Ocula

Female energy courses through ‘Alchemies’, Bharti Kher’s largest UK exhibition to date. Displayed in the underground gallery and surrounding gardens at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The show brings together 34 works from five countries, posing questions about the volatility of female identity. It explores cycles of life, energetics, and mythology—topics that have preoccupied Kher for over two decades. Kher’s sculptures are perplexing hybrids caught between the mundane, magnificent, and the mammalian. Combining found objects with casts and drawing on the dynamic forms associated with ancient Indian temples, each sculpture is a protagonist, elevated and defiant. In a towering outdoor sculpture like ‘Ancestor’, the fabric seems to nurture a plethora of children. The textile does not only ‘hold the stories of our lives’, Kher says, but forms a personal connection to her mother’s fabric business. Discover more about the artist on Ocula—link in bio. 📝🎤🎥: @cleo__robertskomireddi ✂️: @caitrionadeburca #BhartiKher #YorkshireSculpturePark #OculaMagazine

‘I remember seeing a beautiful woman wearing a marigold silk shirt taking a walk in the middle of a tremendous summer lightning storm. That was my first memory of Helen Marden; she loved the freedom that Hydra gave her.’ It was the mid-1990s, and the artist and curator Dimitrios Antonitsis had just moved to the Saronic island of Hydra—a two-hour ferry ride from his hometown of Athens—with an idea to set up Hydra School Projects, an annual art exhibition. He was following a stream of writers, painters and poets from the Greek cubist artist Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika to singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, and abstract painters Helen and Brice Marden who had pitched up on Hydra to enjoy the artist and the rhythms of island life. This summer, with Hydra School Projects welcoming its 25th exhibition, @oculaadvisory sat down with Antonitsis to reflect on art of the island, his show with Helen Marden at @ocfstudio , and what it is about the Hydra that people fall in love with. Read on Ocula—link in bio. 1: Brice Marden working in his studio on Hydra, Greece. Courtesy Dimitrios Antonitsis. Photo: Bill Jacobson. 2: Dimitrios Antonitsis. Photo: Jan Rose. 3&4: Helen Marden and Dimitrios Antonitsis, The Warp of Time, Old Carpet Factory, Hydra. Photo: Sarah Rainer. 5: Helen Marden and Dimitrios Antonitsis, Hydra. 6: Jeff Koons at Hydra Slaughterhouse Projects. 7: Dimitrios Antonitsis, ‘Brice and Helen on the Parthenon’ (2023). Courtesy the artist. #DimitriosAntonitsis #Hydra #OculaAdvisory #ArtAdvisory #Ocula

Activism always came first for the South African artist Gavin Janjtes, from early prints that confronted the violence of apartheid to later abstractions that captivate in their formalism. At @whitechapelgallery in London, the artist’s survey ‘To Be Free! A Retrospective 1970–2023’ features more than 100 works reflecting a practice marked by personal and political transformation. ‘Jantjes' use of pop aesthetics to serve revolutionary struggle was highly effective,’ Stephanie Bailey writes. ‘Not only did it communicate documentary facts and fragments to wider audiences but bypassed media blackouts and political obfuscations of lived experiences of oppression.’ Read the feature by @stephanie_waiyi_bailey in Ocula Magazine—link in bio 🔗 #GavinJantjes #WhitechapelGallery #Ocula #OculaMagazine

Dale Frank's opulent paintings, Daniel Crooks' machine-generated drawings, and Natasha Walsh's reimagined portraits are among the works in Sydney’s must-see gallery shows this winter. Catch the final weeks of exhibitions at @n.smithgallery , @sullivanstrumpf , @fineartssydney , @amesyavuz , and @roslynoxley9 , as recommended by contributing editor Susan Acret in Ocula Magazine—link in bio. Hero image: Natasha Walsh ‘The Marriage of Nicol and Ford’ (2023). #NSmithGallery #SullivanStrumpf #FineArtsSydney #AmesYavuz #RoslynOxley #OculaMagazine

A dense thicket of multicoloured figures populate Yuichi Hirako’s latest exhibition at @gallerybaton , where the line between humanity and nature is intentionally blurred. Having spent his formative years in the verdant forest of Okayama Prefecture, Japan, Hirako’s practice reflects an abiding interest in Deep ecology and an alternate view of how our future might look through this lens. See the exhibition on Ocula—link in bio.🔗 1-5: Exhibition view: Yuichi Hirako, New Home, Gallery Baton, Seoul (5 June–13 July 2024). Courtesy Gallery Baton. 6. 'Lost in Thought 207' (2024) (detail). #YuichiHirako #GalleryBaton #Ocula #Exhibition

Spanning two floors, Tavares Strachan's first major survey, invites viewers to delight in the Bahamian artist's thirst for knowledge. Titled ‘There Is Light Somewhere’ the exhibition features monumental sculptures, including a large ship floating on a lake on top of the Gallery's brutalist building. It also features huge collages, neon works, ceramic vases, bronzes, and mixed-media installations that occupy entire rooms. Open now at @hayward.gallery in London through to 1 September. Discover more about the artist on Ocula—link in bio. #TavaresStrachen @tavaresstrachan #HaywardGallery #Ocula

Zheng Lu's gravity defying solid sculptures are influenced by a study of traditional Chinese calligraphy. The exhibition 'The Dark Matter in Sagittarius' is on view at @sundaramtagore New York until 12 July 2024. See more from the exhibition on Ocula. Link in bio 🔗 #ZhengLu #SundaramTagore #Ocula

Cloud-like tapestries float across @hepworthwakefield gallery space, in South African artist @igshaan.adams solo exhibition. Titled ‘Weerhound’, which means ‘Withheld’ in Afrikaans, Adams' solo exhibition surveys the effects of trauma on the human psyche. The exhibition is open now until 3 November in Yorkshire. #IgshaanAdams #HepworthWakefield #Weerhound #Ocula

'From all available evidence no black man had ever set foot in this tiny Swiss village before I came.' So starts James Baldwin's 1953 essay 'Stranger in the Village', a text that is pivotal to the practice of artist Glenn Ligon. On the occasion of his eponymously titled show at @hauserwirth , held earlier this year in Hong Kong, the artist met with Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the @studiomuseum in Harlem, New York, to discuss Baldwin and his impact on Ligon's practice. This week, a new publication 'Glenn Ligon: Distinguishing Piss from Rain; Writings and Interviews', edited by James Hoff, will be released by Hauser & Wirth Publishers. Read @glennligon and @thelmagolden in Conversation on Ocula—link in bio. Introduced and edited by editorial director @anna_dickie . #GlennLigon #ThelmaGolden #HauserWirth #OculaMagazine #JamesBaldwin

Nairy Baghramian creates perplexing sculptures and installations out of materials such as silicon, resin, and steel, that examine the relationships between the human body and architecture. In her incessant questioning of the traditional medium of sculpture, Baghramian provokes an examination of form and content. Explore @nairybaghramian latest works on view at @hauserwirth , Zurich, on Ocula—link in bio 🔗 #NairyBaghramian #HauserWirth #Ocula

After working on Guggenheim shows including the controversial ‘Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World’ and Wu Tsang's iconic ‘Anthem’, X Zhu-Nowell has returned to Shanghai to serve as artistic director of arguably the city's most important contemporary art institution— Rockbund Art Museum. In their first year in the role, Zhu-Nowell has shown works by Chinese American WangShui, Rotterdam-based Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Zurich-based American Tosh Basco, Vietnamese American Diane Severin Nguyen, Mumbai-born Singaporean Shubigi Rao, and Guangdong-based Tan Jing. Read @xzhunowell in conversation with @samgaskin on Ocula—link in bio. #XZhuNowell #RockBundArtMuseum @rockbundartmuseum #OculaMagazine

Today I learned that ‘heartbreak’ translates to ‘crève-cœur’ in French. @galerie_crevecoeur the Parisian gallery established in 2009 by Axel Dibie and Alix Dionot-Morani, was named after such sweet sorrow. For his debut exhibition ‘La Vision Del Pan’ (5 June–20 July 2024) at Crèvecœur in Paris, it seems that Los Angeles-based artist @jonnnynegronn has also been doing some linguistic research. A few days before the opening, @oculaadvisory met with Negron at the gallery’s Cascades space, tucked away on a leafy side street in the city’s 20th arrondissement. Surrounded by his new works, Negron introduced his latest body of work, the painterly influences of Ed Ruscha, and finding peace in organ music at an L.A. church. Read on Ocula—link in bio. 1-4: Courtesy of the artist, Château Shatto and Crèvecœur, Paris. Photo: Martin Argyroglo 5-9: Courtesy of the artist, Château Shatto and Crèvecœur, Paris. Photo: Ed Mumford #JonnyNegron #Crèvecœur #OculaAdvisory #ArtAdvisory #Ocula