Friday, December 27, 2013

Best in Show 2013


Time for the annual year round up again.
1 Mike Kelley at PS1

2 Michael Landy 'Saints Alive' at The National Gallery


3 'Jimmy Merris Sings The Blues' at Seventeen Gallery


4 Martin Kippenberger 'Sehr Gut' at Hamburger Banphof


5 Danny McDonald at Cabinet


6 Wolfgang Tillmans 'Central Nervous System' at Maureen Paley


7 Re-View: Onnasch Collection at Hauser and Wirth London


8 Philippe Parreno at Palais de Tokyo


9 Pierre Huyghe at Centre Pompidou


10 Cameron Jamie at Kunsthalle Zurich

Also notable: Thomas Zipp 'Comparative Investigation About The Disposition of the Width of a Circl' in Venice; Scott Treleavan at Invisible Exports; Travess Smalley at Higher Pictures; Alex Hubbard at Maccarone; David Horvitz at Chert Berlin; Ian Tweedy and N Dash at Dover Street Arts Club 

Show I've been most gutted to miss: Isa Genzken at MoMA (and I'm also sad there arent more women and group shows in my top ten)

This year I've curated 'Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye' at V1 Copenhagen and 'Is That All There Is?' screening at Import Projects

Monday, December 16, 2013

Top 10 Books for Christmas


I admit there is nothing notably festive about my selection but here goes. Apart from my last book 100 New Artists or course.

The Hidden Mother by Linda Fregni Nagler (MACK) (pictured above)


The Parapornographic Manifesto by Carl Michael Edenbourg


Xerography (catalogue from exhibition at Firstsite, Colchester)


Inner Planets by Cameron Jamie (Kunsthalle, Zurich)


Buffalo Zine No 2 - its a magazine but it really is incredible.



Art and Queer Culture (Phaidon)



My Mirage by Jim Shaw (JRP Ringier) admit it came out a year or so ago but its such a good present.



It's Nice That Annual 2013


The Holy Bible by Broomberg and Chanarin (MACK)



10 Elad Lassry: 2000 Words (The Urs Fischer and Josh Smith in the series are also very good)











Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Top 10 galleries


Perusing the aisles of Sunday, Frieze et al I thought I'd make a list of my top emerging galleries (esp as the Space of the Month slot is ending in Dazed)


Exhibiting Artists - Samara Scott, Rob Chavasse, Rhys Coren
Exhibiting Artists - Oliver Laric, Jon Rafman, David Raymond Conroy

Exhibiting Artists - Michele Abeles, Antoine Catala
Exhibiting Artists - Borden Capalino, Bjarne Melgaard

Exhibiting Artists - Sture Johanesson, Katja Novitskova

Exhibiting Artists - Stephen G Rhodes, Ed Atkins, Danny McDonald

Exhibiting Artists - Keichii Tanammi, Tobias Madison, Ida Ekblad

Altman Siegel (San Francisco)
Exhibiting Artists - Sara Vanderbeek, Trevor Paglen, Nate Boyce (pictured above)

Daniel Faria (Toronto)
Exhibiting Artist - Shannon Bool, Iris Haussler

Untitled (NYC)
Exhibition Artists: N Dash, Ian Tweedy, Brendan Fowler

Monday, October 21, 2013

Post Frieze 2013



Here are the blogs I wrote for Dazed
Day 1: The Build up
Day 2: The Fair
Day 3: The Rest
Day 4: The End and the Best




(Images from top Cory Arcangel at Team Gallery, Adrian Villar Rojas at Serpentine Sackler Gallery, Jordan Belson at Raven Row)

Monday, October 14, 2013

A Frieze Has Come Upon Us


Frieze is here and I am prepping for a VERY busy week. 

My preview highlights from the fair are up on Artsy, I am taking over the Dazed Magazine's Instagram all week @dazedmagazine, will be tweeting highlights from my private view timetable (which you can see here at the bottom right as well as on twitter @roughversion) and writing daily run downs for for Dazed Digital (links to follow).

I also had a very louche Artforum diary debut where I was snapped with the lovely Robert Bound from Monocle.

Sunday, October 06, 2013

Antwerp


I went to Antwerp for one night last week and here are my recommendations

Old
The Museum Mayer van den Bergh is a 17th century building filled with a 19th century collection of some of the best paintings I have ever seen, including the Breughel 'Mad Meg' apocalypse pictured above.

New 
The Kerry James Marshall retrospective at Muhka - the reason I went - was amazing and his more recent paintings are an incredible development in technique, medium, scale and content. Tim van Laere is a contemporary space with some good people in its roster.

Shop
Every single high low medium clothing shop in Europe has a space in Antwerp. Highlights for theatrical shopping experiences are Seven Rooms (I have never seen a concept shop like it), Dries van Noten and Delvaux.

Sustenance
Fiskebar - order the mixed grill (or if you like squid, expect a shoal when ordering the calamares) and make sure you book. The ginger tea and Aperol Spritz at cafe/bar Vitrin across the road is also very good. I also ate lunch every day at healthy veggie Lombardia which was bloody tasty. 

Monday, September 16, 2013

Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye part 2


Installation shots of 'Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye' at V1 gallery (Courtesy of V1 Gallery, photographer Jan Søndergaard). The images below take you from left to right clockwise around the show.

For press on the show read my interview with Anothermag on the exhibition and Stephen Dunne's profile on Dazed Digital and a little profile on me from Danish magazine Cover










Catch Up


There are few online projects that have to be seen

Legion TV x Samara Scott
Here online project is hands down one of the best pieces I have ever seen on the internet. Enable pop ups and enjoy.

Bubblebyte takeover of Spikeisland.org.uk
Enjoy the Click Me artist projects (i'm very into the song on Yves Scherer's piece)

--

I've realised I've been less active with my own blog because I've been on dazeddigital/twitter more (and busy in 3D world with exhibitions and lots of print features) but here is some of the things I've thrown into the ether.

Top Ten Emerging British Artists Showing This Week
http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/17129/1/top-ten-emerging-british-artists-showing-this-week

Top Ten Venice Biennale 2013
http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/16265/1/best-venice-biennale-2013

Bernadette Corporation feature
http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/14640/1/bernadette-corporation


Friday, August 23, 2013

Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye



V1 GALLERY PROUDLY PRESENTS

TOOT TOOT TOOTSIE GOODBYE

A group exhibition with:

Jake and Dinos Chapman, Stephen Dunne, Neal Fox, Susan Hiller, Dionisis Kavallieratos, Dennis Rudolph

Curated by Francesca Gavin


OPENING: FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 13. 2013. TIME: 17.00 - 22.00
EXHIBITION PERIOD: SEPTEMBER 14 – OCTOBER 19. 2013.

In 1945, the Nazis would broadcast German propaganda speeches on loudspeakers to the Allied enemies. Then a US soldier deactivating landmines, writer, director and actor Mel Brooks would respond by setting up speakers and singing Jewish musical theatre performer Al Jolsonʼs song 'Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye' on repeat to the Germans.

Mel Brooks has spent much of his career parodying Hitler and German national socialists. Yet his desire was not to lessen the horrors of war and genocide. As he stated in a 2006 interview with Der Spiegel, his aim was to bring Hitler and Nazis down with ridicule and laughter. “You can laugh at Hitler because you can cut him down to normal size... Of course it is impossible to take revenge for 6 million murdered Jews. But by using the medium of comedy, we can try to rob Hitler of his posthumous power and myths.”

Although much of the work in this exhibition is responding to the legacy of World War II and Nazis, the aim is to create an exhibition that highlights the increasing perils of the far right in contemporary Europe. The objective is to create a discussion that highlights the worrying current rise of parties who are exploiting a moment of economic crises for political aims – such as the Golden Dawn in Greece, Svoboda in the Ukraine, the Jobbik party in Hungary.

The point of the exhibition is not to soften or lessen the impact of the Nazis and the far right extremist rhetoric and violence. The intention in putting together this exhibition was to emphasise the importance of a continued awareness of the impact and horrors of the far right.

The lessons and experience of mid-20th century Europe are all too easily forgotten. By placing together work that veers from the satirical to the deeply disturbing, the aim is to create a real effect in the viewer. Hitting them with horror and the unacceptable at moments when humour has lowered their barriers.
_


Francesca Gavin is a curator and writer based in London. She is the author of 4 books including ʻ100 New Artistsʼ and ʻNew Gothic Artʼ, is the Visual Arts Editor of ʻDazed & Confusedʼ magazine and the curator of the Soho House Collection. Francesca Gavin has curated shows internationally that include The Dark Cube at the Palais de Tokyo 2012, and The New Psychedelica at MU Eindhoeven 2011.
We look forward to seeing you. V1 Gallery

Please do not hesitate to contact the gallery for further information, press photos or artist interview:
+45 3331 0321 / mail@v1gallery.com / www.v1gallery.com / V1 Gallery / Flæsketorvet 69 / 1711 Copenhagen V / DK Opening hours: Wednesday-Friday: 12-18. Saturday: 12-16. Or by appointment.


THANK YOU: Tuborg for Tuborg, Galerie Jette Rudolph. Gallery Bernier-Eliades. White Cube. Timothy Taylor Gallery. Daniel Blau. Stephen Dunne.