MARTIN SOTO CLIMENT | CLIFTON BENEVENTO

Artist: Martin Soto Climent

Venue: Clifton Benevento, New York

Exhibition Title: Mariposas Migratorias (Migratory Butterflies)

Date: January 5 – March 2, 2013

http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/page/2/

DOMINIK LANG | EXPANDED ANXIETY

Dominik Lang, Expanded Anxiety, Secession 2013, Photo: Oliver Ottenschlaeger


For his exhibition Expanded Anxiety in the Secession’s Galerie space, Czech artist Dominik Lang developed a series of works in which he reinterprets elements of Cubist sculpture and architecture. For the title installation in the back room, he reconstructs the famous statue Ùzkost [Anxiety] (1911/12) by sculptor Otto Gutfreund in an enlarged form specially adapted to the exhibition space, allowing visitors to experience the sculpture in a new way and get right inside it.



Dominik Lang, Expanded Anxiety, Secession 2013, Photo: Oliver Ottenschlaeger 

In his interventions and installations, Lang explores the complex relations between viewer and object, object and space, subjective perception and historicization. He has repeatedly dealt with Czech modernism and demonstrated his personal approach to (art) history. The new vitrine architectures and sculptures on show in the first room are typical of the kind of free, fictional dialogue that he often sets up in his work with pieces by predecessors including Josef Gočár, Vlastislav Hofmann, Pavel Janák. At the same time, he also uses this presentation to create a broader context and to prepare the (historical) mood for his installation Expanded Anxiety in the back room of the Galerie.



Dominik Lang, Expanded Anxiety, Secession 2013, Photo: Oliver Ottenschlaeger 


Expanded Anxiety is based on the statue Ùzkost ([Anxiety] 1911–12) by Czech sculptor Otto Gutfreund (1889, Dvůr Králove–1927, Prague) from the collection of the National Museum in Prague. Gutfreund studied in Paris and counts as one of the first proponents of Czech cubism. Dominik Lang: “The statue was in an expressionist-cubist style, the refracted surfaces and sharp corners emphasise the tension in the figure and its concentration and focus into the inside—in my opinion the sculpture doesn’t attempt to expand into the space and display itself, but it rather feels it wants to reduce itself into the most compressed, squeezed form.”*



Dominik Lang, Expanded Anxiety, Secession 2013, Photo: Oliver Ottenschlaeger 


Lang has reproduced Gutfreund’s 156-cm-tall statue in an enlarged form that fills the exhibition space, presented lying on its side. With respect to possible perceptions of the original sculpture, the artist creates a paradoxical situation: the monumental figure is positioned in such a way that although viewers can literally get right inside it, the “actual” outer form is not visible, accessible only to the imagination.

The artist Dominik Lang about his intention: “I attempt to create a feeling of physical tension and isolation in the viewers by enclosing them inside the sculptural shape. The aim is not to create something monumental, occupying the whole space but rather a situation where the scale has suddenly changed and visitors have a chance to walk into things and objects that they usually just look at from the outside. It is like walking into someone’s head, it is revealing the hidden centre, showing that perhaps what is important is the void inside things. Also the idea was partly to take the visitor back in time and look through the interior body of the sculpture at the past, at the atmosphere around the year 1911, in the waiting phase full of uncertainty and fear before the First World War.” * 

Lang directs our attention as viewers not only to the historical work, but also to our own viewpoint. Ultimately, the viewer is faced with the question of how (historical) meaning can be constructed at all: “I would say that I am interested in how objects, and in this case artworks, are shaped, influenced, determined by their surroundings, how they are constituted by the context, historical events, their creator’s mental states, and what they say about the period and social atmosphere they were created in—are they becoming creatures with memory, victims of their times etc? (…) By physically entering the void, people will be able to go back in time and re-enter the past, as well as experiencing a specific new site for condensed anxiety, an expanded anxiety that connects the period of the early 20th century with today, reaching across to the anxiety of the present.”* 

In his catalog essay, Karel Císař describes Lang’s relationship with Gutfreund and his interpretative dialog with his work: “In Gutfreund’s `Anxiety´ this idea of a vertiginous dissolution of human personality seems only being approached – whereas Lang’s Expanded Anxiety is their belated consequential fulfillment. With the single viewing perspective of his smaller-than-life sculpture of a cowering woman, Gutfreund prescribed to the viewers a liminal proximity, making them inspect the edges of the figure submerging into the physical volume of the statue as if into a rock. Lang, on the contrary, invites us into the innards of a disclosed body, metamorphosed into a corrugated cave, thus radicalizing Gutfreund’s effort to make sculpture flat – impossible to complete in a closed volume, as available to an early 20th-century sculptor – but also and primarily inducing the intended effect of vertigo and a loss of individuality, caused by the loss of optical control. 

At the same time, Lang maintains his systematic interest in the physical and institutional aspects of the exhibition space, as his intervention emphasizes the gloomy subterranean atmosphere of the lower galleries of the Secession, and develops on the tradition of presenting an empty gallery. We enter the innards of Expanded Anxiety as we would enter the empty sepulcher of one’s own body.” (Karel Císař, catalogue essay)

Among others, Dominik Lang came to the attention of an international audience with his work Sleeping City in the pavilion of the Czech and Slovak Republics at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. This installation, in which he interprets the unknown late-modernist sculptures of his father Jiři Lang (1927–1996), brings together two artistic approaches shaped by different periods and contexts. As well as enabling an encounter with a forgotten generation, it also underlines the immanent interplay between personal engagement and distanced observation, between individual and collective memory, as well as the impossibility of facing (one’s own) history. Last year, Lang had solo shows at Kunsthaus Dresden, Galerie Krobath, Vienna, and the National Gallery in Prague. His work was also featured in the Paris Triennial at the Palais de Tokyo.


Invited by the board of the Secession
Curated by Annette Südbeck Dominik Lang, born 1980 in Prague, lives and works in Prague.


* all quotations from: Interview with Dominik Lang conducted by Annette Südbeck, catalogue, Secession 2013.



CATALOGUE
The exhibition will be accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue with texts by Emilie Renard and Karel Císař and an interview between Domink Lang and Annette Südbeck. 



The Secession is supported by:
Erste Bank – Partner of the Secession
Wien Kultur
Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur
Friends of the Secession

Cooperation-, Mediapartners, Non-Cash Benefit:
Festool
Ö1 Club
Schremser – Das Waldviertler Bier
Silver Server

http://www.secession.at/art/2013_lang_e.html

LONDON | ASIA HOUSE

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS 
23 November 2006 – 3 March 2007
www.throughthelookingglass.com

Since the end of the military regime in the early 80s, South Korea’s energy has been channelled towards boosting its economic and cultural growth. The country now counts as one of the world’s richest economic powers. By providing the next UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki moon, it places itself at the centre of the international political scene. The country’s rebirth from a once war-ravaged condition has also been reflected in the art scene. Korea in fact, for the past two decades, has been host to some international and very expensive art events. Whereas the 1980s were a decade of intense political struggle, the past two have seen the explosive rise of mass culture. This era witnessed the skyrocketing of gallery sales and profits, the arrival of two international auction houses, Christies and Sothebys, and the pilgrimage of millions to the Kwangju Biennales. On this side the world, however, contemporary Korean art has largely remained unexplored.

English literature is populated by stories of children who escape the afternoon boredom of their domestic surroundings by discovering unfamiliar worlds, sometimes this is done through a wardrobe, a rabbit hole or a mirror. Through the Looking Glass, one such story, titles the first show on Korean Art to be presented in London. The choice of venue – the newly refurbished Georgian Asia House – carefully mirrors Jiyoon Lee’s curatorial desire to choreograph the show around the book’s theme. Like Alice, who pondered what the world would be like on the other side of the mirror, and to her surprise was able to pass through it, those visiting the show, are invited to abandon, if only for the brief duration of the encounter, their preconceived image of Korea and to access a spectacular world through the work of ten internationally acclaimed Korean artists. The potpourri selection of works fits grotesquely within the elegant domestic symmetry of the building, with its wide-sided windows flanking the walls, its voluptuous staircase and its decorative crowns embellishing the doors.





This architectural clash, however, is the result of a carefully staged plan given that all artists were invited to visit the premises before making the work. Jeong-Hwa Choi, whose comments about the status of contemporary South Korea either frustrate or entertain viewers, has hung a bright green PVC chandelier in the central stairwell. Upstairs, sited on the mezzanine roof, we see the ornamental flower that most gracefully encapsulates our fascination with the orient: the lotus. However, in this context, the delicacy of the flower has been somewhat tainted. Here we find two gigantic synthetic flowers that to our surprise are not rooted in the muddy banks of a pond but are awkardly balanced on a concrete roof. Their photosynthesis is mechanically alimented by an unseen homemade device. Meekyoung Shin’s work also generates this clash of architectural whimsy. All the objects on view, the ivory-like Buddha, the immaculate Greek, marble-like sculpture of herself, and the Ming and Qing vases are in fact, ephemeral soap-simulacra. In this way the artist seems to mockingly test our calcified standard of taste, problematising our understanding of value.

Youngjin Kim’s beutifully humble Fluid (2006) playfully rehearses the long-standing Eastern tradition of water calligraphy. Eshewing the disciplinary control of the medium, the artist allows water, light and shade to momentarily paint contingent landscapes. Duck-Hyun Cho’s 15-piece work is the result of a close-knit collaboration between the artist himself, the curator and Sir Peter Wakefield (Life President of Asia House). The size of these black-and-white graphite portraits apes the magnitude of history painting, provoking a somewhat unsettling atmosphere. Sora Kim has assembled a poem using the titles of the Asian books she found whilst visiting Asia House library (RUNAWAY, or two names, 2006). The poem performed by various South Korean and English singers, has unavoidably morphed again and again. Jiwon Kim’s painting is the only work which explicitly draws on the country’s recent demilitarised zones. In his piece, we see him subtly tackling the issue of divisionism, a sore and unfinished chapter of contemporary South Korean history. The viewer is invited to crawl, play or hide in a rosy flowerbed that conceals a camouflaged army wall. Kyuchul Ahn’s Abandoned Doors (2006) openly criticises the trendy, consumption-oriented architectural trends of Korean urban quarters. His house, made with old abandoned doors, was initially assembled in the artists’ village, near to the Korean DMZ area, and next to glitzy, newly-built edifices.

‘Through the Looking Glass’ is an exhibition that constitutes an ambitious step toward dismantling our preconceived notions of the Orient, whatever these might be. In all, the show has a very strong selection of work and a heartening curatorial theme. Unprecendented in its novelty, it aligns itself with other important events ocurring in dusty old Europe, bringing out the lively and sophisticated art of a country that has remained for too long beyond our misty daily mirrors.

Emilia Terracciano

YANG YONGLIANG | THE SILENT CITY

Sleepless Wonderland, Lightbox, 2012

Sleepless Wonderland, Lightbox, 2012 (detail)

Sleepless Wonderland, Lightbox, 2012 (detail)

Sleepless Wonderland, Lightbox, 2012 (detail)

Snake and Grenade, Lightbox, 2012

Snake and Grenade, Lightbox, 2012 (detail)

Wolf and Landmines, Lightbox, 2012

Full Moon, Lightbox, 2012

Bowl of Tapei No. 03, 2012

Bowl of Tapei No. 04, 2012

The Silent City: Digitally Assembled Futuristic Megalopolises by Yang Yongliang

Chinese artist Yang Yongliang (previously) recently released three new bodies of work that will be on view at Galerie Paris-Beijing from from March 14th to April 27th, 2013. Born in Shanghai in 1980, Yongliang is known for his sprawling photographic collages that depict the devastating effects of uncontrolled urbanisation and industrialisation. At a distance the works look like traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy but when viewed up close, the peaceful mountains and seascapes are found to be choked with buildings, factories, and machinery. The images of above scarcely convey the detail in these pieces, but look at this high resolution version of Sleepless Wonderland to get an idea. Head over to Galerie Paris-Beijing to explore more of the three collections titled Silent Valley, Moonlight, and a Bowl of Taipei. All images courtesy the gallery.

www.thisiscolossal.com

HAIM STEINBACH | LIA RUMMA

Haim  Steinbach | COLLECTIONS

Galleria Lia Rumma, Milan, February 6, 2013 - April 6, 2013

Opening: Wednesday February 6, 2013, h. 6pm-9pm

Gallery opening times: Tuesday – Saturday, h. 11am-1.30pm / 2.30pm-7pm

What difference is there between the domestic environment and the artistic context? Don’t both involve displaying something? And aren’t the objects that are presented laden with meaning in both cases? (...) We are all collectors. It is a part of our nature. 

(Haim Steinbach).

…before introducing the display of structure and objects, it's important to study the given site; the floor, the walls, the door etc.

The work of "setting in motion”the environment by carrying out operations of the architecture…Steinbach takes on this dimension and seeks a correspondence that enhances the fluidity between object and context. 

(Germano Celant). 

In his solo show at the Lia Rumma Gallery Haim Steinbach employs standard architectural building materials - metal studs, drywall, prefabricated shelving units, paint and wallpaper – evoking both domestic and institutional spaces as places ready for presentation. The artist exhibits over 50 objects selected from seven collections. The objects are arranged and placed on shelves, and are displayed on both the permanent gallery walls and Steinbach’s temporary walls.

The concept for the exhibition began with a proposition to the collectors to choose, with mutual agreement, approximately a dozen objects belonging to them. Steinbach subsequently made a selection by reducing the collection to a few objects, at times punctuated by the inclusion of an object from his own collection. 

Walls, banisters, fences and furniture articulate categories of spaces and define boundaries for activities and rituals. Inadvertently they also stage real life in a way that underscores its theatricality. The “props” employed by Steinbach re-enact that fine line between the every day and its surroundings. The introduction of the collected objects sets in motion the social dynamic of “the relation between ‘the subjective’, search for meaning and ‘objective things.’” 

On the ground floor a group of objects from Lia Rumma’s collection mark the long relationship of friendship and collaboration between the dealer and artist. The glass and ceramic vases, plates, bowls, cups, wine decanters and sculptures are lined up on an extended prefabricated shelving unit that bisect the space. These personal belongings are contrasted by an elongated shelf, built into the adjacent wall framing, which supports a series of objects from an extensive collection of African tribal currency. On the opening night 6 musicians will employ another typology of objects, wind instruments. They will perform a range of sounds and musical sequences.

Over the years Haim Steinbach has put into use a shelf of his own invention that he refers to a as a device. It is a device that divides in that it is made of proportionally equal units of different sizes. These are calibrated in relation to the objects they support, and that are contingent on each other. On the first floor three such works are distributed on the gallery walls with each one holding a group of objects from a specific collection. A skeletal wall traversing the space includes a shelf with a selection of small unselected ceramic objects from the three collections. 

A collection of pipes and punches is presented on a bare studded wall built in the middle of the second floor space. These are displayed in relation to a work hung on the gallery wall and holding a selected group of the African tribal currency. A work, “Untitled (plant, artichoke)” 2013, with objects chosen by Haim Steinbach from his own collection is also introduced here. In doing so, Steinbach exposes the contingency of objects to their context. While architecture shapes space, in this third room, the shape of things shapes space. While we experience space in volume and in relation to scale, it is the language of shape, pattern and surface that is the grounding reality, the cultural matrix of connectedness. 

Haim Steinbach was born in Rehovot (Israel) in 1944 and in 1957 moved with his family to New York. He received a BFA from Pratt Institute in 1968 and a Master’s degree from Yale University in 1973. His first museum show was in 1988 at the CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain in Bordeaux. For Documenta 9 (1992), Steinbach borrowed and displayed several objects belonging to the director Jan Hoet,. His works have been exhibited on various occasions at the Venice Biennale (1993, 1997, and 2001). Important exhibitions of his work have been organized by the Solomon Guggenheim Museum (with Ettore Spalletti, in 1993), the Castello di Rivoli (in 1995 and 2004), the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna (1997–98), the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (2000), the Berkeley Art Museum and the Pacific Film Archive (2005). In 2012 the Artist's Institute in New York devoted a series of exhibitions over a 6-month period to the artists’s work, and it also asked the artist to curate an exhibition entitled The Bigger Picture. He has taught at various institutions including The School of Visual

Arts in New York, and the University of California in San Diego. 

Haim  Steinbach | COLLECTIONS

Galleria Lia Rumma, Milan, February 6, 2013 - April 6, 2013

http://www.liarumma.it/

EVA HESSE | HAUSER & WIRTH LONDON

Eva Hesse 1965

30 January – 9 March 2013, Hauser & Wirth London,
Savile Row

Opening: Tuesday 29 January 6 – 8 pm

In 1964, Eva Hesse and her husband Tom Doyle were invited by the industrialist Friedrich Arnhard Scheidt to a residency in Kettwig an der Ruhr, Germany. The following fifteen months marked a significant transformation in Hesse’s practice. ‘Eva Hesse 1965’ brings together key drawings, paintings and reliefs from this short, yet pivotal period where the artist was able to re-think her approach to colour, materials and her two-dimensional practice, and begin moving towards sculpture, preparing herself for the momentous strides she would take upon her return to New York.

Hesse’s studio space was located in an abandoned textile factory in Kettwig an der Ruhr. The building still contained machine parts, tools and materials from its previous use and the angular forms of these disused machines and tools served as inspiration for Hesse’s mechanical drawings and paintings. Sharp lines come together in these works to create complex and futuristic, yet nonsensical forms, which Hesse described in her writings as ‘…clean and clear – but crazy like machines…’.

Seeking a continuation of her mechanical drawings, in March of 1965, Hesse began a period of feverish work in which she made fourteen reliefs, which venture into three-dimensional space. Works such as ‘H + H’ (1965) and ‘Oomamaboomba’ (1965) are the material embodiment of her precisely linear mechanical drawings. Vibrant colours of gouache, varnish and tempera are built up using papier maché and objects Hesse found in the abandoned factory: wood, metal and most importantly, cord, which was often left to hang, protruding from the picture plane. This motif would reappear in the now iconic sculptures Hesse would make in New York.

The time Hesse spent in Germany amounted to much more than a period of artistic experimentation. In Germany, Hesse was afforded the freedom to exercise her unique ability to manipulate materials, creating captivating, enigmatic works which would form the foundation of her emerging sculptural practice.

‘Eva Hesse 1965’ will be accompanied by a new publication, featuring texts by Todd Alden, Jo Applin, Susan Fisher Sterling and Kirsten Swenson, published by Yale University Press.

http://www.hauserwirth.com/exhibitions/1648/eva-hesse-1965/view/