“The Fury” (presented at Goodman Gallery London from October 7 to November 4, 2023), is the latest body of work by the New York-based Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat, who, since the 1990s, has captivated viewers — and in some instances caused controversy — through an art that investigates gender and society, time and memory, the individual and the collective, and the complexities and contradictions of Islam, told through a personal and diasporic lens.
Read MoreGerhard Richter never confined himself to a medium, just as he never assigned himself to a genre. He has always, within his protean work, played between forms and artistic trends. He was in turn a leader of romanticism and a master of abstraction; he is the same man behind sumptuous little oil seascapes and stunning pixel paintings. Gerhard Richter is both tradition and its rupture; to the questions that his art poses, he opposes their visions. And these works, mixing photography and painting, are the ultimate incarnation of this ambivalence. The Gerhard Richter Archiv presents his "Overpainting" at the Albertinum, Dresden, from 26.08. to 19.11.2023.
Read MoreShilpa Gupta, the subject of two new shows in New York this fall — including her first solo exhibition with the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, on view in New York from October 27th to December 16th, 2023. — describes her way of working using a common Indian word, “jugaad.” Adopted over the past decade in the West by productivity gurus and business schools, the practice of jugaad means finding innovative solutions with limited resources, bending senseless rules and skirting rigid bureaucracies — getting things done without setting off alarms. “That famous word, jugaad, it’s really real in India,” she said. “You have to constantly take risks to be able to do anything.”
Read MoreIn perhaps his most poignant projection installation to date, William Kentridge revisits the music of Dmitri Shostakovich inside his exhibition at the New York's Marian Goodman gallery "Oh To Believe in Another World" (September 12–October 21, 2023). Immersive five-channel projection inspired by Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10, takes on the revolution’s shattered dreams ground down under authoritarian boot heels. [...] Kentridge’s genius resides in his capacity for reflection—he never shies away from exploring the dark side of human nature, war, colonialism, and both capitalist and communist systems.
Read MoreWhen asked to identify themselves, individuals, following their name, are most likely to state their nationality. Artist Shilpa Gupta takes this behavioural instinct and gives it a satirical spin in Stars on Flags of the World. The flag-sized fabric-based work features the stars that appear on the flags of all the recognised and unrecognised countries embroidered over one another. “The oldest country is only a few hundred years old, but civilisations have been around for far longer. So how does a construct so young become the most dominant definition of identity today?” asks Gupta. [...] Shilpa gupta is currently exhibited as a duo solo with works of Marisa Merz, "visibleinvisible", at the contemporary art museum MAXXI L’Aquila, housed within Rome’s historic Palazzo Ardinghelli (2 April–1 October 2023). One of the most striking aspects about the show is its discernible dichotomy, which ironically holds it together. Gupta and Merz are separated by nationalities, time zones and cultures, yet their practices seem to resonate in intent.
Read MoreThe Diocesan Museum Freising is hosting an exhibition of works by Kiki Smith, one of the superstars of today's art scene (October 8 2023 - January 7 2024). At the same time, an exhibition is devoted to Francis of Assisi. An interesting mix. [..] Kiki Smith's work fits in perfectly with the second exhibition devoted to Francis of Assisi, the marginal saint and patron saint of ecology, the man who preached to animals," explains Christoph Kürzeder. "He even preached to the birds. The starry sky. And animals all at once. Dog and cat. A cat and a bird. Kiki Smith always endows his ideal world, which links all that is animate and inanimate, with barbels. Here's a bronze woman sitting on a pyre. As the artist herself says, the fluffy clouds wear dungeon chains. In spite of everything, she loves the beauty of the earth and the privilege of living.
Read MoreFor the first time, the public in Việt Nam will be introduced to the works of Japanese female artist Chiharu Shiota, one of the world’s leading names in conceptual art. Her creations are on display at a large-scale installation exhibition taking place at the Vincom Centre for Contemporary Art (VCCA) in Hà Nội. Entitled "A Tide of Emotions" (4 october 2023 – 30 March 2024), the exhibition features works that the Japanese artist created exclusively for the VCCA space, as a response to the unique, poetic architecture here.
Read MoreBerlin’s art scene never sleeps. This year’s edition of Berlin Art Week took place from September 13-17. [...] The Neue Nationalgalerie also hosted, for the second year, a series of live happenings and performances, which featured a rare highlight: Yoko Ono’s seminal Cut Piece from 1964. The museum’s director Klaus Biesenbach shared with journalists that its appearance was a matter of personal trust—Ono doesn’t usually let this work be restaged. Berlin-based performers enacted the work, in which the audience is invited to cut off a piece of the performer’s clothing, one by one. How far they choose to go is up to the situation, which becomes the palpable immaterial substance of the piece.
Read MoreWilliam Kentridge and Nhlanhla Mhlangu shared the How of a forthcoming production called The Great Yes and The Great No at the stage of The Centre for the Less Good Idea. This production is another in his line of interrogation of colonialism: this time about slavery and the Caribbean island of Martinique. It features the philosophy of Negritude of Aimé Césaire and Susanne Césaire. It also includes the ideas of Franz Fanon and Léopold Senghor. It creates counterpoints using Josephine Bonaparte (born in Martinique) and the American-born French superstar Josephine Baker. From the masks, the choir, and the deconstruction of text, this will be another epic production fitting like a glove into our decolonising epoch. Kentridge has long resisted the impulse to the single story. So does Dada Khanyisathe (the 2022 FNB Art winner Dada Khanyisa at Johannesburg Art Gallery). So should we in thinking about Johannesburg today.
Read More“The invisible is the outline and the depth of the visible," Maurice Merleau-Ponty, French philosopher. What is your take on their being a Western notion of seeing and an Eastern notion of feeling? Transcending long-established conventions, we stand in a day and age of re-exploring the proposition of the many ways of seeing. In an attempt to encourage a wave of deeper introspection on this topic, two worlds, two histories, and two eras meet for the exhibition visibleinvisible, curated within the Baroque rooms of Palazzo Ardinghelli at the famous MAXXI L'Aquila museum in city of L'Aquila, Italy. The exhibit celebrates two artists—Marisa Merz and Shilpa Gupta—born 50 years apart in two distinct places, Italy and India, respectively. Under the artistic direction of Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and Fanny Borel, this art exhibition breathes new life into the idea of perspective and meaning-making.
Read MoreYou might think autumn would be a stupid time to open an outdoor sculpture exhibition. But that hasn’t stopped Frieze from returning to Regent’s Park once again with their annual outdoor sculpture extravaganza (from 20 September to 29 October) [...] Go get the beanies and brollies, we’re going arting. Moss has been big in art for a few years now, it’s a ubiquitous, damp trend that shows no signs of abating, especially now that Turkish artist Ayse Erkmen has whacked this big moss column up.
Read MoreFor "The Wall Behind the Windows" (König Gallery, September 13 - November 11 2023), Chiharu Shiota has turned the former Chapel at St. Agnes into one of her intricately threaded sculptures, on a scale that fills every inch of the exhibition space. Rather than entering the space perambulatorily, Shiota has devised a way for the interaction itself with her work to reflect the nature of the objects that feature most prominently within it: windows
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