Flash Art #347 – Summer 2024

Covers: Judy Chicago photographed by Joshua Woods / Peter Shire photographed by Jack Bool / Bárbara Sánchez-Kane photographed by Luca Grottoli / Brook Hsu photographed by Luis Corzo / Lu Yang; features: Letter from the Editor; Cover Story MY HAND, MY HEART, MY ART. Judy Chicago in Conversation with Pierce Eldridge; Cover Story Green Pill. Brook Hsu by Margaret Kross; Cover Story Ass to Mouth Forever! Bárbara Sánchez-Kane in Conversation with Michael Bullock; Cover Story WHERE'S THE ROMANCE? Peter Shire in Conversation with Gea Politi; Cover Story I am Stream of Consciousness. Lu Yang by Emily McDermott; Focus On Los Angeles Things End, People Forget by Ezra Nayssan; Impossible Thinking. Megan Plunkett in Conversation with Gracie Hadland; What is X? Lutz Bacher by Emily Labarge; An illegible World. Sung Tieu by Philipp Hindahl; Critic Dispatch Before We Dreamt in Halves. 60th Venice Biennale by Estelle Hoy; The Curist HOA, São Paulo Igi Lola Ayedun in Conversation with Mateus Nunes; Private Eyes. Diamond Stingily by Whitney Mallett; Dreaming Before Language. Sin Wai Kin by Alice Bucknell; Unpack / Reveal / Unleash Present Tense. Win McCarthy by Alex Bennett; Letter from the City The Room is the City by Ghislaine Leung; reviews: Whitney Biennial 2024 "Even Better Than the Real Thing" Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, by Madeleine Seidel; Olivia Erlanger "If Today Were Tomorrow" CAMH – Contemporary Arts Museum Houston by Rosa Boshier González; Mohamed Bourouissa "SIGNAL" Palais de Tokyo, Paris, by Pascale Krief; Nancy Holt "Circle of Light" Gropius Bau, Berlin, by Andreas Schlaegel; Pierre Huyghe "Liminal" Punta della Dogana, Venice, by Jordan Richman; Roni Horn, Hauser & Wirth, Menorca, by Alessio Avventuroso; Aki Sasamoto "Sounding Lines" Para Site, Hong Kong, by Ran Zhang.

BACKDROP EFFECT is the title of Flash Art International's summer issue, which explores how artist practices can sometimes serve as serene places of healing, providing viewers with a sense of confidence. We look at how art can foster a restorative process that benefits both artist and audience, creating a symbiotic relationship of empowerment and personal growth.
"Drawing is like breathing," says Judy Chicago, the subject of this issue's first cover story. Chicago, wearing Dior, was photographed by Joshua Woods in her studio in Belen, New Mexico. In conversation with Pierce Eldridge, Chicago reveals that she began drawing before she started breathing, adopting a language in which the hand, heart, and mind are tightly interconnected. Her drawings — currently on display in the major retrospective "REVELATIONS" at Serpentine, London — function as empowerment tools, addressing themes such as birth, creation, and the role of women throughout history in the patriarchal art world.
The second cover story of the summer issue features Brook Hsu, who, wearing Kiko Kostadinov×Levi's by Laura and Deanna Fanning, was photographed by Luis Corzo in her studio in Long Island City. Lost in her washed-green Wyoming landscapes, Hsu maintains a precise understanding of every shape, dune, and corner of her surroundings. As Margaret Kross writes, "The green that frequently bathes her fairytale forests, sobbing demons, and apparitional portraits is poem and material: leaking and seeping, with puke and toxins and nature and growth, green-eyed and green-screened, a soothing wavelength for the eye and the simulation realm in The Matrix."
Bárbara Sánchez-Kane is the subject of this issue's third cover story, which focuses on his participation in the 60th Venice Biennale, "Foreigners Everywhere," with his work Prêt-à-Patria (2021). In the days leading up to the exhibition's opening, Sánchez-Kane was photographed in Venice by Luca Grottoli wearing Kuboraum eyewear. In conversation with Michael Bullock, the artist discusses his radical ideas regarding power, gender, Catholicism, and nationalism, and how these concepts are embedded in clothing.
For the fourth cover story, Peter Shire was photographed by Jack Bool wearing JW Anderson in his studio, where he talked with Flash Art editor-in-chief Gea Politi during "just another bucolic afternoon in Echo Park, Los Angeles, with the cars making wooshing sounds as they go by." Shire, embodying his own particular body language, spirit, and sense of humor, shares his ideas about pushing boundaries within his creative practice.
The final cover story presents Lu Yang (with Doku, his avatar) on the occasion of his solo show "DOKU The Flow" at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris. The artist explains to Emily McDermott that "essentially, there are only two things in my life: spiritual practice and work," reminding us that whether real or virtual, our bodies and minds are entwined.

This issue comes with five different covers, randomly distributed.

Flash Art is a contemporary art and culture magazine (and a publishing platform) founded in 1967. Within a decade, it became an indispensable point of reference for artists, critics, collectors, galleries, and institutions. In 2020, Flash Art became a quarterly publication, at the same time increasing its trim size and updating its graphic identity. The magazine offers a fresh perspective on the visual arts, covering a range of transdisciplinary approaches and fostering in-depth analyses of artist practices and new cultural directions. Today, Flash Art remains required reading for all who navigate the international art scene.
Flash Art is known for it covers featuring artists who subsequently become leading figures in the art world. The magazine includes photoshoots, productions, critical essays, monographic profiles, conversations with emerging and established artists, and a range of ongoing and thematic columns that change every few years. The long history of the magazine is also highlighted by pivotal texts from the archive that are included in the publication time to time. Finally, every issue offers a highly curated selection of the best institutional exhibitions on the global scene.
See also Flash Art Volumes.

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published in June 2024

English edition

22,5 x 29 cm (softcover)

264 pages (ill.)

25.00 €

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