The tools used to create art are just as essential as the art itself. Born from experimentation and a need for a tool that was ideal for the streets, KRINK revolutionized ink. Artists from all over the world regard it for its high quality as much as what it represents to the culture. Continuing the constant need to take it to the next level, KRINK recently expanded to the digital realm with the KRINK app that takes ink into the world of pixels. It all started with some household items, ink, and a need to write.
Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) is proud to announce a new major exhibition by Takashi Murakami, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the Middle East. Murakami – Ego will be on view from February 9 to June 24, 2012 in the Al-Riwaq exhibition hall, located on the grounds of the Museum of Islamic Art on Doha’s Corniche. The exhibition will immerse visitors in a fantasy world conceived by the renowned Japanese artist, capturing the way Murakami channels the ecstasy and anxiety of contemporary culture.
“Qatar Museums Authority is pleased to present the work of renowned Japanese artist Takashi Murakami in Doha, for his first solo exhibition in the Middle East,” said Qatar Museums Authority Chairperson Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. “The exhibition continues to advance QMA’s mission to encourage global cultural dialogue and exchange, as well as launch the 2012 celebration of forty years of diplomatic relations between Qatar and Japan.”
A portrait of the artist as a cartoon, Murakami – Ego will illuminate the role of the artist as a cipher and critic of pop phenomena, as well as a mirror of global networks of consumerism, interpretation, and exchange. The exhibition pays special attention to the diverse strands of contemporary culture and art history that inform and inspire Murakami’s paintings and sculptures, while also highlighting both the joyful and obsessive qualities of his work. The provocative title is drawn from Murakami’s desire to create an exhibition that is “a dialogue with one’s own ego,” reflecting the artist’s struggle to create a private fictional universe in response to a growing information overload.
The exhibition will feature some of the artist’s most celebrated series, including “Kaikai Kiki Lots of Faces” and “Pom and Me,” which will be presented in their entirety for the first time. For this presentation, Murakami has conceived of the exhibition itself as a work of art, creating new modes of display that include sculptural pedestals with digital animation, a circus tent that doubles as an indoor cinema, and a new 100-meter-long painting that wraps around the exhibition space. Most spectacularly, the artist will depict himself as a larger than life inflatable creature, greeting visitors at the entrance of the exhibition, turning the show into a giant self-portrait, in which Murakami appears as a character in his own typically supernatural world.
Murakami – Ego will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with writings and notes by Takashi Murakami, an interview with exhibition curator Massimiliano Gioni, and images from the exhibition.
EGO will be on display from February 9 to June 24, 2012. Al-Riwaq Exhibition Hall, located on the grounds of the Museum of Islamic Art.
Zine Of The Month is super excited about a long time in the works DFWorld ‘zine featuring collaborations from Isaac, Nemel, Jacob Ciocci, Lydia Fong, Ken Kagami and Comic Kid. With a massive page count and tons of screen-printed and full color non-sense DFWorld is strictly Down-For-Whatever and drops a bonkers load to prove it.
"We are very sad to announce that kind of — gallery will be closed until further notice. We have invited some of our friends favourite artists to exhibit in one last group show to celebrate, so in the vain of “A Type Of Show” and “End Of The Role”, we invite you to join us for this epic group show. We are very sad to be leaving here, although we still have delusions of grandeur and still aim for world domination, we hope to have another amazing space very soon! We will not fade into the night!"
'Pennies for the Ferryman' Wednesday 8th, 6pm. The show will run till Sunday the 12th at the regular kind of — gallery times.
Throughout history many musicians, poets and artists have explored death and it’s related themes. Ultimately the questions comes down to ‘What happens next?’
Pennies for the Ferryman aims to explore the inevitable end and subsequent renewal thereafter with a mixed media exhibition displaying a broad range of artists’ interpretation on the mystery of death.
This will be kind of — gallery’s final show in its current state…
