TROY, ALABAMA International Arts Center, Janice Hawkins Cultural Arts Park, Troy University At a time when sculptural craftsmanship is often subordinated to idea—and idea is at best inconsequential—it was refreshing to see an exhibition of works both beautifully made and “weighty” in thought.
All the Dirt of Life: A Conversation with Sean Scully
For Irish-born, American artist Sean Scully, autobiography and experience serve as correctives to the dry determinism of Minimalism. By making Minimalism “emotional,” he advances the personal over formal concerns, emancipating his works from a Sol LeWitt-like cage and introducing a freedom refused by Ad Reinhardt and Barnett Newman in their day.
Inside Ideas: A Conversation with Nathan Coley
Nathan Coley, who was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2007, has been working in Glasgow, Scotland, for over 25 years. Like many artists, he avoids characterization and “dislike[s] most terminology that describes art practice in any way.”
Candice Lin
CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA Pitzer College Art Galleries Candice Lin’s work involves equal measures of dark poetry, speculation, fiction, DIY science, futurism, queerness, and art history. Its concentrated physical materiality is rendered even denser by layers of association and reference.
Gambling Man: A Conversation with Adam Silverman
Adam Silverman’s work is a monument to risk. Once a producer of functional pottery, he now works at the edge of feasibility where principles of ceramic fabrication are concerned. Potentially ruinous firing techniques, uncontrollable glazing methods, and almost unsustainable forms all expose his work to the possibility of self-destruction.
Acting on Impossibility: A Conversation with Ignacio Unrrein
Architect and doctoral candidate at Argentina’s National University of Arts, Ignacio Unrrein explores highly theoretical terrain in very concrete terms. His works occupy gaps—in perception, art-making, and personal relations (whether between individuals or between citizens and the city)—sometimes closing them, sometimes widening them, but always drawing attention to their existence and promise of opportunity.
Cuerpos que hablan: Una Conversación con Martin Di Girolamo
Con una obra de una factura impactante, dueña de una figuración cuasi hiperrealista que confronta al espectador con modelos de humanidad que actúan como espejos brutales de nuestra realidad, Martin Di Girolamo desarrolla un trabajo sólido y con amplia trayectoria en el panorama de las artes, desde los años 90.
“An exhibition with works by…”
ROTTERDAM Kunstinstituut Melly (formerly Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art) For me, Delftware—a blue and white ceramic that rose to prominence in the 17th century—isn’t particularly sexy, but this show of sculptures and installations reinterpreting Delftware forms and presenting a wider global history changed my mind.
About the Search: A Conversation with Frances Richardson
British sculptor Frances Richardson, 2017 recipient of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award, endows utilitarian materials such as Perspex and wood veneer with unexpected lyricism and elemental force.
Jessica Stoller
NEW YORK P.P.O.W André Breton once described Frida Kahlo’s work as “a ribbon around a bomb.” His words could also apply to Jessica Stoller’s witty and subversive sculptures, which first seduce and then explode into contrary objection.
