David Blaine
April 27, 2010
Like a modern-day Houdini, magician David Blaine has made a career out of pushing the limits of his imagination—and his will and his body—in creating a death-defying body of work that’s involved being buried alive, encased in a block of ice, and swimming with sharks. but perhaps his greatest feat is how he has blurred the line between popular entertainment and performance art.
Evolution
February 22, 2010
We live in a world where too much is never enough, and our lifestyles demand that we constantly gather, accumulate, and acquire. But surviving the ever-growing complexity of things isn’t about peeling back the layers to reach the most refined essence of self. it’s about growing, changing, and adapting as we evolve into contemporary urban warriors.
Lily Cole
December 3, 2009
Lily Cole has never been a conventional beauty—and she doesn’t plan on being a conventional model turned actress, either. As her latest film, Terry Gilliam’s embattled The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, hits theaters, the 21-year-old otherworldly redhead opens up about working with Heath Ledger, making plans with Marilyn Manson, studying at Cambridge, the emptiness of modeling, and why the death of minimalism is almost upon us.
Rob Pruitt
September 29, 2009
There’s great irony in the fact that Rob Pruitt is the man putting together the Guggenheim’s First Annual Art Awards, a sort of tongue-and-cheek version of the Oscars for contemporary American art. It’s the kind of irony more befitting a Hollywood film script than the New York art scene. On October 29, before an assemblage of heavyweights in the Guggenheim Museum rotunda, faux-champagne-bottle-in-ice-bucket lamp awards will be doled out to the winners of Solo Show of the Year, Group Show of the Year, Curator of the Year, and Artist of the Year, among a myriad of other categories.
Philip Taaffe
May 22, 2009
Philip Taaffe makes art the old-fashioned way: with paint. And his paintings are as complex and alive as they are beautiful. In an age of market-driven, hog-wild modernism, that ain’t easy.
Elizabeth Neel
May 22, 2009
Elizabeth Neel is a New York painter, like her famous grandmother, Alice, who gave her a first set of paints. She’s grown up a lot since that day. Her gestural abstract canvases leave the family tree far behind.
Glenn Ligon
May 22, 2009
Glenn Ligon doesn’t make work for easy reading. Whether they’re quotes on canvas or a film piece modeled on Uncle Tom’s Cabin, his tricky translations are about getting lost and getting found.
Wade Guyton
May 22, 2009
Wade Guyton has been heralded as the artistic hope of his generation. The tireless young artist will probably fulfill his destiny, as long as they never stop making Epson desktop printer ink.
Liam Gillick
May 22, 2009
Liam Gillick lives near the United Nations, which might explain why an Englishman who calls New York home is representing Germany at this year’s Venice Biennale. Gillick’s art is universal.
Rachel Feinstein
May 22, 2009
Rachel Feinstein is a singular artist as well as famous muse to her painter husband. She seems almost a traveler through time with her heirloom beauty and her throwback bohemian charm.
John Currin
May 22, 2009
John Currin stirs people up. He makes pictures that look a lot like what pictures used to look like. Is he against modernism or what? And why are his paintings so damn well made?
Maurizio Cattelan
May 22, 2009
Maurizio Cattelan knows that it’s better to be the class clown than the class nerd. But just because a lot of his art productions are outrageous, and oftentimes hilarious, doesn’t mean the Italian artist isn’t serious about starting a revolution.