STUDIO-ONLINE

Recent works, including sculpture, installations, painting and photography, by four of Finland’s most prominent artists will be displayed at Scandinavia House in New York as a window on the vibrant contemporary art scene in Finland. Featured artists are photographer and video artist Elina Brotherus, sculptor Markus KÃ¥hre, painter Elina Merenmies and painter Anna Tuori. These artists were finalists for the 2007 Ars Fennica Prize, Finland’s most prestigious visual arts award, which, since 1991, has been awarded annually by the Henna and Pertti Niemistö Art Foundation. Candidates are nominated by an award panel appointed by the foundation, and the winning candidate is chosen by an international contemporary art expert. This year’s winner, KÃ¥hre, was chosen by Glenn Scott Wright, co-director of London’s Victoria Miro Gallery. For more information, visit www.arsfennica.fi.

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 12-6 p.m.
Admission: $3, $2 students and seniors 65+

Scandinavia House
58 Park Avenue at 38th St.
New York, NY
Telephone: (212) 879-9779
Web site: www.scandinaviahouse.org

Celebrate Japan’s New Year’s holiday with lion dancing (shishimai) accompanied by live taiko drumming and fue, as well as Miko (Shrine maiden) dance performance. . There will be lots of traditional New Year’s activities for children, including special New Year’s calligraphy (kakizome), kite-making/flying (takoage), fukuwarai (funny face) game and traditional rice pounding (mochi-tsuki).

This program will be enjoyed by all ages.

Tickets: $20 per family (up to five people); $15 per family Japan Society members, including at least one Japan Society member.

Performed in two sessions on Sunday, Jan. 13, 2008
Session I: 2-3 p.m. and Session II: 3-4 p.m.

Japan Society
333 East 47th St.
New York, NY 10017
Telephone: (212) 832-1155; Box Office: (212) 715-1258
Web site: www.japansociety.org

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has acquired the complete archive of American photographer Diane Arbus (1923-1971). Arbus’s estate selected the Met as the permanent repository of the artist’s negatives, papers, correspondence and library. The archives include hundreds of early works, negatives and contact prints of 7,500 rolls of film, glassine print sleeves annotated by the artist, her personal photography collection, library and papers. Twenty of Arbus’s most famous photographs (Russian midget friends in a living room on 100th Street, N.Y.C. from 1963 and Woman with a veil on Fifth Avenue, N.Y.C., from 1968, among them) will be purchased by the Met, as well.

Many of the original materials in the archive were featured in the traveling exhibit Diane Arbus Revelations (2003-2006) organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art with the Arbus estate and presented at the Met in spring 2005.

Curator Jeff L. Rosenheim from the Met’s Department of Photographs will oversee cataloging and preservation of the collection and plan future exhibits and publications featuring works and materials from the archive.

Kara Walker, Darkytown Rebellion, 2001. Cut paper and projection on wall, 14 x 37 ft. (4.3 x 11.3 m) overall. Musee d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg. Photograph courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

Kara Walker’s engagement with history, racial hatred, gender issues and the human emotions entwined with them has won her acclaim and a wide audience. This show at the Whitney Museum in New York City is the first major survey of Walker’s career and demonstrates the artist’s ability to make strong, often poignant, statements within a diverse body of work. More than 100 works on paper are on display, along with Walker’s now-signature black-paper silhouettes and film animations. Visitors unfamiliar with Walker’s images may be startled by her fearless portrayal and examination of brutality, sexuality and oppression. During her career, Walker has expressed her evolving ideas through a surprisingly broad spectrum of art forms, from drawing and painting to film to writing and even shadow puppetry. By placing a light on such shadowy subjects as slavery, Walker has unearthed a rich vein of seldom-told stories that continue to spark debate.

Whitney Museum of Art
945 Madison Ave.
New York, NY
Telephone: (212) 570-3676
Web site: www.whitney.org

For his first solo show in New York City, Algerian artist Abdel Abdessemed (b.1971) shows video and sculptural works that dramatize oppositional forces inherent in human existence: individual identity and membership in society; life and death; sacred and profane. While elements of death, destruction and refusal (knives turning in on themselves; heels crushing coke cans; a cat devouring a mouse) can be detected throughout his works, the artist is most concerned with the transformative energy released when matter is subjected to violence. Abdessemed’s sculpture and videos are, literally and figuratively, vehicles of communication and meaning. Boats and planes, for example, appear frequently.

For the past two decades, the artist, a resident of Paris, has exhibited internationally. In 2004, he was given a solo show at the Musèe d’art moderne et contemporain in Geneva, and he has participated in art fairs and festivals worldwide. He was also part of the P.S.1 International Studio Program and the organization’s 2001 exhibit Uniform–Order and Disorder.

P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Ave. at intersection of 46th Ave.
Long Island City, 11101
Telephone: (718) 784-2084
Web site: www.psw1.org

Usborne’s series of books for young artists (The Usborne Book of Art Projects, The Usborne Book of Art Skills, The Usborne Book of Art Ideas, among them) is a marvelous resource for parents and teachers who wish to inspire creativity in children. The latest offering in the line, The Usborne Art Treasury (Jan. 2007) by Rosie Dickins and Nicola Butler, is filled with art projects linked to famous art works in a variety of mediums from art history. Along with reproductions of the art, the book is illustrated with easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions and includes information on the artists and descriptive texts that give background and context to the works. The authors guide readers to make their own art by incorporating aspects of the images they have just viewed (technique, color, shape, idea) to demonstrate how the creation of art follows a tradition but invites energizing innovation. No doubt children will enjoy the process and be delighted with the results.

The Metroplitan Museum of Art in New York kicks off a new series at the Costume Institute with this display of 40 costumes and accessories from the 18th century to the present. The curators invite visitors to comment on their impressions of the items, which are recent additions to the museum’s collection, via a blog accessed from the “Special Exhibitions” page of the Met’s Web site. Visitors can also leave comments at the museum on computer terminals set up in the exhibition galleries. The curators and contemporary designers will comment on individual items in the show, as well, to spark a dialogue between everyone involved in the spectacle called fashion, from those who design and wear it to those who study it and on to those who serve as witnesses to its presence and power.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY
Telephone: (212) 535-7710
Web site: www.metropolitanmuseum.org

Judith Dupré has added to her elegant architectural histories (Churches; Skyscrapers) with this volume, published in 2007 by Random House, that spotlights 37 famed American landmarks, from those that are integral parts of the country’s past (Mount Rushmore, Gettysburg, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial) to such contemporary markers of remembrance as the AIDS quilt. The author includes places that have drawn public condemnation, divided peoples and cast a shadow of America’s reputation as a land of equality and freedom, as well as those that have shaped the American identity and unity as a nation. While the physical aspects of the monuments are described in detail, Dupré discusses how these structures and places came to be; who designed them and who inspired their creation; and how they affect those who view them. Nearly 200 black-and-white photos add to what is a thought-provoking and insightful exploration of American history.

Founded in 1977, the Fabric Workshop and Museum is the only non-profit arts organization dedicated to artists who make new works in new materials and media. Established and emerging artists from all backgrounds and nations are welcomed for creative collaboration in the service of innovation and education.

The permanent collection contains more than 5,500 objects that follow the major movements in the making of contemporary art since 1977 and includes works by Louise Bourgeois, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ann Hamilton, Reverend Howard Finster, Anish Kapoor, Robert Kushner, Glenn Ligon, Robert Morris, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Carrie Mae Weems and other artists working with fabric.The objects fall into three categories: commissioned works created in the Artist-in-Residence Program, which range from large-scale installations and sculptures, to drawings and paintings, to silk-screen printed fabric garments and textiles; photography and video archives documenting the creative process of artist’s residencies, artist and curator lectures, exhibitions, special fabrication techniques and educational activities; and “artist boxes,” which are assembled at the completion of each artist’s residence and include samples, prototypes, swatches and other materials related to the creative process.

In addition to regularly scheduled exhibitions, FWM offers many educational opportunities for working artists, community members, students from grade school through college and post-graduates and anyone interested in contemporary art. These opportunities include study tours, in-school presentations, evenings for educators and acclaimed Artist-in-Residence and Apprentice Training programs.

Artist-in-Residence Program

National and international contemporary artists who have a demonstrated commitment to innovation and exploration are invited to apply to the workshop’s Artist-in-Residence Program. FWM supports artistic experimentation by providing fees and materials to artists, and employing its facilities and staff to address their creative needs. Artists-in-residence are drawn from all disciplines, including painting, sculpture, architecture and design, conceptual and installation art, performance and video. Working collaboratively with the FWM’s staff of printers and technicians, artists are introduced to new techniques, materials, and resources, and are thus able to realize projects that would not otherwise be possible.

Apprentice Training Program

The Apprentice Training Program offers high school, college and post-graduate students the opportunity to learn all aspects of silk-screen printing on fabric. In FWM’s professional studios, students design and print their own fabric yardage and assist staff in the production of artist residency projects. Silk-screen printing is an art form as well as an industrial skill, and the program is designed to provide students with new tools for artistic expression and self-empowerment. exhibitions, collections, and education. During their term, apprentices participate in FWM’s community and develop relationships with their peers and the staff. An annual exhibition of apprentice-designed fabric banners is held at FWM or another venue in Philadelphia. Apprentices train over a 12-week term, either in the fall (Sept.-Dec.), spring (Jan.-April) or summer (May-Aug.).

Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis. For more details and specific term deadlines, go to www.fabricworkshop.org.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum
New Temporary Contemporary
1222 Arch St.
Philadelphia, PA
Telephone: (212) 568-1111
Web site: www.fabricworkshop.org

Anima Mundi, 2002. Acrylic on burlap. © Joe Fyfe

JG Contemporary will exhibit works by painters Joe Fyfe and John Zinsser at the 2007 FLOW Miami International Art Fair, which takes place at the Dorset Hotel in Miami from Dec. 5 through Dec. 9.

Founded in 2006 by dealer Julie Baker and collector/consultant Matt Garson, FLOW brings together by invitation galleries that exhibit vital works by emerging talents regardless of geographic location and status in the hierarchy of the art world. Dealers for the 2007 event represent 20 states and 25 cities. According to the founders, “Gallerists are chosen not only on the basis of their trained and acute ability to spot great talent, but on their reputations for being fair, good to their artists and good natured people who are not afraid or too important to look up when someone enters the room and say hello.”

Level Eight, 2007, © John Zinsser

JG Contemporary will show works by abstract painters Fyfe and Zinsser that demonstrate the artists’ ability to make abstraction relevant and visually exciting. For them, depicting the world through abstraction is a passion. Color, texture and form become elements of a language that makes literal the intangibles of emotion, mood and memory.
Viewing schedule:

Thursday, Dec. 5, noon to 10 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 6, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 7, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 8, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Monday, Dec. 9, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Opening event:

Wedensday, Dec. 5, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Curator’s Brunch:

Friday, Dec. 7, 10 a.m. to noon

For more information, go to www.flowfair.com or contact JG Contemporary.

JG Contemporary
32 East 67th St.
New York, NY 10065
Telephone: (212) 535-5767
Web site: JamesGrahamAndSons.com