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On display at NYC's New Museum until September is a series of three installations by Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander. The most colourful part of the work is the installation, 'I Wish Your Wish'. From now until the end of the exhibit, you can submit a wish here. It can be a wish for love, or health, or the freshest watermelon you've ever tasted. Submitted wishes are then printed on coloured ribbons and hung at the gallery, (which is free of charge, btw). Based on a tradition from the church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim in Brazil, visitors to the exhibit select any coloured ribbon they like. It's said that when the ribbon wears away and falls off, the wish will be granted.

Gallery link here.

Thanks to our friends at The Color Association of the United States who wrote about this beauty we couldn't possibly ignore.

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Perhaps you think a commissioned portrait of yourself or a loved one is a little out of financial reach, but sketch artist Benjamin Hammond wishes to prove you wrong. Hammond presents One-Minute Portraits, an online invitation to submit a photograph of anyone, so he may turn it into an original piece of drawn portraiture. He'll take one minute to finish the piece and then post it on his site; if you like the results, you can purchase the original work for $20 USD. While the artist is currently overloaded with requests it would seem, check back now and again for your chance to be immortalized in Hammond's uh, distinct style.

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Seattle artist Diem Chau creates moments of memory and nostalgia using unusual - or rather usual - media. Her Crayola Totems offer a playful and colourful way to look at the world. Chau makes herself available for commissions, but I imagine getting her time will become more and more difficult as the number of her followers increases. Below is an image representing how well she achieves likeness. It's quite remarkable given the size of her canvas.

Here's Diem Chau's website.

And her blog.

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From Japan comes 'Otete & Anyo' - Japanese for 'Hand & Foot' - beautifully made stamps customized to serve as a moment in time for the baby of your choice. Email a simple scan of Baby's hand or foot print and for about $100 you'll be able to stamp your little one's prints on everything, forever. The back of the stamp comes engraved with his / her birthday and name - all guaranteed to make a life-long impression for sure.

Here's the site

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11 11 Lincoln Road - intentionally spaced to ensure you pronounce it 'eleven eleven' - has risen in Miami and promises to offer a unique shopping, dining, residential and parking experience. Pritzker Prize winning architects Herzog and de Meuron - of Beijing Bird's Nest renown - took their inspiration from one of the more forgettable American icons - the parking garage - and rethought / reworked / re'wow'ed it into something imposing yet airy, and human yet otherworldly. With retail at grade, an event venue on the top platform (pictured below) and 2300-square-foot residences placed throughout the uh, garage, this new Miami treasure promises to make you think differently about where to leave your car.

This site is beautiful.

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She may call much of what she does still-life, but New York photographer Helena V. de Vengoechea has a very special way of portraying human presence - so special in fact that she doesn't even need people in her images to do so. Her commercial portfolio is vibrant and it's playful, and yet never overshadows the brand of what she's photographing. Check out her artistic series she calls 'Discreet Messages' - from which the image above is taken - a collection portraying lovely little visual details that are probably overlooked in day-to-day life.

Helena's beautiful images can be seen here.

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Austrian artist Erwin Wurm first installed his House Attack at the Vienna Museum of Modern Art as a pairing piece to a temporary exhibit inside. It was originally meant to represent Wurm's view of the mass public's disdain for art, and its inaccessibility. The museum left the piece however, and in light of last year's financial meltdown, and millions of foreclosures across the world it seems to take on new meaning in the 'us vs. them' battle that has ensued.

http://www.mumok.at

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London interior designer David Carter wants to tell you a story, and he wants to do so in his own house. Just last year, Carter turned his beautiful 18th Century townhouse into a boutique hotel with only two rooms to let. (Those are them pictured by the way. Ya I know - stunning.)

40 Winks, as it's called, has since become a hit and due to its size, a hit with a waiting list. Something that's made this little place so popular has been Carter's nights of storytelling, when hotel guests (and anyone else) are invited to gather in one of the living rooms of the house in their pajamas to listen to readers - both known and not - read, relate and recant tales by candlelight. Cocktails are served to take the edge off lying around in your Victoria's Secret silks. Events conclude with a live musical performance.

http://www.40winks.org

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This weekend, Britain's Royal Opera House will debut a work unlike any other they've exhibited before. The libretto to 'The People's Opera' was written solely by Twitter users - "Tweeters", I suppose. For months, the venerable ROH has been accepting additions and plot twists 140 characters at a time. Once the story began to take shape, the Opera moved forward with composing corresponding music, which will be performed by an orchestra, one baritone and one soprano.

To date, users have determined that the story will involve a talking cat, a secret potion and a man kidnapped by birds. Throw in some colour forecasting and it sounds like a typical day at Haft2.

http://royaloperahouse.wordpress.com/

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In London's Trafalgar Square, there are three plinths holding royal statuary. There was a fourth built in 1841 by Sir Charles Barry, and meant to display an equestrian monument of William IV. There were insufficient funds however, and the statue was never completed. To this day, Londonders have grown used to the empty platform, which has never been filled because no agreement could ever be settled on which king, queen or hero to feature there.

In the summer of 1999 there was an art project opened to the public in which ultimately, three winning sculptural installations each had their own time on top of the plinth. This summer, installations of a different kind have been awarded. Between July and October, 2400 Brits will be (or have been) awarded one hour each atop the plinth to speak, shout, sing, demonstrate, dance, protest. The website offers a live webcam performance on whose turn it is right now. (As I write this, "Paula C." from North-West London is quoting the songs of The Smiths and Simply Red.)

The ongoing performance continues as you read this.

http://www.oneandother.co.uk/
http://www.london.gov.uk/fourthplinth

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Artists Christine Santora and Justin Gignac began their sites online in the hopes of selling paintings for the exact price it would cost them to buy what it is they wanted, and the paintings themselves depicted what they'd buy if the painting were to sell. There was the painting of the 'Miniature Tulip Chair' for $227.58, 'A Slice of Pepperoni' for $3.00 and 'Cooking Lessons' (image of a burning stove) for $220.00. When the painting sold, they'd buy what was depicted. (There's something very 'The Secret' about this. Ask. Visualize. Receive.)

Well now these two have moved into the not-for-profit world, selling paintings of things, not that they want, but rather, that other people need. There's 'A Toilet' selling for $100.00 to benefit Habitat for Humanity, and 'Mr. Potato Head' selling for $250.00 to benefit Toys for Tots. Paintings are updated as new needs (and wants) arise.

http://www.needsforsale.com
http://www.wantsforsale.com

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British artist James Yarker has a way of gathering everyone in the world in one place. He uses rice - 112 tonnes of it, and each grain represents one of the 6.7 billion of us on our planet.

He then divides up the piles of rice, er- of us, into different global statistical piles. One heap represents the population of India. Another pile represents all the children who will die this year of diseases for which there is a vaccine available. And another portrays the number of people who will visit a McDonald's restaurant today.

Throughout any installation of 'Of All the People in the World' docents clothed in brown atelier coats continually sweep all of us that have fallen out of our piles, back into them. If only life could be the same...

Here's a glimpse at an installation that'll make you look at life differently.

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Artists, designers, writers, poets, hermits, actors, spokespersons and creatives everywhere, take heed! American artist Catherine Massaro has a solution for what everyone suffers now and again - imaginative drought, and it's called The Creative Stimulus Package. For a fee, anyone can order this custom made, one-of-a-kind, eclectic, "what's-going-on-here?" box, absolutely (and quite literally) brimming with - well, with whatever Ms. Massaro has selected for your respective Creative Stimulus Package. Images, and letters, and notes, and small toys, and mementos, and keepsakes, and souvenirs, as well as an occasional, and original art piece by the artist herself are just some of what may (or may not) be found in this thoughtfully and beautifully put-together package that you'll be happy to give, and even moreso to receive. Can be ordered as a one-time deal, or a year-long subscription of four packages. Everyone needs to feel like an eight-year-old at Christmas now and again.

http://www.studiomassaro.com

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Reality television is making everyone (and anyone) a star. Sites like Youtube and Twitter are making filmmakers and writers out of all of us. Well here's an idea that strives to make artists out of the anonymous. Igotanenvelope is a collaborative project in which you leave an open, self-addressed, stamped envelope somewhere in the world - on the streetcar, in a store, at the bank. A message you've written on the back of it invites the finder to put something personal and artistic inside and return it to you. When you receive it back, you photograph what was sent to you and email the image to the people at igotanenvelope, who'll post it to their site. The range of items already received is vast, and will only get better. How we love the inspiration of the everyday...

Read about this very cool project at igotanenvelope.blogspot.com.

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Italian artist Michael Marcovici presents 100 million $100USD notes. Very telling for our times.

Check out some of his other installations here.

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Welcome to Draw Ball. An online collaborative art project that invites users to draw digitally on a huge virtual canvas. Each user is able to e-etch a tiny amount per day, equal to approximately 1/10,000th of the surface of this thing. It began with aspirations of encouraging crafties to express themselves, but through time, has morphed into a spot for online communities and advertisers to plug certain brands. The short animation below demonstrates how over time, the South Korean flag morphed into the Pepsi logo. Over two years old, the project still receives new squiggles 24 hours a day.

http://www.drawball.com/playback.php

http://www.drawball.com

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Sotheby's announced last week that in one day, UK artstar Damien Hirst raised more than $125 million at auction. It's a new world record for an auction day of art offered by a single artist. (The previous record was held by a day of Pablo Picasso in 1993, which raised a mere $20 million.) The most expensive piece was 'The Golden Calf' - an embalmed calf with golden horns and hooves that sold for almost $19 million. Hirst could have chosen to have his works sold in a gallery but chose auction because he felt it was a more democratic way of bringing art to the people - the very rich people, that is.

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotResultsDetailList.jsp?event_id=28883&sale_number=L08027

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So, the whole idea of making old things into art is certainly nothing new, but come on! Who can look at Jean-Luc Cornec's Telephone Sheep and not say they love them? These things are adorable, and while we're at it, it never hurts to be reminded of the value of being earth conscious and green-minded and all those other things that are easy to overlook due to messaging overkill. Consumption. Environment. Reuse. Recycle. Rethink. Green. Really, these words should never lose their currency. Anyway, lesson over.

http://galerie-herrmann.com/arts/cornec/index.htm

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German artist H. A. Schult's haunting ‘trash people’ have graced the streets of many of the world’s most major cities. It took him 6 months and 30 assistants to create his disturbing army from crushed cans and computer parts. Schult offers little of his thinking behind them, but it's hard to deny their relevance in today's world.

http://www.haschult.de/trash.html

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UK artist Abigail Reynolds presents some startling stats in her series entitled Mount Fear. Each of the city maps featured, (London, Manchester and Eindhoven) are built up with layers that represent a specific police statistic of the number of occurrences of a crime. Check out Mount Fear Manchester which depicts police statistics for violent offenses between 2001 and 2002.

abigailreynolds.com

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