Click here to read The New York Times “The Moment” story!

“How They Got the Shot” considers Hasted Hunt Kraeutler‘s new exhibit, “Great Photographs of the 20th Century: Staged & Startled,” a look behind-the-scenes-at 22 famous photos from the last century. Hope you enjoy!

“Objects of Life,” a collaborative exhibit by rock legend Patti Smith and fashion photographer Steven Sebring, opened this week at the Robert Miller Gallery. It’s a complement to the pair’s Sundance-award winning documentary, “Dream of Life.” It’s also a must -see. For more info, check out my review for The New York Times Style Magazine.

Check out my interview with Dutch designer Marcel Wanders for Clear Magazine‘s December issue here. Marcel was a real pleasure, speaking about his new retrospective exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (his first major solo show in the US), how he’s changed as a designer over the last two decades, his latest collaborations, and what he’s learned in his career thus far….

*images courtesy of Marcel Wanders Studio and Clear Magazine

This winter, the Art Institute of Chicago presents German designer Konstantin Grcic‘s first US solo show. Grcic has made a career of subverting and reinterpreting familiar social and cultural references in such a way as to make them strangely, fascinatingly, unfamiliar. His minimalistic work sharpens the senses, making us question common objects we so often take for granted, and how they define the spaces in which we move. Chairs, desks, lamps, kitchen equipment, you name it: all just different enough to raise our antennae, but still recognizably approachable.

I had the opportunity to preview the exhibit for Clear Magazine‘s December issue, and the full story is available by clicking here.

"Seasick Yet Still Docked", series by Mark Joshua Epstein

"Seasick Yet Still Docked", series by Mark Joshua Epstein

The “CurlyQ” multimedia group show opens this Friday, November 20th, 7-9pm.
Hosted by Jack the Pelican Presents: 487 Driggs Ave., Brooklyn, NY.

Featuring work by:

Lars Kremer
Rob Fisher
Mary Ting
Mark Joshua Epstein
Ian Brownlee
Joseph Cavalieri
Nola Romano
Matt Hansel
Charles Birnbaum
George Jenne
Yuanyuan Yang
Elia Alba
Ira Eduardovna

"Amy Winehouse May 18, 2007;" photograph by Max Vadukul; 24 x 36 in. (61 x 91.4 cm) © Max Vadukul Lender: Max Vadukul; courtesy of Brooklyn Museum of Art

Next week,  the Brooklyn Museum opens an exhibit solely devoted to rock ‘n’ roll photographers from 1955 through today.

Who Shot Rock & Roll will feature an impressive collection for sure, featuring around 175 photos by 105 photographers: including everything from Andreas Gursky‘s nine-by-seven-foot tour-de-force of Madonna performing in 2001, to Don Hunstein‘s photo of Bob Dylan walking with then girlfriend Suze Rotolo down a snowy Greenwich Village street, to Dennis Hopper‘s photo of James Brown, surrounded by female fans, to the contact sheet of Bob Gruen‘s portrait of John Lennon in a sleeveless New York City t-shirt, or Amy Winehouse on her wedding day (above), shot by Max Vadukul, and William “Red” Robertson’s 1955 portrait of a pelvis-thrusting Elvis, which later became his first album cover.

Most photos are on loan from the photographers’ personal collections.

The exhibit will also include music videos by artists featured in the exhibit, an 80-image slide show and a rock ‘n’ roll chronology made out of actual album covers.

Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History opens October 30, 2009, and runs through January 31, 2010. For more info, visit www.brooklynmuseum.org

For his newest series, “Alteration,” artist/sculptor Greg Lauren has hand-sewn treated Japanese paper to simulate various materials (wool, cotton, gabardine), frayed edges, wrinkles and folds. Each of his paper garments represents a different male character or archetype, all personally relevant to Lauren (who happens to be the nephew of fashion legend Ralph Lauren), and painstakingly crafted over the last year and a half. Each piece explores complex ideas regarding inherited ideals, and the stimuli one encounters on the way to owning his individual identity. As Lauren says, “I was taught to dress like Cary Grant and JFK, but actually felt more like Charlie Chaplin or Oliver Twist.” The resulting pieces are absolutely incredible – beautiful, exacting, layered with multiple meanings. The show is on view at 28 Wooster Street through November 1st. For more info, check out my review at clearmag.com.

Personal Edition Crochet Chair by Marcel Wanders

This November, the Philadelphia Museum of Art welcomes visionary Dutch designer Marcel Wanders in a self-designed, self-curated exhibition called “Marcel Wanders: Daydreams.” This will be a dreamlike, multimedia installation of objects personally selected by Wanders to represent pivotal points in his 20+ year career. Video images, lighting, and sound will illuminate his creative development over the years.

New films—detailing Wanders’s design process and philosophy in projects ranging from manufactured products, hotel interiors, and design art—will also make their public debut at the retrospective. The films’ soundscapes will provide Wanders’s personal views on design.

“Marcel Wanders: Daydreams”
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Curated by Kathryn Hiesinger
November 22, 2009- June 13, 2010

For more information, visit Philadelphia Museum of Art.
And look for my interview w/Wanders coming up in the next issue of Clear Magazine!

Broken Glass, 2006, by David DiMichele, from Pseudodocumentation

Holes, 2009, by David DiMichele, from Pseudodocumentation

Bark, 2008, by David DiMichele, from Pseudodocumentation

Ice Melting, 2007, by David DiMichele, from Pseudodocumentation

“Pseudodocumentation,” Los Angeles-based photographer David DiMichele’s current exhibit at Randall Scott Gallery,  is a playful examination of scale and perception. DiMichele’s subjects find themselves in dramatic surroundings – encircled by towers of melting ice, daunting slashes of bark, shards of glass –  and while intimidating, these are also simultaneously beautiful settings. But these images aren’t achieved in grand halls, museums or cavernous warehouses – no, they’re constructed at the artist’s studio table as detailed dioramas. 

Further, DiMichele’s “Pseudodocumentary”  photos make a statement about how we - the audience – see and experience the monumental art that they pay homage to. Most people don’t always have access to the first-hand experience of the type of  major installations portrayed in DiMichele’s photographs. More often, we see images of such exhibits through reproductions or websites.

DiMichele’s series is on display through October 17th at:

Randall Scott Gallery
111 Front Street #204
Brooklyn, NY 11201
212-796-2190