Very far from home Californian Margaret Zuckerman searches for the meaning of life through Contemporary Art. Having worked the gallery circuit for several years, she spends her time with her only true friends: private views, private view swarmsters and private view free wine. Enjoys grotesque monster sculpture, minimally delicate work, and anything made with everyday objects that makes her cry. Seeks installation and video art that isn’t dumb, anything having to do with being either hilarious or uncomfortably sexual, being on ‘the’ guest list, and artists who make her forget about the ubiquitous nature of unfun things in the ‘real’ art world (like excel spreadsheets and that dreaded Hermes bag.) Interests include ridiculing self-indulgent press releases while writing overly elaborate online contributor bios.
I once read that when we travel to new or strange places that a very interesting phenomenon occurs. Since we are a bit lost and disoriented, our brains miscalculate the faces of strangers in the crowd in an attempt to find the familiar. As synapses fire, a person on the sidewalk may look like an old lover—or we swear we glanced a family friend across[.....]
What sort of cold-blooded beast is this? Measuring ten meters long and towering overhead, a muscled, thick mass covered in iridescent black feathers swirls around itself and then dives into itself. Snaking out of the wall as if from a hell-like sewer, Gyre twists with the writhing energy of a sex-drunk lover. Seductive and nightmarish, intricately beautiful and somehow dangerous, the massive sculpture captures the[.....]
Wafts of ginger and cilantro from the nearby Vietnamese eateries swirls around the propelling bus exhaust as I walk through London’s funky Shoreditch on an overcast day. Though I (embarrassingly) have not yet visited before, the unexpected island of pristine glass of the Flower’s Gallery is not hard to miss among the rickety cheap shoe shops and tabacs littered with half-shredded ice cream posters. A[.....]
It’s autumn in London – the sun-dappled days at Hyde Park become distant memories as my brief trip back to California enters my rear view. The temperature drops, the leopard-print bikini begins its hibernation, and I stock up on Wolford tights again. The droves of art world professionals have returned from their envy-inducing Facebook check-ins in Saint-Tropez and Positano to the sudden realisation that Frieze week is[.....]
It’s a rainy summer night in Guadalajara. Zooming through the dark, the jeep I’m riding in feels more like a powerboat as it leaves a black wake in the flooded streets. This ain’t no British rain – and thank God for that. (I’ve had enough drizzle for two lifetimes.) Palm fronds shake and the heavy rain suddenly turns to hail. The frothy water in the[.....]
Yoko says…make a wish Yoko says…cut Yoko says…step on the painting Yoko says…smile What ever Yoko says, one must do. It’s an irresistible game. A walk through Yoko Ono’s exhibition, ‘To the Light…’ at the Serpentine Gallery in the heart of London’s Hyde Park, is very much an extension of the park itself. Play and wander and, moreover, do what Yoko says. Simple and surreal,[.....]
American born Jacob Hashimoto’s eye-catching exhibition, ‘The Other Sun’ at London’s Ronchini Gallery in Mayfair certainly brings to mind planetary brilliance in colour and splendour. Hashimoto uses traditional kite-making materials and techniques to create singular, modular units collectively arranged into numinous, monumental installations and smaller, woven, three-dimensional wall pieces. Hanging by threads, the thousands of multicoloured translucent kites are hand-made with rice paper and bamboo, each tiny kite[.....]