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Daniel Dezeuze
Claude Viallat
UNFURLED: SUPPORTS/SURFACES 1966-1976 – GROUP SHOW

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART DETROIT, DETROIT, USAFrom 01/02/2019 to 21/04/2019

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit will present the first exhibition in the Midwest and most comprehensive show to date of the French art movement Supports/Surfaces. This group of fourteen artists, along with several others who were closely affiliated, lived and worked in the south of France, producing artwork marked by an interest in materiality, a lyrical use of color and expansive ideas of what constitutes a painting. French society was undergoing social protests and upheavals in the 1960s that mirrored the civil rights and anti-war movements in the USA. The Supports/Surfaces artists sought new forms and methods to reflect their times: standard art materials were dropped in favor of homespun non-art materials (bed sheets, rope, dish rags) and figuration was replaced by loose, permeable grids that hinted at a more democratic method of art-making and a proposal for humane society. Curated by Wallace Whitney

Omar Ba
SAME DREAM – SOLO SHOW

THE POWER PLANT, TORONTO, CANADAFrom 26/01/2019 to 12/05/2019

The Power Plant presents Omar Ba’s first institutional solo exhibition.Omar Ba’s work engages with some of the most urgent issues of our time: the growing inequality of wealth and power globally, questions around immigration, and our changing relationship with the natural world. His penchant for depicting personal narratives alongside collective ones speaks to the“in-between” condition of his work, as he splits his time between Dakar, Senegal and Geneva, Switzerland, and blends the visual texture of both places through his practice. Ba draws from and intertwines a range of elements— the historical and contemporary, figurative and abstract imagery—from African and European cultures, and the techniques and tools he employs; including corrugated cardboard and canvas, paintbrushes and his hands. Additionally, Ba’s chosen materials are typically selected from his immediate surroundings and repurposed in creative ways. He prepares his surfaces—whether cardboard, canvas or wall—with a black ground, upon which he layers a vivid palette dominated by primary colours. His paintings teem with details as micro-worlds transpire within larger constellations, oscillating between bold planes of colour and intricate outlines, which unravel across their surfaces. The figures and forms portrayed are largely symbolic, referring not to specific individuals, but rather open to universal narratives.    Same Dream brings together several of Ba’s paintings depicting dictators and authority figures, who lead corrupt and violent regimes across the African continent and in other parts of the world, particularly where the legacies of colonialism persist. At times represented as hybrid beasts—part human, part animal— these despotic warlords are typically enveloped in an abundance of lush flora and fauna. Indeed, nature becomes a recurring force across Ba’s oeuvre. These biomorphic shapes are often inspired by Senegal’s dazzling coastal environment in which Ba grew up. In conversation with this group of paintings, the exhibition also presents works that reveal Ba’s affinity for portraying the strength of the human spirit –depictions of youth who, regardless of where they are, share some of the same dreams for the future. For the exhibition at The Power Plant, Ba has developed a new large-scale work directly on the walls of the gallery, exploring a recurrent motif of birth, death and reincarnation across different cultures today. The world of Omar Ba’s painting is a hybrid one, ultimately evoking a shared cosmogony between humans, plants and animals.   Event January 26, 1.00 pm, Studio Theatre, Harbourfront Center, Free admission :  In Conversation, Omar Ba & Nabila Abdel Nabi. In this program, Omar Ba will discuss the evolution of his work with Associate Curator Nabila Abdel Nabi. The two will expand on the exhibition themes of the human spirit and the shared dreams and desires for the future. This conversation will conclude with questions from the audience.   Curator: Nabila Abdel Nabi.  

Pierre et Gilles
LOOKING AT THE PICTORIAL WORLD, SEEMINGLY OLD AND VOLUPTUOUS – SOLO SHOW

KMCA, SEOUL, KOREAFrom 21/12/2018 to 26/05/2019

KMCA (K Museum of Contemporary Art) in Seoul presents a rare and comprehensive retrospective dedicated to French duo Pierre et Gilles;  the most important show ever focusing on these icons of pop contemporary culture in Korea. Looking at the Pictorial World, Seemingly Old and Voluptuous looks back at Pierre et Gilles’ itinerary from the 1970’s until today, gathering up to 200 works within a special scenography. The Korean public, truly attached to the artist’s work for the past 15 years, is eager to meet them again.

Claude Viallat
VINGT-QUATRE HEURES DE LA VIE D’UNE FEMME – GROUP SHOW

MAMC, SAINT ETIENNE, FRANCE From 01/01/2019 to 22/09/2019

250 works novelize the intimate and the universal. The exhibition Vingt-quatre heures de la vie d’une femme (twenty-four hours of a woman’s life) tells the story of an imaginary and multiple day. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and objects of design illustrate this fiction of everyday life, from awakening to dreaming. The works are presented differently, in a spirit closer to everyone’s everyday life, reconnecting art to the present. It’s about telling another history of art: a history of emotions and life.

Oda Jaune
HEARTLAND – SOLO SHOW

NATIONAL GALLERY/PALACE, SOFIA, BULGARIAFrom 23/11/2018 to 13/01/2019

The National Gallery is presenting Oda Jaune in Bulgaria for the first time ever, with a large-scale retrospective exhibition gathering 50 of the artist‘s work in painting, sculpture and water-colours from the earliest periods of her carеer to present times.  Oda Jaune’s style is remindful of the Old Masters yet jettisons the viewer into the world of surrealism, and German expressionism alike. For she has created a world of her own, where the artist does not have to bow to the conventional, and her work probes deep into the subconscious. Oda Jaune creates an alternative universe full of omnipowerful beauty and calm, poetry and romanticism while remaining mindful of the potent forces of violence, eroticism and irony. Mindful of detail and proportions, careful of how she changes the scale, applying a photorealistic precision in her creation of individual shapes, the artist engages in a juxtaposition of the elements, a principle that becomes prominent in her visual narrative. Emotional states and images emerging from the subconscious, come out of the depths to materialize on the surface into part horrible, part entertaining images. The viewer freely enters the fairy world of fantasies, only to be submerged into a vortex of emotions. For this viewer has been entangled in a crossword, a visual enigma whose central part contains the whole truth about the artist‘s attitude to love and eroticism, to fear and pain. Curated by Nadezhda Dzhakova

Jean-Michel Alberola
Jan Fabre
FUTURS ANTéRIEURS – GROUP SHOW

MAISON GUERLAIN, PARIS, FRANCE From 19/10/2018 to 09/11/2018

For the 12th consecutive year, Guerlain is once again taking part in FIAC’s Parcours Privé and marking the occasion by presenting the group exhibition Past Futures, which can be discovered at the Maison Guerlain, 68 avenue des Champs-Élysées.  Past Futures offers a journey on three levels through multiple worlds – installations, videos, photos, drawings, paintings, interactive objects, etc. – bringing together young creative figures and established artists, such as Jean-Michel Alberola, Jan Fabre, Christian Boltanski, Arotin & Serghei, Charlotte Charbonnel, Fabrice Hyber, Mehdi Meddaci, Albertine Meunier and Claire Morgan. Curator: Caroline Messensee

Jim Dine
JIM DINE. FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE POMPIDOU CENTER – SOLO SHOW

MULTIMEDIA ART MUSEUM, MOSCOW, RUSSIA From 14/09/2018 to 11/11/2018

The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow presents an exhibition by eminent American artist and classic of contemporary art Jim Dine. Works included in the exhibition were donated by Dine to the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, where his retrospective was held to great acclaim in the autumn of 2017. The artist himself selected 28 works from the period 1961 to 2016 to be showcased in the exhibition, motivated by his desire to give the public a more comprehensive view of his art. Curators: Bernard Blistène (Director of the Centre Pompidou), Annalisa Rimmaudo

Jan Fabre
Oda Jaune
Hans Op De Beeck
THE SENSATION OF THE SEA. IN HONOUR OF BAS JAN ADER – GROUP SHOW

MESDAG COLLECTION, THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS From 14/09/2018 to 06/01/2019

From 14 September 2018 to 6 January 2019 The Sensation of the Sea: In Honour of Bas Jan Ader is presented at The Mesdag Collection in The Hague. For this exhibition, guest curator Joanna De Vos has invited several international artists to engage in a dialogue with The Mesdag Collection. These contemporary artists are captivated by the grandeur and tempestuousness of the ocean. The attraction of the sea is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for them, a ‘battery for the imagination’. Odes to the performance In Search of the Miraculous by the Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader (1942-1975) form the exhibition’s connecting thread. Ader disappeared in 1975 as he attempted to sail across the Atlantic. His soul became one with the untameable power of the sea. The tributes to Ader’s artistic practice highlight the enticement and mystery of the ocean. Visitors are encouraged to discover how the contemporary artworks integrate into the nineteenth-century museum and to prepare themselves for a series of surprising and special ‘encounters’.  

Chiharu Shiota
EMBODIED – SOLO SHOW

ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUTRALIA, ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA From 24/08/2018 to 28/10/2018

The solo exhibition features recent drawings and sculptures as well as photographs and videos of early performance work. In addition, the site-specific installation “Absence Embodied”, which has been acquired by the Gallery, is displayed at the Melrose Wing of European Art along with the installation “Internal” which is suspended from the galleries facade, allowing a glimpse of what lies inside.

Oda Jaune
MADEMOISELLE – GROUP SHOW

CRAC, SETE, FRANCE From 21/07/2018 to 06/01/2019

MADEMOISELLE, is a group exhibition that brings together a generation of international women artists exploring the issues and paradoxes of being a young woman today, through a variety of mediums and a broad range of subjects. Referencing France’s recent ban on the title ‘Mademoiselle’ and drawing upon the past years’ global interest in women’s rights, best characterized as the #MeToo phenomenon, the exhibition exposes the manifold heritage, expansion and evolution of feminist art strategies and theories today.  With among others Oda Jaune, Laure Prouvost, Mai-Thu Perret, Pilar Corrias, Anna Uddenberg, Mimosa Echard, Gery Georgevia

Chiharu Shiota
WATER AND LAND – NIIGATA ART FESTIVAL 2018 – GROUP SHOW

NIIGATA CITY, JAPAN From 14/07/2018 to 08/10/2018

From ancient times, Niigata has had a strong connection with water and land as a port town and a major river town. This connection is the theme for the Water and Land Art Festival. Artists from around the world will display their artwork in the lower Shinano River area in the heart of Niigata City. With among others Jaume Plensa, Yoichi Takada, Chiharu Shiota. 

Chiharu Shiota
DE FILS OU DE FIBRES – GROUP SHOW

ABBAYE SAINT ANDRE CENTRE D'ART CONTEMPORAIN, MEYMAC, FRANCEFrom 08/07/2018 to 14/10/2018

Many artists today reappropriate, explore, or rework artisanal techniques that were long ignored: from yarn and weaving to knitting, patchwork, and even embroidery. The return to textiles goes far beyond the femininity with which it was traditionally associated. The experimentation leads to abundant artistic practices from protean installations to the object.  The exhibition brings together the works of artists who use as their material yarn, rope, string, and even iron or plastic wire so long as these materials are shaped, knotted, or woven. Also featured are canvas, veil, felt … All of which is on show across the five floors of the abbey.  With among others Chiharu Shiota, Mona Hatoum, Kapwani Kiwanga, Claire Morgan  

Jan Fabre
JAN FABRE : ECSTASY & ORACLES – SOLO SHOW

CATTEDRALE DI MONREALE, PALERMO, ITALYFrom 06/07/2018 to 04/11/2018

For the first time in Europe Jan Fabre presents Ecstasy and Oracles for the occasion of Manifesta12 organised by Mondo Mostre, Palermo Capitale della Cultura 2018, Regione Siciliana. The scarab, ancient symbol of metamorphosis and an early alter-ego of artist Jan Fabre – the holy dung beetle of Antwerp – is central to the exhibition in Monreale. Small bronzes refer to the vital quest of the artist while the life-size bronze sculpture, The man who bears the cross, balances the limits of faith. A cycle of large mosaics made with jewel beetle wing-cases explores the eternal cycle of life and death, reoccurring in Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas. Curated by Joanna De Vos and Melania Rossi. Monday to Saturday, 9.00 – 19.00, Holidays, 9.00 – 13.30

Jan Fabre
THE OFFICIAL INAUGURATION OF JAN FABRE’S NEWLY CREATED PERMANENT ALTARPIECES FOR AMUZ – PUBLIC PROCUREMENT

SAINT AUGUSTIN CHURCH OF ANTWERP (AMUZ), ANTWERP, BELGIUM From 02/07/2018

In 1628, the Antwerp trinity of Rubens, Jordaens and Van Dyck received the assignment from the Augustinian monks to make altarpieces for their cloister church in the Kammenstraat. This year, Jan Fabre is receiving the same honour upon the occasion of Antwerp Baroque 2018. He translates – or rather ‘re-tells’ – the altarpieces of Jordaens, Van Dyck and Rubens in the language of 2018 and frames them in their contemporary context.

Prune Nourry
LA DESTRUCTION N’EST PAS UNE FIN EN SOI – SOLO SHOW

MAGASIN ELECTRIQUE, ARLES, FRANCE From 02/07/2018 to 23/09/2018

Young French artist Prune Nourry has been invited by publisher Actes Sud to take part for the first time in the Arles Rencontres Photographiques festival. She will be presenting a series of works in a former SNCF workshop featuring photographs and sculptures as well as the giant Buddha she recently created for the Musée National des Arts Asiatiques (Guimet) in Paris.  Prune Nourry’s photographs narrate the long-term projects she has undertaken in China and India on the theme of the gender selection of children. With these travel tales and unexpected encounters orchestrated between her hybrid creatures and passers-by in the streets of Delhi, she captures and highlights the creative process as a participant in its own right, the images revealing the underlying matter, from earth to milk. She creates a dialogue between her sculptures – the Holy Daughters, half girls, half holy cows – and the photographs, or “sculpted images”, which extend her probing of women’s status and the misuse of science while questioning their medium. Prune Nourry, Men Without Women, Holy Daughter, New Delhi, 2010. Courtesy of the artist. Associated programme, Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles 2018. Venue: Magasin Electrique – Opening hours: 10 am – 7.30 pm

Jan Fabre
MA NATION : L’IMAGINATION – SOLO SHOW

FONDATION MARGUERITE ET AIME MAEGHT, SAINT-PAUL, FRANCE From 30/06/2018 to 11/11/2018

From June 30 to November 11, 2018, the Maeght Foundation will welcome Belgian artist Jan Fabre. This “customized” exhibition, designed for the Fondation, will be devoted to his sculptures and drawings – many of them brand new – dealing with the mind, the body, our dreams and especially our imagination, in conversation with scientific discoveries and art history.   Fabre wanted this exhibition to be spiritual in every sense of the word, at once dreamlike and serious but with the irony of games and a humor in the style of James Ensor. The mind and the brain become a source, a land, a character whose adventures we can experience through the show. Sometimes considered provocative and iconoclastic, the “contemporary mystic” Jan Fabre keeps in mind the memory of the Flemish Primitives and the old masters of Flemish Baroque and builds on the tradition to daringly plunge into the unknown: “The brain represents, to me, a metaphor for the terra incognita. Dealing with art and beauty is to always walk along the path of this terra incognita“. Like science which relies on knowledge to initiate discovery, the notion of experience, through the study and observation of things, makes up one of the foundations of Fabre’s work and his approach. Cerveau de Janus (Yeux verts) 2012. Silicon, paint and glass, synthetic lashes, wooden base. Photo Pat Verbruggen © Angelos bvba

Julião Sarmento
LEOPARD IN A CAGE – SOLO SHOW

CENTRO INTERNACIONAL DAS ARTES JOSE DE GUIMARAES, GUIMARAES, PORTUGAL From 29/06/2018 to 07/10/2018

This exhibition is dedicated solely to bringing together unique works by Julião Sarmento – never before seen or never before produced pieces – which cover the career of one of the most prominent Portuguese artists, with these works related to certain periods and various areas which we paradoxically have little record of. The exhibition curators have collaborated with the artist to bring this exercise of reconstitution to fruition. Curated by Nuno Faria and Filipa Oliveira

David LaChapelle
Kehinde Wiley
MICHAEL JACKSON: ON THE WALL – GROUP SHOW

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON, UK From 28/06/2018 to 21/10/2018

This landmark exhibition explores the influence of Michael Jackson on some of the leading names in contemporary art, spanning several generations of artists across all media. Curated by Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, the exhibition will open in the summer of 2018 to coincide with what would have been Michael Jackson’s 60th birthday (on August 29, 2018). With among others Andy Warhol, David Hammons, David LaChapelle, Kehinde Wiley, Glenn Ligon.

Chiharu Shiota
WILLKOMMEN IM LABYRINTH – GROUP SHOW

MARTA HERFORD, MUSEUM FOR ART, ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, HERFORD, GERMANY From 23/06/2018 to 23/09/2018

Labyrinths are based on complex systems that challenge our orientation in a playful way. In a globalized world they become symbolic signs that give the growing feeling of confusion a tangible form. The motif of the labyrinth has also gained new significance in art. The room structures, many of which were developed especially for the exhibition, invite you to lose your way with passion, and to experience the search for orientation as a productive force. Artists: Anne Hardy, Peter Kogler, Christian Odzuck, Royden Rabinowitch, Chiharu Shiota, Song Dong

Prune Nourry
THE AMAZON – SOLO SHOW

STANDARD PLAZA NYC, NEW YORK, USAJune 21, until end of June 2018

French artist Prune Nourry’s Amazon is to be installed and unveiled on the Standard High Line Plaza. A13 feet tall Amazonian woman with a wounded breast, the sculpture was inspired by Greek mythology and a marble statue on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  On June 21 this contemporary urban warrior made of winterstone will be celebrated in a musical incense ceremony and live performance by the artist accompanied by Jon Batiste on solo piano at The Standard Plaza.  Rooted in her intimate experience of breast cancer, and echoing a once claimed tradition that the Amazons cut off their right breast to be more competent archers, Prune Nourry will later on break one of the breasts from The Amazon’s bust in a cathartic gesture, during a secret ceremony. Similar to Destruction Is Not The End – a ruined, fragmented monumental Buddha created by Prune Nourry for the Museum of National Asian Arts in Paris – The Amazon is partly covered with red incense sticks, recalling both acupuncture needles and ex-votos. She evokes a deity calling for care and healing – her gaze is iridescent, her glass eyes making her feel alive. The concrete woman aims to deliver a message to all women, warriors and survivors.  Nourry’s Amazon will be on display in The Plaza at The Standard, High Line until the end of June. Following the installation’s residency at The Standard, the sculpture will be sold at auction; part of the proceeds will be donated toward education regarding cancer-preventative lifestyles, wellness, and support for women living with cancer. INAUGURATION June 21 – Performance by the artist pomptly at 9 pm – arrival time 8:45 pm suggested