One of the giants of American art died Monday night at 82 years old. Robert Rauschenberg was among the most influential and prolific American artists working during the 20th century. With work blurring the lines between painting and sculpture, not to mention prints, photographs, musical compositions and even choreography, Rauschenberg was an artistic polymath and a hero to EMERGE. Today is a sad day indeed...

Read more here

Here are some our favorite pieces:












Posted by James Friedman

In the realm of fashion, Parisian uber-boutique Colette has a virtually untouchable reputation. Groundbreaking, forward-thinking and unafraid to challenge convention, the  shop has brought a curatorial mindset to retailing not just clothing, but music, art, beauty products, and accessories. As with much cutting edge fashion, sometimes their choices challenge ideas of propriety and good taste.

For their latest art exhibition, the store invited Comenius Roethlisberger to show large blocks of chocolate embellished with iconic luxury logos including Dior, Chanel, and Ferrari. "Dearest Constellation, Sweetest Invitiation" takes things a step or two beyond postmodern irony and referentialism, ensuring that the logos themselves stand out against the rich, delicious brown of the chocolate thanks to a mixture of sugar and cocaine. Yes, cocaine. Here's hoping nobody does a line of Roethlisberger's work and the police don't bust the store in the middle of Paris Fashion Week.

The artist explains the exhibition on their website in somewhat broken English: "Insolence, fantasy, cynicism, his work incriminates imaging, and fashion or advertising shots, letting no one unconcerned." Any French-speaking readers care to check out the francophone version of the news item on Colette's website and post a better translation in the comments here?









Posted by James Friedman

Ohio-born, Israeli-raised, Brooklyn-based photographer Rachel Papo completed her MFA thesis project in 2005, photographing women serving in the Israeli military. Her interest in this subject began with her own service as a photographer in the Israeli Air Force. The project, named for her own military ID number, is coming out soon as a book published by the always awesome powerHouse Books.

Here's an excerpt from the artist's statement:
The photographs in this collection serve as a bridge between past and present—a combination of my own recollections and the experiences of the girls who I observed. Each image embodies traces of things that I recognize, illuminating fragments of my history, striking emotional chords that resonate within me. In some way, each is a self-portrait, depicting a young woman caught in transient moments of introspection and uncertainty, trying to make sense of a challenging daily routine. In striving to maintain her gentleness and femininity, the soldier seems to be questioning her own identity, embracing the fact that two years of her youth will be spent in a wistful compromise.







Thanks to Zach Korman for the tip!


Posted by James Friedman

Looking over yesterday's post, EMERGE realized that some more visuals would go a long way towards illuminating just how incredible Alex Dodge's work truly is. So to that end, we asked him for some images of a few of the paintings from his upcoming show Intelligent Design, which opens next Friday at the Klaus Von Nichtssagend Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.





Millions of Years of Pressure And Heat, oil and toner on linen, 36 x 54 inches, 2008

Mostly Physical Structures, oil and toner on linen, 36 x 54 inches, 2008

Check back with EMERGE next week for an interview with the artist!


Posted by James Friedman

If you happen to be in Miami this weekend or the New York area next week, EMERGE has a couple of openings to suggest you attend. Granted, both are by certified, official friends-of-EMERGE, but both are hugely talented up-and-comers by all accounts, not just ours. And as you may have heard, emerging contemporary art is a hot commodity these days. Not only will these shows be amazing, but there may be some incredible art investments to be had...

Sean Dack: ECHO/REPEAT at Fredric Snitzer Gallery



In addition to his acclaimed Futuresongs project from last Summer, Dack's latest show features a new series of images the artist has created through "a sheries of conversions from digital to analog.. exposing flaws within the technologically advanced medium, and appreciateing the beauty that lies in chance." Dack is also showing a short film he made called One Seven Nine Two Seven (2006) at the Miami Standard Hotel on Sunday evening at sundown prior to Werner Herzog's Lessons of Darkness.

Alex Dodge: Intelligent Design at Klaus Von Nichtssagend Gallery



For his second solo show at this small Williamsburg gallery, Dodge has created several paintings, works on paper and a sculptural installation. The sculpture, Study for Intelligent Design, features cast silicone body parts, "discarded android appendages, including a face, hands and ear, that incorporate synthetic colorless hair and technological fragments for sub-dermal viscera. The innards revealed by the torn away silicone flesh are comprised of a range of mechanical and electronic parts that span technologies of the past 50 years including typewriter parts, both old and current computer components, wires and fiber optic filament." Two of the paintings are based on the Playstation game Katamari Damacy. Dodge often explores the space between humanity and technology, a tension evident in his methodology, which combines traditional mediums and techniques with "computer-aided drafting and materials whose origins range from obsolete technologies to the most current.



Posted by James Friedman

Last Spring, EMERGE had the rare and special opportunity to meet the graphic geniuses behind M/M (Paris) while visiting the City of Lights for an art opening. We were struck not only by the work we saw, but by how cool and interesting they were over a mindblowing meal. The next day we returned to New York and saw this article in the New York Times, and were totally blown away by how utterly rad these guys are.

That's why we are dying to head back to Paris to see the two new shows of M/M (Paris)'s work.

The first, Vision Tenace (Relentless Vision) is currently on view in the Centre Pompidou (through February 18) and the second, L'ile au Tresor (Treasure Island) is at the hot-shit gallery Air de Paris through March 8.

While we were able to find some images from Relentless Vision, we couldn't find anything large enough to include in this post from the Treasure Island show, which apparently involves a book created from found texts as well as accompanying installations including a reading cabinet complete with reading nook, printed carpets and heat-molded plexiglass frames containing "engravings alluding to the nomadic pleasures of reading." We have no idea what all of this means, or even what it looks like, but we're completely fascinated.

Here is an installation view of Relentless Vision:



























Here is an image we found on the We Love Paris blog in a post about the show:






Posted by James Friedman