Image Credit: The Keith Haring Foundation

Keith Haring died 22 years ago today and I’ve been reflecting on what he was able to accomplish in his 13 year career as an artist.  His work has always had a profound influence on my perception of art. His SF MOMA retrospective in 1998 was the first show that I attended on my own and I was captivated by the vibrance and energy of his art.  Haring is one of those artists who was able to reach the masses with his work which had a decidedly playful and innocent feel, yet at the same time he was able to deftly speak to social issues in a very perceptive and emotional way.  According to Haring, “An artist is a spokesman for a society at any given point in history.  His language is determined by his perception of the world we all live in.  He is a medium between “what is” and “what could be”.

Larry Levan/Paradise Garage, Photo Credit: Phonica Records, London

It was during a trip to London where I learned more about how music played such a vital role in Keith Haring’s life, especially when it came to the Paradise Garage (I found a rare copy of Larry Levan’s last performance at Paradise Garage in 1987-album art was by Keith Haring).  The Garage was a NYC nightclub that served as a refuge for young gay men in the 80′s; for years DJ Larry Levan held court on the turntables at Paradise Garage whose innovative sound system was equally legendary and served as a blueprint for today’s dance clubs.  Haring, through his close relationship with mentor Andy Warhol met a muse and a canvas in Grace Jones, whose body he would regularly paint at the Paradise Garage, and the collaborations and inspiration continued.  I have never forgotten the beautifully epic dress /canvas that Haring designed for one of my favorite Grace Jones videos in 1986.  In reading his diaries it was touching to see how much of a profound impact that Paradise Garage had on him, especially when it closed in 1987.

Haring’s work inspired a new generation of street artists who sought to use innovative mediums to express themselves in public art.  I can’t help but pause when I think about this iconic mural done in 1986.  Such a sad reminder of Whitney Houston’s battle with addiction.

Keith Haring, 1986 "Crack is Wack" mural. Image Credit: The Keith Haring Foundation

I must admit the idea of wearable street art does have it’s allure.  I’ve had this amazing gold Keith Haring cuff that I adore-it’s my go to museum hopping accessory.

So when I saw the news about Curtis Kulig’s collaboration with Obey Clothing I was intrigued.  There are some cute pieces in the mix.  If I were my 20 year old self I would rock the bikini.  I’m far from 20…

Alors, the duffle bag it is!

I’m a sucker for carry-on bags…they inspire my wanderlust, plus I am overdue for a vacation!  The Armory Show is calling…

Tangerine Tango has arrived!  It is the Pantone Color of 2012 and ever since they announced it in December, I have been captivated by this color.  I choose to wear orange sparingly, but this shade is punched up with red and is so vibrant and full of energy, it’s like a Vitamin B-12 shot for the wardrobe.  I was so excited when my phone cover came in the mail on Friday.

So now I’m completely obsessed with all things orange.  I even took out my vintage Anya Hindmarch and placed it back into the handbag rotation!

Anya Hindmarch

The day I snapped this picture I had no idea that JR was behind the work which was part of his “Wrinkles in the City” project.  I’ve learned so much about JR and street art since then, which is why I was so happy to see today’s post by Brooklyn Street Art  on a documentary highlighting the people behind Jr’s “Wrinkles”.  It was such an interesting look at the piece as a whole and what it meant to the participants.

What’s equally interesting is that as I type this post, tonight L.A. City Council members are meeting with prominent street artists to discuss modifying the current ban which makes public murals like “Wrinkles” illegal.  For more on tonight’s hearing, click here.

Bobby Hutcherson, “Nocturnal” (artistically rendered by Defetto)

Defetto (aka Pedro Mari) is a digital artist who brings music to life through his unique form of abstract musical expression.  Here he takes an amazing piece by L.A. vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson and masterfully breathes life into the song.  Defetto is one half of the artistic duo Abstract Birds, who frequently tour to perform their original work live.  This is such a fascinating fusion of art, music, and technology.  I would LOVE to see them come to the U.S. very soon.

Esperanza Spalding, ft Algebra Blessett, “Black Gold”

Words cannot describe how much in love I am with this video.  What a great way to kick off Black History Month. The family moments portrayed in this video brought happy tears to my face, they are so lovely.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  I cannot wait for her full album to drop in March.

Happy Saturday everyone!

I have never been a huge fan of Valentine’s Day, but I will say the one thing I love about the occasion is the licence to enjoy CHOCOLATE with reckless abandon.  My co-workers all know that at around 4:00 I must nosh on a single small bite of chocolate.  You could set your watch to my craving, and it is the one thing I would really have a hard time giving up. For my daily fix, any old chocolate would do, my favorite being a Hershey’s nuggets milk chocolate with almonds and toffee, quickly followed by a miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

When I really want to indulge in fine chocolate (which is always paired with a nice glass of champagne), we splurge on these utterly magnificent chocolates.

Recchiuti Confections

Photo Credit: Recchiuti Confections

This was the chocolatier that introduced me to artisan chocolate.  Years ago my cousin suggested I try their chocolates when I was looking for a vendor for my wedding favors.  We gave our guests the “Ginger Heart”, which bears a symbolic resemblance to Jim Dine’s “Blue Clamp” at SF MOMA (MOMA will forever hold a special place in the hearts of my husband and I).

Recchiuti's "Ginger Heart", Photo Credit: Recchiuti Confections

Jim Dine, "Blue Clamp", Photo Credit: SF MOMA

I ADORE their chocolate to this day.  They make an amazing salted caramel and their champagne truffles are divine.  Michael and his wife Jacky are truly passionate about what they do and the passion comes through in the chocolate they produce (they have a great blog too).  http://www.recchiuti.com/index.html

John Kelly Chocolates

Photo Credit: John Kelly Chocolates

Love Truffles?  Fiend for Fudge?  Let me introduce you to John Kelly.  This Hollywood chocolatier located just off Sunset specializes in “Truffle Fudge”, these heavenly creamy, bars that are meant to slice and share.  Their chocolate is truly decadent.  My favorites are the vanilla with walnuts and their Dark Chocolate with French Gray Sea Salt.  We enjoyed their chocolates for New Years and they were a hit!  http://www.johnkellychocolates.com/index.php

Michel Cluizel

I don’t think a poor chocolatier exists in Paris, but I will say I was smitten by this shop in the 1st arrondissement on la rue St Honoré.

photo credit: www.cluizel.com

Michel Cluizel goodies from my Yelp review.

While the chocolates were sublime (my favorite being the pure Hazelnut Praline), I adored their macarons and pates de fruits.  In early 2010 they opened a storefront on 5th Ave in NYC.  http://www.chocolatmichelcluizel.com/francais/index.php

Mast Brothers Chocolate

Speaking of New York, specifically Brooklyn, THIS shop is on my radar for my next trip back east (which is hopefully for the Armory show-I’m trying to manifest this trip for real). The Mast Brothers specialize in craft chocolates.  I stumbled upon their site after seeing an amazing blog post by Garance Dore, but it’s this purely epic video that crystallizes the transcendent properties of the cocoa bean.

http://mastbrothers.com/

What all of these chocolatiers have in common is a clear passion for producing quality product and they each have such a unique artistic point of view too that they have transformed the confection to an art form.  When you can be both a feast for the eyes and palate, that is a beautiful combination!

What about you dear readers?  If you love chocolate as much as I do and have a fave, let me know!

The Los Angeles Art Show is one of many events scheduled during LA’s Arts Month. This January, visitors and natives alike partake in the city’s many cultural offerings from Photo LA, the LA Phil, the Affordable Art Fair, Pacific Standard Time and the much-anticipated Los Angeles Art Show.  Perhaps it is the heady variety of cultural offerings competing for patrons, but sadly this year’s show was sparsely attended.  While this fact was slightly disappointing to some of the Gallery owners in attendance, it meant that if you were lucky to go to the show not only did you have direct access to some great galleries spanning the globe, you were more likely to strike a deal or two on some pieces.

The show was divided into two sections:  one Historic/Traditional and the other Modern/Contemporary.  I spent the majority of my time in the Modern/Contemporary wing during Wednesday’s Premier Party and on Saturday afternoon.

I sat in on a very interesting panel discussion about the Los Angeles Art Market and collecting, and I was very interested in Dean Valentine’s take on collecting.  Valentine has been an avid collector since 1996 and focuses his acquisitions on young emerging talent vs. established blue chip artists.  While he certainly has the resources for both types he focuses on works that connect to him emotionally vs trying to build an investment portfolio out of his collection.  Valentine is also a member of the Board of Overseers at the Hammer Museum and has recently acquired space at the Pacific Design Center to highlight select works from his collection (which I am looking forward to see very soon).

I decided that if I had the opportunity to curate a small museum or gallery, I would have gone for the following pieces I spotted yesterday at the LA Art Show.  Here’s a virtual tour of my “little” dream museum. It would have 3 galleries:  ”La Rue” (for Street and Neo Pop), Four Corners (Global Contemporary), and Industrial (for artists that choose to produce their art using apprentices-this will be a subject of a much longer post in the future). Ok here we go:

LA RUE:

"Temptation", Speedy Graphito c/o Denis Bloch Fine Art

I was immediately drawn to this piece at the show.  I love fusions of street art and pop culture references.  Speedy’s work is filled with this amalgam of styles.

Cameron Gray, c/o Segal Projects

Cameron Gray is a Los Angeles artist whose background is in computer graphics.  Digital representations of his work do not do them justice as each piece is composed using a collage of individually painted square blocks.  In this series of work, Gray recreates classics (as in the Van Gogh portrait above) using this technique.  His technology background is useful in this medium, as each piece is mapped out on computer before it is finally composed.

FOUR CORNERS (Global Contemporary):

"Everyday Saints", Young June Lew c/o Andrew Bae Gallery

"Crowd", Elisabett Gudmann & Kirk H Slaughter

"Meditative Mermaid", Cecilia Paredes c/o Salt Fine Art

I had the great pleasure of meeting Artist Francisco Bugallo who I raved about last year.  He recently created some stunning resin w0rks that appear to be floating in the frame.  The grouping was a study on Michelangelo and I adored the work shown by Galeria Moro from Venezuela.  They were one of my favorite galleries (my camera fails to capture the essence of his work).

Francisco Bugallo Resin series

INDUSTRIAL (Art as Machine):

The artists I would showcase in the “Industrial” wing of my virtual museum would be those artists who are/were known for utilizing assistants to create their work.  This is a subject of great debate as recent stories have been published about David Hockney’s very public criticism of Hirst’s practice.  Love them or hate them they have all reaped critical and financial acclaim as shrewd businessmen and artists.  This camp includes Warhol, Hirst, Koons, Shepard Fairey and Takashi Murakami to name a few. It’s a dynamic that fascinates me, so I naturally was drawn to these works:

"The Souls" series, Damien Hirst, c/o Paul Stolper Gallery

"The Souls", Damien Hirst, c/o Paul Stolper Gallery

Seen individually, the foil-block butterfly prints stand on their own, but the way Paul Stolper grouped them in his stark white, brightly lit space on the show’s floor was absolutely stunning. The space looked like a semiconductor cleanroom, it was impeccable.

Hirst, Warhol, and Koons, Denis Bloch Fine Art

Last but not least, I spent a great deal of time in the Denis Bloch space.  They had an incredibly diverse representation of work but on this one small unassuming wall contained the trifecta of Contemporary powerhouses.  I simply wanted to just cut this wall and transport it to my home.  Hirst’s diamond dust skull is so oddly captivating.  The Warhol was a copy of one of his early shows at the Leo Castelli Gallery in NY.  Lastly Koons’ Balloon Dog is a recreation of the larger scale piece that is at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

That’s it for my virtual tour and recap of the show.

I met some amazing artists, gallerists and art enthusiasts over the last 3 days.  I learned a lot and had a ball!  Of course, now I’m thinking about how I can get to NY’s Armory Show in March…

Photo Credit: Complex Magazine

Now that the holidays are behind us and the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday is slowly coming to an end, my mind starts to drift toward thoughts of my next mini-vacation.  Thanks to an article I read on HVW8 Gallery’s Facebook page, I’ve been inspired to travel around some of the shows highlighted in Complex Magazine’s 25 Most Anticipated Art Shows of 2012.  They noted some great exhibitions; among my “must sees” are:

1.  Os Gemeos @ Prism in West Hollywood, 2/25/2012-3/24/2012

2.  Keith Haring @ the Brooklyn Museum, 3/16/2012-7/8/2012.  I saw Keith Haring’s show at SF MOMA in 1998 and I’d love another chance to see more of his work.

3.  Cindy Sherman @MOMA 2/26/2012-6/11/2012.  When BCAM first opened in 2008, there was an entire gallery dedicated to Sherman (Eli Broad has one of the most comprehensive collections of her work).  Can’t wait to see this retrospective.

4.  Art of Video Games @ the Smithsonian 3/16/2012-9/30/2012.  Leave it to Complex Magazine to include this one!  For anyone who has a gamer in their life, this show sounds interesting.

5.  Parra @ SF MOMA 3/31/2013-7/29/2012

December Mural at the Standard, DTLA, via Instagram

A new mural is going up at the Standard today replacing last month’s which was made out of yarn.  Yes, I said YARN.  I must say I was amazed at how long it lasted (thanks to no rain in December).  The mural got me thinking about an interesting street art phenomenon called “Yarn Bombing” which is a form of knit graffiti where street objects including stop signs, parking meters, random poles, subway cars, etc. are knitted and crocheted in colorful acrylic yarn.

Random Yarn Bomb on a Bus in Philadelphia. PhotoCredit-Wooster Collective

Turns out it’s a global movement that has been building momentum over the last 5 years.  The Standard mural was conceived by Magda Sayeg.  She started out doing guerilla yarn bombs in Houston Texas after she got a favorable response after covering the door knob of her boutique.  The random bombings expanded beyond her street into other areas of the city and from there it took off.

This is a fascinating collision between the subversive, clandestine world of traditional street art and Etsy enthusiasts seeking a broader audience beyond their Pinterest followers.  It turns out the phenomenon has become quite lucrative for Magda Sayed, she’s given up the noncommissioned work and now grosses between$25,000-$75,000 per project.  She’s also collaborated with the Sunglass Hut on a line of yarn adorned shades.  What’s next, yarn bombs in museums?  Already been done.

MOCA

I haven’t decided if this is a clever form of expression or a questionable waste of materials.  I loved the Standard Mural, and when I see this stuff I can’t help but smile.  I’ll say this:  The world needs to see a Portlandia skit on this!

Photo Credit: Trendland

I spotted this today on the Warby Parker blog.  I LOVE it!  I want this so bad I’d be willing to design my home office around this piece.  Hmm, my folks used to have this Samsonite Luggage in Brown…

Seeing this brings back some great memories of summer vacations, and the bonus is that it is a functioning speaker!  Hey Mom, we’re converting your makeup case!