|
 |
Daniel Knorr, Nationalgalerie (detail), 2008
|
 |
|
|
news + headlines
feature
reviews
one to watch
interview
media
credits
|
Berlin Biennial
April 30-May 13, 2008
The organizers of the 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art clearly aren't concerned with art fatigue. On the contrary, their marathon approach of showing work both by day and night testifies to their renewed enthusiasm for bringing emerging artists
to the public's attention. In this issue of Artkrush, we discuss work from the biennial's five daytime venues, beginning with
Manon de Boer's homage to John Cage, Two Times 4'33" at Kunst-Werke Institute, and Thea Djordjadze's sculpture strewn about the Neue Nationalgalerie. We highlight the painted
collages and high-fashion abstractions of Paulina Olowska and interview fellow BB5 contributor Daniel Guzmán about his work and concurrent exhibition at New York's New Museum. For our media pick, we select The Joy of Photography — a monograph of outdoor photography by firebrand artist Piotr Uklański. Finally, our reviews open with intricate optical
cyclones from Sangnam Lee's Landscapic Algorithm show in Seoul and close with Daniel Canogar's constrictive installations and videos in Geneva.
|
|
|
Art Takes on Death
(Independent, April 20)
The grim reaper is taking center stage in a number of controversial art projects. German artist Gregor Schneider is reportedly looking for volunteers who are willing to die in his next gallery show. Said Schneider: "I want to display a person dying naturally in the piece
or somebody who has just died. My aim is to show the beauty of death." Last year, in Nicaragua, Costa Rican artist Guillermo
Vargas stirred up criticism by tying up a dog in a gallery and leaving it to starve to death. Meanwhile, this past month, a Yale art student
claimed to have self-induced multiple miscarriages for her thesis project, while the university insisted the project was a media hoax.
Vogels to Give Art to All 50 States
(Washington Post, April 11)
New York art-world luminaries Dorothy and Herbert Vogel recently announced that they plan to distribute 2,500 works from their collection to museums throughout the entire country. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, will coordinate the gifting of the
Vogels' treasure trove of minimal and conceptual art, which includes work by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Dan Graham, and Sol LeWitt, among others. This spring, works from the Vogel collection will be seen in ten museums in ten states, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey.
Herzog & de Meuron's "Bird's Nest" Opens
(News.Scotsman.com, April 17)
The world had its first look at Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron's nearly $500 million Beijing Olympic stadium, known as the "Bird's Nest" for its curved and latticed steel structure. Even though the new building stands 230-feet high, it is barely visible from
half a mile away, due to Beijing's dense pollution. Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who consulted on the project, has criticized the work, calling it a "fake smile" intended to obscure China's political problems. Herzog has said that he is not sure whether his firm will attend the games, but assured reporters that the decision was not political. In a related story, the architects are seeking public feedback on their Miami Art Museum design.
Jeff Koons Tops the Met
(Independent, April 23)
Pop jokester Jeff Koons is sitting pretty on top of the art-world market — his Hanging Heart, a giant version of a cheap jewelry pendant, fetched over $22 million last fall, setting a record for a living artist — and
now three of his works are perched atop the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The artist's enormous replicas of a chocolate heart
wrapped in red cellophane, a poorly colored-in picture of Piglet from a Winnie the Pooh coloring book, and a golden balloon-animal
dog will spend their summer on the museum's roof deck. The New York Times called the works "mischievously meaningful," and concluded, "Mr. Koons' sculptures remain intellectually and sensuously exciting
objects."
|
|
Is the Centre Pompidou out of money? more »
Keith Haring mural to be re-created on the Bowery more »
Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House on the block more »
Banksy pulls off biggest stunt yet more »
Performance artist slain in Turkey more »
Guggenheim Bilbao administrator confesses to embezzlement more »
Bio-artist Steven Kurtz cleared of charges more »
Cologne art fair falls flat more »
Rothko heirs win right to move his remains more »
Architect Peter Eisenman discusses Holocaust memorial more »
Small paintings coming back into vogue more »
Jean Nouvel, architect of the moment more »
The new gallery-and-artist power couples more »
Is conceptual artist Loris Gréaud for real? more »
Video artist Omer Fast nabs Whitney Biennial's Bucksbaum Award more »
For street shutterbugs, a tougher time taking pictures more »
New-media prankster Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung unveils new political animation more »
Minimalism reigns at Olafur Eliasson's MoMA/P.S.1 show more »
Graf gets electric more »
Examining the influence of outsider artist Henry Darger more »
Why is art writing so bad? more »
MoCA LA celebrates performance-art pioneer Allan Kaprow more »
View gallery »
|
back to top
|
|
 |
 |
[ When things cast no shadow ] |
 |
|
 |
Alexandra Bachzetsis / Ettore Sottsass / Tellervo Kalleinen
|
Eschewing any specific agenda, Kunsthalle Basel director Adam Szymczyk and independent curator Elena Filipovic have selected 113 artists representing more than 30 countries to exhibit work night and day at the 5th Berlin Biennial for
Contemporary Art, entitled When things cast no shadow.
The Kunst-Werke Institute Berlin, the biennial's original venue, presents four floors of multifarious artworks, including Manon de Boer's film Two Times 4'33", which shows the artist twice performing John Cage's silent 4'33" composition. During the recital's second staging, the camera pans around the room to an awkwardly postured audience, which
echoes the viewer's own discomfort. On the third floor, photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki's The Park series documents couples in flagrante delicto in Tokyo's public parks. Dozens of pictured onlookers bind the photographer and viewer together in a voyeuristic process
that examines the clandestine side of lust.
The Neue Nationalgalerie, a modernist architectural icon and first-time biennial host, inspires a response from Thea Djordjadze, whose miniature exhibition deaf and dumb universe (working title) resists the building's dominant symmetry with a domestic setting of organic plaster sculptures that rests on staggered shelving.
Additionally, Pedro Barateiro models two local bus stops on specific Lithuanian and Kazakh examples in The Naked City. The massive, poured-concrete shelter transforms transit infrastructure into studied, architectonic sculptures, and highlights
the connections and divisions between two points in the city.
Heavy with the weight of history, the third daytime venue is Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum, which was formerly a strip of the Berlin Wall and now consists of 62 barren lots. Lars Laumann's video installation Berlinmuren respectfully documents an objectophile's alternative perspective on this history — Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer, who "married" the Berlin Wall in 1979, recalls how traumatizing the events of 1989 were for them both. Emanating from a
pile of rubble and weeds, Susan Hiller's sound installation What every gardener knows celebrates nature's diversity by transposing Gregor Mendel's binary combinations, formulated to delineate and control inherited traits, into a chordal carillon. Meanwhile, Cyprien Gaillard's works — performative installation The Arena and the Wasteland, symbolic monument Le canard de Beaugrenelle, and filmic tribute Crazy Horse — all display the failings of social planning through architecture.
Nairy Baghramian and Janette Laverriere's collaboration, the first of five consecutive exhibitions at the Schinkel Pavillon, uses Laverriere's poetic mirrors to create a reflective structure containing a small library. The third exhibition at Schinkel
comprises Ettore Sottsass' texts and works from the '60s and '70s — colorful and simple geometrical pieces that are aimed at a wide audience.
Mes nuits sont plus belles que vous jours, the nighttime element of the biennial, encompasses 63 nights of events, including the Complaints Choir, in which participants voice their woes through songs composed by Miss Le Bomb, and Alexandra Bachzetsis' deftly choreographed Gold, which reevaluates the eroticized female body in R&B culture. Other artists step out of their usual practices, such as Dolores Zinny and Juan Maidagan, who hold a convoluted talk on the strange connections made between an avant-garde artists' institute, a former train station,
and Jorge Luis Borges.
Its unconventional 24-hour format and the selection of less-established artists separates BB5 from other biennials, and, ultimately,
its success lies in simultaneous discussion of a variety of matters that interweave content with form, and the historical
with the contemporary.
- Sarah Stephenson
The 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art runs through June 15. Ettore Sottsass' work is also on view at Friedman Benda in New York from May 1 through June 21. A catalogue of Kohei Yoshiyuki's The Park series was recently published by Hatje Cantz.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Sangnam Lee: Landscapic Algorithm
Seoul
PKM Trinity Gallery
Now through May 20
The surfaces of Sangnam Lee's paintings at PKM's newly opened Trinity Gallery are perfectly smooth, with soft tones of blue, pink, grey, and yellow. On top of these, the New York-based artist superimposes kinetic patterns derived from typography and complex geometry, which occupy a small portion of the paintings' large surfaces. In works such as Arcus+Spheroid M 002, the visual vertigo induced by the layered, stereoscopic forms injects a sense of insecurity into Lee's otherwise orderly
and systematic world. While lushly decorative, the artist's larger paintings tend toward staidness, playing it a little too
safe. But a wall covered with Lee's small-scale works is a relief; here, he reveals refreshing moments of risk, humor, intimacy, and intensity.
- Pontus Kyander
|
|
|
|
|
Dawoud Bey: Perspectives 160
Houston
Contemporary Arts Museum
Now through May 11
For Chicago-based artist Dawoud Bey, Class Pictures is the culmination of 15 years of youth-centered work. Twenty-five large-scale color portraits present teens from diverse
social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. With simple first-name titles, such as Kevin and Odalys, each formal portrait, marked by the sitter’s arrestingly direct gaze, depicts its young subject within his or her school
environment. Short, subject-written autobiographies accompany each photograph, adding depth and complexity that extend beyond
the photographic frame. In his Four Stories video installation, Bey furthers his interest in image and narrative. Shot in extreme close-up, Bey's video roams over the
faces of four students as they tell their life stories. Viewed collectively, Class Pictures is a compelling anthology of coming-of-age experiences in modern America.
- Lisa L. Powell
A catalogue, published by Aperture, accompanies the traveling exhibition.
|
|
|
|
|
Tamy Ben-Tor
New York
Zach Feuer Gallery
Now through May 3
In the four new video works of her second New York solo show, shape-shifting performance artist Tamy Ben-Tor conjures up a cast of characters to portray different herd mentalities. In Normal, Ben-Tor plays a pink-polo-clad man who presents a narcissistic monologue on emails and productivity — a reminder that the
American corporate arena has its own tribal behaviors. The End of Art takes on more liberal careers by mimicking art-world personalities who drive practices such as relational aesthetics. In the other two works, the Israel-born artist uses her talents to speak in cultural tongues, employing the directness of
YouTube production values to create mini-inquisitions into loaded topics, from the banality of evil to folklore's latent violence.
- Catherine Krudy
Tamy Ben-Tor's work can also be seen at Brown in London through May 31.
|
|
|
|
|
Liam Gillick: Fractional Factories in the Snow
Paris
Air de Paris
Now through May 17
Liam Gillick continues his conceptual interrogation of corporate culture through forms that attempt to expose social behaviors controlled
by architecture. A theorist, designer, teacher, and prankster, the British artist is best at putting a baton in the wheel
of existing structures and systems, unveiling their influence on their environments and their users. In his show at Air de
Paris, Gillick once again takes up industrial screens and large wall texts. The boxy, grey-paneled Suspended Discussion contrasts with the brightly colored insets of Local Discussion Screen. Gillick's minimalist gesture in Rendered Rejection, a series of painted aluminum slats set in close intervals and cantilevered vertically along the wall, channels Donald Judd
while looking backward at the worker's utopia imagined by arch-constructivist Vladimir Tatlin.
- Erin Cowgill
Liam Gillick's work is also on view at New York's Casey Kaplan Gallery from May 8 through June 14.
|
|
|
|
|
Daniel Canogar
Geneva
Galerie Guy Bärtschi
Now through May 16
Spanish artist Daniel Canogar's stunning show tackles the classic theme of man vs machine, using webbed wires as a metaphor for electronic networks. On
the first floor, dozens of red, arterial fiber-optic cables gracefully float in space, each tentacle ending in a miniature
projection system. The Spider series includes three such sets, which cast images of clothed bodies entangled in wires onto the walls of the darkened gallery.
The predicament of these tragic figures, who are both bound and supported by their restraints, manifests the double-edged
sword of our information society. Downstairs, Tangle is a techie's nightmare, with its chaotic installation of cables made from electronic waste. Dozens of projected images of tangled wires interact continuously with viewers, who may physically interrupt a projection
or jostle a projector, placing their own bodies at the center of Canogar's giant net.
- Marlyne Sahakian
A catalogue with an interview between the artist and Marta Gili, director of the Jeu de Paume in Paris, has been published by the gallery.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
[ Paulina Olowska ] |
|
|
|
Paulina Olowska
|
Paulina Olowska was born in Gdansk, Poland, in 1976 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in her hometown, as well as at the Art Institute
of Chicago. While consistently incorporating painterly techniques, each of Olowska's solo outings — whether in Munich, Amsterdam,
London, or New York — has been a drastic departure from the show preceding it.
Olowska reconfigures media without much subtlety. Positioned at the juncture of literature and performance, her 2002 painting
X documents an earlier performance of the artist spelling out poems through gestures, letter by letter. Other multimedia collisions
occur in her most recent exhibition, Attention à la Peinture, at Cologne's Galerie Daniel Buchholz. With a couturier's precision, Olowska carefully cuts out clothing patterns from abstract
canvases — the first of her career — and displays the finished apparel alongside the gutted paintings. The exhibition's wall text, taken from the autobiography of '30s fashion icon Elsa Schiaparelli, proposes high fashion as a weapon against conformism for women living in Soviet Russia.
Attention à la Peinture highlighted several of Olowska's favored motifs: the burden of the past, specifically manifest in the stifling atmosphere
of communist Poland; creativity as a liberating force; and the open beauty of women. Perhaps her most well-known show is Hello to You Too, a nine-painting series celebrating female sensuality. In the oil-and-collage work Pauline Boty Acts Out One of Her Paintings for a Popular Newspaper, she pays tribute to the stunning Pauline Boty, a British pop artist who attracted great criticism for her overtly sexual work.
In Nova Scena, Olowska's 2007 solo show of painted collages at New York's Metro Pictures, the artist trolled the '60s propaganda war between the Soviet Union and the United States for sparks
of creativity from her native country. The utopian smiles of liberated young women appear beside pages from Ameryka and Soviet Life magazines. Many of these works resemble their subtractive counterpart, décollage — a form itself rooted in a grassroots protest.
Olowska's contribution to the Berlin Biennial pays a long-overdue tribute to the late Zofia Stryjenska — a Polish artist whose decorative motifs were appropriated by the communist state and mass-produced without her permission. Though her work was at times ubiquitous, it rarely bore her name. At the Schinkel Pavillon in the biennial, Olowska selects a number of state-produced items adorned with Stryjenska's designs, and displays them alongside historical documents that pertain to the all-but-forgotten artist. In addition, she exhibits a suite of paintings in Stryjenska's black-and-white, folkloric style.
- Joel Withrow
Paulina Olowska's work is on view in the 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art through June 15.
|
| back to top |
|
 |
 |
[ Daniel Guzmán ] |
|
|
|
View more images » |
|
| Born and based in Mexico City, artist Daniel Guzmán is best known for his detailed drawings. His work, a smorgasbord of media and materials, references historical and mythical Mexican iconography, modern Latin-American
literati, and good ol' rock 'n roll. Artkrush contributor Anna Altman caught up with Guzmán at the New Museum in New York
to discuss his work in the exhibition Double Album: Daniel Guzmán and Steven Shearer and his participation in the 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art. |
AK: Can you introduce Double Album, your current exhibition with Steven Shearer at the New Museum?
|
DG: The idea behind the show was to bring together two different artists with similar concerns — like rock 'n roll — but different
processes. I typically use drawing more than other media, and in Mexico, almost everyone knows me for my drawings. I've only
made four videos in my career, but this exhibition includes those works alongside other retrospective pieces; one of the drawings
is from 1994, but the last ones, the big drawings, are from 2007. Right now, I feel more at peace with myself and my work.
With a show like this, you have the opportunity to review your work, and you can see the different developments and what the
best option is for the future.
|
AK: What kinds of work are you focusing on now?
|
DG: I'm about to start a new series of drawings. I use India and Chinese ink, but I love pencil and acrylic as well. I want to
make large-scale drawings, but also to layer the works with different techniques and to create some kind of homage to different
artists who inspire me, like Pier Paolo Pasolini, William Burroughs, and Charles Bukowski. That would be the center of the experience, but I want to mix my personal vision with that influence.
|
AK: Tell us about your work in the Berlin Biennial. How does it relate to the context of the biennial or to Berlin? Is it important
to you that your work respond to where it is shown?
|
| keep reading the interview » |
|
| back to top |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Piotr Uklański: The Joy of Photography
Geoffrey Batchen, Patrick Javault, and Piotr Uklański
Hatje Cantz
Controversial painter, sculptor, filmmaker, and photographer Piotr Uklański — who was recently dubbed a "Kielbasa cowboy" for writing and directing a Polish western — has been making waves in the art world for the past decade. His photographic
series The Nazis, which appropriated film-still and poster details of actors in German military regalia, and his photograph of the bare bottom of his girlfriend, super-curator Alison Gingeras, brought him international media attention, while his rising auction prices have made him a collectors' darling. Unfortunately,
Uklański's most notorious work is left out of this monograph, which was published in conjunction with a recent exhibition
of his photography at Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain in Strasbourg, France. But The Joy of Photography, which pays tribute to the same-titled guidebook published by Kodak for amateur photographers, is filled with beautiful images of natural phenomena. An island is masked,
presenting the illusion of seeing it through binoculars; landscapes are rotated vertically and multiplied to produce otherworldly views; and cityscapes and automobile lights are shot at night with long exposures
to construct near abstractions. The overall effect, especially in the book's large-scale format, is enchanting.
- Paul Laster
Piotr Uklański's work is on view in the 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art through June 15 and in a solo show at New York's Gagosian Gallery through May 17.
|
|
back to top
|
|
 |
|
Cover Art
Daniel Knorr
Nationalgalerie, 2008
Installation view at the 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art at Neue Nationalgalerie
58 flags, fabric, metal
Each 141 3/4 x 110 1/4 in./360 x 280 cm
Courtesy the artist
© Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art and Uwe Walter, 2008
All Rights Reserved
|
Editor
Paul Laster
Deputy Editor
Joel Withrow
News Editor
Greg Zinman
Reviews Editor
H.G. Masters
Contributing Editors
Adda Birnir
Jennifer Y. Chen
Erin Cowgill
Shana Nys Dambrot
Sarah Kessler
Doug Levy
Andrew Maerkle
Mark Mangan
Bryony Roberts
Marlyne Sahakian
Peter Stepek
Sarah Stephenson
Contributors
Catherine Krudy
Pontus Kyander
Lauren McKee
Lisa L. Powell
Mailer Design
Jessica Bauer-Greene
Mark Barry
|
|
Production
Anna S. Altman
Morgan Croney
Andrew Steinmetz
Daphne Yang
Media Partnerships
Every other week, Artkrush presents one exclusive media partner. Click for more information about advertising opportunities on Artkrush and across all Flavorpill publications.
Links
Check out our complete list of recommended art, architecture, design, photography, and new media sites.
Press
Send press releases to press.
Feedback
Please take a moment to let us know what you think about Artkrush — all praise and criticism is welcome.
About Us
Artkrush is a twice-monthly email magazine, featuring current news, people, and events in the international art community.
All stories and links are pure editorial, never paid advertisements.
In addition to this twice-monthly digest of the visual arts, Flavorpill publishes a series of online magazines, covering
NEWS, BOOKS, MUSIC, and cultural events in six cities — NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, SAN FRANCISCO, CHICAGO, MIAMI, and LONDON. Coming soon: STYLE/DESIGN and FILM. Subscribe now.
|
|
back to top
|
|
 |
 |
© 2008 Flavorpill Productions LLC. All Rights Reserved. |
 |
|
|