Sweet little floating baby bubbles? Oh yes… I’m in! These delicate little babies are the work of Brooklyn based artist Cameron Cundiff. Here is his his description of this work:

“This series is about meditation. My idea of meditation is that it is very human and personal, so I wanted to represent the idea through figures. I chose babies because there’s no baked in narrative with babies; they are souls without stories.”

These paintings are part of the latest show on Buy Some Damn Art, and at $300 for an original I think we should all go over there right now and get our floaty-baby-meditation on… Om.

Hey Minneapolis, I know what you should do tonight:

Terrence Payne and Nick Howard have a new show, titled CAKE, opening tonight:

…………………………………

{this is the first of my new weekend posts. i want to give you the head’s up on a new show opening every weekend. so, galleries/artists/art enthusiasts… if there is a show i should know about, give me a shout!}

Who wants to go for a walk in an eerily quiet, yet absolutely beautiful forest? Me too! And I’ll bet that Austin based artist Joseph Noderer will meet us there with his oil paints! {All of these pieces are at least 2 feet x 3 feet, and some are up to 4′ x 5′!! Gorgeous!}

ps. If you’re in Austin, Joseph has a show on at Tiny Park Gallery until October 19th, with scupltor Jamie Panzer.

A few weeks ago, at PACE Gallery in New York, Jay Z performed his song “Picasso Baby” over and over and over for six hours. He sang face-to-face to individuals, in an attempt to create a personal connection and shared energy… kinda like:

Yep. In a very similar {yet totally different because he sang, danced, and laughed with his audience} way, this was not too far off from what Marina Abramović did at MoMA with her “Artist is Present” performance. Well, she showed up so that she could have her personal {yet rap filled} moment with Jay Z. I wonder if she was kinda there to say “Yes, cool. But you know I kinda did this already, right?” … or maybe she just loves hip hop as much as I do! {really, I do – so, so much!}

Lots of people including actors, artists, writers, musicians, collectors, and kids showed up to watch Jay Z. Oh, but make sure you cover the kids ears every few minutes {enter explicit lyrics here}.

It seemed like everyone there had an amazing time! My favorite moment was when this lovely lady in rose-colored glasses {Sandra Gering, Art Dealer} walked up, sat down, gave a huge smile and a little shoulder dip … completely throwing Jay Z off his game {around 2:28 in the video} He lost his words for a second and needed to regroup … ahh, nothin’ like a lady in rose-colored glasses to shake you up a bit:

Now, there’s lots of talk about this New York “happening”. Was it real art {whatever that means}? Was it just a really cool way to do a music video {which is actually an artistic project as well}? Was it a blatant copy {with music} of Marina’s performance? And then this question has also come up… if hip-hop is art for the people, why didn’t this happen in the streets instead of in a gallery with a very fancy invite list. Honestly, I’m not sure how to answer all of those questions, but I also don’t know that I need to. That’s what being creative is about, right? Just doing, and making, and sharing – and I think that Jay Z did it in a way that made the most sense for him and his medium. At the end of the day, it looks like it was a crazy fun, energy-filled six hours, and I am totally jealous of everyone who got to be part of it {including Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine art critic, who wrote a great article about his experience}

The only question left to ask… I wonder what Picasso would have thought? Given the images below {Picasso dancing with a poodle; Picasso dancing in his underpants; and a drawing of one of his dancers} I think he might have put on a stripy shirt and rocked it out with his new friend, Hova.

Here… you and Pablo can watch this together {the song, and a snippet of what went down that day – here’s the newly released video of the event}:

{Images: Various sources including Vogue, and grabs from the video above}

Oh, you guys. This is gonna be good!

So, just to refresh your memory: I’ve been asked, by the lovely Emily Henderson, to curate a show in LA at The Fig House, a new event space that Emily is designing/styling. I received zillions {literally} of submissions and I want to thank you all so much for that! Now, I’d like to say that made my job easier, but it really just made everything a whole lot harder… there was sooooooo much fantastic work to choose from, and I had the tricky task of getting it down to TEN ARTISTS! Impossible? It felt like it a few times. Well, after much back and forth, I’ve got a truly amazing group lined up. Yes, there was really great work by lots of people, but this came down to finding pieces that will work well together, and work well in the space that Emily is creating {art deco meets the 80’s. For real, people.}.

Here is a little taste of what will be on the walls when The Fig House opens this fall:

YAY – I love it all! As soon as I know the exact date of the opening party, I’ll let you know. See you soon, LA!

{1.(and right *) Stephanie Vovas 2. Kai Samuels Davis 3. Jaime Derringer 4.Ellen Heck 5. Clare Elsaesser 6.(and left *) Emily Rickard 7. Max Wanger 8. Nike Schroeder 9. Amy Wilson Faville 10. Zoe Pawlak}

Sigh… the work of California based artist Masako Miki. I love her work, and wrote about her back in 2011, so when it came time for me to start looking for artists to show at The Fig House in LA this coming summer, I hopped right over to her site… and found all of this new work! I love it all, but those red ink drawings on paper are kinda killing me. Oh, and yes, I’m thrilled to announce that Masako is in fact one of the confirmed artists for Fig House – YAY!!!

{She has a show called “Helplessness in Hopefulness”, that is currently at K. Imperial Fine Art Gallery in San Francisco. The show is still up until this Saturday, June 1… so get over there if you can!}

New York based artist Trey Speegle is having a sale! He’s got an online shop set up called The RePOP Shop, and it looks GOOD! For example, you could scoop one of these prints for $50…

What?! Yes! $50!!! Or how about some paint-by-number plates? Yep, he’s got those too…

Gorgeous! And if that’s not fabulous enough, you can buy one of these original “paint cans” from his most recent solo show…

Love! And if you want something in which the paint is actually out of the can, how about one of these original paint-by-number collages…

So good, right?! And there’s plenty more where that came from. Go and have a look… and then let me know what you got so that I can be jealous of you too!

ps. THIS JUST IN!!! Trey just emailed me and said that he’d like to offer you guys 20% OFF on the site, until May 20th! Yay! Thanks Trey! Use this code at checkout: Friends520

Beaver pelts, sequins, deer antlers, old axes, neon rope? Yep, these are the art supplies of Milwaukee based artist Cassandra Smith. All of the objects that she works with are found, and then manipulated in her own special, brightly colored, beautifully patterned way! Everything included here is part of Cassandra’s current show, titled “Out of the Wild” that is hanging, until June 1 2013, at Sky High Gallery {curated by the uber-creative Faythe Levine}. Here is Cassandra’s description of this work:

“My work  is about manipulations and transformation. It is about exploring the ways that I can enhance and change found objects to give them something they did not have in their former life. I find a certain beauty in imposing my aesthetic, specifically color and pattern, onto natural or worn objects. I am fascinated by the dichotomy between organic and geometric shapes, the contrast between natural and synthetic. I strive to enhance these objects while respecting the inherent qualities that drew me to them in the first place.”

hi! just wanted to pop in and quickly say… if you have emailed me about the fig house project, i got  your message and i’m just sorting through my inbox that is now FILLED with amazing stuff! you’ve all made my job so much easier… but also, so much harder! so. much. good. work!!!

my plan is to write everyone back, but honestly, i’m having a hard time keeping up! stay tuned, and i’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as i can : )

{Image above by: Anu Tuominen… thanks to Aaron for finding this artist’s name for me!}

Yep, a top secret project, in LA, that I can finally tell you about! It is super, crazy exciting and I am still pinching myself that I get to be part of this. Ok. Let’s start at the beginning.

So, the amazingly talented and hilarious Emily Henderson {HGTV host, and styling queen} called me awhile back about a project that she’s working on. It’s a very cool event space that will be opening in LA later this year. Sounds exciting, right? Sure, especially if you live in LA. Then she said, “…and I’d like you to be the art curator on the project”. I responded with “Sure, that sounds like a lot of fun”… but allow me to translate that to what was actually happening in my head: “WHAT?!?! HOLY #%$! ME?! YES, YES, YESSSSS!!” Yep, something like that.

It’s called The FIG HOUSE, and here’s Emily’s description of what this space will be all about:

The Fig House is going to be a space you can rent for parties, weddings, photo shoots, book signings … pretty much anything you want to. You could have a huge dinner party there, a screening of a film, premiere party, or use it to propose to your lady. It’s rented out per night, and it’s whatever you want it to be.

Now, here’s where you come in. The first group of work will be an ode to California-based artists, so if you’re from California, or you have an artist you love from California, send their links my way! Soon! Thank you, and thank you so much to Emily, and Steve Fortunato {the founder of this fabulous space} for asking me to be part of their amazing project … translation… “WHAT?!?! HOLY #%$! ME?! YES, YES, YESSSSSSSSS!!”