Category archives: Art for Progress
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7 years ago
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Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist, Lorna Tucker’s documentary on iconoclastic British designer Vivienne Westwood, has a trim runtime of 80 minutes. Maybe that’s why it feels like there’s a lot missing. How do you encompass the life and work of someone who 1) is half responsible for inventing British punk, 2) has evolved from an anti-establishment outsider into a revered fashion designer and beloved British subject, and 3) has had a fascinating personal life as well? This could have been a documentary series.
With the short shrift given various aspects of Westwood’s life and work, this nonlinear, nonchronological film yields more questions than answers. (Thank goodness for Wikipedia.) So it’s probably best to experience the interviews, archival photos, video clips and stock footage representing Westwood’s 77 years on earth as an impressionistic wash of information and fantastical visuals. In some ways, it’s a fitting framework for a wildly unconventional artist who has never done anything neatly or predictably.
The film begins with current-day Westwood looking overwhelmed as she asks crankily, “Do we have to cover every bit of it? So boring…” She's reassuringly punk from the get-go.
Tucker largely lets her subject narrate her own story, with input from husband, sons, employees and various others who have known her. We learn that she began making clothes at 11 or 12, around the same time that a painting of the crucifixion instilled the desire to save people and "preve[...]
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7 years ago
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In Summer 1993, the lovely and evocative feature film debut by Catalan filmmaker Carla Simón, a six-year-old girl slowly comes to terms with grief and a new way of life. The film's straightforward observational style conveys complex emotions without veering into sentimentality, while the orphaned Frida (played with gravity and charisma by Laia Artigas) is not portrayed as pathetic, but realistically moody, alternating between mischievous and melancholy.
The autobiographical story (Simón lost her own parents when she was a child) begins with a busy scene of adults packing boxes around the small, watchful figure of Frida, who is being sent from her grandparents’ Barcelona home to live with her aunt and uncle in the countryside.
We discover this rustic new home along with Frida, as the camera trails her explorations around the sprawling property where crowing roosters, aggressive hens and farm life in general all seem very foreign. Esteve (David Verdaguer), the brother of Frida’s recently deceased mother, and his wife Marga (Bruna Cusi) are young and fairly laid-back, but also kind and attentive. Frida immediately befriends their daughter Anna (Paula Robles), introducing her little cousin to various toys with the standard, older-kid “hands off” proviso.
The film's overall tone is low-key and intimate, with many close-ups of Frida’s small, pensive face. She expresses her sense of displacement in small acts of rebellion and leads the ever-willing Anna through var[...]
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7 years ago
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It never ceases to amaze me. The abundance of extraordinary talent in the NYC music scene is obvious to anyone who seeks to experience it. Yet, so many people talk as if the scene is terrible and how difficult it is to find quality music at the venues in NYC. I will admit, the Bleeker Street music clubs do leave much to be desired, but one venue, le possion rouge, is certainly doing it the right way. LPR has made a name by bringing in experimental, eclectic and alternative artists over the past 10 years, and this past Saturday night was no exception.
Yonatan Gat performed in support of his new album, "Universalists" which was recently released on Joyful Noise Recordings. He played three different sets, and we were fortunate to catch the last two which were truly epic. The long transplanted New Yorker showed off his masterful guitar skills, (The Village Voice named him "Best Guitarist in New York, 2013.") shredding through an eclectic mix of ethnic sounds with merely a vocal, but it didn't discourage fans in attendance as they marveled at his guitar playing skills. I was also impressed with his band as they were on point throughout the set, and as the sound changed, their energy was consistent and at a high level throughout. Gat's sound is clearly focused on guitar, but I couldn't help but watch his drummer relentlessly pounding on the skins and his evident passion for the music. This brings to mind the most anticipated part of the evening for me and apparently man[...]
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7 years ago
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Dear Artem, welcome to Art For Progress. You are a New York City based artist. Please tell us about your work.
Hi Nerea, yes as you describe, I am a New York based artist, curator and entrepreneur. My imagination allows me to create a new world within each frame while drawing connections with different cultures and to my own heritage. History and mythology play a large role in influencing my work, often igniting the creative process. I am fascinated about mythology, and I am a space time voyager at heart. Traveling is also one of my biggest catalysts for art. I have traveled extensively, experiencing diverse culture, spirit, architecture and ways of life, which helped me to shape my perception and artistic vision of the world. A sketchbook always accompanies me on my journeys. When words alone cannot describe what I envisions in my mind, I just draw...
What inspires you to create such awesome paintings and landscapes?
I absorb everything around myself and filter it through my "art filter." Books, music, architecture, friends, strangers, other artists, travel, relationships, etc inspires me to create my own world of landscapes and adventures.
I love depictions of ancient civilizations, philosophy, present society, and the exploration of " the nature of man.”
As I have mentioned, I draw a lot of inspiration from my readings. History and mythology play a large role in influencing my work, often igniting the creative process. I am fascinated by how the tw[...]
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7 years ago
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The story of how Chloé Zhao’s The Rider came to be is as intriguing as the movie itself. While filming her first feature, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, Zhao befriended some of its Oglala Lakota residents. Born and raised on the reservation, they are both Native American and genuine cowboys, as pure a distillation (and contradiction) of Americana as exists.
One charismatic young cowboy, Brady Jandreau, a horse trainer and rising rodeo star, particularly impressed Zhao. She wanted to feature him in her next film, but couldn’t think of a story line. In April 2016, fate tragically intervened when Jandreau was thrown off his horse while competing in a rodeo in Fargo, North Dakota. The horse nearly crushed his skull, necessitating surgery and a metal plate, followed by extensive rehab. When Zhao learned that Jandreau was back training horses just weeks after his accident, she knew she had her movie. Essentially a docu-drama, The Rider is an authentic and poetic film about a young man struggling to hold on to his identity.
The film has an immediate sense of place, as Zhao makes good use of Pine Ridge and the gorgeous, wide-open South Dakota prairie. Adding to the movie's authenticity is the cast, all playing versions of themselves. Aside from Jandreau himself (here named Brady Blackburn), his father Tim and sister Lilly have starring roles, as does former rodeo champ Lane Scott, shown recuperating from his own career[...]
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7 years ago
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Toronto's Broken Social Scene closed out the band's first tour in many years last night at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, New Jersey. The show which lasted around 2 hours and spanned their vast music catalogue, highlighted the strengths of a band that clearly loves playing together. The beauty in what they do comes through in how they seamlessly work through songs that range from indie rock, ska, experimental jazzy numbers and even punk, but there are no limitations. They can also do the heavier, guitar driven classic jam as well. Although the band's studio productions are at a high level, they are one of those bands that you have to see live. With as many as 9 or 10 players on stage (including a horn section), it could be quite challenging to replicate some of their intricate productions, but they were 100% in sync throughout the show with a consistent energy and enthusiasm that shined throughout their performance.
One of the highlights of the evening was the first live performance of "Mouth Guards of the Apocalypse" from their latest album "Hug of Thunder" which was released with very positive reviews in July, 2017. This pretty much set the tone for an upbeat, joyous crowd that appreciated getting to see a band of this caliber at the Wellmont Theatre. The band admitted that they didn't know what to expect, but were very pleased with the venue and crowd. I have to say it was a pleasure to see how much the band was enjoying the moment.
Personal highlight[...]
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7 years ago
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Jean-Michel Basquiat was a well known plastic artist based in New York and sponsored by Andy Warhol. Music was very important in the life and work of this artist, and in 1979 he formed an experimental band with the artist and actor Vincent Gallo.
They named the band "GRAY" as a tribute to the book of anatomy published by Henry Gray in 1950.
The band arises in the middle of the punk explosion of New York, but especially to a more experimental branch known as No wave. No wave has a very industrial sound where the electric guitar is used not as a musical instrument, but as a tool that generates noise. He was also interested in the frenetic and eclectic rhythms of the seventies and eighties, like the incipient rap of the hip hop movement.
Basquiat played the clarinet and the synthesizer and the band frequented famous venues like CBGB where Blondie and The Ramones made their debut, the Mudd Club, etc.
The music from "Gray" can be heard in several films including "Downtown 81," starring Basquiat, talking about his life as an artist in New York.
Nerea T. Ruiz
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7 years ago
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Art for Progress (AFP) is thrilled and honored to present a night of musical improvisation featuring a one-time super group, created for this special evening to benefit AFP music and art education programs- The bill will feature Billy Martin, Nels Cline (Wilco), Marc Ribot and special guests, Brooklyn power trio Bad Faces, and AFP’s sensational student band, Big Sweater.
The Art for Progress Band - Billy Martin, Marc Ribot, Nels Cline and Special Guests - Best known as the drummer for the avant-groove band Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Billy Martin called up some friends to join him for a one off charity event titled “Once in a Lifetime.” When guitarist Marc Ribot, who’s released over 20 albums under his own name and has played on countless records (Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp, Elton John) and Nels Cline, best known as Wilco’s lead guitarist and one of Rolling Stone’s “100 greatest guitarists” accepted, The Art for Progress Band was formed.
Bad Faces are a Brooklyn power trio as deeply rooted in American traditional music as they are reaching for new stratospheric heights in their improvisational explorations. Led by Singer/Guitarist Barry Komitor, Manager and teacher of AFP’s music education programs and fixture on New Yorks bluegrass and rock scenes, Bad Faces rhythm section is powered by Brian Stollery, one of the best known figures in NY jam music on bass, and NY’s most exciting young jazz drummer, Ethan Kogan.
Big Sweater is a unique blend o[...]
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7 years ago
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Dear Fabian, welcome to Art For Progress. As a contemporary artist based in Northern Germany, North Friesland. What is the focus of your art?
Hi Nerea, thanks for inviting me to this interview. I am delighted to contribute to Art for Progress. I am a sculptor focused on the human figure in the widest meaning. I try to find ways for contemporary depiction of the diverse spectrum of human expressions.
Having studied Fine Art Sculpture in Vienna, where modelling the human body has a long tradition – the so called “Wiener Schule,” I further worked in this direction in London, where I did my masters. I started to introduce new materials, inflatables and other ephemeral objects, as base bodies for my figurative constructions. When depicting an entire human figure, at some point you always need to decide whether or how much you show its gender. If you disregard it – partially or completely – you enter the world in-between genders. For the last five years in particular, I have been focusing on “Liquid Gender” and the liquidity of gender aspects in general.
I have noted that you chose the term “Liquid Gender” as a name for your recent exhibition in Barcelona. Can you please explain this choice.
“Liquid Gender” was indeed the title of the 2016 solo show, curated by Caterina Tomeo, at the end of a five-week residency at Espronceda (Centre for Art and Culture) in Barcelona. The central piece was a 2-channel video installation around my large-scale MENINA bronze series: A v[...]
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7 years ago
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Alex is a continuing student of philosophy and emerging artist. He seeks to address contemporary social issues and philosophical questions through symbolism in dynamic visual works.
Philosophical underpinnings are tied to Phenomenology, Existentialism, Post-, and Anti-Post-Modern thinkers. Alex has also begun to explore mythical symbolisms.
The evolution of Alex's work follows from an early introduction to Art History, Art Historical references in the works are found in the clavicle, harkening back to Gothic representations of the skull, connected to our understanding of human mortality. Hearts, from Keith Herring, representing an emotional and communal offering. The underside of feet, turned into the over the shoulder view of figures, referencing the irreverence of the Impressionists. Among other more personal stories.
Although much of the work illustrates concepts in the abstract, there are also layers of meaning that are at once personal and then again more thematic, sometimes not signifying the same story in any given image, and sometimes coinciding with those general themes.
Another philosophical feature of Alex's work is found in the geometries of the icosahedron or hypercube, each instantiation or general form representing another view of our social and physical realities.
Alex seeks to continue exploring these themes, while also remaining politically prescient. For a fuller explanation of the philosophical tones of his work, feel free to inquire for[...]
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7 years ago
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They Remain, Philip Gelatt’s adaptation of Laird Barron’s short story “--3--," is a mysterious, slow-building thriller, as disquieting as it is visually striking. With an unsettling electronic score to match Sean Kirby’s stark, atmospheric cinematography, the film is haunting and hallucinogenic, with no straightforward answers and a somewhat open-ended resolution. Anyone looking for a tidy narrative or classic horror story won’t find it here.
The story concerns two young scientists, Keith and Jessica (William Jackson Harper and Rebecca Henderson, both very good), who have been sent to investigate a secluded wooded area to find an explanation for inexplicable changes in animal behavior. They are both aware that the area was once the site of a massacre by a Manson-like cult; in Jessica’s case, the subject is an admitted obsession. Aside from being told that the mission “could make you famous,” they’re not altogether clear on the motives of their shadowy corporate employer. As the days go on and they experience increasingly disturbing phenomena, their relationship becomes fraught, veering from wary professionalism to paranoia and worse.
Camped out in a triad of high-tech geodesic domes housing a lab and sleeping quarters, Keith and Jessica at first banter philosophically about the mission and the area’s history, as they get to know each other. During the day, he goes out exploring and sets up several cameras in the woods; Jessica runs tests on specimens he brings back, but t[...]
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7 years ago
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On February 3rd and 4th, 2018, The Rolex Arts Weekend in Berlin presented the work of the protégés and the mentors of the 2016 - 2017, Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.
Rolex aim is to pair young artists from all over the world with artistic masters, like the Peruvian artist Pauchi Sasaki and Philip Glass.
This program is focused in seven disciplines: architecture, dance, film, music, theater, literature and visual arts. The artists spend a minimum of six weeks together with the mentor, working one-to-one and showcase the results at the end of the program.
Rolex mentor Philip Glass introduced his protégée on the stage at the Deutsches Theater. They presented an extract of her electro-acoustic project GAMA, as well as the suite OMAGUA, a compilation inspired by Peruvian traditional music.
Pauchi wore a dress made of black speakers on stage while she played a processed violin in this World Premiere show.
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