Sean Brown x The Council of Fashion Designers of America [INTERVIEW]

Toronto's very own Sean Brown sat down with CFDA to discuss Compact Disc rugs, wearing Sean John like it's Prada, life evaluations, and answers if his work's been picked up by any museums, and if not, which ones he'd hope to be in one day?

Sean Brown: For me, the real win is seeing younger people and younger Black creatives caring about their spaces at home now. I’m not necessarily trying to be a part of social constructs and institutions anymore. I look at a lot of things holistically. Many arts you see in museums are stolen from us, and then they charge us to come to view them. Now I say that, but I can’t sit here and say I wouldn’t be appreciative or honoured to see my work in a museum. I wouldn’t turn down a chance to be a part of that, but I would want to be a part of the narrative.

Read the full interview HERE.

What Are Artists For? Merrill C. Berman Collection: MoMA [ART]

John Heartfield's The Hand Has Five Fingers (1928), a campaign poster for German Communist Party 

The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Merrill C. Berman Collection

“The title ‘artist’ is an insult,” the German Communists George Grosz and John Heartfield declared in 1920. Grosz subsided into satirical painting and drawing, but Heartfield became a dedicated propagandist who cast Hitler as a puppet of capitalism and savaged centrist opposition to the tyrant’s rise. The cover of the show’s catalogue features Heartfield’s photograph of a worker’s soiled, forward-grasping hand, which was used for a poster promoting the Communist Party in a Weimar election in 1928. The image seems rather more menacing than rallying. It is at an extreme of the era’s politically weaponized design, which generally took less inflammatory forms in Germany and other European democracies. These countries incubated movements that are well represented in the exhibition but tangential to its Russian focus—Futurism, Dada, the Bauhaus. In Russia, there was no partisan campaigning because there was only one party. After 1917, it won the ardent allegiance of a generation of creative types who reconceived of the artist as a self-abnegating servant of the masses and the state—or who professed to, whatever their private misgivings. 

What is an artist, anyway? moma’s show stalks the question. The works on paper from the Merrill C. Berman Collection include designs for Communist posters and salad oil advertisements

Read more over at The New Yorker

Cirque du Soleil Presents KURIOS - Cabinets of Curiosities [AWESOME]

What if you could alter reality at will? Delve into a world of curiosity where seeing is disbelieving: the world of KURIOS –Cabinet of Curiosities from Cirque du Soleil. The show immerses you in a mysterious and fascinating realm that disorients your senses and challenges your perceptions, leaving you to wonder: "Is it real, or just a figment of my imagination?"

Grab tickets and watch the trailer HERE.

Pharrell - Marilyn Monroe [MUSIC]

caption "I'ma get on this Pharrell single artwork mama, I'ma tear shit doooown! I'ma make sure these light skinned bitches never ever ever come back in styyyyyle!"

Watch the video HERE.

Get Pharrell's new album G I R L with 10 Brand New Tracks on iTunes: HERE.
Get Pharrell's new album G I R L with 10 Brand New Tracks on Amazon: HERE.

Follow Pharrell:
http://pharrellwilliams.com
http://facebook.com/pharrell
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http://instagram.com/pharrell

'This Is Not A Toy' Exhibition with Guest Curator Pharrell Williams [ART]

This Is Not A Toy, curated by John Wee Tom and DX Associate Curator Sara Nickleson with Guest Curator Pharrell Williams, is the world's first exhibition featuring a collection of contemporary sculptures, figurines and artworks created by artists including Takashi Murakami, KAWS, FriendsWithYou, Coarse, Huck Gee, and Frank Kozik.


The exhibition explores the conceptual toy – a form made solely as an expression of an aesthetic, concept or idea – as an art and design object as well as a contemporary cultural signifier. On display until May 19, visitors dive headfirst into the realm of designer toys as the Exhibition Hall is transformed into a vibrant and whimsical environment, filled with forms ranging from tiny trinkets to enormous free-standing pieces.


This Is Not A Toy is generously supported by Artworkers Retirement Society, Hal Jackman Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, and Toronto Arts Council.


Purchase admission tickets for This Is Not A Toy here.

AGO x Ai Weiwei: According to What? [ART]

“The most powerful figure in contemporary art.” — ArtReview

Although Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is one of the most prolific, provocative and significant artists at work today, audiences in North America have had little exposure to his vast and varied output. That will change this summer, when the AGO becomes the only Canadian stop on a North American tour that is already drawing crowds — and controversy — at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.

Featuring photographs, sculpture, installation art and audio and video pieces, Ai Weiwei: According to What? examines how the artist spotlights the complexities of a changing world and probes such issues as freedom of expression, individual and human rights, the power of digital communication and the range of creative practice that characterizes contemporary art today both in China and globally.

Organized by Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, and the Art Gallery of Ontario

The exhibition runs from August 17th – October 27th, 2013

For more information click HERE.

Pablo Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso [ART]

The exhibition is organized by the Musée National Picasso, Paris and the Art Gallery of Ontario and features 147 works from Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso… or better yet, Pablo Picasso’s own collection. View the pieces he chose to keep for himself to define his artistic legacy, as well as the depictions of his muses and mistresses by visiting the Art Gallery of Ontario from May 1 - August 26, 2012.

Exhibited chronologically and covering virtually every phase of the modern master’s unceasingly radical and diverse career.

Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris features:

•The Death of Casagemas, one of the first works he created in Paris in 1901;

•Autoportrait (Self-Portrait), the iconic 1906 self-portrait;

•the 1904 Blue-period masterpiece Celestina (The Woman with One-Eye), and The Two Brothers, a 1906 work from his Rose period;

•landmark African-inspired artwork that led to the advent of Cubism, including studies for the 1907 masterpiece Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and Three Figures Beneath a Tree, 1907-08

•examples of his genre-defining Analytic and Synthetic Cubism artworks, including the 1909-10 Sacré Coeur, 1911’s seminal Man with a Guitar and 1915’s Violin;

•Two Women Running on the Beach (The Race), a 1922 masterwork from his Neoclassical period, and 1925’s The Kiss, from his Surrealist period;

•a series of sculptures created during the Second World War, including 1942’s Bull’s Head, and two bronzes, 1943’s Death’s Head and 1950’s The Goat;

•The Bathers, the 1956 life-sized, six-piece figurative sculpture series created during a summer in Cannes; and

•The Matador, the famous self-portrait painted in 1970, three years before his death

Get your tickets at www.ago.net/picasso

My City My Story: Photo Exhibit [EVENTS]

My homie Shash is presenting some of his photography work at Flash Forward Festival taking place this weekend. Not to be confused with Nuit Blanche ...though, I'd suggest double trysting.

The My City My Story photography residency presents "InSightOut" in partnership with the Flash Forward Festival. The gallery exhibit features each artists series, developed over the past 6 months. In addition, a mini-retrospective of previous works will be displayed in a Sidewalk Shipping Container.

Please join us for:

2-6 Artist curated tours of both sites
6-7 Panel discussion: "Photography, Access and Artistic Self Definition"
7-11 Gallery Exhibit


Featuring the work of:
Alpha Abebe
Saada Alweh God
Yannick Anton
Johnblak
Gaby Cueto
Edwina Fernandes
Anora Graham
Oswaldo Montano
Elaisha Stokes
Nabil Shash



Presented in partnership with Schools Without Borders, Manifesto and the Flash Forwards Festival, with support of the Laidlaw Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Anitafrika Dub Theatre, Boa Studios, Barefoot Wine and Bubbly and Amsterdam.

RSVP here.

“Peggy & Don” [ART]

Don: I am sorry if I embarrassed you…

Peggy: Shhhhhh

I’m watching Mad Men and pause; I love this. The scene was just classic, and warm. I did it over in water colour and I loved it even more.

- “Peggy & Don” JB, 2010

via Tumblr

Douglas Coupland x Roots Canada [ART]

This is exciting.

Big news from the Great White North. “Canadian-based clothing retailer Roots recently collaborated with prominent writer and visual artist Douglas Coupland on a range of items from apparel, accessories, leather goods to design items, furniture and original art. Best known as the internationally best-selling author of “Generation X”, “All Families Are Psychotic”, “JPod” and for his art creations, this is the first time Coupland has designed fashion wearables.”

Colette has taken the collection, which will launch in September.

via Selectism

Michael Leon for Bodega [ART]

I really like this. I actually can't seem to find the official title of this Michael Leon piece (I have aptly titled it Pisa Lean), so if someone knows, please fill me in. Nevertheless, this, along with an array of other works, is part of the Bodega collection which is curated under the premise of being eco-friendly, and contemporary done on a larger scale that most releases. A great way to give new and established artists a platform to share their work with the world.

Stephen Wiltshire's True To Scale NYC's Skyline From Memory [ART]

WOW.

This astonishing 18ft drawing of the world’s most famous skyline was created by autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire after he spent just 20 minutes in a helicopter gazing at the panorama.

The unbelievably intricate picture was drawn at Brooklyn’s prestigious Pratt Institute from Stephen’s memory, with details of every building sketched in to scale.

Landmarks including the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building can be seen towering above smaller buildings after just three days in his spellbinding creation.

Read more: DailyMail

I Am Boey Coffee Cups [ART]

These are pretty neat! I am actually impressed with the simplistic nature, but intense detail in the artwork. A sharpie and a polystyrene foam cup...who would have thunk it? Simply cool. Read the article here.

Check out his collection here.

Interested in picking up a cup?
contact:
rectangletriangle@gmail.com
twitter.com/iamboey

for other random stuff:
www.iamboey.com

Michael Jackson Portrait by Andy Warhol Up For Auction [ART]

In 1984, this portrait of Jackson painted by Warhol, measuring 30 x 26 inches.

At the time, both men were at the a great height in their respective careers. Valued at approximately $850k, it is likely to fetch far more than that when it hits the auction block sometime soon in a New York auction. Currently, the screen-print portrait is on display at the British Music Experience in London.

via Luxist

Always Remember To Stay Classy! [TATTOOS]

The Ron Burgundy doctrine as spread like wild fire! Some say the movement is comparable to that of Martin Luther...without the backlash that is.

Some of the philosophies put forth:

"I love scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch. Here it goes down, down into my belly..."

"For just one night let’s not be Co-workers. Let's be Co-people."

"I don't know how to put this but I'm kind of a big deal."

"Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina."

spotted over at Mr. Jaspers blogspot.

Shepherd Fairey x Rolling Stone for "Obama So Far" [COVER]

The creator of probably the most iconic emblem of any presidential campaign, and Rolling Stones Mag have collaborated for the cover of the latest installment of the publication. Fairey has put together a new illustration of the commander in chief to compliment the lead story, which discusses the presidents first 6 months in office.

Read the article here.

Jay-Z - Blueprint III Album Artwork [ART]

Touch it September 11th, 2009.

via Jay-Z.com

Omar Tehawkho – "Manly Posters" [ART]

Top 5 Male Occupations
5: Porn Star (International)
4: Porn Star (Local)
3: Mick Jagger
2: Lumberjack
1: Race Car Driver

I'd be little bit of 1, and 3...with a dash of 5.

Omar Tehawkho showcases a set of five vertically designed posters outlining they keys to being a man. Including Skills A Man Should Possess, 5 Step Plan For Making Your First Billion, 3+2 Things A Man Oughta Do in His Lifetime, Top 5 Male Occupations, and The 5 Key Steps of a Proper Shave, this amazing and humorous series is a great introduction to the work of Omar Tehawkho.

source: DT

Fight Club...but with girls! [PHOTOGRAPHY]

An ode to Fight Club. Suicide Girls = Bad bitches!

“1st RULE: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB. 2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB. 3rd RULE: If someone says "stop" or goes limp, taps out the fight is over. 4th RULE: Only two girls to a fight. 5th RULE: One fight at a time. 6th RULE: No shirts (YAY!), no shoes. 7th RULE: Fights will go on as long as they have to. 8th RULE: If this is your first night at FIGHT CLUB, you HAVE to fight."

- Missy

Chanel & LV Fashion Cupcakes [ART]

Fly & Delicious. Shot by Swedish photographer Therese Aldgard and styled by Lisa Edsalv

Via HS