Alfredo Jaar. "Muxima," 2006. Film still courtesy of the artist.
In this week’s first roundup of 2012, Louise Bourgeois’s art kicks off the new year in Qatar, Alfredo Jaar shows his love for African music and more.
- Alfredo Jaar presents Muxima, a film dedicated to the Angolan people and a direct result of the artist’s love for African music. The film is Jaar’s first and takes the form of five interpretations of local folk songs that have been edited into ten cantos covering the history of Angola. The film can be seen in Gallery 186 at The Art Institute of Chicago until April 15.
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i1SzEW3gW4]
- Louise Bourgeois‘s art will kick off 2012 at the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA). Louise Bourgeois: Conscious and Unconscious, the retrospective which is the first in the Gulf by the late American artist, will be held from January 20 to June 1 at the QMA Gallery in Katara.
- Mark Dion will create an on-site installation for the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. This work will respond to the bridge as an icon, historic structure, and conceptual inspiration; objects will be fabricated to appear as though recovered from a deep sea wreck. International Orange will open on Memorial Day weekend, May 26–28, as part of the kickoff to the 75th anniversary and will remain on view to the public free of charge through October 2012.
- James Turrell and Bruce Nauman have work on view in Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. The artists each make the visitor’s experience of light and other sensory phenomena under specific conditions the focus of their work. The show includes an immersive environment by Nauman and a light piece from Turrell’s Wedgework series. This exhibition closes January 22.
- Kalup Linzy, Keltie Ferris, and Andrea Zittel contributed to Modern Painters magazine’s survey of 100 artists to watch. The list is broad, international, and distinguished by the variety of approaches represented.
- Walton Ford is featured in Whitewall magazine’s Winter issue. An excerpt from the Ford studio visit can be read online now.
- Next month a Cindy Sherman retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC will showcase more than 180 photographs that trace the artist’s career from the mid 1970s to the present. Highlighted in the exhibition are in-depth presentations of her key series, including Untitled Film Stills (1977–80); her ornate history portraits (1989–90); and her larger-than-life society portraits (2008) that address the experience and representation of aging in the context of contemporary obsessions with youth and status. The show will be on view February 26–June 11.
- In-Sight Evening: Doris Salcedo, a lecture by curator Mary Schneider Enriquez will examine the evolution of Doris Salcedo’s oeuvre since the 1980s, placing her chair, Untitled (2004–5), within the context of her constructed sculptures and installations, which are informed by sociopolitical circumstances in Colombia and beyond. The talk will also consider Salcedo’s work in the broader context of contemporary sculpture. The event will take place February 15, at 6pm.