Ocula Conversation Emi Eu: ‘We have to look at Southeast Asia as one market’ Stephanie Bailey, Singapore STPI's Emi Eu reflects on S.E.A. Focus, an STPI project platforming artists and galleries from Southeast Asia, in the wake of Art Stage's decline in 2019 and ahead of the launch of Singapore's new art fair, Art SG, in October 2020.
Ocula Report New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata: Shows to See Kanika Anand, New Delhi With India Art Fair set to open amid nationwide protests, Kanika Anand introduces shows in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata that express shifting socio-political identities, modes of resistance, and explorations of place-making.
Ocula Insight Images from Abroad: Lada Nakonechna at Galerie EIGEN + ART Phoebe Blatton, Berlin Images from abroad , Lada Nakonechna's solo exhibition at Galerie EIGEN + ART in Berlin, considers the barriers that exist between depictions of conflict and their viewers.
Ocula Report 4th Kochi-Muziris Biennale: Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life Natalie King, Kochi '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 Report Sydney Contemporary: Bridging the Gap Anna Dickie, Sydney As far as art fair venues go, Sydney Contemporary (13–16 September 2018) has nailed it with Carriageworks, where the fair was once again staged. Formerly a rail yard and now a cultural centre, the space has retained its distinctive 19 th -century industrial details, and it offered a striking light-filled backdrop to the fair's crisp white...
Ocula Photolog Sydney Contemporary 2018 'With a thriving contemporary art scene, Sydney is a dynamic cultural destination with an international reputation for presenting the very best in visual art through its leading commercial galleries, public institutions, private museums, festivals and Biennale. Defined by the vibrancy of its host city, Sydney Contemporary provides collectors,...
Ocula Report Melbourne Art Shows to See: The Lowdown Carol Que, Melbourne Melbourne Art Week returns to much fanfare this year, taking place between 30 July and 5 August 2018 with the biennial Melbourne Art Fair holding centre stage after its hiatus in 2016 (2–5 August 2018). Situated across two venues within the Southbank Arts Precinct and presenting 40 new and established galleries from Australia, New Zealand and...
Ocula Conversation Australian artist Brook Andrew 's practice often finds inspiration in institutional archives, but his intentions go beyond the archaeological: he is not primarily interested in discovering or documenting the past, but in 'un-cementing' history's hold on events, people and beliefs, and in doing so, freeing the discussions taking place today from...
Ocula Photolog The most searched artists on Ocula now A selection of this week's most searched artists on Ocula.com
Ocula Conversation Adeline Ooi Diana d'Arenberg, Hong Kong Art Basel Hong Kong has started early this year. I don’t mean just the dates, which have been pushed forward from May to March. I mean inboxes are already flooded with invitations for previews and dinners taking place well ahead of the March 22 VIP preview. There are more events, more exhibitions, and certainly more collectors descending...
Ocula Report Sydney Summer Report Rachel Fuller, Sydney When Silence Falls Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 19 December 2015 - 1 May 2016 Currently showing in the contemporary galleries of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, When Silence Falls is a collection-based, group exhibition curated by AGNSW curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, Cara Pinchbeck....
Ocula Report Institutional critique in the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial Tess Maunder, Brisbane Since the late 1980s the major concern for curatorial practice has been the rise of biennale culture; the impact this exhibition format has had upon both the production and reception of contemporary art internationally. Reflecting on this lineage and recent politics from within the Asia-Pacific region, it is apparent that exhibitions such as...
Ocula Conversation Peter Atkins Laura Thomson, Christchurch Australian artist Peter Atkins was one of 7 artists invited to create new site-specific public art works for the forthcoming Christchurch Biennial, SCAPE8: New Intimacies, curated by Rob Garrett. An important figure in Australian contemporary art, Peter Atkins has exhibited extensively both in Australia and internationally and is...
Ocula Report Sydney Contemporary Wrap Jane O'Sullivan, Sydney A marble bench sat out of the front of the Pearl Lam Galleries stand at the Sydney Contemporary art fair last week. Inscribed with Chinese characters, and without a card stating the artist or artwork title, many visitors simply passed it by. Those who could read the inscription, and those who asked, found out it said: Don’t put too much...
Ocula Report Melbourne Summer Focus Carol Que, Melbourne Queen Victoria Memorial Gardens MPavilion Until 31 January 2015 Nestled in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Memorial Gardens and sponsored by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, MPavilion is a contradictory vision of permanence and ephemerality, discipline and play. Designed by internationally acclaimed architect Sean Godsell, it is a...
Ocula Conversation Ben Quilty Stephanie Bailey, London With a Bachelor of Visual Communication from University of Western Sydney, a certificate in Aboriginal Culture and History from Monash University, and a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Painting from the Sydney College of the Arts, Ben Quilty’s work is all about Australia and its social, political, cultural and historical landscapes. The genesis...
Ocula Conversation Barry Keldoulis Laura Thomson, Melbourne Barry Keldoulis has more than three decades experience in the world of contemporary art. Keldoulis started his career in New York where he worked as private secretary and chief of staff for Henry Geldzahler, Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the City of New York, and the first curator of 20th century art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art....
Ocula Conversation Clinton Ng Anna Dickie, Hong Kong Sydney based collector, Clinton Ng, has built a substantial collection of leading contemporary art in just over ten years. His collection now includes works by over 150 artists, including Ahmed Alsoudani, Olafur Eliasson, Adrian Ghenie, Vik Muniz, Alex Prager, Simon Denny, William Kentridge, Adrián Villar Rojas, Shaun Gladwell, Thomas...
Ocula Conversation Clinton Ng Anna Dickie, Hong Kong Sydney based collector, Clinton Ng, has built a substantial collection of leading contemporary art in just over ten years. His collection now includes works by over 150 artists, including Ahmed Alsoudani, Olafur Eliasson, Adrian Ghenie, Vik Muniz, Alex Prager, Simon Denny, William Kentridge, Adrián Villar Rojas, Shaun Gladwell, Thomas...
Ocula Report Melbourne Now Emily Cormack, Melbourne For a city consistently referred to as Australia’s ‘cultural capital’ Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) has had a track record of casual disregard for the vigorous cultural activities that have been occurring in its midst. It has seemed odd at best, that despite healthy acquisitions of contemporary...
Ocula Conversation Bill Henson Anna Dickie, Hong Kong Faced with the daunting, but intriguing challenge of interviewing one of Australia’s most distinguished artists, Bill Henson, I did the contemporary obvious – I googled him. The result was, as one would expect, slightly polarized. His recent withdrawal of work from the Adelaide Biennale following a police complaint had...
Ocula Report Notes On Desire: The 19Th Biennale Of Sydney Stella Rosa McDonald, Sydney " Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will ." George Bernard Shaw In 1879, a French postman named Ferdinand Cheval began building an esoteric homage to the beauty of sandstone. On one of his postal rounds, Cheval came across small pieces of...
Ocula Report Great Expectations: Emerging Australian Art Stella Rosa McDonald, Sydney In literary criticism, the term Bildungsroman refers to a coming of age novel. The protagonist learns a lesson, undergoes a transformation and grows up. They are stories where sentiment conflicts with authority, and we love them because they question our foundations and because we were all kids, once. ‘Emerging’ is the art...
