V. W. Cooks
Yue Minjun – Obsession or self-obsession?
Yue Minjun has a funny way of expressing himself. Best known as a self-portrait artist, taken to posing in various settings but with only one face,...
New Auction Records For Five Artists Despite The Global Pandemic
Just like everywhere else in the world, there has been a rush to get supplies to artists on lockdown so they can continue to produce work. Art galleries are focusing on online sales, content and maintaining contact with their audiences and collectors through various video platforms and social media.
Gisela McDaniel – Art as Therapy
Born in Cleveland and based in Detroit, McDaniel received her BFA from the University of Michigan. She describes herself as “a diasporic indigenous Chamorro feminist artist”.
Zanele Muholi – Confronting stereotypes in South Africa
South Africa is not an easy place to live of you’re a transgender or gay man and the series of photos called Beulahs 2006 shows the difficulties faced. The use of this name for the exhibition is interesting in itself - Beulah means married, a feminine given-name originated from a Hebrew word and used in the bible.
Kehinde Wiley: Without Saying a Word He Says So Much
Born in 1977, the decade of great creativity, to a Nigerian father and African American mother Wiley is a product of his environment. Growing up in Los Angeles, California in the 1980s had its own challenges. Art and art school presented a way out of the hood for Wiley and his twin brother.
Amoako Boafo aims to challenge the notion of Blackness
Amoako Boafo knew from an early age he wanted to paint, to be an artist. Starting his journey at Ghanatta College of Arts and Design in Ghana, Boafo credits his peers for teaching him his art. A very generous statement from someone who is so clearly naturally talented and unusually modest.
Searching for Balance In Hong Kong
Many Hong Kong artists are looking to balance both social activism and politics: refusing to make explicitly political art, but striving, however, to create art that says something and is notable in years to come.
Tara Donovan – The Champion of The Ordinary
She is considered to be a process artist who uses various artistic fields for work influenced by, or attempts to develop and go beyond, the aesthetic of minimalism; but goes further on to post-minimalism with the use of simple materials, and goes out of the way to say that the art is totally about the aesthetics and has no other meaning.
Yinka Shonibare the embodiment of irony
Shonibare, the artist who continuously challenges assumptions and stereotypes, was shortlisted in 2004 for the Turner Prize for his Double Dutch exhibition; at the same time, he was awarded an MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire).
Jenny Saville Paints at Night
The use of oil paint in thick pink tones remind me of sophisticated beauty but mostly of a slain beast; images disappearing into each other, appearing again asking for us to pay attention to the detail.