Daniel Arsham, better known as “The Illusionist,” has his new exhibit The Fall, The Ball And The Wall showing at OHWOW Gallery now till February 16th 2012.

This is one not to miss! It features two and three-dimensional pieces crafted against the norm (whatever that might be). This NY-based artist, dubbed as the “Illusionist” by some, cleverly put together a surreal collection with three diverse areas of focus.  The first, a simple manipulation of basic architecture- where walls appear to be melting and oozing from the surface- reversing the notion of architectural rigidity and of a partition’s standard presentation. The second, a new series of work on canvas where he depicts realistic building constructions, which include elements that spell out words, such as “OOPS and HUH.” And the grand finale, a large-scale hanging mass of tinted spheres, from the set of Merce Cunningham’s final performances, a three-dimensional sculpture based from the pixels of a hyper-magnified photograph of a cloud formation.

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 Newbies changing the face of Photography

Today’s big names in photography chose international rising talents they believe to be most influential in the changing face of photography for a new exhibit, titled State of the Art Photography.  

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.

Big Things to Avoid. A new series from Ed Loftus

From the skylines of the city of Oakland, self-taught artist Ed Loftus diligently creates beautiful photorealistic graphite drawings derived from borrowed images and old photographs.

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

Jonathan Yeo started the Conversation

Our very own Susan Michals keeps it going... 

Take a closer looker look - it's worth the trip into tourist trap central.  The exibit is running till August 8th, 2010.

320 N. Beverly Drive

Beverly Hills, CA 90210

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