Olivier Kosta-Thefaine

Symphony (Detail view of the solo exhibition "W"); Flame of the lighter on ceilling & video documentation; 2009 (photo : Cripta747)

Restrained baroque to the point of primordial "sublime".

Link via Neatorama.
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Light Art Performance Photography (LAPP)

2007

If "enlightened kitsch" is ever possible, it might look somewhat like this?

Link via Neatorama.
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Nate Page

Beauty as an incarnation of excavated desires.

Link via Make Blog.
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Alexandre Farto (Vhils)

Scratching The Surface



Link via Artist A Day.
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Edgar Martins

Untitled, from the series 'Ruins of the Gilded Age' 2008 (Georgia, USA), C-type print, 98x254cm, Edition of 5

Crossing between the imaginary and real - all in the name of that age-old problem of representation.

Link via Conscientious blog.
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Altermodern

Is this IT?

Link to Tate Triennial Exhibition web-page.
Also Exhibition Resource page.
Link to Art In America interview.
Link to Wikipedia page.

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Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective

If walls could not speak, perhaps they could draw? And the time-lapse movies are hypnotic, to say the least

Link via MASS MoCA.
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Betsabeé Romero

Endless spiral, 105cms wide x 30cms each

A cutting comment - literally - on use, waste and transformation .

Link via Neatorama.
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Fourth Plinth

Art at its most public ...

See Guardian web-site.
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Orlan

There's still something to be said - and learn - from Orlan's carefully crafted visual statements.

Link via Guardian.
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Slinkachu

Dreams of packing it all in - Hammersmith Bridge, London, 2006

Street art with a Zen attitude.

Link via Artist A Day.
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Lizzie Thomas

"Hidden Etching", Hand cut and hand printed paper

Portable foldings portending an inevitable diminishing of thought things.

Link via Artist A Day.
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Kate MccGwire

"Rile", 2009, Pigeon feathers, polystyrene, felt, glue, museum cabinet, 180 x 60 x 60

A studied fascination, bordering on obsession - which might be considered as the fundamental underpinning of interesting art.

Link via Artist A Day.
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Art: 21 - Art in the Twentieth-First Century

All 4 seasons of the PBS series are now available online on Hulu. Go to web-page.

Link via Modern Art Notes.
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David Ireland (1930-2009)

"Box of Angels", 1996, Cast figurines, glass, and wood vitrine

"You can’t make art by making art." - David Ireland

See online virtual exhibition at Oakland Museum of California.

Links for tribute and photos in Los Angeles Times; tribute in San Francisco Chronicle.
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David Hockney's computer art

'Autumn Trees Near Thixendale, 28 October 2008'. Inkjet printed computer drawing on paper. Photograph: David Hockney ©

See the rest of the series of Hockney's latest works to get a sense of how the use of computers is increasingly becoming "invisible".

Link via Guardian.
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Smarthistory

From the section on "About Smarthistory":

Why We Made Smarthistory
We are dissatisfied with the large expensive art history textbook. We find that they are difficult for many students, contain too many images, and just are not particularly engaging. ... So, it finally occurred to us, why not use the personal voice that we use when we teach online, along with the multimedia we had already created for our blog and for our courses, to create a more engaging "web-book" that could be used in conjunction with art history survey courses.

Highly recommended - and do check out the blog, too.
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Creative minds: the links between mental illness and creativity

It's offcial - artists are mad (as if we don't know that already...)
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Gerhard Ricther

Overpainted Photograph Series: 21.6.08, 2008, 10.1 cm x 14.7 cm, Varnish on colour photograph


Overpainted Photograph Series: 28.06.08, 2008, 10 cm x 15 cm, Varnish on colour photograph

Proven, once and for all, that art is not about mere words.

See video here and separate exhibition review here.

Link via Happenings: Curtis Mann.
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Jennifer Khoshbin

"Prove It"

An enactment of words as (illusive) physical reality.

Link via Artist A Day.
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LucyandBart

Go For Gold

Collaborative bodily modifications - as a symptom of misguided fashionable by-product; or as a calibrated resistance to acceptability.

Link via Artist A Day.
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Nick Cave: "Soundsuits"

Art in Motion

A mash-up of primordial (embodied) experience and post-consumerist excess (or should that be celebration).

Link via New York Times.
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Christian Faur

House of Rain, 2007, Hand Cast Encaustic Crayons, 19.5 in x 19.5 in.

Allusions aplenty: craft; drawing; pixels - confounding our media age.

Link via Make.
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Rebecca Warren

The Mechanic (Photograph: Linda Nylind/Guardian)

Part three-dimensional gestalt-ink-blob-test - then again, which artwork isn't - and part coprophilia-made-acceptable. Fascinating, nonetheless.

See Guardian Art reviews here and here; more images here.
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Emil Alzamora

Ultima Thule, Ceramic, 23" x 23" x 6", 2007

A rare instance where the human form remains provocative through re-invention.

Link via Artist A Day.
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Kenyan Women Photo Project

An update on JR's on going project "Women Are Heroes". See earlier post.

Link via lens culture.
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Roni Horn aka Roni Horn

Things That Happen Again: For Two Rooms, 1986 (Photograph by Christian Sinibaldi)

Seemingly void of emotional content. yet speaking volumes of the contemporary Zeitgeist - formally, intellectually, irreverently.

Go to exhibition review, photos and artist panel discussion.

Link via The Guardian.
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Levi van Veluw

Natural transfer II, 120x100cm & 60x50cm, 2009

Giving an edge to the conventional genre of "selves"-portrait.


Landscapes, 2008, 1.57 min, HDV


Link via Artist A Day.
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Roger Cremers

Poland, Auschwitz, 4 May 2008

A wry commentary on the (sad) state of historical consciousness in this age of global "connectedness".

Link via Conscientious.
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Yokohama Soundscape 2007

Yokohama Soundscape 2007 from pelican on Vimeo.

Link via Make.
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Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before

A review of a recently published book by Michael Fried on contemporary (art) photography from a critical, art historical perspective.

Link via The Guardian.
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J R

"Women Are Heroes", Favela da Providencia, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Using the visual language of mass consumerism but with a social edge that highlights the plight of marginalised communities - as a direct critique of a pan-global phenomena of ideological violence done to the political underclass.

Link via link.
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