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    See How Artist Brigitte D’Annibale Transformed an Abandoned Malibu Home Into a Spectacular Immersive Installation

    Six months ago, the artist Brigitte D’Annibale took cultural strategist Vajra Kingsley to see an abandoned home in Malibu’s Point Dume.
    With its sweeping views of the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, this was where D’Annibale wanted to realize a dream of some 30 years: to create immersive environment that would bridge art, architecture, design, and the natural world.
    What Kingsley saw was a boarded-up structure slated for demolition. “I said, ‘this is a depressing home, and if you think you’re going to reactivate it in sixth months, you’re out of your mind!’” Kingsley told Artnet News.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, Shedding Layers of Blindness part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    But with a team of contractors and builders, D’Annibale gutted the home and stripped it to its studs, only to later reuse the salvaged raw materials to bring it back to life.
    “As a metaphor, I took home, which is a point of origin, stripped it down, and everything I used to rebuild it as an installation came out of what was stripped away,” D’Annibale told Artnet News.
    The installation is titled B=f(P, E), after Lewin’s Equation, which states that behavior results both from a person and their environment, reflecting D’Annibale’s hope that the immersive space will help visitors connect with their surroundings in moments of contemplation.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    The result, on view just in time for Frieze L.A., is like nothing you’ve ever seen. An imposing metal gate sourced from a Bali junkyard stands in front of the property, creating a dramatic reveal for visitors when the doors are finally opened.
    The walls of the home are still boarded up in a patchwork of humble plywood. Visitors enter through a revolving sheet of glass that pivots to spin open.
    Beyond it lies a two-story atrium, where D’Annibale has cut through to the basement below and installed a massive steel and glass skylight in the ceiling, from which hang spherical sculptures made from letters carved from reclaimed teak. The letter forms are references to the importance of communication, D’Annibale said.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Oculus, and Amalgamation, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    She’s christened the skylight The Oculus, and the entire atrium feature, which is designed to be seen at different times of day as the light and shadow changes, is titled Amalgamation.
    The rest of the first floor is something of a white cube. In it hang artworks by D’Annibale, including No Strings Attached, a 16-panel encaustic piece, and two pieces featuring canvas wrapped around darkened mirrors, inspired by the appearance of building materials that were delivered to the site.
    There’s also a moody dining room installation titled Pigs in Zen, above which hangs The Killing Tree, a hollow, naturally occurring, sculpture of vines that once surrounded a tree trunk that died and rotted away.
    Brigitte D’Annibale The Killing Tree, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    But the true marvel is what lies below, when one exits the side door and walks down a sculptural hand-poured concrete staircase to what was once the lower level of the home.
    D’Annibale has completely opened it up to the backyard, covering the ground with 38,000 pounds of loose stone. Mounded beds planted with greenery and olive trees echo the shape of the mountains in the distance, and a sunken conversation pit beneath The Oculus is literally built out of the mud where the foundations once stood.
    “Originally, I was going to carve out this area. I wanted it to be subterranean. After I excavated it, we had three weeks of incessant rain, so it became a mud pit,” D’Annibale said. “I decided to use mud as a medium. I mixed it with decomposed granite and road base with a binding material.”
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Basement, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    “I thought it would be beautiful to be able to have conversations in this very grounding environment,” she added. “I don’t think there’s a much more humble material than sitting in the dirt.”
    The overall effect of the installation’s lower level is reminiscent of a Japanese rock garden or Chinese scholar’s garden, which D’Annibale said is a reflection of the years she has spent in Southeast Asia.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, with Amalgamation inside B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    “I wanted to use the flow of the landscape to create this very holistic connection with nature,” she added.
    Now that the ambitious project is completed, D’Annibale, Kingsley, and curator Elysia Borowy are beginning to formulate plans to activate the space. They envision performance events incorporating music and dance, and opportunities to host wide-ranging discussions around the conversation pit.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Basement part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    “This space is a vessel that Brigitte has created,” Kingsley said. “It’s so much bigger than one artist.”
    Public visiting hours will be offered starting in June, with limited tours for registered guests during Frieze Week.
    “This is just the beginning. This is designed to open up dialogue,” D’Annibale said. “It’s about immersion and interaction and connection.”
    See more photos of B=f(P,E) below.
    Brigitte D’Annibale The Oculus,part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, Pigs in Zen part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, Restraint 1, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Oculus, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Oculus, and Amalgamation, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Oculus, and The Basement, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, B=f(P,E), 2023, detail. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, The Oculus, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, Entropy 1, Entropy 2, Entropy 3, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
    Brigitte D’Annibale, No Strings Attached, part of B=f(P,E), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
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    Beyond the Fairs: Here Are 9 Museum Shows to Visit in Los Angeles During Frieze Week

    As the international art world descends on Los Angeles for Frieze week, we’ve highlighted some of the best art on view beyond the art fairs—in museums. From a glimpse into the life and work of the late polymath Milford Graves to an in-depth survey of South African artist William Kentridge’s oeuvre, plus the last days of Uta Barth’s beguiling photographs, here are the museum shows we’re looking forward to in the City of Angels.

    “Tala Madani: Biscuits” at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCAthrough February 19, 2023
    Tala Madani, Blackboard (Further Education) (2021). Courtesy YDC.
    MOCA presents 15 years of the Tehran-born artist’s sketches, paintings, and animations, in her first North American survey show. With the patriarchy, the canon of art history, and law enforcement firmly in Madini’s scope, “Biscuits” is wickedly funny, timely, and long overdue. 

    “Milford Graves: Fundamental Frequency” at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angelesthrough May 14, 2023
    Philippe Gras, Milford Graves at the Festival d’Automne à Paris (1974). © Philippe Gras.
    Milford Graves may have been best-known as a percussionist, but to call him only that is a disservice to a man who was a true polymath in every sense. As his New York Times obituary noted, he was “also a botanist, acupuncturist, martial artist, impresario, college professor, visual artist, and student of the human heartbeat.” The West Coast presentation of this show, which originated at New York’s Artists Space, features archival documentation, film, music, and the artist’s effusive sculptural assemblages.

    “Uta Barth: Peripheral Vision” at the Getty Centerthrough February 19, 2023
    Uta Barth, Ground #41 (1994). © Uta Barth, courtesy of the Getty Center.
    For those in Los Angeles for the weekend only, it’s the perfect time to catch the final days of Uta Barth’s work on view at the Getty. A true California artist, her photographs capture the unique light and space that filters through the city.

    William Kentridge: In Praise of Shadows at the Broadthrough April 9, 2023
    William Kentridge, Drawing for ‘Other Faces’ (2011). Courtesy of the Broad.
    The Broad is giving over the entire first floor galleries to the 35-year career of William Kentridge, in the South African artist’s first major museum show in Los Angeles in more than 20 years. Set against a backdrop designed by Sabine Theunissen, more than 130 works by Kentridge rendered in his signature charcoal drawings, theatrical sets, and animated films provide a personal lens through which thorny socio-political issues are explored.

    “Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt” at the Skirball Cultural Centerthrough March 12, 2023
    Bisa Butler, To God and Truth (2019). © Bisa Butler. Photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
    Works by more than 40 artists including Sanford Biggers and Bisa Butler stand out in this survey, which tells the story of America through quilts. As the show notes, “Whether produced as works of art or utilitarian objects,” the quilts “impart deeply personal narratives of their makers and offer an intimate picture of American life.”

    “Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982“at LACMAthrough July 2, 2023
    Sonya Rapoport, page 2 from Anasazi Series II (1977) [detail]. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. © Estate of Sonya Rapoport, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA.From experimental works made with hefty machines and analog works depicting algorithms to the rise of digital art made entirely online, creatives have been drawn to computers for decades. This show explores the rise of technology and how artists have interpreted its promises and perils.

    “Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971” at the Academy Museum of Motion Picturesthrough July 16, 2023
    The Nicholas Brothers in a scene from Stormy Weather (1943). Courtesy Margaret Herrick Library ©Twentieth Century Fox.
    Taking its name from a 1923 movie, “Regeneration” explores the role of Black creatives from cinema’s inception in America through the Civil Rights movement. Through photographs, drawings, original costumes, and restored reels, the exhibition spotlights forgotten, overlooked, and suppressed films and filmmakers. 

    “Adee Roberson and Azikiwe Mohammed: because i am that” at the California African American Museumthrough May 7, 2023
    Installation view, “Adee Roberson and Azikiwe Mohammed: because i am that” at CAAM.
    Occupying CAAM’s atrium, “because i am that” is a two-person show that, across its six-month run, is inviting a range of collaborators to bring musings on Black creativity into the space. Curated by Essence Harden, the conversation between Robertson and Mohammed includes paintings, video, and sculpture. 

    “Bridget Riley Drawings: From the Artist’s Studio” at the Hammerthrough May 28, 2023
    Bridget Riley, study for Shuttle (1964). © Bridget Riley.
    Behind every Riley painting is a series of exploratory and probing drawings. As her first West Coast show in 50 years reveals, the black-and-white optical works are no less beguiling. The Hammer’s exhibition offers visitors a chance to track the British artist’s development from her student work in the 1940s through today.    
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    Carolyn Lazard’s Latest Work Offers Another Way to Experience the Beauty of Dance—Almost Entirely Without Sight

    Dance is a highly physical art form that often includes numerous senses. Dancers traditionally respond to a beat or melody through hearing; their sense of touch will be used for intricate movements against the floor and in relation to fellow performers. But it is usually the sight of dance that is put centre stage for the audience. Carolyn Lazard, a New York and Philadelphia-based artist and writer, dynamically challenges the way that dance is experienced in a new exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary. 
    In their collaborative work Long Take, Lazard almost removes the sense of sight and presents a creative dance piece through a sound installation, complete with recorded reading of a dance score, sounds of the performer’s movements and breath, and an audio description on a black screen. The piece confronts the hierarchy often given to the senses within the arts, with sight typically valued as the most important. Long Take calls for a different approach to rigid ideas that impinge accessibility, expanding the limits of what dance in a public space can be.
    “European culture and philosophy has largely privileged sight as our primary means of producing knowledge,” said Lazard. “It’s an epistemic violence that narrows the infinite possibilities for how we make meaning in life.”
    The exhibition takes a complete approach to its message. As part of the installation, Lazard has altered four of Nottingham Contemporary’s benches to create a more welcoming and comfortable experience for visitors with different access needs. The heights of the benches have been altered, and cushions and backrests have been added. Their practice is not only a powerful call to explore accessibility and inclusion within the work itself, it also takes a practical approach to reframing the oftentimes exclusive world of art galleries and institutions.
    In 2019 they wrote Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise and a Practice. It is a clear yet richly researched guide for small-scale nonprofits to become more open to the public they serve. It covers topics from how best to list access information to different accommodations that can be made to support visitors with varying needs. The straightforward guide delves into matters such as childcare, content warnings, and touch tours for people who are blind or vision impaired. 
    “Museums are a colonial project, and therefore inherently ableist,” said “Long Take” co-curator Olivia Aherne, who has worked with Rosa Tyhurst on the exhibition. “They create, perpetuate and reinforce forms of hegemonic power. Within that, productivity and competency are of utmost importance.” The curator added that Lazard’s guide was persuasive that greater accessibility can be achieved regardless of available resources. “It’s about assessing priorities and redirecting resources, both in terms of what you value and privilege but also more practically what you budget for.”
    Many of the suggestions in the Accessibility in the Arts guide are seemingly simple for galleries to take on, but surprisingly few spaces have. Lazard’s collaborative approach to art making exposes the power that can be found in working together to find innovative solutions. 
    “Long Take is about the relational and how people provide care and access for each other always, before, after, and beyond what one might call the state or the economy,” they said, adding that they invited dancer and writer Jerron Herman and writer and artist Joselia Rebekah Hughes to make this work. “We are all in an extended community of artists who are interested in questions of care and access aesthetics…We danced together, we listened together, we recorded together, and we wrote together.”
    An urgent issue within public care systems is the racism and inequality that lie at the heart of their structures. Lazard’s 2019 work Pain Scale confronted the minimization of Black pain that is inherent within the United States’ medical services. The piece depicts a row of brown faces, created in the image of the emoji-like expressions that are presented to patients in hospitals to communicate the level of pain they are feeling. Except in Lazard’s work, all the faces are smiling. The only option for those picking from this scale, is happy and pain free. 
    The work speaks to disturbing findings that have been uncovered within the US care system. A 2016 study found that 50 percent of US medical students believed Black people to have thicker skin or less sensitive nerve endings than white people. A broader meta-analysis of two decades of studies found that Black patients were 22 percent less likely than white patients to receive pain medication when requested. These deeply rooted, racist misconceptions can make a world of difference to how a patient is treated by the medical profession, if indeed they are deemed to need treatment at all.
    We need to see “the end of the world as it is,” Lazard said, when asked what must change in the United States to address this systemic racism within the care system. Their work is a rallying cry for equality in care and access, but also a creative and often practical exploration of how this might happen.
    In Long Take, the work embodies its message. It doesn’t just tell its audience why vision-favored works can be problematic, it shows them another, highly enriching way of experiencing a popular art form. Importantly, the work shows that accessibility within art does not have to mean a reduction of complexity. “In its layered form—score, sound, description—Long Take turns away from ideas of transparency or coherence, arguing that disabled people also deserve access to incoherency,” says Ahearne. “I think that’s really important to note.”
    “Carolyn Lazard: Long Take” is on view through May 7 at Nottingham Contemporary.
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    Emotional Landscapes and Eco-Surrealism: L.A. Art Insiders Ponder What Comes Next After the End of the Figuration Boom

    When Frieze Los Angeles opens to the public this week, cultural stakeholders from all over will swarm the Santa Monica airport, seeking an intelligible narrative about the state of contemporary art—in a city famous for its lack of a coherent center. 
    Indeed, L.A.’s marquee art institutions seem to be presenting very different pictures of what matters now. The Getty is devoting its contemporary show to conceptual photographer Uta Barth, while the Hammer celebrates Joan Didion and LACMA exhibits recent abstract acquisitions and artworks that trace African diasporic legacies.
    L.A. gallerists, curators, and artists, too, have disparate ideas about which aesthetics are trending locally. If they can agree on one thing, however, it seems to be that artists are responding to or against the figurative mode that has, for nearly a decade, dominated contemporary art discourse. 
    Daniel Gibson, Flower Head (2022). Courtesy of Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles.
    “There’s a loosening up of paint styles in general,” said Esther Kim Varet, founder at Various Small Fires. Over the past couple years, Joshua Nathanson, one of her L.A.-based artists, has foregone stark, cartoonish outlines for hazy figures that blend with their backgrounds. This looser style has a reach far beyond the city’s limits. For Frieze’s online viewing room, Kim Varet will exhibit work by two other painters, Alvin Ong (based in London and Singapore) and Alex Foxton (Paris), who have also embraced more languid brushstrokes.  
    The gallerist speculates that she and her collectors might be drawn to this kind of atmospheric work at this particular moment, valuing their own emotional responses more than they did pre-pandemic. Her client base is responding to “mood” and “loveliness” again, she says—to painting qua painting. Figurative work hasn’t completely disappeared, and abstraction hasn’t yet made a full-force comeback, but people are “getting a little more emotional” these days.
    “It might be a pivot point,” she speculated. “There are so many other factors. My client base in Asia really loves figurative painting. Shifts and trends are really complex.” 
    Ken Gun Min, Two Mothers (2022). Courtesy of Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles.
    Seth Curcio, partner at Shulamit Nazarian, believes the pandemic has inspired local artists to move away from the figure as well, but in a different direction—towards landscape.
    As indoor spaces shuttered across Los Angeles, artists meandered across hiking trails and their own neighborhoods, transmuting these experiences into new compositions. “Artists are using landscape to talk about social and cultural ideas,” Curcio said. They’re trying to “think about the world outside their studio and the world they’re building inside their studio, on their canvases.” 
    As an example, Curcio cited the paintings of gallery artist Daniel Gibson, a local, whose “lush, psychedelic landscapes” feature imaginary deserts and very real, embedded concerns about migration and borders. Ken Gun Min, who settled in Los Angeles after living in Asia and Europe, creates imagined landscapes rooted in specific local sites: Buena Vista Park, Runyon Canyon, and Silverlake have all appeared in his canvases, transformed into queer utopias via thread, vintage beads, oil paint, and Korean pigment powder.
    Annie Lapin, Light Folding (2022). Courtesy of Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles.
    Finally, Annie Lapin amalgamates and digitally alters photographs and art historical imagery to create her own surreal, fragmented landscapes that evoke memories and dreams. According to Curcio, these artists are now thinking about the world in a way that’s dislodged from the body. “Landscape is a really fertile place to map those emotions,” he said.
    Artist Nick Doyle also sees L.A. artists turning away from the body—but towards objects.
    An Angeleno now based in New York, Doyle will exhibit collaged-denim-on-panel wall sockets at Reyes Finn’s Felix Art Fair presentation. He mentioned the work of local painters Mario Ayala, Sayre Gomez, and Kara Joselyn as emblematic of a flattened, airbrushed style that simultaneously references three major features of the Los Angeles landscape: cars, street signs, and film sets. The theatrical paintings of Justin John Green, he said, embrace a “romantic, Hollywood-esque quality.”
    Nick Doyle, TBD (2023). Courtesy of Reyes Finn.
    Doyle appreciates the atmospheric influences of the West and his hometown’s art history, relatively untethered to the intense East Coast legacies of minimalism and conceptualism. “What makes L.A.’s art scene interesting is that it’s unattached to longer art historical lineages and has room to expand into other visual languages,” he said. 
    Zoe Lukov, cofounder at nonprofit Art in Common, also sees an environmentally conscious, surrealist trend rippling across the city’s art scene. “There’s proximity to film and major climate disaster,” she said. “It’s a surreal combination.”
    Local artists are especially interested in themes related to the water, she finds. Fawn Rogers, Lukov noted, makes “lush, sexy paintings, often of oysters,” while Nicolette Miskhan’s canvases feature mermaids, undermining old tropes that have made the fantastical figures repositories “for shame, desire, and fear about the feminine.” Via performance, Deborah Scacco examines the body’s relationship to water. (During Frieze week, Art in Common will mount “Boil, Toil, and Trouble,” featuring work by all three artists.)
    Nicolette Mishkan, The Protection Circle (2022). Photo: Anita Posada. Courtesy of Art in Common.
    For his part, Felix Art Fair founder Dean Valentine believes the recent surrealist fad, along with the figurative arc, is coming to an end—at least from a market standpoint. “I think people are waiting to see what’s next,” he acknowledged. “I don’t think anyone’s seen over the horizon yet.”
    If anything, he said, there’s a stronger disposition, among painters, towards “pleasingly colorful work.” Like Kim Varet, he thinks that collectors are turning towards more beautiful art. He conjectures that it’s an escape from worries about a slowing economy, conflict in Ukraine, climate change, and other global stressors. 
    Valentine believes that as the city’s art scene has become ever-more global—as international blue chip galleries set up shop and the stylistic influence of artists and influential educators such as John Baldessari, Chris Burden, and Mike Kelley becomes more diluted—“L.A. art” loses some of its regional flavor. 
    Fawn Rogers, Happy as a Clam (top) and The Most Beautiful Pearls Are Black (bottom, both 2021). Photo: Anita Posada. Courtesy of Art in Common.
    Art advisor Irina Stark, on the other hand, continues to be astounded by the amount of painting in the city, thanks in part to its fantastic light. She noted a number of contemporary painters who have relocated to Los Angeles and made the city their home: Katherina Olschbaur, Simphiwe Ndzube (exhibiting in the Art in Common show), Veronica Fernandez (showing in Frieze Focus), Anna Valdez, Jonny Negron, Tala Madani (whose work is up at MOCA), Jill Mulleady, Katja Seib, and Claire Tabouret. 
    Stark sees artists moving towards abstraction, but she also believes that ceramics and surrealism are still going strong. Like Lukov, she sees a “love for witchiness” across the city: “We’ve had figuration as a main trend for eight years, so I think it’s time to incorporate something new.” 
    Debra Scacco, Channel (n.d.). Photo: Anita Posada. Courtesy of Art in Common.
    Though painting trends may dominate the city’s conversation, Institute of Contemporary Art senior curator Amanda Sroka is focused on performance. Her institution just opened three solo exhibitions devoted to artists who explore sound: Jacqueline Kyomi Gork, Milford Graves, and Christine Sun Kim.
    Sroka moved to Los Angeles this year and is still acquainting herself with the local art scene. “There is a real, thriving performance community here in Los Angeles,” she said, thanks to the L.A. spaces that support the medium (MOCA will also host Simone Forti dance performances during the fair week). 
    Sroka also sees local artists using organic materials, integrating the earth into their practices—but she’s hesitant about calling out specific trends. Having just arrived, she is still wrapping her head around her new home.
    “Los Angeles is dizzying and intoxicating,” she said. “As soon as you have your hand on the pulse of something, it’s changing.”
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    A Gallery Show in Los Angeles Pays Tribute to the Late, Great Brazilian Designer Fernando Campana and His Whimsical Furnishings

    Brazil has been a center of the global design scene for decades, thanks to the prolific and groundbreaking output of the Campana brothers. The duo rose to prominence during the 1990s with often whimsical designs that defied formal, aesthetic, and material norms. 
    Brazilian designer Fernando Campana poses for pictures at his studio in São Paulo, Brazil, on July 4, 2016. (MIGUEL SCHINCARIOL/AFP via Getty Images)
    Working across mediums, Humberto and Fernando Campana took the design world by storm. Notable concepts include the loose cotton rope Vermelha Chair—produced for Italian manufacturer Edra—and the Favela Chair (1991), now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, created from wood offcuts not unlike the dwellings that define those urban areas. Weaving plush stuffed animals—Disney and KAWS characters—into overflowing armchairs became their calling card. 
    Campana Brothers, Bolotas Chair, Bicolor (2018). Photo: Fernando Laszlo. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Estudio Campana.
    The studio distinguished itself with postmodern humor and pastiche—as well as responsibility and resourcefulness, upcycling materials before the term was coined. Campana Studio was one of the first practices to incorporate narrative in its work; the idea of imbuing objects with stories has since come to define much of the collectible design market. 
    The duo has been a staple of New York, in particular Friedman Benda, ever since the gallery’s inception in the 2010s. From February 15 through April 15, the gallery is honoring Fernando—who died last November at age 61—with a comprehensive retrospective at its new Los Angeles outpost, during Frieze.
    Campana Brothers, Noah Bench (2017). Photo: Fernando Laszlo. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Estudio Campana.
    As tributes from prominent figures such as MoMA senior curator of architecture and design Paola Antonnelli prove, he was beloved and revered by many. Antonnelli helped bring the duo international acclaim with a dedicated exhibition in the late 1990s.
    Milan-based writer and Design Miami curatorial director Maria Cristina Didero said recently, “Estúdio Campana has always attributed several meanings to the word ‘transformation,’ converting ordinary objects into precious ones. [Fernando] deeply loved his work and together with his brother Humberto, conceived it as a mission to help other people through creativity and fun.”
    Campana Brothers, Bubble Wrap Chair (1995). Photo: Fernando Laszlo. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Estudio Campana.
    The “Cine São José” exhibition surveys a significant amount of work produced during the studio’s first 15 years, as well as never-before-seen pieces. The title refers to their hometown cinema, where films allowed them to dream an auspicious future.
    Campana Brothers, Yanomami Chair (1989). Photo: Fernando Laszlo. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Estudio Campana.
    On view is the rare Yanomani Chair (1989), part of the seminal “Desconfortáveis” (“Uncomfortable”) collection, in which Humberto and Fernando forged squiggles into iron using blowtorches. The Bubble Wrap Chair (1995) was created by layering sheets of the packaging material.
    Other pieces hail from the “Sushi” series—Sushi Sofa (ca. 2002) sold for over $50,000 at Sotheby’s in 2020—and the collaged “Detonado” series (in production since 2013). Through the clever elevation and integration of cheap, everyday materials, the duo created otherworldly designs and imbued them with a healthy dose of color and levity.
    Here are more of the duo’s fanciful designs from the Friedman Benda show.

    Campana Brothers, Bolotas Chair, Apple (2020). Photo: Fernando Laszlo. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Estudio Campana.
    Campana Brothers, Detonado Chair (2013). Photo: Fernando Laszlo. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Estudio Campana.
    Campana Brothers, Galactica Sofa (2020). Photo: Fernando Laszlo. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Estudio Campana.
    Campana Brothers, Jalapão Chair (2022). Photo: Fernando Laszlo. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Estudio Campana.
    Campana Brothers, Noah Mirror (2017). Photo: Fernando Laszlo. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Estudio Campana.
    Campana Brothers, Ofidia Side Table (2015). Photo: Fernando Laszlo. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Estudio Campana.
    Campana Brothers, Pirarucu Chair, Pink (2015). Photo: Fernando Laszlo. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Estudio Campana.
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    ‘It’s Now or Never’: The Rijksmuseum’s Hotly Anticipated Blockbuster Vermeer Show Is Finally Here—and It’s Unmissable

    The number of works on show is far from huge and the exhibition space may seem to be disproportionately spacious, and yet the Rijksmuseum has set the perfect stage for a highly anticipated, once-in-a-lifetime Johannes Vermeer exhibition—the largest ever “family reunion” of the Dutch master’s paintings.
    Opening to the public this Friday, February 10, “Vermeer” at the Netherlands’s national museum of art and history presents a total of 28 out of the 37 known paintings by the artist, making the show the most complete survey of the Old Master staged in his home country.
    It reunites many works that have been scattered around the world, including seven paintings that have not been back to the Netherlands in 200 years. They hang near other greatest hits that have remained in the Netherlands, including The Milkmaid (c. 1658-59) and The Little Street, both housed at Rijksmuseum, and three from the Mauritshuis in The Hague, an institution best known for being home to the enigmatic Girl with a Pearl Earring (1664-67).
    Critics and journalists admired Vermeer’s View of Delft during a press preview at exhibition “Vermeer” at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Photo: Vivienne Chow.
    Rijksmuseum’s general director Taco Dibbits said the new exhibition is the largest since the show that ran from 1995 to 1996 by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, which brought together 21 works. “It was quite an impossible dream to have a monographic exhibition of Vermeer. But it appeared not to be impossible when we heard that Frick Collection was about to renovate. We thought, this is a chance. It’s now or never,” Dibbits said during Tuesday’s press preview, which welcomed around 150 international journalists and critics.
    “Vermeer,” an assembly from 14 museums and private collections from seven countries, includes an unprecedented loan of three works from the Frick Collection, which are being shown outside of New York for the first time: Mistress and Maid (c.1664-67), Girl, Interrupted at Her Music (c.1959-61), and Officer and the Laughing Girl (c. 1657-58).
    Saint Praxedis (1655), said to be based on a similar picture from around 1640 to 1645 by the Florentine artist Felice Ficherelli, is loaned from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.
    The museum’s curatorial team, as well as conservators and scientists, embarked on an intensive research journey in collaboration with other prestigious institutions, applying the latest technologies in an attempt to resolve the mysteries behind Vermeer’s arresting images and storied paintings and decode his painting techniques. But one of the most difficult mysteries to solve was how to stage the show in Rijksmuseum’s huge halls. “How do you exhibit 28 paintings of which most are relatively small, and depict very intimate spaces?” Dibbits noted.
    The Milkmaid featured in exhibition “Vermeer”. Photo Rijksmuseum/ Henk Wildschut.
    The solution was not to closely group them, but to offer as much space as possible for each painting. The museum worked with French architect and designer Jean-Michel Wilmotte to design all ten galleries of the museum’s Phillips Wing. The works are divided into 11 thematic sections tracing the artist’s roots, and searching for insights into his life and paintings. The exhibition space is so roomy that sometimes a large gallery features only one or two paintings. Galleries are decorated with classy floor-to-ceiling velvet curtains in different colors to separate the show’s themes.
    But these small works are set to have a huge impact: more than 200,000 tickets have already been pre-sold as of Tuesday. “This has never happened before,” said Dibbits. Due to the size of the works, the director added that his team is limiting the amount of tickets sold to ensure that the public has a good viewing experience. The museum also declined to comment on any additional security measures in place given the ongoing attacks at European institutions by climate activists.
    Installation view of Mistress and Maid at “Vermeer,” Rijksmuseum. Work on loan from the Frick Collection, New York. Photo Rijksmuseum/ Henk Wildschut.
    Rijksmuseum’s spokespeople did not disclose how many visitors they were expecting in total, nor did they disclose the limit of tickets to be sold or the maximum capacity the galleries could accommodate. The institution has extended its normal run-time for an exhibition to four months for the Dutch Golden Age star; it. will extend its opening hours to 10 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays throughout the exhibition period, until June 4.
    In spite of the all-star lineup, there has been at least one dispute. On view is a contested work, Girl With a Flute (c. 1665-1675)—the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. has said that the small painting may not be a genuine work by Vermeer. Nevertheless, it is attributed to Vermeer on the wall text, and hangs in the show side-by-side with another painting Girl with a Red Hat (c. 1664-67).
    Such a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition is likely to make history globally, and is an especially poignant show for the Dutch public. “It’s like an unprecedented family reunion,”  co-curator Pieter Roelofs.
    “Vermeer” will be on view form February 10 to June 4, 2023.

    Girl with a Red Hat and Girl with a Flute at “Vermeer,” Rijksmuseum. Photo Rijksmuseum/ Henk Wildschut.
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    These 5 New Exhibitions—Complete With Balloon Furniture and Chairs Made for Cuddling—Reveal Directions That Design Is Going Today

    It’s February, the dead of winter, and a recession might be on the horizon. Design galleries around the world are responding with exciting solo and group shows that aim to enliven our daily lives with color and texture. From tactile sculptures to textile-like glass works, galleries and designers are striving to connect with viewers. Here are five exhibitions reminding us to stay human.

    Luam Melake at R & CompanyNew York, New York
    Chairs by Luam Melake. Courtesy of R & Company.
    Why can’t furnishings express feelings? The exhibition “Furnishing Feelings” takes a humanistic approach to design, showcasing California-based Luam Melake’s chairs, through April at R & Company.
    Crafted out of foam, dye, and twine, eight monumental settees invite interaction. One of them, Listening Chair, was the first seeat Melake conceived with the idea of advancing interpersonal relationships, while Nestled Chair promotes cuddling by drawing from psychology and psychotherapy. 

    Hamza Kadiri at Les Ateliers CourbetNew York, New York
    Wardrobe by Hamza Kadiri. Courtesy of Les Ateliers Courbet.
    In his solo show at Les Ateliers Courbet (through March 10), Moroccan talent Hamza Kadiri transforms pieces of found rare wood into otherworldly sculptures-cum-furniture. Kadiri revitalizes traditional Moroccan marquetry and cabinetry skills, working closely with local artisans. 
    One credenza pushes the limits of what carved wood can be while a cabinet’s butterfly shape cleverly matches its own woodgrain. Kadiri and his team also look beyond these rich traditions to explore techniques like Shou Sugi Ban charring.

    Brian Thoreen at Masa GalleryMexico City, Mexico
    Installation view, Brian Thoreen, Masa Galeria. Photo: Alejandro Ramirez Orozco. Courtesy of Masa Galeria.
    Coinciding with the 21st edition of Zona Maco—Mexico City’s art and design fair—Masa Gallery is setting up in the 18th-century home of patron and artist Federico Sánchez Fogarty, who threw the legendary Fiestas del Tercer Imperio (Parties of the Third Empire).
    Brian Thoreen‘s solo show “Non-Zero-Sum” (through April 8) incorporates functional and nonfunctional designs, bringing together close to a dozen large-scale sculptural works that challenge the conventional use of rubber and bronze. 

    정 Jeong at The Future PerfectNew York, New York
    Padded chair series by Jineyoung Yeon. Courtesy of the Future Perfect.
    Bicoastal gallery the Future Perfect is taking a serious look at contemporary Korean design. The “정 Jeong” group show—through March 17—surveys seven emerging and established talents who riff on the country’s artisanal vernacular.
    Seungjin Yang challenges material limitations with his epoxy-coated balloon-like chairs; Myung Taek Jung’s conceptual furnishings distill ancient Korean architecture; Jineyoung Yeon upcycles unused goose-down jackets to create padded chairs; Junsu Kim’s soft focused, almost trompe l’oeil vessels are adorned with topographic patterning; and Brooklyn-based ceramicist Jane Yang-D’Haene reinterprets the age-old moon jar typology. 

    Anthony Amoako-Attah at Heller GalleryNew York, New York
    Anthony Amoako-Attah
    Purveyors of contemporary glass art, Heller Gallery stands apart by exhibiting experimental practitioners, such as Ghanaian artist Anthony Amoako-Attah—a fixture of the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, United Kingdom, and the prestigious Pilchuck Glass School in Washington state. 
    From February 9 to March 11, his exhibition “What Do You See?” incorporates new works that translate kente cloth designs and Adinkra symbols into layered sheets of screen-printed and shaped glass.
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    Rijksmuseum’s Acclaimed ‘Slavery’ Exhibition Will Travel To U.N. Headquarters in New York

    A major exhibition that explores the history of slavery during the Dutch colonial period will travel to the United Nations (U.N.) headquarters in New York this month for a four-week display.
    Originally conceived and staged at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2021, “Slavery” spanned 250 years of the Dutch colonial history, from the 17th to the 19th century, considering personal and real-life stories from those who lived during the period.
    The showcase at the U.N. headquarters’s visitors lobby will run from February 27 to March 30 as an adapted version of the original show in the Netherlands, presented with a new title “Slavery. Ten True Stories of Dutch Colonial Slavery.” On March 29 and 30, there will be a series of talks reflecting on the issue, which still haunts the world today. An adapted form of the display will travel U.N. offices globally for the next two years.
    “Recognizing the continuing impact of slavery on world history is of great importance. We are very grateful to the United Nations for drawing attention to this important subject through the exhibition,” Taco Dibbits, general director of the Rijksmuseum, said in a statement. The New York show is partly supported by the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the U.N. and the Dutch diplomatic mission in the United States.
    “Tronco,” a symbol of the suppression of the colonial slavery system, on show at Rijksmuseum’s “Slavery” exhibition. Courtesy Rijksmuseum.
    Set against the backdrop of the Dutch’s controversial past in Brazil, Suriname, and the Caribbean, as well as South Africa, Asia, and the Netherlands, it tells the personal stories of 10 individuals who were either enslaved or made a profit out of the slavery system, as well as those who resisted against the system. One of the central objects in the show is a tronco, the Portuguese word for tree trunk, a wooden foot stock used to restrain enslaved people by clamping their ankles in the holes.
    The show at the Rijksmuseum was among the first of its kind to dive into this part of history, and the effort was applauded by critics when it opened in 2021.
    “It is without any doubt one of great achievements of the exhibition that its makers dared to present such new critical perspectives,” University of Amsterdam’s Laura van Hasselt and Paul Knevel wrote in their review in journal The Public Historian. “The narrative has changed from a proud ‘this is us in our Golden Age’ to an uncomfortable ‘this is who we don’t want to be anymore.’” The original show is still available for viewing online.
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