Naked Ladies

Jeurgen Teller
Paradis 2009
Untitled; Jana and Jessica in the field, 2009
Oil on paper
60 x 42 inches

Yigal Ozeri at Mike Weiss
and
Juergen Teller at Lehmann Maupin

Ozeri, featured on the cover of Gallery Guide this month, reflects perfectly realist oil paintings of nude girls. Teller's photographs are candid-looking photos of nude girls that may as well be carbon copies of Ozeri's girls. Why are galleries featuring identical naked ladies? And why didn't Ozeri just take some candid pics and make c-prints?

Bethelemy Toguo at Robert Miller Gallery

The Pregnant Mountain

Paintings, videos, photographs, performances, photographs of performances, installation- this exhibition doesn't limit itself. A tough message is addressed, though the playfulness of simplified figures with floating space add a sense of displaced quirkiness. Guns bananas and bread inside the mouth of the painting delivers a raw message. The images and symbols play with consumption, sexuality, and give off a sense of primitive human instinct and actions. The contrast, and ironic uses of texture to depict things of graphic nature, give the images a sense of mystery.

Though the titles and captions are less subtle.
“The AIDS issue cannot be solved thanks to the distribution of condoms” Benedict XVI

Though problem solving doesn't seem to be a key element of this show, exposure and exploitation of social issues definitely is.

James Turrell at PaceWildenstein

15 works of 5 to 6 foot tall rectangles with projections in the center of different colors of light in symmetrical shapes, bending and expanding ever so slightly as the angle of view changes. The colors slowly change and the reflection on the dark black glass of the gallery is behind you, reflecting not only the other bending lights but also the entire gallery. As the press release explains, it is actually "Here, that physicality is generated using the optical space of dichromate reflection holograms." (Pace) ... whatever that means.
The physical forms of light are famously used in the past by Turrell and manipulated into a perceived space by the viewers eye. The light as space are seen in a physical manifestation in these recent works.
As instructed by his grandmother, he was to meditate by following her instructions "to go inside to greet the light." (Turrell)
I would like to think Turrell is teaching us how to contemplate in a similar way, with literal use of light.

ATTN SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNERS- $

Stipend offered for design work. $100 stipend to design advertisement poster(possibly posters) for a public performance collective. Please send me a link to your portfolio or contact me if you are interested.

Looks good on a resume ; )
oh and it's moneyyy!

Please send examples of work involving any previous poster designs or similar works.
send to juliejar@eden.rutgers.edu
links are good, files are ok.
Thanks!

Goldblatt

Intersections Intersected
David Goldblatt at New Museum

Goldblatt's large landscapes and city scapes cover the walls of two full floors of the New Museum. His work spans over several decades, of significant importance to South African history and apartheid. The photographs are huge, almost 4 x 4 across every wall. They are also unending, a body of a life's work. Though the quality of the photographs is unchanging. There is no chronological log of a switch from film to digital. The sunlight does not seem brighter in the photographs of most recent years. Though the pictures can span from the early 70s all the way up to present day, the photographs remain unchanged in style and remain indeterminately timeless. This is an interesting comment on the artists work, as well as the state of South Africa. You simply can not tell when any of these photographs have been taken. It is unchanged, and their progress is synced and cataloged through Goldblatt's eyes.

Having been to Johannesburg I can attest, it's not the prettiest place. it's dangerous and unreformed.
As a Johannesburg native friend of mine once put it, "Oh, you've been to Jo Burg? It's a real shit hole, isn't it?"
Though the photographs do reflect a wide range of places throughout the country, it seems to me an accurate portrayal, and not harshly swayed in the direction of sympathy toward South Africa. Nor do the photographs evoke any type of gross reaction or pitty. Nor do they rejoice in the years that follow apartheid's end. They are quiet, and subtle. The sunlight really is that dull and overbearingly flat and bland. The colors are completely neutralized and washed away by sunlight, as the photos reflect. The most striking piece, that was repeated throughout the show, was the photograph of the housing projects that remain unfinished. It speaks to me as a metaphor for the state, the people, and Goldblatt's work.

Alex Bag Is Hilarious

Performing for us the wildest musings of her art student personality, the video "Untitled Fall '95 remarks on art school and a character's rude awakening to the art world. Portrayed through this student is the discouragement that her character experiences as a young artist. The Caricature is perfectly created through her personality with high expectations, naive speech patterns, trendy dyed hair and all. This is a caricature of a young art student that is discouraged by criticism, unfamiliar with concept, and has copped many assumptions on the expectancy of success. It is an image easily understood by anyone that has met an edgy art student in the past decade. Among the other hilarious art school characters is a pretentious visiting artist. Demanding, also overly expectant of success, and with an absurdly serious overtone. It is funny, but also sad in a way that demonstrates the deconstruction of a young artist by their own high and unrealistic expectations and critical surroundings. It is also a demonstration of the more humorous side to the presumed sophistication of art. Art that makes fun of itself is often not taken seriously, which is an issue that Bag addresses in this work and targets with triumph.


On the same note as the post below on A Bucket of Blood, the performance portrays many stereotypes of artists that ask the viewer to pose some questions and observations about the role of humor in art, and to question and critique the absurd personalities and ideas presented in real (non-movie scripted) art and artist as well.

A Bucket of Blood

A Bucket of Blood

Poking fun at the artist while dissecting the personality of a mad, fake artist (pun!). Actors are pretending to be artists, while creating a parody of the contemporary art world. Who is a faker and who is not? The point of acceptance for the main character comes when he is confronted with a great success, and a lie at the same time. From the looks of A Bucket of Blood all of the artists are fakers, and it's fun to watch the world buy into the stereotypes of the art world. The movie's acting audiences and artists really play with the roles of actor and artist in a way that provoke the viewer contemplate a question that many untrained critics are asking today - are we all being fooled, tricked, and conned by modern artists?

as kitsch as it has become, All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players