STUDIO-ONLINE

Martin Kippenberger. Self-Portrait, 1980

Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective assembles key selections and bodies of work from 1977 to 1997—including paintings, sculptures, works on paper, installations, multiples, photographs, posters, announcement cards, and books—in order to fully represent the artist’s exceptional and cohesive oeuvre.

This is his first American retrospective and offers new insights into the accomplishments and complexities of the artist’s remarkable practice. Included among the many series and bodies of work represented will be selections from the following: the renowned self-portraits that Kippenberger produced throughout his career in all media; the Lieber Maler, male mir (Dear Painter, Paint for Me) painting series of the early 1980s; the Die I.N.P. Bilder (Is Not Embarrassing Pictures), Preis Bilder (Prize Pictures), and No Problem painting series of the 1980s (including the 1986 work The Problem Perspective. You are not the problem, it’s the problem maker in your head, which serves as the title of the exhibition); a reunion of key works from his breakthrough 1987 exhibition of sculpture Peter. Die russische Stellung (Peter. The Russian Position); the “drunken” lanterns and other important sculptures of the late 1980s and 1990s; and the two later series Das Floss der Medusa (The Raft of Medusa) and Jacqueline: The Paintings Pablo Couldn’t Paint Anymore.

The exhibition will also prominently feature numerous examples of the Hotel drawings and other works on paper; photographic works; and selections from the artist’s prolific production of printed matter, including books, editions, multiples, and large-scale presentations of his exhibition posters and announcement cards—all of which are central to Kippenberger’s oeuvre.

Mocca Grand Avenue
250 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
www.moca.org

Stephen Chambers RA, Of Talking Lust I (detail), 2005.
Monotype, 35.5 x 40.5 cm / 14 x 16 in

This exhibition follows a substantial solo show of prints at Northumbria University Gallery earlier this year and will include a selection of print mediums; etchings published by Flowers Graphics and printed with Hope Sufferance and Thumbprint Studios, monotypes made at Scuola di Grafica de Venizia, Italy and new prints in collaboration with Paupers Press, London. Forthcoming exhibitions include a solo exhibition of new paintings in the chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge from 18 October as part of the Cambridge Festival.

Chambers values the accessibility of prints, the fact that an edition of etchings will go out into the world and reach more people than a painting may. And then printmaking feeds back continuously into his painting. As he says: ‘Whatever I’m doing there is that sailing between trying to make things as perfect as possible, but with an eye to the fact that perfection is actually rather boring. It’s the gap between my creative shortfall and complete harmony which is interesting. It’s that bit of gravel beneath the rhinoceros’ skin that becomes crucial.’*

Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London W1J 0BD
Telephone: 020 7300 8000
Web: www.royalacademy.org.uk

The Artist, 2005. Colored pencil on canvas (48″x24″)

Interviewed by Cindi Di Marzo

“I believe that an artist is not made great by technical proficiency or knowledge but by knowing the world, understanding people and interacting with the subject matter. It is an artist’s responsibility to know the state of society, science and philosophy.”

David Downs

Painter David Downs takes his responsibilities as an artist seriously. Speaking with him reveals, through his words, gestures and the light in his eyes, a wise, compassionate and deeply reflective individual. One may be startled, after speaking with him, to realize that Downs is in his early thirties. Downs’s paintings are equally mature, imbued with a timeless quality that highlights his subjects’ humanity. The titles of many of his paintings are as archetypal as the characters that inhabit them: “The Artist,” The Farmer” and “The Father,” for example. The workers in “Fields,” faces shielded by their broad-brimmed hats, represent every man and woman who has plowed and hoed, gathered and picked, their back-breaking labor stripping bare the land and, perhaps, their souls. Yet Downs also portrays them as real people bent to their tasks, surviving their lives with dignity and grace. (more…)

Laisvyde Salciute, Dove with Rose, 2002, acrylic on canvas, 58” x 40”

Nudes. Smiling is the first US exhibit by Lithuanian artist Laisvyde Salciute.

“Nudes. Smiling” is printmaker Laisvydė Šalčiūtė’s diversion into painting.  Naked women arranged in sexual poses are smiling among colourful background with animals, sometimes alone, sometimes as couples. This is similar to how the models painted by Rembrandt, Rubens or Manet laid or sat - demonstrating their bodies for the viewer’s pleasure, longing for love. The color in Šalčiūtė’s nudes are especially bright and courageously combined with stars, swans and hearts.

The paintings have exaggerated smiles that sharpen one’s ears and joyful combination of colors.  The light layer of paint highlights lines so that wrinkles on female’s bodies become as if incised with a knife. Comfortable poses are distorted in such a way that bodies become overstretched and the faces, arms, legs and bellies become mutilated. Fingers are especially nervous (sometimes more than ten), they look like wrenched by arthritis, although the women appear young.  Thus the smile is self-ironical here, denying all superficial happinesses offered by women’s magazines, advertisement and beauticians. These are the women, according to the author, “torn by inner contradictions”, in other words, contradictions to oneself, self-sacrifice, exhaustion - the woman’s permanent daily experience.

The artist was a grant recipient from The Frans Masereel Graphic Center, Kasterlee /Belgium/ in 2005 and 2003. Also, in 2004-06 ,1997, 1993 she received grants from the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture and in 1994 a grant from Austrian Ministry of Culture.

In 2007 Laisvyde was awarded by the Associations of Lithuanian Art Creators as The Best Artist of the Year. Her works are in the The National Lithuanian Art Museum in Vilnius, at The National M.K. Čiurlionis Art Museum in Kaunas /Lithuania/, also in Skovde University, Sweden and Vilnius University Graphic Cabinet.

Laisvyde has built a career as a printmaker and exhibits regularly all over Europe. She has also participated in group exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Fair in Vienna, The United Nations in Geneva, Vilnius Contemporary Art Centre, The International Print Triennials in Germany, Sweden, Poland, Japan, France, Netherlands and The Graphic Art Festival Evora  in Portugal.

Laisvyde Salciute grew up in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. In 1989 she is graduated from Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts.

Opening receptions: Saturday September 6, 6-9 PM and Sunday September 7, 2-8 PM.

Something Unexpected Art Gallery
152 Main Street
Nyack, NY 10960
Phone: 845-358-1196 / 845-709-1756
Web: www.something-unexpected.com

NYC artist, Marco Maggi (Montevideo, Uruguay, 1957) presents his solo exhibition at Galeria Nara Roesler, the new installation Hipo Real, the unfolding of the series The Turner Collection, developed since 2005. In this series, Maggi, who has participated at the 25th São Paulo International Biennial, and at the 3rd and 4th editions of the Mercosul Biennial, once again exposes the confrontation between the excessive velocity present in contemporary society and human temporality.

“Slow down, demands Maggi. The game he proposes is filled with great secrets and revealing strategies. It is necessary to look with time”, writes art critic Adriano Pedrosa about the exhibition. He makes us remember how subjective is the experience of looking and interpreting, explains one of the several international articles about his work. According to Pedrosa, slowing down is anti-modern, anti-progressive, anti-capitalist, anit-urban and anti-globalization. “As a contemporary Faust, the artist seems to tell us: ‘Stop, an instant that passes’”.

His wonderful, precise and delicate drawings that, according to Maggi, have the paper as purpose and time and focus as preferred means, are made with the most prosaic materials: incision on piles of paper or on acrylic, grafitte on paper or on the passe partout of the frame itself, dry point on aluminum framed on slides, amongst others.

The installation Hipo Real is composed of 15 acrylic boxes spread around the floor and of 8 paper panels distributed on the walls, on which Maggi appropriates reproductions of artists’ works such as Warhol, Klein, Fontana, Richter and of important names of the Latin American art scene, such as Jesus Soto, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark, Mira Schendel and Lygia Pape.

“Hipo Real is the opposite of the exageration, of hyper-realisam, it is a second underlying reality, a surface unnoticeable to be read without the hope to be informed”, says Maggi. According to Adriano Pedrosa, he flips the image for the viewer, adds a pile of paper to it and then makes cuts on its surface, “creating small reliefs on paper, revealing here and there, filaments and fragments of hidden masterpieces”.

Six more drawings complete the exhibition, in which the reference to velocity is further underlined in Slow Foil, Slow Shadow, and Sliding (remitting to slides, whose frames are used in the works), besides the installation with aluminum foil packages.

Gleria Nara Roesler
Avenida Europa 655
01449-001
São Paulo, Brasil
Phone: 55 (11) 3063 2344
Website: www.nararoesler.com.br

FAVIÁN VERGARA: “Saints and Impossible Saints” - Photography and Paintings

¿Quién puede ser llamado Santo?

Pero ¿de quiénes hablamos cuando nos referimos a santos, testigos y mártires? En sentido general, son ejemplos extraordinarios de vida cristiana, de fe y confianza en Dios. Y, sin embargo, se trata al mismo tiempo de personas comunes, cercanas a nosotros, que nos recuerdan que la santidad es para todo aquél que se vuelve Dios…

Los santos son hombres o mujeres distinguidos en las diversas tradiciones religiosas por sus supuestas relaciones particulares con las divinidades y la consiguiente superioridad espiritual o moral respecto al resto de los seres humanos.

En español se utiliza la palabra santa cuando se trata de una mujer (por ejemplo, santa Ana de Nazareth). Cuando es un hombre se utiliza siempre el apócope san, con las excepciones de santo Tomé, santo Toribio, santo Tomás y santo Domingo, en las que se emplea el término completo.

Galería Óscar Román
Julio Verne 14.
Col. Polanco,
Mexico, D.F.
Phone: (+52) 5280 0436
Website: www.galeriaoscarroman.com.mx/

ALBERTO BAÑUELOS: “Between Earth and Heaven” - Sculpture

La exposición “Entre la tierra y el Cielo” del artista burgalés Alberto Bañuelos-Fournier presenta tres núcleos del trabajo desarrollado por este escultor en la última década. El eje principal a la obra en piedra o mármol, escultura en blanco y negro compuesta por una treintena de piezas pertenecientes a las distintas series que realiza Bañuelos y entre las que destacan la serio “del mar adentro”, obras de gran estilización y sensualidad en busca de la esencia metafísica; “del espacio”, un acercamiento escultórico al desarrollo melódico de la forma; “abrir o cerrar” , piedras en vertical que conectan totémicamente la tierra y el cielo; “los paisajes”, tratamientos epidérmicos del mar y de la tierra, o varios “torso” que representan el tránsito y el acercamiento entre unas series y otras.

Galería Óscar Román
Julio Verne 14.
Col. Polanco,
Mexico, D.F.
Phone: (+52) 5280 0436
Website: www.galeriaoscarroman.com.mx/

RESEARCH: The Royal Scottish Academy Research Residencies in Focus

This exhibition presents the work of 10 artists who were awarded RSA Residencies in 2007: Katie Orton, Eoghann MacColl, Katie Houston, Nick Law, Kirsten McAlister, Nichola Martin, Paulina Sandberg, Colin Parker, Jim Harold and Susan Brind. Highlighting the process of development as well as teasing out questions about the need for developmental support and the strength and inter-connectivity of the artistic network in Scotland.

Developmental support of artists towards the creation of new work is a primary aim of the RSA. Opportunities are currently given to some 35+ artists per annum to research and develop new work and to present new exhibitions at galleries across Scotland. Some opportunities are for international travel, such as the RSA John Kinross Scholarships to Florence and The RSA Alastair Salvesen Art Scholarship and Barns-Graham Travel Awards. Other Scholarships are for the development of new work in Scotland such as the RSA Gillies Awards and others are in collaboration with partners such as The Scottish Arts Council, The Friends of the RSA, Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and Peacock Visual Arts to name a few.

A selection of the works on show will be some of the most recent acquisitions to the Collection of the RSA. This collection, which dates back some 200 years, is of primary importance to the history of art in Scotland and is an ever-developing body of historic and contemporary works, letters and objects.

This exhibition is part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2008.

RSA Finlay Room, Royal Scottish Academy.
Admission FREE

Royal Scottish Academy
The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL
Phone: 0131 225 6671
Website: www.royalscottishacademy.org.uk

The works of 14 critically acclaimed sculptors, including by Margaret Hunter, Peter Burke, Richard Kindersley and Sir Eduardo Paolozzi are the exhibits currently assembled for Millstream Sculpture Garden’s second season.

Curated by architect Michael Newberry and art consultant Geoffrey Bertram, the exhibition at Michael’s single storey steel and glass house commences Saturday 3^rd May 2008.

Set in tranquil, purpose-built gardens within Newberry’s riverside property, the exhibition – located midway between Salisbury and Bath, one minute from the A36 into Warminster, Wiltshire – represents an inspiring fusion of contemporary architecture with landscaping entirely designed with a single objective: the promotion of contemporary sculpture in ideal, intimately scaled surroundings.

Newberry states, “From the outset, I designed Millstream to incorporate exterior sculpture. The light, the location, the stream running alongside and the beautiful surroundings provide an ideal backdrop for sculpture. I’ve always liked sculpture, probably because it is three-dimensional and tactile, both of which appeal to the architect and designer in me. But it’s more than that. Having sculpture in the garden is just an extension of a need to be surrounded by beautiful things. We aim to set sculpture in a setting where form is enhanced not only by light and shade but also by contrast to the surrounding foliage, ground textures and water.”

Geoffrey Bertram, whose experience in running galleries in Edinburgh, Toronto and London’s Cork Street and whose extensive knowledge of contemporary sculpture has complemented Newberry’s own vision, added: “You enter Michael’s property and immediately know that everything is completely right: well-lit interior spaces are ideal for the small and medium-scale work of Peter Burke, for example, while Tim Harrisson’s marble sculptures, though displayed inside the house, are juxtaposed with the outdoor sculptures that sit in a perfect background of riverside trees, sloping lawn and raised terraces.”

Margaret Hunter, Richard Kindersley and Sir Eduardo Paolozzi works are enhanced by sculptures from: Chris Buck, Christine Fox, Cathy Lewis, Carole Waller, Rosie Musgrave, Peter Burke, Nigel Cann, Tim Harrisson, Jonathan Leslie, Guy Thomas, Henry Swanzy and Raymond Wirick.

The gardens are designed by the internationally acclaimed landscape gardener John Brookes – a former Chairman of the Society of Garden Designers, and author of, among other books, Small Gardens (Dorling Kindersley, 2006) and with whom Michael Newberry has worked since the seventies.

Construction of the house was completed in 2003. The result of this Newberry-Brookes collaboration in southern England was an award – for development in a conservation area – from West Wiltshire District Council (WWDC) in 2005.

The exhibition, running from 3^rd May to 28^th September 2008, is open during weekends (12-5pm) and Bank Holidays - and by appointment. Entry:FREE

Tel: (44) 1985 213360. Email info@millstreamsculpturegarden.com

For Images and further information about Millstream Gallery go to www.millstreamsculpturegarden.com

Dearraindrop return to Italy with the second solo show Scared Straight. Dearraindrop is made up of young US artists (Billy Grant, Joe Grillo, Laura Grant), who live in Virginia Beach.

A Dearraindrop show is an encyclopaedic bazaar which exhibits everything deliciously artificial which one might expect to find in a teenager’s bedroom, with a fantastic effect of barbaric chaos and irrepressible vital exultation. Anything is possible in the magical kaleidoscopes they create, in a jubilant explosion of forms and saturated fluorescent colours.

DRD are also extraordinary talents who spring from an environment of authentically popular creativity, who found their first publicity in the rough pages of comic fanzines, or in the environment of riotous rock concerts. A very vibrant jumble made up of expressions of a group of creative youngsters, clearly skilled and talented, but more interesting because they enlarge, with their great number, the volume of a “mass avant-garde”, which has finally taken form rather than for the determination to emerge from anonymity.
Indeed DRD are the most exceptional group to emerge from this intricate and vibrant undergrowth.

IN B SIDE PROJECT ROOM

Devin and Ian Flynn: DRAWINGS AND ANIMATIONS

Into the Project Room there is the first solo show in Europe of Devin and Ian Flynn: Drawings (Ian) and animations (Devin). Ian is an explosive and refined drawer while Devin makes animation for TV. A concentrated of irreverences and transgression (warning: are you over 18 ?).

Perugi artecontemporanea
via Giordano Bruno 24 b
35124 PADOVA Italia
Phone: +39 049 8809.507