Art Tours Update

Here is a link to some photos of the best of the rest of the art tour

LA - Day 2

What a day - no sign of the heinous LA traffic or Obama's motorcade so that was a good start.
Enjoyed a drive through downtown seemingly empty of people, past the Walt Disney theatre to MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art. A smallish museum compared to LA County, with a fantastic selection of key works of the last 50 years, stunning Rothko, Pollocks and a series of Rauschenbergs. One of the highlights was the Lynda Benglis show, incredible use of media, some rarely seen luminous works and some wax works. Auckland Art Gallery has two of these in its collection.

Definitley a highlight.

From there we spent the afternoon at LACMA, taking in the Broad Museum, and pretty much most of everything else that is good and great.
A highlight was the Jeff Koons room and the Richard Serra work.

To finish the day off we wandered two blocks down the road passed the 99cent store  to 1301PE to catch up with Brian Butler and co to view some soft and beautiful works by Uta Bath to bring the personal touch and domestic focus back to the end of our day.

We were lucky enough to spend some time at LACMA with Holly Myers, LA Times art critic, who introduced us to a quite intense work by Edward Kienholz called Five Car Stud.

Last day in LA tomorrow - should be good!!!

DAy 1 - LA and New York with Sue Gardiner

The Museum of Jurassic technolgy has a serious collection of weirdness, depisctions of cures for afflictions, including putting a duckbill in ones mouth to let the ducks cool breath purify and heal any allergies, and that to pass sickness away you should drink by licking from the same bowl as a dog. Nice!
We did dit down for russian tea with david the founder, who was a quiet unassuming man who matched his museum. A live where you work scenario it seems as the kitchen als has a dog bowl, and in walked the whippet halfway through our chat.

For a taste of the oppostie extreme we went on to the Norton Simon Museum in pretty old Pasadena. An idyllic setting with pond, sculptures aplent by Henry Moore, Rodin and Degas, quiet leafy cafe and an awesome collection of art spanning the 1400s to 20th  century. Nothing to pretentious here - well lit spaces with great art and not too big a place either.

To top the day off we visited Griffith Park observatory where though the sun had come out the haze meant not a great deal was visible. Though we did see the Hollywood sign and the views from this amazingly located bservatory atop the hill.
Not bad for our first day, a great bunch of people travelling with us and Sue has been free flowing with information.

Santa Monica 3rd St Promenade is amazingly busy, very touristy but some good shopping to be had.

LA and New York - Countdown begins

With 7 days to go it is time to take a final check on supplies and logistics.
- extra bandaids for blisters - yep
- toothpaste - yes I forgot this last time.
- small technology store for charges etc - check
- list of requests from family - on its way
- importantly I am grateful for tips on coffee in NYC from sarah over at goodcoffeenow.com
- list of craft beer bars in Santa Monica and Chelsea - definitley
- art galleries booked
- restaurants booked for dinner out
- waiting for my new travel sim for phone for cheap calls in USA to arrive!
- really hoping the dollar stays up too for my budgets sake

Its all coming together!

The Little Artist Test Update

Old School

Here is an old work started in Montreal in 1995 before I left, finished in 2006, lurking in the back of the wardrobe ever since. I believe the bridge is based on the Jacques Cartier.

Melbourne Graffiti

Melbourne always impresses with its Alleys and laneways and street art projects.
I look forward to being in Melbourne a couple of times this year and catching up with whats new.

In the meantime you can follow this group on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/groups/melbournegraffiti/

Biennale of Sydney - Itinerary

The full tour itinerary is here -
http://www.arttravel.co.nz/Biennale_2010_itin.pdf

Its Biennale Tour Time

The tickets are out, the flights booked and the Biennale is of course open.

17th Biennale of Sydney Tour - Introduction

by Sue Gardiner

Since its inception in 1973, the Biennale of Sydney has been hugely important to New Zealanders, bringing, close to our shores, a two yearly array of ambitious projects that have challenged, extended and occupied the thoughts of contemporary art lovers for decades. This year, the 17th Biennale, is no exception. From Paul McCarthy’s manic and theatrical Ship of fools, to Cai Guo-Qiang’s Inopportune: Stage One – the intensity of this year’s multi venue exhibition seems to be ramped up even more as curator David Elliott attempts to encapsulate his reading of art for the here and now.

Cultural, political and aesthetic clashes are evident in his selections, coupled with the playful and the tragic, the musical and the cinematic, the historical and the contemporary, folk tales and scientific exploration. The world seems to be bought together in this exhibition, from all corners of the planet, in all its horrifying and terrorising details and its sublime existence. The Carnival and the Cannibal, like characters from a metaphysical play that pop up throughout the show, dissect the antagonism between globalizing Western modernity and traditional cultures. Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s video at the MCA of
remote Thai farmers encountering masterpieces of Western art history on the banks of their rivers and fields serves to set this scene of disjunction most dramatically. Reuben Paterson’s patterning of Maori and European motifs and Alex Danko’s painted patterns and grids of Turkish weaving are just two examples of work that bridges these cultural gaps seeking some sort of collaboration. In other works, the gaps are prized apart and left revealing only terror.

Peter Hennessey’s large scale replica of the Hubble telescope, on Cockatoo Island, then launches this Biennale out of this world into the universe- a universe on untold mystery and undecipherable meaning. Skewed perspectives then explode from this ‘other-worldliness’ to highlights the extreme lengths gone to to reach a sense of utopia.

At that point, the Biennale tips over into fictional, parallel worlds- typified by masks, high heels, costuming, folktales and performance – exuberant outpourings of myths and stories that unify and simultaneously destroy as we encounter transformation and transcendence. From the Age of Enlightenment comes the end...our view of the world is changed forever.
We will see much that fascinates us, makes us laugh out loud and some that unmistakably repels us – not all contemporary art is easy to view. Take from it what you can – and be prepared to leave some things as they are – un-answerable mysteries.

I look forward to being your guide through this quite exceptional journey into art.

The Big Draw - Eden Arts

THE BIG DRAW



Saturday April 17


12.30 – 2.30pm


Narratives of place and process





A FRIENDS OF EDEN ARTS event





If you are interested in drawing and developing themes and ideas from the landscape then this event is not to be missed.


Bring a picnic and sketch on Mt Eden with personal instruction from two well-known Auckland artists, Paul Woodruffe and Paul Johnston, both practising artists and lecturers at Unitec and AUT.


All levels welcome.






Friends of Eden Arts: $15.00


Non-Friends $25.00






Register by emailing edenarts1@gmail.com or ph Rose 021457673 for details.


A list of what to bring and where to meet will be sent on registration.

Eden Artspeak

We are into our tenth year of this popular series, are loving the small auditorium at the Epsom based  University of Auckland Education campus, and are thrilled to be in partnership with Two Rooms Gallery for a second year. See you there and please pass this on to others interested, students, art groups and fellow artists!

 

Patch of the day #1 - Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein

Collected by Jodi, Sep 2009

We are collecting embroidered souvenir patches this year.

If you've got one you think we might not have let us know. 

Cafes and Food

Since the demise of the fabulously named Stomach Takeaways, my newest favourite name is a takeaway between Royal Oak and Onehunga. Only wish I could pronounce it. I will have to venture in next time I am going past.

Below is a Mexican dish at the Ponsonby Food Hall.

Stylish in design, and tasted great too. The Mexican stall does provide the most decorative and enticing options.

 

Art Tour Cities 1 - Brisbane

Most people consider the art and culture centres of Australia to be Sydney and Melbourne, and generally consider Brisbane to be somewhat less endowed with contemporary art. While Sydney and Melbourne do host the lions share of events and hold a good deal of the best contemporary art practice, other centres do have a lot to offer.

Brisbane's Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) form part of the cultural precinct, including the State Library, Museum and performing arts centre (QPAC). The focus for us here are the art galleries, which have a habit of attracting blockbuster shows. Highlights of the past include Warhol, Matisse, and the recently finished American Realism show from the Met.

GOMA also has a strong affinity and tes to the asia pacific region, and this is documented with its Asia Pacific Triennial, starting this year in December. The APT started in 1993, and this year will be the 6th event.
APT6 will show over 100 artists from 25 countries, and has become an important event in anyones calendar.
There will be an overlap in 2010 with the 4th Auckland Triennial which starts in mid March

On a recent visit in May there was an interesting show of  chinese artists entitled The China Project. Though they had darkened the far wall with a bright red film which near blinded me, some of the works were fascinating.

A quick peruse of the Art Almanac lists a variety of galleries to visit, and of course there is also the important
Institute of Modern Art, directed by Kiwi Robert Leonard.

Brisbane is not without its cafe, bar and restaurant scene. On our recent visit we found some great cafes and bars a few minutes walk south of the South Bank area, and of course there is the couple of blocks of cool north of the CBD.

Of course Brisbane is in close proximity to that kiwi tourist magnet - the Gold Coast, but for me it's not much further on to Byron Bay, which has a simililar pull from a tourst point of view. Byron does have a good mix of food, culutre and beach, providing a great atmosphere, and a little more sophistcaion than you may get in places closer. It has a great alternate art scene, and the whole Byronshire is stacked full of small towns that each offer their own charm. My favourite was the small town of Bangalow, 10 minutes inland, great cafes, and when we were there a fantastic retro and vintage store - which I can not find a link to.

Art Tours will be visiting APT6 with Sue Gardiner from 19 - 22 March 2010, flying Air New Zealand from Auckland and staying at the Sofitel.
Enquire

Space

Space defined

Our property backs onto the local primary school, very good it is too. While some of the neighbours may complain about their view being blocked, lucky for us it stops right on the edge of our boundary. We have been able to watch the building works grow from the ground up, where once there was nothing there are now frames, foundations, the roof is going on over the pretty pink framing timber.

The concept of space being contained or defined has been interesting to follow over this project. It has helped start a small series of works. These relate to the patterns formed by the timber frames as they begin to define and enlose space. They have stood for weeks as a skeleton waiting for a skin, waiting for the finished product which will no doubt impress the neighbours in the end, to be formulated out of vacant nothing.

Works in progress

New Orleans Jazz Festival Tour has its own blog!

Follow Pauls updates here

http://jazzfestwithpaul.blogspot.com/

Pauls take on New Orleans Jazzfest

Paul Gurney

· Lead vocalist and guitarist with The DeSotos
· 30 years performing in the music industry
· Former advertising industry agency head
· Four time attendee of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival – ‘04/’05/’07/’09

Ok, so first things first. Jazz Fest, as it is universally referred to, is not just a jazz music festival. The word heritage in its name seems to cover just about every music form other than jazz; blues, country, bluegrass, jam band, funk, rock, zydeco…you get the idea.

If you are a jazz lover there is plenty of choice, with tents catering for all forms of contemporary and traditional jazz. But it is the sheer diversity of music that attracts so many people. The one consistent theme is the overall quality of both the acts and the sound mixes.

The USA invented the outdoor rock concert, and nobody stages an event as well as they can.

The festival is held over the last weekend of April and first weekend in May, and there are three days off between weekends where you can indulge in local tours of everything from a swamp to the local graveyard! Or go further north to cities such as Memphis or Nashville if that’s your thing.

I personally like to stay local as there is so much activity in New Orleans during this time it’s hard to leave.

Jazz Fest is held at the local racecourse, converted each year into a series of outdoor and tented sound stages – some 11 in all. And the mood is more WOMAD than BDO, with an array of food stalls delivering all manner of fabulous Creole and Cajun food, and many craft stalls selling the best of the local artisans’ work.

And then of course there is the French Quarter itself, home to some of the best architecture, night clubs and restaurants in the world.

This tour offers you the chance to share the Jazz Fest experience with a small group of like-minded music lovers and get the best tips on music, clubs and restaurants, while still being independent on the ground.

If you are up for the heat, the crowds, occasional thunderstorms, and the walking, then you’ll be rewarded with seven days of music heaven.

http://www.thedesotos.com/ www.myspace.com/thedesotos

Ellerslie Art Trail 13 - 27 July

The Ellerslie Art Trail and exhibition

is on again from 13 - 27 July

Come down and join the fun.

Auckland East Arts has its exhibition opening

Friday 17 July,

and there will also bve a local schools exhibition to follow

Courses on Berlin and Bauhaus in Auckland

Christiane Pracht's evening classes coming up in Auckland

Berlin. Biography of a City

Few cities capture people’s imagination as Berlin does: A political hot spot and cultural center for centuries, Berlin is one of the most diverse cities in the world. Artists and revolutionaries, scientists and poets have called the city their home and, in return, left their mark on Berlin. The course introduces you to Berlin’s history, its arts and culture and is perfect for those planning a trip to Berlin or who just want to learn more about Germany’s new capital.

22 July to 19 August 6.30 to 8.30pm

For more information or to enroll visit Parnell Trust's website and click on "Culture and Languages"

http://www.parnell.org.nz/Parnell-Community-Centre-Classes-Learning.htm

Bauhaus. A Revolution in Art, Architecture and Design

The foundation of the Bauhaus School in 1919 occurred at a time of political and cultural upheaval in Germany. This course will explore the concepts and ideas of Bauhaus and reflect on the socio-economic and political background from which they emerged. We will focus on the Weimar and Dessau years - 1919 to 1928 - and survey some of the work of Walter Gropius, the school’s first director, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Marcel Breuer.

27 July to 10 August, 6.30 - 8.30pm, University of Auckland Center for Continuing Education

For more information or to enroll:

http://www.cce.auckland.ac.nz/cce/continuing/index.cfm?P=7760

Christiane Pracht, native German and art historian, lived in Berlin for many years. Having worked in Germany’s arts industry Christiane has an intimate knowledge of Germany’s history, art and culture.

Melbourne Art Tour - Lanes and Alleyways

CityLights Project