Ocula Report Havana Biennial 2019: Constructing the Possible 17 Apr 2019 : Federica Bueti for Ocula I first visited Havana in November 2016, a few days after Fidel Castro died, and just under a year before Hurricane Irma hit Cuba in September 2017. Since then, much has changed, including the hand-painted signs that punctuate the journey from the airport to the city centre, which today do not celebrate the revolution so much as the 'Unidad y...
Ocula Conversation Andrew Stahl and Guo Xiaohui The exhibition Beyond Boundaries at Somerset House in London (12 March–2 April 2019) marked the historic contributions of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (CAFA) and the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, on the occasion of their 100th and 150th anniversaries, respectively. Spread across several rooms of Somerset House's...
Ocula Report The National 2019: New Australian Art 13 Apr 2019 : Elyse Goldfinch for Ocula The National 2019: New Australian Art features work by 70 contemporary Australia-based artists split across three venues: the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Carriageworks, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) (29 March–21 July 2019), as curated by Isobel Parker Philip, curator of photographs at AGNSW; Daniel Mudie Cunningham,...
Simon Kennedy’s paintings are imbued with romanticism of varying shades of darkness. Sublime landscapes paintings of stoats, polar bears and pigs evoke a 19th century inherited vision transposed onto a colonial landscape. In other works disembodied limbs hover above landscapes whilst their bloodier counterparts litter interior settings. Portraits of historic and fictional women investigate the intricacies, strengths and vulnerabilities of human nature.
Simon Kennedy holds a BFA from the Otago Polytechnic School of Art in Dunedin. Before relocating to Sydney, he staged several solo exhibitions with Marshall Seifert Gallery in Dunedin and has won the Waiheke Art Prize in 2005. His work has featured in numerous group exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand and has been collected by the New Zealand Parliament Collection, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and Artbank.
Simon lives and works in Sydney.
