The exhibition “Shift in Painting: The Ploner Collection” examines the phenomenon, which has entered Austrian art history under the term of “New Painting,” ran parallel to the international upsurge in painting in Europe and in the USA, which manifested itself in several exhibitions at the beginning of the 1980s. This exhibition presents the Ploner Collection generously placed besides the Neue Galerie Graz collection. It thus allows us to gain a perspective on the important reception of painting in the 1980s, and on a no less important chapter in the history of the Neue Galerie Graz, too. The Ploner Collection represents a significant intersection in current Austrian art, especially painting. Contemporary Austrian painting, above all its Abstract branch, formed the main interest of the collector. Info: Curator: Günther Holler-Schuster, Neue Galerie Graz – Universalmuseum Joanneum, Joanneumsviertel, Graz, Duration: 3/3-8/5/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00, www.museum-joanneum.at
The retrospective of Michael Buthe is anchored in his only two remaining installations and combines a selection of key works from Buthe’s intense career from the late ‘60s to the beginning of the ‘90s. Taking his lead from Art Informel and Minimal Art, Buthe’s textile objects from the ‘60s and early ‘70s give a tactile response to the crisis in the medium of painting at that time. Emphasizing the support—e.g. canvas and frame—his objects are dyed, torn, shredded and sewn back together. Through the artist’s use of softness, organic elements and a process-based approach, the Post-Minimalist notion of the fragmentary, unresolved nature of things is also made manifest in his sensuous drawings and collages from that period. Info: S.M.A.K., Jan Hoetplein 1, Ghent, Duration 5/3-5/7/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, http://smak.be
For “Purpose”, her first exhibition in Europe of Anna Conway has created 4 new works. Conway’s approach to representation, which is equally precise, methodical, intuitive and analytical, not only involves a depiction of scenes that interweave close observation and pure imagination. She is also concerned in a picture with where we are, at what point in time, who inhabits the space, and what may be going on in his or her mind. In this respect she is as much a short story writer, or a screenwriter, or a reporter as a painter. Her acts of inscription take visual form, and even when a scene is fantastic, beyond the limits of the everyday, for her it must appear true. Info: Collezione Maramotti , Via Fratelli Cervi 66, 42124 Reggio Emilia, Duration: 6/3-31/7/16, Days & Hours: Thu-Fri 14:30-18:30 Sat-Sun 10:30-18:30, www.collezionemaramotti.org
“Society, you’re a crazy breed”, is a new project by Turin-based artists Botto&Bruno. Bruno conceived as one large installation at the Fondazione Merz. Responding to the exhibition space, the work focuses on the Fondazione’s symbolic value as an abandoned industrial building converted into a cultural venue. The title is taken from Eddie Vedder’s song Society from the Into the Wild soundtrack, is a cry to reflect upon the future of our society and its contemporary madness, resetting memory to create a present without history. Info: Fondazione Merz, Via Limone 24, Turin, duration: 9/3/16-5/2/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-19:00. www.fondazionemerz.org
Jannis Kounellis in his exhibition “I come with empty hands as an old painter”, in Monnaie de Paris, begins with the heart of the last craftsman factory in Paris and the importance of energy in order to compose a real, dramatic sculpture using the whole exhibition space. The artist involves the visitor and raises the question of the process of an artwork’s fabrication. It is in the doing, in the work of the workshops, in the intuition of forms, in the modeling, that the project of the artist emerges. The materials that Kounellis uses in his displays are political and historical messages as much as they are also about time and memory. Info: Monnaie de Paris, 11 Quai de Conti, Paris, Duration: 11/3-1/5/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Mon 11:00-19:00, Tue: 11:00-22:00, www.monnaiedeparis.fr
The group exhibition “After Effect” features immersive artworks in painting, sculpture, installation and film that range from the cosmic and psychedelic to the sensual and visionary. The exhibition looks at historical paintings and film from the ‘30s and ‘40s alongside works from contemporary artists that address notions of the sublime, touching on mortality, landscape, the body, and various modes of abstraction. The exhibition will also feature historical works from the Transcendental Painting Group. Founded in New Mexico, the Group existed from 1938-1942 and aimed to “Defend, validate and promote Abstract and Non-Objective art”. Info: Ballroom Marfa, 108 East San Antonio Street, Marfa, Duration: 11/3-21/8/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Sat 10:00-18:00 Sun 10:00-15:00, https://ballroommarfa.org
“Nervous Systems: Quantified Life and the Social Question” is a group exhibition that questions this systemic closure and the pervasive nervousness that haunts today’s systems, data-driven rationalities and ideologies. What does “privacy” mean when it becomes possible to identify someone just as easily from “anonymous” data as from a fingerprint or identity card? What remains of the world when it is being interpreted for us by machines? The exhibition assembles works by over 25 artists, installed in an architectural grid, invoked here as a paradigmatic “system” and template for knowledge, for order and the re-organization of life in Modernity. Info: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, Berlin, Duration: 11/3-9/5/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Mon 11:00-19:00, http://hkw.de
Channa Horwitz was amongst the pioneers in the late ‘60s and ’70s of a distinctly Californian Minimalism. She came relatively late to art, arranging it around her home life, and despite corresponding and swapping work with Sol LeWitt, she received little attention from the art world until the end of her life. Horwitz claimed artistic freedom through confinement to a few simple rules. She came to base all her work on the numbers one to eight—often deploying a colour code for each number—and used this system to depict time and movement. Her outstanding series titled Sonakinatography can be understood in terms of notation, for instance for music or choreography a selection of her works is on exhibition at: Raven Row, 56 Artillery Lane, London, Duration: 10/3-1/5/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Sun 11:00-18:00, www.ravenrow.org
TEFAF Maastricht Art Fair established in 1975 as “Pictura Fine Art Fair”, in 2016 edition the Art Fair presents 275 galleries from 20 countries, the Fair is a continuously evolving showcase for the best works of art currently on the market. Alongside the traditional areas of Old Master Paintings and antique Works of Art, the Fair presents a wide variety of Classical Modern and Contemporary Art, Photographs, Jewellery, Twentieth Century Design and Works on Paper. Info: TEFAF Maastricht, Maastricht Exhibition &Congress Centre (MECC), Forum 100, Maastricht, Duration: 11-20/3/16, Days & Hours: Daily 11:00-19:00, Sun 20/3/16 11:00-18:00, http://www.tefaf.com
“Show Your Wound” is a curated presentation that complements TEFAF Modern. The title is a reference to a sculptural work presented by Joseph Beuys in an underground passageway in Munich in 1976. The installation presents the work of artists that continue to explore and give expression to the ideas death, decay, dispossession and a sense of trauma (the wound) as suggested in Beuys’ original work. These concepts continue to have relevance for younger generations of artists working all over the world. Info: Curator: Mark Kremer, TEFAF Maastricht, Maastricht Exhibition &Congress Centre (MECC), Forum 100, Maastricht, Duration: 10-20/3/16, Days & Hours: Daily 11:00-19:00, Sun 20/3/16 11:00-18:00, http://www.tefaf.com
The solo exhibition of Philippe Van Snick is a continuation of its exploration into notions of social abstraction. The exhibition spans almost five decades and traces developments in the artist’s highly consistent body of work, best known for its Post-Minimalist approach to painting. The exhibition is the artist’s first in Austria. For the artist, light and color are both scientific, objective descriptions as well as subjective codes inspired by our everyday experience. The concept of time, specifically the dualism of day and night and the lightness and darkness that signifies its passing, is often explored in works that underline the experiential relationship between the viewer and his/her surroundings. Info: Grazer Kunstverein, Palais Trauttmansdorff, Burggasse 4, Graz, Duration: 12/3-22/5/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Sun 11:00-18:00, www.grazerkunstverein.org
The Art Week at Alserkal Avenue in Dubai hosts a lot of openings, commissions, projects and public programming taking place at Alserkal Avenue. At the heart of the week, the galleries at Alserkal Avenue will present shows by Seher Shah, YZ Kami and Hassan Hajjaj and Stéphanie Saadé . The eagerly awaited openings of Custot Gallery, The Jean-Paul Najar Foundation and eL Seed Studio bring further cultural dimensions to the Avenue, while Alserkal Avenue Programming presents commissions by Mary Ellen Carroll, Mohammed Kazem, Jessica Mein, Fari Bradley, Chris Weaver and Vikram Divecha alongside a selection of projects. Info: Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, Duration: 14-19/3/16, http://alserkalavenue.ae/en/index.php