2008 Exhibitions Programme Highlights
FEBRUARY 2008
23 February – 22 March 2008
Encounters LINA SANEH: I Had a Dream, Mom
The first UK presentation of theatre and performance artist Lina Saneh’s video I Had A Dream, Mom. A mother listens to her daughter recount a strange dream of a deserted city haunted by ghosts and interrogates her on its meaning. Born in 1966, Saneh lives and works in Beirut.
2 April - 1 June 2008
Mircea Cantor: The Need for Uncertainty
Modern Art Oxford launches an ambitious new series of artists’ commissions produced in collaboration with Arnolfini, Bristol and Camden Arts Centre, London. The first commission by Mircea Cantor presents a new sculptural installation in Modern Art Oxford’s Upper Gallery elaborating on the theme of uncertainty. A carved wooden form wrapped around the trunk of a tree in a Transylvanian forest and a flying carpet woven with motifs of angels and aeroplanes are some of the elements used by Cantor to prompt reflections on worlds within worlds, and on freedom and its limitations.
Mircea Cantor: The Need for Uncertainty will be presented at Arnolfini, Bristol, 13 September to 16 November 2008 and Camden Arts Centre, London, 13 February to 12 April 2009.
Supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute in London. 3: 3 artists / 3 spaces / 3 years is funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
2 April - 1 June 2008
Ansel Adams: Photographs
An exhibition of more than seventy photographs, hand-printed and selected by the American photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams (1902–1984). This timely exhibition includes Adams’ photographs of the magnificent landscapes for which he is most celebrated, from the soaring monoliths of Yosemite National Park to the lakes and mountains of Alaska. Spanning a period of fifty years, from the 1920s to the 1970s, the exhibition reveals the place of Adams’ work in a tradition of American photographers of the sublime natural landscape.
Ansel Adams: Photographs is organised by Modern Art Oxford. All works are from the collection of Anne Adams Helms. The exhibition tours to the New Art Gallery, Walsall and Kunstmuseum, Bergen.
2 April - 1 June 2008
Encounters: Katie Paterson
Katie Paterson creates poetic works of art that address our physical landscape in unimagined and inspiring ways. Paterson generated excitement around the world with her work Vatnajökull (the sound of), presented as part of her 2007 Slade School Degree Show, inviting visitors to call a number that connected them to Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland from where they could hear the sounds of ice melting.
Originally organised for one week, Paterson re-presents Vatnajökull (the sound of) for nine weeks as part of her exhibition in Modern Art Oxford’s Lower Gallery, together with the haunting Earth-Moon-Earth (Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the Moon). The exhibition is the third in our Encounters series, and Paterson’s first in a UK public gallery. Born in Glasgow in 1981, the artist lives and works in London.
15 June - 31 August 2008
Gary Hume: Door Paintings
Modern Art Oxford presents a survey of British artist Gary Hume’s Door Paintings. Twenty years after Hume first excited critics and public alike with his high-gloss, monochrome paintings based on institutional doors, this exhibition traces their evolution, from the first monochrome canvases of the late 1980s to the luscious multi-panel works of the early 90s and Hume’s return to the motif in recent years. The first opportunity to consider this important body of work by the artist from a broad and compelling perspective. Gary Hume was born in Kent in 1962 and lives and works in London and upstate New York. Organised by Modern Art Oxford.
15 June - 31 August 2008
Encounters: Victor Alimpiev
Modern Art Oxford presents the first UK exhibition of work by Russian artist Victor Alimpiev. In his films and videos Alimpiev investigates the subtleties of human expression: moments of awkwardness, habits, and the relationship of the individual to the collective. Born in 1973, the artist lives and works in Moscow.
15 October 2008 - 18 January 2009
Janet Cardiff/George Bures Miller
Janet Cardiff and her long-term collaborator George Bures Miller are known for their immersive installations involving sound, images and objects that engage the viewer’s senses in the creation of alternative realities. The exhibition will fill all five galleries at Modern Art Oxford and include new and recent work not previously seen in the UK. Janet Cardiff was born in Brussels, Ontario, Canada in 1957. George Bures Miller was born in 1960 in Vegreville, Alberta, Canada. Organised in collaboration with The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh.
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