AJ Fosik Cover Story by Lainya Magaña

I’m going to do a little bit of shameless self-promotion and invite you all to check out the cover story I wrote on AJ Fosik for issue 18 of Hi Fructose Magazine. If you aren’t already familiar with the work, I’ll share a few of AJ’s images with you and a snippet from the feature. Enjoy!

The Third Way Out

“AJ Fosik creates beastly three-dimensional figures out of wood, paint, and nails. Mounted on walls or monumentally erected atop pedestals, his sculptures have appeared in numerous exhibitions, the reigning representatives of a medium in which most urban contemporary artists only dabble. Displayed like hunting trophies or specimens in a museum of natural history; sometimes brightly colored; always painstakingly detail oriented, Fosik’s feral creations take the shape of fantastic or true animal beings that communicate a subversive, anti-religious commentary through the depiction of hyperbolized fictional gods. Nameless, assigned no specific meanings or powers, beholden to no formal religion – real or contrived – Fosik’s idols are not meant to contribute to some grand theological narrative of the artist’s design. They are masterfully beautiful objects that examine the nature of religious iconography through an absence of religious discourse. In this way, Fosik is pointing to the power and scope of man’s innate creativity devoid of divine inspiration.” – Lainya Magaña, Hi Fructose Magazine Issue 18

Dare Nothing, Hope for Nothing

The Time and the Way

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AndrewAndrew: Art Begets Art

AndrewAndrew photographed by Marcus Yam for the New York Times

I’ll be the first one to admit: I don’t know everything there is to know about art. With that caveat, AndrewAndrew is one of the most exciting and, dare I say, original, works of creativity that I’ve seen in a long time. The two-man “collective” have a bio that reads like a short list of a curatorial brainstorming session: guerrilla art interventionist, tech savvy, socialist  DJ duo in NY known as “the i-pad DJ’s” who have been dressing alike for more than a decade, eliminating any aspects of personal identity outside of the joint persona in a Gatsby-esque act of freedom. I can’t think of anything more inspiring. Be sure to check out the full feature on AndrewAndrew written by Michael Schulman for the New York Times, add them on Twitter for links to their latest mixes, and check out the AndrewAndrew blog which features their latest endeavor: instant theater reviews filmed, edited and posted using only and i-phone4.

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Top 10 Art World Announcements of 2010

What a year. Time for A&O to reflect on all that was, and look forward to all that will be in 2011. Here’s our pick of the litter, our top ten art world announcements from 2010. What are yours?

2010 Marked the Death of the Following 20th century Luminaries:

Dennis Hopper

Louise Bourgeois

Harvey Pekar

Frank Frezetta

JD Salinger

Howard Zinn

Alexander McQueen

Censorship Infuriates the Art World

Controversy blazes over the Smithsonian’s censorship of the David Wojnarowicz video piece “A Fire in My Belly” from the Hide/Seek exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

Deitch Goes West

Deitch gives up the private sector and moves to the public realm as Director of MOCA in Los Angeles.  As anticipated by detractors and fans alike, he causes quite a stir.

Chaos and Classicism at The Guggenheim

The Guggenheim delivers a curatorial gem.  Chaos and Classicism focuses in on a seldom talked about moment in interwar European art, when a renewed interest in Classical aesthetics reigned.

Despite Economic Factors, Sales at Miami Art Basel Were Strong

Art Sales in Miami challenge, as they have in the past, the state of a globally jeopardized economy.

Bravo TV airs “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist”

Art world heavyweights huddled on couches and crammed into bars to watch and weigh in on the first art-based reality TV show, “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist”.

Scott Campbell Burns Art Over a Dispute with Vice Mexico gallery

After a dispute with Mexico’s Vice Gallery, Scott Campbell took the work from his sold- out show and burned it in the street.

An Art Mogul, the CEO of an Empire, and an Heiress Walk Into a Bar…

Larry Gagosian, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Russain heiress Dasha Zhukova, Wendi Murdoch (Rupert Murdoch’s wife), and others are teaming up to launch art.sy, an online art sales site that could very well be a game changer.

The First Online Art Fair

New York dealer James Cohan and internet entrepreneur Jonas Almgren announced the impending launch of the first online art fair.

$120 Million Dollar Art Fraud

The art world is hit by a financial schemer, Lawrence Salander, who defrauded his clients out of a total of 120 million dollars.

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Food in Plastic: Paintings by Victoria Mimiaga

Meat in Plastic

Through the traditional style of still life painting, Victoria Mimiaga explores the abundant and sometimes superfluous use of plastic packaging in the food industry. On December 30th, the SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery at Caffe Museo will host an exhibition Mimiaga’s work entitled “Food in Plastic”. In this body of work, Mimiaga captures the ephemeral nature of reflectivity while portraying the humor in the perfunctory uselessness of plastic receptacles. Cucumbers are Individually shrink-wrapped, sliced apples are packaged twice in plastic, a molded plastic half shell is manufactured for half a Bundt cake. These containers inevitably call into question the banal acceptance, redundancy and environmental implications of the overuse of plastic packaging.

Cucumbers

From the artist’s statement: “From thin gauge thermoform trays to seal tear bags, the use of plastic packaging in the food industry has undergone a renaissance. In supermarkets, corner bodegas and organic food stores, there are new and creative uses of plastic packaging – in some cases offering little more than heightened protection where none is needed. Items such as bananas, already covered in Nature’s skin, are further enveloped in a silky sheen of polymer.

Over the past decade, Victoria Mimiaga has been struck by this proliferation of plastic in the food industry. The traditional still life with fruit, fish or vegetable, a time-honored artistic subject, must now account for this new, man-made offshoot. And while plastic-wrapped food presents an aesthetic of its own, lying beneath the surface is the alarming reality of how this added waste material impacts the rest of the natural world.”

Cauliflower in Plastic

Food in Plastic will be exhibited at Caffe Museo, inside the SFMOMA, at 151 Third Street in San Francisco. The artist’s reception will be held on Thursday, December 30, 2010 from 6:30 – 8pm. The exhibit runs from December 23, 2010 to February 1, 2011.

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Paper Sculptures by Ching Ching Cheng

Amazing sculptures by Art Center College of Design grad, Ching Ching Cheng.

The artist’s bio:

“I always put myself in situations that will make the subject matter more personal for me, so my work gives an intimate and personal account of my own experiences while simultaneously encouraging the viewer to recall their own. My work is symbolic and conceptual. I present subject matter outside the self from this psychological position. I am constantly trying to replace the figures in my paintings with images that represent the idea of the figure, an object or an animal that takes on the persona of what the figure represents. This intimate gesture allows for a personal connection to be forged by the viewer with the work.

“Ultimately, there is no definitive subject, but only a meditation on personal experience and emotion. The subject matter that influences and inspires my work the most comes from psychology and nature. The ways people deal with situations are very different from one another, and I find this very special and interesting. I challenge myself through drawing, solving problems and difficult ideas. Most of my work is mixed media, using ink, watercolor, gouache, and acrylic. I work digitally and traditionally as well as three dimensionally, and I like to experiment with different techniques and mediums. The color of my work is very subtle, and quiet.”

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Rad: Michael Dotson

Nudashank in Baltimore recently exhibited the work of Washington DC-based artist, Michael Dotson. I love the playful and “rad” nature of his work. His vibrant, straight out of the box color palette is whimsical and attractive and manages to keep things light without being trite. Some pieces, referred to on his website as “drawings”, appear to be colored marker on graph paper while his paintings are executed in acrylic. He shows clear talent with both mediums and while there is a completely different feel between the two separate bodies of work, there is a cohesive sense of vintage abstraction to them that is reminiscent of 80’s and early 90’s aesthetics. Digital landscapes, pixel play, and “80’s modern” compositions that Don Johnson would most surely have had hanging in his “Miami Vice” bachelor pad. I kinda wish they had made a Trapper Keeper with Dotson’s motifs back when I was in grade school. Hell. I kinda wish they’d make one now.

"Living Room", 2010

"Dream Car Celebration at Tyrell Corporation", 2009

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Street Safari: Hunting Trophies of Dubai by Vincent Fichard

I don’t know much about Vincent Fichard, AKA Vincent Who, but I believe in the work he’s doing. From what I gather from his bio, he is thoughtful and heartfelt – two qualities that are indispensable to an artist who makes it his mission to enlighten through narrative and inspire with strong ideas. Vincent is a traveler. He’s lived in places that I can only dream of visiting – South Africa and the Middle East – and now lives and works in Paris, France. Where he’s lived is important to note because, unlike the average globetrotter who’s passport stamps and dusty collection of souvenirs are the only record of said travels, Vincent created bodies of work that reflect upon his experience and time spent in the places he visited. In 2007, he created the lovely short film “Go Around Twice if You’re Happy”, which has received over 1 Million hits on Youtube and is one of the most discussed short films on the site. Check it out:

Vincent Who’s latest project is this Street Safari series, inspired by his experience in Dubai. Rather than glorifying the superficiality of wealth and mega-tropolis trappings that Dubai embodies, Vincent reflects on the wasteful exuberance of a culture that is not considering its impact. These days, it’s difficult to make a political statement without scaring people away. I believe Vincent Who manages to hold his audience’s attention through clever story-telling and a non-judgemental depiction of the subject matter at hand. I really enjoyed this body of work and hope you do too. Continue reading for more images and info on the work in the artist’s own words.

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Giant Stinson Beach Bubbles (Shot with Canon 550D)

I could watch this video for hours. The fiery bursts of rainbow color, the textured ripples of air extending along the bubble’s surface as it drifts through the air like a satin sheet in the wind, and watching the bubble reach its elasticity threshold and disappear backwards, from tail to tip. Gorgeous.

 

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Edward Burtynsky: OIL

Edward Burtynsky is, in my opinion, one of the most important photographers of our generation. Stark, beautiful, and poignant, Burtynsky’s images capture man’s impact on his environment. Unaltered, Burtynsky’s photographs do not reply on tricks of the eye and digital enhancements to make some overt commentary. Instead, Burtynsky captures beauty in the difficult subject matter he documents, subtly probing the viewer to engage in an ethical deliberation over the implications of what they are seeing.

Now, there is a new Steidl book release and touring exhibition organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC. that surveys a decade of Burtynsky’s photographic work exploring the subject of oil. Edward Burtynsky has traveled internationally to chronicle the production, distribution, and use of the most critical fuel of our time.

In addition to revealing the rarely-seen mechanics of its manufacture, Burtynsky captures the effects of oil on our lives, depicting landscapes altered by its extraction from the earth, and by the cities and suburban sprawl generated around its use. He also addresses the coming “end of oil,” as we confront its rising cost and dwindling availability.

“Edward Burtynsky: Oil is the definitive photographic documentation of this hotly debated subject.”
– Paul Roth, Senior Curator of Photography, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

View the whole exhibition here.

VW Lot, Houston, TX 2004

Breezewood, Pennsylvania 2008

Oxford Tire Pile 9ab, Westley, California 1999

Shipbreaking #13, Chittagong, Bangladesh 2000

Shipbreaking #11, Chittagong, Bangladesh 2000

SOCAR Oil Fields #3, Baku, Azerbaijan 2006

 

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I Prefer Stalking

Harry Callahan, Atlanta,1984; dye transfer print

SFMOMA will present the U.S. debut of a major survey that examines photography’s role in invasive looking.   Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera Since 1870 is co-organized by SFMOMA and Tate Modern, and gathers more than 200 pictures that together form a timely inquiry into the ways in which artists and everyday people alike have probed the camera’s powerful voyeuristic capacity. How can the virtuous resist the 5 “forbidden themes” of this show? These theme are Voyeurism and Desire (Helmut Newton!, Blow Job!, Nan Goldin!), Celebrity and the Public Gaze (Ron Galella– the godfather of paparazzi), Witnessing Violence and Surveillance. The exhibition is on view from October 30, 2010, through April 17, 2011, make sure to have a peep at this show.

Georges Dudognon, Greta Garbo in the Club St. Germain ca. 1950

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