“I chose the hammerhead because they’re on the red list and in danger of extinction,” said the artist Marc Hubert D’Ge— who looked like remarkably like a young Gregg Allman — in a charming Aix-en-Provence accent of his installation piece, Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves. He stood beneath a 10-foot, taxidermied shark mounted on an exhibition wall with a video running … [Read more...]
Art fairs bring aesthetics, learning to Palm Beach
Art fair season is upon us. And, for art lovers in Palm Beach, it’s the most wonderful time of the year because, beginning this week, the Palm Beach County Convention Center will be the home of two fairs that showcase galleries and works of fine art from around the world. They’ll also provide an unparalleled opportunity to attend lectures by leading artists, experts and … [Read more...]
Less isn’t more as Norton asks ‘Now WHAT?’
Two strangers in a museum find themselves sharing the same opinion about that thing facing them. They call it “thing” because they don't know what it is. And the brave one's loud comment (“What the heck is this?”) is the shy one's relief. Such a flow of communication might be common at the Now WHAT? show, which opened recently at the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach in an … [Read more...]
Storrs’ work embraces the chill of the modern
To ask an audience to explore unseen works by a popular or a controversial artist is piece of cake. Asking them to come see rare works by a less shocking artist, unknown by most, takes guts. But that’s precisely what the Norton Museum is doing with John Storrs: Machine-Age Modernist, a show consisting mainly of metal and stone sculptures by the Chicago native who happened to … [Read more...]
Art world converges on Miami Beach for Art Basel ‘party’
Beginning Thursday, the contemporary art world will be in Miami Beach and its environs for the second largest art fair in the world: Art Basel Miami Beach. This includes artists, art critics, private dealers, advisers, galleries, curators, collectors, celebrities – and yes, mere lovers of art. The known, the not-so-known, the conservative and the bizarre — all will preen, … [Read more...]
For Adami, everything is allegory
They may look like comic book art, but there is a perturbing sadness to the world that Valerio Adami creates in his large-scale paintings, 23 of which are currently on view until Jan. 9 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art in a retrospective exhibit that spans four decades of the Italian artist’s work. The exhibit is merely a glimpse into Adami’s vast oeuvre, which has been shaped … [Read more...]
ArtsPreview 2010-11: The season in Miami-Broward art
Each fall, it is the labor of arts writers everywhere to forge connections between the many exhibits about to snap open and clamor for the eye’s attention. There is much excitement after many hot and slow months of student art shows and sweetly presented orchid photos at community centers. September marks the beginning of the real pageant, or so we write, the onslaught of … [Read more...]
ArtsPreview 2010-11: The season in Palm Beach art
This coming art season is to art lovers what the 24-hour gym is to procrastinators: the end of the Excuse. If you typically shy away from museums out of fear of being bored to death, don’t. There’s plenty to choose from, which means something is bound to delight you. Museums are keeping the promise to have the usual rotation of shows. Although having diversity in their … [Read more...]
Morikami’s Kyoto show impresses through its quietness
With its simple harmony and elegant lines, much classic Asian art has been easy to digest but not to remember. This is its -- or rather, our -- struggle. And so it is with the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens’ current exhibit, Kyoto: A Place in Art. As soon as we leave the exhibit, we’re in fear of forgetting what we’ve seen. It doesn’t help that Kyoto: A Place in Art is … [Read more...]
Quiet abstract sculpture at Norton speaks volumes about forms
Entering Beyond the Figure at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, one enters a darkened gallery in which strange forms emerge from the shadows. Although artifacts from our own culture, these forms also point toward a parallel universe — a realm where we understand and know objects with all our senses and our imaginations. The roughly 20 sculptural works on view do not … [Read more...]