Celebrity Life

Founded by Portuguese settlers in the 16th century, Salvador was the first capital of Brazil and is to this day one of the oldest colonial cities in South America. A city full of spirit and color, Salvador shines through its dancing, music, and delicious food. The city is split into two levels, easily accessible by […]

The post Following The Afro-Brazilian Dance Culture In Salvador Bahia appeared first on Upscale Living Magazine.

Did you know that there’s more to Asia’s "sin city" than just gambling and casinos? Macau is now positioning itself as an art destination with Art Macao, a five-month exhibition taking over the entire city. The highly anticipated 'International Art Exhibition' will be held at the Macao Museum of Art, while musical and theatrical performances will take place everywhere from educational institutions to hotels and resorts. Not to mention art installations peppered around town in public spaces and street corners, transforming the SAR into one big immersive art gallery.

From June to October, Macau will be imbued with artistic vitality and creativity, promising surprises around each corner. Below, we share a sneak preview of what to expect and highlight the spots we’re most excited about.

The post Mega Cultural Event Art Macao Opens This Summer appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

You'll still need to travel to New York for Museum of Modern Art -- one of the oldest and largest contemporary art institutions in the US and, indeed, the world -- but at least now you can enjoy its art in the form of everyday objects inspired by the artists who have exhibited at the museum. Set to open its doors in August at Hong Kong’s K11 MUSEA, the new MoMA Design Store spans over 6,000 square feet, making it the largest one in Asia (the other two locations are in Tokyo and Kyoto).

Much like other MoMA Design Stores across the globe, the Hong Kong store will feature an immersive shopping environment in a contemporary setting that encourages guests to explore and enjoy art. Expect a specially curated collection of furniture, home décor, and lifestyle items designed in the style and fashion of legendary artists such as Frida Kahlo, Yayoi Kusama, KAWS, Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and many more.

For a more detailed look at what you can buy from the MoMA Design Store, we've gone ahead and picked some of our favourite items. Here's what we have on our MoMA shopping list so far:

[gallery ids="146239,146240,146233,146234,146230,146238,146232,146236,146237,146231,146254,146258"]

MoMA Design Store, K11 MUSEA, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

The post Asia’s Largest MoMA Design Store Is Opening in Hong Kong appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

This year marks the 350th anniversary of the death of Rembrandt, and the Netherlands is celebrating its favorite son with a year-long celebration of his life and works. The 17th Century Dutch Master spent most of his life in Amsterdam, and that is where the center of the celebration is. The versatile and prolific draftsman, […]

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Possible spoilers ahead! The wait for the end(game) is over, and the entire Avengers film series is about to be, too. Over the past 11 years, a total of 22 films set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been released; finally, all of these various plots will come to a close in Avengers: Endgame.

With an overwhelming amount of storylines coming together, we thought it might be helpful to give you a quick refresher in Avengers history to jog your memory. So before battling the crowds to see this hotly anticipated Marvel release, here’s a recap on what’s at stake and what's happened thus far in the series.

Who Died?

In the previous film, Avengers: Infinity War, many -- in fact 50% of the universe -- perished as Thanos clicked his fingers. This included characters such as Black Panther,  Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Nicky Fury, Guardians of the Galaxy (apart from Rocket) and many more. Thanos had collected all six Infinity Stones -- powerful crystals tied to the elements of the universe such as space, time, reality, etc. -- which gave him the god-like powers of both destruction and creation. However, after Thanos used his gauntlet (the glove in which he placed the stones) to decimate half the universe, the gauntlet appeared to suffer some damage, which may come into play in Endgame.

Who Survived?

Luckily, not all the superheroes were turned into dust. Survivors include Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Ant-Man, Nebula, Rocket and War Machine.

Thor’s New Weapon:

Another key occurrence in Infinity War is The God of Thunder, Thor, obtaining a new weapon: Stormbreaker. Its importance lies in the fact that it may be the only weapon in the universe that can harm Thanos. 

Ant-Man’s Survival:

Ant-Man is also believed to play an important role in Endgame. Instead of being erased by Thanos along with some of his companions, Ant-Man became trapped in the subatomic Quantum Realm and survived.

Captain Marvel’s Power:

Another key storyline to be aware of is the appearance of Captain Marvel (played by Brie Larson) having been summoned by Fury at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. The importance behind Captain Marvel is that she is believed to be one of the most powerful heroes in the universe.

The premise of Avengers: Endgame is that the surviving superheroes decide to take one final stand and avenge their comrades (along with half of the rest of the world) and so go on a mission to reverse what has already been done. 

Endgame’s runtime is three hours and leaves plenty of time for plot twists and unexpected occurrences. Audiences can only theorise about the fate of the universe, so we’ll leave the rest to you.

The post What You Need to Know Before Watching ‘Avengers: Endgame’ appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

La Prairie’s latest partnership with Art Basel in Hong Kong last month saw the creation of three specially commissioned works by artist Chul-Hyun Ahn, all of which meditate on the meaning of light

When La Prairie initially approached South Korean Chul-Hyun Ahn to collaborate with the brand for an installation at this year’s Art Basel in Hong Kong, the artist wasn’t too familiar with the Swiss skincare line –but then again, he’s probably not the target customer. “I didn’t know about La Prairie products,”he admits,”so I was searching on the Internet, and it turns out it was quite a global company!

“When I logged onto their website, they have products, but also a lot of other content –culture, science. So actually I was impressed. And then we agreed to do the collaboration and they sent me La Prairie samples and I brought them home, and my wife was thrilled.”

[caption id="attachment_138250" align="alignnone" width="3000"] Ahn’s La Prairie exclusive artwork 4 Dots took direct inspiration from the coloured pigments that affect our skin.[/caption]

What was also attractive to the artist was the carte blanche he was given, and the themes: light, colour and reflection, three topics that are already central to his practice. “It was perfectly matched,”says Ahn. “They use light for their best interests, which is to increase and make the natural beauty of skin last longer. I use light to help my concepts become artwork. So we have a common interest, using the same material.” 

La Prairie has spent the last five years decoding the science behind light, upgrading the science behind its White Caviar collection so that it not only increases brightness and decreases pigmentation, but also improves luminosity. Explains Dr. Daniel Stangl, the brand’s director of innovation, “We had to think, what does luminosity mean? What are the factors influence luminosity? This has to do with light, and when we are talking about light, we have to think about how light is really dealing with our skin. As a result we came up with the equation of light.”

[caption id="attachment_138251" align="alignnone" width="2000"] Dr. Daniel Stangl, La Prairie's director of innovation.[/caption]

In essence, when your skin is pigmented –touched by the brown of UV damage, grey from pollution, red from inflammation and yellow from oxidative stress –it doesn’t reflect light. The solution, then, to bringing forth this light, is to erase the offending colour spectrum. In the White Caviar product line, this is done via key ingredients such as Lumidose. “Lumidose decreases the amount of the pigment melanin, the less pigments you have, the less light is absorbed, the more light is left for being reflected, which is a very simple principle. You also need reflection from the surface, but reducing pigments is a key pillar,”says Dr. Stangl.

Ahn, in turn, uses light rather to pose questions that are as timeless as the quest for eternal youth and beauty. “I am using my materials –mirrors and the light –to try to decode my question, my equation, trying to make infinite space and talk about emptiness and physical travelling versus spiritual travelling,”Ahn says.

[caption id="attachment_138254" align="alignnone" width="1800"] La Prairie’s White Caviar Illuminating Pearl Infusion and White Caviar Crème Extraordinaire decode the equation of light.[/caption]

In many ways, Ahn’s perspective adds another dimension to the relationship that exists between art and beauty. “When people are looking at my art, they’re appreciating it and searching for their own space and perspective to experience art and beauty,”he explains.

Art, after all, pervades all parts of the world of beauty, even those most technical. He may be a man of science, but there is art yet in Dr. Stangl’s concepts, and, indeed, his words: “There are many contact points between art and science. Scientists must be very curious; scientists try to be creative in the way that they link facts together which no one else has thought about, that open a new view of biological systems, for example. Art can open your eyes to give you a new view on something that is common. Art is also something that communicates with you, brings something which is inherently in you, out. Art may help to see the world in a different way, and that’s what we do as well, we want a new view of the skin. But it’s the same attitude: curiosity, and coming up with surprising new solutions.”

For more information: http://bit.ly/2U6p6gx

The post Everyday Reflections appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Art Basel may be the main event, but there's plenty more for art devotees to see and do in Hong Kong this month, and the months ahead.

NOGUCHI FOR DANH VO: COUNTERPOINT

M+ Pavillion, West Kowloon Cultural District

From now until April 22
The eighth exhibition at Hong Kong’s museum for 20th- and 21st-century visual culture presents a unique dialogue between noted Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi and Vietnamese-Danish artist Danh Vo. It features a wide range of drawings, objects and sculptures by Noguchi as well as selected pieces produced by Vo in the past eight years.

HKWALLS

Wan Chai

From now until March 31
Hong Kong’s annual street-art festival welcomes local and international artists to realise their visions on exterior walls just a stone’s throw from Art Basel in the vibrant district of Wan Chai. Besides a front-row seat to live painting, visitors can enjoy pop-up exhibitions, workshops and special events throughout the week.

UNFOLDING: FABRIC OF OUR LIFE

Centre of Heritage, Arts & Textile

From now until June 30

The inaugural exhibition at the Centre for Heritage, Arts & Textile (CHAT) at The Mills in Tsuen Wan, which celebrates its grand opening on March 16, showcases works and performances by 17 contemporary artists and collectives from Asia. In keeping with the centre’s mission and home at former cotton mills, textiles are woven throughout the works to signify the experiences of textile labourers in the era of globalisation.

[caption id="attachment_135464" align="alignnone" width="1024"] An installation view of Eau de Cologne, Berlin, 2015.[/caption]

EAU DE COLOGNE

Hart Hall, H Queen's

March 27-April 12
The groundbreaking contemporary-art series -- known for establishing a powerful discourse around art, feminism and power -- makes its Asia debut, featuring Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer and three more of the seven seminal female artists who participated in the original project in 1983. Also featured are Astrid Klein and Kara Walker, presenting compelling messages about today’s social, political and cultural environments.

[caption id="attachment_135465" align="alignnone" width="759"] Palimpsest, 2016, by Art Central featured artist Hoon Kwak.[/caption]

ART CENTRAL

Central Harbourfront

March 27-31
The fifth staging of the second major fair of Hong Kong’s so-called Art Week welcomes 32 first-time exhibitors to its ranks of 107 international galleries. With 75 percent hailing from Asia-Pacific, expect a range of high-quality contemporary art from established and emerging artists in the region. Check the website for the full programme of talks, performances, partnerships and curatorial projects.

5TH COLLECTORS’ CONTEMPORARY COLLABORATION

Pao Galleries, Hong Kong Arts Centre

From now until April 22

In an effort to understand the phenomenon of contemporary art in mainland China, the Hong Kong Arts Centre and curator Ling Min of the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts explore the habits and interests of two distinct groups of Chinese collectors: those who are artists themselves and those with their own art spaces or museums. Featured collectors include Guan Yi and Zheng Hao.

ASIA ARTS GAME CHANGER AWARDS HONG KONG

Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong

March 29
Honouring artists and art professionalsmaking significant contributions to thecontemporary arts in Asia, this gala celebration hosted by the Asia Society is also a chance for major artists, gallerists and collectors from around the world to reunite and reconnect. Past honorees include Zeng Fanzhi, Takashi Murakami and Park Seo-Bo.

SOUTH ISLAND ART DAY

Wong Chuk Hang and Tin Wan Districts

March 29

The South Island Cultural District welcomes art lovers to its growing gallery hub, with 16 local art spaces throwing open their doors for a variety of special events and exhibitions. Another 10 local and international artists have also contributed outdoor installations, while prestigious speakers will discuss art-related topics during the Art World Forum.

[caption id="attachment_135463" align="alignnone" width="812"] Cedar by Asia Contemporary Art Show featured artist Wu Qiong[/caption]

ASIA CONTEMPORARY ART SHOW

Conrad Hong Kong

March 29-April 1
Now in its 14th year, the longest-running hotel art fair in Asia returns to the Conrad Hong Kong with a wide-ranging array of art and art-related programmes. Highlights include a series of Artist Dialogues that enable artists and art enthusiasts to connect with one another as well as more than 2,000 works by artists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, South Korea, the UK and more.

The post 9 Hong Kong Exhibitions to See Besides Art Basel appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

More than 30 years after his death, Andy Warhol is arguable as relevant and influential an artist and cultural touchstone as ever. So there's no time like the present -- Hong Kong Arts Month -- to explore the artist's life and work.

[caption id="attachment_134702" align="alignnone" width="824"] Andy Warhol, Self-portrait in Fright Wig, Polacolor ER, 1986. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, INC licensed by DACS, London, Courtesy Bastian, London/Andy Warhol Polaroid pictures at Bastian, London, February 2 - April 13, 2019, GalerieBastian.com.[/caption]

When the Whitney Museum of American Art opened its retrospective on Andy Warhol last November, it was the first time in three decades that an American institution had taken such a comprehensive look at one of the country’s most renowned artists.

“It seemed wildly overdue,” says Donna De Salvo, the museum’s chief curator. Although there have been smaller exhibitions over the years, and a retrospective at the Tate Modern in 2002, no major shows have been staged on the artist’s home soil since the Museum of Modern Art’s retrospective in 1989, two years after Warhol’s unexpected death following gallbladder surgery.

“There’s a perception that we know everything about Warhol,” and that may be one reason why so many years had passed without a close look, says De Salvo. She set out to prove otherwise. “I think Warhol is complicated.”

[caption id="attachment_134703" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962. Tate, London; Purchase 1980 © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, INC/ Artists Right Society (ARS), New York.[/caption]

More than that: Warhol is influential. Very influential. “Warhol didn’t make a mark on American culture,” wrote art critic Peter Schjeldahl when the Whitney show opened. “He became the instrument with which American culture designated itself.” Warhol turned the culture of mass media inside out, creating prints, paintings, films, installations and performances that broke down the line between fine and commercial art, representation and reality, authentic and artificial. He was the original YouTuber, the original Instagrammer, the first viral artist-celebrity.

“If you speak about the larger culture, Warhol was prophetic in the way he used all manners of distribution, and in making himself a star to brand himself,” says De Salvo. “Now you have agency, you can create your own image, and Warhol never shied away from that. I’ve heard people say he was the Facebook of his era.”[inline_related_article article_id="132974"]

Warhol was born in 1928 to Slovakian parents in Pittsburgh, an industrial city whose steep hills and valleys were choked by a constant haze of coal smoke. He was a sickly child but a gifted artist, taking after his mother, Julia, whose drawings and embroidery decorated the family home. After earning a degree in pictorial design in 1949, he moved to New York and launched himself into the world of advertising and magazine illustration. He distinguished himself with his work for shoe manufacturer Israel Miller, creating whimsical drawings that he eventually began to reproduce and modify en masse.

[caption id="attachment_134707" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Installation view of Andy Warhol - From A to B and Back Again. Ron Amstutz © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, INC/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.[/caption]

Around the same time, Warhol was drawing homoerotic sketches of cross-dressed male friends and making his own personal shoe drawings dedicated to the celebrities Warhol admired, including Truman Capote and Elvis Presley. Although these early works were overlooked until well after Warhol became famous, they planted the seeds of an important part of his later practice: the “queering” of things that represented mainstream American culture. “[He] questioned their validity, revealed their contradictions, turned them inside out,” notes critic Holland Cotter.

In the late 1950s, Warhol abandoned his career as a commercial artist and began exhibiting in galleries. But he maintained the techniques that had bolstered his commercial work, mass-producing silk-screen prints of Campbell’s soup cans and Coke bottles. It was art that flew in the face of the era’s dominant genre, abstract expressionism, which earnestly channelled the artist’s emotions on to canvas. Warhol’s work was wry and detached, befitting his perspective as a perpetual outsider -- a gay, Catholic child of immigrants. [inline_related_article article_id="134683"]

The 1960s saw Warhol become the artist that most people still recognise today. His succession of New York studios, all named the Factory, became a magnet for scenesters, drifters, artists, radicals and anyone drawn into the vortex of Warhol’s unlikely charisma. “The Factory was like a medieval court of lunatics,” recalled Mary Woronov, one of the many people in Warhol’s entourage who went on to become a “Warhol superstar” thanks to their time in the Factory. Warhol filmed them, made art with them and used them to cultivate his own beguiling persona. Although the Factory mass- produced physical art works — “It wasn’t called the Factory for nothing,” remarked musician John Cale — it was also an ongoing piece of performance art.

[caption id="attachment_134706" align="alignnone" width="796"] Andy Warhol, Mao, 1972. The Art Institute of Chicago; Mr and Mrs Frank Logan purchase prize and Wilson L Mead funds, 174.230 © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, INC/Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York.[/caption]

The mystique of the Factory contributed to Warhol’s allure, but so did his distinctive silk-screen portraits of public figures like Marilyn Monroe, Richard Nixon and — perhaps most famously — Chairman Mao. The prints exploded the myth of originality, of the artist as a genius hero, and embraced the potential of mass media, channelling Marshall McLuhan’s 1964 observation that “the medium is the message” into his work. “I think that Warhol understood something about mediated culture and used the silk screen as a way to convey that,” says de Salvo. “It’s where the form and content come together.” The meaning of Warhol’s prints is found in their repetition and ubiquity.

Warhol was fascinated by the American mass media, but he was also captivated by the repetitive iconography of totalitarianism. In 1982, Warhol was invited to Hong Kong by entrepreneur Alfred Siu, who’d commissioned portraits of Prince Charles and Princess Diana to hang in his new nightclub. When he arrived, Siu surprised him with a three-day excursion to Beijing, which had only recently opened to the outside world after three decades of Mao-induced isolation. Warhol was fascinated by the abundance of Mao imagery, along with the lookalike Mao suits worn by most people. “He was all about multiples, and at the time China was the ultimate multiple,” recalled Warhol’s personal photographer, Christopher Makos.

[caption id="attachment_134700" align="alignnone" width="825"] Andy Warhol, Liza Minelli, Polacolor Type 108 1977. © 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Ats, INC Licensed by DACS, London. Courtesy Bastian, London/Andy Warhol Polaroid Pictures at Bastian, London, February 2 - April 13 2019, GalerieBastian.com.[/caption]

Warhol continued making prints and celebrity portraits in the 1980s — including the series of Polaroid photographs showing at Bastian gallery’s London space until April 13 — but he also hosted a television talk show and began painting, further blurring the line between the hand-made and the mass-produced, the genuine and the fake. Warhol’s work was evolving in fascinating directions but, ironically, his popularity was on the wane, at least at home. “His career was being supported by sales in Europe, not in the US,” says De Salvo, who worked with him on a gallery show just before his death.

Things have changed in the three decades since then. Contemporary art has become more Warholian than ever, with artists such as Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami tapping into the ethos of his work to become celebrities much in the same way Warhol was. And everyday life itself now looks more and more like the kind of world that Warhol built for himself: relentlessly documented, filtered and promoted.

[caption id="attachment_134705" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Still from The Andy Warhol 16mm Silent Film Empire, 1964. © 2018 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, A Museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved.[/caption]

“He wanted to see how far you could push a photograph or a drawing or a painting and still have it called that,” says De Salvo. “That is an ultimate meaning for an artist today. Now we don’t even think twice if we have an artist who works as a sculptor but also in virtual reality. They avail themselves of new technology, and that’s what Warhol did.”

In many ways, Warhol seems more relevant today than ever before. “The response to the exhibition has been overwhelming,” says De Salvo. “It’s such an array of people that are coming. A lot of kids. I think there’s an acceptance of Warhol’s work in perhaps a way there wasn’t in the past. There’s a new generation for Warhol that comes at [his work] through the lens of digital culture.” Thirty-two years after his death, we are all living in Warhol’s world now.

The post Why We’re All Still Living in Warhol’s World appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

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Ruinart was founded almost three centuries ago during the Age of Enlightenment and has been collaborating with renowned artists ever since Art Nouveau pioneer Alphonse Mucha created a seminal ad for the house in 1896.

“Art is in the house’s very nature,” says Ruinart’s president Frédéric Dufour. “We are continuing our commitment to art by supporting major contemporary-art fairs, and giving carte blanche to an artist each year.”

For Art Basel Hong Kong 2019, the fair’s global champagne partner has teamed up with Brazilian photographer and multimedia artist Vik Muniz for a series of works to be displayed at the Ruinart lounge.

Described as an ode to the power of nature and its creative flow, Shared Roots is the result of Muniz’s stint as an artist-in- residence during the 2018 harvest in Reims, France. The artist used blackened wood and charcoal to depict the uniquely shaped trees that struggle to survive in the harsh conditions of one of Europe’s northernmost vineyards.

Muniz also captures the relationship between humans and nature, as shown in his depiction of cellar master Frédéric Panaïotis’s hands gripping a vine stock.

“I wanted to express what couldn’t be conveyed using language and present the complexity that goes into creating the exceptional through a creative flow,” he says, in a possible reference not only to art itself but also to winemaking.

The post Ruinart Partners with Artist Vik Muniz on a New Collaboration appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Slowly but surely, women are changing the art world's traditionally patriarchal landscape. We talk to three experts who are helping to drive change and shift perspectives from the inside out.

Manuela Wirth

Co-founder of Hauser & Wirth, Manuela Wirth is one half of an art-world power couple helming a global network of nine galleries. As one of the world’s most influential gallerists, she’s been a pioneer of championing female-made work for decades.

[caption id="attachment_133263" align="alignnone" width="683"] Manuela Wirth (Photo credit: Paul Wetherell)[/caption]

Tell us about your female artist programme.

We’re very proud of the fact that we represent more women artists than any other gallery -- we started working intensively with women artists long before it became a fashionable talking point. One of the most radical female gallerists, Pat Hearn, introduced us to the work of Louise Bourgeois, Mary Heilmann and Eva Hesse very early in Hauser & Wirth’s history. But really the origin of our in-depth focus on women artists goes back to my mother, Ursula Hauser. Her “discoveries” often found their way into our programme because we also loved the work and wanted to support it professionally. This way, strong women artists, particularly those that have been underrepresented, became an important part of our DNA. In May, we’re celebrating my mother’s 80th birthday by hosting an exhibition of her [all-female] collection at our arts centre in Somerset, UK. Women artists are still sorely underrepresented in museum and gallery shows, so it’s important to me that we use the international platform we have to give voice to their work.

Who are some of your female art heroes?

The ultimate for me is Louise Bourgeois. She was one of the past century’s greatest artists, while at the same time a mother to three children, a wife and a profound thinker. I have admiration for the many women that have juggled family roles alongside a robust artistic practice. Phyllida Barlow is another artist who falls into this category, and her work only became known internationally when she was in her sixties. She quickly grew into one of the most important artistic voices in contemporary art, and even represented her country, Great Britain, at the last Venice Biennale. Ida Applebroog is another wonderful artist. Other women artists that have had a profound impact on me personally include Isa Genzken and Roni Horn, who each show great commitment to their creative practices, and the issues they deal with in their work mean a great deal to me.

How do you see the art world addressing the current imbalance in the representation of male and female artists?

I hope that we’re now living in a time where this balance is being readdressed, and that the art market will soon catch up. I have to believe that women artists aren’t equally represented currently purely because the historical canon favoured men, so the legacies of their female counterparts are not so widely known. This is certainly something we’re working to address by representing many female estates, such as those of Eva Hesse, Maria Lassnig and Geta Bratescu, and by commissioning new scholarship and publications devoted to their work.

What’s it like to run a global gallery network alongside your husband? How does your partnership work?

Iwan and I have been working together for 27 years. We have a shared vision and agree on almost all big decisions, but we also have complementary skill sets. Iwan has always been very spontaneous and is guided by intuition, and it’s this creativity that keeps us on our toes and constantly innovating. By nature I’m more calm, shy and rational, so I help nurture his ideas and shape them into practical plans. Having four children keeps us very grounded and disciplined. Since 2000 we’ve been joined by Marc Payot, our third partner. We feel privileged to work with artists, makers, thinkers. Nowhere else in the world do you meet so many brilliant and interesting people as in the art world.

People have written plenty about the dominant Male Gaze but is there a specific way you would define the Female Gaze?

I don’t know that the Female Gaze can be singularly defined, but in the women artists I’m drawn to I notice a predominant theme in that their investigations stem from their own psychological experience, or focus on exploring the capabilities and limitations of their own body. For example, Alina Szapocznikow made casts of her own body parts, Mary Lassnig developed her concept of “body awareness” painting to explore how her mind perceived her physical presence in the world, Luchita Hurtado literally looked down and painted her own body as she observed it from above, and Louise Bourgeois used her art to work through her emotional trauma. I find this makes for a more charged and meaningful practice than depicting more “passive” subjects.

What excites you about the Louise Bourgeois show?

Our exhibition of Louise Bourgeois in Marchis the first solo exhibition to offer her work in Hong Kong. It will introduce visitors to the overarching themes of Bourgeois’s practice, such as the pull between representing the world around her and her psychological realities. We’ll focus on the final two decades of the artist’s life, and show fabric sculptures, prints, sculptures, and rarely exhibited holograms. The exhibition coincides with Bourgeois’s first large-scale museum tour in China, The Eternal Thread, presented at the Long Museum, Shanghai, and the Song Art Museum, Beijing.

Kate Bryan

A contemporary-art expert and British television presenter who once lived in Hong Kong, Kate Bryan is a curator and art historian who joined the Soho House group in 2016 as head of collections. She’s visiting Art Basel Hong Kong with an eye on acquiring pieces for this city’s Soho House, which opens later this summer.

[caption id="attachment_133262" align="alignnone" width="683"] Kate Bryan (Photo credit: Dino Busch)[/caption]

You’ve been coming to Art Basel since you lived here. How do you feel it’s evolved and what do you enjoy the most?

It’s been an incredible catalyst for the city. I was there from the very first fair and remember being so overwhelmed by the number of kids who came at the weekend. It’s amazing to think they’re now maybe teenagers interning at Tai Kwun. I lived in Hong Kong for four years and left for London in 2011, just as things really took off. Returning to build a collection for Soho House that really speaks of the city and the local artists is such a privilege.

Who are your female art heroes?

Judy Chicago, not just for her pioneering Dinner Party but for her work as an art educator and great thinker. Frida Kahlo, because I’m only human. And Jenny Holzer -- I’m amazed that I agree so much with a woman I’ve never met.

You’ve championed women artists for many years as a curator -- how and why did this happen?

About eight years ago when I was an art dealer I read some shocking statistics about the under-representation of women in the contemporary-art world. After a quick inventory of my own artists’ stable, I realised I was showing nearly 50 percent women and had this huge feeling of relief. But I realised that much more needed to be done. Being silent and inactive is a way of being complicit. Historically, women had a hard time becoming artists but many people don’t realise we haven’t come that far. In North American and European museums it’s said that work by female artists accounts for less than 5 percent [of the total]. One of my favourite young British artists, Sarah Maple, has a piece that reads “Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction”, and it’s so true. I acquired that piece for Soho House in London the second I saw it.

How do you address this in your role?

When I became the head of collections for Soho House, it was an amazing opportunity to acquire female work but also to make an important dialogue happen. A big initiative was Vault 100, on permanent display at The Ned London in the heart of the City of London -- the financial district we associate with patriarchy. I used loaded connotations of the area to make a point about gender inequality and how it affects the art world. Taking the FTSE 100 CEO gender ratio, which was 93 men and only seven women running top UK companies, I inverted it so that we acquired 93 pieces by female artists and seven by men. The response initially was crazy -- people genuinely asked me if they were 93 great women artists in London. It felt so good to prove them wrong! We have work by Tracey Emin, Jenny Holzer, Helen Marten, Sarah Lucas and Lubaina Himid, as well as more emerging artists. It makes me so proud.

There are more female artist-themed shows, but do you think this will move towards thematically organised exhibitions where artists are female? How do you strike that balance between supporting and fetishising female art in 2019?

This is such an important point. There’s not much point in creating a female ghetto, the original feminist artists in the ’70s realised this. There has to be one art conversation with everyone in it. That’s why I shied away from curating all-women shows when I was an art dealer. I felt that selling women together was insensitive to their practice -- they aren’t women artists, they’re artists. As a curator I hope I can create that opens, liberal contemporary and non-gendered context for the work rather than a female art theme.

How do you feel about the current representation of women, their viewpoints and curation in the field?

I'm really optimistic about the growing status and visibility of women at the very top of the art world that will undoubtedly have an impact. Frances Morris runs a very progressive exhibition programme at Tate Modern and Maria Balshaw became the director of all the Tate Museums, making her the first meal director of a national museum in the UK. Nancy Spector occupies a very senior position at the Guggenheim and even the Vatican Museum now has a female director. It's extremely important that women are decision makers as well as men -- it's already affecting what's being shown, validated and therefore sold.

Karen Smith

Director of Ocat Xi’an contemporary-art centre and art director at Shanghai Center of Photography, Karen Smith is an expert in Chinese contemporary art and a writer and curator with decades of experience. She’s lived in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, overseeing the rise of the Greater China art scene and its greatest names.

[caption id="attachment_133259" align="alignnone" width="768"] Karen Smith[/caption]

You’ve worked extensively in Chinese art. Tell us about how accepting the industry has been with female curators and artists.

It has in terms of how many of the galleries who contribute to the scene here are [run by] women – beginning from critic and curator Liao Wen in the 1980s, the writer Tao Yongbai and younger individuals such as Sun Ning, who was effectively one of the “founders” of Beijing’s 798. But perhaps it’s still true that male counterparts aren’t confident enough to feel comfortable working with women curators to allow them to rise up beyond being underlings.

Tell us about projects you’ve worked on that focus on female artists.

I’ve done several projects -- solo exhibitions such as Qin Jin’s I Wish I Could Be Your Companion for a Longer Time [Magician Space, Beijing 2009]; Miss P [Peili, Platform China, Beijing 2011]; and more recently solo projects for Qin Jin, Carol Lee Meijuan Carol Lee Mei Kuen, Liz Hingley, Ma Qiusha and Peili at Ocat Xi’an. This year we have more coming at Ocat – Hao Jingban, Wu Di, Xiong Wenyun and Edy Ferguson. At the Shanghai Centre of Photography, we’ve had Anna Foxand Karen Knorr, and Gan Yingying and Wang Yingying. It’s important that women support women. I dislike the fact that society today is in a position where we still need to make women a conscious focus. You’d have hoped by now that we’d have achieved a state of natural equilibrium. But since we haven’t, I do what I can as far as possible to support women artists clearly deserving of opportunities.

There are more “female artist”-themed shows, but do you think this will move to thematically organised shows that feature female artists? How would you strike that balance between supporting and fetishising female art in 2019?

This will continue to go in cycles. The argument is found in facts of how short a memory the human race possesses; we adjust to new situations, we integrate and then socio-political and economic situations change and old ideas remerge as we fall back into default modes of self-preservation which require the putting down of one group to favour the social status of another. So, yes, we need these kinds of shows from time to time to remind us of better modes of thinking via-a-vis our less egalitarian proclivities. Personally I try not to put “women” in front of every description and discussion, and instead keep talk focused on the work. To reference to what makes an art work compelling may or may not be related to gender, or the gender of its author. It’s important not to create new divisions by suggesting that women should receive exceptional treatment.

How was this dealt with in China in the rise of its contemporary scene?

In the 1990s, women artists in China felt extremely uncomfortable being corralled into all-women shows. They didn’t want to feel marginalised, or separated from the wider art scene, even though they were often marginalised within it. Shows happened -- the attitudes of the largely male critics were supportive but condescending at best. What was lacking then was a really good public media platform that could debate the fact that artists like Lin Tianmiao and Yin Xiuzhen were breaking moulds and boundaries, and making art that was at the very least as progressive as the next contemporary [male] artist in China. Each generation has produced outstanding women artists in China. The more opportunities that women have to show their work the better. All artists have to know how to handle relationships with curators who may or may not have their own agenda. You can only be fetishised if you let yourself be.

Is the art world consciously moving to address the gender imbalance? Should it?

Yes, and yes. The art world ought to be as liberal and permissive in its thinking as it must be open to creative and innovative activities and ideas. If we really believe that art speaks to people, and is able to convey human ideas and experiences across borders and boundaries, then we’re bound to contend imbalance whenever and wherever we encounter it.

Who are some of your female art heroes?

Generally, Agnes Martin, Sarah Lucas; here in China Cao Fei, Ma Qiusha, Peili, Ju Ting, Wu Di and Alice Wang.

The post How Women Are Reshaping the Art World appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

When Alexie Glass-Kantor begins curating the huge installations that comprise the Encounters section of Art Basel Hong Kong, it’s like the scene in a detective moviewhere the hero finally joins the dots of the mystery. “I basically sit on the floor and do a bit of old-school collaging with print-outs,”she says.

Every October, the Sydney-based curator flies to Hong Kong with Art Basel’s architects and operations team and tries to work out the connection between the dozens of installation proposals she receives from the fair’s participating galleries.

“I don’t go into the process with a preconceived curatorial angle in mind,” she says. “I go in with an open mind. I pare it back, I look for relations between works, I look for diversity and intergenerationality.” When she’s arrived at a satisfying mix of work, she hands her print-outs to the architects. “They render them overnight and see if it’s feasible for them to be installed in time. So it’s a very collaborative effort.”

As Glass-Kantor pored over the proposals for this year’s Encounters, she noticed that many of the works reflected the “disorientation and uncertainty” of an era of social upheaval and global warming, a time when the natural order of things seems to be in the throes of a dramatic readjustment. “There’s an unpredictability that’s amplified through a Trump-era politics,” she says.

[caption id="attachment_133540" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Simon Starling, Zum Brunnen. (Photo courtesy of the artist and Neugerriemschneider)[/caption]

That was combined with an emphasis on materiality that Glass-Kantor found interesting. “Last year, I had a number of works that had a performance or durational element,” she says. This year, artists seemed to be questioning the very fibre of their work, which Glass-Kantor thinks is a response to the ephemeral nature of life lived in the digital realm.

“When you’re living in a time when things are shape-shifting so quickly around us you turn to the things that you have at hand,” she says. “Labour and production embed a sort of meditation on process and engaging with your environment.”[inline_related_article article_id="132974"]

As she decided on the installations that will be shown at Art Basel, Glass-Kantor wasreminded of Maya Angelou’s poem Still I Rise. Like the poem, she says, this year’s Encounters is “a call to action and aproposition to re-energise, re-incarnate, re-innovate and rise”.

It might seem a bit strange, then, that the first work many visitors will encounter is Lee Bul’s Willing To Be Vulnerable -- Metalized Balloon, a 10-metre-long replica of the Hindenburg, the Zeppelin airship that exploded and crashed in 1937. Lee has long been fascinated by the limits of utopian ideas, and her work has been described by critic Laura Cumming as “beauty with menace”. That is certainly the case here, but there is room for optimism: after all, destruction is an opportunity for rebirth.

Zhao Zhao mines similarly dark terrain with In Extremis, an interactive installation that draws from the artist’s 2018 show at Tang Contemporary Art in Beijing. “He would see dead cats pulverised on the highways and would go around drawing chalk outlines around the cats,” says Glass-Kantor. The work raises questions about mortality but also perseverance -- and maybe even rebirth. “It’s this sense of reincarnating something that was meaningless and seeing how we can reconfigure.”

[caption id="attachment_133538" align="alignnone" width="772"] Joël Andrianomearisoa, The Cartographies of Desire, The Space Between Us. (Photo courtesy of the artist and Sabrina Amrani)[/caption]

Other installations include Homage to the Square by Jose Dávila, which explores the influence of artist Josef Albers, who posited that the colours we see are not actually the colours that physically exist. As visitors pass through Dávila’s installation, kinetic mobile sculptures move and refract colour. In City in the Sky, artistic duo Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset take Hong Kong’s densely packed cityscape and invert it, hanging it upside down.

Many of the artists in Encounters may be little known to the Art Basel public, including the Indigenous Australian Tony Albert and Mit Jai Inn from Thailand. “I try to make sure that at least half my artists may be well known in their local contexts but maynot be so familiar on the Art Basel circuit,”says Glass-Kantor.

After taking over Encounters from curator Yuko Hasegawa in 2014, Glass-Kantor and Art Basel Hong Kong director Adeline Ooi whittled down the number of installations from 30 to 12, to allow for larger installations. She’s also made a point of encouraging as much contact between visitors and the works as possible.[inline_related_article article_id="132897"]

“As much as I can, I try to make sure nothing is fenced off. It’s a bit ironic,” she says with a laugh. “I’m such a klutz, I’m always dropping and breaking things.” So are many others, and the first time she curated Encounters, “there was this heavy sense of apprehension about audiences being able to touch and engage with installations”, she says.

Unlike the fairs in Basel and Miami Beach, Art Basel Hong Kong draws a large number of visitors from the general public, including schoolchildren and families. Some works have been damaged by rambunctious fair-goers in the past. But Glass-Kantor says audiences have become increasingly sophisticated over the years.

And in any case, engaging with the installations of Encounters is not the same as looking at an image on a wall. From the time it begins life as a series of print-outs on the floor, Encounters is a physical experience. “We’ve moved away from a time where educating an audience is anachronistic,” says Glass-Kantor. “The audience is a collaborator.”

The post Curator Alexie Glass-Kantor Explains Art Basel’s Encounters Section appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.