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‘Assassination Nation’ (2016). Movie Review

Martin Cid
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‘Assassination Nation’ (2016). Movie Review

Sam Levinson writes and directs this exciting Assassination Nation, starring Bella Thorne. A quasi-dystopia about leaks, adolescence and social networks.

We really liked this film, which portrays a more than possible situation: the risk all of us who use a cell phone are exposed to. A reflection on privacy, sex and sanity. Violent, sometimes unpleasant and even brutal.

Plot

Everything seems to be going well for a group of friends who, like so many others in the United States, use their cell phones and social networks normally. Lovers, sexting and other practices are frequent on their devices.

But a hacker is stalking Salem and is leaking cell phone files. One day, he comes up with the idea of leaking the files of half the town and chaos ensues.

Nación Salvaje (2016)
Assassination Nation (2016)

The Movie

We loved it! We rarely say this, but we were more than pleasantly surprised. It is imaginative, cinematographic, energetic, it has original ideas, there are brutal camera movements, with a coherent and yet paradoxical script, the narrative formulas are daring and also evolve with the plot… we have already said it: now this is cinema (and that very, very rarely happens).

And yes, it’s not made for all stomachs nor for all mentalities and, if you don’t like violent movies, don’t watch it because this has a bit of everything in it (without becoming A Clockwork Orange, but it’s that kind of thing).

In addition to the imagination that Sam Levinson has poured into the project, we have a reflection on the media, social networks, and – above all – on democracy. While it is set in the United States, it could be about anywhere.

It also provides a curious insight into sexism. We’ll leave it at that.

Nación Salvaje (2016)
Assassination Nation (2016)

Our Opinion

A cinematic Black Mirror, very well made, unbridled, imaginative and that turns into a nightmare.

Not suitable for all audiences, but in our opinion, it borders on the brilliant.

Warning: increasingly ultra-violent as the film unfolds.

Four stars.

Movie Trailer

YouTube video

Images

Nación Asesina (2018)

Animales Fantásticos: Los Crímenes de Grindelwald (2018)

Martin Cid
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4
Animales Fantásticos: Los Crímenes de Grindelwald (2018)

Esta secuela dirigida por David Yates cuenta con idénticos argumentos que la primera, con un guion firmado por la mismísima J.K. Rowling

Animales Fantásticos: Los Crímenes de Grindelwald es una digna secuela, muy digna, con grandes actores y todo el lujo técnico que el dinero puede comprar. Una excelsa producción y un diseño de vestuario elaborado, efectos impecables.. eso sí, es siempre lo que esperamos.

Argumento

Grindelwald escapa y Dumbledore recluta a un joven para frustrar los planes de ‘gobernar el mundo’ de Grindelwald.

Animales Fantásticos: Los Crímenes de Grindelwald (2018)
Animales Fantásticos: Los Crímenes de Grindelwald (2018)

La Película

Una cinta llena de magia, animalitos, efectos especiales y mucho, mucho ordenador. Llena de fantasía, encantará a los niños y a los fans del universo Harry Potter (si os extraña y os suena desde el principio: sí, el guion está firmado por J.K. Rowling. Es una cinta con mucha fantasía, muy para los más jóvenes, muy… lo que todos esperamos de esta saga.

Eso sí, la cosa, a pesar del guion que… es lo que es… es todo un ‘lujazo’ en el plano de la producción: absolutamente impecable. La cinta tiene imaginación, decorados brutales, fotografía maravillosa, los animalitos son bien graciosos… pero el guion es un poco así como un poco aburridete, no nos engañemos.

Es como una cinta de espías, pero con fantasía y, a la vez, muy para niños que han crecido con el Harry Potter este que, por si no se ha notado ya, a mí no me hacía mucha gracia, pero que tengo que reconocer la valía del personaje y del imaginario creado por este mujer inglesa que reventó librerías y cines.

Animales Fantásticos: Los Crímenes de Grindelwald (2018)
Animales Fantásticos: Los Crímenes de Grindelwald (2018)

Nuestra Opinión

Van a pasar un buen rato, no inolvidable, pero un buen rato con esta excelsa y magnífica producción que riza el rizo aún más si cabe. Magia, mucha magia y efectos.

Trailer

YouTube video

Galería de Imágenes

Animales Fantásticos: Los Crímenes de Grindelwald (2018)

Ficha Técnica

Título original: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Año: 2018
Duración: 134 min.
País: Reino Unido
Dirección: David Yates
Guion: J.K. Rowling
Música: James Newton Howard
Fotografía: Philippe Rousselot
Género: Fantástico. Aventuras

Reparto: Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Katherine Waterston, Johnny Depp, Zöe Kravitz, Ezra Miller, Alison Sudol, Callum Turner, Dan FoglerProductora: Coproducción Reino Unido-Estados Unidos; Warner Bros. / Heyday Films

Sinopsis: Cumpliendo con su amenaza, Grindelwald escapa de su custodia y ha comenzado a reunir seguidores, la mayoría de los cuales no sospechan sus verdaderas intenciones: alzar a los magos purasangre para reinar sobre todas las criaturas no mágicas. En un esfuerzo por frustrar los planes de Grindelwald, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) recluta a su antiguo estudiante Newt Scamander, quien accede a prestar su ayuda, sin conocer los peligros que aguardan. Las líneas quedan marcadas mientras el amor y la lealtad son puestos a prueba, incluso entre los amigos más cercanos y la familia, en un mundo mágico cada vez más dividido. (Filmaffinity)

NYC Exhibitions: Kristen Sanders & Graham Durward

Veronica Loop
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NYC Exhibitions: Kristen Sanders & Graham Durward

OPENING TOMORROW. MARCH 8th, 6-8 pm. Kristen Sanders: Early Bodies at Brennan & Griffin & Graham Durward at Step Sister

“The hand posed, pressed against the wall, grasps nothing. It is no longer a prehensile hand, but is offered like the form of an impossible or abandoned grasp. A grasp that could as well let go. The grasp of a letting go: the letting go of form.”
– Jean-Luc Nancy, “Painting in the Grotto”, 1994

Brennan & Griffin presents Early Bodies, an exhibition of new paintings by Minneapolis based artist Kristen Sanders.

The paintings presented in Early Bodies draw parallels between prehistoric hominids and Artificial Intelligence, encapsulating both the prehuman and posthuman. Sanders constructs her paintings with layers of imagery depicting prehistoric stone tools, cave paintings, extinct hominids and recently developed AI real dolls. Veils of acidic hues illuminate scenes of evolutionary self discovery, bringing to question the anthropological distinctions made between anatomically modern and behaviorally modern humans.
The juxtaposition of prehistoric and AI imagery flattens the distance in time between the origins and potentiality of self awareness, suggesting that perhaps the threshold of what it means to be human exists at multiple points.

Kristen Sanders lives and works in Minneapolis, MN. She received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Recent exhibitions include Kristen Sanders & Vanessa Thill, Step Sister, New York, NY, Soft Origin (solo), Sadie Halie Projects, Minneapolis, MN, Small Objects : Part 1, Lacuna Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, Whateverbeing, Present Company, Brooklyn, NY and Maternity Leave: Para-Natural Pregnancies at Sediment Arts in Richmond, VA.

Step Sister is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by New York based artist Graham Durward.

Durward’s works feature groups of beach goers, referencing the “bathers” trope found across art history. The scenes are interrupted by oversized fingerprints that distance the image and often obscure the identity of the figures. The fingerprint impression is at once both highly specific and ubiquitous, an identifying marker that has been turned into an abstraction, causing a shifting of scale in Durward’s tableaus. Richly painted in thick and thinned out oil, the swimmer’s physiques are built up, washed away or blurred in a constant flux of definition. This image is revisited in each painting, similar to how memory creates different narratives around identical facts. Durward’s own identity floats over his subjects, their anonymity kept intact by the artist’s “touch”.

Graham Durward lives and works in New York. Notable solo exhibitions include Shrine, New York, NY, 2016, Michael Steinberg, New York, NY, 2014, Louis B. James, New York, NY, 2012, Maureen Paley, London, UK, 2009 and White Columns, New York, NY, 2007. Recent group exhibitions include Exalted Position, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY, 2016 and Walter Robinson and Graham Durward, Kai Matsumiya, New York, NY, 2016.

Dallas Exhibitions. Michael Kalish: Greetings from Texas

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Dallas Exhibitions. Michael Kalish: Greetings from Texas

Samuel Lynne Galleries Presents Michael Kalish: Greetings from Texas

DALLAS, TEXAS – March 5, 2019 – Samuel Lynne Galleries invites you to join us for contemporary sculptor, Michael Kalish’s much anticipated return to Dallas. His exhibition, Greetings from Texas will be a retrospective of his most popular series, along with his new portfolio of 3-dimensional work. Kalish will be in attendance at the opening reception on Saturday, March 30, 2019 from 5-8pm and the exhibition will be on view through May 4, 2019.

Kalish’s career was set in motion with his legendary license plate sculptures, an artistic expression of his fascination with pop culture and Americana, and his aptitude for repurposing found metal objects into beautiful creations. “After getting out of art school, I knew that if I wanted a serious career in art, I’d have to do something different. I was always looking outside the box for a unique medium.”  This series catapulted him to international acclaim and accelerated his career. He has since created multiple series like his giant abstracts, comprised of recycled classic car parts from the 50’s and 60’s, which triumphantly declare their resurrections. Kalish’s original roses, both framed and freestanding, although made from rugged automobile parts, are surprisingly voluptuous in nature. Kalish is also known for his monumental outdoor installations, which include: reALIze, his historic tribute to Muhammad Ali in Los Angeles, CA, the DRIVE4COPD Monument, a series of towering pinwheels at the Tampa Museum of Art, and Belle Epoque for Perrier-Jouet in New York, NY.

Greetings from Texas is a kind of “coming home” for Kalish. He has not exhibited work in Dallas in almost eight years, but feels that Dallas is a second home for him. A retrospective in the sense that he will be showing artwork from his older series along with a new body of work, which has been almost five years in the making, combining elements that he has pioneered and perfected. Kalish brings with him some of the most cutting-edge sculptural work, in which he has skillfully implemented advanced technologies to excite viewers, and remain at the forefront of his industry. His 3-dimensional editions, constructed of high-gloss metal layers, playfully interact with audiences, affording unique experiences across vantage points. Kalish’s series of nudes reveal his ability to materialize rigid elements into seemingly delicate forms, stunning spectators with their impressive optical illusions. He is a true creative – constantly crafting ideas for sculptures and figuring out how to get the concepts from his sketches into existence.

Kalish attended the University of Rhode Island and Kennesaw State University in Georgia. He has exhibited his work in Museums and Galleries in Stockholm, Geneva, and New York. His collectors include celebrities, professional athletes, international political leaders, and musicians. His work is in the corporate collections of Disney, Ford, Nike, Saks Fifth Avenue, Rolling Stone Magazine, Barneys New York, and the Atlanta Braves Organization. His artworks have been acquired by prominent art patrons and placed in the notable collections of Jann Wenner, Ringo Starr, Nancy Reagan, Kid Rock, Tim Allen, Carson Wentz, Steve Gleason, G-Eazy, 50 Cent, and Dr. Phil. Kalish currently resides in and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Dallas Exhibitions. Bill’s Junk Road Show. Talley Dunn Gallery

Veronica Loop
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Dallas Exhibitions. Bill’s Junk Road Show. Talley Dunn Gallery

Bill’s Junk Road Show. Open at Talley Dunn Gallery. April 11 – 14, 2019

Bill’s Junk, the Houston nexus of high art, low craft, nature, and salvage is going on the road! Bill Davenport has loaded all his best junk into a repurposed firework stand and will open it in the courtyard of Talley Dunn Gallery during the Dallas Art Fair. Bargains galore on owls, painted rocks, fake pizza, puzzles, driftwood, signs, books, curiosities and thrift store masterpieces. Bill himself will be on site all weekend to entertain, amaze, and relieve the Metroplex of its spare cash in exchange for his mostly handmade wares.

Bill’s Junk Road Show is part of Antidote, a triad of exhibitions and programming at Talley Dunn Gallery this April. Antidote will also feature fresh, a group exhibition of important prints and multiples by internationally-recognized artists, and Analia Saban, a solo exhibition of editioned work by the Argentine conceptual artist.

Bill’s Junk Road Show. Attached images courtesy of Bill Davenport
Bill’s Junk Road Show. Attached images courtesy of Bill Davenport

Antidote will kick off on Thursday, April 11 with the appearance of Bill’s Junk Road Show at the Talley Dunn Gallery courtyard. For one weekend only, audiences have a unique opportunity to take part in a different kind of art scene, by browsing the junk at Bill Davenport’s alternative market and ongoing participatory project. Who knows what might be found!

Special Hours:

Bill’s Junk Road Show Collector Preview
Thursday, April 11, 2019
11 AM – 2 PM

Bill’s Junk Road Show Preview Benefit
Thursday, April 11, 2019
6 – 10 PM

General admission hours:
Friday, April 12, 11 AM – 7 PM: Watermelon day!
Saturday, April 13, 11 AM – 7 PM: Driftwood day!
Sunday, April 14, 12 – 6 PM: Theme TBA

New York Exhibitions: Graham Durward at Step Sister

Veronica Loop
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0
New York Exhibitions: Graham Durward at Step Sister

Graham Durward at Step Sister. Opening Friday March 8th, 6-8 pm. Downstairs from Brennan & Griffin. 122 Norfolk Street

Step Sister is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by New York based artist Graham Durward. Durward’s works feature groups of beach goers, referencing the “bathers” trope found across art history. The scenes are interrupted by oversized fingerprints that distance the image and often obscure the identity of the figures. The fingerprint impression is at once both highly specific and ubiquitous, an identifying marker that has been turned into an abstraction, causing a shifting of scale in Durward’s tableaus. Richly painted in thick and thinned out oil, the swimmer’s physiques are built up, washed away or blurred in a constant flux of definition. This image is revisited in each painting, similar to how memory creates different narratives around identical facts. Durward’s own identity floats over his subjects, their anonymity kept intact by the artist’s “touch”.

Graham Durward lives and works in New York. Notable solo exhibitions include Shrine, New York, NY, 2016, Michael Steinberg, New York, NY, 2014, Louis B. James, New York, NY, 2012, Maureen Paley, London, UK, 2009 and White Columns, New York, NY, 2007. Recent group exhibitions include Exalted Position, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY, 2016 and Walter Robinson and Graham Durward, Kai Matsumiya, New York, NY, 2016.

UK data expert targets global business market with software innovation

Veronica Loop
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UK data expert targets global business market with software innovation

A leading UK innovator in business intelligence solutions is targeting a global market of more than five million users with the launch of a new software service aimed at bolstering corporate security.

Power BI Sentinel has been officially launched at SQLBits – the largest four-day Microsoft data conference ((Feb 27 – March 2)) to be held outside of the USA – by Shropshire-based data expert Alex Whittles and his team.

The new software has been designed to provide additional benefits to businesses using Microsoft’s analytical tool Power BI by providing secure document back-up, change tracking, documentation and data lineage analysis.

Alex, who is a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) and founder of big data company Purple Frog Systems in Telford, has spent the last six months developing the new software.

He said: “I’ve had this idea going round and round in my head for about 10 years so I’m absolutely delighted to finally be launching Sentinel.

“We have invested a considerable amount of time and money in this project over the last six months and our specialist developers have come up with a software service which will provide organisations with greater security and governance of their data, including helping manage GDPR compliance.

“This is particularly important within large corporate organisations where Power BI is being used in multiple locations, across a number of departments and by a large number of employees

“There are currently a number of limitations to using Power BI on its own but our new software is designed to bridge some of those gaps by providing automated documentation of reports and giving data controllers the capabilities to view, in real time, how and what data is being used across all parts of the business.

“The software is designed not only to save businesses time and money but it also has huge implications when it comes to improving data security and simplifying and accelerating disaster recovery,” he added.

Across the globe, there are more than five million people using Microsoft’s Power BI tool to analyse data and create dashboards to help them better understand their business.

Power BI Sentinel will be available to all these international users from sole traders and SMEs to community enterprises and large corporate organisations.

Power BI Sentinel is a Software as a Service application hosted with Microsoft Azure. It is an online service which can be managed and accessed through a web browser and is also mobile compatible.

Users have the option of signing up to three different levels of service: a free community licence, a professional licence or an enterprise licence.

Alex and the Power BI Sentinel team have been explaining the benefits of the new software to data experts from across Europe at the four-day SQLBits conference in Manchester.

For more information on Power BI Sentinel visit the website https://www.powerbisentinel.com/.

Peter Sacks: Recent Works. Mar 06 2019 – Mar 30 2019. Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 06, 6-8pm

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Peter Sacks: Recent Works. Mar 06 2019 – Mar 30 2019. Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 06, 6-8pm

The Directors of Marlborough Gallery are pleased to announce the second solo exhibition at the gallery of works by U.S.-based, South African painter Peter Sacks.

The exhibition will include some 20 new paintings, including large triptychs, as well as 39 works on paper from the Purgatorio series. The show will open on Wednesday, March 6th, with a reception from 6 to 8PM and will remain on view through March 30th.

Peter Sacks reinvents the practice of collage utilizing a striking variety of materials—cottons, burlap, lace, wood, cardboard. Often one will find text typed onto fabric by the artist using a manual typewriter visible just beneath the final surface of a canvas. The artist refers to his now signature technique as “excavating in reverse.” By incorporating pieces of fabric as well as actual fragments of clothing from Africa, India, Europe, Syria, and Asia, the paintings achieve a universal humanity, becoming richly textured, fluid views of worlds that are both familiar and uncharted.

Though charged and fluctuating, the accretive fields are effectively slowed down to allow for all-over contemplation. Viewers experience everything from ritual, delight, danger, loss or remembrance. In Sacks’s hands, color and pattern are coaxed into cooperation, and the resulting narratives are as visually powerful as they are turbulent. As Leora Maltz-Leca puts it in the exhibition catalog’s essay,“…in Sacks’s powerful paintings, we find the textiles calling to each other from various corners of the canvas, shapes mirroring, pigments reverberating, and echoes of form rippling wildly across a field or burrowing through a whole triptych.”

Though abstract in essence, elements of the paintings—the twisted, torn, dignified pieces of fabric—depending upon one’s own past or current vantage point—might evince flowing rivers, flamboyant vegetation, towering totems, shadows, structures or intimate passageways. Everywhere one turns, the humble becomes incantatory.

Peter Sacks, Quickenings 22, 2017, Mixed media, 36 x 36 inches
Peter Sacks, Quickenings 22, 2017, Mixed media, 36 x 36 inches

Peter Sacks was born in 1950 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and grew up in the coastal city of Durban. Sacks studied at The University of Natal, Princeton, Oxford and Yale. Sacks spent years travelling, most oftentimes on foot, across various parts of South and North America, Africa, Europe and Asia. The artist currently lives and works in New York and Massachusetts.

Works by Peter Sacks can be found in numerous collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; The Collection of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa; The Ethelbert Cooper Museum of African and African American Art, Cambridge, MA; The Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Oxford, UK; and the Beyond Borders Foundation, Edinburgh, Scotland.
For the full press release, click here.

CloudMinds Technology Launches its Cloud-based Intelligent Service Robot – XR-1

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CloudMinds Technology Launches its Cloud-based Intelligent Service Robot – XR-1

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — CloudMinds Technology, a pioneer, developer and operator of cloud AI and robotic solutions today announced the launch of its cloud AI based, highly compliant service robot, the XR-1.  The announcement was made at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, which focuses on mobile communications, 5G, AI, and IoT applications.

The XR-1 Robot – The First Generation of Compliant Service Robots Powered by Cloud AI

Developed by CloudMinds, the XR-1 is a highly intelligent service-oriented humanoid robot, representing a new level of technology development and commercialization in the area of intelligent robotics.

The XR-1 is powered by two ground-breaking technologies: intelligent robot joints – Smart Compliant Actuators (SCAs), and a cloud brain – Human Augmented Robotic Intelligence with Extreme Reality (HARIX), a cloud platform that organically integrates AI capabilities such as vision processing, natural language processing, robotic motion control, vision-guided grasping and manipulation. By leveraging these new technologies, the XR-1 provides a significant leap towards the realization of truly intelligent assistants for humans.

The advantage of a “cloud robot” like XR-1 is that, by placing its AI brain in the cloud, it can utilize powerful AI engines, collective learning capabilities, and scalability, to achieve a high level of intelligence while still providing low cost and low battery consumption for the robot body. The CloudMinds’ cloud AI robotic operation platform has been deployed globally.

As part of CloudMinds’ robotic demonstrations, in Hall 7 Booth 7A60, the XR-1 robot delivered beverages and coffee to guests with its flexible arms built with compliant joints. A “compliant” joint is a joint that can detect resistance force and stop its actions until the resistance is gone. During the interaction with guests at the show, the XR-1 used a multimodal sensing subsystem to understand its surroundings and tasks. The smart joints  (SCAs) sensed resistant force applied by humans and other objects, and operated smoothly in a compliant manner. The XR-1’s 3D vision sensing system combined with HARIX platform’s 3D object recognition and other advanced algorithms supports closed-loop visual feedback. These technologies enable the XR-1 to perform tasks accurately, smoothly and safely in an environment in which machines and humans coexist.

The XR-1’s ability was further demonstrated in a needle-threading demonstration where it precisely guided a thread through the small hole of a needle, repeatedly and effortlessly. The act was accomplished by controlling 14 SCAs collectively, a very difficult precision level for compliant actuators to achieve.

Completing its AI capability package, the XR-1 is equipped with a powerful cloud-based natural language processing system. It can accurately understand human users’ intents and take actions accordingly. It can also carry on meaningful and life-like conversations, even injecting humor at times.

Of course, the XR-1 is not “all work and no play.” Intermixed with other demonstrations, the XR-1 danced to a number of songs ranging from soft melodies to heart-pumping rhythms, with human-like grace, agility and smoothness. The dance routines were learned from human dancers. The beautiful routines combined with XR-1’s slender body and long arms mesmerized the audience.

SCA – The Cornerstone of Volume Production of Compliant Robots

To achieve compliant, flexible and smooth movements similar to humans’, a robot needs high quality compliant joints. Until now, technologies that support such movement have remained in research labs rather than in commercial deployment, and have come at very high cost. To overcome that barrier, CloudMinds developed the intelligent and compliant actuator – SCA.

Each SCA has several dedicately embedded chips and multimodal sensors, supporting intelligent control algorithms and communication functions, to make the robot motion compliant, smooth, precise, and safe. This allows the robot to achieve human-like motion, or even better in some cases. The design also supports a variety of sizes to fit different robotic joints. Thanks to its highly integrated and compact design, and good support for applications, SCA has achieved a good balance of high performance and low cost. CloudMinds is ready to start mass production of the SCA, providing partners with much-needed components, features, and significant cost savings, elevating the entire service robotic industry.

“Based on a set of advanced technologies, CloudMinds will develop a number of intelligent compliant service robots, from wheeled to two-legged. Leveraging the 5G network’s high bandwidth and low latency, our cloud AI platform will rapidly grow its intelligence as well as its deployment size. We will usher in a new era of service oriented robotics.” – said Bill Huang, CEO and founder of CloudMinds.

SOURCE CloudMinds

Weather Forecast Remains 80 Percent ‘Go’; Prelaunch Briefing Set for Thursday

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Weather Forecast Remains 80 Percent ‘Go’; Prelaunch Briefing Set for Thursday

Three days remain until the planned liftoff of a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket—the first launch of a commercially built and operated American spacecraft and space system designed for humans. Liftoff is targeted for 2:49 a.m. EST on Saturday, March 2, from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Demo-1 mission to the International Space Station serves as an end-to-end test of the system’s capabilities.

The launch weather forecast continues to look promising; meteorologists with the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing predict an 80 percent chance of favorable weather at launch time. Thick clouds or cumulus clouds that would violate launch requirements are the primary weather concerns.

NASA will host a prelaunch briefing at Kennedy at 4 p.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 28. The briefing will be broadcast live on NASA TV. See the full briefings and events schedule, including briefing participants, at https://go.nasa.gov/2GBCB5A.

Bill Jacklin: Paintings and Monotypes. 30 May – 30 June 2019

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Bill Jacklin: Paintings and Monotypes. 30 May – 30 June 2019

Marlborough Fine Art is pleased to present an exhibition of recent works by Bill Jacklin, an artist who has shown with the gallery for almost 40 years.

On show will be 20-25 paintings and a selection of monotypes. Although mainly figurative in presentation, many of the works show underlying systems and abstractions of design, harking back to Jacklin’s earlier style which focused on the structures within natural orders. In his work there is a coexistence of representation and abstraction, provoking a tension which results in an augmented viewing experience. The artist seeks to avoid stylistic categorisation, stating ‘I choose not to define myself to working in just one way’.

Jacklin came to prominence in the 1960s in London as an abstract artist producing works made of grids and dots. Despite his success, Jacklin felt impelled to return to figuration, and since moving to Manhattan in 1985 has painted numerous scenes of the pulsating energy of crowds in Times Square and the concourse of Grand Central Station. For this exhibition, Jacklin has created ‘The Singer in the Square’ series, focusing on the concentric movement of crowds, and has continued to paint pedestrians crossing the street. Time spent sketching in the Piazza della Repubblica in Florence, Italy also yielded this sense of flux and flow, observing accidental meetings or individuals simply going about their business. Jacklin is fascinated by states of transition and finding systems of geometry in his painting to depict this constant movement. This is evident in his Triptych painting ‘The Feast’, which the artist has been working on since 2004, shows a seated group eating in a Venetian square whilst a crowd passes around them.

Moving away from urban landscapes to more pastoral scenes, this interest in transformative states manifests in the artist’s depiction of nature and the weather. In a new series of storm paintings, the storm morphs into the knitted shapes of the clouds which shed their representational character and become moving forms devoid of a pictorial setting. A collection of paintings called ‘The Dance of the Clouds and Breezes’ are set by the coast, influenced by the artist’s move out of New York to Rhode Island. One shows a trio of female figures dancing, reminiscent of the artist’s earlier painting of the Three Graces; another canvas depicts small figures watching the movement of the clouds and the sea from the beach. Recent monotypes focus on the stars and the sea by night, without the bright lights of the city. Regardless of whether a figure is portrayed, Jacklin always paints about being present in the space, evoking existential feelings via subjects such as a field at night or a road winding through the landscape.

Bill Jacklin, 'The Feast' (2019), triptych, 78 x 30 x 78 x 60 x 78 x 30 in. Courtesy of the artist and Marlborough Fine Art. Photograph by Boris Apple.
Bill Jacklin, ‘The Feast’ (2019), triptych, 78 x 30 x 78 x 60 x 78 x 30 in. Courtesy of the artist and Marlborough Fine Art. Photograph by Boris Apple.

Jacklin was born in London in 1943 and studied graphics at Walthamstow School of Art, London (1960-61) before attending the Painting School at the Royal College of Art (1964-67). He was elected as a Royal Academician in 1991. His works are represented in collections worldwide including: British Museum (London); Tate (London); Victoria & Albert Museum (London); MoMA (New York); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York); and Brooklyn Museum (New York). Museum of Modern Art Oxford held a retrospective of Jacklin’s work in 1992, and in 2016 the Royal Academy (London) held a survey show of Jacklin’s graphics from 1963-2016. He has participated in numerous exhibitions including at The Museum of Modern Art (New York, 1971), Musee d’Art Moderne (Paris, 1973) and Tate Gallery (London, 1981).

Bill Jacklin, ‘Dance of the clouds and breezes 1’, 2019, 50 x 55 in. Courtesy of the artist and Marlborough Fine Art.
Bill Jacklin, ‘Dance of the clouds and breezes 1’, 2019, 50 x 55 in. Courtesy of the artist and Marlborough Fine Art.

‘Dracula Untold’ (2014). Movie Review: An Outstanding Show

Martin Cid
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‘Dracula Untold’ (2014). Movie Review: An Outstanding Show

Gary Shore directs this Dracula Untold, a rather entertaining and modern revision of the myth with a promising Coppola-esque opening.

Dracula Untold turns out to be not bad at all, whatever the critics say. No, it’s not a social drama about shrimp fishing (I’m parodying Billy Wilder), but we find it entertaining and visually very good.

An adventure film that will leave those who only go to the movies to be entertained, to make friends… that sort of thing, deeply satisfied.

Plot

We are told in the synopsis that it tells the true story of how Vlad ‘The Impaler’, a Romanian prince, came to become a vampire (oh yes, the true story). Well, the story takes bits from here and there and brings us closer to the story of the Romanian prince of Transylvania made so famous by Bram Stoker.

The thing about the story being real and that the guy was a vampire… I’m not so sure about that.

Drácula, la Leyenda Jamás Contada (2014)
Dracula Untold (2014)

The Movie

Entertaining, with action and battles, with good costumes and a story that entertains us, but that, contrary to what some people say, I don’t think it will give us many historical notions about the true story of how this man became a vampire.

Someday, if I feel like it, I will tell you the true story, because years ago I had to read a book for an assignment that in the end did not come to fruition.

Focusing on the movie, I assure you that it’s pretty good without being  the best thing since sliced bread. It copies a little from here and there, and as for being convincing – it won’t convince anyone, but it will make us have a good time with this guy who even seems human in his war against the Turks.

Believe me, propaganda was very effective, very much so.

Of course, some facts are reliable (and I don’t mean that he became a vampire, not that).

We want to highlight its visual strength most of all, with beautiful scenes and colors. It is almost an adventure film, with many sword-fight duels and so on.

Drácula, la Leyenda Jamás Contada (2014)
Dracula Untold (2014)

Our Opinion

It’s worth watching: an entertaining adventure film, and that’s that. To go wild about? Well, no, that should be reserved for the critics with their admired works of social realism.

This one is fun and it only and exclusively aims to entertain.

And I think it succeeds in that.

Trailer

YouTube video
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