April Art Guide - London

Recommendations of what to see in the London art scene this month by our local guide, Marine Tanguy. Discover more on a private art tour!

I.

Exhibition: The EY Exhibition Picasso 1932 - Love, Fame, Tragedy
Artist: London
Venue: The Tate Modern
Dates: Until September 9th, 2018

Incredible exhibition and well worth the wait! It’s an insight into the making of a 20th century name brand with its change of styles, bold statements and intensive production. 

II.

Exhibition: All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life
Artist: Various Artists
Venue: Tate Britain
Dates: Until August 27th, 2018

This exhibition aims to show the importance of life painting - I argue that there are too many saucy nudes.

III.

Exhibition: The Classical Now
Artist: Various Artists
Venue: King’s College Cultural Institute
Dates: Until April 28th, 2018

How can contemporary art help us understand our present? Superb show with artists Damien Hirst, Picasso, Quinn, Nauman and Leo Caillard. 

Take a private art tour in London to discover more!

Ron Arad’s Inaugural Gallery Show in Israel

As one enters the stark white cube of Gordon Gallery at 6 Hapelech street in south Tel Aviv they are immersed in the imaginarium of Ron Arad. His oeuvre is notoriously challenging to define; he is simultaneously considered a designer, artist, sculptor, and architect. There is not just one label that suits him. The ambiguity of Arad’s work is highlighted in his premier Israeli gallery show All And Nothing where he is seen again pushing the boundaries between art and design.  

Pressed Flower Yellow, 2013. Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York.

All And Nothing is Arad’s inaugural show in an Israeli gallery despite having been born in Tel Aviv in the fifties and studying at the Jerusalem Academy of Art. The large scale installation of Arad’s work at Gordon Gallery, made up of two major elements, can be interpreted as a reaction to his homecoming in Tel Aviv’s art scene. This response is evident in his uber contemporary large scale collage installation which is a continuation of his famous Pressed Flowers series depicting crushed cars. Within the fragmented composition scraps of a promotional poster from an event held just days before at the newly opened Tel Aviv hotspot, Herzl 16 are recognizable elements of the large scale collage. 

A very recently created collage, building on Arad's Pressed Flowers series

A detail of scraps of a promotional poster visible in the collage from an event at Herzl 16

Jutting fragmentations appear again in the adjacent installation composed of amoebic shaped mirrored tables that decorate the floor and walls. Reflecting the violent collage on the opposite wall they mimic the chaos and energy of contemporary Tel Aviv.

It is within the reflected images and the fleeting intangible glimpses one catches as they maneuver the many mirrored tables, that Arad’s installation really shines. The many mirrors appear to have been thrown against the wall, shattering and scattering into their current locations. Undulating from the walls and on to the floors, the viewer ponders how to define the pieces. Are they tables? Sculptures? Or mirrors? Herein lies the complexity of Arad’s work. 

One table mounted to the wall stands out for what first appears to be an abstract bubble pattern. Upon further inspection it reveals itself to be the Hebrew word ‘Klum’ meaning ‘nothing’. A bit tongue-in-cheek, Arad has spelled out ‘nothing’ with exactly that. It is the absence of material or nothingness that creates all that the show presents.

Hebrew word ‘Klum’ (כְּלוּם) meaning ‘nothing’ spelled out with bubble cut outs.

All And Nothing exhibition view 

Endlessly entertaining and thought provoking, All And Nothing is a visual treat that escapes the confines of a classic gallery show much like Arad has dodged labels that seek to confine him throughout his career. All And Nothing is on show at Gordon Gallery from March 22nd until June 2nd, 2018.

If you are interested in taking a private tour of the show please contact Oh So Arty here. 

Oh So Arty Tour

This private Oh So Arty tour got a special sneak preview three days before the show opens to the public. They also had a chance to meet with Ron Arad as he put the finishing touches on the show.

Ron Arad

Ron Arad discusses his inspirations and career within the exhibition space at Gordon Gallery.

Editorial Coordintor

Oh So Arty's Editorial Coordinator and journalist, Sophie Weinstein, at a press preview of the exhibiton.

Exhibition View

A bird's eye view of the impressive installation at Gordon Gallery.

Gordon Gallery

Gordon Gallery was established in Tel Aviv in 1966. It currently holds an impressive three exhibitions spaces within the city. In 2016 Gordon Gallery opened its third space at Hapelech Street 6, which is where the Ron Arad show is on view.

March Art Guide - Madrid

Two contemporary art exhibitions not to be missed in Madrid during March and April! Recommendations by our local guide in Madrid, Maria Jose Manjon. Discover even more on a private tour.

I.

Exhibition: Intuición
Artist: Carlos Bunga
Venue: Galería Elba Benítez
Dates: Until April 2018

Carlos Bunga, in his current exhibition Intuición (the title is in partial reference to Bergson) at the Galería Elba Benítez, explores the delicate relationship, often fraught yet potentially enriching, between intuitive perception and rational analysis. The exhibition consists of a series of new works by Bunga, all conceived specifically for the gallery’s spaces. As is characteristic of Bunga’s practice, color is a central component of the works’ power (including an intense saffron orange,) as is the tactile presence of the artist’s signature, povera-style materials, such as cardboard, packing tape and house-paint. Also in keeping with Bunga’s established working methods is the interaction between the objects and the architectural elements of the gallery, with works created in situ and at times encrusted or painted onto the gallery’s walls and floors.

II.

Exhibition: 2017 Multiverse Grants for Video Art Creation
Artists: Various Artits
Venue: The Sala Multiverso exhibition space
Dates: Until May 2018

Also, if you like video art do not miss the BBVA Foundation that have provided funds to ten innovative projects through its 2017 Multiverse Grants for Video Art Creation. The Multiverse Grants form part of the BBVA Foundation’s engagement with one of the languages most expressive of our time – that of the moving image. Its work in this area spans the whole cycle from creation – through other one-off vehicles besides these grants – up to and including public exhibition. The Sala Multiverso exhibition space in the Foundation’s Madrid headquarters, with its permanent program, free admission and flexible opening times, has become a reputed venue for video art in Spain. Further, the Foundation organizes regular encounters with artists and students of the visual arts, giving the interested public a chance to learn more about the topics and techniques featuring in the artworks.

Take a private art tour in Madrid to discover even more!

March Art Guide - Bilbao

While keeping an eye on new gallery openings, like at Carreras Mugica, it is possible to find at least three shows worth our interest at Guggenheim and Bellas Artes Museum, namely: Henri Michaux, Goya & the Court, and Art & Space. Since those exhibitions need no introduction, let us move on to the events that might be smaller in size but not in meaning or relevance.

I.

EXHIBITION: By all means
ARTIST: Itziar Barrio
VENUE: Azkuna Zentroa
DATES: Until May 6th, 2018

Azkuna community centre is quite a place in itself, where all sorts of events juxtapose quite shamelessly. The swimming pool hangs over people walking into the indoors public plaza, some are going to the gym, others to the library and various hang out with no true destination. A visit to Itziar Barrio’s exhibition can happen almost as a side effect or randomly. Her work is presented as fresh, not scared of using different media, with a range of themes that aim to engage with the thoughts, fears, desires of all sorts of people, from professional power relations, to symbols, sex or even theft. For this reason, it not only works in itself, but within the space and the building where it is held.

Video installation at Itziar Barrio exhibition

II.

EXHIBITION: Papers
ARTIST: Joaquín Ureña
VENUE: Galería Lumbreras
DATES: Until March 16th, 2018

"I tell the story of my life through inhabited spaces, through books; I am the first viewer"

"My use of colour is intentional, very often colours are more a wish than a reality"

Joaquín Ureña

It is easy to label Ureña as hyperrealist. If we venture deeper into his art, we will find a world of nuances and slightly altered realities on canvases that surround us and event attempt to swallow us, like a powerful narrative, like our favourite book.

Dos botellas II, 2015 © Joaquín Ureña

III.

EXHIBITION: Without Going Further
ARTIST: Iñaki Oñate
VENUE: COAVN Vizcaya
DATES: Until March 28th, 2018

Quite bravely, Oñate sets out to show Bilbao’s architecture through photography, and the venue is precisely the Architects Association Headquarters. Everything could go wrong, but the result is a tasteful round trip through the city, without leaving the two floors of the exhibition space, located right across from the Guggenheim museum.

© Iñaki Oñate

Take a tour in Bilbao to discover more!

Header image credit: By all means, Itziar Barrio Exhibition Image © Azkuna Zentroa

March Art Guide - Warsaw

Recommendations of what to see in the Warsaw art scene this month by our local guide, Zuzanna Zasacka. Discover even more on a private tour.

I.

Exhibition: Small Paintings
Artist: Przemek Matecki
Venue: Raster Gallery
Dates: Until March 30th, 2018

In his latest series of paintings, which he worked on nonstop for the past year or more, Przemek Matecki takes on the vastness of art. A tangible symbol of its fecundity is the heavy piles of superfluous exhibition catalogs and art magazines which the artist browses through in search of inspiring material for his own work. Matecki gives new life to reproductions, transforming them into sharp, witty miniature oil paintings. He negotiates the flatness of print with textural experiments, appliqués and montages, parodying the quoted works much along the lines of internet memes. The treatments he applies generate surprising effects. Here art is submitted to an authorial compression and regains its vigor. 

II.

Exhibition: Edi Hila. Painter of Transformation
Artist: Edi Hila
Venue: Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
Dates: Until May 6th, 2018

The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw presents the first retrospective exhibition of the Albanian painter Edi Hila, one of the last neglected masters from Eastern Europe. Hila carefully observed life evolving after the fall of Enver Hoxha’s regime and tried to depict the realities of the Albanian transformation.

III.

Exhibition: Love Story
Artist: Anna Jarnuszkiewicz, Krystian Jarnuszkiewcz
Venue: Archeology of Photography Foundation
Dates: Until April 6th, 2018

Anna and Krystian Jarnuszkiewicz met in 1952 at The State Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw. She was studying painting and he was studying sculpture. After they had finished university, they lived together ever after and worked - although separately sometimes, always in a constant closeness which lasted over 50 years and was ceased by Krystian’s death in 2016. These events constitute scenery of their common journey and build the perspective through which the vast selection of works presented within Love Story exhibition should be perceived and understood.

Take a tour in Warsaw to discover more!