amarie bergman

Amarie Bergman, Cocoon #1 2017 mixed media (including fragrance, Chanel Chance Eau Tendre) 2.3 x 5 x 2.3cm

An exciting, tangible connection for my work with Stockholm will happen very soon through another inventive initiative by Factory 49. This artist run centre, which I’m so proud to be associated with, will participate for the first time in Supermarket International Art Fair (SIAF), 23-26 March 2017. The theme is ‘intimacy.’

Organisational wizards, Lisa Sharp and Anya Pesce, flew to Sweden a few days ago from Sydney to set up the 10-person exhibition. They will ‘person’ the dedicated space and act as connective resources during the extravaganza.

Anya Pesce & Lisa Sharp (with a suitcase filled with art), image courtesy Factory 49 / Facebook 2017

The catalogue, edited by Lisa and designed by Annelies Jahn, includes documentation for their work, Anya's and mine (Cocoon #1, Cube #1 and Square #1), along with the six other Factory 49 artists exhibiting at SIAF: Pam Aitken, Ivana Jovanovic, Michelle Le Dain, Pamela Leung, Kate MacKay, Chris Packer.

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André Smits, photography by Anna Vimich (Artfridge) 2012

With the logic of day following night, Artist in the World, the unprecedented project by André Smits, is the subject of my latest article in Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art.

It opens enticingly with these 3 sentences:

"Edgar Degas may have been the first to detect the allure of portraying an artist by experimenting with photography as a visual memoir. Voilà +/- instant immortality. Man Ray to Mapplethorpe, among others since, have traced and retraced this genre pretty well to a fine point; The Famous/The Greatest in mostly frontal, often confrontational, close-up poses. Nothing like how André Smits approaches things, partly because his focus is so egalitarian..."

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Amarie Bergman Aqua VoVo Factory 49 Paris Pop Up, 122 rue Amelot, Paris 75011; photographed on 5 August 2016 by André Smits, Artist in The World project

I happened to be in Paris at the same time as André Smits and was invited by him – through Lisa Sharp at Factory 49, Sydney - to participate in his Artist in The World project.

André takes photographs of artists, as well as gallery owners, art gatherers, curators and museum directors. None of his images are frontal, all are taken from behind so the viewer gazes into the same space as he did and, whether that space is a studio, gallery or museum, it is a momentarily very specific world within The World.

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Amarie Bergman, Finite Volumes in Infinite Space – Lemon (partial view) 2016, acrylic, seven 9cm cubes and two oblongs (9 x 6 x 9cm; 9 x 3 x 9cm), photography by Sean Davey

So pleased to present this first glimpse of one of the components in my upcoming solo exhibition, Aqua VoVo. Do drop-by on 20 July for the opening from 6-8pm at Factory 49 (Sydney) Paris Pop Up: 122 Rue Amelot Paris 75011. Gallery hours are 1-7pm Thursday to Saturday. The exhibition continues until 13 August 2016.

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Juhani Pallasmaa, image by Knut Thyborg

Last Saturday, I attended EMPATHETIC IMAGINATION – embodied simulation in architecture – a lecture by Juhani Pallasmaa. Such an honour it was but also a thought-provocative transmission too. Pallasmaa, an architect/designer and eminent architectural philosopher, was in fine form with content that dealt with inclusive possibilities through creating sensitively alluring constructions, valuing tradition and imagining desired experiential realities for the architecture of the future.

Pallasmaa is the 2016 Droga Architect in Residence; this lecture was the fourth of a 6-part series he is presenting throughout Australia. The entire series will be published as Touching The World Through Architecture. Meanwhile, still time to catch the final lecture on April 16: COMPLEXITY OF SIMPLICITY – the inner structure of artistic imagery.

[For an earlier version of Pallasmaa's insights on Complexity of Simplicity that took place in 2013, New York: https://youtu.be/CXzqGkATZqg ]

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My latest - and therefore hottest! - article for Whitehot Magazine - an interview with Stephanie Rosenthal, artistic director of the 20th Biennale of Sydney - was published today.

http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/with-stephanie-rosenthal-artistic-director/3361

Daniel Boyd, What Remains, 2016; site-specific installation, mirrored disks, synthetic polymer paint; dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, and Station Gallery, Melbourne. Created for the 20th Biennale of Sydney. Photographer: Ben Symons

The 20th Biennale of Sydney, The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed, opens to the public on 18 March and continues until 5 June 2016. For event information plus details about the Embassies of Thought, the attachés and the artists: https://www.biennaleofsydney.com.au/20bos/

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The planning process is now well underway for Aqua VoVo, the title of my solo exhibition in July/August this year at Factory 49 Paris Pop Up. A preview of the content and rationale will happen soon.

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Amarie Bergman, Equation no. 1 acrylic + graphite on canvas 20 x 20cm 2015

Equation no. 1 was made by playing with the idea of an equality. There is an apparent blank space on either side of the equal sign so the values of the variables appear to be secret, hidden or even unknown. The viewer may be persuaded to participate in the equation by creating one or more solutions and / or by imagining possibilities.

The painting is extremely quiet: its ground was made using an unusual, discreet grey tint while the two slender graphite lines, lying calmly on the surface, appear to glimmer.

[private collection, Paris]

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