Wednesday, July 30, 2014

An art auction based on emotion


A swedish glass gallery, Kosta Boda, has come up with a novel way to auction an artwork. Instead of the usual monetary bids, bidders could only win an artwork with the intensity of their emotional and physical reactions to the piece. Coined the "auction based on emotions", no money changed hands for three pieces valued at over 25,000 in total.

On the night of the auction, each bidder was brought into a closed off room and sensors were hooked onto their hand and ear. At this point, the artwork was unveiled and the sensors began monitoring the bidders heart rate and galvanic skin response. Each bidder had 60 seconds to experience the work and after going through the process for the 303 participants, the three with the highest physical response were awarded the artworks.
Image: a bidder at the Kosta Boda auction

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Who Cares? 16 Essays on Curating in Asia


Hong Kong's ParaSite Art Space curator Alvaro Rodriguez Fominaya sees Asia as being like "a curatorial Wild West" where the continent's multi-role curatorial practices deconstruct all his European preconceptions. Influenced by the lack of publications that focus on curatorial practices in Asia, Fominaya and artist Michael Lee compiled a selelction of 16 essays that address this issue, inviting contribitions from curators and critics, including Hans Ulricht Obrist, Russsell Storer, Cao Weijun, Hector Rodriguez and others. Read more...

Monday, July 28, 2014

Final week for Grant Stevens' Hold Together, Fall Apart


Grant Stevens' exhibition Hold Together, Fall Apart enters its final week at Starkwhite, closing on Saturday 2 August. You can read a review of the exhibition here.  You can also catch Stevens' work at the City Gallery Wellington. What We Had Was Real runs to 7 September.
Image: Grant Stevens, Haven (2104), video still

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Utopian Slumps founder teams up with Anna Schwartz

Utopian Slums Founder Melissa Loughnan has joined the Anna Schwartz Gallery and the pair have a lot in common: Schwartz has a 32 year history of running her gallery which began in Melbourne and expanded to the Carriageworks site in Sydney, and at the age of 32 Loughnan has spent eight years running Utopian Slumps, during which time she transformed it from a small not-for-profit space into a commercial gallery.

Schwartz is delighted on have Loughnan on board: "For me, the opportunity to keep the vibrancy of the gallery through the engagement with somebody who is of this younger culture is what I always dreamed of, what I hoped the gallery would be going into the future, rather than a piece of historical apparatus." Read more...
Image Anna Schwartz and Melissa Loughnan 

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Magnus Renfrew moves on from Art Basel Hong Kong


Magnus Renfrew is stepping down from his position as Art Basel Asia Director with oversight of Art Basel Hong Kong, to take on the role of Deputy Chairman, Asia and Director of Fine Arts, Asia for Bonhams. Renfrew was the founding director of ART HK in 2008 and oversaw its development and acquisition by MCH Group (the parent company of Art Basel) in 2011. His continued involvement in Art Basel Hong Kong was a sign that the fair would continue to have a strong Asia/Pacific focus under its new management. From the outset, he has been an advocate for the Pacific region and he will be missed by the New Zealand and Australian galleries that have worked with him over the past seven years.
Image: Magnus Renfrew

Monday, July 21, 2014

New Zealand International FIlm Festival premiers Gavin Hipkins' first feature-length film


In his first feature-length film, photographer Gavin Hipkins presents a richly pictorial essay of images of the natural world - and the often forlorn evidence of humanity's passage through it. Hipkins draws his themes for Erewhon from Samuel Butler's Erewhon: Or, Over the Range, published in 1872. Butler had worked on a South Island high country sheep station and it's easy to suppose that his objectification of a wholly invented 'native people' is an ironic posture owing something to his experience in colonial New Zealand. Likewise his concerns with the coming dominance of industry chime eerily with contemporary concerns: vegetarianism is the law of the land in Erewhon and machines have been banished to museums for fear of their becoming conscious.

Erewhon  was premiered on Sunday at the New Zealand International Film Festival and screens again today at 1.30pm at Auckland's Academy Theatre. You can view the film trailer here.
Image: Gavin Hipkins Erewhon (Production Still)

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Barry Keldoulis talks about the Melbourne Art Fair


Barry Keldoulis, the CEO and Group Fairs Director of Art Fairs Australia, the presenters of Sydney Contemporary and the Melbourne Art Fair (on behalf of the Melbourne Art Foundation), will talk about the upcoming Melbourne Art Fair at Starkwhite at 5pm today. He will cover public and collector programmes, and the three new exhibition sections that have been introduced to this year’s edition of the Melbourne Art Fair - MAF Platform, MAF  Video, and MAF Edge. Curated by Simone Hine and Kyle Weise, the co-founding directors of Screen Space, MAF Video includes Grant Stevens’ Auric Variations.
Image: Barry Keldoulis

Grant Stevens opens at Starkwhite


Grant Stevens exhibition Hold Together, Fall Apart opens at 5.30pm today and runs to 2 August.
Image: Grant Stevens, Haven (2104) video still