Fairy #2 (2011) depicts a surreal scene of roughly assembled household ephemera, potted plants, and a faintly visible figure rendered in thin red line. The picture shows a grouping of tables and stools arranged in a dense cluster. A collection of objects, all brown or burlap-hued, cover their surfaces: ceramic pots, wooden planks, roughly geometric wooden sculptures, and even a small figure that perches precariously atop of miniature cube alongside a forked wood finish form. Chiba’s use of a nearly monochromatic palette makes it difficult to discern many of these objects, and they only become recognizable from their faint resemblances to things in real life. The picture’s monochromatic field, however, is interrupted by color three times: by the French blue finish of a stool positioned in the background, by the leafy green foliage of two potted plants, and by the nearly imperceptible red line drawing of a figure superimposed over the dense assemblage in the foreground. Presumably the “fairy” of the work’s title, the red figure looks towards the viewer with soft eyes and a delicate smile and at first glance appears benevolent. Chiba, however, renders the fairy into a violently contorted posture, its arms and legs twisted to conform along the shape of the objects piled behind it. Alternately playful and curiously violent, Fairy #2 offers a dreamlike image that is at once reminiscent of bedtime stories and apocalyptic fears. In this context, the “fairy” could be seen as an imaginatively playful creature, but it could also be read as an allusion to the faint bodily outlines left behind during the nuclear bombing attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
Masaya Chiba utilizes painting, sculpture, and installation to create dreamlike works that respond to Surrealism traditions while also exploring the limits of representation and translation. Many of his paintings begin as assemblages in his studio, and in preparing these installations, Chiba collects seemingly random assortments of objects – photographs, wooden planks, potted plants, excess paint – to stage unusual material landscapes. Other objects used in his paintings are also drawn from memory, suggesting an illusory attempt to recapture objects and experiences that no longer exist in the present. Once configured into a desired form, Chiba utilizes these installations and objects as studies for his richly rendered oil paintings. Seemingly whimsical at first glance, his pictures also suggest an undercurrent of anxiety and instability, as if the perceptible world was melting away below us.
Kamau Amu Patton’s painting Static Field I originates from a system of electronic and digital media...
Mandy El Sayegh grew up in a medicalized environment, surrounded by anatomy, biology and psychology publications; these books inspire the figures that appear throughout her work...
The Pixelated Revolution is a lecture-performance by artist Rabih Mroué about the use of mobile phones during the Syrian revolution...
Exhibition walk-through of Here We Live with Pheng Cheah, leading theorist of cosmopolitanism, Jerome Reyes, artist, and Marie Martraire, director, KADIST San Francisco Presenting videos and installations, alongside archival materials, the exhibition Here We Live , reveals strategies through which communities cope with the cultural tensions linked to the transformations of the places they live...
A Splinter (Study for Painting) is a large graphite work on paper by Hernan Bas that was intended as a study for a later painting...
In his Conceito abstrato series, however, Rodrigo Torres turns to the abstract, using the shapes, numbers, lines, and subtle colors of international currencies to create non-representational forms with lavish geometries and baroque curving forms....
Imagine How Many by Margo Wolowiec is a woven polyester depiction of blurred text and floral images found on social media, distorted beyond complete recognition...
Phinthong provided 5,000 Euros to exchange for Zimbabwean dollars, the most devalued and worthless currency in the world...
In the exhibition Pink as a Cabbage / Green as an Onion / Blue as an Orange , Asli Çavusoglu pursues her work on color to delve into an investigation into alternative agricultural systems and natural dyes made with fruits, vegetables, and plants cultivated by the farming initiatives she has been in touch with...
In Hole #1 a zebra scull stands in as a representation of Africa, while the plexiglass box and the hole made through it represent the inaccessibility of that culture to African-Americans....
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (9 - 15 July 2018) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Indonesia July 9, 2018 Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bali, Yogyakarta and Jakarta from 9 – 15 July 2018 Titian Art Space in Bali presents the exhibition Mokoh for the house of Mondo ...
The Top Art Exhibitions of 2023 | Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...