Artcity21 - Blog

Kaarina Kaikkonen: Growing the Sun

August 18–September 10, 2017

Used items of clothing convey an uncannily powerful sense of presence in the work of Kaarina Kaikkonen (b. 1952). The discarded clothing is highly personal and intimate, yet highly familiar and universal, holding memories and reminding us of time’s passage. Twisting playfully in mid-air, the interwoven clothing in her latest sculptures is a metaphorical depiction of life’s arc and time’s linearity. The works in her new exhibition mirror life’s vicissitudes with their varying body language and color schemes, yet even when at their most melancholy they always convey a ray of hope: joy and sunshine sprout forth from the unravelling sleeves of castoff jumpers.

Esko Männikkö: UUPUU

August 18–September 10, 2017

Esko Männikkö’s (b. 1959) photographs take us on a journey into the depths of the backwoods, featuring images of trees in remote regions beloved to the artist around Lake Inari and North Finland. Untouched by human hand, the wizened, contorted trunks offer a commentary on the wood processing industry and heavy-handed commercial harvesting. The trees portrayed in UUPUU are one-of-a kind, old elders, each one unique – as opposed to the uniformity of the young trees felled for commercial processing.

"Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun." - Pablo Picasso

Blake Fall Conroy, Police Flag, 2009. 120 x 72 x 12 inches. Rotating beacons, extension cords, strip outlets, tupperware, shelving. Image courtesy of Blake Fall Conroy.

Museum of Capitalism Opens Inaugural Exhibition in

Oakland on June 17, 2017

The Museum of Capitalism’s inaugural exhibition will open June 17 in Oakland, California. Founded in 2015, the museum is the first of its kind in the United States dedicated to “educating future generations about the ideology, history, and legacy of capitalism” through non-traditional programming. The museum is the result of several years of planning and fundraising by a group of curators, artists, writers, educators, and museum professionals, in consultation with experts in history, economics, and museology.

REVOLUTION: NEW ART FOR A NEW WORLD

Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Margy Kinmonth, Revolution: New Art for a New World is a bold and exciting feature documentary that encapsulates a momentous period in the history of Russia and the Russian Avant-Garde. 

Drawing on the collections of major Russian institutions, contributions from contemporary artists, curators and performers and personal testimony from the descendants of those involved, the film brings the artists of the Russian Avant-Garde to life. It tells the stories of artists like Chagall, Kandinsky and Malevich - pioneers who flourished in response to the challenge of building a new art for a new world, only to be broken by implacable authority after 15 short years and silenced by Stalin’s Socialist Realism.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. The artist's systematic visualization of a new- innovative contemporary communication outflow, is unquestionably the Heartbeat's heart and soul. Previously designing this worldwide-oriented concept, inspiring an entirely revolutionary and powerfully positive attitude towards the on-going art scene, Antonio Pessoa, once again, shows up as the perfect reflexion of his reputation, by suggesting with contagious determination and enthusiasm, a brand-New Age of art-public intercommunication, aiming at empowering the mutual relationship precisely between art, artists, gallery owners, art scene in general and the gigantic community of art lovers, art collectors, media, worldwide public. What else could actually be more exciting and new than this pro-life, pro-art, pro-future and pro- global communication striking futuristic concept, a truly innovative approach for even greater dynamic flexibility directly concerning this art-public interactive universal togetherness? Here we go again, so let's propose a toast to the Heartbeat's larger-than-life divine inspiration, heroic epic Project visualising a New Era of intimate closeness between art and public! Limitless possibilities, now that everything seems to come so easily, the artist's secret to living successfully, feeling and acting by the passionate rhythm of his heartbeat. The mindset two by two dance "get-to-it- iveness" and "stick-to-it-iveness", creates the larger than life action super positive mood, all he actually needs to move him towards entrepreneurial artistic freedom, and in so doing his blazing desire for daily creativity keeps on accumulating new concepts and inspiration flow for future awesome oeuvre.