WASTE LAND gets Oscar Nod

WASTE LAND, a documentary about a community art project in Brazil, is nominated in the Best Documentary category. The film follows contemporary artist Vik Muniz as he travels to the world's largest dump, which is outside of Rio de Janeiro. At the dump there is an eclectic gang of garbage pickers, "catadores", who make a living by finding and selling recyclable trash. Muniz works with the catadores to create large-scale collage portraits in which trash is dignified as a material and compared to the venerable tradition of oil painting.

Sebatiao as Marat-Pictures of Garbage 
This painting is based on the painting The Death of Marat (1793) by Jacques-Louis David, which depicts French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat dying in a bathtub after being stabbed by a Royalist. 

Muniz's work is a social and political commentary of several issues. One, it is a reaction against consumption and waste. The film portrays the ridiculous size of the dump and the at-times despair of the catadores' daily life. Two, it responds to social class differences since the catadores are poor and disenfranchised. Three, it comments on the traditional art canon in which Western oil painting are valued. Muniz bases some of the portraits on renowned paintings that have a social political context, like David's The Death of Marat.

Vik Muniz is most known for treating non-art materials as paint in his 2D collages, like does with trash in this project . In the past, he has also worked with sugar, wire, cotton, chocolate syrup, and peanut butter and jelly. For more info on his creative process, check out his TED talk.

The pseudo-documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop by British street artist Banksy is also nominated for Best Documentary. Wonder who will win?

Artist T-Shirts on Sale at LA's MoCA

Buy three and get the fourth for free. Already took advantage of this. :)

Marcel Dzama. Tree Band. $10.

Louise Bourgeois. Spider Woman. $10.

Fred Tomaselli. Hummingbird. $10.

Some Pretty Things for Valentine's Day

COATT
"love" in morse code

Row Boat Press

Tracy Jenkins

Mary & Matt
70% dark chocolate, 20% milk chocolate, 10% white chocolate.

Susan Kare

For other ideas: http://nerdvalentine.tumblr.com/

"I am who I am:The Portrait Reconsidered." Steven Zevitas Gallery. January 20-February 26.

Friday was a day of firsts. It was my first time going to First Friday in the South End. There was so much to see and I ran into many familiar faces. My favorite work that I saw was at a group show that was bounded by the theme of portrait. MassArt faculty Steve Locke had a small painting up.

I like the absurdity and raw emotion in the following paintings.

Michael Hilsman, If I had known that my robe had come loose, I’d have tied it tighter (Fruitman), 2010, oil and acrylic on canvas, 80 x 64 inches.

Peter Opheim, Untitled, 2010, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches.

John Copeland, The Fruit of Promise, acrylic on canvas.

Steven Zevitas Gallery is a exhibition space attached to the offices of the art periodical, New American Paintings. It is located at 450 Harrison Ave. in the South End.

Jen Bekman's 20x200

Eirik Johnson. Behind the Bay City Log Sorting Yard, Cosmopolis, Washington.

Jen Bekman is a gallery for emerging artists and collectors in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In 2007, the gallery started the website 20x200 which offers limited edition prints at various levels with the mission to make art affordable for everyone. The prints start around the size of legal paper at $20 with an edition of 200 copies. The largest prints (24"x30") run for $1,000 with an edition of ten.

Shout out to MassArt faculty member Eirik Johnson, who teaches in the photo department.

Google Art Project

Google just launched Google Art Project. It is a website that allows viewers to browse the galleries of 17 international art museums including the MoMA, Tate, MET, and several smaller more specialized museums. Eighteen months in the making, it allows you to navigate through the museums as if you are walking through them and includes 1,061 high resolution images of artwork. The resolution of these images are so high you are able to see each individual brushstroke and crack in a painting.


The project was started as one of Google's "20% Project", which allows employees to take a fifth of their time away from their regular job to come up with innovations.


While this is a great innovation, the project places emphasis on the power of big museums and makes visual art seem like something that is only 2D on a wall, like a painting. It is unfortunate because a lot of major museums are hosting some very interesting and forward-thinking performance art.

Bread and Puppet's Ulysses

On Saturday I saw Bread and Puppet's production of The Return of the Ulysses at the Cyclorama. As I expected I had a difficult time following the story, but I still enjoyed the show. It was a total sensory performance. The company had a brass band and opera singers, handmade set design and costumes, and even served sourdough bread with aoli after the show. I really liked the overall DIY aspect of the performance.



Bread and Puppet is a traveling theatre company based out of Glover, Vermont.