Art fairs are like the Hydra—chop one head off and several more sprout up in its place. This month saw the inauguration of two new fairs in Asia alone, with Taipei Dangdai kicking off in the third week of January, followed by S.E.A. Focusthe very next week in Singapore (24–27 January 2019). February also sees … Continue reading
It is perhaps fitting that French-born Algerian artist Kader Attia is based in Berlin, a city of scars. A city where the ruins of a wall that once divided it are still visible; a city in which the atrocities committed during wars and by two repressive regimes are memorialised; where the architecture of communism and … Continue reading
Launched in 1996 and now in its twelfth edition, the Shanghai Biennale is the longest-running biennial in China, presented at the Power Station of Art, China’s only government-funded art space in a landscape dominated by private museums. This year’s edition (10 November 2018–10 March 2019), curated by Mexican-born Cuauhtémoc Medina, brings together the work of … Continue reading
There has been a huge proliferation of biennales in recent years, with nearly 250 biennials currently operating globally, listed by the Biennial Foundation’s Directory of Biennials. They have become a marker of a must-see modern city, a showing off of soft power, a rapacious consumption of culture and a drawcard for cultural tourism. … Continue reading
The “enfant terrible of the New York school”, as poet Frank O’Hara dubbed Robert Rauschenberg, reshaped 20th-century American art and left behind a boundary-breaking body of work characterised by experimentation and unorthodox use of different media. His early works, made in the 1950s and 60s, featured composites of found objects – bottles, a taxidermy goat head, newspapers, chairs, rubber … Continue reading
The last time I visited West Bund Art & Design was four years ago, when the fair was only in its first year of operation: a small, boutique offering held in a cavernous hangar that seemed too big for it. Much has changed since then. Mirroring the rapid development of the city itself, West Bund … Continue reading
Published on ocula From Cao Fei’s first large-scale institutional exhibition in Asia, to a showing of historical works by Robert Rauschenberg, Ocula contributor Diana d’Arenberg offers her lowdown of shows to see in Hong Kong this autumn. Cao Fei: A hollow in a world too full Tai Kwun Contemporary, 10 Hollywood Rd, Central 8 September … Continue reading
