Beauty vs. Ugliness

Beauty versus Ugliness is the title of g's exhibition for the Design Walk 2010 / Poles Apart. G is an Athens based creative studio by Michalis Georgiou and Alexandros Gavrilakis. See the work of g here or read more about the Design Walk here.

Thousands of years old

Nick Howard is an artist based in Minneapolis U.S.A. For his work he uses pens and ink, creating dark figures without a face, alien creatures with hairy tentacles, landscapes smothered in grass and portraits of ancient men. The vulnerability, darkness, beauty and humor that is entailed in being human, are the main concerns in Nick Howard’s art. The portrait Thousands of Years Old focuses on a detail of the human face, in order to comment on the importance of the passing of time and our obsession with beauty.

This work is going to be exhibited in Anarchy vs. Order, an exhibition curated by the design shop, part of the Design Walk 2010 / Poles Apart.

Design Walk 2010 / Poles Apart

Since 2007 there has been a distinctive reason to come to Athens in February and wander around the historic center of the city: the Design Walk. Each year, graphic design studios open their doors to visitors, inviting them to follow a trail that brings them closer to the most functional and everyday applied art.

The walk takes place in the most vibrant area of the city next to the Acropolis, leading the visitors between cult shops and hip bars to discover works by award-winning graphic designers. For the 2010 walk, double-decker, the London-based curating agency, is challenging 13 Graphic Design Studios to create a piece of work inspired by the contradictions / oppositions with which every designer has to deal, and which arise from fundamental questions in design methodology. The resulting exhibition, POLES APART, will give a unique visual insight into the creative process – as well as its curious contradictions.

Participants: 3 in a Box, Bios, The Design Shop, Designpark, G, Geometry, I AM Design etc., Indyvisuals, Mums Design, Pi6, Poor Designers, Sereal Designers, The Switch Place Identity.

For more information visit the official Design Walk site of the Facebook Design Walk group.

Picture by Alexandros Gavrilakis during the press conference in Bios.

Who Shot Rock & Roll

This picture of Mick Jagger was taken in Philadelphia in 1982 by the British photographer Michael Putland, and is part of the exhibition "Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present", curated by Gail Buckland, currently at the Brooklyn Museum.

"Michael Putland was the official photographer on some of the Rolling Stones’ U.S. and European tours. He had access granted no other photographer and was able to stay in the 'pit' for entire concerts while the other photographers were asked to leave after the first three songs. Putland laments the lack of discrimination in the press today when it comes to celebrity portraiture. 'There is no premium for quality,' he says. 'I love photography, not the nonsense'."

Nollywood

"Pieter Hugo (Johannesburg, 1976; lives in Cape Town) is one of the most representative photographers of his generation. With great capacity of penetration, his works explore the most striking contradictions of African societies, together with certain peripheral aspects which are nonetheless dense in meaning. For the production of his Nollywood series, with its large size pictures, the artist frequented in 2008 and 2009 the sets of the Nigerian film industry. With an eye that is at once detached from but in dialogue with the subjects of his portraits – with whom he always builds up relationships of mutual awareness – Hugo is fascinated by the borderline situations he identifies on his trips throughout Africa.

Nollywood is said to be the third largest film industry in the world, releasing onto the home video market approximately 1 000 movies each year. Such abundance is possible since films are realized in conditions that would make most of the western independent directors cringe. Movies are produced and marketed in the space of a week: low cost equipment, very basic scripts, actors cast the day of the shooting, 'real life' locations. Despite the improvised production process, they continue to fascinate audiences."

Hugo exhibits at the e x t r a s p a z i o gallery, Rome, from 25th Nov 2009 to 9th Jan 2010.

This image: Obechukwu Nwoye. Enugu, Nigeria, 2008

Nothing better than doing nothing with you

Work by Alfonso Casas Moreno for the exhibition "Alfonso ya no tiene miedo" in Barcelona, November 2007. More illustrations by Alfonso: Flickr, blog.

Istanbul as felt by... (revisited)

Back in 2007, I participated in a poster exhibition in Istanbul in which the theme was the city itself. The poster I had created then intended to show the warm feeling I had in Istanbul and the overlapping of different cultures and different time periods, all apparent in modern Istanbul.Because of the sharp triangles I had used the poster had a hostile feeling... Next week I'm going back to Istanbul for another exhibition and I want to fix this mistake. This is the new version of the poster.The exhibition is part of Grafist, the annual International Design Week of Istanbul, organised by Mimar Sinan University.

Nichts

Art catalogue designed in 2006 by Raffinerie for the exhibition "Nichts" (Nothing) that was presented in Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. An exhibition filled with "a diverse, shimmering nothing" curated by Martina Weinhart. Raffinerie is one of the best design studios in Zurich.

Nashville's Smallest Art Gallery

I quote from their site:

"Located in the heart of Hillsboro Village NSAG is the smallest functioning art gallery in Nashville, and dare we say, the world! The art is real. Really small, but real. The gallery is already attracting some of the top artists from around the US, as well as local Nashville artists."

"In a former life, the gallery was a neglected, graffiti-covered display case. Soon with a little help from some Goo Gone, a razor blade, and a total interior makeover, the gallery started to take shape. The gallery lights are powered by a solar panel mounted to the top, making it the only 100% self-sufficient art gallery in Nashville (and again, perhaps the world)."

Artwork by Lauren Rolwing (check my previous post about her). Photo by Daniel Box.

Ugne Straigyte @ I See You

Ugne Straigyte is a photographer and illustrator from Lithuania. Her photographic work includes many portraits in a domestic melancholic scenery or in nature that in some way it always looks very personal and some times private. Ugne participates with this picture at "I See You", a photo exhibition that is opening in Athens this week (Thursday, 17 Sept. @ Melina @ 19.30). "I See You" is part of Ten Images for Ithaca. More of her work: flickr, site.

Pi6 wins IF

Pi6 (π6) belongs to the new generation of design studios in Athens. The design studios that have managed to make things moving in Greece. They design all sorts of communication material, from branding to art books. This work, designed earlier this year to record the Athens Design Walk 2008, just won an IF Communication Design Award.

28th Biennial of Graphic Arts

The 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts is a multifaceted event with a long tradition; it consists of a number of exhibitions as well as other happenings. Once again, the Biennial’s central exhibition, The Matrix: An Unstable Reality, on view for two months in Ljubljana galleries, will focus on contemporary graphic art in the broadest sense of the term.

The opening is this Friday, 4 September 2009. More info here.

Ps. the image above is a work by Jørgen Craig Lello & Tobias Arnell, titled Reverse View.