Studio Drift invites us to reflect on the impact of technology and digitalisation on our society. Several recent works explore the paradoxical relationship between the real and the virtual world.
Museum Van Loon: Dutch nobility and architectural grandness
Amsterdam’s greatest cultural wealths are certainly the many Dutch noble houses located near the picturesque canals.
During my stay in Amsterdam, I had the chance to visit one of the most stunning villas: Museum Van Loon, which used to be the residence of the merchant family of Van Loon.
The Amsterdam vintage guide
I would define Amsterdam as a real “vintage paradise” – While being much underrated in comparison to London or Paris, the Dutch city is packed with old gems. Basically every street is scoring high marks with their vintage spots.
Gucci Garden: Exploring the history of an Italian leather icon
Gucci Garden pays hommage to Florence as the cultural center of Italy and Europe, especially during the Renaissance. All under one roof you will find high fashion, as well as visual arts and fine gourmet food.
Heidi Horten: Private modernist collection goes public
The exhibition “WOW! The Heidi Horten Collection” is the first public unveiling of one of Europe’s most sensational private art collections. The exhibition fulfills the collector’s long-cherished wish to make the masterpieces she has carefully assembled since the 1990s, spanning from Gustav Klimt to Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst, available to a broad audience.
Keith Haring: The street artist as political activist
Keith Haring’s art gets very often associated with rather amusing or humorous illustrations. But if you dare to take a closer look, you may as well find some rather negative, sometimes even frightening symbols of topics such as violence, hate and power structures. Haring himself conceived his artistic practice as a political statement in the public realm of New York.
Madame Rubinstein: A female mission of beauty, style and art
Madame Rubinstein was known throughout the world as a collector, friend and patroness of the arts. Since her Paris days (1930s), Rubinstein had been collecting contemporary art, as well as African sculptures, which were exhibited in 1935 at MoMA. The salons were embellished with works by Brancusi, de Chirico, Laurencin, Marcoussis, Modigliani and Nadelman, among others.
Carla Sozzani’s revolutionary concept of a living magazine
Former fashion editor and publisher Carla Sozzani, is the creative woman behind the idea of a virtual narrative, using the gallery and bookshop as its core.
The construction of a living magazine is connected to editorial choices in food and fashion, music and art, lifestyle and design which are meant for engagement with the customers / visitors along the different areas of cultural exploration.
Questioning cultural identity at the Weltmuseum Wien
Lisl Ponger has long explored the constructed nature of (cultural) identity, our—often stereotypical— ideas and images of “the other” and the associated questions of visual representation. Her works frequently engage with the academic disciplines of ethnology and anthropology, whose methods and politics become manifest in the collection and exhibition practices of ethnographic museums.
Artist talk with Christopher Mudgett: Black and white as a metaphor for humanity
For me, black and white is a metaphor for the human experience. These two colors are on opposite ends of the spectrum, so for me they represent the duality experienced in life, the struggle within us all. The constant pulling in both directions, the battle between good/evil, night/day, love/hate, sad/happy etc. that we all face indefinitely.
Chicago art project at Fondazione Prada
The project is focused on the employment of a painting style characterised by a political commitment, figurative narratives and radical graphics that have been rejected by New York’s mainstream culture. The exhibition is structured around three thematic sections, all of them devoted to two generations of artists formed in Chicago between the 1950s and 60s.
Contemporary art meets politics
The exhibition “Natural Histories – Traces of the Political” explores representations of nature in reference to social processes and historical events. Looking at various themes, these works show the mutual interrelations between nature and history beyond all idyllic idealisation.
Nature is mainly seen as a scenery of peace and silence. Nevertheless many artists utilise exactly this “perfect image” to point at various issues or conflicts.
