Daniel Rios Rodriguez, Till Megerle and Margaret Lee on their work, the future and the shift online
This year has not been an easy one for anyone, including artists and their galleries. In recognition of that, and of the obstacles to come, ArtReview is supporting the 2020 edition of June, a boutique art fair inaugurated last year in Basel by a select host of galleries. This year the fair is hosted online by Hauser & Wirth from 20–31 August and in weeks leading up we will be speaking to some of the artists involved.
Daniel Rios Rodriguez is showing with Lulu, Mexico City
ArtReview: Can you tell us about the works that will be on show in June Art Fair?
Daniel Rios Rodriguez: When news of the pandemic hit in March, I feel like many other artists felt a sense of urgency to respond. The unknowns of how we would all fare were looming and when I looked around my studio I decided immediately to spend my time working on unfinished paintings. The six I will be showing at June are from a collection of around 25 works started over the last five years but which never previously made it out of the studio. My ambition at the time was to leave nothing unfinished. To my mind they are symbolic of the small groups of people we had to isolate with as we watched the grim news and mishandlings of the pandemic here in the US. I also believe them to be talismans of optimism for the future.
AR: This year June has moved to be an online fair – how has the fact that audiences’ engagement with art has become increasingly digital (even before the pandemic) influenced your practice or the way you view art?
DRR: My work is very tactile and resists digital flattening. However, I think the scrolling effect has also offered a kind of training of the eyes to pause on novel surfaces and images. I gladly accept the challenge to be equally as engaging in both the digital and real world.
AR: How do you think the artworld might change in the wake of this year’s events?
DRR: I don’t know about the artworld but society in general has undergone a rude awakening that has forced us to speak a little louder but also be more engaged listeners. Suddenly there are more voices being heard and it seems inevitable that the artworld will have to show that it is listening.
AR: What else do you have coming up?
DRR: I have four paintings included in an exhibition at the Camden Art Centre, London, titled The Botanical Mind which opens in September. I also have my second solo presentation of paintings opening at Kerlin Gallery, Dublin in 2021.
Till Megerle is showing with Christian Andersen, Copenhagen
ArtReview: Can you tell us about the works that will be on show in June?
TM: They are works on paper.
AR: This year June has moved to be an online fair – how has the fact that audiences’ engagement with art has become increasingly digital (even before the pandemic) influenced your practice or the way you view art?
TM: I see more shows online¯\_(ツ)_/¯
AR: How do you think the art world might change in the wake of this year’s events?
TM: Nobody can know
AR: What else do you have coming up?
TM: Secession, opening 21 November 2020
Margaret Lee is showing with Misako & Rosen, Tokyo
ArtReview: Can you tell us about the works that will be on show in June?
Margaret Lee: For this new body of work titled, I.C.W.U.M., I facetiously misinitialize the commonly used phrase ‘I see what you mean’. This obfuscation signals a shift from the literal to the abstract; and is a departure for an artist most known for my deconstruction of symbols of representation. Though specific elements such as newspaper and rope carry over from earlier series, this body of work thinks through the psychoanalytic conceptualisation of ‘anasemia’, a problematising of meaning without determination, a process just barely tethered but holding on nonetheless.
AR: This year June has moved to be an online fair – how has the fact that audiences’ engagement with art has become increasingly digital (even before the pandemic) influenced your practice or the way you view art?
ML: No
AR: How do you think the artworld might change in the wake of this year’s events?
ML: It’s too hard to speculate as situations are shifting quickly.
AR: What else do you have coming up?
ML: I.C.W.U.M. will also be shown by Misako & Rosen at the space in Brussels, La Maison de Rendez-Vous. The exhibition will be on view 3 September – 10 October.
Next week ArtReview meets Paul Mpagi Sepuya, who is showing with Document, Chicago; Georgia Gardner Gray, exhibiting with Croy Nielsen, Vienna; and Jannis Varelas who is working with The Breeder, Athens
