ART NEWS:March 04
The all-female group exhibition “Considerate Creations: Chameleons” implies that the hard work done behind the scenes allows art projects to successfully come to fruition. Videos, photographs and installations, all of which focus on the different roles of an artist’s life, are part of the exhibition. Besides discussing their many roles, the exhibition also addresses family issues such as marital and parental relations. The exhibition consists of two parts. The first part is taking place at the Taiwan Academy, in June, the second half will be held at Gallery 456, New York. “Chameleon artists” is a global phenomenon in the art world, and it speaks to a certain quality of this business. When administrators or other art professionals work as artists, everything involved in their job becomes as equally fascinating as their art. They provide a novel viewpoint on various issues, and the outcome is fluid and influential. Info: Curator: I-Hua Lee, Taipei Cultural Center, Taiwan Academy in New York, , 1 East 42rd Street, New York, Duration: 17/3-28/4/17, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 9:30-17:30, www.tpecc.org
Willehad Eilers aka Wayne Horse in his solo exhibition “Alles Wird Gut” presents ink drawings that celebrate decadence, encounters, mutations, romance and disgust. Loosely depicted, the new drawings show scenes of large crowds going wild and indulging in all sorts of pleasures. As scenes of victorious parties after a big triumph, they carry a positive message under all the vintage debauchery. In this manner he is using the compositions of historical paintings but replacing the politically charged masses with modern day festival crowds. His eclectic body of work comprises video, drawing, performance and installation, and is distinctive for its lyrical quality, playful humour and expressiveness. A recurring narrative in his oeuvre revolves around the bizarre, occasionally ugly but always compelling aspects of humanity. Info: A Juan Project, Geldersekade 28, Amsterdam, Duration: 18/3-17- , http://ajuanproject.com
Taking China’s evolving if still troubled national condition vis-à-vis the rising backlash against globalization on other continents as a point of departure, the exhibition “The New Normal” includes work by 23 artists and artist groups from China and beyond, occupying all four UCCA galleries. It arrays works that probe exceptional nodes as a way of examining underlying conditions, and surveys the current state of art in 2017, a curious point in history grounded in an imploding social reality. The exhibition continues the Center’s long-term research into new directions in China’s contemporary art scene as well as the institutional tradition of mounting a large-scale group exhibition once every four years. During this exhibition one of the four UCCA galleries, has been transformed into a Pavilion of Exception for public events and exchange. The Pavilion house a standing reading room displaying an extended collection of books selected by the exhibition curators, participating artists, and scholars. Info: Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), 798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, Duration: 19/3-9/7/17, Days & Hours: Daily 10:00-19:00, http://ucca.org.cn
For the annual exhibition at the Frank F. Yang Art and Education Foundation (FY Foundation), three artists whose works are already present within the collection have been invited to work together closely with the curator to develop the exhibition “Everything You Need To Know About The FY Foundation: An exhibition”, playing the role of a host within its overall format. Their immediate point of departure is their own work from the FY Foundation Collection, from which they develop a new body of work, while also including other works from the collection. In this way, they will propose a new set of relationships between the exhibition itself and the collection. To further explore the notion of context, the exhibition also span both areas that the Foundation oversees: the exhibition space and the company, thereby blending the ritual of exhibition-making with the day-to-day necessities of the corporate environment. Info: Curator: Biljana Ciric, You Space, Building 2#, Room 201 Nanhai E- Cool, Shekou, Shenzhen, Duration: 20/3-23/6/17, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, www.fyfoundation.com
“Utopia/Dystopia” is the first “manifesto exhibition” to be held in MAAT kunsthalle. This project is a large group show featuring more than 60 works by a range of international artists and architects, some appearing for the first time in Portugal. The exhibition reveals how the two fields have represented ideas of utopia, or anticipated emerging notions of dystopia, since the early 1970s, with a strong focus on work produced over the last five years. Also Héctor Zamora presents a new version of the performance/installation “Order and Progress”, in which the remains of traditional Portuguese fishing boats from different coastal regions temporarily occupy MAAT’s Oval Gallery. The performance, previously presented at the Palais de Tokyo in 2016, will take place in the Oval Gallery on March 22, at 6pm, coinciding with the museum’s opening to the public. Info: Curators: Pedro Gadanho, João Laia & Susana Ventura (Utopia/Dystopia), Inês Grosso (Order and Progress), MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Av. Brasília, Central Tejo, Belém, Lisbon, Duration: 22/3-21/8/17 (Utopia/Dystopia), 22/3-24/4/17 (Order and Progress), Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 12:00-20:00, www.maat.pt
Although Susan Rankaitis’ work is continually evolving, her solo exhibition “Grey Matters” is the most recent intersection of the artist’s ongoing exploration of artistic and scientific processes. The exhibition is comprised of unique images that meld the histories of experimental photography and abstract painting to create an artistic visual representation of scientific ideas. The work from the “Grey Matters series is derived in part from Rankaitis’s most recent fascination with the concept of interoception. This obscure internal sense is in essence a physiological intuition, a process in which the body responds to needs before the deficit is mentally registered. In an effort to illustrate an intangible internal event such as interoception, or even the synapses of neurons, Rankaitis has engaged the use of mixed media to create images that are both cerebral and emotionally evocative. Info: Robert Mann Gallery, 525 West 26th Street, 2nd Floor, New York, Duration: 23/3-6/5/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-18:00, www.robertmann.com
Kathmandu Triennale 2017, hosts more 50 artists from about 25 countries. The main exhibition, “The City, My Studio / The City, My Life” clearly articulates the two functions that the city can have for an artist. Kathmandu (or any other city) as a working place, as the mold for artistic thinking and process. At the same time, it is a place where artists (and everyone else) try to organize their lives. The city is an arena where daily life is ‘performed’ in its richness and complexity. The city is a complex of neural connections, as a set of never lowering and superposition of synchronous interactions. Invited artists are not to illustrate this definition of the city or urban life, but instead to take the city as a catalyst–as a laboratory to generate artistic forms, gestures, acts, ideas and artworks. Besides the central exhibition, KT 2017, as a platform, has invited curators and artists from Finland, Poland, South Korea, Australia, India and Qatar to host independent exhibitions for the event. Info: Curator: Philippe Van Cauteren, Kathmandu Triennale 2017, Multiple Venues across the Kathmandu Valley, Duration: 24/3-9/4/17, http://kt.artmandu.org
Performatik17, the 5th edition of the Brussels Biennial for performance art is organized by Kaaitheater in association with 13 partners across the city who all contribute their own expertise. Body sculptures play a central role in this edition of Performatik, that is subtitled Bodily attempts at social sculpting. From movement in sculptures to the sculpting of movement. Never monumental, always fragile. Performatik17 opts for probability over certainty. For the careful creation of social sculptures. Trajal Harrell and Ola Maciejewska take as their starting point the work of Loïe Fuller, a performance artist, long before the term was invented, who influenced both Picasso and modern dance. Bozar will be paying tribute to Yves Klein by showing unseen masterpieces and rarely exhibited visual works. Pieter Van den Bosch and Miet Warlop are literally empowering the opening of the exhibition, turning Klein’s heritage into a modus operandi for today. Info: Performatik17, The Brussels Biennial of Performance Art, Various Venues, Bryssels, duration 24/3-1/4/17, https://kaaitheater.be
Art Paris Art Fair 2017 hosts 130 Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries at the Grand Palais from 29/3-2/4/17. The 2017 selection bears witness to the fair’s increased international standing with 29 countries represented, compared to 22 in 2016. Exploring the regions of Europe constitutes one of the fair’s main areas of work, with this year the participation of galleries from Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Knokke-Heist, Amsterdam and 13 galleries from different parts of France. The invitation of Africa as Guest of Honour highlights a previously-unseen perspective of contemporary African artistic horizons, as well as other visions of purely African or wider-ranging influences. For 2017, Art Paris Art Fair, in partnership with The Fine Art Collective, is launching the L’art est Vivant Prize that will honour an artist whose work is presented at Promises Section. Bus Expo (20/3-20/4/17) will feature temporary exhibitions of 5 artists selected from among the Solo Shows at the fair, as part of the Bus Expo Project. Info: Art Paris Art Fair 2016,Artistic Director: Guillaume Piens, Grand Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill, Paris, Days & Hours: Wed (29/3/17) 14:00-18:00 (Opening by invitation only) & 18:00-22:00 (Vernissage by invitation only), Thu (30/4/17) 11:30-20:00, Fri (31/4/17) 11:30-21:00, Sat (1/4/17) 11:30-20:00, Sun (2/4/17) 11:00-19:00, Catalogue: €20, Entrance fee: Adults and children over age 10: €25, Students and groups of 10 or more: €12, Free admission for children under age of 10, www.artparis.com
Justin Mortimer’s paintings in his solo exhibition “It Is Here” address the present moment. They reflect upon a world in a state of disorder and respond to recent events in the US, Calais, the Ukraine, West Africa, Syria and Afghanistan. The paintings combine imagery sourced from the internet with archival material from old books and magazines in order to visualise a world in which nothing is stable or certain, echoing the tectonic cracks appearing in the old world order.A number of new works contain abstract elements, richly coloured striations, which are derived from found images of cracked plasma screens. As a body of work, “It is Here” powerfully articulates the present state of affairs. It is not a pleasant vision, though Mortimer finds extraordinary moments of beauty in passages of paint depicting smoke flares, the texture of plastic, the colours of flesh or the richness of the night sky. Info: Paraffin Gallery, 18 Woodstock Street, London, Duration: 30/3-20/5/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 12:00-17:00, www.parafin.co.uk