Ocula Conversation Hito Steyerl: How To Build a Sustainable Art World 'A Picture of War is Not War', we read in Hito Steyerl's iconic film November (2004), an essayistic Super 8 film tackling the definition of terrorism constructed around the figure of the artist's best friend Andrea Wolf, who was killed as a terrorist in 1998 in Eastern Anatolia after she joined the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party). Mixing documentary...
Ocula Report Aichi to Okayama: Art in Japan Looks to the Future 11 Oct 2019 : Stephanie Bailey for Ocula There has been a flurry of triennial and biennial art activity in Japan this year. The Aichi Triennale opened in Nagoya this August, sparking a national debate about the shutting down of a display of formerly censored works—the result of public backlash against a burnt image of Emperor Hirohito and a statue commemorating the women forced into...
Ocula Insight | Video Hans Hartung and Art Informel at Mazzoleni London (1 October 2019-18 January 2020) presents key works by the French-German painter while highlighting his connection with artists active in Paris during the 50s and 60s. In this video, writer and historian Alan Montgomery discusses Hartung's practice and its legacy.Born in Leipzig in 1904, Hans...
NEW YORK–MILES MCENERY GALLERY is pleased to present new works by Erin Lawlor in her inaugural solo exhibition with the gallery. A public reception will be held for the artist on 11 July from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at 525 West 22nd Street and the exhibition will be on view 11 July through 16 August. It is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication featuring an essay by Zoë Miller.
Erin Lawlor’s fluid, invigorated paintings span across four dimensions—space, volume, shape, and time. Applied wet on wet, waves of oil paint ebb and flow, filling the canvas with undulating rhythm and inviting the viewer in for an immersive experience. Upon closer inspection, the viewer is able to notice the subtle sophistication of Lawlor’s nuanced use of colour. The enfolding and unfolding ribbons of colour and tone give a sense of intimacy, as if they are revealing and concealing an allusion to memory and knowledge.
The artist’s intensely physical process is a fundamental and visible part of her work. As Zoë Miller notes, 'rather than capturing an instant, these paintings capture the holistic circumstances of their creation.' By placing her canvases horizontally on the studio floor and painting from above, Lawlor is limited only by the length of her brush’s reach and the time it takes for the paint to dry. The result is a dynamic visual manifestation of the artist’s intuition and reflection.
Every sweeping gesture is perceivable on the canvas; bands of thick, colour flow from one to the other, creating an interconnected web of motion. These unified layers of painterly folds afford a sense of the depth, which complicates separation of line from line, plane from plane, even colour from colour. Lawlor explains, 'My lines are my forms are my colours.' More than arrangements of separate formal properties, the compositions are comprehensive, engaging, all-consuming.
With titles such as pull + ebb, shuffle, and zip, Lawlor’s paintings do not assign meaning to the works they represent. Instead, they suggest mood and hence, remain open, inviting viewers to enter active roles in their experiences and arrive to their own conclusions.
