Category: Gallery/Museum Shows

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Swimming Cities fundraiser on Friday

Photo by Tod Seelie

I think that the Swimming Cities project is one of the most inspiring things to happen in the art world in recent years: a bunch of artists get together to built barely float-able rafts and travel rivers around the world. The 2010 project takes the Swimming Cities crew to the Ganges in India. To raise funds for the trip, there will be a silent auction in New York City on March 5th. Participating artists in the auction include Swoon, Imminent Disaster, Spy and Ben Wolfe.

This piece by Imminent Disaster is one of the artworks in the auction:

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Jonathan LeVine Gallery 5th anniversary show

Last week was the opening of Jonathan LeVine‘s 5th anniversary group show. The full list of artists in the show is pretty staggering, but here are a few of my favorite pieces. These photos are from Arrested Motion, where you can find plenty more about the show.

WK Interact, awesome as always
Some of the best Rubik's Cube pieces I've seen from Space Invader
An absolutely classic piece from Shepard Fairey

Photos by Joe Russo for Arrested Motion

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David Ellis trash sculpture in Times Square

This could be the best piece of street or public art ever to grace the streets of New York City. I guess we’ll see…

March 2-8 2010, during the Armory Arts Week and in addition to a booth at SCOPE Art Show, Anonymous Gallery collaborates with the Times Square Alliance to present a public installation from artists David Ellis and Roberto Lange. The kinetic sound sculpture, conceptualized by Ellis and composed by Lange, will be carefully positioned in the Duffy Square area of Times Square near 46th and Broadway.

The sculptures are made from scavenged refuse found on the street: buckets, bottles, trash cans, paper shreds, cardboard boxes that are syncopated using programming and player piano actuators to create percussive, rhythmic beats and tones. The installation, as only a collection of debris, plays on the public’s perception of trash. The placement, and more importantly the activation in the public arena, creates dialog with unassuming crowds that amass.

Although the public installation is meant for undiscerning spectators, similar works by David Ellis and Roberto Lange can be found in permanent collections including The Margulies Collection and most recently, through Anonymous Gallery, The Saatchi Collection.

If you’re not already familiar with Ellis and Lange’s trash sculptures, here are some videos of their work in Miami (the piece that Saatchi bought I believe).

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The Colour Out of Space

Eelus‘ solo show, The Colour Out of Space, opened on Thursday night at Blackall Studios in London. It’s a really interesting show. While the images could be hit and miss, what you can’t argue with is Eelu’s technical ability. He’s not one of those lazy “artists” who figure that anybody who can afford a can of spray paint and an exacto-knife should try to cut crappy stencils and sell the resulting canvases for £1000. Eelus’ stencils are flawlessly cut and painted.

There were plenty of prints and originals, but Eelus also painted two large walls in the gallery.

While some of the work was classic Eelus, the best pieces showed a new direction for him. He’s using more color and geometric shapes.

Photos by Ian Cox, who has plenty more on his flickr

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Re-Creation II, the Carmichaels go to NYC

If you follow Elisa Carmichael on twitter, you may have noticed that she’s been dropping some hints recently about a big secret show that they’ve been planning. Well here it is: Re-Creation II features artwork from Will Barras, Simon Birch, Boxi, Ethos, Mark Jenkins, Labrona, Aakash Nihalani, Nina Pandolfo and WK Interact. I know Seth and Elisa have been working like crazy to pull this all together, and it sounds like it’s going to be amazing. They’ve flown some of their favorite artists to New York to work on installations in the space, and with the show running for so many months, plenty of people will have a chance to see what’s created.

In collaboration with Carmichael Gallery, Ogilvy & Mather New York will host Re-Creation II, a global exploration of emerging art, from March 5th through July 2010.

The exhibit will be held at the new Ogilvy & Mather headquarters on New York City’s West Side at 636 11th Avenue. Re-Creation II will showcase some of the most important emerging contemporary artists from around the world.

Large-scale murals, installations and original canvas, sculpture and mixed media works will be on display from Will Barras, Simon Birch, Boxi, Ethos, Mark Jenkins, Labrona, Aakash Nihalani, Nina Pandolfo and WK Interact. Many of these artists, who are based in the UK, Hong Kong, Germany, Brazil, the US and Canada, have never shown in New York before, and have never shown together.

Ogilvy & Mather will transform five floors and the lobby space of its new headquarters in The Chocolate Factory into a museum-quality exhibition space. As viewers ascend each floor, they can experience the upward momentum of the artwork. Re-Creation II is the second exhibit to be hosted by Ogilvy & Mather in its new space.  It follows the inaugural Re-Creation exhibit, which featured the work of 12 emerging artists who use recycled materials to create unique forms of art. That exhibit will also be viewable through the end of March.

The opening reception of the exhibit will be held on Friday, March 5 with several of the artists in attendance at Ogilvy & Mather. The exhibition will run through July 31, 2010. Opening on March 5th in the middle of the Armory Art Fair week, the exhibition will run through the end of July 2010.

Doors are open to the viewing public, by appointment only, Tuesday-Friday 10am-5pm by contacting Jun Lee at jun.lee@ogilvy.com.

On a side note, this is the 1000th post on Vandalog. Almost a year and a half in, we’ve averaged over 2 posts per day, posting almost every single day.

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Case’s Never Odd or Even

Case’s first London solo show, Never Odd or Even, opened at Signal Gallery on Thursday (ps, the show is in association with Campbarbossa). Case is one of the pioneers of modern photo-realistic graffiti. I was looking forward to this show, but the end result exceeded my expectations.

A few of the paintings weren’t quite “photo-realistic,” but I think that added to the show and helped to prove that Case’s art is a creative endeavor and not only a technical exercise (unlike some photo-realistic paintings or trompe-l’œil).

This piece was painted on pieces of cardboard, which creates a sort of weird effect when mixed with Case’s photo-realism.

This painting has to be my favorite:

Photos by Ian Cox, more from the show on his flickr.