Cool Hunting

Dietrich Wegner at Pulse
by Kelsey KeithLast week we were taken aback at NYC's Pulse Art Fair by artist Dietrich Wegner's "Playhouse," an installation shaped like a mushroom cloud and built like a tree fort covered in swaths of cotton. A study in contradiction, "Playhouse" mingled with tattooed babies and dotted light paintings in Chicago gallerist Carrie Secrist Gallery's booth. Wegner creates "images that are safe and unsettling, abject...

Eastern District: Made in Brooklyn
Adopting its name from the governmental region that includes Williamsburg, Greenpoint and East New York, Eastern District is Bushwick's latest art gallery and exhibition space, which typifies the New York art world's shifting focus. After an abbreviated Fashion Week photo show, the gallery is holding its grand opening tomorrow with "Made in Brooklyn," a exhibition from Marvel comic artist Juan Doe. Noted for illustrating...

Bas Louter: Dust (Asphault)
Currently on display at the Ambach & Rice gallery in Seattle's artsy neighborhood of Ballard is a collection of works from Amsterdam-based artist Bas Louter. Louter uses ink and charcoal to create a chiaroscuro effect for his works, which conflate historical characteristics and imagined futures to suggest an adventure into an unknown destination—explaining the latter portion of the exhibition's title. The initial word, Dust,...

Bill McMullen: Hype, Hustle, Rip-Off
Bill McMullen is so — I hate to use the word — creative. Widely known as one of the Beastie Boys' graphic designers (we're talking "Hello Nasty" and beyond here), he is also well known for his limited edition "action" figures which were sold at Kidrobot while they lasted. Some people remember the sick designs he did for the seminal skate store, SWISHNYC, while others...