Splash Pop Comic Art on Your Walls

Irwin Weiner ASID - Only in New York: your waiter turns out to be an actor, an artist, or someone far-and-away something else besides a waiter. It happened to us recently in a favorite Italian restaurant near my office. Our server learned that I was an interior designer, and knew that I admired the artwork in the restaurant. They turned out to be his pieces - bright, pop art taken straight from the pages of comic books and vintage cartoons. Check out Filippo's Pop Comic Art blog and his Etsy store ... and next time you're in a restaurant, you just might run into the next Picasso, DeNiro, or Einstein!

 
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STEVENSON Unveils New Art from Conrad Botes

Irwin Weiner ASID - On a recent visit to my native Cape Town, South Africa, we visited the ever-changing Woodstock neighborhood. Once a bit on the seedy side, its small factory, warehouse, and shop spaces are being taken over by designers, artists, and galleries. One gallery we visited was STEVENSON, and the fantastic Conrad Botes exhibition "The Temptation to Exist." Botes twists traditional religious beliefs and posits a world where God creates the human race as a vile byproduct ... well, I won't get too specific, but it's not quite appetizing. What IS delicious, however, are his self portraits and other works showing tattoo-like markings that reminded us of Basquiat and Keith Haring. In the South African artist's visual parlance, however, they represent "the ideology and hatred that inevitably contaminate the human condition." We spent quite awhile admiring Botes' sculpture, painting on canvas, and reverse-glass paintings.

 

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Admiring the Luminous Artwork of Nina Maguire

Too Many Cooks ..., / Nina Maguire

Irwin Weiner ASID - We enjoyed attending the invitation-only opening night preview of the latest Antiques, Art & Design at the Armory show this past September 21 at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC, co-hosted by Ellie Cullman, Jamie Drake, and Dr. Eva Andersson-Dubin. 

Over 60+ dealers specializing in high quality art and antiques including:

French, English, Italian, Swedish and Continental furniture from the 17th century through mid-century modern ∙ fine silver including Early American, French, English, 20th century decorative silver including Tiffany, Italian, Jensen ∙ Russian antiquities and art ∙ rugs and tapestries ∙ Tiffany lamps ∙ antique enamels ∙ French Art Nouveau and French Art Deco furniture and objects ∙ art glass ∙ English and Chinese export porcelain ∙ pottery ∙ objets de Vertu ∙ whimsical objet ∙ antique wicker ∙ fine antique, estate and contemporary jewelry ∙ fine, modern, and contemporary art ∙ fine art lithographs and works on paper ∙ sculpture ∙ rare books and manuscripts ∙ canine and sporting art and much more.

One of the standout exhibitors for us was Cavalier Galleries in Greenwich, CT and Nantucket, MA. We were drawn to a wall of beautiful "new masters" paintings by award-winning painter Nina Maguire. Her work is delicate and expressive, using dreamy acrylic on canvas, sometimes with an incredible texture for her media provided by sekishu rice paper as in her Too Many Cooks ..., (top) and Opera Panorama - Intermission - Lincoln Center (bottom). 

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