“A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII 2011,” which contains more than 800 portraits, as well as extensive annotations and footnotes, is on display through Jan. 2 at the Tate Modern in London.

“You have these 18 stories and between all of them, something is said that is maybe not so easy to articulate about the complexities of life, birth and death,” Ms. Simon said. “What does it all amount to, are we evolving, or just repeating? It is about fate. Whether fate is determined by chance, blood or circumstance.”

The exhibition includes empty portraits to represent living members of a bloodline who could not be photographed due to imprisonment, military service, dengue fever, or women who were not granted permission to be photographed. Some sent clothing to be photographed instead of themselves.

The annotations and footnotes are exhaustive and compelling. The man for whom the exhibit is named, for example, discovers that official records list him as dead, even though he is in fact alive, and his land is no longer registered in his name.

“It never amounts to some sort of conclusion. For me it’s about those areas that are less speakable in a way. It’s not about forming an equation that arrives at an answer, but lots of questions, and disorientation,” Ms. Simon said.

Ms. Simon’s work is included in major public collections at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Her previous “Contraband 2010″ project presented more than 1,000 images of items detained or seized from passengers and mail entering the United States from abroad. Her 2007 work, “An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar 2007,” included radioactive capsules at a nuclear waste storage facility and the art collection of the C.I.A.

“My past work was always about cataloging things but in this, I wanted to find an absolute catalog, something I could not edit,” Ms. Simon said. “That led me to blood, a representation of order, but to have that budding up against disorder of the stories, concerned with ideas and systems behind stories themselves. Several of the stories read like something out of the past that are happening now, or may happen in the future.”

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES

In an effort to explore how this and other examples of postmodernism across the artistic spectrum — architecture, fashion, dance, pop music — have shaped 20th-century design and style, London’s Victoria & Albert Museum (Cromwell Road; 44-20-7942-2000; www.vam.ac.uk) will host “Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970-1990,” running from Sept. 24 to Jan. 15.

“Memphis’s entry into the world befitted that of a rock star, rather than a furniture brand,” said Jane Pavitt, a curator of the exhibit. “Thirty years is about right to start looking back with fresh eyes at a subject which has been variously derided, dismissed and treated as highly toxic.”

As MTV also turns 30 this year, the show will include elements of video and music, including performances from David Byrne, Grace Jones, Devo, Laurie Anderson, Neneh Cherry, New Order, Kraftwerk and Grandmaster Flash — artists who employed the key postmodern strategy of sampling and editing together different style tropes, Ms. Pavitt said.

Also included in the show are works by artists like Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol, and architects like Philip Johnson. But the show goes beyond art, including pieces from luxury brands like Alessi, the fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Stephen Sprouse, album and magazine covers, and films like Ridley Scott’s science-fiction classic “Bladerunner.”

Postmodernism, according to Ms. Pavitt, includes “a set of incendiary tactics which overturned the principles and dogmas of the modern movement, and advocated instead a politics of and about style itself, ransacking the dressing up box of stylistic idioms to produce an eclectic, exuberant and often confrontational practice.”

This exhibition is the culmination of a series of exhibitions at the V&A exploring 20th century design and style. In 2006, the museum staged an exhibition on Modernism. Their 2008 show “Cold War Modern” examined the post-war impact of modernism on both sides of the iron curtain.

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Photo: V&A Images

Featured artists include the performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson, the choreographer Trisha Brown and the artist Gordon Matta-Clark. All three sought creative inspiration from the dilapidated buildings and derelict urban spaces that filled the downtown area at that time, thanks, in part, to a stagnant economy and an increase in crime. The show features roughly 160 works, some never seen previously outside of New York.

“I started developing the exhibition shortly after the start of the current recession and was struck how these artists in the late 1960s and early 1970s managed to make such poetic and powerful work out of very modest means,” said Lydia Yee, the show’s curator. “It’s been refreshing to revisit this period after the excesses of the art market boom of the past decade.”

The exhibition aims to show how urban landscapes, not paint canvases, became the workspace for these artists. Film footage shows performers dancing on rooftops and harnessing themselves to ropes and walking down the sides of buildings; elsewhere, Mr. Matta-Clark climbs the clock tower in downtown Manhattan, then takes a shower and brushes his teeth. A large blue garbage dumpster, covered in graffiti, is converted into a living space.

Photographs show Ms. Anderson sleeping at public spaces like the beach at Coney Island and the Columbia University library bathroom to see how each location affected her dreams. Elaborate pencil and marker sketches show the intricate planning behind Ms. Brown’s performances and Ms. Anderson’s ideas, including “Duet for Violin and Door Jamb” and “Doormat Love Song,” which include items like generators, light bulbs and microphones.

Each day at the Barbican, dancers perform some of Ms. Brown’s works from that period, including “Walking on the Wall,” and “Floor of the Forest”; for the latter, performers crawl around on what appears to be a clothesline, slipping in and out of clothing items.

Ms. Yee acknowledged that this art is clearly specific to a time and place. “Artists and curators have commented on the fact that you can’t do this type of performance in New York City, or London, today without obtaining permissions, insurance or safety checks,” she said.

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Photo courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery

“[Graffiti] will always have people who prefer to paint trains, tubes, buses and motorway’s illegally,” says Seize, a self-taught graffiti artist who got his start when he was 15. “You can call it vandalism, but some people regard it as leaving their tag or image for all to see. Graffiti is freedom.” Seize did not seem to find anything counterintuitive in teaching paying customers how to grasp this expressive, rule-flouting freedom for themselves.

The full blog post, on street art, Banksy, and the Academy Awards, is at INTELLIGENT LIFE and also continues here after the jump

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, an inconspicuous pop-up shop filled with street art was open for business on Berwick Street in London’s Soho. Original Banksy pieces were on display alongside works by Dran, Ian Stevenson, Mark Sinckler, Paul Insect and Doodle Earth. Pictures on Walls (POW), the East London collective that runs the annual pop-up shop, called it “Marks & Stencils” (a riff on the British chain Marks & Spencer).

There is something odd about seeing street art corralled for purchase. Half the fun of it is stumbling upon it somewhere unexpected. But the atmosphere was cool, and the shop sold works I had never seen, from artists I had never heard of. Some pieces looked as if they had been thrown together in 30 minutes; others were more thoughtful, using irony, sarcasm and wit to level a social critique. Visitors could also design their own postcards. I hung out for a while, and there was a steady stream of people around me. One visitor, a 40-something Adidas-tracksuited man, bashfully discussed his own stencilling ideas. He was told to get started: “before you know it, you could have a following,” said someone working in the shop. This much was clear: if POW didn’t open it, some other enterprising entrepreneur surely would have.

Following the second world war, “the first youth culture was music and fashion,” said Sam, a spokesman for POW. (He declined to give his surname owing to his “general mistrust of the media”.) “But then you saw graffiti start popping up in New York and Philly, and now it’s resulted in Christie’s and Bonhams having fucking auctions of this stuff. That’s a summary of the last 30 years, and that’s wonderful.”

Whether or not it’s wonderful, it’s certainly true. Fans have purchased pieces by Banksy, perhaps the most notorious (and still anonymous) street artist, for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Indeed, his critically acclaimed documentary, “Exit Through the Gift Shop”, considers this odd mix of art, hype and commerce. It is now up for an Oscar. In anticipation of the Academy Awards on February 27th—where countless street art fans hope Banksy will make an appearance—at least one new (alleged) Banksy piece popped up recently in West Los Angeles. The piece (above) depicts a young boy aiming a large machine gun at a “No Parking” sign, surrounded by crayon drawings of flowers.

The mainstreaming of graffiti art says something about the rise-and mass appropriation of—youth culture. Companies that sell goods for street-savvy, skater-punking youth, such as Volcom, Vans and Zumiez, have all made it onto Forbes’ Best Small Companies list in recent years. Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk’s brand, which includes skateboards, clothing, and PlayStation skateboarding video games, is reportedly valued at more than $1 billion, and his clothing line is available at Kohl’s.

“I really don’t think about street art being mainstream or whatever,” said Sam, from POW. “It’s wonderful that this has happened. Kids who haven’t gone to art school are now supporting their families.”

Luminescent orbs, man-animal-machine hybrids, walking chairs, and sculptures made from material used by NASA to collect stardust are some of the items that will be on display. Performances, talks and events will focus on topics like quantum theory and harmonic resonance, ideas for a free currency, and hypnotic audiovisual experiences. The full blog post is at the NEW YORK TIMES and also continues here after the jump

Put on by the Kinetica Museum, the third-annual fair will take place at the Ambika P3 Gallery (35 Marylebone Road; 44-207-392-9674; www.p3exhibitions.com). The Fair will feature more than 400 works from galleries and art organizations across Britain and elsewhere, and exhibitors from 11 different countries.

The Kinetica Museum founders Dianne Harris and Tony Langford began Kinetica because they believed technological art was underrepresented in other museums, galleries and art fairs, according to Mr. Langford.

“In a time of recession and increased global awareness about climate change, artists are inspired to focus on harnessing the powers of nature and cosmic energy as a means of expression,” Mr. Langford said. “The works exhibited aim to increase awareness to the evolution of us as a species and expose various dimensions in our quest to further human potential.”

The fair has doubled in size since its inception three years ago, he added.

Photo: Kinetica Museum

When asked how he compared to other musicians pursuing visual art at the time — Tony Bennett, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie — Davis added, “they paint flowers and [expletive].”

The full blog post, on an exhibition of Miles Davis’ artwork in London, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Photo: Compton Cassey Gallery

The gallery StolenSpace gave a simple task to a group of more than 30 artists, designers, ceramic artists and photographers: design a cover for your favorite book. Participants were free to paint, print, etch, sculpt, photograph, or use any medium of their choice, as long as the result was in the size of an average book (defined as 198mm by 129mm).

The full blog post, on StolenSpace gallery’s “Never Judge…?” exhibit in East London, is at the NEW YORK TIMES, and also continues here after the jump.

The results of this challenge are on display at StolenSpace (Dray Walk, The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane; 44-207-247-2684; stolenspace.com), in a show titled “Never Judge…?.” The exhibition, which was organized in conjunction with Penguin Books (who, like many book companies, are fully embracing e-reader technology) runs from Dec. 3 to 19. Limited edition prints of some of the book covers will be for sale.

“The general idea was to keep it as varied as possible,” said Beth Gregory, gallery manager at StolenSpace. “These are people we like or respect, not just a random selection. The majority of the artists chosen to participate are not necessarily designers, some are sculptors, painters, and photographers, so re-creating a book cover in their style and media has produced some really beautiful and interesting results.”

The roster of more than 100 artists involved in the exhibition includes a number of D.Y.I.-focused street artists, including Shephard Fairey, Jeff Soto, and Cyclops, an East London-based street artist whose work has been included in auctions alongside works by Banksy at the Bond Street auction rooms of Bonhams in London.

Penguin Books will take 20 of the pieces being displayed, and publish and distribute books with those new covers in April.

“We wanted to celebrate the art of the book cover as we feel it is a dying art form,” Ms. Gregory added. “With the advent of the iPad, it’s now questionable how long the printed novel and its cover will be around. Just like the album cover, it’ll be resigned to a thumbnail in iTunes.”

Photo: StolenSpace

Since the middle of last month, the Mexican-born artist Damián Ortega has been in London gathering up bits of news — newspaper stories, photojournalism, graphics — from local, national and international publications. He’ll now spend the next three months repurposing his stash as art, in the form of sculpture, installation and prototypes for future projects.

His free exhibition, “The Independent” (a reference to the British publication), will be on display from tomorrow through Jan. 16 at the Barbican Art Gallery (Barbican Center, Silk Street; 44-207-638-4141), and will continue to change and evolve on a regular basis.

The full blog post, on Ortega’s London exhibit, is at the NEW YORK TIMES. The post also continues here, after the jump.

Using news as artistic subject matter is nothing new for Mr. Ortega, who during the 1980s was a political cartoonist in Mexico City. As an artist, he’s been known for addressing and critiquing social and political issues, including capitalism, poverty and immigration, through sculpture that is both minimalist and eye-catching. In more tangible terms, he seems to enjoy taking things apart and reassembling them in visually explosive ways.

For his 2002 piece “Cosmic Thing,” he pulled apart a Volkswagon Beetle and suspended the pieces and parts in mid-air — almost like a life-sized do-it-yourself assembly instruction manual. In “Controller of the Universe” from 2007, pictured above, he took tools found at local junk shops and suspended them from the ceiling in an explosive form.

“For this project he explodes the form and function of the newspaper, transforming the ephemeral nature of the news into sculptural form on a daily basis,” said Alona Pardo, the exhibit curator. “The newspaper takes real situations and compresses them into digestible two-dimensional sound bites and column inches, and in ‘The Independent,’ Damián reconverts these two-dimensional stories back into three-dimensionality. In this way, Ortega questions and examines the role of the media in their representation of the truth.”

Given the site-specific nature of “The Independent,” many of the works will ultimately be destroyed, but some will be distributed throughout galleries in New York, Mexico City, São Paolo and London.

In keeping with the theme that viewers of art should decide for themselves what art means, the exhibit goes to great lengths to avoid clarity and specificity (there are few explanatory placards). Works of various media (audio, photographs, diagrams) defy simple, quick definition and, depending on your artistic leanings, the result can feel maddening or enlightening. During a recent visit, three young boys sat quietly and watched a strange film depicting people in animal costumes collecting flowers and roaming around in the woods.

The full blog post, on the “For the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there” exhibit at London’s ICA, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Though not the sexiest of exhibits, little details throughout are often the most insightful: islands were often named for explorers’ wives; a 20,000-pound prize was offered in 1775 for discovery of a northwest passage; Arctic exploration was apparently assigned to the Royal Navy, who had time to kill after the Napoleonic War.

The full blog post, on London’s Maritime Museum’s Arctic exhibit, is at the NEW YORK TIMES.