Vibrant Shadows
Recommended article from the current issue of Aesthetica.

Interested in public and urban spaces, French photographer Franck Bohbot (b. 1980) unpicks the connection between individuals and the spaces they inhabit. Recently relocating to New York, Bohbot regularly explores the city with his camera, using long exposures to transform seemingly usual looking locations into dreamy cityscapes. The artist is inspired by other visual practitioners, such as painters, cinematographers and American and German photographers. He takes shots of everything from basketball courts and libraries, to theatres, fairgrounds and swimming pools, always trying to find the essence of a place and its singular aesthetic. In Light On (2013-2014) he travels the streets of New York after dark, documenting the glowing, iconic shop-fronts and the continued vibrancy of the city throughout the night. Against the black sky, the colours of the buildings become more pronounced, resulting in a collection that plays with the juxtaposition of shadow and bold neon. The following photographs are a selection from Light On. www.franckbohbot.com.

Issue 61: October/November - Out Now

Aesthetica Issue 61 is now available to purchase online and in stores internationally. The new edition considers progress and change. There are a few questions around this including how much time needs to pass before something needs to change, or is it simply the case that progress is continuous? The key element is to recognise developments, keeping your eyes and ears open. This is particularly important in the art world because when you start tracking artists and noticing trends, this is when things start to get exciting, especially when those trends are just under the radar.

One of the central ideas in this issue of Aesthetica is the diversity of materials that artists and designers are using to make new works. For example, in The Future of Fashion is Now, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam is considering the convergence of fashion and art. This has been explored before, but the museum is looking at the next generation of designers who are playing with form and construction. There is even one designer who creates dissolvable clothing, which redefines possibilities of material, form and function. Much in the same way, Lee Boroson’s Plastic Fantastic show uses scale to uncover the inner and outer-self while renowned artist Olafur Eliasson constructs a new world within the gallery space, which challenges expectations of the man-made and the natural.

Photographers Stephen Shore and Barry Cawston highlight photography’s ultimate power to record and document, but their works remind us that what is not included in the photo is equally as important as what is. Staging and paying homage to Edward Hopper, fine art photographer Richard Tuschman re-creates a time and a place that call upon collective memory. The same theme is continued in Warp Films’s latest release ’71, which looks at historical events in Belfast in the early 1970s while Ida, by Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, looks at the definitions of identity. Materials can engage the ordinary and transform it into something spectacular. This issue celebrates materiality and highlights some of the best practitioners in the world who currently imbue this notion.

1. Aesthetica Short Film Festival Tickets On Sale

The BAFTA Qualifying ASFF is a celebration of independent film from across the world, and an outlet for supporting and championing short filmmaking. One of the UK’s most exciting site-specific events, this year’s festival will take place in 15 iconic venues across the historic city of York from 6-9 November 2014. Moving between medieval halls, galleries, museums and cinemas, ASFF invites audiences to create their own unique viewing experience.

The films span a diverse range of genres from comedy to music video, drama to documentary, and animation to artists’ film. New for 2014, ASFF showcases outstanding works from the fashion and advertising industries, working with London College of Fashion to establish a place for serious discussion about fashion film; its identity, responsibility to society and impact on visual culture. The festival also welcomes Ridley Scott Associates and Jigsaw who will reveal the art of advertising and how filmmakers collaborate with brands.

Alongside screenings, ASFF also presents a dynamic series of masterclasses and workshops with leading industry figures, working with such organisations as BAFTA, Channel 4, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Association of Camera Operators, Raindance, Double Negative, Beggars Group and many more. There are also guest programmes, networking opportunities and special events throughout the weekend, as well as screenings from our guest countries: Japan, Iraq and Lebanon.

The full programme is now available to read online. The line-up includes over 350 short films from across 39 different countries. There will be a number of UK premieres plus special programmes from Yorkshire Film Archive, Creative England’s iShorts, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur (Switzerland) and Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival (France).

To see the programme, click here.

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at:www.asff.co.uk/tickets

2. 50% Off Tickets for The Other Art Fair

The Other Art Fair is London's leading artist fair and the only event that connects art lovers of all tastes directly with 130 of the most talented emerging and unrepresented artists. Audiences can choose from thousands of pieces to buy from just £50.

More than just an art fair, visitors will have the opportunity to experience immersive theatre with Non Zero One, art and live music performances, kids create area, Crate Brewery Bar, Soho House’s Dirty Burger pop up and much more. In addition, The Other Art Fair has announced that one of British contemporary art’s most exciting artists, Polly Morgan, will be selling a new collection of hand-finished prints specifically created for the fair. Celebrated for her intriguing sculptures that challenge and dismantle taxidermy traditions, Morgan's new series of elegantly coiled snakes will be presented at the fair with exclusive prints available for visitors to buy.

The Other Art Fair will also be sharing its home with Moniker Art Fair, London’s premiere contemporary art fair with its roots embedded in urban culture. Tickets are from just £8 and give visitors access into both fairs.

Special offer for all friends of Aesthetica – quote “AESTHETICA” when booking to receive 50% off tickets.

The Other Art Fair, 16-19 October, Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL.

For more show information and to book tickets visit www.theotherartfair.com 

3. Get 2 for 1 on Tickets for Kinetica Art Fair

Kinetica Art Fair presents some of the most ground-breaking and innovative art from around the globe, and is set to be one of the most dynamic events taking place over London Art Week. The Fair has, in a short number of years, become a landmark event on the Art fair calendar and is the only fair of its kind in the UK to provide an international platform for kinetic, electronic and new media art.

The 2014 edition welcomes exhibitor participation from over 15 countries, and demonstrates how new media art is fast becoming a burgeoning global movement. The fair also includes a programme of highly stimulating events and performances, plus ground-breaking new content on the Musion “holographic” stage, exploring the fusion of cinematic experiences with live performance.

Kinetica Art Fair has partnered with Aesthetica to offer exclusive 2 for 1 tickets to the fair. Tickets are available on each day of the fair, including for the launch event on Thursday 16 October.

Tickets can be purchased at this exclusive ticket link. The 2 for 1 deal can be redeemed by entering the promocode “celestial” https://shop.ticketscript.com/channel/web2/start-order/rid/W5NUVH72/language/en

Kinetica Art Fair, 16-19 October, Old Truman Brewery, Ely's Yard entrance, 15 Hanbury Street, London, E1 6QR. Find out more at www.kinetica-artfair.com

1. Frieze London

Regent’s Park, London
15-18 October

Frieze London returns for its 12th contemporary art event in London, bringing together over 160 of the world’s leading contemporary galleries. New for 2014 is a restructuring of the sections for participating galleries, introducing Live, a showcase for performance-based installations dispersed throughout the fair. A number of special programmes include Projects, Film, Music, Talks, Frieze Artist Award and Family Space.

The event is one of the world’s leading contemporary art fairs and brings an international art audience to the UK capital every October. For the third year, Frieze London will coincide with Frieze Masters, a fair that gives a contemporary perspective on historical art, which also takes place in Regent’s Park, London. Together the two fairs bring together an unrivalled range of art with an international art audience, benefitting from a crossover of visitors. Frieze London continues to have a strong global reach with attendance from galleries and artists from across the world. Participating exhibitors represent territories including: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, S. Korea, Mexico, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, UAE, UK and USA.

Solo and special presentations that promise to be focal points in the fair include: Eric Bainbridge (Workplace Gallery, Gateshead); Martin Creed (Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Berlin); a pairing of work by Mark Grotjahn with Tabwa masks (Anton Kern Gallery, New York); Koo Jeong A (Pilar Corrias Gallery, London); Lee Kit (Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou); Goshka Macuga (Kate MacGarry, London) and Barbara T. Smith (The Box, Los Angeles).

www.friezeprojects.org

Image credit:
Gimhongsok, Love, 2012, Tina Kim & Kukje. Photograph by Linda Nylind. Courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.

2. Art at the Center: 75 Years of Walker Collections

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
16 October - 11 September 2015

In the year 2015, the Walker Art Center will celebrate the 75th anniversary of its founding as a public art center with a series of exhibitions and programmes beginning with Art at the Center: 75 Years of Walker Collections. Curated by the Walker’s executive director Olga Viso and guest curator Joan Rothfuss, the exhibition looks at 75 years of collecting at the gallery – a history distinguished by bold and often prescient acquisitions that challenge prevailing artistic conventions and examine the social and political conditions of the day.

Many of the works collected breach the boundaries of media and disciplines and reflect the Walker’s multidisciplinary programming, which includes film and video, design, visual art and performing arts. Art at the Center also traces how the collection was shaped by the respective visions and collecting philosophies of its five directors as well as the generosity of the Walker family and key patrons. On view for two years, the exhibition will present many iconic works from the collection, including Edward Hopper’s Office at Night, Franz Marc’s The Large Blue Horses, Andy Warhol’s Sixteen Jackies, Chuck Close’s Big Self Portrait, Yves Klein’s Mondo Cane Shroud, Kerry James Marshall’s Gulf Stream and Goshka Macuga’s Lost Forty.

Selected works will be contextualised with materials – historic photos, artists’ books, correspondence, models and maquettes, and other ephemera – drawn from the institution’s rich archives. The galleries will also feature “Time Capsule” spaces that will focus on particular projects and key moments in the Walker’s history that reach beyond the collections, such as the pioneering Design Quarterly publication, the Regis Dialogues series with renowned filmmakers, and the early years of Walker’s acclaimed performing arts program.

www.walkerart.org

Image Credit:
Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 1981

3. Garry Winogrand

Jeu de Paume, Paris
14 October - 8 February

The Jeu de Paume presents the first retrospective in 25 years of the great American photographer, Garry Winogrand (1928-1984), who chronicled America in the post-war years. Winogrand is still relatively unknown because he left his work unfinished at the time of his death, but he is unquestionably one of the masters of American street photography, on a par with Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander and William Klein.

Winogrand, who photographed “to see what the world looks like in photographs,” is famous for his images of New York and American life from the 1950s through the early 1980s. Organised jointly by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the self-titled exhibition brings together the artist’s most iconic images with newly printed photographs from his until now largely unexamined archive of late work, offering a rigorous overview of the photographer’s complete working life and revealing for the first time the full sweep of his career.

While Winogrand is widely considered to be one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, his overall body of work and influence on the field remains incompletely explored. He was enormously prolific, but largely postponed the editing and printing of his work. Dying suddenly at the age of 56, he left behind approximately 6,500 rolls of film (some 250,000 images) that he had never seen, as well as proof sheets from his earlier years that he had marked but never printed. Roughly half of the photographs in the show have never been exhibited or published until now; over 100 have never before been printed.

www.jeudepaume.org

Image Credit:
Garry Winogrand, Los Angeles, 1980–1983. Épreuve gélatino-argentique. Garry Winogrand Archive, Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.

Artists’ Directory

The Aesthetica Artists’ Directory is a global network of artists engaging with the professional art world. In print, online and in digital, we have created a forum for discussion and interactivity where artists, galleries, collectors, critics, curators and enthusiasts can meet and discover the best in emerging art from around the world.

View the Artists' Directory at www.aestheticamagazine.com/directory
or for information visit www.aestheticamagazine.com/about-the-directory

Shinro Ohtake, Parasol Unit, London

The work of Japanese artist Shinro Ohtake appears in a solo exhibition at Parasol Unit, London, this autumn. Running 12 October – 12 December, the presentation showcases Ohtake’s extensive, diverse and innovative body of work. With a practice spanning 30 years, the artist has positioned himself as one of the most important creative forces in contemporary Japanese art. His expansive output is based primarily around the activity of cutting and pasting, but also includes drawing, pasted works, painting, sculpture and photography, as well as experimental music and videos.

Ohtake constructs his art using found images and scraps discarded from urban culture and the mass media; he often references underground music culture. In the late 1970s, the artist started his ongoing series, Scrapbooks, for which he is now well known for. Since he began he has produced more than 6o works as part of the collection. The production of each book is elaborate and extensive and, as such, each one becomes both a painted and sculptural entity in its own right. In 2013 this series was recognised at the Venice Biennale and Scrapbooks featured in a major exhibition.

The new exhibition at Parasol unit, curated by Founder and Director Ziba Ardalan, provides important exposure of Ohtake’s early, recent and new works. The showcase takes a moment to identify a number of his collections and focuses particularly on Retina and Time Memory. Audiences can also expect to see pieces from Frost and Cell. Several of Ohtake’s films, another integral part of his practice, will also be screened during the exhibition.

The presentation at Parasol Unit marks Ohtake’s first major show in a public London institution. It is accompanied by a full colour publication, including essays by Marco Livingstone and Julien Bismuth, and a related programme of educational events, family workshops, a poetry reading and artist talk at the Japan Foundation, London.

Shinro Ohtake, 12 October - 12 December, Parasol Unit, 14 Wharf Road, London, N1 7RW.

Image Credit
Credits Shinro Ohtake, Scrapbook #66, 2010 – 2012, Mixed media artist book, 72 x 96 x 129 cm 27.2 kg, 830 pages, Courtesy of the artist and Take Ninagawa, Tokyo, Photo: Kei Okano.

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