Other Criteria blog

SAVE THE DATE: Editioned prints by Matthew Burrows, Adam Dix and Colin Glen

Kay — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:57:13 +0000

February 3, 2012 by Kay

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CURRENT: “Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection”

Kay — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:42:32 +0000

February 2, 2012 by Kay

January 28 – July 8, 2012

Chicago Cultural Center

Exhibit Explores the Iconography of Death, Showcases Nearly 1,000 Works From Richard Harris’s Collection – by Rembrandt, Mapplethorpe, Dürer, Goya, Jasper Johns and Many Other Notable Artists

A deadly obsession takes hold of the Chicago Cultural Center this winter when one of its largest exhibitions to date, Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection, opens Saturday January 28, 2012. Presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events in partnership with the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture, Morbid Curiosity showcases Richard Harris’s wild and wonderfully eclectic collection of nearly 1,000 works of fine art, artifacts, installations and decorative objects, including creations by many of the greatest artists of our time, which explore the iconography of death across a variety of artistic, cultural and spiritual practices from 2000 B.C.E. to the present day.

Pictured: Richard Harris in his home alongside his skull collection.
Photo credit: Jyoti Srivastava

Richard Harris, a resident of Riverwoods, Ill. who has been an art collector for 40 years, has gathered his provocative collection from all corners of the world to share with Chicago. “We are all born to die. The questions that fascinate me are how we will die, where will we die and when will we die,” said Richard Harris. “At the age of 74, I believe it is incumbent upon me to make my collection a paean to death in all its many visages.”

“The scope, quality and diversity of Mr. Harris’s collection is unprecedented,” said Michelle T. Boone, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. “Morbid Curiosity will fill two gallery spaces on the 4th floor to cover a total of 14,000 sq. ft. during its six-month run, making it one of our largest and longest-running exhibitions to date.”

“We look forward to hosting an exciting array of music, theatre and art programming in conjunction with the exhibition, further engaging the public in a conversation about difficult themes that continue to fascinate humankind,” added Commissioner Boone.

“Ironically, the object that best personifies my own curiosity towards the subject of death can be seen in a 1927 photograph that is probably the least expensive object in the collection, costing me $5,” said Mr. Harris. “It is a photograph of a woman named Phebe Clijde surrounded by friends in the backyard of Phebe’s home in the suburbs of San Diego. In this neighborly scene, Phebe is holding a human skull. ‘What could she be thinking? Who’s skull is this? How did the person die?’ are some of the questions that ignite Phebe’s and my curiosity.”

John Issacs “Are you still mad at me?” 2001
Steel, wax, artificial blood, and mixed media

John Isaacs is interested in the physical functioning of the human body, and this figure is shocking in its realism. Isaacs studied biology and once created a replica of his own body in the style of a wax anatomical model. This modern reinterpretation of the vanitas theme emphasizes the fragility of the human body.

For more information on Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection, visit www.ChicagoCulturalCenter.org.

Current: Face/OFF at Gallery Gebr. Lehmann, Berlin

Georgia — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:30:18 +0000

February 1, 2012 by Georgia

28/01.2012 – 21/04.2012

Tues – Sat, 11:00–18:00

From the press release:

Seven different artistic positions are shown in the group exhibition Face/OFF at Gallery Gebr. Lehmann in Berlin. Each position deals with the classical concept of the portrait, resulting in works that render multifaceted variations on—and abstractions of—this genre. Contrary to the traditional portrait’s objective of both creating a likeness of the subject’s body and showing a person’s character, the works in this exhibition dispense with conventional renderings of the portrait. The portrait becomes indirect, distorted, and thereby anonymous.

This becoming-anonymous poses one question in particular: to what extent is the portrait capable of fulfilling its function as “true” depiction? Furthermore, what is made visible to the viewer gazing at the subject; what thereby enables a relation to the personality of the portrait’s subject?

Konrad Wyrebek - BoM F, 2012

A painting by Frank Nitsche assembles geometric forms and lines into an abstract composition, evoking associations of a skull or a figure from a comic book. An equally abstract appearance is achieved by the artist Konrad Wyrebek, who extracts faces from fashion photographs and transfers them in grey tones onto the canvas. In almost morbid caricatures, these exemplify a “dark glamour” that seemingly hides behind the facade of the flawlessly retouched fashion world. In her paintings, Maria Brunner covers depictions of female faces with colorful cutouts from other portraits, lending them a surreal depth. Here too, photographs from fashion magazines serve as templates to be transferred onto canvas, thereby drawing on the classical subject of portrait painting in more ways than one.

Installation shot. Foreground: Bjarne Melgaard - Life is a lonely Buffalo, 2005. Background: Maria Brunner - Untitled, 2010 and Untitled, 2011

Tatjana Doll’s hidden self-portrait shows the artist with a mask, portrayed in triplicate on the canvas. Only the title gives any indication of the subject’s identity. The face—the primary vessel of human recognition—is concealed, the representative function of the portrait, interrogated.

A similar end is reached in Eberhard Havekost’s hand-offset Hotel. The paper shows to the viewer a self-portrait of the artist without really depicting him. What can a person’s portrait reveal about him when he isn’t even in the picture? The subject’s surroundings, in this case the anonymous hotel room, assume a substitutive role, replacing the person’s representation. The most intimate kind of portrait can be seen in Bjarne Melgaard’s graphical series. Roger Baptist, known as Rummelsnuff, a body-based Gesamtkunstwerk, is shown in full-on directness. Is it the art-figure or the person who is being portrayed here?

Installation shot. Sculpture by John Isaacs: Perhaps in the emergent lines you will find yourself, 2011

John Isaacs (who’s work is also available through Other Criteria) chooses a ludically simplified form of depiction in his sculptural work. Basing his work on last year’s riots in London, the artist portrays an entire generation: without any prospects for the future, with an empty gaze going right “through the head” and into the unknown.

The positions brought together in this exhibition dismantle preexisting modes of portrait-making, yielding works that can be subsumed—despite their anonymity, their “lack of personality”, and their deconstruction of the face—under the traditional category of the portrait.

Gagosian Spot Challenge

Kay — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:15:46 +0000

January 31, 2012 by Kay

Six participants have currently completed the Spot Challenge by visiting all 11 Gagosian Gallery locations during the exhibition The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 and will each receive a signed and personally dedicated spot print by Damien Hirst.

Gagosian’s website allows you to keep up to date on entrant’s progress by visiting the Spot Challenge page where you can see plenty more nearing the finish line.

The first to complete the Spot Challenge was Valentine Uhovski in nearly 8 days. He says “It took 32,000 miles, 3 continents, 9 counties, nearly 40 taxi rides and lots of bad airplane movies to make it to the finish line in London.” Read the full story of the long and exhilarating journey on his website ArtRuby.com.

Send us photos of your spot challenge journeys by emailing website@othercriteria.com

Images courtesy of Valentine Uhovski from ArtRuby.com.

PHOTOS: Other Criteria at India Art Fair

Kay — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:36:51 +0000

January 30, 2012 by Kay

Other Criteria have just returned from India Art Fair, thanks to all who came to see us – here are some images of the works we exhibited!

Left to right: Damien Hirst – The Dead; Damien Hirst – Controlled Substances Key Spot Print; Damien Hirst – All You Need is Love, diamond dust (coming soon online – to enquire please email info@othercriteria.com).

Left to right: Damien Hirst – Death or Glory; Damien Hirst – The Dead; Damien Hirst – Controlled Substances Key Spot Print; Damien Hirst – Phendimetrazine; Damien Hirst – For the Love of God.

Left to right: Harland Miller prints; Damien Hirst – Inspirational; Damien Hirst – Death or Glory; Damien Hirst – The Dead; Damien Hirst – Controlled Substances Key Spot Print; Gary Webb sculpture; Damien Hirst – Phendimetrazine.

To enquire about any of the works you see above, please email us on info@othercriteria.com

CURRENT: Gary Hume – The Indifferent Owl

Kay — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:02:42 +0000

January 25, 2012 by Kay

18 January – 25 February 2012

White Cube, Hoxton Square | Mason’s Yard

Gary Hume – Migration
2011
Ø 46 7/8 in. (Ø 119 cm)
Gloss paint on aluminium

White Cube is pleased to announce ‘The Indifferent Owl’, an exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by Gary Hume. Over the past twenty years, Hume has developed a distinctive visual language of bold, simplified forms to create paintings that engage the viewer with their pleasantly irresolvable quality. The exhibition, his first in London for over four years, brings together a large and varied body of new work that will occupy both the Hoxton Square and Mason’s Yard galleries.

A painting by Gary Hume is a dynamically ambiguous visual experience. Although each work usually features a recognisable motif – such as a bird or flower – they are often flattened and fractured, and positioned awkwardly in a pictorial space that is brought to life through broad passages of colour that could be repellently acrid or seductively luscious. Negative and positive spaces fluctuate within a painting, stretching figuration to the point that lines, forms and colours start to lose their denotative function. ‘Neither literal nor illusionistic,’ writes Jennifer Higgie in her catalogue essay, Hume’s paintings ‘draw you into the depths of something you might have initially assumed was all surface.’

For more information on the exhibition, visit the White Cube website.

Mason’s Yard: Lower ground floor

PHOTOS: Other Criteria at London Art Fair

Kay — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:15:15 +0000

January 24, 2012 by Kay

For those of you who missed us, please see photos below of our stand at the London Art Fair 2012 over the weekend.

Left to right: Godless – Damien Hirst; Adonis Blue Butterfly – Damien Hirst; 18 With a Bullet (1) – Eduardo Sarabia; Ashley Bickerton signed limited edition monograph including a signed print

Spot Prints – Damien Hirst

Left: Inspirational – Damien Hirst

Left to right: LOVE IS A BIRD LOVE IS A BURDEN – Sarah Lucas and Olivier Garbay; Ghost prints – Boo Saville; For the Love of God prints – Damien Hirst (coming soon online: enquire by emailing info@othercriteria.com)

Left to right: Thirteen etchings – Philip Allen; New Orleans – Gary Webb; All You Need is Love diamond dust – Damien Hirst (coming soon online: enquire by emailing info@othercriteria.com); LOVE IS A BIRD LOVE IS A BURDEN – Sarah Lucas and Olivier Garbay

Left to right: New Orleans – Gary Webb; Thirteen etchings – Philip Allen

To enquire about any of the work you see above, please email us on info@othercriteria.com.

Currently: ‘Bright Young Things’ at Selfridges, London

Georgia — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:48:37 +0000

January 18, 2012 by Georgia

Launched this month following the success of last year’s campaign, is ‘Bright Young Things’, a project initiated by Selfridges to seek out and champion the most exciting young designers in the UK. The scheme features a total of fifteen UK-based emerging talents from the worlds of fashion, art, design and food.

From 6 January 2012 until the end of February, each of the Bright Young Things will take over an Oxford Street or Duke Street window. Their brief was to communicate the essence of their work and this has resulted in some wondrous creations, evidenced in the photographs below.

Designs by the Bright Young Things will be available in three pop up shops at Selfridges as well as online.

Adam Andrascik - S/S '12 collection. photo: stylebubble.co.uk

Oliver Ruuger - Accessories. photo: stylebubble.co.uk

Maarten van der Horst - S/S '12 collection. photo: stylebubble.co.uk

TODAY: Gagosian Gallery launches worldwide exhibition of 25 years of spot paintings by Damien Hirst

Kay — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:58:08 +0000

January 12, 2012 by Kay

I was always a colourist, I’ve always had a phenomenal love of colour… I mean, I just move colour around on its own. So that’s where the spot paintings came from—to create that structure to do those colours, and do nothing. I suddenly got what I wanted. It was just a way of pinning down the joy of colour.

—Damien Hirst

DAMIEN HIRST
Morphine Sulphate , 1993
Household gloss on canvas
57 x 87 inches (144.8 x 221 cm)

The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 – Damien Hirst

The exhibition will take place at once across all of Gagosian Gallery’s eleven locations in New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva, and Hong Kong, opening worldwide on January 12, 2012. Most of the paintings are being lent by private individuals and public institutions, more than 150 different lenders from twenty countries. Conceived as a single exhibition in multiple locations, “The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011” makes use of this demographic fact to determine the content of each exhibition according to locality.

Included in the exhibition are more than 300 paintings, from the first spot on board that Hirst created in 1986; to the smallest spot painting comprising half a spot and measuring 1 x 1/2 inch (1996); to a monumental work comprising only four spots, each 60 inches in diameter; and up to the most recent spot painting completed in 2011 containing 25,781 spots that are each 1 millimeter in diameter, with no single color ever repeated.

In conjunction with the exhibition will be the publication of The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011, a fully illustrated, comprehensive and definitive catalogue of all spot paintings made by Hirst from 1986 to the present. Published by Gagosian Gallery and Other Criteria, The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 includes essays by Museum of Modern Art curator Ann Temkin, cultural critic Michael Bracewell, and art historian Robert Pincus-Witten as well as a conversation between Damien Hirst, Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari.

The third issue of the Gagosian App for iPad will also launch January, providing an interactive, in-depth look at the series that features more than ninety spot paintings.

“Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011” precedes the first major museum retrospective of Hirst’s work opening at Tate Modern in London in April, 2012.

DAMIEN HIRST
Levorphanol , 1995
Household gloss on canvas
27 x 27 inches (68.6 x 68.6 cm)

PHOTOS: Damien Hirst Spot Print launch

Kay — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:28:47 +0000

January 11, 2012 by Kay

Thanks to all who attended the Damien Hirst Spot Print launch last night at our New Bond Street store. For those of you who missed out, sign up to our mailing list to ensure you don’t miss our future events.

The prints will be exhibited until 14th February 2012 at:

Other Criteria
36 New Bond Street
London W1S 2RP
Opening hours: Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm

To see all the new Damien Hirst spot prints online, click here.

Other Criteria, 36 New Bond Street

Left to right: Lanatoside B – Damien Hirst and Vespula Vidua – Damien Hirst

Controlled Substances Key Spot Print – Damien Hirst

Left to right: Norcamphor – Damien Hirst and S-Lactoylglutathione – Damien Hirst and N-Methyl L-Aspartic Acid – Damien Hirst.

Far left: Benzyloxyurea – Damien Hirst

Far right: Quene 1-AM – Damien Hirst

Ethisterone – Damien Hirst

Lepidine – Damien Hirst

Curare – Damien Hirst

Vespula Vidua – Damien Hirst

Phendimetrazine (Controlled substances) – Damien Hirst

Sign up to our mailing list for future events here.