A collection can represent many different things; it can be a statement, contribution, research, even a love story. In the case of retired German doctor, Christoph Bendick, who has worked in Phnom Penh for 25 years, it’s the story of an encounter with a country whose painful recent history is interlaced with the resilience and strength of its people.
I have interviewed the collector for the Singapore-based magazine Plural.
Here is the link to the interview
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Many of us have misconceptions and preconceived ideas about the art scene in the Gulf countries. Hence, when we see the work of a gallery like Hunna/ هُنَّ — founded this year and representing eight women artists from the Gulf — we open our eyes in disbelief.
How can these artists possibly talk about such thorny issues, like questions of power or the female body, and get away with it? We speak about it on Middle East Monitor with the founder of Hunna, gallerist Océane Sailly
Here is the link to the interview
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My second article for the collector’s webmagazine Larry’s List is an interview to Italian fashion mogul and collector Luciano Benetton.
Dubbed “Imago Mundi”, his collection and world-wide project spans from New Zealand to Burkina Faso, covering 80 countries for a total of over 10,000 artworks.
Here is the link to the interview
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I have been researching and writing about Indonesian contemporary art since 2012 – for almost ten years now – and it’s incredible to see always new exceptional talent emerge from this country.
Balinese artist Citra Sasmita has been on my radar as one of the most interesting emerging artists out there. Her work is visually captivating and luring, and so important in terms of bringing forth new narratives of freedom, empowerment and liberation, for women and beyond. These are the stories, the art we need.
By now, if you follow my writing, you’ll know that I’m mesmerized by works that reinterpret old mythologies in the contemporary context, delve into history by mixing high brow and low brow, eastern and western archetypes. And in that, Sasmita’s work is quite something.
I have spoken to Citra Sasmita for Singapore-based Plural art magazine.
Here is the link to the interview
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Every time I write something for the webmagazine Art a Part of Culture, it’s always like a coming home. This was one of the first magazines I started writing for, more than 10 years ago now, and the amazing team of Barbara, Isabella and Gianpaola still lovely supports my every project.
This time I got the chance to delve into the back story behind my new graphic novel “The Mighty Hour”. I explored a period in history – that of the Italy of the ’30s, where women were reclaiming room for themselves as athletes.
It’s quite interesting and timely to look at this part of women empowerment, as the Olympics just drew to a close
Here is the link to the article (in Italian)
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Despite a lack of cultural spaces, as well as ongoing political and economic instability, Libyan artists are determined to nurture their diverse arts scene.
I have spoken to a few of these important figures, working from Tripoli, Benghazi or from abroad, for Middle East Eye.
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I’m so proud to announce the publication of the new catalog of late painter Anna Salmoni (Naples 1938 – Florence 2019) called “Intimi Estranei”, which features my critical text. The catalog presents for the first time a comprehensive perspective on the haunting and evocative work that this incredible artist realized over a lifetime.
This book is not only to share these paintings with a wider audience but is also an important step in enhancing the complex artistic production and reading it in a new key, given the contemporary context. Laura Albano – photographer and daughter of the artist – did a huge work of cataloging, sorting, archiving, and tracking down the different works owned by Salmoni’s collectors.
A couple of months ago I have interviewed for Global Comment two of my favourite graphic novel authors, the creative couple Teresa Radice and Stefano Turconi. The interview has just been published; we delved into the creative process behind their most interesting work.
Here is the link to the interview
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It was an honour and a privilege to start my collaboration with Larry’s List with this interview with one of the people I admire and respect the most in the art world: Andonowati.
She is not only a extremely savvy collector with a heightened sensitivity for art, but also an accomplished mathematician, a collector, a gallerist, a business person, an art initiator, and entrepreneur and also an incredibly compassionate and kind human.
I first met her through my research on Bandung-based artist Eddy Susanto and learned about her gallery and foundation Lawangwangi Creative Space in Bandung. In 2010, Andonowati launched the Bandung Contemporary Art Award (BaCAA) — one of the most prestigious art awards in Southeast Asia, which I took part of as a judge in 2019.
Here is the link to the interview
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It has been a few months now that I have been working on two articles about Libyan contemporary art for the webmagazine Middle East Eye.
The first one of the two just came out. Here we look at the younger talents in the country and in the diaspora, Shefa Salem, Tewa Barnosa, Mohamed Abumeis, Malak El Ghuel and Faiza Ramadan, with the observation from gallerist and expert Najlaa Elageli from Noon Arts.
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I’m very happy to announce that “This is how it is” the monograph of Malaysian artist Yeoh Choo Kuan, is finally out, published by Richard Koh Fine Art. I have written the book’s texts that translate and interpret the different phases of the artist’s career, and realized interviews that figure as segments in the book.
The book features also a foreword by curator and critic, Louis Ho and was edited by writer Rosa Maria Falvo. It presents a number of images of the artist’s work, from his formative years (2011-2014) to the more recent installations and the iconography of traditional Sinophonic visual culture (2018-2020).
You can find the book at Richard Koh Fine Art
From the first dialogues with the artist and the gallerist back in 2019, to visiting the artist’s studio and getting to know the artist’s environment in January 2020 – right before the start of the pandemic – it has been an incredible journey of discovery. Both in the real world – getting to Kuala Lumpur to see the works in person – and at my working table, through the process of writing.
So, about the writing. To talk about some artworks you necessarily need to excavate deep truths. And Choo Kuan’s monograph was definitely a work where the pen was really attuned to the spirit. What I mean by that? Let me back off a bit and explain where I come from in terms of books.
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The drill is simple, yet it’s one that we can hardly keep in mind. Don’t fool with Mother Nature. And take responsibility for your behaviour towards all species. This is what the pandemic is teaching us, and what Thai artist Ruangsak Anuwatwimon has been speaking about through more than a decade of highly impactful, heartbreaking artworks.
I have interviewed the artist and the curator Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani for the show Reincarnations III – Ecologies of Life is presently showing at Warin Lab Contemporary, Bangkok. The piece is on Plural Art Mag.
Here is the link to the article
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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
