Sam Lewitt, Stranded Asset (2017), All photos via Anna Corrigan for Art Observed.
Now through October 21, 2017, Galerie Buchholz presents FILLER, an exhibition by American artist Sam Lewitt, following on and extending the artist’s project Stranded Assets, currently on view in the 57th Venice Biennale. (more…)
Anne Imhof, Faust (2017), via Art Observed
Images capture. They calcify. Within space and time, images appear to sustain a frozen existence with a kind of false grace that suppresses the perpetual change and motion that could be posed as all that which, for lack of a more concise term, is not the image itself. The dialectic between motion and image, fluidity and representation, is the central conflict of Faust, Anne Imhof’s Golden Lion-winning performance for the German Pavillion at the 57th Venice Biennale. (more…)
Mark Bradford, 105194 (2016), via Art Observed
Since his announcement as the solo artist for this year’s U.S. Pavilion Venice Biennale, Mark Bradford has been working intently on a series of works for this week’s opening proceedings in the Giardini. Yet even as he labored to complete a body of new paintings and sculpture in response to his selection as a chief representative of the United States, the troubling election of Donald Trump as president sent shockwaves through his work, and perhaps equally the framework through which it will be viewed. Originally charted as a process of reflection and response to his past life and work, and the socially-engaged energies that the artist has long embraced, notes of American political strife, rage and uncertainty now seem to preclude the exhibition. (more…)
Phyllida Barlow, Folly at the British Pavilion, via Art Observed
Spread out across the Giardini and the various storehouses and spaces inside the Arsenale, the Venice Biennale‘s annual invitations to various nations around the globe serves to offer a counterpoint to the sprawling main exhibition, Viva Arte Viva. Presented by individual curators and supported by art institutions back home, the shows offer not only a selection of singular voices from around the globe, but equally a look at the various national discourses of each country’s artistic institutions and infrastructure, a point that equally sets it as a strong conversation piece against the curatorial discipline of the main exhibition’s lone organizer, in this case Centre Pompidou’s Christine Macel.
Jana Zelibska at the Czech Republic Pavilion, via Art Observed
Anne Imhof’s Faust at the German Pavilion, via Art Observed
The Golden Lions have been announced for this year’s edition of the Venice Biennale, with Anne Imhof and Franz Erhard Walther taking top honors for their work in the German National Pavilion and Main Exhibition, respectively. The full list of winners is included below. (more…)
The Central Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, via Art Observed
Spread between above the green lawns and trees of Venice’s Giardini, and the winding streets and canals of the Arsenale nearby, the Venice Biennale’s Central Pavilion has opened its doors for its Vernissage event, kicking off the 57th annual edition of the exhibition, and welcoming visitors to its first open viewings before it opens to the public this coming Saturday. (more…)
Mark Bradford will represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale next year, curated by Christopher Bedford, director of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. “The black body is always a heavy politicized body, in America in particular, and so carrying that burden is kind of a birthright for me,” he said, adding: “I’m thinking a lot about what matters to me right now. And I think this is a time to put that on the table.” (more…)
The Venice Biennale has announced Christine Macel as the Director of the 57th edition of the Italian art exhibition. Macel, currently the Chief Curator at the Musée national d’art moderne, has worked with Venice in curated the French and Belgian pavilions in past years. “Her experience in the Department of “Création contemporaine et prospective” at the Centre Pompidou in Paris has long offered her a vantage point rich in potential from which to observe and identify new energies coming from various parts of the world,” says Biennale President Paolo Baratta. (more…)
The Venice Biennale has closed its doors this week, closing on a total visitor count of 500,875, with 2,899 average visitors per day. The attendance figure marks a 5.45% from the 2013 edition of the event. (more…)
A Venice court will hear the lawsuit filed by The Icelandic Art Center (IAC) in Reykjavik over the closure of Christoph Büchel’s Icelandic Pavilion “mosque” in the Italian city over a perceived “security threat.” The work was closed in May after remaining open for only two weeks. (more…)
The artists exhibiting at the German Pavilion in Venice have erected a Greek flag in protest against their government’s harsh austerity measures taken against the Mediterranean nation, emblazoned with the word “Germoney.” “We show our solidarity with the people in Greece and all other places suffering from austerity,” says artist Hito Steyerl. “As cultural workers and artists we demand an end to austerity for health, culture, and education while public funding for banks and oligarchs seems unlimited.” (more…)
Roni Horn, Gold Field (1980-82), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Taking over the Punta Della Dogana for the dizzying months of the Biennale is Slip of the Tongue, a Danh Vo curated exhibition in collaboration with Palazzo Grassi and The Pinault Collection. Slip of the Tongue features the work of 35 artists, including pieces from Felix Gonzalez- Torres, Andres Serrano, David Hammons, Sigmar Polke, David Wojnarowicz and the curator himself. Working in conjunction with a large number of artists, the artist-run show is a first for the exhibition space. (more…)
The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at this year’s Venice Biennale will go to Ghanian artist El Anatsui. “The Golden Lion Award acknowledges not just his recent successes internationally, but also his artistic influence amongst two generations of artists working in West Africa,” says Biennale Director Paolo Baratta. “It is also an acknowledgment of the sustained, crucial work he has done as an artist, mentor and teacher for the past forty-five years.” (more…)
Rudolf Stingel, Untitled (Franz West) 2011, (Installation View) (2013)
Rudolf Stingel, the Italian-born, New York-based artist, is currently presenting an installation covering the entire of the Palazzo Grassi, the regal Venetian estate of billionaire collector François Pinault. The exhibition is curated by the artist himself in partnership with Elena Geuna, the former director of Sotheby’s Europe. The project was designed specifically for the 3-story, 5,000 square meter building located on the Grand Canal in Venice. What’s more, the exhibition marks the first time the entire museum has been devoted to a single artist.
This year’s Venice Beiennale will see a new generation of Young British Artists spotlighted at the exhibition’s “Encyclopedic Palace,” including Ed Atkins, James Richards and Helen Marten. “The common factor, perhaps, is that all these young artists grew up with the internet. It’s inside them. Because of that, they have a particular attitude to the way images and objects are made, dispersed and distributed.” Says Polly Staple, director of the Chisenhale Gallery, which has hosted all three of the afforementioned artists. (more…)
For the first time in its 84-year history as an independent state, the Vatican City will have its own contemporary art pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Biennale president Paolo Baratta announced yesterday. The news comes as the Catholic Church seeks to move forward from issues associated with the last pope stepping down. “They said they wanted to put into public view the fact that there were other things beyond mere country boundaries, political state boundaries, that united people.” Says Andrea Rose, the British Council Director of Visual Arts, who met with Vatican officials last year. (more…)
In an unprecedented move, French President François Hollande has cleared Édouard Manet’s 1863 painting Olympia to leave the French capital for the first time since it was given to the nation in 1890. The painting will travel to Venice for this year’s Biennale, where it will sit beside Titian’s The Venus of Urbino, which itself is legally unable to leave Italy. “We want to show how Italian cultural models influenced Manet,” says Guy Cogeval, director at the Musée D’Orsay, where the Manet masterpiece has been on view for over 100 years.
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Massimiliano Gioni, the 39-year old director of special exhibitions at the New Museum in New York, sat down with the Wall Street Journal recently to discuss his upcoming position as the youngest curator for the Venice Biennale in one hundred years, his history of innovative exhibitions, and his inclusive take on conceptual and contemporary art. “We need to remind ourselves that contemporary art is first of all a form of conceptual gymnastics, in which we learn to coexist with what we don’t understand,” he says. (more…)
The Office for Contemporary Art Norway has announced that it will send a special exhibition to Venice this year, titled Beware of the Holy Whore: Edvard Munch and the Dilemma of Emancipation. Featuring several rare works by Edvard Munch and a newly commissioned film by Lene Berg, the exhibition will explore the dichotomy of freedom and isolation found in the state of emancipation, and will take place from 31 May to 22 September 2013 at Galleria di Piazza San Marco of Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa. (more…)
Christian Marclay’s film The Clock, recently closed its one month run at the Museum of Modern Art this week, drawing a record 40,000 visitors to the museum. The number of visitors exceeds the combined counts for The Clock’s two prior New York screenings. The winner of the Golden Lion at the 2011 Venice Biennale, Marclay’s film literally tells time, using shots of various clocks from the full range of film history to compile a full 24-hour viewing experience. (more…)
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Sarah Sze selected to represent United States at 2013 Venice Biennale, installation titled ‘Triple Point’ will approach “orientation and disorientation” [AO Newslink]
Image via New York Times.
Celebrated painter Cy Twombly died today at the age of 83. Twombly passed away from cancer in Rome, where he has been living since 1957. Known as somewhat of a recluse, Twombly usually did not write about his work or give interviews. One of the exceptions to this was made in 2008 when Twombly spoke to Nick Serota, director of the Tate. “I had my freedom and that was nice,” he said.
Born Edwin Parker Twombly, Jr. in 1928 in Lexington, Virginia, and nicknamed “Cy” by his father, the artist was known for his calligraphic style. Writer, critic and assistant professor at the San Francisco Art Institute Claire Daigle writes, “Twombly arrived in Manhattan in 1950 while the New York School painting of Pollock and de Kooning was in full swing. Upon Robert Rauschenberg’s encouragement, Twombly joined him for the 1951–1952 sessions at Black Mountain College near Asheville, North Carolina – a liberal refuge [staffed by] influential teachers present at this time [such as] Charles Olson, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell and John Cage.” In 2001, Twombly won the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale.
Cy Twombly, Untitled, (Peony Blossom Painting), 2007. Image courtesy Gagosian Gallery.
More text and images after the jump… (more…)
Carsten Höller, Soma, 2010. Courtesy Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart
Twelve reindeer, twenty-four canaries, eight mice, and two flies currently reside in Carsten Höller‘s new installation, Soma, in the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum of Contemporary Art in Berlin. Höller’s fantasy land can also be your home for one night – for the price of 1,000 euros (stay includes a nighttime tour of the museum with a guard, as well as breakfast).
Carsten Höller, Soma, 2010. Courtesy Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart
More story and images after the jump…
