Song Dong | The Worley Gig

If you enjoy the TV show Hoarders and the works of pop artist Takashi Murakami, then the current exhibit by Japanese artist Mr. at Lehmann Maupin Gallery is your wet dream. Metamorphosis: Give Me Your Wings fills Lehman Maupin’s cavernous space on West 26th Street with stacks and piles and mountains of personal objects of every imaginable description: from clothing to magazines to computer monitors, all active with videos of the artist.

Also included in the exhibit are large-scale Manga paintings, which fit into the school of the Superflat, a movement/philosophy coined by Murakami to identify “various flattened forms in Japanese graphic art, animation, pop culture and fine arts, as well as the shallow emptiness of Japanese consumer culture.”

Walking through the gallery, Geoffrey and I were reminded very much of Chinese artist Song Dong’s Waste Not installation that we saw at the Museum of Modern Art a couple of years ago. It goes without saying, of course, that Mr.’s current work is also a reaction/response to what has been going on in Japan since the devastating natural disasters of 2011. I recommend this exhibit for all audiences.

Photo of The Artist

Metamorphosis: Give Me Your Wings by Mr. will be on Exhibit Through October 20th, 2012 at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Located at 540 West 26th Street, Street Level, New York City. Gallery Hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and Mondays by appointment.

Art Fans Enjoy Mr.’s Metamorphosis at Lehman Maupin Gallery

James Ensor (Belgian, 1860-1949), Skeletons Fighting Over a Pickled Herring, 1891

Fans of They Might Be Giants are likely already familiar with the name of artist James Ensor, because of the TMBG song “Meet James Ensor”, which is really quite fantastic. Geoffrey had never heard that song before, so I made sure to sing it to him a few times before we went to see the James Ensor exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) here in lovely, sweltering midtown Manhattan. I’m not going to go into a lot of background or biographical data on Ensor except to say that his paintings are really creepy and fun. This vast career retrospective, comprised of hundreds of drawings and paintings of all sizes and mediums, really shows his sense of humor, as well as his fascination with death and certain bourgeois aspects of the society he grew up in. Geoffrey and I both loved it. Make a date to “Meet James Ensor” before the exhibit closes on September 21st, 2009.

While you’re at MOMA, be sure to spend some time walking through Chinese conceptual artist Song Dong’s Waste Not installation (also through September 21st), which is mind boggling in its scope and really must be seen to be believed. You can read more about Ensor and other current MOMA exhibits at This Link.

The Skeleton Painter, 1895