All posts by butterfly

Studio visit: Hisham Echafaki

March 15, 2017 butterfly

We stopped by the London studio of contemporary artist Hisham Echafaki as he prepares a new body of work with drawings, surrealist paintings,3D paintings and prints to be showcased at the Talented Art Fair opening this Friday.

His surrealist compositions show a real fascination for nature and the animal world through intricate symmetry and patterns with a trompe l’oeil effect.

Most intriguing are the 3D paintings. Using several layers of resin, Hisham Echafaki paints three-dimensional insects, that give the optical illusion they are taxidermy specimen embedded in resin. Each piece is a tribute to the beautiful intricacy and complexity of the insect world but also a critique of how humans are affecting and shaping evolutionary changes in animal species.

In parallel a series of prints from his famous Ballets will be released at the Fair and online here

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Hisham Echafaki
Talented Art Fair
17-19 March 2017
Truman Brewery
London E1 6QR

Dresden, streets

Dresden: ‘Monument’ to Aleppo sparks emotional debate

March 9, 2017 butterfly

A Syrian war memorial is currently dividing Dresden, itself a symbol of the ravages of war.
‘Monument’, featuring three buses standing upright, was erected in February 2017 next to the famous baroque Frauenkirche, which was initially devastated by Allied bombs in 1945 and then rebuilt brick by brick after the German unification, becoming a symbol of peace and reconciliation.

Manaf Halbouni, a Syrian-born artist with German roots, was inspired by a powerful image that was seen worldwide in 2015: Residents of Aleppo put bombed-out buses on their sides in the heart of the formerly thriving industrial city to protect themselves from sharpshooters. The buses became a symbol of the resistance movement in the town which, by the end of 2016, had been nearly totally destroyed by war.

In Dresden, the sculpture is comprised of three outdated public buses. The artist said he intentionally used buses that had not been wrecked, as a symbol of the peace that can still be found in Germany – unlike in Syria.

Designed to draw attention to the Syrian war while appealing for peace and humanity, the art installation has sparked an emotional debate in the city. Halbouni’s work was installed to coincide with the 72nd anniversary of the Allied raids that devastated the city. The bombings by British and American warplanes on a militarily insignificant city remain the source of resentment, and far-right groups tried to use the annual memorial to push a revisionist view of history that Dresden was a victim of an Allied war crime.

Curator of Kunsthaus Dresden Mennicke-Schwarz added: “It’s thought-provoking and that’s what we wanted: to connect the terrible suffering of the war in Syria to Dresden, to connect the commemoration of the victims of the past with those of the present. It seemed so appropriate to give us a small insight into how civilians are trying to get by at the moment in Syrian cities.”

On display in the city through April 3, the installation was funded through donations from the local community. The artist said he found it important to show that there is a side to Dresden which stands in contrast to the anti-foreigner movement that has become associated with the city.

Shows

Nice: C215 ‘Introspective’ @ GCA Gallery

March 5, 2017 butterfly

A month after his opening of his show ‘Athlètes’at the Musée National du Sport, French stencil artist C215 is back to Nice, South of France, for an exhibition entitled ‘Introspective’ at the GCA Gallery.

Featuring a series of intricate stencilled portraits, the artist retranscribes a wide range of emotions whether the gentle insanity in Dalí’s look, the disillusioned impression of his daughter Nina, questioning with Renoir, dreamy with Brigitte Lahaie, the serenity of his Simone Veil. The medium starts to echo the subject depicted and participates in the narration like Niki de Saint Phalle on a rifle or Pasteur on a milk carton. The artist also created a tribute mural to Lili, his recently adopted dog, who was happily posing for pictures while C215 was signing books to the delighted audience.

C215 – Instrospective
Until 1 April 2017
GCA Gallery
16 bis rue Catherine Ségurane
06300 Nice – France

Uncategorized

Bethlehem: Banksy opens The Walled Off Hotel

March 3, 2017 butterfly 1 Comment

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10 years after his first initiative in Bethlehem, elusive British artist Banksy has returned to unveiled his latest project: The Walled Off Hotel , with 10 rooms nestled against the controversial barrier wall separating Israel from the Palestinian territories.

Located in the historic city, the hotel with its nine rooms for £30 a night and one presidential suite, will be open for bookings on its website later this month. It’s a real business adventure, aiming to bring jobs and tourists to a town whose pilgrim and sightseeing-based economy has been ravaged by ever tighter Israeli controls on travel between Israeli and Palestinian territories.

There have been few reasons for Israelis to visit Bethlehem in recent years, because they are banned by law from visiting the town and all its main tourist sites.

It contains dozens of Banksy works, a themed bar and interactive exhibits. One depicts the signing of the Balfour Declaration which set the conditions for the establishment of Israel 100 years ago this year.

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The hotel has been “decorated to resemble an English gentlemen’s club from colonial times” in recognition of the historical role Britain played in the region.

Banksy says people from all sides of the Middle East conflict are welcome to stay, and he is not affiliated to any political party or pressure group.

From the 11th March the museum and art gallery will be open to non-residents every day. Guests can peruse a collection of Banksy artworks that include vandalised oil paintings and statues choking on tear gas fumes. The gallery space enjoys complete autonomy from the rest of the hotel and is curated by the venerated historian and critic Ismal Duddera. He has assembled a permanent collection of real heft and significance. Many of the most notable Palestinian artists from the past 20 years are here – including Sliman Mansour with his iconic “And the Convoy Keeps Going”. An adjoining space is dedicated to temporary shows by upcoming artists.

The museum is dedicated solely to the biography of the wall. It contains state-of-the-art audio visual presentations and a very old tree. Other highlights includes an animated history of the region, military pornography and original beach sculpture from Gaza. The cinema plays excerpts from the mighty Oscar nominated ‘Five Broken Cameras’ – and one of those very same bullet-damaged cameras is on display.
Curated in association with Dr Gavin Grindon from Essex University the museum contains almost fully fact-checked material and will be an ongoing repository for local stories, artefacts and testimonies.

The Hotel also features a graffiti supplies store called ‘Wall – Mart’ that will launch on 20th March, providing supplies for clients who want to paint the Wall nearby.

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Photo credit: The Guardian / The Walled Off Hotel

The Walled Off Hotel
182 Caritas Street, Bethlehem, Palestine

www.walledoffhotel.com

Malaga, Shows

Malaga: Mark Ryden’s “Cámara de las Maravillas”

February 27, 2017 butterfly

Since its opening last December “Cámara de las Maravillas”, the first solo show in Europe by American artist and father of Pop Surrealism Mark Ryden (1963, Medford, Oregon), has brought thousands of people to the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo (CAC) in Málaga, Spain. Curated by Fernando Frances, the exhibitions retraces over 20 years of creation by the artist, and features 55 works including iconic pieces such Incarnation (2009) –which inspired inspiration Lady Gaga’s 2010 meat dress-, most of which are kept in private collections.

Visitors are greeted by the 2012 painting The Parlor – Allegory of Magic, Quintessence, and Divine Mystery , which anticipates many of the elements to be encountered throughout the exhibition: a magical juxtaposition of hybrid creatures in a theatrical setting surrounded by a myriad of symbols, with a perfect rendering of oil painting techniques. The meticulous and detailed work reminds us of Renaissance and Surrealist masters with a contemporary pop culture twist.

The earliest work in the exhibition is the painting Saint Barbie (1994), while the most recent, the sculpture Wood Meat Dress (2016), was created especially for the Málaga show. From the young girl worshiping a goddess-like Barbie doll to the eerie, sad-eyed sculpted lady, we can appreciate the evolution of Mark Ryden’s distinctive portraiture of the female characters through the years.

The show presents all the different series that the artist has exhibited in the past –The Meat Show (1998), Bunnies & Bees (2001), Blood (2003), The Tree Show (2007), The Snow Yak Show (2009), The Gay 90’s (2010), The Gay 90’s West (2014), and Dodecahedron (2015)— as well as the original artwork for the cover of Michael Jacksons’ album Dangerous and three delicate porcelain figures made in the last five years.

Science and the destruction of Nature are a recurring theme within Mark Ryden’s body of work.

The big exhibition space of the CAC has been articulated in a way that allows the visitor to see many of the pieces at the same time, encouraging many dialogues and correspondences not also between the works, but also between their magnificent frames. These have never been a secondary element for the artist, who designs many of them himself so they perfectly match and complete each of the paintings.

Visitors are invited the view this cabinet of curiosities with the eyes of a child, letting the imagination run free. Fans of Mark Ryden will be delighted to see together such a careful selection of old as well as new pieces, while those unfamiliar with the artist have here a wonderful opportunity to dive into his enigmatic universe, which is very much alive and still evolving.