Frieze Art Fair in London is one of the biggest and most respected art fairs around the world. About 70,000 people and 15 galleries each year install themselves into Regent’s Park classy surroundings to mix, trade and discuss contemporary art and it’s contextual relevance. Waldemar Januszczak explained last year in the Sunday Times just what makes Frieze significant:
“On paper its just an art fair. But then, on paper, Michelangelo’s David is just a lump of stone. On paper, the Taj Mahal is a building, and Helen Mirren is an actress…I am not saying that Frieze isn’t, technically, an art fair. My point is that this glum definition doesn’t begin to capture the drama and buzz of the event in the tent.”
Along Frieze, London also hosts the Zoo Art Fair which is more up-and-coming’ish, with young galleries displaying talented new artists. This is set in the old Royal Academy of Arts in Burlington Gardens and functions as the funky little brother to the big and admired Frieze.
I went to Zoo Friday and Frieze Saturday and I must admit that even though both fairs are impressive I wasn’t that overwhelmed by any outstanding artists, pieces or galleries in general. There was of course a lot of good stuff, but I had hoped for more noticeable artworks and exhibitors. Maybe it is because I am mostly looking for paintings and sculptures myself and a lot of the exhibited art was video, performance and installations. Anyways, it was great to see it all and I am already looking forward to next years fairs.
All pictures and illustrations above are taken or made and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
New York is sizzling with great art, museums and galleries. I went to the usuals (Whitnet, Guggenheim and MoMa) but as we lived closed to the new museum, conveniently called New Museum. Designed by SANAA (see first picture below), this building seriously dazzled me! The artwork included liver performance art (a girl rolling around the corner of one of the floors for a couple of hours to demonstrate something pretty unimportant (at least so unimportant that I have forgotten what it was)). Other stuff was a stuffed horse body flying out of the wall in four meters height.
Unfortunately they was mistaken silence for war (see second picture below). Hmmm…. (terrible joke - but I had to make it).
Another cool exhibition we went to was the Johnston Foster showing (third picture below), of his wicked dolls. Rare GAllery is very cool, and pretty much one of the most exciting large galleries I’ve ever been to. Their project is about exhibiting emerging artists - especially painting, installation and sculpture artists - and help them move the the emerging artist stage to the established category. Right now they are displaying Francesco Longenecker, a young and very talented painter: Definitely somebody I think art-interested people should keep an eye on.
All pictures and illustrations above are taken or made and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®
City of Santa Ana (Downtown Orange County) is asking parents; Is Your Child A Tagger?
I personally found this through Wooster Collective, and I simply had to post it in here as well. I Especially like the guidelines on how to see or how to know if your son/ daughter is doing graffiti. Some of the points are really extremely funny and so old school. The second and the last indicators are particularly droll; “Your child frequently wears baggy pants or carries a large backpack.” & “Your child associates with other people who exhibit these same traits. These other people may be members of your child’s “tagging crew.”
But talking of tagging, I know I did mention my amazement by good street here on simplecommonsense last week , but no need not to do it again, as I just want to highlight the cool blog post PingMag is running on their blog at the time of this is written. It is about street art in Columbia with focus on the wicked street-art collective ‘Excusado Printsystem’ - definitely worth checking out!
And while I am at it I recommend you to check out the Pictures Of Walls website for clever, funny, amusing, weird and stupid tagging’s all over the planet!
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