ARTLOG

Private art foundations are popping up all over the globe often on sprawling estates. In the New York area, the art world descend on the great homes of collectors like Peter Brant’s spectacular foundation in Greenwich or The Horts with voyeuristic pleasure. These get togethers all seem rooted in the history and magic of The Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut.  Once a mecca for New York culterati, the likes of Warhol, Frank Stella, Rauschenberg and the Velvet Underground escaped the city, partied and even created art on the grounds. The Glass House with its landscapes, collection spaces and yearly rotating exhibitions make for New York’s most peaceful and most mandatory annual visit.  

This weekend, at it’s annual Summer Party, the art world congregates with a vibe that is distinct from traditional museum or foundation events in NYC. Perhaps it is the stunning nature or just the ghost of Phillip Johnson, but you can’t help find yourself  talk with strangers, connecting over the beauty and tranquility of the grounds or while immersing yourself in the still active exhibition program. You can almost hear the whispers in the wind of the cultural icons in the past who have transversed these grounds. 

This year’s exhibition,  Yayoi Kusama: Narcissus Garden, a landscape installation and the artist edition by Vik Muniz who created the Glass House in chocolate syrup seem fitting for one of the New York area’s most delicious centers of art history and culture. 

The intersection of brands and art is common place these days. Big fashion brands sponsoring exhibitions at the Whitney or the Guggenheim and luxury bands dominating the landscapes at art fairs like Art Basel in Miami are now common place. The Austin, Texas based tech giant, Dell, took a different approach last week working with Lightbox to produce an interactive art installation. Dell provided its suite of technology, focusing on a new line of Dell XPS (#DellXPS) laptops and  enlisted several folks including artist Aerosyn-Lex and filmmaker Terence Nance.  The company then turned to Lightbox’s engineers to collaborate with other creative technologists and artists to build a three day installation, “Powered by Dell.”

The abstract paintings of artist Aerosyn-Lex were the foundation for much of the installation which began with a large mural on the outside of Lightbox’s Times Square warehouse building. From the outside, visitors entered trough a 20 foot sound and motion activated James Turrell inspired entryway. In the center of the space, lived a paint cloud touch screen art piece on the 4k screens of the XPS 13 and XPS 15s and a photo booth that superimposed guests’ images via Microsoft Kinect on top of videos of Aerosyn-Lex’s artworks.  The most ambitious project consisted of  a 3D soundscape room with a 4 wall projection and motion activated experience that spit out 10-15 second gifs of visitors with both live video footage and a data visualization of movement.   

For a Biennale titled, All The World’s Futures, there were relatively few works and pavilions that seemed to fully embrace the current and futuristic interconnection of technology and art as the media choice of this generation to communicate, affect change, and create immersive experiential exhibitions that affect the whole being. But those that did, intrigued with the supernatural, spiritual quests, corporate villainy, throwbacks to the first book of the bible, and lands where men remain manly men.

The standout, located in the basement of the Germany Pavilion, is the futuristic motion capture studio/video installation The Factory of the Sun by Hito Steyerl. Placing the viewer inside the room-sized video game - within a lit matrix covering the floors, walls, and ceilings - the project is introduced in a wink-and-a-nod corporate news style infomercial. The influences of gaming, motion capture, and wii games like dance dance revolution are matched with environmental concerns, sun energy, corporate villainy with Deutsche bank drones tracking and attacking demonstrators. Movement captures the sunlight to transform it into energy, and dance becomes a form of resistance in Steyerl’s work.

Moon Kyungwon’s and Jeon Joonho’s stunning multi-channel film installation, “The Ways of Folding Space & Flying,” is a “future-retrospective narrative” that completely envelopes the Korean Pavilion. The project interweaving history with futuristic fantasies, power and the ever shifting global influence of a nation, academia and science, and mind-body powers of collapsing time and distance combined with supernatural abilities to levitate and travel across space and time. The artists encourage a suspension of Western ideology and openness to Eastern beliefs and imagination, freeing the body and mind from restricted ways of viewing the physical and mental world, as well as our limited and isolated ways of seeing art’s role.

The Latvian pavilion went low tech with what the artists describe as ‘’a pastoral of the digital age” in which the lumberjack ‘garage men’ ceaselessly physically tinker, build, and invent, in their manly man world of solitary seclusion holed up in garages built in the 70s and 80s on the peripheries of the Baltic states. Artists Katrina Neiburga,whose anthropological interest in people is the root of her videos, collaborates for the first time with Andris Eglitis, choosing recycled wood and chainsaws as his artistic tools, to co-create the kaleidoscopic shantytown multi-media installation, ARMPIT, including a 2 ½ minute amusement style video ride. The pavilion is described by its commissioner as “reminiscent of a spaceship that is built according to retro-utopian tradition and the aesthetics of the Soviet garage cooperatives…”

Exposing the gender stereotypes still very much alive in remote and marginalized places in Eastern Europe, the accompanying text disavows any hint of metrosexuality for these characters: “any woman knows that the hairy armpit of a man, albeit sweat, is perfect for cuddling and feeling at home.”  The artists have created an homage to the marginalized life of the garage men as a time capsule of “an inadvertent maker movement characterized by brutal techno-romanticism.”

My East Is Your West brings the conflicting nations of India and Pakistan to the Biennale together for the first time, in an offsite collateral exhibition presented by The Gujral Foundation.Rashid Rana (representing Pakistan) creates dialogue via live video exchange between guests in her installation at the Palazzo Benzon with passerbys on the street of her hometown of Lahore, who step into the exact replica of the ornate palazzo room created in wallpaper. 

Monika Bravo (NY based, Colombian born) is one of three artists representing, and collected by the Vatican in the Pavilion of the Holy See. In the Beginning … the Word became flesh, for which artists were charged with responding to the themes: Beginning, the Word, and the Flesh referencing the 2013 edition of Genesis and the Gospel of St. John. Bravo’s “ARCHE-TYPES: The sound of the word is beyond sense”continues her expansive body of work coding/decoding information, her interest in the language of abstraction, and deciphering reality by means of perception. The layered work is inspired by and conflates ideas from The Gospel of John, Malevich’s ideas behind Suprematism, and the ideas of Zaum by the avant garde poet Aleksei Kruchenykh in the artist’s search for true meaning and how to perceive such an abstract idea as God itself.

The installation consists of multiple large flat screens, presented in an architecturally oriented open maze encouraging movement and creating a visual dialogue between the works, but with directional sound that allows for individual attention. The artist superimposes multiple elements - layers of color, geometry in motion, and language - interweaving information that morphs, appears and disappears, evoking multiple readings.

Supernatural forces and serenity combine in several projects including the Switzerland, Korean, and USA pavilions as well as offsite projects. In Switzerland’s pavilion, Pamela Rosenkranz’s Our Product creates a sublime and radiantenvironment using the elements of color, light, sound, smell – and stated but undetected components such as hormones and bacteria. Green light and paint create a glowing environment in the first rooms that lead to a pink bubbling pool of water (the average color of northern European skin), hues the artist says were inspired by Venetian painting and the light in Venice; synchronized pumps generated by a real time algorithm create the subtle sound of a beating  heart or running water; and according to the artist, we should be noting the smell of fresh baby skin (undetected by me, perhaps more conceptual or more likely drowned out by the musky sweat of the many doing the run around to see 180 projects.) With open ceilings and windows, the work physically connects with the Giardini, in both natural and manufactured ways.

Isaac Julian’s new 5-channel video, Stones Against Diamonds, filmed in remote glacial ice caves in Iceland, features a shaman-like woman in what appears to be a spiritual quest amongst the natural crystal elements. The environment is interspersed with iconic architectural elements, including spiral staircase and glass easels by modernist architect Lina Bo Bardi, whose letter inspired the film. More internal and reflective than previous emotionally charged works, the sumptuous images resonate in the romantic Palazzo Malipiero-Barnabo in this private project commissioned by Rolls-Royce.

Also inspired by the Iceland (in this case the author Halldor Laxness’s novel “Under the Glacier”) and the supernatural, in a more witchy-woman kind of way, Joan Jonas, a pioneer of performance and video work, represents the U.S. Pavilion with “They Come to Us without a Word.” Jonas stated in her brochure: “We are haunted, the rooms are haunted.” Sadly, these words were resonant in the pavilion due to the sudden death of Jane Farver, the artist’s friend and editor of the exhibition publication, while in Venice for the installation.

The Venice Biennale is open through November 22, 2015 in Venice, Italy.  

The historic Wave Hill gardens, mansion and horticulture center celebrates 50 years this week in the Bronx. The home which housed Teddy Roosevelt for two summers and Mark Twain for two years was built as a country home in 1843. In 1960, the property was gifted to NYC. For the first time in its history, the park will be open late into the evenings for a new outdoor and indoor gallery installation: Chris Doyle’s The Lightening: a Project for Wave Hill’s Aquatic Garden. The installation of light, animation, and sound changes from day to night and is embedded in three large mirrored sculptural objects that surround the water lily filled aquatic pool. 

Wave Hill is a 28-acre public garden and cultural center overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades in the Bronx. The exhibition is up through May 24 and is open in the evenings Friday through Sunday until 9:30pm.  

This week, New York hosts the 4th annual 3D Print show - bringing in key players from the industry to interact and introduce the public to the future of 3D printing in design, medicine, architecture, aerospace, and automobiles. 

3D printing technology has existed for more than 30 years, but has only recently revolutionized the tech design sphere thanks to companies like Stratasys, MakerBot, and Mcor Technologies who have expanded to large scale manufacturing as well as lowered costs, bringing 3D printers inside the home. So, how is something like a donut printed? A 3D design is created from a computer file or scan, and using a powder, plastic, ceramic, or metal, the printer spits out a number of successive layers of material until the object is fully formed. Instead of focusing on the daunting prospect of 3D printed guns, there are many life-altering 3D printed objects introduced every month.

At the 2013 London Print Show, Fripp Design & Research unveiled their alternative to handcrafted prosthetics, which are incredibly lifelike and easily reproduced at a cheaper cost. NASA and XYZprinting invest in 3D printers to make food, such as Pizza and Chocolate, allowing for a 30-year shelf life. Design firm in-flexions introduced a living space that’s completely digitally printed, called the “printed habitat.” Meanwhile, there is an entire fashion show dedicated to 3D printed designs featuring artists such as Aaron Trocola, Andy O’Mara, Bradley Rothenberg, Dilek Sezen, Francis Bitonti, Heidi Lee, Helena Lukasova + Denisa Nova, Holy Faya, Liz Ciokajlo, Paul Redmond, and Rachel Nhan.

Companies like MakerBot and Shapeways are also changing the future of events with photo booths and interior design products. Makerbot, witnessing the rise in photo booths at events and retail stores, recently introduced a 3-D photo booth that creates a replica of participant’s heads. Meanwhile, Shapeways’ online marketplace allows users to upload images of products such as centerpieces, vases, and party favors to be 3D printed and mailed to them.  As 3D printing becomes more advanced and efficient by reducing prototyping and manufacturing costs, imaginations run wild as we enter this golden age of 3D products.

Auto companies display their best new car designs at the New York International Auto Show beginning April 3rd, and this year new car technology is the dominant theme. Willautomakers keep up with tech firms like Apple and Google who have entered the auto game? Companies like Lincoln, Bentley, Audi, and Land Rover are making a splash with their own cutting edge design features. The buzz words of the year is semi-autonomous as companies like Lincoln, Tesla and BMW unveil new improvements to the technology for automated parallel parking and cruise control providing a small glimpse into a future of driverless cars.

The Lincoln Continental garnered buzz after unveiling their new concept that focuses on new technology. They recently held a pop-up press launch at Harman’s flagship store on Madison Ave. in an effort to align itself with tech corporations. Hoping for a facelift, the Continental boasts E-Latch handles that open door with the press of a button, and an SPD SmartGlass® tinting sunroof, which allows passengers to control heat from direct sunlight. Marc Lichte, Head of Audi Design, presents the Prologue concept car that reimagines the driving experience; it is equipped with a virtual cockpit that has high-resolution, displays and three mirrors, which generate a virtual stage on three levels. Tech designers at Jaguar Land Rover transform the entire windshield into smart glass screen with laser projected augmented reality in order to provide more detailed navigation. While these automakers seek to compete with modern tech innovation, Bentley wishes to maintain its classic aesthetic as it invests in the highest quality wood and 3D-printed steel and copper. 

Stuart Parr is a man who does not believe in definitions and certainly does not follow any set of occupational rules. In the past few decades he has been an interior architect, Eminem’s film producer, Mark Newson’s manager and the owner of  the trademark for the legendary collections of Jean-Michel Frank. His most visible projects have been co-producing 8 Mile and Get Rich or Die Tryin and designing the Marble House Tribeca, a 10,000 square foot townhouse with a 40 foot pool set in a room wrapped entirely in Carrara marble. 

His latest endeavor is truly a passion play. He worked with the famed NYC real estate developer and art collector, Aby Rosen, and self produced an exhibit from his personal Italian motorcycle collection. The show “Art of The Italian Two Wheel,” opens this month at the newly designed 285 Madison Ave (at 40th Street) and features 26 bikes including classics from Ducati, Laverda and  MV Agusta. 

Chinese artist Cao Fei has created an 118 floor, 1,500+ foot LED, Pac-Man and Tetris piece of art at Hong Hong’s tallest sky-rise, the ICC Building.  Fei’s pience entitle 'Same Old, Brand New' is a contemporary adaptation of classic video game icons from the 1980s and 1990s. Accompanying this intense orgy of light and tech, is a choreographed soundtrack through a custom app commissioned by Art Basel Hong Hong and the ICC Building

It's Armory Arts Week and the big fairs, The Armory Show, the ADAA Art Show, Pulse and Independent are in full swing.  But here is the honest snowy truth, if you are not an art collector or an art professional,  then skip old and head to something new. Spring/Break in it's fourth year has matured from a group of young artists and curators into a full blown art fair meets instllation art museum. The curators Ambre Kelly and Andrew Gori have moved the fair from a Catholic school in Soho  to the old post office, Moynihan Station, on 31st and 8th ave. The same flair of installation, weird performances and utter chaos is still present in addition to serious digital art installations, interesting presentation of works and even art historic works.   Check out the catalog here. 

Banksy is back. Never one to shy away from controversy, he or she has released new images on Instagram and on the artist's official website of powerful works installed in Gaza City. More unusual for Banksy, is this new video  entitled, Make this the year YOU discover a new destination, released on youtube:

Urban Putt is a dream come true for every mini golf aficionado stuck in the brutal northeast cold... It is a high-tech 14-hole mini-golf course in San Francisco's Mission district. The indoor golf joint raised over $50,000 on Kickstarter and opened in May of 2014 filled with "high-tech kinetic sculptures, robots & crazy vertical structures." The latest installation is from designer/artist Dan Rosenfeld and is not actually a playable golf hole. This piece is called Sleepwalkers and makes  it appear that a three inch tall luminous creature "is interacting with the physical world—including the hands of participants—while illuminating its environment." Check out the video of the piece and more importantly get to San Francisco and hit the indoor links. 

3 Singers, the performance created by Erica Mott Productions that took place in Chicago was truly a cohesive example of history meets art meets tech within an exhibition space.  The technopera - “a performative convergence of vocal and electronic music composition, interactive technology, sound installation, choreography and video in an evolving and immersive installation” which was performed last month at the National Museum of Health and Medicine Chicago has now come to a close, but the interactive exhibit which acts as an extension of the piece is open until tomorrow Feb 20th.  Exhibition designer Hugh Sato melds the ideas presented in the 3 Singers performance into an exhibit featuring topics on women’s rights in the textile industry with specific interest in “voice, labor, and migration”.  The multi-screen space features interactive examples of industrial, textile, and migration motifs, inviting the viewer to experience the connections between all three in an a cohesive and tech-friendly environment.

Sometimes, we have a moment—when we’re in the middle of, say, Times Square, or Grand Central Station, or on the subway during rush hour—when the city feels like infernal chaos. But on another day, you will have a moment where you wake up and see the absolutely beautiful, fluid, and harmonic ballet of different creatures and forces moving around. That’s the energy I like to capture. - Vera Lutter

Photographer Vera Lutter truly captures NYC with chaotic harmony. Gagosian Gallery describes the work as: Inspired by New York’s light, architecture, and perpetual state of flux, Lutter turned to photography in the early 1990s as a means to record the continuously changing cityscape. To capture an immediate and direct imprint of her surroundings, she transformed her apartment into a large pinhole camera, employing the space that contained her personal experience as the apparatus that would document it. Through a simple pinhole, instead of an optically carved lens, the city outside flooded the interior of the room and projected inverted images onto wall-size sheets of photo-sensitive paper.

The exhibition is on view at Gagosian Gallery's 976 Madison Ave location through March 7. 

Artist Peter Regli has been Reality Hacking since 1996, creating 300 public art interventions across the globe. His latest could not have been timed better.  NYC residents woke up this morning to just a few inches of Super Storm Juno's powder, barely enough to make a baby snow man. Regli's installation consists of twelve life-size marble snowmen. The producers describe the project:

Regli’s sculptures catch us off guard in our regular rush from point A to point B. They challenge our preconditioned perceptive powers, awaken us to our surroundings, include a dimension of humor and urge us to accept the idiosyncratic. In Regli’s own words, the sculptures of Reality Hacking strive to “put question marks into the everyday world.”

Snow Monsters was produced  by Dominique Lévy Gallery in conjunction with the New York City Department of Transportation Art Program and the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership and is up through March 15.

It is not surprising that with the exponential momentum of 3D printing, the design and fabrication community continues to pump out amazing products and prototypes using the technology.  It has only been a few years now that 3D printers have been available to the masses, and its clear that artists and designers alike have been taking full advantage of this new(ish) form of computer-aided design.

One such artist utilizing the powers of 3D printing is product designer and Stanford University faculty member John Edmark.  He has created a series of aniforms — sculptures that seem to animate when lit with a strobe light and spun— called Blooming Zoetrope Sculptures.

These pieces are beautifully designed using patterns and mathematical sequences found in nature.  According to DeZeen Magazine, in order to create his designs “Edmark arranged each petal around a central core at the (golden angle) of 137.5 degrees from the pervious one, starting form the top and working down.”  Precision and accuracy are key to creating these works and follow similar formations called phyllotaxy found in the natural patterns of pinecones, pineapples, palm trees, and succulents.

The Fibonnaci sequence and other fractals have long been a point of interest where art meets nature meets tech and John Edmarks Blooming Zoetrope Sculptures are a great example of such marriages.  These sculptures can be ordered from Shapeways or printed at home using instructions from Instructables.com.

To see more of Edmarks' design including his kinetic sculpture featured on Colossal click ---HERE

-Becca Gore