Complex are the kings of TOP 10’s.. and this week saw one of our favourite yet, and unfortunately one of the most time consuming, not directly by reading the list, but by where it sent us. This is Complex’s picks for the 10 Coolest Art YouTube Channels. The likes of MOCA, Tate and MOMA are included alongside the likes of Art Thoughts with Hennessy Youngman. Check out the list here.

COMPLEX: The 10 Coolest Art YouTube Channels is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

“Lines which do not exist”

Click here to view the embedded video.

RICHTER: Drawings is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

I first saw the Chinese farmer/ robot maker Mr Wu in a documentary by the British comedian Paul Merton back in 2007. My second encounter with Wu was the current exhibition “Cai Guo Qiang – Peasant Da Vincis” ((www.jellymon.com)) at Rock Bund Museum in Shanghai.

After a few fairly confusing telephone conversations between Joan (in our Beijing team) and Mrs Wu (“ Robot Widow” in Paul Merton’s words), we were set on a journey to visit the mysterious farm of robots and Mr Wu.

It was a Sunday, 40 degrees underneath fake palm trees in Beijing, we were greeted passionately by his two dogs (they could be made out of a stuffed Chow Chow and something else). There stood Mr Wu Yu Lu among his robots and pieces of metal parts all over his courtyard. We were invited to his living room… is like a shrine – four walls full of his pictures on television, with foreign journalist, I am sure Paul was up there some where. Mr Wu demonstrated some of his classics and the latest work.

Shine and Joan with Mr Wu and the legendary “Wu Lao Er Shi Wu” (Wu’s 25th son), he enjoys taking his dad out shopping.

A boy robot that lights cigarettes and tell you off for smoking.

This is the big brother of the Smoking Robot (smaller in size but he was the first generation of robot that Mr Wu made that could accurately light up a ciggy). I named him Toastie… Toastie has a baby face he’s older than you think!

Check out the rat robot on the far right, he walks around and humps anything with legs.

A Barbie-like doll that climbs up and down the ladder.

This one just happy walking and waving her arms about, but creepily identical with Mori – designer in our Shanghai office.

A boxing glove and a fan?! This girl will fan you while she massage you. Sounds pretty good as long as you don’t look at her face…

Not in the picture: A robot that writes Chinese Calligraphy and paint; a robot that plays “Er Hu” (Chinese musical instrument); a suicidal robot that likes to jump off buildings…

Something about these robots, so much fun and love with their daddy, few hours in the hot sun with Mr Wu, we  sensed an incredible loneliness and frustration, I think creativity is a lonely process whether you are in a farm or a studio. There is child-like innocence and sinister twinkle in Mr Wu’s eyes, the two important factors for us to start an interesting collaboration.

To be continue…

Meeting Mr Wu – The Robot Farmer. is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

At this years Hong Kong International Art Fair, Japanese pop artist Yoshitomo Nara brought with him a cargo box installation at the Marianne Boesky Gallery’s booth. This installation is very similar to his last at Art Basel in Switzerland and Nara once again set this project up with the help of the YNG team (a collaborative venture between Nara and Japanese creative design group graf). As you can see from the pictures the unique freight container had some amazing work from the artist inside.

Thanks to Arrested Motion for the info

Yoshitomo Nara at ART HK 2010 is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

special event that pairs Bodega’s large scale vinyl art editions with BoConcept’s interior design. We are hosting

an event on Thursday June 3, 2010 from 6-10pm in Santa Monica, CA. If you are in the Los Angeles area please

RSVP for the event (rsvp@itsbodega.com).

A few images of the BoConcept Santa Monica Showroom, featuring Bodega editions by Michael Leon,

Hisham Bharoocha, Cody Hudson, Michael Leon, and Kenzo Minami.

Article 011: ART+DESIGN is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

And: It is well known that a scientific discovery can begin with a surprise.

Show updatez>>>>>>>>>>>> is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

The event is this Saturday, May 22 from 6-9pm. The night will be flowing great wine and micro brews, hors d’oeuvres, and music.  If you don’t want to or can’t be there, just call Alan Berger or Tawni Bell at (718) 499-2707 to get tickets to the lottery.

$300 (admission for 2 or contribution) gets you a ticket to win a painting by me (a work on paper called “Day In Day Out”).

$50 (admission for 2 or contribution) gets you a ticket to win a print by me (“Toxic”). You may have seen images of the print before since I blogged about it before, but here’s a link:  editioncopenhagen.com/default.asp?Action=Details&Item=719

Toxic

$50 gets you a ticket to win the KAWS piece – a be@rbrick 1000% black.  These are already sold out so they’re pretty hard to come by.

KAWS' be@rbrick black 1000%

The Brooklyn Free School is a democratic free school in Brooklyn, NY.  There’s no curriculum, no mandatory classes, no homework, no grades, and kids have an equal say in how the school is run.  It’s the kind of school I wish I went to when I was a kid.

If you want more information about the Brooklyn Free School, check out:  brooklynfreeschool.org and you can watch a sweet video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The event is taking place at the Brooklyn Free School at 372 Clinton Avenue (between Lafayette and Greene) in Brooklyn.

For tickets, (even if you can’t make it), contact Alan Berger or Tawni Bell at (718) 499-2707.

Win an original work by Erik Parker or KAWS and support Anarchy Education is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Currently on show at the Timothy Taylor Gallery in London is a retrospective of the late US painter Agnes Martin.  It will be Londonʼs most significant retrospective of Martinʼs work in over 15 years, with the collection spanning works from throughout her five decade career.

Despite viewing herself as an abstract expressionist, Martin is actually famed for being one of America’s greatest minimalist painters.  Taking inspiration from Mark Rothko and her study into Buddhism she used abstract and formless shapes to convey beauty and emotion.  Her instantly recognisable works often feature rigid grids and lines, but created with a fluid colour palette and sweeping brush strokes that make her works softer and more about connect and creating feelings than the big conceptual ideas of many of her minimalist contemporaries.

Catch the Agnes Martin exhibition at Timothy Taylor London until 21st May.

Agnes Martin At Timothy Taylor London is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Currently on at Tate St Ives in the UK is an exhibition by artist Dexter Dalwood.

The exhibition focuses on Dalwood’s recurring theme of imagined interiors or landscapes, depicting famous historic people, places or moments but with the characters involved removed. Dalwood is perhaps one of my favourite artists, I love the concept and the slightly skewed aesthetic he paints with so I was fascinated to watch this video below from the Tate Shots series which features Dalwood discussing the exhibition and his influences.

The exhibition is on until 3rd May, check it out if you can and take a look at the video below.

Dexter Dalwood Tate Shots Interview is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

As “Performing/Guzzling”, the new monograph from Kim Gordon, bassist with art rock superstars Sonic Youth, shows she is also a highly acclaimed artist.

The monograph features a series of abstract, mixed media watercolour portraits of the dreamlike faces she can see from the stage.  Highly limited to 3,000 copies the book comes with a signed print and has been put together by Gordon herself and also features other works from her plus lyrics and essays from writers Jutta Koether and Hilton Als.

Published this April by Nieves and Rizzoli, Performing/Guzzling handsomely translates Gordon’s output in book form. Look for it in April.

Kim Gordon “Performing/Guzzling” is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

We recently told you about “Crash” and exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in London dedicated to works of art which inspired, or were inspired by one of our all time favourite authors, the late J.G. Ballard.

The exhibition closes this week (the 1st April) so if you are in London, then make sure you check it out.  Not only is it a fantastic concept for a show, and a fitting tribute to a true artist, featuring Ed Ruscha, Damien Hirst, Richard Hamilton, Andy Warhol, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Helmut Newton, Francis Bacon, Jenny Saville, Jean Michael Basquiat, Douglas Gordon, Richard Prince and many more it is one of the best line up of works we have seen in some time… and it’s free, so no excuse not to go.

Take a look at some additional works from the exhibition below.

“Crash” Exhibition at Gagosian Gallery London is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

“Amber is for caution” is a new project from photographer Valerie Phillips which attempts to bring streetstyle photography into the world of fine art.

Centred around former model Amber,  whom Phillips first met when she came to a casting four years ago and quickly captivated the photographer.

“I met Amber when she was 15. She came to my studio for a casting. She was quiet and feisty at the same time, and kind of bratty and fascinating. I loved her slow-paced, drawn out Kentucky sentences, so perfectly out of place in East London. And I really liked how she didn’t seem to give a shit.

She was just Amber and that was good enough…...”

Living up to her “doesn’t give a shit attitude” Amber has recently cut her hair off, giving up her lucrative modeling career and moved back to Kentucky to become a surgical technician.  So Phillips couldn’t resist following her to document her changes in style to give a personal insight into her inspirational and unpredictable character.

“Amber is for caution” is available now from Longer Moon Farrow in March 2010 and will be on display at Lazarides Gallery in London from 8th April, and Paul Smith in Tokyo from May 2010.

Valerie Phillips “Amber Is For Caution” is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

This week sees the opening of a new group exhibition from legendary New York and Tokyo based street (or should that be field) art collective, The Barnstormers, at the Joshua Liner Gallery in New York.

Formed by David Ellis in 1999 when a pilgrimage of twenty-five artists to the rural town of Cameron, North Carolina, where they painted barns, tractor-trailers, shacks, and farm equipment.  The collective continued to work together and have gained a loyal following for their acclaimed “motion paintings” – timelapse videos which depict the making of their murals.

However this new exhibition focuses on the 35 members of the Barnstormers as individual artists, featuring paintings, printmaking, photography, video, installation, and other mediums from artists including: Alex Lebedev, Alice Mazorra, Bluster One, Che Jen, Chris Mendoza, Chuck Webster, Cycle, Daikon, David Ellis, Dennis McNett, Doze Green, Ge-ology, GION, Guillermo Carrion, Joey Garfield, JPL (UFO), KAMI, Kenji Hirata, Kiku Yamaguchi, KR, MADSAKI, Manny Pangilinan (WELLO), Marlene Marino, Martin Mazorra, Maya Hayuk, Mikal Hameed, Mike Houston, Mike Ming, Miyuki (Pai) Hirai, Naomi Kazama, Pablo Power, Paul Coors, Pema Rinzin, ROSTARR, Ryan McGinness, SASU, Shie Moreno, SWOON, West One, Yuri Shibuya, and Yuri Shimojo.

The Barnstormers Group Exhibition opens thisThursday, March 18, 2010 at 6pm and runs until Saturday, April 17, 2010 at the Joshua Liner Gallery in New York.

Source: Cool Hunting

Barnstormers Group Exhibition is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

This week saw a new survey of work by US conceptual artist Jenny Holzer open at the Baltic Centre For Contemporary Arts in Gateshead, UK.

This exhibition takes place over the two largest galleries of perhaps the most impressive art spaces in the world (a former victorian flour mill with a glass tower – Google it), this is the first major collection of Holzer’s work in the UK and takes n elements from throughout her 30 year career, including  paintings, sculptures and her spectacular LED installations.

Originally starting her artistic career as an abstract painter, when she moved to New York city in the mid 70s Holzer started working with text and the written word, and it this she has become best known for – using provocative and political phrases and prose distributed to the public through a selection of mass media from fly posts to T-shirts, condom packets and even an LED billboard in New York’s Times Square.  When transposed to a gallery it gives the works a completely new context where viewers are confronted by startling, anonymous messages that present multiple points of view and ways of being.

This exhibition includes works from throughout the last thirty years of Holzer’s career.   It features LED signs, sculptures, and paintings, that embody Holzer’s thirteen text series (of Truisms and Inflammatory Essays), as well as poetry and writing by others, plus in her most recent work government documents to quite literally shed light on the human rights abuses and war crimes of the US administration .

Jenny Holzer is at the Baltic Centre For Contemporary Arts until 16th May.

Images Baltic and the Guardian.

Jenny Holzer At The Baltic is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Banksy has been big news in the UK for some time with him regularly making headlines in the national newspapers, however his exploits are now picking up international attention as one of the world’s most respected titles, The Wall Street Journal, has published an article on his highly publicised spat with grafitti artist Robbo.

As the person who jump started the whole street art thing and spawned a host of lamer than lame imitators Banksy comes in for a lot of criticism (and rightly so on some occasions) but you cant argue against the attention he has brought to the scene, elevating it above pure novelty factor and giving numerous artists the chance to exhibit in galleries they wouldn’t even been allowed to take a look round before.  This article is a testament to that.

I still think this whole Banksy vs. Robbo affair is yet another Banksy hoax though….

Check out the full article below.

A GAME OF TAG BREAKS OUT BETWEEN LONDON’S GRAFFITI ELITE
Slight Brings Robbo Out of Retirement; Cobbler Won’t Let Rival Tread on Him
By Gabrielle Steinhauser | Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2010

LONDON—In the predawn hours of Christmas morning, a 40-year-old shoe repairman who goes by the name Robbo squeezed his 6-foot-8-inch frame into a wet suit, tossed some spray cans into a plastic bag, and crossed Regent’s Canal on a red-and-blue air mattress.

Robbo, one of the lost pioneers of London’s 1980s graffiti scene, was emerging from a long retirement. He had a mission: to settle a score with the world-famous street artist Banksy, who, Robbo believes, had attacked his legacy.

The battle centers on a wall under a bridge on the canal in London’s Camden district. In the fall of 1985—just 15 years old but already a major player in London’s graffiti scene—Robbo announced his presence on that wall with eight tall block letters: ROBBO INC.

The work, written in orange, red and black on a yellow background, had been in good shape for nearly 25 years and was considered a local icon, surviving long after Robbo himself vanished from the scene 16 years ago.

But recently, Robbo’s work was dramatically altered by an unlikely rival: Banksy, the stealthy Bristol-born artist who has made a lucrative art of graffiti. The work of Banksy—who, like Robbo, doesn’t disclose his name—sells for big money and is widely merchandised. His first film, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January and is due out in U.K. theaters this month.

In early December, Banksy did a series of four pieces along the Regent’s Canal’s walls. Inexplicably, one of them incorporated Robbo’s piece into Banksy’s own work, painting over half the Robbo original in the process. The resulting work, in Banksy’s typical stencil technique, shows a black-and-white workman applying colorful wallpaper that is, in essence, the remnants of Robbo’s piece.

Banksy Vs. Robbo In The Wall Street Journal is a post from: SLAMXHYPE