Gallery Spotlight: Pop-Up Art Loop

In the time of the recession, cities all over the world have started using empty storefronts as pop-up art galleries. Pop-Up Art Loop is the latest initiative put into place by the Chicago Loop Alliance and features four art galleries, creating partnerships between artists and property owners.

Gallery Spotlight: Os Gemeos “Vertigo” at Brazilian Art Museum

00_1Brothers Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo’s, better known as Os Gemeos (Portuguese for “the twins”), first exhibition ever in their hometown of São Paulo, Brazil is currently on display through December 15 at the Brazilian Art Museum. Recognized worldwide for their graffiti, Vertigo, also incorporates painting, sculpture and sound objects.

Gallery Spotlight: Design Festa Gallery East & West

main000Located in Tokyo’s Harajuku district, home of Japanese fashion, Design Festa Gallery East and West is unlike any art gallery you’ve seen before. The West branch of the gallery opened in 1998 in support of Asia’s biggest art event, Design Festa and in 2007, the East branch opened just across the street.

Painting Today

Painting Today, PhaidonPainting Today
Tony Godfrey, Phaidon Press, $75, 448 pages, hardcover

Every painting student within the last 40 years has been told painting is dead.  But we continue to surround ourselves with paintings, to visit museums and galleries, and to read books filled with images of paintings.  And the market still values paintings — Yue Minjun’s Execution, painted in 1985 and originally sold for $5,000 is now worth almost $6 million.

Author Tony Godfrey picks up on Art Today’s tradition, of using the prestige and magic of print, to effectively create a timeless capsule of paintings from the last forty years. His collection of paintings, arranged by theme, act as an introduction to the major movements in contemporary painting.