Peres Projects presents People Are Strangle, an exhibition of new works by the Houston based, American artist Mark Flood. On view till March 10th, 2012 at Peres Projects Berlin (Mitte).

Portland, Maine – On view at the Portland Museum of Art, two newly acquired portfolios by Berenice Abbott and Robert Doisneau, filled with portraits of famous artists and actors of the mid-20th century, prompted this look at the art of photographic portraiture. Drawn from the Museum’s growing collection of celebrity portraits, the exhibition of 35 works will examine the way in which appearance, poses, and props help to define the public perception of an artist’s work, whether it be on the stage or in a museum. Making Faces: Photographic Portraits of Actors and Artists is on view until April 8 at the Portland Museum of Art, Seven Congress Square, Portland, Maine.

A handwritten joke by artist Richard Prince.

Published by Ooga Booga, Fruits and Nuts is a handmade board book by Laura Owens that takes its title from a play on the joke about California being full of fruits and nuts. The pages of each book are hand-glued with actual newsprint from different Californian 1960s newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle, Berkeley Barb, and Los Angeles Times, and then silkscreened, making each book truly unique. Inside pages are screenprinted with an illustrated alphabet of fruits and nuts. Covers are hand-painted by the artist, and vary in color. Each copy is entirely handmade and features different original newsprint on each page.  Wednesday night, Feb 8th, 7-9pm, at the Ooga Booga store on Tu Bishvat (the Jewish holiday of fruits and nuts) will be a celebration of the  publication of Fruits & Nuts. Copies of the book will be available for viewing and purchase, the artist will be present, and refreshments (champagne, California-grown fruits and nuts, etc.) will be provided. Ooga Booga, 943 N. Broadway #203, Los Angeles CA 90012

A detail of Diana Thater’s The Future Was An Illusion, 1997, a new acquisition by the MOCA Los Angeles. 

From artist Richard Prince’s Girlfriend series. One of the greatest contemporary artists.

Pictured above, Abbey Meaker photographs a piece by Mike Kelley at Art Basel Miami last December. Mike Kelley, who has reportedly ended his own life at 57 years old, was an artist with an outsider spirit who found himself not only on the inside of the art world, but on the top, and found it too hard a cross to bear. Kelley’s work involved found objects, textile banners, drawings, assemblage, collage, performance and video. He often worked collaboratively and had done projects with artists Paul McCarthy, Tony Oursler and John Miller. Kelley was often associated with the concept of abjection, “the state of being cast off.” Photograph by Natalia Vuley.

Art by Daniel B. Sierra

American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist John Cage, who died in 1992, would have been 100 this year and there are a slew of events to celebrate the centenary – including EVERYDAYJOHNCAGE in the city of Rimini, Italy where every single day of 2012 from January 1st to December 31st a viral system distributes publicly and privately, fragments and materials related to John Cage, and  an exhibition entitled Things Not Seen Before: A Tribute to John Cage, a visual art exhibition at Tempus Projects, organized by Independent Curator Jade Dellinger. Inspired by a line from a letter the curator (as a student – in the late 1980’s) received from the late, great composer concerning the work of Marcel Duchamp, Cage noted: “I am not interested in the names of movements but rather in seeing and making things not seen before.” Visit www.johncage.org to see all events.