Tragedy fell on New Zealand this past week with a mass shooting at Christchurch mosques, carried out by a member of the “alt-right,” killing 50 people at their place of prayer. Prime minister Jacinda Ardem was quick to make sweeping changes in the gun laws, already banning any further sales of assault rifles and military style semi-automatic weapons and implementing a buy back program. Meanwhile the U.S. whose mass shootings occur daily have not budged much in terms of gun laws for the majority of its states, and whose official response to New Zealand was once again inadequate – Trump just falling short of saying there were “very fine people, on both sides.”
In the UK, with the Brexit deadline down to the final week, Theresa May makes a requests a 3 month extension, to be voted on today in Brussels.
Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev who has served since the fall of the Soviet Union announced he will be resigning from his office. Meanwhile Russia celebrates today its 5th year anniversary since the formal annexation of Crimea which occurred amid condemnation from the international community and continues today to be disputed in its legitimacy.
In the arts, the Nomura Art Award was just launched, sporting a prize of $1 million, the largest cash award in contemporary arts. Jurors include some high profiles in the industry, including Kathy Halbreich, executive director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Max Hollein, director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others.
Welcome to the 089th edition of Prescriptions. Here is our review of the week in the arts.
Luigi Ghirri
Luigi Ghirri / The Map and the Territory
“I am interested in ephemeral architecture, in objects generally regarded as bad taste, but which have never been that for me, in objects charged with desires, dreams, collective memories…” –Luigi Ghirri. On view through June 2, 2019 at Jeu de Paume.
Anna-Bella Papp
Plans for an Unused Land / Anna-Bella Papp
Speculating on the potential uses of land, Anna-Bella Papp’s series becomes personal musings on not only legacy and time, but also on our relationship to the geography around us, in both the abstract and the real. At Modern Art through April 13, 2019.
Yu Nishimura
First Lingering Mist of Spring
The artists Masaharu Sato, Yu Nishimura, and Nao Yoshigai in this exhibition harness photography, film and painting to explore Japan’s changing seasons and landscapes. Transformations in light, air and scenery are the focus of these works. Through March 24, 2019 at TOKAS Tokyo Art and Space.
Eleonore Simon
Valparaiso
“In a culture where improvisation has become an art form, Valparaíso’s charm and grittiness instantly captured my imagination and whenever I thought I might be ready to leave, it pulled me back in…” Photographs by Eléonore Simon.
Giorgio Andreotta Calo
CITTADIMILANO / Giorgio Andreotta Calo
Among the contexts evoked, the city of Milan provides one of the central premises of the exhibition which Giorgio Andreotta Calò presents as a real yet also imaginary, sublimated vision of the city. On exhibit through July 21, 2019 at Pirelli HangarBicocca.
James Cuming
The Other Art Fair / 2019
Celebrated for its unique and immersive visitor experience, The Other Art Fair has grown both in the UK and abroad with editions now in Sydney, Melbourne, Chicago, Dallas, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles. Including artists James Cuming, Mychaelyn Michalec, and Emanuele Alberti, among over a hundred others. Presented by Saatchi Art with various dates and venues throughout 2019.
Mychaelyn Michalec
RECENT PROFILES
Luigi Ghirri whose retrospective of photographic work The Map and the Territory is at Jeu de Paume; Eléonore Simon. presenting her black & white photo series Valparaíso; Yu Nishimura, among the trio presenting First Lingering Mist of Spring at TOKAS Tokyo Art and Space; James Cuming, Mychaelyn Michalec, and Emanuele Alberti, participating in The Other Art Fair presented by Saatchi Art; Giorgio Andreotta Calò with some large scale installations, CITTÀDIMILANO at Pirelli HangarBicocca; and reintroducing Anselm Kiefer, whose permanent installation The Seven Heavenly Palaces helped inaugurate this Pirelli’s space in Milan.
