Naima Morelli

Archive
Essay

charcoal

I have contributed an essay titled “Rules, imagination, and magic powder” to the catalogue of the Drawing Future exhibition at CushCush Gallery in Bali. My words are in the very good company of texts by John Andrews, Mella Jaarsma and Natalie Sprite.

A few words on CushCush Gallery; this is an alternative platform for contemporary art and design in Denpasar. Suriawati Qiu and Jindee Chua have founded the gallery to share art and design with their local creative community, general public, as well as generate conversations with international artists and creative people.

Within the gallery many initiatives, the Charcoal For Children program is a social project that put together 6 working artists and children in 3 sessions, to create collaborative artworks together. As the name suggests, the yearly program focuses on Charcoal as the medium, to foster creativity amongst children. I have been honoured to have given my small contribution in the form of a write-up about creativity to such an exciting project!

Here’s the pdf version of the essay

Read More

ArtStage2017

Asian webmagazine and collectors’ platform CoBo has just published my report from Art Stage Singapore 2017 titled “Why Having Less International Galleries at Art Stage Singapore 2017 was Actually a Good Thing”.

As the title suggests, I see the tendency to develop a “glocality” in the art market as generally positive – giving character to art fairs which would otherwise be all lookalikes. The regional features of Art Stage 2017 are far from being a directed by the organizer of Art Stage; it all depended from a series of circumstances that modified the Asian art ecosystem.

I spoke with the present and absent galleries to explain what happened.

Here’s the link to the article

Read More

2
“Scholastic years” are perhaps more meaningful for many in framing seasons of life than actual “calendar years”. Summer is the great divider, and for me September has often corresponded in looking for a new house and resuming old and new plans. And yet, the end of the year is a great opportunity to stop and look back at the recent past, review one’s own narrative, look at mind-shifts, shift of priorities, meditate on lesson, remember the great moments and trying to get to know oneself better (hopefully).

Read More

montella

EN: Il Ramo D’Oro is a special place in Naples for artistic reflection which is truly grassroots, and for the gathering of an international art community. Upon request of Il Ramo D’Oro’s director, Vincenzo Montella, I have written an essay called “Flow and rigidity in challenging the borders” reflecting on the experience of the series of international shows Oltreconfine. This included Attualità Indonesiane which I co-curated.

The Oltreconfine book – where you can find my essay alongside the ones of authors such as Made Bayak e Judicael Ouango – is now available on Amazon.

Here the English version: Beyond-Borders: Art and Resilience in the Internet Era

ITA: Il Ramo D’Oro è un posto unico a Napoli dove sviluppare riflessioni artistiche genuine e dove coltivare una comunità artistica internazionale. Su richiesta del fondatore del Ramo D’Oro, Vincenzo Montella, ho scritto un breve saggio chiamato “Fludità e rigidità nel mettere in discussione i confini”, il quale riflette sull’esperienza della rassegna internazionale Oltreconfine. Questa ha incluso Attualità Indonesiane che ho co-curato.

Il libro di Oltreconfine, nel quale si trova il mio saggio insieme a quello di altri autori, tra cui Made Bayak e Judicael Ouango, è ora disponibile su Amazon.

Ecco la versione italiana: Oltreconfine: Arte e resilienza nell’era di internet

Qui sotto un estratto dal mio testo:

Read More

enecaa2

My essay on the work of Uzbek artist Alexander Barkovsky has just been published by ENECAA, an online platform for researching, collecting and advising about Central Asian art.

I feel the work of Alexandr Barkovskiy is a great visual paradigm for whoever seeks to understand the contemporary cultural scene in Uzbekistan and Central Asia at large. Having recently exhibited at the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art and Gallery Andakulovoy in Dubai, this 37-year-old artist encapsulates the key cultural transformations Uzbekistan has been undergoing in recent years.

Here is the link to the article

Read More

indopoppainting


Indo Pop Painting draws influences from comics and graffiti. In this essay for the Hong Kong-based webmagazine CoBo I analyze a style that goes beyond a simple market trend. From the “fathers” of the style, such as Eddie Hara, Heri Dono and Agung Kurniawan, to the “older brothers” Uji ‘Hahan’ Handoko and Eko Nugroho, and the plethora of younger 20-something artists, Indo Pop is here to stay.

Here is the link to the article

 

banner2

Read More

enecaa1

Learning about new artists, new countries, different ways of seeing the world and conceiving life is the reason why being an arts writer is such an amazing job. With ENECAA, an online platform for researching, collecting and advising about Central Asian art, I had the chance to explore a bit Uzbekistan through the work of one of its most appreciated artist, Timur Akhmedov.

Here is the link to the article

 

 

Read More

murni

I have just started a new series for the webmagazine CoBo about Indonesian contemporary painters. The first installment is Murni, recently celebrated in the show Merayakan Murni at Ketemu Project Space and Sudakara Art Space in Bali.

Here is the link to the article

 

banner2

Read More

gcsatire

Global Comment has just published my article titled “It’s not just a cartoon: why satire should come of age”. Writing for Global Comment gives me the chance to get a little bit out of my comfort zone, writing about topics not necessarily related to contemporary art and – like in this case – making reflections and drawing connections to the news of the day.

In this piece I’m referring to the parallel upheavals caused by Charlie Hebdo’s cartoon on the earthquake in Italy and The Australian’s cartoon of the Aboriginal dad. While coming from different contexts, both caused a stir. I’m looking at why this happened, and how satire should take into consideration in a modern, more complex world.

Here is the link to the piece

 

Read More

lasluccio

Italian webmagazine Art a Part of Culture has just published an article on Laslo Iera’s open studio, with the title “Surrealism on the Prenestina” (that’s the street of Rome where Laslo’s studio is located).

When you write about your dear redhead friend, you must force yourself to step back from a work that you saw in its evolution, and look at things more objectively. My strategy in arts writing is going personal with artists you don’t know, and being more detached with artists you know way to well.

I feel it balances things; with my articles I want to give information about the work but also give an peek into the personality of artists, and what brought them to realize a certain work. Laslo’s ideas are powerful and his aesthetic is polarizing: you either love it or hate it – just like the artists who created it.

Here’s the link to the article

 

Read More

eddysusanto

Lately I haven’t written a whole lot of art critique in the real sense of the word, dedicating myself more to articles or interviews. Every so often though, I encounter artworks that I just can’t shut up about. This is the case with the latest pieces of Indonesian artist Eddy Susanto, who is one of my favorite contemporary artists ever; so I wrote this piece for CoBo, reading through the cross-references inside “Transhumanism Paradox (Dante’s Divine Comedy)” and “PANJI: The Linguistic Culture of Southeast Asia”, which will be realized for the upcoming Singapore Biennial. The first work was particularly interesting to explore as an Italian researching Indonesian art; it was the perspective of an Indonesian artist on what is a staple of Italian literature.

Here is the link to the piece

 

banner2

Read More

SgArtistsNature

Hong-Kong based magazine Cobo has just published my new article on the way Singaporean artists work with the topic of nature. This is an ideal second episode of a series on artists and nature which started with this piece on Indonesian artists and nature. In the book I’m currently working on, focused on Singaporean contemporary art, I have an entire chapter out of four dedicated to the dichotomy nature/urban through the eyes of artists, and the specific form it takes in the Lion City.

Here is the link to the article

Read More