As part of its centennial celebration, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has invited environmental artist Patrick Dougherty to erect a monumental branchwork sculpture on its grounds this summer. Natural History, as its called, was finished earlier this week, and took Dougherty and a team of volunteers three weeks total to construct. Together, they wove tree saplings and branches into Dougherty’s first New York commissioned sculpture, a playful, nest-like shape that calls to mind childhood, fairytale lands. The site-specific piece will stand for four seasons in the Plant Family Collection area of the Garden, through July 2011. Images below!

Brooklyn Botanic Garden
900 Washington Avenue / Eastern Parkway
(adjacent to Brooklyn Museum)
For more information, visit www.bbg.org

*above: Natural History

*above: Natural History in progress

*above: Natural History in progress

And here are samples of some of Patrick Dougherty’s earlier works…

above: Lookout Tree, 2008, Turtle Bay Arboretum, Redding, CA. Photo Credit: Tom Vlanos

*above: Trail Heads, 2005, Maple and sweet gum saplings, 30’ high. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC. Photo Credit: Courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of Art

*above: Sortie De Cave (Free at Last), 2008, Jardin des Arts, Chateaubourg, France. Photo Credit: Charles Crie

This year, Dom Pérignon pays tribute to Andy Warhol with a collection of three beautiful bottles. Inspired by Warhol’s legendary iconic representations and his playful use of codes and color, Dom Pérignon commissioned the Design Laboratory at Central Saint Martin’s School of Art & Design to reinterpret its timeless bottle. The resulting set, each with a distinct label in red, blue or yellow, pays homage to Warhol’s iconic color games.

Interestingly, Andy Warhol’s relationship with Dom Pérignon goes back some time, as evidenced by this entry from his diary on March 8th, 1981, after returning to New York from a show in Munich:

“Went to the gallery where they were having a little exhibition of the glittery Shoes, and had to do interviews and pics for the German newspaper and then we had to go back to the hotel and be picked up by the “2,000” people – it’s a club of twenty guys who got together and they’re going to buy 2,000 bottles of Dom Pérignon which they will put in a sealed room until the year 2,000 and then open it up and drink it and so the running joke is who will be around and who won’t…”

Images below…

*above: Dom Pérignon’s Warhol-inspired tribute collection.

*above: portrait of Andy Warhol.

*All images courtesy of and © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

On a recent visit to the San Francisco area, a friend introduced me to the playful world of “Yarn Bombing.” Also known as “graffiti knitting” and “yarn storming,” this public knit-art trend is popping up all over Berkeley. Working under the dark of night, the city’s knit bombers’ campaign creates unexpected yarn sleeves for public works of art, traffic signs and more, to many Berkeley citizens’ glee.

The stormers themselves remain anonymous, though one pair going by the name StreetColor has been labeling its installations, and has even started its own blog to document work. Another, the international organization called KnittaPlease, may be serving as inspiration for some of the work as well.

Take a look at a handful of yarn bombs below. They’re excellent reminders that the world is full of beautiful surprises; you just have to keep your eyes open and pay attention.

*Image by StreetColor’s “Russian”

*Bottom photograph from StreetColor. All other photos by Anna Carnick.

Now showing at San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum:
Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World)

“I was out walking the dear dog and I saw 500 things that made me want to make art.”
- Maira Kalman

The first major museum retrospective of award-winning illustrator, author and designer Maira Kalman is open now at San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum. Perhaps best known for her covers and drawings for The New Yorker, Kalman’s art characteristically shines a joyful, insightful, and often humorous light on contemporary life. The New York-based, Tel Aviv-born artist has written and illustrated over a dozen books for children and adults, authored two celebrated illustrated blogs for The New York Times, and collaborated with the likes of fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi and choreographer Mark Morris.

The exhibition, organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, features a selection of 100 original works on paper that span thirty years of illustration for publication as well as less widely seen works in photography, embroidery, textiles, and performance.

The works on view – from preliminary sketches to paintings – are hung as a running narrative of personal memories, cultural references, life’s abundant pleasures and distractions, and the chaos of profound events – all rendered in Kalman’s now signature blend of written text and drawings and infused with her keen sense of the absurd.

“I think everything I do is narrative,” Kalman says. “It’s things that are from my life, and things I’ve seen, and things I’ve seen in books. It’s always telling stories.” She goes on, “As an artist, I’m reporting the big things and the small things. And sometimes you don’t know which is which.”

Describing the inspiration behind her work – her curious nature and daily observation – Kalman says: “Being curious is a completely natural part of it, and being a busybody, and wanting to know what people are doing, and why, and how it works. And why are you wearing those shoes? And what’s that hole puncher for? The nature of curiosity is both about how people live their lives and about the bigger picture of how the world works.”

Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World) runs through October 26th.

above: Maira Kalman, Crosstown Boogie Woogie, 1995, gouache on paper, 15 3/8 x 11 1/2 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Julie Saul Gallery, New York.

*above: Maira Kalman, Keep Calm, 2007, gouache on paper, 11 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches. Collection of Barbara Becker and Chad Gallant.

above: Maira Kalman, Woman with Face Net, 2000, gouache on paper, 17 x 14 3/4 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Julie Saul Gallery, New York.

above: Maira Kalman, Man Dances on Salt, 2007, gouache on paper, 9 x 7 3/4 inches. Collection of Tom and Claire O’Connor.

above: Maira Kalman, Self-Portrait (with Pete), 2004–5, gouache on paper, 16 x 15 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Julie Saul Gallery, New York.

above: portrait of Maira Kalman, courtesy of Rick Meyerowitz.

*Images courtesy of The Contemporary Jewish Museum.

Now Showing: “Three Heads Six Arms” (2008), a colossal and beautiful temporary sculpture by celebrated Chinse artist Zhang Huan, makes its world premier in the heart of San Francisco’s Civic Center this summer, in conjunction with the Shanghai-San Francisco Sister City 30th Anniversary Celebration. Set in the Joseph L. Alioto Performing Arts Piazza, “Three Heads Six Arms” stands over 26 feet tall and weighs almost fifteen tons, making it Zhang’s largest sculpture to date. It is on loan (courtesy of the artist and The Pace Gallery, NY) through 2011.

Revisiting many of the social and existential themes that have made Zhang’s work resonate so broadly,
“Three Heads Six Arms” is part of a series of monumental works depicting the fragmented extremities of Buddhist statues. The series was inspired by Zhang’s discovery of religious sculptures that had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution for sale in a Tibetan market. He began the series in 2006 shortly after moving from New York to Shanghai, where he retired his performance art practice and embraced a more traditional approach to artistic creation. His recent work is characterized by a more overt relationship with traditional Chinese culture and Buddhist iconography. However, he continues to use the body as a primary vehicle for exploring existential questions and expressing emotions, and it is a common thematic thread through his various artworks.

The first sculptures in the Buddha series included nine large-scale copper fingers, based on remains he collected during his visit to Tibet. According to Zhang, “When I saw these fragments in Lhasa, a mysterious power impressed me. They’re embedded with historical and religious traces, just like the limbs of a human being.” The fingers of Buddhist deities are considered highly symbolic because they convey different spiritual meanings through various hand gestures, or mudras. Zhang continued the series with several even larger sculptures combining the legs, feet, hands and heads of Buddhist deities. The artist, having been deeply moved by the sight of the desecrated statues, believes that by recreating these fragments on a grand scale, he is able to alleviate the pain caused by their destruction.

According to the artist, “The shape of ‘Three Heads Six Arms’ came from my correlation of it with the Chinese mythological character Nezha, inspiration came from Tibetan Buddhist sculptures. I replaced two of the three Buddha heads with human heads.” Among the sculpture’s three heads is a self-portrait of the artist. In his earlier performances and photographs, Zhang always placed himself at the center of the action. Using his own body as his primary medium, he would subject himself to extreme physical trials and exploits often in front of large audiences. By introducing himself into the Buddha series, he reinstates this practice and draws a parallel between the body of Buddhist deities and his own. “Three Heads Six Arms” exemplifies how the layers of ideas explored in his performance pieces have carried through to his more traditional studio practice. “’Three Heads Six Arms’ reflects the changing realities of Chinese people today and also reflects the attitude that humankind has conquered nature and even reflects deeds of volition and hope,” said Zhang.

Zhang chose San Francisco as the ideal setting to debut his sculpture, in part because of the long-standing history being honored between Shanghai and San Francisco during this year’s Sister City Celebration. “The Shanghai San Francisco Sister City celebration commemorates this important time in the history of our two countries when the exchange of art, culture and ideas between the East and West is marked by openness and mutual appreciation. While ‘Three Heads Six Arms’ clearly embodies ideas that are rooted in Chinese culture and tradition, it is also about our common humanity. I hope that, while the sculpture is in San Francisco, it will serve as a bridge between these two great cities and that it will continue to foster this spirit of tolerance and appreciation,” said Zhang.

For more information, visit www.sfartscommission.org.

Above series: Zhang Huan’s “Three Heads Six Arms,” 2008. Copper. 26′ 3″ x 59′ 3/4″ x 32′ 9-3/4″ (800 cm x 1,800 cm x 1,000 cm). Photographs by Bruce Damonte.

**All images courtesy of the San Francisco Arts Commission

The very exciting Guggenheim Museum/YouTube collaborative competition – YouTube Play – is on the hunt for the world’s most creative videos. As we reported last month, YouTube Play was conceived to discover and showcase the most exceptional talent working in the ever-expanding realm of online video. Open to the global online community, the competition is accepting submissions now through July 31st.

And now the competition’s all-star and eclectic jury from the worlds of art, design, film, and music has been announced. The impressive dream-team panel includes Laurie Anderson, Animal Collective, Darren Aronofsky, Douglas Gordon, Ryan McGinley, Marilyn Minter, Takashi Murakami, Shirin Neshat, Stefan Sagmeister, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

According to jury chair Nancy Spector:

“We will be looking for work that will test, elevate, and experiment with video as it is manifest online. We are less interested in what’s ‘now’ than in what’s next.” YouTube Play is open to students and amateur video makers, artists, and creative professionals. Submissions may include animation, motion graphics, narrative, nonnarrative, documentary, and music videos. The jury will review a short list of up to two hundred video works that have been prescreened by the Guggenheim from the pool of videos submitted by the international YouTube community and uploaded to youtube.com/play. From the short list, the jury will select up to twenty that they deem the most creative and inspiring, regardless of genre, technique, or budget. The short-listed videos will be on the YouTube Play channel (youtube.com/play) beginning in September 2010.

To learn more, visit YouTube.com/Play.

For its newest title, Phaidon Press has gathered ten respected curators to choose 100 of the world’s best and most important emerging contemporary artists. The resulting collection is CREAMIER: Contemporary Art in Culture, the fifth addition to the publisher’s Cream series.

Packed with over 700 color images from a variety of mediums, CREAMIER is a beautiful new reference for art collectors and lovers. A one to two page spread is dedicated to each of the featured artists, including a newly commissioned text written by the curator who selected the artist, alongside full-color images illustrating the artists’ most recent work. The book’s introduction reveals a thoughtful discussion amongst the curators (including the Tate Modern‘s Catherine Wood, The Kitchen‘s Debra Singer, MACBA‘s Chus Martinez, and Kunsthalle Basel‘s director, Adam Szymczyk) on the topic of the recession’s impact on both the art market and artists’ creativity.

The design of the book itself also nods to the nature of the art world. Calling to mind a broadsheet newspaper in size, weight and paper, CREAMIER reinforces the “of the moment” nature of the artists and work within. That newspaper-look implies accessibility, while the custom-made box it comes in hints at a more collectible aspect; combined, these design elements reinforces the idea of the art world’s fluidity, wherein an artist’s new work can be fresh for only a short while, but where powerful work will stand the test of time.

Creamier: Contemporary Art in Culture: 10 Curators, 100 Contemporary Artists, 10 Sources
Curated by Elena Filipovic, Douglas Fogle, Yukie Kamiya,
Inés Katzenstein, Chus Martínez, Kitty Scott, Debra Singer,
Adam Szymczyk, Catherine Wood, and Tirdad Zolghadr.
Published by Phaidon Press, 2010
700 color illustrations
324 pages
$39.95
www.phaidon.com

*above: Jamie Isenstein, Arm Chair, 2006; linen, wood, metal, nylon, raw cotton, upholstery foam, human arms and human legs or ‘Will return’ sign; dimensions variable. Curator: Debra Singer.

*above: Goshka Macuga, I Am Become Death, 2009; mixed–media installation; dimensions variable. Curator: Adam Szymcyck.

*above: Lisa Anne Auerbach, Photomural for Nottingham Contemporary Window Installation, 2009; color photograph 670 x 304 cm. Curator: Douglas Fogle.

*above: Alejandro Cesarco, When I am Happy, 2002-present; coloured pencil on paper; 28 × 23 cm. Curator: Inés Katzenstein.