Richard Prince's Instagrams at Gagosian.

Long time readers would know that whilst the Big Lamington keeps its finger on the pulse of The Arts in Sydney that I have a very soft spot for Prince, Richard.  I've said it before that one of my all time favourite images is his untitled (Cowboy), of which both the AGNSW and Patrick Bateman have a copy.  Now for those that have come in late, or don't read the global arts press he has an amazing exhibition on right now at Gagosian in NY.  I wish I was in town to see it in the flesh as, being a follower of Prince on both twitter and instagram, I have unwittingly been witnessing this exhibition come together.  To avoid me having to give you all chapter and verse, go read Jerry Saltz's awesome review here.  Apart from being a top art critic, and personal friend of the Big Lamington, he is also a Prince fanboy so I share his views.

Prince has, for those that haven't worked it out.  Taken appropriation to a whole new level in the iphone age.  He started by just taking screen shots of peoples profiles on twitter.  Then posting it as "Portrait of [  ]".  Then he started finding images on instagram, adding comments under his own name, then taken screen shots of those posts.  In his show at Gagosian he has printed out those screen shots on canvas.  163 x 124 cm canvasses.  In other words BIG.  To top it all off, when the exhibition went up, Prince deleted his instagram feed.  What a marketer!  Luckily the Big Lamington had been screenshotting in the background along the way, examples pictured above & below.  Now one of the best bits of this show is the Gagosian press release which states "All images are subject to copyright.  Gallery approval must be granted prior to reproduction."  Righto, gallery install view at bottom.  I tweeted a sneaky pic of a Richard Prince canvas from his Canal Zone show at Gagosian in May and got a great response tweet from artist - "I want to be a hypocrite".  Love it.  He deleted that tweet, but not before I took a screenshot.  Canvasses available shortly ...

Points - Prince gets them all. Hey AGNSW, when are we bringing this genius out to Aus?

Michael Zavros - The Prince.

One of my favourite all time images is Richard Prince's untitled cowboy.  It's my screensaver on every computer I've used for years.  And even cooler it is in Patrick Bateman's apartment in American Pyscho.  Well now it is also in Rockhampton.  At least a copy anyways.  Michael Zavros (he of Bulgari art award fame and a finalist in this years Archibald) has appropriated the appropriator and done some painting copies of the photos of the ads ripped from the mags.  Phew.

For all my loyal Rockhampton readers get there before April 7, otherwise you will have to schlep down to Brisvegas (where it is on until 7 July).  It doesn't appear to be coming to Sydney so I plan on supporting NQ arts by purchasing the catalogue (I think the above photo is the front cover of the catalogue)!  Maybe will be able to hand out some points then.  Given all the brouhaha last year about appropriation with that former Tim Olsen gallery photographer this is an interesting concept.  I would love to get Richard Prince's thoughts on it!

Online exhibitions?

So I was scrolling through tweeter the other day.  Yes you should too.  You could do worse than follow @BigLamington, and I would also recommend following Michael Reid as he has some pretty interesting posts.  A post from Iain Dawson took my eye, linking to an interesting story which said art fairs are causing fewer gallery shows.  Iain took it further and suggested it is going to be all art fairs and online shows.  It was a good read.  Then, as if to predict the future and then make it happen right on cue Iain announces an online exhibition!  Certainly makes it easier to schlep the kids to.  Well yes and no, because instead of my kids getting force fed some culture at a random gallery around Sydney I am having a browse on the computer whilst the kids apply their critical theory to the Disney Channel (at the moment I think Doc McStuffins would bag their 3 points).  

So Twenty Thirteen it is.  Iain has assembled eight 'important' emerging artists.  Some familiar names in my book, Liam Benson and Lucas Grogan and some other interesting work by Seth Birchall, Minka Gillian and Tim Roodenrys.  I love Liam Benson's photographs and his 'The Flag' (pictured above) is another one mixing patriotism and gender.  Tim Roodenrys' Prayer Flags looked interesting, and at 115 x 113cm might be pretty impressive but it is hard to tell online.  I will keep an eye out for Seth Birchall as well, his oil on board stereo view of Sidney Nolan caught my eye.  After a bit of research brought to you by google it looks like this was from his Man Crush show at the Liverpool St Gallery.  Lucas Grogan has one of his trademark blue works included.  There was a pretty big brouhaha about his work last year - with two artists from the Big Lamington collection quitting their galleries as they represented him.  Lucas borrows aboriginal imagery and some artists don't think he is entitled to do so.  It is a pretty controversial topic and far too much for me to cover here.  

Points:  3 for Liam Benson's flag.  Love his work and hope to get another some day.  2 for Seth's Sidney Nolan and 1 for Iain for having a crack at the online caper.  In a way it is really a call to arms for Big Lamington to do likewise.  That said I do think the experience suffers a lot, will we just get used to it?  I have bought a few things based just on a digital image, including a half finished Ryan Presley, but I do prefer the seeing things in the flesh.  And you miss out on the opportunity to have a bit of banter with the gallerist, which in the case of Iain himself is a shame as he is always great for a bit of a gossip!