Art Market: Pierre's Heteronomy @ Shin Gallery New York

  

(Drivebycuriosity) - Pierre Matisse, the son of Henri Matisse, had an influential art gallery in Manhattan`s midtown. Being an art dealer and collector Matisse supported the career of many artists, including Giacometti. The ambitious Shin gallery on Lower East Side´s Orchard Street displays parts of Mastisse`s very eclectic collection. The show is called Pierre's Heteronomy (shin-gallery ).

 

 

On top of this post you can see the painting "Argumouth" by Robert Matta, followed by Yves Tanguy`s "Qui répondra" (1948, Oil on Canvas)

 

Above one Balthus`works

 

To be continued

Contemporary Art: Icebergs & More By Ulf Puder @ Marc Straus Gallery New York

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Marc Straus Gallery on Manhattan´s Grand Street belongs to New York`s most ambitious art places. I have seen there many wonderful exhibitions. This week I saw a show with paintings by Ulf Puder, a leading and influential artist in the Leipzig painting movement (marcstraus ).

 

 

According to the press release "Ulf Puder, a landscape artist for 20 years, looks at the genre as a cultural concept, defining it as a clash between nature and culture. In his invented landscapes, he addresses cultural and political developments across Europe".

 

On top of this post you can see "Kleine Winterlandschaft" (2022, Oil on canvas). Above this paragraph follow   "The Icebergs" (2022
Oil on canvas) & "Grosser Eisberg" (2022
Oil on canvas).

 

Above you can see "Großer Felsen". The press release says: "The rock, symbolic and powerful, signifies protection while also reflecting the broken state of the new world order. In addressing this dichotomy, the natural strength of the rock, millions of years unchanged, now begins to crumble with human intervention".

 

To be continued

Science Fiction: Infinity`s End

  (Drivebycuriosity) - In the future almost anything could happen. A rich field for speculation and science fiction writers. One of the reasons I love the scifi genre. 

The anthology - with the paradox title -  "Infinity`s End" - the last volume of seven Infinity Project books - gives a taste of it. The collection, edited & curated by Jonathan Strathan, depicts 14 versions of a possible future (amazon ). The editor had asked his writers "to open up the solar system, to look again at its vastness, its incredible scale, anbd how humanity in different ways might fit successfully and happily into its nooks and crannies." The result is a selection of very different amazing tales.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch`s "Once on the Blue Moon" is my favorite. Murderous pirates overtake a space ship to find and capture a very valuable item. They didn`t calculate with one passenger: a 12 years young girl, who is stubborn, willful and very accomplished. Its a young adults story, but nicely told and lots of fun. 

I also like: 

Seanan McGuire`s "Swear Not By The Moon". The heirs of dynasty visit Titan, the largest of Saturn`s moons, which is owned & colonized by their grand-grand mother. Their visit causes trouble.

Alastair Reynolds`"Death`s Door". Three very, very old friends are meeting, experiencing together strange and dramatic events. A very dark & surreal tale, as usual for Reynolds. 

 Stephen Baxter´s "Las Small Step". A small spaceship with only 2 passengers travels to the edge of our solar system to stop there another traveler from what he wants to do - a mini space opera.

Nick Wolven`s "Cloudsong". A sophisticate diplomat has to negotiate with a group of strange asteroid settlers who have a challenging claim - very exotic.

To be continued

Contemporary Art: Yuan Fang`s Stratospheres @ Half Gallery New York

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Manhattan´s East Village is a cluster of dives and fast food places, but there is at least one art gallery which has frequently interesting exhibitions: Half Gallery. Yesterday I saw there an exhibition with abstracts by Yuan Fang (halfgallery ). The show is called "Stratospheres" I believe.

 

Yuan Fang (b.1996, Shenzhen, China) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. I love the dynamic of her compositions. There is a vortex of colors which is almost alive. But let the images speak for themselves.

 

 

To be continued

Traveling: Impressions From Hua Hin

 

 

(Drivebycuriosity) - Finally, my wife and I are back in New York - after six weeks in Thailand. We finished our vacation in Hua Hin, a beach resort town, stretched along the Gulf of Thailand, abound 200 km south of Bangkok.

 

The climate was a bit oceanic. Day time temperatures climbed to the upper 70s F (25 C), there was no rain, but it was very humid. 

 

Unfortunately there were not many chances for walking on the 6 km long sand beach, because the ocean covered it most of the time, just at low tide around 6 pm a longer stretch of sand was uncovered. But the surf was mild.

 

 

The resort we stayed had lovely gardens with coconut palms, frangipani trees and lot of other beautiful plants. There was even a huge tamarind tree.

 

The trees attracted a lot birds, including this cocky fellow

 

 

 

 

There was not much to do but we had the pool next to our room mostly for ourselves. The place was perfect to relax and to finish a wonderful trip.

To be continued someday.

Books: Trust By Hernan Diaz

 

(Drivebycuriosity) -  I am always searching for new interesting book writers. So last year´s Booker Prize winner appeared on my radar: Hernan Diaz`s "Trust" ( amazon.).

I turned out that the book contains 4 novels, kind of. It starts with "Bonds" a novel-in-novel by a fictional author about a hyper successful Wall Street investor & speculator (long and short turn) and his wife, followed by the fictional autobiography of another hyper successful Wall Street guy, very similar to the first novel, then follows another fictional autobiography, this time by a woman, who had worked for the author of novel 2 and then follow notes by the fictional wife from novel 2. 

I was fascinated by "Bonds", musings about the stock market and a description of the Roaring Twenties and the causes of the stock market meltdown starting late 1929. Being educated as an economist and having covered financial markets for newspapers, magazines and an online service over some years I enjoyed Diaz´s  view. There are a lot cliches of course and some parts are overdramatic but Diaz`s prose is wonderful and there are passages full of magic.

I found novel 2 rather tedious, there is way too much bragging and there are too many oversimplifications. And I did not care about parts 3 & 4.

Because of the amazing "Bonds" part I liked the book in general and I might read more by Diaz. 

Contemporary Art: HIMBAD @ Tang Contemporary Bangkok

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Contemporary art doesn`t know frontiers. During a recent visit in Bangkok I saw some interesting art shows. I already reported about the exhibition @ Over The Influence (my post ). 

This post is about a show @ Tang Contemporary. The art dealer is located in Bangkok`s Rivier City on the banks of the Chao Phraya River.

 

Tang displayed works by an artist named HIMBAD (.tangcontemporary ). The show was called "Orkys".

On top of this post you can see "metamorphorkys (2022, Acrylic on linen with uv archival varnish) followed by "Hunt/ed in the land of the southern cross".

 

 

 

Above follow "miss/mist" & "Soundlessness" (plus a detail shot).

Meet "Tom"

 

 

 

Above "F0kiran"; "Soak in the sap of the hot Cedar at the canopy onset"; "Apocolyptotoad" & "Outrun".

  

 

 

Above some works by different artists @ Tang.

To be continued