DRUPA 2012: Heidelberg Portfolio overview

Printing Industry - “Discover HEI” : an overview of Heidelberg products and solutions portfolio at DRUPA, Printing industry trade show, Düsseldorf, Germany, May 3 - 6, 2012

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is showcasing an extended product and solution portfolio at drupa 2012. The company is exhibiting solutions that enable print shops and postpress businesses to meet the latest market requirements.

Heidelberg is focusing its drupa 2012 trade show presence on its portfolio of technologies and services under the banner "Discover HEI" - Illustration: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.

"The circumstances surrounding drupa 2012 are exceptional, since the industry is still changing. But as a reliable partner, we are ideally placed to offer valuable guidance and recommend appropriate solutions," says Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberg. "In the current market environment, trust and reliability are priorities for our customers. That is why we use our innovations to respond to customer queries that extend far beyond purely technical issues, for example - what business models are successful in the long run? What new ideas and strategies will truly pay off for print media service providers and in the print media industry in the future? During drupa, Heidelberg will be presenting the ideal solutions to questions such as these from the advertising and packaging printing sector."

DRUPA 2012 Floorplan - Heidelberg is presenting its solutions portfolio at drupa 2012 in Hall 1 in form of complete print shop workflows for commercial and packaging printing  (Illustration: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG)

What Heidelberg has to offer at drupa 2012
During the printing industry trade show in Düsseldorf, Heidelberg is presenting a portfolio want to span all key market developments in the sector today to enable customers to seize on the latest trends in the industry and build them into their operations. The trade show presentation will focus in particular on lean production, green printing, web-to-print, print-on-demand, differentiation through coatings and special effects, the future of packaging printing and gaining an edge through the latest know-how. To reflect the trade show banner "Discover HEI" and give visitors a clear point of reference, each of these seven market trends will be summed up with a "HEI" title.

Lean production
Efficiency, cost optimization, and speed are expected throughout the advertising sector. When it comes to print production, return on investment is what matters to the customer who is looking for the best product at the best price. The only way that can be achieved is by streamlining the entire production workflow using process optimization and the fastest possible production processes. According to Heidelberg, this is made possible by HEI Productivity solutions.

“HEI Productivity”. Advertising motif from the Heidelberg drupa campaign. Illustration: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG

Green Printing Green printing protects the environment and ensures media production can operate on a sustainable basis. Many companies that are major advertisers have environmental regulations that must be strictly observed by all print providers. Print shops around the world benefit from the high environmental standards of Heidelberg and use them to gain a competitive edge in a whole variety of ways. “HEI Eco” covers both the sustainable production equipment and processes that Heidelberg offers costumers.

© Gautier Willaume

Web-to-print Thanks to the Internet, web portals supported by digital processes and software architectures can be used to create printed matter, commission production, and make payments - all online. Web-to-print opens up a whole range of possibilities for print service providers and their customers, enabling them to optimize print production for corporate and end customers and automate manufacturing operations. Web-to-print portals are already proving popular with millions of end users (for photo books, postcards, etc.). However, there is still a huge amount of potential waiting to be tapped in the corporate segment, where the requirements of a wide range of customers can be met with broad-based or customized solutions. Heidelberg will present its web-to-print solutions under the banner of “HEI Integration”.

Print-on-demand, short-run and hybrid production The term "print-on-demand" covers a whole range of state-of-the-art job production techniques. The basic principle is to transform existing data into printed products immediately. This also needs to be done in short to very short runs with identical content or, increasingly, through printing with variable data. Mixed forms are also in demand, with hybrid production combining and integrating offset and digital printing in one application without detracting from the look of the printed image. Applications include the use of Quick Response (QR) codes, which can link printed matter with online media or online marketing campaigns. “HEI Flexibility” will show visitors to drupa how they can implement this trend in their own operations.

“HEI Flexibility”. Advertising motif from the Heidelberg drupa campaign. Illustration: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG

Differentiation through coatings and special effects
Every type of surface finishing technique such as coating, embossing, and cold foil applications is used to make a printed product stand out and to enhance its impact or durability. When it comes to coatings and special effects, print shops need to adapt to meet the needs of customers and print buyers for a process-optimized production workflow that keeps costs down, doesn't waste time, generates added value, and ensures the final product stands out. Coatings, special effects and the skilled combination of various surface finishing options represent a core competency that delivers maximum benefits and ensures an eye-catching result. Heidelberg is presenting these opportunities under “HEI Emotions”.

Packaging printing
Packaging is printed communication and often offers much more than just words and images. It doesn't serve simply to protect products and aid their transport and storage either. Packaging makes a direct statement about the product inside. It communicates, transfers knowledge, and is often the decisive factor in a customer's decision to purchase at the point of sale. In other words, it is largely packaging that encourages us to buy a product. Coatings and special effects are often used to make products stand out at the point of sale and Heidelberg is exhibiting all the company’s options under “HEI End”.

Gaining an edge through the latest know-how In the age of the Internet, it has become even more important to understand the significance of print media and contemporary production techniques. Lifelong learning has also become a key requirement. It is no longer sufficient for economically advanced and ambitious growth regions to simply acquire a one-off basic foundation in print media production. Instead, individuals need to maintain, expand and carefully develop their expertise on a regular basis, particularly when the production equipment and processes they are using are becoming increasingly complex and demanding. HEI School has a range of offerings that keep print media personnel up to speed for discussions with customers and for their day-to-day work.

Innovations from Heidelberg Services Since the IPEX 2010 trade show, Heidelberg has been expanding the portfolio of services it offers customers. By purposefully integrating services, consumables, and consultancy offerings, the company has extended the range of components it offers for print shops. For example, Heidelberg Services will be presenting new service contracts during drupa. New and extended Prinect functions will also offer workflow solutions for the print media industry. Also coming to DRUPA 2012 is a series of new environmentally friendly consumables known as Heidelberg Saphira Eco.

Speedmaster XL 105 to be unveiled
As customers become more sensitive to prices, run sizes decrease, and job variation increases, print shops in industrialized nations are going to have to reorganize their production systems so that they are even more flexible and efficient. Throughput times in print production are becoming ever tighter and, in response, Heidelberg is unveiling a Speedmaster XL 105 with a production speed of 18,000 sheets per hour in perfecting mode at drupa 2012.

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG website

Guillermo Srodek-Hart, Dina Mitrani Gallery, Miami

Photography: Guillermo Srodek-Hart:  Short Stories
Dina Mitrani Gallery, Miami FL
Through March 30, 2012

Short Stories by photographer Guillermo Srodek-Hart at Dina Mitrani Gallery in Miami includes images taken during the artist’s travels to remote rural towns outside of Buenos Aires. With his large format, 4x5 film camera, he captures cluttered old shops and bars that have been frozen in time.  His complex compositions deliver rich color images with densely overflowing content, giving the viewer's eye an innumerable amount of detailed information to  observe.Accompanying the photographs in the show are texts that glimpse further into the lives of those people that the artist encounters in these isolated towns.

Guillermo Srodek-Hart
Bar Fradejas, 2007
Archival pigment print, 30 x 38 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Dina Mitrani Gallery, Miami

“My photographs are filled with traces of human presence: objects, furniture, stuff hanging from the walls, accumulations on display. They speak to me of the invisible, that which can't be seen but is there, stories to be imagined, and, ultimately, the acknowledgement of our own transience in this world." – Guillermo Strodek-Hart

GUILLERMO SRODEK-HART (1977) studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University, Boston, and received his MFA from Mass College of Art. He was awarded the Klemm Prize in 2005 and the Petrobrás Award 2006, both in Argentina. In 2008, he was among the 30 artists chosen to be part of the book Contemporary Argentine Art, Artista X Artista. His work is included in the North Dakota Museum of Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts in Japan. Guillermo Srodek-Hart's website: www.srodekhart.com

Dina Mitrani Gallery
Wynwood Art District
Miami, Florida 33127 USA
www.dinamitranigallery.com

Yvonne Roeb, Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf, Frankfurt – New Works Exhibit

Yvonne Roeb, New Works
Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf, Frankfurt 

Throught April 14, 2012

Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf presents recent works by Yvonne Roeb created last year during her residency in New York which was supported by the Stiftung Kunstfonds. The sculptor assimilates collective images from everyday life, cultural history, mysticism, religion and dream in a surreal way. She deals with first questions and last things and often makes references to the history of art. In her works one will always meet persecuted, transformed, morphological beings or bodies trying to merge together but who at the same time are stuck in an inner struggle or even exert subtle aggression.

The artwork "Acephalous" (headless) consists of two parrots grown together at the most important part of their body like Siamese twins. Both of them are missing the head which is known to be the centre of wisdom, the control of actions and the origin of the mind. This fact makes the adnate animals immobile in most instances. The parrot imitates the human language similar to an echo. Since the parrot never understands the meaning of sounds he makes, he symbolises the vanity of the human beings.

For the sculpture "FEMALE" the artist has searched the models of ancient Greece for idealised images of man and by merging two faces, she mates man and woman into one being. In "Helix" a snake and a braid are combined to a symbolic circle in a graceful dance-like movement. This image reminds also of the cycle of eat and be eaten. In the assemblage "Next I noticed it was spring" the fingertips of a human hand are extending into space as tentacles of a marine animal. In its dynamic the extremities remind of the feminine and twinkle-toed legs of the can-can dancers. The birds of the sculpture "13" are presented as an accumulation lying on skin-coloured leather. Seen as a kill and reminding us of exuberant meals the birds on the one hand stand for opulence and luxury. On the other hand one might think the birds are sleeping - they have kept their tenderness and vulnerability.

In her artwork "Retable" Yvonne Roeb analyses the connection between art and liturgy and questions the function and the usage of images. After the 11th century retable has become one of the most essential scenes for Christian art. Its rearward panels contain varnished and vivid image creations of Occidental history. Yvonne Roeb leaves her Retable entirely without any images. Only the usability and the form allow conclusions regarding the history. The consensus of the essential has to be elaborated by the viewer. The panel looks like it has been made centuries ago, but obviously it was never finished or the images have vanished with years passing by. The plates become projection screens for the imagination of the viewer. But at the same time they emphasize their claim for autonomy.

YVONNE ROEB was born 1976 in Frankfurt/Main, she now lives and works in Berlin. She has studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Münster under Timm Ulrichs and was master student under Katharina Fritsch. The artist’s previous solo exhibitions were also at the Wilma Tolksdorf’s gallery.

Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf 

Hanauer Landstrasse 136, 60314 Frankfurt
www.wilmatolksdorf.de

On Horizons, Photo Museum Winterthur - Set 8 from the Collection of the Fotomuseum Winterthur

On Horizons - Set 8 from the Collection of the Fotomuseum Winterthur
Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland
Curator: Thomas Seelig
Through May 20, 2012 

The photographic gaze into the horizon is a mirror for internal and external states and produces artistic interpretations and commentaries. As in other artistic genres, landscape in photography is interpreted through political and private gazes and the results go far beyond purely aesthetic experiences. Assembled from the collection of the Fotomuseum Winterthur, this exhibition shows how photographers since the mid-1960s have approached their imagery from a range of analytical and emotional standpoints.  

 

 Garry Winogrand
Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1958
Silbergelatine-Abzug, 21,5 x 32 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur
© Estate of Garry Winogrand / Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1958. This amazing photograph by Garry Winogrand is part of the exhibition organized by the Swiss museum dedicaced to the photography in Winterthur, near Zurich.

Also on view, 1970s B&W and color photographs by renowed photographers Luigi Ghirri, Shomei Tomatsu, Guido Guidi and Robert Häusser.

Luigi Ghirri
Salisburgo (Salzburg), 1977
C-Print, 23,8 x 35,5 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur
© Estate of Luigi Ghirri

This photograph by Luigi Ghirri is from “Diaframma 11, 1/125 luce naturale” Aperture 11, 1/125 second shutter speed with natural day light. The exhibition also features Luigi Ghirri’s pictures from “Kodakrome” (1973).

Shomei Tomatsu
Japan World Exposition, Osaka, 1970
C-Print, 20,5 x 29,7 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur
Acquired with funds from Canon (Schweiz) AG
© Shomei Tomatsu

Guido Guidi
Fosso Ghiaia, 1972
Silbergelatine-Abzug, 17,3 x 17,3 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur, Schenkung Thomas Koerfer
© Guido Guidi

Robert Häusser
Relative Orientierungen, Relative orientations, 1972
Gelatin-silver print, 41 x 57 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur, Gift of Robert Häusser
© Robert Häusser / FIP / Reiss-Engelhorn-Museum

Exploring unknown locations provides the creative impulse for works by three Swiss photographers Balthasar Burkhard, Reto Camenisch, and Jan Jedlicka, who express their visions in monumental individual images or in series of small-scale works.

Balthasar Burkhard
Chlönthal, 2002
Triptych Gelatin-silver prints, 244 x 306 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur, Gift of Volkart Foundation
© Estate of Balthasar Burkhard

Lewis Baltz is a participant of the famous exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, which in 1975 first addressed the man-created interface between civilization and nature.

Lewis Baltz
Aus: Continuous Fire Polar Circle, 1986
Gelatin-silver print, 20,2 x 25,4 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur, Dauerleihgabe Lewis Baltz
© Lewis Baltz

 

Time for looking and contemplation is the central element of Himmel [Heaven], an eighty-one image slide show by weather phenomenologist Andreas Züst. Accordingly, it shares a close bond with the hi-gloss digital video Highlights II by Dominik Hodel as well as the publication LA AIR by Bruce Nauman, which presents sunsets over Los Angeles juxtaposed with minimalist color studies.

Andreas Züst
From: Sky, 1990-2000
Slide show in 81 parts
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur
© Estate of Andreas Züst

 Dominik Hodel
Headlights II, 2010
Full-HD Videoloop 2.45 min.
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur
© Dominik Hodel

When Christian Schwager photographs almost innocent-looking meadows and forests in Bosnia some ten years after the civil war, the unhealed wounds, the hidden signs of violence, disturb us. Pictures of landscapes are never neutral, the exacting gaze of the photographs anchor them in a particular zeitgeist and open up additional levels of meaning.

When Robert Frank seeks visual answers to elementary questions of life in the sparse surroundings of his house in Nova Scotia (Canada), circling about his direct environment again and again, landscape becomes a projection screen for yearnings and remembrances.

 Robert Frank
For Andrea 1954-1974, Mabou, 1975
Gelatin-silver print, 49,6 x 39,8 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur, Gift of George Reinhart
© Robert Frank

Also on view a triptych by the landscape photographer Axel Hütte. His last book, Towards the Woods, was published in september 2010 by Schirmer/Mosel (in english).

 Axel Hütte
Furka, Schweiz, 1995
2 C-Prints, each 205 x 162 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur
© Axel Hütte

 

With works by the following artists : Caroline Bachmann / Stefan Banz, Lewis Baltz, Balthasar Burkhard, Reto Camenisch, Gintaras Didziapetris, Dick Duyves, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Peter Fischli/David Weiss, Thomas Flechtner, Robert Frank, Dunja Evers, Luigi Ghirri, John Gossage, Guido Guidi, Robert Häusser, Dominik Hodel, Roni Horn, Axel Hütte, Jan Jedlicka, Claudio Moser, Bruce Nauman, Igor Savchenko, Christian Schwager, Yoshiko Seino, Shomei Tomatsu, Garry Winogrand, and Andreas Züst.

The exhibition is organized by THOMAS SEELIG, curator of the collection at Fotomuseum Winterthur.

Accompanying the exhibition is, as part of the series of publications on the collection of the Photography Museum Winterthur, a collection brochure with works of the exhibition: On Horizons – Set 8 from the Collection of the Fotomuseum Winterthur, THOMAS SEELIG (ed.), Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, 2011, 32 pages, numerous color and b/w illustrations, softbound, 24,6 x 20 cm, German / English. With an essay by CHRISTOPH RIBBAT, and texts to the artists. On the cover of the brochure is a detail of the photogaph by Luigi Ghirri taken in Salzburg in 1977.

Alpi – a Film by Armin Linke
Film screening on September 28, 2011 with an introduction by Armin Linke, in conjunction with the exhibition On Horizons. The film Alpi is the result of seven years of research into how the landscapes of the Alps—spanning the borders of eight nations and four languages—are perceived and used. In the film the Alps are portrayed as an island that is subjected to numerous global transformations. The complexity of social, economic, and political relationships within the context of landscape are easily visualized by this centralized and fragile region. The screening has been concluded by a public discussion with Thomas Seelig and Armin Linke. ARMIN LINKE (b. 1966) is an artist who works with photography and film. He lives in Milan and Berlin.

Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland / Suisse
Photography Museum - Musée de la photographie
CH-8400 Winterthur (Zurich)
www.fotomuseum.ch

Adel Abdessemed: Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf at David Zwirner, New York

Adel Abdessemed: Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf 
David Zwirner, New York
February 17 - March 17, 2012

ADEL ABDESSEMED

Décor, 2011-2012 (detail). Razor wire.

Four elements, each: 86 x 70 x 24 inches (218.4 x 177.8 x 61 cm)

David Zwirner presents an exhibition of new works by ADEL ABDESSEMED. Spanning both of the gallery's 525 and 533 West 19th Street spaces, Who's afraid of the big bad wolf is Abdessemed's second solo exhibition since he joined the gallery in 2008.

Across a wide range of media, Adel Abdessemed transforms well-known materials and imagery into charged artistic declarations. The artist pulls freely from myriad sources–personal, historical, social, and political–to create a visual language that is simultaneously rich and economical, sensitive and controversial, radical and mundane.

The exhibition brings together recent works that revolve around the themes of war, violence, and spectatorship. The 525 gallery space presents works grouped by Adel Abdessemed as primarily concerned with the dichotomy between meaning and matter: they include Décor, which presents four life-size sculptures of the crucified Jesus made entirely from razor wire. Modeled after German Renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald's Crucifixion (a part of his Isenheim Altarpiece from 1506-1515), the contorted, twisted figures hang against an otherwise naked wall without the structure of the cross itself. Creating a formal juxtaposition between the hazardous qualities of the razor wire and its abstract appearance, Décor enhances the connotations of physical suffering implicit in the subject matter, while the repetitive appearance of the sculptures creates a distinctively decorative effect.

Occupying the floor in front of Décor is a group of over thirty larger-than-life-sized microphones made from hand-blown glass. Perhaps an allegory for the ideal of transparent communication and open dialogue, the title of the work, L'avenir est aux fantômes (The future belongs to ghosts), is a reference to the late French philosopher Jacques Derrida, whose characterization of a variety of phenomena as "ghosts" was highlighted in Ken McMullen's film Ghost Dance, 1983, featuring Jacques Derrida himself. Also on view nearby is La Grande Parade, a large installation of Abdessemed's drawings of porcupines, weasels, tortoises, and other reptiles. Executed in the artist's loose style, the animals have sticks of dynamite strapped to them as if presenting an allusion to modernday kamikazes.

In the 533 gallery space, which brings together works Adel Abdessemed has characterized as primarily concerned with substantive themes of hope, death, memory, and compulsion, viewers first encounter Hope, an installation of a boat found abandoned on a beach in the Florida Keys. Used illegally to transport immigrants in pursuit of a new life to the United States, often compromising their safety in the process, the boat is presented as it was discovered, but has been filled to the brim with black bags cast in polyurethane resin from actual, stuffed garbage sacks. While a crude and provocative analogy between the trash and the boat’s former passengers appears explicit, Hope presents an art historical reference to Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich's apocalyptic painting from 1823-1824, The Wreck of the Hope, featuring a capsized vessel in a sea of icebergs.

Also on view in the 533 gallery space: Who's afraid of the big bad wolf, a wall installation of taxidermy animals, including wolves, which takes its title from the famous soundtrack to Disney's 1933 cartoon The Three Little Pigs as well as from Barnett Newman's version of the phrase for his series of paintings from the late 1960s, Adel Abdessemed's previous work with preserved animals, the installation juxtaposes the age-old practice of taxidermy, used for scientific as well as for decorative purposes, with a reference to meaningless slaughter and war–the animals in the installation have subsequently been burnt and are a monotonous black while the overall dimensions correspond to Pablo Picasso's Guernica, 1937, a now classic representation of the effects of war on civilians. Near the installation, Mémoire presents a video showing a baboon spelling out the words "Tutsi" and "Hutu" on a white wall, which refer to the names of the opposing ethnic groups involved in the 1994 Rwandan civil war and the ensuing devastating genocide.

Coup de tête depicts the moment French footballer Zinedine Zidane headbutted Italian Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final in Germany in a heated response to a verbal insult by the latter. While it presents a realistic rendition of the event, Abdessemed's slightly larger-thanlife, resin sculpture is not so much a commemoration of the incident itself as it is a testament to the emotions and underlying narratives which often accompany major sports events. By distilling the moment of Zidane's much scrutinized violent impulse, Adel Abdessemed's work draws attention to the verbal insults and provocations that often flourish in the sport without any visible manifestation, and further emphasizes the obsessive interest in drama that lies beyond the game itself. As such, it reverberates with the underlying theme of the exhibition, which is concerned with familiar manifestations of aggression and violence. Drawing on a multitude of seemingly converse and often visually spectacular references and symbols, Abdessemed highlights the interconnectedness of innate aspects of human behavior, while at the same time challenging passive modes of spectatorship.

ADEL ABDESSEMED: Short biography

Born in Constantine, Algeria, Adel Abdessemed attended the École des Beaux-Arts d'Alger, Algiers, and the École nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, France. He had his first American gallery exhibition, RIO, at David Zwirner in 2009.

A major survey of the artist's work is planned for October 2012 at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue. Abdessemed’s work was recently the subject of solo exhibitions at Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London, and the Ontario College of Art & Design, Toronto (both 2010). Other notable solo exhibitions include the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2009); MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Le MagasinCentre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, France (both 2008); and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York (2007).

The artist has participated in a number of significant group exhibitions, including the 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale; In Praise of Doubt, Punta della Dogana, Venice (both 2011); Aichi Triennale 2010, Nagoya, Japan (2010); Mapping the Studio: Artists from the François Pinault Collection, Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, Venice; 10th Lyon Biennale, France; 10th Istanbul Biennial; 10th Havana Biennial (all 2009); 7th Gwangju Biennial, Gwangju, South Korea (2008); and the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007).

His work is represented in prominent collections internationally, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Geneva; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; and the François Pinault Foundation, Venice. He lives and works in Paris.

A comprehensive monograph of Adel Abdessemed's work as been prepared by David Zwirner in collaboration with Pier Luigi Tazzi and Steidl.

DAVID ZWIRNER, NEW YORK
525 and 533 West 19th Street New York, NY
www.davidzwirner.com

Concours: Affiche du Festival des Films du Monde 2012

Concours d'affiches du Festival des Films du Monde 2012

Les affichistes, illustrateurs, graphistes, photographes sont invités à soumettre des modèles d'affiches pour le Festival des Films du Monde qui se déroulera à Montréal (Québec) du 23 août au 3 septembre 2012. 

Date limite pour participer au concours : 30 mars 2012 (pour information le communiqué de presse annonçant ce concours est daté du 31 janvier 2012)

Le concepteur de l'affiche retenue recevra 3000$ (trois mille dollars canadiens). L'affiche du Festival des Films du Monde est largement diffusée par les médias, aussi bien au Canada qu'à l'étranger.

Spécifications 

Les affiches doivent avoir les dimensions suivantes (format à marges perdues): 

Largeur : 27 pouces (68,5cm) / Hauteur : 36 pouces (91,5 cm) 

Pour la sélection, il est possible d'envoyer un format réduit en respectant les proportions. 

Les mentions suivantes devront obligatoirement figurer sur l'affiche (le style et les dimensions du lettrage sont laissés au choix du concepteur) : 

FESTIVAL DES FILMS DU MONDE 

MONTRÉAL 

23 août - 3 septembre 2012  

Le Festival a pour mandat de faire découvrir les tendances actuelles du cinéma mondial en favorisant les échanges culturels tout en suscitant la curiosité, l'étonnement, l'émotion, la réflexion. 

Attention : les éléments comme les drapeaux, les planètes et les références à une nationalité spécifique ne sont pas acceptés. 

Date limite : 30 mars 2012 

Un créateur peut envoyer plusieurs modèles d'affiches. 

Chaque envoi doit être clairement identifié (nom de l'auteur, adresse complète, téléphone). 

Les affiches peuvent être envoyées en format numérique à info[at]ffm-montreal.org 

ou bien à l'adresse suivante : 

Concours d'affiches 

FESTIVAL DES FILMS DU MONDE 

1432 rue de Bleury 

Montréal (Québec) H3A 2J1 

Site web : www.ffm-montreal.org

Planete Manga, Centre Pompidou, Beaubourg, Paris

Planète Manga !
Une approche de la Bande Dessinée au Japon, à Taiwan, en Corée, en Chine
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Jusqu'au 27 mai 2012

Avec Planète Manga ! le Centre Pompidou se met à l'heure du manga, du manhwa et du manhua avec le Studio 13-16 qui propose gratuitement aux adolescents de pénétrer ce territoire de la création en bande dessinée au Japon, en Corée du Sud et en Chine.

  © Centre Pompidou/ Visuel Pierre Vanni,
Direction de la communication et des partenariats,
conception graphique : Ch. Beneyton, Paris 2012

En présence de mangakas, les auteurs de mangas, de renommée internationale, et à travers  tous les registres du genre, les jeunes sont conviés à des rencontres, à des ateliers d’initiation,  à la conception de mangas, à des performances musicales et à des défilés de costumes manga…

Du manga japonais au manhwa coréen, en passant par le manhua taïwanais ou chinois, Planète Manga ! s’ouvre à toute la diversité de l’art du manga. Elle éclaire aussi l’univers des auteurs, invite à découvrir et à comprendre de manière ludique leur processus créatif,  les liens du manga avec la mode, la musique, les arts plastiques ou le cinéma.

Avec Hagio Moto, Takemiya  Keiko ou encore Fumiyo Kôno, pour les grands maîtres japonais du genre et une ouverture sur la jeune bande dessinée indépendante avec des éditeurs tels que Taiwan comix (Taïwan), Saï comics (Corée) et Special Comix (Chine)…

Dessin de Takemiya Keiko 
To Terra © Keiko Takemiya

Manhwa The spirit of the universe and the meaning of life
de Sobogi  © Edition Saï comics, Corée

Une quarantaine d’auteurs reconnus animent Planète Manga ! , grâce à des partenaires prestigieux tels que l’Université Joshibi Art et design de Tokyo et le Musée international du Manga de Kyôto associé à l’université Seika de Kyôto, le Centre Culturel Coréen de Paris, l’Université Paris Diderot et l’Institut Confucius, le Bureau de représentation de Taïpeï à Paris ainsi que tous les partenaires privés taïwanais qui ont permis la venue de tous ces auteurs pour vivre et partager cette aventure singulière.

CYCLE DE FILMS D'ANIMATION ASIATIQUES AU CENTRE POMPIDOU

C'est une centaine de réalisateurs, majoritairement japonais, dont le Centre Pompidou présente les oeuvres : un panorama inédit en France du cinéma d’animation asiatique, une toute première programmation d’ampleur consacrée au manga, avec des inédits et des séances présentées par les artistes.

 

Dororo, film de Gisaburô Sugii, Japon. Mangaka: Osamu Tezuka, Japon, 1968 © Tezuka Productions/Mushi Production, 1969-1970

 ASTRO BOY, extrait du film d’animation
Mangaka: Osamu Tezuka
© Tezuka Productions 1980 

Enfin, un salon de lecture gratuit et ouvert à tous s’ouvre pour quatre mois à la Bibliothèque Publique d’Information avec une mangathèque de plus de 2500 albums en libre consultation !

La culture manga est aussi à l’honneur au salon du livre.

Chef de projet : Boris Tissot
Conseiller pour le cinéma : Ilan Nguyên

CENTRE POMPIDOU, BEAUBOURG, PARIS
www.centrepompidou.fr

Mat Collishaw: Vitacide. Exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York

Mat Collishaw: Vitacide

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York

Through February 18, 2012

MAT COLLISHAW creates sculpture, installation and photo-based works that confront issues of moral ambiguity with formally stunning and alluring imagery, and often re-contextualize the impact of more disturbing or sinister subject matter. Mining the fertile ground between seduction and repulsion, reality and artifice, the works captivate the viewer with their compelling incorporation of beauty and horror in equal measure.

A Gothic style is reflected more in the subject matter than in te actual presentation, as the artist seeks to embody elements of this tradition in a contemporary context. Mat Collishaw's work often provokes an emotional reaction, simultaneously induced by fear and wonder. Upon further contemplation however, the viewer encounters ideas that underlie both the immediate beauty and the initial darkness - additional layers that provide a depth of understanding and elevate our emotional connection to the artwork.

Last Meal on Death Row, Texas, a photographic still life series in dramatic Baroque lighting, depicts the last meals requested by Texas inmates on death row. Based on 17th century Dutch still life paintings, or "nature morte" works, these humble photographs in simple wood frames elicit profound human connections. Sad vignettes presented with dignity, they present a cruel irony - meals offered as sustenance at the moment of extinction. Within each of these memorials for the incarcerated, we glimpse, without judgment, the man within the monster.

These thirteen photographs are arranged near The Corporeal Audit, a sculpture in negative relief depicting the deceased body of Christ. A horizontal rod of light placed behind the work, which is based on a Renaissance sculpture, vertically traverses and illuminates its shallow image to create a spectrally enlivening effect. The light, moving in a cold, mechanical manner like an MRI or CAT scan, provides an odd contrast to Christ's luminous being, which seems to drift between heaven and earth.

In addition to art historical references, Mat Collishaw's work also refers to literature - J.G. Ballard, Jean Genet, and J.K. Huysmans are among the influences at play here. In the main gallery, eight resin sculptures entitled The Venal Muses, pay tribute to Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal, 1857, a book of poetry focused on the themes of decadence and eroticism. The flowers appear to be genetically altered, the delicate petals infected with human scars and sores. Housed in antique-style vitrines, the collection resembles a cabinet of curiosities, the contents of which are both viscerally provocative and transcendent. These works display the dark side of humanity, presenting an interest in the corruption of nature without being critical of it. Like Huysmans' Against Nature, Mat Collishaw's flower artworks are reflections of the depraved state of self and society, exacerbated by our modern, media-saturated culture. As the venal nature of the mainstream media is engineered to entice with fear, the artist also incites our polar attractions to beauty and corruption.

The Gomoria video sculpture, which also employs flowers, incorporates six LED monitors housed in an 18th century Gothic church altarpiece. The piece evokes beautiful images in a theatrical setting, turning the gallery into a chapel - and with The Venal Muses, a nod to Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece. Images depicting the cycle of life and death offer symbolism within the abominations of nature. The ecclesiastic origins of the shrine and the apocalyptic interests of the Gothic style question the traditional idea that nature was created to be beautiful.

Lastly, Mat Collishaw's ongoing Insecticide series of crushed insects documents the metamorphosis of a 3-dimensional being into a 2-dimensional image, while reminding us of our own vulnerability. Although the artist uses digital photographic means, the works were inspired by Victorian magic lantern slides, which were designed to kindle and capture the imagination. Velvety bodies and delicate wings display a world of rich, lucid colors, evoking the opulent, detailed embroidery of Elizabethan portrait paintings. Dust of disintegration against rich, black backgrounds transforms the bodily powder into celestial scenes of great beauty and awe, as if offering a glimpse into the infinite nature of the universe. An image of death and destruction is preserved here as an elegant keepsake.

MAT COLLISHAW's work was recently exhibited in the 12th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey, curated by Adriano Pedrosa and Jens Hoffmann, 2011 (group), as well as Magic Lantern, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2010-11 (solo exhibition); Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, 2011 (group); Phantoms Shadows and Phenomena, Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio State University, Athens, Ohio, 2011 (group); La Forêt de mon rêve, Galerie d'Art du Conseil Général des Bouches-du-Rhône, Aix-en-Provence, France (2011) and Retrospectre, a special installation at the British Film Institute, Southbank, London (2010). His work can currently be seen in Memories of the future, at The Olbricht Collection, Paris.

TANYA BONAKDAR GALLERY, New York, NY 10011
www.tanyabonakdargallery.com

Expo Vidéo Vintage, Beaubourg, Centre Pompidou, Paris. L'art vidéo de 1963 à 1983

Exposition : Vidéo Vintage 1963-1983
Centre Pompidou, Beaubourg, Paris
Jusqu'au 7 mai 2012

Vidéo Vintage offre une sélection inédite de plus de soixante-dix bandes vidéo d’une cinquantaine d’artistes qui dessine une trajectoire de l’art vidéo de 1963 à 1983. Une exposition à voir au Centre Pompidou.

WGBH, Fred Barzyk, The New Wave, 1973,  

N&B et coul., son, 59”  

Collection du Centre Pompidou, Mnam / Cci

1963-1983, vingt années fondatrices ont vu défiler les recherches et les développements de ce « nouveau » médium comme instrument de l’expression artistique la plus contemporaine et comme outil critique. La vidéo a traversé tous les courants esthétiques de la modernité, de la performance à la mouvance fluxus, de l’art minimal à l’art conceptuel pour poursuivre son évolution dans le courant post-conceptuel et enfin servir les investigations actuelles.

La vidéo a été adoptée en tant que mode d'expression par différents artistes aux démarches esthétiquement très diverses,  expérimentant la bande vidéo analogique par l’auto-filmage ou, dans le contexte des laboratoires de télévision par les recherches plus approfondies sur les diverses possibilités de l’analogique.

Cette première exposition thématique de la collection nouveaux médias du Centre Pompidou rassemble les oeuvres de 52 artistes internationaux, de Vito Acconci, Sonia Andrade, Ant Farm, Samuel Beckett à Les Levine, Bruce Nauman ou Nam June Paik. Des oeuvres de Valie Export, Mona Hatoum, Gina Pane, Carole Roussopoulos et Nil Yalter sont également sélectionnées, mettant l’accent sur l’importance du travail réalisé par les artistes femmes avec ce médium. 

La scénographie, elle-même « vintage », donne la priorité au confort de visionnage : les vidéos de l’exposition sont installées dans seize environnements-salons meublés d’éléments de récupération. Ils structurent l’espace en différentes sections et accueillent les spectateurs pour un voyage dans le temps, celui de l’oeuvre visionnée.

ART VIDEO : LA PERFORMANCE DE L'AUTO-FILMAGE

Dès 1965, Nam June Paik acquiert une caméra vidéo Portapak Sony et se filme en gros plan. L’oeuvre Button Happening ouvre cette section. Des artistes ayant acquis ou emprunté ces premières caméras portables et légères, tels Sonia Andrade, Valie Export, Esther Ferrer, Sania Ivekovic, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Nil Yalter, s’autofilment dans leur studio utilisant les spécificités de ce matériel : retour direct de l’image et du son sur le moniteur de contrôle. 

ART VIDEO : LA RELATION A LA TELEVISION

Dans les années 1960 et 1970, les chaînes de télévision sont à la recherche de nouvelles réalisations, esthétiques, différentes de celles du cinéma. En France, le Service de la recherche de l’O.R.T.F, en relation avec l’Ecole des Beaux-arts de Paris, invite des réalisateurs et des artistes à utiliser les premiers équipements de tournage et de montage. Jean-Christophe Averty, Jean-Luc Godard, Thierry Kuntzel ont réalisé de nombreuses oeuvres dans ce contexte. Aux États-Unis, les télévisions mettent également en place des laboratoires auxquels participent  Nam June Paik ou encore Woody et Steina Wasulka. Quelques initiatives privées ont également lieu : en 1969 et 1970, le célèbre producteur allemand Gerry Schum passe commande à des artistes tels que Joseph Beuys, Daniel Buren, Lawrence Weiner…  pour une exposition télévisuelle.

ART VIDEO : LES RECHERCHES CONCEPTUELLES

La vidéo est un outil comme les autres pour aborder les divers courants de l’histoire de l’art et cette dernière section illustre les recherches conceptuelles dans ce domaine, réunissant des oeuvres d’artistes européens (Daniel Buren, Imi Knoebel, Thierry Kuntzel…), évidemment d’artistes américains (Martha Rosler, Denis Oppenheim) mais aussi brésiliens et coréens (Anna Bella Geiger et Theresa Hak Kyung Cha).

Les commissaires de l'exposition : Christine Van Assche, conservatrice au Musée national d’art moderne, chef du service Nouveaux Médias, associée à Florence Parot, attachée de conservation au MNAM, service Nouveaux Médias

Vidéo Vintage - Couverture du Catalogue de l'exposition

PUBLICATION : VIDEO VINTAGE 1963-1983 

Une sélection de vidéos fondatrices des collections nouveaux médias du Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou sous la direction de Christine Van Assche, Editions du Centre Pompidou 

 Ce qui m'intéresse au sujet de la vidéo, c'est la possibilité de l'utiliser comme une sorte de compagnon domestique, c'est le lieu du gros plan - Vito Acconci 

Ce catalogue de l'exposition apparaît comme un incontournable pour ceux et celles qui s'intéressent à l'art vidéo. A la fois riche en contenu et synthétique (80 pages), avec une centaine d'illustrations en couleur (et en N&B lorsque l'original l'est), il offre les repères essentiels (artistes, oeuvres, dates, contextes, analyses...) pour mieux comprendre le développement de l'art vidéo autour des grands axes qui sont ceux de l'exposition. 

MUSEE NATIONAL D'ART MODERNE 
CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU
BEAUBOURG, PARIS
WEB : www.centrepompidou.fr

2012 Armory Show Focus: Nordic Countries with 19 galleries from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland

Armory Show, NYC, March 8-11, 2012: The Third Edition of Armory Focus to features The Nordic Countries

The mission behind ARMORY FOCUS is to shed light on a dynamic arts community. After Berlin (2010) and Latin America (2011) the third edition of Armory Focus will turn its attention to The Nordic Countries. The invitation-only component of The Armory Show, Armory Focus: The Nordic Countries, will feature select galleries from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.

Armory Focus: The Nordic Countries will continue The Armory Show’s mission to provide an annual platform for an under recognized yet thriving arts communities at one of the most important gathering of artists, dealers and collectors in the world, The Armory Show. In recognition of the region’s increasing importance on the global art scene and its vital presence in New York City, Armory Focus: The Nordic Countries will offer a select group of galleries an opportunity to showcase their innovative and exciting exhibition programs in New York City.

Paul Morris, Founding Director of The Armory Show, notes that “The decision to focus on the Nordic Countries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, centered around a discussion about an important and thriving art community, yet one that is often under-represented as a region – and the Nordic region is just that. The extensive and overwhelming network of artists, curators, collectors, museums, and galleries attests to the Nordic’s international importance and we want Armory Focus to highlight the region’s contribution to the international art community."

This year, and for the first time, Armory Focus is curated by the esteemed Malmö Konsthall director, Jacob Fabricius. Fabricius will be integral in the selection of the galleries included in Armory Focus: The Nordic Countries in addition to tailoring the aesthetic look of the section. “Nordic or not, the artists and galleries that work in this region deserve our full attention and I am happy to be able to present them in New York and at The Armory Show as part of the focus on the Nordic Region."

Armory Focus: The Nordic Countries – The 19 featured Art Galleries from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland

Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
Martin Asbaek Gallery, Copenhagen
Beaver Projects, Copenhagen
Gallery Niklas Belenius, Stockholm
Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen
Crystal, Stockholm
D.O.R., Oslo
Dortmund Bodega, Oslo
ELASTIC, Malmö
Fruit & Flower Deli, Stockholm
i8, Reykjavik
IMO, Copenhagen
Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm
Christian Larsen, Stockholm
NOPlace, Oslo
Galleri Susanne Ottesen, Copenhagen
David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen
Galleri Christian Torp, Oslo
V1 Gallery, Copenhagen

The Armory Focus Curator: JACOB FABRICIUS
Jacob Fabricius has curated numerous exhibitions at the Malmö Konsthall since 2005 and was appointed director of this institution in 2008. As director, he initiated many innovative public exhibitions such as the hitchhiking exhibition Auto Stop and Polis Polis Potatismos. Before coming to the Malmö Konsthall, he worked as a freelance curator and associated curator at Centre d’Art Santa Monica, Barcelona. Fabricius has organized numerous exhibitions and public projects such as What is a guy from Leicester, a Swedish girl, a family father and a gay couple doing on a deserted island between Denmark and Sweden? (1997), Art Calls (1997), S-tog (1999), Rent-a-Bench (2002), Sandwiched (2003) and KBH Kunsthal (2005-06). Jacob Fabricius is also founder of the publishing company Pork Salad Press and the newspaper project Old News. He has published more than 50 books, records and CDs; most recently David Robbins’ Concrete Comedy. Jacob Fabricius lives in Copenhagen, DK and works in Malmö, SE.

2012 Armory Fair Show
March 8-11, 2012
Piers 92 & 94 - New York City - USA
Website: www.thearmoryshow.com

Alexander Gutke exhibition, Malmo Konsthall, Sweden

Alexander Gutke 

Malmö Konsthall, Sweden 

17 March - 10 June 2012

ALEXANDER GUTKE works within the conceptual and minimalist tradition. Cameras, film- and slide projectors are some of the main components in his art practice. Gutke uses them to explore space, light, shade, darkness and the infinity of the void. The swedish artist investigates these technical apparatuses as objects and mechanical devices, and uses them as tools and objects in his artworks and narrative – creating a visual illusionism and a poetic and mystical materialism. 

ALEXANDER GUTKE

Exploded View, 2005

Kodak Carousel slide projector, 81 slides, stand 

Courtesy of the artist and Malmö Konsthall

The cameras, 16mm film projectors and photographic devices that interests Gutke are somewhat out of date, but Gutke insists on the value of these 20th century wonders. He both examines and literally dissects these apparatuses and through the process he brings them back to life, to a new life. In 2005 Alexander Gutke produced the poetic work Exploded View, where the viewer visually travels through the inside of a Kodak Carousel slide projector slice by slice or slide by slide – over the course of 81 slides. This inner journey is shown on the same type of Kodak Carousel, whose interior is being explored. Even if the exhibition was sheduled before the Kodak Company news, the exhibition take a special meaning for the 1960s 1970s Kodak products lovers.

Another work that investigates a slide projector and what it does is Lighthouse (2006); here a rectangle of light is slowly rotated 360 degrees slide by slide. The lyricisms of light and the machines are important focal points in Gutke’s artworks. 

ALEXANDER GUTKE

Cine-scope, 2008

Animation HD Video 

Courtesy of the artist and Malmö Konsthall

In other works like the HD video projection Cine-scope (2008) Alexander Gutke investigates the film material itself and takes the viewer on a filmic trompe l'oeil voyage. Stripped from any image or narrative storyline this large-scale projection shows – through real and simulated animated dust, scratches and chafes – the materiality of film and the heart of celluloid; its wear, tears and flaws. 

ALEXANDER GUTKE

Measure, 2011

Laser engraved brass Moebius strip 

Courtesy of the artist and Malmö Konsthall 

Photo © Marcus Schneider, Berlin, 2011 

Alexander Gutke’s exhibition at Malmö Konsthall will present a selection of film, sculpture, photography and rubberstamp works dating back to 2000, side by side with new works created for this exhibition at Malmo Art museum. 

ALEXANDER GUTKE

Subtraktion nr 4, 2008

Ink stamp on paper,

Photo: Sigfrid Carlsson, Bohusläns museum 

Alexander Gutke, born 1971 in Gothenburg, lives and works in Malmö. He graduated from Malmö Art Academy in 2001. 

Malmö Konsthall 

S:t Johannesgatan 7 

SE-200 10 Malmö, Sweden 

www.konsthall.malmo.se 

Sophie Ernst: Home, YSP Exhibition, UK

Sophie Ernst: Home
Bothy Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK
17 March - 1 July 2012

SOPHIE ERNST: HOME in the Bothy Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park 

Photo © Jonty Wilde - Courtesy YSP

YSP presents the first solo exhibition in the UK by Sophie Ernst. HOME is a major ongoing project confronting political turmoil and displacement with individual memories of home and ideal places. Ernst interviews people forced to leave their homes due to political upheaval, such as during the Partition of South Asia in 1947, and builds an architectural model of the houses they describe. She then projects onto this sculpture video footage of the person's hands as they describe their memory of that building, transforming the inanimate object into a virtually inhabited space, and ascribing a profound intimacy.

YSP is committed to supporting and articulating sculpture practice as well as effecting change on an individual and social level. During the exhibition, Ernst will develop a new sculpture. For this project she will work in collaboration with Taha Mehmood, the YSP Learning Team and a group of young people from YSP’s Shared Horizon initiative which works with unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK.

SOPHIE ERNST, Home, 2012
Published by YSP

A book documenting HOME with essays by Iftikhar Dadi, Taha Mehmood, Helen Pheby and Sophie Ernst as well as commentaries on HOME by Nazmi Al-Jubeh, Yazid Anani, Kamila Shamsi and Salim Tamari was published by YSP.

ABOUT THE ARTIST SOPHIE ERNST

Born in 1972, Sophie Ernst first trained as a industrial mechanic with BMW before graduating from the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunst in Amsterdam in 2000. She won the Golden Cube award at the 26th Kassel Dokfest awarded for best installation. Sophie Ernst works between Asia and Europe and was Assistant Professor at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore (2003-2007). The exhibition is sponsored by The Mondriaan Foundation with support from the Dutch Embassy in London. The HOME project is made possible by the support of Green Cardamom, Sharjah Foundation and the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture. Sophie Ernst is represented by Green Cardamom Gallery, London and Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai. Sophie Ernst’s exhibitions include Presence of an Absence, (Ernst & Mehmood) at Museum de Lakenhal, Leiden; Emerging Discourse at Bodhi Art Gallery, New York; Re-Forming Landscape at the National Art Gallery, Islamabad; Best of Discovery at ShContemporary, Shanghai; The Punjab: Moving Journeys at the Royal Geographical Society, London; Sophie Ernst: Lovedolls at the Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke, Munich; Along the X-Axis - video art from India and Pakistan at Apeejay Media Gallery, New Delhi; Touching from a Distance at Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, Wakefield WF4 4LG
Yorkshire Sculpture Park's website: www.ysp.co.uk

Juergen Teller Photographs Exhibition at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York

Photo exhibition: Juergen Teller 

Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York 

10 February - 17 March 2012

Presented in three parts, this exhibition highlights three recent series, demonstrating Juergen Teller’s dynamic and diverse oeuvre. Featuring the controversial photographs of Kristen McMenamy and seductive portraits of Vivienne Westwood, juxtaposed with intimate portraits of his family and close friends, this exhibition displays an amalgam of subjects and personalities.


The exhibition starts with Juergen Teller’s controversial series of photographs featuring Kristen McMenamy, shot in the home of Carlos Mollino. Drawing inspiration from the eccentric architect, Teller recalls Mollino’s fascination with the erotic, capturing McMenamy in provocative poses. Although the series garnered controversy for its alleged “pornographic” nature, it demonstrates Teller’s skilled storytelling and fearless approach to his medium.

The exhibition continues with a selection of images from Keys to the House. Composed of recent photographs taken in and around his home in Suffolk, the series includes deserted landscape shots alongside intimate portraits of Teller’s family and closest friends. 

The third section of the exhibition features photographs from Men and Women, including portraits of Vivienne Westwood and photographer William Eggleston, as well as Teller’s son, Ed. As a whole, the series has been read as a representation of masculinity at two stages –coming of age and loss of virility – contrasted with a strong feminine power.

JUERGEN TELLER SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Born in Erlangen, Germany in 1964, Juergen Teller studied at the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für fotographie in Munich, Germany before moving to London in 1986. His work in influential international publications such as W Magazine, I-D and Purple nurtured his own photographic sensibility, which is marked by his refusal to separate the commercial fashion pictures and his most autobiographical un-commissioned work. Juergen Teller has been working with Marc Jacobs on his advertising campaigns for the past 14 years and in 2009, Steidl collated the work, publishing “Marc Jacobs Advertising 1998 – 2009.” Teller has also had long collaborations with other designers and fashion houses over the years including Helmut Lang, Yves Saint Laurent and Vivienne Westwood.

Juergen Teller has exhibited at The Photographers Gallery, London (1998); the Kunsthalle Wien (2004); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2004); the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris (2007); the Tate Modern, London (2008); Le Consortium, Dijon (2010); Daelim Museum, South Korea (2011); Man with Banana, at Dallas Contemporary, Texas (2011); Texte und Bilder, at Brukenthal Museum, Romania (2011). In 2003 Teller was awarded the Citibank Prize and in 2007 represented Ukraine as one of five artists in the 52nd Venice Biennale. Juergen Teller lives and works in London, England.

LEHMANN MAUPIN GALLERY, NEW YORK, NY 10002

At 201 Chrystie Street Gallery's space

www.lehmannmaupin.com

Thomas Scheibitz: A Panoramic VIEW of Basic Events at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York

Thomas Scheibitz: A Panoramic VIEW of Basic Events
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York
Through February 18, 2012

A Panoramic VIEW of Basic Events is an exhibition of new paintings, sculptures, drawing/collages, and prints by THOMAS SCHEIBITZ on view through February 18 at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery . For his seventh solo show with the gallery, Scheibitz continues to draw from classical painting and architecture, the contemporary urban landscape, and the influence of popular culture. Filtering these sources through his own lens, he creates evocative and powerful pieces that blur the line between abstraction and figuration.

In a palette of murky grays, smoky purples, and pale blues, paired with sharp primaries and vivid neons, the new paintings and sculptures in A Panoramic VIEW of Basic Events are full of recognizable componentsÑthe numeral "1," a backwards comma, a peering eye - interwoven with the artist's own invented geometric assemblages. Culled from his archive of ephemera, which includes newspaper clippings, snapshots, magazine ads, plates from art books and historical texts, as well as other cultural artifacts, Scheibitz's imagery is pared down to its barest formal properties, then recombined, layered, and expanded upon. For the first time, Thomas Scheibitz shows the viewer how he works with his cache of source material to build compositions: pairing seemingly incongruous found images in collages, he then adds drawings that riff on their formal properties, and hint at how all these components might be synthesized into a painting or sculpture. These "worksheets," and in fact the installation as a whole, serve as an investigation of composition across disparate media, as the artist shows us how each element of his practice relates to the others. Breaking down his formal vocabulary into its constituent parts, Scheibitz lets us into his creative cosmos, showing the viewer the connections within this new constellation of works.

Organizational systems, such as maps, graphs, and charts, have long been of interest to Thomas Scheibitz, and have served as the starting point for many of his most iconic pieces. In this new body of work, instead of using the map as a formal point of departure from which to create an abstract composition, Scheibitz creates a map of his own process -- an overview that demonstrates how each piece fits into a cohesive whole. While existing autonomously, each image can also be connected to the other works in the show. The collaged drawings are displayed on a table made by the artist that resembles both an independent sculpture and a pedestal, and each of these collages reference one of the sixteen small paintings installed on the walls of the main space. In some of the collages the finished painting even appears as an element, complicating the notion that the works on paper are studies for the paintings. Rather, each is its own related but independent final product.

Installed in the back room, and seemingly a composite of the smaller works in the front gallery, the main work in the exhibition, unfurls across the wall. In this piece, from which the show takes its title, Scheibitz explores how imagery can be recombined; compositional elements that might have existed autonomously as small paintings become details within a larger work. The endless reconfiguration of imagery is the basis of the series of prints installed in the gallery's entryway as well. Titled for A.G.C.T., the four nucleic base acids that make up human DNA, these pieces similarly represent the foundations of Scheibitz's practice. In lush color, the prints depict combinations of objects and images from Scheibitz's archive, precisely arranged in unexpected combinations and juxtapositions. These prints also refer to the concept of "Schlagbild" or pictorial slogans images that convey as much meaning as a headline, or a block of text. While each image is important, its arrangement is equally crucial; and in his careful composition of these pieces, Thomas Scheibitz references Aby Warburg, a 20th century professor who created a non-heirarchical approach to image classfication. Like Warburg, Scheibitz employs his own methods of visual organization to create works that are at once readable and enigmatic.

Based in Berlin, THOMAS SCHEIBITZ has upcoming solo exhibitions at MMK, Museum für Modern Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany and at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus Ohio. Notable recent exhibitions include Thomas Scheibitz: Lineage ONE / Stilleben & Statistics, Jarla Partilager, Berlin, 2011-2012 (solo); Thomas Scheibitz: Il flume e le sue fonti/ The River and its Source, Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy, 2011 (solo); Surveyor: An exhibition of human exploration, observation, and construction of the landscape, organized by Curator Heather Pesanti, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, 2011 (group); If Not in This Period Of Time - Contemporary German Painting 1998-2010, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil, 2010-2011 (group); A moving plan B - chapter ONE, Selected by Thomas Scheibitz, The Drawing Room, London, 2010 (group); Der ungefegte Raum, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Austria, 2010 (solo); among others.

TANYA BONAKDAR GALLERY, New York, NY 10011
www.tanyabonakdargallery.com

Katherine Stanek, Julia Levitina, Lance Balderson at Noyes Museum of Art, Oceanville, Atlantic County, NJ

Katherine Stanek and Julia Levitina:  Of Myths, Metal and Mortar, through April 22 – Lance Balderson: Abstractions, through May 13, 2012 - Noyes Museum of Art, Oceanville, Atlantic County, NJ

Katherine Stanek and Julia Levitina present representational works with a unique freshness. Levitina sculpts figures and animals in terracotta and bronze, with fine craftsmanship and sensitivity. Stanek’s work utilizes an innovative use of materials, a combination of cements, aggregates and pigments. In her unique process she uses destruction as a vehicle for creation. Both artists establish a deep connection to their work as it goes through all the foundry processes. Stanek and Levitina each sculpt, cast and finish their own work, ensuring a very personal quality to each sculpture. Together they have exhibited across the globe from Turkey to the Ukraine, and Paris.

KATHERINE STANEK
After graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Katherine Stanek exhibited several bronze works with integrated concrete bases. It was then that she began to truly look at concrete as medium for her sculptures, spending years developing techniques to manipulate her medium. This innovative approach allowed for her to create pieces which represented her view of what is beautiful and destructive. Stanek has exhibited in galleries and sculpture gardens throughout the northeastern United States and has been recognized in “Sculpture Review,” the magazine of The National Sculpture Society. She was also the recipient of the 2010 George and Helen Segal Foundation Grant, and recently traveled to Turkey to share her work and technique. Now a sought after cement casting instructor, she resides in New Jersey and is represented by the Rosenfeld Gallery in Philadelphia.

JULIA LEVITINA
Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Levitina currently lives and works in Philadelphia, where she creates representational sculptural works.  An exquisite sculptor, Julia Levitina works quickly to capture her impression in clay and later casting in terra cotta and bronze.  Her development of every piece makes them appear alive regardless of the medium in which they have been cast, making it immediately evident why they have been praised as, “uplifting the human spirit.” She has exhibited internationally in numerous galleries such as the Eugeen Van Mieghem Museum in Antwerp, Belgium, the City Hall of Odessa in Ukraine, and the Atelier Poussin in Paris as well as the University of the Arts located in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Levitina has also been recognized with several awards for her work, including the Leona Karp Braverman Award, and the Gloria Medal for meritorious body of work from the National Sculpture Society. 

LANCE BALDERSON
Painter and teacher Lance Balderson is  graduate of Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), School of Architecture. The artist presents moods of nature interpreted through abstraction. Strong geometric and rhythmic compositions are infused in  Balderson’s  layered paintings. His work is represented in many galleries in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. One of his artwork is part of the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

 LANCE BALDERSON painting’s detail © Lance Balderson

 

Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton College
Oceanville, Atlantic County, New Jersey 08231 - USA
Museum's website:  www.noyesmuseum.org