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Jul 26 2019

AAP Monthly Picks: July–August 2019

by The Editors

Installation view of SIAH ARMAJANI’s Sacco and Vanzetti Reading Room #3, 1988, mixed media, dimensions variable, at “Spaces for the Public. Spaces for Democracy, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, 2019. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore. 

Siah Armajani: Spaces for the Public. Spaces for Democracy.

NTU Centre for Contemporary Art presents a solo exhibition of Iranian-American artist Siah Armajani, whose practice, spanning more than five decades, has centered on architectural models, sculptures, and outdoor structures that consider the intersections of American vernacular architecture, communality, social exchange, and democratic values. The highlight of the exhibition is a restaging of Armajani’s large-scale installation Sacco & Vanzetti Reading Room #3 (1988), a shared reading space named after Italo-American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti filled with books by fiction writers, poets, philosophers, and political theorists who have influenced the artist. Also on view are seven works from Armajani’s Tomb series (1972–2016), which comprises drawings and models referencing well-known figures such as the American poets Walt Whitman and John Berryman, among others.

Installation view of AYŞE ERKMEN’s On Water, 2017, site-specific installation with ocean cargo containers, steel beams, steel grates, walkway, 64 × 6.4 m, at Skulptur Projekte Münster, 2017. Photo by Roman Mensing / Münster. Courtesy the artist.

Aichi Triennale 2019

Aug 1–Oct 14

Multiple locations, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

The fourth Aichi Triennale, directed by journalist Daisuke Tsuda, will invite more than 80 Japanese and international artists and collectives to address how media sensationalism contributes to societal polarization, and probe the reconciliatory power of art in an increasingly divided world. Titled “Taming Y/Our Passion,” the festival will feature site-specific installations, performances, and screenings spread across multiple locations, including Aichi Arts Center and Nagoya City Art Museum. The central art exhibition, “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’,” builds on the titular 2015 show staged at Tokyo’s Gallery Furuto, which commented on censorship in Japan through presenting works previously rejected for public display. Included in the Triennale’s lineup are filmmaker Minouk Lim, video artist Yuan Goang-Ming, conceptual artist Ayşe Erkmen, and video and installation artist Hikaru Fujii.

NUSRA LATIF QURESHI, Mild Red Steel, 2019, embroidery on velvet, dimensions to be confirmed. Courtesy the artist.

Nusra Latif Qureshi: Strategies of Intent

Aug 23–Sep 29

4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, Australia 

Pakistani-born, Melbourne-based artist Nusra Latif Qureshi’s first Australian institutional solo exhibition will open at Sydney’s 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. The midcareer survey, titled “Strategies of Intent,” will critically interrogate art historical modes of interpretation and visual representation through elaborate paintings, digital prints, and mixed-media works from the past two decades of the artist’s career. Qureshi’s practice of superimposing, disintegrating, removing, and contrasting visual elements seeks to probe the canonical nature of written histories and address overlooked colonial narratives, with a particular focus on South Asian and Australian contexts. Highlights will include Qureshi’s signature two-dimensional, mixed-media pieces referencing the technique and motifs of traditional miniature painting, as well as a new embroidery-on-velvet work titled Mild Red Steel (2019).

SOUNGUI KIM, Situation Plastique II, 1971–73, still from video documentation of performance at open space: 3 min 57 sec. Courtesy the artist and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul. 

Soungui Kim: All the Rivers Flow into the Sea

Aug 31–Jan 27, 2020

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea 

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul will stage a major retrospective of pioneering multidisciplinary artist Soungui Kim. Curated by Yi Soojung, “All the Rivers Flow into the Sea” brings together around 80 works spanning prints, poems, calligraphy, performance, videos, and installations that reflect the artist’s ongoing interrogations of East and West, tradition and modernity. Additionally, the exhibition will debut Kim’s newest works, such as a robot and a 35mm film investigating humanity and art in a technological age, and items from the artist’s personal archive, including sketches, and materials documenting his encounters with the likes of composer John Cage, video artist Nam June Paik, and French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy. 

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