ARTFORUM CRITICS’ PICKS: “Venice in Venice”

Posted on July 7, 2011, 5:15 PM, by jfriedman, under 54th Venice Biennale.
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I am posting the first of two reviews I wrote after visiting the openings at the 54th Venice Biennial.

The Venice in Venice show is the first event of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980—a cluster of exhibitions and related cultural events scheduled to run at over sixty venues throughout Southern California starting this fall. If you are heading to Venice and do not want to wait until October to see the “finish fetish” and Light and Space artworks, this teaser exhibition will be on view through the end of July. Co-curated by Tim Nye and Jacqueline Miró.

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“ATOM SUIT PROJECT: ANTENNA OF THE EARTH” Kenji YONOBE Solo Exhibition

Posted on July 1, 2011, 4:38 PM, by jfriedman, under Yamomoto Gendai.
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The upcoming show at the Yamamoto Gendai gallery follows suit of Chim↑Pom’s response to the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant (see previous posting). What follows is the gallery’s press-release.

Atom Suit Project: Antenna of the Earth is an installation of a life-size figure of the artist himself in a radiation detecting Atom Suit equipped with Geiger counters, appropriating the well-known statue of Kuuya Shounin, a monk chanting a sutra which is represented by the miniature images of Buddha coming out of his mouth.

Yanobe created this piece based on the experiences from his visit to Chernobyl in 1997, which delivers the strong will of the artist to become like an “antenna” of diverse occurrences of the world after the crisis. Prior to this project, the artist created the radiation protective Yellow Suit in response to the threat of the Mihama nuclear power plant accident in 1991. Ever since Geiger counters have become essential elements in his works.

For 20 years up until now, Yanobe has been concerned with powers and phenomena which are out of human control, not limited to nuclear powers and radioactivity, and engaged in the themes of Survival/Revival.

After 10 years since its creation, we believe that the significance of Antenna of the Earth is ever more broadening.We hope this exhibition will be an opportunity to examine the practice of Kenji Yanobe and to introduce new perspectives on the reality in which we are living now.

The show opens this Saturday, July 2, reception is 18:00–20:00.

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Chim↑Pom on Fukushima: “Real Times”

Posted on July 1, 2011, 2:48 AM, by jfriedman, under Chim Pom.

This posting is long overdue since the related exhibition took place over one month ago, in late May, but I left Tokyo three days after the earthquake, one day after I learned about the radiation leak, and in the time that followed I never got a chance to write about this remarkable show.

At the base of what became the Real Times exhibition is the collective’s visit to the stricken nuclear plant—the daredevils embarked on their trip, as volunteers, when the rest of the traffic around the reactors was outbound.

Chim↑Pom returned to Tokyo with a collection of videos and a resolve to show the significance of the events in the north.  The infamous “Shibuya mural” episode was reported in the BBC, although without naming the group. In a move that would make Banksy himself look tame, the Chim↑Pom amended (or defaced, depending on one’s point of view) the giant Taro Okamoto mural located in the middle of Shibuya Station. The well-known eerie representation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings was given an “update” on nuclear dangers with a pasted image that embedded the crippled plant into the mural. Needless to say Tokyo police did not allow the update to stay up for long. Here is the video of the mural, the Chim↑Pom addition is at the lower right, next to the escalators:

Following this, the Mujin-to productions, Chim↑Pom’s managing gallery, produced an unusual show that lasted only five days (May 20th through 25), but was was attended by over 3000(!) people. My friends who stayed in Tokyo and attended the show unanimously hailed it as one of the best they have seen.


To be fair, Chim↑Pom were not the only artist group to engage the Fukushima disaster, the New-Methodists, another collective consisting of Takahiro Hirama, Shogo Baba and Hideki Nakazawa also applied for a disaster volunteer program, but they made a point of doing it in a capacity of citizens, not artists. Still, given the attention garnered by Real Times and the immediacy of the Chim↑Pom’s response it might find a place in history as a real-time creative hallmark.

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ARTFORUM CRITICS’ PICKS: “Paul Kos”

Posted on June 7, 2011, 4:12 AM, by jfriedman, under Paul Kos.
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Kinetic Ice Flow, 1969, Ink on Chrome coat paper
10” x 8 1/2” (paper) 18” x 16” (framed). Image courtesy of the gallery.

San Francisco’s Gallery Paule Anglim is showing Paul Kos’s latest creations—video projections on canvas—along with some works that date back to the 1960s. You can find my review of the exhibition in Critics’ Picks section on ARTFORUM website.

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ARTFORUM CRITICS’ PICKS: “Jack McLean”

Posted on May 16, 2011, 8:05 AM, by jfriedman, under Jack McLean, The Container.
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Jack McLean in The Container. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Ellis and the gallery.

My latest Critic’s Pick from Tokyo is up on ARTFORUM website. The show—Jack McLean’s “Salt Mine,” curated by Shai Ohayon, will be up at The Container gallery through May 23rd.

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Artforum May 2011 Review: LG Williams / Estate OF LG Williams At Super Window Project, Kyoto, Japan

Posted on May 3, 2011, 5:00 PM, by jfriedman, under Artforum.

My review of LG Williams/Estate Of LG Williams exhibition “In Absentia” held at Baron Osuna’s Super Window Project, earlier this year is now out in print in the May 2011 issue of ARTFORUM.

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Clear Your Calendars: ArtGigTokyo1, May 8, 15:00–03:00

Posted on April 22, 2011, 5:44 PM, by jfriedman, under Beatriz Inglessis, ChimPom, Contemporary Art Tokyo, Jack McLean, Julia Friedman, Shai Ohayon.

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Beatriz Inglessis, The Primal Scene (2011), Image courtesy of the artist and ArtGigTokyo (c)

ArtGigTokyo1: “Dirty, dirty! Sex, sex!”

8 May 2011, 15:00 ~ 03:00

Bar Exit, 2-12-16 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 160-0022

www.artgigtokyo.com


Curator Shai Ohayon is pleased to announce the launch of the curatorial project ArtGig in Tokyo, a series of art happenings in public places.

The themed events will commence with a sex themed art happening featuring internationally renowned artists such as Yoko Ono, Makoto Aida, Elmgreen & Dragset, ChimPom and Mario A., among other artists.

The event, entitled: “Dirty, dirty! Sex, sex!” will be presented at Bar Exit（バー・イグジット）in Shinjuku Ni-chome. “Ni-chome” has a long-standing association with the gay scene of Tokyo and considered by many locals as a site of sexual promiscuity and debauchery.

We aim to present some 15 local and international artists along with music and performance art pieces and transform the entire club into an improvised art gallery.

Artworks will include pieces of many disciplines and site-specific installations, using the walls, the actual bar, toilets, lockers, changing room and stage.

Artists are asked to present works that reflect their practice and that deals directly with their notion or understanding of the theme.

Attendance to the event is free-of-charge to the public and visitors will be encouraged to explore the space, engage with the artworks and to enjoy the array of performances that will be featured as part of the event.

In addition, visitors will be invited also to participate in a raffle that will close the event, with gifts from the Mori Museum, Nadiff, MOMA Gift Shop, Wut Berlin, Tokyo Art Beat and more.

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