Mirrors have been used in art for a long time. One early example comes from poet Giovanni Boccaccio’s (1313-1375) treatise, De Mulieribus Claris (Concerning Famous Women, 1374). Here, we see the ancient Roman artist Marcia holding a small hand-mirror to her face as she paints her self-portrait. Fast forward to the 21st century and mirrors now appear across a variety of art forms. For instance, photographer Elina Brotherus (b. 1972) makes use of the motif in Artist as Mirror (2019), where she holds the object in front of her face to show viewers the cloud-filled sky. Reflective materials are particularly enthralling in the world of sculpture. In Sculpture, writer Jane Ingram Allen in Sculpture traces the prevalence of the material across numerous contemporary exhibitions and concludes: “mirrored surfaces play with perception, multiplying and fracturing the image.” They are ways for us to see ourselves and our surroundings in new ways. Inspired by this motif and material, today we bring you five artists who make use of the reflective surface in their work, whether in the immersive installation of Kimsooja or the suspended sculpture of Lygia Pape.
Daniel Buren: Haltes Colorées | Mount Nelson, Cape Town | 30 April – 10 November
Acclaimed contemporary artist Daniel Buren (b. 1938) presents six site-specific pieces at Belmond Hotels across cities around the world, starting with Cape Town and then Rio de Janeiro, Florence, Tuscany, Venice and Mallorca. The first, Colourful Halt comprises 3 metre pillars positioned around the base of a fountain at the foot of Mount Nelson. These public pieces offer audiences a moment to pause and see their surroundings from a new perspective. It’s part of the MITICO series, an annual collaboration between Belmond and Galleria Continua, and marks the first year in which they have focused on a single artist.
Larry Bell: Improvisations | Phoenix Art Museum | 22 May – 5 January 2025
This spring, Phoenix Art Museum showcases the artistic achievements and career of one of the most influential artists to emerge from the Light and Space movement. Larry Bell (b. 1939) is a contemporary experimental multidisciplinary artist known for his colourful and multilayered glass sculptures. This celebratory retrospective surveys the progression of Bell’s process from the 1960s through to the present day, across a wide range of glass cubes, sculptures, large-scale standing walls and mixed-media collages. Many of these outstanding pieces were created using Bell’s cutting-edge vacuum deposition technique.
Anish Kapoor: Unseen | ARKEN | Until 20 October
Renowned British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor (b. 1954) will exhibit a series of monumental works for the first time in Scandinavia. ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark provides the setting for such a survey of his most extraordinary pieces, such as the 24 tonne, steel Memory (2008) and the 2.5 black-painted hole in his seminal piece, Descent into Limbo (1992). Unseen is an opportunity for visitors to explore the breadth and depth of Kapoor’s practice and witness the ways in which he plays with colour, mirroring and concavity and contrasts between light and dark, heavy and featherweight, visible and invisible.
Lygia Pape | White Cube Seoul | Until 25 May
White Cube Seoul is showing the work of pioneering Brazilian artist Lygia Pape (1927-2004), making this the first solo exhibition of her incredible work in Asia. The show coincides with the 20th anniversary of the artist’s death and celebrates her legacy by displaying the breadth of her experimental practice across disciplines – such as film, installation, painting, printmaking, performance and sculpture. A highlight is the site-specific Ttéia series. On display is Ttéia 1 (2000), an installation in which the artist masterfully positions threads of intricate gold that extend across the corner of the gallery in luminous columns of light.
Kimsooja: To Breathe – Constellation | Rotunda, Bourse de Commerce | Until 2 September
“The mirror replaces the body, observing and reflecting the other.” These are the words of South Korean artist Kimsooja (b. 1957), whose installation at Bourse de Commerce is both ethereal and monumental. A mirror covers the floor of the Rotunda, reflecting the impressive architecture beneath our feet. Kimsooja uses her own body as a fluid presence that connects various aspects of the world. The installation aligns with this quality whilst exploring key themes, such as identity, memory and movement. She states: “I would like to create works that are like water and air, which we cannot possess but can be shared with everyone.”
Image Credits:
- KIMSOOJA To Breathe — Constellation, 2024 View of the exhibition “Le monde comme il va”, Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, Paris, 2024. © Tadao Ando Architect & Associates, Niney et Marca Architectes, agence Pierre-Antoine Gatier. Photo: Florent Michel/11h45/Pinault Collection. © Kimsooja/ADAGP, Paris, 2024.
- Photo-Souvenir: Daniel Buren, Colourful Halt for Mount Nelson, work in situ, 2023. Detail. © DB-ADAGP.
- Larry Bell, Untitled (2 x 3), 2021. Laminated glass coated with Inconel, SIO and Quartz, 16 x 19 x 19 in. Larry Bell Studio, Courtesy of the artist and Anthony Meier, Mill Valley.
- Anish Kapoor, S–Curve, 2006. Foto: Joshua White © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS/VISDA 2024.
- Lygia Pape 22 March – 2 5 Ma y 2024 White Cube Seoul Lygia Pape Volante 1999 Copper – plated iron 51 x 49 x 49 cm | 20 1/16 x 19 5/16 x 19 5/16 in. © Projeto Lygia Pape. Photo © White Cube (Jeon Byung Cheol).
- KIMSOOJA To Breathe — Constellation, 2024 View of the exhibition “Le monde comme il va”, Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, Paris, 2024. © Tadao Ando Architect & Associates, Niney et Marca Architectes, agence Pierre-Antoine Gatier. Photo: Florent Michel/11h45/Pinault Collection. © Kimsooja/ADAGP, Paris, 2024.
