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    ‘It Propels One to Actually Go Out Into the World and Explore’: Watch Sculptor David Brooks Link Skateboarding to Art Making

    What does skateboarding have to do with contemporary art? For sculptor David Brooks, both hinge on pivotal moments that provide what he describes as “a reality check.”

    “Skateboarding for me was the most fulfilling when you would find a new situation in an urban context,” Brooks explains in an exclusive interview with Art21 as part of the “New York Close Up” series. “It propels one to want to actually go out in the world and explore.” Similarly, the artist’s large-scale installations also shift one’s perspective, and draw attention to the urban, built landscape, and the natural world.

    When Brooks moved to New York to attend the Cooper Union in the early 1990s, he explored his new surroundings on his skateboard. Though, as a kid, he had dreams of going pro, eventually Brooks turned to art and began a practice centers around investigating the relationship between humans and culture, and the built and natural environments they live in.
    In the video, Brooks recounts some of his major works, including Preserved Forest, an installation at MoMA PS1 in which the artist planted dozens of trees and then sprayed and poured concrete over them in an attempt to recreate the deforestation of the Amazon.
    “We’re so desensitized to imagery of violence, both in terms of a landscape, but also in terms of a culture” Brooks tells Art21, describing the project as a way to “tether reality right back to it, just like skating, there is no ideology behind hitting the pavement.” 

    Production still from the Art21 “New York Close Up” film, “David Brooks Hits the Pavement.” © Art21, Inc. 2017.

    Another project the artist mentions is Continuous Service Altered Daily (2016), where he disassembled a 1976 John Deere combine harvester, and arranged the hundreds of parts for display. Combines are used to cut corn, break down kernels off the cob, and clean the grain, Brooks explains in the video. Similarly, “the exhibition breaks apart this piece of machinery into thousands of pieces.” 
    Right now, at the Planting Fields Foundation in Oyster Bay, New York, an exhibition of works by David Brooks is presented alongside art by Mark Dion, who also investigates complex ecosystems. The show, titled “The Great Bird Blind Debate,” will see both artists present interpretations of bird blinds, used by birding enthusiasts to observe their subjects.

    Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of Art21’s series New York Close Up, below. The brand new 10th season of the show is available now at Art21.org. 
    “The Great Bird Blind Debate” is open now at Planting Fields Foundation in Oyster Bay, New York. 
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    This is an installment of “Art on Video,” a collaboration between Artnet News and Art21 that brings you clips of newsmaking artists. A new series of the nonprofit Art21’s flagship series Art in the Twenty-First Century is available now on PBS. Catch all episodes of other series like New York Close Up and Extended Play and learn about the organization’s educational programs at Art21.org.

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    Damien Hirst Is Riding the Wave of ‘90s Nostalgia With an Homage to His Own Early Work at His London Gallery This Month

    With all the shameless self-branding, ostentatious installation, and market madness that have defined his late-career work, it’s easy to forget that Damien Hirst was once seen as a fresh, cutting-edge “Young British Artist.” 
    Next week, the YBA figurehead will attempt to remind us of this himself with a robust presentation of works from the first two decades of his output. And, in typical Hirst fashion, he’s doing it on his terms, hosting the exhibition at his own personal gallery. 
    Going on view at Newport Street Gallery in London is “End of a Century,”’ a show of 50-some artworks from the 1980s and ‘90s, many of which belong to his best-known series. It’s the artist’s first solo show at the exhibition space, which he founded in 2015 to show off his personal art collection.

    The show takes us back to a time when “Cool Britannia” was a buzzword, Oasis and the Spice Girls ruled the music charts, and a shark suspended in formaldehyde could still thrill and shock the public.
    “Showing my works from the 90s and before, so long ago!,” Hirst wrote on Instagram, accompanied by pictures of his 20-foot-tall sculpture of an anatomical model, Hymn (1999-05), being hosted into the gallery by crane. “Makes me feel old—last century?”
    Early spot paintings, sharks suspended in formaldehyde, and college-era collages from found materials will be among the greatest hits on display. So, too, will be rarely-seen works such as Prototype for Infinity (1998), an installation of thousands of painted pills from his “Pill Cabinets” series, and Waster (1997), a vitrine filled with medical waste. 
    Damien Hirst, Waster (1997). Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates. ©Damien Hirst and Science Ltd.

    With the exception of a few private loans, most of the artworks belong to Hirst himself, according to The Art Newspaper. Technically none of them will be on sale. 
    The show, set to October 7 through March 21, 2021, will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue. Entry to the exhibition is free but you have to book a timed ticket slot in advance. 
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    The Frick’s Plans for the Breuer Building Promise to Spotlight Its Masterpieces ‘in a Completely Different Light’

    For at least the next two years, New York’s Frick Collection will trade its Gilded Age mansion home for the Brutalist digs of the former Whitney Museum of American Art, designed by architect Marcel Breuer in 1966. Now, the museum has announced its plans for the long-awaited change of venue.
    The move promises a dramatic new setting for the Frick’s collection of Old Masters during the planned construction on an extensive renovation and expansion of the 1914 Henry Clay Frick House. The Frick Madison, as the temporary location in the former Whitney space has been dubbed, is set to open in early 2021 and will remain in operation until the project is done.
    The museum isn’t going far distance-wise—the Breuer Building on Madison Avenue at East 75th Street is only an eight minute walk from the historic East 70th Street mansion—but the two buildings are miles apart stylistically.
    “Audiences will be able to experience the collection reframed in an exciting new way,” said Frick director Ian Wardropper in a statement. “The minimalism of Marcel Breuer’s mid-century architecture will provide a unique backdrop for our Old Masters, and the result will be a not-to-be-missed experience, one that our public is sure to find engaging and thought-provoking.”
    The Met Breuer. Photo: DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images.

    This will be the first time that the Frick’s collection has left the confines of the mansion en masse, giving the curators license to change things up a bit and showcase the artworks outside of ornate period rooms.
    The Frick Madison display will be organized chronologically, by region, with rooms dedicated to Northern European, Italian, Spanish, British, and French art. Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, and Anthony van Dyck will each have dedicated galleries.
    “Through fresh juxtapositions we will present our masterpieces in a completely different light, revealing unexpected relationships between subjects, artists, and media,” said Xavier F. Salomon, the museum’s deputy director and chief curator, in a statement.
    Diego Velázquez, King Philip IV of Spain (1644). Courtesy of the Frick Collection.

    “For example,” he added, “the Frick’s small but significant group of Spanish paintings, by artists from El Greco to Goya, will be shown together for the first time. The opportunity to deconstruct and re-present our collection in this way offers an invaluable learning experience that will enrich our understanding and enjoyment of the collection.”
    The expanded space also provides the opportunity to showcase collection masterpieces normally in storage, like “Progress of Love,” a series of Jean-Honoré Fragonard paintings that the Frick has never been able to show together in its entirety. And sixteenth-century Mughal carpets that would normally be installed as functional objects can instead be displayed on the museum walls, encouraging a fuller appreciation of their artistry.
    Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Meeting (1771–73). Courtesy of the Frick Collection.

    Among the other heavy-hitting Old Masters visitors can expect to encounter at the new location are Thomas Gainsborough, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Titian, J.M.W. Turner, Diego Velázquez, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler, as well as works of the decorative arts ranging from Asian and European porcelain to Renaissance bronze figures to French enamels.
    The Frick’s $160 million renovation plans, which look to add nearly 90,000 square feet of exhibition space to the museum, have hit numerous roadblocks over the years. After preservationists fought to save the Russell Page-designed garden, Selldorf Architects went back to the drawing board, devising a plan that axed the museum’s circular music room instead. Over objections from music lovers, that design was ultimately approved.
    Rendering of The Frick Collection from 70th Street; courtesy of Selldorf Architects.

    After New York went into lockdown in March, the Frick opted not to reopen in its permanent home before beginning construction, which it hopes to complete by 2022 or 2023.
    The museum inherits the Breuer Building from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which moved in back in 2016, using the former Whitney Museum as an outpost for contemporary art. With rent priced at $17 million a year, the Met Breuer was widely viewed as an unsuccessful financial venture for the institution. In 2018, the Met announced that it would cut its eight-year lease short by three years and turn over the property to the soon-to-be-homeless Frick.
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    The Biggest Exhibition of First Lady Portraits Ever Assembled Is Coming to the National Portrait Gallery in DC

    Women will take center stage at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, this fall, with the largest showing of first lady portraiture ever held outside the White House. The show will span nearly 250 years, spotlighting the likes of Dolley Madison, Mary Todd Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Jacqueline Kennedy.
    The exhibition, titled “Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States,” will feature the 53 women who have held the post both formally and informally. In addition to the wives of 45 US presidents, other women who have been pressed into duty as White House hostesses, such as female relatives of the commander in chief. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, was a widow when he was elected, and thus relied on his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph to fulfill the first lady’s duties.
    News of the exhibition, which will revisit the challenges each first lady faced, as well as their individual personalities and accomplishments, comes just days before the October 4 premiere of the CNN documentary series First Ladies, profiling Roosevelt, Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Nancy Reagan, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Michelle Obama.
    The Portrait Gallery show’s title is based on a quote from a letter Julia Gardiner Tyler wrote to her mother in 1844. Then only 24 years of age, she had just married President John Tyler (whose first wife, Letitia Christian, had died while he was in office). “I very well know every eye is upon me, my dear mother, and I will behave accordingly,” Tyler wrote.
    Eleanor Roosevelt in 1944. Photo courtesy of the Estate of Yousuf Karsh.

    “These remarkable women by and large set aside self-interest to devote themselves to the responsibilities of being ‘First Lady,’ a complicated, non-electable role that continues to adapt with each beholder,” said exhibition curator Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, the National Portrait Gallery’s senior historian and director of history, research, and scholarly programs, in a statement.
    “The portraits included in this exhibition visualize the difference between these women, revealing fascinating details about the worlds in which they moved and the historical moments in which they lived,” she added.
    Eliphalet Frazer Andrews, Martha Washington (1878). Courtesy of the White House Collection/White House Historical Association.

    The museum is supplementing its own holdings with works on loan from places such as the National First Ladies’ Library, the State Department, and the White House, which boasts the largest collection of first lady portraits. The public has had limited access to those works since tours of the White House were restricted following the 9/11 attacks, making this exhibition a rare opportunity experience them in person.
    There will be some 60 first lady portraits on view, with paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and photographs, including a video installation of images by Annie Leibovitz. In addition, the show will feature ephemera and artifacts, such as the geometric-patterned gown by American designer Milly that Obama wore in her official portrait by Amy Sherald.
    Milly’s sketch for the gown Michelle Obama wore in her official portrait painted by artist Amy Sherald for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Courtesy of Milly.

    That painting, which was so popular with visitors that the portrait gallery had to move it to a bigger room, is scheduled to go on tour to five museums across the US starting in June 2021.
    “Every Eye Is Upon Me” is part of the Smithsonian’s $2 million American Women’s History Initiative, “Because of Her Story,” established in 2018 in response to growing calls for the institute to recognize and celebrate women’s roles in US history. It is also one of 11 exhibitions dedicated to women that the Portrait Gallery is staging between 2018 and 2022.
    Anders Leonard Zorn, Frances Folsom Cleveland (1899). Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Frances Payne.

    A dedicated museum for women’s history could also be on the horizon for the Smithsonian, with the US House of Representatives voting in February to establish just such an institution on the National Mall in the nation’s capital. Similar bills have been considered since 1998, and companion legislation is still working its way through the Senate.
    “Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States” will be on view at the National Portrait Gallery, 8th and G Streets NW, Washington, DC, November 13, 2020–May 23, 2021.
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    Maurizio Cattelan, Rachel Harrison, and Nearly 100 Other Artists Will Show Their Quarantine-Era Illustrations at the Drawing Center

    When the instruments of artistic production are limited and direct, urgent expression the priority, drawing is often the medium of choice. So it should be no surprise that over the last six months, we’ve seen artists the world over turn to pen and paper.
    “I think there’s often a tendency to turn to drawing in challenging times,” speculates Claire Gilman, who co-curated an exhibition of 100-plus such artworks completed in 2020 that goes on view at the Drawing Center October 7.
    “It has to do with the intimacy of the medium and the necessity of touch, the physical act of putting hand to paper—there’s something very grounding about that,” Gilman continues. “Especially in this moment, when the condition of that trauma is rooted in a feeling of separation and isolation, there was a need for some kind of connectedness.”
    Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Treasure Hunt #2 (2020). Collection of Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Donna Augustin-Quinn.

    The show, “100 Drawings from Now,” began to take shape back in April, with Gilman working alongside curators Rosario Güiraldes, Isabella Kapur, and Drawing Center executive director Laura Hoptman. “Pretty soon after things had shut down and we were starting to see things on screen,” she explains, “we became aware that there was this immediate turn to drawing on the part of many artists. Some draw regularly, but for many drawing is not their primary medium.”
    Indeed, the list of participating artists is a diverse one: Maurizio Cattelan, Paul Chan, Rachel Harrison, and Paul Giamatti (yes, that Paul Giamatti) all share the same set of walls in the exhibition, which provides one of the more in-depth looks at artistic output in the quarantine-era. All the themes that have dominated the discourse over the last half-year are present: state violence, a renewed investigation of domestic space, technology’s mediation of images.
    Michael Armitage, Study for Curfew (2020). Courtesy of the artist and White Cube.

    In some instances, 2020’s themes sit pointedly on the surface. A spare, ink-on-paper drawing by Michael Armitage called Study for Curfew, for instance, shows a uniformed man whipping a figure on the ground—a reference to recent protests over police violence.
    More abstract is an India ink illustration of a tree by William Kentridge, populated with snippets of existential text that suggest isolation: “Escaping our fate.” “And I Alone.” Katherine Bernhardt, meanwhile, honed in on a different aspect of quarantine, via a watercolor picture of cigarette butts and Xanax pills.
    Sam Messer and Rochelle Feinstein, offer a different window into the moment. The duo contributes a pair of portraits, each illustrating the other person through Zoom.  
    There’s a fair share of abstraction, in shape studies by Xylor Jane and Sam Moyer, for example. There’s also a lot of self-portraiture. R. Crumb and Marcus Jahmal each examine their own likenesses. Both read as exercises in healing through making. 
    Katherine Bernhardt,Untitled (2020). Courtesy of the artist and Canada Gallery.

    “We didn’t seek out works that addressed specific ideas, necessarily,” says Gilman. “We wanted it to be a very natural portrait of the time. We felt that everyone had something to say. And I think that the artists that said they have something they wanted to contribute thought of their work in this way, as relative to this moment.”
    All artists donated works to the Drawing Center for the exhibition, the vast majority of which are on sale now through October 4 in a benefit for the venue. (Prices were determined by the individual artists; some will pocket a percentage of the profits.) 
    Mounira Al Solh, Self-Portrait (2020).Courtesy of the artist.

    “100 Drawings from Now” will be on view October 7 – January 17, 2021 at the Drawing Center in New York.
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    in Street Art

    Parees Festival in Oviedo, Spain

    Four artists, all of them from Spain, have taken part in this edition, creating artworks inspired by local themes through one of the main signs of identity of the event: the participatory processes. Coordinated by Raposu Roxu, this way of working implies the neighbours in the creative process of the walls, getting artists and citizens in touch. The result is that a lot of locals feel the pieces as their own.
    Manolo Mesa has created a mural playing homage to the abandoned crockery factory of San Claudio in a hot spot of Oviedo. Parees team launched an open call on social media asking the locals to take pics of their San Claudio pieces (plates, teapots, trays, cups…) while telling the stories behind those collections. The artist visited some of those neighbours’ houses for meeting them first hand and shooting some pics of the pottery compositions.

    Mural by Manolo Mesa

    Harsa Pati, Arantxa Recio’s artistic nickname, turned into an artwork a traditional fairy tale from Asturias which was discovered to her by local writer and storyteller Milio’l del Nido. The 50 metres long wall of the Germán Fernández Ramos Public School was the canvas of a drawn fable about false appearances where nothing is what it really looks like.

    Mural by Harsa Pati

    Lidia Cao has dedicated her wall to the local writer Dolores Medio. Lidia’s piece combines the literary work of Dolores as well as her condition as a woman ahead of her time, vindicating gender equality at the same time that was a victim of the censorship of those years. The winner of the 1952 Nadal Award is presented taking a seat in front of her typewriter with 2 observing vultures behind her back. Cosme Marina, chairman of Dolores Medio Foundation, informed to Lidia about several facts of the now beloved and respected author.

    Mural by Lidia Cao

    Last but not least, local artist Manu García painted his first ever outdoor wall at El Milán College Campus. The piece is a tribute to ‘fiestas de prao’, a form of very popular local summer parties. ‘El Nolas’ investigation included visits to the photographic archives of Asturias as well as his own personal memories from his hometown.

    Mural bu Manu Garcia

    The feedback from Oviedo’s citizens has been the most enthusiastic one in the four editions of Parees. There were tons of neighbours congratulating the artists for their work, saying nothing but good words and sending pretty good vibes about the whole thing. The Festival, which has become a true sign of identity for Oviedo, has created a beautiful mixture of art and history on the city walls. More

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    in Street Art

    KAI & SUNNY – THE GREAT CURVE

    Corey Helford Gallery are pleased to present The Great Curve, a mini solo exhibition of new work by Kai & Sunny…

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    This new body of work by the UK-based duo consists of 6 new pieces. The series showcases their uniquely distinguishable compositions of large circle acrylic paintings on linen and archival ballpoint pen works on paper.

    The Great Curve inspired by the force and energy found within nature explores the relationship between line and color, shifting through dynamic color changes.
    The lines in the works push and pull each other as if caught in a state of flux, creating infinite movement and naturalistic rhythm appearing both serene and ominous at the same time.
    The process is a methodical building of thin intricate lines upon each other.

    The lines can change your perception of the shape while the foreground and background invite you to float in-between the two.
    In conjunction with the exhibition, Kai & Sunny will release a limited edition 8 color silkscreen on 03/10/2020 @ 9am PST (5pm GMT) from:
    www.kaiandsunny.com

    ABOUT THE ARTISTS
    Kai & Sunny (born 1975 and 1977, respectively) are a UK based artist duo. They both graduated from the Epsom School of Art in Surrey, United Kingdom with degrees in Art and Design. They have collaborated with author David Mitchell, designer Alexander McQueen, artist Shepard Fairey and have won numerous accolades, including a 2012 D&AD Design Award and a 2015 LIA award. Works by Kai & Sunny have been exhibited internationally at institutions such as Haunch of Venison and are included in the Victoria & Albert Museum Print Archive Collection.

    Gallery 1 artists: Kai and Sunny, Hikari Shimoda, Ian Francis, Miss Handiedan
    @kaiandsunny
    @coreyhelfordgallery

    Corey Helford Gallery
    571 S Anderson St, Los Angeles, CA 90033
    (310) 287 – 2340
    October 3rd – November 7th – 2020
    Appointment only for private view due to Covid-19
    Virtual opening on IG live with Kai and Sunny – 03/10/20 – 1.25pm PST – 9.25pm GMT
    Virtual tour – available soon! More

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    in Street Art

    Hopare in Puteaux and Strasbourg, France

    Paris-based artist Alexandre Monteiro aka Hopare just worked on new murals in Puteaux and Strasbourg, France. Hopare’s creations are all designed out of a perfect geometry, in a graphic style that borders but is not full-on abstraction. Often featuring faces at the core of his works, the artist utilizes variations of straight lines going from parallel to interlaced ones.

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    Hopare’s work is a unique universe of modernity, speed, movement and characteristic visuals that immerse the viewer in a contrasting world of colorful walls and gray streets.

    “Contemporary Reinterpretation of Tradition” by Hopare

    The carpet was a medium of meeting, exchange, and sharing, becoming a border space, and offering a fresh look at ancestral tradition. Through this new wall, I wanted to reconnect with the Berber carpet tradition, where the woman tells part of her story through the carpet she weaves” Hopare said.

    His next mural features a version the of the Virgin and Child imagery that was created for the 10th edition of the Street Art festival in Ville de Puteaux. The towering mural is located at the esplanade of the Puteaux town hall. More