Our pick of this week’s art events: 21 – 27 August
Our pick of this week’s art events: 21 – 27 August
RA Recommends
By Anna Coatman
Published 21 August 2015
From the dystopian installations of Josh Kline, to the shadowy, marginalised life of Pierre Molinier, we guide you through the week’s top art events.
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Freedom
Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, 22 August – 18 October 2015
In 2011 Occupy Wall Street set up camp in Zuccotti Park, a privately owned public space in New York City’s financial district. American artist Josh Kline has modelled his immersive artwork Freedom on the corporate architecture of this contested territory. Visitors who step in to the installation at Modern Art Oxford will encounter phone antennae disguised as trees, life-sized sculptures of police officers with Teletubby faces and President Obama (as recreated through facial substitution technology). Freedom is the first piece in a new cycle of Kline’s work, which explores what the artist calls “the politics of the future.”
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Kiki Kogelnik: fly me to the moon
Modern Art Oxford, 22 August – 18 October 2015
Also opening at Modern Art Oxford this week is the first UK solo exhibition of Austrian artist Kiki Kogelnik (1935-1997). Beginning her career in Vienna in the 1950s, before moving to New York in the 70s, she experimented with sculpture, prints, ceramics and performance. Her work defies easy categorisation and is shot through with second-wave feminism and concern about the dangerous possibilities of new technologies. Her interests in gender roles and cutting-edge materials are both evident in her bright vinyl cut outs of female figures, draped over metal hangers. Kogelnik moved in New York’s Pop art circles, but struggled to find a place in the male-dominated art world. This retrospective is part of a wider rediscovery of her distinctive art.
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Secret Artbox Postcard Sale
FOLD gallery, London, 21 – 27 August
Original artworks by internationally acclaimed artists will be on sale at London’s FOLD gallery, alongside works by 30 as-yet unknown artists with learning disabilities. Here’s the twist: buyers won’t know who created what until they’ve made their purchase, allowing each piece to be judged on its own merit. The event is the result of a partnership between FOLD and Artbox London, a social enterprise that works with adults with learning disabilities to create and sell art, raising awareness of their talents and supporting them in earning an income. The show is curated by Tim Ellis, a 2009 graduate of the RA Schools.
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Marcello Morandini: Sculptures
Cortesi Gallery, London, 24 August – 25 September
Regarded as one of the key figures in the Concrete Art movement, which places emphasis on geometric abstraction and the non-natural, Marcello Morandini produces work that ranges from vast, Op art-influenced factory façades to precise, monochrome drawings. Over his 51-year career, the Italian artist has used a wide range of media to investigate how art can improve life, exploring utopias, ergonomics and aesthetics. A solo exhibition of his work opens at the Cortesi Gallery in London on Monday.
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The Temptations of Pierre Molinier
Richard Saltoun, London, 20 August – 2 October
Championed by André Breton, maligned by polite society, Pierre Molinier was a French artist who took his darkest drives and erotic desires as his subjects. Starting out as a house painter, Molinier went on create a body of work filled with dream-like, cross-dressing figures, bending the boundaries of gender and the conscious and unconscious worlds. Though he took his own life at the age of 76, the art Molinier left behind is said to have influenced the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe and Cindy Sherman (Hon RA). This new solo exhibition features over 50 of Molinier’s photographs, drawings and paintings, aiming to shed light on the shadowy life and art of this controversial figure.