Author: Darko Topalski

GRAND RAPIDS, MI.- Frederik Meijer Gardens &
Sculpture Park, one of the nation’s most significant sculpture and botanic
experiences, is hosting an exclusive exhibition by American artist Michele Oka
Doner. Among the most versatile artists working today, Oka Doner is
widely celebrated for her exquisitely beautiful public commissions as well as
sculpture, prints, jewelry and functional objects that are now found in public
and private collections throughout the world. Spirit and Form: Michele
Oka Doner and the Natural World will be on display January 29 through May 9,
2010.

ATLANTA, GA.- The High Museum of Art hosted its
first ever Collectors’ Evening on Saturday, January 30. The participants at the
event voted to secure four new acquisitions for the museum, including a
collection of twenty photographs from the “Robert F Kennedy Funeral Train
Rediscovered” portfolio by Paul Fusco; the painting “Thiogo Oliveira do Rosario
Rozendo” by Kehinde Wiley; an African art sculpture titled “Ntadi;” and a
round-back chair and table from the “Sketch Furniture” series by Front Design.

NEW BRUNSWICK.- Born in Morocco into a
conservative Muslim family and educated in Europe and the United States, Lalla
Essaydi is poised at the intersection of two cultures. She is one of several
contemporary Islamic women artists whose subjects are informed by feminist
perspectives and personal experience. Her work has garnered increasing
acclaim in Europe and America; in 2011 she will be the subject of a mid-career
survey at the North Carolina Museum of Art. On exhibition through 6
June, 2010.

WASHINGTON, DC.- The
President’s fiscal year 2011 budget request to Congress for the
Smithsonian is $797.6 million, an increase from the $761.4 million
appropriated to the Institution in FY 2010. The Salaries and Expenses
budget request for FY 2011 is $660.8 million and the Facilities Capital
budget is $136.8 million. Another request for an increase in the Salaries
and Expenses account will go toward collections care—$2.4 million to
improve preservation, storage, documentation and accessibility to the
Institution’s collections and for the care of the animals at the National
Zoo.

Chicago,
IL – Gregory Jacobsen’s fifth solo show “Prostrate: New Paintings &
Drawings” at Zg Gallery features new works from his botanical heaps
series – still life bouquets composed of such disparate elements as
meat and muscle tissue, wigs, secreting organs, petits-fours, flora, fauna and
various food stuffs, set in romantic landscapes, tenderly gathered into bundles
and tied with flowing ribbons.

LIVERPOOL.- “Afro Modern: Journeys through the
Black Atlantic” takes its inspiration from Paul Gilroy’s seminal book ‘The Black
Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness’ (1993). The exhibition is
the first to trace in depth the impact of different black cultures from around
the Atlantic on art from the early twentieth century to today. From the
influences of African art on the modernist forms of artists like Picasso, to the
work of contemporary artists such as Ellen Gallagher, Chris Ofili and Kara
Walker, the exhibition will reflect how artists around the Atlantic have claimed
the language of Modernism in diverse ways, as a powerful tool to explore,
formulate and assert their own identity. On exhibition through 25 April,
2010.

LONDON.- Greco-Italian artist Jannis Kounellis, a
key figure in international contemporary art for over forty years, will create
major new works, especially conceived for Ambika P3. Using the
unique characteristics offered by the spaces of Ambika P3 as his canvas, this
major new exhibition, presented by Sprovieri Gallery, will be the first solo
presentation by Kounellis in a public London space since the Whitechapel Art
Gallery exhibition in 1982. Starting his career as a painter, Kounellis
still describes his practice as painting. His first paintings were exactly the
size of one of the walls in his house. Physical space then became his canvas and
in this respect the actual making of his works also becomes something of a
performance, in which the space is articulated by the placing of the objects
within it. It is no surprise therefore that Kounellis works only within
carefully selected spaces.

EAST LANSING, MI.- Kresge Art Museum at Michigan State
University opens 2010 with American Modernism, 1920s to 1940s, an
ambitious display showcasing over 100 paintings, prints, photographs,
sculpture and drawings from the museum collection. The exhibition
is on view January 11 through March 14, 2010, and guests attending the
sneak peek party, Puttin’ on the Glitz will enjoy a special preview of the
show.