VIDEO: The Confessions of Steve McQueen by Alison Chernick

The Confessions of Steve McQueen on Nowness.com.

The Artist and Filmmaker’s Dark Parable On the Shame of Sex Addiction

Cornered in his hotel room during the Toronto Film Festival, the ever-provocative Steve McQueen ruminates on free will, desire and his film "Shame" in Alison Chernick’s latest short. Recipient of the Camera d’Or and Fipresco prize for debut feature "Hunger," McQueen has earned a reputation as one of our most prolific and challenging visual artists, winning The Turner Prize in 1999 for his short black and white film "Deadpan," and representing Britain at the 2009 Venice Biennale. Co-written with Abi Morgan (Brick Lane), the director’s sophomore feature takes an unflinching look at the destructive nature of sex addiction, following Michael Fassbender’s corporate drone Brandon through a solitary routine of meaningless sexual encounters and the fallout that occurs when his equally damaged, self-harming sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) comes to stay. “I wanted to discuss the theme of imprisonment in his films—in this case psychological," reveals Chernick. "But after seeing 'Shame' I was more focused on the collide between morality and addiction, where one ends and the other begins.”

"Shame" in select theaters December 2

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CHICAGO: David Hartt / MCA Chicago

David Hartt, Archive, 2011. Edition of 6 + 1 AP. Courtesy of the artist and Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago via mcachicago.org

MCA Screen: David Hartt
November 26, 2011 - April 29, 2012

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGO
220 East Chicago Avenue
Chicago, IL

Chicago-based Canadian artist David Hartt’s latest work, Stray Light, inaugurates the MCA Screen, a new series of media-based exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago. Hartt’s films capture the social, cultural, political, and economic complexities of his subjects, which he then renders with a cool, dispassionate eye. His latest subject is the former Johnson Publishing Company building on South Michigan Avenue in Chicago, famous for producing Jet and Ebony magazines and as a leader in African-American taste and culture. Stray Light includes a film displayed in a gallery with a carpet designed to evoke the Johnson Publishing Company, as well as a group of photographs in an adjacent gallery. MCA Screen: David Hartt is curated by James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator Michael Darling and runs from November 26, 2011 to April 29, 2012.

Hartt records the time-capsule nature of the Johnson Publishing Company space, with its original 1971 interior design by Arthur Elrod. John Moutoussamy, an African-American partner in the firm Dubin, Dubin, Black & Moutoussamy, designed the 11-story building as the headquarters of the Johnson Publishing Company, with an iconic presence on Michigan Avenue with its illuminated Ebony-Jet marquee at the top. The interior of the building is modern, colorful, and complex, an expression of founder John Johnson’s vision of what a leading, black-owned business could be. 

The title of the project, Stray Light, is a term used to refer to unpredictable light within a controlled environment. It is also a fitting metaphor for Hartt as an outside observer of a company that has influenced so much of African-American cultural history. His film and photographs provide an intimate portrait of the dreams and ideals of the Johnson family’s business which continue under the leadership of the founder’s daughter, Linda Johnson Rice. Stray Light is, in fact, the final means to capture the essence of the building, after the unexpected news that the building was sold in late 2010 and the company has relocated to another site. Thus, Hartt’s film is a lasting document of the style and ethos of this unique work environment. 

The soundtrack for the 12-minute Stray Light film is created by Chicago composer and flutist Nicole Mitchell. Mitchell is co-president of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), an organization that, like the Johnson Publishing Company building, was created in the 1970s and has become a leader in the cultural community. 

This program is made possible by the generous contributors to the Allen M. Turner Tribute Fund, honoring his past leadership as Chairman of the MCA Board of Trustees, and by Emerge, a donor affinity group that supports the education, exhibition, and acquisition programs of the MCA. 

Support for this exhibition is generously provided by the Chauncey and Marion Deering McCormick Family Foundation. Air transportation is provided by American Airlines, the Official Airline of the Museum of Contemporary Art. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA) is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization accredited by the American Association of Museums. The MCA is generously supported by its Board of Trustees; individual and corporate members; private and corporate foundations; and government agencies including the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Museum capital improvements are supported by a Public Museum Capital Grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The Chicago Park District generously supports MCA programs. Air transportation is provided by American Airlines, the Official Airline of the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Exhibit Link

David Hartt on Vimeo

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Watermelon skin carving

The art of fruit carving, by Vid Nikolic.

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VIDEO: Charlie Rose - An Appreciation of Romare Bearden / January 24, 2004



This 2004 broadcast of The Charlie Rose Show focuses on the work of artist Romare Bearden and the exhibit The Art of Romare Bearden with exhibition curator Ruth Fine, photographer Frank Stewart, and musician Branford Marsalis.

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MORE Romare Bearden on BlackArtistNews

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VIDEO: Inside New York's Art World: Romare Bearden (1979)

BlackArtistNews proudly celebrates the art, life and legacy of Romare Bearden

This 1979 interview with Romare Bearden was conducted just prior to his 1980 exhibition at The Mint Museum. Bearden's 1980 retrospective at the Mint was a landmark exhibition for the museum.

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NEW YORK: Public Announcement / Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center / August 18 - 30, 2011

The late twentieth century saw an explosion, in every part of our public spaces, of unsanctioned “outlaw” art as well as the proliferation of Madison Avenue advertising.   From August 18 - 30, 2011, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center, will bring us the Twenty-First century melding of these two worlds with the “Scrape and Peel” fine art of Lawrence Joyner, Tyson Hall, and Dean Richards. The show is curated by Bonnie Savage.

The Art

The twentieth century brought with it a new art form from the public stage.  French and Italian cities birthed the “poster ungluers”- artists who ripped layers of public advertisement papers from billboards, city walls, construction sites, and subway stations.  After recovering new “scrapes and peels”, the artists would then collage them together in violent cacophonies of words mixed with images layered and juxtaposed with other words and pictures. Originally the artist created a statement from pre-meditated material, whether it was with paint, a chisel, etc.  But within this new expression came the genius of the artist re-fashioning what lay already used in the city and forgotten as trash.  This refurbishing of public poster propaganda into representations of sex, class, struggle, and iconographic dreams created a new sub-part in naturalist art.

The Artists

Reared within the graffiti era of 1970’s New York City, Lawrence Joyner, Tyson Hall, and Dean Richards are three artists who add to the evolution of both graffiti (tagging) and “scrapping and peeling” art forms, melding the two into a modern mixed medium genre. These men pay homage to the original “poster ungluer” artists such as Francois Dunfrene, Raymond Hains, Jacques de La Villegle, and Mimmo Rotella, and graffiti artists such as Lee Quinones, Keith Haring, Jean-Michael Basquiat, and Michael Martin. They focus their energies into fine art, which voice the struggles, hopes, and perspectives of the American man of African descent. The art also hails civil rights artist/ activists such as Emory Douglas and contemporary street artists like Shephard Fairey. These pieces create an art history narrative that blends the original collage technique of Berdain with each man’s individual painting expression. Their message is one that demands an introspective investigation.

YouTube: Scrape & Peel featuring Lawrence Joyner, Tyson Hall, and Dean Richards

For Media and Press Inquiries contact:
Martha Banks
MB & Associates
917-595-9197

MBanks.MBassoc@gmail.com

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VIDEO: Trenton Doyle Hancock - A Better Promise by The Seattle Art Museum

Artist Trenton Doyle Hancock discusses his installation/sculpture "A Better Promise" on view at the The Seattle Art Museum until March 12, 2012. 

Seattle Art Museum description by Marisa C. Sanchez, Assistant Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art:

For the past ten years, Trenton Doyle Hancock has been developing an epic saga between the forces of good and evil, featuring imagined creatures called the Mounds and the Vegans. Mounds are peace-loving beings, while the Vegans are an evil race who has lost the ability to see in color. Influenced by comics, graphic novels and cartoons, Trenton Doyle Hancock has created a dynamic narrative of mythological proportions. In the site-specific installation at the Olympic Sculpture Park, the artist will continue telling his dramatic story through text and images, including wall drawings and some sculptural elements as well. As part of the work, Hancock issues a “call to color” by encouraging visitors to bring their own morsels of color—in the form of plastic bottle caps—to the park and drop them into the work of art. Visitors are encouraged to bring plastic bottle caps ranging in all shapes and sizes from detergent bottles, to clear water bottles to the black and white caps from drink bottles.

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Educational Resources: 

To explore this exhibition a little deeper, download our bibliography.

The Bad Promise, 2008, Trenton Doyle Hancock, American, b. 1974, mixed media on canvas, 84 x 108 in., Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery, New York, © Trenton Doyle Hancock

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POSE: Swizz Beatz / Paper Magazine / Summer 2011

ARTICLE BY JOZEN CUMMINGS | PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAN MONICK

Given the fact that most people have an emotional connection to their tattoos one has to assume that music producer Swizz Beatz's decision to have Keith Haring's "Flying Man" embellished on his left AND right front shoulders indicates a genuine passion for art. It does. Swizz Beatz is an earnest art collector (of primarily Pop Art, i.e., Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Mr. Brainwash), devoted philanthropist, and serious art maker. His work is very derivative of the artists he collects but one hopes that as his art practice matures Swizz Beatz will find a visual voice as distinctive as the music he produces.

PAPERMAG Swizz Beatz article online

Swizz World Art

Swizz Beatz has an eye for Modern Art

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KICKSTARTER: Shani Peters

New York artist Shani Peters seeks Kickstarter funding for public art project "We Promote Knowledge & Love"

Shani Peters in Harlem passing out a promotional flyer for her public art project We Promote Knowledge &Love.

THIS PROJECT WILL BE FUNDED IF AT LEAST $3,000 IS PLEDGED BY THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2011, 1:01 PM EDT. AS OF THIS POST $1, 315 HAS BEEN RAISED. 

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Have you ever walked down the street, had a random flyer shoved in your hand, gave it a quick scan, and thought ‘what a waste of paper?!?’  The We Promote Knowledge & Love project turns that experience inside out and floods the Harlem, NY community with street flyers of unexpected substance while awakening the sleeping giants of the neighborhood's legendary past.

We Promote Knowledge & Love is a social practice, community art performance project that borrows the aggressive street advertising tactics of pawnbrokers in urban communities as a vehicle to promote knowledge, self-empowerment, and love rather than commerce or monetary wealth. The project engages the community in which it is enacted through the dissemination of familiarly designed flyers that encourage uncommon exchange. Volunteers for the project wear custom screen printed sandwich boards that read “We Promote Knowledge & Love” imitating the design of those worn by the “We Buy Gold & Diamonds” pawn broker promoters-for-hire on busy street corners (in Harlem, and beyond), and pass out flyers featuring insightful quotes from thoughtful historical figures.

We Promote Knowledge & Love has been enacted 3 times in small groups of 2-6 individuals in Brooklyn, Harlem, and at the Bronx Museum of Art.  Each of these rounds have been warm up’s for we’re planning this time… an over-the-top, parade inspired performance complete with 40+ volunteers, over-sized paper maché replica heads of the quoted historical figures, and the dissemination of 10,000+ wisdom-rich flyers, to be passed out to  an audience of 900,000+ during one of the countries largest annual parades: Harlem’s own 42th Annual African American Day Parade.

With the funds raised through this Kickstarter campaign we will be able to the put words of Malcolm, Martin, Marcus, Fredrick, and Harriet directly into the hands of a generation who largely view these phenomenal individuals as mere black history-month quiz answers or names on street signs.  We all know the schools and libraries are under-funded… let’s give an introductory lesson to what they’re missing!

We Promote Knowledge & Love: Parade Day in Harlem Kickstart Video:

Click here to pledge

ShaniPeters.com

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VIDEO: Behind the Scenes - Conserving Chris Ofili by TateShots

Tate's Conservation Department work behind the scenes to ensure future generations can enjoy the Tate Collection. It's not just old masters that get their attention; contemporary artists work in such a diverse range of materials that the team undertakes extensive research to help them in their task. In this film, paintings conservator Natasha Walker explains how she went about making replica versions of Chris Ofili's paintings, in order to carry out tests that could never be made on the real works of art. With help from the artist, his assistants, and an elephant at Whipsnade Zoo, Natasha and her team's 'Chris Ofilis' might not be as good as the real thing, but they will help protect them well into the future.

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VIDEO: Andrew Dosunmu Photography Exhibit @ The Palms Shopping Mall, Lagos, Nigeria

A shopping mall is an unorthodox place to showcase art but photographer Andrew Dosunmu makes it all make sense in this YouTube feature entitled Music: A Symbol of Nigeria's Independence, An Exhibition of Photographs by Andrew Dosunmu at the Palms in Lagos, Nigeria. Exhibit took place in 2010 and was curated by Kunbi Oni. 

AndrewDosunmu.com

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REMEMBRANCE: Eleanora Fagan (1915 - 1959)

Billie Holiday recorded live in Paris, November 1958. The camera angles and stark lighting give this performance an ominous feeling especially since the singer died eight months later on July 17, 1959. The final shot is especially chilling: the harsh spotlight casts a larger-than-life silhouette of Holiday against a white backdrop that looms over her like the shadow of death.   

Watch on YouTube

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VIDEO: The Harvey B. Gantt Center in Charlotte, NC

The Harvey B. Gantt Center from Gantt Center on Vimeo.

At The Harvey B. Gantt Center, our passion is to present, preserve and promote African-American art, history, and culture. Our 46,000 square foot facility allows us to do just that through comprehensive presentations in the visual, literary and performing arts. Our three galleries allow us to rotate exhibitions, as well as showcase pieces from permanent collections, including the nationally celebrated John & Vivian Hewitt Collection of African American Art. We also house a Performance Suite for lectures, small plays, film, and intimate musical events. And on the way out, please don't forget to stop by the museum store, where you can find something that will allow you to take a small piece of The Gantt Center home with you. The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts & Culture. It's the place where YOU belong.

The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts & Culture

551 South Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC

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VIDEO: Lorna Simpson: Momentum

Lorna Simpson: Momentum

The Conceptual Artist Travels Back in Time For Her Surreal New Film

Artist Lorna Simpson conjures a childhood memory for a pirouette-filled film that ran May 13 to June 18, 2011 at her representative gallery, Salon 94. Coated in gold body paint and accessorized with matching afros, the ballet corps starring in Momentum comprises a group of New York dancers handpicked by the Brooklyn native to reenact her own stage debut at the age of eleven. "I was very surprised by a powerful sense of reversal while performing," she recalls. "I had this intense urge to occupy the role of observer, as opposed to being immersed in my well-rehearsed effort. I [wanted] to satisfy my need to be the spectator of this performance." Alongside the video installation, two large-scale felt works silk-screened in gold ink and depicting 1970s postcards of New York’s Lincoln Center, the venue of the original performance, are also on show. The pioneering conceptual photographer, who has shown at the Whitney, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Walker Art Center, revisits themes of gender, cultural identity and history in her work: a recent series for the Brooklyn Museum saw Simpson recreate vintage 1950s images of African Americans with herself as the subject.



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DOCUMENTARY: Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer by Charlie Ahearn

Trailer for Jamel Shabazz feature documentary by Wild Style director Charlie Ahearn which premieres June 26, 2011 at the BAMcinemafest.

Photographer Jamel Shabazz and filmmaker Charlie Ahearn (Wild Style) take a walk through Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn, and discuss photography, youth, etc. Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer screens Sun, Jun 26, 2011 at 3:30pm as part of BAMcinemaFest. Learn more at BAM.org/BAMcinemaFest.

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VIDEO: "Rashid Johnson Makes Things To Put Things On" by New York Close UP/Art 21

Rashid Johnson Makes Things to Put Things On | "New York Close Up" | Art21 from Art21 on Vimeo.

How does an artist contribute his own personal story in the face of prevailing historical narratives? In this film, artist Rashid Johnson discusses the fluid nature of black identity in America and its escapist tendencies, from the Afrocentric politics of Marcus Garvey to the cosmic philosophy of Sun Ra. Johnson’s invented secret society—The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club—is a framework through which the artist humorously upends, through repetition and juxtaposition, conventional expectations of historical influence and legacy. Inspired by a story by the artist Lawrence Weiner in which one character says to another that “a table is something to put something on,” Johnson creates sculptures of shelf-like structures from materials such as black wax, mirror, tile, and branded wood. Each structure is filled with culturally resonant objects—such as Miles Davis and Ramsey Lewis jazz records, books by comedians Dick Gregory and Bill Cosby, and treatises by scholars such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Debra J. Dickerson—as well as the artist’s own photographs and hand-made objects. Featuring works from the exhibitions The Dead Lecturer (2008) and Other Aspects (2009-10), as well as works-in-progress in the artist’s Williamsburg studio.

Rashid Johnson (b. 1977, Chicago, Illinois, USA) lives and works in New York and Brooklyn, New York.

CREDITS | New York Close Up Created & Produced by: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Editor: Mary Ann Toman. Cinematography: Andrew David Watson. Key Grip: John Marton. Sound: Nicholas Lindner & Nick Ravich. Associate Producer: Ian Forster. Production Assistant: Paulina V. Ahlstrom, Don Edler & Maren Miller. Design: Open. Artwork: Rashid Johnson. Thanks: Javier Cordero, Alex Ernst & Brian Lewis. An Art21 Workshop Production. © Art21, Inc. 2011. All rights reserved.

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VIDEO: r/EGRESS/ion by Fahamu Pecou

r/EGRESS/ion is the video accompaniment to Fahamu Pecou's critically acclaimed series, Hard2Death:2nd Childhood.

Artist Site

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VIDEO: Nelson George's "Migrations" Trailer

This is the trailer for filmmaker Nelson George's work-in-progress feature "Migrations". So far, prinicple shooting has been completed in Berlin, Paris, London and New York with plans to shoot in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Ethiopia before the end of 2011. George describes it as "a film about the African diaspora in all its complexity." It stars Tigist Selam, Saul Williams, Osas Ighoduro, Epee Dingong and Ariane Plubel.

Nelson George web site

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VIDEO: The Robot Artists by African Cartel

Robot Artists from African Cartel on Vimeo.

"Robot Artists" is a short documentary by African Cartel showcasing a group of Zimbabwean artists whose marketplace and livelihood is a traffic light intersection in Cape Town, South Africa.

To support the cause, get to know more about these artists, and buy their art visit the website - africancartel.com.

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JELLYFISH LAKE, PALAU

A little information on Jellyfish Lake…

Jellyfish Lake is located on Eli Malk island in the Republic of Palau. Twelve thousand years ago these jellyfish became trapped in a natural basin on the island when the ocean receded. With no predators amongst them for thousands of years, they evolved into a new species that lost most of their stinging ability as they no longer had to protect themselves. They are pretty much harmless to humans although some people with very sensitive skin may get a minor sting from them. If you are allergic to jellyfish you should wear a wetsuit or protective clothing.

These fascinating creatures survive by sharing a symbiotic relationship with algae that live inside of them. At night, the jellyfish go down to the depths of the lake where the algae feed on nutrients. During the day, the jellyfish come back to the surface and follow the sun across the lake in a massive migration. The algae convert the energy of the sun via photosynthesis into a sugar that feeds the jellyfish.

It is not possible to scuba dive in this lake because the nutrient rich layer at around 50 feet and below contains hydrogen sulphide which is highly toxic to humans. If a scuba diver was to swim in that layer, the toxins would enter the body through the skin and that exposure could be fatal. Snorkeling however, is perfectly safe and if you ever find yourself in Palau one day, you should make your way to this special place. The experience of swimming through millions of jellyfish is quite surreal and Palau is the only place in the world where you can do just that!

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