The Curated Object

Exhibitions Kansas City. RMB City Opera. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The Curated Object

Cao Fei, Chinese (b. 1978). RMB City Opera, 2009. Courtesy of RMB City. 
© 2010 RMB City Project developed by Cao Fei (SL: China Tracy) and Vitamin Creative Space

RMB City Opera

Feb. 4 - June 5, 2011

RMB City Opera is a single screen video to be projected on one of the walls in the Project Space. It depicts a virtual city including emblematic buildings such as the Guggenheim Museum, the CCTV building designed by Rem Koolhaus, Tiananmen Square, the Olympic Stadium and a giant Duchampian wheel. RMB City Opera is populated by avatars that are created by their masters living in the real world. RMB City Opera is inspired by the Eight Model Works, a propaganda opera from the Chinese Cultural Revolution—so it includes actors and avatars in Red Army uniforms. Other characters who perform song and dance are Batman and Robin, Superman and Superwoman, and others. Themes include romance, reality and identity. RMB City Opera represents a kind of utopia that fuses past, present and future. It is visually complex, set to a beautiful soundtrack, and represents the culmination of Cao Fei’s work with RMB City. Curator: Leesa Fanning

For more information please visit: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 

Exhibition Kansas City. Venice. Three Visions in Glass. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The Curated Object

Yoichi Ohira, Cristallo Sommerso N. 50 –Scolpito, 2008. Hand-blown glass canes; partial battuto and inciso surface. Courtesy of the artist and Barry Friedman Ltd.

Yoichi Ohira, Courtesy of the artist and Barry Friedman Ltd.

Yoichi Ohira,  Courtesy of the artist and Barry Friedman Ltd.

Cristiano Bianchin, courtesy of The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art

Cristiano Bianchin, courtesy of The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art

  

Laura de Santillana, Tokyo-ga XII (Blu Nero/Rubino), 2008 Hand-blown glass 12 5/8 x 9 x 1 3/4 inches 32.1 x 22.9 x 4.4 cm Courtesy of the artist and Barry Friedman Ltd.

Laura de Santillana, Bodhi (Dark Green), 2007 Brown, shaped and hand-ground glass with mirrored interior, 21 x 16 in., Courtesy of the artist and Barry Friedman Ltd.

Laura de Santillana (Italian, b. 1955). Flag 12 (Giallo/Nero Diverso/Nero Diverso), 2008.Hand-blown glass and shaped glass. Courtesy of the artist and Barry Friedman Ltd.

Venice. Three Visions in Glass

March 6 - August 15, 2010

By JoAnn Greco

Venice and glass: a match made in heaven. The luscious colors of the work that's been produced on Murano for eons so nicely complement the sorbet tints of the homes, the blues of the skies, the murky greens of the water. But the art of contemporary glassmaking thrives there, too. . . and the artists whose work is on view here smash our preconceived notions of "Venetian glass" into a thousand shards.

For Cristiano Bianchin, Venice isn't color at all — instead it's a frozen shimmer of somewhere perpetually between mist and light. His urns are sometimes transparent and sometimes opaque but always crystal clear, evoking the dampness and saltiness of this island city. Inspired by the nets of local fishermen, he uses hemp to solidify the glass and found objects to embellish and full his voids. Japanese artist Yoichi Ohira also is drawn to the natural absence of color in glass, but he is equally enchanted by its ability to take on jewel tones. Using cues from Japanese aesthetics, Ohira explores shadows and silhouettes while working in this medium. By contrast, for Laura de Santillana, glass offers the opportunity to go full-out. Her emotionally-charged works are the most colorful of those on display, resembling in both composition and hue the paintings of Mark Rothko. And saturated with such even color blocks, the works indeed resemble paintings more than anything else.

For more information please visit, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art

Exhibitions Kansas City. American Horizons: The Photographs of Art Sinsabaugh. The Curated Object

Art Sinsabaugh, American, 1924–1983. Chicago Landscape No. 23 from “Chicago Landscape Group,” 1966. Gelatin silver print. Indiana University Art Museum 73.65.19. © 2003, Katherine Anne Sinsabaugh and Elisabeth Sinsabaugh de la Cova.


Art Sinsabaugh, American, 1924–1983. Chicago Landscape No. 55 from “Chicago Landscape Group,” 1966. Gelatin silver print. Indiana University Art Museum 73.65.24. © 2003, Katherine Anne Sinsabaugh and Elisabeth Sinsabaugh de la Cova.


Art Sinsabaugh, American, 1924–1983. Chicago Landscape No. 117 from “Chicago Landscape Group,” 1966. Gelatin silver print. Indiana University Art Museum 73.65.21. © 2003, Katherine Anne Sinsabaugh and Elisabeth Sinsabaugh de la Cova.


Art Sinsabaugh, American, 1924–1983. Chicago Landscape No. 122 from “Chicago Landscape Group,” 1966. Gelatin silver print. Indiana University Art Museum 300.III.7.122. © 2003, Katherine Anne Sinsabaugh and Elisabeth Sinsabaugh de la Cova.



Art Sinsabaugh, American, 1924–1983. Midwest Landscape No. 29 from “Midwest Landscape Group,” 1961. Gelatin silver print. Indiana University Art Museum 300.II.1.29. © 2003, Katherine Anne Sinsabaugh and Elisabeth Sinsabaugh de la Cova.


Art Sinsabaugh, American, 1924–1983. Midwest Landscape No. 34 from “Midwest Landscape Group,” 1961. Gelatin silver print. Indiana University Art Museum 300.II.1.34. © 2003, Katherine Anne Sinsabaugh and Elisabeth Sinsabaugh de la Cova.


Art Sinsabaugh, American, 1924–1983. Midwest Landscape No. 60 from “Midwest Landscape Group,” 1961. Gelatin silver print. Indiana University Art Museum 73.65.12. © 2003, Katherine Anne Sinsabaugh and Elisabeth Sinsabaugh de la Cova.


Art Sinsabaugh, American, 1924–1983. Utah Landscape No. 8 from “American Landscape Group,” 1980. Gelatin silver print. Hallmark Photography Collection, Hallmark Cards, Inc.,
Kansas City, Missouri 60-24-90. © 2003, Katherine Anne Sinsabaugh and Elisabeth Sinsabaugh de la Cova.


Jon Pownall, American, died 1973. Art Sinsabaugh on Balcony of Marina City after Making Chicago Landscape #157, 1964. Gelatin silver print. Art Sinsabaugh Archive, Indiana University Art Museum 300.X.73.1. © 2003, Lynda Pownall-Carlson.

American Horizons: The Photographs of Art Sinsabaugh
January 26, 2008—April 6, 2008

An unjustly under-recognized artist, this exhibition underscores Sinsabaugh’s artistic and historical significance.  Best known for his “Midwest Landscapes” of the early 1960s, his “Chicago Landscapes” (1964-66), and his “American Landscapes” (1969-83), Sinsabaugh used a huge 12x20-inch view camera to make photographs of unprecedented subtlety and originality.  Given the rarity of his work, it is notable this exhibition was assembled solely from the holdings of the Indiana University Art Museum and the Hallmark Photographic Collection.

The Indiana University Art Museum has created a dedicated online resource regarding Art Sinsabaugh, this exhibition and the archive of his work held at the Indiana museum.

For more information please visit: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

-Joanne Molina

Exhibitions Kansas City. Red! Renaissance Italian and Spanish Textiles. The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. The Curated Object: International Decorative Arts Exhibitions

Image: Chasuble  Back, Mid-15th Century, Italian. Velvet and silk with brocaded  metallic threads, 43 1/2 x 25 3/4 in. 31.104.

Red! Renaissance Italian and Spanish Textiles.
August 28, 2007—February 17, 2008

During the Renaissance, monochromatic velvets became popular, especially those of a deep red color. This exhibition showcases five velvet textiles in radiant reds, ranging from a religious garment to fragments that show a variety of cut-pile designs including abstracted vegetation and small-scale patterns. While there are many sources of red dye, the most highly prized and costly was cochineal red, which was derived from insects native to the Americas and imported to Europe through Spain. Weavers varied the single tone of red by employing different weave structures and textures, such as contrasting cut-pile velvet (cut loops of surface yarn) designs with outlines of looped pile, a technique known as ciselé velvet.

The luxuriously decorated back panel of a chasuble, a sleeveless vestment worn over the white linen robe of a priest during services, displays one of the most opulent of the textile patterns: a background of red, cut-pile velvet of interlacing vegetation and abstract floral elements further embellished with brocaded pomegranates and floral motifs in metallic threads. These 15th-16th-century textiles were created during a period of expanded exploration and trade, when Spain and Italy—particularly the city of Venice—emerged as major centers of textile production.

For more information please visit: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
-Joanne Molina