Fernando and Humberto Campana, Bolotas Armchair (Cafe). Courtesy of Estudio Campana. Photo by Fernando Laszlo.
NEW YORK, NY.- Fernando Campana, who with his brother Humberto pushed the boundaries of furniture design with evocative and provocative objects crafted from unlikely materials like charcoal, tree branches, Bubble Wrap, smashed Murano glass and even stuffed animals, died Nov. 16 in Sao Paulo. He was 61. The cause of death, in a hospital, was not known, Humberto Campana said. The Campana brothers became international stars of contemporary design, for decades producing curious and beautiful pieces that were basically furniture, or at least rooted in the idea of furniture — although they also designed jewelry, clothing, housewares, stage sets, interiors and art installations. Their work reflected “the beautiful chaotic subtlety of the Brazilian spirit,” artist Vik Muniz wrote when he interviewed the pair for Bomb magazine in 2008. They did not plan to become designers. Fernando had an architecture degree, although he wanted to be an actor or maybe an astronaut, and Humberto, who was eight ... More
BATH.-The Herschel Museum of Astronomy in Bath has been successful in its quest to buy Caroline Herschel’s own handwritten manuscript draft of her memoir, thanks to generous funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), ACE/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of National Libraries, facilitated via Christie’s Private Sales. The fascinating 57-page document represents Caroline’s life in her own words and is an enormously important addition to the Herschel Museum’s collection, not least because her many scientific achievements were historically overshadowed by those of her brother, William Herschel (1738-1822). This Manuscript Memoir gives us a unique and personal insight into the life and formative years of one of Britain’s most prominent astronomers and pioneering women in science. Much of Caroline’s personal correspondence and writing ... More
'Untitled (Elongated Triangles 6) by Bridget Riley (b. 1931). Est. £6,000-8,000 (Lot 72)
LONDON.-Dreweatts and Forum Auctions announced a new slot in their auction calendar titled The British Sale, which will take place on Tuesday December 13, 2022. The sister companies will showcase artworks by prominent Modern & Contemporary British artists, alongside limited-edition prints and multiples. The auction has been curated to offer both seasoned and new collectors an opportunity to acquire pieces from the second half of the 20th Century, through to more current works by popular British contemporary artists, such as Bridget Riley, Damian Hirst, David Hockney, Grayson Perry, Harland Miller, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Chris Levine. The sale was devised to celebrate all things British and to service the increasing global interest in British artists. Estimates for the works range from £250 up to £150,000 and are guaranteed to reach their recipients in time ... More
Steve McCurry, Afghan Girl with Hands on Face, 1984. Collection FENIX.
ROTTERDAM.- From behind her hands, she looks out into the world: Sharbat Gula. In 1984, she was photographed by Steve McCurry after she had fled Afghanistan, aged 12. The cover of National Geographic made her image an instant global icon. FENIX Museum in Rotterdam acquired her portrait at the recent Paris Photo. Earlier this year, the original magazine, now a collector’s item, was purchased at auction in the US. They are two of the many new acquisitions for the international collection of the museum in formation, which is dedicated to migration. The collection consists of contemporary art, historical and personal objects and photography. In 2022, the collection grew to 150 objects with over 40 new acquisitions. FENIX is a museum under construction with a rapidly growing collection in the making. In 2022, exciting acquisitions were able to be added to the collection from artists ... More
Erin Shirreff, Surface capital, 2022; dye sublimation prints on aluminum, latex paint; framed: 71 1/4 x 60 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches (181 x 153 x 14.6 cm)
NEW YORK, NY.-Sikkema Jenkins & Co. is currently presenting "Reverb", a group exhibition featuring new work by Zipora Fried, Arturo Herrera, Sheila Hicks, and Erin Shirreff that began on December 10th. Utilizing a diverse variety of mediums and materials—including textile, collage, works on paper, and sculpture—each artist approaches the visual languages of modernism through distinct modes of reexamination and reinterpretation. Placing their work in dialogue with one another prompts new synergies amongst the formal and conceptual qualities of their work, while speaking to their continued interaction with larger modernist art historical lineages. "Reverb" is on view through January 28, 2023. Zipora Fried’s large-scale colored-pencil works are meticulously composed of individual strokes, each a distinct, self-contained gesture by the artist’s hand. Reflecting Fried’s interest in the physicality of artistic labor ... More
NEW YORK, NY.- A 1,300-year-old gold-and-gemstone necklace that was recently discovered in an ancient gravesite in England may have belonged to a woman who was an early Christian leader, according to experts involved in the discovery. The ancient jewelry was unearthed in Northamptonshire in April during excavations that took place before a planned housing development, according to RPS, a professional services firm that managed the archaeological investigation on behalf of the housing developer, Vistry Group. The 30 pendants and beads that once formed the elaborate necklace were made from Roman coins, gold, garnets, glass and semiprecious stones. The centerpiece of the necklace, a rectangular pendant with a cross motif, was also among the artifacts that were discovered. “When the first glints of gold started to emerge from the soil, we knew this was something significant,” Levente-Bence Balázs, a site supervisor at the Museum of Archaeology London ... More
Anraku (active in Osaka, Japan, early 19th c.), Netsuke: Poetess Ono no Komachi, about 1840. MMFA, purchase, Dr. Stephen Fichman Fund. Photo MMFA.
MONTREAL.- Tucked away in the Stephan Crétier and Stéphany Maillery Wing for the Arts of One World at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is a collection of tiny, exquisitely detailed Japanese objects, called netsuke. These figurines that fit in the palm of your hand carry a rich, though little-known, history. Thanks to the digital experience 根付Netsuke Hands On, the public can now discover these objects' hidden secrets. Using their smartphone and earphones, the public is invited to get up close to the Museum's collection of netsuke – digitally – in 根付 Netsuke Hands On. So, what exactly are netsuke? These miniature sculptures first appeared in Edo Japan (1615-1868) as men's fashion accessories that were used to suspend small pouches from the belt of their kimonos. Finely decorated and made from expensive imports like ivory, netsuke not only served a practical purpose but were markers of social status. Moreo ... More
Renowned contemporary arts festival, Glasgow International, which takes place every two years, has a new Festival Director.
GLASGOW.- Glasgow-based curator and writer Richard Birkett – who has previously held roles at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and Artists Space in New York – has taken up the position to take forward the development and delivery of Glasgow International 2024. Taking place over 18 days, Scotland’s leading biennial festival of contemporary visual arts showcases the city’s outstanding strengths and reputation as a vibrant and distinctive centre for contemporary art, artistic production and creative talent. A unique event in the European cultural calendar, the festival combines the characteristics of a visual arts biennial with an open submission model for artists and curators based in the city. As Festival Director Richard will lead a review of the creative and strategic direction, artistic vision and operational ... More
Anoushka Mirchandani, TBT, 2022. Oil and oil pastel on canvas. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Isa
NEW DELHI.-India Art Fair, the leading platform showcasing modern and contemporary art from India and South Asia, takes place from 9 – 12 February 2023 at the NSIC Exhibition Grounds in New Delhi. Led in partnership with BMW India and with artists’ voices at its centre, the fair will present 86 exhibitors, including 72 galleries and 12 institutions. With India’s latest growth to become the world’s fifth-largest economy, the expansion of its art market has grown in parallel with India Art Fair at its helm. Building on the success of the last edition, the 2023 fair will be the most ambitious to date, with expanded floorspace to showcase South Asia’s greatest talent, spanning cutting-edge contemporary art and modern masters, and a new Studio presenting the fair's Digital Artist in Residence programme. The fair will be a meeting ground for collectors, curators and art professionals ... More
Powerhouse Ultimo renewal render.
ULTIMO.-Powerhouse Ultimo is set to undergo a transformation that will celebrate the best of its past with innovative museum exhibition and educational spaces, following the announcement of the winning architectural design for its renewal. The concept designed by Australian team Architectus, Durbach Block Jaggers Architects, Tyrrell Studio, Youssofzay + Hart, Akira Isogawa, Yerrabingin, Finding Infinity and Arup have been chosen to deliver a visionary world-class museum for the people of NSW. The team’s submission for the museum was unanimously selected by an expert jury following a national Design Competition, which commenced earlier this year. The design contains expanded museum exhibition spaces, including international museum standard galleries for immersive exhibitions and learning programs. A new urban space connecting the museum to The Goods Line will create a major new public square for Sydney ... More
Afia Prempeh, Royal Dream, 2021. Oil on canvas, 68" x 54", 173 x 137cm.
NEW YORK, NY.-UniX Gallery has began "Portals", an exhibition of new paintings by the Ghanaian artist Afia Prempeh and the South Korea-born artist So Lee. This will be their first gallery presentation in the US. The show opened with a public reception on December 8th, and is on view through February 4, 2023. The title of the exhibition is suggestive of both windows and TV/computer screens, and it reflects both cross-geographic and cross-cultural reach of the works. These paintings transport the viewers into a different reality and serve as portals into the realm of both conscious and unconscious worlds. While figurative in nature, the works of both artists transcend the mundane and aim to explore complexities of the human psyche. They open new dimensions in the traditional genre of portraiture. ... More
Will Wilson (b. 1969), Will Wilson, Citizen of the Navajo Nation, Trans-customary Diné Artist, 2013, printed 2018, archival pigment print from wet plate collodion scan, 22 × 17 in. Art Bridges.
ORLANDO, FLA.-Mennello Museum of American Art is pleased to announce the exhibition In Conversation: Will Wilson, organized by Chrystal Bridges Museum of American Art that opened on October 28, 2022, with an upcoming public reception on November 4, 2022. The exhibition is on view from October 28, 2022 - February 12, 2023. Coinciding with Native American Heritage Month, this powerful exhibition presents a conversation across 100 years of image-making that brings a contemporary voice in images and moving images via photography and Artificial Reality (AR) in which still subjects yield their voice. In the gallery space, museum and education copy is in English and Spanish ... More
A table at Cafe Ohlone, where the chefs forage ingredients for traditional dishes like Chia porridge infused with rosewater in bowls, on the terrace at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California Berkeley, Aug. 24, 2022. (Nicholas Albrecht/The New York Times)
by Patricia Leigh Brown
BERKELEY, CA.- One of Vincent Medina’s most vivid memories as a youngster is of a class exploring his ancestry as a member of the Ohlone people, an Indigenous tribe in the San Francisco Bay region. An elderly teacher, wagging her fingers in anger, told her young charges that nearby University of California, Berkeley was “holding our ancestors in plastic bags and paint cans” underneath the university’s athletic facilities, “even though we have repeatedly asked for a proper burial.” The human remains ... More
Quote Perhaps art is simply an organism's reaction against its retentive limitations. Joseph Brodsky
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"John McAllister: be delirious reveries ringing" on view at Amine Rech BRUSSLES.-Almine Rech Brussels began this past December 8th ‘be delirious reveries ringing,’ John McAllister’s third exhibition with the gallery, which will end on January 14th, 2023. The exhibition brings together over 30 paintings in oil on canvas of visionary landscapes, inspired by the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains in Western Massachusetts where McAllister lives and works. McAllister seeks to represent – or rather recreate – moments of rapture that he encounters in nature. He intends the exhibition’s title as a command, as well as a testament to his own experience. His paintings offer abundant opportunities for delirious revery, even while exaggerating the conditions one might find in nature to unnatural extremes. McAllister rarely, if ever, paints from reference photographs. This might be surprising to followers of his work familiar with the paintings ... More
Bregtje van der Haak to become the new director of Eye Filmmuseum AMSTERDAM.- Journalist and documentary filmmaker Bregtje van der Haak – long connected to the broadcaster VPRO as a programme maker, editor of the Tegenlicht programme and editor-in-chief – will succeed the current director Sandra den Hamer on 1 April 2023 at the Eye Filmmuseum. Van der Haak was appointed by Eye’s supervisory board. The new director looks forward to leading a contemporary museum for cinema with a world-class collection that provides a unique opportunity to connect past, present and future as well as to question the world in transition around us on the basis of images, and to discuss film’s role in digital image culture. Sandra den Hamer leaves a museum that, since ‘crossing the IJ River’ in 2012, has undergone massive development. Over the past 15 years, Eye Filmmuseum has transformed into a bustling centre for film culture and a museum ... More
Solo exhibition of recent work by Ciarán Murphy opens in London LONDON.-GRIMM is presenting this appear, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Irish artist Ciarán Murphy. this appear is Murphy’s ninth solo exhibition with GRIMM since 2007 and his first at the recently-opened London gallery. The presentation follows Murphy’s recent touring institutional solo exhibition Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, on view throughout 2021 and 2022 across the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny, The Model in Sligo and most recently the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin (IE). Ciarán Murphy’s paintings engage with the entanglement of technological and analogue modes of image-making. Negotiating an infinity of found images, Murphy splices together various source materials, allowing for chance encounters and incongruity to coalesce and collapse seemingly distinct subject matter into resolved compositions. In doing so, he examines and disrupts the dichotomy between original and copy, in favour of painting a blend ... More
Betty Cuningham Gallery presents the exhibition "Finding Yellow" by Elizabeth Enders NEW YORK, NY.-Betty Cuningham Gallery has opened Finding Yellow, an exhibition of recent paintings and watercolors by Elizabeth Enders. The current exhibition, that began on December 8th, marks the artists fourth at the gallery. The exhibition will end on January 28th, 2023. In Finding Yellow, Enders continues to explore the reoccurring themes of travel, landscape, color, and mystery. She honors Mother Nature, by taking note of both her beauty and wrath. “It isn’t Simple pleasures in Nova Scotia. It is serious and admirable, Respectful and committed. Endurance maybe is best. It’s always going to turn around to another hardship. Another hurricane, another disaster at sea. Challenges. The water turns from Indigo to Purple in September. It has a freedom because it’s not going to be easy. No one expects it to be.” – Elizabeth Enders ... More
Exhibition transforms the Haus am Waldsee into a religious sanatorium for women BERLIN.- Female Remedy is the first institutional exhibition by Leila Hekmat (*1981 in Los Angeles, lives and works in Berlin) and invites the artist to develop her ambitious performative work for the specific environment of the Haus am Waldsee. The exhibition marks the beginning of the new programme by director Anna Gritz. Female Remedy is a comedy of manners which ponders illness as a condition of the body as well as a state of mind. The exhibition transforms the Haus am Waldsee into a religious sanatorium for women. Hospital Hekmat is a facility for an illness which needs no cure. The purpose of this infirmary is to fortify existing insolence and foster growth through comic relief and buffoonery. It is a healing ground for the unrepentant woman. The irregular mocking flamboyances circulating this infirmary speak of a secret protest against ... More
Indigenous Australians fight to protect sacred art from industry and pollution BURRUP PENINSULA.- Standing before a sacred rock site, Clinton Walker called out an acknowledgment to his ancestors in the language of the Ngarluma people. In the early morning, it was quiet, save for his voice and the chirping of birds. Surrounded by mountains of rock carvings and arrangements denoting tens of thousands of years of continuous Aboriginal heritage, he could feel the land thrum with the spirit of his ancestors. But underneath it all was a low hum — the interminable, inescapable drone of industry across the peninsula. “This place, you feel it. It’s alive,” he said. “But this mob are trying to kill it.” The Burrup Peninsula, on Australia’s northwest coast, is home to 1 million petroglyphs believed to be up to 50,000 years old. They document extinct animals and include some of the oldest depictions of the human face ... More
New Mygration exhibition examines intersection of Sámi and American history SEATTLE, WA.-The National Nordic Museum opened “Mygration.” Featuring the work of Sámi artist Tomas Colbengtson and Swedish artist Stina Folkebrant, the exhibition examines a little-known event in Sámi and American history with ties to Seattle. In 1894 and 1898, Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the General Agent of Education in Alaska, recommended that the United States Government invite the Sámi, indigenous nomadic reindeer herders, to Alaska for the purpose of teaching reindeer husbandry to Alaska Native Peoples. The herders and reindeer made an arduous transatlantic and transcontinental trip to Seattle, where they were in residence at Woodland Park in March 1898, before making their way to Alaska.Upon the expiration of their contract in 1900, some participants remained, while others returned to Sápmi ... More
ADA opens an exhibition of works by Diego Gualandris ROME.- It is one in the morning. It is pouring and the rain sounds like a torrent on the pavement of a small street, in the south of Trastevere. The sewer cover slowly slides on the floor, heavily resonating between narrow walls. Two silhouettes emerge, and stand there a few seconds, before slowly walking away. One is short with a hat, the other is tall and bald. Everything remains silent around the sewer hole. Over the roofs, the searchlight on a tower goes on spinning, unbothered, like a lighthouse. The two men light a cigarette and go up via di San Michele. They stop under a gigantic cactus-tree to protect themselves from the rain. There, they whisper something to each other and stick their heads on the pavement, like if they were trying to listen to the life underground. They suddenly rise and walk away. The streets are empty. It is a Tuesday ... More
Dexter Dalwood on Joshua Reynolds and English painting
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Flashback
On a day like today, Russian-French painter Wassily Kandinsky died
September 13, 1944. Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (16 December [O.S. 4 December] 1866 - 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting one of the first recognised purely abstract works.Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa, where he graduated at Grekov Odessa Art school. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics. Successful in his profession---he was offered a professorship (chair of Roman Law) at the University of Dorpat---Kandinsky began painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30. From left to right: Wassily Kandinsky, Bild mit weissen Linien (Painting with White Lines), oil on canvas, 1913. Joan Miró, Femme et oiseaux, gouache and oil wash on paper, 1940. Alberto Giacometti, Grande figure, bronze, cast by the Alexis Rudier foundry in Paris in 1947. Courtesy Sotheby’s.
