James Franco may be particularly well known for his acting roles in films such as Spiderman (1, 2 and 3), Pineapple Express or more recently 127 Hours. Franco has been in the press a lot recently with regards to the latter movie presentation as he plays the role of Aron Ralston; the climber and outdoor sports fanatic who notoriously ends up trapped under a boulder in an isolated canyon, where he has to remove his own arm in order to escape.
Directed by Danny Boyle, the film has had a lot of press surrounding the the fact that there has been a high faint-rate amongst initial audiences.
Looking forward to 2011, it's not Franco's film career that we are curious about, it's his career as an artist. He made his move into the art scene back in June this year, where he exhibited at the New York Clocktower Gallery. The show, entitled
The Dangerous Book For Boys, was curated by the founder, and former director of
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Centre, Alanna Heiss; adding a certain level of validity to what may have otherwise been overlooked as a celebrity indulgence.
Franco's 2011 exhibition, which is to be held in Berlin at the
Peres Projects Gallery, will be an expansion upon the work shown in
The Dangerous Book For Boys show. The work looks at themes of boyhood and sexual confusion in adolescents. Reportedly, the show will contain many of the same videos as the show at the Clocktower, but will have more drawings, paintings and photographs by the artist.
Speculation about how the work will be priced, given Franco's Hollywood celebrity status, and the reasons for him opting to show in Berlin, rather than closer to home has been on the rise since the exhibition was announced. In various interviews, including one with
ARTINFO, gallery owner and curator Javier Peres has commented that the works have yet to be priced, but that they are likely to be "quite reasonable".
As for having Berlin as the host city to the show, it has also been suggested that Franco may be taken more seriously as a fine artist in Europe than he would in the States. Peres has said that, "we don't have the same general fixation on [celebrity] in Germany". Whether that is true or not, Berlin is certainly an amazing city to exhibit in if you are a contemporary artist; it's a great hub of artistic energy and there are some great galleries there.
Franco's show will open in February, during which Franco will also be screening a film at the Berlin Film Festival.