Ocula Conversation Sunjung Kim’s Real DMZ Project Interrogates the North and South Korea Divide Ongoing since 2012, the Real DMZ Project interrogates the demilitarised zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea through annual, research-based exhibitions that bring together the works of Korean and international artists. Sunjung Kim, the independent curator behind the project, conceived the idea of exploring the DMZ while curating Japanese artist...
Ocula Report Sydney Lowdown: Exhibitions to See 6 Sep 2019 : Elyse Goldfinch for Ocula The fifth edition of Sydney Contemporary will take place once again at Carriageworks between 12 and 15 September 2019, with Spring 1883 bringing together a cohort of 27 galleries from across Australia and the region to inhabit rooms at the Establishment Hotel from 11 to 14 September 2019, uniquely presenting contemporary works propped up on...
Ocula Insight | Video Mark Bradford’s Call for Unity at Shanghai’s Long Museum 16 August 2019 Mark Bradford walks through Mark Bradford: Los Angeles Mark Bradford: Los Angeles at the Long Museum West Bund in Shanghai (27 July–13 October 2019) is the artist's largest solo exhibition to date in China. In this video for Ocula, Bradford and Diana Nawi, curator of the show, walk through selected works that convey the artist's concerns with...
Gibson/Martelli, Drawing Levels (2019). Courtesy the artists and Gazelli Art House.
Contemporary art gallery Gazelli Art House supports and presents a wide range of international artists, presenting a broad and critically acclaimed program of exhibitions to a diverse audience through international exhibition spaces in London and Baku. Gazelli Art House was founded in 2003 in Baku, Azerbaijan where it held exhibitions with Azeri artists. After hosting conceptually interlinked off-site exhibitions across London, founder and Director of Gazelli Art House, Mila Askarova, opened a permanent space on Dover Street, London in March 2012. As part of Gazelli Art House’s on-going commitment to art education, the gallery hosts a series of events and talks to run alongside each exhibition.
Ocula Report Independent Growth: Art Dubai 2018 31 Mar 2018 : Mohammad Salemy for Ocula It is far too easy to dismiss art fairs, if not the entire commercial art market. By the same token, it is easy to be turned off by Dubai, the most glitzy and commercial of the UAE's emirates. It might take a little longer to appreciate how an art fair staged in a free port like this could benefit artistic production and development—an...
Ocula Photolog Art Dubai 2018 26 March 2018 'The 2018 edition of the fair presents an intimate and diverse line-up of 105 galleries from 48 countries, making this year's edition the fair's largest and most globally diverse to date. Alongside 77 returning galleries, the fair welcomes 28 first-time exhibitors from around the world.' –Art Dubai (21–24 March 2018).
Ocula Photolog Contemporary Istanbul 2017 15 September 2017 'Notable for its unique position both geographically and culturally, the Contemporary Istanbul art fair prides itself on bringing together galleries, artists and collectors from Turkey, the Caucasus, the Black Sea, Russia and the Middle East, as well as from Europe, America and Asia.'–Contemporary Istanbul (14–17 September 2017).
Ocula Insight Recycle Group at Gazelli Art House, London 24 November 2015 How did you first meet and start collaborating as artists?We have known each other since childhood, but did our first project together as "Recycle Group" in 2008. Before that we worked separately but always advised each other, after realising that each of us have a role in creating the work and we started to work as a...
Related Press James Ostrer explores race, greed and the tribal elite in his new show opening next week. FAD Magazine : 30 May 2018 Throughout the show Ostrer collages and layers both sculptural and photographic elements together to create disrupted and often disturbing images. Within the vast footwear installation is his most recent photographic series, Currentsee. For the central protagonist he transforms himself into a dominant tribal leader, a powerful chieftain of all...
Related Press Saad Qureshi on Learning to Trust Yourself Elephant : 4 April 2018 It’s a chilly morning in Oxford when I meet with Saad Qureshi at OVADA (the Oxford Visual Arts Development Agency), a reconverted warehouse now home to five artist’s studios. Built in 1929 as the Skin and Hide Market Place for the neighbouring Oxpens Cattle Market at the time, the spartan building maintains that character, with its central open...
Related Press 'ABSORB, ADHERE, ADVANCE': NIYAZ NAJAFOV ArtAsiaPacific : 17 May 2017 Azeri artist Niyaz Najafov has been touted as the next Francis Bacon, and in many ways the comparison is apt. Najafov, like Bacon, is self-taught. Having worked as a professional hand-to-hand fighter, a soldier in the Soviet army, and later a policeman, he first experimented with oil paints in 2003 at the age of 35, and was selected to represent...
Related Press Giardini Pavilion Highlights from the 57th Venice Biennale Whitewall : 11 May 2017 JAPANESE PAVILION, Takahiro Iwasaki: Turned Upside Down, It's a ForestTakahiro Iwasaki has created a multifaceted spatial experience of viewing the Itsukushima Shrine located in Hiroshima, where the artist was born, raised, and continues to work. Viewers can see the site from the perspective of a bird, insect, or fish, skewing the perception of...
Related Video & Audio Niyaz Najafov | Museum Centre Baku Gazelli Art House : 8 January 2018 Najafov originally trained as a soldier, as well as a professional sportsman – coaching hand-to-hand combat. Inspired by other self-taught artists such as Paul Gauguin and Francis Bacon, it was only in 2003 that he began to experiment with oil paint. In a short span of time, Najafov has been touted to be the next "Francis Bacon" and has...
Related Video & Audio Jane McAdam Freud, Object – Fix Me in Your Turquoise Gaze Gazelli Art House : 24 November 2017 'I started the residency responding to the studio space with its abandoned junk, which I was told I could make use of. I saw it as 'lovingly stored' for potential use. It felt sad that it would be thrown away, so I started to pick through everything much like a jackdaw or crow might.'From these discards McAdam Freud's sculptures arise imbued with...
