new york
Jeff Koons, Kara Walker, Ed Ruscha and I /
...all at Postcards From The Edge - A Benefit for Visual AIDS. January 25-27, 2013 @ Sikkema Jenkins & Co - 530 West 22nd Street, NYC.
The 15th Annual POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE Featuring artworks by Mirena Rhee, Ann Hamilton, Donald Baechler, Kara Walker, Dana Schutz, Bjarne Melgaard, Marilyn Minter, Burt Barr, Kiki Smith, Ed Rusha, John Baldessari, Louise Fishman, Arturo Herrera, Ida Applebroog, Ross Bleckner, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Katherine Bernhardt, Nayland Blake, L.J. Roberts, Marcel Dzama, Catherine Opie, Tony Feher, Mary Heilmann, Jim Hodges, Julie Mehretu, Jeff Koons, Robert Longo, Moyra Davey, Bill Viola, Jane Hammond, Lawrence Weiner, Kay Rosen, Jack Pierson, Louise Lawler, John Waters.
Join me for my DAF performance next weekend at DUMBO Arts Festival /
Join me for the unexpected! – I am doing a DAF Dress piece at The DUMBO Arts Festival! Saturday, Sep 29th, 12pm-9pm. Somewhere near 45 Main Street, Brooklyn, in DUMBO!
as part of http://dumboartsfestival.com. A THREE DAY CELEBRATION OF ART, MUSIC & PERFORMANCE Sep 28, 29,
Join me for the unexpected! – I am doing a DAF Dress piece at The DUMBO Arts Festival! Saturday, Sep 29th, 12pm-9pm. Somewhere near 45 Main Street, Brooklyn, in DUMBO!
as part of http://dumboartsfestival.com. A THREE DAY CELEBRATION OF ART, MUSIC & PERFORMANCE Sep 28, 29,
Figment Dress - the making of /
The intent of Figment Dress was to create a visual response to Mark di Suvero sculptures, the wearable aspect of my projects actually stems from my many-years involvement with computer generated artwork. Working commercially for blockbuster franchises like Star Wars made me want to create painting and sculpture experiences where the whole body operates simultaneously as a surface, as a creative vehicle and a final product. Where the body is literally in touch with the process, with the materials and the product creators; where the final piece is spontaneously created on the spot with very low likelihood that the same object (in this case "dress") will ever be produced again. When I first conceived the piece I had no idea how it was going to come out formally. I wanted it to be relevant to the vision of Figment, grounded in "forms follows function" principle and also reflective of the location - Governors Island right across Manhattan in New York. Mark di Suvero sculptures dominated the landscape and provided me with the relevant geometric fulcrum.
Figment Dress /
I will be creating a Figment Dress performance for Figment Festival. It will be free, collaborative and wearable, a figment of our own imagination. Be careful: No Weapons , No Alcohol, No Pets
June 9-10, 2012 Governors Island, NYC
What: FIGMENT is an explosion of creative energy. It’s a free, annual celebration of participatory art and culture where everything is possible. For one weekend each summer, it transforms Governors Island into a large-scale collaborative artwork – and then it’s gone.
When: Saturday, June 9 — 10AM – 6PM Sunday, June 10 — 10AM – 6PM
http://newyork.figmentproject.org/figment-nyc-2012/about-figment-nyc-2012/
XQUISITE SHODO! XQUISITE CORPSE invaded Central park for an impromptu large scale painting and installation /
XQUISITE SHODO ! Big Brushes and hula hoop-la collaborative painting in Central Park. xquisitecorpse.org
XQUISITE SHODO ! turns into XQUISITE Kimono.. from mirena rhee on Vimeo.
XQUISITE CORPSE showed up in Central Park on Easter Sunday.. to color some grass. We decided to do XQUISITE the day before and next day we setup the XQUISITE SHODO which turned into a true collaborative effort in the spirit of XQUISITE CORPSE.
As time went on and with input from passers by ( Thank you, Harriet from London! ) the true colors of XQUISITE SHODO painting showed up and it turned into an XQUISITE Kimono!
Music - taiko drumming!
Thank you, grass, for growing.
Come out and paint - XQUISITE CORPSE Open Studio /
XQUISITE CORPSE Open Studio ( and party )Saturday, March 10, 12-6 pm and party 6-11 pm 526 West 26th street, studio 723, New York, NY 10001
A Collaborative art project.. with a twist.
Please be cautious,
this will not be a usual art party,
you may need to wear art on your sleeve.
The XQUISITE CORPSE will drink the new wine and art will be made by all and not by one!
Paint, painting surfaces and booze will be FREE, make sure to wear comfortable clothes, if anything.
http://xquisitecorpse.mirenarhee.com/
XQUISITE CORPSE is part of High LIne Open Studios - Chelsea - 2012 and Armory Arts week New York.
Thanks to Ian Mack.
A few great things - Damien Hirst's Spot paintings, The Happenings at Pace /
I had heard so much criticism about Damien's Spot paintings before going to the three New York shows, that I had the sneaky suspicion I am going to love them. They gave me pleasure - pleasure is hardly an argument - you either like having it or not. The flavor colored paintings made me want to lick every single dot, were named after various chemical substances and defied Jerry Saltz's argument "You see one, and you really have seen them all." In fact, they all tasted different. When I think of Damien - I also can't help but think of Zaphod Beeblebrox. Hey, if that artist's intent is to make a lot of money - that is not a reason to reject the work - although this is not my intent but can't speak against that being someone else's. The spots aren't things by themselves and they do not create a traditional artistic value (via the artist's hand ). We all know from math that a dot cannot be defined as having a substance, it's a destination. Each room of the three Gagosian galleries was brilliantly hung - thus all the paintings in a room worked together with scale to triangulate space and create a giant, Three-dimensional musical piano ( you know, the toy ones - i had one when i was a kid ).
It was a pure pleasure to indulge in the simple language of color, to occupy the space within the dots and just listen to the music.
When I think of Damien - I also can't help but think of Zaphod Beeblebrox. Hey
The exhibition Opening at Pace gallery's Happenings: New York, 1958-1963 was packed with the Who's Who in the art world today. Although the crowds for the most parts obscured the actual show - I think it was more or less the point. The exhibition opening was, all over again, a Happening on its own.
Works by Jim Dine, Simone Forti, Red Grooms, Allan Kaprow, Claes Oldenburg, Lucas Samaras, Carolee Schneemann, and Robert Whitman.
Ai Weiwei at Mary Boone, questions, answers and the pigments of imagination /
Ai Weiwei's Sunflower seeds at Mary Boone gallery in Chelsea.
One thing I learned - when art asks questions - please, do not answer. Asking is fun. Answering, on the other hand, is not.
Christopher Russell's strange, beautiful grey obelisks at Julie Saul gallery. Grey is a pigment of your imagination..
Anonymous /
This piece was inspired by a climbing wall I saw in Brooklyn. A climbing wall is usually littered with tiny boulders of various shapes and sizes and your climbing path is marked and color-coded with tape. Say, black tape with a stripe designates a VO, a beginner's path, a dark red could be a V6, a path for only experienced climbers. I thought the climbing wall was a good metaphor for life, with the tape off.
This piece went this past weekend to Cheim & Read's Postcards from the Edge.
The Art of Occupy Wall Street.. now that it's gone /
A few more digits /
Painter Scotto Mycklebust, is putting together Revolt magazine, an art-talk large format, limited edition paper. I am heading down to Occupy Wall street to take some photographs for the first issue. Also saw De Kooning show at Moma for the second time.. barefoot because my shoes were too tight and I couldn't think properly. I took the shoes off, and this being New York, no one seemed to care except that I gained a different perspective.. could be the height but this time I loved De Kooning's last paintings.
As a response to Occupy.. I decided to occupy my own painting /
I took the canvas off the stretchers and made a dress:
The power to feel /
Painting is an active language. Pollock once told De Kooning "You know more, but I feel more". To feel and to observe are the two most powerful weapons an artist uses.. on himself. When you are out in the world you really see, you dissect the world down to the particles and reverse back through to the whole to construct a mental image, however distorted. You later bring these images to the canvas. In front of the canvas, you feel. To observe and to feel are somehow in a quantum entanglement, the better you observe, the better your ability to feel. You see a brick for what it is and then you really see it, for what it isn't, a sort of stereo vision which overcomes the senses. That's why if someone feels one, an artist feels ten. You need that feeling powers ten in order to get the feeling flick through to the brush ( or whatever tool is there ) and via the paint - onto to canvas and from there to the viewer. The feeling needs to have that power in order to travel.
The confusion is that art is about learning how to draw or paint, that ability to render some ( or even strange ) reality. I think art is about learning how to feel. To feel is a powerful narcotic and immensely seductive. It is the blue pill, and the red pill simultaneously.
I have a thing for this particular shade of brown.. and this particular shade of brown has a thing for me. A conversation with R. Serra /
at Gagosian gallery.
Thank you for your support during Open Studios /
Picasso once said "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child". I'd say it will take a few lifetimes to earn the ability to see like a child. As a child you always see things as they are, rarely blinded by purpose or meaning. Once you grow up you stop being fascinated by the obvious thingness of all things, the simple facts of movement and color which are astonishing by themselves but too obvious.
Life existed for 3.5 million years without the ability to see. So the thinking among
scientists is that life didn't need the ability to see in order to exist. Seeing is the
longing of life to understand and to reflect on itself.
Life existed for 3.5 million years without the ability to see. So the thinking among scientists is that life didn't need the ability to see in order to exist. I am hoping it will take me a bit less than that to learn how to see.
Open Studios Chelsea 2011 today /
I am showing my most recent drawings during High Line Open Studios - Chelsea 2011. I'll be @ studio 723, 526 West 26th st, New York all weekend, 12-6pm.