Ocula Conversation transmediale Artistic Director Kristoffer Gansing Looks Back Terence Sharpe, Berlin Kristoffer Gansing traces eight years of change at Berlin's digital media and culture festival transmediale, as his final iteration as artistic director, End to End , opens 28 January.
Ocula Report Taipei Lowdown: Shows to See Tessa Moldan, Taipei As Taipei Dangdai returns for its second edition between 17 and 19 January 2020 at the Nangang Exhibition Center, a selection of exhibitions across the city confirm Taipei as one of the region's most exciting art hubs.
Ocula Insight Images from Abroad: Lada Nakonechna at Galerie EIGEN + ART Phoebe Blatton, Berlin Images from abroad , Lada Nakonechna's solo exhibition at Galerie EIGEN + ART in Berlin, considers the barriers that exist between depictions of conflict and their viewers.
Widely admired for his work which takes aspects of modernism and grafting them on to socio-political issues, Coventry appropriates global symbols of junk culture-the golden McDonald's arch, in particular-and re-contextualises them, inviting the viewer to consider these logos afresh in a gallery context. Working in white monochrome, or colour, he hones in on the curves of the infamous 'M', cropping, recasting and framing, to striking minimalist compositions.
Read MoreIn his extensive 'Estate Painting' series Coventry focuses on the architectural layouts of London's notorious tower blocks and council estates and distils them into abstract colour block patterns which have been likened to works by Russian Constructivist painter Kazimir Malevich. In employing these tropes of modernism, Coventry has said he is returning to the original ideas of utopianism behind these urban projects-now widely regarded as failures. As Coventry puts it, this kind of social housing: 'it was a promise given at the beginning of the 20th century that was unfulfilled.'
Coventry studied at London's progressive Chelsea school of Art. He exhibited in the legendary 1997 Sensation show at the Royal Academy, and was part of the elite Young British Artists who dominated the UK's visual art scene. Charles Saatchi was one of his first collectors.
Coventry's work has been exhibited widely in the UK and Europe and is included in collections worldwide, including the British Council; Tate Modern; Arts Council of England; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2010 Coventry was awarded the John Moore's Painting Prize.
In 2018 Reflex presented the first Benelux exhibition of Keith Coventry's work. In conjunction with the show, Reflex published a book including all Coventry's 'Pure Junk' works and with an essay by Sir Norman Rosenthal.
Text courtesy Reflex Amsterdam.
