Eliana Willis

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    in Exhibitions

    U.K. Artist Marcus Coates Worked With People Recovering From Mental Illness to Create Films Capturing Their Experiences of Psychosis

    In a new commission by the U.K. public art producer Artangel, the artist Marcus Coates investigates the stigma around mental illness with a new body of films now showing in London.
    The films show Coates exhibiting five different types of psychosis, from intense anxiety, to isolation, delusion, depression and exhaustion. Each was directed by a different person recovering from mental illness, and shares their personal story. In one of the films, Coates experiences vivid hallucinations while riding on a bus. In another, his anxiety becomes so crippling he is unable to go downstairs to fetch a pack of cigarettes.
    To help understand the experience of psychosis for the films, Coates started his research in 2017, with visits to the clinic of Dr. Isabel Valli, in Maudsley Hospital in south London, the country’s largest mental health institution. There, the artist sat in the doctor’s waiting room and made notes, eventually gaining the trust some patients, who agreed to help Coates make his films in order to counter preconceptions about people with mental illness.  
    Installation view of The Directors—Lucy (2022). Photo: Hugo Glendinning.
    Coates told Artnet News in a phone call that he thinks his work ultimately can help foster a “greater understanding and compassion” towards people with mental illness. “I learned from this experience that everyone has a different reality. At the core of my work is a struggle to relate,” he said. 
    “At a certain level, my new films are an extension of these elements—anthropological, participatory, but also poetic and compassionate,” Coates added. “Art can be a useful tool in reducing the stigma around mental health.”
    The films, varying in length from 16 to 26 minutes, are installed in various locations in the Pimlico neighborhood, near Tate Britain. A map to find all five works can be picked up at the Churchill Gardens Residents’ Association building. Screening times are between Thursday and Saturday, from 3 p.m.–8 p.m., and Sundays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. The project, which opened last Thursday, will remain up until October 30.
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    in Street Art

    “Odenat Buoton” by Dulk in Ecaussinnes, Belgium

    Street artist Dulk recently finish his second mural in Belgium. The artist stated that this piece is his first time painting over a brick surface mural. The piece was painted on a 180 years old school — which was founded by Odenat Bouton who saved a lot of children from the Nazi’s back in WWII.This is my second mural in Belgium, a country where I’m always happy to be back. I finished my art studies there 13 years ago and it’s so special coming back to a place where I grew as an artist after such a long time. Working in this piece has been incredible, since the surface until the great production team from @allaboutth1ngs.Growing makes our personality and knowledge unique for flying to the future.Valencian artist Dulk, Antonio Segura, is one of the most important names in Valencian painting of the moment internationally. His body of work begins to form in urban art and mural painting—to which he remains closely linked today— along with study work, but does not stop there. He continues to research and constantly create new forms of expression through different media, drawing, sculpture or photography among others. True to its essence —with a strong ecological conviction to defend ecosystems and the most vulnerable species— this work invites the viewer to be part of a unique imaginarium, full of energy and with a special sensitivity to colour. A dream world with animals and natural spaces that tells personal, universal and unique stories. More

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    in Street Art

    “Scuba Diver” by Martin Whatson in Tokyo, Japan

    Street artist Martin Whatson recently worked on a new wall in Tokyo, Japan. The mural “Scuba Diver” was done in collaboration with Parco Shibuya and Gypsy Eyes Tokyo.In line with this, Martin Whatson opened “Okaeri”, a full-scale solo show. Approximately 20 one-of-a-kind newly painted canvases, featuring the artist’s signature black-and-white stenciling and colorful and unique tagging, as well as rare posters with the artist’s signature are on display and for sale.Show will be open to the public until October 4th (Sunday) at Parco, Shibuya.Take a look below for more photos of “Scuba Diver”. More

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    in Exhibitions

    Groundbreaking Video Artist Charles Atlas Invites You to Step Into His Busy Mind With His Latest Large-Scale Work

    The video artist Charles Atlas opens one of his most ambitious and complex commissions this week at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn. Projected on both walls of the institution’s 100-foot-long Main Hall, The Mathematics of Consciousness expands on Atlas’s recurring interests in science, consciousness, and the workings of the human mind.
    Images in the video are drawn from his past and present work, including his collaborations with performers like Merce Cunningham and Kembra Pfahler, and TikTok videos showing viral dance trends. They drift across the walls like fleeting memories or thoughts, while patterns of web-like structures link everything together.
    “I subscribe to that idea that an artist just makes work. It’s up to the other people decide what it means,” Atlas told Artnet News over Zoom as he was finishing the project in his studio.
    While he confessed he was not sure what the final project would look like exactly, he did hope that it would pull together different elements of the various subjects he has been interested in over the years.
    “I wonder what people will get out of it,” he said.
    The installation, which features a score by Lazar Bozic and a specially designed stage by Mika Tajima where performances, talks, and other events will be held, opens on Friday, September 9, and run through Sunday, November 20.
    Charles Atlas testing the projections for The Mathematics of Consciousness at Pioneer Works, July 2022. Photo: Walter Wlodarczyk.
    What first sparked your interest in this project? Was it the space, or the chance to dig into some of your earlier work?
    I went to see a show at Pioneer Works—I’d never been there before—and I was very impressed with the whole institution. What really sparked my interest was the fact that they had a science division. So I thought, “Oh, this is perfect, because then I can draw on that.” And it turns out, my scientific knowledge is so rudimentary—but anyway it was well supported there.
    Things like quantum theory and cosmology, I’ve wanted for years to have it somehow be more a part of my work, because it’s something that I think about.
    Then Gabriel Florenz decided to curate a show of mine, but we didn’t really know where it would be held. When we had our first discussions, we came across the idea of projecting on the whole wall [of the Main Hall], because I done a big projection in Chicago at Merchandise Mart.
    That was much bigger, like two and a half acres. It took 32 projectors. We’re doing this one with two projectors. And we’re kind of starting from scratch. I mean, [Pioneer Works] didn’t have a map of the wall. So we had to make it, and that took about six months.
    Then we did a test and we had to alter it live with software, so it would fit the wall. It’s complicated.
    Test projections for The Mathematics of Consciousness at Pioneer Works, July 2022. Photo: Walter Wlodarczyk.
    You’ve talked about how this project is your biggest challenge. Is that because of its complexity?
    Yeah. I mean, I thought it would be somewhat similar to Merchandise Mart. But with that, I had a template and I just had to fill it in. And, in fact, at Merchandise Mart, the windows are like little holes in the image. Here, the windows are so far apart, you can’t really make an image over them, and have them be part of a whole. So I had to think about it in a whole different way.
    It’s like 26 individual windows, each one has a certain horizontal and vertical place. So if I have to make any changes, it takes forever.
    And it’s not just that each window has its own image. There are also images projected against the wall…
    And sometimes the image grows from the window into the wall. And sometimes it’s the same image on the wall on the window; often it’s different images, but the windows complement.
    Test projections for The Mathematics of Consciousness at Pioneer Works, July 2022. Photo: Walter Wlodarczyk.
    How did you select the images? I noticed some of your earlier work in there, like videos with Merce Cunningham.
    There are several different categories of images. The ones that are about memory, that’s from my archive, and that’s where Merce comes in. I identified people that I’ve worked with and think about. The show up for less than a minute each, so it’s really just a thought.
    And you’ve got more recent things like TikTok dance trends, which people have really embraced. I’ve even taken a class where I learned the Lizzo “About Damn Time” choreography.
    It’s a big contrast. It’s the current media landscape of dance and media. I have 45 different people doing [the Lizzo dance]. There are thousands of them [online].
    Test projections for The Mathematics of Consciousness at Pioneer Works, July 2022. Photo: Walter Wlodarczyk.
    The work is meant to recreate the hemispheres of the brain, so there’s a right and left. Have you split the images up so one side of the Main Hall is more rational and the other is more creative? Or is there overlap?
    There are some images that are symmetrical and some overall. And there’s some that are about the brain or about neurons, there’s some that are about math and numbers, fractals and stuff like that. There’s some that are about, I would say, connected structure. But they appear on both walls.
    The thing is, from inside the building, you can’t really take in the whole wall at once. When I’m working on my computer, I can see the whole wall, so that’s how I’m composing it. But I realized no one can see it that way. So it’s hard to judge timing and how long something should stay on so people can see it fully.
    It sounds like visitors will be walking into your brain in a way.
    Well, I hope they think that. I just don’t know what people are gonna get. I’m really curious to see what people will think of it.
    Test projections for The Mathematics of Consciousness at Pioneer Works, July 2022. Photo: Walter Wlodarczyk.
    The space will also have live performances, which is always a big part of your work.
    Yeah. Different performances and science discussions on the stage that was created by Mika Tajima. I’m doing a performance just before the closing with my longtime collaborator, Austrian musician Christian Fennesz. It’s a dual improvisation; I’m working on my laptop, and he’s playing music.
    I haven’t worked with him for 10 years, but I’ve wanted to. It just happened that he was going be in New York the day before my show closed. I’m very excited about it.
    Have you two discussed what kinds of ideas you want to explore?
    We don’t; typically, on the day of a performance, I rehearse all day and he doesn’t at all. So we just find out what each of us are doing at the performance. He’s so great, it always works out.
    Charles Atlas testing the projections for The Mathematics of Consciousness at Pioneer Works, July 2022. Photo: Walter Wlodarczyk.
    What do your final days look like as you near the opening?
    Last night, I was up all night, because I have a test today. And I was saying to my musician friend, “God, I feel young again. I haven’t stayed up this late in years.” It used to be my normal practice of working overnight. And with every test, I make new versions [of the video].
    Are you planning on tweaking the projection during the run of the show? Or once it’s up, is it done?
    You know, normally, I’m terrible. I like to fix things, even after the opening. But if it’s an edition, and someone buys one, then I stop.
    And are there any other big projects on the horizon?
    What’s next is a big vacation. I’ve been working on this nonstop for a year.
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    in Street Art

    “Light Up The Sky” by Pener in Olsztyn, Poland

    Street artist Pener recently finished another mural project entitled “Light Up The Sky” which was just completed on the streets of Olsztyn in Poland.Pener has been one of Poland’s talented emerging artists working in abstract and deconstructive style.Bartek Świątecki’s aka Pener work mixes abstraction and traditional graffiti. Great detail and color transitions create a fluid composition with layers and layers of deconstructed form. High art and youth culture, modernism and skateboarding. His images are based around geometric groupings and angular forms which reference futuristic architectural design.Continue scrolling for more detailed images and check back with us soon for more updates on Pener. More

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    in Exhibitions

    In Pictures: A Painting Show at the New Orleans Museum of Art Reveals a Little-Known Side of Artist Louise Bourgeois

    The New Orleans Museum of Art already owns a monumental Spider by famed sculptor Louis Bourgeois. Now, starting September 9, the museum will also present “Louise Bourgeois: Paintings,” the first exhibition of 40 early paintings, sculptures, and photos that aims to give her practice unprecedented context.
    The museum partnered with the Metropolitan Museum of Art to bring the show to New Orleans, a city that held particular significance for the artist.
    “Although Bourgeois never visited New Orleans until much later in life, the city loomed large in her consciousness,” NOMA curator Russel Lord, who oversaw the show’s installation, told Artnet News. “Throughout the exhibition there are subtle references to her interest in the mythic status of the city and surrounding area.”
    “These early paintings reveal how the forms and ideas that she explored later in sculpture were nascent in this formative era,” Lord continued.
    Most of these paintings date from 1938 through 1949—the period between Bourgeois’s arrival in New York City and her departure into new mediums—and trace themes that inspired Bourgeois across eras.
    “The thorough inclusion of figures and symbols referencing her own biography in these paintings demonstrates that for her, art, be it painting or sculpture, was always first and foremost a gesture of personal expression,” Lord said.
    Pieces like the show’s earliest work, titled The Runaway Girl, “can be understood as self-portraits and suggest the artist’s feelings of displacement upon her relocation to the United States just before World War II,” according to a statement from the museum. Others, such as Bourgeois’s Femme Maison series, display early forays into her own nuanced feminism.
    Take a sneak peek at works from the show below.
    Louise Bourgeois, The Runaway Girl, ca.1938. Oil, charcoal, and pencil on canvas, 24x 15 inches; 61 x 38.1 cm. Collection of TheEaston Foundation, New York. Photo by Christopher Burke. © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.

    Louise Bourgeois, Fallen Woman (Femme Maison), 1946–47. Oil on linen, 18 1/2 x 40½ inches; 47 x 103 cm. Private Collection, New York Photo by Christopher Burke. © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.

    Louise Bourgeois, Femme-Maison, 1946–47.Oil and ink on linen, 36 x 14 inches; 92 x 36cm. Private Collection, New York. Photo by Christopher Burke. © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.

    Louise Bourgeois, Untitled, 1946–47. Oil on canvas, 26 x 44 inches; 66 x 111.8 cm. ARTIST ROOMS, Tate and National Galleries of Scotland, Lent by the Artist Rooms Foundation 2018. Photo by Christopher Burke. © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.

    “Louise Bourgeois: Paintings” is on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art through January 1, 2023.
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    in Exhibitions

    7 Can’t-Miss New York Museum Shows to Check out During Armory Week 2022

    It’s Armory Week. That means that if you’re traveling to New York (or even just live here and need a refresher), you’re probably looking for a handy round-up of exhibitions to see while you’re in town.
    From Robert Colescott at the New Museum to James Joyce at the Morgan Library, here are seven must-see shows on view now in New York.

    “Raphael Montañez Ortiz: A Contextual Retrospective”El Museo del BarrioThrough September 11, 2022
    Raphael Montañez Ortiz, The Memorial (2019). Courtesy of El Museo del Barrio.
    This exhibition is the first in more than 30 years dedicated to the artist, educator, and founder of El Barrio, Raphael Montañez Ortiz. From painting to photography to assemblages, Ortiz’s work traces the peaks and valleys of American life through the lens of his Puerto Rican upbringing.

    “The Clamor of Ornament: Exchange, Power, and Joy from the Fifteenth Century to the Present“Drawing CenterThrough September 18, 2022
    Artist Unknown, Moyō hinagata miyako no nishiki / [henshū Yamanaka Kichirobē] : [volume 1], (1886). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries.Call it maximalism or “cluttercore,” but ornamentation is all the rage right now, as even this century-spanning exhibition at the Drawing Center acknowledges. From Pennsylvania Dutch drawings to Navajo textiles and architectural drawings by Louis Sullivan, more is always more.

    “New York: 1962–1964“Jewish MuseumThrough January 8, 2023
    Andy Warhol, Empire (1964), film still. Courtesy of the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, ©the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh.
    This exhibition traces a three-year period of seismic cultural and political shifts in New York and beyond. Using the tenure of Jewish Museum director Alan Solomon as a starting point, and the museum itself as an epicenter for “New Art,” the show features work by influential artists who helped define the Big Apple’s art scene.

    “One Hundred Years of James Joyce’s Ulysses“Morgan Library and MuseumThrough October 2, 2022
    A portrait of James Joyce by Patrick Tuohy, ca. 1924. Courtesy of the Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, the State University of New York.
    Re-Joyce, Ulysses fans, for the Morgan Library has devoted an entire exhibition to the Irish poet and the making of his magnum opus. Through archival material, proofs, and manuscripts, the show explores Joyce’s lived-experiences and rich imagination.

    “Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott”New MuseumThrough October 9, 2022
    Robert Colescott, George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook (1975). Image courtesy Sotheby’s.
    Robert Colescott’s satirical perspectives on race, the American dream, and beauty are on full display in this long-overdue exhibition that originated at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.

    “Bernd and Hilla Becher”Metropolitan Museum of ArtThrough November 6, 2022
    Bernd and Hilla Becher, Water Towers (1965-1997). Courtesy Phillips.
    Artists Bernd and Hilla Becher scoured the landscape of Western Europe and North America with a single mission: to document the rapidly disappearing architecture of pre-Industrial eras. Their serialized photographs—which foreshadow a generation of Minimalist and Conceptual artists—straddle the line between record-keeping and fine-art.

    “Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe”Brooklyn MuseumThrough January 1, 2023
    Nellie Mae Rowe, What It Is (1978–82) © 2022 Estate of Nellie Mae Rowe/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: © High Museum of Art, Atlanta).
    New Yorkers will get to experience this show, which debuted at the High Museum in Atlanta last year, and which shines a spotlight on the self-taught Georgia artist. Explosively colorful works on paper and a recreation of Rowe’s house, dubbed the Playhouse for its whimsical landscaping and decor, will be on view.
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    in Exhibitions

    In Pictures: A Cache of 200 Never-Before-Seen Photographs by Mail Art Founder Ray Johnson Reveal He Was Even More Radical Than We Thought

    We have finally received Ray Johnson’s dispatches from the other side. Last month, the Morgan Library & Museum opened “PLEASE SEND TO REAL LIFE,” an exhibition unearthing 200 never-before-seen photos by Johnson, the founder of the international mail art network know as the New York Correspondence School, who died in 1995.
    After studying abstraction under Josef Albers at the famous Black Mountain College, Johnson left North Carolina for New York in 1948, along with professors John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Richard Lippold.
    Though he was set up for fame as a painter, he took Albers’s advice, according to the Morgan, and burned his early works between 1954 and 1956, to make room for the miniature mass media collages he called “moticos,” now hailed as precursors to Pop art.
    Hazel Larsen Archer, Ray Johnson at Black Mountain College (1948), gelatin silver print. The Morgan Library &Museum, Purchased as the gift of David Dechmanand Michel Mercure, 2021.56. © Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer.
    Photography was always a cornerstone of Johnson’s practice, but it wasn’t until 1992—two decades after leaving Manhattan for Long Island—that he adopted a Fujifilm QuickSnap camera and told curator Clive Phillpot: “I’m pursuing my career as a photographer.” Johnson would go through 137 disposable cameras by December 1994.
    Among his experiments with the popular medium, Johnson would snap works in photobooths, often bringing in his cutout collages in artistic cameos. Photography could also enrich existing works with new meaning, such as his “Movie Stars” series of large-scale collages on corrugated cardboard, which often featured famous faces. Outdoor Movie Show in RJ’s backyard (1 June 1993), for example, sees these works lined up as if ready to film a scene, surrounded by the semi-autobiographical bunny character that was Johnson’s calling card.
    Ray Johnson’s Photo Booth Portraits (1960s). Courtesy of the Ray Johnson Estate. Digital image courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum. Artwork courtesy the Ray Johnson Estate. © Ray Johnson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
    In January 1995, Johnson killed himself by jumping off a bridge in Sag Harbor, drowning in the water below. “I think Ray will become famous after his death, because he won’t be around to impede the dissemination of his work,” remarked New York art dealer Richard Feigen in the New York Times obituary that followed.
    Although he bristled against institutions trying to show his work, there’s been an uptick in exhibitions culled from Johnson’s estate in the decades that followed his death, including shows last year at the Art Institute of Chicago and David Zwirner. Both focused mostly on Johnson’s collages and situating him among colleagues like John Cale and Joseph Cornell.
    More than 5,000 color photographs by Johnson have survived, many kept off view in envelopes. The Morgan show’s curator, Joel Smith, told Arnet News that Johnson’s estate donated the 200 on view now to the museum’s permanent collection in 2019, courtesy of art advisor Frances Beatty. Research on the works carried on through early 2020.
    Elisabeth Novick, Untitled (Ray Johnson and Suzi Gablik) (1955), gelatin silver print, Courtesy of the Ray Johnson Estate.
    “The pandemic caused changes in scheduling that pushed [the show] back to summer 2022,” Smith said. “In the interim, we learned more about the photographs, and also acquired the 1948 photograph of Johnson by Hazel Larsen Archer that became the earliest (and first) piece in the exhibition.”
    Still, no one knows for sure what Johnson meant to do with all the film he shot. “It would be trivial to hunt through this large, complex, often comical, always personal body of work for nothing more than a rebus suicide note,” Smith’s essay in the show’s catalog notes. “Ray Johnson never made himself that easily readable.”
    Immediate and intimate, Johnson’s work is about the present moment. Taking a prototype selfie in a shop window mirror, Johnson holds up a bunny-eared collage reading: “PLEASE SEND TO REAL LIFE.” Maybe he meant the former New York magazine REALLIFE. Smith hears Johnson saying: “Here, Life, take this thing I’ve made; I’m going to the other place.”
    “PLEASE SEND TO REAL LIFE: Ray Johnson Photographs,” is on view at the Morgan Library & Museum, through October 2.
    See more images from the exhibition here.
    Path of headshots and back steps (spring 1992). The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty. © Ray Johnson/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
    RJ silhouette and wood, Stehli Beach (autumn1992). The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty. © Ray Johnson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
    Headshot and Elvises in RJ’s car (February 1993). The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of the RayJohnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty. © Ray Johnson / Artists Rights Society (ARS),New York.(ARS), New York.
    Andy Warhol life dates on flowers (July 1992). The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty. © Ray Johnson/Artists Rights Society (ARS),New York.
    Jasper John (February 1993). The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty. © Ray Johnson/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
    Bunny tree in backyard (17 April 1993). The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty. © Ray Johnson/Artists Rights Society (ARS),New York.
    Harpo Marx bunny, headshot, and payphone (February 1994). The Morgan Library &Museum, Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty. © Ray Johnson/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
    Shadow and manhole (spring 1992). The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty. © Ray Johnson/Artists Rights Society (ARS),New York.
    Four Movie Stars, Locust Valley Cemetery (31 March 1993). The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty. © Ray Johnson/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
    Outdoor Movie Show on RJ’s car (February 1993). The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of the Ray Johnson Estate, courtesy of Frances Beatty. © Ray Johnson/Artists Rights Society (ARS),New York.
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