Sean Kelly Artists in Venice 2024
Sean Kelly Artists in Venice
Shahzia Sikander
Collective Behavior
A Collateral Event of the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
co-organized by the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art,
Located at the Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel, Venice
Solo exhibition, April 20 – October 20, 2024
Collective Behavior traces Shahzia Sikander’s ever-evolving explorations of gender, race, and colonial histories through her distinctive lexicon of forms. The exhibition brings together an exemplary selection of artwork from across Sikander’s career, illustrating her distinctive iconography and continuous reinvention through the adoption of new mediums. The exhibition includes her breakthrough work The Scroll (1989-90), created for her graduate thesis project at Lahore’s National College of Arts, which established her position at the vanguard of the neo-miniature movement. Encompassing the spectrum of her creative output from that career-launching work to the present-day, Collective Behavior also debuts new works by Sikander that respond to the architecture and history of the Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel, the city of Venice, and global histories of trade and artistic exchange.
Rather than proceeding chronologically, Collective Behavior follows Sikander’s primary ideas and lexicon of forms and figures as they appear and reappear throughout her work. The exhibition is divided into three sections:
• Point of Departure explores Sikander’s engagement with South Asian and Persian historic manuscript illustrations, demonstrating her roots in—and disruptions of—these traditions.
• The Feminine Space highlights highlights Sikander's ongoing address of gender and body politics through a dynamic visual vocabulary that has evolved throughout her career.
• Negotiated Landscapes and Contested Histories surveys Sikander’s responses to the complex histories of colonialism in South Asia and their legacies in contemporary language, trade, empire, and migration patterns.
Each section functions independently and in conversation with the others, mirroring the way that Sikander’s motifs create meaning as discrete units and through their interdependence with one another—producing a commanding “collective behavior” out of previously isolated forms.
Shahzia Sikander's work has been exhibited widely since the mid-1990s, with major solo exhibitions at Madison Square Park, New York (2023); the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2022); the RISD Museum, Providence (2021-2022); the Morgan Library, New York (2021); the Asia Society Hong Kong (2016); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2007); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2000); the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (1999); the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City (1998); and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (1998), among others. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of many institutions worldwide, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia; the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Sikander is the recipient of the Pollock Prize for Creativity (2023); Fukuoka Arts and Culture Prize (2022); KB17 Karachi Biennale Shahneela and Farhan Faruqui Popular Choice Art Prize (2017); Inaugural Medal of Art, US Department of State (AIE), Washington D.C. (2012); and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship “Genius” Award (2006), among many others.
For additional information about the exhibition, please visit collectivebehavior.com
For information on Shahzia Sikander, please visit skny.com
For all other inquiries, please email Janine Cirincione at Janine@skny.com
Marina Abramović
The Spirits of Maritime Crossing
Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation
A Collateral Event of the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Palazzo Smith Mangilli Valmarana
Strada Nova 4392
30100 Venice
Group exhibition, April 20 – November 24, 2024
The Spirits of Maritime Crossing delves into the complex realities of Southeast Asia. It reflects on the region’s diverse cultures and histories, contrasting them with Western narratives. In a new film created with dancer Pichet Klunchun, Marina Abramović travels from Venice to Bangkok. Her spirit encounters Monkey King, played by Klunchun with priests and talismans. The work tells the story of a wandering spirit traveling in the foreign land connecting Venice and Bangkok.
Written and directed by Professor Dr. Apinan Poshyananda, Artistic Director of Bangkok Art Biennale, the film tells a story of a search for refuge and internal peace. On Abramovic’s ghostly voyage, she encounters symbolic figures and visits sacred places. Through rituals, encounters, and teachings, she realizes the departure of her soul from her body and finds relief. The film concludes with Abramovic’s contemplation in Venice, symbolizing the end of her transformative quest.
The story unfolds as Abramović emerges from San Michele, an intermediate realm full of graves that symbolize the intersection between life and death. At Piazza San Marco, she immerses herself in the crowd, draped in black. The choice of attire represents the profound anguish of humanity, encompassing the pains of war, violence, and illness. Towards the end of the film, Abramović returns to Venice beneath the iconic Bridge of Sighs, now dressed in white and sitting alone in a gondola. Embracing solitude, she stands against the maritime breeze, gazing at the sacred Santa Maria della Salute, gradually fading into ethereal realms.
Marina Abramović was one of the first performance artists to become formally accepted by the institutional museum world, with major solo shows taking place throughout Europe and the US over a period of more than 25 years. Her first European retrospective The Cleaner was presented at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden in 2017, followed by presentations at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, Denmark, Henie Onstad, Sanvika, Norway (2017), Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany (2018), Centre of Contemporary Art, Torun (2019), and Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Serbia (2019). The artist’s opera 7 Deaths of Maria Callas debuted at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, Germany in 2020, and traveled to Palais Garnier, Paris, France and the Greek National Opera, Athens, Greece in 2021. In 2023, Abramović was the first female artist to host a major solo exhibition in the Main Galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
For additional information about the exhibition, please visit smc.bkkartbiennale.com
For information on Marina Abramović, please visit skny.com
For all other inquiries, please email Lauren Kelly at Lauren@skny.com
From Ukraine: Dare to Dream
Victor Pinchuk Foundation
A Collateral Event of the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Palazzo Contarini-Polignac
Calle Nuova Sant'Agnese, Sestiere Dorsoduro 874
30123 Venice
Group exhibition, April 20 – August 1, 2024
David Claerbout's film Birdcage, features an explosion that shatters the tranquillity of a picturesque garden, conveying a sense of emergency in what could be a serene setting. The silent blast is captured with a long, muted shot, putting the viewer in a conflicted position as to whether they should visually appreciate this scene of destruction. With Birdcage, Claerbout explores how memory completes our visual perception, exposing that the human subject is, in essence, time.
Birdcage explores how our perception actively composes the world we inhabit. Continuing the interests of earlier works, in which Claerbout shifted the principal role from foreground to background, Birdcage shifts the attention from the center to the periphery, from a sun-drenched, festive explosion of nature, to a state of tension. In line with his ideas about anti-anthropocentrism, the glossy starling and singing thrush are given a central role, highlighting the change in aura they undergo, from an index of lightness to an expressionist portrait of fear. As the film ends, we witness the gradual exchange of the energetic qualities of violence and peace.
David Claerbout studied at the Nationaal Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp from 1992 to 1995 and participated in the DAAD: Berlin Artists-in-Residence program from 2002 to 2003. Claerbout’s work is included in major public collections worldwide, including: Centre Georges Pompidou Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C; S.M.A.K, Ghent, Belgium; The Margulies Collection, Miami, Florida; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Collection François Pinault, Italy; FRAC Nord Pas de Calais, France; Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden, Germany; GAM Galleria D’Arte Moderna et Contemporanea, Turin, Italy and many others. He has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions internationally, including: Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh, Scotland (2018); Schaulager, Basel, Switzerland (2017); De Pont Museum of Art, Tilburg, Netherlands (2016); Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany (2013); Secession, Vienna, Austria (2012); Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel (2012); SFMOMA, San Francisco (2011); WIELS, Brussels, Belgium (2011); De Pont museum of contemporary art, Tilburg, The Netherlands (2009); Pompidou Center, Paris, France (2007); Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Switzerland (2008); and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2005).
For additional information about the exhibition, please visit pinchukartcentre.org
For information on David Claerbout, please visit skny.com
For all other inquiries, please email Janine Cirincione at Janine@skny.com
Joseph Kosuth
The Material of the Ornament
Fondazione Querini Stampalia
Campo Santa Maria Formosa 5252
30122 Venice
Public installation, Ongoing
Joseph Kosuth, known for his conceptual artworks, has used neon to adorn the facade of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia palace in Venice. His installation, The Material of the Ornament from 1997, features twelve illuminated texts positioned at various heights. Kosuth’s work draws inspiration from John Ruskin’s The Stones of Venice, 1851 – 1853, where Ruskin classified decorative details of Venetian Gothic and Renaissance architecture. In Kosuth’s interpretation, phrases are reinscribed and returned to Venice as architectural ornaments rendered as language. The neons depict primordial words like abstract lines, forms of earth (crystals), forms of water (waves), forms of air (clouds), and organic forms (shells), transforming classification into an ornament itself and fostering unexpected connections.
“What interested me was the idea of taking a theoretical model of ornament and using it as ornament itself. For me, this work serves as a structure referring to tautological models”. - Joseph Kosuth
Joseph Kosuth lives and works in New York and Venice. He has been awarded the Brandeis Award, 1990; Frederick Wiseman Award, 1991; the Menzione d’Onore at the Venice Biennale, 1993; and the Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government,1993 amongst others. He received a Cassandra Foundation Grant in 1968. In June 1999, a 3.00-franc postage stamp was issued by the French Government in honor of his work in Figeac. In February 2001 he received the Laurea Honoris Causa, doctorate in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Bologna, Italy. In October 2003 he received the Austrian Republic’s highest honor for accomplishments in science and culture, the Decoration of Honour in Gold for services to the Republic of Austria. Kosuth’s work titled, ni apparence ni illusion opened at the Musée du Louvre, Paris in 2009 and became a permanent installation in 2014. In May 2012 he was inducted into the Royal Belgian Academy. Kosuth’s internationally recognized work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia; the Kunstmuseums Thurgau, Warth, Switzerland; Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, Switzerland; and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia, amongst others. Most recently, in 2019 Kosuth installed permanent public installations at the Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami, Florida and Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, California. His work is featured in major private and public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; the Tate Gallery, London; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC; the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC; the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Louvre Museum, Paris, France; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; and the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome amongst many others worldwide.
For additional information about the installation, please visit querinistampalia.org
For information on Joseph Kosuth, please visit skny.com
For all other inquiries, please email Cecile Panzieri at Cecile@skny.com
Mariko Mori
Peace Crystal: A Prayer for Peace
JANUS
Palazzo Diedo, Berggruen Arts & Culture
Fondamenta Diedo
Cannaregio 2386
30121 Venice
Group exhibition, April 20 – November 24, 2024
The exhibition Janus at the Palazzo Diedo will be the first opportunity to see Mariko Mori’s Peace Crystal: A Prayer for Peace, before it is unveiled to the public in the Giardini of Palazzo Corner della Ca’ Granda in San Marco. The work is the third project in a series by the Faou Foundation. The exhibition at Diedo will include a film of Mori's previous installations in Japan and Brazil, and a model and scroll of Peace Crystal to give the viewer deeper insight into the work.
Carefully balanced on its most narrowest point, Peace Crystal symbolizes bipedalism as a significant step in evolution, one that led to the development of intelligence and spirituality as an upright posture allowed humans to receive energy from both celestial and terrestrial forces. The sphere at the core represents the eternal soul: the soul of every living being consistently cycles through life, death, and rebirth. Peace Crystal will be gifted by the Faou Foundation to an institution in Ethiopia after its presentation in Venice.
Mariko Mori’s solo exhibitions have been exhibited throughout the world, including Royal Academy of Arts, in London (United Kingdom), Japan Society, in New York (USA), Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo (Japan), The Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tokyo (Japan); The Brooklyn Museum of Art, in New York (USA); The Museum of Contemporary Art, in Chicago (USA); The Serpentine Gallery, in London (England); The Dallas Museum of Art, in Dallas (USA). Several renowned museums have presented Mori’s solo exhibitions, as well as acquired Mori’s works in their collections, including Centre Georges Pompidou, in Paris (France); The Prada Foundation, in Milan (Italy); The Museum of Contemporary Art, in Chicago (USA); The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in Los Angeles (USA). The PinchukArtCentre, in Kyiv (Ukraine); The ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, in Aarhus (Denmark), The Guggenheim Museum, in New York (USA); The Israel Museum, in Jerusalem (Israel); The Museum of Modern Art, in New York (USA) have Mori’s works in collection.
Mori has received various awards, including the prestigious Menzione d’onore at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 (for “Nirvana”) and the 8th Annual Award as a promising Artist and Scholar in the Field of Contemporary Japanese Art in 2001 from Japan Cultural Arts Foundation.
For additional information about the exhibition, please visit berggruenarts.org
For information on Mariko Mori, please visit skny.com
For all other inquiries, please email Cecile Panzieri at Cecile@skny.com
