On September 12, 2011, XXXX Magazine, “The Untitled Magazine” presented 19 video art productions from the magazine at the Metropolitan Museum of Art “Facets of Figuration” Benefit Art Exhibit presented by Rodman and Renshaw and curated by Gary Krimershmoys. Over 2200 guests entered the Metropolitan Museum with the XXXX Magazine videos projected simultaneously over four of the massive walls of the main exhibit hall in a looped 40 minute presentation of the 19 video art productions, while they were served champagne and canapés. “The exhibition Facets of Figuration… highlights an exciting group of artists exploring the contemporary permutations and possibilities of figurative art… From XXXX Magazine, The “Untitled” Magazine, you will see beauty, art and fashion intermingled….The featured directors that are showcased at the exhibition walk the line between art, fashion and film, embodying the new directions of the video medium. Showcased are Paul Windridge with I Turned and Walked Away, Indira Cesarine with The Spell, The Kiss and Live Art Series: 3 Videos, John Paul Zuviate with The Face, Blind Mice with Apollo and Daphne and Patrik Andersson with Fire Dancer and Daughters of Black Dahlia, among others.” Additional artists and directors in the XXXX Magazine screening at the exhibit included Iris Brosch, Zaiba Jabbar, Phantasmic TV, Bo Sul Kim, Peter Phillip Luckner and Benjamin Marlowe. Creative Director and Founder of XXXX Magazine, Indira Cesarine, worked with curator Gary Krimershmoys to select and present the screening for the exhibit and represented the magazine at the event.
Other artists featured in Facets of Figuration included Alexander Melamid, Joseph Wolf Grazi and Amir Baradaran who were featured at the XXXX Magazine Voyeur exhibit at Art Basel Miami, December, 2010, as well as Andres Serrano, Paco Cao, David Kramer, Anya Rubin, Beata Drozd, Xiaowei Chen and Aitor Lajarin. “Even during pre-historic times, primitive cave-dwelling humans wanted, even needed, to express the world around them. From the prehistoric art of Baden-Wurttemberg in Germany, Chauvet, France and even Bradshaw art of Western Australia, humans have been depicting the people and animals around them. Fast forward thousands of years and we still find artists exploring the figure, with a range of inspirations, from Renaissance’s classical depictions to post-modern distortions using a wide range of materials and techniques. After the advent of photography artist started questioning the need for representational drawing, as the camera would render an image more precisely. As Modernism and Post-modernism questioned the relevance of figuration, the contemporary art world reaffirmed a firm place for the inherent interest and relevance of artists’ representation of the figures around us. This exhibition shows that the figurative practices are varied, probing, visually and intellectually stimulating and a key component of artists’ dialogue in our contemporary discourse. The artworks for this exhibition come from an eclectic range of artists, from world renowned impresarios to emerging talent, that all have a figurative resonance within their practices.”
Following the exhibit guests made their way via the grand staircase accompanied by trumpeters through the halls of the museum while admiring the priceless art on the walls of the permanent collection, to a gala dinner in each wing of the museum.
For more information on the artists in the exhibit, view the exhibition catalogue.