On May 4, a series of books by the Italian photographer Jacopo Benassi were showcased at The Milan Image Art Fair. Among the featured work were the set of photos, The Ecology of Image, and two collaborative works with Kubiat Nnamdie and Pete Voelker titled LaSpezia is Not Miami/ Miami is not LaSpezia and LaSpezia is not New York/ New York is not LaSpezia.

Though he might be relatively unknown outside his home country, this was not Benassi’s first large-scale acknowledgment. The self-publisher of his own books, Benassi’s works seem to emerge from some place raw and pulpy, still pulsing and bloody, often literally: a girl covers herself in layers of meat, pigs roll in mud, Benassi is naked save for a well-placed mini-coffin, fingers are bloodied, beautiful flowers are so enormous and pink they look like grotesque body parts. Photographers themselves, like Olivier Zahm and Terry Richardson, are some of his most illustrative subjects; it’s a testament to Benassi’s spirit that two purveyors of salacity become subdued in front of his lens. Benassi is good at exposing the lurid, better at vulnerably revealing himself.

Jose El Rey by Kubiat Nnamdie

LaSpezia is not Miami/ Miami is not LaSpeziais Benassi’s first proper collaborative effort. One side of the small, zine-like book is his, the other side is Nnamdie’s. While Nnamdie’s work displays a certain nuanced distance, it is all distilled with the same gritty quality as Benassi’s. Nnamdie is more the voyeur of his scenes, less the maker.

Jacopo Benassi: This project arose from an idea I had with my friend, Warbear, for a gay film festival. He invented the name “La Spezia is not Los Angeles.” Fantastic! This festival has not yet been done, and I asked him permission to use the slogan for my zines. This work’s concept is based on a “split,” with the same mood of old punk bands who recorded tapes and discs with an A side of one band and a B side of another. My idea is the same, but with photos.

Untitled Image by Jacopo Benassi

Monica: How did you select your collaborators, and how did you pick the images? I saw the preview for the book you did with Kubiat and although there are many aesthetic similarities, they’re really distinguished from each other.

Jacopo: Kubiat was incredible. We understood the other immediately and I wished to continue this partnership with him. He presented me with Pete, with whom I made LaSpezia is not New York. In my work, I hadn’t used photos of my city itself, because a city is just a place where a person lives—not the person itself. And this is the concept I want to expose. I love Kubiat and Pete because they shoot with the same mood you have when you fuck. You have erections naturally, and naturally they make their work.

Monica: Kubiat, what kind of moments—visually speaking, of course—ended up in the book?

Kubiat Nnamdie: There are funny ones, like my first muse and dear friend, Amanda Wagner, being kissed by a young man yearning for her, and wild nights with my last muse, Jozie Gonzalez, around Miami. And there are very emotional and spiritual moments that give birth to photos like the cow head, taken at my dad’s funeral.

Efrain Blue by Kubiat Nnamdie

Monica: Is it important that the photos you picked represented Miami, since the book’s title alludes to it? Or were other ideas being represented?

Kubiat: No, I try to not control that. Some works can point directly to Miami, to me as a person who grew up in Miami, or to both. The book’s title is also a celebration of both cities.

Monica: The concept of place and landscape is a really weighty one. I like the idea of visually comparing two places. When you see photographs of a particular environment, it becomes an idea, something both imagined and real, and it makes me wonder how the photographer saw it.

Jacopo: I’m not able to see a place—I try to live it at its best! I can’t shoot in a place I have just started to live. I always try to restrict these spaces to just a few photos. In all these years, I have learned to renounce something, in any case, so I can look at my job clearly.

Beheading of a King 1 by Kubiat Nnamdie

Monica: Then how do you feel about your respective hometowns? How would you describe your relationships with them?

Jacopo: I have a love-hate relationship with my city. But I love my city even more than before, especially after having lived in Milan, where I sometimes go for work. I’ve got a club here in La Spezia with some dear friends of mine: I organize events that I later document and record for my book and CD productions. The name of the club is Btomic, and it’s where I house my AntiBtomic self-publishing label.

Kubiat: I have very warm feelings for Miami, even though I also grew up in Houston, Texas. I love Miami, but naturally I feel people need to hit the refresh button on the place they love. I think Miami is refreshing itself.

Monica: Jacopo, you titled the books La Spezia is NOT Miami, NOT New York. What are their connections to and differences between each other? You are also using the images to connect people, not just places.

Untitled Images by Jacopo Benassi

Jacopo: I’m not interested in differences. [The pictures] are not social research about the environment—it’s about humanity. When someone looks at The Ecology of Image, they usually ask me how many places I traveled to have accumulated so many photos. I answer “between La Spezia and Milan,” and they remain perplexed. Pete, Kubiat, and I work in the same metaphorical landscape. This is what unites us.

Monica: Tell me what else you are working on for the future.

Jacopo: I feel sick if I think about my future. The future is now. I don’t want to go ahead.

From left to right Amanda and Luis by Kubiat Nnamdie

Top Image: Untitled Images by Jacopo Benassi

London’s perennially popular Frieze Art Fair descended on New York City for the first time last week with a roar, bringing with it Frieze’s famous custom-designed tent (this iteration designed by Brooklyn-based SO-IL), and unique programming around the fair’s temporary home on Randall’s Island. The Frieze Art Fair, organized by the inimitable duo Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, has for the past 11 years been exclusively a London affair—fortunately for New Yorkers and other art lovers, the Frieze empire’s expansion across the pond promises to be a positive influence on the New York art world by invigorating the gallery scene and applying some needed pressure on the staid Armory Show to step up its game.

Above left: Ben Schmacher at Bortolami. Courtesy of Bortolami Gallery. Right: Paulina Olowska at Galeria Foksa. Photograph by Pip Deely.

Justin Matherly. “Every body moves, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly (Dedicate to everyone).” Courtesy of Bureau.

Left: Virginia Overton. “Untitled (mirrors for Randall’s Island)”. Commissioned and produced by Frieze Projects New York. Photograph by Linda Nylind. Courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze. Right: Artist Uri Aran and curator Kalika Farmer.  Photograph by Pip Deely.

Uri Aran. “Untitled, (Ticket Shack).” Commissioned and produced by Frieze Projects New York. Photograph by Linda Nylind, Courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.

Left: Henry Codax (a collaboration between Jacob Kassay and Olivier Mosset). “Untitled (Purple). ” Courtesy of Martos Gallery. Right: Ryan McGinley. “Marmoset (Horizon Blue).” Courtesy of Team Gallery, New York.

Leif Ritchey. “Green Tangerine. ” Courtesy of the journal gallery.

Left: David Adamo at Untitled Gallery (NADA fair). Photograph by Pip Deely. Right: Transcendental black metal band Liturgy at Essex Street gallery. Photograph by Pip Deely.

I heard a story that Frieze Director Amanda Sharp found Randall’s Island on Google Earth – the perfect location to introduce New York to the art wonderland she created with Matthew Slotover almost a decade ago in London. It was a clever move to have visitors leave the main island by ferry or school buses to reach the airy white snake lying by the river (actually a tent, designed by SO-IL, Brooklyn, for the occasion). Both clients and exhibitors seemed refreshed by the mini-adventure and in the right mood for business. And business is good, especially for local emerging galleries who see the additional costs that come with being present in a major art fair drop dramatically, while their contacts with potential buyers and curators increase. For Gabrielle Giattino, owner and director of Bureau, less economic pressure means more agency over the work she chooses to present,“With having the fair in our home city, we can show exactly what we want at this point, without worrying about shipping costs.” Hence the massive sculpture by American artist Justin Matherly displayed in her booth. The work, cast in concrete, involves both the building up and the “unearthing” of material. It carries a sense of deep melancholy, and the uncanny beauty of something missing or lost.

For Mathew Higgs, director of White Columns, participating in the fair is about the possibility of proposing something different to a larger international audience. The mythical, downtown, non-profit art space decided to work with members of Creative Growth, an art center in California providing professional studios to adult artists with developmental, mental and physical disabilities. “We are not a commercial gallery and don’t have to look after the career of our artists. We made a conscious choice to signal the fact that there are other contexts for art by showing the work of artists who entertain a different relationship to art-making. It allows another set of ideas in the narrative of the fair.”

Outside the tent, yet another narrative takes place with the Frieze Projects curated by Cecilia Alemani and sponsored by Mulberry. Responding to the fair’s location, the program includes eight artworks displayed across the lawns and in between the trees, almost playing hide and seek with visitors. Among them, the displaced landscape of Latifa Echakhch, dealing with the iconography of the American West, and consisting of two hundreds tumble weeds from Utah, frozen over the lush grass of Randall’s Island, as if the desert wind had stopped for a moment. The program also welcomes the shadow theater of Ulla von Brandenburg, which echoes in the booth of Parisian gallery Art Concept, with a series of drawings on paper. For Olivier Antoine, director of the gallery, and a regular of international art fairs, this first edition is extremely well put together and functions efficiently, but the space feels slightly too big. The structure of the tent, lingering from the north to south entrance like a long ribbon, reminds him of Manhattan. And indeed, the fair offers something similar to a wandering day in the city: walking from neighborhood to neighborhood, not feeling the distance, the eye constantly caught up by a new image, a new shape, by something never seen before that creates instant desire. Born and raised in London, Frieze may just have found its match in the islands of New York.

I know you’ve seen a million pictures of Coachella already, but these ones by photographer Doug Neill remind me that summer is coming, and even if it has been a really mild winter, I’m still really excited. Also, I don’t care what anybody says, I think Katy Perry looks adorable. A$AP Rocky, too.

With campaigning for the 2012 general election well under way, Downtown for Democracy, the political action committee established during the 2004 elections, is back. Aimed at motivating and engaging the creative community to political action, the organization has begun this cycle’s crusade with the publication of a 75-page civics primer. D4D and OHWOW Present: The Pocket Guide to Politics breaks down and clarifies the complicated, and some might say confusing, workings of our representative government.

The product of a collaboration between Downtown for Democracy and the OHWOW Gallery, the book elucidates and visualizes the workings of government functions. Or, in the words of OHWOW founders Al Moran and Aaron Bondaroff, “[It] is an attempt to translate the American political system into the language of the creative community, a demographic that influences what young America reads, listens to, watches and wears. We hope this resource will help inspire the creative community to get active and involved in our political system as election season approaches.” Contributing artists featured in the book include Joana Avillez, Tim Barber, Dan Colen, Alex Kalman, Andrew Kuo, Casey Neistat, Terry Richardson, Konstantin Trubkovich, Bert Rodriguez, Aurel Schmidt, Adam Squires, Josh Safdie and Aaron Young. Their various works tackle and illustrate some of the dire issues confronting this year’s voters, such as the economy and national debt, healthcare reform, women’s reproductive freedom, gun control, and marriage equality.

As illuminated by the wide breadth of these concerns, this election is not only about our next president. It is also about the quarter of Senate seats and all 435 spots in the House of Representatives that are up for grabs. Having seen the 2010 midterm elections usher in a majority of extremely active and vocal ultra-conservatives into Congress, this time around they are aiming at seizing control of both Houses. This in effect would have the right-wing controlling the running of our government for the years to come. With so much at stake, it is clear that this is an imperative election requiring mobilization from those that influence culture, and the far-reaching, young demographic that spreads the word.

The pocket guide is the preliminary tool in the call to action.

The guide is set for release on May 1, with a launch at The Standard. D4D and OHWOW Present: The Pocket Guide to Politics, costs $10.00 and will be available through the OHWOW and D4D websites.

Who is Eleanor Friedberger?  A musician, we think.

More importantly, who was Eleanor Friedberger’s miniature on-stage ingenue-companion during her March 24 performance at the Crowley Theater in Marfa, Texas? (Ballroom Marfa invited Eleanor to partake in a weeklong residency and recording session at the Marfa Recording Company which culminated in the performance at the Crowley).

Known formally as Ms. Olive Ingrid Leiss, this four-and-a-half-year-old O(racle) has shared deep wisdom and a conceptual sense of humor with her fellow townspeople since words first left her tiny voicebox. Olive speaks, dresses, moves and shakes her tiny fists with a perfectly balanced cocktail of compassionate and thoughtful ambition. She knows a lot of yoga and if she’s feeling up to it, she’ll demonstrate that knowledge on a whim – maybe it will be in her kitchen, or maybe it will be in the front yard of Marfa City Hall. When she looks at you, your heart and soul are simultaneously demolished and rebuilt, your lungs collapse and refill, you start thinking about Better Things, start remembering why you Like The World, start talking about Who Makes Magic, etc, etc…n Olive Ingrid Leiss is here to change her World, (obviously) starting with the town of Marfa.

Naturally, when Ms. Leiss agreed to take the stage with Ms. Friedberger, help her warm up the audience, shepherd Eleanor’s precarious path from the Outer depths to the Inner, we all breathed a deep sigh of relief. No better MC to guarantee a safe passing, Olive broke the ice for Eleanor with some perfectly selected knock-knock-based stand up comedy. Please review at your leisure and notice that although Eleanor flits in and out of a semi-assured stage persona, Olive stands still and strong throughout the length of her performance, delivering sharp wit and tender inflection with an unblinking calmness and sense of purpose.

Olive Ingrid Leiss, we are your biggest fans.

Text by Ryann Bosetti
Video by Alberto Halpern

When the Los Angeles-based photographer Lauren Ward headed down to the Austin, Texas music festival SXSW to bunk with Roy Harper, Jonathan Wilson and his band next door to Robert Plant‘s house, no less, we asked her to catalogue her adventure in images—from the endless live music to the eclectic attendees to the general weirdness that makes the city a Texan anomaly.

Click “Read More” for additional images.

Jonathan Wilson and Erin Lee Smith

Dr. John

Father John Misty

Delta Spirit

Left: Tex Smith

Fiona Apple

Left: Katrina Cahana

Right: Dr. John

Brooklyn Hustle Club

Right: Tashaki Miyaki

A portrait of a frenetic Christopher Walken takes over both the psychic and physical space on the second floor of the old Dia Center for the Arts in Chelsea. The actor appears contemplative, his life experience revealed through lines on his face rendered in a volcano of warm reds, yellows and oranges; his facial hair represented through broad brush strokes of greens, browns and blues. His eyes gaze towards what seems to be a far-off place, revealing a range of emotions that ally with the darker end of the spectrum. Simultaneously, however, Walken comes off as endearing, approachable and utterly human in a way that we haven’t seen him before.

This interpretation of the actor is the work of Mexican-born, New York-based artist Alex Hank whose monumental exhibition Roommates is on view through March 25. It finds Walken holding court in the oversized, light-flooded gallery alongside Charlotte Rampling, Agnes Gund, Dree Hemingway and the likeness of about a dozen other notable actors, philanthropists, artists and writers. Together, the portraits represent Hank’s first foray into painting, who is primarily known as a photographer.

“Alex started painting three years ago and locked himself in the studio to explore the medium of painting on canvas. And he did that pretty much on his own,” explains Ana Sokoloff of Sokoloff + Associates, who helped realize the exhibition. She says that Hank learned the craft as a result of the recession when his gallery at the time admitted it was going to be difficult to have exhibitions but that it was a perfect moment to pursue his passion for painting. This was a calling Hank hadn’t even recognized until he was given the blessing to explore it. “Oil is physical and very intimate, just you, the paint and the canvas. There is no technology, no room for mistakes and no cheating. It really is an incredible experience; you almost go into a sort of trance. I did not have this with photography at all and I find this very thrilling.” Hank says about his passion.

He took cues from Soutine, Jenny Saville and others, approaching the medium voraciously and confidently, rendering large-scale ambitious works that fill the room as much as the artist does himself, with his perfectly manicured moustache, towering height and charismatic personality. Uncommon among most painters, Hank uses just one medium-size brush to create brash, skilled and playful compositions, which appear as abstractions if viewed to closely. When the viewer steps back slightly, however, the works become nearly realistic renderings. “They’re not photographic but they end up being very representational. That’s where I find that there’s some magic. It’s from a photograph but it really isn’t,” describes Sokoloff.

Alex Hank Paints Rampling.  Silent from Wet Heat Project, stills from the documentary courtesy of sokoloff + associates, llc

Sokoloff made several visits to her friend’s SoHo studio before committing to facilitating a show. At the time, his studio space also housed a friend who would remark that whenever Hank completed a canvas he would have a new roommate -hence the show’s title.

To further the communal theme , Hank’s subjects are always friends or people who have inspired him. The latter of which he pursued through the website IMDb, which he used to reach out to actors he admired. Hank was surprised at how many said yes. He paints from the waist up Sokoloff says, “because he feels like what he wants to depict is the emotion of the character. And as painterly as they may be, he does manage to capture the inner personality of each of the sitters.” Hank elaborates, “I can’t deny that portraits and people hold a massive fascination for me, a challenge and risk to paint; I absolutely love them. I think no matter what I do in the future, portraiture will always have a place in my work.”

To launch the temporary exhibition, Charlotte Rampling, inspired by her experience with Hank, hosted an intimate dinner, with 11 other sitters in attendance. And while Walken wasn’t able to go, his imposing presence, covering seven feet of canvas, was still very much there in spirit—just the way Hank had intended.

Alex Hank, Roommates, is on view through March 25, every day 11am – 7pm, 548 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011 (former Dia Center for the Arts). 

Photos from the opening event. © Joe Schildhorn Courtesy of Billy Farrell Agency

Forget vampires or werewolves, New York-based artist Meryl Smith has created her own world of magical animals called Cryptids. Based on mythological beasts whose existence has been implied throughout history, but never proven, such as the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot, these lesser known cryptids are rendered in meticulous true to life detail, making them feel, well, intensely real. Using fabric remnants, wire, mesh and even chopsticks, Smith creates sculptures akin to Taxidermy and places them standing in landscape settings hand-crafted out of millions of pieces of shredded paper. The results are surreal, but in a way that makes you almost believe that these animals exist. Part scary and part cuddly, these guys look like they co-exist with fairies and live in an enchanted forest where trees talk, or like when you smoked too much pot before you watched the Nature Channel. Either way, the intricacy of the detail is amazing, and Smith, whose range extends from life-size paper dolls to grotesque costumes, manages to find a balance between being sentimental and frightening in her work, a rare feat. The exhibit is presented by Rassa Montaser, who represents a slew of amazing, creative folks including Olympia Scarry and Vanessa Beecroft.

Cryptids is on view at The Brachfeld Gallery, 78 Rue des Archives in Paris. The show is up from March 22nd through May 3rd, with an opening reception on Thursday, March 22 from 6-10 PM.

Each year when The Armory Show comes to town, I feel like more and more things happen surrounding it. This year is particularly interesting as everyone anticipates the Frieze Fair taking over Randall’s Island in May. Will it be bigger, better and more interesting than the Armory? Probably. Will more things happen surrounding it? I’d bet yes, as it is rumored that both NADA and PULSE will coincide with Frieze. How many art fairs do we need? It sure does seems like a lot. Either way, it makes for a fun few days, or literal hell, whichever way you want to look at it.

Obviously, since everything revolves around the big fair, The Armory Show, it seems like that might be a good place to start. Currently the largest art fair in New York, this year there is a special section called, “Armory Focus: The Nordic Countries” curated by Jacob Fabricius, the director of Malmö Konsthal. The exhibit features select galleries from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. If for whatever reason, you can’t make it to the Armory, or just don’t want to brave the crowds, the entire fair is up at Paddle8, the online auction house where you can buy a piece from the fair without getting out of your pajamas. Or like me, you can just look at the price list for everything and dream a little. I was amazed to see some really interesting things for not completely insane prices.

At The Armory Focus: The Nordic Countries: Jeff Olsson, Foam Party. From Galleri Magnus Karlsson.

Just to confuse you, or at least it confuses me every year, The Art Show actually happens at The Armory. This fair is the longest running art fair in America and includes a bunch of prestigious galleries that do not show at the Armory, including Metro Pictures and The Pace Gallery. It also includes galleries that show at both, like David Zwirner, but since it is a much smaller fair, there is a very tightly curated feeling here, so if you want to see the heavy-hitting galleries but don’t want to get lost in a maze of art and walk until your feet hurt, this is probably the move for you. It is $20 admission, but the proceeds benefit The Henry Street Settlement, a non-profit that provides housing, health care, youth programs, job placement and access to the arts to 50,000 vulnerable New Yorkers each year. I particularly love anything that happens at The Armory. It’s fun to get kind of dressed up and go there and walk around Central Park afterwards.

Another goodie, VOLTA is an official partner of The Armory Show that focuses on solo shows by emerging talent. The artists here are specifically not big names, but the work is phenomenal, making this a successful fair that keeps growing because it showcases both great artists and curators. Also, the idea of solo exhibits at an art fair make you feel less schizophrenic, which is a plus. Some highlights include intricate paper drawings by Belgian artist Manor Grunewald and dense collages made by the artist Deborah Grant about obscure African-American folk-artist William Henry Johnson. You can catch a shuttle from the main fair and get free admission with a pass to the Armory.

At VOLTA: Mark Khaisman, Girl with Earring #1, 2011, Packaging tape on plexiglas in translucent resin light box

Another big fair in town is SCOPE, which has some really interesting projects going on this year, including the large site-specific piece across the street by artist Robert Montgomery, which I love, called: “The City is Wilder Than You Think.” For something a little bit weirder and less romantic, try: The Diamond Den where artist and minister Laine Love Dalby (referred to as The Lady Gaga of Spiritually) treats visitors to an experience filled with “suffering, self-examining and forgiveness.” Who says religion and art and sex don’t mix? Also, check out Burn Before Reading, a collection of small edition and handmade books and text based artworks (with coffee and donuts, mmm..) in conjunction with the reading series Oral Tradition with readings on Friday and Saturday night.

Yet another fair, with some of the best and most interesting smaller galleries, such as Jack Hanley, White Columns and Bortolami is The Independent. Taking place in the old Dia Center for The Arts, architect Christian Wassmann has designed a functional installation on the roof that includes a cafe and a library based around the idea of aligning the true North-South axis of the earth. The layout of this fair looks more like a large group show, which gives it a very nice feeling. These galleries are way to cool to be at a trade show.

At The Independent: Sam Falls, Untitled Roll Fade (chartreuse) 2011

In contrast to the Independent, is the Saturday-only show, The Dependent, which debuted last year in Chelsea and this year moves down to the Lower East Side. With a fleeting sense of mystery, this art fair takes place in hotel rooms in the sense that the beds, walls and every available surface is covered with art, giving it an old-school renegade art vibe. (Apparently hotel art shows go in and out of fashion quite frequently. Keep up.) I will say there is something great about a hotel bed covered in art. I mean, why not? Also, I’m loving that they moved downtown from Chelsea, because this fair (if you can really call it a fair) feels miles away from midtown.

Also downtown, the much talked about newcomer this year is Spring/Break, a “curator-driven” fair that is being held in an old four-story Catholic schoolhouse turning classrooms, bathrooms and hallways into gallery space. Tonight, a personal fave, the performance artist William Powhida will be hosting a discussion between artists and Occupy Wall Streeters. Expect some weird shit to go down.

At Spring/Break: Tom Weinrich curates work by Jesse McLean and Joseph Jagos

Maybe the most fun of all though, is The Contemporary Video Art Fair. The most fun, I think, because it takes place in the legendary Tunnel club, now called The Waterfront Tunnel Event Space. (Yup, that’s right. I digress.) With experimental films from the likes of Ken Jacobs, Alex Prager, Mary Lucie and many more, this looks like an awesome way to spend an afternoon checking out some of the best videos in the art world all in one pretty awesome space.

At The Contemporary Video Art Fair: Kate Gilmore, Half-Sick of Shadows, 2012

Last but not least is the Anti-Art Fair, literally called Art Not Fair which is happening all month, if you can’t get to things on time, don’t have a Goyard bag, or haven’t actually left Williamsburg in a year or two. You’re not a joiner- no judgement- I’m all for not leaving Brooklyn. The way things are going with art fairs popping up everywhere pretty soon there will be tons on the other side of the bridge, I’m sure. Until then, this Roebling Street gallery is offering art as well as pastries by The Starving Artist Bakery such as “The Car Bomb Cake,” based off of the Gunniess-Jameson concoction.

At Art Not Fair: Matthew Craven, Calvary Scars

I guess the point is that you should get out there. I thought about putting some info down here for where exactly you should go, but there is so much going on that basically if you leave your house you are apt to run into some art. Everything is up through Sunday, March 11th and the links are including above. I trust you can figure the rest out.

Top Image: Robert Montgomery, The City is Wilder Than You Think, 2012 At Scope.