DAVID MALJKOVIC AT SPRUETH MAGERS, BERLIN
|
|
The work of Croatian artist David Maljkovic engages with the heritage of modern utopias. His films, drawings, sculptures and installations often evolve around the potential of monuments and pavilions built during a period of optimism in former Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 1970s that have now been neglected or forgotten. Maljkovic resuscitates such former memorials by turning them into sites for alternative activities, often carried out by members of his own generation. 
|
|
|
|
CEAL FLOYER AT KW INSTITUTE
|
|
Floyer's new show is accompanied by 'Maurice', Sarah Ortmeyer's reflections on the iconography of the Eiffel Tower.
|
|
|
|
CLOSING 'THE BUILDING' IN BERLIN
|
|
After three years of activity, e-flux closes down their temporary project space in Berlin with a special two-day program of presentations, screenings, shows, parties, lectures, performances, drawing classes and much more; all starting this Tuesday, 25 Aug at 4pm and ending Wednesday, 26 Aug 'whenever the last person leaves the building'.
|
|
|
|
THOMAS SCHUTTE AT HAUS DER KUNST, MUNICH
|
|
'Normality is for me the most unmentionable.' The Düsseldorf artist Thomas Schütte has an impressive repertory of different themes and forms of expression at his disposal, and he is considered to occupy one of the most important artistic positions in Germany. This exhibition provides an overview of his multi-facetted creativity with works dating from the 1980s to today.
|
|
|
|
MARCEL VAN EEDEN AT HAMBURGER KUNSTHALLE, HAMBURG
|
|
In his extensive series of drawings Marcel van Eeden combines real biographies with fictional narratives. Since 1993, he has produced at least one drawing a day that he posts on the internet and also incorporates into his large-scale series. His most recent series, 'Witness for the Prosecution', comprising 150 drawings, is being shown for the first time in its entirety at the Hamburger Kunsthalle.
|
|
|
|
ALIX RULE'S TOP 10 SUMMER SHOWS IN BERLIN
|
|
The summer group show excels itself in Berlin this July and August with an annual exhibition of site-specific art by 10 European artists, an exploration of 'cultural codes' at Sprueth Magers including Kenneth Anger, John Baldessari and Paul Thek, and an exhibition entitled 'Romantic Machines' featuring new sculptural works, some of them kinetic, by Ariel Schlesinger (below), Elmgreen & Dragset and Julius Popp.
|
|
|
|
PUT DOWNS AND SUCK UPS: MATTHEW COLLINGS' WEEKLY VENTINGS ABOUT THE ART WORLD NO 30: CATALOGUES WITH TWOMBLY ON THE FRONT
|
|
Many people don't expect contemporary art to be about beauty, but we're still human and the hunger for beauty is part of being human, like the tendency to be religious. The surroundings are where the action is - not the art but the stuff around it, is where beauty is. The contemporary art cult has all the voodoo mysticism of religion but the cult members let it off religion's other traditional task of providing rich all encompassing religion, instead it comes up with mental conundrums. Just as religion lingers on in art after religion is no longer at the centre of social life, so beauty lingers on in contemporary art. 
|
|
|
|
ALEKSANDRA MIR AT SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT
|
|
Aleksandra Mir's new exhibition 'Triumph' collects together more than 2,500 trophies: sentimental objects representing the triumphs of others. Through this collection the artist looks at the history of the trophy and the ways we have of signifying victory--in sports and in the art world--as well as at the emotional moment of letting go, which every participant did in this project when they gave to Mir their souvenir of past grandeur.
|
|
|
|
ANA FINEL HONIGMAN'S TOP 10 BERLIN SHOWS IN MAY AND JUNE
|
|
Solo shows by Evol (below) and Ariel Reichman deal with issues of occupancy; Gilbert and George have their first show in Berlin for over a decade; three artists - Annette Kelm, Sergej Jensen and Wolfgang Breuer - take over the Kunst Werke; Any Sillman shows new paintings; and Peres Projects presents a summer show of gallery artists.
|
|
|
|
LUCY MCKENZIE AT MUSEUM LUDWIG, COLOGNE
|
|
The paintings of Scottish artist Lucy McKenzie show how we can envisage an approach to painting today that goes beyond the purely aesthetic. Her large canvases, arranged within the space like a stage set, depict interiors that refer to 19th-century decor designs. 
|
|
|
|
PETER WEIBEL ON TATTOO AT TEUTLOFF PHOTO + VIDEO COLLECTION, BIELEFELD
|
|
Peter Wiebel reflects on the significance of tatoos, the subject of this exhibition which features work by Herbert Hoffmann (below), Robert Mapplethorpe, Dennis Oppenheim, Richard Prince, Leni Riefenstahl, Wolfgang Tillmans, Xiaohu Zhou, John Isaacs, Michael Najjar, Alberto Garcia Alix, Kim Joon and Lucas Samaras. 
|
|
|
|
HUGH MENDES AT GALLERY BRAUBACHFIVE, FRANKFURT
|
|
Hugh Mendes' paintings draw on a combination of the historical notion of the still life and a psycho-geographic embracing of the random and accidental, set within a prescribed framework of world events. By obsessively collecting newspapers, he employs daily events by juxtaposing found images and headlines from clippings. Mendes' increasingly hyper-real renditions become haunting epitaphs for our society. 
|
|
|
|
CLARE STRAND AT FOLKWANG MUSEUM, ESSEN
|
|
Over the last ten years, dissatisfied with the often complacent values of the photography world, Clare Strand has assembled a body of work that is both subversive and celebratory in its approach to photographic conventions. During this period Strand's art has developed through a series of increasingly interesting and unique projects that have explored various photographic genres, from Victorian portraiture to crime scene and forensic photography. 
|
|
|
|
TEIJI HAYAMA AT GALERIE T40, DUSSELDORF
|
|
At the Saatchi Online booth at Scope Basel 2008 the Japanese artist Teiji Hayama distinguished himself with his ethereal figures often inspired by well-known images of female deities. For his first solo show, Hayama presents a series of connected paintings in which fragile- and innocent-looking figures are pictured with tattoos, markers of adolescence and the impermanence of a phase of life involving mental, social and psychological changes.
|
|
|
|
WILLIAM EGGLESTON AT HAUS DER KUNST, MUNICH
|
|
'I had this notion of what I called a democratic way of looking around: that nothing was more important or less important.' William Eggleston. The American artist William Eggleston is considered to be one of the most idiosyncratic photographers of the 20th century. This comprehensive retrospective follows his artistic development from his early black-and-white images and pioneering transition to colour photography up to the present day.
|
|
|
|
ALIX RULE'S ROUND-UP OF SHOWS IN BERLIN
|
|
Highlights in Berlin in March and April include Bjoern Dahlem's outsized models of cosmic phenomena bolted together out of home improvement stock (below); a new series of photographs by Darren Almond shot in the Yellow Mountain range, a site which has moved centuries of Chinese artists; Andrea Zittel's Smockshop project which generates income for "artists whose work is either non-commercial, or not yet self-sustaining"; and Helen Cho's 'soft paintings' made out of black and white karate belts. 
|
|
|
|
ANA FINEL HONIGMAN: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE VIP 'ART STAR'?
|
|
Much lauded and feted artists are nothing new to history. But the megawatt VIP "Art Star," whose antics and excesses helped to define the recent pre-recession era's idea of artistic success, is now (until the art market can support fun, folly and rock-star style fantasy) a thing of the past. 
|
|
|
|
JANNE LEHTINEN AT GALLERY TAIK, BERLIN
|
|
For his debut show in Berlin Finnish photographer Janne Lehtinen presents a series of works inspired by the desire to fly. It's a dream destined to fail, and the artist, depicted int he series of photographs, never gets far off the ground. 
|
|
|
|
ALIX RULE'S TOP 10 SHOWS IN BERLIN
|
|
Among the shows not to be missed in January and February are a mini-retrospective for Bill Viola, a debut show for Ignacio Uriarte who has 'established himself as a sort of genius among finger-drummers and Xerox-machine exploiters', an array of strong work by US-based video artists including Robin Rhode and Mika Rottenberg, and a series of exhibitions in which Berlin and Paris galleries have swapped artists. 
|
|
|
|
THUKRAL & TAGRA AT NATURE MORTE, BERLIN
|
|
Based in New Delhi, Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra work collaboratively in a wide variety of media including painting, sculpture, installation, video, graphic and product design, websites, music and fashion. For their first show in Germany Thukral & Tagra have produced a suite of works entitled "Nouveau Riche" which focus on the postmodern architectural style that can be found throughout India and is commonly referred to as "Punjabi Baroque." 
|
|
|
|
PAUL GRAHAM AT FOLKWANG MUSEUM, ESSEN
|
|
Paul Graham was the first photographer to unite contemporary colour photography with the classic genre of social documentary. Born in the 1950s, Graham chose to dedicate himmself to photography at a time when the medium was predominantly excluded from the art world; he is now considered one of the most significant photographers of his generation. He has been nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2009 and a major survey of his work from the past 25 years will be on view at the Folkwang Museum, Essen from 24 January. 
|
|
|
|
SOUTH AFRICAN PHOTOGRAPHY TODAY AT KUCKEI + KUCKEI, BERLIN
|
|
This exhibition, 'A Look Away: South African Photography Today', introduces four emerging photographers from South Africa: Pieter Hugo, Sabelo Mlangeni, Mikhael Subotzky and Nontsikelelo Veleko. The title of the exhibition ironically describes what photography in Southern Africa always avoided - and which, in the work of these four artists, is strongly compensated for in photographs that draw attention to the unknown and unnoticed in a complex society.
|
|
|
|
JONAS MEKAS AT THE MUSEUM LUDWIG, COLOGNE
|
|
After an odyssey lasting almost five years as a forced labourer in Germany, and as a displaced person after the war, Jonas Mekas arrived in 1949 in New York. This marked the beginning of his new life, which from then on he has dedicated to film. His solo exhibition at the Museum Ludwig showcases Mekas's wide-ranging influence, his sheer passion for film, his enduring influence on artists and film-makers of several generations, and on the very way film history is written. To watch his film about Andy Warhol and George Macunias click here. 
|
|
|
|
ANA FINEL HONIGMAN'S ROUND-UP OF THE BEST SHOWS ON IN BERLIN THIS MONTH
|
|
Mumbai-based Riyas Komu shows a series of enormous carved wooden skulls on which look like an ominous army of death warriors (below); Polish painter Przemyslaw Matecki debuts in Berlin with a compelling concoction of magazine collage; through a combination of drawings and cartoon-like oil paintings Bjarne Melgaard tells the troubling erotic misadventures of a young male prostitute; Iona Rozeal Brown creates paintings on panel and paper that combine the style of ukiyo-e woodblock prints with contemporary hip-hop iconography; and Adrian Ghenie presents new drawings and paintings at two different venues. 
|
|
|
|
ANA FINEL HONIGMAN REPORTS ON ARTFORUM BERLIN
|
|
Sales may have been slow and visitor numbers down but this year's ArtForum Berlin proved to be a functioning selling ground and a possible role model for other fairs nervous about surviving the coming crunch. 
|
|
|
|
LAST CHANCE: WADE GUYTON AT PORTIKUS, FRANKFURT
|
|
Since 2005, New York-based Wade Guyton has worked primarily on canvas; his tool, however, is not the brush but an Epson Stylus Pro 4000/9600 inkjet printer, a machine used for making large-format prints. The new works in this exhibition are all black monochromatic paintings, which engage with the formal repertory of modernism but draw on the most up-to-date technological means. 
|
|
|
|
OPENING: ART FORUM BERLIN - DESIRE
|
|
The thirteenth ART FORUM BERLIN - The International Fair for Contemporary Art - will take place at the Berlin Exhibition Grounds from 31 October to 03 November 2008.
|
|
|
|
THEA DJORDJADZE AT SPRUETH MAGERS, COLOGNE
|
|
Thea Djordjadze's installations, objects and drawings of echo the atmosphere of various art-historical and cultural-historical contexts. She has transformed the large exhibition space of Sprueth Magers Cologne gallery into a 'place': a passageway enclosed by an modernistic form.
|
|
|
|
ALIX RULE'S TOP 10 SHOWS IN BERLIN
|
|
Three exhibitions explore the cult of the personality from Andy Warhol to Sarah Lucas; a group show about German agnst features works by Thomas Hirschhorn and Andreas Slominski; new works by Amie Dicke at Peres Projects (below); a solo show by Nina Canell who says that she is 'searching for the art of conversation between the sidewalk and a blind man's metal stick'; and Spruth Magers opens their new Berlin outpost with a show by Thomas Scheibitz. 
|
|
|
|
PLAN B, BERLIN
|
|
For the first exhibition in its Berlin space, Galeria Plan B presents a cross-section of its portfolio, intended as an introduction and statement of purpose. 'Berlin Show #1' assembles projects made by artists working with the gallery since its inception, in Cluj, Romania, in 2005.
|
|
|
|
PETER DOIG AT THE SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE, FRANKFURT
|
|
With over 50 paintings, a group of works on paper, and about 130 painted film posters, this exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of Peter Doig's achievements over the last 20 years. One focus of the show is the painted posters Doig produced for his cinema project STUDIOFILMCLUB in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He has also set up a special STUDIOFILMCLUB in Frankfurt, where he will be screening films he has selected.
|
|
|
|
ALIX RULE'S TOP 10 SHOWS IN BERLIN
|
|
Don't miss Matt Mullican's colour-coded exhibition hall at Klosterfelde; a new sound installation by Marcellvs L.; paintings by Nicola Eisenman, Cornelius Quabeck (below) and Ann-Kristin Hamm; and New Yorker Gedi Sibony's debut in Berlin. 
|
|
|
|
DEUTSCHE BORSE PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE 2008 AT DEUTSCHE BORSE GROUP, FRANKFURT
|
|
Deutsche Börse presents a special exhibition of the four finalists of the 2008 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2008 at its headquarters in Frankfurt. The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize is an annual, international award allocated to a contemporary photographer who has made a significant contribution (exhibition or publication) to photography in Europe in the previous year. 
|
|
|
|
ALIX RULE ON ART BERLIN CONTEMPORARY
|
|
The organizers of Art Berlin Contemporary had obviously thought hard about what could make the large-scale commercial art event less tedious. For instance: rides. On Thursday evening, John Bock's room-on-an-axel was rotating like a hamster wheel, stopping periodically for visitors to get inside and be tumbled around. People were lining up! The packed vernissage felt less like the by-invitation-only event that it was billed as, than a "high school reunion", in the words of one artist. 
|
|
|
|
SAM LEWITT AT DANIEL BUCHHOLZ, COLOGNE
|
|
For his first solo exhibition at Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Sam Lewitt presents work collated into groups of graphic matter that appear to be remnants from a printers' shop, elements that appear to be collected from the dustbin.
|
|
|
|
FEMALE TROUBLE AT THE PINAKOTHEK DER MODERNE, MUNICH
|
|
Since the invention of photography more than 170 years ago it has been largely women who have used this technical medium to project themselves through role playing and masquerading.
The exhibition focuses on contemporary women artists such as Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Monica Bonvicini and Pipilotti Rist, who with the aid of photography and video art investigate the female image. 
|
|
|
|
1% WATER AND OUR FUTURE AT Z33, HASSELT
|
|
'1% WATER' explores the boundaries between contemporary art and design, hoping to focus our attention on our relationship to water. The exhibition showcases works, concepts and experimental environments by designers, artists and scientists that are beginning to shape a new water consciousness.
Among those exhibiting are: Atelier Van Lieshout, Elina Brotherus, Edward Burtynsky, Song Dong and Hella Jongerius. 
|
|
|
|
BOJAN SARCEVIC AT KUNSTVEREIN HAAMBURG
|
|
Bojan Sarcevic first gained international recognition at the second Manifesta 1998 in Luxemburg when he sealed windows, doors, and other openings with paper and pieces of fabric in a former exhibition space of a natural history museum. This interest in space and its social, cultural, and psychological connotations is still of fundamental importance for Sarcevic, whose exhibition in Hamburg presents five 16 mm films that explore the surfaces of abstract objects - small sculptures in wood, metal, and other materials. 
|
|
|
|
ROBERT POLIDORI AT CAMERA WORK, BERLIN
|
|
Camera Work's upcoming exhibition of works by Robert Polidori will feature a new series of photographs of the Russian Kremlin for the very first time. The exhibition will also include his series of pictures of the Palace of Versailles, the Cuban capital of Havana (below), as well as architecture photographs of New York. 
|
|
|
|
ERGIN CAVUSOGLU AT KUNSTVEREIN FREIBURG
|
|
Ergin Çavuşoğlu's video installations reflect the complex and constantly changing migration of people between places and countries. Often filmed in ports, airports or markets, his videos treat the themes of travel and the process of transition that determines our reality. In this way they construct a lyrical narrative about the personal experiences of individuals within a broader collective history.
To watch an interview with by Ergin Çavuşoğlu on Saatchi Online TV click here.
|
|
|
|
DEBUT: NADIA BOURNONVILLE AT PEROGI, LEIPZIG
|
|
For her first solo exhibition Nadja Bournonville presents the beginning of a project in three parts. Part one, entitled 'One for every wish', consists of analogue photography, text-based drawings on paper and a slideshow. The starting point for the project was a small wooden ship, similar to the wooden schooner Lefteria that set sail in 1972 from the coast of Great Britain to Spain. It was hit by a French weather ship and sank, taking Bournonville's uncle, Magnus, down with it. 
|
|
|
|
STEVE PULIMOOD ON MICHAEL SAILSTORFER AT THE SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE, FRANKFURT
|
|
Human organization, and the force humans apply to nature to create man-made order, obsess Michael Sailstorfer. With his small retrospective laid out over two rooms adjacent to Terence Koh's megalomaniacal installation - a blindingly white, nuclear fallout of cuddly effigies which includes a Peter Rabbit doll being sodomized by an umbrella frame - Sailstorfer is a comparably quiet wallflower. His works strike a soft, unfamiliar tone of art from a different era. From Land art to Fluxus, the line of inquiry of his current show '10,000 Stones' grips reality in a calmly assertive way. 
|
|
|
|
TOBIAS REHBERGER AT MUSEUM LUDWIG, COLOGNE
|
|
As if in a march past, Tobias Rehberger presents 40 works spread along 70 metres. Casting chronology to the wind, he has simply placed works from 15 years of creative production next to one another: chairs reminiscent of designer classics, his 'vase portraits', artificial limbs mounted on plinths, paper flowers with a Japanese ring to them, lamps made of Velcro tape, objects made of Perspex, video racks. The old works are bathed in a new glory, while simultaneously a new work comes into being: a mural made of light, shadows and colour. "I like the idea that something elaborate and solid could be the starting point for something vague and sketchy", Rehberger says. 
|
|
|
|
MATTHIAS HARDER ON PIGOZZI AND THE PAPARAZZI AT HELMUT NEWTON GALLERY, BERLIN
|
|
Paparazzi photography is an aggressive form of photojournalism, particularly today when the famous names in show business are hunted down and pushed into dangerous situations for the sake of getting the most interesting picture possible. In the 1960's and 1970's, the "classic" era of the paparazzi, the combination of voyeurism and exhibitionism, whereby photographers lie in wait for the stars to make their public appearance, was less strident and loud. Inventiveness, speed and persistence, along with a touch of cheekiness--put to use at the Cannes Film Festival, or on the Via Veneto in Rome--was usually enough to guarantee good results. 
|
|
|
|
ALIX RULE'S TOP 10 SHOWS IN BERLIN
|
|
David Levine (below) takes irony to a new level with a one-off show today which will be open but closed to the public; Richard Serra's films from the 60s go on view in July; Mai-Thu Perret offers a seasonal riff on the bikini; and the Berlin Biennial comes to an end this month with its final exhibition of works by Paulina Olowska and Zofia Stryjenska. 
|
|
|
|
MICHAEL LIGHT AT GALERIE WIESERHOEFER, COLOGNE
|
|
Michael Light's latest project 'SOME DRY SPACE' is a project on a monumental scale - enormous handmade artist's books in portfolio format with accompanying display tripods flanked by selected pigment prints on aluminium in two formats. The series is part of Light's ongoing comprehensive photographic survey of Western America from the air, for which he last year received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in support of the project. 
|
|
|
|
|
