In our today contemporary culture, it seems like the old dividing line between artists and designers is becoming more and more blurry. Sharing the same scope of inspiration and experimentation, today these creators are not only questioning the limit of the work of art and the everyday object but also investigating our contemporary culture. On the one hand, realizing that form is no longer defined by its pure function but by its meaning, designers started to think in terms of concept. On the other hand, artists are more and more fascinated with design and how it has influenced our visual and popular culture. Thus nowadays, artists and designers are not only exploring each other strategies and fields but also collaborating together. The exhibition �Echo� hopes to present a series of projects reflecting these various and commun creative practices. Among the creators invited to participate:
Reza Abedini - John Armleder - Richard Artschwager - Robert Barry - Karen Chekerdjian - Herbert Hamak - Timor Nasseri - Michelangelo Pistoletto - Keith Sonnier
Reza Abedini (* 1967 in Tehran) Reza Abedini is an outstanding artist and precursor of contemporary graphic design in Iran. In his posters, layouts, books and book covers he combines Persian calligraphy with drawing or photography to create images with powerful messages. In 1993 he founded Reza Abedini Studio in Tehran. He teaches graphic design and visual communication at Tehran University. In 2006 he received the Principal Prince Claus Award.
John Armleder (* 1948 in Geneva, lives and works in Geneva and New York) John Armleder, one of the most important Swiss contemporary artists, was heavily involved with Fluxus during the 1960s and 1970s and was a founder member of the Groupe Ecart in 1969, known primarily for their performances and publications. His work continues to demonstrate the preoccupations of these groups by abandoning hierarchies of different artistic genres and objects. In earlier works he questioned the notion of the authenticity of art with installations that united found objects with abstract paintings executed by Armleder himself, many of which ironically referred to previous modernist examples. He creates dialogues between disparate objects by placing them within an exhibition context, raising the question of possible equivalences that are created between them when viewed in such a setting.
Richard Artschwager (*1923 in Washington DC, USA of German-Russian parents. Lives and works near Hudson, NY) Artschwager is one of the pioneers of contemporary object and installation art, his three-dimensional paintings and two-dimensional sculptures wittily evoke associations with commonplace objects such as furniture and household appliances. Artschwager believed fundamentally in the use of the forms of everyday objects as the basis for his sculpture. While he shared some of these views with his Pop contemporaries, such as Claes Oldenburg, Artschwager's cerebral approach and lack of interest in emulating the bright colors and advertising of capitalist culture in his art set him outside the borders of Pop, and aligning him more closely with, if anyone, the early 20th century surrealist, Marcel Duchamp.
Robert Barry (* 1936 in New York City. Lives and works in Taeneck, New Jersey/USA) Robert Barry is one of the most important protagonists of American conceptual art. His work was exhibited in major international exhibitions of contemporary art, like the Documenta in Kassel and the Biennale of Venice in 1972. Among the conceptual artists who worked more specifically with language, Barry occupies an important position on the bordeline of visul art, poetry and philosophy. He has been working for the last thirty years with words and thoughts which he disperses or projects methodically on a variety of supports or surfaces such as paper, canvas, mirror, wall, floor,�
Karen Chekerdjian (* 1970 in Beirut. Lives in Beirut ) Karen Chekerdjian studied film direction in Paris (ESRA) and Beirut (USJ). She is the co-founder of the communication and Graphic-design Company Mind the Gap- Beirut. After her Master in Industrial Design at the Domus Academy in Milan and a specialization in Design Direction under the supervision of Massimo Morozzi and Ampelio Bucci, she created different objects and furniture, which were produced by the EDRA furniture company. She is developing several projects on her own, which are presented in major design fairs in Milan, Paris, Cologne, New York and Beirut.
Herbert Hamak (*1952 in Unterfranken/Germany. Lives and works in Hammelburg/ Germany) Hamak�s works which lies between painting and sculpture, impress because they are strongly structured, rigorous, transparent and ambiguous entities. The transparency is such as to capture and retain light. The ambiguity lies in the vitreous consistency of the material, a midway point between solid, liquid and airy. The process with which he attains these forms is extremely slow and complex. It is the result of a working method bordering on artistic and scientific experiments using a skilfully prepared mixture of pigments of both natural and synthetic resin and wax. If the surface of a painting usually reflects the light, by contrast light penetrates Hamak's paintings.
Timor Nasseri (* 1972 in Berlin of German-Iranian parents. Lives and works in Berlin) In 1997 Timo Nasseri graduated in photography from the Berliner Lette-Verein. Between 1997 and 2005 he worked for several projects in Germany, Iran, USA, China, Pakistan, Bolivia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. Originally known for his photographs showing a fragment of the object which he is documenting, like the outer surface of fighter aircrafts, Nasseri has now turned to Persian calligraphy sculptures. �Timo Nasseri's work is not so much preoccupied with the serialisation and pure documentation of the depicted subject, but with the process of thoughts and events that - invisible to the viewer - form the context of the individual images. Without direct criticism, Nasseri's photographic and sculptural work deals with socio-political aspects of our times. By showing only a fragment of the subject he is documenting, he leaves the viewer the necessary space to reconstruct the images according to his personal experiences. "
Michelangelo Pistoletto (* 1933 in Biella / Italy. Lives and works in Torino / Italy) Michelangelo Pistoletto is one of the most important protagonists of the Arte Povera mouvement. He gained international recognition with his �Mirror Paintings� in which life-size images of the human figure, usually shown in arrested action, were applied to a polished stainless-steel back-ground as if it were a canvas. Breaking down traditional notions of figurative art, these works reflected the surroundings and the spectator and so made them part of the work, linking art and life, the past and the present in an ever-changing spectacle. In 1965, he began his series Minus Objects, furniture-like sculptures that, instead of being yet more objects in a commodity-obsessed society, offered rewarding psychological and physical experiences for each individual viewer. In 1998 Pistoletto founded in Biella Italy, Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto, a center for the study and promotion of creative activity
Keith Sonnier (* 1941 in Mamou Louisiana / USA. Lives and works in New York) Keith Sonnier is a minimalist, performance, video and light artist. Sonnier was one of the first artists to use light in sculpture in the 60s, and has been one of the most successful with this technique. Since the late sixties, Sonnier has contributed to the development of a new concept of sculpture through the use of inexpensive materials until then unnoticed in art, such as felt, fiberglass, lead, fat, latex, wire, neon, aluminum and glass. One of his most spectacular works is the over one kilometer long �Lichtweg� connecting different terminals at the Munich Airport.
CUE Art Foundation, New York presents GODDESS CLAP BACK: HIP HOP FEMINISM IN ART
11 July - 10 August 2013
"Goddess Clap Back: Hip Hop Feminism in Art is a group exhibition highlighting Hip Hop Feminism as an emerging motif of contemporary artists working with performance, photography, video, collage, sculpture, and sound.
The Showroom, London presents Ricardo Basbaum: re-projecting (london)
12 July - 17 August 2013
The Showroom is delighted to present re-projecting (london), a major new commission by Brazilian artist Ricardo Basbaum, and the first significant presentation of his internationally renowned artwork in the UK.
