Do you hate Donald Trump? I sure do. Dump (which is what I call him exclusively, with a rare exception being this blog post) sucks ass wildly, and he is destroying our country in ways few, if any, of us could have heretofore imagined possible. Dump’s outrageous suckitude inspires many artists to create art out of his likeness, because it makes him easier to mock. Yay! That being said, I was recently pitched a story on Kevin Champeny, a contemporary artist whose medium is creating sculptures made up of other tiny sculptures that are related to whatever the larger image is all about. Watch a video on Kevin’s practice at This Link to see him in action and get a better idea of what I am talking about, because he is truly amazing. Even better, Kevin cites Kris Kuksi (one of our favorites) as a major influence. Awesome. Continue reading Artist Kevin Champeny Creates Mosaic Portraits of Hillary and Trump From 1,000s of Tiny Middle Fingers→
To find out more about this sculpture of Hillary Clinton in a Stormtrooper uniform, which was part of Michael Leavitt’s 2013 art exhibit, Empire Peaks, visit This Link. Hillary for the win in 2016!
What we like best about artist Will Ryman is the fact that all of his projects look completely different to each other. Whether it is sculptures of Giant Roses, a big Bird made of nails, or a Golden scale replica of the Log Cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born, it is always fun to see what he is going to do next.
Right now, Paul Kasmin Gallery’sWest 27th Street space is hosting Two Rooms, a solo exhibition featuring two of Ryman’s new sculptural installations.The Situation Room (2012–2014) is a life-size installation based on the iconic photograph that captured members of the Obama administration and U.S. military leaders watching in real time the Navy SEAL raid on Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. Among those gathered in the White House Situation Room were President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Developed over the course of three years, the sculpture is composed of crushed black coal as a reference to industrial development and as a means to redact the specificity of the photograph, reducing the tableau to its elemental components. The Situation Room is a contemplation on war, power, propaganda, industrialization, and political theater. In its reductive monumentality, Ryman’s appropriation of the photograph becomes an anonymous fossilization of the timelessness of war.
Classroom presents 12 figures from the same cast, each made of a different natural resource or composite essential to various cultures and economies including cadmium, titanium, salt, iron, oil, chrome, copper, wood, and gold.
Arranged in four rows of three, the figures evoke traditional classroom settings, interchangeable workers in a factory’s assembly line, or soldiers in military formation.
Their youthful appearance references the practice of child labor so widespread in many countries. Corporations in developed countries often refer to their employees as their greatest “natural resource,” and in one interpretation of the installation, Ryman extends the metaphor to an inexorable conclusion: workers are a material to be mined and exploited in the service of industry. They are, to the extent possible, mechanized.
Will Ryman’s Two Rooms will be on Exhibit Through Oct 17th, 2015 at Paul Kasmin Gallery, Located at 515 West 27th Street in the Chelsea Gallery District.
Abraham Lincoln as Han Solo By Michael Leavitt (All Photos By Gail)
File this one under “Must See Art” because you won’t want to miss Michael Leavitt’s latest exhibit at Jonathan Levine Gallery, entitled Empire Peaks. Continuing with the theme he did to perfection with Art Army Royalty back in 2011, Leavitt’s latest collection of what could loosely be called pop culture action figures takes a Star Warstheme and turns that wildly popular franchise’s characters into recognizable icons of history, politics and entertainment. The show is totally off the hook! Even if you’re not a total Star Wars geek (raises hand) you’re going to enjoy the high-quality representations of some very recognizable individuals, both real and fictional.
There’s not really much more to be said except that you’ve to go see this show! Here are some of my favorite pieces from the exhibit.
Donald Trump as Darth Vadar
Kim Jong Il as Jabba the Hut
Steve Jobs as C3 PO and Albert Einstein as R2D2
Mahatma Gandhi as Yoda
Martin Luther King as Luke Skywalker
The Sucklord was in attendance at the opening reception! You may know The Sucklord from his appearance on season two of Bravo’s Work of Art, or from his line of unlicensed Star Wars parody toys, marketed under the name Suckadelic. He was pretty cool to talk to.
Hillary Clinton as a Stormtrooper
President Barack Obama as Lando Calrissian
Nelson Mandela as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Oprah Winfrey as Padmé Amidala
You can tell even from these photographs that the detail is absolutely impeccable on all of these figures. Not only does each figure look exactly like its real-life counterpart, but Leavitt perfectly captures the essence of each Star Wars character in the melding of the two individual identities. High-fives all around on this one.
Michael Leavitt’s Empire Peaks will be on Exhibit Through December 21st, 2013 at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Located at 529 West 20th Street, 9th Floor, NYC, in the Chelsea Gallery District.
