Hot Photo Friday – Gerald Förster

Gerald Förster, 'nocturnal', 2009

Some work by Stephen Shore

'Ashland, Wisconsin, Jig-Saw Puzzle in Cabin #8, Beach Motel, July 9, 1973', 1973-2006

'Hamburger Steak Dinner, Redfield, SD, July 13, 1973', 1973-2007

'Room 110, Holiday Inn, Brainerd, MN, July 11, 1973', 1973-2007

'Stampeder Motel, Ontario, Oregon, July 19, 1973', 1973-2007

Koons’ Balloons

Jeff Koons, 'Balloon Dog (Yellow)', stainless steel with transparent color coating, 1994-2000

Jeff Koons is suing San Francisco gallery Park Life and Canadian manufacturing business Imm-Living for producing and selling bookends that he thinks resemble his ‘Balloon Dog’ sculptures.  Koons (who has himself been sued on numerous occasions for appropriating popular imagery) claims that the businesses are violating his intellectual property.

The offending balloon dog bookends

But can Koons really copyright a balloon animal?  As Park Life’s federal complaint asserts, ‘As virtually any clown can attest, no one owns the idea of making a balloon dog, and the shape created by twisting a balloon into a dog-like form is part of the public domain.’  Despite cease and desist orders from Koons’ lawyers, Park Life continues to sell the bookends, for now.

Hot Photo Friday – Mika Rottenberg

Mika Rottenberg, 'Still from Cheese', C-type print, 2007

From here to there – Whitney Bedford

Whitney Bedford, 'Untitled Shipwreck (touched)', 2010

Leg of Lamb managed to catch the tail end of Whitney Bedford’s first solo exhibition at Starkwhite in Auckland last weekend.  Working with ink and oil on board, the LA painter presented romantic seascapes that refer obliquely to the artist’s varying emotional states and personal relationships. Like shipwrecks, Bedford uses paint to sink her images.  Recalling academic conventions (enhanced by the excellent cluster hang), Bedford’s paintings of blushing icebergs, grand ships and blooming fireworks also operate as abstracted sites of catharsis.

From here to there finished on Wednesday, but Bedford has also guest-curated a group exhibition entitled Art/Music, Alchemy that runs at Starkwhite until February 21, 2011.

GOMA gets its feet wet

Flooding last week outside the State Library and GOMA, Brisbane

Queensland Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art have emerged relatively unscathed from Brisbane’s recent floods (said to be the worst in 118 years). While there was flooding in front of house areas and in the children’s centre, no artworks were damaged –  a number were relocated to higher levels as a preventative measure.  Despite this, both galleries remain closed until further notice.

Fritsch discusses Cock

The Cock Wins!

Katharina Fritsch admires her winning cock.

Katharina Fritsch’s proposal for London’s ongoing Fourth Plinth commission has been accepted and in 2013 her giant 4.3 metre cockerel will be installed in Trafalgar Square.  Laden with innuendo, the electric blue rooster not only suggests male posturing but, according to the artist, symbolises regeneration, awakening and strength.

Fritsch’s commission will be preceded by Scandinavian duo Elmgreen and Dragset’s ‘Powerless Structures, Fig 101‘, a bronze sculpture of a boy on a rocking horse that pokes fun at the traditional monuments of generals and war heroes that also populate the square.

The Fourth Plinth is currently occupied by Yinka Shonibare’s ‘Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle‘.

Happy New Year!

Geoffrey Heath, 'Happy New Year', 2010

Leg of Lamb wishes you all the best for 2011.