Zandile Tshabalala's Enter Paradise @ ADA \ contemporary art gallery In Accra

 
 

Zandile Tshabalala’s latest series of paintings, titled Enter Paradise, places the Black female figure at the heart of her sensual dreamscapes, thereby revisiting the representation of the Black woman throughout art history. Marking the artist’s debut solo career, and the gallery’s third consecutive debut solo show since opening in October 2020, the new paintings include a selection of figurative self-portraits in which Tshabalala revisits the representation of the Black female figure.

Enter Paradise is on view through April 18 @ ADA \ contemporary art gallery Villaggio Vista, North Airport Road, Airport Residential Area , Accra, Ghana 

Katherina Olschbaur: Dirty Elements @ The University Art Galleries In Irvine

Olschbaur provides a female perspective to a history of canonized male painters, whose work simultaneously inspires her. Although traces of matriarchal order in Western thought typically appear as a mythological apparition, Olschbaur paints a narrative that subverts our expectations under the normative language of patriarchy. For Olschbaur, art historical tropes are appropriated and used like garments, worn then cast aside in a process that is ever changing and moving within each work. In this way, Dirty Elements investigates the power dynamics of patriarchal order and its violent denial of female sexuality. Referencing a wide spectrum of thought, Olschbaur’s practice takes root in mythology, religious and historical paintings, the subcultures of S/M, and film. Embracing Georges Bataille’s concept of the formless, the paintings explore the dirty elements of our carnal nature. In so doing, they feature provocative and erotically charged scenes that are at times humorous and disturbing. Dirty Elements is on view through March 14 at Contemporary Arts Center Gallery, Irvine, California. photographs courtesy of University Art Galleries, UC Irvine © 2020 by Jeff McLane Studio, Inc.

Lenz Geerk: Mixed Blessings @ Roberts Projects In Los Angeles

Lenz Geerk is a figurative painter whose subjects of portraits, landscapes and still-lifes are portrayed in exceptional intensity and luminosity.He manipulates traditional techniques to bring distinct render to every figure through soft acrylic color. The nearly monochromatic palettes, only occasionally warmed by other colors, add an aura of heightened emotional tension. Geerk’s new series is an insightful examination into the undercurrent of the threat, uncertainty, and fear of the current day. Unlike “The Table Portraits”, Geerk’s first solo show with the gallery, there is no formal link between the individual works of this show. What ultimately connects the works on view is an underlying feeling of domestic suspense, fueled by an unsettling lack of faith in larger institutions. Mixed Blessings is on view through October 12 at Roberts Projects 5801 Washington Boulevard, Culver City, California. photographs courtesy of Roberts Projects

The Power & Vitality Of The Image: Read Our Interview Of Controversial Artist Darja Bajagic →

Where the political left was once the clear bastion of free speech and expression in the U.S., it could be argued that the new left silences thought and speech perceived as antithetical or offensive to its values almost as much as the right wing does, or did. This is a problem for culture, and evidently, for art. “Political correctness,” says Slovenian philosopher and cultural theorist Slavoj Žižek, “is a desperate attempt by the public norms to tell you what is decent, what is not.” What Žižek suggests here is that political correctness can be harmful in its ability to obscure the truth and dilute public discourse; by sanitizing rhetoric we sanitize cultural meaning. This climate of over-the-top, politically correct theatrics has infiltrated the art world; art’s job is ultimately to push back on societal taboos and interrogate prevailing norms. Good art is almost always offensive to someone. Click here to read more

Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Solo Exhibition "Just Another Step on the Staircase" @ Werkartz

Just Another Step on the Staircase is an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Organized by Price Latimer, this is the first exhibition of Lindsay-Hogg’s work in the U.S. since 2015. Now, in his late career, he has embraced a manner of painting that comprises vivid psychological portraits not unlike those of Max Beckmann, Howard Finster and Paul Klee. The work is in many ways a direct form of creative expression with little regard for self-aggrandizing or promotion, rather identifying with direct moments that connect with eroticism, innocence and everyday human drama. The show is open through May 13th at Werkartz 927 S. Santa Fe Avenue Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Kupper

RIP Ellsworth Kelly (1927 - 2015)

Ellsworth Kelly was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and the minimalist school. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing simplicity of form, He lived and worked in Spencertown, New York and died there at the age of 92. photograph by Michel Grinberg