UK extends Ai Weiwei visa term
Britain has extended Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s visa term to six months from three weeks after an international outcry. Ai, 57, is currently in Germany, which gave him a four-year multiple entry visa soon after he received a new passport in Beijing. The furore over Ai’s British visa, so sharply in contrast to his hassle-free German visa, has achieved two things. It has placed Britain in poor light as a reluctant defender...
‘Entry prohibited…’ features artists of The Other
Europe’s current struggles with its past, present and unknowable future are brought together in what appears to be a trenchant exhibition in a town previously notorious for its unwelcoming stance, albeit as part of the Cold War, and more recently noted for a widening embrace for ‘new Europeans’ from Africa, Asia and elsewhere, writes Sajid Rizvi. ENTRY PROHIBITED TO FOREIGNERS, yes, all in capital letters, features...
Conference celebrates William Fagg (1914-1992), African art pioneer
William Fagg and the Study of African Art, an international conference at the Courtauld Institute of Art, celebrates Africanist William Buller Fagg (28 April 1914–10 July 1992) and his arguably immense contribution to the study and (perhaps equally important) appreciation of African art in Britain and elsewhere. Fagg was the Keeper of the Department of Anthropology at the British Museum (1969–1974) and, as it transpired, a pioneering...
Wang Huangsheng at the October Gallery
Wang Huangsheng, the academic and painter and a leading proponent of modern interpretations of traditional Chinese ink painting, will have his first individual exhibition in London at the October Gallery (14 May – 20 June 2015). Wang Huangsheng: Unbroken Line is a culmination of many years of exhibiting outside China, with major shows in Europe and elsewhere being followed or preceded by works being collected in public museums and by...
MENA artists at Armory Show
Four MENA artists represented by Edge of Arabia Projects aka EOA.Projects are among artists from the Middle East and North Africa region that feature at this year’s Armory Show in New York. The work on display includes Jordanian American Oraib Toukan’s installation, The New-er Middle East, an interactive puzzle which although dated 2007 appears astonishingly resonant of 2015, amidst the current developments in the region....
Very Important People at EOA.Projects
London’s EOA.Projects gallery brings together a starcast of contemporary artists from the East and the West, including hyphenated Americans and Europeans, in its new exhibition with the promising title, Very Important People, a cunning spelling-out of VIP, which usually stands for a Very Important Person. The playful licence with the much hyped and supremely abused acronym is a promising start. The exhibition features the work...