Cool Hunting
Electric Windows
by Ami Kealoha
Bringing together 24 street artists from all over the world, Electric Windows is a semi-permanent installation of large-scale work exhibited on the exterior windows of a 19th century blanket factory in Beacon, NY. We traveled to the small town earlier this year to meet some of the artists and watch them make "urban art" in a not-so-urban setting. We also interview one of the organizers, Daniel Weise, a vet of the NYC street artist scene who recently moved to Beacon and co-founded Beacon's Open Space gallery there.
Fashionable Technology
by Ami Kealoha
A massage-based video game controller, panties with wings and an inflatable dress were just a few of the concepts exhibited recently at the NYC gallery Eyebeam to launch Sabine Seymour's new book "Fashionable Technology." In this video, we interview Sabine about the burgeoning field and her lifelong obsession with fashion. She also helps us peruse the exhibit, chatting with the designers and artists behind each piece to learn about their inspiration and process.
To see all the projects, buy the book from Amazon.
Lisa Kereszi, Photographer
by Ami Kealoha
Known for her hauntingly still imagery, photographer Lisa Kereszi's subjects have included junkyards, burlesque clubs and other desolate sites. Her commercial work for clients such as The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Nest, W, GQ, Tokion, Penthouse, Nylon, Flaunt, wallpaper* and others shares a similarly serenely meditative quality, capturing the quiet beauty of scenes that would otherwise likely go unnoticed.
Currently teaching at Yale, as well as continuing her fine art and commercial pursuits, Lisa took us on a trip to revisit the shots she took at Governors Island for a 2003 monograph on the former military base. We found several of the sites she captured, including a bus stop, an elementary school drinking fountain, bowling alley lanes and a Burger King sign. In an interview in an empty pool, Lisa shares how a mild depressive bent informs her work, her solitary working habits and her obsession with Governors Island.
Drawing on found objects (and people), kitsch and the banal, Philadelphia-based artist Alex Da Corte makes multimedia work that belies its material origins. This video visits his studio/apartment and his recent gallery show at Fleischer-Ollman to gain some insight into his ideas and technique. We also interview Fleischer-Ollman's director William Pym to get his take on the young artist....
A Pratt graduate who cut his teeth in the Brooklyn design scene, jewelry and furniture maker Kiel Mead represents the next generation of New York designers. Taking inspiration from such disparate sources as everyday objects (car keys, chewing gum, retainers) and Catholic iconography (Saint Sebastian, crucifixes), his work mixes irreverence with first-rate craftsmanship. In this video, we visit his Brooklyn studio where he shows us...
Juxtaposing nature with man-made objects, Pennsylvania-based artist Lee Stoetzel uses woods chosen for their natural flaws to make large-scale sculptures. In this video we visit Lee at his home studio where he's disassembling his life-size replica of a VW bus to transport to an art fair. He also shows us his latest work—giant models of fixed-gear bikes—and his workshop....
Brooklyn-based tattooist Scott Campbell has taken the art form to another level—not just by being one of the most sought-after tattoo artists in NY (if not the world) but for using a laser cutter to etch his intricate old-world designs into everything from laptops and books to leather chairs, tables and paintings. In this field trip to Scott's Brooklyn tattoo parlor and studio, he shows...
For nearly a decade the Lever House in New York City has been home to some of the most daring public exhibits of contemporary art. In this video curator Richard Marshall gives some background on the architectural landmark and explains the ins-and-outs of putting together the biannual commissions that have included the likes of Barnaby Furnace, Sarah Morris and Damien Hirst. In addition to past...
To document MoMA's wonderful, monumental exhibit spanning design, science and technology, "Design and the Elastic Mind," we enlisted the help of the show's esteemed curator, Paola Antonelli. Paola speaks in detail about several of the exhibits, including "The Afterlife," a system for turning corpses into batteries, robots that act as personal climatizers and DNA origami. She also weighs in on her curatorial approach, addressing the...
