A comparison the media often uses is that
the Venice Biennale is like the Olympics of Art. While it doesn't make much
sense - after all athletes are celebrated for the number of Olympics they have
competed in whereas you tend to only get one go at Venice. However, the media
could certainly reach for the elite sport comparison when you consider what NZ
art high achievers have been up to around the world over the past few months.
Fiona Connor has been commissioned to
present a project at the inaugural Expo Chicago this month while Simon Denny
has just been nominated by a bunch on European art museum directors and
curators for the Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst 2013 and is
just off a solo show at the Aspen Art Museum.
Then there's Francis Upritchard who has
accompanied her solo exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary with her first US
solo exhibition A long wait at
Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati. And of course Michael Stevenson who has a
major project running at the reopening of the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City is
also opening at Portikus in Frankfurt with his solo installation A life of crudity, vulgarity, and blindness.
Rohan Wealleans is working the top
shelf too with a collaborative exhibition at Sadie
Coles in London with YBA star Sara Lucas. Not
forgetting Alex Monteith's video installation at one of Germany’s most
prestigious contemporary venues the MMK in Berlin as well as Sriwhana Spong's
participation in the Artists Film International at the Whitechapel in London
and solo exhibition at the Neuer Kunstverein in Vienna.
Even five years ago a list like this would
have been unimaginable and it only represents a small part of what's happening
off shore. But don’t hold your breathe waiting for the media to feature all or even any
of all this - you’ll just find yourself face down on the floor going a funny colour.
