Artdaily.cc - The First Art Newspaper on the Net

Asya Geisberg Gallery opens Kristen Sanders: "Protoself"
NEW YORK, NY.- Asya Geisberg Gallery will be presenting until July 8th Protoself, an exhibition of paintings by Kristen Sanders. This will be the gallerys first solo presentation of the artists work. As the shows title suggests, Sanders points her inquiry into the crux of what makes us human; imagining a moment of first consciousness of a hypothetical early human ancestor. Since 2015 her work has been circling between the extreme past of hominids millions of years ago and the increasingly closer future of robots with super-human powers and artificial intelligence. Sanders fascination lies within the threshold of self-invention, distinguishing the human from both the animal and the animatronic. In considering the former, her work posits that behavioral aspects such as making a mark, or the first non-utilitarian artwork, should be valorized before corporeal evolution. By considering these defining mo ... More

Grand opening of exhibition on Warhol launched by New York Times' Blake Gopnik
GLEN ELLYN, ILL.- The Cleve Carney Museum of Art (CCMA) at the McAninch Arts Center (MAC) on the College of DuPage (COD) campus presents an engaging selection of thought-provoking programming to align with the upcoming WARHOL exhibition opening June 3 and continuing through Sept. 10. The first of these lectures, Blake Gopnik Andy Warhol: What Makes Him a Great Artist, will take place at the McAninch Arts Center, 425 Fawell Blvd. in Glen Ellyn on the College of DuPage campus, Saturday, June 3 at 2 p.m. Gopnik will present the clearest documentation to date of a mysterious and innovative artist who constantly avoided definition, and whose work continues to impact modern culture. Gopnik conducted extensive research to create an in-depth look into Andy Warhol from historical, social and artistic perspectives, providing ... More

Robin Wagner, set designer who won three Tony Awards, dies at 89
NEW YORK, NY.- Robin Wagner, the inventive Tony Award-winning set designer of more than 50 Broadway shows, including the 1978 musical On the Twentieth Century, in which a locomotive appeared to be racing toward the audience with actress Imogene Coca strapped to the front of it, died Monday at his home in New York City. He was 89. His daughter Christie Wagner Lee, confirmed the death but said she did not yet know the specific cause. She did not say in what borough he lived. Wagner designed sets on Broadway, off-Broadway and for regional theater, for operas and ballets, and, in 1975, for the Rolling Stones Tour of the Americas. His stage for those concerts was shaped like a six-pointed lotus flower that was raked upward to the back in a delicate curve. On Broadway, his work included the sets for the transcendent 1968 rock musical Hair (in The New York Times, Cl ... More

Larger screens, heated seats, Sushi: Theater owners want you back
NEW YORK, NY.- More than three years after the pandemic slammed movie theaters, reducing the flow of new films and keeping patrons away, operators hope a slew of wide releases this summer will finally get those who have grown accustomed to streaming movies at home back into theaters. If they do return for The Little Mermaid, Barbie or the latest from the Spider-Man and Indiana Jones franchises moviegoers may find that the spaces look and feel different. Cinemas were already upgrading before the pandemic bringing in cushier seating, bigger screens, better sound equipment, and tastier food and beverage options. But many theaters also went into 2020 with thin margins and may have survived only because of federal pandemic relief programs. Now cinemas are spending millions of dollars to beef up their offerings ... More

A surprising stage for dance: The subway platform
NEW YORK, NY.- You can tell when JaBowen is feeling a song. The grounded power of his feet whether tapping delicate, whispery notes or hitting rhythmic patterns with ferocity and speed enlivens an unassuming place: a subway platform. But beyond his sleek and supple feet, there is simply his presence. With rigor, elegance and humor, he takes the craft of tap seriously while disarming the crowds that pass through his impromptu theater. Stumbling on JaBowen is like uncovering a New York City art secret. The lucidity of his body and the music that it produces are steadying forces in an unpredictable space. For months now, this Chicago transplant has been bringing quality tap to the uptown F platform at Delancey Street/Essex Street. What he creates with taps and a wooden board his portable stage is a reciprocal experience. His dances ... More

'Moki Cherry: Here and Now' exhibition opens today at London's ICA
LONDON.- The title of the exhibition is inspired by an untitled drawing, an abstracted figure with arms outstretched embracing the words Here & Now against a cloudlike landscape alongside a star and birds. It reflects the artists longstanding study and practice of Buddhism and its teachings which focus on being in the present, rather than dwelling on the past or speculating on the future. Characteristic of Mokis playful use of language, it recalls her jazz musician husband Don Cherrys 1976 album Hear & Now, for which Moki designed the cover using appliquÃ© and collage. Formally trained as a fashion designer, Moki left school in 1959 to apprentice at an haute couture atelier, moving on to work as a design assistant at a womens coat manufacturer two years later. In 1962 she moved to Stockholm, first taking up evening classes in pattern cutting ... More

Juan Carlos Formell, buoyant heir of Cuban musical legacy, dies at 59
NEW YORK, NY.- Juan Carlos Formell, an acclaimed singer-songwriter who settled in New York after defecting from Cuba and eventually took over as bassist for his famous father, Juan Formell, in Los Van Van, one of the most influential bands of post-Revolutionary Cuba, died on Saturday during a performance in New York City. He was 59. His death, from a heart attack he suffered onstage at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in the Bronx, was confirmed by his romantic and musical partner, Danae Blanco. Formell, she said, had high blood pressure and arteriosclerosis. Since fleeing Cuba for New York City in 1993, Formell had charted his own musical course, releasing five solo albums and earning a Grammy nomination in 2000 for best traditional tropical Latin performance for his debut album, Songs from a Little Blue ... More

5 shows, 94 actors, 450 costumes: Emilio Sosa dresses Broadway
NEW YORK, NY.- During the pre-Broadway run of Good Night, Oscar at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, actress Emily Bergl was known to the staff as the lady in the Dress. As June, the wife of troubled raconteur-pianist Oscar Levant, Bergl wears a floral dress and matching chartreuse coat. The dress radiates the energy of a Jackson Pollock canvas black and daffodil-yellow on shimmering silver brocade, hand-painted to generate the perfect luster for the stage. It stands out in that shows sea of impeccable suits. Bergl calls it the Dress. Im not discrediting my performance in Good Night, Oscar when I say that the Dress does half the work, she said. When Bergl first met the man behind the Dress, costume designer Emilio Sosa, he told her, June Levants clothes are armor. I knew right away that he understood the character completely, and that I was in good hands, she said. ... More

For Lorna Courtney of '& Juliet,' New York has always been her stage
NEW YORK, NY.- To pursue her dreams of stardom, Lorna Courtney didnt have to move far away from home. But she did have a lengthy daily commute. In her teens, she would take a bus and two trains (or three, depending on how long I wanted to walk) from her home in South Ozone Park, Queens, to the prestigious LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. Thats not even bad, because there were people that commuted from Staten Island, said Courtney, the young, Tony Award-nominated star of the new Broadway musical & Juliet. The real distances, however, were not measured in miles. At LaGuardia, Courtney was thrown into a new world. I realized that I was with people who had free lunch and people whose parents had yachts, she said recently at a cafe near Union Square. She made ... More