From 1971 to 1994, Italian artist Alighiero Boetti (1940–1994) embarked on a series of projects with Afghan embroiderers, creating monumental pieces that would become some of the artist’s most iconic works. Working first in Kabul in the 1970s and then in refugee camps in Pakistan after the 1979 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan,  Afghan women embroidered works based on Boetti’s templates that include: colorful grids of letters that spell out phrases (such as “Order and Disorder”); Mappe (maps), wall-sized world maps with countries filled-in with the colors and symbols of their flags; and Tutto (everything), large-scale works entirely filled with intricately embroidered shapes representing diverse objects—sunglasses, a Hindu goddess, a protractor, twins, and more. 

Come join the opening program on Feb. 25^th, 2012 Featuring Fowler OutSpoken Conversation: Alighiero Boetti’s Embroderies

Speakers: Christopher Bennett, Alma Ruiz, Randi Malkin Steinberger.   Feb. 25, 2012 / 5–6 p.m.

The Fowler Museum

308 Charles E. Young Drive North, Los Angeles, CA 90095

*Located in the North Campus of UCLA

Wednesday - Sunday

Noon - 5 PM

Thursday

Noon - 8 PM

Admission is free.  Parking is available for a maximum of $10 in Lot 4.

Here's a glimpse.

OOPS. Inkjet print and Acrylic on Canvas. 51.25 x 74.25 x 1.625". 2011. Courtesy of the Daniel Arsham and OHWOW

You have until February 16, 2012 to experience this noteworthy exhibit so catch it while you can!

OHWOW

937 N. La Cienega Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90069

Tuesday – Saturday  11 AM –  6PM

oh-wow.com



The exhibit, featuring collections and installations by the more than 40 selected artists, opens February 4 and runs through May 6, 2012 at the NRW Forum in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The title of the exhibition points at the new relationship of photography and art. 

The artists and works selected represent more than just a change in the technology and ways photos are taken, they represent a change in the sources for creativity, such as celestial spheres, and the new global data space. This means new perspectives and new inspiration for emerging artists, mixed with new themes such as globalization and migration.  

Examples from the exhibit are the landscape photography of Alex Grein, reminiscent of paintings in the tradition of Caspar David Friedrichs, but made up of fragments of images she found on the Internet and Google Earth; Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse investigate the high-rise residential building Ponte City, an icon of the Johannesburg skyline; and Olaf Otto Becker focuses on the traces left on the landscape by human overpopulation. 

The many new forms of presentation, installations, and blends of media and materials visible in the exhibits at  State of the Art Photography suggest that photography is arriving at new artistic forms, and Andreas Gursky, one of world’s best known photographers and a native of Düsseldorf and professor at the city’s world-renowned State Art Academy, confirms:

“The future does not belong to pure photography, but to the free arts.”

Alex Prager: "Barbara" from the "Week-End" (2009) © Alex Prager

Bianca Brunner: From the series "Uninhabitable Object 's (2009) © Bianca Brunner Gallery and Bolte Long Zurich

Mischa Kuball: "Image Apparatus_Polaroid" (2010 FF) © Mischa Kuball / © VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2012

*The artists were chosen by a committee of advisors, including Andreas Gursky, Thomas Weski, Klaus Biesenbach, Udo Kittelmann, FC Gundlach, Thomas Seelig, Andrea Holzherr, and Werner Lippert.

Two iconic forces that have impacted the past half century, Amnesty International and Bob Dylan, are saluted by 80 musicians in this four-disc compilation of exceptional Bob Dylan covers. A total of 75 tracks were recorded and donated by a diverse cast of artists- spanning from Adele, Maroon 5, Sting, K’naan, Ziggy Marley, Seal and Lucinda Williams- all unite to show their support. Even those before his time, Miley Cyrus and Ke$ha (yes, really) made an appearance on the album. And get this, none of them accepted any money for their work (nor did producers, engineers or studios).

"The connections between Amnesty International's mission and Bob Dylan's music seem, on a moment's reflection, so obvious and natural that they require no explanation. For half a century, Amnesty has pressed to secure the fundamental human rights of the persecuted and imprisoned across the globe, standing for the sanctity of individual conscience above arbitrary authority. Over that same half century, Dylan's art has explored and expressed the anguish and hope of the modern human condition." -Sean Wilentz in his liner notes from the album.

Chimes of Freedom is dedicated to people worldwide who are unjustly imprisoned or threatened for the peaceful expression of their beliefs.

All profits will help fund Amnesty International’s life-saving human rights work.

So don’t hesitate, this album save lives. 

The music is remarkable and price is reasonable.

Show your support and get it! 

Buy it here or here.

xx

Keeping his creativity fueled with 70s music and the tunes from Indie rock band Silver Jews, Ed Loftus explores the recurring theme of human existence inspired by the thought of mortality and the wonders of life in his first solo exhibit, Big Things to Avoid. This visually, thought-provoking series of illustrations is currently being housed at the Gregory Lind Gallery in downtown San Francisco.

“I do think about my mortality, and… I think it’s something to live with that in mind… you feel a little bit more alive when you are exploring this bigger thing.” – Ed Loftus

The creation of Untitled- Living Room (2010), touches on the idea of the presence of absence, which came into existence after hanging out with some old friends. “A simple thought that one of us may not be here tomorrow,” made him “aware of how indifferent the world is once you’re gone.”

Untitled- Living Room (2010)

In Untitled- Trashbag (2010), he explores the idea of things we take for granted as we tend to focus on the “mundane everydayness” of life - the “silly worries… things that haven’t been dealt with... big or small.” He commented that he’s shocked at “our ability to walk around and not see the daytime moon.” This drawing fixated on the trash bags, symbolizes “all the obsessive bullshit we fill our lives with when we should be thinking about the wonders of life.”
Untitled- Trashbag (2010)

 
Clever? Indeed.

Come check out Ed Loftus' Big Things to Avoid exhibit at the Gregory Lind Gallery in downtown San Francisco showing from December 17, 2011 to January 28, 2012.

*Graphite is that gray lead in pencils. Ed Loftus sometimes spend up to five months completing a drawing, starting from the top sheet of the paper, working his way down to the bottom left corner to avoid smudges.

xo

J. Vo

Check out more of Ashley's work ~ especially if you're an Audrey Fan!   ashleylongshore.com

Patrick Hoelck