{sculpture} – Page 52 – { feuilleton }

Naked Bodies, Naked Souls and Mind Pixels

Pictures by Daniel Barkley (left) and John Dugdale (right).

Two exhibitions worthy of note for those in the New York area. Jan Kapera of JKK Fine Arts notified me about a new show he’s curated, Naked Bodies, Naked Souls, currently running at the Loft Gallery in the Delaware Arts Center,
Narrowsburg, NY.

The realm of ‘Naked Bodies, Naked Souls’ is a very private, personal world; a world of artists’ secrets, dreams, feelings, and deepest emotions,” says curator Kapera. “They have expressed the unexpressed—they have found the way to show spiritual and mystical states of soul in dream-like, symbolic images.

This exhibit features the work of 16 international artists: Daniel Barkley (Canadian), Luigi Casalino (Italian), Joanna Chrobak (Polish), John Dugdale (American, NYC), Barbara Falender (Polish), Michel Henricot (French), Michael Kuch (American, MA), Tom Misztal (American, OR), Aleksandra Nowak (American, NJ), Darek Nowakowski (American, NYC), Egidijus Rudinskas (Lithuanian), Krzysztof Skorczewski (Polish), Lubomir Tomaszewski (American, CT), David Vance (American, FL), Damian Wojtowicz (Polish), and Piotr Woroniec (Polish). (More.)

Naked Bodies, Naked Souls runs to September 4, 2010. Thanks to Jan for the photos!

Water Spike (2003) by Daina Krumins.

And by chance this weekend I happened to see news of a forthcoming exhibition of work by artist and filmmaker Daina Krumins, Mind Pixels, at the Barron Arts Center, Woodbridge, NJ.

The Barron Arts Center is located at 582 Rahway Avenue in Woodbridge. Admission is free and everyone is welcome to attend. The “Mind Pixels” exhibition features photomontages, sculpture and films by surrealistic artist Daina Krumins. The exhibit opens on Aug. 21 and runs until Sept. 15. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 2-4 p.m. The public is also invited to attend the opening reception on Sunday, Aug. 22 from 2-4 p.m. Light refreshments will be served and reservations are suggested. (More.)

As part of the exhibition three of Krumins’ very strange animated films will be given a rare screening this Thursday, August 26. One of the three is Babobilicons, her epic filming of the activity of slime moulds and stinkhorn mushrooms. I’ve been intrigued by the sound of this for several years (see an earlier post about the film) but have yet to see it so anyone in Woodbridge is in a fortunate position this week.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Babobilicons by Daina Krumins
• Saint Sebastian in NYC

Monsters in art

Frontispiece for Goethe’s Faust (c. 1843) by Eugène Delacroix.

Or a couple of pages from Les monstres dans l’art; êtres humains et animaux bas-reliefs, rinceaux, fleurons, etc., a study of aesthetic teratogenesis by Edmond Valton from 1905. The Delacroix frontispiece gives a better view than the one at the Davison Art Center but they have more of the Faust lithographs. Emmanuel Frémiet’s animals were created to adorn the restored medieval Château de Pierrefonds for Napoleon III. The artist had smaller ceramic copies of the statues made later, of which the lizard is an improvement on the stone version.

Fantastic animals (c. 1870) by Emmanuel Frémiet.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The House with Chimaeras
• Frémiet’s Lizard

Dalí’s Elephant

Madhav Reading Stories of Devi (2007) by Sakti Burman.

Dalí’s Elephant is a group exhibition at London’s Aicon Gallery that “traces the echoes of Surrealism in modern and contemporary art from the Indian Subcontinent.” The exhibition title refers to the gift ashtray which Salvador Dalí designed for Air India in 1967:

In 1967 Air India commissioned Salvador Dali to produce a limited edition ashtray which was to be given to a select group of lucky first-class passengers. Dali produced a small unglazed porcelain ashtray composed of a shell-shaped centre with a serpent around its perimeter. This was supported by three stands, two of which point in the same direction and resemble an elephant’s head. The third stand was inverted so that it resembled swan’s head. Dali was initially paid no more than a few hundred dollars for his design but when they received the design the airline bosses were so delighted that they made Dali the surprise gift of an elephant. Dali lived with the elephant for a few days at his Portligat home before donating the beast to the local zoo. (More.)

The Surrealist element is very much a trace in some of the works which seems surprising given the distinctive heritage of India’s religious imagery, as was demonstrated recently at A Journey Round My Skull. But I like the Sakti Burman paintings, especially the example shown here. Dalí’s Elephant runs to September 4th, 2010.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Marsi Paribatra: the Royal Surrealist
• Dalí in Wonderland
• Bollywood posters
• Impressions de la Haute Mongolie revisited
• Dalí and Film
• The persistence of DNA
• Salvador Dalí’s apocalyptic happening
• Dalí Atomicus
• Impressions de la Haute Mongolie

The art of Jessica Harrison

left: Maria (2010); right: Dawn (2010).

British artist Jessica Harrison undermines the saccharine innocence of porcelain figurines in a manner which would no doubt appeal to a Surrealist and black humorist like Jan Svankmajer. As well as these recent pieces, her website features further contemporary takes on Surrealism including a number of pencil drawings, one of which is a self-portrait alluding to that Švankmajer favourite, Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Surrealism, graphic design and Barney Bubbles
• Jan Švankmajer: The Complete Short Films

Weekend links 23

“The Go-Go wonder of Paris — That’s space girl. Transistors never wear down, they just go on and on — Even her heart is made of vinyl — It’s a marvy life — With nothing else to do but dance — Why not? – Love? — Forget it, baby — Not for her —” From Mod Love (1967) by Michael Lutin and Michel Quarez.

• “Gay people are not advancing themselves in the (publishing) industry, they’re just regurgitating familiar territory. Of course, artists are always ahead of gatekeepers. That’s the way it works—artists innovate. But in order to fulfill your promise as an editor, agent, publisher or reviewer, you have to be a person who’s embracing the new and looking to elevate what is not yet known. And unfortunately, there’s not a discussion among publishing professionals about enhancing this aspect of people’s responsibilities. In fact, it goes the other way. So there needs to be a psychological revolution on behalf of the people who are controlling what information is allowed to be seen.” From an interview with Sarah Schulman at Lambda Literary.

• Jonathan Ross meets Jim Steranko. Also at the Guardian: Unearthing the truth about Alan Moore.

• Photographing an abandoned Art Deco skyscraper. From the people who photographed Neverland at night.

• Powers: “aural sculptures” by Andy Partridge inspired by the strange science fiction art of Richard M Powers.

La Paresse (Laziness) (1924) by George Barbier.

• Lautréamont’s poison-drenched pages. Roger Cardinal reviews a new edition of Les Chants de Maldoror and Poésies.

• The Wire‘s Top 50 Rhythms of All Time, a list from 1992. Some great recommendations but it’s impossible to imagine that being written now without a mention of Klaus Dinger. And where’s Fela Kuti?

• The Wire Salon at Cafe Oto, London, on August 5th presents Rob Young discussing his forthcoming book, Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music.

• American Pictorial Photography, 1912–1955. Another astonishing picture set at Golden Age Comic Book Stories.

• The Beats: Pictures of a Legend. Edmund White on a new exhibition of Allen Ginsberg’s photographs. Related: the trailer for Howl.

• The Dream Machine is a point-and-click adventure game made using hand-crafted animation.

• Fuck yeah Francisco Lachowski: Brazilian model cutie has many Tumblr fans.

• Polly Morgan’s wings of desire. The taxidermy artist interviewed.

• Thomas Dolby’s solar-powered boat studio.

• Rückstoss Gondoliere (1971) by Kraftwerk: pt. 1 | pt. 2