GODARD MON AMOUR
2018-04-23During the making of one of his films, French film director Jean-Luc Godard falls in love with 17-year-old actress Anne Wiazemsky and later marries her.
In theatres May 11th, 2018
TweetDANIEL ARSHAM – CHARACTER STUDY
2018-04-23This show presents new work that explores the artist’s relationship to color and light, as well as his interest in cycles and patterns as they relate to time, matter, and pop-culture.
In the first part of the exhibition, iconic cartoon characters cast from vintage patches, enlarged to a fantastical scale, appear familiar and playful as they hang throughout the gallery. Some of these appropriated pop-images, such as Bart Simpson, Bugs Bunny, and Felix the Cat, are from of the artist’s own childhood collection of patches that covered the Jansport backpack he owned during his school years in the 90s.
These oversized patch works are cast using a plaster material, however, the expected colors scheme was not used. Instead, the pieces are pure white, half painted in a chiaroscuro style. This technique uses a gradual field of color to imply a shadow across the work, bringing attention to the texture and intricate detail of the embroidery. The pigment is dusted over the surface, allowing gravity to determine where the color lands. Arsham states: “When I began delving into the use of color, my colorblindness was a factor. I compensated for my lack of understanding the universe of color by viewing my surroundings in terms of light and shadows. This color chiaroscuro technique is an exploration of that.”
Exhibition runs through to June 9th, 2018
Morán Morán Gallery
937 N. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles
CA 90069
ALESSANDRO PESSOLI – LIKE A FREE LIFE
2018-04-23Pessoli’s work offers a fusion of sense and nonsense, blending private and public. Fed by references to popular culture, cinema and theatre, religiousimagery merges with allusions to art history, from the Italian Renaissance to American Pop Art. Typical of Pessoli are his investigations of how personal histories intertwine with larger historical narratives. With this new body of work Pessoli continues to explore both his interior life and the physical reality of our world, and how they subsequently interact on the canvas.
As the paintings show, this approach results in human figures and animals being transfixed by a precipitate of anatomical parts such as eyes, mouths, penises and objects like guns, fruit, ice cream and emoji. Even minutely copied drawings of his children find their way on to the paintings. In one painting, a crowned chicken carries a slice of pizza on its back, its neck pierced by a banana, while the artist’s portrait and a popsicle appear among its feathers. This abundant diversity is exemplified by the techniques used: oil paint, silkscreen, stencils and spray paint intermingle to describe details in a realistic manner or to dissolve them into abstraction.
Opposite – Fired Figures, 2018
Exhibition runs through to April 28th, 2018
Xavier Hufkens
107 rue St-Georges | St-Jorisstraat
B – 1050 Brussels
Belgium
NIALL O’BRIEN – THREE CITIES
2018-04-23‘Three Cities’ explores Santa Clara’s ‘Silicon Valley’ through a series of intuitive landscapes and portraits, shot in and around the county’s seven-mile long Bascom Avenue.
During his time there, O’Brien was struck by the banality of a place that prides itself on being a world leader in innovation. Although no stranger to the US and its economic landscape, he was affected by the enormous inequality that exists amongst Bascom’s residents – some of America’s wealthiest and most impoverished, living side by side.
Despite this he found moments of remarkable beauty in and around the valley, over his many visits to the area. He also found beauty in the people that inhabit Bascom Avenue. Blake, a homeless man, and his girlfriend Dana became incredibly important to O’Brien, who began to see the world from their point of view.
The photographer’s naturalistic and voyeuristic imagery is the result of a very personal process, which has historically seen him embed himself within ‘tribes’, whether they be young punks in the suburbs of London and Berlin, or the isolationist communities of conservative middle-America. Here he was drawn specifically to Blake and Dana’s stories and their surroundings – spending months getting to know them and their routines, documenting their turmoil and their triumphs, as well as the streets that they call home.
Exhibition runs from April 27th – May 26th, 2018
Sid Motion
142 York Way
London
N1 0AX
BARBARA CRANE – THE POLAROID YEARS
2018-04-23Barbara Crane is recognized as one of the leading conceptual artists to have emerged from The Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. With more than ninety solo exhibitions to date, including seven retrospectives, Crane has solidified her place as one of the most important experimental photographers today. For twenty-eight years she taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago becoming one of the most renowned educators worldwide, while consistently working on her own photography. She retired from teaching in 1995, and is currently working on several book projects.
Barbara Crane was one of a handful of photographers who was given unlimited access to Polaroid film, allowing her to experiment and push the boundaries of the material. Several of these pieces will be on view, including some of her seminal SX-70 grids that examined repetition and its power to elevate simple patterns into majestic effects. In Polka Dots I, 1980, a grid of red dots play against a yellow backdrop, begging the viewer to see the difference between each frame. In Tucson, 1979, Crane manipulates Polaroid packfilm with a scribe, moving around the emulsion to create an outline of the subjects. And in Private Views, 1981, Crane spent time photographing at Chicago beaches and summer festivals, focusing on the people that make the city so culturally diverse.
Opposite – Private Views, Coney Island, NY [002], 1982
Exhibition runs through to April 28th, 2018
Holden Luntz Gallery
332 Worth Avenue
Palm Beach
Florida 33480
DEEP IN A DREAM WITH MICHAEL MASSAIA
2018-04-23Michael Massaia’s nocturnal images present a uniquely poetic and pure body of work. The photographer’s hand-crafted images capture the quietude and isolation of the city during the hushed hours of the early morning by creating luminous, ethereal landscapes devoid of people. The parks, amusement rides and abandoned houses become dramatic sets waiting to be brought to life.
Massaia began his quiet walks at night in Central Park to relieve an ongoing insomnia, taking pictures of New York City during the walks between 2:00 A.M. and 5:00 A.M. Massaia’s interest in photography began in high school and though self-taught, his practice has grown into a superb craftsmanship that includes perfecting enlarging negatives, building his own cameras, and contact printing both silver and platinum photographs. Being raised in New Jersey and remaining in the New York City metro area, Massaia’s photography is based on locations close to the photographer’s upbringing. In Massaia’s photography, the most visited urban park in the United States, Central Park, becomes a fantastic landscape that shimmers in the half-light of the moon, with radiating pathways and mirror-like bodies of water. Iconic buildings become luminescent and appear alive, radiating light from within themselves while bridges and trees seem eerie and haunting.
Opposite – Eaglevale Arch Looking North
Exhibition runs through to April 28th, 2018
Holden Luntz Gallery
332 Worth Avenue
Palm Beach
Florida 33480
