Results tagged “takashimurakami”

              

© MURAKAMI, a retrospective of the work of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, opens Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum. Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, where it was on view until February, the exhibit primarily focuses Murakami's work between 1991 and 2000, when the artist began exploring "his own reality through an investigation of branding and identity." (One additional work, Murakami's 6,613 pound, 18 foot-tall Oval Buddha sculpture, will be on view at the Sculpture Garden at 590 Madison Avenue at 56th Street.)

The Post finds out that if sold, the inflated balloon of artist Jeff Koons' Rabbit, which made its debut appearance in the 81st Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, would go for $5 million. The balloon isn't for sale, but the parade is so happy with the balloon that it's interested in ideas from other artists. Um, formaldehyde Damien shark, anyone? Or how about a Takashi Murakami Mr. Pointy balloon? Dan Flavin light balloon?...

NYU graduates and their families won't have to take the 7 train for commencement this year, as originally thought: Graduation is set for Washington Square Park once again. NYU had moved graduation to Shea Stadium, because of the Parks Department's planned renovations to the park, but, lo and behold, the renovations are even going to get started until after the May 11 ceremony, so NYU officials worked fast to move back to the Village. NYU students and faculty were hoping that the parks' departments delays would benefit them, but Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe was only able to confirm the delay a few days ago. Arthur Tannenbaum (chairman of the University Senate’s public affairs committee) gives the Washington Square News the money quote: “Being a longtime resident of the Village, it doesn’t surprise me that the Parks Department couldn’t keep to their own schedule." Gothamist wonders if some high power NYU alums made sure the parks department wouldn't be able to start up for this commencement - but this means NYU will probably need to think of alternative commencement locations for the class of 2007, at least.

Just in time for tonight's Critical Mass bike ride, it turns out that rapper Foxy Brown may have hit two bicyclists during the pre-Republican National Convention August ride last year. Her former friend, Ayesha Quattara, says that Brown blamed her for driving a Land Rover on West Houston Street, while it was really Foxy behind the wheel. Apparently the women were trying to get from one Louis Vuitton store to another before it closed since Brown wanted to buy something. Please! We know the Takashi Murakami bags are really cute, but you don't go hitting bikers to get to them. Matthew Campau and Robert Herschenfeld were hit by the Rover, as Brown allegedly yelled at them. While Newsday wouldn't publish what she allegedly said, the Post did:

"Get out of my way, you dumb white faggots!" Herschenfeld said she screamed.

Continue reading "Foxy Brown, No Friend of Bikers"

, was designed by one of artists in Murakami's stable, Chinatsu Ban. It reminds Gothamist of Louis Bourgeouis's Mommy and Baby Spiders meets Jeff Koon's Puppy. We must say, we adores the elephants in underwear. And Gothamist loves how the NY Times had a picture of the elephant's heart-decorated, fiberglass poo. The elephants are at Fifth Avenue and 60th Street.

The new public art installation at Rockefeller Center is up: Walking To The Sky, by Jonathan Borofsky, features a 100 foot metal pole at an angle, with different kinds of people braving the climb. There are also sculptures of onlookers at the base, much like actual pedestrians stopping to inspect the sculpture. The skyscrapers that encircle Rockefeller Center make seeing this sculpture all the more dazzling and whimsical. More information from Rockefeller Center, and this sculpture was organized by the Public Art Fund. whatisee also took a look at the installation.

The latest TV guilty pleasure is Newlyweds, MTV's glimpse into the marriage of pop singers, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, which Gothamist covered a while back. The Post looked at the show, which is the new darling of MTV, outpacing The Osbournes these days (but not The Real World Paris, which boggles our mind, because RW Paris sucks), mainly because this marriage made in publicity and artist management heaven seems based on all the wrong things. And the fact that it's always fun to laugh at people better-looking and more wealthy than us for the good, old fashioned reason, "They are so very, very stupid." Like Jessica taking her Takashi Murakami-designed Louis Vuitton bag on the camping trip. Jessica, you're killing us! Addtionally, people are taking bets as to how long the Simpson-Lachey union will last; Gothamist says it will last as long as Nick stays interested in Jessica physically, 'cause that seems to be the only reason why they're together now. But we hope the show stays on, because we love hating them.

PowerPoint, the bane of many an office wonk's existence ("I can animate this slide with builds and sound effects - just give me an hour") gets reinterpreted by David Byrne in his new book and DVD, David Byrne: E.E.E.I. (Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information). Unlike office wonks, David Byrne gets to look at PP with new eyes and use it in funny, "artistic" ways, like using an outline of Dan Rather's head (unless you work in network TV news) or photos of Dolly the sheep and create a book and DVD with similar far-out slides. His enthusiasm for PP can be read in his essay for Wired's September issue: "." Byrne's essay is followed by one from Edward Tufte that calls PowerPoint evil. Well, of course, it is - it's from Microsoft.

As a late little birthday shout-out to Anil , here's a picture of Takashi Murakami's big black balloons - "balls" - at Rockefeller Center. Kind reader Bruce sent us this picture but we'll try to get a more "revealing" picture of the balloons in front of the GE Building later AND just sent us this other picture (left, click to enlarge - hee hee) as well! Happy Belated Birthday, Anil.

After noticing our interest in Takashi Murakami, Greg of greg.org invited Gothamist to check out the Murakami installation at Rockefeller Center. We happily accepted and headed over to midtown with Peter Rojas. The huge 30-foot ballons were strung over the rink, and the main sculpture was flanked by smaller areas of mushroom-toadstool growths. It's dramatic in a very different way from Puppy or the Spiders; there is a lot of visual information, with the colorful, complicated forms, as well as details that are enjoyed up close. When Takashi Murakami arrived, he spent some time inspecting the artworks, and told us that he needed to come back and fix some areas. Gothamist was most amused when more than a few blonde women went up to take pictures with him; we're pretty sure it's all because of the Louis Vuitton collection.

Murakami at Rockefeller Center
Debate over the Japanese pop artist. Is it art? Is it silly? Is it any good?

Fine, New York Times and W magazine, Gothamist surrenders: Kate Moss transcends fashion and she's some sort of other icon. That combination of sour supermodel personality, past A-list celebrity relationship, and questionable friendships do make Kate Moss more famous than just clothes hanger. So the face and body that launched at least a thousand eating disorders is deified via a 40-page spread in W magazine where seventeen artists and photographers had to reimagine the new mommy in their own ways. Contributors included Chuck Close, Richard Prince, Tom Sachs, Takashi Murakami, Craig McDean, Bruce Weber and Mario Sorrenti (Moss' ex who helped launch her as heroin chic model du jour). The slide show on the Times article is cool, with some of the photographs. Gothamist especially likes the Chuck Close and this Takashi Murakami rendering. To be Murakami'd - now that's fame.

It was Earth Day earlier this week, but Gothamist thinks it's still Earth Week, and during the commute home, we spied the Earth Day images being projected onto the North Hall at Grand Central Terminal.