Ripe Art

Big art, small art, insects and of course, houses at Nadine Bouler's show, part of the current exhibition at Ripe Art Gallery.


Part of the House series - just prior to the red stickers going up.


House in Flight


Some of the Big Girls


The Alphahouse series


Despite the appalling weather the room was packed: The Loyal Blog Reader, the Artist, The Guy and the Awesome Designer in front of some of the House series of paintings


the Gallery owner and artist, Cherie Via met up with some old friends.


It's an awesome collection; besides Nadine's beautiful and haunting work, Triple Deuce Jewels was showing some rocking silver jewelry; there were ceramics and felted scarves and some fetching blue and pink Pet Semen globes that invited closer inspection. In fact I'm going to go back mid-week for a second viewing. The show runs from today until the end of December. Unfortunately after today you might not see Nadine's fabulous vintage dress but you should go anyway:
Ripe Art Gallery
67 Broadway
Greenlawn, NY 11740-1302
(631) 239-1805

The Upside-down Cupcake

The upside-down cupcake, a hot-cross bun, a ball of mud - some of the descriptive names given to the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum during the planning and construction phases of the building in the 1940s and 50s. It took a while for New Yorkers to accept the Frank Lloyd Wright design, but once it was opened in 1959 it was quickly embraced as a NYC landmark, and became the iconic symbol it is today. The white concrete building remains a testament to Wright's vision and is the most interesting exhibit in a repititous and occasionally boring show Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward.
All his major works are represented here: plans, blueprints and architectural drawings in abundance; but also too small scale models, too little information, too many renderings of the same building. It looked like the first stage of planning the project rather than a polished exhibition. More deconstructed models, like the Herbert Jacobs House, built on a greater scale would have held my attention, as would bigger artists' representations of projects that were never realised, like the Plan for Greater Baghdad. The show felt flat, and without any wow factor this visitor would have left disappointed except for the saving grace of the fabulous exhibition space, within


- and without.

Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward runs at The Guggenheim New York until August 23 2009; I found I got all I needed from the museum website. I can also highly recommend the book Frank Lloyd Wright Interactive Portfolio by Margo Stipe: it's detailed, informative and celebratory in a way the Guggenheim show should have been.

Time for tea

Isn't this one of the most gorgeous designs you've ever seen? Just as art, I mean. The fact that it's a teapot does nothing for me as tea makes me gag. It's just a beautiful, sculptural piece. And with any luck I will be going to see it soon in its temporary home at the Design Museum in London where it is part of the Design Cities exhibition. The Christopher Dresser teapot is one of the earliest exhibits, dating from 1879. I love the geometric form, it's forward looking yet timeless, and would look as good in a modern home as it did in the Victorian household it was designed for. Good design never ages, does it?
To see more of Dresser's work, including beautiful arts and crafts wallpaper and the cutest watering can ever, go here.

Design and the Elastic Mind

If you're watching my flickr box on the left side of the page you'll see some images from the other stellar exhibition currently at the Museum of Modern Art: Design and the Elastic Mind.


I blogged about it over here but it deserves to be mentioned again. It is awesome, fascinating, thought-provoking, exhilarating and sometimes simply beautiful. Everyone should have the opportunity to see it. If you can't make it to New York before the exhibition closes on May 12th visit the online catalogue and spend a couple of hours exploring the relationship between design and technology.