Image:William Steiger, Caboose II. © William Steiger. Photo: Courtesy Kopeikin Gallery.

The Kopeikin Gallery presents the first west coast exhibition of drawings by New York based artist William Steiger whose subject matter are icons of the American landscape, including grain elevators, tramways, railroad cars, roller coasters and ferris wheels. The exhibition opens on Saturday March 13th with a reception for the artist and continues through April 17th.

Steiger’s drawings are never populated, focusing rather on the chiseled geometry of recognizable structures of 20th century ideology. The reduced forms offer neither a romantic modernist view, nor an ironic look at a lapsed technology. There are elements of the stark photographs of Bernd and Hilla Becher in the deadpan approach, but Steiger bathes his structures in a background palette of subdued industrial tones, giving the works a soothing, seductive aura. The combination of the muted atmosphere, the graphic style and the undefined and, therefore, limitless space of these works implies endless narrative without supplying story line.

Steiger is able to push his work to a new conceptual level by employing a repertoire of recognizable images. The structures depicted are often compilations of various forms altered to accomplish the compositional goals of the artist. The removal of naturalistic elements, a shadow or a horizon line for example, and the recent inclusion of brighter hues, test the boundaries of visual recognition.

William Steiger received an M.F.A in painting from Yale University in 1989.

Full article:http://www.fadwebsite.com/2010/03/08/kopeikin-gallery-to-open-exhibition-of-drawings-by-william-steiger/

source: www.fadwebsite.com    

Lazarides is pleased to announce the first European solo exhibition of new work by Bristol based painter, Ian Francis. Using a combination of oil, acrylic and ink in his large-scale paintings, Francis brings his illusory vision to the Rathbone gallery.

Featuring a series of intimate sketches and 16 large-scale paintings which focus upon themes of paradox. Francisďż˝ paintings present narrative scenes, juxtaposing images of apocalyptic landscapes with objectified women, painterly precision with abstraction portrayed in an expressionistic style that combines sensual fluency with first rate draftsmanship.

�Exodus� reflects upon society�s obsession with mass media and popular culture: porn stars, cheerleaders and actresses all provocatively cavort in his doomed yet beautiful environments.

The show runs from 25th March through to 6th May, at Lazarides Rathbone Place location.

Born in 1979, Ian Francis lives and works in Bristol.

Full article:http://www.fadwebsite.com/2010/03/06/ian-francis-%E2%80%98exodus%E2%80%99-at-lazarides/

source: www.fadwebsite.com    

Kate Moss by Chuck Close
Ah so, it has been quite a day here in New York for your own dear Klaus. I am most pleased to say that I started off with a traditional New York breakfast, eggs sunny side up of course, sausage and that thin streaky bacon you will find here, orange juice and coffee. The coffee here is not of European strength or favour, but they refill your cup for free so that makes a big difference.

I decided that it would be best to make visit to the smaller fairs first before taking on the main Armory fairs over weekend. So, my first port of call was the Scope art fair located behind the famous Lincoln Centre. I met up with mein old friend Herr Hobby of TAG Fine Art, a dealer of fine editions in London.

I am afraid to say that I was disappointed with the overall range and quality of the galleries showing there. There were Asian galleries with obvious Chino-Pop paintings churning out the same old stuff. A few galleried stood out and Galerie Andreas Binder out of Munich deserves a special mention for showing a new series of sun inspired work by the very talented Japanese photographer Izma Kaoru ($16,000 – edition of 5). The Mike Weiss Gallery had the largest stand in the fair and was showing a mixed bag of work. One of their artist’s really stood out – Elisa Johns. Her canvases are beautifully simple yet painterly, inspired by fashion, illustration and mythology - (Athena & Nike – 80” x 78” - $15,000).

Other galleries worth mentioning at Scope include Anonymous Gallery, position right at the front and annoying with no wall information of their artists, after questioning the pretty gallery girl, I was able to find out that the collages were by Greg Lamarche ($900-$2,500) and some uber cool prints were by Kostas Seremetis. The Witzenhausen Gallery had some strong photographs by Hendrik Kerstens and Station Independent Project had some good photography by Miles Ladin and Deana Lawson.

I cannot leave Scope without mentioning the Krel 2 Go girls. They make fashion into art and vice versa. On the spot creations from bits of fabrics, stitched and sewn pieces that are literally good to go. They have been receiving a massive amount of publicity and you can find out more about their next event here: www.krelwear.com

So, we left Scope and travel downtown to Pulse. This fair has a real sense of the moment, with consistently strong galleries exhibiting here. The warehouse space gives the fair authenticity and scale.

At P.P.O.W gallery there were some lovely little pieces by Avrora Robson reasonably priced between $3,000 and $4,500. Over at CTS Creative Thriftshop was an installation piece by Jeremy Dean of a Hummer converted into a horse drawn carriage. This is a clear comment on our contemporary fixation with excess and our dependence on oil to fuel our most lavish modes of transport. The Hummer, entitled CEO Couch was priced at $85,000 and one can pick up chrome or black matchbox versions for $2,000.

There was some good photography to be found here and over at M+B Gallery out of LA, had a couple of impressive photographs by Alex Prager (Rachel and Friends 48” x 62” - $7,500 edition of 5). Richard Levy out of Albuquerque had a stunning Scott Peterman AP for $19,000. Over at Mary Ryan Gallery there were some impressive pieces by Sangbin IM priced at $8,500 in an edition of 5.

Full article:http://www.fadwebsite.com/2010/03/06/klaus-von-kunts-day-1-in-new-york-at-scope-and-pulse-2010/

source: www.fadwebsite.com    

Doll

Summer in Galilee RI

Two Beauties - Apple Hill, California

Doll

Amanita

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Low Key Arched-40-03-7

untitled

The Boy