Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota is best known for art that consumes its viewers. These entanglements, blood-red, black or white threads often ensnare personal objects – from clothes, keys, boats, suitcases, to the artist herself. Shiota’s large-scale installation art often appears as though humans can weave webs, but at Galerie Templon, Brussels, the artist has downsized to spider-scale for a new diorama.
Read MoreWhether it is the talking microphones, the ‘Blame’ bottle, or the bag with a label that reads, ‘There is no explosive in this’, Shilpa Gupta’s artworks always speak to their viewer about situations that are socio-politically loaded. But only to the point where one engages with the work and ‘interprets’ it, even subjectively.
Read MoreThe show opens with a piece Kostina calls the “perfect” introduction to the exhibition: Ilya and Emilia Kabakovs’ 2019 painting “Excursion,” in which the audiences see themselves — a group of people at an exhibition. The work is surrounded by a mirror, bringing together the image and viewers looking at the image. Divided into two large parts, Around and Inside, the exhibition is further divided into smaller sections, such as Fears, Anxieties, Illusions, Triggers and Hopes.
Read MoreThe short documentary about John Lennon and Yoko Ono, 24 Hours: The World of John and Yoko, is available to stream on the Coda Collection on Amazon Prime Video.
Read MoreBorn in Iran, Neshat came to the United States in the 1970s to pursue an education free from increasing political volatility in her homeland. After the Shah of Iran was overthrown the country’s post-revolutionary climate of unrest prevented Neshat from returning. She acquired an MFA from the University of California, Berkeley, moved to New York, and began making images during the early 1990s. Since then she’s won prestigious awards and become internationally recognized, although she has only returned to Iran a couple of times and has been an American citizen since 1983.
Read MoreIf you’re feeling helpless and overwhelmed by too much reality at the moment, consider a brief reprieve in art. Frieze New York’s latest edition, whose online viewing rooms are live until 14 May, features some of the best names in contemporary art from across the world—including a glittering array of artists from south Asia. The latter—Shilpa Gupta, Anju Dodiya, Atul Dodiya, Gulammohammed Sheikh, among others—have created intensely cerebral, yet aesthetically engaging, work over the decades. Their art, represented by some of the best galleries in India, not only act as windows into the world we have inherited, but also as portals into the recesses of our collective consciousness.
Read MoreYoko Ono’s legacy is split in two. There is the reductive, racist, and sexist mythology that she broke up the Beatles, acting like a Lady Macbeth of rock music, sowing seeds of discontent that led to the implosion of the greatest rock band of the 20th century. As an addendum to this narrative is Ono the dilettante, the talentless, rich rock widow who used her connections and nepotism to buy herself a career as a musician.
The other story of Yoko Ono is far more interesting.
Read MoreAiring on SBS on Demand, the 2018 film has seen renewed attention and rightfully so, taking a close look at the life of painter Gerhard Richter. The romantic drama was written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, and was nominated for two Academy Awards at the Oscars in the year it was released for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography—marking only the second time a German-language film by a German director had been nominated in multiple categories.
Read MoreAfter a year of cancelled exhibits and shuttered galleries, New York's biggest art fair is back. Frieze New York will take place for the first time at The Shed in Manhattan from May 5 to May 9.
Read MoreAt a time of global helplessness and an increasing loss of confidence in politics, art demands social interaction. Diversity United assembles works from established and emerging artists, representing different generations, genders and regions, and makes the case for a European dialogue, focusing on themes such as freedom and democracy, migration and territory as well as political and personal identity. As of June the exhibition will be on view in the iconic halls of the Tempelhof Airport in Berlin until late September 2021.
Read MoreTwenty-four artists have donated their works to raise funds for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), which is holding a sale online at Artsy from now until April 30 instead of its annual in-person benefit gala. The 19 works and five limited-edition multiples have an estimated total of US$400,000, proceeds of which which will help establish the Joe Thompson “Yes” Fund to support artists and art-making in all forms.
Read MoreChiharu Shiota’s elaborate entanglements are difficult to forget and easy to get lost in. Her labyrinthine installations are vast, surreal waves of blood-red, black or white threads, and appear almost as though humans could weave webs. Within these environments, the Japanese, Berlin-based artist often traps objects of personal significance such as clothes, keys, boats, suitcases, and even herself.
Read More
