ART NEWS: Oct.02
Tsohil Bhatia in her solo exhibition “This Fire That Warms You” imagines the gallery as a kitchen, activating and recontextualizing its furnishings, ingredients, methods, and labor. Bhatia engages in transmodal ways of making that consider the everyday and the ephemeral. Their ongoing studio and kitchen practices converge, revealing excerpts and observations of their daily life through sculpture and installation-based works. The exhibition sets a stage for something that is yet to happen—or perhaps that has already taken place. Bhatia constructs a scenography that serves as a backdrop to study and reperform domestic and emotional labor. Repurposed kitchenware hangs from the ceiling; dried fruits and vegetables are self-actualized through decay; pressure cookers erupt with sound and steam; surfaces bear evidence of cuts, spills, and burns. Remnants of labor hint at the presence of a body and its ghost. In its absence, however, time becomes a central character—measured in odor, hissing, running water, and discoloration. Abstracted rituals unfold without instruction, enabling a form of mourning that both facilitates memory and anticipates loss. In the work, fire becomes a metaphor and a vector. Bhatia explores its multiplicities, from anger and rage to passion, desire, comfort, care, danger, violence, and destruction. In the kitchen, fire is disciplined; its functional uses abound. Info: Curator: Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo), CUE Art Foundation, 137 West 25th Street, New York, NY, USA, Duration: 5/9-19/10/2024, Days & Hours: Wed-Sat 12:00-18:00, https://cueartfoundation.org/
For “UMBRA” her first presentation to take place in Europe, Heemin Chung presents a new body of paintings, sculptures and a video. Her artworks explore the sensorial impact of transitional states – from darkness to light, from virtual to physical – in the rapidly changing city of Seoul. As Chung explains, ‘In this city, technology has gone beyond mere convenience; it has fundamentally altered our relationship with space and time.’ The title is in reference to the deep shadows cast by celestial bodies, the exhibition unfolds a world of shadows, replicas and rituals. This investigation of our contemporary condition includes a reimagining of the traditional Korean funeral ritual Chobun. The interplay between the physical and the virtual, the felt and the replicated, the seen and the unseen is central to Chung’s work. For her new series of paintings she was inspired by the objects that she encounters on early morning walks in the streets of Seoul: from manmade urban detritus to elements belonging to the natural world. Translucent and white layers cloud dark backgrounds with hints of purple and pink, capturing the softness of light, the fog and the subtle gradations of colour that occur at the break of dawn. Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Ely House, London, 37 Dover Street, London, United Kingdom, Duration: 8/10-20/11/2024, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-18:00, https://ropac.net/
Past, present and possible futures converge in the exhibition by Palestinian–Danish artist Larissa Sansour. The exhibition seeks to create space for new ways of thinking about historical narratives and the right to home and land. Sansour’s video works and installations address themes such as loss and inherited trauma, expanding to explore grief, memory, and the persistent threat of environmental catastrophe. The exhibition offers an opportunity to reflect not only on the long history of the Israel-Palestine conflict but also on broader issues of national identity, shared human experiences, and collective memory. At its best, art provides a platform for discussing even the most difficult topics. Larissa Sansour’s works are cinematic, poignantly beautiful, and multilayered. She blends layers of fact, fiction, and political history with topical themes in an aesthetically compelling way. The cinematic, precise visuality of the works invites viewers to immerse themselves in future landscapes where new ways to think become possible. Info: Curator: Terhi Tuomi, Amos Rex, Mannerheimintie 22–24, Helsinki, Finland, Duration: 9/10-2/3/2024, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Fri 11:00-20:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-17:00, https://amosrex.fi/
The exhibition “Until you come back: Geographies and Temporalities of Waiting from the Sotiris Felios Collection” is the culmination of a two-month residency of the curator Elisa Ferroni in Athens. During this time, she had the opportunity to deepen her knowledge of contemporary Greek art through meetings with creators, communities, and professionals in the visual arts, as well as through the study of the archive and artworks of the Sotiris Felios Collection. The works in the exhibition explore everyday representations of waiting: urban spaces, streets, and everyday objects are transformed into scenarios that preserve fragments of a mysterious realm of anticipation. In moments of contemplation, boredom, or pause, the artists – as if wishing to freeze them like still life – capture fleeting moments, grappling with the inevitable passage of time and the generational divide it entails. And yet, moments of joy also unfold, if one remains in a state of awareness. Info: Curator: Elisa Ferroni, 16 Fokionos Negri, 16 Fokionos Negri str., Athens, Greece, Duration: 9-26/10/2024, Days & Hours: Wed-Fri 16:00-20:00, Sat 12:00-17:00, https://16fokionosnegri.gr/
Michelangelo Pistoletto’s solo exhibition features a selection of the artist’s signature “Mirror Paintings”, produced specifically for the occasion, and an example from the “Vortex” series that was created for the artist’s solo exhibition at the Louvre in 2013. The exhibition offers an opportunity for audiences in London to encounter works produced by the legendary Italian artist, who celebrated his 91st birthday earlier this year. On show are six works from four different series, divided across two rooms: the first room showcasing black and white mirror pieces, and the second offering mirror works in bold colours. There will be works from the series “Color and Light”, “Black and Light”, “Division and Multiplication of the Mirror”, and “Vortex”. Collectively, these works allow for a perpetually changing experience, creating infinite reflections that provide new perspectives and echoes of reality. The exhibition is a showcase of the extraordinary vision and philosophy of the artist, who, while continuing to make new works, is the driving force of “Cittadellarte” in Biella, an artistic centre founded by Pistoletto in 1998, to promote ‘socially responsible change’. Info: Robilant+Voena Gallery, 38 Dover Street, London, United Kingdom, Duration: 11/10+-15/11/2024, Days & Hours: Mon-Fro 10:00-18:00, www.robilantvoena.com/
Populated by animals and cartoon characters, “Songs for Gay Dogs” is a monographic exhibition by Cosima von Bonin that highlights her most recent creations. The exhibition presents works produced over the past ten years, alongside new commissions and some well-known works. It unfolds in a series of staged scenes involving familiar characters pulled from the world of animation, comic strips or from under the sea. Cult figures such as Daffy Duck and Bambi take part in the exhibition, alongside fish, whales, scallops, rabbits, sharks and pigs. The artist appropriates words, patterns and ideas from a wide range of sources, such as brands, TV shows, cartoons, fashion, art history and pop music. She plays with our expectations and enjoys deceiving them. Colourful and seductive, her recent works use and misuse symbols of entertainment and marketing codes that govern our daily lives, prompting us to reflect on the ideologies that underpin them. Info: Curator:Clementine Proby, Assistant Curator: Clément Minighetti, Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, 3, Park Dräi Eechelen, Luxembourg-Kirchberg, Duration: 11/10/2024-2/3/2025, Days & Hours: Tue & Thu-Sun 10:00-18:00, Wed 10:00-21:00, www.mudam.com/
In his first solo exhibition in Austria, Oscar Tuazon is showing works that relate to the social space and the public. He works with natural and industrial materials such as wood, stone, metal and concrete. Based on architectural approaches and do-it-yourself strategies, he realizes structures that move between functional buildings and sculpture. Many of Tuazon’s projects are inspired by alternative and utopian architectures of the 1960s and 1970s and early eco-efficient and self-sufficient living models. Tuazon explores these architectural approaches to test their potential for today, not only in terms of the underlying technological principles, but also in terms of alternative uses of space and models of subjectivity. The exhibition centers on Tuazon’s long-term project, “Water School,” a nomadic architectural structure envisioned as a hub for informal learning and the collective generation of knowledge. Drawing inspiration from the insights of indigenous environmentalists and their ecological knowledge, the project engages with site-specific water policies to foster sustainable and respectful water usage. The architectural structure of “Water School” is inspired by the passive-solar Zome House (1971/72) conceived by eco-pioneers Steve and Holly Baer in New Mexico, featuring a versatile polygonal design that can be adapted to various needs. Info: fjk3–Contemporary Art Space, Franz-Josefs-Kai 3, Vienna, Austria, Duration: 11/10/2024-9/2/2025, Days & Hours: Wed-Thu & Sat-Sun 10:00-18:00, Fri 12:00-20:00, https://fjk3.com/
Tarek Atoui’s work will be presented in Austria for the first time at Kunsthaus Bregenz. On the first floor the focus is on the tactile quality of the sound, vibration, and movement of the “wind instruments”. Among the other sorks, specifically for the exhibition Atoui created “Windhouse #2”, a new version of his “wind gathering device”, which is activated by a powerful air current. As is the case with a flute, air is divided by a bevelled board, thus producing low sounds that resonate throughout the body and in the surrounding space. The work on the second floor is entitled “Waters’ Witness”. For this ongoing work Tarek Atoui collected the sounds of various port cities such as Athens, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Beirut, Porto, Istanbul, and Sydney. interface of several spheres of influence and is a measure of a city’s growth and change. The top floor is dedicated to rain. Atoui began his project “The Rain” during a research trip to South Korea. He studied traditional Korean musical instruments, working together closely with local artisans and scholars of traditional culture. He expanded his set of instruments by adding ceramic resonating bodies, porcelain, and hanji, a traditional Korean paper. Info: Kunsthaus Bregenz, Karl-Tizian-Platz, Bregenz, Austria, Duration: 12/10/2024-12/1/2025, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 10:00-18:00, Thu 10:00-20:00, www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at/
Comprising a new body of his “book cover” paintings, “Thoughts from under the floorboards” is Andrew Cranston’s first solo exhibition in Paris. This group of paintings continues the artist’s ongoing and daily studio practice of painting on hardback book covers. Each cover acts as a portal or window to multiple histories, here calling upon influences ranging from Edgar Allan Poe, Gustave Caillebotte’s ‘floor scrapers’, and the artist’s own memories. Andrew Cranston’s figurative paintings are steeped in atmosphere; their fragments of narrative quickly dissolving into dreamlike visions of objects awash in colour, shape and texture. His works often depict domestic interior spaces – in a not-so-distant echo of the arrangements of classical still lives – but where such ordinary things as windows, items of furniture, and ornaments become conduits for far more uncanny formal explorations. Abandoned tables, libraries, tents and private chambers are just some of the scenes in which Cranston’s expansive imagination takes shape, drawing from his lifelong interest in storytelling through colour and form. His works take two distinct formats: large scale canvases worked in distemper and oil, and smaller paintings executed directly on hardback book covers. Often his paintings revel in a single colour field, whether oceanic blues, ruddy ochres, or blazing scarlets, within which his dreamlike worlds unfurl through the expressive treatment of surfaces. Their atmospheres flicker between the private and the theatrical, the picturesque and the chaotic, abundance and solitude, each in their own way beckoning the viewer deeper into their worlds. Info: Modern Art, 3 Place de l’Alma, 2nd floor, Paris, France, Duration: 13/10-16/11/2024, Days & Hours: Thu-Sun 11:00-20:00, www.modernart.net/
Paris Internationale celebrates its 10th edition this year and has invited 75 galleries from 19 countries, celebrating the return of long-standing collaborators as well as the arrival of 25 newcomers, including Bel Ami (Los Angeles), Lo Brutto Stahl (Paris), Tomio Koyama (Tokyo), and Ulrik (New York), who will be exhibiting alongside the founding galleries. Born from the utopian vision of creating a contemporary art fair on a human scale, where gathering, discovery, content, and a shared set of values are just as important as commercial success, Paris Internationale is an independent structure whose main goal is to promote contemporary art. The fair offers an alternative and much-needed model: a strong marketplace in which a cutting-edge selection of participants from all over the world – both commercial galleries and guest project spaces – come together in one rich cultural program. The fair offers a new aesthetic between the literary salon of the 18th century and a self-managed contemporary art fair. All the selected galleries share a particular vision of their profession, one that goes beyond the purely commercial aspect. As cultural ambassadors for their regions, they are firmly rooted in their local communities, while at the same time working to promote the international reputation of the artists they represent. Info: Paris Internationale, Central Bergère, 17 Rue du Faubourg Poissonnière, Paris, Duration: 15-20/10/2024, Days & Hours: Tue (15/10) 11:00-20:00 by invitation only, Wed-Thu (16-17/10) 12:00-19:00, Fri-Sat (18-16/10) 12:00-20:00, Sun (20/10) 12:00-18:00, Admission free but requires registration, https://parisinternationale.com/
In the exhibition “Drawn: Rotterdam! May I Exist” the artists Ainine, Sioe Jeng Tsao, Tânia Alexandra Cardoso, and Take-A-Way Collective each present their personal perspective on the theme of social insecurity. Last year, the term ‘social security’ seemed to be buzzing across the Netherlands and became the central theme of the Dutch 2023 general elections. In Rotterdam, the poorest city of the Netherlands, it is an urgent topic as well, with 15.4% of Rotterdammers living below the poverty line. Due to the rising costs of living, an increasing number of Rotterdammers can no longer afford basic needs like food, clothing, housing, and healthcare. Furthermore, around 50,000 Rotterdammers are struggling with debt. The number of entries for becoming a 2024 city artist proves that the theme is very much alive in the city. Not only did we receive more applications than ever, it also turned out that the majority of the artist had a personal connection with the subject, for instance because they had grown up in poverty, or been homeless themselves. Info; Kunsthal Rotterdam, Museumpark, Westzeedijk 341, Rotterdam, Netherlands, Duration: 19/10/2024-16/2/2025, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00, www.kunsthal.nl/en/