Like the work of other artists who worked in Los Angeles during the '70s (Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Allen Ruppersberg or William Wegman), the work of William Leavitt, although conceptual, is full of irony and detachment. In this aspect it is rather removed from the conceptual New York and European art of those years. The influence of cinema and its industry could explain, at least partially, the importance of the narrative element present in the work of many of these Californian artists.
In the re-evaluation (almost complete for some time now) of transatlantic conceptual art, Leavitt, despite having been included in the major exhibitions on the subject, is unfairly underrated. In hi ... more
If you are in Rome, take a look at this exhibition at Nomas Foundation. A lot of friends are involved, for the occasion Caterina Nelli will present her artist photobook, published by NERO.
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La Danse Macabre investigates the debate on the transcendent through the works of Carola Bonfili, Roberto De Paolis, Gabriele De Santis, Stanislao Di Giugno, Emiliano Maggi, Caterina Nelli, Nicola Pecoraro. The exhibition project, curated by John Cabot University art students, was initiated within the course ‘Issues and Trends in Contemporary Art’ lead by Professor Ilaria Gianni at John Cabot University, Rome, which confronted the students with the art scene of the city. The show is curated by Alexander Anderson, Poppy Cotterell, Valeria D’Ambrosio, Lucrezia Gaetani Cembran, Angels Miralda-Tena, Olga Serhijchuk, Ellen Von Wiegand.
A different way to see sports. The New York Times asked Ryan McGinley to shoot some pictures during the last Olympic Winter Games. Although it may seem obvious, it took the eye of someone like McGinley to show the beauty of a bunch of human beings who spend their lives trying do something a millisecond faster than their opponents. Too claustrophobic to be real. So thanks Ryan for those different, ethereal views. (vm)
The exhibition SUPERNATURE: An Exercise in Loads is based on the encounter with the first gym in Athens to specialize in competitive bodybuilding. Owned by the highly esteemed pioneer of Greek bodybuilding S. Bournazos, the gym constitutes a unique hybrid of formal qualities. Its function of zestfully hosting the hyper-activity of competitive bodybuilding future is matched by an “archival” quality which throws light on traces of this very activity in the 80s and the 90s. Read more »
February 25 – April 8, 2010
Bernier/Eliades Gallery - Athens
Through his practice, Justin Lieberman attempts to impose a quasi sociological order on the bedlam of a distinctively American subsistence by turning a flux of capitalist odds and ends- magazine clippings, found photos, counterfeit dollars, lottery tickets, small sketches, public signage, etc- into a subjective material history of late-modern life. It is tempting to regard this process as a systematic desublimation (in the Freudian sense) of various social, cultural, and economic orders, one which privileges a critical stance in regards to these things over a poetic one. Indeed, Lieberman often authors texts which would seem to support this view. However, if we examine these texts themselves as part and parcel of the artist’s practice, a different picture emerges. His pieces are frequently humorous and sometimes disturbing. However, there are works that reflect a sedate Lieberman, an artist more concerned with formal questions than with shocking or unsettling the viewer. Read more »
