ARCHIVE: DECEMBER

D E C E M B E R  

ARTIST OF THE MONTH was JIŘÍ KOVANDA 
1954 –

Jiří Kovanda, Kissing Through The Glass, 2007. At Liverpool Biennale 2012

Simple actions, elegantly and touchingly executed. Kovanda definitely has a sense of humour. His work might be seen as one predecessor of Marina Abramovic’s The Artist is Present   (itself an exceptionally beautiful work) except without the bullshit internet spew afterwards.See Kovanda in action in this Tate Shot at the Liverpool Biennal (01:22)

‘I was so deeply impressed and immediately influenced when I first encountered Conceptual art. You didn’t have to know a craft, you didn’t need expensive materials, you didn’t have to be extremely skilled – and yet you could still do something worthwhile.’

‘The question is when communication takes place. I think it’s at the moment when the thing is referred to as art. That means that if an action has an audience, it happens straight away. If no spectators have been invited, however, I think it doesn’t take place until afterwards, in the artistic space – in other words, either at an exhibition, or in print, it doesn’t matter. In short, when it’s presented as art…Without the action, it wouldn’t exist..’

‘The action has to take place… the action has to be there. An idea isn’t enough, it has to really take place.’

-From 2008 Frieze interview

GALLERY OF THE MONTH was NEW MUSEUM, NY 10002

Yeeesh! Y2K14 is the one for a visit to New York. With self-shooting self-incarcerating Chris Burden rounding off the 2013 exhibition calendar, The New Museum show no signs of slowing up in 2014 – Big Dog of the 55th Venice Biennale Massimiliano Gioni curating things left right and centre; master of colour Chris Ofili brightening Autumn; and one-day lover of my life Laure Prouvost (winner of the Turner Prize this evening) sexing up the gallery space with her so fresh and so clean clean eroticism. Someone get me to the airport.

Check out the New Museum’s line up details here.

N E X T   U P :

– – – > JANUARY ARTIST OF THE MONTH: PIPILOTTI RIST

– – – > JANUARY GALLERY OF THE MONTH: UMETNOSTNA GALERIJA MARIBOR