PAINTING: PHILADELPHIA
Full Circle: Works on Paper by Richard Pousette-Dart
Philadelphia Museum of Art is presenting a survey of works on paper created by 20th-century American surrealist Richard Pousette-Dart. Known best as a painter, he was a contemporary of greats such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell, yet Pousette-Dart’s experimental work – which features densely layered abstract imagery (by the 1970s he’d done away with pesky lines altogether) – is less known. Sixty-five pieces are on show that incorporate influences as diverse as Byzantine mosaics and Gothic stained-glass windows. Some are even painted on the artist’s own handmade paper – so there is some method in the madness.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10.00-17.00; Wednesday to Friday, 10.00-20.45. Until 30 November.
ART: BERLIN
Berlin Art Week
Currently in full swing is the third installment of Berlin Art Week, which has creatives from near and far gathering for six days in the city. Highlights include the ABC Art Berlin Contemporary exhibit held at Station Berlin in Kreuzberg, which includes over 100 contemporary works from both heavyweights and breakthrough galleries. Pieces from artists such as Belgium-born Harold Ancart, late German minimalist Charlotte Posenenske and South Korean sculptor Haegue Yang will be on show along with artist talks and live performances. New kid on the block for this year’s programme is Positions Berlin, a satellite fair of nearly 40 galleries presenting pieces to complement and expand the scope of the city’s week-long art parade.
At galleries and venues across Berlin. See website for details.
SCULPTURE: LONDON
Mohammed Qasim Ashfaq: Clear Black Smoke
Scottish artist Mohammed Qasim Ashfaq’s drawings and sculptures explore aspects of both Islamic art and North American modernism while creating a distinct identity that is all his own. Having recently exhibited in locations such as Dubai, Mumbai and Brisbane, Ashfaq’s works are now on show at London’s Hannah Barry Gallery in Clear Black Smoke, a series of monochrome sculptures which although might be inspired by mysticism, also twist familiar shapes such as stars and pyramids into strikingly modern forms.
Hannah Barry Gallery, 4 Holly Grove, Peckham. Open Thursday to Friday, 16.30-19.30; Saturday, 10.00-18.00; Sunday, 12.00-18.00. Until 29 October.
PHOTOGRAPHY: TORONTO
Dispatch: War Photographs in Print, 1854–2008
Ryerson Image Centre at Ryerson University in Toronto is presenting a series of photographs documenting armed conflict over the past 150 years curated by department-head Dr Thierry Gervais. Images range from sepia-tinged and grainy shots of the 1854 Crimean War by English photographer Roger Fenton (who pioneered the genre) to high-definition close-ups of ongoing violence in Afghanistan as captured by French photographer Luc Delahaye. Not only do these shots serve as vital historic documents of some of the world’s deadliest conflicts, they also allow viewers to trace a path through the evolution of photojournalism throughout the years.
Ryerson Image Centre, 33 Gould Street. Open Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 11.00-18.00; Wednesday, 11.00-20.00; Saturday and Sunday, 12.00-17.00. Until 7 December.
MUSIC: GLOBAL
The Juan Maclean: In A Dream
The somewhat trickily monickered duo The Juan Maclean consists of New Yorkers John Maclean (told you) and Nancy Whang, both of whom have served time at the heart of fellow New York dance-music dilettante James Murphy’s DFA Records and LCD Soundsystem, respectively. And Murphy’s trademark joyous disco-tinged riot is all over In A Dream, which starts with an eight-minute Moroder-marauding synth epic and doesn’t really let up the pace for the next hour across a mix of slinky pop and pulsing Krautrock-inspired rhythms. By which time we think it may well be time to start all over again.
In A Dream’ is available to buy now.
