Art

Junko Mizuno. Ravenous Cinderella.

Nucleus presents Zombies in Love, a dark and amorous group show opening tonight, February 6th 2010.  The show’s artist roster includes Anna Chambers, D’Holbachie-Yoko, J. Shea, Junko Mizuno, Scott C. and more. This celebration of all things undead will also feature a fun Zombie Walk @ 6:30.  Show goers are encouraged to join in with their best zombie look.   Cover fee: $2 (waived for walking zombies).  The evening will also feature Chris Lane signing his “Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection” book and a zombie-themed life drawing session from the Dr. Sketchy’s Roadshow.

Zombies in Love
Opening February 6th, 2010 (7-11 PM)
Nucleus
210 East Main Street
Alhambra, CA 91801
626.458.7477

From Kojiki to Modern Heroism, a two-person exhibition of new paintings by the New York-based Japanese artists Tat Ito and Hiro Kurata, opens on Saturday, February 13th at Joshua Liner Gallery. This is Ito and Kurata’s first solo show with the gallery.

As invoked by the exhibition’s title, the two artists draw from Japan’s earliest narratives to layer their thoroughly contemporary painting with a rich lexicon of visual and historical motifs. Tat Ito has created a unique pictorial style that combines high-color, graphic abstraction with echoes of Edo-era history painting. In his acrylic-on-canvas works, finely rendered scenes of court life, village squares, and columns of military figures are depicted from an elevated, detached perspective. Yet, jostling the picture plane forward and back are flat, decorative passages of Day-Glo grids, camouflage, and other graphic patterns. In the panoramic painting Kagutsuchi (“fire god” in ancient Japanese mythology), columns of orange-suited figures dodge explosions and atmospheric clouds of polka-dotted, Yayoi Kusama-style smoke. The artist describes this approach as “a metaphor for Japanese contemporary art and culture upon which the Western viewpoint is floating,” if not entirely mixing.

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Sam Lee Gallery presents Chris Barnard’s first solo show at the gallery, titled Full Spectrum Dominance.   This show features large scale oil paintings which Barnard uses to examine the US military agenda.  He draws upon landscape paintings to show parallels between the two.  The show looks intriguing for both the large scale paintings and the political references.

The show is up from January 30th- March 13, 2010.

Sam Lee Gallery
990 North Hill Street #190
Los Angeles, Ca 90012
Phone 323-227-0275

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A must see show on portraiture is currently on view at The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.  “Gaze: Portraiture after Ingres” includes  works ranging from Van Gogh to Warhol.  One of my personal favorites is Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q. or Jaconde (1964, replica of 1919 original). Ever the trickster, Duchamp drew a mustache and goatee on a post card of Mona Lisa.  The title translates (phonetically) to “There is fire down below”. Rewr!

Now, if Warhol and Duchamp can’t get you out to Pasadena to see this show, I don’t know what can!

On February 13, New York’s Joshua Liner Gallery will introduce Refuge, an exhibition of new paintings in watercolor by the Canadian artist Tristram Lansdowne. This is Lansdowne’s first solo show with the gallery. Lansdowne’s paintings of architectural ruins focus on themes of permanence, decay, and function inherent in constructed environments. Depicted with the delicacy of Roman frescoes after millennia of wear, these palimpsests carry traces of past lives, such as weathered billboards, chipped paint, graffiti, political campaign posters, or electrical wiring. The lightness of Lansdowne’s watercolors imbues these glimpses into the ravages of time with a gentle patina. Yet there’s ambiguity in his approach. An idealistic view of the past is juxtaposed with the emotional vacancy of urban decay, a circumspect view of human progress in which outmoded architectural ideas mix with discarded pieces of the landscape.

Tristam Lansdowne / Refuge
Joshua Liner Gallery
548 W. 28th Street
3rd Floor
New York NY 10001

Opening reception, Gallery II: Saturday, February 13, 6–9 PM

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In collaboration with Original Cultures, a new international non-profit cultural and arts initiative, StolenSpace will open an exclusive exhibition of new works from famed European artists Ericailcane (Italy), DEM (Italy) and Will Barras (UK).

This exhibition will form part of the week-long Original Cultures London 2010 event and run from February 12th until March 7th. This will be the trio’s second collaborative project following their work during Original Cultures’ first event in Bologna, Italy, in June 2009 which saw them create an exclusive animation and shadow-based installation. As visiting guests, Ericailcane and DEM will take the lead bringing to StolenSpace a collection of brand new paintings and other media. Will Barras meanwhile will be exhibiting a new animation and associated designs he is producing exclusively for the show.

Exclusive to the exhibition will be the release of a limited edition collaborative screen print as well as a series of 6 picture discs produced by Original Cultures and featuring art from all 3 artists and music from Om Unit (UK), Tatsuki (JP), and Tayone (IT), the three musicians involved in the Original Cultures project.

Find out more about the exhibition here.

Original Cultures – The Show
StolenSpace Gallery
London
info@stolenspace.com

GotBronze? “Walking Man I,” a six-foot-tall bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, sold for $92.5 million, or, with fees, $104.3 million, at Sotheby’s in London Wednesday night, breaking the world record price for a work of art at an auction. The 1905 Picasso piece “Boy with a Pipe (The Young Apprentice)” held the previous record of $104.1 million.

The sculpture, cast in 1961, sold for over three times as much as any other Giacometti and about four times as much as was predicted. The buyer’s identity is unknown, but dealers speculate that the sculpture was purchased by a Russian or Middle Eastern collector. Roman Abramovich, to whom some hypotheses point, collected a 1976 Francis Bacon triptych for $86.3 million, while the Georgian Boris Ivanishvili spent $95.2 million for the Picasso portrait “Dora Maar with a Cat.”

“Walking Man I” was cast in an edition of six and four artist proofs, most of which are in museums or private collections. Architect Gordon Bunshaft commissioned it, among other bronzes, for Chase Manhattan Plaza in downtown Manhattan to stand alongside his 60-story glass-and-steel Chase headquarters. Though the project never came to fruition, Giacometti made–and destroyed–many of the sculptures.

Find the full story at the New York Times.

LeBasse Projects is excited to present, Deva Loka: Los Angeles, an exhibition of work from Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano. Legendary artist Yoshitaka Amano will make a rare U.S. appearance with his newest exhibit, DEVA LOKA, created especially for a U.S exhibition and named for the ancient Indian land of God. As an ode to his childhood love for American comics, culture and automobiles, Amano’s latest breathtaking and vibrant pieces are boldly coated with auto paint and metallic glitter.

Amano is widely acclaimed for his work in animation and video games. He is renowned for designing the characters for the hit video game, Final Fantasy, as well as for anime films including Vampire Hunter D, Guin Saga, Final Fantasy, and Front Mission.

“Between the late 60’s and the 70’s, and during my early years in the art world, I was greatly influenced by American comic books and pop culture. I’d like to show my gratitude for the inspiration America gave me with this exhibit. With the theme of DEVA LOKA, all of my concepts and influences are able to come together, centered in one place. I hope everyone enjoys my show.”

Deva Loka will be Amano’s first major exhibition in Los Angeles.

“Deva Loka: Los Angeles”
Yoshitaka Amano
LeBasse Projects
Opening reception: Saturday, February 20th, 7pm-10pm

L.A. based Tracy Nakayama’s Swedish debut at The Crystal Palace Gallery opens on February 20th. If you aren’t able to hop on a jet plane to Stockholm, check out Nakayama’s work here from her latest show at Kinkead Contemporary in Culver City.

THIS Los Angeles will introduce its first opening on Friday, February 12th. Hosting a vast and varied array of works, the opening will include the work of  Jim Houser (above), Florencio Zavala, Jason Lee, Damien Correll, Jeremy & Claire Weiss, Kevin Morrissey, Corey Arnold, and many more.

Check out the gallery’s site for a complete list of featured artists and more information on its blog.

Click HERE to view more of some of the artists’ work.

Opening Reception: Friday, February 12, 7-10 p.m.
THIS Los Angeles
5906 N. Figueroa St.
Los Angeles, CA 90042

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Follower of Leonardo da Vinci, probably before 1750, “Portrait of a Woman”, called “La Belle Ferronnière”. (55 x 43.5 cm) 21 5/8 x 17 1/8 inches. Est. $300/500,000. Sold for more than $1.5 million. Photo: Sotheby’s.

A portrait once believed to have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci sold for more than $1.5 million in New York on Thursday, around treble the top price estimated ahead of the auction.

Auction house Sotheby’s said another version of the portrait, “La Belle Ferronniere,” is in the Louvre in Paris and it is that painting that is now generally agreed to have been by da Vinci himself or one of his pupils, while the painting sold in New York was a later copy.

The painting is thought to be of Lucrezia Crivelli who was a mistress of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, and was painted sometime before 1750 by a follower of the Renaissance master.

For more than 80 years the identity of the artist was in dispute and the controversial work was the subject of a slander trial in the 1920s, as well as two books.

“The story of “La Belle Ferronniere” is as much about the aesthetic and scientific foundations of modern art history as it is about the authenticity of the painting itself,” Sotheby’s said in a catalog note.

Sotheby’s said on its website that the painting, artist unknown, sold on Thursday for $1.538 million, compared to pre-auction estimates of $300,000-$500,000.

you can read the whole article over at Artdaily.

This Thursday, February 4th , Westwood’s Hammer Museum will hold the Hammer Bash!, wrapping up its R. Crumb exhibit, a five-year project of idiosyncratic renderings of the Book of Genesis. Janet Klein and her Parlor Boys including Robert Armstrong and Tom Marion from The Cheap Suit Serenaders will perform. In addition, the event will include an R. Crumb Life Drawing Workshop.

Click here for more info on the show and artist.

For more general info, visit www.hammer.ucla.edu.

Hammer Bash!
Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
(310) 443-7000

Closing Party: Thursday, February 4, 7-11 p.m.

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