Prague Biennale @Karlin Hall (May 14 – July 26, 2009)
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See Part One and Part Two.
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Catherine Czacki.
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Pavel Maria Smejkal.
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Jozef Ondzik.
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Péter Szabó Pettendi.
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Bongho Ha.
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The Newest New York – curated by Lina Bertucci and Michael McKinney:
Alison Brady.
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Michele Abeles.
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Thomas Bangsted.
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Liz Magic Laser.
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Leigh Ledare.
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Ryan Pfluger.
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Prague Biennale @Karlin Hall (May 14 – July 26, 2009)
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See Part One.
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Rossana Buremi.
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Salvatore Arancio.
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Valerio Carrubba.
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Marco Salvetti.
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Sigalit Landau. Watch an excerpt of Barbed Hula, 2000, 2 min, here and a full re-filmed version here.
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Ulrike Rosenbach.
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Peter Homola and Marko Horban.
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Maja Bajevic. Both shot by MM Green, because I don’t do flickering screens that well.
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Wall, Alena Kotzmannová. Ground, Ladislava Gažiová.
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Josef Bolf.
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Skupina Ládví Group.
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Václav Stratil.
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Qin Chong.
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Prague Biennale @Karlin Hall (May 14 – July 26, 2009)
Everyone went to Venice, so I stepped foot in Prague.
Set inside the Karlin Hall, a massive and grandiosely decayed former industrial space, the Biennale is in its fourth rendition and was a completely heartening surprise. The self titled “no-budget” Biennale originally started by Flash Art founder Giancarlo Politi and looks clearly held together by the fierce will of the artists, curators and gallerists who participated.
At first glance, one could have easily confused the display for another MFA show and would have left baffled and frustrated. But it was such a refreshing and compelling staging that I wandered, virtually alone in the alleys almost the whole day. I loved that the works were only lit up by natural light, offering a precious and quite unique way to look at Art; no orange spots nailing a painting nor buzzing fluorescent lights disrupting the moment. Paintings were largely present and often rather satisfying – yes, I saw you Romanian school of gorgeous darkness – but a few strong video pieces were thankfully disrupting the comfortable painterly presence.
Mostly, I appreciated the lack of condescension and the chance to see that much work coming from such unrepresented places.
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Sopho Chkhikvadze.
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Ján Vasilko.
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Alexander Tinei.
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Adrian Ghenie.
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Cantemir Hausi.
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Zsolt Bodoni.
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Bartek Materka.
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From left to right, Basia Banda, Tymek Borowski, and Lidia Krawczyk and Wojtek Kubiak.
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Dalip Kryeziu.
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Left, Lidia Krawczyk and Wojtek Kubiak. Right, Basia Banda.
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Péter Sudár.
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I came across Ariel’s work while searching for artists working in Berlin, but coming from different countries. After reading this brilliant interview conducted by Ana Finel Honigman for ArtSlant, I decided to contact him. We met at his new apartment and studio in Kreuzberg, located not too far from Basso.
Between his previous and quite challenging exhibition/residency at PROGRAM and his future show «Workshop 20’09» «My Love, My Friends» at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the artist has been pretty busy. We talked about expatriation, our mutual excitement on living in Berlin and politics. Political voices thoroughly direct Ariel’s work yet, he also infuses and combines passionately intimate moments to these video, photographic and performance based conversations. I liked the quiet rage I could feel from the polished photographs, the echoing of his unusual upbringing with the current, and quite loud questionings on identity, nationalism and human relationships.
Ariel Reichman was born in South Africa in 1979 and immigrated to Israel in 1991. He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and at the U.D.K. Berlin. Reichman was awarded the lbb Prize for Photography by the Karl Hofer Foundation in 2008. He lives and works in Berlin.
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July 2006 Untitled 1, 2007, pigment print on paper, 1 x 1.5 meter. Image via whitehot magazine.
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Installation shot of Legal Settlement, a six weeks performance/residency by the artist at PROGRAM, April 15 – May 31, 2009. Image via PROGRAM.
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Route 442 Maale Bet Choron, 2007, pigments print on rag paper, 80 x 100 cm. Image via Galerie Bannwarth, from the exhibition How Can I Say Something About Them If You Don’t Know Who I Am, 2008.
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Installation shot of Legal Settlement, a six weeks performance/residency by the artist at PROGRAM, April 15 – May 31, 2009. Image via PROGRAM. Watch the video of the performance here.
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Relic of the performance. Clay-ed underwear.
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Douglad Gordon: blood, sweat and tears @DOX (June 12 – September 27, 2009)
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The posters advertising this show were wallpapering the entire city. As it is always quite difficult for me to avoid any promises of more Douglas Gordon, on I went.
DOX is a new gigantic and sleek exhibition space for contemporary art here in Prague – it opened last October – and felt like the perfect habitat for Gordon’s work. The hung screens were so thin and discreet that it was like bathing in pure light and darkness. I loved watching 24 Hour Psycho Back and Forth and to and Fro, 2008, which was presented in Europe for the first time, while the thunderous soundtrack from Feature Film, 1999, was playing from upstairs. So intense and hypnotic.
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Pretty Much Every Film and Video Work From About 1992 Until Now, ongoing.
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Douglas Gordon Sings ‘The Best of Lou Reed & the Velvet Underground’ (for Bas Jan Ader), 1993
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Jim Harris: Lumen @Galerie Martin Mertens (May 22 – July 4, 2009)
From the press release:
As in all his work Harris displays a gift for direct observation creating paintings that depict what he actually sees, not as a photographer might, but in reaction to the play of light on a rich variety of surfaces and structures. To date most of his paintings have been made in the open so this sequence inside an ancient building is, in some ways a new departure. It is not the spiritual associations of the building which influence his work so much as the “feel” of the building as it changes mood according to the light that falls on its Candelabra and stone fabric. Harris reveals in his paintings wonderful patterns created by the furnishings of the venerable building with its old oak pews, wooden joists and tracery windows. It is his great gift to reveal a beauty which is there but has to be discovered by the artistic heart and eye.
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Edmund Piper: It was quite nice @MFK Galerie (June 13 – July 10, 2009)
I didn’t care much for the work itself but the space was an incongruous surprise. But you knew I was rather biased when talking about domestic settings. I could do without the beige walls but 60’s ugly patterned couches are always welcomed.
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Florian Neufeldt: I and it, it and I @Galerie Opdahl (May 1 – June 20, 2009)
From the press release:
Neufeldt will transform the gallery into an uncanny space, which challenges the senses of the viewer. The continuous rattling of a machine, the sporadic falling of sawdust through the air, a video projection at the other end of the room – eyes, ears, need to be alert to capture the diverse elements that inhabit this room. Placed in the uncommonly dimensioned space, they evoke feelings of constraint but also of affright within the viewer. Neufeldt is interested in exactly these moments of unpredictability and uneasiness that counteract the expectations of the audience.
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Martin Dammann @Galerie Barbara Thumm (May 1 – June 6, 2009)
From the press release:
For the first time, the complete series “Soldier Studies” will be shown at the Dircksentrasse gallery, in juxtaposition with new watercolours and drawings presented at our space in Markgrafenstrasse.
This partition of exhibition spaces highlights a fundamental theme in Dammann‘s work: the relationship of painting to photography, what they represent; what must be and what can‘t be painted. All shown works are based on photographs that were mainly found in soldiers’ photo albums. The watercolours and drawings however don’t constitute a series; they are individual, independent pieces, to be apprehended separately. Each work is autonomous and arises from the development of its own particular logic.
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And yet, I don’t miss you LA, which makes for the persistent duality of our relationship. I left this city almost three months ago and I am as eager to see her it as I am nervous. Friday night and I am delirious and nostalgic, dreaming of earthquakes and dirty rollerskating. Fine, I am on my way.
Flog alumni and favorite, Alika Cooper knows how to carry the American romanticism well. I like this recent piece of hers, Streamline, 2009, gouache on paper. [Follow Alika on Flickr]
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I gave you trailer, now I offer you burger. I found London based artist Jack Felgate quite recently and I like the variety of mediums he is working with, from drawings, collage and three dimensional objects. This one has a juicy Warholesque feel to it and it appears that I am really missing Father’s Office. [Follow Jack on Flickr]
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One of the worst parts about finding work through Flickr is the somewhat anonymity and use of pseudonyms. For instance, this gentleman from Taiwan goes by the name al5026in, which is both odd and hilarious. Below, Untitled, acrylic and mixed media, 134 x 134 cm, 2009. I also quite like the series of furniture. [Follow 1l5026in on Flickr]
And I am going to quote a classic, to go along another classic.
The handbrake penetrates your thigh
Join the car crash set
The Normal, Warm Leatherette, 1978.
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When I saw these shots, it was as if the photographer had captured and condensed three of the main components which make LA so intriguing and hypnotic: death, absurdity and abandonment. Photographs by London based Tommy Forbes, from the series It Sucks To Be Stationary, 2009. [Follow Tommy on Flickr]
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My homage to LA wouldn’t be complete with the presence of a platinum creature, thus this perfectly tacky yet creepy sculpture by Dutch artist Sylvia B.. I am not entirely sure, but this piece might be Lily Lucinda, 2001, blond human hair on synthetic material, glass eyes, artificial nails, teeth, eye lashes, 103 x 29 x 28 cm. Shot taken by Eduard Bezembinder. Check his unstoppable blog. [Follow Eduard on Flickr].
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