The Host screens tomorrow night at SFMOMA as part of our Cindy Sherman Selects film series! If you’re into horror and dark comedy, this flick is not to be missed.

Image: Joon-Ho Bong, The Host (still), 2006; courtesy Magnolia Pictures/Photofest; ©Magnolia Pictures

Opening this Saturday! Naoya Hatakeyama: Natural Stories will be the Japanese photographer’s first solo exhibition in the United States. Bringing together more than 100 photographs and two video installations spanning the artist’s entire career, the exhibition will offer insights into the rich history of Japanese photography, and into the ways in which humanity and nature both clash and coexist.

Pictured: Naoya Hatakeyama, Takata-cho 2011.5.2, from the series Rikuzentakata, 2011 via American Photo Magazine

Spoiler alert for listeners of This American Life… we’re 99.9% sure this photo features the real Cindy Sherman!

See more photos from our Cindy Sherman opening reception here.

Pictured: Cindy Sherman and Ann Magnuson. © 2012 Drew Altizer

Happy Birthday Alexander Calder!

From our website:

Calder’s interest in movement appeared early in his figurative wire sculptures, which have a playful, mechanical sensibility akin to wind-up toys. Some of his subsequent abstract sculptures are operated with cranks and pulleys, but his real breakthrough came with his invention of hanging sculpture. Calder’s mobiles consist of abstract shapes connected by wires and move freely with the air currents in a room.

Pictured: Calder’s Four Big Dots (1963)

It’s like a rare bird sighting: the Lichtenstein cake! Our Blue Bottle Cafe only served it for one day, three years ago.

(Who wants to start the petition to bring it back?)

via @BlueBottleSweet

Artlog covers Stage Presence: Theatricality in Art and Media, a stellar exhibition (that is perhaps in the limelight of Cindy Sherman) now on view at SFMOMA. 

Excerpt: Our society wants to be entertained. We worship at the shrines of the stage and the screen, offering them our attention and our lives. 

Read the article here.

Photo: Janet Cardiff, The Telephone Call, 2001; Audio and video walk through the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: digital video, mini DV camera, and headphones; Collection SFMOMA; © Janet Cardiff

LIVE TONIGHT FOR STAGE PRESENCE! An electronic opera score meets artist Shana Moulton’s alternate persona, Cynthia. All the pertinent details (+ tix!) can be found here. Show starts at 7:30pm.

Pictured: Tucker Nichols, 2012. Commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy the artist.

From Complex Magazine’s article, How To Make It: 15 Rules For Success From Creative Industry Insiders, a tip from SFMOMA’s Willa Koerner:

“Have a sense of humor. Don’t feel entitled to a certain type of relationship with your colleagues — rather, work at making friends and gaining the trust and respect of those you work with. In the long run, the relationships you build will be the cornerstone of your success!”

So, we’re curious: what’s your rule for success?

7x7 on Cindy Sherman at SFMOMA:

The opportunity to take in all of [Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills] at once is not to be passed up. Splayed across 3 walls, in total they reveal Sherman’s one-in-a-million talent for image construction. She knows how much meaning, albeit formulaic, can be transmitted by a particular expression, manner of dress, the way one clutches a carton of eggs. With Film Stills, Sherman lifted the veil from the modern machinery of identity construction, or at least ruffled it, and all with a sense of playful fun.

Read the whole article here.

binwa:

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (instagram) - Alex

Love the play between light + dark in this photo featuring Jim Campbell’s Exploded Views!