New York - New Art Season

The summer art world slumber is starting to awaken with New York seeing dozens of openings. There also seems to be a few new trends this season with many exhibitions displaying figurative works, and this year it also seems that the borders of Chelsea are growing much further afield with shows and exhibitions taking over previously untrodden areas. Extending the margins, it seems that the Big Apple needs to be bigger!

This post is dedicated to victims and families of 9/11

 

Jackie Saccoccio can be seen at Van Doren Waxter and Eleven Rivington.

Saccoccio is one of the hardest working painters in the business and is gearing up for a two venue show at these sister galleries. 2015's Fall, will see Saccoccio's sensational colour work with splatters, scrapes, drips, and bleeds in vibrant punches of colour. A style that Saccoccio has refined over the years.

The artist will also unveil a large-scale portrait series, which in all honesty could be a defining crossover moment for the talented 52-year-old artist.

Van Doren Waxter, 23 East 73rd Street,

Running through September 9 – October 23 and Eleven Rivington, 195 Chrystie Street, is running through September 9 – October 18 and both shows promise a treat for the senses.

Rachel Whiteread will be making an appearance at Luhring Augustine. Again mounting overlapping shows, this young British artist was also the first woman to ever win the Turner Prize in 1993.

Taking over both Luhring Augustine galleries in Bushwick and Chelsea, viewers will be treated to a myriad of her architectural inversions. It's fair to say that the art world expects big things from this artist both figuratively and literally, and in particular at the huge space afforded to Bushwick. Although I have to say that I doubt anything could top her efforts in 1993, a full cement cast of an entire Victorian House. But who knows!

You can see Whitereads work at Luhring Augustine Gallery 25 Knickerbocker Avenue, Brooklyn, September 19 through December 20 and at 531 West 24th Street, from November 7 through December 19.

Finally, but not least one of the highlights for me has to be the Late Andy Warhol at Skarstedt. At the age of 50, was either spurred on by his significance as an artist or that he was switched on enough to attempt making even more money, returned to his catalogue and revisited a range of his themes.

Critics branded his later works as overly commercial, and to an extent they were probably right, but only at that time. Now his later works are starting to get the acclaim that they deserve.

The exhibition focuses on large scale paintings from the late 70's and early 80's, including his renowned series "Skulls", "Hammer and Sickle" among others. This is perhaps the most prolific era of the artists career, and my best guess is that we will start to see an increase in value before too long.

You can see the work at Skarstedt, 20 East 79th Street, from September 19 through to October 31.

UPCOMING CHANGES

For those of you paying attention, you will notice that any limited time promotions have started to not appear at the top of main stories!

This is all looking towards the future! Don't worry, for those that buy my limited time offers and promotions, they will still be available on the blog, they will however appear in separate posts from now on. Once all offers are sold, they will be removed from the blog to make way for new offers. Each offer lasts a maximum of five days only.

You might have also noticed that the number of offers has been reduced to an average of one per week where previously three offers would be posted. This allows me to bring you the latest artworks at the lowest prices. One of the next steps in bringing you discount artworks will be the addition of a new page on the site that will rotate an offer each week. If there is a piece of art that you are interested in seeing in a promotion, visit http://10-mark-Taylor.artistwebsites.com pick a piece and let me know! The prices charged on promotions save many dollars/pounds over their usual retail prices, and with Christmas looming nearer, now is the time to buy.

I also have a new group on Facebook! You can join the group if you are an artist, art buyer, or would like to positively connect with a great group of people. The Artist Hangout has members from all walks of life. Currently it is a public group. You can also keep up to date by liking my Beechhouse Media page. Not just art, but general and very often humorous discussion, reviews, and links for all sorts of stuff. Last week I featured a super yacht! My Facebook page can be found at https://Facebook.com/beechhousemedia so please drop by and say hello. You can visit The Artist Hangout here.

I am frequently asked to review new technology products and I am currently looking into making reviews a regular feature on the blog. Generally I like to review technology that has a link to the arts, whether that is art apps, cinema, acting, or something that makes any artists life easier, and this week I have been invited to participate in a pre-release of a new video platform that is said might just take on the likes of Vimeo! So if you are a technology company and have something that the art world might find useful, please do get in touch.

So what else has Beechhouse Media been up to this week? Aside from many meetings in both my day job and within my little piece of the art world, I have been creating content for my upcoming feature on how to create a conspiracy theory. The feature will also have a video guide with some handy tips on creating props!

One of the things I love to create are props that can be used in TV and film. Most of the time, film companies want aged documents, or interactive computer displays, so for at least some of the time this week I have been creating a few documents, and attempting to source the right papers to work on. It’s not as easy as you think, and just trying to get the right feel that would also look good on camera is often a difficult task, and I noticed a film recently which will remain unnamed, where the props just looked like they had been printed that morning! One document had a date printed on it and it was three years after the intended timeline of the movie!

Have you ever spotted some "Easter Eggs" in films? The internet is full of Easter eggs when it comes to props. Aircraft flying during the Roman Empire, contrails during the 18th Century, but I am certain that there are a few new ones that you may have spotted. Let me know what you find, and I will feature the best on the blog, and of course, I will have to watch the film in the name of research.

RANSOMWARE

Ransomware is the latest buzzword in the IT industry, although it is not new at all. Ransomware is essentially software that takes over a device and essentially makes it unusable until you have taken specific steps, usually involving payment to some sinister organisation. In the old days, I think we called it blackmail.

It seems that a bug in the popular messaging service "WhatsApp" has put up to 200 million of the services users at risk according to security firm, Checkpoint. The flaw allows hackers to distribute malware, including ransomware, demanding that users pay a fee to regain access to either their devices or files, and in some cases both.

Thankfully, this bug was limited to the web based version of the service, but it is still a concern none the less. WhatsApp was alerted to the vulnerability and created an update to prevent the vulnerability at the end of last month, but if you are using the service, WhatsApp suggest updating to the most recent versions as soon as possible.

WhatsApp Update Now

 

But unfortunately, it is not just WhatsApp who have been affected by issues surrounding ransomware over the last month. Security experts have also warned about a porn app which secretly takes photos of the person using the app.

Once photos were in possession of the creators of the app, devices were locked and the photographs of the users were then incorporated into a digital ransom note asking for $500 (£330) to be paid via PayPal. It also appears that some people have become victims and paid the fee only to have their phones left in an unusable state.

Adult Play is the app in question and it cannot be downloaded from the Google Play Store. It has to be downloaded from the web. If you want to guarantee your safety as much as you can, you should never install apps other than from official sources such as Google Play or the App Store.

There is a way to get rid of the ransomware, but in order to do so, you might just lose all of your data unless you have a previous backup available prior to downloading the offending app. Usually booting the phone up in safe mode (assuming you have that functionality) and once you are in device administrator mode, the app can be selected and disabled.

The moral of this story is to only download from official sources, and make sure you have a backup in place before making changes or adding anything you are unsure about.

THIS WEEK IN ART

A veritable tsunami has engulfed the art world this week with the opening of the September arts calendar. Everywhere from Shanghai to Moscow to London and beyond is packed to the rafters with new exhibitions, and more than at any time I can remember. In Istanbul, there have been complaints that the International Art Fair is cramping the style of the upmarket Istanbul Biennial with overt commercialism.

London has seen the new START fair which is for unknown overseas galleries at the Saatchi Gallery, which went head to head with the long established 20/21 British Art Fair at the Royal College of Art. Among the exhibits will be a £40,000 bronze, Horizontal Birdman 1, by Elizabeth Frink, which was actually stolen last month from a Mayfair gallery. The art was returned by the thief in unmarked post.

A number of new gallery spaces have opened or soon will be open in the capital. Art Deco and Contemporary gallery Dutko has expanded its Paris operation with a new gallery in London’s Mayfair. New spaces are being launched by Damien Hirst in Vauxhall and by the Tyburn Gallery, specialising in African and contemporary art, in Marylebone.

Heavyweight modern and contemporary art galleries soon to be on the move include Gagosian which has taken over an old car park in Mayfair; Helly Nahmad, which is moving from Cork Street to St James’s Square; and Sprueth Magers, which is moving from Grafton Street when it has found another location.

SPLITTING ART INTO PARTS

A charity sale is about to split art into parts. As the cost of contemporary pieces seem to be spiraling upwards, it seems that some think that splitting art into more affordable parts is the right way to go. I must say this idea has never occurred to me before, at no time would I have imagined buying a corner of an original, if I had, then I would have immediately thought destruction.

The rather bizarre idea could actually border on genius and is at the heart of a charity exhibition and sale raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support and opened on Thursday. The project called shared, invited artists to submit artwork that would be broken down and sold in individual parts. Those taking part include Richard Wentworth, Richard Wilson, Bouke de Vries, Idris Khan and Annie Morris.

This certainly lends the possibility that all of the pieces will in future be brought together once more for special occasions.

Do you think splitting art in to various parts is a good idea, even if it is for charity? Please leave your comments, it will be great to hear your thoughts.

So that’s all for today folks, I will be back on Sunday with some more of the latest news and insights to the world of art and technology, and more exciting news from my favourite auction house, Christie’s.

 

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