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    in Exhibitions

    See Sharon Stone’s New Paintings—Daubed Abstractions That Reflect Her Inner World

    Ever since receiving a paint-by-numbers set during the pandemic, Sharon Stone has been conversing with colors. That, at least, is how the ’90s Hollywood icon describes her all-consuming relationship with painting, one which has seen her spend up to 17 hours a day in a dedicated studio she’s created in her Beverly Hills home.
    Not that wielding a paintbrush is new to Stone. She grew up painting under the tutelage of her aunt and briefly studied art at Edinboro University, Pennsylvania, before dropping out to pursue a career in modeling and acting.
    Four decades on, Stone is seemingly focused on painting full-time. She has built off her Spring show at Los Angeles’ Allouche Gallery with “Welcome to My Garden,” her East Coast debut, now on view at C. Parker Gallery through December 3.
    The show name is taken from one of the 19 paintings on display in Greenwich, Connecticut, and speaks to a collection that teems with trees, flowers, and leaves—albeit ones that are often washed translucent or dashed and sketch-like.
    “This new exhibition offers a never-before-seen panorama into Sharon Stone’s creative prowess,” said gallery director Tiffany Benincasa. “The artist invites viewers on a journey through the vibrant landscapes of her imagination, reflecting her inner world.”
    Sharon Stone, There’s a Breach in the Atmosphere (2023). Photo courtesy of the artist and C. Parker Gallery.
    The title is also something of an invitation into Stone’s world view. It turns out she has quite a lot to say. Jerusalem, an abstract work comprised of loose puddles of sandy yellows and grays, reflects on her visit to the Western Wall and her prayers for peace. A State of Affairs is Stone’s commentary on the patriarchy with swirls of black snakes coiled over clouds of pink and blue. There is a Breach in the Atmosphere is one of several works that confronts humanity’s indifference to earth’s environmental catastrophe. All pressing and current causes to be sure, but the titles have more bite than the works themselves.
    It’s easy to be cynical about actors who take a mid-career detour to explore other artistic pursuits. In Stone’s case, it’s worth putting such skepticism aside. The variety of work in “My Garden” seems to show a young artist working through their practice and many boast depth and a strong balance of color.
    In interview, Stone has listed the likes of Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miró, and Claude Monet as influences, but sometimes these figures weigh a little too heavily. Amelia has the block and curvature of a Kandinsky abstract and Reflections, perhaps consciously, appears like a Monet close-up.
    This doesn’t detract from “My Garden,” but rather shows the flashes of a painter still finding their palette and range. Just don’t call it a hobby.
    See more images from the show below.
    Sharon Stone, Reflections (2021). Photo courtesy of the artist and C. Parker Gallery.
    Sharon Stone posing alongside her work Bayou (2022). Photo courtesy of C. Parker Gallery.
    Sharon Stone, Amelia (2023). Photo courtesy of the artist and C. Parker Gallery.
    Sharon Stone, Jerusalem (2023). Photo courtesy of the artist and C. Parker Gallery.
    Sharon Stone, City Lights (2021). Photo courtesy of the artist and C. Parker Gallery.
    Sharon Stone alongside her canvas Welcome to My Garden (2023). Photo courtesy of C. Parker Gallery.
    Sharon Stone, Bamboo Forest Fall/Winter. Photo courtesy of the artist and C. Parker Gallery.
    Sharon Stone, Dreamscape 1. Photo courtesy of the artist and C. Parker Gallery.
    Sharon Stone, The Lantern (2022). Photo courtesy of the artist and C. Parker Gallery.
    Sharon Stone, It’s My Garden, Asshole (2022). Photo courtesy of the artist and C. Parker Gallery.
    “Welcome to My Garden” is on view at C. Parker Gallery, 409 Greenwich Ave, Greenwich, Connecticut, through December 3.

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    in Street Art

    New Mural by PichiAvo in Bayonne, France

    In the city of Bayonne, PichiAvo, the renowned Spanish artistic duo, has once again graced the urban landscape with their latest work of art. This captivating mural, presented as part of the Points de Vue Street Art Festival, pays a heartfelt tribute to Glaucus, the Greek sea god. The mural seamlessly intertwines with Bayonne’s profound connection to water, creating a visual spectacle that encapsulates the city’s spirit.Bayonne, strategically positioned at the confluence of the Adour River and the mighty Atlantic Ocean, has a long history intertwined with the elemental force of water. The city’s development and character have been significantly influenced by its relationship with these aquatic surroundings.The mural is unveiled as part of the Points de Vue urban art festival, a cultural celebration born in 2017. This festival is the result of collaborative efforts between the Basque Country Urban Community, the Bayonne town hall, and the KAXU gallery. Points de Vue stands as a testament to Bayonne’scommitment to urban art and culture.This event is not just a festival; it’s an open-air gallery that extends its reach beyond Bayonne, encompassing the entire region. Attendees can explore the city’s streets, gazing upon monumental frescoes that adorn the walls or embark on a treasure hunt for hidden artistic gems, further emphasizingthe synergy between art and the urban environment.PichiAvo’s tribute to Glaucus, the deity of the sea, beautifully exemplifies this artistic fusion, as the mural not only pays homage to Greek mythology but also resonates with the city’s intrinsic connection to water. It’s a vivid testament to the timeless interplay between nature, art, and culture. The Points de Vue Street Art Festival has created a vibrant platform for such expressions, ensuring that Bayonne continues to be a canvas for artistic inspiration and an ode to the ever present element of water that has shaped its unique character. More

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    in Exhibitions

    More Than 300 Photographs From Elton John’s Legendary Art Collection Are Going on View at the V&A Museum

    The story goes that while sitting beside Cindy Sherman at a New York fundraiser, Sir Elton John complained that her work never came up for auction. Sherman promptly sold him six artist prints from her breakthrough series “Untitled Film Stills.” Her motive? She was in need of a new house.
    The anecdote is indicative of how fame, connections, and no little money, has made John a preeminent collector of photography. He lists it as his second passion, after music, and together with his husband David Furnish, the couple has purchased more than 7,000 photographs that present many of the great photographers, events, and celebrities of the 20th century.
    A selection of more than 300 photographs from this sprawling collection is set to be shown at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum from May 18, 2024, to January 5, 2025. It will be the largest photography show the museum has staged to date.
    Malcolm X during his visit to enterprises owned by Black Muslims. Chicago, Illinois, USA, 1962, by Eve Arnold. Photo: courtesy Eve Arnold, Magnum Photos.
    The exhibition, “Fragile Beauty,” spans the 1950s to the present and features the work of 140 photographers spread across eight thematic sections. It explores celebrity in images of Marilyn Monroe and Miles Davis, reportage in stills from the Civil Rights movement, AIDS activism in the 1980s, and the attacks of September 11 (for which John and Furnish hold the world’s largest collection), and the male body through photographs from the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe and Tyler Mitchell.
    “’Fragile Beauty’ will be a truly epic journey across the recent history of photography,” the show’s curator Duncan Forbes said. “Whether through the elegance of fashion photography, the creativity of musicians and performers, the exploration of desire, or the passage of history as captured by photojournalism, photography reveals something important about the world.”
    John has been collecting photography since getting sober in 1991. In effect, “Fragile Beauty” is the second half of a photographic tour that began in 2016 with “The Radical Eye” in which the Tate Modern staged 150 of John’s photographs from 1920 to 1950 including rare work from Man Ray, André Kertész, and Edward Steichen.
    At the V&A, John and Furnish further a relationship that began with a loan of Horst P. Horst photographs in 2014. In 2019, a significant donation from the couple to the museum’s new photography center saw a gallery named in their honor.
    “Working alongside the V&A again has been a truly memorable experience,” the pair said in a statement. “We look forward to sharing this exhibition with the public.”
    Preview more images from the exhibition below.
    Tyler Mitchell, Simply Fragile (2022). Photo: courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
    Herman Leonard, Chet Baker, New York City, 1956. Photo: Herman Leonard Photography, LLC.
    Ryan McGinley, Dakota Hair (2004). Photo: courtesy Ryan McGinley Studios.
    Herb Ritts, Versace Dress (Back View), El Mirage (1990). Image: Herb Ritts Foundation, Courtesy of Fahey Klein Gallery, Los Angeles.

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    in Exhibitions

    How an Intergenerational Cohort of Artists at an Icelandic Biennial Grappled with Notions of Darkness

    Landing in Iceland in a gale as the winter darkness closes in, one has a primeval sense of being at the mercy of the elements. So, it feels somehow fitting that the curators of the artist-run Icelandic biennial “Sequences” selected the title “Can’t See,” for its 11th edition, which is on view at several locations until November 26. Not seeing, and darkness, have played a fundamental role in shaping Icelandic culture, said Sunna Ástþórsdóttir, director of the Living Art Museum, which is a co-founder institution of the biennial. “We have all these stories about mythological creatures, mysterious events, and hidden people, which is all to do with the brutality of living here,” she noted.
    The curators—Marika Agu, Maria Arusoo, Kaarin Kivirähk, and Sten Ojavee—are part of a collective from the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art. They have taken darkness as their starting point, both literally and metaphorically, by thinking about the wealth of life forms that humanity can’t perceive and the urgent issues we blindly refuse to recognize.
    “The title applies to today’s world, with the ungraspable climate catastrophe on its way, but also war in Ukraine and pandemics, so darkness just seems very current,” said Kivirähk. “But it can also be read as the possibility that you might be using your imagination if you can’t see, so the theme embraces both doom and celebration.”
    Edith Karlson, Can’t See (2023). Exhibition view from “Art in the Age of the Anthropocene” at Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn. Photo: Joosep Kivimäe
    In pursuit of the imperceptible, the biennial is divided into four chapters: “Subterranean,” “Soil,” “Water,” and “Metaphysical Realm,” with exhibitions dedicated to these themes on show at four Reykjavik institutions, until November 26. The program brings together more than 50 Icelandic and international artists, in a lineup that includes Nigerian-American artists Precious Okoyomon and Dozie Kanu, as well as Edith Karlson, who will represent Estonia at the 2024 Venice Biennale.

    Okoyomon and Kanu have collaborated to create a wind installation in a lighthouse titled Fragmented sky – wind – fly giving presence to wind (2023), while Karlson’s mercreature sculpture, Can’t See (2023) contributed to the biennial’s title. From Iceland there’s a huge diversity of offerings, including Hrund Atladóttir’s Black Whole (2023), a dizzying video and AI portal into nature, and Brák Jónsdóttir’s sculpture of a shiny cyborgian jellyfish, Turritopsis 2.0 (2023), which is inspired by an immortal species and fuses elements of porn and horror.
    What makes “Sequences” distinctive is the bold dialogues set up across generations, between new commissions and works from museum collections. It might seem counterintuitive for a festival looking to push boundaries to incorporate museum loans and deceased or “outsider” artists, but it’s a thrilling aspect of the program and testament to the curators’ thorough research.
    Grotta Lighthouse lit up at night, venue for Precious Okoyomon and Dozie Kanu’s installation, Reykjavik. Courtesy of Sequences XI

    An example is the unlikely pairing of landscape paintings by Iceland’s art grandee Jóhannes Kjarval (1885-1972) with Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir’s multidisciplinary works based around Surtsey, a volcanic island that erupted off Iceland in 1963. These include her cast of what is believed to be the earliest fossilized human footprint on earth.
    “I have loved Kjarval’s paintings since I was a child, but it hadn’t occurred to me that our works would coincide,” said Ólafsdóttir. “I love all the details in his paintings. They somehow resonated with the tiny particles of seaborne waste embedded in the footprint, so it was an unexpected but happy encounter.”

    Installation view of Monika Czyzck’s installation “Can’t See”. Photo by Monika Czyzck

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of the artworks in “Sequences” draw inspiration from Iceland’s magical geology and vivid folkloric tradition. In the “Subterranean” section, Finland-based artist Monika Czyżyk covered the windows with symbols and faces relating to creatures she saw in the stones, mountains and rivers, using a variety of earthy clay tones she found in the Icelandic wilderness.
    Czyżyk’s paintings reverberate with Valgerður Briem’s (1914-2002) intricate ink drawings evoking cartographies or perhaps internal bodily landscapes. The common ground, according to Czyżyk, is a vision of the cosmos, earth and its materials as “alive.” The artist explained, “It feels like we are portraying hidden, speculative worlds, inspired by our surroundings, science, ecology and heliobiology.”
    Besides Briem, the curators have given space to several women from the region who were undervalued in their lifetimes. One is Latvian artist Zenta Logina (1908-83), whose astonishingly dynamic depictions of the cosmos are represented in three relief paintings and a tapestry. A particular revelation was Estonian artist Elo-Reet Järv (1939-2018), with her fantastical leather sculptures, Self Portrait as a Dragon and My Insectivorous Totem (both 1995), which appear to engage in a lively conversation with mischievous rock-and-stone creatures by Icelandic artist Gudrun Nielsen (1914-2000).
    Elo-Reet Järv, Self Portrait as a Dragon (1995), installation view at Kling and Bang. Photo Maria Luiga
    “Sequences” offers a rare and welcome glimpse into these regional scenes, which have had relatively little international exposure. “Something the Baltic and Iceland art scenes share is that being on the ‘edge of Europe,’ so far away from the big system of the art world, it feels like they are more self-sufficient,” said curator Maria Arusoo. “We don’t have a strong market, so it doesn’t dictate what’s happening and the artists are quite independent in their ideas.”
    In terms of artists from further afield, the curators paid careful attention to find shared sensibilities with those closer to home.
    In terms of artists from further afield, the curators paid careful attention to find shared sensibilities with those closer to home. These include Hungarian-born American artist Agnes Denes with six prints that challenge scientific notions of the world as fixed and rational; in these she presents the world mapped onto familiar objects like a snail’s shell or a hot dog (from her Isometric Systems in Isotropic Space – Map. Projections series, examples here from 1976-86), alongside her dreamy flying bird-pyramid works from 1994.
    Also on view was Guatemalan artist Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa’s lyrical sound piece Songs of Extinct Birds That Were Previously Unknown to Science But Have Been Rediscovered Through Spiritist Sessions No. 1-3 (2015); and U.S. Fluxus artist and musician Benjamin Patterson’s zanily brilliant, posthumously produced work When Elephants Fight, It Is the Frogs That Suffer (2016–7), which interweaves frog croaks with human frog noises, spoken proverbs and political messages.
    The strong performance program (which culminated on October 22) gives the festival an experimental injection. Among the standouts are Norwegian artist and virtuoso saxophonist Bendik Giske with Icelandic composer Ulfur Hansson, who has created an ethereal sound by activating strings with magnets stretched across a row of desks, effectively turning them into a giant harp.
    Pola Sutryk’s “perpetual soup”, based on medieval recipe. Vikram Pradhan
    Estonian performer and choreographer Johann Rosenberg gave a messy, gruesome Paul McCarthy-esque performance that was supposed to culminate in the release of imported flies, but they didn’t survive the Icelandic cold, to the audience’s relief. Less dramatic, but definitely more nurturing, is Polish chef and artist Pola Sutryk’s contribution of a “perpetual soup” for visitors, which she said was based on a recipe used in medieval inns, where a pot sat on the fire day and night, with new ingredients added. “As the festival progresses and new relationships build up, so the soup’s flavor is also building up,” she said.
    Human connections may have been encouraged among visitors to “Sequences,” but our species is refreshingly absent from most of the artworks. “We tried to limit the human narration and human representation in the exhibition, to allow ourselves to imagine the world around us through the senses of a variety of species,” explained curator Sten Ojavee.
    Stripping humans out of the picture feels natural in Iceland, away from the behemoth galleries and art fair carousel of big art capitals. In this strongly supportive community, the artists seem connected to the landscape in a way most western Europeans might find hard to comprehend. One has the impression of a thriving, self-reliant scene, driven by a sense of playfulness, joy and curiosity, quietly getting on with the business of making art.
    The exhibitions relating to the four chapters of the festival will run until November 26 at the following institutions: Soil at Kling & Bang; Subterranean at The Living Art Museum; Water at The Nordic House; Metaphysical Realm at The National Gallery of Iceland (House of Collections).

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    in Exhibitions

    ‘Scent of Eternity’: The Smell of Egyptian Mummies Is the Focus of a Denmark Museum Exhibition

    A new exhibition at Denmark’s Moesgaard Museum is promising to transport visitors back 3,500 years through the power of smell. “Ancient Egypt–Obsessed with Life” does not feature sculptural works or ancient jewelry, but rather the fragrance of an embalming oil that was used for the mummification of Senetnay, an Egyptian noblewoman who lived around 1,450 B.C.E.
    The exhibition is the public presentation of research conducted by a team of German archaeologists that scraped the inside of two limestone jars used to preserve Senetnay’s organs and then analyzed the residues to identify balm ingredients. To recreate the embalming scent, researchers worked with a French perfumer and a sensory museologist.
    Labelled “the scent of eternity” by Barbara Huber and her team at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, the ancient aroma blended together beeswax, plant oil, fats, bitumen (a balsamic substance), and various tree resins. The detection of larch tree resin and pistacia tree resin indicates ingredients were sourced from as far away as India and Southeast Asia.
    The researcher behind the recreated fragrance Barbara Huber in the laboratory in Germany. Photo courtesy of Moesgaard Museum.
    “These complex and diverse ingredients, unique to this early time period, offer a novel understanding of the sophisticated mummification practices and Egypt’s far-reaching trade-routes,” said Christian Loeben, an Egyptologist at Hanover’s Museum August Kestner that houses Senetnay’s canopic jars.
    Senetnay’s embalming jars were found in a royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings in 1900 by Howard Carter, the Egyptologist who would later discover Tutankhamun’s tomb. Though little is known about Senetnay, scholars say she was the wet nurse of Pharaoh Amenhotep II and became part of the Pharaoh’s entourage—a status shown by being placed in the Valley of the Kings, a necropolis pharaohs and nobles.
    An installation view at Moesgaard Museum. Image: courtesy of Moesgaard Museum.
    At Moesgaard Museum, Senetnay’s story is used to explain ancient Egyptian ideas of the afterlife and the rituals practiced to reach it. The exhibition presents the sequence of events from death to embalming and mummification, to the mummy entering the tomb and its spirit’s journey to the underworld.
    “We are pleased to be able to present this completely new research, which has only just been published,” said Mads Holst, Director of Moesgaard Museum. “We are looking forward to giving our visitors a sensory experience of the past: the recreated fragrance of an embalming oil used in an Egyptian mummification workshop thousands of years ago.”
    “Ancient Egypt–Obsessed with Life” is on view at the Moesgaard Museum, Moesgård Allé 15, 8270 Højbjerg, Denmark, through August 18, 2024.
    See more images:
    A bottle of the recreated scent test next to pieces of dammar resin. Photo courtesy of the Moesgaard Museum.
    An installation view at Moesgaard Museum. Image: courtesy of Moesgaard Museum.
    An installation view at Moesgaard Museum. Image: courtesy of Moesgaard Museum.
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    in Exhibitions

    Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Lands in New York to a Soundtrack of Pounding Techno and Minimalist Bliss

    Last week the annual Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels kicked off in New York. It’s only the second year the festival has touched down in the city, but it’s already a vital part of the cultural fabric. Part of its power is the forward-thinking programming, covering the full scope of contemporary dance. This was on display even on the first few days with three choreographic productions that ranged from uplifting and elegiac to challenging, with soundtracks that veered from Phillip Glass bliss to banging techno.
    Dance Reflections runs until December 14 and encompasses 11 staggeringly diverse shows at multiple venues across the city. The festival kicked off with the 1979 tour de force Dance, a collaboration between Lucinda Childs and Glass. Seventeen dancers from the Lyon Opera Ballet translated Childs’s choreography and the minimal composer’s progressively shifting hypnotic score with glissades, sauts, and pirouettes. Sol Lewitt’s accompanying films commissioned for the original benchmark BAM production were projected onstage, layering the original version with today’s. The result was vital and compelling.  
    Dance by Lucinda Childs © Jaime Roque de la Cruz. Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels.
    The harmonious placidity of Dance was contrasted with the underground turmoil channeled in Room with a View, a collaboration by buzzy French collective (LA)Horde and the French electronic musician Rone, who is present onstage throughout mixing the entrancing soundtrack live. It’s a cross between a nightlife crawl and a descent into purgatory, set in a quarry that also looks like the Ridgewood, Queens techno club Basement. 20,000 people saw the Marseille production in July, and it has it all: falling rocks, raining fish, and booming beats. Eruptions of violence and sexual vignettes are woven throughout as the world crumbles around the dancers.
    The (LA)Horde trio formed in 2013, originally meeting in the Paris club scene. They collaborated with Madonna on her current tour, have worked with Spike Jonze and Sam Smith, and are the artistic directors of the Ballet de Marseille. Following the October 20th stateside debut of Room with a View, (LA)Horde member Marine Brutti briefly discussed the show’s themes outside of the NYU Skirball Center.
    Room with a View 2022 © Thomas Amouroux. Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels.
    “We wanted to talk about the environmental crisis,” she explained. “What is the dynamic of climate change? It’s collapse. But the movement of collapse, is it always bad? Or does it bring something that is more uplifting? There’s also the collapse of stuff we hate like patriarchy, brutality, violence, and inequality.” Brutti sees the show as a throwback to the electronic scene’s roots. “What the core of techno was in the beginning: queer, liberated, anarchist, and outside of traditional zones.”
    Julie Shanahan in L’Etang by Giselle Vienne. © Estelle Hania. Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels.
    Last year, Gisèle Vienne drew attention for the pounding techno dark star of Dance Relfections with the stunning Crowd at BAM. This year, the artist and choreographer explored more intimate themes with the eerie and complex performance L’Étang. It’s a dialogue-heavy adaptation of Swiss writer Robert Walser’s tale of a child faking his suicide to awaken the love of his harsh mother. It’s a heady and complex work with two performers portraying multiple roles. In particular, dancer Julie Shanahan is a revelation as the mother. Witheringly cruel and glacially chic, she has a gift for delivering caustic verbal volleys as well as graceful, gestural movement. And Vienne is a true auteur, whether it comes to pitch-perfect costuming and set design or her ability to tap into darkness and unleash the profound.
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    in Exhibitions

    5 Exhibitions Not to Miss While Visiting Art Week Tokyo and Art Collaboration Kyoto

    As Japan strives to make a comeback on the global art stage, events staged by homegrown art world players have taken a new turn in a bid to draw attention from an international crowd. The next two weeks see the return of Art Week Tokyo and Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK), two events looking to suit specific local needs rather than simply imposing the traditional western art fair model.
    Despite the friendly rivalry between Tokyo and Kyoto, the two events are coordinated in a way that makes it easier for foreign visitors. ACK, which encourages local Japanese galleries to partner with overseas galleries and share booths with them, moved from last year’s mid-November slot to October 27 (VIP preview day) to 30, just ahead of Art Week Tokyo’s VIP events beginning on October 31 (public days run from November 2 to 5). Art Week Tokyo, organized in collaboration with Art Basel, returns with its successful model of shuttling visitors and art buyers to galleries, but on a bigger scale, and the launch of a curated sales platform called AWT Focus.
    In addition to the fair programs, the two events also emphasize the importance of concurrent institutional shows. Here are five exhibitions that are not to be missed.
    “Yukimasa Ida: Panta Rhei—For as long as the world turns”Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, through December 23
    Yukimasa Ida, Last Supper (2022). Courtesy the artist and Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art.
    If discovering new talent is one of your primary goals for traveling to Japan this week, this exhibition should be on your itinerary.
    Born in 1990 in Tottori prefecture, Yukimasa Ida was already an award-winning artist and made it to Forbes Japan‘s 2018 “30 Under 30” list before graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts with a master’s degree in oil painting in 2019. He has since been exhibiting internationally, including solo shows with Mariane Ibrahim at the gallery’s Chicago and Paris spaces, as well as a 2022 solo show at Museo Picasso Malaga in Spain.
    “Panta Rhei—For as long as the world turns” is Ida’s first museum solo in his native Japan. The exhibition launched this summer at Yonago City Museum of Art in his hometown of Tottori before traveling to Kyoto City at the end of September. Drawing the concept of “Panta Rhei,” or “everything flows,” coined by Greek philosopher Heraclitus, the exhibition is the Tokyo-based artist’s reflection on his career against the backdrop of the ever-changing world, particularly as he experienced it during Covid. Curated by Jérôme Sans, the Kyoto show features more than 350 works, including paintings and sculptures and recent works never before exhibited in Japan.
    Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art is at 124 Okazaki Enshoji-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8344.
    “Hirofumi Isoya: Duration, and Today”Artro, through November 25
    Hirofumi Isoya, exhibition view of Prada Mode Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo, 2023.
    In his solo show “Duration, and Today,” the Tokyo-born Hirofumi Isoya takes over the exhibition venue Artro, which was converted from a historic Meiji-era warehouse, and transforms it into an intimate space.
    Japan’s Meiji era (1868-1912) marked the beginning of the country’s modernization, during which the country moved its capital from Kyoto to Tokyo while undergoing major social, political, and economic reforms that saw the feudal society transform into an industrialized state and subsequently emerge as a global power. By placing works made of historic materials in connection with photography, Hirofumi (b. 1978) creates an expanded space to contemplate the concept of time.
    Artro is at 556 Kaiya-cho, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto, 604-8126.
    “Mao Ishikawa: What Can I Do?”Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, through December 24
    Mao Ishikawa, Scroll, 2021. Courtesy Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery.
    Born in 1953 in Ogimi Village in Okinawa, Japan’s southernmost prefecture, the award-winning Mao Ishikawa took up photography in the 1970s. She studied under Tomatsu Shomei at the Workshop Photography School in 1974 and has since been creating photography works reflecting the livelihoods of the people of her hometown. While Ishikawa’s work has already entered public collections in Japan and in the U.S., such as that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, “What Can I Do?” is the artist’s first solo show at a Tokyo art museum, and is staged on the heels of her successful show in her hometown’s Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum in 2021.
    While the show focuses on the artist’s new works from the “Great Ryukyu Photo Scroll” series which the artist began to work on in 2014, the exhibition promises to be a rare opportunity that allows a meticulous examination of Ishikawa’s early works, developed against the backdrop of the complex geopolitical situation in Okinawa.
    Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery is at 3-chōme-20-2 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku City, Tokyo 163-1403.
    “Our Ecology: Toward a Planetary Living”Mori Art Museum, through March 31, 2024
    Emilija Škarnulytė, Sunken Cities (2021). Video installation.
    This ambitious exhibition, featuring a stellar lineup of 34 local, national, and international artists, marks the Tokyo museum’s 20th anniversary. Featuring around 100 historical and newly commissioned works spanning four chapters, the show reflects ecological changes brought about by humankind since the Industrial Revolution. Among the participating artists are the Santiago- and New York-based Cecilia Vicuña, Thai artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Berlin-based Monira Al Qadiri, and Martha Atienza, who divides her time between the Netherlands and the Philippines.
    By dedicating one chapter to historical works of Japanese artists born in the first half of the 20th century, the exhibition questions the hefty price that Japan paid for rapid economic growth between the 1950s and the 1980s, which saw serious environmental damage brought about by unchecked pollution. The case analysis of these tragedies remains on the website of the country’s Ministry of Environment even today to serve as a reminder of the painful past. Ultimately, Mori Art Museum wants its audience to rethink our environmental problems through this show, which was realized sustainably.
    Mori Art Museum is at 53/F, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, Roppongi, 6 Chome−10−1, 106-6150 Tokyo.
    “David Hockney”Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, through November 5
    British painter David Hockney poses at the Orangerie museum in Paris in 2021. Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images.
    British painter David Hockney, 86, is a household name in the West; the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo has 150 of his works and has an ongoing relationship with the artist, and yet this eponymous exhibition is his first museum show in Japan in 27 years.
    The show features more than 120 works, including some of the most iconic ones produced in the U.K. and Los Angeles, as well as large-scale pieces such as a 90-meter-long work the artist created with his iPad during Covid lockdown. It is also the Asian institutional debut of the artist’s 10-meter-wide 2011 oil painting The Arrival of Spring, Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven), and the show includes one of the artist’s latest self-portraits.
    Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo is at 4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0022. 

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    Guerlain’s Flower-Themed Paris Art Show Is a Surprisingly Sensual Look at Nature. See It Here

    Some may have questioned whether flowers could still be a relevant motif in contemporary art today after some major floral artworks failed to please certain critics at Frieze London recently. But a certain thoughtfully curated flower-themed art exhibition staged by a historic perfume and beauty brand in Paris may go a certain way toward restoring faith in the colorful blooms as among the most enigmatic and provocative subject for artists from around the world.
    Curated by Hervé Mikaeloff, a curator and art consultant based in Paris, the exhibition “Les Fleurs du Mal” (“The Flowers of Evil”), which pays homage to the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, is a delightful surprise. It sheds a new light on the beauty of flowers and floral artworks, and the ways they represent the fragility and sensuality of human nature and emotions.
    Opened during the week of Paris+ by Art Basel across three floors of Maison Guerlain, the historic boutique of the eponymous 195-year-old florist, perfume, and skincare house on Avenue des Champs-Elysées, the exhibition features works by 26 international artists. They come in a range of media—from paintings and sculptures to photography and installations—and there’s no lack of compelling, memorable pieces.
    Hymne à la Rose (2022), by the Madagascar-born Joël Andrianomearisoa, for example, is a site-specific sound installation featuring 42 metallic sculptural roses in a dark room filled with the vocals of Moroccan singer Hindi Zahra and Guerlain’s fragrance Épices volées.
    A pair of rose sculptures by the Tel Aviv–based Roni Landa may look ordinary at first glance, but it gives a jolt when the viewer realizes how erotic it is. There are also highly symbolic photographic works by the famed Japanese artist and photographer Nobuyoshi Araki and Chinese artist Jiang Zhi, and a rare 2012 watercolor by Anselm Kiefer that is vastly different from the heavy, monumental works for which the artist is better known.
    The exhibition’s opening also coincided with the launch of the Lee Ufan Arles and Maison Guerlain Art and Environment Prize. A jury presided over by the Korean-born artist handpicked the French artist Djabril Boukhenaïssi as the winner and four other finalists among the 381 applications. Boukhenaïssi will be awarded a six- to eight-week residency opportunity followed by a solo exhibition in the Espace MA of Lee Ufan Arles in summer 2024.
    “Les Fleurs du Mal” runs until November 13. Below are some of the highlights from the exhibition.
    Jiang Zhi, Love letter no. 25 (2014). Installation view, “Les Fleurs du Mal” at Maison Guerlain. Photo by Tomy Do.
    Roni Landa, Rose Labia (2023). Installation view, “Les Fleurs du Mal” at Maison Guerlain. Photo by Tomy Do.
    Roni Landa, Flora Erecta (2023). Installation view, “Les Fleurs du Mal” at Maison Guerlain. Photo by Tomy Do.
    Nobuyoshi Araki, Sans titre. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Mennour. Installation view, “Les Fleurs du Mal” at Maison Guerlain. Photo by Tomy Do.
    Anselm Kiefer, Extases féminines–Margherite Porete (2012). Installation view, “Les Fleurs du Mal” at Maison Guerlain. Photo by Tomy Do.
    Pauline d’Andigné, Flowers (2023). Installation view, “Les Fleurs du Mal” at Maison Guerlain. Photo by Tomy Do.
    Duy Anh Nhan Duc, Constellation (2019). Installation view, “Les Fleurs du Mal” at Maison Guerlain. Photo by Tomy Do.
    Jean-Philippe Delhomme, Roses et Matisse (2023). Installation view, “Les Fleurs du Mal” at Maison Guerlain. Photo by Tomy Do.
    Mykola Tolmachev, Dégel (no 1) (2023). Installation view, “Les Fleurs du Mal” at Maison Guerlain. Photo by Tomy Do.

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