Stefan Häfner

Details of Stefan Häfners Works

The art of Stefan Häfner makes P.P.Queen happy ever after. "Stefan Häfner specializes in visionary architecture which he designs and builds in model form. He designs cities for the future, whole organisms which are built compactly and dense using minimum space. He wanders through his own city - Frankfurt am Main, closely studying the buildings, the high rise modern glass facades of the ever developing Main Metropol, photographing the forms and taking note of the aesthetics, function and social aspects, he takes an interest in the truly modern design. Through precise research he develops his own ideas in his head, rarely making sketches , the concept is not just for the exterior but makes detailed interiors which includes alarm systems, fire extinguishers, heaters, tables, chairs, first aid kits, shops, discos, cinemas, workshops and parking places. Häfner has developed his own building techniques, using strong carton ,which is both light and structurally sound, building level for level, a multifunctional and futuristic utopia."
Häfner is working at
Atelier Goldstein
in Frankfurt, Germany

Julius von Bismarck

©2009 Julius von Bismarck & Benjamin Maus, all rights reserved.
Perpetual storytelling apparatus is a project by Julius von Bismarck & Benjamin Maus.The “Perpetual Storytelling Apparatus” is a drawing machine illustrating a never-ending story by the use of patent drawings.

Copyright Julius von Bismarck
Fulguration of "the Magritte dove" on the Mao Zedong portrait at Tiananmen Square in Beijing

Julius von Bismarck is a Berlin based artist, activist and inventor, for example inventor of THE FULGURATOR a very special camera/projector.

zu Julius von Bismarcks Website

DER NU

Check out -Der Nu- a journal for art and literature. In each issue 3 authors and 3 visual artists are featured.

Still lack of blood

Digital Photography by Petra Kodym 2009

"Window Collage"

Part three of a public art project. Work in progress. Still secret place. Still secret date. Still lack of information. Still lack of blood

Still lack

Digital Photography by Petra Kodym 2009

"Window Collage"

Part two of a public art project. Work in progress. Still secret place. Still secret date. Still lack of information.

Still

Digital Photography by Petra Kodym 2009

"Window Collage"

Part one of a public art project. Work in progress. Secret place. Secret date.

Censorship

Rubin Hirschbeck, POLKA,186X180 cm, oil - cotton, 2008

Rubin Hirschbeck, NACH DER VERLORENEN ZEIT / after the lost time, 180X150cm, oil- cotton, 2008

Another case of Art Censorship and Prohibition has occured in Germany. The Artist Rubin Hirschbeck was not allowed to show some of his works in his current exhibition in Fürth, near Nürnberg. The two works above are among the banned artworks. What a shame in the 21st Century!

Read more about what happened:

• http://rhausstellungen.blogspot.com/2009/01/blog-post.html
• http://rubinhirschbeck.blogspot.com/
• http://andre-debus.blogspot.com/2009/01/kunstzensur-im-stadttheater-in-frth.htm
• http://fuerther-nachrichten.de/artikel.asp?art=958298&kat=50
• http://teriellblog.teriell.de/2009/01/30/im-dschungel-ware-das-nicht-passiert/
• http://www.adrianferrero.com/2008/08/11/art-to-see-rubin-hirschbeck/

Philip Kwame Apagya

Philip Kwame Apagya"White house" (1998)
Chromogenic photograph 94 1/2 X 106 1/4 inches
240 X 270 cm

In 2009 Apagya´s "White House" Photography from 1998 gets a new meaning.

(Unfortunately I haven´t found a larger image.)

The Artist was born in 1958, in Sekondi, Ghana.

After working in his father's photography studio, Apagya received a degree in Photojournalism and opened his own studio, P.K.'s Normal Photo Studio. His portraits of Africans are made in front of painted backgrounds displaying highly commercial and Western scenes.

http://www.jackshainman.com/dynamic/exhibit_artist.asp?ExhibitID=22

http://www.noorderlicht.com/eng/fest00/africa/apagya/

http://www.caacart.com/pigozzi-artist.php?i=Apagya-Philip-Kwame&m=36

http://www.designboom.com/portrait/apagya.html

Sam3

street sculpture by sam3
10/2008 Berlin, Germany

P.P. just loves the nest, a street sculpture by Sam3, a Spanish Street Artist. Sam3 is also doing walls, installations, drawings, videos, editions and his own blog.

To see more gripping works, please visit his website and blog:

http://sam3.es/

http://sam3-security.blogspot.com/

Petra Kodym at gaya

Der Mann, der die Frauen haßte / "The Man who hated Woman", 2008, Petra Kodym, Acrylic, Collage on Canvas, 40 x 30 cm

Exhibition "Zu wenig Blut" by Petra Kodym

Exhibition Opening on Monday, 12th January 2009, 7 pm in Gmunden, Upper Austria, Austria, at the Gallery for Young Art.

Latest works of the young Austrian Artist are shown until 16th February.

http://www.petrakodym.com/

http://www.gaya.at/

Sarah Maple

'I Heart Jihad' by Sarah Maple, Digital Print

'This Artist Blows' by Sarah Maple, Digital Print, 20 x 30 inches

Sarah Maple was born in 1985 and grew up in Sussex, where she lives today. She did her BA in Fine Art at Kingston University and in October 2007. Much of her inspiration originated from her being brought up as a Muslim, with parents of mixed religious and cultural backgrounds. Understandably, issues of identity are of huge interest to her. Maple's work often takes on fabricated scenes and situations and she admits she is affected by the art world, as well as from her general surroundings; including friends, family, television and popular culture. She is also greatly moved by music, comedy and literature. She believes these influences are truly woven into her art, and provide the platform upon which her work is realised. Maple states that the aim of her work is: "to give my audience food for thought. I believe comedy is a great tool to achieve this, which is why I choose to portray my conceptual ideas through a light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek approach".
http://www.sarahmaple.com/

Marion Brandstetter

Marion Brandstetter 2008

The new works of Marion Brandstetter, an Austrian artist (born 1971 in Vienna, Austria) who made her bachelor of arts in 1996 at the Wiener Kunstschule, refer to the natural in relation to the artificial, man made. The materials ( bark, vine, polythene sheet, nails, coil springs,..) she uses reflect this idea, sometimes you get the feeling the "dead" material is alive and you don´t always discover what is natural and what is artificial, which makes viewing the works exciting. Plastic suddenly looks like skin, coil springs like worms, the whole assemblage seems to be a strange creature.

http://www.marionbrandstetter.com/

Wangechi Mutu

Wangechi Mutu "The Naughty Fruits of My Evil Labor", 2005, Ink, acrylic, collage, contact paper, packing tape on mylar,
80 1/2" x 42 1/2"

Wangechi Mutu, born 1972 in Nairobi, Kenya, lives and works in New York, USA. She works with cut outs of lifestyle and porno magazines, packing tape, glitter, ink, etc.. Material that she composes to collages. Wangechi Mutu unveils and magnifies the misconceptions used to define African people, particularly women, who were depicted as malformed, hyper-sexual or un-evolved. The creatures she creates sometimes look bizarre or fantastical, sometimes scary and mysterious.

Right now until December 7th 2008 you can see a great exhibition of the artists at Kunsthalle Wien, project space at Karlsplatz.

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/wangechi_mutu.htm

http://www.kunsthallewien.at/en/events/index.shtml?id=3055

http://vielmetter.com/artists/Mutu/wangechi_mutu.htm

http://www.sikkemajenkinsco.com/wangechimutu_works.html

Busy Vienna

photo by p.p.queen, right side: big wellness skull, left side: small joep van lieshout

Until sunday the Vienna Art Week is taking place. You can choose from a load of events- artist talks, lectures, openings, discussions- which makes decision hard sometimes.
P.P.Queen heard an interesting lecture from Robert Morris at the MUMOK and was at the opening of Joep van Lieshouts Wellness Skull, which is located in the center of the city at the Karlsplatz.
"With his ironic monument to transitoriness, van Lieshout alludes to the fitness mania of present-day society that provides a surrogate for a spiritual experience beyond all bodily and material affairs. Metaphorically, the artist regards the skull as man’s mental shell. It is the interplay between supernatural, divine powers and the secular power that Joep van Lieshout thematizes in his “Wellness Skull.” The functionalization of such a symbol, which is characteristic of the artist’s work, lends an ironical tone to it: when the sauna is turned on, white smoke rises from the skull’s openings."(kör)
After the opening there was a fine discussion about Art in public space with Joep van Lieshout, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Brigitte Franzen, Thomas Edlinger and Gerald Matt (Moderation) at the Kunsthalle Wien, project space karlsplatz.

http://www.ateliervanlieshout.com/

http://www.koer.or.at/en/

http://www.kunsthallewien.at/en/

http://www.viennaartweek.at/2008/

Dog Axe

photo by p.p.queen

Have you ever seen a dog wearing a dog-shirt? Have you ever imagined a dog hanging on the wall wearing a dog-shirt? Have you ever thought of a dog hanging on the wall wearing a dog-shirt while a man is doing some wild movement with a pickaxe besides him?

No?

So this could be a proof of the idea that reality goes far beyond the powers of imagination.

Christine Hill

Volksboutique Home Office (2003)

Shown at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NYHome Office Trunk Show

1968 Born in Binghamton, New York1991 /
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD /
1991-1999 Residence in Berlin, Germany /
Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and Berlin, Germany

“Hill’s Volksboutique can be called a second hand store. Or it can be called a participatory
artwork that takes the form of a functioning salesroom and workshop space. Simultaneously a
shop, an evolving installation, a space for performance, a slice of life, and an amorphous messy
inclusive work open to all questions, it absorbs found objects as compositional elements and
viewers as participants. Above all, Volksboutique is a place of informal human exchange that
raises the conceptual stakes.”
-Kim Levin, in The Volksboutique Guide, 1997.

http://www.eigen-art.com/Kuenstlerseiten/KuenstlerseiteCH/index_CH_DE.html

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2007/07/interview-with-20.php

Hyungkoo Lee

Hyungkoo Lee,2006
Anas Animatus; Anas Animatus L; Anas Animatus H; Anas Animatus D
2006
Resin, aluminum sticks, stainless steel wires, springs and oil paint
45 x 79 x 53 cm; 49.5 x 31 x 33 cm; 52 x 28 x 34.5 cm; 52 x 30.5 x 33 cm

Hyungkoo Lee
HK LAB-WR
Performance

1969 Born in Pohang, Korea / Lives and works in Seoul /
2002 M.F.A. Yale University, School of Art, New Haven, CT, USA /
1998 B.F.A. Hong-Ik University, College of Fine Art, Seoul, Korea

"Homo Animatus was an extension of a series of earlier pieces where the artist physically sought to alter – to reduce to cartoon simplicity – his own anatomy. Using plastic forms, enlarging and reducing lenses, Lee created a variety of body costumes that altered both one’s appearance and one’s vision of the real world at the same time. Homo Animatus is, for Lee, the ‘Origin of the Species;’ in a peculiar and devolutionary way, of course, and in keeping with how animated creatures serve as stand-ins for their human counterparts. Canis Latrans Animatus (Wile E. Coyote) and Geococcyx Animatus (Roadrunner) followed and are now joined by Lepus Animatus (Bugs Bunny), Felis Catus Animatus (Tom), Mus Animatus (Jerry), Anas Animatus (Donald Duck) and his three nephews, Animatus H, D and L (Huey, Dewey and Louie).

There’s a whole new bit of forensic activity at work and the viewer is drawn into an exploration of the process behind this reductio ad absurdum." (Howard Rutkowski)

P.P. saw Lee Hyungkoos art at the Biennale in Venice 2007, where he represented Korea. The Queen thinks that his work is impressive, clever, masterly and witty.

http://www.hyungkoolee.net/

Feeding the artist

photographies by petra kodym

This is just a small part of the culinary delights you get when you are an artist in P.P.Queens Land. The people from your studio neighbourhood like to serve you cake, coffee and fresh fruit when they see that you are working in your studio. "I don´t look extremely thin" says the artist that sent the photos to P.P.Queen "nevertheless my neighbours always want to feed me." So artists from all over the world come to P.P.Land and gain some weight!

Christian Schwarzwald

Christian Schwarzwald, Spiel, 2008, at Galerie Krinzinger Vienna

drawing:installation, mixed media on paper and aluminium, wall-drawing

The artist (born 1971 in Salzburg) is living in Berlin, art degree at Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna and Athens.

His works are drawn installations. Mixed media on paper and aluminium and murals transform the room into a hole new world, making the viewer feel like an explorer.

I saw this one ("Spiel") a few months ago, it really was an impressive experience.

http://www.christianschwarzwald.net/

Ute Zaunbauer

Ute Zaunbauer, Torso, 2007, Efaplast, Wood, 12x12x10 cm

Ute Zaunbauer, born in 1972, in Vienna, Austria, is an Austrian artist, living and working in Vienna and San Francisco. She made her bachelor of fine arts at the Wiener Kunstschule and her current representation is Hang, San Francisco, USA.

For detailed information about the works, text and to see more works, please visit

http://www.utezaunbauer.com/index2.html