Author Archives: jolanta

When you open the gallery’s door and take a quick glance at the wall, some paintings crave your attention. They instantly begin to make eyes at you, pleading: "Please look at me!" Showing It By Masking It: An Art of Reverse Psychology Toshihiko Washio Translated by Masato Fujii courtesy of the artist When you open […]

The paintings of Aki Narita reach down into primal darkness and bring the parts missing from more academic works in "Hito Hito" (Person to Person) at the Metropolitan Museum of Tokyo, up into consciousness. Aki Narita in "Hito Hito" (Person to Person) Metropolitan Museum of Tokyo Hiroto Ohnogi Aki Narita, Tedious Skirt. The paintings of […]

In a stimulating retrospective of Dan Flavin at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the lights vibrate as if they were alive. Flavin’s works seen en masse have a far more visceral impact than the singular works we are used to seeing here and there. Electric Light Orchestrated: Dan Flavin at The Modern Art […]

From the pages of Juxtapoz to galleries up and down the West 20s, there are a glut of surrealist image-makers out there at the moment. But Sandra Scolnik stands out. She appropriates classic surrealist images and strips them down, separating the fantasy image from its romantic baggage. Her paintings are visual equivalents of hypnosis used […]

In May, Beijing is the center of activity for the Chinese art scene, with the openings of the annual Dashanzi International Art Festival (DIAF) and the China International Gallery Exposition (CIGE). For those who stay in Shanghai there are two opportunities to keep their eyes opened. Travelling In Shanghai Without Moving… Aurelie Duval Leaflet for […]

When Chinatsu Ban paints schoolgirls in their underpants they look like little Japanese dolls that lost their Kimonos. Ban is not preoccupied with the Japanese Lolita cult like Aya Takano, who paints overtly sexual girls in underpants. Mostly, Ban puts underpants on elephants instead. But she is still occupied with cuteness and youth, and what […]

Entering a vast, soaring, controlled space, quietly lit by warm rectangular spotlights and focused by eastern music, we feel our blood pressure lower, mood relax, judgment cease. We walk a colonnaded wooden aisle past suspended, uncluttered sepia photographs of closed-eyed, adolescent Buddhist monks leaning gently against kneeling, untethered elephants. Girls swathed in white Indian fabrics […]

"Culture Vulture" is a diverse group show that highlights art that employs popular culture as a visual starting point. Each artist in the show utilizes current and familiar visual symbols–appropriating them, toying with them, and reinventing them–though some do this with more originality than others. The curatorial statement includes a quote from Carl Andre that […]

� Organized by the Ministry of Culture and Information, Gia Ding Park, Ho Chi Minh City, has for the first time hosted a sculpture residency and exhibition. On this occasion the event is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Saigon and the reunification of Vietnam. As many as 40 artists were invited […]

War is business, show business. Last night I watched a rented copy of Gettysberg, the epic Civil War drama. I was amazed to see that, even when the opposing armies were both on the verge of collapse, desperately low on food and ammunition, they always had their fife and drum corps-uniformed in flashy outfits, pennants […]