Since 2013, I have occasionally written about artists, who I visited in their studios. The artists I choose to write about don't have a gallery representation (yet) and with the texts I hope to make their work more visible and accessible. Here you can also find a selection of articles and reviews I wrote in the past couple of years for publications such as frieze d/e, Yishu Magazine, AWARE, Foundwork, Sternberg Press, and Art Radar.
Articles and Essays
"From Gunshots to Hashtags. Transcultural Curating in the #metoo Era", 2022
Essay
Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art
"Bold Characters: Motherhood and Censorship in Chinese Art and Curating" in Radicalizing Care
Feminist and Queer Activism in Curating, 2021
Essay
Sternberg Press
"Encounters with Asian Diasporic Identities. The Exhibition Neither Black/Red/Yellow Nor Woman at the Times Art Center Berlin" in
Curating as Feminist Organizing
Essay
Routledge
"The Emergence of a Female Consciousness in 1990s China" in: From a History of Exhibitions towards a Future of Exhibition-Making.
China and Southeast Asia, Biljana Ciric (ed), 2020
Essay
Sternberg Press
From “Women‘s Art” to All-Female Group Exhibitions: The Emergence of a Female Consciousness in 1990s China
Article
Yishu Magazine
NUDES IN 1920S CHINA: EMANCIPATION AND AGENCY IN THE WORKS OF FEMALE ARTISTS
Article
AWARE - Archives of Women Artists Research
& Exhibitions
Studio Visits
To Track or Not to Track - That is Not Really the Question
Virtual studio visit with artist Darja Shatalova and the dis-/advantages of big data.
A STEREOTYPE IS A STEREOTYPE
A conversation with the artists Hui Ye and Yela An from the feminist collective MAI LING about the experiences that shape their work.
A virtual studio visit with Bahraini artist Mashael Alsaie.
We talked about our experiences of doing art in culturally diverse societies and home-bound situations. Listen to our conversation online.
Studio Visits
What you see is not all you get – JOYCE YU-JEAN LEE
Joyce is a Chinese born American artist, who investigates the Internet, the media, and technology as tools for change. Joyce gave me a Skype tour through her exhibition in New York.
Aesthetics Follows Decay – BASSEM YOUSRI
Bassem and I met during his KulturKontakt residency in Vienna. Bassem works in a variety of media with which he traces the changes of the Egyptian culture and landscape, which is interlinked with revolution and politics in Egypt.
Black Tears – ALEXANDRA BAUMGARTNER
Alexandra and I had a really good chat about art and live in her studio at Schwarzenbergplatz in Vienna. Her collages and installations reveal an inclination towards Romanticism, magic, and occultism.
Of Borders and Boundaries – PANAYIOTIS MICHAEL
Panayiotis is a an artist from Cyprus and we reconnected at the Venice Biennial in 2017. I just returned from extensive traveling around the world and Panayiotis helped me understand what facing borders on a daily basis means.
Sawing Through Sexism – A Studio Visit in Mexico City
I met CERRUCHA in Mexico City, where I was personally encountering machismo and sexism in unprecedented ways. Talking to her and getting to know her works helped in understanding the culture, though and I'm glad that there are strong women who fight against patriarchy. Also, I went to Frida Kahlo's house, which had a lasting impact on me!
JOSHUA RAINS – Persevere!
Josh and I were introduced while I was a guest critic at USC Roski in Los Angeles. His time-consuming and honest approach to art and his own precarious situation as an artist has immediately caught my attention. As the title suggests, it should encourage to keep on pursuing what you're meant to do!
MICHIKAZU MATSUNE
I've first encountered Michi at one of his performances, which dealt with a dancer's hardship of crossing borders and is a timely reference to immigration policies and inclusion/exclusion of certain groups. I met him in his studio, where we had an honest conversation about what he experiences as a Japanese artist in Vienna.
The Eternal Hunt - BETTINA HUTSCHEK
I got to know Bettina in Berlin but her studio is actually in Malta. Skype allowed us to have a virtual studio visit, during which she told me about historical facts as well as the hunt for them. Fake news wasn't a popular phrase back then but Bettina was already engaged with this crucial topic.
Visual Tension – MIYEON LEE
In my writings about the studio visits, I try to draw connections between the works, the artists, and my own situation. Encountering Miyeon's paintings made writing this text pretty easy as they talk about life, love, and failure in an honest and direct way, which is relatable to anyone's situation. The serendipitous approach in her painting made them all the more enticing.
Spaces and Non-Spaces – SUSANNE PIOTTER
I visited Susanne in her studio in Berlin, where she is producing prints and sculptures with a dystopian and dark atmosphere surrounding them. Her environments are empty spaces, forgotten and abandoned, "non-spaces" and Susanne breathes a little bit of life into them.
Lost in Coding – YOONHEE KIM
Yoonhee was a resident artist at Joao Cocteau in Berlin, where I also curated a show of hers back in 2013. Her works are inspired by early conceptualism, language, and sound and she has developed her own coding system, with which she creates these works.
Timescans - ROBERT BODNAR
Robert and I go a long way back as I curated his first solo-show in Berlin in 2013. His timescans capture the course of time in a meticulous manner, for which he has developed special photographic techniques. Robert is an experimental photographer who has developed his practice into a profound body of work.
Photographic Sculptures – DIANE ARTUS
Diane and I were introduced during my residency at NODE in Berlin. It is difficult to decide whether Diane's works are photographies or sculptures, hence the title, and I guess they can be both. Diane uses the photographs as material with which to depict a scenery of black and white cityscapes.
SOPHIE TILLER's Book-bouquets
Sophie has graduated as a photographer but what she is doing with books and flower seeds goes one step further. She lets old books get invaded by parasites and documents the various outcomes of their blossoming. I just love how knowledge, nature, and serendipity interact in her "book-bouquets".
FABIAN SCHRÖDER's creation of fictional realities
Fabian's photographs look like the perfect spot on the first sight, on the the second, they start to irritate as they are almost too perfect.
Anti-Portraits by LUCAS GABELLINI-FAVA
Lucas is a very special person to me. His was the first art work I have spent money on and I also got inspired to write the blog thanks to his works. He was only 14 years old when we met but nevertheless he had a really deep understanding of art. He has kept his curiosity and is now studying at a very prestigious art school in London. He is one to look out for!