Latest Ocula Conversation Artist Taloi Havini and Ruth McDougall, curator of Pacific art at Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, discuss Havini's first Australian solo exhibition, Reclamation .
Latest Ocula Report Armory Week Lowdown: Art Shows to See By Casey Carsel, New York After structural issues forced The Armory Show into last-minute relocation pirouettes last year, the fair returns between 5 and 8 March 2020 with a flourishing programme, complemented by stand-out shows across New York City.
Ocula Insight Ella Kruglyanskaya Steals from Art History, Takes Back Gaze By Tessa Moldan, London For her second solo exhibition at Thomas Dane Gallery in London, Ella Kruglyanskaya's compositions signal the many possibilities of paint.
From its roomy five-floor Parisienne gallery space, A2Z Art Gallery has taken a prominent place in developing cultural exchanges between France and China, more broadly discovering talent internationally. Building on its connections to Asian—specifically, Chinese—contemporary art, the gallery opened a second location in Hong Kong in 2016. In early 2019, the Hong Kong gallery moved to its current location in Central, Hong Kong.
Representing over 20 individual artists, A2Z Art Gallery’s roster of artists reads like a global map. In keeping with the broadness of focus expressed by the gallery’s name, each artist has developed a particular characteristic, expressing through a range of contemporary art mediums—including sculpture, photography, video, and performance art—their own feelings and interpretations of the world around them.
A2Z Art Gallery represents a number of unique French artists such as Emeric Chantier, who creates sculptures from a collage of vegetation and man-made materials, and the technological art collective Visual System, who create hypnotic light works using electronic devices. At the same time the gallery represents influential figures in Chinese contemporary art, such as Ma Desheng and Li Wei, as well as other emerging and mid-career artists in China and Hong Kong such as Vivian Ho, Zhang Litao, Ji Jun, and Bu Hua.
Not being defined simply by an axis between the French and Chinese spheres of influence, A2Z Art Gallery also represents artists from across the globe, including Takashi Hara from Japan, Nicolas Panayotou from Greece, Britain-based Ann Grim, Engku Iman from Malaysia, and the renowned Serbian artist Vladimir Veličković. A number of the gallery’s artists—including Taiwan-born Yuhsin U Chang, Algeria-born Rachid Koraϊchi, and Vietnam-born Danhôo–are expatriate artists who have crossed between cultural spaces to work in France.
Supporting its programme of democratic explorations of Western and Asian art, A2Z Art Gallery maintains a presence at major Asian and European art events, regularly participating in ASIA NOW, Paris; Art Paris; and Art Central, Hong Kong. The gallery has also participated in other major international fairs including Docks Art Fair, Lyon; Art Beijing; and ART STAGE Singapore.
Ocula Report Taipei Dangdai 2020: Local and Global By Penny Liu, Taipei At the second edition of Taipei Dangdai, western capital gestures towards Taipei's rising status in the global art world, while alluding to 'a token blessing from the West to Taiwanese society, which is known to have a strong collector base.'
Ocula Photolog Asia Now 2019 'Asia Now is expanding and this year will welcome over 50 of the most prominent and cutting-edge galleries presenting over 250 established and emerging artists from China, Korea, Japan, Central and Southeast Asia, who push the boundaries of contemporary art.' –Asia Now, Paris (16–20 October 2019).
Ocula Report Sydney Lowdown: Exhibitions to See By Elyse Goldfinch, Sydney The fifth edition of Sydney Contemporary will take place once again at Carriageworks between 12 and 15 September 2019, with Spring 1883 bringing together a cohort of 27 galleries from across Australia and the region to inhabit rooms at the Establishment Hotel from 11 to 14 September 2019, uniquely presenting contemporary works propped up on...
Ocula Report Art Basel in Hong Kong: Exhibitions to See By Tessa Moldan, Hong Kong For those visiting during Art Basel in Hong Kong (29–31 March 2019), the smell of fresh paint may still be in the air at the latest heritage conservation project, The Mills, which opened on 16 March to encompass the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textiles (CHAT), joining the ranks with ex-prison complex Tai Kwun, along with Eaton HK—a retro...
Related Press Stars Art Group, China's artistic freedom fighters, celebrate 40th anniversary 29 March 2019, The Art Newspaper On the eve of Art Basel in Hong Kong's private view on Wednesday, the Beijing-based artist Huang Rui took to the streets of Central for a paint-splashed performance about the cyclical nature of history. The piece was a tribute to Lee Wen, the pioneering Asian performance artist who died early this month.
Related Press Malaysian artist offers a cutting commentary on religion and society 25 September 2018, South China Morning Post She smokes, she swears and she has written her own six pillars representing her artistic practice: religion, culture, society, roles, gender and humanity.
Related Press Contemporary Chinese Art In Manchester 14 October 2014, Art Radar / 10 October 2014 Harmonious Society was launched on 27 September and runs until 23 November 2014. Organised by the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), it is spread across six venues in Manchester. Lead curator Jiang Jiehong’s ambitious project is laid out much in the same guise as a biennial or triennial exhibition and responds to the overall theme...
Related Press Li Wei In Beijing 28 January 2014, Liang Shuhan for Randian Online / 23 January 2014 Stepping into the pitch-black gallery, the darkness wraps up one’s fingers and sends a shiver down the spine. After adjusting to the depth of darkness, the scene laid out gives yet another jolt: flickering candlelight, a cross on an altar, relief carvings on columns and criss-crossing vaulting arches—the exhibit even comes equipped with...
