Articles

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.

Gordon Cheung is of Hong Kong origin and born in London 1975 where he lives and works. Cheung’s multi-media art capture the hallucinations between the virtual and actual realities of a globalised world oscillating between Utopia and Dystopia. Spray paint, oil, acrylic, pastels, stock listings and ink collide in his works to form epic techno-sublime vistas.

Marcelo Garcia Casil: "We are a start-up company looking to disrupt the art finance industry. Our online platform removes intermediaries like auction houses and art dealers by creating an open and fair marketplace where investors can reach out to art owners directly in a secure and reliable way."

"I’m a philosopher thinking about new technologies, what they mean for our lives and how they may change society. In my work I connect with artists and curators, since I think artistic research can help to bring in different forms of knowledge and experience to discuss these questions. I'm a professor at the University of Vienna, but I also connect to many people outside academia, in the worlds of technology and art." - Mark Coeckelbergh

It’s hard to find artists who talk as passionately about montage and film editing as Eli Cortiñas (Las Palmas, Canary Islands, 1979). You can see her dreamy expression running through all the potential stories she has in her hands, but with a theoretical and rational goal that emanates from years of seeing and working with films. She uses a similar modus operandi when creating her sculptures and collages, often independent from her video pieces, but at times establishing parallelisms with them.

As soon as we enter the current exhibtion of the me Collectors Room, we immediately find ourselves inside of a picturesque comfort zone. Sofas and seats made of pallets and cushions as well as floor lamps adorn the exhibition space. Between the furniture, piles of catalogues have been draped on Persian rugs. Even catering seems to be provided since retro telephones to order drinks can be found on every sofa table. Art collector Thomas Olbricht creates a domestic atmosphere of a living room, which invites visitors to linger, to inform themselves about art history and to take a break surrounded by art works.

Contemporary street artists are not concerned with impressing members of the Academy or approved authorities. Rather, they are interested in revoking many social conventions about art. Contemporary street artists produce their works with the belief that art does not only belong in museums but also on the streets with the people. That is why many of them, such as Banksy, operate under pseudonyms, because vandalizing public property is a crime.

Two giants of Post-War American painting will be united in Christie’s Auction on 7 March 2017.

AFRICA NOW: MODERN AFRICA Wednesday 15 February 2017 at 2pm New Bond Street, London at Bonhams.

From the Old Master Drawings Sotheby's sale on January 25.

Famed filmmaker George Lucas has announced the chosen location for his new $1 billion museum. The city of Los Angeles won over San Francisco for the bid to house the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, after a drawn out process of deliberation. According to the museum’s board of directors: “Settling on a location proved to be an extremely difficult decision precisely because of the desirability of both sites and cities."

De Jonckheere gallery has acquired its fame thanks to its specialization in Flemish art from the16th and 17th centuries. The gallery has consistently presented a great collection of works by Old Masters, and its professional examination of the authenticity of old paintings. What do they think about contemporary art, and how do they plan to celebrates the 40th anniversary of their first opening? Laura De Jonckheere, daughter of co-founder Georges De Jonckheere, answers these questions and more in this interview with Artdependence Magazine.

The ongoing contemporary development of art fairs has transformed these events into free-zones of artistic expression - an artistic context in which art could appear in any way, shape, or form. How many of us walk around an art fair and in seeing some strange or unusual behavior first think to ourselves: is it art? Is Art happening right now?

Painted in 1900 and pared down almost to abstraction, From Refsnæs bears witness to Hammershøi's on-going - and lesser known - fascination for landscape painting.

One of the best known prizes for the visual arts in the world, the Turner Prize 2016 was awarded to Helen Marten as announced at Tate Britain yesterday. The £25,000 prize was presented by author Ben Okri during a live broadcast on the BBC, the broadcast partner for the prize.

Perhaps it is because we do not fully understand art, that writers on the subject have such frequent recourse to accounts of encounters with the artists themselves. It is a genre as old as art history; so when Georgio Vasari chronicled the renaissance it was not painting by painting, but painter by painter.