SHEPARD FAIREY – THE PRINT SHOW

Posted on 2011-04-25

From his beginnings in the 1990s, Shepard Fairey has always considered posters as a valuable art support. His posters bear his graphic signature, instantly recognizable, memorable for his frequent use of black, white and red.
They illustrate the richness in the artist’s sources of inspiration. Shepard Fairey makes reference to the Soviet propaganda, as well as to the psychedelic rock posters or the American cultural heritage.In his works, Shepard Fairey uses strong messages to make us think. His messages are often political, always committed and aim to demonstrate the all-power of the mass-media in our society by using their own code. From his manifesto written in 1990, Shepard Fairey said ” The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker “.

Exhibition runs from May 7th to June 18th, 2011

Magda Danysz Gallery
78, rue Amelot
Paris 11

www.magda-gallery.com

  

FRANCESCA LOWE – HEADLAND

Posted on 2011-04-25

A modern reinterpretation of the ancient Three Graces myth is the subject of the exhibition by Francesca Lowe.
In mythology the Three Graces are goddesses of unearthly attraction, beauty, and charm; men wanted them and women wanted to be them. Throughout art history women have been painted from the male perspective and are usually depicted as being aware of the male spectator. Lowe’s Graces flout this tradition. The viewer is surrounded by the dramatic, large-scale canvases, executed in Lowe’s distinctive pastel with fresco-like washes. This is an arena of intimidation, spectatorship and judgment, the domain of a coven-like ménage of five women.

Opposite – Inertia, 2010

Exhibition runs from May 23rd to July 2nd, 2011

Riflemaker Gallery
79 Beak Street
Regent Street
London
W1F 9SU

www.riflemaker.org

  

GLENN LIGON : AMERICA

Posted on 2011-04-25

This exhibition features roughly one hundred works, including paintings, prints, photography, drawings, and sculptural installations, as well as striking recent neon reliefs, one newly commissioned for the Whitney’s Madison Avenue windows. Ligon’s most iconic works will be presented alongside previously unexhibited early paintings and drawings, which will shed new light on his artistic origins.He is best known for his landmark series of text-based paintings, made since the late 1980s, which draw on the writings and speech of diverse figures including Jean Genet, Zora Neale Hurston, Jesse Jackson and Richard Pryor.

Exhibition runs through to June 5th, 2011

Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Ave. at 75th Street
New York
NY 10021

whitney.org

  

TUCA VIEIRA – BERLINSCAPES

Posted on 2011-04-25

Drawing on the formal rigor and architectural inspiration of the Düsseldorf School, Vieira creates his own distinctive style. The photographs depict functional architecture but in a nocturnal setting, with sensual lighting. One could describe it as a “tropicalization” of German photography’s rigidity and formality, “Germany meets Brazil”. Made during Vieira’s 2009 artist’s residency in Berlin, this body of work highlights the contrasts and juxtapositions of “old Berlin” and “new Berlin”, revealing traces of not only divergent prosperity, but also the great battles for territorial and ideological conquest that caused it.

Opposite – Berlinscapes #1, Digital C-Print

Exhibition runs through to July 30th, 2011

1500 Gallery
511 West 25th Street #607
New York
NY
10001

www.1500gallery.com

  

ALMAGUL MENLIBAYEVA – TRANSOXIANA DREAMS

Posted on 2011-04-25

In Transoxiana Dreams, Menlibayeva, a pictorial sorceress herself, breeds an eccentric storyline and fantastical imagery extracted deeply from her own atavistic repertoire, and leading visionally through an existing, yet unimaginable landscape in a distant and hypnagogic world. Menlibayeva tells the tale of a young fisherman’s daughter who observes the dramatic changes to the landscape of the Aral region and its population through a child’s eyes in a dreamlike mélange of documentary and fantasy. Drawing on the image of the Greek mythological figure of the Centaur, Menlibayeva creates alluring hybrid beings, both sexually charged and bizarre alike. According to the legend, when the ancient Greeks first encountered the nomads of the Transoxianian Steppes on their horses, they initially believed them to be mythological quadruped, part person part animal, fearing their savage and magical powers.

Opposite – Centaur, 2011

Exhibition runs through to May 14th, 2011

Priska C. Juschka Fine Art
547 West 27th Street
2nd Floor
New York
NY
10001

www.priskajuschkafineart.com

  

ANNI LEPPALA

Posted on 2011-04-25

Leppala’s images belong to a space that lies in between the visually perceptible world and a kind of mythical zone behind it. Her scenarios allow us a mere glimpse of events. By focusing on a single detail or gesture, she opens up her pictures to the viewer’s own interpretation.

Figures are shown in undefined interiors, their faces turned away and hidden behind their own hands or masks, mysterious in their inwardly directed, reserved aura. At times, they can hardly be discerned behind dense fields of wheat or bushes, while at other times they are lost in the light and shadow of infinite forests. The stillness and melancholy unique to the north is articulated in many of Leppälä’s nature photographs.

Opposite – Garden, 2007

Exhibition runs through to May 14th, 2011

Barbara Gross Galerie
Theresienstrasse 56 Hof 1
80333 München
Germany

www.barbaragross.de