eyesing

Matisse for today

Shara Hughes interiors seem quite modern day Matisse to me. Me likey.

She's represented by the uber-cool NY gallery, Rivington Arms. I can tell that the ladies who founded the gallery are wildly innovative because they have brazenly flouted convention and included a couple of comprehensible sentences about some of their artists, rather than just bunging up a loooong and massively boooooring list of exhibitions that nobody can be bothered to read.

One small step for gallery owners...

Anyway...

Regardez les arts!

Ladies Room

Ceiling Fan

It's Romantic Honey

Valentine's Day

Fort of Labrynthitus

Fitness Room

More information
Rivington Arms, NY
Saatchi Gallery
Parts Gallery, Toronto
Time Out review of her Museum 52 show, Shoreditch, London

Stitch in a ditch - Orly Cogan

Being pulled in two direction at the moment...

Part of me is really enjoying Orly Cogan work (embroidered figures on vintage needlework pieces) and part of me is freaken bummed that I didn’t do it myself. Especially annoying considering I’ve flirted with the embroidery myself but been unhappy with the “newness” of the backing fabric I’ve bought and there have been umpteen occasions when I’ve gone through big op shop piles of vintage tablecloths etc thinking “these are so lovely but what would I do with them?”

Cogan told The Coveted, "In a time with constantly shifting boundaries that define our relationships and our identities, I am interested in exploring some common feminine archetypes and stereotypes. Searching for that odd thing, the Feminist Beauty Queen. I mix subversion with flirtation, humor with power and intimacy with frivolity. I am drawn to dichotomies such as soft and tough, dirty and clean, fantasy and reality, especially as they relate to gender. It's been said that I "eroticses the very nature of linens and the act of hand sewing."

Damn Orly Cogan and her fancy needlework, successful NY art career and groovy name!

Double Eve

Mirror Mirror

Animal Farm

Thinking of Venus

Braiding

More info
orlycogan.com
Hammer Gallery, Chicago
Work on sale at artnet
Karin Sanders Gallery, New York
Brooklyn Museum
Projects Gallery, Philadelphia

Del Kathryn Barton's Unofficial Blog

That's what it feels like this blog is turning into... the udder-obsessed artist is $50,000 richer after winning the 2008 Archibald Prize with her self-portrait, You are what is most beautiful about me, a self portrait with Kell and Arell. Kell and Arell are her children, of whom she said, "Both my children have taken my world by storm and very little compares to the devotion I feel for them both. The intensity of this emotion is not something that I could have prepared myself for. The alchemy of life offered forth from my inhabitable woman's body is perhaps the greatest gift of my life."

Awwwww

More information
Sydney Morning Herald
Melbourne newspaper, The Age. Note the headline "Sydney artist wins Archibald." Only a Melbourne journo would feel the need to point out that the winner is from Sydney. Hello metropolis-sized chip on city's shoulder.
Archibald Prize website

Knock me over with a feather

Do my eyes deceive me? Has Del Kathryn Barton really painted a boy... wearing clothing...

can you tell me my dream 2007
synthetic polymer paint, gouache, watercolour & ink on polyester canvas
140.0 x 120.0 cm

See Barton's latest luscious and lascivious work at
Karen Woodbury Gallery,
4 Albert Street
Richmond, Victoria
5 March - 5 April 2008

Wiener

I've been to Wien.

That's Vienna for those of you who don't speak sprechen sie deutsch.

I didn't like Wien that much.

I slipped over and none of the uptight Wien inhabitants gave me even so much as a "guten tag."

Also, a ticket inspector was going to fine me for fare evasion on the tram, but I ran away.

Anyway, I do like wiener schnitzel and roti.

And now I know, I also like Wiener Werkstätte, or Vienna Workshop, which according to the wiki gods "was founded in 1913 and created works of craftsmanship in a very distinctive style, the Wiener Werkstätte Style. The workshop mainly dealt with creating jewelry, fabrics for clothing, ceramics and pottery, and furniture, all characterized by simple shapes, minimal decoration and geometric patterning." The roll call included names like Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele.

Here are some lovely pieces of jewellery and cutlery.

Gut!

More information
Shop online for reproduction Wiener Werkstätte modeschmuk etc here
Visit the Wiener Werkstätte museum in Vienna

Crazy Hat Lady

No denying Anna Piaggi has a fabulous way with clothing. I can't help wondering why she dresses the way she does. How does she feel waltzing around in her colourful garb? Does she want to stand out or do the hat, clown make up, blue hair and cacophony of prints create a suit of armour to hide behind? I know when I'm dressed up, with make up, heels and fancy frock, I hold myself with more composure and confidence compared to when I'm bumming around in tracksuit pants. Does Piaggi want to take that feeling of "this is me at my best" as far as she can or does she find herself sans makeup, blue hair and top hat completely unpresentable to the outside world?

Ponder, ponder...

It's cool to see Piaggi when she was younger, but am I alone in thinking she seems more fabulous and fascinating now than she did 30 years ago?

With her friend Karl Lagerfeld

More information
Hundreds of photos on style.com
style.com beauty icon
Lots of old pics
International Herald Tribune feature
Q&A on telegraph.co.uk
Victoria & Albert Museum exhibition, Fashion-ology, curated by Piaggi

For whom the Del tolls

Apologies for lame heading.

Everyone's favourite, most collectible Aussie artist, Del Kathryn Barton, is a finalist in the 2008 Archibald Prize.

You are what is most beautiful about me, a self portrait with Kell and Arella
Del Kathryn Barton

More info
Archibald website
The other finalists here

Hairy down there - Guillaume Pinard

Don't know about you but Guillaume Pinard's work makes me think of the hair you find down there... in a good way...

It's all a bit of a hirsute "Where the Wild Things Are" n'est pas? (which is incidentally being made into film by Spike Jonze and written Dave Eggers!!! How exciting is that? Hope they do it justice. How dev if they f#ck it up.)

More info
Team Gallery, New York
Guillaume Pinard's website in french
New York Times article

George Clooney turns my legs to jelly

Actually he doesn't... at all..

Anyway, portrait of George Clooney in jelly beans.

I kind of like it...

By George Rochas for Jelly Bellys in honour of Clooney's Oscar nomination for his role in Michael Clayton.

SMH article

Bloody Carine

Back in the day (ie the early 90s) when forest green suede parkas were de rigueur and Kate Moss was just a bandy-legged teen from Croydon, UK magazine The Face was the coolest thing on the planet. Every month I would gobble up its morsels of youth culture fabulousness like a hungry puppy.

To this day, there are still a few images from the mag have seared themselves onto my memory – the cover of Kurt Cobain in a dress, Bjork submerged in Icelandic thermal baths with her lookalike son… and these images… Eva Herzigova as a butcher. Yes, you read right, Eva Herzigova, face of Wonderbra, famous for her boobs, Bridget Bardot bouncy blonde beauty, blood-smeared, washed out and holding a lump of bloody mince meat. I'd never seen anything like it, and the gory subject matter and surprising representation of a famous supermodel had quite an effect on me.

At the time, I didn’t take in the names of the stylist and photographer, but after reading this article in the Guardian I was fascinated to realise these disturbing/intriguing images were created by none other than Carine Rotfield, now editor of Vogue Paris and celebrity photographer, Mario Testino.

If you flick through any of Rotfield’s issues of Vogue Paris you’ll see she still makes subversive choices. Unlike most fashion editors who direct other stylists to make sense of trends for their readers (New Seaon Florals, Nautical Stripes, Glamorous Skinny Model in Evening Clothing etc), Rotfield still acts as stylist. And under her editorship, Vogue Paris has become a space where she and her collaborators (Emmanuelle Alt, Juergen Teller, Mario Testino, Terry Richardson) examine the cult of celebrity, art, stereotypes, glamour, scandal, dignity and infamy.

L'icone
Styling by Carine Rotfield
Photography Mario Testino
August 2007

Just Married
Styled by Emmanuelle Alt
Photographed by Terry Richardson
February 2008

L'idole
Styled by Emmanuelle Alt
Photographed by Peter Lindbergh
February 2008

Cindy Sherman
Stylist and photographer Cindy Sherman
All clothing Balenciaga
August 2007

More information
Vogue Paris
Carine Rotfield interview, The Guardian
Cindy Sherman