As Bansky's Dismaland un-amusement park opened in the UK this week, I am looking at the mirror funhouses. As a boy in the USA, part of every boy's life was visiting the mirrored funhouses at the traveling county fair or beachside amusement park. Best with my brothers as you laugh in the curved mirrors or try to find each other in mirror maze. Sometime before age 12, everyone figures out that … [Read more...]
SEX – Vagina and Anus
After the "private" showing of Kara Walker's "Sugar Baby" and its giant vulva, the public art doldrums has been disturbed by the mention of "vagina" and "butt". A couple weeks ago, Anish Kapoor was letting his mind wander and described his work to a French reporter - “the vagina of the queen coming into power.” Through the use of the word "vagina", Kapoor transformed his dull work of rusting … [Read more...]
2 Girls Building
Within melbourne’s urban center, the ‘2 girls building’ by australian photographer samantha everton in collaboration with local practice KUD architects http://www.designboom.com/art/2-girls-building-melbourne-samantha-everton-kud-architects-04-02-2015/ … [Read more...]
Close up on Public Artists at Art Basel Miami
Almost nothing that captures the public imagination was displayed at Art Basel Miami. Looking and looking and finding very little that I could present to community with a positive spin. The work was empty without messages and the formal, color works can be found by other artists in the local art scene for much less money. Art Basel did provide me the opportunity to see the tactile, real … [Read more...]
#PublicArt posting on Facebook in November
After months of problems with this website certification, the problems have been resolved and the link re-established to the blog. Here are few of 50 posts on facebook.com/glenn.weiss.100. Please follow on Facebook. … [Read more...]
Hanoi Ceramic Mural on Red River Dyke: 2007-2010
The Hanoi mural, which is built on the walls of the Red River dyke, was constructed between 2007-10. The concept came from Vietnamese artist, Nguyen Thu Thuy, a journalist and painter who works for the Hanoimoi newspaper. Ms Thuy wanted to mark the city’s millennium with an artistic mural which reinvigorated urban Hanoi and bring local communities together through public art. WATCH THE … [Read more...]
Straw Temple in Russia.
Alex Garkavenko in Architizer points out a few Russian sculptures by architects. Temple in Antis by Lesosplaw, Zaoksky Made as part of the GORODA architecture festival in 2012, this humble pavilion transforms a Soviet livestock farm into an active cultural space. The use of straw as a construction material is as much of an ecological move as it is a symbol of the immediate … [Read more...]
Key West Sculpture Exhibition
History of Sculpture Key West Sculpture Key West is an annual exhibition of contemporary outdoor sculpture located in Key West, Florida. The mission of Sculpture Key West is to be an important, internationally recognized platform for contemporary sculpture while educating and inspiring the community of the Florida Keys and its visitors. History: In 1995, local sculptor Jim Racchi called … [Read more...]
Very DULL – Another Watertank Project in NYC
I don't get the connection between watertanks, immigration and Woody Guthrie. Just a kitchen sink of ideas to justify the work. NEW YORK, NY.- Madison Square Park Conservancy’s Mad. Sq. Art announces a new sculptural installation for late winter 2014: This Land Is Your Land by Brooklyn-based Chilean artist Iván Navarro. The site-specific installation presents three water towers inside of … [Read more...]
Men on Horses Continue to Play a Valuable Role in Revolutions
CARACAS.- Leopoldo Lopez (C), an ardent opponent of Venezuela's socialist government facing an arrest warrant after President Nicolas Maduro ordered his arrest on charges of homicide and inciting violence, stands at the monument of Cuba's most important independence-era hero, Jose Marti, as he demonstrates in Caracas before turning himself in to authorities, on February 18, 2014. AFP PHOTO / LEO … [Read more...]
5×5 Returns to Washington, DC in September
5 Curators, 25 Artists, 8 Wards, 16 Weeks, 1 Cultural Capital Transforming the District with Public Art Congrats on the DC Commission for bringing back 5x5. $500K is an excellent local and national contribution to the temporary public art. I HAVE A BIG COMPLAINT from 2012 that is still present on the 2014 website. Why don't they have a simple online way to see pictures of the art? Great … [Read more...]
St. Louis Conference: Monument / Anti-Monument, April 10-12
ST. LOUIS, USA: 2014 Conference, April 10-12 Monument / Anti-Monument is an international conference that will bring together artists, art historians, curators, academics, architects, urban planners, designers, archaeologists and other experts to explore contemporary thinking about the intersection of sculpture and the public realm. While the public sculpture and monuments of the host city of … [Read more...]