How Our Brain Interprets Visual Information - Optical Illusions

So this is not necessarily art related, but you have to watch this video! I find it incredible what our own brain can do when trying to interpret and fill in visual information, in order to make sense of it. It begs the question, do you really have to see it to believe it, especially when our brain can play such a trick on one's self?

instant art critic

Never know what to say at an art opening? Try this.

Judy continued...

Judy's studio:















Examples of her work from The Year of the Dog series and others:

Judy Pfaff

Our new exhibit will be opening on April 16 and we are delighted to have the honor to host the work of Judy Pfaff. This is a must-see show and a rare opportunity since Judy has not exhibited in a Chicago gallery since the 80's.

Much of what we will show will be brand-new (she's still creating it) and LARGE. So large, in fact, we sadly can't even fit many of the pieces in the gallery. After talks of ripping out door frames and smashing through cement walls (not kidding) were quieted, we decided to exhibit the smaller works here (and by small we're still talking 6ft) and take 2 large pieces to Art Chicago. Like I said... you don't want to miss this.

To get a little background on Judy, here is her bio and her segment on Art:21 -

Biograhpy......................
Judy Pfaff was born in London, England in 1946. She received a BFA from Washington University, Saint Louis (1971) and an MFA from Yale University (1973). Balancing intense planning with improvisational decision-making, Pfaff creates exuberant, sprawling sculptures and installations that weave landscape, architecture, and color into a tense yet organic whole. A pioneer of installation art in the 1970s, Pfaff synthesizes sculpture, painting, and architecture into dynamic environments in which space seems to expand and collapse, fluctuating between the two- and three-dimensional. Pfaff’s site-specific installations pierce through walls and careen through the air, achieving lightness and explosive energy. Pfaff’s work is a complex ordering of visual information composed of steel, fiberglass, and plaster as well as salvaged signage and natural elements such as tree roots. She has extended her interest in natural motifs in a series of prints integrating vegetation, maps, and medical illustrations, and has developed her dramatic sculptural materials into set designs for several theatrical stage productions. Pfaff has received many awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award (2004); a Bessie (1984); and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1983) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1986). She has had major exhibitions at the Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison (2002); Denver Art Museum (1994); St. Louis Art Museum (1989); and Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (1982). Pfaff represented the United States in the 1998 São Paolo Bienal. Pfaff lives and works in Kingston and Tivoli, New York.


Video link......................

Art Handling Olympics

Yep, pretty much what an install looks like =)

This weekend marked New York’s first Art Handling Olympics, a competition to determine the city’s best art handlers.

Here is an interview with the founder, Shane Caffrey.

Here is a recap.

UPDATE: Photos!


via Art Fag City

Art Chicago 2010

David Weinberg Gallery's 2010 Art Chicago booth #:

12-142

This will be our second year exhibiting at Art Chicago. Please stop by and:

(a) Bring a caffeinated beverage
(b) Tell us our booth is best in show (ego boost!)
(c) Buy 3 pieces
(d) All of the above (... and become our new very bestest friend in the whole wide universe)

a taste of NYC

I can never resist taking pictures on the airplane.


A glowing dose of spring in the Pierogi booth at The Armory. They had lots of great art in their booth, but I failed to take more pictures there (silly me).
(piece by Patrick Jacobs)


At VOLTA, there was a Parisian gallery with these intriguing websites listed all over their booth. The artist is Rafael Rozendall, and the gallerist walked us through some of these great and fun websites. Worth checking out... www.newrafael.com


We also saw these beautifully constructed taxidermy hybrid animals by Enrique Gomez De Molina in the Spinello Gallery booth that looked like they jumped out of The Field Museum cases. Definitely had to do a double take...


after a few long days of art browsing, a good cocktail can taste like magic.

Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday!

'Building a Better Teacher'

Here is an interesting article that I recently read in The New York Times Magazine discussing and investigating what characteristics make up a good teacher and how better teachers may solve many of the problems failing schools are facing today. While it doesn't present any conclusive answers, there are many interesting questions posed about what makes an effective teacher, and if nothing else, it is a thought provoking read. Of course, art or art teachers are not mentioned once in this article (sigh), and most of the research used is dependent on incessant standardized test taking (double sigh), but it's refreshing to see educators calling themselves out in a seemingly productive way. Get yourself a cup of coffee, because it's a long read, but well worth it.

'Building a Better Teacher,' NY Times Mag

Illustration by R. Kikuo Johnson, The New York Times Magazine (March 2, 2010)

NY Art Fairs

New York Art Fair weekend is here. Aaron and Cassi are strolling the streets as we speak looking for our next great lineup of artists at The Armory Show and many, MANY ancillary fairs. To show you just how ridiculous and overwhelming this weekend can be (and how impossible it is to see everything) 20x200 emailed out a downloadable PDF of " The Art Fairs and Other Useful Spots Map" by Jason Polan:























Granted these aren't all art fairs, but museums and galleries schedule some of their best exhibits around the fair in anticipation of the art crowd influx. So really, you feel guilty missing out on anything!

Good luck and have fun guys! Can't wait to see the proposals and a blog post with a recap (hint, hint) =)

Click the image to be directed to the 20x200 blog post and read about their Art Fair Survival Kits!

Fun poster

This has made its rounds on the blogs, but I still really like it. So clever.























Via Design Milk
For purchase here

Why you should buy art!

Print for purchase on 20x200

Thanks for coming!

Thanks to everyone that made it to the opening Friday night! The turnout was amazing and it was such a great crowd. It's wonderful to see SAIC continue to support its students after graduation and even more impressive to witness the long lasting network the alumni create with each other.


The exhibit is a fun one. People were really engaged and I had more than a few highly entertaining conversations spurred by the work. If you didn't make it on Friday, get over here before it comes down on April 10th!


Some DWG insider tips:
At the gallery we always hang a few pieces from the last exhibit in David's office (so be sure not to skip it when you visit!). If you really enjoy the current exhibit, remember to ask our staff (we're friendly, I promise) if there are any other pieces available for viewing. Sometimes we run out of wall space or we've asked the artist for works on paper or examples of another series and we keep this extra work in the flat file or the back.

Currently, we have Noelle Allen's Accipiters series on the wall but in back inventory we have another series entitled Osteoids. These are stunning photographs that you really, really must see in person. Can you guess what they are?















***Hint: A 1999 black comedy starring Rose McGowan, Rebacca Gayhart, and Julie Benz.


images: Noelle Allen, (left) Osteoid B, 30" x 30", 2004, (right) Osteoid C, 30" x 30", 2004, contact gallery for pricing

A Brief History of Art

Via suicideblonde

70 Million by Hold Your Horses

Such a fun video :)

"An entertaining and cheeky music video for “70 Million”, hit song by Franco-American band, Hold Your Horses!, offers a wink at art history as band members playfully reconstruct famous paintings in an off the wall lyrical interpretation all their own."

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

Via NotCot.org