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Art News and Updates from Gallereo

All the latest news from the art world, as well as what's happening here at Gallereo. If you've built a gallery at Gallereo, let us know about your experience and you and your site could feature in our blog in the coming weeks.

Wednesday 22nd June 2016A Child's Cautionary Tale

May truly was a rough month for museums around the world. From the SFMOMA glasses prank pulled off by a teenager to the fake heists orchestrated in the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Britain by members of Youtube prankster group Trollstation, it seems like things couldn't possibly get any worse. But if the modern world has taught us anything, it's that there's always some new horror in store just around the corner.

At least in the first two incidents, nothing was actually damaged in the museum with the possibility of a little bit of pride. This next story is something more of a disaster, and takes place in the Shanghai Museum of Glass (cringing already, are we?).

The tale involves two spoiled and undisciplined children who are let loose in the museum, and their absolutely useless parents. The kids completely disregard any of the proper rules of etiquette, and more than just crossing the velvet ropes, they actually go on to seriously damage a piece by artist Shelly Xue entitled Angel is Waiting. Xue is one of the pioneers of the studio glass movement in China, and spent 27 months making the piece which she dedicated to her newborn daughter.

The children began messing with the piece, and their parents, standing nearby, did absolutely nothing to prevent them. Unbelievably, they actually took out their phones to begin filming the outrage! It wasn't until the spoiled brats started actually slamming the sculpture against the wall that they began to call the children off, but not before the piece was completely fractured.

Rather than choose to repair the piece, Xue chose to leave it as-is as a testament to the whole event, and retitled it 'Broken', which is a rather classy way to handle something that must have been incredibly frustrating to her.

The museum didn't mention any sort of punishment that was meted out as a result of the incident, but they did install a screen beside the work displaying the closed circuit security footage of the incident. Hopefully, it will act as a cautionary tale to other parents of spoiled brats, but it seems to send a bit of a mixed message considering that there was no official punishment noted.

A word of caution for parents: make sure you keep your children under control around precious works of art. There is absolutely no excuse for this sort of behaviour. 

Posted on June 22nd 2016 on 03:55pm
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Friday 17th June 2016Artist Spotlight: Petr Pavlensky

In the West and around the world, most people involved in the art scene - and quite a few who aren't - are aware of the (in)famous Chinese artist and political activist Ai Weiwei. Far less known is the name of Petr Pavlensky, the Russian performance artist and dissident, although it's hard to say why, exactly.
 
Perhaps it's that the West is far more obsessed with the astonishingly rapid economic growth of China than the rather more alarming cultural regression of Russia, but whatever the reason, Pavlensky has had a rather incredible career that deserves more attention than it gets. 
 
He has been in the news most recently as a result of his latest performance piece / activist statement, which took place last year. As part of a piece entitled Threat, Pavlensky doused the massive wooden doors that serve as the frontpiece for the Moscow headquarters of the FSB ( the Russian equivalent of the GCHQ or FBI) and set them ablaze. He then posed for photographs holding a petrol can, but was arrested immediately on the spot and has been held in captivity ever since.
 
The truly strange thing is the way it was handled by the Russian authorities. After simply staging a concert at a Russian cathedral in 2012, members of the punk band art collective Pussy Riot were famously jailed for two years before being released. Naturally, most people following the case expected Pavlensky to get an equally harsh sentence as his trial concluded in early June. 
 
Astonishingly he was instead let off with no additional jail time and ordered to pay a fine of 500,000 roubles for damaging the site, and another 491,000 roubles to compensate the state for the cost of repairs. This amounts to roughly £10,000.
 
It's hard to imagine a British subject being let off so easily for a performance art piece that damaged the headquarters of the GCHQ in any respect, and the fact that Russia of all places was more lenient makes the whole event even more noteworthy. 
 
After leaving the courthouse, Pavlensky said, "“It does not matter how the trial ended. What is important is the fact that we were able to unmask, uncover the truth: the government is founded on the methods of terror.”
 
Despite the fact that he received no additional jail time as part of the sentencing, his lawyer says that Pavlensky apparently has no intention of paying the fines, which will likely land him in jail eventually anyways. 
 

Posted on June 17th 2016 on 03:15pm
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Wednesday 15th June 2016Google's Preservation of Artwork

Google, arguably one of the most successful technology companies of all time, has a lot of capital to invest. As a result, they have their fingers in a vast number of pies, from mobile phones to self-driving cars to scholarly article publishing. But one of their lesser-known ventures is the one that is probably nearest and dearest to those of us in the art world: the Google Cultural Institute.

The Cultural Institute has partnered with over 1000 museums and galleries around the world to digitise their artworks and bring them online, so they can be enjoyed by anyone with internet access. One of their best tactics for this is an incredibly high-resolution camera that is being used in the digitising process, and it just got a huge boost forwards in the last few months.

While having an initial burst of creativity during the launch of their search engine and naming it Google, the company has since gone rather literally-minded when it comes to naming their inventions (even their crazy balloon wireless internet project is called Project Loon, appropriately enough), which leaves us with the singularly uninspiring 'Art Camera'.

What IS inspiring, however, is how impressive it is when it comes to preserving images of some of the most popular artworks in the world. At first, the Cultural Institute was rather slow at digitising images, scanning and uploading just 200 images in five whole years. Admittedly, the images are measured in gigapixels rather than megapixels, but nevertheless, that's only about one image per week.

Suddenly in the last few months alone, over 1000 images have been scanned and made available to the general public, all thanks to the Art Camera system. The photographer/technician simply outlines the borders of the image for the system, and then the rest of the process is computer-controlled, stitching together hundreds of smaller photographers using the Google servers and outputting super-high-resolution images.

Marzia Niccolai, the Cultural Institute's technical program manager, explains, "The capture time has been reduced drastically. Previously it could take almost a day to capture an image. To give you an idea, now if you have a one meter by one meter painting, it would take 30 minutes."

Google has since constructed 20 separate Art Camera systems and is lending them out to various museums and archives around the world to dramatically increase its collection. Be sure to check out the website here: https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/project/art-camera

Posted on June 15th 2016 on 01:57pm
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Friday 10th June 2016Stolen Art Mystery Solved

One of the most perplexing art theft mysteries has finally been solved, thanks to the keen eye of a professor at the University of South Carolina Upstate. The theft took place in 2003 in South Carolina at an estate in the countryside named Hobcaw Barony, and while it didn't excite much notice at the time, it was featured on a 2013 episode of the popular show 'Antiques Roadshow'.

The missing pieces included a painting by renowned English artist Sir Alfred Munnings, a famous equestrian painter and an incredibly outspoken critic of the Modernist art movement, entitled Bell on Souriant, which was valued at over $1 million USD. That wasn't the only piece that went missing, however - there were also some original folios painted by the famous naturalist John James Audubon from the series 'Birds of America', valued between $45,000 and $80,000 USD.

Professor Frazer Pajak immediately recognized the piece by Munnings as the work stolen 13 years ago, after being asked to consult on a lot of pieces that had been acquired by John Allen Ivy of Ivy Auctions, a local South Carolina auction house. The painting and prints were part of a collection they had received from the estate of a deceased wealthy Colombian collector, although there was little information as to how they wound up in that collection.

The 17 prints and paintings went missing in 2003 as part of a larger heist originally reported by Samuel McIntosh, who had just retired as the curator of the Hobcaw Barony collection. He fell almost immediately under suspicion of the thefts, and several of the missing pieces were discovered in his home, but the recently rediscovered pieces stayed missing for the last 13 years.

"We were relieved and happy because we never lost hope that our paintings would be seen again. These pieces help tell the story of Hobcaw Barony,” said George Chastain, the executive director of the Baruch Foundation, which owns Hobcaw Barony. “Their theft left a hole in our history. Thanks to the assistance and persistence of Matt Jacobson of the FBI’s Greenville office and Assistant United States Attorney Rhett DeHart, they will be restored to their rightful place, both physically and narratively."

Unfortunately some of the pieces were found to be in bad condition, but technical and forensic experts hope that they will be able to be successfully restored to their original glory.
 

Posted on June 10th 2016 on 01:45am
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Labels: art, mystery, theft

Wednesday 08th June 2016Artist Spotlight: Leonid Afremov

On today's edition of Artist Spotlight, we're going to take a look at the work of a modern day Impressionist, Leonid Afremov. He has a remarkable body of work, and he also manages to market himself completely outside of the typical gallery establishment that boosts so many artists. But first, let's take a look at his work!

He paints primarily in oils, but he throws a bit of a twist into the mix by forsaking paint brushes in favour of a palette knife. Originally used (as the name would suggest) as a knife / trowel for mixing paints on an artist's palette board, the advent of modern premixed paints left these tools in a rather unique state of limbo. Virtually every painter had them in their paint boxes, but they no longer needed them for their intended purpose - so many artists began to experiment with using them in place of paintbrushes. This wasn't the first time that anyone had tried it, but it certainly helped to popularise the technique.

Afremov takes the palette knife and uses it with his oils to great effect, as it is such a versatile tool. He can create the smoothest of gradients or the classical extra-visible strokes that exemplify the Impressionist style. He focuses primarily on the interplay of light and colour, and manages to create some truly breathtaking images out of relatively mundane cityscapes, as you can see from the example on the right.

One of the more surprising things about Afremov is that he refuses to work with any galleries or agents, and instead does all of his own self-promotion using the internet. He manages to make his entire living this way, and it's possible to buy original oil paintings from him for far less than you would expect. This is a remarkable feat for any artist, and how thoroughly he has embraced the marketing power of the internet is even more remarkable when you consider the fact that he was born in 1955 in what is now Belarus.

Curiously enough, he was actually born in the same town as Marc Chagall, who was one of the artists responsible for popularising the use of the palette knife in the modern era. Chagall became a huge inspiration to Afremov, and helped to shape his unique and beautiful style.  After a brief stint in Israel and Europe, he moved to New York but later abandoned it for the Caribbean shores of Mexico, where he now lives and paints full-time.
 

Posted on June 08th 2016 on 02:31pm
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Friday 03rd June 2016Art Pranks Redux: Forging a Heist

It seems like May was a ripe month for art pranks all across the world. In addition to the modern art prank that took place at SFMOMA in the United States, there were two rather high-profile pranks that took place at art galleries in London.

In the National Portrait Gallery, members of a Youtube video group named "Trollstation" donned cheap masks, carried cheaply framed paintings  and ran through the gallery pretending that they had stolen the paintings off the wall. 'Trolling' is an internet term for actively harassing other people, usually in a tongue-in-cheek way, although it can rapidly become more malicious.

Though the paintings were demonstrably cheap, the group was intending to cause as much chaos as possible. One woman fainted during the chaos, and the group took off before the police arrived to take the situation in hand.

They weren't off to congratulate themselves and lay low, however. Instead, they took off to the Tate Britain gallery where they repeated the stunt. This one was slightly more elaborate, and by the end of it, they had dragged off a woman in a headlock, although it later turned out that she was in on the entire prank and was not an innocent bystander.

The video of the National Portrait Gallery "heist" is still visible on the Youtube channel of the pranksters, although the Tate Britain video has yet to appear.

Unfortunately for those involved, the authorities naturally took a rather dim view of the whole affair, and all four members of Trollstation were sentenced to short periods of time in jail, ranging from 16 to 20 weeks.

The prosecutor on the case, Robert Short, said in a statement, “The hoaxes may have seemed harmless to them, but they caused genuine distress to a number of members of the public, who should be able to go about their daily business without being put in fear in this way. We hope these convictions send a strong message that unlawful activities such as these will not be tolerated in London.”

It's understandable that in the currently hyper-vigilant climate that exists throughout the West, joke crimes are going to be taken far more seriously than they might otherwise, but it's important to remember that nobody was actually hurt in any of these events. Please don't take this as a defense of their foolishness, but just a reminder that knee-jerk reactions to performance art can be a slippery slope to start down.
 

Posted on June 03rd 2016 on 07:56pm
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Labels: art, pranks, troll, youtube

Wednesday 01st June 2016Art Pranks

You may remember from a previous post a few weeks ago that we took a look at the latest developments in digital museum tours courtesy of Apple and SFMOMA, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. After a recent hilarious set of events at SFMOMA, they're probably going to be even more happy they they have such an excellent tour system.

Just at the end of May, there was an unremarkable addition to the pieces on display at the museum. The key twist was that this addition was not a new work by a popular modern artist, or even a newly acquired piece - in fact, it wasn't officially sanctioned by the museum at all.

It was just a pair of glasses, left on the floor near an empty wall as though it was a modern installation piece. The most hilarious part is that many museum-goers couldn't tell that it wasn't an official piece, didn't have an artist statement and was actually a simple yet powerful prank being played by a teenager who has yet to start his first year of post-secondary education.

He and his friends visited the museum and enjoyed much of the work, but were less than impressed by some of the pieces that were on display.

“Upon first arrival we were quite impressed with the artwork and paintings presented in the huge facility. However, some of the ‘art’ wasn’t very surprising to some of us. We stumbled upon a stuffed animal on a gray blanket and questioned if this was really impressive to some of the nearby people,” he said.

This is a pretty common theme among casual art viewers, especially regarding the modern style of conceptual art that often balances on a knife edge between profound and pure idiocy.

“I can agree that modern art can be a joke sometimes, but art is a way to express our own creativity. Some may interpret it as a joke, some might find great spiritual meaning in it. At the end of the day, I see it as a pleasure for open-minded people and imaginative minds.”

An admirable sentiment, and with luck, TJ will be attending college for an art-related discipline. Hopefully he'll be able to make a career out of lampooning the pretentiousness of the art world, which could use having its head shrunk occasionally. Duchamp would be proud!

Posted on June 01st 2016 on 07:53pm
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Labels: art, prank, sfmoma

Monday 30th May 2016Post-Production Tutorials

As a digital photographer, it can be almost intimidating to see the vast array of options for processing your images after you finish shooting. Photoshop has an overwhelming array of (tools which is why it has the reputation of being so powerful) but that power can be a double-edged sword, especially when you're just starting out. Lightroom is designed to be more carefully geared towards photographers, but even it has developed in a complex and powerful tool in its own right. With all that in mind, we've put together a selection of some of the best post-production tutorials to help you add the perfect finishing touches to your photographic masterpieces.

Contrast Adjustments
Getting just the right contrast can be difficult, but when done properly the tonal range of your image will be expanded and perfectly balanced, creating a pleasingly professional looking image. You may need to do additional touch-ups with masked layers, but that's a more advanced tutorial. Check it out here:

Colour Balance
Adjusting your colour balance can be key to achieving the exact effect you were looking for when you originally saw the shot. It opens up a huge array of possibilities for artistic license, when a directly photojournalistic image isn't your goal. This one even has a handy video! Check it out here. 

Cloning and Touchups
There's nothing more frustrating than taking a great shot, only to discover later when you're in post that there is some slight flaw that ruins the image. Rather than tear your hair out or wait forever to get that perfect shot again, a little bit of Photoshop magic can help smooth the way towards a better photo. Check it out here

High Dynamic Range
High dynamic range photographs are incredibly beautiful, but sometimes difficult to do well. They allow images that contain a high degree of detail in both the light and dark areas of an image, preventing the washed out highlights and overdarkened shadows that are inevitable with standard dynamic range photos. Check out how to do it here.

Of course, if you have other software such as Photomatix, it can be even simpler, but these programs are only available for purchase.

While these tutorials won't instantly make you a Photoshop master, they're definitely going to help you along you way and help you start creating better images at once!
 

Posted on May 30th 2016 on 05:47pm
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Friday 27th May 2016Artist Spotlight: Frank Auerbach

On today's edition of Artist Spotlight, we're going to take a look at the life and work of Frank Auerbach, who has had a rather extensive career. He was born in Berlin during the run-up to the Second World War, but fortunately was able to escape the persecution and find safe harbor in England, where he now resides in the Camden Town area of London.
 
He is eminently quotable, and sums up his general artistic drive in a very simple way that nevertheless resonates quite powerfully: "It seems to me madness to wake up in the morning and do something other than paint, considering that one may not wake up the following morning." 
 
Curiously enough, despite having a long working life (he's currently 85 and still painting), he has a fascination with a remarkably small number of subjects. This is actually a hallmark of his work, where he repeatedly revisits the same subjects and portrays them in a completely different way. 
 
"If you pass something every day and it has a little character, it begins to intrigue you."
 
In and of itself it's a fascinating idea, which gives pause and makes you wonder just how well you truly know the things you see on a daily basis. How many different ways are there to see the exact same thing? How much more can you learn about it by giving it the chance to reveal itself in a new way? And if you can give such consideration to an inanimate object, how much more complex must people appear in such a light?
 
He winds up with a rather unusual practice as a result. He may spend the whole day painting, only to wind up scraping the image off in dissatisfaction, feeling that he hasn't accurately captured the subject in the way that he wants.
 
This appears to go double for people, as some of his dearest subjects are his wife and friends, who are doubtless long-suffering and kind to sit for so many iterations of their own image. The Manchester Guardian newspaper remarked in 1956, "The technique is so fantastically obtrusive that it is some time before one penetrates to the intentions that should justify this grotesque method."
 
But it's hard to deny the efficacy of the approach, as his resulting works are both haunting and captivating. 

Posted on May 27th 2016 on 05:20pm
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Wednesday 25th May 2016Preserving Art, One Gecko Foot at a Time

Following up on our theme from last week's Artist Spotlight, today we bring you an interesting new invention that will help art conservators inspired by geckos (yes, the tiny adorable lizards!).
 
For those of you unaware, geckos have a remarkable ability that is unlike almost anything else in the animal kingdom: they can walk straight up walls and upside down across ceilings, no matter the surface is made of. Even the smoothest glass is no impediment to them, thanks to a series of microscopic structures that adorn their feet in the millions. This allows them to get a tight grip on virtually any surface, and it has inspired a number of inventions in the scientific community.
 
As with almost any old things, whether it's junk in the attic or a priceless masterpiece, fine art tends to attract dust when put on display in a gallery or museum. Not out of any odd properties, but simply due to the fact that no matter how good your ventilation system, it's impossible to keep 100% of the dust out of the air.
 
This poses a large problem for art conservators, especially when the works they are tasked with protecting are already extremely fragile. Even the gentlest cleaning cycle over a long enough timescale has the risk of introducing flaws into paintings.
 
In a brand new twist, scientists have developed a material that very closely mimics the microscopic columnar structures that give geckos their unique climbing abilities. Instead of being adhesive in any way, which would naturally damage the artwork dramatically, the sheets of the new and as-yet unnamed material are extremely flexible, and can attract dust with a simple gentle tap. They contain a very slight electrostatic charge, which enables even the very smallest particles of dust to be immediately captured and removed safely. 
 
Cindy Schwartz, an art conservator at Yale University explains: "Acrylic paints are incredibly porous, so anything you’re putting on the surface could get into the pores, and then work from the insides of the pores to soften the paints." 
 
Whether or not this will remain a tool for art conservators is as yet unknown, as the material still hasn't made its way to the general public just yet, but it's only a matter of time.
 
As for me, though, I'm holding out for gecko gloves to scale any surface with ease. One day. 

Posted on May 25th 2016 on 04:40pm
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