The Death of Munrow (circa 1820 – 30), a glazed earthenware figure group by an unknown artist, records a specific historic event in 1791, in which Hugh Munrow, a British soldier, was killed by a tiger in India. Its composition was inspired by an almost life-size wooden automaton of a tiger killing a European that was owned by Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore in India. Tipu’s Tiger was seized by the British army in 1799 and brought to London, where it was placed on public display.
Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.
This Baby Pink statuette of the most famous mouse earth is an official Disney-design produced by the French company Leblon Delienne. Known as Mickey Welcome, it is one of three new pastel colorways made of lacquered ABS plastic, which replaces an earlier series created in resin. The new material is an aesthetic equal to resin, but represents an environmentally-friendly improvement, as the ABS plastic is recyclable. Priced to collect at $280 each.
Photographed at 10 Corso Como Design Store in the South Street Seaport, NYC.
If the idea of bearing witness to dozens of tiny, semi-clad porcelain figurines that appear to be on the cusp of indulging in a bacchanalian orgy floats your boat, have I a got an art exhibit for you. Chris Antemann’s Forbidden Fruit — up now at the Museum of Arts and Design — celebrates the collaboration between the Oregon-based artist and Meissen, the renowned manufacturer of fine Porcelain.
Detail from Above Photo
In 2011, Antemann was invited to participate in Meissen’s Art Studio Program, where she worked closely with Meissen’s master artisans to create unique pieces and a series of limited editions that strike a perfect balance between her distinctive style and Meissen’s identity. These pieces are arranged in Forbidden Fruit as a grand installation that reinvents and invigorates the great figurative tradition.
Inspired by eighteenth-century porcelain figurines and decorative art, Antemann’s delicate and intricately detailed sculptures are lavishly presented on a central banquet table alongside a selection of stand alone sculptures and a nine-light porcelain chandelier. Her centerpiece, Love Temple (2013), is inspired by Meissen’s great historical model of Johann Joachim Kändler’s monumental Love Temple (1750). Stripping the original design back to its basic forms, added her own figures, ornamentation, and flowers to her five-foot work, as well as a special finial with three musicians to herald the arrival of guests to the banquet of “forbidden fruit” below.
Using the Garden of Eden as her metaphor, Antemann has created a contemporary interpretation of the eighteenth-century banqueting craze by inserting her scantily clad male and female figures.
Posed in intimate and playful vignettes of seduction, Antemann’s figures convey narratives of domesticity, social etiquette, and taboos while making formal references to classic Baroque Meissen figurines. The ceramist invents a new narrative on contemporary morality in a setting that evokes the decadence of François Boucher and Jean-Antoine Watteau.
Chris Antemann’s Forbidden Fruit will be on Exhibit Through February 5, 2017 at the Museum of Arts and Design, Located at 2 Columbus circle (58th Street) in NYC.
Color Bow By Melodie Provenzano (All Photos By Gail)
I stumbled on the listing for Melodie Provenzano’s Stealth Peace exhibit (on now at Nancy Margolis Gallery) when I was looking for cool shows to add to last week’s art crawl, and was immediately attracted to her painting of the above image: a giant colorful bow. I love hyper-realism and the more I looked at the online preview, the more I knew this would be a must-see exhibit. I was not mistaken.
Stealth Peace, Provenzano’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, features a new series of highly detailed paintings of single objects and still lifes, all based on objects — toys, glassware, figurines, bows — the artist has collected herself. It is really quite charming and compelling, and I would recommend it especially for fans of Jeff Koons’ Banality series.
Melodie offers that her collections, “is a well of inspiration that I rely upon when composing the still lifes that I draw and paint from direct observation. The artworks are like a catalog of dreams with layers of meaning open to interpretation.”
She continues, “One may find impressions, reflections and sensations as various as the objects in them. The meanings are revealed through visual metaphors of the experiences that we share as human beings, dependent as much upon where the viewer is coming from as where I have been.”
Provenzano works on one painting at a time, making it her world until it’s completion, and her attention to detail in each work is just insane.
She even paints the shadows!
Paintings such as Heaven and Hell have a specific theme in contrast to Champbaby! (above), a straightforward, playful spin on the common found object – a full champagne glass spilling out miniature toy baby figurines.
Reign Bow
In addition to her still life compositions, Provenzano paints singular objects, notably, the two largest paintings in the exhibition, Color Bow and Reign Bow, each 54” x 72”. Enlarged way beyond their normal size these otherwise mundane objects are imbued with a gorgeous powerful presence.
Nostalgia, memory, loss, a bygone era, these are the underlying themes of Provenzano‘s work. Bringing together her passion for collecting found objects, which eventually become the subject of her paintings, we see this melding into her art practice alongside a thoughtful searching with-in.
Melodie Provenzano’s Stealth Peace will be on Exhibit Through June 27th, 2015 at Nancy Margolis Gallery, Located at 523 W 25th Street, in the Chelsea Gallery District.
This adorable Bird Figurine with a Human Head (with a bird on that head) (artist unknown) was photographed by me at the Kasher|Potamkin Store, (Rear of the Steven Kasher Gallery) Located at 515 West 26th Street, 2nd Floor, in New York’s Chelsea Gallery District.
Do you enjoy the work of artist Nick Cave? I sure do. I especially like his very fun Sound Suits, but I also enjoy that he can change it up while maintaining his very distinctive design aesthetic. Nick Cave!
Detail from Above Work
On view now at Jack Shainmans’s West 24th Street space is Cave’s body of work entitled Rescue. The series includes sculptures that incorporate found ceramic dogs sitting on furniture within elaborate grottos or dreamlike dens.
Dogs have historically been associated with loyalty, class, breed, commitment, and protection. More recently, the term “dawg” has played a role in hip-hop culture as a moniker for brotherhood, respect, and power.
In the Rescues, Cave focuses each piece on a single canine that has quite literally been rescued from destruction, very much like an adopted pet. These dogs become the benevolent guardians of their self-contained worlds, focusing the spotlight on the forgotten and discarded.
A Doberman lounges on a gold sofa while a small dog fiercely guards a wishbone on a shoeshine table.
Wall Bas Relief Detail
The armatures that envelop these animals correspond with large-scale wall based bas reliefs dripping with crystals, beads, small ceramic birds and metal flowers.
The vast amount of detail in these works is astounding. You could spend hours in discovery, examining each piece. Very cool!
Detail From Above Work
Rescue by Nick Cave will be on Exhibit through October 11th, 2014 at the Jack Shainman Gallery, Located at 524 West 24th Street, in the Chelsea Gallery District.
