installation art – Page 26

December 20, 2022December 20, 2022, by Art Spiel

Saba Farhoudnia: Reflection at Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning

In conversation with Adèle Eisenstein and Saba Farhoudnia

A picture containing text, scene, gallery, room

Description automatically generated — *No Signal,* 2022, acrylic on acrylic mirror sheet, 7 panels, 48×16” ea., 48×112”. Photo: Farzan Ghasemi

Reflection, the solo show of Saba Farhoudnia in Jamaica Center for Art & Learning, highlights the cruel and tragic practice of so-called “honor” killing, by way of individual stories which give the victims their voice back, and shed a light on this reality for far too many women, girls and LGBTQ+ (taking at least 5000 lives annually per the United Nations Population Fund). The ensemble of individual panels and stories welcomes the visitor into a colorful and intriguing landscapes. Adèle Eisenstein, the curator of the show, says that the layers of paint reveal a reflective surface, which delivers a direct message to the observer—this might have been you. While dishonor killing is the most extreme end of the spectrum, the subject addressed also touches upon and exposes stratified layers of gender-based violence.

December 19, 2022December 9, 2022, by Art Spiel

whispered conversations at Stand 4

Curator Jennifer McGregor in conversation with the artists

Kate Collyer, Bundle: Alaska, 2022, mixed media and video, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.

Artists Kate Colyer, Lorrie Fredette, and Megan Porpeglia talk with curator Jennifer McGregor about their framework to create whispered conversations, on view at Stand4 Gallery and Community Space in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The collective was active during COVID via Zoom reading about the natural world. They created bundles in response to their individual trips in 2021. These were shared through the mail to instigate a series of new artworks. Jennifer McGregor was brought in as curator to help shape the exhibition.

December 14, 2022December 12, 2022, by Sara Farrell Okamura

Mary Ann Unger: To Shape a Moon from Bone at WCMA

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Description automatically generated — Installation view of Mary Ann Unger, WCMA

Power. Power, not bravado, not ego, but the power of intelligence, skill, fortitude, and vision is what Mary Ann Unger possessed and that is what is on exhibition at Williams College Museum of Art (referred to as WCMA). Throughout her life she defied limitations frequently imposed overtly and subconsciously on women. Attending Mt Holyoke College in the mid-60s, she studied biochemistry when few women were found in science departments, then transferred to studio art taking up welding, casting and carving. This was not the typical route for women during the mid-to late 60s. She traveled on her own to North Africa and this journey greatly influenced her work. Returning to New York she completed an MFA at Columbia and launched her career as a post minimalist sculptor, finding herself in the minority amongst a sea of men.

December 10, 2022December 7, 2022, by Alexandria Deters

Tell me, where did you START? Conversations with Designer Robert Stadler

A person sitting in a chair

Description automatically generated — Robert Stadler, 2022. Photo courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery.

Before my first Facetime conversation with the Austrian designer Robert Stadler, I had looked through images of his works but I did not know much about Stadler himself. Going into our first ‘meeting’ I wanted to get to know him, his personality. What kind of questions could I ask him? What would be the mood of our dialogue? Would we get along? Would Stadler be stiff and severe? Humorless? Well, I had no need to worry. From the moment we greeted each other, his personality came through. Stadler is soft-spoken, easy to laugh, kind, open to converse on whatever topic, and most importantly does have a sense of humor that seeps into most of his work.

December 7, 2022May 12, 2024, by Saul Ostrow

Another Fumble at the Whitney: no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria

Opinion

A group of people in a room with posters on the wall

Description automatically generated with medium confidence — Installation view. Photo courtesy of the writer.

The exhibition no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria, though it includes 50 works by 20 artists, seems overwhelmed given it has been installed in an enormous space. With the exception of two lounge-like areas in which billboard-sized video projections are installed, most of the works, modest in scale, seem to be scattered through the space, or enigmatically clustered together. Ironically, where the Wake of Maria is sparsely installed and attended, the Edward Hopper NY exhibition, given its scale and popularity, would definitely benefit from more space than the half floor it has been jammed into. Another oddity is the disparity in the number and scale of works each artist is represented by. I can only suspect the budget of this show was insufficient to achieve its stated ambition of “presenting artworks made over the last five years by an inter-generational group of artists from Puerto Rico and its diaspora.”

December 1, 2022December 6, 2024, by Melissa Stern

RADIANCE: THEY DREAM IN COLOR. THE UGANDA PAVILION AT THE VENICE BIENNALE

::untitled folder 3:install unganda.jpg — Install photo of Radiance: They Dream in Color

The Venice Biennale, a sprawling art Universe, takes over the city every other year alternating its focus between art and architecture. Due to Covid, 2020 was cancelled, and the 2022 festival attracted an unprecedented number of visitors. The 2022 exhibition has received almost unparalleled praise for its inclusiveness, its artistry and its cohesion as a statement of the art Zeitgeist. It hasn’t hurt that the principle exhibition, The Milk of Dreams was curated by women, celebrates women and under-represented artists, and is for the most part simply superb.

November 28, 2022December 30, 2022, by Art Spiel

Light and Matter: 2022 South Korea Sculpture Biennale

Art Spiel Photo Story

A picture containing text, library, scene, room

Description automatically generated — Michael Whittle Butterfly on the Sun, Seongsan Art Hall, Changwon Ink on UV-resistant plastic, 61’ x 48’

The Changwon Biennale is the largest recurring sculpture show in South Korea. During the fall of 2022 it showcased 69 artists under the title, Channel: Particle Wave Duality. Curated by Director Cho Kwan Yong, Chief Curator Lee Tahe Hoon and Curator Hyojin Nam, the show considered the broad sense of how light and matter interact at the intersection of art and science. Alongside three-dimensional works, it included sound art, video screenings and installations. The small group of international artists who were invited this fall to South Korea to create their work onsite in the biennale exhibition halls worked for three weeks with support from the Korean government and the care of the local team.

November 21, 2022November 2, 2022, by Art Spiel

Woolpunk®: Sunflowers & Graffiti’d Sky in the Garden State at Montclair Art Museum

Photo Story

Background pattern

Description automatically generated — Detail, Sunflowers & Graffitit’d Sky in the Garden State, 2022, 24 x 36. Digital Image with embroidery and textiles. Photo Credit: Megan Maloy

Sunflowers & Grafitti’d Sky in the Garden State is a large-scale wall-based work by artist Woolpunk® in the Laurie Stairwell exhibition space at the Montclair Art Museum. It consists of a photo highlighting inspirational communal land use and dietary wellness, juxtaposed by a spray-painted sky-blue mural that is visible from behind the sunflowers. The use of the graffitied wall in the photo reminds us of the air-polluted sunsets, which are so beautiful that they make us almost forget what causes them. “The sunflowers are treated as mutating militants filled with patterns and iconic images multiplying throughout the community garden,” the artist says.

October 31, 2022December 30, 2022, by Susan Hoffman Fishman

On Salt, Seaweed, and Disappearing Places

A close-up of some plants

Description automatically generated with low confidence — *Skin #9*, algae, insect pins, 60” x 62,” 2021

California-based artist, writer, and researcher Christina Conklin grew up spending summers along the coast of Oregon where she first developed a relationship with and understanding of the ocean as “an infinite vessel” of ever-changing and interconnected living systems. For the last 12 years, her artwork has explored the intersection of art, science, and spirituality as it relates to the sea.

October 17, 2022November 2, 2022, by Art Spiel

Residency at Five Points – Flood 2.0

In Conversation with Susan Hoffman Fishman

L to R: Judy McElhone (founder and director of Five Points Arts), Susan Hoffman Fishman, Krisanne Baker and Leslie Sobel (three of the four Water Women) at the Center in June, 2022, amongst components of their upcoming multi-media installation, *Flood 2.0.*

In July of 2021, artist Susan Hoffman Fishman began talking with Canadian photographer, Joan Sullivan about the eerie similarity between future apocalyptic flood predictions and the ancient story of Noah and the world’s first apocalyptic flood. The two artists have known each other through writing, both serving as core writers for the international blog, Artists and Climate Change. Both artists have been working on issues relating to water and the climate crisis and are equally interested in mythical stories related to water that resonate in contemporary culture. That led them to weekly conversations throughout 2021 when they decided to collaborate on a multi-media installation project, which they eventually called Flood 2.0.