Articles

Curated for the second year by Samuel Leuenberger, Director and Curator of SALTS in Birsfelden, Switzerland, Parcours returns with 22 site-specific artworks sited around Basel's historical Münsterplatz.

Jeff Koons latest installation at the Rockefeller Centre features a 45 foot high inflatable ballerina that bears as striking resemblance to a little known work from Ukrainian sculptor Oksana Zhnikrup. Koons received praise and admiration on May 12th, 2017 when he released a 45 foot inflatable version of his ‘Seated Ballerina’ sculpture at Rockefeller Centre in New York, but Artdependence can reveal that the work bears several similarities to a work known as ‘Ballerina Lenochka’ from the artist Oksana Zhnikrup and the The Kiev Experimental Ceramic-Art Factory.

Born in Portland, Oregon, artist Mike Berg has been interested in abstraction since the early days of his career. Feeling connected to countries such as Turkey, Uzbekistan and Armenia, Berg created his own form of artistic expression through geometrical abstractions created on tapestry.

Primavera De Filippi: "As an academic, I try to understand the current state of the world and I struggle to develop a theoretical framework that can explain the way things work. As an artist, I try to challenge the current state of the world, in a continuous attempt to expand the boundaries of is deemed possible today."

Anthony Gormley is a British sculptor. He is currently living and working in London and has received an OBE for his contributions to the art world. His best known work includes The Angel of the North, a large-scale sculpture erected outside Gateshead in the North of England. His recent exhibition ‘LIVING ROOM’ was shown at the Xavier Hufkens gallery in Brussels.

A total of 58 galleries from 13 countries will take part in the second edition of ARCOlisboa, 50 of which form part of the General Programme while 8 are included in the new Opening programme, dedicated to young galleries under seven years old.

Painted in 1914, Le Ville de Paris, equisse presents one of the artist's most iconic subjects and indicates Delaunay's revolutionary transition from his earlier Cubist style toward his initiation of the Orphist movement.

Contemporary Chinese surrealist painter and sculptor Zhang Xiaogang was born in Southern China in 1958. Often seen as Avant-Garde, Xiaogang’s artistic life has witnessed several important moments in China’s history, many of which are explored within his work. Perhaps the most defining brush with the political regime occurred during the early stages of Xiaogang’s life when he was brutally separated from his parents during the Cultural Revolution. They were sent to one of Mao’s notorious ‘study camps’, leaving him and his siblings behind.

Artist Paul Buchanan was born in Glasgow and is currently living and working in the Netherlands. His work aims to explore the boundaries of the social, political and economic structures that contain us. He has a unique way of working with people and places, using responses and reactions to his work in order to shape their development. Paul Buchanan: "A lot of the time, people don’t know that they’re participating in my projects. It’s tricky making a piece of work and expecting people to participate. I suppose the way I work is to leave it open for people to participate in their own terms."

Ceric Samir, Art Coach: "I am an entrepreneur and disrupter in the art market aiming to change the fabrics of the art market that’s lacked transparency and serious and credible structure for centuries when it comes down to it being run as a business (perhaps with an exception of a few blue chip galleries and auction houses). I set up the world’s first art incubator and accelerator, Debut Contemporary, designed to assist ambitious and talented artists turn their practice into a viable business and a successful long term career."

Best known for her mysterious and delicate stories, Norwegian artist Anja Niemi expresses herself through the medium she finds most comprehensive – photography. Her latest project, titled “The Woman Who Never Existed”, was inspired by the words of the pioneering Italian actress Eleonora Duse. Eleonora worked in theatre, travelling the world’s stages alongside Sarah Bernhardt in the early 20th century. Unlike other actresses of the time who seemed to be constantly striving for publicity, she was private and introverted by nature.

In Matisse’s Music, created in 1910 to be hung in the staircase of a Moscow mansion, we see one of the artist’s last compositions of the human figure. It was created to be hung alongside a second, preceding painting titled Dance. The two works are colouristically linked, portraying red figures contrasted against a blue and green background.

These two extraordinary paintings have not been reunited since a 2004 exhibition in London and Naples devoted to Caravaggio's late work.

Martine-Nicole Rojina: "I believe in the tradition of mastery. I thrive for a holistic upgrade of perception, awareness and knowledge and dig deep into all elements involved to master the alchemical system. In the inside, as on the outside. As above, so below."

Gregoire Gensollen has a host of major Hollywood titles under his belt, but his latest film production, ‘Where is Rocky II?’ (2016) takes him in a new direction. A documentary, a comedy and a mystery, all rolled in to one, the film documents the 10-year hunt for a mysterious ‘fake rock’ - a piece of art created by American artist Ed Ruscha in 1979 and deposited in an unknown location somewhere in the vast Californian desert.

American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe is known for his provocative images and controversial subject matter. Having been born in suburban USA, a place he said was “a good place to come from and a good place to leave”, he lived in New York at the infamous Chelsea Hotel with singer Patti Smith. His work became popular in the mid 70s and he produced hundreds of photographs documenting what he called “the unexpected”.

What is your favourite medium? Tim Etchells: "Language - spoken/written, as drawing and as sculpture. Or performance. Or the combination of the two."

The most vibrant week in Hong Kong’s Art Month began with the unveiling of Sir Michael Craig-Martin’s installation Bright Idea.

The work of José Yaque is life affirming. Standing in front of his huge canvas paintings we glimpse a vision of that infinite freedom, so rare and so precious, that allows an artist to create their work with an open heart and soul. Whatever José Yaque creates, the influence of nature always permeates his work. It manifests in a variety of forms, but there is a recurring theme around the interpretation of natural resources and phenomena. With artful mastery he manages to depict rocks, soil, water, seamlessly combining abstraction and figurative forms.

During a January visit to Paris I had the unexpected pleasure of visiting the Kamel Mennour Gallery to view an exhibition of the works of Liam Everett. The gallery's warm hospitality combined with Liam's fantastic work made the entire experience unforgettable.