Собачье сердце

"У-у-у-у-у-у-гу-гу-гугу-уу! О, гляньте, гляньте на меня, я погибаю! Вьюга в подворотне ревет мне отходную, и я вою с нею. Пропал я, пропал!"

Streetart Lower East Side

Pierre Soulages, Peinture

Pierre Soulages perd son père en 1924. Dès son plus jeune âge, il est fasciné par les vieilles pierres, les matériaux patinés et érodés par le temps, l'artisanat de son pays du Rouergue et ses âpres paysages, particulièrement les Causses. Il a tout juste huit ans lorsqu'il répond à une amie de sa sœur aînée qui lui demande ce qu’il est en train de dessiner à l’encre sur une feuille blanche : un paysage de neige. « Ce que je voulais faire avec mon encre, dit-il, c’était rendre le blanc du papier encore plus blanc, plus lumineux, comme la neige. C’est du moins l’explication que j’en donne maintenant. » il peint de façon rapide et colorée tout en restant dans les teintes plutôt sombres ,il donne de grands coups de pinceau en formant un esprit de rage tout en montrant précision et poésie, d'une certaine douceur, il peint concentré mais une expression de bonheur vient s'ajouter à la tache de rage qui ressort sous une symphonie de couleurs pures (rouge blanc etc)sur un fond sombre, cela exprime une sorte de rage dominée par le bonheur de vivre, une sorte de combat foudroyant entre un mental désespéré et coléreux contre un mental de bonheur, un jardin de floraison de joie.

À douze ans, son instituteur l’emmène, avec sa classe, visiter l’abbatiale Sainte-Foy de Conques, où se révèle sa passion de l’art roman et le désir confus de devenir un artiste. Il accompagne dans ses recherches un archéologue local et découvre lui-même au pied d’un dolmen des pointes de flèches et des tessons de poteries préhistoriques qui entrent au musée Fenaille de Rodez. Il reçoit aussi le choc émotionnel des peintures rupestres des grottes du Pech-Merle dans le Lot, de Font-de-Gaume en Dordogne, d’Altamira en Cantabrie (Espagne), puis de Lascaux en Dordogne (découverte en 1940).

Il commence à peindre dans son Aveyron natal avant de « monter à Paris » à dix-huit ans pour préparer le professorat de dessin et le concours d'entrée à l'école des beaux-arts. Il y est admis en 1938 mais il est vite découragé par la médiocrité de l'enseignement qu'on y reçoit et retourne à Rodez. Pendant ce bref séjour à Paris, il fréquente le musée du Louvre et voit des expositions de Cézanne et Picasso qui sont pour lui des révélations.

Il est mobilisé en 1940 mais démobilisé dès 1941. Il s'installe en zone libre, à Montpellier, et fréquente assidûment le Musée Fabre. Réfractaire au STO en 1942, il passe le reste de la guerre auprès de vignerons de la région qui le cachent.

En 1946, il s'installe dans la banlieue parisienne et se consacre désormais entièrement à la peinture. Il commence à peindre des toiles abstraites où le noir domine. Il les expose au Salon des indépendants en 1947, où ses toiles sombres détonnent au milieu des autres, très colorées : « Vous allez vous faire beaucoup d'ennemis », le prévient alors Picabia. Il trouve un atelier à Paris, rue Schoelcher, près de Montparnasse.

À partir de 1948, il participe à des expositions à Paris et en Europe, notamment à « Französische abstrakte malerei », dans plusieurs musées allemands, aux côtés des premiers maîtres de l'art abstrait comme Kupka, Domela, Herbin etc. En 1949, il obtient sa première exposition personnelle à la galerie Lydia Conti à Paris ; il expose également à la galerie Otto Stangl, de Munich, à l´occasion de la fondation du groupe Zen 49. En 1950, il figure dans des expositions collectives à New York, Londres, Sao Paulo, Copenhague. D'autres expositions de groupe présentées à New York voyagent ensuite dans plusieurs musées américains, comme « Advancing French Art » (1951), « Younger European Artists » (Musée Guggenheim, 1953), « The New Decade » (Museum of Modern Art de New York, 1955). Il expose régulièrement à la galerie Kootz de New York et à la galerie de France à Paris. Dès le début des années 1950, ses toiles commencent à entrer dans les plus grands musées du monde comme la Phillips Gallery à Washington, le Musée Guggenheim et le Museum of Modern Art de New York, la Tate Gallery de Londres, le Musée national d'Art moderne de Paris, le Museu de Arte moderna de Rio de Janeiro etc. Aujourd'hui, plus de 150 de ses œuvres se trouvent dans des musées. En 1960 ont lieu ses premières expositions rétrospectives dans les musées de Hanovre, Essen, Zurich et La Haye. De nombreuses autres suivront.

De 1949 à 1952, Soulages réalise trois décors de théâtre et ballets et ses premières gravures à l'eau-forte à l'atelier Lacourière.

En janvier 1979, Soulages en travaillant sur un tableau ajoute, retire du noir pendant des heures. Ne sachant plus quoi faire, il quitte l'atelier, désemparé. Lorsqu'il y revient deux heures plus tard : « Le noir avait tout envahi, à tel point que c'était comme s'il n'existait plus ». Cette expérience marque un tournant dans son travail. La même année, il expose au Centre Georges-Pompidou ses premières peintures monopigmentaires, fondées sur la réflexion de la lumière sur les états de surface du noir, appelé plus tard « outre-noir ».

Il est l'une des personnalités à l'origine de la création de la chaîne de télévision Arte.

Entre 1987 et 1994, il réalise 104 vitraux pour l'église abbatiale de Conques.

Il est le premier artiste vivant invité à exposer au musée de l'Ermitage de Saint-Pétersbourg, puis à la galerie Tretiakov de Moscou (2001).

En 2006, une Composition de 1959 est vendue 1 200 000 euros chez Sotheby's.

En 2007, le Musée Fabre de Montpellier lui consacre une salle pour présenter la donation faite par le peintre à la ville. Cette donation comprend 20 tableaux de 1951 à 2006 parmi lesquelles des œuvres majeures des années 1960, deux grands outre-noir des années 1970 et plusieurs grands polyptyques.

I art NY at ART BASEL MIAMI

A look at "Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective" at the Metropolitan Museum

He could light up the day with his wit and generosity; he could equally well plunge it into gloom; and part of the excitement of being with him lay in not knowing for long which way it would go. It was fascinating to watch such sudden changes and contradictions within one person...Bacon could not be pinned down. The closer you got to him, the more likely he was to turn nasty or simply disappear -- to go through a wall into a life where you could not follow.

– Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma

Streetart Lower East Side

"I have no interest in going to school" photograph by Yana Toyber

"I have no interest in going to school at all. I like what I do here and I think I'm going to do it as long as I can. We have women here in their 40's who do just as good as I do and I'm 23 years old"

White Dots 1 by Derrick Leung

White Dots 1 from derrick leung on Vimeo.

XIAO SE: Instinctive Reality - November 18 through December 10 2009 at Eli Klein Fine Art

XIAO SE: Instinctive Reality - November 18 through December 10 2009

Date:
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Time:
6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:
Eli Klein Fine Art

Eli Klein Fine Art is proud to present the first solo exhibition in the United States of Xiao Se, a talented and unique new force in Chinese contemporary art.

Xiao Se’s technically masterful paintings draw on imagery from both the Eastern and Western artistic tradition. This exhibition showcases a body of work which presents Xiao Se’s observations of present day China in which traditional heritage, a communist past, and modernity coexist. His work is deeply influenced by Western masters, often imbuing Western or religious figures with Chinese characteristics, or surrounding them by typical Chinese scenes and traditional symbols.

While Political Pop and Cynical Realism remain the best-known contemporary Chinese art styles in the West, many of the works of influential painters who have emerged since the mid 1990s do not conform to a particular movement or style. These artists, as compared with their predecessors, are not as concerned about the Cultural Revolution or personal self-analysis, they focus on the present-day realities of a rapidly shifting society. Xiao Se is one such artist who grew up in the tumultuous aftermath of the Cultural Revolution and has lived through an era of sweeping economic and cultural liberalization initiated by China’s Open Door Policy. His paintings reflect this background and provide a means and space through which he makes sense of the tension between tradition and modernization.

His body of work presents a diverse array of artistic influences and motifs, including Northern Renaissance, Chinese quotidian themes, and Surrealism. Notable in his paintings are bizarre objects including scrambling nudes, flying fish, pairs of eyes, apples made of gears, and boxes. The presence of the absurd as well as an overall mocking tone provides more than just amusing escapism and allows a temporary hiatus from reality within the pictorial space. He is able to laugh at the world through his paintings, and his humor allows a victory of amusement over daily fears and anxieties.

Xiao Se was born in Beijing and graduated from Central Academy of Art and Design. The exhibition will be on view at Eli Klein Fine Art from November 18 through December 15, 2009. The artist will be present at the private reception on November 18th.

For Public and Media inquiries, please contact the gallery at (212) 255-4388 or info@EKfineart.com.

肖瑟个人展览
2009年11月18日至12月10日



艺莱纽约画廊很荣幸能够展示中国当代艺术界才华出众的画家——肖瑟在美国的个人首展。

肖瑟技艺高超的绘画同时秉承了东方和西方艺术传统的意象。这次展览展示了一组代表萧瑟对当前中国——传统遗产、共产主义的过去和现代性共存其中——的观察的超现实主义绘画。他的作品被西方大师所深刻影响，从而通常将中国特色赋予西方或宗教人物，或者将他们置身于典型的中国式情景和传统符号之中。

当政治波普和愤世嫉俗的现实主义在西方依然是最响誉的当代中国艺术风格，许多在20世纪90年代中期涌现出的重要画家的工作并不依照特殊运动或样式。这些艺术家们与他们的前辈相比，并不关心文化大革命或个人自我分析，而是关注着一个飞速变化的社会现实。肖瑟就是这样一位在文化大革命喧嚣的创伤中长大、并且经历过中国开放政策创始的经济文化自由化时代的艺术家。 他的绘画反应了这个背景，并且提供了他理解传统和现代化之间紧张状态的手段和空间。

他的作品表现出艺术性影响和主题的多样陈列，包括北欧文艺复兴、中国每日题材和超现实主义。他的绘画中值得注意的是怪诞的物体，包括不规则的裸体、飞鱼、眼睛、由齿轮制成的苹果还有盒子。那些荒谬元素以及总体上嘲弄的风格，使得这些作品不仅仅是有趣的逃避现实, 并在画面空间之内从现实中分裂出一个临时的间隙。他能通过他的绘画嘲笑这个世界，他的幽默让笑声战胜了每日恐惧和忧虑。

肖瑟出生于北京，从中央艺术设计学院毕业。 这次展览在11月18日至2009年12月15日期间将会在艺莱纽约画廊展出。 艺术家本人将会出席在11月18日的私人招待会。

公众和媒介若欲询问，请与画廊联系：(212) 255-4388 或info@EKfineart.com.

white bike brooklyn

"I think of myself as a therapist" Photograph by Yana Toyber

" I think of my self as a therapist, helping people get through the tough times in life. They shouldn't judge me for what I do because there are a lot of different people that do a lot of different things for a living."

Streetart Lower East Side

Street art Lower East Side: Kate Moss

Stop all the clocks

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message She Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

She was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
W. H. Auden

space Invader Art

http://www.space-invaders.com/

JAMES CRABB R.I.P

Is really sad he will not be at the funeral tomorrow. James Crabb was a person who brought tremendous joy to many peoples lives. I learned so much from him in our twenty year long friendship(even how to ride a motor bike and blow smoke rings). His tremendous sense of humour and industrious nature serves as testimony to the quality of his character. I will really miss him more than I can possibly express in words...

HOMELESS

Living under the shelter of a storm,
Behold the life of a beggar born,
Trudging down road that a child once skipped,
Holding trousers up with string coarse and fabric ripped,
Cracked black finger tips dipped in pockets empty
That carry stones instead of coins aplenty,
Nowhere to go yet everywhere to stay,
Another closed door to greet the day

At night the floor comes hard on the shoulder pressing flat the soft skin,
The night offers little sanctuary for those who can't make it in.

Mark M. Whelan

Streetart Lower East Side

Lower East Side street art: Angelina Jolie

Erin Fetherston at Michali Fine Art Gallery

Erin Fetherston

Kafka and Facebook

"Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested by hundreds of facebook questionaires." Franz Kafka-Whelan 2009

Peter Doig in his own words

Peter Doig draws from the collective unconscious main symbols
of New York  City, gathered together in this painting. 
Buildings from Empire State to Rockefeller, Statue of Liberty,
dark sky, yellow  cabs designing an unbroken line closing 
street to other cars. 
 
« My paintings of this period were very much inspired by NY 
(which  provided so much at that time). 
Amazing how these things survive... 
It was inspired by a story of a guy who lived in a cardboard
box on Bowery just south of Houston. He told me how he had 
killed his wife and her lover when he caught them in bed 
together‐ formerly he had worked in early computers trade. 
He had a nice girlfriend although they both drank a little
too much... » Peter Doig, August 09 
 
Peter Doig designs a decorative line on yellow cabs and 
twinkling windows in the buildings as a Gustav Klimt reference. 
Another historical allusion to Edward Munch Expressionism 
appears in  desperate human attitudes of the composition
such as in "The Scream". 
Peter Doig uses Andy Warhol Pop Art colors and Roy Lichtenstein 
cartoons drawings, adding a caustic humor in his historical
 sources,giving in this painting beyond a first comic viewing
, a feeling of alienation. 
The acid palette and a permanent reference to Gustav Klimt
decorative patterns is a recurrent allusion in his work.  
 
Regenerating painting style digging in past classical 
references and deeply inspired by contemporary preoccupations,
Peter Doig appears asone of the very best living artists 
and will make a deep impression in Art History. 

poster art

The Just

A man who, as Voltaire wished, cultivates his garden.

He who is grateful that music exists on earth.

He who discovers an etymology with pleasure.

A pair in a Southern café, enjoying a silent game of chess.

The potter meditating on colour and form.

The typographer who set this, though perhaps not pleased.

A man and a woman reading the last triplets of a certain canto.

He who is stroking a sleeping creature.

He who justifies, or seeks to, a wrong done him.

He who is grateful for Stevenson’s existence.

He who prefers the others to be right.

These people, without knowing, are saving the world.

By Jorge Luis Borges

Translated by A.S. Kline

Back to Heaven

I'll go back to heaven again.

Hand in hand with the dew

that melts at a touch of the dawning day,

 

I'll go back to heaven again.

With the dusk, together, just we two,

at a sign from a cloud after playing on the slopes

 

I'll go back to heaven again.

At the end of my outing to this beautiful world

I'll go back and say: That was beautiful. . . .

By Ch'ŏn Sang-Pyŏng

 

 

Translated from the Korean by

Brother Anthony of Taizé

Desires

Like beautiful bodies of the dead who had not grown old
and they shut them, with tears, in a magnificent mausoleum,
with roses at the head and jasmine at the feet --
this is what desires resemble that have passed
without fulfillment; with none of them having achieved
a night of sensual delight, or a bright morning.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1904)
Translated from Greek

Street Art Lower East Side and beyond..close to Michali Fine Art

Artwork around the vicinity of Orchard St. NY, NYC 10002

Footprints left behind,
singing of your existence-
death in every step.

Erik Haber

We are all the same distance
from the sky.

Erik Haber

Peter Doig: Art's Superstar.

Peter Doig is one of the few artists that are still progressing in the actual context.
Indeed, in June, two of his works were sold at Sotheby’s and Christie’s London for respectively 3,360,147 USD (2,057,250 BP) and 4,973,983 USD (3,009,250 BP).
Another of his works was sold in May at Christie’s New York for 4,674,500 USD.

Investing on one of his painting is a safer investment than any other in the long term: the progression of his quotation is sure since museums (including in 2008 a major retrospective at the Tate Britain, at the Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt) and a few lucky collectors immediately snapped up his works.
Furthermore, in 2007, White Canoe, 1990–91, has been sold for 11.3M USD (5.7M BP), which is the highest price ever paid for a work by a living European artist, to a Russian buyer at Sotheby’s London.

Peter Doig, who is only 50, is a pioneering artist whose work has charted a new direction in contemporary painting.
He always changes style and aims at sharing his everlasting creation :

“I don't think my paintings are reactionary in the way they look back. I hope they are about looking forward. I believe in the future of art, but not necessarily in the way it is told. I find a lot of work done 100 years ago more forward looking than what was done in the last ten years.”

There are the words that couldn’t be twice said,
He, who said once, spent out all his senses.
Only two things have never their end –
The heavens’ blue and the Creator’s mercy.

By Anna Akhmatova
Translated by Yevgeny Bonver

Flirtation

still
smile
beckon
for my rapt
attention dripping
over the rim of unspoken
polite beauty taken by another, engaging
tickling wit undressing the innocence of our conversation, yet we stand apart.

Dave Nordling
7/31/2007

Private viewing: Hedi Ferjani and Scot Thompson

HEDI FERJANI & SCOT THOMPSON
The meaning of life
June 5th ‐ July 31st, 2009

Private presentation of the exhibition in presence of the artists.

Cocktail Reception
Thursday, June 18th, 6-9pm


MICHALI FINE ART GALLERY and Mark M. Whelan invite you to the private presentation of the exhibition “The Meaning of Life” by the New York based artists Hedi Ferjani & Scot Thompson.
The exhibition draws a parallel between two extreme, yet, complimentary visions of existence:

On the one hand, Hedi Ferjani extols the superficial and barbaric nature of the human condition.

On the other hand, Scot Thompson exults the cycle of molecular transformations from dust to shape and vice versa.

Both address the transient nature of existence and remind us of Apollo's assertion in T.S. Eliot's seminal 'The Waste Land':

"I'll show you fear in a handful of dust."

The show will be recorded live and transmitted on the channel :
http://www.livestream.com/artnewyork

For further information, please contact maude@michali.us / 212 966 5153

Marketing Director: Mark M. Whelan
m.whelan@emeraldcommunicationsgroup.com

MICHALI FINE ART GALLERY
Maude Michali
45 Orchard street
Between Grand and Hester
New York NY 10002

Tuesday to Sunday: 10 am - 7 pm

Gallery 212 966 5153
Cell 646 530 3351
Fax 760 466 5153

As for beauty I am not a star
There are others more beautiful by far
But my face, I don't mind it
For I am behind it
It's people in front get the jar.

Iris Murdoch

HEDI FERJANI & SCOT THOMPSON The meaning of life @Michali Fine Art

HEDI FERJANI & SCOT THOMPSON
The meaning of life

June 5th ‐ July 31st, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday June 5th, 6‐9PM

MICHALI FINE ART GALLERY is proud to present "The Meaning of Life" an exhibition of works by New York based artists Hedi Ferjani & Scot Thompson, on view from June 5th through July 31st, 2009.
The exhibition draws a parallel between two extreme, yet, complimentary visions of existence:

On the one hand, Hedi Ferjani extols the superficial and barbaric nature of the human condition.

On the other hand, Scot Thompson exults the cycle of molecular transformations from dust to shape and vice versa.

Both address the transient nature of existence and remind us of Apollo's assertion in T.S. Eliot's seminal 'The Waste Land':

"I'll show you fear in a handful of dust."

The show will be recorded live and transmitted on the channel :
http://www.livestream.com/artnewyork

MICHALI FINE ART GALLERY
Maude Michali
45 Orchard street
Between Grand and Hester
New York NY 10002

Photograph courtesy of © Derrick Leung

Is Contemporary Art the place where meaning goes to die? Ask Hedi Ferjani

According to many post-modern thinker's, meaning is no longer fixed, static or contingent. In Hedi Ferjani's work we see the iconoclast's lament for the loss of meaning with these grave stones; however, he juxtaposes what is absent by making the referent present....interesting work...




Andy WARHOL, Damien HIRST, Jeff KOONS....who's next? Hedi Ferjani?

A Dream of Trees

There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees, 
A quiet house, some green and modest acres 
A little way from every troubling town, 
A little way from factories, schools, laments. 
I would have time, I thought, and time to spare, 
With only streams and birds for company, 
To build out of my life a few wild stanzas. 
And then it came to me, that so was death, 
A little way away from everywhere.

There is a thing in me still dreams of trees. 
But let it go. Homesick for moderation, 
Half the world's artists shrink or fall away. 
If any find solution, let him tell it. 
Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation 
Where, as the times implore our true involvement, 
The blades of every crisis point the way.

I would it were not so, but so it is. 
Who ever made music of a mild day?

Mary Oliver

Glass

When you are so hot

You melt, I want to blow you

Into a bottle.

You're a work in progress.

Cradle

I'd cradle you

As the base for a corded telephone;

You wish you were cordless,

Resting wherever convenience finds you.

Manindar P. S. Suri
(from his third chapbook, Poetry My Wife Hates - Third in a Series)

The Orange

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange

The size of it made us all laugh.

I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—

They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange it made me so happy,

As ordinary things often do

Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park

This is peace and contentment. It’s new.

The rest of the day was quite easy.

I did all my jobs on my list

And enjoyed them and had some time over.

I love you. I’m glad I exist.

Wendy Cope, “The Orange” from Serious Concerns.
Copyright © 1992.

Maturity

A stationary sense...as, I suppose,
I shall have, till my single body grows
Inaccurate, tired;
Then I shall start to feel the backward pull
Take over, sickening and masterful -
Some say, desired.

And this must be the prime of life... I blink,
As if at pain; for it is pain, to think
This pantomime
Of compensating act and counter-act
Defeat and counterfeit, makes up, in fact
My ablest time.

PHILIP LARKIN
1951

A Paint Pot Memorial

New York is hot
Like a Dali clock

Bowery Mission

Living under the shelter of a storm,
Behold the life of a beggar born,
Trudging down road that a child once skipped,
Holding trousers up with string coarse and fabric ripped,
Cracked black finger tips dipped in pockets empty,
That carry stones instead of coins aplenty,
Nowhere to go yet everywhere to stay,
Another closed door to greet the day,

At night the floor comes hard on the shoulder pressing flat the soft skin,
The night offers little sanctuary for those who can't make it in.

Mark M. Whelan

Peter Doig in Manhattan inspiration

Various sources assert that Doig creates many of his scenes from photographs. According to an article in W magazine, Doig notes that the places he has lived and spent time often are incorporated into his work; however, only as an afterthought. He often depicts scenes from unusual angles, and incorporates unorthodox colour combinations and even has been said to bring in a sort of indie film perspective. These tactics all contribute to the heightened moment that Doig’s work exudes, just as our own memories try and hold on to moments of significance as well.

LES the heart of the Art scene

The emerging East Village art scene of the 1980s invented new forms of cultural and economic linkages between the avant garde and urban space. For many the East Village art scene was "about making an ‘art movement’ seem more real by anchoring it to a concrete physical area." The first galleries were makeshift exhibition spaces started by artists or their friends in apartments and eventually in storefronts. This rapid growth and decline may be accounted for by the international wave of art speculation and investment that was fueled largely by the profits from the finance and producer services growth sector.

The increasing national and international media spotlight on East Village subculture presented the public with new ways of perceiving the landscape of dilapidated tenements and trash-littered sidewalks and streets. While the images and symbols of urban decay remained the same, their representations and attached meanings shifted from fear and repulsion to curiosity and desire. Real estate developers were quick to capitalize on the interest in the cultural scene, issuing in an arts-driven phase of redevelopment. However, as prices rocketed the art scene shifted to the Lower East Side and today we even saw galleries such as Michali Fine Art on 45 Orchard Street opening in March 2009, signifying that the area is one of the key locations in the New York art scene.

Collect LES Highlights

Artlog Lower East Side Art crawl

MICHALI FINE ART GALLERY is delighted to participate to the Artlog Collect LES'09 on Saturday, April 18th.

Join Artlog for Collect LES, an art crawl through the Lower East Side's burgeoning art community. Coordinated by Artlog in partnership with the LES Business Improvement District, Collect LES includes 28 galleries and the New Museum.

Schedule:

4:00 - 6:00pm $2 off admission to the New Museum’s Triennial "The Generational: Younger Than Jesus," including a private curator-led tour for Collect LES ticket holders from 4:00 - 4:45pm. Space is limited- RSVP TourRSVP@newmuseum.org

6:00 - 8:30pm Gallery crawl

8:00 - 10:30pm Reception at The Sixth Ward (Garden), 191 Orchard St, New York

9:30pm - Late After party at Gallery Bar, 120 Orchard St, New York

From the Bowery to East Broadway, over a thousand art enthusiasts toured the neighborhood galleries during last year’s event. This year will be no less spectacular! Enjoy free wine, beer and liquor and special offers at local businesses as you tour the Lower East Side’s galleries and Phillips Art Expert’s selected urban art locations.

Buy tickets and find more information at http://artlog.com/collectles. This is a 21+ event.


Kimiko Yoshida @ MICHALI FINE ART GALLERY
Marry me!
March 21 - April 26, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 21st, 6-9 pm

Self-portraits, brides of the world, and Descartes

Through a series of self-portraits taken during the last seven years, the Japanese photographer Kimiko Yoshida embodies the brides of the world.

Subverting the stereotypes which pertain to tribal minorities and segregation, she challenges the search of narcissism: she seeks erasure: erasure of the origins. Borrowing from the precept of Descartes “Larvatus Prodeo”(`I come forward masked’), and like an Ovidian tale, transforms into an African, an Indian, an Egyptian, a Russian, a Tibetan… alluding to the condition that we live in the globalization of goods and images, exceeding the possession of a fixed identity by mixing cultures, religions, rituals and references. She crossbreeds, she hybrids, she metamorphoses.

Her approach is a search for the truth: what is true, is what is real. In accordance with Rimbaud, to her the individual is multiple: “I is another”. The identity does not exist, only identifications are tangible.

Kimiko Yoshida changes and she wants to disappear into some almost monochromic representations. The face melts into the unit of color and the tribal object she borrowed, a treasure from the past that is now preserved in a museum, is revealed. This technique evokes the Japanese tradition of the doran, a white painting used by the geishas and the maïkos to erase any characteristic of their face. On the contrary, in Occident, the make-up is used to beautify, to call attention to oneself, to hide the defects. The artist hopes to approach the concept of the woman instead of the female ideal.
Everything is in the obliteration, the minimalism, the detachment. Contrary to her contemporaries, she does not look to appeal for pathos.

Changing masks infinitely, without geographical or temporal consideration, she oscillates between figuration and abstraction, showing the plurality of being as much aesthetic as philosophical. Suggesting 'I am not the one I show. I have to take the risk to stand aside.'
This purification which worries Kimiko Yoshida turns meaningful when she entrusts “all that’s not me, that’s what interest me.”

Maude Michali

The art of Kimiko Yoshida is currently exhibiting at Michali Fine Art, 45 Orchard St, New York, 10002

Inanugural exhibition of Kimiko Yoshida

The inaugural exhibition of Kimiko Yoshida at Michali Fine art attracted art scenesters, bankers, diplomats and the usual suspects.

Michali Fine Art Opening

Finally, Michali Fine Art opens Saturday. Thanks to Liz-n-Val for coming in today. Look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Highlights of Armory Show 2009

She is in Diane Von Fustenberg collection. She is in the Veuve Clicquot collection also. Will I find one at the Armory? What, you may well ask? The prized jewel from Kimiko Yoshida's "Marry Me!" collection...

NY Art Scene: East Village to LES: from Makeshift to Michali Fine Art Gallery

The emerging East Village art scene of the 1980s invented new forms of cultural and economic linkages between the avant garde and urban space. For many the East Village art scene was "about making an ‘art movement’ seem more real by anchoring it to a concrete physical area." The first galleries were makeshift exhibition spaces started by artists or their friends in apartments and eventually in storefronts. This rapid growth and decline may be accounted for by the international wave of art speculation and investment that was fueled largely by the profits from the finance and producer services growth sector.

The increasing national and international media spotlight on East Village subculture presented the public with new ways of perceiving the landscape of dilapidated tenements and trash-littered sidewalks and streets. While the images and symbols of urban decay remained the same, their representations and attached meanings shifted from fear and repulsion to curiosity and desire. Real estate developers were quick to capitalize on the interest in the cultural scene, issuing in an arts-driven phase of redevelopment. However, as prices rocketed the art scene shifted to the Lower East Side and today we even see galleries such as Michali Fine Art on 45 Orchard Street opening in March 2009, signifying that the area is one of the key locations in the New York art scene.

Michali Fine Art Gallery to open 45 Orchard St, NY

The finest modern and contemporary art from the Americas, Europe and Asia. If you love culture, you will love this...