Cool Hunting
| 29 September 2008view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Reinventing Grand Army Plaza
by Ami Kealoha
Grand Army Plaza, the main entrance to Brooklyn's Prospect Park, sprawls across 11 acres in a landscaped oval. With regal statues and a sparkling fountain, it's majestic and — its function as a busy traffic circle separates the cultural landmark from the surrounding pedestrian sidewalks — inaccessible.
Reinventing Grand Army Plaza is an exhibit that highlights the visions of 30 top entrants for a landscape design that enhances the plaza's use for contemporary Brooklyn life. Organized by a coalition between the nonprofit Design Trust for Public Space and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition, the designs were unveiled in a ceremony with Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz on 13 September and are on display through 13 October.
The winning submissions resulted in a tie between the acc&s2 team from Nantes, France for "Canopy," a design based on the use of connecting roofs and Parisians Guillaume Derrien and Gauthier le Romancer for "Please Wake Me Up," which allots for a large, market square. "Urban Stripes," by Vincent Hertenberger and Andras Jambor from Paris, France received second prize and Garrison Architects from Brooklyn, NY received third place for their entry, "A Center for Brooklyn."
You can still voice your opinion by voting in the People's Choice awards which is open through 5 October 2008.
Grand Army Plaza was originally designed by Frederick Law Olmstead (who favored it over his more famous work, Central Park) and Calvert Vaux in 1867, long before the automobile was a city planning issue and was originally called Prospect Park Plaza. Renamed in 1926, Grand Army Plaza's highlights include the Baily Fountain created by sculptor Eugene Francis Savage.
John Waters: The Girls Collector Plates
by Evan Orensten
You'd be hard pressed to find a better medium for John Waters' own unique brand of trashy chic than the porcelain collector plate. Thanks to the NYC-based Adora Porcelain, the perfect pairing exists in the form of three plates, each adorned with one of Waters' photos of his "muses," Barbie-like dolls decked out with bouffants and thick black eye makeup.
Limited to an edition of 300, the 10¼" plates are numbered and signed by the artist. The set of three is $650, available online from the Orange County Musuem store. Check the Adora site for availability at select locations in New York (including Nest Interiors), Toronto and Paris, as well as through Adora directly.
Ryan McGinness: New Shows and Books
by Wendy Dembo
The NYC-based artist Ryan McGinness, known for his graphic-inspired art, is a super busy guy. He has every day scheduled until mid-2010 — just thinking about his numerous upcoming shows and books, all due out by year's end, leaves us exhausted. (Click images for detail; see gallery details after the jump.)
Last week, McGinness opened a solo show in Milan, "A Shadow Feeling of Loss," at Paolo Curti & Annamaria Gambuzzi & Co. and his first show in Toronto, "Aesthetic Comfort" at Artcore/Fabrice Marcolini, which includes his new work that will be shown in black light. Then parts of that show including the fluorescent seen in black light move to the Cincinnati Art Museum 25 October 2008 for an expanded-upon version of "Aesthetic Comfort."
Then towards the end of November, McGinness will have a show simultaneously shown in Hong Kong and Seoul, “No Sin/No Future” at CAIS Gallery.
You may not be able to get to any of these great shows, but you can get a piece of the action, as two Ryan McGinness books are being produced in conjunction with the shows. One is a limited edition soft cover artist book that goes with his Aesthetic Comfort exhibitions printed in fluorescent orange, yellow, pink, and green. The other is a collection of snapshots, sketches, notes, and scans that is a compendium to the No Sin/No Future at CAIS Galleries in Seoul and Hong Kong.
