Tonight I will give a small presentation at PechaKucha Rotterdam.

Being extremely attentive to detail, or selecting a fragment of reality may at first sight seem like one chooses a narrow view of things. However, by consequently zooming in on things, a new, altogether different reality opens up. Details become unrecognizable and one starts to understand that in essence everything is abstract. It’s like repeating a word until it loses its meaning and only the sound remains. Only through our daily contact with things we are able to experience a familiar impression of our surroundings.

Robert Devriendt at Loevenbruck, Nadja Vilenne and Nicole Klagsbrun.

More photography from Russia.
Somewhere between Kiev and Moscow is a small village called Bezhin Lug. A beautiful series of pictures by Anastasia Khoroshilova. Above a portrait of Maria Michailowna.

Motherland is a bold visual statement about the nature of contemporary Russia, fifteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Photographer Simon Roberts traveled throughout Russia, for a year between July 2004 and August 2005, making pictures in over 200 locations and creating one of the most extensive, comprehensive photographic accounts of this vast country by a Westerner. His images are not cliched representations of a Russia ground down by poverty and despair; rather, he presents a beautiful and awe-inspiring land, with a dignified people empowered by a growing optimism and a deeply rooted sense of national esteem. Intimate and revealing portraits of contemporary Russians show us a diverse people, united by a sense of common identity, while breathtaking landscapes reveal the complexity and uniqueness of the country. With an introduction by Rosamund Bartlett, a prominent cultural commentator, the text for the book features key quotes by literary and political figures that have shaped Russia’s modern identity, illuminating the historical ideals of Holy Rus and the concept of ‘the Motherland’. The photographs are accompanied by Roberts’ informative extended captions.

Motherland will be published in March 2007 by Chris Boot.

Fantastic work by Michael Samuels via Nathan Abels’ blog

Guild & Greyshkul is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Anna Conway. The six paintings on view depict fragments from unfolding narratives in which ordinary people are suddenly confronted by forces much greater than themselves, either due to circumstances beyond their control or because of an unexpected momentary suspension of disbelief. The paintings are windows onto brief moments of radical experience that take place on the job, while killing time, in transit-wherever we least expect them. A man assigned the task of collecting obsolete aerial antennas from a vast big-box store rooftop loses himself in a contemplative trance. A third-shift janitor tries out a push-up on a junior partner’s desk.
A kid sweeping up an outdoor food court has his life jeopardized by a badly-mounted inflatable advertisement. The ambiguity the viewer senses in these narratives derives from our inability to know the internal nature of the subjects’ epiphanies. We witness spontaneous disruptions in ordinary days without being privy to the exact nature of either their causes or their effects. Often, these are the quiet moments that change lives, the ones we are tempted to try to express before coming to the slightly embarrassed conclusion that they are indescribable in their simple profundity: -How was work?- -Well, I- it was- not- the usual.-

Anna Conway at Guild & Greyshkul

Caldwell, like a scientist, investigates the intricacy of his material, its display and the natural world. It’s as if he is holding up a prism that might reflect a rainbow-but instead, reflects excitement, fear and beauty. The anatomies he refers to are ribs, teeth, anemones, forests, fungi, fingers, and bodies. Anatomy is the study of structure, its dissection, analysis and minute examination. Caldwell is immersed in this study-exploring the anatomy of the viewer, the anatomy of glass, and the anatomy of natural things. Graham Caldwell, February 17 till March 31 at G Fine Art

Antonia Low

NEW: NNM REVOLUTION (SET PROPERTIES), featuring works from 47 artists.

The non·object book is the first of its kind – the first of a new genre we call Design Fiction™. In the same way that sci-fi movies and fictional tales stretch your imagination, our hope is to take you on a journey into the future of design and inspiration. We will share stories and concepts that offer a new point of view, a new way of thinking, a new way forward. Of course, as with all fiction, some of our ideas may seem improbable – even impossible. Don’t worry, we bought the tickets. All you have to do is enjoy the ride.
Via MoCo Loco

By A.P.C.

Following from the inward probing and entries into woodland spaces, we are taken downwards into the deep of the ocean floor. The question for us relates to how vision itself is understood within such a frame. In many respects the feeling of the work appears to be in accord, and in this respect, demonstrates a similar registration of sensibility that is evident in the Woodland series. Why indeed should it be otherwise? At the same time a turn in sense is emergent, for not only are we being plunged into the depths, but our relationship to a visual understanding is altered as well. Lines of light become clouds of diffusion, clarities are obscured. Matter and space ease into the other, in a murky in-between in which perspectives give way to an obscurity of views. Despite all these accumulated turns in visual expectancy, we still have a world constituted before us, even though it is a form of half-world, shadowed, refracted, and partly concealed. We are being lead into a zone in which memory, imagination and fascination filter in differing degrees into the visible, to the point where stable forms of focus appear to tremor within the frame. We are shown a world caught between composition and decay, almost a primal stirring beneath the surface of things. Even though our knowledge of these border regions of vision are constituted mainly through the pictorial constancy of the photographic, or moving image reportage aimed to enthral our sense, these photographs instead dissemble the already given of visual form of this documentary reportage.
Jonathan Miles on the new photographs of Daniel Gustav Cramer

I’m in the roundup mood. So, here’s another-one.
For ages, artists are inspired by the concept gravity.
Sam Taylor-Wood

Peter Garfield

Adam Cvijanovic

Denis Darzacq

Yves Klein

Kerry Skabakka

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukqmt3iRwX0]Bas Jan Ader

Quenten Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez
With Death Proof & Planet Terror

Mikhail Matiushin at Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

Eric Bulatov

Boris Orlov at Artnet

Aristarkh Chernyshov at XL Gallery

“…These micro universes, from afar like satellite photos, close up invite a moment of intimacy, a glimpse into the life of the artist, a discovery of contemporary China and a chance to pick out what we would find in our own homes….”Hong Hao on chinesecontemporary.com

Roi Kuper

Cheryl van Hooven

Amy Stein

Sannah Kvist, via culture cuts

Matt Niebuhr

An ongoing project by Dylan Chatain

“We believe it’s time for a new, global, European-based media brand. With a keen focus, strong reporting, sharp wit and more classic approach to design, we’ve dubbed our venture Monocle. At the core there’s a monthly magazine delivering the most original coverage in global affairs, business, culture and design. Alongside, there’s a web-based broadcast component covering the same areas through a variety of bulletins, mini-documentaries and talk formats. Focused on informing and entertaining an international audience of disillusioned readers, listeners and viewers, it is our intention to create a community of the most interested and interesting people in the world.”

Monocle

Jesper Ulvelius

Paul Mpagi Sepuya

Kim Schoen

Bruna Kazinoti

Hai Bo