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Back in 2011, I stopped in Melaka Malaysia for a few days on my 3-month trip through Southeast Asia. I nearly fell in love with the town. Back then I noted that the town was on the verge of over-touristification. I admired the fact that Melaka was more or less a living, breathing town. Sure [...] Read more »
Naoshima Island is one of the most interesting art projects I’ve come across during my travels. Since 1989, the small island, located in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, has slowly been transformed into a series of art installations and museums. Threatened with depopulation, the island was revitalized by the cultural foundation Seto Inland Sea Project, [...] Read more »
I went to Washington DC’s Hirshhorn Gallery without really knowing anything about Ai Weiwei’s artistic career. I was mostly interested in seeing if Ai is a great artist, or if the US media pays him attention simply because he is outspoken against the Chinese government. Ai Weiwei: According to What? Contemporary art transcends [...] Read more »
Warning: the following is a guest post by a Renaissance pigeon. All opinions expressed are his own and not Bohemian Traveler’s. The true story of why they moved Michelangelo’s David inside I want to tell you a story. The story of David and the real reason they moved him. You see, Michelangelo’s David is the [...] Read more »
Helsinki is defined by design. The city rebuilt itself in the wake of the Second World War and excelled at design. It was cutting edge and the world noticed. Helsinki is still pioneering the realm of design. In 2012 it is the World Design Capital. I wanted to post some photos that expressed some of [...] Read more »
History and Superlatives of Santa Fe We somehow brought the July monsoon with us from the north. It rained in Taos and continued in Santa Fe. There they were grateful for it. Santa Fe sits at 7,199 ft. (2,194 m.), making it the highest capital in the United States. It’s also the oldest capital in [...] Read more »
The Connecticut River Valley seemed to be filled with off-the-beaten path interesting sites. I already wrote about the Cornish-Windsor Bridge, and visiting the Harpoon Brewery over in Windsor, known as the birthplace of Vermont, where their state constitution was signed. On the other side of the river in New Hampshire, just north of Cornish, some [...] Read more »
During the first Friday of each month, the Old City art district in Philadelphia has an open house for its galleries. Each of the galleries is open to the public, many with beer or wine on hand, as well as art vendors who spread themselves along the sidewalks. It’s one of the best cultural experiences [...] Read more »
By Stephen Bugno Paul Gauguin was born in Paris and moved to Peru at age three where he lived for four years. In his teens he was a sailor. In his twenties, a stockbroker in Paris and Copenhagen. At one point Gauguin took a job on the Panama Canal which lasted only two weeks. This [...] Read more »
Botero back by Popular demand This second round of Botero on Bohemian Traveler (see the first round of Botero sculptures) features his works, mostly paintings, which are located inside the Museo de Antioquia in Medellin. Most of these paintings are from a collection worth an estimated $200 million that the artist donated to the city [...] Read more »
I found this stencil graffiti just outside of Cartegena University. The graffiti artist poses an interesting question. Is the graffiti around this stencil art or not? Which graffiti is street art and which is just an eye sore simply making work for the people that have to clean it? Or is the artist questioning his [...] Read more »
By Stephen Bugno After Pablo Escobar, Medellin, Colombia’s most famous son is Fernando Botero. He is perhaps South America’s most beloved artist. You might recognize his art as those characterized by the use of distorted proportions, or more simply, his people and animals look a little fat. I’ve been bumping into Botero’s work around Europe [...] Read more »
By Stephen Bugno Over-crowded, polluted, dangerous. These were some of the misconceptions I had about Mexico City. Strolling the quiet, tree-lined neighborhoods of Coyoacon, the one-time neighborhood of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Leon Trotsky, you would never know you are surrounded by 21 million people. The only time I got a true appreciation for [...] Read more »
By Stephen Bugno Last Sunday I caught the Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. While the photos themselves are not necessarily extraordinary as the Washington Post will attest, the exhibit as a whole offers us an extraordinary look into the Beat generation through the [...] Read more »