Chiharu Shiota – Flowing Water

Chiharu Shiota, Flowing Water,  2009

Isn’t this a stunning work of art? I find it difficult to get emotion from installations, but Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota got the right mix of brains and heart. It is water falling on the beds and it has the extra effect of ambient sound of cascading water. Browse Shiota’s website for more moments of clever beauty.
Seen on designboom.

John Baldessari

Hands and/or Feet (Part One): Snake / Hanging Person, 2009

John Baldessari’s Hands and/or Feet (Part One) series can be seen until November 28th at Marian Goodman Gallery. If Paris is not on your plans for this month, Tate Channel has a great interview with the artist.

Hands and/or Feet (Part One): Piglet / Hands (One Green), 2009

Marc Chagall: Life and Love

After being postponed because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Pera Museum in Istanbul opened this week the exhibition Marc Chagall, Life and Love with 160 works by the Russian master. The show includes a selection of pieces that celebrates his great love for his wife, Bella, his favourite model. The theme is explored in images of the couple in each other’s arms, kissing and floating blissfully on an colourful landscape. Bella wrote two memoir books that are also on display: First Encounter and Burning Lights.

Fred Lebain – Superimposed New York

This is totally my thing! Fred Lebain superimposes large printed photos he took of New York on the exact same spots, creating a tromp l’oeil image that he then re-photographs.
Found on designboom

Raqib Shaw

Today I learned about India-born artist Raqib Shaw from a client. Represented by White Cube and with exhibitions held at the MOMA and Tate, this 35-year-old painter works in very intricate imagery, often with a violent and sexual content. Largely inspired by fifteenth-century artist Hieronymus Bosch, his paintings resemble kimonos, tapestry, Persian miniatures, jewellry. Rich with enamel and gold leaf, his creatures and plants float on a luxurious landscape.

Fire Destroys 90% of Helio Oiticica’s Works

Brazilians are mourning the loss of almost 2,000 works of Helio Oiticica, on a fire last night in Rio de Janeiro. The works were estimated in US$ 200 million.

Born in Rio in 1937, Hélio Oiticica came to be regarded as one of the most revolutionary artists of the country for its innovative and experimental work. Oiticica was a founder in 1959 of the Neoconcreto movement along with names such as Amilcar de Castro, Lygia Clark and Franz Weissmann. His work “Tropicalia” was one of the main inspirations of the Tropicalia movement.

Caetano Veloso, Brazilian singer and composer, wears one of Oitcica’s ‘Parangoles’

Scott McFarland at Vancouver Art Gallery

View of Vale of Health, Looking Towards Hampstead, 2007inkjet type print, 27 x 42.5 inches

Starting today, the VAG will be showing 80 photographs produced by Scott McFarland over the past seven years. McFarland’s images are composed from several exposures of the same scene, then digitally stitched together.

Noah Kalina

photo by Ryan Pfluger

I have been postponing this post about Noah Kalina because it takes a long list of links and I am lazy. He introduces himself very shortly: “I take photos. I live in Brooklyn.” Kalina is more than just a New Yorker photographer, though. You must have seen his time lapse video from 2006 – over 13 million people have. Kalina is also on twitter and flickr. You can also buy Kalina, his self-published magazine (I did). Or you can follow his blog where he posts photos of his desk and hotel windows. Adbusters, where I volunteered as Art Researcher, published four of his photos in this month’s issue. The bottom line is that Kalina is of this century and everything he does is interesting. He has the rare ability of keeping a low-profile and at the same time be everywhere.

Wallpaper

I love these installations by Cassandra C. Jones. Retro-kitsch icons like flamingos and cheerleaders  are mixed on a very retro support: wallpaper. The fun contemporary spin is achieved by kaleidoscopically repeating the found images. You can see more and enlarge images on her website.

Christian Faur – Crayon Series

American artist Christian Faur uses crayon as pixels to compose portraits. As he says on his artist statement The things that inspire me to create, I find, are buried deep within the structures and systems that form the underpinning of our natural world. My studies in the natural sciences have made me aware of these hidden layers of complexity present in even the simplest objects. It reminds me the work of Daniel Eatock. Seen on designboom