International Art News

Lea Vendetta – “A tes Amours #1 , 8″ x 10″, Acrylic on canvas, 2009

From November 24 to December 7, 2012- Studio 1608
The primary goal for this event is to provide an art exhibition space for both established and emerging artists while fostering interaction between the artists and their supporter and the community at large.

Laura-Ann Jacobs – Don’t bet on It – lifesize, made of fiberglass, glass, porcelain and miscellaneous gambling material.

Over 50 artists in multiple disciplines.

Clemente Mimun – The Enchantress – 17 X 20 – Oil on Canvas

Clemente . Jefro . Steve Johnson . Montana Pritchard . Ellen Liman . Dora Frost . C.J. Walker – Verda Bradford . Orlando Chiang . Carol Cohen . Reinier Gamboa . Judy Gilbert . Durga Garcia . Bob Hall . Laura Ann Jacobs . Christopher Leidy . Dan Neuman . Scott Rhea . Jim Sagui . Liz Segal . Greg Taylor . Thomas Tribby . Lea Vendetta . Veronica Volani-Inza . Irmeli Ylinen .  Curator: Jenny Yemaya

Studio 1608

May 13 — June 12, 2011 – Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the «G. O. S. T.» gallery present the project «Alexander Kuzkin. It’s White. It’s Black», the first retrospective show of the artist since 1985. The aim of the project is to show the artist’s wide range of interests. Kuzkin worked as a book designer, illustrator, industrial designer, painter, photographer, poster artist and graphic designer.

The first part of the exhibition contains prints. Alexander Kuzkin was a student of the Moscow University of Printing Arts, the Faculty of Printing Technology. The university was famed for its free creative atmosphere. Though the artist studied industrial design, he found time for mastering his drawing techniques.

The next part of the exhibition demonstrates the book design and two conceptual books-objects. Kuzkin was very imaginative, when he was occupied with book design. He invented an object, rather than just decorated a book. In a sense, he was one of the founders of the mail art in Russia. Kuzkin created a project of the edition «The Sorrows of Young Werther» by Goethe. It was a combination of the mail art and book design. Pieces of the edition, displayed at the exhibition, are letters to be mailed to readers during a certain period of time.

His second celebrated book-object is Anna Akhmatova’s «Requiem». It consists of the series of lithographs with verses in the Chinese style. Kuzkin created this edition for the International Book Art Exhibition in Germany in 1982. It was a period when the «Requiem» was still suppressed and was not published in full. The exhibition presents the layout of the book, restored by Andrei Kuzkin, the artist’s son, who is a well-known contemporary artist, the winner of the Innovation Prize 2009.

The exhibition also demonstrates the artist’s posters. Kuzkin was a talented poster artist. His language was new and individual.

The last artworks by Kizkin are remarkable for the abstract style and bold creative idea. In the early 1980s, such art was still provocative and distinguished the artists who were not afraid of experimenting and did not limit their creativity by self-censorship.

It is impossible to label what art movement Kuzkin’s original and many-sided art belongs to. His artworks have features of minimalism, concept art and abstract art. It makes his art close to the Western Modernist art of the 20 century. Thus, Kuzkin becomes an original representative of the Russian Nonconformist art.

Alexander Kuzkin died from heart disease in 1983. He was 33. He knew he would not live a long life. But it did not prevent him from following his own creative way, experimenting, trying different spheres and taking the risk. Alexander Kuzkin achieved so much in his short life. The fact can’t stop surprising.

Museum Hours

From the first of September to the 10th of October 2010 – DEPO Istambul
Curated by Halil Altındere, the most comprehensive contemporary art exhibition of the year, brings together 48 artists of different generations from Turkey, who explore the threshold between freedom of expression and crime.

Halil Altındere chooses an (art) historical reference once again for the title of his fifth curatorial undertaking: inspired by Herald Szeeman’s exhibition “When Attitudes Become Form”, he brings together 48 artists with the slogan “When Ideas Become Crime”.

Altındere displays a position of opposition and provocation by presenting political attitudes put forth by artists. One axis of the exhibition is articulated by works, which reflect on militarism, power, hierarchy, nationalism, collective memory, border and gender politics.  There is also a more introspective approach, which self-critically reflects on the symbolic economy and power structures among which contemporary art is flourishing.

As it has been with previous Halil Altındere exhibitions, struggles in the cultural field are being organized to empower the collective spirit. The exhibition brings together artists from different generations and multiple geographical locations; İstanbul, İzmir, Diyarbakır, Mardin, Berlin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and New York. This constellation allows for recognizing similar tendencies as well as starting a dialogue between different artistic and political positions. By bringing together works by Altan Gürman, Gülsün Karamustafa and Hüseyin Alptekin with generations who started their practice in 1990s and 2000s, relationships between generations are constructed. Being the work of an artist-curator, the exhibition supports the production of many new works, as well as opening up an experimental space for context-specific reinterpretation of existing works.

Artists in the exhibition:
Gülçin Aksoy, Nevin Aladağ, Hüseyin Alptekin, Anti-pop, Burak Arıkan, Caner Aslan, Volkan Aslan, Atılkunst, Vahap Avşar, Tufan Baltalar, Ramazan Bayrakoğlu, Bashir Borlakov, Canan, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, Burak Delier, Mehmet Dere, Ersan Deveci, Nazım Hikmet Dikbaş, Elçin Ekinci, Gökçe Erhan, İnci Furni, Murat Gök, Deniz Gül, Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt, Nilbar Güreş, Altan Gürman, Hakan Gürsoytrak, Hazavuzu, iç mihrak, Gözde İlkin, Berat Işık, Gülsün Karamustafa, Ali Kazma, Levent Kunt, Can Kurucu, Ali Miharbi, Ahmet Öğüt, Suat Öğüt, Serkan Özkaya, Şener Özmen, İz Öztat, Nejat Satı, Erinç Seymen, Cengiz Tekin, İrem Tok, Nasan Tur, Nalan Yırtmaç.

Halil Altındere, who also participated in Documenta, Manifesta, Sao Paolo, Guanju, Setinye and İstanbul Biennials as an artist, has curated ‘I am Bad and I am Proud’ (2002), ‘I am Too Sad to Kill You’ (2003), ‘Free Kick’ (2005), ‘Be A Realist, Demand the Impossible’ (2007).

DEPO hours