Brian Rochefort @ Van Doren Waxter, New York

Brian Rochefort: 2030
Van Doren Waxter, New York
Through February 16, 2019

BRIAN ROCHEFORT

Tulipe, 2018

Ceramic, Glaze, Glass Fragments 

18 x 17 x 13 inches (45.7 x 43.2 x 33 cm)

© Brian Rochefort, Courtesy Van Doren Waxter, New York

Van Doren Waxter presents an exhibition by Los Angeles based artist BRIAN ROCHEFORT, on view at 23 East 73rd Street. Titled 2030, this is the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery and features recent ceramic sculptures as well as a new group of wall-based works. Brian Rochefort’s arresting and highly activated glazed stoneware and glass works suggest forms or phenomena in the natural world; his new efforts highlight his technical experiments in color and texture revealing his progression towards a larger scale. Brian Rochefort’s works have been included in recent museum survey exhibitions such as From Funk to Punk: Left Coast Ceramics at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY and Regarding George Ohr at Boca Raton Museum of Art, FL, where his work was shown alongside pioneering artists working in ceramics such as Ron Nagle, Ken Price, and Kathy Butterly – artists whom Brian Rochefort names as prominent influences in his own practice.

Brian Rochefort’s deep interest in nature and the environment continues to stimulate his evolving practice, inspiring him to play and further experiment with ceramic, glaze, and glass. The title for the exhibition – 2030 – refers to the year that a United Nations panel has stated is the final year by which humans can effectively combat extreme climate change. In the past 16 months, the artist has traveled twice to the Amazon rainforest, as well as the outer reaches of Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, and Peru. These intense and fragile ecosystems encompass tropical rainforests, volcanic topography, and host myriads of natural creatures and aquatic life, which the artist carefully observes, studies, and takes photographs of.

In his new series of wall-based objects he experiments with sand-like texture and color gradients, which he mixes himself, evoking imprints made on washed over beach or riverbed.

The iridescence of tropical bird feathers, the crackling shells of rock formations, and the slippery surfaces of humid nature make their appearance in Rochefort’s series of ceramic ‘craters’ – vessel like formations covered in optically charged glazes and finishes, often with touches of molten glass which seem to be caught in mid-drip movement. Each work is built up of layers of mud and slip clay, which the artist repeatedly breaks and builds back meticulously over a period of time, and then fires, airbrushes, and glazes - over multiple firings, or as the artist enthuses, “as many glazes as possible until I can’t fire anymore.”  

Coral, measuring 18 x 16 x 12 inches, is a striking production of milky and opalescent pink, violet, and sky blue that evinces an intensely physical and tactile studio process and high skill in colorants and gradients. His remarkable fluency and delight in airbrushing was developed during a residency at the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts in Montana in the late 2000s when the artist was introduced to visiting technicians and colorists from DuPont. Likewise, Tulipe, with its oozing outer lip, is all over the result of the artist repeatedly “drying, cracking, and spraying” the mottled surface; in this case, the artist pushing the material not only in color to an otherwordly tropical green, but in scale—the work to date  is one of his largest creations.

BRIAN ROCHEFORT (b. 1985) was educated at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. In January 2019, he participates in The Mistake Room artist residency and project in Guadalajara, Mexico. Rochefort recently had a solo exhibition at Sorry We’re Closed in Brussels, Belgium. Recent group exhibitions include The Cabin, Los Angeles; Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles; and Retrospective Gallery, Hudson, NY.

VAN DOREN WAXTER
23 East 73rd Street  New York, NY 10021
www.vandorenwaxter.com

Amie Siegel @ Thomas Dane Gallery, London

Amie Siegel: Backstory
Thomas Dane Gallery, London
Through 16 February, 2019

Thomas Dane Gallery presents Amie Siegel's exhibition Backstory, comprised of an intimately connected constellation of video and works on paper that inquire after the social fashioning of value and how cultural memory evolves - itself becoming a product, artifact or experience. The artist's work often creates layered, atmospheric tableaux, querying the genesis of images and the latent relationships between cinematographic, acoustic and architectonic space. Originally commissioned for the second part of Amie Siegel's double solo exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart in 2016, Backstory is the inaugural presentation of this body of work in London.

Amie Siegel's series of framed works on paper, Body Scripts (2015) consists of pages from the English translation of Alberto Moravia's novel Il disprezzo (A Ghost at Noon), the basis for Jean-Luc Godard's film Le Mépris (Contempt) (1963). Selecting only the novel's pages focused on the female protagonist, the artist further highlights these passages by painting over the surrounding sentences with 'the average colour' of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The resultant geometry of the monochrome blocks recalls architectural floor plans, the pages forming 'scripts' for the gestures and movements in the exhibition's related work, The Noon Complex (2016).

For the multi-channel video installation The Noon Complex (2016) Amie Siegel reverses her approach, digitally removing the female protagonist played by Brigitte Bardot from key corresponding scenes in Godard's film. As a result, the space portrayed in the film - the Villa Malaparte on the Italian island of Capri - is underscored, lending the sequences of tracking shots, directed at a now absent actress, an uncanny quality. Doubling this feeling, Siegel poses a surrogate actress as Bardot on an adjacent screen, in a neutral environment, emphasizing her physical, yet ghostly, presence. The traced movements of the actress are experienced twice, against the film's two different soundtracks - French and Italian - the scenes thus oscillating from melancholy drama to burlesque.

Genealogies (2016) suggests the artist's associative thinking by combining novels, films, images, advertising and soundtrack recordings from multiple sources into a baroque invocation of image and artwork provenance, remake and copy. Extending from the choreography of Brigitte Bardot, infamously sunning her backside on the Villa Malaparte's roof terrace, Siegel's video traces an acute iconography of economies of architecture and the female body, suggesting how these are visualised in cinema, and harnessed by advertising and media. From Wilhem Jensen's novella Gradiva, to Freud, de Chirico, Rossellini, Curzio Malaparte, Moravia, Resnais, Robbe-Grillet, Godard, Pink Floyd and the Beastie Boys to images by brands Hugo Boss and Persol, Genealogies maps a broadly layered trajectory of ideas shared and reprised, speculating on homage, influence and originality and, ultimately, drawing together a genealogical lineage of adaptation, appropriation and recurrence stripped from hierarchical order.

Together the works in the exhibition bring into high relief the sculptural, soundtracked backstory of gendered cinematic forms. Noon is the time of day when objects lose their shadow, but also the cinematic notion of a final, decisive confrontation.

Amie Siegel: Backstory is presented in collaboration with Simon Preston Gallery, New York, as part of a series of exhibitions hosting galleries with shared overlaps and synergies, following kurimanzutto's recent Signals: If you like I shall Grow.

Born in Chicago in 1974, Amie Siegel lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her recent solo exhibitions include Winter, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; Strata, South London Gallery; Double Negative, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich; Imitation of Life, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin; Ricochet, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart; Provenance, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna. She has participated in group exhibitions including the 2018 Gwangju Biennial; Dhaka Art Summit, Berlinische Galerie; CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain de Bordeaux; Museum of Contemporary Art, Manila; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; MAXXI Museum, Rome; Kunst-Werke Berlin; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; CCA Wattis, San Francisco; Swiss Institute, New York; Vancouver Art Gallery and the Hayward Gallery, London.

Amie Siegel has been a fellow of the DAAD Berliner-Künstlerprogramm and the Guggenheim Foundation, a recipient of the ICA Boston's Foster Prize, Sundance Institute and Creative Capital Awards. Siegel's films have screened at the Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and New York Film Festivals.

Amie Siegel's work can be found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Tate, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Kunstmuseum Stuttgart; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others. Provenance (2013) is currently on display at Tate St. Ives, and the 2019 Sharjah Biennial will feature a new commission by the artist. 

THOMAS DANE GALLERY
3 Duke Street, St James's, SW1Y, London
www.thomasdanegallery.com

Ernst Billgren @ Galerie Forsblom, Stockholm

Ernst Billgren: 10 200
Galerie Forsblom, Stockholm
Through February 15, 2019

Ernst Billgren is one of Sweden's most appreciated and recognized artists. With a unique artistic approach, he has continuously reinvented himself throughout his career. Familiar motifs deriving from art history, such as landscapes and wild animals, recurs in his paintings. Mythological themes as well as humoristic and satirical elements are also present in his works. Ernst Billgren challenges the distinction between high and low, good and bad, through the means of art.

Exploring the importance of the ego and artistic expression, Ernst Billgren also created art as his alter ego Wilhem von Kröckert, questioning his own identity. What is art and where do the motifs stem from? What is Ernst Billgren’s signature trait? Where do our preferences, choices and taste originate from? What might be socially conditioned and what is due to genetics? Questions like these are examined in Ernst Billgren's practice. The exhibition at Galerie Forsblom shows a continuation of Ernst Billgren‘s previous body of works. It's not just Ernst Billgren nor von Kröckert, but rather the work of a single artist where elements of them both are present. The works are spontaneous, without the use of other reference images, aiming to disconnect from the outside world and to channel imagery from within. Ernst Billgren examines his possibilities as an artist and explores the pre-existing conditions. Like a director he exposes himself to situations and challenges the creative process.

A recurring motif in the works is a city landscape, seemingly deserted except for a few animals and characters. Is it a utopia or a dystopia, a premonition? Other themes are dream-like and otherworldly. The paintings are rich in detail, with distinctive brush strokes and a flow of light alluding to the dusk in a Turner painting. References to art history appear albeit unintentional – it is the art itself that is significant.

Ernst Billgren is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice extends to painting, sculpture, scenography and writing. Born in Stockholm in 1957, he has studied at Akademin Valand in Gothenburg and at Birkagården in Stockholm, Sweden. He has exhibited extensively in Sweden as well as internationally and his work is included in prominent public collections such as the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland and the National Museum of Art, Oslo, Norway.

GALERIE FORSBLOM STOCKHOLM
Karlavägen 9, 114 24 Stockholm
www.galerieforsblom.com

Matthew Porter @ Galerie Xippas, Genève

Matthew Porter: The Sheen, The Shine
Galerie Xippas, Genève
Jusqu'au 2 mars 2019

La Galerie Xippas présente pour la première fois en Suisse, une exposition du photographe new-yorkais Matthew Porter.

Les photographies de Matthew Porter sont souvent des compositions, présentant des références historiques et culturelles avec lesquelles il fait coexister des événements disparates, que ce soit à l’intérieur d’une seule image ou bien en la déployant d’une image à l’autre dans des série de photographies soigneusement éditées. Il évolue librement entre procédés numériques et argentiques, s’intéressant tant  à l’expérimentation en studio qu’à une photographie figurative, créant à la fois des récits fictionnels et des œuvres basées sur des processus précis.

Le titre de l’exposition « The Sheen, The Shine », littéralement : « l’éclat, la brillance », révèle à lui seul l’importance de la lumière dans les photographies de Matthew Porter. L’éclat : ce qui se reflète, réagit, et la brillance : ce qui illumine, sont les deux actions lumineuses exprimées dans les deux séries présentées dans l’exposition. Si la lumière permet à toute image d’exister en premier lieu, ici, Matthew Porter pousse ce principe à son paroxysme en usant de la lumière pour montrer le monde autrement. Elle est l’élément composite de toutes ses images, c’est elle qui donne le ton et qui va venir guider toutes ses expérimentations. Chez lui, tel un sculpteur, la lumière creuse, s’enfonce, jaillit, fait apparaître un relief, définit des espaces, des pleins et des vides, des volumes.

La première salle de l’exposition présente une série de photographies où figurent des compositions de matériaux à même le sol. Ces photographies ont été réalisées dans le studio de son père, un sculpteur qui a été marqué par les influences modernistes. Ces images ont pour objet le débris de fabrications de ses œuvres, des « restes » de matériaux inutilisés, qui reprennent vie derrière l’objectif. Ces constructions sont d’abord mises en scènes, puis composées par le medium photographique à l’aide d’expositions multiples. La lumière vient éblouir ces matériaux, son éclat réagissant différemment sur chaque matière : un miroir nous reflète un hors-champ quasi invisible, un métal blanchi nous éblouit, et ses ombres noires viennent créer des zones de vide absolu, une sorte de vertige dans l’image. L’action de la lumière qui se reflète à leur surface nous emmène dans une mutation des objets, vers un imaginaire nouveau, comme des villes utopiques ou des constructions du Bauhaus.

Ces constructions picturales rappellent aussi l’esthétique cubiste de Braque ou de Picasso, venant en quelque sorte créer une boucle temporelle. Matthew Porter met en lumière cette esthétique signant le début de la modernité en peinture, tout en le révélant avec le medium le plus moderne qui soit : la photographie. C’est ainsi qu’il confère un double hommage à l’histoire de l’art : celui de la sculpture, et celui de la peinture. C’est ce dialogue des techniques qui révèle une dialectique entre modernité et tradition, et qui délivre à tous les médiums artistiques un hommage esthétique évident.

La deuxième salle d’exposition présente une constellation d’une trentaine d’images de nature, de portraits ou de paysages. Elle se compose d’une série de photographies en couleur et en noir et blanc, représentant un lieu fictif centré sur la construction, l’abandon et la redécouverte d’une série de structures en forme de dôme. Ce lieu est une île tropicale sur laquelle plusieurs personnages discrets font des apparitions. On les voit accomplir des tâches, mais leur rôle et la chronologie de leur participation ne semblent jamais clairs. Leur objectif collectif semble ambitieux – la construction de structures liées à des dômes a une histoire étroitement liée à l’idéalisme utopique et à la résolution de problèmes futuristes. À la fois science-fiction, fantaisie et improvisation narrative, l’œuvre est un clin d’œil à la vision traditionnelle que l’orgueil post-colonial peut avoir sur les lieux tropicaux. Ces images, réalisées à partir de d’explorations stylisées de la lumière et de la couleur, nous emmènent vers un ailleurs. Ici, la lumière brille, illumine, parfois tellement que le sujet disparaît dans une sorte d’abstraction lumineuse et colorée. Dans un sens, ces photographies libèrent le spectateur d’un regard contraint par l’histoire de l’art pour entrer dans une dimension plus nostalgique. Ces images, entre références historiques et sensibilité moderne, nous forcent à penser au résultat de l’image et ce qu’elle représente au sens figuratif, plutôt qu’à penser à la photographie en tant qu’œuvre concrète. Seule une sorte de fil narratif tissé discrètement se fait ressentir. Matthew Porter cherche à nous raconter une histoire, ou mieux, nous invite à développer la notre à partir à partir de l’imagerie à laquelle il nous confronte, telles des histoires intimes faites de sensations et d’interprétations mêlées.

MATTHEW PORTER est né en 1975 à State College en Pennsylvanie aux Etats-Unis. Diplômé du Bard-ICP en 2006, il a depuis participé à de nombreuses expositions institutionnelles : «After Photoshop» au Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 2012), «Perspectives 2010» au Centre international de la photographie (New York, 2010). Récemment, il a pris part à des expositions collectives au George Eastman Museum de Rochester (New York, 2016), au Fotografiemuseum (Amsterdam, 2014). En France, son travail a été montré dans l’exposition « Autophoto » à la Fondation Cartier (Paris, 2017). Sa première monographie « Archipelago » a été publiée par Mack Books en 2015. Son travail fait partie de la collection permanente du Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, (New York). En 2016, Matthew Porter a été invité par la maison Christian Dior à concevoir le design pour une ligne de sacs et d’accessoires pour le projet Dior Lady Art. Matthew Porter est représenté par les galeries M+B à Los Angeles, Invisible Exports à New York et Xippas.

GALERIE XIPPAS, GENEVE
Rue des Sablons 6 et rue des Bains 61, 1205 Genève
www.xippas.com

Camp: Notes on Fashion @ The Met Fifth Avenue’s, New York

Camp: Notes on Fashion
The Met Fifth Avenue’s, New York
May 9 - September 8, 2019

VIRGIL ABLOH

Ensemble, Virgil Abloh (American, born 1980) 

for Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh (Italian, founded 2013), pre-fall 2018

Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2018

The Costume Institute’s spring 2019 exhibition will be Camp: Notes on Fashion, on view from May 9 through September 8, 2019 (preceded on May 6 by The Costume Institute Benefit).  Presented in The Met Fifth Avenue’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall, it will explore the origins of the camp aesthetic and how it has evolved from a place of marginality to become an important influence on mainstream culture. Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay Notes on ‘Camp’ provides the framework for the exhibition, which will examine how fashion designers have used their métier as a vehicle to engage with camp in a myriad of compelling, humorous, and sometimes incongruous ways.

FRANCO MOSCHINO

Shirt, Franco Moschino (Italian, 1950–1994) 

for House of Moschino (Italian, founded 1983), spring/summer 1991

Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2018

“Camp’s disruptive nature and subversion of modern aesthetic values has often been trivialized, but this exhibition will reveal its profound influence on both high art and popular culture,” said Max Hollein, Director of The Met. “By tracing its evolution and highlighting its defining elements, the show will embody the ironic sensibilities of this audacious style, challenge conventional understandings of beauty and taste, and establish the critical role this important genre has played in the history of art and fashion.”

In celebration of the opening, The Costume Institute Benefit, also known as The Met Gala, will take place on Monday, May 6, 2019.  The evening’s co-chairs will be Lady Gaga, Alessandro Michele, Harry Styles, Serena Williams, and Anna Wintour.  The event is The Costume Institute’s main source of annual funding for exhibitions, publications, acquisitions, and capital improvements.

“Fashion is the most overt and enduring conduit of the camp aesthetic,” said Andrew Bolton, Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute. “Effectively illustrating Sontag’s Notes on ‘Camp,’ the exhibition will advance creative and critical dialogue about the ongoing and ever-evolving impact of camp on fashion.”

ALESSANDRO MICHELE

Ensemble, Alessandro Michele (Italian, born 1972) 

for Gucci (Italian, founded 1921), fall/winter 2016–17

Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2018

THOM BROWNE

Ensembles, Thom Browne (American, born 1965), spring/summer 2017

Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2018

The exhibition will feature approximately 175 objects, including womenswear and menswear, as well as sculptures, paintings, and drawings dating from the 17th century to the present. The show’s opening section will position Versailles as a “camp Eden” and address the concept of se camper—“to posture boldly”—in the royal courts of Louis XIV and Louis XV.  It will then focus on the figure of the dandy as a “camp ideal” and trace camp’s origins to the queer subcultures of Europe and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  In her essay, Sontag defined camp as an aesthetic and outlined its primary characteristics. The largest section of the exhibition will be devoted to how these elements—which include irony, humor, parody, pastiche, artifice, theatricality, and exaggeration—are expressed in fashion.

JEAN-CHARLES DE CASTELBAJAC

Coat, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac (French, born Casablanca, Morocco, 1949)

fall/winter 1988–89 

Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2018

CHRISTIAN FRANCIS ROTH

"Rothola” dresses, Christian Francis Roth (American, born 1969), 1990

Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2018

Designers whose works will be featured in the exhibition include Gilbert Adrian, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Thom Browne, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, John Galliano (for Martin Margiela, House of Dior, and his own label), Jean Paul Gaultier, Rudi Gernreich, Guccio Gucci, Demna Gvasalia (for Balenciaga and his own label), Marc Jacobs (for Louis Vuitton and his own label), Charles James, Stephen Jones, Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld (for House of Chanel, Chloe, and his own label), Herbert and Beth Levine, Alessandro Michele (for Gucci), Franco Moschino, Thierry Mugler, Norman Norell, Marjan Pejoski, Paul Poiret, Miuccia Prada, Richard Quinn, Christian Francis Roth, Yves Saint Laurent, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jeremy Scott (for Moschino and his own label), Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren (for Viktor & Rolf), Anna Sui, Philip Treacy, Walter Van Beirendonck, Donatella Versace (for Versace), Gianni Versace, Vivienne Westwood, and Charles Frederick Worth.

FRANCO MOSCHINO

Dress, Franco Moschino (Italian, 1950–1994) 

for House of Moschino (Italian, founded 1983), fall/winter 1989

Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2018

MARC JACOBS

Ensembles, Marc Jacobs (American, born New York, 1964), spring/summer 2016

Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Photo © Johnny Dufort, 2018

The exhibition is organized by Andrew Bolton, Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, with Karen Van Godtsenhoven, Associate Curator. Theater scenographer Jan Versweyveld, whose work includes Lazarus with David Bowie as well as Broadway productions of A View from the Bridge and The Crucible, will create the exhibition design with The Met’s Design Department. Select mannequin headpieces will be created by Shay Ashual.  Raul Avila will produce the gala décor, which he has done since 2007.

A publication by Andrew Bolton with Fabio Cleto, Karen van Godtsenhoven, and Amanda Garfinkel will accompany the exhibition and include new photography by Johnny Dufort.  It will be published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press.

The exhibition is made possible by Gucci. Additional support is provided by Condé Nast.

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028
www.metmuseum.org

Raha Raissnia @ Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York - Galvanization

Raha Raissnia: Galvanization
Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York
Through February 24, 2019

Miguel Abreu Gallery presents Galvanization, RAHA RAISSNIA’s sixth solo exhibition at the gallery. The show is on view at its 88 Eldridge Street location.

Raha Raissnia presents new paintings and films, as well as a monumental multi-part work on paper, which expand on the body of work she initiated for her recent exhibition at the Drawing Center in New York. They take as their point of departure 35mm slides labeled “Sultanate Architecture” that she found in the visual resource archive discarded by Brooklyn College. The pictures depict the ruins of an abandoned 14th–century mosque.

As Amber Moyles writes in her essay for the Drawing Center show, Raha Raissnia’s works “counter the function of photography presumed at its invention: the representation of an unequivocal image, one that bears a closed meaning that the observer can easily read. In the famed 1839 presentation to the French Chamber of Deputies, the physicist François Arago argued that the state should acquire the patent for the daguerreotype, an early photographic process, because the medium could be useful for surveying foreign territories and thus serve as a tool for expanding the imperial colonies. The photographers Luigi Pesce and Antoin Sevruguin, among others, sent images of the ruins of Persepolis in southwestern Iran to ethnographical societies and museums, fixing an image of Iran in a state of deterioration in the European Orientalist imagination. The clarity of images by Pesce and Sevruguin served to communicate an incontrovertible narrative to viewers, one that perpetuated stereotypes of the Middle East as falsely in need of Western protection.” While Raissnia also employs images of an archaeological site, in contrast, by cropping, erasing, superimposing and distorting them, her work opens up and complicates the possible denotations of the original photographs.

Driven by a desire to break away from the conventional cinematic screen, Raha Raissnia’s looped 16mm films are projected through semi-transparent, hanging mobiles to create an architectural installation that both articulates the light as it moves through space and diffuses it through layers of screen and shadow. These cubic, lamp-like objects, placed at the center of the exhibition’s two main rooms, intercept the film projectors’ light beam and resemble hybrid sculptural objects, at once still and kinetic. The interplay of motion and stillness plays a central role in these seminal new works. The paintings and drawings, for their part, have a dense, filmic quality—they seem to press against their own stillness, challenge it—while Raha  Raissnia’s films superimpose static and moving imagery to the point of it becoming difficult to distinguish between the two.

The artist’s recent work is informed by her developing interest in the achievements of two photographers in particular: Henri Cartier-Bresson, and the lesser-known Abbas Attar. “From Cartier-Bresson,” Raha Raissnia notes, “I learned about paying more attention to the geometry of forms in my compositions … to the rhythm, structure and the recognition of a certain order.” Her attention has also turned to Pier Paolo Pasolini: “The transforming awareness that Pasolini has stirred in me, is his tendency, as he said, to see something sacred, mythical, and with an epic quality in everything, even in the most simple and banal objects and events.”

Raha Raissnia’s layered, archeological image does not sit comfortably with any potential definition of contemporary art. It escapes it, rather, by introducing memory formation as a primary force of seeing, feeling, and consciousness at large. As she states, “I am interested in the connectivity of everything, past and present.”

RAHA RAISSNIA (b. 1968, Tehran, Iran) received her BFA from the School of the Art institute of Chicago in 1992 and her MFA from Pratt Institute in 2002. In the interim, her interest in avant-garde filmmaking led her to work at Anthology Film Archives (1995–1999), where she has also exhibited. Raha Raissnia presented a solo exhibition in 2017-18 at the Drawing Center (New York). In 2016, her work was the subject of a solo presentation at the Museum of Modern Art (New York). In 2015, Raha Raissnia’s work was included in All the World’s Futures, the 56th Venice Biennial, curated by Okwui Enwezor. Previously, her work has been featured in exhibitions at White Columns (New York), Access Gallery (Vancouver), the Museum of Contemporary Art St. Louis, Khastoo Gallery (Los Angeles), Thomas Dane Gallery (London) and The Kitchen (New York), among others. Recent solo shows were held at Ab/Anbar Gallery (Tehran), Galeria Marta Cervera (Madrid), Galerie Xippas (Paris), and the Isfahan Museum of Contemporary Art (Iran). Raha Raissnia’s projection- performances, often undertaken in collaboration with musicians Aki Onda and Panagiotis Mavridis, have been featured at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), REDCAT (Los Angeles), Arnolfini – Center for Contemporary Arts (Bristol), The Drawing Center, Issue Project Room, and Emily Harvey Foundation (New York), among others. Her work is held in the permanent collections of MoCA Los Angeles, The Museum of Old and New Art (Tasmania, Australia), Colección Inelcom (Madrid), and the Pinault Collection, among others. She presents a film and audio performance with Panagiotis Mavridis as part of Deep Focus: Blackout at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam 2019.

MIGUEL ABREU GALLERY
88 Eldridge Street, New York, NY 10002
miguelabreugallery.com

Cory Arcangel @ Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg - Verticals

Cory Arcangel: Verticals
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg
27 January - 16 March 2019

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac presents Verticals, an exhibition of works by American artist Cory Arcangel with a focus on his new series of 14 Scanner Paintings. These new works are shown together with a number of drawings, a laser animation, two video sculptures referring to Nam June Paik's TV Buddha and a new minimalist sound installation. 

A pioneer of technology-based art, Cory Arcangel works in a wide variety of media, including music composition, video, modified video games, performance and the Internet. The ease with which he recognises how to use software, hardware and Internet resources as raw artistic material, placing them in new contexts, reveals a new kind of style. The ageing process of technologies is always a central question in his oeuvre.

The Scanner Paintings, a series conceived since 2010, are based on commercially available textiles, which are scanned, inscribed with the artist's signature and printed with UV ink on IKEA LINNMON table-tops. They show various types of leggings – sweatpants, track pants, Daisy Dukes and ripped denims. In each work, details such as waistband, pockets, zips and logos are combined, usually collage-like, on two boards hanging one above the other. Overlapping letters create word-plays and new meanings, or the logo is legible only by force of the branding typography. Independently of changing fashions, the sports labels are part of a contemporary pop culture and a collective memory to which the artist refers.

Cory Arcangel's almost abstract laser animation Dunk takes the form of a stylised basketball player from an NBA video game throwing a ball into the basket. The artist drew the animation by hand into a computer using a Wacom tablet. It is projected onto the wall using a Kvant Laser Clubmax 800. Cory Arcangel sees the Slam Dunk as a typically American phenomenon that illustrates America's current role in the world – requiring only brute height and strength, rather than ball-handling skills or finesse.

The Original and Season 6 are videos made in real-time with the aid of baby monitors. In the first of the two video sculptures, the digital video baby monitor is directed at a plastic mannequin's head wearing a structured man's hat from Ping Men's Tour and Oakley Men's OO9154 Half Jacket XL 2.0 golf sunglasses. The other baby monitor is directed at a Yeezy Season 6 crepe slide slipper on an acrylic display stand. The displays echo Nam June Paik's legendary TV Buddha (1974), in reverse: the object is being observed, and baby monitors are surveillance devices.

"I studied music, and discovered John Cage, Nam June Paik and Karlheinz Stockhausen. My works often refer to art history, particularly to Paik. A few years ago, I saw his closed-circuit video installation TV Buddha in the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. At the time, I'd already had the idea for an installation with two computers continuously sending each other mails with an automatic out-of-office message." (Cory Arcangel)

Sonic Attack consists of a speaker and a data visual system directed at the doorway, to register people entering the gallery, emitting the typical ping sound as though it came from their pocket, causing them to think they have received a message on their iPhone.

The exhibition also presents a series of seven works on paper. The abstract drawings were made by dripping triple-concentrate espresso onto the paper and tilted to produce modernist patterns.

Verticals is Cory Arcangel's sixth solo exhibition in the Salzburg and Paris galleries since the start of our collaboration in 2004. In addition, musical performances were initiated, such as in 2015 with the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Pantin, and in the Eglise Saint-Denys-du-Saint-Sacrement during the FIAC 2018.

  

Cory Arcangel was born in Buffalo (NY) in 1978. After living in New York for 15 years, he moved to Stavanger, Norway, in 2018, but he still has a studio in Brooklyn. His unique artistic approach is based on his training in classical guitar and his studies in music technology at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio in the late 1990s, which coincided with the beginning of the digital revolution and inspired him to become an artist, composer, programmer and entrepreneur. In 2014, he founded a software and merchandise company under the imprint Arcangel Surfware, stocking T-shirts, sweatpants, bed-sheets and iPhone cases – things needed for surfing the Internet. His first flagship store opened in Stavanger in September 2018. 

Cory Arcangel is the youngest artist since Bruce Nauman to hold a solo exhibition (2011) at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The exhibition Asymmetrical Response, in collaboration with Olia Lialina, toured in 2016/2017 through the art spaces Western Front, Vancouver, to The Kitchen, New York, and Art Projects, Ibiza. Solo exhibitions have been held in distinguished international museums and institutions, including the Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy (2015), Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland (2015), Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark (2014), Fondation DHC/ART Montreal, Canada (2013), Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA (2012), Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK (2011), Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany (2010) and Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA (2010).

GALERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC SALZBURG
Villa Kast, Mirabellplatz 2, 5020 Salzburg
www.ropac.net

Zhuo Qi @ Galerie Les filles du Calvaire, Paris : Y'a des jours comme ça

Zhuo Qi, Y'a des jours comme ça
Galerie Les filles du Calvaire, Paris
26 janvier - 23 février 2019

ZHUO QI

Je suis fatigué, 2012

Porcelaine (14,5 x 14 x 19,5 cm)

Courtesy Galerie Les filles du calvaire

Zhuo Qi (né en 1985) est originaire de Chine (Fuxin), et se rend régulièrement à Jingdezhen, une ville envahie par la céramique qui génère aussi des montagnes de débris dans lesquels il puise souvent sa matière première. Après les Beaux-arts du Mans, et la Haute Ecole d’Art et de Design de Genève, il approfondit ses recherches sur la céramique à l’Ecole nationale supérieure d’art de Limoges et conduit ses expériences dans les fours des manufactures.

Zhuo Qi nourrit son œuvre des incompréhensions linguistiques et sémantiques dont il est témoin, et parfois victime, en tension entre la culture chinoise et la culture occidentale : « Je n’ai pas d’autres choix que de composer avec ces malentendus, si courants. Ils sont l’opportunité d’élargir le langage, de jouer sur les sens et les signes. Je n’invente rien, je transforme et me saisis seulement de ce qui vit déjà dans l’imaginaire collectif ». Le rapport à la langue et au non-sens sont ainsi les éléments constitutifs de la démarche de Zhuo Qi, qui naviguant d’une langue à l’autre, donne forme aux malentendus.

ZHUO QI

Je suis fatigué, 2012

Grès (15,5 x 16 x 13cm)

Courtesy Galerie Les filles du calvaire.

Il combine les savoir-faire chinois et français pour développer une technique qui lui est propre : une utilisation radicale et performative de la porcelaine. Elle est à la fois le matériau et le sujet. Il transforme et malmène les formes traditionnelles du céramiste pour réaliser des sculptures déconcertantes, radicalement étrangères à la fonction usuelle des objets qu’il fabrique, collectionne ou restaure. L’esprit iconoclaste de l’artiste se moque de la « délicate porcelaine » en lui incorporant des objets improbables (ours en peluche, briques, etc.).

Avec l’ensemble « J’ai allumé un vase », il l’attaque à coup de pétard, mêlant deux pratiques emblématiques de la culture chinoise : la technique traditionnelle de la céramique et l’usage populaire des pétards célébrant le calendrier chinois.

ZHUO QI

J’ai allumé un vase, 2015

Vidéo (1’7’’)

Courtesy Galerie Les filles du calvaire

Présentée à la galerie, les chaises en porcelaine imitant le bambou illustrent ce principe du détournement. L’artiste est parti des chaises en bambou populaires de la région de Jingdezhen. Il se joue de la robustesse du matériau d’origine en créant des chaises « fatiguées » qui s’affaissent sous leur propre poids à la cuisson, se métamorphosent en « idée de la chaise » et ne représentent plus que le matériau bambou et sa portée universelle dans la culture chinoise : arbre, matériau de construction, aliment, support et instrument de l’écriture, motif de la peinture traditionnelle…

ZHUO QI

Dance of chairs, 2018

Porcelaine (50 x 53 x 40 cm)

Courtesy Galerie Les filles du calvaire

En 2018, dans le cadre d’une résidence au Centre céramique contemporaine La Borne, Zhuo Qi a instrumentalisé le vase, l’objet par excellence du travail de potier. L’artiste a imaginé le projet à partir d’un constat vécu : un vase peut « survivre » à sa chute lorsqu’il contient des fleurs. Il propose alors une série de vases renversés, déformés, d’où jaillissent contre terre (et toujours en céramique), fleurs, branches, tiges et pétales. Là encore, l’artiste vide de son sens le conventionnel bouquet de fleurs érigé sur la table et bouscule l’art de vivre.

ZHUO QI

Méditation, 2018

Porcelaine, grès.

En collaboration avec Georges Sybesma

dans le cadre de la résidence La Borne

Courtesy Galerie Les filles du calvaire

ZHUO QI

Méditation, 2018

Porcelaine, grès.

En collaboration avec Georges Sybesma

dans le cadre de la résidence La Borne

Il faut voir en Zhuo Qi, la posture d’un artiste iconoclaste des langages et des symboles mais se nourrissant de plusieurs héritages artistiques. « Y’a des jours comme ça » nous confronte à la vision d’une céramique imparfaite, image d’un « ratage » contemporain assumé.

GALERIE LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE
17, rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, 75003 Paris
www.fillesducalvaire.com

Julio Le Parc @ The Met Breuer, New York

Julio Le Parc 1959
The Met Breuer, New York
Through February 24, 2019

The Met Breuer presents the first solo exhibition in a New York museum of Argentinian artist JULIO LE PARC (born 1928). The show celebrates the artist’s extraordinary gift to The Met of 24 works and also marks the occasion of the artist’s 90th birthday. Featuring over 50 works, Julio Le Parc 1959 presents a substantial, never-before-seen selection of gouaches from one of the most prolific and transformative years in the artist’s career.

Born in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1928, Julio Le Parc studied under Lucio Fontana during the 1940s and engaged with abstract avant-garde movements in Buenos Aires. In 1958, Le Parc moved to Paris, where his encounter with Op artists such as Victor Vasarely had an important influence on his art. The series of gouaches Julio Le Parc started that year—intimate yet methodic studies of form and color—illuminates his interest in developing geometric abstraction by incorporating movement through variations, sequences, and progressions. This work anticipates his founding role in Kinetic art during the 1960s, when he made paintings and sculptures with movable parts by incorporating mirrors, motors, and electric light. Aiming to make art more accessible and politically relevant, Julio Le Parc also experimented with projected lights in darkened rooms, adding a sense of playfulness and encouraging viewer participation. To represent this achievement, the show also includes the kinetic painting Forms in Contortion over Thread (1966) and the immersive installation Continual Light Cylinder (1962/2018).

Julio Le Parc 1959 is curated by Iria Candela, Estrellita B. Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Met.

The exhibition is made possible by The Daniel and Estrellita Brodsky Foundation. Additional support is provided by Tony Bechara, the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA), and the Latin American Art Initiative of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Breuer
945 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10021
www.metmuseum.org

Omar Ba @ The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto

Omar Ba, Same Dream 
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto 
26 January - 12 May 2019

Omar Ba's work engages with some of the most urgent issues of our time: the growing inequality of wealth and power globally, questions around immigration, and our changing relationship with the natural world. His penchant for depicting personal narratives alongside collective ones speaks to the "in-between" condition of his work, as he splits his time between Dakar, Senegal and Geneva, Switzerland, and blends the visual texture of both places through his work. Omar Ba regularly draws from and intertwines a range of elements -the historical and contemporary, figurative and abstract imagery- from African and European cultures, as well as the techniques and tools he employs, including corrugated cardboard and canvas, paintbrushes and his hands. He prepares his surfaces-whether cardboard, canvas or wall-with a black ground, upon which he layers a vivid palette dominated by primary colours. The paintings teem with details as micro-worlds exist within larger constellations, oscillating between bold planes of colour and intricate outlines. Largely symbolic, the figures and forms portrayed refer not to specific individuals, but rather are open to universal narratives.

Same Dream brings together several of Omar Ba's paintings depicting dictators and authority figures, who lead corrupt and violent régimes across the African continent and in other parts of the world, particularly where thé legacies of colonialism persist. At times represented as hybrid beasts-part human, part animal -these despotic warlords are typically enveloped in an abundance of lush flora and fauna. Indeed, nature becomes a continuous force across Omar Ba's oeuvre. The recurring biomorphic shapes are often inspired by Senegal's dazzling coastal environment in which Omar Ba grew up. In conversation with this group of paintings, the exhibition also presents works that reveal Omar Ba's affinity for portraying the strength of the human spirit-depictions of youth who, regardless of where they are, share some of the same dreams for the future. For the exhibition at The Power Plant, Omar Ba has developed a new large-scale work directly on one of the gallery walls, exploring a recurrent motif of birth, death and reincarnation across different cultures today.

The world of Omar Ba's painting is a hybrid one, ultimately evoking a shared cosmogony between humans, plants and animals.

Same Dream is Omar Ba's first institutional solo exhibition in North America.

Curator: Nabila Abdel Nabi, Associate Curator

The Power Plant 
Contemporary Art Gallery
231 Queens Quay West, Toronto, Ontario M5J2G8
www.thepowerplant.org

Emma Kunz @ Serpentine Gallery, London

Emma Kunz
Serpentine Gallery, London
23 March - 19 May 2019

Emma Kunz

Work No. 003

Photo: © Emma Kunz Zentrum

Emma Kunz

Work No. 004

Photo: © Emma Kunz Zentrum

The first UK solo exhibition by the late Swiss healer, researcher and artist EMMA KUNZ (Brittnau, 1892 - 1963, Waldstatt) is conceived with artist Christodoulos Panayiotou.

Emma Kunz never received a formal arts education, yet from 1938 she produced hundreds of geometric drawings which were first exhibited in the early 1970s.

Her work was inspired by spiritualism and constructed using radiesthesia - a technique using pendulum to plan the structure of her drawings, each of which were completed in a single session.

Emma Kunz

Work No. 011

Photo: © Emma Kunz Zentrum

Emma Kunz

Work No. 013

Photo: © Emma Kunz Zentrum

Emma Kunz

Work No. 307

Photo: © Emma Kunz Zentrum

Emma Kunz

Work No. 513

Photo: © Emma Kunz Zentrum

Emma Kunz considered these drawings as images of energy fields from which she would formulate diagnoses for her patients or answers to questions she posed to her pendulum. Engaging with these varied phenomena, Emma Kunz's work explores philosophical and scientific themes that are not only rooted to her own times but also to the future; she predicted that her drawings were destined for the 21st Century.

Serpentine Gallery
Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA
www.serpentinegalleries.org

Emma Kunz Zentrum
Steinbruchstrasse 5, CH-5436 Würenlos
www.emma-kunz.com

Olympus OM-D E-M1X - Présentation

Olympus OM-D E-M1X

Olympus OM-D E-M1X

Photo (c) Olympus

Olympus présente aujourd'hui son nouveau boîtier OM-D E-M1X. Conçu pour répondre aux besoins des utilisateurs professionnels en termes de fiabilité, vitesse, précision et qualité d’image, l’E-M1X reste plus que jamais fidèle à la promesse Olympus de proposer le système photographique le plus compact et le plus léger de sa catégorie. Ce nouveau boîtier de la gamme professionnelle OM-D affirme le potentiel du format Micro Four Thirds et, doté des toutes dernières technologies en terme d’image, intègre dans un boîtier robuste un grip vertical développé pour une fiabilité et une opérabilité maximales dans toutes les conditions d’utilisation. Équipé du meilleur système de stabilisation (IS) au monde1, d’un système autofocus (AF) redéveloppé et encore plus rapide, et aussi de deux processeurs d’images TruePic VIII délivrant une réactivité haute vitesse et un mode High Res Shot à main levée, ce monstre de puissance offre une ergonomie irréprochable et un choix impressionnant de performances et de portabilité. Combiné à la gamme d’optiques hautes résolutions Olympus M.Zuiko, il atteint une très haute qualité d’image et montre l’ampleur de son potentiel tout spécialement dans les domaines où la portabilité, la vitesse et la fiabilité sont absolument essentielles – tels que la photographie animalière, les documentaires ou encore la photographie sportive.

Deux ans après avoir marqué les esprits sur le marché des appareils photo professionnels avec l’OM-D E-M1 Mark II, de nouveaux objectifs M.Zuiko PRO et le lancement du service Olympus PRO, le nouvel E-M1X vient enrichir l’offre Olympus à destination des utilisateurs professionnels.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X

Photo (c) Olympus

Avec sa poignée verticale intégrée, sa robustesse inégalée (résistance à la poussière, aux éclaboussures et au froid)2 et ses nombreuses nouvelles fonctionnalités exigées par les photographes professionnels, l’E-M1X offre un contrôle, une ergonomie et une stabilité sans précédent tout en offrant des résultats professionnels dans toutes les conditions météorologiques. Grâce à un nouveau capteur gyroscopique, Olympus porte son système de stabilisation 5 Axes vers de nouveaux sommets en permettant un gain jusqu’à 7,5 vitesses d’obturation (1). Le système AF de l’OM-D a été complètement repensé pour offrir plus de collimateurs et un nouveau système intelligent de détection des sujets pour un suivi automatique. Les capacités de prises de vues à haute vitesse ont été améliorées et un mode de prise de vue anti-scintillement a été ajouté. D’autres améliorations incluent notamment un mode High Res Shot à main levée, un filtre ND live, un menu personnalisable, des fonctions USB Power Delivery et deux slots SD UHS II. Allié aux optiques hautes qualités M.Zuiko, au nouveau flash sans fil et au logiciel de gestion d’image « Olympus Workspace », l’E-M1X est l’outil idéal pour capturer des résultats professionnels et les exploiter.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X

Photo (c) Olympus

Avec sa poignée verticale intégrée, l’E-M1X offre cet élément essentiel que de nombreux professionnels recherchent pour sécuriser leur prise en main et accroître la fiabilité. De conception identique, que l’on tienne l’appareil à l’horizontale ou à la verticale, l’utilisateur peut réaliser exactement les mêmes mouvements intuitifs pour shooter en mode portrait ou en paysage.

La disposition, la forme et la hauteur de tous les boutons et leviers ont été complètement redessinés pour offrir des contrôles qui laissent l’utilisateur se concentrer sur sa visée à travers le viseur. Viseur qui au passage bénéficie d’une nouvelle conception optique pour atteindre le meilleur grossissement du marché : 0,83x (équivalent 35mm). Le joystick/sélecteur est intégré en positon verticale comme horizontale pour permettre aux utilisateurs de modifier rapidement leurs collimateurs. En plus du levier de verrouillage standard, un nouveau levier C-lock permet de verrouiller les contrôles dans la position verticale et de ne verrouiller que quelques réglages seulement.

Grâce au système de tropicalisation OM-D, qui a encore été amélioré dans l’E-M1X pour en faire le meilleur au monde, l’appareil photo a passé avec succès les tests de résistances propres à Olympus (2) (encore plus rigoureux que le standard IPX1) pour permettre aux utilisateurs de capturer des images dans les conditions météorologiques les plus extrêmes. Les performances de résistance à la poussière, aux éclaboussures et au froid (2) sont maintenues même lorsque vous connectez à l’appareil photo un câble de télécommande, un microphone ou des écouteurs.

Le système anti-poussière embarque désormais un filtre à ultrasons amélioré (Super Sonic Wave Filter). Il est recouvert d’un revêtement spécial et vibre 30.000 fois par seconde pour diviser encore par 10 le risque de voir ses images polluées par des grains de poussières ou de saleté. D’autres caractéristiques améliorent encore la résistance et la fiabilité de l’appareil : une conception qui permet de dissiper la chaleur lors de l’enregistrement vidéo et des modes rafales, ainsi qu’un obturateur à longue durée de vie jusqu’à 400.000 déclenchements.

Grâce à un système d’insertion en cartouche pour deux batteries BLH-1 dans l’E-M1X (également compatibles avec l’E-M1 Mark II), les utilisateurs peuvent capturer jusqu’à 2580 images avant de devoir recharger. Doté du mode USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) autorisant les sources de charge jusqu’à 100 W, les deux batteries dans le boîtier peuvent être complètement chargées en deux heures environ.

Le système AF de l’OM-D a été complètement repensé pour l’E-M1X. Basé sur l’AF intégré au capteur de l’OM-D E-M1 Mark II et ses 121 collimateurs en croix à détection de phase, l’algorithme d’autofocus a été revu et amélioré de façon spectaculaire. L’E-M1X utilise en outre l’information AF des images enregistrées pour permettre le suivi rapide de sujets aux mouvements imprévisibles, tout comme les changements de vitesse des sujets.

Plusieurs paramètres AF supplémentaires sont disponibles sur l’OM-D E-M1X, y compris les différents modes cibles AF (avec la possibilité désormais d’avoir des groupes de 25 collimateurs) et une position zone AF personnalisée lorsque l’on tient l’appareil verticalement ou horizontalement. Les collimateurs peuvent être très rapidement modifiés grâce au nouveau sélecteur (joystick).

Une nouvelle fonctionnalité de détection intelligente du sujet permet au système AF de détecter automatiquement des sujets spécifiques (sports mécaniques, avions, trains), de faire la mise au point et de les suivre dans leur zone optimale, afin que les utilisateurs puissent se concentrer pleinement sur la composition.

Avec une limite de faible intensité de l’AF jusqu'à -6 EV4, l’E-M1X facilite grandement les prises de vues en basse lumière.

La vitesse et la qualité d’image du nouvel E-M1X sont délivrées par le capteur Live MOS de 20,4 Mégapixels équipé d’un nouveau revêtement lui permettant d’atteindre une sensibilité améliorée et par les deux processeurs d’images haute vitesse TruePicVIII qui améliorent fondamentalement les facteurs de performance de l’appareil comme le temps de démarrage et le retour du mode "veille". La conception à double processeurs ne permet pas seulement d’avoir un appareil plus rapide, elle permet aussi de garantir la vitesse des 2 slots SD UHS-II et propulse les tous derniers modes de prise de vue comme le High Res Shot à main levée, le filtre Live ND et la détection AF intelligente des sujets.

Avec l’E-M1X, les ingénieurs Olympus ont encore franchi un nouveau cap en matière de stabilisation d’image. En inaugurant un capteur gyroscopique redéveloppé, le boîtier atteint le meilleur niveau de stabilisation au monde. En combinaison avec un objectif M.Zuiko IS PRO, la stabilisation 5 axes atteint un niveau de compensation jusqu’à 7,5 vitesses d’obturation (1), à ce niveau nul besoin d’un trépied, au contraire vous pouvez shooter à main levée dans de nombreuses conditions.

Avec le verrouillage AF, l’E-M1X dispose d’un mode rafale jusqu’à 60 images par seconde pour capturer ces moments que l’oeil humain ne peut pas voir. Lorsque le suivi AF/AE est activé, la rafale atteint un maximum de 18 images par seconde.

Le mode Pro Capture du boîtier enregistre jusqu'à 35 images rétroactivement à partir du moment où le déclencheur est activé. Cette fonctionnalité qui a déjà reçu de nombreux éloges au lancement de l’OM-D E-M1 Mark II est idéale pour la photographie d’action qui nécessite de capturer les clichés des sujets qui se déplacent de façon imprévisible.

En plus des images haute résolution de 80 MP qui peuvent être capturées dans le mode High Res Shot en configuration posée, une variante à main levée est désormais disponible sur l’OM-D E-M1X. Conçu pour les photographes qui ne veulent pas être limités par l’utilisation d’un trépied, cette fonction génère une seule capture haute résolution équivalente à un cliché pris par un capteur de 50 MP et cela sans aucun flou de bougé.

Une nouvelle fonctionnalité Live ND permet de générer des effets de vitesse d’obturation lente comme lorsqu’on utilise un filtre ND. La scène peut être visualisée en direct dans le viseur puis l’effet édité avant même de prendre la photo. Les effets peuvent être définis sur cinq niveaux : ND2 (équivalent à une vitesse d’obturation), ND4 (2 vitesses), ND8 (3 vitesses), ND16 (4 vitesses) et ND32 (5 vitesses).

En plus des photos de qualité professionnelle, le nouvel E-M1X est un maître en création vidéo. Il dispose de tous les éléments indispensables dont les vidéastes ont besoin pour capturer les moments instantanément.

Avec le format vidéo Cinéma 4K (C4K, 4096 x 2160), les vidéastes ont non seulement la plus haute résolution vidéo à date, mais également plus de souplesse lorsqu’ils passent en postproduction.

La puissante stabilisation 5 axes couplée à la stabilisation électronique permettent des enregistrements riches de détails à main levée en 4K et C4K et cela avec 3 niveaux sélectionnables de compensation de mouvement selon la posture et les mouvements du photographe. Pour contrer les changements de conditions lumineuses pendant un documentaire ou en photo de nature, l’E-M1X prend en charge l’enregistrement LOG. OM-Log400 génère des films sans perte de détails dans les ombres ou les hautes lumières et procure une plus grande liberté de création vidéo en jouant sur les corrections colorimétriques. Par ailleurs, les vidéos à haute fréquence 120 fps sont maintenant prises en charge en Full HD, permettant ainsi de réaliser des vidéos avec des effets de ralenti.

L’OM-D E-M1X embarque un GPS intégré, une sonde de température, un manomètre et une boussole communément appelés « capteurs de champ ». En plus des informations de localisation tels que la longitude et la latitude, ces capteurs détectent et enregistrent la température, l’altitude et la direction de l’appareil photo pour ajouter aux images des informations détaillées sur les conditions de prise de vue.

Doté d’un mode anti-scintillement, l’appareil détecte la fréquence du scintillement des sources de lumière artificielle et enclenche l’obturateur lorsque la luminosité est maximale pour réduire le risque d’obtenir entre chaque prise des clichés d’exposition et couleur inégales. Le scan de scintillement supprime les artefacts qui peuvent se produire lorsque vous utilisez le mode silencieux (obturateur électronique) et lorsque vous filmez, afin que les utilisateurs puissent librement ajuster la vitesse d’obturation.

Un nouveau mode Wi-Fi capture permet les prises de vue connectées sans aucun câble en transférant directement les images vers un ordinateur équipé du logiciel «Olympus Capture».

L’OM-D E-M1X est compatible avec la gamme professionnelle des optiques Micro Four Thirds et des accessoires Olympus, y compris les sacs photo, les flashs électroniques et leurs accessoires.

L’OM-D E-M1X sera disponible dès la fin Février seulement en boîtier nu au prix conseillé de 2999 euros (3). Les acquéreurs de cet appareil peuvent bénéficier du service Olympus PRO dont les avantages sont présentés sur www.olympus.eu/proservice.

__________ Notes__________

(1) Compensation d’environ 7,5 EV en combinaison avec le M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-100mm F4.0 IS PRO à une distance focale de 100mm (équivalent 35mm : 200 mm) et stabilisateur d’image à mi-course désactivé, conforme à la norme CIPA, lorsque corrigé sur 2 axes (lacet et tangage). A date du 24 janvier 2019.

(2) Résistance à la poussière, aux éclaboussures et au froid (-10° C) selon les standards de tests Olympus. Conforme à la norme IPX1 basée sur la publication 60529 du standard IEC.

(3) Prix de vente conseillé

Tatsuo Miyajima @ Lisson Gallery, New York - Innumerable Life / Buddha

Tatsuo Miyajima: Innumerable Life / Buddha
Lisson Gallery, New York
Through February 16, 2019

Tatsuo Miyajima presents his first solo exhibition in New York with Lisson Gallery, premiering his new series, Innumerable Life/Buddha. The exhibition features four works by the Japanese artist, introducing US audiences to his eastern philosophies and signature digital visual vocabulary. This new body of work, a series of glowing red installations, are inspired by a particular Buddhist teaching, reminding us of the power of the individual within a networked whole. A continuation of Tatsuo Miyajima’s meditations on time and its passage, these installations invite reflection, addressing the fundamental concepts of change, death, connection and eternity. The exhibition follows on from recent large-scale public commissions, including Count Down Dialogue (2018) launched during West Bund Art & Design Fair and comes ahead of Tatsuo Miyajima’s largest solo exhibition in Asia to date, opening at the new Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum in May 2019.

Numbers are at the heart of Tatsuo Miyajima’s practice. An international language, digits transcend cultures: “Whether applied to mathematics and physics, or language and daily activity, they play a central role in our lives and are understood by all” (Tatsuo Miyajima, 2015). Miyajima’s numbers have danced on walls, in water, on the façades of buildings, in forests and in ponds, on skyscrapers, in gardens and courtyards, and on the faces and bodies of men and women. To Tatsuo Miyajima, technology is an instrument, and perhaps even an organism, that allows the expression of poetry and spirituality through light and movement.

The four new works in the Innumerable Life/Buddha series are made up of glowing LED displays, with thousands of numbers counting down from nine to one at differing speeds, before going dark momentarily. These digits embody the human cycle and the eastern philosophy of change and renewal; each solitary, blinking diode signifying the individual body and soul. The counting sequence continues, as if everlasting, and yet ‘0’, implying death, is expressed solely by darkness. Through this allusion, the numbers – or ‘Life’ – are destined to an everlasting cycle of regeneration. This idea is also reflected in the colour of the new works: the radiant red of the installations denotes the blood of life, love, fire, passion, strength and joy.

This new series is inspired by a legend told in the Lotus Sutra, one of the most important texts in Mahayana Buddhism, recalling the teachings of Gautama Siddhartha, the spiritual teacher who founded Buddhism. Siddhartha was preaching to a number of his disciples and, when asked who would be the chosen ones to propagate these philosophies after his death, he indicated towards thousands of Buddhas arising from a cleft in the earth. He prophesised that these people – the ‘Bodhisattvas of the Earth’ – were the enlightened ones, the ‘Buddhas’ who would continue his teachings in the future. By not selecting an elite follower, or one of his Ten Great Disciples, he rendered Buddhism a divine power for all – regardless of name, power or status.

Tatsuo Miyajima’s philosophy, as told through these works, is that the future is not created by the genius of the individual, but by the collective body. Every tiny diode is small and seemingly insignificant, yet together creates the glittering web of the universe. For Tatsuo Miyajima, each life – no matter how brief – has meaning in the mass.

TATSUO MIYAJIMA is one of Japan’s foremost sculptors and installation artists. Employing contemporary materials such as electric circuits, video, and computers, Tatsuo Miyajima’s supremely technological works have centred on his use of digital lightemitting diode (LED) counters, or ‘gadgets’ as he calls them, since the late 1980s. These numbers, flashing in continual and repetitious – though not necessarily sequential – cycles from nine to one, represent the journey from life to death, the finality of which is symbolized by ‘0’ or the zero point, which appears in his work as black-outs. This theory derives partially from humanist ideas, the teachings of Buddhism, as well as from his core artistic concepts: ‘Keep changing, Connect with Everything, and Continue Forever’. Tatsuo Miyajima’s LED numerals have been presented in grids, towers, complex integrated groupings or circuits and as simple digital counters, but are all aligned with his interests in continuity, connection and eternity, as well as with the flow and span of time and space. "Time connects everything", says Tatsuo Miyajima. "I want people to think about the universe and the human spirit."

Tatsuo Miyajima was born in 1957 and lives and works in Japan. He finished undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1986, after which he began experimenting with performance art before moving on to light-based installations. In addition to participating in numerous international biennales and important group shows, he has held solo exhibitions at William Morris Gallery, London, UK (2018); Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, China (2017); SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo, Japan (2017); MCA, Sydney, Australia (2016); The Met Breuer, New York, NY, USA (2016); Capsule Gallery, Tokyo (2014); Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland (2012); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2011); Miyanomori Art Museum, Hokkaido, Japan (2010); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, USA (1997); Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris France (1996); and Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX, USA (1996). He has participated in the Venice Biennale (1988, 1999) and in numerous group exhibitions, including 'Kumamoto Admirable', Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto, Japan (2016); 'Order and Reorder: Curate Your Own Exhibition', National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto (MOMAK), Japan (2016); 'Eppur Si Muove', Mudam Luxembourg (2015); 'Boolean Expressions' at the Lewis Gluckman Gallery, Ireland (2015); 'Logical Emotion, Contemporary Art from Japan', Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland (2014); 'Asia Code ZERO', Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2013); 'Marking Time', Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia (2012); and 'Dome', Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan (2008). In 2006, Tatsuo Miyajima was selected to serve as Vice President of Tohoku University of Art and Design. His work is featured in numerous public collections including Tate, London, UK; La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan

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