ART NEWS:April 01

Cantor Fitzgerald GalleryClimate change is real. The earth is imperiled, but the future is unwritten. Every crisis provokes new ways of being-waves of resistance, hope, and possibility usher in a world beyond recognition. We must believe in the immanence of this world in order for it to be. The group exhibition “Resistance After Nature” tracks the practices of artists who imagine and construct alternative approaches to such entangled ecological, political, and economic issues as Indigenous sovereignty and water rights, the fossil economy, ocean acidification, and deforestation. This exhibition brings together forms of insurgent environmental art that assert that another world is possible: indeed, it is already here. We are making it together even now.  Info: Curators: Kendra Sullivan & Dylan Gauthier, Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College, 370 Lancaster Avenue, Haverford, Duration: 17/3-28/4/17, Days & Hours: Mon-Tue 11:00-17:00, Wed 11:00-20:00, Sat-sun 12:0017:00, http://exhibits.haverford.edu

REDCATThe exhibition “It is obvious from the map” explores the hidden archive of maps made by people on the move, images and diagrams that are exchanged, distributed, commented on, and annotated by and for the very people who use them. Before and during the journey come the maps, they bear witness and respond to the shifting regimes and technologies of fortification, to the intimidation, weather, hospitality, law, and violence that govern and structure possible journeys. The exhibition suggests that, these days, claiming to be human and to have rights is linked powerfully to migration. Movement, therefore, is essential to this assertion. These claims are not only made at the border, or in the camp, or at the train station, or at the asylum hearing: the journey itself is a way of exercising and realizing the right and the claim to recognition. Info: REDCAT, 631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, Duration: 25/3-4/6/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 12:00-18:00, www.redcat.org

Serlachius MuseotExtensive in scale, Esther Shalev-Gerz’s exhibition “Factory is Outside” at the Serlachius Museums in Finland, comprises four interweaving series of works that investigate how cultural identities are constructed and examine the role and status of traditional professions in a world that is global and undergoing a rapid digital transformation. Shalev-Gerz’s work takes the form of an active dialogue with others; it is a process of consultation and negotiation that ensures that the individual and collective memories, stories, opinions and experiences of her participants are visible and indeed highlighted in her works. The themes of the exhibition are also relevant to the history of Mänttä, the small industrial town in Finland, where the exhibition is due to be held.  Info: Serlachius Museot, Joenniementie 47, Mänttä, Duration: 1/4/17-1/4/18, Days & Hours: Tue-sun 11:00-18:00, www.serlachius.fi

Qiu Zhijie, Tattoo, 1994. PhotosQiu Zhijie’s solo exhibition “Journeys without Arrivals” is the first comprehensive overview of his work. The wide spectrum of his artworks ranging in media and entangling different temporalities and geographies, unveils an intimate portrait of the artist as a polymath, whose artistic work is an integral part of a larger, holistic approach to life. Embracing the concept of total art, Qiu demonstrates the role of art as a powerful engine for coming to terms with change, tradition and globalisation in China and across the world. The exhibition proposes that Qiu’s work might be seen as a series of unending journeys. Whether it is his reinterpretation of scroll painting, his travels in Tibet or his response to the great modernist icon of the Nanjing River Bridge, the works are always looking to preserve, update and revolutionise elements of different traditions at the same time. Info: Curators: Charles Esche, Annie Fletcher, Davide Quadrio, Van Abbemuseum, Bilderdijklaan 10, Eindhoven, Duration: 1/4-24/9/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-17:00, https://vanabbemuseum.nl

Copenhagen Contemporary“Louis-Ferdinand Céline: Voyage au bout de la nuit”, is the title of a large-scale installation by Anselm Kiefer, is on presentation at Copenhagen Contemporary. Kiefer has been making lead airplane sculptures since the late ‘80s. This exhibition includes four paintings and four lead sculptures of airplanes. The work, which is monumental in size, has never been exhibited before. The works in this exhibition, with their battered, war-weary aura, dominate a 1500-square-meter space. The allegorically significant airplanes are juxtaposed and converse with a series of paintings that measure up to 6.6m in height and 11.4 meters in width. The paintings contain references to photographs the artist took during his travels in the Gobi Desert in 1993 and also to a scene in Ingeborg Bachmann’s Book of Franza (1955), in which the title character unsuccessfully seeks solace in the barrenness of the desert. Info: Copenhagen Contemporary, Trangravsvej 10-12, Copenhagen, Duration: 2/4-6/8/17, Days & Hours: Tue-sun 11:00-18:00, http://cphco.org

THADDAEUS ROPACIn searching for alternatives to the strongly narrative art of Social Realism and Abstract painting, Georg Baselitz became interested in art considered to be outside of the mainstream of Modernism. Georg Baselitz in his solo exhibition “Descente” presents new works, 5 groups of works, comprising 40 paintings and many works on paper. The works are stylistically and iconographically linked to the fragmented self-portraits known as the “Avignon” series, which was shown at the 2015 Venice Biennale.  Two of Baselitz’s concerns were the notions of “Late work” and “Age”, with particular reference to the historical decision of the city of Avignon to reject the donation of a series of late works by Pablo Picasso. Info: Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, 69 Avenue Du Générap Leclerc, Pantin, Paris, Duration: 2/4-1/7/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, http://ropac.net/

ACADEMYSPACE“Enigmatic Majorities” is the main exhibition of Akademie der Künste der Welt, Spring program “PLURIVERSALE VI: The Old Left and the New Right” and addresses the global dimension of the current political shift.  In their films, artists face “the people” in moments when that category is celebrated or only just constructed as an “empty signifier” floating in space, ready to gravitate this way or that. The cornerstone of the season is the symposium “The Extreme Centre” on 18-19/4/17 at Volksbühne am Rudolfplatz with the participation of historian and author Tariq Ali, sociologist Saskia The symposium takes its title from a recent book by Tariq Ali and looks at the future of politics in populist times. Info: Enigmatic Majorities, ACADEMYSPACE, Herwarthstraße 3, Cologne, Duration: 4/4-13/7/17, Days & Hours: Thu-Fri 15:00-19:00, Sat-Sun 14:00-18:00, www.academycologne.org

VleeshalThe group exhibition “Why Patterns?” brings together contemporary and historical artists who share a common interest in experimental music. In their work they explore forms of coincidence, improvisation, and abstract notational systems. The exhibition includes sound sculptures, audio, scores, textiles, video, drawings, and performance. Its title is borrowed from a 1978 musical composition by Morton Feldman with the same name. For his composition “Why Patterns?” Feldman was inspired by abstract expressionism and rugs from the Middle East. Feldman saw a link between the way in which carpet makers dealt with pattern making, in which one pattern was never more significant than another, and the way in which he worked as a composer. The exhibition explores how non-hierarchal methodologies are being used in artistic practice today. Info: Curator: Roos Gortzak, Vleeshal, Zusterstraat 7, Middelburg, Duration: 2/4-11/6/17, Days & Hours: Wed-Fri 13:00-17:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-17:00, http://vleeshal.nl

Speed Art Museum“Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art” questions and explores the complex and contested space of the American South. Presenting a wide range of perspectives, from both within and outside of the region, the exhibition creates a composite portrait of southern identity through the work of 60 artists. The art reflects upon and pulls apart the dynamic nature of the South’s social, political and cultural landscape. Southern Accent includes work dating back to the 1950s, but primarily focuses on art produced within the past 30 years. The exhibition encompasses a broad spectrum of media and approaches, demonstrating that southernness is more of a shared sensibility than a consistent culture. Info: Curators: Trevor Schoonmaker and Miranda Lash, Speed Art Museum, 2035 South Third Street, Louisville, Duration: 30/4-14/10/17, Days & Hours: Wed-Sat 10:00-17:00, Sun 12:00-17:00, www.speedmuseum.org