Binki Shapiro of Little Joy has gotten a TON of top-notch musicians, artists, and celebrities to contribute custom made artwork and items for her Crafts for a Cause auction. All proceeds will be donated to Artists for Peace and Justice, a charitable organization started by filmmaker Paul Haggis.

The online auction will begin on March 15th, but for now you can check on Binki’s Tumblr blog for the event which features teaser shots of some of the goods that will be for sale. Contributers are a who’s who of popular indie rock and mainstream musicians (Daft Punk, The Strokes, Norah Jones, No Doubt, Conor Oberst, Jenny Lewis, Shirley Manson of Garbage, Mark Ronson, Adam Green, SIA, Grizzly Bear, Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes, just to name a few!!!) and film celebs (Spike Jonze, Natalie Portman).

Photo of Fab Moretti and Nick Valensi with the signed bag from The Strokes from the Crafts for a Cause site

You’ll find hand-drawn artwork, signed canvas bags, designed t-shirts, embellished guitars, and much more.

Sounds like an amazing collection of artists helping out for a great cause. Don’t forget — March 15th the auction starts online!

Here’s a video of SIA creating the wallet she donated:

SIA for Crafts For A Cause! from binki shapiro on Vimeo.

Plenty more info on the Crafts for a Cause website or on Binki Shapiro’s Twitter

The work of sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy’s fashion label Rodarte will be featured in “Quicktake: Rodarte” at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum from Jan. 29, 2010 through March 14, 2010.

This collaboration with Kate and Laura Mulleavy will feature a selection of pieces from the Rodarte collections, as well as a special installation in the Billiard Room of the Carnegie Mansion.

Rodarte, Fall/Winter 2008 collection. Photo: Dan Lecca
Continue reading ‘Rodarte to Be Featured at Cooper-Hewitt Museum’ »

On the way home tonight I walked by David Ryan Adams’s opening party for his solo show on auction for Housing Works at Morrison Hotel Gallery on the Bowery.

Characters with tongue-in-cheek signs stating things like “The Bowery Is for Bums, Not Art,” “Joey Ramone Is Turning Over In His Grave,” and “Not Funny Mr. Adams.” Inside, the artwork was displayed on the walls and the room was decked out with the strings of the multicolor balloons cascading from the ceiling. Buddy Jessie Malin served as auctioneer of the paintings.
Continue reading ‘PHOTOS: David Ryan Adams Morrison Hotel Gallery Show’ »

Ryan Adams will have his first showing of his original paintings and mixed media collages at the Morrison Hotel Gallery on the Bowery on September 23rd, with proceeds benefiting the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, a nonprofit organization committed to ending the twin crises of AIDS and homelessness.

According to the press release, “three weeks prior to the opening, Adams will become Morrison Hotel Gallery’s first artist in residence, creating additional canvases in the front of the gallery to be auctioned off at the opening” — however the Morrison Hotel Gallery states he will become artist in residence two weeks prior to the opening.

At this time it’s unclear as to whether or not Adams will actually be painting in a space visible to passersby. Perhaps he’ll even simultaneously paint and blog for his alleged new side job as blogger for The Awl.

The Morrison Hotel Gallery is located at 313 Bowery, NYC.

TMA friend artist Margaret Lee is hosting a series of weekend shows during the month of May in a vacant studio space in NYC’s Chinatown, with the opening scheduled for tonight, Friday, May 1st @ 179 Canal Street with the show “Nobodies New York.”

Organized by Josh Kline, the group show features work by Alisa Baremboym, Antoine Catala, Devon Costello, Josh Kline, Tatiana Kronberg, Margaret Lee, Trevor Shimizu, Allyson Vieira, Amy Yao, Anicka Yi.

Head over to 179 Canal Street and check out what’s going on. Music and party nights TBA at a later date.

Continue reading ‘Underground Art Party in Chinatown’ »

Have you ever wondered what on Earth those poor souls who are stuck managing “the list” at the doors of clubs and music venues do for hours and hours while everyone else is inside enjoying themselves?

What could they possibly be doing to keep themselves from perpetual boredom as they’re positioned behind those podiums, or standing around with those official-looking clipboards?

One door girl has decided to reveal the fruits of all that seemingly less-than-interesting labor with her new blog “Door Girl Art,” which showcases all the music-inspired doodles she draws while guarding the door.

Recently entries reveal that a Lissy Truly show inspired sharp, concentrated asterisks (above), while a Rakes concert produced frenetic zigzags and stripes.

But why doodle at all? According to a recent NPR report, doodling actually helps the brain on task and prevents you from daydreaming.

Last night I got to go to the opening reception of the new show at New Museum, The Generational: Younger Than Jesus.

The show is a collection of work from artists from around the world, all born around 1980. It’s definitely full of exuberant, youthful work. Sometimes it’s a little too hip for itself (especially when you see so much “hip” conceptional work gathered together like this), but overall I thought the curators did a good job of including a wealth of interesting pieces.

Some of my favorite works were two pieces on the 3rd floor, one which was an enormous rainbow gradient print that was created by built-in settings in Photoshop, and adjacent to it was another winner, this time by artist Tauba Auerbach whose photographs are beautiful abstract compositions.

A buzz-making piece was definitely one that featured a bed occupied by a paid volunteer who takes sleeping drugs so that she (all the volunteers are female) can slumber during museum hours.

Continue reading ‘Younger Than Jesus @ New Museum’ »

Some recent news involving the iconography of Barack Obama.

Graffiti artist Shepherd Fairey is at legal war with the Associated Press over his re-interpretation of an AP photo of Obama that he used in his now famous “HOPE” and “PROGRESS” poster series. Fairey has sued the news organization in a preemptive strike against them suing him:

Interesting little videos about how the Chicago-based design company MODE came to settling on the now famous Obama “O” logo:

Have you ever heard an awful song and moaned, “Ughh! This song is horrible!”

Well what if I told you that this 20-some-odd minute song by Russian artists Komar & Melamid is THE worst song ever? It’s been out a while, but I was just listening to a recent This American Life episode where they played snippets of the tune.

How did Komar & Melamid create this irritating ditty? By polling 500 people on the DIA website about the elements of their favorite and least favorite music.

Apparently people do not like holiday music, cowboy tunes, children singing, harps, opera, and rap… and this song mixes all of those elements (and much more) into one horrible song.

However, I dare you to listen to the sounds of a chorus of kids singing about Yom Kippur and Ramadan and not give out at least a little giggle.

DOWNLOAD: “The Most Unwanted Song” by Komar & Melamid via the Wired site.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but the “end” of summer had me taking advantage of the gorgeous weather and actually going OUTSIDE instead of chaining myself to my computer.

Today for Labor Day the BSB and I headed up to Beacon, NY and took in some artwork at Dia:Beacon, then roamed around the town. Beautiful, sunny, breezy weather had me in great spirits, and a fantastic food recommendation from a family walking down Main Street saved us from culinary despair. (Brother’s Trattoria in Beacon–yum!)

Patchy grass.

Dia:Beacon
Continue reading ‘The Last Summer Blast: Beacon and Dia’ »