By Drew Grant 5/23 6:43pm

Robert Wilson

Johnny Depp in Robert Wilson Video Portrait (TimesSquareAlliance.org)

Catch Three Minutes of ‘Robert Wilson Video Portraits’ in Times Square Every Night! (Video)

If you happen to be walking on Broadway right before the clock strikes midnight, do not be alarmed when several major video screens turn into digital canvases. It’s just the first of the Times Square Arts installation series, which runs from 11:57-12 a.m. from May 1 – 31. And what better artist to kick off the premiere exhibit than Watermill Center founder and premier artist, director, and curator Robert Wilson? Read More

By Foster Kamer 5/15 6:30pm

FASHION FIGHT

Kidult x Marc Jacobs Shirt

Marc Jacobs vs. The Graffiti Artist, Round 4: Revenge by $10 T-Shirt

Could this become any more wonderful and/or absurd? Apparently, yes.

Last week, French street artist Kidult took a fire extinguisher full of pink paint, and unleashed it on Marc Jacobs’ SoHo boutique last week, painting the word “ART” over the store. Marc Jacobs had some fun with it on social media, and then, commodtized the ostensible political message by turning a photo of his painted store—which is vandalism or art, depending on how you see it—into a $700 T-Shirt, with the caption “Art by Art Jacobs.” Kidult, the artist, was pissed, and made it known. Read More

By Erica Martin 4/05 6:33pm

Low Line

9 Photos

Ramsey and Barasch. [Ethan Ries]

Gallery Installation for the Low Line Is Creators’ Promise to Get Serious

On Sunday, April 1, the white walls of Mark Miller Gallery on Orchard Street were covered with renderings of the imagined possibilities of the Low Line, a much-talked-about plan for an underground park in an abandoned trolley turnaround station below Delancey Street that will be lit by solar technology, if its creators can make it happen. The exhibit, which opened that night, also included a three-dimensional model of a cross section below Delancey Street, and a rather intimidating example of that fiber-optic solar technology. Read More

By Sarah Khuwaja 2/22 12:40pm

For the Masses

Painter Mel Smothers talking about his work at Kava Cafe. (Indiewalls)

Indiewalls Wants to Decorate Your Apartment: One Coffee and Painting to Go, Please

Art may be deemed democratic in theory, but that doesn’t always hold as true in practice. Collectors ran up a $5.7 billion bill at Christie’s in 2011, a notable 14% higher than its 2010 sales. It appears that the affluent have turned to Picasso and Warhol now that Morgan and Goldman are no longer dutifully holding up their end of the bargain with returns from stocks or other investments.

Collecting art has always been earmarked for a select few, typically reserved for those who tend to their Arabian horses or oceanside estates on the weekends. But Indiewalls, a new startup venture, is looking to change the way people think about art. Read More

By Drew Grant 2/02 4:30pm

3rd Ward

3rdWard's Food Incubator

3rd Ward Adds a Culinary Incubator So Everyone Can Know if Their Chicken was Happy

Brooklyn’s 3rd Ward is a great place to take classes on art, sculpture, and hipsterdom. Where else can you drink PBR while drawing nudes, with the only cost being a basic membership fee of $129 a year (not including classes)?

But in addition to woodworking and jewelry-making, 3rd Ward is now offering a new opportunity for young 20-somethings with too much money and time on their hands: a “Culinary Incubator,” which will teach classes on asking a waiter with the proper amount of condescension: “But were all the ingredients grown locally?” Read More

By Drew Grant 11/23/11 12:43pm

Occupy Wall Street

Shepard Fairey's original image for OWS

Shepard Fairey, Jay-Z Reprimanded by Occupy Wall Street for Co-Opting Movement Message

Once upon a time, Shepard Fairey went to war with the Associated Press for creating his iconic 2008  “Hope” poster for Barack Obama off one of the wire’s copyrighted images. Though they settled the case, the 99% (as it existed back then, in the form of young, pro-Obama liberals who loved street art) were on his side.

Similarly for Jay-Z, a crossover hip-hop artist/entrepreneur that managed to never lose his street cred even while posing for in-flight magazine covers.

So it’s natural that both artists would think that the Occupy Wall Street movement would appreciate their support, even if–just by coincidence–they happened to be profiting from the protests that are all about the wealth disparity in this country. Wrong! Read More

By Drew Grant 11/02/11 12:44pm

Celebrities

James Franco. Art. (Photo via Patrick McMullan)

James Franco and Harmony Korine Team Up To Do Something Horrible to Selena Gomez, Emma Roberts, and Vanessa Hudgens

Look, we all love Harmony Korine here. Well, not all of us, but some of us think that Julien Donkey-Boy was pretty good, all things considering. Trash Humpers we didn’t like. And we certainly aren’t fans of Mr. Korine enabling James Franco‘s artitude by making a movie starring him getting pounded on by female bikers for the Venice Biennale where the actor carved Brad Renfro into his arm. What? What.

But even if we allow Mr. Korine and Mr. Franco some leeway into their ideas on what constitutes “art,” we would appreciate it if they didn’t try to work it out using all the Disney princesses. Read More