Pattern Pulp

Tuesday's Gallery Picks




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Contradictory influences and potent memories inspire the artists in this week’s gallery picks.

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1. Peter Doig creates potently colorful works that primarily show people and architecture in landscapes of seductive beauty. These pictures are memories of and yearnings for a wondrous dream world that seems strange and at the same time familiar to us at Fondation Beyeler
2. Almost all of Howard Hodgkin’s works refer to memories and personal experiences but deliberately avoid the representational. A self-described painter of “pictures of emotional situations”, Hodgkin offers insight into his subjects with titles but it is his intuitive use of color that evokes a specific place, object or feeling at Nicholas Metivier Gallery
3. Filtered through memory, Marianne Van Lent’s work examines the mysterious forces of the physical world and investigates our fragile position in the universe through the intersection of natural and technological modalities at The Painting Center
4. Lady Shalimar Montague’s fragile and exuberant drawings depicting the reframing of her early life as a famous performer at White Columns
5. Jackie Saccoccio’s newest paintings balance various contradictory forces – explosive energy, atmospheric and diaphanous space, majestic compositional sensibility, and radiant color combinations, sometimes joyous, sometimes tinged with melancholy at Corbett vs. Dempsey
6. Zao Wou-Ki was born in China, but spent most of his life abroad. His work combines influences from traditional ink-and-wash-paintings and modernist abstraction at de Sarthe Gallery

Children's Costumes at Le Bestiaire




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I recently came across these adorable children’s costumes. They’re part of an exhibition entitled, Le Bestiaire, that’s currently on display at the Biennale internationale design de Saint Etienne 2015. The idea revolves around dressing up and becoming marvelous or monstrous. Getting into character is a part of being a child, and these imaginary creatures encourage children to become unexpected hyper realistic animals.

These stunning costumes are born out of the graphical fantasies of an eclectic team comprising Studio Brichet Ziegler, Perrine Vigneron and Gilles Belley, Louise de Saint Angel, Anne Lutz, Joachim Jirou-Najou, Felipe Ribon, Les Graphiquants, Twice, Helkarava, Bonnefrite, Malika Favre, Amélie Fontaine, Leslie David and Ionna Vautrin.

 

Tuesday's Gallery Picks




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This week’s gallery picks merge realities and examine relationships.

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1. Mushrooms, manikins and other low-life characters also meet high culture as GAMA has a strong attachment to a broad cross-section of Western Old Master and Nineteenth century painting at Chambers Fine Art
2. Thomas Zipp’s body of work examines the relationship between actor and observer by transforming the gallery into an open field of experimentation.  Zipp addresses control in relation to the physical, sexual and psychological components of the human mind at Alison Jacques Gallery
3. Alexis Anne Mackenzie’s new show Multiverse explores how minor fluctuations in circumstance, or a slight rearrangement of the same elements, can create a wholly different entity at Eleanor Harwood Gallery
4. Colin Chillag’s hyperrealism dissolves into sketches, under-paintings and notes-to-self. Meditative in effect, these passages show the tracks left by Chillag’s brain, drawing connections between things and things-to-do, wandering through varied creative spaces at 101/EXHIBIT
5. Joram Roukes and Charles Wilkin are thematically united by the often dark nature of their surreal subjects and their intuitive juxtapositions of photographic imagery and abstracted forms. Ultimately, both artists’ subjects reside within a dream-like surrealistic place, alluding to themes concerning the nature of interpretation and the ways in which images embody cultural memory at Masters Projects
6. Answering Marcel Duchamp’s question: “Can one make works of art which are not ‘of art’?”, the exhibition “Le Bord des Mondes” [At the Edge of the Worlds] explores the many fields of artistic creation and welcomes creative people from outside of the art world whose work would seem to belong to it through its depth, its beauty and its singularity at Palais de Tokyo

Tuesday's Gallery Picks




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This week’s gallery picks explore communication through patterns and symbols.

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1. This epic show takes Kazimir Malevich’s radical painting of a black square – first shown in Russia 100 years ago – as the emblem of a new art and a new society. The exhibition features over 100 artists who took up its legacy. Their paintings, photographs and sculptures symbolize Modernism’s utopian aspirations and breakdowns at White Chapel Gallery
2. Diedrick Brackens’ frenetic textiles combine painting and sculpture, West African weaving and European tapestry, blunder and intention, domesticity and the wilderness of the imagination at Johansson Projects
3. Artist and filmmaker Thomas Campbell is internationally known for his artwork combining colorful renderings of figurative characters against bold graphic backdrops and a vocabulary of positive affirmations scrawled in a unique stylistic hand that often results in profound and inspiring views of human nature at Bolinas Museum
4. Hayal Pozanti has created a cipher system, titled “Instant Paradise,” whereby numbers and letters from the English language are replaced by her own iconic alphabet. Through this encryption, Pozanti’s works explore the polemics of communication, examining the privatization of information and the dissemination of data in the Internet age at Jessica Silverman Gallery
5. Hadieh Shafie layers thousands of strips of hand painted paper, which are the rolled into schools and placed within a frame or stacked flat. Persian words like eshgh (“love”) are inscribed and often concealed within the layers of paper, referencing the meditating practices of Sufism at Leila Heller Gallery
6. Mossy Cloak, curated by Third Object, is a group exhibition of work in photography, painting, sound and sculpture from six artists. It examines the layered vocabularies of camouflage, exploring its role as a visual surface patterning and as metaphor for social and historical concealment at Roots & Culture

 

Catherine Cordasco's Curious Creatures




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New Yorkers are exposed to cool, minimalist, witty graphics on a daily basis. Whimsey isn’t always a part of the repertoire. That is, unless we’re wandering into a French bistro, a clothing store – or onto Catherine Cordasco’s illustration site.

Cordasco is based in France, and has a soft whimsical style that feels in-line with her local contemporaries. Her illustrations are loose and fluid with playful directives. Her animals are set in everyday situations in fully patterned regalia, parading as stylish city dwellers with an otherworldly casual vibe. The drawings are beautiful and delicate with purposeful gesture and negative space. While I’m new to Cordasco’s work, I’m very much a fan, and would love to see product collaborations with these adorable characters. What do you think?

 

Paridust: Where Fashion Meets Art




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I stumbled upon Pari Ehsan’s instagram feed last night while procrastinating before bed. I clicked on her photo, and was completely taken by the art and color fields that followed.

Ehsan claims the stark minimalism that’s synonymous with gallery spaces. She merges herself within geometric rooms to create energy between herself, her outfits and the objects. Her presence paired with the square layout of Instagram produces a story – one that’s thoughtfully aware, if not a bit reserved. The minimalism or maximalism used in the styling works beautifully in the series. Here are a few personal favorites, but have a look at her website – it’s an interesting take on pop culture, fashion and the art world.

 

Tracking Repetitive + Awesome.
On Instagram.