Eliana Willis

More stories

  • 263 Shares179 Views

    in Exhibitions

    The Largest Touring Immersive Art Experience Is Bringing 50 Burning Man Style Sculptures to Las Vegas Before It Hits the Road

    Forget animated light projections. Transfix, the latest in immersive art experiences, will bring 50 interactive, kinetic, illuminated artworks—including pyrotechnics—to Las Vegas, in the first stop of a planned tour that will bring monumental, festival-style works to cities across the U.S.
    The project is the brainchild of Michael Blatter and Tom Stinchfield of New York marketing agency Mirrorball. They originally conceived of the idea during the pandemic as a free, COVID-friendly event staged in Brooklyn Bridge Park that would support artists who normally made work for large-scale festivals like the Burning Man gathering in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.
    “These things shouldn’t be gathering dust in a warehouse—they should be out on the road, they should be installed somewhere where people can enjoy them and be as inspired by them as we are,” Stinchfield told Artnet News.
    “Most of the artists who make these big pieces for these events are only doing it out of passion, which is really beautiful. But afterward, it’s often out of their pocket to bring it back to wherever they may live, and store it in a warehouse or their studio, and they end up losing money,” he added. “It’s a very niche market to to sell a piece of art that’s five stories tall!”

    [embedded content]

    Stinchfield and Blatter actually met years ago through a mutual friend who suggested Stinchfield might benefit creatively from accompanying Blatter on one of his annual trips to Burning Man.
    “Michael said, ‘I’m not gonna take some random person to Burning Man.’ We had lunch, and about a week later we were sharing an RV in the desert,” Stinchfield recalled.
    The Brooklyn Bridge Park project to showcase the kind of art they encountered there never came to fruition. But it did become the basis of the business plan for Transfix, which the duo likens to a high-production value rock tour for experiential art.
    They hope that Transfix will help create a broader audience for the ambitious, large-scale works created for Burning Man and other similar events. (Only half of the art was originally created for the Nevada gathering.)
    Christopher Bauder & KiNK, AXION. Photo by Ralph Larmann, courtesy of the artist and Transfix.
    “This is art that was never created within the existing museum and gallery infrastructure,” Blatter told Artnet News. “This art is gigantic, it’s illuminated, some of it’s fire-breathing—it’s certainly not traditional museum-style art.”
    Transfix aims to create a new source of income for this kind of work by paying participating artists a rental fee for their artworks.
    “We can give artists predictable income, and free up space in their studios while giving these pieces a place to be seen and recognized by the masses,” Stinchfield said, noting that many of the artists they approached were so eager to stop having to store these works that they would have happily lent them for free.
    The Las Vegas edition will open at Resorts World in April, and will run through at least September—although that could be extended if things go well.
    Marco Cochrane, R-Evolution. Photo courtesy of the artist and TRANSFIX.
    There will be works by artists such as Marco Cochrane, Foldhaus Collective, Christopher Schardt, Playmodes, HOTTEA, and Kevin Clark. The largest work is Christopher Bauder and KiNK’s Axion, a 10,000-square-foot illuminated sonic experiential installation that has never been shown in the U.S.
    “We’re taking the underbelly of a 747 to fly that piece over here from Berlin,” Stinchfield said.
    Works will be on view in 130 shipping containers in a sprawling 200,000 square-foot outdoor venue, with two-story viewing platforms to experience the monumental art from multiple vantage points—plus 10 bars where you can grab a drink. (Exploring the entire maze-like exhibition is expected to take about two hours.)
    “It will be a great place to hang out and experience art in a whole new way,” Blatter said.
    Pablo González Vargas, ILUMINA. Photo courtesy of the artist and TRANSFIX.
    If Transfix’s ticket sales prove profitable, the proceeds will be used to commission new works for future residencies, with plans for stops in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Chicago.
    “I’ve been participating as a sculpture artist at Burning Man since 1999, and I can tell you Burning Man creative culture is a gold mine of large-scale art. We pioneered massive, immersive and experiential art out there in that dessert,” Kate Raudenbush, whose 25-foot mirrored pyramid As Above, So Below is one of the inaugural works at Transfix, told Artnet News in an email.
    She’s tired of being told that displaying her monumental works for free will provide valuable “exposure,” and is eager to create even bigger and more ambitious projects as Transfix takes off.
    “I’m already dreaming up new ideas!” Raudenbush said.
    “The ultimate goal is to build a creative ecosystem where people can be inspired by this art, but also give artists space to create,” Stinchfield added. “What we’re most excited about is writing that first check to an artist commissioning a piece that they’ve dreamed of their whole life that nobody would ever fund.”
    Follow Artnet News on Facebook: Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More

  • 213 Shares109 Views

    in Exhibitions

    Collect Fair Opens in London, Offering Unique Craft and Design Objects by Contemporary Artist-Makers Around the World

    Now in its 19th year, Collect Art Fair returns (March 3–5) to Somerset House—the impressive neoclassical structure on the banks of the Thames—showcasing unique contemporary craft and design from close to 40 international galleries representing more than 400 living artist-makers. The fair attracted over 9,100 visitors in 2022.
    “Collectors, interior designers, art advisors, and enthusiasts will be vying with arts institutions, such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, to buy and commission contemporary craft across disciplines and materials,” according to fair organizers. Fair-goers will discover works spanning ceramics, glass, lacquer, jewelry, metalwork, textiles and fiber, wood and paper, as well as reused, repurposed, and recycled materials.
    Collect 2023 at Somerset House in the U.K. Photo: David Parry. Courtesy of Collect 2023.
    A number of galleries from South Korea and Asia will be returning post-pandemic. “We’ve always had very good representation of Asian and East Asian work,” said Isobel Dennis, Fair Director at Collect, to Artnet News, “While collectors will still be seeing incredible work across a range of materials, I think it’s the subtleties and the richness of these cross-cultural influences that will be really exciting for audiences both on and offline.”
    This year’s Collect also presents an opportunity to acquire work from makers who’ve been incubated by the Loewe Foundation, including Healim Shin (Siat Gallery, South Korea), Keeryong Choi (Bullseye Projects, USA), and Jaiik Lee (Gallery Sklo, South Korea), among others.
    Keeryong Cho, presented by Bullseye Gallery. Photo: David Parry. Courtesy of Collect 2023.
    Since 2017, Collect has worked with the online marketplace Artsy.net. The partnership came into its own in 2021 when the pandemic forced the closure of the physical fair. “Artsy provided us with a way to host the entire fair virtually online without having to build all the infrastructure ourselves,” Dennis said. The hybrid model quickly established itself as another ‘new normal’ with Collect becoming Artsy’s top performing fair of 2021.
    Xanthe Somers, presented by Galerie REVEL. Photo: David Parry. Courtesy of Collect 2023.
    “What we’ve seen—even last year as the world opened up—is our traffic has remained pretty consistent with that year,” Jennifer Pratt, Director of Fair Partnerships Team at Artsy, revealed. This growth is attributed in part to a new generation of collectors who have the confidence to purchase online. “What’s really cool is that young collectors are beginning to buy works that perhaps they didn’t even know existed before,” Pratt observed.
    Collect Art Fair, March 3–5, 2023, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom.

    More Trending Stories:
    Researchers in Vietnam Discovered That Two Deer Antlers Languishing in Museum Storage Are Actually 2,000-Year-Old Musical Instruments
    A Photographer Who Found Instagram Fame for His Striking Portraits Has Confessed His Images Were Actually A.I.-Generated
    Archaeologists on Easter Island Have Discovered a Previously Unknown Moai Statue Buried in a Dried-Out Lake Bed
    Two Curators Tried to Find Out If Salvador Dalí Really Painted This Strange Seven-Foot Canvas. They Ended Up Solving an Even Bigger Mystery
    Art Industry News: A California Court Revives a Lawsuit Over a ‘Disrespectful’ Marilyn Monroe Statue + Other Stories
    The Dutch Are Going Wild for a Reality TV Show Where Artists Compete to Paint Vermeer’s Lost Masterpieces
    What I Buy and Why: Filmmaker Ku-Ling Yurman on Her Mission to Collect Works by Women and Her Prized Jewelry Pieces
    So-Called ‘Open Editions’ Are Suddenly Reigniting the Wintry NFT Market. Here’s Why They’ve Become So Popular With Collectors
    Marginalia Uncovered in Leonardo’s Famous Codex Arundel Suggests the Renaissance Polymath Theorized Gravity Before Galileo
    Follow Artnet News on Facebook: Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More

  • 200 Shares119 Views

    in Exhibitions

    The U.K.’s Asian-Focused Esea Contemporary Museum Reopens With a More Diversified Staff and Program—But Skepticism Lingers

    The light was back on and jovial chatter was heard again at the corner of Thomas Street in the U.K.’s Manchester this month. After a long hiatus, one of the most prominent centers dedicated to Chinese contemporary art in the west has reopened its doors with a new identity that embraces much wider East and Southeast Asian roots.
    Esea Contemporary opened with a group exhibition called “Practise Till We Meet,” which was a demonstration of the center’s determination to start all over again. Featuring an ensemble of ethnically East and Southeast Asian artists presenting bodies of work that explore the diasporic experience, as well as trauma, this modest exhibition is a deliberate move to bid farewell to its past life as the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art.
    The venue went through a major overhaul following the art community’s allegations of institutional racism (the center’s former management team and its board of trustees was dominated by white names) that nearly got the non-profit defunded. But some are not sure the institution has gone far enough.
    “Practise Till We Meet” (2023) installation view, at Esea Contemporary. Photo courtesy Jules Lister.
    The launch event also coincidentally coincided with the re-opening of the Manchester Museum after a £15 million ($18 million) facelift, which now includes the U.K.’s first permanent gallery dedicated to South Asian art. Although London remains the largest home to Asians, according to a 2021 census, the region that encompasses Manchester also has one of the highest presence of Asian populations in the U.K. Asians, including Chinese and other Asian ethnicities, are among the second biggest ethnic groups in Manchester.
    The selection of works and artists in Esea’s debut show “Practise Till We Meet,” curated by the Guangzhou-based independent curator Hanlu Zhang, can be interpreted as a statement for the center’s direction. Although most of the works on show are not new, they address current, unresolved issues facing many in the Asian diaspora.
    Koki Tanaka, Vulnerable Histories (A Road Movie) (2018), commissioned by Migros Museum of Contemporary Art. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Jules Lister.
    Memorable works include Koki Tanaka’s Vulnerable Histories (A Road Movie) (2018), a multi-channel video installation that charts the discrimination, violence, and trauma experienced by the Korean diaspora in Japan, descendants of Korean migrants who came to the country during various wars. The honest discussion about their psychological struggle with their hybrid identities is particularly moving.
    A colorful series of photos—Matter Out of Place (2017-2018), Souvenir (2018), Unhide Diego Garcia (2018)—by the Manchester-based Audrey Albert, a native of the island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, who has Chagossian origins. With these poignant works, she introduces the audience to the lesser known history about her displaced roots.
    Isaac Chong Wai, Two-Legged Stool (2023), commissioned by Esea Contemporary. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Jules Lister.
    Liu Weiwei’s mixed media project Australia (2017) tells the story about the artist’s younger brother Liu Chao, who is adamant about emigrating to Australia. Although the project was created nearly six years ago, Liu Chao’s determination to leave his native China echoes today amid the recent “run movement” in the country, which is seeing Chinese people fleeing their home country.
    Berlin-based Hong Kong artist Isaac Chong Wai presents Two-Legged Stool (2023), the only new work commissioned by Arts Council-backed Esea Contemporary. The work, which creates an optical illusion of a stool that appears to be two-legged from one angle, and three-legged from another, references the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s 1980s remarks about the complicated relationship between China, the U.K., and Hong Kong. “There have been talks of the so-called three-legged stool. [There are] not three legs, only two legs,” he had noted. The work is shown alongside Chong’s acclaimed video series Rehearsal of the Futures: Is the World Your Friend? (2018), which depicts the slow body movements seen in protests and the police’s tackle of demonstrators.
    While the show attempts to serve as a platform for diverse narratives, and while efforts have been made to be inclusive (the curator’s statement in Chinese is printed in traditional Chinese characters, which are used in Hong Kong and Taiwan, rather than simplified characters adopted in mainland China), some members of the East and Southeast Asian communities in the U.K. that Artnet News spoke with remain skeptical about the center’s re-launch.
    A viewer admiring Audrey Albert’s work Matter Out of Place on show at exhibition “Practise Till We Meet” at Esea Contemporary. Photo: Jules Lister.
    The new Asian presence in the institution’s leadership appears to include members who are predominantly of Chinese heritage. “What about the representation of other cultures from East and Southeast Asia on the management level? I would prefer to wait and see what they are going to do next,” said one Manchester-based East Asian culture practitioner who declined to be named.
    In response to such concerns, an Esea Contemporary spokesperson said they “welcome the community’s engagement and reflection to help us achieve what we are setting out to construct: a platform for the ESEA art community at large.”
    “We plan to work with a diverse range of guest curators across future projects, as well as continuing efforts to grow our board of trustees, staff team and artistic advisory panel,” the Esea spokesperson told Artnet News.
    There is reason for optimsim; the center’s director Xiaowen Zhu is busy cooking up big plans for the coming year. Two more shows have been planned, and she is looking into diversifying the center’s programming to include more live, in-person events.
    “No terminology is perfect in terms of representation. We hope we are doing the right thing. We are also figuring things out along the way,” said Zhu. “People’s excitement and curiosity are definitely very encouraging for us.”
    More Trending Stories:
    Whoops! A Clumsy Art Fair Visitor Shattered a $42,000 Jeff Koons Balloon Dog Sculpture in Miami
    Art Industry News: A Secret Deal on a ‘Hybrid’ Repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles Is Underway + Other Stories
    A 1,100-Year-Old Hebrew Bible, Missing Only a Few Chapters of Genesis, Could Fetch Up to $50 Million at Auction
    Here’s What We Know About ‘Moss and Freud,’ the Upcoming Film About the Friendship Between Kate Moss and Lucian Freud
    Archaeologists Digging in Iraq Have Located the Remains of a 5,000-Year-Old Tavern—As Well as a ‘Beer Recipe’
    Art Industry News: Native American Activists Urge Developers to Stop Digging at Archaeological Site in Miami + Other Stories
    An Ornament of a Baby, Purchased for $2 by a Bargain Hunter, Turns Out to be a Rare Porcelain. It Could Earn $36,000 at Auction
    Valuations: Zuzanna Ciolek, Director of UTA Artist Space in Los Angeles, on Underrated Artists and Overrated Luxuries
    See the Majestic Shots of Dolphins, Whales, and Stingrays That Won a Major Underwater Photography Competition
    Follow Artnet News on Facebook: Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More

  • 175 Shares99 Views

    in Exhibitions

    ‘Affecting’ or ‘Passionless’? Critics Are Divided on David Hockney’s Newly Opened Immersive Light Show

    If ever there were an artist seemingly made for the animated projected art craze popularized by Immersive Van Gogh, it would seemingly be David Hockney. The octogenarian British artist has engaged with technology for decades, and was an early adopter of the iPad, which he’s used to make a large portion of his work since its release in 2010.
    But the fact that Hockney creates digital art himself—and was personally involved in the production—hasn’t necessarily translated to an effective digital art show, according to early reviews of “David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away),” his new exhibition at Lightroom at London’s King’s Cross.
    The show is the brainchild of 59 Productions, a British design company for theater and opera that reached out to Hockney about the idea back in 2019. As the idea came together, Nicholas Hytner, former artistic director of London’s National Theatre, was brought on as executive producer.
    The 50-minute light show is meant to span Hockney’s six-decade career, replete with a bombastic soundtrack by the American composer Nico Muhly and narration by the 85-year-old.
    David Hockey at Lightroom. Photo by Justin Sutcliffe.
    Designed to feel like a cinematic experience, the exhibition is a departure from similar vehicles capitalizing on the work of Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Frida Kahlo, Gustav Klimt and other giants of art history, according to Hockney.
    “They’re dead,” the artist told the New York Times. “I’m a living artist, so I’ve come in and actually done things.”
    Whatever Hockney’s done, however, it might not be enough to get reluctant art critics on board the immersive art train.
    “David Hockney Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)” at Lightroom, London. Photo by Justin Sutcliffe, courtesy of Lightroom.
    “There’s too much that disappoints and irritates. You don’t really get a feel for much of the best of his work,” Ben Luke wrote in the Evening Standard. “Neither do you get a feel for the materiality of the media he extols; somehow the luscious beauty of paint, its very stuffness, gets entirely lost when blown up this big.”
    “There is not a single real work by [Hockney] here to catch your memory and hold on to your soul,” Jonathan Jones—a critic always ready with a hot take—wrote in the Guardian. “Without real art, this entertainment goes the same way as all the other immersive exhibitions of art icons: into the weightless, passionless dustbin of forgetting.”
    Even some of the positive reviews have been conditional. The Telegraph’s Alastair Sooke dubbed it “a coup of entertainment: accessible, affecting, and, technically, executed with panache,” but admitted the somewhat “vainglorious” project “isn’t a work of art—or, rather, it’s as much one as, say, a deluxe coffee-table book or high-end documentary exploring Hockney’s oeuvre.”
    David Hockney viewing a scale model for “Bigger & Closer” created by 59 Productions. Seen on the walls are a projection of August 2021, Landscape with Shadows. Photo courtesy of Mark Grimmer.
    But whatever the critics may think, it may be time for them to get used to seeing artworks projected at a monumental scale, turning paint and canvas into an immersive, ever-shifting display.
    “Hockney has always embraced new technologies and been quick to explore their potential in his art, from the unforgettable Polaroid works (possibly the best ever use of that form) to experiments with perspective through cameras, pieces created with film, video, iPad, Instagram and more,” Jan Dalley wrote in the Financial Times. “This is the latest iteration, and even at a distance we can sense the artist having fun with it. Perhaps even old-schoolers like me will be won over.”
    See more photos from the exhibition below.
    “David Hockney Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)” at Lightroom, London. Photo by Justin Sutcliffe, courtesy of Lightroom.
    “David Hockney Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)” at Lightroom, London. Photo by Justin Sutcliffe, courtesy of Lightroom.
    “David Hockney Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)” at Lightroom, London, featuring A Bigger Grand Canyon (1998). ©David Hockney.Collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
    “David Hockney Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)” at Lightroom, London, featuring The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven). ©David Hockney. Collection of the Centre Pompidou, Paris. Musée national d’art moderne – Centre de création industrielle.
    “David Hockney Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)” at Lightroom, London, featuring Gregory Swimming Los Angeles March 31st 1982. ©David Hockney.
    “David Hockney Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)” at Lightroom, London. Photo by Justin Sutcliffe, courtesy of Lightroom.
    “David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)” is on view at Lightroom, 12 Lewis Cubitt Square, London, February 22–June 4, 2023.
    Follow Artnet News on Facebook: Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More

  • 188 Shares99 Views

    in Exhibitions

    The Big-Budget Sharjah Biennial Tackles Postcolonial Fallout With Beauty, Sentimentality, and a Sense of Triumph

    In Billy Sings Amazing Grace (2013), Theaster Gates, renowned archivist and lesser-known vocalist, wails and croons in a darkened auditorium alongside the white-haired and stoic soul singer Billy Forston. In its profound sonic resonance, their video performance of improvisational gospel is one of many highlights in “Thinking Historically in the Present,” the recently opened 15th edition of the Sharjah Biennial.
    Like the show as a whole, the piece is a work of intimate, visceral storytelling, in both mournful and celebratory turns. Featuring about 300 works from more than 150 artists and collectives, including 70 new commissions, the excellent “Thinking Historically” is biennial director Hoor Al Qasimi’s homage to the late and well-loved Okwui Enwezor, who was originally appointed curator before his passing in 2019.
    In her catalog essay, Al Qasimi reflects on Enwezor’s groundbreaking decolonial legacy, citing his 2002 approach to Documenta 11 as “a lodestar in my curatorial consciousness.” Validating artists outside the canon’s narrow purview, his work had offered her a glimpse into a wider world of possibilities, unhindered by “the social myopia” of Eurocentrism.
    Theaster Gates’s Billy Sings Amazing Grace (2013). Photo: Janelle Zara
    Nodding to Enwezor’s decentralization of Documenta 11 across five cities, the Sharjah Biennial spans five towns across the emirate, in venues that include the polished galleries of the capital city, and the peeling classrooms of a disused kindergarten along the coast.
    A full generation since Enwezor’s groundbreaking exhibition in Germany, the participating biennial artists contend with what are now-familiar themes: the aftermath of empire, foreign extraction, and slavery among others. 
    “Thinking Historically” is a welcome antidote to the academic tropes of recent biennials, some of which, like the Berlin and Istanbul Biennials in 2022, were filled with research-based projects with few formal merits. In the rich textures of works like Ibrahim Mahama’s monumental tapestry, A Tale of Time/Purple Republic (2023), or the gnarled, blackened branches of Doris Salcedo’s Uprooted (2020-2022), form is the defining feature, not an afterthought in service to a predetermined message. (Their scale, which is grand, also indicates just how well-funded this biennial is.) 
    Ibrahim Mahama’s A Tale of Time/ Purple Republic (2023) Installation view: Sharjah Biennial 15, Kalba Ice Factory (2023). Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation. Photo: Motaz Mawid
    Like many biennials, Sharjah’s exhibition is video-heavy, ranging from the heart-wrenching simplicity of Erkan Özgen’s Wonderland (2016), a searing account of the Syrian Civil War, to the sumptuousness of Isaac Julien’s immersive black-and-white cinematic installation, Once Again… (Statues Never Die) (2022). The show’s weaknesses lie in concept-forward paintings that suffer from a lackluster handling of paint, or photographs of state-inflicted strife that rest too comfortably in a photojournalistic lane. There is notably little, if any work that directly addresses Emirati exploitation of migrant labor.
    Yinka Shonibare’s Decolonised Structures (2022), a series of British imperial statues cloaked in the Dutch wax patterns of West African fabrics, succinctly captures the limits of a now-rote approach to dismantling the West. While its cosmetic intervention sits on the surface, the colonial legacy remains underneath, whole and untouched. 
    Other artists have moved beyond centering the colonizer, aspiring to deeper points of introspection. In Nosferasta (2022), a comically absurd and brilliantly acted 32-minute feature, artists Adam Khalil, Bayley Sweitzer, and the Rastafarian musician Oba frame colonization as a profoundly internalized malady, frequently perpetuated by the colonized themselves. For their Rastafarian protagonist, colonization is akin to vampirism, and Christopher Columbus is a literal vampire. The true villain of this story, however, is the fraught pursuit of assimilation.
    Doris Salcedo’s Uprooted (2020-2022). Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Juan Castro Photoholic
    The assimilation theme recurs in various acts of self-erasure, including the portrait series Léthé (2021), in which photographer Mama-Diarra Niang beguilingly dissolves her subjects’ distinguishing features into a smooth, faintly recognizable haze.
    In the video As British as a Watermelon (2019), Zimbabwean-born, British-based artist mandla rae shares shamed confessions, including the origins of scars both physical and mental, and the self-erasure of mispronouncing one’s name for European ears. “How colonized do you have to be to look at an African baby and call it Bridget?” they ask, handling the titular fruit with alternating tenderness and disquieting brutality. 
    Echoing Al Qasimi’s commemorative sentiments, homages to beloved predecessors abound, in monuments and imaginary museums, or Isaac Julien’s protagonist, captivatingly written as a composite of philosopher Alain LeRoy Locke and literary heroes Langston Hughes, Aimé Césaire, and James Baldwin. Throughout, the refusal of erasure amounts to asserting one’s place in history; it is honoring lineage, especially the legacies that the official record elides.
    Isaac Julien’s Once Again… (Statues Never Die) (2022). Photo: Janelle Zara
    Gabriela Golder’s surprisingly charming Conversation Piece (2012) is ostensibly a tribute to the artist’s mother, veiled in the cool irony of two 10-year-olds reading The Communist Manifesto. “What does the bourgeoisie have to do with the discovery of America?” they ask their grandmother, Golder’s mother and former militant of the Argentine Communist Party. Her response exudes a commanding wisdom as she gently and convincingly dismantles the myth of discovery. 
    These works stop just short of excessive sentimentality, arguably the Sharjah Biennial’s most compelling feature. Sentimentality eschews drier forms of institutional critique, which lately feel expressly designed as punitive history lessons for white audiences. Rather than attempt to solve the ills wrought by centuries of empire, artists here lean into art-making as a restorative, generative process, one more adept at asking questions than answering them. 
    My personal favorite works tap into spiritual traditions, as in Gates’ wailing hymnal, or Carrie Mae Weems’ The In Between (2022-2023), a shrine that features a small library of Enwezor’s books and a vessel that appears to sail into the afterlife. Michael Rakowitz’s Borrowed Landscape (30.3193 ° N, 48.2543 ° E) (2023) was ostensibly a large-scale, loose reinterpretation of the Passover Seder, performed in a dust-blown field of decapitated palms in the desert town of Al Dhaid.
    Michael Rakowitz’s Borrowed Landscape (30.3193 ° N, 48.2543 ° E) (2023). Photo: Janelle Zara
    As Rakowitz read from an iPad to a crowd of several hundred people, he passed around objects culled from eBay that recalled the long-lost belongings of his family. Its simplicity was decidedly polarizing, but the performance struck me as a moving dedication to histories one can no longer access. The title’s coordinates refer to a site in Iraq where his family’s date trees stand similarly mangled as the palms that surrounded us.
    The artist designated this site as “a place to contemplate another,” speaking of the hyphen as metaphor, a suture between disparate points, but also between the “irreconcilable binaries” of his identity as an Iraqi Arab-Jew. He ended the piece with the biblical task of supplying an enormous crowd with roasted fish—masgouf, a national Iraqi dish dating back 3,000 years. When denied the right to return, to speak one’s history aloud and to share it with others is what keeps it alive.
    The Sharjah Biennial is on view until June 11, 2023.
    Follow Artnet News on Facebook: Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More

  • 113 Shares149 Views

    in Street Art

    A New Wall by Sebas Velasco in Sarajevo, Bosnia

    Sebastián Velasco was born in Burgos, Spain in 1988. He got a Masters degree in Painting from the University of the Basque Country in 2016. Velasco started drawing when he was a child but it was only in 2004 that he began to paint in the street. He paints figurative images, mostly using oil, acrylic, spray paint and pencils.  His photographic, expressive brush stroke style reveals a precise academic technique that contrasts sharply with the rawness of the street content in his works.  In that sense, many of his canvases act as a window for us into everyday moments where strangers are caught in the act with their writer friends.  During these moments, darkness has become increasingly more important.A new wall was recently made during Velasco’s last trip to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.Take a look at more images below and check back with us soon for more updates. More

  • 238 Shares99 Views

    in Exhibitions

    In Pictures: See Every Single Artwork in the Rijksmuseum’s Vermeer Show, a Once-in-a-Lifetime Exhibition That Is Already Sold Out

    The hotly anticipated blockbuster of Johannes Vermeer, which reunites 28 out of 37 known paintings by the mysterious 17th-century Dutch master, has finally opened.
    But despite the Rijksmuseum’s to ensure that this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition can accommodate as many visitors as possible, many art lovers have been left disappointed. Within a matter of days after the opening, all available tickets were sold out. Before “Vermeer” opened to the public on February 10, the museum already sold more than 200,000 tickets and had extended its opening hours to 10 p.m. on Thursdays to Saturdays and also extended the running time of the show.
    Some Vermeer enthusiasts vented their frustration on social media. The Rijksmuseum reacted to public’s overwhelming response promptly by squeezing out more tickets after the opening “without affecting the experience we wish our visitors to have,” a museum spokesperson told Artnet News. The second round of tickets released is now also sold-out. “[The] Rijksmuseum will continue to monitor our audience pattern carefully—and make necessary adjustments when possible to enable as many visitors to see the exhibition as possible,” the museum spokesperson added.
    Given that chances of getting tickets to the show are slim, we are bringing you a walkthrough of the exhibition, including every single artwork featured.
    Venturing into Town
    Vermeer was born, raised, and died in Delft. Two paintings depicting the scenes of his hometown are featured in this section.
    Johannes Vermeer, View of Delft (1660-61), oil on canvas. Mauritshuis, The Hague.
    Johannes Vermeer, View of Houses in Delft, also known as The Little Street (1658-59) oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Gift of H.W.A. Deterding, London.
    Early Ambitions
    This section features four large paintings that are Vermeer’s earliest known works, executed in the artist’s early 20s. Vermeer was born into the times of religious conflicts. A Reformed Protestant by birth, the artist married Catharina Bolnes, a Catholic. The religious themes play a dominant role in works created during this period. The Procuress (1656), however, marks a turning point of Vermeer’s ambition as a painter, as he later chose to focus on capturing everyday life in his works.
    Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1655. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.
    Diana and her Companions, Johannes Vermeer, c. 1653-1654. Mauritshuis, Den Haag.
    Saint Praxedis, Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1655. National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.
    The Procuress, Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1656. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.
    First Interiors
    The two paintings featured in this section depict what seems to be the mundane, everyday life, but art historians suggest that these two paintings illustrate how Vermeer mastered his skill in portraying a pictorial space on a flat surface, creating depth and composition with a single vanishing point.
    Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, Johannes Vermeer, 1657-58, oil on canvas. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.
    The Milkmaid, Johannes Vermeer, 1658-59, oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt.
    Gazing Out
    This section identifies three works related to the windows, exploring how the inner world is connected to that of the outside, by either opening the windows or having someone looking out the window.
    Officer and Laughing Girl, Johannes Vermeer, 1657-58, oil on canvas. The Frick Collection, New York. Photo: Joseph Coscia Jr.
    Woman with a Lute, Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1662-63. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
    Lady Writing with Her Maid, Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1670-1671. National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.
    Up Close
    Is she looking at you or not? This group of paintings depicts women with mysterious gazes. But not everyone of them is engaging with the viewer. The Lacemaker, for example, keeps her head down on her work, but Vermeer brought the viewer so close to her that we can see the threads in her hands.
    This section also includes the controversial Girl with a Flute, which has caused a debate on whether it was a genuine work of Vermeer.
    Girl with a Flute, Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1669-1675. National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
    Girl with a Pearl Earring, 1664–67, oil on canvas. Mauritshuis, The Hague. Bequest of Arnoldus Andries des Tombe, The Hague.
    The Lacemaker, Johannes Vermeer, 1666–68, oil on canvas mounted on panel. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
    Girl with a Red Hat, Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1665. National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. ‘Vermeer’ exhibition. Photo Rijksmuseum/ Henk Wildschut.
    Musical Appeal
    Music has a strong presence in Vermeer’s modest oeuvre, as highlighted in this section. Curiously, the women in both paintings are looking at the viewer, as if their music-making was interrupted.
    Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1670-1672. Leiden Collection, New York.
    A Young Woman standing at a Virginal, Johannes Vermeer, 1670–72, oil on canvas. The National Gallery, London
    Letters From the Outside World
    Widely seen as one of the most intriguing paintings by Vermeer, The Love Letter maintains a distance between the two women and the viewer, who is positioned as if taking a peep from an adjacent room. The women’s subtle yet dramatic facial expressions against the backdrop of the painting of the seascape on the wall, suggest a story behind the letter in the hands of the lady in the yellow robe.
    Besides music, letters like a supporting character in Vermeer’s paintings. Characters are often depicted writing, reading, or receiving letters, suggesting life beyond the painting.
    The Love Letter, Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1669 – ca. 1670. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
    Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, Johannes Vermeer, 1662-64, oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. On loan from the City of Amsterdam (A. van der Hoop Bequest).
    Mistress and Maid, Johannes Vermeer, c. 1665-67, oil on canvas. The Frick Collection, New York. Photo: Joseph Coscia Jr.
    A Lady Writing, Johannes Vermeer, 1664-67, oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Gift of Harry Waldron Havemeyer and Horace Havemeyer Jr., in memory of their father, Horace Havemeyer
    Gentlemen Callers
    The gentlemen in Vermeer’s paintings have a curious role to play, as seen in these two paintings below. Still donning a cloak or a cape, these men appear to have just entered the room from the outside, interrupting whatever the women are doing, whether playing the music or taking a sip of wine.
    Girl Interrupted at Her Music, Johannes Vermeer,. 1659–61, oil on canvas. The Frick Collection. New York. Photo: Joseph Coscia Jr
    The Glass of Wine, Johannes Vermeer, c. 1659-61, oil on canvas. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Gemäldegalerie
    View of the World
    Science is a key subject in Vermeer’s paintings, as seen in The Geographer. Another similar one is The Astronomer, which is in the collection of Louvre but not in this show in Amsterdam. Maps frequently recur.
    The Geographer, Johannes Vermeer, 1669, oil on canvas. Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
    Reflecting on Vanity and Faith
    This last section of the exhibition looks into the symbols presented in three particular paintings that may suggest Vermeer’s views of the world he lived in the, and the reflection of his inner struggles in relation to his faith and monetary values.
    Woman with a Pearl Necklace, Johannes Vermeer, (c. 1662-64), oil on canvas. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Gemäldegalerie.
    Woman Holding a Balance, Johannes Vermeer, c. 1662-64, oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Widener Collection
    Allegory of Faith, Johannes Vermeer, ca. 1670-1674. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
    More Trending Stories:
    Whoops! A Clumsy Art Fair Visitor Shattered a $42,000 Jeff Koons Balloon Dog Sculpture in Miami
    Art Industry News: A Secret Deal on a ‘Hybrid’ Repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles Is Underway + Other Stories
    A 1,100-Year-Old Hebrew Bible, Missing Only a Few Chapters of Genesis, Could Fetch Up to $50 Million at Auction
    Here’s What We Know About ‘Moss and Freud,’ the Upcoming Film About the Friendship Between Kate Moss and Lucian Freud
    Archaeologists Digging in Iraq Have Located the Remains of a 5,000-Year-Old Tavern—As Well as a ‘Beer Recipe’
    Art Industry News: Native American Activists Urge Developers to Stop Digging at Archaeological Site in Miami + Other Stories
    An Ornament of a Baby, Purchased for $2 by a Bargain Hunter, Turns Out to be a Rare Porcelain. It Could Earn $36,000 at Auction
    Valuations: Zuzanna Ciolek, Director of UTA Artist Space in Los Angeles, on Underrated Artists and Overrated Luxuries
    See the Majestic Shots of Dolphins, Whales, and Stingrays That Won a Major Underwater Photography Competition
    Follow Artnet News on Facebook: Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More

  • 163 Shares179 Views

    in Exhibitions

    Here Are 5 Art Exhibitions to Check Out at World Pride Sydney 2023

    Every two or three years since 2000, cities around the world have vied to play host to a massive celebration of LGBTQ Pride events in an event dubbed WorldPride. Rome, Jerusalem, London, Toronto, Madrid, New York, Copenhagen, and Malmo have all set the stage for the events, which include concerts, exhibitions, marches, and conferences.
    Now, for the first time, WorldPride is taking place in the southern hemisphere in the city of Sydney, Australia, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the first-ever Australian Gay Pride Week and the fifth anniversary of Marriage Equality in Australia.
    Below, we’ve rounded up some of the most exciting exhibitions taking place across the city.

    “Queer Encounters” at the Art Gallery of New South Walesthrough March 5, 2023
    Sione Tuívailala Monū, KAKALA (TRIPTYCH) (2021). Courtesy of the artist.
    The Art Gallery of New South Wales is bringing together the work of artists Dennis Golding, Bhenji Ra, Sione Tuívailala Monū, and Sidney McMahon in an immersive installation that responds to the historic entrance of the museum, creating a “queer threshold.” Through cinematic photography, performance, and video, the artists imagine alternate landscapes through a queer lens.

    “Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH” at Carriageworksthrough February 26, 2023
    Installation view, “Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH” (2022). Courtesy of Carriageworks. Photo: Zan Wimberley.
    Carriageworks is presenting a maximalist, raucous, and engaging gesamtkunstwerk, encompassing artist Paul Yore’s handmade quilts, banners, sculptural collages, and architectural interventions. “WORD MADE FLESH imagines a queer alternative reality, erected from the wasteland of the Anthropocene, performatively implicating itself into the debased spectacle of hyper-capitalist society.”

    “Karla Dickens: Embracing Shadows” at the Cambelltown Arts Centrethrough March 12, 2023
    Karla Dickens, For Sale (2022) [detail]. Photo: Michelle Eabry.This 30-year career survey of Lismore-based Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens features important bodies of work spanning collage, sculpture, photography, painting, film, and poetry that reflect on a lifetime of generational trauma and learning to accept her identity. Her searing and insightful artworks probe broad political and societal issues like environmental degradation and institutional racism, as well as personal experiences of being a woman.

    “Braving Time: Contemporary Art in Queer Australia“ at NAS Galleriesthrough March 18, 2023
    Amos Gebhardt, Family Portrait (2020). Courtesy of the artist and NAS Galleries.
    This group exhibition curated by Richard Perram highlights the work of 31 artists  who bring unique perspectives toward queerness in Australia today. Representing a large swath of identities, the artists address themes of beauty, ancestry, heritage, self-love, and politics.

    “Absolutely Queer” at Powerhouse Ultimothrough December 2023
    Mardi Gras costumes by Renè Rivas in “Absolutely Queer.” Photo: Zan Wimberley.
    This exhibition is truly a celebration of the queer creative community in Sydney, featuring artists, designers, and performers in an explosion of color, texture, and form. From the inflatable installations by Matthew Aberline and Maurice Goldberg of “The Beautiful and Useful Studio” to the cartoonist and social activist Norrie to the Mardi Gras costume designer Renè Rivas, “Absolutely Queer” is an absolute must-see.

    Follow Artnet News on Facebook: Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More