Monday, March 26, 2012

Ellen Berkenblit, Broken Pane of Frosted Glass, 2012
Ellen Berkenblit, Striper, 2012

Ellen Berkenblit,  Miss R, 2012
Ellen Berkenblit, Yours Truly, Frankenstein Astrachan, 2012

Ellen Berkenblit, Later That Night, 2012

What a great feeling I got when I walked into Anton Kern gallery and discovered the works of art of decades long and well-established artist Ellen Berkenblit; Ellen's current show (self titled) runs til March 31st; of course I'm late, it never fails, but there's still four days left to check out her show. Ellen is known to depict whimsical cartoon character-like images and imaginary characters in her work. Ellen's current show depicts a "witch-like" woman-child, I was attracted to the vibrant colors, very 1960's-esque; sharp shapes and odd yet intriguing composition; Ellen's witch-like heroine is depicted with green hair, long black eyelashes and ribbons vomited or spewing from her mouth. Thought provoking and engaging is what I call Ellen and her works. I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!! It closes March 31st. - Madame J.

Janice Pena Art Blog

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Elaine Reichek: Ariadne's Thread


Elaine Reichek The Graces With Their Own Hands, 2011

Elaine Reichek Would You Believe It Ariadne?, 2009


Check out Elaine Reichek's current show Ariadne's Thread at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery now til March 24th; Elaine's Greek themed/inspired show is mostly needlepoint both hand and some works machine done. Elaine also has an artwork at The Whitney Biennial. Beautiful works of art; not much more for me to blog about, see it soon before the 24th. - Madame J.

Janice Pena Art Blog

Friday, March 9, 2012

Winding It Up: Kehinde Wiley's Party And All Dat Attitude

DJ Spooky aka "DJ EXTRA-ORDINAIRE"

Photographer Johnny Nunez "Hmm, do I bum-rush with attitude or do I..."

Artist Kehinde Wiley "Glitterati Squad"

Artist Kehinde Wiley had his "launch/preview" party last night at "a local cultural institution" on the east side. "Kehinde Wiley/The World Stage: Israel" which runs now thru July 29th. "The Wind Up" MC Kalkidan and DJ Spooky hosted the party ran from 8:30 to 11pm. I had the pleasure of watching Kehinde, DJ Spooky and hip-hop photographer Johnny Nunez all come in (at separate times) and grace us with their "savant" presence; Kehinde a-la entourage showed up around 8:25pm, his "Blackerati Squad" (Black/Glitterati Fab Bunch)" showed up looking fab and of course Kehinde and his "look at me, look at me" suit/attire garnered much attention in his direction; one mistake the famed artist did make, he didn't greet the employees that were working at the front desk; "hey Kehinde like I wrote (in my last blog post about you) manners and friendliness go a VERY long way," "damn Kehinde you could've taken five seconds out of your busy schedule to greet us peons we would have been loyal followers for life, but "no you couldn't but help yourself and felt the need to" "ignore us", you known the "non-entities" that we are, "oh well you can't win them all;" "p.s Kehinde if Maira Kalman can be gracious so can you! Hey DJ Spooky "are you trying to cause an "international incident" at the "Museum?" Yeah I know you're way too important to go through the museums metal detector, not that we (at the "Museum") don't have a good reason to have a metal detector at the museum anyways; yeah we know that the museum has never had past threats from resourceful terrorists "wanting to blow up the museum, employees and all" so yeah I know its a "major" inconvenience for you, the "internationally known and famous hip-hop DJ "extraordinaire" so yeah of course the museums' security team are trying to "make your life impossible" because they have no other important matters to attend to, such as oh I don't know "preventing the museum being a target to of terrorism"! Hey "Spooky if you would have engaged your listening skills (poor one at that;and by the way DJ Spooky, like didn't you go to the prestigious school Bowdoin College? What's up with DAT? Playa' playa' please "Spooky next time around, pay attention!) you would have gotten your set of rules/protocols of the museum the first try and realized that "NO you didn't need to go through the metal detector" but through the employee/staff entrance a few feet away from the main entrance and you could have avoided looking and sounding like a oh I don't know a major"tool "when you quote un-quote stated "I'm the DJ how do I get into the museum cause I'm not gonna go through security" hey Spooky you can thank staff/employee Ben Parrish for escorting "you" "the directionally challenged DJ EXTRA-ORDINAIRE" to the staff entrance so that "you" the DJ EXTRA-ORDINAIRE made it safe and sound to provide the party guest extra-ordinary music that night; pay attention Mr/DJ Bowdoin College graduate in french literature and philosophy, pay attention! Last but not least Johnny Nunez, El senor Nunez whom I had the pleasure of listening to him lecture a few years back at my Alma mater Lehman College, (it's no Bowdoin College but guess what "Spooky" my listening skills are superb and my menial little CUNY education offered a course "Listening Skills 101", "yeah I know I'm not a millionaire like yourself but I do know I don't make a total tool out of myself 99.99% of the time".) El nino Nunez showed up, camera and all (no entourage) around 9:30; self-important Johnny didn't feel the need to stop at the front desk and provide us with his name for the VIP list holder; because "of course Johnny all of the "mighty-whiteys" should know whom Johnny Nunez is", the famed hip-hop photographer, whom had a tough life, and also happen to have had a documentary made of his journey as a struggling minority photographer, which I did happen to see (and Johnny might I add the documentary was well done) "Johnny come on already loose the "tude" not everybody knows of/about you; this is an institution and you are hip-hop/Latino photographer, get it! who knows you all might see/spot the pint-sized artist selling his wares at a "pop-up" store in the museum? But then again hopefully Kehinde will shell out some dough and hire Farnsworth Bentley and teach Kehinde how to dress to impress, at least the right way! - Madame J.

Janice Pena Art Blog

Saturday, March 3, 2012

BLING!

 Carole A. Feuerman, The Teacher
Carole A. Feuerman The Teacher, 2012

 John Grande, Transcendence Adorned
John Grande Transcendence Adorned, 2011

 Jerelyn Hanrahan, Graduated Pearls
Jerelyn Hanrahan Graduated Pearls, 2011
 
 Damien Hirst, Palais Des Papes
Damien Hirst Palais Des Papes, 2007

  Liao Yibai, Cinderella High Heel
Liao Yibai Cinderella High Heel, 2010

 Marilyn Minter, Prism
Marilyn Minter Prism, 2009

 Bill Owens, The Grill “Teeth” (Hayward, CA)
Bill Owens The Grill "Teeth", 2008
 
 Jeffrey Sims, Untitled
Jeffrey Simms Untitled, 2012

 Kehinde Wiley, After El Greco’s (Domenikos Theatakopoulos) The Annunciation
Kehine Wiley After El Greco's... The Annuciation, 2009

BLING a current group exhibition featuring some well known (and very famous) artists, both living and deceased is currently on view at Jim Kempner Fine Art til March 17th. I loved this shows mix of glam and gaudy, old and new, famous and not so famous artists works on view. Starting with John Grande's Transcendence Adorned, an ode to artist Cindy Sherman and the famed fashion and luxury goods brand Louis Vuitton, Carole A. Feuerman's The Teacher the topless sculpture of a woman (swim instructor) a-la glitter/rhinestone swimcap. Jerelyn Hanrahan's photograph of large scale sculpture of Graduated Pearls. The very much "alive and kicking" U.K. born artist Damien Hirst's kaleidescope of butterfly wings Palais Des Papes; Liao Yibai's giant silver high-heeled sculpture Cinderella High Heel. Marilyn Minter's photograph Prism, Bill Owens ode to "grills" The Grill (Teeth), Jeffrey Sims photo-realistic Untitled and last but not least everyone's famously self-important artist Kehinde Wiley, whom I had the pleasure of seeing while he visited The Jewish Museum (read blog post) . Kehinde's After El Greco's (Domenikos Theatakopoulos) The Annuciation. It was a great show and you musn't miss it. Show closes March 17th. - Madame J.

Janice Pena Art Blog