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Ida Ekblad at Bonniers Konsthall

Contemporary Art Daily 2 Sep 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Artist: Ida Ekblad

Venue: Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm

Exhibition Title: Digging. Treasure.

Date: August 27 – October 24, 2010

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Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm

Press Release:

Bonniers Konsthall begins its autumn season with the young Norwegian artist Ida Ekblad, who holds her first exhibition in Sweden. Ida Ekblad creates new works especially for the exhibition, which covers everything from expressionist painting and poems to metal sculptures and large concrete reliefs. During summer, Ida Ekblad has been working on site in Stockholm and collected material for her sculptures from the city’s containers and scrapyards.

Ida Ekblad relates, in a natural way, to a tradition of painting and sculpture. Combining free and spontaneous painterly gestures with a graffiti culture, she is quite at home among popular culture and street culture’s teeming flora of expressions. At first sight, we see painting and sculpture of a neoexpressionist idiom. However, look closer and our contemporary age appears in the form of parts of copper wire, corrugated iron and deformed cymbals in what is the raw material of Ekblad’s sculptures. The materials and found objects function as reminders of our time’s mass produced and industrial abundance, which have been spared its fate to rot in a container and been merged into new entities.

Ida Ekblad (born 1980) is part of a young generation of artists who, in recent years, have contributed to the revitalisation of Oslo’s art scene. In collaboration with a couple of artist friends she has run the gallery Willy Wonka Inc in Oslo. Ida Ekblad is also part of a wider, international context and has held gallery exhibitions in, among others, Berlin and Paris, and participated in group shows such as Younger Than Jesus at the New Museum in New York.

Link: Ida Ekblad at Bonniers Konsthall

Sergej Jensen at the Aspen Art Museum

Contemporary Art Daily 1 Sep 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Artist: Sergej Jensen

Venue: Aspen Art Museum, Aspen

Date: July 30 – October 10, 2010

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Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Aspen Art Museum, Aspen.

Press Release:

Sergej Jensen’s poetic artworks provide a fresh approach to minimalist painting. Constructed from a wide range of textiles, the artist uses additive and subtractive physical methods like bleaching, fraying, or sewing to stand in for the traditional gestures of pure painting. Through these processes, Jensen creates breathtakingly fragile and quiet abstractions that become contemplations of the history and reuse of his chosen materials, and conjure a network of visual and visceral associations from the stains, holes, cracks and other traces of use that in turn become the primary pictorial elements. His application of pigments, diamond dust, thread, wool, and bleach become part of the treatments whose effects—in some cases—can take years to fully realize. Jensen’s works are installed within the pre-existing conditions of each individual gallery space. As such, interior design elements such as rugs, couches, or other repurposed domestic objects combine to create a total and unexpected environment for the viewer.

This is Berlin-based artist Jensen’s first U.S. solo museum exhibition. It is organized in collaboration with the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, and includes over 25 paintings. It will be accompanied by a monographic catalogue co-published by both institutions, with essays by Aspen Art Museum Director and Chief Curator Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson and an interview with the artist by Kunst-Werke Institute Curator Susan Pfeffer.

Link: Sergej Jensen at the Aspen Art Museum

August Review Index 2010

Contemporary Art Daily 1 Sep 2010, 4:15 am CEST

Felix Gonzalez-Torres at Wiels, Part 2

Pamela Rosenkranz at Karma International

Hayley Tompkins at Andrew Kreps

Hans-Peter Feldmann at Malmo Konsthall

“Che fare?” at Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein

Michaela Meise at Johann Koenig

Ei Arakawa at Galerie Neu

Gerda Scheepers at Mary Mary

Daido Moriyama at Luhring Augustine

Nora Schultz at Isabella Bortolozzi

Elad Lassry at Kunsthalle Zurich

Mike Kelley at Skarstedt

Ida Ekblad at Giti Nourbakhsch

Giuseppe Gabellone at Martin Janda

Katharina Wulff at Daniel Buchholz

Jordan Wolfson at Johann Koenig

Josh Smith, Sophie Van Hellermann at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens

Brendan Fowler at Rental

Monika Baer at Barbara Weiss

Gilberto Zorio at MAMbo

Richard Aldrich at dépendance

David Zink-Yi at Johann Koenig

William J. O’Brien at Marianne Boesky

Seth Price at Capitain Petzel

Günther Förg at Barbel Graesslin

“Non-solo show, Non-group show” at Kunsthalle Zurich

John Miller at Christian Nagel

“Primary Atmospheres” at David Zwirner

Lin May and Jens Ullrich at Jacky Strenz

Balice Hertling c/o MD 72

Margarete Jakschik at Gisela Capitain

AR: Margarete Jakschik at Gisela Capitain

Contemporary Art Daily 31 Aug 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Artist: Margarete Jakschik

Venue: Gisela Capitain, Cologne

Exhibition Title: It Will Take a Long Time

Date: May 22 – July 31, 2010

Originally Posted: July 23rd, 2010

Note: This entry is part of August Review, our annual look back at this season’s key exhibitions. For more information, see the announcement here.

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AR: Balice Hertling c/o MD 72

Contemporary Art Daily 30 Aug 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Artists: Isabelle Cornaro, Luca Frei, Falke Pisano

Venue: MD 72, Berlin

Exhibition Title: Balice Hertling c/o MD 72

Date: January 15 – February 13, 2010

Originally Posted: February 19, 2010

Note: This entry is part of August Review, our annual look back at this season’s key exhibitions. For more information, see the announcement here.

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AR: Lin May and Jens Ullrich at Jacky Strenz

Contemporary Art Daily 29 Aug 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Artists: Lin May and Jens Ullrich

Venue: Jacky Strenz, Frankfurt

Exhibition Title: Nelly Sachs Park

Date: February 5 – March 13, 2010

Originally Posted: February 23, 2010

Note: This entry is part of August Review, our annual look back at this season’s key exhibitions. For more information, see the announcement here.

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AR: “Primary Atmospheres” at David Zwirner

Contemporary Art Daily 28 Aug 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Artists: Robert Alexander, Larry Bell, Laddie John Dill, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, John McCracken, Helen Pashgian, James Turrell, De Wain Valentine, Doug Wheeler

Venue: David Zwirner, New York

Exhibition Title: Primary Atmospheres

Date: January 8 – February 6, 2010

Originally Posted: January 13th, 2010

Note: This entry is part of August Review, our annual look back at this season’s key exhibitions. For more information, see the announcement here.

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“Barbaric Freedom” at Simon Lee

Contemporary Art Daily 27 Aug 2010, 7:45 pm CEST

Artist: John Armleder, Merlin Carpenter, Roberto Cuoghi, Jim Drain, Matias Faldbakken, Alex Hubbard, Jasper Johns, Sherrie Levine, Klara Liden, Paul McCarthy, Annette Messager, Robert Morris, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Stephan Rinck, Josh Smith, Christopher Wool

Venue: Simon Lee, London

Exhibition Title: Barbaric Freedom

Date: July 9 – September 11, 2010

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Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Simon Lee Gallery, London

Press Release:

“Expression is the gift from the World as many to the World as one” (A.N. Whitehead)

Ever since the late 1970s the art scene has been dominated by the incessant appropriation and recycling of various facets of modernism, as well as of Pop, Minimal or Conceptual art. Recently, however, the compelling need to emancipate from this heavy cloak of references has led many artists to turn to almost archaic gestures. Traces, imprints, scrapings, totems and pagan ceremonies are among the manifestations of this aspiration to new spaces of freedom, to new creative and expressive possibilities. In their day, the avant-gardes, too, drew on the energy of non-European, so-called “primitive” cultures in order to break with the prevailing order. Today it is no longer a matter of exploring the culturally or geographically unknown, but, for artists, to use “free of history” gestures to better deal with the needs of the present. Already, in the late 1950s and 1960s, similar strategies evolved as a reaction to the exhaustion of abstract painting (Gutai, but also Robert Morris, Yayoi Kusama or Bruce Nauman). Today, rather than ruptures, these artists are searching for new connections, of the kind that have too long been proscribed.

The works brought together for Barbaric Freedom do not represent an exhaustive survey of practices illustrating this idea; rather, they constitute a limited landscape that is contemporary in its very anachronism. Thus, works by Jasper Johns, Robert Morris, Paul McCarthy and Josh Smith demonstrate the use of marks made by parts of the body, be it the hand, finger or skull. As Georges Didi Huberman writes, in such works “produced by imprints, a timeless technique encounters a contemporary practice to produce a sudden flash.” Here, the imprint makes an abrupt, cathartic and temporary appearance in works by artists whose style is otherwise characterised by great formal sophistication. In pieces by John Armleder, Christopher Wool, Merlin Carpenter, Matias Faldbakken and Alex Hubbard, the trace is used as a way of circumventing the question of self-expression in favour or a more universal form of energy. While the resulting works may carry a negative charge, they use this power to break with habits and open up a new creative space. The creatures made by Annette Messager, Jim Drain and Stefan Rinck take part in imaginary ceremonies that mix together sorcery, paganism and animism. In contrast, Roberto Cuoghi and Sherrie Levine invoke the power of ancient cultures, the Assyrians and the Navajos, while, for Klara Liden, energy is summoned through bodily action in a mixture of dance and performance. Finally, Michelangelo Pistoletto’s shattered mirror takes in the ensemble, its gold edges incapable of limiting the infinite reflections of forms and life.

Link: Barbaric Freedom at Simon Lee

AR: John Miller at Christian Nagel

Contemporary Art Daily 27 Aug 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Artist: John Miller

Venue: Christian Nagel, Berlin

Exhibition Title: A Holiday in Other People’s Misery

Date: January 16 – February 20, 2010

Originally Posted: February 20, 2010

Note: This entry is part of August Review, our annual look back at this season’s key exhibitions. For more information, see the announcement here.

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AR: “Non-solo show, Non-group show” at Kunsthalle Zurich

Contemporary Art Daily 26 Aug 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Artists: Ei Arakawa, Nikolas Gambaroff, Nick Mauss, Nora Schultz, Kerstin Brätsch, DAS INSTITUT, Klara Liden, Carissa Rodriguez

Venue: Kunsthalle, Zurich

Exhibition Title: Non-solo show, Non-group show

Date: November 28, 2009 – January 13, 2010

Originally Posted: February 8th, 2010

Note: This entry is part of August Review, our annual look back at this season’s key exhibitions. For more information, see the announcement here.

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AR: Günther Förg at Barbel Graesslin

Contemporary Art Daily 25 Aug 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Artist: Günther Förg

Venue: Barbel Graesslin, Frankfurt

Date: February 6 – March 13, 2010

Originally Posted: February 10, 2010

Note: This entry is part of August Review, our annual look back at this season’s key exhibitions. For more information, see the announcement here.

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AR: Seth Price at Capitain Petzel

Contemporary Art Daily 24 Aug 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Artist: Seth Price

Venue: Capitain Petzel, Berlin

Exhibition Title: Die Nuller Jahre

Date: January 15 – February 27, 2010

Originally Posted: January 21, 2010

Note: This entry is part of August Review, our annual look back at this season’s key exhibitions. For more information, see the announcement here.

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AR: William J. O’Brien at Marianne Boesky

Contemporary Art Daily 23 Aug 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Artist: William J. O’Brien

Venue: Marianne Boesky, New York

Date: November 20 – December 19, 2009

Originally Posted: December 2, 2009

Note: This entry is part of August Review, our annual look back at this season’s key exhibitions. For more information, see the announcement here.

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AR: David Zink-Yi at Johann Koenig

Contemporary Art Daily 22 Aug 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Artist: David Zink Yi

Venue: Johann Koenig, Berlin

Date: April 30 – June 5, 2010

Originally Posted: May 11, 2010

Note: This entry is part of August Review, our annual look back at this season’s key exhibitions. For more information, see the announcement here.

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AR: Richard Aldrich at dépendance

Contemporary Art Daily 21 Aug 2010, 2:15 pm CEST

Artist: Richard Aldrich

Venue: dependance, Brussels

Date: November 10 – December 19, 2009

Originally Posted: November 27, 2009

Note: This entry is part of August Review, our annual look back at this season’s key exhibitions. For more information, see the announcement here.

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Claire Fontaine at MOCA, North Miami

Contemporary Art Daily 20 Aug 2010, 7:45 pm CEST

Artist: Claire Fontaine

Venue: Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami

Exhibition Title: Economies

Date: June 3 – August 22, 2010

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Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. Photos by Steven Brooke.

Press Release:

The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami will present the first comprehensive U.S. museum exhibition for the Paris-based collective artist Claire Fontaine from June 3 – August 22, 2010. Featuring sculpture, painting, neon, video and text, Claire Fontaine: Economies presents works from 2006 to the present including numerous new pieces created especially for the exhibition as well as a “moving image toolbox” consisting of films and videos that have influenced Fontaine’s work. Claire Fontaine: Economies is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami and is curated by MOCA Associate Curator Ruba Katrib.

In 2004, Claire Fontaine took the name of a French paper company and called herself a ready-made artist. Managed by “assistants,” Fontaine’s practice is deeply imbedded in collaborative modes of working and questioning possibilities for social change.

“Claire Fontaine’s work asks us to reconsider our assumptions as art viewers as well as members of society and to question daily facets of life that are often taken for granted,” said MOCA Associate Curator Ruba Katrib. “Economies is a visual meditation on alternative value systems and on the contradictions connected to concepts of ‘ownership’ today, which is especially relevant in the current economic climate.”

Among the works on view is Untitled (Tennis Ball Sculpture) (2009), a floor installation comprised of tennis balls that are slit open to reveal their contents, including such items as hairpins, toffees, socks and batteries that become “currency” inside prisons. The work is a response to stories of contraband entering American prisons via tennis balls thrown into prison yards. In Change, (2006), Fontaine turns money into a weapon, outfitting 12 quarters with retractable box cutter blades. Untitled (Missing) (2010), is a non-functional piece of a sawed-off shotgun that despite an inability to render harm, creates a sense of unease as the whereabouts of its other parts are unknown. In Queens (2004), an animation shows a British one pound coin cheating luck as it slowly rotates to reveal that is the same on both sides, while in Recession Sculpture (American Gas) (2009), Fontaine creates a system to reduce the evidence of energy consumption with a vacuum cleaner hooked up to a propane gas meter that sucks air out of the meter, causing its numbers to go backwards.

A “moving-image toolbox” featuring films that have influenced Claire Fontaine includes: Trinh T. Minh-ha’s Reassemblage (1982), Barbette Scroeder’s Koko: A Talking Gorilla, (1978), East of Paradise, dir. Lech Kowalski, 2005; and D’amore si vive, dir. Silvano Agosti, 1984.

Link: Claire Fontaine at MOCA, North Miami