Prada Marfa

image: apartmenttherapy.com

image: drewtewksbury.com

image: kultureflash.net

In 2005, Berlin based artists Elmgreen & Dragset unveiled Prada Marfa, a 15' x 25' sculptural doppelganger of a Prada boutique near Marfa, Texas, complete with lighting and merchandise, but sealed shut: a time capsule of Luxury retail.

The painted sign referencing the location of the sculpture is featured prominently in the Van der Woodsen/Bass apartment on Gossip Girl and the Works On Whatever edition of that sign currently resides in our bedroom.

Elmgreen & Dragset:


“As one drives toward the artwork it will appear to be a large minimalist sculpture, as one gets closer it will look like a luxury boutique where a display of Fall 2005 high-heel Prada shoes and bags will be seen through the store front windows… blends into the exciting historical structures of the area in which it will be placed… As we purposefully will not preserve Prada Marfa, it will eventually become a ruin so that even in a future decayed state it will remain relevant to the time in which it was made…”


Available at Works On Whatever here. $300 USD plus shipping.

Our Glamorous Bathroom

Thanks to Richard Phillips "Spectrum" and Works On Whatever, our bathroom has never been more glamorous. An inspiring beauty to greet us each morning.

I originally wrote about these incredible "Prop Art" editions here.

Available at Works On Whatever here. $250 USD plus shipping.

20x200 Ideal Bookshelf 101: Robert Verdi by Jane Mount

image: 20x200.com

The mission of 20x200 is simple:

(limited editions × low prices) + the internet = art for everyone

Ideal Bookshelf 101: Robert Verdi
by Jane Mount

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I paint people's ideal bookshelves: your favorite books, books that changed your life, books that made you who you are.

Picking your ideal books is not an easy task (try it!), and the results are always enlightening. I think of this project as an intimate form of portraiture; a way to illustrate who the subject is on the inside instead of out.

I love that a book is something created very personally and then mass-produced in order to affect many other people very personally. I paint them to turn them back into something very personal and intimate. In the age of the Kindle, it's very satisfying.

I've recently been painting the books of various creative thinkers, and this is a shelf from that series. It contains books selected by Robert Verdi: designer, fashion icon and stylist to the stars.

Available here. 8"x10", edition of 200 each $20. 10"x14", edition of 250 each $50. 16"x20" edition of 20 each $200.

Thank you Stephen.

Works On Whatever: Richard Phillips

image: apartmenttherapy.com

image: worksonshatever.com

Art Production Fund's Works On Whatever (WOW) project continues with this affordable edition of Richard Phillip's "Spectrum". A larger reproduction of this image (Prop Art) hangs in the Bass/Van der Woodsen apartment on Gossip Girl and inspired this current edition.

We are picking up ours today!!

Co-founded by Yvonne Force Villareal and Doreen Remen, Art Production Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping artists realize difficult to produce works, reaching new audiences and expanding public participation and understanding of contemporary art.

Art Production Fund website here.

Richard Phillip's "Spectrum" available here. 30" x 36.5". $250 USD.

Today I love...

These fabulous budgerigar paintings by artist Ben Quilty:

The new towel range from Aura Home - I'm thinking of the spot towels (second image at front) for my own bathroom:

This great book from Mary Randolph Carter (it's on my Christmas wishlist):

[Image: Amazon]

These prints from Southwood Home - green being my favourite colour, I especially love the 'Eat Your Greens' print on the far left:

Speaking of green, I think these green tiles are pretty gorgeous too:

[Image: Hecker Guthrie]

And also this glass and ceramic collection - simple but stunning: 

[Image: Martha Stewart]

And finally, who could go past a great shell collection like this:

[Image: Martha Stewart]

Wishing you a happy weekend.

Two art exhibitions

I am so looking forward to this weekend - my sister and I are going to two art exhibitions. The first is one of my all-time favourite artists, Cressida Campbell, and the second is one of my sister's favourite artists, Judy Drew. Unfortunately we don't have nearly enough pennies in our piggy banks to actually purchase paintings by these two fabulous artists, but of course that doesn't stop us looking, drooling and dreaming. Here's just a wee example of some of the works produced by these two amazing women.

Cressida Campbell's woodblock paintings...

Interior with red ginger

Daisies and camellia

White waratah

Judy Drew creates the most beautiful still life pictures and portraits in pastels that look as though they are straight out of the 1920s and '30s. These are some of the pieces of art that we will see at her exhibition at the Melbourne Fine Art Gallery this weekend:

Still life with chrysanthemums

Still life in purple, black and ochre

Woman in gold satin gown

A designing woman

If you're in Melbourne, and you're interested in taking in these exhibitions, or you'd just like to take a look at the gallery websites, the details are as follows:

Cressida Campbell exhibition

Sophie Gannon Gallery

2 Albert Street, Richmond

18th November - 12th December

Judy Drew exhibition

'Expressions through colour'

Melbourne Fine Art Gallery

422 Bourke Street, Melbourne

(Images 1-4: Cressida Campbell; Images 5-8: Melbourne Fine Art Gallery)

Chris Chun's cushions

What could be more beautiful, glamorous and colourful than a couple (or more) of artist Chris Chun's limited edition oriental silk cushions...

(Images: Chris Chun)

Museum of Arts and Design

image: nytimes.com

On our visit this past Sunday, we witnessed the bold new architecture at Columbus Circle of the Museum of Arts and Design, which opened nearly one year ago. Designed by Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture, the controversial renovation of the original 1964 building which housed the Huntington Hartford private art collection, is a light and airy exhibition space dedicated to Arts and Design. Museum website here.

Slash: Paper Under the Knife is a tremendous introduction to the new space. In a talented artist's hands, mundane paper is transformed into astounding works of art. Featured among many other artists: Kara Walker, Olafur Eliasson and Thomas Demand. Through April 4, 2010.

Olafur Eliasson: Your House, 2006
image: madmuseum.org

Visionaire 58 Spirit: A Tribute To Lee Alexander McQueen

image: visionaireworld.com

Visionaire 58: Spirit is a tribute to Lee Alexander McQueen.

from Visionaire--Visionaire first featured the provocative fashion designs of Lee Alexander McQueen in 1996, and he remained a continuous inspiration and presence for the magazine, providing some of its most treasured contributions. In 2003, McQueen visited the New York offices and gallery of Visionaire to discuss collaborating on an issue of the magazine--an issue that sadly was never to be. Visionaire No. 58: Spirit is a tribute to McQueen's genius and legacy. It gathers images inspired by McQueen from such contributors as Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Nick Knight, Steven Klein and David Sims; these images are printed on paper embedded with wildflower seeds, so that, when planted, watered and exposed to sunlight, the pages will blossom. Spirit is presented in a case that is wrapped in an Alexander McQueen metalized brocade, featured in the designer's Spring/Summer show of 2010, and is limited to an edition of 1,500 numbered copies.

Available here. $295 USD.

Wintourfeld at 20x200

image: 20x200.com

Why not proclaim your devotion to fashion icons Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld with this unique print by artist Don Oehl at 20x200.

Available here. Price range $20-1000 USD.

Moss Make Me Manly

image: mossonline.com

Moss, the high temple of design here in NYC is opening their first Fall show entitled MAKE ME.

“MAKE ME.” presents a small but diverse body of work by an otherwise un-related collective of artists and designers, which together celebrate a rough-hewn, virile, reductive, anti-academic, craft-driven, ‘tool-belt and heavy-lifting’ aesthetic, paradoxically realized with such sensitivity and finesse, often embodying subtle, complex theoretical, structural, formal, and compositional aspects, and infused with such poetic narrative as to be necessarily characterized as ‘butch’, a word defined in today’s vernacular as a stereotypical ‘brute-masculine’ approach taken by a stereotypical ‘sensitive-feminine’ personality.

via mossonline.com

Opening Wednesday September 15, 6-8pm.

Artist: Cressida Campbell

Reading the fabulous interview of textile designer Sally Campbell over at The Design Files, I followed the link to artist Cressida Campbell's site and was reminded yet again of the absolute beauty of her woodblock paintings...

So, I now know what I'd like in my Christmas stocking this year...Cressida Campbell's book of illustrations of her beautiful woodblock paintings.  I'll just have to make sure that I remember to drop a few hints to my husband when it gets a bit closer to Christmas!

(Images: Cressida Campbell)

Art: Jude Rae

I am in awe of the beautiful oil paintings of utalitarian objects by Jude Rae. The composition of the objects shown in stark simplicity infuse the objects with an innate elegance:

Jude Rae's work will be exhibited at the Jensen Gallery in Sydney from 8 September - 8 October. I must organise a visit to Sydney - I dearly want to see these amazing works first hand.

[All images from Jensen Gallery]

Lanvin Bridal Snow Globe

image: lanvin.com

Need a ridiculously charming bridal gift? Look no further than this porcelain Lanvin Bride figurine snow globe. It even plays the wedding march.



Available at Lanvin. $225 USD.

Help Make Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty A Traveling Exhibition

I was overwhelmed by the incredible Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty Exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum and I hope that they consider making it a traveling show. This is an experience that should be open to the world.



Please see the petition here.

Sculpture - Antony Gormley

I am in awe of the work of the famous English sculptor Antony Gormley, perhaps best known for the amazing Angel of the North sculpture in Gateshead, England... Here's a short excerpt from Antony's biography on his website, and pictures of some if his incredible sculptures of the human form:

"Over the last 25 years Antony Gormley has revitalised the human image in sculpture through a radical investigation of the body as a place of memory and transformation, using his own body as a subject, tool and material. Since 1990 he has expanded his concern with the human condition to explore the collective body and the relationship between self and other in large-scale installations"

This last sculpture was made purely of waste items and was later burnt by the artist. Pretty incredible!

(Images: Antony Gormley)

Art: A thing of beauty

I loved this picture in the latest issue of Inside Out so much that I've torn it out of the magazine and popped it up on the wall in my office for instant inspiration. That bird is simply amazing! It's the 'Bird in Flight III' limited edition print by Beth-Emily from Signed & Numbered.  Mmmm, think I might have to do a bit of online shopping :)

Cecily Brown Jigsaw Puzzle

images: artwareeditions.com

Contemporary artist Cecily Brown is a jigsaw puzzle enthusiast, so it should come as no surprise that her collaboration with Nathalie Karg of Cumulus Studios would produce one.

Carnival and Lent (2008) by Cecily Brown is re-imagined as a 672 piece jigsaw puzzle. The energetic palette and forceful brushstrokes should make for a challenging evening or two.

Signed edition of 30: $500
Edition of 200: $150

Available here.