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,...
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.
Jabulani DhlaminiDithoto ke lefa la ba bohale (Triptych), 2012–2016 Pigment inks on 280 fibre silk cotton rag
Ocula Photolog Art Basel in Hong Kong 2019 31 March 2019 'Art Basel reinforces its ongoing commitment to showcasing exceptional art from Asia and the Asia Pacific, with over half of the participating galleries having exhibition spaces in the region. The main sector of the show features 196 of the world's leading galleries presenting the highest quality of painting, sculpture, drawings, installation,...
Ocula Conversation William Kentridge Artist For over 20 years, the legacies of colonialism have been recurring themes in William Kentridge's work. In 2018, he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Pretoria in South Africa in recognition of a practice that has consistently charted 'a universal history of war and revolution, evoking the complexities and tensions of...
Ocula Report Golden Jubilee: Art Brussels 27 Apr 2018 : Denis Maksimov for Ocula At the entrance of the fiftieth anniversary edition of Art Brussels (19–22 April 2018), Iván Navarro's Sediments (2017) at Galerie Templon's booth offered an appropriate 'welcome' into the bottomless world of an art fair—a world map rendered in lights that infinitely stretch into a void by way of an illusion created with mirrors. At La...
Ocula Report 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London 27 Oct 2017 : Amina Diab for Ocula Visitors arriving in the courtyard of Somerset House for 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair (5–8 October 2017) were greeted by a large work by Pascale Marthine Tayou entitled Summer Surprise (2017). In this site-specific installation, wooden spears crisscrossed by colourful cobblestones made up a structure that sat atop the Edmond J. Safra...
Related Press Alfredo Jaar on the Capacity of Culture Hyperallergic : 19 February 2019 CAPE TOWN — Late last year, the artist Alfredo Jaar displayed a series of photographs and piercing neon works addressing the shared trauma and healing of Robben Island's political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, after Apartheid. It was in the midst of this exhibition, titled Men Who Cannot Cry, at Goodman Gallery in Cape Town, that I sat...
Related Press ‘We Are Family’: Aperture Fetes Agnes and Catherine Gund, Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas, Catherine Opie at Fall Gala ARTnews : 5 November 2018 Last week, during the Aperture Foundation's fall gala at a cavernous space in New York's Chelsea neighborhood, Marilyn Minter turned to Catherine Opie while the two artists stood onstage together, and said, "I wish you would adopt me." Opie, not missing a beat, deadpanned back, "Can I swaddle you, then?"
Related Press U.S. artist accused of stealing iconic images from South African photographers CBS News : 17 October 2018 An American artist is being accused of stealing works by South African photographers, who captured the atrocities of apartheid.CBS News foreign correspondent Debora Patta reports one of South Africa's most revered photographers is Peter Magubane, who documented life in South Africa for six decades.
Related Press The Striking Election-Season Billboards That Are Also Art Vanity Fair : 8 October 2018 The billboards going up around the country this week will have a familiar message for this midterm election: Vote. But featuring images of protests and reminders of the 2016 election, produced by some of the country's best-known artists, the billboards—one for each of the 50 states—will look nothing like your average political...
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...
