Hasta La Ideas

(Courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation)

Artist Uta Barth and photographer An-My Lê (pictured) are among this year’s MacArthur fellows, the annual mix of thinkers, writers, artists, geochemists, and pediatric neurosurgeons that are awarded $500,000 in no-strings-attached “genius grants” over five years. “These extraordinary individuals demonstrate the power of creativity,” said MacArthur President Robert Gallucci, in a press release issued today. “The MacArthur Fellowship is not only a recognition of their impressive past accomplishments but also, more importantly, an investment in their potential for the future. We believe in their creative instincts and hope the freedom the Fellowship provides will enable them to pursue unfettered their insights and ideas for the benefit of the world.” Other 2012 fellows include documentary filmmakers Laura Poitras and Natalia Almada, writer Junot Díaz, International Contemporary Ensemble founder and CEO Claire Chase, and Benoît Rolland, a master bow maker who is experimenting with new designs and materials to create violin, viola, and cello bows for the twenty-first century. Meet all 23 MacArthur fellows here.
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A 2011 self-portrait by Annie Leibovitz and the Wexner Prize sculpture by Jim Dine.

There’s no mistaking the golden corpse that is Oscar or the atom-thrusting, lightning-winged Emmy gal, but we’ll gladly trade you both for a Jim Dine hammer, gnarled and gleaming. Such is the distinctive statuette that accompanies the Wexner Prize, awarded every so often (beginning in 1992) by the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio to “living artists working in any medium or discipline whose achievements reflect bold originality, innovation, and creative excellence.” The fourteenth recipient is photographer Annie Leibovitz, whose work is the subject of a major exhibition opening September 22 at the Center, which has already readied a Twitter hashtag for the occasion: #wexannie. Leibovitz joins an esteemed group of past winners that includes Merce Cunningham and John Cage, Gerhard Richter, Issey Miyake, and Spike Lee. Aside from that smashing hammer—tools for both building and breaking apart, Dine, an Ohio native, saw them as symbols for the creative force that drives artists—she’ll receive a check for $50,000 (no snide comments, please).

“Working with Annie over the last fifteen months to produce her exhibition at the Wex, her ‘candidacy’ quite naturally emerged with all the clarity and authority of one of her photographs,” said Wexner Center director Sherri Geldin in a statement issued this afternoon. “The more than 200 Leibovitz photographs on view at the Wexner Center this fall attest to her stunning achievement across more than 40 years of relentless photographic pursuit. That these works continue to so profoundly move us decades after they were shot is but one measure of her mastery.” Leibovitz will be presented with the prize at a ceremony on November 10 at the Center. She’ll also discuss her work in a public talk that weekend.
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The Lucies, presented annually to honor statuette-worthy achievements in photography, turn ten this year, and in the run-up to the glittering October 8 gala at the Beverly Hilton (tickets now on sale), the Lucie Foundation has announced the 2012 honorees:

• Lifetime Achievement: Joel Meyerowitz
• Achievement in Fine Art: Arthur Tress
• Achievement in Documentary: Tod Papageorge
• Achievement in Fashion: David LaChapelle
• Achievement in Photojournalism: David Burnett
• Achievement in Sports: John Biever
• Achievement in Portraiture: Greg Gorman
• Double Exposure Award (presented to an artist/photographer who has mastered multiple disciplines of creative expression): Jessica Lange

Winners of the 2012 International Photography Awards juried competition will be announced at the gala. And nominations are now being accepted for support award categories, including Print Advertising Campaign of the Year, Fashion Layout of the Year, and Exhibition/Curator of the Year.

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From left: judges Billy Paretti (Hennessy), designer and Pratt alum Harry Allen, and Jennifer Yu (Hennessy), with Michael Cook and his winning work, competition mentor and judge Futura, and faculty advisor and judge Jeff Bellantoni. (Photos: Rene Pérez)

Ithaca, New York native Michael Cook and his mixed media work hopped to first place in the Hennessy-sponsored competition that challenged a group of Pratt students and recent graduates to produce work that illustrates the “wild rabbit.” The contest was part of the cognac house’s collaboration with street artist Futura, who has splashed his signature colored helices on a bottle of Very Special (V.S.) cognac and mentored the competing students. Cook, who graduated from Pratt in May with a BFA in communications design (and a concentration in graphic design) and now lives in Brooklyn, took top honors for a piece that incorporates sculpture and video. He received a cash prize and an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris for the October launch of the Hennessy V.S. bottle customized by Futura. As Cook prepares for the show of his recent work that opens Saturday at HomeGrown Board Shop in Ithaca, he made time to answer our questions about the competition, his winning work, and why graphic design is more than adjusting text boxes in InDesign.

What was the original brief for this collaborative project with Hennessy?
The original brief from Hennessy was to create a piece of artwork, of any medium, that related to the theme of “chasing one’s wild rabbit.” This was aligned with the brand’s mantra of “Never Stop. Never Settle.”

How did you respond to this theme and what did you create?
I used this starting point to conduct an exploration of what it means to me to be an artist and ultimately what it is that I want from art. There seems to be a myth, or a misconception, that being involved in graphic design means you spend your days in front of a computer adjusting text boxes in InDesign. I realized pretty early on in my art school education that that wasn’t going to be me, so I would usually try to find ways of conveying the same ideas in ways that allowed me to use my hands and explore different formats.
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Futura with Pratt MFA students Macklen Mayse and Jonathan “Johnny Tragedy” Stanish.

Street artist Futura has splashed his signature colored helices on a bottle for Hennessy, following the LVMH-owned cognac house’s successful 2011 match-up with KAWS. This year’s project also included a partnership with Pratt Institute, where a group of eight art and design students and recent graduates were challenged to produce work that illustrates the “wild rabbit.” The theme is a nod to the creatures that dart about Cognac, France and represents a force that drives people from one success to another, according to Hennessy brand lore. Jeff Bellantoni, chair of graduate communications design at Pratt, served as the faculty advisor for the competition, for which Futura mentored the students as they created works that ranged from a hand-crocheted afghan rug made from 185 plastic bags collected over the course of a month (the work of MFA student Natalie Sims) to a glamorously shredded evening gown topped by a rabbit head mask and photographed in a series of idylls (by BFA student Sophie Hui-Ni). Stay tuned for the full scoop on the contest winners. In the meantime, here’s an up-close and personal look at Futura, courtesy of Hennessy.
(Photos from top left: UnBeige and courtesy Hennessy)

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