LuxArtAsia

Shiro Kuramata's 1989 Miss Blanche chair Whether collecting for pleasure or investment, modern and contemporary Asian design has not received much attention to date, but this could soon change once M+, Hong Kong’s new visual culture museum, opens at the end of 2020. “I think it’s probably inevitable that once M+ opens and more people see design displayed in a museum that it will spark greater interest,” says Aric Chen, a consulting Curator-at-Large for the museum. Having already held one exhibition in the M+ Pavilion, the museum’s temporary gallery adjacent its West Kowloon site [The building is permanent, but it’s temporarily being used by M+], Chen is confident interest will rise. “I know that after visiting our first design show called ‘Shifting Objectives’ in 2016, which was a preview of our collection, some collectors in Hong Kong developed an interest in what they saw,” he says. “That’s actually not very good for us [museums] as prices will start to ris

Interview: Erwin Wurm on his Humanoid Sculptures

Erwin Wurm likes to distort forms. Over the years, he has slimmed down houses, fattened up cars, and used his own body to redesign the shape of furniture. “A lot of my work is about destroying one thing to create another,” the Austrian artist says of his process. One of his latest series, Stone , continues this exploration by setting small rocks on a pair of legs, giving a twist to the expression “carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders”. The small humanoid sculptures recall the Hypnosis series Wurm created in 2008, when Wurm used potato-like shapes to form the torso and head of a body in a highly polished aluminium finish on top of legs, in a contrasting matte finish. In the Stone series, the shiny aluminium potato shape has been replaced by a rock covered in greenish moss. Each work has a distinct and expressive personality due to the treatment of the white acrylic resin legs (variously posed, either standing, running, barefoot, or dressed). Inspired b

An Art Collecting Journey with Han Nefkens

Han Nefkens Foundation – LOOP BARCELONA Video Art Production Award 2018 in collaboration with the Fundació Joan Miró - Thao Nguyen Phan Han Nefkens has had an unusual art collecting journey. While he’s often described as a collector – he has, after all, bought more than 500 artworks – the description doesn’t quite give justice to the scope of his involvement in the art world. All too often wealthy buyers hoard their collections in a warehouse, maybe rotating some around their properties and occasionally loaning a few works when it suits them. Nefkens’ approach to buying is refreshingly generous works he buys are lent immediately to museums on a long term basis with an agreement that most loans will be left as bequests. And while he started buying existing artworks for the last thirteen years he has only commissioned new works. The Han Nefkens Foundation offers several Video Arts Awards every year to support artists in their artistic endeavour, and these come with total cr

Storytelling through design is at the heart of Johannes Torpe’s practice

Johannes Torpe isn’t shy about talking about his personal life, especially where it informs his work., such as when the designer turned a recent heartbreak into a new sofa for Moroso. “I was doodling broken hearts, feeling sorry for myself, and then I thought ‘This could make a great sofa.’ So I started to draw more and more, adding details like the stitching The Heartbreaker sofa, with its armrests representing two separate halves of a heart, could be complemented by Precious chairs — the design of which came from Torpe’s attempt a year earlier to create an engagement ring — and both feature a metal base profile running along the frame, that in the case of the sofa lightens its substantial volume. “The only thing you have in your life is your own story, and if you dare to share it you will find out that it’s very rewarding. You get so much in return. Many people don’t want to share their story because they fear being pointed out, but what do I have to lose,” the 46 y

Is there still anything new to learn about Leonardo da Vinci?

Five hundred years after his death, the world still marvels at the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance master who painted the Mona Lisa, but also left behind around 7,200 pages that documented his life’s work, often in scribbles and sketches. From detailing how the aortic valve in the heart works to creating an underwater diving apparatus, a glider, and the precursor to the helicopter, Leonardo left a wealth of scientific studies and mechanical inventions that are still studied today. “Even after 500 years, Leonardo remains the greatest artist-scientist — he was not just a great artist who dabbled in the sciences; had he not painted a single work, his scientific researches would still mark him out as one of the great figures of the Renaissance. To combine both achievements in a single individual is quite remarkable,” says Martin Clayton, Head of Prints and Drawings at the Royal Collection Trust and curator of the Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing, an exhibitio

Powered by Blogger

@LUXARTASIA