Goldsmith mannequins

I was in long Island City Yesterday , close by to a place I used to work at, Goldsmith mannequins. Its a two story factory building just on the other side of the river from manhatten. I used to paint the faces on mannequins, it was an awesome job, it took me about 6 weeks before I could do it properly but once I got it down, it was really fun. It's there really that I learned the skills that I use to paint portraits.

What Makes Us happy ???

Is there a formula—some mix of love, work, and psychological adaptation—for a good life? For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. Here, for the first time, a journalist gains access to the archive of one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. Its contents, as much literature as science, offer profound insight into the human condition—and into the brilliant, complex mind of the study’s longtime director, George Vaillant.

You can read the entire article here

Polke and Neel

The Polke show at Michel Werner was great to see, this major painter whose works are crammed into a townhouse, really it was much better then seeing them all nicely spaced out at gagosian in chelsea of something, and the scale of the works was very human too...more info here The lenticular devices, had a crude homemade feel to them and it really worked for Polke.

The show of Alice Neel's early work from the 30's was miner and intimate, but I'm very glad I had a chance to see it

Looking around Uptown

On my way to the Met yesterday I stopped in at a few uptown galleries. Gagosian had an awesome group show of figurative work, with prime examples by Richter, Polke, Rosenquist and others and an incredible man ray I had never seen before. Also a new version of spiritual america? more info here

Francis Bacon at The Met

It was really great to see this show. All in all it was a pretty good overview, there was a series of businessmen in hotel rooms and bars that I had never seen before...looking creepy and furtive and queer, I loved the harsh clinical light and weird palatte of the tryptichs, the late work had its moments too, see jet of water above....also I was struck by how much he and hockney had in common..

Assume Vivid Astro Focus / Black Meteoric Sun at Moma

I went to this event last night, it was a beautiful transformation of the cavernous MoMA lobby into a party space. An excellent night of clubbing seems so brazilian to me, all about the experiential. Thanks Eli! More pics on My friend Linda Simpson's page MY COMRADE

Olympic posters by Alan Clarke

These are Incredible! They are the posters for the 2012 olmpics in London and really beautiful...more information on this designer and further examples of the posters here

Sottsass

More Sottsass

Sottsass

Arena for a rock concert

Milk 'n cookies

I Freakin' love this band,..heres a crappy live video

Sottsass

Ettore Sottsass is one of the main designers for the Memphis group of the '80's....referenced in the La Roux video...here are a few examples of his work. I think Peter Shire, also of Memphis is responsible for some of the pieces in the room shot

La Roux Bulletproof

I LOVE THIS...the memphis inspired set is unbelievable!

ligne Roset Salon

If you get a chance, stop by tonight for a cocktail, or check out my work there over the summer.

Avedon at ICP

I saw an amazing show last night of Richard Avedon's fashion photography. I thought I knew this material pretty well, but there were all kinds of images that I had never seen before..beautiful prints , contact sheets and magazine tear sheets...another really brilliant show at ICP, more information here..You can read Roberta Smith's review in the NY Times here...

Urban Bear Weekend

Unfortunately, I didnt make it to any of this event....but heres a taste of what I missed

Brooklyn Museum

This is a particularly good time to go to the Brooklyn museum... the Gustave Caillebotte show was great, The Hernan Bas show was interesting with moments of greatness, definitely thought provoking and worth the time, The Sun K. Kwak installation was beautiful (That's me standing against it above) and the "Reflections on The Electric Mirror" show of new videos was great and beautifully installed...info here