ART NEWS:April 01

For his solo  exhibition “Ada”, Alex Katz has peered into his past to revisit works from throughout his oeuvre. These new paintings re-present cropped copies of earlier iconic portraits from 1957 to 2008 of the artist’s wife Ada. In works such as “Ada 8”, which is a cropped version of the 1989 work “Ada in Red”, the accessories and adornments have fallen away, leaving the stark visage of the human face, floating outside of time and context. By reworking portraits from his past, Katz has in turn mirrored the present moment. Employing a bright palette, graphic sensibility, and cinematic framing of each composition, the works on view highlight the artist’s resilience and originality. The subject of countless drawings and prints, Katz has painted his wife Ada hundreds of times over the years. Recognisable by her dark brown hair, wide set dark eyes, and full lips, Ada is relatable yet remains at a distance, self-contained and inscrutable. Viewing these works together reveal an unexpected range of emotion and complexity in Katz’s depiction of Ada. Through the lapse in time between the original portraits, the artist reveals and conceals Ada’s identity in the flat yet bold simplicity of the painting, she could be many different people. Info: Gladstone Gallery, Grote Hertstraat 12 Rue du Grand Cerf, Brussels, Belgium, Duration: 31/3-11/6/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, sat 12:00-18:00, www.gladstonegallery.com/

“Abundant Futures: Works from the TBA21 Collection” is an essay exhibition that presents and formulates a daring attempt to imagine worldmaking and ecological futures from the condition of abundance and fullness. It places a wealth of artistic visions and into conversation, gesturing at the multiplicity of worlds humans and nonhumans cohabit, a world of many worlds. The vast selection of works from TBA21’s collection represents different generations of artists across multiple geographies. It charts unexplored trajectories and maps out new paths for conceiving regenerative life-relations toward abundant ways of living together. Over the course of the exhibition’s long trajectory, new works will be added to it, replacing others or enriching the initial constellations. Focusing on abundance is a matter of ontology, ethics, and ecological thought. Art, culture, and education join together to advance and reformulate ecological and visionary practices, which shape our experiences of the world. They occupy spaces for the rehearsal of social, ecological, and artistic/poetic scenarios that can alter human interaction with the planet and allow new forms of conviviality to emerge. Info: Centro Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía (C3A), Carmen Olmedo Checa, Córdoba, Spain, Duration: 1/4/2022-5/3/2023. Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-20:00, Sun 11:00-15:00, www.juntadeandalucia.es

Midori Sato’s solo exhibition “Floating Drapery”  features a selection of the artist’s new paintings including an ambitious large-scale work measuring over two-meters. Midori Sato’s works are characterized by their depictions of closets packed full of colorful clothes, an array of high-heeled shoes on shelves, carpets, vivid assortments of flowers, and fruit. Sato expresses sincere fondness for such motifs that many likely consider beautiful, and while depicting her yearning and affection in a straightforward manner, presents them as contemporary manifestations of elegance and worlds of fantasy in her paintings through the overlaying of vibrant colors and rich imagination. However, it can be said that the appeal of Sato’s work lies not only in its beautifully figurative aspect, but also the bold brushstrokes that dynamically unfold across the surface of the large canvas, as well as the remarkable composition of her paintings. The motifs Sato depicts tend to have widespread appeal. Yet upon closer observation, one comes to realize that her brushstrokes are bold and ferocious, reminiscent of those of abstract expressionism. Info: Tomio Koyama Gallery, complex665 2F, 6-5-24, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, Duration: 2-30/4/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, http://tomiokoyamagallery.com

In “Off the Record”, Erkan Özgen is showing five impressive video works. Although his work deals with complex issues surrounding war, trauma, and violence, he has made a conscious decision not to use explicitly violent images. He wants to compensate for the daily flood of information on conflicts around the world, as these make it easy to forget that – behind the numbers and horrific images – actual people are involved. The visual language Özgen creates in his videos almost makes the impact of violence and trauma on people tangible. His work highlights the fact that spoken and written language alone are often insufficient tools for making people understand the effects of war. The poignant and powerful video “Wonderland” (2016), for instance, features thirteen-year-old Muhammed. In 2015, he and his family fled from Syria to Derik, the district of Mardin in the southeastern part of Turkey. Muhammed is deaf and uses sign language to tell us about the horrors he witnessed in his native country. Even though Muhammed is not talking, his eloquent way of communicating is universal and piercingly confronts us with the atrocities of war. Info: Kunsthal Rotterdam, Museumpark, Westzeedijk 341, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Duration: 2/4-28/8/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00, www.kunsthal.nl

Celebrating  the 150 years since the birth of Piet Mondrian Kunstmuseum Den Haag, whose Mondrian collection, numbering over 300 items, is the largest in the world, cannot let this pass unnoticed. To mark this nniversary, the museum has created an exhibition exploring Mondrian’s inspiring relationships with friends and fellow artists of his time, and his role as a source of inspiration to many artists who came after him. Mondrian often changed his style dramatically, exchanging his early dark landscapes for the exuberant compositions of De Stijl and the neo-plastic style he helped to develop. “Victory Boogie Woogie” his final painting, and a highlight of his oeuvre – is presented in this exhibition as a grande finale, and also as the starting point for post-war and abstract art. Since the 1970s Kunstmuseum Den Haag’s collection of Mondrians has largely informed its acquisitions policy and method, as well as how the museum regards its own collection and contemporary art in general. Over the years the museum has purchased work by a range of artists who feel some connection to Mondrian, including Bridget Riley, Fred Sandback, Rob van Koningsbruggen, Bob Bonies, Isa Genzken and Remy Jungerman. The makers of this exhibition raise the question of what stewardship of such an important and inspiring collection means for a museum. Info: Cirators: Benno Tempel and Caro Verbeek, Mondrian Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Stadhouderslaan 41, Den Haag, The Netherlands, Duration: 2/4-25/9/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00, www.kunstmuseum.nl

Ugo Rondinone presents his solo exhibition “nuns and monks by the sea” in both the Kukje Gallery’s Seoul and Busan spaces. The strategy of showing work in different venues simultaneously is one that Rondinone often employs, allowing him to directly engage both space and time, thereby widening the spectrum in which his work is experienced. Viewers are prompted to walk through his work, moving physically and metaphysically, listening as much as seeing, feeling as much as understanding. This openness is a recurrent theme in Rondinone’s practice and binds his many projects despite their diversity in material and symbolism. It is in the spirit of this focus and renewal that he presents the exhibition , consisting of two unique bodies of work installed in the different exhibition spaces. Originally composed using smaller limestone maquettes, the artist has scanned and enlarged them in cast bronze capturing the more intimate attributes of the studies and creating an uncanny balance of finely textured forms and towering proportion. They are ecstatic, they move in their stillness stirred by the same winds favored by Baroque artists. Info: Kukje Gallery, 54 Samcheong-ro, Jongno-gu Seoul, Korea, Duration: 5/4-15/5/2022, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-18:00, Sun 10:00-17:00 & Kukje Gallery, F1963, 20 Gurak-ro 123Beon-gil, Suyeong-gu, Busan, Korea, Duration: 5/4-15/5/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.kukjegallery.com

“OPERA (QM.15)” by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, is taking up residence in Gallery 3 of the Bourse de Commerce, infusing it the presence of Maria Callas. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s oeuvre is inspired by the living me-ory of cinema, literature, and the open structures of architecture and music. In 2012, she began a series of performance works, or apparitions as she calls them, in which she embodies figures such as Bob Dylan, Emily Brontë, and Ludwig II of Bavaria, who together create M.2062, a fragmented opera with no beginning and no end, thus effacing any idea of a constant unit of time and action. These performances, in which the artist lets herself be inhabited by other characters, are sometimes in the form of holographic projections that bring iconic performances to life once again: Sarah Bernhardt in the role of L’Aiglon or Klaus Kinski playing the possessed Fitzcarraldo. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster leaves the work open, giving it a sense of unfamiliarity that brings out the “here and now” and places the visitor at the heart of the work. Info: Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, 2 Rue de Viarmes, Paris, France, Duration: 6/4/2022-2/1/2023, Days & Hours: Mon-Thu & Sat-sun 11:00-19:00, Fri 11:00-21:00, www.pinaultcollection.com

The exhibition “Technology and craftsmanship, an architecture of wonder” offers a rereading of Michel Polak’s work in the light of the historical, technological and stylistic upheavals of the time, showing him both accommodating himself to and standing out from the prevailing aesthetics, reinterpreting the codes in force, absorbing the discoveries of his time and positioning himself vis-à-vis his contemporaries. An exhibition circuit with rare archive documents, period photos, original plans and previously unseen films will shed new light on the architect’s work. Sometimes overlooked, architect and aesthete Michel Polak nonetheless created many buildings that are now seen as emblematic of the City of Brussels, among them the Residence Palace, the Hotel Plaza and the Villa Empain. His career, spanning the entire first half of the 20th century, mirrors this culturally and aesthetically effervescent period. Representative of the styles of the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Polak’s work stands out for its opulence and luxury. Via his creations we see the profession of architect evolve towards that of architect-artist and a growing interest in the East, in African art and in discoveries in Egyptology. Info: Curators: Stéphanie De Blieck & Manon Magotteaux, Boghossian Foundation, Villa Empain, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 67, Brussels, Belgium, Duration: 7/4-21/8/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-sun 11:00-18:00, www.villaempain.com

Robert Devriendt in his solo exhibition  “The Missing Script 4. Exit Highway” unveils a series of small paintings assembled like a film montage. It all exudes the suspense of film stills. The thematic approach and the combination of paintings are not haphazard and reveal the relationship between the artist and the art of painting, cinematography and images in general. This is  the most recent project of Devriendt and can be seen as a large series that has evolved over several years. View it as “a unique interpretation of a storyboard”. Dark characters and surprising objects are depicted in changing decors in which a drama may be suggested. The artist looks at processing images in which the viewer plays a central role. He makes an outspoken statement within the contemporary image culture and vision of reality. The spectator is invited to act as a detective interpreting the ‘broken stories’ and challenge his own imagination via the gaps between the paintings. According to Devriendt, we are all voyeurs. Info: Xippas Gallery, Rue des Sablons 6, Genève, Switzerland, Duration: 7/4-7/5/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-13:00 & 14:00-18:30, Sat 12:00-17:00, www.xippas.com

Aida Mahmudova presents her new body of work in her solo show “Liminality”. Commenting on her rapidly modernising country’s forgotten and marginal corners, Mahmudova uses art as an outlet to give a feeling of stability to co-exist in this unprecedented environment. Art gives no boundaries and opens to any communicational variations for the artist. In her new series of works, Mahmudova explains: “It’s the artist and the medium. The never-ending relationship between me and the other resembles perpetual conversation. It takes full involvement from both sides. The act itself is the purest form of creation. This, in turn, gives you a unique opportunity to engage in authentic and unguarded communication with unfolding perspectives. It connects and unites us in the moment of now, giving versatile, unpredictable and beautiful outcomes”. Aida Mahmudova is an Azerbaijani artist and founder of YARAT Contemporary Art Space in Baku. Info: Curator:  Alistair Hicks, Gazelli Art House, Gazelli Art House, 39 Dover Street, London, United Kingdom, Duration: 8/4-14/5/2022, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-19:00, https://gazelliarthouse.com