Ocula Conversation Almine Rech-Picasso Goes Global French gallerist Almine Rech-Picasso opened her first space in Asia on Shanghai's historic Bund in July this year, bringing her eponymous gallery's total locations to five. The Shanghai gallery occupies roughly 4,000 square feet on the second floor of the three-storey Amber Building, a beautiful warehouse space, originally occupied by the Central...
Ocula Report From the Gallery to the Streets: Home Works 8 in Beirut 8 Nov 2019 : Nat Muller for Ocula There's an inside joke amongst the team of Ashkal Alwan, The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts: that every time an edition of its biennial forum on cultural practices is planned, a national crisis happens. The eighth edition of Home Works was no different: it opened on 17 October amidst the most devastating wildfires that Lebanon had witnessed...
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...
Hujar's works recall the photographic language of Diane Arbus; his pictures have the same existential tone but extend a cynical, perverse look on mankind. His works are sublime, dark and hazy but loving and touching in a way that is characteristic of certain strands in vintage photography like Strand and Stieglitz. His legendary book Portraits in Life and Death is a unique achievement, bringing together scenes of melancholy and beauty, sadness and hope in a single bound collection. Another wonderful publication, Animals and Nudes, juxtaposes forms in a disarming, down-to-earth way that belies his impressive technical and compositional skills. The animals are human in the plight of their everyday existence, and the humans animal-like, reduced as they are to a pre-societal state. Photographs are seen here for what they basically are: mechanically produced works on paper, which accounts perhaps for the derisive attitudes to photography as stand-alone art medium in the past.
Ocula Report The Lowdown: shows to see during Armory Week 1 Mar 2018 : Robert Ayers for Ocula Seasoned visitors to New York City's Armory Show (8–11 March 2018) know that the fair is really just the weekend-long cherry on top of the splendid sundae that is the New York art scene and all it has to offer. With so much else to see, here's the lowdown on some of the city's current standout shows.Songs for SabotageNew Museum 13 February–27...
Related Press Pace Gallery opens Chelsea HQ with Calder, Hockney and more Wallpaper* : 8 October 2019 While a handful of Manhattan galleries have flocked south where Tribeca is emerging as a new cultural destination, it's the international blue-chips who are banking on Chelsea's staying power. The recent opening of Pace Gallery's 75,000 sq ft headquarters, designed by Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture, cements the powerhouse's presence in the city's...
Related Press Your Concise New York Art Guide for Fall 2019 Hyperallergic : 10 September 2019 As always, there are many wonderful exhibitions, film festivals, and art events taking place throughout the fall in New York. We've put together our recommendations, and hope that they encourage you to explore the artistic happenings of this great city. Focusing on museums, art nonprofits, and galleries that continue to make New York a global hub...
Related Press 'You always find something different': Sir Elton John on his love of photography Christie's : 14 March 2017 ‘A photograph brings me so much joy, they’re beautiful objects,’ says Sir Elton John, discussing a remarkable collection of 25 works by some of the world’s greatest photographers, to be offered at Christie’s in New York on 6 April 2017. Proceeds from the sale of these works will benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF), an international...
Related Press The beasts within: Artists tap into their wild sides for a roaring show Wallpaper* : 26 November 2016 Rarely before have we seen such a long and varied list of contributors, as we do in Marian Goodman Gallery's group show Animality. The 'cast of creatures' ranges from dogs, camels, fish to octopi, and charts a history from George Orwell to Gabriel Orozco by way of Marcel Broodthaers. Curator Jens Hoffmann, never one to turn down a...
