Gallery Weekend 2012 Highlights

The biennial was unspeakable (a tower of babel of failed political action and no art) but thankfully found some inspiration while in Berlin this week.

1) The Big Inexplicable Paravent Illusion at Isabella Bortolozzi

Amazing group show about magic littered with images from magic circles (as above) and brilliant works by Ed Atkins, Stephen G Rhodes, Man Ray and especially Danny McDonald who I am now completely obsessed with.

2) Adrien Missika at Galerie Crone

I couldn't find a good image of the new works but they were stunning architectural structures, with video elements, and light filters. It was damn good.

3) Wolf Vostell

A little solo presentation at the Berlinishe Galerie of this 1960s Berlin artist I had never heard of blew me away. Inserting TVs into sculptural Keinholz influenced assemblages about the holocaust. Seriously jaw dropping work (the photo above from my crappy phone) Emilio Vedova installation next to below also rather amazing.

Absurd Berlin Diary '64
1964 © Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, Venedig

And I also sang an a cappella set devoted to paintings at a new lovely editions shop UnLimited Company and went to The Paris Bar which had everyone from Doig to Kruger on the walls afterwards for the first time which I completely fell in love with.

You can hear me sing Mona Lisa here if you fancy

E Vapor 8

It's been a crazy few weeks for me. A mention in the Evening Standard as the curator of Little House (which I installed last week). A positive review of Responsive Eyes in TimeOut. My name on the cover of Its Nice That to coincide with a 3000 word feature I wrote on virtual and real spaces to exhibit art. A mention in Vogue and a full feature in the latest issue of Dazed about my upcoming NYC show E-Vapor-8 at 319 Scholes. For those stateside save May 5 for the opening.

Lots more info to come but so happy with the list of artists involved:

Fatima Al Qadiri
Cory Arcangel and Frankie Martin
Rhys Coren
Petra Cortright
Jeremy Deller
Aleksandra Domanovic
Cecile B Evans
Jeffrey Gibson
Alexandra Gorczynski
Leslie Kulesh
Samuel Levack and Jennifer Lewandowski
Marisa Olson
Hannah Perry
Christian J. Petersen (Dumb Eyes)
Travess Smalley
Lucy Stokton
Daniel Swan

Reading List

I have a giant pile of books next to my bed at home (and under the bedside tables, on the 5 sets of shelves, in the cupboard, in piles in front of the shelves... you get the idea). You can read my past reading lists
here , and here, and here Here is my current shelf selection:

Peer Pressure: Essays on the Internet by an Artist on the Internet by Brad Troemel

Zona by Geoff Dyer

Women Artists at the Millennium ed by Carol Armstrong and Catherine de Zehger

The World in Six Songs by Daniel Leviten

Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane by Andrew Graham-Dixon

In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists In Mexico and the United States by Illene Susan Fort and Tere Arcq

Go Human Not Ape by Francesco Spampinato

The Nine Eyes of Google Street View by Jon Rafman

The Air-Conditioned Nightmare by Henry Miller

The Doll: Short Stories by Daphne Du Maurier

(Image 'Memento Mori' "To This Favour" by William Michael Harnett)

Late Night Extra

Responsive Eyes is open til 830pm this Friday as part of the South London Art Map Late Fridays thing. One of the stars of the show Artie Vierkant was even graced by a two page feature in this month's Artforum. Come see Image Objects in the flesh - though of course not the ones illustrating this blog, which is part of the whole point of his work of course

As well as works by Mark Titchner, Paul B Davis, Thomas Lock, Sara Ludy, Anthony Antonellis and Lucy Stokton...

Too much opening this week...

1) Mocha Non Truth curated by Jesse Wine at Cul De Sac opening Friday March 23

2) Sam Griffin at Gallery Vela opening Thursday March 22

3) Hannah Perry presentation at Zabludowicz Collection Thursday March 22

4)Tom Ellis at Bloomberg Space opening Thursday March 22

5) Artie Vierkant at The Composing Rooms/The Green Room opening Friday March 23

Eyes are Responding

Responsive Eyes is up for 2 months now. You can read a few interviews with me about it on Dazed and New Art Network

I also talk about it in a massive 3000 word feature I've written for It's Nice That Issue 8 on virtual and real art space.


(Images above are still from the gifs from Anthony Antonellis's works CMYRGB)