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Beyond the Canvas

An art blog with opinions

Richard Mosse - Displaced, Fondazione MAST

Beyond the Canvas

May 24
2 min

Richard Mosse - Displaced, Fondazione MAST

'Beauty is the main line to make people feel something.' - Richard Mosse It's easy to be fooled by the alluring colours of the striking photo chosen for the advertising poster of this superb exhibition at the MAST Foundation, but anyone who may have been misled by that imagery soon realises what the show is really about. Mosse is interested in the themes of war, displacement and migration, and with his camera he captures beauty and tragedy where there's conflict and destructi

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Laura Aguilar's courageous rebellion

Beyond the Canvas

Mar 23
2 min

Laura Aguilar's courageous rebellion

“My photography has always provided me with an opportunity to open myself up and see the world around me. And most of all, photography makes me look within.” - Laura Aguilar In her series of self-portraits set in the rocky desert landscape of the American Southwest, Laura Aguilar used her body like a sculpture, she is a human monolith. Her large body is draped on a big boulder whose shape echoes hers. It's hard to say whether she felt at one with nature or whether she was try

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Kerry James Marshall IS the canon

Beyond the Canvas

Feb 4
2 min

Kerry James Marshall IS the canon

“Who needs to NOT think of you as a Black artist to consider you a real artist?” - Kerry James Marshall There are a handful of artists whose work I revere to the point that I don't dare write about them. Kerry James Marshall is one of them, and today I'm taking the plunge. I came across this video where he cites Langston Hughes' writings on how Black artists should not aspire to paint or write like white people, but rather should "express their individual dark-skinned selves

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Rewriting the art canon: Kehinde Wiley's triptych for Penn Station, NYC

Beyond the Canvas

Jan 28
2 min

Rewriting the art canon: Kehinde Wiley's triptych for Penn Station, NYC

"I like Venetian painting a lot: looking at Giovanni Battista Tiepolo is one of my favourite things to do. When I went to my first Venice Biennale, I was blown away when I saw the works of these artists on the ceilings. The technical proficiency impressed me." - Kehinde Wiley Although these days our lives are mostly confined within the domestic walls, the time will come again when we get to enjoy the thrill of being in a public space that has been elevated by art. You know, t

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Experience and participation in Olafur Eliasson's The Weather Project

Beyond the Canvas

Jan 12
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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May Steven's Dark Flag

Beyond the Canvas

Jan 8
2 min

May Steven's Dark Flag

"Political activity does not interfere with my work, it feeds it. And if I'm interested in racism and fighting racism, then that should show up—will show up—in my work.” - May Stevens A committed civil-rights activist and feminist, between 1967 and 1976 Stevens produced a series of paintings called Big Daddy, where she addressed and channelled her anger towards her own father's racist views. Painted at the end of that period, Dark Flag marks the 200th anniversary of the Decla

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Kim Abeles' Smog Collectors

Beyond the Canvas

Oct 31, 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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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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Americans in Venice

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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Lorna Simpson's fantastical hairscapes

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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Titus Kaphar's Shifting the Gaze, 2017

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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A few thoughts on Among the Trees - Hayward Gallery, London

Beyond the Canvas

Aug 16, 2020
2 min

A few thoughts on Among the Trees - Hayward Gallery, London

Ever heard of that theory according to which trees are immortal? No? Then you clearly do not know me very well. Of course trees are not immortal, but I choose to believe that they are. The reason is quite simple: in a world where man keeps devising new and more effective ways to destroy nature, the fact that some trees have survived for thousands of years is a pretty good indicator that they are being rather successful in their quest for immortality. The first work I saw upon

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Njideka Akunyili Crosby's identity tales

Beyond the Canvas

Jun 14, 2020
2 min

Njideka Akunyili Crosby's identity tales

A powerhouse. There is no other way to describe this extraordinary artist whose breakneck rise has seen her work displayed and celebrated at some of the major art venues globally (MOCA and Venice Biennale to name a couple). Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based Akunyili Crosby (b. 1983) is a child of the African diaspora. We see it in her vibrant work, which is imbued with personal and cultural references. Her large, unframed canvases tell stories about herself and her family, but

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In Memoriam: Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935-2020)

Beyond the Canvas

Jun 6, 2020
2 min

In Memoriam: Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935-2020)

Christo left us earlier this week, he died in his New York home at the age of 84. Together with his life and work partner Jeanne-Claude (d. 2009) he created some of the most visually arresting temporary large-scale installations ever seen. Their work was visionary and unique, it truly stretched the boundaries of what we understand as art. Through their signature wrapping and draping technique, they used monuments, landmarks, bridges, islands, buildings, and nature itself as t

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Flashback no. 3: Robert Longo at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (19 October 2016)

Beyond the Canvas

Apr 13, 2020
2 min

Flashback no. 3: Robert Longo at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (19 October 2016)

Discovery no. 1: Gorky Park is a name I used to associate with a spy movie from the 80s. Now I know where it is, it took me well over an hour to walk there on a cold, wind-swept autumn day. The park, of which sadly I only saw a fraction, is also the home of Garage, founded in 2008 by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and his former spouse Dasha Zhukova. Discovery no. 2: I had not come across the work of Robert Longo before, it was one of those unexpected and wonderful even

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Flashback no. 2: Jaume Plensa, 56th Venice Biennale (11 October 2015)

Beyond the Canvas

Apr 11, 2020
1 min

Flashback no. 2: Jaume Plensa, 56th Venice Biennale (11 October 2015)

With permanent installations across the globe, Barcelona-born Jaume Plensa is the one of the doyens of large scale artistic projects in public spaces. Plensa uses thousands of letters and the shape of the human body to create sculptural works that convey great intensity combined with a mysterious serenity. With the aid of iron, glass and resin, he balances form and scale to give life to works that are both soothing and compelling. The theme of the heads of young women is a re

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