ART NEWS:May 04

Sculpture Center presents an exhibition titled “Collective Stance”, by artist Leslie Hewitt. The exhibition includes two film installations along with recent sculpture and lithographs. Both film installations, were created in collaboration with cinematographer Bradford Young. “Untitled (Structures)” (2012) is a two-channel film installation inspired by an archive of civil rights-era photographs housed at the Menil Collection in Houston.  Hewitt’s installation “Untitled” (2012) is a series of steel sculptures presented alongside photolithographs. These white, industrially-made sculptures echo architectural forms and fragments inviting viewers to consider alternate perspectives and orientations in space. Info: Curator: Mary Ceruti, Sculpture Center, 44-19 Purves Street, Long Island City, Duration: 1/5-1/8/16, Days & Hours: Thu-Mon 11:00-18:00, http://sculpture-center.org

The exhibition European Photo Exhibition Award 03 (epea03) presents the work of 12 young European artists who have been invited to focus on the theme “Shifting boundaries. Landscapes of Ideals and Realities in Europe”. A first line of approach can naturally be identified in a sphere that is essentially geographical. Looking beyond the geographical connotations, it is also important to consider the notion of boundary in a more social sense, in relation to the discrepancies, connections and tensions in various individual and collective spheres of identity, taking into particular account themes which suggest changing distinctions at the level of gender, sexuality, social class, age, education, work, religion, family structures, forms of sociability, and migrations. Info: Curators: Rune Eraker, Sérgio Mah, Enrico Stefanelli & Ingo Taubhorn, Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, 39 bd de la Tour-Maubourg, Paris, Duration: 20/5-28/8/16, Days & Hours: Mon & Thu-Fri 9:00-18:00, Sat-sun 11:00-18:00, www.gulbenkian-paris.org

Jan Lauwers is an artist who works in every art discipline, incarnating “Total Art”: a humanist form of art that is inclusive. The exhibition “Silent Stories” can be approached as a moving still life. It offers a wistful look at European art history. On the basis of his lifelong archives, Jan Lauwers is building a monumental installation in which he reinterprets past works and materials and confronts them with art history. The artist creates landscapes that curve serenely and pensively question craftsmanship, virtuosity and emotion. As a creator of images and a storyteller, in his work Lauwers’ motto is that art cannot shock, but should communicate. This is why his human form of making theatre is world-renowned. Lauwers’ visual idiom embraces humanity with pensive images concerning man and nature. Info: Shanghai Ming Contemporary Art Museum, No.436 East Yonghe Road, Zhabei District, Shanghai, Duration: 20/5-31/7/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, http://mcam.io

Peter Rogiers shows a selection from his body of work produced over the last 20 years. But “CLUSTER” is more than a classical retrospective. Rogiers combines his own work with several carefully chosen works of art from the Middelheim Museum’s permanent collection. The clusters are presented, almost like new “Gesamtkunstwerken,” on large pedestals. Peter Rogiers acquires inspiration for his own work from movements as diverse as Gothic, Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the Romantic tradition of Northern Europe and Art Brut. He also gains inspiration from the “comic” and “low culture” ranging from the 1960s to today. Info: Middelheim Museum, Middelheimlaan 61, Antwerpen, Duration: 21/5-18/9/16, Days & Hours: Daily May & August 10:00-20:00, June & July 10:00-21:00, September 10:00-19:00, www.middelheimmuseum.be

Fredrik Værslev’s exhibition “All Around Amateur”, is his largest solo show to date and consists of two distinct series of new paintings. One group of works will be integrated into Bergen Kunsthall’s modernist gallery spaces as a meticulously planned architectural installation of painted canvases. For the other, Værslev will collaborate with several international artists, on his ongoing series of ‘shelf-paintings’. Værslev’s work navigates between different painterly traditions, and demonstrates how painting continues to offer the potential for effective personal expression while remaining a sober and prosaic locus for painted signs on a surface. Info: Bergen Kunsthall, Rasmus Meyers allé 5, Bergen, Duration 26/5-14/8/16, Days & Hours: Tue-sun 11:00-17:00, Thu 11:00-20:00, www.kunsthall.no

Silvestre Pestana is a visual artist, poet and performer, over the last 50 years Pestana has built up singular work. He was associated with the group of experimental poets who in the ‘60s were responsible for the introduction of Avant-Garde languages in Portugal, establishing the first link with international artistic grammars and engaging in dialogue and collaboration with groups of European and South American artists. Pestana was also a pioneer of Performance Art in Portugal. The exhibition “Technoform” at Serralves dedicates special attention to this aspect, proposing the activation of old and new performances in the Museum’s galleries, along with works that include drawings, photographs, ‘computer poems’, videos, sculptures and experiences with holographs and stereoscopes. Info: Curator: João Ribas, Assistant Curator: Paula Fernandes, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Rua D. João de Castro 210, Porto, Duration: 26/5-18/9/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-19:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-20:00, www.serralves.pt

Monnaie de Paris presents the exhibition “Merci Raymond by Bertrand Lavier”. More than an exhibition, these are stories, anecdotes, and presentations that Bertrand Lavier has staged in the rooms of Monnaie de Paris that create connections and unexpected confrontations with the works of Raymond Hains. This artist, an exponent of New Realism, known in particular for his lacerated posters, tireless mixer of words, is thus presented and highlighted by his friend and accomplice Bertrand Lavier. With production of new artworks and revisiting his emblematic pieces, Bertrand Lavier deals with the visual and verbal connections that can be established between his “projects” and those of Raymond Hains; illuminating his friend’s works while sharing his sense of humour. Info: Curator: Chiara Parisi, Monnaie de Paris, 11 Quai de Conti, Paris, Duration: 27/5-17/7/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Wed & Fri-sun 11:00-19:00, Thu 11:00-22:00, www.monnaiedeparis.fr

Joe Reihsen’s paintings are characterized by optical illusions, and vigorous and determined overlays of polymers that often exceed every possible limit of the surface. The titles for the works in the exhibition “Being The Seeing”, borrow text from guided mindfulness meditation recordings. This naming device is in contrast to previous exhibitions, which featured text from the ‘missed connections’ section on Craigslist. Both of these fields occupy important positions within our contemporary condition of connectedness. The ‘missed connections’ listings present themselves as a barometer for the alienation and new intimacy brought about since the rise of the Internet. Info: Praz-Delavallade Gallery, 5 rue des Haudriettes, Paris, Duration: 28/5-21/6/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.praz-delavallade.com