Exhibition examines how "high art" and pop culture intersect
LONG BEACH, CA.- The University Art Museum at California State University, Long Beach is presenting Call and Response, When We SayYou Say, curated by Mario Ybarra Jr. and Karla Diaz, co-founders of the renowned Wilmington art collective Slanguage. Ybarra and Diaz contemplate a selection of UAM collection works and invite Slanguage guest artists to collaborate with them to examine how high art" and pop culture intersect. The exhibition title reflects the playfulness at the heart of the Slanguage practice, taking cues from the volleying interaction between artist, art, and audience. The exhibition runs from January 28 April 14, 2019. UAM Collection Artists: Kim Abeles, Richard Bosman, Patricio Cabrera, Albert Contreras, Adolph Gottlieb, Graciela Iturbide, Lee Krasner, Piotr Kowalski, Ken Light, Ken Price, Lorna Simpson, Andy Warhol. Slanguage ... More

Exhibition of Polaroids by Andy Warhol inaugurates BASTIAN's London space
LONDON.- BASTIAN is presenting Andy Warhol Polaroid Pictures, the inaugural exhibition at the gallerys London space running 2 February 13 April 2019. A series of over 60 portrait and self-portrait Polaroid photographs by Andy Warhol - some of which are exhibited for the first time - depict artists, actors, politicians and friends of his eccentric Factory entourage. The exhibition offers an intimate portrayal of New York in the 1970s and 80s during the establishment of a new visual culture. Positioning Warhol as both subject and spectator, the series highlights the artists prolific capacity as a chronicler of his time. Central to the exhibition is Self-Portrait (1979). Measuring 81.3 x 55.9 cm, it is one of the few large-scale Polaroid portraits produced by Warhol. In this work the artists face, grimacing and strained, looms closely into the camera lens, producing a highly ... More

From gilt to grey, Paris Elysee hall gets subdued makeover
PARIS (AFP).- The most prestigious room in France's grand presidential palace has toned down the gold in favour of a subtle palette of grey after a months-long renovation that was unveiled to the public Friday. Out are the regal red carpets and elaborate tasselled tapestries which lined the walls of the Elysee Palace's main reception hall, some of which had hung there for the past 40 years. In their place are subdued dove grey carpets and curtains embroidered with leaf motifs, against walls bearing the superimposed Rs and Fs of the French Republic. President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, have made no secret of their desire to update the Elysee, bringing in modern artworks from Pierre Alechinsky, Robert Delauney and Nicolas de Stael to mirror their more progressive tastes. The 1,000 square meter (10,700 square foot) reception hall, ... More

Stars flock to funeral of legendary film composer Legrand
PARIS (AFP).- The legendary French film composer Michel Legrand was laid to rest Friday after a final standing ovation in a Paris theatre decorated to look like one of his favourite movies. The musician who scored such French screen classics as "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" and "The Young Ladies of Rochefort" -- both starring Catherine Deneuve and directed by Jacques Demy -- died on Saturday aged 86. Legrand won three Oscars for his work in Hollywood, most famously for writing "The Windmills of Your Mind" for "The Thomas Crown Affair" in 1969, as well as the music for Barbra Streisand's "Yentl" (1984) and the "Summer of '42" (1972). A magic forest reminiscent of another Demy film, "Donkey Skin" -- which also starred Deneuve -- was created inside the Marigny theatre in Paris where his coffin was taken after a funeral service at the Alexander Nevsky ... More

The Renaissance Society announces historic $1M gift for publications
CHICAGO, IL.- Solveig ÃvstebÃ¸, Executive Director of the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, announced today the establishment of the Joe and Rika Mansueto Publications Program following a $1 million pledge from the Chicago-based founder of Morningstar and his wife. This transformative gift secures the independent contemporary art museums publishing activities for the next 10 years and marks the largest single commitment in its 104-year history. Known around the world for its remarkable support of artists, the Renaissance Society has established itself as a unique platform for ground-breaking creative experimentation and deep inquiry. Publishing has been at the core of the institutions activity since its founding in 1915, and it has produced significant exhibitions and accompanying publications with artists such as Louise ... More

Two artists present works of nostalgia and reflection, opening our eyes to the future
GREENSBORO, NC.- Two Artists | One Space opened at GreenHill on February 1. In GreenHills gallery, concurrent one-person exhibitions by Cathy McLaurin and Dane Winkler ask us to question what is authentic? Both artists are excavators who mine the often overlooked histories of areas where the economic train has moved on and who uncover repositories of heritage, history, and value. In their work, McLaurin and Winkler investigate losses to communities and their transformations of economies and cultures, with works responding to a sense belonging as well as displacement. McLaurins multi-media projects are rooted in archival research, utilizing video interviews, photographs, and collections of objects. She presents two installations at GreenHill, The North Wind and the Sun and The Reverend, His Lover, Their Monet and the Museum, with ... More

Göteborgs Konsthall opens a solo exhibition with Phoebe Boswell
GOTHENBURG.- GÃ¶teborgs Konsthall is presenting the exhibition Here, the first Scandinavian solo exhibition of Kenyan-British artist Phoebe Boswell. Boswells multidisciplinary art practice is anchored to a restless state of diasporic consciousness and engages in questions of collective memory, personal identity and what it means to be home. She creates layered, deeply immersive multimedia installations which center and amplify histories thatlike her ownare often systemically marginalized. The exhibition Here at GÃ¶teborgs Konsthall, brings together distinct themes in the artist's oeuvre which each address what it means to belong, particularly from the perspective of the racialized, sexualized and gendered "other." Phoebe Boswell takes us on a journey that begins by observing the social structure of the city of GÃ¶teborg from the point of view ... More

Exhibition showcases Bożenna Biskupska's ongoing series of paintings entitled Cages
LONDON.- lÃ©trangÃ¨re is presenting Epiphany of Time, the first exhibition in the UK of work by the Polish artist, Bożenna Biskupska. The exhibition showcases Biskupskas ongoing series of paintings entitled Cages, many of which are shown here for the first time. Each painting in the Cages series is created using thick layers of oil paint, confined within a rectangular border; some are slashed through by thick diagonal lines or interrupted by additional rectangles within. The works are left to ripen for a long period of time, often for a number of years until the artist decides to release them when they mature enough. The materiality of paint, transformed by time, reveals colour and develops texture which adds a sculptural dimension to the work. The process where time plays a central role in transforming the materials is key to Biskupskas practice. Referencing existential and metaphysical ... More

Moderna Museet Malmo exhibits Jordan Wolfson's Riverboat Song
MALMO.- Jordan Wolfson is one of the most exciting young artists on the American art scene right now. On February 2, his video sculpture Riverboat Song opens at Moderna Museet. At first glance, it might look like an entertaining flow of randomly arranged images from popular culture and found clips from the internet. But the scenarios in Jordan Wolfsons works are, in fact, meticulously composed to explore a specific, real feeling, and to catch the viewer off balance. Wolfson manipulates the ostensibly familiar and challenges the bond of trust between sender and receiver. In Riverboat Song (201718), which was recently acquired for the Moderna Museet collection, derailed animated figures are combined with found clips from the less savoury sides of the internet. The boyish Huckleberry Finn-like protagonist recurs in several of Wolfsons works, possibly ... More

Exhibition of paintings and drawings by artist Ellen Altfest on view at White Cube
HONG KONG.- White Cube is presenting an exhibition of paintings and drawings by the New York based artist Ellen Altfest, her first in China. Working on a one-to-one scale, Altfests art evolves out of a direct observation from life. Her subject matter includes male models, nude or partially covered by fabric, or the natural world experienced at its quietest, and works typically require several months to over a year to complete. The time collapsed into her paintings generates a concentrated intensity that verges on the hallucinatory, with a level of detail that is unsettling in its degree of naturalism. Barry Schwabsky has characterised this realism as a refusal to abbreviate, whereby Altfest, unlike other painters, does not economise on mark making or use of colour to generalise compositional passages. One of the earliest paintings in this exhibition, Tree (2013), for ... More

Johnny Hallyday show to go ahead despite family's anger
PARIS (AFP).- A show about the life of legendary French rocker Johnny Hallyday is to go ahead despite the opposition of his family, the producers have said. The death of the "French Elvis" in December 2017 prompted the biggest outpouring of grief seen in the French capital since the funeral of Edith Piaf half a century before. But plans for a new musical tribute to Hallyday, who died of cancer aged 74, has divided his fans and sparked a furious response from his manager and his widow. "Johnny Hallyday is a commercial brand and you cannot use it like that," Hallyday's manager Sebastien Farran told the Parisien daily. "We do not endorse this show and we still do not know its content. They have never contacted us," he added. The newspaper reported that Hallyday's widow Laeticia was annoyed and has called in her lawyers to stop the show because ... More