Artist Series

Stussy is doing big things right now. Their support of the MASH crew was what turned me back on to the the clothing designer. I just recently found out that they are working with artists to create a line called, appropriately enough, their artist series. The newest shirts released come from the illustration works of Andrew Pommier. They are real fresh and have got some hot illustrations on them. I like what Stussy is up to.





Vince

Blown Away!

Okay, so I'm going to go from throwing back my post to getting real fresh and new. I attended the MFA exhibition reception last night at Kresge Art Museum. The four artists work was all high quality stuff, but the work of Helena Craules stood out for me. The solid backgrounds layered with a pastel color pallet and images of the artists herself blew me away.

In her statement Craules writes, "I use the female form as a vehicle to express ideas of physical and psychological abuse, the way we view our bodies and the way we are perceived. Subsequently the form disrobed of most material can become a pastry to the male gaze and can therefore create thoughts of possession." Keep your eyes open for this work. It's out of control. I wish I could find more images to include here, but you'll just have to stop by the museum and check it out for yourself. I strongly recommend it. The show is staying up until April 26th and is free... so you have no damn reason to not check this work out.








As a small aside in this post about art that is blowing me away I think I need to include a statement about this cat Outasight from NY. Dude is super ill and if you care anything about what goes into your ears in the form of music it would do you well to give him a listen here or download his seven song EP here.

Vince

Throwing It Back

So I've been gone for a hot minute. Been really busy finishing up some pieces and I haven't had time to update. During that time I was reintroduced to an artist that I forgot that I was really into. So we're going to throw it back for this post... If you don't like that you can tell me. I probably won't care though.

Jenny Holzer's body of work known as truisms works on different levels for different people. For me it works in the way that I'm sure she intended as suggested by the title Truisms. A lot of this shit I agree with and believe in. It also works in another way for me. I just think that her stuff is super funny/clever. It's hard for me to get into art in a public arena. I guess I just have a stigma against the words "public art." I don't really think she falls into that category, though. The fact that her art is installed in such places as t-shirts, banks, and golf balls is, to me, sweet as hell. Big ups to Jenny Holzer. She's still working too. Check her out if you don't already know about her. www.jennyholzer.com







Vince

Miss Bunny

(From an artistic viewpoint) I don't particularly like this style because I think it's too quaint and overdone. But, I think craft pieces like Sarah Ogrens necklaces are the perfect canvas for mixed media illustration. The "Miss Bunny" necklace is FIERCE. A bunny beats a Victorian silhouette around my neck any day.
Check her out in the spring 08 edition of "Art Doll Quarterly."
JULEZ

Saelee Oh

This may be kind of embarrassing, but let's face it... I'm a sucker for super cute art. I recently stumbled upon Saelee Oh and found something that made me freak out. I couldn't help but be amazed at the fact that she created a piece containing a hairy whale (upper left hand corner of this image). I also couldn't help sharing it. Check her out, it's cute.


Vince

Geraldine Juarez

I was able to have a good conversation with Geraldine Juarez, an artist currently living in New York as a fellow for Eyebeam. She has worked a lot with visual effects and video post production, but her latest work revolves around "lo-tech objects to survive the end of the world." Juarez IS NOT A GREEN ECONOMIST. "For me, a sustainable future based on consuming "with the earth in mind" is the ultimate social disaster. I prefer to stop preparing for the upcoming natural disasters and start acting on the social disaster around me, like consumer capitalism." She doesn't pay for her materials, rather uses methods of hacking, finding, stealing, and recycling. One of her projects was making Postal Gowns from Tyvek postal envelopes that can be found for free at the nearest US post office.

She works in a two person group called Forays. A lot of their projects deal with how people react to space and environment. Some of their projects include installing handmade swings on city streets, making cocoons (hammocks in trees to sleep), and also tackling the issue of edible waste in America (AKA artsy Dumpster Diving). ---Mind you, all made from found/stolen materials.


check out an interview with FORAYS
website

Julez (not giving this gal justice with this half-azz blog post.)

Creatures!

I am right now striving to create a post that would be along the lines of what Julez might update with (since her posts are infinitely more interesting than mine). I was shown this a while ago (by Julez) and I've watched it countless times since then. Theo Jansen is an artist from the Netherlands who creates creatures that "live" on beaches. His hope is to one day make them self sufficient. Check them out. It's going to blow your mind.



Vince

Not Just Another Shoe Post

Okay, I know I'm constantly making posts about sneakers, and this one is... sort of. While these sneakers are fresh as hell and designed by French artistic entity Mat&Jewski, there is a more important question I have. Does this mean that Le Coq Sportif is back? Or did they just never go away and I couldn't find their stuff? Either way, I'm super pumped to see some fresh Le Coq Sportif stuff and I hope it keeps coming. Read about them at www.hypebeast.com

Also, note the dogs getting their freak on on the toe. I think there is something to be said about funny apparel that isn't in the form of a lame sexual innuendo t-shirt so prevalent in the Mid West (sorry, this is a trivial personal issue I have with people who don't understand what style is. If you don't care about style, that's one thing and I guess I can deal with it. But it's another thing to not even realize that what you're wearing isn't clever, funny, or hot at all).



Vince

Hot Artist: Europe Edition

Kim Simonsson is a Finnish sculptor working with slip cast clay, bondo, and car paint as his primary materials. His work gives a three dimensional element to the works found in manga books and anime cartoons. With a mix of bizarre, fantasy, and cute these works are fresh as hell for sure. Check them out at www.kimsimonsson.com





Vince

art nerdz

I don't know how long these have been around, but for all of you art hist. nerdz and buffz i discovered the perfect "play thing" for you (or just me...). I can not only look at the 13th century sci fi/religious paintings Hiëronymus Bosch created, but actually interact with his wild monsters. I don't think the billions of sweatshop/mastermindz Kid Robot employs could top THIS wizard of the Dutch world, or his critters--- IN TOY FORMAT.
look Here and Buy Here

(They also have Dali, Degas, and more.
Julie

This Is Important

Let's get real as hell for a minute. There are a few things in my life that I'm all about. Fashion happens to be towards the top of that list(though I don't have the cash to accommodate my taste). Along with the fashion love I have a thing for fresh ass artists. Let's put the two together shall we?

Reebok has commissioned some of Jean-Michel Basquiat's work to use in their recreated Reebok NPC UK sneakers. It's sad that Basquiat is no longer with us and that someone is making bank with his art, but at least his work is being put to a fresh use. You can try to get your hands on a pair starting February 5, 2008.






Vince

toasty

Toast Girl schools regular folk in the art of toast making. She shuns the traditional role of performance art, usually done in high brow galleries or swanky museums, by having rockstar-like performances, while still managing to weird people out in the same degree. Toast Girl dresses like a housewife/manga character and skates around on vacuum cleaners with wheels, which makes me wonder what I am doing with my life.
Julez

The Last Supper and Chocolate Syrup

Tedtalks is, to the intellectual community, as Mecca is to Muslims. (Can I make that comparison? Was that okay? If you knew what happened to me today in my Women in Islam class you'd understand my baditude right now... theology is tricky and people are too personally invested in it to have an academic/postmodern discourse....anyways...)

Once a year 1,000 intellectuals in the areas of technology, entertainment, or design come together and give 20 minute lectures in their specific areas of expertise.

What instantly drew me to the artist Vik Muniz was the fact that he was shot, and then he used the money that he bargained from the shooter to come to America. Essence of smoothness.

What I find most interesting about his work is his choice of materials, and the baggage that comes with using those materials. He explains it more in his book, but the lecture is good as well. Watch this shit!
<3 Julez

Artists I Think Are Hot. Deal.

Akio Takamori:

I recently had the opportunity to listen to this man speak. Not only are his ceramic figures super hot, he's a genuinly kind and honest man.
http://www.cs.washington.edu/building/art/AkioTakamori/
Check him out


Sket-One:

Conneticut based graffiti artist who has designed for toymakers including Kid Robot, Wheaty Wheat, and more. Aside from showing work in national and international shows, Sket-One is published in the legendary graffiti archive "artcrimes." Dude gets real as hell.

http://www.sket-one.com/

Doze Green:

Dude is pissed. Really pissed. He is gracing the cover of the latest issue of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine and has a feature article with enough passion ideas about the art world that it could send people to war. Make sure to check him out.
http://www.dozegreen.com/

All for now.

Vince