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...
At the age of thirteen Francesca Woodman took her first self-portrait. From then, up until her untimely death in 1981, aged just 22 she produced an extraordinary body of work (some 800 photographs) acclaimed for its singularity of style and range of innovative techniques. Woodman studied at Rhode Island School of Design, from 1975 - 1979, receiving a grant to spend a year in Rome to continue her studies. Whilst there she produced an extensive body of work and had her first solo exhibition at a bookshop and gallery specializing in Surrealism and Futurism.
Since 1986, her work has been exhibited widely and has been the subject of extensive critical study in the United States and Europe. Woodman is often situated alongside her contemporaries of the late 1970s such as Ana Mendieta and Hannah Wilke, yet her work also foreshadows artists such as Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Nan Goldin and Karen Finley in their subsequent dialogues with the self and reinterpretations of the female body.
Francesca WoodmanUntitled - Providence, Rhode Island, 1976 Gelatin silver estate print
Francesca WoodmanUntitled - New York, 1979 Gelatin silver estate print
Francesca WoodmanSelf-portrait, Easter, Rome, 1978 Gelatin silver estate print
Francesca WoodmanFrom Eel Series, Venice, Italy, 1978 Gelatin silver estate print
Francesca WoodmanSelf-deceit #5, Rome, Italy, 1978 Gelatin silver estate print
Francesca WoodmanNovember has been a slightly uncomfortable baroque, 1977–1978 Gelatin silver estate print
Francesca WoodmanUntitled, Rome, Italy, 1977–1978 Gelatin silver estate print
Francesca WoodmanFrom a series on Angels, Rome, 1977 Gelatin silver estate print
Ocula Report Francesca Woodman At Victoria Miro Mayfair, London 26 Sep 2014 : Will Gresson for Ocula At Victoria Miro Mayfair, a new exhibition by the late Francesca Woodman entitled Zigzag examines abstract lines and zigzags within the artist’s work, while reflecting many of the familiar idiosyncrasies of Woodman’s wider practice, such as her treatment of the body and her use of light, shadow and motion.
Related Press Refuge or trap? Female artists explore the concept of a room at Sadie Coles The Telegraph : 3 February 2017 This exceptional show gathers together a clutch of stand-alone installations and photographic works by some of the great female artists of the 20th and 21st century, all of which revolve in some way around the traditionally feminine domain of the domestic space. As we see here, the idea of the room can assume a multitude of forms and meanings,...
Related Press Home girls: female artists explore domestic architectures at Sadie Coles Wallpaper* : 30 January 2017 Virginia Woolf famously wrote of the importance of having a ‘room of one’s own’, a physical and psychological place women could truly be free to express themselves.An all-female exhibition just opened at the Sadie Coles HQ London explores the way women artists from the late 20th century have looked at the aesthetics and structures of domestic...
