exhibitions

From left to right: Dzine beholds his custom lowrider, "The Tipping Point," while Kenny Scharf discusses "5 For 99 Cents," the mixed media painting he created for the Stages exhibition, on view at Deitch Projects in New York through November 21. (Photos: UnBeige)

We've followed "Stages," the Nike-sponsored art exhibition to raise awareness and funds for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, from its Los Angeles launch to its Paris debut, and now the show has opened stateside in a dazzling installation at New York's Deitch Projects. The aim of Stages, named for a term that can describe the progression of cancer or a cycling competition, is nothing short of "uniting the worlds of art, philanthropy, and sport in a unique celebration of human potential" through the newly commissioned works of 23 artists, a diverse bunch that includes Ed Ruscha, Cai Guo-Qiang, Christopher Wool, KAWS, Jules de Balincourt, and Rosson Crow. Armstrong hatched the idea with Nike president and CEO (and fellow art collector) Mark Parker to "offer artists a forum in which to convey the Livestrong ideals and portray what the movement means to them and how they see it changing the world."

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(Photos: Laura Yeffeth)

As Richard Wilde, chairman of the BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department at New York's School of Visual Arts, celebrates his fortieth year at the College, SVA is recognizing him with a dazzling exhibition of iconic works by more than 100 alumni from throughout his tenure. Designed by Kevin O'Callaghan, "The Wilde Years: Four Decades of Shaping Visual Culture" features a This is Your Life-style slate of design stars—including Rodrigo Corral, Drew Hodges (SpotCo), James Victore, Julia Hoffman (MoMA), Archie Ferguson (HarperCollins), Molly Sheahan (BBDO), and Scott Wadler (MTV Networks)—and their greatest hits, from Pepsi ad campaigns and CD packaging for Eminem to theatrical posters and the irresistible book jacket for James Frey's A Million Little Pieces. The exhibition runs through Saturday, November 7, at the Visual Arts Gallery in New York City, and the sooner you get there, the more time you'll have to spend with the giant old-school TV:

Print may be dying, but paper endures, whether cut, burned, shredded, scribbled on, or sculpted into elaborate art installations. The Museum of Arts & Design tears into the topic with "Slash: Paper Under the Knife," the third exhibition in its Materials and Process series. On view through April 4 of next year, the exhibition explores the creative possibilities of paper through the works of paper-loving artists such as Olafur Eliasson, who in 2006 reproduced a cross-section of his house (at a scale of 85:1) on 900 sheets of laser-cut paper in a sort of anti-pop-up book, and Kara Walker, whose painstaking paper cut-outs explore themes of race, gender, and the shadier side of American history.

(Photos: Stefan Bagnoli)

Occupying one corner of the gallery is Pietro Ruffo's "Youth of the Hills" (2008), a six-foot-long tank that is studded with nails and covered in cut paper and Hebrew prayer script. More politically-charged paper sure to please the design crowd is the work of Sangeeta Sandrasegar, whose cut-outs insert war imagery into the distinctive shapes of iconic chairs designed by the likes of Marcel Breuer and Charles and Ray Eames. "The chair and image provoke constructs of looking/seeing: as bystander, spectator, onlooker, observer, and as such the range of power/powerlessness these positions convey," writes Sandrasegar on his blog. "Additionally, between the depicted image of war and the chair template lie other gulfs of of contrast: between first and third worlds, the safe worlds in which designer furniture exists, and the unsafe worlds in which bombs and raids exist, creation and destruction, wealth and poverty."

Previously on UnBeige:

Early last year, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles acquired an important collection of Irving Penn portraits taken in Paris, London, and New York in the early 1950s. Known as "The Small Trades," the series of photos captures tradespeople ranging from firefighters and deep sea divers to a Parisian busboy and a pair of ballroom dancing instructors whose steely determination suggests they would have little patience for Dancing with the Stars. Now the Getty has put the portraits—all 252 of them—to work in a sizable exhibition that runs through January 10 at the Getty Center. The show explores Penn's process, tracing his technique from the original silver prints made in 1950 and 1951 to the more tonally lush products of platinum/palladium printing, and highlights his way with composition as well as a distinct fascination with the crisply uniformed staff of Parisian restaurants. So where do milkmen and road sweepers meet models and trend-setting Vogue fashion spreads? Find out on Tuesday evening at the Getty Center, when Colin Westerbeck, director of the California Museum of Photography, will speak about Penn's studies of working-class people in the context of his full career.

Previously on UnBeige::

Put on your best desert caftan and get ready for a fall of fertile flowers, sun-bleached skulls, and rainbow whorls, because Georgia O'Keeffe is about to enjoy quite the cultural moment. In a high/low play of historic proportions, this month will see the opening of an exhibition of the late artist's work at the Whitney Museum of American Art and, just a couple of days later, the premiere of a Lifetime biopic that traces her artistic development and tumultuous personal life. The Whitney show, which opens September 17, will focus on O'Keeffe's oft-overlooked abstract work, showcasing approximately 130 of her paintings, drawings, watercolors, and sculptures as well as selected examples of Alfred Stieglitz's iconic photographic portrait series of O'Keeffe (the hands, oh, the hands!). Meanwhile, the Lifetime cable network continues its push to upgrade from the likes of Mother, May I Sleep with Danger? with Georgia O'Keeffe (tagline: "Her life was a work of art"), an original film starring Joan Allen and her otherworldly cheekbones in the title role. Tune in on September 19, to see how Jeremy Irons handles the role of Stieglitz.

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"In any other country, Milton Glaser would have been knighted by now," says Steven Heller (himself deserving of a life peerage). The School of Visual Arts is doing the next best thing—at least until Queen Elizabeth wises up—and mounting a retrospective of nearly 100 works created by Glaser for the College, where he has been on the faculty since 1960 and currently serves as acting chairman. Opening August 31, "Milton Glaser's SVA: A Legacy of Graphic Design" is curated by Heller and Mirko Ilić. The dynamic duo, along with archivist Beth Kleber, have scoured SVA's Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives to assemble works ranging from the original artwork for the iconic posters created for SVA's ongoing subway campaign to rare printed pieces such as the 1963 announcement for the course Glaser taught at SVA with the late Henry Wolf. And look sharp for the new poster Glaser has produced for this exhibition that was inspired by his recent foray into designing textiles for the soon-to-be completed SVA Theatre. "I believe the work I've done for the School is more adventuresome than anything else I've done, primarily because of the audience," Glaser has said. The retrospective will be on view at the Visual Arts Gallery through September 26.

While everyone seemed positively aglow over the finally-together Burnham pavilions here in Chicago just last Friday, it appears that things aren't going as hot as they should have. Zaha Hadid's pavilion was rolled out six weeks late early last week, but now its partner, Ben van Berkel and UNStudio's pavilion, is being removed for a few days while it gets patched up after weeks of people crawling all over it. What's worse, less than a week old and already Hadid's pavilion looks as though it's been trampled on too, with many visitors stepping all over its cloth exterior. So who is to blame? According to this piece by Blair Kamin, it's sort of a mix of everyone. Van Berkel and Hadid should have known to build sturdier structures, the city should have shared more concerns with their hired strarchitects, and the American people in general, for being louts (we should note that these aren't Kamin's words -- and we decided to use "louts" as shorthand for what's written in the piece because it's fun to be mean and use the word "louts"). In the end, it seems like the whole thing is a good learning experience for 2109, for Burnham's 200th anniversary celebration.

After nearly a two month delay, Zaha Hadid's Burnham pavilion is finally set to be unveiled today here in Chicago. First there was the pause at the beginning, which held back Ben van Berkel's temporary structure for a few days until the city's organizers decided that they had to roll at least one out. Then there was another delay at the start of July when Hadid had to find another contractor to finish the job, making it miss the big July 4th Burnham celebrations. But finally we're here and we're on pins and needles just waiting to see it. The Tribune's Blair Kamin recommends you go check it out at dawn or dusk because, and here he states the obvious-because-it's-Hadid-we're-talking-about: "...[it] will seem, more than ever, like an object that has landed from outer space." Also, we're excited about a piece of the pavilion we must have missed in early reports: artist Thomas Gray's video projects inside the structure. Here's a description from Kamin:

As captivating as this inside/outside room promises to be, it really will be animated by Gray's video installation. It will make your flat screen TV looking boring. The installation consists of two projectors in the pavilion's back wall and another projector that is hidden in the space between the outer and inner layers of fabric. It's 11 feet high by 24 feet wide. It should engage park visitors and get them excited about the Burnham Plan without being didactic.

Were we to give an award for the world's most UnBeige museum, The Wolfsonian would be the easy winner. The wonderfully eclectic Miami institution, a division of Florida International University, didn't have to look far for the inspiration behind its new summer exhibitions, both of which center around the beach (just a few blocks away). Curated by The Wolfsonian's Marianne Lamonaca, "Beauty on the Beach: A Centennial Celebration of Swimwear" is a swimwear design retrospective, while "Sun Stroke Stimulus" examines "contemporary bathing culture" through the photographs of Miles Ladin. Both shows are on view through October 11.

(Photos: Miles Ladin)

While the topless number designed in 1964 by Rudi Gernreich is currently raising eyebrows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the full measure of swimsuit history is at The Wolfsonian, where "Beauty on the Beach" explores swimwear design and marketing, and how they shape and reflect popular ideas about fitness, beauty, and glamour. A look at the swimwear industry's use of new materials (Lastex, anyone?) comes just in time for the current debate about performance-enhancing suits.

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A nifty feature over at Art Info who just this week headed to a very, very early press preview for the MoMA's upcoming Tim Burton retrospective. Although the exhibit won't kick off until around Thanksgiving weekend (thus solidifying a massive opening weekend for the museum), the MoMA seems rightly eager to get the word out early. The collection will feature hundreds of pieces, from artwork the director has created to rarely-seen short films to storyboards and various other pieces attached to his larger, well-known movies. Burton was there at the museum for the press tour and explained a bit of the process in assembling the sure-to-be-popular exhibition:

...he had not looked at most of the pieces for years and described the experience as a "reenergizing process" and a way of reconnecting with himself. Apparently, he essentially gave [Assistant Film Curator Ron Magliozzi] free rein over his archives, allowing MoMA to pull what it wished for the show.