Denis Darzacq, “Hyper no. 10,” chromogenic print, 2008 (courtesy Laurence Miller Gallery)
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Ave. at 67th St.
March 17-20, $25 per day, $40 run of show
www.aipad.com
The thirty-first annual Association of International Photography Art Dealers Photography Show New York will feature more than eighty galleries from around the world in the Park Avenue Armory, running March 17-20. (A gala benefit preview is being held in conjunction with MoMA on March 16, with tickets ranging from $100 to $5,000.) Comprising early, contemporary, and modern photography, the event will highlight work by such artists as Mark Seliger at Steven Kasher, Abelardo Morell at Bonni Benrubi, Naomi Leshem at Andrea Meislin, Alec Soth at Weinstein, John Baldessari at Barry Singer, Alex Prager at Yancey Richardson, Denis Darzacq at Laurence Miller, Arkady Shaikhet at Nailya Alexander, and Harry Callahan, Robert Frank, Eugene Atget, and Thomas Eakins at Alan Klotz. Among the other participating galleries are New Orleans’s a Gallery for Fine Photography, La Jolla’s Joseph Bellows, Toronto’s Stephen Bulger, Munich’s Galerie f5,6, London’s Eric Franck Fine Art, Beijing’s Jade Jar Fine Art, Cologne’s Galerie Priska Pasquer, and such New York favorites as Howard Greenberg, Edwynn Houk, Robert Mann, Yossi Milo, Julie Saul, Bruce Silverstein, and Bryce Wolkowitz. AIPAD will also host a series of panel discussions ($10 each) with a bevy of prestigious guests on Saturday, including “Photography Now: How Artists Are Thinking Today,” with Larry Fink, Shirin Neshat, and Alec Soth, moderated by Julie Saul (10:00 am), “Pictures into Pages: Photography Book Publishing Now,” with Abrams’s Eric Himmel, Aperture’s Lesley Martin, Rizzoli’s Anthony Petrilose, and Steidl’s Gerhard Steidl, moderated by Steven Kasher (12 noon), “New Curators / New Directions,” with the Tate’s Simon Baker, MoMA’s Roxana Marcoci, LACMA’s Britt Salvesen, ICP’s Brian Wallis, and the Art Institute of Chicago’s Matthew S. Witkovsky, moderated by Rick Wester (2:00), “The Voice of Experience: Behind the Scenes at AIPAD Galleries, with Howard Greenberg, Peter MacGill, Yancey Richardson, and Martin Weinstein, moderated by Jill Arnold (4:00), and “AIPAD and the iPad: New Technology and Photography,” with Jen Bekman, Bill Charles, and Scott Dadich, moderated by Barbara Pollack (6:00).
Mixing in a liberal amount of Time Bandits with The Wizard of Oz, throwing in a little Hayao Miyazaki, and adding dashes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Lord of the Rings, Gremlins, Return of the Jedi, Labyrinth, and even Kill Bill, Takashi Miike has wound up with an entertaining fantasy film for both kids and adults. Known more for such ultraviolent, hard-to-watch frightfests as Audition and Ichi the Killer, Miike reveals his softer side in this genre film based on yokai manga by Shigeru Mizuki (who also plays the Demon King). Ryunosuke Kamiki is splendid as Tadashi, a young city boy taking care of his grandfather (Hiroyuki Miyasako) in a country village, where he is chosen at a local festival as the mythical Kirin Rider, the guardian of peace and friend of justice. Soon he finds himself in a real battle between good and evil, taking him from the heights of the Great Goblin’s mountain cave to the depths of a seedy underworld run by the very white Agi (Chiaki Kuriyama) and powerful mastermind Katou Yasunori (Etsushi Toyokawa). Joined by yokai spirits Kawahime (Mai Takahashi), Kawatarou (Sadao Abe), and the oh-so-cute Sunekosuri (we’d buy one of these in a second if they ever hit the market), Tadashi fights to save the human world, wielding his special sword against a phalanx of mechanical robots and other villainous creatures. At more than two hours, The Great Yokai War is at least twenty minutes too long and would have greatly benefited by the excision of one very silly subplot. But it is still a charming tale from the reigning master of horror. The Great Yokai War is screening for only $5 as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “Shinjuku Outlaw: 13 from Takashi Miike,” being held March 16-20 in conjunction with Subway Cinema and also including such Miike films as Fudoh: The New Generation (1996), The Bird People in China (1998), Shangri-la (2002), and the awesome new 13 Assassins (2010). Miike was originally scheduled to appear at the Walter Reade Theater to introduce several screenings but has had to cancel because of the catastrophic events occurring in Japan.
Takashi Miike, who about ten few years ago had New York filmgoers rushing to Film Forum to see Audition — and then rushing to get out because of the violent torture scenes — did it again with Ichi the Killer, a faithful adaptation of Hideo Yamamoto’s hit manga. When Boss Anjo goes missing while beating the hell out of a prostitute, his gang, led by Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), a multipierced blond sadomasochist, tries to find him by threatening and torturing members of other gangs. As the violence continues to grow — including faces torn and sliced off, numerous decapitations, innards splattered on walls and ceilings, body parts cut off, and self-mutilation — the killer turns out to be a young man named Ichi (Nao Omori), whose memory of a long-ago brutal rape turns him into a costumed avenger, crying like a baby as he leaves bloody mess after bloody mess on his mission to rid the world of bullies. This psychosexual S&M gorefest, which is certainly not for the squeamish, comes courtesy of the endlessly imaginative Miike, who trained with master filmmaker Shohei Imamura and seems to love really sharp objects. The excellent — and brave — cast also includes directors Sabu and Shinya Tsukamoto and Hong Kong starlet Alien Sun. The film is screening as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “Shinjuku Outlaw: 13 from Takashi Miike,” being held March 16-20 in conjunction with Subway Cinema and also including such Miike films as Fudoh: The New Generation (1996), Agitator (2001), Crows Zero II (2009), and the awesome new 13 Assassins (2010). Miike was originally scheduled to appear at the Walter Reade Theater to introduce several screenings but has had to cancel because of the catastrophic events occurring in Japan.
