Sometimes Instagram just cant give the view needed.

Below are 6 of the many Ink on paper works on view till March 13, 2022. my pet ram 48 Hester St NY10002.

The “Blue Chip” exhibition panel below shows stickers by Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst. Ryan McGinness, Barry McGee, Jose Parla, Tom Sachs, Keith Haring, Marilyn Minter, Robert Lazzarini, Kenny Scharf, Jenny Holzer, Todd James, JR, Mathew Barney, James Victore, Chris Johanson & Bansky.

It’s always a little risky to actually meet the people who’s work you’ve admired for many years. Don’t they say “Never meet your hero’s”. So what a nice surprise to meet Stefan Sagmeister & find him to be warm, friendly & even complementary of some of my own work. His new show “Beautiful Numbers“ is perfect example of how conceptual art can also be beautiful. It’s actually a show of optimism.

Below is just a small sample of the exhibition. The shapes on the paintings represent factual statistics. 

1 - Suicide II, 2000/2015 

Suicide rate worldwide, number of deaths per 100,000 population
2000 13
2015 11 

2 - “Suicide I, 1950/2005” 

Suicide rate USA,
1950, 1955, 1960, 1965, 1970. 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000. 2005 

3 - “Oil, 1970/2010” 

gray dot: large oil spills 2010 red dot: large oil spills 1990 yellow dot: large oil spills 1970 

4 - “Death Penalty, 1970/2010”

Abolishment of death penalty 

1970 21 countries
1990 66 countries
2010 98 countries 

5 - “Carbon II”

Carbon footprint of protein-rich foods from le# to right: Cheese 85kg CO2 per 1kg of protein, Chicken 43kg, Beef 250kg, Lamb 200kg, farmed fish 35kg 

Obviously one doesn't do creative projects with getting reviews as the end goal but its still a very nice feeling to get them. Especially strange & wonderful to have a mainstream platform acknowledge ones work. CNN had my Art Sleeves book on their front page yesterday. 

I cut and pasted it here, in case it disappears, and then no one believes me ;)

Written byLeah Dolan, CNN

Throughout the 20th-century record sleeves regularly served as canvases for some of the world's most famous artists. From Andy Warhol's electric yellow banana on the cover of The Velvet Underground & Nico's 1967's debut album, to the custom-sprayed Banksy street art that fronted Blur's 2003 "Think Tank," art has long been used to round out the listening experience.

A new book, "Art Sleeves," explores some of the most influential, groundbreaking and controversial covers from the past forty years. "This is not a 'history of album art' type book," said the book's author, DJ and arts writer DB Burkeman over email. Instead, he says the book is a "love letter" to visual art and music culture.

For the 45th anniversary of "The Velvet Underground & Nico" in 2012, British artist David Shrigley illustrated a special edition reissue cover for Castle Face Records. Credit: David Shrigley/Rizzoli

Featured records span genres and decades. Among them are Warhol's cover for The Rolling Stones' 1971 album "Sticky Fingers," featuring the now-famous close-up of a man's crotch (often assumed, incorrectly, to be frontman Mick Jagger in tight jeans) as well as an array of seminal covers designed by graphic designer Peter Saville, co-founder of influential Manchester-based indie label Factory Records. Despite having relatively little art direction experience under his belt, Saville was behind iconic covers such as Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures" (1979), depicting the radio waves emitted by a rotating star, and the brimming basket of wilting roses -- a muted reproduction of a 1890 painting by French artist Henri Fantin-Latour -- that fronted New Order's "Power, Corruption & Lies" (1983).

New Order, "Power, Corruption & Lies." Featuring 'A Basket of Roses' by Henri Fantin-Latour, 1890 Credit: Peter Saville/Fantin-Latour/Rizzoli

The book also includes a sleeve by Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the eminent Obama "Hope" poster, for "7-inches for Planned Parenthood," a limited edition vinyl box-set to raise funds for the sexual health charity. On the cover, a woman's sleeping face is rendered in Fairey's trademark stencilized finish while a red vertical banner screams at her to "Wake Up!"

Yayoi Kusama's brief foray into album art also features in the book. In 2013, the Japanese multidisciplinarian designed the artwork for Japanese DJ Towa Tei's eighth studio album, "Lucky." The cover is a simple smattering of red and white polka dots -- a signature Kusama motif. Kusama even features on the album's last track, "Love Forever," where she recites a short poem.

In 1992 dissenting graphic designer Barbara Kruger created the artwork for the only LP ever released by short-lived riot grrrl band, Growing Up Skipper. The group took their name from a controversial Barbie released in 1974, a version of Skipper, Barbie's younger sister, who grew breasts when you twisted her arm (the company says the doll matched "little girls' dreams of growing up").

For the cover of the LP, "Use only as directed," dismembered Barbie parts appear alongside Kruger's signature black and red 'scrapbook' text.

Art Sleeves: Album Covers by Artists by DB Burkman is published by Rizzoli priced at £40.00. Credit: Rizzoli

The book also shows Jeff Koons' Renaissance collage for Lady Gaga's album, "ARTPOP" (2014) -- where a statuesque Gaga sits inside Botticelli's giant scallop shell -- as well as Cindy Sherman's work for Arthur Doyle and Maurizio Cattelan, famous for his duct-taped banana, who photographed a toothy, red-lipped grimace for Toilet Paper magazine's 2016 special edition single of Daft Punk's "Da Funk" (1995).

The vinyl revival

Despite the ubiquity of digital downloads (or perhaps in reaction to it) both sides of the pond have been experiencing a vinyl revival for over a decade. In 2020, UK sales of vinyl were at their highest since the early '90s, while last year in the US more than 27 million vinyl records were sold-- nearly 50% more compared to 2019. The impact the coronavirus has had on listening habits has been sizable, too, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) found. "The increase in (music) consumption was achieved despite the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic," they said in a report published earlier this year. According to the BPI, streams and sales in the UK "dipped around the start of the first lockdown".

Aphex Twin's "Collapse" EP (1990) was illustrated by London-based artist Weirdcore. Credit: The Designers Republic/WEIRDCORE/Rizzoli

Yet despite the growing comeback appeal of LPs, the accessibility of digital platforms means streaming services are still the main source of music globally.

For Burkeman, the digitization of music is positive insofar as it means artists don't need record companies to put music out. But the rise of streaming has also resulted in the forfeiture of exciting album appendages like designed lyric sheets or handwritten notes from the recording artist. "We've definitely lost something as far as experiencing emotions one might feel while listening to a record and studying, analyzing, or simply enjoying the physical object."

UPDATED : After The One Year Post

FILM :

TV :

PODCASTS :

I Can't Believe it's Not Buddha 1,2, 3

ART on YouTube : 

3 Hours of Oliver Payne and Nick Relph - “Driftwood”, “Mix Tape” , Comma , Pregnant Pause,  Oliver Payne - “Inventory Eleven”

2 hours of Matt Pyke : Universal Everything

So happy I finally got to see this wonderful show, as I’d missed the original 2012 show, and of course because Joyce sadly died in 2019.

In 2012 Pensato premiered her installation “Fuggetabout It” at Petzel Gallery on West 22nd Street to commemorate her beloved studio on Olive Street in East Williamsburg, where she had worked for thirty-two years and had lost in a landlord/tenant dispute in 2011. The move after three decades prompted a re-evaluation and packing of hundreds upon hundreds of objects and items of all manner, including: stuffed animals; figurines; posters, books, invitation cards, and other paper ephemera; milk crates; furniture, both broken and intact; paint cans and paintbrushes, among others. (text from Petzel)

A tiring two days (for an old man) yet fun and exhilarating, assisting auteur/film maker, Max Burkeman on his "Little Trouble In Big Chinatown" short music based fashion film. I was assigned to shoot behind the scenes and keep cast & crew supplied with ample Asian food throughout the weekend. 

Writer/Director : Max Burkeman

Cast : Kenna Skye & Rel The Kid

Makeup : Eve Burkeman 

Stylist :  Sebla Maaza

Wardrobe : Wini Burkeman

It’s been a bumpy ride for my appreciation of George Condo. When I first saw his work in the late 90’s & early 2000’s I don’t remember liking it much. I think I thought it was too Picasso-esque or something but by the end of the decade I had come around to being a fan. Then in 2010 Supreme & Kanya turned him a household name for the Hypebeast kids, triggering an unfair knee-jerk reaction that turned me off him. He is an incredible painter, and this new show of brand new works at Hauser & Wirth took my breath away.

Large canvass. 

Works on paper.

New York is massive but also sometimes very small.

My close friends, James Hyde and Erik Foss, who did not know each other till recently, both spoke highly of Sam Jablon’s practice.

About a month ago I was meeting James and Sam just happened to be on the street, so James introduced us. Sam and I have had lunch twice now, talked art a little & laughed at the state of the world. I got to see some of his lovely works.