Author Archives: jolanta
The Bee’s Omen
When I saw that Einstein had said, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination … no more men,” I began researching Colony Collapse Disorder, a recent worldwide phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or […]
Eyeing Korea
I curated Korean Eye: Moon Generation in 2009. The exhibition attracted over 250,000 visitors during its four months at the Saatchi Gallery in London. The driving force behind this initiative was Korean Eye co-founders, collectors David and Serenella Ciclitira, who wanted to create a platform on which contemporary artists from Korea could show their work […]
Glancing Sideways
Serkan Özkaya, a conceptual artist based in Istanbul, has been showing since the age of 18. He is a provocateur, a utopianist, a kind of merry prankster in the tradition of Duchamp and the Dadaists, shuttling between the hyperbolic, the deadpan, and the serious, as he explores and expands the meaning of history, creativity and […]
Behind Closed Doors
“Estranged” refers to someone or something that was formerly close and no longer is. With a broad and holistic understanding of sexuality and sex, and after years of honest and stark introspection and reflection upon existence and society begins Estranged Sex: a work about a sexuality that is both strange and estranged, natural and alienated. […]
Rubin Museum’s “Talk About Nothing” Series
Early events have sold out for The Rubin Museum of Art’s TALK ABOUT NOTHING, a series of on-stage conversations with eminent artists, philosophers, actors, writers and musicians about what “nothing” means to them. Sold out events included those with Mike Nichols, Ken Burns, Bill Viola, Philip Glass, Karen Armstrong…Don’t miss the remaining talks! The New […]
Bromance
The Welded Book (felt, resin, glue, clay, welded bolts, and hand-carved and hand-printed text) is the result of the brotherly collaboration between conceptual/visual artist Dumitru Gorzo, and poet Ilies Gorzo. The duo hand-made the work in its entirety, potently combining minimalism and romanticism. There are two stories that unfold. The first alludes to the accessibility of the content or text; the second investigates the idea of possession of an […]
Donate this Holiday Season
Donate this Holiday Season! NY Arts Magazine encourages its readers to donate this holiday season. The following charities need you help! The Neediest Case Fund On Christmas day, 1911, Adolph S. Ochs, publisher of The New York Times, went out for a walk after a big turkey dinner and encountered a shabbily dressed […]
Inner Nature
Self Expression. This is ostensibly the aim of all artists, and certainly the most common euphemism employed to describe abstract artwork. For Kandinsky, in his classic text, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911), self-expression and the aim of art was a spiritual endeavor, one that led the artist on a journey into his/her interior wellspring of mystical […]
Reality Bites
During Art H.K. 2010, I did my debut group project with Wong Wai-Yin, called Everything Goes Wrong for the Poor Couple. This piece was inspired by Hong Kong movies from the 50s and 60s, which are about family ethics and morals. There are many dramatic and tragic scenes, which are so familiar to everyone, even […]
Waves of Influence
I work with scientific data to test and reshape perceptions of everyday phenomena by presenting them in unfamiliar ways and contexts. Perceptual forms are interchanged and complex codes created, often beginning with the deconstruction of the familiar to open up new avenues of reception. Our confidence in familiar sensory perception is shaken, and an experiential […]
