Monthly Archive for August, 2011

From Kimberly Bradley at The New York Times…

The art scene in Berlin can sometimes seem like a big game of musical chairs, as galleries migrate from neighborhood to neighborhood in search of undiscovered spaces, low rents and artist-friendly locals. The latest move, though, is a little different.

The new hub, along Potsdamer Strasse, situated mostly in West Berlin’s Tiergarten district, is actually an old one. Until World War II, around 200 art and antiques dealers were situated in the then-elegant neighborhood, along with a lively night-life scene; after the war, the dealers failed to rematerialize along the street.

In recent years, Berlin’s art world has downshifted. Many small galleries have closed, and the city’s main art fair, Art Forum Berlin, was recently canceled after a 15-year run. The gallery cluster on Potsdamer Strasse, though, takes a new approach; it is almost hidden from the public: the street is lined with cheap clothing shops, Turkish vegetable markets and empty storefronts, while most of the galleries are on upper floors or hidden in back courtyards. More…

From Bryony Quinn at It’s Nice That…

Phillip Kalantzis-Cope, with a pretty intense educational backdrop of political science, both studied and taught, casts an interesting, aesthetic angle on the underlying motives behind the literally named series’, shooting from the hip and ontheplane (pictured). Both of these – with their brighter, more perfect light than is standard in the immediate, occasionally voyeuristic, street-style photography he often employs – seem altogether hyperreal. His site is curated really well, though his flickr is well worth a closer look for its proliferation of impossible yet offhand observations. More…