Aleksander Komarov

Much of Aleksander Komarov’s film work are edited as essays concerning the economic, political, and social conditions that have enabled his nomadic lifestyle- a hallmark of globalized artist-hood. Through film Komarov explores the recording and production of imagery as a political activity, were images therefore appear as co-producers of social conditions. In each work, the spectator is situated within a timeline, on the premise of deconstructing a conclusive documentary statement and instead offering up multiple possible routes towards meaning. As a person entangled in multiple political systems, he exposes the contemporary identity politics ­­as a regulation mechanism of post-industrial exploitation and question whether the art itself now takes over the old assignment of rationalization and standardization.

Aleksander Komarov was born and raised in Belarus, trained as an artist in Glebov Art Leceum in Minsk, Belarus; the University of Fine Arts Poznan, Poland; and Rijksakademie, The Netherlands. He published filmic and written essays concerning questions of migrating identity’s, (cultural) globalization, the condition of contemporary art and its relation to broader economic contexts. His films include Estate (2008); Capital (2009), Glosy/Voices (2011), Palipaduazennje (2012), Language Lessons (2013). Komarov is also co-founder of Air Berlin Alexanderplatz, a research-related residency program in Berlin. His films were exhibited most recently at the Moscow Biennial (2015); Arsenal Gallery, Poland (2014) and The Way of the Shovel, curated by Dieter Roelstraete at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2013.

Elaine Byrne

How people live and what drives individuals and societies lie at the heart of Elaine Byrne’s art. Working with video, photography and sculpture, Byrne examines the unstable relationship between fact and fiction, probing the depth of secrecy with which narratives are imbued, providing the forms through which imagination can be revealed and alternative scenarios envisaged. Recent video works Pure Codology (2015) and Rakoczy’s March (2015) examine the untranslatable, alluding to the mysterious and layered meanings in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Byrne’s excavations expose the fact that populations are excluded and misunderstood; they propose different renderings and potential meanings which demonstrate the complexity of inter-cultural discussion.

Dublin visual artist, Elaine Byrne exhibits at Kevin Kavanagh Gallery. Working in New York for the last two years she completed the Whitney Independent Study Program, New York (September 2014-May 2015). She won the TINA prize (2015) to produce a solo show in Rome in 2016. She also won 8th Arte Laguna sculpture prize for her sculpture RAUM which was exhibited in Venice Arsanale (2014). Solo shows include Limerick City Gallery, September 2014 (which was ArtForum critic’s pick); UAM, Mexico, November 2014; Oonagh Young Gallery (Dublin 2011). Group shows include EFA (New York June 2015), Douglas Hyde Gallery (Dublin), Budapest & Colorado. Awards include emerging photography prize (RHA 2012), Arts Council Project Award (2014), Culture Ireland funding award. Residencies include ISCP, New York (2014), Aeskeaton (2012), and  SOMA, Mexico (2010).

Past Resident
2015: Danish Arts Foundation

Astrid Myntekær

Astrid Myntekær constantly tests, challenges and refines materials and technologies in new contexts and compositions. Light and sound merge and hit you in both body and head. Posh and high-tech materials establish sculptural and performative links to more low-key materials from the local DIY shop and low-key industrial producers. In a time when hackers are the new revolutionaries—and there are signs that we could perhaps move completely through the screen—Astrid Myntekær lets topics of biology, emotion and spirit resonate through her work.

Astrid Myntekær (1985, Denmark) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2012. Her recent solo shows include MANA, Black Sesame Space, Beijing and ORGONE at Overgaden – Institute of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen. Astrid Myntekær’s work has been exhibited at Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde; Kunsthal Charlottenborg; Kunstforeningen Gl Strand; and Gallery Jacob Bjørn. Astrid Myntekær is representing Denmark at the Jeune Creation Europeenne Biennale, 2015–17.