Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
The Serpentine Gallery presents an exhibition of the work of the celebrated American artist Jeff Koons, his first major exhibition in a public gallery in England.
Working in thematic series since the early 1980s, Koons has explored notions of consumerism, taste, banality, childhood and sexuality. He is known for his meticulously fabricated works that draw on a variety of objects and images from American and consumer culture.
For his exhibition at the Gallery, Koons presents paintings and sculptures from his Popeye series, which he began in 2002.
The works incorporate some of Koons’s signature ideas and motifs, including surreal combinations of everyday objects, cartoon imagery, art-historical references and children’s toys.
The sculptures on show continue Koons’s interest in casting inflatable toys. Those typically used by children in a swimming pool are cast in aluminium, their surfaces painted to bear an uncanny resemblance to the original objects. He juxtaposes these replica readymades with unaltered everyday objects, such as chairs or rubbish bins. The paintings are complex and layered compositions that combine disparate images both found and created by Koons, including images of the sculptures in the series.
Featuring loans from both public and private collections, the exhibition also includes works that have never been shown publicly before.The immediately recognisable figures of Popeye and Olive Oyl are central in the series and appear in several prominent works within the exhibition. One of the most iconic American comicstrip characters, Popeye was conceived 80 years ago this year in 1929 when the Great Depression was taking hold. In Popeye’s early years, the cartoon addressed the hardships and injustices of the time and, in this current period of economic recession, he is a fitting character to rediscover and explore.
Koons has used inflatables in his work since the late 1970s; one of his most iconic sculptures, Rabbit, 1986, is an inflatable bunny rendered in reflective stainless steel. He has also made sculptures on a spectacular scale inspired by inflatables, including works from his monumental Celebration series.
Jeff Koons was born in York, Pennsylvania, in 1955. His work has been widely exhibited internationally and his most recent solo exhibitions include presentations at the Château de Versailles, France; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, all in 2008. Koons lives and works in New York.
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Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
Welcome to the largest outdoor art exhibition in Canada!
Now in its 48th year, the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition [TOAE] is a juried showcase featuring contemporary fine art and craft that takes place on Nathan Phillips Square every July.
As the largest outdoor art exhibition in Canada, the TOAE offers a fresh-air alternative to conventional art shows and galleries. More than 500 artists participate and an estimated 100,000 visitors attend the exhibition every year. Side by side, established artists, undiscovered talents and innovative students sell their work directly to the public and make lasting connections with art dealers and collectors.
In 2008, the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition’s award program presented over $35,000 in cash awards and prizes to participating artists. Click on Awards to view the complete list of award winners from the 2008 exhibition.
The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition is a charitable, non-profit organization supported by a group of volunteers active in the art and corporate communities. The exhibition is financed through registration fees, and by government, corporate and individual sponsors, enabling the TOAE to charge one of the lowest registration fees in North America. No percentage of the artists’ sales is taken by the organizers.
Selection Criteria
The TOAE juries look for design excellence, quality, workmanship and originality. The sales potential of the artwork is not a consideration.
The TOAE Board is primarily interested in showcasing innovative artists who excel in their chosen media. Past exhibitors are encouraged to re-apply and the jury looks for demonstrated progression in the work of these artists.
Only original art will be considered for showing. Reproductions, such as note cards, postcards, T-shirts or posters will not be considered nor allowed on display. Work created from assembly kits or manufactured items are also unacceptable.
This exhibition is for individual artist participants only. Artists working as a collaborative team on each and every art piece created can be considered as an individual submission. Companies, artist representatives and dealers are not eligible to participate.
Artists will be considered under one media category per submission of ten images. Artists who wish to show in more than one category must apply with an additional submission fee and 10 images in the second category.
Application requirements for the jury process include:
- 10 professional quality digital images or 35mm slides representative of the work specifically intended for the exhibition.
- A corresponding description of each image on a separate sheet including title, medium, size, year of completion, slide/image number and artist’s name. The artist’s name must not appear on the projected image, except as it may appear as a signature on the work itself, since all submissions are considered anonymously.
- Artist statement and/or resume
Slides and digital images are viewed by the jury selection committee using a projection system. It is crucial for your images to be clear and large enough to be projected properly. Good quality images are paramount!
Jury panels are arranged according to media, made up of four members of the TOAE Board of Directors and one outside juror. A different panel of judges, invited from the arts community, will jury for awards during the exhibition.
Decisions made by the jury of the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition are final.
2009 Jury: Frances Patella, Jury Committee Chair; Jen Anisef, Flavio Belli, Cali Balles, Ross Bonfanti, Jim Bourke, Susan Card, Tony Calzetta, Barry Coombs, Patti Cooke, Teodoro Dragonieri, Judith Geher, Arlene Gehring, Temma Gentles, Rafael Goldchain, Heather Goodchild, Sylvia Jones, Sholem Kristalka, Marci Kroft, Liz Pead, Michele Perras, Sara Levine Petroff, Joseph Muscat, Steve Rockwell, Carol-Ann Ryan, Gail Sax, Allison Skinner, Valerie Steele, Adriana Suppa, Daryl Vocat, Monika Wagner, and Edie Yeomans.
For more information please visit www.torontooutdoorart.org
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Monday, August 10th, 2009
Devoted to graffiti and street art, the exhibition Born in the Streets—Graffiti will bring to light the extraordinary expansion of an artistic movement that developed in the streets of New York in the early 1970s to rapidly become a world-wide phenomenon. Today, graffiti has entered the cultural mainstream, crossing over to the realms of studio art, design and advertising. Yet despite its immense popularity, this essentially illegal activity continues to evolve at the periphery of the contemporary art world, its origins and evolution little-known to the general public. The exhibition at the Fondation Cartier attempts to sketch the general contours of a subject that is vast and complex, encompassing many different ideas, media and movements across its boundaries. With Basco Vazko (Santiago Chili), Cripta (São Paulo), JonOne (Paris), Olivier Kosta-Théfaine (Paris), Barry McGee (San Francisco), Nug (Stockholm), Evan Roth (Honk-Kong), Boris Tellegen / Delta (Amsterdam), Vitché (São Paulo) and Gérard Zlotykamien (Paris)
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Monday, August 10th, 2009
A world class collection of contemporary and historical dress. Located in the magnificent Georgian Assembly Rooms, the Fashion Museum offers more than 150 figures dressed in original garments on display. Special displays for 2009/10: ‘Dresses from History’ – Georgian, Regency and Victorian dress; ‘Dress of the Year’ until 20 September 2009; ‘Bill Gibb: A Personal Journey’ until 15 November 2009; ‘The Story of the Supremes from the Mary Wilson Collection’ 25 July – 31 August 2009; ‘Photographing Fashion: British Style in the 1960s’ 3 October 2009 and continuing; ‘Hats, Shoes and Bags’ 5 December 2009 and continuing. For more information go to www.fashionmuseum.co.uk
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Monday, August 10th, 2009
A stunning exhibition of nearly 50 portraits by Cecil Beaton, one of the most famous photographers of the 20th century, captures the glamour and excitement of some of the world’s greatest celebrities.
Cecil Beaton: Portraits 26 June – 31 August 2009 brilliantly reflects the astonishing talents of the photographer who was also a writer, artist, designer, actor, caricaturist, illustrator and diarist.
He photographed a dazzling array of superstars and leading personalities ranging from the Queen to Mick Jagger, Marilyn Monroe to Audrey Hepburn and Winston Churchill to Lucian Freud.
Beaton (1904 – 1980) was himself a charismatic character who could charm and cajole, amuse and flirt, electrify and calm. He was known for his elegant sartorial style which exactly matched and reflected the circles he moved in.
His long career covered an era of great change from the Roaring Twenties to the dawn of the New Romantics.
Jessica Feather, Walker curator, says:
“Cecil Beaton had a remarkable gift of bringing out the personalities and flair of his sitters so that he created some of the great iconic images of the age. The portraits still cast a spell with their timeless appeal, giving deep insights into the extraordinary people who came before his camera.”
Beaton’s career as a photographer began with his earliest portraits of his sister Baba taken in 1922, when he was a teenager.
After Cambridge, his early photographs were published in society magazines The Sketch, Tatler and Eve from 1925 onwards. In 1927, 23-year-old Beaton secured a contract with Vogue to provide portraits, caricatures and social commentary. His career – with the exception of two short breaks – continued with Vogue for the rest of his life.
In the 1930s he published books packed with glamorous portraits and artwork and photographed the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Wallis Simpson. Beaton also took a striking series of romantic studies of Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother).
His work took on a grittier aspect during the war and post-war years when he worked for the Ministry of Information and as an official war photographer.
Beaton reached the height of his powers in the 1950s and 60s when he became a household name. As well as creating great portraits of a new generation of film actresses such as Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, he won Oscars for his design work in the blockbuster films Gigi and My Fair Lady.
Knighted in 1972, Beaton had a stroke in 1974 but returned to photography three years later. Among his subjects in his final years were fashion designers and international celebrities.
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