Peter Boyd

Peter Boyd is an awesome guy, an art collector, and now he makes wine. Marsha Lederman profiles the him in the Globe and Mail:

An art collection that pays homage to artists connected to the Canadian West

As soon as he left the University of Western Ontario and landed a job, Peter Boyd bought a car, some furniture and his first work of art.

He has since spent “hundreds of thousands” of dollars on his art habit, running out of wall space at home and keeping much of his collection in storage (necessitated, in part, by the 2009 sale of his oil-field seismic-services company Arcis Corp., and the subsequent disappearance of office walls on which to hang the work).
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Influenced by childhood trips to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ont., he began his collection with historical work by artists such as David Milne, but has sold or gifted most of it and now exclusively collects contemporary art. His collection of about 100 works (it peaked at about 200) is populated with artists connected to the Canadian West, including Chris Cran, Douglas Coupland, Attila Richard Lukacs and Geoffrey James, but he also owns work by Robert Mapplethorpe and Eric Fischl. “You’re always falling in love with art if you love art,” he says.

His latest entrepreneurial venture is Genius Wines; its first release a pricey Sonoma County cabernet sauvignon he calls Creo. “It comes from the Latin word for creativity,” he says. “It’s my tribute to artists who are geniuses.”

Porsche Pavillion by HENN Studio B

Friends and former Asymptote co-workers, Martin Henn and Klaus Ransmayr of HENN Studio B, have recently completed the Porche Pavillion at the Volkswagen Autostadt in Wolfsberg, Germany. 

Edward Sharpe Here

My old friend Alex “Edward Sharpe” Ebert, of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, is releasing a new album today titled Here and featuring the new single Man on Fire. Listen to them perform live on KCRW.

Mogollon Graphics for Original Music Workshop

Our friends at Mogollon made these great background images for the Original Music Workshop website. 

Alexander Ebert Truth

My friend Alex Ebert, of recent Edward Sharpe fame, has a new solo album called Alexander. Here he is Conan playing the first single, Truth.

Constructivist Swatches

I love these paintings by my friend Tim Hull.

Jose Parla

I hung out with Jose Parla a few nights ago, and before we went to dinner, we spent some time in his studio where I was lucky enough to see some of his fantastic new paintings. 

Assume Vivid Astro Focus for Comme de Garcon

Assume Vivid Astro Focus has made an amazing series of drawings, paintings, and installations for Comme de Garcon.

Phil Frost

Yesterday I went up to Albany with my partner Laura to visit Phil Frost’s painting studio. We toured the massive industrial work space and got a sneak peek at the hundreds of works that he is simultaneously painting. He has made some very beautiful pieces that are very much worth checking out.

Projection One by Andy Payne

I just discovered this very impressive installation by my friend Andy Payne.

How The Austerity Class Rules Washington

Ari Berman's feature is on the cover of the Nation:

In September the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a bipartisan deficit-hawk group based at the New America Foundation, held a high-profile symposium urging the Congressional “supercommittee” to “go big” and approve a $4 trillion deficit reduction plan over the next decade, which is well beyond its $1.2 trillion mandate. The hearing began with an alarming video of top policy-makers describing the national debt as “the most serious threat that this country has ever had” (Alan Simpson) and “a threat to the whole idea of self-government” (Mitch Daniels). If the debt continues to rise, predicted former New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici, there would be “strikes, riots, who knows what?” A looming fiscal crisis was portrayed as being just around the corner.

Link to full article »

The BMW School of Contemporary Art

This future / past BMW scene is on my friend Noah Olmsted's website. I have no idea what is going on here but I like it.

Five Beauties

Five Beauties, which is produced by (and features) my soon to be brother-in-law, Anthony Cran, just received this great review by the LA Times:

Tennessee Williams’ enduring masterworks understandably overshadow his knack for the short form, worthy miniatures appearing across the canon. The New American Theatre gratifyingly observes the Williams centenary with “Five Beauties,” an airtight quintet of rarely performed one-acts.

First up: the recently discovered “Green Eyes,” a Vietnam War-era study of a tormented soldier and his hormonal bride. Courtney Munch and Brendan Brandt are physically unfettered, palpably attuned combatants, directed by Mark Bringelson with coiled intensity. “The Lady of Larkspur Lotion” shifts to comic Southern Gothic, and Bjorn Johnson’s staging lovingly highlights the fantasist title character (delicious Cameron Meyer), her grimly unconvinced landlady (wry Mona Lee Wylde), and a sodden fellow dreamer (rhapsodic John Copeland).

Before intermission comes “The Traveling Companion,” which packs a wallop. As a neurotic gay writer navigates his aggressively macho escort’s defenses, the exchanges feel as much like embedded memories as taut dramaturgy. Tom Groenwald makes a superb authorial proxy, Byron Field is an ideally posturing prey, and director Ron Klier maneuvers them to memorable effect.

“Moony’s Kid Don’t Cry,” Williams’ first published work, heightens the tension. Helmed by Elina de Santos with precision, this standoff between a factory worker (bravura Scott Sheldon) and his exhausted wife (nuanced Jade Sealey) is Williams in Arthur Miller mode. And the baroque finale, “Auto-Da-Fé” — anxiously repressed son, sweetly domineering mother, incendiary French Quarter — benefits from actors Anthony Cran and Bibi Tinsley and director Jack Stehlin, who devour the surreal, pre-“Glass Menagerie” idiom.

There’s a faintly showcase aspect to the budget-constrained designs, but they’re handled with resourceful élan. Such assurance typifies this compelling compendium.

— David C. Nichols

Double Agent Chair

Here's a sleek new chair from my friend and former student Ifeanyi Oganwu.

Dr. Romanelli Rolex

I hung out with my friend Darren last night and he showed me this sweet new Rolex he designed for Bamford. 

Soft Lab on the New Museum

My friends at Soft Lab projected a new (better?) facade on the New Museum.

Canary for Flavor Paper

Canary, a web design and branding company founded by my friend Blake Haney, has made a new website for New Orleans / Brooklyn based wallpaper company Flavor Paper.

Sahar Ghanbari

My friend Sahar 'Des' Ghanbari has a new website featuring her amazing drawings.

Chris Cran in Adbusters

Chris Cran is in the latest issue of Adbusters.

Teenage

From the awesome director Matt Wolf, who hopefully is making a film on a concert hall we are currently designing, super producer Ben Howe, who gave me my jeep, and Jason Schwartzman, who I don’t know, comes a new film called Teenage that explores the contemporary phenomenon of teenagers.