Efrén Ordóñez, “the painter of the divine”, dies at 84 leaving behind his legacy for future generations

MEXICO CITY.- With a legacy of paintings, sculptures and stained glass, focusing on the religious sphere, the general director of National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA), Teresa Vicencio Alvarez, highlighted the life and work of artist Efrén Ordóñez, who died on 21 August. In a statement, the INBA recalled the career of this artist, who left most of his work at the Seminary of Monterrey and the Institute itself. This last preservation of collection of works include: “Yesterday and Tomorrow ‘(1992),’ Red Gray [...]

American Institute of Architects selects three projects for National Healthcare Design Awards

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) has selected the recipients of the AIA National Healthcare Design Awards program. The AIA Healthcare Awards program showcases the best of healthcare building design and healthcare design-oriented research. Projects exhibit conceptual strengths that solve aesthetic, civic, urban, and social concerns as well as the requisite functional and sustainability concerns of a hospital. Jurors for the 2011 National Healthcare Design Awards include: Larry Speck, FAIA (Chair), Page Southerland Page; Sheila [...]

BBC and Victoria & Albert Museum announce major new year-long partnership

LONDON.- The BBC and V&A today announce Handmade in Britain, a year-long season of programming that will be the most wide-ranging and ambitious exploration of decorative arts ever to be undertaken on British Television. Furthering the BBC’s commitment to building partnerships with the arts sector that go beyond broadcast, from sharing expertise to widening public engagement in UK arts, from autumn 2011 to autumn 2012, Handmade in Britain will present three, three-part series and a selection of individual hour-long films, focusing on a [...]

The secret life of Cuba’s creative class: photographer Michael Dweck’s allegorical narrative of seduction

NEW YORK, N.Y.- Almost immediately upon his arrival in Cuba for the first time, American photographer Michael Dweck was swept up in a cultural bohemia reminiscent of 1930’s Paris salons. His unprecedented (and unrestricted) access to this hidden society of keenly observant artists, writers, musicians and glamorous models had never before been experienced by anyone in the West and is still not acknowledged within Cuba itself. Dweck’s personal exploration of this creative class existing in a classless society, a compelling aspect [...]

Lisette Blumenfeld Georges, 89, succumbs to complications of Crohn’s Disease

NEW YORK, NY.- Lisette was the first born child of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld from Berlin and Lena Citroen of Amsterdam , cousin of Paul Citroen: Blumenfeld’s best friend. since age 6. Upon her birth Lisette became Blumenfeld’s most photographed model and muse. They lived in Zandvoort on the Zee and then in Ardenhout. Lisette was model and assistant in her youth recalling time spent in an early ‘darkroom’ closet under the staircase. Fantastic chemical experiments took place in the middle of [...]

Norfolk’s past illustrated through Kenneth Harris exhibition at the Chrysler Museum of Art

NORFOLK, VA.- The Chrysler Museum of Art showcases a snapshot of historic Norfolk in Portraits of a City: Views of Norfolk by Kenneth Harris. The exhibition is on view August 24, 2011 to January 29, 2012. Admission is free. A selection of 30 of Harris’s beautifully crafted watercolors from the Chrysler Collection provides a nostalgic glance at the bustling seaport in the 1950s. In 1949 Norfolk became the first city in the United States to take part in the newly enacted federal [...]

The fantastic museum of Karsten Klingbeil to be offered at auction in Brussels and Munich

MUNICH.- The private museum of the famous Berlin sculptor, philanthropist and former construction mogul Karsten Klingbeil is going to be offered in two parts. The first auction will take place in December 2011 at Pierre Bergé & Associés in Brussels, the second half of the collection is going to be offered for bidding in June 2012 at Hermann Historica oHG in Munich. Those dates provide the unique opportunity to buy a total number of 600 significant objects that have been collected over fifty [...]

Temporary art commissions launched in celebration of new Auckland Art Gallery

AUCKLAND.- Three commissioned contemporary artworks will be launched on 19 August as the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki prepares to deliver New Zealand’s largest visual arts experience. Large-scale sculptural works by Choi Jeong Hwa of South Korea, Jeppe Hein of Denmark and New Zealander Kate Newby are bound to become firm public favourites when the newly restored and expanded Gallery opens to the public on 3 September. Art Gallery Director Chris Saines is thrilled with the result of the commissions. “Choi Jeong [...]

The Austrian Cultural Forum New York presents exhibition by five emerging Austrian artists

NEW YORK, NY.- Fünf Räume presents five emerging artists who have been given the opportunity to transform a distinct space within the gallery of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York by creating new, site-specific installations. Rather than attempting to create a specific, and potentially narrow, theme for these works to conform to, these selected artists are given the freedom to display their work with few limitations. Thus, Fünf Räume (German for ‘Five Rooms’) allows viewers to experience something unique and original while at [...]

Israel Museum welcomes one millionth visitor since inauguration of renewed campus

JERUSALEM.- In an unprecedented achievement for an Israeli cultural institution, the Israel Museum is proud to announce that it has welcomed one million people to its renewed campus since its inauguration one year ago. During this time, visitors have enjoyed the Museum’s renewed galleries, new architecture and rich program of exhibitions, events and activities. Programming highlights included the inaugural exhibition Artists’ Choices: Zvi Goldstein, Susan Hiller, Yinka Shonibare, a three-part presentation that juxtaposed works from all three of the Museum’s collection wings; the [...]

Diana Thater’s Peonies, a nine-monitor videowall, on view at the Wexner Center

COLUMBUS, OH.- Diana Thater’s Peonies, a nine-monitor videowall, is now on view through December 30 in the Wexner Center’s lower lobby. Quietly panning over pink and yellow peony blooms, the video initially appears to be a straightforward account of several flowers scattered across a watery surface. But as in most of Thater’s video projects, the technical aspects of Peonies and the artist’s investigations of duration and figure/ground relationships are as compelling as the work’s visual and aesthetic elements. Running nearly six [...]

Solid sales and crowds at 3rd annual Western edition of the Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair

SANTA FE, N.M.- The 3rd annual Western edition of the Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair; SOFA WEST: Santa Fe and its new Spotlight Presentation of The Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art enjoyed a successful run August 4 – 7 at the Santa Fe Convention Center. Mark Lyman, President of The Art Fair Company and Founder/Director of SOFA fairs in New York, Chicago, and Santa Fe, said, “It was a very upbeat fair despite the country’s political and economic turmoil. Dealers [...]

Sydney’s over 55 year olds unveil special photography showcase

SYDNEY.- Senior citizens from across Sydney are putting their photographic talents to the test in a special exhibition atCustoms House near Circular Quay. On view from 17 to 31 August 2011, the Snap & Click touring showcase is the result of a dedicated digital photography course for people aged 55 years and over which was held during Seniors Week 2011. Organised by the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Aviiid Foundation and the Australian Centre for Photography (ACP), the ‘Snap and Click’ workshops [...]

Martin Luther King Memorial by Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin unveiled on National Mall

WASHINGTON, D.C. (REUTERS).- Martin Luther King Jr stood 30 feet tall on the National Mall as a memorial to him was unveiled on Monday morning — the first memorial on the Mall not dedicated to a war, president or white man. Fifteen years after a Congressional Joint Resolution in 1996 to establish a memorial in Washington, D.C. to honor King, the four-acre site on the Tidal Basin between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials opened to the public for the first time. “From a [...]

British Artist Tracey Emin Dazzles 10 Downing Street with “More Passion” Neon Light

LONDON (AP).- A new message is greeting visitors to the home of Britain’s prime minister: “More Passion.” The words, rendered in dazzling neon, are a work by artist Tracey Emin that that is now hanging in 10 Downing St. Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said Sunday that the work was installed earlier this week in a busy hallway, above the door to Downing St.’s Terracotta Room. It stands in contrast to the oil paintings and portraits of former prime ministers elsewhere [...]