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    ‘All of These Woman Hide in Some Way’: Painter Aliza Nisenbaum on Tutoring Migrants to Express Themselves Through Art

    For Cuban-born artist Tania Bruguera, there is no distinction between art and activism: her work, which is grounded in civic engagement and furthers the idea of art útil (using art as a utility or tool) is manifestly political.
    In an exclusive interview with Art21 filmed in 2015, the artist discussed her project Immigrant Movement International, formed to help immigrants empower themselves and their communities through art.
    By using art, the members “grow and understand how to work from their fear—with the limitations they have put on themselves once they enter this country,” she explains in the video, which aired as part of Art21’s Extended Play series.
    The video includes testimony from another contemporary artist, Aliza Nisenbaum, who has earned acclaim for her intimate portraits, many created through Immigration Movement International. She also helped tutor members of the community.
    Nisenbaum, who was born in Mexico City and now lives in Brooklyn, is inspired by the mural painting projects that defined a generation of artists in her native country.
    “A lot of these women… hide in some way… because they are undocumented,” Nisenbaum tells Art21. “I was trying to give a sense of agency to the women… in terms of finding their voice, in terms of art and basic English skills.”
    Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of Art21’s series Extended Play, below.
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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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    Recently Resigned MOCAD Curators Have Launched a Digital Exhibition That Models a More Equitable Art World

    So many of the people that make the wheels of the art world go round—docents, fabricators, curators, and so on—are artists themselves. They don multiple hats to pay the rent, but also because they invest their emotions in an industry that, despite its systematic inequities, promotes the work of their friends and idols.  
    A new digital exhibition celebrates the scrappiness of several such artists in Detroit who double as professors, preparators, and registrars, among many other professions.
    The online show, titled “ARTWORK,” was co-organized by Jova Lynne and Tizziana Baldenebro, two curators who each resigned from the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit in this year over instances of racism, bullying, and labor-exploitation from the institution’s director, Elysia Borowy-Reeder. (Borowy-Reeder was fired from her position this week.)
    Their exhibition isn’t a response to those events, they explain. Nor is it explicitly connected to the pandemic, a crisis that has laid painfully bare the plight of gig workers in the American economy.
    Jetshri Bhadviya, Manifestations of TheIpseity. Courtesy of the artist. Presented in “ARTWORK.”

    Yet in another sense, those events “had everything to do with it because it opened up a door,” says Lynne, an artist herself. She notes that the idea has been in her head for years.
    “A lot of the things we were talking about related to the larger ideas and narratives about labor history and its relationship to Detroit,” says Baldenebro. “It all pointed back to the resourcefulness of our city and its artists. They create an ecosystem or shared network where they are relying on each other in ways that we don’t see in many other cities.”
    Megan Major, Untitled, (2019). Courtesy of the artist. Presented in “ARTWORK.”

    Lynne and Baldenebro’s exhibition is one facet of Art Mile, a weeklong all-online art event coordinating 60-some museums, galleries, and artists from Detroit. Created by dealers Terese Reyes and Bridget Finn of Reyes | Finn in conjunction with Red Bull Arts and communications consultancy Cultural Counsel, the event is part online viewing room, part virtual exhibition space, and part programming platform. 
    Now through August 5, from the comfort (or discomfort) of your home, you can view and buy works of art from Detroit dealers before settling down to watch a film screening, or take a virtual tour of a museum before queuing up a panel discussion or studio visit.
    It’s a model that is no doubt shaped by the necessities of quarantine. But for a city looking to reset the culture of some of its institutions, the spirit of the event also offers up a paradigm for post-quarantine life.
    “I think Art Mile has the potential to be a beautiful example of what a more equitable art world might look like,” says Baldenebro. “It’s not perfect, but I think of it as a pilot for leveling the field a little bit and really giving people a more accurate and expansive view of what art with a capital A can look like.”
    Jova Lynne and Tizziana Baldenebro will speak with artists Sabrina Nelson and Graem Whyte in Art Mile’s keynote panel on Thursday, July 30 at 6 PM ET.
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    After a Four-Month Delay, Heather Phillipson’s Giant Whipped-Cream Sculpture Has Been Unveiled in London’s Trafalgar Square

    Artist Heather Phillipson’s long-awaited sculpture for London’s Fourth Plinth has been unveiled in Trafalgar Square.
    Originally slated to be installed in March, the coronavirus outbreak postponed the artist’s big moment until today, July 30.
    The sculpture depicts a towering pile of whipped cream topped with a great red cherry, an absurdly large fly, and a functioning drone. The drone casts live images to a website set up by the artist, providing a sculpture’s-eye view of one of London’s most heavily trafficked squares. An accompanying audio-collage by the artist is also available online.
    “I’m honored to have been selected to make work for such a significant public site, and to see THE END scaled up for its ultimate size and context—one in which the surrounding architecture and its population are participants in a mis-scaled landscape,” Phillipson said in a statement. 
    Heather Phillipson’s THE END sculpture for the Fourth Plinth is unveiled in London. Photo by David Parry/ PA Wire.

    While the sculpture was conceived long before the current global crisis, its title, THE END, seems especially resonant. But as Phillipson told Artnet News in an interview earlier this year: “It feels like, politically, entropy has been happening for a long time now.”
    The sculpture’s whipped cream, piled high and on the verge of collapse, is a gesture towards the excesses of globalized society; and the drone, situated not far from the Houses of Parliament, is a comment on institutionalized surveillance..
    The sculpture will be in place until spring 2022, and is the 13th public art project to grace the Fourth Plinth since the program began in 1998. Among recent commissions in the series was Michael Rakowitz’s contemporary recreation of a lost ancient Assyrian guardian sculpture that was destroyed by Islamist extremists in 2015.
    Phillipson is the third woman after Rachel Whiteread and Katharina Fritsch to be commissioned in the series. Her work is also the first to be accessible to those with hearing and visual impairments, with a braille panel on the plaque including a tactile image of the work, and an audio description of it available online.
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    in Street Art

    “Melt Fast, Die Young” by Roberto Ciredz in Rouen, France

    The second edition of Rouen impressionnée Urban Art Festival which takes place in Rouen, a port city on the Seine and the capital of Normandy, is preparing to see the born of almost twenty murals until September 2020.
    Among many artists invited, we also find Cagliari based artist, Roberto Ciredz.For the occasion, he created a 10m high by 20m wide work entitled “Melt fast, die young”, a clear reference to the alarming situation about global warming.
    Roberto Cireddu, aka Ciredz, is one of the most internationally known Sardinian artist in Urban Art scene. His native land, Sardinia, with its breathtaking natural landscapes, has always been one of its main sources of inspiration combined with urban forms influenced by the cities in whom he has lived.
    The graphics and the volumes are the basis of the artist’s work, together with maths and geometries that come from urban space instead the color scheme and the forms come from nature.The intention to combine them together results from the attention to the relationship of coexistence between nature and mankind, a continuous dialogue that is visually translated into a geometric, abstract, almost illusory aesthetic.

    The mural painting realized for the Festival curated by Olivier Landes, is a wonderful abstraction that rewards inspiration, both for the shapes, the colors and a glacial landscape. The intentional chromatic choice derives from the desire to draw attention to a common problem in all which is strictly present ( global warming).

    Enjoy more shots below taken by Florence Brochoire and stay updated with us for the latest news on international street art scene.

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    in Street Art

    “Il mondo di sopra” by VESOD in Milan,Italy

    Vesod just recently finished a new mural in Piazzale Selinunte, Milan. This artwork is part of the Arte a San Siro project. Vesod’s mural features children on swings over twisting birds-eye-view urbanscapes. “Art in Sancero” is a project that includes realizing frescoes on the facade of the buildings of the region to revive it aesthetically and dynamically; open to artistic influences as well, and coming from a variety of cultures.
    Vesod Brero is a street artist from Turin. His artistic attitude has been fostered by his father Dovilio Brero, surrealistic painter, whose influence has an impact on Vesod since his youth: he has been therefore developing an interest in the graffiti world since the beginning of the 90s. Maths, which is the subject he got his graduation in, has an important impact on his works along with renaissance art and futurism. This can be recognized in Vesod’s attempt to harmonize anatomic proportion and futuristic dynamics.
    Check out below to view more images of the mural.

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    in Street Art

    “Social Distancing” by Ludo in Paris, France

    Street artist Ludo is back with new murals on the streets of Paris. The first mural features roses with handcuffs that somehow mirrors the situation today where there is a need for social distancing. His next mural shows a skeleton posing for a selfie which is entitled “iPhone 11 iPhone 11 Pro (with Dual optical image stabilization) in my hand, who is the fairest in the land?”. Once more, these works were finished with a touch of Ludo’s signature green paint.
    Ludovic Vernhet, known by the name Ludo and sometimes even referred to as Nature’s Revenge, is an artist born and raised in Paris. In his works, Ludo fuses imagery of plants, insects, skulls, and human technology to create “a new order of hybrid organisms.” In protest of modern society’s self-destructive exploitation of nature, Ludo creates figures whose violence and elegance are intended to inspire respect and humility.
    He is based in Paris, but his work has been also seen in London, Berlin, New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Bangkok, Shanghai, Hong Kong and even in Vatican City.
    Check out below to see more photos of the murals.

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    in Street Art

    ‘Subway Art Breakthrough’ by Lek & Sowat

    French graffiti artists Lek & Sowat have unveiled the second phase of their artistic intervention called ‘ Subway Art Breakthrough’ on the tunnel boring machine ‘Koumba’, building an extension to the underground tube line 14 in Paris.

    For the artistic duo the ephemeral element has always played a part in their many years of practice working in the public space. Rust, erosion, erasure, destruction mingle, complete, sublimate their paintings in situ or in their artist’s studio.
    In collaboration with NGE and Xpo Fmr their latest ‘Subway Art’ their latest ‘Subway Art’ production reflects their work.  None of the works made during production have been permanent. They carried with them the signs of their inevitable destruction. During their brief existence, they proudly displayed the traces left by men, cuts, welds, shocks, drippings… The tunnel cutting wheel was cut, damaged, re-welded; the crushed piercing wall, destroyed by the teams of NGE and Webuild.
    The new work produced for the breakthrough is no exception to the rule. Carried out during the last week, it was altered, transformed and improved by the men who worked on the preparation of the exit wall of the tunnel boring machine.The new work announces the tunnel boring machine by referencing some notable elements of the cutting wheel. The use of yellow colour and fluorescent blue are a tribute to industrial construction site colours , and alert us of the imminent exit of the machine.
    For Lek & Sowat, it is this idea of an exquisite industrial corpse that represents the quintessence of their collaboration with the construction world. By including on their works the traces of the work from men who built the extension of the tube line 14, they wish to pay tribute to all the builders involved and to the raw beauty of their places of intervention. .
    View more pictures of their work in progress.

    Pics by NGE / Stephane Bouquet
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    Painter Alec Egan’s Luscious Interiors and Brightly Lit Landscapes Are the Subject of a New Show at Anat Ebgi—See It Here

    As galleries and art institutions around the world begin to reopen, we are spotlighting individual shows—online and IRL—that are worth your attention.
    “Alec Egan: August” at Anat Ebgi, Los Angelesthrough September 5, 2020

    What the gallery says: “The exhibition title alludes not only to the hottest apex of the year, when everything is at its most combustible, the ‘dog-days’ month that ends summer, but to a proposed conclusion before the start of something new.
    “Since 2017, Egan’s practice has focused on creating oil paintings of the interior of a singular imagined house. Typically, Egan’s exhibitions are constituted around one ‘key’ painting—often of dominant scale—that depicts one room, such as a bathroom, living room, or bedroom, full of domestic details, which then becomes the conceptual fodder for the remaining works in the show. Although this project has been ongoing, the recent quarantine at home has cast a new light on Egan’s meditations on the domestic.
    “The key painting in ‘August’ is Changing Room, where, using an ad nauseum approach, Egan layers a cacophony of sentimental patterns. The effect is simultaneously grounding and disorienting. References abound, from the personal to Victorian wallpapers, to vintage Laura Ashley upholsteries, as well as boldly colored travel posters that are reminiscent of the ’60s. The room has an air of mystery and concealment. Curtains hang heavily from their rods in a strange wild garden, perfumed by dewy roses. What is happening in the stillness of this house? Who or what is hidden behind the privacy screen?”
    Why it’s worth a look: Staring at one of Alec Egan’s paintings is like entering a strange vortex in which shapes and colors jockey for your attention.
    In the midst of his luscious, floral-laden wallpaper and upholstery patterns though, distinct forms coalesce for a well-earned respite. A brown grocery bag filled with perfectly ripe fruit is a symbol of the nostalgia that permeates all of Egan’s work, which he creates based on half-formed memories mixed with cultural sources.
    Another example is in the brown leather work boots that appear in one painting, a reference to Van Gogh’s well-worn peasant shoes. In Egan’s painting, the red laces are formed by thick caterpillars of paint, squeezed straight from the tube and sitting atop the canvas, distinguishing them from the flat geometric pattern of the rug that recalls Édouard Vuillard’s Japanese-inspired prints.
    Other paintings in this suite of 14 works depict traditional “California” scenes, though the artist’s artistic influences range widely. Impossibly candy-colored sunsets anchored by palm trees are reminiscent of Alex Israel’s work, crossed with the movie poster for the cult surfing classic Endless Summer (1966). In Egan’s study of cresting waves, the individual water droplets and spewing foam recall Hokusai’s Great Wave.
    All in all, it’s a feast for the eyes.
    What it looks like:

    Alec Egan, Changing Room (2020) [detail]. Courtesy of the artist and Anat Ebgi.

    Installation view, “Alec Egan: August” at Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles.

    Installation view, “Alec Egan: August” at Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles.

    Installation view, “Alec Egan: August” at Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles.

    Alec Egan, Bag of Fruit on Ottoman (2020). Courtesy of Anat Ebgi.

    Alec Egan, Bag of Fruit on Ottoman [detail] (2020). Courtesy of Anat Ebgi.

    Alec Egan, Before the Sea (2020). Courtesy of Anat Ebgi.

    Alec Egan, Flower in Bottle (2020). Courtesy of Anat Ebgi.

    Alec Egan, Flower in Tea Pot (2020). Courtesy of Anat Ebgi.

    Alec Egan, Dawn Palms (2020). Courtesy of Anat Ebgi.

    Alec Egan, Palms at Deep Sunset (2020). Courtesy of Anat Ebgi.

    Alec Egan, Oven Mitt, Mango, and Bottle (2020). Courtesy of Anat Ebgi.

    Alec Egan, Storm Wave (2020). Courtesy of Anat Ebgi.

    Alec Egan, Storm Wave (2020). Courtesy of Anat Ebgi.

    Installation view, “Alec Egan: August” at Anat Ebgi. Courtesy Anat Ebgi.

    Alec Egan, Bathroom (2020). Courtesy of Anat Ebgi.

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