Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Summer hours at Starkwhite


Starkwhite is closed for the summer holiday period re-opening on 13 January and by appointment from the 5th. Our first show in 2015 is by Martin Basher.
Image: Installation view of Martin Basher's last show at Starkwhite

Friday, December 19, 2014

Blutopia at Starkwhite


Tonight we launch a new Inhouse designed publication by John Reynolds, with writing by Laurence Simmons seeking to unravel some of the mysteries of blueness. 

Simmons says: "Blue is as moody as we all are. It can almost mean anything. The colour of vibrant skies; the undisputed colour of heaven, but also of the cold, bruised skin of death. It is the signature of plainness in blue denim jeans, the peasantry in the Mao suit of communism, the law in police uniforms, the earnestness of bluestockings, the sign of the Virgin Mary and even John Key. Of course, the bluest blues have always been found in painting: it was lapis lazuli, the vivid blue rock from Afghanistan, that lit up Renaissance Italian painting becoming the signature shade of the Virgin Mary’s mantle; and Yves Klein’s International Klein blue that bound the pigment to the canvas for a bluer blue, at once more material and more abstract. With ‘Blutopia’ John continues that long tradition of painting in his boisterous exploration of the associations and hues of blue. He exquisitely teases out the contradictions of blue, its mercurial nature. For blue is the colour that both reassures and intimidates us. As Derek Jarman in his last film, made shortly before his death from AIDS, declared 'blue is an open door to the soul, an infinite possibility of becoming tangible'”.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Starkwhite on Instagram


We have joined the Instagram set and you can follow us at instagram.com/starkwhite where you will find this image featuring as our latest post - our place photographed by Shanghai-based artist Jin Jiangbo (making the familiar strangely unfamiliar).

Monday, December 8, 2014

Capturing all the world's moments


Instagram as an artistic medium was the subject of one of the sessions in this year's Art Basel Miami Beach Talks programme, featuring four panelists with a combined 1.6 million followers. Amalia Ulman took the stage first, describing how she had created a fictional online narrative around the character who appears in selfies on the amaliaulman Instagram feed. Simon de Pury was next up saying he uses the service to catalogue pieces and items that he finds beautiful, followed by Hans Ulrich Obrist who talked about his handwriting project, a massive series where artists and cultural figures write short phrases on post it notes for his Instagram feed. Klaus Biesenbach then explained how Instagram helped him get over his aversion to revealing anything about himself, and co-founder of Instagram Kein Systrom wrapped up the session saying "our mission is to capture all the world's moments, but our core value is to inspire creativity."
Image: James Franco's post-it note for Hans Ulrich Obrists' The Handwriting Project.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Billy Apple and Artspace support Artists for Kobane benefit auction



At the opening of the first show by new director Adnan Yildiz (tomorrow at 6pm), Artspace will present  a contribution from Billy Apple towards Artists for Kobane, a global benefit auction organised by Hito Steyerl and Anton Vidokle in solidarity with refugees from Kobane, Shengal and many other towns and areas in northern Syria and Iraq who have been displaced by IS attacks and provisionally sheltered in museums, construction sites or tents. Proceeds from this auction will go towards providing tents, winter clothes, electric stoves, blankets and diapers mainly to the municipality of Suruc, where around 50,000 refugees from Kobane live.
Images: Billy Apple, Art For Kobane, 2014, 382 x 618 x 25mm, UV impregnated ink on canvas; Billy Apple, Basic Needs, 2014,  618 x 382 x 25 mm, UV impregnated ink on canvas

Monday, December 1, 2014

Robert Leonard on "extroverted curating"


Ocula's Kate BrettKelly-Chalmers talks to Robert Leonard about curating. Read more...
Image: Robert Leonard

This week at Starkwhite


We have extended Seung Yul Oh's memmem exhibition by a week. It will now close on Saturday 6 December.
Image: Seung Yul Oh's memmem, installation view, Starkwhite