2042: art on the street

I am so happy to let you guys know that a project I am working on is starting to ramp up. 2042: art on the street is a community artwork in Newtown where for one weekend (24-25 October) you will see the heart of Newtown turned into a giant 3-dimensional colouring book just waiting to be coloured by you and filled with your stories. Please visit the 2042 website for more information and I hope you will all join me on this adventure for the next couple of weeks. (I will also be cross-posting so you will be kept up to date on both blogs).

Sarah Scout Presents Andrea Tu

Check out images from Andrea Tu's current exhibition at one of Melbourne's newest galleries Sarah Scout Presents. Andrea Tu is graduate of Monash University and a recipient of both the Australia Council for the Visual Arts, Barcelona Studio Residency and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Studio Artist Residency. These beautiful folded sculptures play with the patterned 2D works also included in the exhibition and demonstrate an exciting technical skill that really caught my eye. Sarah Scout Presents is also a gallery to watch in the coming months.










Andrea Tu, Black Flux 2009, installation view at Sarah Scout, Melbourne care of artist and Sarah Scout Presents.

Olafur Eliasson's 'Take Your Time' to come to Sydney

Olafur Eliasson, One-way colour tunnel, 2007 (digital rendering of interior view); site-specific sculpture to be made at SFMOMA on the occasion of Take your time: Olafur Eliasson; stainless steel, color-effect acrylic, and acrylic mirrors; 100 3/4 x 70 7/8 x 413 3/8 in.; Courtesy the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and neugerriemschneider, Berlin; © 2007 Olafur Eliasson

This amazing retrospective of Olafur Eliasson's work 'Take Your Time' is coming to Sydney in December. A massive coop for the MCA the exhibition has been shown at the MOMA, NY and MOMA, San Francisco and an unlike the many times I have seen his work as one stand alone installation some of his most inspiring works will now be shown alongside each other. Below is a video that they showed at the media preview last night.

http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/15

Only in his 40's Eliasson has created some my favourite public works including the waterfalls he installed in NY last year through the New York Public Art Fund. This is possibly the MCA's biggest and most expensive exhibition to date and I am personally so excited that an installation of this quality is coming to Sydney. The exhibition is set to include some of his maquettes and models which should be an amazing insight in the way his team of 30-35 staff members work.

Take Your Time, MCA Sydney
10 December 2009 - 11 April 2010

James Angus wins WA's most expensive public art commission

Images (pdfs of proposal submission to situate prize 2009 by James Angus)

situate an international sculpture prize in Perth, Western Australia announced yesterday that James Angus' proposal has won a $1 million public art commission. To be located in Perth's CBD - it is the largest ever public art project in WA and will be produced by some of Australia's great public art and engineering talents. Although the principal artist and designer is James Angus, Douglas Knox (Principal Engineer), Peter Mclean (Lighting Engineer), Sebastian Adams, (Industrial Designer), Tony Oxley (from Oxley9 Gallery and Angus' representing gallery and project coordinator) and Jaime Marina, (Fabrication) will help the project to come to fruition and hopefully produce an artwork that the public really enjoy. Both a state and local council venture it is a glimmer of hope that often expendable public art funding is still available and open to new techniques and ideas. Check out the finalists online as the project has attracted some great proposals and concepts well beyond the typical promenade style city art.

Bravo's latest reality show based on the art world

Todd Heisler/The New York Times


The New York Times is reporting that hundreds of people (across the US) turned up a to a series of casting calls for a reality TV show based on contemporary artists for BRAVO and to be produced by Sarah Jessica Parker. Of the hopefuls that turned up 13 finalists will be announced and one artist will win "a gallery show, a cash prize and a sponsored national museum tour". It is a little surprising to note that representation by a high level gallery is not part of the prize, although no specifics have been confirmed. This could be similar to the response the technical and skill based reality shows such as Project Runway and So You Think You Can Dance received where industry people were extremely skeptical until a few season in. The prizes therefore often increased once the show had proved itself and become reputable. It will be great to see how the contestants will be tested and surely that in itself will create some interesting TV.

COFA Spring Fair stalls up for grabs

This event is usually on a beautiful spring day with a friendly atmosphere and is a lot less sweaty than the COFA Annual. To be held this year on the 19th of September the COFA Spring Fair Art and Design Markets provide huge exposure for COFA's artists and designers. Stall priority is given to current students and then graduates. Stall holders take 100% of profits with a $25.oo stall fee, however with 5000 people visiting each year this does not seem much compared to possible profit. Contact the COFA Marketing Department for more info.

Free contemporary art e-cards

In the middle of winter we all need a little bit of colour. Artbank has provided this service for a while but these FREE e-cards might be just the ticket to give someone or a group of friends a little colour in their inbox (beyond the usual spam and videos of Kittens falling asleep). The quality is a hell of a lot better than some poorly designed singing ones and promotes the work of whatever artist you pick. The choices are pretty varied and are changed over every couple of months.Current artists include David Griggs, Petrina Hicks and Lucy Culliton.

Resale Royalty debate continues to drag on

Image SMH: Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri in front of his artwork Warlugulong, quoted in the article as an example of an indigenous artist who could have benefited from the Resale Royalty scheme. This work sold for $1200 in 1977 and then in 2007 for $2.4 million.

Louise Schwartzkoff reported in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald on Peter Garrett's response to the Resale Royalties Bill Inquiry. Mr. Garrett has recommended (amongst other things) that the 5% royalty that would be given to artists with each sale of their work would not be placed on works that are currently owned by the collector and then sold, only on the second time around, "A retrospective scheme would be unfair to current artwork owners who bought works without knowing that a royalty would be payable on resale," said Mr Garrett.

However the art market is a fairly slow one and artworks are kept in families or collections often for decades. Therefore this was would not effect many older artists and particularly older indigenous artists whose works has steeply increased in value in recent years. However in the long-term this is great for younger artists who will make some money off the sale of their artworks as works gain value as they are sold and re-sold over time. The Bill has yet to go to the House of Representatives so we will not know for quite a while to full ramifications of decisions being made.

Between Site & Space at Artspace

Installation view of Paramodel, pilot plan — p class architect office — , Artspace, Sydney, 2009


Installation view of Paramodel, Paramodelic CC [Car/Construction] Parking Space P.CC.P., Artspace, Sydney, 2009


Between Site & Space
This exhibition is a great example of the great work that comes from many collaborations between artists and architects, as well as the joy that comes from a free flowing dialogue and open mind. The use of small cars, animals and other unusual materials make for a very youthful but still engaging exhibition. Currently showing until the 18 April 2009.

With artists EXONEMO, ALEX GAWRONSKI, PARAMODEL, GAIL PRIEST, TIM SILVER, HIRAKU SUZUKI the exhibition is a culmination of a collaboration between Tokyo Wonder Site and Artspace and curators Reuben Keehan and Hisako Hara.

There will also be a conference held at the end of the exhibition on the 17-18 of April, entitled
SPACES OF ART. Where a discussion on institutional / post-institutional curatorial and related practices in contemporary art will take place. See artspace.org.au for more info.

Renew Newcastle launches with Marcus Westbury's help

Renew Newcastle launches this weekend with an event at Renew Newcastle HQ, 3 Morgan St Newcastle this saturday 21st of February at 11AM. Marcus Westbury will then lead a tour of the first of hopefully many projects taking place in and around Newcastle's Hunter Street Mall with Lost At E Minor, Gallery Raw, Emerald Arts and Loop Space some of the arts groups involved.

View Larger Map

Guerilla Gardners

Image: Wolloomooloo Guerilla Garden by Mickie Flick - Flicker

Guerilla Gardeners premiered last night on Channel Ten but is getting some not so great reviews from local councils. As I mentioned in a previous post the Guerilla Gardening phenomena has been around for quite a while although has recently had a revival. It seems once again Channel Ten is trying to make money of cool and dangerous activities (similar to breakdancing on SYTYCD?) and The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Marrickville Council is not happy with the structure that was build is a Newtown park, many other Councils have already complained. Below is an image of the Guerilla Gardeners attempt at cleaning up the start of the Express Way in Woolloomooloo - its certainly educational is term of spelling but the cynicism from people responses seems to be more to do with Channel Ten than the gardens themselves.

ABUNDANT: Highlights from the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale

Image: Abundant at Venice Biennale 2008.
Courtesy tom$ Flicker.

Abundant showcases contemporary Australian architects who exhibited in the 2008 Architecture Biennale in Venice with the theme - Beyond Building. Object will be the only Australian gallery showing the exhibition which demonstrates the breadth of architectural work in Australia and the way in which architects can both problem solve and push forward conceptually.

Until 5 April 2009 at Object Gallery in Surry Hills.

NewPark Station wins Live the BOX competition

Felix Heidgen and Thomas Nagy from Princeton, New Jersey have won Live the BOX with the scheme NewPark Station . The competition by AIA Newark and Suburban and the Young Architects Forum looked to find "innovative, visionary and compelling proposals for container constructed multi-family mixed-use project". The use of shipping containers is not an entirely new design invention and has been used as a space for displaying art and architecture for several years now. Recently Art Basel Miami used them to present the Art Positions - Young Art by The Beach however in this case the construction material is a great starting point for the architects who have created a scheme with the local community and keep their real needs in mind.

Terra Nullius Now Showing in Germany

The German Federal Cultural Foundation has funded an exhibition of Australian Art which begun on Australia Day. Terra Nullius: Contemporary Art from Australia is curated by Deborah Kelly (Australian) and Frank Motz (Germana) and has an amazing array and quality of artists and mediums and is an example of the increasing relationship between Australian and German contemporary art galleries. The exhibition will be showing at ACC Galerie Weimar until 22 March 2009 and then move on to Halle 14 in the Baumwollspinnerei Leipzig from 1 May - 26 July 2009.

The artists participating are:

Vernon Ah Kee
Tony Albert
Richard Bell
boat-people.org
Jon Campbell
Destiny Deacon & Virginia Fraser
Julie Dowling
Tina Fiveash
George Gittoes
Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro
Gordon Hookey
Dianne Jones
Mike Parr
pvi collective
Tony Schwensen
Merran Sierakowski
Soda_Jerk
Squatspace
Natascha Stellmach
Judy Watson

40 x 40 x 40 at Dickerson Gallery Melbourne

40 x 40 x40 is a group show of you guessed it works with dimensions 40 cm by 40cm (2d) and 40 x 40 x 40 (3d). With a mix of gorgeous mediums this looks like a fun and enticing show to start off the year and a smart but not totally subtle way to create affordable works for the current temperamental market.


40 x 40 x 40
4 February - 22 February, 2009

Dickerson Gallery
44 Oxford Street
Collingwood Melbourne VIC 3066

MOS architects win PS1 Young Architects program

PS1 and MOMA have announced the winning scheme as afterparty by architectural collective MOS for their 10th annual Young Architects program where an installation is created in the front courtyardspace of PS1 in Queens, NYC. The installation is a series of concrete curved towers which use wind to cool them during the summer. The previous courtyard installation was a series of outdoor gardens and will be replaced with afterparty as part of PS1 summer program where the installations as used as a bar and music venue during the summer months.

Another year, Another Warhol

Despite Andy Warhol's death just over 20 yrs ago new and reconstructed exhibitions of his art are still happening on a regular basis. Andy Warhol's place in history as a Jewish artist (his original family name was Warhola) and his place in the history of the many famous gallerists who supported him start off the Warhol exhibitions for 2009.

Warhol's Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered exhibition is about to conclude at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco and was organised in conjunction with The Jewish Museum, New York. The portraits include Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Brandeis,Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, George Gershwin, Franz Kafka, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir, Gertrude Stein.

Presented alongside original photographs and sketches for the portraits as well as source material and reviews from the time of lays the basis for interpreting the original 1980 exhibition Warhol's Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century shown at the Lowe Art Museum in Miami and The Jewish Museum in New York.

At the same time a private collection of his Warhol's works Warhol from the Sonnabend Collection will be exhibited at the Gagosian in New York until Saturday, February 28, 2009. Ileana Sonnabend was one of Andy Warhol's strongest supporters with some of his most well known series exhibited at her gallery in Paris including Death and Disasters (1964), Flowers (1965), and Thirteen Most Wanted Men (1967).

Nuage Vert

Photo by Antti Ahonen, 'Nuage Vert by HeHe'.

HeHe
Nuage Vert
22-29 February 2008, Salmisaari, Helsinki, 5pm to 10pm

Check out this amazing new artwork Nuage Vert (Green Cloud) which follows the emissions of a power station, adjusting the size of the cloud by whether the emissions are lessened or not. The artists HeHe (duo Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen) are asking the local community to reduce their energy consumption to effect the size of the cloud.

CARRIAGE- ART- WORKS

The South Sydney fringe is stepping up - as I mentioned in a previous post, reaching from Newtown, Surry Hills to Redfern this part of Sydney is increasingly leaving some of typical Paddington and Eastern Suburbs galleries looking a little of out touch. Hopefully this art fair will be a great example for the young and more available artworks on the market. The event will be held for a week and there will be some great events on at Carriageworks over the weekend and are worth checking out.