When the summer season hits, we become a little beach-obsessed here at Flavorpill. As a result, we recently combed the Internet to discover literary greats in old fashioned bathing outfits and rock stars in skimpy swim suits — which has led us to consider, what do artists do (and more importantly, wear) at the beach? From Pablo Picasso playing servant to his baby mama on the French Riviera and Salvador Dali using a washed-up starfish as a monocle on the Spanish coast to Tracey Emin promoting donkey rides on the English shore and Terence Koh flaunting his wedding dress in the East Hampton surf, we’ve found that most artists look fabulous on the beach — even if hours in the studio have left them a little pasty. Click through our gallery of beached artists below.
Performance artist Terence Koh attracts the press once again. In his exhibition nothingtoodoo at the legendary Mary Boone Gallery in New York, Koh has taken a vow of silence and slowly circles a giant mound of salt on his knees with a monk-like reverence. With only one week left in the show, this weekend’s crowds grew thick.
The new work is a departure for Koh, whose previous sculptures, installations, and performances, while diverse, tended to expose a domme personality. Here, the physical endurance required of the work evokes many of the same questions viewers asked last year at famed Marina Abramovic’s exhibition at MoMA in New York, The Artist Is Present. When does the artist eat? How will he go to the bathroom? What will happen to his knees? Also, why does he like white so much and what’s the significance of the salt? Is anyone making spin off art or attending several times through out the course of the show? The following photo essay documents his current show, and answers a few of these questions.
Sampling is the mode of the moment. In a sketchbook note from the early-’60s, Jasper Johns wrote, “Take an object, do something to it. Do something else to it.” It wasn’t a totally new idea in art, but when considered in the development of postmodernism and 21st century art that was made after art, that simple statement had a profound effect. Studying the visual terrain for a number of years, collector and curator Beth Rudin DeWoody not only saw examples of this theory in use, she realized the opportunity to motivate artists working with photography to take iconic images as their point of departure for new work.
There is life after Deitch. Now that the dynamic art dealer has assumed his new position as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, his former staff members are carving out places of their own in the New York art world.
Last week the Wall Street Journal reported on the opening of the Hole — a collaborative art space run by former Deitch Projects directors Kathy Grayson and Meghan Coleman in SoHo — and on Friday the gallery sent out news of its first show, Not Quite Open for Business, which features unfinished art, unfinished poems, and unfinished symphonies by 20 renegade artists in an installation designed by Taylor McKimens. Seeking an inside look at the project and the related personalities, we surfed Grayson’s blog, Art From Behind, and grabbed some images that provide a playful view of the situation in flux.
The talented Mr. Terence Koh, whose poetic and provocative artworks have been labeled both brilliant and the emperor’s new clothes, was at his best last week when he delivered the performance piece Art History 1642-2009 at New York’s venerable National Arts Club. Speaking to a packed house of art-world sophisticates in a completely unintelligible language, he railed, whispered, gestured, and danced his way through a visually entertaining lecture about art since the time of Goya.
Bursting on the Rome art scene like a giant rave, New York Minute: 60 Artists on the New York Scenedrew thousands of visitors on opening night and has continued to pack in a curious crowd. Presented at MACRO Future, a former slaughterhouse in the hip Testaccio neighborhood of Rome, New York Minute is a massive, energetic show, curated by renegade Deitch Projects director Kathy Grayson and organized by the adventurous DEPART Foundation.
Orb 5 (Long Island, New York) by Carlo Van de Roer
Photographer Carlo Van de Roer is willing to believe — or at least pretend that he might believe — in the unbelievable. His two most recent projects, Orbs and Portrait Machine Project, focus on supernatural phenomena: floating orbs and auras. Read More »
Deitch Projects has mounted a large, spirited exhibition to honor the memory of the artist Dash Snow, who died at 27 from a drug overdose at the Lafayette Hotel in New York on July 13. Organized by gallery director Kathy Grayson, with the help of Snow’s friends and family, the show opened at 76 Grand Street on Friday and runs through August 15. Read More »
When artist Dash Snow died of a drug overdose last Monday, it stirred a mad rush of news articles, ranging from the mild to the wild, in publications around the world. The rebellious young talent, who passed away at the mythical age of 27, was an inspiration to a bohemian pack of creative pals. They expressed dismay at his death, while honoring him with their recollections of his life. Meanwhile, art pundits discussed the value of his body of work; makeshift memorials popped up on the Bowery; and his last gallery, Peres Project of LA and Berlin, joined forces with Deitch Projects in New York to organize a memorial exhibition, which will be open for participation. Read More »
