reviews 01.03.10 Judith Vrancken
Berlin
Micky Schubert Gallery, Klosterfelde, Esther Schipper
15/01/10 - 19/03/10
Perhaps the only objection an art lover could have to Berlin is the way its galleries are scattered all over the city. The majority let photography and painting rule the gallery space this month. The choices appear safe, but luckily, safe doesn´t necessarily mean boring.
Resentment Unresolved Canonising Koen van den Broek
reviews 01.02.10 Christophe Van Eecke
Gent, Antwerpen
SMAK, KMSKA
22/01/10 - 16/05/10
Has Koen van den Broek's retrospective come too soon? His recent works on paper suggest he might be on the verge of a breakthrough...
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You can always bank on the Turner Prize to think of something different when it comes to selecting a winner. So, this year's winner once again provides a stark contrast to some of his more controversial predecessors: Richard Wright (49) is a painter, whose wall paintings are always temporary, skillfully done but most of all things of pure beauty. The video above is an interview (by Tate Channel) with Wright on the occasion of his nomination for the Turner Prize. Read the Guardian report here.
'The past does not influence me. I influence the past' An Interview with Adam Pendleton
15/06/09 Krist Gruijthuijsen
The young artist Adam Pendleton is currently making waves with performances, paintings and installations in which he critically examines our interpretation of history and culture. His work is often describe as ‘conceptual’ or even ‘complicated’, thanks to his frequent use of texts both from his own hand and derived from Afro-American literature, music and pop culture. Is Pendleton ridiculing the clichés about black culture, collecting them like a sociologist, or is he trying to initiate a more subtle way of thinking about language and identity? Time to let him speak for himself.
Read more..Iris Kensmil The History of the Universal Negro
reviews 29.11.08 Hendrik Folkerts
Amsterdam
Galerie Ferdinand van Dieten - D'Eendt
22/11/08 - 22/12/08
'Yes, we can. Yes, we did.' The famous slogan, issued from the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, marks the outset of the solo exhibition Get Up, Stand Up by Iris Kensmil in gallery Ferdinand van Dieten - d'Eendt in Amsterdam.
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A capricious elusiveness is an essential characteristic of the art of Jutta Koether. Black as night at one moment, shining with joy the next, she offers an oeuvre that appears to consist purely of side-paths. A profesional artistry that attests to great insight and virtuosity is alternated with the muddiest painting in the world: anit-art, anit-beauty, anti-everything. Who is she, and what does she want?
Read more..Bathing Dining Garden Father Daughters Beach Bed Maaike Schoorel's Shadow Play
21/12/06 Ingrid Commandeur
Maaike Schoorel paints by touch, slowly scanning the surface. Only here and there is a note taken of something that deserves to be recorded. What she paints is a reduced field of vision, but it is one that sharpens the eye.
Work by the young, London painter Anj Smith (Pembury, 1979) was recently shown in the exhibition Don Quijote in Witte de With. Several small canvasses with meticulously painted scenes revealing a fantastic, strange and seductive world. Seemingly without effort, Smith transforms such timeless themes as the sublime and death into well-wrought representations that are notable for their virtuoso combination of traditional oil painting techniques and expressionistic details.
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In December 2005 Barry Covats (Colorado, 1931) returned, albeit more in the form of an arts patron than an artist, launching the first annual Barry Covats Award for Future Promise at the HISK. He divides his time now between Brussels and Amsterdam. Maxine Kopsa spoke with him about the downfall of pretty pictures, the myth of palpable achievements, inaction and insurrection.
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