ADAM EKBERG – MINOR SPECTACLES

Posted on 2023-06-26

Whatever transpires in the blink of an eye can be either a minor occurrence or a great spectacle, depending on our perception of that event. What happens when we are the sole witness to an event? There is an inherent loneliness in not being able to share something, whether mundane or astonishing, with others.

This loneliness permeates Adam Ekberg’s whimsical photographs that document the climax of orchestrated events. While the camera freezes them into still lifes, a sense of continuity—like the arc of a story—happens as one realizes that Ekberg (American, b. 1975) invented, manifested, documented, and concluded these events. The objects take on lives of their own, even though we know that such agency is impossible for a roller skate, a pumpkin, or a balloon to have without human intervention. Ekberg’s presence is underscored by his absence in the resulting pictures.

Opposite – Eclipse, 2012

Exhibition runs through to September 3rd, 2023

Eastman Museum
900 East Avenue
Rochester
NY 14607

www.eastman.org

  

MAUREEN DOUGHERTY – BORROWED TIME

Posted on 2023-06-26

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Maureen Dougherty traveled to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where she joined a colleague to collaborate on a documentary film project. She had planned to be away from New York for about a month. The ensuing lockdown instead kept her in Pittsfield for more than two years. A longtime abstract painter, she found a small room that she could use as a studio and began to make meditative ink drawings at five o’clock each morning. These drawings would incrementally develop into figurative imagery, taking her art in a wholly new direction.
The artist has noted that “painting is like a clock, it has a sense of time.” It can move forward or, as in the works of Nicolas Poussin, it can stop and become eternal. She believes that our times call for a form of anti-fascist “degenerate” art — a perception that has intuitively led her to freely improvise on appropriated images from the OnlyFans porn hub. These paintings, focusing on lips, eyes, tongues, and teeth, on masked
faces and bodies glomming onto one another, underscore the lengths that a human being often needs to go, in an alienating and polarized society, simply to feel alive.

Opposite – BOXER, 2023

Exhibition runs through to September 16th, 2023

Cheim & Read
547 West 25 Street
10001 New York
USA

www.cheimread.com

  

FRED PERRY X PLEASURES

Posted on 2023-06-26

Fred Perry’s structured polo shirts have become a trademark, identifiable worldwide for their sleek and preppy look. PLEASURES has set its mark on three Fred Perry polos, injecting edgy qualities with skull and star graphics. The collared shirts boast an all-black base featuring faded skeleton heads dug out of the ground.

PLEASURES and Fred Perry lettering create monogram stars in bold red hues, while the final design dons divided “LONDON, ENGLAND” text and descriptive motifs at the rear. Fred Perry’s Laurel Wreath emblem is embroidered at the left chest, completing the collection with classic hits.

www.fredperry.com

  

RIVAL CONSOLES – NIGHT MELODY

Posted on 2023-06-26

Returning with a mini album to the lauded label Erased Tapes, Rival consoles has progressed enough to keep things exciting, while still maintaining all the elements that made his music great in the first place. The album began taking shape last year, shortly after his previous work came, Howl, came out and, more poignantly after the breakup of a thirteen-year relationship. Proclaiming he’s not interested in simply making happy or sad music, but rather something closer to bittersweet, more real and lifelike. The music presented here certainly tows that line in a gloriously epic manner.

www.erasedtapes.com

  

SUPER MARY OH! – STAR BY SOASIG CHAMAILLARD

Posted on 2023-06-26

French artist Soasig Chamaillard’s creative, thought-provoking art blends the Virgin Mary with iconic pop culture. The upcoming Star edition of the cleverly-named Super Mary Oh! vinyl art toy from Artoyz features a colorful, rainbow treatment of the piece which combines the Virgin with the iconic video game hero. This is the fourth edition of Super Mary Oh! which follows the artist’s previous Sentai Maria figure inspired by the Power Rangers.

An edition of 200.

www.instagram.com/soasigchamaillard

  

HAUNTED MANSION

Posted on 2023-06-26

Directed by Justin Simien, the film features an all-star cast ensemble cast including LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Chase W. Dillon and Dan Levy, with Jamie Lee Curtis and Jared Leto as The Hatbox Ghost. Inspired by the classic theme park attraction, “Haunted Mansion” is about a woman and her son who enlist a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters. The film’s producers are Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich, with Nick Reynolds and Tom Peitzman serving as executive producers.

In theatres August 11th, 2023

haunted-mansion