Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Bjarne Melgaard the 45 year old Norwegian artist born in Sydney Australia by Norwegian parents, raised in Oslo, Norway, and now works and lives in New York has been profiled by Julia Halperin in a Blouin Artinfo article titled “The Most Famous Norwegian Artist Since Munch Brings a Buddy to the Armory Show’. Halperin states “Rising art star Bjarne Melgaard is using his critical clout to introduce a relatively unknown Scandinavian painter to New York audiences. …a series of bright, brash paintings Melgaard created in collaboration with Sverre Bjertnes, a fellow Norwegian a decade his junior. …The artists met 15 years ago, when Melgaard gave Bjertnes his first gallery exhibition at a now-defunct experimental space he founded in Oslo. Now, they often work side-by-side. Bjertnes estimates the two have produced more than 300 artworks together. …The new paintings, made especially for the Armory Show, combine Melgaard’s nihilistic, childlike smears and Bjertnes’s studied, academic figures. (The younger artist’s formal style is informed by years as a student of Norwegian realist Odd Nerdrum.) Text, images of sneakers, and shapeless, abstract shapes dance around portraits of cult individuals like Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake, fixtures of New York’s downtown art scene who committed suicide within a week of one another in 2007.  …a series of paintings devoted to New York dealer Mary Boone. “She is the ultimate dealer, and the paintings are about a relationship with her as this sort of unattainable dream,” Bjertnes said. The largest homage is almost nine feet wide and contains dozens of sketches of Boone’s face and close-ups of her eyes. The words, “The beauty of Mary Boone” are scrawled across the front. A yellow Chanel suit hangs primly overtop. Collaborating with Melgaard, who has been called the most famous Norwegian artist since Munch, lends Bjertnes instant legitimacy…”

Inspired by Julia Halperin, Blouin Artinfo ow.ly/j4ybs Image source Rolf Aagaard ow.ly/j4y9T

There is too much secrecy in our society (November 21st)

Michael Donald Kirby the 72 year old retired Justice of the High Court of Australia has told a Sydney forum of Accountants that WikiLeaks has created a world that is more open and transparent. Kirby stated “WikiLeaks has made the world a more open and transparent place, and therefore a bit more just, and that’s where I stand at the moment … It is part and parcel of the new technology … On the whole it’s probably been a good thing for all of us, to hold governments to account.” Kirby after his retirement as a distinguished Justice of Australia’s highest court over a fifteen year period, he has been appointed to numerous academic roles with twelve Australian universities. During his term as Justice, Kirby delivered controversial lectures relating to whether judges have the right to interpret the law in light of its intent or merely just follow the letter of the law.

Inspired by Doug Conway http://ow.ly/7rLKn image source newsinfo http://ow.ly/7rLVx