All stories about "Galleries"

Web design zine, Openers Gallery, has a preview of photographer Yabuta Osami's project "Tokyo Bunny Girls." For the series, Osami took black-and-white pictures of bar hostesses in Downtown Tokyo. The artist says his photos are "erotic/sexy but elegant." The racy shots show tired-looking waifish women writhing around in lingerie and their trademark bunny ears. Osami cites magazine photography as a major influence, and his bunny girl photos have a documentary quality. I see these images as portraits of a hard profession-- they're far more sad than they are sexy. Some of the photos show the bar bunnies out on the streets, while others seem to capture the hostesses in their places of employment. More Tokyo bar bunny shots after the jump. [via]

This weekend the Berlin Biennial officially begins, sparking one of those rare occasions when the city's art community erupts in a fervent spasm of hyper-activity and shameless courting of visiting collectors. With so many events strategically opening to coincide with the Biennial's commencement, atheist artists across the city are actually praying to God for blue skies, reliable public transport, and bountiful prescription stimulants. As we've noted before, Berlin's cultural sector heavily depends on out-of-town collectors coming to the city to financially support the local scene, and the Berlin Biennial is one of three major art events that promises fiscal payback (the other two are Artforum and the annual gallery weekend). Openings, after-parties, bellini brunches, and exclusive private views will dominate the upcoming weekend, so here's a guide to help filter an otherwise overwhelming social agenda. It should be noted, by the way, that the easiest way to tell if you're in the right place is if Adel and Eva, the couple pictured here, are there too. (photo)

This weekend NYC will be crawling with art connoisseurs and industry alums. With nearly a dozen different art fairs and ten times as many noteworthy public and private events taking place all over Brooklyn an Manhattan, there are plenty of places to get your fill of art in all its forms. Whether your taste is post-minimalist or pop, or if you'd really rather just party, we list the best places to do so after the jump. (photo)

This year marks the 150th birthday of one of Berlin's most beloved artists. Heinrich Zille's photographs and comic drawings of the city's less glamorous neighborhoods, lumpenproletariat inhabitants, and their hard-won amusements helped the city see itself as never before. Like his friend and comrade Kathe Kollwitz, Zille had an eye for the injustices of the era and the sufferings of the poor and downtrodden working class warehoused in Berlin's tenements, saying famously "one can kill a man with an apartment as easily as with an axe." His books and prints found an audience not only among the leftists and working classes of the day but also with members of the city's cultured elite -- the National Gallery bought works in 1921, and three years later he was nominated for membership in the prestigious Prussian Academy of Art.

Berlin is a beloved destination for avant-garde aficionados -- especially admirers of graffiti, that illegal aesthetic practice that garnered its own task force in New York back in the 1990s under Rudolph Giuliani's "broken window" theory of government. Thankfully, Berlin has yet to demonize its urban artists, and all forms of street art remain an integral staple of Berliner Kultur, as evidenced by both the continuing prevalence of graffiti on the city's landscape as well as the recent publication of Benjamin Wolbergs' impressive city guide/anthology, Urban Illustration Berlin. Street art, generally the work of the global counter culture's more subversive agents, has also invaded the commercial gallery sphere, movie theaters, boutiques, and other locales beyond the sidewalk. Here's an introductory sample of Berlin venues that offer multiple perspectives on outlaw aesthetics and lowbrow culture -- for the street art novice to the contemporary urban art scholar and everyone in between.

Nestled just north of LA's financial district and a mere three blocks from start to finish, Grand Avenue's row of theatres and museums constitute the epicenter of downtown's artistic world. The LA Phil and Opera are both housed here, as are a decent number of theater and dance groups. If you prefer your art a little more abstract -- or you prefer your company a little more hipsterrific -- there are a couple galleries unlikely to disappoint. And if all else fails, more than one of these places has more than one bar. Because while art is meant to be taken in through sober contemplation, it doesn't really lose all that much ethos after a drink or four.

Last night's episode of Gossip Girl was even more of a cultural milestone than usual because it showcased the work of an emerging artist, Martha Walker, who in addition to being an amazing sculptor, is also my mom. Her art appeared during a scene that involved the writer dude and one of the storylines with the old people, so I kind of lost track what was going on. It's basically impossible for me to pay attention to Gossip Girl if it's not one of the parts with scantily clad teenage girls drinking martinis. Sorry mom!

For serious art lovers/buyers on the lookout for galleries during a stop in Tokyo, chances are you'll have had the Tomio Koyama Gallery recommended to you. This fall saw the opening of an extension to the famous gallery, this time in the city's stylish Daikanyama district and featuring an interior design by renowned architect Ryue Nishizawa (one half of SANAA, whose latest project is the recently opened New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York). TKG Daikanyama (29-18-A1 Sarugakucho, 03-3780-2150) is currently showing a collection of works from a diverse group (Damien Hirst, Dennis Hollingworth, Mika Ninagawa and Peter Wu), and even though both galleries include small shops, make sure to check out the TKG Editions gallery shop in Ginza (Ginza Casa 1F, 1-22-13 Ginza, 03-5250-1561) for a rather nice assortment of goods from artists that have shown at the two galleries.

Tomio Koyama Gallery [Official site]

Oh how I want to involve myself in the illustrious world of art, to be high cultured and enlightened. 'Art' I have been told is for the masses but since when do the masses have free time to go and look at a penis hanging on the wall. Especially if it costs 10 AUD to see one. Unfortunately Sydney has decades to go until it can consider itself a competitive art city alongside New York, London and Berlin. I'm no art major, but even I can see how behind we are as a city in the art world. Nonetheless, these are some good places to start off with if you want to feel arty and cultured in Sydney

It's the latest thing -- boutiques across Los Angeles are doubling as galleries, and vice versa. More and more fashionable lifestyle stores are supporting local artists by putting together shows and hosting art openings. The merch at these shops ranges from Japanese street couture to Vivienne Westwood, and the art runs the gamut from surrealist portraits to industrial multimedia. Add a little culture to that consumerism: Stop in for a distressed tee, walk out with an oil painting.

Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is widely considered an artistic community by those who come to sup in its restaurants and drink in its bars. Everybody loves to recount the heroic tale of how the first homesteading artists crossed the East River in the eighties and nineties, casting off the shackles of high SoHo rents and unleashing their creative souls in derelict Williamsburg warehouses. Such stories might make the booze taste better, but most visitors to Williamsburg step nary a vintage sneaker into an actual art gallery. Fortunately, true seekers of artiness will find well over a dozen bona fide art galleries in the 11211, where area artists present their latest work and openings feature free chardonnay and little cubes of cheese. Befitting the neighborhood's weirdo status, most galleries focus on the unusual and avant-garde -- check the Upper East Side for paintings of braying horses and thundering waterfalls -- but you're sure to find something worth chatting about over Jägerbombs later in the evening at these Williamsburg art galleries.

Cartographers (ourselves among them) have long considered maps an art form. Check out the most recent addition to the canon at the Maya Stendhal Gallery, where artist Paula Scher exhibits her intricate and intriguing map paintings. Her work covers everything from the tsunami in Southeast Asia to the New York City subway map to the contested area around the Gaza Strip. Until January 26. [via]

I don't just write for magazines -- I also have an extreme love for them, one that can get, I'll admit, a bit dirty. It's therefore my obligation to point out the current exhibition taking place at the Ginza Graphic Gallery, "Welcome to Magazine Pool: Ten Creators Crossing Boundaries for Magazine Design." In celebration of the Japan Magazine Publishers Association and the Japan Book Publishers Association's 50th anniversary, the show brings together the works of ten top magazine art directors and designers, with the first floor dedicated to work created specifically for the show -- and also published as a special limited print run issue of the Singaporean magazine WERK. The second floor is devoted to examples of each participant's groundbreaking work.

Photography as an artistic medium has become so popular that it now represents a significant component of offerings on view at major London art galleries and museums. A day of traipsing round a big retrospective may make you feel you've ticked "Culture" off your to-do list, but it's incredibly tiring and can be so overwhelming that you stop looking at the art and start looking for a place to sit down. Photography is well represented at places such as the National Portrait Gallery, but the photography galleries of London are thriving and have more comprehensive collections where you can browse, discuss the work, and perhaps end up falling in love with a piece and taking it home. If you're not just looking to invest but to find art you truly respond to, photography can be surprisingly affordable, especially with the rise of interest free loan schemes such as Own Art. Here, in no particular order, is a selection of London galleries specializing in photography.

Brunnenstrasse, a street in Berlin's Mitte that lured at least ten new galleries to its once derelict, junkie-ridden real estate over the past year, has officially grown up and gone global. The street was profiled in both the New York Times travel section and on artnet.com. Last month, Kunsthalle Bergen invited five Brunnenstrasse galleries to participate in a group exhibition (on view until November 11), thereby relocating a portion of Berlin's raging art scene to Norway's quaint western coastline. The show's title, "Wir haben keine Probleme" (We have no problems), is meant to encapsulate both Berlin's creative potential and, ironically, its economic shortcomings. However, the participating galleries represent just a fraction of the numerous spaces that have marked their territory in the hippest emerging art district in town.

The thing about London -- as everyone always says -- is that you need to be rich to have a good time. A taxi will cost more than you had hoped to pay for dinner; a night out could cost more than a week's rent. Frankly, people on seriously healthy salaries struggle to maintain a decent standard of living. So what's the budding urban sophisticate to do? Stay home watching TV? Turn to crime? Move? Insist on only frequenting cheap, scummy locales? Well, not quite. There is free stuff to be had in this city, and ways and means of gaining access to a more luxurious way of life. We don't recommend stooping so low as crashing a film premiere party and stuffing your clutch bag with hors d'oeuvres (at least we'll pretend we didn't see you doing that). But there are lots of (legal) ways to enjoy the gratis and discounted events and services available. Some require a certain level of cheekiness and confidence, but with your dazzling smile and charm, we're sure you'll be fine.

The Frieze Art Fair runs from October 11-14. A fixture on the international contemporary art scene, it provides a concentrated showcase for galleries from both London and all over the world. Tickets cost from £7.50 (concession) to £50 (four-day ticket), depending on when you buy and what type of ticket you want. However, the Fair sells out pretty quickly and can be a somewhat daunting experience for the civilian (my term for those not used to the contemporary art world) or the first-timer. Your senses are assaulted by the sheer number of people, the noise associated with those people, and the amount and variety of artworks on offer. If the Frieze is for you, excellent, it's great fun! It also provides an unparalleled opportunity to compare works by different artists and from different galleries. However, if you feel like skipping the Frieze, or if you want to ease yourself in gently, here are some recommendations of London galleries exhibiting at the Frieze for you to enjoy at your leisure.

In recent years, Berlin's Kochstrasse has become home to more than just Checkpoint Charlie, the former border crossing that came to symbolize a divided Berlin. This historic street, located in the heart of the city, has also begun to attract contemporary art galleries like moths to a light -- the light being cheap and abundant exhibition space. The address Kochstrasse 60-61, housed in an industrial building from the 1920s, boasts a tenant roster that reads like an art directory. This beautifully renovated space is now home to seven galleries of international repute, with constant rumors circulating about others eyeing the enclave as their next permanent residence. Kochstrasse is also where Spesshardt+Klein opened last month, looking to exploit the district's energy before the Berlin art flame burns out or fades away. It's been suggested by Monopol magazine that Kochstrasse will be renamed after Rudi Dutschke, the voice of the German leftist student movement in the 1960s but until then, check out the galleries who call Kochstrasse 60-61 home.