ART & MUSINGS

exhibition reviews + occasional ramblings; to find out more go to menu > about me

[artandmusings]

The Box Man

NYT review of The Box Man

Ideally I think would would enjoy reading all of Kobo Abe. Personally, The Face of Another and The Woman in the Dunes are two of my favourite existential novels. The Face of Another was turned into a film which, again, is one of my favourites. He has a collection of short stories, translated in English around 1991-1994 one of which is "Dendrocacalia" where a man has already had intimations that he is in danger of becoming a plant and receives a mysterious note that promises a rendezvous with destiny, signed with the initial K. 

[artandmusings]

John Stezaker: Love - The approach, February 2018

Valentine’s day is now long gone but The approach is hosting John Stezaker’s works with a new exhibition entitled Love. Stezaker, who had a major retrospective at Whitechapel Gallery in 2011, is particularly fascinated by classic images - film stills, advertisements, illustrations and postcards. He takes these and crafts collages using slicing techniques to create subtle dysmorphias. 

Whilst, frankly, I think collage has been overused in recent years to make quite banal works - artists such as Stezaker and Baldessari succeed time and time again in using the medium to create eerie and interesting compositions.

Stezaker’s Photoroman collages from the 1970s are fragmented, disjoined, interrupted. There is something quite unsettling, a presence in the background - aside from our voyeuristic one - which seems to cast a shadow on the seemingly oblivious couples embracing. This complicates the narratives further as elements of tension and secrecy creep up in the tableau. 

On display are also more recent works, in which Stezaker superimposes old postcards picturing beaches, caves, cliffs over his lovers. Whilst one might think these landscapes belong in the dreamy affectionate minds of the couples, they reveal a darker side - their subconscious want for escapism envelops them completely, covering them, suggesting that trouble lies beneath the seemingly idyllic surface.

Stezaker has the ability to communicate so many dynamics in so few words (or none at all) and allows us to complete our own film (which is why I spent quite some time in the gallery).

Whilst the main gallery contains his Photoroman, Film Still, Pair and Unassisted Readymade series, in the annex (which boasts an incredible sky light) we find his Love works. Here the artist uses publicity shots of unknown or forgotten actors and alters them by multiplying their eyes. This slightly disturbing intervention gives them an undefined personality, we can’t quite trust them yet spend time trying to read them.

For those who have never been to The approach - the space is equally interesting, as you walk through this door in a pub and make your way up to a beautifully lit space.

John Stezaker: Love is at The approach, 1st Floor, 47 Approach Road, London E2 9LY from 15 February - 25 March 2018.

[artandmusings]

Condo (Galeria Jacqueline Martins) - König London, February 2018

Last October, during Frieze, König Galerie decided it would test its own London space and set up shop in Winchester House on Old Marylebone Road. The space is incredible - next to a garage, a beautiful neon sign welcomes you downstairs to an underground carpark.

This is the setting for my final (and favourite) stop on the Condo 2018 tour. Condo, now in its third year, is a collaborative initiative whereby host galleries share their space with international ones either by allowing the latter to use their space freely or by co-curating exhibitions. The aim is to allow London’s contemporary gallery visitors to discover artists from galleries scattered across the globe (Sao Paolo, Warsaw, LA, Vienna et al) within the confines of their own metropolis. It encourages wider representation and cross-contamination which are always welcome on the scene.

For Condo, König hosted Galeria Jaqueline Martins (GJM) from São Paolo. The show focused on Minimalism - with König bringing that of Jeppe Hein and Jose Dávila and GJM Lydia Okumura’s.

We open with Okumura, whose revolves around site-specific installations exploring bi-dimensionality and three-dimensionality. In The Appearance (1975) and The Appearance (1976) she uses cord to create geometric compositions which appear at times flat and at times have depth. Similarly to Tuttle’s recent works, in response to Agnes Martin, in which he used pencil to play with sculpture’s dimensions (see here), Okumura traces on the white walls - making us aware of the space surrounding us, making the works wonderfully tied to their location.

We move into the main carpark space to find Jose Davila and his Homage to the Square (2017). Davila, who works and lives in Mexico, likes to re-contextualise works of art (such as Malevich’s famous square) in a contemporary setting. Here we find what I perceived as a delicate aluminium dream catcher of sorts - its components rotating revealing a beautiful geometric range.

Yet another artists who plays with our knowledge of critical works is Jeppe Hein, whose Left Diagonal Cut (2017) echoes Fontana’s famous cut canvases. Within the work we find a reflection of his Geometric Mirrors IV (2012). As with all pieces bearing reflective surfaces engagement with the space and the visitor becomes critical, as any movement creates new transient modes of viewing.

My favourite work was Okumura’s Different Dimensions of Reality (1971) in which again the artist plays with our perception of depth and dimensionality. Here we find nine aluminium plates and paint on the wall, arranged as if to trace the further most white square’s path from the wall to us.

As a bonus (unrelated to Condo) for those obsessed with Jeremy Shaw (I now consider myself to be, after seeing Liminals during Everything at Once) König’s showroom had this wonderful treat from his Towards Universal Pattern Recognition series:

Condo definitely ended on a wonderfully geometric high.

König London is at Winchester House, 259-269 Old Marylebone Road, London NW1 5RA and hosted Galeria Jaqueline Martins from 13 January to 17 February 2018.

[artandmusings]

Medardo Rosso: Sight Unseen - Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, January 2018

Curated by Sharon Hecker and Julia Peyton-Jones, Galerie Thaddeus Ropac's show seeks to encourage visitors to discover the intriguing Medardo Rosso and his incredible works.

Medardo Rosso is a rebel, an unconventional figure, a sculptor, a difficult character and a forgotten artist. Or so he was until MoMa in 1963 decided to host his retrospective. What made him deserve it though? According to Guillaume Apollinaire he was the “greatest living sculptor” so perhaps that.

Rosso began sculpting in Milan with no formal artistic training, was expelled from the Art Academy in Brera and moved to Paris in 1889 where he stayed until the end of WWI. In Paris he became acquainted with Emile Zola, as well as Rodin whom he later distanced himself from as the latter allegedly did not recognise how much he was artistically indebted to Rosso. Rosso despised the idea of belonging to one nation and called himself an "internationalist" and throughout his life m known across Europe traveling and exhibiting in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. His way of working, and perhaps his rejection from more established canons, is not dissimilar to that of the Impressionists. Rosso sculpted his surfaces not with an obsession to detail, but with loose sketches, approximations, in order to realise a far more captivating work, one that spoke about the model's character, expressions and glimmers as opposed to providing an accurate inventory of features. This is why he was later crowned as one of the founders of modern sculptures. Despite being cited by Giacometti and Moore as a source of inspiration, little has been done to promote Rosso's critical contribution to the arts.

The works on display at Galerie Thaddeus Ropac seek to redress this. In the first exhibition to focus on Rosso's relationship with London we find photographs the artist took of his works, as well as his sketches. Rosso experimented heavily with photography and often scratched film in order to produce what struck me as eerie compositions.

Rosso was unconventional in his choice of models too. His subjects were often poor, vulnerable, elderly. This is exemplified by the wax and plaster sculptures shown in Ely House. Sculpting these became a performance in and of itself - Rosso used to cast the bronzes in public and tactically installed them near works by other artists in order to gain well-deserved traction.

Ely House is a fitting location for the show. In 1906 Eugene Cremetti, on Dover Street, had hosted Rosso's retrospective, which was reported in the press as "the artistic event of London today". Galerie Thaddeus Ropac has selected an incredibly focused show which will undoubtedly appeal to visitors, as we are transported to Rosso's London with his sketches of the London underground, Trafalgar Square and the like - often found on restaurant cards.

This exhibit is too rare to be missed.

Sight Unseen is at Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, 37 Dover Street London until 10 February 2018.

[artandmusings]

Crossroads: Kauffman, Judd and Morris - Sprüth Magers, January 2018

Sprüth Magers reopened on 29 September 2017 exhibiting works by Gary Hume. Its refurbished space, a stunning Mayfair townhouse, spread over three floors, has become one of my favourite in London.

For its second show, and its first of 2018, the gallery presents works by Craig Kauffman between 1966-1971. Whilst Kauffman is known to be an LA artist, the period chosen by Sprüth Magers is purposefully less known to the wider public as it centres around his time in New York and his friendship with Donald Judd and Robert Morris - whose works are placed next to Kauffman's.

Whilst Judd, Morris and Kauffman all began their careers as painters, only the latter of the three called himself such throughout. This self-identifier, as well as his ties to both the East and West Coast make Kauffman a key figure in allowing a unified analysis of Minimalism from coast to coast.

In the first room we find ourselves surrounded by Kauffman's Loop (orange and green) and two of Judd's specific objects. The room itself - inundated by natural light and boasting a marvellous wood panel flooring - provides a warm welcome, unlike many clinically white galleries in which these same artists are often shown.

The colours are bright, fun and candy-like. This is especially true in the pink and green combination found in the second room, reminiscent of a pair of plump lips. Kauffman also plays with light and hues and the contrast between his graduated plexiglas Loop (pink and white) and Morris's felt works - Fountain and Untitled - is the perfect way to illustrate the range of works produced by the three friends in the same period.

Crossroads is a show that seeks to show visitors bicoastal Minimalism and the pivotal role Kauffman played in his often disregarded years. It is refreshing to see Judd and Morris in conversation with these plexiglas works, radiant as the light from Grafton Street strikes them.

Also on show, in the gallery's lower ground (note how beautiful the staircase and lift are) are works by Barbara Kruger.

Crossroads: Kauffman, Judd and Morris is on at Sprüth Magers, 7 Grafton St, Mayfair, London W1S 4EJ until 31 March 2018.

[artandmusings]

È solo un inizio. 1968 - La Galleria Nazionale, December 2017

2017 was the 50th anniversary of Arte Povera's birth and 2018 happens to be the 50th anniversary of a closely related year - the radical 1968, pregnant with political gestures, revolutionary symbols and artistic manifestations.

In May 1968 all Universities, with the exception of Bocconi, had been occupied by students. Artists such as Gio Pomodoro in the same month occupied the Triennale for 15 days. Workers were on strike and politicians could not underestimate the movement any further. The year became known as the moment of fracture between the bourgeois class, the industrialists, the capitalists and a younger generation fighting for workers' rights and female emancipation.

La Galleria Nazionale seeks to place art born out of this tense time back in its political context, as so often it is exhibited with no historical background. This is driving force behind È solo un inizio. 1968, curated by Ester Coen - the first show in Italy dedicated to the 1968 movement and its repercussions on art.

The title is taken from the French “Ce n’est qu’un début, continuons le combat!” (It's only the start, we continue the fight!) yelled by 800,000 strikers in Paris, as students occupied the Sorbonne.

The proliferation of movements such as Arte Povera, minimalism, conceptualism and land art to name a few that emerged in that year find themselves welcomed by the Galleria's spaces. The show does not seek to cast judgment on the merits of the movement itself, but rather invites visitors to reconsider the works in light of the political climate they sought to respond to.

We find Luciano Fabro's Italy turned upside down in Italia Rovesciata, next to a solitary red ball - fallen from a height of two meters i.e. De Dominici's Palla di gomma (caduta da due metri).

The curator also allows for an interesting dialogue between conceptualism, American minimalism and Arte Povera which purposefully places itself against the alleged frigidity of the American movement. We find Kounellis and Pistoletto next to Richard Long and Donald Judd, Zorio and Castellani next to Dan Flavin. The works themselves fit beautifully together, their sombre yet striking features balance each other out.

Critics noted that, unlike the catalogue which was fittingly published as a newspaper with interviews and political essays recalling the impact 1968 had, the show itself lacked the same historical force and unknowing visitors were left in the dark as to why - for example - placing Judd next to Zorio would be seen as irreverent.

I disagree with the view. Whilst the newspaper was in fact informative and visitors should be encouraged to carry a copy with them, I don't think la Galleria should have included any panels explaining the curation in detail. It is far more powerful to explore the space with a blank canvas, see how the different works interact on the wooden floor and then discover why their proximity is ironic.

È solo un inizio. 1968 is on at La Galleria Nazionale from 2 October 2017 to 14 January 2018.

[artandmusings]

Citazioni pratiche: Fornasetti - Palazzo Altemps, December 2017

Palazzo Altemps, in celebrating its 20th year of opening to the public, brings a beautifully irreverent exhibition amongst its permanent collection and historic courtyard: "Citazioni pratiche: Fornasetti".

The Palazzo was once an aristocratic home for the Riario, Medici, Orsini, Altemps and Hardouin families and was transformed into a museum in 1997.

The palace is extremely fitting for the 800 plus objects and designs from the Fornasetti archive. The National Roman Museum of Ancient Art, with its enviable Roman statues carving the figures of Venus, Mars and Mercury, hosts Fornasetti's distinctively eclectic items, many of which were inspired by the very same deities and their Roman depictions.

Amongst the frescoed rooms we find surreal landscapes, dining tables with objects whose classic colour compositions (Fornasetti preferred palette involves reds, cyan blues and optical patterns) become part of the peculiar tableau unfolding before our eyes.

There is no set path to follow, so starting in the cortile visitors have the ability to meander through the labyrinthine corridors, discovering ceramic cats resting on ancient walls, the "Galata Suicida" sculpture group surrounded by a scenographic set, broken plates, marmoreal sculptures who have taken up the electric guitar and cycling...

One of the most theatrical arrangements can be seen in the chapel near the Palazzo's church, on the first floor. Here, one of Fornasetti's creations becomes an icon a solitary ray of light pours down on it.

Piero Fornasetti (1913-1988) was the surrealist genius behind the brand and encouraged consumers to see furniture, accessories and design objects as invitations to think, to use our imagination, to enter unreal worlds.

Mirrors revealing mysterious, inviting faces behind seemingly innocuous lamps, a room in which Fornasetti's famous face plates hang above a reflective sea and intriguing clues guide us through - as if we were in our own Roman wonderland. The cheshire cat's grin is replaced by the seductive smiles found on trays, candles and prints carefully placed in this magical realm.

The concept behind this incredible show was born out of Barnaba Fornasetti, Piero's son who wanted to juxtapose the ancient and the modern - allowing the Atelier's creations to converse with the same visual, ironic and irreverent language in a classically beautiful space.

Citazioni pratiche: Fornasetti is on at Palazzo Altemps, Rome from 16 December 2017 - 6 May 2018.

[artandmusings]

Delirious: Art at the Limits of Reason, 1950-1980 - Met Breuer, November 2017

I had not been to the Met Breuer before and, aside from it being an architectural gem, it was hosting Delirious: Art at the Limits of Reason, 1950-1980 meaning it shot up to the top of my list.

The exhibition explored the way in which artists responded to the disenchantment, political unrest and oppression which characterised the post-war decades. Whilst governments sought to repress any uprisings and upheavals - afraid that chaos would result in military confrontations - and rationalism became paramount, artists sought to engage with hallucinations, absurdity, surrealism and nonsense in return.

Curated by Kelly Baum, the show is an enthralling display of fantastic irrationality envisioned by American, European and Latin American artists. According to Baum, these artists were fuelled by the prevalence of government paranoia during the Cold War, which led to distrust and as a result, enhanced surveillance. This exact climate fertilised counterculture movements - psychedelic drugs and video art pushed the boundaries of irrationalism further.

A post shared by Julie / Giulia (@giuliatc) on Nov 14, 2017 at 2:18pm PST

The exhibition is divided into four main categories: Vertigo, Excess, Nonsense and Twisted.

Many of the works on display were taken from the Met’s permanent collection, yet some hadn’t been exhibited in decades. Amongst these we find  geometrical art whose distortions and obsessiveness become as disturbing, in Baum’s eyes, as more explicitly unnerving videos, such as Caroline Schneeman’s Viet Flakes (1965) and Nauman’s Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk).

We find Larry Bell’s geometric painting, LeWitt’s sculpture work and Robert Smithson’s slanting grid, Untitled (Model) pictured below.

In the Excess section meticulously satirical grids such as Martha Wilson’s are placed in the vicinity of Kusama’s ladder - covered in white high heels.

Critics have raised two main issues with the show namely that (1) it stretches and banalises the works by lumping them all into the idea of delirious responses to the post war-era and (2) it seems to forget that Dadaism and Surrealism had been equally liberatory and anti-establishment movements, albeit following the First World War. In particular Baum’s insistence that in today’s world delirium is most relevant was taken to bee too farfetched, lacking enough context. Whilst I understand the criticisms raised, I felt that the show was truly well curated. I didn’t focus too greatly on the text accompanying it, the overarching theme - but rather on the individual works. Baum did an excellent job at selecting less known pieces, artists that a wider public might be less familiar with. Mescaline-inspired drawings by Henri Michaux, Now by Lynda Benglis in which the artist, cloned, growls at herself, Jensen’s number sequences and Conrad’s Cycles of 3s and 7s in which he constantly and nonsensically uses a calculator to divide and multiply numbers as he speaks his actions out loud - often laughing at his own mistakes - are all wonderful examples of why the show is riveting.

One of my favourite works was Richard Serra’s Boomerang (1974). Serra plays back Holt’s voice in real time as she speaks. We hear her discussing just how disorienting this experience is “a world of double reflections and refractions”. As minutes pass, she starts to slow down, confused by the sound of her own voice echoing and her warped words are all the more captivating. INOUT by Anna Maria Maiolino (see video above) is another excellent piece. I observed this gloriously disturbing mouth and its black lipstick open and close, eat, squirm and act an array of emotions for quite some time.

Finally, the most hypnotising by far was Gary Hill’s Black/White/Text (1980) in which a black and white rectangle makes its appearance on screen and, as it distorts, contorts and grows in size the word “rectangle” continues to be repeated in a trance-like chant. The manipulation, both visual and sonic plays with our notion of language and visual stimuli, challenging our notion of perception and reality as our senses feed us strange sounds and images on loop.

Delirious: Art at the Limits of Reason, 1950-1980 is on at the Met Breuer from 13 September 2017 - 14 January 2018.

[artandmusings]

Douglas Gordon: back and forth and forth and back - Gagosian, November 2017

If you want to find the truth in something take it apart, then put it back together with the detail of a forensic scientist. This is a classical way to deconstruct a narrative. However, when you stand in front of 24 Hour Psycho (1993) slowly unfolding piece by piece, after five minutes, you’ve lost track of where the narrative started. I like this idea that you can take almost a scientific method and end up lost in a labyrinth of multiple, conflicting meanings, and that you have to acknowledge your own forgetfulness.

- Douglas Gordon

Mid-November in New York is accompanied by the proliferation of gallery openings, previews and events as one of the most important auction weeks takes place across Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Philips (this was the very week in which Leonardo’s Salvador Mundi overshadowed everything it seemed).

On 14 November Gagosian (522 W 21St) presented a new exhibition of works by Douglas Gordon, comprising films and video monitor pieces. Upon entering the main gallery space - which was suitably dark - we see two enormous adjoining screens. Projected on these is Gordon’s 24 Hour Psycho Back and Forth and To and Fro (2008). Those familiar with his 1993 work (mentioned in the above quote) will remember that he had slowed down Hitchcock’s Psycho to very few frames per second, such that the whole film would last for 24 hours. Gordon distorts the film further in his 2008 work by introducing a second screen and allowing one to show the same slowed down film from start to end, whilst the other displays it in reverse. After 12 hours, for 1/24th of a second the screens will show the same sequence.

There is something incredibly frustrating about watching a film dense with suspence and tension at a painfully slow rate. The actions become abstract, visitors stare blankly at the screen, falling into a trance. Gordon plays with temporal distortions to disorientate viewers and the two screens do exactly that.

On 17 November Gagosian hosted a 24 hour screening so we returned, around 3am, to an empty gallery. The silent space with very few echoing footsteps was all the more hypnotising. Walking in and out of the Chelsea gallery at such bewitching hours enhanced the feeling of suspended time in which viewers find themselves.

Whilst 24 Hour Psycho Back and Forth and To and Fro is undoubtedly the work visitors will be drawn to for longer, another notable piece is found on the floor of the main gallery. An iPhone monitor, placed on the floor with a sole guard next to it plays a video of a fly - in all its abhorrent glory - writhing around. There’s a tension between wanting to instinctively smash the screen and kill it and voyeuristically watching it suffer.

For those who want to see more of Gordon’s work, Gagosian on Madison has the below piece.

Douglas Gordon: back and forth and forth and back is at Gagosian, 522 W 21 St NY 10011 from 14 November 2017 - 3 February 2018.

[artandmusings]

lleana Sonnabend and Arte Povera - Levy Gorvy, November 2017

As mentioned in my review of Luciano Fabro (see link), Arte Povera season is in full swing, both in London and in New York.

The movement, counting Calzolari, Pistoletto, Fontana and Castellani amongst its prominent artists, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017 with an array of fantastic shows.

The most comprehensive by far, was that hosted by Levy Gorvy on Madison Avenue and curated by Germano Celant - art historian and forefather of the movement itself.

Celant was responsible for bringing the movement to the attention of Ileana and Michael Sonnabend, when they met at the Venice Biennale in 1964. The couple pushed the movement towards international recognition.

In 1967 Celant noticed a group of artists, scattered around Rome, Milan, Bologna and Turin who were intentionally juxtaposing their work to that of Pop art. The contrast is blatant when one compares, for instance, Andy Warhol's diamond dust paintings with the simple, "poor" materials used by Zorio. In November, Flash Art, the renowned publication, issued a mission statement characterising Arte Povera as guerrilla warfare. The artists were in fact engaging in a witty, subtle way with Italian postwar politics. 1968 was the year of radical movements, student protests, political battles between parties whose ideologies were polar opposites. Whilst Levy Gorvy's particular exhibition does not necessarily enhance the political elements behind the works, La Galleria Nazionale in Rome does precisely that (see link).

Sonnabend brought Arte Povera to American collectors, displaying the works in her Parisian gallery - opened in 1962 - and then in her New York gallery from 1970. Celant was a dear friend and together they organised in 1972 Paolini's first US solo exhibition.

The works on display across three floors are incredible. Upon entering we are greeted by Pistoletto's Marzia con la bambina (1964). This early work - part of Sonnabend's first show dedicated to the artist - draws us in and encourages us to look around the room (reflected, so that Marzia herself can see). Bottiglia per terra and Donna seduta di spalle reflect Merz's Grembiali = numeri naturali, the ten plastic red aprons hung on the right wall.

These works create the perfect setting for Merz's Igloo (1971) which was exhibited in Sonnabend's first Arte Povera show in New York. Merz, fascinated with the idea of space and shelter uses his work to engage with questions he posits:

Is space straight or curved? Do houses move around you or do you move around houses? What does making a house mean?

Moving to the first floor, we find one of my favourite works - Jannis Kounellis's Manifesto per un teatro utopico (1973) as well as Calzolari's tobacco leaves, attached to neon transformers in Untitled (Non).

Zorio is pleasantly represented in this room with Pelle con resistenza (la vita è vicina e vive) - a beautifully balanced sculpture in which cowhide and electrical cables are delicately arranged - hanging ever so gently from the ceiling.

We find him on the second floor too, with Tenda, a 1967 sculpture that received wonderful praise in Turin only a couple of weeks prior. With the passing of time condensation trapped in the salt placed on top of the green canvas flows through the fabric, creating a puddle beneath.

Ileana Sonnabend and Arte Povera, Levy Gorvy 909 Madison Ave. NY10021 (2 November - 23 December 2017)

[artandmusings]

Metafisica da Giardino - Nahmad Projects, November 2017

By far one of the best curated exhibitions I have seen this year. Maybe because I am extremely partial to de Chirico - I remember as a child having a de Chirico print between my room and our kitchen in Vienna and spending hours, transfixed, immersed in his metaphysical realms of green skies and yellow pavements.

Upon entering Nahmad Projects a green (artificially) grassed floor greets visitors coming from the grey paved roads of Mayfair. Entering a room which resembles the outdoors more than the outdoors is fundamental in creating the right atmosphere and Francesco Vezzoli, the show’s curator, immediately catapults us into a new world.

Moving, cautiously, we arrive in what appears to be the real rendition of de Chirico’s classic metaphysical landscape. At the center is Vezzoli’s bust, a bronze sculpture ‘Minima Idea (Muso dell’Antichità’) inspired by de Chirico’s figures.

Aside from the fact that Vezzoli, is one of the most interesting curators of our time - see his extraordinary exhibit on innovative/conceptual Italian TV in the 1970s at Fondazione Prada recently - the show is an incredible convergence of murals which construct the world of de Chirico’s Piazza d’Italia.

The meta in the show - for someone who loves Stoppard and Arrested Development - is a joy to catch. For example, ‘Il Segreto del Porticato’ is placed underneath the arches of the mural’s porticato.

The sun room - an extremely dark environment, with a very faint light emanating from behind the frames - is the perfect setting as the suns in the paintings on display in the very room are recharging.

This, coupled with the usual perspective distortions turn the gallery into a unique space, one defying all laws, making it difficult to leave.

(I roamed around for a good few hours before I forced myself to exit)

Metafisica da Giardino: Nahmad Projects, 2 Cork Street, London W1S 3LB (29 September - 15 December 2017)

[artandmusings]

Sherrie Levine: Pie Town - David Zwirner, November 2017

I had never seen works by Sherrie Levine before, so when I entered David Zwirner I didn’t quite know what to expect. Saying that I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement.

Levine gained traction in the late 1970s and 1980s as a member of the Pictures Generation group in New York. The group analysed mass-circulated images and often toyed with them to render them complex, meaningful.

Levine’s work is not confined to photography and this is reflected in the show. Photographs and sculptures converse in the gallery’s space narrating their stories.

In the first room we find ourselves facing a wall with 60 photographs, all framed in the same way, a small wooden contour -  bland enough to make us focus on the images, yet in some ways part of the images themselves - its shade enhancing the hues typical of New Mexico.

‘After Russel Lee: 1-60 (2016)’ is a reproduction of works by Russell Lee, who was a photographer employed by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) - a government body tasked with tackling rural poverty following the Great Depression. The FSA developed a photography program whose aim was to raise awareness of the large number of Americans facing arduous challenges outside metropolitan areas. Lee was one of the photographers who took part in the project. Levine revisits the exact project that Lee undertook in 1940 and displays photographs taken in Pie Town, New Mexico.

We also find ourselves in the presence of cast bronze sculptures in which the artist moves away from figurative realism and into a more playful realm.

Next to these, resulting in a beautiful meeting of the sculptures’ reflective surfaces and the monochrome panels behind them, are Levine’s ‘Monochromes after Van Gogh Sunflowers: 1-12 (2015)’. In some ways drawing parallels with Bridget Riley’s work (in particular her paintings in response to Seurat, on view at the Courtauld Gallery), Levine extracts individual shades from Van Gogh’s sunflowers and pixelates these, producing the monochrome panels on view.

Her constant reinterpretation, representation and replication is not to be labelled as ‘derivative’ with the negative connotation that word carries. Rather, Levine remains true to the ethos of the Pictures Generation group and imbues previous projects and paintings with new meaning.

Sherrie Levine: Pie Town is at David Zwirner, 24 Grafton Street, London W1S 4EZ (4 October - 18 November 2017)

[artandmusings]

Luciano Fabro - Simon Lee, November 2017

It’s arte povera season - in London, in New York. Castellani died recently and these shows are all the more meaningful because of it.

I’ll start with Luciano Fabro’s show at Simon Lee - his first solo show in London since the Tate in 1997.

Fabro observed that …just like a thrown stone gives a centre to the borders of a puddle, a finger indicates the direction of a gaze, in the same manner, we move into a space by means of solicitations or impressions.

The works on display exemplify his radical approach to sculpture, as a medium to offer a spacial dimension which, characterised by its simplicity and scarcity, allows visitors to interact with it simply by walking or through reflections which capture them - fleetingly.

Many of the works on display are in ones which were presented in 1965 at Galleria Vismara in Milan and which Fabro then continued to work on in the 2000s.

The works emerge naturally within Simon Lee’s space and almost give the impression that they’ve been there all along. The subtleties in the pieces make them both conceptually and aesthetically noteworthy.

The works emerge naturally within Simon Lee’s space and almost give the impression that they’ve been there all along. The subtleties in the pieces make them both conceptually and aesthetically noteworthy.

Fabro plays with perpendicularity - especially in ‘Croce (1965-2001)’ - where two tubes are fixed to each other at a right angle - reminiscent of a minimalist cross - yet once installed their angles become obtuse as a result of their weight. This delicate state of flux perfectly illustrates Fabro’s point - regardless of the seeming inflexibility of materials (such as steel) space and its apparent rigidity is made to be altered, albeit in microscopic ways.

On the interaction between reflection and non reflection as  materialised in ‘Mezzo specchiato e mezzo trasparente’, moving to ‘Tutto trasparente’ ‘the material is neutral, it is the attention with which it is charged that transforms it’.

My favorite work and perhaps the one that links Fabro most directly to the arte povera movement is ‘Tubo da mettere tra i fiori (1963-2001)’ in which a metal bar is placed amongst an assortment of plants.

At first barely noticeable, once spotted it takes on the role of a skeleton, holding not just the work together but also the plants, creating a sense of dependency between the natural and the frigid metal rod, the organic and artificial.

Equally impressive is ‘Ruota (1964-2001)’ placed on the ceiling at the right corner of the gallery. Here, as the diameter of the arms is equal to the circumference of the hoop visitors are given the impression that the looped metal rod will unfold at any moment - again playing up the contract between aluminium's rigidity and a sense of precarious fluidity.

Luciano Fabro at Simon Lee, 12 Berkeley Street, London W1J 8DT (30 November 2017 - 6 January 2018)

[artandmusings]

Zhongguo 2185 - Sadie Coles, October 2017

Sadie Coles is due to become my favourite gallery of the year I think (not that it needs my endorsement). On yet another Sunday morning in London I headed to Regent Street around 9 for a bank appointment. Riveting. I then proceeded to have a stunning hour in an empty RA in the company of Jasper Johns. On my walk back I stopped by Sadie Coles, Kingly Street. I walked up the staircase leading to the first floor and main gallery and there it was. 

A giant inflatable head. With headlights in its eyes.

Shock factor aside, this show deserves a little context.

Zhongguo 2185, meaning China 2185, features works from ten young Chinese artists trying to push the boundaries - both temporal and spacial - of Chinese contemporary art. The name of the exhibition comes from the homonymous science fiction novel written in 1989 by Liu Cixin - which is still unpublished and only available online. In the novel set (unsurprisingly) in the year 2185 a female president, in order to suppress a cybernetic uprising, is forced to cut off the country’s power. The uprising is led by six resurrected brains, one of which is Mao’s. 

For those who are as intrigued as I was upon learning about this, e-Flux (one of my favourite journals) has published a really well-written piece on Asian Futurism which discusses Liu Cixin’s novel in detail (see here).

Back to the gallery.

The show’s curator, Victor Wang, selected only artists born after the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76 to bring to life themes present in Cixin’s novel. 

Lu Yang’s Power of Will - final shooting (seen above) shows the artist’s face turn into an avatar which is then placed on digital renditions of 3D vans. The same avatar is then translated into the physical world as her head becomes a gigantic kite, which is then filmed flying over land and sea (as pictured below). 

One of the works I enjoyed most was Lu Pingyuan’s triptych. Two blue hands emerge out of each of the eyes of the three beautifully dysmorphic faces, turning into their irises, pinching three sheets of paper - each with a different short story. 

The most unsettling one was the first from the left. No spoilers but you will want to check the ingredients in your face cream shortly after.

Xu Qu, in Occupation, uses damaged surveillance cameras to recreate a large-scale version of Buddhist prayer beads. Here Big Brother is defeated, its weapons turned into raw material for a spiritual endeavour. This socio-political commentary is equally evident in Chen Zhe’s The Bees and The Bearable (seen on the wall behind Occupation). Photographs, diary entries, poems - redacted and non - and sketches all interact together providing a glimpse into mental health and illness of youth in China. 

The exhibition feels exempt from any notion of space and time - its commentary rings true today as it did in the 80s and as it will in the future*.

*Based on assumptions of increased surveillance and the stereotypical view that AI will take over - I’m not in the market of making unqualified statements about decades to come.

The show is on until 4 November 2017 at Sadie Coles, 62 Kingly Street, W1.

[artandmusings]

TJ Wilcox: Gentlemen - Sadie Coles, September 2017

Walking down Davies Street on a Sunday night in early September I looked through the glass window into Sadie Coles and stood there - gaze glued to the monitor - for a couple of minutes, reading the subtitles to what I now know to be Fergus by TJ Wilcox.

I wasn’t familiar with Wilcox’s work prior to this but returned the following weekend, dragging four friends with me. The five of us sat and started watching  Fergus (Fergus Henderson - British chef and restaurateur) discuss his life in an open, candid, fun way. TJ Wilcox’s films him primarily in two locations: his home (when wearing the pink shirt) and in Tiree (when wearing a blue shirt). The footage cuts between the two and we are occasionally shown additional clips - Fergus and his wife traveling and picnicking in Tiree and the two of them at enjoying dinner at St John’s.

Wilcox subtly enhances - with beautiful colour compositions - Fergus’s already captivating personality. He talks about his Parkinson’s in such a casual manner - then swiftly switches to a detailed, mouth watering (to some?) description of his classic dishes based on bone marrow and offal. 

He is famously known for using animal parts that other chefs would usually discard and talks about the first time he consulted his wife on a bone marrow dish he wanted to include in his menu. His passion is infectious, as is his laughter and love of life.

One of the stories that made us laugh most was his recounting of a trip he took with his wife to Paris. They both had quite a lot to drink (Lagavulin was a recurring theme), to the point that she had fallen asleep - her face buried in steak tartare. He proposed to her, offering her half a pig’s cheek. Picture the scene, in Paris, he says “I mean, isn’t that romantic?”.

When asked what his ideal last meal would include Fergus continues to share his jois de vivre: a good gin martini to start, sea urchins, many many many other mainly pork based dishes, and chocolate ice-cream. Then he adds “I don’t know if you’re allowed dancing at the last meal - but dancing, with my wife”.

Cheers.

And on that heartwarming note, we leave him and move to the second protagonist of Wilcox’s new oeuvre - Johnny (John Reinhold - New York diamond dealer and crucial component of the New York art scene of the 1970s).

Johnny is at times describing the scene in the 1970s - in particular his relationship with Andy. It was Johnny that gave Andy his first diamond dust which was then used in the famous canvases. He recalls a conversation in which he told the artist that he feeling quite depressed. One hour after hanging up the phone he receives a parcel with a small square canvas - one of Andy’s flower series - and on the back a single hand-written word: Happy. “Isn’t it just wonderful?” Johnny says.

Wilcox here cuts between Johnny’s stories and interviews with other members of the incredible Studio 54 scene who know and love Johnny including Debbie Harry.

Here Wilcox uses images and videos of Basquiat, Warhol, Haring with Johnny as Johnny himself talks about his life, how we wanted to associate with that crowd - the free and uninhibited.

Again, Wilcox is an incredible editor. Throughout the video it felt like we were at a party, having casual conversations, interacting with the different players that made that period so unique and distinctive.

n a similar way to Fergus, Johnny is equally charismatic and humorous. He doesn’t deny his status or his vanity - fully admits to loving each and every one of the portraits his artist friends made for him. He acknowledges his childhood was extremely privileged and does not come across as arrogant or snob. As the video closes we are left with the image of a man who cares deeply about his friends and who is loved dearly by them all.

Both videos were around 18 minutes each - yet Wilcox makes time fly as he uses cuts and colour schemes to enhance the already brilliant personalities we see on the screens. The videos are not documentaries per se, nor stories. They are a perfect window into Fergus’s and Johnny’s life - or most of its facets.

I left Sadie Coles feeling as if I had personally met the two, so thank you for introducing us TJ.

TJ Wilcox’s Gentlemen is on at Sadie Coles (Davies Street) until 28 October 2017

[artandmusings]

Corpo a Corpo / Body to Body - La Galleria Nazionale, September 2017

Marina Abramovic and Ulay, Relation in Space (1976)

The third and final temporary exhibit I saw at La Galleria Nazionale was Body to Body / Corpo a Corpo, curated by Paola Ugolini.

As this was another show exclusively dedicated to female artists, it gave me a chance to compare it to White Cube’s Dreamers Awake (see previous review).

Chiara Fumai, Chiara Fumai reads Valeria Solanas (2013)

To set the scene - in the 1960s artists began to blend the boundaries between different art forms. Performance art becomes the primary means to express how art and reality are constantly intertwined and the body becomes the perfect vessel to convey this message.

One of the most famous performance artists of our time is, without a doubt, Marina Abramovic and she is unsurprisingly included in the show.

Ugolini selects others who, like Abramovic, were active in the 60s and 70s both as artists and also as female activists.

Suzanne Santoro, Sacre Miniature (1971-2)

Gina Pane, Azione Sentimentale (1973)

Gina Pane, Action II Caso no 2 sul ring (1976)

Amongst these we find Gina Pane who was a member of the 1970s Body Art Movement. Whilst cracks in the obsolete patriarchal society that characterised much of Italy and France in the 1970s were visible, she pushed the boundaries even further. As students were invoking their rights to experience sexuality freely, Pane’s work became an embodiment of the drive towards change.

Renate Bertlmann, Verwandlungen (1969, 2013 print)

Much like in Dreamers Awake, Body to Body wants to pay homage to these powerful artists of the 60s and 70s by tracing their influence on a new generation of contemporary female Italian artists such as Eleonora Chiari & Sara Goldschmied, Valentina Morandi and Chiara Fumai.

Their works borrow notions from past decades, whilst retaining their own identity. Crucially we see that despite our technological advances verbal communication is still unsatisfactory and inadequate. This, evidenced by the deconstructed audio, can only be partially supplemented with video and collage. 

Valentina Miorandi, Moments of pleasure (2014)

The body remains key then  and this, in turn, makes Body to Body one of the most relevant shows to date.

Body to Body / Corpo a Corpo, La Galleria Nazionale until 24 September 2017

[artandmusings]

/Uncinematic _ George Drivas - La Galleria Nazionale, September 2017

Another incredible temporary exhibition at La Galleria Nazionale is dedicated to the Greek film director George Drivas.

Once again the environment is perfectly suited to the show curated by Daphne Vitali. As mentioned in previous reviews (I seem to spend a lot of time at La Galleria Nazionale…) the modern art museum has recently moved away from arranging rooms by time and space.

Similarly, Drivas’s films lack an identifiable temporal and spatial location. At times they appear to be set in the future, at times in the past. Costumes are often all black and aren’t dated. His characters, frequently nameless, don’t have an identity other than that with which we are presented in the film. Viewers must simply roll with what happens on screen, as it happens - Drivas gives the bare minimum.

Despite this lack of information there is a strong sense of alienation given by the robotic quality all his characters seem to possess.

This is largely due to the architecture featured in the films: cold façades, brutalist buildings - often reminiscent of Soviet Russia.

Kepler (2014), filmed in Tbilisi, illustrates the interplay between architecture and alienation well. The name given to the film gabs a dual function: it reminds us of the recently discovered Earth-like planet and it makes the construction project shown in the film its focus. The environment surrounding the characters is deserted, barren and plain. Instead of adding warmth to this setting, the protagonists (if we can call them that) make the setting even more unwelcoming.

Another captivating short is Sequence Error (2011). Set in a nondescript corporate office redundancies are made by deleting employees as one would digital files. Drivas uses speeches from Che Guevara and George Marshall to enhance his commentary of the contemporary Greek crisis.

The short that I enjoyed most was Closed Circuit (2005). We see CCTV footage of a criminal case. This is accompanied by more CCTV footage, showing two characters, potentially lovers, around New York. Drivas juxtaposes the seemingly random moments caught on surveillance camera to white screens with stage directions, proving that the characters are programmed to follow a script. The relationship between the two strangers/lovers and the crime is unresolved.

/Uncinematic closes on September 24th.