STAR WARS EPHEMERA & MY MOM

Some of you may know my mother Lila Burkeman passed away recently.
My sister Brie has begun the thankless task of sorting though mom’s home, & in doing so found these envelopes below.
If you’ve looked at STAR WARPS you’ll know that our mom was dating Irvin Kershner (Kersh to friends & family) while he was directing The Empire Strikes Back.
That relationship was the genesis for me creating the book over 30 years later.
Below are some of the envelopes sent to Lila from Kerch.




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KENZO repurposed my old flyer designs.

In the early 90’s, in addition to being a DJ, I was party promoter, and a frustrated artist & graphic designer (I guess I'm still that frustrated artist).
When throwing our events, I would get my creative jollies by designing the flyers. 
These were mostly done with pencil, pen & ink - doing edits & multiple fixes using white-out & photocopy machines.

A few months ago the design team from KENZO reached out to me asking if I still had my flyers.
In case you don't know, KENZO is a clothing label founded in 1970 by Japanese-French fashion designer Kenzō Takada, & in my youth I was totally in awe of their ad campaigns.
They told me that 1990’s NYC party’s were going to be the main inspiration for their whole next seasons collection.

What a buzz to see bits of my hand drawn designs used as elements for their collection on a Paris runway!

Respect & shout out to Bones and the real Storm Rave crew. Sorry, I’d forgot I’d even thrown a party with Storm as its name!




FUN IN CHELSEA WITH SOFI TUKKER 6/24/16

It had been months since I’d been to a gallery & I was in a desperate mood to see some art, so I texted Sophie & Tucker who I've also been trying to get together with for weeks in an attempt to kill two birds with one synchronistic stone. It’s very rare that a plan like that comes together but today the planets alined.
Being close to the end of gallery hours we only got to see a couple of places but the MR exhibition at Lehmann Maupin was more than enough to satisfy my craving for paint n canvases. Below are a few images & moments of the fun afternoon.

These four are just details from the massive paintings.





Tucker & Sophie used to show scale.

We then snuck into some galley that was closing & snapped this.. (apologies to artist & gallery for not crediting you!)

Met up with their friends Charlie & Apple at Comme Des Garcon, to try on a ton of clothes that none of us could afford.

ST watching the final edit of the Drinkee video.

Old man hanging with the kids..

Sticker found for photo op.

& the saga of the broken platform on Apple’s brand new boots..
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BÄST : BEST STUDIO VISIT OF 2016

I should probably also mention its the only studio visit I’ve been invited to this year.

However being a real fan & follower of BÄST’s since the mid 90’s, I was excited to go over there to take pictures of some of his collage works for the next volume of my book Stickers. I also respect how he's not interested in being a celebrity art-star, he stays anonymous & simply makes emotive art that is beautifully ugly. Below are just a few of the hundreds of works I got to see.

This stencil, almost 5 foot wide from his street days, nearly 20 years old now.
He also kindly donated a few stickers to the project, here's couple I'd not seen before.
The man in his fortress of solitude.

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TOM SACHS EXHIBITION at NOGUCHI MUSEUM 4/9/16

Its very rare that the planets (or moods) align that all 4 Burkeman’s will actually agree to go on a suggested weekend outing. However on this rainy Saturday morning Tom Sachs had the power motivate us. I’ve been taking Max to various exhibitions of his since he was very small. The last one, Mission to Mars, being the best publicly funded art event I’ve ever been to, but this was the first time we’ve done one as family.

The show itself is great & has lots for everyone. Its like a mash-up of American pop culture, NASA artifacts & Japanese historical references. The exhibition has both large impressive works & many of what Tom refers to as “nuggets”, his small sculptures.

The title "Tea Ceremony” refers to the traditional Japanese ritualistic procedure that many of the works focus on. There are some dates when Tom will actually be there performing the ceremony himself for people who can sign up in advance. 

Even without the Tom Sachs art, The Noguchi Museum is well worth a visit. But right now it's a win win. Go before July 24th. Here's INFO

Really nice tape dispenser. From Toms love of his sisters Barbie's. TIE Fighter from NBA ball (needs to be added to Star Warps)

TIE Fighter next to child to show scale.

Bigger child next to NASA suite to show scale.

Does the Big Mac come with Soy Sauce? Beautiful handbag.

Yoda shrine.

Working aircraft bathroom with fully functional toilet. The bowls are called Chawan's.

Chop'em out..

Tom's entrance to the garden. Shame it was raining.






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SOME PRETTY PICTURES AT THE ARMORY SHOW & VOLTA NYC 2016

Also some not so pretty pictures that I liked too..

Tom Sachs 


Clare Rojas


Thomas Bayrle


Fred Tomaselli


Laure Prouvost


Kris Martin (not the singer AND not the American artist Kris Martin)


Erik Parker


fractured personality selfie (forgot who made the piece, sorry)


Richard Patterson



Kara Walker


Adam Brent


Karine Rougier


Cameron Plater


Mike Simi (We are now the proud owners of this fine work)


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Miami Art Basel week 2015 - Part 1

By far the strongest collection of works I saw in Miami in my 4 days during Art Basel, was a show curated by art giants Larry Gagosian & Jeffrey Deitch titled UNREALISM. Actually its possibly the strongest figurative collection I’ve ever seen.
Below is just a few of the works I loved, assembled on 4 massive floors of The Moore Building.
Below those are a couple of works from the same night but at the Rubell Collection, at their amazing NO MAN'S LAND, a retrospective on women artists. Maybe its my wife Wini’s influence, or I’m getting in touch my feminine side this late in life but this year I liked more works by women than ever before.


Jamian Juliano-Villani, "The Entertainer" 48” x 40” Acrylic on canvas 2015



David Salle (massive painting- apologies for no more info)


Duane Hanson "Grandma" (1970’s life size sculpture- apologies for no more info)


Lee Quinones (mixed media - apologies for no more info)


Lisa Yuskavage “No Man’s Land” 77” x 70” Oil on linen.  2012 





Dan Colen (Painting - apologies for no more info)


Richard Phillips “Psych Nude” Oil and wax emulsion on linen


Meleko Mokgosi “Terra peicolosa III” Charcoal on paper 72” x 58” 2015
 
These next four are from NO MAN'S LAND at the Rubell Collection.
Deborah Kass “Gold Barbra" Acrylic & screen print on canvas 50” x 40” 1992


Kaari Upson “Untitled” Charcoal & wax 23” x 96” x 95” 2009


Miriam Cahn ‘’Versehrt” oil on canvas 63” x 34” 1998


Last but not least, my friend Brian crouched behind his sisters body mold piece.
Janine Antoni “Eureka” Bathtub & lard, life-size 2015 (originally done in 1993)


THE WAR ON DRUGS at RADIO CITY 10/8/15

As always the band were so tight, it feels like these guys grew up playing together. The fact that Max & I had been hooked up with front row seats didn't hurt the vibe either.

What's weird though, was In all the years I've been going to shows (which are too many) this was without question the widest spectrum of ages I've ever seen at a gig. Being 15, Max was definitely among the youngest, but there were lots of college kids too. The real shock was at the other end of the age scale - I swear I saw several couples way into their late 50's and 60’s, & maybe even a 70 year old or two. I totally knew the band was finding an audience in their 30’s & 40’s, due to sonic similarities of music that was huge in the 1980’s - Springsteen, Tom Petty, Dire Straits etc. However, I think original Bob Dylan fans from the 60’s & 70’s have found a new artist to embrace. Of course these older people were not at the recent Governors Ball or the North Side Festival shows, but I’m guessing someone smart figured out that Radio City is a comfortable & respectable enough venue to draw a generation who no longer goes to festivals and clubs.

Possibly the highlight of the show for me, other than simply geeking-out watching their incredible drummer Charlie Hall, was the live version of “Burning.” It was like a live remix that had a super funky, dirty, analog pulse running through it.





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