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Here's some flashbacks to great Grammy performances. How many do you remember? The Grammys tend to be a bit boring, but the performances tend to be very good. The stars are performing for their peers so they generally bring it at all! There'll be more of these during the week.
Enjoy
Stevie Wonder
Tina Turner
Eurythmics
Janet Jackson
Coon Alchemy
By Ibn Kendall
February 5 - 21, 2008
Artist’s Reception: Friday, February 6, 7 - 9pm
The artist creates large-scale mixed media pieces using photos of his ancestors and discarded objects on canvas.
While visiting family in Jamaica, Kendall sorted through old photos of his relatives and their friends from the 1940’s to the 1960’s. The photos impressed the artist because despite of having meager means, his family had “delightful expressions” and “possessed the costume and countenance of movie stars”. The artist quotes his grandmother: “just because you’re broke doesn’t mean you need to show it.”
The title of this series pairs coon, an inflammatory word for a black person, with alchemy a word expressing the resourcefulness of transformation. “Doing so I am changing the context of coon from an ethnic slur to a term of endearment achieved by the ability to make something out of nothing. This elevated them (portrait subjects) above their original limitations. I call this gift and curse Coon Alchemy. People of color in the colonized world have always had to use the discarded, and reinvent themselves and their culture, to create a sense of pride.”
About the artist
Ibn Kendall lives and works in his native Brooklyn. He holds a BFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia P.A. Solo exhibitions include Lichtpunkt Gallery in Munich, Germany, and Salon Ciel, New York, N.Y. Selected group exhibitions include 31 Grand Gallery, Exit Art, and Gale-Martin Gallery.
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NY Studio Gallery is pleased to present the “And Your Very Flesh Shall Be A Great Poem” An installation created by Barrie Cline, Richard Alvarez, and Cousin Frank.
Jan 27 thru Feb 3, 2009
The artists have crafted an installation that embodies themselves and their deep roots in New York’s 1980s underground culture –while creating an especially relevant and radical practice for the present age. Born of an era where the squalor created by the economic crisis of the 70s and the dark forbidding spaces in the city spelled possibility and a gritty kind of equal opportunity, this DIY sensibility facilitated their unique, unsanctioned versions of identity and beauty as well as adaptive and sensual life.
While their individual styles vary, each of these artists has adopted their own unorthodox approach to their genres, materials and the place for art itself. This show seeks to create a more inclusive environment for art, redefining the art-going public.
Poised as we are at the brink of another potential period of hard times for NYC, this installation suggests an adaptive and humanistic opportunity for bottom-up growth. A lush and cacophonous soundscape created by Jacob Cox of MO$FO shall accompany the exhibit.
WELCOME TO NYSG
NY Studio Gallery combines exhibition and workspace to create a dynamic atmosphere of interaction, collaboration and integration of media, styles and artistic genres. Visitors have the opportunity to interact with artists at work, participate in an ongoing portrait project, or attend a variety of artists’ events.
MISSION
NY Studio Gallery combines exhibition and workspace to create an atmosphere of interaction, collaboration and integration of media, styles and artistic genres for US and international artists.
NYSG • 154 Stanton St. • New York, NY 10002
PHONE: 212.627.3276 • EMAIL: info@nystudiogallery.com • URL: nystudiogallery.com
Photo by: ONeill / White / INF
Jennifer Hudson is in Florida to prepare for singing the National Anthem at Sunday's Super Bowl, her first performance since her family murder tragedy.
The singer-actress, 27, who also is nominated for four Grammys, was spotted at the airport in Tampa on Friday wearing sunglasses and carrying one of her Pomeranian puppies.
"She says she wants to get back into the flow of things," her Dreamgirls costar Jamie Foxx, who spoke to her recently, tells Entertainment Tonight.
Hudson also is slated to sing at the MusiCares Person of the Year Gala on February 6 and the Grammy Awards on February 8, both in Los Angeles.
"I've asked her fans and anybody that appreciates her talent and her as a person to pray for her and give her some energy," Foxx tells ET. "I know her first look will be the Super Bowl. I know she's going to do well and hopefully we will go out on tour together and heal the world with our music."
By Monica Rizzo People Magazine
I can't be there personally as I am basking in the warm South Florida sunshine, but if you're in NYC you should check out the new show at Rush Arts that opens tonight called Latitude.
LATITUDE
February 3 - March 28, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday January 30th, 2009 6-8PM
Sung Jin Choi
Brendan Fernandes
Mona Kamal
Sungmi Lee
Vered Sivan
Jessica Vaughn
In the many modes that latitude can describe place on both a personal and global scale, the six artists in this exhibition investigate the complexities of mixed cultural identity and the increasingly unstable political and emotional notions of homeland. Each approach visual narrative and representation uniquely yet share a communal emphasis on material and process. The line is often articulated as a symbol that references memory, points of departure and the linking of time and space. Much like the longitudinal and latitudinal lines of the globe, the highly-detailed, repetitive quality in these works highlights the prescribed parameters of the gallery space and challenges this rigidity to further complicate the boundary of experiences. Ideological constructs and pre-existing binaries are deconstructed as Sung Jin Choi, Brendan Fernandes, Mona Kamal, Sungmi Lee, Vered Sivan and Jessica Vaughn come together in this installation-based exhibition to redefine notions of identity, authenticity and heritage outside of a hegemonic vernacular.
Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs
1913–2008
October 26, 2008–March 1, 2009 | Hammer Building
Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913–2008 is the first major exhibition to bring together the magazine's historic archive of rare vintage prints with its contemporary photographs. The exhibition explores the ways in which photography and celebrity have interacted and changed, with portraits from the magazine's early period (1913–1936) displayed in conjunction with works from the contemporary Vanity Fair (1983–present). The Los Angeles presentation, which is sponsored by Burberry, will be the only U.S. stop on the exhibition's international tour. Photographers to be represented include Cecil Beaton, Harry Benson, Julian Broad, Imogen Cunningham, Annie Leibovitz, Man Ray, Mary Ellen Mark, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Edward Steichen, Mario Testino, and Bruce Weber.
Curators: Terence Pepper, curator of photographs, National Portrait Gallery, and David Friend, editor of creative development, Vanity Fair. Curator at LACMA: Charlotte Cotton, photography.
A collaboration between Vanity Fair and the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Sponsored by
Vanity Fair is a registered trademark of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc.
Edward Steichen, A Much Screened Lady—Gloria Swanson, 1924 (detail),© Condé Nast Publications Inc./Courtesy George Eastman House.
Nickolas Muray, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr and Joan Crawford, Santa Monica, 1929, Vanity Fair, October 1929, © Condé Nast Publications Inc./Courtesy Condé Nast Archive.
Hours
LACMA is open every day except Wednesdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Monday 12 noon–8 pm
Tuesday 12 noon–8 pm
Wednesday CLOSED
Thursday 12 noon–8 pm
Friday 12 noon–9 pm
Saturday 11 am–8 pm
Sunday 11 am–8 pm
Directions and Public Transportation
LACMA is located on Wilshire Boulevard between Fairfax and Curson avenues—midway between Downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica.
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From the Santa Monica Freeway (10), take Fairfax Avenue north 2 miles to Wilshire Boulevard. LACMA is on Wilshire between Fairfax and Curson Avenue.
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From the southbound Hollywood Freeway, take Highland Avenue 3.5 miles south to Wilshire Boulevard; take a right on Wilshire and proceed 1 mile west to LACMA.
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For additional maps and driving instructions, see Mapquest.
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For public transportation information, call 1.800.COMMUTE or use the Trip Planner at www.metro.net to find the route that's best for you. Enter 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles 90036 as your destination.
Parking
Parking is now available in the new 6th Street parking garage, located just east of Fairfax Avenue. The charge is $7 and may be prepaid at all Welcome Centers, with credit cards now accepted.
Other parking options:
* Petersen Automotive Museum parking lot (Fairfax south of Wilshire) | $8
* Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries lot (Curson north of 6th) | $8
* Metered city parking is also available along 6th Street. But please read signs carefully; vehicles in violation will be towed.
Evening special: Vehicles entering the 6th Street parking garage after 7 pm park for free.
We encourage visitors to carpool or use public transportation.
Everyone knows the Glass House, the weekend retreat that the architect Philip Johnson designed for himself in New Canaan, Conn. Much less well known is another house Johnson designed soon after — across the street. Because it was for a family, it doesn’t have the jewel-box quality of the Glass House. But it does have its famous predecessor’s cool geometry and considered relationship to the outdoors. And now, thanks to the efforts of the heirs of its original owners — and its current owners, Craig Bassam and Scott Fellows — the house has a future as well as a past.
Open House, Inside and Out
When Richard Hodgson and his wife, Geraldine, first visited the five acres on which the 4,550-square-foot house now sits, a man crossed the road to ask them if they had an architect. They said no, whereupon Johnson offered his services. He designed two brick pavilions — one for living areas, the other for bedrooms for the couple and their four children — linked by a glass-enclosed passage. The living pavilion was centered on a three-sided courtyard that frames views of the mature trees, expansive lawns (the landscape was designed by Zion & Breen, who did the sculpture garden at the Museum of Modern Art) and traditional stone walls beyond. Although Richard Hodgson would become a successful businessman (he was an original investor in Intel), when he and his wife built the house they needed a mortgage, and banks didn’t approve of Modernist houses. So the couple built the living wing in 1951 and the bedroom wing five years later. In between, the parents slept in the guest room, and the children bunked (literally) in what is now the dining room.
After the Hodgsons’ deaths, their children protected the house from alteration or demolition, obtaining easements from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the organization to which Johnson gave the Glass House. But Modernist houses are not for everyone; many buyers balk at having to preserve them. Not so Bassam and Fellows. An architect and a creative director, respectively, the two men design the BassamFellows furniture line, calling their 20th-century-influenced stylistic approach “Craftsman Modern.” They renovated a Modernist house down the road from this one, as well as one in Lugano, Switzerland (both of which they have since sold), and they are renovating another in Palm Springs. Both men had wanted to design a house from scratch, but the first time they visited the Hodgson house, as Fellows recalled, “it took your breath away.”
Their own furniture designs harmonize nicely with the pieces that were designed for the house by Johnson’s office and postwar classics by Poul Kjaerholm and Hans Wegner. “There’s a softness to some of the pieces,” Bassam said, “that balances the square sharpness of other pieces.” After almost 60 years, you can no longer call this house cutting edge. But you can call it a classic.
(courtesy of New York Times Magazine online)
For my info on me visit my official website
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I'm outta here again. My favorite cousin is getting older and I just have to be there to celebrate. See you all soon. I'll try to post from the road.
Ciao.
Ever wonder what ever happened to Marilyn Manson? Well Imma tell you anyway...he's still makin music, but he's also been making art for over 15 years. Check this out.
Multi-talented artist Marilyn Manson, legendary for the cult status of his music career and persona, has simultaneously been creating a large and remarkable body of paintings over the past two decades has been been revealed for the first time in the US.
Just as Manson’s lyrics are provocative, driving the expressive form of music to its limits, the artist’s paintings, though aesthetically pleasing, play with the grotesque and confront the viewer with the dark side of the American Dream - its obsessions and pitfalls. This exhibition of more than twenty paintings is presented by the Cologne-based Galerie Brigitte Schenk in cooperation with 101 Exhibit, a dynamic new art space in Miami’s Design District.
The artist known as Marilyn Manson took his pseudonym from the names Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson - figures whom he sees as reflecting the ultimate and most disturbing dualism of American culture. "Marilyn Manson is a living work of art and an anti-popstar." stated his gallerist Brigitte Schenk.
"101/exhibit is a unique space dedicated to exhibiting exceptional fine and decorative art and design. Located in the heart of Miami's Design District, 101/exhibit seeks to provide a dynamic program not restricted by era, locale, or convention."
Located at 101 NE 40th Street Miami, Florida 33137
305-573-6101
I am just as interested in what you're doing as I am in sharing my work and thoughts on the world. So in the next few weeks I'll be introducing some new sections to the blog that involve participation from you.
The first of these is Personal Pop Style. So starting today keep an eye open for yours truly or other Urban Pop Life photographers roaming the streets in search of cool people with personal style. In these hard finacial times I am not focused on labels, just style. If you're not in a city that I'm in that's ok, you can send me your random shots of you in that great outfit that everyone needs to see ,or that beautiful girl or boy you saw on the street who demonstrated simply great personal style. Again...I'm not so much focused on labels or stereotypical beauty as much as I am interested in a confident, stylish and classy representation of self.
Start looking out for me or sending the images in today and if the image you send in is not of you, make sure you get permission to use the persons image and send a statement of that fact along with the photo. Please include your name and contact information like your facebook or myspace page URL (not required).
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
Check out this visual art in the form of anime for television. Be aware it's a bit violent. I'm not usually into violence at all, but despite the violence the animation is beautiful and worthy of sharing with adults.
The past is but a memory.
The future is but a dream.
In spirit and in reality NOW is all the ever is...
and NOW is ALWAYS the time to be JOYFUL AND THANKFUL.
Just a little somethin I was inspired to share.
Have a very Pop Wed.
I love you.
Ricky
Who's gonna win this one everybody? I have no idea, but below check out my girl M.I.A. in 2 different performances of her hit Paper Planes.
Record Of The Year
(Award to the Artist and to the Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s) and/or Mixer(s), if other than the artist.)
* Chasing Pavements
Adele
Eg White, producer; Tom Elmhirst & Steve Price, engineers/mixers
Track from: 19
[XL Recordings/Columbia]
* Viva La Vida
Coldplay
Markus Dravs, Brian Eno & Rik Simpson, producers; Michael Brauer & Rik Simpson, engineers/mixers
Track from: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
[Capitol Records]
* Bleeding Love
Leona Lewis
Simon Cowell, Clive Davis & Ryan "Alias" Tedder, producers; Craig Durrance, Phil Tan & Ryan "Alias" Tedder, engineers/mixers
[J Records/SYCO Music]
* Paper Planes
M.I.A
Diplo, producer; Switch, engineer/mixer
Track from: Kala
[Interscope]
* Please Read The Letter
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
T Bone Burnett, producer; Mike Piersante, engineer/mixer
Track from: Raising Sand
[Rounder]
MOMA is one of my favorite museums in the world. Check out this exhibit on display now.
George Lois: The Esquire Covers
April 25, 2008–March 30, 2009
The Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries, third floor
From 1962 to 1972, George Lois changed the face of magazine design with his ninety-two covers for Esquire magazine. He stripped the cover down to a graphically concise yet conceptually potent image that ventured beyond the mere illustration of a feature article. Lois exploited the communicative power of the mass-circulated front page to stimulate and provoke the public into debate, pressing Americans to confront controversial issues like racism, feminism, and the Vietnam War. Viewed as a collection, the covers serve as a visual timeline and a window onto the turbulent events of the 1960s. Initially received as jarring and prescient statements of their time, the covers have since become essential to the iconography of American culture.
The Museum of Modern Art
(212) 708-9400
11 West 53 Street,
between Fifth and Sixth avenues
New York, NY 10019-5497
Museum Hours
Saturday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Sunday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Monday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Tuesday closed
Wednesday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Thursday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Friday 10:30 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
Getting to MoMA
MoMA is located at 11 West Fifty-third Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues.
Subway: E or V to Fifth Avenue/53 Street; B, D, or F to 47-50 Streets/Rockefeller Center.
Bus: M1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to 53 Street
Please note: The Museum requires visitors to check backpacks of any size, shopping bags, and bags 11 x 14 inches (28 x 35.5 cm) or larger. To avoid a lengthy wait in the checkroom line, visitors should not bring such items. The checkroom will not accept laptops or luggage of any size.
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
Pipilotti Rist: Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters)
November 19, 2008–February 2, 2009
The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, second floor
An Evening with Pipilotti Rist
Pipilotti Rist's lush multimedia installations playfully and provocatively merge fantasy and reality. MoMA commissioned the Swiss artist to create a monumental site-specific installation that immerses the Museum's Marron Atrium in twenty-five-foot-high moving images. Visitors will be able to experience the work while walking through the space or sitting upon a sculptural seating island designed by the artist.
The Museum of Modern Art
(212) 708-9400
11 West 53 Street,
between Fifth and Sixth avenues
New York, NY 10019-5497
Museum Hours
Saturday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Sunday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Monday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Tuesday closed
Wednesday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Thursday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Friday 10:30 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
Getting to MoMA
MoMA is located at 11 West Fifty-third Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues.
Subway: E or V to Fifth Avenue/53 Street; B, D, or F to 47-50 Streets/Rockefeller Center.
Bus: M1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to 53 Street
Please note: The Museum requires visitors to check backpacks of any size, shopping bags, and bags 11 x 14 inches (28 x 35.5 cm) or larger. To avoid a lengthy wait in the checkroom line, visitors should not bring such items. The checkroom will not accept laptops or luggage of any size.
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
Obama: Art and Politics from Ricky Day on Vimeo.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Michael Jackson will help develop his ground-breaking "Thriller" video into a musical theater production, producers said on Monday.
Jackson's 1982 "Thriller" album is the world's biggest selling album and the theater production will recreate the tale of the 14-minute horror film spoof based on the title song. In the video, a young couple are on a date when the boy -- played by Jackson in the video -- becomes a werewolf.
"This musical will be the exclusive Michael Jackson authorized version of 'Thriller' and Jackson will participate in every aspect of the creative process," said the Nederland Organization, which has acquired the rights to the musical.
"Thriller The Musical" will include songs from "Thriller" and Jackson's 1979 album "Off The Wall."
The "Thriller" video, featuring dancing zombies and horror film star Vincent Price, was first aired in 1983 and became a staple of MTV. It was directed by filmmaker John Landis, who said it cost $500,000 -- about 10 times the cost of the standard music video of the time.
Jackson's spokesman, Dr. Tohme Tohme, said in the Nederland Organization statement: "The Nederlanders and Michael Jackson represent live theater and musical excellence, so let the music begin."
Jackson, 50, is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time and began his musical career with his siblings in the Motown group the Jackson 5 before starting a solo career.
But the singer has been dogged since the 1990s by scandal and revelations about his eccentric lifestyle. He was tried and acquitted of child sex abuse charges in 2005.
Jackson also has been plagued with financial troubles in the past few years and narrowly averted a foreclosure sale of his Neverland Ranch in May. In November, he handed over the title of Neverland to a company made up of himself and the firm that holds the $24 million loan on the property.
For my info on me visit my official website
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By the way have you ever seen this??????
This past Friday night I attended the opening reception for The Brand New Heavies at Collette Blanchard Gallery. Brand New Heavies is Mickalene Thomas's curatorial debut and the show is TERRIFIC!!!!!!!!! Mickalene has proven to be as adept at curating as she is accomplished as an artist. The 3 participating artists Lauren Kelley, Deana Lawson and Jessia Ann Peavy have created work that speaks to your intellect while offering just as much stimulation for your senses. I highly recommend that you stop by the gallery and see the show.
The opening night event was actually a lot of fun too. If I sound surprised it's because these types of events are not necessarily a good time. They can sometimes be a bit stuffy, but not this on this night. Collette Blanchard has a very charming spirit that permeates the gallery. She greets every guest with a warm and engaging energy that sets the standard for the atmosphere in the room. As a result the night was a lot of fun and featured great art, good people and of course the champagne was flowing. Some of the people in attendance included: Derrick Adams (Rush Arts Gallery), Wardell Milan III (artist), Rashid Johnson (artist), Demetrius Oliver (artist) and Carmen Macleod.
Check out a few images from the event.
(pictured left to right Deana Lawson, Jessica Ann Peavy, Collette, Mickalene Thomas, Lauren Kelly)
(pictured left to right unidentified guest from London, Demetrius Oliver, Collette Blanchard, Alvin Hall)
(pictured left to right Ricky Day, Collette Blanchard)
(pictured left to right Ricky Day, Lauren Kelly)
(pictured left to right Mickalene Thomas, Carmen Macleod, Rashid Johnson)
(pictured left to right Demetrius Oliver, Derrick Adams)
On display NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Collette Blanchard Gallery is pleased to present The Brand New Heavies, Curated by Mickalene Thomas. The exhibition will be on view from January 23 - March 8, 2009 and will include three dynamic contemporary artists innovatively working in fundamental mediums. Lauren Kelley, Deana Lawson, and Jessica Ann Peavy present recent work conveying salient sentiments through means that are at once, sensual, opulent, and psychological.
The works of all three artists offer staged scenes, referencing theater and performance, while incorporating embellished caricatures through collaboration with and/or commentary on their varied subjects. Lauren Kelley's videos present meticulous, comprehensive, fictitious narratives in overwhelming detail. In Get Bones from 88 Jones, Barbie dolls, an array of plastic sweets, sculpted elements and malleable, inconstant clay form an accelerated narrative satiated with the metaphorical implementation of materials and imagery. Kelley's whimsy informs the happenings in the love life of a librarian with detail similar in degree to the sculpture crafted by Liza Lou. The environments in Kelley's work also resonate with the staged frames in the work of photographer, Deana Lawson. In Anna the everyday patterned couch blending with the drapes in the background is disrupted by the sequins adorning and condition of the thin, staid figure. The minimalist palette and compositions of Lawson's work bring to mind paintings by Barkley Hendricks and the videos of Jessica Ann Peavy. Peavy's A Conversation Piece also references intimate relationships as Get Bones from 88 Jones, though in this case the sensual narratives are articulated through tales of food-making and consumption as two videos play simultaneously and transverse from each other. Similar to some work of Chantal Akerman, Peavy's piece incorporates pauses and static frames, giving the viewer an opportunity to contemplate the different ways in which women communicate which each other. One character speaks candidly about food likes and dislikes, while the other vivaciously recalls an anecdote of food preparation, nourishment, intimacy and rejection.
Lauren Kelley received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently participating in the Core Residency Program in Houston. Deana Lawson, who has been included in several exhibitions over the past year, was recently interviewed by Tova Carlin for Time Out New York, and received a MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Jessica Ann Peavy graduated with an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Recent recipient of NYSCA, Peavy's work is currently on view at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and will be included in an upcoming show at the Bronx River Arts Center.
This exhibition is Mickalene Thomas's curatorial debut. She graduated with an MFA from Yale University and currently shows with Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York, Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago, and Susanne Vielmetter Projects in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in various catalogues and reviewed in Art in America, The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Post, NY Arts, Modern Painters, Essence, Whitewall, Frieze, and Artforum. For more information please contact the gallery at 917.639.3912.
Friday, January 23, 2009
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Collette Blanchard Gallery
26 Clinton Street
New York, NY
gallery@colletteblanchard.com
(Lauren Kelley, Get Bones from 88 Jones, film still)
(Deana Lawson, Anna)
(Jessica Ann Peavy, A Conversation Piece, film still)
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
Check this out.
This past Friday was a busy night for me. I stopped by Collette Blanchard Gallery for a reception and ended up getting kidnapped by Malcolm Harris and at a dinner party with a bunch of cool people I'd never met before. In between those two events I stopped by Ristorante Bonfides where I used to host my legendary Bon-a-Fide parties. There was a bartender who used to work our parties who everyone loved, her name is Irena and she is from Serbia/Montenegro. She left the restaurant to open her own business. It's a great little boutique that sells handmade knit items like hats, scarves, dresses and wraps. She also sells hats for men and other apparel for women. The store is called Amon Ra Showroom and it is very cool.
On February 14th she is doing a fashion show at St. Marks church on the corner 10th Street and 2nd Avenue. The event will benefit the Institute for Education and Professional Rehabilitation of Children with disabilities. This is the only institution in her native Montenegro that provides care for children and teens with disabilities.
Irena is a very engaging, talented, passionate and cool person, not to mention a Leo like me. Please stop in to visit her and support her efforts. Stylists, models and fashionistas should stop in to get some great handmade items at good prices and be among the first to use her garments and accesories in your shoots before this store becomes the next big thing (which trust me it will).
You can see the store online at http://www.wunderbloc.com/boutique/index.php?locationId=5481
Amon Ra Showroom from Ricky Day on Vimeo.
I was introduced to The Kinsey Collection by a DC based art collector and friend. Upon doing further research I have become fascinated by the depth of the collection and the passion of The Kinsey Family. Check out the video clip and description of the collection from the official website. If this introduction captures your attention then click on the link below and peep their website.
the Kinsey Collection is an extensive exhibition drawn from the artistic and historical treasures collected by California residents, Bernard and Shirley Kinsey. the Kinsey Collection: The Personal Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey presents the journey of the Kinseys as they embrace and acquire art and artifacts. From rarely seen slave owners’ documents and brilliant expressions in paint to glimpses into private eighteenth and nineteenth-century lives, the Kinsey Collection reflects a rich cultural and historical heritage which they hope to preserve for future generations.
the Kinsey Collection includes works of art by important African American artists such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, William H. Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, and Henry O. Tanner; as well as historical documents and artifacts of Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Alain Locke, Phillis Wheatley, and Malcolm X. When viewed as a whole, the ninety plus objects reveal important aspects of American history and culture.
“Art is precious, but historical documents are rare,” says Bernard Kinsey.
Christina Orr-Cahall, Director of the Norton Museum of Art, added “To have members of our own community develop and share with us their outstanding collection of African American art and historical pieces is extraordinary. We are most grateful to Bernard and Shirley Kinsey for letting us learn through seeing some of the incredible achievements of African Americans in the last four centuries. Each and every one of us of us should make certain that we take advantage of this experience”.
Bernard, the former Xerox vice president who became chief operating officer and co-chair of Rebuild Los Angeles in Los Angeles in 1992, and his wife Shirley, have been collecting for more than 35 years. They started collecting as a way to savor and share their travels, but their art soon became a repository for African American intellectual, historic and artistic works. A vast array of art, artifacts and historical documents fill their home and reinforce the Kinseys’ philosophy that tangible objects are evidence of history.
As the Kinseys evolved as collectors, they began to identify and collect the work of artists who make up and define African American art, such as Lane, Tina Allen, Ernie Barnes, Ed Dwight and Richard Mayhew. Moreover, they collect documents that illuminate historical moments. They see themselves as caretakers of their collection, their ownership temporary. They say, “We’ve assembled our vision and interests. The next stewards may take it elsewhere.”
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
Being an artist and free spirit I tend to meet lots of interesting people on a regular basis. Short, tall, male, female, transgender, black, white, latino, asian, gay, straight, bi, Christian, Muslim, etc. I meet lots of people. As I've grown more comfortable in my own skin and with who I am it has enabled me to really appreciate life and to see myself in everything and everyone around me.
We are all connected in a painfully obvious way, but we often deny this simple truth. Spiritually and systemically we are on, but our actions demonstrate our collective disbelief of the obvious. Once you accept that God is in each of us and we are one together it makes petty differences and judgements of each other seem like the pathetic waste of time that they are.
Recently I met and have become friends with a young man named Karell who now lives in Canada and is living his dream of dancing professionally. He is a member of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. To say that he is inspiring is an understatement. He walks, talks and lives life with a joy that can only be described as divine. Stop right there and DO NOT MAKE THE ASSUMPTION YOU WERE ABOUT TO MAKE...LOL...I SIMPLY LOVE TO SEE PEOPLE HAPPY AND DOING THINGS THAT BRING THEM JOY. It is the same joy you see in young children and it is the joy we are each meant to have everyday of our lives. I have begun to reclaim my inner child and I urge each of you to do the same.
Look at these pictures and instead of trying to judge who he is or who you imagine him to be, for just one moment appreciate the pure joy he expresses in his experience of the simple things. I think it's beautiful and something I just had to share.
I'm glad you POPPed today, but while you're at get your JOY on too!!!!
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
Much to my own chagrin I am in some ways a fairly typical human being. Being an artist and a fairly liberal (I do have a conservative streak by the way) person the idea of being a fan of a corporation or product is against my nature. However, there is one corporation that causes me to go against my nature and to proudly pronounce how much in love I am with their products, that company is Apple and the products are of course MacIntosh computers and all the peripherals they produce from iPhones and iPods, to monitors and more!
In this series of posts I'm going to share with you a snap shot of the 25 year history of Mac with videos, photos, an article from CNN.com and more! I can't think of another company that has combined form with function in such a masterful way. I can't think of another company that has inserted itself into pop culture and the American psyche the way Apple has. Finally, what really resonates for me is that Apple makes products that look beautiful, perform well and generally make life easier, working more fun, tap into the human spirit of creativity with ease and for me literal serve as a conduit to express the divinity and creative spirit inside me.
My photos are edited on a Mac, this blog is created on a Mac, my digital art is created on a Mac, my photo sharing, emails to family and business paperwork are all done on a Mac. My Macs make my life easier and give me more time to get out and LIVE!
I know I sound like a commercial, but I honestly thank God for my Macs.
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
From CNN.com
By Jessica Ravitz
CNN
(CNN) -- Long before fish swam in Macquariums, hipsters got Apple logo tattoos and thousands camped out for days to get into computer store openings, there was a machine.
Danielle Brecker found this 1989 photo of friends on their Macs at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
Danielle Brecker found this 1989 photo of friends on their Macs at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the original Macintosh, the first personal computer to draw masses, introduce the mouse and incorporate a graphical user interface, relying on images instead of text.
The Apple Inc. watershed product entered American consciousness amid fanfare, with a $1.5 million commercial, made by Ridley Scott, wowing audiences during Super Bowl XVIII. The piece's title, "1984," invoked author George Orwell's message and stood as a warning against conformity.
Two days after the ad ran, the Macintosh became available and life, as people knew it, changed. No longer were computers viewed as toys with which to play primitive games or as untouchable tools reserved for degreed engineers. We began to think different.
"The Macintosh demonstrated that it was possible and profitable to create a machine to be used by millions and millions of people," said Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, research director for the Institute for the Future, a Palo Alto, California, think tank, and chief force behind "Making the Macintosh: Technology and Culture in Silicon Valley," an online historical exhibit. "The gold standard now for personal electronics is, 'Is it easy enough for my grandmother to use it?' People on the Macintosh project were the first people to talk about a product in that way."
Pang, 44, remembered being "mesmerized" by the computer when he first saw it up close in his college bookstore. He wasn't alone. For graphic designers like Zoë Korstvedt, now a Los Angeles creative director, the evolving Mac, with each added feature, was ripe with ah-ha moments.
To tinker with a piece, play with the text, "to visualize on your computer was just insane," she said. "My colleagues and I wonder how we did it [their jobs] before."
No wonder, then, that when Korstvedt, 44, married her first husband in 1989, she used half of their wedding money to buy her first home computer: a Mac SE/30, for which she forked over extra bucks for an upgrade to a whopping 8 megabytes of RAM. Nothing compared to the 12 gigs she now has. "I was styling," she said with a laugh.
Jeremy Mehrle, 30, of the St. Louis, Missouri, area is too young to know a world without Macs. This MacAddict began hoarding and tinkering with tossed-out computers, and then he discovered eBay. Today, the motion graphics designer's 1,400 square-foot basement is a museum to Apple computers, all-white and in gallery-style with about 80 fully-functioning machines on display.
"Some people think it's really cool. ... Others say 'It's Jeremy's thing, it's a little weird, whatever,'" he said. "I think if I had stacks everywhere, and you couldn't move in my house, people would be worried."
What's Mehrle's hobby, however, became a career for Dan Foust, 38, of Bloomington, Illinois. "Danapplemacman," as he's known on eBay, makes a living out of buying, and when necessary resuscitating, these computers before hawking them online to customers/collectors in places as far-flung as Italy and Australia.
So what would people pay for an original Macintosh?
"A complete boxed system?," he said. "I can't put a price on that."
The extremes to which people have gone in their love and loyalty for Apple (and specifically Macs) knows no bounds. Perhaps no one knows this better than Leander Kahney, news editor at Wired.com and author of Cult of Mac, as well as the more recently published Inside Steve's Brain. That would be Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' brain, of course.
From his phone in a San Francisco coffee shop, Kahney told tales of people allotting their limited vacation time to Macworld conferences, a man who has traveled to 40 Apple store openings and those who shaved Apple logos into their heads. As for the Apple tattoos, those, at first, really bothered him.
"I'm a bit of a leftie," he said. The idea of "corporate worship" didn't initially sit well with him -- although he's not afraid to admit his own obsession. "It's a very deep relationship people have with their computers. ... If the computer's not working, it's more important than the car breaking down."
Speaking of worship, Israeli filmmakers Ron and Kobi Shely created "MacHEADS: The Movie," a 50-minute documentary that'll be available next week on Amazon's video on demand service and, soon after, on iTunes. The film includes footage from The Church of Mac in Los Angeles, where a preacher and congregants gathered to glorify the computer at a service that ended with, "Praise Steve."
"Although we read a lot about the [Mac] phenomenon," Ron Shely said by phone from Tel Aviv of the two-year film project, "we didn't realize how big this social movement really is."
And that, beyond the products, is what has been so powerful about the Mac brand, said Peter Friess, president of The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California.
iReport.com: Got your own Mac Museum? Show us!
Steve Jobs "really has changed the world," Friess said. "You hardly find people who changed cultures. He changed culture."
Decades before Jobs' health became a topic of discussion, Friess was lucky enough to meet the man. At the time, German-born Friess was a lowly watchmaker, repairing clocks in the basement of Munich's Deutsches Museum, the largest science and technology museum in the world.
The year was 1984, and Friess thought a Macintosh might come in handy, so he called Apple Germany to see if he might be able to get one. The answer, as he recalled it, "'You're very lucky. Steve Jobs is in town. We'll come over and give you one.'"
Ever since, he's been amazed and exceedingly intrigued by every new computer. "My wife goes crazy," Friess, 49, admitted. "Every Apple computer I buy, the first thing I do is take it apart, just to see what's inside."
For Gary Allen, 61, of Berkeley, California, his interest is less inside than it is outside the company's stores. He runs ifoAppleStore.com, the first three letters taken from his police dispatch days, meaning "in front of."
The site's genesis dates back to 2001 when Apple store No. 9 opened, in Palo Alto, and he and his son went early. Way early -- as in the night before. The crowds, and natural community, grew on Allen, who began seeing new-found friends at other openings. They were like groupies chasing a band.
So he started a Web site, to help fans keep in touch, and soon other Apple enthusiasts began writing from across the globe, sharing tips about new stores, as well as testimonies and photos. The site, he said, averages about 4 million visitors a month.
Allen, who guessed he's been to 22 store openings so far, once stood in the rain for days in Tokyo so he could snag the first spot in line. He's seen old friends at openings in Germany and Italy. Last summer, he and his now 21-year-old son experienced what he called "the perfect storm," hitting Boston, Beijing and Sydney. Next stop: Paris.
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He may not speak the same language as the thousands who surround him in these various cities, but that doesn't much matter when people speak the same language of computer love.
"Apple enthusiasts, it turns out," Allen said, "are the same wherever you go."
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
Last night among my stops waz Bungalow 8 for the chic lil jump off hosted by Malik So Chic. The party waz eclectic, stylish and a lot of fun. I'm some new Sh*t this year and I have challenged myself to get out of the studio and my comfort zone and meet NEW...EXCITING...ECLECTIC people. Well so far, so good this year!
Last night one of the first people I met waz Amy Douglas and her husband (sorry bro I forgot your name). Amy handed me a CD and told me she fronted a band called KoKo Dozo. I politely took the CD, skimmed the cover and promised I'd listen to it and maybe even check her out when she performs live here in NYC. Now I have learned over the years not to get too excited when someone tell me they're a music artist cause I've spent some long days in studios with acts that...well...needed a little more time developing their craft. Imagine how I felt when I popped the CD in and Amy's big ass, sultry, greasy, sassy voice came booming thru my headphones and proceeded to ride the herky jerky, bass and drum heavy 4/4 back beat of their first ct on the CD called Face On The Dancefloor. I FRICKIN LOVE THAT SONG! It's part Dee-Light, part soulful 90's house music ala Funky Green Monsters and Martha Wash and part something wholly of their own creation. So after all that you KNOW I had to research them and get online and write up one ole profile post.
Influences: A Tribe Called Quest Afrika Bambaata Antonio Carlos Jobim Art Blakey Basement Jaxx Bela Bartok Benny More Betty Davis Bill Evans Bjork Black Sabbath Bob Marley Bonde Do Role Brazilian Girls Brian Eno Bugge Wesseltoft Buju Banton Burt Bachrach Calle 13 Captain Beefheart Celia Cruz Charles Mingus Chic Claude Debussy Da Lata Daft Punk David Bowie Dee-Lite Depeche Mode Devo Devo Doc Boggs Donna Summer Duke Ellington. What the hell kind of band has that list of people named as influences? A pretty darn funky, soulful, colorful, talented and creative one I'd say. The 3 song promo CD I received has me hooked. I can wait to interview them, hear the full CD and post a more in depth piece on them in the future.
Upcoming Shows
Jan 24 2009 10:00P
TUBWAY at Mr. Black New York, New York
Feb 21 2009 10:00P
SUGARLAND New York, New York
Feb 28 2009 10:00P
NACOTHEQUE @FONTANA’S New York, New York
Until then enjoy what I've got on them and get out there and learn more for yaself.
http://www.myspace.com/kokodozo
(left to right - Amy's hubby, Amy Douglas, Bo, moi)
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
(Jessica Ann Peavy, A Conversation Piece, film still)
OPENING TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT
Collette Blanchard Gallery is pleased to present The Brand New Heavies, Curated by Mickalene Thomas. The exhibition will be on view from January 23 - March 8, 2009 and will include three dynamic contemporary artists innovatively working in fundamental mediums. Lauren Kelley, Deana Lawson, and Jessica Ann Peavy present recent work conveying salient sentiments through means that are at once, sensual, opulent, and psychological.
The works of all three artists offer staged scenes, referencing theater and performance, while incorporating embellished caricatures through collaboration with and/or commentary on their varied subjects. Lauren Kelley's videos present meticulous, comprehensive, fictitious narratives in overwhelming detail. In Get Bones from 88 Jones, Barbie dolls, an array of plastic sweets, sculpted elements and malleable, inconstant clay form an accelerated narrative satiated with the metaphorical implementation of materials and imagery. Kelley's whimsy informs the happenings in the love life of a librarian with detail similar in degree to the sculpture crafted by Liza Lou. The environments in Kelley's work also resonate with the staged frames in the work of photographer, Deana Lawson. In Anna the everyday patterned couch blending with the drapes in the background is disrupted by the sequins adorning and condition of the thin, staid figure. The minimalist palette and compositions of Lawson's work bring to mind paintings by Barkley Hendricks and the videos of Jessica Ann Peavy. Peavy's A Conversation Piece also references intimate relationships as Get Bones from 88 Jones, though in this case the sensual narratives are articulated through tales of food-making and consumption as two videos play simultaneously and transverse from each other. Similar to some work of Chantal Akerman, Peavy's piece incorporates pauses and static frames, giving the viewer an opportunity to contemplate the different ways in which women communicate which each other. One character speaks candidly about food likes and dislikes, while the other vivaciously recalls an anecdote of food preparation, nourishment, intimacy and rejection.
Lauren Kelley received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently participating in the Core Residency Program in Houston. Deana Lawson, who has been included in several exhibitions over the past year, was recently interviewed by Tova Carlin for Time Out New York, and received a MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Jessica Ann Peavy graduated with an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Recent recipient of NYSCA, Peavy's work is currently on view at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and will be included in an upcoming show at the Bronx River Arts Center.
This exhibition is Mickalene Thomas's curatorial debut. She graduated with an MFA from Yale University and currently shows with Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York, Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago, and Susanne Vielmetter Projects in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in various catalogues and reviewed in Art in America, The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Post, NY Arts, Modern Painters, Essence, Whitewall, Frieze, and Artforum. For more information please contact the gallery at 917.639.3912.
Friday, January 23, 2009
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Collette Blanchard Gallery
26 Clinton Street
New York, NY
gallery@colletteblanchard.com
(Lauren Kelley, Get Bones from 88 Jones, film still)
(Deana Lawson, Anna)
(Jessica Ann Peavy, A Conversation Piece, film still)
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
As we experience the first moments of a change in the political direction of our country I think it is important to really take a good look at where we are and where we've been. If you read this blog on a regular basis, then you know I am happy to share art, information and thoughts created by others. This is a big, wonderful world we live in and it's full of diverse visions and often contradictory energies. I personally believe two very basic things about this life:
1) you are what you dream
2) we are all much more alike than we are different*
In my ongoing pursuit of personal happiness I am open to hearing divergent points of view on a variety of subjects. As a man of color I am always interested in finding ways to be a stronger man and to rise above the twin obstacles of racism and self doubt.
A few years ago I came across this essay online and it changed the way I see myself, other African-Americans and our society as a whole. I am not one to simply take anyone's words or thoughts as truth no matter who they are and the same is true of this article. However, I found it thought provoking and insightful. You (nor I) may agree with it, but it is at the very least thought provoking. Read it and send me your comments and feedback.
_____________________________________________________
THE GHETTO MATRIX BY James Richards
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN MAY 2000 BY BLACKFILM.COM
The “Ghetto,” as we know it today, is a sham - a fabrication similar to the world created inThe Matrix. The contemporary ghetto is a virtual reality (or more accurately: an actual surreality) that its inhabitants have accepted, without question, as the actual reality of Black folks. When the marketing power of the ghetto was realized, it was quickly decided that it must be harnessed. It happened quietly. First, was the development of a cleaner cousin named “Urban.” Then, almost overnight all the old style, long-term measures employed to control the ghetto like drugs and violence and the new immediacy of popular culture and instant sex were coalesced into the creation of the “ghetto matrix,” a new way of reining in the population and generating revenue simultaneously.
Manipulating the generational rift that exists in all communities, the inhabitants of the ghetto matrix were split from their elders. The elders, alive before the creation of the ghetto matrix can perceive its existence, but don’t have the power to define it. The last two generations born within the ghetto matrix can’t imagine living without it. These last two generations, and all those to follow, have been born and bred solely to be harnessed for their power as producers and consumers of ghetto commodities, like the previous generations were born and bred to be slaves, then sharecroppers, then low wage service and factory workers, then…now. They are just like the crops of human beings that were powering The Matrix.
The inhabitants, in return for their output, get to live in a fantasy, a world of no personal responsibility. It’s a world ruled by the primacy of emotion, of action and not comprehension, where you can do anything you want to anybody you want (except leave). But in this matrix, like the one in the movie, all consequences ripple invisibly back to reality. The repercussions, although invisible, always hit the unsuspecting inhabitants hard. The ghetto is a profitable commodity. Its stifling poverty and artificially limited opportunities are a fertilizer for its inhabitants’ ability to produce and consume. The ghetto must be maintained in order to continue and increase the revenue it generates. The inhabitants are simply batteries charging the revenue machine.
Well, how can a place of often extreme poverty be worth so much money? If the cracked asphalt is the soil, and poverty the fertilizer, what grows in these conditions are the cash crop. The inhabitants are the crops, the commodity. Their physical bodies are the commodities. Their bodies generate income in the obvious way through the drugs or bullets that get pumped into them. Their bodies generate income through the satellite industries based around violence and the illusion of its prevention. Their bodies are the test subjects for pharmaceutical companies, looking for chemical solutions to the highly profitable market of crime control.
Their bodies generate income in the spaces they occupy whether in an overpriced slumlord’s apartment or a cell owned and operated by the rapidly growing private prison industry. Or a spot in the rapidly growing privatization of the public school systems, or a spot in a parochial school subsidized by voucher programs.
Their bodies generate income by the images they create for the welfare verification ID card manufacturers or for the producers of low budgeted “reality-based” TV programs likeCopsorWorld’s Scariest Police Chases.Or the gun manufacturers who use these images to sell their products to the suburbs. Their images sell newspapers, books and magazines. Their bodies generate income by how they areadorned, whether it’s with the purchase of extreme jewelry or designer fashions, or by the development of fashion and cultural trends for the future, to be emulated and distributed by the outside world, then sold back to the inhabitants of the ghetto matrix. Their bodies are the crops and the fuel for new revenue streams. As long as the fertilizer of poverty is rich, the soil will always produce new and innovative industries.
When the battery is used up (or dies prematurely), the ghetto matrix is so well designed, it has already encouraged the inhabitants to reproduce, creating more batteries to replace the ones that have burned out. They are all of course, expendable. Companies are encouraged to use as many as they need to create greater and greater margins of profit. Like the Matrix in the movie, the ghetto matrix was developed to protect, maintain and enrich itself. It has evolved to be self-perpetuating, requiring little upkeep to stay functioning. It is not in the creators interest for the people to escape. The inhabitants are discouraged from leaving both physically and mentally. Substandard public education combined with an availability of guns, drugs, and sex and a omnipresent popular “urban” culture, beamed into the matrix that urges indulgence in all three, prevents the inhabitants from even looking for an exit. The inhabitants have no idea that the world they live in has been manufactured from the outside, and that their dreams and desires have been given to them.
The ghetto matrix’s deftest maneuver is convincing the inhabitants to believe in the unreality so strongly, that they exhort their fellow inhabitants to “keep it real,” to uphold the codes and subsystems necessary to maintain the matrix. Its influence is so powerful that those whose parents escaped before the ghetto matrix’s creation find themselves clamoring to get back in for fear of losing out on some authentic Black experience. Those who fail to “keep it real” are punished, by threats of violence or far worse, by being denied authenticity in the highly commodified (and profitable) realms of blackness. The tragic irony is that the so-called authenticity the inhabitants fight so dearly for has been designed and programmed into them by the creators of the ghetto matrix.
This has spawned an industry of well paid pundits - people who do not live in the ghetto matrix, but report on it, theorize on it, analyze it and philosophize on it. There are two types only: Those that attack the inhabitants and those that defend the inhabitants. Neither group has expressed any interest in the ghetto matrix itself. Both groups maintain the ghetto matrix in their heads. They have to, for fear of losing their authenticity. If authenticity is lost, then so is profitability.
Some “Pro-matrix” commentators, ambassadors to the realer world, even urge the outsiders to see the ghetto matrix as a “new” reality, that the inhabitants are actually pioneers in a rebellious, anti-mainstream, alternative lifestyle. While stopping short of beseeching the outside world to enter (that might be too dangerous) they do urge the purchasing of products that represent the lifestyle associated with the ghetto matrix. The ghetto matrix provides a fantasy in which outsiders can participate vicariously without risking the requisite dangers the inhabitants face every day. What else could explain the fact that 72% of the consumers of ghetto matrix music are from the outside? The distributors of ghetto matrix music know their consumers don’t want stories of ghetto love but stories of ghetto tragedy. It’s thrilling and they provide new and innovative artists to satisfy the demand. Outsiders are often overheard saying, “Human beings couldn’t really live that way,” while their children who are purchasing the CD’s and baggy jeans say; “I wish I could live that way.” All watch with unblinking fascination. A few brave souls actually enter the ghetto matrix on safari tours to interact with the inhabitants in their artificial environment knowing that they can leave whenever they wish. The inhabitants, programmed to perform, unknowingly give a great show day after day, thus completing the circle and maintaining the matrix.
So here's an interesting question, IF you think this essay has any validity at all which of the following seems more likely to you? :
Are we at a moment of real change or is this simply a change in marketing and Matrix programming?
Time will tell.
Today I was blessed to experience history up close and personal. We BRAVED THE COLD, standing on our feet for hours, huge crowds, barricades and world class security. To write a bunch of words would be an ego driven exercise that simply cannot fully convey the scope of the emotions I felt personally. However, I am grateful to everyone who came before for all that they did to make this day possible and to provide me with the opportunity to make all of my dreams come true.
In this post I have included a brief video of my reaction as I stood on the mall and watched Barack Obama take the oath of office. I have also included photos I took today of the festivities and my homey Amin and I witnessing history.
I can assure you that more than any other day...I POPPED TODAY YAWL!!!!!!
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
Inauguration (transfer drawing, mixed media, collage on paper) 2009 Ricky Day
I am thankful to be participate in a group art exhibition in Washington DC called Obama: Art and Politics. I couldn't make it to the opening reception, but the piece I contributed to the show sold on opening night and the entire show is a huge success!
OBAMA - Art & Politics
Exhibition: January 15 - January 31, 2009
Special Viewings:
Dr. King Day: Jan. 19, 11AM-5PM
Inauguration Day: Jan. 20, 10AM-5PM
Hope, Change, Believe, Victory, Unite, Media, Frenzy, Icon
Barack Obama has become the most art inspired politician ever. The official Artists for Obama, who worked diligently on his campaign, and thousands of others throughout the world, have embarked on a frenzy of paintings, drawings, collages, photographs, even digital art to depict the most art-inspired public figure ever.
Artists participating in the Obama: Art and Politics exhibition are as follows: Anthony Armstrong, Joan Belmar, Bip, Rachel D. Crouch, Rebecca D. Crouch, Alonzo Davis, Ricky Day, Antar Dayal, Dana Ellyn, Liani Foster, Pamela Hilliard, Tim Hinton, Victor Holt, Rafael Lopez, Hampton Olfus, Anne Elise Pemberton, Joe Louis Ruffin Desiree Sterbini and Marcel Taylor
H&F Fine Arts
3311 Rhode Island Avenue
Mount Rainier, MD 20712
301.887.0080 gallery
301.574.9692 cell
www.hffinearts.com
Follow along as I take a little mini tour of Rush Arts during the final days of White Lies: Black Noise (the group show that I am currently in). Little did I know as I was leaving the gallery that an airliner was landing a few blocks away from me on the Hudson River.
I arrived in Washington DC to frigid temps, but the place is so full of excitement that it's all been worth it thus far. I'm hangin out with my cousin Melvin, friend and old biz partner Deshawn and a family friend Hattie who is super cool.
I am taking photos and even shooting video. When I track down the proper cable I will be able to upload some video and keep you all abreast of what's going on in the usual multimedia way. Until then take my work for it...the excitement is in the air and I am glad to be here to witness history.
So far it's been a weekend of good food, souvenier shopping, great conversation and more. Now we've talked Hattie into cooking a great soul food meal. I'm in HEAVEN!!!!
Stay tuned.
Here is the next entry in my list of Grammy Nominees that I am diggin. This is a category I will be paying a lot of attention to since I really dig these artists and songs.
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
(For a solo vocal performance. Singles or Tracks only.)
* Chasing Pavements
Adele
Track from: 19
[Columbia/XL]
* Love Song
Sara Bareilles
Track from: Little Voice
[Epic]
* Mercy
Duffy
Track from: Rockferry
[Mercury]
* Bleeding Love
Leona Lewis
[J Records/SYCO Music]
* I Kissed A Girl
Katy Perry
Track from: One Of The Boys
[Capitol Records]
* So What
Pink
[LaFace]
If you read this blog then you know I can be a bit of a pop music head and one of my favorites last year is Katy Perry. Basically she has some great pop tunes and she is living proof that I dont take myself too seriously. I love a well written, passionately performed slightly cheesy pop tune any day. So here's some live footage of Katy doing her thing. Katy is nominated for Best Pop Female vocal performance for "I Kissed a Girl"
Here's a couple of performances of hits from her CD.
I Kissed A Girl
Hot N Cold
(Jessica Ann Peavy, A Conversation Piece, film still)
What do you get when you team up one of the most talented, passionate and successful new gallerists in the city (Collete Blanchard) with Mickalene Thomas, one of the worlds most successful and talented artists who happens to be making her curatorial debut? You get an eciting and eagerly awaited new exhibit called The Brand New Heavies.
The information below is from the gallery's official Facebook page. I plan to be there for the opening and I recommend you check out the show as well.
Collette Blanchard Gallery is pleased to present The Brand New Heavies, Curated by Mickalene Thomas. The exhibition will be on view from January 23 - March 8, 2009 and will include three dynamic contemporary artists innovatively working in fundamental mediums. Lauren Kelley, Deana Lawson, and Jessica Ann Peavy present recent work conveying salient sentiments through means that are at once, sensual, opulent, and psychological.
The works of all three artists offer staged scenes, referencing theater and performance, while incorporating embellished caricatures through collaboration with and/or commentary on their varied subjects. Lauren Kelley's videos present meticulous, comprehensive, fictitious narratives in overwhelming detail. In Get Bones from 88 Jones, Barbie dolls, an array of plastic sweets, sculpted elements and malleable, inconstant clay form an accelerated narrative satiated with the metaphorical implementation of materials and imagery. Kelley's whimsy informs the happenings in the love life of a librarian with detail similar in degree to the sculpture crafted by Liza Lou. The environments in Kelley's work also resonate with the staged frames in the work of photographer, Deana Lawson. In Anna the everyday patterned couch blending with the drapes in the background is disrupted by the sequins adorning and condition of the thin, staid figure. The minimalist palette and compositions of Lawson's work bring to mind paintings by Barkley Hendricks and the videos of Jessica Ann Peavy. Peavy's A Conversation Piece also references intimate relationships as Get Bones from 88 Jones, though in this case the sensual narratives are articulated through tales of food-making and consumption as two videos play simultaneously and transverse from each other. Similar to some work of Chantal Akerman, Peavy's piece incorporates pauses and static frames, giving the viewer an opportunity to contemplate the different ways in which women communicate which each other. One character speaks candidly about food likes and dislikes, while the other vivaciously recalls an anecdote of food preparation, nourishment, intimacy and rejection.
Lauren Kelley received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently participating in the Core Residency Program in Houston. Deana Lawson, who has been included in several exhibitions over the past year, was recently interviewed by Tova Carlin for Time Out New York, and received a MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Jessica Ann Peavy graduated with an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Recent recipient of NYSCA, Peavy's work is currently on view at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and will be included in an upcoming show at the Bronx River Arts Center.
This exhibition is Mickalene Thomas's curatorial debut. She graduated with an MFA from Yale University and currently shows with Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York, Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago, and Susanne Vielmetter Projects in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in various catalogues and reviewed in Art in America, The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Post, NY Arts, Modern Painters, Essence, Whitewall, Frieze, and Artforum. For more information please contact the gallery at 917.639.3912.
Friday, January 23, 2009
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Collette Blanchard Gallery
26 Clinton Street
New York, NY
gallery@colletteblanchard.com
(Lauren Kelley, Get Bones from 88 Jones, film still)
(Deana Lawson, Anna)
(Jessica Ann Peavy, A Conversation Piece, film still)
Over the next couple of weeks I intend to spot light Grammy nominees in a number of categories and genres. This is the third of those spotlight posts.
Another in the group of 5 Best New Artist nominees, this is the 2nd nominee from across the pond. Her name is Adele. You no doubt heard her hit Chasing Pavement booming thru radios across the country as it was a major hit and a great song. She is talented, has a great voice and isn't a size 6 which is sexy. I'm giving props to normal sized women because they are sexy too.
As you know the record companies don't allow embedding of youtube videos, so check out these live performance clips.
Ladies and gentlemen Adele.
Chasing Pavements (live)
Make You Feel My Love (live)
Melt My Heart to Stone (live in studio)
Daydreamer (live)
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
Over the next couple of weeks I intend to spot light Grammy nominees in a number of categories and genres. This is the first of those spotlight posts.
21 years old with the pipes of a 40 year old, a talented writer and good live performer that's our next Best New Artist Nominee Jazmine Sullivan. She's another one of those artists I got into early and it is so good to see have so much success. This young woman has really worked for it and deserves it all.
Ladies and gentlemen Jazmine Sullivan.
Need You Bad (live on Ellen)
Lions and Tigers and Bears
Long-Term Installation
Contemporary Art Galleries, 4th Floor
More than forty works from the Brooklyn Museum’s expanding collection of contemporary art goes on long-term view in 5,000 square feet of space newly renovated for this purpose. With contemporary works ranging from Andy Warhol’s Fragile Dress (1966) to Mickalene Thomas’s A Little Taste Outside of Love (2007), 21: Selections of Contemporary Art from the Brooklyn Museum focuses primarily on work produced since 2000, particularly from the richly diverse artistic community of Brooklyn. This installation marks the first time in a decade that the Museum has dedicated space to the long-term display of selections of its collection of contemporary art and reflects a renewed interest in acquiring and presenting recent work.
This exhibition is co-organized by Eugenie Tsai, John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art, and Patrick Amsellem, Associate Curator of Photography, Brooklyn Museum.
The generous support of the John and Barbara Vogelstein Contemporary Acquisitions Challenge has made possible many recent additions to the collection featured in 21: Selections of Contemporary Art from the Brooklyn Museum.
The creation of the new contemporary galleries was made possible, in part, through support provided by the New York City Council through the efforts of Council Member Bill de Blasio.
Museum Hours *
Sunday
11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Monday and Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday – Friday
10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Saturday
11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
First Saturday of Each Month
11 a.m. – 11 p.m
The Brooklyn Museum has a suggested contribution of $8 for adults and $4 for Seniors and Students with valid I.D. Members and children under 12 accompanied by an adult are admitted for free. (Special pricing applies to children’s school groups and group tours for adults and college students.) Advance tickets to the Museum can be purchased online through Ticketmaster. By purchasing these tickets online you agree to pay the full suggested admission plus a $1.50 per ticket service charge. Should you wish to pay less than the suggested admission, you may do so by purchasing tickets at the Visitor Center in the Museum.
Join today to receive free admission to the Museum for one year and other special benefits. In addition, during the month of August Members may admit their guests for only $5 each.
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org
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Inauguration (transfer drawing, mixed media, collage on paper) 2009 Ricky Day
I've been invited to participate in a great art exhibit in Washington DC which opens this weekend. The gallery called H&F Fine Arts is owned by two incredible black women who are making
OBAMA - Art & Politics
Art Inspired by the recent election
Opening Reception
Sunday, January 18, 2009 3-6PM
Exhibition: January 15 - January 31, 2009
Special Viewings:
Dr. King Day: Jan. 19, 11AM-5PM
Inauguration Day: Jan. 20, 10AM-5PM
Hope, Change, Believe, Victory, Unite, Media, Frenzy, Icon
Barack Obama has become the most art inspired politician ever. The official Artists for Obama, who worked diligently on his campaign, and thousands of others throughout the world, have embarked on a frenzy of paintings, drawings, collages, photographs, even digital art to depict the most art-inspired public figure ever.
Artists that will be participating in the Obama: Art and Politics exhibition are as follows: Anthony Armstrong, Joan Belmar, Bip, Rachel D. Crouch, Rebecca D. Crouch, Alonzo Davis, Ricky Day, Antar Dayal, Dana Ellyn, Liani Foster, Pamela Hilliard, Tim Hinton, Victor Holt, Rafael Lopez, Hampton Olfus, Anne Elise Pemberton, Joe Louis Ruffin Desiree Sterbini and Marcel Taylor
H&F Fine Arts
3311 Rhode Island Avenue
Mount Rainier, MD 20712
301.887.0080 gallery
301.574.9692 cell
www.hffinearts.com
New York
KALUP LINZY
Artist Talk + Screening
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
6:30 pm
Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI)
535 West 22nd Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10011
www.eai.org
Admission free
EAI is pleased to present a screening and talk with artist Kalup Linzy. The evening will include the New York premier of Linzy's new video, Keys To Our Heart, which was created for Prospect.1 New Orleans in 2008. Linzy will also screen two recent works, Melody Set Me Free (2007) and SweetBerry Sonnet (Remixed) (2008). The artist will be present to introduce and speak about these works, as well as his practice in video, performance and music. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with the artist.
In his videos and performances, Kalup Linzy creates satirical narratives inspired by television soap operas and Hollywood melodramas. In works that take an irreverent approach to stereotypes of race, gender and sexuality, Linzy performs, most often in drag, in a series of memorable roles. The artist also voices and overdubs the dialogue of multiple characters. At once comic, raunchy and poignant, Linzy's unique narrative videos fuse dramatic intensity with melodramatic irony.
Filmed on location in New Orleans, Linzy's newest work, Keys To Our Heart, is a black-and-white narrative in which the artist stars as a misanthropic grande dame who dispenses advice to a trio of troubled young lovers. Linzy, who performs all of the characters' dialogue, shot and directed Keys To Our Heart in the style of a Hollywood melodrama. Keys To Our Heart was commissioned by Creative Capital.
Melody Set Me Free is an alternately hilarious and heartbreaking narrative about contestants in an American Idol-style talent show competition and their quest for fame and stardom. Writes Linzy, "Vying to win a recording contest, they must take a Whitney Houston song and make it their own." SweetBerry Sonnet (Remixed) is a remixed version of Linzy's recent "video anthology." In a series of music videos that were made to accompany the songs on Linzy's 2008 album, SweetBerry Sonnet, Linzy performs as several of his recurring characters; the songs trace a melodramatic arc of love and desire.
EAI is proud to announce that a selection of Kalup Linzy's video work is now available through EAI. Please visit www.eai.org for more information.
Kalup Linzy was born in 1977 in Stuckey, Florida. He received a BFA in 2000 and an MFA in 2003, both from the University of South Florida in Tampa. He also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He has received awards from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Creative Capital Foundation, and the Jerome Foundation. He has had solo exhibitions in The Moore Space, Miami, FL; Taxter & Spengemann, New York, NY; and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY. He has been included in group exhibitions at Zacheta National Museum, Warsaw, Poland; Studio Museum, Harlem, NY; Glasgow International: Festival of Contemporary Visual Art, Glasgow, Scotland; The Hydra School Project, Hydra, Greece; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The El Salvador Biennial; Moscow Biennial, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, among others. He has performed and screened work at venues including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; British Film Institute, London, and Beursschouwburg, Brussels, Belgium. Linzy's work was included in Prospect.1 New Orleans in 2008. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
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Who cares about dismal sales for December and profits possibly taking a hit, Louis Vuitton and designer Marc Jacobs have launched of a limited-edition capsule collection of accessories and apparel inspired by artist Stephen Sprouse.
The collection is timed to coincide with a new book on the late artist by Roger Padilha and Mauricio Padilha and a retrospective at New York’s Deitch Gallery.
Vuitton executives acknowledged that the luxury goods landscape has changed in recent months, but expressed confidence that the $1180 Day-Glo graffiti Speedy 30 bags and $755 neon slingbacks would attract customers. “I think we’ll be lucky if we have any stock left in the next month and a half,” Daniel Lalonde, president and chief executive officer of Louis Vuitton North America, says. A spokeswoman for Louis Vuitton would not say how many of each item would be produced for the Sprouse collection.
“You’re either going to love it or you’re going to hate it. I’m fine with either reaction,” Mr. Jacobs said of the new collection.
As for the impact of the global economic crisis on his work for next season, Mr. Jacobs said only this: “I’m a thoughtful person, so I take in everything that’s going on in my own world and the world around me.” — contains some information from a story by Elva Ramirez (Heard on the Runway)
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The rest of this month I plan to feature select Grammy nominees in various categories. The first category is Best New Artist. POP in everyday to check out videos, images and more on each artist.
Best New Artist
* Adele
* Duffy
* Jonas Brothers
* Lady Antebellum
* Jazmine Sullivan
Over the next couple of weeks I intend to spot light Grammy nominees in a number of categories and genres. This is the first of those spotlight posts.
A few months ago I shared a new artist with you who I was really into, her name was Duffy. Well it appears I am not the only one who got into to her music as she has been nominated for multiple Grammy's including Best New Artist. Take a few minutes and peep some of the videos below so that you can see why she has sold tons of CD's and received multiple nominations. Of course since the asshole record companies disable embedding I will be sharing live videos instead of the official vids. When you get a chance you really must check out the polished studio versions of these hits.
Ladies and gentlemen...Duffy
Syrup and Honey in the studio
Stepping Stone Live
Mercy Acoustic version in studio
Warwick Avenue Live
Serious live
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The latest video from one of my favorite artists of last year.
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There's been a lot of new subscribers lately and it's very appreciated. I wanted to take a second and say waddup to each of you and thank you for dropping in.
My name is Ricky Day. I am a New York based emerging artist and photographer with a musical past. I've exhibited in several group shows including the current show White Lies: Black Noise at Rush Arts in Chelsea. I've had a solo show in Washington DC called Introducing Ricky Day and I'm slated to appear in several shows this year.
I LOVE ART, PHOTOGRAPHY, MUSIC, FASHION AND ALL THINGS CREATIVE! The purpose of this blog is to not only share my work with the world, but more importantly it's to turn people on to art, fashion, sub-culture and so-called high culture who may not have been into it before. Urban Pop Life features profiles of established and emerging artists in all genres, music, videos, my musing on a variety of topics that interest me and conversations with art professionals. Of course I also share my photography and art on a regular basis.
This year promises to be an exciting one. I look forward to creating and sharing all kinds of great new work, both mine and by other artists. I also look forward to meeting lots of new people and doing my part to make this crazy world just a little bit better everyday.
We like to share great art, talk about pop culture and have fun here. So tell all ya friends about the blog and make sure you "POP" everyday. Sign up yo receive my blog posts via email or PDA.
Have a great day.
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"Jackie" 24" x 36" acrylic on canvas
"magnum digital collage
"Dream" (sold) 36" x 48" acrylic on canvas
120 Ounces, digital collage
"Red" 36" x 48" acrylic on canvas
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P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center is one of the oldest and largest non-profit contemporary art institutions in the United States. An exhibition space rather than a collecting institution, P.S.1 devotes its energy and resources to displaying the most experimental art in the world. A catalyst and an advocate for new ideas, discourses, and trends in contemporary art, P.S.1 actively pursues emerging artists, new genres, and adventurous new work by recognized artists in an effort to support innovation in contemporary art. P.S.1 achieves this mission by presenting its diverse program to a broad audience in a unique and welcoming environment in which visitors can discover and explore the work of contemporary artists. P.S.1 presents over 50 exhibitions each year, including artists’ retrospectives, site-specific installations, historical surveys, arts from across the United States and the world, and a full schedule of music and performance programming.
P.S.1 was founded in 1971 by Alanna Heiss as the Institute for Art and Urban Resources Inc., an organization devoted to organizing exhibitions in underutilized and abandoned spaces across New York City. In 1976, P.S.1 opened its first major exhibition in its permanent location in Long Island City, Queens, with the seminal Rooms exhibition. An invitation for artists to transform the building’s unique spaces, Rooms established the P.S.1 tradition of transforming the building’s spaces into site-specific art that continues today with long-term installations by James Turrell, Keith Sonnier, Richard Serra, Lawrence Weiner, and others.
For the next twenty years, the building was used as studio, performance, and exhibition spaces, in support of artists from around the world. After a building-wide renovation, P.S.1 reopened in 1997, confirming its position as the leading contemporary art center in New York. True to the building’s history and form, the renovation preserved much of the original architecture as well as most of its unique classroom-sized galleries.
In 2000, P.S.1 became an affiliate of the Museum of Modern Art to extend the reach of both institutions, and combine P.S.1’s contemporary mission with MoMA’s strength as one of the greatest collecting museums of modern art. In addition to its home in Long Island City, P.S.1 continues to operate the legendary Clocktower Gallery in Lower Manhattan, which currently houses the headquarters of its online radio station, Art Radio WPS1.org.
A true artistic laboratory, P.S.1 aspires to maintain its diverse and innovative activities to continue to bring contemporary art to international audiences.
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NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith
On view October 19, 2008 - January 26, 2009
Radcliffe Bailey Storm at Sea, 2006 Piano keys, African sculpture, model boat, paper, acrylic, glitter, and gold leaf 212 x 213 inches Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York © Radcliffe Bailey
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center presents NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith, an exhibition co-organized by The Menil Collection that brings together a multigenerational group of North, South, and Central American artists who address the value of ritual in the artistic process and the wider implications of spirituality in contemporary art. On view in the 2nd Floor Main Gallery, Project Rooms, and Corner Gallery.
Including some 50 works of sculpture, photography, assemblage, video, performance, and other media, NeoHooDoo asserts that the drive towards a spiritual practice is as relevant today in our burgeoning global society as it has ever been. Artists have long engaged with ritualism to enrich their work, drawing on the traditions of shamans, griots, and oral historians. NeoHooDoo “grew out of a desire to explore the multiple meanings of spirituality in contemporary art,” states P.S.1 Curatorial Advisor and Menil Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Franklin Sirmans.
In the late 1960s poet Ishmael Reed adopted the 19th-century term “HooDoo,” referring to forms of religion and their practice in the New World to explore the idea of spiritual practice outside easily definable faiths or creeds and ritualism on contemporary works of literature and art. “Neo-HooDoo,” he writes in his 1972 collection of poetry, Conjure, “believes that every man is an artist and every artist a priest.” His seminal poems, “The Neo-HooDoo Manifesto” and “The Neo-HooDoo Aesthetic,” delve even deeper into this artistic practice to demonstrate its vitality as an international, multicultural aesthetic that embraces spiritual creativity and innovation.
From Vancouver to Havana, Guatemala City, and Bahia, the artists in NeoHooDoo began using ritualistic practice as a means to recover “lost” spirituality and to reexamine and reinterpret aspects of cultural heritage throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. Visual artists from across the Americas, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988), José Bedia (b. 1959), Rebecca Belmore (b. 1960), Jimmie Durham (b. 1940), and Ana Mendieta (1948–1985) have freely combined disparate materials and mediums to create spaces where art and audience can interact unhindered by history or societal constraints. For these artists, ritual practice often emerges as a form of catharsis and political critique to approach issues such as race, gender, slavery, and colonization. This exhibition also will look at younger artists such as video artists Michael Joo and Regina José Galindo, who carry on many of these practices and themes decades later, reconfiguring the work of their predecessors into performative displays of ritual through film and gallery installations.
Challenging conceptions of “insider” and “outsider” art, the artists in the exhibition frequently create work using everyday objects that resonate both within the confines of a gallery or museum and among their own localized audiences who may or may not visit art institutions. Situating their work in a vernacular aesthetic, the meaning of the work fluctuates according to its context. Items such as light bulbs, wine bottles, artificial flowers, piano keys are repositioned in assemblages confronting themes of exploitation, genocide, and poverty. The 53 pieces of discarded waste paper comprising Jimmy Durham’s A Street-level Treatise on Money and Work are brought to the center of a dialogue on the destruction of native cultures and Dario Robleto addresses American notions of manifest destiny in Deep Down I Don’t Believe in Hymns by taking a military-issued blanket and “infesting” it with hand-ground dust made from vinyl recordings of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer” and Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love.”
Franklin Sirmans developed NeoHooDoo as one of P.S.1’s curatorial advisory programs, a unique system that allows diverse curators to present experimental exhibition work. Current curatorial advisors include Chief Curatorial Advisor Klaus Biesenbach, Senior Curatorial Advisor Neville Wakefield, Andrea Bellini, Phong Bui, Lia Gangitano, Susanne Pfeffer, and Franklin Sirmans.
NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring texts by Arthur C. Danto, Greg Tate, Robert Farris Thompson, Jen Budney and Julia Herzberg. The catalogue will also include an interview with Ishmael Reed by Franklin Sirmans and a work by renowned poet Quincy Troupe. The fully illustrated, color catalogue will be available for purchase at Artbook @ P.S.1 (144 pp., $45.00).
Artist List:
Terry Adkins, Janine Antoni, Radcliffe Bailey, José Bedia, Rebecca Belmore, Sanford Biggers, Tania Bruguera, James Lee Byars, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, William Cordova, Jimmie Durham, Regina José Galindo, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, David Hammons, Michael Joo, Brian Jungen, Kcho, Marepe, Ana Mendieta, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Pepón Osorio, Adrian Piper, Ernesto Pujol, Dario Robleto, Betye Saar, Gary Simmons, George Smith, Michael Tracy, Nari Ward
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Ave at the intersection of 46th Ave
Long Island City, NY 11101
(718) 784-2084
Hours
12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Thursday through Monday. We are closed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day. Le Rosier Café and artbook@ps1 are open during regular hours.
Admission
Admission is a $5.00 suggested donation for Adults, 17 and older; $2.00 for students and senior citizens; free for MoMA members and MoMA admission ticket holders. The MoMA ticket must be presented at P.S.1 within thirty days of the date on the ticket and is not valid during Warm Up or other P.S.1 events or benefits.
José Bedia - Las Cosas que me Arrastran (The Things That Drag Me Along)
1996/2008
Dimensions variable (approx. 25’ across)
Mixed media
Photo: Matthew Septimus. Courtesy P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.
Pepón Osorio
Lonely Soul
2008
Approx. 106 ½ x 83 x 77 inches
Wooden crutches, fiberglass, Styrofoam, wood, resin, photographs, metals, human hair, one-thousand pins, hair clips, and wheelchair wheels
Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York
Photo: Matthew Septimus. Courtesy P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
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Jean-Michel Basquiat is arguably the most famous African-American artist of all time. Although I have a style that is very distinct from his and shares almost no visual iconography (less the crown I use as a tribute to him in works you all have yet to see) he is one of my favorite artists. Basquiat was a Neo-Expressionist painter who found his fame and untimely death in the 80's. He emerged during a time that has been romanticized for it's artistic output and demonized for it's treatment of art as nothing more than a commodity. I have little personal opinion of either argument as I was too young and too far away to have a voice in the argument.
What I can tell you is that the music I grew up on which included early rap like Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, Sugar Hill Gang, Kurtis Blow, KRS-One, Blondie, Talking Heads, The Police and other bands that emerged from the New York scene infused me with a spirit that made me curious about all things (art, music, artists, etc.) from New York in the 80's. I can also add that reading the Warhol Diaries, and seeing the work of Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Keith Haring, Stephen Sprouse and others endeared me with a kind of spiritual kinship with that place and time that lives inside me to this day. I still paint with primarily an 80's playlist pumping in the background (though I do drop in some Kanye, Lil Wayne, Duffy, Britney, Gwen Stefani and Katy Perry from time to time).
But more than any of these things and any of these people it is the art and life of Jean-Michel Basqiat that speaks volumes to me about the risk and reward of a career as an artist. We are very different men from very different times, but his art and life still informs my work and my life to this day.
From Wikipedia
Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist. He gained popularity first as a graffiti artist in New York City, and then as a successful 1980s-era Neo-expressionist artist. Basquiat's paintings continue to influence modern-day artists and command high prices.
Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York. His mother, Matilde, was Puerto Rican and his father, Gerard Basquiat is of Haitian origin and a former Haitian Minister of the Interior. Because of his parents' nationalities, Basquiat was fluent in French, Spanish, and English and often read Symbolist poetry, mythology, history and medical texts, particularly Gray's Anatomy in those languages. At an early age, Basquiat displayed an aptitude for art and was encouraged by his mother to draw, paint and to participate in other art-related activities. In 1977, when he was 17, Basquiat and his friend Al Diaz started spray-painting graffiti art on slum buildings in lower Manhattan, adding the infamous signature of "SAMO" or "SAMO shit" (i.e., "same ol' shit"). The graphics were pithy messages such as "Plush safe he think; SAMO" and "SAMO is an escape clause". In December 1978, the Village Voice published an article about the writings. The SAMO project ended with the epitaph SAMO IS DEAD written on the walls of SoHo buildings.
Basquiat attended high school in New York at "City as A School", the same place where he was friends with Al Diaz (of Liquid Liquid) and Shanon Dawson (of Konk). In 1978, Basquiat dropped out of high school and left home, a year before graduating. He moved into the city and lived with friends, surviving by selling T-shirts and postcards on the street, and working in the Unique Clothing Warehouse on Broadway. By 1979, however, Basquiat had gained a certain celebrity status amidst the thriving art scene of Manhattan's East Village through his regular appearances on Glenn O'Brien's live public-access cable show, TV Party. In the late 1970s, Basquiat formed a band called Gray, with Michael Holman, Nick Taylor, Wayne Clifford & Shannon Dawson. Gray played at clubs such as Max's Kansas City, CBGB, Hurrahs, and the Mudd Club. Basquiat worked in a film Downtown 81 (a.k.a New York Beat Movie) which featured some of Gray's rare recordings on its soundtrack. He also appeared in Blondie's video "Rapture" as a replacement for DJ Grandmaster Flash when he was a no-show.
Basquiat first started to gain recognition as an artist in June 1980, when he participated in The Times Square Show, a multi-artist exhibition, sponsored by Collaborative Projects Incorporated (Colab). In 1981, poet, art critic and cultural provocateur Rene Ricard published "The Radiant Child" in Artforum magazine, helping to launch Basquiat's career to an international stage. During the next few years, he continued exhibiting his works around New York alongside artists such as Keith Haring, Barbara Kruger, as well as internationally, promoted by such gallery owners and patrons as Annina Nosei, Vrej Baghoomian, Larry Gagosian, Mary Boone and Bruno Bischofberger.
By 1982, Basquiat was showing regularly alongside Julian Schnabel, David Salle, Francesco Clemente and Enzo Cucchi, thus becoming part of a loose-knit group that art-writers, curators, and collectors would soon be calling the Neo-expressionist movement. He started dating an aspiring and then-unknown performer named Madonna in the fall of 1982. That same year, Basquiat met Andy Warhol, with whom he collaborated extensively, eventually forging a close, if strained, friendship. He was also briefly involved with artist David Bowes.
By 1984, many of Basquiat's friends were concerned about his excessive drug use and increasingly erratic behavior, including signs of paranoia. Basquiat had developed a frequent heroin habit by this point, which started from his early years living among the junkies and street artists in New York's underground. On February 10, 1985, Basquiat appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in a feature entitled "New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist". As Basquiat's international success heightened, his works were shown in solo exhibitions across major European capitals.
Basquiat died accidentally of mixed-drug toxicity (he had been combining cocaine and heroin, known as "speedballing") at his 57 Great Jones Street loft/studio in 1988 several days before what would have been Basquiat's second trip to the Côte d'Ivoire. In 1996, seven years after his death, a film biography titled Basquiat was released, directed by Julian Schnabel, with actor Jeffrey Wright playing Basquiat.
Artistic activities
Basquiat's art career is known for his three broad, though overlapping styles. In the earliest period, from 1980 to late 1982, Basquiat used painterly gestures on canvas, often depicting skeletal figures and mask-like faces that expressed his obsession with mortality. Other frequently depicted imagery such as automobiles, buildings, police, children's sidewalk games, and graffiti came from his experience painting on the city streets. A middle period from late 1982 to 1985 featured multipanel paintings and individual canvases with exposed stretcher bars, the surface dense with writing, collage and seemingly unrelated imagery.
These works reveal a strong interest in Basquiat's black identity and his identification with historical and contemporary black figures and events. On one occasion Basquiat painted his girlfriend's dress, with his words, a "Little Shit Brown". The final period, from about 1986 to Basquiat's death in 1988, displays a new type of figurative depiction, in a new style with different symbols and content from new sources. This period seems to have also had a profound impact on the styles of artists who admired Basquiat's work. Basquiat's lasting creative influence is immediately recognizable in the work of subsequent and self-taught generational artists such as Mark Gonzales, Kelly D. Williams and Raymond Morris.
In 1982, Basquiat became friends with pop artist Andy Warhol and the two made a number of collaborative works. They also painted together, influencing each others' work. Some speculated that Andy Warhol was merely using Basquiat for some of his techniques and insight. Their relationship continued until Warhol's death in 1987. Warhol's death was very distressing for Basquiat, and it is speculated by Phoebe Hoban, in Basquiat, her 1998 biography on the artist, that Warhol's death was a turning point for Basquiat, and that afterwards his drug addiction and depression began to spiral.
Up until 2002, the highest mark that was paid for an original work of Basquiat's was $3,302,500 (set on 12 November 1998). On 14 May 2002, Basquiat's "Profit I" (a large piece of art measuring 86.5" by 157.5"), owned by heavy metal band Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, was put up for auction at Christie's. It was there that the highest mark for a work of Basquiat's was set when "Profit I" sold for $5,509,500. The proceedings of the auction are documented in the film Some Kind of Monster. On 15 May 2007, an untitled Basquiat work from 1981 smashed his previous record, selling at Sotheby's in New York for $14.6 million. On November 12, 2008 his piece Untitled(Boxer)(1982) was sold by Lars Ulrich of the band Metallica for $13,522,500 (estimate upon request in the region of $12 million) to a telephone bidder.
A Warrior Nation is Nick Green (lead vocals) and Adam Lampert (keyboards and synth), an incredibly dynamic writing and production team backed by an extremely talented crew: Dave Rosser (guitar), Benji Vander Broek (bass), and Tray Potts (drums). Together, they have created a catalog of poignant soulful funk grooves. Their messages range from relevant social causes to provocative life situations.
A Warrior Nation’s creators, Nick and Adam, met just a few years ago, through another band affiliation. As a result of their collaborative writing, a linchpin in their success, they decided to put aside their other music endeavors to pursue a venture of their own: A Warrior Nation is a modern fusion of soul and funk, with elements of jazz, R&B and rock.
Atlanta-born Adam Lampert, a classically trained musician, arrived in Los Angeles in 2006. Shortly thereafter, he met another young, aspiring singer-songwriter, Los Angeles-born and bred, Nick Green. Adam and Nick would eventually become the frontmen for A Warrior Nation, and the creators of the new band’s sound and soul. Earlier this year, the dynamic duo left their musical side-projects behind, to work full-time on building A Warrior Nation.
A Warrior Nation has since added to its talented lineup: guitarist Dave Rosser, a classically trained guitarist who can also be heard on Dub-Reggae legend Lee “Scratch” Perry’s newest album, “Repentance”; bassist Benji Vander Broek, who did previous stints and nationwide tours with southern gospel group, The Crusaders, and Omaha-based indie rock band, The Show is the Rainbow; and drummer Tray Potts, another Los Angeles native, who has toured with R&B artist Montell Jordan, and has also worked with several other artists such as producer Shep Crawford, Professor Funk, Darren Crawford & Fulfillment and R&B artist Deborah Cox.
A Warrior Nation’s funky, soulful grooves have been entertaining audiences across the Los Angeles landscape since February of this year. They have played to crowds at nightclubs and live music venues, charity events, universities, festivals, and even to a fashionista set during a special appearance at a local boutique.
Catch their newest edit of the video for Mr Green featuring live performance footage right here on Urban Pop Life and on their YouTube page,
Also, AWN is being featured on Tuesday January 13 under " this week in music " on MySpaceMusic.com.
www.myspace.com/awarriornation
This is latest in my on-going series of artist profiles. Shinique Smith is an artist whose work is extremely beautiful and thought provoking to me. I am looking forward to doing a more in-depth profile and interview in the near future. For now take a look at this brief profile based upon information from her gallery's website. If you enjoy her work google her and keep an eye open for upcoming shows of her work in your city.
Shinique Smith’s work begins with the collection and accumulation of discarded objects, spiritual philosophies, and words. Interested in the cosmic meeting the common, Smith creates vibrant two and three-dimensional compositions using salvaged materials and calligraphic strokes, redolent of graffiti and abstract expressionism. The poetic flux of marks creates visual mantras – that are at once loose and wild but prove to be harmonious and meditative in their finality. Smith is constantly balancing impulse with refrain, finding accord in the multitude of found objects and recycled words.
Many of the works are partly autobiographical, made up of personal items from past and present. Generations reveal themselves through the use of her grandmother’s old sheets and pillowcases, while her own recent pajama shirt was appropriated for Breakfast Face.
For Smith, binding and assembling is a ritualistic process that unifies displaced parts. She is interested in the cross-section of materials with spirit, culture, and identity, and in the traverse between painting and sculpture.
Shinique Smith was born and raised in Baltimore and received her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work has been exhibited throughout the world, including exhibitions at PS1/MOMA, New York, the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Scuola dell’Arte dei Tiraoro e Battioro in Venice, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, the 9th Istanbul Biennial, and the Ludwig Museum for Contemporary Art in Budapest.
October 31, 2008–April 5, 2009
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 4th Floor
Burning Down the House: Building a Feminist Art Collection is an exhibition of nearly fifty works focusing on recent acquisitions and major loans, including works by artists such as Kiki Smith, Tracey Emin, Tracey Moffatt, and Lorna Simpson.
The exhibition title refers to the idea of the “master’s house” from two perspectives: the museum as the historical domain of male artists and professed masters of art history, and the house as the supposed proper province of women.
Most of the paintings, sculpture, works on paper, and videos in the exhibition are by self-declared feminists and artists of later generations working within the historic framework of feminist art. The widely diverse forms and ideas on view suggest that feminist art is not limited to a specific look or reading.
Among the works on view are Carrie Mae Weems's Untitled (Man Smoking/Malcolm X), 1990, which explores human experience from the vantage point of an African American female subject; a "femmage" painting by Miriam Schapiro titled Agony in the Garden that pays homage to Frida Kahlo; a haunting print by Kara Walker of a self-empowered heroine from the American antebellum South; and a “bunny” sculpture by Nayland Blake that challenges constructions of masculinity. Among the important loans from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections is one of Hannah Wilke's major sculptures, Rosebud, from 1976.
Burning Down the House: Building a Feminist Art Collection is the latest in a series of exhibitions in the main temporary exhibition space of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. The exhibition is co-curated by Maura Reilly, founding curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum, and Nicole Caruth, independent curator and former Manager of Interpretative Materials, Brooklyn Museum.
Burning Down the House: Building a Feminist Art Collection is made possible by the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation.
Museum Hours *
Sunday
11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Monday and Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday – Friday
10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Saturday
11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
First Saturday of Each Month
11 a.m. – 11 p.m
The Brooklyn Museum has a suggested contribution of $8 for adults and $4 for Seniors and Students with valid I.D. Members and children under 12 accompanied by an adult are admitted for free. (Special pricing applies to children’s school groups and group tours for adults and college students.) Advance tickets to the Museum can be purchased online through Ticketmaster. By purchasing these tickets online you agree to pay the full suggested admission plus a $1.50 per ticket service charge. Should you wish to pay less than the suggested admission, you may do so by purchasing tickets at the Visitor Center in the Museum.
Join today to receive free admission to the Museum for one year and other special benefits. In addition, during the month of August Members may admit their guests for only $5 each.
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
Check out this photo I found online of three of the most talented artists on the planet.
left to right
Iona Rozeal Brown, Kehinde Wiley and Shinique Smith
November 21, 2008–March 29, 2009
Hall of the Americas, 1st Floor
This exhibition of twenty-five portraits by internationally renowned photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is a documentary project that explores being Black in America. Sanders also directed a series of filmed interviews conducted by noted film critic Elvis Mitchell that will be presented along with the photographs. Serena Williams, Chris Rock, Colin Powell, Toni Morrison, Russell Simmons, Al Sharpton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Sean Combs are among the many African Americans whose faces are seen and voices heard in The Black List Project. The images, photographic and filmed, are the core of the collaboration between Greenfield-Sanders and Mitchell that has resulted in The Black List: Volume One, an HBO documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 and was aired nationally for the first time in August 2008, and a multi-city museum exhibition organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The entire film will be presented at various times, to be announced, throughout the run of the exhibition.
The Black List Project: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and Elvis Mitchell has been organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Sponsored by Credit Suisse
Using kiosks in the gallery, visitors are sharing their personal experiences related to race and the impact it has had on their lives and accomplishments. Some people answered the questions, some people are just a lot of fun to watch and listen to. How has race affected your life? Please post your comments on my blog or send me links to your video response to this question. uptownsun@aol.com
Videos are uploaded directly to the Brooklyn Museum's The Black List Project YouTube Channel. Check out some of the videos here. The rest can view directly from the museums's YouTube Channel.
Duran Duran was one of the biggest bands in the modern rock era and definitely one the biggest acts of the 80's. Their synthpop was a major part of the soundtrack to my generations teen and college years. they had great songs, strong musicianship, huge live shows and of course they were the first rock band to ride the new medium of music videos to the top of the charts. The following excerpt below is from Wikipedia. At the bottom of this post are a collection of some of my favorite videos by the Fab Five.
The MTV cable channel and the band were launched at about the same time, and each had a hand in propelling the other to greater heights. MTV needed showcase videos with charismatic performers. Les Garland, senior executive vice president at MTV, said "I remember our director of talent and artist relations came running in and said, “You have got to see this video that’s come in.” Duran Duran were getting zero radio airplay at the time, and MTV wanted to try to break new music. “Hungry Like the Wolf” was the greatest video I’d ever seen".The band's video work was influential in several ways. First, Duran Duran filmed in exotic locales like Sri Lanka and Antigua, creating memorable images that were radically different from the then-common low budget "band-playing-on-a-stage" videos. Second, rather than simply playing their instruments, the band participated in mini-storylines (often taking inspiration from contemporary movies: "Hungry Like The Wolf" riffs on Raiders of the Lost Ark, "The Wild Boys" on The Road Warrior, etc.). Videos were obviously headed in this direction already, but Duran Duran led the trend with a style, featuring quick editing, arresting graphic design, and surreal-to-nonsensical image inserts, that drew attention from commentators and spawned a wealth of imitators.
Duran Duran were among the first bands to have their videos shot with a professional movie camera on 35 mm film, rather than on videotape with cheaper video cameras, making them look superior to many of the quickly and inexpensively shot videos which had been MTV staples until then. MTV provided Duran Duran with access to American radio markets that were unfriendly to British music, New Wave music, or "anything with synthesisers". Because MTV was not available everywhere in the United States at first, it was easy to see a pattern: where MTV went, listener demand for Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Def Leppard and other European bands with interesting videos went through the roof.
The band's sun-drenched videos for "Rio", "Hungry Like The Wolf" and "Save A Prayer", and the surreal "Is There Something I Should Know?" were filmed by future movie director Russell Mulcahy, who made eleven videos for the band. Duran Duran have always sought out innovative directors and techniques, even in their later years when MTV gave them little airplay. In addition to Mulcahy, they have had videos filmed by influential photographers Dean Chamberlain and Ellen von Unwerth, Chinese director Chen Kaige, documentary filmmaker Julien Temple, and the Polish Brothers, among others. According to Nick Rhodes, "Video is to us like stereo was to Pink Floyd".
In 1984, the band introduced video technology into their live stadium shows by being among the first acts to provide video screens above the stage. They have recorded concerts using IMAX and 360 degree panoramic "immersive video" cameras, with 10.2 channel audio. In 2000, they experimented with augmented reality technology, which allowed three-dimensional computer-generated images to appear on stage with the band.[50] They appeared on several century-end video countdowns: The MTV "100 Greatest Videos Ever Made" featured "Hungry Like The Wolf" at #11 and "Girls On Film" at #68, and the "VH1: 100 Greatest Videos" listed "Hungry" at #31 and "Rio" at #60. MTV named "Hungry" the fifteenth of their most-played videos of all time.
The band has released several video compilations, starting with the self-titled "video album" Duran Duran, for which they won a Grammy award, up to the 2004 two-disc DVD release Greatest, which included alternative versions of several popular videos as Easter eggs. In addition to Greatest, the documentary Sing Blue Silver, and the concert film Arena (both from 1984) were released on DVD in 2004. Live From London, a concert video from one of their sold-out 2004 reunion shows at Wembley Arena, was released in the fall of 2005.
Other video collections, concert films, and documentaries remain available only on videotape, and Duran Duran have not yet released a collection which includes all their videos. The band has said that a huge amount of unreleased concert and documentary footage has been filmed over the years, which they hope can be edited and released in some form in the near future. The video for "Falling Down" was released in October 2007.
Rio
Say A Prayer
Hungry Like The Wolf
Wild Boys
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
There's all kinds of art. Fine art (whatever the hell that's supposed to be...lol/I mean I am a fine artist, but I think it's a term invented to separate so called high art from the rest of it), commercial art, graphic art, performance art and so on. The kid I wanna introduce you to today is a graphic artist and illustrator named Jerome W. Harris.
Jerome is a Leo like me so you know we hit it off. However, its his talent that captured my attention. Over the last year or so he's done a number of jobs for me creating flyers and online advertisements. Having graduated from college he's out in the real world now making art and making money.
Check him out online and tell him Ricky Day sent ya. Trust me the kid is good!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwharris
I try my best NOT to get into politics or religion proper and I feel like I am pretty good at avoiding those issues. THIS IS NOT ABOUT RELIGION OR POLITICS, this is about love, respect, human dignity and human rights.
Check this out. It's one of those stories you hope isn't accurate, but down inside you sense it probably is. No matter what the details are I know that love, respect and human rights are real and somethin EVERY human being is entitled to.
RIP Jamal King and my prayers and my love is with you Waris Grant.
http://claycane.blogspot.com/2009/01/rest-in-peace-jamall-king.html
(He's still inside me and I love him and wanna be more like him...loving, honest, happy and impeccable with his word)
The purpose of this blog is to share. This is how I am feeling right now and I wanted to SHARE. Take these lyrics from one of my favorite Janet Jackson songs, stand in front of a mirror and read, recite or think about them in the first person. They are my truth and a truth I think we should all share about ourselves. I know it may sound sentimental or silly, but it's so very true.
Happy Friday. I love me and I LOVE YOU too.
"Doesn't Really Matter"
Hmm, he-he
Oh, hey
Doesn't matter (It doesn't matter)
Doesn't matter at all
Doesn't matter what your friends are telling you
Doesn't matter what my family's saying too
It just matters that I'm in love with you
It only matters that you love me too
It doesn't matter if they won't accept you
I'm accepting of you and the things you do
Just as long as it's you
Nobody but you, baby, baby
My love for you, unconditional love too
Gotta get up, get up
Get up, get up, get up and show you that it¡
Doesn't really matter what the eye is seeing
Cause I'm in love with the inner being
And it doesn't really matter what they believe
What matters to me is you're in love with me
Doesn't really matter what the eye is seeing
Cause I'm in love with the inner being
And it doesn't really matter what they believe
What matters to me is you're nutty-nutty-nutty for me
(You're so kind)
Just what I asked for, you're so loving and kind
(And you're mine)
And I can't believe you're mine
Doesn't matter if you're feeling insecure
Doesn't matter if you're feeling so unsure
Cause I'll take away the doubt within your heart
And show that my love will never hurt or harm
Doesn't matter what the pain we go through
Doesn't matter if the money's gone too
Just as long as I'm with you
Nobody but you, baby, baby
You're love for me, unconditional I see
Gotta get up, get up
Get up, get up, get up and show you that it¡
Doesn't really matter what the eye is seeing
Cause I'm in love with the inner being
And it doesn't really matter what they believe
What matters to me is you're in love with me
Doesn't really matter what the eye is seeing
Cause I'm in love with the inner being
And it doesn't really matter what they believe
What matters to me is you're nutty-nutty-nutty for me
(You're so kind)
Just what I asked for, you're so loving and kind
(And you're mine)
And I can't believe you're mine
Doesn't matter what they say
Cause you know I'm gonna love you anyway
Doesn't matter what they do
Cause my love will always be with you
My love for you unconditional love too
Gotta get up, get up
Get up, get up, get up and show you that
My love is true, and it's just for you, uh
Doesn't really matter what the eye is seeing
Cause I'm in love with the inner being
And it doesn't really matter what they believe
What matters to me is you're in love with me
Doesn't really matter what the eye is seeing
Cause I'm in love with the inner being
And it doesn't really matter what they believe
What matters to me is you're nutty-nutty-nutty for me
Nutty-nutty-nutty my love for you
I can't believe my dreams come true
I've finally found somebody whose heart is true
And best of all you love me to
And nutty-nutty-nutty my love for you
I can't believe my dreams come true
I've finally found somebody whose heart is true
And best of all you're nutty-nutty-nutty for me
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Nutty-nutty-nutty my love for you
I can't believe my dreams come true
(He-he)
I've finally found somebody whose heart is true
And best of all you're nutty-nutty-nutty for me
Nutty-nutty-nutty my love for you
(I'm always doing that!)
I can't believe my dreams come true
I've finally found somebody whose heart is true
And best of all you're nutty-nutty-nutty for me
Terry Lewis, james Harris III, Janet Jackson
I'm kind of a stay in da crib, make art, listen to music and be at peace kinda guy. However, sometimes you gotta get out and LIVE!!!!! I knew I had to peep the Nick Cave show at Jack Shainman Gallery (and it was CRAZZZZZZZZZYYYYYYYYY GOOD!!!!). The new work is incredible and I highly recommend seeing the show. As a matter of fact we are overdue on a field trip so maybe I will schedule one to see Nicks show.
Earlier in the day my relatively new homey (and brother in spirit) Malcolm Harris invited me to go with him to the opening events for the Stephen Sprouse show at Deitch Projects in SoHo. So after seeing Nick Cave's joint I bounced over to Soho to catch the Sprouse show. The show was great, the crowd waz a who's who of contemporary art scene icons as well icons and legends. Sprinkle in the stylish fashionistas, Marc Jacobs, Kehinde Wiley, my new friend to be June Ambrose (it was so much fun hangin with you), Emil Wilbeken (Giant Magazine) and of course the homey Malcolm Harris and it made for an event with style, class, sass and everything in between. In a word I had a blast!!!
Check out images from the show and make sure that you make you way down to check out one or both of these great shows. They ARE FREE OF CHARGE, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND MUST SEE EVENTS!!!
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
New York - Chelsea
Nick Cave
Recent Soundsuits
January 8 - Feb 7, 2009
Jack Shainman Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Recent Soundsuits, Nick Cave’s second solo exhibition at the gallery. A diverse selection of the highly imaginative, mixed-media, wearable sculptures, Soundsuits, for which Cave has become well-known, are on view starting January 8th. A row of suits of woven hair in vibrant colors, from fluorescent orange and lime green to royal blue, lines one wall in the back gallery. These creatures with their amorphous and undefined bodies are apparitions hovering between a human form and an abstract painting.
A U-shaped runway situated opposite these figures features another diverse group of Soundsuits, some with sleeker, formfitting bodysuits comprised of found fabrics and materials including buttons, sequins and beads that are combined and sewn together into intricate patterns and designs. Metal armatures adorned with a range of objects including painted ceramic birds, flowers, brass ornaments, and strands of beads, top the figures and serve as headdresses that activate the sculpture and provide a visual and textural contrast to the soft bodysuit. Soundsuits, named for the sounds made when the sculptures are worn, are as reminiscent of African and religious ceremonial costumes as they are of haute couture. A multitude of references bring to mind not only disparate cultural traditions but they also highlight Cave’s diverse background and artistic training.
513 West 20th Street
NY, NY 10011
info@jackshainman.com
____________________________________________________________
New York
The 11th Annual Postcards From the Edge Benefit
Start the new year off right -- 1,500 postcards unveiled at Metro Pictures!
January 9-10, 2009
Hosted by Metro Pictures
519 West 24th Street, NYC
Benefit Sale -- ONE DAY ONLY!
Saturday, January 10, 2009 from 11:00 - 7:00
$5, suggested admission
Over 1,500 original postcard-sized works of art.
$75 EACH. Buy 4 cards and get 1 free!
First-come, first served.
Preview Party
Friday, January 9, 2009 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Your only chance to get a sneak peek at the entire show. No sales but one lucky winner will select any postcard! $75 admission includes one raffle ticket. Additional raffle tickets $20.
___________________________________________________________
New York
KALUP LINZY
Artist Talk + Screening
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
6:30 pm
Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI)
535 West 22nd Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10011
www.eai.org
Admission free
EAI is pleased to present a screening and talk with artist Kalup Linzy. The evening will include the New York premier of Linzy's new video, Keys To Our Heart, which was created for Prospect.1 New Orleans in 2008. Linzy will also screen two recent works, Melody Set Me Free (2007) and SweetBerry Sonnet (Remixed) (2008). The artist will be present to introduce and speak about these works, as well as his practice in video, performance and music. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with the artist.
In his videos and performances, Kalup Linzy creates satirical narratives inspired by television soap operas and Hollywood melodramas. In works that take an irreverent approach to stereotypes of race, gender and sexuality, Linzy performs, most often in drag, in a series of memorable roles. The artist also voices and overdubs the dialogue of multiple characters. At once comic, raunchy and poignant, Linzy's unique narrative videos fuse dramatic intensity with melodramatic irony.
Filmed on location in New Orleans, Linzy's newest work, Keys To Our Heart, is a black-and-white narrative in which the artist stars as a misanthropic grande dame who dispenses advice to a trio of troubled young lovers. Linzy, who performs all of the characters' dialogue, shot and directed Keys To Our Heart in the style of a Hollywood melodrama. Keys To Our Heart was commissioned by Creative Capital.
Melody Set Me Free is an alternately hilarious and heartbreaking narrative about contestants in an American Idol-style talent show competition and their quest for fame and stardom. Writes Linzy, "Vying to win a recording contest, they must take a Whitney Houston song and make it their own." SweetBerry Sonnet (Remixed) is a remixed version of Linzy's recent "video anthology." In a series of music videos that were made to accompany the songs on Linzy's 2008 album, SweetBerry Sonnet, Linzy performs as several of his recurring characters; the songs trace a melodramatic arc of love and desire.
EAI is proud to announce that a selection of Kalup Linzy's video work is now available through EAI. Please visit www.eai.org for more information.
Kalup Linzy was born in 1977 in Stuckey, Florida. He received a BFA in 2000 and an MFA in 2003, both from the University of South Florida in Tampa. He also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He has received awards from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Creative Capital Foundation, and the Jerome Foundation. He has had solo exhibitions in The Moore Space, Miami, FL; Taxter & Spengemann, New York, NY; and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY. He has been included in group exhibitions at Zacheta National Museum, Warsaw, Poland; Studio Museum, Harlem, NY; Glasgow International: Festival of Contemporary Visual Art, Glasgow, Scotland; The Hydra School Project, Hydra, Greece; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The El Salvador Biennial; Moscow Biennial, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, among others. He has performed and screened work at venues including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; British Film Institute, London, and Beursschouwburg, Brussels, Belgium. Linzy's work was included in Prospect.1 New Orleans in 2008. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
_________________________________________________________
Los Angeles
Lester Monzon
Do Not Alter
January 10 - February 14, 2009
Opening reception Saturday, January 10, 6-9pm.
Overview
Under the guise of pursuing abstract painting, Lester Monzon is actually a representational painter. What he represents are images of abstraction. He is not the first painter to follow this path. He comes from a rich, if somewhat recent tradition.
Like the Brushstroke series of Roy Lichtenstein, Monzon's brushstrokes are not passionate bursts of expression the way the work of Franz Kline may be; they are calculated and highly rendered images of brushstrokes. Monzon's work shares this same intellectual approach even though it may appear to be lush and expressionistic. Monzon's brushstrokes are not traces of impassioned gestures - they are fetishes.
Monzon began his career painting textile patterns - stripes and plaids from his own collection of shirts and boxer shorts. From the outset he was walking a line between dutifully representing his world and simply pursuing hard edge abstraction.
His new work presents the viewer with a double layer: the background is hard-edged, reminiscent of the work of Brigit Riley or in some cases an overt tip of the hat to Gerhard Richter, although the patterns are now beginning to break apart becoming less regimented or predictable. Floating slightly over this ground so as not to produce too great a depth, are his rendered brushstrokes. Now and then these strokes fall under the background like a weaving in a textile, which is where the work began. And perhaps for the first time we begin to see real abstraction, a real brushstroke here and there, painted almost transparently as if hiding in plain sight.
Kinkead Contemporary
6029 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232
T 310.838.7400
F 310.838.7474
Gallery Hours:
Tues - Sat 11-6
John Kinkead, Director
john@kinkeadcontemporary.com
Whitney Carter, Assistant Director
whitney@kinkeadcontemporary.com
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
Rock on Mars, a retrospective exhibition of the work of Stephen Sprouse
January 09, 2009 — February 28, 2009
18 Wooster Street, New York
Rock on Mars, a retrospective exhibition of the work of Stephen Sprouse, will transform Deitch Projects’s 18 Wooster Street gallery into a realization of Sprouse’s rock and roll futuristic vision.
Stephen Sprouse (1953-2004) was one of the most influential fashion designers of his time and a key figure in the dynamic mix of punk rock, wild style graffiti, and street influenced fashion that characterized the downtown New York community in the early 1980s. He was one of the first to build on the influence of Andy Warhol to create a fusion of art, music and fashion. He continued on a course that disavowed any division among these fields throughout his career.
The exhibition will introduce Sprouse’s extraordinary pop-influenced paintings to the larger art audience. His paintings of iconic rock and roll imagery including stacks of loudspeakers, Sid Vicious with his pants down, and an Iggy Pop crucifixion, have rarely been seen. The show will also include a selection of the video works made to accompany his runway shows, examples of his fabric and furniture design for Knoll, and fifty of his most influential fashion looks.
In conjunction with the exhibition project, Marc Jacobs has created a new collection for Louis Vuitton, inspired by Sprouse’s famous collaboration with Louis Vuitton in 2001, which featured the classic monogram bag scrawled with Stephen Sprouse graffiti. The new limited edition Stephen Sprouse – Louis Vuitton collection will be available in Louis Vuitton stores worldwide from January 9, 2009, the opening date of the exhibition.
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"How To Attract Men" a retrospective exhibit of the art of Liz Renay
January 09, 2009 — January 31, 2009
76 Grand Street, New York
Deitch Projects and the Burlesque Hall of Fame present "How To Attract Men" a retrospective exhibit of the art of Liz Renay. Pre-pop , Pre-punk, and an outsider on the inside- Liz Renay created her own reality and an enormous body of work along the way including four books, three dozen films and miles of printed publicity. In the first New York showing of her paintings in fifty years, Deitch Projects 76 Grand Street gallery will feature original paintings as well as a salon of important collages, costumes, and artifacts from Ms. Renay's archives in the Burlesque Hall of Fame.
Liz’s life story weaves itself through almost every American subculture during her life time-burlesque, the Hollywood studio system, television, rock and roll, sexploitaion and punk films, the mafia and women's prison. She precipitated and participated in the sexual revolution. Through it all she created a large body of paintings and art. This work would seem unbelievable if created by any other artist- but in the case of Liz Renay, it is a direct reflection of a life as art.
Contact Deitch
76 Grand Street
New York, NY 10013
p: 212.343.7300
f: 212.343.2954
e: info@deitch.com
SoHo Locations
76 Grand Street
Open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 12PM to 6PM
18 Wooster Street
Open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 12PM to 6PM
Long Island City Location
Deitch Studios
4-40 44th Drive
Open to the public Thursday through
Sunday from 2PM to 8PM
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
After I left you
I found I can't be so far
And so long away
And here I am, huh
Getting ready to get on this train And I don't have anybody to talk to
But myself
You can't even hear me
And my words cannot convey my feeling
Manchester, England looks a lot like me today
Ain't no sunshine in the feelin'
I thought about you as I got aboard the train
Ain't no truth in the believing
It's the natural thing to think of you
After all we've been through
Do you ever think of me at night
Wondering why I left your world undone
Where's California [Far from Liverpool]
So very far from you [Far from lovin' you]
Ooh, baby, did I warn ya [Baby, did I warn ya]
I'd take your love to Liverpool [Where's California]
Don't it make you wonder
I called your mama and I asked her what to bring
She said London fog would be the thing
I couldn't find the fog, the Beatles, or myself
This pain in my heart is above all I have felt
But it's the natural thing to think of you
After all we've been through
Do you ever think of me at night
Wondering why I left your world undone
Where's California [Far from Liverpool]
So very far from you [Far from lovin' you]
Ooh, baby, did I warn ya [Baby, did I warn ya]
I'd take your love to Liverpool [Where's California]
Don't it make you wonder
Don't it make you wonder why
Don't it make you wanna break down and cry
Don't it make you wonder why
Don't it make you wonder
Over and over and over again
Finding it hard to pretend
Where's California [Far from Liverpool]
So very far, so very far from you [Far from lovin' you]
Ooh, baby, did I warn ya [Baby, did I warn ya]
I'd take your love to Liverpool [Where's California]
And where's [Where's California ] California [Far from Liverpool]
So very, so very far, so very far from you
Ooh...ooh...woo...ooh...ooh... [Far from you]
Oh, where's [Where's California] are you [Far from Liverpool]
Far away
Teena Marie
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
This year I plan to do alot more artist profiles in an effort to turn you all on to even more great artists. Though I will continue to profile major artists like the one I am profiling today I will profile alot more of the great emerging talent out there. Artists like myself who are doing our thing, but not on the radar screens yet of the major collectors and 'establishment.'
Todays profile is of a great artist who I've had a chance to meet on a couple of occasions. He work is inspiring and very interesting to me. His name is Mark Bradford.
Mark Bradford was and born in my hometown of Los Angeles, California. He studied at the California Institute of the Arts, located at Valencia, California, U.S., earning an MFA in 1997 and a BFA in 1995. Mark is known for grid-like abstract paintings combining collage with paints. He has won the Bucksbaum Award (2006), the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2003), the Nancy Graves Foundation Grant (2002) and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award. Bradford has exhibited in the Sao Paulo Biennial (2006), Whitney Biennial (2006), Liverpool Biennial (2006), ARCO 2003 in Madrid, In Site at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Centro Cultural de Tijuana, USA Today at The Royal Academy in London, and Street Level (2007) at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. The Los Angeles Times newspaper insert of "West" magazine featured an eight page article on the artist, June 11, 2006.
Mark creates large-scale works on canvas that deploy techniques and materials to spectacular effect. he appropriates imagery from his surroundings, the artist pairs an examination of the formal issues of abstraction and figuration with sociological questions regarding systems of culture, communication, and exchange in his Los Angeles neighborhood. Found elements incorporated into his work, include permanent-wave endpapers, hair, foil, scraps of paper, and remnants of posters from abandoned lots, telephone poles, and fences. Bradford collages these materials onto canvas and then paints or sands away elements, often retracing underlying text. In his work, the collaged materials take on the character of cartographic grids and lines become an appropriate metaphor for the cultural mapping from which they emerged.
Bradford's paintings are part of an artistic practice that includes videos, prints, and sculptural installations. For the 2008 Carnegie International he has also created an installation on the rooftop of the museum. Inspired by the stranded victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, he has spelled out the words "HELP US" in a work visible only from an aerial viewpoint. (from CMOA.org)
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
I've been running into all these high school friends on Facebook lately and it's kinda cool. If you combine that with my love of 80's music it's a recipe for a flashback phase and I feel one coming on strong. While updating my blog this morning I was listening to my 80's playlist and this song and group jumped out at me.
Missing Persons had a huge hit with this joint and wild video to go with it. Adults 35 - 45 before you look at some kid and go off about them walking around with sagging jeans on remember what we thought was cool...LOL.
Enjoy.
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
I decided to move forward by taking a humorous look back. Mothers and Facebook what do they have in common? Well they both have the potential to remind you of phases of your life you'd rather not reflect on (like the time when you had a jheri curl, or when you were a 98 pound weakling or when you wore glasses).
Both Facebook and Mothers also have a way of making you feel good. Reconnecting with who you were helps you to have some perspective about who you are and it is very valuable indeed.
I'm not gonna bore you all with stories of my childhood or high school years, but I will share two pictures that I recently came into contact with. The double exposure shot was on proud display at my Mother's place during Xmas and the high school photo is courtesy of my old classmate and current home girl Yvonne Napier who has her own blog coming soon. It's a shot of me and my homey Leon who passed away quite some time ago (I miss you homey).
It's ok for you to laugh at me. I got a kick out of doing it myself. Special shout out to my departed Uncle Leonard who taught me a lot about style and who helped me pick out the Velvet blazer I was wearing in the shot. Believe it or not it WAS stylish at the time...lol.
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net
Happy 2009 everyone. I'm not usually one for taking breaks, but after a very long, productive, exciting, tragic and exhausting 2008 I actually took a little time off at the end of the year like a normal person. Boy did I need the rest. I'm still reluctant to get back to work, but I had no choice.
I sincerely hope this year is a great one for each of us. I am looking forward to building upon the successes of last year, further developing some of the new relationships in my life (both professional and social), watching (and doing my part to help) our new President and Congress start to clean up this mess, and to simply enjoy the gift that is life.
I was pleasantly surprised by the positive response and meteoric growth of this blog. This year I look forward to interacting and sharing with you even more. Keep your eyes open for new blog features and lots of the same types of content you've come to expect.
I've got a busy year planned and I'm not gonna tell you everything now, but know this..."you haven't seen nothin yet!"
From painting, sculpture, installation and collage to music and video and live performance. 2009 will be filled with great art, great fun and great expectations and achievement.
Let's get to it and get it "POPPIN."
For my info on me visit my official website
www.rickyday.net