Murakami Versailles

Japanese pop art takes up residence in France's most famous gilded halls

While Versaille’s latest contemporary art installation doesn’t officially open until tomorrow, controversy over the show has already been brewing for months. Like when Jeff Koons’ 2008 retrospective was shown at the baroque château, some see Takashi Murakami‘s whirlwind of manga-inspired works as out of place at the historic site. On a recent visit to the palace, we found that this sense of displacement makes the …

Obey Awareness

Shepard Fairey teams up with Surfrider to promote coastal preservation

To celebrate their 25th year working in coastal conservation, The Surfrider Foundation selected Shepard Fairey as one of 25 artists commissioned to illustrate the world’s most notorious surf breaks through art pieces. Working with photographer Tom Servais, the two produced a fine art illustration of the Jaws wave, a big wave break found in Maui, HI. Appropriately nicknamed, waves can reach heights up to120 feet …

Nathalie Emiebach

Visualizing meteorological, astronomical and other data with woven reed sculptures

While artist Nathalie Emiebach’s sculptures look like Sarah Sze got ahold of some tinker-toys, the conceptual underpinnings are far more complex. Drawing on data sets—like the distance between sun and earth or moon phases—that she collects herself, Emiebach uses the information to dictate the dimensions, shapes and position of her reed weavings. Colorful sticks and constellations of beads represent other bits of data, like less …