Posts tagged as:

ryder ripps

Thursday Links: Storm Systems of Art and Politics

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on October 20, 2016

From James Bridle’s “Cloud Index” website.

Surprise, surprise. Ryder Ripps, the artist known for his Donald Trump-like vacuous chest thumping and misogynistic paintings was interviewed last night as a Donald Trump supporter. His biggest concern? The wall between Mexico and the US. “I just hope they build it high enough,” he said. “Because people climb walls.” The artist then updated his Facebook to brag about duping a reporter into believing he was a Trump supporter when he actually supports Bernie Sanders. [The Guardian]

Dezeen is a blog we enjoy for many reasons, including their weekly round up of notoriously snarky reader comments. This one might just take the cake. Responding to a reverse-vaulted pizzeria interior, reader TFO remarked “I feel violated. Cis male architecture sitting on my face.” Architecture criticism is starting to look a lot like art criticism. [Dezeen]

Thinking of funding your brilliant project through Kickstarter? Maybe reconsider… factories in China are ripping off design ideas from the internet before they even hit their own production start. [Quartz]

So, that naked statue of Donald Trump mostly elicited plenty of laughs (and one high-profile theft) but when a similar sculpture of nude Hillary Clinton was erected in Downtown Manhattan this week it caused a minor violent street brawl. A National Museum of the American Indian employee (identified only as “Nancy”) toppled the sculpture by Anthony Scioli (maybe?) and enacted a pretty comical tug-of-war with the artist that ended with Nancy sitting on top of it. Of all the borderline hilarious/cringe-worthy confrontations this trainwreck of an election has stoked, this art fight is probably the most of both. [New York Daily News]

Bethany “Sick Din” Dinsick is seeking music videos from artists for a screening at Bushwick’s Otion Front Studios on November 1st. Email her submissions at bdinsick@gmail.com. [Facebook]

Can anyone else figure out James Bridle’s “Cloud Index”? The artwork/website maps cloud patterns to potential outcomes of the Brexit vote, and talks about cloud seeding as a form of propaganda, as well as cloud computing. It’s a really pretty website, but what exactly is the relationship between the clouds and the vote? It brings Spurious Correlations to mind. [Serpentine Gallery]

Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde’s smog-eating mini-tower has come to Beijing. In tests in Rotterdam, it sucked about 60% of pollutants from a small area, which were then made into jewelry. In far more polluted Beijing, however, data on its effectiveness won’t be made public. [Forbes] According to Chinese press, the tower (which is installed in the capital’s 798 arts district) hasn’t really impressed locals. [ECNS]

Carolina Miranda reports on why memes have greater currency this election than artwork. [Culture: High & Low]

Amid investigations of corruption and money laundering, the US Justice Department has seized some pretty valuable paintings from Jho Low, an aide to the Malaysian Prime Minister. Now art dealer David Nahmad, of Monaco, is claiming a Monet in the collection actually belongs to him. Although he attempted to sell the painting to Low, and received a $2 million wire transfer, he reports that the deal fell through. This story ought to get juicier as it develops. [International Business Times]

Turns out there’s lots of poisonous heavy metals in paint. Not exactly a surprise, and the writer doesn’t seem to understand that while cobalt blue is more expensive and toxic than its cheaper cousin french ultramarine blue, there are actual differences in the color. It’s useful, though, because it does offer examples of colors made with heavy metals and their knockoffs. [The Observer]

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Monday Links: Sketchy Small Fingers

by Michael Anthony Farley and Rea McNamara on March 21, 2016

Meet Ralph Wolfe Cowan, the man who painted an “oil sketch” portrait of Donald Trump and was then hounded for 15 years to “finish” it. [Hyperallergic]
Psychologist Vittoria Ardino, president of the Italian Society for the Study of Traumatic Stress, looks at drawings left behind by Syrian refugee children in a Milan train station. Yes, this is as depressing as you’d expect. [NPR]
Bad news for parts of Bushwick and pretty much all of Ridgewood: the last leg of the M train will close for repairs next summer. This is to prepare the line for the expected overcrowding when the MTA shuts down the L train in 2017. [New York Post]
David Pagel slams Alex Israel and Bret Easton Ellis’s show at Gagosian’s Beverly Hills branch: “if Israel and Ellis collaborate again, do it on billboards. Or in magazines. Leave the canvas for painters.” [Los Angeles Times]
Tom Sachs has two exhibitions and one film opening this Spring. I (Michael) love Tom Sachs, but both of these things sound like Tom Sachs has run out of stuff to make out of other stuff. Now we’re left with boomboxes and tea ceremonies? What? Both of these sound like projects that would come about as the result of (two very different) commissions sponsored by a sneaker brand or Japan’s tourism board, respectively. [The Wall Street Journal]
Two major Asian collectors have announced plans to build major museums in South and Southeast Asia. One of them, Indonesian businessman Haryanto Adikoesoemo, is funding all by himself a 43,000 square foot museum that will be part of his new business and residential development in Jakarta’s western Kebon Jeruk district. The institution’s director says that the museum won’t revolve around Adikoesoemo’s collection. (Yeah, I know.) [Art Newspaper]
The TL;DR version of this feature on making it as a working artist in New York? Don’t expect to survive on the gallery system. It’s a long read, but the two depressing takeaways are as follows: Ryder Ripps compares himself to Donald Trump, adding credence to the theory that he has built his career success on being a troll, suggesting that the internet’s attention economics has finally trickled down into the art world. If you wanna get on top, embrace personal brand valuation (read: ego fascism). And even if you have gallery representation, you can still lose out: William Powhida, also profiled, says he’s represented by four galleries but lost 12k last year on his art. [Crain’s]

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Thursday Links: Ryder Ripps’s Death Knell

by Paddy Johnson Whitney Kimball and Corinna Kirsch on January 29, 2015

Detail from “Heater” by Ryder Ripps

Paddy Johnson reviews Ryder Ripps’s new exhibition of paintings based on sportswear model Adrienne Ho’s Instagram account at Postmasters. “You could argue what he’s doing is misogynistic, and it probably is, but the total absence of a defensible idea is the larger offense.” Banality and a tin eye, she argues, is ultimate death knell for this show. [artnet News]
N000oooo!!!!!! Skymall is going bankrupt. (Last week’s news, but we’re linking to it today.) Goodbye, space-themed litter boxes and shoe-shaped wine bottle holders. A loss felt not only for sky consumers but also for net art inspiration. [The New York Times]
“Millennials Are Moving to Buffalo and Living Like Kings.” According to the piece, a handful have found sanctuary in Buffalo, New York because the rent is so damn cheap. Like Detroit. Like most everywhere else in this country . [Gothamist]
We linked to Andrew Rice’s story about developers moving into East New York earlier this week, but in light of last night’s panel on gentrification in New York, we’re highlighting it again. While Rice talked to a developer who thinks it will be a while before it’s taken over by hipsters, the lay of the land looks bleak. Near the closing of the essay he writes, “As the rich push the middle class out of brownstone Brooklyn, the middle class has been left with an unenviable choice: leave or compete with the truly poor.” [New York Magazine]
This week, the Paramount Ranch Art Fair, an artist-run fair held in an Old West ghost town, will return, held in conjunction with the blue-chip Art Los Angeles Contemporary Fair. Yes, I would like to see art installed in a saloon. [LA Weekly]
Editors over at The Coveteur are going ape shit over the fact that architect Peter Marino has bought a bunch of brand-name contemporary artwork to decorate his office. He’s got Warhols, Richard Princes, and Robert Mapplethorpes. OoOooh. [The Coveteur]
The entire University of Wisconsin system of colleges and universities will receive $300 million in cuts over the next two years. Thanks, Governor Scott Walker; your possible Republican presidential run won’t please any students or faculty in your state. [Inside Higher Ed]
Popular gay Spanish illustrators, in list form. [Soyhomosensual]
At the Dallas Museum of Art last week, a bunch of people ran into a dark museum opening and smashed Loris Gréaud’s art. It was a performance, obviously, and Ben Davis wonders whether this kind of “media event” (which seems to have been done just for the press opening) is basically a dumb manifestation of Glenn Lowry’s desire to see art actively “engage audiences.” [artnet News]
If you had any questions about selling your underpants…[ANIMAL New York]
Keith Mayerson is going abstract. Not really news, just of interest to fans. [Contemporary Art Daily]
Lil B made a vegan emoji app with lots of jars of veganaise emoting. [iTunes via Vulture]
Ross W. Ulbricht, the man accused of running the black market website, The Silk Road, has lodged that the prosecutors failed to include a critical part of his defense: a golden emoji. The judge has ruled that the jurors must consider the emojis as part of the evidence. [The New York Times]
Taylor Swift has trademarked lyrics like “this sick beat” and “party like it’s 1989.” Looking at the complete list of phrases—she’s even trademarked her initials—she has a monopoly on any product that could possibly be made with those phrases. Want to make stationary that says “party like it’s 1989”? Nope. Want to make a wig that has “this sick beat” on it? No. Removable tattoo transfers? Absolutely not. Artists could learn a lot from her when it comes to shrewdly protecting their work. [HUH.]

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Thursday Links: Cigarettes for Kids

by Paddy Johnson Whitney Kimball and Corinna Kirsch on January 22, 2015

Are the Met and MoMA at war? The Lauder’s cubist collection went to the Met instead of MoMA, leading some to believe that, with shared interests, these institutions will need to fight over donors. It’s a juicy read, five pages full of quotes from the rich and art-famous. Met Director Thomas Campbell on MoMA: “sometimes we’re frenemies.” Larry Gagosian, being himself: “I love expansion!” [Vanity Fair]
Marketing whiz and artist Ryder Ripps has a show of Instagram paintings opening at Postmasters. It’s not even up, and it’s already received one bad review. [Jezebel]
Microsoft vaults itself into the future with the creation of HoloLens, a hologram headset yet-to-be released to the general public. Brian Crecente was able to demo one of the models, which comes with virtual reality, Skype, 3D gaming, and a 3D image-building capabilities. The future is now, though it feels like fiction: “The effect of wearing the glasses also doesn’t feel real. But not because it seems fake, rather because it is initially a bit unbelievable.” [Polygon]
Every month I await the Netflix death watch on Gothamist. It answers many a serial TV-watcher’s needs: which shows will go away forever over the next two weeks, and which will take their place. Only days remain to watch Jem and the Holograms (Seasons 1-3), Red Dwarf (Seasons 1-9), or My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Seasons 1-4). [Gothamist]
Linda Yablonsky reports that the Chelsea and Lower East Side art world seemed largely unphased by the Paris shooting. Mary Boone continues to wear ridiculous hats. [Artforum]
Wuuuuuttt. Places where dumb cashiers have been selling cigarettes to kids. Apparently this is the culture at Food Lion. [Vocativ]
Footbinding, a history. Apparently the 13th century Chinese trend was “inspired by a tenth-century court dancer named Yao Niang who bound her feet into the shape of a new moon.” GROSS. “The most desirable bride possessed a three-inch foot, known as a ‘golden lotus.’” [Smithsonian]
On Tuesday, a Belgian court found painter Luc Tuymans guilty of plagiarism. Or is it copyright infringement? Copy activist Joy Garnett has taken to Twitter to dispute the use of the term plagiarism. [The Guardian, @joygarnett]
Just a month after Obama re-opened travel to Cuba, the Bronx Museum and Cuba’s National Museum of Fine Arts plan the first Cuban-American art exchange. [New York Times]
Craig Anthony Miller is suing the Toll Brothers development company for using his murals to advertise for their condos. Ironically, the mural was torn down and replaced by townhouses, but he’d copyrighted the mural with permission from the wall’s owner. Smart move. [ANIMAL New York]
Houston, Texas’s Flower Man House, an “ever-evolving masterpiece of African-American yard show art” kept by the late Cleveland Turner, will be demolished. (Scattered throughout Houston are incredible homes full of “yard show art,” for lack of a better term.) The Project Row Houses organization is planning a commemorative billboard near the site of one of Turner’s former homes. [Texas Monthly]

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Monday Links: “Breastfeed Them”

by Paddy Johnson and Whitney Kimball on January 12, 2015

Image via The Associated Press

In boobs news, in a recent baptism speech, the Pope expressly welcomed mothers to breastfeed in the Sistine Chapel. “Give them milk,” the speech originally read, which the Pope changed to “breastfeed them”. [Wonkette]
“Is the New York Art Scene Doomed?” Yes, Ben Davis thinks. “In essence, the traditional relationship between suburb and city in American life is reversing.” I’ve drawn the same conclusion, though think that the bluechips are likely to remain where the money is. He’s guessing Detroit will be the next haven. I’d add the Catskills. [artnet News]
War has been waged over Ryder Ripps’ upcoming show “Art Ho” at Postmasters, which references heroic Ab/Ex gestures while smearing images of model Adrienne Ho. Dissidents are offended by yet another male appropriation of beauty. Defenders have called free speech. We’ve made our views known. [Facebook]
Another forgery in a museum story. [artnet News]
How is Carolina Miranda so good at her job? Here’s an amazing interview with Tania Bruguera, the Cuban artist arrested recently for an attempted performance about free speech in Cuba. Read all of it. [Culture: High & Low]
This is so fucked up. Worried that he didn’t have enough problems of his own to make good art, artist Joseph Gibbons, a former visiting professor at Bard and an instructor at MIT started creating them. He made two films on drug addiction and started robbing banks for “research” purposes. The stick up is bizarre: he points a camcorder at a teller and politely hands the person a note demanding a donation for his church. Exactly what threat, if any, is made in the note is unclear. [The New York Post]
Music critic Sasha Frere-Jones is leaving The New Yorker to work for Genuis.com. [Gawker]
Wow, Christopher Glazek’s annotation of his New York Times Magazine profile on Stefan Simchowitz is amazing. It sources statements in response to the piece by its subjects and responds point by point. If you’ve been following this story, reading the annotation is incredibly satisfying. [Genius]
One of our past contributors John Gawarecki-Maxwell on the conspiracy surrounding the Illuminati in WWE, and conspiracy theories in general. An entertaining read, even for those of us who don’t get the references. [Prowrestling.cool]
The dialogue continues on A Blade of Grass responding to our follow-up reporting on the Gramsci Monument. Lex Brown, who was a teacher at the monument throughout its run, feels that the Monument was something to be experienced and not analyzed with the standard critical remove. “It was a remarkable idea that came to successful fruition, through real love and real work, and beyond all the restrictions of society, identity, and politics. That reality of love and work needs to be celebrated and elevated.” [A Blade of Grass]
If artists are now aligning and identifying with small businesses (as Ben Davis and others have been advocating), then there’s a petition on Change.org calling for Mayor de Blasio to support the Small Businesses Jobs Survival Act. [Change.org]

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This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Every Event We’ve Listed Today Has a Penis

by Paddy Johnson and Whitney Kimball on December 8, 2014

Because what this blog needs is more dicks.

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This Week’s Must-see Art Events: Eat Turkey, See Art

by Paddy Johnson Whitney Kimball and Corinna Kirsch on November 24, 2014

With family-friendly events like movies and a NSFW (and NSFF) events with butt coins.

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Friday Links: The Problem of the Styles Section

by Paddy Johnson Whitney Kimball and Corinna Kirsch on November 14, 2014

The Creative Time Summit is streaming live now from Sweden. New Yorkers can also go see people talk about DIGITAL LABOR: SWEATSHOPS, PICKET LINES, AND BARRICADES with a time-delayed screening of the talks at the New School. [Creative Time streaming / New School conference]
On how love is like a fart. [r/Jokes]
Chinese shoppers using the website Alibaba, only had four days to purchase T-shirts that support Ai Weiwei before Alibaba shut the site down. [The New York Times]
More bad press for Ryder Ripps’s “ART WHORE”, a project in which he hired two sensual masseuses to make drawings for him at The Ace Hotel to demonstrate how his labor is being exploited. We didn’t like the project, Rhizome didn’t like the project, and Gawker doesn’t like it either. “Instead of opening that exploitation up for inspection, he hides it, making his sex workers into silent players in a drama about the aggrievement of Ryder Ripps.” [Gawker]
R.A. Montgomery, the author of Choose Your Own Adventure books passed away last Sunday at the age of 78. [Choose Your Own Adventure via Metafilter]
I think Christian Viveros-Fauné likes these Neo Rausch paintings at David Zwirner? It’s mostly a descriptive review. [Artnet]
Final Fantasy 3 and Enter the Wu-Tang were both released 20 years ago. Someone on the Internet noticed that. The mash up is better than you’d think. [2 Mello via Metafilter]
“Is it irresponsible bullshit or harmlessly fatuous?” If you actively hate the Times’s Styles section, as many do, then Jacqui Shine’s comprehensive history is a must-read. The section is often empty elitism that’s late on everything, aggressively dismissive, and totally out of touch. But ultimately, it’s a mix, revealing a history of misogyny and barriers in women’s and gay journalism; the section allowed women like Charlotte Curtis to break from the women’s desk and a gaying of the paper. “Yes, it does function as a powerful critical lens on contemporary life. Yes, it is devoted to the pleasures of affluence. Yes, sometimes it is absurd. And yes, the writers and editors do seem pretty self-aware about all of these things,” Shine writes. [The Awl]