More Murakami @ The Brooklyn Museum

A few more images of the Takashi Murakami show at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. I have no immediate plans to go to NYC, as I am all the way down in Florida now, but was I still living in Boston I'd hop on an Amtrack and be there for sure.

Via The New York Times

Murakami & Louis Vuiiton @ Brooklyn Museum

Eva Herzigova and Marc Jacobs by a stall of Louis Vuitton bags outside fake street displays at the Brooklyn Museum during the gala opening of the Takashi Murakami retrospective.

Takashi Murakami's authentic Louis Vuitton bags outside on street displays at the Brooklyn Museum. The artist himself, below.

Via The New York Times

Chanel Travelling Art Pod

The Chanel Art Pod is snap-together mobile gallery that will tour the world showing works inspired by Chanel’s padded bag. “Mobile Art” gathers the works of some 20 artists, including Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki and Yoko Ono, widow of slain Beatle John Lennon, in a flying-saucer-shaped pavilion designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid. When Hadid and Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel got together to realize their dream of a traveling museum, they named Fabrice Bousteau, editor-in-chief of Beaux Arts magazine, as the curator. The exhibition runs from Feb. 27 through April 5 in Hong Kong - it's first stop - before moving to Tokyo, New York (Sep 08), London, Moscow and finally Paris in 2010.

Via Yatzer

Marilyn Monroe By Bert Stern @ Galeria Estação - São Paulo

For three days in 1962 photographer Bert Stern shot one of cinema's biggest and most enigmatic icons - Marilyn Monroe - in a Los Angeles hotel suite. Unknow to both at the time this was going to be Marilyn's last photo sitting and perhaps one of her most revealing, where she shed her clothing to reveal more than mere flesh. Even after more than 45 years after her death she is still revered as Hollywood's larger-than-life screen goddess, who was unafraid to expose her vulnerability to Stern's camera, surgical scar and all.

Now at São Paulo's Galeria Estação you can view this complete sitting in the show titled "Marilyn Monroe - O Mito (The Myth)". The exhibit goes from January 26th to March 16th and if you happen to be visiting Brazil's largest city you shouldn't miss it.

Art Basel Miami 2007 - Part 3

This is my last batch of pictures from the Art Basel Miami 2008 fair. These are a images from inspiring, sexy, cool or simply kooky artwork that caught my eye while I walked up & down ABM hallways. I actually had to really pay attention to where I was going, drawing a mental map, to make sure that I did see (almost) everything. The grid pattern lay-out got me lost a couple of times wondering whether I should be turning right or left or asking myself "did I go down this aisle already?" I loved the fair and will make sure to attend it again next year armed with comfortable shoes, a full stomach and more time. I forgot to mention that the admission fee was US$30.00 and I thought it was very steep. I understand that it's a very high-end art event and they want to keep the riff-raff out, but 30 bucks is a lot considering that you don't really "get" anything for it, besides what you take home in your mind. Enjoy!

Art Basel Miami 2007 - Part 2

Visiting Art Basel Miami is like going to a huge museum show where you can see the best in international contemporary arts. The thing with museums is that you can admire and covet everything you see on their walls but nothing is available for sale, hence the name "museum". The artworks are usually part of their permanent collection through acquisitions or on loans from other museums and private collectors. At Art Basel you can actually take home a Picasso, a Miro or an Andy Warhol original, hence you have the big bucks - I mean BIG BUCKS! That's what makes this fair so cool, it's that besides getting your creative juices going, you can actually dream of owning a museum-quality piece of art. And there are tons of it to choose from. It's is overwhelming to see the sheer quantity of top names that are displayed on it's many gallery stands. I lost count of how many Warhols I spotted by weaving through all those hallways. Making a fashion analogy: it's like walking through a big shopping mall which every other shop sells Prada, Dior or Gucci runway pieces - not key chains or sunglasses - but couture level clothing. Welcome to Art Basel!

Here are a few more images from a few of my favorite artists that I came across during my art excursion in Miami on Sunday. From the top: Damien Hirst, Kehinde Wiley, Candida Hofer, John Currie, Julian Opie, Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara below.

Click on the artit's name to view older Little-Pumpkins posts on them.

Art Basel Miami 2007 - Part One

I have been hearing about Art Basel for years and somehow always managed to miss it by not scheduling my trips down South properly to early December when the fair usually takes place. I have always loved contemporary arts - a "frustrated artist" myself - and the thought of attending such an internationally renowned art event would have been a dream come true. Well, as a new Florida resident I had no excuses not to attend the event this year and that's what I did this past Sunday. The main event takes place at the Miami Beach Convention Center in South Beach, a gigantic concrete box that houses the fair itself, plus there are smaller parallel art exhibitions around the city of Miami as well. There you will find over 160 of the world's leading art galleries for modern and contemporary art showing the "crème de la crème" from 2000 plus artists' works. That includes painting, photography, sculpture, installation, film, performance, video and digital art. Sounds exhausting, huh? Well, it is! There is so much to see and absorb that a single visit makes it almost impossible to really make the most of such a huge event. It is an overdose of sensorial information and after a couple of hours walking around, in and out of the stands, I was drained - physically and mentally. I had my little digital camera on me and I must confess that I was embarrassed to use it at first. I always looked down on those "silly tourists" that take pictures inside museums but this was not a museum and after the first few shy shots I was snapping pictures of everything. As I have way too many images to post I will break it up in three different "articles" so I can show you some of my favorite works from Art Basel.