Ocula Report ‘An Opera for Animals’ at Rockbund Art Museum 19 Jul 2019 : Penny Liu for Ocula An Opera for Animals was first staged at Para Site in Hong Kong between 23 March and 2 June 2019, with works by over 48 artists and collectives that use opera as a metaphor for modes of contemporary, cross-disciplinary art-making. The exhibition's second iteration takes up a large portion of the Rockbund Art Museum (RAM) in Shanghai (22 June–25...
Ocula Conversation Mandy El-Sayegh: Productive Ambiguity Moving across installation, painting, drawing, and writing, Malaysia-born and London-based artist Mandy El-Sayegh explores the political, social, and economic complexities of humanity, using a mosaic of information—from advertising slogans and pornographic imagery to newspaper articles—that she subjects to processes of layering,...
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...
Goodman Gallery is a contemporary art gallery with spaces in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Since opening in 1966, Goodman Gallery has helped shape contemporary South African art, and in the decade since Liza Essers took over as owner and director that tradition has extended beyond local borders. Today, the gallery plays a vital role in supporting international collaborations in South Africa and presenting art that enriches international dialogue around colonial legacies and contemporary geopolitics. This ethos is embodied in the gallery’s 2019 programme, which features solo exhibitions by Nolan Oswald Dennis, Samson Kambalu, Carla Busuttil, Misheck Masamvu, Sue Williamson and Carrie Mae Weems.
Alongside exhibiting represented artists, the gallery's curatorial programme has grown to include an ongoing series of research-oriented group exhibitions. These initiatives include In Context, which looks at the dynamics and tensions of place in reference to the African continent; South-South, which traces cross-cultural influence and divergence between countries from the ‘Global South’; and Working Title, a platform for emerging, independent production and thinking.
During South Africa’s apartheid years, Goodman Gallery established itself as a space committed to furthering a socially progressive agenda. In recent years, Goodman Gallery has made an effort to continue that tradition by dedicating a part of its programme to non-commercial projects that broaden accessibility to contemporary art through the realisation of ambitious projects in collaboration with public institutions. Recent examples of these collaborative efforts include exhibiting William Kentridge’s The Refusal of Time, and El Anatsui’s first solo exhibition in South Africa, Meyina, at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, as well as a helping realise the major installation The Sound of Silence, by Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar at the Wits Art Museum.
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 Art Basel 2019 13 June 2019 'The show's main sector comprises 232 of the world's leading galleries, showing painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, photography, video and editioned works of the highest quality. Art Basel's unique platform for projects that transcend the limitations of a traditional art-fair stand, is curated for the eighth and final year by Gianni Jetzer,...
Ocula Report 58th Venice Biennale: May You Live In Interesting Times 24 May 2019 : Mohammad Salemy for Ocula The 58th Venice Biennale, May You Live In Interesting Times (11 May–24 November 2019), certainly benefitted from low expectations, given the lacklustre curatorial of the previous edition, when different segments of the show were conceptually framed with titles like 'Pavilion of Joys and Fears' and 'Pavilion of Colours'. Add to this the...
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...
Related Press ‘STILL STILL:’ In Conversation with Misheck Masamvu 23 July 2019 ART AFRICA: So let's start from the beginning. Please tell us a bit about your childhood? Were you an only child?Misheck Masamvu: No, I was born in a family of what was meant to be six siblings, six children, but then my twin died. So there were five that survived. I'm the only boy. I grew up in a family with girls. It wasn't easy, as I was quite...
Related Press Yinka Shonibare at Driehaus Museum Art in America : 1 June 2019 A Tale of Today: Yinka Shonibare CBE inaugurates the Driehaus Museum's exhibition series spotlighting the work of contemporary artists of color, an exciting new direction for this Gilded Age mansion–turned–museum, whose programming has focused largely on art and design from the home's original era.
Related Press The Art Newspaper's pick of the 2019 Venice Biennale The Art Newspaper : 30 April 2019 There are hundreds of exhibitions in Venice during the Biennale. Alongside the main exhibition in the Giardini and Arsenale, there are 90 national presentations, many in nearby pavilions in the Giardini and in spaces around the Arsenale, but also dotted throughout Venice. Then there are the official collateral exhibitions in museums and galleries,...
Related Press Yinka Shonibare Restages the Trauma of the Gilded Age Hyperallergic : 26 April 2019 CHICAGO — In one story arc of The West Wing, the political drama created by Aaron Sorkin that ran on NBC television in the early 2000s, Josh Lyman, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, is shot and critically wounded by white supremacists. Lyman recovers in the hospital and eventually returns to work where he begins to behave in increasingly...
Related Video & Audio El Anatsui: ‘The golden rule is, there are no rules’ Art Basel : 7 June 2019 El Anatsui has carved a name for himself with his monumental hanging sculptures made with recycled metal scraps. As imposing and spectacular as they are fragile and portable, these works have been exhibited in some of the world's most prestigious institutions, most recently at Munich's Haus der Kunst and in the Venice Biennale's first Ghana...
Related Video & Audio Shirin Neshat: the power behind the veil Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art : 11 May 2016 In many middle eastern cultures men are totally restrained from any expression of emotion, says Iranian artist Shirin Neshat (b. 1957) in this interview: "All my photographs are about controlled emotions. They are always a juxtaposition of the dark side of life and the good side of life. Of light and darkness. Pain and joy. Violence and...
Related Video & Audio Alfredo Jaar: Images are Not Innocent Louisiana Channel : 7 February 2013 Alfredo Jaar was interviewed by Christian Lund at Malmö Konsthall, February 2013.
