When Maury Ornest died last summer, he left behind a cache of more than 1,000 paintings and scores of sketchbooks — the full extent of which his family only discovered after his death. This weekend, Ornest will finally have the survey exhibition he never had during his lifetime. For a story whose premise resembles the setup of Velvet Buzzsaw, this real-life version has a much sunnier and way less murder-y ending. EXPANDCourtesy of the Maury Ornest Estate Continue ReadingFor starters, the work itself, while a bit obsessive and undeniably eccentric, is the opposite of ominous. Ornest had a proliferate fascination with flying fish and baseball, often combining motifs of Asian color and visual design with illustrative icons of Americana. While each painting of single or paired baseball-faced fancy fishes is a variation on a tight theme, each iteration brings a unique pastiche of color and pattern, from shimmering gold to vibrant natural images and expressive color-field passages … [Read more...] about Self-Taught Painter Maury Ornest’s Posthumous Solo Debut
Arts
Spring Training 2019 in Metro Phoenix: A Field Guide to the Cactus League Season
Have you noticed traffic getting worse throughout the Valley already? Maybe you've seen some of the older snowbirds begin to leave and a new crowd of visitors take over the Phoenix area's streets, highways, restaurants, malls, and bars. If you have, then you likely don't even have to check your calendar to see what time of the year it is.You already know that Cactus League spring training is coming.Continue ReadingWith 15 Major League Baseball organizations taking over 10 different stadiums, spring training is one of the busiest times in metro Phoenix. It's a chance for much of the country to escape frigid February and March temperatures and get an early look at the baseball teams they'll cheer on for the rest of the year. It's also an opportunity for the Valley to show off everything it has to offer to a crowd that otherwise might never see it. EXPAND This is what weekends are made for this time of year. Jim Louvau Areas including Old Town Scottsdale and Glendale's Westgate … [Read more...] about Spring Training 2019 in Metro Phoenix: A Field Guide to the Cactus League Season
Manny Hernandez’s Photos Capture South Beach’s Celebrity Scene in the ’90s
Donald Trump towers over everyone else in the picture. The year is 1997 and he’s laughing it up with Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Lopez, and Shakira. It’s like the Mount Rushmore of Latina women. “The funny thing is, in that picture of everybody interacting, the only one looking in the camera is Shakira,” says Manny Hernandez, the longtime Miami-based photographer who snapped the picture. “She had a couple of hits in the Latin market but she never really went to these type of parties where you had like some big celebrities in the American market.”Continue ReadingHernandez has hundreds of photos like the previous one. Name a person with some kind of fame who has passed through Miami, and chances are Hernandez has that star's picture filed away in one of his many boxes of prints: Gianni Versace, Madonna, Vanilla Ice.He’s chosen a select few from his collection for Candids Miami, the first in a three-part book series of, well, candid celebrity … [Read more...] about Manny Hernandez’s Photos Capture South Beach’s Celebrity Scene in the ’90s
South Philly native pens another play about Point Breeze
Reminiscent of summer block parties in Point Breeze, nationally renowned playwright Josh Wilder has once again found inspiration nestled in the streets of a South Philly neighborhood he once called home. In his latest piece, Wilder, the theatrical sagacity behind SALT PEPPER KETCHUP, a play surrounding South Philadelphia gentrification that ran at the the Drake Theatre this past autumn, is now illustrating recollections from his childhood on a national stage – The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Cataloged as a “love letter” to all the young ladies he grew up with, “She a Gem” – the product of a two-year playwriting commission with the country’s National Cultural Center – examines the struggles and strengths of young African-American girls through the sport of Double Dutch. “Looking back at it, Double Dutch is such a character-building sport….and it’s a sport that prepares, I feel, … [Read more...] about South Philly native pens another play about Point Breeze
A Teenage Art Collector Is About to Make Vancouver a Destination for Skate Nerds
Supreme skate decks exhibited before their sale at Sotheby’s. Julian Cassady Last month, on January 25, Sotheby’s had one of their biggest Supreme auctions to date. Teaming up with streetwear collector Ryan Fuller, they auctioned every single Supreme skate deck dating back to 1998 and titled it “20 Years of Supreme.” Fuller originally assembled the collection over a 20-year period.Carson Guo was revealed by Sotheby’s as the collector who met the price at $800,000. Guo is a 17-year-old student who comes from a family of collectors and has big plans for the complete archive.Subscribe to Observer’s Arts NewsletterBefore this purchase, he had already acquired an impressive collection of art, collectibles, and fashion including paintings by Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet. This includes some smaller Supreme collectibles—specifically “a few box logo tees and accessories,” as he described to Observer.“My father is a collector who buys … [Read more...] about A Teenage Art Collector Is About to Make Vancouver a Destination for Skate Nerds