general Archives

>

Tory Burch, fashion designer and blogger extraordinaire, mentions 20x200 as a valuable resource for affordable art on her popular blog. The article features Michelle Hinebrook's Sugarcoat, a piece which is "something between a Marilyn Minter photograph and Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory." Hinebrook describes her work as such:

Sugarcoat is part of a series of work that focuses in on the sensations of the body and the experience of taste and touch. The candy paintings are filled with intricate details, imagery and candy-coated colors. The painted surfaces are expressive, sensual and extremely tactile.

We couldn't be happier to hear that Tory loves affordable art as much as we do!

Since 2005, Paddy Johnson's blog Art Fag City has been dishing out the web's most hilariously irreverent "art news, reviews and gossip," but what most people aren't aware of is that the site is a one-woman operation. Blogging is so accessible that nearly anyone can start a site of their own, but few can keep going at the exhausting pace of AFC while maintaining superior quality. It's a huge job to run the site but Paddy shows no signs of slowing.

Enter the AFC Fundraiser. Last year Paddy quit her day jobs and decided to start blogging full-time. With various grants and donations, in addition to ad sales, she was able to make it happen. To keep this good thing going Paddy needs to raise $8,000 by January 1st, 2010. She half-jokes that, "I just have to eat. Your support helps me do this." However, "by contributing to this fundraiser, donors are not only supporting the efforts of one blogger, but staking a claim for the value of independent blogs in a climate of mainstream media arts cutbacks."

Infographic by Miriam Katzeff and James Hoff

This is especially pertinent in light of the chart above, tallying the number of negative reviews per art critic in The New York Times, which made its rounds across the internet last week. Miriam Katzeff and James Hoff, who put together the graph, note that out of approximately 250 reviews published in The New York Times this year, only 38 are "perceived to be negative," while, "the majority of the reviews were either positive or merely descriptive."

Mainstream media, while valuable, can only provide us with so much, so it's up to us as readers to support the best independent critics. Paddy has a long way to go towards reaching her goal, but with the help of micro-donations as small as $25, she can continue to focus full-time on her blunt and honest coverage of the art world.

To donate to AFC, head over to the website and look for the big "Donate" button near the top of the page!

If you're looking for great art this holiday season, we've definitely got you covered. However, if it's design you're after, then you won't want to miss out on 33 Gifts @ 33 Bond, a pop-up gift shop running through the end of December. This shop-within-a-shop, which can be found inside Vitsoe's beautiful showroom at 33 Bond St, features a "joyfully considered selection" of thirty-three gifts for your most design-savvy friends. In fact, the shop was curated by our own edition-maker Gregory Krum, who by-day serves as Retail Director for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

The unique selection of gifts has already garnered the attention and praise of editors at Lucky Magazine, Cool Hunting, and The Scout as well as that of Ms. Jen Bekman, who counts herself among the fans of Vitsoe's legendary Dieter Rams-designed shelving system.

The Scout writes:

On our visit, we had the pleasure of meeting Michael Vince who described to us the level of care and painstaking precision involved in the production of their components: the exact alignment of pins, the secure shut of a cabinet, and the strength and simplicity of its aluminum tracks—features that have been perfected and remain for over 50 years. At this moment, it is easy to see why Vitsœ endures. It is simply, good.

If nerdy design details like these get you as excited as they get us, then take our word for it and head on over to 33 @ 33 to spread some art + design cheer!

Among a slew of seventeen stellar websites, 20x200 received accolades from Booooooom. The 20x200 blog, in particular was noted as: "a great cross-section of artists." All of the websites listed are certainly read worthy. We're particularly fond of My Love For You is a Stampede of Horses, a trove of art and design goodness in 2D and 3D (ofter wearable) varieties and The Selby, which features portraits of creative people and their spaces.

Bookmark the pages yourself and try, just try, to not get stuck in TED's archives of great talks.

Untitled, by Mike Monteiro
Photo by Existentialism