Ocula Conversation Pierre Huyghe: The Artist as Director Pierre Huyghe is a producer of spectacular and memorable enigmas, with works that function more like mirages than as objects. Abyssal Plain (2015–ongoing), his contribution to the 2015 Istanbul Biennial, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, was installed on the seabed of the Marmara Sea, some 20 metres below the surface of the water and close to...
Ocula Report MoMA Expansion: Once the Modern, Always the Modern 29 Nov 2019 : Mohammad Salemy for Ocula In the early decades of its existence, New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), founded in 1929, transformed from a philanthropic project modestly housed in a few rooms of the Heckscher Building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, to an alleged operating node in the United States' cultural struggle during the cold war, and one of the...
Ocula Insight | Video Hans Hartung and Art Informel at Mazzoleni London (1 October 2019-18 January 2020) presents key works by the French-German painter while highlighting his connection with artists active in Paris during the 50s and 60s. In this video, writer and historian Alan Montgomery discusses Hartung's practice and its legacy.Born in Leipzig in 1904, Hans...
Founded in 2004, Beijing Commune is now located in 798 Art Factory, Beijing. Its initial programs were mainly group shows exploring various currents in contemporary art while now it primarily focuses on solo shows to carry on the in-depth research. Beginning with a core list of established artists, the gallery has maintained an unparalleled awareness of developments in the community, and has responded by infusing young artists and new topics of discussion into the program. It fosters a space where the most influential figures in the Chinese art scene including Zhang Xiaogang, Song Dong, Yin Xiuzhen, Hong Hao, Xiao Yu, Liu Jianhua, Hai Bo and Wang Luyan have launched their watershed solo exhibitions in their careers, while simultaneously serving as the incubator for emerging artists including Fan Shuru, Hu Xiaoyuan, Liang Shuo, Liang Yuanwei, Ma Qiusha, Shang Yixin, Song Ta, Wang Guangle, Xie Molin, Zhao Yao and Zhou Yilun, who are here free to create the new vision of Chinese contemporary art. In 2018, Beijing Commune held Richard Deacon’s first solo exhibition in China.
Ocula Photolog ART021 Shanghai 2019 12 November 2019 'As one of the most important contemporary art fairs in Asia, ART021 reinforces its ongoing commitment to leveraging local recourses with a global perspective, supporting contemporary Chinese art andcultivating new generations of domestic collectors. 111 world's leading galleries from 18 countries and 57 cities are selected to present contemporary...
Ocula Conversation Dr Uli Sigg Collector When Sydney art dealer Ray Hughes visited Swiss collector Uli Sigg at his Mauensee residence near Lucerne some years ago, a mutual friend asked the dealer how the visit went. ‘Did you feel comfortable and find a place to kick your feet up and read?’ ‘No, to both,’ answered Hughes, ‘it seems there was only art...
Ocula Conversation Philip Tinari Director, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing Philip Tinari, the man Xu Zhen has described as “China’s son-in-law,” really needs no introduction. The Director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), (an independent museum in Beijing's 798 Art District with over half a million visitors a year), he is also the founding editor of LEAP, a contributing editor to...
Ocula Conversation Noah Horowitz Executive Director of The Armory Show, New York Noah Horowitz is the Executive Director of The Armory Show, New York’s “homegrown” art fair, which celebrated its centennial last year. Horowitz joined the fair in 2011 and in his role, he has applied his expertise and background in both art history and as a former (founding) director of the online venture, the VIP Art Fair, to...
Related Press Richard Deacon embraces failure in Antwerp with stellar results Wallpaper* : 26 May 2017 Richard Deacon's first outdoor sculpture show, which opens this weekend in Antwerp, is long overdue. It's been 30 years since the artist, one of the leading British sculptors of his generation, won the Turner Prize. But the circumstances of this show are somewhat novel, since it has its origins in a bold admission of failure.
Related Press Richard Deacon embraces failure in Antwerp with stellar results Wallpaper* : 26 May 2017 Richard Deacon's first outdoor sculpture show, which opens this weekend in Antwerp, is long overdue. It's been 30 years since the artist, one of the leading British sculptors of his generation, won the Turner Prize. But the circumstances of this show are somewhat novel, since it has its origins in a bold admission of failure.In 1993 the Middelheim...
Related Press Thumbing their noses: Performance art around Beijing looks past contemporary art market ARTNews : 12 December 2016 This past June, Beijing’s Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) presented a major exhibition of the work of Robert Rauschenberg, pairing his 1/4 Mile or 2 Furlong Piece (1981–98) with work he made during the 1980s in and about China. Concurrent with the exhibition’s opening, UCCA invited students of Chinese artist Qiu Zhijie...
Related Press Ma Qiusha: searching for wonderland RanDian : 9 September 2016 A fairytale wonderland is not only the exuberant paradise that children imagine, but also a utopia that adults under heavy worldly burdens might aspire to reach. Over one hundred years ago, one of the all-time literary classics by English writer Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, was adapted into different formats by the American Walt Disney...
