I absolutely love Choi Jeong Hwa, and can’t wait to see his work at the Asian’s soon-to-open exhibition. I’ll never forget his whimsical outdoor installations for LACMA’s contemporary Korean show, Your Bright Future.
Public Art in SF. Can’t wait to see more pics of this!
Wow. That was definitely a workday pick-me-up!
Choi Jeong Hwa’s “Breathing Flower” was erected/inflated just now outside our doors in Civic Center Plaza, SF, as part of PHANTOMS OF ASIA. Some staff members gathered around with bated breath, excited to see this huge artwork come into its full twenty-four-foot kinetic state.
Like much of his work, this installation in synthetic materials and Pop Art colors forms a larger-than-life mimicry of the beauty of the natural world. In this case, Choi’s red lotus is a symbol of enlightenment and renewal.
If you take any photos with it, please share, and enjoy.
One day soon, I am treating myself to this lunch.
Lunch of the week
Hog Island
Ferry Building
Photo: Igor Clark
Such an amazing coup. Can’t wait to hear/see how visitors react to the piece in person.
BIG NEWS! We’re thrilled to announce the acquisition of Edward Hopper’s iconic masterpiece, “Intermission” (1963). One of the last significant Hopper works remaining in private hands, the painting will immediately become an integral part of our permanent collection. It will also immediately go on view, so come visit it on the 2nd floor landing tomorrow!
(via SFMOMA | OPEN SPACE)
Turning into a bird with Chris Milk’s interactive triptych #creators project (Taken with instagram)
I have always been a fan of Mark Bradford — he did an exceptional installation with artist Ruben Ochoa for a local elementary school LACMA has partnered up with — and the current exhibitions at SFMOMA (my new home!) and YBCA have made my feelings no different. Bradford has a poetic way of delving into/presenting complex issues on the canvas. I’ll let his podcast with MAN explain the rest, and am looking forward to a personal field trip to both the SFMOMA and YBCA galleries next week. Happy weekend!
Mark Bradford, Scorched Earth, 2006.
This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Mark Bradford. A mid-career survey of his artwork is on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. (Also, a couple of large-scale works are installed across the street from SFMOMA, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.) The exhibition was curated for the Wexner Center for the Arts by Christopher Bedford in 2010. The show has traveled to the ICA Boston, the MCA Chicago and the Dallas Museum of Art. San Francisco is its final stop.
Bradford and I discuss:
- The extent to which his work has been received through his biography — or at least through one particular part of his biography;
- What he thought of MAN’s three-part review of the exhibition at the Wexner (gasp!);
- How his engagement with abstract painting runs through a strikingly different art historical line than most American artists;
- Two landmark Bradford works that address identity: Crow (2003/09) and Pinocchio is On Fire (2010); and
- The surprising reason(s) that art education is so important to Bradford and why he has made working with high schoolers an important part of his artistic career.
This week’s program also features something new: Sound! Over the course of today’s program and each MAN Podcast, you’ll hear the entire piece artist Steve Roden made for the show. Roden is a painter, a sculptor and he works in various time-based media. Curator Howard Fox organized a 20-year retrospective of Roden’s work for Pasadena’s The Armory Center for the Arts in 2010. Roden’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Blanton Museum at the University of Texas and more. He joins me to talk about what he made for The MAN Podcast and about his work.
To download or subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, click here. To download the program directly, click here. To subscribe to The MAN Podcast’s RSS feed, click here. You can stream the program by clicking here.
The Modern Art Notes Podcast is an independent production of Modern Art Notes Media. It is released under this Creative Commons license. For images of the works discussed on this week’s show, click here.
Arizmendi, a neat SF bakery. Cheeseboard pizza, fresh loaves to go, and one of my faves, homemade shortbread. Cousin Patty always recommends great spots.
