Cathy's Art Diary

Claustrophobic exhibition at Punta Della Dogana in Venice of new work by Bruce Nauman. I love the exhibition spaces at Punta della Dogana but this show made it feel cramped and disorientating. Sadly, as quite often in this space, the art is mugged my the amazing views from the windows of the city outside full of life and colour. The show mainly consisted of large and small videos of him walking. I particularly liked the ones where the body was broken up like a sequential consequences drawing to give the contrapposto pose of the title. The last work you see was almost the best superimposing a life size figure of him on one of the walking videos so you wonder if he is actually in the space. Closes 27 November 2022

Confused exhibition at Punta Della Dogana in Venice of contemporary art on the theme of the inner landscape. I’m reading the leaflet again as I type and I’m still not sure what the show was about although there were some lovely works. A lot of the artists were inspired by the poet Etel Adnan but as I’m not familiar with their work that doesn’t really help me. The show was also meant to light variations of the building. Let’s just dive into what I liked! I loved Philippe Parreno’s mesmeric video installation recreating a suite at the Waldorf Astor Hotel in New York and adding her ghostly presence through recreations of her view of the room, her voice and a robot reproducing her handwriting. It was shown in a room with paintings by the aforementioned poet, Etal Adnan, and at the end of the video the light changed so you could see the pictures. A lovely effect. I liked the work shown here which were a series of greenhouses. I liked the fact that when you first viewed them...

Varied exhibition at the Punta Della Dogana in Venice showcasing contemporary art from the Pinault Collection. I have to start by mentioning the building! The refurbished Punta Della Dogana has opened since the last time I was in Venice so this was my first visit.   It is an amazing space for showing modern and contemporary art a number of interlinked spaces over two floors. The views are also spectacular looking across to San Giogio and St Mark’s Square These were some amazing works in this show. There did seem to be a bit of a theme around white squares with at least three or four artists producing different types. My favourite of these was the room by Gunther Uecker, who produced white squares in thick paint with bits of his life in them such a razor blades, hand prints etc. I loved the ice sculptures by Pier Paolo Calzolari in the first room in particular the frozen mattresses which were gradually   melting. The tapestries by Goshka Lacuga were stunning i...