Natural History, Grand Central andTimes Square. Get his full schedule here.

In February, FLAG Art Foundation will be presenting "Size DOES Matter," an exhibition showcasing the element of scale in contemporary art in February with the 7'1'' center for the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted to curate. Yes, Shaquille O'Neal has selected—and even commissioned some—52 pieces of art for the show.

Wife of Christo, and artist herself, Jeanne-Claude has died at age 74. She co-created the 2005 "Gates" installation, that spanned 23 miles in Central Park, alongside her husband (the installation brought $254 million to the local economy here). Mayor Bloomberg spoke with Christo this morning to offer condolences on the behalf of the city, where Jeanne-Claude died last night of a brain aneurysm.

An intense traveling art exhibit that aims to enlighten people about the horrors of sex trafficking has arrived in New York. Called "Journey," the installation consists of seven shipping containers with work by international artists intended to evoke the experience of being a sex trafficking victim. It opened yesterday on Washington Place, and will remain open through Sunday. This video shows the interior of one of the containers, in which Coco de Mer founder Sam Roddick recreates a room in a brothel:

This would have made a great Halloween costume. Fred Lebain has a new series of photographs that blend New Yorkers right into New York. Animal notes that "After shooting the scene, Lebain returned with a large-format print that he then photographed again using tripods and other ubiquitous poster-holding techniques." Perfect for a city where pretty much everyone is invisible.

This seems like one of those instances when it's best to keep your mouth shut. Brooklyn sculptor Diego Medina's "14-foot-tall tagger's dream" has remained graffiti-free in front of the Bronx River Arts Center since the unpainted plywood sculpture was installed in July — a fact so astounding to the Daily News that the tabloid decided to jinx celebrate the artwork by dedicating an entire article to the shocking lack of tagging.

A Manhattan woman who has been keeping her Andy Warhol original in the closet for decades, has finally taken it out of the makeshift storage room so she can cash in. The painting (a self portrait) will go on the auction block at Sotheby's on November 11th. The woman was reportedly a receptionist in Warhol's factory at age 17, and in 1967 he gave her the painting, which is inscribed to her. Why sell such a personalized gift? It's estimated there are about one million reasons.

Amazing. 34-year-old British artist, Stephen Wiltshire, who was diagnosed with autism at an early age, is currently taking residence at Pratt to do what he does best: draw. But not just draw; the artist is creating a detailed panorama of New York's skyline from memory, after only briefly visiting the city and taking it all in from a helicopter. He has done this around the world, 8 times in total, and says this is his finale.

New York artist Rob Pruitt just j'adores the Oscars. The red carpet, the flashing bulbs, the drawn-out speeches! But what's a conceptual artist to do when such award shows revolve around Hollywood A-listers? Create one for the art world, of course. This week's Talk of the Town places focus on Pruitt's vision, which will become a reality this Thursday as his First Annual Art Awards takes over the Guggenheim.

Many of you probably have that image of a youthful Farrah Fawcett in a red bathing suit engraved in your memory, but another iconic photograph was taken of her that decade.

As the NY Times noted, the artists are also bringing empty storefronts to life — something that's been happening in other boroughs as well. They explain these particular spaces were "donated or leased by building owners unable to rent or develop them." Starving artists are making out well during this recession with prime real estate! The benefit for developers? "The artist gets a gallery or studio, and the landlord gets a vibrant attraction that may deter crime and draw the next wave of paying tenants."

Last week the Public Art Fund’s new exhibition at City Hall Park (Peter Coffin’s Untitled Sculpture Silhouettes), was unveiled. Currently you'll be able to find 13 monumental silhouettes of iconic artworks around the park (and miniature versions inside City Hall's lobby), including variations on Rodin’s The Thinker, Picasso’s She Goat, Michelangelo’s David, and one of Sol LeWitt’s Incomplete Open Cubes.

This past Thursday the Animazing Gallery unveiled the world’s largest exhibition and sale of original illustrations and etchings from the collection of artist and author Maurice Sendak. The show is comprised of 200 pieces and will run through November 8th and coincides with a Sendak retrospective at the Morgan Library & Museum.

Uh oh, it's bad luck to walk under a Ponzi schemer! Chinese artist Chen Wenling has created this sculptured masterpiece entitled "What You See Might Not Be Real" (or as we like to call it: MadBull). Yes, that man pinned to the wall is jailed financier Bernard Madoff. The piece is currently on display at a gallery in Beijing, China, but we have high hopes that one day it will take the place of the Wall Street Bull.

Earlier this morning Will Sherman of Animal alerted us that he spotted a C-L-O-U-D cloud in the sky, but said, "I popped inside for 5 minutes and it basically disappeared." Such is the fleeting nature of sky art. That's right, street art was taken to a higher altitude this morning by Ron English. There's no escaping it now. Enjoy!

Artist Barbara Kruger has taken over the lobby at Lever House (390 Park Avenue) with what Animal calls a "dizzying display... reminiscent of the illegal ads covering vacant storefronts around the city, every surface from floor to ceiling is covered with Kruger’s bold black and white vinyl slogans." Andrew Russeth at 16 Miles paid a visit and has some great photos of the installation. While it looks amazing, it could be a little depressing for those working in the building to push their way, every day, through revolving metal doors that shout "We Forget. Another Life. Another Love."

The Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit at the Whitney opened yesterday, and it may not be what you expect. The artist created some lesser known abstract works throughout her career, which have remained overlooked in favor of her landscapes and flowers. This exhibit, fittingly called "Abstraction" acknowledges those works. The exhibit includes 130 paintings, drawings, watercolors and sculptures, as well as photos of the artist by Alfred Stieglitz, whom she met in New York City and introduced her to many early American modernists.

It's Park(ing) Day, the most wonderful day of the year for people who like sitting in the street. Did you get everything you wanted under the Park(ing) tree? Here are the first photos from the day's festivities, which involve the imaginative transformation of over 50 drab, lifeless parking spots throughout NYC into spontaneous "park" installations.