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News - Hirst's Golden Calf Killing - London

You probably already heard, and if you haven’t, you must have been living under a rock somewhere. Damian Hirst, and his representatives, Larry Gagosian and White Cube’s Jay Jopling, made a mint this week at Sotheby’s with his 'The Golden Calf'. Likely based on Poussin's painting of the same name, the work, valued at £12 million, sold to one of those so-called ‘secret’ buyers at £12.8 million.

The Piece is a pretty flashy one, but I guess that's what happens once you bore of the more rotten, and frankly more intense and interesting, floating sharks, and goats injecting whatever it is they’re injecting in their static tanks. I'm figuring this sheen is what happens when an artist gets clean, shuns Groucho’s, and becomes super rich.

Don’t get me wrong. I think Hirst is a genius; I’m wild about his work. I’m just not feeling The Calf, the golden one. I'm not moved by the work in the same way as I was, so dramatically, so remarkably, by Hirst's earlier works. No. This one is too clean and shiny for me. It’s too slick and ostentatious. It feels almost vulgar. However, I get that this is a great piece. I absolutely do; but for me 'The Golden Calf' is like a like something you’d find in the foyer of a (ironically) sterile, possibly Eastern, snazzy hotel. And who knows, maybe that’s exactly where The Calf has gone to.

Of Interest - Chris Cunningham and The Horrors

I’m ashamed to say I just found this; a cracker from Chris Cunningham, The Horrors ‘Sheena is a Parasite’. This piece isn’t as in your face as some of his previous works, and in that it is, frankly, superb. Played by a perfect Samantha Morton, Sheena, strobbed-up in full vibrant action, starts of manic but easy, and just as you’re thinking, come on, where’s the usual Cunning madness, she lifts her skirt to reveal some more parasite qualities. It’s quick, it’s sharp and seriously effective. In fact, it’s brilliant. The track, which Cunningham allegedly found on MySpace, was released in 2006. Shot on DVCAM in an aircraft carrier in Ealing; produced by James Wilson, with post done at Golden Square on Inferno, as well as later work by Cunningham himself, the end product is sheer genius.

Coming Up - Peace and Agriculture in a Pre-Romantic Ideal Landscape Without Sublime Terrors @ Haunch of Venison - Berlin

Showing - Daniele Buetti 'Snowflake Over a Burning House' @ Haunch of Venison - Zurich

Showing - John Issacs 'Glass Eye...Glass Soul' @ Museum 52 - NYC

Coming Up - Nouveau Cinema et Art Contemperain - Europe

Showing - Lost in Riverside 'Graffiti in The City of Angels' - California

Showing ' Ha Ha Road' Bank Street Arts - Sheffield

This September, Bank Street Arts in Sheffield presents 'Ha Ha Road’, curated by Dave Ball and Sophie Springer. The show lives up to its name, pondering on those evasive elements, which make certain works funny. Featuring artists including Colin Guillemet, Debbie Lawson, Tobias Sternberg, Ed Young, and Dan Witz (left; 'Pranks 2004'), with contemporary works that cover video, installation, sculpture, painting, and performance, the show takes it name from London’s ‘Ha Ha Road’ in Greenwich. The title also has a secondary meaning, referring to a sunken boarder, a boundary that leaves the surrounding view unaffected – and that, in a way, is about as elusive as humour.

Ha Ha Road is showing at Bank Street Arts, 32-40 Bank Street, Sheffield S1 2DS from 11th September -12th October 2008.

Email: contact@haharoad.info

Film - Steven Sebring 'Patti Smith: Dream of Life' - NYC

Steven Sebring’s ‘Patti Smith: Dream of Life’, is showing for a short, sharp stint during August at New York's Film Forum. While the movie is described as an ‘intimate portrait of a woman caputured over time’, this, of course, is no ordinary woman; this is Patti Smith; she’s more of a legend. The film includes Smith’s own and has no specific order. Think, a gritty but great organised chaos. So far reviews have been impressive. '...Dream of Life' and has been described as a ‘spellbinder’ that’s ‘charming’ and ‘expressively shot’. Indeed, it’s likely this is a must see for anyone with an inkling of interest for rock, music and art over the past few decades.

Steven Sebring’s ‘Patti Smith: Dream of Life’, showing at Film Forum, Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014, 10th - 19th August 2008.

Tel: (9-5): 212-627-2035

Art:21, Nancy Spero, 'Becoming an Artist'

Video from http://www.youtube.com/user/art21org

Showing - Home Delivery at MoMA and P.F.1 (Public Farm One) at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center - NYC

Video from http://www.youtube.com/user/MoMAvideos

News - Chapman Brothers to Judge John Moore - UK

This year, Jake and Dinos Chapman will be judging the John Moore Contemporary Painting Prize, alongside Sacha Craddock, Graham Crowley, and Paul Morrison. The shortlist includes Stuart Pearson Wright, winner of 2001’s BP Portrait Award, Neil Rumming, Geoff Diego, Julian Brian, and Tim Bailey (left). All shortlisted artists will be showing at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool from 20th September, when the £25,000 winner will be announced, until 4th January 2009.

News - Picasso's Guernica Unmovable - Spain

Pablo Picasso’s huge war-torn masterpiece, 'Guernica' is, according to the Head of Restoration at Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum, in a ‘stable but serious condition’. Depicting the Nazi bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, the piece, a mural-size canvas painted in oil, was acquired by Reina in 1992, along with several preparatory works. It was a move that proved controversial in Spain; Picasso's will stated that the painting should be displayed at the Prado in Madrid. Unsurprisingly there are those in the Basque, where Guernica is situated, who are keen to see the work returned its spiritual home. Reina states the work has 'suffered a lot and requires special care'. How it's suffered, who knows. Having been housed behind bullet proof glass with aligning machine gun toting guards, you'd imagine the work is as pampered and protected as your average pop star, rock star. Whatever. No doubt Reina would prefer to hold on to the work – Guernica is visited by hundreds of tourists and art lovers annually – so for the time being, it's unlikely to be heading elsewhere.

Showing - 'I am 8-Bit' @ World of Wonder Storefront Gallery - LA

As the name suggests, ‘I am 8-Bit’ is all about eighties video games. Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Sonic the Hedgehog, are the cool inspiration for this show. Now on its fourth annual edition the event, features over a hundred artists, and takes place at the World of Wonder Storefront Gallery in Hollywood. The pop-art venue is becoming ever more relevent with it’s out-there, on the edge shows. Indeed, '…8-Bit's’ inclusion of WOW, is as unsurprising a move as it is smart. While the opening night includes performances from Computer Jay and DJ R-Rated, the show itself sees works from talents including, the wicked Shok1-esque, Joe Ledbetter, the childlike, strangely comforting Amanda Visell, and the darkly devious, quirky Luke Chueh (above). It's a superb mix, a trip down memory lane, one that swings in the direction of future and funk.

I am 8-Bit will takes place at the World of Wonder Storefront Gallery in Hollywood, 6650 Hollywood BlvdHollywood, California, from 14th August 14 to 7th September 2008.

Tel: (323) 603 6300

http://www.worldofwonder.net/

Event - Liverpool Biennial 'International: MADE UP' - Liverpool

Press is already out for Liverpool Biennial's fifth edition, ‘International 08: MADE UP’, which takes place in September this year. The event, unsurprisingly, is a punch of culture in all the right directions. With the Biennial touting itself as ‘the UK’s largest festival of contemporary visual art’, 'MADE UP' exhibitors rightly include a wealth of global names; Japan’s Atelier Bow Wow, Israel’s Omer Fast, France’s Annette Messager, Australia’s Tracey Moffatt (opposite), and Yoko Ono, to name but a few. These artists are as diverse in their backgrounds as they are in their work, which gives a good idea of how significant 'MADE UP' actually is. The show will take place throughout Liverpool’s many arts venues such as Tate Liverpool, the Bluecoat, FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), and the Open Eye Gallery, alongside a whole host of further shows located in spaces across the city.

Liverpool Biennial, International 08: MADE UP, takes place from Festival Dates: 20th September - 30th November; European Biennial Network Meeting: 20th September; MADE UP Weekend - 23rd-25th October.

Tel: +44 (0) 151 709 7444

Event - Start Milano

Showing - 'Paul Zone: The New York Underground Scene...' @ Drkrm - LA

Another gem is on at DrKrm in LA. Back in the day, Paul Zone documented New York life, catching all sorts of superstars from Dee Dee Ramone to Debbie Harry, Divine, Iggy Pop, and the New York Dolls. Working as a photographer for Warhol’s Interview mag, Circus, and Rock Scene, Zone has managed to catalogue some superb scenes form the seventies. This month, until August, you can check these out at "Paul Zone: The New York Underground Scene from Glam to Punk 1972-1977", Drkrm.

Paul Zone: The New York Underground Scene from Glam to Punk 1972-1977, is showing at Drkrm, 2121 San Fernando Road Suite 3Los Angeles, CA 90065, from 12th July - 31 August.
Tel: 323.223.6867

Showing - 'Polaroids: Mapplethorpe' @ The Whitney Museum of American Art - NYC

Another year, another Mapplethorpe show. But hell, you can’t really go wrong with Robert Mapplethorpe. His elegant, edgy works are as relevant today as they were in the thirty years ago. They hit that easy-uneasy juxposition between unnerving and welcoming. And that is about as close to perfect as you could get.

While you’d be forgiven for assuming that all of Mapplethorpe’s work was fastidiously conceived, you’d be wrong. During the early seventies, at a time when a young Mapplethorpe was shifting into his own sexual persona, he produced a large batch of Polaroids; shots that represent his later works, capturing well-known friends and lovers like Patti Smith, Marianne Faithful, Ozzie Clark, Candy Darling, or Sam Wagstaff, alongside everyday happenings, erotica, and all sorts of nudity.

In association with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and curated by Sylvia Wolf, ‘Polaroids: Mapplethorpe’ at the Whitney Museum of American Art comes fast on the heels of Polaroid’s February announcement that they’re binning instant film. With its obvious cultural significance, this is an appropriate send-off, exhibiting around hundred pieces of intimacy from Mapplethorpe’s world. Indeed, many of these shots, which were taken during 1970-1975, are on public view for the first time. So, in actual fact, this show, is far from being more of the same.

“Polaroids: Mapplethorpe” is showing the Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, New York, NY 10021, from May 3, 2008-September 7, 2008.

Tel: + (212) 570-3600

News - Jasper Johns Trio Acquired by MoMA - NYC

For an undisclosed sum, MoMA has acquired a trio of works by Jasper Johns; 'Tantric Detail I' (left), 'Tantric Detail II', and 'Tantric Detail III'. Each is painted in Johns’ cross-stitch style with the addition of a skull and, well, balls, or rather testicles. These works were exhibited by the gallery in 1996, and since, MoMA’s people and Matthew Marks, Johns’ dealer, have been making tracks to ensure the set finds a final home at MoMA. Since traveling from Johns’ Connecticut home, through showings at The Met, and via a huddle of trustees, the canvases have now made to the New York gallery.

Showing - Various 'What the Midnight Can Show Us' @ Museum 52 - NYC

Showing - Constraction @ Deitch Projects - NYC

I’m mad about Deitch Projects. The New York based gallery is the business, it's the dog's bollocks - at the very least, it’s arguably the coolest art space in The City. Even their website is cool. Hell, the music on the site is cool (in a kooky way). And each time they've a showing; it’s guaranteed to have some furiously cool talent in hand.

Take the current exhibition. Curated by Deitch’s own Kathy Grayson, the nicely named, ‘Constraction’, is showing until August and comes on the back of the Spring 2008 show, ‘Substraction’. Like its predecessor, this is a group show of like-minded talents. Pulling together the strengths of six artists, each touting their conceptual wares, this is an abstract wonderland, a multi-coloured, multi-sensory, well thought-out thrill. With works from cubic-minimalist, Joe Bradley, language obsessed symbolic Tauba Auerbach, California’s cutout shadow-star Peter Coffin (who is frankly a bit of a genius), Xylor Jane, whose trippy work will mess with your head in a superb Sol Le Witt way, slick sculptor Mitzi Pederson, and the uber-talented Ara Peterson. Now, with a mix like that, how can you possibly go wrong?

Constraction is showing at Deitch Projects, 76 Grand Street, New York, from 28thJune 28 — 9th August 09, 2008

Showing - Sarah Braman 'Love Songs' @ Museum 52 - NYC

News - Keith Haring's Houston Street and Bowery Mural - NYC

The late, great Keith Haring's work is enjoying a welcome reappearance. In celebration of his fiftieth birthday on 4th May, The Keith Haring Foundation, together with Deitch Projects and Goldman Properties, has hired a group of artists to recreate his big and bashy untitled mural, which was once situated near Houston Street and the Bowery in New York. The piece that popped up a lone concrete slab in 1982, went though a few repaints in its time, and today, those involved in its reproduction are going for authenticity. The team creating the piece are working from old photos and fairly ancient paint samples from the site, putting together an almost bone fide Haring.

Keith Haring’s Houston Street and Bowery Mural from 05/04/08 - 12/21/08

Showing - Gajin Fujita 'Pacific Tsunami' @ Haunch of Venison - London

Showing - Blek Le Rat 'Art is Not Peace But War' @ Subliminal Projects - LA

A couple of years ago, I met Blek Le Rat, AKA Xavier Prou, at a private view in London – his private view. While we had a little language issue – his English is about as good as my French – I couldn’t help but to like the guy. He had this cheeky glint, as if he were permanently amused. And who could blame him? There was some heavy action going on at the view; I have never seen such a serious amount of sales. The gallery could hardly keep up with demand.

That evening was one of those mashed-up graff nights with D*Face showing down the road at Stolen Space. However, the two exhibitions, which essentially came from the same place, were a world apart. D*Face was, and is, something else. His work has come so far; he is now a fully-fledged, frankly outstanding talent. Blek Le Rat, meanwhile, is a seen it all, been it all, who’s fast being overtaken as the international stencil king by the ubiquitous Banksy. How it will turn out who knows, but one thing’s certain, Mr. Le Rat is where it all started. In fact, you could argue, that without the cheeky Frenchman, Banksy would never have travelled the road he's taken. Come on, where do you think all those rats came from?

Now, Blek Le Rat, like Banksy, is debuting at LA's Subliminal Projects Gallery with a show entitled ‘Art is not Peace But War’. The exhibition represents, in title, the difficulties of working as an artist. Difficulties, which undoubtedly bring forth great things, great thoughts, great work, and great art.

Blek Le Rat 'Art is Not Peace But War’ @ Subliminal Projects Gallery, 1331 Sunset Boulevard, L.A. Until 2nd May 2008.

Showing - David Hochbaum 'Tracking Invisible Cities' @ Strychnin Gallery - London

Showing - Guy Tillim @ Haunch of Venison - Zurich

Hot Work from Ellen Harvey @ 2008 Whitney Biennial - NYC