China Watch
Guy Ullens, the Belgian industrialist and collector of Chinese art since the mid-1980s, has sold 18 works from his collection to Chinese collectors. Proceeds from the sale (reported to be over USD20m) are to go towards financing the operations of the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing and to fund future acquisitions. Housed in a Bauhaus- style former arms factory, the UCCA is a non profit art centre funded by Guy and Miriam Ullens that “…presents exhibitions of established and emerging artists and develops a platform to share knowledge through education and research.” The sale shows the rise of mainland Chinese collectors with an eye for contemporary Chinese art rather than antiquities. Meanwhile the international art world watches for signs of another shift in focus, this time away from Made in China towards art that is created in and/or presented in China.
et al. maintenance of social solidarity
Coming up at Starkwhite
We Go Far… And Way Back
Alicia Frankovich interviewed in ART WORLD
Real Art Roadshow
eyeCONTACT review
You can read John Hurrell's review of Mariana Vassileva Videos here. The exhibition runs to Saturday 27 June 2009.
Certain Words Drawn
Glass Stress at Venice
Philip Dodd on ART HK
Philip Dodd, founder of China Now and Chairman of Made in China, discusses ART HK 09 and how it compares to other fairs in the world. Click here to see the video clip.
et al. maintenance of social solidarity
et al. maintenance of social solidarity runs at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, from 25 June – 13 September 2009.
Mariana Vassileva installation views
Layla Rudneva-Mackay: Green With Envy
Layla Rudneva Mackay's exhibition Green With Envy is reviewed here by John Hurrell.
Glen Hayward: Live Transmission
Frozen Time – Art from the Antarctic
Phil Dadson's StoneMap is included in Frozen Time – Art from the Antarctic curated by Alfons Hug for the Bienal Fin del Mundo and for Stadtgalerie Keil in Germany from 13 June – 30 August 2009.
Coming up at Starkwhite
Projects for a small world
Edited by Gregory Burke and Christine Davis, issue 38 of Public, projects for a small world, is devoted entirely to artists' projects. The lineup of artists includes David Hatcher and et al. For more information go to the Public website here or email the journal at public@yorku.ca.
Green With Envy
Shown here are five of the six photographs presented in Layla Rudneva-Mackay's exhibition Green With Envy. The sixth image is posted below under Coming up at Starkwhite. Green With Envy runs in our Project Space until 20 June 2009.
Coming up at Starkwhite
Glen Hayward's exhibition Live Transmission runs upstairs from 27 May to 20 June 2009.
Coming up at Starkwhite
Piece War performance
Hong Kong beats the odds
ART HK Vernissage
Fears that Swine Flu would rain on ART HK's parade proved to be groundless as the event was launched last night with a lively vernissage.
ARTFORUM: SCENE & HERD in Auckland
ART HK
artforum.com Critics Picks
Matt Henry's Doppelgänger exhibition at Starkwhite is featured in artforum.com's “Critics Picks” section. Read the review here.
Image: Matt Henry, Duochrome No.1 from the series “16:9” 2008, oil on linen, frame, acrylic glazing, Chartwell Collection, NZ
An uplifting experience
17 hot air balloons and a brass band
This sampler is from Phil Dadson's new video, Breath of Wind.
Image: Phil Dadson, Breath of Wind, 2009, 2 screen video installation
Starkwhite and BLACK magazine
Each issue of Auckland's BLACK magazine includes Gallery, an arts section featuring pages by New Zealand-based and international artists selected for the magazine by Starkwhite. The current issue features pages by Whitney Bedford, Michael Harrison and Thomas Hirschhorn.
Image: Thomas Hirschhorn, Poor-Racer, Sumner, Christchurch, 15 March 2009. Commissioned by The Physics Room in association with Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu for One Day Sculpture. Photo: Stephen Rowe.
Dark Water at Princes Wharf
Dark Water: the Antipodes Project can be viewed at Princes Wharf on Monday 20 and Tuesday 21 April from 12.00 to 6.00pm and then at Starkwhite's Project Space from 23 April to 14 May 2009.
Images: Cho Duck Hyun, Dark Water: the Antipodes Project, 2009, salvage shots and installation views, Princes Wharf, Auckland, NZ.
Matt Henry: Doppelgänger installation views
Doppelgänger runs to 16 May 2009.
Images: Matt Henry: Doppelgänger, 2009, installation views, Starkwhite, Auckland, NZ.
Paradise is elsewhere
Hye Rim Lee’s video Obsession Love Forever is included in Paradise is Elsewhere at ifa-Galerie Stutgart (17 April – 14 June 2009) and ifa-Galerie Berlin (3 July – 6 September 2009). Curator June Yap says: “In this exhibition artists from the Asia-Pacific region look at notions of Paradise and critically address a never-ending longing for a Garden of Eden.” The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by June Yap and Iris Lenz. Lee is also represented in Leisure, A Disguised Labor? Curated by Manu Park, the exhibition is part of a Korean cultural programme in Hannover (opening 15 April) that includes contemporary art, design and film.
Video: Hye Rim Lee, Documentary, 54 second clip, Broadcast NZ.
Dark Water: the Antipodes Project
Cho Duck Hyun is presenting Dark Water: the Antipodes Project in Living Room 09: My heart is where my home is, a 7 day programme of art events in Auckland (19 – 26 April) curated by Pontus Kyander. In the Dark Water project, a container is fictitiously transported through the Earth, hoisted up from the ground or water and opened to reveal its treasure of the artist’s photo-realistic portraits and other images on canvas. It is a Wunderkammer, revealing and reflecting on the history of individuals as well as general patterns of migration.
Cho Duck Hyun’s project started in 1994 when the original container was unearthed at the São Paulo Biennial after seemingly having travelled from Seoul. Now appearing in Auckland, it has traversed the southern hemisphere, and will later continue its journey to another antipode, Liverpool, UK. After being retrieved from Auckland Harbour on 19 April Dark Water will be on display at Princess Wharf on 21/22 April from 12.00 – 6.00pm, before moving to Starkwhite’s Project Space where it will show from 23 April to 14 May 2009.
Image: Cho Duck Hyun, Dark Water: the Antipodes Project (detail), 2009
The National Party, John Key, et al. announce bold new charities initiative…
National's bold new tax policy on charities shows a National government will support private giving and is serious about backing groups doing important work in our communities..
The Hon John Key, wants people who don't need to spend their upcoming tax cuts to donate them to charity, a step he hopes will help develop an American-style culture of giving.
Speaking at a Philanthropy New Zealand conference February 27th, Mr Key said those who “can't bring themselves to spend their tax cuts” should give the money to a charity rather than save it.
The cuts are part of the NZ Government's economic stimulus plans, aimed at increasing household spending in the recession.
Mr Key said though many people needed the tax cuts to pay debt or bills, “I am just as sure there are many who are in a position to donate some.
“I'll be reminding people that if they can't bring themselves to spend their tax cuts, there are many organisations who could benefit.”
“This policy will give a big boost to the giving tradition in New Zealand. We want to encourage that culture of giving.”
Be bold! Be big! Be philanthropic!
et al.
etal.name
REALITY SANDWICHES
Martin Basher's work features in the artnews projects exhibition REALITY SANDWICHES. The other artists in the show are: Dan Attoe, Daniel Baker, Mark Flood, Dorothy Iannone, John Pylypchuk and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Curated by Margherita Belaief, the exhibition runs in Berlin from 8 – 18 April 2009.
Image: Martin Basher, The Hard Work of Simple Living (Marlboro), 2009 (detail), books, tape, air fresheners, candles, incense, ash tray and cigarette butts