Geologist-turned-photographer Roger Ballen takes haunting images of poor South Africans in surreal situations of their own making.
Ballen collaborates with his subjects to construct psychological settings — filled with wall drawings, odd objects, pets, and body parts — that he then documents in black-and-white. These nightmarish visions, which Ballen makes into prints and books, grant the viewer insight into the troubled minds of criminals, transients, witch doctors, and impoverished laborers who toil in gold mines.
Celebrated for his gigantic, stainless steel Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park, Anish Kapoor is changing the cultural environment with his public works.
The Indian-born, London-based artist represented Britain at the 1990 Venice Biennale and took home the 1991 Turner Prize with his monochromatic, pigment-covered, abstract forms. Since then, he’s carved mysterious cavities in stone, made massive wax installations, and fabricated shiny concave disks — like the enormous Sky Mirror in New York’s Rockefeller Center — that dynamically reflect their surroundings.
One of the most important Chinese artists of his time, painter, sculptor, and performance artist Zhang Huan is limited only by his imagination.
Zhang began his career creating performance pieces that confronted authority and tested his endurance. Now, with countless ideas, unlimited space and manpower, and endless opportunities to exhibit his work, he’s making massive paintings from temple ash, giant copper and animal-skin sculptures, and enormous works on paper in a 75-acre Shanghai studio that employs more than 100 assistants. Read More »
