“Exodus from Land of Play” (above) is a 13 color serigraph depicting the 5 x 6 foot painting that was recently on view as part of the “Outsiders” show that Lazarides Gallery held on the Lower East side. Here is a bit of insight from the artist on this piece.

“in the land of play ,the skies rain fried cheese bread, there is non-stop fun and unlimited freedom, children are encouraged to commit acts of vandalism, fight, drink beer out of unicorn horns, smoke cigars that turn into bubblicious, and gamble and never lose, nuns show you their shaved vaginas and preach, up all night , sleep all day, where everyone plays and never works, where a kid can be a kid, and also where a man can also behave like a kid, do what you want, whenever you want there’s no responsibilities, no cops, no rules, no repercussions, and no consequences to any of your actions, but all good things must come to an end, I won’t tell you what happened, but everyone has to leave immediately, get the fuck out now! So our heroine and androgynous vamp, donning royal robes and Axl Rose gear, leads a parade of donkey eared miscreants and ne’er –do wells armed with customized super soakers filled with gummy worm juice and milk from coco crispies (I won’t name them all, but Darth Nihilus, razorback, and Beta ray Bill are up in the mix), out of Cockaigne, maybe to wander the earth forever?”

Dave may be losing his mind but it’s a fun slide.

“Dark Circles (Get Some Rest)” (above) will be the first print from one of Choe’s watercolors. The fine art giclée is also expected to be released before 2008 is up.

I gave up on television years ago, so much of the inspiration for these works is lost to me. My approach to the pieces is based primarily on color and form and that seems to be enough as the art is successful on these merits. I searched for spongebob on youtube and found that I could not persevere more than a few seconds. But I like the paintings. Curiosity demands to know if the TV savvy public are really entering the works or merely humming a theme song. It is fair to suppose that it doesn’t really matter because with KAWS you can’t have one without the other.

The highlight of the show can be found in the beautifully installed bronze severed head self-portraits of the artist. There are 33 unique colors in all. Usually bronze is not painted because if an artist works in the medium they want it to be evident in the final product. The “candy coating” that has been applied forces the viewer to realize that there is more to KAWS than surface appearance.

KAWS
6 November - 23 December 2008
Gering & López Gallery
NYC

Art reporter Jerry Saltz was one of the lucky few that spent the night and he wrote about the experience in his column for New York Magazine. The article offers insight as to why the author was disappointed his wife couldn’t join him in the “ecstasy machine”. Always nice to see respected art world professionals let their hair down. It’s not on the level of Henry Geldzahler on a raft in a pool smoking a cigar but kudos to Mr. Saltz.

“theanyspacewhatever” is made up of the collaborative efforts of several talented artists including Angela Bulloch, Maurizio Cattelan, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. This show was more than four years in the making during which time chief curator Nancy Spector worked closely with the artists to consider site specific pieces that accounted for the exhibition as a whole.

Carsten Höller
Revolving Hotel Room
theanyspacewhatever
24 October 2008 - 7 January 2009
Guggenheim Museum
NYC

This work represents a return to the artist’s self proclaimed “misspent comic book youth”. There is nothing new about enlarging old comic imagery and placing it in a gallery setting; however, Frizzell has an interesting take. Normally “low” sources are used to make a statement on the external but in this case, the artist considers these images to be full of personal irony. Beyond this, I admit, they are fun for the eyes.

Dick Frizzell
Walking Back to Happiness
11 November - 5 December 2008
Gow Langsford Gallery
Aukland, New Zealand

The gallery has kept the press release simple. The sum total is this hilarious quote from Waldemar Januszczak’s review of the 2006 exhibition “USA Today” at the Royal Academy in the London Sunday Times.

“… Aleksandra Mir, from Lubin, in Poland, is another maker of new maps of the USA, across which she declares the Cold War to be Hot Stuff, in the style of a mustard advert in a hamburger outlet…Young America is a bottomless source of the stuff. This entire display stinks of stupidity and an absent education. Has anyone here read a book or studied history or looked at a Botticelli or questioned a technique or patiently thought their way through an artistic conundrum? Not a chance. This is a generation of paint-happy knownothings brought up on hamburgers and porn, a talentless bloom of post-pop trailer trash that makes our own Brit Artists look like a parade of Einsteins by comparison.”

Aleksandra Mir
WHITE HOUSE PURPLE HEART WHITE HOUSE IVORY TOWER WHITE HOUSE RED NECK WHITE HOUSE BLUE DEVILS WHITE HOUSE YELLOW SUBMARINE WHITE HOUSE AGENT ORANGE WHITE HOUSE BLACK POWER WHITE HOUSE GREEN THUMB WHITE HOUSE PINK DOLLARS WHITE HOUSE DUMB BLOND WHITE HOUSE GOLDEN SHOWERS WHITE HOUSE SILVER LININGS
30 October - 20 December 2008
Mary Boone Gallery
NYC

City scenes are barely present as organic forms have reclaimed the surface of these oil paintings. Roots and vines have merged with graffiti like arms to entangle and deny the three dimensions present in the under painting. These works are contemporary coups led by mother nature.

Sophia Schama
Urban Jungle
31 October - 6 December 2008
Hamish Morrison Gallery
Berlin

This was a wonderful idea. Not only was Rodriguez able to refresh the tired feet of fair-goers but he undoubtedly was able to lay his hands on some influentials in a familiar way.

Here’s the quote from Pulp Fiction:

“I’m not sayin’ he was right, but
you’re sayin’ a foot massage don’t
mean nothing, and I’m sayin’ it
does. I’ve given a million ladies
a million foot massages and they
all meant somethin’. We act like
they don’t, but they do.”

Head over to the website of Bert Rodriguez and you’ll find a link to his flickr account that has photos of more feet than you may care to see.

Bert Rodriguez
Where You End and I Begin
Fredric Snitzer Gallery
Frieze Art Fair 2008
London

The artist has managed to capture the animal gaze in these sculptures. There is a strong conceptual current that runs through the work that elevates the content beyond taxidermy. Each and every piece is undeniably creepy but compassion is aroused in the viewer that offsets revulsion.

Kate Clark
Perfect Strangers
20 November 2008 - 3 January 2009
Claire Oliver
NYC

There is some interesting ‘history’ to this print. In 2004 Justin created a poster commemorating the Dangermouse masterpiece “The Grey Album”. The composition from the Dangermouse print has been reexamined in “That One”. Jay-Z has been replaced with Barack Obama and the Beatles have morphed into some of the greatest civil rights leaders in U.S. history.

Each ‘History’ print is accompanied by a matching signed and numbered uncut handbill, which measures 6 x 24 inches. The handbill features four smaller versions of Hampton’s ‘THAT ONE’ imagery, with both red and blue backgrounds, intended by the artist as “a visual representation of a bipartisan coalition from solid red states to blue and everything in-between.”

Go on Justin, brush your shoulder off.

Justin Hampton
That One - The History Edition
on sale Friday November 14, 2008
NOWhere Limited
Nederland, Colorado

The focus of the work is centered on roughly life sized animal forms encrusted with a variety of small objects. These skins are presented on the recognizable shape of pets which makes for easily engaged pieces with a hint at abstraction.

Mary Engel
20 November 2008 - 3 January 2009
Marcia Wood Gallery
Atlanta, GA