Articles

In just a matter of days, Cosmoscow art fair will take off once again in the Russian capital. Artdependence Magazine had a chance to ask several of the fair’s participants to share their expectations for the upcoming event, and to offer readers a sneak peek preview of what’s to come. Four gallerists talked with us about their local art scenes, the current trends they observe in contemporary art, and how they survive and succeed in the current art market.

“I suppose the ideal thing would be if my dolls came to life, so they wouldn’t need to be dolls anymore” – with these words we enter the world of Everard Cunion, a RealDoll aficionado, and the protagonist of Sophie Dros’ film My Silicone Love. My Silicone Love will be screening during Amsterdam’s Neu Now festival, taking place September 14 – 18.

Phillips is pleased to announce highlights from the upcoming auction of New Now, providing an exciting start to our fall sale season.

Discoveries made at Christie’s have led to new attributions in the collection of Brian Sewell, which will be auctioned on September 27.

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is delighted to announce the acquisition of the Tommy Cooper Collection – the largest collection of its kind tracing the life and legacy of the much-loved British comedian Tommy Cooper (1921 - 1984). The acquisition strengthens the Museum’s collections documenting key figures in British comedy.

Patrick Tresset is a London based artist, his art practices follow two main path, on one hand Tresset presents theatrical installations in which robotic agents are actors, these installations are often evocations of humanness. On the other hand Tresset also uses robots and computational systems to produce series of drawings, paintings and videos.

The Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art 2016 with the title “The Present in Drag“ curated by the New Yorker collective DIS (Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso, David Toro) feels so cutting edge contemporary that it is difficult to recognise the actual art. As this year’s biennale looks for the digital condition and the paradoxes that make up our everyday life it includes many objects, images, settings and situations that feel so familiar that it isn’t instantly clear what makes them art just because they appear in a museum.

Out of the Ordinary commemorates 250 years of Christie’s.

The work of Jeff Grant (b. 1975) is forthright in its perplexity. Every piece he creates centers on concealment, the ambiguous presence, forcing the viewer to engage in a search. In a way, some of his works appear distressing. They are not abstract, although shapes and objects seem blurred and disturbed. His chosen palette, black and white or colors dimmed and subtle, only emphasizes the mental haze. Portrait outlines are fuzzy and the objects from Grant's "Creation" series appear as fantastical artefacts with tortured surfaces, holding turbulent air underneath.

The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I – a masterpiece of the English Renaissance once owned by Sir Francis Drake – has been saved, thanks to the generosity of thousands of individuals, grant-making foundations and a major grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

Sotheby’s New York autumn season will be led by “The Triumph of Painting: The Steven and Ann Ames Collection”.

The image of the apple can signify love, wisdom, and death. Within the religious context of Christianity, it means temptation and original sin. In Norse mythology, as in the Greek, apples grant immortality. The apple is also associated (like other fruits and flowers) with a woman’s anatomy.

NYC-based artist Grear Patterson (b. 1988, USA) uses mixed media to create ideal locations, inspired by the 1993 film “True Romance”. For his running solo show in London's Marlborough Contemporary, Patterson presents large-scale sunsets, recreating the film though visual and audio means. For an entire month, the gallery space was transformed into a dream with extreme colours in simplified forms. Patterson is playing with viewer’s nostalgia, reflecting on the themes of childhood memories and imaginary worlds, inviting us to consider how far away a parallel reality may be.

A bunch of colourful geometric pieces are the first to attract the visitor’s eye when entering the bright main room of the South London Gallery. This vibrant work by Amalia Pica – A ∩ B ∩ C, 2013 – together with Erika Verzutti and Gabriel Serra’s fruity sculptures give the kind of exotic welcome that visitors expect from a show about Latin American art. As we walk a few steps to the right, the social and political content starts to be unveiled and keeps finding new ways to disclose itself throughout the whole show.

Important Paintings by 20th-Century Masters including Basquiat, Hirst and Auerbach to Lead a Major 10-Day Exhibition and Auction at Sotheby’s in London.

An elderly woman who turned to an art expert to prove the authenticity of a possible portrait by da Vinci has seen her work vanish alongside the man she hired to evaluate the work.

A referendum with more than 30 million people voting to decide whether the UK should leave or remain in the European Union was held on Thursday 23 June. Leave won by 52% to 48% (51,9% to 48,1% to be precise). The turnout of 71,8% in a UK-wide vote was the highest one since the 1992 general election. Artdependence Magazine tried to contact UK galleries and public figures in cultural sphere to get their reactions on Brexit, however many admit that it is too early to assess the consequences.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn. Christ preaching ('La Petite Tombe'). Etching and drypoint, circa 1652, on laid paper, watermark Foolscap with five-pointed Collar.

The theme of the upcoming Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, which is taking place from July 1 to August 10, 2016 at Trekhgornaya Manufactory, one of Moscow’s oldest factories and, at the same time, a fledgling exhibition space that hosts large cultural projects, is “Deep Inside.”

South Korean artist Lee Lee Nam applies animation to art history in a manner befitting a master gardener turning and tailoring the natural beauty of the land, in order to enhance the view. Nam sees art as an open invitation, in which even those works from the classical period that appear hermetically sealed by time are ripe for recasting as the living breathing set for a tender technological intervention, or ‘reinvention’ as is more in keeping with the artist’s intentions.