SUMMER IN ITALY BY CAROLYN MEYER

Carolyn Meyer's thick impasto conveys the tales the Tuscan land has to tell. A departure from paintings that capture the energy drawn from traffic and the streets of San Francisco,Summer in Italy expresses the warmth and richness of a region that is generous in her gifts. It is Meyer's bold style that is a reflection of the unabashed thrust of Tuscan nature in the summertime; the paint is a sensuous tool that translates the languid days in the sun.

Artist: Carolyn Meyer
+ arthaus-sf.com

Summer in Italy, an exhibition of new paintings by Carolyn Meyer runs at the Concourse Gallery at 555 California Street, San Francisco through May 7, 2010.

The Tank by Pharrell Williams

A chair designed by American recording artist and producer Pharrell Williams will be on show at Gallerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris next week.

Called The Tank, the piece consists of a leather seat on a plexiglass base that references caterpillar tracks.

Photographs are by Guillaume Ziccarelli, courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin.

Here's a little text from the gallery and some words by Williams:

---

The Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery presents, on apointment, from 30 March the new design creation of Pharrell Williams, a chair entitled The Tank.

After completing the chair Perspective, conceived as a reflection on love, and the sculpture The Simple Things, a collaboration with the artist Takashi Murakami, Pharrell Williams tackles the theme of war.

How does a young person decide to engage in a battle that does not seem to be hers/his ?

I'm standing in the mirror…
Shadow boxing…
Kicking ass….
And I thought, how laughable the macho version of me…
Ha…
But could I be?
It takes guts and a reason… or is innate?
Is it simply in man's nature to fight and show his colors of heart… the scars of experience?
Things he does not like…
So he…
Fights..
One man once said, »war is not the answer»…
But those of us born to this world, ambitious with the taste of change may not always
Understand the social methods of the same.
Instead, we seek and cure our curiosities with sharing our views by any means of a vessel; expression.
We believe Art is the alteration of existence and that which provokes thought.
So, in reference to Marvin Gaye's brilliant question, I asked myself, «what was the question?»…
When my thought was met with a silence that was so thick it could be cut, it made me ask myself this…..
»Then what must it be like to be young and serve?»…»What if you couldn't pay your tuition?»…
»What if it is simply family tradition?»..»What if you thought it was the right thing to do?»…
Wow, to sit in the seats of our youth (as well as others)… fighting for a series of reasons most of
Which can be argued and debated but being young and having your own reason?…
Whoa.
To wake up and make up your mind that you've found a reason to stand amongst the brave
Where loss at least on some levels are inevitable, even if it's just time..
The only answer is that which is square.
«Intention» divided by «behavior» which is then divided by «reality» should equal to one's truth.
Yes, our government, too, should exercise this regularly…
If we would spend «love» and «time» like we do «money», we'd never go broke…
But then again who am I trying to fool or what am I trying to fix?
I'm just a guy in the mirror trying to imagine what it must feel like to be young… headed into war…
I'm sorry, how rude of me…
I've left you standing…
I'm sorry, please do…
Have a seat.

Pharrell WILLIAMS

Diesel Jeans : Be stupid

Anomaly is launching its first work for Diesel, a campaign that encourages consumers to "be stupid". Diesel consolidated its global advertising account into Anomaly in September. The campaign, entitled be stupid, was devised in collaboration with Diesel's creative team, and encompasses press, outdoor, digital and viral activity.

DRAG BY JASON HOROWITZ

When Jason Horowitz uses extreme close-up techniques for his large-scale photos of drag queens, the heavy make-up and intense facial expressions, often cropped, make for work that borders on the abstract. The high gloss that is sometimes interpreted as glamour is like paint on a canvas, but the backdrop is human skin and experience, so the effects of the narrative are much more in-your-face. The drama is evident for all to see. What is real, what is not, and what does it matter?

Artist: Jason Horowitz
+ curatorsoffice.com


Drag runs through March 27, 2010 at Curator's Office in Washington, DC.



Shi-Queeta Lee



Jessica Spaulding 2



Tanya

Light Living Gold Line by Orest Tataryn & Bruno Billio

Toronto light sculptor Orest Tataryn combines neon lampworking with Venetian glass blowing to create mesmerizing works that you can almost taste. We saw some recent examples of Tataryn's work as part of a collaboration with Bruno Billio at Come Up To My Room at the Gladstone Hotel during Toronto Design Week, and then put some questions to Orest.

How did you decide on the lighting to complement Bruno Billio's installation at Come Up To My Room?
Early in the summer of 2009 at a chance meeting at an art opening Bruno Billio and I decided to collaborate in his space for the 2010 edition of the Gladstone's " Come Up To My Room " event. The decision and project direction was effortless in that I would develop and evolve one of Bruno's techniques whereby he fires a laser beam along a perfectly straight section of vertical yarn. We came up with the idea to bend light throughout the space using golden neon tubes interspersed with my signature, mathematically precise coloured incursions. Our strategy was to block the viewers' passage at the threshold of the room so one would be forced to view the installation from a single point where the yellow line appeared to be continuous when actually the electrode ends and wiring were concealed behind curtains, columns and walls.



What is it that attracts you to neon?
I love the feeling of working with fire and glass and then applying relatively modern technology to affect illumination. Neon light manufacture does not lend itself to mass production but can only be made by hand and to a specific pattern. It is also a dying craft and trade which deserves preservation. The coloured light produces an intense saturation that transforms and infects the environment it finds itself in. There are the very important challenges of working within limiting parameters such as the length of glass between electrodes, the diameter of the tubing to be processed, colour variations and electrical insulation / installation considerations. There is also a beautiful delicacy to the work, which, as an added benefit, is very energy efficient.



In your work as a light sculptor, you combine lighting with colour. How do the different colour affect what you are trying to express?
My working with coloured light is an extension of my intrigue with the production of colour in a physical and chemical manner. In 1972 I started working in a quality control lab at Northern Pigment, which was an industrial facility that concocted accurate hues from the rusting of metals. It was fascinating and large scale. In my practice as a light sculptor / painter I refer to myself as a colourist working on the effects upon the emotions of the witness. Some of my favourite aspects within these endeavours are the wonderful accidental discoveries during the course of execution.



How has your work as a firefighter influenced your art and design practice?
The seed of what I now do was in fact planted as a result of an experience during a restaurant fire back in 1987. The fire had stubbornly seated itself within the kitchen's ductwork and as we aggressively attacked for access, two neon beer signs had dislodged from their anchors and were swinging wildly through the dense smoke creating magnificent coloured moiré patterns. I physically stopped them and became enchanted at the simple elegance and beauty of this material to which, up until this point, I was completely unconscious. As for the actual influence of my fire-fighting career on my creative practice, the most that I can say is that during the hyper awareness and razor sharp anxiety response to the chaos in a crisis, a person learns to see things outside of the normal conventions of memory and contemplation. Your eyes tend to pierce through to possible outcomes. It's a desperate hopefulness that becomes reverie after the fact. My work is a personal resolution to that confusion which only light can bring.



+ oresttataryn.com
Installation Photos: Cat O'Neill

Low Profile Bowls

Low Profile Bowls


The silhouettes of a writer/journalist, a ballerina, a native Chief who was an actor and writer, and a popular urbanist and activist are the basis of a new series of bowls. How did you decide on these particular individuals as the subjects for your Low Profile Bowls? I began the project two days after Celia Franca passed away, in February 2007. As I was reading about her, and all the amazing things she'd done (her accomplishments extend far beyond founding the National Ballet of Canada), I couldn't believe that I'd never heard of her. This was not long after the CBC's "Greatest Canadian" contest aired, so I decided to revisit their top 100, out of curiosity (neither Celia nor Jane Jacobs made the list, by the way). I found that although I agreed with most of the choices, there were some unbelievable reaches and unforgivable oversights. So I made my own list-- Canadians who had accomplished great things, and deserved more attention. My criteria required candidates be outstanding, important Canadians with a broad scope to their accomplishments--no single-threats allowed. I ended up with a very long list, and if I ever have the time, I would love to produce a bowl for each name on the list. However, for the initial batch I had to pair down my selection to four, so I chose the candidates who had the best facial profiles: Jane Jacobs, Celia Franca, Pierre Berton and Chief Dan George.

If Cherries Were Raindrops by Dustin Yellin

Dustin Yellin's new sculptures of vivisectionary resin, ink, glass and acrylic will be part of Eden Disorder, an exhibition opening next week. Here's what to expect: "The crux of Yellin's sculpture is pure contradiction: the objects don't exist. Despite what the eye thinks it sees, it's simply not there. No tree, no skull, no branch, no bone. Focus on the front plane and there is no denying the intricate depths of twisting color--although what you see may indeed look like no living thing you've seen before. Walk around to the side and it becomes clear that what you see is not what you thought--the images disappear. Yellin's convoluted brain-children are layered ink and acrylic drawings, frozen in layers of resin or glass, flattened out and brought to full size."

Artist: Dustin Yellin
+ samuelfreeman.com


Eden Disorder runs from March 20 through May 1, 2010 at Samuel Freeman in Santa Monica, California.



Untitled (Red Tree)



If Cherries Were Raindrops



Joey in the Box