A Contemporary Art Exhibition from Japan In Celebration of Mekong-Japan Exchange Year 2009
The Japan Foundation and Bangkok Art and Culture Centre proudly present “Twist and Shout”, an exhibition of contemporary art by forefront Japanese contemporary artists.
To be shown at the BACC from November 2009 to January 2010, the exhibition will introduce for the first time, a major contemporary art show from Japan rooted in Japanese pop culture, inspired by such genre as manga and anime, and placing a special focus on new trends that have emerged in the Japanese subculture in recent years.
Curated by Kenji Kubota, an independent curator and Yoko Nose, a curator of the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, “Twist and Shout” is the major survey of the art movement that acutely reflects various aspects of the Japanese contemporary society and the psyche of the people. Powerful statements and insights are made through paintings, installations, video art, sculpture, photography, and even a six foot-high moving robot and an entourage of forty little ones, the exhibition represents a dynamic exploration of the visual arts subculture, with imaginative elements and subliminal messages relevant to society and history. The show will contain some forty works by 17 Japanese artists.
It is not uncommon to find in the Thai city life, elements of the Japanese popular culture in the forms of manga, anime, games, music and movies, and as well its influences extending into aspects of daily life such as food, clothing and design. “Twist and Shout” art exhibition hope to provide a viewing of these elements in the context of their land of origin, and a rare opportunity to the Thai audience to glance at the relationship between contemporary Japanese society and its imagination. With this respect, the exhibition will give rise to a more nuanced understanding of the Japanese society, leading to a better dialogue between the two societies. There will also be talk sessions during the exhibition period.
“Twist and Shout” exhibition is part of the Mekong-Japan Exchange year 2009. The exhibition will be on view from 19 November 2009 to 10 January 2010, at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Pathumwan Junction. The BACC is open daily ,10am – 9pm, Mondays closed. The entry is free.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
SAMUI'S GREEN REVOLUTION
It all started three years ago when a group of Samui residents, both Thai and foreign, were stressing over the damage being done to the island's natural environment. "Why don't they do something about the over-development ... deforestation ... lack of infrastructure," had become the refrain of concerned residents who watched from the sidelines for years as rapid development took its toll on the island's once pristine natural environment. But out of this chorus arose the question, "Who are They?" The group realised that, "'They' are not going to do anything: We live here! We have to do something!"
And so the seed for the Samui Mala Festival was planted - an event that celebrates environmental healing on Koh Samui. With the call-to-action slogan "Be the Change", what began as a one-day event held in the lush grounds of Tamarind Springs spa in 2007 has grown into a week-lofng, multi-event, multi-venue annual community festival celebrating healthy living in a healthy environment. This September's Mala Festival went beyond the traditional community celebration to include a Yoga Retreat for Peace as well as a "Green Day", sponsored by the Thai Hotels Associaton to promote environmental awareness in children, a "Blue Day" to highlight water and reef conservation issues, and a Healing Forum with a holistic focus on the mind, body and spirit.
The healing theme spread to "Healing Art for a Healing Island", an exhibition by artists living on Samui and inspired by the idea of supporting locals' efforts to earn a living in a way that celebrates healing, music and art.
After the Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary donated a beautiful gallery space, Samui-based German artist Nartana Holzweiler volunteered to take on the challenge of organising a show by five Thai and five expat artists. The exhibition runs the spectrum form high-profile names such as architect Robert Powell, whose exquisite architectural drawings and paintings have graced glossy coffee-table books and been displayed in galleries across the US, Europe and Asia, to newcomer Aree Wutthanamassapong, who swapped her fried-fish stall for an easel a year ago and began whipping up dozens of vibrant, multithued, abstract scenes of nature.
While every artist brings their own perspective, a quick glance around the gallery reveals the circle is a recurrent motif - a symbol of the spiritual wholeness at the heart of the concept of healing. For Konkarn Jeap Boomivitaya, whose delicate Chinese ink paintings on mulberry paper depict serene circles and landscapes, inspiration comes from Zen calligraphy; after years of meditation she's able her to bring her mind to the stillness required to paint a perfect circle in a single brush stroke. In the dharmic tradition, the circle symbolises wholeness, completion, fullness and enlightenement. Spirituality as a form of healing is also the inspiration for Sujitra June Kerdsompong, owner of the popular June's Art Cafe in Bophut, whose mixed media oil-and-copper works depict lotus flowers and other Buddhist images. Another key theme is the concept of nature as a healing force, a feature of Gilbert Medam's miniature installations with banana-leaf themes and Nick Woodcroft's elegant eroded-wood sculptures.
For organiser Holzweiler, the healing aspect took a more personal form. His pieces were painted during the break-up of a relationship. "While I was painting I made my peace with the past. I used items left over from the relationship - a letter of forgiveness, a piece of canvas with her footprint - and intergrated them into the paintings. It's like composting, recycling old negative energy into something positive.
"If the exhibition starts a Samui movement of healing art, that would be an accomplishment," says Holzweiler. Encouraged by positive feedback from visitors, be says the art event will definitely be a feature of next year's Samui Mala.
The "Healing Art for a Healing Island" exhibition and sale runs through December at Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary Koh Samui. For details, visit www.Kamalaya.com.
A MOVEMENT IS BORN
Inspired by the Sanskrit word mala - "a string of beads" - the annual Samui Mala Festival unites residents by the common thread of a sharing, caring community focused on keeping the island green for future generations.
Run by volunteers on a non-profit basis, the Samui Mala group aims to raise awareness and take action to regenerate the local environment and communitires by raising funds for projects as well as providing information and a network system for groups and individuals.
For details, visit www.SamuiMala.org.
And so the seed for the Samui Mala Festival was planted - an event that celebrates environmental healing on Koh Samui. With the call-to-action slogan "Be the Change", what began as a one-day event held in the lush grounds of Tamarind Springs spa in 2007 has grown into a week-lofng, multi-event, multi-venue annual community festival celebrating healthy living in a healthy environment. This September's Mala Festival went beyond the traditional community celebration to include a Yoga Retreat for Peace as well as a "Green Day", sponsored by the Thai Hotels Associaton to promote environmental awareness in children, a "Blue Day" to highlight water and reef conservation issues, and a Healing Forum with a holistic focus on the mind, body and spirit.
The healing theme spread to "Healing Art for a Healing Island", an exhibition by artists living on Samui and inspired by the idea of supporting locals' efforts to earn a living in a way that celebrates healing, music and art.
After the Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary donated a beautiful gallery space, Samui-based German artist Nartana Holzweiler volunteered to take on the challenge of organising a show by five Thai and five expat artists. The exhibition runs the spectrum form high-profile names such as architect Robert Powell, whose exquisite architectural drawings and paintings have graced glossy coffee-table books and been displayed in galleries across the US, Europe and Asia, to newcomer Aree Wutthanamassapong, who swapped her fried-fish stall for an easel a year ago and began whipping up dozens of vibrant, multithued, abstract scenes of nature.
While every artist brings their own perspective, a quick glance around the gallery reveals the circle is a recurrent motif - a symbol of the spiritual wholeness at the heart of the concept of healing. For Konkarn Jeap Boomivitaya, whose delicate Chinese ink paintings on mulberry paper depict serene circles and landscapes, inspiration comes from Zen calligraphy; after years of meditation she's able her to bring her mind to the stillness required to paint a perfect circle in a single brush stroke. In the dharmic tradition, the circle symbolises wholeness, completion, fullness and enlightenement. Spirituality as a form of healing is also the inspiration for Sujitra June Kerdsompong, owner of the popular June's Art Cafe in Bophut, whose mixed media oil-and-copper works depict lotus flowers and other Buddhist images. Another key theme is the concept of nature as a healing force, a feature of Gilbert Medam's miniature installations with banana-leaf themes and Nick Woodcroft's elegant eroded-wood sculptures.
For organiser Holzweiler, the healing aspect took a more personal form. His pieces were painted during the break-up of a relationship. "While I was painting I made my peace with the past. I used items left over from the relationship - a letter of forgiveness, a piece of canvas with her footprint - and intergrated them into the paintings. It's like composting, recycling old negative energy into something positive.
"If the exhibition starts a Samui movement of healing art, that would be an accomplishment," says Holzweiler. Encouraged by positive feedback from visitors, be says the art event will definitely be a feature of next year's Samui Mala.
The "Healing Art for a Healing Island" exhibition and sale runs through December at Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary Koh Samui. For details, visit www.Kamalaya.com.
A MOVEMENT IS BORN
Inspired by the Sanskrit word mala - "a string of beads" - the annual Samui Mala Festival unites residents by the common thread of a sharing, caring community focused on keeping the island green for future generations.
Run by volunteers on a non-profit basis, the Samui Mala group aims to raise awareness and take action to regenerate the local environment and communitires by raising funds for projects as well as providing information and a network system for groups and individuals.
For details, visit www.SamuiMala.org.
WOUNDED ART MARKET SHOWS SIGNS OF LIFE
Quick sales at decent prices at this month's contemporary art fairs in London and Paris indicate the market bouncing back from trauma but still not a pretty picture, experts said.
"The market is down but not out. Volumes and values are down, but there is a renewed confidence and a renewed spirit," said Georgina Adam of The Art Newspaper.
Held consecutively over four days each in the two art capitals, the Frieze and FIAC fairs comprising hundreds of the world's top contemporary-art galleries wound up proving that bidders were still being lured by cutting-edge art.
FIAC organisers said its many deals were a "sign there is market confidence" while Frieze noted "renewed confidence in the contemporary art market."
Those claims will be tested at this week's New York auctions, which kick off today.
After months of trauma that saw auctions shrivel, fairs cancelled and prices nosedive, Zurich-and-London gallery Hauser and Wirth sold a Louise Bourgeois sculpture at Frieze for 2.4 million euros (Bt118.5 million), while New York's David Zwirner pocketed 680,000 euro for a Neo Rauch.
At the FIAC, New York's Sharstedt Gallery sold a Cindy Shermann photo for over a million euros and Paris-Nekw York's Yvon Lambert sold a Jenny Holzer for over 300,000 euro.
"It's much better than last year, the market is healtheir," said lambert.
The crisis was affecting collectors, said private French buyers Marc and Josee Gensollen. "We have to make sacrifices, but some of us choose not to sacrifice art."
"However, negotiating the price has become easier," he said.
In the mid-2000s, contemporary art - works by artists born after 1945- saw a boom that sent prices soaring 85 per cent from 2002 to 2008, with 620 per cent more works sold at over a million euros in the same period, according to artprice.com.
The party ended in last year's economic turmoil, driving prices down 27 per cent as billionaies and banks fell off the map, and finance from museums, funds and corporations melted away.
"The worst months were between last November and April. It was a terrible period," Adam said.
"Things have picked up since the Art Basel fair in June. There are buyers, but prices are down a lot," she said.
Last month, the world's top-grossing artist Damien Hirst scooped an Asian record of 13.37 million Hong Kong dollars (Bt57.7 million) at auction with "Tranquillity" (thousands of dead butterflies laid out in a circular mosaic) - though it fell short of its estimate.
Betting on the appeal novelty to counter the overriding gloom, London's avant-garde Frieze fair this year launched a new section titled Frame, where 29 galleries less than six years old showcased emerging talent from lesser-known territories.
FIAC on the other hand put the accent on blue-chip galleries and blue-chip talent.
It featured a specially designed show of modern art bringing together 25 museum-quality 20th century works. Among them was a Mondrian titled "Composition with Blue, Red and Yellow", estimated at US$35 million (Bt1.17 billion) and said to be the most valuable in private hands. It was on hold for a private collector last weekend.
Lesser-known avant-garde creations possibly took longer to seel, but many on display found buyers.
"I think there is a new generation of collectors and a new public for contemporary art," said Chantal Crousel of the eponymous Paris gallery, which sold half of its works on show at the FIAC, for prices ranging from 550 euro to 300,000 euro.
"There are people out there who want to live in the times and who want art that reflects the times."
"The market is down but not out. Volumes and values are down, but there is a renewed confidence and a renewed spirit," said Georgina Adam of The Art Newspaper.
Held consecutively over four days each in the two art capitals, the Frieze and FIAC fairs comprising hundreds of the world's top contemporary-art galleries wound up proving that bidders were still being lured by cutting-edge art.
FIAC organisers said its many deals were a "sign there is market confidence" while Frieze noted "renewed confidence in the contemporary art market."
Those claims will be tested at this week's New York auctions, which kick off today.
After months of trauma that saw auctions shrivel, fairs cancelled and prices nosedive, Zurich-and-London gallery Hauser and Wirth sold a Louise Bourgeois sculpture at Frieze for 2.4 million euros (Bt118.5 million), while New York's David Zwirner pocketed 680,000 euro for a Neo Rauch.
At the FIAC, New York's Sharstedt Gallery sold a Cindy Shermann photo for over a million euros and Paris-Nekw York's Yvon Lambert sold a Jenny Holzer for over 300,000 euro.
"It's much better than last year, the market is healtheir," said lambert.
The crisis was affecting collectors, said private French buyers Marc and Josee Gensollen. "We have to make sacrifices, but some of us choose not to sacrifice art."
"However, negotiating the price has become easier," he said.
In the mid-2000s, contemporary art - works by artists born after 1945- saw a boom that sent prices soaring 85 per cent from 2002 to 2008, with 620 per cent more works sold at over a million euros in the same period, according to artprice.com.
The party ended in last year's economic turmoil, driving prices down 27 per cent as billionaies and banks fell off the map, and finance from museums, funds and corporations melted away.
"The worst months were between last November and April. It was a terrible period," Adam said.
"Things have picked up since the Art Basel fair in June. There are buyers, but prices are down a lot," she said.
Last month, the world's top-grossing artist Damien Hirst scooped an Asian record of 13.37 million Hong Kong dollars (Bt57.7 million) at auction with "Tranquillity" (thousands of dead butterflies laid out in a circular mosaic) - though it fell short of its estimate.
Betting on the appeal novelty to counter the overriding gloom, London's avant-garde Frieze fair this year launched a new section titled Frame, where 29 galleries less than six years old showcased emerging talent from lesser-known territories.
FIAC on the other hand put the accent on blue-chip galleries and blue-chip talent.
It featured a specially designed show of modern art bringing together 25 museum-quality 20th century works. Among them was a Mondrian titled "Composition with Blue, Red and Yellow", estimated at US$35 million (Bt1.17 billion) and said to be the most valuable in private hands. It was on hold for a private collector last weekend.
Lesser-known avant-garde creations possibly took longer to seel, but many on display found buyers.
"I think there is a new generation of collectors and a new public for contemporary art," said Chantal Crousel of the eponymous Paris gallery, which sold half of its works on show at the FIAC, for prices ranging from 550 euro to 300,000 euro.
"There are people out there who want to live in the times and who want art that reflects the times."
The world in art
Ever since Yves Carcelle launched "Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture" in September, the 400-page three0in-one book has become a collector's item. This collabo ration of nearly 100 artistts, photographers,architects since 1980s is a celebration of the brand and features works bu pi9oneers Cesar, Sol Lewitt and Oliver Debre, as well as by Marc Jacobs, stehen Sprouse, Takashi Muragami and Richard Prince. There are also some stunning shots of advertising campaigns captured by InezVan Lamsweerde& Vinoodh Matadin, Jean Lariviere and Annie Leibovitz.
The illustrated anthology is supplemented by critical essays that analyse and shed new light on
Vuitton's commitment during one of the most fertile periods of contemporary creation. Written by international critics from the world of art, fashion and architecture, the boos are in three languages-French,English and Italian.
The deluxe edition exclusively designed by takashi Murakami will soon be for sale in louis Vuitton stores and through
www.Louis Vuitton.com.
The illustrated anthology is supplemented by critical essays that analyse and shed new light on
Vuitton's commitment during one of the most fertile periods of contemporary creation. Written by international critics from the world of art, fashion and architecture, the boos are in three languages-French,English and Italian.
The deluxe edition exclusively designed by takashi Murakami will soon be for sale in louis Vuitton stores and through
www.Louis Vuitton.com.
Asian art slowly perking up
While contemporary-art markets in the US and Europe continue to suffer from a weak economy, the Asian market could be showing signs of a small, if slow, recovery. The superstar at the recent Sotheby Auction in Hong Kong was none other than Zhang Xiaogang.
"Silence fell on Hong Kong auction room when bidding on a painting by Chinese contemporary artist Zhang Xiaogang reached HK$7 million" (Bt30 million), Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. "At the market's peak in May 2008, buyers offered up to 10 times more than that for the top lot."
Zhang's 2005 diptych "Comrade" - an oil portrait of an unsmiling, Mao-style couple on 130 centimetre-by-110 centimetre canvases - eventually fetched HK$8.5 million, the most expensive lot at Sotheby's sale.
But compare that to May 2008, the last major Hong Kong auction before the Lehman Brothers Holdings collapse, when a painting of red guards by Zeng Fanzhi set an Asia contemporary art record of HK$75.4 million.
Asia contemporary art prices still have a long way to go before they make a full recovery.
"Silence fell on Hong Kong auction room when bidding on a painting by Chinese contemporary artist Zhang Xiaogang reached HK$7 million" (Bt30 million), Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. "At the market's peak in May 2008, buyers offered up to 10 times more than that for the top lot."
Zhang's 2005 diptych "Comrade" - an oil portrait of an unsmiling, Mao-style couple on 130 centimetre-by-110 centimetre canvases - eventually fetched HK$8.5 million, the most expensive lot at Sotheby's sale.
But compare that to May 2008, the last major Hong Kong auction before the Lehman Brothers Holdings collapse, when a painting of red guards by Zeng Fanzhi set an Asia contemporary art record of HK$75.4 million.
Asia contemporary art prices still have a long way to go before they make a full recovery.
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