PRESS ESC TO EXIT FULL SCREEN MODE, 2011

I’m trying to describe the feeling I had when I first met Santiago Taccetti and saw his artwork. As he scrolled through his website showing me piece after piece I became excited about what he was doing in his art practice. Images of installations, paintings, video and prints all emphasized a similar consideration and viewpoint toward our relationship with technology and the pervasive aesthetic that has emerged. What’s incredible is that Taccetti translates this across artistic disciplines, which to me means you are onto something. His work floats on the white page of a website with the same ease that he builds a sculpture or paints. This delicate sensitivity towards contemporary aesthetics is something we are all becoming more attuned to through the web. To make a comparison I have a historical anecdote. As a kid watching way too much television I became a super critic of TV and movies. The editing, lighting, sound and costumes all spoke to me. I understood this medium naturally and could differentiate between incredibly subtle details and differences. The web is developing a similar critical and aesthetic awareness and Taccetti’s artwork translates this like a mother tongue. His work represents a certain perfection that is more than real–it is actually unreal. It is the aesthetic of the machine. And strangely after viewing his work I began to perceive the city differently. I started to see the digital aesthetic everywhere, permeating the real world.

UNTITLED (Accidents series) continuous

We speak about the magical day when electronics will coexist with us in reality. But this has happened. Most of our surroundings are machine made and designed on computers. They are the by products of digital imaginations and they are born into reality. Consider how striking it is to see something made by hand in our surroundings rather than by a computer. Looking at the city from this perspective I began to question where the reality actually was and realized it was becoming a pretty blurry line. Everything started to seem like it could be digital born even the grit and graffiti. Take a look at some of Taccetti’s paintings and you will see what I mean. I wonder where the shadows and layers of paint end and whether they could be made in After Effects. It is from this point of questioning reality, technology and aesthetics that Taccetti is working in his art practice. The world is on a sort of super drive and all the materials are available for interpretation and the potential creation of an illusion. Walk into any dollar store, hardware store or IKEA, peruse the Internet or find a discarded package. You will find the influence of the computer age, the strange place in between, and you are stepping into Taccetti’s playground.

(Images courtesy of the artist)

photo: KW Institute for Contemporary Art

(Berlin) The exhibition series KW69—situated in the front building KW Institute for Contemporary Art—provides a space for dialogue for artists, a kind of experimental stage that for one year will be the home to a number of artistic projects in quick succession. Moving on from one project to the next, the participants will shift roles, as the artists exhibiting then invite the next project. This dynamic interplay will enable unconventional points of reference, continuous shifts in perspective, and uses of the exhibition space that refer to and build on one another.

KW69 #2
cactus craze by Jean-Michel Wicker in collaboration with Gregorio Magnani
12.09,2010 – 01.09,2011

Artist: Judith Hopf
With works by: Emanuel Rossetti, Simon Popper, Sara MacKillop, Janice Kerbel, Karl Holmqvist / Ei Arakawa

Garrick Gott

Photo: Jost Sarwoko

It has been quite a catch-me-if-you-can exchange between me and Robert Knoke. When I met Robert during the Scope Art Fair this past February at Lincoln Center he was standing in the center of a dimmed exhibition space surrounded by life-sized black ink paintings. Dressed in complete black, Robert looked as if he belonged in one of his paintings. Though the raw lines and strokes of his work are awe inspiring, Robert made an impression on me for a different reason. Standing faithfully beside his art during the fair the artist chatted passionately about it to any passerby who caught his eye. At first Robert’s childlike enthusiasm didn’t seem to match his somewhat menacing portraits. His distinct choice of subject and the  impact of a single traditional medium used with tireless effect, earned him recognition from both the art and fashion world.  Trotting between Berlin and New York, I briefly caught up with Robert while he was in town for the release of his latest book project “Black Material.”

When did you become a portraitist? I am not a portraitist, people are my subject.

Who was your first subject when you formed your signature style? Originally, this is the way I drew. The figures that I drew did not contain detailed faces. Later,  I learned how to draw realistic people. The artist Leon Golub was my first main subject.

Most of your subjects are celebrities, do you think you’re creating a legend for yourself? Words such as “celebrity” and “legend” do not interest me. I am fascinated by people, not by their range of fame.  Most of my popular subjects are favored among a certain circle of people. Nearly everyone that I draw is not famous like Britney Spears or the Pope. Fame is not my focus.

Leigh Lezark

What keeps you going? Knowing that sooner or later I will die, which makes me want to work faster.

What would you be doing if you were not an artist? I do not know.

How did “Black Material” come about? I was asked to work on a limited edition book, including a t-shirt and DVD. When I found out I had to complete 240 pages, I immediately had visions of detailed shots of my drawings, where my focus was not on the subject, instead, on the surface of the drawing. The title “Black Material” stands for my abstract idea of drawing and materiality. I did not want it to have a title similar to “New Portraits” or “People” because, again, I am not a portraitist.

You seem to be crossing the line between fashion and design a lot. Are you soon to have your own fashion line or other endeavors? I am a visual artist, not a designer. So I do not see myself crossing that line. All I do is draw pictures, which is completely conservative. I recently received some attention by the fashion industry because I drew people such as Gareth Pugh, Rick Owens and Nicola Formichetti.

I cannot imagine myself working in fashion and fulfilling a deadline of completing four collections in a year. Fashion’s focus is to make people look beautiful, which is not mine. There is a big difference!

I love fashion and I do see myself designing a piece at some point, but seeing my drawings on t-shirts is enough now. I have a different way of thinking. On the up side, the fashion industry currently has more artistic potential than the art world. Art is not as relevant now as it was 40 years ago. Maybe the meaning of art and fashion will change in the future.

What do you listen to for inspiration? I try to listen to intelligent people, which can be inspiring and disturbing.

Gareth Pugh

All images courtesy of the artist

Hermann Pitz at Galerie Thomas Schulte (installation view)

Team Gallery (installation view)

As Frieze is taking shape in London and Art Basel in Miami is right around the corner, Berlin’s Art Forum just opened yesterday and runs until October 10th. In it’s 15th edition, the Fair is held in the grand Palais am Funkturm, with beautiful ballroom interiors, a charming setting to experience art sans the “market” craze. With local and international participants there is also an interesting program of art talks including: Current Trends in Museums:  Susannne Gaensheimer (Director MMK Frankfurt am Main), Joanna Mytkowska (Director Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw), Bartomeu Marí (Director MACBA, Barcelona), Matthias Mühling (Head of Collections Art after 1945, Lenbachhaus, Munich).  Public/Private Collectors’ Panel: Erika Hoffmann (collector, Berlin), Harald Falckenberg (collector, Hamburg).

Greg Bogin, Accumulation of Meaningless Moments, 2010. Leo Koenig (NY)

The participating galleries this year is more enthusiastic than before and maybe because they’ve gone through a pendulum swing in the art market, the range of contemporary works that is being shown is both exciting and freshly dynamic. Here are some of the gallery highlights from Berlin and New York. Lots of images below, so it might take a minute to load.

Ridley Howard, Bedroom #1, 2010. Leo Koenig (NY)

Johannes Vogl, Untitled (Schaukel / Swing), 2010. Galerie Jette Rudolph (Berlin)

Constantin Luser, 2010. Galerie Jette Rudolph (Berlin)

Mark Mulroney, Bite Down and Stay Down, 2010. Mixed Greens (NY)

Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs, Car 2, 2008. KUNSTAGENTEN Gallery (Berlin)

Jakob Kolding, Untitled (left). Polemic for a Structural Revolution (right), 2010. Team Gallery (NY)

Oliver van den Berg, Sternenprojector, 2005. Kuckei + Kuckei (Berlin)

All images courtesy of the galleries.

Following Kathrin Rhomberg, who was the curator for the 6th Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art just announced the news that Artur Żmijewski will be curator for the upcoming 7th Biennale. Looking forward to 2012. Previous curators include: Klaus Biesenbach with Nancy Spector and Hans Ulrich Obrist (1st Berlin Biennale), Saskia Bos (2nd Berlin Biennale), Ute Meta Bauer (3rd Berlin Biennale), Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni, and Ali Subotnick (4th Berlin Biennale), Adam Szymczyk and Elena Filipovic (5th Berlin Biennale), and Kathrin Rhomberg (6th Berlin Biennale).

From the Press Release:

KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin is pleased to announce that Artur Żmijewski has been appointed curator of the 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. The 7th Berlin Biennale will take place in early 2012.

Visual artist Artur Żmijewski, born in 1966 in Warsaw (Poland), works almost exclusively with the media of photography and film. He is particularly interested in the power of art and its relation to politics. From an almost anthropological viewpoint he investigates social norms, morality and representations of power in today’s society and the effects that art have on it. Żmijewski studied in the sculpture class of Professor Grzegorz Kowalski at the Warsaw Art Academy from 1990 to 1995 as well as at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 1999. His work has been internationally shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions. In 2005 he represented Poland at the 51st Art Biennale in Venice. He is member of the Polish political movement “Krytyka Polityczna” and the art director of the magazine of the same name. Żmijewski lives and works in Warsaw.

Photo courtesy: Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art

Marlene Haring, Marlene Haarig oder In meiner Badewanne bin Ich Kapitän! (Marlene Hairy or In My Bathtub I am the Captain), 2005
Kriech- und Badeperformance / crawling and bathing performance  (Courtesy the artist)