Artdaily.cc - The First Art Newspaper on the Net

What if dance could save the world?
NEW YORK, NY.- Theres been a lot of dance seemingly coming out of nowhere. A recent unexpected sighting one of many this year happened just this month on Saturday Night Live, when Chloe Fineman, dressed in a Santa coat, appeared on Weekend Update with an idea for a sexy present: reenacting the dance that Julia Stiles performed at the end of Save the Last Dance. So random! Stripping off her coat to reveal a leotard and ripstop pants, Fineman, with elfin ballerina determination, bops from side to side in an approximation of the choreography snapping her fingers alongside high knees, carving shapes into the air with robotic arms, throwing in an occasional pirouette while describing the plot of this 2001 film and its dubious dance style: street ballet. The surprise comes when Stiles herself ... More

Sondheim was a critical darling. Since his death, He's a hitmaker, too.
NEW YORK, NY.- Stephen Sondheim, the great musical theater composer and lyricist, was widely acclaimed as a genius, but during his lifetime he had a bumpy track record at the box office, with many of his shows losing money. In death, however, his shows have flourished. A revival of Merrily We Roll Along which was so unpopular when it debuted in 1981 that it closed 12 days after opening is now the hottest ticket on Broadway. A lavish revival of Sweeney Todd that opened in March is already profitable, and at a time when almost everything new on Broadway is failing. Meanwhile, Sondheims unfinished and existentialist final work, Here We Are, is now the longest-running show in the brief history of the Shed, a performing arts center in Hudson Yards on Manhattans West Side, where luminarie ... More

Amp Fiddler, versatile keyboardist, singer and mentor, dies at 65
NEW YORK, NY.- Amp Fiddler, a former keyboardist with Parliament-Funkadelic who became a fixture of Detroits soul, funk and electronic music scenes, and whose tutelage of rapper J Dilla helped alter the trajectory of hip-hop, died Dec. 18 in Detroit. He was 65. His death, in a hospital after a long battle with cancer, was announced by his wife, Tombi Stewart. Fiddler was a versatile keyboardist, equally adept at playing warm Fender Rhodes grooves or squiggly synthesizer arpeggios, skills honed during his decade with P-Funk, from 1986 to 1996. He was also a prolific session player, working with artists like Seal, Maxwell and Raphael Saadiq. The thing that I was always keen on as an artist was to leave my ego at home, Fiddler said in a 2003 Red Bull Music Academy lecture. I think that humility ... More

They've slain dragons together. Now they can bargain together.
NEW YORK, NY.- A golden glow illuminated the employees huddled inside a Hex & Co. cafe on the Upper East Side, a haven created for board game enthusiasts to gather for fantastical quests. Meticulous campaigns were second nature to these workers how many times had they infiltrated an obsidian castle or vanquished a warlock? They had been immersed in this particular adventure for months, navigating a labyrinth governed by strict rules and made harrowing by unfamiliar tasks and tests. Now they gathered to plot their final triumph: unionization. On that Tuesday in September, Hex & Co. workers confronted their bosses with a demand for recognition. Less than two months later, they voted to join Workers United, the same group that has been organizing workers at Starbucks stores across the United States. The workers at the three Hex & Co. locations across New York City were just the first employees of a board game cafe in the city to unionize. Workers at the Uncommons and the Brooklyn Strategist follo ... More

Review: This 'Night of the Iguana' is Williams without the excess
NEW YORK, NY.- While not his most elegant work, Tennessee Williams The Night of the Iguana, about a group of lost souls at a coastal hotel in 1940s Mexico, is not without its misty pleasures. Even as his characters stumble tragically in search of meaning, their convictions carry the sharp-tongued certainty of soap opera idols. But a new revival from La Femme Theater at the Signature Center mires itself too deeply in its characters confusions to let the edges of his language shine. Its an issue of confidence, with Emily Mann directing her cast away from Williams assured dialogue and toward their characters flailing. And this play, with a defrocked minister who now leads Baptist church ladies on unreliable bus tours at its center, already has plenty of flailing. Plagued by nervous breakdowns, the Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon (Tim Daly) is grasping at straws when he brings his ersatz flock to the cheap hotel run by his friend, the sultry Maxine (Daphne Rubin-Vega). ... More

Art Bridges Foundation appoints Anne Kraybill Chief Executive Officer
BENTONVILLE, AR.- Art Bridges Foundation has announced the appointment of Anne Kraybill as its Chief Executive Officer. With a growing network of over 230 partner museums, Art Bridges is eager to welcome Kraybill as it continues to increase access to American art across the country. Kraybill is an accomplished leader in the museum field known for her expertise in program development, community engagement, fundraising, strategic planning, and research. She formerly served as the Director/CEO of the Wichita Art Museum and The Richard M. Scaife Director/CEO of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, among others. At both museums, Kraybill partnered with Art Bridges to expand community access to a diverse range of artworks and public programs. Alice Walton, founder and board chair of Art Bridges, said, Were excited to welcome an entrepreneurial leader like Anne whose experience partnering with museums and the foundation will driv ... More

Sports memorabilia and jewelry department lead Michaan's December gallery auction
ALAMEDA, CA.- Michaans Auctions December Gallery Auction, held on Friday, December 15th realized a strong sell-through rate as Michaans Auctions orchestrated another successful sale for its cosigners. The sale was headlined two Sports Memorabilia lots, a 1937 All-Star PSA/DNA Certified Multi-Signed Baseball Including Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, which sold for $18,200, and a 1934 U.S. Japan Tour PSA/DNA Certified Multi-Signed Baseball including Babe Ruth selling for $7,150. A beautiful English Georgian Thomas Earnshaw Tall Case Clock reached $9,750. A Diamond, 14k Yellow Gold Ring brought $5,850, while an Ernst Heinrich Roth Labeled Violin with Bow in Case reached $5,200, and Zsolnay Pecs Iridescent Metallic Glazed Vase achieved $4,550. The jewelry department had another strong showing with a Juvenia 18k Yellow Gold Wristwatch reaching $4,550, while a Jean Perret 18k Yellow Gold Wristwatch sold for $2,470. ... More

Learn how to change the world by making art, 'MAKE ART OR DIE TRYING'
BOURNEMOUTH.- Multidisciplinary artist, entrepreneur, and activist Stuart Semple believes that art is for everyone, and that everyone is an artist. Every single human has an inner spark of creativity that can make the world a better place. Art can change people, places, attitudes, and communities, healing and communicating when words arent enough. Make Art or Die Trying empowers you to understand and connect with big art ideas and embrace your creative potential, no matter where youre starting from. This stunning, informative, and inspiring book demystifies influential art concepts of the 20th and 21st centuries, including happenings, performance art, Bauhaus, and Fluxus, making them super-approachable and inviting you to learn, make art, and make change. Let Make Art or Die Trying be your guide to harnessing the power of creative ideas to create art and change in your life and community. Stuart Semple is a wo ... More

Galerie Guido W. Baudach presenting Tamina Amadyar, Hinako Miyabayashi, Minh Lan Tran in TRACES
BERLIN.- Contemporary painting is a broad field. Apart from short-term trends, a wide variety of styles, approaches, techniques, reference systems and contexts exist in a thoroughly plural, equal coexistence. The target groups are diverse too. In times of growing online marketing, however, one increasingly encounters works that are deliberately conceived to look appealing, not least in digital images, and are therefore particularly social media-friendly or "instagrammable". The paintings by Tamina Amadyar, Hinako Miyabayashi and Minh Lan Tran are of a different nature. Their full effect only becomes apparent when viewed in the flesh. On the one hand, this is due to a pronounced sense of material that unites the artists, despite all the differences in their working methods. All three use special painting materials to create very particular surfaces, color and light spaces. At the same time, their respective painterly gesture introduces a physicality and movement into the works which resembles co ... More