Art • 139 News

11.09.2019 • 'As someone said, the only impossible journey is the one you never begin...' artist ODA JAUNE says about her project 'The Caress' 2018-2019. At first glance, 'The Caress' looks like a classic pietà. But at a closer look, the viewer recognizes two persons of the same age whose mouths flow into one another in a seemingly never-ending kiss. This monumental sculpture 'The Caress' was placed in a variety of places throughout Bulgaria, opening up an intense dialogue between art and nature in the public space.

In the newly published volume Heartland, appearing at Hatje Cantz, Paris-based artist Oda Jaune dedicates a retrospective of her work to the country of her birth, Bulgaria. The accompanying exhibition took place in the National Gallery in Sofia. Besides documenting the monumental sculpture 'The Caress', this extensive illustrated book bound in high-quality linen features a selection of works characterized by complex visual worlds that fluctuate between beauty and disturbance, with bodies dissolving, faceless creatures, mouths wide open, and protrusions.

The National Gallery...

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11.09.2019 • Our friends from Gallery Wagner + Partner in Berlin are now showing 'Belvédère - Weiß war der Schnee' (White Was the Snow) (13 Sept. – 19 Oct., 2019), a project by Thomas Wrede, photographed around Belvédère, a town at the edge of the Rhône glacier. The photo artist spent the last two years investigating issues related to the glacier and its transformation through climate change. For over 150 years, tourists have visited the glacier and its cave however; global warming is also endangering this natural spectacle. Nonetheless, by using fleece coverings, the phenomenon of glacial melt can be reduced. The gallery is pleased to premiere Wrede's new series with this solo exhibition.

Due to weathering as well as constant glacial drift, the fleece coverings age and have to be replaced regularly. Artistically, Thomas Wrede explored this fascinating interweaving of the natural landscape with human intervention. The results are beguilingly aesthetic images, which at the same time are documentation of an irretrievable process. On display at the exhibition are both interior and exterior...

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28.08.2019 • Israeli artist Sigalit Landau uses the world’s saltiest sea as her laboratory. Everyday objects are “baptized” by immersing them in the Dead Sea for months. Completely covered in salt, they obtain a hypnotizing effect. The transience of objects is transposed into the poetic aura of crystalline permanence.

In this form, issues of female identity and bodily experience, the shadows of the Holocaust, the tense political situation in Israel as well as questions of justice, structural violence, and economic exploitation of nature are negotiated. Salt Years is both a catalogue of these works created at the Dead Sea and a visually stunning documentation of the artist’s process.

SIGALIT LANDAU (*1969, Jerusalem) is one of the most important contemporary artists in Israel. Her works have been shown in many big venues in Israel, the US and Europe, including documenta and the Venice Biennale. Her latest exhibition at Museum der Moderne Salzburg (6 July –17 November, 2019) is comprised of several readymades, immersed in the Dead Sea, plus a selection of her most significant video...

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28.08.2019 • What at first glance seems like a hodgepodge of non-matching photographic observations reveals its entire beauty upon repeated viewing. This is how we felt about the predecessor 'SEASON OF ADMIN' in the editorial office, which appeared at Kerber Publishing in early 2018. With 'Collective Creatures', Hatje Cantz is now publishing the new illustrated book by Silja Yvette. And the photos slowly cast a spell on us again. The cover alone makes you want to keep picking it up and browsing through it. We haven't completely gotten to the bottom of how this photographic tableau was created (yet), and 'Collective Creatures' doesn't have any signs of use (yet) like the previous book, but that will soon change. We can highly recommend the book and the artist...

From the press release we learn : “In her work full of associative visuals, Collective Creatures, Silja Yvette draws attention to artificial and natural materials as well as to the effects of mass and energy in space and time. In her photographs, objects and places – from caves and abandoned buildings to quarries, shop windows,...

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20.08.2019 • “If an image leaves someone feeling a little bit uneasy, then I feel like that is a successful photograph,” says Natalie Christensen, named by the Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts as one of the “Ten Photographers to Watch”. Following exhibitions in London, New York and Los Angeles, the American photographer and psychotherapist now presents 'The Deconstructed Self' at Galerie Minimal in Berlin.

She finds her motifs in the banal scenes of the periphery of the American Southwest. Fascinated by the unmistakable light and crystal clear air, she composes photographs of suburban everyday life whose symbolism penetrates deeply into the subconscious.

The photographer on her series: “In 2014, I moved from the state of Kentucky to Santa Fe, New Mexico, leaving my lifelong home and my 25-year career as a psychotherapist behind. While it was an exciting moment it was also a time of questioning and reflection.

Like many artists who have come to New Mexico, I was immediately drawn to the distinctive Southwestern light. The beauty of the natural environment is evident to most people;...

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