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    Nicole Campoy-Leffler

    Nicole Campoy-Leffler

    Associate Arts Editor

  • WATCH: Photographs Of Elizabeth Taylor's 1976 Visit To Iran At LACMA

    1976 saw the one and only time Elizabeth Taylor would visit Iran. An exotic and educational excursion for Taylor, her travel partner was Firooz Zahedi, then an art school graduate and today a successful Hollywood photographer. Zahedi proved to be not only useful in documenting Taylor's experiences and discoveries, but for him the trip was a reintroduction to his home country, which he had left at a young age.

  • WATCH: 'Kathy Griffin Wants A Tony' Opens On Broadway

    Where some complimented her rapid-fire takes on pop-culture and compare her to Joan Rivers (an inarguable compliment), some thought she seemed nervous on opening night. Regardless, Griffin clearly maintains her long-standing position that she doesn't care what you think while she's acting like she desperately cares what you think.

  • Studio Visit: Aaron Johnson's Cast Of Characters On Beautiful/Decay

    Aaron Johnson's sunny Brooklyn studio is full of riotous, colorfully undulating, larger-than-life monsters. Now he's including Old-Master appropriations, political satire, religious abominations, gender-benders, and personal references, all played out in monstrous iconography. Aaron had a 2-person show with Barnaby Whitfeld titled "Don't Be Scared You're Supposed to Be" in Washington DC at Irvine Contemporary.

  • WATCH: HuffPost Arts' Guide To SXSW Music, Film, Interactive

    Each year around this time, a large selection of tech-geeks, art-geeks, and music-geeks convene in Texas for South By Southwest, an all-inclusive festival that tickles each of their fancies. The festival, which runs from March 11 - 20 in Austin, Texas, has three distinct schedules for Music, Film, and Interactive that invite some of the foremost talent from each from around the world to speak, perform, and enlighten.

  • PHOTOS: 'Afghanistan: Crossroads Of The Ancient World' On View At British Museum

    The Afghani art and artifacts on view now at the British Museum showcase not only the rich cultural heritage of Afghanistan but, because these antiquities were nearly lost as a result of war and Taliban rule, it highlights the dangers that artifacts in Egypt and now Libya face. "Afghanistan: Crossroads Of The Ancient World," which opens March 3rd in London, will display over 200 pieces found in important archaeological excavations and works on loan from the Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul, which is currently undergoing renovations. Among the prized objects in the exhibit is a gold crown from Tillya Tepe, which was carefully dismantled and reassembled in order to travel to the British Museum.

  • PHOTOS: Huge Muhammad Ali Sculpture Made Of Punching Bags

    Paying homage to a legendary figure can be risky - you have to make sure your work is large enough to really pay tribute to the person's legacy, while not making it so large that it looks like mockery. While Detroit has been hustling to get funding for a statue of RoboCop, LA-based sculptor Michael Kalish has created an enormous tribute to the great Muhammad Ali, called reALIze, to be unveiled to the public on March 25 at Nokia Plaza at L.A. Live. Over the course of two years, Kalish put together 1,300 punching bags, 6.5 miles of stainless steel cable, and 2,500 pounds of aluminum pipe to build a 22-ft high sculpture.

  • New Iceman Oetzi Model On Display At Italian Museum

    Visitors will get to see Iceman Oetzi under a new light starting Tuesday at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, which celebrates the 20th anniversary of the mummy's discovery. Based on three-dimensional images of the mummy's skeleton as well as the latest forensic technology, a new model of the living Oetzi has been created by Dutch experts Alfons and Adrie Kennis. Recent research has indeed shown the Iceman, now approaching the tender age of 5,300 years, did not have blue eyes as previously believed.

  • Gagosian Snags Global Representation Of Sculptor John Chamberlain

    The Gagosian Gallery is a household name in its own right with mega-galleries in New York, LA, London, Hong Kong, Geneva, Paris, and Rome, to name a few. Larry Gagosian's roster of represented artists reads like a major museum exhibit with names ranging from Ed Ruscha to Alberto Giacometti and from Damien Hirst to Richard Serra. Most recognized for his monumental sculptures crafted from crushed car parts welded together, Chamberlain's work will be exhibited at Gagosian Gallery in New York this spring before traveling around the world to other Gagosian locations.

  • WATCH: 'Castellers' Create Amazing Human Towers In Spain

    This video will make you hold your breath. 'Castellers' in Spain are people who create incredibly tall human towers in a sea of... more humans. A long running tradition throughout Catalonia, Spain, these brave souls struggle and shake as smaller and smaller folk climb to the top of each 'tower.' The annual competitions held in thw town of Tarragona showcase ever-developing techniques since the tower building began at the end of the 18th century. The crowd of people watching as each tower grows taller doubles up as support for those 'castellers' climbing to the top - arms entwined to catch anyone that may fall.

  • WATCH: Artist Paints George Clooney As God's Gift To Women In Cincinnati Mural

    George Clooney may only be in Cincinnati temporarily filming 'The Ides of March,' but one local artist, Mark Schmidt, has commemorated the occasion by painting a mural of Clooney as Adam in Michelangelo's 'The Creation of Man' painting in the Sistine Chapel. The mural is situated just outside an Studio Vertu, a gallery in the center of town. The artist, as you can see in the video below, is hoping that Clooney will not only notice that his mug has been placed upon Adam's in the iconic painting, but will take some sort of action - whether it's taking a picture in front of the mural or taking it to hang on his walls in Lake Como, Italy.

  • Presidents Hit The Streets On Brooklyn Street Art

    Happy Presidents Day! In the US this is a holiday, officially to celebrate the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln, whose birthdays were commemorated separately until about a decade ago when they were merged.  A lot of New Yorkers think today about skiing, since it's really the last 3 day weekend of the winter -- and it's snowing this morning so a lot of kids will be shoved outside by their parents to go play in it. Or they may take them to the Met , Guggenheim, or MOMA, which are all open today.

  • Met Opera To Stage Opera With 3D Projections

    The Metropolitan Opera has maintained its position at the forefront of using technology to their advantage, which is a practice most other opera companies have not employed as successfully. The Metropolitan Opera's new production of "Siegfried" staged by Robert Lepage will feature 3D projections like the ones recently tested (in the photo) on a scale model at Ex Machina's production workshop in Quebec City.

  • Warhol Self-Portrait Sells For $17.4 Million At Auction

    A colossal self-portrait by "pope of pop" Andy Warhol sold for £10.8 million pounds ($17.4 million) at Christie's in London on Wednesday, doubling pre-auction expectations. The auction house's evening sale of Post-War and Contemporary art fetched an impressive £61.4 million ($99 million) - the highest London result in the category since June 2008 and well above the £51.8 million pre-sale high estimate. Dealer Larry Gagosian, bidding in the room, was underbid by Andreas Rumbler of Christie's on the phone and New York collector and dealer Jose Mugrabi, also in the room, Bloomberg reported.

  • PHOTOS: Artist Wes Lang's Studio Visit On Beautiful/Decay

    Daylight filtered in from the street over walls resplendent with tattoo flash, hand-painted jackets, flags, and pics of beautiful women. Amazing paintings are everywhere you look. It's being shipped off this week to Galleri Brandstrup in Olso Norway.

  • Street Artist Turns William And Kate Into Sid And Nancy For Wedding Gift

    Prince William and Kate Middleton have never looked so punk rock. Street artist Rich Simmons has transformed the engaged royal couple from upper crust to punk rock icons in a new mural he painted as their wedding gift.

  • WATCH: Anna Nicole Smith Opera To Premiere At London's Royal Opera House

    The day you knew would someday come is nearly upon us - the opera based on Anna Nicole Smith's life is set to premiere at London's Royal Opera House on Thursday. Whether your first encounter with Anna Nicole was her iconic ads for Guess Jeans, her highly publicized second marriage to a wealthy octogenarian 62-years her senior, or her work as a spokesman for TrimSpa, she was a household name before she died in 2007. Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Richard Thomas were pegged perfectly to compose and write this opera, having worked on Greek and The Silver Tassie and Jerry Springer: the Opera, respectively.

  • WATCH: Who Is Esperanza Spalding And Why She Won The Grammy

    When the nominees for the Best New Artist Grammy Award were read off on Sunday night, everyone (whether they were watching or not) assumed that Justin Bieber was headed up on stage to accept it. The other nominees included Mumford & Sons who had just performed alongside Bob Dylan, Florence And The Machine, and Drake. Oh.. and Esperanza Spalding, who ended up taking home the Grammy.

  • National Army Museum Exhibits Love Letters Between Soldiers And Loved Ones

    Restaurant reservations and boxes of chocolates come and go, but love letters (and their modern day counterparts) last forever. There is no better proof of their lasting effects than the UK National Army Museum's timely exhibit "Wives And Sweethearts," which chronicles love letters and images sent between soldiers and their loved ones in all stages of romance. From the early 1800s to modern day romances, the exhibit takes you from "Courtship and Engagement" to "Separation" and "Reunion" with letters and photographs exchanged via the old fashion postal service.

  • Stephen Colbert To Auction Off Portrait At Phillips De Pury

    Stephen Colbert has worn many hats, but art dealer is the newest. When Martin declined, Colbert invited Frank Stella, Shepard Fairey, and Andres Serrano to update (with horns, a suggestive mustache, and an "Obey" medal) the portrait.

  • WATCH: What To Watch: Top Operas To See Before They Close

    With LA Opera's much publicized, controversially directed, and astronomically expensive production of Richard Wagner's full Ring Cycle officially over, we're now seeing a slew of other companies putting on the cycle at their own risk (ahem, San Francisco Opera). Other companies, however, have maintained a diversified season with plenty of Italian, German, and French canonical works mixed with somewhat lesser known operas like the upcoming Anna Bolena at Dallas Opera and the new(ish) Nixon In China at the Met in New York.