ArtDiction January/February 2022 by ArtDiction Magazine

Habitual. Art. Art.

Architecture & Photography

Volume 33 January/February 2022 www.artdictionmagazine.com

“I love the fact that Pro® 788 Ultimate Masking is translucent. This allows me to see my drawing underneath. It is easy to apply and remove, and does not require much pressure on the X-acto knife to trim.” - Lynn McLain, Watercolor Artist Find our interview with Lynn McLain on our blog: protapes.com/blog

Pro® 788 Ultimate Masking

The Professional’s Choice for Watercolor Painting

Designed for masking on delicate watercolor paper. Creates sharp, clean edges. Translucent. pH Neutral. Removes cleanly. To find a distributor near you or to become a distributor, please email Steve Espinal, Graphic Arts Market Manager: sespinal@protapes.com www.protapes.com

800-345-0234 ext. 133

jacksonsart.com

GALERIE ANDREAS BINDER

FEATURES 16

Nature-Inspired Architectural Designs An ambitious and hardworking architecture, Muhannad Albasha asked the right questions early in his career. Now he’s on pace to design the tallest structure in Mozambique.

32 A Photographer’s Journey Marc Fischer’s journey to architectural photography is inspiring. Along the way, he fell in love with his city. 44 A Fly Line Fly Line With a background in drafting, Lentonia Monique takes a geometric approach to her art, resulting in A Fly Line.

Cover photo courtesy of Marc Fischer.

In Each Issue 5

small talk

news

12 exhibits 57 artist & ad index

Photo courtesy of Lentonia Monique.

ArtDiction | 4 | January/February 2022

small talk

©Muhannad Albasha

happily present the first issue of the 2022 year. Feeling hopeful and looking forward to the year, we will continue to feed you art addiction with topics that cover the ever-growing art industry. With the pandemic finally reaching a conclusion (hopefully), I’m excited to see the shifts that will be made in our industry. I’m also looking forward to seeing what things will remain the same. I’m inspired by the sustainability of the art world and the innovation that has developed for the arts and from the artists. In this issue we explore the craft of architecture and what comes along with it—from structural designing, photographing to drafting and painting. We

interviewed Muhannad Albasha who discovered his interest in architecture by playing Minecraft. This happy accident moved him to ambitiously devour the field. March Fischer is also featured in this issue. A relatable artist who started his career working in the photo lab, he now captures brilliant and vibrant images of structures in his hometown. We also feature Lentonia Monique who has a background in drafting. Her company A Fly Line shows off a geometric approach to her paintings that’s rare in artwork. Happy reading! Wishing you a purposeful and meaningful year.

ArtDiction | 5 | January/February 2022

HOLLIS TAGGART

news Yinka Shonibare Opens Artist Residency Program in Nigeria British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare CBE has opened a residency program and art space in Nigeria with a mission to foster exchange between artists of different cultures and career paths. Located on two sites, Lagos and a rural working farm in Ijebu, Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation will provide public programs, exhibition opportunities, and workspace for creatives from Africa, the diaspora, and around the world. Ghanaian-British architect Elsie Owusu and Lagos-based architect Nihinlola Shonibare designed the location in Lagos, a barrier-free venue that boasts studio, gallery, and performance space on the ground floor and shared living quarters upstairs—enough to accommodate three resident artists at a time. (London-based Owusu also designed Shonibare’s house in Lagos.) The 54-acre farm is staffed by local villagers and features hundreds of cashew-nut trees and other crops. The farm’s new building, designed by Papa Omotayo of MOE+, will offer residency space for artists, scientists, and agriculturalists. Construction on workshop spaces dedicated to weaving, ceramics, and other crafts will begin in the spring. Both sites were funded by Shonibare himself; the residencies and programs will be funded by his foundation and through partnerships. “The art world needs to evolve,” Shonibare said at the center’s opening, as reported in the Nigerian newspaper The Nation. “There is a rich vein of talent out there, but we might lose them if the status quo of the last 30 years remains. We are working with the

Yinka Shonibare with his installation “The British Library.” Photo by Tabatha Fireman/Getty Images.

local community, whilst opening doors for the next generation, equipping them to thrive not just survive.” Shonibare is one of many African and African diasporic artists who are capitalizing on their own success to cultivate the next generation of artistic talent in their

The 54-acre farm is staffed by local villagers and features hundreds of cashewnut trees and other crops. countries of origin. Painter Amoako Boafo, installation artist Ibrahim Mahama, and performance artist Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi have each set up spaces in Ghana to support young artists. Meanwhile, Kehinde Wiley’s Black Rock residency in Senegal has become a closely watched incubator for emerging figures. In the absence of robust government funding for the arts, these initiatives have quickly become a core part of their countries’ cultural infrastructure. ArtDiction | 7 | January/February 2022

Shonibare first announced the launch of his non-profit in 2019. It was inspired by his long-running “Guest Projects” initiative, for which he invited up-and-coming artists to work in a London studio, located on the ground floor of a former carpet factory. The Nigerian residency spaces were originally slated to open last November, timed in conjunction with the Art x Lagos art fair, but the logistics around the pandemic resulted in delays. It officially opened its doors in February. Paris’s Galerie Templon to Open Outpost in New York Galerie Templon, one of Paris’s leading contemporary art galleries, will open a location in New York this fall. The space’s inaugural exhibition will be a solo show devoted to artist Omar Ba, who is based in New York and Dakar, Senegal. The new location, at 293 Tenth Avenue, is located in New York’s Chelsea area, and was formerly home to Kasmin gallery. The 6,500-square-foot space will be renovated by architect Markus Dochantschi’s studio MDA. In addition to the Ba exhibition, Templon has shows planned in the

news coming months for artists Chiharu Shiota, Iván Navarro, Prune Nourry, Michael Ray Charles, Jim Dine, and Edward and Nancy Kienholz. For his exhibition, Ba will “present a new series of paintings investigating the complex position of Africa in today’s American and European politics,” according to a release. He will also have two major institutional shows later this year, at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels (opening in April) and at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Templon was founded by Daniel Templon in Paris in 1966 and is located in the city’s Marais neighborhood. In 2016, the gallery expanded to Brussels. Daniel’s son, Mathieu Templon, had previously led the Belgian space, and will now relocate to New York to lead the new space. In a statement, Mathieu Templon said, “In a context profoundly reshaped by the pandemic, and the renewed attractiveness of Paris as a cultural hub, it only seemed natural to expand the gallery’s footprint and organize a permanent presence in New York. A large number of our artists do not have American representation or have not exhibited in the U.S. in a long time. Our objective is to give them an opportunity to engage with new audiences and give them the global platform they deserve.” Templon is the latest blue-chip gallery to set up shop in Chelsea. Galeria Nara Roesler, which is based in Brazil, launched a space in the district last year, and Los Angeles’s David Kordansky has plans to inaugurate a New York gallery there this spring. Phillips Nets $40 M. in London Sale, Pledges Funds for Ukraine Relief

Galerie Templon.

Amid the somber backdrop of an escalating war in Ukraine, Phillips followed its competitors Sotheby’s and Christie’s, holding an evening sale dedicated to modern and contemporary art at its London headquarters that brought in £29.9 million ($40 million) on Thursday. The total surpassed the sum made during last year’s equivalent sale held in April, which brought in £24.8 million with premium ($34.2

The house pledged to donate the proceeds made from buyer’s premium and vendor’s commission from the sale to a Ukrainian relief fund. million), across 30 lots. At this sale, 36 out of a total 41 lots sold, yielding a solid 95 percent sell-through rate. Eight works, including ones by David Hockney, Günther Förg, and Henry Moore, were secured with third-party backing before being offered in the sale. After four lots were withdrawn prior to the sale, the auction was expected to fetch an estimated hammer price of £24.7 million–£36 million ($33 million–$48 million). The sale’s final sum of $40 million ArtDiction | 8 | January/February 2022

(£29.9 million) includes premium. Phillips auctioneer Henry Highly took up the gavel on Thursday to lead the sale. The atmosphere in the room appeared notably downcast as reports of economic sanctions targeting key Russian financial institutions and high-net-worth Putin allies, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, continued to escalate. On the heels of a recent announcement earlier this week of its plans to sell a $70 million Basquiat painting in May that would mark a price milestone for the house, Phillips is now being eyed over its status as a Russian-owned company as the armed conflict worsens abroad. Amid some scrutiny over the house’s ownership by the Moscow-based luxury behemoth Mercury Group, the house pledged to donate the proceeds made from buyer’s premium and vendor’s commission from the sale to a Ukrainian relief fund. The sale raised a total of £5.8 million ($7.7 million) for the cause. “Of course no financial donation is going to rectify this terrible situation,” a Phillips spokesperson told ARTnews in a statement. “But we feel we are taking the lead in the art market in making a significant donation in expressing our solidarity with the people of Ukraine in a meaningful and practical way.” The sale’s top lot on was a 1984 painting by David Hockney titled

news Self-Portrait on the Terrace, which sold for a final price of £4.9 million ($6.5 million). Cecily Brown’s 2016 red, pink, and white–hued canvas When Time Ran Out was the second top seller, going for a final price of £3.7 million ($4.2 million), against an estimate of £2 million ($2.7 million). A 2015 canvas by Nicolas Party titled Houses, which features a cluster of five multi-colored structures of various heights, attracted bidding from London. It ultimately went to a bidder on the phone with Phillips U.K. contemporary art specialist Charlotte Gibbs, selling for a final price of £1.5 million ($1.9 million). A work by British painter Jadé Fadojutimi, whose work has seen a rapid rise in the auction circuit over the past year, saw attention from bidders in Asia. Her 2020 canvas A Cropped Perspective of This Whirlwind Effect, an abstraction in a green palette, saw bidding between Phillips head of client advisory Kevie Yang, based in New York, and Kathy Lin, a Londonbased client liaison for the Asia Pacific region. It sold for £627,500 ($854,000) with premium, four times the £150,000 estimate ($204,000), to Lin’s client. In her auction debut, a work by Los Angeles–based artist Lauren Quin saw three bidders from Japan, Hong Kong, and mainland China compete for the work. As the sale’s opening lot, the abstract composition, titled Air Sickness (2021), spurred momentum early on in the sale when it sold for a final price of £441,000 ($600,000), more than ten times the estimate of £30,000 ($40,000) low estimate. But that speed proved difficult to maintain as the sale progressed. Only one record was set during the London sale, on par with the performance from the mid-season

London sale in 2021; the single record set at that sale was for Tunji Adeniyi-Jones. On Thursday, Issy Wood’s 2019 canvas Chalet, an up-close photorealistic painting of a pair of black leather gloves, sold for £441,000 ($590,499), four times the £100,000 estimate. The price surpassed Wood’s previous record of $468,750 set in 2021. Record-Setting Franz Marc Tops Christie’s $334 M. Sale in Shanghai and London Not long after reports first emerged Launching the spring auction season with a three-part auction that took place in London and Shanghai, Christie’s sold $334 million in works from the 20th and 21st centuries on Tuesday. Between the three sales, 94 out of a total 105 lots that were offered sold. Two works—one by Stanley Whitney, the other by Gabriele

It came to the sale after being returned from a German museum to the heirs of its former owner, the Jewish businessman and banker Kurt Grawi, in January 2021. Münter—came with in-house guarantees, while another 20 were secured with third-party backing. The entire grouping after several lots were withdrawn was expected to fetch an estimated hammer price of £202 million–£290 million ($269 million–$386 million). (The sale’s final sum of $334 million includes premium.)

ArtDiction | 9 | January/February 2022

This was the first time the house’s mid-season London evening sale was expanded to include a section conducted at a salesroom in Asia. It marks an attempt by the house to further incorporate clients across the Asia Pacific region into marquee Western sales. Christie’s auctioneer Caroline Liang, a jewelry specialist based in Shanghai, took to the rostrum on Tuesday evening to kick off the dual-city sale event, titled “20/21 Century Shanghai to London.” Jussi Pylkannen, Christie’s European president, took over in London, later passing the gavel on to his colleague Veronica Scarpati, a London-based 20th and 21 century art specialist, for a section focused on Surrealism. The work which fetched the highest price on Tuesday was a Franz Marc painting from 1913 that was the subject of a closely watched restitution case. It came to the sale after being returned from a German museum to the heirs of its former owner, the Jewish businessman and banker Kurt Grawi, in January 2021. The painting, titled Die Füchse (Foxes), sold for a final price of £42.7 million ($57 million) to bidder on the phone with Christie’s London-based client liaison Guy Agazarian. It had been expected to fetch roughly £35 million ($46.8 million). The result well outpaced Marc’s previous record of $24.2 million, paid for Weidende Pferde III (1910) at Sotheby’s London in 2008. A large-scale untitled triptych painting by Francis Bacon produced between 1986 and 1987 went to a lone bidder on the phone with Christie’s co-head of the London modern and contemporary art evening sale, Katherine Arnold, for a final price of £39.4 million ($47.6 million). Coming to the sale with an irrevocable bid, the work hammered just below its low estimate of £35 million ($47 million). First

news exhibited in Moscow in 1988, the billboard-sized work bares reference to three different figures: Woodrow Wilson after signing the Treaty of Versailles in 1919; Bacon’s then-partner, John Edwards; and the Russian political dissident Leon Trotsky, who was assassinated in 1940. Another big-ticket item to hit the block in London was Lucian Freud’s Girl with Closed Eyes (1986–87), a portrait of the painter’s muse, Janey Longman, that a British collector had held onto since 1987. The canvas, featuring a partially nude Longman who appears to be sleeping, hammered at a price of £13 million ($17.3 million). The result landed between the £10 million–£15 million ($13.4 million–$20 million) estimate and sold for a final price of £15.2 million ($20.2 million). Elsewhere in the sale, five works by Picasso were sold by the mega-collecting Berggruen family. Those works attracted bidding across Shanghai, London, and New York. Out of the group, Picasso’s print etching of two dining figures Le Repas frugal (1904) sold for the highest price of £6 million ($8 million) with premium. The result was four times its £1.5 million ($2 million) estimate. Bidding from Asia drove up the hammer prices for contemporary artists in high demand. Multiple buyers on the phone with Christie’s Shanghai and Hong Kong specialists competed for a 2017 still life of pink tulips by Nicolas Party. Competition for the lot accelerated the bidding pace that had slowed midway through the sale. The work ultimately went to a buyer on the phone with Christie’s regional director for China Tan Bo for a final price of £1.8 million ($2.4 million), more than four times the low estimate. A 2015 minuscule canvas by Romanian contemporary painter Victor Man, featuring a portrait of a dazed woman and titled D

with Raven, saw a bidding frenzy before it eventually sold for a final price of £214,200 ($285,000). The result was more than ten times the pre-sale low estimate of £20,000 ($26,000). It went to a Shanghai bidder, who beat out eight others calling in from New York, Italy, and London. The result set a new record for the artist, surpassing Man’s previous milestone price of $54,000,

Efforts since the start of the pandemic to further expand the reach of sales taking place in Western hubs to Asia are paying off, as was evident at Christie’s today. paid for an untitled 2005 painting sold at Phillips in 2014. At the house’s new headquarters in Shanghai, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 painting Il Duce, featuring a skeletal figure on an orange ground, was the top seller, going for CYN 94 million ($14.9 million) and meeting its low estimate. But it was up-and-comers who took the spotlight. Irish painter Genieve Figgis’s 2017 painting Debutante’s Ball sold for CNY 4 million ($639,000), against an estimated CNY 800,000 ($127,000). Emmanuel Taku’s 2015 canvas Ripped, a double portrait of two pink-clad suited men sold for CNY 1.6 million ($253,000) with premium. The result was 8 times the low estimate of CNY 200,000 ($32,000). Both the Figgis and Taku results marked new records for the artists. Capping the final portion of the night were lots by modernists prized in the European market. ArtDiction | 10 | January/February 2022

Pablo Picasso’s cubist portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter, La fenê tre ouverte (1929), came to sale after being held in a private collection for half a century. It went for £16 million ($21.3 million), against an estimate of $14 million. A 1937 Salvador Dalí pen and ink drawing of three figures titled Femme à la tête de rose, buste de femme et vieillard nu hammered at £240,000 ($320,000) with a buyer in the room, doubling the £100,000 low estimate and selling for a final price of £302,400 ($403,000). Efforts since the start of the pandemic to further expand the reach of sales taking place in Western hubs to Asia are paying off, as was evident at Christie’s today. Asian bidders’ activity threatens to rival that of buyers based in the U.S. and Europe. The shifting dynamic was felt during bidding over the Man work, which was won by a buyer in Asia. Just before he brought down the hammer, Pylkannen addressed specialists on the phone with buyers from New York, London, and Italy, and said, “That was as close as you go.” Paris Wax Museum Dumps Putin The Grévin Museum of wax figures in Paris has removed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statue from display. With international outcry on the rise over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, institutions large and small are looking for ways to express their dismay at the dictator’s bellicose politics. In what is surely the most withering reprisal of all, the Grévin Museum of wax figures in Paris has removed Putin from display. The decision is at once a rebuke of the belligerent leader and a matter of security, as visitors have vandalized his figure last weekend. “Today it is no longer possible to present a character like [Putin],”

news the museum’s director, Yves Delhommeau, told France Bleu radio, as quoted in Reuters. “For the first time in the museum’s history we are withdrawing a statue because of historical events currently under way.” Delhommeau also said he felt it would be inappropriate to ask staff to groom and maintain the Putin statue, which was created in 2000, in order to restore it from the damage done by vandals. “Given what has happened, we and our staff do not want to have to fix his hair and appearance every day,” Delhommeau said in the radio interview. The statue was relocated to storage until further notice, leaving an opening in the lineup between American President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to Delhommeau, the museum is considering replacing it with a statue of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Maybe president Zelensky will take his place,” said Delhommeau. “He has become a hero for having resisted and for not fleeing his country. He could perfectly well take [Putin’s] place among the great men of history and today,” he said. With the removal of his wax figure— not to mention outspoken international disdain for his actions—one has to wonder if Putin will recognize that his attempts to burnish his own legacy as a mighty ruler will ultimately lead to the meltdown of his global image, not just his wax figure.

The Studio Museum in Harlem print workshop, 1971. Courtesy of the Studio Museum in Harlem. .

nonprofit founded by the similarly named mega-gallery, announced on Monday that it would award $700,000 in grants and scholarships to archival projects and research initiatives. Most of the funding went to the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Pratt Institute. The Studio Museum

“Maybe president Zelensky will take his place,” said Delhommeau. “He has become a hero for having resisted and for not fleeing his country.”

Hauser & Wirth Institute Awards $700,000 in Grants to Studio Museum in Harlem, Pratt, and More

received $360,000 for a project that will see the New York museum digitize its archives. “The generous funding from Hauser & Wirth Institute will enable us to continue this archival work for generations to come, while furthering our commitment toward making this invaluable information an active, ongoing resource for all,” said Studio Museum director and chief curator Thelma Golden in a statement.

The Hauser & Wirth Institute, a

Meanwhile, Pratt got $280,000, ArtDiction | 11 | January/February 2022

which will be used to fund two full-ride scholarships for students entering the school’s art history master’s degree program. The grant is intended to support students from “underrepresented” backgrounds, the Hauser & Wirth Institute’s announcement said. Also announced were a series of smaller grants. The Asia Art Archive received $25,000 to process and digitize the archive of Pakistani modernist Zahoor ul Akhlaq, the Chicago-based arts publication and archive Sixty Inches from Center was also granted $25,000, and the YVR Art Foundation, which supports Indigenous artists throughout western Canada, received $10,000. “The pandemic created many challenges, but it also made space for us to step back and assess where the gaps in funding and support are, and how we could best serve those working with artists’ archives,” Hauser & Wirth Institute executive director Lisa Darms said in a statement. “It was out of this reflection and dialogue that we chose to fund The Studio Museum, student archivists, and progressive nonprofits and collectives that expand access to archives for communities that have been underfunded and underrepresented.”

exhibits Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue March 25 – September 25, 2022 National Portrait Gallery The June 17, 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate Complex quickly escalated to a political and legal crisis that reached the highest levels of the United States government—including President Richard Nixon. The word “Watergate” came to mean the burglary itself, the subsequent cover-up of White House complicity, and President Nixon’s use of federal agencies to obstruct justice. The media’s relentless, razor sharp focus on Watergate culminated in the summer of 1974. Time magazine devoted forty Watergate-related cover stories—and portraits—to the scandal. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Watergate break-in, this exhibition of photographs, paintings, sculpture, and works on paper from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection brings visitors face-to-face with the scandal’s cast of characters. Portraiture and visual biography combine to present us a new window through which to consider the questions raised by the crisis and its fallout. Beautiful Diaspora / You Are Not the Lesser Part March 3 – June 26, 2022 Museum of Contemporary Photography Beautiful Diaspora / You Are Not the Lesser Part advocates dialogue and solidarity across the spectrum of experiences of global artists of color and Black diasporic artists. Two exhibition concepts and their interchangeable titles intertwine as one, breaking with more frequent traditions of ethnically separated and disconnected

exhibition spaces in museology and the art world. As a global forum, Beautiful Diaspora considers contemporary art as central to the portrayal of expansiveness—beyond a single-country scope, political commodity, or compressed narrative. This beautiful expansiveness exists as a testament to human spatial wandering and assertion, existing beyond assumptions and boundaries. You Are Not the Lesser Part challenges the pervasive social casualness of assigning bodies and identities to the category “minority” (quite a misimagining). Neither negligible

The media’s relentless, razor sharp focus on Watergate culminated in the summer of 1974. Time magazine devoted forty Watergaterelated cover stories— and portraits—to the scandal.

Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon / Marisol Escobar / 1972, Pink marble and pigment / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Time magazine /© Marisol Escobar / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, NY

we categorize the way that we do—within museums exhibitions, but also in the world outside. This group of artists by many conventions isn’t one that would usually be shown together under identity concepts. The visual conversation among these fifteen artists defies the

nor small, the significance of our presence is not the lesser part of anything. The description word “minor” does not match our fullness, agency, and dreams. There’s a desire to encourage deep thinking about parallel experiences and relationships between global artists of color and diverse Black artists. Part of the goal of the two titles is that museum visitors are invited to be active in thinking through different ways individual artists and artworks may fit together, or why it might be assumed that they don’t fit. This exhibition is asking people to consider why ArtDiction | 12 | January/February 2022

Johny Pitts, student protest, Rome from the series Afropean, 2010-2020.

exhibits imposed political distances and legacies of colonialism that prefer they (we) neither align nor meet. There is a significance, and a hope, to diverse Black and global artists of color together in shared space. Beautiful Diaspora / You Are Not the Lesser Part features photographic and multidisciplinary artists Xyza Cruz Bacani, Widline Cadet, Jessica Chou, Cog•nate Collective (Amy Sanchez Arteaga and Misael Diaz), Işıl Eğrikavuk, Citlali Fabián, Sunil Gupta, Kelvin Haizel, David Heo, Damon Locks, Johny Pitts, Farah Salem, Ngadi Smart, Tintin Wulia, and the debut of Abena Appiah. The MoCP is supported by Columbia College Chicago, the MoCP Advisory Board, the Museum Council, individuals, and private and corporate foundations. The 2021-2022 exhibition season is sponsored in part by the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, the Pritzker Traubert Foundation, the Efroymson Family Fund, the Henry Nias Foundation, and the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

exhibition that offers viewers a diverse group of images that all share the same dimension as life itself. Conceived especially for ICP’s unique double-height gallery, it is a rethinking of the fundamental qualities of this perplexing and elastic medium. Image makers of every kind, from fine artists to advertisers, have explored the strange magic that happens when the photograph becomes an uncanny double for the world it depicts. Works by Jeff Wall, Ace Lehner, Laura Letinsky, Kija Lucas, Aspen Mays, Tanya Marcuse, and others share the walls with anonymous posters, magazine spreads, and book covers. In 1946, the renowned writer Jorge Luis Borges described a society that wanted a map of its land so detailed that it eventually covered the land itself. Of course, the map was useless, and the inhabitants took to living on it

Beautiful Diaspora/You Are Not the Lesser Part has been generously supported through the Lannan Foundation. Actual Size! Photography at Life Scale Januray 28 – May 2, 2022 International Center of Photography How big can a photograph be? From postcards to giant billboards, they are almost any dimension, but what happens when they are the very same scale as their subject matter? A photo of a bus the size of a bus? An actual-size image of Muhammad Ali’s fist? Actual Size! Photography at Life Scale is a playful yet philosophical

The unexpected combination of classic sportswear styling with playful, eclectic patterns defined a uniquely American style, often spotted on fashion icons such as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. but serious idea, showing us new ways to consider what a photograph is, and what it can be. Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running February 18 – June 5, 2022 Jewish Museum Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running explores the breadth and import of Mekas’s life, art, and legacy in the field of the moving image. Coinciding with the centennial of his birth, the exhibition also examines Mekas’s 70-year career, including 11 films presented in an immersive environment, photography, and previously unseen archival materials.

Forced to flee his native Lithuania during the final moments of World War II in 1944, Mekas was unable to return until 1971. After spending five years stateless and homeless in a Nazi work camp and then Displaced Persons camps throughout Germany, Mekas (b. 1922, Jonas Mekas photographed by Antanas SutSemeniškiai, Lithuania; d. kus in Semeniškiai, Lithuania, 1971. © Artist 2019, Brooklyn, New York) Rights Society (ARS), New York / LATGA-A, immigrated to New York City Vilnius. with his brother Adolfas in 1949. A penniless, war-weary as it disintegrated. Actual Size! refugee, he swiftly integrated into is an homage to Borges’s wild the city’s thriving counterculture ArtDiction | 13 | January/February 2022

exhibits nonetheless, becoming a central organizer, and later a prolific filmmaker, within the avant-garde community. His art was profoundly marked by his refugee experience: the loss, memory, and longing for a home he permanently left behind in 1944. The relationship between exile and creativity is always at the heart of his work and is the exhibition’s central theme. Over seven decades, Mekas made 93 films and videos, amassing footage that was both a record of his life and a resource for his art. He was the author, founder, and co-founder of numerous artistrun cooperatives, distribution networks, and writings on film: in 1954, he co-founded Film Culture, the first journal of American film criticism; from 1958-71, he penned “Movie Journal,’’ the first critical column on cinema in the Village Voice; in 1962 he co-founded The Film-makers’ Cooperative, among the earliest organizations to support experimental film production, screening, and distribution on a large scale; in 1969 he co-founded Anthology Film Archives which became— and remains—a focal point for New York’s experimental cinema scene; and finally, between 1968 and 1971, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative presented the screening and conversation series Avant Garde Tuesdays at the Jewish Museum. In conjunction with Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running, Film at Lincoln Center will present a retrospective of the filmmaker at the Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th St.) from February 17 to 23. Screening tickets go on sale on February 4. For more information about the film series, visit www.filmlinc.org. Jonas Mekas: The Camera Was Always Running is organized by guest curator Kelly Taxter, with Kristina Parsons, Leon Levy

Curatorial Assistant, Jewish Museum. The Project of Independence Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947–1985 Through July 2 MoMA “Independence brings in the greatest opportunity for a nation to express its thoughts, talent and energy…. Now, we the architects can construct the right and distinct kind of architecture for an independent people,” said Bangladeshi architect Muzharul Islam. Following the end of British rule in 1947 and 1948, architects in the territories of today’s India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka embraced the language of modernism as a means of proclaiming their autonomy, articulating their national identities, and enacting social progress. Focusing on

The exhibition highlights such key figures as Indian architect Balkrishna V. Doshi, the only South Asian winner of the Pritzker Prize in Architecture; Minnette de Silva, the first woman architect of Sri Lanka; and Yasmeen Lari, the first woman architect of Pakistan, among many others. work conceived and realized by local, rather than international, architects, designers, and planners, The Project of Independence presents more than 200 works that showcase South Asia’s groundbreaking ArtDiction | 14 | January/February 2022

Charles Correa. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Municipal Stadium, Ahmedabad, India. 1959–66.

modern architecture. From the concrete governmental complexes of Dhaka to the climate-adapted houses of Colombo, new approaches to architecture offered a break from the British colonial past. While new capital cities rose up in Chandigarh and Islamabad, local architects leveraged the region’s craft traditions to produce innovative and experimental buildings. The exhibition highlights such key figures as Indian architect Balkrishna V. Doshi, the only South Asian winner of the Pritzker Prize in Architecture; Minnette de Silva, the first woman architect of Sri Lanka; and Yasmeen Lari, the first woman architect of Pakistan, among many others. Original sketches, plans, photographs, audiovisual materials, and films are featured alongside newly commissioned images by photographer Randhir Singh and models constructed by Cooper Union students. Organized by Martino Stierli, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art;

exhibits Anoma Pieris, guest curator and professor, University of Melbourne; and Sean Anderson, former Associate Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art; with Evangelos Kotsioris, Assistant Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art. The curatorial team consulted with leading scholars of modern architecture from the region, many of whom also contributed to the accompanying exhibition catalog. Women in Abstraction February 19 – April 2, 2022 Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery PDNB Gallery is featuring works by women artists from Texas that were included in the 2021-2022 international traveling exhibition, Women in Abstraction, at the Centre Pompidou. Recently the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, have featured exhibitions featuring women artists that practiced abstraction in their art. The current Whitney show, Labyrinth of Forms: Women and Abstraction, covers the period, 1930–1950, when abstraction thrust itself into the American art scene. The exhibition in Paris, Women in Abstraction, and now at the Guggenheim, Bilbao, covers abstraction in dance, film, textiles, painting, sculpture and photography. The three Texas women represented in the Pompidou exhibition: Carlotta Corpron, Ida Lansky and Barbara Maples. The Bauhaus had its tentacles in both museum shows. The Bauhaus school taught all artistic disciplines from theater to decorative arts to photography. It was all about experimentation,

which provided the wheelhouse for abstraction. PDNB Gallery addresses this subject of women in abstraction in the upcoming exhibition, The Bauhaus in Texas. The theme of the show is the influence of the Bauhaus in Germany, and the New Bauhaus in Chicago. The Direct tutelage of three great artists, László Maholy-Nagy, György Kepes (featured in the PDNB show), and the Texas artist, Carlotta Corpron, influenced a whole generation of female students at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas. TWU had the first studio art program in Texas. Carlotta taught photography at Texas Woman’s University from the 1940’s - 1980’s. She and her students, Ida Lansky, Barbara Maples, Beverly Wilgus are included in PDNB’s show.

The exhibition in Paris, Women in Abstraction, and now at the Guggenheim, Bilbao, covers abstraction in dance, film, textiles, painting, sculpture and photography. The three Texas women represented in the Pompidou exhibition: Carlotta Corpron, Ida Lansky and Barbara Maples. Their approach is reflected in photographs by Bauhaus mentors Maholy-Nagy, Kepes who both taught briefly at the college, and Corpron.

ArtDiction | 15 | January/February 2022

Gyorgy Kepes, Untitled Photogram, 1980.

Abstraction in these photographs is revealed through experiments with light, solarization, exposures, and photograms. This exhibition features examples of all of these. The works cover 1930 ‘s to the 1970’s. The inclusion of these Texas artists in the expansive Pompidou exhibition states the importance of not only the threads of the Bauhaus and abstraction in our state in the 1940’s and 1950’s, but also the impressive, visionary art program of a Texas woman’s college. Artists in this exhibition include: Carlotta Corpron, Ida Lansky, Barbara Maples, Beverly Wilgus, György Kepes, and Jack Wilgus.

Nature-Inspired Architectural Designs

uhannad Albasha is the founder and CEO of architectural firm Gravity Studio. Muhannad always wanted a job that allowed him to be creative but also challenged him. “I didn’t know what my calling was until I started to play the game Minecraft when I was young,” he remembers. “I didn’t play it for the quests. I just played it to build structures, and that was very satisfying.” He then began to look at buildings in a different way, motivating Muhannad to explore the field of architecture. “If you want to be successful in something, you need to love it and feel it. And when nine hours of working feels like only one hour, you are in the right place.

During his first year attending Ebla Private University, Muhannad sought advice from a student who graduated from his same field of Architecture. He asked what the field was like after graduation. “I wanted to know what would putting in five years of study and work get me. I was shocked when he told me he still hadn’t found a job six months after graduation,” he recalls. “He told me it was a competitive field, so I understood I couldn’t wait until I graduated to start to find my lines and build my portfolio.” That conversation motivated Muhannad to put in extra work, learn all the online programs he could, and to even begin working as a freelancer, all while still in his first year of study. This determination and understanding of the field

Muhannad Albasha

ArtDiction | 16 | January/February 2022

Muhannad Albasha

ArtDiction | 17 | January/February 2022

allowed Muhannad to hone his unique style and specialty, and by his second year of college in 2016, hefounded his own company.

make the structures seem like they are flowing with the wind and not something hard on the eyes,” he says.

Muhannad’s style can be described as deconstructivism and expressionist architecture. “I love to mix and use both expressionist, visual, and performing arts and structures that give the impression of the fragmentation of the constructed building commonly characterized by an absence of obvious harmony, continuity, or symmetry.” His inspiration also comes from nature. Muhannad says that he is amazed by how many details one can find in nature if you look at the design. “Even the smallest things in nature have a unique pattern that make them different from everything. When I start a project I try to understand how I can make it stand out and have a unique pattern that doesn’t fade away and be forgotten,” he says.

Using materials like wood, and steel, Muhannad focuses on construction that’s not just beautiful on the outside but functioning on the inside. “I always try to take my time with my designs and not give up on any idea. I advise everyone when you’re starting a design and you feel you can’t add any more, just take a break and start with fresh eyes on the second day.”

Part of his signature style also includes curved lines. Muhannad grew up in a place full of boxed structures, and the curved line elements adds “an emotional feel” to his designs. “Curves

Muhannad and Gravity Studio are currently working on projects in South Sudan, Dubai, and Mozambique. “We are very excited to achieve amazing structures in the coming years. One of them will be the tallest high rise tower in Mozambique and a lot of mix-use projects. To see more designs, visit the company’s website at gravitystudiolimited.com.

ArtDiction | 18 | January/February 2022

Muhannad Albasha

ArtDiction | 20 | January/February 2022

Muhannad Albasha

ArtDiction | 22 | January/February 2022

Muhannad Albasha

ArtDiction | 23 | January/February 2022

Muhannad Albasha

ArtDiction | 25 | January/February 2022

Muhannad Albasha

ArtDiction | 26 | January/February 2022

Muhannad Albasha

ArtDiction | 27 | January/February 2022

Muhannad Albasha

ArtDiction | 28 | January/February 2022

Muhannad Albasha

ArtDiction | 31 | January/February 2022

A Photographer’s Journey

arc Fischer is an architectural photographer with a portfolio full of his trademarked vibrant-colored structures. Marc became interested in art relatively late. “I have always had a fable for aesthetics and beauty, for example in the interior design of my apartment and of course in my former job as a fashion photographer,” he says. “But it was only about 10 years ago that I discovered my fondness for art, visiting museums more and more often and discovering an interest in artists until I finally took my own path in this direction about three years ago.” His photography career began with an apprenticeship as a photo/media lab technician. He later worked for a photographer as an image editor. “Over time, I took more and more photos myself and discovered my passion here. Most of it I taught myself; my high standards for myself and the quality of my pictures were my biggest drivers,” he recalls. “This is how I found my way to photography via a detour and gained

a foothold in the industry as a photographer.” Marc soon realized, though, that a career as a photo/media lab technician was not sustainable due to the advancement of digital photography. “Instead of letting that scare me, I went my own way with what I brought to the table. Never give up and make the best of your situation, it’s in your hands,” advises. Although still young, Marc later pursued a career in fashion photography. “I had no idea how diverse this industry was. I had the somewhat naive idea that photography was exclusively, or at least to a large extent, fashion photography,” he remembers. But the field was exciting and interesting, leading him to start his own business, landing his first assignments as a photographer in the field of editorial and fashion photography. Marc’s shift towards architectural photography was not sudden. “Fashion photography was my home for more than 15 years. But in the last years in

ArtDiction | 32 | January/February 2022

Marc Fischer

this world, stress and pressure had gained the upper hand over artistic ambition; a personal fate then gave me the final push into a creative hole that at first seemed to be final,” he recalls. “I gave up photography. From one day to the next. Completely.” After three years of internal searching and looking for a new perspective, Marc cautiously and daringly took his first steps on a new path of photography. “I explored my hometown Düsseldorf, Germany in a completely new way, with my camera and my bike. I wanted to take a different perspective, to see things that I had never seen before, that no one else had ever seen before. Focusing on the architecture of “my” city, which for most is so commonplace that it is hardly noticed, even perceived as ugly.” Marc soon found what he was looking for. “I quickly realized that the combination of photography and movement brought me the satisfaction I had been missing and unconsciously seeking the years before. With every picture, every new city, more light and color came into my life,” he says. “Thanks to social media, my pictures spread all over the world, the response was great and encouraged me to show even more of how varied, colorful and artistic the architecture of my homeland is. How colorful our world can be if you just take the right angle.” An architectural structure has a unique way of making it into Marc’s portfolio. ”When I’m photographing, I sometimes have something in mind beforehand

that I’m specifically looking for, or I walk through a city with an open eye and let my spontaneous impulses guide me,” he explains. With a preference for geometry, Marc pays particular attention to lines, surfaces, lights, and shadows. He adds that a strong, interesting shadow always gives his photos more depth literally and metaphorically. “However,” he continues, “each of the images must also catch my attention a second time, namely when I look at the photographs I have taken and want to start editing them. Here I already have a different perspective on the images, but I use similar aspects and standards to decide on an image and the appropriate processing.” Marc admits that of all the ideas he originally has in his head, not everything works as he had imagined. On the other hand, images that had not yet convinced him of something special when photographing, he suddenly see quite differently, and art is created. In his art, Marc does more than simply photograph buildings. He strives through his own composition of sections and perspectives to find new ways of seeing how things are not otherwise seen. “I want to let those who look at my pictures see through my eyes with a focus on what is really important: color, symmetry, minimalism.” Marc will continue to expand his radius of travel, capturing images of structures to challenge all of us to see the unseen. Follow his journey on Instagram @mf_portfolio_ and his personal website at marcfischer.eu.

ArtDiction | 35 | January/February 2022

Marc Fischer

ArtDiction | 37 | January/February 2022

Marc Fischer

ArtDiction | 38 | January/February 2022

Marc Fischer

ArtDiction | 39 | January/February 2022

Marc Fischer

ArtDiction | 40 | January/February 2022

Marc Fischer

ArtDiction | 41 | January/February 2022

Marc Fischer

ArtDiction | 42 | January/February 2022

Marc Fischer

A Fly Line

entonia Monique is an artist who pulls from her study of drafting to create geometrical and symmetrical paintings. “I recalled how much I loved my days in drafting classes. Once I began using them solely for my A Fly Line creations at a much larger scale and felt such enjoyment doing so, I knew it would be my chosen method to stick with,” she explains. Lentonia first became interested in art at a very early age. She remembers as a child loving her new crayons, markers, and coloring pencils. “If I had a coloring book or construction paper, I was good. Also, growing up, art class was always one of my favorites to attend,” she recalls. She hopes her audience will “catch some awe with A Fly Line creation.” She does exactly

that by using her creativity along with specific tools that include Level 3 canvases, a yard stick, pencil, a Pentel Hi polymer eraser, and a Prismacolor Art marker. “My favorite paints have been acrylics from FolkArt, DecoArt Americana, Master’s Touch, Liquitex, and craftsmart multi surface. My favorite paintbrushes are Pro Crafter’s Choice,” she says. Lentonia will continue to exhibit and sell her art at various events throughout the U.S. She is currently making appearances in multiple cities with A Spectacular Black Girl Art Show and Pancakes & Booze Art Show. “I am also really looking forward to returning to Artsplosure this year in Raleigh, NC, she adds. To see more of Lentonia’s art, follow her on Instagram @aflyline.

ArtDiction | 44 | January/February 2022

Lentonia Monique

ArtDiction | 48 | January/February 2022

Lentonia Monique

ArtDiction | 50 | January/February 2022

Lentonia Monique

ArtDiction | 53 | January/February 2022

Lentonia Monique

ArtDiction | 55 | January/February 2022

artist & ad index

Page 3 Galerie Andreas Binder galerieandreasbinder.de Page 6 Hollis Taggart hollistaggart.com C4 Jackson’s Art jacksonsart.com/en-us Page 44 Lentonia Monique Instagram: @flyline Page 32 Marc Fischer marcfischer.eu Page 16 Muhannad Albasha gravitystudiolimited.com C3 National Gallery of Art nga.gov C2 Pro Tapes & Specialties protapes.com/products/artist-tape

Pro® 788 Ultimate Masking

The Professional’s Choice for Watercolor Painting

800-345-0234 ext. 133

Page 58 Ro Gallery rogallery.com Page 56 Spectacular Black Girl Art Show https://blackgirlartshow.com/ C3

ArtDiction | 57 | January/February 2022

ArtDiction January/February 2022

Articles inside

small talk

news

exhibits