Cologne, Museum Ludwig Presents Füsun Onur’s Retrospective.. and More
Germany_Cologne
Museum Ludwig Presents Füsun Onur’s Retrospective
The Museum Ludwig, Cologne, presents a retrospective of Füsun Onur (b. 1938) through January 28, 2024. In the past few years, the Museum Ludwig has organized large-scale survey exhibitions of underrepresented artists such as Joan Mitchell, Nil Yalter, and Isamu Noguchi.
Fusun Onur is considered one of Turkey’s most important contemporary artists but rarely had a comprehensive exhibition to showcase her body of work. This exhibition brings together 94 installations created over the past 60 years, including a new large-scale installation created specifically for this retrospective.
Onur studied sculpture in Istanbul and studied in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, a period of radical change in Turkish art history. Her early work blends influence from abstract art, constructivism, and minimalism. A recurring element in Onur’s recent practice is her family house in Istanbul. The gallery rooms are filled with furniture and memorabilia from the early 20th century, and Onur uses everyday objects and musical effects in the exhibition to stimulate the viewer’s imagination.
UK_London
The Mosaic Rooms Presents 4 Young Palestinian Artists in “In the shade of the sun”
The Mosaic Rooms, London’s art center for contemporary culture from the Arab world, presents “In the shade of the sun” through January 14, 2024. Through commissioned new works by four young Palestinian artists, the exhibition explores new languages to think about Palestine and the relationship between politics and aesthetics.
The exhibition features works in video, installation, music, and games. Mona Benyamin’s ‘Tomorrow, Again’ presents a dysfunctional broadcast with scenes representing everyday catastrophes in Palestine. Xaytun Ennasr’s ‘Revolution is a forest that the colonizer can’t burn’ celebrates the tree as a symbol of resistance and commitment. Dina Mimi’s ‘The melancholy of this useless afternoon’ is a fictionalized narrative about fugitives, smugglers, and bird smuggling that speaks to migration, loss, separation, and resistance. Makimakkuk’s new sound performance ‘What remains in the museum’ addresses identity, colonization, love, and relationships.
Bulgaria_Sofia
Bulgaria National Gallery: Sculptor Emilia Nikolova-Bayer and Her Mark in Modern Architecture
In Sofia, The National Gallery of Bulgaria presents “The Art of Synthesis,” an exhibition featuring Bulgarian sculptor Emilia Nikolova-Bayer (b. 1934), on view through October 23.
Emilia Nikolova-Bayer left a unique mark on modern architecture with her proportional and harmonious bas-relief decoration of building facades. After studying ceramics and decorative monumental sculpture in Bulgaria, she began working as a freelance sculptor and decorating buildings. After settling in Berlin in 1975, she began working on large-scale sculptures for public environments such as parks and buildings. Nikolova-Bayer’s practice is acclaimed for its original combination of monumental art and sculpture.
The exhibition highlights her seminal works, the relief decoration of the Sofia Theater (1973-75) and the Friedrichstadt-Palast Theater in Berlin (1982-84). It also aims to present her personal and colorful artistic life as an avant-garde female artist active in Bulgaria in the second half of the 20th century. The exhibition features photographs of decorative reliefs, porcelain panels, stone inscriptions, and drawings for various sculptures taken from the artist’s archive.
