Month: May 2014

Coming Exhibition: Afghan Rugs ~ The Contemporary Art of Central Asia

“Afghan Rugs ~ The Contemporary Art of Central Asia”

Who: BOCA Museum of Art

When: May 3, 2014 – July 27, 2014 (Tues-Fri. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Sat.-Sun. 12 p.m.-5 p.m.)

Where:

BOCA Museum of Art
501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, FL 33432
In Mizner Park

How Much:

Adults ($8) Seniors 65+ ($6) Students ($5) Children 12- (Free)

More Information: Here.

“The international exhibition, Afghan Rugs: The Contemporary Art of Central Asia, features over 40 rugs from a private European collection, traveling for the first time to museums in North America. Selected for their exceptional quality and stunning imagery, the rugs in this exhibition represent a unique category in decorative arts. They constitute some of the most powerful visual inventions of the late 20th century and are skillfully crafted with hand-spun and dyed, tightly knotted wool.

These exquisitely woven works of art are designed with thoroughly untraditional motifs. Approximately half of the rugs—some produced well before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979—feature cityscapes, portraits, landscapes, and world maps, framed by tanks and helicopters. Other rugs in the include weapons and fighting scenes made by weavers in Afghanistan, or in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. No matter the central imagery, each rug is traditionally bounded by an intricately framed and detailed border design offering incredible works of art to be enjoyed on the floor as well as the wall.”

“Young Designers’ Exuberant SCADpad Homes Fit in a Parking Spot”

There is a fascinating trend in the younger American generation to leave behind the large, two- and three- story homes that have for so long controlled our domestic architecture. Instead the current movement is toward smaller, more economical housing that is more affordable and yet still stylish. Designers have come a long way in making these places attractive to those who live alone and appreciate these smaller places. As one of those new graduates who cannot even begin to dream of affording a small “traditional” home in the near (or long) future, I think this is amazing movement truly adapts to the needs of present society. Plus, I was beginning to grow tired of the generic sameness of most housing architecture; this is the first real innovation I have seen in a while. ** DB

“Young Designers’ Exuberant SCADpad Homes Fit in a Parking Spot”

by Ilyce R. Glink via “Yahoo!“

“Imagine an urban parking garage, emptied of its cars and filled instead with dozens of parking-spot-size homes.

It’s the vision of a group of more than 80 students, alumni and educators from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. They have been experimenting with these car-sized homes, called SCADpads, that could be plunked into any parking garage and instantly provide housing in overpriced downtown areas of major cities. The units are prototypes for urban housing, but students will live in them first to test out the concept.

“We’re targeting decks built in the middle of the 20th century, located in the heart of a city,” says Christian Sottile, dean of the school of building arts at SCAD. “Many of these were built as fallout shelters and will basically be there until the end of time.”

For its experiment, the folks at SCAD built their beta SCADpad neighborhood in the college’s midtown Atlanta parking garage, with incredible views of the city’s sprawling skyline. They took over the fourth floor of the garage, using eight parking spaces to create the three pads. The pads reflect the design aesthetics of the college’s three campuses: SCADpad North America for its Savannah campus, SCADpad Europe reflecting the campus in Lacoste, France, and SCADpad Asia reflecting its Hong Kong campus. Each pad takes up two parking spaces—one for the unit itself and the other for an outdoor garden area—and then there’s space for the community garden and a workbench. . . . .”

Everyone’s a Piano (Wo)Man in Lynchburg!

Lynchburg, VA (my other hometown) has decided to put up five different pianos across downtown for people to stop and play. Just to remind us that music doesn’t have to be planned or come with great preparation ~ sometimes it can just come from the heart.

Water Art!

“How Christie’s Is Winning the Art Auction Wars”

by Diane Brady via BloombergBusinessWeek

“Christie’s, the 248-year-old auction house, is taking off its suit and putting on some ripped jeans. To promote its May 12 auction, If I Live I’ll See You Tuesday, the company posted a YouTube video of skateboarder Chris Martin careening past multimillion-dollar art to the indie hit Sail by Awolnation. The curator, Loic Gouzer, a handsome contemporary art expert who’s been linked to Mad Men star January Jones, hyped the works on his Instagram feed. Last July, Christie’s held a charity sale hosted by Leonardo DiCaprio (who happens to be a friend of Gouzer’s). And during 2013 it ran 49 Web-only, youth-friendly auctions—prints went for as little as a few hundred dollars. The initiatives have helped bring in a record $7.1 billion in sales in the past year, compared with $6.3 billion at rival Sotheby’s(BID).

All this was dreamed up by Christie’s chief executive officer, Steven Murphy. Unlike his competitors, Murphy has no prior fine art expertise (or noble European lineage) and says that selling artists’ work isn’t that different from his former jobs as president of Angel Records and publishing house Rodale. Soon after he arrived at Christie’s in 2010, he began allowing buyers to bid on works online. It seems obvious, but for a fusty auction house it was a revolutionary tactic. . . . .”