Rodney Graham

Rodney Graham has worked across a variety of media, including photography, music, sculpture, books, and painting. His work often examines social, historical, and philosophical systems by borrowing from popular culture and making carefully composed allusive puns that undermine clichés and conventional thinking. In Graham’s sweet and pointed 2007 photographic triptych The Gifted Amateur, Nov. 10, 1962, Graham plays a Morris Louis-like painter, making drippy stain paintings in a hip, retro-modern living room, newspaper spread across the floor to prevent him from making too much mess. Here, Graham critiques all sorts of assumptions about how art is made, who makes it, the conditions in which it is created, and the kinds of spaces it may eventually be placed within. Graham reminds us that artworks are processes before they are objects or decorations, that artists are usually much poorer than collectors, that work in the studio is not leisurely or neat, and that labor determines a space’s function far more than hardware does, all by providing a farcical, beautiful, and sweet portrait of the way artists don’t work. LINK hauser and wirth

Hector Lavoe y Willie Colon

Willie Colon and Hector Lavoe were very instrumental in Salsa's success during the late '60s and throughout the '70s and '80s. Under the banner of Fania Records, this duo pushed the boundaries of traditional Salsa, and, in turn, became worldwide superstars, touring Central and South America, and cities all across the Eastern Hemisphere, most notably, Paris. To get a grasp of just how big these guys were, consider this: The Fania All-Stars shut down Yankee Stadium in 1973. The damage the stadium sustained during the show, caused by those in attendance dancing the night away, put Bronx Bombers' last month of home games in jeopardy. It was an electric time in New York City. Willie's revolutionary trombone-backed production shifted Salsa's mambo and boogaloo (Latin R&B) to a more street-oriented sound, with lyrics that reflected the harsh realities many artists skirted around. With the help of Hector's beautiful voice, the duo were able to have commercial success and still stay street. LINK Hector Lavoe y Willie Colon

One Hundred Trillion dollars or One Cent

In the summer of 2008, the United States’ economy saw its highest levels of inflation in a almost two decades - peaking at 5.6% in July. If that sounds off-putting, Zimbabwe’s economy is downright terrifying. In 1998, Zimbabwe witnessed 32% inflation. Ten years later? 11,200,000,000 percent that August. By November 2008, per one estimate, prices were doubling every 31 hours. (That’s not a record - post-World War II Hungary saw prices which doubled in half that time.) With 100 billion (yes, billion). Zimbabwean dollars valued at roughly 65 American cents (yes, cents), even eggs were expensive. The solution: Really big bills. Witness the $100,000,000,000,000 bill. 
LINK robertsworldmoney

VANSA

Art Map

The Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA) was initiated by leading figures in the visual arts sector from across South Africa in 2003. People felt that the visual arts - unlike the film, performing arts, music, and publishing sectors - lacked a body that could tackle industry issues: from the need to address historical imbalances in access to opportunities in the visual arts, through to the need to attract more public investment and funding for the sector. Growth, Transformation and Opportunity were the three key ideas that motivated the organisation. 
Art Map South Africa is aimed at providing artists, curators, writers and researchers from other countries with a first point of entry into the existing infrastructure for contemporary visual arts in South Africa, as a basis for networking, creative collaboration and research. It is also designed with the needs and interests of people entering the field in South Africa in mind. This website gives you an overview of a wide cross-section of key organisations and institutions, together with information about people working in the field as writers, curators and researchers. You will find information about museums, galleries, alternative art spaces, magazines, events, development organisations and tertiary institutions. LINK artmap

Nuri Kuzuçan

A graduate of the Mimar Sinan University Department of Painting, Nuri Kuzuçan received his MA at the same department, and in addition to the numerous group exhibitions he has participated in, he has held five solo exhibitions.
His most recent solo exhibition “Interior and Exterior,” dated 2011, displays a wide variety in terms of subject matter. The painting “Interior” sees the artist return to the interior space, however this space makes no reference to intimacy. In reacting against modernity, the German Expressionists had dreamed of reclaiming nature. Yet Kuzuçan depicts a complete disconnection from nature. LINK issuu.com

Ariel Guzik

Holoturian @ The Arts Catalyst 
The Arts Catalyst is one of the UK's most distinctive arts organisations, distinguished by ambitious art commissions and its unique take on art-science practice.

Ariel Guzik, Born in 1960, Mexico City Musician, researcher, artist, iridologist, herbalist and inventor. He designs and produces mechanisms and instruments to enquire into the various languages of nature. He is the director of the Nature Expression and Resonance Research Laboratory in Mexico, which for over 25 years has freely explored the phenomena of resonance, mechanics, electricity, and magnetism as foundations for the invention of mechanisms that give voice to nature through music. His research work is the reflection of an intimate need to generate an atmosphere favorable to the enchantment of the world. He intends to preserve mysteries, rather than decipher them, favoring the perception of natural phenomena through the senses, fascination and fantasy. Installations and individual exhibitions of his work have been presented in national and international institutions. LINK artscatalyst

Rainer Fetting

@ Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

Rainer Fetting, painter and sculptor, initially trained as a carpenter. He attended the Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin from 1972 to 1978. While there, Fetting and other artists established the Galerie am Moritzplatz. Fetting held his first exhibitions there, and the group became known as the originators of the “Neue Wilde” or “Junge Wilde” (“Wild Youth”) style. A Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) scholarship allowed Fetting to visit New York in 1983, and the experience rapidly impacted his style. Up to this point, his art had often been characterized as flat, but he began to use bright colors and strong, dynamic lines that gave his pieces a newfound energy. In the late 1980s, Fetting also began creating bronze works. Fetting has been featured in a number of exhibitions, including A New Spirit in Painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1981. He has also held many solo exhibitions at galleries and museums, including the Mary Boone Gallery in New York, NY; Galerie Bruno Bischhofberger in Zurich, Switzerland  and Galerie Deschler in Berlin, Germany. Rainer Fetting currently lives and works in Berlin and New York. LINK Städel Museum

Done… Next

D… Je kunt niet altijd afscheid blijven nemen 
ArtEZ finals Lisa Weeda 
N… Jongens zoals wij worden niet verliefd 
ArtEZ finals Jorina van der Laan

Link Lisa Weeda
Link Jorina van der Laan

Nicolai (Nico) 1947 - 2015

Mijn broer Nicolai (Nico), vertelde mij jaren geleden, een verhaal over een automaat waar je 25 centimes in moest doen. Wat gebeurde er? Er gingen eenden dansen! Het gebeurde in Bobbejaanland Belgie. Ik was onder de indruk. Jaren later vertelde hij weer over de automaat in Bobbejaanland! Waarom dansten de eenden? Er stond 24 volt spanning op de vloer! Hij had achteraf niet spijt van de 25 centimes maar meer voor de eenden. Nico het gaat je goed 

My brother Nicolai (Nico), told me years ago, a story about a vending machine where you had to do in 25 centimes. What happened? There were dancing ducks! It happened in Bobbejaanland Belgium. I was impressed. Years later he told again about the machine in Bobbejaanland! Why danced the ducks? There was 24 volt voltage on the floor! He did not subsequently regret the 25 centimes but more for the ducks. Nico best of luck to you

ZERO

Zero: Let Us Explore the Stars 
4 Jul - 8 Nov 2015

LINK stedelijk AMS NL

Its time for music

Becky Hill

Becky Hill has appeared in a number of live performances for YouTube, including a web series called The Rebelations. She auditioned for the first series of The Voice UK, and at the blind auditions she performed "Ordinary People". Judges Jessie J and Will.i.am turned around for her, the only coaches with an available space on their teams. She opted to join Jessie. In the battle rounds she competed against Indie and Pixie performing the song "Irreplaceable", she won the battle and progressed to the live shows. Link Becky Hill

Коля (Kolja)

Коля

Это трагедия, и то, что я могу сделать вас? Я не знаю. Если он останавливается. Это безумие в современном времени! Дольф

Candle for

This week no art, dolf and family

ArtEZ De eerste lichting: Lisa Weeda

Lisa Weeda, Graduation performance with Kaulane Huisman,
“Wodka” 
@ Huis Oostpool Arnhem last Saturday

© (copyright) images by Lisa Weeda
LINK Lisa Weeda

Otto Snoek / Nostalgia, Ukraine 1989 - 1992

@ huis marseille 
July 3, 2015 / September 6, 2015

The photographer Otto Snoek was in his early 20s when, in 1989, he started visiting eastern Ukraine, at the invitation of a photographer from Charkov whom he had met in his native Rotterdam. In places like Charkov, Lugansk and Donbass he resolved to simply observe, and this detachment proved fruitful: ‘The nonchalance of this world of wires, untidiness, little freedoms, and small-time deals,’ as the art critic Sandra Smets wrote… Read more LINK huis marseille LINK Otto Snoek

Dolly Parton

Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, actress, author, business woman, and philanthropist, known primarily for her work in country music. Her career began as a child performer on the radio, then recording a few singles from the age of 13. Relocating to Nashville at age 18 in 1964, her first commercial successes were as a songwriter (her songs during this period were covered by numerous artists, including Bill Phillips and Kitty Wells). She rose to prominence in 1967 as a featured performer on singer Porter Wagoner's weekly syndicated TV program; their first duet single, a cover of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind", was a top-ten hit on the country singles chart and led to several successful albums before they ended their partnership in 1974. Moving towards mainstream pop music, her 1977 single "Here You Come Again" was a success on both the country and pop charts. A string of pop-country hits followed into the mid-1980s, the most successful being her 1981 hit "9 to 5" (from the film of the same name) and her 1983 duet with Kenny Rogers "Islands in the Stream", both of which topped the U.S. pop and country singles charts. A pair of albums recorded with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris were among her later successes. In the late 1990s, she returned to classic country/bluegrass with a series of acclaimed recordings. Non-musical ventures include Dollywood, a theme park in Pigeon Forge in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, and her efforts on behalf of childhood literacy, particularly her Imagination Library, as well as Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede and Pirates Voyage. LINK Youtube

Архитектура Одессы (Architecture Odessa)

9, Mayakovskiy Lane. Odessa
Architect: P. N. Didenko

Photographs Dmitry Shamatazhi

In the second half of the 1920s only few houses were built in Odessa. But these buildings had left an indelible mark on the architecture of the city. Play of volumes, laconic forms, large green courtyards - cour d'honneur facing the street - these are houses of constructivism architects, where the shape was submitted to sense and the dwelling house was interpreted as a machine for living. In 1931, the crossroad of Mayakovskiy Lane and Preobrazhenskaya Street was decorated with one of the best samples in residential architecture of Constructivism. The author of the building, staff architect of Black Sea Shipping Company P. N. Didenko designed the houses among other things. There were built at least two large dwelling houses for employees of Soviet mercantile marine, one of which grew in 1930 at 22, Troitskaya Street. It is possible to see a number of features and design techniques in his architecture that have found application in the subsequent construction of the house in Mayakovskiy Lane (the average part of the facade retreating from the building line, rounded corners of the yard wings, etc.). Read more… LINK Archodessa

New statue of Tsar Samuil

Sofia Bulgaria

Surrounded by controversy, a four metre high statue of 10th century Bulgarian ruler Tsar Samuil was to be unveiled in central Sofia on June 8, amid calls for a postponement and rethink of the placing of the statue and with the row extending even to the appearance of its “glow in the dark” eyes. Critics have likened the statue - the height of which is further augmented by a 2.2 metre pedestal - to something out of Nikola Gruevski’s grandiosely kitsch Skopje 2020 project, with one suggesting that Gruevski be invited to Sofia to unveil the Tsar Samuil statue. Bulgarian head of state President Rossen Plevneliev was to preside at the unveiling ceremony at the statue’s spot outside the historic St Sofia basilica, with Bulgarian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Neofit scheduled to pronounce a blessing, and with other VIPs attending including Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, Speaker of Parliament Tsetska Tsacheva and Sofia mayor Yordanka Fandukova. The placing of the sculpture is part of commemorations of 1000 years since the death of Tsar Samuil, a figure who is - as part of a longstanding controversy - also claimed by Bulgaria’s neighbour, the former Yugoslav republic. Samuil was the Tsar of the First Bulgarian Empire from 997 until his death in October 1014. Read more… LINK Independent Balkan news

First Lichting (De Eerste Lichting)

Saturday june 27th 19:30  @  Huis Oostpool, 
Nieuwstraat 58, Arnhem, The Netherlands

This year students, of the first batch Creative Writing at ArtEZ Institute of the Arts are ready. We are: Lauranne van Grinsven, Ian Jansen, Jasmijn Kam, Jorina van der Laan, Roos Vlogman and Lisa Weeda. We present our thesis in House Oostpool during the literary festival in Arnhem New Types. What you can expect?: an ongoing program of prose, poetry and non-fiction. We not only show our own work, but also collaborate with other disciplines. There speaks a professor antrozoölogie, interviews are being conducted at the clitter and displayed there secret video diaries. Mail to: eerstelichting@gmail.com Entrance is free, but we have a limited number of places available. Reservations are required. 
LINK De Eerste Lichting (First Lichting)

EX-MÊKH @ Platforms Project Art-Athina 2015

Curated by Artemis Potamianou
design poster Ben Faydherbe

The Platforms Project @ Art Athina was started in 2013 with the aim of charting the artistic actions produced by collective initiatives of artists who decide to join forces in seeking solutions to art matters through what is known as platforms. The 2015 Platforms Project @ Art-Athina is to present 48 important platforms / art group actions from 15 countries with over 700 artists, making up a programme that attempts to offer viewers an insider’s look into visual creation, into the aspect of chemistry and collaboration in artistic practice, without focusing on sales. As in the two previous years, the art groups/platforms will have the opportunity to present an art project in a specific space -booth- so as to provide viewers with an experience of the way they work. 
EX-MÊKH is the name for the collaboration of visual artists Ellen Rodenberg, Maarten Schepers and Kees Koomen. These artists all have their individual professional practices as an artist but next to that they show their works in their mutual contexts and they try to develop a relation with the spaces in which exhibitions are held. 
LINK Platforms Project Art Athina  LINK EX-MÊKH

Topp & Dubio

We hereby invite you to the opening of the exhibition
Topp & Dubio 'A Hilarious Picture in Glass' bij JCA DE KOK 
on Friday, May 29th from 19:00 to 23:00 hours.

This exhibition is the result of a Topp & Dubio investigation into the origin and meaning of the work 'Bust of Stalin Haring "now at the GEM / Fotomuseum in The Hague, but in 1986 by the Russian Jewish artist duo Komar & Melamid (New York) was created for the Hague Geleenstraat.  The installation in a'alarmtelefooncel', including houses a bust of Stalin, a herring and a red light diffusing lamp. Topp & Dubio have been very fan of this work and consider the installation as the most relevant artwork in public space in The Hague Topp & Dubio have investigated thoroughly and make it work in this exhibition unabashedly compare with one of the most famous works of the twentieth century: the Large Glass Marcel Duchamp. With the title 'A Hilarious Picture in Glass' have Topp & Dubio stuck a thought of Duchamp on the alarmcel to set it as a masterpiece discussed. With new installations, photographic works and a publication are made possible new perspectives on this iconic work of art. LINK Topp & Dubio LINK JCA DE KOK

launch EXITING

Allicyn Henning and Dolf Pauw

For our own visual identity we wanted to show a certain position that is ever present in our other work. We wanted to find a way to create a visual identity that is both luxurious, minimalistic, modernistic and which even incorporates the ever present fun that's visible in what we make. We believe that this position helps create original design without pretence. Our company name ’EXITING’ (Exit, till seeing again) immediately sends you to a place where you drink a nice coffee and talk to family. A color feeling we wanted to enhance by the usage of red (yes, it's really red) in the design, while at the same time contradicting it in the coarseness of the bold capital spacing of our company name It's part of our philosophy that we never sell our customer something he or she doesn't need. We'd rather help them figuring out how to be as effective as possible in their wishes In our own visual identity we stick to that philosophy as close as possible. You know the drill, anywhere in your home are photobooks, videotapes and movies. Where you and family members are documented on. Twenty years ago capturing your life changed from analog to digital. We would like to help you to capture chronological all that old stuff. And record it on modern material so that your children and grandchildren can still enjoy it today. 

Voor onze eigen visuele identiteit willen we naar een vorm, wat altijd aanwezig in ons andere werk,  aan u tonen.  We willen een manier om een ​​visuele identiteit, die zowel  luxe, minimalistisch, modernistische en deze zelfs voorzien, van het altijd aanwezige plezier, wat zichtbaar is in wat we doen, maken en vinden. Wij zijn van mening dat deze positie helpt bij het creëren van oorspronke-lijke ontwerpen zonder pretentie. Ons bedrijf met de naam 'EXITING' (Exit, tot weerziens) stuurt je meteen naar een plek waar je een lekker kopje koffie gaat drinken om te praten met familie. Het kleurgevoel willen wij verbeteren door het gebruik van rood (ja, het is echt rood) in het ontwerp, terwijl tegelijkertijd, de grofheid van de gedurfde hoofdkapitalen, onze bedrijfsnaam doet uitstralen. 
Het is een onderdeel van onze filosofie dat we nooit onze klanten iets, wat hij of zij niet willen, te verkopen. 
We willen hen liever helpen uitzoeken hoe zo effectief mogelijk  hun wensen in onze eigen visuele identiteit is in te passen en we toch zo dicht mogelijk vasthouden aan die filosofie. U kent het wel, overal in huis bevinden zich fotoboeken, videobanden en filmpjes. Waar u en familieleden op gedocumenteerd staan. Twintig jaar geleden veranderde het vastleggen van uw leven van analoog naar digitaal. 
Wij willen u graag helpen al dat oude materiaal chronologisch vast te leggen op modern materiaal zodat uw kinderen en kleinkinderen ook vandaag nog kunnen genieten. 
LINK EXITING

Opera dull or hot?

Operadagen Rotterdam 
may 22 til may 31 

Operadagen Rotterdam is an international festival with a focus on new developments in opera and music theatre. More than ever before singers, musicians, actors, directors, and designers are moulding the classical opera repertoire to their will. Whilst keeping intact the spirit of the works, they find new interpretations that resonate with the world of today and tomorrow. Operadagen Rotterdam invites the audience to broaden their mind and experience the latest developments. Freedom, equality, fraternity. The famous slogan of the French Revolution has lost none of its relevance in the 21st century. After the central themes of Liberty (2013) and Fraternity (2014), equality is the leitmotiv of this year's festival. It runs from 22 through 31 May 2015 in various locations around Rotterdam. LINK operadagenrotterdam

Jacob Jensen

With a studio in a remote spot in Jutland, western Denmark, Jacob Jensen began collaborating in the 1960s with Bang & Olufsen for whom he created a look characterized by clean, flat surfaces with minimal protrusions such as buttons and switches. The technical quality of B&O record players, speakers and television sets was also considered superior and they were soon a must in wealthy households in the United States. Prior to his work with B&O, Jensen worked with industrial designers Bernadotte and Bjørn, where he created the Margrethe Bowl, a set of identical mixing bowls in bright colors and differing sizes which are ubiquitous in Danish households. Some of Jensen's pieces for B&O are held at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York following the "Design for Sound" exhibition in 1978, the fourth ever solo artist exhibition at MoMA at the time. LINK Danishnet

Rob Pruitt

The Obama Paintings and The Lincoln Monument 
@ MOCA Detroit

Two coming exhibits of New York artist Rob Pruitt will feature a flea market and a series of thousands of paintings of President Obama. Every day for the past six years, Mr. Pruitt has painted a portrait of Barack Obama, nearly 3,000 canvases since the start of his presidency. Mr. Pruitt said the series also began on a whim, as a way to chronicle Mr. Obama’s tenure. The artist plans to continue through the president’s final day in office. Every morning, he culls media images for inspiration and then spends “under an hour” painting in red, white and blue on 
a 2-foot canvas. In some, the president looks triumphant and in others, he looks fatigued. Mr. Pruitt said he wasn’t seeking to make propaganda. “I just wanted to make a complete portrait.” Collectively, “The Obama Paintings” will represent his longest series-and among the largest group of paintings the Detroit museum has shown in a single exhibit. Ms. Borowy-Reeder said Mr. Pruitt’s portraits will cover the 
14-foot walls of nearly 9,000 square feet of gallery space within the museum. Additionally, the exhibit will include “Lincoln Monument,” 
a 6-foot tower of tractor tires Mr. Pruitt painted in copper leaf. Around 200,000 pennies (that’s $2,000 worth) will cascade down the tires like a fountain. LINK MOCAD

Dorandi’s Converse All Star

Dorandi 1976

If you were alive in the 80s, your shoe wardrobe wasn’t complete without a pair (or five) of Chucks (otherwise known as Converse All Star high tops). It didn’t matter if you were a guy or a gal - this particular 80s fashion trend crossed the gender barrier (and the age barrier too). The 80s can’t claim the Chucks fashion trend as its own. The Converse All Star High Tops have been around for quite a while. The Converse shoe company has been making them since 1917. It wasn’t, however, until world-famous basketball player Chuck Taylor began wearing (and selling) the shoes in the 1920s that they really caught on. By the 1980s the shoes had become a fashion statement and were available in dozens of colors. Black, white, pink, blue, yellow, red - you name it, you could get it. LINK youtube

Hajo Rose @ Bauhaus

Hajo Rose - Bauhaus Foto Typo focuses primarily on the Hajo Rose’s time at Bauhaus as well as his period in exile in Holland during the Second World War. Primarily remembered as a graphic designer and exhibition stand designer, Hajo Rose was also a highly talented photographer and drawer. Although Hajo Rose studied at Bauhaus Dessau and Berlin under Walter Peterhans, Josef Albers and Joost Schmidt, one of the greatest influences on his work was without question Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.
Not only was Moholy-Nagy instrumental in the development of the photography department in Dessau, but as the leading light in the typography department he also influenced Rose’s master Joost Schmidt. In addition, following the dissolution of Bauhaus in 1933 Hajo Rose briefly worked as am assistant for Moholy-Nagy in Berlin. 
LINK minimumblog