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.

Strude, the title of Danish photographer Trine Søndergaard‘s first solo exhibit at Bruce Silverstein Gallery, refers to the mask-like garment traditionally worn by women on the Danish island of Fanø to cover their faces from the wind, sun and sand. Today, this folk costume is worn only for an annual fête day, and so over the last three years, Søndergaard visited the island for this celebration. Each time, she photographed women by a window in a small attic as they dressed for the festivities.

Though the Strude series is not a direct study of either the place or the women’s clothing, the series expresses Søndergaard’s fascination with the culture on the island and with folk costume as the bearer of meaning and specific codes. At the same time, they reflect Søndergaard’s interest in the viewer’s perception of imagery.

The contemporary women in these photographs seem to be of another place and time, classically posed, costumed, and seated in a room where chronological signifiers have been purposefully erased. The seemingly straightforward images are in fact loaded: the current polemic of veiling, the incongruity between the clothing and the time period, and the inward gaze of the sitter provoke the viewer to pause and contemplate these photographs and their meaning. Søndergaard’s attention to almost imperceptible moods and elements – how much is visible, what is said and what is unsaid, what is exposed and what is unexposed – makes them intoxicating.

Strude is open through July 2nd.

Trine Søndergaard: Strude
Bruce Silverstein Gallery
535 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
T: 212. 627. 3930
www.brucesilverstein.com

*above, Strude #17

*above, Strude #16

*above, Strude #19

*above, Strude #20

*All images © Trine Søndergaard, courtesy of Bruce Silverstein Gallery, NY.

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.

Starting this week, the single-work, sound installation Bruce Nauman: Days will fill The Museum of Modern Art‘s Special Exhibition Gallery. A recent addition to the Museum’s collection, Nauman‘s Days (2009) was created for, and debuted at, the 2009 Venice Biennale, where the contemporary American artist represented the United States with the solo exhibition Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens. The installation is on display through August 23, 2010.

Days is a “sound sculpture” consisting of a continuous stream of seven voices reciting the days of the week in random order. Fourteen suspended speakers are installed in two rows with one voice emanating from each pair of speakers as the visitor passes between them. There are men’s voices and women’s voices, old and young. Some speak swiftly, others with pause, each with his or her own cadence. The collection of distinctive voices produces a chorus—at times cacophonous, at others, resonant—and creates a sonic cocoon that envelops the visitor. The work invokes both the banality and the profundity of the passing of each day, and invites reflection on how we measure, differentiate, and commemorate time. The installation is organized by Doryun Chong, Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art.

Nauman has been recognized since the early 1970s as one of the most innovative and provocative of America’s contemporary artists. He finds inspiration in the activities, speech, and materials of everyday life. Working in the diverse mediums of sculpture, video, film, printmaking, performance, and installation, Nauman concentrates less on the development of a characteristic style and more on the way in which a process or activity – in and of itself – can transform or become a work of art.

Bruce Nauman: Days
Showing through August 23, 2010
Special Exhibition Gallery, third floor
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street New York, NY 10019

*above: Bruce Nauman (American, born 1941): Days. 2009. One audio source consisting of seven stereo audio files, fourteen speakers, two amplifiers, and additional equipment. Dimensions variable. Audio(fourteen channels). Continuous play. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase © 2010 Bruce Nauman / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Installation view at The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photograph by Constance Mensh.

“A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.” – Timothy Ferriss

Inspired by the quote above, the Brooklyn-based design firm Design Glut organized “Uncomfortable Conversations,” challenging 15 designers to create something to provoke an uncomfortable yet important conversation. Participating designers were given complete freedom with the type of object they created, the materials they used, and the topic of the conversation they set out to provoke.

The resulting body of work (which was exhibited over the past weekend in NY) is remarkably broad, including housewares and furniture, jewelry and fashion, graphics and video. But all are connected by one simple desire: to make you uncomfortable.

According to Design Glut partners Liz Kinnmark and Kegan Fisher, “We believe it’s the role of creatives to start the uncomfortable conversations that cause people to grow.” If you’re up for some playful designs – and possibly a bit of discomfort – take a look at some of the show’s projects below…

Mind the Gap
by Andrew Haarsager
Gloves to prevent unwanted landings on the subway
Solid silver, lambskin, silk, $350

New Yorkers have come up with countless ways to circumvent unwanted contact. Be it the tiny fences that keep dogs out of planters, ledge-bumps that fend off skateboarders, or the scratched plastic pass-throughs one crams bills into after late-night taxi rides – there are hundreds of examples of this “separation innovation.” Of the many effective anti-contact devices, one of the most successful has proven to be the rows of wire spikes that prevent pigeons from landing on signage and windowsills. And really, can you blame them?

Well, pigeons aren’t the only things that tend to land where one doesn’t want them. In fact, one doesn’t even need to be outside to experience it. How about the phenomenon of holding onto a subway pole, while the inconsiderate hand above yours starts to slowly drift down?

The Mind the Gap gloves are an experiment in transferring the innovation of bird-spikes from architecture to one’s person. Can the threat of a passive stab always fend off the unwanted touchdown of a downwardly drifting pest?

In Case
by Materious

We are living in an era where public trust in corporations is extremely low; the pillars of capitalism stand on questionable ground. We are hardly surprised at revelations of corruption, fraud, and exorbitant greed perpetrated by the companies that have become so crucial to our health and well-being. How does a society that is founded upon, and so reliant upon, the corporation reconcile these lapses of morality?

From the outside, In Case seems like a fairly typical hard-shell brief case. When opened, however, an integrated, hand-powered paper shredder is revealed, which provides the iniquitious business professional the ability to destroy stealthily any incriminating documents at a moment’s notice.

The Awkward Moment Card
by Design Glut
3″ x 5″ greeting card. Letterpress front, blank inside.
Printed by Publicide, $20 for a set of 5

Finally, a greeting card to get you through your most awkward moments. This simple design helps you start the uncomfortable conversations you want to avoid, but really shouldn’t. It has a million uses. Get these cards for apologizing, for asking a favor, or for breaking the ice with someone you barely know.

Uncomfortable Typographic Situations
by MSLK (http://mslk.com)

Every day, graphic designers make typographic choices which either enhance or detract from the message communicated. From font choices to poor letter and word spacing, these decisions can have unintended consequences, occasionally transforming the meaning entirely.

It’s Not You, It’s Me / It’s Not Me, It’s You
by Ana Linares
16” Chain, Sterling Silver or 14k Yellow Gold, $150

In relationships, conversations can get tabled, feelings get bottled and next thing you know, you’re summoned to having “the talk”. There’s no message that describes better a break-up than the one and only: “It’s not you, it’s me” or why not, “It’s not me, it’s you.” Sure, it’s super cool to rock your own name, but why not rock instead the uncomfortable phrase that follows a break-up? Commemorate the moment with this beautiful necklace and turn it into a conversational piece!

Pre-Handshake Handshake Device
by Dominic Wilcox

Many people in the world seem to be at war with each other. We see families split through disagreements, gang warfare on the streets, whole civilisations and religions constantly battling. This device aims to help those who are at odds with each other make a first move toward reconciliation.

A traditional handshake can sometimes be just too big a step for those entrenched in their dislike of the other. No matter how important it is for two people to reconcile their differences they simply can’t get over their pride and lower themselves to the symbolism of a handshake with the other party. I designed this product in an attempt to give those people a new, more acceptable alternative. I hope that this device will lower the bar for initiating reconciliation from the heights of the full contact hand-on-hand handshake to a more palatable non-contact handshake.

I plan to contact embassies around the world where resentment is prevalent. I would like to see all family counseling offices have one in their meeting rooms. I would encourage all people of New York who have fallen out with a friend, family member, work colleague or gang member to … use the Pre-handshake Handshake Device and let bygones be bygones.

*Click here to learn more about Uncomfortable Conversations.

*Images courtesy of Design Glut.

Now showing at OHWOW: “If You Don’t Belong, Don’t Be Long,” artist Scott Campbell’s first NYC solo show. Featuring Campbell’s trademark cut-currency work and 3-dimensional pieces alongside prints and hologram paintings, Campbell’s meticulously executed work reinterprets blue-collar grit and the lore of tattoo culture.

Campbell investigates recontextualizing money through cut stacks of one-dollar bills, transforming actual currency into elaborate bas-reliefs. By cutting each dollar individually, then arranging them into 100- dollar stacks, he creates highly detailed pieces depicting decorative images or ornamental text, resembling ornate filigree work. In essence, he destroys to create. Two works–a human skull, an anatomical heart–take this process to an even more ambitious level. The stacks are no longer limited to 100 bills; here, he uses three stacks piled 500 high, a volume enabling him to produce three-dimensional sculptures. With his most recent series, Campbell switches to using layered sheets of uncut currency, pulled from the mint before cut into individual bills.

Along with the currency series, the show includes a collection of hologram paintings that resemble chipped carnival mirrors or nicotine-stained rainbows, borrowing imagery from working-class escapism. Additionally, a collection of etchings printed from copper plates are “tattooed” in the same manner as actual skin. Cumulatively, these series exemplify Campbell’s mastery of his imagery, highlights our complicated relationship with money, and reveals his continued concern with the human condition.

SCOTT CAMPBELL
If You Don’t Belong, Don’t Be Long
Through May 30, 2010.
OHWOW
109 Crosby Street (between Prince and Houston)
New York / NY / 10012

*images courtesy of OHWOW.

Opening this week at the Brooklyn Art Museum, “American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection” celebrates the unique costume collection-sharing partnership between the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. An easy solution for anyone in need of a major fashion fix, the exhibition will include some 85 masterworks from the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and mark the first time in more than two decades that a large-scale survey drawn from the Brooklyn Museum’s pre-eminent collection will be on public view.

A simultaneous exhibition, “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity” (the first show at
the Metropolitan Museum to be drawn from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection), will be on view at the Met from May 5 through August 15, 2010.

The Brooklyn exhibit will present works dating from the mid-19th century to the late 20th century, augmented by a selection of accessories, drawings, sketches, and other fashion-related materials.Display pieces include fashions by the first generation of American women designers such as Bonnie Cashin, Elizabeth Hawes, and Claire McCardell, as well as material created by Charles James, Norman Norell, Gilbert Adrian, and other important American designers. Also included will be works by French designers who had an important influence on American women and fashion such as Charles Frederick Worth, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jeanne Lanvin, Jeanne Paquin, Madeleine Vionnet, and Christian Dior.

Objects range from ball gowns to beachwear. Included are Schiaparelli’s Surrealist insect necklace (see below!), considered by experts to be one of the most important works in the collection; elaborate ballgowns and day wear by Charles James; evening ensembles by Charles Frederick Worth, Christian Dior, and Mainbocher; street wear by mid-20th-century designers including Vera Maxwell and Claire McCardell; a group of hats by legendary milliner Sally Victor; and dazzling evening wear by Norman Norell.

“This is truly a landmark moment in the history of museum exhibitions. It is at once a celebration of a unique collection-sharing program between Brooklyn and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a remarkable history of the Brooklyn collection that traces the evolution of fashion in America from its 19th-century European beginnings through the late 20th century,” says Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman.

“American High Style” is on view May 7 through August 1, 2010.

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

*above: Schiaparelli Necklace, autumn 1938. Jean Clement (French) for Elsa Schiaparelli.
The Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

*above: Scaasi Evening Ensemble, ca. 1958. Arnold Scaasi (American, born Canada, 1931).
American Silk. The Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

*above: Norell Pajamas, 1970–71. Norman Norell (American 1900–1972). Cotton, silk, beads.
The Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

*above: Maxwell Ensemble, ca. 1958. Vera Maxwell (American, 1901–1995). American Wool.
The Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

*above: James Ball Gown, 1955. Charles James (American, born England, 1906–1978). American
Silk. The Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

*above: American High Style Installation Image, courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum.

*above: American High Style Installation Image, courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum.

*Images courtesy of Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Opening next week at New York’s Hasted Hunt Krauetler gallery, JULIAN FAULHABER: Lowdensitypolyethylene II presents new work by the esteemed German photographer.

Faulhaber‘s latest series was shot in newly constructed spaces in the time between when they were completed and when they became occupied or used. The intense colors and sheen result from exposure times of 10 to 20 seconds, the perspective selected and the artificial light at the location, rather than from post-production. The resulting images often appear abstract, even unreal, but are in fact a straight document of the space, reflected in such direct titles as “Supermarket” and “Garage.”

Faulhaber made his US debut in “Chisel,” curated by Kathy Ryan of the New York Times at the first annual New York Photo Festival in 2008. His first gallery show in NY followed in the fall of that year at Hasted Hunt Kraeutler. Since then, Faulhaber has been named a new and emerging photographer to watch in 2009 by Photo District News (PDN) and included in the exhibition “Reality Check: Truth and Illusion in Contemporary Photography” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Faulhaber’s work comments on the discrepancy between the material reality of construction, the daily experience of a space, and the utopian ideals that inspire the avant-garde of the architectural field. The actual formal points of an architect’s utopian vision are often inspired by the other arts: painting, writing and photography. His work is also embedded in a tradition of German photography that considers the investigation of architectural forms to be important social commentary, a history that spans the work of Albert Renger-Patsch, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Andreas Gursky and Thomas Demand. Faulhaber’s work is included in the permanent collections of such esteemed institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Harvard Art Museum, and the Princeton Art Museum.

Julian Faulhaber: Lowdensitypolyethylene II
May 6 – June 26, 2010
Hasted Hunt Kraeutler
537 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

*above: Automaten (Machines), 2007

*above: Supermarkt (Supermarket), 2007

*above: Racks, 2009

*above: Frosilos, 2008

*above: Ställe (Stalls), 2009

*above: Big, 2010

*above: Kabinen (Cabins), 2005

*Images courtesy of Julian Faulhaber/Hasted Hunt Kraeutler, NYC.

Just four month shy of his PhD in genetic engineering, New Yorker Christopher Griffith gave it all up to take up photography. Then he spent eight years in Europe working for Arena, Wallpaper, and the international editions of Vogue and Elle. Upon returning to the U.S., Griffith spent four months on the road photographing “States.”

He assembled a crew to travel the sideways and byways of a forgotten America to shoot everyday, utilitarian things found dotting the contemporary landscape. Searching out abandoned gas stations, remote industrial plants, budget motels, strip mall car lots, utility fields, roadside ditches, and even graveyards, Griffith and his team constructed huge backdrops around each painstakingly selected specimen, creating stark, decontexturalized and utterly magnificent renderings of the myriad of things we see and forget without noticing. The resulting series is a dramatic reinterpretation of American iconography.

“States” is on display at Randall Scott Gallery through May 22nd. A book signing event for Griffith’s books “States,” “Blown,” and “Fall” will take place May 15th from 1pm to 3 during the NY Photo Festival.

Randall Scott Gallery
111 Front Street, #204
Brooklyn, NY 11201
www.randallscottgallery.com

*above: Truck Stop Sign, Route 235, Blufton, Ohio, 1998/99.
66×42” edition of 3 Archival Ink on Hahnemuhle

*above: Eisenhower’s Airforce One, Pima Air & Space Museum, Tuscon, Arizona, 1998/99. 97×62”” edition of 1 Archival Ink on Hahnemuhle

*above: Defunct Oil Refinery, Shell Oil, Odessa, Texas, 1998/99. 66×42” edition of 3 Archival Ink on Hahnemuhle

*above: Car Recycling. Silver Dollar Recycling, North las Vegas, Nevada. Archival Pigment on Hahnemuhle Paper. 62×97″ edition of 1; 66×42″ edition of 3; 32×50″ edition of 7; 20×31″ edition of 10.

*above: Car Dealer Flags, 1998/1999. Astro Car Dealership, Gulfport, Mississippi. Archival Ink on Hahnemuhle Paper. 62×97″ edition of 1; 66×42″ edition of 3; 32×50″ edition of 7; 20×31″ edition of 10.

*above: Street Lights. Bridge City, Texas. Archival Pigment on Hahnemuhle Paper. 62×78″” edition of 1; 42×53″ edition of 3; 32×40″” edition of 7; 25×20″ edition of 10

*above: Cadillac Ranch, 1998/1999. Interstate 40, Amarillo, Texas.Archival Pigment on Hahnemuhle Paper. 62×78″ edition of 1; 53×42″ edition of 3; 40×30″ edition of 7; 25×20″ edition of 10.

*Images courtesy of Randall Scott Gallery.

A 20-foot tall “Andy Warhol Dessert Pinata” – created by Jennifer Rubell as part of an interactive dining experience for April 22nd’s Brooklyn Museum Gala – is on display now at the Museum’s Rubin Pavilion.

The iconic face is linked to the Museum’s upcoming June Warhol exhibit. “Andy Warhol: The Last Decade” is the first U.S. museum survey to examine Warhol’s late work, presenting nearly fifty works. During his final decade, Warhol revealed a renewed spirit of experimentation, and produced more works (in a considerable number of series and on a vastly larger scale) than at any other point in his forty-year career. It was a decade of major artistic development for him, during which a dramatic transformation of his style took place alongside the introduction of new techniques.

Warhol continued to expand upon his artistic and business ventures with commissioned portraits, print series, television productions, and fashion projects, but he also reengaged with painting. In the late 1970s, he developed a new interest in abstraction, first with his Oxidations and Shadows series and later with his Yarn, Rorschach, and Camouflage paintings. His return to the hand-painted image in the 1980s was inspired by collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francesco Clemente, and Keith Haring. The exhibition concludes with Warhol’s variations on Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, one of the largest series of his career. Together, these works provide an important framework for understanding Warhol’s late career by looking at how he simultaneously incorporated the screened image and pursued a reinvention of painting.

Andy Warhol: The Last Decade
June 18th–September 12, 2010

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, New York 11238-6052
(718) 638-5000

*Images courtesy of Brooklyn Museum. Photographs by Adam Husted.