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We just love a “badass” woman-artist. The system can handle rebellion – so long as it’s one heroine at a time. Underdog stories sell, as biopics and prestige TV and gift-shop chintz, while making for easy understandings of “difficult” work. But how to break out of the mythology trap? New narrative forms must commit to putting the art first, no matter how radical the biography underneath.
Faced with the internet’s image infinity and a market with no outside, how can an artist emerge in our oceanic right now? With eclectic sensibility and the distance of technical excellence; an ambivalence about art’s purities and vanities; a certain feline savvy around the rich; and a firmness of heart to withstand the dashing one’s hopes.
In a thousand guises on as many sets, the personae in Cindy Sherman’s pictures document an unfolding of the self, leaving a half-century’s oddities and fantasies exposed. Visiting the debut of her latest works, she and Kunsthalle Zürich’s Daniel Baumann unpack her interest in the grotesque, ways of abstracting ageing, and a conviction that what’s scary can also be very funny.
The artist’s life used to be sorted into three parts: emergent, mid-career, and established. The reality, of course, is murkier: Andy Warhol emerged from an erased past, motherhood “skipped” Louise Bourgeois’s mid-career, and Philip Guston renounced his established art – to say nothing of posthumous revisionism. How, then, can we take the measure of what an oeuvre adds up to?
American Artist, Mother of All Demos, 2018
Dirt, 9” monochrome CRT monitor, computer parts, Linux operating system, subwoofer cable, wood, asphalt, plastic gloves
Installation view HOUSING, New York
Performance with Nadja Voorham, Alexis Martinez, Maria Metsalu, Nicolas Roses, Manuel Scheiwiller, Ofelia Jarl Ortega, Jorge Benavides, and Vincent Riebeek, at Yvonne Lambert, Berlin, 2017
The 11th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Various Locations; Matthew Lutz-Kinoy at Museum Frieder Burda – Salon Berlin; and Meriem Bennani at Julia Stoschek Collection
Lower East Side Round-up at Various Venues by Rahel Aima. “Aliza Shvarts: Purported” at Art in General by Adina Glickstein. “Countryside, The Future” at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum by Jeppe Ugelvig.
“The Same Room: Julie Becker in dialogue” at Galerie Neu by Bianca Heuser. “Disappearing Berlin” at Schinkel Pavilion, various locations by Eva Scharrer.
“Niklas Lichti: Concrete Quarterly”at Galerie Emanuel Layr by Maximilian Geymüller. “Jakob Lena Knebl: Ruth Anne” at Galerie Georg Kargl by Klaus Speidel.
The New York-based painter culls Instagram and the internet for her images, with a particular fondness for nail art and food porn. The artist anticipates that her works will be reabsorbed by the social media platforms from which they were taken. Tenzing Barshee and Camila McHugh spoke to Gina Beavers about trying too hard, making your own memes, and the realness of the world.
There’s so much mystery surrounding Austrian collective Gelatin’s The B-Thing that some believe it never really took place. This barely plausible architectural intervention on the ninety-first floor of the World Trade Center in 2000 was shown – once and once only – to a lucky handful of invited guests. Among them was artist Maria Hassabi, who witnessed the events on a Sunday morning in Lower Manhattan. By Maria Hassabi
Armerican Artist at the Queens Museum by Harry Burke. Rachel Harrison at the Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art by Adina Glickstein. Andro Wekua at Gladstone Gallery by Jeppe Ugelvig
Carrie Mae Weems at Galerie Barbara Thumm by Geoffrey Mak. Christopher Kulendran Thomas in collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann at Schinkel Pavillon by Laurie Rojas
"Alfred Schmeller: The Museum as a Source of Unrest" at mumok by Klaus Speidel. "Time is Thirsty" at Kunsthalle Wien by Victoria Dejaco. Anne Speier at Galerie Meyer Kainer by Maximilian Geymüller
Salvage Art Institute, SAI 0015: materials: aluminium, porcelain; size 10 x 10 cm; damage: 12/24/2008, shattered in fall; claim 05/11/2009; total loss: 05/20/2009; production: 1995; artist: Jeff Koons; title: Red Ballon Dog Ed. 51/66
Performance view, City of Women, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, 2019
Renee Copraij, Trixie Schoenherr, Netti Nueganen, Veronica Thompson, Laura Stokes, Florentina Holzinger
The glamour of the artist’s life turned out to be just another con. So, how did critique manage to turn into protest, whose participants became the unwitting guests of honour in institutional spaces – indoors and well heated, though no longer public? By Victoria Campbell
Artist John Hill, gallerist Amadeo Kraupa-Tuskany, and curator Susanne Pfeffer talk about technology and democratisation, objects and images, networks and volatility. Moderated by Caroline Busta.
“Apollo's Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Victoria Campbell. Devin Kenny at MoMA PS1 by Victoria Campbell.
“The Vienna Biennale for Change 2019: Brave New Virtues, Shaping our Digital World” at various locations by Mohammad Salemy. Perel at ImPulsTanz Vienna by Victoria Dejaco. Nora Schultz at Secession by Benjamin Hirte
“Image Bank” at KW Institute for Contemporary Art by Mitch Speed. Interview with Yael Bartana at Capitain Petzel by Chloe Stead. “Atonal” at Kraftwerk Berlin by Laurie Rojas
Biennials are out, freeports are in. The one percent loves storage solutions that allow them to squirrel away art without the burden of taxation. The best artworks are coming soon to a freeport near you, but you won’t be allowed to see them unless you can wheel and deal or pay to play. By Kenny Schachter
Fashion has built a trap for itself. The most contemporary medium may still pride itself on being ahead of the curve, but it has fallen prey to a totalised corporate capitalist realism that is closing the door on a new generation. Where will it go with its need to rebel and experiment? By Jeppe Ugelvig
Some people want to escape into the art world, others want to escape from it. Art offers a refuge from the world as well as a way of engaging with it – politically, socially, aesthetically, philosophically. The challenge is to find a way to escape without escapism. By João Ribas
A panel at Liste Basel with Jenny Borland of Jenny’s, Alexander Shulan of Lomex, Simon Wang of Antenna Space, KJ Freeman of Housing, and Nathaniel Monjaret of Bonny Poon.
Gallerists play a key role in the ecosystem of art and we are grateful to them: for supporting artists, putting on shows, hosting dinners. But swathes of the art market are driven by greed, lying, and back-room deals, all covered by a blanket of secrecy. A look at some of the less savoury tricks of this highly unregulated trade. By Kenny Schachter
Instead of jetting to Venice, Basel, Hongkong, or New York, you should probably stay at home and read a book, or look at Instagram if you must. Every flight bringing people to artworks and artworks to people adds to the art world’s enormous carbon footprint. Is the value of seeing art IRL really worth it? Nobody can live in the sky for ever. By Mitch Speed
“Motions of This Kind: Propositions & Problems of Belatedness” at The Brunei Gallery, SOAS by Harry Burke; “I, I, I, I, I, I, I, Kathy Acker“at ICA by Ella Plevin.
Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg “A Journey Through Mud and Confusion with Small Glimpses of Air” at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt by Alexander Scrimgeour.
Pauline Boudry / Renate Lorenz “Ongoing Experiments with Strangeness” at Julia Stoschek Collection Berlin by Kristian Vistrup Madsen; Frieda Toranzo Jaeger “Deep Adaptation” at Galerie Barbara Weiss by Dominikus Müller.
“Über Leben am Land” at Kunst Haus Wien by Klaus Speidel. Friedrich von Berzeviczy-Pallavicini: “Der Hausfreund” at Universitaetsgalerie im Heiligenkreuzer Hof by Maximilian Geymüller. “Peter Friedl: Teatro” at Kunsthalle Wien by Benjamin Hirte.
New York has been called Gotham, a modern Gomorrah, Empire City of the New World, the city of dreams, and the capital of the art world. If you fake it in here, you fake it anywhere, right? Rahel Aima on the immorality of New York.
With or without the help of AI, attempts to end the proliferation of fake content and disinformation on social-media platforms are probably doomed to failure. Instead, our posts and likes will continue to exacerbate conflict, strengthen groupthink, and cause mental distress. Why current strategies for fighting harmful messages are unlikely to work. By Rob Horning
How to dress the devil? If there’s one thing we can learn from the canon of villainy it would be that evil rarely requires a stylist. The arts are populated with villains – on both sides of the screen, page, canvas – who know how to work far more dashing cuts than their heroic counterparts. By Ella Plevin
It is probably almost impossible for many readers to imagine how bizarre and threatening German and Austrian male student fraternities can be. Their politics typically ranges from nationalistic to extreme right-wing, and men form bonds that last a lifetime and reach into the highest levels of politics, while observing anachronistic rituals and dress codes. The Vienna-based Burschenschaft Hysteria, which is open only to women and claims to be the “ur-fraternity”, recasts the power structures of such associations with spectacular interventions and the demand for a “Golden Matriarchate”. By Sonja Eismann
A roundtable discussion at Spike Berlin with Krist Gruijthuijsen, director of KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, New York–based artist Mathieu Malouf, and Nina Power, a cultural critic and theorist living in London. Moderated by Laurie Rojas
Harmony Hammond at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum by Ariella Wolens; Alice Neel at David Zwirner and “Revolution from Without ...” by Allison Hewitt Ward; “Tobias Wong, Untitled (Golden)…” at Bureau of General Services by
“Käthe Kollwitz Prize 2019: Hito Steyerl” at Akademie der Künste by Laurie Rojas; “Bauhaus Imaginista”at Haus der Kulturen der Welt by Lennart Wolff; Andy Warhol at Galerie Buchholz by Bianca Heuser; “The Cabinet of Ramon Haze”at Museum Abteiberg by Dorothea Zwirner
“On the New: Young Scenes in Vienna” at Belvedere 21 by Kimberly Bradley; Klara Lidén at Secession and Christian Kosmas Mayer at Mumok by Robert Schulte, Maria Lassnig and Arnulf Rainer at Lentos Linz by Fina Esslinger
Alternative models for art patronage are emerging amidst the crisis of neoliberalism. Founded in 1990, New Patrons helps to articulate and realise citizens’ wishes for a public work of art, capable of more than just managing supply and demand. By Dominikus Müller
Ted Nelson invented hypertext and hypermedia and imagined a future of online publishing, public cloud storage, internet cafes, and even realist CGI. But monopolistic megacorporations and social media streams bear little resemblance to the utopian vision of this now octogenarian evangelist for an alternative internet. An interview by Amelia Stein
With an oeuvre that covers everything from agitprop cans stuffed with cow-dung to ergo-dynamic lounge chairs, anyone in search of a new design manifesto would need to start with Victor Papanek, a guru for socially and ecologically responsible design and pedagogy. By Alison J. Clarke
As products and media started to blur into each other, in the wake of a cultural repositioning of the image through social media streams, fashion led the way in turning content into a new art form. By Thom Bettridge
Cruising Pavilion make shows exploring the architectural aspects of cruising culture. They’re interested in widening the definition of “cruising” to mean more than just gay men looking for sex with strangers in public spaces. By Dean Kissick
The origins of the fashion industry’s most provocative and innovative strategies had a forerunner in BLESS, the enigmatic fashion studio founded between Paris and Berlin in the late 1990s. By David Lieske
Wu Tsang’s works blend reality and fantasy, often in collaborations that bring together the languages of performance and storytelling. On the heels of a move to Athens she talked to Aimee Lin
George Maciunas founded one of the most influential art movements of the 20th century: Fluxus. Embodying its principle that art must not congeal, in everything he did he transformed the lives of artists and in so doing transformed the fate of SoHo. By Gerry Beegan
Commissioned by and undertaken in collaboration with the Equipo Argentino de Antropologia Forense and Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez for the families of the 43 disappeared, the wounded and killed students, in the town of Iguala, Guerrero
We cannot take for granted that the decentralisation of networks, markets, and communication is in itself a good thing. Relations of power just work differently there. Jaya Klara Brekke and Francesco Sebregondi discuss the common ground between Forensic Architecture and blockchain technology.
Décor and theatricality have returned with a vengeance after more than a century of being shunned as art’s lowbrow cousins. Marcel Broodthaers and Palle Nielsen were among the first artists to register the implications of this shift, anticipating the rise of immersion, affective networking, storytelling, surveillance, and monetisation that came along with it. By Antony Hudek
Beatriz González at KW Institute for Contemporary Art by Federica Bueti, Henrike Naumann at Galerie im Turm and Irina Rastorgueva & Thomas Martin BQ by Penny Rafferty in Berlin; Cady Noland at MMK by Bob Nickas in Frankfurt; Jörg Immendorf at Haus der Kunst by Daniela Stöppel in Munich; Mary Beth Edelson at Kunsthalle Münster by Alex Scrimgeour
Kris Lemsalu at Secession by Dan Udy, Ernst Caramelle at Mumok by Maximilian Geymüller, and Louise Lawler at Sammlung Verbund by Bob Nickas in Vienna; Stuart Middleton at Künstlerhaus Graz by Johanna Rainer
The 650-page doorstopper Imponderable documents a vast range of objects and ephemera relating to magic and the occult, all from the collection of the artist Tony Oursler. By Philomena Epps
Why should we continue to live as before, when we could become one with our dogs, live as pigs, have butts like fireflies, or turn into something entirely different that cannot yet be imagined? By Dean Kissick
Reality as a clay, malleable simply through the power of thought, is the premise of a magical thinking. Social relationships are giving way to the imagination because it alone can manifest desire and fantasy – just after hitting the return key, that is. By Rob Horning
We seem to be living through the revival of esotericism and technobelief in a disenchanted age, but what we are witnessing is no comeback. The gods we pray to and spells we cast have, in fact, been here all along, now they just bear different names. The reality is that the Enlightenment has yet to come… By Ella Plevin
Lu Yang fuses virtual with actual architectures, luring the viewer into syncretic hells of augmented realities. With high-energy soundtracks and by tapping into the realms of ancient Buddhism, cyberfeminism, and technoreligions, her installations and videos conjure spiritual stimulants, curious deities, death, and posthuman life forms. By Harry Burke
Jim Shaw’s dreams and waking visions tap into the deep reservoir of the American unconscious, which runs through his oeuvre and inspires his neo-surreal sculptural objects and installations. His most ambitious project is the ongoing development of a religion that revolves around a goddess known only as “O”. By Stanya Kahn
Spike brought together American poets and friends CAConrad and Ariana Reines to talk about the relationship between ritual and writing. A conversation about the bones of poetry
The protagonists of Viennese modernism knew that technology and magic are inherently connected. For them it was clear that the spiritual opened new dimensions in a time ruled by science. How does this relate to the resurgence of magic today? By Elisabeth von Samsonow
In the early 80s Vienna for the first time had an art scene that wanted to be more than local. A conversation about the extension of the Cologne-New York axis to Vienna, and long nights with John Baldessari. By Edek Bartz & Peter Pakesch
The Face and i-D first appeared in London in 1980, inventing the idea of the “style bible”, and with it a new kind of modern youth culture. That cultural moment is clearly over now. But how did it begin, and where did it go wrong? By Dean Kissick
What is the sound of a decade in which society is consigned to history’s trash heap? One made up of perfect surfaces that hide the suffering beneath. On the music criticism of Patrick Bateman (American Psycho). By Rob Horning
The 1980s are a distant mirror of the present: careerism, out-of-control consumerism, greed, and brutality. But the prospect of self-destruction can also create a new sense of community. Bob Nickas on collective resistance in an ambivalent decade.
The New York artist/activist collective Gran Fury emerged in 1988 out of ACT UP. As “individuals united in anger and dedicated to exploiting the power of art to end the AIDS crisis”, they shaped public discourse about AIDS with iconic agitprop imagery. By Alison M. Gingeras and Jamieson Webster
Within the booming art market of the 1980s, Philippe Thomas radically called into question the star system of the time. On an artist who exposed the paradoxical entanglements of commerce, art, and authorship to set the terms of his own self-erasure. By Barbara Casavecchia
Bouchra Khalili at Secession and Gabriele Senn Galerie by Max L. Feldman, Katharina Schilling at Nathalie Halgand by Gianna Prein and an interview with Liam Gillick on his project with New Order by Rita Vitorelli
The architects Gins and Arakawa dedicated their lives to immortality. Their designs and buildings force people to develop new behaviours and to change their bodies until one day they no longer need to die. By Elvia Wilk
The past few years have seen the rise of a generation of young rappers who are as surreal as the time from which they have emerged. These figures are like collective hallucinations: they might be amazing or they might be terrible, but all of them are weird. By Dean Kissick
What does it look like on the streets today when democratic elections take place in the centre of Europe, on the right edge of its Union? On politics in public space in Hungary. By Róza El-Hassan
Marianna Simnett pushes her body to the limit – hyperventilating until she faints or injecting Botox into her vocal cords. Her films are about the complexities of gender, contamination, robot cockroaches, cosmetic manipulation, sworn virgins, and Freudian experiments. By Ella Plevin
Can you separate an artist and their work? What if their life is itself an artwork? In the early 1970s Otto Muehl founded a commune that defied social norms and declared it a revolutionary artwork. About a failed experiment and what it can tell us about our own time. By Alison Gingeras & Jamieson Webster
Sandra Mujinga plays with economies of visibility and disappearance. The traditional identity politics of presence is reversed in order to operate out of hidden realms. If everything is surveilled, the biggest potential lies in not being seen. By Jeppe Ugelvig
Charlemagne Palestine at 365 Mission and Nina Könnemann at House of Gaga by Keith J. Varadi, Hannah Hoffman Gallery by Andrew Berardini, Hayden Dunham by Arshy Azizi
Jean Luc Godard at Miguel Abreu Gallery by Felix Bernstein, LaToya Ruby Frazier at Gavin Brown's enterprise by Alison Gingeras, Juan Antonio Olivares at Whitney Museum by Dean Kissick
"Counter Investigations: Forensic Architecture" at ICA and Laurie Simmons at Amanda Wilkinson Gallery by Billie Muraben, Sondra Perry at Serpentine Sackler Gallery by Lorena Muñoz-Alonso
Charles Atlas at Migros Museum and Ramaya Tegegne at Galerie Maria Bernheim by Julia Moritz and a preview on "Fashion Drive" at Kunsthaus Zürich by Rita Vitorelli
Arthur Jafa at Julia Stoschek Collection and "Left Performance Histories" at NGBK by Alexander Scrimgeour, Ellen Cantor at Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi by Barbara Piwowarska, Guy Bourdin at Museum für Fotografie by Robert Schulte
Rachel Whiteread at Belvedere 21 by Kimberly Bradley, Bruno Gironcoli at mumok and Galerie Krinzinger by Maximilian Geymüller, Lindsay Lawson at Lisa Kandlhofer and Ydessa Hendeles at Kunsthalle Wien by Gianna Prein
How fashion makes us consent to the absurdity of consensus reality; or, why being wrong together is more interesting than being right alone. By Rob Horning
Making an artwork out of a Louis Vuitton bag seems obvious today, but Sylvie Fleury has been doing collaborations with luxury fashion brands since before they were cool. She uses muscle cars, eyeshadow and runways as material, reminding us of the absurd nature of fashion, and perhaps, of art itself. By Dean Kissick
In spite of making a vast amount of work ranging from sleek art installations in gallery spaces and collectively authored books to fashion and photography, the New York collective Bernadette Corporation has managed to stay just out of focus. By Ella Plevin
Lukas Duwenhögger makes paintings that play with the tangled connections between the visible and invisible, desire and distance, transparency and opacity – all at the same time. By Dominikus Müller
Isa Genzken at König Galerie by Dominikus Müller, Preis der Nationalgalerie by Chloe Stead, Parapolitics at HKW by Alexander Scrimgeour, Salvage Art Institute at BNKR in Munich by Daniela Stöppel, Alexander Kluge at Folkwang Museum in Essen by Moritz Scheper
Thomas Bayrle at MAK by Mohammad Salemy, Alona Rodeh at Christine König Galerie by Rebecca O'Dwyer, Valie Export at Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz by Gianna Virginia Prein, "Remastered" at Kunsthalle Krems by Leander Gussmann
Zach Blas at Gasworks by Ella Plevin, Raša Todosijević at Handel Street Projects and Rivane Neuschwander at Stephen Friedman Gallery by Oliver Basciano
Laura Owens at Whitney Museum by Felix Bernstein, Jim Shaw at Metro Pictures by Iona Whittaker, Maria Thereza Alves at Vera List Center for Art and Politics by Harry Burke
Contemporary Art Writing Daily write anonymous exhibition reviews. Their writing is curlicued, abbreviated, crisp – criticism is reduced to its essentials. By Alexander Scrimgeour
A spate of recent closures suggest that the gallery model is under increasing pressure. Gallerists Vanessa Carlos, Jean-Claude Freymond-Guth & Kevin Rubén Jacobs talk the situation over.
When a lecture theatre full of zombies and digital artworks is just a few clicks away there is no reason you have to scroll through installation shots on a website documenting of line exhibitions. A text about new formats for presenting digital art. By Natalie Kane
The Austrian born artist and co-founder of the influential image blog VVORK (2006-2012) has never been interested in the difference between digital and real. In his work, he questions the privileged authority of established art institutions. By Chloe Stead
Gilbert & George have been turning themselves into an image for more than fifty years – an image that never quite adds up. In the deadlock of identity politics, their work reminds us of the political power of productive withdrawal. By Dean Kissick
The Korean-born New York–based artist Anicka Yi brings musky-husky odors and colorful bacterial cultures into the sanctum of art. Hi-tech meets feminism in her imprecise, subjective, and mysterious work, which stages the future in the present. By Joanna Fiduccia
Wolfgang Tillmans at Fondation Beyeler by Dorian Batycka, David Claerbout at Schaulager by Elise Lammer, „A Word Is a Shadow that Falls on a Lot of Things” at Ausstellungsraum Klingental by Elise Lammer
Ericka Beckman at Secession by Maximilian Geymüller, Betty Woodman at Galerie Hubert Winter by Maximilian Geymüller, Samira Elagoz at ImPulsTanz by Gianna Prein
Wu Tsang at Kunsthalle Münster by Kolja Reichert, "Generation Loss" at Julia Stoschek Collection Düsseldorf by Robert Schulte, Anne Speier at Portikus in Frankfurt by Sofia Leiby, "After the Fact: Propaganda in the 21st Century" at Lenbachhaus München by Christoph Chwatal
Smartphones and social media have inserted themselves between us and the outside world, but this is an problem in a new form – the pursuit of unmediated experience has always been a hopeless endeavour. By Rob Horning
Emily Jacir plans to transform her 127-year-old family home in Bethlehem into an international art centre – Dar Jacir is an ambitious project in which the personal gets political. By Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
Reality can’t be trusted. apparently we are living in a simulation, everybody is talking about posttruth, and “Real food” is an advertising pitch. But reality hasn't disappeared, it's just infused with fiction. By Klaus Speidel
In view of the enduring proximity of art and commerce, why does the art world stubbornly hold on to its hypocritical moralism? On artists who have crossed the line in the sand, whether by founding companies or finding other ways to experiment with alternative models of artistic autonomy. By Martin Herbert
Francesco Vezzoli is mostly associated with the extreme glamour and Hollywood stars of the work he had made around ten years ago. Since then, times have changed. In a moment when celebrity culture has become the hard reality of politics and the art world, nothing is innocent anymore. By Dean Kissick
The slow, elegant movements of bodies in Maria Hassabi's performances turn them into images that toggle unsettlingly between play, splay, and display. By Harry Burke
![Isael Maxacali, Xunum [Bat] , 2005, Watercolour, 15 x 10.5 cm](https://spikeartmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/users/shared/articles/images/isael_maxacali.jpg?itok=4gD0PRGR "Isael Maxacali, Xunum [Bat] , 2005, Watercolour, 15 x 10.5 cm")
!["The Real Estate Show," 123, Delancey Street, New York City, 31.12.1979 - 21.1.1980](https://spikeartmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/users/shared/articles/images/messner_real_estate_show_1980_1_0.jpg?itok=-Sq5ps59 ""The Real Estate Show," 123, Delancey Street, New York City, 31.12.1979 - 21.1.1980")
