Michal Rovner, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

Michal Rovner

Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

29 November 2002 – 26 January 2003

Stephen Friedman Gallery presents an exhibition of new works by Michal Rovner.

Michal Rovner was born in Tel Aviv in 1957 and has lived and worked in New York since 1988. Michal Rovner works with film, video and photography and her subjects confront issues of identity, memory and existence. The images she uses undergo a reductive process in the original recording, rendering them residues or shadows of the original subjects. For this exhibition, figures were filmed in a desolate Russian landscape and used as a starting point in the work.

In the front room, the texture of the works creates a flat field in which figures are reduced to dark forms against a blank white space. These beautiful and haunting images mark a new direction in Michal Rovner's work and resemble delicate charcoal drawings. Other works on paper are derived from the film Notes, a collaboration between Michal Rovner and composer Philip Glass.

In the back gallery, the film Coexistence 2 is shown on three monitors. Here, Michal Rovner orchestrated a large number of people to form interactive groups. The ambiguity of the action in the film makes it unclear whether these people are hostile gangs or amicable friends playing. Throughout the film, a soundtrack of shuffling feet is punctuated by the high cant of a human voice.

Michal Rovner has exhibited extensively around the world. From July – October 2002, The Whitney Museum of American Art presented a comprehensive mid-career retrospective titled The Space Between. Recent solo and group exhibitions include Whitney Biennial at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2000; The Corcoran Museum, Washington, D.C.; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; P.S.1, New York, and the Tate Gallery, London. Michal Rovner will be creating an installation for the Israel Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in June 2003.

STEPHEN FRIEDMAN GALLERY

25-28 Old Burlington Street, London W1S 3AN

www.stephenfriedman.com

Rachael Neubauer, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco - New Work

Rachael Neubauer: New Work

Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco

November 21, 2002 - January 4, 2003

Rena Bransten Gallery presents an exhibit of new sculptures and drawings by Rachael Neubauer. Neubauer's new sculptures continue to dazzle and puzzle viewers. Their references seem always just out of thought-range - are they organic, technical, figurative, sub-cellular, models, jewelry or furniture? Neubauer describes the new works "as meditations on the material and the desirable." Using drawings to establish a conceptual framework, she invents a visual vocabulary of form, shape and color fusing imagery and source material. The resulting imagery is mysterious yet not unfamiliar, not predetermined but in the process of revealing itself.

Rachael Neubauer earned her MFA at Ohio State University and received a scholarship to Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She received the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's SECA Award in 2000 and the Art Council Grant in 1999. Her work is included in the collections of Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco, The Oakland Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

RENA BRANSTEN GALLERY

77 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94108

www.renabranstengallery.com

Art Gallery Ontario Transformation - A Vision for the Future

Art Gallery of Ontario Transformation Project

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has announced the details of a transformation project that includes an unprecedented donation of art and funding by Kenneth Thomson, and a physical redesign and expansion led by Frank Gehry. Groundbreaking is set for early 2005, and the project will be complete in 2007.

"The greatest museums transform themselves into imaginative centres that reflect and enhance the world that surrounds them. Our vision is for the Art Gallery of Ontario to become such a place; a place that creates that moment when art and people meet, when conversations happen about the special role that art plays in our lives," said AGO Director and CEO Matthew Teitelbaum in describing his vision for the future at the announcement event in Toronto.

Earlier this year, the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario committed financial support for the project. "The federal government is supporting this major initiative by the AGO in recognition of the impact it will have in improving the quality of life for our citizens. We applaud Mr. Thomson for his magnificent gift to the people of Canada and the leadership of the AGO for creating and now enhancing an extraordinary home for art," said The Honourable David Collenette, Federal Minister of Transport, who is also responsible for the Greater Toronto Area.

"The Thomson donation of funding and works of art is unparalleled in the history of Canadian philanthropy," said The Honourable David H. Tsubouchi, Ontario Minister of Culture. "The current expansion plans to provide exhibit space for this outstanding collection will further position the Art Gallery of Ontario as a dynamic, world-class art museum with international presence and attraction."

Famous Rubens among collection filled with masterpieces

"The Art Gallery of Ontario has always held a special place in my heart, and I am confident that it represents the best opportunity to share my passion for art with the people of this city, Ontario, Canada, and the world," said Kenneth Thomson, a leading art collector and businessman.

Ken Thomson has made history with a donation that includes:

- The extraordinary Thomson Collection of nearly 2,000 works of art, the greatest in private hands in Canada. It includes masterpieces by such renowned Canadian artists as Paul Kane, Tom Thomson, Cornelius Krieghoff, and Lawren Harris, and a stunning collection of rare European art objects dating from the middle ages to the mid-nineteenth century that is among the finest in the world.

- The headline-making Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens, acquired by the Thomsons earlier this year for $117 million, the highest price ever paid for an old master painting.

- Two major Canadian masterpieces acquired by Mr. Thomson in recent years: Lake Superior III by Lawren Harris, and Scene in the Northwest by Paul Kane.

- $50 million in capital funding for the museum's building expansion on Dundas Street West in Toronto, plus an additional commitment of $20 million in endowment funding, thus helping to assure the AGO's continued success in the future.

First major Gehry project in Canada will be just steps from childhood home

"The Art Gallery of Ontario is where I first experienced art as a child and it was Grange Park where I played, so this project means a great deal to me. The building we envision will connect the city and its people to great art and art experiences," said world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, who is now based in California, at the announcement event.

Mr. Gehry's team is already well underway in the process of analyzing the AGO's current space and its needs for the future. In the months and years to come, the AGO will involve the community in Mr. Gehry's unique design approach and the transformation of the museum through lectures, open houses and other special events.

Renowned and admired the world over, Mr. Gehry's other landmark projects include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain and the Vitra Design Museum in Weil-am-Rhein, Germany. In addition to the AGO, Mr. Gehry is currently building the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and designing the Museum of Biodiversity in Panama City.

Formula for success

The AGO's transformation project is unique in its partnership approach. The acumen of Kenneth Thomson, creativity of Frank Gehry, vision of Matthew Teitelbaum and leadership of the AGO's Board of Trustees are just the beginning.

"We are encouraged that the Thomsons and both the federal and provincial governments are taking an active role in transforming the Art Gallery of Ontario for the future. This project is an example of how individuals, organizations and governments can work together to implement a shared vision. I am hopeful that others will join us in this vision," said A. Charles Baillie, President of the AGO Board.

Combined with the Thomson funding donation, the AGO has already secured a substantial portion of the building project cost, estimated at $178 million. Key partners in the project include the Government of Canada through Industry Canada and the Government of Ontario through SuperBuild, which have each pledged $24 million toward the AGO's expansion. The AGO is also grateful for the contribution of McKinsey & Company, who provided strategic counsel in developing a blueprint for success.

One of world's leading art museums continues to grow

"We will transform our building to welcome people with open arms, and to open them to new experiences while guiding them through a great and inspiring building with ease. We intend to literally transform the AGO with the addition of new galleries for art, new meeting places for our visitors, and improved and expanded amenities throughout our building," said Matthew Teitelbaum. As part of the transformation project, the AGO will be enlarged by 75,000 square feet, an expansion that will increase the viewing space for art by more than 40 per cent.

Economic highlights of the project, based on economic impact studies by PricewaterhouseCoopers, include:

- More than 2,000 person years of projected construction work, including about 245 permanent jobs.

- A one-time contribution to the Ontario economy of about $100 million dollars, and a projected annual boost of close to $13 million in tourism and operations dollars.

- All levels of government will realize one-time taxes from construction of $54 million, and $3.8 million annually thereafter.

The AGO's collection comprises more than 36,000 works representing 1,000 years of European, Canadian, modern, Inuit and contemporary art. This important collection, along with the Gallery's preeminence in art education and expertise in the conservation of art, makes the AGO one of Canada's most significant public resources for the advancement of the visual arts.

AGO - ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO

317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON M5T 1G4

www.ago.net

Project Moby Click Kiasma Museum, Helsinki. Art works with the Nokia Camera Phone

Contemporary Art Exhibition in Finland

Project Moby Click

Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, November 13 - December 15, 2002

Students of ¨Photography and Product Design from Helsinki’s University of Art and Design presents Project Moby Click, a unique installation at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki. In the exhibition, the young artists demonstrate multimedia art, creating live exchanges around image, place and time.

Two months ago, the nine students were each given a Nokia 7650 camera phone before setting out to explore the boundaries between art and real-time imaging with multimedia messaging (MMS).

“We use the camera phone for recording visual notes and impulses as we would a sketch book,” said student Tapio Laukkanen. ”It is more immediate than a camera or a tape recorder and needs no preparation.”

In addition to funding and implementation, project partners Kiasma, Satama Interactive and Nokia assisted the students in coming up with the concept behind the exhibition. Finnish mobile operator Sonera then lent its support by offering MMS transmission free of charge for the duration of the event.

Exhibition highlights

A Trip by Ea VASKO and Liisa VALONEN (prints) depicts an imaginary trip, in which the passage of time can be seen by movement and changes in the shooting location. The large prints consist of mosaics of dozens of MMS images.

Sight/Näky by Kitta PERTTULA, Antti OKSANEN and Eero KOKKO is an installation taking the image off its frame. The work studies the transmission of images in cyberspace. The images “come off the wall” to become active elements.

Momentary Impressions: Snapshots for the Curious by Antti HAHL and Tapio LAUKKANEN (on-screen flash presentations) uses the camera phone to photograph this image series. Visitors can select the series to be displayed on a computer screen.

Visual Discussion (big board) allows visitors to follow a happening in real time with the students on Fridays and Saturdays. A joint venture by Tatu Marttila, Mikko Saario and the group explores how MMS is bound up with time and place. The project also introduces a new way of discussing pre-selected topics, e.g. Art Talk, via MMS, using image, text and sound.  The discussions are projected onto a wall in the exhibition space, forming route maps that reveal the course of the discussion. Inside the Museum, members of the public are also invited to actively participate.

 

Previous posts about Nokia products and events

• Nokia Camera Headset HS-1C

• The Compact Nokia 6650 camera phone, the first to record video with sound

Warren Rohrer, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia - Morning Fogs Trees and Leaves

Warren Rohrer 

Morning Fogs Trees and Leaves

Locks Gallery, Philadelphia

November 1 - December 14, 2002

Locks Gallery presents twelve, rarely seen paintings by WARREN ROHRER (1927-1995), one of Philadelphia's most important 20th-century painters. Known for his luminous, vibrantly-colored canvases, Warren Rohrer evolved in the late 1960s from a landscape painter to a deeply intuitive abstractionist. This exhibit focuses on the loose, improvised work from the early 70s that laid the framework for his mature work.

The artist spent the first twenty years of his career as a landscape painter. Most of his early works are highly abstracted views of the Pennsylvania countryside, particularly the farms of Lancaster County where he was born, and spent long periods of his life. Beginning in the early 1970s, Warren Rohrer made a decisive breakthrough in his paintings, which shifted toward abstract squares of color, punctuated by a grid.

The small painting First (1972) presages the rest of his work with its square format and allover almost purely abstract composition. Between 1972 and 1975, Warren Rohrer made the series of large, minimal paintings included in this exhibition. The works are noticeable for their stark structures--often with a smaller square centered inside the larger square of the painting--and simple, hatchmark-like brushstrokes, suggesting tilled fields, woven baskets, rows of seeds, or stitching on a quilt.

While the work of Agnes Martin, Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko deeply affected the artist during this period, Warren Rohrer's works retain their roots in his chosen subject matter: the planned and chance geometries of the agricultural landscape paired with the rhythms of farming life. In 1975, Warren Rohrer wrote "These processes of plowing, planting, cultivating and harvesting are very similar to my processes of layering, defining, obscuring."

The artist originally chose the title Morning Fogs Trees and Leaves for his 1974 show at Locks Gallery. Looking back at the period now, the artist was clearly then in the midst of a formative shift that became the foundation of his later work.

The first, large-scale museum exhibition of Warren Rohrer's work will be held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2003. The artist began showing in Philadelphia in 1960 and had eight one-person shows with Locks Gallery between 1974-94. His work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum and Delaware Art Museum. 

An accompanying catalogue illustrates all of the paintings in the exhibition.

LOCKS GALLERY

600 Washington Square South, Philadelphia, PA 19106

www.locksgallery.com

The Sonnabend Collection, Wexner Center, Colombus - From Pop to Now - Off-site exhibition

From Pop to Now

Wexner Center off-site, Colombus

November 3, 2002 – February 2, 2003

From Pop to Now showcases works from the private collection of gallery owners Ileana and Michael Sonnabend, including such artists as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Gilbert & George, Rona Pondick, Bruce Nauman, Anselm Kiefer, Jeff Koons, Elger Esser, and Christian Boltanski. Nearly 70 works—painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed-media installation—by about 50 artists are on view. Together, this selection sheds light on the intersections of pop, conceptualism, minimalism, postmodernism, and other major experimental art movements of the last century, in a show that is “brimming with important pieces” (The New York Times, June 30, 2002).

From Pop to Now was organized by the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. The presentation in Columbus coincides with the Wexner Center’s gallery renovations. All exhibitions in the upcoming season will be presented off-site, with three presented in downtown Columbus.

THE SONNABEND COLLECTION

Ileana Sonnabend—who became known in the ’60s as “The Mom of Pop Art”—has been a seminal force in the contemporary art world for 40 years, identifying young, emerging artists and introducing their work to wide audiences in both Europe and the United States. Her enthusiasm for collecting began in the 1950s during her brief marriage to art dealer Leo Castelli, and continued with her marriage to Michael Sonnabend, with whom she ran galleries in Paris and New York. The Sonnabends introduced new American artists—such as Robert Rauschenberg and Dan Flavin—to Europe, and brought European artists to the attention of New York audiences (e.g., Ileana was the first to bring the new German art to New York in the early 1980s). The vast Sonnabend Collection includes contemporary paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and works in new and nontraditional media, collected over the decades.

From Pop to Now is the most comprehensive survey to date of the Sonnabends’ legacy. The exhibition includes key works originally shown at their galleries, along with rarely seen pieces from their private collection. “I’m particularly interested in works that are by now ‘classical’ and still keep their provocation,” Ileana Sonnabend told The New York Times earlier this year. Recently widowed, Sonnabend continues to actively collect.

From Pop to Now premiered at the Tang in June; the Wexner Center marks its first stop on a national tour, and additional venues will be announced.

THE ART

The exhibition features a range of works reflecting the Sonnabends’ taste over the years, including early pop art by then-emerging artists, contemporary photography, and multimedia sculptural works. Major art movements include pop, minimalism, conceptualism, arte povera, and abstract expressionism. The earliest work in the show is from 1956 (a Cy Twombly); the most recent is from 2002 (a chromogenic print by Andrea Robbins and Max Becher).

Among the highlights from the exhibition: Roy Lichtenstein’s Aloha (oil on canvas, 1962), plus three other Lichtensteins; Andy Warhol’s White Brillo Boxes (1964), plus five other Warhols; Jasper Johns’s Figure 8 (1959); Jeff Koons’s stainless steel Rabbit (1986); Bernd and Hilla Becher’s photographs Water Towers (1972); Rona Pondick’s Dog (yellow stainless steel, 2000); Dan Flavin’s “Untitled (To the ‘Innovator’ of Wheeling Peach Blow),” featuring fluorescent lights, from the late 1960s; Sol LeWitt’s Arcs from Four Corners (1971); Gilbert & George’s They (1986); and Bruce Nauman’s neon 

My Name as Though It Were Written on the Surface of the Moon: Bbbbbbbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuucccccccccceeeeeeeeee (1967).

EXHIBITION'S LOCATION: The Belmont Building, 330 West Spring Street, Colombus, OH

WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

1871 North High Street, Columbus, Ohio 43210

www.wexarts.org

Nokia Camera Headset HS-1C

 

Nokia announces the Nokia Camera Headset HS-1C, a combined easy-to-wear digital camera and headset enhancement for compatible Nokia phone models with the Nokia Pop-Port  interface connector.* The Camera Headset enables users to take digital images and send them as multimedia messages (MMS) with text, image, and/or audio content. ** The Camera Headset will start shipping globally in December 2002.

“We are very excited to introduce a combined digital camera and headset. With two functions in one product, users have less to carry and yet can take advantage of the richness and fun of MMS,” said Waldemar Sakalus, Director, Terminal Enhancements in Mobile Enhancements Business Unit, Nokia Mobile Phones. “Images are a powerful way to communicate and the Camera Headset brings this ability to a wider number of Nokia phones.”

The small and lightweight Camera Headset combines a digital VGA camera and the basic handsfree functionality of a headset with an answer/end button. Users can conveniently view through an optical viewfinder of the camera and snap an image. The image will be automatically transferred to the phone. The LED indicates the operating mode of the camera. Before taking a picture user can select between higher quality and lower quality image from the image quality switch. Afterwards the image can be viewed on the phone display and users can store, send or delete images from the Gallery menu on the phone.

Power for the Camera Headset comes from the phone via the Pop-Port connector. The Pop-Port interface has been designed for the mobile environment and it supports advanced functionalities such as power output support for terminal enhancements and fast data connectivity.

* These models currently support both Pop-Port interface and MMS: Nokia 7210, Nokia 6610, Nokia 5100, Nokia 6100 and Nokia 6800 phones.
** The MMS related services are dependent on the network as well as on the compatibility of the devices used and the content formats supported.