Archives For Art

Contemporary Arab Art & Photography at FotoFest 2014

May 10, 2014 — Leave a comment

The biggest biannual photography event in the USA is FotoFest. It is the birthplace of photographic careers; Just ask my good friend Thomas Kellner. But this year its all about Arab Photography, Video and Art but mostly its about and breaking down all our western assumptions about the Middle East. They did a great job bringing in a busload of artists to exhibit their work all over Houston. Hats off to the the folks at FotoFest who do it better than just about any other arts organization when it comes to opening minds and hearts through the power of ART.

Artist: HASSAN HAJJAJ

FotoFest has commissioned German curator Karin Adrian von Roques as
the Lead Curator for the Biennial. Ms. von Roques is known for her work,
over the past 20 years, bringing contemporary Arab art to international
museums and galleries throughout the world. She is working with FotoFest
Co-Founder and Senior Curator Wendy Watriss to organize the 2014 Arab
exhibitions.
“Our focus on Arab art was not motivated by opportunism related to the Arab
world’s current prominence in the media, but rather by a genuine conviction
that the U.S. and Western audiences should have the opportunity to hear from
more voices in the region and see the Arab world in more nuanced ways,” says
Ms. Watriss. “Finding high quality art from around the globe that engages with
the issues of our world is what FotoFest does.”

via FotoFest

Want to see more? Check out these Arab Galleries:

FOTOFEST 2014 BIENNIAL ARAB ARTISTS
(alphabetized by last name with country of origin)

Ebtisam AbdulAziz (UAE)
Khalil Abdul Wahid (UAE)
Ammar Al Beik (Syria)
Manal Al Dowayan (Saudi Arabia)
Shadia Alem (Saudi Arabia)
Reem Al Faisal (Saudi Arabia)
Sadik Alfraji (Iraq)
Tarek Al-Ghossein (Palestine/Kuwait)
Boushra Almutawakel (Yemen)
Khalifa Al Obaidly (Qatar)
Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad
Bin Ahmad Al-Thani (Qatar)
Jowhara AlSaud (Saudi Arabia)
Sama Alshaibi (Iraq)
Karima Al Shomely (UAE)
Sami Al-Turki (Saudi Arabia)
Tammam Azzam (Syria)
Lara Baladi (Egypt)
Hicham Benohoud (Morocco)
Ayman Yossri Daydban (Saudi Arabia)
Shady El-Noshokaty (Egypt)
Ayman El Semary (Egypt)
Lalla Essaydi (Morocco)
Mounir Fatmi (Morocco)
Lamya Gargash (UAE)		 Abdulnasser Gharem (Saudi Arabia)
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (Lebanon)
Khaled Hafez (Egypt)
Hassan Hajjaj (Morocco)
Rula Halawani (Palestine)
Nermine Hammam (Egypt)
Hazem Harb (Palestine)
Hazem Taha Hussein (Egypt)
Georges Fikry Ibrahim (Egypt)
Noel Jabbour (Palestine)
Ahmed Jadallah (Palestine)
Mohamed Kanoo (Bahrain)
Mohammed Kazem (UAE)
Huda Lutfi (Egypt)
Maha Malluh (Saudi Arabia)
Ahmed Mater (Saudi Arabia)
Hassan Meer (Oman)
Samer Mohdad (Lebanon)
Youssef Nabil (Egypt)
Ayman Ramadan (Egypt)
Steve Sabella (Palestine)
Faisal Samra (Saudi Arabia)
Wael Shawky (Egypt)
Camille Zakharia (Lebanon)

Contemporary Arab Art & Photography at FotoFest 2014

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Mapplethorpe & Rodin Exhibition

May 5, 2014 — Leave a comment

There is a long history of photography as sculpture in art but most don’t think of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work. They will now.  Maybe one of the most interesting shows (possibly ever conceived) of the two exhibitions now up in Paris of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs.

“If I had been born one hundred or two hundred years ago, I might have been a sculptor, but photography is a very quick way to see, to make sculpture,”

Robert Mapplethorpe 

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“I see things like they were sculptures. It depends on how that form exists within the space”. Robert Mapplethorpe

In a single exhibition, the Musée Rodin brings together two forms of expression – Sculpture and Photography – through the works of two major artists: Robert Mapplethorpe and Auguste Rodin. Thanks to exceptional loans from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, this exhibition presents 50 sculptures by Rodin and a collection of 102 photographs, in a bold dialogue revealing the enduring nature of these great artists’ favourite themes and subjects.

There would appear to be little similarity between these two renowned figures, even though Mapplethorpe continually sought to sculpt the body through photography and Rodin used photography throughout his career.

Robert Mapplethorpe sought the perfect form, while Rodin attempted to capture a sense of movement in inanimate materials. There is no spontaneity in Mapplethorpe’s work, everything is constructed, whereas Rodin retains the traces of his touch and takes advantage of the accidental. One was attracted to men, the other to women, obsessively in both cases. But this did not stop Mapplethorpe from photographing female nudes, or Rodin from sculpting many male bodies.

Here, however, the differences between these two artists are instantly transformed into an unexpected dialogue. The curators have chosen seven themes, common to the work of both, revealing connections in form, theme and aesthetic. Movement and Tension, Black and White/Light and Shadow, Eroticism and Damnation are just some of the major issues running through the works of the two artists.

This exhibition invites visitors to challenge the dialogue established by the curators, and to make their own comparisons. This “sculpture and photography” approach is unprecedented, the first time such a confrontation has been presented, and looks at both photography and sculpture from a new angle. In parallel with this, the Réunion des musées nationaux is organising a Mapplethorpe retrospective at the Grand Palais, from 26 March to 13 July 2014.

Exhibition curators

  • Hélène Pinet Head of Photography Collections at the Musée Rodin
  • Judith Benhamou-Huet Art critic and journalist
  • Hélène Marraud Assistant curator, responsible for sculptures at the Musée Rodin

 

via Musée Rodin

 

Mapplethorpe & Rodin Exhibition / Paris

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The Over Night Success of Oscar Murillo

March 26, 2014 — Leave a comment

Just like Hollywood, when the art market focus’s its lens on you things can get crazy real quick. Oscar Murillo, fresh out of the Royal College of Art, has become virtually overnight the art world’s new darling. Why? When the big art collectors smell an opportunity there is money to be made – and quickly. The problem is can this young kid with good skills be allowed to develop his work, which for a painter normally takes about 10 years. The LA Times hit him pretty hard.The spotlight could change him…

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“lessons in aesthetics & productivity 5” (2013-14)

While Mr. Murillo is little known outside clubby contemporary art circles, and he has his share of skeptics, his fans have called him “the 21st-century Basquiat.” That night, after fierce competition, “Untitled (burrito)” sold for $322,870, more than six times its high $49,000 estimate. Only two years ago, Mr. Murillo, who was born in Colombia, was waking up at 5 a.m. to clean office buildings to cover his expenses at the Royal College of Art in London. Now, he is represented by David Zwirner, one of the world’s most prestigious galleries, and when a choice canvas comes up at auction or through private sale, it can fetch more than $400,000.

The story of how a young artist like Mr. Murillo soared from struggling student to art star — courted by blue-chip dealers, inundated by curators requesting a work for a museum exhibition or biennial — reflects the way investing in contemporary art has become a gamble, like stocks and real estate. Collecting works by rising artists like Lucien Smith, Jacob Kassay, Sterling Ruby or Mr. Murillo is a competitive sport among a growing number of collectors betting on future stars.

via Oscar Murillo Keeps His Eyes on the Canvas – NYTimes.com.

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Untitled, 2012

Process, not product, is the point Murillo makes, rather heavy handedly. Think Cy Twombly on a very bad day, his deft touch replaced with ham-fisted brutality. Or Donald Baechler sans the dopey kick of playful innocence.

Murillo’s four finished paintings are equally anemic. Each large piece is less compelling than a single square inch of anything Jean-Michel Basquiat ever touched.

The exhibition goes to great lengths — not to mention great expense — to shroud the reality of labor in the fantasy of artistic redemption. That’s the opposite of what Warhol was up to. Unfortunately, it defines our times, a kind of gilded age on steroids, when the past gets repackaged as farce.

via Art Review: “Oscar Murillo: Distribution Center” at The Mistake Room – latimes.com. murillo

 

The Over Night Success of Oscar Murillo

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Exhibition: David Altmejd

March 23, 2014 — Leave a comment

Reading like a 3-D map of Hannibal Lecter’s mind or possibly a allegory for the entire contemporary art world, David Altmejd creates a beautiful installation titled: The Flux and the Puddle at the Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York.  Having seen this show in person I can assure you that never has plexiglass been so interesting….

David Altmejd Juices at the Andrea Rosen Gallery

 

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Via Andrea Rosen Gallery

 

 

Exhibition: David Altmejd

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International Center of Photography Will Close 2015

March 20, 2014 — Leave a comment
Photo by Jim Henderson

Photo by Jim Henderson

 

The International Center of Photography will be closing its Midtown museum. Executive director Mark Lubell confirmed this to artnet News in a statement. Its lease with its landlord, the Durst Organization, is coming to an end in January 2015, and the center has not renegotiated a new lease. Currently the organization, which includes a photography museum, school, and research center, is on the lookout for a new space for its museum.At our request for an interview, Lubell issued the following statement.

“The International Center of Photography has been and continues to be at the center, both nationally and internationally, of the conversation regarding photography and the explosive growth of visual communications. In advancing this conversation, ICP has decided to move its current museum to a new space. This decision reflects the evolution of photography and our role in setting the agenda for visual communications for the 21st century. ICP will announce our future sites this spring. The school will remain at 1114 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan.”

The museum, which was founded in 1974, has been at its Midtown location, in the ground floor retail space, since the 1980s. According to Jordan Barowitz, director of external affairs for the Durst Organization, the ICP has been a tenant of the Durst Organization since 1968 when the ICP was known by its earlier name, the International Fund for Concerned Photography. The sum that the ICP pays, he said, is and always has been nominal during the time of institution’s tenancy with Durst. “They only pay operating expenses and don’t pay rent,” Barowitz said, though he refused to go into detail about the terms of the ICP’s current lease.

via International Center of Photography Set To Close Its Midtown Museum – artnet News.

 

International Center of Photography Will Close 2015

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