News
Curated by Heather Galbraith, Ready to Roll is an exhibition with a straightforward premise – great art being made now by artists with a clear sense of direction and an individual voice. The exhibition, which includes works by Layla Rudneva-Mackay, runs at the City Gallery, Wellington to 12 September 2010.This link takes you to the Ready to Roll page on the Gallery website.
Founded by Fiona Campbell, The Real Art Roadshow moves contemporary art to schools around New Zealand in two customised trucks set up to display art and run education classes. You can read our earlier posting on the Real Art Roadshow here.
During the recent Gallery Weekend Berlin an unknown artist spilled water-based paint on the edge of a crossing at Rosenthaler Platz enabling pedestrians, cyclist and cars to create this vast pattern that will remain until the next rainfall washes it away.
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Matt Henry: Contraflow opening
Matt Henry's exhibition Contraflow opens tomorrow (Monday 21 June) at 5.30 pm. You can read the exhibition release here.
Image: Matt Henry, Control 2010, acrylic on linen, frame, perspex, 305 x 305 mm
Moving on
Heather Galbraith has stepped down from her curatorial position at the City Gallery Wellington to become the new Senior Curator Art at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Image: Forecourt and entrance to The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Asian art hubs
This link takes you to a Sydney Morning Herald article by John McDonald on the emergence of ART HK as a powerful new Asian art hub and what it means for Australia, and in particular for the Melbourne Art Fair and Australian collectors.
Charlotte Huddleston on the move
Charlotte Huddleston is the new director of AUT's St Paul Street Gallery. She replaces Leonhard Emmerling who left earlier this year to take up a position with the Goethe Institut in Munich. For the past four years Charlotte has been the curator of contemporary art at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
LIQUID STATE
Reading Room is a peer-reviewed journal of contemporary art and culture published annually by the E H McCormick Research Library at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. Each issue is themed and features essays from local and international writers, artists' commissions and an archive section.
The theme for the latest issue springs from the idea of the Pacific as a non-place because it cannot claim identity in relation to a land mass. It addresses our liquid state as a problem and a possibility and as a counter to 'solid' thinking.
Reading Room 4 presents essays that treat liquidity as a tool to rethink nation, as a means to envisage new notions of connectivity and mobility, as a metaphor for being, or quite literally to focus on water as both medium and resource, suggesting as Sean Cubitt does in his essay The Ordering of Worlds: Two Recent Video Works by Stella Brennan “that this non-place offers a perspective from which to reconsider the 'order of the world'.”
The issue also has a section dedicated to Julian Dashper (1960 – 2009) with tributes from friends and colleagues around the world.
Image: Cover of Reading Room 4 LIQUID STATE, 2010, published by the E H McCormick Research Library at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki
Upstairs at Starkwhite
This week we are installing Matt Henry's Contraflow exhibition downstairs, but we have works from stock on display in our upstairs galleries.
Images: Whitney Bedford, Pink Iceberg (Odessa), 2010, ink and oil paint on panel, Gavin Hipkins, New Age (Falls), 2009, archival pigment print, 800 x 800mm
Coming up at Starkwhite
Matt Henry's exhibition Contraflow runs in our downstairs space from 21 June to 17 July 2010. We'll post the preview date and link to the exhibition release later next week.
Image: Matt Henry, Untitled relief from the series 16:9 (Green) 2010, acrylic on linen, 1294 x 1150mm
Review of Bible Studies exhibition
This link takes you to an EyeContact review of Gavin Hipkins' exhibition Bible Studies (New Testament).
Image: Gavin Hipkins, Abducted Young, Bible Studies (New Testament) 2008 -2009 series, C-type print, 1200 x 1300mm
Lehman Brothers art collection goes to market
Liquidators of the world's most notorious failed bank have announced that another slice of the Lehman Brothers' art collection will go under the hammer in September at an auction expected to raise $10m. The proceeds will go to creditors who are still owed billions of dollars following the bank's collapse in September 2008.
Lawrence McDonald, a former Lehman vice-president whose book A Colossal Failure of Common Sense chronicled the bank's collapse, said Lehman's art was off limits to the vast majority of the bank's workforce. “There was no art on the trading floors – and out of 25,000, very few ever saw the 31st floor,” said McDonald who believes senior executives' penchant for art was a result of “becoming consumed with legacy, with power and with projection of power”.
Unnerved publication
With essays by exhibition curator Maud Page and independent curator/critic Wystan Curnow, this publication accompanies the exhibition Unnerved: The New Zealand Project, which runs at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art and Australian Cinematheque to 4 July 2010. You can read Maud Page's introductory essay here.
Image: cover image for Unnerved: The New Zealand Project, published by the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, image from the QAG/GoMA website
Merewether on the move
Charles Merewether is the new director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore (ICAS), the curatorial division of the LASALLE College of the Arts. ICAS runs LASALLE's gallery, which has 1500 square metres of exhibition space dedicated to exploring new and experimental art from Asia.
Following a ten-year stint as collections curator at the Getty Research Centre in Los Angeles, Merewether was the artistic director and curator of the 15th Biennale of Sydney, Zones of Conflict. His lineup of artists included Auckland-based artists Stella Brennan and John Reynolds.
Merewether's most recent publications include Under Construction: Ai Weiwei (2008) and Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art: Experimentations in the Public Sphere in Postwar Japan 1950-1970 (2007).
Sarah Douglas on ART HK
This link takes you to an article on ART HK 2010 by Sarah Douglas. Like many commentators, she sees ART HK as the regional front-runner to become the Art Basel of Asia, citing the lineup of blue-chip galleries from the West at this year's edition (many for the first time) and a record attendance figure of over 46,000 (up from 30,000 in 2009) as signs of a fair on the rise.
Sales also appear to be up. She says: “The spirit at ART HK hardly harkened back to boom time buying mania – collectors weren't dashing through the aisles frantically making purchases, but rather were taking their time with decisions. Many sales were finalised on the last day, and the fair benefited from a jolt of market optimism toward the end when Christies conducted a rousing auction of modern and contemporary art at the convention centre that brought in over $213m.”
Image: visitors photographing the Tracey Emin neon at Lehmann Maupin, ART HK 2010, photograph by Sarah Douglas
Bible Studies final week
Gavin Hipkins' exhibition Bible Studies (New Testament) closes on Saturday 12 June.
Image: Gavin Hipkins, Flock and Pack, Bible Studies (New Testament) 2008-2009, C-type photograph, 1700 x 1200mm
Alicia Frankovich: Effigies
Alicia Frankovich's exhibition Effigies opens tonight at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and runs to 19 September 2010. The exhibition is the result of eight intensive weeks of researching and building a series of discrete sculptural elements relating to the body.
Image: Alicia Frankovich, Rapture 2010, neon, cord, plugs, t-shirt and string
Ready to Roll
Curated by Heather Galbraith, Ready to Roll is an exhibition with a straightforward premise – great art being made now by artists with a clear sense of direction and an individual voice. The exhibition, which includes works by Layla Rudneva-Mackay, runs at the City Gallery, Wellington to 12 September 2010.This link takes you to the Ready to Roll page on the Gallery website.
Images: Ready to Roll Masthead; Layla Rudneva-Mackay, 2009, Light Pink, C-type photograph
An art magazine for contemporary China
LEAP is the bilingual art magazine of contemporary China with an editorial team headed by independent curator Philip Tinari. You can read Tinari's magazine manifesto here. Launched last week at ART HK, the third issue of LEAP features extensive coverage on China's emerging relationship with Africa and a section on how museums are hewed from former industrial and infrastructural spaces.
Image: Cover LEAP 1, February 2010. Shown: Huang Yong Ping, Sand Bank/Bank of Sand, 2000
Showcasing Hirst at ART HK
ARTRON.net reports that Hirst is still a major brand name in the East – where brand names are all-important. As any visitor to Hong Kong knows, the city-scape is awash with designer hoardings and Hirst is one of the names, along with Warhol and Picasso, that rings the right bells for new Asian buyers.
At this year's edition of ART HK, White Cube capitalised on the Asian fascination with brands by showing Hirst's work in a “special project stand”, separate to their main booth, dominated by a fluttering dove in formaldehyde, The Inescapable Truth (2005). According to director Tim Marlow, this is the first time any formaldehyde work has been shown in Asia and by the end of the first day it had been sold to an Asian collector for £1.75m.
This link takes you to an article on ART HK and more on White Cube's strategy to showcase Hirst at the fair.
Images: White Cube's special project stand at ART HK 2010
ART HK: last day
Thousands of visitors poured into ART HK over the weekend. Foot-traffic along the aisles slowed to a crawl and booths were jam-packed with viewers armed with cameras. Collectors making their final rounds had to battle crowds to get to works they wanted to see again and dealers prayed they'd get through to the end of each day with their works unscathed.
ART HK Vernissage
The third edition of ART HK opened last night with a preview followed by a lively vernissage. Over 10,000 people poured into the event over a few hours fueling predictions that the fair will easily beat last years record attendance of just over 30,000 visitors. With many galleries reporting good sales on the first night, Art HK appears to be off to a good start.
The Real Art Roadshow
Founded by Fiona Campbell, The Real Art Roadshow moves contemporary art to schools around New Zealand in two customised trucks set up to display art and run education classes. You can read our earlier posting on the Real Art Roadshow here.
Last year the Real Art Roadshow visited 6 public places, 132 schools and had over 70,000 visitors through their doors. It's a great project, all funded by private patronage and contributions from supporters. But like all independently funded projects, it needs ongoing financial support. If you'd like to help, this link takes you to the Real Art Roadshow website where you can find out more about their programme and how to make a contribution.
Images: The Real Art Roadshow at Warbirds over Wanaka and the interior of one of the art trucks
Current shows and gallery hours
We are in Hong Kong this week for ART HK 2010. While we are away at the fair our gallery hours are Monday to Friday 11.00am to 5.00pm and Saturday 11.00am to 4.00pm. Downstairs we are showing Gavin Hipkins Bible Studies (New Testament) 2008-2009 and upstairs we have works from stock.
Image: Matt Henry, TPS-L2 (Naptholl Red), 2010, acrylic on linen, 90 x 135 x 30mm
ART HK
Next week we'll be at ART HK. The fair kicks off with a preview and vernissage on Wednesday 26 May and then runs from 27 – 30 May 2010. As usual, we'll be posting images and reports on the event from Hong Kong.
Singapore's Fort Knox for art
Singapore has opened a maximum-security vault for art, gold and valuables signaling the city-state's ambitions to match Hong Kong and and Beijing as an Asian centre for art. Singapore FreePort has 30,000sqm of strongrooms, which are inside Changi airport allowing non-resident collectors to store valuables without paying tax or filing customs forms. FreePort also has exhibition space launched with a by-appointment exhibition presented by a Geneva-based art dealer.
Tommy Koh, Chairman of the National Heritage Board, which runs Singapore's museums decribes the FreePort as “a golden link in the value chain to promote Singapore as a centre for art, culture and antiquities and for the storage and sale of such high value items.”
Lorenzo Rudolf says “It's like Fort Knox.” Rudolf also appears to be a prime mover in the plan to position Singapore as a regional art hub linked to the international art market. The former director of Art Basel, ShContemporary and creator of ArtParis+Guests has launched ART STAGE SINGAPORE, a new art fair scheduled for 12 – 16 January 2011.
Image: Singapore FreePort designed by Swiss architects Benedicte Montant and Carmelo Stendardo
Toxic memorabilia
A porcelain sign that marked the intersection of Wall and Broad Street, near the New York Stock Exchange, is to be sold by Christies in Manhattan next month and is estimated to fetch between USD80,000 – 90,000. Who would have thought a piece of contaminated memorabilia would be worth so much? For most of us, 'Wall Street' conjurs up the creators of the toxic financial instruments that triggered a worldwide recession sending the international art market into freefall.
Bible Studies installation views
Gavin Hipkins' exhibition Bible Studies (New Testament) 2008- 2009 runs to 12 June 2010. You can read our exhibition release here.
Starkwhite et al. at Momentum
the story of
POPULAR PRODUCTIONS_et al. 1973 (NZ)
16mm silent film
Audio by DJ HOUSO 'praising god' 1990 (NZ)
Transfer to digital 2010
Presented by Starkwhite et al. at Momentum/Sydney (May 2010), an art forum focusing on video/film, new media, performance and sound
Bible Studies Opening
The opening for Gavin Hipkins exhibition Bible Studies (New Testament) 2008 – 2009 will take place on Monday 17 May 2010 from 5.30pm.
Image: Gavin Hipkins, Loaded Haze, from the Bible Studies (New Testament) series, 2008-2009, C-type photograph, 1200 x 1400mm
Phil Dadson's new kinetic wind sculpture
Phil Dadson has just completed Akau Tanga, a kinetic wind sculpture installed in the Meridian Wind Sculpture series along Highway 1, Evan's Bay close to Wellington airport. Akau Tanga is the Maori name for Evan's Bay conjuring up the lamenting sounds of the wind in the bay, which is reputed to be one of New Zealand's windiest locations. This link takes you to the artist's website where you will find more images and information on the new wind sculpture.
Images: Akau Tanga, 2010, courtesy the artist and Meridian
Momentum / Sydney
Momentum got underway yesterday in a beautiful old building near Sydney's Carriageworks. The upstairs space is set up up for the two-day Momentum Forum, with a large open space for performance. Downstairs the organisers abandoned initial plans to create booths, opting for open space with wall-mounted screens for projections and 47″ LCDs clamped to columns. Not surprisingly the floor looks more like an adjunct to the Biennale of Sydney than an art fair, but this in line with the orgainsers aim “to re-imagine the art fair into a more sustainable and innovative model”, one that embraces work such as video and performance, that rarely find its way into conventional art fairs.
On day one we presented video works by Stella Brennan (South Pacific), Hye Rim Lee (Crystal City Spun), Jae Hoon Lee (A leaf) and Grant Stevens (Crushing and In the Beyond).
Images from the top: Hye Rim Lee's Crystal City Spun and Jae Hoon Lee's A Leaf, Stella Brennan's South Pacific, Grant Stevens' In the Beyond, and the panel for the forum session on re-imaging the art fair
Images from the top: Hye Rim Lee's Crystal City Spun and Jae Hoon Lee's A Leaf, Stella Brennan's South Pacific, Grant Stevens' In the Beyond, and the panel for the forum session on re-imaging the art fair
Momentum / Sydney
Today we head to Sydney to participate in Momentum, an international forum for contemporary video art, new media and performance. The event takes place from 12 – 15 May 2010 in a building adjacent to Carriageworks. The image above shows one of the two floors being used, but in a raw state prior to fitout
Roadwork, Berlin
During the recent Gallery Weekend Berlin an unknown artist spilled water-based paint on the edge of a crossing at Rosenthaler Platz enabling pedestrians, cyclist and cars to create this vast pattern that will remain until the next rainfall washes it away.
Images: photographs by Boris Dornbusch
...
On 6 May 2010 we launched The 'Immortalisation' of Billy Apple, a collaborative project by Billy Apple and Craig Hilton where the artist works in the service of science and science serves the artist to enhance and protect the artist's brand by immortalising his biological tissue for perpetuity. The transaction ensures that the brand (and the artist) can theoretically last forever, unconstrained by death and that Billy Apple cells are available for scientific research.
I consent to the the wide distribution of cell lines derived from my blood, including deposit with the American Type Culture Collection cell bank. I understand this may enable unrestricted use of my cells in research outside my control, including the potential analysis of my DNA. Billy Apple 12/05/2009
In this project Craig Hilton and Billy Apple provide the setting for science to mingle with art. Billy Apple B-lymphocytes were isolated and grown in tissue culture media. These cells were then virally transformed and can now grow indefinitely in cell culture medium. Without such transformation, these cells have, like the artist they are derived from, a limited life span. The immortalised cells, housed in a container that mimics the precise environmental conditions present in the artists' body were installed at Starkwhite for the project launch.
Foreshadowing another phase of this evolving collaboration, Hilton says the Billy Apple cell line will be used in a study that will directly benefit cancer and immunology research as well as continue the conceptual work of Billy Apple through a project where he is simultaneously a subject of art and scientific endeavour.
The 'Immortalisation' of Billy Apple can be seen at Starkwhite today and tomorrow (Saturday).
Images: The 'Immortalisation' of Billy Apple, by Billy Apple and Craig Hilton at Starkwhite, Auckland NZ, 6 May 2010
Phil Dadson in SuperDelux lineup
Tokyo's popular experimental bar/music venue/night club/art gallery SuperDelux will be presented at Artspace as a part of the official programme of the 17th Biennale of Sydney. The SuperDelux@Artspace lineup of artists and performers includes Phil Dadson.
Image: Phil Dadson, Urban Devas, performance work presented at Living Room 2010: A week of goodness, Auckland, NZ
Easy Listening
Greg Burke, director of The Power Plant, Toronto will give a talk tonight at 6.00pm on his exhibition Universal Code and his work and vision for Toronto's Harbour Front Centre. The talk is at the Auckland Art Gallery's Art Lounge located at the corner of Lorne Street and lower Khartoum Place.
Image: Gabriel Orozco, Black Kites Perspective (front horizontal), 1997, Fuji crystal cromogenic archive C-print