Calendar
Calendar
The HUM calendar features exhibitions & events by New Zealand arts practitioners working or living abroad.
Medusa: Jewellery and Taboos
Musée d’Art moderne, Paris, France
19 May —
05 November 2017
MEDUSA questions traditional art boundaries by reconsidering, with the complicity of artists, the questions of craftsmanship, decoration, fashion and pop culture. The exhibition brings together over 400 pieces of jewellery: created by artists, avant-garde jewellery makers and designers, contemporary jewellery makers and high end jewellers, as well as anonymous, more ancient or non-Western pieces. These pieces, well-known, little-known, unique, familiar, handmade, mass-produced, or computer made, mix refined, hand-wrought, amateur and even futuristic aesthetics rarely associated together.
New Zealand artists and jewellers included in Medusa are Sharon Fitness, Warwick Freeman, Jhana Millers, Lisa Walker, Karl Fritsch. The exhibition is curated by Anne Dressen, with scientific advisors Benjamin Lignel and Michèle Heuzé.
MEDUSA questions traditional art boundaries by reconsidering, with the complicity of artists, the questions of craftsmanship, decoration, fashion and pop culture. The exhibition brings together over 400 pieces of jewellery: created by artists, avant-garde jewellery makers and designers, contemporary jewellery makers and high end jewellers, as well as anonymous, more ancient or non-Western pieces. These pieces, well-known, little-known, unique, familiar, handmade, mass-produced, or computer made, mix refined, hand-wrought, amateur and even futuristic aesthetics rarely associated together.
New Zealand artists and jewellers included in Medusa are Sharon Fitness, Warwick Freeman, Jhana Millers, Lisa Walker, Karl Fritsch. The exhibition is curated by Anne Dressen, with scientific advisors Benjamin Lignel and Michèle Heuzé.
Brit Bunkley, Cybersculpture 2024
Collège des Bernardins, Paris, France
17 January —
10 February 2024
Brit Bunkley joins 21 other artists participating in Cybersculpture 2024, an art exhibition featuring 3D sculptures and moving image works in Paris, France.
Bunkley is an Aotearoa New Zealand-based artist and videographer whose practice includes the construction of large-scale outdoor sculptures and installations, as well as the creation of ‘impossible’ moving and still images and architecture designed using 3D modelling, video editing and image editing programs.
Brit Bunkley joins 21 other artists participating in Cybersculpture 2024, an art exhibition featuring 3D sculptures and moving image works in Paris, France.
Bunkley is an Aotearoa New Zealand-based artist and videographer whose practice includes the construction of large-scale outdoor sculptures and installations, as well as the creation of ‘impossible’ moving and still images and architecture designed using 3D modelling, video editing and image editing programs.
Brit Bunkley and Gavin Hipkins, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin
various venues across Paris, France
31 October —
05 November 2023
Two experimental videos from two Aotearoa artists have been selected for this year's prestigious Rencontres Internationales film festival, taking place in Paris.
Included in the Non Human, All Too Human programme is Brit Bunkley's The Peaceable Kingdom (2023), screening alongside videos by Matthias Müller and Christoph Girardet, Andro Eradze, Freja Sofie Kirk, Matthew Lax and Eteam, at Paris' Museum of Hunting and Nature, on 2 November, from 4pm.
Screening in the Generation programme, on 1 November from 4pm at MEP Maison Européenne de la Photographie, is Gavin Hipkins' Nature Writing (2022). Hipkins' work joins videos by Siyanda Marrengane, Ben Russell, Ibrahim Quraishi, Udval Altangerel, Jane Jin Kaisen and Thuy-han Nguyen-chi.
Two experimental videos from two Aotearoa artists have been selected for this year's prestigious Rencontres Internationales film festival, taking place in Paris.
Included in the Non Human, All Too Human programme is Brit Bunkley's The Peaceable Kingdom (2023), screening alongside videos by Matthias Müller and Christoph Girardet, Andro Eradze, Freja Sofie Kirk, Matthew Lax and Eteam, at Paris' Museum of Hunting and Nature, on 2 November, from 4pm.
Screening in the Generation programme, on 1 November from 4pm at MEP Maison Européenne de la Photographie, is Gavin Hipkins' Nature Writing (2022). Hipkins' work joins videos by Siyanda Marrengane, Ben Russell, Ibrahim Quraishi, Udval Altangerel, Jane Jin Kaisen and Thuy-han Nguyen-chi.
Amit Noy and family, A Big Big Room Full of Everyone's Hope
Théâtre de la Ville—Les Abbesses in Paris and National Ballet of Marseille, France
07 September —
01 October 2023
A Big Big Room Full of Everybody’s Hope is performed by four generations of a single family. Through language, choreography, and song, they offer strategies for living in the aftermath of violence. The work engages specific inheritances from historical and cultural canons—the Holocaust, modernist ballet, and musical theatre—that are also embedded in the performer’s personal histories. These inheritances become frameworks to engage with wider cultural urgencies: racialized violence, imperialism, and mental illness.
A Big Big Room Full of Everybody’s Hope will be performed on 7—8 September at Théâtre de la Ville—Les Abbesses in Paris, and 30 September—1 October at the National Ballet of Marseille, as part of the Actoral Festival.
A Big Big Room Full of Everybody’s Hope is performed by four generations of a single family. Through language, choreography, and song, they offer strategies for living in the aftermath of violence. The work engages specific inheritances from historical and cultural canons—the Holocaust, modernist ballet, and musical theatre—that are also embedded in the performer’s personal histories. These inheritances become frameworks to engage with wider cultural urgencies: racialized violence, imperialism, and mental illness.
A Big Big Room Full of Everybody’s Hope will be performed on 7—8 September at Théâtre de la Ville—Les Abbesses in Paris, and 30 September—1 October at the National Ballet of Marseille, as part of the Actoral Festival.
Anh Trần, Et puis, un jour, mon amour, tu sors de l’éternité
Fitzpatrick Gallery, Paris, France
02 September —
30 September 2023
A new solo exhibition by Berlin-based Aotearoa artist Anh Trần (b. 1989, Bến Tre, Vietnam). Trần’s painting experimentations consist of immersive representations, operating autobiographically within her own displacements.
From her departure to Europe from Vietnam, after a decade spent in New Zealand, she developed abstraction as a gesture against historical academic restrictions – structured around Socialist Realism – by encompassing bold brushstrokes, expressive colors, layers, impasto and collage. While living a diasporic experience, her aesthetic language underlines her interest in the linguistic differences between Western and South-Eastern countries’ artistic methods, in their closeness to situated political strategies.
A new solo exhibition by Berlin-based Aotearoa artist Anh Trần (b. 1989, Bến Tre, Vietnam). Trần’s painting experimentations consist of immersive representations, operating autobiographically within her own displacements.
From her departure to Europe from Vietnam, after a decade spent in New Zealand, she developed abstraction as a gesture against historical academic restrictions – structured around Socialist Realism – by encompassing bold brushstrokes, expressive colors, layers, impasto and collage. While living a diasporic experience, her aesthetic language underlines her interest in the linguistic differences between Western and South-Eastern countries’ artistic methods, in their closeness to situated political strategies.
Susan Te Kahurangi King, Automatic Drawing
Ruttkowski;68, Paris, France
15 April —
14 May 2023
Susan Te Kahurangi King (b.1951, Te Aroha, NZ) presents Automatic Drawing, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Paris.
Susan Te Kahurangi King's drawings have a beguiling formal intelligence. In early childhood, her powers of speech declined, then dried up entirely. She began drawing, compulsively, on scraps of paper that came to hand. Her drawings referred to things she saw and experienced—comic-book characters, animals, logos, landmarks, household items—they had a diaristic dimension. Many featured deconstructed, discombobulated figures. Later these would be compacted into hypnotic, psychedelic patterns.
This exhibition features early works made by King between 1957—when she turned six—and the late 1970s, showing the evolution of her unique and surprising art.
Susan Te Kahurangi King (b.1951, Te Aroha, NZ) presents Automatic Drawing, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Paris.
Susan Te Kahurangi King's drawings have a beguiling formal intelligence. In early childhood, her powers of speech declined, then dried up entirely. She began drawing, compulsively, on scraps of paper that came to hand. Her drawings referred to things she saw and experienced—comic-book characters, animals, logos, landmarks, household items—they had a diaristic dimension. Many featured deconstructed, discombobulated figures. Later these would be compacted into hypnotic, psychedelic patterns.
This exhibition features early works made by King between 1957—when she turned six—and the late 1970s, showing the evolution of her unique and surprising art.
Kate Newby, Try doing anything without it
Galerie Art: Concept, Paris, France
22 April —
21 May 2022
Try doing anything without it, a new solo exhibition from Walters Prize-winning Aotearoa artist Kate Newby at Galerie Art: Concept, Paris.
Kate Newby creates sculptures and installations using a variety of media including ceramics, glass and textiles. By incorporating discarded everyday objects (cigarette butts, coins, broken glass), she magnifies the prosaic by giving it new form and space, from the minuscule to the monumental. Her interventions are unique and site-specific, playing with their luminosity, their spatiality and their original use. The artist interferes in these places with handmade works, transforming raw materials into bricks, candlesticks or windows and invites the spectators to come closer to better (re)discover their textures and details.
Try doing anything without it, a new solo exhibition from Walters Prize-winning Aotearoa artist Kate Newby at Galerie Art: Concept, Paris.
Kate Newby creates sculptures and installations using a variety of media including ceramics, glass and textiles. By incorporating discarded everyday objects (cigarette butts, coins, broken glass), she magnifies the prosaic by giving it new form and space, from the minuscule to the monumental. Her interventions are unique and site-specific, playing with their luminosity, their spatiality and their original use. The artist interferes in these places with handmade works, transforming raw materials into bricks, candlesticks or windows and invites the spectators to come closer to better (re)discover their textures and details.
Kate Newby, Reclaim the Earth
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
15 April —
04 September 2022
Acknowledging today’s socially and politically crucial need to rethink the world beyond the nature/culture partition, the exhibition Reclaim the Earth follows the trajectories of artists with a different approach to “natural” materials: wood, earth, plants, shells or minerals are motifs or mediums irreducible to their mere materiality. They are cultural, historical and political vectors being revitalized by these artists, considered as both a medium and a tool, in a context of ecofeminist and decolonial urgency, including Aotearoa artist Kate Newby's processes of gleaning and collecting.
Acknowledging today’s socially and politically crucial need to rethink the world beyond the nature/culture partition, the exhibition Reclaim the Earth follows the trajectories of artists with a different approach to “natural” materials: wood, earth, plants, shells or minerals are motifs or mediums irreducible to their mere materiality. They are cultural, historical and political vectors being revitalized by these artists, considered as both a medium and a tool, in a context of ecofeminist and decolonial urgency, including Aotearoa artist Kate Newby's processes of gleaning and collecting.
Shane Cotton, Brett Graham, Lyonel Grant, Nikau Hindin, Yuki Kihara, Roger Mortimer, Fiona Pardington, John Pule, Lisa Reihana, Mahiriki Tangaroa, Kelcy Taratoa, John Walsh, Dame Robin White and Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss in OCEANIA NOW
Christie's Paris, France
11 February —
01 March 2022
Christie's is honoured to present OCEANIA NOW: Contemporary Art from the Pacific, curated by Christie’s African and Oceanic Art and Post-War & Contemporary Art departments in Paris. This exciting exhibition, which will take place from 11th to 26th February, will be followed by Christie’s first dedicated online auction of contemporary artists from the Pacific. Running from 11th February to 1st of March, this online auction represents a unique opportunity for the French and international market to engage with some of the most important emerging and established artists in the region today. Christie’s is delighted to collaborate on this project with Alison Bartley and John Gow, two of the most influential and established gallerists in New Zealand. The exhibition will be free and open to the public and coincide with the online sale catalogue publishing on christies.com, for those unable to attend in person.
Christie's is honoured to present OCEANIA NOW: Contemporary Art from the Pacific, curated by Christie’s African and Oceanic Art and Post-War & Contemporary Art departments in Paris. This exciting exhibition, which will take place from 11th to 26th February, will be followed by Christie’s first dedicated online auction of contemporary artists from the Pacific. Running from 11th February to 1st of March, this online auction represents a unique opportunity for the French and international market to engage with some of the most important emerging and established artists in the region today. Christie’s is delighted to collaborate on this project with Alison Bartley and John Gow, two of the most influential and established gallerists in New Zealand. The exhibition will be free and open to the public and coincide with the online sale catalogue publishing on christies.com, for those unable to attend in person.
Emma McIntyre, Up Bubbles Her Amorous Breath
Air de Paris, Paris, France
09 January —
12 February 2022
Los Angeles-based Aotearoa artist Emma McIntyre's first solo exhibition in Europe—at Air de Paris—opens on 9 January, running until 12 February 2022.
Los Angeles-based Aotearoa artist Emma McIntyre's first solo exhibition in Europe—at Air de Paris—opens on 9 January, running until 12 February 2022.
Kate Newby, The Flames: The Age of Ceramics
Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, Paris, France
15 October 2021 —
06 February 2022
Gathering over 350 pieces dating from the Neolithic to the present day, the exhibition The Flames: The Age of Ceramics is an immersive exploration of the medium, a fresh, fruitful dialogue between objects from different periods and contexts that brings to light influences as well as coincidences.
Presenting ceramics by modern and contemporary artists and ceramicists, among them Aotearoa artist Kate Newby, the exhibition's transhistorical approach focuses on ceramics as inherently related to art and, more broadly, to humankind. Long underestimated among the arts, the medium can be both functional and sculptural, and as such compels us to rethink existing categories and traditional hierarchies. In its mingling of art, craft and design, The Flames explores not only ceramics' relationship to the decorative, the culinary and the performative, but also its scope of application in the fields of medicine, aeronautics and ecology.
Gathering over 350 pieces dating from the Neolithic to the present day, the exhibition The Flames: The Age of Ceramics is an immersive exploration of the medium, a fresh, fruitful dialogue between objects from different periods and contexts that brings to light influences as well as coincidences.
Presenting ceramics by modern and contemporary artists and ceramicists, among them Aotearoa artist Kate Newby, the exhibition's transhistorical approach focuses on ceramics as inherently related to art and, more broadly, to humankind. Long underestimated among the arts, the medium can be both functional and sculptural, and as such compels us to rethink existing categories and traditional hierarchies. In its mingling of art, craft and design, The Flames explores not only ceramics' relationship to the decorative, the culinary and the performative, but also its scope of application in the fields of medicine, aeronautics and ecology.
Paul Handley, Redesigning Sovereignty
Le K.A.B, Square des Batignolles, Paris, France
23 September —
17 October 2021
Paul Handley brings his ongoing international series Redesigning Sovereignty to Le K.A.B. in the Square des Batignolles, Paris.
Designing new sovereign symbols entails a rejection of past human behaviours, a new beginning of sorts. The destruction of ecological systems, government indifference & the rise of nationalism provide an opportunity to re-engage the sovereign flag. The creation of a new utopia where the people control the narrative and demand action from authoritarian regimes. A series of low cost printed symbols creating fluidity within hanging fabric: an engagement between language and activism.
Paul Handley brings his ongoing international series Redesigning Sovereignty to Le K.A.B. in the Square des Batignolles, Paris.
Designing new sovereign symbols entails a rejection of past human behaviours, a new beginning of sorts. The destruction of ecological systems, government indifference & the rise of nationalism provide an opportunity to re-engage the sovereign flag. The creation of a new utopia where the people control the narrative and demand action from authoritarian regimes. A series of low cost printed symbols creating fluidity within hanging fabric: an engagement between language and activism.
Curators Conversation: Curating the Digital with Noelia Portela
Online on Zoom
6.30PM — 8.00PM
17 December 2020
Art Curator Grid online platform and SALOON London network are joining forces to host a new Curators Conversation, exploring the online spheres and the digital realm in curatorial practices. Join this great panel where the curators Julia Greenway and Noelia Portela will be in conversation with SALOON London co-founder Mara-Johanna Kolmel to share their insights on curating exhibitions online on 17.12.2020 at 6:30 pm (GMT).
Noelia Portela is an independent curator and arts professional based in Paris. She is the founder and curator of Persona Curada, a non-profit experimental curatorial project founded for the purpose of fostering Latin American Contemporary art, in conversation with the French art scene, through exhibitions, cultural exchange, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.She studied at the School of Architecture and Design from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. She is interested in African and Latin-American contemporary art, and her curatorial practice delves in non-western narratives, human mobility, identity and intersectional issues in feminism.
Art Curator Grid online platform and SALOON London network are joining forces to host a new Curators Conversation, exploring the online spheres and the digital realm in curatorial practices. Join this great panel where the curators Julia Greenway and Noelia Portela will be in conversation with SALOON London co-founder Mara-Johanna Kolmel to share their insights on curating exhibitions online on 17.12.2020 at 6:30 pm (GMT).
Noelia Portela is an independent curator and arts professional based in Paris. She is the founder and curator of Persona Curada, a non-profit experimental curatorial project founded for the purpose of fostering Latin American Contemporary art, in conversation with the French art scene, through exhibitions, cultural exchange, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.She studied at the School of Architecture and Design from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. She is interested in African and Latin-American contemporary art, and her curatorial practice delves in non-western narratives, human mobility, identity and intersectional issues in feminism.
Len Lye in Anticorps
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
23 October 2020 —
03 January 2021
The worldwide experience of lockdown and the adoption of social and physical distancing have made us reconsider the idea that our bodies are sealed units. Did we forget how porous we actually are? The exhibition Antibodies platforms the voices of 20 artists from the French and international artistic scene. With recent and new works they take the pulse of our ability to bond together and help us rethink how we inhabit the world. Len Lye's film Tusalava, 1929, the only non-contemporary work in the exhibition, brings to a close the section devoted to warrior tales. From the social body to cellular organisms, the evolution of forms seems to be governed by a polar opposition between domination and revolt.
The worldwide experience of lockdown and the adoption of social and physical distancing have made us reconsider the idea that our bodies are sealed units. Did we forget how porous we actually are? The exhibition Antibodies platforms the voices of 20 artists from the French and international artistic scene. With recent and new works they take the pulse of our ability to bond together and help us rethink how we inhabit the world. Len Lye's film Tusalava, 1929, the only non-contemporary work in the exhibition, brings to a close the section devoted to warrior tales. From the social body to cellular organisms, the evolution of forms seems to be governed by a polar opposition between domination and revolt.
Lisa Reihana at Palais de la Porte Dorée
Palais de la Porte Dorée, Paris, France
26 February 2020 —
03 January 2021
Nandita Kumar and Lisa Reihana at Pompidou Centre
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
23 October —
23 December 2019
Cosmopolis 2: rethinking the human brings artists and critical thinkers to address questions of technological diversity, scale and of social value, reaffirming other modes of existence, geographic articulations and cosmologies. Curated by Kathryn Weir, the exhibition includes work by Nandita Kumar and Lisa Reihana. While Kumar creates sensory objects and environments that reflect and reimagine the encounters between the industrial and natural worlds, Reihana reinterprets the cosmological and mythological figures of Māori culture in the photographic and video works from Ihi.
Launched as a platform at the Centre Pompidou in 2016, Cosmopolis focuses on research-based, collaborative and interdisciplinary contemporary art practices. Through residencies, exhibitions, discursive programs and publications, it engages with artists who are concerned with the production of relationships and the exchange of knowledge, participating in a resurgence of interest in cosmopolitical approaches. Following 'Cosmopolis #1: Collective Intelligence', presented in 2017 in Paris, focused on new forms of artistic collaboration, 'Cosmopolis #1.5: Enlarged Intelligence', presented in 2018 in Chengdu, China saw artists envisioning how to draw on artificial and ecological intelligence towards collectively defined ends.
Cosmopolis 2: rethinking the human brings artists and critical thinkers to address questions of technological diversity, scale and of social value, reaffirming other modes of existence, geographic articulations and cosmologies. Curated by Kathryn Weir, the exhibition includes work by Nandita Kumar and Lisa Reihana. While Kumar creates sensory objects and environments that reflect and reimagine the encounters between the industrial and natural worlds, Reihana reinterprets the cosmological and mythological figures of Māori culture in the photographic and video works from Ihi.
Launched as a platform at the Centre Pompidou in 2016, Cosmopolis focuses on research-based, collaborative and interdisciplinary contemporary art practices. Through residencies, exhibitions, discursive programs and publications, it engages with artists who are concerned with the production of relationships and the exchange of knowledge, participating in a resurgence of interest in cosmopolitical approaches. Following 'Cosmopolis #1: Collective Intelligence', presented in 2017 in Paris, focused on new forms of artistic collaboration, 'Cosmopolis #1.5: Enlarged Intelligence', presented in 2018 in Chengdu, China saw artists envisioning how to draw on artificial and ecological intelligence towards collectively defined ends.
Richard van der Aa: Every now and then
Galerie Vincenz Sala, Paris, France
05 October —
02 November 2019
Every now and then is the artist's second solo exhibition at Galerie Vincenz Sala in Paris.
Richard van der Aa is a Christchurch-born artist living in France since 2005.
Every now and then is the artist's second solo exhibition at Galerie Vincenz Sala in Paris.
Richard van der Aa is a Christchurch-born artist living in France since 2005.
Closing weekend of Océanie
Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France
28 June —
30 June 2019
To close the exhibition Océanie, which was previously shown at the Royal Academy in London last year, the Musée du Quai Branly is presenting a weekend of celebrations, live performance and music, film projections, and a two-day symposium. Amongst others, artists George Nuku, John Pule, Greg Semu, Mata Aho Collective, ignon, Jeanine Clarkin, Fiona Pardington and the London-based In*ter*is*land Collective will be presenting and performing work.
To close the exhibition Océanie, which was previously shown at the Royal Academy in London last year, the Musée du Quai Branly is presenting a weekend of celebrations, live performance and music, film projections, and a two-day symposium. Amongst others, artists George Nuku, John Pule, Greg Semu, Mata Aho Collective, ignon, Jeanine Clarkin, Fiona Pardington and the London-based In*ter*is*land Collective will be presenting and performing work.
Kate Newby at Palais de Tokyo
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
21 June —
08 September 2019
The exhibition City Prince/sses is presented as an imaginary, multiple and complex city, without borders, messy, staggering and creative: an unpredictable laboratory, which is always in motion and being (re)constructed. Visual artists, creators, fashion designers, experimenters, tattooists, musicians: a good fifty artists are presented without any geographical grouping, mostly via new productions and in situ interventions. DHAKA, LAGOS, MANILA, MEXICO CITY and TEHRAN are expressions of a tissue of contradictions, as seen in their saturated traffic which coexists with digital networks which supposedly work fluidly. Quite clearly, these megacities are very different from one another. Their cultural, political and social singularities teem with numerous narratives which are all side-tracks providing glimpses into their identities, devoid of anything that could be univocal.
New Zealand artist Kate Newby's work is included in the presentation of Lulu, an independent space founded by Martin Soto Climent and Chris Sharp in Mexico City, invited to participate in the exhibition.
The exhibition City Prince/sses is presented as an imaginary, multiple and complex city, without borders, messy, staggering and creative: an unpredictable laboratory, which is always in motion and being (re)constructed. Visual artists, creators, fashion designers, experimenters, tattooists, musicians: a good fifty artists are presented without any geographical grouping, mostly via new productions and in situ interventions. DHAKA, LAGOS, MANILA, MEXICO CITY and TEHRAN are expressions of a tissue of contradictions, as seen in their saturated traffic which coexists with digital networks which supposedly work fluidly. Quite clearly, these megacities are very different from one another. Their cultural, political and social singularities teem with numerous narratives which are all side-tracks providing glimpses into their identities, devoid of anything that could be univocal.
New Zealand artist Kate Newby's work is included in the presentation of Lulu, an independent space founded by Martin Soto Climent and Chris Sharp in Mexico City, invited to participate in the exhibition.
Kate Newby at Art : Concept
Galerie Art : Concept, Paris, France
24 May —
20 July 2019
The gallery is pleased to present five artists whose work highlights the current concerns generated by the overproduction of industrial objects. Can we resist the omnipresence of everyday mass production? This concern is not new. In 1979, Jimmy Carter, then president of the United States, doubted the turn that the economic model his country was taking: “Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.”
Intelligence is no longer paired with consciousness, we are all concerned about our buying power. Gradually, industry has taken control of practices, knowledge and human relationships resulting from long processes of adaptation. Yet humanity did not wait for the nineteenth century to mass-produce. From hunter-gatherers to the Indus Valley, social organization has always allowed societies to live in the intelligence of a sharing economy. For a more conscious industry, there are current solutions surprisingly close to the concepts sketched by Saint Simon in the nineteenth century. His network philosophy is now supplanted by industrial symbiosis. “Symbiosis”, a term referring to a natural phenomenon that means both togetherness and life.
The lichen is a form of symbiosis that strangely resembles Kate Newby’s ceramic sculptures. In the same way that an alga can grow with a mushroom, it is the assembly of two different bodies: bottle shards collected in the street and earth, which constitutes the work to come. To achieve this, the oven fame fuses the inert organisms and reduces them to scales, small puddles as hazardous as magnificent. The artist likes to work in situ because she wants to interact with her environment, as shown by the installation of a glass bag echoing the architecture of the gallery’s windows.
The gallery is pleased to present five artists whose work highlights the current concerns generated by the overproduction of industrial objects. Can we resist the omnipresence of everyday mass production? This concern is not new. In 1979, Jimmy Carter, then president of the United States, doubted the turn that the economic model his country was taking: “Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.”
Intelligence is no longer paired with consciousness, we are all concerned about our buying power. Gradually, industry has taken control of practices, knowledge and human relationships resulting from long processes of adaptation. Yet humanity did not wait for the nineteenth century to mass-produce. From hunter-gatherers to the Indus Valley, social organization has always allowed societies to live in the intelligence of a sharing economy. For a more conscious industry, there are current solutions surprisingly close to the concepts sketched by Saint Simon in the nineteenth century. His network philosophy is now supplanted by industrial symbiosis. “Symbiosis”, a term referring to a natural phenomenon that means both togetherness and life.
The lichen is a form of symbiosis that strangely resembles Kate Newby’s ceramic sculptures. In the same way that an alga can grow with a mushroom, it is the assembly of two different bodies: bottle shards collected in the street and earth, which constitutes the work to come. To achieve this, the oven fame fuses the inert organisms and reduces them to scales, small puddles as hazardous as magnificent. The artist likes to work in situ because she wants to interact with her environment, as shown by the installation of a glass bag echoing the architecture of the gallery’s windows.
Dane Mitchell at Château de Rentilly, Paris
Frac île-de-france, le château de Rentilly, France.
17 March —
21 July 2019
From perception to fusion and immersion to osmosis, the Chaosmose #2 exhibition curated by Nathalie Ergino, director of the IAC, Villeurbanne, examines in more ways than one the disruption resulting from our presence in the world.
The emphasis placed on the experience of artists and visitors, with others and in oneself, introduces this exhibition. Visitors are immersed, literally as well as symbolically, via spatialisation or loss of bearings. Based on an extended perception of space in nature and in the cosmos, the works here question boundaries between human and non-human, nature and culture. In a continually changing world, these works of art/passages are tools for exploring the world’s pulses to evoke a possible continuum. The artists invite us to move away from an anthropocentric vision of the world and to re-evaluate our relationship with the world, as well as with all visible and invisible beings in the universe.
From perception to fusion and immersion to osmosis, the Chaosmose #2 exhibition curated by Nathalie Ergino, director of the IAC, Villeurbanne, examines in more ways than one the disruption resulting from our presence in the world.
The emphasis placed on the experience of artists and visitors, with others and in oneself, introduces this exhibition. Visitors are immersed, literally as well as symbolically, via spatialisation or loss of bearings. Based on an extended perception of space in nature and in the cosmos, the works here question boundaries between human and non-human, nature and culture. In a continually changing world, these works of art/passages are tools for exploring the world’s pulses to evoke a possible continuum. The artists invite us to move away from an anthropocentric vision of the world and to re-evaluate our relationship with the world, as well as with all visible and invisible beings in the universe.
Neil Adcock at Paul Fort, Paris
19 Paul Fort, Paris, France.
13 March —
31 March 2019
Artist Jeweller Sculptor Neil Adcock from Aotearoa, New Zealand, presents a collection of his works in the exhibition Pacific Touch at 19 Paul Fort Paris. With his bold, contemporary designs, Adcock captures the essence of the South Pacific.
He identifies with New Zealand using its unique treasures of Pounamu (New Zealand Jade), Kauri Copal (New Zealand Kauri Gum) and very rare New Zealand Amber, melded with other gems.
Artist Jeweller Sculptor Neil Adcock from Aotearoa, New Zealand, presents a collection of his works in the exhibition Pacific Touch at 19 Paul Fort Paris. With his bold, contemporary designs, Adcock captures the essence of the South Pacific.
He identifies with New Zealand using its unique treasures of Pounamu (New Zealand Jade), Kauri Copal (New Zealand Kauri Gum) and very rare New Zealand Amber, melded with other gems.
Oceania tours to Musée du Quai Branly, Paris
Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France.
12 March —
07 July 2019
A journey across the Pacific to discover the island cultures and peoples of Oceania. From New-Guinea to Easter Island, from Hawaii to New Zealand, nearly 200 works provide an overview of the art of a continent, passing on both traditions and contemporary challenges.
Not a single exhibition anywhere in the world has encompassed the cultures of Oceania in their entirety for thirty-five years. Oceania pays homage - two hundred and fifty years after the first voyage of James Cook in the Pacific - to the artistic creations of a continent composed of 25,000 islands. In bringing together 170 works from public and private collections, featuring several masterpieces that have never previously been shown to the general public, the exhibition charts the history, from Antiquity to the contemporary era, of a corpus of art that serves as a custodian of traditions and identities that have been shaken by trade, colonisation and forced evangelism. The exhibition, previously presented at the Royal Academy in London in 2018, also includes works by contemporary Aotearoa artists Mark Adams, Yuki Kihara, Mata Aho Collective, Fiona Pardington, Michael Parekowhai, John Pule and Lisa Reihana.
A journey across the Pacific to discover the island cultures and peoples of Oceania. From New-Guinea to Easter Island, from Hawaii to New Zealand, nearly 200 works provide an overview of the art of a continent, passing on both traditions and contemporary challenges.
Not a single exhibition anywhere in the world has encompassed the cultures of Oceania in their entirety for thirty-five years. Oceania pays homage - two hundred and fifty years after the first voyage of James Cook in the Pacific - to the artistic creations of a continent composed of 25,000 islands. In bringing together 170 works from public and private collections, featuring several masterpieces that have never previously been shown to the general public, the exhibition charts the history, from Antiquity to the contemporary era, of a corpus of art that serves as a custodian of traditions and identities that have been shaken by trade, colonisation and forced evangelism. The exhibition, previously presented at the Royal Academy in London in 2018, also includes works by contemporary Aotearoa artists Mark Adams, Yuki Kihara, Mata Aho Collective, Fiona Pardington, Michael Parekowhai, John Pule and Lisa Reihana.
Mercy Pictures at DOC!
DOC, Paris, France.
13 October —
20 October 2018
DOC hosts six solo and group exhibitions under the frame of Umwelt Monde. A cross-section of presentations, reflecting a community that is not defined by geography.
DOC hosts six solo and group exhibitions under the frame of Umwelt Monde. A cross-section of presentations, reflecting a community that is not defined by geography.
FAFSWAG at Centre Pompidou
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France.
8.00PM — 10.00PM
27 September 2018
The September edition of the Prospective Cinema program explores the multi-faceted ideas and expressions of queer identity by presenting seven videos made by international artists. The event brings together artists from different regions and backgrounds, including the LGBT Pacific collective FAFSWAG from New Zealand, the Watermelon Sisters artist duo formed by Ming Wong (Singapore) and Yu Cheng-Ta (Taiwan), and American artist based in Belin Wu Tsang. Together, these works examine the complex notions of cultural, political and social movements, through a queer prism.
The September edition of the Prospective Cinema program explores the multi-faceted ideas and expressions of queer identity by presenting seven videos made by international artists. The event brings together artists from different regions and backgrounds, including the LGBT Pacific collective FAFSWAG from New Zealand, the Watermelon Sisters artist duo formed by Ming Wong (Singapore) and Yu Cheng-Ta (Taiwan), and American artist based in Belin Wu Tsang. Together, these works examine the complex notions of cultural, political and social movements, through a queer prism.
Nik Geene: The World Is Not Enough
Bonny Poon Gallery, Paris, France.
02 September —
07 October 2018
For Nik Geene’s Parisian debut, The World Is Not Enough, there are five photographic portraits, each depicting a member of the “Priority Seating” club. There is the aged, the minor, the pregnant, the amputee, and the visually impaired. Their bodies are made of broomsticks, poles, and drying racks, all of which Geene had sawed into equal, measurable units, and then variously re-assembled; their lithe, willowy physiques borrow the anatomical principles of fashion drawings, where the head fits the body nine times. These model citizens, like the universally bodied silhouettes sketched in fashion, are in fact, not a group of separate subjects, but a composite of one another, with shared body parts.
Geene’s portraits capture these eclectic and fragile ensembles respectively on different floors of a 1970s architectural backdrop: the site of the gallery, Tour Rubis (Ruby Tower). Geene’s work leans on legacies of minimalism, hard edge formalism, site-specificity, and conceptualism, often “jerry-rigging” “stuff” to confront the rampant erasure of
embodiment and access.
For Nik Geene’s Parisian debut, The World Is Not Enough, there are five photographic portraits, each depicting a member of the “Priority Seating” club. There is the aged, the minor, the pregnant, the amputee, and the visually impaired. Their bodies are made of broomsticks, poles, and drying racks, all of which Geene had sawed into equal, measurable units, and then variously re-assembled; their lithe, willowy physiques borrow the anatomical principles of fashion drawings, where the head fits the body nine times. These model citizens, like the universally bodied silhouettes sketched in fashion, are in fact, not a group of separate subjects, but a composite of one another, with shared body parts.
Geene’s portraits capture these eclectic and fragile ensembles respectively on different floors of a 1970s architectural backdrop: the site of the gallery, Tour Rubis (Ruby Tower). Geene’s work leans on legacies of minimalism, hard edge formalism, site-specificity, and conceptualism, often “jerry-rigging” “stuff” to confront the rampant erasure of
embodiment and access.
Susan Wilson: Notting Hill Still Life
Jane Roberts Fine Arts, Paris, France.
29 May —
13 July 2018
Born in 1951 in Dunedin, Susan Wilson grew up in wild, remote mountain country in Aotearoa New Zealand. She studied painting in London at Camberwell School of Arts & Craft and the Royal College of Arts where she continues to live and work. She has taught at the Chelsea School of Art, the Slade and the Royal College of Art and still teaches at the Royal Drawing School.
Born in 1951 in Dunedin, Susan Wilson grew up in wild, remote mountain country in Aotearoa New Zealand. She studied painting in London at Camberwell School of Arts & Craft and the Royal College of Arts where she continues to live and work. She has taught at the Chelsea School of Art, the Slade and the Royal College of Art and still teaches at the Royal Drawing School.
Marian Fountain: Ni début ni fin
Galerie Derniers Jours, Paris, France.
08 March —
07 April 2018
Marian Fountain presents a series of bronze sculptures executed very finely in their smallest details and nooks. Drawing from narratives from her New Zealand homeland, and cultures as diverse in time and place as Cycladic, Mayan, Khmer, medieval, as well as plant life, she mixes alternative observations of human experience with the suggested features of our connected world. Marian's sculptures are, literally and figuratively, double-sided. How not to see in her "Dog eat Dog" or "Nut" that the loop is always complete, that the forms that are most constitutive (bone, plant, embrace, desire ...) remain permanent over time, even when this current leans towards dematerialisation. A bronze bone is heavy, immemorial, animal, it imposes and yet it manages to convey a lightness of the sign, the signal, as an animist call emitting to distant galaxies and future.
Marian Fountain presents a series of bronze sculptures executed very finely in their smallest details and nooks. Drawing from narratives from her New Zealand homeland, and cultures as diverse in time and place as Cycladic, Mayan, Khmer, medieval, as well as plant life, she mixes alternative observations of human experience with the suggested features of our connected world. Marian's sculptures are, literally and figuratively, double-sided. How not to see in her "Dog eat Dog" or "Nut" that the loop is always complete, that the forms that are most constitutive (bone, plant, embrace, desire ...) remain permanent over time, even when this current leans towards dematerialisation. A bronze bone is heavy, immemorial, animal, it imposes and yet it manages to convey a lightness of the sign, the signal, as an animist call emitting to distant galaxies and future.
Field Recordings presentation at Centre Pompidou's Cosmopolis exhibition
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.
10.00AM — 4.00PM
16 December 2017
Founded in 2016, the collective Field Recordings is made up of 5 New Zealand and Chinese artists: Jim Speers, Clinton Watkins, Tu Rapana Neill, Guo Zixuan and Li Xiaofei. In the context of the exhibition Cosmopolis at the Pompidou Centre, the collective were invited to present Let the Water Flow (2016), a film work that evokes the precarious existence of migrant workers on the banks of the Suzhou river in Shanghai, shedding light on their relation with a globalized economy and its impact on this urban environment.
Founded in 2016, the collective Field Recordings is made up of 5 New Zealand and Chinese artists: Jim Speers, Clinton Watkins, Tu Rapana Neill, Guo Zixuan and Li Xiaofei. In the context of the exhibition Cosmopolis at the Pompidou Centre, the collective were invited to present Let the Water Flow (2016), a film work that evokes the precarious existence of migrant workers on the banks of the Suzhou river in Shanghai, shedding light on their relation with a globalized economy and its impact on this urban environment.
FIAC 2017
Grand Palais, Paris, France
19 October —
22 October 2017
FIAC is one of the world's most largest contemporary art fairs. New Zealand born Jennifer Flay, who made her debut in the French art gallery sector and continued to live there, is the Director of FIAC since 2003. Although New Zealand galleries have never yet participated, New Zealand artists are often spotted at the Fair, or at parallel events, such as Paris Internationale.
Read Contemporary HUM's two part interview with FIAC Director Jennifer Flay: Auckland to Paris 1980-2003 & FIAC years 2003-2016.
FIAC is one of the world's most largest contemporary art fairs. New Zealand born Jennifer Flay, who made her debut in the French art gallery sector and continued to live there, is the Director of FIAC since 2003. Although New Zealand galleries have never yet participated, New Zealand artists are often spotted at the Fair, or at parallel events, such as Paris Internationale.
Read Contemporary HUM's two part interview with FIAC Director Jennifer Flay: Auckland to Paris 1980-2003 & FIAC years 2003-2016.