Zuzu Fridays z10 ———— Tequila + Art = LOVE

Casa Dragones special edition bottle with Gabriel Orozco

I had the opportunity to attend an event Wednesday night where Casa Dragones unveiled their new bottle – a collaboration with Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco (I’m a huge fan of his work).

If you don’t know Casa Dragones tequila, you are missing out!  It is sexy, smooth and delicious.  This is the kind of tequila you pair with fine food……not the kind you mix in a margarita or do body shots with. (what??  Mom, that link is for you….new vocab).

One of Dallas Contemporary’s board members was extremely generous and offered their home for the event.  The house was the backdrop for a killer art collection with a Frank Stella painting (shout out to JonB!), Tony Cragg sculpture, a handful of Damien Hirsts…..just to name a few.  Tequila was served alongside yummy bites from Doug Boster catering.

Casa Dragones brought Pedro Alonzo in from Boston to give a talk about Gabriel Orozco’s work.  It was a special treat to hear from Pedro and learn more about Orozco’s work before seeing the new bottle.

Bertha Gonzalez and Pedro Alonzo

Then Bertha Gonzalez, the co-founder and CEO of Casa Dragones, unveiled the new bottle.  She spoke of her relationship with Orozco, love of his work, the impact he has had on the art world and the way that the collaboration came about.  CD + GO = LOVE.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE…bye bye.

See all the pics from the event here.

Me with the beautiful Roksolana Karmazyn

Me with my dear friend Jon Schwartz

Zuzu Fridays is a weekly post about all things sexy, pervy, vampy, weird…or just plain effed up.

COOL SHOPPING at Dallas Contemporary

As you know, I work for Dallas Contemporary – the contemporary art museum in Dallas.  We are putting together a pretty effing cool shop for the holidays.  It will be open for 3 days ONLY – December 7th, 8th and 9th from 11:00am – 3:00pm each day.

There will be art, limited edition prints, art books, furniture and some design & fashion objects.  **Word has it that there are even a few Shepard Fairey prints.**

If you have seen what we do (amazing exhibitions, stimulating chit chats with artists, street art camps for teens, artist-focused performances), then you know that we can’t do it without the support of the community and people like you.  So mark your calendar…..come shop…..and support a very cool place in Dallas.

Love you.  Bye bye.  xoxoxo

Zuzu Fridays z09 – Linder at Goss Michael Foundation

Linder at Goss Michael Foundation.

Last Friday, I went to the opening of Linder at the Goss Michael Foundation in Dallas. First of all, if you have not been to the GMF, put it on your list of places to go…immediately! It is one of the places in Dallas that we, as a city, are SO lucky to have.

GMF is a non-profit contemporary art center with a focus on British contemporary art. They show new commissioned works by artists but what I often love the most are the works that they show from the stellar collection which belongs to the namesake – Kenny Goss and George Michael (yes, that George Michael).

Regardless of the conceptual side of Linder’s work (feminist perspective on the way the female body is portrayed commercially and in the media….which I love), the pieces are constructed beautifully; both through the elements of their design and collage to the physical construction of the light boxes.  Sexxxxxy all the way around.

The exhibition is up through 31 January 2013.  When you plan your visit, come see us at Dallas Contemporary as well….we are in the same hood.  And if you haven’t heard we also have a couple of spectacular exhibitions up as well.  K8 Hardy: September Issues and Inez & Vinoodh: Pretty Much Everything.

More info below straight from the GMF website.

Love you.  Bye bye.  xxxxoooo

Linder at Goss Michael Foundation. Photo: Kevin Todora.

Linder at Goss Michael Foundation. Photo: Kevin Todora.

Linder at Goss Michael Foundation. Photo: Kevin Todora.

Linder at Goss Michael Foundation. Photo: Kevin Todora.

Linder at Goss Michael Foundation. Photo: Kevin Todora.

Linder at Goss Michael Foundation. Photo: Kevin Todora.

From the Goss Michael Foundation website:

Linder’s show at The Goss-Michael Foundation will consist of a large group of her characteristic collages and new large-scale photographs displayed in light-boxes, each of  which are part of the private collection of George Michael and Kenny Goss.  Working in all mediums from music, to collage to performance and film to theatre and two dimensional art, Linder became known in 1976 as one of the main players in the Manchester punk scene.

In the late 1970’s Linder started using collage to juxtapose porn images with images of house appliances, or other desired objects, sharing the subversive practices of the punk movement.  By mixing up fractured signals and messages out of context, Linder exposed the way social images are constructed.  Her Buzzcocks ‘Orgasm Addict’ single sleeve which depicts a nude female body with mouths at the nipples and a household iron in place of the head is now considered an iconic symbol of the punk movement.

Since the 1970’s, Linder has consistently and uncompromisingly embraced radical feminist perspectives and explored the media treatment of the female body in particular.  In the collages, photomontages and performances Linder has made since this time, she sets about recasting and colliding the ideals of commercially and culturally rendered expectations of gender-specificity and identity.

A major part of the show at the Goss-Michael Foundation consists of large-scale light-boxes with new montages, originally hand-spliced as before and then re-photographed.  The use of the light-box gives these works the lush and tantalizing characteristics of advertising light-boxes, the emblems of our consumerist world that came to dominate the media and the landscape of the western world in recent years.  Linder takes over this powerful tool of mass media and turns it to itself to expose socially and culturally reinforced norms and expectations of gender identity, sexual commodification and representations of desire.

 

Zuzu Fridays is a weekly post about all things sexy, pervy, vampy, weird…or just plain effed up.

Carolina Herrera + Dallas Contemporary = LOVE

Today I attended a fashion show/luncheon at the Carolina Herrera store in Highland Park Village.  One of our awesome board members, Maxine Trowbridge, was co-hosting the event along with Catherine Carpenter Cox and Dallas Contemporary was the benefitting charity.

Upon arrival, wine and water were served while a stunning group of women (and a few men) from Dallas mingled and perused the racks.  Then we all sat at a long table inside the store and waited to see the Spring 2013 collection.

Caroline Herrera luncheon

The looks I like the best were those that seemed to reference painting.  Constructed with layers of sheer fabrics and color blocks, the dresses were stunning.  I found this image online that showed a grouping of the pieces that I liked.

Spring 2013 Collection

 

Carolina Herrera luncheon Dallas from Erin Cluley on Vimeo.

After the show, we ate a delicious meal and I sat next to and got to chat with some really amazing Dallas women (and one from Tyler!).

Dallas loves fashion.  Fashion loves art.  Art loves fashion back.  We are all one big happy family.

Thanks to all involved that helped make this come together….the Carolina Herrera, Town & Country and DC teams.

Love you.  Bye bye.  xoxoxo

Zuzu Fridays z02

I will continue to shamelessly promote the place the place where I work (Dallas Contemporary).

This is one of our newest ads that is currently in the February issue of FD Luxe.

The hot, new look is attributed to the collaboration between our brilliant, creative in-house staff and a few amazing photographers…

For this ad:

Photography by  Mr.Glass with Heels and Candy – check the ladies out on his site…sizzzzzzle.

Design by Alex Curington – if you need design work done, she is a rock star.

And of course….check out the exhibitions that the ad is promoting – up until March 25.

xoxo

Zuzu Fridays z01*

It’s Friday!  Here is a little visual treat before you start the weekend…

Out of another person’s purge for “it’s-the-new-year-get-rid-of-all-this-shit”, I gained this deck of playing cards designed by South African (Belgium-based) artist Kendell Geers.

Geers is known for his performance at the Venice Biennale in 1993 where he pissed into Duchamp’s Fountain.

Anyone down for Texas Hold ‘Em?

From the Goodman Gallery website:

A provocative figure in the South African art world since the 1990s, Kendell Geers is known for work that stakes out a radical position from which to take aim at both the art establishment and society in general, to interrogate our existing moral codes and to suggest new approaches. Working in a wide variety of media, he uses and subverts familiar signs from art history and pop culture. Famously pissing into Duchamp’s urinal in Venice, he rejects the sanctity of ‘the canon’ and the inviolability of history, insisting on a position that poses its own questions and comes to its own conclusions.

Geers’ work, site-specific by nature, is designed to force a physical confrontation with the viewer, and is concerned with power, its relations, and the manner in which it shapes our experiences. Often described as interventions, the relentless physicality of his work acts to shock and disrupt our perception of the status quo – to map the degree to which individual agency is constrained by the existing establishment, and to attempt to explode those borders.

 

*Look for more Zuzu Fridays…this is the first go at a weekly post about all things weird, pervy, vampy, sexy…or just plain effed up.