Keith Sonnier, Ba-O- Ba VI (1970), Copyright: Haeusler Contemporary Munich/Zurich Photograph: Wolfgang Stahl

Keith Sonnier‘s work has stood as a landmark voice in the development of abstract languages and explorations in the sculptural form, suspending neon lights over and across varied materials, from strips of cloth to reflective panes of glass, each time utilizing his materials’ internal consistencies to drive at nuanced explorations of light and space.  It should be telling then, that Whitechapel Gallery’s impressive exhibition focused on the artist takes up only three years of his career, examining his creative output from 1968 to 1970 as a foundational point in both his work, and the generation of artists around him. (more…)

Sarah Lucas, Nice Tits (2011), Copyright of the artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ

English sculptor, photographer, and installation artist Sarah Lucas has long been labeled as the “wildest” member of the Young British Artists who emerged in the 1990s, with a career of pieces that has openly and aggressively challenged sexual identities, psychological states, and cultural images of the body through her evocative and often grotesque assemblages and Situations. Entitled SITUATION Absolute Beach Man Rubble, her current retrospective at Whitechapel Gallery examines this ongoing interest in the body and its cultural reifications.

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‬The Guardian interviews Turner prize winner Rachel Whiteread, revealing the thought process and controversy behind her latest endeavor, a frieze on London gallery Whitechapel. “You can’t make a good piece of public art by consensus; it’s just not possible. So I really had to stick my heels in,” says Whiteread.

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Mark Rothko, Light Red Over Black (1957). Artwork courtesy of the Tate.

Rothko in Britain commemorates the 50th anniversary of Rothko’s inaugural British exhibition. 41 years after his passing, the Whitechapel Gallery has meticulously compiled a retrospection of images, letters, and reviews, all paired with a single work—Light Red Over Black (1957), on loan from the Tate. Light Red Over Black towers over the viewer, a single, saturated painting. The large form and accompanying material, sparsely arranged, were placed in a manner in which to overwhelm the viewer, or, in Rothko’s words, to encourage the feeling of being “enveloped within.” Walls were constructed specifically to show the work in such isolation, in hopes to evoke such intensity. The ‘less is more’ approach is discussed in Whitechapel’s video about the show, explaining the concept of an exhibition about a long closed exhibition.

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Sophie Calle, Photograph by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, courtesy the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

Currently on view, through October 24th, at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark is a new exhibition from Sophie Calle. One of France’s most well known contemporary artists, Calle has most recently made her imprint on New York with her 2009 exhibition at the Paula Cooper Gallery with “Take Care of Yourself,” a body of work created for the French Pavilion of the 2007 Venice Biennale.

Organized by Whitechapel Gallery, London in collaboration with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art in Tilburg, Holland, Louisiana Contemporary: Sophie Calle presents a number of playful works from 1979-2009, which blur the line between art and reality. Dabbling in adult affairs with the demeanor of an innocent, playing child, Calle often takes on the role of an undercover detective. Her conceptual works entice viewers with undertones of voyeurism, humour and subtlety.

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Installation shot, courtesy The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

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Women and Blackboard from Take Care of Yourself (2007) by Sophie Calle, via The Whitechapel

Now on view at the Whitechapel in London is Sophie Calle’s  exhibition Talking to Strangers. Hailed for her photographic and film installations, Calle is known as one of France’s foremost female conceptual artist.  Her often obsessive and voyeuristic projects examine the many notions by which human identity is constructed. She has been known to ask a stranger to sleep in her bed and invite an author to command her destiny. Such social interactions involve a complete act of trust for circumstances where trust is normally termed taboo.

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Detail from Isa Genzken’s “Kinder filmen III” (2005), part of “Sesam, öffne dich!” currently showing at Museum Ludwig.

Isa Genzken’s “Sesam, öffne dich!” moves to Museum Ludwig from a show at Whitechapel Gallery which drew over 50,000 visitors. The exhibition features Genzken’s mixed media pieces from as early as 1970, spanning thirty years of her unique fusion of paint, photography, found art, and architectural installation. Co-curated by Kasper König and Nina Gülicher, “Sesam, öffne dich!” closes at Museum Ludwig on November 15.

Further detail from Isa Genzken’s “Kinder filmen III” (2005), at Museum Ludwig.

Related links:
Museum Ludwig – Exhibitions
Isa Genzken – Open Sesame! [Whitechapel Gallery]
Isa Genzken [Re-title]

more images and story after the jump…
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