Late last summer, the now infamous Station Fire hit Los Angeles County. The largest fire to ever hit the area, it destroyed over 250 acres of Angeles National Forest. Less than a year later, organizer Joy Feuer, in partnership with the Glendale Parks & Open Space Foundation, has launched “ART from the Ashes,” an eco-art exhibition of 100+ pieces donated by 64 artists, each created from salvaged materials gathered from Deukmejian Wilderness Park (several images below).

Showing at the Glendale Parks & Open Space Foundation now through July 24th, the show spans a variety of mediums: a stop-motion short film, fashion pieces, ceramics glazed with ash from the Park, salvaged metal acting as a canvas for painting, and fallen tree branches incorporated into multi media work, to name a few. And every piece in the exhibit celebrates the ideas of sustainability and renewal.

In addition to the artwork itself, the exhibit setting pays tribute to Deukmejian Wilderness Park’s raw materials. At the center of the room, a plot of decomposed granite is framed by suspended, reclaimed window frames. Art is placed in the sand as if it were created then and there. Massive scorched tree branches are anchored throughout, reminiscent of the actual aftermath of the park.

A suggested donation of $5 upon entrance to the exhibition goes to raise funds for the restoration of Deukmejian Wilderness Park.

Location:
ART from the Ashes Gallery
216 S. Brand Blvd
Glendale, CA 91204

Suggested donation $5.
The exhibition continues through July 24th with special event programming throughout.
Gallery open Tues-Sunday 12-6pm.
www.artfromtheashes.org

*above: Philip Lumbang’s “New Life,” painted on a found metal Deuk object.

*above: Rick McLean’s “Animated Coal Puppet,” a 3 minute stop motion animation story art submission.

*above: Christopher Casanova’s “Deuk Arches,” Deukmajian Wilderness Park, San Gabriel Mountains, CA. Photography and video installation. Stone arches installed in Park by artist in multiple locations, then photographed and filmed for Gallery installation.

*above: Karen Sikie’s “Still Standing #1,” mixed media, charcoal & watercolor, 23″x30″.

*above: James Carbone’s “Oak Tree,” black and white photographs, 8×10.

*above: GWEN SAMUELS Gwen Samuels’ “Spring,” salvaged springs. digital images, printed on transparent film, hand-stitched.

above: Fashion by Corinne Grassini, Owner/Designer of Society for Rational Dress. The dress’s neckpiece is repurposed debris from the fire.

NOW SHOWING: Andy Warhol: The Last Decade
by Matt Mulholland

It’s hard to believe that an artist as celebrated as Andy Warhol has not had a major show in New York in over twenty years. The Brooklyn Museum has put an end to that absurd drought and is currently hosting the first United States museum exhibition of Warhol’s late works. The exhibit is a massive two-floor survey, consisting of nearly fifty paintings created between 1977-87, Warhol’s last and perhaps most prolific decade. During this stretch, Warhol produced a substantial number of series and large scale works. His last decade was one of significant development and production, marked by a transformation of style and a drive to solidify his art world legacy.

In the late 1970s, Warhol began to move away from the Pop Art style of the 1960s. Drawing upon new techniques, Warhol produced provocative, abstract works such as the Oxidation series, in which he used urine and metallic pigment as components. He also explored the figurative in his collaborative works with friends and fellow art superstars Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francisco Clemente, and Keith Haring. Working alongside the 80s luminary Basquiat, Warhol returned to using brush and paint on canvas for the first time since the 1960s. Four of their collaborative works are on display here, highlighting Basquiat’s distinct style, while Warhol’s contribution acts more as a stamp of a approval, a passing of the torch on canvas.

The exhibit is a prodigious examination of an incredible end to a forty-year career. It showcases Warhol’s works that went beyond his iconic portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s soup cans. The most outstanding pieces on display are the atypically large scale works. The Yarn series (a direct nod to the paintings of Jackson Pollock), enormous Rorschach paintings (towering over ten feet high), and his Double $5/Weightlifter are all dramatic works that must be seen in person. Also on display are several monumental examples from the Last Supper paintings, which injected Warhol’s pop flair into the iconic frescos of Leonardo da Vinci. The series is the largest Warhol produced in his entire career- a testament to his surprising devout Catholicism.

In addition to his works on canvas, the exhibit includes several of Warhol’s video pieces and rooms lined with portraits of celebrities like Debbie Harry, Mick Jagger, Truman Capote and Dolly Parton. There is also a wall of Interview magazine covers and a table showcasing a catalog of the magazine, which Warhol founded in 1969, and remained involved in until the end of his life.

Andy Warhol: The Last Decade will be at the Brooklyn Museum from now until September 12, 2010. Entry is $10, $6 for students and seniors. After the Brooklyn showing, it will move onto its last stop at the Baltimore Museum of Art, from October 17, 2010- January 9, 2011.

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11238-6099
(718) 638-5000

Story by Matt Mulholland, ArtSlope contributing writer & photographer.
*All photos by Matt Mulholland, courtesy of the artist.

Now showing at Howard Yezerski Gallery: Neeta Madahar’s “Flora”

Photographer Neeta Madahar‘s new allegorical portrait series, Flora, began with Madahar asking friends to choose flowers that had been adopted for use as women’s names. The chosen flowers then became the organizational theme for the portrait series, through which Madahar combined images from traditional art history with the modern effects and artifice of a commercial portrait studio. The results are images that undo the myth of the “eternal feminine.”

Madahar’s subjects appropriate imagery found in representations stretching back to antiquity, re-spun through the eyes of a modern female artist. As Allan Doyle writes in the forthcoming book, “Flora,” to be published by Nazraeli Press: “Flora – the Roman deity of flowering and fruit-bearing plants – was traditionally depicted as a young woman surrounded by reveling admirers bearing floral tributes. In Madahar’s Flora series, her inspiration was not Botticelli but the stylized portrait photography of the 1930-50s including that of Cecil Beaton, Angus McBean and Madame Yevonde. In particular it was Yevonde’s Goddesses, a series of photographs of costumed doyens of 1930s British society that served as her point of departure. Madahar’s models do not grace the pages of society or glamour magazines, they are real women whose bodies and comportment exemplify a willful sense of self-possession won through lived experience.”

Doyle continues: “Flora undoes myths of the eternal feminine through its embrace of kitsch and artifice. The dramatic poses of the models match their theatrical settings. The sets flaunt their homespun construction with details like the wires that suspend a painted thunderbolt in mid air; but the photos’ technical execution demonstrates a level of expertise that prevents us from mistaking this as a group of women simply playing dress-up. For all their humor, these photographs are also infused with an air of melancholy. Surrounding her subjects by blooms at their peak, Madahar underscores the vulnerability of human flesh. The glare of lights and exquisite detail of the prints reveal the delicate traces of lives lived, signs that Madahar has chosen not to erase. Although Madahar’s subjects have been given the opportunity to fashion their own images of idealized femininity it is ultimately their failure to fully incarnate these archetypes that makes the photographs so poignant.”

Flora by Neeta Madahar
Showing through July 6, 2010
Howard Yezerski Gallery
460 Harrison Ave.
Boston, Massachusetts 02118
Tues. – Sat. 10 – 5:30pm
617.262.0550
www.howardyezerskigallery.com

*above: Sharon with Peonies

*above: Lisa with Primroses

*above: Lee with Fuchsias

*above: Kate with Rosemary

*Images courtesy of Howard Yezerski Gallery.

Tonight at MILK Gallery, a benefit event and art auction called ART for SPC will raise funds to support the work of the Stephen Petronio Company. The contemporary art event, which is part of the legendary dance company’s 25th anniversary season, celebrates its long history of collaborating with innovative visual artists.

Photographer Cindy Sherman is acting Committee Chair of the event, and contributing artists include: Donald Baechler, Michael Bilsborough, Ross Bleckner, Louise Bourgeois, Mark Borthwick, Mark Chamberlain, Emilie Clark, Sante D’Orazio, Dumitru Gorzo, Stephen Hannock, Sarah Hardesty, Karen Heagle, Lesley Horowitz, Timothy Hull, Jennie C. Jones, Jayson Keeling, Jen Liu, Robert Melee, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Simone Shubuck, Sarah Silver, Spencer Tunick, Ryan Wallace, Christian Witkin, Dustin Yellin, Patti Smith and many more. (See below for a handful of pieces available at auction.)

Stephen Petronio is regarded as one of the leading dance makers of his generation. He founded Stephen Petronio Company in 1984, and has created an expansive body of work marked by an unmistakable movement language in collaboration with innovators in the fields of music, visual arts and fashion, including Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright, Cindy Sherman and Anish Kapoor.

*Tickets are still available at the door for $25 or $125.
For general inquiries, call 212.473.1660.

ART for SPC
Tonight: 6:30pm – 9:30pm
Milk Gallery: 450 West 15th St. (between 9th & 10th Avenues), New York

*above: Daniel Arsham’s “Swallow My Building,” 2009. Gouache on Mylar, 18 ½ x 13 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris.

*above: Mikhail Baryshnikov’s “Untitled (Crises),” 2006. Matte digital C-print. 24 x 36 inches. Artist’s proof, signed by the artist. Courtesy of the artist.

*above: Louise Bourgeois’ “The Ainu Tree,” 2000. Six color lithograph on paper. 29 x 20 inches. Edition 80/100. Courtesy of the artist and Cheim & Read.

*above: Emilie Clark’s “Untitled from Maxwell’s Lair (MM-73),” 2009. Watercolor and graphite on paper. 12 x 12 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Morgan Lehman Gallery.

*above: Annie Leibovitz’s “Stephen Petronio, New York City,” 1993, Archival pigment print, printed in 2010. 20 x 24 inches. AP 4. Signed. Courtesy of the artist.

*above: Patti Smith’s “Wing Net for Robert 2008,” 2008. Silver gelatin B&W print. 10 x 8 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

*All images courtesy of Seventh House PR.

Iranian born photographer, videographer and filmmaker Shirin Neshat first rose to the international stage in the mid-90s with a photo series called Women of Allah, an intense body of work exploring women and martyrdom in Islamic culture. Since then, her work has progressed from photographs to video installations and short films, covering difficult topics like Eastern and Western boundaries, men and women, the sacred and the profane, exile and belonging.

A new book out this month entitled, simply, Shirin Neshat, explores the evolution of Neshat’s potent imagery (see below!). Featuring a foreword by world renowned artist Marina Abramovic and an essay by art critic Arthur Danto, this stunning collection covers everything from Women of Allah, focusing the lens on militant Muslim women, to her first feature film, Women Without Men, based on a novella by Shahrnush Parsipur, which was banned from the author’s native Iran. The film follows the lives of four women during the summer of 1953, when an American-led coup d’etat brought down Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister and reinstalled the Shah to power. Notably, Women Without Men makes its U.S. debut this year, and has already earned the Silver Lion for best director at the Venice Film Festival and been selected as part of 2010′s New Directors/New Films program of MoMA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Neshat’s work is boldly beautiful, incredibly powerful, and at times even stark: women cloaked in black veils with excerpts of Farsi poetry inscribed across the surface; videos of clans of men and women in barren landscapes chanting, sacred burial rituals, groups of men and women listening to rousing moralistic sermons in a public hall, and more recently, magical realist works in which women fly or plant themselves in gardens to ensure their fertility.

Shirin Neshat is available now through Amazon or Rizzoli.

Shirin Neshat
essay by Arthur Danto
foreword by Marina Abramovic
Published by Rizzoli
Hardcover, $75.00

*above: Shirin Neshat, Women of Allah Series, 1994. B&W RC print (photo taken by Cynthia Preston), 31 x 46 1/2 inches (79 x 118 cm). Copyright Shirin Neshat. Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York.

*above: Shirin Neshat, Allegiance with Wakefulness, 1994. B&W RC print & ink (photo taken by Cynthia Preston), 46 3/4 x 37 1/8 inches (118.7 x 94.3 cm). Copyright Shirin Neshat. Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York.

*above: Shirin Neshat, Stories of Martyrdom, 1994. B&W RC print and ink (photo taken by Cynthia Preston). 11 x 14 inches (27.9 x 35.6 cm). Copyright Shirin Neshat. Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York.

*above: Shirin Neshat, Production Still. Rapture, 1999. Copyright Shirin Neshat. Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York

*above: Shirin Neshat, Rapture Series, 1999. Gelatin silver print. 44 x 69 inches (111.8 x 175.3 cm). Copyright Shirin Neshat. Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York

*above: Shirin Neshat, Passage Series, 2001. Cibachrome print. 51-1/8 x 63 inches framed. 130 x 160 cm framed. Copyright Shirin Neshat. Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York

*above: Shirin Neshat, Passage Series, 2001. Cibachrome print. 51-1/8 x 63 inches framed. 130 x 160 cm framed. Copyright Shirin Neshat. Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York

*above: Shirin Neshat, Passage Series, 2001. Cibachrome print. 42 x 63 1/8 inches (106.7 x 160.3 cm) framed. Copyright Shirin Neshat. Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York

*All images courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York

Opening today at Boston’s Howard Yezerski Gallery, the exhibit “Better Not Tell You Now” presents new paintings and works on paper by Emily Eveleth. Revealing intimate scenes with figures, childhood objects and un-peopled spaces, Eveleth pays particular attention to the placement of figures and objects within their environment, creating poignant tableaux of an event that has perhaps just occurred or is about to occur.

Through tight cropping (reminiscent of cinematic close-ups), we catch glimpses of dramatically lit lone figures, hands, and familiar childhood toys, drawing our attention as they recede in and out of darkness. In several of the images we see the hands of a lone adult figure playing out a curious game of magic eight-ball.

By not giving any details as to surroundings, time, or place, the images remain anonymous; yet, the close-up nature of the scenes in these works creates a feeling of intimacy, as if the viewer has stepped into a private moment.

The exhibit runs through May 26th.

Howard Yezerski Gallery
460 Harrison Avenue
Boston, MA 02118
(617) 262-0550

*above: Chew Toy 3, 2010, graphite and alkyd on mylar, 8 x 10″

*above: Hands with 8 Ball, 2010, oil on board , 5″ x 10″

*above: Hands with Dice, 2010, graphite and alkyd on mylar, 8″ x 11 1/2″

*above: Shepherdess, 2010, graphite and alkyd on mylar, 9″ x 8″

*above: Waiting, 2010, graphite and alkyd on mylar, 7″ x 9 1/2″

above: Dinosaur by the Window, 2010, graphite and alkyd on mylar, 7″ x 10″

*Images courtesy of the gallery.

Capturing Dennis Hopper’s very full career as an actor, director and artist over the last 40 years is an ambitious task. Flammarion’s latest title – Dennis Hopper & The New Hollywood – does just that, offering a visual testament to both Hopper’s personal creative evolution and American counterculture at large. Born of an exhibition by the Cinematheque Francaise, the new book pairs Hopper’s own paintings, photography and film work with his impressive private collection of contemporary art by names like Jenny Holzer, Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns. Interviews and insightful essays give further context, completing a tome that offers a thoughtful look at one of the era’s greatest fringe icons.

Dennis Hopper & The New Hollywood
Contributions by Pierre Evil, Bernard Marcade, Matthiew Orlean and Jean-Baptiste Thoret
Hardcover, 192 pages, 230 color & b&w illustrations
Published by Flammarion (distributed by Rizzoli through Random House)

“He resisted, but I insisted.” -Dennis Hopper on casting disputes during Easy Rider

*above: Victor Skrebneski, Dennis Hopper, 1990 Gelatin Silver Print, 24 ½ x 33 ¾ in. (62.2 x 85.7 cm). Victor Skrebneski Collection, Chicago. Skrebneski Photograph © 1990, from Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood, Paris: Flammarion, 2009.

*above: Andy Warhol, Dennis Hopper, 1971. Mixed media. Silkscreen print made from synthetic polymer and ink on canvas, 40 x 40 in. (101.6 x 101.6 cm). Dennis Hopper collection, Los Angeles.’
© Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / ADAGP, Paris 2008, from Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood, Paris: Flammarion, 2009.

*Images courtesy of Flammarion.
Available now through Amazon.

Now open at L.A.’s Prism, “Araki: A Perspective” presents 70 works by world renowned Japanese photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki. Describing his technique, Araki says, “What’s important in my work is always the relationship between me and the object – - it’s a kind of love story. I don’t concern myself with why a relationship starts or where it goes. The most important thing is just the relationship between the two of us at that moment. This world becomes our world.”

*Above: “From Close to Range” (diptych) by Nobuyoshi Araki. 1991/2007. Black and White print. Each image 60 x 40 inches (152.4 x 101.5 cm)

*Above: “Colorscapes” by Nobuyoshi Araki. 1991. C print, 40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)

Based primarily in Tokyo, Araki documents what he sees in the streets, exploring the various themes that exist in the city. With over 450 photography books to his name, Araki has explored a wide variety of topics, most notably the love of his wife, Yoko, in the intimate series, “Yoko, My Love.” Araki has also done commercial work, recently photographing music sensation Lady Gaga for Vogue Hommes Japan, in his signature “bondage style” poses.

*Above: Araki portrait by Sante D’Orazio

“Araki: A Perspective” is on display from March 6th – May 9th at:

PRISM
8746 West Sunset Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90069

All images courtesy of Prism.

A major new installation opens this weekend at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. New York-based artist Emilie Clark‘s “My Garden Pets” – a series of fluid watercolor and graphite amalgamations of flora and fauna – explores the work of 19th-century American naturalist (and Darwin collaborator) Mary Treat. Specifically, they address the concept of ‘the beneficial insect,’ depicting acts which often go unseen by the human eye – a microscopic war between plants and insects.

Explaining the inspiration behind her work, Clark says, “When I first began using Victorian women naturalists as the point of departure for my art in 2003, I discovered an unanticipated freedom. By inserting myself into the dynamics of the work of these historical naturalists and into the worlds opened up by their lives and practices, I was able to live more fully in my own constructed world of art making – a world that, like theirs, emerges out of close observation of ambiguous objects and feeds off the constant flux between categories generated by that observation. Spores, pollen, egg sacks, hives–nature is filled with tiny worlds that are at once contained and whole and yet built or woven out of infinite parts. The role of a naturalist involves the investigation of these parts, the dismantling and the reconstruction of them.”

To create the series, Clark spent four months on site at the Garden as its first artist-in-residence, researching in its libraries and talking to BBG horticulturalists, scientists, and other staff members. Her project combines works on paper in which galls, thorns, canes, beetles, aphids, nematodes, leaves and pods flow in and out of each other, in accumulation and transformation, with an audio piece drawn from the extensive correspondences between Treat and Charles Darwin and Asa Gray. In the tradition of the natural history museum, display cases will contain a variety of plant specimens sent by Treat to Harvard University, facsimiles of original correspondence, and the artist’s mapping of her process. A Victorian terrarium and armchair will complete the installation.

The exhibition title refers to a treatise on beneficial insects penned by Treat in 1887, describing a kind of unwitting cross-species collaboration, when insects help plants survive the attacks of their predators. “’My Garden Pets’ links Treat’s specific expertise in beneficial insects to the larger institution of the scientific correspondence, exploring the ways in which Treat herself might have performed something like the role of the beneficial insect for her famous male colleagues, “ says Clark.

Asked to further describe the impact of the era’s gender divide on Treat’s work, Clark explains: “Perhaps the most emblematic example of the gender divide for women professionals during the Victorian era was that Treat was commissioned by the Brooklyn Ethical Association to write an obituary tribute to Asa Gray. Her obituary was published, but because women were not allowed to be members of the association, it was presented by a man.”

She goes on, “During Treat’s life, it was extremely difficult for a woman to pursue an academic career, say in the way that Asa Gray had. The first public university to admit women was not opened until 1884. There were only a few co-ed private colleges and a hand full of women’s colleges. Even so, women who did go to college were generally taught home economics. Treat had no formal education. Asa Gray and Charles Darwin both had received formal education and Gray remained tied to an academic position for the duration of his career. In Gray’s case, the academic affiliation afforded him all sorts of perks—libraries, research funds and assistants, academic publishing, lectures and colleagues. Darwin was independently wealthy so he was not dependent on academic affiliation. Still, his relationship to his professors at Cambridge, in addition to his class position, played a key role in every opportunity—from being invited on the Voyage of the Beagle to publishing, organization affiliations and his ability to acquire specimens.”

“Mary Treat was entirely self-taught and dependent on income from her publishing. She collected numerous specimens for Gray and Darwin, but was only given postage for her efforts. She writes in a letter to Darwin:

‘Dr. Gray asked me to publish the Sarracenia article in the American Naturalist, and you may wonder at my selecting a literary magazine rather than a scientific one, but I am wholly dependent upon my own exertions, and must go where they pay best.’

“So just as beneficial insects can help deter injurious ones, allowing plants to thrive, Treat’s extensive research and specimen collection for Asa Gray and Charles Darwin, contributed to the advancement of their theories, their knowledge, and their recognition—she helped them to thrive.”

“My Garden Pets” runs March 6th – May 23rd, and is part of The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s 100th anniversary celebration. For more information, visit www.bbg.org.

Located at:
Steinhardt Conservancy Gallery,
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
900 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

Admission to the exhibition is free with admission to BBG: $8 for adults and $4 for senior citizens (65 and older) and students with ID. Children under 12, all school groups, and Garden members are admitted free at all times.

*Images: (from top) “Untitled, BBG-6 from My Garden Pets,” “Untitled, BBG-1 from My Garden Pets,” “Untitled, BBG-3 from My Garden Pets,” “Untitled, BBG-4 from My Garden Pets,” and “Untitled, BBG-2 from My Garden Pets.” All 2009. All watercolor, ink and graphite on paper, measuring 22″x15″.
All images courtesy of the artist, Emilie Clark.