Francesco Clemente

A Photo Tour of Famous New Yorkers’ Living Rooms

There’s nothing we love more than virtual voyeuristic visits with fellow fabulous New Yorkers. The original real-life interiors photographer Dominique Nabokov (long before The Selby and Backyard Bill started snapping pics of stylish spaces) started documenting the inside lives of others as understood by their living rooms some 20 years ago. Her visits with celebrated artists, writers, designers, intellectuals, and the occasional celebrity was compiled into a humble, but fascinating, survey titled New York Living Rooms. … Read More

A Survey of Iconic Masks in Visual Art

Guy Fawkes, los Luchadores, Sleep No More — there are oh-so-many masks in today’s popular culture, and so many questions. What’s with this desire to plop on another’s image and transform into something different, new and strange? Why hide your identity behind an oval-shaped obstruction and gawk at the world from behind its eye-holes? What kind of wrestling tights does one wear with a sparkly aquamarine Lucha libre mask? Just kidding. Let’s swerve the conversation into the field of visual art and investigate. From masks’ roots in ancient ritual performance to their use in contemporary art and related ruckus, peek under a few here and see if they’re still relevant. … Read More

5 Year Plan: Responsible Art Consumerism

Black Friday, check you later. You can keep your e-book readers and netbooks; we’ll take some counter-industrial, non-violent pop art. Say what? The 5 Year Plan is an art book of sorts, with contributions from artists like Yoko Ono and Francesco Clemente. It’s also an exercise in localized industry, traditional craftsmanship, and philanthropy, as proceeds from the handmade silkscreen books go to non-profit organization Doctors Without Borders. A preview after the… Read More