Eliana Willis

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    ‘We as Artists Need to Intervene’: Watch Rafael Lozano-Hemmer Build an Interactive Art Installation That Straddles the US-Mexico Border

    If you happened to be in El Paso, Texas or Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua back in 2019 and looked up at the night sky, you may have seen what looked like search lights beaming over the landscape as voices echoed across the US-Mexico border.
    Those lights were part of a large-scale outdoor installation by Mexican-born artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, whose participatory works employ advanced technology like robotics and heart-rate sensors to inspire civic engagement. In an exclusive interview as part of Art21’s brand new season of “Art in the Twenty-First Century,” Lozano-Hemmer describes the work, titled Border Tuner, which he conceived as an antidote to the commentary on President Trump’s border wall.

    Production still from “Rafael Lozano-Hemmer in ‘Borderlands,’” an extended presentation of the artist’s segment from “Art in the Twenty-First Century,” Season 10. © Art21, Inc. 2020.

    “People there are sick of the wall,” Lozano-Hemmer explains. “They want to talk about the ways in which the two societies interpenetrate.” That’s why the artist came up with the poetic “symbolic bridge” that converted voices into lights, allowing individuals to speak for themselves, as well as for others who may not have a platform.
    “Perhaps the most important role that art can play is that of making complexity visible,” Lozano-Hemmer tells Art21. “We as artists need to intervene and complicate things to show the dynamics and the interrelations that take place between the two sides.” In Border Tuner and other light installations, the artist is able to “interrupt the normal ways” of communicating, allowing everyday people to step into abstract, creative roles.

    Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of Art21’s series Art in the Twenty-First Century below. The brand new 10th season of the show is available now at Art21.org. 
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    This is an installment of “Art on Video,” a collaboration between Artnet News and Art21 that brings you clips of newsmaking artists. A new series of the nonprofit Art21’s flagship series Art in the Twenty-First Century is available now on PBS. Catch all episodes of other series like New York Close Up and Extended Play and learn about the organization’s educational programs at Art21.org.

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    in Street Art

    Coverage: “NOBODY’S BABY” by Austyn Weiner at Carl Kostyál Gallery, London

    Talented multimedia artist, Austyn Weiner recently opened a new show entitled ‘Nobody’s Baby’ last Monday, October 5th, at Carl Kostyál in London.

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    ‘NOBODY’S BABY’ is about independence; both forced and found. A growing into oneself when longing to grow into another. The desperation and desire for answers that do not exist. ‘NOBODY’S BABY’ is a survey and a celebration of our most primal intuition; survival.

    “Nobody’s Baby” by Austyn Weiner, 2020

    I AM THE BABY⠀I AM NO LONGER THE BABY⠀I FOR SURE AS HELL AIN’T YOUR BABY⠀I AM NOBODY’S BABY⠀With love and resentment – AUSTYN, 2020

    Austyn Weiner is a multimedia artist whose practice denotes and engages a recourse in chaos. Weiner’s practice explores A duality of forces that are influential and abject to the subjective mind; romance, rejection, isolation, and performance. Weiner’s use of charcoal, house paint, crayon, acrylic, oil paint, and oil stick, suggest a disposition of combative struggle and distressed victory.
    Check out below for more photos from the show.

    “Coming Together Whilst I Tear You Apart” by Austyn Weiner, 2020

    “In The Heat The Moment No One Told Me Was A Moment” by Austyn Weiner, 2020

    “In The Heat The Moment No One Told Me Was A Moment” by Austyn Weiner, 2020

    “Best Kept Secret (An Ode To What Happened In That Garage)” by Austyn Weiner, 2020 More

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    9 Megawatt Museum Shows to See During Frieze Week, From a Bruce Nauman Survey to Artemisia Gentileschi’s Big Retrospective

    Fall in London is usually synonymous with Frieze Art Fair taking place under massive white tents in Regents Park. This year is a little different, with the event going online, but London’s museums are still pulling out all the stops with blockbuster exhibitions.
    From Tate Modern’s survey of Bruce Nauman, his first in more than 20 years in the UK, to the long-awaited exhibition of Artemisia Gentileschi at the National Gallery, here are our picks for what you shouldn’t miss this Frieze week.

    “Ann Veronica Janssens: Hot Pink Turquoise” at South London GalleryThrough November 29, 2020

    Ann Veronica Janssens at the South London Gallery. Installation view of Candy Sculpture 405–805/2–405 (2019). Photo by Andy Stagg.

    A few key works present a highly Instagrammable overview of the Belgian artist’s four-decade interest in light and its impact on our perception. The centerpiece of the exhibition, which takes place across both of South London Gallery’s spaces, is an expanse of shifting colored glitter, which will be replaced halfway through the show’s run by a group of Janssens’s reflective-wheeled Bikes.
    Tickets must be booked in advance.

    Artemisia Gentileschi at the National GalleryThrough January 24, 2021

    Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes (1620–1621). Collection of the Uffizi Galleries

    Arguably the biggest show of the year, “Artmeisia”—which examines the work of the most famous female artist of the 17th-century, Artemisia Gentileschi, a Baroque art star before she fell into relative obscurity—was beset with postponements due to the lockdown. But after opening to critics with rave reviews, the show is now ready for the public. 
    Tickets must be booked in advance.

    Bruce Nauman at Tate ModernThrough February 21, 2021

    Bruce Nauman, MAPPING THE STUDIO II with color shift, flip, flop, & flip/flop (Fat Chance John Cage) (2001). © Bruce Nauman/ARS, NY and DACS, London 2020. Courtesy of Tate.

    The first major exhibition of the American artist in the UK more than two decades, this overview asserts Nauman’s dominance in genres including video, sound, performance, and sculpture.
    Tickets must be booked in advance.

    “Thao Nguyen Phan: Becoming Alluvium” at Chisenhale GalleryThrough December 6

    Thao Nguyen Phan, Becoming Alluvium (2019). Installation view, Chisenhale Gallery, 2020. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Andy Keate.

    For the Ho Chi Minh City-based artist’s first institutional solo show in the UK, Phan continues her ongoing research into the Mekong River and its entanglements with narratives of industrialization, food security, and ecological sustainability through a single-channel film and a series of lacquer and silk paintings.
    Tickets must be booked in advance.

    Summer Exhibition 2020 at the Royal AcademyThrough January 3, 2021

    A view of the Summer Exhibition 2020. Photo: © Royal Academy of Arts / David Parry.

    The annual summertime group show, which sees a wide variety of works by emerging and established artists, will take place throughout the winter this year. This year’s presentation includes works by Tracey Emin, Julian Schnabel, and Anselm Kiefer, but there will be lots more to discover.
    Ticket must be booked in advance.

    “Ai Weiwei: History of Bombs” at Imperial War Museum LondonThrough May 24, 2021

    A view of “Ai Weiwei: History of Bombs” at the Imperial War Museum London. © IWM, Ai Weiwei.

    This site-specific installation takes over the entirety of the museum’s atrium for the first time in the institution’s history. The show focuses on how humans try to solve crises using destructive measures. 
    Ticket must be booked in advance. 

    “A Countervailing Theory” by Toyin Ojih Odutola at the BarbicanThrough January 24, 2021

    A view of Toyin Ojih Odutola’s “A Countervailing Theory.” © Toyin Ojih Odutola. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Tim Whitby / Getty Images

    For the Nigerian-American artist’s first UK commission, Odutola presents a site-specific installation of a new series of powerful drawings that travel along the nearly 300 feet of the Barbican. The show also includes an immersive soundscape by conceptual sound artist Peter Adjaye. 
    Ticket must be booked in advance.

    “Nalini Malani: Can You Hear Me?” at Whitechapel GalleryThrough June 6, 2021

    Nalini Malani, Can You Hear Me? (2020). Photo: Ranabir Das © Nalini Malani.

    This show presents a new commission by the Karachi-born artist, whose 50-year career as an artist-activist has touched on themes of violence, feminism, colonialism, and identity. Malani’s surrealist-inflected images bring humor to some of the horrific ideas she illustrates.
    Ticket must be booked in advance. 

    “Solos” at Goldsmiths CCAThrough December 13

    A work by Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom in “Solos.” Photo by Mark Blower.

    Goldsmiths has commissioned new works from four emerging artists: Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, Emma Cousin, Lindsey Mendick, and Hardeep Pandhal. All of the works on view were created during lockdown and either explicitly or implicitly tell the story of the impact of the past several months on the artists’ works.
    Tickets must be booked in advance.
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    Before He Died, Curator Okwui Enwezor Conceived an Exhibition About Black Grief. It’s Set to Debut at the New Museum Next Year

    Prior to his death in March of 2019, legendary curator Okwui Enwezor was in the process of completing an exhibition centered around the intersection of “black grief” and “white nationalism” in art, timed to the 2020 presidential election.  
    Next year, a group of curators will step in to bring Enwezor’s vision to life. “Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America,” which was co-organized by MCA Chicago senior curator Naomi Beckwith, New Museum artistic director Massimiliano Gioni, artist Glenn Ligon, and independent curator Mark Nash based on Enwezor’s concept, will go on view at the New Museum on January 27.
    The announcement comes just one day after the New York Times published a scorched-earth exposé about the museum’s working conditions, in which current and former employees compared it to a “sweatshop” and a “fiefdom.” (Some on Twitter pointed out the irony of the show’s title, “Grief and Grievance,” in light of the coverage, and the fact that the museum gave the scoop on the exhibition to the Washington Post in an apparent snub of the Times.)
    Arthur Jafa, Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death (2016). Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels.

    The show will present work by 37 contemporary artists, many of whom are among the most important of their respective generations. The lineup includes Arthur Jafa (whose video Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death will be a centerpiece of the show), Kerry James Marshall, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Nari Ward, Deana Lawson, Kara Walker, and Jack Whitten. The works will fill the museum’s lobby and its three exhibition spaces. Collectively, the art examines and confronts what writer Saidiya Hartman calls in the show’s catalogue “the afterlife of slavery.” 
    In a statement, the museum’s director Lisa Phillips calls the show a “tribute to Okwui Enwezor’s courage, relentless focus, and fierce intelligence as a giant in our field and one of the most important curators of his generation.” 
    “His presence remains vivid,” the director goes on, “as does his legacy to transform the history of art and exhibition-making… On the eve of a presidential election where the stakes have never been higher, Okwui’s vision and the voices of the artists selected for this exhibition could not be more relevant.”
    Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (policeman) (2015). © Kerry James Marshall. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

    The Nigerian-born Enwezor was known for ambitious, complex, generation-spanning exhibitions that teased out big ideas in cultural production, such as “Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945–65” at the Haus der Kunst in 2017. This marks his first exhibition tackling America as a subject.
    The show took root in the fall of 2018, evolving from a series of lectures about Black mourning and white nationalism that Enwezor had planned for Harvard University. When he died in March, he left lists of potential artworks, artists, catalogue contributors, and a working thesis.
    Shortly thereafter, the New Museum convened what it calls an “advisory team” to realize the Enwezor’s idea. Ligon, who Enwezor himself had invited to advise in a curatorial capacity, was joined by Nash, Beckwith, and Gioni, all of whom had collaborated the late curator before.
    The exhibition was roughly 85 percent complete upon Enwezor’s death, New Museum artistic director Massimiliano Gioni told the Washington Post. “We tried not to stray from the blueprint Okwui gave us. Where that was not possible, we tried to be like a restorer or conservator where you fill in the gaps.”
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    Beijing’s UCCA Broke Records With Its Blockbuster Picasso Show. It Wants to Do the Same With the Largest-Ever Andy Warhol Survey in China

    Last year, the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing smashed attendance records with its blockbuster Picasso retrospective, capitalizing on the simple fact that a major museum survey dedicated to the artist had never been staged in mainland China. 
    Now, the museum is aiming to cash in with a major survey of another ubiquitous Western master: Andy Warhol. 
    Next summer, UCCA plans to present the “most comprehensive exhibition by Andy Warhol staged to date in China.” The show, simply titled “Andy Warhol,” will present more than 200 paintings, prints, drawings, films, and photographs by the artist, as well as archival materials framed to illustrate his trajectory from a child in Pittsburgh to the king of the New York art world.  
    “We found in doing the Picasso show that the public here is extremely receptive not only to major figures, but to exhibitions that tell stories of artistic formation, development, and experimentation—shows that answer the question ‘Who is this figure, what did they do, and why are they considered so important?’” UCCA director Philip Tinari tells Artnet News.
    “The Picasso show proved that while living artists may be at the core of our program, there is also room for us to present key figures from global art history,” he adds. “In a context where there are not public museums permanently showing this kind of work, exhibitions like these serve an important educational role.”
    The UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. Courtesy of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. Photo by Bian Jie.

    Jose Carlos Diaz and Patrick Moore, the chief curator and director, respectively, of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, organized the show and loaned all of the materials headed to Beijing. (Diaz declined to say whether the Warhol Museum is being compensated for the loans from its collection.)
    “This is an opportunity to curate an exhibition that explores the artist, his work, and the various areas of his practice highlighting a large quantity of popular artwork alongside rare items that have never been displayed abroad and allow us to tell a detailed exhibition about the artist,” Diaz says. He points to one section of the show devoted to Warhol’s work as a “serious photographer parallel to his lucrative celebrity portrait commissions” as one such example.  
    Tinari says that he’s been in touch with Diaz and Moore about the show since 2018 and visited the US museum in August of 2019. The director also says that Warhol’s famous 1973 screen prints of Mao Zedong were never in discussion for the exhibition. “The focus of the show was always on lesser known works and a narrative of Warhol’s development that informed by current scholarship,” he says.  
    “Andy Warhol” goes on view July 3 – October 10, 2021 in Beijing before traveling to the UCCA Edge in Shanghai in November.
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    See the Playful Sculptures on View at Frieze London’s Sculpture Park, From an Enormous Braid to an Art Star’s Sandwich

    It’s Frieze Week, and while the Frieze London and Frieze Masters fairs are conspicuously absent this year, that doesn’t mean there is no reason to visit Regent’s Park.
    Art-hungry audiences can take an outdoor, socially distanced stroll in the lush park that typically hosts the fairs to see the 12 ambitious sculptures that comprise Frieze’s open-air sculpture display. Highlights include new commissions from Patrick Goddard, Kalliopi Lemos, and Arne Quinze, as well as Lubaina Himid’s five reclaimed doorways, which she originally created in 2019 for the High Line in New York.
    “Amid all the challenges,” says Clare Lilley, Frieze Sculpture curator and director of program at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, “it is uplifting to see artists and galleries respond so enthusiastically to Frieze Sculpture. Rarely have our public spaces been quite so important for our mental and physical well-being, and this exhibition shines a light on sculpture in the open air, creating a place of inspiration and enjoyment where people can come together safely for conversation and exchange.”
    The works on view this year explore vital and topical themes from civil rights to ecology to the role of the artist in changing the status quo. For those not able to be on the ground in London, you can see them here.
    Frieze Sculpture is on view October 5 through 18 in the English Gardens at Regent’s Park.
    Fabio Lattanzi Antinori, Ad Keywords (2020). Pi Artworks, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

    Rebecca Warren, Aurelius (2017 – 2019). Galerie Max Hetzler, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

    Kalliopi Lemos, The Plait (2020). Gazelli Art House, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

    Gianpietro Carlesso, Torre di Saba (2009). Ronchini, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

    Richard Long, Circle for Sally (2016). Lisson Gallery, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

    Eric Fischl, Torso (2010). Skarstedt, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

    Sarah Lucas, Sandwich (2011 – 2020). Sadie Coles HQ, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

    David Altmejd, Untitled 1 (Bronze Bodybuilders) (2015). White Cube, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

    Patrick Goddard, Humans-Animals-Monsters (2020). Seventeen Gallery, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

    Lubaina Himid, Five Conversations (2019). Hollybush Gardens, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Commissioned by High Line Art, presented by Friends of the High Line and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

    Arne Quinze, Lupine Tower (2020). Maruani Mercier Gallery, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

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    in Street Art

    “REBOOT” by Ludo in Beirut, Lebanon

    Ludo recently worked on a new project entitled “Reboot” in Beirut. “Reboot” is a series of murals done in the capital of Lebanon wherein a massive explosion that caused great damage to the city happened last August. Ludo’s installations amidst the ruins of the area somehow sheds new light and hope to the rebuilding city.

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    The project was done with the help of Art of Change Global, Beirut who dealt with the army, police, protests, fires, virus, and other circumstances as Ludo worked on the installations.

    The work of Paris-based Ludo (Ludovic Vernhet) explores a world where biotechnological chimeras offer to merge plants and animals with our technological universe. Through his work, Ludo aims to reveal the opposites that cohabit our world, often taking unlikely pairings to absurd lengths. These dualities are reconciled by the artist through the creation of hybrid organisms.
    Check out below for more images of “Reboot”. More

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    in Street Art

    “The Silent Mirror” by David de la Mano in Galicia, Spain

    Prolific muralist and painter David De La Mano recently finished his latest mural for Vigo, Cidade De Cor, an art festival in public spaces held in the city of Vigo, Galicia, Spain since 2015. The mural is entitled “The Silent Mirror” which depicts his signature repeating silhouettes of human and animal figures.

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    David de la Mano is a Spanish contemporary artist best known for his stunning murals often featuring silhouettes, trees and other monochromatic imagery. de la Mano is a versatile artist who excels from drawing to sculpture. The artist experiments with different techniques among which acrylics, watercolours, ink and collage.
    His art highlights a vision of humanity with a lot of metaphor and poetry. He is often playing with shadows and lights, forms and contrasts to convey his vision of the world to us.
    Scroll down below for more images of the mural. More