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Tuesday, December 24, 2024 |
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A horde of monkeys descend on the Carlone Hall at the Upper Belvedere |
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Exhibition view "CARLONE CONTEMPORARY: Rona Pondick". Photo: Johannes Stoll / Belvedere, Vienna.
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VIENNA.- Magical human-animal hybrids have populated the artists sculptural world since the year 2000. The cavorting monkeys incorporating parts of the human body are simultaneously wild, erotic, aggressive, and whimsical; the human facethe artist herselfeither suffering or ecstatic. An overriding impression of ambivalence exists, of attraction and repulsion, and of other often contradictory impulses and drives.
From Egyptian sphinxes and deities, Greek centaurs, Ovids Metamorphoses, to mermaids in fairy-tales, chimera have exerted a fascination since time immemorial. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is arguably the most famous example from modern times, and was a source of inspiration for the artist.
Monkeys was created over a period of several years using an elaborate process. Transitions between human and animal are no longer visibleRona Pondick researched works of the Old Masters in her quest to achieve this flawless execution. With the utmost precision, the artist cast parts of her own body or head using 3D technology to reduce the size of the life casts. She merged these with hand-sculpted animal bodies to create her human-animal hybrids. The meticulous handling of the stainless steel surface is also significant, for duality is manifested in materiality. The parts of the human body are lifelike whereas the animals are smooth and flowing. The monkeys movements and the complex dynamics of their interactions within the tangle of creatures exert a pull on viewers. Gian Lorenzo Berninis Baroque sculptures were an important influence in this regard. As we see in Berninis art, everything in Pondricks work seems to dissolve into flowing movement and only by walking around the sculpture can it be grasped in its entirety.
Rona Pondick has been developing a versatile and moving sculptural oeuvre for over forty years. Her starting point was peoplethe body and symbolic objects such as beds, shoes, armchairs, and baby bottlesbut since the late 1990s, nature has found its way into her work in the form of trees and animals. She always incorporates symbolic and metaphoric meanings to psychological ends.
The American sculptor was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1952. She studied under Richard Serra at Yale University School of Art, graduating in 1977. Since the 1980s, the artist has enjoyed international success with many solo exhibitions, including shows at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the Galleria dArte Moderna Bologna; the Rupertinum, Salzburg; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. Her work has also been shown at numerous biennials, including the Whitney Biennial, New York, the Biennale de Lyon, the Johannesburg Biennale, Sonsbeek, and the Biennale di Venezia. Rona Pondick lives and works in New York.
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Today's News
December 23, 2022
An ancient 'horizon calendar' comes into view over Mexico City
New Museum presents first American museum survey of Theaster Gates
Museum für Moderne Kunst opens a comprehensive exhibition of works by Rosemarie Trockel
Gertrude Abercrombie, Edward Hopper, Bernard Buffet highlight Hindman's December Fine Art Auctions
African American Museum delays opening
Exhibition at White Cube Mason's Yard presents works by David Altmejd
Bertoia's wraps stellar year with $2.7M November auction of toys and Christmas antiques from prestigious collections
"Marc Dennis: Once upon a Time" now on view at GAVLAK in solo exhibition
Christmas at Dollywood, with Streetmosphere and a Chicken Lady
Priska Pasquer announces the opening of Priska Pasqquer Paris
Exhibition at Galloire brings together five world-renowned artists
AstaGuru presents extraordinary landmark creations in its 'Historic Masterpieces' Modern Indian Art Auction
A horde of monkeys descend on the Carlone Hall at the Upper Belvedere
The Mayfair Antiques & Fine Art Fair returning to Mayfair, London - first time since pandemic in 2020
Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee presents exhibition by Jimmie Durham
Coffee culture: Starbucks brings Betsy Silverman's recycled magazine art to Harvard Square
Tony Vaccaro centennial exhibition on view at Monroe Gallery of Photography
'Thatcher's Children' by Craig Easton to be published February 2022
Marianne Boesky Gallery now representing Martyn Cross
Exhibition at the Grand Rapids Art Museum celebrates the creative vision of Jim Henson
Elayne Jones, pioneering percussionist, is dead at 94
On TikTok, an organist finds an audience, and herself
Onstage, it's finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas again
Digital artwork virtually repdroduces the 5000-kilometer transnational migratory journey of a single monarch butterfly
Steps for writing an abstract
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