Ocula Conversation Bani Abidi: ‘What you see in my films is what I know’ A group of voices accompanies me in the exhibition. They are singing words I cannot comprehend, yet the warm tunes are familiar: folk songs, love songs, songs of longing. There are letters, too. They speak of the quotidian details of a soldier's life: the hardness of the war, sending money to the family, and longing for familiar landscapes, food,...
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...
Pinaree Sanpitak, Bodily Space II (2019). Acrylic, textile, paper on canvas. Diptych. 130 x 260 cm. Courtesy the artist and Yavuz Gallery, Singapore. Photo: Aroon Permpoonsopol.
Established in 2010 in Singapore, Yavuz Gallery is dedicated to promoting contemporary art, predominantly from the Asia-Pacific region. Since its inception, the gallery has established itself as a key destination for showcasing a diverse group of both established and emerging artists. It is focused on presenting a strong curatorial programme, guided by the social significance of the artworks and the perception that within their chosen field of endeavour, the artists are among those leading their field.
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 Report Institutional critique in the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial 3 Dec 2015 : Tess Maunder for Ocula 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 the...
Ocula Conversation Richard Armstrong Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York Richard Armstrong is the Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation. As well as managing the foundation he oversees the Guggenheim Museum in New York as well as the Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Deutsche Guggenheim and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi due for completion in 2017. Prior to this...
Ocula Conversation June Yap Curator, Guggenheim UBS Map Global Initiative, Singapore Launched in April 2012, the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative charts contemporary art in South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa. No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia is the Initiative’s inaugural exhibition. Initially shown in New York, (22 February–22 May 2013), the...
Related Press 2018 Sydney Contemporary Art Fair: five artists to watch The Australian Financial Review : 13 September 2018 The Sydney Contemporary Art Fair has gone from baby to behemoth in just three editions, generating $40 million in sales and attracting 75,000 local and international visitors since it launched (initially as a biennale) in 2013. "It's a tremendous shot in the arm for artists and galleries," says its director, Barry Keldoulis.
Related Press What to see and expect from Sydney Contemporary 2018 Vogue : 28 August 2018 As Australia's leading art fair, Sydney Contemporary manages to make art critics into art lovers and the unanointed into worshippers, all within the space of three days.
Related Press HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE INAUGURAL HONOLULU BIENNIAL ArtAsiaPacific : 3 May 2017 The first edition of the Honolulu Biennial has already been in full swing for one month by the time I arrived in Hawai'i. Directed by Fumio Nanjo of Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, and curated by Ngahiraka Mason, formerly of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Biennial, entitled Middle of Now | Here, is the first-ever event of its kind in the Pacific...
Related Press 8 highlights from the inaugural Honolulu Biennial 2017 Art Radar Journal : 5 April 2017 Held over nine sites and including 33 artists, the first edition of the Honolulu Biennial takes place between 8 March and 8 May 2017. Entitled Middle of Now | Here, the Biennial challenges the idea that Hawaiʻi is in 'the middle of nowhere'. Covering more than 30 percent of the Earth's surface, the Pacific is the largest unified living space on...
