“Before you start painting, you’re a person in flux, multi-dimensional and colourful. You decide what characteristics you want to embody as a painter prior to entering the studio each day, ” says Ruben Pang from his studio in Sardinia, Italy.
I have interviewed the artist for Plural Art Mag for his new online solo show at Primo Marella Gallery.
Here is the link to the interview
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Tripoli-born art entrepreneur and educator Shatha Sbeta is very clear about her objective. “I want to bring Libyan female artists and their artworks — as well as their stories — out to the world through commerce.”
My research on Libyan contemporary art continues with an interview with Shatha Sbeta for the webmagazine Middle East Monitor.
Here is the link to the interview
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“For me, there is always a visceral element to how I create,” tells me Suha Araj from her home in Brooklyn. “That’s why I’m always drawn to the stories of the Diaspora, because that’s where I have the most emotion. I’m interested in how people survive, and the clashes of living between two cultures.”
My interview with Palestinian-American director Suha Araj has just been published on Middle East Monitor. It was a wonderful conversation that opened up to me new learning not only about Arab cinema, but also about how one becomes a director.
Here is the link to the interview
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The Singapore-based webmagazine Plural Art Mag has just published an interview with artist Justin Lee and Teng Jee Hum, one half of the Teng Collection, together with June Ong.
It was beautiful to learn how their synergies came together to create a one-of-a-kind show at The Private Museum in Singapore.
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Sui Hui-Yu is a Taiwanese artist and film director whose oeuvre is at times startling for its depictions of crude violence and explicit sexuality. However, the refined aesthetics of the visual imagery and cinematography make it irresistible to turn away from the screen.
I happened to really enjoy the work of this incredible artists, and I have interviewed him for the Hong-Kong based webmagazine CoBo Social.
Here is the link to the interview
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I have been following the Taipei Biennial for three editions now, and I have always found an incredible timeliness of themes, and a great execution.
I have written about the 2020-2021 edition for Plural Art Mag, a cool and energetic new magazine from Singapore that I had the great pleasure to collaborate with.
The article is an interview with the curators of the new edition of the Taipei Biennale, Bruno Latour, Martin Guinard and Eva Lin
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In the last couple of years I have been developing a growing fascination with the complexities of Libyan culture. While in my past I have been focused mainly on how Italian artists were looking at colonialism in Libya, now I’m starting to delve on the voices of Libyan artists themselves.
And what a better way of approaching the subject than interviewing Najlaa Elageli for Middle East Monitor. She has greatly contributed to spread the knowledge on contemporary Libyan art in the country and abroad.
Here is the link to the interview
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Artist, director and poet Hind Shoufani insists that her Palestinian-ness is a political act. “It is a choice to be on this side of history,” she tells me, “whether we triumph or not, whether I carry some piece of identification paper with blue colours on it, or green colours on it, or rainbow glitter tie-dye on it.”
Middle East Monitor has just published my interview with Hind Shoufani.
Here is the link to the interview
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Among the different research I’m currently conducting around different themes and places in contemporary art, one of the interest trail in Italian colonialism in North Africa.
I have written some pieces about Italian colonialism in Libya, and now I looked at Ethiopia and Eritrea with Eritrean-born artist Dawit L. Petros.
He has focused for over a decade on a critical re-reading of colonialism. His artworks aim for an introspective and textured analysis of the historical factors that determined migrations, and his practice always includes extensive research on the field.
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Middle East Monitor has just published my interview with Lena Merhej, Karen Keyrouz and Barrack Rima, members of the Lebanese comics collective Samandal
Here is the link to the article
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It’s always a privilege to be able to interview cultural figures I have been admiring for a long time. Since my first inception to Singapore, I wowed at the green architecture of the firm WOHA.
Thanks to a virtual show at Gajah Gallery, I have found out WOHA’s founder Richard Hassell is also an art lover and collector. He curated the show Complex Humour highlighting works by I GAK Murniasih and Yunizar.
Both artists present humourous works overlaid with much more difficult themes, as well as tribal elements.
Here is the link to the interview
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My interview with illustrator and comic book artist Andrea Serio has just been published on the Italian webmagazine Art a Part of Culture.
I have been admiring this artist for many years, and is no exaggeration to say that his art influenced my way of looking at the landscape.
Here is the link to the interview
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Naima Morelli is an arts writer and journalist specialized in contemporary art from Asia-Pacific and the MENA region.
She has written for the Financial Times, Al-Jazeera, The Art Newspaper, ArtAsiaPacific, Internazionale and Il Manifesto, among others, and she is a regular contributor to Plural Art Mag, Middle East Monitor and Middle East Eye as well as writing curatorial texts for galleries.
She is the author of three books on Southeast Asian contemporary art.
Reach out: contact [at] naimamorelli.com
