Ricky Powell

June 5, 2008 on 3:07 pm | In Other-Events, Art, - Cheng | Comments Off

Last night, A Milk Gallery Project presented: ILLY FUNKSTERS by Ricky Powell, the legendary street photographer.

“Ricky is one of those rare individuals who has the uncanny ability to always find himself in the right place at the right time, and he has the pictures to prove it…Whatever function, show, party, or moment in time was occurring, Ricky would be there, camera round his neck, going for his shot in his old-school, Kevin McHale, off-balance, get-the-shot-then-bust-his-ass style.”–Mike D

“Ricky Powell is one of the best photographers of our time.”–Run of Run-D.M.C.

“Whether it was the birth of the Beastie Boys or Run-D.M.C. or Public Enemy, Ricky was there…I could go on and on, but in short, Ricky’s the bomb!”–Fab 5 Freddy

“Ricky is one of the best photographers I’ve ever worked with– and I’ve worked with a lot.”–LL Cool J

The gallery was filled with music dj’d by Stretch Armstrong and people dancing old school amongst images of Sophia Coppola, the Beastie Boys, Andy Warhol & Jean Michel-Basquiat.

The show won’t be up for long, so go check it out:

May 31-June 10th

10-6pm

Milk Studios

450 West 15th Street

A sneak peak on what you’ll find:

Andy Warhol & Ricky Powell

Run-DMC in Paris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa Bonet

PS1 MOMA

May 31, 2008 on 10:44 pm | In Art, - Cheng | Comments Off

If you haven’t been to PS1 MOMA in a long time, you’re missing out.

If you haven’t been to PS1 MOMA…ever, you’re definitely missing out.

I stopped in the other day to catch Danish-Icelandic artist, Olafur Eliasson’s exhibit: Take Your Time, before it closes on June 30th.

The response from many of the other attendees reminded me of children in a science museum; they were adults in awe and wonderment bearing innocent smiles and elation which one rarely finds in association with contemporary art.

Take Your Time (2008): People were lying underneath this large, circular mirror that was rotating on an axis attached to the ceiling. The apparent effect is calmness and ‘destabilizing viewers’ perception of space as they pass underneath it.’

Colour Spectrum (2003): A large, hexagonal kaleidoscope comprised of color-coated glass. The size and beauty upon viewing this offers a prismatic perception of the world.

Beauty (1993): Walking into a dark room, not sure where to step, you see in front of you a lightly lit up curtain of misty water that produces a blanketed rainbow effect. Some guests walked through the curtain and a few others danced.

There were three rooms which produced different lighting shades and shapes. Sitting in the rooms, guests would stare and watch their environment change around them slowly and elegantly.

I have never seen so many people mesmerized at a show of contemporary art as much as I had at this exhibit and they were doing exactly what the title told them to do “TAKE YOUR TIME”. I plan to go back with friends and also check out MOMA’s presentation of Olafur’s work as well, which is exhibiting simultaneously.

A few other exhibits coming up which I saw them installing:

ARCTIC HYSTERIA: NEW ART FROM FINLAND

OPENING JUNE 1, 2008 - SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Live perfomances by PINK TWINS (www.pinktwins.com) and KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT (www.kemiallsetystavat.com)

Also, an installation in their outdoor courtyard was being installed. The winner of the ninth annual MOMA/ PS1 Young Architects Program: WORK Architecture Company from New York will be creating an landscape in the outdoor courtyard starting JUNE 20th and serve as an interactive environment for the 2008 Warm-Up summer music series. ‘Constructed from large cardboard tubes, its top surface will be a working farm, blooming with a variety of vegetables and plants. The installation will be a living structure made from inexpensive and sustainable materials recyclable after its use at PS1. ‘

www.ps1.org

www.moma.org

AP + Vienna + LIFEBALL

May 21, 2008 on 10:26 am | In SW-PR, SW-Events, - Cheng | Comments Off

I don’t even know where to begin…LIFE BALL 2008…what a ride…

Tara at check-in at the Double Tree Hotel where we received our boarding passes. Our wild trip started Thursday, May 15th at the Double Tree Hotel before we boarded the Austrian Airlines private plane to Vienna for the 16th Annual LIFE BALL 2008.

This year’s theme: Landing on Planet Life Ball. Gery Kreszler, organizer of LIFE BALL, chose the theme to represent outsiders and aliens in society and of course, the guests dressed accordingly as extraterrestrials and some form of alien or robot. Two things I saw a lot of this weekend:

Make-up and actually, not “no smoking” but smoking. In my mind, I thought, please, no smoking but even though the signs may say it, it surely wasn’t followed.Tara and I met the ever so talented Aubrey Chung, make-up stylist and fellow New Yorker. A frequent attendee of Life Ball, Aubrey guided us throughout the event and was always looking after us. We HEART Aubrey!

Aubrey in the middle

And ironically, we found out Aubrey did Costello Tagliapietra’s make-up during their last two fashion shows - small world…Aubrey performed his magic on our Agent Provocateur Testimonial for LIFE BALL, EVE and she looked gorgeous. An Austrian reporter asked EVE what she thought of LIFE BALL and she responded saying how much she supported the cause and that in her “past life, I was a hippy so I am all about love.”

But I’m completely jumping ahead of myself. The day we landed, Friday, Tara and I were greeted off of the plane by a long red carpet and the paparazzi.

Of course, it wasn’t for us so sweeping by wasn’t all that difficult! We were quickly shuttled off to the hotel where we got ready to head over to the MINI COOPER photo shoot with Joe Corre.Some place on the top floor of a warehouse and parking facility, we found them…them meaning, the biker models, cuffed inside the MINI COOPER …and Joe happily being cuffed next to them!

After the photoshoot, Tara and I headed to City Hall where the big extravaganza was taking place. The preparation for such a huge production was insane. I’ve never seen anything like it - imagine 40,000 people coming to City Hall to watch this performance and the make-up artists told me that they were doing over 200 models for the entire performance. The infamous celebrity stylist Danilo, was in charge of all hair for the show and Bobby B oversaw all make-up. It was truly wondrous to watch them all in action…

A glimpse of the theme for the Agent Provocateur show on Saturday…

Friday night was the welcoming cocktail party where I had the honor of meeting Mick Jones from the Clash and Big Audio Dynamite. He was excited to be performing on stage with Joe Corre on Saturday. Also, attending was Debbie Harry sitting in a corner with Jody Watley. Both Debbie Harry and Jody Watley performed on Saturday and were powerhouses on stage.

On Saturday, it was preparation. We had the press conference where Linda Evangelista and Kim Catrall spoke with Joe Corre and Gery Krezsler and Kevin Frost of amfAR. Linda will always look like the supermodel she is and Kim shocked us all when she broke out in German causing applause and admiration with her grace and kind words. Kevin Frost, President of Global Initiative for amfAR commented that when they asked Kim Catrall to attend they almost didn’t expect she would be able to attend since she was touring with her new movie Sex and the City however, she only asked one question about attending, “What time should I be there?”Saturday night was intense…to give you an idea of the size of this event, here is an image of the red carpet leading to the stage. With about 40 thousand people watching outside and television crews airing this internationally.

One of my favorite parts of the show was watching Chicks on Speed, I saw them last at the MOMA in New York City during a POP RALLY event and saddened to see only two of them perform their energy with Amanda Lepore was phenomenal.

Here are more images from the night…

Signing off…from Planet Life Ball…

Cloud Space

May 13, 2008 on 8:54 am | In Art, Other-Designers, - Cheng | Comments Off

One of my favorite boutiques and designers in the city, JUSSARA LEE, is holding an exhibtion for the 3rd ANNUAL MEATPACKING DISTRICT DESIGN WEEK. Her designs are so intricately made that her clothing is art - even her hand-tailored wedding dresses could be hung from a wall, framed and admired. For the opening reception on May 18th, there will be a special presentation of dresses designed by Jussara Lee and Annie Murdock. The exhibition will be featuring Brazil-based artist Marcelo Maimoni and photographer Daniel de Granville and held at the CLOUD SPACE, dedicated to installations that make use of natural and repurposed materials and works to draw attention to environment issues.

JussaraLee.com

Please, return it…

April 29, 2008 on 1:32 pm | In - Cheng | Comments Off

Dry Cleaners are feeling the pressure after a federal tariff was imposed last month on wire hangers imported from China. The wholesale prices skyrocketed and increased by 60%. The New York Times reported, “The new tariff was imposed after a six-month investigation by the United States Department of Commerce, which concluded that Chinese manufacturers were flooding the market with cheap hangers below cost, a practice that is known as dumping and is designed to put rivals out of business.” With dry cleaners already making a slim profit, that is now growing even slimmer.

So what can you lovely fashionistas do? I asked my neighborhood dry cleaner and she said, “you’re already doing it.” Return the wire hangers you take home with your dry cleaning; they can reuse them. A little effort can go a long way.

Source: NY Times piece