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...
Abbas Akhavan's practice ranges from site-specific ephemeral installations to drawing, video and performance. The domestic sphere, as a forked space between hospitality and hostility, has been an ongoing area of research in Abbas' work.
Residencies include The Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, (USA), Atelier Calder (France); Foundation Marcelino Botin with Mona Hatoum (Spain); Le Printemps de Septembre (France); Trinity Square Video, Western Front, and Fogo Islands (Canada); The Watermill Center (USA); and The Delfina Foundation (Dubai, UAE & London, UK).
Solo exhibitions include cast for a folly, The Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA, (2019); Folly, Vie d'ange, Montreal, Canada (2018); variations on a landscape, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada (2018); recently, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2018); variations on a garden, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (2017); Abbas Akhavan, Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany (2017); variations on a garden, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK (2017); Study for a Curtain The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2015); variations on a garden, Mercer Union, Toronto, Canada (2013); Study for a Garden, Delfina Foundation, London (2012). Selected group exhibitions include Second Hand, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE (2019); But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise, Galleria d'Arte Moderna Milano, Milan, Italy (2018); A Poethical Wager, MOCA Cleveland (2017); Disappearing Act, Thames Art Gallery, Toronto Canada (2017); The Uses of Art, SALT Galata, Istanbul, Turkey (2017); Making Nature: How we see animals, Wellcome Collection, London, UK (2016); But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (2016); Common Grounds, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany (2015); Accented, Maraya Art Center, Sharjah, UAE (2015); The politics of food, Delfina Foundation, London, UK (2014); Tactics for Here & Now, Bucharest Biennale, Romania (2012); Tools for Conviviality, Power Plant, Toronto (2012); Beacon, Darling Foundry, Montreal (2012); Seeing is Believing, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2011).
Abbas is the recipient of Kunstpreis Berlin (2012); Abraaj Group Art Prize (2014) and Sobey Art Award (2015). His work has been featured in the Liverpool Biennial (2018); New Orleans Triennial (2017); Sharjah Biennial (2017); Gwangju Biennial (2014); Montreal Biennial (2014); Athens Biennial (2013); and in Performa, New York (2011).
His works can be found in private and public collections around the world, including The Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York; the Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada; UBS Investment Bank; The Farook Collection, Dubai, UAE; and Alma Mater Society: University of British Columbia, Canada.
He lives and works in Montreal, Canada.
