Modart » Jon Burgerman

What is Safewalls?

Lori — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 01:08:52 +0000

Our friends at Safewalls have a new video all about their project with artists such as Ron English, Frank Kozik, Jon Burgerman, Sweetoof, Glenn Anderson, Shag, El Mac and Jason Limon. Check ittttttt!

SAFEWALLS | WHAT IS SAFEWALLS? from SAFEWALLS on Vimeo.

Lori Zimmer x Rebaroque x Scope New York

Lori — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 09:00:50 +0000

Scope New York is less than a week away! I’m going a little nuts getting everything sorted, but I’m super excited. Over the last year or so, I’ve felt very lucky to have so many talented friends in so many different areas. Now, I’m able to combine many of them in this special sound installation by mixing art, design and music. Rather than just playing an iPod, I wanted to have musician friends and artists curate playlists. the World’s Best Ever will be curating all day Thursday, march 3rd, check out their playlist selectors below. I’m really excited for the musician day, which includes Andy Rourke of the Smiths and my favorite crooner, Brian Newman, who I covered on NNE awhile back. I am going to be dancing the whole week. I hope you can visit! I am super duper nervous. No sleep til then…Previews of the pieces to come. x

About the Project:

Debuting at SCOPE New York, The Rebaroque Artist Series Sound Wall, curated by Lori Zimmer, combines our passions- art, sustainable design and music. Each Rebaroque sound panel is made from vintage fabrics, frames, hand painting and high quality Pyle speakers, and hook right up with your iPod or smart device. We’ve selected 20 artists to create unique collaborative pieces that not only look great on your wall, but play your favorite music as well. Artists include Beau Stanton, Claw Money, Cycle, Ellis G, Gaia, Ian Kuali’i, Jim Avignon, Jon Burgerman, Jonathan Viner,M11X, Martin Wittfooth, Mr. Kiji, Nathan Pickett, Orlando Reyes, R OSTARR x Madluv, Ryan Bradley, Sharktoof, Tara McPherson and Vesta.

The pieces will be wired together- creating a wall of sound, which will play a curated program during the fair. We’ve asked some of our favorite artists, musicians and publications to put together the sounds and songs that inspire them, including Gogol Bordello, DJ DB’s BLURRRing Radio, Kid Zoom, DJs Ole Koretsky and Andy Rourke of The Smiths, jazz musician Brian Newman, pop culture blog The World’s Best Ever and more.

About REBAROQUE:
Rebaroque was created from fine artists Mikal Jessie Hameed (aka M11X) and Rebecca Paul’s love for art, history, sustainable design and music. Using all recycled and sustainable materials such as vintage frames and fabrics with hand detailing, the pair have created a line of design meets art meets functional sound panels. Each sound panel functions as a piece of art that hooks into your iPod or smart device. Rebaroque asks us to use our favorite music to interact within the spaces we live or work in, and then redefine how we all think about music and our homes.

Thanks everyone! Can’t wait.

Football and Pizza

Lori — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:53:25 +0000

Okay, honestly, my Super Bowl plans are to go to the Brooklyn Flea Market with two girlfriends. I just can’t get into American football, I don’t eat chicken wings or football party food, the entire sound of a football game makes me simultaneously shudder and roll my eyes.

But! The Super Bowl does somehow relate to art, really (and pizza)! AOL has commissioned a slew of artists to paint footballs and create football themed logos. And, they are giving away free pizza from Domino’s. At first, I envisioned a giant stand in Times Square slinging the pizza, but upon closer inspection see it is an online contest for a year’s worth of Domino’s Pizza. I’ve avoided avoiding the Noid since probably the 80s, but I’ll take free anything.

I didn’t realize AOL was so into the arts per say, but they’ve recently launched “Project on Creativity,” which sounds suspiciously like Vice/Intel’s Creator’s Project. It kicked off with a portrait project by Chuck Close, which I’ve seen wheat pasted around town, which included Claire Danes, Alec Baldwin and tweenager fashion blogger Tavi.

The football project features customized footballs by Abbi Jacobson, Mr. Kiji, Dave Kinsey, Jon Burgerman, and Darren Booth, and will be on display at the Maxin Super Bowl Party, then auctioned off to benefit the American Heart Association.

Our buddy Jon Burgerman also painted a mural for AOL headquarters, timelapsed here. I’ll be thinking of these footballs the entire time I’m shopping for Mid Century Modern furniture.

Safewalls

Lori — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:14:51 +0000

This past December in Miami I had the pleasure of meeting Andre Bathalon and Yan Cordeau of the Safewalls Project. They were referred to me by a trusted source, Ximena Becerra of Montreal’s Yves LaRoche Gallery, to come and have a chat/brainstorm about their project- which really just ended up with us making joke after joke, laughing uncontrollably, and my poor attempts at French, as they are also Quebecois.

Jokes aside, the project is really interesting. The premise to pairing Cirque de Soleil with artists is the long history of poster art with circuses. Starting way back in the 15th Century, traveling circuses have relied on heavily illustrated posters to allure curious visitors.The Safewalls Project updates the vintage poster by pairing it with cutting edge street artists from around the globe. Deriving their name from the reference to legal spots for street artists, the posters from the Safewalls Project will also be exhibited on a year long tour, with limited edition prints of each available. Each month a pop up exhibition with three featured artists will coincide with Cirque de Soleil performances. As the exhibition travels and, it will add three more artists, accumulating more and more pieces, growing in size as time goes on.

In the meantime, Andre and Yan are unleashed on the country, visiting cities from LA to Vegas to Houston, seeking the artists to be featured for each place. Thus far, the project has collaborated with artists Glenn Anderson, Jon Burgerman, Sweet Toof, SHAG, El Mac, Jason Limon, Frank Kozik, Chet Zar and Amy Sol, and are eagerly combing the world for their next collaborators.

SAFEWALLS | LONDON 2011 (1/3) from SAFEWALLS on Vimeo.

Anxieteam Rocks your Veggie Drawers

Lori — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:35:50 +0000

Last night was my first Anxieteam experience- the veggie loving, mask wearing, (semi)-coordinating dance moving, synth and ukulele collaboration of artists Jon Burgerman and Jim Avignon.

Held in Williamsburg’s teeny tiny Pete’s Candy Store, Avignon and Burgerman decked the stage with their art- this time a spoof of Matisse’s “La Danse,” complete with Burgerized faces, tattoos and thong underwear. They make a new mural for each show, some being more decadent than others, sometimes including projections of their artworks during performances. Completing the look, they alternate handmade cartoony masks for different songs, which they also give to their recruited audience member dancers to wear.

Oh! They also hand out fresh vegetables, while singing lyrics like “I made you a salad/I wrote you this ballad” and “I’m a veggie, you’re a vegan, let’s eat soya!” to soothing ukulele or dancing electronic beats. Unfortunately, the venue was too small to encourage dancing.

Burgerman is a recent Brooklyn transplant via Nottingham, UK, and a recent addition to my circle of awesome friends. As I get to know him, I see the parallels between his fun personality and his artwork. I love how the band is merely an extension of he and Jim’s visual creative force. Can’t wait to see them again , I’m totally volunteering to be a Soya dancer.