Modern Art Oxford
Stephen Willats
Artist
Since the early 1960s, the pioneering British conceptual artist Stephen Willats has seen his work as a social process, establishing an approach to art practice that has led him beyond the confines of studio, gallery, and institution and into social spaces outside the art context. Engaging different participants is central to his artistic work, redefining the relationships between artist and audience. This interactive approach has led him to realize projects in the actual settings where people’s lives are lived, focusing on creative and productive responses to social polemics. Modernist housing complexes of the postwar decades, the experimental underground club scene, or places on London’s urban periphery where teenagers find refuge from the pressures of their lives: these are the scenes where Willats explores creative behaviors that serve to recode society’s norms and conventions. Developing his participatory approach, he looked beyond art to find tools in other disciplines concerned with communication, looking at studies in the theory of semiotics, behavior and learning and then in cybernetics. [Migros Museum]
Stephen Willats
Artist
Since the early 1960s, the pioneering British conceptual artist Stephen Willats has seen his work as a social process, establishing an approach to art practice that has led him beyond the confines of studio, gallery, and institution and into social spaces outside the art context. Engaging different participants is central to his artistic work, redefining the relationships between artist and audience. This interactive approach has led him to realize projects in the actual settings where people’s lives are lived, focusing on creative and productive responses to social polemics. Modernist housing complexes of the postwar decades, the experimental underground club scene, or places on London’s urban periphery where teenagers find refuge from the pressures of their lives: these are the scenes where Willats explores creative behaviors that serve to recode society’s norms and conventions. Developing his participatory approach, he looked beyond art to find tools in other disciplines concerned with communication, looking at studies in the theory of semiotics, behavior and learning and then in cybernetics. [Migros Museum]
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Good Morning, America / Vol. 1PublicationOver the past six years, photographer Mark Power has travelled across the US to create a complex visual narrative of a country in the midst of change. This new book, Good Morning, America (Volume One), represents a personal and timely exploration of both the American cultural and physical landscape (more…)
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Skin In The GameSep 14, 2023 – Jan 7, 2024Skin In The Game presents seminal prototypes from the personal archives of internationally acclaimed artists, dating back to the 1970s and crossing over into the present. The exhibits include experiments never previously shown, from paintings to sculptures, to banners, video performances, photographs, collages, drawings, books, and concept notes. The works focus on that moment of professional and existential emancipation when these artists threw their skin in the game, and gave their all to art. (more…)
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Rirkrit Tiravanija: JOUEZ/PLAYNov 3, 2023 – Mar 10, 2024The PHI Foundation is pleased to present JOUEZ/PLAY, a solo exhibition by artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. Rather than creating art objects for static display, Tiravanija focuses on the interactions between people and their surroundings. As a central tenet of his practice, he encourages visitors to become active participants in the artistic experience, instead of passive consumers of culture. (more…)
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Asim Waqif: Assume the RiskJun 30, 2023 – Sep 1, 2024Mattress Factory is proud to present Assume the Risk, a new work by Delhi, India-based artist Asim Waqif. Museums are typically places of pristinely preserved objects. Secured behind glass and roped off from curious hands, the importance and value of a work is protected in climate-controlled rooms (more…)
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The Last HumansAlienation in the AnthropoceneWe have fundamentally altered the earth’s ecosystem by disrupting the natural rhythm of our planet and in doing so have created a new chapter in the evolution of Earth and a new stage of uncertainty. (more…)
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Ara Güler: A Play of Light and ShadowJun 23 – Nov 8, 2023This summer, Foam is thrilled to unveil the exhibition A Play of Light and Shadow, a tribute to Ara Güler, one of Turkey’s most legendary photographers. His profound love for Istanbul and Turkey is evident from his evocative black and white photographs. The exhibition is a close collaboration between Foam, co-curator Ahmet Polat and the Ara Güler Museum. (more…)
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El Libro Que Tiende a Desaparecer / Simón RamirezPublicationEl Libro Que Tiende a Desaparecer by Simón Ramirez invites viewers to page through delicate thermal prints at the expense of its images disappearing with each encounter. Each time light touches the surface of the paper, the depiction of ocean waves that fill the horizontal spreads fade. (more…)
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Alexandra Bachzetsis: Show Time Book / Book Time ShowPublicationThe practice of Alexandra Bachzetsis unfolds at the intersection of dance, performance, the visual arts and theatre, generating a conflation of the spaces in which the body, as an artistic and critical apparatus, can manifest. (more…)
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UrbanauticaInstitute / JournalUrbanautica is an independent journal about visual anthropology and cultural landscapes that came from humble beginnings, and has now a spread in 4 continents and thousands of followers. (more…)
