333 East 47th Street

Some art shows that I have been excited about (talking to you Younger Than I’ll Be at BAM) are disappointing in their scope, offering little more than the images released online, the incredible, awe inspiring, amazingly inspiring and exquisitely beautiful Utagawa Kuniyoshi exhibit: Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters at the Japan Society is the exact opposite. Room after room offered more stunning work in this comprehensive exploration of the artist career is almost overwhelming – but in a most excellent way. My dad exclaimed it to be the best art show he’s ever been to, and if these close up images strike your fancy at all (and they are really only poor quality photos from my camera off the exhibit book) you need to see this in person. I walked away so completely inspired and can guarantee you will too.

The museum itself is also worth noting as a pretty neat spot that also features Japanese language classes, sake tastings, and other events including film screenings. Some limited reproduction prints as well as a beautiful book are available for sale on this particular exhibition.

Click here for the rest of Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters: Japanese Prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

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Posted on May 9, 2010

900 Exposition Blvd. Los Angeles, CA

It’s taken me awhile to get this entry together because I took so many photos at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, about 50 or so can be seen below/after the jump. Since a photo is worth a thousand words, I’ll keep it brief.

The museum, even though it may not rank as a must-see among locals (none have ever mention it to me), boasts the best of the museum world: A. animal dioramas; B. dinosaur bones; and C. a killer gem room (mmmm gem rooms….).

If you find yourself in the city on a rainy day – and every time I go I get at least one of those – this is a prefect distraction.

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Posted on April 18, 2010

9341 Venice Boulevard, Los Angeles

The Museum of Jurassic Technology is by far the strangest museum I’ve ever been to and was the top thing on my to-do list after missing out on it on my last visit to LA. It’s so unusual that I can’t really explain it to you but I can tell you that it’s got nothing to do with dinosaur machines. Dark and winding, the quiet two floor space contains everything from Hagop Sandaldjian‘s Goofy sculpture the size of a needle head to a collection of Decaying Dice from Ricky Jay.

My favorite section may have been the one about various old wives tales and superstitions complete with dioramas of mice on toast, children’s hand growing hair and a man kissing a goose. I was also pretty taken with Athanasius Kircher‘s confounding but beautiful creations and where else can you walk into a velvet room and be confronted with large oil portraits of Soviet Space Dogs. There are trailer park models, more art that needs to be viewed through a microscope (the pretty but pretty insane work of Henry Dalton) and a myriad of other things that I could barely even wrap my head around. It was tough to get too many photos with the low light, but there’s enough below/after the jump to intrigue you to make your own visit.

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Posted on February 28, 2010

437 East 9th St

Leave it to Giant Robot NY to turn me into a little art collector! The Metal Mad show caught my attention when Paul Lyons, whose work is featured, sent a note out the other day… heavy metal art sounded like something I could not miss out on.

It’s a fun, small collection of skulls, bosoms, swords and beastly animals. I am/am soon to be (the show is up until March 3rd) the proud owner of Paul’s grotesquely awesome marker drawings and a fantastically creepy Audobon-esque painting of headless bat-birds battling in a black sky by Aaron Brown. These three pieces were my personal favorites, but there’s lots of great stuff to see.

Hannah Stouffer‘s dreamy, bloody paintings are lovely, the black and white pen and ink drawings by Louie Cordero call to mind the horrors of a Charles Burns comic and are fab. I was also smitten with the Bear Horde drawing by French and the intricate creations from Jeremiah Maddock. Oh, and Tom Neely‘s Wolves in the Throne rules.

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Posted on February 14, 2010

Home of the Salvador Dali Museum

Figueres is about a two hour train ride from Barcelona, through landscapes that are in turn industrial, rural, urban, vineyardy before finally stopping at the little town Salvador Dali put on the map. It’s a short walk from the station to the eye popping museum, but not well marked, so we foolishly took a cab about three blocks.

The museum, Dali’s former home, is as wild as you can imagine from the outside, and I can only really do it justice by asking you to take a look at the photos we took (though, they are no substitution for actually being there either!).

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Posted on January 17, 2010