29 March, 2007

Mikael Kihlman





http://www.kihlman.net/eng/index.html




i can in no way compete with the modern fast techniques that a modern, efficient, acquisitive society requires. but still i can see no shortcuts in making my kind of work, since to me there is nothing like a copperplate, a good drypoint-needle, a good printmaker and it has to take the time it takes. the solution for me is just to go on printing as long as i am able to.



http://www.triennial.ee/vana/tgtintervjuud_kihlmann_eng.htm
http://www.triennial.ee/vana/images.html





Tiwi Islands – Where Art and Footy Mix




There are few places in the world where an Aussie Rules grand final and a major art sale go hand-in-hand.

But then the Tiwi Islands, just north of Darwin, have always been different.

While art and footy are unlikely companions in other parts of Australia, some of the Tiwi Islands’ most accomplished artists are also former footy champions and once a year the Tiwi Island Football League Grand Final coincides with the islands’ major art event.

Hundreds of prints, paintings, carvings, fabrics, weavings and ceramics go on sale on the morning of the grand final match in one of the country’s biggest annual Aboriginal art sales.

Sunday April 1 is the day where two integral parts of Tiwi culture come together.

According to Janice Murray, Chairwoman of the Tiwi Art Network, artist at Jilamara Art Centre and supporter of the Muluwurri Magpies from her hometown, Milikapiti (Snake Bay),



“Footy is very important to us, and the final day at Nguiu is great because we get a lot of visitors” said Janice. “On Grand Final Day, many people come to the art centre to look around. We want to show people what our culture is. We hope they will take some Tiwi art home to their families and tell them what it is about.”

“Tiwi art also provides one of our main economic opportunities” said Janice.

Romolo and Immaculata Tipiloura (husband and wife) have been working on a selection of carvings to celebrate football. Their ironwood sculpture, titled “Footy Man”, has become the mascot for this year’s art sale.



The Tiwi Islands Annual Art Sale is organised by the Tiwi Art Network, an alliance of three art centres on the islands; Jilamara Arts & Crafts, Munupi Arts & Crafts and Tiwi Design. The sale runs from 8am to 1pm at Tiwi Design Art Centre and artists, including Janice Murray, will be available for interview. The Tiwi Football Grand Final kicks off at 2pm.
http://www.tiwiart.com/events.asp

For further information: Niru Perera 0438 519 772 HYPERLINK "http://www.tiwiart.com"

==========
http://www.tiwiart.com/overview.asp

The Tiwi Islands

Location
Language
The Country
Wet Season
Dry Season
Traditional Culture
Modern Culture
Creation Stories
Ceremonies
Early Contact
War Effort

Replant: a new generation of botanical art



Replant: a new generation of botanical art
http://www.nomadart.com.au/newsreplant.php

View the Replant artwork

The idea for Replant germinated during a conversation with the Director of the Northern Territory Herbarium in 2003. Dr Greg Leach spoke about cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research being undertaken at the Herbarium. The idea struck a chord and in March 2006 an eclectic group of artists, a botanist, printmakers and a photographer gathered together at Nauiyu on the Daly River with traditional knowledge custodians to share observations, knowledge, ideas and culture and make art.

...

Basil Hall and Jo Diggins from Basil Hall Editions in Darwin established a temporary studio at Merrepen Art Centre and set about facilitating the printmaking workshop. A creative and productive collaboration soon developed as artist came and went from field to studio.



Some of the artists began with soft ground impressions of plant material while others worked directly onto the plates. The workshop was both highly organised and flexible. Plate sizes were set to create a unified format for the work while the etching process formed visual links between the contrasting artistic styles. Basil and Jo worked tirelessly with each artist through the process of evaluating options and developing ideas. During the second week the artists and printers returned to Basil Hall Editions in Darwin and set about resolving images and proofing the etchings.



...
By Angus Cameron October 2006

Coordinator of Replant and director of Nomad Art Productions in Darwin www.nomadart.com.au

Links for Replant artists and articles
http://www.nomadart.com.au/newsreplantlinks.php


judy wats
on out standing in her field





28 March, 2007

The story of Australian printmaking 1801-2005



The story of Australian printmaking 1801-2005
30 March – 3 June 2007

selected exhibition works from the NGA collection

Roger Butler has been very busy. As Senior Curator of Australian Prints and Drawings, he is hosting a reunion of the class of 1801–2005, gathering together old and new friends from across the Gallery’s extensive collection of Australian prints to share with you The story of Australian printmaking.



The celebrations will begin on 30 March and there will be many familiar faces amongst the crowd – John Brack’s stormy-faced Third daughter, armfuls of Margaret Preston bouquets and frog-chorused Olsen waterholes – along with some guests of honour that many of you will not have met before as they have only recently moved into the Gallery or have previously been too fragile to attend such events.



But a get-together like this occurs only occurs so often, and this one has been twenty-five years in the making – with the guest list showing the extent of the journey the Gallery has taken since Roger began in 1981 filled with an enthusiastic vision for the future of the nation’s collection. Over the years, with the support of different directors and the Gallery Council, and assisted with generous funding from philanthropist Gordon Darling, he has worked steadily to fill the gallery with historical rarities and works by overlooked artists, expanding the collection to over 36,000 prints, posters and illustrated books.




With so many significant prints to choose from for this exhibition, Roger has focused on a shortlist of almost 600 individuals who have played significant roles in this (hi)story – and has invited them to tell you their tales of exploration and adventure, of innovation and desperation, of fears well founded and hopes realised.

m
ore
http://nga.gov.au/AustralianPrintmaking/index.cfm

The 6th Australian print symposium
Convened by Roger Butler, curator of the exhibition. National Gallery of Australia 30 March – 1 April 2007
Symposium program >>


the V&A's Surreal Things exhibition

The mini website dedicated to the exhibition
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1558_surrealthings/




How the surrealists sold out


V&A exhibition explores how movement was commercialised - and offers £5 Man Ray tea towels at gift shop

Maev Kennedy
Wednesday March 28, 2007
The Guardian


A visitor at Surreal Things at the V&A
A visitor scrutinising Rene Magritte's painting The Red Model III at the V&A's Surreal Things exhibition. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty


The ghosts of André Breton and Louis Aragon should really turn up and picket the Victoria and Albert museum tomorrow when it opens Surreal Things, the first exhibition devoted to the influence of surrealism on design - the arc of a movement that began by outraging the bourgeoisie and ended in ballgowns for wealthy socialities.

In 1926 Breton and Aragon, probably egged on by Picasso, were affronted that fellow surrealists Max Ernst and Joan Miró were "selling their souls to commerce" by designing sets and costumes for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. They disrupted the Paris first night, blowing whistles, jeering, and distributing leaflets of smoking outrage: "It is inadmissible that ideas should be at the behest of money!" Aragon thundered.


What they would make of the exhibition's gift shop, with its £3 squeaky rubber lobsters or Man Ray's skin crawlingly sinister Cadeau Audace - a flat iron with a row of nails protuding viciously from the sole plate, now a £5 tea towel - can only be guessed at.

"We are really exploring how surrealism was commercialised," the curator, Ghislaine Wood, said.

The exhibition borrows heavily from private collections, and includes many pieces that have not been exhibited since they were first sold in the 1930s.

Despite, or because of, the protest at the Paris ballet, the surrealists were a hit not just with the public but with designers of clothes, furniture, wallpaper, jewellery - designs copied for film and stage, and for advertising Shell and Ford cars.


The surrealists had a flair for publicity. At the first London exhibition Salvador Dalí delivered a lecture from inside a diver's helmet, before collapsing under its weight, and JB Priestley very helpfully denounced the whole thing as perverted.

The 1939 show at a grand gallery on the Place Vendôme, in Paris, was used as a backdrop for a fashion shoot by Harpers Bazaar. Magritte's work Ceci n'est pas une Pipe became a pipe-shaped male scent bottle, and Miró and Jean Cocteau designed headscarves for Schiaparelli, who also produced evening dresses printed with Picasso designs, and a pattern intended to suggest flayed skin.

The movement was stopped in its tracks by the second world war, but never quite died out.

"It grabbed the popular imagination, and is still tremendously powerful today," said Ms Wood.

The exhibition recreates some perhaps mercifully lost surrealist interiors, including Paul and Gala Éluard's bedroom in Paris, with a riot of phallic symbols and a giant woman's hand with crossed fingers and long sharp nails crushing a red ball at the bedhead, painted by Max Ernst. Ernst was Éluard's friend and collaborator, the lover of Gala - later Mrs Salvador Dalí - and shared the house as well as the decorating. The house was sold in 1932, the murals painted over and only rediscovered and sold in 1967. The exhibition recreates the original stunning room, but the panels are scattered in private collections and museums in Dusseldorf and Tehran.

It also does enough to give the flavour of Monkton, a sober Lutyens designed house in Sussex which the millionaire Edward James inherited and transformed into a shrine to surrealism. James's house included padded walls and carpets incorporating the pawprints of his Irish wolfhound, where lounging on the original version of Dalí's sofa modelled on Mae West's lips, he could answer calls on Dalí's lobster telephone.

The connection was perfectly clear to the artist, who explained: "I do not understand why, when I ask for a grilled lobster in a restaurant, I am never served a cooked telephone."

Visitors can admire the originals of the phone and sofa, and even try sitting on the hideously uncomfortable plastic replicas in the entrance.

But even James drew the line somewhere. Dalí's cherished project of creating a room that would "pulsate like the stomach of a sick dog" was never realised.


http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2044292,00.html

Special report
Full coverage: surrealism

Related articles
05.03.2007: Jonathan Jones on the landscape that inspired Salvador Dalí
05.03.2007: Germaine Greer on surrealism's women

26 March, 2007

Experimenta Vanishing Point::Media Art Exhibition



IPSWICH Ipswich Art Gallery
OPEN 7 DAYS 10am - 5pm
d'Arcy Doyle Place, Nicholas Street, Ipswich, Queensland
Tel. 07 3810 7222
www.ipswichartgallery.qld.gov.au

Saturday 31 March – Sunday 13 May 2007

http://www.experimenta.org/vanishingpoint/ipswich.htm

FREE ENTRY

>>Experimenta Vanishing Point::Media Art Exhibition
http://www.experimenta.org/vanishingpoint/ipswich.htm

Ipswich Art Gallery presents Experimenta Vanishing Point, an extraordinary exhibition of media art and videos inspired by the twisted realities of Alice in Wonderland and Being John Malkovich. Showcasing the works of Australian and international digital media artists, filmmakers, scientists, video artists, animators, and sound artists working at the forefront of new media art the exhibition features miniature worlds and photographs that come to life. This is an exhibition of artworks you can touch and play with: art like you’ve never experienced before.

>>Experimenta Vanishing Point:: Video Jukebox screening program

Experimenta Vanishing Point::Video Jukebox offers an international selection of visual delights where absurdity lurks around every corner, taking you by surprise with an ironic, humorous and sometimes gently mocking representation of the world around us. This strong line-up of innovators includes artists from Australia, Korea, France and the USA, showcasing their unique talents across a collection of works that range from the playful to the inquisitive and the downright strange.


>>Launch and talks by artist Narinda Reeders and co-curator Emma McRae
Saturday 31 March, 2- 3.30pm

Following the launch of the exhibition, Narinda Reeders will talk about the interactive artwork The Shy Picture (co-created with David MacLeod) which has been seen and loved by audiences across Australia and in London. Co-curator Emma McRae of Experimenta will take visitors on a journey through a wonderland of interactive media art and find out about the twisted realities that inspired the artists to create such flights of the imagination.



Experimenta - where creativity and technology meet

1986 - 2007 EXPERIMENTA TURNS 21. MEDIA ART COMES OF AGE

EXPERIMENTA PLAYGROUND: international biennial of media art opens at the Arts Centre BlackBox on 24 August 2007.

To receive updates on the exhibition and screening program subscribe to our free fortnightly e-bulletin. Simply send an email to experimenta@experimenta.org


Museums and the Web 2007


Join hundreds of your colleagues at the only annual conference exploring the on-line presentation of cultural, scientific and heritage content across institutions and around the world: Museums and the Web.


** MW2007 Papers: Now On-line **
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/speakers/index.html

The first of the papers to be presented at Museums and the Web 2007 are now available on-line. Follow the links from the speakers list or click on any highlighted title in an Abstract to view the full paper text. (All papers will be available on-line before the meeting.)


http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/speakers/index.html


Nicole Bearman, NicoleAustraliaDesign Hub - an online magazine and portal to the collections of the world's design museumsDemo.

Jonny Brownbill, JonnyAustraliaAudiences, Visitors and Users: Reconceptualising users of museum on-line content and servicesPaper
Sebastian Chan, SebastianAustraliaRadical Trust: The state of the museum blogosphereMini-
Workshop


Sebastian Chan, SebastianAustraliaTagging and Searching - serendipity and museum collection databasesPaper go to paper
Sebastian Chan, SebastianAustraliaDesign Hub - an online magazine and portal to the collections of the world's design museumsDemo.
Liddy Nevile, LiddyAustraliaForum for Indigenous Culture Building and PreservationProfessional Forum go to paper
Darren Peacock, DarrenAustraliaContent Management: Strategies and Systems - FULLWorkshop
Darren Peacock, DarrenAustraliaAudiences, Visitors and Users: Reconceptualising users of museum on-line content and servicesPaper
Angelina Russo, AngelinaAustraliaPlanning Social Media for Museums - FULLWorkshop

Joy Suliman, JoyAustraliaFacilitating Access: Empowering small museumsPaper
Jerry Watkins, JerryAustraliaPlanning Social Media for Museums - FULLWorkshop


Shirley Williams, ShirleyNew ZealandTe Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand:Demo.

==========

Museums and the Web 2007
April 11 - 14, 2007
San Francisco, California, USA
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/




** Pre-Register for MW2007: April 6, 2007 Deadline **
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/register/index.html

Register for MW2007 before April 6, 2007 to take advantage of the reduced pre-registration rate. You can also register on-site. Download the PDF Registration Form from the web site before you come.


** Participate in the Crit Room or Usability Lab **
This is your last chance to volunteer your site for the Crit Room or the Usability Lab. If you'd like instant feedback from your peers, this is the way to get it. Email mw2007@archimuse.com with an indication of why you are interested.


** See You In San Francisco **
If you are planning to come to MW2007, make your hotel reservation right away. While there is no more space in the Westin St. Francis, you can get the special MW rate at the Omni San Francisco. Reserve before March 27th from http://www.omnihotels.com/FindAHotel/SanFrancisco/MeetingFacilities/MuseumsandtheWeb4.aspx

We hope to see you in April.

jennifer and David
--
Jennifer Trant and David Bearman
Co-Chairs: Museums and the Web 2007 produced by
April 11 - 14, 2007, San Francisco, CA Archives & Museum Informatics
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/ 158 Lee Avenue

22 March, 2007

the aviary

Redesigning the organisation : Print Australia rebuild

plus

What's new for 2007

+++++++++++++++++++++++

The new "Aviary" structure is

Lyrebyrd
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrintAustralia/
member announcements & exhibitions
member discussion & content
calls & opportunities
archived technical information
links and resources


Bellebyrd
http://printaustralia.blogspot.com/
Australian & Internati
onal Art Scene
feature artists and exhibitions
Art theory & criticism
Aboriginal art
Feminist Art
Print media
video interviews, lectures, live streaming conferences
Resources & tutorials


Blakkbyrd
http://blakkbyrd.blogspot.com/
Amsterdam art scene
feature artists and exhibitions
Art theory & criticism
art scandal & copyright
new media art
film, video & machinima
Urban painting and Street art.
pods, blogs and vlogs

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What changes

- adding
- more original content, arts writing
- exhibition reviews
- online curating

- reducing
- news service, ie calls and announcements
- print projects

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Two years ago I started preparing for the demise of the mailinglist
and the transfer of the print australia art project into newer
technology. The internet is a rapidly changing environment and the
sucessful organisation needs to be adaptive to that. You could
compare the listserve to video cassette tapes, still used for old
times sake, but largely replaced.

The website Print Australia was phased out and replaced by the
Bellebyrd blog. The content was changed as outlined above,
significantly there was an expansive change of content beyond
printmaking. The Blakkbyrd site was added to cover material not
covered by Bellebyrd's program with particular emphasis on the avant
garde and the controversial. The two blogs have the objective of
providing a reservoir of theoretical art material with an emphasis on
providing the artist's own words in video interviews. Where possible
links are provided to online lectures, symposiums and conference
material.

The lyrebyrd list has been remodelled to reflect a model mailing list
which I have developed based on seven years' research and
participation in mailing lists. Having joined {and left} hundreds of
lists over the years I observed that the most succesful and enduring
lists had common features which have been built into the lyrebyrd list.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Upcoming special projects :

Lyrebyrd

- miniature print exchange

Bellebyrd

- online curating
- feminist art revival
- survey of contemorary printmaking

Blakkbyrd

- survey urban painting
- Melbourne's Street Art scene
- art in second life

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Blakkbyrd
March 2007

UP FOR ADOPTION



Galleries the world over have works in their collections that cannot be put on show because they need conservation treatment and/or new frames. Inevitably, only those needed for immediate display are given priority, which means that other equally valued works are forced to languish in storage until funding and time can be found for treatment.



Auckland Art Gallery is following the lead set by Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, and placing a group of paintings, sculptures and frames UP FOR ADOPTION, including works from the Mackelvie Trust Collection as the Gallery is responsible for their care. We are asking members of the public to sponsor works in need of treatment, and individuals or groups are welcome to take part.



In return, your name will appear on exhibition labels when the works are displayed. Mary Kisler, Mackelvie Curator, International Art will be available to discuss the significance of the work you want to adopt, and you will have an opportunity to meet with the conservator responsible to hear about the treatment process; receive a report summary; and a photograph of the finished work and frame. When the Gallery re-opens, a special event will be held to thank you and your fellow contributors.

We hope these works will find their way into your hearts.

If you are interested in adopting an artwork. Please choose an artwork and click the link to submit an enquiry.

Alternatively you may view works up for adoption in the Auckland Art Gallery, on the 1st floor, in the exhibition Passion and Politics: Two Centuries of British Art. You can also instantly adopt an artwork through the Gallery shop.

For more information about the Up For Adoption scheme please email, upforadoption@aucklandartgallery.govt.nz



http://www.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz/activities/adopt/default.asp



20 March, 2007

Artist Book Exhibition - melbourne

How I entered there I cannot truly say: Collaborative works from the ANU Edition + Artist Book Studio

Bernadette Crockford, 'Concrete Poetry', 1996, letterpress - an artist book bound using concertina-style folding

16 March - 17 June 2007

Curated by Dianne Fogwell


This free exhibition showcases a selection of superb artist books and prints created at the Edition + Artist Book Studio at the Australian National University. The exhibition celebrates the art of the book, and the special relationship between image and written word. It will appeal to lovers of art, books and literature.

Between 1996 and 2005, the Edition + Artist Book Studio (E+ABS) brought together artists, writers, printmakers and bookbinders to explore the medium of print and the book in ways that challenged their conventional art practices.

This exhibition features around 90 of the printed works and artist books created under the direction of master printer, artist and lecturer Dianne Fogwell (also the exhibition curator).

It includes works by leading Australian artists, many of them new to the book or print medium, including Jason Benjamin, GW Bot, Fiona Foley, Euan Heng, Bruno Leti, Margaret Olley, Jorg Schmeisser, Udo Sellbach and Robin Wallace-Crabbe.

The works displayed range from folios of limited-edition prints to beautifully hand-printed and bound books in which images and text complement one another. The printing techniques used include etching, linocut, lithography and silkscreen. Some books are bound in traditional style, while others are folded concertina-style or into innovative forms, then boxed or wrapped and tied. Materials used include specialist and handmade papers, fine cloth and leather.

The groundbreaking E+ABS encouraged creative partnerships and collaboration between artists, writers and printers, allowing them the freedom to explore ideas and experiment with materials and techniques. The results are considered to be among the finest examples of the book arts in Australia.

The exhibition's title, 'How I entered there I cannot truly say', is from Dante’s Divine Comedy and is a tribute to the first book published by E+ABS, Udo Sellbach’s And Still I See It (1995), which used Dante’s text.

The exhibition will be complemented by a program of events including a symposium, tours, curator and artist talks, and a printmaking master class, as well as activities for school groups.

For more information about artist books and the E+ABS see the Edition + Artist Book Studio website.

(A Visions of Australia travelling exhibition in conjunction with the Australian National University)

http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/programs/exhibitions/kmg/2007/artist_book/artist_book.html


http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/about/news/latest/160307.html



Books as Works of Art

Books as Works of Art
On Thursday 15 March 2007 ABC Radio National's Book Show presenter Ramona Koval discussed artists books with writer and critic Sasha Grishin and artist/curator Dianne Fogwell in the lead up the opening of the exhibition How I entered there I cannot truly say at the State Library of Victoria on Saturday 17 March 2007.

The discussion can be downloaded from the ABC website at:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2007/1872403.htm

Artists Books - a creative collaboration
On Thursday 15 March 2007 ABC Radio National's Book Show presenter Ramona Koval discussed the collaborative nature of artists books with Melbourne artist Bruno Leti and his long term collaborator the poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe who have worked together for over 15 years on many artists' books.

The discussion can be downloaded from the ABC website at:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2007/1872493.htm


18 March, 2007

The Impact 5 International Printmaking Conference


The Impact 5 International Printmaking Conference will take place in Tallinn on 17-20 October 2007, with field trip on 21 October.

http://www.estograph.ee/impact/impact5.html


Impact 5 Printmaking Conference will take place simultaneously with the 14th Tallinn Print Triennial (on the exhibition ground of Kumu). Originating in 1968, the Triennial today is an international event in the world of printmaking, with participants from all over the world. The delegates of Impact Conference will be invited to participate in the opening of the Print Triennial: www.triennial.ee

Impact 5 will be accompanied by the curator's show Slices of Time (at the Adamson-Eric Museum) and Exhibition of Estonian Graphics
(Rotermann Salt Storage), also exhibitions in several galleries, most of which are located in the Old town of Tallinn (Gallery G, Draakon Gallery, Hobusepea Gallery, Gallery Aatrium, Kiek in de Kök Tower, Niguliste Church Museum, Gallery 36, Photo Cellar Lee, Master's Courtyard, Kinomaja, Deco Gallery, Kastellaanimaja, Gallery of Russian Art, Hungarian Institute).

15 March, 2007

Nordic Pavilion - Venice Biennale 2007

The Nordic Pavilion Exhibition in the Venice Biennale 2007
La Biennale di Venezia - 52nd Art Exhibition
June 10 - November 21, 2007
www.labiennale.org

The Nordic Pavilion exhibition in 2007, under the title Welfare - Fare Well, is curated by Rene Block, the director of Kunsthalle Fridericianum in Kassel (1998-2006) and internationally acclaimed artistic director of several international exhibitions and biennials.

The exhibition will include projects by Adel Abidin (Finland), Jacob Dahlgren (Sweden), Toril Goksøyr and Camilla Martens (Norway), Sirous Namazi (Sweden), and Maaria Wirkkala (Finland). Lars Ramberg (Norway) will produce a large scale outdoor project.

Adel Abidin was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1973. He has studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad University and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. He has been living and working in Helsinki since 2001. Abidin works in diverse media, primarily in video, video installation and short film, focusing on issues such as cultural alienation and marginalisation.

Jacob Dahlgren was born in 1970 in Stockholm, Sweden, where he has been living and working after graduation from the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm. Dahlgren is a painter, sculptor and conceptual artist whose intellectually and visually entertaining sculptural works and installations are often built out of everyday objects to a certain space and surrounding.

Toril Goksøyr was born in 1970 in Alesund, Norway, Camilla Martens in 1969 in Oslo, Norway. They both live and work in Oslo after having studied at the National Academy of Fine Art in Oslo. They have been working collaboratively since 1997 in the construction of performance based projects with social implications. Drawing their inspiration from theatre, their projects often integrate staged situation integrating outside actors in predominantly socially interactive public spaces outside of museums and galleries.

Sirous Namazi was born in 1970 in Kerman, Iran. He came to Sweden already as a teenager and studied at the Malmö Art Academy. Currently he lives and works in Stockholm. Namazi works in diverse media, creating sculptural works that transfer typical everyday elements to contextual translations that reflect social issues in contemporary society. Considered in a new context they remind us of early constructivist paintings and reveal an essentially painterly attitude to sculpture.

Maaria Wirkkala was born in 1954 in Helsinki, where she lives and works. Her works range from object compositions to large-scale environmental art and installations. She also uses everyday objects she has found or that are otherwise important to her. Wirkkala is invited with a special project to the Aalto Pavilion, which now, after 45 years, will again be a venue for a Finnish artist. During last decades the pavilion, designed by Alvar Aalto in 1956, has been used by Iceland, while this time it will be a satellite venue for the Nordic Pavilion.

Lars Ramberg was born in 1964 in, Oslo, Norway. He lives and works in Berlin after having completed the National Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo. Ramberg produces architectonic projects that function to intervene with a practiced public space with the intent to infer a political and social commentary.

Websites of the artists:
Adel Abidin: www.adelabidin.com
Jacob Dahlgren: www.jacobdahlgren.com
Sirous Namazi: www.sirousnamazi.com
Lars Ramberg: www.larsramberg.de
Maaria Wirkkala: www.maariawirkkala.com



Australia at the 2007 Venice Biennale.

Susan Norrie (NSW), Daniel von Sturmer (VIC) and Callum Morton (VIC) will represent Australia at the 2007 Venice Biennale.
http://www.ozco.gov.au/arts_in_australia/projects/projects_visual_arts/venice_07_three_australian_artists/

The three artists will exhibit in three different spaces at the Biennale: von Sturmer will be in the Australian Pavilion, and Norrie at Fondazione Levi near Accademia and Morton will show at another venue in Venice.

Read preview essays from Senior Curatorial Advisor Juliana Engberg on each of the artists and their works:

http://www.ozco.gov.au/arts_in_australia/artists/artists_visual_arts/susan_norrie/

Susan Norrie will present a video installation that explores pervasive geopolitical issues of a planet in turmoil. The work will be experiential, physically immersing audiences and transporting them to precautionary tales of an uncertain future. Ms Norrie said: ‘I feel an enormous responsibility to document the truths of our experiences, not just simply erase history and support a collective amnesia.’

Ms Norrie has participated in the Busan Biennale South Korea in September 2006 and has exhibited at Art Tower Mito, Japan 2004; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin 2003; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, 1992; KIASMA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Finland 2001; Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art, UK 1999; and Solomon R Guggenheim, New York, 1984/87.

http://www.ozco.gov.au/arts_in_australia/artists/artists_visual_arts/daniel_von_sturmer/

Daniel von Sturmer will continue his ‘experiments with space’, through video installations and architectural interventions especially designed for the Australian Pavilion. These new works will test how it is we see what we see. Mr von Sturmer said: ‘the unique spaces of the Pavilion will be brought into play in the new work, where video sequences will confound viewers’ sense of space, scale and orientation’.

Recent shows include: Centre for Non Objective Art, Belgium 2006; Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand, 2005; Auckland Art Gallery, NZ, 2004; Hamburger Bahnhof, Germany, 2003; Hamburg Kunsthaus, Germany, 2003; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Spain, 2002.

http://www.ozco.gov.au/arts_in_australia/artists/artists_visual_arts/callum_morton/

Callum Morton is known for his large-scale, architecturally inspired installations: Stonewash transformed the exterior of a ruined building in Istanbul with a pristine Levis shop-front, and Babylonia, a craggy floating island revealed a luxury-hotel corridor, an inspired fusion of James Bond, The Shining and Disneyland. Mr Morton commented: ‘the unique characteristics of both the city of Venice and the Biennale event itself will provide a rich context for my new work.’

Callum Morton won a Gold Medal representing Australia at Triennale India in 2004 and at the Busan Biennale South Korea in 2006. Recent shows include: Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Poland and Contemporary Art Centre, Lithuania in 2006; 2nd Istanbul Pedestrians Exhibition, Turkey, 2005; 2nd Auckland Triennial, New Zealand, 2004; Hamburger Bahnhof, Germany 2003; Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Italy, 2003; and Santa Monica Museum of Art, USA 1999.

There were 57 applications for Australian participation in the 2007 Venice Biennale. Susan Norrie, Daniel von Sturmer and Callum Morton were chosen by a panel comprising Lesley Alway, former chair, Australia Council for the Arts Visual Arts Board; Juliana Engberg, artistic director, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art; Rachel Kent, senior curator, Museum of Contemporary Art; and Australian Commissioner John Kaldor.

Established in 1895, the Venice Biennale is the world's most important critical forum for contemporary visual art. The Australia Council has managed and funded Australian representation for more than 25 years. Previous Australian representatives include Judy Watson, Howard Arkley, Patricia Piccinini and Ricky Swallow.







12 March, 2007

The Art Life Podcast

A bi-weekly art chat between Eastside Radio's Sean O'Brien and representatives of The Art Life.

http://artlife.podomatic.com/

Gustav Metzger


Gustav Metzger. Works of 1995–2007
March 6 – April 22, 2007

Zacheta National Gallery of Art
Pl. Malachowskiego 3
00-916 Warsaw, Poland
tel. (+48 22) 827 58 54
http://www.zacheta.art.pl
Tues - Sun 12 to 8p.m.

The Zacheta exhibition presents only a fragment of the rich oeuvre of Gustav Metzger, whose personal history is as fascinating and dramatic as History to which he refers in his works. Born in Nuremberg in 1926 to an Orthodox Jewish family, its roots in Poland, he was sent in 1939 to Great Britain as part of the Refugee Children’s Movement, thanks to which he was saved from the Holocaust. He has never accepted any citizenship and lives as a stateless person. Lives and works chiefly in London.

The exhibition in Zacheta National Gallery of Art presents Metzger’s works from the 90 – the cycle Historic Photographs, which take up the problem of greatest catastrophies, as well as the newest ones, sculptures-installations In Memoriam and Eichmann and the Angel, referring to the tragedy of Holocaust.

The exhibition is divided between four galleries, each of which constitutes a chapter in the narrative. The first of those is called The Killing Fields. Entering the gallery, the viewer has to pass through a corridor on the wall of which there hangs a huge, rastered-out (but still recognisable) photograph of Hungarian Jews undergoing selection on the Auschwitz ramp in 1942. The room presents objects from the Historic Photographs series, referring to the various turning-point events and bloody conflicts of the 20th century: the 1938 Anschluss of Austria, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the napalm air raids against civilian targets in Vietnam in 1972, events from the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or an ecological disaster – the construction of the Twyford Down highway in the UK. The pictures are almost always covered, their visibility is limited or access to them is hindered, as if the artist was referring to certain clichés, the mediated images of those tragedies present in the collective consciousness and memory. Sometimes the viewer is allowed to act. For instance, he can raise a huge curtain and crawl under it to try, from so close a perspective, to examine a huge photo on the floor (To Crawl Into). But instead of really seeing it, he will be able only to guess, to work out, fragments of the image he knows is there: a representation of Viennese Jews forced to clean the sidewalks on their knees following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany.



The next gallery room is called In Memoriam. Besides Historic Photographs related to images from the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto, closely boarded up here, the room includes also an installation from 2006, In Memoriam. Huge cardboard boxes, arranged in rows, are a reference to Peter Eisenmann’s Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin.

Another part of the exhibition is Terror and Oppression – the latest work from the Historic Photographs series, made specially for the Zacheta show. It is comprised by two large-format photographs hanging vis-à-vis each other: Jews waiting in even queues for registration in Buchenwald in 1938, and Germans entering Poland in 1939 in equally even lines. The victim and the perpetrator shown in a similar order and array.



The narrative is closed by a multi-part 1995 installation called Eichmann and the Angel. A reconstruction of the cage in which Eichmann was kept during his trial in Jerusalem stands opposite a wall of newspapers. Alongside the other, longer, wall a transmission belt has been placed, and in front of it lie the newspaper batches left from the construction of the wall. The viewer can spread the newspaper and place it on the moving belt. The machine transports the paper, which eventually lands on the floor on a heap of similarly ‘used’ newspapers. A nameless, mass-scale, nonsensical production of chaos and destruction continues. Hanging above it all is a reproduction of Paul Klee’s Angelus Novus. The original painting was owned by Walter Benjamin, the Paris-based German Jewish philosopher who in 1940 tried to flee from France to the US. Stopped at the border in Port Bou in Spain, when it turned out the papers he had would not get him to the US, he committed suicide. ‘Port Bou’, ‘New York’, ‘Jerusalem’ – say inscriptions visible from the Eichmann cage. New York – the death place of Hannah Arendt, whose reports from the Nazi criminal’s trial gave rise to Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil – one of the 20th century’s most important pieces of literature.

All of the presented works also confront themselves with the history of the place where they are shown. The history of Poland, of Warsaw, of the Zacheta building – where Gabriel Narutowicz, independent Poland’s first elected President was murdered in 1922. The history of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which took place not far from the Zacheta and another anniversary of which will be celebrated on April 19. The history in a way still too often forgotten, even though it is part of our identity.


curators Pontus Kyander, Hanna Wróblewska
collaboration Julia Leopold

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http://www.luftgangster.de/gmetzger.html

An artist who painted hydrochloric acid onto a canvas so that eventually the painting was entirely eaten away, as 'an attack on art dealers and collectors who manipulate modern art for profit', was never going to climb the art world career ladder.

http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr225/jones.html

Art Review | 'Wack!'


The Art of Feminism as It First Took Shape
By HOLLAND COTTER
http://www.nytimes.com

WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution

The first comprehensive, historical exhibition to examine the international foundations and legacy of feminist art, WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution focuses on the crucial period 1965–80, during which the majority of feminist activism and artmaking occurred internationally.


The exhibition includes the work of 120 artists from the United States, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Comprising work in a broad range of media—including painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, and performance art—the exhibition is organized around themes based on media, geography, formal concerns, collective aesthetic, and political impulses.

Curated for The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, by Connie Butler, The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA), the exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.

Artists in the Exhibition

Magdalena Abakanowicz
Marina Abramovic
Carla Accardi
Chantal Akerman
Helena Almeida
Sonia Andrade
Eleanor Antin
Judith F. Baca
Mary Bauermeister
Lynda Benglis
Berwick Street Film Collective (Marc Karlin, Mary Kelly, James Scott, and Humphrey Trevelyan)
Camille Billops
Dara Birnbaum
Louise Bourgeois
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
Judy Chicago
Ursula Reuter Christiansen
Lygia Clark
Tee Corinne
Sheila Levrant de Bretteville
Iole de Freitas
Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely
and Per Olof Ultvedt
Jay DeFeo
Assia Djebar
Disband
Rita Donagh
Kirsten DuFour
Lili Dujourie
Mary Beth Edelson
Rose English
Valie Export
Jacqueline Fahey
Louise Fishman
Audrey Flack
Isa Genzken
Nancy Grossman
Barbara Hammer
Harmony Hammond
Margaret Harrison
Mary Heilmann
Lynn Hershman
Eva Hesse
Susan Hiller
Rebecca Horn
Alexis Hunter
Mako Idemitsu
Sanja Ivekovic
Joan Jonas
Kirsten Justesen
Mary Kelly
Joyce Kozloff
Friedl Kubelka
Shigeko Kubota
Yayoi Kusama
Suzanne Lacy
Suzy Lake
Ketty La Rocca
Maria Lassnig
Lesbian Art Project
Lee Lozano
Lea Lublin
Ana Maria Maiolino
Sylvia Plimack Mangold
Monica Mayer
Ana Mendieta
Annette Messager
Marta Minujin and Richard Squires
Nasreen Mohamedi
Linda Montano
Ree Morton
Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen
Alice Neel
Senga Nengudi
Anne Newmarch
Lorraine O’Grady
Pauline Oliveros
Yoko Ono
ORLAN
Ulrike Ottinger
Gina Pane
Catalina Parra
Ewa Partum
Howardena Pindell
Adrian Piper
Sally Potter
Yvonne Rainer
Lis Rhodes
Faith Ringgold
Ulrike Rosenbach
Martha Rosler
Betye Saar
Miriam Schapiro
Mira Schendel
Carolee Schneemann
Joan Semmel
Bonnie Sherk
Cindy Sherman
Katharina Sieverding
Sylvia Sleigh
Alexis Smith
Barbara T. Smith
Mimi Smith
Joan Snyder
Valerie Solanas
Annegret Soltau
Nancy Spero
Spiderwoman Theater
Lisa Steele
Sturtevant
Cosey Fanni Tutti
Mierle Laderman Ukeles
Cecilia Vicuña
June Wayne
“Where We At” Black Women Artists
Colette Whiten
Faith Wilding
Hannah Wilke
Francesca Woodman
Nil Yalter, Judy Blum, Nicole Croiset
Zarina
http://www.moca.org/wack/

Visual Arts Research on the Internet

Here is a small sample of Australian blogs on contemporary art.


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Evaluating Web Resources

Because there are no quality controls and anyone can publish material on the Internet, a major concern is how to assess the quality and reliability of information found on the Web. See the sites listed below for the main criteria to consider when evaluating websites:
ANU Scholarly Information Services
http://anulib.anu.edu.au


11 March, 2007

MINUS SPACE



MINUS SPACE is a curatorial/critical project based in Brooklyn, New York, presenting the most innovative reductive, concept-based art by international artists working in all media.


Reductive, concept-based work is generally characterized by its use of plainspoken materials, monochromatic or limited color, geometry and pattern, repetition and seriality, precise craftsmanship, and intellectual rigor.

MINUS SPACE presents exhibitions, which include an interview with the artist(s); provides a directory of affiliated artists, their work, and ideas; publishes critical essays, reviews, interviews; lists exhibitions currently on view; and provides original art historical research, as well as a comprehensive directory of links to related web sites.

http://www.minusspace.com/artists.htm


interviews
http://www.minusspace.com/texts.htm




Cezanne's studio




http://www.atelier-cezanne.com/



Live and Digital Art Resources

Live and Digital Art Resources now online
http://performingarts.ahds.ac.uk/liveart.htm

AHDS Performing Arts has acquired four new collections of live and performance art material, including the world-class Live Art Archive and Digital Performance Archive.

These seminal research resources provide access to a wealth of information on live art, performance art, installations, physical and dance-based theatre, multi-media work, and bio-art events that have taken place in the United Kingdom and sometimes beyond.

The collections, freely available and searchable online, give details of artistic events that have included figures such as Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono, Damien Hirst and Gilbert and George.

These resources have been developed by Performing Arts researchers Professor Barry Smith (previously Nottingham Trent University, now University of Bristol) and Professor Steve Dixon (previously University of Salford, now Brunel University) as well as world-famous performance artist STELARC.

Other AHDS Performing Arts resources are also freely available online rom http://performingarts.ahds.ac.uk/collections/

08 March, 2007

Anselm Kiefer





at the AGNSW

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/current/contemporary/collection#kiefer

The London Original Print Fair


Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington Gardens

Wednesday 25 - Sunday 29 April 2007

Open daily 11am - 6pm
Late evening openings until 8pm Thursday 26 and Friday 27

Tickets on the door
£8 including catalogue; £4 concessions
Free to Friends of the RA plus a guest

Inquiries +44 (0) 20 7439 2000

Prices start at around £200 and all work is for sale
The London Original Print Fair, the longest-running specialist print fair in the world, will be celebrating twenty-two years at the Royal Academy of Arts. With eleven new exhibitors this year, the Fair is larger than ever and covers all periods of printmaking from the early woodcuts of Durer and his contemporaries to the graphic work of contemporary masters such as Hockney and Hirst.

http://www.londonprintfair.com/information.html


02 March, 2007

Umbrella - artists’ books

Umbrella is the most comprehensive online quarterly covering the arena of artists’ books, art books and other multiple editions, including audio and video tapes.
Umbrella’s reviews cover new bookworks by artists, exhibitions, with special sections that focus on photographic and art books. Moreover, we try to keep you abreast of the best art gossip in the Western world.
Past Issues

The Umbrella journal 1978-2005 is now freely available online for searching and viewing. Older issues of the journal may be found here and here.

For the most current issues (from 2006 on) go here.




Unbound: Artists' books




Sculptural book made from perspex, sewn with twine as binding, "pages" don't open fully as they are held together with various heavy-duty cotton. "

Artists' books are books or book-like objects created by artists as works of art. There is such a variety of artists' books that it is often easier to define what they are not, rather than what they are. They are neither books about artists, nor do they have reproductions of artists' works. Artists' books may not even be recognisable as books, and they may challenge our conceptions of waht, exactly, constitutes such an object.

The State Library of Queensland holds approximately 800 artists' books in the Australian Library of Art, thirty of which have been selected for the Treasures Wall opening exhibition Unbound: artists' books from the collection. This display offers an insight into the wealth of treasures held within the State Library, and showcases some significant holdings by well-known artists, many of which have never been viewed.


Unbound: artists' books from the collection — on display 25 November 2006 - 11 March 2007