Eliana Willis

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    in Exhibitions

    Coverage: Martin Whatson “FREE” Solo Show at RexRomae, Dubai

    On 3 December 2020, Martin Whatson launched his first solo exhibition in the Middle East with RexRomae Gallery in Dubai the hub of business in the Middle East and Africa. The pop-up exhibition FREE curated by Rom Levy took place in Dubai International Financial Center, a top ten global financial center and a home to a variety of world-renowned retail, dining venues, hotels as well as a dynamic art and culture scene.

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    The exhibition included all new work by the Norwegian stencil artist, with a total of 43 paintings such as A Clean Slate (2020); Rock Climber (2020) and Make Love (2019) additionally, 4 sculptures were also on show, all of which were sold out during the exhibition. Alongside that a Paint Love (2020) screen print of 150 edition was launched for sale at the opening of the exhibition.

    Whatson, who became widely known through his idiosyncratic calligraphic scribbles, filled with cultural references and subversive themes, returned with a new series of eye-grabbing imagery. Works that are socially involved in nature, delivering his commentary in a style that deliberately evokes a continuous dialogue on the decontextualization of urban sphere.
    Scroll down below and take a look at more images of the exhibition and its opening night.

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  • 238 Shares199 Views

    in Street Art

    Coverage: “NO ART HERE” by Javier Calleja at Nanzuka 2G at PARCO & 3110NZ by LDH Kitchen, Tokyo, Japan

    Two years after his solo debut with NANZUKA, Javier Calleja is back to Japanese capital for another solo exhibition which will be presented on 2 locations – at NANZUKA 2G space at PARCO in Shibuya, and at transforming gallery space 3110NZ in collaboration with Sushi Saito.b-sm = 300×250; sm > none; Calleja produces work that brings surprise and… More

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    in Street Art

    “About William Lanson” by David de la Mano in New Haven, Connecticut

    Spanish contemporary artist David de la Mano recently finished a new mural located in Ninth Square at 33 Crown Street, New Haven, Connecticut entitled “About William Lanson”. It is a 330 meter square mural that took the artist 6 non-consecutive days (due to snow and rain) to paint.

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    This project was born in 2018 and is an initiative of SITE PROJECTS (a private non-profit organization that commissions world-class works of art, programming and public events project by project in partnership with local agencies and organizations that enhance cultural heritage and diversity. New Haven).

    SITE PROJECTS believes that public art is an essential part of a healthy and democratic society. It enriches, inspires, and educates, enhancing our sense of place, purpose, and potential. SITE PROJECTS commissions site-specific world-class public art that brings 21st century avant-garde art to historic New Haven, CT. By speaking in the universal language of art, we stimulate community conversations and interactions that embrace diversity and bridge social and economic differences.

    The organization’s proposal for this mural project was to generate a metaphor for the figure of the black businessman and engineer William Lanson, an extraordinary figure in New Haven of the early 19th century who made possible the industrial success of the 19th century New Haven, CT.

    Almost certainly a runaway slave, Lanson beat incredible odds to become a highly successful businessman, one of Connecticut’s first black entrepreneurs.He was one of the first leaders among free blacks and was praised by the white establishment for his commercial achievements.

    It was Lanson who discovered a way to extend the city’s dock to New Haven Harbor, facilitating the growth of the city as a port when no one else could hold the piles firm in the sand and mud. He amassed an entire neighborhood of businesses and homes.

    This project on Lanson is about barriers and extraordinary people, the ability to overcome and how these people are able to see beyond. He also wants to make them visible so that they serve as example by example to people who are in their situation and live adversity with despair. We all look for references that help us to build our own path and William Lanson is undoubtedly and will be a reference for all.
    Check out below for more images of the mural. More

  • 88 Shares99 Views

    in Street Art

    Sneakerwolf “LOVE” Print Release – November 20th

    Japanese graffiti artist Sneakerwolf will be releasing a new print entitled “LOVE” this 20th of November, Friday at 20:00 JST.

    “LOVE” is a 4-color silkscreen poster aluminum silver dripped on Japanese traditional paper (WA-SHI). It comes in an edition of 20. Signed and numbered by the artist.

    Sneakerwolf is street artist and designer living in Tokyo and “Kanji-Graphy” is his one-of-a-kind art which reflects the typeface design of Kanji-Graphy-Japanese character graphic. He have previously worked with Nike, PUMA and New Balance. Sneakerwolf also own his footwear label, LOSERS. The artist is also well-versed in other mediums – namely illustration, sign and window painting.

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    You can purchase “LOVE” through Sneakerwolf’s online shop https://sneakerwolf.myshopify.com More

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    in Exhibitions

    Before She Died, Artist Anne Truitt Completed a Series of ‘Sound’ Paintings. Now, They’re Seeing the Light of Day for the First Time

    “Something strange is happening to me.” 
    So explained Anne Truitt in a letter to her daughter in the fall of 2003, one year before her death at age 83. “Certain ways in which I have made my work ever since 1961 have simply—very simply, silently and without saying goodbye—departed from me.”
    Truitt was talking about making “Sound,” a new body of work that would go down as one of the last in her decades-long career. 
    Each of the 14 entries in the series comes in the form of a square piece of paper covered edge to edge in thick, monochromatic swaths of paint—a pensive study in color, abstraction, and, yes, sound. They went on public view for the first time last week at Matthew Marks Gallery in New York (through December 19).
    Anne Truitt, Sound Eleven (2003). © Estate of Anne Truitt, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

    “It’s as if a person had decisively walked quietly out of a room I am used to living in and in which I were thoroughly accustomed to a powerful presence,” the artist continued in the letter. “I am surprised. What is left is ‘sound,’ some kind of energy without name. More force, no name.”
    “Yesterday while walking around,” Truitt went on, “it occurred to me that the ‘name’ of the things I am making out of the beautiful delicate strong paper…is SOUND.”
    For those familiar with the artist’s greatest hits—her totemic sculptures or expansive Color Field paintings—the “Sound” series might come as a surprise. The profound interest in color that imbues much of Truitt’s work is there, but the finish is different. Whereas older efforts evinced clean—if imperfect—surfaces, these works on paper are expressive and aggressive and rough.
    And yet, as Matthew Marks director Cory Nomura explains, what distinguishes the “Sound” series within the artist’s catalogue is also what makes it unmistakably Truitt. 
    “She continued to innovate within a particular language throughout her entire practice,” Nomura tells Artnet News. “It never became a rote operation. Everything was made deliberately and with intense meaning and thought behind it.” 
    Anne Truitt, Sound Seven (2003). © Estate of Anne Truitt, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

    “Anne Truitt: Sound” is the seventh solo presentation of the artist’s work at Marks. (The show is also featured on the dealer’s virtual exhibition platform.) 
    Since the gallery began working with Truitt’s estate 12 years ago, Nomura notes, it has been making its way through the bodies of work she left behind. During that time, the market for her art has also grown significantly. Truitt’s 15 priciest auction sales—which comprise sculptures, paintings, and works on paper—have all come since 2012, according to the Artnet Price Database. The top five, including a 1983 sculpture that sold for a record $325,000 at Sotheby’s, have taken place since 2018.
    The artist has also received growing institutional attention as art historians seek to expand the story of Minimalism. In 2017, Dia:Beacon unveiled a long-term exhibition of Truitt’s work dating from the 1960s to the 1980s.
    “Anne Truitt: Sound” will be on view at Matthew Marks Gallery November 12–December 19, 2020.
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    in Exhibitions

    Artists Take on Intimacy, Voyeurism, and Suspense in White Cube’s New Alfred Hitchcock-Themed Show—See Highlights Here

    “Rear Window” online at White CubeThrough January 19, 2021

    What the gallery says: “In the 1954 thriller, a photojournalist is confined to his New York apartment after breaking his leg and succumbs to an obsession with watching his neighbors. The audience is made complicit in his voyeurism as, unable to tear himself away from his window, he witnesses dramatic scenes unfold within his field of vision.
    Featuring paintings and photographs by Ellen Altfest, Jeff Burton, Gillian Carnegie, Julie Curtiss, Judith Eisler, Celia Hempton, Danica Lundy, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Laurie Simmons, Jeff Wall, and Carrie Mae Weems, this exhibition invites us to consider how artists construct scenes and suggest narratives, whilst exploring the idea of ‘the gaze’ which Hitchcock’s film was instrumental in formulating.”
    Why it’s worth a look: White Cube’s newly launched online viewing room kicks off with an homage to Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchhock curated by director Susanna Greeves. It feels right for this era of life under lockdown, as the pandemic resurges and cold weather creeps in. So many of us are now are limited to only looking these days, as the fear of spreading germs relegates us to a life mediated by screens.
    The artists included in this show have focused on the idea of the gaze, exploiting and manipulating it—but also finding new and deeper meaning through looking slow, and long, and with interest. Artists Jeff Wall and Laurie Simmons both construct tableaux that are similar to film directors, while Jeff Burton’s photography is drawn directly from his experience working in the porn industry. A treat all around.
    What it looks like:

    Jeff Wall, Summer Afternoons (2013). © Jeff Wall. Courtesy White Cube.

    Jeff Wall, Summer Afternoons (2013). © Jeff Wall. Courtesy White Cube.

    Carrie Mae Weems, Scenes & Takes (2016). © Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

    Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Darkroom Mirror (_2070021), (2017). © Paul Mpagi Sepuya. Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter, Los Angeles.

    Celia Hempton, Jay, Minnesota, United States, 31st August 2017 (2017). © Celia Hempton. Courtesy the artist and Southarn Reid.

    Laurie Simmons, Long House (Pink Bedroom), (2004). © Laurie Simmons. Image courtesy the artist and Salon 94, NY.

    Julie Curtiss, The whispers (2020). © the artist. Photo © Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd. Courtesy of White Cube.

    Julie Curtiss, Le serpent qui danse (2020). © the artist. Photo © Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd. Courtesy of White Cube.

    Danica Lundy, Captain (2020). © Danica Landy. Courtesy of the artist and Super Dakota, Brussels.

    Carrie Mae Weems, Untitled (Playing harmonica) (1990-99). © Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

    Laurie Simmons, The Boxes (Ardis Vinklers) Ballroom, (2005). © Laurie Simmons. Image courtesy the artist and Salon 94, NY.

    Laurie Simmons, Study for Long House (Red Shoes), (2003). © Laurie Simmons. Image courtesy the artist and Salon 94, NY.

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  • 88 Shares119 Views

    in Street Art

    “St. George” by Bozko in Sofia, Bulgaria

    Graffiti artist Bozko just finished my new mural for the 2020 Edition of our urban art project “Urban Creatures”. The mural entitled “”St. George” is located in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is Bozko’s interpretation of the old biblical scene, which he finds more and more corresponding to the current reality.

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    Bozhidar Simeonov, also known as Bozko, is a Bulgarian artist who lives and works in Sofia. Besides street art, he works in illustration, comic books, animation and set design. His characters are easily recognizable and strangely appealing in a morbidly adorable way.

    Image credits: Vladimir Gruev More