Ocula Conversation Thao Nguyen Phan: Dangerous Optimism Tessa Moldan, Brussels With Monsoon Melody on view at WIELS, Brussels, her largest solo exhibition to date, Thao Nguyen Phan discusses her transition to film to explore colonial legacies and ecological destruction in Vietnam.
Ocula Report Frieze Los Angeles: Shows to See Tessa Moldan, Los Angeles Los Angeles' art scene has a lot to offer during Frieze Los Angeles, with galleries, non-profits, and museums gearing up for the fair's second edition between 14 and 17 February 2020. In this Ocula Lowdown, Tessa Moldan lists a selection of the city's must-see shows.
Ocula Insight Jaki Irvine's Manifesto on Life at Kerlin Gallery, Dublin Apoorva Rajagopal, Dublin Ack Ro' , Jaki Irvine's reflection on the fragility of life at Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, is an 'ambitious, holistic installation' staged like a 'wild disarray of interconnected yet fragmented pieces'.
Barakat Contemporary is Barakat Gallery's new space devoted to contemporary art.
Read MoreBarakat Contemporary will continue to explore the points of contact and conflict among diverse cultures through Barakat Gallery’s extensive collection and archives encompassing the humanities and anthropology and will actively implement research-based projects. In collaboration with artists who cross-cross the humanity and civilizations, Barakat Contemporary will showcase exhibitions that open up new horizons for contemporary art and will introduce internationally noteworthy artists, thus supporting artists’ long-term growth.
Barakat Contemporary will produce knowledge and discourse and lead the art scene by not only planning professional exhibitions but also creating arenas for exchange with experts from various fields.
Ocula Report 58th Venice Biennale: May You Live In Interesting Times Mohammad Salemy, Venice The 58th Venice Biennale , May You Live In Interesting Times (11 May–24 November 2019), certainly benefitted from low expectations, given the lacklustre curatorial of the previous edition, when different segments of the show were conceptually framed with titles like 'Pavilion of Joys and Fears' and 'Pavilion of Colours'. Add to this the...
Ocula Report Gwangju Biennale: Imagined Borders Tessa Moldan, Gwangju 'I have felt persecuted for weeks by this same asphyxiating dream.' So narrates the forlorn Portuguese speaker in Kiluanji Kia Henda's film, Concrete Affection – Zopo Lady (2014), as city scenes and modernist buildings in Luanda flit past the camera's lens. The narration is pulled from Another Day of Life (1971), Polish writer Ryszard...
Ocula Report 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London Amina Diab, London Visitors arriving in the courtyard of Somerset House for 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair (5–8 October 2017) were greeted by a large work by Pascale Marthine Tayou entitled Summer Surprise (2017). In this site-specific installation, wooden spears crisscrossed by colourful cobblestones made up a structure that sat atop the Edmond J. Safra...
Ocula Photolog The most searched artists on Ocula now A selection of this week's most searched artists on Ocula.com
Related Press Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Announces 7 Site-Specific Installations 5 December 2019, The New York Times The artists are El Anatsui, Byung Hoon Choi, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Olafur Eliasson, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Cristina Iglesias and Ai Weiwei, and they were commissioned to create a mix of sculptures, light installations and suspended artworks for the 14-acre premises, known as the Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus.
Related Press Helen Frankenthaler and Robert Motherwell: The Art of Marriage 28 November 2019, The Brooklyn Rail The cover photograph for the informative catalogue that accompanies this dazzling show was taken by Hans Namuth and catches Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler at their wedding lunch on April 6, 1958. Her look is all love; Motherwell, averting his gaze from Namuth, has a vacant, slightly ironic expression. Was it because he'd already been...
Related Press What to look for at Frieze London 2 October 2019, The Guardian Modernist architecture is still a big focus for artists – as long as its Eurocentric and male-dominated history can be rewritten while its buildings are celebrated. Frieze Live is one of the fair's main curated sections, and this year it features British artist Shezad Dawood's performance piece. Dawood's work draws on the work of Bangladeshi...
Related Press The Art Newspaper's pick of the 2019 Venice Biennale 30 April 2019, The Art Newspaper There are hundreds of exhibitions in Venice during the Biennale. Alongside the main exhibition in the Giardini and Arsenale, there are 90 national presentations, many in nearby pavilions in the Giardini and in spaces around the Arsenale, but also dotted throughout Venice. Then there are the official collateral exhibitions in museums and galleries,...
Related Video & Audio El Anatsui: ‘The golden rule is, there are no rules’ 7 June 2019, Art Basel El Anatsui has carved a name for himself with his monumental hanging sculptures made with recycled metal scraps. As imposing and spectacular as they are fragile and portable, these works have been exhibited in some of the world's most prestigious institutions, most recently at Munich's Haus der Kunst and in the Venice Biennale's first Ghana...
Related Video & Audio El Anatsui: Language & Symbols 1 April 2016, ART21 In this video, Ghana's best-known contemporary artist, El Anatsui, speaks about the role that language and symbols play in his work. He describes how the abstract nature of West African "adinkra" symbols and the flexibility of meaning in the words of his native language of Ewe resonate with the concept of non-fixity and indeterminateness...
