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 Conversation Melati Suryodarmo: Performance Art as Trigger In 2012, Melati Suryodarmo opened Studio Plesungan in her native Surakarta, also known as Solo, the historic royal capital of the Mataram Empire of Java in Indonesia. Suryodarmo had returned to Indonesia from Germany, where she studied Butoh and choreography with Butoh dancer and choreographer Anzu Furukawa, time-based media with avantgarde...
Ocula Report Lagos Biennial 2019: Stories from Africa’s most Populous City 15 Nov 2019 : Jareh Das for Ocula Under the 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 of...
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...
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, ShugoArts Show, ShugoArts, Tokyo (2–22 November 2019) Courtesy ShugoArts.
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.
Ocula Report Lyon Biennale 2019: The Art of Dispersal 27 Sep 2019 : Tessa Moldan for Ocula 'The places where water comes together with other water. Those places stand out in my mind like holy places.' This excerpt from a poem by American writer Raymond Carver is the somewhat florid departure for Là où les eaux se mêlent, the 15th Lyon Biennale (18 September 2019–5 January 2019)—a materially rich exhibition of works by around 50...
Ocula Report Art Jakarta Drops Anchor in a Stormy Southeast Asian Art Market 6 Sep 2019 : Sam Gaskin for Ocula Jakarta may be sinking, prompting the announcement last month that Indonesia will create a new capital on the island of Borneo, but the city's longest-running art fair is on the rise. Founded by the license holder of Harper's Bazaar Indonesia, the fair began as Bazaar Art Jakarta in 2008. While it's still owned by the same holding company, MRA...
Ocula Insight | Video Frieze Sculpture 2019: See the Contemporary Art in London’s Regent's Park 13 August 2019 For three months, Frieze Sculpture (3 July–6 October) transforms Regent's Park, London, into an open gallery with sculptures by artists from all over the world. This year's edition is again curated by Clare Lilley, director of programme at Yorkshire Sculpture Park since 1992 and curator of Frieze Sculpture since 2012. This video, created for...
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,...
Related Press Apple’s AR Experience Puts Products Ahead of Art Art in America : 11 September 2019 The trouble with [AR]T—an augmented reality initiative produced by Apple in collaboration with the New Museum—began when I tried to get tickets. Because it was framed as a free public art experience, I thought that the [AR]T Walk would be easily accessible, like a drop-in guided tour at a museum. But Apple's home page offered no...
Related Press ‘I have always set off in new directions’ – an interview with Leiko Ikemura Apollo : 28 May 2019 Working across drawing, painting and ceramics, the Japanese-Swiss artist Leiko Ikemura continues to seek adventure in her art, she says, as a major exhibition opens at the Kunstmuseum Basel.The exhibition in Basel has the subtitle 'Toward New Seas' – taken from the poem 'Nach neuen Meeren' by Nietzsche. What inspires you about that phrase?Years...
Related Press Ilya Kabakov Harnesses His Inner Misanthrope to Maintain Artistic Independence Hyperallergic : 22 February 2019 On Art, a new collection of essays by Ilya Kabakov, recently translated and edited into English by Matthew Jesse Jackson, begs a closer look at the life of an artist in permanent flux.One reason Ilya Kabakov's decades-long career is so interesting is that it maps with cartographic intensity life under a broken Soviet system, later transformed by...
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...
