LINEUP FOR VENICE 2005
The two Spanish curators of the 51st Venice Biennale, June 12-Nov. 6, 2005 -- María de Corral and Rosa Martínez -- rolled into New York this week to unveil the lineup for the celebrated international art exhibition. De Corral's "The Experience of Art" -- designed as a "center for experimentation" that focuses on "the emotion of art" -- features 42 artists in the 34 galleries of the Italian Pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale (three artist's works are to be sited outside the building). Martínez' "Always a Little Further," installed in the Corderie and Artiglierie spaces, presents works by 49 artists, "united by their research into the nature of the contemporary."
"The Experience of Art" includes artworks by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Vasco Araújo, Francis Bacon, Miroslaw Balka, Andrea Blum, Monica Bonvicini, Candice Breitz, Tania Bruguera, Chen Chieh-jen, Josè Damasceno, Tacita Dean, Willie Doherty, Stan Douglas, Marlene Dumas, Leandro Erlich, Bernard Frize, Dan Graham, Philip Guston, Jenny Holzer, Donald Judd, William Kentridge, Barbara Kruger, Maider López, João Louro, Jorge Macchi, Agnes Martin, Cildo Meireles, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Juan Muñoz, Bruce Nauman, Gabriel Orozco, Perejaume, Robin Rhode, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Schütte, Antoni Tàpies, Juan Uslé, Francesco Vezzoli, Mark Wallinger, Matthias Weischer, Rachel Whiteread, Jun Yang.
"Always a Little Further" includes works by Pilar Albarracín, Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Ghada Amer, Micol Assael, Samuel Beckett, Laura Belém, Semiha Berksoy, Blue Noses, John Bock, Louise Bourgeois, Leigh Bowery, Christoph Büchel & Gianni Motti, Donna Conlon, Stephen Dean, Jimmie Durham, Olafur Eliasson, Bruna Esposito, Regina José Galindo, Carlos Garaicoa, Cristina García Rodero, Gupta Subodh, Mona Hatoum, Diango Hernandez, María Teresa Hincapié de Zuluaga, Runa Islam, Emily Jacir, Guerrilla Girls, Kimsooja, Rem Koolhaas, Oleg Kulik, MoAA, Mariko Mori, Nikos Navridis, Rivane Neuenschwander, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Olaf Nicolai, Adrian Paci, Bülent Şangar, Gregor Schneider, Berni Searle, Santiago Sierra, Shazia Sikander, Valeska Soares, Kidlat Tahimik, Pascale Marthine Tayou, The Centre of Attention, Paloma Varga Weisz, Joana Vasconcelos, Sergio Vega.
As for the national pavilions, a total of 73 countries are participating -- more than ever before -- in 31 pavilions in the Giardini and 42 spaces elsewhere in the city. Among the first-timers are Afghanistan, Albania, Morocco, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Some of the artists on the list (and the countries they represent) are Ricky Swallow (Australia), Hans Schabus (Austria), Rebecca Belmore (Canada), Annette Messager (France), Thomas Scheibitz, Tino Sehgal (Germany), George Hadjimichalis (Greece), Guy Ben Ner (Israel), Carolina Raquel Antich, Manfredi Beninati, Loris Cecchini, Lara Favaretto (Italy), Miyako Ishiuchi (Japan), Jonas Mekas (Lithuania), Jeroen de Rijke and Willem de Rooij (Netherlands), Artur Zmijewski (Poland), Helena Almeida (Portugal), Valery Ayzenberg, Anton Litvin, Bogdan Mamonov, Liza Morozova, Galina Myznikova and Sergey Provorov (Russia), Antoni Muntadas (Spain), Gianni Motti, Shahryar Nashat, Marco Poloni, Ingrid Wildi, Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland), Montien Boonma, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (Thailand), Hussein Chalayan (Turkey), Gilbert & George (United Kingdom), Ed Ruscha (USA), Lacy Duarte (Uruguay), Santiago Pol (Venezuela), Laura Horelli, Matias Faldbakken, Miriam Bckstrm, Carsten Hller (Northern Europe -- Finland, Norway & Sweden).
Among the many "collateral events" are "Emendatio," performance and installations by the Native American artist James Luna at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia; "Homespun Tales," an exhibition by Kiki Smith at the Querini Stampalia museum; "Modigliani a Venezia, tra Livorno e Parigi," works, photographs and ephemera by Amedeo Modigliani at the Modigliani Institut; and "Poles Apart Poles Together," an installation by 101 artists on the Canal Grande sponsored by the International Artists' Museum and White Box.
Note: "Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China," an exhibition of works by 60 artists organized by the International Center of Photography, is not traveling to Venice as originally announced due to funding shortfalls.
CAA CRITICISM AWARD TO ART DEALER
The College Art Association (CAA) has given its annual Frank Jewett Mather Award for Art Criticism to Garth Clark, the ceramics expert and art dealer who since 1981 has operated the Garth Clark Gallery (now in two locations, on East 57th Street and in Long Island City). Clark is also an accomplished author; his most recent book, Shards, a 530-page anthology of his writings, was published in 2003 by the Ceramic Arts Foundation. The CAA is establishing something of an unconventional track record when it comes to its art criticism award; last year, the Mather went to the Guerrilla Girls, a group of artists. Perhaps a museum director will be the 2006 honoree.
Other CAA award-winners include Islamic scholar Oleg Grabar (Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art); artist Nancy Spero (Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement); artist Joan Jonas (Distinguished Body of Work); University of South Dakota professor Lloyd Menard (Distinguished Teaching of Art); University of Pittsburgh art historian David G. Wilkins (Distinguished Teaching of Art History); and Australian National Screen and Sound Archive director Cherchi Usai (CAA/Heritage Preservation Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation).
Helen C. Evans won the Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Award for her work as editor of the catalogue for "Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557)" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sarah Burns, author of Painting the Dark Side: Art and the Gothic Imagination in 19th-century America (Berkeley), received the Charles Rufus Morey Book Award. Sheila Barker was given the Arthur Kingsley Porter Prize honoring an outstanding article in the CAA's Art Bulletin, for Poussin, Plague and Early Modern Medicine, published in December 2004. Curator Nato Thompson received the Art Journal Award for "Strategic Visuality: A project by Four Artist/Researchers" in the fall 2004 issue of the CAA Art Journal.
NEUE GALERIE PHOTO BOOTH
The Neue Galerie on East 86th Street in Manhattan has installed a photo booth as a complement to its current show, "Portraits of an Age: Photography in Germany and Austria, 1900-1938," Mar. 11-June 6, 2005. For $2, visitors to the museum can get a strip of four black-and-white photos. The booth, which is proving popular, hails from New Jersey, however, not Weimar-era Germany. The exhibition itself, featuring more than 100 vintage photographs by more than 35 photographers, offers viewers a chance to put faces on artists like Vasily Kandinsky, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Kthe Kollwitz, and also provides a breathtaking survey of the pioneering modernist photographic sensibilities of early 20th-century Germany and Austria.
OPPENHEIM IN OKLAHOMA
An exhibition devoted to public commissions and proposals by pioneering New York Postminimalist Dennis Oppenheim opens at the Price Tower Arts Center in Bartlesville, Okla., Mar. 18-May 22, 2005. "Dennis Oppenheim: Indoors, Outdoors," organized by Price Tower curator Monica Ramirez-Montagut, features models, design drawings and photographs for approximately 30 large-scale projects, ranging from early Earthworks to the controversial two-story sculpture of a work shirt designed for a parking structure at the Milwaukee international airport and the 25-foot-tall sculpture of an upside-down latticework church that was first commissioned by Stanford University and then cancelled last year when the administration got cold feet.
DIRECTOR FOR NEW KLN KUNSTHALLE
The planned Europische Kunsthalle Kln (the European Art Institute Cologne) has a founding director -- Nicolaus Schafhausen, who is currently head of the Frankfurter Kunstverein. Born in 1965, Schafhausen has been both an art dealer and a curator, organizing "nach Weimar" in the Landesmuseum Weimar in 1995 with Klaus Biesenbach. He became director of the Kunstlerhaus Stuttgart in 1995, a post he held until 1998. The new kunsthalle was launched last fall by a group of Cologne dealers and artists.
BEAUX ARTS BALL FOR NYC
Are you ready to celebrate being an artist? The Downtown Arts Club is throwing a Beaux Arts Ball des Artistes at the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center (311 West 34th Street) from 9 pm to 1 am on Friday, Apr. 1, 2005. Presented by Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte (with additional sponsorship by Heineken Beer, Nuage Vodka, Talisker Whiskey and Corazon Tequila), the fete promises an open bar, light hors d'oeuvres and dancing to music by DJ Johnny Dynell. Six teams of young artists are building floats, with the winning team getting a trip to Paris. Black tie or costume is requested. The Downtown Arts Club was launched in the wake of 9/11 to promote culture, build community and help struggling Lower Manhattan businesses. Tickets to the Beaux Arts Ball start at $85; for more info, see www.downtownartsclub.comATM GALLERY MOVES TO CHELSEA
Everyone's favorite reason to travel to Avenue B on the Lower East Side -- Bill Brady's ATM Gallery -- has moved to Chelsea. The new digs at 511 West 20th Street open on Friday, Mar. 25, with a show of Kansas City photographer Art Miller's "Habana Series" of photographs from the Habana Inn in Oklahoma City. And don't worry -- the new space includes the gallery's trademark ATM machine.
"CHARMED" AT LOWER EASTSIDE GIRLS CLUB
The sleeper exhibition of the week is "Charmed," a group show organized by Michael St. John and Jason Duval at the Lower Eastside Girls Club, 56 East 1st Street, Mar. 17-Apr. 16, 2005. The exhibition features works by Nancy Spero, Mary-Beth Gregg, Nicole Cherubini, Kirsten Deirup, Alex McQuilkin, Bethany Fancher, Judy Linhares, Karen Shaw, Julia Bezgin, Diane Blell, Carol Cole, Elizabeth Deull and Gina Magid.
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