#whatiftheworld

[sheltiechicago]

Sharing, Connecting, Healing

Lakin Ogunbanwo, Let it Be, 2016, Archival ink-jet print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 119 x 79.5 cm, Edition of 10, Image courtesy of Lakin Ogunbanwo and WHATIFTHEWORLD

There’s Light: Artworks & Conversations Examining Black Masculinity, Identity and Mental Well-being, a landmark publication from author and conceptual artist Glenn Lutz (b. 1988).

[camrnnnnn]

A gallery I decided to visit. I’m gonna miss Cape Town for the month I’m gone👨🏻‍🍳

So stressed about results

#wishmeluck #whatiftheworld

[distinktionsfetzen]

Check out Dan Halter, Things Fall Apart (R200 Mandela Cantenary Edition) (2023), From WHATIFTHEWORLD

[xtruss]

Baring It All: Breasts Take Center Stage At This Major Exhibition

— By Jacqui Palumbo | Monday April 22, 2024

"Breasts" runs from April to November at the 60th Venice Biennale international art exhibition. Eva Herzog

(CNN) — What is one of the earliest and enduring subjects in art and media — as well as one of the most censored? Breasts. First carved large onto small “Venus” figurines some 25,000 years ago as totems of fertility, they’re now seen (or hidden) as a potent symbol of desire, motherhood, feminism, sexism, beauty ideals, defiance, controversy or illness, depending on context.

And these are all themes explored broadly in the exhibition “Breasts,” a robust survey on display at the 60th Venice Bienniale. Hosted at the Palazzo Franchetti, the show includes artworks by household names such as Cindy Sherman, Robert Mapplethorpe and Salvador Dalí, as well as early-career artists including Anna Weyant, Chloe Wise and Lakin Ogunbanwo. Divided into five rooms against the building’s art deco designs, the artworks are meant to be in conversation with one another — and with exhibition-goers — according to the show’s curator Carolina Pasti.

“It’s very intimate, so it’s perfect for international artists to develop a dialogue with each other,” she said in a video call.

One of the first juxtapositions visitors encounter is between the exhibition’s earliest work, an early 16th-century Madonna and child by Bernardino del Signoraccio, and a self-portrait by Sherman which depicts the artist draped in prosthetic breasts and a pregnant belly. Both images of motherhood feature exaggerated anatomy — the baby Jesus in Del Signoraccio’s panel painting exposing his mother’s rigid bosom, while Sherman displays a hyperreal silicone torso in her riff on the Raphael painting “La Fornarina” — and sets the stage by showing how Renaissance artists have continued to influence our attitudes around breasts today.

Left: Bernardino del Signoraccio, "Madonna dell' Umiltà," ca. 1460-1540 Courtesy Flavio Gianassi/FG Fine Arts Ltd. Right: Cindy Sherman, "Untitled 205," 1989 Cindy Sherman

From there, the show winds through painting, sculpture and design, photography, commercial advertising and video art, exploring the ways that breasts have been seen and represented through both the male and female gazes.

“It goes back to cave paintings — we’ve always been fascinated with the human form, and particularly the female form, which has this incredible allure and mystery,” said the artist Teniqua Crawford, who is exhibiting a delicate rendering of the breast as landscape. “Artists keep going back to it.”

“It’s been a wonderful moment to contemplate my own relationship with the meaning of breasts,” she added of the show.

“Breasts” was staged, in part, to promote breast cancer awareness, and marks a partnership with the medical research non-profit Fondazione IEO-MONZINO, which will receive a portion of its catalog sales. It’s a theme apparent throughout the show, with a vivid pink staging and backdrops inspired by the color of the cause. That includes a passageway designed by Buchanan Studio, “Booby Trap” which is draped in pink fabric and features 35 anatomical lights from above.

And the opening night treats? All according to the theme, of course, with suggestively shaped chocolate bon bons and burrata.

Lakin Ogunbanwo "Untitled (2 girls)," 2013 Courtesy Whatiftheworld

Top: Teniqua Crawford, "Fragment Horizon," 2024 Todd White Bottom: Anna Weyant, "Chest," 2020 Courtesy private collection, Europe

Left: Allen Jones, "Cover Story," 2015 Courtesy the artist/Galleria d'Arte Maggiore Right: Allen Jones, "Cover Story," 2015 Courtesy the artist/Galleria d'Arte Maggiore

Top: Laura Panno, "Alfabeto del corpo (Ceramica Blu)," 1990 Courtesy the Artist Bottom: Christopher Bucklow "Tetrarch (Claudia-Schiffer)", 2010 Christopher Bucklow

Giorgio de Chirico "Nudo di donna," 1930 Courtesy private collection, Turin

Louise Bourgeois "The-Reticent Child," 2005 Courtesy private collection, Italy

Masami Teraoka, "Breast on Hollywood Hills Installation Project," 1970 Courtesy Catherine Clark Gallery

[somdyala]

Hlalendle; Machophetyeni, 2022 

Karoo Clay on Canvas

113.5 X 79.5 CM

[ronaldmuchatuta]

This weekend I will be participating in the inaugural 40 under 40 exhibition hosted by   @whatiftheworld_gallery X @kronecapclassique featuring 40 artists under the age of 40. The exhibition is hosted at the historic Twee Jonge Gezellen estate in Tulbagh, the home of Krone Cap Classique. VENUE Twee Jonge Gezellen Wine Estate Twee Jonge Gezellen Estate Road Tulbagh TIME 10:30 - 14:00 DATE 25 September 2021 #ArtFromAfrica #AfricaPresent #contemporaryafricanart #contemporarypainting⁠ #ronaldmuchatuta #artandculture   #beautifulbizarre   #creativeuprising  #konst #atelier #kunst #artcurator   #whatiftheworld #krone #tweejongegezellenestate #tulbagh https://www.instagram.com/p/CUHqk6QKfty/?utm_medium=tumblr

[toutpetitlaplanete]

Michael Taylor - Vampire Sunset, 2016

[guy60660]

Lungiswa Gqunta | Whatiftheworld Gallery | Financial Times

[miachaplin]

[thethinginthebag]

So glad to see @athipatraruga get a complete installation @thearmoryshow #athipatraruga #whatiftheworld #armoryshow #contemporaryafricanart #artist #contemporaryartist #tapestry (at The Armory Show)

[yohguysimpson]

Lungiswa Gqunta

LAWN 2016 Wood, broken bottles, and petrol 242 x 122 x 28 cm

I found this a lot of fun. even though it is razor sharp broken glass its still got a playful element to it. I guess that’s why its called LAWN. you just want to play on it. 

[sheltiechicago]

African Artists: From 1882 to Now

Michele Mathison, “Breaking Ground” (2014), steel and enamel, 203 × 104 × 40 centimeters.

Photo © the artist, courtesy Michele Mathison and WHATIFTHEWORLD

[distinktionsfetzen]

Check out Dan Halter, Things Fall Apart (£50) (2021), From WHATIFTHEWORLD

[supportblackart]

@lakinogunbanwo 💍 WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to present e wá wo mi (*come look at me) – a new photographic series by Nigerian artist Lakin Ogunbanwo. Central to Ogunbanwo’s latest exploration, is the culture surrounding Nigerian brides and marriage ceremonies. He uses veiled portraiture to document the complexity of his culture, and counteract the West’s monolithic narratives of Africa and women. Ogunbanwo’s interest in expanding the contemporary African visual archive began in 2012 with his acclaimed ongoing project, ‘Are We Good Enough’. In this series, he documents hats worn as cultural signifiers by various ethnic groups in Nigeria. In e wá wo mi Ogunbanwo furthers this investigation by representing the traditional ceremonial wear of the Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa-Fulani tribes, amongst others. Rather than objectively archive these as past-traditions, however, he mimics the pageantry of weddings in present Nigeria. He creates elaborate sets of draped fabric as a backdrop for these brides to perform. The performances these brides carry out are ones of love, familial and cultural pride, feminine strength, and a heterogenous African identity, but they are also the burdens of being wives, mothers and daughters-in-law. The expectation of femininity, and the role of women, are canonised on the wedding day. “From how she dresses, to how she carries herself, to what she is told. She will be fertile, she should be submissive and supportive: These are the things she hears on that day.” Ogunbanwo reflects, “I’ve found weddings to be very performative, and most of the performance generally rests on the bride.” On this day, the bride is admired and observed for her proximity to a constructed womanhood: she is feminine, demure, grateful, emotional, and graceful. Ogunbanwo comments on this by obfuscating the individuality of these women, masking their faces with veils— a style signature to his photography. #supportblackart #lakinogunbanwo #ewawomi #arewegoodenough #nigerianart #naija #brides #blackart #nigerianweddings #photoseries #photography #blackphotographer #identity https://www.instagram.com/p/BxxhVekhpmA/?igshid=10hrl9puja6bu

[somdyala]

Zangomva Eliweni, 2022

Ochre, Red Oxide, Karoo Soil and Rock on Canvas 

113.5 X 79.5 CM