Alias Arts

Summer Break ! MAO is Taking Some Time Off ...Be Back in Sept.

OK.. so it's summer.. and MAO is taking a badly needed vacation.

  We'll be back in September.. with more snarky thoughts on the NYC ART world.. and plenty of great images to explore..

So.. Enjoy!

(Photo #1, by

This photo is courtesy of the Bonni Benrubi Gallery... Summer Place Show.. it's one gallery well worth checking out.

Eve Sussman's   (and her creative think tank group, The Rufus Corporation) "whiteonwhite" film is to be shown at MOMA.. This Sunday June 6th at 5:30pm!

So here's an event not to be missed, if you are interested in the world of cutting edge Contemporary Art Film.

Eve Susman who, is possibly the most well known female Art Film maker of our time. Her work, The Rape of the Sabine Women, has graced the cover on Art in America, and been shown around the world. (Photo 1, from Rufus corporation website, "Vacuum Hallway"..I believe is part of whoteonwhite.. )

By the way... Artist, Eve Sussman, is also one of the many star artists represented by that contemporary art powerhouse, The Winkleman Gallery on 27th street. 

Her film,  89 Seconds at Alcazar, was highly regarded as the "Darling of a Whitney Biennial"..check this interview out.. 

So now, here is your chance to see Eve's latest and greatest Film Noir work...at MOMA. There will also be a Q&A session with the artist after the movie.

Get your tickets soon.. cause this event is sure to sell out. MAO will be there too!

More details here:

whiteonwhite:randomthriller [alphaversion]

New York theatrical premiere. Followed by a Q&A with Sussman, Messman, Garneau, and Wood

Sunday, June 6, 2010, 5:30 p.m.

Theater 2 (The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2), T2

whiteonwhite:randomthriller [alphaversion]

2010. USA. Written and directed by Eve Sussman and Rufus Corporation. MoMA's Creative Capital exhibition concludes with the New York theatrical premiere of an exciting and provocative new experimental work by the creators of the gallery installation 89 Seconds at Alcázar (2004) and the theatrical feature The Rape of the Sabine Women(2006). Shot primarily in post-Soviet Central Asia and billed as “New Wave futurist noir” and “a study of utopia and desire,” the “alpha” version of whiteonwhite:randomthrilleris a film of indeterminate length whose continuously evolving narrative is generated by computer code. The unfolding project will also manifest itself as an episodic television miniseries and a feature film. In the MoMA presentation, custom-built randomizing software edits the film in real time from a server loaded with thousands of clips, creating suspense through surprising and novel juxtapositions. The story follows the observations and surveillance of a geophysicist code writer held captive in “City-A,” a dystopian metropolis where nouveau riche capitalists preside over the dregs of communism. The film will run for approximately fifty minutes, followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers

Artist Ryan Humphrey's New Show at DCKT Conemporary Gallery is his best work to date, and he's even got one of his works coming up at Monday's DPA Re:FORM Charity Auction!

So, you might remember Ryan.. as the precocious Bad Boy Contemporary Artist who was featured on the first tragic season of America's Top Design Reality TV Show.

If you have a chance, be sure to stop into see Ryan Humphrey's newest show "Early American" at the DCKT Contemporary Gallery on the Lower East Side. It's an amazing installation of high art meets new american hip-hop design with a bit of Witty car culture thrown into the mix. Each piece in the show will leave you with a smirk on your face, and you might even get a giggle out of it.  but over all MAO left the gallery thinking, Ryan has found his true artistic voice, and he probably has produced his best work to date for this show.

Here's a short part from the official gallery Press Release..

Early American, RYAN HUMPHREY’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. HUMPHREY explores duality through an altered, customized version of an 18th century American interior. The installation hijacks the format of a formal and affluent interior, infusing it with cast-offs and objects more likely found in a rural garage than an antique shop. Class and taste are called into question and the hierarchy of materials associated with social stratification is discarded.

We particularly loved Ryan's painting, "UnderTow, 2010."  (photo #1) Which we were told was made from 100% old NY City 1970's Black and White Junked Police Cars. It's just a wonderful appropriation of the famous Hokusai, "The Great Wave of Kanagawa", of the 1820's.

So, if like MAO, you're a Ryan Humphrey Fan, then you have a great chance to get one of his cool works for a songat this Monday night's Drug Policy Alliance's Re:FORM Charity Auction at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Gallery.

Ryan has donated this mutli-image 2 panel work.. tying in his Evil Knievel Bad Boy Biker, with a whole lot of Art History. it just resulted in a  wonderful and Witty work.

(Photo #2, Ryan Humphrey |Hearts of Darkness 2, 2009|Mixed media on fabric, linen, and canvas |2 panels, each 20 1/4 x 15 inches|Courtesy of the artist and DCKT Contemporary, Inc., New York| Estimated retail value: $3,500 )

Even if you're not a in the know, hip Ryan Humphrey Fan.. at the DPA event

there are also some great donations from a number of super star artist to consider.. Kara Walker, Donald Beachler, Fred Tomaseli, John Waters, William Wegman, and Ross Bleckner. So, there's still time for you to place absentee bids here...

See you all at Sikkema Jenkins on Monday Night!

Art As An Asset Class - New Investment Research. A new report is out from the CFA Institute, it's in their May/June 2010  Publication.

As most MAO readers know.. you don't just buy art as an investment. It's for the love of it!!

But people all talk about art and money almost simultaneously. Just say hi to an art dealer, gallerina, or worse yet an Artist, and within 5 minutes you'll always hear some aspect of the evil Dollars, doe-rea-mee word MONEY come up. So while almost everyone in the art business hates to admit it,  art and investing are inexplicably linked. MAO has written about art investing many times before. But, now a major financial publication has a 3 page story about it.

In fact, this May/June CFA Institute Magazine features Art Investing as the cover story.

The magazine has a feature story by Ed McCarthy who seems to know almost nothing about the art market is a freelance financial writer in Pascoag, Rhode Island.

The Fine Art of Investing, Is art a good way to diversify a client's portfolio?

The story is written from a strict investment professional point of view which is refreshing, but sadly the story lacks a lot of details.

Here's the story...  Download Cfa_may_june2010

But the Key points highlighted in the article are

1. The term "Art Market" is misleading because the market encompasses numerous submarkets with distinct characteristics.

2. The unique features of the art market and the transaction costs create additional risk for the casual investors and investment opportunities for more knowledgeable participants.

3. Studies of art's investment properties show that returns vary with the holding period but have exhibited a low or negative correlation with financial markets.

So as you can see, this story is not exactly breaking new ground.. but it's interesting to see a well respected financial journal finally  writing about Art as an acceptable investing asset class.

MAO wonder's if this was how subprime ABS and CDO investing started??

Artist Spencer Finch to Speak at The Aperture Foundation (in cooperation with Parsons New School for Design) at 6:30pm on April 20th.

Some of the best things in Life are Free.. and as far as the art world goes.. this is one of those events.

We've been a long time fan of Spencer Finch and his super Witty sensory perception art creations.

(Photo #1, Images taken of the 2009 Venice Biennale room featuring 2 Spencer Finch artworks, Moonlight (Glass Window) and Moondust (light Sculpture))

If you've been on the New High Line Park in NYC.. you've no doubt marveled at Spencer Finch's Creative Time sponsored "The River That Runs Both Ways" (aka.. The English translation for the Native Indian name "Hudson") work, which looks like a huge stained glass wIndow installation at 15th Street and 9th Ave. In MAO's not sohumble opinnion, it is possibly one of the most perfect public art works we've seen in years!

So here's you chance to meet and listen to the brilliant mind who created this amazing public artwork...  

Here's the note from the official press release..

Aperture and the Photography Program in the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design present a talk with Brooklyn-based artist Spencer Finch. In his renderings of light and color, Finch unites scientific method with a poetic sensibility as he explores the mechanics and mysteries of perception. Working with a variety of media, the artist examines how people experience, remember, and represent an array of visual and sensory phenomena through a studied investigation of his own observations of subjects ranging from the color palette of his dreams to a Monument Valley sunset. Finch is interested in the physical, cultural, and psychological factors that shape perception, examining the effect of light on an object's color, the boundaries of the human field of vision, and the influence of language, memory, and the subconscious.

Spencer Finchwas born in 1962 and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, Hamilton College, and Doshisha University in Kyoto, and has exhibited internationally. Finch had a major solo exhibition, What Time is it on the Sun?, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in 2007, which was accompanied by a monograph with essays by Susan Cross and Daniel Birnbaum. His recent solo exhibition, As if the Sea Should Part and Show a Further Sea, was exhibited at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia, in 2009. Finch was also included in the Making Worldsexhibition at the 2009 Venice Biennale, and has a solo exhibition forthcoming at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in September 2010. His work is held in important museum collections, including those of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; and Guggenheim Museum, New York

So the lecture starts at 6:30pm.. I'd suggest you get there early.. cause everyone MAO knows will be there...to oooh.. and ahhh.. over Spencer Finch and his amazing art!

Artist Talk with Spencer Finch
Parsons Lecture Series

Tuesday, April 20, 2010
6:30 pm

FREE

Aperture Gallery & Bookstore
547 West 27 Street, 4th floor
New York, New York