Art
Francis Upritchard’s Whimsical Figures Land in Copenhagen
New Zealand artist Francis Upritchard has unveiled her first Scandinavian exhibition at Copenhagen's Kunsthal Charlottenborg. Any Noise Annoys an Oyster presents over 100 eccentric figures that the London-based artist created that look to challenge ideas of the past and society's visions of the future. Curated by Henriette Bretton-Meyer, Upritchard's spindly beings are inspired by ancient art, Asian folklore, 20th century European sculpture and science fiction literature. But while they may appear to represent a different muse from a bygone era, she doesn't really see them as "personalities," Upritchard explains. “Instead, I kind of see them as costumes, almost like a coat hanger. And it’s much more for me about playing with texture and color and shape. I often think about tropes of how fi...
‘Oh La La!’ Shakes Up Art Basel Paris with Unconventional Artworks
Art Basel's Paris edition has introduced a playful initiative called Oh La La! at its new venue, the Grand Palais. This program invites 35 exhibitors to showcase unusual and thought-provoking artworks during the fair’s first two public days. The concept centers on surprise and excitement, encouraging galleries to present rarely seen works across diverse themes like love, Surrealism and queer identity.Galerie Templon highlights Fluxus artist Ben Vautier’s work, "Je peut tout me permettre" (1971), as a humorous nod to his legacy. Galerie Layr takes a different approach, featuring Käthe Kollwitz's historical artwork in a contemporary setting. Meanwhile, Paris’ galerie anne barrault exhibits Roland Topor’s "Oh la la" (1973), a mysterious drawing by the French avant-garde artist.Oh La La! also ...
Must-See Booths at Art Basel Paris 2024
There are few cities that capture the charm and imagination like Paris. Sure, the French capital is much more grittier and unapologetic than the typical picturesque images seen across social media. But there's something about Paris that has drawn and cultivated some of the biggest artists across centuries. It comes as no surprise then, that Art Basel chose to nestle a fair in the City of Light, joining its flagships in Switzerland, Hong Kong and Miami Beach.While the Paris iteration had previously opened in 2022 under the name Paris+ by Art Basel, this year's edition is the first at the monumental Grand Palais. The inaugural Art Basel Paris will feature 194 galleries, including 51 first-time participants from across the globe, split into the Galeries, Emergence, Premise, Conversations and ...
James Turrell’s Ethereal ‘Glasswork’ Illuminates Almine Rech Paris
To coincide with the upcoming Art Basel Paris, Almine Rech has unveiled a new solo exhibition of works by legendary Light and Space artist James Turrell. Path Taken will comprise of a new light work from Turrell’s Glassworks series, first started in 2004, but whose research dates as far back as the 1960s. Deceptively simple, the central work on view challenges viewers' perception of space through a translucent rectangular piece that gradually changes in hue through an LED over the course of an hour. "When people speak about light they use for description a ‘vocabulary of light’: near death experience, religious transformation, spiritual journeys…" Turrell recalled in a 2004 interview. "My work is about the thingness of light itself, feeling the light, there is no religious message! Gold ha...
Robert Moreland to Release New Geometric Print With Louis Buhl & Co.
Los Angeles-based artist Robert Moreland will soon release the sequel to his print series with Detroit gallery Louis Buhl & Co. Following the large-scale work Red Rectangle (2023), the forthcoming print will also incorporate a similar geometric sensibility that has led Moreland to transpose the same three-dimensional effect in his wall works to the printed surface.Blue Switchback with Curve distorts the eye through a cobalt hue that appears to give way to a cylindrical passage in the middle, thanks to calculated shapes and a spot varnish that Moreland employed to imbue a sense of depth. "By mimicking the dynamic interplay of light on his sculptural works, Moreland successfully translates the tactile experience of his physical constructions onto paper, bridging the gap between two and t...
Studio Lemercier Reveals Nature’s Power in ‘Lightfall’
Superblue Miami will debut Lightfall, a new installation by Studio Lemercier with music by Murcof, on October 28, 2024. The multisensory experience immerses visitors in darkness, where mist and shifting volumes of light are projected through water droplets. The installation highlights natural elements like air, water and light in constant motion, creating a dynamic, ever-changing environment.Studio Lemercier, known for blending technology with nature in their works, uses Lightfall to focus on the raw power of these elements. The Brussels-based duo, led by Joanie Lemercier and Juliette Bibasse, aims to create an immersive experience that forces viewers to pay attention to the subtle forces around them.Lightfall is part of Superblue’s ongoing series of experiential art installations. Known f...
Through the Lens: Theo Cottle
Theo Cottle’s images are rooted in reality, but altered to project a hallucinatory state — an “authentic” documentation, he tells Hypeart, of some of the world’s hard-to-access areas and underworlds, from the drum of Havana’s boxing clubs to the onsens frequented by Japan’s Yakuza.The Bristol-born, London-based photographer looks to “explore the unseen and the unheard,” whether in client work for adidas and C.P. Company to passion projects in Naples’ raucous alleyways. Cottle’s proclivities stem from early war photographs his father showed him as a child, such as the work of British photojournalist Don McCullin, as well as cultural pioneers like Larry Clark, whose films and photographs explore themes pertaining gender and masculinity — motifs that Cottle touches on within his own portfolio...
Ed Ruscha’s ‘Standard Station’ Painting Expected to Fetch $50 Million USD at Auction
Ed Ruscha's Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half, the last privately owned large-scale painting he created in the 1960s, will be hitting Christie's auction with a pre-estimated cost of $50m USD. The 1964 artwork recently appeared in the touring retrospective, ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN, which went on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art afterwards. It's being brought to auction by owner Sid R. Bass, a Texas oil heir who first acquired the work in 1976 through a trade for another Ruscha painting.Widely considered as the father of LA contemporary art, Ruscha first moved to the City of Angels from Oklahoma in 1956 to attend Chouinard Art Institute (now the California Institute of the Arts), using banal freeways, low slung buildings a...
ICA Miami Expands with $25 Million USD Building Purchase
The Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (ICA) has acquired a new building for $25 million, effectively doubling its space. The building, previously home to the de la Cruz Collection, adds 30,000 square feet to the museum, allowing for expanded exhibitions and programming. ICA's artistic director, Alex Gartenfeld, credited donations from individuals like real estate mogul Craig Robins for making the purchase possible as per a report by Artnews.Before opening to the public, the building will undergo renovations. The de la Cruz Collection, founded in 2009 by Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz, was a prominent Miami art space until it closed earlier this year following Rosa’s passing. Carlos later auctioned off several works, including pieces by Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Ana Mendieta, sparking controv...
Francis Bacon’s Turbulent Relationships Shape ‘Human Presence’
Francis Bacon’s work doesn’t pull punches. His portraits—distorted, raw and brutally emotional -- are on full display at the National Portrait Gallery’s Francis Bacon: Human Presence. The exhibition spans Bacon’s career, from his early 1940s portraits to his self-portraits and deeply personal works in the 1960s. It’s a study of how Bacon tore apart traditional portraiture, using his personal anguish as fuel. The influence of his relationships is glaring -- most notably, his long-term partner Peter Lacy, whose vulnerability is captured amidst chaos. Bacon’s use of the triptych format reveals the collapse of their relationship, faces twisting into something monstrous. And when his lover George Dyer died by suicide just before a major show, Bacon’s grief turned inward. A 1973 self-portrait sh...
Jonas Wood Flattens Daily Life in New Gagosian Exhibition
Everyday is an adventure in Jonas Wood's vibrant paintings. The American artist is globally recognized for flattening the banality of daily life into wondrous compositions that incorporate his passions across sports, plants and virtually any subject that piques his interest. On view at Gagosian London is a new solo exhibition of paintings that explore how Wood conflates often competing elements. Housed at the gallery's Grosvenor Hill location, the eponymously titled show presents some of Wood's most chaotically patterned works to date. Wood likes to play with perspective, shifting the flattened plane of the canvas through repeating patterns, like the texture of a wall or couch, with competing colors, shapes and decorative elements, such as a distant skyline in Robot and Bear (2024) or a di...
IDEA Spotlights Pinot’s Pixelated Creations in New Book
Wahyu Ichwandardi aka Pinot isn’t your typical animator and illustrator. A quick scroll through his Instagram feed and you’ll encounter drawings and animations in his signature, pixelated style. Although the Indonesian artist employs traditional tools such pen and paper to create quirky visuals of cats, dogs and even Steve Jobs, Pinot is acclaimed for using unconventional devices to create a slew of meticulous animations such as crafting a rainy New York City scene using Mario Paint in the Nintendo SNES. He’s able to create on anything that is programmable including Nokia phones, PalmPilots, ZX Spectrum and vintage Apple Mac computers. The artist is prolific with these devices, having created hundreds of these illustrations that depict bustling city life, nostalgic avatars and familiar pop...
