Yoga in Bed

by Wendy Dembo

Last week I ran into Edward Vilga, one of my favorite yoga teachers, on the subway. He generously gave a me a copy of his "Yoga in Bed" DVD to check out. Yesterday morning it was raining so hard that there was no way I was going to go to the gym. So I tried out the DVD instead, and it was great! The yoga wasn't difficult and I was ready to start my day. And by the time it was done, it had stopped raining. I called Edward to thank him and he told me that "consistency is the most important factor in yoga." The DVD has an energizing morning workout and a restorative nighttime workout. Edward says that the night workout helps you fall asleep faster and sleep better. Best of all, you don't even have to get out of your bed for either of them. Pick up your own copy from Amazon.

Refinery29: Josh Hickey

by Ami Kealoha

Josh Hickey has emerged as an intriguing young jewelry designer, creating idiosyncratic pieces that straddle the fashion and fine jewelry realms. Starting from a raw, urban style, his craft has matured into refined, elegant women's collections and men's accessories. Josh's latest offerings for women begin with simple chains of flat-hammered teardrops, with asymetrical highlights and volume-building tiers. Josh's work for men tends to be more expressive, incorporating African elements, a lot of color, braided leather, sterling caps, Mediterranean red coral, black chains and cast-silver seahorse totems—a very, very welcome departure from the Chrome Hearts-styles and skulls motifs supersaturating the men's jewelry market at the moment.

Duke Riley

by Wendy Dembo

If artist Duke Riley was born in Ye Olde Days, he would have sailed the world discovering new lands and cultures. Or maybe he would have been a tattooist working on the edge of society covering sailors with anchors and other types of flash. (He founded Cherry Bomb Tattoo.) But, obsessed with circumnavigating the Island of Manhattan, he makes do studying the history of the waterways around Brooklyn.

For his upcoming solo show “Duke Riley Presents Paul Piers for Chanel” (that opens tomorrow and runs through 26 August 2006) he has created a flagship store for the fictitious fashionista Paul Piers and filled Paul’s boutique with crispy clothing taken from the warehouse that recently burned down in Williamsburg. Duke has made a video specifically for this show about the homeless people who lived in the warehouse and created a micro-industry out of found items. It explains how the homeless people found a huge stash of 70’s and 80’s clothing in the warehouse and started a business of supplying all of the vintage stores in Williamsburg with clothing. This may seem like a departure from his usual seafaring work, but the parallel lies in the gentrification squeezing out the peripheral culture from Brooklyn's waterfront and replacing one luxury “store” (i.e. gallery) in Chelsea with another.

Opening 17 August 2006, 6- 8pm
White Box
525 West 26th Street
New York, NY map
tel. 01 212 714 2347

Hanamaro Chaki

by Leonora Oppenheim

Hanamaro Chaki are fantastical, mysterious and mythical. An exhibition of her work entitled "The Flooded Box" opened earlier this month at Mercado Del Borne in Barcelona and runs through 31 August 2006. The images of strange creatures, which are at once animal and human, seem to come from some deep, dark, but beautiful place—possibly a dream? Her naïve pencil drawings have echoes of a more decorative David Shrigley, but without the witty words. This leaves you to jump in and swim about in Hanamaro’s fertile imagination. The Mercado Del Borne has positioned itself right in the middle of Barcelona’s designer district, but rather that follow the big labels, the Mercado serves as a space for young artists and designers to exhibit, promote and sell their work. It works as a co-operative and encourages creative people from all over the world to come and show work in their gallery. Hanamaro Chaki is a great example of the kind of multicultural artist they attract, being born and raised in Japan, she studied in the UK, and is now living and working in Barcelona.

Mercado Del Borne
Calle Rec 37-39
08003 Barcelona
tel. 34 932 688 631

Shin Tanaka: Kami Zoo

by Ami Kealoha

Known for his spot-on paper sneaker replicas, Japanese artist and designer Shin Tanaka has recently been applying his brand of nouveau origami to make animé-like creatures, which will be the subjects of his show Kami Zoo that opens tomorrow 17 August 2006 at Berlin's Less Rain gallery. Like his mock Air Force 1s and Bapestas, characters such as T-Boy (which was inspired by the way kids pull tees over their heads) are templates that Tanaka encourages others to construct and customize by offering them as free downloads on his website. For the show, Tanaka tasked other Japanese and European graffiti artists with making their own versions of his paper constructs. The exhibit's up through 30 September 2006. See more images here.

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Kami Zoo opens 17 August 2006 from 7:30-11pm
Less Rain Basement Gallery
Linienstrasse 154A
10115 Berlin
tel. 49 0 30 28 09 50 20