Culture

Premiering in March is the punk art and music exhibit Wheelchair Epidemic at the Gallery Lombardi in Austin, Texas. The exhibit’s namesake is a throwback to the punk of yore, in honor of Texan hardcore punk pioneers The Dicks. Featured are works by Win Wallace (drawings), Tim Kerr (mixed media), Brian Curley (drawings and paintings), Susan Antone (photography), Bill Daniels (photography), Ian Schults, and artwork by The Dicks members Gary Floyd and Buxf Parrot.

“It is a nervous time, and artists respond to that.”

Unmonumental was published in conjunction with the inaugural exhibition of the New Museum of Contemporary Art, that fancypants, $50 million, are-you-smart-enough, stacked-tower-of-whiteshoeboxes in NYC. “While we now have a beautiful new building, we are also keenly aware of not becoming too proper, polite, or institutional. On the contrary, we must continue to fearlessly confront challenging art.”

Now in its third incarnation, the re-releasing of $100 and a T-shirt is timely. Clocking in at just under an hour, the documentary acts as a “Zines For Dummies,” discussing the methods and ethics behind a handful of Northwest US zines. It gives a first-hand look into the people that give these tiny booklets life. The zine creators pay for each page out of their own pockets, print endless copies at Kinko’s, drink tons of coffee and smoke cigarettes, and celebrate their unique voices. The film’s soundtrack includes Defiance, Ohio and the late Lance Hann and J Church, suiting the rebellious nature of the content.

New York-based street artist Swoon – known for her life-sized paper cut-outs and wheatpasting – reemerges fresh off the boat at LA’s New Image Art this Saturday, February 16th, for her first West coast solo show. After spending time sailing down the Hudson and Mississippi rivers in a self-made flotilla with other boat punks, the multi-oriented grafitti artist has put together Drown Your Boats, inspired in part by British author Angela Carter’s posthumous short story collection, Burning Your Boats.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago recently closed Sympathy for the Devil, an exhibition on art and rock ‘n’ roll. The exhibition starts in 1967, the year when Andy Warhol began collaborating with The Velvet Underground, The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience released Are You Experienced. Along with the time frame, curator Dominic Molon placed parameters on what was to be included in the show, with an emphasis on the “art works themselves” instead of the aesthetics of record covers, club flyers, posters, and T-shirts we more comfortably relate to rock music.

Occupying the newly redesigned Feria de Madrid convention pavilion this week is Madrid’s annual International Contemporary Arts Fair, ARCO08. Expansions to this year’s program include all new allotments for performance art, media art, and works completed in the past three years. ARCO08 marks the ascent of Spain as an emerging artistic and culture center (akin to London and Paris). However, the belle of the ball this year is special guest country Brazil. From February 13^th to the 18^th, thirty two galleries comprise the collection of Brazil’s most prominent up and coming artists, immersing the once old world empire with new flavor.

Fortune Cookie Projects and The Proposition present the photographs of contemporary Chinese artists Zhou Xiaohu, Dong Wensheng, Wang Qingsong, and Chen Wei. The exhibition runs from February 2 – March 8 in New York.

Marvel Comics artist turned Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada will make his second appearance on “The Colbert Report” this Tuesday, January 29. Quesada made his first appearance in July of 2006, baffling Colbert with news of Captain American not siding with the US government.