I discovered Han Hoogerbrugge years ago about when Flash software was first becoming popular.  To this day I think that he is the only artist to use the medium in a purely artistic fashion without getting distracted by Flash’s…well…flashiness.

He’s about to have a solo exhibition in Rotterdam.  Since most of you aren’t there, check out his online animated interactive artworks which are surreal, dark and humorous.  Make sure you have your sound on and are ready to use your mouse to click and roll-over his images.  Curiosity will give you more rewards in Hans’s work:

Flow (this is my favorite – you need to take part with your mouse to see the entire show)

Modern Living / Neurotica Series 

Hotel (an interactive story in ten parts – takes serial art in a new direction)

Spin

Nails

Thanks to Who Killed Bambi for reminding me of this artist!

Or, to satiate those of you with a lower attention span, please visit Samantha’s sublime Tumblr blog.

Creep Machine: Molly Crabapple and the 99% Miz Molly Crabapple is a fancy burlesque delight, but is also politically active as fuck.  Living near Wall Street in NYC gave her 24 hour access to Occupy Wall Street.  To lend support, she did what she does best: draw.  As a continuation of The Creep’s initial post on OWS, I published some of what Molly did to support the uprising. Read more…

Creep Machine: Calma’s New Asceticism at Jonathan Levine Brazilian artist Stephan Doitschenoff (aka Calma) recently installed his newest collection of artworks at Jonathan Levine gallery.  Just a quick peek here about this extremely worldly artist…more to come in the future! Read more…

Creep Machine: The Conjurer: JL Schnabel’s Mystical Collaboration Hi Fructose journalist JL Schnabel collaborated with Paul Romano and photographer Christina Brown to put together a look book for her jewelry line, Blood Milk.  Entitled, The Conjurer, it is an impressive work of art on its own. Read more…

Creep Machine: David Hochbaum Offering Limited Edition Book Sets New York artist David Hochbaum is selling precious limited edition book sets of his multi-media works and photographs.  These three books, signed by the artist, come in a hand-made box with a one-of-a-kind silkscreened print.  This is a great opportunity to collect this artist’s work for an affordable price.  Pics on the post! Read more…

Or, to satiate those with a lower attention span, please visit Samantha’s sublime Tumblr blog.

Beinart: Martin Wittfooth’s Dark Water Dark Water contains paintings from many artists whose work frequently explores these depths, curator included.  Remarkable about the dark nature of such art, is its quality for redemption, relief or realization.  Furthermore, each of these work’s unique elements of beauty can be simultaneously stunning and soothing, offering solace for the heavy subject matter they symbolize. Read more…

Beinart: The Indispensable Import of the Cute & Creepy This exhibition of sweet and sticky macabre art represents curator Carrie Ann Baade‘s efforts to act as ambassador between the contemporary grotesque and the academic environment. Read more…

Creep Machine: Paul Komoda // The Thing Comes to Life The artist talks a bit about his creature concepts for the movie and his experiences working on the movie.  Exclusive peeks at the monsters he designed for the film! Read more…

Creep Machine: Travis Louie’s Curious Pets A mini sneak peek into Mr. Louie’s latest solo exhibition on the west coast.  Opening this weekend! Read more…

What remains after all decor is stripped down to our bare bones is what makes us who we are. What happens when we are forced to see this part of ourselves?

When diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, artist Yuri Leonov became forced to see his young life from a new perspective, and to rely upon modern technology to keep his angry immune system at bay. Through his art, Yuri explores how he feels rooted, stuck and limited by those tools that are intended to help him, and what Remains of his self: past and future.  His explorations extend out to the world at large, how our own artificial advancements remove us from what is most important, and the paradox of how our efforts are quite possibly leading to our downfall.

Yuri pulls no punches. His work and the ideas behind it are wrought with emotion: questions about life and memories of the past. His work is introspective, offered to the world en masse as possible catharsis for all of us suffering from mortality. Yuri’s is a case of illness in youth, yet he is a very strong and determined individual; honestly he looks very healthy. His work is very well thought out, intelligently emotional and meaningful. His art is not his heart on his sleeve; it is an earnest search for relief.

Taught old master technique as a boy in Russia, he has some serious old master technique chops in his arsenal, yet he is not a realist. Much of his work is abstract and his paintings which incorporate realistic figures, interiors and landscapes are often created with non-traditional mediums including bugs and his own spit. “Though the work is figurative, the initial structure is an abstract framework of composition that allows the series to be interpreted as a unified body.” Additionally he adds meaning to his painting technique (the use of unmixed white paint, for example, is used on several works in this series as a connective visual element), and each series of paintings tell a story of growth, change or realization. There are very strong concepts underlying all of his works, some of which he describes openly and some of which he has chosen to keep private.

Remain is ethereal, ghostly and, at the same time, very human.  In my mind, the concepts behind the series connect to Parke-Harrison’s Counterpoint series, and the surrealistic story-lines and imagery of some of Adrei Tarkovsky’s films.  Additional man versus technology connections can be made to Masamune Shirow‘s Ghost in the Shell.  Remain is representational of a review of the past and an uncertain future filled with metaphor, private and shared.

A personal and philosophical description of his work:

Remain, which focuses on my own shortcomings and limitations is my most intimate and personal body of work to this day. The strange conviction of self-importance is present in everyone, all of whom will undoubtedly leave this realm of existence; and so all of us attempt the best we can to avoid the inevitable constraint of time by shifting the significance of existence to the things we attempt, or pretend to know. We ignore the larger, unknown to us, scheme of things in which our whole existence is just a miniscule fragment of the general process far beyond our control, instead focusing on trying to control what we think we can.

As such, control, time and scale are the major concepts I have explored in Remain. The act of making art is an excellent example in itself: convinced by a blind ambition that this determination will somehow hold back the weight of time, and prolong my existence even if in a non physical sense. After developing and now living with serious health problems, I have also developed a solid understanding and a persistent reminder that I will die, along with everyone. What will remain?

Remain will be on view at the White Rabbit’s White Box for only a short while longer.  Some works have sold and others are still available for collection.  To view them online and for further details about his exhibit, please visit the Remain gallery here.

]]> http://artanagnorisis.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/that-which-remains/feed/ 0 binnorie Retrospection Alone Leonov_bound_600px Leonov_unwavering_600px Leonov_forest_600px In http://artanagnorisis.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/outside-the-white-box-talk-with-independent-curator-samantha-levin/ http://artanagnorisis.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/outside-the-white-box-talk-with-independent-curator-samantha-levin/#comments Sun, 09 Oct 2011 22:06:23 +0000 Binnorie http://artanagnorisis.wordpress.com/?p=7971230738 ]]>

Thursday, October 13th, 7pm
White Rabbit
145 East Houston
Between Forsyth and Eldridge

One of the best ways to get artwork seen today is through creating your own exhibition and through social media. Samantha Levin will talk about how she got started as an independent curator, what goes into producing a show, creating an artist’s community, finding space and make an income.

Her talk will be followed by a networking opportunity. Anyone working in Fine Arts, Illustration, Photography, Visual and Critical Studies, Art Criticism & Writing will have particular interest in this event.

Please feel free to send your questions and concerns to Samantha prior to the event: samantha@artanagnorisis.com

Think Outside of the White Box will be taking place in conjunction with a show Samantha curated of Yuri Leonov’s (BFA 2011 Illustration) work at the White Rabbit.

RSVP is requested, but not required on our Facebook event page.

Thanks to the School of Visual Arts Alumni Society for scheduling this event!

]]> http://artanagnorisis.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/outside-the-white-box-talk-with-independent-curator-samantha-levin/feed/ 0 binnorie Another Roadside Attraction Installation http://artanagnorisis.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/the-futility-of-fighting-with-chaos/ http://artanagnorisis.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/the-futility-of-fighting-with-chaos/#comments Mon, 05 Sep 2011 18:06:32 +0000 Binnorie http://artanagnorisis.wordpress.com/?p=7971230677 ]]>

JR's furrowed brow colorized by Irene with Kenny Scharf

Hurricane Irene left very little damage in New York City compared to what happened in surrounding countrysides.  New Jersey, upstate NY and Vermont all got hit very hard with flooding, not to mention what happened further south.  It’s as if Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs are in a protective bubble, rarely affected by natural disaster.

Irene did leave her mark behind in Gotham, however.  Many are reporting this mark as damage, but I see it as Mother Nature’s collaboration with artists JR and Kenny Scharf.  Irene’s water has soaked through JR’s black and white photo of a giant furrowed brow and crinkled nose so much that Scharf’s colorful painting left underneath shows through.  Personally, I think JR’s photos are far more powerful when installed in cities that heavily benefit from its presence.  He is a selfless and intelligent artist whose work blends in and gets lost in New York City’s jaded and cynical streets.  Scharf’s colors give this particular photo of his a nice punch.  The new look further reminds us how pissed off Scharf was when his work was tagged (sorry, Kenny, the tagging looked horrible, but stop wearing your trendy outfits around town and maybe you’ll avoid this kind of problem in the future).

A close-up of the Os Gemeos mural

Kenny gets tagged

The graffiti wall on Houston Street just west of Bowery, curated by Deitch Projects,  had for a while a recreation of a mural by Keith Haring.  Haring’s image was eventually replaced with a new mural by street art duo Os Gêmeos who were soon covered over by Shepard Fairey’s pasted graphics.  Shepard’s efforts weren’t well respected by some.  I recall walking by and seeing giant holes punched into the wall of Shepard’s pastings, revealing the drywall and metal studs that had been built over the previous work.  The holes let the Os Gêmeos painting peek out once again creating a Fairy/Gêmeos medley of sorts.  So, you see, the wall has a history of damage that has been inflicted upon it, time after time.  The latest damage from Irene’s deluge is not unexpected, yet creates a pleasant visual surprise.

The Keith Haring replica gets whitewashed to make room for something new.

Shepard Fairey's mural with plywood to cover up extensive damage.

My favorite city walls are those covered with many artists’ work, stickers, tags, dirt and nails all collaged on every surface in even the most hidden nooks, all giving New York its special character.  To me, the uproar that results when one of the works on this Houston Street art space gets marred is silly.  Part of the allure of street art is the random or uncontrollable changes that happen to it over time.  If you put something up on a wall giving others access to it, then you need to accept and even revel in the fact that others are going to tag it, break it, lick it, pee on it…  It’s going to rain, mold will grow on it, the glue and paint will peel…  If you don’t want that to happen to it, put it inside and protect it, or make sure the materials used to create it can withstand the toughest abuse.

I don’t know…I suppose one could argue that the news about the damage is all part of the art, but I think time would be better spent helping those who cannot return to their homes due to Hurricane Irene.

{This post was inspired by Animal New York}

Survival Research Laboratories‘s  A Bitter Message of Hopeless Grief from 1988.  Directed by J. Reiss.

A Bitter Message of Hopeless Grief is a dark film that follows anthropomorphized machine-beings made of metal, gears and bones through underground stone caves filled with heat and magenta.  They course slowly through dark fiery halls, interacting in morose ways, capturing and destroying lesser, more meek creatures.  To me the title of the work is over-dramatic, but the film itself has a mysterious and surreal quality to it that brings forth a grotesque beauty.  It’s depressing, yet powerful and emotional.  Should one pity these viscous creatures or hate them?

Survival Research Laboratories, founded by Mark Pauline in 1978, is more known for its live performances.  Machine-beings similar to those in the film are kinetic sculptures brought to life in thrilling displays of spitting fire, grinding motors and screeching metal all controlled by remote or driven by SRL members.  Each performance “consists of a unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and special effects devices, employed in developing themes of socio-political satire. Humans are present only as audience or operators.”  They are like crosses between MIT student robot competitions and the automobile accident reenactment scenes from Cronenberg’s movie Crash, all of them viewed in outdoor theaters by large audiences.

A Bitter Message of Hopeless Grief stands apart from Pauline’s live performances.  It captures a more sullen, almost pitiful aspect of the personalities of Pauline’s metallic creatures.  While they are wild things of strength and power, they are revealed as trapped and angry, lacking compassion and care.  Regardless, the film stays true to SRL’s focus of “re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare.”

The film was directed by J. Reiss, also known for his work on Nine Inch Nails’ Happiness in Slavery music video.  Amongst many other projects, he has also directed music videos for The Black Crowes, Danzig, Slayer and the Kottonmouth Kings.  In 2007, he released his film, ‘Bomb It’, a documentary on grafitti and the perception of public space, featuring artists including Taki 183, Shepard Fairey, Os Gemeos and Revok.

To see more, Survival Research Laboratories currently have a ton of their performances posted up on their YouTube page online.

I’m really loving Tun Myaing’s new works.  Beautiful and melancholy…as always.

He’s recently done some moody evening urban landscapes and interiors.  He turns the mundane or even repulsive subjects he’s chosen to portray into pensive quite objects, teeming with gentle light and existing in their own quiet ways.   Here are a few for your ogling pleasure.

Upcoming Anagnorisis artist Yuri Leonov has a similar series he’ll be revealing in September at the White Rabbit’s White Box – a little more introspective than Tun if you can believe it.  You can certainly tell where my interests lie.  Keep an eye out for them!