Author Archives: jolanta

The ancient alchemists sought personal transformation through the injection of spirit into matter. This struggle between body and soul was externalized in the physical transmutation of lead, a poisonous substance symbolizing the human shadow, into gold, the royal treasure. Alchemists risked their livelihood, their sanity and their lives for this elusive search for spiritual transcendence. […]

To describe them is to iterate their diversity and invention Unforeseen Ahead– the recent paintings of Maria Hjelmeland. By Perry McPartland These might just turn out to be exciting times for painters yet. One of postmodernism’s most exciting potentials is its allowance for the appropriation of all past forms without the defining limits of their […]

If you find yourself in Times Square between now and June 10, and it happens to be the 59th minute of the hour, take a look up at the NBC Astrovision screen. Time Out in Times Square: Kimsooja’s Performance and Video Work Brings a Few Moments of Tranquility Michael Rose Images courtesy of the author. […]

Museum curators and artists should now better. The Tim Hawkins show, currently at the Whitney Museum of American Art, entertains?but that’s not enough. Yes,the exhibit is playful, even a behind the Disneyfied venier. It provides a clever lens through which we view ourselves and the world around us. It is a beautiful installation full of […]

Once in a while you return from an exhibition so full of excitement that your mind is in a whirlwind of ideas and associations. Sometimes only a whisper is left after a day or two. A good exhibition will last, images returning unbidden to the retina in odd moments, long after the viewing. Tim Hawkinson?s […]

Before opening the show at Ginza Graphi Gallery the winners of the 2004 Tokyo Type Director’s Club Prizes spent two days discussing their works, their making processes and their histories. Tokyo Type Directers Club Award 2004: Technology Dreams By Nana Kono Before opening the show at Ginza Graphi Gallery the winners of the 2004 Tokyo […]

Neighbors rise at four in the morning to cook chitterling gruel. At six they move with push-carts through districts, raising their voices to cry out breakfast jingles. With the sound of the vendors Saigon awakens. By dawn the temperatures quickly rise and several vehicles can be seen whirling by in the streets. Each day is […]

This is the story of how Contemporary Art started in Hanoi in two small privately owned galleries, driven by the force of only four people. Hanoi had been a small city, but 15 years ago, with the application of “doi moi” (the open door policy of the Communist party), Hanoi’s population doubled. Everything in this […]