Tate Modern presents a new series of displays dedicated to showcasing the latest trends in contemporary art. The displays will be held in Level 2 Gallery which is located close to the gallery’s North Entrance facing the river.

Tate Modern’s L2 Gallery presents a new series of contemporary displays

Tate Modern presents a new series of displays dedicated to showcasing the latest trends in contemporary art. The displays will be held in Level 2 Gallery which is located close to the gallery’s North Entrance facing the river.

Rings of Saturn, which runs until 3 December, is the first in this new series of displays. The title is inspired by W.G. Sebald’s voyages of cultural discovery and the exhibiting artists share a fascination with bohemianism, indigenous arts and crafts, folk culture, fairytales, paganism and heroes. Artist whose work is presented include Steve Claydon, Natalie Djrberg, Saul Fletcher, Thomas Helbig, Dorota Jurczak, David Noonan, David Wojnarowicz and Thomas Zipp. A myriad of subjects are explored, including overlooked historical figures and alternative lifestyle models, as well as forgotten political and utopian movements. Other works reinvigorate the legacies of Expressionism and Surrealism through the use of psychic energy.

Media Burn is the second in this new series and runs from 15 December until 11 February. Taking it’s title from a 1975 Ant Farm work in which a Cadillac drives through a wall of blazing TV screens, this provocative display mixes works from the 1970s and 80s with contemporary pieces to examine the blurred boundaries between art, politics, protest and the media. The featured artists are Ant Farm, Wynne Greenwood, K8 Hardy, Sharon Hayes, Peter Kennard, Josephine Meckseper, Valérie Mréjen, Martha Rosler and Jens Ullrich. Martha Rosler’s incisive collages offer a commentary on the Iraq war, whilst Valérie Mréjen’s hypnotic essay explores the limited horizons of a 1970s French housewife. Jens Ullrich presents documentary photographs of demonstrations in which the placards have being doctored to become meaningless and Josephine Meckseper’s specially commissioned shop window display seemingly tempts viewers with a glistening array of consumer goods but, on closer inspec tion, offers a serious message about today’s consumerist culture.

Read about 100% Design Tokyo at The Daily Yomiuri

"Tokyo Designer's Week" takes place Oct. 31-Nov. 5 at Meiji Shrine Outer Gardens. "100% Design Tokyo" is open to the public Nov. 2-5 only. Admission is 2,000 yen. For more information, visit www.da-npo.com.

The Computer History Museum, the world's largest institution dedicated to preserving and presenting the artifacts and stories of the Information Age, announced today that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — the charitable foundation of Bill Gates, founder, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, and his wife, Melinda — has pledged a $15 million gift to the Computer History Museum Campaign.

Including this new gift, the Silicon Valley-based museum has currently raised over $73 million toward its $125 million goal to create a full range of educational programs and exhibits and to establish a long-term endowment.

The Gates Foundation gift is the museum's largest to date and will be applied to expanding its endowment, accelerating its current operations through a matching grant to generate greater community support, and creating a "Timeline of Computing History," an interactive exhibit that will trace more than 800 years of the computing revolution and its impact on the human experience. In recognition of the Gates Foundation gift, the "Timeline of Computing History" gallery will be designated in Gates' honor.

"The impact on our society of the computing revolution is simply breathtaking — it has changed the way we work, play, learn, and communicate. It's our responsibility to collect the artifacts and stories today that will explain this incredible change to future generations. I believe that the Computer History Museum is uniquely positioned to do this, and Melinda and I are pleased to join other industry leaders to offer our support," Gates said.

via art daily

TRUST your eye and, for £35, you could become the owner of an original work, by a famous artist, worth thousands of pounds.

The Royal College of Art’s Secret Postcard Sale and Exhibition, returns for its 13th year next month with 2,500 miniature paintings and drawings on show.

Famous artists and RCA students who might be the stars of tomorrow have created the postcards. Peter Blake, Emin, Chris Ofili, as well as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, are all graduates of the RCA.

Such is the draw of this selling exhibition, that visitors brave cold and rain, camping outside the building in South Kensington in tents, sleeping-bags and thermals. Last year one man endured a record two weeks on the pavement.

Although some of the featured artists command huge prices on the open market — a work by Hirst, his pickled shark, was reportedly sold two years ago for £6.5 million — RCA buyers are not buying for investment, it seems. The RCA has yet to hear of anyone selling a purchase.

The regulars come back year after year and say that they have no intention of parting with anything. The secret of the show’s success is that people can go home with original works by well-known artists with little financial risk.

November 2 - December 23, 2006
Opening Thursday November 2, 6 - 9PM

DEITCH PROJECTS
WWW.DEITCH.COM

by Jason Burke in Paris for The Observer
The conning tower of a large Soviet submarine pokes up from the still waters of one of the centuries-old fountains in the Tuileries gardens, blasting Russian martial music from a loudspeaker. A hundred yards away, two 20ft multicoloured plastic sumo wrestlers battle over a brightly painted steel freight container. Nearby is a stack of giant steel buckets taller than the trees.

Small plaques inform the bewildered tourists on their way to the Louvre and the Mona Lisa that this is the Paris contemporary art fair - relaunched at a new site in the centre of Paris last week. (more…)

At the Sunday times Waldemar has a go at all those people that say the slides at the Tate aren't art  have a read here

And below is the egg by Jeff Koons he mentions.