Doug Aitken’s installation – Black Mirror Featuring Chloe Sevigny

LA based artist Doug Aitken is most known for his innovative fine art installations but not limited. In 2007, Aitken’s “Sleepwalkers” exhibition at MoMA was able to transform a whole city block into an expansive cinematic experience. His work, which utilizes a wide array of media and artistic techniques, ranging from photography, sculpture, film, and  sound can be seen on display in London, in a new solo exhibition in London taking over both floors of Victoria Miro. The exhibition  includes a specially reconfigured presentation of his acclaimed multi-channel film installation Black Mirror, alongside new wall-and floor-based sculptures and light box works.  Check out more HERE.

In the upper gallery Aitken’s film installation Black Mirror explores the story of a nomadic individual, set in a modern wilderness: a geography constructed of calls, electronic messages, and virtual documents superimposed over the physical world. It is a portrait of people who are the products of a society that has lost track of information and is saturated with change. The characters move in shorthand, they communicate in quick pulses, they travel long distances for short meetings. They depart quickly. The protagonist, a young woman played by American star Chloë Sevigny, exists in the borderless world of Black Mirror where people live fast lives in the shadows. These are the people you pass and don’t identify at the airport terminal, the hotel lobby and the car rental kiosk. Black Mirror explores modern life accelerated. Like a river of light moving on the highway, we’re all on this road, but this is the story of those for whom the road is existence; those who don’t step back to breathe the air, those who never stagnate or stop… this is “the now.” (http://www.victoria-miro.com/exhibitions/_425/)



Backstage Photo Pass with Elodie Chapuis

Posted in New Art, Photography

Meet Elodie Chapuis, the newest member of the discosalt Artist Collective.  Since she began photography in 2006,  Elodie has contributed her music and fashion photography to a slew of culture magazines and fashion projects.  In 2007, she spent 4 days covering the Roskilde Festival in Denmark; the first step towards a personal artistic project to photograph live performances and off stage portraits.  Elodie’s work in music, has lead her to several solo and collective exhibitions and she is constantly looking for new upcoming artists and bands to photograph. Some of her work includes The Kills, Franz Ferdinand, The Drums, Razorlight, Florence & The Machine, The XX, Iggy & The Stooges, Cold War Kids,  PJ Harvey, The Strokes among others. For updates, check back soon to find more of Elodie’s work in the collective here.

Dan Mountford Doubles his Exposure

Posted in New Art, top story

At just 20 years old, revealing little background information, English photographer/ graphic designer Dan Mountford has created a professional portfolio which already includes clients like EMI Records. His series of portraits titled The Worlds Inside of Us, is a surreal visual journey into the minds of his subjects, using the process of double exposure and photoshop to create thoughtful, captivating and superbly composed images. You can purchase prints through Dan’s shop or see more of his work on flickr.

Impenetrable Boundaries of Steel, Glass and Concrete

Posted in New Art, top story


Before immigrating to Europe and studying at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, Algerian Driss Ouadahi studied architecture. His paintings of the ubiquitous high-rise, the legacy of Modern Architecture’s failed promise to improve the human condition, are renderings of impenetrable boundaries of steel, glass and concrete.

Ouadahi’s exploration begins with images of the enormous public housing developments in Algiers that had been modeled on France’s habitation à loyer modéré (housing at moderated rents). In North Africa, these monoliths accommodate displaced rural populations; in Europe, they house immigrants from former colonies. They are symbols of the politics of class, religion and ethnicity. Reminders of otherness.

In addition to the permutations of cityscape which Ouadahi has been exploring in the last few years, his work consists of two new types of paintings. The first are rigorously formal renderings of chain-link fencing that are both minimalist abstractions and a signifier of separation. The second are depictions of tiled passageways, akin to subway systems like the Paris Métro. Fluorescent-lit and grimy, they are labyrinthian and claustrophobic. Ostensibly their purpose is movement from one place to another. But they feel more like blocked escape routes or morgues. They speak to restricted mobility in a supposedly global culture.

SNEAK PEAK: TOP SECRET SARA BLAKE PROJECT + 100 GIRLS

Before she heads over to Auckland, NZ to speak at the amazing We Can Create conference series, a 2 day conference for creatives, discosalt artist Sara Blake is sharing some new work.  Not only can you can see more of Sara in the new issue of DISCOSALT Magazine, but she has been busy preparing new work for a side event exhibition with several incredible local artists as well. The exhibition will be the first installment of a year long project called 100 Girls—a personal exercise and exploration in creating a large body of work of one of her favorite subjects—pretty ladies. And Sara also has very hush hush top secret collaborations coming up as well, which you can sneak a peak at.

Below are some process images and sneak peaks of the 100 Girls series.

Here are some sneak peaks at Sara’s top secret project…shhhhh:

Support Photography and Skateboarding when you buy 43 Magazine

Posted in New Art, Photography

Magazines play an essential role in skateboarding’s heritage, documenting the culture. 43 is a free, independent, non profit, bimonthly skateboard magazine, with a clean art book feel, dedicated to quality, photography and arts devoted to the unfiltered portrait of real skateboarding. The magazine has been in development for well over a year now with New York City skateboard photographer Allen Ying carefully building it thoughtfully from the ground up, questioning every detail to result in a magazine that is as inspiring as the skateboarding featured in it.

If you like this project, head over to kickstarter to give some support. Funding is still needed to cover the paper, printing, distribution, and contributors. with your support, this will be a special 1st issue with minimal or no advertising. moving forward, we will fund future issues with advertisements on no more than 38% of the magazine’s pages.

 

TETRA TENNIS ANYONE?

Posted in New Art, top story


Video Mapping on the tennis ground of the French Masters series in Paris Bercy / 2010 from 1024architecture. This is their third consecutive mapping on the tennis ground. Running realtime, activated with a PS3 controller, powered by MadMapper software. More info on 1024architecture.net or their blog on 1024d.wordpress.com

URBAN ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: CT

Posted in New Art

For an urban artist, “CT” tells us that he didn’t grow up in a big metropolis. As a result,  he “wasn’t directly in contact with the more common writing dynamics, which at the beginning of 90’s established themselves in all European cities”.   CT’s environment took him in a different direction; influencing his way of thinking and  contributing to a different approach to “Graffiti” art. Without any stylistic references in his small town, he grew curious about the world of graffiti art in cities like New York and Berlin.  CT soon discovered a group of artists who were starting a stylistic/formal/conceptual revolution, able to lead Graffiti to a new level. This lead him to create urban art that has an old school spirit but also expresses his subjective vision of contemporaneity.

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NEW! IRON & WINE, MOGWAI GIGPOSTERS AND LOST HIGHWAY ART PRINT FROM DOE-EYED

Posted in New Art, top story


Eric Nyffeler has some sick new prints available at doe-eyed posters.  Two gigposters for Iron & Wine and Mogwai, as well as a really sweet Lost Highway art print for a David Lynch show at the Phone Booth Gallery.  Check out some of his work below or stop by his web shop and pick up a print.

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BEAUTIFUL AND DAMNED: POST-URBAN POP ART

Pam Glew’s forthcoming show features icons from the Roaring 20s, from silent movies to the golden age of cinema. The next generation post-urban pop artist uses her signature style of dyeing and bleaching vintage materials to create poignant portraits of the beautiful and the damned.

‘Beautiful and Damned’, the shows title, is of course taken from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1922 novel, which explores the listless lives of moneyed society during the Jazz Age. This captivating era, drenched in glamour yet tinged with tragedy is the decadent setting for this extraordinary series of work.  The exquisitely beautiful movie starlets, society icons and characters on display capture the spirit of the age all who are caught in the unforgiving glare of the limelight and some sadly burn out before their time. As Pam states, “the tragedy amongst the beauty is what has inspired this show, the sharp contrast between a blessed life and one that ends in scandal, hedonism or destitution”.


For this latest series, the artist uses found materials from the same period. This is the first time she has incorporated antiques into her work. Each piece is deconstructed, dyed, and repeatedly bleached until a portrait emerges from the cloth. Rather than add pigment, Glew takes away the pigments in layers, creating ghostly figures, which appear almost woven into the cloth. This technique, mastered by the artist, can also be seen in the ‘Flag’ series and ‘Circus’ series, these prolific luminaries’ faded portraits are not only responsive to the vulnerability of the characters but are also loaded with connotations of the fragility of all human life and the transcendent nature of all our lives. However, in this new body of work Glew explores colour and pattern as a contemporary re-invention of found materials. The vintage materials and antique techniques used, such as crewelwork, further highlight and bring to the surface the precious and tenuous lives of the characters featured.

Household names of the time feature in this ever so evocative exhibition, such as world famous vaudeville performer Josephine Baker, sultry screen goddess Marlene Dietrich and the pioneering aviators of the time Amelia Earhart the first female pilot to fly solo over the Atlantic, who went missing attempting to fly around the world and Charles ’Lucky Lindy’ Lindberg, whose child was notoriously kidnapped and murdered in the ‘Crime of the century’. These highly iconic figures, each with their own personal distressing life stories, represent the true spirit of the age.

Glew acknowledges the influence of some of the great Pop artists like Johns and Warhol while we also see a nod to women’s installation art and post-modern film theory allowing her to comment on contemporary society in a more poetic and subtle way than we usually see in the urban scene.  Her gentle and feminine approach to a sensitive subject matter could be the reason why she has been picked up by the likes of the actress of the moment

– Gemma Arterton.

 

 

FEATURED ARTIST PORTFOLIO: SARA BLAKE

Posted in New Art, top story

sara blake - discosalt artist

Check out the work from the newest member of the Discosalt Artist Collective: Sara Blake aka ZSO.

Sara is an illustrator and fine artist living and loving in New York City who mixes traditional illustration with digital techniques to create these amazing vivid and textured pieces.  After spending the last few years as an art director, graphic designer, and freelance illustrator, Sara is now a full-time illustrator, with some impressive projects under her belt; she has collaborated on campaigns with Marc Jacobs, Hurly, TedX Brooklyn, Nike House of Hoops and designed some really sick skatedecks with SGCNY.

Two years ago, Sara was featured in Yen Magazine as one of the the 120 “most exciting female graphic designers and illustrators” from 39 countries around the world and now a member of our collective, we are excited to follow her career and  looking forward to some bang-up collaborations real soon!  Follow her on her blog right here: http://www.hellozso.com/blog/

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JEFFREY CAPOSSELA’S NEW WORK INSPIRED BY BOWERY BALLROOM

Posted in New Art

Discosalt artist Jeffrey Capossela recently added some finishing touches on a rowdy new four panel project which draws influence from the 2nd floor bar window at New York’s live music venue The Bowery Ballroom.  Channeling the work of post-impressionist artists, Jeff creates his familiar aesthetic images by building layer upon layer of acrylic paint in brilliant pure colors to create simplified structures of form, in a ‘dream like’ manner.

Discosalt recently caught up with Jeff in Hells Kitchen to talk about the idea behind his new work “Bowery & Delancey”. Here is what he had to say:

JC: I really came up with the idea from just going to see live music and really loving the venue and how it makes me feel when I’m there. Warm ambient surroundings, amazing sound and just an all around arousing experience every time I step foot inside the venue. The first painting “Bowery & Delancey” is from the second floor bar and is an abstract impression of the inside atmosphere of the second floor and a peak of the downtown New York City street at night, traffic lights, cabs, neon, but all in all a controlled chaos. Below, you can see the actual window Jeff drew his inspiration from, the work in progress and the final painting.

JACK BLACK ADAPTING DANIEL CLOWES’: THE DEATH RAY FOR SCREEN

Posted in New Art, top story
Indie comic icon Daniel Clowes (Ghost World, Art School Confidential) recently re-released his out-of-print anti-superhero graphic novel, The Death-Ray through the Independent Comic Publisher Drawn & Quarterly.  In a similar vein as Clowes’ other graphic novels, the down beat  Death-Ray is a bit dark, at times, both deeply unnerving and sinister but also brimming with subtle hilarity.
Unlike the traditional superhero mythos, The Death-Ray hero of this novel  is an awkward outcast teenager named Andy who discovers he has superpowers through smoking cigarettes and then discovers a ray gun weapon, which enables him to eradicate anything he wants. “The Death-Ray utilizes the classic staples of the superhero genre – origin, costume, ray-gun. sidekick, fight scene – reconfiguring them in a story that is anything but morally simplistic. With subtle comedy, deft mastery and an obvious affection for the bold Pop Art exuberance of comic book design, Daniel Clowes delivers a contemporary meditation on the the darkness of the human psyche.” (press release)

Now, the darkly humored superhero deconstruction novel is  rumored to be adapted into a film by Jack Black’s Electric Dynamite Productions with a script from Clowes, under the direction of  music video and commercial director Chris Milk (The singing heart video for Gnarls Barkley’s Who’s Gonna Save My Soul).  The film will however, will reportedly take a slightly different direction with the story, most notably, changing the main character, Andy, to a middle-aged adult.

Looking for other Clowes reads? Check out some of our favorites:
20th Century Eightball: An anthology comic which features a collection of self-contained and serialized narratives
Wilson : A graphic novel about a passive-aggressive sad-sack who goes through life in Oakland making himself and others miserable.
Ghost World: A graphic novel which tells the story of two best friends, Enid and Rebecca, facing the prospect of growing up and apart.

 

Also, in the works for Clowes is  a collaborative film with Michel Gondry, titled Master of Space and Time based on a Rudy Rucker novel starring Jack Black and and Untitled Raiders project based on the true story of three boys who made a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark over the course of 7 years.

ONE YEAR OF YOUR LIFE, PAID FOR

Posted in New Art

How often do you sit around your boring job, wondering how many other productive ways you could be better spending your time? Like building a miniature Death Star replica out of recycled yogurt cups in your underwear while watching re-runs of Roseanne.  OR, maybe you just need more time to focus on your art or photography….

Either way, now you can join a world-wide open call to artists for self portraiture, awarding a Grand Prize package that includes One Year of Your Life, Paid For! Winning! Sounds pretty awesome, right? Well, before you start washing those yogurt cups,  go to Artists Wanted or Click Here for details how to Participate.

From Picasso to Bruce Nauman, Frida Kahlo to Rembrandt, Giacometti to Alice Neel – the self has been subject of endless exploration by the world’s greatest artists, allowing the discovery (and re-discovery) of artists’ personal identities and artistic styles. By entering this competition, you will be submitting your story and images to the world, getting feedback, recognition and the chance at what could not only be a serious life changing experience but to become the envy of your friends and colleagues.

Check out some previous winners & featured artists…Jealous?


 

 

 

 


Featured Photography Portfolio: Yusuf Sevincli

Meet Discosalt Artists Yusuf Sevincli. Born in Zonguldak, Turkey in 1980, Yusuf graduated from the Communication Faculty at Marmara University in Istanbul in 2002 and gained experience as a photographer for various newspapers and magazines between 2000 and 2004. In 2004, he completed a masterclass on documentary photography in Nordens Fotoskola, Sweden and now lives and works in Istanbul. Check out more of his work HERE.

FEATURED ARTIST PORTFOLIO: JASON WOODSIDE

Posted in New Art

Jason Woodside - Discosalt Artist
Discosalt Artist Jason Woodside has been hard at work making some new updates on his website which you can check out  HERE. You can watch a new video in the media section filmed by Philip Mansfield which shows some of his more recent work. Also, there’s a series of limited prints up online in the store. Each print is $100 and comes framed. They’re in the new line of work Jason has been doing and are cool if you want some of the artwork without having to buy an actual piece. Check out more of Jason’s work in the Discosalt Artist Collective and watch his new video after the jump.

Featured Photography Portfolio: Ana Cabaleiro

Posted in New Art, Photography

We are excited to welcome Ana Cabaleiro as a new member of  the Discosalt Artist Collective this month!

Escape the city, to a washed out world of  never ending sunny days, clean air and overwhelming natural beauty. In these spaces there are things to smell other than car-exhaust and there are textures to feel other than concrete or brick. Being there, photographing these types of areas simultaneously engages all of Ana’s sense in a pleasurable way, something that happens infrequently in the crowded and noisy urban environment.

Check out more of Ana’s work HERE.

URBAN ARTIST KID ZOOM EATING THIS CITY ALIVE

Aussie born/New York-based street artist Ian “Kid Zoom” Strange has been making some big moves in the urban art world. Last month, under the mentorship of Ron English, Strange put together his first international solo show: “This City Will Eat Me Alive…” at pop-up gallery in New Yorks Meatpacking district. The short run space was filled with a collection of work ranging from massive sculptures to even more massive paintings. Strange also put together a time lapse video this past summer overlooking NYC that you can check out after the bump.

Check out more of Kid Zoom here: kid-zoom.com

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Snapshots of Daydreams : The Photography of Chloe Rose Hayward


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London based photographer/ motion image designer Chloe Rose Hayward’s work is very broad, encompassing elements of design, directing and creating unique visual effects.  Her “photographs are enveloped by a sort of nebulous periphery. Simply put, they seem more like snapshots of daydreams.” You can check out some of Chloe’s photo portfolio above or watch  Hello Mexico ‘Five Twenty Seven’ from Chloe Rose on Vimeo.