Monday, October 31, 2016

Installation and Sculpture at Frieze London


Last week I talked about the paintings I liked at Frieze. This week, the sculpture and installation artworks I dug:

Above: Damien Hirst


Jeff Koons with Gregor Hilderbrandt in background


Lucy McKenzie and Laurent Dupont


Lucy McKenzie and Laurent Dupont


Lucy McKenzie and Laurent Dupont


Huseyin Bahri Alptekin


Eddie Martinez


Eddie Martinez


Kohei Nawa 


Samara Golden


Samara Golden


James Turrell


Shahzia Sikander and Philippe Parreno


Portia Munson

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Poem #14


September 2016

on my way down here just now
in the three blocks between my
house and the coffee shop I passed

two men sitting outside a café speaking cantonese
and just opposite them near the curb two men
conversing in an eastern europen language

a self-conscious pair of tourists holding hands
a muscle-man in a tank top
a woman in a jesus teeshirt

a jock carrying a pizza into a sports bar
two heavily made-up girls sweating
a stocky woman in workout clothes

three guys using their phones to locate a trendy bakery
a middle-aged couple drinking bloody mary’s in a window
a guy with a cane whose yellow hat perfectly matched his shirt

a dad sitting down to a late lunch with his kids
a surfer with no shirt on a couple with backpacks
and a girl with nerdy glasses and a bicycle



image source is here

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Bookish Delights of London


A few more bookish joys from my recent trip to London. Above is a picture of the bookshelf in my hotel room at Hazlitt's Hotel. I mean, just, come on!


Eating fish and chips, drinking beer, and reading P.G. Wodehouse. Ah, England!


Apparently the big trend in the UK right now is the Danish concept of Hygge (pronounced hoo-guh) which seems to roughly translate to "coziness." There is at least one other charming little gift book about it currently on bookstore shelves, in addition to the two pictured here.


The School of Life publishes the best little books and paper products--smart and inspirational without being the least bit saccharine. The above aphorism is from a little deck of cards on the subject of "calm."


Very pretty notebooks at Present and Correct (another one--along with Labour and Wait, featured here yesterday--of the Very Best Stores In London). And you should see all the erasers I bought there!


I coveted this dripping-in-gold-foil Le Carre, but did not buy.


I did buy, and read, Sue Perkins' memoir and it was utterly delightful.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Labour and Wait


Labour and Wait is one of the coolest stores in London, and surprisingly hard to describe. They sell beautiful versions of household objects--notably various brushes and brooms, along with kitchenware, books, bandannas, and whatnot. It's hard to say exactly why it's so alchemically pleasing as it is. But it is.







Monday, October 24, 2016

On the Rug


Here's a baby picture from almost exactly six years ago, when I was on maternity leave and the kiddo was two months old and we spent most of her waking hours lounging about on baby blankets on the living room rug.

Friday, October 21, 2016

Abstract Painting at Frieze London


I went to London for the Frieze art fair. A tremendous show where loads of art galleries set up booths to show the work of their artists--both to anyone who loves art enough to slap down thirty-five pounds for a ticket, and to collectors with gobs of cash who are seriously shopping. All of which is to say that the people watching is almost as good as the art watching. But I took photos of the art, not the people. So many photos, in fact, of so much great art, that I'm going to have to break it across a few different blog posts. Today I'll share the thing that struck me most there--which happens to be the thing that strikes me most almost anywhere I go to look at modern or contemporary art: abstract painting. Let's go!

Above: Frederico Herrero


Zhang Wei


Mariana Adams

  
Mariana Adams

  
Mariana Adams


David Korty


Anke Weyer


Sarah Morris 


Donna Huanca

 
Bridget Riley

  
Bridget Riley


Torey Thornton


Toby Ziegler 


Etel Adnan 


Etel Adnan 


Etel Adnan 


Etel Adnan 


Jannis Varelas


Jannis Varelas


Stanley Whitney


Derek Jarman


Eddie Peake