December 9, 2011

Jill Greenberg

My post on Simen Johan got me thinking about the photograohy of Jill Greenberg. You undoubtedly have seen her work in the glossy pages of virtually every hip magazine on the market today or on a local billboard near you. While I respect her stylish take on the people you want to know these days, it is her fine art that really gets me. In particular, her 2001 series of monkey portraits just slays me. Each one conveys such extreme personality that I find myself considering adding one of these fellows to my menagerie of pets. I know, I know, that means diapers and the potential to have my face ripped off after years of happy cohabitation but really, look at these guys (and please enjoy the names of each – so fitting and funny). Maybe I should just stick to the photographs…

Haughty:

Oy Vey:

Mala Centerfold:

Dude:

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December 5, 2011

Simen Johan

I just came across this image in a recent issue of the New Yorker and am beyond bummed that I won’t be back in NYC in time see this show of Simen Johan’s work at the Yossi Milo Gallery. I would love to get up close and personal with this world-weary gent:

According to the gallery’s website,

Photographs from the artist Simen Johan’s ongoing project, Until the Kingdom Comes, depict an unsettling natural world hovering between reality, fantasy and nightmare. Johan merges traditional photographic and sculptural techniques with digital methods. Having originally photographed a variety of plants and animals in natural preserves, zoos, farms, museum dioramas or his own studio, the artist then resituates them digitally into new environments constructed from images photographed elsewhere.

Unsettling, indeed, but beautiful and lyrical and haunting as well. A few of my faves to give you the flavor:

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November 10, 2010

Trend Alert!

Here’s a little something I’ve noticed cropping up more and more: the designer as curator. Exhibit A – The New York Times asked five interior designers (Jonathan Adler, Thom Filicia, Laura Kirar, Kelly Wearstler and Vincente Wolf) to go through the Times’s extensive archive of photographs and pick their ten favorites. The results are as varied as the designers. You really get a sense of what intrigues each of them and a little insight into how they view the world. All of the images are for sale so if you share say, Jonathan’s love of the giddy and surreal, get one of the delightful photos for your very own. Take a look at a few of my faves:

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