David Birkin and Jeremy Hutchison on Trying and Failing
May 7, 2013
For Some Fifty Miles of Concrete Pavement—which opens today at Art(Amalgamated)—the artists and friends David Birkin and Jeremy Hutchison documented their failed attempts to bridge the geographical and ideological chasm that divided them.
Takashi Murakami Transcends
April 15, 2013
With Arhat, the artist’s first show in Los Angeles in five years, Takashi Murakami takes a more solemn look at mortality. The figure of the arhat—the Sanskrit term for “one who has achieved enlightenment”—has been used to depict spiritual transcendence over suffering throughout the ages.
Wendell Castle Sets Up House at Friedman Benda Gallery
January 11, 2013
The environment—a whimsical “nest” that appears to levitate above a spiral staircase set into an iron base, encircled by sensually curved furnishings—hovers somewhere between fantasy and functionality. Wendell Castle’s “A New Environment,” now at Chelsea’s Friedman Benda gallery, echoes the sculptor’s 1969 “Environment for Contemplation,” a monastic, pod-like chamber that viewers could enter for a moment of solitary meditation.
Women on the Verge
October 24, 2011
Ellen von Unwerth and Melvin Sokolsky, two of fashion photography’s most surreal figures, create intense and emotional images that challenge the way we think about beauty and femininity.
The Two-Headed Monster: Rankin-Hirst
October 5, 2011
Take two British masterminds, one fearless model, and lots of colorful prosthetics, and you’ve got something monstrous and beautiful.