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...
Ocula Report Daido Moriyama: The Erotics of Photography 11 Oct 2019 : Tianyuan Deng for Ocula In a documentary video published by Tate Modern to accompany its exhibition William Klein + Daido Moriyama in 2013, Moriyama, one of the most influential avantgarde photographers to emerge out of postwar Japan, roams the urban streets of Shinjuku equipped with a compact digital camera. Dressed in a low-key black jacket, his gait is relaxed but...
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,...
Ocula Photolog Frieze Los Angeles 15 February 2019 'Frieze Los Angeles largely focuses on contemporary art and celebrates the exceptionally dynamic culture of Los Angeles and its global contributions to the visual arts. Frieze Los Angeles joins Frieze New York, Frieze London and Frieze Masters at the forefront of the international art fair calendar, celebrating Los Angeles' position as a global...
Ocula Photolog Frieze London 2018 8 October 2018 'Frieze London 2018 showcases the best of international contemporary art, with a discerning selection of around 160 galleries presenting their most forward-thinking artists and imaginative presentations. Opening for the first time with a two-day preview, Frieze London coincides with Frieze Sculpture and Frieze Masters in The Regent's Park, together...
Related Press Sterling Ruby’s Mixed Media The New Yorker : 2 September 2019 Vernon, California, is a small city near Los Angeles with a population of a hundred and twelve. Every day, fifty thousand people commute to work there, in its eighteen hundred factories, warehouses, and small businesses. Light fixtures, Farmer John hot dogs, industrial chemicals, Tapatío hot sauce, and stuffed toys are made in Vernon. One of the...
Related Press Elmgreen & Dragset and Georg Jensen invite you to put your phones to bed Wallpaper* : 15 July 2019 Georg Jensen's HQ occupies a yellow-brick, former porcelain factory building in the leafy neighbourhood of Frederiksberg, Copenhagen. It's a suitably impressive place, befitting a world-renowned heritage brand, but what sets it apart is what it contains, rather than its architecture. On its first floor is the world's largest silver smithy, where...
Related Press SANYA KANTAROVSKY with Jason Rosenfeld The Brooklyn Rail : 14 June 2019 Sanya Kantarovsky's new exhibition of paintings at Luhring Augustine is titled On Them. It is his first solo exhibition with the gallery.Jason Rosenfeld (Rail): Much of the work that you've done in the past has been multimedia, involving different kinds of installations and modes of hanging works and playing with the visibility above and beyond...
Related Press The Powerful Humanism of Garry Winogrand’s Colour Photographs Frieze : 7 June 2019 It's hard to imagine now the degree to which colour photography was vilified in the fine arts circles of last century. As Kodachrome and its successors brought colour process to a wide audience starting in 1935, the format was associated with postwar, low-brow pursuits: rec-room slide shows and birthday party Polaroids, or the glossy travelogues...
Related Video & Audio An Interview with Thomas Demand – The Dailies (2015) American Suburb X : 19 October 2015 In the mid 1970s, architect Harry Seidler designed a space for the historic Commercial Travellers’ Association in Sydney, Australia. In collaboration with Pier Luigi Nervi, he created a circular building that sprouts up from the street like a radiating flower. For the 25th Kaldor Public Art Project, Thomas Demand’s series The Dailies...
Related Video & Audio Daido Moriyama: The Mighty Power Nowness / 11 December 2012 : 20 December 2014 Acclaimed Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama's sensual approach to the urban landscape is revealed in this edifying short by the Hong Kong-based filmmaker Ringo Tang. Now in his 70s, Moriyama shot to fame when his grainy black-and-white images depicting a post-war Japan in flux won the country's New Artist Award in 1967 and has since had major...
