Feed aggregator

Here’s a super cool twist on a shaker! Shaker cards are really trendy right now and I’m always amazed to see how creative some stampers are coming up with such creative new ideas! Amy Rohl used an embroidery hoop for … Read More...

The artist Ragnar Kjartansson spent much of his childhood backstage at the Reykjavik City Theatre, where his father directed and his mother starred in many plays. Born in 1976, he claims to have been conceived after a steamy scene between his parents in a play called Mordsaga (Murder Story).

Ahead of his solo show at the Barbican Art Gallery, which opens today (14 July) he told us about why his first big exhibition in London makes perfect sense. "Ever since I was a kid we would go on trips to London and go to the Barbican and we would see the future," he said.

The exhibition (until 4 September) features the portraits Kjartannson made daily of fellow Icelandic artist Pall Haukur Bjornsson wearing black swimming trunks when Kjartansson represented Iceland a the 2009 Venice Biennale. The pair also made a point of smoking and drinking beer throughout the installation called The End (2009).


In the Barbican show are 144 paintings you made daily over six months in the Icelandic pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale. Is painting an important part of your practice?
I look at most of my works as paintings or sculpture in a way. Even though they come from a performative plan, the painterly idea is always with me and I always continue to work as an artist-painter. If the video works dont work as paintings, then I dont show them.

What criteria do you apply for a piece to work as a painting?
Just something that is there and can become more profound while you are staring at it. Thats a painting, basically.

Your daily paintings in Venice were made while you were living in a palazzo, copiously drinking and smokingliving the dream (and the nightmare) of the clichd Romantic painter.
It was acting out what it was like to be the classical macho 20th-century artist, trying to be [one of] these hard-drinking painters that I was always intrigued by in art school. They are such a very funny tribe. Making paintings is not so hardcore, but it was hardcore to be always drunk while doing it. The performance was that we were making these paintings and that we had to constantly drink beer and smokeit was really disgusting.
 
Much of your work has an often extreme durational and repetitive element. Why is it so important to test the limits of both the audience and the participants?
Its not really about testing strength. Basically thats just our lives. Human beings just repeat stuff; we are really good at it.

This is an edited version of an interview that appears in The Art Newspaper July/August edition
 

Try this fast and easy 5″ x 8″ mini album that uses a variation of the Stack the Deck binding method by Laura Dennison.

The intricate construction will leave you with a unique mini album that you can decorate in … Read More...

The Thin White Duke loved art (and loved making art) so its no surprise that a three-part sale of David Bowies collection, which goes under the hammer at Sothebys London in November, includes more than 400 works by major names such as Henry Moore, Frank Auerbach, and Jean-Michel Basquiat (as well as Outsider art and contemporary African art). Bowies eclectic taste is reflected in the three-part sale which is divided into Modern and contemporary art (evening auction, 10 November; day auction, 11 November) and post-modernist design: Ettore Sottsass and the Memphis Group (11 November).
 
Works consigned include Head of Gerda Boehm by Auerbach (1965; est 300,000-500,000), Basquiats Air Power (1984; est 2.5m-3.5m), the sculpture Alexandra by Romuald Hazoum (1995; est 5,000-7,000) and a rather unconventional record player by Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni (Brionvega Radiophonograph, model no RR 126, 1965, est 800-1,200). Though his family are keeping certain pieces of particular personal significance, it is now time to give others the opportunity to appreciate and acquire the art and objects he so admired, says a spokesperson for the estate of David Bowie (the rock star died in January). 
 
Bowie fans (and art lovers) will have plenty of opportunities to see the musicians holdings as the works go on show this summer at Sothebys in London (20 July-9 August). The collection then goes on a global tour, taking in Los Angeles (20 July-9 August), New York (26-29 September) and Hong Kong (12-15 October), before coming back to London for a final showing (1-10 November).

Tutorial: Corner zip laptop case

Alicia from Sew What Alicia shows how you can make a corner zip laptop case.  The zipper goes across the top and down one side to create a large opening for your laptop.  Hers is … Read More...

We all know that Ragnar Kjartansson likes to provoke. And when called upon to say a few words at the opening of his terrific Barbican show (until 4 September) the Icelandic artist certainly caused a few sharp intakes of breath when he jokily added the newly appointed Prime Minister Theresa May to his list of thank-yous. Quickly realising that most of the audience still found this too painful a subject to be a laughing matter, the perpetually genial artist then announced that he was going to perform a British song written by some lads in Manchester (delivered in a very convincing Mancunian accent.)

The artist-musician then proceeded to sing (a capella, accompanied only by his own beatboxing) the inimitable lyrics of Art for Arts Sake by Stockport-born 1970s band 10cc. This carried considerable resonance for the somewhat mature art world audiencewhich included the artists US gallerists Lawrence Luring and Roland Augustineall of whom enthusiastically joined in the chorus: Art for arts sake, Money for Gods sake!

Especially enjoying the singalong was the artists 80-year-old mother Gurn smundsdttir who, when she left to leave after the dinner, also led her fellow diners in a spirited rendition of Vera Lynns wartime classic We'll Meet Again. Earlier on this redoubtable former singer and actress had confided that for the more recent iterations of Kjartanssons ongoing video series Me and My Mother, in which she repeatedly spits in the face of her son, she was assisted in performing this transgressive and upsetting act by thinking of the bankers who had brought about her countrys recent financial crisis. Perhaps a touch of cathartic spitting might also help to ease the UKs post-referendum trauma: watch out Theresa May

Found, The Foundling Museum, London (until 4 September)

One of my favourite museums, the Foundling builds on its early pioneering of artist collaborations with a dynamic and imaginative programme of exhibitions and events. All of which, one way or another, tie into the Foundling Hospitals history of caring for generations of abandoned babies. It was Hogarth and Handels 18th-century fundraising that helped the Foundling to become the first childrens charity. Now, integrated amongst the museums often heartrending exhibits, this wonderful show curated by Cornelia Parker invites more than 60 artists working across a range of disciplinesfrom Rachel Whiteread and Antony Gormley to Brian Eno, Marina Warner and Jarvis Cockerto respond to the theme of found.

Like all great ideas, Found is brilliantly simple and yields great riches. Look out for Rose Wylies cardboard box, bearing the portrait of the rescue cat in which it arrived; Ron Arads poignant string of pawn shop tickets; and Richard Deacons readymade sculptural tribute to his late friend, Juan Muoz.

Liverpool Biennial, various venues, Liverpool (until 16 October)

City-wide biennials are always sprawling, confusing beasts. But this years Liverpool Biennial seems almost perversely multifarious and multi-thematic. Im not sure it was such a great idea to hand it over to an 11-strong curatorial faculty, especially when what they have come up with is a gnomically-described story narrated in several episodes. These are comprised of the somewhat random line-up of Ancient Greece, Chinatown, Childrens Episode, Monuments from the Future, Software and Flashback. Works riff across this broad thematic terrain as well as the geographically scattered city: from a disused brewery, a boarded-up street and a derelict cinema, to a covered reservoir, a Chinese restaurant and three of the citys double-decker buses.  

It is back to the future with fragments of Greek statuary collected by 19th-century industrialist Henry Blundell that are arranged in Tate Liverpool on shiny pink prosthetic structures designed by the Belgian artist Koenraad Dedobbeleer. Their often clumsy restoration assumes a more ominous resonance in the face of a film depicting news footage of recent Isil artefact-smashing. The film is made all the more grotesque by being overlaid with watercolour animation, all courtesy of the Iranian artists Ramin and Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian. This trio are a ubiquitous Liverpool presence, with many of their exuberantly assembled sculptural works also in the cavernous Cains Brewery and Open Eye Gallery. But the film is by far their best work.

Another pervasive presence is Betty Woodman, who is here best represented by a wall-mounted fountain of turquoise and bronze Egyptian-style reliefs. These are arrayed along one side of the very grand, 1930s Art Deco ventilation shaft building at Georges Dock.

I was sorry to miss Marvin Gaye Chetwynds Dogsy Ma Bone performance. But her ebullient collaborative presence endures at Cains Brewery in a wallpapered, prop-adorned space, displaying a film of her activities with Liverpools under 14s. Other works not to be missed are Mark Leckeys film Dream English Kid 1964-1999 AD (2015), which combines internet-trawled images of comets, eclipses, gigs and the bleak terrain of Thatchers Liverpool; and Lara Favarettos immense block of granite, which stands in the middle of a boarded up Toxteth street and offers a small slit for donations. At the end of the biennial, the monument will be smashed and any money it contains will be donated to Asylum Link Merseyside, a local charity that supports refugees.

Georgia OKeeffe, Tate Modern, London (until 30 October)

Georgia OKeeffes first major UK show in more than 20 years aims to dispel what its curators consider to be the enduring clichs surrounding one of Americas best-known 20th-century artists: most notably, the sexual connotations of much of her work. It is certainly understandable why OKeeffe also eschewed such readingsespecially when they so often emphatically, and patronizingly, branded her paintings as quintessentially female. But theres still no denying that many of OKeeffes subjects and her handling of themthe softly-shaded labial flowers, the bodily clefts and swelling contours of her New Mexican landscapesmake it almost impossible not to view much of her work in corporal terms. Even her near-monochrome early abstractsas well as her later bleached bone studieshave a curled, curvaceous sensuousness.

However, their evidently psycho-sexual charge is just one facet. What also emerges from his comprehensive show, is the important and constant influence of the latest developments in photography: the angles, the cropping and the enlarging of her images, as well as their smooth modelling in light. Furthermore, we are repeatedly reminded of OKeeffes fascination with distilling and honing an image to its minimal essence: from her earliest charcoal and ink lines to the dark squares of her later and lesser-known doors series. Over more than six decades, OKeeffes painterly language may have changed very little, but it was always strikingly and distinctively her own. And she wanted it viewed on her own terms.  

Rita Parniczky: Weaving with Light, Contemporary Applied Arts, London (until 30 July)

Every year, the Perrier-Jout Arts Salonof which, full disclosure, I am a memberawards a prize to an emerging maker from the British craft sector whose work seems to provide the most interesting contemporary expression of the Art Nouveau spirit. This years clear winner was Rita Parniczky, whose hand-woven creations are made on a Leclerc loom from the clear plastic monofilament generally used for fishing lines. They do not easily conform to any conventional category, being part textile, part sculpture and part drawing in air. True to the original ethos of Art Nouveau, these shimmering, magical presences manage to be both organic and radical, carrying multiple resonances ranging from plant skeletons, human veins, insect wings, Gothic tracery and Islamic patterning. But at the same time they are utterly original and speak with a distinctive and highly unusual voice. A worthy winner.   

Superwoman: Work, Build and Dont Whine, Grad, London (until 17 September)

One of the all-time best exhibition titlestaken from a sternly propagandist Stalinist poster of 1930aptly sets the tone for this fascinating exhibition. The show explores the shifting roles, and presentation, of the Soviet woman in state propaganda, from the October Revolution of 1917 through to the end of perestroika in 1991. Films, posters, works of art, ceramics, photographs and ephemera trace the crucial role played by women in the creation of the new Soviet society, beginning with the female workers instigation of the first revolution and their early achievement of rights: Russia was the first major power to grant women the vote, to legalise abortion and to give generous maternity leave. All of which expanded their role from citizens, mothers and full-time workers into soldiers, scientists, athletes, dancers, cosmonautsand more.

But for many the reality soon became not quite so utopian, as under Stalin the focus shifted to industrialisation and womens rights became increasingly marginalised. Abortion was again outlawed and the status of the mother elevated to heroic heights. Contrary to the official view, this dual role of Soviet Madonna and athletic comrade became increasingly incompatible, and the chasm between liberation and emancipation ever widera dichotomy that remains an issue for women beyond Russia. As many of us are all too aware, the notion of superwoman can be a very poisoned chalice.  

The artist Mike Nelson, who represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2011, has created an off-site installation for the Nouveau Muse National de Monaco (NMNM), in the UBS bank building on the Avenue de Grande-Bretagne, in Monaco.

  The installation, called Cloak 2016 (until 15 September; viewings by appointment), is curated by Suad Garayeva-Maleki, the chief curator and collection director of the Baku-based Yarat Contemporary Art Centre, and Cristiano Raimondi, the head of development and international projects at the NMNM.

The entire interior of the building, which is currently closed for renovation, has been coloured in ultramarine blue. The uniform spread of colour throughout the banks eight floors is intended to create an almost hypnotic or hallucinogenic experience for visitors, who have to make their way through maze-like rooms and corridors before eventually reaching the buildings roof terrace, from where they can admire the Mediterranean Sea.

Every single wall and surface of the abandoned building, which still contains some furniture and discarded items belonging to former employees, had to be primed before being painted and glazed, in order to achieve a uniform colour, from the underground vaults and IT server rooms these floors feel the most disorientating, Garayeva-Maleki says, as if the blue space is about to close in on the viewerto the Baroque staircase and spacious rooms on the upper floors.

However, the show is not just intended to be a sensory experience, but carries studied art-historical references too. The curators are keen to highlight the historical and financial importance of ultramarine blue, the pigment of which was traditionally derived from lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone found only in the mines of Afghanistan. 


Lapis lazuli was a valuable commodity, at one point more expensive than gold. Its a fixture in some of the most expensive commissions throughout art history and it was also one of the first goods traded with the East, Garayeva-Maleki says. Banks are now symbols of the contemporary commodity trade, and ultramarine blue evokes that history and the problems associated with it. It is also a reference to Yves Kleins blue, who was himself from the Cote dAzur.


Monaco, meanwhile, is commonly associated with finance and luxury goods; a show of this kind not only makes use of a great space pre-renovation, but also puts the small Principality on the cultural map. The project is funded by NMNM and supported by UBS, and was logistically supported by the Turin-based Galleria Franco Noero.

In early June, the major real-estate developer Thor Equities announced that it plans to build a four-story complex in Red Hook, Brooklyn, complete with 600,000 sq. ft of office space and 23,000 sq. ft of retail and restaurant space, designed by Foster + Partners. The design is aimed, the statement says, at suitability for a TAMI (technology, advertising, media and information) tenant or other appropriate user of the space.

The news came as a surprise for some. Though Red Hook has grown in popularity in recent years, it remains a sleepy former freight port at the southernmost outskirts of Brooklyn, known mainly for its artists studios, of which there are around 150, according to a 2012 Crains report.

Artists tend to pave the way
I do feel that artist studios are an important factor for this gentrification, says the artist Bosco Sodi, who has lived and worked in Red Hook since 2009. Certainly this is very bad news for Red Hook. Artists tend to pave the way for restaurants and hip businesses, which then attract developers, he says. This is a big problem in many New York neighbourhoods and in many cities all around the world. I have experienced this in Barcelona, Berlin, Mexico City and now New York.

Isaac Brest, a member of the Still House group, which is in the process of moving out of the Red Hook space that it has used since 2011 (for unrelated reasons), says he has noticed the neighbourhood becoming more crowded in the past six months.

I wouldnt say its disappointing but its the responsibility of the landlords in the area to realise that one of the main reasons that these neighbourhoods are attractive to tenants are their artists, Brest says. They have a responsibility to keep the neighbourhood attractive to artists.

Patty LaRocco, an associate real estate broker with Douglas Elliman, who does a lot of business in Red Hook, says that residential rent prices have increased by 30%, while retail rents have likely doubled, since Superstorm Sandy flooded the whole area in 2012. She says that the storm put Red Hook on the map in the same way 9/11 put Tribeca on the map.

LaRocco adds that artists were also likely to be a factor, citing Dustin Yellins Pioneer Works art space as a major landmark and attraction, while the OConnell Organization (which could not be reached for comment) has in the past actively sought artist tenants for its developments in Red Hook.

However, height zoning means that Red Hook will never become over-developed. And, LaRocco adds, artists like Rob Pruitt and Urs Fischer have only moved to the neighbourhood relatively recently. Moreover, she herself has recently placed Dan Colen and Tony Shafrazi in Red Hook studios, and is currently looking for something for David Salle.

As for the Thor office project? Thats the least cool part of the neighbourhood, anyway, LaRocco says.

Tutorial: DIY bobbin clips from clear tubing

You could buy bobbin covers or clips, but that can get expensive if you have very many bobbins.  Erin from Schlosser Designs shows how you can DIY some bobbin clips using clear tubing.  … Read More...

Reading stories about subjects is a great way to learn that doesn’t feel like learning as much as memorizing facts or using a workbook.

And when kids are first learning their numbers and basic math concepts, engaging stories are a … Read More...

7 tips to help a teen start sewing

Know a teen who wants to learn to sew?  Or perhaps you want your teen to want to learn how to sew?  Sew4Home shares 7 great tips for encouraging teens to sew.  … Read More...

I love the look of birds and gardens in cross-stitch, and the booklet Birds of a Feather from Leisure Arts and Herrshners combines both in a lovely way that is sure to inspire nature-loving stitchers.

The book includes the four … Read More...

photo credit: Saving Room for Dessert

I only think of thumbprint cookies during the holidays, this flavor combination has brought the thumbprint cookie to my new favorite summer cookie. Tricia from Saving Room for Dessert shares how to make these … Read More...

Here’s a fun idea to encourage reading among kids and frog lovers. Toothless Knitter has a pattern (or more of a description of a process, really) for a flat frog bookmark, which, despite its gruesome name, is actually really … Read More...

photo credit: Coley Cooks

Okay bacon lovers,have you ever thought about making your own bacon? Nicole Gaffney from Coley Cooks shares how you can create your own bacon. It won’t be an easy task! You need some extra equipment, but … Read More...

photo credit: Sweetest Menu

If you can only have one cookie, this is the one cookie that you need to make. Your kids will be okay with one cookie, when it is this size. Jessica from Sweetest Menu shares how … Read More...

Tutorial: Double gauze burp cloth

Measuring nearly 16″ x 24″, this baby burp cloth provides a lot of coverage!  Becky from Patchwork Posse shares a tutorial showing how you can make one.  She used a double gauze fabric that’s super … Read More...

photo credit: Erica’s Sweet Tooth

Cookie Monster seems to be very popular this year and I’m not complaining. I love how this ice cream is paired with cookies. I think Cookie Monster would be proud of this dessert. Erica from … Read More...

I hope you are a fan of Christmas in July posts. I am in the mood to craft Christmas. As a recycled crafter we need to collect up our recycled supplies and by gathering our ideas now in the summer … Read More...