Giuseppe Penone Show At The Fendi White Space

Giuseppe Penone Show At The Fendi White Space

The exhibition “Matrice” by Giuseppe Penone is presented by Fendi in its headquarter at the Palazzo della Civiltà and is curated by Massimiliano Gioni, the well known italian director of the New Museum in New York. The famous luxury brand Fendi is now beginning a new art commitment, opening its white marble large space to art shows and events. The “Palazzo della Civiltà” is a 1930-40s spectacular building that has been recently rented by the fashion company as a great symbol of its roman origin. The result is amazingly powerful, impressive and meaningful.


First of all Penone is, without any doubt, one of the purest artists we ever had in Italy: his research on the vulnerability of nature and on natural shapes was persued since the beginning of his career in the 1960s (when he took part to the avant-guarde movement of Arte Povera) to the present. 
The most spectacular artwork of the exhibition called “Matrice” is a 30 meter-long sculpture in which the trunk of a tree has been carved out following one of its growth rings, bringing to surface the past of the tree as well as its evolution and crystallized by a bronze mold which freezes nature’s flow of life. The romanticism of Penone’s art is even more evident in the delicate “Acacia Thorns-Contact”: a canvas where the image-shape of a person’s face is drawn with hundreds of thorns, sticked on the canvas surface. It represents traces of men absence, like footprints, but way more evocative. That’s why the union between Penone’s evocative works and the large white and bright square-space of the building is a great description of an allegory, of absence. 


What I mostly loved about the exhibition is the contrast between the smoothness of the white marble all over the space and the organic ruggedness of Penone’s materials like wood trunks. The same contrast between the bright glow of the space and the opacity of the sculptures or between the geometrical perfection of the walls, windows and rooms and the curvy fluidity of the branches coming out from Penone’s tree-shaped sculpture. That is metaphorically the same contrast between time and nature or between human history and natural transience. 

London February Art Guide

London February Art Guide

February is cold, rainy and a little melancholic over here in London. An artistic escape is definitely needed to make it through this month! 
 
Put your trainers on and follow this list of four across my favourite city:  
 
David Hockney at The Tate Britain- #davidhockney almost crashed my Instagram feed last week but how nice to see so many vivid colours, bold compositions and familiar people on his huge canvases! Hockney is a strong inspiration for us at MTArt as he proudly supported the thinking of art engaging everyone, not just the few who form part of the art world. Sometimes mocked for this statement, and what was perceived as naive simplicity, he deserves this ambitious retrospective. 

Mohammed Qasim Ashfaq at Hannah Barry - you will face an enormous five metre orbital drawing, black, in graphite and made by the artist's hand. The black graphite challenges your experience of the space and absorbs all surrounding. This is exactly what I love in contemporary artists from our generation - they understand and react to the wider context of the work, that is, its architecture. I feel it's about time for architects and artists, or someone curious in both fields, to show how important this dialogue is to the creative field. 

Rob Branigan’s Studio - I cannot spend a week in London without visiting a studio. This is where I source most of my inspiration and where I have my most insightful conversations. The studio I would currently recommend is that of artist Rob Branigan - a 'geek', as he describes himself, who understand both the pure technical side of his works (the execution is near perfection) but also the playful search for a meaning in everyday materials. His art holds what I most love about surrealism, a valuable escape from our serious and gloomy world. 

National Gallery, Room 41 - Bathers at Asnières by artist Georges Seurat.
I spend every Saturday morning at The National Gallery, always going for different works, times and rooms. This month, and from the need of sun in this time of change, I recommend looking at George Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières. This painting is very meaningful to me personally as I see both an artist trying to innovate technically (this painting marks the very birth of pointillism) but also challenging the status quo: portraying the working class over the bourgeoisie and giving them a say via his art -  voicing the voiceless. 

What to wear in the street? Art, of course!

What to wear in the street? Art, of course!

During Men’s Fashion Week in Paris, Louis Vuitton presented its Ready-to-Wear collection which included the anticipated collaboration with NYC-based street-wear brand SUPREME. 

Vuitton, a veteran of the luxury industry, has paved the way for collaborations between art and fashion. This modus operandi has become integrated in the brands DNA, and has led to collaborations with artists such as Takashi Murakami and Cindy Sherman, and to the opening of the “Fondation Louis Vuitton” in Paris. Vuitton supporting contemporary art so avidly creates a win-win situation – the artists gain fame and recognition and Vuitton appear fresh and relevant. 
Vuitton’s recent collaboration with SUPREME, is unprecedented in character and may mark a pinnacle in the growing influence street culture has on the established institutionalized world of fashion. Art and fashion are two worlds ever close to one another. This change in fashion could be due to the same influence being made in the art world.

While Vuitton has collaborated with iconic fashion designers in the past, they were mostly luxury designers. This is the first collaboration with an existing fashion brand, and a street-wear icon nonetheless. And while the connection between street art and street culture to the fashion world has many representations, this is a whole other level. 
Many street artist dabble in fashion. Not only street art tycoon Shepherd Fairy has fashion merchandise, here in Tel Aviv, you can find sunglasses and socks by Pilpeled, T-shirts by the BFC crew and iPhone covers by Dede. And yet, however popular a pair of vans sneakers are on the streets they remain foreign to the runways of Paris. That is until now. The fashion world, like the art world, is surrendering to the real-life action in the urban space. 

Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey

PILPELED

PILPELED

BFC

BFC

The fact is that the art establishment has been, and still is, gradually accepting street artists as valid members of the art sphere, exhibiting, selling and re-selling their work. This allows them to expand from the urban space to the studio. This expansion pushes them to achieve status and influence new audiences, etching their art into our time and our culture, so much that the great Louis Vuitton has splashed a big red SUPREME logo on a luxurious leather bag to make it, what we now consider, cooler than ever. 

Want to know everything about Tel Aviv's urban art and culture scene? Join our Florentin graffiti tour on Friday, Feb 24th at 3:30 PM. Please click here for details and registration.

- by Yael Shapira and Cobi Krieger

Contemporary February In Madrid

Contemporary February In Madrid

February is definitely  the month of contemporary art in Madrid. There are so many art events and exhibitions that you may have a problem to choose and the feeling that you need more time! 

Since you are more interested in contemporary art don’t miss the most relevant event in Spain of the year and one of the most relevant art fairs in Europe: ARCOmadrid. In February 22-27 2017 Arco will bring together a total of 200 galleries, of which 160 form part of the General Program, as well as the curated sections: ´Argentina at ARCO´, with a selection of 12 galleries; ´Dialogues´, with 11 galleries and ´Opening´, with 17 galleries.

ARCOmadrid

Art galleries: We recommend a walk in the Salesas neighbourhood to visit three examples of the Madrid contemporary art: (i) Juana de Aizpuru gallery with the exhibition of the Spanish artist Cristina Lucas (born in 1973) until March 18th, (ii) the gallery of Max Estrella with the exhibition of the international Daniel Canogar until March 25th or (iii) the amazing exhibition of Miriam Bäckström at the gallery of Elba Benitez (you will love the beautiful patio) until February 11th. 

Miriam Bäckström at Elba Benitez

Museums and art centers: The museum Queen Sofia exhibition called Fictions and Territories to take place until 13 March presents a series of recent acquisitions for its permanent collection. The group of works are related to each other through language and artistic practices from the late 90's to 2007 and are of multiple origins around the world.


Exhibition view. Territories and Fictions. Thinking a New Way of the World, 2016

A short gallery hop in Zurich!

A short gallery hop in Zurich!

I’m pleased to introduce a few exhibitions worth seeing in Zürich currently, to highlight the diversity and scope of art in just a few galleries; from emerging to established, modern to contemporary; design, sculpture, photography, painting, video, installation, and sometimes all these interwoven into a single artist’s practice!

Mai 36
Koenraad Dedobbeleer (until 4 March)

Mai 36 is one of Zürich’s most established galleries, founded in 1987 by Victor Gisler. The gallery represents many great Contemporary artists such as John Baldessari, Franz Akermann and Thomas Ruff, as well as significant Artist Estates such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Luigi Ghirri and Peter Hujar, which reveals the gallery’s leanings towards the photographic medium. 

The gallery recently opened “Koenraad Dedobbeleer: Images Entertain Thought” that incorporates sculptures, installations and photographs full of associations, witty commentaries with art historical references. Dedobbeleer focuses on everyday objects, which he modifies and re-contextualises. These transformations prompt the viewer to question the essential quality of things and their existence within newly created frames of reference, allowing for a variety of interpretations. The exhibition comprises 40 analogue photographs, which are often the result of a reproduction of a reproduction. When observing the prints closely, occasionally one sees lines across an image where the quality has been compromised or other imperfections. Here, the artist may have photographed an image from a magazine or from his iPhone. Dedobbeleer enjoys this element of guile, also the layering, the subtle shifts in seemingly identical images and the dialogue between different objects. Most of all, as in the title “Images Entertain Thought”, he hopes these images will be the starting point for the viewer to make unexpected associations and discoveries. 

Koenraad Dedobbeleer, installation view of “Considered Unrepresentative”, 2016
Courtesy of Mai 36, © Koenraad Debdobbeleer

Koenraad Dedobbeleer, “Serve” 2016 triptych
Courtesy of Mai 36, © Koenraad Debdobbeleer

Galerie Edwynn Houk
Lillian Basssman (extended until 18 February)

The Edwynn Houk gallery was founded in 1980. Since then, the gallery has specialised in vintage photographs by leading figures from the Modernist movement. The gallery has represented the Estate of Brassaï, Bill Brandt, Dorothea Lange, André Kertész, Ilse Bing and the Robert Frank Archive. Houk also runs a strong Contemporary programme representing artists such as Lalla Essaydi, Abelardo Morell and Sally Mann. Their main space is in New York, and in 2010, they opened this second gallery in Zürich. 

Edwynn Houk’s current exhibition presents Lillian Bassman’s elegant and dream-like fashion photographs. Bassman’s images appeared on the pages of Harper’s Bazaar from the late 1940s to 1960s. She trained and worked under famed art director Alexey Brodovitch. Having abandoned photography for two decades, in the 1990s Bassman returned to her old negatives and re-interpreted them. She changed the original framing, accentuated contrast and softness and retouched areas. They became far more abstract and daring, leading to a renewed interest in her photography among editors, curators and collectors. She told the New York Times in a 1997 interview that she wanted to “take the hardness out of photography” in order to make it less literal, which she accomplished using darkroom techniques such as bleaching, dodging and burning with selective focus. She can be credited for introducing a new aesthetic in fashion photography. 

Lillian Bassman exhibition installation view
© Lillian Bassman Estate / Courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery

Lillian Bassman, “Black with one white glove, Barbara Mullen, dress by Christian Dior, New York, Harper's Bazaar”, 1950
© Lillian Bassman Estate / Courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery

BolteLang
Anyway Part Of It (until 4 March)

Bolte Lang was founded in 2008 by Anna Bolte and Chaja Lang. The gallery shows a variety of emerging artists working with all media from sculpture and installation to painting, drawing, collage, photography and film, often with a focus on material and studio practice. 

The gallery’s newly opened exhibition “Anyway Part Of It” was curated by Jeanette Apitz, a collector of design objects, who invited internationally recognised designers Kueng Caputo and Clémence Seilles, as well as fine artist Patrick Hari to collaborate on this project. 

When entering the gallery - dimly lit by Kueng Caputo sculptural light bulb pieces (“A piece of Wall”, 2014) - one encounters an array of colourful objects, textures and sound. In the front room, a selection of the designers’ latest works are arranged to create a platform for the music performance. Speakers, acoustic panels, lighting, room dividers, stage props and a lonely microphone are carefully arranged, creating a stage without performers. The music playing is by singers that were censored in different countries, making a statement for the freedom of musical expression. Venturing further into the gallery is a pure delight for the senses. Typeface letters are scattered on the floor and travertine bowls are placed above, elegant rock stools along the wall with the introduction of movement via a circular hanging mobile that gently turns. The third room hosts a large sculptural work by artist Patrick Hari entitled “Muppet Villa – Dreaming Alone is a Boring Land”. A large wooden structure, it hints at function but simultaneously denies any use. His use of different materials and the sculpture’s suggestion of a domestic microcosmos creates a playful dialogue with the design pieces. A common thread running through all their practices is the focus on material with a high level of craftsmanship.  

Anyway Part Of It exhibition installation view
Courtesy of BolteLang, © Kueng Caputo & Clémence Seilles

Patrick Hari, “Muppet Villa - Dreaming Alone Is A Boring Land”, 2017
Courtesy of BolteLang, © Patrick Hari

HAUSER + WIRTH
RODNEY GRAHAM (until 11 March) 
HENRY MOORE (until 11 March) 

Hauser & Wirth need little introduction, an international gallery devoted to Contemporary and Modern art, founded in Zürich by Iwan and Manuela Wirth and Ursula Huser in 1992. It is a global enterprise with spaces in Zürich, London, New York, Los Angeles and Somerset, UK. The gallery represents over sixty established and emerging artists, and several reputable Artist Estates such as the Louise Bourgois Studio, the Estate of Philip Guston and the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. 

Hauser & Wirth in Zürich currently presents two very different exhibitions, Vancouver-based contemporary artist Rodney Graham on the ground floor and early works on paper by the late British artist Henry Moore on the second floor. On entering the formidable ground floor space, within the Löwenbrau complex, we encounter Rodney Graham’s large-scale photographic lightboxes comprising highly detailed, allegorical and witty compositions. Each image is a fictional self-portrait with the artist in costume portraying a variety of characters. From the elaborate props to the intricate costumes and stage sets, each scene is executed with great precision and technical skill. In “Antiquarian Sleeping in His Shop” (2017), where Graham plays a collector sleeping amongst his many precious objects, it feels as though one could reach into the frame and pick an item from a shelf, peer a little closer even and read the titles on the book spines. Since the 1980s, Graham has developed his diverse practice to encompass photography, painting, sculpture, film, video and music. 

Then walking up to the gallery’s second floor space one discovers what feels like a small-scale museum exhibition, “Henry Moore: Myths and Poetry”, curated by his daughter Mary Moore. The exhibition focuses on the artist’s early works on paper (1940s – early 1950s) and includes poetry magazine covers, illustrations for poems by Herbert Read and sketches, exploring the graphic side of Moore’s practice. In addition to etchings, lithographs and drawings, several sculptures are also on view including a large-scale work carved from Elmwood that has not been exhibited since the 1950s. One of the highlights of this exhibition is the supporting archival material on show including Moore’s tools, personal possessions such as books and chairs, photographs of the artist in his studio and correspondence with friends such as W.H. Auden and Herbert Read. This offers an intimate view of a great artist with a unique glimpse into his private space and early working practices. 

Installation view of Rodney Graham, “Media Studies 77”, 2016
Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth, © Rodney Graham

Henry Moore, “Cover Design for Contemporary Poetry and Prose”, 1937
Reproduced with permission of the Henry Moore Foundation. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth

- by Diana Poole

* Cover pic: Rodney Graham, “Antiquarian Sleeping in his Shop”, 2017
Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth, © Rodney Graham