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Tag: Artists

  • Celebrity Photographer Vijat Mohindra On Shooting Plastic Girls in Plastic Worlds

    Celebrity Photographer Vijat Mohindra On Shooting Plastic Girls in Plastic Worlds

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    Tinashe for Gay Times Magazine. Copyright © Vijat M Photography, 2024. All Rights Reserved.

    Hollywood’s favorite photographer, Vijat Mohindra, is living the dream. He’s shot Kim Kardashian multiple times since 2009, to market Skims and her scent and just because. You’ve probably seen his photos of Doja Cat, Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton, Cardi B… the list of his subjects is long and populated by luminaries from across the spectrum of celebrity. He’s shot Pamela Anderson for Paper. Nicki Minaj for Complex.

    How can you spot a photo taken by Mohindra? There’s the signature colorful, Pop-ish aesthetic possibly best described as Barbie-esque. But despite the candy pink and blue and yellow plastic fantastic backdrops, Vijat’s subjects are always vibrant, dynamic and very much portraying themselves. Perhaps that’s not surprising, as he learned the ropes from famed celebrity photographer David LaChapelle. In the years since, he’s shot music videos, magazine spreads, album covers and more for some of the world’s top talent.

    Machine Gun Kelly for Billboard. Copyright © Vijat M Photography, 2024. All Rights Reserved.

    Mohindra is still shooting, but he’s been branching out. Earlier this year, he opened his first studio space in downtown Los Angeles, Powder Room Studio LA, which has a dozen uniquely Mohindra-esque sets in which to shoot everything from stills to reels. The 4500-square-foot space looks like Barbie’s 1990s-era dream house, and Paris Hilton and Christina Aguilera were early fans.

    We chatted with Mohindra on a busy weekday morning about the new studio, why he loves polished portraits and his advice for young photographers.

    Observer: What’s the story behind the Powder Room?

    Vijat Mohindra: I’ve been a photographer—a celebrity photographer—in Los Angeles for the last 15 years, and in those years, I designed and created a lot of different environments for my shoots. Over time, I started collecting all these amazing set pieces that were left over from my shoots. They were just too gorgeous to throw away. I had them in storage at one point and I looked through it all, and I said, oh my gosh, all this stuff looks so great together. Maybe I can put it together in a format that could bring it all to life. And then I realized that could also be a place where creatives, photographers, directors, filmmakers, etc., could come and see all these amazing pieces.

    The Living Room in Vijat Mohindra’s Powder Room Studio LA. Courtesy Vijat Mohindra

    It looks like a Barbie house to me. Why?

    It has that Barbie aesthetic because a lot of my work is very synthetic—very plastic, with a kind of glossy sheen to it. And then it all just sort of happened to have these different elements that coincided with the Barbie aesthetic but with a very ‘80s take on it. Pink is the color I use a lot. In a way, it made sense to create this surrealistic Barbie dream house experience.

    Selfie museums are still on the rise—can just anyone come in and take some snaps with the sets?

    Honestly, the space is for everybody. I have a lot of people from Instagram and TikTok coming in who just book the space for a few hours to create their own videos.

    How common is this type of space in L.A.?

    I’ve heard from some other people who have studios with a similar type of setup, with standing sets. They started back maybe around like 2018 or 2019, when there were maybe a thousand or so listings online of places like this throughout the Los Angeles area that could be rented for shoots. Now in 2024, it is up to around 8,000 spaces like this. It’s something that exploded in a way. Not all the spaces listed are aesthetic and design-focused the way mine is. I feel like the Powder Room is a very special category.

    Let’s talk about your work. How do you feel about Photoshop?

    I’m a big fan of Photoshop. I went to school for photography at the Art Center in Pasadena around 2003—right when film was switching over to digital—and I graduated around 2007. That was when this big debate was going on as to whether film was the future or digital. But when I took a digital photography class toward the beginning of my education, I realized that it was the way of the future.

    It was amazing to be able to get all these different pictures and put them on the computer right away. You didn’t have to scan or retouch negatives. Photoshop opened a whole other dimension of creativity that wasn’t there for me with film. So, I’m a huge fan. I think it is beautiful, and it enhances pictures in an amazing way. That said, I still have respect for and really love certain film photography. I think there’s value in it, and I do see a lot of people going back to that nowadays as a trend because so much digital photography is over-saturated.

    Paris Hilton for Gay Times Magazine. Copyright © Vijat M Photography, 2024. All Rights Reserved.

    How do you feel about representing celebrities in a flawless way?

    In a flawless way?

    Glossy. That very L.A. aesthetic.

    I really love a polished celebrity photograph that is very well-lit and has that glossy, punchy aesthetic to it. I’ve always been inspired by that type of celebrity photography going back to the ‘70s and ‘80s with Andy Warhol and the Interview Magazine covers. I think that it brings that glamor and special sort of sparkle that we kind of associate with celebrities. I like photographing them that way because I think that’s the way I see them in my head. And so that’s the way I want to put them on paper—to show people how I see them. I feel like it’s very powerful and it’s kind of show-stopping.

    What’s it like behind the scenes once you actually get to know these celebrities?

    For most of my celebrity photographs, there have been a lot of collaborative experiences where I will work with the artist to figure out what their aesthetic is or what drives them. And we build a concept around that and bring it to life from there. I really like finding out more about a celebrity’s personality and their background and what they’re interested in and then pulling that into what we create together.

    Shannon and Shannade Clermont. Copyright © Vijat M Photography, 2024. All Rights Reserved.

    Who are some of your favorite celebrity photographers and why?

    My absolute favorite is David LaChapelle; he’s just one of my icons. I have been very lucky to have been able to assist him at one point during my career, which was a huge highlight. I just love his take on celebrity photography. It’s so different from anything that I’ve seen and is so imaginative and creative. I really look up to the creativity that he brings to the celebrity photography world. He takes celebrities out of their worlds and puts them in this hyper-creative, colorful, aesthetically driven space that I just find so beautiful. I also love the work of Annie Leibovitz, as well as Pierre and Gilles, a French photography duo who shoot creative portraiture that’s aesthetically driven. I love Miles Aldridge, who’s more of a fashion photographer but shoots celebrities in ways that are highly creative and very colorful.

    Miley Cyrus. Copyright © Vijat M Photography, 2024. All Rights Reserved.

    What is next for you now that the space is open?

    I’ve been working a lot on Powder Room Studio LA—trying to get it up and running. It only launched this past January, but I’m happy to say that we are pretty booked up at this point. We’ve been getting quite a few bookings from brands as well as individuals, and we’ve gotten some great celebrities into the studio, too, like Paris Hilton and Cardi B. The space has been getting some great recognition, and that’s still my focus.

    Last question. What advice do you have for young photographers entering the industry?

    I’d give them the same advice I was given when I was in photography school, which I still think about to this day. One of my professors told me that you should always shoot what you love, and that really left a lasting impression on me. I feel like if you’re not shooting what you love, you don’t really put the same passion behind it. Passion is what really shows in your overall body of work—it’s the thing that people connect with the most.

    Check out Vijat on Instagram at @vijatm.   

    The unassuming exterior of Powder Room Studio LA. Courtesy Vijat Mohindra

    Celebrity Photographer Vijat Mohindra On Shooting Plastic Girls in Plastic Worlds

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    Nadja Sayej

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  • Yayoi Kusama’s Largest Public Sculpture to Date Is Unveiled in London

    Yayoi Kusama’s Largest Public Sculpture to Date Is Unveiled in London

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    Yayoi Kusama’s Infinite Accumulation at Liverpool Street Station. © YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro. Photo: Thierry Bal.

    The acclaimed Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has just unveiled a monumental sculpture, Infinite Accumulation, at the entrance of Liverpool Street Station in London. The work is the artist’s first permanent public sculpture in the U.K. and—quelle bonne surprise—it’s not one of Kusama’s famous dotted pumpkins.

    The public sculpture now installed at the busy railway station was inspired by her main artistic obsession (and a signature element of her work), the polka dot. In the ten-meter-high and twelve-meter-wide site-specific sculpture, Kusama’s dots are gleaming silver spheres, linked together into an enveloping constellation gravitating in space. Their polished surfaces enhance the mesmerizing effect of the work, reflecting the surroundings, allowing the viewers to become part of the art installation while also being an extremely Instagram-friendly attraction.

    “London is a massive metropolis with people of all cultures moving constantly,” the artists said in a press release. “The spheres symbolize unique personalities, while the supporting curvilinear lines allow us to imagine an underpinning social structure.”

    Reportedly, Kusama conceived the sculpture intuitively, hand-twisting the wires on the original model to design the movement of the dynamic serpentine arches. Notably, the sculpture also establishes an exciting conversation with the railway’s existing architecture.

    SEE ALSO: ‘Simone Leigh’ at CAAM and LACMA Is Comprehensive But Cold

    “Commuters and visitors are in for a real treat when they arrive at Liverpool Street and are welcomed by Kusama’s Infinite Accumulation,” Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries, said in a statement. “Kusama is one of the world’s leading artists and so it is fitting that this is the final work in a brilliant series of contemporary art commissions for the Elizabeth line. The arts are a vital part of London’s success, helping transform our spaces and connect our communities as we build a better London for all.”

    The sculpture was commissioned by The Crossrail Art Foundation’s public art program for the Elizabeth line, with the support of Victoria Miro, and made possible through funding from both the British Land and the City of London Corporation.

    This work by Kusama adds to the already remarkable list of contemporary public artworks located in or over several London stations, including Douglas Gordon’s undergroundoverheard at Tottenham Court Road station, Chantal Joffe’s A Sunday Afternoon in Whitechapel at Whitechapel Station and Conrad Shawcross’s Manifold (Major Third) 5:4, which was unveiled at the western entrance of Moorgate station in 2023. An additional six new artworks are set to be installed in the London Tube network this year as part of the Art On the Underground program.

    This latest installation by Kusama is not the only work by the artist now on view in London; a second public installation is in Kensington Gardens throughout the summer. Presented by Serpentine Galleries and the Royal Parks in Kensington Gardens, Kusama’s Pumpkin (2024) is the artist’s tallest bronze pumpkin sculpture to date at six meters tall and five-and-a-half meters wide. Installed prominently by the Round Pond, the bronze sculpture creates a captivating conversation with the nature surrounding it as people can engage with it from a variety of viewpoints.

    Image of a yellow pumpkin with black dots in a garden Image of a yellow pumpkin with black dots in a garden
    Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin (2024) is on view by the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens through November 3. Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner. Photo: George Darrell

    Yayoi Kusama’s signature pumpkins can be found around the world. One of her monumental pumpkins, also yellow with black spots, is permanently installed on the art island of Naoshima, Japan, Another of her large-scale pumpkins, this one red with black dots, is permanently displayed in Matsumoto, her hometown. Other permanent outdoor installations by the artist include the mirrored balls of Kusama’s Narcissus Garden at The Glass House in Connecticut and her oversized, colorful flower sculptures, Flowers That Bloom at Midnight, which remained at the New York Botanical Garden after her memorable show in 2021. She became one of the top-selling artists in 2023, generating a total of $80.9 million at auction that year.

    Yayoi Kusama’s Largest Public Sculpture to Date Is Unveiled in London

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    Elisa Carollo

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  • New York artist blends cultural, queer identities

    New York artist blends cultural, queer identities

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    NEW YORK — All forms of artistry are common means of expression in the queer community.

    Marcos Chin, an illustrator in Brooklyn, creates striking pieces of art that blend his sexual and cultural identities. He says, “I became interested in being an artist at a very young age. Illustration, for me, is the art and business of communication. It allows me to draw and express myself in a way that feels really natural.”

    Chin says his projects are very personal. “My work is informed by my experience. I’m Chinese. I came out when I was in my mid-20s. I was in deep denial, self-loathing, internalized homophobia. I wanted to incorporate coming out and the experiences of being a young gay person in my illustration work.”

    Chin has also made art for high-profile companies like Target, Starbucks, Banana Republic and The New York Times. He says, “When I see my work in public, I’m as excited as when I was when I got one of my first projects as a young illustrator.”

    The crossover between his work and identity makes Marcos feel free to express himself and proud of his queerness.

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    CCG

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  • New York artist blends cultural, queer identities

    New York artist blends cultural, queer identities

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK — All forms of artistry are common means of expression in the queer community.

    Marcos Chin, an illustrator in Brooklyn, creates striking pieces of art that blend his sexual and cultural identities. He says, “I became interested in being an artist at a very young age. Illustration, for me, is the art and business of communication. It allows me to draw and express myself in a way that feels really natural.”

    Chin says his projects are very personal. “My work is informed by my experience. I’m Chinese. I came out when I was in my mid-20s. I was in deep denial, self-loathing, internalized homophobia. I wanted to incorporate coming out and the experiences of being a young gay person in my illustration work.”

    Chin has also made art for high-profile companies like Target, Starbucks, Banana Republic and The New York Times. He says, “When I see my work in public, I’m as excited as when I was when I got one of my first projects as a young illustrator.”

    The crossover between his work and identity makes Marcos feel free to express himself and proud of his queerness.

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    CCG

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  • Contemporary Art Conservation Raises Thorny Issues Around Responsibility

    Contemporary Art Conservation Raises Thorny Issues Around Responsibility

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    A restorer works in the restoration studio of the Doerner Institut. Photo by Matthias Balk/picture alliance via Getty Images

    Art is long, and life is short, according to an old Roman saying, but sometimes art doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain: the canvas warps, the metal bends, and the paper turns brown. New artworks may look like old works too soon, leaving their buyers feeling as though they’ve been had. In fiction, we have the works of Vonnegut’s Rabo Karabekian, whose paintings made with Sateen Dura-Lux (which promised to “outlive the smile on the Mona Lisa”) self-destruct. In real life, similar tales abound. One collector brought back to New York City gallery owner Martina Hamilton a painting she had purchased there by the Norwegian artist Odd Nerdrum that looked as though the “painting was falling off the canvas,” the gallerist told Observer.

    Art doesn’t come with warranties, and state consumer protection statutes only cover utilitarian objects. Art is sold “as is” by galleries and artists. (Can you imagine Consumer Reports reviewing art?) Still, dealers hope to maintain the goodwill of their customers, and artists don’t want to develop a reputation for shoddy work. It is not fully clear, however, what responsibility artists bear their when it comes to conservation, especially after a piece has been sold one or more times. It is particularly the case for artists who purposefully use ephemeral materials in their art (bee pollen, banana peels, lard, elephant dung, leaves, mud, moss and newspaper clippings, to name just a few examples).

    Nerdrum, who is known for formulating his own paints (and constructing his own frames), was contacted by Hamilton about the deteriorating painting, and he directed the dealer to offer the buyer her choice of other works by him at the gallery in the same price range. The collector, however, didn’t want any other Nerdrum painting in the gallery, so the artist rehired the same model he had used originally and painted the entire image anew. The entire incident took a year to resolve.

    Nerdrum isn’t the only artist who will try to make amends for work he or she created that doesn’t hold up. Manhattan painter David Novros was asked in 2006 what to do about a 1965 acrylic lacquer painting in the Menil Collection in Houston that had extensive “cracks, canyons and fissures” all over the surface, and he decided “to remake the work with the same materials as before.” The work, 6:30, is now dated ‘1965/2006.’ It’s not the first time this kind of thing has happened to Novros. In 1990, the Museum of Modern Art came to him about a 1966 painting in its collection whose canvas had discolored and was affecting the handmade plywood stretcher, and his solution was to scrape off the old paint and put on new. The museum dates the work, titled VI.XXXII, as ‘1966 (repainted in 1990).’

    If alive and physically able, should artists be counted on to repair damage—caused by their own workmanship, shoddy materials or a collector’s mishandling—or are art’s creation and conservation so disparate that no one should attempt both? Experimentation with materials is both an element of artistic freedom and a headache for future conservators. When Pablo Picasso glued a piece of newsprint onto a canvas, producing what was first called “synthetic cubism” and then just “collage,” a monumental event in modern art history took place. On the other hand, Margaret Ellis, professor of conservation at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and director of conservation at the Thaw Conservation Center at the Morgan Library, told Observer that if “Picasso had called up a conservator and said, ‘What do you think of sticking some cut-out newsprint on?’ the conservator would have died.”

    There are several reasons why contemporary art may not hold up, even in the short run. Experimenting with materials is one; another is the fact that the training of artists nowadays rarely includes educating them about the properties of the materials they use. Then, there is a lack of funds. At early points in their careers, the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siquieros and French cubist Fernand Leger both painted on burlap sacks, while Marc Chagall made designs on bed sheets and Franz Kline worked on cardboard. Beyond that is sometimes simply a lackadaisical approach to how things are made.

    A more recent instance of redoing the past occurred in 2006 when Damien Hirst’s 1991 shark-in-a-tank work The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, which had been deteriorating badly because the artist originally hadn’t used a sufficient amount of formaldehyde, was replaced. Owned by hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen (he bought it in 2004 for $12 million) and currently on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the work “was restored following the advice of conservators. There is only the one work under that title,” according to a spokesperson for London’s White Cube, which represented the artist. In fact, Hirst cleaned out the tank, sawed in half another shark and made sure that this one was more properly pickled. This brings up an important point: maintaining the monetary and historical value of a work of art may requires a range of counter-measures, some of which are intentionally kept vague.

    British artist Damien Hirst poses duringBritish artist Damien Hirst poses during
    Damien Hirst with one of his formaldehyde sharks at White Cube in London in 2007. CHRIS YOUNG/AFP via Getty Images

    Who’s in charge—the collector, the conservator or the artist?

    When repairing ancient objects, Old Masters works or almost anything produced by a creator long dead, the watchword for conservators is generally don’t do anything that can’t be undone by another conservator in the future. For instance, inpainting—filling in areas on a canvas where the original oil paint has chipped off—is often done with a water-based medium that can be easily removed. With contemporary artworks, especially those by living artists, conservators may work in the same way, but they may try contacting the artist to learn what materials they used and if they want to be part of the restoration.

    Tom Learner, a conservator at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, leans toward contacting the original artist. “I believe in using the artist as a conservator, and paying the artist as an expert,” he told Observer. “The artist has a better grasp on what should be done.” He added that collectors need to know that if they “are buying works that have untested materials, these kinds of problems are part of the deal.” Maybe. Understanding the artist’s intentions and processes, as well as eliciting the artist’s opinion about a conservator’s plans for repairing the artist’s work, is all well and good, but conservators may not choose to replicate a problem that caused the work to deteriorate in the first place.

    Artworks with what conservators call “inherent vices”—defects that eventually make them fall apart—may just be too far gone for restoration. Greg Kucera, a gallery owner in Seattle, Washington, exhibited a sculptural work by Jeffry Mitchell in the 1980s: “a brilliant body of sculptural work made of thin latex, formed in muffin tins, bundt cake pans, gelatin molds and other kitchen and cookery forms.” According to Kucera, “they were incredibly smart looking, but also delicate. In the exhibition, he hung them on the wall with thumbtacks.  By the end of the show, most of them had torn at their corners and the latex had started to disintegrate. He just didn’t know then the risks of working with latex and how to protect against its failings.” The gallery had sold every work in the show and had to renegotiate each of those sales to substitute non-latex works. “It was a painful process but we believed in the artist so we did what we had to do to rescue these sales.” Luckily, the buyers were forgiving.

    But “conservators are not obligated to contact a living artist or that person’s estate,” Mary Gridley, a conservator and founder of Art Conservation Solutions in Long Island City, New York, told Observer. Since her clients are usually private and institutional collectors, she lets them make the call. However, she recommends that the artists be contacted, as it “is nearly always in the collector’s best interest to understand how an artist intends their work to look, how they feel about aging and changes in their work over time and their tolerance and approach to conservation and restoration.” An artist unhappy with the conservation of their work may create problems for a collector, as art collector Scott Mueller, the owner of Cady Noland’s 1990 Log Cabin Blank With Screw Eyes and Cafe Door, discovered when she disavowed the piece after it was “restored” with new wood without her permission or any notice of the change. That disavowal made Log Cabin largely unsellable. Conservation not only preserves a work of art but also its current and future value. Sique Spence, director of New York’s Nancy Hoffman Gallery, also recommended that living artists at least should “be consulted in how to proceed. I feel like studio repairs impact the value less than outside restoration.”

    SEE ALSO: Art Collector Spotlight – Craig Robins On Collecting Baldessari

    The law itself doesn’t give collectors clear direction. “One does not need to get an artist’s permission to restore or conserve their work,” Joshua J. Kaufman, a lawyer in Washington, D.C. who frequently is involved in art issues, told Observer. A poor job of restoration, or just one of which the artist disapproves, can back up the claim that the artwork’s owner has so damaged the piece that the creator’s esteem is adversely affected. “The collector runs the risk of damaging reputation,” since the 1990 federal statute, the Visual Artists Rights Act, “specifically gives that reputation right to the artist.”

    Kaufman said that “it would be prudent” for dealers to tell prospective buyers of artworks that may have inherent vices, although Spence didn’t think “a discussion of future problems would be such a good selling point.” Lemon laws don’t exist in the art trade, so dealers make their own decisions.

    Some artists are eager to be part of any restoration, others less so. Marc Mellon, a Redding, Connecticut-based sculptor of small and large-scale bronze works, told Observer that he is “periodically contacted by both homeowners and institutional clients with questions about care and restoration of my bronze sculptures,” and he is happy to offer some advice. However, he’d “much rather recommend a foundry or individual specializing in the restoration of bronze works, particularly if the sculpture would benefit from a more thorough cleaning and re-patination.”

    An artist’s sense of obligation to his or her work may sometimes be time-limited, contractually at times—public art commissions usually contain a clause in the agreement stipulating the artist’s responsibility for “patent or latent defects in workmanship” for between one and three years—or based on evolutionary changes in the artist’s life and work. Artist Frank Stella once said that he may be willing to help repair one of his works if “it’s not more than two or three years old.” He uses different materials for specific works, and “after two or three years, I don’t have any of the materials left over. I don’t have the expertise to deal with it; if I were to attempt a repair, I’d make a mess of it.”

    Back in the 1990s, Stella refused to take part in the restoration of a quarter-century-old sculptural painting that had been brought in for repairs to Brooklyn conservator Len Potoff, who contacted the artist as a matter of practice. “He said that he couldn’t do it,” the conservator told Observer. “He’s not where he was twenty-five years ago, and he couldn’t put himself in that zone. At the time, I was really pissed, but now I find that point of view commendable.”

    Contemporary Art Conservation Raises Thorny Issues Around Responsibility

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    Daniel Grant

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  • Martha Atienza’s ‘Our Islands’ Brings the Seas of Philippines to Times Square

    Martha Atienza’s ‘Our Islands’ Brings the Seas of Philippines to Times Square

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    Martha Atienza, Our Islands 11°16’58.4” N 123°45’07.0” E, 2017, on view as a “Midnight Moment” in New York’s Times Square. Michael Hull

    From the 16th through the 19th Century, the trade route between Manila and Acapulco connected the pan-Pacific regions,  facilitating an early global maritime trade similar to the Silk Road, linking East Asia and the Americas from east to west and vice versa. Galleons filled with Chinese ceramics, spices and silk sailed from Manila in the Phillippines to Acapulco, passing through China and Japan and then connecting with other ports of New Spain in the Americas, creating meaningful cultural exchange.

    On view through the end of July in Times Square, a video work by Dutch-Filipino artist Martha Atienza invites us to explore this story while raising questions and concerns about pressing issues surrounding local communities and the environment. Our Islands 11°16’58.4” N 123°45’07.0” E reimagines an annual traditional parade from her native Philippines by staging it on the floor of the Visayan Sea. Divers from Bantayan Island perform the parade underwater, moving within coordinates they chose based on nature, considering the tides, current and time of day. The choice of costumes, characters and objects is a humorous commentary on contemporary society in the Philippines yet also addresses the progressive erosion of cultural memories and identities due to a pervasive global culture.

    SEE ALSO: Pierre Huyghe’s Show in Venice Presages Inhuman Perspectives

    With the sea as background, the work also links to the threat of climate collapse to which Southeast Asia is increasingly exposed. Exploring this intricate interplay between local traditions, human subjectivity and the natural world, with this work, Atienza highlights the dynamics through which specific explorative human behaviors about nature have been established while eroding this relationship with ancestral knowledge and spirituality, which encouraged instead a more respectful symbiotic relation with natural cycles.

    “I want to take this opportunity to amplify urgent environmental and social challenges faced on our island home of Bantayan and the Philippines,”  said in a statement. “This brief, powerful moment brings attention to issues around the complexities of climate change while underscoring the intersection between environmental and cultural loss and resiliency.”

    The video is screening nightly through the rest of the month as part of Times Square Art’s “Midnight Moment,” the world’s largest and longest-running digital art program, from 11:57 p.m. to midnight on all ninety electronic billboards in the square.

    Electronic billboards in Times Square showing underwater divers.Electronic billboards in Times Square showing underwater divers.
    The video is part of the artist’s ongoing project of creating a moving diorama under the sea, a collaboration with the local community in an effort to empower and amplify seldom-heard voices. Michael Hull

    Born to a Dutch mother and Filipino father, Atienza has navigated between these cultures and identities throughout her life, allowing her to adopt multicultural viewpoints and a transnational open approach to her observation and documentation of global events.

    In addition to her art practice, Atienza is the president and co-founder of GOODLand, a platform under Art Lab that develops and applies a creative and collaborative methodology to tackle social, economic and environmental issues on Bantayan Island in the Visayas. The mission is to facilitate the realization of a self-sufficient and resilient community that can preserve nature and its cultural memories.

    The work the artist creates is both an extension and integration of her community-centered practice to empower and create awareness of the values already embedded in their roots and connection to the land.

    “Our Islands is a continued collaboration with compressor divers, their families, and the community,” Atienza told Observer. “As we documented and created a ‘living’ archive over the years, the work visually tackles issues of climate change (as the sea levels rise and super typhoons become a common occurrence), human destruction of the environment, social dislocation within the community as more people choose to earn a living overseas, and our loss of culture. We are also exploring ways to use new technology to find solutions together. We are creating a model for change and resilience for our neighboring islands and beyond our borders.”

    Originally conceived as a  72-minute film, Our Islands 11°16’58.4” N 123°45’07.0” E was awarded the esteemed Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel in 2017 and acquired by the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi in 2022. The work has been widely screened across Asia, Australia and Europe, and this presentation in one of the most iconic places in the world marks an important moment for societal and ecological reflection and for the empowerment of the Filipino community, bringing those complicated legacies and issues to a global stage.

    Martha Atienza’s ‘Our Islands’ Brings the Seas of Philippines to Times Square

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    Elisa Carollo

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  • At Bonhams, 75 Works by Overlooked Artist Bertina Lopes Make Their Auction Debut

    At Bonhams, 75 Works by Overlooked Artist Bertina Lopes Make Their Auction Debut

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    The late Bertina Lopes’ studio in Rome. Courtesy Bonhams

    Bertina Lopes, the late Mozambican-Italian artist known for both her large-scale abstract works and her political advocacy, was a pioneer in the merging of European and African art movements. Now seventy-five of Lopes’ paintings, drawings and sculptures will head to auction for the first time at Bonhams.

    The works are expected to fetch between £300,000 ($382,000) and £500,000 ($636,000) total in an online sale running from June 4 to June 19. Sold on behalf of her estate, the artworks have remained untouched since her death in 2012 and come directly from Lopes’ Rome studio, which doubled as her apartment.

    In keeping with Lopes’ oeuvre, many of the lots reflect the evolving political situation in the artist’s home country of Mozambique, which endured a war for independence and civil war during her lifetime. “Her work for a very long time has always been quite politically engaging,” Helene Love-Allotey, Bonham’s head of sale, told Observer.

    Large painting with large colorful strokes of paint in the middleLarge painting with large colorful strokes of paint in the middle
    Bertina Lopes, Il canto della natura (The song of nature), (2000). Courtesy Bonhams

    Born under colonialism in Maputo to Portuguese-Mozambican parents, Lopes initially became acquainted with contemporary European movements like Modernism when she left to study in Lisbon. She would return to Mozambique in 1953 to work as an artist and professor, where she became ingrained in a circle of poets, writers and political activists and formed anti-fascist and anti-colonialist beliefs as the country’s political situation worsened.

    These views would eventually force her to leave Mozambique for Portugal in the early 1960s. Two years later, Lopes fled to Rome after her political activism led to prosecution by the Portuguese International and State Defense Police. There she befriended diplomats, journalists, intellectuals and key players of Italy’s art scene like Marino Marini, Renato Guttuso, Carlo Levi and Antonio Scordia, hosting them at famed rooftop dinners at her apartment alongside her husband Francesco Confaloni. “Throughout her life, up until her death, she was constantly socializing with poets and actors and artists,” said Love-Allotey, who noted that visitors to Lopes’ studio often left personal notes on the walls.

    Black and white photo of woman in patterned dress sitting in art studioBlack and white photo of woman in patterned dress sitting in art studio
    Bertina Lopes in her studio in Maputo 1986. Courtesy Archivo Bertina Lopes/Bonhams

    Bertina Lopes lived double lives as artist and activist

    In addition to producing artwork that reflected current events in Mozambique, Lopes in Rome also served as the cultural attaché of Mozambique’s embassy. In part due to her connections with Mozambique presidents Joaquim Chissano and Armando Guebuza, she even played a role in peace accords that in 1992 put an end to 15 years of civil war in Mozambique, according to Bonhams.

    Several pieces created by Lopes following this era will star in the upcoming Bonhams sale, including paintings like the 1996 Life is a volcanic eruption, 1995 Moments are the rings of time and 2000 The Song of nature; all of which are expected to realize between £15,000 ($19,000) to £20,000 ($25,000) each. Her auction record was established in 2022 when Bonhams sold Lopes’ 1976 work Ritratto for $26,500.

    Throughout her lifetime, Lopes represented Mozambique in international exhibitions like the Venice Biennale, with her work currently displayed in its 2024 edition. Her art has been additionally showcased in major shows like a 1973 exhibition at Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Foundation and retrospectives at Rome’s Palazzo Venezia in 1986, Palazzo della Cancelleria Apostolica in 2002 and Saltoun Gallery in 2022.

    Yet despite having been exhibited widely, Lopes was never commercially represented while alive. “I think she’s been overlooked,” said Love-Allotey. “Now, more people are gaining awareness and I really hope with this auction that more people discover her work.”

    At Bonhams, 75 Works by Overlooked Artist Bertina Lopes Make Their Auction Debut

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    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • Why Defining Exactly Who Is and Isn’t an Artist Matters

    Why Defining Exactly Who Is and Isn’t an Artist Matters

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    Who gets to call themselves an artist? Mesut çiçen

    The question of how to define art has plagued creatives and philosophers for centuries. Aristotle defined art as a true idea given physical form. Leo Tolstoy called it “a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity,” and Oscar Wilde identified art as “the most intense mode of individualism the world has known.” It seems we can, individually, define art, but we can’t reach a consensus.

    The same issue arises when the goal is to define ‘artist.’ Lots of people want to be viewed as artists, and label themselves such, from tattooists (body artists) to chefs (culinary artists) to, more recently, GPT prompters (A.I. artists). If nailing down the definition of artist is a semantics issue, it’s also one with real-world consequences. In 2023, a Colorado web designer successfully claimed before the U.S. Supreme Court that she was an artist—versus a mere service provider—which meant she was exempt from the state’s public accommodations law and could refuse to create wedding websites for same-sex couples.

    SEE ALSO: The Costume Institute’s ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ Is Full of Couture Corpses

    In fact, there are numerous spheres in which defining what an artist is and isn’t is important. There are, for instance, grants and studio or residential spaces set aside exclusively for artists, and the organizations or government agencies overseeing their assignment need to be clear on who is and isn’t an artist. Then there are surveys conducted by economic, social and cultural researchers into artists’ employment, artists’ healthcare coverage and needs, the economic benefits of creative communities and other related inquiries for whom broader definitions of artist create a methodological problem. Without the licenses, permits, state testing or reported income requirements of other professionals, determining who is or isn’t an artist starts to feel like a value judgment.

    That said, sometimes proving that someone is an artist is not just about cultural cachet or bragging rights—”official” definitions of artist (of which there are a confusing many) come into play when artists are counted in a census or have to pay their income taxes. In these cases, a self-proclaimed artist might have to meet several criteria dictated by the U.S. government to show that they’re also an artist by trade.

    An artist’s job is art. The Bureau of the Census (whose data is used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Endowment for the Arts and other agencies) makes a broad national survey every ten years, inquiring about sources of paid employment during the census week. People with more than one source of income are counted occupationally in the job at which they worked the greatest number of hours during the census reference week. Because the focus is on paid employment, rather than the amount of time spent in the studio or the desire to sell art, many artists are likely to be overlooked—that is, not counted as artists. On an individual basis, this doesn’t matter as census information is anonymized, and no art dealers will throw artists out of their galleries because the Census Bureau didn’t classify them as artists. There is, however, a national policy downside: municipal, state and federal legislators are less likely to give money to the arts or to create laws that benefit artists if this group is significantly undercounted.

    Artists devote time to their art. Although the National Endowment for the Arts makes use of Census Bureau data, the agency has conducted its own surveys of artists in the visual and performance spaces over the years. One of those surveys, “Visual Artists in Four Cities” (Houston, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.), identified artists by their level of activity, i.e., how many hours per week they spend on art, counting those who had exhibited in some gallery or other art space in those cities over several years.

    An artist turns a profit on their art. If the Census Bureau takes a broad, sweeping view of the definition of artist, the Internal Revenue Service takes a narrow one, examining individual taxpayers’ returns, and the federal agency has its own definition of artists as professionals. There are nine criteria that the IRS applies to separate professionals from hobbyists (an important distinction, as professionals may deduct their expenses, hobbyists may not).

    • Is the activity carried on in a businesslike manner?
    • Does the artist intend to make the artistic activity profitable?
    • Does the individual depend in full or in part from income generated by the artistic work?
    • Are business losses to be expected, or are they due to circumstances beyond the artist’s control?
    • Are business plans changed to improve profitability?
    • Does the artist have the knowledge to make the activity profitable?
    • Has the artist been successful in previous professional activities?
    • Does the activity generate a profit in some years and, if so, how much?
    • Will the artist make a profit in the future?

    The artist need not answer “yes” to every question to legitimately deduct business-related expenses – including art supplies and equipment, studio rental, travel (mileage, airfare, parking, tolls, meals and lodging), educational expenses (conferences, master classes, museum membership) and the cost of advertising and promotion (business cards, brochures, photography, postage and shipping), but the IRS demands proof that an artist has made a genuine effort to earn a profit in at least three years out of five.

    Artistic credentials, which don’t usually matter to collectors, critics, dealers and curators, may also help an artist make a case that he or she is a professional for tax purposes. These include earning a bachelor’s or master’s degree in the fine arts, membership in an artists’ society, experience teaching art, inclusion in Who’s Who in American Art or a similar directory and an exhibition history.

    An artist is someone who requires an artist’s studio. Several private and public agencies certify artists’ eligibility to rent or buy live-work loft space apartments that have both residential and studio components. Artist Certification committees are set up to evaluate applicants’ need for space and their qualifications as serious, but not necessarily professional, artists. According to the artist certification guidelines of the Boston Redevelopment Authority in Massachusetts, “Any artist who can demonstrate to a committee of peers that they have a recent body of work as an artist, and who requires loft-style space to support that work, is eligible.” The definition that these committees use is quite flexible, focusing on subjective factors (“…the nature of the commitment of the artist to his or her art form as his or her primary vocation rather than the amount of financial remuneration earned from his or her creative endeavor,” in the words of the Artist Certification Committee of New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs) rather than a set of hard numbers like exhibitions dates, sales, awards, memberships or commissions, which would disqualify most applicants. There is no written definition of artist at Artspace, the Minnesota-based developer of live-work spaces for artists around the country, and ad hoc certification committees at various sites look at applicants’ work (“they’re not making qualitative judgments, though,” Artspace spokeswoman Sarah Parker told Observer) to gauge the individual’s reputation within the artistic community.

    An artist is an “independent contractor.” Artists are generally self-employed, working in their own studios, setting their own hours and creating objects that are of their own design and making, but sometimes they do work for others. For instance, they may serve as a studio assistant, helping another artist with practical matters, or they may be commissioned to produce an artwork, such as a monument, portrait or mural. In these circumstances, the definition of artist matters a lot, principally because of the issue of copyright. Someone who is an employee is paid a salary (and, perhaps, receives benefits, such as health insurance, sick and vacation pay), works certain set hours per week and is given explicit instructions on what tasks to fulfill and how to fulfill them at the employer’s work site, and the output that the individual produces on the job, which could be anything from paintings to sculpture, belongs to the employer. It is not uncommon, however, for artists who hire assistants to get around the need to pay taxes for these employees by calling them independent contractors, potentially giving those assistants a legal basis to be considered joint authors of the artists’ work if they were involved directly with the finished pieces. That joint authorship would be dependent upon the degree to which the assistant could prove that his or her original ideas and decision-making are part of the final work, according to Joshua Kaufman, a Washington, D.C. lawyer who often represents artists.

    There have been some lawsuits brought by former assistants against the artists for whom they worked for joint copyright ownership of works, but they have all been settled out of court. However, in 1989, Kaufman successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court the right of sculptor James Earl Reid to claim copyright ownership of a work that a nonprofit group had commissioned him to create.

    An artist is someone whom funding agencies call an artist. Public agencies and private organizations also provide money for individual artists, but nary one has published a formal definition of what an artist is. “We put this into the hands of our panel members,” Julie Gordon Dalgleish, former program director for artist fellowships at the Bush Foundation, told Observer. “We exclude certain things,” such as straight journalism, from the literature category and instructional videos from the category of film and video, but “we accepted an application from someone who braids hair. We would look at a tattoo artist if we felt there was a strong vision, creative energy and perseverance.” By we, of course, she meant the panels that review artists’ applications for fellowships to decide who receives money. Panel members regularly debate the question of whether or not a craft artist is an artist—a topic with a decades-long history. More recent concerns involve new media and digital art in two dimensions and three dimensions.

    Ultimately, for most purposes, artists are people who call themselves artists. According to Marcel Duchamp, the artist defines art, and it seems increasingly true that nowadays artists also define who and what they are. Definitions by nature are confining and restrictive, while art and its makers seek to be expansive and inclusive. It may be simpler to state what makes an artist a professional than what defines an artist. ‘Artist’ has become a universal label denoting creativity and using it is often a way to shine a light on someone who does something particularly well. Socially, artists are often defined by the positive (freedom-loving, convention-defying) or negative (egotistical, bohemian) characteristics that other people attribute to them. Part of an artist’s job is to understand how artists are seen and what is expected of them, whether that’s by a certification committee that wants to see their body of work, a funding source that wants to understand the artist’s proposal, a dealer who wants to see what they’re capable of or the government, which more often than not, just wants to see the receipts.

    Why Defining Exactly Who Is and Isn’t an Artist Matters

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    Daniel Grant

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  • Adam Moss Is Seeking Inspiration

    Adam Moss Is Seeking Inspiration

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    One of the works of art in Moss’s book is a Times front page from May 2020, which saw the paper memorialize nearly 100,000 COVID deaths by filling A1 with the names of 1,000 people who’d lost their lives to the virus. Moss had wanted to include a public memorial in the book—he’d thought of Maya Lin and the Vietnam Memorial—and then this cover happened. “And I thought, Well, this is the Vietnam Memorial, except it’s in the pages of a newspaper that I used to work in, where something like this was, I mean, really inconceivable,” says Moss. It was “a little atypical for the book, but I was interested in it anyway,” he adds. In his interview for the book, Dean Baquet, then the paper’s executive editor, rewards Moss’s instincts. “I actually thought that page was trying to portray a feeling. Nobody was going to read it name by name. It was like a Rothko,” he tells Moss. “And the longer you look at a Rothko, the sadder you get.”

    Moss’s pages, too, evoke a feeling—the frenzy of the creative process—and provide a tinge of nostalgia. With the book’s layers of small type, arrows directing you through graphics, and annotations and dialogue in footnotes, the reading experience is not unlike the one you’d have with New York in the Moss era. (In fact, one of the designers of this book, Luke Hayman, previously worked as the magazine’s design director.) “Very early on in my career, I developed an interest, which I’m not sure that all editors have,” says Moss, “to continue to use a magazine as a canvas to try new things. I was always interested in new story forms—always. [It] just kind of was a fetish, almost.” This book, says Moss, made use of some of those magazine tools. “A reader comes to a book with different sets of expectations, but can we push it?” asks Moss. “If I had done it as straight text, I think the book would be much less interesting, but also it would not feel as much an expression of me.”

    Courtesy of Penguin Press.

    When I recently met Moss at a downtown restaurant not far from New York’s old office, it had been five years, almost to the day, since he’d stepped down from the magazine. Under his leadership, New York didn’t just navigate the transition from city weekly to digital publisher; it thrived in it, launching a number of online verticals—The Cut, Vulture, The Strategist, Grub Street, Intelligencer—that function as stand-alone properties, with some also serving as sections in the print magazine (which, since 2014, has published every other week). Moss, like the magazine he edited for 15 years, is obsessive and curious, with a twinkle in one eye and knowing skepticism in the other. 

    “I had gotten older,” Moss, now 66, says after I ask why he left New York. “There was more and more that the editors were bringing me that I didn’t relate to, didn’t understand, because they came out of the experience of a younger generation of staff members, which would translate to a younger generation of readers,” he adds. “The only way I know how to edit a magazine is by editing for myself.” And he was sick of the responsibilities that came with being a boss, particularly the one requiring him to spend a lot of time on business strategy. “I was still doing journalism, but I wasn’t doing it enough,” he says. A bicycle accident in 2017 also put things into perspective. “For the first time, I imagined myself being fragile, perishable. So I felt I had another chapter, but not that many more,” he explains.

    Does he miss New York? “I miss the people generally. I miss specific people specifically. I miss the ‘let’s put on a show’ aspect of it,” says Moss. He doesn’t miss the news cycle much, though, and has enjoyed being “liberated from the gerbil world,” as he puts it. Still, his brain remains in editor mode. “It forms everything into stories and almost everything into narrative. And so I don’t turn that off,” he says. “And I’m glad I can—he never listens to me, but I can just write a little note to [New York editor in chief] David Haskell and say, ‘Hey, have you thought of this?’” He’s also been consulting for other journalism operations, including The Washington Post’s Opinions section. (Editorial page editor David Shipley is his friend and former colleague.) “I’m kind of like a constant, relatively well-informed focus group,” Moss says of his role.

    Otherwise, he’s been enjoying his free time. “I go to museums. I go to movies. I hang out with my friends. I go to painting classes,” Moss says. “My quixotic painting thing is really a big part of my life. I don’t want to pretend otherwise, even though I am embarrassed.” (So much so that he has yet to share his work publicly.)

    I ask him if he’s found the answer he set out for. “I’ve gotten one part of the answer, which is that the work of art is the work…. It’s the most banal observation, but that it’s not about the thing you make; it’s about the making. It took me three years to figure out that that was actually true,” he says. “And let me tell you, it has changed my life.”

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    Charlotte Klein

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  • Protecting Banksy Murals Is a Complicated and Sometimes Costly Matter

    Protecting Banksy Murals Is a Complicated and Sometimes Costly Matter

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    Banksy’s newest mural appeared in London on March 17. Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images

    Earlier this week, residents of London’s Islington North area were shocked and delighted to find a mural by the elusive Banksy adorning one of their local buildings. But just two days later, the work was defaced.

    This isn’t an uncommon occurrence for the anonymous street artist’s public and occasionally political works. Despite fetching seven-figure sums at auction, Banksy’s art is typically found in vulnerable and open spaces, as opposed to being safely guarded behind museum or gallery walls.

    His most recent painting, which depicts vibrant abstract foliage placed strategically behind a barren tree, was vandalized with white paint that appears to have been tossed over the mural. “There’s only one way to describe it: wanton vandalism,” Gil Ben-ari, an 80-year-old Londoner, told the Guardian.

    Onlookers view green-painted building with large swaths of white paint thrown on top of itOnlookers view green-painted building with large swaths of white paint thrown on top of it
    The work was vandalized with white paint shortly after it was confirmed as a Banksy. Leon Neal/Getty Images

    Banksy’s creation went up on March 17, with the artist confirming it as his own in an Instagram post the following day. Depicting a stenciled figure holding a paint sprayer, the burst of green paint matches the color used by Islington Council for local street signs. “Banksy has come to Islington!” tweeted Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour Party leader and local MP. “What wonderful artwork, proving there is hope for our natural world everywhere.”

    The work, which brought an aging and over-pruned cherry tree to life, was painted on a vacant building. Islington Council quickly surrounded the work with fencing, erected cameras and posted Park Patrol officers, but these measures weren’t enough to prevent the subsequent vandalism. “We’re now discussing future solutions with the homeowner, to enable everyone to see the work while protecting it, the tree and the surrounding area,” said the council in a statement. “This is a really powerful piece, and we really hope it’s left alone so that everyone can enjoy it.”

    How are Banksy murals usually protected?

    Two security guards stand in front of a mural of a donkey and manTwo security guards stand in front of a mural of a donkey and man
    Security guards watch over Banksy’s Donkey Documents as it is displayed at the Chelsea Harbour Design Centre in 2015. Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images

    Due to the monetary and cultural value of his work, security measures have been introduced around several of Banksy’s pieces. After creating a series of murals across Ukraine in 2022 to showcase his support for the nation during Russia’s initial invasion, the Ukrainian government installed impact-resistant glass over the paintings to protect them from natural elements and vandalism. It also added security cameras near works to alert authorities of possible damage or theft.

    Similar steps were taken by local authorities after Banksy completed his A Great British Spraycation series throughout England’s Norfolk and Suffolk coast in 2021. In addition to covering his art with clear sheets, the works were protected by security patrols and guards. One mural located on a sea wall was even covered in sealant paint to protect it from water damage. In other cases, homeowners have taken matters into their own hands—in 2013, the owner of a Brooklyn building that was “Banksied” hired his own security guards to look over the work.

    Protecting Banksy murals can be expensive. When Garry and Gokean Coutts, owners of a Lowestoft building tagged by the artist as part of A Great British Spraycation, learned they’d need to pay £40,000 ($49,000) annually to maintain it, they instead paid £200,000 ($246,300) to have it taken down. According to the BBC, three local councils spent £20,000 (about $25,000) to protect other Spraycation murals, while another spent £7,610 (about $9,600) on “security patrols, guards and polycarbonate sheets.”

    Despite safeguarding efforts, the very nature of Banksy’s work as a form of street art makes it susceptible to numerous damaging elements. His stencils have been occasionally painted over by local authorities looking to clean up graffiti, as was demonstrated by the 2007 covering of his Pulp Fiction painting near one of London’s train stations. Others have been mistakenly ruined. Last year, the artist documented on Instagram how his painting on a dilapidated farmhouse in Kent, U.K., was destroyed by a construction crew as it unknowingly tore down the building.

     

    Man holds up bolt cutters to red stop signMan holds up bolt cutters to red stop sign
    A Banksy-painted stop sign was stolen by a man with bolt cutters in London on December 22, 2023. PA Images via Getty Images

    Banksy’s work is also occasionally defaced by rival graffiti artists. In 2021, for example, a mural located on a former Reading prison was defaced with “Team Robbo” in reference to the late graffiti artist who had a long-running feud with Banksy. And some works are affected by natural elements, such as the artist’s mural located along Venice’s Rio Novo canal, which has been damaged by its constant exposure to a damp environment.

    As would be expected with the high sums attached to Banksy’s creations, some of the street art has been victim to theft. Banksy’s most recent work before the tree mural in Islington North appeared in December of last year when a London stop sign was adorned with three military drones. Mere hours after Banksy confirmed the work, onlookers witnessed a person taking down the sign with bolt cutters. Two men have since been arrested in connection with the theft, although the artwork itself remains at large.

    While Banksy’s newest art piece has already been damaged, it’s likely safe from robbery. Its very existence points to the artist having “solved an emerging problem” of theft, said James Peak, host of BBC Radio 4 series The Banksy Story, while speaking on the broadcaster’s Today program. “I don’t think anyone is going to be able to nick this,” he said. “The painted wall is just meaningless paint without the bare branches of the tree—and how are you going to steal a tree?”

    Protecting Banksy Murals Is a Complicated and Sometimes Costly Matter

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    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • Dr. Namhee Park On Video Conservation, Mass Media and Finding the Next Nam June Paik

    Dr. Namhee Park On Video Conservation, Mass Media and Finding the Next Nam June Paik

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    Nam June Paik Art Center Director Dr. Namhee Park. Courtesy NJP Art Center

    Dr. Namhee Park was recently named the new director of the Nam June Paik Art Center, the Yongin, South Korea institution tasked with protecting the Korean-American artist’s legacy, curating shows highlighting his work in classic and new contexts. Paik seems to be having a moment, with a new documentary and his prominent placement in the Museum of Modern Art’s recent show about video art. But when doesn’t it feel like that? Observer recently caught up with Dr. Park to hear more about the institution’s relationship with the ever-relevant artist.

    Why do you think the work of Nam June Paik remains so beloved today?

    Nam June Paik was born in the 20th Century, but his spirit was already living in the 21st Century. If his art was avant-garde in the 20th Century, it can be considered contemporary realist art in the 21st Century. Since it is realist art as a ‘total reality’ that hybridizes almost all areas of intuitive but philosophical, sensuous but technical, it can be felt emotionally and methodologically more familiar than in the past, and from a media archaeological perspective, it can be felt as nostalgia. In that sense, his art is an ‘old future’ and is in touch with the art of the contemporary digital media environment.

    His art and life attitude of “no boundaries,” “curiosity” and “infinite connection” to all things in the world, including media, information, technology, nature and planets, are still vivid values to his contemporaries. When I took office last year, I proposed ‘hyperconnectivity,’ ‘heritage community’ and ‘polyphony’ as the core values of the Nam June Paik Art Center to evoke and spread this spirit in his art to the contemporary era. This is because his art has already penetrated the current hyper-connected spirit and phenomena.

    PAIK/C/18MAR96/DD/MACOR Video artist Nam June Paik next to a piece of works he calls Cyberforum, 1994. Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor Ran on: 12-29-2006 Don KnottsPAIK/C/18MAR96/DD/MACOR Video artist Nam June Paik next to a piece of works he calls Cyberforum, 1994. Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor Ran on: 12-29-2006 Don Knotts
    Nam June Paik with ‘Cyberforum’ (1994). Photo By MICHAEL MACOR/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

    How is his legacy perceived in Korea?

    Although he spent more time in Japan, Germany and the United States than in Korea, the affection and pride for Nam June Paik and his art is very significant in Korea. We Koreans are very grateful to Nam June Paik, not only for his status as an internationally renowned artist and his outlook for future society but also for his contribution to driving Korea toward internationalization. In particular, since the NJP Art Center opened in 2008, it has been working hard to preserve Paik’s legacy by collaborating with many artists at home and abroad. The roles of former directors Youngchul Lee, Manu Park, Jin-seok Seo and Kim Seong Eun were crucial; they were at the forefront of promoting Nam June Paik’s legacy more widely through exhibitions and research. However, the awareness and promotion methods of its importance do not lead to active or full support.

    His legacy, which includes his role in the art world and his global perspective and desire for world peace, still requires much time to receive more empathy, broader awareness, and practices. As the fifth director of the NJP Art Center, I presented the new vision to create a ‘shared museum connected through art and technology’, which aims to hyperlink Nam June Paik’s legacy with contemporary times. The NJP Art Center, named “the house where Nam June Paik lives for a long time” by Paik himself, serves as a platform for the post-Nam June Paik through his legacy. Continuing research related to Paik every year through the academic journal NJP Reader is also a process of practically understanding his legacy and putting it into practice.

    Of course, besides our museum, more and more people, individually or collectively, recognize and study Paik’s legacy as very important. The NJP Art Center is working to preserve his legacy by collaborating with major Korean institutions such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea and the Leeum Museum of Art.

    I understand that some of his video work is very hard to maintain these days, given that much of the technology it used is no longer manufactured. What is your ethos towards conservation?

    Not only Nam June Paik’s art, but also media-based works in which electronic devices play an essential role in the realization of art from the late 20th Century to the present are being reviewed from various angles, as the object of exhibition, collection and research, regarding their operation, sustainability and preservation. In particular, many are interested in Paik’s works using television monitors because they are the most original examples of this media art. The fact that CRT monitors are no longer manufactured due to the technological development of television may cause concern that problems with the operation or preservation of his work may arise. I thought that by constantly asking, ‘How did Paik deal with this problem?’ we should not forget his openness, flexibility and quickness while looking at the various situations, testimonies and records in which he worked.

    His work, which pioneered video art by placing television at the center of his art, was a combination of the developer’s attitude and artistic experimentation from the beginning. Paik was always open to many situations and had the agility to apply various elements, even when confronting variables or unexpected situations. For example, Zen for TV (1963), too, was created by chance in such circumstances. Considering the attitude of Paik and the next steps after the monitor production is discontinued, we keep the following two things in mind: The first is the opinions of the assistants and technicians who worked with Paik, and the second is the remediated perspective of media in the context of technological evolutionism.

    SEE ALSO: What Not to Miss at Asia Week New York 2024

    For example, Jung Sung Lee, who worked as a technician for many works of Paik, presents a clear opinion on the monitor issue in The More, the Better (1988), owned by The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA Korea), which is persuasive: “Recently, MMCA Korea announced that as a final restoration method, they would apply the latest technology only in part of the monitor while maintaining the form of the existing cathode-ray tube monitor. However, since the essence of a media artwork is the content of the media inside the monitor, I believe the restoration should be done by replacing it with a new LCD monitor, in line with technological development. Suppose the restoration continues to maintain the original cathode-ray tube. In that case, breakdowns will increase, and the subsequent restoration will become more difficult, ultimately increasing the possibility of raising public skepticism about the work.”

    Lee’s comment suggests that replacing it with new media is possible, considering the technicians’ opinions and the essential content of the media that I mentioned earlier. To summarize, my opinion so far is that, just as Nam June Paik’s creative journey was, media such as television are open to the possibility of replacement due to the evolution of technology, which, I believe, will more firmly defend Paik’s legacy.

    An exterior of an angular glass buildingAn exterior of an angular glass building
    Nam June Paik Art Center. Courtesy NJP Art Center

    What are some of the key challenges facing your institution and how do you plan to tackle them?

    The NJP Art Center opened in October 2008 and is now in its seventeenth year. We have worked hard to integrate Nam June Paik’s art into the museum system that collects, exhibits, researches and educates, and now we have reached the point of taking another leap forward. Above all, it is a time when institutional and content conditions must be improved to rebuild as a contemporary media art platform where Nam June Paik and post-Nam June Paik come together. As is the case with many art museums in the era of local autonomy, as time goes by, physical spaces such as exhibition halls and storage facilities initially set up need to be reorganized. In addition, realistic development plans are continuously being considered, such as securing budgets for continuous program development, improving old facilities and public recognition and increasing accessibility.

    Many issues are directly related to budget, and various strategies are needed to solve them. We are currently seeking support and cooperation from companies from which we can secure financial resources. Meanwhile, regarding content, the NJP Art Center has reached a point where it is necessary to expand the public forum further so that many researchers can participate. We have been sharing our research through the symposium ‘Gift of Nam June Paik’ and NJP Reader, but we are working on creating ways to share the perspectives and opinions of more researchers.

    Part of your mission is to “discover the future Nam June Paik” through your art prize. What are the qualities of that future Nam June Paik?

    Nam June Paik was an avant-garde artist full of humor and diligently explored new things. The Paik of the future will artistically embody thoughts that can have as fresh a shock as Paik’s impact on humanity. In other words, the ability to drive the positive function of art artistically and technically is required, under Paik’s spirit, such as child-like curiosity, scientist-like inquisitiveness, avant-gardeness of overthrowing fixed ideas and forms, union/fusion rather than separation/division, and the desire for peace rather than war.

    Paik’s work was heavily influenced by the then-new concept of mass media. What do you think he’d make of this era where mass media seems to be dying?

    Nam June Paik’s art started with the most popular medium, television, but utilized various technologies and media, including robots, satellites, and lasers. As for mass media, Paik paid attention to it as a system to share information with many people with the advantages of serving as a field to connect and share people and thoughts and also recognized the disadvantages of its one-way communication. When he attempted ‘satellite project’ such as Good Morning, Mr. Orwell (1984), he maximized and demonstrated the advantage that it was possible to have a meeting without the immediacy of information and physical communication through live broadcasting by trying to communicate two-way rather than one-way between cities with a broadcasting system.

    Now, this is being done not only by mass media such as television but also by social media connected through the Internet. Paik would have been very interested in this situation for its freedom from the monopoly or fixity of the media and its autonomous activity of new media. He might even be happy to think we are getting closer to spirituality, which he said was the most crucial medium after the laser. He may have been pleased to see that mass media is transitioning to its new role rather than dying and that we are moving toward a world where the openness and diversity of media have expanded. In that sense, he is truly in the time of our old future.

    What is your favorite work by Paik in the museum’s collection?

    Among Nam June Paik’s many works, my favorite is Moon is the Oldest TV (1965). The work reveals his original understanding of the medium and intuitively reflects the Eastern and Western understandings of time. In this work, created in 1965, the moon’s shape appears different depending on the time of day. The lunar cycle from the new moon to the full moon is divided into twelve television monitors. By inserting a magnet into a cathode-ray tube to interfere with the electromagnetic signals of the internal circuit, Paik made various moon-like shapes appear on the television screen using only those signals. Viewers have an opportunity to think about the length and depth of time, the moment and eternity.

    The moon, the oldest light of humanity and the only satellite of the earth, was the object of projection of countless imaginations and aspirations even before scientific exploration. At the NJP Art Center, after the video E-MOON (1999) was added to the original twelve monitors, this work consists of thirteen monitors. The moon, which shows time by recombining it spatially, is formatively meditative and overflows with poetic imagination.

    Dr. Namhee Park On Video Conservation, Mass Media and Finding the Next Nam June Paik

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    Dan Duray

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  • Pioneering Internet Artist Shu Lea Cheang Receives the 2024 LG Guggenheim Award

    Pioneering Internet Artist Shu Lea Cheang Receives the 2024 LG Guggenheim Award

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    Shu Lea Cheang is the second recipient of the award. SMITH © SMITH, Paris, 2024

    Shu Lea Cheang, an early pioneer in the field of digital art, is the second recipient of the LG Guggenheim Award, as announced today (March 5). Selected by an international jury of art, culture and technology experts, she will receive an unrestricted honorarium of $100,000.

    The prize is given by the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative, a five-year partnership established in 2022 between New York’s Guggenheim Museum and the South Korean company LG that promotes artists working at the intersection of art and technology. “Shu Lea Cheang was one of the first to recognize the liberatory potential of the digital realm,” said Naomi Beckwith, the Guggenheim’s chief curator and deputy director, in a statement. “We celebrate her bold explorations of bodies, and their desires, in our digital and analog worlds, and are thrilled, alongside LG, to recognize her necessary work.”

    SEE ALSO: Artist Barbara Earl Thomas On Creation, Contemplation and Bringing People Together

    Cheang, 69, is a Taiwanese, American and French multi-hyphenate artist whose work has engaged myriad new technologies since the 1990s. She has produced and directed four feature-length films—1994’s Fresh Kill, 2000’s I.K.U., 2017’s Fluidø and 2023’s UKI—and her art is in the collections of institutions like the Whitney, Walker Art Center, Museum of Modern Art and Centre Pompidou.

    Digital figures embrace each other Digital figures embrace each other
    Shu Lea Cheang, UKI, 2023. Digital color video, with sound, 80 min. Courtesy Guggenheim

    Shu Lea Cheang: trailblazer in internet and digital art

    Cheang has long been at the forefront of exploring the impact of technological change on society. Her 1998 piece Brandon, for example, made history as the first-ever web art commissioned by the Guggenheim. The work, which explored the legacy of Brandon Teena, a transgender man who was murdered in 1993, was restored in 2017 by a team of computer-based conservationists at the Guggenheim.

    Decades later, Cheang’s contributions to digital culture remain relevant. In 2019, she represented Taiwan at the Venice Biennale with 3x3x6, a mixed-media installation whose title alludes to industrial imprisonment (the title refers to a 3×3 square-meter cell monitored by six cameras). Focused on surveillance in the digital age, it referenced ten different cases of imprisonment incited by gender, sexual and racial nonconformity.

    Large teacups swirl around in gallery Large teacups swirl around in gallery
    Shu Lea Cheang, Baby Love (from Locker Baby Project), 2005. Networked media installation, dimensions variable. Installation view: Baby Love, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, December 8, 2005– January 8, 2006. Photo : Florian Kleinefenn

    The artist’s oeuvre also includes experimentations with technological themes ranging from alternative currencies to movement sensors. More recent works like 2017’s Mycelium Network Society examined the nature of biotechnologies, while her 2023 installation Utter focused on the societal implications of machine learning.

    In their jury statement, panelists for the LG Guggenheim Award praised Cheang’s “fascinating overview of advanced technologies.” Jury members included Eungie Joo, head of contemporary art the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Koyo Kouoh, executive director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art; Noam Segal, LG Electronics Associate Curator at the Guggenheim; Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Art Contemporanea; and Stephanie Dinkins, the recipient of the inaugural LG Guggenheim Award.

    Cheang is set to discuss her practice and future works in a May 2 public program at the Guggenheim’s theater. “The LG Guggenheim Award revives an honorable tradition of the electronic industry’s support for art and technology,” she said in a statement. “To be recognized by an assembly of diverse jury members grants me tremendous confidence in continuing and expanding my art practice.”

    Pioneering Internet Artist Shu Lea Cheang Receives the 2024 LG Guggenheim Award

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    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • Atlantic City to debut its largest mural in June

    Atlantic City to debut its largest mural in June

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    A Jersey Shore town is planning to unveil some monumental new artwork just in time for the summer season.

    In June, Atlantic City will debut its largest mural, spanning 19 stories on The Atlantic apartment building at 300 Atlantic Avenue. The piece, which will incorporate flora native to the shore, will also be the 100th mural completed through the Atlantic City Arts Foundation nonprofit organization. 

    MORE: Golden Nugget Atlantic City launches hotel renovation project

    The new mural will be created by renowned Swiss-American artist Mona Caron. Caron is known for a series of multi-story murals celebrating the “rebellious resilience” of weeds. Larger-than-life pieces in her “WEEDS” series can be seen sprouting on buildings across the world, from New York City to Switzerland and Taiwan.

    “My WEEDS project is a tribute to resilience against all odds,” Caron said in a release. “I paint spontaneously occurring wild plants, native or non-native, and paint them big, at a scale inversely proportional to the attention and regard they get. It’s a metaphoric salute to the struggle of authentic grassroots communities, and it’s a reminder that we need to shift Nature’s ranking in our priorities.”

    Installation of the mural is scheduled to begin next month and take place over a six-week period. Caron will work in collaboration with a team of assistant muralists that includes Charles Barbin and Randi Meekins-Barbin, co-owners of Dunes Art Gallery in Brigantine.

    The mural is scheduled to be unveiled in June at the 48 Blocks Atlantic City festival. 48 Blocks — which references the number of blocks that Atlantic City spans — is the flagship program of the Atlantic City Arts Foundation, and includes the shore town’s mural arts initiative that launched in 2017 and has since transformed Atlantic City into an outdoor gallery. A map of the city’s murals can be accessed online.

    “We’ve seen firsthand that murals not only beautify our city, but also boost community pride, drive economic development, and attract tourism,” Kate O’Malley, executive director of the Atlantic City Arts Foundation, said in a release. “Mona Caron’s mural will further highlight Atlantic City as a destination for arts and culture.” 

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    Franki Rudnesky

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  • 40 Famous People that Live in New York 2024: Big City, Big Stars – Southwest Journal

    40 Famous People that Live in New York 2024: Big City, Big Stars – Southwest Journal

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    28. Robert De Niro

    Big Apple personalities

    Robert De Niro, a distinguished filmmaker and artist, resides in Greenwich Village, New York City. He is a co-founder and partner of the Tribeca Film Festival, contributing significantly to the inspiration of the film community in the city. His notable films include “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “The Godfather,” “The Intern,” “Joker,” “Cape Fear,” “Last Vegas,” “House of Gucci,” and “Righteous Kill.”

    27. Taylor Swift

    NYC celebrity cultureNYC celebrity culture

    Taylor Swift, a celebrated singer and songwriter, resides on Franklin Street in Tribeca, NYC as per Finty source. She is renowned for chart-topping hits such as “Shake It Off,” “You Belong with Me,” “Bad Blood,” “Blank Space,” and “Wildest Dreams.” Swift has also made notable appearances in films like “Hannah Montana,” “The Cats,” “Amsterdam,” and “All Too Well.”

    Her affection for New York City is a recurring theme in her music and public engagements, drawing creative energy from its lively streets to infuse her songs with the city’s dynamic spirit. As one of the most successful music artists globally, Swift’s fusion of pop music with deeply personal lyrics has garnered a massive following, drawing fans to the city that fuels her creativity.

    Swift has expressed her deep connection with New York City, likening it to an intense romance that, despite its challenges, offers irreplaceable energy and inspiration. She cherishes the city’s influence and wouldn’t exchange it for anything, highlighting the profound impact New York has had on her life and work.

    26. Tina Fey

    Notable New YorkersNotable New Yorkers

    Tina Fey, an accomplished American writer, producer, actress, and comedian, resides in the Upper West Side of NYC. She is renowned for her brilliant performances in well-known TV shows and movies such as “Mean Girls,” “Date Night,” “Saturday Night Live,” and “Free Guy.”

    Her journey to stardom kicked off with her pivotal role on “Saturday Night Live” (SNL), where she broke new ground as the show’s first female head writer and became a cherished member of the cast. Her memorable impersonation of Sarah Palin not only won critical praise but also earned her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.

    25. Al Pacino

    Celebrity sightings in NYCCelebrity sightings in NYC

    Al Pacino, a renowned Broadway theater artist and film actor, is celebrated for his residence in the Bronx, NYC. His acclaimed movies include “The Devil’s Advocate,” “The Godfather II,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “The Irishman,” and “Scent of a Woman.”

    Al Pacino, the legendary actor famed for his role as Michael Corleone in “The Godfather” series, was born and brought up in the vibrant East Harlem neighborhood of New York City. The diverse talents and artistic expressions of this area significantly influenced his career path.

    Although Al Pacino has since moved to Palisades, New York, he retains a deep connection to his East Harlem roots. The local community continues to hold him in high regard, celebrating his remarkable contributions to film and theater.

    Reflecting on his upbringing, Pacino has said:

    “I grew up in East Harlem, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. The energy and spirit of that neighborhood have had a profound impact on my life and career.”

    23. Lena Dunham

    Lena Dunham, a prominent TV and film artist, is best known as the creator and star of the HBO series “Girls.” She resides in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NYC. Her well-known TV shows and movies include “The House of the Devil,” “The Innkeepers,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Seven Days in Hell,” and “Sharp Stick.”

    22. Liev Schreiber

    NYC celebrity lifestyleNYC celebrity lifestyle

    Liev Schreiber is a renowned film actor based in New York City. Initially a theater artist, he has achieved significant success in films. His notable movies include “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” “A Small Light,” “Scream,” “The Last Days on Mars,” and “Asteroid City.”

    21. Tom Hanks

    NYC public figuresNYC public figures

    Tom Hanks, a celebrated film actor, resides in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. His highly acclaimed movies include “The Da Vinci Code,” “The Polar Express,” “Elvis,” “Angels and Demons,” “Toy Story,” “Pinocchio,” “News of the World,” and “Asteroid City.

    20. Hugh Jackman

    Famous New York residentsFamous New York residents

    Hugh Jackman is a renowned artist, dancer, and singer who, although not originally from New York, resides in the West Village, NYC. His notable movies include “The Son,” “Deadpool,” “X-Men,” “Van Helsing,” and “The Prisoners.”

    “I love New York City. It’s not just a place to work, but a place to call home. The energy and creativity that thrive here are unparalleled, and being a part of the Broadway community has been a dream come true.” – Hugh Jackman

    19. Ethan Hawke

    NYC most famous residentsNYC most famous residents

    Ethan Hawke, an acclaimed actor, producer, and writer, has chosen Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, as his home, embedding himself in the fabric of New York City’s artistic community according to Patch.

    His Oscar-nominated work in “Before Sunrise” and “Training Day” highlights his versatile talent, while films like “Sinister” and “Boyhood” showcase his depth as an actor.

    Boerum Hill’s charming streets and vibrant cultural scene reflect Hawke’s creative spirit, making it the perfect backdrop for an artist known for his profound and introspective roles.

    This neighborhood, with its mix of historic brownstones and modern cultural venues, mirrors Hawke’s blend of classic talent and contemporary relevance.

    18. Alec Baldwin

    High profile New YorkersHigh profile New Yorkers

    Alec Baldwin, a fixture in the entertainment world, lives in the heart of Greenwich Village, an area as dynamic and diverse as his career.

    Known for his memorable performances on “Saturday Night Live” and in films like “The Boss Baby” and “Mission: Impossible,” Baldwin’s choice of residence in this culturally rich neighborhood speaks to his deep connection with New York City’s creative pulse.

    Greenwich Village, with its history of artistry and activism, complements Baldwin’s outspoken nature and his contributions to both cinema and television, embodying the spirited and eclectic essence of his character.

    17. Whoopi Goldberg

    Celebrity New York homesCelebrity New York homes

    Whoopi Goldberg, a celebrated actress, comedian, and author, resides in Soho, NYC. Born Caryn Elaine, she is professionally known as Whoopi Goldberg. She has received numerous accolades, including an Oscar, for her outstanding performances.

    Her well-known movies and TV shows include “The Color Purple,” “The View,” “Ghost,” “Sister Act,” “The Lion King,” “Till,” “The Deep End of the Ocean,” “Summer Camp Island,” “Godfather of Harlem,” and “The Conners.”

    Goldberg’s presence in this neighborhood underscores her status as a trailblazer in the entertainment industry, much like Soho has been a trailblazer in New York City’s cultural evolution. Her choice to live in Soho highlights a shared ethos of creativity, diversity, and resilience.

    16. Meryl Streep

    New York City iconsNew York City icons

    Meryl Streep, one of the most celebrated actresses of our time, calls Tribeca her home, a neighborhood known for its upscale residential spaces and thriving arts scene.

    Streep’s illustrious career, featuring roles in “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Sophie’s Choice,” parallels Tribeca’s transformation into a hub of luxury and creativity.

    Her residence in Tribeca not only signifies her stature in the film industry but also her affinity for a neighborhood that values privacy, sophistication, and artistic freedom, qualities that have defined Streep’s career and personal style.

    15. Uma Thurman

    14. John Leguizamo

    NYC celebrity sceneNYC celebrity scene

    John Leguizamo, renowned as a leading comedian and supporting actor in TV shows and films, hails from Colombia but was raised and continues to live in Queens, NYC. He is celebrated for his performances in movies such as “Super Mario Brothers,” “Spawn,” “Romeo + Juliet,” “Violent Night,” “The Night Clerk,” and “The Power.”

    13. Neil Patrick Harris

    Neil Patrick Harris is a multi-talented artist, vocalist, author, and producer residing in Harlem, NYC. He is well-known for his comedy performances, stage dramas, and live musical stage shows throughout New York City. His notable film and TV credits include “The Smurfs,” “Uncoupled,” “The Matrix Resurrections,” “How I Met Your Father,” and “Drag Me to Dinner.”

    A fun fact about Harris is his love for the local cuisine and jazz clubs, where he’s often spotted enjoying Harlem’s famous soul food and live music, showcasing his deep appreciation for the area’s artistic and culinary delights. His participation in local theater productions and charity events highlights his commitment to contributing to the community’s cultural landscape.

    12. Steve Buscemi

    Celebrities in ManhattanCelebrities in Manhattan

    Steve Buscemi, residing in Brooklyn, NYC, transitioned from a former firefighter to a celebrated film artist. He is renowned for his exceptional performances in popular movies such as “Spy Kids: Island of Lost Dreams,” “Armageddon,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “Vacation Friends Two,” and “Hubie Halloween.”

    Known for his love of indie films and local arts, Buscemi is a regular at Brooklyn’s film festivals and small theaters, supporting the borough’s vibrant arts scene with genuine enthusiasm.

    11. Daniel Radcliffe

    Daniel Radcliffe, a highly popular British actor, gained immense fame for his standout role in the Harry Potter film series, catapulting him to the list of top stars. Currently residing in the West Village, New York City, his notable films include the “Harry Potter Series,” “The Woman in Black,” “Victor Frankenstein,” “Horns,” “The Lost City,” “December Boys,” and “Jungle.”

    A quirky fact about Radcliffe is his penchant for exploring the city incognito, enjoying the West Village’s quaint streets, bookshops, and cafes without the fanfare typically associated with his global fame.

    He’s also an avid fan of New York’s underground comedy scene, often spotted at small venues enjoying stand-up shows. Radcliffe’s low-key lifestyle in the city reflects his desire to blend into the tapestry of New York life, embracing the city’s diversity and energy.

    10. Amy Adams

    NYC famous figuresNYC famous figures

    Amy Adams, originally from Italy, now resides in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, NYC. She is celebrated for her exceptional performances in movies such as “Enchanted,” “Disenchanted,” “Man of Steel,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “Night at the Museum,” “Batman vs. Superman,” “The Woman in the Window,” and “Big Eyes.”

    Julianne Moore, a distinguished celebrity, first gained recognition in the TV serial “The Edge of the Night.” Currently residing in Greenwich Village, New York City, she is a familiar face in the city’s hot spots.

    Moore’s remarkable performances are showcased in the popular Netflix series “May December” and “The Woman in the Window.” Her notable films include “The Forgotten,” “Next,” “Wonderstruck,” “Far from Heaven,” “The Hunger Games: Part II,” “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” and “The Assassins.”

    Lucy Liu is not only a talented artist whose artwork is featured in art galleries across NYC but also a popular actress residing in the Upper West Side, NYC according to Artnet news. Her remarkable acting skills are showcased in famous TV shows and movies such as “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” “Kill Bill,” “Rise: Blood Hunter,” “Chicago,” and “Charlie’s Angels.”

    Ben Stiller, a renowned actor and comedian, resides in the West Village, NYC. Those visiting might spot him at a local coffee shop or another well-known location in the West Village. His notable works include movies and TV shows such as “Night at the Museum,” “Meet the Fockers,” “Hubie Halloween,” and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.”

    Sarah Michelle Gellar, a celebrated actress known for her roles in both TV and film, resides in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, NYC. Fans may catch sight of her at exclusive restaurants and coffee houses in the Upper East Side. Her notable works include TV shows and movies such as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Wolf Pack,” “Scream 2,” “Cruel Intentions,” “Angel,” and “The Grudge.”

    Peter Dinklage, an acclaimed American actor, currently resides in Upstate New York, having previously lived in Williamsburg, NYC. Fans may catch a glimpse of him in Downtown West Side, Manhattan. His most celebrated movies include “The Hunger Games,” “Elf,” “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” and “The Station Agent.”

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    Srdjan Ilic

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  • Actually, Spotify Does Pay Their Artists

    Actually, Spotify Does Pay Their Artists

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    After Universal Music Group, the largest record label in the industry, took all their artist’s music off TikTok after failure to reach an agreement on AI usage of their artists and safety…people are now more than ever looking into how artists are treated on platforms where their music is the main focus. For TikTok, it’s detrimental- they tried to punish UMG, and now they’re paying the price.

    At the 2024 Grammy Awards this Sunday, there were tons of controversial moments: should Taylor have brought Lana Del Rey onstage, should this person have won, what was that person wearing? But one of the more subtle digs was taken by host Trevor Noah, who commented on the UMG-TikTok battle by including another well-known streaming platform,

    “Shame on you, TikTok, for ripping off artists. How dare you do that? That’s Spotify’s job!”

    Without artists and their music, there would be no streaming platform to be had…and Spotify knows that, which is why they’ve been tracking their royalty payments to the music industry though their Loud & Clear report. The Loud & Clear report comes out every March and shows exactly how Spotify pays it back. According to their site,

    “Nearly 70% of that revenue is paid back as royalties to rights holders, who then pay the artists and songwriters, based on the agreed terms.”

    This means that whatever Spotify is making from these artists and labels, and their music, they’re making sure it gets back to them. It should be a mutually beneficial experience: one where both the artist and their representation feels safe that their work will be valued and protected (and thus, properly compensated), and where the platform also gains traction from the artist’s fans.

    Today, Spotify announced that they’ve paid labels over $9 billion to give us a glimpse of their Loud & Clear report. In an exclusive statement to Popdust, a Spotify spokesperson states,

    “Spotify paid record labels and publishers – which represent artists and songwriters – more money than ever in 2023: $9B+. That figure has nearly tripled over the past six years, and represents a big part of the $48B+ Spotify has paid since its founding.”

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    Jai Phillips

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  • Bob Ross A Walk in the Woods Painting With Signature for Sale | Entrepreneur

    Bob Ross A Walk in the Woods Painting With Signature for Sale | Entrepreneur

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    A one-of-a-kind painting by beloved artist Bob Ross is up for sale for almost $10 million at auction.

    The oil-painted canvas titled “A Walk in the Woods” is set to fetch $9.8 million at the Modern Artifact auction house in Minneapolis. According to the auction house, it was the first painting to be featured on the first-ever episode of Ross’ famed show “The Joy of Painting” in 1983.

    The piece is signed by Ross and comes with a certificate of authenticity from Bob Ross, Inc. It also includes a written note from the painting’s original unidentified owner, who was present when Ross painted the piece.

    RELATED: Bob Ross’s Guide to Connecting With an Audience

    The painting, which features Ross’ signature “happy little trees” surrounded by a body of water, “is the most historically significant Bob Ross original painting ever created,” the auction house states on the painting’s listing. “It is exceedingly rare to find any Bob Ross episode pieces, and this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to own the very first one,” it added.

    Ross’ show, where he taught viewers how to paint detailed landscapes, aired from 1983 to 1994. Throughout his career, he made about 30,000 paintings, per Modern Artifact, until he died of lymphoma at the age of 52 in 1995.

    “The driving force behind the increased demand for Bob Ross paintings seems to be collectors themselves,” Modern Artifact owner Ryan Nelson said in a statement, per CNN. “Nostalgia, social media, and an increased interest by the general public in the personality behind the art have all contributed to his current popularity.”

    RELATED: ‘This Can’t Be Real’: Man Finds an Oil Painting of His Living Room in a London Art Gallery

    “A Walk in the Woods” is available for purchase on ModernArtifacts.com.

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    Sam Silverman

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  • Painting Thrifted for $4 Revealed to Be $250K Wyeth Original | Entrepreneur

    Painting Thrifted for $4 Revealed to Be $250K Wyeth Original | Entrepreneur

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    In 2017, a woman walked into a thrift store in New Hampshire looking for frames to repurpose when a painting stood out.

    It portrays two women, one sits in a chair, and the other stands beside her, putting a hand out on the table between them. Priced for only $4 at Savers thrift store in Manchester, New Hampshire, the woman told CNN that, having an uncanny resemblance to the work of American 20th-century painter N.C. Wyeth, she joked about it actually being one of his original pieces.

    Unable to find information about the piece online, she hung it up in her home for years, before eventually storing it in a closet, where it remained untouched until this past May, while she was cleaning her home.

    Related: Rare Penny Sells at Auction for $1.1 Million. Here’s How to See If You Have One in Your Swear Jar.

    This time, the woman posted a picture of the painting in a Facebook group, “Things Found in Walls,” where users share stories about pieces found in homes or elsewhere.

    The painting is only one of four in a collection by the prolific American painter, N.C. Wyeth. Bonhams Skinner.

    Comments flooded in, eventually prompting the woman to seek expert help from former curator Lauren Lewis, who had worked with Wyeth’s art for decades. After Lewis saw the painting in person, she was “99 percent” positive it was authentic, the Boston Globe reported.

    “While it certainly had some small scratches and it could use a surface clean, it was in remarkable condition considering none of us had any idea of its journey over the last 80 years,” Lewis told the outlet.

    After further investigation, the painting was, in fact, confirmed to be not only a Wyeth original but only one of four in a collection the painter did in 1939 for Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel Ramona. According to auctioneer Bonhams Skinner — where the painting will be up for grabs in September — only one other piece in the collection has been recovered.

    The woman’s $4 thrift find will be available for auction on September 19th, and Bonhams lists the piece as having estimated starting bids between $150,000 and $250,000.

    Related: Michael Jordan’s Jersey Breaks Sports Memorabilia Record with $10.1 Million Sale

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    Madeline Garfinkle

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  • 7 Tips to Build a Successful Art Business | Entrepreneur

    7 Tips to Build a Successful Art Business | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    What is an artist? Ask an art purist, and they’ll tell you that art exists for its sake and for expression alone. Therefore, an artist exists to create art. This outdated definition feeds into that romantic idea of a “starving artist.” Someone who lives for their art, so much so that they’re willing to go hungry and penniless rather than “sell out” by making money for their work.

    It’s 2023, though, and we need to update our definition of an artist. Artistic ability does not know gender, age or sexuality. And it doesn’t require you to give up your money, energy or goals to express it.

    An artist is someone who values themselves and their work — and doesn’t shy away from building a successful livelihood around it. You can be an artist, but you can also be an entrepreneur. Or art-preneur.

    Related: How to Build a Business as a Working Artist

    What is an art-preneur?

    As an “art-preneur,” you’re not just an artist, you’re a brand. You’re not just a painter or sculptor or filmmaker; you’re a CEO. A marketer. A strategist. Of course, it also means you’re a bookkeeper, salesperson and your own administrative assistant.

    When blending art and business together, you become not only the sole creator of your product but also the CEO of your business. You are in charge of how your art business performs.

    You make the decisions, you call the shots. And to be honest, you’re going to make mistakes on the CEO side of things. But that’s all part of the fun. It’s how you learn and improve as an art-preneur. But how can you, as an artist, embrace your entrepreneurial side so you can make a living from your art?

    Here are 7 ways:

    1. Learn how to market yourself

    Paint one collection, and put it up for sale. If the collection doesn’t sell (or doesn’t sell as well as you hoped), what should you do? The first step is finding a new way to market yourself, your art brand and your collection.

    There are many different ways to market products and services out there, so I’ll share a tip with you: Find a marketing style that feels right to you.

    You’re an artist, so you have a creative mind already. Use it. You don’t have to use traditional marketing tactics or learn all the marketing jargon to do it successfully. Do what feels right to you. That might include teaching in-person workshops, hosting a Q&A on social media, dropping exclusive prints or working on commission for a limited time.

    Try different strategies if you’re not sure how you’d prefer to market yourself. See what performs well and what feels authentic to you. The main thing to remember is to get your art and brand in front of people who want to buy.

    2. Fill in your calendar

    Hope is not a strategy. This is a tough love moment, but you need a solid business plan from the get-go — something more tangible than hope.

    The best way to get past the pipe dream stage and into something actionable? Use a calendar. Digital calendar, pretty planner, old-school calendar you can nail to the wall: It’s up to you. Choose a goal, such as “sell X number of paintings,” and pick a deadline for your goal.

    Then work backward and fill in your calendar. Fill in events like:

    • Collection drops

    • Art shows

    • Commission works

    • Courses or workshops

    • Any upcoming projects

    • Any upcoming events

    With these events, how can you use them to reach your goal? Maybe you push commissions during your downtime. Or you hype up new collection drops earlier than you originally planned.

    When you have your goal planted in your calendar and your events filled in, your strategy for reaching said goal will start to take shape.

    3. Be present on social media

    Social media gives you a direct connection to art lovers and your ideal collectors. That’s why it’s so important to keep your social media updated and to stay present.

    Announce new collection launches and upcoming events. Promote last chances to buy products, or tease a new piece that’s dropping soon. Share anything and everything related to your business. Give your followers all the information they need to buy your art.

    Related: How to Build and Maintain a Successful Art Career

    4. Create an art brand

    Art-preneurship is not just about focusing on your art. It’s about creating an art brand for your art business. To develop a brand that stands out just as much as your art, ask yourself:

    • What’s your “why?” Why do you make your art?

    • What sets you (as an artist) and your art (as your product) apart from others?

    • Who is your market? How can you best reach them?

    Whether you’re showing up on Instagram or hosting your art in a gallery, remember that people are buying you as much as they’re buying your pieces. When you know your why, what and who, you’ll be able to show up in ways that are authentic and unique. At the end of the day, that helps your art get more reach (and more sales).

    5. Look to your community

    Your audience is more than subscribers or followers — it’s all the people you have in your community and your network. Your relationships with people online and offline can help you find success as an art-preneur and increase your reach to new places.

    Make a list of all the different groups you belong to, like art communities, churches or worship groups, business networks or masterminds, neighborhood groups and so on.

    How can you leverage your connections in these communities in a way that feels mutually beneficial? Are there people you’re close to in your life who can spread the word about your art? People in your life can offer you valuable support that you can’t buy, but you’re richer for having.

    6. Get comfortable with numbers

    As artists, it might seem like we’re just not wired to manage the financial side of things. You might even hate doing it. But as an art-preneur, learning how to manage your finances is part of the job title.

    Start small, and start with the basics. Keep track of what you’re spending and what you’re making. Know how your art is selling. From these basic numbers, you can get a sense of the health of your business and predict how it will do in the future.

    Related: 5 Non-Negotiables When Building a Successful Art Business

    7. Take risks

    As an artist, you’re already used to taking risks. Every time you put paint to the canvas or clay to the wheel, you’re taking a risk. As an art-preneur, the risk might seem even more substantial, but the alternative is staying where you are, feeling like you can’t make a living from your art.

    It boils down to deciding which risk you’re willing to take: The risk of trying something new — or not trying anything at all.

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    Jodie King

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  • How Technology Can Help Artists Make Money Through Their Online Audiences | Entrepreneur

    How Technology Can Help Artists Make Money Through Their Online Audiences | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    This story was originally reported on ReadWrite.com.

    It’s been no secret that the music industry has been struggling over the past couple of decades. After years of spiraling album sales, the industry hit a new low in 2016, with just over 100 million units sold — a nearly 14% decrease from the previous year, reflecting declines in both physical and digital album sales.

    That’s not the whole story, of course. The music industry’s sluggish sales gave way to music streaming, which overtook physical music in terms of revenue last year. With streaming music’s revenues skyrocketing to $6.6 billion — representing growth of 41% — the music industry has championed streaming as its new golden goose.

    Related: How to Build a Go-to-Market Strategy That Prevents Risk

    This is a good change — the music industry lost billions by fighting the shift to streaming. By focusing on CDs and digital downloads, never mind the fact that CDs saw an 84% decline in sales over a decade, the industry found itself “fighting over pennies while waving goodbye to dollars,” as The New York Times pointed out.

    Musicians take the hit

    This sea change of embracing the technology the music industry once feared hasn’t necessarily paid off for musicians, however. Music manager Troy Carter told TechCrunch that labels are hoarding the royalties earned through streaming, keeping more than 70% of the fees. The contracts musicians sign with labels are intended to drive revenue for the record labels, not the artists themselves. The common refrain is that for every 20 artists signed to a label, only one is successful — with that math, it makes sense that labels hedge their bets to fund all 20.

    Carter believes, however, that streaming payouts could approach CDs’ revenue heyday as more users sign up. Platforms like Repost are making the same bet. The platform, designed to help musicians make a living through their online audiences, works with artists and their teams to monetize their music distribution and promote their work.

    Related: The Newest Workplace Trend Has HR Sounding The Alarm

    Despite the democratization of many platforms and technologies, it’s been incredibly difficult for musicians to monetize their content, and fragmentation is a big part of the problem. “The music industry is way more complicated than it needs to be,” says Repost’s CTO Joey Mason. “Despite all of the advancement in tech, the structures in place on the revenue collection side are incredibly inefficient. To make matters worse, the copyright rules and regulations differ for each territory, so often, it’s not cost-effective to try to collect revenues in certain territories.”

    Mason says that for artists, this problem is compounded by the fact that there’s no seamless way to collect all of their earnings. They’d have to work with multiple entities — performing rights organizations, publishers, labels, distributors — to collect every cent they’ve entitled to. This forces artists to spend more time developing business skills than creating new music.

    Consolidating an entire industry

    When Mason and his co-founder, CEO Jeff Ponchick, built Repost, they aimed to eliminate as many of the distractions for artists as they could. They recognized that most of the artists they spoke to struggled primarily in terms of exposure — they hit a wall as independent musicians and needed help getting to the next step. These independent musicians then faced a laundry list of tasks: optimize music on every platform; earn press write-ups; find promotional outlets; collect checks from SoundCloud, YouTube, etc.

    Related: 10 Best Entrepreneurial Events To Attend Before 2023 Is Over

    Seeing how confusing and draining this was for artists, Repost built itself as a one-stop shop for doing everything. By eliminating multiple distribution and payment touchpoints, the platform also removed the burden of dealing with a variety of infrastructures, accounting practices, and more.

    “A lot of people don’t know the difference between a music distributor and a record label,” Ponchick says. “For a distributor, we’d be seen as insanely expensive, taking 30 percent of artists’ money while others take 5 percent. But we offer label services and marketing the way a record label does, without taking any ownership of the music itself. It’s a way to make it OK to remain independent, for musicians to avoid signing with a label. They can make $20,000 to $30,000 per month and retain ownership.”

    Chance the Rapper is one well-known indie artist who’s avoided the dreaded “sellout” label and made a successful go of it. While his success is considered a “fairytale” within the industry, Repost’s team aims to make independent success attainable. It started its quest with an algorithm. Artists apply to join Repost’s platform with their SoundCloud IDs; the platform’s algorithm combs the artist’s channel, assessing her average play count per upload, follower count, and biggest and smallest track to determine her likelihood of making money through the platform.

    This data-driven approach has resulted in 100,000 rejected applications and 5,000 acceptances. But it enables Repost to put its focus and efforts behind the artists who are best positioned to benefit from its hands-on bevy of services, ensuring it doesn’t spread itself too thin or do what many in the music industry have done: sold a bill of goods to artists.

    Making tech music’s best friend

    Repost has recognized one thing many — other than artists — have failed to see: It’s inherently difficult to manage the varied tech infrastructures presented by SoundCloud, Spotify, YouTube, and others. And that remains true whether an artist is independent or well-established, selling out arenas.

    “Every music platform is unique in how its content is delivered, monetized, and consumed. In order to maximize revenue, artists need to have a solid understanding of best practices and a monetization strategy for each store,” Mason says. “They need to work with a distributor that provides them a high level of insight and control of their content on a per-platform basis.”

    Unfortunately, Mason says, most distributors take the one-size-fits-all approach, meaning artists’ revenue generation can’t be maximized. Repost has sidestepped that issue by building deep technical integrations with the platforms artists value most, with an emphasis on marketing, monetization, and content protection. And it’s worked: Repost’s client base has been driven through word of mouth, and it’s currently paying tens of millions of dollars to artists annually.

    Related: 3 Studies Show What Sustainability Really Does to Your Bottom Line

    For example, Repost does fingerprinting through YouTube to drive revenue back to artists. Repost aggregates, packages, and delivers sound recording rights information to YouTube at scale for thousands of artists; using this data, YouTube utilizes audio fingerprinting to find videos on its platform that match the provided sound recording. When a match has been found, the YouTube video is “claimed” on behalf of the artist. Any advertisement or subscription revenues generated by the video are then sent back to the artist through Repost.

    Technology is making what was once impossible possible for the music industry, and it’s democratizing music creation. “Music production is cheaper and more accessible than ever before — anyone with a laptop and Ableton can produce a hit track,” Mason explains. “Because of this, a ‘middle class’ of musicians has emerged, and more and more money is shifting into the mid- and long tail. Record labels aren’t equipped to handle this scale. They’re not tech companies, and their business models are built around breaking a smaller roster of artists and, ultimately, taking ownership of their clients’ music.”

    Repost sees itself as a tech company in music, not a music company in tech. Because its business model is built around working with thousands, not hundreds, of artists, it’s invested heavily in automation. That’s enabled it to operate on a revenue-share model, not an ownership model. “This is better for creators, which is why so many artists are choosing to go independent rather than work with labels,” Mason says.

    While the music industry has been struggling for years, technology is on track to put an end to that. With companies like Repost applying automation and technology to the many hoops the industry has erected over the years, they’re putting music on a path to become as streamlined as businesses in other industries. And that’s exactly what music needs.

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    Brad Anderson

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  • Paul McCartney: New Beatles Song Made With AI Coming This Year | Entrepreneur

    Paul McCartney: New Beatles Song Made With AI Coming This Year | Entrepreneur

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    While some artists are vehemently against the use of artificial intelligence in art, others are leaning into the technology’s capabilities to create what otherwise wouldn’t be possible.

    During an interview with BBC released on Tuesday, Paul McCartney said the “last Beatles record” will be released as soon as this year. While McCartney, 80, along with Ringo Starr, 82, are the only two living Beatles members, the late John Lennon will appear on the new track — thanks to artificial intelligence.

    McCartney said an old demo of Lennon’s voice was “extricated” and then mixed with the record.

    “When we came to make what will be the last Beatles record, it was a demo that John had, that we worked on,” McCartney said in the interview. “We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this A.I., so then we could mix the record, as you would normally do.”

    Related: ‘Biggest Risk of Artificial Intelligence’: Microsoft’s President Says Deepfakes Are AI’s Biggest Problem

    McCartney didn’t give any hints regarding the title or lyrics of the song, but he did say that it will be “released this year.”

    As far as the broader implications of the technology, McCartney voiced both excitement and apprehension.

    “It’s kind of scary but exciting because it’s the future,” he said. “We’ll just have to see where that leads.”

    Holly Tessler, a senior lecturer on the Beatles at the University of Liverpool, told the New York Times that using the late Lennon’s voice for a new track creates an “ethical gray area.”

    “We have absolutely no way of knowing, creatively, if John were alive, what he’d want to do with these or what he’d want his contribution to be,” she said.

    Related: A ‘Fake Drake’ Song Using Generative AI Was Just Pulled From Streaming Services

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    Madeline Garfinkle

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