In this week’s Fashion on the Fly, SaksPOV invited artist Michelle Elzay to become our muse in painterly inspired clothes by Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Jean Paul Gaultier and Haider Ackerman among the stellar Post-War and Contemporary art offerings at Christie’s New York.
Amid displays of the finest works of contemporary art by Donald Judd, Mike Kelly and Jim Hodges, Elzay, whose own artistic mediums range from photography to painting and video, channeled iconic 20th Century muse and patron of the arts Marchesa Luisa Casati. Elzay herself finds muses in various facets and fashion is certainly one of them. Her work has been exhibited in shows at PS1, Stephen Kasher Gallery and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Elzay is also a co-owner of Sparrow Design, a collaborative design workshop fusing the arts with interior design. Up next for Elzay is an installation of her new paintings at Fitzroy Gallery’s booth at NADA Miami Art Basel from December 1-4.
Saks Asks, Michelle Answers:
Most memorable trip to Saks was…I’m sworn to secrecy; but I can say there were shoes involved and an escalator.
My style is can be described as… slightly decadent, somewhat formal, often butch, but always intentional
My beauty essentials…Black mascara, red lipstick, Crème de la Mer
Dr. Bonners & a bit of Arpège or Chanel.
On my playlist now…Entertainment, King Krule, Robin Gutherie, Wild Nothing, Burial
I collect…contemporary Art, Dries Van Noten, copper pots and 19th century French memento mori
I never leave home without… my fountain pen
My lucky charm is…a found 1973 penny
When I’m not making art I can be found… trying to surf
Favorite destination… Antwerp, Nantucket, or my bed
Favorite fashion designers are… People currently on my mind are: Dries van Noten, Rick Owens, Maison Martin Margiela, Anne Demeulemeester,, Maria Cornejo, Paul Harden.
Words to live by…. “Vanity pays attention to everything.” Barby d’Aurevilly
Austin
Colby Bird
LORA REYNOLDS GALLERY
360 Nueces, Suite 50
September 9–November 26
View of “Dust Breeds Contempt,” 2011.
Parts of wooden chairs, small blocks of broken granite, brightly painted flattened cardboard boxes, a photograph of Easter eggs, and fruit, both real and plastic, are largely what Colby Bird’s current exhibition is made of. While all of these materials retain and assert their identities as everyday things in the world, Bird proposes that the object’s function as art is determined less by its media than by its proximity to other works and by the viewer’s own subjectivity.
Bird presents these objects in rigorously arranged tableaux that make them feel effortless and light in their relationship to one another. A group of three sculptures are placed on a large wooden plank in the center of the gallery. Each work is a meditation on balance: For instance, a looped metal sculpture sits atop a plastic pear, and a detached wooden chair leg rests precariously on an orange. The sculptures challenge the mind to make patterns as it registers the work. All of the components are distinguishable, but when viewed together, the effect is not unlike looking at a cubist collage. The objects may be changed by their placement, yet they always retain their “objectness.”
The exhibition has an interactive component as well; with the help of the gallery attendant, the viewer can rearrange a selection of works on a wooden table that juts out of the wall, which serves as a site for photographs to be placed and replaced. The viewer becomes a cocurator, as each photo activates the space in startlingly new ways. Through a constant consideration of placement and out of a wide range of materials, Bird has assembled an elegant and cohesive exhibition.
— Katie Geha
Roulette Presents:
Award Winning Choreographer Simone Forti
An evening of movement, sound and spoken word October 28, 8:00pm
*Artist talk, October 26, 8:00pm
What: Simone Forti, an evening of movement, sound and spoken word
Where:Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the
LIRR
When: October 28, 8:00pm (Artist talk, October 26, 8:00pm)
Cost/Info: $20/$15 members/students/seniors, (Artist Talk, Oct 26, $5/Free for Oct 28
ticket holders) / Roulette
Brooklyn, NY: Internationally acclaimed dancer and choreographer Simone Forti presents an evening of movement and spoken word October 28, 8pm and an artist talk on October 26. Forti will perform a “News Animation”, an improvisation in movement and language exploring thoughts and feelings as they come, in relation to the world. In Striding Crawling, a piece based on Forti's animal movement studies of the 1960's & 70s, Forti will be joined by French dancer Claire Filmon, artistic director of Paris based dance company Asphodele Danses Envol. This event will feature recorded sound by Peter Van Riper and Forti will be playing her hardware store bought molimo horn, fashioned from a traditional instrument of the Mbuti Pygmy of the Ituri Forest.
Forti will also read excerpts of her soon to be published new manuscript, The Bear in the Mirror, an experimental mosaic of approaches to writing about generations of her family, interwoven with thoughts on animals and the roots of dance behavior.
October 26, 8pm, Forti will lead an artist talk. Audience members will get Forti’s unique perspectiveon her work in an intimate, conversational setting. Tickets are $5 or free with the purchase of tickets to her October 28th performance.
Sean Dack's film Double Exposure will premiere at Tribeca Grand Hotel on Wednesday, October 5. There will be screenings at 8pm and 9pm. RSVP to info@fitzroygallery; seating is limited.
In Double Exposure, Sean Dack contrasts two worlds: Expo 2000 in Hannover (or rather, its relics); and the recently concluded World Expo in Shanghai. A duality forged over a decade. A decade that has seen immense change within the ever increasing globalized society, from the vast sweeping changes within online and media culture to the rising specter of international terror networks and lastly, the emergence of China as the newly predominant force of trade and economics, usurping the West's tight control of this sphere of influence.
Within this time frame we have two encapsulations of progress and culture. One is a remnant, a crumbling ruin, sitting in the middle of Germany. It is the 2000 World Expo site, and while a lot of the pavilions have been taken apart and shipped to their respective countries others have just simply been torn down or left to weather the elements with no upkeep to speak of. The site is a sprawling overgrown landscape and the only recent additions seem to be an Ikea simply because of the ample space available.
On the flip side of the scenario we have the World Expo in Shanghai, China: a huge undertaking of scale, proportion and of course, capital. Each country's pavilion and its content is tightly controlled by the Chinese authorities while still becoming total a spectacle hoping for the progress of unreachable utopia. The sheer mass of people who have visited the site (mostly Chinese) is staggering and the long wait lines and tedious time spent idling and not actually experiencing anything from the various world's cultures could be a metaphor for our rapidly shrinking world, the overcrowding of this small planet and the unsustainability of our current trajectory as a people.
The Hannover site is a time capsule. While it is looking backward it simultaneously becomes a projection into the future. "The future of now that simply snuck up on us." The Shanghai portion therefore occupies present, past and future. One is informed by the past and can see where the future is heading. It doesn't look as promising as we might be led to believe.
An Evening with Seth Kelly and Adam Putnam
Wednesday, October 26, 7:30 pm
Please join us for an informal gathering in the basement of Fitzroy Gallery on October 26th at 7:30pm. Seth Kelly and Adam Putnam will present a conversation in the form of a demonstration. Through the exchange of audio field recordings, found footage, and live video components the two will describe, in various forms, time shifts, thresholds and other transitional spaces. Not unlike what happens when:
A medium speaks with the voice of unseen dimensions
A vortex forms in the center of a movie screen
A stellar probe passes the rings of Saturn
An obelisk groans imperceptibly
The scale of the room you happen to be in collapses along a horizontal axis
You suddenly look up at the exact moment of a fall
Hans Castorp muses "...space, like time engenders forgetfulness..."
About the Artists
Adam Putnam was born in New York City, where he lives and works today. Putnam's work has been included in exhibitions worldwide, most notably the 2008 Whitney Biennial; the Busan Biennial, South Korea; Art Statements, Basel; MoMA/P.S. 1, New York; The Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, and in 2009, curated a Martin Wong exhibition entitled Everything Must Go at P.P.O.W. Upcoming projects include a solo exhibition at Taxter and Spengemann, New York, and Locust Projects, Miami.
Seth Kelly lives and works in Brooklyn and Queens. His work have been included in numerous group shows including Greater New York at P.S. 1 and several solo exhibitions with Derek Eller Gallery. Recent work has included performance collaborations with Karsten Krejcarek, and the curatorial project, The Audio Show at Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York.
Fitzroy Gallery is located at 77 Mercer Street, between Spring and Broome Streets in Soho. For further information, please call 212.343.8670 or email info@fitzroygallery.com.
Highpoint Editions--Decade One
Saturday, September 24, 2011—Sunday, June 10, 2012
Gallery 263
Free Exhibition
In its first ten years, Highpoint Center for Printmaking has become a vibrant part of the Twin Cities art scene. Less well known is its national and increasingly international stature as a publisher of exquisitely made prints. "Highpoint Editions--Decade One" celebrates its professional collaborations with fine artists of many stripes. The diversity and the quality testify to Highpoint's master printer, Cole Rogers, and his talented staff's ability to work with artists to realize their visions. The MIA is delighted to salute Highpoint and to present highlights from its production to a broad public audience.
Featured artists will include: Carlos Amorales, Santiago Cucullu, Rob Fischer, Adam Helms, Cameron Martin, Julie Mehretu, Clarence Morgan, Lisa Nankivil, Todd Norsten, Chloe Piene, Jessica Rankin, David Rathman, and others.
Henry Art Gallery
University of Washington, Seattle,
9 July – 25 September 2011
Gibb Slife, Sean Dack and Todd Norsten are featured in the BAM Auction
curated by Reynold Reynolds,
Galerie Zink, Berlin, 28 May – 2 July 2011
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
April 7 - Mary 22, 2011
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
April 8 - June 11, 2011
