Archive for the ‘Art and Culture’ Category

Interview: The Selby

Monday, July 26th, 2010

The Selby Is In Your Place

By now you’ve probably seen Todd Selby’s colourful new book, The Selby is in Your Place (reviewed in The Block issue 22). Yes, it’s a society book. And yes, it’s the offspring of his blog, The Selby. But the people inside aren’t random Joes by any means – they’re his friends (and Karl Lagerfeld).

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It Felt Like a Kiss

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Entrance Romance (it felt like a kiss) by Ryan McGinley
Featuring Carolyn Murphy

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Lip Service

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

randall1

The surreal fantasy of Julia Randall’s hyper-realistic drawings

Words Ali Gitlow Art Julia Randall

Looking at Julia Randall’s insanely rendered coloured pencil drawings of tongues, headless dolls, and Rococo wigs, it’s easy to be distracted by her flawless technique. Subtle creases in a lower lip, stray strands of wispy hair, and gleaming spit bubbles are captured in perfect detail, seemingly more realistic than the naked eye can see.
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Lagerfeld’s Lens

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Karl Lagerfeld: The Beauty of Violence
Karl Lagerfeld
isn’t just an iconic fashion designer with a weird diet and little fingerless gloves. He’s also a photographer – mostly of men and modern architecture (both well-constructed).

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These Shoes Are Killing Me

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Alex Prager never had formal training as a photographer, but her short film Despair starring Bryce Dallas Howard has us fooled. While the photographer’s select film stills will be featured this fall at MoMA’s New Photography 2010, you can catch her photo exhibition of inspired damsels, Week End, at Michael Hoppen Contemporary gallery in London until July 17th.

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Style Wars

Monday, June 21st, 2010

John Woo - He Wears It, Darth Vader
In a galaxy not so far away, artist John Woo transforms Darth Vader and the Emperor’s Stormtroopers and bounty hunters into a bunch of fashionable (and non-threatening) gents.

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Interview: The Cheaper Show

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

The Cheaper Show
Just when those yellow “Buy Art Not Cocaine” posters had finally peeled off the warehouses and construction sites of Vancouver, The Cheaper Show is back. Our favourite art show where nothing costs more than $200 returns on June 26th to a 30,000 square foot space, double the size of the last jam-packed event back in 2008. In preparation for finally ditching that dog-eared “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” poster we bought at Imaginus ten years ago in favour of something more wall-worthy, we caught up with event founder Graeme Berglund about Cheaper No. 9.

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Walk the Walk

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Palladium - Exploration 6: London Pirate Radio
Nancy Sinatra convinced us that boots were made for walkin’, but French bootmaker Palladium takes things to a whole new level with their innovative video walking tours.

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Interview: Serena Cole

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Serena Cole

Fashion loves art, no question. But the functional canvases of YSL, Marc Jacobs, or Alexander McQueen aren’t frequently seen as a painter’s muse. However, we like to think the line between art and fashion is a little blurry, so discovering California artist Serena Cole’s fashion-fantasy paintings was a bit of a revelation. A life-long worshipper of fashion, Cole questions our veneration of pop culture by melding images from fashion ads with traditionally saintly symbols (think halos and haunted eyes). Her goal is to create iconic faces that explore “the strange double-edged sword of being wanted.”

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Art Book Extravaganza

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

motto1
Just as there’s a flurry of emerging artists out there producing amazing works in basements and tiny loft studios, there’s a clutch of small publishers rushing to capture their pieces in limited-run art books, chapbooks, and magazines.
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