Ocula Conversation Jess Johnson: Worlds Within Worlds Geometric patterns, anthropomorphic characters, architectural spatial environments, and relics of the ancient world appear throughout Jess Johnson's artworks.Johnson's solo art-ventures began in drawing, but her long-term collaborative relationship with animator Simon Ward brings her drawings to life in videos and virtual reality. The animator has...
Ocula Report Lagos Biennial 2019: Stories from Africa’s most Populous City 15 Nov 2019 : Jareh Das for Ocula Under the artistic direction of Folakunle Oshun, the second edition of the Lagos Biennial (26 October–23 November 2019) includes works by over 40 Lagos-based and international artists, architects, and collectives. Curated by architect Tosin Oshinowo, curator and producer Oyindamola Fakeye, and assistant curator of photography at the Art Institute...
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...
Rodolphe Janssen founded his gallery in Brussels in 1991, and has since organized over 200 exhibitions. The gallery participates in many major international art fairs, and in 2016-2017, it took part in Art Basel Miami, Armory, MiArt, Art Brussels, BRAFA, Art Düsseldorf and Frieze New York. At first, photography was Rodolphe Janssen’s main focus, but his scope has widened, and today he covers a number of disciplines and different generations of artists. During the twenty-six years since the gallery opened, he has built up strong relationships with collectors, contemporary art museums and art centres in Europe, the USA and Asia. Rodolphe Janssen is a member of the Belgian Chamber of Art Experts and of the selection committee of Art Brussels.
Ocula Photolog FIAC, Paris 2019 17 October 2019 'FIAC brings together 197 galleries from 29 countries. Coming together from all over the world, the diversity of FIAC's exhibitors and their loyalty year after year reflects the magnetic attraction of Paris in theinternational creative community.' – FIAC Paris, Press Release.
Ocula Report 16th Istanbul Biennial Collapses Culture-Nature Divide 20 Sep 2019 : Stephanie Bailey for Ocula At the opening of the 16th Istanbul Biennial, The Seventh Continent (14 September–10 November 2019), curator Nicolas Bourriaud began his introduction with a clip from Werner Herzog's 1982 movie Fitzcarraldo, the story of a man who moves a steamship up a hill in the process of fulfilling a fantasy to build an opera house in the Amazon jungle. The...
Ocula Insight Wim Delvoye on his art, censorship and the future 7 February 2019 At 53, Belgian artist Wim Delvoye continues to employ the shock factor with abandon. Moving between the sacred and the profane, inflections of gothic drama and high technology imbue the artist's drawings, sculptures, and installations. He frequently swings from fine art to the decorative, applying Belgian ornamental elements such as coats of arms...
Ocula Photolog Art Basel in Miami Beach 2018 6 December 2018 'This year, over 200 of the world's leading international Modern and contemporary art galleries display artworks by over 4,000 artists, including paintings, sculptures, installations, photography, film, video, and digital art.' –Art Basel in Miami Beach (6–9 December 2018).
Related Press Studio Time: The New Adventures of Plankboy with Sean Landers Juxtapoz Magazine : 6 November 2019 Over the course of a three-decades-long career, Landers has developed several singular series of work where he re-examines the relationship of the artist to their work. Arguably most recognised of them is a simple character devised from the materials which support a canvas. Sparked by a strong interest in Rene Magritte’s 1947–48 La Période Vache,...
Related Press Genesis Belanger Uses Cigarettes and Hot Dogs to Allude to Phallic Forms Elephant : 30 August 2019 Hot dogs, cigarettes and references to male sexual impotence abound in your work. Can we begin with your interest in the limp phallus?The whole idea of penis envy is so funny to me; it's painful and ridiculous and hilarious at the same time. I'm always trying to shake my art penis as much as I can—hence the hot dog and the cigarette. But I...
Related Press betty tompkins refuses to shut up or be censored i-D : 12 April 2019 When 73 year old artist Betty Tompkins first joined Twitter several years ago, she made her avatar a picture of one of her paintings – a close up of genitalia, which she had created from old porn magazines. 'I hoped it was abstract enough, so that nobody would bother,' she explained during a visit at her sizable studio in Soho where she's lived and...
Related Press Critics' Picks: 'Material History' Zachary Fine : 8 March 2019 Her current show features work by three artists: Yuji Agematsu, Charles Harlan, and Nari Ward. The theme of 'everyday objects'—ranging from carefully salvaged dross to mundane materials—loosely binds the selection.
Related Video & Audio Wim Delvoye: This Shit is Art Louisiana Channel : 15 February 2018 Wim Delvoye was interviewed by Rasmus Quistgaard at Herning Museum of Contemporary Art in Herning, Denmark in April 2017.
Related Video & Audio Torbjørn Rødland: A Different Type of Sensibility Louisiana Channel : 5 February 2018 'Of course, this is shallow material, but can I find something of value there?' Meet the Norwegian photographer Torbjørn Rødland, whose photos transcend and defamiliarise their seemingly ordinary motifs.
