After the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan on March 11, power supplies, land lines, mobile phone networks and Internet access went down, making it incredibly difficult to contact family and friends. The Japanese postal service, however, was up and running again quickly. In many cases, in fact, the first news that loved ones were safe was shared by postcard.

Inspired by role of postcards–and the idea that art and culture are vital in celebrating life and nurturing determination to move forward–the Japan Society presents Postcards From Japan, a miniature exhibition of original postcard-size works of art created by 22 artists from Japan in response to the devastation. The results (see slideshow below) are poignant works that give insight into the power and resilience of the human spirit.

The show’s curators, husband and wife Hironori Katagiri and Kate Thomson, were working in their sculpture studio in Iwate when the earthquake hit. While they anxiously awaited news of loved ones on the coast, Takuya Okada, another artist who shares their studio, received a postcard from his parents saying they were alive and well. Inspired by the uplifting effect of this postcard on the whole household, they’ve since volunteered on a series of exhibitions and special projects to support recovery in Tohoku through the arts. As the couple explains, “Many arts and cultural projects in Tohoku have been canceled or cut back as funds are diverted to the relief effort. We feel that the arts and culture are in fact vital to the recovery, helping to boost morale and stimulate hope for the future and enthusiasm to rebuild.”

The traveling exhibit is on view now through November 27th at the Japan Society Gallery in New York.

Postcards from Japan
The Japan Society Gallery
333 East 47th Street between First and Second Avenues
New York, NY
www.japansociety.org

Now Showing Antibodies (Anticorpos): Fernando & Humberto Campana, 1989 – 2009.

São Paulo’s Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil welcomes Antibodies, an expansive retrospective exhibit of work by the famed design duo, Fernando and Humberto Campana. The brothers have been designing together for almost three decades, and have collaborated on everything from furniture, fashion and jewelry, to products and interiors. The pair may be best known for their playful design aesthetic and projects developed from common but often unexpected materials – including waste products like cardboard, stuffed animals, rope, fabric and wood scraps, plastic tubes, aluminum wire. As curator Mathias Schwartz-Clauss says, “Together, the brothers ignore all the conventions of the traditional design, play with the notion of functionality, and form their poetic objects from contradictory realities.”

Antibodies was first displayed at the Vitra Museum in 2009, and texts, films, photos, and hundreds of designs (furniture, domestic objects, art, architecture models, installation pieces, etc.) by the Campana Brothers. The exhibit reveals both the diversity of the pair’s work as well as their design process and sources of inspiration.

Antibodies is on display through January 15, 2012.

Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
Rua Álvares Penteado, 112 – Centro – São Paulo
Information: (11) 3113-3651 / 3113-3652

For My Quiet of Gold, Nina Gorfer and Sarah Cooper’s new exhibition at Gestalten Space in Berlin, the artistic duo traveled to rural areas of Kyrgyzstan to collect stories from local inhabitants. The pair then interpreted these often romantic and melancholy tales as carefully choreographed motifs, which were then digitally finessed. The resulting, multi-layered collages are rooted in both contemporary photography and eighteenth and nineteenth century painting.

The Gothenborg-based pair began collaborating in 2006, and also work together as directors, authors, researchers, and editorial and commercial photographers under the name SEEK.

My Quiet of Gold
at Gestalten Space, Berlin
Now through November 27th, 2011

Now showing at Magnan Metz: For his first US show, Colombian artist Miler Lagos presents HOME, a pair of projects reflecting on the delicate balance between nature and culture, and the immaterial and material qualities that make up a “home.”

Igloo, a playful-looking 9-foot domed sculpture in the front gallery space, is composed of layers of books from a defunct US Navy base library. The outer white shell consists of the books’ paper pages, while the inside reveals colorful bindings from a selection of foreign language dictionaries, medical reference series, geographical studies, and psychology volumes, all laid like bricks in a cylindrical shape. To Lagos, the igloo is both a shelter to protect its inhabitants from nature and a space where knowledge is passed down from one generation to the next. At the same time, it is a fragile structure, vulnerable as man himself.

Water House, the exhibit’s second, similarly whimsical piece, is a video playing on looped projection. Inspired by Lagos’s time in Manhattan, and specifically the water towers that dot the city’s skyline, Water House reverses the concept of the water tank: rather than a structure that holds water in, Lagos’s video follows a structure designed to keep water out, making it a refuge for human life.

HOME is on display through October 15th at Chelsea’s Magnan Metz Gallery.
521 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001

Now showing at the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture: “USAnatomy,” an exhibition of sixty dramatic works by famed American photographer Steven Klein. Curated by fashion producer Chico Lowndes, the exhibit launches today with a cocktail event and opens tomorrow to the public. The show celebrates Klein’s talent for turning contemporary fashion photography and celebrity portraiture on its head, with lyrical, sexually-charged, often conceptual images that demand a second-look. “USAnatomy” features thirty large-scale works and thirty Polaroids from Klein’s extensive oeuvre (slideshow below).

The exhibition is part of the annual IGUATEMI Photo Series, which presents photography as an art form of contemporary cultural expression, educating the public on trends in contemporary photography.

Brazilian Museum of Sculpture (MuBE)
August 11th-August 28th
Av. Europa, 218, Jardim Europa, (Tel: 11.3081-8611).
Open Monday to Sunday from 10 am to 7 pm.
Admission is free to the public

Amy Eckert, Double Sunset. Courtesy of the artist and Jen Bekman Gallery.

Now Showing: Dawn Till Dusk at the Jen Bekman Gallery.

Progressing through the course of a day, the latest group exhibition at New York’s Jen Bekman Gallery explores our impressions of time. Flowing from day to night, the show brings together a diverse set of photographs, paintings, and works on paper by twenty-six established and emerging artists, including Sally Mann, Ed Ruscha, Alex Soth, Michael Lundgren, Todd Hido, Letha Wilson, and Amy Eckert. Curated by Jeffrey Teuton, Dawn Till Dusk encompasses a broad range of artistic approaches-from clearly contrasting light and shadows to more subtle changes in palette and tone-to signify the unyielding passage of time.

Dawn Till Dusk: A Group Show
On view now through July 30, 2011 at:

Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
New York, New York 10012

Now showing: David LaChapelle’s American Jesus…

In 2006, famed photographer and director David LaChapelle made a conscious break from his successful fashion and celebrity career to focus instead on fine art pursuits. Since that time, LaChapelle’s photographic work has maintained the fabulously dramatic, evocative nature we’ve come to expect from him over the years, now elevated by more complex subject matters. Consistently incorporating references as varied as art history, street art and pop culture, LaChapelle’s new work addresses concepts such as consumerism and cultural hierarchies.

Now, for his first New York solo show since 2008, LaChapelle‘s brings three dramatic series to the Paul Kasmin Gallery: American Jesus, Thy Kingdom Come and The Rape of Africa (images below). American Jesus – a series began over a decade ago – includes three large-scale photos depicting Michael Jackson as a modern day, Biblical martyr (from LaChapelle’s final photo shoot with Jackson). In Thy Kingdom Come, LaChapelle considers the relationships between greed and corruption amongst the religious establishment.

And The Rape of Africa - perhaps LaChapelle’s most famous work of recent years – makes its New York debut this month as well. Inspired by Sandro Botticelli’s Venus & Mars (1484), the well-known allegorical work depicts the poised and beautiful Venus, goddess of love, having tamed and diffused Mars, the vengeful god of war, who soundly sleeps, while small cherub figures play with Mars’ instruments of warfare.

In LaChapelle’s interpretation, he subverts the meaning of the original work by proposing a black Venus (Naomi Campbell), striking in her beauty, yet completely powerless to both her treatment as property and to the destruction of her land through mining and war depicted in the background. LaChapelle’s Mars is not sleeping as much as satiated by his own victories, sitting on top of his plunder gained by conquests. The contemporary allegory is layered with imagery, as seen in the jarring combination of young children with deadly weapons. For the exhibit, the photograph is presented alongside studies for the work, illuminating LaChapelle’s background in the traditional medium of drawing and watercolor.

David LaChapelle’s work has been exhibited internationally at museums and institutions including the Museo de las Artes, Guadalajara; the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City; the MOCA, Taipei; the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); The National Portrait Gallery, London; The Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin; The Brandhorst Museum, Munich; and the Kunsthaus Wien, Vienna.

American Jesus runs through September 18, 2010.

And to learn more, check out my recent interview with LaChapelle for Dazed & Confused here.

*above: American Jesus

*above: Sketch for The Rape of Africa. LaChapelle’s photographs typically begin with a series of compositional graphite drawings, collages, watercolors, and mixed media sketches—a little known facet of his artistic process.

*above: The Rape of Africa

*All images copyright David LaChapelle and courtesy of Fred Torres Collaborations.

Picasso Looks at Degas
by Matt Mulholland

The Clark Institute‘s preeminent summer show, Picasso Looks at Degas, is a massive study of Pablo Picasso as compared to one of his greatest creative influences, Edgar Degas. It is a showcase of two masters, and their shared motifs, subjects, and inspirations. The effect Degas had on Picasso is profoundly evident in the carefully organized juxtaposition of sculptures, paintings and works on paper, shown together for the very first time.

The exhibit is separated into rooms — each representing a theme Picasso shared with Degas or a stage in Picasso’s career where the impact of the older French artist is indisputable. It begins with Picasso’s early figure drawings, placed side-by-side with nearly indistinguishable sketches by Degas. Although the similarities are apparent, it is likely that young Picasso had yet to see Degas’ work. The artists shared a similar early training focusing on the human form. As they rebelled against the academic system, both artists moved away from the traditional toward more modern work inspired by their surroundings and contemporary artistic concepts.

The first manifestation of the impression made directly by Degas is shown in the works Picasso created during his time in Degas’ hometown of Paris. Simultaneously, the two artists resided in the artistic quarter of Montmartre, although, notably, it is unlikely they ever met.

While in Paris, Picasso explored the same café and cabaret scenes that were central to some of Degas’ lionized works. The Degas masterpiece In a Café (L’Absinthe) displayed next to Picasso’s Portrait of Sebastià Junyer i Vidal is a poignant comparison. Picasso began to grow in fame, yet he continued to respond to works by Degas and admire the elder’s ingenuity, style and form.

Picasso invited the comparisons to Degas and other predecessors, including Rembrandt and Manet. He produced paintings in response to these artists that were strikingly similar to their more famous works. The alleged quote from Picasso is that “good artists borrow; great artists steal.” The Clark’s newest show demonstrates how period after period, decade after decade, Picasso used Degas as a barometer.

Picasso Looks at Degas
Now through September 12, 2010
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
225 South Street, Williamstown, MA 01267
413.458.2303

*above: Portrait of Sebastià Junyer i Vidal, 1903, by Pablo Picasso. Oil on canvas, 126.4 x 94 cm. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. David E. Bright Bequest (M.67.25.18) © Museum Associates / LACMA / Art Resource, NY. © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

*above: In a Café (L’Absinthe), 1875–76, by Edgar Degas. Oil on canvas, 92 x 68.5 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Bequest of Count Isaac de Camondo, 1911 (RF 1984). © Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource, NY. Photo: Hervé Lewandowski

*above: Woman Ironing, 1904, by Pablo Picasso. Oil on canvas, 116.2 x 73 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser, 1978 (78.2514.41) © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

*above: Woman Ironing, 1876–87, by Edgar Degas. Oil on canvas, 81.3 x 66 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (1972.74.1) Image Courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

*above: Nude Wringing Her Hair, 1952, by Pablo Picasso. Oil on wood panel, 150.5 x 119.4 cm. Private Collection. © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

*above: Combing the Hair (La Coiffure), c. 1896, by Edgar Degas. Oil on canvas, 114.3 x 146.7 cm. The National Gallery, London. Bought, 1937 (NG 4865). © National Gallery, London / Art Resource, NY

*above: Nude Woman Drying Herself, c. 1884–86, by Edgar Degas. Oil on canvas, 150.8 x 213.7 cm. Brooklyn Museum, New York. Carll H. de Silver Fund (31.813)

*above: The Blue Room (The Tub), 1901, by Pablo Picasso. Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 61.6 cm. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Acquired 1927 (1554). © 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Story by Matt Mulholland, ArtSlope contributing writer.
*All images courtesy of Clark Institute.

Opening tomorrow at Vienna’s Walking-Chair Gallery: Elmar Zeilhofer’s
“I tried to play the guitar. I failed. Then I built my own string things.”

Always on the lookout for new challenges, artist Elmar Zeilhofer wished to learn the guitar. But instead of wading through exhausting music lessons, Zeilhofer decided to craft a simple instrument for himself to play. His very first “Sound Box” – timbered of ordinary materials from the local DIY store – sounded so fascinating to him that he immediately made a follow-up model: and thus Zeilhofer’s first cigar box ukulele was born.

Currently, his collection consists of 42 different “Sound Box” instruments, most built of recycled material. Each of these unique string instruments has its own character, and is regarded by the artist as a coherent part of an evolutionary chain. Perfection is not important for Zeilhofer; his main goal is the joy of experimenting and exploring the musical and engineering possibilities. New experiences gained during the crafting process flow into follow-up models made in various workshops at his studio.

Walking-Chair and its founders, Karl Emilio Pircher and Fidel Peugeot, are proud to present 28 of Elmar Zeilhofer’s string instruments, now through September 9th. The various soundscapes of the instruments will be introduced within a live performance by “Indowa probt.”

I tried to play the guitar. I failed. Then I built my own string things.
July 2nd – September 9th, 2010
Exhibition opening: July 2nd 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Location: Walking-Chair Gallery, Rasumofskygasse 10, AT-1030 Wien

**All images courtesy of Walking-Chair Gallery.

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.