Ocula Conversation Hito Steyerl: How To Build a Sustainable Art World 'A Picture of War is Not War', we read in Hito Steyerl's iconic film November (2004), an essayistic Super 8 film tackling the definition of terrorism constructed around the figure of the artist's best friend Andrea Wolf, who was killed as a terrorist in 1998 in Eastern Anatolia after she joined the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party). Mixing documentary...
Ocula Report Aichi to Okayama: Art in Japan Looks to the Future 11 Oct 2019 : Stephanie Bailey for Ocula There has been a flurry of triennial and biennial art activity in Japan this year. The Aichi Triennale opened in Nagoya this August, sparking a national debate about the shutting down of a display of formerly censored works—the result of public backlash against a burnt image of Emperor Hirohito and a statue commemorating the women forced into...
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...
Ocula Photolog FIAC, Paris 2019 17 October 2019 'FIAC brings together 197 galleries from 29 countries. Coming together from all over the world, the diversity of FIAC's exhibitors and their loyalty year after year reflects the magnetic attraction of Paris in theinternational creative community.' – FIAC Paris, Press Release.
Ocula Photolog Frieze London 2019 3 October 2019 'Frieze London brings together more than 160 galleries from 36 countries, representing the fair's most international edition since its launch. Introducing new curators and sections showcasing performance, emerging artists and the contemporary significance of complex art genealogies and colonial legacies, Frieze London creates an exceptional moment...
Ocula Report 16th Istanbul Biennial Collapses Culture-Nature Divide 20 Sep 2019 : Stephanie Bailey for Ocula At the opening of the 16th Istanbul Biennial, The Seventh Continent (14 September–10 November 2019), curator Nicolas Bourriaud began his introduction with a clip from Werner Herzog's 1982 movie Fitzcarraldo, the story of a man who moves a steamship up a hill in the process of fulfilling a fantasy to build an opera house in the Amazon jungle. The...
Ocula Conversation Tala Madani: 'I don't make a conscious decision to subvert the gaze' Tehran-born, Los Angeles-based artist Tala Madani's paintings and animations fluctuate between comic strip, political satire, and abstraction in their depictions of human figures in their most primal states. Her paintings are characterised by thick and unfinished brushstrokes, which enable an immediacy as they lay bare absurd power systems in...
Ocula Report Get Up, Stand Up Now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers at Somerset House 5 Jul 2019 : Jareh Das for Ocula Get Up Stand Up Now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers at Somerset House in London (12 June–15 September 2019) surveys more than half a century of black creativity in Britain and beyond across the fields of art, film, photography, music, design, fashion, and literature.Curated by Zak Ové, works by approximately 100 intergenerational black...
Ocula Photolog Frieze New York 2019 6 May 2019 'Building on Frieze's history as a platform for discovery and challenging the traditional art fair format, the eighth edition introduces new curators and collaborations with leading museum directors; including two exhibitions exploring virtual reality and the significance of self-taught artists, and two new sections celebrating Latin American art...
Ocula Photolog Art Basel in Hong Kong 2019 31 March 2019 'Art Basel reinforces its ongoing commitment to showcasing exceptional art from Asia and the Asia Pacific, with over half of the participating galleries having exhibition spaces in the region. The main sector of the show features 196 of the world's leading galleries presenting the highest quality of painting, sculpture, drawings, installation,...
Ocula Report Dismantling the show: the 2017 Whitney Biennial 7 Jul 2017 : Daniella Rose King for Ocula Inaugurated in 1932, the Whitney Biennial is the United States' longest running survey of contemporary American art. As with many of its predecessors, the 2017 Whitney Biennial (17 March–11 June 2017) was controversial. The textures of this particular furor are strikingly similar to those incurred in the last Whitney Biennial, held in 2014. In that...
