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    in Exhibitions

    A New Show of Allen Ginsberg’s Photographs Will Also Feature Poems Generated by an A.I. Trained on Those Same Images

    A new show at Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles will see Allen Ginsberg in dialogue with two distinct technologies: one of photography, which the late poet engaged with throughout the decades, and the other, entirely of our moment, A.I.  
    Ginsberg acquired his first camera, a Kodak Retina, in 1953 and began avidly immortalizing his friends and lovers in pictures. He saw these pictures as “sacramental,” as he wrote in 1993’s Snapshot Poetics, a way of enshrining the spiritual gravitas of William S. Burroughs, say, or Jack Kerouac’s “exquisite… face and gestures.” 
    “His photos just have that intimacy with deep reverence and admiration for his friends,” Peter Hale of the Allen Ginsberg Foundation told Artnet News, “which is a major component of his poetry: admiration of and reverence for humanity, a celebration.”
    The exhibition, “Muses & Self: Photographs by Allen Ginsberg,” gathers such portraits of his Beat colleagues, including Kerouac, Peter Orlovsky, Neal Cassady, and Gregory Corso, captured candidly and spontaneously. But it also goes on to trace Ginsberg’s formal evolution as a photographer beyond this early interest.
    Allen Ginsberg, Arthur Miller, William H. Gass, Hotel Royal Elevator, Copenhagen, November 1985. Photo: © Allen Ginsberg, courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles.
    In 1983, after years of dormancy, Ginsberg renewed his photographic practice by acquiring better equipment on the advice of Robert Frank and Berenice Abbott, and engaging in what he called “continuous reportage.”  
    “He basically went from taking a roll or two a year to a roll or two every week!” said Hale. “This period through the late ’80s, I consider his richest, with almost every contact sheet producing something significant.” 
    As his fame and friend circle grew, Ginsberg’s images from this era spanned styles and subjects. There’s a casual group shot at the 1990 Small Press Book Fair, a selfie snapped during an elevator ride with Arthur Miller, a street scene of Keith Haring leaving chalk art on a pavement, and a tender portrait of Patti Smith and Burroughs.
    A number of Ginsberg’s photographs further feature his handwritten captions (a custom he picked up from Elsa Dorfman), which fill out the pictures’ contexts and narratives. They were “gems of hyper-compressed information,” said Hale, works of art in themselves that harken back to Ginsberg’s knack for poetic incision.  
    As Ginsberg wrote in Snapshot Poetics: “In a sense, writing poems and taking pictures have been two discrete but very closely related activities.” 
    Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka with Jayne Cortez, Rashida Ismaili, and friends, Small Press Book Fair, December 2, 1990. Photo: © Allen Ginsberg, courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles.
    It’s apt, then, that “Muses & Self” will also unveil a series of poems that have been generated by an A.I. model trained on Ginsberg’s textual and visual output, including his poetry, prose, captions, and more than 400 photographs. 
    The collection, titled “A Picture of My Mind: Poems Written by Allen Ginsberg’s Photographs,” has been developed in partnership with theVERSEverse, a Web3 poetry collective, and based on its member Ross Goodwin’s 2018 work, Word.Camera. It is supported by the Tezos Foundation and the Allen Ginsberg Estate.  
    “It’s been exhilarating to see the resonances and associations that pop up between seemingly disparate words, images and moments,” theVERSEverse told Artnet News, “to see from a sort of aerial view how all the relationships and personal encounters and sacred moments captured in Ginsberg’s photographs may have filtered into or out of his writings.” 
    Built from such a comprehensive ingestion of Ginsberg’s oeuvre, the generated works “speak to us from the past and invite us into the future,” the group added.
    The algorithmically generated “Shared Reflections: A Snapshot,” for instance, created in response to Ginsberg’s image, Calcutta Self-Portrait with Peter Orlovsky, 1961, offers: “Who can capture / the fleeting essence / of such a moment, / fragments of the infinite?” 
    Allen Ginsberg, Antler, Poet, Brooklyn Bridge, April 7, 1990. Photo: © Allen Ginsberg, courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles.
    For his part, Hale has found the A.I. poems “fascinating,” locating them in the tradition of Burroughs’s cut-up experiments. The Beat writers’ choice technique of automatic writing is also echoed in the generative form, theVERSEverse points out. 
    While the A.I.-generated poems that make up “A Picture of My Mind” have been edited and curated to keep it “true to [Ginsberg’s] inimitable voice,” theVERSEverse plans to further evolve its generator to reduce the need for such human intervention. Those results are bound for a long-form series planned for the fall alongside generative platform fxhash. 
    “We’re essentially turning Ginsberg’s historical photographs into poem machines that allow us not just to read his work but also to engage, interrogate, interact, and continuously create with it,” the collective said. “We’re activating these photos and equipping them to talk back, invite us in deeper, and maybe even reveal things we don’t already know or see.” 
    “Muses & Self: Photographs by Allen Ginsberg” is on view at Fahey/Klein Gallery, 148 North La Brea, Los Angeles, August 10–September 23.

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    in Street Art

    WRDSMTH supporting WGA Strike

    In the bustling entertainment capital of the world, Los Angeles, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike has become a defining moment in the ongoing struggle for writers’ rights. A city that thrives on creativity and storytelling is facing a significant disruption as writers unite to demand fair treatment, fair wages, and better working conditions. The WGA represents thousands of writers across film, television, and digital media. In recent years, these writers have expressed growing concerns over issues like stagnant wages, long working hours, lack of healthcare benefits, and the ever-increasing demands from studios and production companies. Dissatisfaction reached a boiling point when negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) failed to yield meaningful results. In light of these unresolved concerns, the WGA leadership decided to call for a strike, viewing it as a necessary step to draw attention to the disparities in the industry and press for meaningful change. The writers’ demands encompassed fair compensation, reasonable working hours, and provisions for job security in an evolving entertainment landscape dominated by streaming platforms and digital media.Public opinion is a critical aspect of any strike, and the WGA has been actively trying to garner support from fans, fellow industry professionals, and the wider public. Social media has played a crucial role in amplifying the writers’ message, with hashtags like #WGAstrike trending on various platforms. Writers have been sharing their personal stories, shedding light on the harsh realities of their profession, and explaining why their demands are justified. WRDSMTH is supporting the @WGAWest / @SAGAftra strike placing some renegade work all around Los Angeles, including Hollywood, Universal City and Culver City. ”The pasteups were done on utility boxes because I noticed a plethora of  “blank” boxes across the street or in close proximity of the picket lines, which makes for A+ placement in support.”Take a look at more images below and check back with us soon for more updates. More

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    in Street Art

    “Come what may” by Beast Collective in Emilia, Italy

    Here is the latest piece made by Beast Collective in Emilia, Italy. Entitled “Come what may”, the pasteup was placed on an old abandoned roadman’s house in the province of Bobbio in Northern Italy. As always with the pieces of this collective, there was the recovery of an archive photo of an historical figure, in this case of the Italian playwright Eduardo De Filippo, positioned on an abandoned building, signifying the eternity of this figure and its resistance to the passage of time. Their technique is to first photograph the wall they intend to install the piece on, superimposing the texture of the wall onto the photo, and then placing it onto the building. This allows them to achieve a realistic blending effect between the photo and the wall, following the scratches and cuts on the wall itself.“Eduardo De Filippo’s life and career – Beast says – were a testament to the transformative power of art and the enduring influence of family heritage. His remarkable ability to capture the essence of human nature and portray it with authenticity has secured him a place in the pantheon of Italy’s greatest literary and theatrical figures. Eduardo’s works continue to inspire and move audiences, and his legacy remains a cherished part of Italy’s cultural heritage. As long as there are stages to be graced and stories to be told, Eduardo De Filippo’s impact on the world of theater and cinema will endure.”Take a look at more images below and check back with us soon for more updates. More

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    in Exhibitions

    A Berlin Show Celebrating Dealer Rudolf Zwirner Brings Together 80 Works by Artists He Championed, From Bourgeois to Warhol

    How have some legendary gallerists contributed to the making of art history? An exhibition at the PalaisPopulaire in Berlin is honoring the discerning eye of Rudolf Zwirner, one of the most influential art dealers of all time, on the occasion of his 90th birthday.
    Born in Berlin on July 28, 1933, Zwirner and his then wife Ursula Reppin opened his eponymous gallery in Essen, Germany in 1959, quickly expanding to a second location in Cologne (formerly Kunstmarket Köln) in 1963. He is usually credited with having invented the art fair after co-founding Art Cologne with fellow dealer Hein Stünke and artnet’s founder Hans Neuendorf in 1967. Perhaps most impressive of all, Zwirner brought international attention to the German art scene at a time when it had been greatly diminished by the economic ruin of World War II, Nazi suppression of “degenerate” art, and the exodus of many well-established Jewish dealers.
    “When we started what became Art Cologne, there were just six of us who sold contemporary art, so it was really a risk,” Zwirner told Artnet News in 2021. “There was very little interest in contemporary art at that time. Now, there are 3,000 galleries in Germany that focus on it.”
    In 1992, he retired as an active gallerist but his son David Zwirner, who was born in 1964, has become an art market giant with galleries in New York, London, Hong Kong, and Paris.
    Bringing together some 80 works from the Deutsche Bank Collection, other private collections and museums, the show tells Zwirner’s life story and demonstrates his celebrated ability to spot talented artists in the early stages of their careers and support them in becoming successes.
    Over decades, he worked with many of the biggest names in modern and contemporary art whose works are in this survey, including Louise Bourgeois, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, and David Hockney. A few standout examples from the more distant past include those by Tiepolo, Dürer, and Gaspare Diziani.
    See a handful of works from the exhibition below.
    Henri Rousseau, The sign as a painter (1903-10). Photo: Alistair Overbruck, © Courtesy Sammlung Zander.
    Matija Skurjeni, Surprise Visit (1958–61). Photo: Alistair Overbruck, courtesy Sammlung Zander.
    Astrid Klein, Untitled (I hermetically locked a man in the room) (1980). Photo: Timo Ohler, © Astrid Klein, courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers.
    Michael Müller, Epiclesis (2022) from the series “Hades.” Photo: Mathias Schormann, © Studio Michael Müller.
    Gerhard Richter, Bomber (1963). Photo: © Gerhard Richter 2023.
    Gaspare Diziani, Cane and Abel (early 18th century). Photo: Lea Gryze.
    “A Life in Pictures: A Portrait of Seeing for Rudolf Zwirner” is on view at the PalaisPopulaire by Deutsche Bank, Unter den Linden 5, Berlin, through August 14.

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    in Exhibitions

    See the Luminous Paintings Monet Made During His Many Trips to the French Riviera, Now on View at a Show in Monaco

    A new exhibition with nearly 100 paintings by Claude Monet spotlights the artist’s trips to the French Riviera beginning with the first visit with his friend Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1883.
    The show, titled “Monet in Full Light,” was curated by Marianne Mathieu and is on view at Grimaldi Forum Monaco, a conference center in the sovereign city state along the French Riviera. Three years in the making with the support of the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, it coincides with the 140th anniversary of Monet’s first visit to Monte Carlo and the Riviera.
    Monet, then middle-aged, began traveling extensively after death of his first wife, Camille, in 1879. He was invited by Renoir on a trip to the Riviera in December 1883. Their first stop after visiting Paul Cezanne in L’Estaque was Monaco, a place Monet called “the most beautiful spot on the entire Riviera.” The Impressionist painter made two pieces during this first visit that he never exhibited in Paris, as he was then without renown, Mathieu told the news outlet Monaco Life.
    Monet returned alone in 1884 and in 1888, visiting Monte-Carlo, Roquebrune, Bordighera and Antibes. He made his famous paintings showing views of the fort in Antibes in all seasons from Salis Beach during his final visit.
    Around 60 little-seen works Monet made during this era were shown at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1997.
    This is seemingly the first time such a volume of these works has been shown near where he painted them and 23 of them are being exhibited for the first time, according to a news release.
    “Monet’s work is very coherent. From his youth in Le Havre, to the last paintings in Giverny, the painter does not try to paint a motif, but rather a moment. Monet does not paint a landscape, but an atmosphere,” Matthieu said in a statement.
    The exhibition also reveals new understandings about Monet during this era, including precisely where he put his easels and on which visit his paintings were painted.
    Mathieu said Monet painted with “maturity” in his Riviera series, made between 1883 and 1888.
    “Monet discovers himself as the painter of the series,” she said, adding, “Let’s not ask what Monet paints but rather when he paints it. Let’s not look for a motif but for a moment.”
    See more images from the exhibition below.
    Claude Monet, The Rowing Boat (1887). Photo courtesy of Grimaldi Forum Monaco/Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.
    Installation view of “Monet in Full Light.” Photo courtesy of Grimaldi Forum Monaco.
    Installation view of “Monet in Full Light.” Photo courtesy of Grimaldi Forum Monaco.
    Installation view of “Monet in Full Light.” Photo courtesy of Grimaldi Forum Monaco.
    Installation view. Claude Monet, Villas at Bordighera (1884). Photo courtesy of Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Patrice Schmidt.
    Claude Monet, Agapanthes (1914-1917). Photo courtesy of Grimaldi Forum Monaco/Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.
    “Monet In Full Light” is on view at the Grimaldi Forum Monaco, 10 Av. Princesse Grace, Monaco, through September 3.
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    in Exhibitions

    See Inside Artist Derrick Adams’s Powerful Touring Exhibition That Unpacks the Difficulties Faced by Black Travelers in America

    Derrick Adams’s long-running traveling show “Sanctuary”—first exhibited at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City in 2018—has opened at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan.
    The body of work, on view through September 10, began with Adams wanting to create a tribute to Victor Hugo Green, a New York mailman, and his wife Alma Duke for their accomplishments in creating the annual The Negro Motorist Green Book. The annual travel guide, published from 1936 to 1966 during the Jim Crow era, provided Black travelers with a list of businesses across the country that served Black patrons.
    Adams praised Green for “connecting patrons with Black business owners” around the country during the Jim Crow era with “innovation and problem-solving.”
    “It was very important to see someone who took an initiative in a tumultuous time in history when violence and oppression were existing all around Black Americans,” Adams said while discussing his two years of research into the topic before his body of work was completed.
    “Mr. Green and his wife Alma decided to create possibility through a publication that will connect people as a counter-response to the conditions of society at the time. For me as an artist, I was excited about responding to that history.”
    Installation view of “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Wright Museum.
    The works in “Sanctuary” include large-scale sculptures as well as mixed-media collages and assemblages on wood panels. The collages use pages from the Green Book and other documents, while some pieces feature visual recreations of the locations listed in the travel guide, which served as refuges for Black Americans.
    The artist also studied Black migration from the South to the North over time and particularly was inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series “and the mapping around that.” Adams said his work was inspired by Jacobs’ formal aesthetic and color palette, as well as the visual culture at the time.
    “The issue of Black travel is something that is continuous because it is something that is still challenging depending on what part of the country you go to,” Adams said. “The exhibition was really acknowledging the Black traveler, centering them as a primary subject in the work.”
    At the exhibition’s wrap at the Wright, Adams will be debuting new work at “Come As You Are,” his first show with Gagosian, on September 14. The exhibition will feature his new portraits and vignettes centered on the Black figure, whether real or imagined, and incorporating materials such as textiles.
    According to Adams, this new body of work synthesizes ideas previously explored in his practice “in a way that is more seamless and layered formally and conceptually” than in the past.
    “I think this particular body of work, beyond all others, fully utilized various color palettes spread across that are uniquely executed for individual works versus the series overall,” he said. “This particular body of work is my best work to date. I am excited to have it exhibited with Gagosian and I am looking forward to my new relationship with the gallery.”
    See more images from “Sanctuary” below.
    Derrick Adams. Upscale and or Lowbrow. Photo courtesy of Derrick Adams Studio LLC
    Derrick Adams. There’s More Than One Beauty School.. Photo courtesy of Derrick Adams Studio LLC
    Installation view of “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Wright Museum.
    Installation view of “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Wright Museum.
    Installation view of “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Wright Museum.
    Installation view of “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Wright Museum.
    Installation view of “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Wright Museum.
    “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” is on view at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 315 E Warren Ave, Detroit, through September 10.

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    in Exhibitions

    See South Korean Rising Star Mire Lee’s Gutsy Debut of Squelching Kinetic Sculptures at the New Museum

    The South Korean artist Mire Lee has been made a name for herself in recent years due to her penchant for making audiences squirm. At the Venice Biennale last year, she appeared in the main exhibition with Endless House: Holes and Drips (2022), a monumental installation in which ceramics in the shape of entangled entrails were strewn across a frame of scaffolding and routinely doused in a thick red glaze. The work was strangely gory and, whether viewers liked it or not, they couldn’t look away.
    The Seoul-born, Amsterdam-based 34-year-old has now opened her first institutional solo show in the U.S. at the New Museum in Manhattan. With walls made of torn fabric drenched in liquid clay and the air thickened by a steam machine, she has turned the 4th floor gallery into a dank, mud-colored stage for a series of new kinetic sculptures. These strange contraptions blend mechanical elements—pumps, motors, steel rods, and hoses—with fabric and cement forms that appear messily organic but are somehow too bizarre to not be manmade.
    In one annexed corner, a crudely formed fountain flows with murky water that is pumped in at the side before swirling around a cement basin and draining away. Suspended from the ceiling is a grotesque bundle of bulging masses held together with ropes in a style vaguely reminiscent of shibari. Together, these rattling, animatronic beings create an unsettling, ever-changing immersive realm. Visitors are invited to have peculiar, bodily experience, that is, if they can stomach it.
    Check out views of the exhibition below.
    Exhibition view of “Mire Lee: Black Sun” at the New Museum until September 17, 2023. Photo: Dario Lasagni, courtesy New Museum.
    Exhibition view of “Mire Lee: Black Sun” at the New Museum until September 17, 2023. Photo: Dario Lasagni, courtesy New Museum.
    Exhibition view of “Mire Lee: Black Sun” at the New Museum until September 17, 2023. Photo: Dario Lasagni, courtesy New Museum.
    Exhibition view of “Mire Lee: Black Sun” at the New Museum until September 17, 2023. Photo: Dario Lasagni, courtesy New Museum.
    Exhibition view of “Mire Lee: Black Sun” at the New Museum until September 17, 2023. Photo: Dario Lasagni, courtesy New Museum.
    Exhibition view of “Mire Lee: Black Sun” at the New Museum until September 17, 2023. Photo: Dario Lasagni, courtesy New Museum.
    “Mire Lee: Black Sun” is on view at the New Museum, 235 Bowery, New York, through September 17.
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    in Exhibitions

    20 Japanese Artists Have Reinterpreted Fans’ Favorite Pokémon Characters as Artisanal Objects, Now on View in Los Angeles

    After the U.S. Navy forced Japan to forgo two-and-a-half centuries of relative isolation in 1853, porcelain, lacquerware, and woodblock prints began flooding westward, launching the Japonisme aesthetic movement. In the 20th century, another Japanese export seized the global imagination: Pokémon, a wildly disparate collection of pocket creatures that spawned a multibillion-dollar empire.
    An exhibition at Japan House Los Angeles merges these cultural phenomena, colliding traditional and modern, kitsch and refined. “Pokémon X Kogei,” which runs through early 2024, presents interpretations of the fantastical creatures by 20 Japanese artists spanning pottery, metalwork, textiles, and mixed media.
    The show, which debuted at Japan’s National Crafts Museum in Ishikawa this spring, offers a poetic rather than a historical explanation for comingling the two worlds. The elements into which the Pokémon are organized, such as fire, water, ground, and electric (there are 18 in total), are reflected in the processes of art making. A vase, for instance, is formed from ground and water, and then fired in an electric kiln. Japan House also likens the endeavor of Pokémon trainers in rearing their digital pets to the process of artisans learning their craft.
    Sadamasa Imai, Venusaur (2022). Photo: Taku Saiki
    “Pokémon X Kogei” is organized into three sections, each of which represents a different artistic approach to playing with the Pokémon universe.
    In Appearance, artists turn the digital physical, recreating the form and personality of Pokémon with attention paid to their skin, fur, and movement. Sadamasa Imai’s cranky-looking Venusaur, for instance, hones in on the rugged texture of its skin and the heaviness of its gait.
    With Stories, the artists inhabit the world of the Pokémon, offering a more abstract take on their lives and journeys. One offering comes from textile designer Reiko Sudo, who explores the franchise’s most iconic creature, Pikachu, dangling from an amber forest of lace that plays with traditional paper-cutting.
    Taiichiro Yoshida, Jolteon (2022). Photo: Taku Saiki.
    The final section, Life, brings Pokémon into the everyday objects—something that may already be a reality for many of the visitors. The works here, admittedly, are rather more elevated than a mug plastered with Squirtle. Keiko Masumoto, for example, used a wood-fired kiln, the likes of which originate from the 12th century, to create a range of fire element Pokémon including Charizard and Vulpix.
    “We’re excited to present this unique collaboration between one of the biggest entertainment properties originating in Japan and some of the country’s most talented craft artists,” Japan House Los Angeles’ president Yuko Kaifu said. “It will art enthusiasts and gamers alike.”
    For a franchise born in the 1990s and now successfully embraced by a new generation, chances are Kaifu’s right.
    “Pokémon X Kogei” is on view at Japan House Los Angeles, 6801 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, from July 25, 2023 to January 7, 2024.

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