Damien Ortega "Tool Bit"

I know I have been really bad at reporting the last events. Maybe this is due to the fact, that when I am not totally satisfied myself with what I see, I don`t wanna write about it. But everything is so subjective. 

I have finally made myself list some of the last events and exhibitions I have been to Pinchuk Art Center

I definitely need big solos shows. A retrospective of the works which can give me the feeling of where the artist was going to, how were his/her ideas evolving in the last years. I need to understand what is the main theme of his/her works not trough the little explanatory note on the wall but myself.

However now, the center is showcasing three solo shows at the same time, plus a little show of Ukrainian artists and their works representing Candice Breitz. This had a little disappointing effect on me, and makes a total jumble of ideas in my head. 

I really liked Damien Ortega show. It has something really simple and maybe agricultural in it. Something common between two cultures, between Mexican and Ukrainian. I know it sounds a bit foolish to say that, but it reminds me of the pictures on the outskirts of Ukrainian country sides. Some debris of tractors lying here and there on the soil. Parts and pieces of factories decomposing on the black spring fields. At the same time these are just my impressions from the exhibition at Pinchuk Art Centre.

To say a few words about Damien Ortega. It is a well-know artist in the art-world. He was born in Mexico in 1967 and is considered to be one of the most famous mexican artists of the new-generation. 

He is known for his "do-it-yourself" style, taking things and detaching them. Exposing simple objects at galleries and museums by simply detaching and reassembling them in a new way. 

"Ortega deliberately presents it as a work-in-progress, with the implication that it could continue to grow, or be rearranged into new configurations. Detaching a functional object like a chair from its everyday setting and projecting it into the realm of art involves a certain short-circuiting of the viewer’s expectations. There is a subtle irreverence at play here that pokes fun at both the purity of canonical Minimalist sculpture, and at the museum as repository for the kind of permanent monuments that Ortega seeks to undermine"

(From Tate Modern web-site).

Damián Ortega, "Moises", 2007. Found tools and wire

Damián Ortega, "Moises", 2007. Found tools and wire

 Damian Ortega, "Project for Social Housing", 2007. Clay bricks, cement, silicon and steel; variable sizes

This project is particularly interesting to me. It reminds me a bit of  a Termitary. Taking into account the trend in architecture  and landscape design to make things to look the more naturally possible. One day we may see buildings of this type. Why not, big cities are growing, populations are growing as well. Why not make Social housing more playful?

However the I was told that the artist was inspired by stalactites and stalagmites. Who knows...? :)

 Damián Ortega, "Melting Point", 2011. Aluminum, lead, bronze, glass.

Damián Ortega, "Tool Beat: Melody", 2011. Steel. 

 This work particularly reminded me of Ukraine.  And I really liked how the little gold fishes were swimming in this wheel.  It is funny to see how nature reintegrates in the things we leave behind us. The rests of our civilization. 

Damián Ortega, "Tool Beat: Melody", 2011. Steel. 

(all of the pictures are taken from the Pinchuk Art Center website, http://pinchukartcentre.org/)

Gorillaz - Amarillo

(via http://twisted-diamond-heart.tumblr.com)

Here is a new track by Gorillaz. Amarillo, meaning yellow in spanish is definitely a spring colour. It just goes with flowers, little chicks, Easter, eggs, green grass everywhere and off course Spring Rays of Sun!!!

  Gorillaz - amarillo by frani_2

Buy Student Art

Today, I have found a cool website. It is called Buy Student Art. The project was made, to help students taking visual arts as a degree to raise money for their studies. The organisation of this website is very simple as well. It is easily accessible to sellers and buyers. And there is a price division as well. This website has just been created recently. And is pretty empty. But I still think that the creation of this website is a good idea.

Here are works that I like.

And here is the link ://www.buystudentart.co.uk.
Please have a look.

(All pictures are taken from
://www.buystudentart.co.uk.)

Sasha Glybina

Саша Глыбина

Мое личное знакомство с творчеством Саши Глыбиной произошло через интернет в прошлом году. Я увидела ее вещи выствленные на продажу в альбоме В Контакте. Чуть позже я увидела их на одном из Ярд Сейлов, и скажу честно футболку мне очень хотелось, но расцветки там имеющиеся мне не подходили.

Недавно, меня известили о том, что Саша открыла свой шоу-рум. Но и в этот раз, мне не довелось там оказаться, так как я была зарубежом.

Теперь я в Киеве и рада всех известить что Саша покажет свои произведения на Kiev Fashion Days.

Мне приятно осозннавать, что барышни юного возраста чего-то добиваются. И я уверенна что у Саши есть потенциал в сфере pret-a-porter. По крайней мере я всегда prete a porter les habits de Sacha:).

Саша учится в КНУТД, и одновременно занимается массой вещей. После прочтения пару-тройку интервью с ней мне показалось, что эта девочка еще всем покажет. Она не хочет подстраиваться под какое-либо направление, и наверное это правильно. Ведь, когда-же еще поэкспериментировать, как не в юном возрасте. Меня так же удивила она тем, что полностью занялась поиском места и оформлением помещения для своего шоу-рума.

Саша Глыбина - это словосочитание не звучит сегодня как просто имя. Это уже состоявшееся имя, несущее определенное настроение, ассоциации и картинку.

И так, давайте же я Вас в конце концов познакомлю с ее произведениями.

Sasha Glybina

I am going to make you discover a very young Ukrainian designer Sasha Glybina.

She is studying at the National University of Technologies and Design.  I really like  her new stuff. I think she has got a real potential in pret-a-porter.  Sasha Glybina has recently opened her showroom in Kiev, and what stroke me even more  is that this young talent, had to look for the place as well as to draw the design of the future showroom by herself. She is a pure selfmade creature.

I think you have to understand that being a young designer in Ukraine has nothing in common with being a young designer in Europe. Finding so simple things as special equipment, or even fabrics is much harder than it is in the UK. Finding sponsors who are going to believe in you, and invest in you is even harder.

I wish good luck to this girl, and I hope to be able to see her show on the Kiev Fashion Week very soon.

 Please take time to look at the items she has created!

А вот и те вещи которые меня очаровали. Рада Вам показать.

These are the things I personally really like. I am happy to show them.

Несколько фотографий с открытия ее шоу-рума.

A few pictures of the opening of her showroom. I sincerely regret, that I was not in Kiev at this time.

Finally in Kiev.

Yeah, I am finally in Kiev. Back to my home town, after almost 3 months of infinite grayness and weird weather. Omg, Kiev You have no idea how I`ve missed you... 

My last three days of life where and allegory to hell. Had loads of things to do and no time at all, this is one of the reasons  why I haven`t posted anything in here. The second reason is that I am really sick, and I can`t even think. My doctor prescribed me antibiotics today... 

But, you know, I can`t stay in bed for an entire day, so we went down to the National Museum of Arts. I was really happy to see that their exhibition was dedicated to one great but not really known Ukrainian Painter of the 60-ies -- Liudmila Yastreb. She has lived only 35 years, But has done a multitude of very interesting works, and has been the generator of ideas in the group of painters in Odessa. She was a part of the nonconformist group of painters. 

I would like to add here, that Soviet Nonconformist Art  has been classified as a movement outside of the Social Realism movement. It is often referred as 'unofficial art' or 'underground art'. Soviet Nonconformist Art has seen a real uprise after the death of Stalin. With the arrival of Khrushchev into power, a more free and comfortable atmosphere has been discovered, and the fear for being rerpressed for his/her 'nonconformist art' has ceased to be so severe. Here are a few words by a Russian Curator, author and museum director on the nonconformist party: 

"The duality of life in which the official perception of everyday reality is independent of the reality of the imagination leads to a situation where art plays a special role in society. In any culture, art is a special reality, but in the Soviet Union, art was doubly real precisely because it had no relation to reality. It was a higher reality.... The goal of nonconformism in art was to challenge the status of official artistic reality, to question it, to treat it with irony. Yet that was the one unacceptable thing. All of Soviet society rested on orthodoxy, and nonconformism was its enemy. That is why even the conditional and partial legalization of nonconformism in the mid-1970s was the beginning of the end of the Soviet regime."

(From:Bakshtein, Joseph. "A View from Moscow," Nonconformist Art: The Soviet Experience 1956-1986, eds. Alla Rosenfeld and Norton T. Dodge. London: Thames and Hudson, 1995, p. 332).

Liudmila Yastreb has exhibited her works in private places, such as hidden apartments. She has tried to paint with different techniques in order to find her own unique on. I am now falling asleep, please enjoy the pictures.))

Metronomy - The Look

Little hint to Spring mood. Enjoy!

  Metronomy - The Look by 1FTP
(picture from http://thegirlygirlcorner.tumblr.com)

Support Japan! Shinmai Creator`s Project

I am back to my blog. In the last 24 hours, a lot of events have occurred. I think that the most shaking event for the whole planet is the earthquake in Japan. And these news have seriously knocked me down. 

Today, I would like to drive your attention to the Japan Fashion Week which takes place in Tokyo. Japan Fashion week has been established in 1985, but is known to have taken its current form in 2005. I would like to shed light on one of the fashion projects of  Japan Fashion Week, which is known as SHINMAI Creator`s Project. "Shinmai" stands for "new rice" in Japanese, and is used as a metaphore to express the idea of new fashion talent. This Project selects 3 new fashion designers to be shown in each Japan Fashion Show. It provides a chance to the "new rice" - young talents, to enter the industry and to be shown. According to the Japan Fashion Week website, each designer will have its own show (21.03.2011) and will also be able to expose his/her collection to public from 21st to the 24th of March, 2011. This year winning brands have been selected from 11 countries. This proves the internationalism and the prestige of SHINMAI Creator`s Project. I think, it`s quite important to add that the selection committee is composed of Mr.Richard Collasse (who is the Representative Director and President of Chanel), Mr. Nobuyaki Ota (Director of Japan Fashion Week), and Mr. Akira Okuda (Managing Director of Onward Kashiyama clothing manufacturer which produces clothing for such brands as Sonia by Sonia Rykiel, Joseph, Opening Ceremony, Calvin Klein and many others).

Let`s now get back to the winners, and here they are:

-Yasutoshi Ezumi, a designer born in 1981. He has taken the course of Textile Design in The University of Arts in Central Saint Martins and has worked for such brands as Alexander McQueen, Aquascutum , Tsumori Chisato...

Let`s have a look at some of the pictures. 

(All pictures are taken from http://www.yasutoshiezumi.com)

- Van Hongo by Izumi Hongo. 

Izumi Hongo has studied Architecture in Japan and Fashion Design in Antwerp. The desighner has participated in multiple exhibitions across the globe and especially in Netherlands and Japan. 

Here are picture of the latest collection Autumn, Winter 2012. 

(Pictures from http://www.vanhongo.com)

And the last winner is Fernanda Yamamoto. 

A designer from Brazil, a Graduate of Parsons The New School for Design. Her Last Show was held in Sao Paulo Fashion Week. 

(photos from Takahashi/ Agencia Fotosite) 

I really hope the shows will take place and I wish good luck to these three designers!

I think I can now go to bed. And try to read my books. Hope you have enjoyed my post. A la prochaine!

A bit of Retouching

Alright, I`ve decided to come back to my favorite passe-temps.
Hey, everybody I have gone through a lot of things in my life. But I am back and I have decided to change a bit my blog. From now on, it`s gonna be a blog about art, fashion, music, movies... Whatever,  as long as it is 'culturally and aesthetically thought provoking'.


In the following days, I am going to:
1) Put pictures from the FIAC 2009 exhibition.
2) Show you some Ukrainian artists
3) Show my pictures from the London Art Fair 2011.

And yeah, Woops... almost forgot..
A few pictures to give you a taste...

London`s Graffiti.

Here we are....

Yes, yes and yes again. Loads of people, buyers and sellers? No, no, no art-lovers and art dealers, or as some people say nowadays gallerists. :)