Ocula Report 4th Kochi-Muziris Biennale: Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life 15 Feb 2019 : Natalie King for Ocula 'Poems are like sentences that have taken their clothes off.' Marlene Dumas' poetic and sensual refrain accompanies her figurative watercolours on view in Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life, the fourth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) in the southern state of Kerala, India (12 December 2018–29 March 2019).Dumas' new series...
Ocula Conversation Ellen Altfest The paintings of Ellen Altfest are ethereal in their detail. Fields of minutiae come together as pulsating images; small brushstrokes of oil paint accumulate over a series of months to single out seemingly innocuous subjects, such as a hand resting atop patterned fabric (The Hand, 2011) or a deep green cactus reaching upwards from beneath a bed of...
Ocula Report Colomboscope 2019: Cross Currents and Dissonance 8 Feb 2019 : Nada Raza for Ocula On the rooftop of the former Rio Hotel complex in Colombo, it was hard to ignore the high-rise buildings, still under construction, blocking all but a sliver of what used to be an open view over Slave Island, once an island on Beira Lake that housed slaves in the 19th century, and now a downtown suburb. The hotel was set alight during the...
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 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 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...
Related Press Rose Wylie review – childlike bursts of freedom and joy The Guardian : 29 November 2017 Memories of her own childhood well up in this strange, discombobulating, exciting exhibition. Wylie was born in 1934 and can remember the blitz. In her painting Rosemount (Coloured) the red outline of a V1 with its square wings flies over a roughed-out map of west London centred on a black silhouette of a factory with the name 'Rosemount' scrawled...
