HERE’S ONE FOR THE DORKS VIDEO GAME
LOMEXthe über-cool and distinctly moody Tribeca gallery is about to cause a stir once again by showing an artist who has been hidden in plain sight: the Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano, best known for his video game designs and artwork for “Speed Racer”, among other beloved anime hits. Beginning with a series of paintings moving towards the Dallas Invite in April, Amano will begin working with the gallery, preparing for a solo exhibition next September. For those who remember how LOMEX’s recontextualization of Extraterrestrial designate HR Giger was (remember those lines around the block for just Climb at the gallery?), I would put money so that this release would have a similar impact.
“He’s an artist I’ve loved since I was a kid” Alexander Shulanthe founder of LOMEX told me on the phone of Tokyo, where he has been going for several weeks with the 71-year-old artist. “Like, I bought one of Amano’s art books when I was 12. He was one of the people who really introduced me to art.
For those uninitiated at Amano’s workyou’ve probably seen his work before, especially since “speed racerremains one of the most popular anime of all time (you may recall the live-action US remake from 2008). Amano has also collaborated with Neil Gaiman for his Sand seller graphic novels, was the original character designer for Final Fantasy when it was released in Japan (“He created this whole aesthetic,” Shulan said).
Suffice it to say, Amano is a legendary figure for video game nerds and anime enthusiasts, Shulan among them. That’s why, when a friend of Shulan’s mentioned she was collaborating with Amano on a fashion project, the mystified marketer blurted out, “Wait, you have access to this artist?”
“I completely freaked out,” he said. “I contacted his curators and they said they were going to Japan in a couple of weeks, and I was like, great. I’ll be there.”
In fact, Shulan has been close to Amano all his life, he just didn’t realize it. When the gallerist was a teenager addicted to his book of illustrations, Amano lived a block from his childhood home in Soho on Prince And Green. “It’s just a total coincidence,” he said Fresh paint. “I only discovered this here on this trip.”
Shulan can’t take full credit for Amano’s debut, because it was actually Leo Konig which brought him to New York to open his first exhibition at his gallery in 2002. Aluminum foil paintings of some of Amano’s most popular characters filled the Center Street space, and some 20 years later Shulan said large-scale paintings will also be a focal point of his upcoming show this fall.
Amano’s visual aesthetic in his fine art practice is akin to some of the other “superflat” artworks that came out of Japan after Takashi Murakami coined this term to define the cartoonish and fantastical style of painting also associated with Yoshitomo Nara, Ayo TakanoAnd Yoshinori Kanada. Shulan noted that he has seen several artists cite Amano as inspiration, including fellow artist LOMEX Kye Christensen Knowleswhose work is currently on display at the gallery.
With the success of Giger’s foray into the fine art sphere and the palpable excitement in Shulan’s voice about Amano, I’m inclined to believe that LOMEX could have its market squared off as a wizards of niche pop culture recontextualization. Time will tell if they can pick up where König left off.
JASMINE CHEN RETURNS TO HER LAUREN QUIN
Lawrence Quin, Third belly , 2021/2022. Courtesy of Philips.
We often hear that art auctions are akin to horse racing and, to be fair, it East a pretty apt comparison: pour some serious money into a player with a decent record, pray baby go-go-go, and enjoy your lavish returns while whoever did all the hard work gets pretty beaten up in the process of route (and sees none of the payroll). Perhaps no one can relate to this analogy more than Jasmine Chenthe old Sotheby’s known staff and equestrian, who sources say tipped Lauren QuinIt is Third belly—which, remember, was created in 2021-2022—without even waiting 18 months after acquiring it.
Talk about wet paint! That’s right, in the time it usually takes someone like me to hire a TaskRabbit to properly hang a piece of art, the 34-year-old daughter of a billionaire mega-collector Stone Chen chewed up Third belly straight and spit. This week at Phillipsthe Hong Kong Contemporary Art Evening Sale, the piece sold for $1.9 million HKD (about $242,000), more than double its high estimate of 900,000 HKD (about $115,000).
Having covered similar auctions in New York for several years now, I expect extremely recent works by Quin and other similar young female painters of colorful and surreal paintings like lucie bull And Rachel Jones make a regular appearance. In fact, as I reported earlier this yearQuin recently became one of the most searched artists of 2022 in Artnet Price Database. She didn’t appear on this list at all in 2021, but after a big year of getting representation by Blum & Poe and making his current auction record of $533,000 at Phillips London, 730 people searched for his work. I’d bet my bottom dollar that Chen was among those who searched before Quin sent his piece to the races.
Chen could not be reached for comment, but this rapid turnaround could signal that bloodthirsty collectors are streamlining the flipping process at an even faster pace. This is definitely something I’ll be keeping an eye on as we approach the May auctions in New York…
WE HEAR
if you’re wondering who you should show gagosian, the (other) answer is the sacklers https://t.co/E1kObHoBOl
— gregorg (he/him) (@gregorg) March 29, 2023
People certainly have a lot to say about Nan Goldin to seperrate from Marianne Goodman For Gagosianto know Greg Allen with that doozy of a Tweet (a bit misogynistic, But no?)… LA Vandyke left his post at David Zwirner act as a director in the increasingly fashionable space Amanita… Conservative Robert Storr donated his small collection of works of art by In Barrada, Jenny Holzer, Deborah KassAnd Gerhard Richter—all this was offered to him by the artists as a gift CSC Bard… TOMB assumed the representation of Thomas Dillon… Jenny Sklenzka stepped down as executive artistic director of Performance space to move to Berlinwhere she will be showroom manager Gropius Bau… ICT Tac seems to be beside himself after finding out just how weird Advantage of the watermill is in fact …
@mommyshorts Throwback to the funniest day of my life as a parent. Don’t worry, that was 5 years ago and the kids seem to be doing fine. Thank you to the artists for creating an essential keepsake for our family! #momsoftiktok #momsover40 #ditl #throwbackditl #tribecamom #nycmom #artistssoftiktok #art ♬ Famous Turkish March of Mozart (872150) – East Valley Music
spotted
Brian Cox (a.k.a Logan Roy) posing with GoyaIt is Saturn devouring his son for an almost too perfect photo *** valentina Vaccarella, mike egan, Emma Stern, Matthew BrownAnd Marlene ZwirnerTo River celebrate Jan Gatewoodopen to Lindner Silk *** Robert Demin officially opened its namesake gallery with a group exhibition after the Denny Demin divided, and Susan and Michael Hort, Brigitte Mulholland, Richard TorresAnd Paceassociate director of Hannah Root all showed up to celebrate at a dinner in the gallery *** Chan Marshall (a.k.a cat power) flew to Atlanta to jackson fine arts‘s opening of new photographs of Sheila Pree Bright *** Aria Dean, Natasha StaggAnd Claire Friedman reading about the conceptual implications of barbie dream housethe architecture upstairs Nine Orchard‘s East Room for Whitney Mallet*** Social media was on fire this week with former contributors, editors and groupies pouring in for the now officially closed Dimes Square alt-weekly The Drunken Channel ***
🎬 ⭐ CALL FOR CASTING! 🎞️ 🍿
I’m glad there are so many enthusiasm about this new section! For those who are catching up, last week in the section I introduced a new game: If you send me an e-mail at [email protected] with the best casting calls for a given invite each week, I will personally send you one of limited edition pink wet paint hats.
First of all, the saga of Harold Ancart unexpected departure from David Zwirnerprobably at least partly due to a lovers’ quarrel between him, Dianna AgronAnd Lucas Zwirner—with the watermark that, about a year later, Lucas made up for it with his father by recruiting Elizabeth Peyton at the gallery stable, amid rumors that they were also dating.
I thought it would make a really good rom-com, and so did this week’s winner, Daniel KAPPco-owner of Tribeca’s kapp kappwho wrote in the following cast:
Kudos to Daniel! Hats off to him, literally.
I want to do a little summary this week. I’ve always been fascinated by artists who create complete alter egos, and I think there could be a great surreal film about artists and their internal struggles between two opposing voices, jekyll and hyde-style. So who would you choose to play Marcel Duchamp who could also play the female muse Rrose Selavy? And who could play Richard Prince while playing the mysterious Neal Cassady-esque John Dogg? Write your ideas to [email protected]
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