On Ugliness: Medieval and Contemporary

On Ugliness: Medieval and Contemporary

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What is ugliness? What is beauty? How has our conception of beauty changed over the years? How do traditional notions of beauty inform our ideas about ugliness?
Just some of the questions raised by the exhibition On Ugliness at Skarstedt Gallery in London featuring George Condo, Nicole Eisenman, Jameson Green, Martin Kippenberger, Barbara Kruger, Jacob de Litemont, Pablo Picasso, Stefan Rinck, Pensionante del Saraceni, Cindy Sherman, Thomas Schütte and several unknown artists living in the Middle Ages.

Setsuko Klossowska de Rola

Setsuko Klossowska de Rola

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Kingdom of Cats

How do we, as humans, balance our biological necessities and the inorganic industry we have created? How do we reckon with our animal natures and our intricate consciousnesses?

Pierre Huyghe: Variants

Pierre Huyghe: Variants

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Pierre Huyghe’s Variants (2021—) does not occupy space; it perpetuates it. The work takes as its foundation a complete 3D scan and model of a small island at the bend of the Randselva River in Norway. Biologists and surveyors then furnished this model with quantitative and qualitative measurements of the island’s organic and inorganic elements, such as the types of species, the water levels, the trash, and the sounds and smells. Biochemical and physical sensors are installed around the island to track the shifts in the island’s environment and funnel them into an artificial neural network, which generates from all collected data a continuously evolving and mutating simulation of the island, unfolding in real time on the large LED screen at the far end of the island.

Adrian Ghenie: Shadow Paintings

Adrian Ghenie: Shadow Paintings

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“Once you leave the traditional constraints of anatomy behind, the way you deform can become a portrait of character or the inner psyche on a deeper level. This play with the human form marked the beginning of something new.” Renowned Romanian artist Adrian Ghenie is currently presenting two exhibitions at the Albertina and the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett. Working with a variety of materials and subjects, Ghenie explores the personal, the political, and the art historical, fusing these discourses into expressive abstract and figurative works of art across multiple mediums.

JONATHAN YEO

JONATHAN YEO

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Artist

What are you trying to do with a portrait? On a basic level, you're trying to communicate something about the essence of who someone is. You're trying to figure out who they are, not necessarily who they present themselves as. The two things can quite often be different. You're trying to find ways of showing that through their face, their posture, or any other context. My instinct is always to try to reduce down to the essential elements. We read faces. It's obviously very, very deep in our DNA, really our survival instinct. We are programmed to read faces in a very fine-tuned way.

CHIHARU SHIOTA

CHIHARU SHIOTA

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The Soul Trembles

The exhibition at the Grand Palais offers visitors a poetic immersion into her unique universe, where threads weave stories of human connection and the ephemeral nature of life. The visitor is taken on a journey into an ephemeral world where they are posed fundamental questions about life and death. The threads you follow are up to you, and each visitor must answer that question for themselves. Where are we going? Are you ready for the journey? What is a soul? What do you believe? Why did you go on this journey? What gives your life meaning?

VILHELM HAMMERSHØI · SILENCE

VILHELM HAMMERSHØI · SILENCE

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Can silence be painted? How can artists capture interior states, solitude, and the passing of time? How are the homes we live in a reflection of the people who inhabit them? How can we read a painting to piece together the life of the artist?