Latest Ocula Conversation Artist Taloi Havini and Ruth McDougall, curator of Pacific art at Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, discuss Havini's first Australian solo exhibition, Reclamation .
Latest Ocula Report Sydney Biennale Connects Here with Everywhere By Soo-Min Shim, Sydney 'This year's Biennale of Sydney seems like a corrective,' writes Soo-Min Shim, 'prioritising autonomy in an international exhibition format that has all too often omitted or sidelined First Nations artists.'
Ocula Insight Hell is a Place on Earth: P·P·O·W Looks to History in Context of Covid-19 By Stephanie Bailey, London In the United States, parallels have been drawn between the HIV/AIDS crisis and what is unfolding with Covid-19. These connections feed into P·P·O·W's online exhibition, Hell is a Place on Earth. Heaven is a Place in Your Head .
The culturally rich city of Berlin is crawling with art museums, galleries, and alternative spaces. Notable private collections of international contemporary art include the Boros Collection, consisting of works by artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Danh Vō, and Sarah Lucas, housed in a former bunker and the Julia Stoschek Collection, which focuses on time-based works by artists such as Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Barbara Hammer, and Arthur Jafa.
Read MoreOne of the better-known museums for contemporary art is the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, founded in the 1990s by a group that included Klaus Biesenbach, currently the Director of MOCA Los Angeles. Without a permanent collection, the KW Institute showcases eclectic exhibitions and programs that respond to social and political issues. In 1998, it partnered with the inaugural Berlin Biennale and continues to be a key venue for the Biennale. Like the KW Institute, the Biennale is known for its alternative, critical, and radical (often anti-institutional) ethos.
For a more traditional museum experience featuring antiquities classics, visit the Pergamonmuseum, which was built between 1910 and 1930. The museum is divided into three collections: the Antikensammlung (Collection of Classical Antiquities), the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Museum of the Ancient Near East), and the Museum für Islamische Kunst (Museum of Islamic Art). Works in the Museum of Islamic Art date from the 7th to the 19th century.
The Alte Nationalgalerie, which offers Neoclassical, Romantic, Impressionist, and Modernist works, is part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. It is located on a UNESCO World Heritage site known as the Museumsinsel (Museum Island), which is home to other museums including the Pergamonmuseum and the Bode-Museum, the latter of which hosts a fantastic collection of ancient sculptures and Byzantine Art.
Outside of alternative spaces, private collections, and Museum Island, it is imperative to go gallery-hopping in one of the most exciting cities for dealer galleries. Favourites and international stars include Sprüth Magers, Peres Projects, and Tanya Leighton. A city known for its artist population and non-normative art venues, Berlin is constantly in flux.
Exhibition view: Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Fog Dog, Esther Schipper, Berlin (7 March–9 April 2020). Courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin. Photo: Andrea Rossetti.
Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Wilson (1981). Silver gelatin print. Estate signed, printed 2019. Paper size: 50.8 x 40.6 cm. Framed: 61 x 58.5 x 2.5 cm. Edition 6/10. © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used with permission.
Exhibition view: Cristian Rusu, The Only Thing I Am Sure About in this Life Lies Above My Head, Galeria Plan B, Berlin (6 March–11 April 2020). Courtesy Galeria Plan B.
Exhibition View: Moryra Davey & Peter Hujar, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin (17 February–11 April 2020). Courtesy Galerie Buchholz Berlin/Cologne/New York.
Ocula Conversation transmediale Artistic Director Kristoffer Gansing Looks Back By Terence Sharpe, Berlin Kristoffer Gansing traces eight years of change at Berlin's digital media and culture festival transmediale, as his final iteration as artistic director, End to End , opens 28 January.
Ocula Insight Images from Abroad: Lada Nakonechna at Galerie EIGEN + ART By Phoebe Blatton, Berlin Images from abroad , Lada Nakonechna's solo exhibition at Galerie EIGEN + ART in Berlin, considers the barriers that exist between depictions of conflict and their viewers.
Ocula Insight Maria Loboda’s Historical Constellations in Berlin By Sarah Messerschmidt, Berlin It is a dull and grey November afternoon, typical of weather in Berlin at this time of year, and Maria Loboda 's exhibition, Woman observing the Alpha Persei Cluster , at Galerie Thomas Schulte (16 November 2019–11 January 2020) appears particularly striking in contrast to these dreary climactic conditions. Occupying the street-facing...
Ocula Report Arthur Jafa at Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin: Viewpoint By Federica Bueti, Berlin Arthur Jafa is a brilliant filmmaker, cinematographer and artist, whose practice is concerned with identifying and developing a specifically Black visual aesthetic. His work tackles the complexity of African-American cultural identity, as defined by an existential paradox that places the Black subject 'in essential intimacy with death', as...
