Wednesday, 18 September 2013

Li Songsong: We Have Betrayed the Revolution

Li Songsong
We Have Betrayed the Revolution
Pace London

Did noticed, for the first time, that an inverted Swastika is imprinted all over the Royal Academy of Arts building. Anyway, intense work by Li Songsong in ‘We Have Betrayed the Revolution’, at Pace London.
Li Songsong, Unnamed Lake (oil on aluminum panel, 361.5x403x14.5cm), 2013

Diango Hernández: The New Man and the New Woman

Diango Hernández
The New Man and the New Woman
Marlborough Contemporary

Diango Hernández's work is an explosion of energy on a black graphite canvas. His language oscillate between "personal and collective memory, blurring the line between conflicting poetic and political points of view. [...] Hernández believes that all art is autobiographical but also incorporates the collective organised structures that give shape to history." [PR]
«It is very early in the morning. The grass is covered with cold, dense dew. We haven’t even moved a hundred metres and my boots and trousers are already drenched and cold. The morning mist has turned my legs into two moving blades of grass. I try to walk as fast as I can and not to shiver, and I long for the sun to come up and make everything evaporate. An hour later, like we do every morning, we are all standing to attention like soldiers, each one of us facing an infinite furrow of exuberant tobacco plants. With our hoes in our left hands, we all shout in unison: ‘We will be like Che.’ The tobacco plants and the weeds around them remain inert; our cry does not even move one leaf. Our voices quickly dissolve. It is worse each morning to work in silence.

However, today I hear the same instruction, like a continuous, infinite echo that refuses to leave its cave. Throughout all those years I learnt how to differentiate the voices of my companions and today I manage to break the unity. I hear each voice separately and I am able to recognise each one of our faces as well as our minuscule bodies.

Who amongst us is like Che? No-one!
Who wants to be like Che? No-one!
Who would have wanted to be like Che? No-one!

Diango Hernández, 2013» [PR]
«The New Man and the New Woman at Marlborough Contemporary is Diango Hernández’s first solo exhibition in the UK. Diango Hernández (1970, Cuba. Now lives in Düsseldorf, Germany) will have solo shows at Mostyn, Llandudno and at Kunstverein Nürnberg in 2014. He has participated in many group shows in international institutions, such as MOMA in New York and the Hayward Gallery in London. His work has been presented at the 2005 Venice Biennale, the 2006 Biennales in São Paulo and Sydney and the 2010 Liverpool Biennial. A major solo exhibition was held at MART, Roveretto, in 2012.» [PR]

Tuesday, 17 September 2013

David Dawson: London: Wales: New York

David Dawson
London: Wales: New York
Marlborough Fine Art
David Dawson, London: Wales: New York, exhibition view
I did went to Diango Hernández's The New Man and the New Woman private view, at Marlborough Contemporary, but stopped for some moments, on the ground floor, at Marlborough Fine Art, to see David Dawson's marvelous work on London, Wales and New York.
David Dawson, N. W. Influence (oil on linen, 165.1x203.2cm), 2013
«David Dawson has been a painter for nearly thirty years. For much of this time he was the late Lucian Freud's assistant and regular model. Dawson's painting develop quietly behind the scenes of Freud's studio life - a life that quickly became fully enmeshed wit his own.» The Welsh «paintings speak of his total immersion in this landscape, physically and psychologically. His varied brushstrokes and colour relationships define the lie and character of the land with a sureness that seems felt as much as observed. For Dawson it is a 'euphoric' landscape.» (in "David Dawson London : Wales : New York", by Barnaby Wright)
David Dawson, Attack of the Zebra (oil on linen, 165.1x203.2cm), 2010
David Dawson, Fancy a Dish? (oil on linen, 165.1x203.2cm), 2013
David Dawson, London: Wales: New York, exhibition view
David Dawson, Sunburst (oil on linen, 165.1x203.2cm), 2011

Saturday, 14 September 2013

Daniel Silver: Dig

Daniel Silver
Dig
by Artangel

«Daniel Silver is a sculptor born in London in 1972, raised in Jerusalem, moving back to London in 1994. He has exhibited extensively across the UK and internationally. Solo presentations include Coming Together, Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland (2011); The Smoking Silver Father Figures, Frieze Sculpture Park, London (2010); Frieze Art Fair, London (2009); and Heads, Camden Arts Centre, London (2007). Group exhibitions include We Will Live, We Will See, Zabludowicz Collection, London (2011); Savage Messiah, Rob Tufnell at 1 Sutton Lane, London (2011); No New Thing Under the Sun, Royal Academy, London (2010); and Newspeak: British Art Now, State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg and Saatchi Gallery, London (2009). Silver is the recipient of numerous awards including the Henry Moore Artist in Residency (2005), Rome Scholar in Fine Arts (2002) and Credit Suisse First Boston Award (2001). He holds a BA Fine Art from Slade School of Art and an MA Fine Art Sculpture from the Royal College of Art.» [Artangel]

A London

On a typical rainy morning out in London, breakfast at Alfie's Antique Market with my favourite UN employee.