Glenn Ligon at the Berlin Biennale
Berlin Biennale
May 29- August 3, 2014
Michel Francois: Pieces of Evidence, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Michel Francois: Pieces of Evidence
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
April 30- June 22, 2014
Ikon presents the first UK survey of work by Belgian artist Michel François, comprising sculpture, film and photography. It exemplifies the artist's conviction that the meanings of a work of art are determined through its combination with others in relation to an exhibition space. Visitors to Ikon encounter numerous pieces to be read as a whole, integrated with the entire building.
The exhibition title, Pieces of evidence, refers to François' fascination with a netherworld, drawing comparisons between the ingenuity of artists and criminals. The key installation here involves a projected film in which we see the hands of a magician skilfully examining everyday objects - drinks cans, cosmetic bottles - before revealing hidden compartments and illegal substances within. The objects themselves are exhibited in vitrines nearby. Another work, Stumbling Block II (Wall) (1989), is a large rectangular block of polystyrene secured to the wall with strips of brown tape, a sculptural translation of a convicted smuggler's failed attempt to conceal drugs by strapping them across their body. An art object is likened to contraband.
The idea of crossing international frontiers - illegally or otherwise - is conveyed by Surveying(1993), a video of an inchworm walking over a map of the world. This funny creature signifies the artist's free spirit with respect to art as much as his geographical itinerancy, a kind of energy that spurs us to keep moving, keep looking, and keep asking questions.
Likewise,Golden Cage 1 (2008-2009), considers the notion of frontiers. A large free-standing steel box, from which A4-sized sections have been uniformly cut, it is a structure on the verge of collapse. It is a cage with walls that resemble the gilded left-overs of a manufacturing process, with cut out shapes scattered within. François presents this work as symbolic of human migration across the Mexican/US border, the hollow dreams of finding a better place, the cage being desirable in a way that its contents are not.
A further work, Self-Portrait Against Nature (2002), shows the artist, seen from above, walking around on a hard concrete floor and smoking while empty wine bottles drop and smash around him. It suggests a kind of solitude and self-destructiveness that throw any hints of joy into sharp relief. Broken Neon Lights (2003), has a similar edginess as François stamps his feet through a path of neon tubes, laid widthways, resulting in lots more broken glass. The action is transgressive and the feeling one of anger.
The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication featuring a text by writer and critic Martin Herbert.
Michel François' exhibition Pieces of evidence is supported by The Henry Moore Foundation;Wallonie-Bruxelles International; Lafarge Tarmac; Bortolami Gallery, New York; Galerie Carlier Gebauer, Berlin; Galerie Kamel Mennour, Paris; Thomas Dane Gallery, London and Galerie Xavier Hufkens, Brussels.
Steve McQueen: TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People
Steve McQueen has been named one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People, 2014.
Steve McQueen: New Work at Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo
Steve McQueen
Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo
Tokyo, Japan
April 26- August 17, 2014
Lynda Benglis Honoured at New Museum Spring Gala
Our congratulations to Lynda Benglis on the occasion of her being honored at the 2014 New Museum Annual Spring Gala.
New Museum Annual Spring Gala
Cipriani, New York
April 1, 2014
Amy Sillman at the Whitney Biennial 2014, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
The Whitney Museum is proud to present two works by Amy Sillman at the 2014 Whitney Biennale; 'Mother', a painted work by the artist and 'Fells', a three-dimensional collaboration with sculptor Pam Lins.
On view on the fourth floor of the 2014 Biennial, 'Fells' began with a question posed by sculptor Pam Lins about how to incorporate a painting into a sculpture, a proposal that she has been working for the past decade. Amy Sillman suggested that Lins begin a new work by taking and responding to one of Sillman's own canvases, and this began an ongoing back-and-forth exchange between their two studios. They continued this chain of moves and responses for over a year, Lins adding a form, Sillman changing a painting in reply, Lins painting a panel, and so on. The result is a hybrid structure in which the parts appear somehow coordinated and disjointed at the same time, its sculptural components challenging us to think about three-dimensional space even as its pictorial elements seem to disrupt that solid reality.
John Gerrard: New Commission at Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey
'Exercise'
Borusan Contemporary
Turkey, Istanbul
1 March -1 June 2014
'12 Years a Slave' awarded Best Picture at the 2014 Academy Awards
Our congratulations to Steve McQueen and the whole cast and the crew of '12 Years a Slave' for winning Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards!
Akram Zaatari: This Day at Ten, Wiels Contemporary Art Centre, Bruxelles
WIELS presents for the first time in Belgium an exhibition by Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari, who has emerged as one of the most prominent commentators on photography of the Middle East. Zaatari's practice is closely tied to the practice of collecting. Through books, photographic installations, and videos, Zaatari's visual studies reflects on the shifting nature of borders and the production and circulation of images in the political context of the region. Paralleling his long-term engagement with "the state of image making in situations of war", his work looks into notions of surveillance and expressions of masculinity, exploring the way different media apparatuses get employed in the service of power, resistance, and memory. This sensibility was formed in the course of living through fifteen years of war in Lebanon, watching it unfold and recording it as a teenager.
As co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation - an expanding collection of over 600,000 images - Zaatari is deeply invested in examining how photography served to shape notions of aesthetics, postures and social codes, therefore looking at the present through a wealth of past records of vernacular and studio photography from the Middle East. "I do not believe in the neutrality of the archive," Zaatari says. He has spent much of the last decade studying, indexing, and presenting the archive of Studio Sheherazade, established in 1953 by photographer Hashem el Madani in Saida, South Lebanon - Zaatari's city of origin - as a register of social relationships and of photographic practices.
Akram Zaatari, born in 1966 and author of more than 40 video works, lives and works in Beirut. Zaatari recently represented Lebanon in the 55th Venice Biennale and partook in dOCUMENTA XIII and Liverpool Biennial (2012), and Istanbul Biennial (2011). His work has been exhibited in and collected by museums all over the world, including at Tate, London; Bristol Museum, Bristol; Centre Pompidou, Paris; SFMOMA, San Francisco; MoMA, New York; Kunstverein, Munich; MUSAC, Léon; and Kunsternes Hus, Oslo.Curator: Dirk Snauwaert
Steve McQueen's '12 Years a Slave' awarded Best Picture at the 2014 BAFTAs
Our congratulations to Steve McQueen, the cast and the crew of '12 Years a Slave' for winning Best Picture at this year's British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards.
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