The most obscenely hipster shit ever:

Plus: PS1’s Warm Up lineup (finally) announced, also pretty decent as far as I’m concerned…

Hyères, France, 1932 / Magnum

First of all, the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit at MoMA is really quite remarkable, and I echo Kottke’s rave review (he mentions the image above, which was the first of many that caught my eye).

What he excelled at was seeing things in a different way from most other people.

–A Father of Modern Photography: A Hunter and His Prey, The Economist, April 15 2010

The retrospective has a personal resonance on several levels: I’ve become increasingly interested in photography, journalism and photojournalism in the past couple years; his photographs of early and mid-century China are vaguely nostalgic (probably because I recently spent a couple months living in Beijing with my grandparents, who lived through it); and I recognized HCB’s portrait of Sartre from a book cover.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Discovered while eating a turkey hoagie and contemplating the meaning of life at a roadside stand. Also, admit it: he’s cute as a goddamn bug!

–Mike Sacks, Famous Philosophers and How They Were First Discovered,
McSweeney’s, May 2010

(More on HCB at Vanity Fair via 3qd.)

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Liu Bolin at Eli Klein: an excellent show despite the blue-chippy crowd at the opening. It might be more of the same and it probably has a certain loaded cultural content that can only be appreciated as someone who has recently spent time in China, but I would still say that the pieces in On Fire are visually compelling even without the political subtext.

His works have been communicated via emails, blogs, magazines and journals on a massive scale.

Liu Bolin’s earlier Hiding in the City photography series, in which he paints himself into the urban landscape, was inspired by the Chinese government’s demolition of the Suo Jiacun Artist Village in Beijing in 2006. He drew attention to great landmarks in China, both old and modern, while highlighting the lack of recognition which was paid to the citizens that built them. He portrayed the tragedy of the increasing insignificance of the individual in China as the government focused on presenting a modern commercial and industrial image. Rather than trying to fight, people attempted to hide and adapt to these forced changes.

–Liu Bolin’s On Fire press release & additional images via Eli Klein.

Click images for larger versions.

索家村 – Suo Jiacun [Artist's Village] (apparently, Liu Bolin reps it); 中国当代 – Contemporary China

折 – fold, discount, break, bend, snap, lose, roll over, convert, rebate, twist, double up, be convinced, turn back, turn over, lose money in business, change direction, be filled with admiration, suffer losses (Google Translate)

Dude's shirt (bottom right) matches the photograph...

Liu Bolin
On Fire
Eli Klein Fine Art
462 West Broadway (near Houston)
New York NY 10012 [map]
212 / 255-4388
April 30, 2010 – June 4, 2010

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I didn’t make it to the Scott Campbell opening, but it made it into other “emails, blogs, magazines and journals on a massive scale”: TBWE has a nice gallery of the work and the opening; OC has a gallery of the work itself; HB recap; Interview studio visit via HB; Terry stays relevant.

I did make it to Faile & BAST’s DELUXX FLUXX NYC opening (after stopping by Liu Bolin), but my photos didn’t turn out so well. Again, you can find more/better coverage elsewhere.

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Keith W. Bentley – “Cauda Equina” (1995-2007)

The New York Times has an interesting article on the kind of organic art that is currently on display at the Museum of Arts and Design.

Jan Fabre – "Skull" (2001); Fabián Peña – "The Impossibility of Storage for the Soul I (Self-Portrait)" (2007)

Of course, people have always used natural materials to make their art, for the simple reason that until recently nature was all they had, said Ellen Dissanayake, a scholar on the evolution of art [who notes that] from the beginning, art demanded transformation. “Even in hunter-gatherer societies, they tend to make their stuff look not organic,” she said. “When they’re painting, they’ll use geometric shapes, make a row of triangles or circles, as though to show humans are more than nature.”
…
As Ms. Dissanayake sees it, when people make art, or “artify,” they follow several “aesthetic principles,” whether they know it or not. “They simplify, repeat, exaggerate, elaborate and manipulate expectations,” she said.

–Natalie Angier, Of Compost, Molecules and Insects, Art Is Born,
The New York Times, May 3 2010

Billie Grace Lynn – "Mad Cow Motorcycle" (2008)

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I didn’t particularly regret missing the Shepard Fairey opening until I saw this:

Classic.

Animal / TWBE

More Shepard Fairey and many more after the jump…

Julia Chesky documented the opening nicely. (TWBE)

Christal Smith interviews Fairey for Huffpo, including insight into his inspiration and process; see also: A Conversation between Shepard Fairey, Deanne Cheuk and Chris Rubino

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Designboom has more on those fantastical Shanghai Expo 2010 Pavilions. Meanwhile, Huffpo investigates the embarrassing backstory of the US Pavilion.

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I completely forgot to mention last week, but I was quite impressed with Skylar Fein’s Remember the UpStairs Lounge at the new Empty No Longer space in Chelsea. (Thanks Greg.)

Skylar Fein
Remember the UpStairs Lounge
Empty No Longer
447 W 16th St (near 10th)
New York NY 10011 [map]
April 29, 2010 – May 30, 2010
Wednesday–Sunday 12–7

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Mark Ryden’s The Gay 90’s: Old Tyme Art Show at Paul Kasmin: recapped on HB and AM; also on WOM, my friend’s blog for CN Traveler, though she very recently moved to the newly-redesigned Businessweek—congrats Eimear.

Mark Ryden
The Gay 90’s: Old Tyme Art Show
Paul Kasmin Gallery
293 10th Ave (at W 27th)
New York, NY 10001 [map]
April 29, 2010 – June 5, 2010

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Obligatory infographic on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill; click image to see in full. (GOOD)

Air spill via Huffpo.

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Flash of Genius: A Gaga Journal by Matthew Williams for V Magazine via Huffpo.

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Os Gemeos’ new blog via HB / S×H

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Tim Barber’s gorgeous series of New York Creatives 2010

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Colours in Cultures via Information is Beautiful

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I don’t use the internet at all.

–Paul Smith, interview on Designboom, Feb 2010

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Growth Spurt – T Magazine on rooftop gardens in New York

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I had expected something rather more bohemian from this ‘metaphysical’ painter, but found, instead, an airy bourgeois apartment full of antique furniture, comfortable sofas and rugs. Not what I had predicted from this one time friend of Apollinaire, Picasso, and that arch surrealist André Breton, who had hailed de Chirico’s early dream-like cityscapes as pivotal within the development of Surrealism. Most odd was the tiny monk-like bedroom, Spartan in its decor except for a few books, with its narrow childlike bed under a white cover…

–Sue Hubbard, On being in Rome: visiting de Chirico’s home and Richard Serra at Gagosian,
3qd, May 3 2010

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(Fake) Werner Herzog reads Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, Where’s Waldo, other childrens’ books. I just wish it was the real Herzog…

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Henri Cartier-Bresson's portrait of Sartre is currently on view in his retrospective at MoMA

As with his entire body of work, Sartre’s theory of imagination refers to—and, naturally, affirms—his ontology, in which he explores Husserl’s tenet that “all consciousness is consciousness of something” in the context of the ‘detotalized totality’ of being-in-itself / being-for-itself dualism. Sartre postulates an admittedly underdeveloped notion of image consciousness in his early work The Imaginary (1940), though these writings are largely eclipsed by his later political [viz. Marxist] proclivities; nevertheless, his theory of imagination is a sufficient foundation of a phenomenological aesthetics.

Notably, Sartre implies that the imaginary (or ‘irreal’) has the same ontological import as the real: if the real is never beautiful, it is simply because beauty is, by definition, imaginary, where imagination is a permanent possibility of consciousness. A painting, photograph, film, song, performance, etc., necessarily transcends perception—i.e. consciousness of oil on canvas, ink on paper, a projection, an actor, etc.—as an object of image consciousness, which overflows with the meaning of the portrait (etc.): a particular arrangement of brushstrokes or sounds immediately presents itself to consciousness as an image or melody. The abstract, then, is that which escapes us in experience qua perception; colors transcend pigment to conjure mood or geometry.

Hence, Images (in no particular order):

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20.

KEY:

1. Liu Bolin opening in Soho this weekend (I used one of his pieces to illustrate my very first blog post). (ArtCat)

Liu Bolin
On Fire
Eli Klein Fine Art
462 West Broadway (between Houston & Prince)
New York NY 10012 [map]
212 / 255-4388
April 30, 2010 – June 4, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, April 30, 6-9pm

2. Scott Campbell’s first solo show in NYC (OHWOW via S×H; also on Nowness)

Scott Campbell
If You Don’t Belong, Don’t Be Long
OHWOW
109 Crosby Street (at Prince)
New York NY 10012 [map]
April 29, 2010 – May 30, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 29, 6-8pm

3. Skye Parrott of Dossier curated a photography show at BAM

Younger Than I’ll Be
Curated by Skye Parrott
Natman Room
BAM Peter Jay Sharp Building
30 Lafayette Ave (between St. Felix & Ashland) [map]
Brooklyn NY 11243
718 / 636-4100
April 7, 2010 – May 23, 2010

4. Michael Joo & Damien Hirst: Have You Ever Really Looked at the Sun? (S×H) [A: Yes.]

Michael Joo & Damien Hirst
Have You Ever Really Looked at the Sun?
Haunch of Venison
Heidestrasse 46
10557 Berlin, Germany [map]
+49 (0) 30 39 74 39 63
May 1, 2010 – August 14, 2010

Hirst also has work at the Oceanographic Music of Monaco.

5. Barzman’s “Pink Terror” = slow-motion video and Stephen Hawking over a hot beat. (Barzart via 3qd)

6. Faile & BAST bring their street artcade to New York (TBWE; interview on Gothamist; previewed at AM; previous [London] coverage))

Faile & BAST
DELUXX FLUXX NYC
158 Allen St (at Rivington)
New York NY 10002 [map]
April 30, 2010-May 27, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, April 30, 7:30-10:30pm

7. Maya Lin’s so-called last memorial What Is Missing at Times Square (DB)

8. Zaha Hadid for the 2012 Olympics in London (DB)

9. Longo-esque Trent Mitchell photography (ISO50 on FFFFound)

10. The Tribeca Film Festival saw the New York premiere of Tamra Davis’s documentary Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (Nowness)

11. Bursts of Color in Public (KitsunéNoir via FFFFound)

12. Whistler’s Father (FFFFound via TBWE)

13. Dead or Alive at MAD (Animal)

Dead or Alive
Museum of Arts & Design
2 Columbus Circle (SSE Corner)
New York NY 10019 [map]
212 / 299-7777
April 27, 2010 – October 24, 2010

14. Marina Abramović Made Me Cry (via Marco Anelli’s flickr); for more on The Artist Is Present, Kottke aggregates so I don’t have to.

15. Shepard Fairey’s May Day marks Deitch Projects’ last hurrah. (Full mural image & coverage at AM (also on NYT); video and other news on Animal; listing on ArtCat)

Shepard Fairey
May Day
Deitch Projects
18 Wooster St (at Grand)
New York NY 10013 [map]
212 / 343-7300
May 1, 2010 – May 29, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 1, 6-8pm

16. Herzog & de Meuron Special (ArchDaily)

17. DQM Spring 2010 Lookbook (HB)

18. For the 13th-consecutive single-artist installation on the Roof Garden of the Met: bamboo. (NYT via Inhabitat)

…Twin brothers Mike and Doug Starn (born in New Jersey in 1961) will present their new work, Big Bambú: You Can’t, You Don’t, and You Won’t Stop, opening on April 27. The monumental bamboo structure, ultimately measuring 100 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 50 feet high, will take the form of a cresting wave that bridges realms of sculpture, architecture, and performance. Visitors will witness the continuing creation and evolving incarnations of Big Bambú as it is constructed throughout the spring, summer, and fall by the artists and a team of rock climbers. Set against Central Park and its urban backdrop, Big Bambú will suggest the complexity and energy of an ever-changing living organism.

–Doug+Mike Starn on the Roof: Big Bambú

Doug & Mike Starn
Big Bambú: You Can’t, You Don’t, and You Won’t Stop
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Ave (at E 82nd St)
New York NY 10028 [map]
April 27, 2010 – October 31, 2010

19. Peter Root’s Ephemicropolis; see also NYC in staples. (DB; making-of video)

20. Shanghai Expo 2010 Pavilions (Dezeen / ArchDaily)

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Not as coherent but also interesting:

Images from the earthquake in Yushu, China (Boston)

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Mother for Stella; see also: Fading Ads, Pickled in Pixels (NYT)

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Parting Shot: [the view from Brooklyn Bridge Park] Glowingly (Animal)

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Interpol goes in a new [art] direction. (BV)

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Nike Music Shoe revisited: it was Ableton all along. (Core77)

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fin.

via DQM

Skateboard prodigy / creative polymath Mark Gonzales is holding a studio sale on Monday, featuring “Original Drawings + Skate Tees + Zines + Videos, DVDs and Much More.” I imagine it will attract the same crowd that constitutes the line outside Supreme when they drop new gear every season (the skateshop’s Soho outpost is actually just around the corner).

I wanted to appear like a dancer but not too feminine. The fencing uniform shows your body type but also means business.

–Mark Gonzales

Jocko Weyland profiled the Gonz for the New York Times a couple years back (with a further explanation of the above video). Weyland also happened to write a nice series of essays about China/Beijing for Vice.

Jack Siegel for Interview Magazine

The opening reception for Ryan McGinley buzzy solo show, “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,” is sure to be a shitshow.

The exhibition features nearly a hundred portraits of the lithe, alternative and largely anonymous youth that seem to be McGinley’s favorite subject.

• Dan Colen interviews him for Vice (plus image gallery).
• Spike Jonze interviews him for Opening Ceremony.
• Christopher Bollen interviews him for Interview.
• Also on Nowness, T Magazine and Arrested Motion.

Ryan McGinley
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Team Gallery
83 Grand Street (at Greene St) [map]
New York NY 10013
March 18, 2010 – April 17, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 18, 6pm

UPDATE: Arrested Motion has photos from the opening; T Magazine has a video.

Also, gay porn star Bruce LaBruce interviews Karl Lagerfeld for Vice.

Eyebeam’s MIXER event series continues this weekend with an Olympic-themed art and design marathon. The Chelsea art + technology hub will host Benton-C Bainbridge, CHERYL, Conveyors of Misguided Hits and Misses, Double Happiness, Erik Fabian, Jeff Crouse + Aaron Meyers, NYC Resistor and Stephanie Rothenberg + Scott Kildall, as well as Tanlines, Maluca and Justine D for late-night music performances.

Full press release here.

Housebroken
Flux Factory
39-31 29th St (at 40th Ave) [map]
Queens NY 11101
On view Saturdays & Sundays through March 21, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, February 19, 8pm-2am

Size Does Matter
curated by Shaquille O’Neal
Flag Art Foundation
545 W 25th St, 9th Fl (at 11th Ave) [map]
New York NY 10001
212 / 206-0220
February 19, 2010–May 27, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, February 19, 6-8pm

Although All Gone 2009—LaMJC’s annual compendium of “The Finest of Street Culture”—has been out in Europe for about a month now, the coveted tome is finally coming stateside to party.

This year’s edition and previous installments can be perused in their entirety in a web-based viewer here.

The Reed Space is playing host to the much-anticipated streetwear event.

All Gone 2009 Release Party
The Reed Space
151 Orchard (at Stanton) [map]
New York NY 10002
212 / 253-0588
Saturday, February 13, 7-10pm

“Baby Can’t Stop” has the staccato horn and guitar parts, and the casual effervescence, of a track from “Thriller.”

–Nate Chinen, The New York Times

Bonus Beats: Dre Skull – I Want You Back (4:40) – 11.2MB mp3 @ 320kbps – hipster DJ staple if there ever was one.

» Switch – A Bit Patchy (6:31) – 9.9MB mp3 @ 212kbps (embedded music player in the near future)

I doubt I’ll make it over there, since I was actually thinking about heading to Bruar Falls after the openings tonight, but who knows…

Girls & Boys is (are?) bringing some more noteworthy acts to Webster Hall over the next few weeks. The graphic design is painfully uninspired, but that’s not the reason why people go to these things.

I wonder if Vitalic is any good live. I just downloaded the new album; haven’t listened to it yet, but I like the album art:

Brooklyn Vegan has more concert listings as always.