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What I find interesting about the new work of Dolk og Pøbel is the remote context in which they've placed it. See more of their work HERE. Images by John Inge Johansen/NRK.
Links:
NRK feature (Norwegian)
Wooster Collective feature (source)
I'm just getting acquainted with Michel de Broin's work. The featured work here is Superficial, to which had the following to say:
"Upon invitation to reflect on the notion of transparency, that led me into the forest to envelop the contour of a large stone with fragments of mirror. The large stone, tucked away deep in the woods, became a reflective surface for its surroundings. In this play of splintered radiance, the rock disappears in its reflections. Because it reflects one cannot be mislead by its presence, yet we cannot seize it, rather it is the rock that reflects us."
For those of you in New York, there's an excellent opportunity to see an impressive selection of Icelandic artists at Scandinavia House (just four blocks south of Grand Central Station).
"This survey of contemporary Icelandic art from the National Gallery of Iceland includes sculpture, installation, painting, photography, and videos by 21 of Iceland’s most acclaimed artists: Þórdís Aðalsteinsdóttir, Olga Bergmann, Hildur Bjarnadóttir, Margrét H. Blöndal, Ólafur Elíasson, Steingrímur Eyfjörð, Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, Hulda Hákon, The Icelandic Love Corporation (Sigrún Hrólfsdóttir, Jóní Jónsdóttir, and Eirún Sigurðardóttir), Guðný Rósa Ingimarsdóttir, Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir, Ragnar Kjartansson, Ólöf Nordal, Jón Óskar, Eggert Pétursson, Katrín Sigurðardóttir, Hrafnkell Sigurðsson, Magnús Sigurðarson, and Hulda Stefánsdóttir."The show will run through to August 15, 2008.
Ch'ng Yaohong posted on Rachi Akira's work over at the wonderful Asian Photography Blog. Both are well worth a visit.
Links:
Rachi Akira
Rachi Akira (Asian Photography Blog) - SOURCE
Mark Leckey is the third introduction to the four nominees for this year's Turner Prize. I have to say it's refreshing to see an established artist with a MySpace page. In addition to being a fan of Doctor Who, Madame Bovary, and Little Richard, Leckey provides this to the point introduction:I am a British artist. I show with the Cabinet in London, Gavin Brown's in New York and Buchholz Galerie in Cologne. I teach at the Stadelschule in Frankfurt and have a band called Jack too Jack....
In regard to his work, it is varied, often hybrid, and intrinsically modern. He is nominated for his solo exhibitions which incorporate sculpture, film, sound and performance.
Borborygmus in the Kunstvereins basement
The Reykjavik Arts Festival has been held since 1970 featuring an international selection of artists. Since 2004, the original bi-annual schedule of the festival was made an annual event held each May. This year it will be held from the 15 May to 5 June.
The festival takes in a variety of artists with music representative of classical, pop, jazz, opera, and world as well as visual artists, seminars, theatre and dance. Some of the highlights of this year's festival include Croatian Contemporary Art at Gallerí 100°, the Experiment Marathon Reykjavík at the Reykjavík Art Museum (RAM) organized by the Serpentine Gallery(London), and what sounds to be a fascinating performance by the Iceland Dance Company and The Norwegian Company of Contemporary Dance featuring choreography by Ina Christel Johannessen and music composed by two Icelandic musicians, Kira Kira and Hildur I. Gudnadottir, along with their German counterpart Dirk Desselhaus.
Links:
The Reykjavik Arts Festival
The second introduction to the quartet of Turner Prize nominees, Runa Islam graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2004. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1970, she now works and resides in London.
From White Cube:
Runa Islam makes film and video installations that use overlapping layers of narrative to explore notions of truth and fiction, subjectivity and authorship. Islam installs her films in architectural configurations, frequently presenting them across two or three screens as a framing device. Her work aims to blur the distinctions between film and sculpture, art and cinema, and encourages a range of interpretations from viewers.
The first introduction to the four artists nominated for this year's Turner Prize, Cathy Wilkes was born in Belfast(1967). Her work is varied, precocious, feminine and as a whole surprisingly concise. A Borges-like symmetry and enigma emanate from her creations.
Cathy Wilkes currently lives and works in Glasgow. Her show for which she is nominated at the Milton Keynes Gallery runs through to June 8, 2008
Links:
Cathy Wilkes (The Modern Institute)
Cathy Wilkes (MAP Magazine)
Cathy Wilkes (Manifesta 5)
Cathy Wilkes (Milton Keynes Gallery)
Cathy Wilkes (Frieze)
Katrín Sigurðardóttir's work is often composed of miniature landscapes and architecture set within or atop cubist frames and plinths that divide, confine, distort or expand. Her disinterest in borders and the myths that buttress nationalism are apparent in much of her work and stems from something I experienced in attending university in a country 5000 miles from home which is an extreme change of perspective that renders any nationalistic paradigms farcical.
Born in Iceland(1967), Katrín studied at the Icelandic College of Art and Crafts and the San Francisco Art Institute. She currently resides in New York and has exhibited internationally.
Links:
Katrín Sigurðardóttir
Katrín Sigurðardóttir (P.S.1 MOMA)
Katrín Sigurðardóttir (e-flux)
Katrín Sigurðardóttir interview (Homesick)
Katrín Sigurðardóttir (Artnews.is)
The oldest contemporary art exhibition in North America featuring artists from around the world is the Carnegie International. Established in 1896, the current and 55th exhibition sits under the title Life on Mars asking "Are we alone in the universe? Do aliens exist? Or are we, ourselves,the strangers in our own worlds?"
Here is Douglas Fogle's statement on the show:
"Life on Mars, the 2008 Carnegie International, focuses on the increasingly relevant question of what it means to be human in the world today. Foregoing any universal answers to this question, the artists in the exhibition investigate particular aspects of the human condition, moving along paths that are both introspective and worldly while poetically traversing the dramatic spectrum from tragedy to comedy. The question, "Is there life on Mars?" is a rhetorical one, posed in the face of a world in which increasingly accelerating global events--political, social, natural, and economic--seem to challenge and threaten to overtake our most basic forms of everyday existence. Rather than a literal search for extraterrestrial intelligence, this question might be seen as a metaphorical quest to explore what it means to be human in this radically unmoored world. Moving from the micro to the macro levels of experience, the exhibition proposes to look at the multiple perspectives and myriad responses to this 21st-century dilemma from artists from all over the globe."
"Today, a concern with the question of what it means to be human can be found in contemporary art everywhere. Many of the younger artists in the exhibition have inherited a legacy that seeks to produce the momentary, the ephemeral, and the modest rather than the monumental. One sees in their work not a discredited universal humanism but a real connection to the human condition, expressed with an economy of means that is at once fragile and powerful."
"Life on Mars is a collective self-portrait of humanity colliding with the economic and political events that define daily existence. Questions of our survival are humorously and poignantly brought to the fore in films, installations, paintings, sculptures, and photographs that search for the sublime in the banality of everyday life."
The official site contains biographies for the artists participating as well as samples from their contribution to this year's event. For those in the vicinity of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, USA, visitor information is available HERE.
With her experimental video work, photographer and sculptures, Eija-Liisa Ahtila's explores themes such as death, relationships, and mental breakdown through what she describes as "human dramas". Her work experimenting with narrative in video through multiple screens virtually removing the two-dimensional cause and effect is fascinating. Grounded in extensive research, her application of moments to her multi-platform video tableau is in essence more painterly than cinematographic.
Follow the links below for more information.
Links:
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (BBC Wales)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (BFI)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila interview (Kopenhagen)
The Never-ending Story (Guardian)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila Wiki
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (ArtForum)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (New York Times)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila's Affective Images in The House (Mediascape)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (Kiasma Magazine)
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (Paolo Curti)
I receive so many interesting updates from the alumni of the interviewing series. The Icelandic Love Corporation have new work at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.
Links:
Bozar
Icelandic Love Corporation
Icelandic Love Corportion interview (SiouxWIRE)
Mark Hooper at Guardian Unlimited has posted a heads up to this interesting artist. This really underscores my need for a Spanish translator and/or collaborator. Unfortunately, Mr. Hooper is similarly flummoxed by Spanish. Ironically, Maria was born in London.
born in London in 1954, Maria Elvira Escallón lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia. She initially studied psychology and later changed to fine art, taking workshops and courses at Colombian art academies. Of high formal heterogeneity, where each work has its own precise and unique path, Escallón’s work focuses on the processes of memory and destruction, nature and culture. Since 1980 her work has been included in many institutional art events in Colombia, including several solo exhibitions. Her work has received recognitions such as The National scholarship to Individual Creation granted by the Ministry of Culture in 1997 and the Luis Caballero Award in 2003. Since 2000, Escallon has exhibited her work and developed projects internationally.She is currently exhibiting at The Photographer's Gallery in London as part of Once more with feeling which features recent work of Columbian photographers.
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