Ocula Report The Jeweled Isle: Art from Sri Lanka at LACMA 18 Jan 2019 : Perwana Nazif for Ocula The Jeweled Isle: Art from Sri Lanka at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (9 December 2018–23 June 2019) is billed as the first comprehensive survey of Sri Lankan art organised by a U.S. museum, with around 240 works—including decorative objects, textiles, photographs, and historical works from the museum's own collection of Sri Lankan...
Ocula Conversation Ellen Pau Artist A radiographer by training, Ellen Pau is a self-taught artist who emerged from Hong Kong's fledgling contemporary art scene of the late 1980s, when video was a comparatively nascent medium. In 1986, Pau co-founded Videotage—a non-profit organisation that specialises in the promotion and preservation of video and new media art. Pau has an...
Ocula Report Singapore Art Week: Exhibitions to See 18 Jan 2019 : Tessa Moldan for Ocula S.E.A. Focus, the new boutique art fair by STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery, will take centre stage during this year's Singapore Art Week (19–27 January 2019). Running between 24 and 27 January 2019, 26 galleries will participate in the inaugural edition, showcasing modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art within a pop-up structure in...
Shugo Satani, the owner of ShugoArts, has been working on defining distinctive flows of Japanese and Asian art scenes since the 1980s after having become independent from Satani Gallery, a trailblazing gallery in Tokyo from the 1970s, which was operated by his father Kazuhiko Satani. Since its opening in Tokyo 2000, ShugoArts has been representing artists such as Masato Kobayashi and Shigeo Toya who seek their own ways of expression by redefining principles of painting and sculpture in Japan after Gutai and Mono-ha. The gallery is also eager to represent artists in their 30s such as Masaya Chiba and Lee Kit who have tried to expand the field of painting. ShugoArts has opened its new space in Roppongi fall 2016 and remains active on international platforms.
Tomoko YonedaGandhi's Glasses—Viewing a note on his 'day of silence' shortly before his death, 2003 Gelatin silver print
Tomoko YonedaSartre's glasses—Viewing a letter by Albert Camus addressed to Sartre when he was the director of Les Temps Modernes, 2018 Gelatin silver print
Ocula Photolog West Bund Art & Design 2018 9 November 2018 'With a strong selection of returning exhibitors, the 2018 edition welcomes 87 galleries in the Galleries section, among which 39 are participating for the first time.'– West Bund Art & Design (8–11 November 2018).
Ocula Insight Far from slowing down, the sixth week of Asia Contemporary Art Week continues to explore and unravel the rich possibilities of 'thinking collections', bringing together a variety of artists, filmmakers, and institutions in transnational and cross-disciplinary dialogue. Together, 'Asian-ness' is not deployed as a homogenising concept, but rather an...
Ocula Report Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale: The World's Largest Outdoor Art Festival 30 Aug 2018 : Tessa Moldan for Ocula Running since 2000, Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, the largest outdoor art festival in the world, injects art into the landscape of Japan's snow country, littered in the summertime with phosphorescent, green rice paddies that lie flat beneath the mountains of the southern part of Niigata prefecture. Rather than assigning each edition with a new...
Ocula Photolog Art Basel in Hong Kong 2018 29 March 2018 'The sixth edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong brought together a uniquely global mix of galleries spanning six continents, outstanding artworks by established and new artists from across theworld and a singular gathering of international collectors and institutions.' –Art Basel in Hong Kong (29–31 March 2018).
Related Press Yasumasa Morimura: Ego Obscura & In the Room of Art History The Brooklyn Rail : 11 December 2018 Yasumasa Morimura's practice is about blurring boundaries. His intricate tableaus hover in the interstitial space between painting and photography and are admired for their inquiry into the construction of gender and identity. Two exhibitions, In the Room of Art History at Luhring Augustine Bushwick and Ego Obscura at the Japan Society, make clear...
Related Press The Japanese artist putting himself in the world’s most famous art works Dazed : 15 November 2018 'In the end, what is history? And what is historical truth? These are questions that do not have ready answers,' Japanese artist Yasumasa Morimura asks in egó sympósion', the preface he pens in the catalogue for Ego Obscura, a 30-year retrospective of photographic work in which he transforms iconic works of art and pop culture into self-portraits.
Related Press Seven Artists on the Warhol Influence The New York Times : 1 November 2018 Three decades after Andy Warhol's death, he remains one of America's most provocative artists. His influence on popular culture is so pervasive that each emerging art movement after him has had to grapple with Warhol's focus on surface perfections and his singular celebrity. Despite their complicated feelings, many contemporary artists say they...
Related Press Yasumasa Morimura on the empty center of identity Artforum : 19 October 2018 I FIRST STARTED making self-portraits in 1985, using prosthetics, cosmetics, and sets to assume the roles of figures who signify more than themselves—individuals or works that have become archetypes, including old masters' paintings, Albrecht Dürer's Self-Portrait, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Édouard Manet's Olympia, Andy Warhol, Marilyn...
Related Video & Audio ASIA NOW 2018 || Teppei Kaneuji (artist) & Reiko Tsubaki (Curator at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo) ASIA NOW : 1 November 2018 The artist Teppei Kaneuji and Reiko Tsubaki, Curator at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, discuss the artist's recent sculptures and performances. Kaneuji investigates the mass consumption of contemporary Japanese culture, sourcing materials from everyday life, found objects and manga characters to create sculptures that are at once playful and...
