400 Years ago, August 1619, the English privateer ship christened White Lion,carrying over 20 captives seized from the Kingdom of Ndongo in Angola, transported across the Atlantic to arrive at Point Comfort in southern Virginia as the first documented enslaved Africans to set foot in English North America. That day introduced the era of slavery in what would later become the United States of America….
Two years ago today, the American president addressed the nation with tele-prompt platitudes condemning hate crimes following the violence in Charlottesville, only to rescind afterwards as he circled back to his original indignation blaming both sides. This false equivalency triggered the collective resignation of the members of the White House Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (Art & Politics in America).
The deep immortal human wish, the timeless will… Voyage through death to life upon these shores… Shuttles in the rocking loom of history, the dark ships move, the dark ships move, their bright ironical names. –Robert Hayden / from Middle Passage.
Welcome to the 100th edition of Prescriptions. Here is our review of the week in the arts.
Monika Grzymala
Fragmented Realities
At the core of this exhibition surveys the oscillation between microcosm and macrocosm, chaos and order, dissonance and harmony, disintegration and structure. Presenting the works of artists Anastasia Ax, Monika Grzymala, and Henrik Håkansson, among others, through August 18, 2019 at Goteborgs Konsthall.
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Uncle of the Garden, 2014
So British! Collection Pinault
The Pinault collection which has been principally housed at Palazzo Grassi has grown quickly to become a major presence in the contemporary arts. This exhibition focuses on 10 masterpieces of British artists, including Nigel Cooke and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, ongoing through May 11, 2020 at Musée des Beaux Arts Rouen.
Stephen Willats
Languages of Dissent
Exploring the modular architecture of social housing projects, Stephen Willats spotlights forms of individual creative adaptation that defy the uniformity and functionality of the spaces. On view through August 18, 2019 at Migros Museum.
Erwin Olaf
Erwin Olaf: Women
Erwin Olaf’s women subjects are staged in highly composed images of formal perfection while instilling a sense of quiet drama into his scenes, resulting in an air of ambiguity and narrative uncertainty. At Hamiltons Gallery in London through August 16, 2019.
Jamie Hawkesworth
Preston Bus Station / Jamie Hawkesworth
“I began to see, feel and understand its effect, I was becoming sensitive to light. Being patient in such a transitional space began to amplify every detail. Everything became significant.” –Jamie Hawkesworth. On view through August 31, 2019 at Taka Ishii Gallery.
Florian Hetz
All Bodies Are Temples
Paola Paleari interviews the members of the nomadic platform Slowroom Contemporary about the process behind their newest exhibition, Under The Anti Lies The Body (Florian Hetz, Birk Thomassen, Laurence Philomène, and Sophia Wallace), currently on view through August 18, 2019 at Stefanskirken, Copenhagen.
Jamie Hawkesworth
PROFILES
Erwin Olaf’s wide ranging portraits of Women, works selected from over of 40 years at Hamiltons; Paola Paleari, writer/curator and our newest contributor interviews Slowroom Contemporary about their exhibition which features Florian Hetz, Birk Thomassen, Laurence Philomène, and Sophia Wallace; Jamie Hawkesworth showing works from the series Preston Bus Station at Taka Ishii Gallery; Stephen Willats, defying the uniformity and functionality of the spaces in Languages of Dissent at Migros Museum; Anastasia Ax, among those presented in the group exhibition Fragmented Realities at Goteborgs Konsthall; and Nigel Cooke and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, part of the 10 British artists selected from Palazzo Grassi’s Pinault collection, on view at Musée des Beaux Arts Rouen.
