Vienna Art Guide - January

Recommendations of what to see in the Vienna art scene this month by local guide, Itai Margula. Discover even more on a private tour.

I.

Exhibition: Israel before Israel – Photographs by Ze´ev Aleksandrowicz 1936
Artist: Ze´ev Aleksandrowicz
Venue: Jewish Museum Vienna
Dates: November 22nd to April 1st, 2018

Ze’ev Aleksandrowicz was a Zionist and enthusiastic photographer. Born in Kraków as the son of a paper wholesaler, he also spent a short time as a student in Vienna. Tel Aviv, the first modern Jewish city founded in 1909, exerted a particular fascination on him. Years after his death in 1992, the photos from the 1930s were discovered by chance: more than 15,000 negatives gathering dust in an old suitcase.

Foto: Ze ́ev Aleksandrowicz © Jewish Museum Vienna

II.

Exhibition: MAXIMAL SOFT
Artist: Liesl Raff
Venue: Sophie Tappeiner
Dates: January 18th to March 18th, 2018

Sophie Tappeiner opened her gallery in May 2017. Next to one of Vienna´s ´Gallery Streets' called Seilerstätte, a promising space with auspicious installations. The next exhibition by Liesl Raff – always poetic, always spacial. Liesl Raff (born 1979 in Stuttgart, lives and works in Vienna) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Recent exhibitions and projects include: my moment is now yours at Bob's Pogo Bar, KW Institute of Art, Berlin, DE (in collaboration with Nora Rekade); So do I at One Work Gallery, Vienna, AT; How far to open up at Forum Stadtpark, Graz, AT (2017); A Thousand Friends, Exo Exo at New Jörg, Vienna, AT (2016); Peak Experiences, Shangrila, Joshua Tree, CA, USA (2015); Reflecting Fashion at Mumok, Vienna, AT (2012).

Photo: Liesl Raff © Liesl Raff (artist) Ismini Adami (graphic design)

III.

Exhibition: Specific Objecthood (KW) – Sugar Cravings (CK)
Artists: Kay Walkowiak, Charlotte Klobassa
Venue: Zeller Van Almsick
Dates: Kay Walkowiak (through January 13th) Charlotte Klobassa (through February 22nd)

Magdalena Zeller and Cornelis van Almsick opened their gallery with a wonderful program and a focus on up-and-coming artists in March 2017. Kay Walkowiak´s installation ‘Specific Objecthood’ is based on the formal vocabulary of the Minimal Art. His video installation shows a movie that was shot in Josef Frank´s Villa Beer (1930).
In her ongoing series ‘Scribble’, Charlotte Klobassa draws inspiration from collected pieces of paper she finds in stationary shops. The papers with test scribbles of unknown authorship manifest a very imminent, impulsive and unconscious composition and lend themselves to free association and interpretation.

Photo: Kay Walkowiak © Kay Walkowiak

Photo: Charlotte Klobassa © Charlotte Klobassa

Take a private art tour in Vienna to discover more!

Toronto Art Guide - January

Recommendations of what to see in the Toronto art scene this month by local guide, Jessica Herzig. Discover even more on a private art tour.

A few exhibitions to kick off the year and stave off the winter chill…

I.

Exhibition: Salon V Annual Holiday Show
Artists: Group Exhibition
Venue: Project Gallery
Dates: Until January 20, 2018

Project Gallery is one of the best spaces in Toronto to catch emerging artists on the rise. Their annual group show displays hundreds of works, hung floor-to-ceiling in classic European salon style. This energetic install is overwhelming in the best sense, and provides for intriguing dialogues between works. By showcasing numerous pieces by each gallery artist, the exhibition offers a more in-depth look into their oeuvres than the typical group show usually provides. 

II.

Exhibition: The In Vain Coloured Oriole and Other Paintings
Artist: Andy Patton
Venue: Birch Contemporary
Dates: Until January 20, 2018

These text-based paintings are pure poetry, in the literal and visual sense. Patton’s sensitive and sometimes cryptic words are rooted in classical Chinese calligraphy. The words and images become hypnotic, while inviting the viewer in for a meditative moment as their phrases unfold. 

Take a tour in Toronto with Jessica to discover more!

Milan Art Guide - January

Recommendations of what to see in the Milan art world this month by our local guide, Sara Cattaneo. Explore more in a private art tour.

I. 

Exhibition: There is a Planet
Artist: Ettore Sottsass
Venue: The Triennale Design Museum
Dates: Until March 11th, 2018

The Triennale Design Museum presented a monographic exhibition about Ettore Sottsass on the occasion of his 100th birthday. The exhibition examines in depth the polyhedric and complex work of Sottsass as architect, designer, photographer and writer. The show is accompanied by a book and a catalogue. The book, which is named after the exhibition, includes a long series of pictures taken during forty years of travel around the world. These pictures show the human presence on the planet and are by themselves a really good reason to visit the exhibition.

II. 

Exhibition: Ambienti/Environments
Artist: Lucio Fontana
Venue: Pirelli HangarBicocca
Dates: Until February 25th, 2018

Pirelli HangarBicocca presents a selection of “Ambienti spaziali” (Spatial environments) by the italian artist Lucio Fontana, founder of the spatialist movement. The installations on show were specifically recreated for this exhibition and are seen together for the first time. In few words it is a monumental retrospective of the Fontana’s pioneering work in the realm of installation art.
Must to see!

III. 

Exhibition: Incontri
Artist: Paolo Roversi
Venue: Galleria Carla Sozzani
Dates: Until February 11th, 2018

This exhibition of Paolo Roversi is complementary to the largest ongoing show of the artist at Palazzo Reale. For “Incontri”(encounters) Roversi has developed a display with thirty diptychs and triptychs as in a painting from the Renaissance period, which made extensive use of this technique. These pictures are particularly interesting for their proximity to the pictorial technique and its peculiar delivery of the image itself.
 

Paris Art Guide - January

Recommendations of what to see in the Parisian art world this month by our local guide, Judith Souriau. Explore more in a private art tour.

I.

Exhibition: Sophie Calle & Serena Catone
Artist: Sophie Calle
Venue: Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature
Dates: Until February 11th, 2018

Only one month left to visit Sophie Calle’s version of the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature ! The small museum was already one of the most charming & mysterious places in Paris before the conceptual artist took it over : a 17th century hotel particulier filled with stuffed animals, aged wood furniture and other collectibles that all relate to the art of hunting… Calle drags and drops her own works in the museum permanent collection to embellish the fairy tale (and insert humor). She also invited her friend Serena Catone’s bestiary. If you do not know the museum yet, it is an unmissable occasion to wander in its rooms!

Image courtesy of Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature

II.

Exhibition: Dada Africa : Non-Western Sources and Influences
Artist: Various Artists
Venue: Musée de l’Orangerie
Dates: Until February 19th, 2018

The Rietberg Museum (Zürich), the Berlinishe Galerie (Berlin) and the Musée d’Orsay (Paris) raised a burning question in the 20th century art history : why and how did Dada, a prolific and subversive art movement that first emerged in Zurich during World War I, get to know African and Asian art and decided to integrate them in their own art forms ? What’s the story behind the appropriation ? The exhibition is brilliantly documented, and it also features installations by the young Nigerian born Otobong Nkanga as a contemporary counterpoint. 

Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943), Motifs abstraits (masques), 1917
Stiftung Arp e.V., Rolandswerth/Berlin
© Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin / Rolandswerth. Wolfgang Morell

III.

Exhibition: Louise Bourgeois : Editions
Artist: Louise Bourgeois
Venue: Galerie Karsten Greve
Dates: January 9th, 2018 until February 24th, 2018

The Galerie Karsten Greve is about to open an exhibition of Louise Bourgeois works on paper, engravings and illustrated books from the 80’s to 2009. As few copies remain available (although the artist was quite prolific then), prints and drawing are usually seen by 2 or 3 on art fairs or auctions. It is quite exciting that the gallery (who held Bourgeois first solo exhibition in Paris in Paris) gathers an ensemble of 50 pieces, of varied techniques and supports.

Image courtesy of Galerie Karsten Greve Paris

Take an art tour in Paris to discover more!

Tel Aviv Art Guide - January

Recommendations of what to see in the Tel Aviv art world this month by our local guide, Shani Werner. Explore more in a private art tour.

This month’s recommendations may be considered as “brave”, with three exhibition dealing with some untraditional or even un-spoken of subjects. Take a walk on the wild side with this month’s highlighted art events. 

I.

  
Exhibition: Muzarnism
Artists: Group exhibition
Venue: Hayarkon 19 Gallery
Curator: Boaz Arad
Dates: Until February 2nd, 2018

The name Muzarnism is a smart word game combining Muzar which means “strange” in Hebrew and Modernism. This is another exhibition in the series curated by artist, lecturer and curator Boaz Arad in which he researches the local and global art history. Arad recognizes a resemblance in the dealing with the self in early Modernism and today, this is the starting point of the show. 

II.

Exhibition: I Was Looking at You When You Were Looking at Me
Artists: Group exhibition (Gidi Gilam, Noa Ginzbug, Anat Martkovich)
Venue: Alfred Gallery
Dates: Until February 2nd, 2018

Every year the Alfred gallery chooses a yearly subject that the shows will react to - and this time it is failure. The first exhibition for the year takes the risks of failure to the next step as the artists tried a new and ambitious concept. Each one made a sketch for an installation and the other continued and realized it. The outcome is a hybrid of both artists, a translation of one’s ideas with the other’s artistic means. 

III.

Exhibition: Winnie, Real Daughter
Artist: Efrat Vital
Venue: The Artists Residence, Herzeliya
Curator: Ran Kasmy Ilan
Dates: January 6th, 2018 (no closing date published)

It’s quite obvious that the United-States are going under major changes in the past few years. With that, we see the uprising of radical and racist groups, violent protest and more. During 2012, Vital spent a year in the United States’ Deep South and documented the changes there. Coming as a stranger gave her the chance to dig deeper and reveal unsettling truths which usually stay in the dark. 

Take an art tour in Tel Aviv to discover more!