The Serpentine Gallery in London presents Nairy Bagrhamian and Phyllida Barlow.  The exhibition features new and recent work by two contemporary artists exhibited together for the first time.  The Serpentine Gallery suggests Baghramian and Barlow represent ‘two positions on sculpture in the 21st century’.  The pairing of the two artists offers new insight into their respective sculptural practices.

Baghramian and Barlow’s work is displayed separately, in solo rooms, and also in deliberate dialogue.  While offering different approaches, both artists are inspired by the gallery context and capitalize on characteristics of the space.  Their large-scale installations are often in arranged in tension and certainly inhabit the space of the gallery visitor.  For all of these characteristics, the installation demands a physical viewing experience.

Nairy Baghramian was born in Iran.  She now lives and works in Berlin and is represented by Galerie Daniel Buchholz.  She is known for photography in addition to her sculptural and installation work.  Baghramian is inspired by politics and literature as well as the legacies of minimalism, design and modern architecture.  She often engages with context, institutional framing and the production and reception of contemporary art.

Phyllida Barlow lives and works in London.  She graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art where she has served as professor for some time.  Barlow’s work utilizes mass produced materials that she typically combines on-site and later recycles.  Her sculptural work is often realized in the large-scale, installation environment.

Nairy Baghramian and Phyllida Barlow is on view at the Serpentine Gallery from 8 May through 13 June 2010.

Acaso features a series of photographs which are the result of a four-year project by fashion photographer Javier Vallhonrat. The images largely differ from the hip and glossy fashion-related work he often realized for publications such as Vogue and the New York Times.

The works exhibited at the Galleria Carla Sozzani -located at 10 Corso Como in Milan- explore the ways in which we tend to interact with, and transform, space in order to give shape to something, such as a house or a building, which we can occupy as inhabitants. The images prove to question the meaning of the concepts of ‘place’ and ‘home’ as sites around which we construct our experience, our individual memory and our identity, while at the same time trying to make sense of an unfamiliar condition such as the absence of what might be a ‘safe’ place we recognize as ours and which we can refer to. Vallhonrat seems to invite the viewer to come to terms with a re-definition of a perception of space that moves from being abstract to becoming real and concrete, a process which highlights the interplay between nature and man. Privileging shades of grey, green and blue, the images by the Spanish photographer depict a variety of tasks performed by male characters within a landscape setting, and although the photographs suggest that some kind of action is taking place, the overall impression they deliver is one of extreme stillness and solitude.

Born in Madrid, Spain, in 1953, fashion photographer Javier Vallhonrat studied Painting at the Fine Arts Faculty of the University of Madrid in the early 1970’s. He achieved international recognition soon after receiving his Fine Arts degree, while shooting for the Condé Nast Publications. In 1992 he started working on advertising films, while teaching photography at the same time. He has also worked for various international fashion designers, such as Comme des Garçons, Christian Lacroix, Jil Sander, Martine Sitbon, Yves Saint-Laurent, Chloé, and John Galliano.

Acaso will be on view at Galleria Carla Sozzani in Milan from 18th October to 22nd November 2009.

Artist Darina Karpov will open an exhibition titled “New Work” tonight at Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn, N.Y. The drawings exhibited contain elements of both abstraction and figuration as forms take on multiple connotations. The organic compositions are comprised of images from art history and advertising and images archived from the artist’s life. These images are combined to create a mini-world of activity. Karpov was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and initially studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg. In 1991, the artist relocated to the U.S. to study art at the Maryland Institute, College of Art (1999), and later received her MFA from Yale University School of Art (2001). Since her graduation, Karpov has shown widely in group exhibitions in Leipzig, Germany, and New York City, including AG Gallery in Brooklyn (2005).