The first thing you’ll notice upon listening to Buke and Gase’s latest album, “General Dome” (Brassland), is how noisy and raucous it is. While pure decibel power is nothing new for a rock band, rarely is it so effectively generated by just two people. Using instruments of their own creation, from which they also take their name (a buke is a modified ukulele, a gase a guitar-bass hybrid), Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez create the same caterwaul as bands twice their size. ARTINFO recently spoke with the duo’s bassist-guitarist, Sanchez, about the new album, ditching Brooklyn for upstate New York, and why the group started making their own instruments in the first place.

How do you view “General Dome” in relation to your other releases?

This record is really about us discovering what we’re trying to do, and working within the limitations we’ve set up for ourselves, and figuring out what kind of project this still is. We went into this with a little more direction, trying to solve the problems and issues we were having with previous work. And trying to be a little more concise, keeping the songs in the same one world instead of moving around so much.

Has the album changed how you two view yourselves as a band?

We’ve become more focused, a lot more focused than when we started the record. Everything you do is a learning process for the next step. I think in general we just wanted to, not that the material was going to be more accessible, but easier to get into. That’s what we were trying to do. And things got a little more serious and dark as a result.

Do you feel your work was too hard to latch onto before?

Maybe. We had this slight flailing process before, that’s where most of the best material comes from – we just improvise for hours and record it all in a collage process. I think we wanted to make it a little easier for the listener. And it was a challenge for us to push it in a direction of more traditional song structure.

Was traditional song structure not important before? Why is it now?

Mostly it’s another challenge for us. We’re interested in both. We do really love pop song structure, it’s really fun. And it’s also very difficult to do well. It was like, “OK, let’s try to be a little less abstract.”

The band used to be based out of Brooklyn, but you both ended up relocating to Hudson, New York. Was this before or during the recording process?

It was before. I was already living in Hudson, and Arone moved up to make the record basically. We were going to take a period of time to make the record up there – seemed easier, cheaper, we’d have more time, that kind of thing. It was a completely different experience. In Brooklyn we had this little tiny space that we were working in. In Hudson we rented these two large rooms of this gallery building. We just moved all our recording gear into there and kind of shacked up in there for about five months. It was luxurious for us. It was also the first time we could actually play and rehearse in an open room without headphones. We actually never heard ourselves in a room really. All those things were large factors.

Can you imagine going back to how you used to record now?

No. It was an altering experience. We learned a lot recording live. We’re still making a lot of mistakes, but we’ve been improving upon them through the process.

Was there a point where you decided you needed a change of scenery?

It was more just a situational thing. It wasn’t, “Oh no, we can’t afford to live in the city anymore.” Though it is much, much easier here as a band. We don’t have all the access to all the people we normally would and all the shows that we could see, but now we’re at a point where we’re either touring a lot or we’re trying to write new music, and being outside of the city makes that a lot easier.

A big part of the band’s story has always been that you’ve made your own instruments. How did that come about?

It’s really just to solve a musical problem, because we’re only two people and we’re trying to make a lot of different sounds. And we’re trying to perform those sounds live. In my case, I pushed a guitar so that it could play bass and guitar parts, and in order to do that, I had to make it, because you can’t really buy that kind of thing. And Arone’s instrument, basically it’s a smaller guitar, but it’s very full ranged. We kind of designed pick-ups that would make it sound bigger than it is. And then we had to come up with some kind of percussion thing that would work and modify drums stuff. It’s an ongoing process.

So there’s a lot of trial and error?

Totally. Lot of trial and error. And we have a lot more ideas we want to try. The next iteration of songs is going to be very different technology-wise. This is what happens when we’re on tour – we brainstorm and figure out things to do, but we can’t try them yet because we’re still playing.

Does that keep things fresh?

It’s very exciting. The exciting part is that the instruments kind of dictate where the music is going. They tell us how they want to work, tell us how the music is. It puts us off balance in a way.

Do you ever worry you tinker too much because of that?

Maybe, yeah [laughs]. It can get obsessive at times and you have to back off a little bit.

Do you have to rein yourself in a little bit?

I probably should, but I don’t think about it. If you ask Arone, she’ll probably tell you a very defiant yes. 

Our most-talked-about stories in Visual Art, February 11- 15, 2013:

— Shane Ferro took a look at the pros and cons of investing in luxury assets like fine art.

— Not every art movement makes it into the history books, as Lori Fredrickson points out in her list of 8 art movements that never really took off.

— Judd Tully reported the results of London’s contemporary auction week, covering young auctioneer Alexander Gilkes’s debut at Phillips, Bacon and Basquiat’s big sales at Sotheby’s, and Christie’s stunning takeaway totaling at $128 million.

— We celebrated Valentine’s Day by choosing the most romantic examples of marriage proposals that involved street art, and 14 high-concept (and in some cases edible) artworks made of chocolate.

— Ben Davis rolled out another edition of “The Art Lover” column, and advised on conflicting tastes in art and being jealous of your partner’s studio time.

— Art person James Franco spoke with Alexander Forbes about his new show “Gay Town” at Peres Projects in Berlin.

— American minimalist artist Richard Artschwager passed away at 89, just days after the closing of his Whitney Museum retrospective “Richard Artschwager!”

— German artist Michael Reidel recruited the band Woog Riots to create an advertorial tune for promoting his new show at David Zwirner.

— Tracey Eminlit up Times Square with her “I Promise To Love You” project, as well as partnered with online digital art initiative [s]edition to sell affordable limited-edition, high-resolution versions of the artwork.

— Rachel Corbett reported the latest updates surrounding controversial Russian art collective Voina’s legal troubles. This time, they are suing filmmaker Andrey Gryazev for his 2012 documentary about the group. 

For “Gallery Night” ARTINFO stopped by the opening of Stephen Antonakos’ “Pillows.” The exhibition features a series created using pillows mixed with other mediums, in a unique departure from the artist’s more well-known work with neon, and was created over the course of just one year, from 1962-63. The show is currently on display through March 16 at Lori Bookstein Fine Art.

The American desert eco-drama “Dark Blood” was about four-fifths finished when its 23-year-old star, River Phoenix, collapsed and died on October 31, 1993. Yesterday, at the Berlinale, the film’s Dutch director George Sluizer, 80, unveiled the terminally incomplete work out of competition. He has provided it with a spoken introduction and a voiceover narration in lieu of the missing scenes.

The trailer (below) suggests that, above and beyond its story, “Dark Blood” is a ghost movie. Seeing anew the beautiful lost boy of Generation X, who was arguably the most talented young American actor since James Dean, is not an experience to be taken lightly.

Bénédicte Prot, writing on Cineuropa, vividly describes “Dark Blood” as “the story of a couple of tourists who explore the canyons in a Bentley, which breaks down in the fierce and fiery stretches of a desert violated by nuclear tests, then left to die: they ask for the help of a local man with some Indian blood.

“The woman, Buffy (Judy Davis), is an uninhibited American with tangled hair like those we used to see in road movies in the early ’90s. Her husband, Harry (Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce), is a self-centered and irascible movie star who does not understand that time cannot be bought with money. The fellow who offers them inhospitable hospitality is called Boy (River Phoenix), who, since the death of his wife due to radiation, lives in a world both ruthless and magical, composed of amulets and little bells tinkling in the wind.”

Prot continues: “During a forced cohabitation on both sides, which gives the impression of a scene behind closed doors in the immensity of the desert, the white man meets the native, wisdom meets patience, humility meets ambition, nature meets those responsible for its most deeply poisonous wounds (Phoenix was, in fact, an environmental activist), and incomprehension is total, with no way out.

“For Boy, the fact that there is nothing to do in the desert during the day because it is too hot, during the night because it is too dark, is very natural, but for Harry, it is as despairing as the enigma of the sphinx. Faced with destructive individualism, Boy’s character represents innocence condemned.”   

After being shut down following Phoenix’s death, the movie became the property of its insurance company. Deadline reported from the Berlinale press conference that in 1999 Sluizer “learned the footage was going to be destroyed and within two days was able to save it and take it back to Holland.” The director of “Utz” (1992), he went on to remake his “Spoorloos” (1988) as the influential Jeff Bridges thriller “The Vanishing” (1993) and five more films.

After learning in 2007 that he has an aneurysm, Sluizer said that he decided, “Before I die, I want to put ‘Dark Blood’ together as best I can.”

Although “Dark Blood” is headed to next month’s Miami Film Festival, it is not known yet if it will receive a theatrical release because, Deadline says, it “is still tangled up in a rights conundrum.”

It would also be necessary for any potential distributor to consult with Phoenix’s family, which is not participating in the film’s festival screenings. For more on this and the complexities of the rights issue, read the Deadine article.

Phoenix will likely be on people’s minds this April when “The Company You Keep” is released. Robert Redford’s drama about the fates of members of the radical anti-Vietnam War agitators of the 1969-73 Weather Underground, who have evaded arrest and changed their identities, will invoke memories of Sidney Lumet’s 1988 “Running on Empty.” Phoenix was Oscar-nominated for his poignant portrayal in that film of the talented pianist son of a fugitive Weathermen couple (Christine Lahti, Judd Hirsch) who wants to stop running and live a normal life with his girlfriend (Martha Plimpton).

The most iconic of his subsequent performances was that of Mike, the gay hustler who suffers from narcolepsy in Gus Van Sant’s “My Own Private Idaho” (1991). In 1993, while Phoenix was still alive, I interviewed Van Sant about his career up to that point for the Faber and Faber book devoted to the screenplays of  “My Own Private Idaho” and “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.” In describing the filming of the improvised fireside scene with Keanu Reeves, who played Scott, Mike’s best friend, Van Sant offered some precious insight into Phoenix’s process as an intuitive actor:

“It was a short, three-page scene that River turned into more like an eight-page scene,” Van Sant said. “He added a lot of things and changed the fabric of his character in that scene. He’s a songwriter and he worked on it like he does one of his songs, which is very furiously. He had decided that that scene was his character’s main scene and, with Keanu’s permission, he wrote it out to say something that it wasn’t already saying – that his character, Mike, has a crush on Scott and is unable to express it – which wasn’t in the script at all. It was his explanation of his character.” 

Watch the “Dark Blood” trailer:

Once again, ARTINFO has sent its intrepid staff into the streets of New York, charged with reviewing the art they saw in a single (sometimes run-on) sentence. (To see our One-Line Reviews as an illustrated slideshow, click here.)

Alighiero Boetti, “La Forza del Centro” at Gladstone Gallery, 515 West 24th Street, through March 23

The thrill of looking at Boetti's jewel-tone embroidered grids comes from spotting the irregularities — an oddly-shaped letter here, a stretched block of color there — that remind us of the many Afghan women who actually wove them, deftly enabling the Italian artist to remove himself from production and still retain a human touch. — Julia Halperin

Sabine Hornig, “Transparent Things” at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, 521 West 21st Street, through February 23

Like updates of Atget and Man Ray’s classic storefront window photography combined with Bill Bollinger-esque sculptures, Hornig’s photos — some conventionally framed, others printed on polyester and stretched onto freestanding structures made of rudimentary construction materials — blur boundaries between interiors, exteriors, reflections, and actual architectural space, eloquently articulating brick-and-mortar stores’ dissolution into hyperspace. — Benjamin Sutton

Julia Mandle and Gayle Wells Mandle at Leila Heller Gallery, 568 West 25th Street, through February 16

Despite its ironic link to some of the richest plutocrats in the world, this mother-daughter duo (the wife and daughter of former director of and current consultant to the Qatari Museums Authority, Roger Mandle) tackles the overwhelming oppressiveness of inequality by powerfully juxtaposing jumbles of burned chairs with giant, regal thrones using a variety of media. — Shane Ferro

Tom Molloy, “Issue” at Flag Art Foundation, 545 West 25th Street, 9th floor, through May 18

Irish artist Tom Molloy moves between photography and pencil-on-paper drawings to present intentionally incomplete historical anecdotes, playing with ideas of transparency, omission, and chance; the works are strong enough to stand without context, but are infinitely more complex and interesting when Molloy's process and the works' backgrounds are revealed. — Sara Roffino

Trevor Paglen at Metro Pictures, 519 West 24th Street, through March 9

Though not all of the works from last year’s “The Last Pictures” — in which the artist had 200 photos micro-etched onto an archival disc, which was later launched into space aboard a communications satellite — are on view in this exhibition, the key works featured here of astro-images and prints of hidden security outposts and surveillance drones, along with some 182 outtakes spanning moments in 20th-century history, video footage from the satellite feed, and selected notes from earlier research, provide an immersive entry into the “unease and uncertainty” of the present that Paglen hoped to capture from a Benjaminian, “angel of history”-inspired perspective — irresistibly propelled backwards into the future within a storm of wreckage from the past, wondering whether, in the improbable event of the disc being found and interpreted by another civilization, it would be seen as progress. — Lori Fredrickson

Suzanne Treister, “HEXEN 2.0” at P.P.O.W., 535 West 22nd Street, 3rd Floor, through February 23

The amount of obsessive research and conspiracy theories that it took to pull this show together is enough to make your head spin, but, surprisingly enough, the presentation of Treister's incredibly detailed and beautifully colored Tarot Deck, and the muted tones of her mirrored book cover prints, are soothing and make the experience of getting lost in the disturbing subject matter pleasurable. — Alanna Martinez

Were Joe Lovano to play only tenor saxophone and perform solely in bands led by other musicians, he’d be an indispensable and original voice on jazz’s landscape. But on his 23 recordings for the Blue Note label, and for several years prior, Lovano, who is now 60, has been both a centered soul grounded in core jazz traditions and a seeker unafraid to explore musical extremes. His breathy, broad, and sometimes dark-toned tenor saxophone sound seems simultaneously comforting and radical. His solos often bear a clarity that is slowly revealed and thus especially rewarding. His connections to other musicians have blended compassion with challenge and spanned styles and ages. With the late drummer Paul Motian, in a trio that spanned 30 years, Lovano (along with guitarist Bill Frisell) grew from mentee to collective partner. At one point several years ago, Lovano was playing duets with the great pianist Hank Jones (their wonderful 2007 duet CD, “Kids,” was recorded live at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s club when Jones was 89). Around that same time, Lovano was also planting the seeds for his current Us Five band, and helping usher bassist Esperanza Spalding, then still in college, toward her fast-rising career.

Us Five, which Lovano brings to Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room on February 22 and 23, is a fascinating quintet that features two drummers, Otis Brown III and Francisco Mela, along with Spalding and pianist James Weidman. It lives out nearly all of Lovano’s manifold inclinations, no easy trick, while maintaining a cohesive sound. (Here’s one of many available YouTube clips that document the group.)

The group’s recent CD, “Cross Culture,” adds guitarist Lionel Loueke into the mix (and bassist Peter Slavov fills in for Spalding on some tracks). Us Five is one of the great small groups of today’s jazz scene that feature mature master players of deep conviction playing alongside younger musicians who know how to simultaneously absorb and feed in a context that resists stasis (the quartets led by saxophonists Wayne Shorter and Charles Lloyd present similar dynamics though sound quite different). All this should come as no surprise. Lovano is just about as complete a musician as one can find on the jazz scene; he embodies what it means to meaningfully soak in the music’s full history without prejudice, and what it’s like to use all that raw information and resonant memory to fuel something new and of substance. Jazz’s aesthetic no longer coagulates around a single dominant idea (if it ever really did); it lives in atomized tribes and disparate discoveries. Lovano is the sort of musician who makes such a reality exciting in a reassuring way.

ARTINFO’s Larry Blumenfeld recently spoke with Lovano about the Us Five band and the new CD.

Us Five, with two drummers, doesn’t seem to adhere to any standard philosophy of small-group jazz. How would you describe the group dynamic?

This group has been on a journey. [The group’s 2009 debut CD] “Folk Art” was all my tunes, and in a way it projected what cross-culture is about, which is the basis of this group. “Bird Songs” [the 2011 follow-up] was the result of us touring together and delving into the music of Charlie Parker, as well as Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Billy Stayhorn. I began bringing in pieces I had recorded with Hank Jones, but exploring them in a new way through this other approach. On one gig, I played “Donna Lee” as a ballad for an encore, and it was the most magical two choruses.

There’s this approach happening in the band — a real tribal feeling. I’m referring to the feeling of playing together and developing rhythms from inside yourself. Harmonies, melodies, counting rhythms, and tracking chord change — that’s all in your head. The tribal element is more about feeling — hitting and playing together, from heart and soul.

For this CD, I brought in a lot of new pieces we hadn’t played at all before so those feelings were all more pronounced.

Using two drummers — Otis Brown III and Francisco Mela — is one key to the band’s approach as is their interaction with bassist Esperanza Spalding. Knowing that you’ve played drums yourself since childhood, how did that format take shape?

The double drummer is something I’ve been exploring for a long time. This was the first group I’ve put together specifically to explore that as bandleader. The last time I did a presentation like that was when “Flights of Fancy” came out [in 2001]. That had four different trios within it. I played a gig at the Village Vanguard, and I had Idris Muhammad and Joey Baron on the date. That double drummer configuration at the Vanguard was really the spark for this group.

After that presentation at Vanguard, the idea was there unconsciously for me. And that was right around the time I met Esperanza and Francisco Mela. I was teaching, and Esperanza was jut 19. Right from the beginning, playing with her, I heard and felt someone who was taking her bass line apart and exploring. She wasn’t just playing the bass. She had melodies going, and there were little things about her playing that I could hear as possibilities right away. There was certain clarity. I started playing trios with her and Mela. I met Otis Brown in 1999 at a workshop in Aspen, and I called him for my nonet. He had an earthy swinging feeling that I loved, and we also played in some quartets. Meanwhile, I had this trio thing going with Mela. I dug them both. So I thought, “This is it: I’m going to put them together. I’ve got my two drummers.” And it all had context. They’re both into the history and they’re different. And Esperanza can maneuver between these two drummers in fabulous ways.

When I had played the Vangaurd with Joey and Idris, we just played and things happened. It was totally organic. With Us Five, in the beginning I said a few things: break down in to different subgroups — quartet and trio and duets; pay close attention so you can leave the right spaces in the music. Now I don’t need to say those sorts of things.

This album pays overt tribute to your longtime partner, drummer Paul Motian. Your ideas about drumming and about leaving space in the music must owe some to him, right?

Even before I met Paul, before I got to play with him, I was into the way he’d play with Bill Evans. I heard the Keith Jarrett Quartet with Paul. That’s the world I was looking for, that sense of playing together, that open sense of freedom within structures. Joining Paul and Bill [Frisell] in 1981 was amazing. I was in my late 20s. Paul had just turned 50.

Touring the world with him, I developed a way of playing with honesty and freedom, learning to create these structures within songs. I learned what it means to sustain a mood, to live in that mood, and to let my expression build from night to night. On this new record, “PM” is of course for Paul. I was trying to put a piece together from beginning to end that covered a wide spectrum of feelings, from bright and brisk tempo to medium groove, from ballad feeling to blues. It has funky moments, swinging passages. I wasn’t trying to just cover all of that but to create each of these moods, just like Paul did. “Journey Within” is another one written for Paul.

With this CD, you introduce a new wrinkle to the group’s texture by adding guitarist Lionel Loueke. How has he affected you?

When I first encountered Lionel Loueke in Boston, I played with him a couple times with Herbie Hancock. I’ve played with some of the most natural and original guitarists — Frisell and [John] Scofield and [John] Abercrombie. I feel like Lionel has a natural and personal approach to guitar just like those cats did but in his own way. We had no rehearsals. I sent him some music and talked to him. The way Lionel punctuates the rhythm; he’s really in tune with what’s going on. It’s not just the sound. It’s his punctuation of the sound. It’s just like writing or speaking, it’s not just what he says with his instrument but where he says it and what his emphasis is, how it relates to the conversation, how he fits into the tribe.

Christie’s and Sotheby’s were nearly neck and neck this month with their dueling contemporary-postwar and Impressionist-modern art sales in London. Christie’s pulled ahead when it came to newer work, bringing in $128 million to Sotheby’s $116 million at the contemporary auctions, and it stole the show overall thanks to its $213 million Impressionist and modern sale, while Sotheby's did a smaller, but still hefty $191 million.

As is often the case, a few banner paintings were responsible for boosting these totals into the stratosphere. Who were the top earners? Some names aren’t hard to guess: Picasso ranked in at number one while Richter and Monet both have double billings. See the full list in this slideshow.

To see the 10 top lots from London's winter auctions, click on the slideshow.

Roy Lichtenstein is one those artists so iconic for his signature style — the radical use of comic strips’ iconography and Ben-Day dots that made him a leading figure of Pop Art— that his fuller artist’s trajectory and larger body of work often go overlooked. But a recent Tate Modern retrospective demonstrates how much more there is to the great American artist than his luscious cartoon heroines and fighter pilots. The landmark exhibition (on view through May 27), with 125 pieces spanning Lichtenstein’s entire career, is full of surprises, ranging from his early European pastiches, to his black and white still-lifes, to Art Deco brass sculptures, all of which expand on prevailing understanding of the artist’s oeuvre. For a better understanding of how they fit into Lichtenstein’s career, ARTINFO UK asked Tate’s assistant curator Iria Candela to comment on seven key pieces from the show.

For images accompanied by explanations from assistant curator Candela, click on the slideshow.

Roy Lichtenstein, Washington Crossing the Delaware I, c. 1951

This sums up what Lichtenstein was doing in the 1940s and 1950s. When he entered art school, he started to search for his own vocabulary by looking at the European art tradition; he was painting European subjects in that “obscurist” style. “Washington Crossing the Delaware” captures a shift in subject matter: Lichtenstein soon moved on to the American tradition, and particularly to American history painting. We put this piece in the show because it began the ongoing dialogue the artist had with masters of paintings, a dialogue which is explored in the room “Art about Art.”

Roy Lichtenstein, Look Mickey, 1961


“Look Mickey” is considered to be Lichtenstein’s first Pop painting. He did it in 1961, and that painting would set the course of his career. It was his breakthrough: the artist identified a new vocabulary to develop thanks to the inspiration he found in a cartoon in a little book his son had at home.

Roy Lichtenstein, Magnifying Glass, 1963


This painting illustrates Lichtenstein’s use of the Ben-Day dots as a basic element in his compositions. When he started to develop his style, he was looking at subject matter taken from comic books and advertisements, but he also looked at the way these images were produced with the very basic means painting machines allowed. It meant using outlines to draw the composition, a basic palette — and of course the Ben-Day dots, which were introduced tThe Lichtenstein You Don't Know: 7 Works and the Stories Behind Themo create a sense of three-dimensionality. In “Magnifying Glass,” he’s making these Ben-Day dots the subject of the painting itself. We can also see this work as a symbol of Pop Art’s play with scale.

Roy Lichtenstein, Modern Sculpture with Velvet Rope, 1968 


This is a very beautiful example of a series of works that Lichtenstein developed around the Art Deco style. Art Deco reminded him of his childhood. He was born and bred in New York City, and this style in design and architecture was very much in vogue at the time. It could be found in places such as the Radio City Music Hall, or the Chrysler Building— and all in the movie theaters. Here Lichtenstein is playing with this style in a very free manner. He’s basically improvising new forms for these sculptures. We see them as pure exercises on style.

Roy Lichtenstein, Nude with Bust, 1995 


This is a painting that relates to a late moment in Lichtenstein’s career, right before he died in 1997. What’s fascinating in this painting is that he’s not painting from live models, but rather he’s going back to his comic book clippings from the 1960s. He undresses the heroines to create these images. This particular painting also illustrates a sophisticated development of his technique. Rather than conjuring up an idea of volume, the Ben-Day dots do quite the opposite: the figure and the background blend. It creates a very special sense of space.

Roy Lichtenstein, Landscape with Boat, 1996 


The Lichtenstein You Don't Know: 7 Works and the Stories Behind ThemHere the artist is not simply looking back to the history of painting — in this case the Chinese tradition of the Song Dynasty— he appropriates it to make his own composition. This painting is first a landscape: you can see a little boat in the corner where two men are trying to find their way. It’s very moving because of the disproportionate scale between the sea and the figure. On the other hand, this image is really quite abstract, the shapes dramatically flowing around the space. It is a great ending to the show because it summarizes many of the issues that interested Lichtenstein throughout his career, particularly this tension between the figurative and the abstract.

As London Fashion Week wraps up its five-day run, here's a video look at some of the runway highlights and designer interviews: 

Tom Ford: The American designer makes his London Fashion Week debut with a "multi-ethnic" fall 2013 collection.

Christopher Kane: The Scottish designer puts on a greatest-hits collection for celebrities galore.

Burberry Prorsum: The designer Christopher Bailey gives the classic trench coat some TLC.

Meadham Kirchhoff: The design duo presents their Helter Skelter show at London Fashion Week.

Haizhen Wang: Gothic churches inspire the Chinese-born designer's new fall collection.

Issa: Designer Daniella Helayel, known for the iconic dress worn by Britain's Kate Middleton, unveils her new collection.

Christian Wijnants:The designer wins International Woolmark Prize during London Fashion Week.

LOS ANGELES – The most talked about entertainment event of the year is just days away and as the industry’s top names prepare for the 85th Academy Awards, Wolfgang Puck is doing his part to get ready for the festivities.

For the 19th year in a row, the famed celebrity chef is whipping up the decadent menu at the Governors Ball — the official after party for the Oscars — and guests who are lucky enough to snag an invite to the lavish soiree will have the opportunity to indulge in a copious assortment of the best food and spirits Los Angeles has to offer.

As the 1,500 attendees — which include nominees, winners, and Tinsel Town insiders — make their way to the Dolby Ballroom in Hollywood after the three-hour awards ceremony, they will be greeted with trays of spicy tuna tartare, mini Kobe burgers with aged Cheddar cheese, vegetable spring rolls, smoked salmon shaped like Oscars with dill crème fraiche and caviar, shrimp fritters, spicy coconut steak tartare, and Parmesan toast sandwich duck wonton.

In addition to the hors d’oeuvres that will be passed around throughout the night, there will be a sushi and shellfish station as well as cocktail platters of truffle and Parmesan grissini, black truffle aioli dip, winter fruit “caprese,” bacon wrapped dates, and rosemary spiced nuts.

The star‑studded crowd will also feast on small cold plates of Japanese baby peach salad, Chinese mustard dressing kale salad, and grilled artichoke with lemon vinaigrette.

For main courses, the Austrian born chef who bodaciously rose to prominence with his culinary refulgence and restaurants Spago and Cut, will serve black truffles chestnut tortellini, Snake River Farms New York Steak, Thai spice 
truffle macaroni and cheese, lobster with black bean sauce, and lentils with cauliflower and baby vegetables.

Finally, desserts such as baked to order chocolate soufflé cakes, shaved espresso ice, and
 chocolate Crème Brulée with raspberries will be on hand.

According to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, it will take 2,100 hours to prepare and set up for an event of this magnitude. And Wolfgang has enlisted 350 culinary staff to assist him in the kitchen and 950 employees to ensure the guests’ needs are met.

The Academy Awards will air this Sunday, February 24, on ABC.

On their new album, “You’re Nothing” (Matador Records), Iceage – the primary reason American music fans are even aware of Copenhagen’s burgeoning punk scene – prove they’re a band with staying power. The group of four friends, Elias Bender Rønnenfelt (vocals/guitar), Johan Wieth (guitar), Jakob Tvilling Pless (bass), and Dan Kjær Nielsen (drums), rose to blogosphere prominence with their thrilling 2011 debut, “New Brigade,” a record that was ravenously lapped up by audiophiles eager for anything approaching the unrehearsed fury and anarchic energy of early punk rock. Two years later they’ve produced a record that feels just as vital and alive as the band’s earlier work, but also indicates a blossoming musical maturity.

Second albums are tricky things, especially when bands get caught up in the expectations that come with early acclaim. Countless groups have been done in by misguided attempts to fill out their sound or force a more “mature” aesthetic, often resulting in a loss of what made them stand out in the first place. This is not the case with “You’re Nothing,” which features a band just as energetic as before but with a notably expanded musical palette – one less concerned with the punk influences that drove things the first time around. “It’s broader now than it was two years ago,” said Wieth in a recent interview with ARTINFO. “We had some boundaries that were crushed. There are less rules, I think, in making music.”

They continue to find success, it seems, because they ignore the hype that surrounds them. “I don’t think we reacted much to pressure from the outside,” said Nielsen. A sentiment as confident as that, one echoed by each of Nielsen’s bandmates, is what one might expect to hear from a group of kids who’ve already put out two critically-acclaimed albums before they’ve reached their mid-20s.

“We did the best we could and it came out perfect for us, I think,” said Wieth. Their assuredness in their work helped them decide which label to go with for this record. “I think with Matador, or what we hope, they don’t see potential, they just see what is there,” the guitarist said later.

With 12 songs coming in (in true punk tradition) just short of a half-hour, the band doesn’t turn their backs on the abrasive scrawl of their earliest material. Instead they seem to have learned to control it, pushing it in new emotional directions. Youthful nihilism and disgust with society still rule the day on “You’re Nothing,” but other sources of anger and confusion are highlighted, like personal relationships on the first single, “Coalition.” And occasionally, as on album standout “Morals,” they slow things down and employ a piano, an instrument that doesn’t exactly scream punk. It’s a testament to the quartet’s skill and fearlessness that it feels so right. “I don’t think too much about what we are,” said Rønnenfelt. “We just try to make what comes natural.”

The change doesn’t just come through on the new record – it’s also clear in Iceage’s live set. When they first played New York two summers ago, the band seemed timid at times, only offering glimpses of what caused sweating masses of fans to pack into cramped venues like Brooklyn’s 285 Kent. On their most recent trip through town, though, it was a decidedly different story. A few weeks ago during a show at Home Sweet Home, a bar on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the band seemed confident (or perhaps aloof) and unphased by the cool kid crowd that filled the space. The passive audience could barely muster a sway during the first few songs, but Rønnenfelt (who seemed unable to resist hanging from a pipe that runs across the ceiling) was undeterred, tearing through number after number with focus, full command, and aggressive force.

“We’ve always been pretty shaky with our live performance,” he said. “Some nights we don’t play together. We’re not all there. We sound like shit. Some days we are extremely great. I think the really shitty shows are getting fewer.”

“Two years ago,” Wieth added, “we wouldn’t be in control [if] the night was going… really shitty. I think now we are more in control.”

It’s easy to assume, based on interviews or live shows, that Iceage doesn’t fully appreciate the success they’ve attained at such a young age. This may or may not be true, but they definitely don’t take it for granted either, and the strides they’ve made these past two years prove that. As dour and disaffected as they may seem on stage, they are having fun and there is clear passion in their songs. “We want people to come to our shows and listen to our music,” said Rønnenfelt. “We didn’t start this band to hide from anything.”

If and when that feeling fades, we’ll all know. “If the reason changes, if it changes from us doing it because we love doing it with each other, to doing it out of necessity, there’s just no point anymore,” said Wieth.

Until then, let’s just be glad that there’s at least one punk band out there that still matters.

TOKYO – When Singaporean photographer Leslie Kee’s first gallery show opened in Tokyo in November 2011, it felt like the culmination of his many years spent working professionally in Japan. Having built a reputation for commercial fashion work, the exhibition of his series “Forever Young” at Hiromi Yoshii Gallery fulfilled his dream of also showcasing personal expression. Much like many of his commercial images, the series features glossy shots of male nudes — but unlike his fashion work, the images are left un-retouched, and capture more explicit full-frontal shots of men sometimes sporting erections.

The other week, his second exhibition of works from the series, titled “Uncensored Edition” and held at the same gallery, presented a different kind of first for him when he was arrested and thrown in jail on charges of obscenity for selling copies of his “Super” series of artbooks featuring similar images. Since then, he’s earned a combination of notoriety and heroism.

The boundaries of art and pornography in Japan have been tested before: In 2003, a Tokyo High Court banned the sale of a monograph of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work published by Takashi Asai on charges of indecency. (This was overturned in 2008 by Japan’s Supreme Court, with Justice Kohei Nasu stating that the photos were from an “artistic point of view” and by “a leading figure in contemporary art.”) And only last month, the line between pornography and art again made headlines when an image of Tomomi Kasai, a member of Japan’s popular pop group AKB48, appeared in various media picturing the artist unclothed with an underage boy cupping her breasts, as a prelude to a forthcoming photo book. (The book has since been pulled) by its publisher.

But Leslie Kee’s arrest proves that this conflicted issue likely won’t be disappearing any time soon. BLOUIN ARTINFO Japan sat down with him after his release from jail to hear more about his side of the story.

How do you feel right now?

It’s been like going and coming back from the Twilight Zone, or watching a strange movie without understanding what’s going on. But it was a bad experience that also came with a blessing in disguise.

What exactly happened?

I was arrested at 1:04 p.m. last Monday while I was shooting for a big cosmetics brand's 50th anniversary images. I had photographed two girls and while I was waiting for the third to have her make-up done, the police arrived, and immediately arrested me and drove me to the station. There, they questioned me for ten hours, usually the same few questions again and again.

I told them truthfully that most of the answers could be found on my Facebook and Twitter account. I’m always open [about my work] and love sharing it and my exhibition events with the world. I’m probably one of the rare photographers in Japan who enjoys sharing everything I like. I felt hurt and very insulted about this sudden and ridiculous arrest. And I’m sad that my works are being classified as obscene at the moment to the public. This would not happen in America or Europe at all. 

What were you actually charged with?

I was charged with my male nudes being called "waisetsu" – obscene. For displaying them in my second “Forever Young” exhibition in the Hiromi Yoshii Gallery in Roppongi, and for selling the uncensored copies of my “Super” series art photobooks. The show was supposed to run until March 6th, and contained 50 of my latest full frontal nudes, in large frames, which were shot in New York, Paris and Japan.

I was handcuffed and locked in a cell by myself for two nights. It felt like hell, with no windows. I was cleaning the floor, wearing a numbered sweater and slippers, being called by my number just like a prisoner in a movie. I requested a lawyer. I had exhibited my male nudes in an official art gallery, and had been assured it was fine. I was not upset at my curator, who loves my works, and who didn’t realize that it was against the law.

Why were you not arrested at the exhibition itself?

Actually, during my interrogation, I realized that I’d seen the police officer many times before. He had actually been attending and following all my photo exhibitions for almost a year, starting in 2012! How scary to realize that I have been secretly under surveillance for such a long time.

After the first “Forever Young exhibition,” in November 2011, [the officer] had said, “we received one complaint from someone.” He laughed, “You’re too famous,” but in a way that made it clear that he was being serious. “Maybe someone’s jealous of you, and your fame. You’ve been constantly in the limelight and are close friends with all these celebrities and artists.” After hearing this, I wished that the police could have just given me a warning earlier during my other exhibitions.

How do you feel about the reaction?

I was shocked when I was locked up. However, when I was released after 48 hours, I was even more surprised and touched to know that thousands of people around the world, including famous Japanese artists like Ayumi Hamasaki, Norika Fujiwara, Masataka Matsutoya, Ai Tominaga, Miyavi, Kazuaki Kiriya, Keita Maruyama, had actually written on their Twitter and blogs, fighting for me and expressing their love and support. 

In the art and photography industry in Japan, as well as around the world, people were calling me a hero. People came straight up to me on the street and asked me for signature or to shake my hand. I am still speechless and so grateful towards my fans, friends and artists who believe in my works.

You’ve been in Japan nearly 20 years, do you still feel ostracized?

I always try to showcase works that most Japanese creators might not even try. By doing unusual projects, I am able to show them that they can do it too in Japan. When you’re a foreigner there is always doubt: “Are you the real deal, are you truthful, are you sincere?” After working as a photographer for 15 years in New York and Japan, I can still somehow feel that [more] in Japan. The Japanese have a lot of responsibilities, and most of them prioritize making sure that they don’t lose their jobs over making daring decisions. The value of human identity is different compared to that in America and Europe.

What gives you the strength to be daring?

One of my strongest inspirations comes from singer Yumi Matsutoya. For more than 40 years, Yumi has never stopped expressing love for nature and people, and pride and respect through her music.

I was once told by a fashion stylist that one man’s power can be stronger than a commercial company. Great photographers and artists like Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol, and Helmut Newton have proven that in their generations. That made me realize that even when I was collaborating with big international fashion brands like Tiffany or Armani Exchange, I should stay true to my vision to bring new 

surprises to the collaboration, [even if it meant] breaking company policy. This is what I call “my revolution!”

I always believe that my art will eventually touch the hearts of the right people. It does not matter how many copies of my books are sold, or if I don’t earn money when holding free exhibitions. As time has passed, I’ve gained new fans and love that gives me courage to keep moving. Look at the master of Japanese photography, Kishin Shinoyama: He is 73 and still keeps on creating amazing works. This is still the beginning of my life as an artist, and all artists have to go through some pain.

But this exhibition was quite a departure from the majority of your work…

“Forever Young – Uncensored Edition” featured all-male nudes. I classify it as art, but more than art to me, it is a self-expression. I appreciate the beauty and strength of a natural man. Most of my commercial and fashion works are retouched — I have never seen an unretouched photo in a beauty campaign. However, for “Forever Young,” I try to keep them un-retouched and uncensored, to express the beauty of truth, rawness and purity. This also creates a balance in my lifework.

Why only male nudes?

Male nudes have never been exhibited to people in Japan, or even in Asia, officially. It’s my signature. Which makes me sad that my signature has become a so-called crime in Japan! My artwork of male nudes attracts all sorts of people, and women especially are appreciating it more recently. Women’s nudity has been much more accepted in Japan over the years. Because of the difference of laws or religion, I do understand the restrictions, but in Japan it’s supposed to be much more developed.

You must have known there was a risk with this exhibition?

It never crossed my mind. When I was asked to show these works officially in the gallery, I was so happy, and thankful to the curator. [The November show] was my first official artwork exhibition, and  most people see me as a fashion and celebrity photographer.

If we compare your art to explicit paintings of nudes, do you accept that photography is more real, while painting can be seen as one stage removed from reality?

I wouldn’t think like that. Man’s body isn’t a secret. Men masturbate, men ejaculate, and these acts are natural, it’s not a hidden secret or shameful act at all. So the debate is between [whether photos are] porn or non-porn. My pictures are strong, shot with good lighting, with good angles, sharp, very structured and posed in every single moment. Even when [a model] masturbates or ejaculates, I give direction to achieve the perfect shot. I’ll make a model do a shot a hundred times to make it perfect, and, like a drawing, I see that as a project and experiment.

Where is the line between porn and art for you?

The simple answer is, who shot it? It’s me, Leslie Kee! That’s good and sincere enough. Am I doing porn? Of course not, that’s too ridiculous to even think about it. It’s like saying Richard Avedon is doing porn when he shoots a naked model? Come on, it’s Avedon!

I cannot answer [with legal technicality] or politically, as I’m not into law or politics.

If a porn photographer is contributing to society in another part of his career, he could be an artist too. Most artists need to be recognized in the art world by a museum or curator.

How did you feel about the recent controversy of the image of AKB48’s Tomomi Kasai, which was deemed by some as child pornography?

It’s like Janet Jackson’s album cover. I think it’s okay. I don’t know the reason they did it, but if the concept and message is for a beautiful reason then it’s okay. If it’s to cause attention, then it creates a misunderstanding because it might mislead a young boy to imagine they should do that to a girl. But it doesn’t make me uncomfortable.

Will you continue with your male nude works?

I’m going to keep doing male nudity worldwide, even if I have to cover it up in Japan. Or I can always take my work elsewhere like New York. I’m really not interested in fighting against the law in Japan.

As a matter of principle, this male nudity project represents a whole artistic journey that I’ve been pursuing for many years. It takes a long time for any photographer to find something that he feels he does well, and with a unique stance. I think that there is no other Asian photographer in the art, fashion, or celebrity industry who does anything similar to what I’m doing now.

I’ll need to spend more time selecting the right people, choosing the right timing and location to do any future projects. I want to stay in this city even more to fight for the right to create this art and to show the way for the next generation. My mission is to create hope for the law to change slowly one day. This won’t make me change what I’ve set out to do.

To see images of the artist's work, click on the slideshow.

To see "Super Tokyo by Leslie Kee," a previous exhibition by the artist at Omotesando Hills in May 2010, watch the video below:

BEIJING — Discussing his piece “Beads” (2012), one of several works that will be on view at the exhibition “Lateral Edge” at Galerie Urs Meile in Beijing (March 2 through April 29), artist Li Gang says: “It’s about the paths and points of change in our lives that determine where we go and what we become.”

Which is something that the 26-year-old painter/photographer/sculptor knows well about. In 2008, Li arrived in Beijing with just 6,000RMB ($960) in his pocket; by the end of the week, he was living in a dingy underground room with just 40RMB ($6.50) to spare. Just in time, he met noted Chinese art photographer He Yunchang (also known as A Chang). “He told me I needed a job, and asked me to work in his studio,” Li explains. Working for the photographer in Caochangdi, Li rented a closet-sized space round the corner in which to create his own work. But, “nobody wanted to show my art,” Li says. “Even the galleries with bad shows in 798 [Beijing art district], they didn’t want me.” After having saved enough money, he left the job to study at the Central Academy of Fine Art.

But then, a year later, gallery owner Urs Meile paid a visit to He Yunchang and spotted one of Li’s works hanging in the photographer’s personal collection. He asked to meet with the artist; and just a few days later, Li was preparing for his first-ever solo exhibition at Meil’s Lucerne branch.

Preparing now for his second solo exhibition, the floor inside the Caochangdi exhibition space is scattered with cork-colored wooden spheres, some as small as a string of pearls amongst a few larger, beach-ball sized globes. “Beads” took just under a year to complete, and began with the artist’s return to his hometown of Dali in Yunnan Province.
After searching for a specimen of tree that had died naturally, Li ran across a Tiangtang Shu (“Tree of Paradise”) and took it apart, carefully carving the nodes where each branch connected into spheres.

There is something elemental about the wooden spheres, which were left untreated for their natural tactility and lightness, and are cracked and pierced with natural holes. The tiny pinpoints represent moments of transformation, bursts of energy and change that occurred at certain points in time. 

Many of the other pieces on display also make use of links and associations. Li’s own favorite piece in the exhibition, “Ridge” (2012), is an installation made of two stones connected by epoxy, painted using creams and grays. While the initial effect of the piece is something akin to an open circle of bones hung on the wall, Li’s own intention, he says, “was more about the process of connecting two things.”

The artist adds, “Originally I was also thinking of doing it with apples, or with fake human skulls. When I’d made one, and a friend commented it looked like a bone, so I asked ten more people to come over and have a look, and they all agreed. But it wasn’t part of my intention.” The rough edges of the stones and subtly contrasting mottled grays, browns, creams, and soft reds, relate to Li’s ongoing fascination with textural detail. “Using something similar to a black and white palette is about exploring the subtle relationship between colors and shades — it’s not about only the colors in themselves,” he explains.


Other paintings meant to call attention to texture and perception include blown-up sections of works by other artists, what Li terms a “new slant”: “Big Moustache” (2012) is a close-up on a section of a mustache from a Rembrandt painting. “Green Vase” enlarges a section of the handle in a smaller painting of a jug to encompass an entire 71-by-63 inch canvas. On both, oil paint is applied directly to canvases weaved from thick rope, rather than cotton or linen. In contrast to his installation work, however, these fall a bit flat; once you’ve figured out the trick and can envision the wider picture, they seem less mature.

In fact, though Li originally trained as a painter, he believes that breaking free of working purely on canvas is what led him to begin creating more sophisticated work. “The most important thing,” Li says, “is the chain of thoughts your work can instill in others.” By making his own creative connections explicit to others in his work, he hopes that he’ll be continually pushed to create innovative, thoughtful art.

“I don’t want what I tackle to become narrower as I develop as an artist,” he says. “Each time I make a work of art, I want something that can make people look at their relationship with the world around them in a fresh, new way.”