Christian Boltanski

El Caso

1989

After completing an MA in Political Studies at Queen’s University, focusing on identity politics and immigration, Cossette served in several public policy roles with the federal gove...

HARRY BOWERS T E N P H O T O G R A P H S I DON'T LOOK FOR PHOTOGRAPHS I INVENT THEM I recall my first meeting with Harry Bowers in California a few years ago. As he produc...

Greetings, 1992 Photograph 10.25 h × 7.5 w in (26 × 19 cm), Frame 11 x 8 inches Photo mounted to foamcore and framed behind acrylic Hand signed and dated 'Rimma and Valeriy 1992'; Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin were founding members of the underground conceptual movement Samizdat in the Soviet Union, described in their book Russian Samizdat Art. Based on a play of paradoxes, their work is rich with philosophic and mythological implications, reflected in their writing as well. Their book Concepts was published in Russia in 2012. The work by Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin is emphatically contemporary. The artist couple were part of the Moscow Conceptualists, their performance Costumes, from 1977, deepened their ongoing work with linguistic semiotic systems and their own bodies. Considering the context in which Gerlovina and Gerlovin made their work—that of political restrictions on public life, of unfreedom, and censorship—their collaborative togetherness must also be read as a space of possibility for political community and resistance. Rimma Gerlovina’s hair is featured prominently in the art of the Gerlovins as a constructing element of the body. Used for the linear drawings her braids transmit transpersonal waves reminiscent of an aura of live filaments. Long loose hairs function as threads of life; streaming in abundance, they allude to Aphrodisiac vitality and Samsonian strength. On the other hand, they are the haircloth worn during mourning and penitence. In New York they continued to make sculptural objects, and their photographic projects grew into an extended series called Photoglyphs. In their photographs, they use their own faces to explore the nature of thought and what lies beyond it. Since coming to the United States in 1980, they had many exhibitions in galleries and museums including the Art Institute of Chicago. The New Orleans Museum of Art launched a retrospective of their photography, which traveled to fifteen cities. Group exhibitions include the Venice Biennale, the Guggenheim Museum, New York, Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C., Bonn Kunsthalle, Germany, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, and others. Samizdat or “self-published” began in the Soviet Union, and Samizdat art consists mainly of books and magazines published and distributed by the artists who made them. Samizdat art has sources in the innovative books and magazines turned out by the early 20th century Russian avant-garde—artists and writers like Olga Rozanova, Vladimir Mayakovsky, El Lissitzky, and Alexander Rodchenko. Artists as varied as Alexander Archipenko, Leon Bakst, Marc Chagall, Naum Gabo, Alexandra Exter...

LISA KOKIN Mineola, New York, b. 1954 Lisa Kokin creates her art with recycled and reclaimed materials she has found at flea markets, thrift stores, and recycling centers. In the pas...

Historia, Memoria y Silencios (Silencios) Unopened X, 2009 Archival Ink on Cotton Paper 16h x 16w in 1/5 Lorena Guillén Vaschetti was born in Rosario, Argentina in 1974 and current...

Esko Mannikko

Nazareno #1, 2002 by Celso José Castro Daza From The series Buscando Papá. Photo Collage One of a kind photo collage Sheet size: 27 in. H x 38 in. W Unframed The root of these uniqu...

The root of these unique photographic works by the artist Celso Castro occurred when the artist returned from Italy to live back in Colombia in 1987. Castro wanted to produce from t...