THE AVANT/GARDE DIARIES TAIPEI: A-MIT and Young Artists Dialogue with Asia and the World

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Mercedes-Benz Taiwan is pleased to announce that Taipei will be the first city in Asia to set off the artistic campaign by Mercedes-Benz with AVANT/GARDE DIARIES, a part of a series of festivities that premiered in Berlin earlier last year, and continued on to Copenhagen, Los Angeles, and London. Mercedes-Benz Taiwan has invited superstar A-MIT to be the curator for an exhibition with 8 newly rising artists from Taiwan on the theme of “Voice” as the inspiration. The exhibition will be held at Huashan 1914 Creative Park from November 9-11. A gala event will be held on November 8. As part of the event, the latest concept car by Mercedes-Benz – Mercedes-Benz Concept Style Coupe will make its debut appearance to personify the spirit of avant-garde art.

In 1886, Carl Benz boldly conceived a revolutionary idea and dared to turn it into reality – the world’s very first automobile was the fruition of his ingenuity. His invention marked the end of man’s dependence on animals for movement and transportation. From that point on, innovation, avant-garde attitude and boldness became parts of the Mercedes-Benz DNA. After more than 120 years, as the inventor of automobile, Mercedes-Benz continues to lead the world of cars and writes the vocabulary of innovative automobile for every generation.

In July of 2011, Mercedes-Benz launched AVANT/GARDE DIARIES campaign which was centered on the online interviews by digital platform www.theavantgardediaries.com .

The website combined multimedia interview on opinion leaders in art, music and fashion along with documentaries of event exhibitions to dialogue with the young people of the world and to share innovative and unique vision and trends. By doing so, the website became a new platform of creative ideas.

In July 2011, fashion designer Raf Simons curated the kick-off event in Berlin. Artists such as Peter Saville, Konstantin Grcic and DJ Hell accompanied the festival with art and music. Taking inspiration from Mercedes-Benz A-Class, the festivities continued on. At the Avant/Garde Diaries festivals, which were staged in a variety of the world's major cities, international artists and trendsetters came together under the curatorship of a visionary, to present their view of today's and tomorrow's world and exchange views with experts and the public. In April this year, the festival was held under the curatorship of Mike D, co-founder of hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, at the Geffen Contemporary at the MOCA in Los Angeles. International artists and musicians such as Santigold, Tom Sachs, James Murphy, Ben Jones and Diplo participated in the 17-day event, which attracted more than 30,000 visitors. Following Berlin, Copenhagen, Los Angeles and London, the Avant/Garde Diaries will be launched in Taipei as the first city in Asia to host the event.

AVANT/GARDE DIARIES TAIPEI – A-MIT Dialogue with the World

In 2009, performing artist A-MIT appeared. Carrying her heritage as a relative of the ethnic natives of Taiwan named Puyuma, she overtook the world with her resounding, wild voice. The next year, she swept up six Golden Melody Awards. Her bold, unique personality and original musical style make her a perfect example of the avant-garde spirit – a spirit in perfect tune with the essence of Mercedes-Benz.

Mercedes-Benz has invited A-MIT as the curator for the AVANT/GARDE DIARIES TAIPEI. A-MIT, a change seeker, will work with Isaac Chen as the Creative Director and 8 young Taiwanese artists to define sounds. In this project, she will show to the world and Asia her new self stemming from the wild dynamic in her Puyuman blood. A-MIT blends together a mixture of unlikely elements to demonstrate her interpretation and concepts of sounds.

“Personally I am really looking forward to this exhibition. The event offers a platform for me to perform with my voice and for more Taiwan’s emerging artists to present their talents to the world, to an international stage like the AVANT/GARDE DIARIES. By doing so, the role ‘A-MIT’ becomes more enriched with depth and layers,” said A-MIT.

The innovative ideas, diversification of different performance styles and her Puyuma-origin makes A-MIT the most authentic voice and power that truly represent the genuine character of Taiwan. AVANT/GARDE DIARIES TAIPEI works with Taiwanese talents, to give pop music a makeover, transforming sounds to a concrete experience that moves people. Through this exhibition, the invisible energy will reach beyond space and time, and manifest itself in the tide of arts to dialogue with Asia and the world from the perspective of Taiwan’s emerging contemporary artists.

The works for the exhibition are predominantly installation artworks. Some attempt to visualize the forms of the sound, while others offer new ways to experience the sound. Dynamic device, digital control, smoke, lighting, lasers and other form or formless materials have been used to transform the popular ballads by A-MIT, such as “Weight of Soul“, “Are You Looking At Me?“ and “Fallen“ into installation artworks, injecting a unique experience to A-MIT’s musical consciousness while dialoging with the viewers.

The Premiere of Mercedes-Benz Concept Style Coupe – a Unique Interpretation of Avant-Garde Art

To further add to the excitement of AVANT/GARDE DIARIES TAIPEI, the organizer has shipped in Concept Style Coupe to Taipei especially for the exhibition alongside one of the artworks. A piece of bold experimental art along with the innovative concept car interprets the avant-garde approach and imaginative concept of “moving life”. The Concept Style Coupe is an automobile that combines the streamline design of a two-door sports car with the practicality of a four-door sedan. It is equipped with the M270 engine used in the A-Class. Powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that produces 211 horse power.

Scheduled to series production next year, it is the third model for the New Generation Compact Car series. The audience will have the chance to preview its unique features in person.

About the Curator and participating Artists

A-MIT, the curator of the AVANT/GARDE DIARIES TAIPEIworks with Isaac Chen as the Artistic Director along with 8 of Taiwan’s emerging artists for the event.

Curator: A-MIT
Born in 1972. Ethnically Puyuma, her high pitch, wild voice has fascinated the world. She appeared in 2009 as A-MIT.

Artistic Director: Isaac Chen
Born in Taiwan in 1973. He is executive director of concerts and large ceremonies, lyric writer, song producer, talent manager, film director.

Artist: Chang-Wei Chiu
Born in Taiwan in 1981, his creative works are focused on digital vision and dynamic devices. In his earlier career, most of his works were creations in computer animation and special effects. Recently, he has moved to create installation artworks with physical presence that invokes the cognitive awareness and illusional special effects. Through his works, he hopes to present a human-like organic form that can infiltrate and hide in the reality.

Artist: Wei-Hsiang Wen
Born in Taiwan in 1983, he specializes in visual art and installation artworks of new media. His artworks are focused on the relationship between image, time and space by observing the vibration of changes in the artworks through time and space in order to revisit the daily experiences with the micro-perspectives.

Artist: Chih-Wei Chuang
Born in Taiwan in 1986, his works are mainly installation artworks of light and space which explore the awareness of changes in life and the interaction of human, objects and the environment. In recent years, he has been exploring the possibility of interaction between new media arts and architecture by using high-tech materials as the medium to extend the linkage to the senses and to find the presence that never ceases.

Artist: Ting-Hao Yeh
Born in Taiwan in 1981, he specializes in the installation artwork of sound, vision, and the human-machine interaction. He started with visual art creation, studied computer programming, and constructed the model of coexisting linkage between vision and hearing. Next, he consolidated the technologies in multimedia to record the frequencies of interaction and awareness to find a digital presence for the future.

Artist: Zih Jing Wei
Born in Taiwan in 1983, she specializes in visual art and human-machine interaction. Ink is often used in her works as a way to describe nuances of emotions and imagination. After 2008, her works shifted to development of a series of chemically interactive devices that use chemical light-sensitive coloring agents to create dynamic 3-dimensional images.

Artist: Chin-Chung Din
Born in Taiwan in 1983, Din Chin-Chung specializes in dynamic devices. His works are focused on structures in space, relationship between movement and interaction, such as the diminishing energy in time and space that only leaves traces of marks, and the “repetition“ of media.

Artist: Chun-Kun Wang
Born in Taiwan in 1982, his works are mainly in sound artwork and dynamic devices that seek to express sound with textures in a series of landscapes in sound. His installation artworks with automatic movement and sound have a sense of purity and aesthetic uniqueness.

Artist: Chia-Chi Yeh
Born in Taiwan, he specializes in dynamic devices. With background in architecture, his designs are structure-oriented that find linkage between human behavior and the environment and describe how mechanical ecology has slowly changed human awareness toward architecture and structures.

Further information about the Avant/Garde Dairies can be found in the interview magazine at www.theavantgardediaries.com .

Credits: Daimler AG

Copyright © 2012, mercedesgla. All rights reserved.

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Mercedes-Benz and Mercedes-AMG at the 5th St. Moritz Art Masters - Mercedes-Benz presents Tom Sachs in follow-up to the Avant/Garde Diaries

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For the fifth consecutive time Mercedes-Benz and Mercedes-AMG will support the St. Moritz Art Masters (SAM) with a wide range of activities. The St. Moritz Art Masters will take place from 24 August until 2 September 2012 in St. Moritz and the surrounding Oberengadin region. This year Mercedes-Benz builds on the successful The Avant/Garde Diaries festival series www.theavantgardediaries.com with “Miffy Fountain” by US sculptor Tom Sachs on the “Walk of Art”. Sachs exhibited at the Avant/Garde Diaries festival in Los Angeles in spring. Furthermore the premium automotive manufacturer will enhance the official programme of the St. Moritz Art Masters with a high-calibre artist’s conversation featuring Tom Sachs and Jeffrey Deitch, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, among others.

“In the Avant/Garde Diaries we established a creative platform last year to foster social dialogue on avant-garde ideas and contemporary art in all their forms and manifestations. We want to continue this dialogue now at the St. Moritz Art Masters”, said Anders Sundt Jensen, Head of Brand Communications Mercedes-Benz Cars. The globally held Avant/Garde Diaries festivals are a meeting ground where international artists and trendsetters under the curatorship of a visionary mentor can present their visions of the world of today and tomorrow, and engage with experts and the general public. In late April the festival series stopped at the “The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA” in Los Angeles. Tom Sachs was one of 17 participating artists.

Tom Sachs to exhibit at the St. Moritz Art Masters for the first time

At the St. Moritz Art Masters the New York sculptor will exhibit the monumental “Miffy Fountain” (274.3 x 122 x 122 cm) sculpture. The bronze sculpture coated with white hard foam will be installed in front of Badrutts Palace. Tom Sachs generally works with plywood, hard foam boards, synthetic polymer paint, ironware and found objects, which he regenerates for his purposes. Each work appears unpolished and reflects his exploration of a “Do it yourself” aesthetic. He uses a selection of historic objects, popular consumer products, cultural iconographies and signs: the Raytheon logo, the Apollo 11 lunar lander, the dollar bill and the animated characters “Hello Kitty” and “Miffy”.

As part of the official SAM programme Mercedes-Benz will extend invitations to an artist’s conversation with Tom Sachs in the Posthaus on 1 September. Together with Jeffrey Deitch, Director of the MOCA in Los Angeles, as well as Anders Sundt Jensen, Head of Brand Communications Mercedes-Benz Cars, he will discuss his works and the importance of contemporary art. The traditional Mercedes-Benz Cars Night will take place in Badrutts Palace following the conversation.

Exclusive driving experiences with the performance brand AMG

In addition to art Mercedes-Benz and Mercedes-AMG will be present with various latest-generation vehicles. As in years past the AMG performance brand will offer test drives through the mountain world of the Engadin region that stand under the motto “Driving Performance”. Starting point will be the AMG Lounge in the parking lot of the Hotel Schweizerhof. In addition, comfortable smart ebikes will be on hand for guided art tours for the first time.

Credits: Daimler AG

Copyright © 2012, mercedesgla. All rights reserved.

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London is the next stop for the Avant/Garde Diaries - "MERCEDES DRIVE THRU": food artists Bompas & Parr create a unique dining experience

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Between the 13 and 16 September 2012, the digital interview magazine "The Avant/Garde Diaries" is inviting guests to enjoy an interdisciplinary art and dining experience in London. Lasting several days, the festival is being curated by famous food artists Sam Bompas and Harry Parr. The British duo is designing a temporary, driveable restaurant – the "MERCEDES DRIVE THRU" – in the lobby of the old Selfridge Hotel in Oxford Street (Mayfair). Together with the British multimedia collective the Jason Bruges Studio, they are presenting a spectacular mix of food and light art designed to turn the enjoyment of dining in a car into an exceptional sensory experience.

"The Avant/Garde Diaries project enables the greatest creative talent of our times to get together. Avant-gardists from the most diverse of areas are able to create new ideas which both inspire and excite at the same time", explains Sam Bompas, co-founder of Bompas & Parr. "Mercedes is a brand with a high standard of quality, and the aesthetics of Mercedes design are a great inspiration for us. We create luxury dining, Mercedes produces luxury cars – working together to create the world's best "drive thru" is therefore an obvious idea for what will be a remarkable feat of cooperation."

 In the "MERCEDES DRIVE THRU", guests can drive through the building in the car and can place their order – accompanied by a spectacular light show – after which their meal will be served direct to the car by roller-blading service staff wearing special uniforms. Through the interaction of food, light and the unique design of the restaurant, the driver is offered a new, interactive and unforgettable dining experience. The "MERCEDES DRIVE THRU" is therefore looking to re-explore the environment of the motor car on a performance, experimental and sensory level, and at the same time indulge guests with exquisite and provocative specialities. "The menu and the entire design of the Drive Thru have been inspired by all of the physical and psychological dimensions of the motor car", according to Sam Bompas.

Setting the artistic stage for the new A-Class

A particular highlight in the restaurant will be the artistic staging of the new A-Class, which is being launched onto the market on 15 September 2012. With an installation comprising constantly moving sources of light, Bompas & Parr and the interaction designers of the Jason Bruges Studio will be showing off the dynamic design of the new compact Mercedes sports model to impressive effect.

"With its highly-emotional and progressive design, the new A-Class is all set to bring the trend towards monotony in the compact car segment to an end. This new pulse in the field of mobility is represented to impressive effect by the light performance", according to Anders Sundt Jensen, Head of Brand Communication for Mercedes-Benz Cars. "Visitors will be motivated to discover new things, which is precisely the goal of the Avant/Garde Diaries. In 2011 Mercedes-Benz used the project to establish a creative platform for young target groups to experience and discuss topics relevant to society and our times, such as art, fashion, music, innovations, trends, culture and the motor car. It is all about questioning what exists already and unleashing unimagined synergies."

Avant-garde artists in dialogue with the public

At the Avant/Garde Diaries festivals, which are being staged in a variety of the world's major cities, international avant-garde artists and trendsetters come together under the curatorship of a visionary, to present their view of today's and tomorrow's world and exchange views with experts and the public. In July 2011, fashion designer Raf Simons curated the kick-off event in Berlin. Artists such as Peter Saville, Konstantin Grcic and DJ Hell accompanied the festival on both artistically and musically. This so-called "transmission" series continued in the spring of 2012 under the curatorship of Mike D, co-founder of hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, at The Geffen Contemporary at the MoCA in Los Angeles. International artists and musicians such as Santigold, Tom Sachs, James Murphy, Ben Jones and Diplo participated in the 17-day event, which attracted more than 30,000 visitors.

The basis for the festivals is centred around a digital interview magazine, at www.theavantgardediaries.com, which presents a series of exceptional people and ideas. The focus of the video interviews is to try to gain an insight into the activities and passions of the players through their own eyes. The result of this approach is a compendium of subjective perspectives, which open up novel ways of thinking and tap into sources of inspiration. So far the model Rico the Zombie, skateboarder Kilian Martin, MoCA director Jeffrey Deitch and cliff diver Orlando Duque have been portrayed, for example. Furthermore, the magazine also carries extensive reports on the festivals taking place throughout the world.

The curators and artists of the Avant/Garde Diaries in London

Sam Bompas and Harry Parr are two British food artists who have known each other since childhood. Together in 2007 they founded the "Jellymongers" collective, which has since grown into a ten-man team. Chefs, specialist technicians and architects are also part of the team, as are graphic designers and event managers. Together they experiment, develop and produce new projects, works of art, exhibitions and "jellies". In addition to projects which they produce and present themselves, Bompas & Parr also bring together different specialists to cooperate with curators, cultural experts and scientists.

Their creations are constantly building bridges between art, performance and gourmet food. Through their limitless creativity, the "Jellymongers" have built up an outstanding profile which will lend "THE AVANT/GARDE DIARIES LONDON – MERCEDES DRIVE THRU" event a very special quality.

The focus of the Jason Bruges Studio lies in the creation of interactive, digital spaces which both inspire and excite. The light installations in particular are created with a great deal of ingenuity and exceptional materials and technologies. The goal of the interactive works of art is to explore the interaction between the public and objects. The projects of the Jason Bruges Studio relate perfectly to their respective environments, and are implemented with minimal ecological impact. In addition, the Studio is continually improving the development of sustainable art and design within the context of environmental sciences and technological innovations.

Opening hours of the Mercedes Drive Thru:
Friday, September 14th: 12:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 15th: 12:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Sunday, September 16th: 12:00 p.m. – 06:00 p.m.

For more information on ticket pre-sale and table reservation, please visit www.theavantgardediaries.com .

Credits: Daimler AG

Copyright © 2012, mercedesgla. All rights reserved.

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Avant/Garde Diaries Festival in Los Angeles - Transmission LA: AV CLUB curated by Mike D

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Yesterday evening, the multi-disciplinary Avant/Garde Diaries festival “Transmission LA: AV CLUB curated by Mike D”, from 20th April to 6th May 2012, opened at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Los Angeles. Until 6th May, Mike D of Beastie Boys presents the event as official curator, which features a mixture of contemporary art, design, music, film and food. The artists include Peter Coffin, Jim Drain, Will Fowler, Benjamin Jones, Mike Mills, Takeshi Murata and Tom Sachs among others as well as an outdoor pop-up restaurant from Chef Roy Choi and interactive coffee bar designed by Robert McKinley. A special highlight is the artistically staged world premiere of the Mercedes-Benz Concept Style Coupé. It offers a glimpse of the all-new midsize four-door luxury coupé scheduled for market launch next year. Entry to the festival is free of charge.


With different exhibitions, concerts, DJ nights, performances and installations, the festival illustrates, in keeping with the title “AV CLUB”,how audio and visual art forms can inspire each another and unleash unimagined synergies. The Mercedes-Benz Concept Style Coupé, too, will be staged in an installation. "What you are seeing is: The Mercedes-Benz A.K.A Benzo Concept Style Coupé, will be bathed not unlike a young infant in an installation of light and sound. We were inspired by our visit to the Design Center and to Mercedes-Benz’s climate tunnel. We have used the car to create an installation that uses light triggered by sound to startling effect translating the car’s dynamics into real movement,” said curator Mike D of Beastie Boys.

The four-door coupé is set in front of a large, matte mirror wall and is illuminated from above by LED panels arranged at a 30-degree angle to accentuate the distinctive, powerfully taut side lines. The LED lights react to a soundtrack that Ad Rock from Beastie Boys produced specifically for the installation. The light reflections, which adjust in line with the music, symbolise the vehicle’s unique aerodynamics. Furthermore, four large beams of light incorporate the visitors into the scene creating an interactive experience.

“This impressive staging emphasizes the exceptionally avant-garde design of the Concept Style Coupé. This vehicle is a style rebel that sets new benchmarks for midsize sports coupés,” said Gorden Wagener, Head of Mercedes-Benz Design.

The Avant/Garde Diaries

“Transmission LA: AV CLUB curated by Mike D” is the sequel to the series of festivals created by Mercedes-Benz that premiered in Berlin last summer with curator and fashion designer Raf Simons. “As time and products change, our brand and the way it is presented changes, too,”
said Anders Sundt Jensen, Vice President Brand Communications Mercedes-Benz Cars. “With the Avant/Garde Diaries we have established a creative platform to present social and contemporary issues and to question the status quo. At Mercedes-Benz, curiosity and the joy of breaking through existing barriers have always been drivers for innovation and progress.”

In the Avant/Garde Diaries festivals, international artists and trend-setters meet under the curatorship of a visionary pioneer in order to present their view of the world of today and their vision of the world of tomorrow, and to exchange views about these with experts and the public. The basis for this is the digital interview magazine that presents exceptional people, as well as style-forming and pioneering ideas, at www.theavantgardediaries.com . In addition, the magazine reports extensively on the festivals taking place in several major cities around the world.

Opening hours of “Transmission LA: AV CLUB”
Sunday: 11 am to 6 pm
Monday: noon to 6 pm
Tuesday: closed
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: noon to 10 pm
Saturday: 11 am to 10 pm

“Transmission LA: AV CLUB”presenting
art, design, music, film and food: 

International reknown artists and musicians
bring acoustic and visual art together

The artists participating in the “Transmission LA: AV CLUB” festival were selected by curator Mike D, a musician, artist, producer and founding member of The Beastie Boys. He lives and works in New York City and Los Angeles. The Beastie Boys had one of the richest, most important careers in hip-hop and rock, introducing rap to a huge new audience and then pushing the frontiers of what a hip-hop group could do. In April 2012 the Beastie Boys received their merited spot at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and can without a doubt be called one of the most important and avant-garde music groups of all times. Mike D is a creative mastermind in many different artistic fields and has an enormous impact on global pop culture. His vision and his network of outstanding people make him one of the most inspiring icons of post-modern society.

The Artists Mike D chose are:

Cory Arcangel
He creates work in many different media, including drawing, music, video, performance, and video game modifications, for which he is perhaps best known. Arcangel’s work has appeared in many museum exhibitions, including a solo exhibition at the Migros Museum in Zurich, Switzerland, and exhibitions at the Barbican Centre in London, England and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Illinois. Arcangel often uses the artistic strategy of appropriation, creatively re-using existing materials such as dancing stands, Photoshop gradients, and YouTube videos to create new works of art.

Mike D: “With Cory Arcangel I like his diversity and complexity. His work explores the relationship between technology and culture.”

Sanford Biggers
A native of Los Angeles and current New York resident, Sanford Biggers uses the study of ethnological objects, popular icons, and the Dadaist tradition to explore cultural and creative syncretism, art history, and politics. An accomplished musician, Biggers often incorporates performative elements into his sculptures and installations, resulting in multilayered works that act as anecdotal vignettes, at once full of wit and clear formal intent. Biggers has won several awards including: The Creative Time Travel Grant, Creative Capital Project Grant, New York Percent for the Arts Commission, Art Matters Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts Award in performance art/multidisciplinary work and others.

Mike D: “Sanford immediately came to mind for this show as his work continues to explore the dialogue and border that exists between music, visual, art, expression, spirituality and the moment. Thankfully he is part of this program.”

Roy Choi
His food truck “Kogi Korean BBQ” has won much recognition, including a Bon Appétit Award in 2009 and “Best New Chef” for Roy Choi by Food & Wine in 2010, the first for a food truck. It was also recognized as one of the Top 5 Food Trucks in the U.S. by gayot.com.

Mike D: “This LA native represents the truly global vision and tastes that can be LA at least in a culinary sense. Roy truly amazes me with his ability to reinvent radically different cuisines presenting them with respect for what they are but completely remixed or reinvented. His work is really analogous to what a hip hop producer or DJ does, chopping up a sample, re-contextualising it, adding beets, maybe a little vocal and on and on. And he makes a hell of a mixed tape.”

Peter Coffin
His work is exhibited internationally and features in several prominent collections. Peter Coffin received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Davis in 1995, subsequently attending Carnegie Mellon University and receiving an MFA in 2000. He is currently collaborating with Al Jaffee inspired by his undergraduate personal encounter with the modern dance choreographer Twyla Tharp. Often using art history as a departure point for his surreal reinventions, Peter Coffin’s work engages with pre-conceptions about cultural ideals to challenge established perception and interpretation.

Mike D: “Peter is a mad man, genius, and physicist/prankster and keeps a sly wit in cold storage for special occasions.”

Will Fowler
His abstract paintings reference early Modernism, can sometimes take years to complete and often feature the same patterns and shapes that appeared in his previous work. At the NY Armory Show at David Kordansky’s gallery in March 2010, Fowler’s works were the objects of desire: Kordansky moved 13 of them in under two hours. MoMA trustee David Teiger even snagged three of them.

Mike D: “I first saw Will’s work at David Kordansky’s booth at the Armory show in New York City. Even amongst this chaos, his methodical yet witty abstract canvases stayed tight, focused and galvanising. I was sucked in immediately. One can keep coming back to his work which, filled with enough depth that repeat views are a must and rewarded.”

Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe
Since 2008 Los Angeles based artists Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe have been collaborating on several projects; among others they showed their installations at Ballroom Marfa, Deitch Projects, Miami Art Basel and Country Club at R.M. Schindler ’s Buck House. With its work the duo manifests a fictional parallel universe – part slide show and lecture, part fashion show, part art installation, part rock’n’roll freakout. In the ever expanding narrative universe of their work they have amassed a variety of fictional products, books, magazines, movies, drugs, characters and places. The broader picture of their ongoing body of work could be seen as a form of “expanded cinema” in which the various elements that go into the construction of a narrative film are exploded into separate autonomous pieces.

Mike D: “Work that plays with perception, with time with place with reality. History is by nature revisionist anyway. Was Zabriske point a place or a movie or both? Are they artists from Red Hook or Laurel Canyon? If they were a record would they be the Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo? I am not sure.”

Benjamin Jones
Besides exhibiting sculptures, paintings and drawings at galleries internationally, Benjamin Jones has designed giant blimps, sneakers and board shorts. He animated music videos for M.I.A. and Beck, staged performances with homemade costumes and produced a plethora of zines, comics and art books – all while tinkering on the website-as-art, paperrad.org, which also hosts a much beloved series of his computer-animated cartoons. Jones has defined an aesthetic both handmade and mass-produced, combining cartoon characters, high energy techno music, meta-graffiti, fantasy worlds and sublime colour fields.

Mike D: “Ben’s work can be silent, in that there can be moving animated images without a sound track, but it can be the loudest thing on the planet. I can truly say that his installation will leave visitors stoked or perhaps nauseous or both.”

David Kramer
He is a co-founder of Family Books a book store at the heart of Los Angeles's thriving art scene. His humorous ramblings tell of an American Dream as Sisyphus’ rock. David Kramer’s work has been exhibited throughout North America, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Pierogi 2000 (Bklyn), Feigen Contemporary (NYC), and RoeblingHall (NYC) as well as various venues in Europe. Kramer’s videos, installations, paintings and drawings satirize his own unrequited and boundless desire for things that offer only temporary fulfilment and diversion from the existential condition – things that are quickly used up and discarded and deemed worthless once in the artist’s possession.

Mike D: “I admire David Kramer for his humour and almost sarcastic approach. I’m looking forward to seeing his contribution to AV CLUB.”

Lauren Mackler / Public Fiction
Lauren Mackler founded Public Fiction in Los Angeles in 2010. The physical space, a storefront in Highland Park, provides a site to experiment with installations, performances and shows on a changing topic. The publication of the same name combines ephemera from these experiments with things that happened outside and around L.A. on the same subject.

Mike D: “Lauren Mackler is an energetic magnet for artistic talent on the East side of L.A. I became aware of her from her publication: Public Fiction. What will go down at the show will go way beyond the publication and will really explore the audio visual realms and realities.”

Robert McKinleyRobert McKinley, principal of Robert McKinley Creative Services (RMCS), and co-owner of GoldBar in New York’s Little Italy and the Surf Lodge in Montauk, New York, has become an industry leader in hospitality design and branding. With a career that began within the fashion houses of Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan, and most notably Giorgio Armani, McKinley’s affinity for sophisticated environments was cemented early on with projects including retail store layouts, event design, concepts, and production, eventually leading to branding events for such high-profile clients as Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, Ermenegildo Zegna, Boucheron and others.

Mike D: “I’ve been working and hanging out with Robert a lot. He has many facades and is a guarantee for surprises!”

Mike Mills
He has created music videos for musical acts as Moby, Yoko Ono and Air. Air named the fifth song on their album “Talkie Walkie” after Mills. He has also worked as a graphic designer on promotional material and album covers for such acts as Beastie Boys, Beck, Sonic Youth, and Ol' Dirty Bastard. In addition Mike Mills has created graphics for X-Girl and Marc Jacobs, and currently produces his own line of posters and fabrics called Humans by Mike Mills.

Mike D: “Mike is a true Renaissance man: a visual artist, a film maker, a graphic designer, a musician and a personal collaborator even. What am I forgetting Mike? And he does it all with such great flare but a lot of heart.”

Takeshi Murata
He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1997 with a B.F.A. in film, video and animation. Takeshi Murata produces extraordinary digital works that refigure the experience of animation. His innovative practice and constantly evolving processes range from intricate computer-aided, hand-drawn animations to exacting manipulations of the flaws, defects and broken code in digital video technology. Whether altering appropriated footage from cinema (B movies, vintage horror films), or creating Rorschach-like fields of seething colour, form and motion, Murata produces astonishing visions that redefine the boundaries between abstraction and recognition.

Mike D: “Takeshi Murata, like Jim Drain and Ara Peterson, was in the show of the Forth Thunder group that shared ideas, visual art, studio space and even a music project.”

Ara Peterson & Jim Drain
Ara Peterson and Jim Drain are Providence-based artists who have been collaborating in different ways over the past ten years. Both are members of the group Forcefield, whose exciting project in the 2002 Whitney Biennial was one of the major events in new art-making today. The geodesic spheres were developed in collaboration with Eamon Brown during a residency at Pittsburgh’s Mattress Factory, one sphere being shown in the Lyon Biennial, 2004, curated by Bob Nikas. Some of the pinwheels were a component of the Wiggin Village installation at the Moore Space in Miami, December 2004, curated by Larry Rinder. A smaller version of the kaleidoscope piece was first shown at Greene Naftali in 2003.

Mike D: “I am psyched to have the pinwheels as a big part of the AV CLUB. This big format, mind altering installation is one of my favourites. AV CLUB will be at 11, Pinwheels will be 15, what?”

Tom Sachs
He is a sculptor, probably he is best known for his elaborate recreations of various modern icons, all of them masterpieces of engineering and design of one kind or another. A lot has been made of the conceptual underpinnings of these sculptures: how Sachs samples capitalist culture, remixing, dubbing and spitting it back out again, so that the results are transformed and transforming. Equally, if not more important, is how he totally embraces “showing his work”. On a practical level this means that all seams, joints, screws – or for that matter anything holding stuff together – such as foam core and plywood, are left exposed. Nothing is erased, sanded away, or rendered invisible. On a more philosophical level this means that nothing Sachs makes is ever finished.

Mike D: “It is with great pleasure that AV CLUB presents Tom Sachs. It is kind of a full circle thing for me because over a decade ago during a hot summer in NYC a small group of us including myself and Tom kept gathering in the evenings at a friend’s shaved ice stand in lower Manhattan trying to cool off from the savage heat. We wanted to listen to music, so Tom started building different boxes so we could listen to dub while we enjoyed the shaved ice, good company and scenery. One of these, the aptly titled Guru (the name of the aforementioned shaved ice stand) is in the show. These contraptions became bigger and more elaborate as the summer went on and eventually Tom built the Behemoth Toyans that you all will see, feel and hear.”

Sage Vaughn
Wildlife and Wildlives make up the world of artist Sage Vaughn. Swarming brightly coloured butterflies along with strangely dressed kids make for some interesting subject matter, and there is definitely a feeling of tension between the natural and unnatural elements in these paintings. He has had widely acclaimed solo shows in New York, L.A., Geneva and London. Sage also helped illustrate a music video for N.A.S.A. called “Way Down”, feat. RZA and John Frusciante.

Mike D: “Sage is a painter that I am a fan of. I am always excited to see new work of his. He has the chops, imagination and the humour.”

Credits: Daimler AG

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