Ocula Report Havana Biennial 2019: Constructing the Possible 17 Apr 2019 : Federica Bueti for Ocula I first visited Havana in November 2016, a few days after Fidel Castro died, and just under a year before Hurricane Irma hit Cuba in September 2017. Since then, much has changed, including the hand-painted signs that punctuate the journey from the airport to the city centre, which today do not celebrate the revolution so much as the 'Unidad y...
Ocula Conversation Andrew Stahl and Guo Xiaohui The exhibition Beyond Boundaries at Somerset House in London (12 March–2 April 2019) marked the historic contributions of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (CAFA) and the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, on the occasion of their 100th and 150th anniversaries, respectively. Spread across several rooms of Somerset House's...
Ocula Report The National 2019: New Australian Art 13 Apr 2019 : Elyse Goldfinch for Ocula The National 2019: New Australian Art features work by 70 contemporary Australia-based artists split across three venues: the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Carriageworks, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) (29 March–21 July 2019), as curated by Isobel Parker Philip, curator of photographs at AGNSW; Daniel Mudie Cunningham,...
Situated in the north end of the famous Bund area in Shanghai, the Rockbund Art Museum is an international platform for the promotion and exchange of contemporary art.
Considering its mission to be the spread of humanistic values and the promotion of art, the Rockbund Art Museum dedicates its efforts to the study, exchange and promotion of contemporary visual arts. Through diverse exhibitions and educational programmes, it seeks to use artistic means to stimulate discussions of topical and social issues in contemporary spirit. It also hopes that by providing the members of the community with high-quality aesthetic and leisure resources, it contributes to social progress and improve the quality of urban life.
As the only contemporary art museum on the Bund, the Rockbund Art Museum will benefit from its rich cultural tradition and mainstream location. Thinking creatively to carry forward the cultural heritage of the Bund, it endeavors to integrate art, design and innovation into an aesthetic space for a new Shanghai lifestyle.
Ocula Conversation Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Founder, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo started collecting contemporary art in 1992, after graduating from Torino University, where she studied business and economics. She began her collection with four works from the late-1950s and early-1960s by Italian artists: Carla Accardi, Tano Festa, Mario Merz and Salvatore Scarpitta. 'I enjoyed the idea of...
Ocula Conversation Moe Satt Artist, Myanmar Sitting outside a Yangon restaurant—having first picked out a selection of dishes drenched in oil, Chinese canteen-style—I interviewed Myanmar artist Moe Satt. We had just come from his home studio, a sixth-floor walk up, on a visit in anticipation of the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award 2015, which was announced at the Rockbund Art Museum,...
Ocula Conversation Larys Frogier Director of Rockbund Art Museum (RAM), and Chair of HUGO BOSS ASIA ART jury Larys Frogier, curator, critic and art historian is Director of the Rockbund Art Museum (RAM) in Shanghai. He is also the Founder and Chair of HUGO BOSS ASIA ART Award for Emerging Asian Artists.Since opening in 2010, RAM has forged a unique position within China’s burgeoning contemporary art scene. Notably for presenting exhibitions by world...
Ocula Report Ten Private Museums in China You Should Know 3 Jul 2015 : Sam Gaskin for Ocula China is building contemporary art museums at an unrivalled pace. Private companies and individuals increasingly have not only the means to establish these museums but also the know-how to keep them going, often to a higher standard than China’s public institutions. This report lists ten of the best private art museums in China (in no...
Related Press Mark Bradford Tears Up Tradition Elephant : 24 June 2018 In late 2016, when the world was still coming to terms with the reality of Trump's move into the White House (truth be told, it still hasn't fully), American artist Mark Bradford was busy conceiving a way to subvert it. The challenge? Doing so while still representing the United States at the 57th Venice Biennale.
Related Press 'Emotionally and Physically, You Have to Keep at It': Mark Bradford on His Epic Painting Cycle Hirshhorn Museum, 'Pickett's Charge' ARTnews : 6 June 2018 Pickett's Charge, a group of eight humongous, mixed media artworks that Mark Bradford completed last year, may stop you in your tracks. That's what happened to me at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. I became transfixed. Instantly. Wherever I looked, I was captivated by reds, blues, and yellows; linear networks stretching across vast...
Related Press Mark Bradford confronts the myths of America’s past Apollo : 16 January 2018 At a retreat a few years ago, curators from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. held a brainstorming session to contemplate the museum’s most successful shows in recent memory. As director Melissa Chiu revealed, an exhibition’s success depended largely on whether it worked with or against the unique architecture of the...
Related Press Philippe Parreno transforms the Rockbund Art Museum in a perpetual motion of events Wallpaper* : 12 July 2017 For the past two decades French-born artist Philippe Parreno has used museums as his material. Known best for his recent installations at Tate Modern, HangarBicocca and the Palais de Tokyo, he has turned exhibition spaces into the exhibition. Instead of installing art on the walls, Parreno begins with what already exists in the architecture of a...
