Martin Cid's Blog: Martin Cid Magazine, page 199

Birmingham Royal Ballet Announces 2024 – 25 Season

Today, announcing Birmingham Royal Ballet’s 2024 – 25 Season, the company’s Director Carlos Acosta said: ‘I am so happy to be able to share our plans for the future with everyone. Still riding high from the successes of the autumn/winter 2023 season, we have a lot to celebrate, but we also keep moving forward, keep challenging ourselves and keep aiming high, in terms of our goals and ambitions. Everyone at BRB has worked incredibly hard to ensure my vision for this company has been, and continues to be, realised, and I am very proud of our achievements and excited about our plans. This Season exemplifies the importance of balancing the creation of platforms for emerging talents to shine, alongside the joy we bring to the classical canon of work that the Company is so proud to perform.’

Fresh from the sell-out success in Birmingham, Plymouth and London, Black Sabbath – The Ballet has had a raft of international interest. The European premiere will be at the Luxor Theatre in Rotterdam, presented by Holland Dance Festival (13 – 15 June) and we are already in advanced talks about touring Black Sabbath – The Ballet to the USA in summer 2025.

In summer 2024, the Company will make its first-ever visit to Iceland to perform Carlos Acosta’s Classical Selection in Reykjavik.

The autumn season begins at Birmingham Hippodrome (25 – 28 September) where BRB presents Sir Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée, its Founder Choreographer’s most popular ballet. This is the first time La Fille mal gardée has been presented by BRB under the directorship of Carlos Acosta, who, for many, is one of the definitive interpreters of Colas in this sunny, effervescent ballet. The production will tour to Plymouth Theatre Royal (10 – 13 October) and Sadler’s Wells London (24 – 25 October) and is part of the official 2024-28 Ashton Worldwide Festival. Additional BRB events programmed as part of the Festival include A Celebration of Ashton in February 2025, and a special Ashton Foundation ‘Insight’ masterclass, featuring Carlos Acosta and Sandra Madgwick coaching BRB dancers in the roles of Colas and Lise on 30  April 2024 at Elmhurst Ballet School.

Also this autumn, BRB presents the World Premiere of Luna, a 2-act (full-length), abstract ballet in six movements, which forms the final part of Carlos’s Birmingham Trilogy (City of a Thousand Trades + Black Sabbath + Luna). This new work is inspired by the pioneering and socially enterprising women of Birmingham who have contributed to the shape of the city that Birmingham Royal Ballet calls home. Drawing inspiration from the book Once Upon a Time in Birmingham: Women Who Dare to Dream by Louise Palfreyman, it features an all-female, international creative team, including Choreographers Iratxe Ansa (Spain); Wubkje Kuindersma (Netherlands); Seeta Patel (UK); Arielle Smith (UK); Thais Suárez (Cuba); with music composed by Kate Whitley (UK). Costume Design is by Imaan Ashraf, Projection Design by Hayley Egan and Lighting Design by Emma Jones. The creative team will explore contemporary universal themes including matriarchal roles in society, education, female empowerment, overcoming adversity, and community. The World Premiere will be at Birmingham Hippodrome (3-5 October) before it has its London premiere at Sadler’s Wells (22-23 October).

Sir Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker was his gift to the City of Birmingham when Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet moved to the city in 1990 and it remains one of the world’s most spectacular presentations of this festive tale. After breaking all previous box office records in the Birmingham 2023 run, this year will see the first-ever Relaxed performance at Birmingham Hippodrome, which will bring this story to life for children and young people normally unable to attend theatre productions of this scale (1pm, Tue 3 Dec). The Nutcracker’s Birmingham run begins on 22 November playing through to 14 December. The Royal Albert Hall spectacular presentation of The Nutcracker returns this year (29 – 31 December 2024).

The 2025 Spring UK Tour will be Sir David Bintley’s Cinderella, one of BRB’s most popular ballets. With sumptuous sets and costumes by John MacFarlane, virtuoso dance and some of ballet’s most memorable coups de theatre, Cinderella continues to thrill audiences across the world with one of the largest UK touring productions. One of BRB’s most in-demand ballets, Cinderella opens at the Mayflower Southampton (6 – 8 February) before travelling to Birmingham Hippodrome (19 – 29 February), The Lowry Salford (6 – 8 March), Sunderland Empire (13 – 15 March), Bristol Hippodrome (27 – 29 March), and finally Plymouth Theatre Royal (9 – 12 April). 

Spring 2025 will see the third BRB2 UK tour, this time featuring an all-new programme, to be announced. BRB2 has attracted a wealth of international talent to the company already. These future stars have already made their mark within the company and, as the 2-year initiative approaches its first conclusion, all eyes are on what these talented young dancers will do next. Watch this space.

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Tu Hongtao: Beyond Babel – Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York

NEW YORK—Lévy Gorvy Dayan is pleased to announce the first New York exhibition with Chinese painter Tu Hongtao, opening February 22, 2024, at 19 East 64th Street. Tu Hongtao: Beyond Babel presents sweeping compositions in sumptuous hues that advance the artist’s use of abstraction as

a means to engage with memory, landscape, and society, as well as art history, theory, and poetry.

Tu Hongtao. The Corrupted Garden of Eden, 2020–23. Oil and oilstick on canvas, 126 × 248¹⁄₁₆ inches (320 × 630 cm)

Introducing more than thirty new works, the exhibition unveils significant developments in Tu’s practice since his first exhibition in 2020 with the gallery in Hong Kong.

The exhibition’s title indicates a key source of inspiration for Tu’s most recent body of work. Paraphrasing the literary theorist George Steiner’s study After Babel, published in 1975, “Beyond Babel” represents our contemporary moment and our reliance on technology to communicate—at the possible expense of more distinctive forms of expression and connection. Tu has explored landscape and abstraction since the early 2010s. His paintings that will debut at Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York, reveal a new commitment to storytelling as a response to current modes of artificial intelligence

and data collection. The power of imagination and personal association—conceived by the artist as counterforces—are central to the conception of the works on view.

A highlight of the exhibition, the monumental triptych The Corrupted Garden of Eden (2020–23) realizes a painterly dramaturgy that depicts a time of upheaval. Red, pink, blue, white, and gray vibrate across the canvas in tumbling currents, while a rendered tower block and gate can be seen on the left and right sides of the work. As the title suggests, the scene represents a disruption of peace and serenity; however, this disturbance is permeated with its own distinct beauty. Calligraphic lines appear in the top left register—a formal motif used by Tu throughout his new paintings. Influenced by hieroglyphs, he incorporates such lines to activate textual moments, another means of imbuing his canvases with a sense of storytelling.

Tower of Babel (2023) employs figurative elements, recalling Tu’s early practice, to produce an allegorical image of the biblical tower of Babel and its fall. Here, Tu’s perspectival cityscape is characterized by a pastel sky that serves as the stage for a dynamic play of color and light.

Run Boar Run! (2022–23) captures Tu’s process of involving many facets of his lived experience in the creation of his work. The composition is based on a landscape Tu witnessed while hiking, and also draws inspiration from sources including the work of Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens, online

political propaganda, and remembered conversations with friends. Moving from the personal to the collective, Tu creates poetic and intuitive abstractions that are rich with meaning, inviting viewers to overlay their own interpretations and response.

Interested in painting as language, Tu is inspired by artists who have historically pushed against established conventions. He is drawn to Chinese creatives such as Du Fu (712–770), whose metaphorical poetry deftly intertwined nature and self, and Dong Qichang (1555–1636), a landscape painter and calligrapher who introduced expression and improvisation into his brushwork. His modern influences include Paul Cézanne and Cy Twombly. Tu is fascinated with what he has called their “resistance against society” and use of “nature to balance the conflicts of reality.” With his

new works, Tu dives into the fabric of the everyday, seeking to reconstruct existing and burgeoning narratives. The resulting paintings, he says, take on a “surreal” language, different from his poetic and observational studies of previous years. This evolution in his practice challenges viewers anew to contemplate reality as it is represented and shaped—and to perceive a visual order that brings together social and personal landscapes, the natural and the imaginative.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

In sweeping compositions, Tu Hongtao revisits Eastern and Western traditions of landscape painting to reconsider the representation of space and time. Based in Chengdu, Tu draws on influences that range from the East Jin Dynasty to today, including the innovations of classical scroll painters Gu Kaizhi and Dong Qichang, the abstract gestures of painters Cy Twombly and Brice Marden, and the photocollages of David Hockney. His dynamic canvases convey encounters with nature experienced through multiple spatial, temporal, and cultural perspectives.

Born in 1976 in Chengdu, Tu studied oil painting at the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou. His early Neo-Pop paintings featured cityscapes populated with bodies, reflecting anxieties connected to the rapid social and environmental transformations accompanying China’s economic reform and globalization at the end of the century. In 2008, Tu moved to a studio in rural Chengdu and studied the Chinese literati tradition of landscape painting as well as Yuan Dynasty artist Zhao Mengfu’s theory of the common origins of calligraphy and painting. He frequently visited the mountainous Bifeng Valley in Sichuan during this period, drawing on the terrain for inspiration. As a result, his paintings shifted from mimetic portrayals to illusionistic and psychologically charged realms.

Since 2010, Tu’s compositions have grown increasingly complex, featuring a single landscape layered many times over to redirect any linear experience of the work’s narrative elements, sometimes to suggest the very disappearance of perspective. His brushwork amplifies the precise movements

of calligraphy, the curved wrist’s twists and turns, expanding it into a performative form. Among the recent solo exhibitions dedicated to the artist’s work, in 2018, the Long Museum in Shanghai

organized Tu Hongtao: A Timely Journey, which traveled to the Long Museum, Chongqing. His work can be found in such public collections as the Long Museum, Shanghai; Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan; Power Station of Art, Shanghai; White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney; and Guangdong Museum of Art.

ABOUT LÉVY GORVY DAYAN

Helmed by Dominique Lévy, Brett Gorvy, and Amalia Dayan, Lévy Gorvy Dayan collaborates with artists, estates, non-profit organizations, foundations, museums, and private collections to increase the visibility of twentieth- and twenty-first century works and artists—realizing seminal projects and furthering legacies. In forming Lévy Gorvy Dayan, the partners merge their respective specialties across twentieth- and twenty-first century art, their reputations as leaders and tastemakers, and their respective backgrounds in the primary and secondary markets. Lévy Gorvy Dayan provides opportunities for education, exposure, and access to acquiring exceptional art through its museum- quality exhibition program and thoughtful participation in international art fairs. Expanding,

refining, and enhancing world-class modern and contemporary art collections, the gallery emphasizes connoisseurship and curation in its collection development, estate planning, and art appraisal services. Local in practice with an international perspective, Lévy Gorvy Dayan has premier spaces and unmatched market knowledge in New York, London, Paris, and Hong Kong, in addition to its off-site presentations and global satellite teams.

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Sam Rockwell

Sam Rockwell, born on November 5, 1968, in Daly City, California, is an American actor known for his versatility and remarkable performances. With a career spanning over four decades, Rockwell has garnered critical acclaim and numerous accolades for his roles in various films and stage productions. From portraying complex characters to showcasing his comedic timing, he has established himself as one of the most talented actors in the industry.

Sam Rockwell was born to actors Pete Rockwell and Penny Hess on November 5, 1968. His parents divorced when he was five years old, and he was primarily raised by his father in San Francisco. However, he spent summers with his mother in New York. Rockwell developed an interest in performing at a young age and even made a brief stage appearance playing Humphrey Bogart in an East Village improv comedy sketch alongside his mother.

He attended the San Francisco School of the Arts during his high school years but eventually obtained his diploma from Urban Pioneers, an alternative school. Rockwell later credited the school for reigniting his passion for acting. After appearing in an independent film during his senior year, he decided to pursue an acting career and moved to New York. He enrolled in the Professional Actor Training Program at the William Esper Studio to further hone his skills.

Career HighlightsEarly Films

Rockwell’s career gained momentum in the early 1990s with appearances in both TV series and films. After his debut role in the horror film “Clownhouse” (1989), he moved to New York to train at the William Esper Studios. He made small-screen guest appearances in popular shows like “The Equalizer,” “NYPD Blue,” and “Law & Order,” while also landing roles in films such as “Last Exit to Brooklyn” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

One of Rockwell’s breakthrough roles came in the film “Box of Moonlight” (1996), directed by Tom DiCillo. His portrayal of an eccentric man-child living in an isolated mobile home earned him critical acclaim and put him on the independent film map. He continued to impress audiences and critics with his performance in “Lawn Dogs” (1997), where he played a working-class lawn mower who befriends a young girl in an upper-class community.

Hollywood Recognition

As his career progressed, Rockwell started to receive recognition from Hollywood. He appeared in films like “Galaxy Quest” (1999), “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1999), and “Charlie’s Angels” (2000). However, it was his role as Chuck Barris in “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” (2002), directed by George Clooney, that garnered significant attention. Rockwell’s performance was well-received, and the film received positive reviews.

In the following years, Rockwell showcased his versatility by taking on diverse roles. He portrayed Francis Flute in the Shakespeare adaptation “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1999) and played the gregarious villain Eric Knox in “Charlie’s Angels” (2000). He also received critical acclaim for his role as Zaphod Beeblebrox in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” (2005) and as Charley Ford in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (2007).

Theater

Aside from his success in film, Rockwell has also made notable contributions to the theater world. He has been a member of the New York-based LAByrinth Theater Company since 1992. In 2005, he starred in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ play “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Rockwell’s performance was well-received, and he continued to work with the LAByrinth Theater Company in various productions.

One of Rockwell’s recent achievements in theater was his portrayal of Bob Fosse in the 2019 miniseries “Fosse/Verdon,” for which he received critical acclaim. In 2022, he returned to the Broadway stage in a revival of David Mamet’s “American Buffalo,” earning a Tony Award nomination for his performance.

Sam Rockwell has never been married but has been in a long-term relationship with actress Leslie Bibb since 2007. The couple has appeared together in films like “Iron Man 2” and “Don Verdean.” Rockwell has mentioned in interviews that he has no desire to become a parent.

Throughout his career, Sam Rockwell has received numerous awards and nominations for his outstanding performances. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a racist cop in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2017) and was nominated the following year for portraying George W. Bush in “Vice” (2018). Rockwell’s portrayal of Jason Dixon in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” also earned him a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a BAFTA Award.

In addition to his film accolades, Rockwell has been recognized for his work in theater. His portrayal of Bob Fosse in “Fosse/Verdon” earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, and his performance in the Broadway revival of “American Buffalo” garnered him a Tony Award nomination.

Sam Rockwell’s career has been marked by versatility, dedication, and remarkable performances. From his early days in independent films to his Hollywood recognition and success in theater, he has consistently impressed audiences and critics alike. With his ability to embody complex characters and deliver captivating performances, Rockwell has solidified his place as one of the most talented actors in the industry. As he continues to take on new projects, fans eagerly await his future endeavors and the captivating performances he will undoubtedly deliver.

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IFFR & GBG: ‘Madame Luna’ marks 8th collaboration between composer Jon Ekstrand and director Daniel Espinosa

Driven by the extraordinary central performance of Meninet Abraha Teferi, Madame Luna marks the return of Swedish-Chilean director Daniel Espinosa to a type of social issue cinema reminiscent of the Dardenne brothers, after a decade of star-studded work in America. (Adrien Martin, IFFR)
Inspired by true events, the film is a thrilling drama about an Eritrean refugee who is washed ashore in Libya, and with time becomes one of the most notorious human smugglers with deep ties to the Italian Mafia.

The collaborative journey of composer Jon Ekstrand and director Daniel Espinosa has been one of creative synergy and seamless teamwork, spanning eight projects since their film school days. From the early stages of sketching the film’s musical landscape, Ekstrand and Espinosa made a unique decision that would shape the sonic identity of ‘Madame Luna’. 

Choosing the clarinet as a primary narrative tool, Ekstrand initially sketched the score by playing the clarinet himself. Originally planning to bring in a professional clarinet player to replace these sketches, they ultimately decided to retain Ekstrand’s recordings. The raw, untrained quality of the clarinet, played a pivotal role in capturing the intended textural nature and emotional depth, seamlessly blending with the film’s landscape and storyline.

According to Ekstrand, the clarinet, in its unaltered state, became the emotive inner voice of the film, subtly alluding to the region of Northern Africa without overt literalism. This choice provided a unique and evocative sonic palette, offering an emotional resonance that resonates with the film’s narrative. The inclusion of other wind instruments, such as twisting windpipes and woodwinds, further contributed to the atmospheric storytelling, hinting at elements like sea, ship bells and fog horns. Together, these elements crafted a sonic tapestry that illustrated the treacherous journey of crossing the Mediterranean and the complex emotional landscape of the protagonist.

Ekstrand’s original score for ‘Madame Luna’ is set to be released in ATMOS (as it was also mixed in ATMOS), underscoring the commitment to delivering an immersive listening experience. As the score unfolds, it weaves together a rich and nuanced story, where the combination of atmospheric elements paints a vivid sonic landscape that mirrors the visual journey of ‘Madame Luna’.

Jon Ekstrand

About Jon Ekstrand:

Jon Ekstrand is a Stockholm based Swedish film composer and artist. Ekstrand began his career under the mentorship of acclaimed sound designer Owe Svensson, where he sharpened his skills at understanding the power of sound and its dramaturgic importance in helping a story realize its potential. In 1998, whilst attending Stockholm Film School, Ekstrand met Director Daniel Espinosa, in which the two formed a tight creative relationship which continues to this day.

Ekstrand and Espinosa have collaborated on 7 feature films, including the hit “Easy Money” Trilogy as well as Marvel film “Morbius” and Hollywood Studio Films “Child 44” and “Life”. Recent works include Amazon Studios drama thriller “All The Old Knives”, Lasse Hallströms “Hilma” a biopic on the life of Hilma af Klint,  Milad Alamani´s  psychological drama The Opponent andEspinosa´s arthouse drama thriller “Madame Luna”.

Jon has had a rich career within film, having worked the entire spectrum of the sound team, from boom operator, sound recordist, to sound designer and today as accoladed composer. Ekstrand is a self-confessed synthesizer addict, and generally starts building his scores around electro-acoustic elements. His scores range in genre from more minimal arthouse ambient to epic thriller drama´s, where he has recorded with full orchestra´s at both Air Studio in London as well as Colombia Studio´s and Sony Studio´s in Los Angeles. To date Ekstrand has scored over 35 films and TV series and has been awarded The Danish Film Institutes Robert Award, for his score to the 2019 film Queen of Hearts, as well as a Cannes Series Award for his score to the 2020 TV series Top Dog.

Ekstrand is actively engaged in the current diversity dilemma within the film industry and is part of a composer’s mentorship program arranged through the Swedish collecting society STIM.

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Refinement and Experimentation: Jenny Wu’s It Depends – Morton Fine Art, Washington D.C.

Washington, D.C. – Morton Fine Art is pleased to announce It Depends, a solo exhibition of new sculptural paintings by artist Jenny Wu. Returning with a new body of work following last year’s Ai Yo! (2023), Wu’s restless experimentation and curiosity continue to drive her exploration of composition, color, control, chance and surprise. Her studio practice tends to rigorously review and reuse; the seeds of one series are often born out of observations, lessons learned or leftover parts of another series. Expanding her technique with new formal and perceptual approaches, It Depends shines, blends and even tricks the eye, introducing elements of gradient and newfound illusion and depth into her work. Wu’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, It Depends, will be on view from February 15 – March 16, 2024 at Morton’s Washington, D.C. space (52 O St NW #302).

Jenny Wu. I Cringe Every Time I Have To Say My Name Backwards, 2023. 24 x 18 x 2.5 in. Latex paint and resin on wood panel. Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Continuing to build on her core practice, It Depends features Wu introducing a number of new forms and approaches: blending and gradient patterns, works on a hexagon panel, and works embedded with other designs and fragments (what Wu linkens to a “frame-in-frame” composition). Intimating nesting digital screens or forms behind glassy, opaque fields, these visual associates are incidental to Wu. Frequently sized at 36 x 12 in., Wu’s narrow, flowing gradient works (e.g. Reset to Zero at the Border Control, (2023)) remind her passingly of Chinese landscape and scroll painting; in her practice of change and surprise, it is interesting that some incidental elements are inescapable. To create all her works, the artist pours thick coats of latex paint onto silicone surfaces, allowing each layer to in turn dry completely before adding another layer of latex; Wu then cuts the accumulated paint to reveal layers of colorful cross-sections, often touched by chance elements. Using these cross-sections as her base units, Wu assembles her paintings, building up relief, depth, illusion and a minimalist’s sense of embodied paint, piece by piece.

Exploring new forms upon which to build her sculptural paintings, Wu has come to embrace the hexagon panel, finding in it a range of compositional and material opportunities. As can be seen in A Useless Tree Is A Tree (2023), Wu exploits the formal qualities of the hexagon to draw out and accentuate her sensation- and perception-minded use of color, volume and illusion.

Enlivened by her material, temporal approach to paint, the work twists with a thick perceptual frisson. Wu’s “frame-in-frame” paintings double down on her longstanding interest in transformation and in recording and embodying time, labor and incident. The result of Wu embedding rectangle forms into a larger frame that she then filled with paint, the shimmering vertical rectangles of dark turquoise and dull yellow in I Cringe Every Time I Have To Say My Name Backwards (2023) simultaneously foreground and underpin the work. The painting teases

at collage and self-reference. But with I Cringe Every Time… Wu is far more interested the effects of time and accumulation than any conceptual associations.

Jenny Wu. Reset to Zero At Border Control, 2023. 36 x 12 x 2.5 in. Latex paint and resin on wood panel. Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Titles continue to occupy an important, refracted role amid Wu’s practice. Moving on from sourcing her titles predominantly from the internet, Wu’s new titles spring diary-esque from the everyday. Wu notes down an interesting thought whenever one comes to her, adding overheard comments, wry faux-quotations and tidbits from the news to a running list over which she later reviews, choosing some to title new works. The titles and her approach to assembling and assigning them (often at random and by chance or wim) compound the constructive, layered and change elements of Wu’s paintings.

All the while demonstrating a greater feel and technique for pouring, drying and composing wet and dried paint—cracking that used to be a frequent element of the drying process is now far less present—It Depends finds Wu extending and deepening her practice, at once a refinement and a risk.

Jenny Wu. Courtesy Morton Fine Art and the artist

Jenny Wu is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, and the president of Touchstone Foundation for the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Wu’s work acknowledges the sensational and perceptual properties of materiality and then transforms the materials from their original forms and purpose to present them within new contexts. Her work has been reviewed by the Washington Post. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums including Denise Bibro Fine Art, Katzen Museum, Huntington Museum of Art, Reece Museum, Vilnius Academy of Arts in Lithuania, and CICA Museum in South Korea.

Wu’s works are in the permanent collections of the Flamboyan Foundation, University of Maryland College Park, Boston Consulting Group, Chautauqua Institution, DC Art Bank, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and so on. Wu has participated in numerous

Artist-In-Residence programs across the country; and has been awarded fellowships from Vermont Studio Center and the Pollock Krasner Foundation.

Jenny Wu was born in Nanjing, China. She holds a B.A. from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Studio Art as well as in Architectural Studies, and an M.F.A. in Studio Art from American University.

Morton Fine Art

Founded in 2010 in Washington D.C. by curator Amy Morton, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that art collecting can be cultivated through an educational stance, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to

museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of substantive exhibitions and a welcoming platform for dialogue and exchange of original voice. Morton Fine Art specializes in a

stellar roster of nationally and internationally renowned artists as well as has an additional focus on artwork of the African and Global Diaspora.

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Eddie Martinez: Wavelengths – Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York

NEW YORK (January 18, 2024) – Mitchell-Innes & Nash is pleased to announce our fifth solo exhibition with Brooklyn-based painter Eddie Martinez. Wavelengths will feature nine new paintings and will be on view from February 1 to March 9, 2024.

Over the past two decades, Martinez has become known for his striking and energetic style of painting, part of an expansive practice that includes painted bronze sculptures, works on paper and

printmaking. Deftly layering oil, acrylic and enamel paint, and employing an ever-evolving vocabulary of characters and symbols, Martinez has cultivated a style uniquely his own.

Many of the new paintings featured in Wavelengths

belong to Martinez’s ongoing Whiteouts series. Started in 2015, he has continuously returned to this series in which a colorful, underlying painting is covered with white paint. Ranging from a thick impasto to a thin wash, the final layer reads as a veil over the surface, softening but not hiding the vibrant image beneath.

With Full Bloom, Martinez returns to his well-known flowerpot series. A cartoonish flower emerges from a spherical pot, its petals pressing just beyond the edge of the canvas. Rich blues, reds, yellow and greens peek through but are obscured by both a thin whitewash and an opaque white line. The background and foreground collapse into each other, dissolving the flower into abstract, geometric building blocks. With another flowerpot painting, New Growth, Martinez pushes this idea further as the flowerpot composition seems to disassemble and reassemble before the viewer’s eyes.

In the largest painting in the show, Recent Growth, familiar forms jostle together in a visual cacophony: a leaf, a tennis ball, a flower, a blockhead. With no discernable focal point, the viewer’s eye travels from edge to edge, top to bottom revealing a lyrical dance of addition and subtraction, definition and erasure.

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Contemporary Artists’ Books On View at the Grolier Club

NEW YORK CITY – A new exhibition of contemporary artists’ books at the Grolier Club celebrates hundreds of years of communication through real and imagined languages. On view from February 29 through May 11, 2024 in the Club’s second floor gallery, Language, Decipherment, and Translation – from Then to Now presents a kaleidoscopic presentation of more than 50 books, collages, prints, and scrolls that feature hieroglyphics, translations of classic folktales, and other forms of written and visual language.

Curated by Grolier Club member Deirdre Lawrence—who was inspired in part by the recent 200th anniversary of the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone (1822)—the exhibition features many intricately detailed artists’ books by visionary contemporary artists. “Drawn primarily from my personal collection of approximately 2,000 books and prints, and growing, this exhibition reflects my collecting interests spanning the ancient world, especially Egypt; the work of Walt Whitman, who was himself enthralled by Ancient Egypt; the history of art, especially photography; and books made by contemporary artists,” said Lawrence.

Exhibition HighlightsBrian Dettmer, The Migration of Symbols (Brooklyn, NY: unique sculpted book, acrylic varnish, 2014). Intervention of a 1956 edition of Count Goblet D’Alviella’s book of the same title (1894).

The exhibition begins with a prelude of historical books documenting early attempts to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics. Among the works on view are an 1842 study by French linguist Jean-François Champollion, who in 1822 deciphered the Rosetta Stone’s Egyptian and Greek texts to unlock modern understanding of hieroglyphics, and an 1858 copy of a drawing of the Stone in the British Museum by Charles Reuben Hale, one of the authors of the first published English translation of the Rosetta Stone.

The exhibition then makes a seismic leap to current times, showcasing more than 40 contemporary artists’ books from 1984-2023 that explore themes related to language, decipherment, and translation through forms of communication including erasure and signs and symbols. Works on view feature inventive imagery, typography, design, printing, and bindings, such as the laser cut Arabic calligraphy in Islam Mahmoud Mohamed Aly’s Marginalia 1 (2013) that appears burned into the pages. In The Flight into Egypt: The Third Magnitude (2009-2010), artist Timothy C. Ely depicts a fantastical world of floating pyramids, topographic maps, and scrolls with his own personal writing system called “Cribriform.” Laura Davidson’s book Useful Knowledge (1998) has hand-colored Linoleum prints inspired by an Italian book she found with patterns, letter forms, and text blocks that have deeply influenced her artmaking for decades.

Unique sculpted books on view include Brian Dettmer’s The Migration of Symbols (2014), an intervention of a 1956 edition of Count Goblet d’Alviella’s 1894 book of the same title, which the artist has transformed through intricate cuts, in what he calls “an archeological excavation, exposing a dense cluster of fragmented symbols and ideas.” José Maria Sicilia’s Le Livre des Mille Nuits et Une Nuit (2015) is an intervention of a 1910 edition of The 1001 Nights incorporating lithography, photogravure, woodcuts, and embroidery. Colorful embroidery stitches spread across the pages in patterns inspired by the artist’s research into the visual rendering of sound.

Allen Crawford and Walt Whitman, Whitman Illuminated: Song of Myself, illustrated by Allen Crawford (Portland, Ore. & Brooklyn, NY: Tin House Books, 2014).

History and storytelling connect other works, such as Sabra Moore’s Reconstruction Project (1984), a collaborative artists’ book that resembles a Mayan codex, which was inspired by the 1566 work Yucatan Before and After the Conquest by Friar Diego de Landa with imagery of the Dresden and Madrid codices. Didier Mutel’s La Pierre Rosette (2015) is printed at a 1:1 scale with its ancient precursor and contains three original alphabets designed by Mutel, which the artist has described as “a typographic transposition, or pastiche of letterforms.” Joydeb and Moyna Chitrakar’s painted scroll Tsunami (2019) commemorates the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed more than 230,000 people. Thought to be the first Patua scroll in book form, it is a fable on narrative graphic panels, stitched together to form a scroll.

Also on view are works that reflect Walt Whitman’s influence on contemporary artists, including Allen Crawford’s Whitman Illuminated: Song of Myself (2014), a contemporary illuminated manuscript that captures the poet’s words and sensibility through hand-drawn images and verse that freely flow on vibrant blue pages; and Meg Hitchcock’s Chanting the Square Deific (2014), a maze-like collage reconstructing a poem by Whitman with letters cut from an old German Bible.

Programming

The Grolier Club will host related free public programs, including lunchtime exhibition tours on March 8 and April 5, from 1:00 – 2:00 PM. A lecture by artist Didier Mutel will occur on April 9, 6:00 – 7:00 PM; an Artists’ Keynote Lecture is planned on April 29, time TBA; and a Virtual Exhibition Tour and Curator Q&A will take place on May 2, 6:00 – 7:30 PM. More details can be found at http://grolierclub.eventbrite.com.

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Will (2024) Movie on Netflix – Antwerp in World War II: A Police Drama

Will is a new drama movie written and directed by Tim Mielants starring Stef Aerts, Matteo Simoni, and Annelore Crollet. It is based on the novel by Jeroen Olyslaegers.

The film “Will” is a realistic and moving depiction of the dark tragedy that took place in Europe during World War II in the occupied city of Antwerp, Belgium by the Nazi regime.

The quality of the cinematography and well-developed script, along with well-defined characters, make this film a visual and moving experience. However, its sole purpose is to show the cruelty of war.

In this film, the distinction between the good guys and the bad guys is clear, in a police thriller structure that leaves nothing to the imagination about human evil. Although it offers nothing new, it is aesthetically well made and maintains a good pace.

About the film

“Will” is a good choice to watch on Netflix, especially for those looking to immerse themselves in a world of injustice, where the good guys are very good and the bad guys are very bad.

There is no middle ground, nor does it delve into metaphysical musings on war. Instead, it focuses on the facts, the investigation and the drama that took place in the Belgian city under Nazi occupation. Although the plot seems to be an excuse to recreate the atmosphere and atrocity of the war, the director manages to stay true to reality.

“Will” stands out for its pace and impressive aesthetics, with elaborate shots, impeccable sets and an almost terrifying atmosphere that accompanies the plot effectively.

Our opinion

“Will” is a good film that offers a macabre vision of World War II, trying to be both a dark thriller and a historical document. Although its thriller approach is more convincing, it is still a film worth watching.

Where to Watch “Will”

Netflix

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Baby Bandito (2024) Netflix Series: A famous heist, a boy with character, and a complete change of life

Baby Bandito is a new Chilean series starring Nicolás Contreras. With Francisca Armstrong, Pablo Macaya and Carmen Zabala among others.

“Baby Bandito” is Netflix’s latest offering for lovers of thrillers and heists, this time with a social component.

A series set to the beat of the most popular songs and with a lot of rhythm.

Plot

Kevin Tapia is a Chilean who lives in a poor neighborhood and struggles to survive with his mother. With a father in prison, Kevin has a tough life, but he has talent, especially for organizing the biggest heist in Chilean history.

This is his story.

About the series

“Baby Bandito” is not an original series, it’s not a series that aims to grab attention with its theme or innovative aesthetic proposal: it’s the story of a boy from the neighborhood who achieves his dream, even if it’s not entirely legal. Funny, with a lot of rhythm, and a charming, charismatic protagonist.

“Baby Bandito” is a well-told story, with a good script and a solid foundation: it doesn’t preach moral lessons or try to be a series that will go down in history for its aesthetic proposal: it simply fulfills what is expected in the genre, organizing a classic plot of characters, romance, and action in a coherent and balanced way, giving the audience what they expect.

“Baby Bandito” is a very realistic series, with believable sets, and it tries to distance itself from Hollywood style at all times: it tells the story with rhythm, but remains faithful to the context and does not try to idealize anything. It can be brutal when necessary and makes cinematic concessions, but always maintains a sense of credibility.

A tough, entertaining, funny, romantic, and exciting story. Well-written in terms of script and pacing, but it doesn’t surprise in terms of structure, originality, or technical execution.

Where to Watch “Baby Bandito”

Netflix

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Alexander: The Making of a God (2024): A Netflix Docuseries on Alexander the Great

Alexander: The Making of a God is a documentary series directed by Hugh Ballantyne and Stuart Elliott.

The powerful Darius, determined to save the greatest empire on Earth, Persia, is faced by Alexander the Great. Alexander was just an ambitious young Macedonian, son of Philip II of Macedonia and Olympias, one of the monarch’s seven wives.

“Alexander: The Making of a God” is a documentary series that features spectacular dramatizations, enhanced by modern CGI effects, giving the documentary a special realism. This is not something we haven’t seen before, as it has been used in other series about historical figures like Dracula or the Persian Empire itself: a formula that combines dramatization with interviews and classic documentary techniques, which definitely works.

“Alexander: The Making of a God” focuses on Alexander the Great’s struggle against the Persians and, above all, how he managed to create this legend of a god on Earth, a way to make the population believe that they were truly experiencing something magnificent and divine.

Did Alexander’s propaganda technique of the time work? Even though we know the ending, “Alexander: The Making of a God” is still a fascinating documentary, providing information and combining the personal side of the character with his strategic and imperialistic vision.

A six-episode documentary series, six hours to relive the story of Alexander the Great and his greatness that still lives on today in texts, memories, and, obviously, in Egypt, in the marvelous city of Alexandria, founded by the great Alexander the Great. Enjoy it.

Where to Watch “Alexander: The Making of a God”

Netflix

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