Ocula Report ‘An Opera for Animals’ at Rockbund Art Museum 19 Jul 2019 : Penny Liu for Ocula An Opera for Animals was first staged at Para Site in Hong Kong between 23 March and 2 June 2019, with works by over 48 artists and collectives that use opera as a metaphor for modes of contemporary, cross-disciplinary art-making. The exhibition's second iteration takes up a large portion of the Rockbund Art Museum (RAM) in Shanghai (22 June–25...
Ocula Conversation Mandy El-Sayegh: Productive Ambiguity Moving across installation, painting, drawing, and writing, Malaysia-born and London-based artist Mandy El-Sayegh explores the political, social, and economic complexities of humanity, using a mosaic of information—from advertising slogans and pornographic imagery to newspaper articles—that she subjects to processes of layering,...
Ocula Report Get Up, Stand Up Now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers at Somerset House 5 Jul 2019 : Jareh Das for Ocula Get Up Stand Up Now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers at Somerset House in London (12 June–15 September 2019) surveys more than half a century of black creativity in Britain and beyond across the fields of art, film, photography, music, design, fashion, and literature.Curated by Zak Ové, works by approximately 100 intergenerational black...
A pioneering painter, sculptor, photographer, printmaker and performance artist, Robert Rauschenberg's career spans multiple genres and historical movements. Most widely recognised for his 'combines'- assemblages incorporating the visual vocabulary of painting and sculpture- and pop art prints juxtaposing icons of American culture, Rauschenberg is credited as one of foremost artists who reacted against the dominant school of Abstract Expressionism.
His practice actively engaged with social and political issues, including a boycott of 1970 Venice Bienale during the Vietnam War, for which he was nominated as the representative for the U.S pavilion. His collaborations and exchanges with contemporaries such as Jasper Johns, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Trisha Brown and Cy Twombly has produced one of the most experimental bodies of work in the post war period. His iconoclastic approach to technique has continued to inspire artists of the 21st century.
![Golden Boy [Anagram (A Pun)] by Robert Rauschenberg contemporary artwork](http://d3rtf5gv0re40d.cloudfront.net/anzax/76/76941eea-525b-4d77-ad99-53fcf3dd9a00_300_399.jpeg)
Ocula Conversation Jens Faurschou Co-founder, Faurschou Foundation When American artist Robert Rauschenberg opened his first and last gallery exhibition in China, (he died shortly thereafter), it was with Galleri Faurschou in Beijing, owned by Danish collectors Jens Faurschou, and his now former wife, Luise. Jens Faurschou took Ai Weiwei to see the show and the acclaimed Chinese artist, impressed by both the...
Related Press Crater glory – how artists have responded to Earth’s nearest neighbour Apollo : 1 July 2019 I remember exactly where and when I decided to write a book about the moon: lying on my back in a dentist's chair, waiting for the anaesthetic to take effect. To distract his patients, the dentist had tacked a poster to the ceiling: a NASA image of the earth from space at night. I was struck by the way so much of the northern hemisphere glitters...
Related Press ‘Dirt was as important as gold’: An Oral History of Robert Rauschenberg Frieze : 27 June 2019 I'm preoccupied, at the moment, with the generosity of Robert Rauschenberg's art. This preoccupied his contemporaries, too, as John Giorno makes clear:'The most important thing I got from Bob Rauschenberg was just being with his mind [...] when you spend a lot of time with a great person's mind, somehow it has a profound effect on you. One sort of...
Related Press Too Big for a Booth? Art Basel Still Has Room for Your Art The New York Times : 11 June 2019 Since it was begun in 2000, Unlimited, which is offered only at the fair in Basel, has proved to be a particularly popular draw. Most people attending the fair–there were 95,000 last year–are expected to visit the section, not only for the sheer wow factor of the works, but also for the relevance of its offerings.'I often tell people that...
Related Press MASS MoCA: It’s a Site for All Eyes The New York Times : 15 June 2017 MASS MoCA, the vast, multibuilding museum of contemporary art here, is a weird and wonderful place. For one, the dominance of brick walls, wood floors, big windows and frequent columns of its repurposed 19th-century factory buildings is the apotheosis of SoHo, whose small-industry loft spaces were taken over by commercial art galleries in the...
