“The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art unveiled a new exhibit Saturday in uptown Charlotte,” reports WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Five large-scale mixed-media sculptures by French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle were placed in the Green, next to the museum.” The enormous sculptures, “large enough that kids can play in them,” include La Cabeza (2000), a six-ton skull in green, yellow, and red with room for a dozen people inside. Another, shown here, is Niki’s Grande Step Totem (2001).
“The display is a prelude to a larger exhibit of the artist’s work, set to go on display Friday, March 18th,” adds the report. “The outdoor works will remain on display until October.”
The Bechtler is home to Niki’s popular Firebird (a.k.a. Le grand oiseau de feu sur l’arche), now on permanent public display in front of the museum.
For the indoor exhibition — entitled “Niki de Saint Phalle: Creation of a New Mythology” and running from 18 March through 30 September — the Bechtler will be showing about 60 additional works by Niki de Saint Phalle in its fourth-floor gallery, as reported in January by the Charlotte Observer. Watch this space for more news about this exhibition.
Niki de Saint Phalle’s colossal mosaic sculpture, The Star Fountain (Blue), will be on view free and open to the public at the 2011 Times Square Show, a large-scale outdoor group exhibition on Broadway and 42nd Street in New York City, from 1–7 March 2011.
The sculpture depicts a flamboyant and playful ‘Nana’ juggling two large pitchers from which water constantly cascades. Standing nearly 10 feet tall, the voluptuous female figure is an archetype of feminine power and strength celebrating motherhood, sensuality, love, and life. Installed in the heart of New York’s theater district, its mirrored and stained glass tesserae, reflecting the city’s flickering lights and vibration, provide a rare opportunity to dive into Niki’s realm.
This work is presented by the Nohra Haime Gallery, with the support of the Niki Charitable Art Foundation, in collaboration with the Armory Art Show and the Times Square Alliance. A reception will be held 1 March from 7-9pm at the Times Square Visitor Center.
March 8 is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. To celebrate, Kunsthalle Wien — which has extended the exhibition “POWER UP – Female Pop Art” through today — will feature a special midday program: POWER LUNCH, a guided tour of the show by curator Angela Stief.
Later in the day, Ursula Leitgeb and Hafize Gültekin will offer another guided tour of the exhibition (in German, with translation into Turkish) with the title “Vorsicht, Emanzipation kann Ihre Befindlichkeit nachhaltig verbessern!” (“Warning: Emancipation can produce a lasting improvement in your mood!”).
If you’re in Vienna and would like to register for the POWER LUNCH tour, contact Isabella Drozda at +43-1-521 89-1255 or kunstvermittlung@kunsthallewien.at. (Admission is € 5, which includes snacks following the tour.) For more information (also in German) about either event, visit the Kunsthalle Wien web site.
Finally, if you aren’t in Vienna or just can’t make it to the show today, don’t panic. “POWER UP – Female Pop Art” will also be appearing at Phoenix Art/Stiftung Falckenberg (in cooperation with Deichtorhallen Hamburg) from 19 April – 10 July, and at the Städtische Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen from 23 July – 9 October. Learn more about the exhibition.
WNYC in New York City asked New Yorkers what they thought of the outsized sculptures now embellishing Times Square as part of Armory Arts Week. (To hear a few of their responses, click the arrow on the audio player above.)
“On Tuesday morning after the unveiling,” writes WNYC Culture Producer Marlon Bishop, “tourists and native New Yorkers alike wandered among the statues, ranging from a voluptuous ten-foot ceramic woman by the late sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle to the 24 sheep made of paper by Brooklyn artist Kyu Seok Oh.”
Bishop notes that beyond the obvious artistic considerations, the sculptures were chosen “to withstand the wear and tear of a week in Times Square — where, according to curator Glen Weiss, people tend to be pretty ‘hands-on’ with the art.”
All five works will be on display until next Tuesday, 8 March. Learn more.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 1 MARCH 2011 — Niki de Saint Phalle’s colossal mosaic sculpture, The Star Fountain (Blue) (1999), will be on view free and open to the public at the 2011 Times Square Show, a major large-scale outdoor group exhibition on Broadway and 42nd Street, from March 1 through 7, 2011.
Wittily executed in the artist’s signature sparkling colors, The Star Fountain (Blue) depicts a flamboyant and playful ‘Nana’ that juggles two large pitchers from which water constantly cascades. Standing nearly 10 feet tall, and made of polyurethane foam, resin, steel armature, glass pebbles, ceramic tiles, mirror and stained glass, the voluptuous female figure is an archetype of feminine power and strength. Decorated with cosmic symbols and stars in shades of white, red, yellow and blue, the majestic Nana celebrates motherhood, sensuality, love and life — themes recurrently explored by Saint Phalle.
The sculpture’s illusory effects of light and color and the use of water create a magnetic attraction and meditative sensory experience. Installed in the heart of New York’s theater district, its mirrored and stained glass tesserae, reflecting the city’s flickering lights and vibration, provide a rare opportunity to dive into Saint Phalle’s realm — one of whimsy and fantasy.
Internationally acclaimed for her oversized, voluptuous female figures, Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) was a French-American, self-taught sculptor, painter and film maker of international prominence. She is best known for her public sculptures, such as the Stravinsky Fountain next to the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1983), the Tarot Garden at Garavicchio in southern Tuscany (1998), the Grotto in Hannover’s Royal Herrenhausen Garden (2003), and Queen Califia’s Magical Circle in California (2003). Saint Phalle, who began her career as an artist in the 1950s, was awarded the 12th Praemium Imperial Prize, considered to be the equivalent to the Nobel Prize in the art world, in Japan in 2000. Born in 1930, in Neuilly sur Seine, Saint Phalle died in 2002 at the age of 71 in La Jolla, California.
“One is struck by unexpected juxtapositions in Julie Richey’s three-dimensional works. La Corrente is an elegant sculpture expertly executed in traditionally durable mosaic materials with imagery that comments on the fragile ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico.”
Texas artist Julie Richey has received Best 3-D Mosaic honors from the 2011 Mosaic Arts International, an annual international juried exhibition of contemporary mosaic art. Richey’s figurative dress sculpture in marble, glass smalti and seashells is entitled La Corrente (The Current).
“La Corrente is about beauty amidst destruction,” says Richey. “It was created during the Gulf oil spill and it alludes to the many destructive forces, both man-made and natural, that creep in with the current.” Richey describes her work as “utilizing the innate opulence of mosaic materials – 24k gold smalti, marble, semi-precious stones, iridescent glass and minerals – to embellish sculptural forms in unexpected ways.”
Three jurors from the US and Australia selected Richey’s work from among more than 300 international entries. Juror JeanAnn Dabb, Professor of Art History, University of Mary Washington commented on Richey’s work, “One is struck by unexpected juxtapositions in Julie Richey’s three-dimensional works. La Corrente is an elegant sculpture expertly executed in traditionally durable mosaic materials with imagery that comments on the fragile ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico. Richey’s recent sculptures have clothing or dress forms as shared structures and the environments referenced in their individual subjects range from the rural to the urban; all linked by the actions of humans and the forces of nature.”
Nancie Mills Pipgras, Editor in Chief of the publication Mosaic Art Now, remarks, “In La Corrente, Richey has succeeded in making hard materials — stone, glass, and shell — appear to float and fold with the gentle grace that only wind and water can bestow. We are reminded that all in nature is fragile.”
Richey has worked in the mosaic medium for more than 20 years, creating custom residential and commercial mosaics. She has earned international recognition for several recent projects, including the 2009 Orsoni Prize for Night Shirt, a wall relief mosaic depicting San Francisco Bay at midnight. In October 2011 Richey will be leading a Mosaic Masterpiece Tour to Rome and the Vatican Micromosaic Workshop, Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden in Tuscany and the International Mosaic Festival in Ravenna.
Five large and whimsical sculptures are coming to Times Square as part of a weeklong public art installation.
The Times Square Alliance is slated to unveil the five artists’ works in Duffy Square Tuesday morning.
The outdoor exhibition features a bronze mouse; a voluptuous female figure made of ceramic tiles and glass pebbles; an illuminated sculpture of bubbling sea foam; and a work made of compact discs and resin meant to evoke an ancient monument.
All the structures are about 10 feet tall.
Another highlight is Counting Sheep, a 36-foot-long installation of 24 handmade paper sheep.
The art project marks the start of Armory Arts Week, which features arts events throughout New York City.
The sculptures are scheduled to remain on display through next Monday.
Joining the art carnival that descends on New York City during the annual Armory Show, the huge contemporary art fair that opens on Thursday, Times Square is transforming itself into a “whimsical” sculpture garden.
Pieces by Tom Otterness (a huge bronze mouse, looking as if it has outgrown the subway), Niki de Saint Phalle (a 10-foot ceramic and glass female figure) and Kyu Seok Oh, a Brooklyn artist (a flock of sheep handmade from heavy paper) were unveiled on Tuesday along with two other sculptures by Grimanesa Amorós and David Kennedy Cutler. The works, presented by the Times Square Alliance, will remain on view through Monday.
Four of the sculptures are at Duffy Square and sites between 46th Street and 47th Street. The sheep, which are presented in partnership with the West Harlem Art Fund, will be grazing motionlessly for the week between 45th Street and 46th Street near the Marriott Marquis Hotel. No need to feed them.
Niki de Saint Phalle’s colossal mosaic sculpture, The Star Fountain (Blue) (1999), will be on view free and open to the public at the 2011 Times Square Show, a major large-scale outdoor group exhibition on Broadway and 42nd Street, from March 1 through 7, 2011.
Wittily executed in the artist’s signature sparkling colors, The Star Fountain (Blue) depicts a flamboyant and playful ‘Nana’ that juggles two large pitchers from which water constantly cascades. Standing nearly 10 feet tall, and made of polyurethane foam, resin, steel armature, glass pebbles, ceramic tiles, mirror and stained glass, the voluptuous female figure is an archetype of feminine power and strength. Decorated with cosmic symbols and stars in shades of white, red, yellow and blue, the majestic Nana celebrates motherhood, sensuality, love and life — themes recurrently explored by Saint Phalle.
The sculpture’s illusory effects of light and color and the use of water create a magnetic attraction and meditative sensory experience. Installed in the heart of New York’s theater district, its mirrored and stained glass tesserae, reflecting the city’s flickering lights and vibration, provide a rare opportunity to dive into Saint Phalle’s realm — one of whimsy and fantasy.
Internationally acclaimed for her oversized, voluptuous female figures, Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) was a French-American, self-taught sculptor, painter and film maker of international prominence. She is best known for her public sculptures, such as the Stravinsky Fountain next to the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1983), the Tarot Garden at Garavicchio in southern Tuscany (1998), the Grotto in Hannover’s Royal Herrenhausen Garden (2003), and Queen Califia’s Magical Circle in California (2003). Saint Phalle, who began her career as an artist in the 1950s, was awarded the 12th Praemium Imperial Prize, considered to be the equivalent to the Nobel Prize in the art world, in Japan in 2000. Born in 1930, in Neuilly sur Seine, Saint Phalle died in 2002 at the age of 71 in La Jolla, California.
NEW YORK — This week, fine art meets flash as five sculptures by high-profile artists land in Times Square, a public art exhibition connected to the arts trade show Armory Arts Week.
Star Fountain, by late French artist Niki de Saint Phalle, one of the works on display in Times Square this week. (Marlon Bishop/WNYC)
On Tuesday morning after the unveiling, tourists and native New Yorkers alike wandered among the statues, ranging from a voluptuous ten-foot ceramic woman by the late sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle to the 24 sheep made of paper by Brooklyn artist Kyu Seok Oh.
“I’m always supportive of public art sculptures, there needs to be more of them,” says Arash Mokhtar, an actor who was checking out the sculptures after an audition. “I’m glad they’re actually in Times Square and not far off in some art world refuge.”
The sculptures were chosen, alongside artistic considerations, to withstand the wear and tear of a week in Times Square, where, according to curator Glen Weiss, people tend to be pretty “hands-on” with the art.
All five works will be on display until next Tuesday.
“The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art unveiled a new exhibit Saturday in uptown Charlotte,” reports WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Five large-scale mixed-media sculptures by French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle were placed in the Green, next to the museum.” The enormous sculptures, “large enough that kids can play in them,” include La Cabeza (2000), a six-ton skull in green, yellow, and red with room for a dozen people inside. Another, shown here, is Niki’s Grande Step Totem (2001).