To see these masterpieces, you can to the MoMA or the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam – or you can see them projected in 90 million pixels across 500,000 cubic feet of a visual experience. Immersive Van Gogh, a digital art exhibition devoted to the Dutch master, is touring around the world with numerous venues in the United States.

Following the sold-out show in Toronto, and record-breaking run in Paris (glimpses of which you can see in Netflix’s show “Emily in Paris”), “Immersive Van Gogh” opened this May at a secret location in Los Angeles.

One of the most important artists in the history of visual arts, Vincent van Gogh developed a remarkable, memorable painterly style, drawing from his long history with mental illness combined with his unique sense of the world around him. His incredible swirls of colors and attention to detail continue to dazzle audiences around the world, now culminating in the “Immersive Van Gogh” experience. The visitors are able to “step inside” Van Gogh’s masterpieces, carefully selected from his 2000+ lifetime catalog of artworks, and accompanied by light, music, movement, and imagination.

Conceived as a one-hour walkthrough exhibition, “Immersive Van Gogh” was designed by Creative Director and Italian film producer Massimiliano Siccardi, and Art Directed by Vittorio Guidotti. It contains original, mood-setting score by another Italian, multimedia composer Luca Longobardi, that accompanies the Van Gogh artwork as it comes to life before the visitors’ eyes.

Chances are you’ve probably already seen dozens of images of “Immersive Van Gogh” across your socials. The exhibition provides an environment that flawlessly caters to our obsession with social media and the ever-evolving selfie culture (remember Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Room selfies? They were EVERYWHERE). Add to that the ongoing pandemic and our human need to socialize and be part of events, and you got yourself a blockbuster!

The “Immersive Van Gogh” experience has nineteen cities on its North American schedule, with shows already open in Chicago (until November 28, 2021) and San Francisco (until September 6, 2021). The Los Angeles iteration opens on May 27 at a yet undisclosed location “at the heart” of the city. The exhibitions will then open in New York City (June 10), Dallas (June 17), Charlotte, NC (June 18), Las Vegas (July 1), Phoenix, Minneapolis, Houston…

And speaking of the coronavirus, “Immersive Van Gogh” promises a safe space: through timed ticket admission, temperature checks upon arrival, hand sanitizer stations and social distancing markers across the exhibition hall, and of course masks, to be worn at all times.

Tickets for “Immersive Van Gogh” range in prices from $40 for off-peak time slots to $50 for peak ones. You might want to hurry: the first available time slot at the moment is in October!

Immersive Van Gogh LA Website

The post The Immersive Van Gogh Experience is Coming to LA appeared first on Artiholics.

New York City is a vibrant and dense city, full of life, colors, and forms. A city known for its love of art in all expressions and ways. Artists and creators find in New York City an open space to showcase their talent, that openness and invitation to create are what makes New York City a reference in the world and a destination for many artists and visitors who want to experience and see the world through the eyes of those who have a story to tell.

A beautiful and special place is Central Park, right in the middle of Manhattan, a space that has allowed New Yorkers and guests to experience nature in the middle of this concrete jungle. Central Park is there to offer all its visitor a space to breath, to walk and to decompress from the intensity that this city can embody. Central Park is also an open space and an open canvas for many artists to present their work to the world.

The Horses is a remarkable art installation located in the Doris C. Fredman Plaza in Central park, curated by Public Art Fund and the curator Daniel S. Palmer. The Horses is an impressive artwork of three aluminum horses, created by the well-known and respected French artist Jean-Marie Appriou. The massive sculptures raging from 16 feet tall to 16 feet long are outstanding installations that evoke those whimsical and poetic figures that can be found in magical stories.

Appriou was inspired by the horses-drawn carriages that are one of the many attractions found in Central Park and by August Saint-Gaudens’s gilded monument of William Tacumseh Sherman on horseback, located in the area. The Horses are magnificent sculptures, carved in clay and foam models, cast in aluminum and full of textures emulating muscles, metal plates and in some places like fabric. One horse is seated, the two others are standing but their location it’s made to create a feel of a scene or scenario.

Public Art Fund curator said about the artist in the public art fund press release, “Jean-Marie Appriou’s unconventional approach to sculpture is almost alchemical, His craftsmanship is informed by a deep knowledge of the historical lineage of sculptors that have preceded him. At the same time, Appriou’s equine sculptures are otherworldly, evoking the silent majesty of horses with nuanced sculptural details that flicker between narrative and poetry.” 

The Horses are sculptures of a mix of human and horse form, giving the viewers the experience of being in front of mystical creatures, encouraging the visitors to see beyond what their eyes see and into what their imagination see. The Horses installation is also an active experience, where people can walk under the standing horse, or around the others to see all of their details and touch their textures, an activity that creates a distinctive experience.

The installation is a beautiful artwork that invites all visitors to use their imagination and to find the magic in the creation and is a suitable art piece that asks everyone to experience the charmed that Central Park offers. Art could be a special way to see the world, with curious eyes and with an open and creative mind, and that is the perfect attitude to go to Central Park and see and discover all its beauty, secrets, and artistic elements.

The world is living in a new reality, where social distancing, face mask and proper hygiene are part of the vocabulary, a new reality in which parks and open spaces are now the perfect and safest places to visit and to spend time. For New Yorkers and tourist now days Central Park has become not only an essential point in an itinerary but also a must visit to fulfill the artistic need, to calm the anxious mind and to enter for a moment in a new and simple reality full of nature and art. The Horses and this type of art exhibits give people the chance to practice art in a safe and fun way.

Public art is a great way to enjoy and satisfy that artistic necessity in any day, but most important during this time when people are not only facing isolation and health concern but also economical concerns. Now creativity is a key not only to create art or to find it but also a way to enjoy time, families, and friends. New York is a place that offers many forms of public and accessible art to its residents and guests. The Horses installation is an example of that artistic vain that is part of the essence of this city.

The Horses will be on display at Doris C. Freedman Plaza, 5^th Avenue at 60^th Street, until August 2020.

Jean-Marie Appriou, The Horses, 2019, Cast aluminum, courtesy of the artist and CLEARING, New York/Brussels; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich/New York
Presented by Public Art Fund, Doris C. Freedman Plaza, Central Park, Sep 11, 2019 – Aug 30, 2020

The post The Horses: Whimsical Art at Central Park appeared first on Artiholics.

Luxury Escapism or “The Oddly Satisfying Spa” is an immersive art technology wellness experience reminiscent of a Spa with elements of theatre & Virtual Reality. Luxury Escapism – a VR Spa has been created by Tyler Pridgen. Initially I went in to do a shoot for their online advertisement campaign last year in December and that itself was a lot of fun. The space was very cool so when Tyler asked me to come on as a member I was intrigued by what that would entail for me as an actor.

What was your role?

My role in Luxury Escapism involved taking on the character of a “Spa Attendant”; working alongside an ensemble of artists to set the stage and keep the front of a Spa. We are given a script that we memorize and deliver for all the different stages like the welcoming of guests into the space, the rules they have to follow, the instructions they should look out for, etc. Doing that was more traditional in the sense of learning lines and delivering them but then the rest of it used improv so we got to play around with a bunch of different techniques.

From an actor point of view, what has been the peculiar aspect of this kind of technology that makes it different from a standard filming project?

In a set up that’s so different from what I’m used to working on, it can sometimes be quite the challenge to not break character. I had never worked on a project like this before and it allowed me to work with a whole new realm of experimental theatricality since it is on us to maintain the believability of the experience and the people coming into the space have no idea about us acting or what they are in for really. The project has been so well received and people genuinely enjoy it because it’s truly one of a kind. I highly recommend everyone to try it!

What is the most important artistic project that you have been a part of?

I think I have been lucky in my journey so far to have worked on a few projects that I consider important to me. One of these was a project I worked on last year that was part of the 48 Hour Film Festival NYC.The film was screened at The Anthology Film Archives, NY.

About your previous works, you took part in a project that was part of the 48 Hour Film Festival NYC.The film was screened at The Anthology Film Archives, NY.  What is the concept of that festival?

The concept of the festival was that we had 48 hours to create a short film after a theme, a prompt and the name of a lead character. “Joan” in our case was the character I played in what had been given to us. The film was action heavy and I hadn’t really worked on many films like before so it was cool to work with a stunt choreographer and being an observer to that process.  It was such a fascinating experience working with a team of people that came together just for this project and had not worked with each other before. Of course we had our set departments like acting, cinematography, producing etc, but it was very collaborative from the script to the directing. I think that’s also the reason that this project was influential because it gave me insight into all the things that go into making a film and I learned a bit about all the aspects. It also peaked my interest into production; I think that may be something I’m keen on going into the future!

Covid-19 and creativity. Has the pandemic changed any of your artistic plans?

I had recently been cast in an off-off broadway satirical comedy show that has actually been a long running show at the Producers Club Theatre, New York. The show called “Sketch of New York” is a hilarious representation of life in NYC. We were due to go on at end of March this year and were mid rehearsals when the lockdown began and we had to postpone the show until further notice, but the directors of the show are still in contact with us. We have had talks about zoom rehearsals to keep us in the rhythm of the show so that once we are in the clear we can pick up where we left off.

With the coronavirus it has been a collective struggle for everyone all around the world and my heart goes out to everyone who has suffered and their families. I wish everyone safety and health. These are strange times that we are living through and with the lockdown the last 2 months have been unusual to say the least.

Were you able to be involved in any artistic project during the pandemic?

I have been trying to use this time to be as creative as possible for when I am not creative that has been detrimental to my well being. I think creative engagement helps so much with keeping positivity alive at a time like this. I actually have been involved in 2-3 remote projects during the quarantine that have kept me busy and it’s been interesting to create with other artists, all of us working on our individual end at home! At the moment, I am working on a music video from home as well so I look forward to seeing how that turns out.

What is your opinion between the filming NY and LA scene? Why have you chosen NY instead of LA?

New York has been my home for the last few years now and I have really liked both living & working here. While I don’t have experience working in LA as yet, it would be a new space for me to break into. I have a familiarity with New York and there is a lot of work that is being done here with films, shows and the theatre but, that being said, I did make the move from India all the way to New York and ultimately if the situation called for me to make the move to LA I would certainly consider it.

I think I would definitely like to work projects there and learn what the “scene” is like there plus I haven’t been to LA yet so that would be a good reason to visit. I am excited to see what opportunities are ahead for me and what else is in store!

Are you a theatre cinema lover, or do you prefer series TV from the couch?

Hmm! That is a hard question to answer (laughs). I love both those things equally I think. I love balance in life, so in general I am person who enjoys both being outside and outdoors but, I also love staying in bed all day or just having a chill day at home. The same can be said about my preference with that because I truly love the experience of going to the cinema – popcorn & soda, but I am also a binge watcher who enjoys her shows.

We are living in an explosion of Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the Disney channel. Do you think that the end of Hollywood has already been decided?

I don’t think so, I wouldn’t say we’re at the end for Hollywood, no. It’s true that with Netflix, Amazon and all the other subscription services we have access to, and a platform for films, tv shows, and such which is amazing. But the experience of going to the cinema has its own very significant place so I do think there’s a big place for films in that capacity in our lives still.

Why have you decided to have a career as an actress and singer in the USA rather than India?

The reason that I made my initial move to the USA was to have the best available education in acting, that’s also why I chose New York. There is such a rich history of the arts here so I knew there was a lot for me to gain in my learning. But it was never a decision of choosing one over the other. At the end of the day I just love to act and if I felt that I had more opportunities in India I would go back, but I’ve been lucky enough to have found my footing here for now. I’m happy that work here has kept me busy and I think another added bonus has been that being in New York has given me the exposure of working with so many talented artists from around the world. It truly is a melting pot of culture and the arts in the best way possible.

The post Acting and Covid-19: A Conversation with Swarnima Singh, an Indian Actress in NYC appeared first on Artiholics.

New York City is a cosmopolitan city, where art museums are one of its biggest attractions for visitors who want to learn about art. The variety of options New York has to offer for those seeking to get in touch with the artistic world is an advantage and privilege for locals and visitors. Now the City has an additional option for people who admire, love and appreciate dogs.

The AKC Museum of the Dog, founded in 1982 in New York City, was later moved to St. Louis County, Missouri. After more than 32 years the museum is back in the City. A museum dedicated to celebrate dogs, their history, influence in society, and to praise the emotional bond between canines and humanity.

A unique place where sightseers will find fine-art paintings from various artists and media. Figurines and artifacts that showcase the history and diversity of dogs and their elements, as well as a substantial library with about 42,000 books and all sort of dog related information that a visitor might want to explore. Including a children section.

The Museum of the Dog according to their website, offers “rotating exhibits featuring objects from its 1700 pieces.” Visitors will discover paintings of famous dogs through history, including painting U.S. Presidents George H. Bush’s dog Millie and George W Bush’s dogs Barney and Miss Beazley. It was reported that former first lady Barbara Bush praised the museum in a letter in 1990. Among other famous dogs, visitants will see Edwar VII’s wire fox terrier Caesar.

As part of the American Kennel Club, an organization considered a leader force in all dogs related matters and advocacy, the museum has growth under their financial support and contribution. “The AKC Museum of the Dog houses one of the largest collections of dog art in the world and is an important part of AKC’s history and future,” expressed Ronald H. Menaker, Chairman of the Board for the American Kennel Club in their press information.

For some art critics, art dedicated to dogs has not being taken serious at times due to the sentimentality attachment, for visitors is a new way to learn and appreciate dogs. The Museum of the Dog has added technology and screens where a digital dog will appear to interact with guests enhancing the visitors experience.

The Museum of the dog located in 101 Park Avenue, entrance on East 40th street, open Tuesday through Sunday.

Written by Monica Herrera

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Summer is in full swing in New York City, a time of the year when outdoor activities take center stage, especially in a city known for its vibrant life. Walks around the neighborhood, movies at the park and picnics are a fun way to enjoy the sun, the long days and the heat of the season.

A favorite interest among locals and visitors is to take advantage of art shows, presented in many forms and places all around the city. More recently sightseers have a new interactive public artwork to see, The Nautilus. Located in the famous waterfront at the Seaport District the exhibit lights up the nights of an already popular district.

The Nautilus is a collaboration between Lincoln, Atlantic Re:think, and SOFTlab. A partnership that brought to life an impressive art installation that invites those who visit it to appreciate the design and its magnitude but also to be active participants. An invitation to touch the art reads in most of the elements that shape the piece. Michael Szivos, founder of New York City-based design studio SOFTlab explained, “Museums are great, but our work that’s in the public realm is not in a white box, so it’s not framed, in a way.”

Consisting of 95 interactive poles, The Nautilus recognizes the visitor’s presence and touch. Each pole displays light and plays a melody when grasp, creating an experience of an oversize musical device. Linked by computer and sensors, with a touch, poles will play a full audio display. Guests can walk between the installation, immersed inside, and have a unique experience.

Approachable art and the need to stimulate society were partly the inspiration of its creators. Easy technology to understand and use was the main focus when creating the piece. “With this public art installation, we were able to use Lincoln’s rich design heritage and technology, and bring a really fun and immersive experience to the seaport,” said Jeremy Elias, executive creative director of Atlantic Re:think in a press release.

The Nautilus named after Lincoln new crossover the 2019 Lincoln Nautilus, is free to the public and showcase at Pier 17 until September 10, 2019. Later, it will move to its final destination at the Lincoln Headquarters in Detroit.

Written by Monica Herrera

The post The Nautilus, a Constellation of Lights in the City of Lights appeared first on Artiholics.

Almost a year ago, Artiholics covered the debut of Prayers from Los Angeles (“Prayers“) by interviewing one of the key artists who inspired this multi-disciplinary collaboration—Margaret Garcia. See this clip of last year’s documentation of Prayers. On December 17, 2016, artists and musicians are bringing Prayers back to Casa 0101 Theater.

The venue itself has held a 16-year, thriving relationship with the surrounding community of Boyle Heights in Southern California. Since its founding in 2000 by playwright Josefina Lopez (depicted in the first featured image above), Casa 0101 has held a theater-centric role that gradually expanded and also became known for musical performances and visual art shows.  Theater productions still continue to play a major role in Casa 0101 today while a learning center engages children and adults in classes related to writing, acting/improv, singing, and dancing.  LA Weekly calls Casa 0101 the “Best Theater Serving Its Community” in 2016.

Proceeds from the event’s art and ticket sales will support local charities.  This year, attendees can look forward to artwork by Joe Bravo, Brian Grillo, Jimmy Centenio, Heriberto Luna, Bonnie Lambert, and Margaret Garcia.  Other local artists and performers will also join the celebrations. Notably, Prayers will also seek submissions of “miniature art pieces” from the community to be shown in a special exhibition space within the gallery. The organizers of Prayers want a web of different voices. They emphasize the need to share and support one another. This is the time to defend thy neighbor, to be as positive as possible, and to work together in understanding the values in and outside of your community. Fortunately, we have people who know how this can be done using art materials, sound, and performance. Fortunately for us, Prayers from Los Angeles is not going away– it’s only growing stronger.

Casa 0101 is located at 2101 E. 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033.  To participate in the community art exhibit, contact nataasja@prayersfromla.org.  Organizers of this festival may choose to coordinate an art pick up time for interested participants.  Anyone can also bring artwork to Casa 0101 during open hours.  The organizers prefer three days of notice to insure adequate installation time, but anyone may certainly bring art pieces directly to the festival on 12/17/2016. The community art show will be catalogued as part of a new book documenting Prayers from Los Angeles.

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SEGMENT EPISODE! This week we also have a ‘special’ feature being that this episode is mostly UNEDITED; I mean I put in music and stuff but awkward pauses?… totally intact. We talk about studios skipping Comic-Con, Eric Goldberg’s awesome couch gag for “The Simpsons” and of course the fact that Comcast just bought Dreamworks Animation for $3.8bil! Taylor Armstrong, festival manager for Animation Block Party in Brooklyn, comes on to remind you all to submit your films to their awesome event, we talk about ALL your RubberOnionBattle submissions for April and cap it all off with your favorite segment… Rapid Fire! Enjoy the show!

Preorder my book coming out in July 2016:

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

And you can now listen to us out on SoundCloud!

Topics & Timestamps:

Media Referenced During this Episode:

https://youtu.be/9qcY2ERwmaU

Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks
Rob Yulfo

Preorder Stephen’s Animation Tutorial Book:

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
 Subscribe on SoundCloud 
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

The post Comcast buys Dreamworks Animation for $3.8bil, Eric Goldberg’s couch gag, and talking #RubberOnionBattle for April 2016 – RubberOnion Animation Podcast #132 appeared first on Artiholics.

HOT-COCOA SHOW! While Jon Favreau’s “The Jungle Book” is wowing audiences it’s also kicked up a conversation about the role of Motion Capture in movies and if it should be considered Live-Action or Animation. We’ve talked about mo-cap on the podcast but this time I decided to do my research on the path that the technology has taken over the years and how it relates to the distinction in what the final product is called and broke it all down the way only we do on the RubberOnion Animation Podcast! I’d love to hear your thoughts (preferably after you listen to the show haha) in the comments section below. Enjoy the show, and check out the companion blog post on this topic!

Preorder my book coming out in July 2016:

Please Rate & Review us on iTunes

And you can now listen to us out on SoundCloud!

Topics & Timestamps:

Media Referenced During this Episode:

Check out more of your hosts:

Stephen Brooks
Rob Yulfo

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
 Subscribe on SoundCloud 
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

The post Live-Action VS Animation and what is Performance Capture, a discussion between two animators – RubberOnion Animation Podcast #131 appeared first on Artiholics.

This week we saw Glen Keane (the master animator behind Ariel from “The Little Mermaid”) draw in Virtual Reality, and then Batman et al beat up sea creatures (including Ariel) in the new Batmetal animated music video. We finally get to see what “Wabbit,” Bugs Bunny’s new series, will look like and learn about a Spongebob Squarepants musical and a possible Avengers-style teamup movie of your favorite 90s NickToons. These next two episodes are a little special, and not just because they precede our 100th episode LIVE show! With Stephen traveling this week, two episodes were recorded in one session. The split between them is a cliffhanger of epic proportions (I may be overselling that)! Enjoy and leave the evening of Sunday, September 27 open to join us for our 100th episode, LIVE!

Annotations:

… and?

 
Glen Keane sketching characters in Virtual Reality with an HTC Vive headset in this short, “Step Into The Page”

 
BATMETAL RETURNS

 
Trailer for WABBIT, the new Bugs Bunny series

 
NerdWriter video essay on “Children of Men” camera narrative (referenced at 14:41)

 
Adam Phillips’ fan-made music video for Ween’s “Transdermal Celebration” (referenced at 29:24)

 
Check out more of your hosts:
Stephen Brooks (@RubberOnion)
Rob Yulfo (@RobYulfo)
Pat Ryan (@TheBadPatRyan)

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

The post Disney Animator Glen Keane drawing in Virtual Reality, BATMETAL Returns, and a new Bugs Bunny show WABBIT gets a trailer appeared first on Artiholics.

TMNT is getting a 2D animated special from Titmouse Inc, the “Guardians of the Galaxy” Disney XD series shows some serious action with its new trailer and Chinese animation shows it’s on the rise in a big way with “Rock Dog.” There were also two passings we mention this week: wrestler and actor “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, and animation historian and reporter John Culhane. In other news, apparently there’s a PEZ candy movie coming (not PES the animator… which would be fascinating and wanted). Also, Stephen is back from traveling and as such is in front of a nice sounding mic instead of the patchwork sounds of the tablet you heard for the last few weeks. Enjoy the crisp cool sounds of jet lag!

Annotations:

 
Disney XD’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” teaser trailer

 
The “Deadpool” trailer for the trailer

 
Chinese produced “Rock Dog” film trailer

 
Behind the Scenes for “Henry,” the Oculus Rift VR animated short (from Rapid Fire’s first story at 1:26:21 submitted by Chris Guido)

 
The Homestar Runner animated short about Flash’s demise (from Rapid Fire’s fifth story at 1:44:02 submitted by Andrew Kaiko)

 
Check out more of your hosts:
Stephen Brooks (@RubberOnion)
Rob Yulfo (@RobYulfo)
Pat Ryan (@TheBadPatRyan)

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

The post PEZ candy movie greenlit, TMNT gets a new 2D special and China’s ROCK DOG made for western audiences appeared first on Artiholics.

On Saturday Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on 47th Street and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan came alive with body paint, camera shutters, simulated camera shutters (on smart phones), and a literal ton of bare skin, for the second ever Bodypainting Day.

King of the body painting world, Andy Golub has pulled it off once again, breaking all kinds of records for previous “group outings,” this time with 100 fully nude models and 80 artists painting on this year’s theme “What The World Needs Now.”

I was there for the first two hours of what turned out to be an all day event, so with most articles about this event you are seeing mostly the finished product – fully painted models. I captured the sketching phase, or the initial lines and the base coat.

It is interesting to see how the artists all had different techniques for how to start working on the various models, which came in all shapes and sizes.

Written and Photographed by Cojo

The post Artists & Nude Models Take To The New York Streets For Bodypainting Day (NSFW) appeared first on Artiholics.

You’ve may noticed that a good number of bus shelters and billboards around the city are not so lame anymore. In the rush of traffic and commutes we don’t normally pay attention to trifles such as outdoor advertisements, but lately there have been some reasons to wait for the next bus.

It won’t take you long.  You can spare a couple of minutes to spend with the art displayed in your bus stop. If you just scan it with your smartphone you’ll immediately discover more about the piece, the artist and its history, as well as the museum it comes from.

This is not a natural phenomenon as you can expect, but a nationwide campaign to promote American art and raise awareness for a group of museums. The art will be displayed in all sorts of billboards, telephone kiosks, subways, newsstands, bus shelters, and oversized screens such as the all mighty LED screens of Times Square.

This artistic campaign is a collaboration ( #ArtEverywhereUS ) between the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and five museums: The Art Institute of Chicago, The Dallas Museum of Art, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and The Whitney Museum of American Art. These museums aim both at educating the public and of course sparking interest in the American art they display at their sites.

Once you are aware of the existence of this campaign, the images surprise you everywhere. There are 58 different art works disseminated around the City, and all over the country, but that’s too much of a wide field for this modest urbanite. The big screens in front of the Madison Square Garden spot art from time to time. The horribly overcrowded Port Authority Station displays “The Brooklyn Bridge: Variation on an Old Theme” by Joseph Stella in the steps of a random staircase. Inside metro cars, or in a pathway at 14^th Street, the list becomes too diverse. You can drive by 23^rd Street between 8^Th and 9^Th Avenues and get instinctually stopped by a big Rothko that resembles a STOP sign. We can travel to Egypt in 8^th and 38^th Steet. Or reconcile with your lovely one at Broadway and West 91^st because after all we get along so much better than the couple in Grant Wood’s American Gothic.

American Gothic, 1930 by Grant Wood

My Egypt, 1927 by Charles Demuth

Written and Photographed by Alejandro Pardo

The post What the ART is Going on with my Bus Stop Advertising? appeared first on Artiholics.

Last month when it was announced that Björk’s Album of apps Biophilia was being purchased by MoMA for its collection I noticed they hadn’t mentioned Max Weisel.

What I thought was the most profound thing at the time the album was designed was that a large portion of the apps on the album were designed and programmed by a teenager.

I met Max at the 2012 Volta NY pre-party  at Villain in Williamsburg few months before this article in Vice was written.  He told me about how he and developed apps for Björk’s Biophilia album, and that they constructed a playable iPad rig on stage, so he could control a lot of the music and was now touring with Bjork.

I was a huge fan, and had a huge crush on Björk in my teenage years (who didn’t?), and he introduced me to a few of her Icelandic choral background singers who were also at the party; Ester Auðunsdóttir invited me to come to their show at Roseland ballroom the next night as their guest .

Needless to say, the show was an INSANE mix of music, singing, performance art, and technology.

I caught up with Max in June 2014.  We chatted online, me from my studio in NYC, he rather appropriately on a tablet in an airplane flying to California. We talked about the inclusion of the app in MoMA’s permanent collection, his involvement in the project at such a young age (he designed the app at 18) and how it all came together.  Enjoy the Artiholics Exclusive interview with artist / programmer Max Weisel.

Artiholics:  So how did Björk find you in the first place?

Max Weisel: At the beginning, Björk had the idea to do an app album. Normally, when someone goes to do a music video or something like that, the label has people they can reach out to. They know production companies and directors. Björk herself knows a lot of people too of course. However, when they started this project (early 2010) no one was making apps for albums.

She was talking with her manager who she’s been with for 30 years and he suggested they reach out to the developers of her favorite apps. I had made some small apps at the time. Nothing too crazy in the music / creative space. I woke up one day to a comment on my wordpress blog asking for my info on behalf of Björk. I actually laughed it off and assumed someone was just messing with me. However, curiosity got the best of me. I started looking into the name attached to the comment and found a record label and a phone number. I called them up.

“Hey, this might be odd, but someone wrote a comment on my blog asking for my info for Björk”

Artiholics:  Where were you living at the time?

Max Weisel:  Arizona with my parents, I was 18 and had just graduated high school (barely :P).  The person on the other end of the line was like “Yeah! Thanks for reaching out. We’re still figuring this out, but let me get your info and I’ll shoot you an email.”

A week or so later, I got an email from Björk and her assistant with some of their ideas and the themes she was thinking about for each of the songs on the album. We kept emailing back and forth for awhile and I started putting rough concepts together.

Header photo by Joris Bulckens

Interview by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post Artiholics Exclusive Interview: The Teenage Programmer Behind Björk’s Biophilia App… The One MoMA Recently Acquired appeared first on Artiholics.

Haven’t made any plans for Easter Sunday? This Sunday, April 20th, if you live within walking distance of the big apple or plan on visiting, you have a unique opportunity to see New York City’s streets fill up with the adorable, beautiful, humorous, and ridiculous fabulousness that is our stylish fashionsta’s Easter bonnets and costumes.

New Yorkers become mobile works of art, walking along Fifth Avenue from 49th to 57th Streets. New York’s Easter Parade began in 1900 along 5th Avenue and has become an iconic tradition. Now people gather around St. Patrick’s Cathedral to hear mass and take pictures of the informal paraders.

Outside of the church, people let their freak flags fly.

This parade isn’t about floats, it’s more of a fun way to interact with others. People watching has always been a great treat in the fashion and art capital of the world.

Here, you get to pet someone’s dog dressed as a rabbit, run up to the purple man with flowers in his hair to snap a quick selfie, and take a group shot with smiling strangers dressed as bunnies.

Some hats are elegant…while some…

The Easter Parade and Easter Bonnet Festival runs from 10 am until 4 pm along Fifth Avenue from 49th to 57th Streets. The blocks are closed to cars, so it is safe for pedestrians, including children, and pets!

The Stations of the Cross, a group show, becomes the template for artists of various faith traditions to create 28 shrines in two churches, featuring personal relics of their experience on the journey toward death.

On Good Friday a procession will go from Greenpoint to St. Paul’s Church in Williamsburg at 8:30pm. During the procession, lighting of candles, the singing of hymns, readings, and a ritual of carrying a cross from Greenpoint to Williamsburg takes place. Pastor Ben, who’s father is a Professor of Spanish, grew up bilingual. He leads a bilingual, Spanish and English language congregation at St. Paul’s. A French chant of Reproaches is followed by time to meditate on the various stations of the cross. The leads to St. Paul’s, where participants can contemplate the performative reliquaries and meet the artists who created the pieces.

Artists include Aaron Soldner, Chantal Bruchez-Hall, Calla Wright, Andrew Jordan, Betty T. Kao, Baxton Alexander, Ben McKelahan, Raul Barquet, Amy Kienzle, Margaret Semrau, and Rochelle Voyles. St. Paul’s Visiting hours to reflect on the artwork and meditate are Wednesdays: 6-8pm, Sundays: 11am-2pm.

Pastor Ben stands before a photographic installation of an erotic butoh influenced piece, Performative reliquary. Based on Station 2. “Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested. Kiss of Betrayal, Wrongful Imprisonment” playing off of the pain, ecstasy, and will to give of the self and sacrifice for mankind. He is given a crown of thrones, a metallic fluid is poured onto him, covered in a glam illumination of gold, as a broken silver coin is traced along his glittering bloody ribs.

Pastor Ben contributed to Station 1, “Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Sweating blood”, using mementos from his upbringing such as a Day of the Dead scull. Pastor Ben, who was a physics major at Reed College, is a warm contemporary priest. He leads an interdenominational art group that takes place in the church’s bell tower.

He decided to curate The Stations of the Cross as a way for people to become involved with a community minded church. Parables is a outreach project of his with the goal to build relationships in northern Brooklyn through sharing stories, making art, and re-imagining the symbols of tradition through the lens of our lives.

The Lutheran Church is an agnostic faith, the members of the art group range from Christian, Jewish, atheists, to agnostics. On Sunday, April 20th at 3:30pm there will be an Easter Potluck and Egg Hunt at Ben and Elana’s Apartment (they live in a church!). https://parablesnyc.org

Artist / Author Betty T. Kao

Have a great Easter, filled with Parades, Resurrection, Parables, and the cute bunnies reminding you, that Jesus died for your sins.

Written and Photographed by Betty T. Kao

The post Easter: Parades, Resurrection, Parables, Freakshow Fashion & Performance Art – New York City 2014 appeared first on Artiholics.

This afternoon in cities around the globe, people are gathering in town squares to beat the shit out of each other.  Luckily they are using weapons purchased at Bed Bath and Beyond.  That’s because it’s International Pillow Fight Day! If you want to join in on this fun interactive flash mob, check out the list of cities and see where one is happening near you.  Then just show up, and bring a pillow.

If you want to take the fun to the next level, and you have a decent Halloween costume still laying around, the theme for this year’s fight is Superheroes vs. Villians.  If you are in NYC, the pillow fight takes place at Washington Square Park at 3:00pm.

Rules: Please follow these guidelines to ensure a safe and fun pillow fight for everybody!

• + Soft, feather-free pillows only!
• + Swing lightly, many people will be swinging at once.
• + Do not swing at people without pillows or with cameras.
• + Remove glasses beforehand!
• + Deposit pillows in donation boxes or take them with you.
• + Pajamas welcome.

If you don’t want to join in the fray, you can come with a camera and take pictures.  It’s not often you get to see 5000 New Yorkers whomping on each other with pieces of fluffy furniture.  For every five pillow people there is one person who just shows up to take pictures, so you also never see this many cameras in one place.

A great venue for marketing your artblog for example.  If you have a funny, or important  message you want out there to the world, write it on your pillow.  It will be photographed hundreds of times, it will be posted to facebook hundreds of times, and it will be posted on flickr, used in magazines, and shared by social media, 100s  or 1000s of times.

And you have a good shot in getting interviewed.

I attended and photographed the second annual International Pillow Fight Day in NYC back in 2007.  I drew the ArtSucks logo on both sides of a pillowcase and sent my girlfriend Molly in to do battle.  She is only 5’2″ but packs a wallop.  That pillow fight day took place at Union Square Park, but I assume they have outgrown that park and have since moved to their current location, Washington Square Park (the one with the arch and the fountain in the Village).  Here are some never before published photos of the insanity:

Thanks to the writing on the pillow it was easy to keep tabs on her in the crowd, well, before all hell broke loose and the fight started and feathers started flying, then not so much.

It’s not a party till some pillows start to get damaged, then it starts to look like a truck transporting chickens exploded.

The match that lights the flame.

This is seriously fun, you will see more people smiling and laughing than you have in a while, and you will be smiling too, even when you are getting clubbed in the head.  It is pure childish fun, and something you don’t get to experience as an adult very often.

The guy wearing a shirt that reads “MEAN PEOPLE SUCK” getting clobbered by a pillow that says Art Sucks.

A pillow fight selfie 🙂

Someone brought a futon mattress to a pillow fight.

I hope you didn’t need to use those lungs.

This guy thought ahead.

This ginger haired girl had a chicken fighting technique of pillow fighting.

Having the height advantage is good, but also makes you a good target.

Guys can ride on shoulders as well, it just takes a little team to get them up there.

He soon becomes just another pillow in the crowd.

Best bet is to wear leather or at least something not wool or a material that feathers like to embed themselves into.  A lesson I learned that day.

As the fight winds down the park looks like a snow globe that has been freshly shaken, and the particles are starting to settle.  People are winded, and their arm muscles (muscles many of them aren’t used to using) are completely spent.

Written and photographed by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

Many thanks to Molly Roberson for taking a pillow beating to get these shots. International Pillow Fight Day was created as a flash mob art project by Newmindspace.

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Last night the first episode of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge premiered on Syfy.  Much like one of the network’s other reality show contest properties FACEOFF the show pits ten potential creature designers against one another to create an original camera ready puppet based on some broad parameters set-up to guide each week’s challenge, with a two or three day deadline, and the worst designer of the week gets eliminated. Grand prize winner at the end of the season gets the traditional 100K and a job.

Coming into the contest the bulk of the designers already have years of experience in creature making some own their own studios, some have worked on big budget feature films, some work for Disney.

These are already talented creature designers who really could submit their resume and portfolio to Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and be considered for an actual job and not have to go through these on-air contests, but whatever, it makes for good TV.

In 2012 I was invited to attend New York Creative Week, and was fortunate enough to see a presentation by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. It was fascinating to see how many commercials they are behind, which you would probably never have guessed because many of them don’t look like classic “Henson Muppets.”

Prime example, look, it’s Snuggle. He went creepy CG for a while, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop was hired to redesign him as a physical puppet again, this required them going back and studying the original commercials (as the original bear had been lost) and designing a new Snuggle from scratch.

Original Snuggle

Jim Henson Creature Shop Snuggle.

As well as seeing the pre-puppet drawing, leading into the finished product.

Sketch of Dominar Rygel VXI from Farscape. Finished Dominar Rygel VXI puppet.

A puppeteer demonstrates how voice and movement bring a puppet to life.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post Jim Henson’s Creature Reality Show Premiered Last Night on SyFy appeared first on Artiholics.

New York – Saturday, March 8, 2014

This year the first of the Armory Arts Week press previews was for  Spring / Break Art Show in an old school house (called The Old School) in Little Italy. It’s a cool step away from the traditional art fair because it not only focuses on the curator as key, but also has a hard-on for “new media” art, which means you will be seeing either video or projection art in almost every room, and if no video there is usually some auditory component.

Sometimes it is fun to be surprised by art, going into a show without knowing any of the players is like going to a movie not just without any spoilers, but also having no knowledge of the plot or cast. That was my experience last year when I first attended Spring / Break 2013. I was a blank slate. Having never been to the fair previously I was green to the rundown elementary school layout. It seemed disjointed and reminded me of a cross between PS1 and the random dilapidated school buildings turned solo artist exhibitions you see at the Governors Island Art Fair.

This time I settled right in. I knew some of the artists and curators personally ahead of time and was able to more easily identify the work.  It was fun to see how each curator played with this year’s theme for the fair PUBLICPRIVATE.

Entering the building and checking in I wandered into the first room which had an eaten away pillar which reminded me of the box from Frieze except made out of garbage.

Passing through that room I encountered a hallway full of blood illuminations by Jordan Eagles I have been to several Jordan Eagles blood shows when he worked in solid form, but these 13 projectors really filled out the space with a hemo-glow. Curated by Tracy Causey-Jeffery.

Jordan walking through the corridor.

Jordan’s silhouette in blood.

Ducking out I spun around when I heard my name called. It was art writer / curator Benjamin Sutton. I had seen some of his install pics on Facebook and instantly recognized the room he curated by the unmistakable ceiling cats by artist Caroline Wells Chandler.

Benjamin getting interviewed by Samantha Katz from Whitewall Magazine.

Samantha Katz.

The piece that was his starting point for building the show was this grotesque sculpture “Selfie as a Chocolate Chip Cookie,” also by Caroline.

I climbed up on the radiator to get this shot.

“Rule 34; Charm” by Sigrid Sarda. Made with real maggots dipped in gold, wax, real human bones & hair.

This room was curated by Jessica Hodin, The director of the Bleeker Street Arts Club.

Jessica jumped behind this transparent piece.

Jessica Hodin.

Assistant Director of Bleeker Street Arts Club, Anita King.

They have a new show titled FEELING HUMAN, with an opening reception this Sunday, Mar 9, 2014 from 1-4pm featuring some artists from this exhibit. 305 Bleecker St., NY NY 10014

Artist Lucas Zallmann poses with his fridges.

You open them up to find metal dildos and books.

Curated by Wills Baker and Sarah Sulistio.  Sarah is seen here talking with Spring/Break Co-Founder Andrew Gori.

A few photos by Carl Gunhouse.

A piece by Jacob Rhodes from Field Projects.

Curated by Chris Bors seen here with an original piece of his own.

Lia Chavez performing Luminous Objects

Which is curated by Tali Wertheimer, seen here, who is opening a new gallery called TWO RAMS on March 16th.

Artist and curator Max Razdow standing in front of one of his drawings.  I met Max last year when he had his own booth at Volta NY.

Curator Kari Adelaide.

Artist Jesse Bransford and his drawing experiment based on rolling a RPG die titled “Dice Drawings Set Five.”

Singing Bruce Springsteen with a mask on, mask off, show is over.  Crystal Curtis

Group Show curated by David Alexander Flinn

Room with projectors by Rin Johnson audio by Michael Valinsky.

Iphone cases by Collin Munn

I asked three staircase docents if they knew who made these streamers and none of them had a clue.  One said the girl with the yellow purse who was just here.  One said the girl with the green purse who was just here.

It wasn’t until I found a map.  Coralina Meyer.

Founders of the Spring/Break Art Fair, Ambre
 Kelly and 
Andrew 
Gori.

Andrew Gori.

Art by Alex McQulkin which was a collaborative piece she did with her mom.  She commissioned her mom knit a pussy riot mask for her.  She then wore the mask, took pictures of it, and then drew the mask.  This drawing is the end result.

Art by Alex McQulkin & Michael St. John.

This is a piece made by hand cutting out individual diamonds from Sotheby’s catalogs and pasting them together.

Curator Marina T. Schindler

Pin-up style art by Walter Robinson, curated by Ambre Kelly & Andrew Gori

Wall of small pieces depicting Jerry Saltz doing things, by Ambre Kelly, curated by Andrew Gori.

The next room I photographed parts of Liminal Reclamations curated by Tracy Causey-Jeffery and Amy Kisch.
We Are Made To Endure, Portraits of the Donner Party by Robert Saywitz

A room playing all of Woody Allen’s Oscar Nominated films while a toy train goes in a circle referencing recent allegations.

As well as A Universe in My Throat, 2012 by Kevin Bourgeois

Golden Coin by Patrick Meagher

Nightfall by Devin Powers.

Photo and video pieces by Rachel Garrard

Private Drive-In.

By artists Fall On Your Sword and Sarah Bereza (pictured above).

Inside the bug.

I blew out the shot with a flash so you could see the paint work on the car by Sarah.

Sit in the bug and enjoy a superfast loop of scenes from movies that take place in the front seat of cars, including this scene from Grease, as well as that famous 1955 Back To The Future scene with Marty McFly and his teenage mom.

Spring / Break Art Show is located at Old School, 233 Mott Street, NYC and costs $5
All work from the show can be purchased online at SpringBreakArtFair.com

Thursday, March 6 –  Sunday, March 9
Noon – 8pm Daily

Written and Photographed by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post SPRING/BREAK Art Show Is Your Elementary School On Psilocybin appeared first on Artiholics.

New York – Friday, March 7, 2014

After checking out the opening reception for the first ever Clio Art Fair Jamie Martinez from Artefuse and I grabbed a train up to 55th street for the opening night party for The (UN)FAIR. Being press and a media sponsor of the event we buzzed the massive line and shot upstairs.

The first thing you couldn’t help but notice was that the place was packed.

I walked into the masse following a siren’s song and found a woman singing while standing right next to a beautiful Norman Rockwell painting, not the first (or ten thousandth ) thing I expected to see at THE (UN)FAIR but a pleasant surprise. Into the next room where for a few bucks they print your face on a t-shirt onto a baby’s body.

I quickly passed to the next room which had an intricate floor to ceiling vision obscuring sculptural installation.

On the wall beyond hung a few of those meta art world comic strips that Hyperallergic publishes. Into the large room where on the right is an interactive musical installation where you can play a series of instruments by pressing old school arcade buttons.

& Jerry.

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream served to you by THE ACTUAL Ben & Jerry. After meeting Jerry, and initially guessing wrong about which ice cream hippy I was talking to I got some cookie dough ice cream (and you just had a taste memory of that flavor). It hit the spot and I ended up coming back a few more times over the course of the night. (Just FYI, THE (UN)FAIR has free unlimited Ben & Jerry’s for the run of the fair).

I ran into fellow Artiholics Jen Wallace, the curationista of THE (UN)FAIR and got a picture with her.

Her partner James Wallace who was acting as greeter to the elevator crowds.

While talking to him one of the poet performers walked into the hallway and started reciting poems for us from memory, and they were great (anyone know who this guy is?)

Last year, the first year of THE (UN)FAIR, the show only occupied half of the entire floor space on the third floor. This year the space was twice as big with two additional new large rooms making way for some large paintings.

As well as an area for performance.

Vivian & Artist Gigi Chen.

And a massive projection piece, nearby which there are a few large patches of comfy AstroTurf where you can lounge out eating popcorn and ice cream while drinking wine in a small stackable mason jar like the most bizarre Willy Wonka factory picnic.

Max Noy, and Jamie both from Artefuse.

Artist Mark Parsons and one of his CartoGraphiPOP sculptures.

Jen and Mark Parsons.

Artiholics writer Betty T. Kao is doing a performance piece called “Belly Full of Artifacts” at The (Un)fair. Photos by Lauretta Prevost.

She will be performing again there on Saturday from 8 – 10 pm.

Artiholics is a media sponsor The (UN)Fair.

THE (UN)FAIR is located only a few blocks away from The Armory Show.  500 W 52nd St. New York, NY 10019

March 5th – 9th, 2014
11am – 8pm free

Opening Party: 3/5, 8-10pm free
Benefit Party: 3/6, 8-10pm $20 click here
Closing Party: 3/9, 8-10pm free

Written and Photographed by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”
(*editor’s note: I will finish crediting these photos and hyperlinking to artists websites next week when I am done seeing all these fairs and have time)

The post THE (UN)FAIR is Back, Bigger, & More Popular Than Ever – Opening (Photos) appeared first on Artiholics.

Once again the week has arrived where the titans of the art world (global art world) flock to NYC for Armory Week to take in the art work and show off the art wares.  Parties, social climbing, art writers, buyers, dealers, artists, and gallery inbetweens swap stories and mingle in converted warehouses, armory’s, post offices, and climate controlled piers along the Hudson river.

The week takes it’s name from the Armory Show, which is the grandaddy of all of the week’s fairs, but any seasoned art traveler will now that the Armory is just the tip of the art fair iceberg.  Satellite fairs pop-up and take orbit, each with it’s own respective gravity and collector base, trying to pull the titans toward them, and each year the satellites either get larger, or fizzle out.

We all know that in NYC, time is money.  Rather than spend a lot of both shuttling yourself around town without any direction as to which fairs  (and social affairs ) might appeal to you, we at Artiholics.com have created this handy guide to NYC Armory Week.

Listed in descending order from Most to Least expensive:

THE ARMORY SHOW:  March 6th – 9th 

General Admission: $40  |   Students – $20  |  Armory / VoltaNY Dual Pass: $50

Wednesday – March 5, 5pm – Midnight @ MoMA | The Armory Party $175 – $10,000 Tickets
Thursday – March 6, 12pm – 7pm
Friday – March 7, 12pm – 7pm
Saturday – March 8, 12pm – 7pm
Sunday – March 9, 12pm – 7pm

Featuring: 200+ Of The largest art galleries in the world showcasing their artist’s most sellable work, the worlds top collectors, art writers, etc.  Art wise you will see: Lots of Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Neon, Random Artists In Costume, Collage, Interactive Art, New Media, Photography, Performance art, etc..

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: Peter Max

Unofficial Art Patriarch: Kenny Scharf & Damien Hirst.
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Damien Hirst, Barry McGee, Kenny Scharf, Tracey Emin, John Wesley, Jenny Holtzer, Olaf Breuning, Yayoi Kusama, Julian Opie. Nancy Chunn, Marina Abrovonich, Kehinde Wiley, Retna, Ryan McGuinness, Nick Cave, Chuck Close, Gagosian, Chitra Ganesh, David Kramer , Kim Jones, Pierogi, Warhol, Basquait, etc.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: The variety of Blue Chip and Museum Artists’ work in one place.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Not Good

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at The Armory Show? Yes, I’ve seen a Marina Abrovonich performance, although it was with an actor not Marina.  Live drawing by Ai Kowada Gallery’s Fukuhara.  Also weird performance artists doing their thing in the crowd.

The Scoop on The Armory Show From An Artiholic:
This is the one show all the satellite shows revolve around.  It has anywhere from 200 – 300 international galleries represented in a given year, and is a lot to take in, and a lot of walking.  Make sure to wear your comfy shoes and prepare to see a lot of neon, glitter, and museum quality presentations.  The sculptures are as polished and pristine as it is possible to make them, the wall paint is flawless.  If you go to as many of the art fairs as I do will start to feel like you walking through a brand new IKEA after a while (the scale of the two piers are enormous) .  If while you are seeing world class art in this familiar Big Box Store format your eyes  become blurred and the work starts to become indistinguishable from Norwegian furniture, take a seat in their cushy bar areas and get a drink.  You don’t need to push your eyes that far, the brain can only accept so much eye candy before it goes into shock.

For the price of admission you get access to both the Modern show, and the contemporary (each with it’s own pier), so you can see work from older masters, as well as the masters that are still alive and working today (based on which pier you are checking out).

Positives: Buying the Armory / Volta NY combo ticket for $50 is the best deal in town.  There is a shuttle bus between the two venues, and you get to experience the opposite worlds of the big box store IKEA experience of the Armory, along with the intimacy of Volta NY. You will be seeing the best most sought after artists in the world hanging in a show that is only up for an extended weekend, buying frenzy is a thing to behold.

Negatives: The size and scope of this show can be daunting and overwhelming to a beginner, just start at one side and work your way through it to the other side, move to the next row and do it again.  Think of it like a giant supermarket, but instead of cereal and canned goods, you are looking at artwork worth 10’s to 100’s of thousands of dollars by artists you have seen at The Whitney and The Met.  You will not see these galleries taking to many risks. At SCOPE, The Unfair, and Fountain artists aren’t paying the insane per-square-foot rates as at The Armory so they can go edgier.  This show is squeaky clean – most booths on a factory produced precision.  If you prefer to see a little of the artist’s hand (blood, sweat, and tears) mixed into the paint, you might want to check out some of those other fairs.

Location: Piers 92 & 94:  711 12th Ave New York, NY (@55th Street & the West Side Highway)

Website: https://www.thearmoryshow.com/
View Our Armory Show Photos From Previous Years

SCOPE ART FAIR:  March 6th – 9th 

General Admission: $25  – Student $15

Thursday – March 6, 3pm – 6pm (Platinum VIP Preview Gala)  –  6pm – 9pm (First View Benefit & Press)  $100
Friday – March 7, 11am – 8pm
Saturday – March 8, 11am – 8pm
Sunday – March 9, 11am – 7pm

Featuring: Drawing, Collage, Sculpture, Painting, Performance Art, New Media, Neon, Photography.

THIS YEAR’S SCOPE (SPOILERS): SCOPE Art Fair NY 2014 VIP Opening Reception Was Packed (Photos) – Artiholics

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: Ron English

Unofficial Art Patriarch: Ron English.
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Augusto Esquivel, Jordan Eagles, Karim Hamid, Ron English, Banksy, Luke Chueh,  Russell West, gilf! Hiroko Tsuchida, Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, Andrea Stanislav, HuskMitNavn, Kikyz 1313, Camille Rose Garcia.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: Performance art piece where a female artist walked around the fair nude from the waste down.
Possibility of Live Nudity: It’s Possible.

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at SCOPE? Occasional Live Painting, Occasional Live Performing Installation, Occasional Live Music.

The Scoop on SCOPE From An Artiholic:I’ve personally attended the 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013 incarnations of the fair.  It’s one of the satellite fairs that didn’t have a permanent home until 2013 and was constantly competing with Pulse as they have very similar vibes, that is until Pulse decided to slide into May and be a part of Frieze Week, thus freeing Scope up to take control of the more serious emerging contemporary art galleries.  I watched this fair bounce from Lincoln Center, to a tent on the West Side Highway, and finally to it’s current NY location in the giant post office building Skylight at Moynihan Station next to Madison Square Garden.

Scope is a good dowsing rod for what trends are most likely to be prevalent thought-out all of the art fairs during Armory Arts Week.  Mostly pretty good art, there are some major international galleries represented, as well as a lot of NYC talent.  Scope is what galleries at Fountain aspire to graduate up to.

Positives: A ton of good work, lots of roaming artists, friendly gallerists.  The show has really come into its own since Pulse left.  A good mix of low and high brow to appeal to a wide audience.  Gets a lot of solid press, and a lot of sales.

Negatives: Some galleries are obviously not yet ready for prime time and stick out like a sore thumb.  When you start to notice trends, you will see them repeated and repeated in multiple booths. Location is far from Armory. 

Location: Skylight at Moynihan Station 360 West 33rd Street, W 33rd St, New York, NY 10001

Website: https://scope-art.com/
View Our SCOPE Photos From Previous Years

THE ART SHOW:  March 5th – 9th 

General Admission: $25

Wednesday – March 5, 12pm – 8pm
Thursday – March 6, 12pm – 8pm
Friday – March 7, 12pm – 8pm
Saturday – March 8, 12pm – 7pm
Sunday – March 9, 12pm – 5pm

Featuring: Solo Shows, Museum Quality Gallery Shows, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Collage, Photography

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: John Leguizamo

Unofficial Art Patriarch: Andy Warhol & James Rosenquist
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Rosenquist, Henri Matisse, Mark Rydan, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, George Condo, Ray Johnson, Phil Guston, Wim Delvope, Sperone Westwater, Charles McGill.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: The Egon Schiele / Gustav Klimt exhibit.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Not Good

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at The Art Show? No, this is a serious art fair.

The Scoop on The Art Show From An Artiholic:

This fair is decades older than The Armory Show and has a sterling reputation as presenting some of the best in the business.  Blue chip art, museum art.  Most of what you will find here by artists who’s names you will recognize from your Christie’s and Sotherby’s catalogs.

Positives: You will see museum quality work, amazing drawings and paintings from many dead modern artists, and some current living blue chip artists, as well as original portraits of famous artists.  If you are a fan of really good drawing, and seeing drawings by some of your favorite dead artists, this is a good place to get a glimpse of artwork that exists outside of museums and is sold to private collectors.

Negatives: This is a lot like the Modern section of The Armory Show.  It is old masters, mixed with some more elite contemporary artists.  The crowd is extremely highbrow and it’s easy to feel under-dressed when attending.

Location: Park Avenue Armory – Park Avenue at 67th Street, New York City

Website: https://www.artdealers.org/artshow.html
View Our THE ART SHOW Photos From Previous Years

INDEPENDENT:  March 6th – 9th 

General Admission: $20

Thursday – March 6, 6pm – 8pm (Private Vernissage)
Friday – March 7, 12pm – 7pm
Saturday – March 8, 12pm – 7pm
Sunday – March 9, 12pm – 6pm

Featuring: Sculpture, Kinetic Sculpture, Collage, Car, Interactive Art, Neon, Animation, New Media, Painting, Photography

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: John McEnroe

Unofficial Art Patriarch: Dan Flavin
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Ella Kruglyanskaya, Steve Claydon, Thomas Julier, Oliver Mosset, David Shrigley.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: A random DeLorian with no flux capicitor.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Not Good

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at Independent? No

The Scoop on the Independent From An Artiholic:

To me this fair always felt the least like a fair, and even refused to call itself a fair.  The floors have big open spaces in the middle rather than the sectioned off walls that the other art fairs are known to have, all the galleries share the same light.

Since it started The Independent has always been free admission to the public, and the focus has been more about the art than the selling.  It is many people’s favorite fair because of the amount of sculpture, and minimalism and distinct lack of drawing and painting.  I am in the minority, and the lack of drawing and painting drives me up the wall.

I don’t know exactly what changed with Independent’s business model,  but this year it costs $20 instead of costing nothing to get in ($20 is a distinct price increase from free).

Positives: A ton of big sculptures on four floors.  The possibility of a random car in the middle of one of the floors.  The permanent Dan Flavin instillation on the staircase in between floors is always inviting – not technically part of the show, but a welcome break from the different levels.  Top Floor Cafe, with Roof Access

Negatives: Extreme lack of drawing and painting. Super snobby curators who really don’t want to talk to you, which is another thing that makes this unlike the other art fairs where the exhibitors actually want to interact.  I have hundreds of photos I’ve taken of artists and curators at the various art fairs, and Independent is the only art fair I have taken zero shots of any curators or artists.  I am acting the same as I do at the art fairs but never get approached.  Located in Chelsea it is close to other art openings, but far from The Armory Show piers.

Location: 548 West 22nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues in the heart of the Chelsea gallery district.

Website: https://independentnewyork.com/
View Our INDEPENDENT Photos From Previous Years

VOLTA NY ART FAIR:  March 6th – 9th 

General Admission: $15  |   Students – $10  |  Armory / VoltaNY Dual Pass: $50

Thursday – March 6, 11am – 2pm (Guest of Honor) 2pm – 5pm  (VIP / Press Preview)  6pm – 9pm (Public Vernissage)
Friday – March 7, 10am – 8pm
Saturday – March 8, 10am – 8pm
Sunday – March 9, 10am – 5pm

Featuring: Solo Shows, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Collage, Interactive Art, New Media, Neon, Photography

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: Delroy Lindo

Unofficial Art Matriarch: Amanda Coulson
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  This changes every year, as all booths are solo shows.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: Very focused solo shows that aren’t like the typical art fair.  The ability to see a depth to an artist’s work, unlike the other top tier fairs that would only showcase one or two pieces by each artist.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Not Good

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at VoltaNY? Yes, I’ve seen Break Dancing & Pastry Eating Contests

The Scoop on Volta NY From An Artiholic:
Volta NY rules.  It is the offshoot of The Armory Show so it has the top tier credibility of The Armory, but also has the intimacy that comes with solo shows.  It feels like you are attending 90 gallery openings where the artist is in attendance, and you are the only guest.  You get a real one-on-one experience with each booth and are able to engage with the artists.

It is an invitational show, and all the artists have to be represented by a gallery, so there is no room for amateurs, and no buying your way in.  I have had nothing but positive experiences with Volta NY, and since they moved down to SoHo from their previous residency at  7 West 34th Street they really have the space you need to fit everyone and not feel like you are walking around a fair in a converted office.

Positives: Buying the Armory / Volta NY combo ticket for $50 is the best deal in town.  There is a shuttle bus between the two venues, and you get to experience the opposite worlds of the big box store IKEA experience of the Armory, along with the intimacy of Volta.  This is a show I would love to one day solo in, and you can’t get much higher praise from me than that.

Negatives: If you don’t like meeting artists, or seeing solo exhibits, and prefer to see more salon style gallery showings presenting a diverse group of artists from a gallery’s stable, then you won’t like this show.  If you aren’t planning on attending The Armory, this show is kind of out of the way in relation to the other shows.

Location: 82 Mercer Street., New York, NY  (Between Spring and Broome Streets)
Website: https://ny.voltashow.com/index.php
View Our VOLTA NY Photos From Previous Years

FOUNTAIN ART FAIR:  March 7th – 9th 

General Admission: $10 – VIP Pass: $50 – Weekend Pass $15

Friday – March 7, 12pm – 7pm (VIP Press Preview / Open to the public)  7pm – Midnight (Opening Night Reception) Music Lineup: DJ Nick Zinner
Saturday – March 8, 12pm – 7pm (Open to the public) 7pm – Midnight (Saturday Night Event) Music Lineup: THE DEEP!
Sunday – March 9, 12pm – 5pm

Featuring: Solo Shows, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Collage, Interactive Art, New Media, Neon, Photography

Featuring: Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Live Painting, Live Performance, Performance Art,  Music, Collage, Car, Interactive Art, Neon, New Media, Photography

Celebrities / Celebrity Artists I’ve Personally Spotted Here: Mia Tyler
Unofficial Art Matriarch: Swoon
Notable Artists / Gallerists Associated With This Show:  Alison Berkoy, The Murder Lounge, Brian Leo, Dave Tree, Casey Porn, Jonny Fenix, Veng, Victor W. Cox, Ryan Cronin, Chris Smith, Alex Emmart, Rob Servo, Leah Yerpe, JMR, Brandon Friend, Christina Ray, Mighty Tanaka, Leo Kesting, Front Room, Munch, Dacia.

Coolest thing I’ve seen here: Nude Body Finger Painting.
Possibility of Live Nudity: Very Good.

Ever Seen Live Performance or Live Art at Fountain? Yes, tons.

The Scoop on The Fountain Art Fair From An Artiholic:
I love fountain, it is such a fun fair to attend and you get a lot of bang for your buck.  Lots of good artists, also a lot of not so good, but the needles in the haystacks are in the numbers at this fair.  This is truly the independent fair as usually it’s one artist, or a group of artists splitting a booth on their own.  No galleries need be involved, although a lot of booths are represented by galleries.  It’s one of the cheapest art fairs for artists to get work in (per square foot) so the bar is set a little lower than a Scope or Pulse, and leaves the door wide open to untrained artists, street artists, and Brooklyn artists on the rise.

You will see a lot of drawing at this fair, a lot of painting, and a lot of pop.  I have heard it referred to many times in art circles as “amateur hour” but there are generally some stand outs in the masses, and as years go by you will start to see artists who got their start at Fountain’s careers shoot them up to larger galleries, and land them larger exposure at the top tier fairs like Scope and Volta.

You will be likely to meet a lot of artists if you wander around this fair, as most booths are artist run.  It is a great way to talk to artists and have them talk to you about their work.  Almost everyone is friendly and open here, and there is very little pretension.  You will find a few street artist wanna-be-banksies aka Mini-Banksys, who don’t want to have their photo taken, which is annoying as fuck, and almost comical.

When I  first attended this fair in 2009 it was on the frying pan pier.  In a tent that leaked when it rained.  There was a basement floor called the Murder Lounge where a small collective of Greenpoint artists would always show together. Fountain in gaining credibility and exposure has moved several avenues over to the Lexington Ave Armory and now has a solid foundation and doesn’t have to worry about dark clouds.They still have a section of the new location called The Murder Lounge, but it’s more of just a tribute.
Fountain is a 1917 work widely attributed to Marcel Duchamp. The scandalous work was a porcelain urinal, which was signed “R.Mutt” and titled Fountain. Submitted for the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917, Fountain was rejected by the committee, even though the rules stated that all works would be accepted from artists who paid the fee.  The exhibition took place in the building where The Fountain Art Fair now resides almost a hundred years later.

Positives: A lot of fun, a lot of really great artists and a lot of good drawing.  Live painting, performances, music.  It is almost like getting a first glimpse into the unsigned talent of the art world.  You see what bubbles up from Brooklyn, Queens, and the outer boroughs before it gets snagged up by the machine.  The Friday opening night reception is the most fun you will have at any of the art fairs with open bar and live music – it becomes a party – and I will see you there.  If you are a fan of drawing, street art, illustration, comics, lowbrow, or graffiti, you will really enjoy yourself.  If you are a collector you can find a great deals on artwork by emerging artists here, and fill your apartment for a fraction of the price you would have to pay at the other fairs.

Negatives: Depending on your perspective, you will either come away loving, or hating Fountain.  If you like drawing and painting, you will have a good time.  If you really enjoy The Independent, you will probably not like Fountain so much.  If you are looking for Museum Quality work, you will not like Fountain.  It is very unpolished, but that’s what gives it it’s underground handmade charm.  Although I have a great time at Fountain it is one of the lower tier fairs and doesn’t get much love from the mainstream art press, but art blogs and Scene and Alt magazines like Paper are all over it. 

Location: Centrally Located at the 69th Regiment Armory (Lexington Avenue & 26th Street)
Website: https://www.fountainartfair.com/
View Our Fountain Photos From Previous Years

SPRING / BREAK – $5

THIS YEAR’S SPRING/ BREAK (SPOILERS): SPRING/BREAK Art Show Is Your Elementary School On Psilocybin- Artiholics

CLIO ART FAIR – $FREE

THIS YEAR’S CLIO ART FAIR (SPOILERS): The Clio Art Fair 2014 Inaugural Show Opening Reception- Artiholics

THE (UN)FAIR – $FREE

THIS YEAR’S (UN)FAIR (SPOILERS): THE (UN)FAIR is Back, Bigger, & More Popular Than Ever – Opening (Photos) – Artiholics

MOVING IMAGE- $FREE

NEW CITY ART FAIR- $FREE

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