Designer Toy Charity Auction

An impressive group of artists and vinyl toy companies have come together for “This One’s For The Children of Sichuan,” a charity auction orchestrated by MINDstyle to benefit victims of the Chinese earthquake. The auction includes original paintings, rare toys and limited-edition collectibles from KAWS, Joe Ledbetter, Michael Lau, Ron English, Buff Monster, tokidoki, Shepard Fairey, Devilrobots, Amanda Visell, Doktor A, Tim Biskup, Kathie Olivas, Brandt Peters and many more. A few of the auction’s highlights: Lau’s sold-out “Jordon” Gardeners, Ledbetter’s signed lot of monotone toys, a 4-foot tall KAWS companion (and pair of promo Nikes) and numerous large-scale resin figures. There are 29 lots posted with pictures and estimates on eBay here. The auction commences August 31st at 6 p.m. PST, but absentee bids can be placed immediately. Be charitable if you can afford to, and be sure to read all the rules of the auction, which may include additional shipping costs.

Dalek – Triumvir – Internal Affairs

Increasingly, I’m seeing collaborations happening in threes that bring together seemingly disparate entities for great results. Case in point: contemporary artist Dalek, urban lifestyle company Triumvir and hardcore band, Internal Affairs melding minds to create a range of T-shirts, colored vinyl and album art. Limited to 500 pressings each, the albums are available in blue (Internal Affairs version), green (Dalek version), clear (Triumvir version) and black (general release). Limited edition shirts (including a Space Monkey design) are also available. As for how the collab actually came about, Dalek mentions trading toys for records, and Triumvir’s Brandon Cheng attributes his positive working relationship with Internal Affair’s Corey Williams to a mutual appreciation for the word “fuck.”

The Louvre presents a Major Retrospective of Andrea Mantegna’s Paintings

Drawing on its remarkable collection of Andrea Mantegna’s ( 1431-1506 ) paintings (by far the largest outside Italy), completed by exceptional loans from other French and international collections, the Louvre has mounted France’s first major retrospective of this foremost Renaissance artist. On exhibition 26th September through 5th January, 2009.

The exhibition endeavours to trace the main stages of Mantegna’s career, through works in different techniques. It recalls the influences that marked his production and how rapidly his reputation spread.

Works of spectacular size or with stunning effects of perspective are shown alongside those with extremely refined handling or more intimate subjects. Such is the paradoxical nature of this artist whose austerity and erudition should not distract spectators from his genuine sensitivity, his gift for observation and the poetic vein evident in his works often tinged with melancholy and sometimes humour as well.

This exhibition is organized by the Louvre and the Réunion des Musées Nationaux. This exhibition is made possible thanks to the generous support of Eni and Deloitte.

Curator(s) : Dominique Thiébaut, Curator in Charge, Department of Paintings, Musée du Louvre and Giovanni Agosti, Professor of Modern Art History, Università Statale di Milano.

The Louvre

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibits ” Wunderkammer: A Century of Curiosities”

The Museum of Modern Art presents Wunderkammer: A Century of Curiosities, a contemporary reinterpretation of the centuries-old European “cabinet of curiosities” or Wunderkammer. These cabinets date back to Renaissance Europe, when private collectors began accumulating exotic, wondrous, fantastic, or bizarre objects via travels, scientific experiments and investigations, and other collecting methods. The organization and display of such collections were attempts to rationalize and categorize a vast bounty of information, and today’s museums can be understood as an outgrowth of them. On view through November 11, 2008.

Wunderkammer follows this example, with groups of works organized by theme and taxonomy, and features nearly 130 prints, books, multiples, drawings, photographs, design objects, and sculptures by over 60 artists, from the nineteenth century to the present, and includes a cabinet uniquely constructed for the exhibition that contains numerous pieces from the Museum’s collection. New acquisitions by Jake and Dinos Chapman, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Olafur Eliasson, and Nicolas Lampert, among others, are displayed for the first time at MoMA. The exhibition is organized by Sarah Suzuki, The Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr., Assistant Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art.

In addition to the newly acquired works, a wide selection of works from the Museum’s collection that have never been shown before are also on view. Included are Louise Bourgeois’s (American, b. 1911) 8 foot long woodcut and lithograph, The Songs of the Blacks and the Blues (1996); Joseph Cornell’s (American, 1903-72) Untitled (1972), a construction of a glass eye in a spring within a glass vitrine; a print from Claes Oldenburg (American, b. 1929), Screwarch Bridge, state II (1980); and a lithograph of White Teeth (1963) by Jim Dine (American, born 1935), among others.

Odilon Redon (French, 1840-1916), closely allied with the Symbolist movement, rejected the visible universe in favor of one inspired by dreams and fantasy, trips to natural history museums, and attendance at medical lectures. Included in the exhibition are multiple works by Redon, notably The Crying Spider (1887), an example of his use of invented hybrid characters, figures drawn from that fantastic world of Redon’s studies and imagination.

The Surrealists carried on a similar pursuit, famously declaring in their 1924 manifesto, “the marvelous is always beautiful,” and often relied on chance and the unconscious to look beyond the known. Work by Leonora Carrington (British, b. 1917), Dorothea Tanning (American, b. 1910), Wols (German, 1913-1951), Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976), and Hans Bellmer (German, 1902-1975) illustrate and explore these concepts. In Une Semaine de Bonte (1934), Ernst created a “collage novel,” created by combining imagery culled from nineteenth and early-twentieth century pulp novels, scientific journals, mail-order catalogues, and natural history magazines. To create his series of 34 collotypes Histoire Naturelle (1926), Ernst made rubbings over various surfaces—wood, crumpled paper, crusts of bread—then allowed the resulting textures to inspire him to invent strange landscapes, objects, or animals.

With Mark Dion (American, b. 1961), the Wunderkammer tradition is upheld in the twenty-first century, as Dion accumulates, classifies, and displays curious objects in cabinets of his own creation. Dion’s Cabinet (2004), originally commissioned for MoMA’s 2004 reopening, contains cleaned and classified relics recovered from beneath the Museum’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden and the surrounding area, prior to the construction of the new building.

21 Mercer Street Store Opening Party

The 21 Mercer Street store opening party went down last Thursday night in SoHo, New York City in a huge way. This invite only party hosted approximately 500 invited guests who all came out to see the opening of the store that has had the world buzzing in recent weeks. The excitement leading up to this momentous occasion manifested itself in the form of a block party in the streets of NYC with guests enjoying complimentary libations, hot dogs, corn dogs, pretzels, ice cream, and other treats you would find at any sporting event. Mark Ronson provided the soundtrack for the evening by playing many classic New York hip-hop anthems that whipped the crowd into a frenzied state. Large clocks displaying a countdown for the opening of the store loomed over the party and once the clocks hit zero, the party came to a halt. Spike Lee took center stage to address the crowd with Roger Federer following, thus, marking the opening of the 21 Mercer Street store. People lined up patiently to await their turn to finally see first hand the efforts and final payoff for Nike and their pinnacle Nike Sportswear collection. The response was very much in favor for the event and the opening of the store, as it was the first time for many to see the product that has garnered so much media attention throughout the entire month of August. If and when you are New York City, 21 Mercer Street is a definite must for your itinerary.

The Photographs Of Li Wei

I would have to agree 100% with Wooster Collective here, I am really “diggin” the work of Li Wei. Creating the illusion of dangerous reality makes his imagery really fascinating, almost that the attraction is more the installation than imagery. Check out more here.

Beijing Olympic Games Captured

Now the spectacle of the Beijing Olympic Games have comes to an electrifying close here is an amazing collection of stills. Capturing the joy and ecstasy of achieving to the anguish and pain of loosing these images have really captured the emotions of the athletes and fans. Either way you look at it only the Olympic Games would bring two legends of football from Brazil and Argentina to embrace like Ronaldhino and Maradona do above. Check out the 150 images here.

Eric Joyner “Artificial Enlightenment” Exhibition

“Artificial Enlightenment” is a solo exhibition of new works by San Francisco artist Eric Joyner set to alight Corey Helford Gallery. Inspired by science fiction, toys, and Brandywine artists and illustrators of the 1900’s, Joyner’s award-winning imagery of robots and donuts has been transforming landscapes and faraway galaxies for the past eight years. His second solo show at the Gallery will reveal the grittier side of robot life: mysterious donut factories, runaway steam trains and vintage motorcycles. Featuring twenty two oil-on-panel works, “Artificial Enlightenment” will unveil never-before-seen metal humanoids from Joyner’s growing repertoire of characters. The reception will include the release and signing of his new book Robots & Donuts: The Art of Eric Joyner, published by Dark Horse. “Artificial Enlightenment” opens to the public on Saturday, September 6 from 7 to 10pm, and the exhibition will be on view until September 27, 2008.

Eric Joyner attended the Academy of Art and the University of San Francisco and went on to establish himself as a commercial artist, creating illustrations for Mattel Toys, Levi’s, Microsoft and Showtime. A member of San Francisco Society of Illustrators and New York Society of Illustrators, Joyner has been an instructor and speaker at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University and California College of the Arts. His work is currently featured in San Jose Museum of Art’s exhibition “Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon”, and he has shown in numerous galleries and cultural institutions, including La Luz de Jesus, The Shooting Gallery, Trifecta Gallery, and the Museum of American Illustration. Look out for the October issue of Juxtapoz magazine, which will feature more about Eric Joyner while in the meantime check out his website for much more.

Nikon D90 World’s first D-SLR with movie function

Nikon today announced world’s first D-SLR with movie function- Nikon D90. This remarkable Nikon camera offers truly cinematic results, stunning image quality and innovative high-performance features inherited from Nikon’s new-generation DX-format flagship D300. The Nikon D90 delivers images with extraordinary detail and expanded enlargement capacity, thanks to its improved DX-format CMOS image sensor and an effective 12.3 megapixels. In a world first for D-SLRs, the D90 offers a movie function, allowing you to shoot HD720p (1,280 x 720 pixels), 640 x 424 pixels or 320 x 216 pixels movies at the professional smoothness of 24 frames per second in motion JPEG format. The D90’s sensor, which is much larger than the sensor of a typical camcorder, ensures higher image quality and exceptional low-noise, high ISO sensitivity performance, even during movie shooting. And for extra creativity, Picture Control allows you to customize the look and mood of your images by choosing from six settings, including new Portrait and Landscape modes.

First introduced on Nikon’s D3 and D300 flagship cameras, the D90’s Scene Recognition System uses a 420-pixel RGB sensor to analyze scene and color information of the subject being photographed. Based on these readings, the camera optimizes its focus, exposure and white balance just before the shutter is released. Nikon D90 will go on sale on September 19th and will retail the body for approximately 120,000 yen ($1,100) and D90 AF-S DX 18-55G VR lens kit for135, 000 yen ($1,240).

Samsung 120GB credit card sized USB drive uncovered in China

Samsung’s saucy new USB HDD has made an appearance in China and it could easily fool you into being just another credit card from your wallet. This 1.8″ 4,200-rpm USB drive may be an attractive buy considering most popular drives use the 2.5″ size format. The big draw of this drive is its low power consumption which needs just 300mA from a 500mA USB port and uses just 1.4W to run. The drive has yet to be named in the Chinese market. Considering that both 1.8″ and the 2.5″ drives are most likely going obsolete because of the new SSD’s which are set to storm the market, we are unsure if this drive makes it to our shore soon.