Archives For Thomas

Russian born but now American sculptor and stage designer George Tyspin is one of the most ironic things about Sochi Winter Olympics and really shows what happened to all the arts in Russia over the years. Yes, an American artist will be responsible for the biggest Russian spectacle since the Revolution. Why? Ask yourself what or who comes to mind when you think about Russian artists of the current century?

“I’ve done big shows, but this is something else,” Tsypin told Vieira on TODAY Friday. “It’s truly mind-boggling. Of course the ambition comes from the Russian’s to create the biggest show ever because they say, ‘We are a big country, we have to do it.’’

via TODAY

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Model for Symphony for the Earth

 

“George Tsypin is a sculptor, architect and designer of opera, film and video. He won an International Competition of “New and Spontaneous Ideas for the Theater for Future Generations” some twenty years ago. Since then his opera designs have been seen all over the world, including Salzburg Festival, Opera de Bastille in Paris, Covent Garden in London, La Scala in Milan and Metropolitan Opera in New York. Mr. Tsypin has worked in all major theaters in America and in the 90-es expanded his work to include design for film, television, concerts as well as exhibitions and installations. The first personal gallery show of his sculpture took place in 1991 at Twining Gallery in New York. He created the Planet Earth Gallery, one of the Millennium Projects in England: a major installation of moving architectural elements, videos and 200 sculptures. George exhibited his work at Venice Biennale in 2002. George studied architecture in Moscow and theater design in New York and won numerous awards. He has worked for many years with renowned directors such as Julie Taymor, Peter Sellars, Pierre Audi, Francesca Zambello, Jurgen Flimm and Andrey Konchalovsky. He has a special creative relationship with the conductor Valery Gergiev. George designed “The Little Mermaid” and “Spider-man: Turn off the Dark” ( Tony Award Nomination, Outer Critics Circle Award). on Broadway. His book “GEORGE TSYPIN OPERA FACTORY: Building in the Black Void” was published by Princeton Architectural Press in October of 2005 (Golden Pen Award)”.

via georgetsypin.com

 

American George Tyspin Designs Sochi Opening Ceremony

In Art School the saying goes; “If you can’t make it good make it big. If you can’t make it big paint it red”.  But with this stellar cast of painters, big paintings are big for a reason. This is a must see all-star show. Every painting is a home run.

January 28 – March 2, 2014
Wilkinson Gallery
New York Academy of Art
111 Franklin Street New York, NY 10013

 

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Exhibition: New York Academy of Art: The Big Picture

I can’t wait to see this show…

Remember if it were up to the dealers the photography world would be stuck in the 19th century forever. (Too much emphasis on selling antiquities and thus antiquated ideas). Try to remember it is not a lens and shutter that defines a photograph. It is now about the “ideas and concepts” behind the image and any artist should be able to embrace every tool of the trade to bring their vision to light.

There will always be those that “take” a photo and then there are those that “make” one. ( The latter is far more interesting in my opinion and where I live and think; See my new Light Projections and Infinities).

Is a scanner a type of camera? You bet it is. If there is a rule that defines what a photograph is today it is simply that there are no rules – only questions. Those that pose the most interesting questions and push the medium will succeed because change must happen. ( The type of work I am talking about can not be made with a Photoshop filter…) Embrace the changes, as this is the most exciting time for Photography I have seen in 25 years.

Screen shot 2014-02-01 at 12.53.02 PMMatthew Brandt, Grays Lake, ID 7, 2013. © Matthew Brandt, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

 

JANUARY 31–MAY 4, 2014

Organized by ICP Curator Carol Squiers, What Is a Photograph? will explore the intense creative experimentation in photography that has occurred since the 1970s. Conceptual art introduced photography into contemporary art making, using the medium in ways that challenged it artistically, intellectually, and technically and broadened the notion of what a photograph could be in art. A new generation of artists began an equally rigorous but more aesthetically adventurous analysis, which probed photography itself—from the role of light, color, composition, to materiality and the subject. What Is a Photograph? brings together these artists, who reinvented photography.

Artists

Matthew Brandt
Marco Breuer
Liz Deschenes
Adam Fuss
Owen Kydd
Floris Neusüss
Marlo Pascual
Sigmar Polke
Eileen Quinlan
Jon Rafman
Gerhard Richter
Mariah Robertson
Alison Rossiter
Lucas Samaras
Travess Smalley
David Benjamin Sherry
Kate Steciw
Artie Vierkant
James Welling
Christopher Williams
Letha Wilson

via ICP

Exhibitions New York: What is a Photograph at ICP

Here is some great news. My Light Projections Series made the final 3 in the very prestigious Word Photography Awards 2014 which were announced today! (The 30 world finalists are flown to the London Awards Ceremony all expenses paid to compete for the final prizes).

Online Magazine link that features all the finalists 

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Thomas Brummett is a world photography awards 2014 Finalist

Roger Ballen is the William Faulkner of image-makers. His work is in the collections of over 20 museums yet the general public does not know much about him. He still shoots film. He mines the areas between sculpture and photography, darkness and the light.  His photos are some of the richest in all of art. He makes his work in places in South Africa where the police will not go near; Hell on earth kind of places.  His disturbing work grabs the back of your brain and won’t let go. Right now he is everywhere. Check out why he has blown the doors off the art and photo world. Maybe the most powerful work ever done by any artist. To understand the environments he frequents, and thus his pictures, you have to see the video above first…

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“Photography is like going into the mineshaft”

“What I am doing is about visual relationships not stories…”

 

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On his project: Aslyum for the Birds:

Asylum has two main meanings in the English language; the first is a place where insanity prevails and the second describes a place of refuge. In some ways those are very opposing meanings. In ‘Asylum of the Birds’, the asylum is place where animals and people live together away from the outside world. It’s a very claustrophobic, surreal and strange place yet, at the same time, what’s going on in this place is abnormal – it comes from deeper levels of the subconscious, but I don’t equate those deeper levels with insanity.

via January 2014 / Peggy Sue Amison in conversation with Roger Ballen

 

 

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Excerpt from his talk at the George Eastman House: The Shadow Chamber

 

 

The Photographs of Roger Ballen