Ocula Conversation Jess Johnson: Worlds Within Worlds Geometric patterns, anthropomorphic characters, architectural spatial environments, and relics of the ancient world appear throughout Jess Johnson's artworks.Johnson's solo art-ventures began in drawing, but her long-term collaborative relationship with animator Simon Ward brings her drawings to life in videos and virtual reality. The animator has...
Ocula Conversation Melati Suryodarmo: Performance Art as Trigger In 2012, Melati Suryodarmo opened Studio Plesungan in her native Surakarta, also known as Solo, the historic royal capital of the Mataram Empire of Java in Indonesia. Suryodarmo had returned to Indonesia from Germany, where she studied Butoh and choreography with Butoh dancer and choreographer Anzu Furukawa, time-based media with avantgarde...
Ocula Report Lagos Biennial 2019: Stories from Africa’s most Populous City 15 Nov 2019 : Jareh Das for Ocula Under the direction of Folakunle Oshun, the second edition of the Lagos Biennial (26 October–23 November 2019) includes works by over 40 Lagos-based and international artists, architects, and collectives. Curated by architect Tosin Oshinowo, curator and producer Oyindamola Fakeye, and assistant curator of photography at the Art Institute of...
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...
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 LOOSE CANON ARTFORUM : 21 October 2019 IN JUNE, NEW YORK'S MUSEUM OF MODERN ART WENT DARK to put the finishing touches on its contentious five-year expansion, which promised to put $450 million and 47,000 square feet of Diller Scofidio + Renfro architecture toward fostering a 'deeper experience of art' across boundaries of media, geography, and identity. Today, MoMA emerges from its...
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...
