Ocula Report Art Taipei 2018 10 November 201810 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 Conversation Charwei Tsai Taiwanese artist Charwei Tsai's memorising and compulsive writing of the Heart Sutra—a Buddhist scripture that distills the wisdom of impermanence—is at the heart of her practice. Over the past ten years, Tsai has moved from writing to drawing, photography, and film—a selection of which is being presented at the Centre for Chinese...
Ocula Report Crush at Para Site: What if you couldn’t have it? 10 November 201810 Nov 2018 : Hera Chan for Ocula Drawn on paper by Oscar Chan Yik Long in gestural black ink strokes, Cupid (2015) greets visitors with a sinister toothy smile as they enter Para Site. The strikingly fearsome figure is positioned on the wall of the gallery's entrance, near one of Chen Dandizi's vertical neon tube lights, part of the series 'Tick Away' (2015), along which a...
Ratheesh T., I Am (Cleaning Pond) (2015). Oil on canvas. 198 x 244 cm / 78 x 96 in. Courtesy Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai.
Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke was established in Mumbai in 2006 by Usha Mirchandani and Ranjana Steinruecke. It has played a key role in discovering and nurturing new positions in contemporary Indian art ever since and building up a young collectors’ circle. The gallery has been a forerunner in contextualizing international artists within its program, having brought artists such as Leiko Ikemura, Kiki Smith and Jonathan Meese to India for the first time. Projects that led to the opening of the gallery include the showcasing of positions of art historical relevance such as the retrospective of Bhupen Khakhar (1934–2003) at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai in 2003. Mirchandani + Steinruecke also put together a sterling collection of Indian Modern and Contemporary Art for the Deutsche Bank and were instrumental in organizing solo exhibitions in Berlin by seminal artists from the subcontinent.
