ART NEWS:Nov.02

A colorful patchwork field of multicolored blades of grass, “Color Field,” Lou’s largest sculpture to date, is on view at the Neuberger Museum of Art along with the artist’s “Solid Grey” and “Color/White” canvases, two series of woven beaded works. Lou’s beads, too, are the results of collaborative work: She employs local female artisans at her studio in Durban, South Africa, to help her create them. Lou emphasizes that while her own creative process is crucial to her work, she wants viewers to experience her pieces with fresh, unbiased eyes. Info: Color Field and Solid Grey, Neuberger Museum of Art, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, New York, Duration: 8/11/15-21/2/16, Days & Hoyrs: Tue-Sun 11:00-17:00, www.neuberger.org

Our world is in transformation, it is a combination of analogue and virtual reality that is redrawing our ways of living. The notion of the transformer is visible everywhere, representing the human-machine and redefining humanity with technology. Faced with this fundamental change, revolutionary attempts are being carried out by numerous creators to respond to the challenge, both through resistance and through innovation.In the exhibition “Transformers”, Choi Jeong-hwa, Didier Fiuza Faustino, Martino Gamper and Pedro Reyes, artists, designers and social activists, with the participation of the public present their projects. Info: Transformers, MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Via Guido Reni 4A, Rome, Duration: 11/11/15-28/3/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri & Sun 11:00-19:00, Sat 11:00-22:00, www.fondazionemaxxi.it

Laurent Grasso will present his first major solo exhibition in Japan, “Soleil Noir” in Tokyo. The artist presents a new body of work, ranging from sculpture and neon to video and painting that engages with cosmic energy and portrayals of the sublime, whilst also integrating elements of Grasso’s recent research on Japan. When conducting his studies in Japan, Grasso found himself inspired by dogu (clay figures), Noh masks, gold-leaf-covered folding screens and other traditional Japanese expressions. Running through the exhibition are works that incorporate these features, whilst combining them with images from Medieval Europe. Info: Soleil Noir, Fondation d’enterprise Hermès, Ginza Maison Hermès Le Forum8F, 5- 4-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Duration: 11/11/15-31/1/16, http://en.fondationdentreprisehermes.org

“When Artists Speak Truth…”, is an exhibition conceived as a multi-vocal dialogue about how artists contribute to political transformation and help shape an expanded and more nuanced understanding of human rights. From the art world to the real world, artists in the exhibition collectively express what happens when culture is used as will to power. Taking the form of political posters, interactive installations, painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and pedagogical display, the selected works both enact and question the role that artists play in communicating the issues affecting our broader culture. Info: When Artists Speak Truth…, The 8th Floor, 17 West 17th Street, 8th Floor, New York, Duration: 12/11/15-18/3/16, Days & Hours: 11:00-18:00, http://the8thfloor.org

Anne Senstad’s site-responsive installation “Soft Geometry-Liquid Commodity” aims to comment on and highlight the role of Chinatown as a cultural antecedent to New York and as one of its last bastions of authenticity. The multi-location presents a series of new geometric and text-based neon works that suggest a route running through Solivagant gallery space and the city block hosting it. Info: Soft Geometry-Liquid Commodity, Solivagant* Contemporary Art Projects, 53 Orchard Street, New York, Duration: 12/11-13/12/15, www.solivagantnyc.com

In 2013, the Daimler Art Collection began adding a significant new aspect to its international profile with the acquisition of more than 40 artworks by about 20 Chinese artists. From 2014 on, these new acquisitions are being presented to the public in an exhibition series at Daimler Contemporary Berlin. The exhibition juxtaposes and puts the Chinese artists in dialogues with international artists, the show expands through time and different cultures, and it aims to bring out peculiarities and parallels in the diverse artistic strategies. Info: On Curbstone Jewels and Cobblestones, Daimler Contemporary Berlin, Haus Huth, Alte Potsdamer Straße 5, Berlin, Duration: 13/11/15-10/4/16, Days & Hours: Daily 11:00-18:00, http://art.daimler.com/en/

The exhibition “MIRROR IMAGES in Art and Medicine”, showcases artistic works as well as scientific experiments and objects that interrogate how we perceive our own body in space. Developed for the Project Space of the Ernst Schering Foundation, the installation SMOKING MIRROR is part of the exhibition and is the first German solo exhibition of the artist Otavio Schipper in cooperation with the composer Sergio Krakowski. It showcases artistic works as well as scientific experiments and objects that interrogate how we perceive our own body in space. The installation MIRROR IMAGES in Art and Medicine. Info: MIRROR IMAGES in Art and Medicine, Curator: Alessandra Pace, Berlin Museum of Medical History, Charitéplatz 1, Campus: Virchowweg 17, Berlin, Duration: 13/11/15-3/4/16, Days & Hours: Tue, Thu, Fri & Sun 10:00-17:00, Wed & Sat 10:00-19:00, www.scheringstiftung.de

In her exhibition at Lisson Gallery, Susan Hiller wpresents a number of recently discovered early pieces as well as celebrated classics and new works made this year. Occupying both gallery locations on Bell Street, the exhibition loosely groups Hiller’s practice into four interwoven and on-going themes: transformation, the unconscious, belief systems and the role of the artist as collector and curator. Info: Lisson Gallery,27 & 52 Bell Street, London, Duration: 13/11/159/1/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-17:00, www.lissongallery.com

The prime trigger for the group exhibition “Words aren’t the thing”, is the direct experience of what is not spoken or described. Non-language-based ideas and ways of alternative exchange have been explored and experimented with by a number of artists and thinkers at different points in time and space. While language and concepts are vastly privileged in how contemporary art is made and mediated, there has always remained a possibility for another kind of encounter. Info: Words aren’t the thing, Curators: Ūla Tornau & Asta Vaičiulytė, Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) Vilnius, Vokiečių 2, Vilnius, Duration: 13/11/15-6/1/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 12:00-20:00, www.cac.lt

A major new group exhibition inspired by auteur filmmaker Todd Haynes’ critically acclaimed motion picture Safe. Haynes’ influential and understated masterpiece is the starting point for a series of new commissions in moving image, sculpture, print, writing and performance from Claire Makhlouf Carter, Chris Paul Daniels, Yoshua Okon, 2014 Turner Prize nominee James Richards and Camilla Wills, which will be displayed alongside existing works by Michael Dean, Sunil Gupta, Laura Morrison and Jala Wahid. Info: Safe-Are you allergic to the 21st century?, HOME, First Street, 2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, Duration: 14/11/15-3/1/16, Days & Hours: 12:00-18:00, http://homemcr.org

Four new exhibitions start at MOSTYN. At the galleries 2 & 3 Diango’s Hernández is presenting “Time Islands and Space Islands”, his work and sculptural constructions are directly related to his biography, upbringing and socialization. This exhibition presents old and new works, draws on his past experience while growing up in Cuba but transfers those experiences to European and Western dimensions. The show includes, amongst others, Let us see if a million people can be silent, a full-scale, site-specific wall mural made of regular, diagrammatic waves, each one representing a font used to quote Fidel Castro. In the galleries 4 & 5 is on presentation the group exhibition “War II”, that responds to the use of MOSTYN’s building during World War II, as well as to the town of Llandudno and the wider local area at this time. The exhibition is part of a sequence of shows titled “History Series”, which has been designed, in part, to explore the rich history and heritage of MOSTYN. Gallery 6 is dedicated to presenting the work of young and emerging artists, all of whom are yet to have a solo exhibition in an institutional setting, nationally or internationally. Three Uprisings occur each year. This, the last of 2015, is “Uprisings:Iwan Lewis”. In Gallery 1 “&”, is an exhibition exploring collaboration as a subject and concept for the projects on view and the exhibition overall. It has been brought together by GLITCH, The exhibition includes projects by the GLITCH group (a collective of under-25-year-olds, which is a part of Circuit, led by Tate and funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation) and also presents existing and previous collaborations that have occurred amongst the disciplines of art, design and fashion. Info: Time Islands and Space Islands, Curator: Alfredo Cramerotti, War II, & “&”, Duration: 14/11/15-6/3/16, Uprisings- Iwan Lewis, Curator: Alfredo Cramerotti, Duration: 14/11/15-13/3/16, MOSTYN-Cymru –Wales, 12 Vaughan Street, Llandudno, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:30-17:00, www.mostyn.org

The launching point for TULCA Festival 2015 is the legendary island, Hy-Brasil, noted on maps as early as 1325, when Genoese cartographer Dalorto placed the island off the west coast of Ireland. The festival will take a closer look at the issues of climate change and our future relationship with the changing landscape, while also examining the language surrounding future projections that are more akin to works of science fiction than empirical truth. The blurred lines between fact and fiction have never felt so prevalent; they are the subjects of science fiction and dystopian novels such JG Ballard’s “The Drowned World”, or Yevgeny Zamyatin’s “We”. Info: Seachange-TULCA Festival of Visual Art, Mary Cremin, Galway-Ireland, Duration: 14–29/11/15, www.tulcafestival.com

“Flowers of Evil”, David Harrison’s is a solo exhibition. This selection of new work presents a densely populated and fully realised universe, where the supernatural pull of the natural world is intertwined with a keen sense of modern civilisation’s insensitivities. The mood of Harrison’s paintings is sometimes portentous: blood-red suns, human ignorance and copulating corpses all feature, the latter in a mini-series titled Love Means Never Having to Say You’re Ugly. And yet, there is solace to be found in the ceaseless fertility of the natural world, whether coded in the tiny DNA structures visible in a bubbling pool of signs. Info: Flowers of Evil, Victoria Miro Gallery, 16 Wharf Road, London, Duration: 14/11-18/12/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.victoria-miro.com

With the exhibition format REVISIT, Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art delves into its own history for the third year running. This year the focus is Thorbjørn Lausten’s 2003 exhibition Datablik (Dataview) and his long-standing, pioneering work at the intersection of art, science and technology. In a two-storey solo exhibition, offer a survey of his enduring yet wide-ranging investigation of the ways and means used to communicate scientific data. Info: REVISIT: Thorbjørn Lausten, Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art, Overgaden Neden Vandet 17, Copenhagen, Duration: 14/11/15-10/1/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 13:00-17:00, Thu 13:00-20:00, http://overgaden.org

Yoko Ono isn’t only the window of John Lennon but a very important artist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking. “Golden Ladders” is her first exhibition in Beijing. The exhibition shows a variety of works from Yoko Ono’s extensive artistic career, including important pieces from her early Fluxus and Conceptual work. Ideas, rather than materials, make up the core of Yoko Ono’s art. Based on verbal or written instructions that are utopian, ephemeral and performable, Yoko Ono presents viewers with art which becomes a shared mental or physical experience. Info: Golden Ladders, Faurschou Foundation, 798 Art District, NO2 Jiuxuanquao Road, Beijing, Duration: 15/11/15-3/7/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, www.faurschou.com

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum presents “Painting in Four Takes”, a series of solo exhibitions that will provide a window into the practices of four engaging painters who imbue the medium with relevance and character. These exhibitions are: Steve’s DiBenedetto “Evidence of Everything”, the artist has consistently rejected formalism throughout an era where both formal and conceptual approaches to painting have become de rigueur, taking a position where the canvas and the act of painting initiate a site for struggle, invention, and, ultimately, reinvention. Hayal’s Pozanti “Deep Learning”, her practice spans painting, digital animation, and sculpture. For her exhibition, she presents a new series of paintings and digital animations. The exhibition of Julia Rommel “Two Italians, Six Lifeguards” debuts a series of new paintings presented alongside small works from 2010– 2012. And Ruth Root’s “Old Odd and Oval”, that focus on her latest body of work, medium- to large-scale to site-engaged paintings that demonstrate her experimentations with new materials and fabrication methods as she combines hand-painted Plexiglas with colorful fabric patterns she designs digitally. Info: Painting in Four Takes, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, Duration: 15/11/15-3/4/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Sat & Mon 10:00-17:00, Sun 12:00-17:00, http://aldrichart.org

“We Are the Time Machines: Time and Tools for Commoning” concludes the Composing the Commons research trajectory for Casco’s 2013–2015 program and the dialogue that started, beginning with the questions: “What do you mean when you say the commons? Or by “commoning”-it seems just as abstract?”. Info: We Are the Time Machines: Time and Tools for Commoning, Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory, Lange Nieuwstraat 7, Utrech, Duration: 15/11/15-13/3/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-18:00, http://cascoprojects.org

Every year in November, Vienna’s leading art institutions, galleries, independent exhibition spaces and academies join up to celebrate art during Vienna Art Week. With more than 200 events ranging between contemporary experiment and the Baroque, Vienna Art Week reflects the variety, inventiveness and productivity of Vienna’s art scene. It is a festival not to be missed by artists, critics, curators, collectors and art lovers from home or abroad. An international special exhibition is dedicated to this year’s motto, “Creating Common Good”. Info: Vienna Art Week, Duration: 16-22/11/15, www.viennaartweek.at

The group exhibition “Creating Common Good” examines the means with which artists respond to current global events. Political art is no longer a mere reaction to existing conditions; instead, it has the ethical aspiration to shape society and counteract corrupt systems. Artists raise critical questions and propose new criteria to benefit the common good. Info: Creating Common Good, Curators: Robert Punkenhofer & Ursula Maria Probst, Kunst Haus Wien, Untere Weissgerberstrasse 13, Vienna, Duration: 16/11/15-10/1/16, Days & Hours: Daily 10:00-18:00, www.kunsthauswien.com