Anthony Byrt
The 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art
June 2013
In the past decade, the Asia-Pacific region has had to cope with more than its share of natural disasters: The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the 2009 “Black Saturday” bushfires in the Australian state of Victoria, the February 2011 earthquake… READ ON
IN PRINT Summer 2013 [TOC]
. . . You’d Be Home by Now
The 5th Auckland Triennial
May 2013 AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
AUCKLAND IS A WEIRD PLACE. It’s routinely identified as one of the most “livable” cities in the world, but it’s also characterized by crippling urban sprawl and prohibitive housing costs. The morning Hou Hanru’s iteration of the … READ ON
DIARY
The 5th Auckland Triennial
May 2013
Curated by Hou Hanru The fifth edition of Auckland’s festival of contemporary art baits its audience with the title “If you were to live here . . .” and invites more than thirty artists and collectives—including Anri Sala, Allora and… READ ON
PREVIEWS
Ruth Buchanan
May 2013
In almost all of her recent work, Ruth Buchanan has examined the physical spaces of language: books and the buildings that house them. In her book The weather, a building, 2012, for example, she traced the movement of Berlin’s Staatsbibliothek—from… READ ON
IN PRINT May 2013 [TOC]
18th Biennale of Sydney
November 2012
Globalization and its consequences are standard biennial fare. What made the “18th Sydney Biennale: all our relations” different was its sheer optimism. Artistic directors Catherine de Zegher and Gerald McMaster clearly wanted to give … READ ON
IN PRINT November 2012 [TOC]
“Prospect: New Zealand Art Now”
May 2012
Every few years, Wellington’s City Gallery stages “Prospect” in an attempt to take the pulse of contemporary New Zealand art. For the survey’s fourth incarnation, curator Kate Montgomery made a small but significant change was made … READ ON
IN PRINT May 2012 [TOC]
Mikala Dwyer
Mikala Dwyer discusses her current show
March 2012
In the past few years, work by the Sydney-based artist Mikala Dwyer has shifted away from its feminist, post-punk inclinations and toward a focus on the occult. Here, Dwyer discusses her two current exhibitions, “Panto Collapsar” at … READ ON
500 WORDS
“Old Genes: Artists Reading Len Lye”
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery
February 2012
New Zealander Len Lye’s Jazz Age films and kinetic sculptures were formative accomplishments in international modernism. The preservation—and reactivation—of Lye’s global legacy has been placed in the safe hands of New Plymouth’s … READ ON
PICKS
Dane Mitchell
November 2011
In 2009, Dane Mitchell was the victim of a peculiarly vicious attack by the New Zealand press after his piece Collateral, which was made that year and used packaging material such as brown paper, blue plastic strapping, bubble wrap, brown … READ ON
IN PRINT November 2011 [TOC]
Conservative Estimates
The reopening of the Auckland Art Gallery
September 2011 AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
LAST MONTH’S Auckland Art Fair had been more impressive than I’d expected. So I was excited about two occasions last week in which Auckland’s leading institutions had the opportunity to show what they were made of: Artspace staged the… READ ON