PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, Oct 4, 2007 – SPOTHUNTERS – LIMITED EDITION 2,000 – CANTAB PUBLISHING.
SPOTHUNTERS – FRONT COVER – IMAGE: COURTESY CANTAB PUBLISHING WEBSITE
SPOTHUNTERS . . . featuring the work of SHEPARD FAIREY, GREG LAMARCHE, CALEB NEELSON and MONSTER PROJECT.
…”the hunt for spots will never end, whether they are higher, bigger, or just plain smarter, because the ideas keep on coming” – CONTAB PUBLISHING
approx. 8.25 x 8.25 ins., 48 pages plus cover, offset on matte paper, Edition of 2,000.
Book design & lay-out by ALEX LUKAS, 2006
(looks like GREG LAMARCHE did the lettering for the cover !!)
CONTAB PUBLISHING – $12 – A GREAT !! GREAT !! DEAL – !!! – A REALLY INTERESTING BOOK – IMAGES !! & TEXT !!
there’s more info on the book on the: cantab website
CONTAB PUBLISHING – P.O. BOX 381591, CAMBRIDGE, MA 02238
www.contabpublishing.com
~SPOTHUNTERS/CANTAB PUBLISHING/$12 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 4th, 2007, 1:04pm
… you can order a small (4 x 5-1/2 ins.) hand-made book by MATT LEINES for $5 from CANTAB PUBLISHING out of Cambridge, Mass.
‘originally published as a very limited European Release. Available now for the first time in the United States of America in a new exclusive format.’ – ours was stamped: SECOND PRINTING.
CANTAB PUBLISHING – P.O. BOX 381591 – CAMBRIDGE, MA 02238
www.cantabpublishing.com
MATT LEINES (left) at the CHRIS JOHANSON (at right) booksigning, this past Spring, MAY 17, 2007,
at PRINTED MATTER.
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
more pix from the CHRIS JOHANSON BOOKSIGNING
www.printedmatter.org
~MATT LEINES/CANTAB PUBLISHING/$5 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 4th, 2007, 12:47pm
the evite image for: CABINET OF CURIOSITIES/image by MATT LEINES
LAST 2 DAYS !!!!!!! – at the new JOURNAL space in BROOKLYN !!!!
CABINET OF CURIOSITIES – CURATED BY KATHY GRAYSON
SEPTEMBER 14 – OCTOBER 4, 2007
THE JOURNAL GALLERY – 168 NORTH 1ST STREET – BROOKLYN (WILLIAMSBURG)
small works by: CHRIS JOHANSON . DASH SNOW . BARRY McGEE . JESSICA CIOCCI . BRIAN CHIPPENDALE . JUNG HONG . XYLOR JANE . TOMOO GOKITA . RY FYAN . AUREL SCHMIDT . TAYLOR McKIMENS . DEARRAINDROP . ASHLEY MACOMBER . MATT LEINES . JOE BRADLEY . ROSSON CROW . ANDREW JEFFREY WRIGHT . DEVENDRA BANHART . PATRICK GRIFFIN . TAUBA AUERBACH . WES LANG . CLARE ROJAS . BRIAN DeGRAW
p.s. this is the image/painting MATT LEINES has in the show – it’s great – it’s small, too – it’s kind of curious seeing Matt’s work small – usually he presents big pieces. worth the visit – all on its own – but the company is awesome – some pretty famous stuff – some new work – some familiar pieces that have been exhibited before – the BRIAN CHIPPENDALE piece is one of his signature “elves” – if you’ve never seen one – you can now.
p.s.s. BRIAN CHIPPENDALE will be in a 3 person show at CINDERS – mid November 2007.
pix from the opening to post shortly !!
www.thejrnl.com
~MATT LEINES/BRIAN CHIPPENDALE/CABINET Of CURIOSITIES/journal |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 3rd, 2007, 1:19am
PHOTOS: COURTESY YMI CREW website – www.ymicrew.com
A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND . . . WORDS:
check IT out !! > www.ymicrew.com
while you are there – make sure to check out their – YMI CREW links !!
~YMI CREW/NYC |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 2nd, 2007, 7:46pm
the card for: AD HOC ART & YMI CREW PRESENT …
ARTWORK FROM ARTISTS: NATIVE, SPACE, CEKIS, SEKS, and CERN.
the show ran from AUG 10 to 19, 2007 at AD HOC ART, 49 BOGART ST, BUZZER 22, UNIT 1G, EAST WILLIAMSBURG INDUSTRIAL PARK, BROOKLYN, NY.
the card is a composite of the YMI CREW and includes pieces from Native, Space, CEKIS, and CERN.
CAROLINE PHAM designed the card.
the card was featured on the artlovers homepage – week of AUGUST 21, 2007.
maybe because we missed the show – but were so intrigued by the card – it started to haunt us and we did a little digging that we now share with you.
. . first of all CERN was kind enough to answer our dumb inquiries & sent in an additional jpeg image (above) that I believe is a collaborative (mural) work, and that was not part of the AD HOC ART GALLERY SHOW.
mostly, we asked – what does YMI stand for: ………. CERN replied:
“YMI …. why am I ? i m y.
your mind’s i. you must imagine.. your mother’s idols.. you me it…
your missions incomplete..
and anything else you might make up with the 3 letters”
and who are they:
“YMI is an art and music collective from New York City that has been creating large scale murals and exhibitions since the mid nineties. The murals are often collaborative works, the current show presents each artists’ work done individually and in different locations. Cekis, Cern and Sek 3 are each currently living in Brooklyn, Native is in Paris, and Space has been touring the East Coast for the past few months. The show consists of paintings done in many different mediums.”
Here’s a few jpegs from the ADS HOC show:
(all images: COURTESY AD HOC ART)
CERN – spray paint on canvas
Native – ink on paper
CEKIS – ‘Soldier’ – stencil & paint on canvas
CERN – ‘GROWING HOME’ – paint on canvas
SPACE – paint on wood
SPACE – paint on wood
SEK3 – paint on canvas
SEK3 – paint on canvas
CERN – paint on canvas
ELIA GURNA – paint on 3 small canvases
YOU CAN SEE MORE OF THE WORK in the SHOW: here/flickr
you can check out the AD HOC ART GALLERY website here:
AD HOC ART GALLERY
while you are at it –
check out the JUNE 14, 2007 AD HOC SHOW – ‘No Sleep Till Bushwick’
featuring artwork & installations from New York’s finest street legends: BAST, AIKO (of Faille) and SKEWVILLE, along with guest CHRIS MENDOZA of Barnstorming…
www.adhocart.org
www.ymicrew.com
www.myspace.com/cekis
www.myspace.com/ymicern
www.myspace.com/soupkitchin
www.supppafly.com
www.myspace.com/spaceymi
www.myspace.com/NamesOne
… re: NATIVE – here’s some more drawing images (below) from his website !!! – real different from the image posted from the AD HOC SHOW. DON’T MISS IT – !! – CHECK IT OUT – hit the link – it’s WILD !!!> www.myspace.com/soupkitchin
the www.supppafly.com site with NATIVE MAQUARI & ZenTwo – is pretty amazing as well
NATIVE – IMAGE COURTESY: www.myspace.com/soupkitchin
~YMI CREW/AD HOC ART |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 2nd, 2007, 6:21pm
INTO THE WILD/opens FRIDAY, SEPT 21/2007
Film Review
September 21, 2007 by JAN ALBERT
Every once in a rare while you connect with a film in a profound way. INTO THE WILD, written and directed by Sean Penn, hit me right between the eyes.
It’s a highly compressed coming of age story – a true one, based on the book of the same name by Jon Krakauer, about a kid who graduates college with honors, then out of the blue, completely rejects his family’s and society’s offerings, donates his life savings to charity, and leaves home without a word. He hits the road with the ultimate goal of disappearing into the wild to “try to get his soul free†(as Joni Mitchell put it).
Chris McCandless kept a journal of his experiences along the way – the books he read, the day jobs he held, the people he met, the plants he ate, and they provided the trail for Krakauer to retrace. Penn originally tried to make this film a decade ago, shortly after the book came out. He met with the family a number of times to seek permission to film their son’s story. The day of the final negotiation he got a call from Chris’s mother. She said she had had a dream that she interpreted as meaning her son did not want a film made about his life and death. Penn replied that if he didn’t believe in dreams he wouldn’t be making movies, but if they ever changed their minds – “In a week, 8 months, or even 10 years, to please call me because I will never stop wanting to make this movie.†Ten years later, they called.
The wait was worth it. This is the best film Sean Penn has ever made. I’m not quite sure why it hit me so hard – I was never interested enough in the story to read the book — but there were several times tears came to my eyes and to my utter amazement, I wasn’t sure I would be able to stop crying. (After all the movies I’ve seen over the past 30 years, I remain always hopeful but have become a fairly hard-hearted viewer!)
Penn draws piercing performances from everyone in his superb cast – Catherine Keener, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Vince Vaughan, Kristen Stewart, Hal Holbrook, and Emile Hirsch all bring their best game and Penn has given each one of them moments that stick in my mind. But I think his greatest achievement here is to involve you in a story with an end that so many people already know and to deliver a tension-filled experience that keeps you wondering what will happen next and even has moments of humor.
The storytelling, both visually and editorially, is riveting; going back and forth to Chris’s childhood at home and his adventures enroute to the end of the road in the Alaska wilderness. In addition to the stark beauty of the American landscape, Penn references the journal of Alexander Supertramp (as Chris renamed himself) and the post cards he sent new friends he made. Seeing his handwriting up on the screen is a very effective device for putting us right inside his head.
Penn is also to be commended for approaching human frailties and moments of kindness with drama, but also real subtlety. None of the characters are completely black or white. We feel for the McCandless parents Chris rejected so completely. While their physical fights and the war of words they carried on throughout his childhood probably propelled him to avoid and mistrust human relationships whenever possible, we see that they are only human, not bad people per se. William Hurt (playing Chris’s father) has a wordless scene towards the end, which is absolutely devastating.
Chris himself is no saint. In the beginning, he is portrayed as a kind of an arrogant kid, a zealot who listens to no one and believes he knows it all before he’s even experienced life. We see him gradually responding to the coworkers and fellow travelers he meets on the way to Alaska — a joyful big brother figure, a young girl who worships him, a hippie couple who adopt him for a time, and even a substitute grandfather (simply a beautiful performance by Hal Holbrook).
But the film rests squarely on the shoulders of Emile Hirsch who rises to the occasion, climbs the mountain and carries this film. He made me come to care for this foolhardy, wounded boy who put his faith and found his greatest joy in the beauty and harsh force of nature. As he tests himself against primal forces (ultimately more unforgiving and unpredictable than us human beings), experiencing the agony and ecstasy of the path he’s chosen, he grows and cracks open. Chris’s heartbreaking innocence and purity of character, his great quest, and the heartbreaking fact that he realized how much we need each other so late in the game moved me deeply.
That’s a revelation many of us live a lot longer without ever reaching. Bravo Sean Penn for turning a short but full life into a great film with not a minute wasted.
see: the official website
~Into The Wild |
Posted in Movie Reviews | By Jan Albert | September 21st, 2007, 9:28am
IF I HAD $100 I’d go buy a small papier-mache doll made by the collaborative husband and wife team: MUMBREEZE – from Little Cakes. They are reversible – so its like getting 2 dolls for the price of one. if you can spring for $200 – you can get 2 dolls – which is like getting 4 dolls for the price of two !!!
‘Mumbreeze is a husband and wife team living in Portland, OREGON. KINYA HANADA, known singly as Mumbleboy, graduated with an MFA in painting from RISD and pioneered flash animation as art in the mid to late 90’s. He has created dozens of animations for bands and musicians including Beck and for the MTV Video Music Awards, has traveled the world as a VJ, and has shown work at the Sundance Film festival, Art Basel Miami, Bienale de Valencia, galleries in France, Holland, Japan, and Germany, and has even shown his video work on the ceiling of Grand Central Station, here in NYC.
His wife KAO, an illustrator and comic book artist, now joins him as the super duo re-dubbed MUMBREEZE.’ (press release)
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
MUMBREEZE – ‘SUPER HEROS RETURN’
September 7 – September 30, 2007
Little Cakes Little Gallery – 625 EAST 6TH STREET #1B – EAST VILLAGE
www.littlecakes.org
~Mumbreeze |
Posted in If I had $200 | By Nancy Smith | September 19th, 2007, 9:59pm
IMAGE – ALEKSANDRA MIR/COURTESY PRINTED MATTER
‘ALEKSANDRA MIR: A RETROSPECTIVE of PRINTED MATTER’
SEPTEMBER 20 – NOVEMBER 8, 2007
OPENING RECEPTION: THURS SEPT 20, 2007 (5-7PM)
at PRINTED MATTER – 195 TENTH AVENUE – www.printedmatter.org
This retrospective exhibit will present a survey of the artist’s publications, multiples, posters, invitation cards, etc – selected by Aleksandra herself.
For the occasion, PRINTED MATTER is publishing MIR’S book, ‘LA: A GEOGRAPHY OF MODERN ART’ with photography by JUSTIN BEAL.
“Independent publishing has been an integral part of her work and this exhibit will provide overview of that activity” – PRESS RELEASE, PINTED MATTER
Aleksandra Mir (b. 1967, Lubin, Poland) is currently based in Palermo, Sicily.
You can see more of her work at her website: www.aleksandramir.info.
ALEKSANDRA MIR, (at left, in the red dress) at the recent opening of her exhibit: ‘Aleksandra Mir – NEWS ROOM – 1986-2000’ – MARY BOONE GALLERY, 541 WEST 24 STREET, Chelsea. SAT SEPT 15, 2007
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
ALEKSANDRA MIR, also currently has a show up at MARY BOONE GALLERY on WEST 24TH STREET. It opened this past weekend. It is really dynamic, and has a lot of energy – from 2 sources.
1. the drawings themselves are very alive, mostly edgey, bold black outlines, (they are all: all black & white drawings, by the way – no color!) – drawn with SHARPIE (marker) outlines – with some crosshatch and a few sparse but quirky/lively details. very cartooney in spirit .. . themed to specific TABLOID COVERS !!! yet with only TEXTS – strangely no images – not even crude abbreviated ones – of the tabloid cover photos – …
2. she has a crew of young student/artists working on them, LIVE !!! SHARPIES in hand, and with specific instructions to crosshatch this, or super BOLD outline that. ALEKSANDRA does the outlines.
(not sure if the live crew is there during weekdays – or only on Sat – check with gallery.)
& DON’T MISS CHECKING out ALEKSANDRA’S headquarters/live desk/studio in the back room !! SHE MIGHT EVEN BE THERE WORKING LIVE – or, if not – you can still get real close up to her working process.
UP-DATE: FRI SEPT 21
WORD IS ALEKSANDRA MIR is in the gallery each & every day, all day long – working on the project – with her young crew of about 16 artist/assistants, also there each day as well.
UP-DATE: TUES SEPT 25
MARY BOONE DIRECTOR – RON WARREN tells us … ” . . . and they will continue this regimen, for the entire length of the show – they are functioning as a ‘Newsroom’, producing new works every day, and the actual installation, the pieces on the walls, change every few days as well” – it’s rumored the show has been extended to a 2 month run ?
UP-DATE: MON OCT 8
that’s just a rumor – the show will close as scheduled – SAT OCT 27 – is the last day.
you can get more info at the MARY BOONE GALLERY website.
‘ALEKSANDRA MIR – NEWS ROOM 1986-2000’
SEPT 15 – OCT 27, 2007
MARY BOONE GALLERY – 541 WEST 24TH STREET
PHOTOS FROM THE OPENING WILL POST IN A COUPLE OF DAYS.
MARY BOONE GALLERY
PRINTED MATTER
~ALEKSANDRA MIR/Printed Matter/opening SEPT 20 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 19th, 2007, 6:13pm
from left: HOWARD HALLE, Editor-at-large, TIME OUT, and JERRY SALTZ, the new SENIOR ART CRITIC at NEW YORK MAGAZINE – attend the recent COLLIER SCHORR – ‘THERE I WAS’ – opening, 303 Gallery, SAT SEPT 15, 2007
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
JERRY SALTZ – ANTI-UNITED ARAB EMIRATES GUGGENHEIM RANT – MAKES PAGE SIX – RIGHT ON, JERRY !!!!
first up – gotta say – how great – to have an up-to-the-moment photo !! just, when you need it !!!!!!!
(WALTER ROBINSON: EAT YOUR HEART OUT ….)
. . . JERRY SALTZ, long time, intrepid NYC art world critic – made PAGE SIX, of the New York Post, today (Monday Sep 17, 2007 – Pg.14) – IN an item, (sans photo!!!) which reads:
‘Dis-United‘
‘NEW York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz attacks former Guggenheim Museum director Thomas Krens in this week’s issue, calling him “reckless, destructive, myopic and misguided”, for supporting notorious anti-Israeli nation United Arab Emirates and its decision to build a 300,000-square-foot edifice designed by Frank Gehry. “Numerous government sites warn that Israeli passport holders and travelers whose passports bear Israeli stamps will be denied entry visas to the Emirates. Thus, the Guggenheim – founded by a Jewish family, an institution with Jewish curators and scores of works by Jewish artists, designed by the Jewish Gehry – isn’t really welcome either.” Saltz writes in the mag.’
well, one thing’s for sure, DUBAI aint gonna displace New York City – as the capital of the art world – any time soon.
. . . and by the way, HOWARD HALLE – just for the record – wasn’t there a – ‘TIME-OUT DUBAI’ – specially put out by TIME OUT NEW YORK – for that joke of an art fair – the DIFC GULF ART FAIR, of DUBAI, UAE (UNITED ARAB EMIRATES) – of last SPRING, running MARCH 8-10, 2007.
and yo! JERRY – how come you said nothing – when your (former) some-time publisher artnet.com – also lent (sold ?) their ‘seal-of-approval’ – the ubiquitous artnet logo !!! to be plastered all over the DIFC FAIR and its publications ? (and at a time when your articles were appearing regularly in artnet.)
see: artloversnewyork – THE BOMB/ MARCH 8, 2007: ~DIFC Gulf Art Fair 2007
~JERRY SALTZ/anti-Guggenhiem UAE rant/makes PAGE SIX/..and photographed with HOWARD HALLE of TIME OUT |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 17th, 2007, 1:17pm
FOREVER at the Film Forum until Sept 25th 2007
ROUBEN MAMOULIAN FESTIVAL ends Sept 18th
JOHN TURTURRO’S ROMANCE & CIGARETTES – ongoing
Film Review
September 17, 2007 by JAN ALBERT
FOREVER IS A FILM EVERY ARTIST SHOULD SEE.
As a 20-year old on my first trip to Paris, I made the pilgrimage to Pere Lachaise to place a rose on the grave of one of my heroes, the French author, Colette, so I was kind of interested in traveling down to the Film Forum to see FOREVER. It was a wonderful surprise.
Heddy Honigmann has turned what could have been a straightforward documentary about the score of celebrities buried at this famous cemetery (final resting place for everyone from Chopin to Jim Morrison) into a poetic testament to the power of art to reach out and inspire people centuries after its creation.
Honigmann keeps her distance; first watching the kinds of people who come from around the world to pay their respects to the likes of Edith Piaf, Marcel Proust, screen pioneer Georges Meliies, Maria Callas, and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. She lingers on a ladybug creeping up a beautifully carved mausoleum, a pen left on a novelist’s grave (“so he can carry on writing in the next world,†the caretaker figures), acclimating us to the rhythm of family members watering plants with Evian bottles and bon jouring the other regulars. Gradually, she begins to approach individuals who catch her eye and it becomes apparent that they share a passionate connection with those laid to rest here, whether they actually knew them personally or not.
We meet Yoshino Kimura, a young pianist about to make her debut who waits her turn for a moment alone with Chopin. By the end of the film we know surely that the great composer has touched her soul, as she delivers an exquisite performance of one of his Nocturnes. Another frequent visitor explains the influence Modigliani’s moody portraits have had on his own expression of the human spirit. Turns out he is an artist of a whole different sort; an embalmer. We observe him apply his artistry to the face of a beautiful young woman as he speaks eloquently about the relationship between the living and the dead.
An Iranian cab driver tries to stays in touch with his roots by spending time with his countryman, novelist, Sadgh Hedayat, who is buried at Pere Lachaise. He hesitantly quotes from the author’s book, ‘The Blind Owl’, and says he believes he would understand why he left home. Two blind film buffs visit the graves of Yves Montand and Simone Signoret (buried side by side), then go home to rewatch Diabolique with great relish.
Then, there’s the young Asian man struggling to convey in English all that ‘A la Recherche du Temps Perdu’ has meant to him. Honigmann says he should just tell her in his own language. He unleashes a torrent of words, which the filmmaker elects to leave untranslated, allowing the guy’s urgent expression to say it all. Another quirky but elegant choice the director makes is to never directly tour Jim Morrison’s gravesite. We do see the hoards troop by as a Frenchwoman visiting her husband’s grave comments that “we will never be lonely†with The Doors front man as a close neighbor. FOREVER contains the discovery of an unknown folksinger and the revelation of an epic love story ended by a bee sting. This beautiful film – as much about the living as it is about the dead – will be touching people long after we are gone.
see the trailer:http://www.filmforum.org/films/forevertrailer.html
FREDRIC MARCH & ANNA STEN in We Live Again, 1934, ROUBEN MAMOULIAN: THE GOLDEN AGE Of BROADWAY & HOLLYWOOD/FILM FORUM SEPT 7-18, 2007. (12 DAY FESTIVAL)
ROUBEN MAMOULIAN – 12 DAY FESTIVAL – SEPT 7-18, 2007 – FILM FORUM
You may just as well take up residence at the Film Forum and check out the ROUBEN MAMOULIAN FESTIVAL in Theater One and John Turturro’s baroque musical, ROMANCE & CIGARETTES in Theater Two. Mamoulian was an extremely stylish and elegant director. He made just 16 films, most of them pure movie ecstasy, so try to see them all! There were musicals with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald (Love Me Tonight), one of Greta Garbo’s most iconic dramas (Queen Christina), a horror classic (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), which won Frederic March his Oscar), and the very first Technicolor classic (Becky Sharp). He worked with Martha Graham, George Gershwin and Alfred Lunt in the theater before going Hollywood. He believed in achieving his vision as a director not by behaving as a tyrant but by “winning them over with love, so the work becomes a romance.†What actor could resist that?
ROUBEN MAMOULIAN FESTIVAL – SCHEDULE
image: POSTER/ROMANCE & CIGARETTES
JAMES GANDOLFINI in ROMANCE & CIGARETTES
JOHN TURTURRO’S: ROMANCE & CIGARETTES
John Turturro’s musical, ROMANCE & CIGARETTES, is kind of out there, but in a good way. Seems like the whole neighborhood’s in on the conquest wrecking Nick Murder’s marriage, with dancing firemen putting out the blaze in the heart of the Queens construction worker (played by a soulful James Gandolfini), as he lip synchs to “Lonely is the man without love.†There are about a dozen full scale production numbers done to classic songs, in virtually every genre from gospel to rock, bolstered by inventive and very amusing choreography by Tricia Brouk.
Bobby Carnavale, Christopher Walken, Aida Turturro, Steve Buscemi and Eddie Izzard all have molto buono moments, but no one is fouler-mouthed or more wild and wanton than the utterly fabulous Kate Winslett, who looks like she’s having a blast playing a slutty temptress in a red dress with an over the top Cockney accent. Her post coital dance is worth the price of admission alone. That girl may be British but she definitely knows how to shake her booty!
A complete success? No, but, quite a spectacle. Personally, I think this flick would definitely loosen things up on a first date.
see the trailer: ROMANCE & CIGARETTES
www.filmforum.org
~Forever/Rouben Mamoulian Festival & John Turturro’s: Romance & Cigarettes |
Posted in Movie Reviews | By Jan Albert | September 17th, 2007, 11:09am
