SELECTED

For Selected, each member of staff was invited to delve into the Sean Kelly archives and choose two works that touched, surprised, inspired, intrigued, or perhaps even unsettled them from the history of the gallery’s exhibitions or the gallery’s collection. Their fascinating choices range from pieces they had previously worked with during a past exhibition, to things they knew were in the collection but had never seen installed, to works they had no idea were even part of the gallery’s history, but discovered through this process. A personal statement addressing what it is about the work that they find meaningful will accompany each piece. The resulting exhibition—like the people who work at the gallery—is eclectic and surprising. And whilst their choices reflect their individual tastes, the forty-plus works presented come together to form a cumulative portrait of the gallery; mirroring both the extraordinary and diverse program that Sean Kelly is known for and the multitude of backgrounds and voices of the people that work here.

Selected includes a diverse array of work in various media––sculpture, painting, photography, video and performance––from the following artists: Marina Abramović, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Los Carpinteros, James Casebere, Julian Charrière, Jose Dávila, Edgar Degas, Marcel Duchamp, Awol Erizku, Iran do Espírito Santo, Douglas Gordon, Antony Gormley, Laurent Grasso, David Hammons, Rebecca Horn, Tehching Hsieh, Marine Hugonnier, Callum Innes, James Joyce, Idris Khan, Yves Klein, Joseph Kosuth, Peter Liversidge, Édouard Manet, Anthony McCall, Mariko Mori, Yasumasa Morimura, Sam Moyer, Zanele Muholi, Shirin Neshat, Rocío Olivares, Simon Patterson, Julião Sarmento, Shahzia Sikander, Alec Soth, Frank Thiel, James White, and Sun Xun.

Opposite – Shahzia Sikander, Singing suns, 2016

Exhibition runs through to July 28th, 2017

Sean Kelly
475 Tenth Avenue
NY 10018 New York
USA

www.skny.com

RUBEN MONTINI – WHERE I STAY WITH ME

I don’t want to call what I do “artistic practice” because it is truly connected to – is actually totally a part of – my life. My choice to have a home-studio, too, illustrates this continuity and continuous overlapping. The space where I live is also the space where I think and produce my work. Embroidery is the activity that, at the moment, occupies my days the most. It has historically been considered a hobby or a pastime for women when they relaxed after a day’s work outside the home, once they finished housework or while watching TV. However, it is increasingly becoming an actual job, like a cathartic instrument or an artistic methodology, independently of the gender of the person performing it. I, for example, count it among my daily activities ever since I started practicing it for my performance “E’ tutto qui. Dove sto con me” (2013). This “activity” became part of my everyday routine some years ago, first with an intent to quote Maria Lai and immediately afterwards, as a long performance where I tried to adopt that cliché connected to the domestic figure of the woman as my own. I brought what for many was considered a hobby to extremes, to such exasperated extremes that it fully became part of my days. Initially, I embroidered directly on Sardinian tapestry projects: instead of using them as outlines, I embroidered directly on the paper sketches that, for others, indicate the road to follow. For me they became – and sometimes still do – the road itself.

Ruben Montini

Exhibition runs through to July 29th, 2017

Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani
Via Giovanni Ventura, 6
20134 Milan
Italy

www.prometeogallery.com