Ocula Report 4th Kochi-Muziris Biennale: Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life 15 Feb 2019 : Natalie King for Ocula 'Poems are like sentences that have taken their clothes off.' Marlene Dumas' poetic and sensual refrain accompanies her figurative watercolours on view in Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life, the fourth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) in the southern state of Kerala, India (12 December 2018–29 March 2019).Dumas' new series...
Ocula Conversation Ellen Altfest The paintings of Ellen Altfest are ethereal in their detail. Fields of minutiae come together as pulsating images; small brushstrokes of oil paint accumulate over a series of months to single out seemingly innocuous subjects, such as a hand resting atop patterned fabric (The Hand, 2011) or a deep green cactus reaching upwards from beneath a bed of...
Ocula Report Colomboscope 2019: Cross Currents and Dissonance 8 Feb 2019 : Nada Raza for Ocula On the rooftop of the former Rio Hotel complex in Colombo, it was hard to ignore the high-rise buildings, still under construction, blocking all but a sliver of what used to be an open view over Slave Island, once an island on Beira Lake that housed slaves in the 19th century, and now a downtown suburb. The hotel was set alight during the...
Founded in 1989, ESLITE GALLERY was the first in Taiwan to dedicate to the promotion of contemporary art by artists of Chinese descendants. We remain a key player in the international art world, representing over 20 artists based in Taiwan, mainland China, Malaysia, the US and other countries. It is also essential for us to present an Asian perspective, and thus we organize exhibitions of art from other countries in the region. Notable ones include Coffee, Cigarettes & Pad Thai: Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia (2008) in collaboration with Dr. Eugene TAN and No-Mad-Ness in No Man’s Land (2013) curated by Leeza Ahmady and Ombretta Agró Andruff. The launch of long-term Cross-Strait Young Artists Exhibition Program is another example of this mission. ESLITE places no less effort aboard than at home, thus fostering our global presence is an important part of our major undertakings. ESLITE was the first Taiwanese gallery to enter Art Basel since the fair’s inception in 40 years in 2009. Now we can be seen in international art fairs such as Art Basel Hong Kong, Art Taipei, Art Beijing, ART021, etc. Looking ahead, ESLITE GALLERY will continue to bring outstanding Chinese contemporary artists and introduce art with a unique voice to collectors and the public alike.
Ocula Report Art Taipei 2018: In Flux 10 Nov 2018 : Diana d’Arenberg for Ocula 'There is nothing more boring than the story of decline,' a journalist remarked at an art criticism panel I attended the evening before making the trip to see Art Taipei (26–29 October 2018). As I attended the opening night of Asia's oldest art fair, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, those words rang in my head. Wandering up and down...
Ocula Report EVA International: Ireland’s Biennial Talks About Power 6 Jul 2018 : Stephanie Bailey for Ocula If Koyo Kouoh's 37th EVA International took the Easter Rising of 1916 as its starting point, marking the beginning of a revolutionary period that culminated in the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, then Inti Guerrero's follow-up edition continues the trajectory.With no title, the 38th edition of EVA International (14 April–8 July...
Ocula Photolog JINGART 2018 21 May 2018 'Focusing on modern and contemporary art & design, JINGART provides galleries and artists the platform to present art works of different eras and genres, and communicate with international collectors and lovers of art.' –JINGART (17–20 May 2018).
Ocula Report Sanyu: An Introduction to a Modern Master 11 May 2018 : Stephanie Bailey for Ocula Sanyu's Still Life of Flowering and Fruit Plant with a Green Ground, an oil on masonite panel dated between 1950 and 1965, presents a plant brimming with aspirations of wealth, or in the artist's case, memories of it. Painted against a rich olive backdrop, Chinese symbols of good fortune, from peaches to pomegranates, grow from branches amid green...
Related Press 25 Oil Paintings: 1993-2007 Liu Xiaodong ArtAsiaPacific : 6 June 2018 Can Contemporary Chinese art be revived as a tool for social critique? Returning to the traditional medium of painting, Liu Xiaodong, whose solo exhibition '25 Oil Paintings: 1993-2007' was up at Yallay Gallery in Hong Kong in March, makes a renewed case for this question, departing from the legacy of socialist realism that has occupied the medium...
Related Press Singapore artist’s solo Hong Kong show is a feast of colour, mostly one colour: red South China Morning Post : 27 May 2018 You can't help but see red at Jane Lee's first solo exhibition in Hong Kong.The floor outside the Pao Galleries at the Hong Kong Arts Centre in Wan Chai is covered in ribbons of red, stripped canvases, and nearly everything inside is red. It is a colour redolent of so many things that one may assume the Singaporean artist has chosen it for a...
Related Press Now Jonathan Yeo is using Virtual Reality to make art GQ : 11 December 2017 In celebration of its 250th birthday, London's Royal Academy Of Arts explores the historic practice of life drawing in a revolutionary way. Beginning with the Academy's 18th-century origins, From Life continues to the present and, most intriguingly, moves into the future. Historical paintings hang alongside works by Cai Guo-Qiang, Jenny Saville,...
Related Press Lai Chih-Sheng - Between Dog and Wolf Artforum : 3 October 2017 If 30 cm (all works 2017), a common thirty-centimeter plastic ruler stretched and distorted by Lai Chih-Sheng, can be used to navigate Between Dog and Wolf––a title inspired by the French expression "entre chien et loup"—it suggests that our familiar methods of assessment are of no use in a site of uncertainty, metamorphosis, and...
Related Video & Audio ASIA NOW 2018 || Teppei Kaneuji (artist) & Reiko Tsubaki (Curator at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo) ASIA NOW : 1 November 2018 The artist Teppei Kaneuji and Reiko Tsubaki, Curator at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, discuss the artist's recent sculptures and performances. Kaneuji investigates the mass consumption of contemporary Japanese culture, sourcing materials from everyday life, found objects and manga characters to create sculptures that are at once playful and...
Related Video & Audio Netflix documentary looks at the career of Cai Guo-Qiang The Art Newspaper : 3 October 2016 A documentary produced by Netflix to be released widely in October looks at the career of the Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. The film is titled _Sky Ladder _after a monumental 2015 work of the same name, in which Cai ignited a 1,650 ft. ladder of fireworks that reached into the sky above Huiyu Island Harbour in Quanzhou. 'I want to connect the earth...
Related Video & Audio Michael Lin Michael Lin : 9 February 2012 Many years ago, as political protest and dissent shook his native Taiwan, artist Michael Lin made a conscious decision to turn inward for inspiration. The vicissitudes of domestic life—rather than the political currents shaping the public sphere—gave way to what have become Lin's signature flower motifs. Using the patterns and shapes on...
