Lisbon Art Guide - December

In December, Lisbon as well as other cities, is preparing itself for Christmas celebrations. In the galleries, there is not much movement and the majority of them are preparing their season sales or other special offers before the New Year will arrive. Although, it’s beautiful moment of the year to visit the city, there are only two exhibitions I would like to recommend this month. Trust me, 2018 will be fresh and exciting again, I already know it!

I.

Exhibition: Revisão da Matéria Dada
Artists: Albano Afonso / Sandra Cinto, Albano Silva Pereira, Albuquerque Mendes, Ana Vieira, Efrain Almeida, Eliane Duarte, Gonçalo Pena, João Galrão, Jorge Vieira, Joaquim Rodrigo, Lygia Pape, Miguel Soares, Nelson Leirner, Noronha da Costa, Nuno Ramalho, Nuno Sousa Vieira, Pedro Tudela, Rita McBride, Rui Chafes
Venue: Galeria Graça Brandão
Dates: Until January 13th, 2018

This exhibition is a perfect possibility to learn more about Portuguese contemporary art between 1980 and 2015. It’s built as a memory book of its curator and the owner of the gallery - José Mário Brandão. By visiting ‘Revisão da Matéria Dada’ we can try to understand his personal taste and approach to art. To me, it’s like a catalogue of art, presented in the gallery space and a lesson about variable and constant trends in local art. 

Nelson Leirner, Yes, nos temos bananas, 2005, Galeria Graça Brandao

II.

Exhibition: Tracção e Compressão simples entre limit
Artist: Pedro Calapez
Venue: Galeria Belo-Galsterer
Dates: Until January 20th, 2018

For the occasion of 5th Anniversary of the gallery Belo-Galsterer, visitors can see a solo exhibition of one of the most well-known Portuguese painters - Pedro Calapez. His practice is related with colors and abstract shapes, which usually cover aluminum elements in various dimensions. This time, artworks were specially prepared for the gallery space. All the details are precisely measured and planned in rooms. The artist takes us for a journey through the limits of form and approaches towards painting.

Pedro Calapez, Hit the road, 2017, Galeria Belo-Galsterer

Wish you all Merry Christmas and a happy new year!
Hope to see you in Lisbon in the artsy year of 2018. 

Take a tour with Katarzyna in Lisbon to discover more!
 

Warsaw Art Guide - December

I.

Exhibition: The Other Trans-Atlantic. Kinetic and Op Art in Eastern Europe and Latin America 1950s – 1970s
Artists: Various Artists
Venue: Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
Dates: Until February 11th, 2018

"The Other Trans-Atlantic. Kinetic and Op Art in Eastern Europe and Latin America 1950s – 1970s" examines a brief yet historically significant moment in the post-war era during which artists from Eastern Europe and Latin America cultivated a shared enthusiasm for Kinetic and Op Art.
This trend represented both an alternative and a challenge to the critical consensus of mainstream Northern-Atlantic art production: while in the established art centers of Paris, London and New York, abstract expressionism, informal and lyrical abstraction reigned supreme, another art history was being written linking the hubs of Warsaw, Budapest, Zagreb, Bucharest and Moscow together with Buenos Aires, Caracas, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw in collaboration with Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow and SESC São Paulo.

Abraham Palatnik, Kinetic Object P-28, /1971 (2000) wood, formica, acrylic, metal, engine. courtesy of Nara Roesler Gallery, São Paulo and New York

II.

Exhibition: Second Thoughts
Artist: Luka Rayski
Venue: Galeria Szydlowski
Dates: Until February 15th, 2018

The exhibition "Second Thoughts" gathers 13 paintings of Luka Rayski, made in the last two years. They were made simultaneously with the press illustrations, posters for theaters and political demonstrations. Paintings presented in the gallery were made on polypropylene. Rayski juxtaposed a waste material, which is very durable and light at the same time with painting- a medium with a long tradition. The effect is exceptional. 
The pictures are based on the multiplicity of overlapping layers from different orders and realities: the shapes of the people, face profiles interpenetrate with an abstract pattern of stairs, or arrows that give the vector of the composition. 

Luka Rayski, Untitled (head and hands), 2016, photo by Ignacy Skwarcan

III.

Exhibition: Hidden Doubts
Artist: Alicja Bielawska
Venue: Kasia Michalski
Dates: Until January 25th, 2018

Alicja Bielawska in her practice, has been dealing with the physical—or metaphysical—qualities of objects: their geometric shapes, their colors, their potential or imaginative functions, but also the relationships occurring between them and individual viewers. She has applied this attitude in creating drawings, sculptures and installations, but also experimenting with perceiving them in motion, animating them through choreographed actions with dancers.
The works presented in the exhibition seem captured in a state of their own becoming; self-sustained, they create dynamic constellations within the space.

Hidden Doubts, 2017, exhibition view, photo: M. Gardulski

Take a tour with Zuzanna in Warsaw to discover more!

Textual Inspirations of Art World Professionals [PART. 2]

Inspiration - noun  in·spi·ra·tion  \ ˌin(t)-spə-ˈrā-shən , -(ˌ)spi- \

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines inspiration as 'the action or power of moving the intellect or emotions'. It can strike at any time and its myriad sources differ amongst individuals. As we are constantly seeking out new creative outlets to inspire us, we decided to ask our local arty guides what texts have had a profound influence on them. Their answers ranged from ancient poetry to contemporary tomes. As professional art guides it is our passion to awaken the creative side of others through the astounding power of art. 

Follow along with this ongoing series of posts to learn more about our guides and gain some inspiration for yourself along the way.

Read Part 1 here.

Local guide in Tel Aviv, Shani Werner, leading an art tour.

Part two of our series features the textual inspirations of local guide in Tel Aviv, Shani Werner.

As an art guide, art critique and writer of curatorial texts I find myself reading A LOT of art books. I actually have quite a large collection of them since I’m defiantly a fan of the written word. As much as academic and research texts are helpful, the books I like most are those which give place to the artist’s writings. At the rare times in which an artist is fluent and clear regarding his or hers work – it is a true delight. And so, I chose two of my all-time favorite exhibition’s catalogues to which I return time after time for inspiration about art and life in general. 

Sophie Calle “True stories” catalog of exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum, 1996

Text plays a crucial role in most of Calle’s works. Semi biographic semi fictional stories combine with the photographs as a multi layered project that could be read as a private journal or a sociologic experiment at the same time. The exhibition portrayed some of Calle’s iconic projects for the time such as “The sleepers” (1979) in which strangers were invited to sleep in her bed, occupying it for 8 full days. Another project was “The Blind” (1986) in which she asks blind people who have never seen - what their image of beauty was. My personal favorite quote is “The most beautiful thing I ever saw was the sea, the sea going out so far you lose sight of it”.
This book came in many editions and can be found in various languages. 

“Absalon” catalog of exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum, 2013

Twenty years later at the same pavilion yet another unforgettable exhibition of a rare artist. Absalon was an Israeli artist based in Paris which unfortunately had a very short and tragic career. His works were the outcome of a philosophy regarding contemporary society and its influence on domestic and personal being. Absalon was very expressive about his approach to these issues and reading his texts about it is moving and inspiring. 
“I am talking about an element of resistance. I mean that I don’t want to become what this culture is inviting me to become, I would like to not necessarily suggest something better, but to resist, to not take part of this thing”.

Here is just a short fragment of these two wonderful artist’s oeuvre and I truly recommend you dig deeper into these books or other writings by them.  

Take a tour with Shani in Tel Aviv to discover more!

Textual Inspirations of Art World Professionals [PART 1]

Inspiration - noun  in·spi·ra·tion  \ ˌin(t)-spə-ˈrā-shən , -(ˌ)spi- \

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines inspiration as 'the action or power of moving the intellect or emotions'. It can strike at any time and its myriad sources differ amongst individuals. As we are constantly seeking out new creative outlets to inspire us, we decided to ask our local arty guides what texts have had a profound influence on them. Their answers ranged from ancient poetry to contemporary tomes. As professional art guides it is our passion to awaken the creative sides of others through the astounding power of art. 

Follow along with this ongoing series of posts to learn more about our guides and gain some inspiration for yourself along the way.

Local guide in London, Marine Tanguy, explaining her inspirations on an art tour

Part one of our series features the textual inspirations of local guide in London, Marine Tanguy.

The Poetry of John Keats

I love the Poetry of John Keats and specifically the poem Ode on a Grecian Urn. John Keats made me appreciate how much art and well being were tied together, as art could enhance life and make it more bearable. He also reinforces the value of powerful visuals when it comes to our routine.

Hellenistic Terracotta Hadra hydria. Image: The Met

Architecture & Society by Walter Gropius

While this book focuses on architecture a lot more strongly than art, it discusses the power of the arts for everyone within the Bauhaus philosophy. This is something that I believe in very strongly.

The Bauhaus School circa 1940s. Image: Bauhaus Dessau

The Bauhaus School today. Image: Bauhaus Dessau

Take a tour with Marine in London to discover more! 
 

Jerusalem Art Guide - December

I.

Exhibition: The Art of Utopia
Artists: Various Artists
Venue: Van Leer Institute Jerusalem
Dates: Until March 8th 2018

The Art of Utopia is an international graphic art exhibition reflecting on the idea of the perfect world. This idea has existed for millennia, but the dawn of modernity and the belief that man can create such perfection on his own has given birth to myriad utopian ideas in occidental thought. The Art of Utopia displays posters by 35 renowned artists from around the globe, presenting their take on the possibilities and dangers of the concept of the perfect world. 

II.

Exhibition: Partial Portrait: Fragmented Identities
Artists: Various Artists
Venue: Jerusalem Artists’ House
Dates: On view until January 27th 2018

The exhibition “Partial Portrait” explores the constant tension between the recognition that identities are a jigsaw puzzle of overlapping, clashing, connecting, and retreating parts, and our conviction that we know others. The works by Michal Heiman, Aram Gershuni, Yaron Lapid, and Assaf Shaham resonate the fragmentation of identity as an extensive, broad phenomenon. 

Yaron Lapid, Patterns (03), 2015, photographic composite from found image

III.

Exhibition: Jerusalem in Detail
Artist/s: Aviad Bar-Ness and Asaf Evron
Venue: Israel Museum
Dates: Until January 27th 2018

The exhibition was inspired by David Kroyanker's research, foremost chronicler of Jerusalem architecture, this exhibition focuses on often overlooked but highly symbolic design motifs hidden in the Jerusalem’s streets and buildings. It enables visitors to hone their observational skills and discover the functional and decorative details that say so much about the many nations, cultures, and ways of life that left their mark over the centuries. The display spotlights Jerusalem’s cosmopolitan visual richness and whets the appetite for further exploration of the city.

Take a tour with Jenna in Jerusalem to discover more!