Gilane Tawadros è una curatrice e scrittrice che approfondisce l'arte contemporanea e il suo contesto globale. Il suo lavoro cerca di esplorare l'interazione dinamica tra le pratiche artistiche e i cambiamenti sociali. Attraverso i suoi sforzi curatoriali e i contributi scritti, si concentra sulla presentazione e l'analisi di diverse espressioni artistiche, evidenziando spesso prospettive postcoloniali e correnti intellettuali contemporanee. Tawadros enfatizza la profondità intellettuale e l'impegno critico con l'arte.
A woman hacks at a tree while her daughter chases her targets deep into the bush. A visitor walks up the path towards razor-topped gates. A man drives his nameless passenger towards a fractured city. At the reservoir, dark shapes move in the depths of the water. Traversing England, the Balkans, and New Zealand past and present, these stories trace the unexpected paths of people's lives.
Anchored in artistic practice, this vibrant collection of essays and writings spans a period from 1992-2017 and the work of leading artists such as Adel Abdessemed, Richard Avedon, Sonia Boyce, Frank Bowling, Omer Fast, Mona Hatoum, Susan Hiller, Alfredo Jaar, Glenn Ligon and Shen Yuan. A key figure in British and international art, Gilane Tawadros draws difference to the surface, recuperating it as a potentially radical frame through which to understand contemporary art and the everyday world. Playing with forms of writing, from critical analyses to fictional narratives, the book functions as a practice-based meditation on how to write about contemporary art
One of the most arresting figurative artists working in Britain today, Claudette Johnson (b. 1959, Manchester, UK) creates larger than life studies of black women that are both intimate and powerful.Modern Art Oxford's major show of her work is the artist's first major institutional exhibition in almost three decades and included approximately 30 paintings and drawings in pastel, paint, ink and charcoal from the early 1980s to 2019.Throughout her career, Johnson has continued to redefine the space assigned to images of black women. Musing that "it is a very small twisted space that is offered", Johnson invites her sitters to "Take up space in a way that is reflective of who they are."The texts in this exhibition catalogue offer fresh insights into her practice and the dynamic impact of her event at the First National Black Arts Convention organised by the BLK Art Group in Wolverhampton, 1982. Also included is an interview with Johnson and archival materials.Claudette Johnson's work is rooted in her African heritage. Her talent is as powerful as it is obvious. -- Steve McQueen (1992)Published on the occasion of the exhibition, Claudette Johnson: I Came to Dance at Modern Art Oxford (1 June - 8 September 2019).
The first major publication to explore the work of Sonia Boyce, one of Britain's most exciting contemporary artists, including her newest and most ambitious work to date
A triumphant illustrated volume on the art of abstract sculptor Ruth Asawa, examining her contributions to modern art and education. Ruth Asawa is an artist of vital importance to modern art. Ruth Asawa: Citizen of the Universe, which accompanies the first public exhibition of Asawa’s work in Europe, introduces readers to Asawa’s work, including her signature hanging sculptures in looped and tied wire, and her pioneering education practice. It positions her expansive ethos—her self-identification as “a citizen of the universe” and belief that art education can be life enriching for everyone—as a catalyst for creative forward-thinking in the twenty-first century. Focusing on a dynamic and formative period in her life from 1945 to 1980, this book gives readers a unique experience of the artist and her work, exploring her legacy and positioning her as an abstract sculptor crucial to American modernism. It is a wonderful celebration of her holistic integration of art, education, and community engagement, through which she called for a revolutionary and inclusive vision of art’s role in society.
Published alongside an exhibition at Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art (22 September - 21 November 2010), the first solo exhibition in London that is dedicated to the work of Adel Abdessemed. Working across a wide range of different media, including sculpture, installation, video, photography and drawings, Abdessemed passionately tackles difficult subject matter and taboos within society and presents them as naked truth. Yet beyond their often challenging and provocative appearance, his works embody the fragility of life and are deeply imbued with beauty and poetry. Abdessemed's exhibition at Parasol unit highlights precisely the vulnerability and aesthetic sensitivity in the work of this important twenty-first-century artist. The exhibition is organised around two of his major works; Habibi, 2003, a 17 metre human skeleton made of fibreglass; and silent warrior, which includes numerous colourful masks made from found and empty tin cans from Africa, which once contained either food or toxic material. Abdessemed was born in Algeria in 1971 and now lives and works in Paris.