| The First Art Newspaper on the Net |   | Established in 1996 | Tuesday, January 2, 2018 |
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| | Israel Antiquities Authority finds 2,700-year-old 'governor of Jerusalem' seal | |
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Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, excavator of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), holds a stamped piece of clay from the First Jewish Temple period which belonged to the "governor of the city" of Jerusalem, the most prominent local position to be held in Jerusalem of 2700 years ago, and which were excavated at the northwestern part of the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem's Old City, on January 1, 2018, at he IAA laboratories in Jerusalem. The extraordinary find is a lump of clay, stamped and pre-fired, measures 13 x 15 mm and is 23 mm thick. The upper part of the sealing depicts two figures facing each other, and the lower part holds an inscription in ancient Hebrew script. GALI TIBBON / AFP.
JERUSALEM (AFP).- Israeli archaeologists unveiled on Monday a 2,700-year-old clay seal imprinted with images and Hebrew words that may have belonged to a biblical governor of Jerusalem. The round button-sized seal was found in a building in Jerusalem's Old City near the Western Wall and dates back to the 7th century BC, from the time of the First Jewish Temple, said the Israel Antiquities Authority. The artefact bears an engraving showing two men wearing robes and facing each other in a mirror-like manner. Below them is an inscription in ancient Hebrew that reads "to the governor of the city", or mayor. "It's a very rare find," said Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, excavator of the Western Wall plaza for the Israel Antiquities Authority. ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day A car overtakes a double decker sightseeing bus past the Louvre Museum, reflected in a pool of rain water on January 1, 2018 in Paris. GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP
| Ai Weiwei's first solo exhibition in Belgium on view at FOMU | | Exhibition at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum brings together works by Arcimboldo | | Musée dArt Moderne et Contemporain de Saint-Ãtienne Métropole exhibits works by Anish Kapoor | 
Ai Weiwei, From the series Selfie, 2012-2017, Image courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio.
ANTWERP.- FOMU is presenting the first solo exhibition of Chinese visual artist and political activist Ai Weiwei in Belgium. Ais radical visual critique of human rights violations, abuse of power, and the unchecked state control of the Chinese government in particular has made him into one of the worlds most important contemporary artists Although he is often characterized as a Chinese dissident," he primarily sees his activism and critique against the Chinese government as a defense of the universal values of free speech and freedom of expression. Photography plays a crucial role in Ais work. The exhibition at FOMU includes both seminal political statements such as Study of Perspective (19952011) and his daily stream of selfies and snapshots on social media. On Twitter and Instagram, Ai recorded the years he spent under constant surveillance by the Chinese government, he documents his art and the people he enco ... More | | 
Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Vertumno, 1591. Ãleo sobre tabla, 58 x 70 cm. Skokloster slott, Suecia.
BILBAO.- The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum is presenting the exhibition Arcimboldo. The Floras and Spring. It brings together the three works by the artist housed in Spanish collections, in addition to other paintings and documentation that help to provide a context for them. In total, the exhibition includes 14 works of which the core group comprises the oils on panel Flora (1589) and Flora meretrix (c. 1590), loaned from a private collection and first published in 2014 by Miguel Falomir, director of the Museo del Prado and author of the principal text in the present catalogue. They are joined by Spring (1563), loaned by Museum of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (Madrid), and by two contemporary copies of Autumn and Winter from the collection of the Duchess of Cardona (Córdoba, Spain), which together reveal the level of achievement of the original teste composte or "composite heads" ... More | | 
Anish Kapoor, My Red Homeland, 2003. Peinture à la cire et à lhuile, bras en acier et moteur. Diamètre : 12 m. Vue de linstallation au Guggenheim Bilbao, 2010. Photo : Dave Morgan © Anish Kapoor / ADAGP, Paris 2017.
SAINT-ÃTIENNE.- For its 30th anniversary, the Musée dArt Moderne et Contemporain de Saint-Ãtienne Métropole has invited famous British artist Anish Kapoor. Given carte blanche in the large center room of the building, he is showcasing My Red Homeland installation until Spring 2018, alongside exclusive artworks showcased for the very first time thanks to the longtime relationship of the artist and exhibition curator Lorand Hegyi, also Emeritus General Director of the museum. Born in Mumbai in 1954, Anish Kapoor is one of the greatest contemporary sculptor artists of our time. He has been living and working in London since 1972. In the 1980s, he proved himself on the international art scene with sculptures of a new kind, playing with forms, media and interpretations. His works require ... More |
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| Prado Museum exhibits works of art from the Ãscar Alzaga Villaamil donation | | Boca Raton Museum of Art exhibits "Regarding George Ohr: Contemporary Ceramics in the Spirit of the Mad Potter" | | The installation "Direction" by the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota on view at KODE in Bergen | 
AgustÃn Esteve y Marqués, Manuela Isidra Téllez-Girón, future Duchess of Abrantes, 1797. Oil on canvas. 110.5 x 86 cm.
MADRID.- The outstanding quality of the Ãscar Alzaga Villaamil donation makes it a significant addition to the Museo Nacional del Prados collection. The donation comprises 7 paintings encompassing a broad chronological span, from the late 16th to the mid-19th centuries, by artists from Spain, Italy and Bohemia. All of them were painted in Spain with the exception of the Ligozzi, but four were acquired abroad by the donor, for which reason their entry into the Prados collection represents an important enrichment of Spains national artistic heritage. For the first time, the Museo Nacional del Prado is exhibiting the 6 paintings that entered its collections last March thanks to the generous donation made by Ãscar Alzaga Villaamil, which also included a financial contribution that has ... More | | 
Ken Price, F.E.W., 2003, Fired and painted clay. Courtesy of the Ken Price Estate. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen.
BOCA RATON, FLA.- Regarding George Ohr: Contemporary Ceramics in the Spirit of the Mad Potter brings together 24 unique, major works by the iconoclastic, Biloxi-born mad potter George Ohr (many not exhibited in public before) along with objects by 16 international contemporary artists working in the same avant-garde vein. These artists similarly exemplify the mediums cutting edge while providing an illuminating bridge to greater understand Ohrs work within a contemporary context. Selected artists include Glenn Barkley, Kathy Butterly, Nicole Cherubini, Balbak Golkar, the Haas Brothers, King Houndekpinkou, Takuro Kuwata, Anne Marie Laureys, Gareth Mason, Ron Nagle, Gustavo Pérez, Ken Price, Brian Rochefort, Sterling Ruby, Arlene Shecht, Peter Voulkos, Jesse Wine, and Betty Woodman. Regarding George Ohr is guest curated by the renowned ceramics expert Garth Clark, and on view at the ... More | | 
Chiharu Shiota, Direction, 2017. Photo: Dag Fosse.
BERGEN.- Chiharu Shiota is internationally renowned for her intricate and spectacular thread constructions. In Bergen, her new work "Direction" fills a large exhibition hall and completely encompass the visitors. Her complex thread installations have been compared with drawing in the air," and frequently include everyday objects. Shiota has also employed photography and video in several of her installations. At KODE the artist incorporates old boats from Western Norway in her work. These boats were once an everyday means of transportation along the coast outside of Bergen, and the title incorporates a reference to the act of travelling. At the same time Shiota touches upon navigating in a broader perspective: Ive been concentrating on the distance we cover in our lives, and the journey we take that has an unclear destination. We are heading in a certain direction but dont know exactly where," says the artist. Chiharu Shi ... More |
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| First phase of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston campus transformation opens in May 2018 | | Galerie Guido W. Baudach exhibits works by five German based female abstract painters | | Tony Oursler's video installations presented alongside Gustavo Rol's paintings in exhibition in Turin | 
Rendering of the Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza, looking south. Courtesy of Deborah Nevins & Associates.
HOUSTON, TX.- The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, announced that in May 2018, the first phase of the Museums campus transformation will be inaugurated, with the completion of the new Glassell School of Art building, by Steven Holl Architects; the schools BBVA Compass Roof Garden; and the adjacent Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza, by Deborah Nevins & Associates. The school, roof garden, and plaza are the first major features of the newly redesigned Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus to open. Originally slated for January 2018, the school and plaza were delayed until May as a result of flooding during Hurricane Harvey. The entire 14-acre transformationwhich also includes the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building for modern and contemporary art, by Steven Holl Architects; the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Center for Conservation, by Lake|Flato ... More | | 
Tamina Amadyar, august, 2017. Pigment, glutin on canvas, 130 x 110 cm. Courtesy the artist & Galerie Guido W. Baudach. Photo: Roman März.
BERLIN.- Under the title Quintessenz Galerie Guido W. Baudach is presenting five German based female abstract painters from the younger generation. Besides their gender, age, medium and genre the artists are connected by the fact that they all have studied at the Art Academy in Dusseldorf a place known for its pronounced painting tradition. Beyond the mentioned similarities Quintessenz demonstrates different artistic languages and different attitudes towards abstract painting that are loosely juxtaposed and thus left to discussion. While particularly in the last decade many artists have cultivated painting among other more contemporary felt or rated media and means of expression as performance, film and photography a new generation of artists seems to center again with a definite and new focus on a genre that periodically ... More | | 
Tony Oursler.
TURIN.- The Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli continues the research on the topic of collecting and presents Paranormal: Tony Oursler vs. Gustavo Rol. The exhibition is an ideal collection that includes works by the American artist and a selection of objects belonging to his large collection revolving around the occult, alongside the paranormal activity and art works in the city collections by Gustavo Rol, active in Turin in the latter half of the 20th century. The works were selected by Tony Oursler together with the exhibition curator Paolo Colombo and showcased in a space conceived by the artist himself. On this occasion, Oursler also displays a new series of works, the Ex Votos, inspired by his visit to the Sanctuary of the Consolata in Turin. Marcella Pralormo, Director of the Pinacoteca Agnelli, curated the exhibition section on Gustavo Rol, with a long research work on the people that knew him, tracing and selecting, in ... More |
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| Elizabeth Dee exhibits Lisa Beck's new paintings | | Refik Anadol re-interprets the excavation of Çatalhöyük with a media installation | | Vancouver Art Gallery presents an installation immersed in local issue of environmental sustainability | 
Lisa Beck, Untitled #11, 2017. Mixed media, 12 x 9 inches, 30.5 x 22.9 cm.
NEW YORK, NY.- Elizabeth Dee is presenting Lisa Becks new paintings. This series examines the relationship between the observable aspects of reality, like landscape or the body, and the aspects that are too vast or too tiny to see, or grasp completely, like space or atomic physics, that necessarily become abstractions. These paintings are the means to visualize the place where these different aspects meet or interact, and that place is a shifting point, as our understanding of the world is constantly challenged and changed by new knowledge. Rising and Falling introduces a set of experiments, a body of work made of a very condensed set of elements: circles, areas of color, lines - all of which have resonances and references which belie their simplicity. The most prevalent motif is the circle in all its forms and references: spheres, voids, cells, selves, stars, atoms, specificity, endlessness. A point can be an anchor, a hole, or a world ... More | | 
Refik Anadol, Ãatalhöyük Research Project Archive, 2017, Courtesy of the artist.
ISTANBUL.- Using machine learning algorithms, artist Refik Anadol developed a media installation by using Ãatalhöyük Research Projects archive of 2.8 million data records. Commissioned as part of the exhibition The Curious Case of Ãatalhöyük, this poetic representation of an archaeological archive can be experienced until January 14th 2018 at ANAMED in Istanbul. Koç Universitys Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) presents the artist Refik Anadols media installation, which reinterpreted the entirety of the excavation archive of the Neolithic site Ãatalhöyük, in Konya, Turkey. Anadol has visually collated 2.8 million data records of 250,000 finds discovered throughout the 25 years of scientific research conducted by the Ãatalhöyük Research Project. Over 1000 relational database tables have been translated into a poetic visual experience. The archive is a rich digital resource ... More | | 
Asim Waqif, Salvage, 2017, site-specific installation at Vancouver Art Gallery Offsite. Photo: Rachel Topham, Vancouver Art Gallery.
VANCOUVER.- The Vancouver Art Gallery is presenting an engaging public artwork by New Delhi-based artist Asim Waqif, at the Gallerys Offsite location in the heart of downtown Vancouver. Inspired by environmental concerns and the pace of human consumption, Waqif constructed an immersive architectural experience from materials collected at repurpose stores, transfer stations and landfills in the metro Vancouver area. The structure has been assembled using timber, roofing, doors, window frames and sections of walls salvaged from recent demolitions sites in addition to electronics, cabinets, bails of recycled cardboard and containers discarded from local residential, business and institutional buildings. Waqifs architectural structurealso incorporates an interactive acoustic system using microphones, effects pedals and speakers. Visitors are encouraged to move ... More |
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From pie-crust tabletops to chairs with ruffles -- style and taste in American furniture
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 The Maggie's Centre Barts, designed by Steven Holl Architects, opens in LondonLONDON.- The Maggies Centre Barts, designed by Steven Holl Architects in partnership with jmarchitects, celebrated its opening in December. Maggies Barts, sited in central London, provides free practical and emotional support for people living with cancer and their family and friends. A three-story urban townhouse, the new Centre has been designed to be full of open space and light. The exterior works in harmony with the interior, allowing natural light to wash over the floors and walls, ever changing through the natural daylight pattern of the seasons. The building is envisioned as a vessel within a vessel within a vessel. The structure is a branching concrete frame, the inner layer is bamboo and the outer layer is matte white glass. The exterior glass with colored glass fragments is organized in horizontal bands like a musical staff, recalling neume notation of Medieval ... More Museum of Arts and Design announces the Burke PrizeNEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Arts and Design announced the establishment of the Burke Prize, a new annual award that reinforces MADs commitment to celebrating the next generation of artists working in and advancing the disciplines that shaped the American studio craft movement. The announcement was made at MAD Ball 2017, the Museums annual fundraising gala, and was the highlight of the evenings festivities. The Burke Prize is an unrestricted $50,000 award made to a professional artist under the age of forty-five working in glass, fiber, clay, metals, or wood. Named for Marian and Russell Burke, two passionate collectors of craft and longtime supporters of MAD, the Burke Prize will be determined by an annual jury of professionals in the fields of art, craft, and design following an open application process. The Burke Prize will elevate the profile of craft, ... More Exhibition at Aïshti Foundation presents works by over 60 artistsBEIRUT.- The exhibition The Trick Brain assembles the work of over 60 artists and more than 240 pieces from the Tony and Elham Salamé Collection. Taking its title from a video installation by Ed Atkins featured in the collection, the exhibition proceeds by establishing unexpected connections between works informed by a neo-surrealist sensibility. The Trick Brain is the third exhibition in a series of presentations of the Tony and Elham Salamé Collection at their recently opened Aïshti Foundation in Beirut, designed by David Adjaye. The Trick Brain completes a trilogy of exhibitions, which included the inaugural show New Skin, which focused on the intersection of abstraction and information in contemporary painting, and Good Dreams, Bad Dreams American Mythologies, a survey of works in the collection that confront representations of contemporary American culture. ... More Solo exhibition of sculptor Jiri Geller on view at the Serlachius Museums in FinlandMÃNTTÃ.- Sculptor Jiri Geller finds his subjects in popular culture and combines them with new themes. At the Serlachius Museums in Finland opens his exhibition FUCK THE WORLD!, whose works can be characterised as punk objects with their everlasting beauty. Jiri Geller is interested in well-known, recognisable and visually tested images and symbols. Chosen figures, however, receive new roles in events that are coloured by unusual coincidences and comical encounters. At the same time, these frozen events momentarily hint at the transitory nature of everything. An important feature of Gellers art is US-derived customisation, which he applies in his unique way. Geller customises the familiar, recognisable popular visual catalogue and, based on it, makes new objects and images. By varying these elements, he dramatises new situations and ... More Latvian National Museum of Art exhibits new acquisitions from its 21st century collectionRIGA.- An exhibition from the museums collection New Acquisitions of the LNMA. The 21st Century is on view at the ARSENĀLS Exhibition Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga until 28 January 2018. Collecting the current art of the period is among the tasks delegated by the state and a priority of building the collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art (LNMA). Over the last 17 years, the collection has expanded by almost 600 works in various media created during the 21st century. The index of new additions during these years has oscillated widely in accordance with the financial means, and, along with purchases, a significant part of acquisitions for the collection consists of items presented by benefactors, artists or as a result of the museums own initiative. Bringing together information about all the museums new acquisitions representing the 21st century, ... More Exhibition presents works by Jewish artists born, trained, or active in the Russian as well as Soviet Empires CLINTON, MASS.- The Museum of Russian Icons is presenting the exhibition, Migration + Memory: Jewish Artists of the Russian and Soviet Empires. The exhibit features approximately 100 works drawn from the Vladimir and Vera Torchilin Collection that explore the creative responses as well as historical trajectories of Jewish artists born, trained, or active in the Russian as well as Soviet Empires in the twentieth-century. Organized by Boston's Ballets Russes Arts Initiative and presented by the Museum of Russian Icons, it is curated by BRAI's Executive Director, Anna Winestein, and structured around the themes of migration and memory that are central to the Jewish experience in this period. Migration + Memory coincides with the centenary of the October Revolution of 1917, which transformed the landscape of choices and options for Russian Jewry, including artists, ... More Exhibition at Castelli Gallery presents the work of Nancy Graves, Jasper Johns and Roy LichtensteinNEW YORK, NY.- For centuries artists have cast their clay and plaster sculptures in bronze to endow their art with durability. Yet bronze casting holds an inherent paradox for the modern artist. On one side, the romantic notion of authorship favors the model as the true work of art bearing the hand of the artist. On the other, aesthetic conventions of finish and patina favor the bronze. Although artists like Rodin and Brancusi have explored the tensions between these two poles, most artists privileged one aspect over the other until, in the Postwar period, a diverse group of artists started to dismantle the dichotomy of original and copy. Found, Made, Cast presents the work of three artists Nancy Graves, Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein who pioneered new approaches to casting in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. These artists rethought the status of cast ... More José Leonilson's first solo exhibition in the United States on view at the Americas SocietyNEW YORK, NY.- In the 1980s, when the world was reverberating from the shockwaves sent by AIDS, Brazilian artist José Leonilson (19571993) adapted the political discourse of the epidemic into a metaphysical rumination. His work offers a pantheon of symbols, poetics, and patterns, charting in personal terms the odyssey of a disease, which simultaneously sparked fear, confusion, and panic. Americas Society is presenting José Leonilson: Empty Man, the first solo exhibition in the United States of one of Brazils leading figures of contemporary art. Curated by Cecilia Brunson, Gabriela Rangel, and Susanna V. Temkin, José Leonilson: Empty Man is on view at the Societys Art Gallery through February 3, 2018. Leonilsons mythical universe constructs an existential narrative around his own predicament, and this timeless intimacy doubly resonates ... More Edinburgh graduate's prize-winning art on show in Scotland for the first timeEDINBURGH.- An Edinburgh College of Art graduates prize-winning entry in a prestigious, worldwide portrait competition is on show in Scotland for the first time this winter. The 2017 BP Portrait Award exhibition, which opened at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery on 18 December, features 53 stand-out works selected from 2,580 entries, by artists from 87 countries, including Breech! by Benjamin Sullivan which took this year's first prize. BP Portrait Award is one of the most important platforms for new and established portrait painters alike. Its first prize of £30,000 makes it one of the largest global arts competitions. The 2017 first prize winner of BP Portrait Award is Benjamin Sullivan (b. 1977), whose painting Breech! is a tender depiction of his wife Virginia breastfeeding their eight-month-old daughter. It took Sullivan less than five weeks to create the intimate painting, ... More Blaffer Art Museum presents exhibition of works by Sergio PregoHOUSTON, TX.- The New York-based artist Sergio Prego (b. 1969) creates unfamiliar perceptual and spatial situations in order to examine contemporary realms of experience. Prego conceives sculpture as a gesture that takes place on a specific situation. He takes inspiration from the performative or experiential turn of the 1960s that is, the idea that meaning is made of and stems from the viewers embodied experience. His sculptural devices, including robotic arms, moving walls or inflatable membranes, transform through action the pre-existing spatial and discursive context of the institution so as to shape experiences beyond our conventional matrix of attitudes, habits and beliefs. I have always been interested in inventing new modalities of apprehending the space or, even more, in inventing new spatial relations, Prego says. Instead of forcing the body to move ... More Evocative exhibition explores 15 years of transforming the everyday by Studio Wieki SomersLUXEMBOURG.- For over fifteen years, Dylan van den Berg and Wieki Somers have worked together as Studio Wieki Somers on a body of work that combines innovation and tradition with wonder. The designers work and ethos are shared in an exhibition, presented as part of the Musée de design et darts appliqués contemporains (mudac) Carte Blanche series until 11 February 2018. Astonished by a general lack of consideration for our environment, the design duo has continuously questioned why things are as they are, exploring the significance and deeper meanings that lie hidden in our rituals of daily use. Out of the Ordinary offers an intuitive and contemplative journey that explores the oeuvre of the Studio via fifteen different projects, delving into some of its research themes to reveal how the Studios work transforms the ordinary. In an exhibition created ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, Italian painter Piero di Cosimo was born January 02, 1462. Piero di Cosimo (2 January 1462 - 12 April 1522), also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was a Florentine painter of the Italian Renaissance. He is most famous for the mythological and allegorical subjects he painted in the late Quattrocento. In this image: Piero di Cosimo, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Elizabeth of Hungary, Catherine of Alexandria, Peter, and John the Evangelist with Angels, completed by 1493. Oil and tempera on panel, 203 x 197 cm (79 7/8 x 77 1/2 in.). Museo degli Innocenti, Florence.
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