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Remembering David Wojnarowicz, artist and activist (1954–1992)

Beyond the Canvas

Jul 22
1 min

Remembering David Wojnarowicz, artist and activist (1954–1992)

"One of the strongest feelings I have about death is that it's a time when the energy we carry is dispersed and becomes a part of everything." - David Wojnarowicz It's been 30 years since David Wojnarowicz died of AIDS-related illness at the age of 37. I remember seeing his survey exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2018 and being struck by the poignancy and brutal honesty of his work, a genuine punch in the gut. Wojnarowicz was, for all intents and purposes,

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Domenichino's Sibilla Cumana at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

Beyond the Canvas

Jul 15
2 min

Domenichino's Sibilla Cumana at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

Being inside an empty museum at night might well be the ultimate art lover's fantasy. Apart from not having to share the space with herds of other human beings, which tends to be a much broader issue as far as I'm concerned, there's a sense of heightened awareness that does result into a more intimate and meaningful relationship with the art. And whilst last night I couldn't fully realise my fantasy of blissful solitude, I am hugely grateful to Bologna's Pinacoteca for arrang

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Beyond the Canvas

Jun 12
1 min

Gates of Turan, Firouz FarmanFarmaian at the Venice Biennale

Sometimes the Venice Biennale takes you places you'd never dream of going to. A decision to escape the mad crowds of San Marco and take the ferry to Giudecca meant I was rewarded with a mesmerising insight into a nomadic culture I knew nothing about. Firouz Farman-Farmaian has recreated a traditional Kyrgyz environment where we see, hear, smell (the felt banners hanging from the ceiling are made of yak wool) and, mostly, feel. It is also possible to sit on a rug underneath th

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Nicola Samorì - Sfregi, Palazzo Fava, Bologna

Beyond the Canvas

Apr 29, 2021
1 min

Nicola Samorì - Sfregi, Palazzo Fava, Bologna

"I try to make bright paintings, but every time I fall into the shadows, maybe because darkness is the ultimate condition of things, whereas light is only temporary." - Nicola Samori in an interview to Art Tribune Darkness and light. Oh how they coexist and engage in an epic struggle in Samori's striking body of work, which is uniquely atmospheric and haunting. It is clear he is a classically trained painter, and a very good one he is, too. His bold brushstrokes sweep across

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Beyond the Canvas

Jan 15, 2021
2 min

A legal killing spree

"When you see a gruesome picture over and over again, it really doesn’t have any effect." — Andy Warhol Warhol was an avid collector of newspapers, magazines and tabloids. He appropriated and manipulated the sometimes downright lurid news imagery to create his art, and this was the basis of his Death and Disasters series, which he started in 1962 (and which happens to be my favourite part of his oeuvre). Car crashes, people jumping to their deaths, race riots, as well as the

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Experience and participation in Olafur Eliasson's The Weather Project

Beyond the Canvas

Jan 12, 2021
2 min

Experience and participation in Olafur Eliasson's The Weather Project

“Having an experience is taking part in the world. Taking part in the world is really about sharing responsibility.” – Olafur Eliasson I saw this dazzling installation in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, and I'd be lying if I said I remember what I experienced at the time - I'm drawing a blank. But for some 80 anti-war protesters, this humbling light-clad space became a stage on which they could voice their anger. It's 2003, American and British troops have invaded Iraq and P

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Beyond the Canvas

Nov 14, 2020
2 min

Art is essential, now more than ever.

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Pablo Picasso Dust. How many tonnes of dust are we currently covered in? Painful, heavy dust accumulated from the prolonged anxiety and uncertainty brought on by the pandemic. Infuriating, ugly dust thrown at us by corrupt and dangerously incompetent politicians day in, day out. Oh, and then there's the surreal, disquieting dust coming from across the pond (despite the good news that change is finally coming, of cour

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Beyond the Canvas

Nov 1, 2020
2 min

Kim Abeles' Smog Collectors

"The Smog Collectors materialize the reality of the air we breathe. I place cut, stencilled images on transparent or opaque plates or fabric, then leave these on the roof of my studio and let the particulate matter in the heavy air fall upon them. After a period of time, from four days to a month, the stencil is removed and the image is revealed in smog." - Kim Abeles Since the beginning of the year, wildfires have burned over 4 million acres in California, with 5,000 firefig

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Fourteen days to the US Presidential election.

Beyond the Canvas

Oct 20, 2020
2 min

Fourteen days to the US Presidential election.

“We are at a precipice in this country, and we are either going to move forward or we are not.” - Carrie Mae Weems In 2016, nearly half of the eligible US voters opted to forgo one of their fundamental civil rights and did not vote. This means that over 100 million Americans were so irreconcilably disengaged from politics that they could not be bothered to have their say. Worryingly, a whopping 20% of this 100 million is planning to do the same this year. The reason? They are

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Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk -Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Beyond the Canvas

Oct 9, 2020
1 min

Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk -Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Iconic, but not frozen in time - a garment that continues to evolve and fascinate. That is the premise of this show that traces the history, transformation and global influence of the Japanese kimono from the 17th century to these days. Over 300 stunning sartorial masterpieces that show us how the kimono, literally 'the thing to wear', went from everyday outfit in Japan to object of aesthetic inspiration and cultural appropriation in the West. Some of the Western tributes by

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The liberation of Artemisia Gentileschi - National Gallery, London

Beyond the Canvas

Oct 4, 2020
2 min

The liberation of Artemisia Gentileschi - National Gallery, London

The overwhelming dominance of Artemisia Gentileschi's personal narrative over her worth as an artist has always bothered me. The rape, the trial, the struggles of being a female artist in the XVII century - of course it's all relevant, but I never thought it needed to define her work. I also took exception to the sensationalisation of her life story and the overly sexualised reading of part of her oeuvre at the expense of her artistic legacy. Until today. This dazzling show a

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Annie-Rose Fiddian-Green: Celebrating the lungs of our planet

Beyond the Canvas

Sep 27, 2020
1 min

Annie-Rose Fiddian-Green: Celebrating the lungs of our planet

"During lockdown I moved to north Norfolk where my attention was captivated by the ancient trees that hold the space there so powerfully. Fascinated by the biological communication that trees have with each other, I began research into the magic of forests." - Annie-Rose Fiddian-Green Trees, the immortals. The one irrational theory my otherwise staunchly rational self insists on hanging on to. Their magic, their power, their interconnectedness - I immediately saw it in these

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Beyond the Canvas

Sep 24, 2020
2 min

Tintoretto's scenic inventions

"I never was so utterly crushed to the earth before any human intellect as I was today before Tintoret." - wrote John Ruskin to his parents in 1845. This is a superb description of the effect Tintoretto has on you. Seeing his work doesn't just redefine your idea of painting, but also how you experience it. To stand in front of a Tintoretto even in the worst lit corner of a church is a hugely visceral and profoundly emotional affair. Your eyes dart across the canvas looking fo

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Beyond the Canvas

Sep 20, 2020
1 min

Americans in Venice

Venice is, among many other wonderful things, synonymous with glass. The work of the Murano glassblowers has inspired countless artists to explore the possibilities of this fascinating medium and break the barriers of functionality to land into full-fledged artistic territory. Le Stanze del Vetro and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore present a superb show of 155 pieces and installations that trace the history of the American Studiio Glass throu

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Niccolò dell'Arca's Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1463) - Santa Maria della Vita, Bologna

Beyond the Canvas

Sep 13, 2020
2 min

Niccolò dell'Arca's Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1463) - Santa Maria della Vita, Bologna

"This Christ will never be forgotten. Was it made from earth? Was it rotting flesh? I didn’t know what the medium was […] The three Marys enraged by suffering, demented by the suffering […]. Can you imagine the petrified scream?’ - Gabriele d’Annunzio (1924) Remember the last time you saw an enraged, demented Mary? No, me neither. And that's because, with the Compianto sul Cristo Morto, Nicolò dell'Arca did the unthinkable. He took a sacred subject and then proceeded to treat

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Héctor Zamora's Lattice Detour, The Met rooftop

Beyond the Canvas

Sep 3, 2020
1 min

Héctor Zamora's Lattice Detour, The Met rooftop

"The wall is a monument to openness over enclosure, lightness over heaviness, transience over permanence — it’s also fraught with political meanings." - Héctor Zamora Oh the timeliness. Oh the metaphor. Oh the poetry. Oh the delight. Lattice Detour truly has it all. This wall, in fact, may well be the ultimate installation for a social space in 2020 America. A wall in America - the defining symbol of our (extremely messed up) times. A wall on the Met terrace, one of the most

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Beyond the Canvas

Sep 2, 2020
1 min

Martha Rosler's iconic photomontages

" I want to open a space in people’s minds where they see that they can be active, intellectually and personally, rather than passive recipients of received ideas and prevailing worldviews." - Martha Rosler Martha Rosler (b. 1943) is perhaps best known for her seminal 1975 video performance Semiotics of the Kitchen, in which she flicks the finger at the patriarchal system by playing the role of a raging apron-clad housewife who menacingly wields kitchen implements while going

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Beyond the Canvas

Aug 29, 2020
2 min

Lorna Simpson's fantastical hairscapes

"Black women’s heads of hair are galaxies unto themselves, solar systems, moonscapes, volcanic interiors. The hair she paints has a mind of its own. It is sinuous and cloudy and fully alive. It is forest and ocean, its own emotional weather. We are compelled, always, by the phantasmagorical hair, which both invites and obscures. In these pictures, black women’s phantasmagorical hair is like smoke, but nothing is turning to ash. It is a non-consuming smoke, the mesmerizing bea

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Beyond the Canvas

Aug 27, 2020
2 min

Titus Kaphar's Shifting the Gaze, 2017

Painting is a visual language where everything in the painting is meaningful, is important, is coded. But sometimes, because of the compositional hierarchy, it's hard to see other things. - Titus Kaphar In 2017, Titus Kaphar hosted a TED talk whose title was "Can art amend history?" It's an impassioned speech during which he tells the story of how he first came to engage with art and some the struggles that went with it. Do look it up. While on stage, Kaphar unveils a copy h

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Amy Sherald's portrait of Breonna Taylor

Beyond the Canvas

Aug 24, 2020
1 min

Amy Sherald's portrait of Breonna Taylor

It's been 176 days since Breonna Taylor was killed. Breonna was 26-year-old, she worked as an emergency room technician and was on the frontline in the battle against COVID-19. She was struck down by at least 8 shots fired by Louisville Metro Police Department officers executing a so-called no-knock warrant. Amy Sherald (b.1973) is no stranger to telling stories about Black people. For 20 years she has been doing so in her unique and deceptively understated realist style. Her

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