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...
Conceptually minded, Thomas Erben Gallery strives to either rediscover or expose work that contributes to contemporary discourse and expands beyond the boundaries of the artists’ chosen media.
Thomas Erben began his professional involvement in the art world in 1989 as a private dealer focusing on contemporary American art. In 1993, he began organising exhibitions in his private space, which led to the opening of Thomas Erben Gallery, located, until 2000, on Broome Street in SoHo. His inaugural exhibition in September of 1996 was an installation by Senga Nengudi. From the outset, the program has been multidisciplinary and internationally oriented, showcasing emerging as well as established artists.
Ocula Photolog Independent New York 2019 11 March 2019 'Independent New York's selected participants represent the art world's most creative and inspired curatorial visions from a cross-section of emerging, mid-career and established programs from around the world. Independent is curating a forum that is an authentic reflection of the gallery landscape and encourages innovative approaches to fair...
Ocula Report Shanghai Art Exhibitions to See: The Lowdown 2 Nov 2018 : Sam Gaskin for Ocula There is no official Shanghai Art Week, but the term has nevertheless entered the lexicon of the city's contemporary art community. It's especially apt this year, with the firmly established West Bund Art Fair (8–11 November 2018) and Art021 (9–11 November 2018) taking place the same week that the 12th Shanghai Biennale opens at the Power Station...
Related Press New York Art Galleries: What to See Right Now The New York Times : 3 April 2019 'Détournement' means taking an existing artwork or artifact and transforming it into something wiser, funnier and cooler, as evidenced in the show Strategic Vandalism: The Legacy of Asger Jorn's Modification Paintings, at Petzel Gallery.Jorn, a Danish artist associated with the Situationist International group in Paris in the '50s, was a master of...
Related Press Harriet Korman: Permeable/Resistant The Brooklyn Rail : 11 December 2018 When asked how she starts one of her recent quadrant-based paintings, Harriet Korman replies that her first step is to "find the center." She does so without the assistance of any measuring device, relying solely on her hand and eye to determine the point from which she will begin building out her right-angled bands of color.
Related Press Harriet Korman’s Formal Mastery Hyperallergic : 17 November 2018 Harriet Korman began exhibiting her abstract paintings in 1971, during Conceptual Art’s ascendancy and when many in the art establishment considered painting to be a casualty of history’s progress.Working in the wake of Minimalism, Color Field painting, shaped paintings, and painting-as-object, Korman rejected the argument Donald Judd put forth...
Related Press What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week The New York Times : 2 May 2018 What's great about George Herriman's much admired early-20th-century comic strip Krazy Kat is its nearly unlimited scope for self-awareness. A stripped-down but playfully catholic style — combined with a sturdy, repetitive narrative frame — meant that Herriman could wink at the reader as often as he wanted, without losing his footing or...
