ART NEWS:Oct.04
Sarah Ancelle Schönfeld’s exhibition “Excuse me, may I have some gravel tea?”, is an oracle for digital existence. She has rearranged objects, truths and other given conditions into a suggestion of possible other, or parallel, realities made available for interpretation. The artist invites us to contemplate the suggestion of planet earth as a black hole, where all planetary matter has been swallowed and stored as information on the event horizon. Info: Excuse me, may I have some gravel tea?, Galleria Mario Iannelli, Via Flaminia 380, Rome, Duration: 28/10/15-16-1/16, www.marioiannelli.it
The exhibition “Gauguin. Tales from Paradise” features approximately 70 works from twelve international museums and private collections, together with artifacts and pictures documenting the places visited by the artist. The works on display allow visitors to recognize and analyse the figurative sources of Paul Gauguin’s art, which range from the folk art of Brittany to Egyptian, Peruvian, Cambodian and Javanese art, to the life and culture of Polynesia. Info: Gauguin-Tales from Paradise, Curators: Line Clausen Pedersen & Flemming Friborg Museo delle Culture di Milano, via Tortona 56, Milano, Duration: 28/10/15-21/2/16, Days & Hours: Mon 14:30-19:30, Tue-Wed 9:30-19:30, Thu-Sat 9:30-22:30, www.mudec.it
For his solo exhibition in Brussels the German artist Norbert Bisky presents a complete new body of work, including a site-specific installation. The title of the exhibition, “Heresie”, reflects Norbert Bisky’s concern about uncertainties, clashes of religion and crisis of belief in our times. The artist’s 3 month studio-swap and temporary home in Tel Aviv in the beginning of 2015 with its unfolding religious, sociologic, historical and contemporary discourses set the basic for the new series. Info: Galerie Daniel Templon, Rue Veydt 13A Veydtstraat, Brussels, Duration: 29/10-31/12/15, Days @ Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00, www.danieltemplon.com
The exhibition “Miró and the Object”, explores the role of the object in the work of Joan Miró. The exhibition includes 100 paintings, collages, assemblages, ceramics, and sculptures covering an extended period from 1916 to 1981, as well as a selection of original objects that the artist himself collected. From his earliest paintings, collages and assemblages to his later bronze sculptures, the works included in the exhibition allows for a thorough investigation of Miro’s use of objects through the different stages of his career. Info: Miró and the Object, Curator: William Jeffett, Fundació Joan Miró, Parc de Montjuic, Barcelona, Duration: 29/1015-17/1/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, www.fmirobcn.org
Laura McPhee’s images, on the series “The Home and the World: a View of Calcutta”, are less an overview of this city of 15 million than a few frank glimpses into its complex, often conflicted soul. The frame is for the most part contained and classic. The smallness of the photographed spaces imparts a sense of intimacy even as the formality of the compositions renders them slightly aloof. This tension permeates the exhibition in the war of attrition between nature and the built environment, in the eclectic mix of culture and class but above all in the hoard of color and display and the pervasive sense that so much attention to surface must be concealing something. Info: The Home and the World: a View of Calcutta, Benrubi Gallery, 521 West 26th Street, 2nd Floor, New York, Duration: 29/10-12/12/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, http://benrubigallery.com
Klara Lidén’s solo exhibition “Battement battu” is her first institutional presentation in Belgium. It comprises new and existing works in a range of media, with an emphasis on video and installation. The exhibition is structured to create a variety of tempos, drawing the visitor slowly into Lidén’s intense interior world. Lidén’s work provokes a search for adjectives, which might at first seem contradictory: violent yet reticent, humorous yet painful, personal yet universal. Influenced by street art, informed by conceptual art, and tinged with vandalism, her creative process takes many forms. Info: Battement battu, Curator: Zoë Gray, WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Avenue Van Volxemlaan 354, Brussels, Duration: 29/10/15-10/1/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Sun 11:00-18:00, www.wiels.org
In her solo exhibition “Les Approches and Feeling of Dread”, Fabienne Lasserre continues her rigorous exploration of material, form, space and agency. Though her large-scale sculptures certainly perform their own autonomy as coherent and demarcated objects, this autonomy is nevertheless precarious. While the use of colour is one strategy employed to reiterate the difference between surfaces and artworks, it also creates repetition and essentially asserts each artwork’s contingency upon its others, its surroundings and the viewer. Info: Les Approches and Feeling of Dread, Parisian Laundry, 3550 St-Antoine West, Montreal, Duration: 29/10-28/11/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 12:00-17:00, http://parisianlaundry.com
The group exhibition “Verto” presents work by four contemporary artists investigating narratives and methods around archeology, producing objective truths to the past, present and future. Archaeological objects present a theory of the past, generously filling our museums and analyzing our histories. Presenting strong symbols of civilizations through visual and written material, the works in the exhibition investigate the rituals of our daily life through the figurative meaning of an artefact and question, in the current climate of constant change, what should be conserved from the past for future archaeologists and how does this influence our historiography. Info: Verto, Curators: Karina El Hélou & Claire Craig, Galerie Fatiha Selam, 58 rue Chapon, Paris, Duration: 29/10-8/11/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.fatihaselam.fr
The exhibition “Pseudomatisms”, features 42 artworks that span 23 years of production, by the Mexican media artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. The artist does not see technology as an instrument or tool, but rather as an inevitable language that determines subjectivity and sociability. The title of the exhibition is a reference to the Surrealists’ automatism, an artistic practice built on the expression of the subconscious by placing value on the accidental and random. Info: Pseudomatisms, Curators: José Luis Barrios & Alejandra Labastida, MUAC -Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Centro Cultural Universitario, Insurgentes Sur 3000, Coyoacán, Mexico City, Duration: 29/10/15-27/3/16, Days & Hours: Wed, Fri, Sun 10:00-18:00, Thu, Sat 10:00-20:00, www.muac.unam.mx
In “Body Talk”, six artists, all from Africa, and all marked by the shared history of the continent, by its wounds and its commitments, take a look at feminism, sexuality, and the body. The plurality of feminisms around the world and their protean struggle has always been at the heart of its concerns. It is therefore only natural that its interest has turned toward the African art scene. Body Talk is the rising voice of a generation! Info: Body Talk, Curator: Koyo Kouoh & Eva Barois De Caevel, 49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine, 1 Bis Rue Trinitaires, Metz, Duration: 30/10/15-17/1/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 14:00-19:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-19:00, www.fraclorraine.org
With the Capsule exhibitions, Haus der Kunst provides young, international, emerging artists the opportunity to show new works in a museum setting. For this format, each artist is given one exhibition space, a fact reflected in the format’s name, “Capsule”. This year, the Capsules present the work of two London-based artists, Lynette Yiadom Boayke and Adele Röder. Yiadom-Boakye created a series of oil paintings for the exhibition, all depicting figures in an environment that cannot be specifically located in either time or place. The figures’ features do not simulate particular characters, moods or situations. Yiadom-Boakye is more interested in what it is to be human than in the individual itself. For many years, Adele Röder has collected photographs of prehistoric tombs. For her presentation, Röder developed a series of line drawings that depict postures and details of the body. These are based on circles, circle segments and L-forms, borrowed from her “COMCORRÖDER” project. Info: Capsule 03 : Lynette Yiadom-Boakye / Capsule 04 / Adele Röder, Haus der Kunst, Prinzregentenstr. 1, Munich, Duration: 30/1015-28/3/16, Days & Hours: Fri-Wed 10:00-20:00, Thu 10:00-22:00, www.hausderkunst.de
“Felix Gonzalez-Torres: This Place” is the largest presentation of the artist’s work in Ireland to date. The exhibition, which includes a nuanced selection of works made by the artist between 1987 and 1994, seeks to explore the rich contextual pluralities inherent in Gonzalez-Torres’s work in relation to contemporary culture in Northern Ireland, considering dichotomies between solidity and fluidity, proximity and distance, unity and disarray, harmony and discord. Info: This Place, Curator: Eoin Dara, The MAC (Metropolitan Arts Centre), 10 Exchange Street West, Belfast, Duration: 30/10/15-24/1/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Sun 11:00-19:00, https://themaclive.com
Hannah Ryggen (1894-1970) studied painting and drawing at night while working during the day. In the ‘20s she abandoned painting and took up weaving. Ryggen’s socially conscious tapestries often responded directly to current events and conflicts around the world. She expressed strong opposition to fascism, Nazism, and other destructive forces. She used her work to discuss violence and oppression, but also life in the small Norwegian farming community of Ørland, where she lived most of her life. Info: Weaving the World, Curator: Julia Björnberg, Moderma Museet Malmo, Ola Billgrens plats 2–4, Malmö, Duration: 31/10/15-6/3/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun: 11:00-18:00, www.modernamuseet.se
“Imponderable” is an extensive research project that investigates the personal collection of American artist Tony Oursler. It is a remarkable trove of more than 2,500 photographs, publications and unique objects, tracking a social, spiritual and intellectual history dating back to the early 18th century. The resulting exhibition presents a new film produced by Oursler and presented in 4D with theatrical special effects as well as a reading room with projected lectures. Info: Imponderable – The Archives of Tony Oursler, Curators: Tom & Beatrix Ruf, LUMA Westbau, Löwenbräukunst, Limmatstrasse 270, Zurich, Duration: 31/10/15-14/2/16, Days & Hours: Tue Wed Fri 11:00-18:00, Thu 11:00-20:00, Sat Sun 10:00-17:00, http://westbau.com
The Bamako Encounters, African Biennale of Photography is the first and principal international platform dedicated to African photography and lens-based media on the continent. In its aim to promote and assess photography-based practices from local and international perspectives, the Bamako Encounters operates as a platform for presenting artwork and cultivating professional relationships. In addition to its emphasis on engaging local cultural centres, galleries, foundations, and schools, the biennale routinely collaborates with international foundations and cultural organisations to position Bamako as an important site for analysing and sharing recent developments in lens-based media. Info: The Bamako Encounters, African Biennale of Photography, Bamako, Mali, Duration: 31/10-31/12/15, www.rencontres-bamako.com
Ed Ruscha has been casting his eye across the landscapes of the American west for over 50 years, taking in everything from gas stations to swimming pools to sublime mountain ranges. With their clarity and deadpan wit, his work impart a mood of playful awe on everyday monuments. The motifs for his new series “Metro Mattresses” were found, like so many of the subjects of his work, on the streets of Los Angeles. In each of the12 works in the series we encounter a mattress, or mattresses, isolated and in various states of neglect, all depicted against a neutral backdrop. Info: Metro Mattresses, Sprüth Magers Berlin, Oranienburger Straße 18Berlin, Duration: 3/11/15-16/1/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 11:00-18:00, www.spruethmagers.com
Over the last 25 years Andrea Zittel have developed a practice in which spaces, objects, and acts of living all intertwine within a single ongoing investigation into what it means to exist and participate in our culture today. “How to live?” and “What gives life meaning?” are core issues in both her personal life and artistic practice. Answering these questions has often entailed the examination of social norms, values, hierarchies and categories, which are all highly articulated human constructions that are oddly meaningful and somewhat arbitrary at the same time. The works at Sprüth Magers present a selection of her recent explorations into planar forms. Info: Parallel Planar Panels, Sprüth Magers Berlin, Oranienburger Straße 18Berlin, Duration: 3/11/15-16/1/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 11:00-18:00, www.spruethmagers.com
In the 25th anniversary of the CAC’s landmark presentation of Robert Mapplethorpe’s survey exhibition “After the Moment: Reflections on Robert Mapplethorpe”, seven curators from Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana, select 5 artists each, who will present new work that measures how Mapplethorpe’s photos, exhibition and censorship shaped the artistic landscape they navigate today. The photographs include a never before published or exhibited 1988 homage to Mapplethorpe, a photograph exhibited at Images in 1990 which had earlier caused the entire exhibition to be cancelled at a university gallery, and other images with various histories of censorship, all but one to be exhibited for the first time in the US. Info: After the Moment: Reflections on Robert Mapplethorpe, Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, 44 E. 6th Street, Cincinnati, Duration: 6/11/15-13/3/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Fri 10:00-21:00, Sat-Mon 10:00-18:00, www.contemporaryartscenter.org
In the exhibition “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, Paul Bogaers presents work which created in the last five years. During this period, his work has developed from two-dimensional photo combinations to the three-dimensional domain of assemblage, sculpture and installation, in which photography plays a vital role. Bogaers makes extensive use of paper mâché – a material not often embraced by fine artists. His most recent work illuminates the artist’s fascination with African voodoo cultures, as well as the invisible and the supernatural. Info: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Foam, Keizersgracht 609, Amsterdam, Duration: 6/11/15-17/1/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Wed &n Sat-Sun 10:00-18:00am, Thu-Fri 10:00-21:00, www.foam.org