International Art News

Max Ernst, The Fireside Angel (The Triumph of Surrealism), 1937, Oil on canvas, 114 × 146 cm, Private collection © 2013, ProLitteris, Zurich

From may 25 to September 8, 2013 – The Fondation Beyeler
Max Ernst (1891–1976) is one of modernism’s most versatile artists. Having started out as a Dadaist in Cologne, he soon became a pioneer of Surrealism in Paris. A tireless creator of new figures, forms and techniques, Max Ernst kept on evolving in new directions even up to his late years. His remarkable oeuvre, which defies any clear stylistic definition, was also shaped by his eventful life and the many different places in which he lived in Europe and America.

The major retrospective at the Fondation Beyeler will present an exemplary selection of over 170 paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures and books by Max Ernst that encompass all aspects of his work. For the first time in Switzerland, visitors will be able to experience the full richness of Max Ernst’s multifaceted oeuvre.

Fondation Beyeler

Jeff Koons – Ballerinas, work in progress – Mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color coating – 100 x 70 x 62 inches © Jeff Koons – Hall 2.0 / B15 – Courtesy Gagosian Gallery NY

From June 13 to June 16 2013 – Halls 1 and 2 of Messe Basel at Messeplatz.
Art Basel has been described as the ‘Olympics of the Art World’. Over 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa show the work of more than 4,000 artists, ranging from the great masters of Modern art to the latest generation of emerging stars.

Hermann Scherer Selbstbildnis in Landschaft, 1924 – 1926 Oil on canvas 109 x 89 cm – Hall 2.0/A3 – Courtesy of Galerie Carzaniga

The show’s individual sectors represent every artistic medium: paintings, sculpture, installations, videos, multiples, prints, photography, and performance. Each day offers a full program of events, including symposiums, films, and artist talks. Further afield, exhibitions and events are offered by cultural institutions in Basel and the surrounding area, creating an exciting, region-wide art week.

Art Basel

Bogoslowsky – astrobiology # 48 – 30” X 32” – Acrylic on canvas

From June 9 to July 29, 2013 – Elena Ab Gallery  – Tribeca, Manhattan, New York
COSMIC PASSION will feature work from the Cosmology Series of Andrey Bogoslowsky.
My fascination with the beauty of our Universe began in 2005,  when I first saw photographs from the Hubble telescope.  They were taken taken at long exposure, and reaching out to the deepest corners of the space. I realized that I also can create such clouds, and give them shapes familiar to us on Earth.  Soon I learned about possible origins of organic life elsewhere and that we, humans, are the results of four billion years of earthly transformation into complexity of our existence. The Universe is full of life and I, as an artist, can elaborate on this subject.  My paintings have become cosmic living symbols of humanity.

Bogoslowsky – Origins of life #732 – 50 X 40 – Acrylic on canvas

ELEMENTS is a series of paintings by Elena Ab that explore the physical and metaphysical building blocks of our world.

Elena Ab, Marilyn Monroe, 2013 – acrylic on canvas – gold and silver – 20″ X 28 “. (Detail)

Elena Ab was born in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russian Federation). As a child she left Russia for Jerusalem with her family. After being discharged from the Israeli Defense Forces, as a sergeant, she attended the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem. In 2001, she moved to New York, and graduated with a BFA in painting from the School of Visual Arts (on a Scholarship Award). While still in school, she started 368 Broadway Studio, in Tribeca.

NYC by Elena at Alpha – 40 inch by 120 acrylic on canvas 2011

The Elena Ab Gallery Tribeca is a new addition to downtown Manhattan, located on 185 Church Street between Reed and Duane. The Gallery is located across from a bus stop, and is a short walk from Chambers Street Station that services the J, M and Z trains. A parking lot is located around the corner. Nestled on a street between many restaurants and shops, the gallery has quickly gained popularity in the community since the opening.

Elena Ab Gallery Tribeca

Jim Shaw, Untitled (Faces in circle), 2009, oil on canvas, 152,4 x 152,4 cm., courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery, London/Hong Kong

From 8 June until 29 September, 2013 – Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen – Submarine Wharf
This summer Klaas Kloosterboer, Chris Martin and Jim Shaw will transform the Submarine Wharf into a gigantic art studio.
In the months leading up to the opening, the artists will be busy at work in the wharf, creating the exhibition on site. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen wishes to demonstrate the resilience and energy of the art of painting with a true ‘battle of the Titans’ between the three artists:

The Amsterdam-based artist Klaas Kloosterboer can be seen as an ‘inventor’. He experiments constantly, altering the form and appearance of his paintings. The exhibition will include works from the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, augmented with loans and new works. Chris Martin lives and works in New York and is the ‘savage painter’: he uses his energy to make each painting an explosion of colour and power. In ‘XXXL Painting’ he will exhibit thirty existing paintings, and in the weeks leading up to the opening he will work on a new painting measuring 13 x 10 metres. Jim Shaw, the ‘storyteller’ from Los Angeles completes the trio. He paints and draws in a figurative, sometimes cartoon-like style on old film sets. In the Submarine Wharf he will present these ‘backdrop’ paintings, some measuring 4 x 15 metres.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

The Sermon of St John the Baptist including Preti’s self-portrait

From May 4 to July 7 2013 – The Palace State Rooms – Valletta
Caravaggio was definitely damned. He never managed to have the recognition of the Order of Malta nor a peaceful death in his bed. One of his epigones did… That was Mattia Preti, a brilliant artist of Roman and Napolitan baroque. He was born in 1613 in Calabria and was a national glory in Malta where he died in 1699. Once he had the protection of the great master Martin de Redin, commissions poured in: his paintings adorn the chapel de la Langue d’Aragon, that of Castilla and Leon as well as in Saint John’s co-cathedral, where he left his greatest masterpiece, the frescoes in the vault. We can well understand that the exhibition organized for his fourth centenary at the palace of the Grand Masters, including loans from the Uffizi, the Prado, the Louvre, from Capodimonte or the museum of Taverna, his native town, must absolutely be accompanied by a visit to the island’s churches. We can see works by Preti at La Valette as well as at Vittoriosa, Rabat, Mdina, Sliema…(Art of the Day Weekly)

Jorge Santos – Inner Circle | 2013 | 80 x 80 inches | Oil and acrylic on canvas

From April 13 to June 15, 2013 – 101 / exhibit – (Melrose Av)
Jorge Santos was born in 1959, and spent his childhood in Luanda, Angola on the coast of Africa. In 1975, Angola exploded in the violent political turmoil of decolonization forcing Santos’ family to flee the country. At the formative age of 16, Santos found himself thrust into the equally turbulent and unknown culture of Lisbon, Portugal as that country slid into its own revolution. The national struggle paralleled Santos’ own personal one and fueled his passion for drawing. At this early stage, pencil drawing, the most simple and direct form of expression, perfectly suited his complicated and dramatic images and expressed his unique vision.

Though of Portuguese descent, the following years brought the artist no sense of belonging, so in 1982, Santos moved to the United States. It was here that his work evolved beyond drawing. His illusory, dreamlike images that hint at bizarre secrets leapt from the drawing board to the full realization of paint and canvas.

In 1990, the self-taught Santos began adding color to his images and in this second period black and white figures stand out in stark contrast to their colored environments. Though the techniques combine acrylic and pencil on board, or oil and acrylic on canvas, a balance of opposites continued to be the focus of his work. With every painting, a stage of ambiguous illusion is created.

Jorge Santos – Maitre D | 2012 | 66 x 80 inches | Oil on canvas

Suddenly, at the end of the millennium, Santos’ paintings burst into full color showing a mature command of his artistry. They are still surreal allegorical works but now tempered with the irony and humor of an eccentric yet adventurous mind.

Figures are frequently fragmented, boxed within rooms, cardboard containers, or trompe l’oeil frames. An unusual icon will repeat itself with humorous frequency: a fish, a plane, a train… His characters seem alienated, odd, socially awkward and disconnected; disconnected also from their backgrounds by texture and technique. The overall impact of the work is disturbing and yet endearingly funny.

While one could spend hours psychoanalyzing Santos’ imagery, perhaps the best path to understanding his work is of that of a master set designer who creates an emotional landscape and populates it with characters to be animated in the imaginations of his viewers. Santos sets the stage and creates the cast, but each individual who sees the work writes his or her own internal play, making Santos’ work a unique, almost interactive, experience.

101 / exhibit