culturalboundaries

As reported in Vogue Magazine

“I’ve always done too much,” Sarah Lewis says in a tone that falls somewhere between self-mockery and pride. Thirty years old and whiplash fit, with honors degrees from Harvard and Oxford under her belt and on the verge of a Ph.D. from Yale, she has two books nearing completion, and is co-curating the SITE Santa Fe biennial, the closely watched art show, which opens next month. Rocco Landesman, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, wants to create a special initiative for her at the NEA in Washington, D.C. She has become a young woman to watch. As her friend Agnes Gund, MoMA’s president emerita, said the other day, “You don’t know what she’ll end up doing—there are so many possibilities.”

Read the rest of the article about Lewis in the May 2010 issue of Vogue at the link above.
Read more about the Biennial here.

If you ever thought paper dolls were just for little girls, think again! Instead of Ilisha Helfman recycling the pile of Sunday Times Magazines that litter her house, this Graphic Designer and toy maker has created an exuberantly colorful line of paper dolls that function like puppets with moving parts. These dolls are made from the award-winning NY TIMES covers designed by Design Director Arem Duplessis. I’m sure Arem would be pleased to know his cover designs have found another use. Crafitinista Ilisah Helfman’s paper doll kits are sold at Leafpdx, a store she owns with her husband, Joe Freedman. Check out these wonderfully crafted interactive paper dolls. Before you throw out your Sunday Times, maybe you too will find another use for it besides fodder for the landfills.

AGO 2010 Exhibit Wangechi Mutu

Wangechi Mutu at work in her Brooklyn Studio in conversation with art curator David Moos from AGO Gallery in Ontario, Canada.

Mutu’s work tackles hard topic of  hyper-sexualized Black females in her work, and at the same time she challenges the viewer to rethink their concept of the black female body.  She composes  intricate collages assembled from scraps of visual images from fashion magazines or medical journal then she overlays broad strokes of watercolor to give a sensibility of transparency ambiance. At times the viewer might find her work disturbing because of the vial content the position of the female bodies or the politics of violence.  She also shows her women as empowered figures.

Wangechi Mutu’s work boldly explores the contradictions of female and cultural identity, drawing the viewer into conversations about beauty, consumerism, colonialism, race, and gender. Her representation of the human forms are disturbing and transfixing, at once utterly complex and strikingly direct.

Urban Africa/David Adjaye:

International Ghanaian architect, David Adjaye’s exhibit at the Design Museum in London offers a glimpse into urbanism in Africa. David was born in Tanzania and raised in London. His architectural firm Adjaye Associates, has offices in London and New York City. Adjaye has photographed and documented major key cities in Africa. In order to shed light on an area of African urbanism that have been ignored in the accepted historiography of architecture.

David was on a panel with Peter Cook of Davis Brody Bond Aedas, and Rodney Leon. Thelma Golden, Director of the Studio Museum in Harlem was moderator at the Pratt Institute’s “Designing an Enduring Legacy,” in February. David Adjaye’s firm is also part of the architectural team that includes Peter Cook and the late Max Bond of Davis Brody Bond Aedas, to design the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C.

photo by m. washington

Read more on David Adjaye in FT online: http://www.ft.com/
Listen to an interview with David on BBC WORLD SERVICE .

Check out a few of the proposed renderings of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C.

Shirin Neshat

Known for her hauntingly beautiful explorations of Islamic and gender relations, Iranian-born visual artist Shirin Neshat is perhaps the most famous contemporary artist to emerge from the country of Iran. Women Without Men is Shirin’s feature-film debut, this film was the winner of the Silver Lion for the best director at the 2009 Venice Film Festival. As a devotee of her work, she exquisitely frames women in a world where they are normally shielded from public view. For more on her work check out, Gladstone Gallery .

Art Against Empire, is a collection of over 100 political posters shown in the LACE galleries spanning 60 years of opposition to U.S. Intervention in the domestic affairs of sovereign nations. The show is curated by Carol. A Wells features posters from the archives of the Center for Study of Political Graphics. Featuring works by Josh MacPhee, Corita Kent, Jay Belloli, Cedomic Kostivic, Stephen Kroniger and more.
Check out a video of Adolfo Mexiac talking, in Spanish, about his “Freedom of Expression” poster.