Taipei Connections: Eleven Works to Collect
In Partnership with Taipei Connections
The Ocula team picks out some of the most collectible works at Taipei Connections (2–10 May 2020), an online platform launched by Ocula and Taipei Dangdai.
Ai Weiwei, Odyssey (2016). Wallpaper. 16,800 x 16,800 cm. Courtesy Chambers Fine Art.
Ai Weiwei, Odyssey (2016) at Chambers Fine Art
Resembling paintings on a Grecian urn, this wallpaper is an epic narrative about the plight of refugees, one of Ai Weiwei's chief concerns in recent years. Ai himself fled China for Europe after years of violence and intimidation.
Dóra Maurer, Overlappings 34 (2006) at White Cube
Dóra Maurer trained as a graphic artist in the late 1950s, and the process of printmaking is cleverly alluded to in her elegant Overlappings works, which are painted in acrylic on canvas and wood.
Nam June Paik, Satellite (1995) at Galerie Bhak
The man who coined the phrase 'electronic super highway' captured a pivotal moment in our evolution from analogue to Internet. Already, his use of TV screens feels retro-futuristic, imbued with more optimism than trepidation.
El Anatsui, E-Witness (2017) at Axel Vervoordt Gallery
Ghana-born artist El Anatsui creates bottle-cap hangings that look more like tapestries or animal skins, upcycling them with an exquisite eye for colour and form.
Chung Sang-Hwa, Work 72-B (1972) at Lévy Gorvy
A central figure of the Dansaekhwa, or 'monochrome painting' school, Korean artist Chung Sang-Hwa describes his process as a cycle of destruction and restoration. This way of working gives his paintings an almost geological depth and complexity.
Doug Aitken, FUTURE (2019) at Galerie Eva Presenhuber
The landscape is one of Doug Aitken's favorite materials, evidenced by works such as Mirage (2017), a ranch-style home covered in mirrors that disappeared into the Coachella Valley desert. FUTURE is a fittingly ambivalent work, offering the hope of daylight behind menacing, teeth-like stalactites.
Olafur Eliasson, Colour experiment no. 89 (2017) at neugerriemschneider
Ambitious, obsessive, and exacting, Olafur Eliasson collaborated with a colour chemist to mix a precise shade of paint for every nanometer of light in the visible spectrum when creating his Colour experiment paintings.
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled 2014 (we have the light) (2014) at Gallery SIDE 2
Over the front page of a Japanese newspaper printed on the day of the Tōhoku earthquake, which led to the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, Rirkrit Tiravanija speaks to our powers of resilience. Tweaking the Kurt Cobain lyric from 'I' to 'we' is indicative of his practcie's focus on the social.
Stanley Whitney, Untitled (2019) at Lisson Gallery
Stanley Whitney's drawings are like music—simultaneously dynamic and deeply considered. Behind his spontaneous, exuberant use of colour and space is a practice rooted in experimentation and contemplation.
Anselm Kiefer, DNA (2002) at Bastian
Born in Germany in 1945, Anselm Kiefer's work deals with the weight of memory and history, often incorporating surprising materials, such as this piece on cardboard. As a child, Kiefer didn't have toys, instead gathering up bricks in bombed out buildings.
Jean Dubuffet, La chasse au biscorne (EG 77) 19 août 1963 (1963) at Waddington Custot
Beginning his art career in his 40s, Jean Dubuffet was a pioneer of outsider art. He preferred the creations of children and the insane to the agreed upon aesthetic of artists inside the system, breaking conventions in both form and materials in his pursuit of authenticity. —[O]
