ART NEWS:Sept.03

Wang Sishun belongs in the new generation of contemporary artists from mainland China. Born in 1979, he lives and works in Beijing. His approach is at once conceptual and invested in the creation of objects that would easily be classified as sculpture and installation. For his first exhibition in Paris at New Galerie the artist has made a six-week journey from Beijing to Paris in order to bring us a flame that survived a devastating fire, a relic that Wang Sishun has turned into a work of art. Info: “Truth”, New Galerie, 2 rue Borda, Paris, Duration: 15/9-17/10/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 14:00-19:00, www.newgalerie.com

In recent years, Urs Fischer has been exploring the genres of classical art history (still lifes, portraits, nudes, landscapes, and interiors) at the intersection with everyday life in cast sculptures and assemblages, paintings, digital montages, spatial installations, mutating or kinetic objects, and texts. As its title “Fountains” suggests, the exhibition is conceived around fully functional fountains, “active sculptures” that transform the galleries into humid and energized places through which viewers wander, as if in a town square. Info: Fountains, Gagosian Gallery, 456 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, Duration: 15/9-17/10/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-18:00, www.gagosian.com

The thematic group exhibition “Welcome to the Jungle”, takes its title from the homonym song of Guns & Roses, dedicated to the seductive abyss of life in a big city, is as an occasion for gathering positions that engage with fictions of such alternative places, in all their ambivalence. The concrete forms of such and their qualities evolve from differences between our realities of life, or react to the decisions we continuously make about how, where, and with whom we would like to live. Info: welcome to the Jungle, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Auguststraße 69, Berlin, Duration: 16/9-15/11/15, Days & Hours: Wed-Mon: 12:00-21:00, Thu:12:00-21:00, www.kw-berlin.de

Mathieu K. Abonnenc devotes his work to the forgotten or marginalized areas of recent history and the colonies of so-called ‘developed’ countries, figures and events associated with the 20th century’s struggles for emancipation of identity. On the basis of investigations and documents, he attempts to deconstruct the nature of representations of the geographical other in particular. Info: Chimen Chyen, Marcelle Alix Galerie, 4 rue Jouye-Rouve, Paris, Duration: 17/9-7/11/15, Days & Hours: Wed-Sat: 11:00-19:00, www.marcellealix.com

With an impressive group show opens the art year at the Sprüth Magers Gallery-Berlin. The gallery has put together an exciting group show featuring an all-female lineup of the gallery’s most prominent women artists. Carefully selected to represent a broad spectrum of different mediums, each artist brings a unique vision and visual language to the overall presentation, will be presented works by: Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Cindy Sherman and Rosemarie Trockel. Info: Sprüth Magers Berlin, Oranienburger Straße 18Berlin, Duration: 17/9-21/10/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 11:00-18:00, www.spruethmagers.com

The exhibition “Les Nouveaux chercheurs d’or” by the artists Émilie Brout & Maxime Marion, questions the relationship between aesthetics and perceived value, through a research on materiality and virtuality, the boundaries between physical and digital, where the presented materials are not always what they seem, and where value does not necessarily emerges where we expected. Info: Les Nouveaux chercheurs d’or, 22,48 m² Gallery, 30 rue des Envierges, Paris, Duration: 17/9-31/10/15, Days & Hours: Wed-Sat: 14:00-19:00, www.english.2248m2.com

EXPO CHICAGO, the International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art, opens the fall art season at historic Navy Pier. Entering its fourth edition in 2015, in the exhibition will be present artworks from 140 galleries, representing 16 countries and 47 cities from around the world. Info: EXPO CHICAGO, Navy Pier, 600 E Grand Ave, Chicago, Duration: 17-20/9/15, Hours: Fri: 18:00-21:00, Sat & Sun: 11:00-19:00, Mon: 11:00-18:00, www.expochicago.com

First exhibition of Nam June Paik’s work in Hong Kong, Video sculptures, paintings, and drawings produced during the last decade of Paik’s life, many of which have never been exhibited, will be presented together with key works from the -60s through the ‘’80s. The exhibition “The Late Style” testifies to his lifelong exploration of the role of technology in culture, including the dissemination of infinite images via television. Info: The Late Style, Gagosian Gallery, 7/F Pedder Building, 12 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong, Duration: 17/9-7/11/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 11:00-19:00, www.gagosian.com

“United States of Latin America” brings together more than 30 emerging artists from Latin America, many of who will be exhibiting in the U.S.A. for the first time. The exhibition is based on an ongoing conversation between thetwo curators, who for over a decade have exchanged research about artists, artworks, and the overall development of the art world from Mexico to Argentina and the many countries in between. Info: “United States of Latin America”, Curators: Jens Hoffmann & Pablo León de la Barra, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Sat & Sun: 11:00-17:00, Thu & Fri: 11:00-20:00, www.mocadetroit.org

The Group exhibition “A Luxury We Cannot Afford”, uses popular culture, economic and urban planning history, and art of the ‘50s/’60s and ‘00s, two moments in which Singapore was at the brink of economic utopia. The exhibition is an intergenerational explorative essay reflecting on the formation, development, and paradoxes of the national ideology in Singapore as a statist “capitalist democracy”. Info: A Luxury We Cannot Afford, Para Site, 22/F Wing Wah Industrial Building, 677 King’s Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong, Duration: 19/9-29/11/15, Days & Hours: Wed-Sun: 12:00-19:00, www.para-site.org.hk