ART NEWS: March 04

Presented in an immersive installation, Rudolf Stingel’s vividly hued paintings offer a new direction for the artist, as this body of work focuses on the juxtaposition of figurative and abstract painting, combining Stingel’s interpretation of imagery from Ernst Ludwig Kirchner with his distinctive approach to abstraction. The new series continues the artist’s ongoing engagement with Kirchner’s oeuvre, which Stingel discovered in his late teens while living in the mountains of South Tyrol, close to the Swiss Alps where Kirchner retreated in 1918. For over a decade, Stingel has been revisiting this influence, painting black-and-white self-portrait photographs by the German Expressionist, followed more recently by photorealist interpretations of Kirchner’s colorful late landscape paintings. The current works play off Kirchner’s landmark modernist portrait, recapitulating aspects of its radical composition while integrating elements of his own. In so doing, they introduce new dimensions of abstraction and representation, appropriation and originality to his work. They are composed at a monumental scale, measuring almost four times the size of the original portrait. The subject’s face and dress are represented with a vivid palette of green, red, and blue with tumultuous additions of textured oil paint and gold enamel. Working intuitively, Stingel further develops their surfaces via methods that are unique to his practice, incorporating layered patterns and dynamic, painterly brushwork. Info: Gagosian Gallery, 4 rue de Ponthieu, Paris, France, Duration: 17/3-27/5/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:30, https://gagosian.com/

Special places and changing living environments are the starting point of Laurenz Berges’ photographic works, which always follow a development process lasting several years. Since the 1990s, his documentary and at the same time poetic series of works have shed a remarkable light on abandoned or deserted areas around Etzweiler, Duisburg and parts of eastern Germany. Mudersbach, the place not far from Siegen that was Bernd Becher’s second home in his youth, has long interested Laurenz Berges. The project “Maintaining and Disappearing” is the starting point of an exhibition at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, which juxtaposes photographs of two Becher houses directly related to Hilla and Bernd Becher’s origins and living and working places in Siegen and Düsseldorf for the first time. More than could be achieved by a portrait, these photos show the circumstances of the famous artist couple’s work and life. They are supplemented by a selection of Becher typologies, previously unseen collages by Bernd Becher and personal collectibles from the Bechers’ house. Thus, the specific inner life of the half-timbered houses in the Siegerland that became famous with the Bechers also becomes exemplary of recent history in Germany. Info: Curator: Thomas Thiel, Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, Unteres Schloss 1, Siegen, Germany, Duration: 17/3-6/8/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-18:00, www.mgksiegen.de/

Including both new and recent works that are being shown for the first time in Germany Elizabeth Price presents her solo exhibition “SOUND OF THE BREAK”. The artist creates moving-image works, composing visuals, text, and sound to form spatial installations that restage cultural and sociopolitical events and focus attention on largely unnoticed stories. Price’s moving-image works are grounded in a conceptual approach. Each of her videos is the result of meticulous research and a wide-ranging examination of archives and collections of material. In the course of her digital appropriation, Price develops new narratives from art objects and documents of historical events. Initially working with PowerPoint, and now with a professional video-editing program, the artist creates moving-image films that combine photographs, archival materials, documents, text, graphics, animation, and sound to form new contexts. A key component of these works is their deployment of sound in space. The visual and sonic narrative is created through the acoustic atmosphere of a technological-synthetic voice-over. The hierarchical world of work’s transformation through digitization is a recurring theme, in particular the rise of information work, office activities, and administration. Info: Curator: Matthias Ulrich, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Römerberg, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Duration: 23/3-29/5/2023, Days & Hours: Tue & Fri-sun 10:00-19:00, Wed-thu 10:00-22:00, www.schirn.de/

From its origins in mid-nineteenth-century Paris, the idea of bohemia has been a powerful component of what it means to be an artist. Bohemia, a real place, has thus given its name to a cultural movement and a way of living. Its values have always centred around a commitment to art in all its forms, an embrace of total freedom, a hostility toward work and conventional ambition, and a willingness to accept poverty.  With the works of 39 artists the exhibition “Bohemia: History of an Idea, 1950–2000” Donveys new insights into the notion of bohemia as it developed from the end of World War II to the end of the twentieth century, across multiple places, including Paris, New York, London, San Francisco, Vancouver, Tehran, Zagreb, Prague, and Beijing. Apart from chronologically examining some of bohemia’s most emblematic scenes, it also looks at both the differences and the continuities that mark various manifestations of the movement, taking visitors on a journey through centres of bohemian life and communities of people who choose to live outside of mainstream values, creating their own artistic subcultures. Info: Curator: Russell Ferguson, Kunsthalle Praha, Klárov 5, Prague, Czech Republic, Duration: 23/3-16/10/2023, Days & Hours: Mon & Thu-Sun 11:00-19:00, Wed 11:00-21:00, www.kunsthallepraha.org/

Anna Hulačová presents her solo exhibition “Harvest and Survive”. In her work, the artist has long been concerned with the human condition and natural world, the relationship of man to landscape, universe and the past represented in folk and folkloric rituals. Her work creates a sense of urgency and can be seen as a kind of visual activism, with the themes of the inevitability of destruction, the gradual extinction of necessary organisms and the man’s responsibility for human actions in the landscape. The objects, sculptures and paintings that emerge from under her hands are not of our world – weird insect-like creatures with human faces; astronauts in space suits searching for water and collecting pollen; human beings in whose heads and guts a whole new being is thriving. It is as if life itself was taking back what had been taken from it; as if it was the life’s way of settling its score with us, albeit light-heartedly and with a sense of humour. Her faceless figures lose their place in the original world, and thus their identity. Info: Curator: Denisa Václavová, z2o Sara Zanin Gallery, Via della Vetrina 21, Rome, Italy, Duration: 23/3-23/6/2023, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 11:00-19:00, https://website-z2ogalleria.artlogic.net/

Caroline Mesquita presents a selection of seven plastic compositions and three videos created in 2022 and inspired by the vast ancient sculptural repertoire of Rome and the Villa Medici. They are eight “masks” in patinated brass inspired by human faces (Romeo, Silvia, Billy, Georgia, Giorgio) or animals (Oiseau, Ippo, Toro). Translating their profiles and expressions into geometric solutions, Caroline Mesquita reworks these heads in her own way in an approach inspired by the artists of the avant-garde, between cubism, constructivism, surrealism and Bauhaus. These creations also recall the faces, portraits and busts of the Villa Medici which resonate with the contemporary faces of the artist. She also proposes a selection of videos where the characters, halfway between men and machines, resemble bio-mechanical creatures. These video creations could be described as “retro-futuristic”: they use the codes of science fiction but with a patina of another time. Another characteristic element of these works is the theatrical and cinematographic tone that Caroline Mesquita imbues in the banal scenes of everyday life that she represents, by juxtaposing a large number of references. Info: Villa Medici, Viale della Trinità dei Monti 1, Rome, Italy, Duration: 23/3-21/5/2023, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 11:00-19:00, www.villamedici.it/

The exhibition “Renaissance 3.0” establishes a base camp for new alliances of art and science in the 21st century.  For a long time, art and science diverged. Art was primarily oriented toward things that could be perceived by the human eye. It remained within the horizon of natural perception. Science begins beyond natural perception. It has been observing the world with instruments since the 16th century. In this way it advanced to the hitherto inaccessible »res invisibiles« of the microcosm and the macrocosm. The exhibition presents contemporary approaches of artists who, on the one hand, continue the lines of research of the preceding renaissances and, on the other, open up new fields of research. It also features convincing parallel research or elective affinities between science and art. The focus is on a new culture of tools. On the basis of 35 media art positions, it provides insights into artistic laboratory situations and artistic-scientific collaborations that open up a shared multidisciplinary “Wissensfeld” (base of knowledge) for the 21st century — from biochemistry to genetic engineering and information design to neuroscience and unconventional computing. Info: ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Lorenzstr. 19, Karlsruhe, Germany, duration: 25/3/2023-7/1/2023, Days & Hours: Wed-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-18:00, https://zkm.de/

Laure Prouvost inaugurates the FAÇADE series of KANAL-Centre Pompidou museum with a colorful composition of images and messages directed to the city and its inhabitants. In Prouvost’s immersive and captivating installations where film, sculpture, found objects, performance, and language are often combined, the artist draws on personal memories and artistic and literary references as well as elements of fiction. She disrupts linear narratives and the expected associations between words, images, and meanings. Laure Prouvost has been invited to inaugurate the series. For this first FAÇADE, the artist has composed a work in which flowers and plants emerge from the showroom’s skeletal depths, creating a post-apocalyptic garden. Here and there among the teeming flora, voluptuous flesh and tentacles appear, while flags bearing slogans undulate in the wind. At the tips of the vines, two flowers come face to face while the words “we belong” hover below them. Plants in full bloom and the erogenous parts of women’s bodies evoke transformation and renewal. The slogans are directly addressed to the audience, provoking thought, issuing wishes, and calling for action. Prouvost plays with language and the meanings generated by her word gymnastics. Info: KANAL-Centre Pompidou, Place Sainte-Catherine, Brussels, Belgium, Duration: 25/3-2/9/2023, https://kanal.brussels/en

Art Paris is celebrating its 25th anniversary with an edition that will bring together some 134 galleries from 25 different countries. The 2023 selection pursues the fair’s development with a list of exhibitors renewed at 33% (i.e., 44 new galleries compared to 2022) and the continued presence of a number of international Galleries, 60% of the exhibitors are domestic galleries and 40% internationally-based. This deliberate choice enables the fair to showcase the wealth of the French gallery ecosystem that includes leading modern and contemporary art galleries and galleries based in towns all over France, while providing support to emerging structures with “Promises”, the sector for young galleries. Sixteen solo shows spread throughout the fair allow visitors to discover or rediscover in depth the work of modern, contemporary or emerging artists. Independent exhibition curator Marc Donnadieu shares his perspective on the French scene with a selection of 20 artists from different generations exhibited by this edition’s galleries. This focus explores these artists’ approach to the concept of commitment, whether a commitment to art and artworks, or to the world, its history and what is happening today. The theme “Exile: Dispossession and Resistance” has been entrusted to independent exhibition curator and founder of the Beirut-based TAP (Temporary Art Platform), Amanda Abi Khalil. It shines a spotlight on a selection of 18 international artists chosen from the exhibiting galleries whose work addresses questions in relation to exile. “Promises”, a sector focusing on young galleries created less than six years ago, provides a forward-looking analysis of cutting-edge contemporary art. Participating galleries can present up to three emerging artists and Art Paris finances 45% of the exhibitor fees. International galleries are largely represented in this sector that is constantly renewing its exhibitors from one year to the next (67% in 2023). This year Promises plays host to nine galleries. Info: Fair director: Guillaume Piens, Guest Curators: Marc Donnadieu & Amanda Abi Khalil, Grand Palais Éphémère, 2 Plateau Joffre, Paris, France, Duration: 30/3-2/4/2023, Days & Hours: Thu (30/3 & Sat-Sun 1-2/3) 12:00-20:00, (Fri 31/3) 12:00-18:00, Admission: Thu or Fri: € 25 / € 15 for students, Sat or Sun: € 30 / € 18 for students, 2-day pass: € 35 / € 20 for students, Free entry for children under 10 years old, www.artparis.com/

Deeply influenced by the socio-natural context of Brazil, the work of Daniel Steegmann Mangrané looks into ecology as a tool to analyze the relations of mutual transformation present in life. “A Leaf Shapes the Eye” is his largest survey of the artist to date, taking over 1000 sq meters of Kiasma Museum and spanning 25 years of work. The exhibition includes a large array of media such as collage, drawing, holograms, installation, moving image, photography, sculpture, sound, and poetry.  Employing apparently opposite ideas such as belonging and dissolution or opacity and transparency, the artist creates immersive environments, materializing liminal states where the visual and the material coalesce into each other. Echoing the use of bodily, perceptual and sensorial strategies as a means of political participation by 1960s Brazilian artists such as Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, Steegmann, the artist creates sensual, playful situations, which overcome artificial dualisms that have historically defined our reading of the world. Such dichotomies are not only false but also hierarchical, placing mind above body, rational thought above emotion or culture above nature, ultimately enabling noxious worldviews. In opposition Steegmann Mangrané proposes an integrated approach to address the critical moment of ecological crisis we are currently experiencing. Info: Curators: João Laia, Hiuwai Chu and Piia Oksanen, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Mannerheiminaukio 2, Helsinki, Finland, Duration: 31/3-10/9/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-20:20, Sat 10:00-18:00, Sun 10:00-17:00, https://kiasma.fi/

The group exhibition “OFF THE GRID: Post-Formal Conceptualism” traces the use of the form of the grid in contemporary art, beginning with some of its most illustrious mid-20th century proponents: Agnes Martin, Louise Nevelson, and South American geometric abstractionists Luis Tomasello, Francisco Sobrino and Antonio Asis. From there, it examines conceptual uses of the grid from the 1970s and 80s and utilizes that history to establish a vantage point from which to explore a current resurgence in the motif among contemporary artists of wide-ranging cultural backgrounds.  Artists include: Antonio Asis, Wallace Berman, Joan Brown, Jim Campbell, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Bruce Conner, Jean Conner, Richard Diebenkorn, Manuel Espinosa, Anoka Faruqee, Michelle Grabner, Jutta Haeckel, Damien Hirst, Birgit Jensen, Jess, Isabella Kirkland, Stefan Kürten, Alexandre Kyungu Mwilambwe, Bernard Lokai, LOT-EK, Emil Lukas, Marco Maggi, Agnes Martin, Louise Nevelson, Liliana Porter, Lordy Rodriguez, Surabhi Saraf, Francisco Sobrino, Pablo Siquier, Luis Tomasello and William T. Wiley. Info: Hosfelt Gallery, 260 Utah Street, San Francisco, CA, USA,Duration: 11/4-20/5/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sat 10:00-17:30, Thu 11:00-19:00, https://hosfeltgallery.com/