ART NEWS:March 01

“So Far So Good” is the first solo exhibition of Paul Czerlitzki in Italy. The conceptual paintings of the artist, constitute series of works, so-called pictorial corpora, which are connected with one another from the beginning of the process of creation onwards. The exhibition includes a wall painting and large-scale canvas works. In the site specific wall work Czerlitzki uses the canvas only as a performative transfer material: the acrylic colour penetrates the fibres of the canvas and it’s transferred onto the walls behind. In this way the artist has only a conditional, contingent influence on the result. The works so created are depictions of the canvas structure inverted into the negative. Info: Brand New Gallery, via Carlo Farini 32, Milan, duration: 2/3-2/4/16, days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-13:00 & 14:30-19:00, www.brandnew-gallery.com

The Artist’s Institute is a non-profit research and exhibition space for contemporary art that dedicates six-month seasons to a single artist whose work prompts a series of public programs with related artists and thinkers. In her exhibition Hilton Als talks about his six months at Institute as an emotional retrospective. For more than thirty years, Als has archived his feelings about those he’s encountered intimately and from a distance in two books of essays and in publications. Info: The Artist’s Institute, 132 East 65th Street, New York, Duration: 2/3-7/8/16, days & Hours: Wed-Sat 12:00-18:00, http://theartistsinstitute.org

Brian Calvin’s painted world in the exhibition “Hours” is familiar because it speaks to different generations at the same time. There’s a painterly affiliation with the so-called flatness of form in Alex Katz’s research, together with a Warholian legacy of image making. It’s also possible to relate to another mindset and have lo-fi music sounds guiding you through his painted representations. Info: Almine Rech Gallery, Abdijstraat 20 Rue de l’Abbaye, Brussels, Duration: 3/3-12/4/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.alminerech.com

Claudia Andujar in her solo exhibition “Marcados”, presents 80 black and white photographs never before exhibited in Buenos Aires. From 1981 to 1984, Andujar spent long periods of time in the lands of the Yanomami Indians, mostly in the basin of the Catrimani River at the Brazilian border. This work, which is anthropological in nature, was motivated by two factors: the desire to help the Yanomami people survive by vaccinating inhabitants of a number of settlements and on a more conceptual level, the desire to positively identify individuals in order to counter the artist’s own experience in which family and friends were singled out and killed by the Nazis in concentration camps. Info: Curator: Agustín Pérez Rubio, MALBA, Avda. Figueroa Alcorta 3415, Buenos Aires, Duration: 4/3-31/7/16, Days & Hours: Thu-Mon 12:00-20:00, Wed 12:00-21:00, www.malba.org.ar

In her exploration of belonging, origin and uprootedness, Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai questions received ideas of cultural and sexual identity. While her past works often deal with the taboo issue of female sexuality in her home country, her current artistic research centres around individual vs. social and real vs. fictitious conceptions of life. For her recent project titled “Another World”, Nguyen Thi Thanh worked with young women in Berlin who she approached in the street, befriended and, once she had become close to them, followed back into their homes. It was there that she took on the identity of these women by imitating their gestures and appearance. As a result of adopting a new temporary identity, the artist was seemingly transformed into a different person. Info: Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Kottbusser Strasse 10, Berlin, Duration: 4-27/3/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 14:00-19:00, www.kfw-stiftung.de

The exhibition “New Sensorium. Exiting from Failures of Modernization” focuses on new sensory realms, indicating a new consciousness that derives from globalization and digitalization. This sensorium goes beyond mere sensory inputs; it also includes an accompanying cognition, which constantly re-evaluates our rapidly changing living conditions. In this sense, our new sensorium is a collection of means enabling us to explore the transient, but close conjunction between our virtual and our actual lives. The exhibitio presents the work of 16 artists, mostly from Central Asia and the Middle East. Rooted in a distinctly non-Western tradition, it presents perspectives on how to deal differently with phenomena, i.e. holistically integrating thought and action, while omitting an anthropocentric subject/object dualism. Info: Curator: Yuko Hasegawa, ZKM – Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Lorenzstr. 19, Karlsruhe, Duration: 5/3-4/9/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Fri 10:00-18:00 Sat-Sun 11:00-18:00, http://zkm.de

“Purpose”, is the title of the first exhibition in Europe of the American painter Anna Conway. Four new works were created in 2015 especially for this exhibition. Conway’s approach to representation, which is equally precise, methodical, intuitive and analytical, not only involves a depiction of scenes that interweave close observation and pure imagination. She is also concerned in a picture with where we are, at what point in time, who inhabits the space, and what may be going on in his or her mind. In this respect she is as much a short story writer, or a screenwriter, or a reporter as a painter. Info: Collezione Maramotti, Via Fratelli Cervi 66, Reggio Emilia, Duration: 6/3-31/7/16, Days & Hours: Thu & Fri 14:40-18:30, Sat-sun 10:30-18:30 visits must be booked in advance, www.collezionemaramotti.org