ART NEWS:March 01

The exhibition “I Will Greet the Sun Again” surveys approximately 30 years of the Shirin Neshat’s, video works and photography, investigating her passionate engagement with ancient and recent Iranian history. The experience of living in exile and the human impact of political revolution are also explored by Neshat. The exhibition journeys from works that address specific events in contemporary Iran, both before and after the Islamic Revolution, to works that increasingly use metaphor and ancient Persian history and literature to reflect on universal concerns of gender, political borders, and rootedness.  The exhibition begins with Neshat’s most famous body of work, “Women of Allah” and also features her early iconic video works such as “Rapture”, “Turbulent” and “Passage”. Monumental photography installations include “The Book of Kings”, “The Home of My Eyes” and “Land of Dreams” a new, ambitious work encompassing a photographic series and video. Throughout her career, Neshat has constructed symbolic worlds in which women and men assume cultural gestures and poses, often assembling and giving voice to real people who have lived through seismic events of recent history, including the Green Movement in Iran and the Arab Spring in Egypt.  Info: Curator: Ed Schad, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St, Fort Worth, Texas, Duration: 28/2-16/5/2021, Days & Hours: Tue-Thu & Sat-Sun 10:00-17:00, fri 10:00-20:00, www.themodern.org

Eva & Franco Mattes (both b. 1976) have been investigating the internet’s effects on the ethics and politics of our daily lives since the 1990s, reflecting on how networked images increasingly interfere with and define our private and social behaviour. In the process, the artist duo dissects the opaque mechanisms of our networked society, its infrastructures and morally dubious forms of online behaviour. From the controversial censorship mechanisms of internet giants and the questionable effects of the so-called gig economy to our own complicity as viewers – in “Dear Imaginary Audience”, Eva & Franco Mattes shed light on the networked image and its various processes of production, circulation and consumption, all the while holding up a mirror to the viewer in a manner that is at once unsparing and darkly humorous. ding up a mirror to the viewer in a manner that is at once unsparing and darkly humorous. Their first monographic exhibition in the museum context, including new works created for the purpose, reveals a profound change in our visual culture connected to the impact of digital networks on our habitual ways of communicating and using photography. Info: Fotomuseum Winterthur, Grüzenstrasse 44 + 45, Winterthur, Duration: 1/3-24/5/2021, Days & Hours:  Tue & Thu-Sun 11:00-18:00, Wed 11:00-20:00, www.fotomuseum.ch

Alvaro Barrington’s paintings, in his first solo exhibition  in France entitled “You don’t do it for the man, men never notice, You just do it for yourself, you’re the fucking coldest”, reflect the cross-pollination of many influences, among which fashion, music and art history play a primary role. In addition to paintings incorporating yarn, for which he is best known, Barrington introduces a new series of multi-layered works on carpet framed with concrete. His approach to painting remains essentially inclusive – embracing non-traditional materials and techniques – and infused with references to his personal and cultural history, as well as our current state of isolation.  The use of rug in this new series is a way to further explore the potential of fabric – and the references associated with it, in this case domesticity – while pushing the boundaries of the material to give it painterly qualities. The dancing silhouettes superimposed on the abstract background are inspired by the first iPod ads where animated silhouettes were dancing alone on a bright colored background. This series also introduces custom-made cement frames, which convey a brutalist aspect and impart a sense of gravity to the paintings, connecting with the idea of an urban landscape. Barrington has long been interested in frame making and has often created frames for his own works or for his friend’s, allowing the painting to become a fuller version of itself. Info: Gallerie Thaddaeus Ropac, 7 Rue Debelleyme, Paris, Duration: 2/3-17/4/2021, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, https://ropac.net

For “Who the Bær” his new site-specific project conceived for the ground floor of the Podium in the Milan premises of Fondazione Prada, Simon Fujiwara introduces audiences to the fairytale world of Who the Bær, an original cartoon character that inhabits a fantasy universe created by the artist. Who the Bær is a cartoon bear without a clear character – “Who” as they are known, seems to have not yet developed a strong personality or instincts, they have no history, defined gender or even sexuality. Who the Bær only knows that they are an image, and they seek to define themselves in a world of other images. The world of Who the Bær is a flat, online world of pictures, yet one full of endless possibilities. Who the Bær can transform or adapt into any image they encounter, taking on the attributes and identities of those depicted within the image – human, animal or even object. In this sense the fantastical world of Who the Bær is a world of freedom: Who can be whoever they wish to be, Who can transcend time and place, Who can be both subject and object. Yet Who the Bær may never be able to overcome their one true challenge – to become anything more than just an image. Info: Fondazione Prada, Largo Isarco 2, Milan, Duration: 2/3-27/9/2021, www.fondazioneprada.org

Alexey Brodovitch was one of the great pioneers of modern graphic design. His entirely novel compositions of text and photography revolutionized the layout of fashion magazines.  In the exhibition “The First Art Director” is presented  his fascinating oeuvre with over 250 exhibits.The Russian graphic designer Alexey Brodovitch began as an autodidact — and became a key figure in the field. In 1920 he fled to Paris where he established himself as an influential voice of a modern and elegant graphic design. In 1930 he emigrated to the USA and made design history — be it as a teacher and as a role model for legendary photographers like Richard Avedon or as art director of the fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar. His radically simple layouts and lots of white space revolutionized editorial design. The interplay of image and typography in his work remains a reference point for graphic design to this day. The exhibition presents Brodovitch’s work in unprecedented breadth: the photographs, posters, and magazines on display trace the influential designer’s career. Info: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, Zürich, Duration: 4/3-6/6/2021, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 10;00-17:00, Thu 10:00-20:00, https://museum-gestaltung.ch

“Indistinct Chatter” is a group exhibition dedicated to film, while at the same time excluding it. Since the 1970s, exhibition spaces have become more frequently transformed into quasi movie theaters, with video works forming an integral part of contemporary artists’ often immersive installations. But how do we attend to the sensation and pull of the cinematic when the moving image is absent? The works on view range from narrative snippets and movie props to closing credits, without showing a single motion picture. Temporality and movement are largely suspended, while the apparent subplots and by-products of the cinematic are put into the spotlight. A nod to Louise Lawler’s “A Movie Will Be Shown Without The Picture” (1979) where the audience was invited to watch a full-length film in a regular cinema without its visual component, the exhibition tackles questions of performativity, narration and representation in front of and behind the screen. Participating Artists: Monika Baer, William Leavitt, Matt Mullican, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Lise Soskolne, Masha Tupitsyn, Robin Waart, Yong Xiang Li. Info: Curator:  Pia-Marie Remmers, LAYR, Seilerstaette 2, Vienna, duration: 5/3-10/4/2021, Days & Hours: Wed-Sat 12:00-19:00, www.emanuellayr.com

Davide Balliano in her solo exhibition presents paintings and sculptures. Balliano is known for his hypnotically essential black and white paintings of ancient, linear geometries and monumental sculptures. In this show, his distilled compositions quietly pulsate with a mysterious yet familiar tension. Undulating coils of meticulously applied gesso subtly weave from the foreground to the background of his canvases, off their edges and seemingly into thin air. The paintings are visually dense, exuding an undeniable gravitas, while appearing almost weightless.  Formally, Balliano’s paintings are excavations of something eternal – fragments and suggestions of patterns that are recognized more than they can be understood. Radiating from surfaces that are pocked, scraped, scarred and faded, his uncanny network of serpentine lines suggests a process of extraction rather than application. By obscuring time in this way, Balliano is able to purify the encounter with his optical phenomena. Hung in a series of spaces that are separated by walls creasing in and out like strips of folded paper, Balliano’s paintings rhythmically come into view. Spliced-arch portals that recall a distorted classical architectural language, central to the artist’s practice, connect the rooms. A simple gesture at first glance, these strange symmetries echo the mesmerizing glyphs on the gallery’s walls. A silvery reflective sculpture sits at the center of this maze, compressing and twisting the room in its concave, ageless exterior. Info: Curator:  Charlap Hyman & Herrero, Tina Kim Gallery, 525 West 21st Street, New York, Duration: 6/3-17/4/2021, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.tinakimgallery.com

“Considering Rothko”, an exhibition of new paintings by Pat Steir, created this year, this new body of work offers a culmination of Steir’s sustained engagement with Mark Rothko’s artistic legacy. Drawing inspiration from her predecessor’s remarkable use of color and his investigations into the sublime possibilities of abstraction, Steir’s latest paintings are made with her signature pictorial approach. Steir was lauded in the early 1970s for her canvases featuring various iconographic symbols. In the late 1970s, Steir traveled extensively in the United States and Europe, where numerous galleries regularly presented her work. By the late 1980s, back in New York, Steir began to experiment with pouring and flinging layers of thinned paint onto canvas, releasing herself from conscious consideration of imagery and composition and allowing the indexical trace of her process to become the image itself. While her pouring process invites comparisons to Jackson Pollock, rather than laying her canvases on the floor, Steir paints from a ladder and works directly on unstretched canvas tacked to the studio wall. The delimited chance of this working method has since come to define Steir’s practice. Info:  Lévy Gorvy Gallery, Slat House, The Royal Poinciana Plaza, 50 Cocoanut Row, Suite 122, Palm Beach, Duration: 6/3/2021- , Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 11:00-18:00, Sat 10:00-19:00, www.levygorvy.com

Τhe group exhibition “Still Life” explores the timeless genre, featuring works by the Alexander Calder, Maria Lassnig, Pablo Picasso, and Tom Wesselmann. With extant works dating as far back as ancient Egypt, still life painting was formalized by a set of structures during the Renaissance period, and has remained its own significant class ever since. Typically depicting inanimate objects in careful arrangement usually upon a table or other flat surface, still life allows the artist a unique opportunity to test formal practices and experiment with light, shadow, space, composition, and perspective. Beginning in the late nineteenth century artists began to reconsider the strictures imposed upon still life painting, and by the twentieth century the idea of still life itself had morphed in surprising ways. Through their various artistic styles and practices, these artists probe the conventional boundaries of still life painting, breaking from long-established traditions to push beyond thresholds and into new territories. Together, they form a narrative suggesting that the ancient story of still life painting itself is still being written today and into the future. Info: Almine Rech, 18 avenue Matignon, Paris, Duration: 10/3-10/4/2021, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-17:30, https://www.alminerech.com/

In “Elemental Folds”, the emerging Greek artist Kostas Lambridis reconstructs iconic designs such as the famous Baroque Badminton Cabinet and Memphis book-shelf Carlton to create his own works, which include tables, chandeliers, a cabinet, a daybed and bookshelf. The nine works, of which six are new, are composed with found objects, handmade and mixed materials and assembled into completely unique large-scale sculptures. At first, the assembly of the pieces appears to have been chaotically mismatched, but under closer inspection, the elements are intelligently assembled horizontally and vertically in order of their materiality. Lambridis gathers unwanted objects from across Athens, which often hold both national and personal identities varying from broken marble objects, stone taken from the artist’s aunt, broken window glass, tiles, bamboo baskets, rattan and wooden furniture, plastic garden chairs, car parts and hard plastic objects. To complete his works, Lambridis creates new elements from raw materials, for example, the artist integrates a bronze cast of his hand found in the «It’s not enough» bookshelf, and assembles a floral mosaic for Faux Baroque which references a floral design found on the Badminton cabinet. The nature in which Kostas collects, creates new elements and assembles them makes each piece completely unique, and can often take months to complete. Info: Carpenters Workshop Gallery, 54 Rue De La Verrerie, Paris, Duration: 11/3/2021- , Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-17:00, https://carpentersworkshopgallery.com