Global contemporary art events and news observed from New York City. Suggestion? Email us.
NEWS

NEA Announced First Round of 2023 Grants

April 18th, 2023

The NEA announced its latest string of grant recipients this week, with $35.6 million earmarked for a range of projects that “demonstrate the vitality of the humanities across our nation” according to Shelly C. Lowe, the endowment’s chairwoman, and “support humanities programs and opportunities for underserved students and communities.”
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Guardian Publishes Piece on Royal Collection

April 18th, 2023

The Guardian has a piece this week on the royal collection, and the range of works often received as gifts now worth millions.
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Curator Bernice Rose Has Died at the Age of 87

April 18th, 2023

Bernice Rose, an art historian and MoMA curator who was a vocal champion of drawing, and helped its establish its current role in arts study, has died at the age of 87. “She recognized early that for a generation of artists who emerged in the 1960s, the art of drawing knew no boundaries,” says Christophe Cherix, the museum’s chief curator of drawings and prints.
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Renzo Martens and Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise to Represent Netherlands at Venice

April 18th, 2023

Renzo Martens and Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC) will represent the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale 2024
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Denise Ryder Named Curator at ICA Philadelphia

April 18th, 2023

The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania (ICA) has appointed Denise Ryner as its Andie B. Laporte Curator. “With her experience working at the intersections of art and academia, Denise brings an exciting perspective and expertise that will enhance the reach, relevance, and impact of ICA’s exhibitions,” says Zoë Ryan, the ICA’s Daniel W. Dietrich, II Director, and Hallie Ringle, ICA’s Brett Sundheim Chief Curator. “On behalf of the ICA Board and staff, I am thrilled to be welcoming her to join our team as we advance our mission as an experimental hub for contemporary art from around the world.” 


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Striking RISD Workers Joined by Students, Faculty and Locals in Walkout

April 18th, 2023

Students and faculty joined a walkout in support of striking RISD workers this week in Providence, Art News reports. The workers’ union is currently in the midst of contract renegotiations.
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UK Sanctions Collector Accused of Financing Hezbollah

April 18th, 2023

The UK has imposed sanctions on Nazem Ahmad, a collector accused of using works from his holdings to finance Hezbollah. “The firm action we have taken today will clamp down on those who are funding international terrorism, strengthening the UK’s economic and national security,” says Treasury minister in the House of Lords, Joanna Penn.
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Hong Kong Arts Body Rescinds Funds Over Security Law

April 17th, 2023

Hong Kong’s arts financing body has pulled HK$1 million (US$127,39o) in funding for two art projects that may have violated national security laws. “The [council] decisively terminated two projects under its project grant and year grant respectively that were suspected to have violated certain regulations or laws. The total amount of grants involved HK$1 million,” the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau said this week.


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Artist Miguel Ángel Payano Jr. Profiled in NYT

April 17th, 2023

Artist Miguel Ángel Payano Jr., who lived in China for over a decade before returning to NY, gets a profile in NYT this week.“I’m a Sinophile,” he says. “I became an artist in China.”
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Cecily Brown Profiled in Guardian

April 17th, 2023

Cecily Brown gets the profile treatment in The Guardian this week as the artist opens her ambitious Met show. “Like a magpie at work, there’s no hierarchy of sources,” Brown said. “It’s just the feeling of someone who looks at everything, takes what they will when it’s needed, churning it around, and spewing it back out as something else.”
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REFERENCE LIBRARY

New York – Abraham Cruzvillegas: “Little Song” at Kurimanzutto Through June 16th, 2023

May 26th, 2023

Abraham Cruzvillegas, Little Song (Installation View), via Kurimanzutto
Abraham Cruzvillegas, Little Song (Installation View), via Kurimanzutto

On view at Kurimanzutto’s New York exhibition space this month, artist Abraham Cruzvillegas brings forth his second solo project in the city with a new body of sculptural pieces created in his studio in Mexico City in the last year. The show, which takes over the gallery’s larger exhibition space in the city, integrations the artist’s signature approach and trademark color motifs, paying tribute to the work of Brazilian post-war art while engaging with the aritst’s own iterative exploration of historical and material interests. Read More »

New York – Trevor Paglen: “You’ve Just Been F*cked by PSYOPS” at Pace Gallery Through July 22nd, 2023

May 25th, 2023

Trevor Paglen, Because Physical Wounds Heal... (2022), via Pace
Trevor Paglen, Because Physical Wounds Heal… (2022), via all images Pace

On view from May 12 to July 22 in New York, artist Trevor Paglen opens his first solo presentation with Pace in New York with a selection of new photography, sculpture, video, and other work, in a thematic presentation that examines the enduring effects of military and CIA influence operations on American culture. The show serves as the conceptual nucleus of a multifaceted project by the artist that also includes a Web3 project, set to be released by Art Blocks x Pace Verso on April 5, and related “speculative reality work” launching this spring. Read More »

New York – Chris Burden: “Cross Communication” at Gagosian Through June 24th, 2023

May 24th, 2023

Chris Burden, Cross Communication (Installation View), all images via Gagosian
Chris Burden, Cross Communication (Installation View), all images via Gagosian

Exploring artist Chris Burden’s early work as a pioneer of both multi-media engagements with technology, and their interlocking investigations of performance and the presence of the body within the media network, Gagosian is currently presenting Cross Communication, an exhibition of relics, films, and video works by the artist, plus other materials that document his early performances. Read More »

New York – Dustin Yellin: “Cave Painting” at Venus Over Manhattan Through June 3rd, 2023

May 23rd, 2023

Dustin Yellin, Beneath the Wheel (2023), via Venus Over Manhattan
Dustin Yellin, Beneath the Wheel (2023), via Venus Over Manhattan

On this month in New York, artist Dustin Yellin presents a solo exhibition of new work at Venus Over Manhattan, exploring the imagery and structures of the natural world in relation to interconnected narratives around technological landscapes, human perception, and systemic modes of meaning-making and understanding. Comprising a series of new paintings, Cave Painting represents an important shift to painting for the artist whose practice in recent years has focused most notably on sculpture. Read More »

Los Angeles – Guan Xiao: ”From Leaves to Shields” at David Kordansky Through June 16th, 2023

May 22nd, 2023

Guan Xiao, FEET, V7V bow (2023)
Guan Xiao, FEET, V7V bow (2023), all images via David Kordansky

This month in Los Angeles, artist Guan Xiao presents a body of works at the David Kordansky space that trace the lineages and connections between disparate imagery and iconography sourced from the digital realm. Emphasizing hybrid narratives, expressive approaches and an expanded sense of possibility for art-making in the contemporary era, the show is a striking look at the possibilities for making as we move deeper into the 21st Century. Read More »

AO On-Site – NADA New York at 548 W 22nd St, May 19th – 21, 2023

May 19th, 2023

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Kambel Smith at Shrine, all images via Art Observed

This weekend marks a return of the New Art Dealers Alliance art fair to New York City, a longtime staple of the New York art fair calendar, and an event known for its range of exploratory and expressive new work from emerging artists, smaller galleries and new projects. For those looking for new insights and fresh perspectives on contemporary art practice, its hard to ignore the call of the fair, which reprises its role as a central tentpole of a weekend of fairs, even as the city’s string of fairs has split up between several weeks this May. Read More »

AO On-Site – New York: Frieze New York 2023 at The Shed, May 18th – 21st, 2023

May 17th, 2023

Damien Hirst at White Cube
Damien Hirst at White Cube, all images via Art Observed

Returning this year to The Shed in New York City’s recently redeveloped Hudson Yards, the 2023 edition of Frieze New York is now open, with a range of shows and projects spread throughout the exhibition space that include ambitious solo projects, surveys of gallery rosters, and focused, historical presentations that underscore the fair’s place as both a site for discovery, and one of the premier selling events of the yearly art world calendar. With a range dealers on hand from New York and around the globe, the fair signals something of a scale-back from the sizable expanses of the versions held at Randalls Island, yet nevertheless presents a dynamic and immersive program.

Suzan Frecon at David Zwirner
Suzan Frecon at David Zwirner

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TONO, A NEW FESTIVAL DEDICATED TO TIME-BASED WORKS, DEBUTS IN MEXICO CITY

May 15th, 2023

"Pablo Astorga- Diego Vega Solorza at Ex Teresa 27

Diego Vega Solorza, Dorje (2019), via Pablo Astorga

On April 18 in Mexico City, TONO, a new festival dedicated to time-based work, held its inaugural two-week program. Partnering with museums and galleries around the city, TONO presented a range of experimental performance art, video installations, and dance performances by local, regional, and international artists. With each performance filled completely at capacity with a diverse audience including collectors from Mexico City and New York, other curators and artists, and students, the festival laid its foundations as an invaluable space for stimulating dialogues surrounding the relationship between various time-based mediums in the contexts of one another. Read More »

AO On-Site – Independent NY at Spring Studios, May 11th – 14th, 2023

May 12th, 2023

Alina Perez at Deli
Alina Perez at Deli, all images via Art Observed

Art-lovers descended upon Spring Studios in TriBeca this week for the much anticipated opening of Independent Art Fair, which opened its latest edition in New York the week before Frieze New York’s annual run. The fair has garnered a reputation as a reliable source of fresh talent, and its continued residence at Spring Studios emphasized its staying power and impact amongst a crowded few weeks of events.

Willie Stewart at Nicelle Beauchene
Willie Stewart at Nicelle Beauchene

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New York – Eva Rothschild: “Arms Folded and Unfolded” at 303 Gallery Through May 25th, 2023

May 9th, 2023

Eva Rothschild, Sweet Spot (2023), via 303
Eva Rothschild, Sweet Spot (2023), via 303 Gallery

This month in New York, 303 Gallery presents Arms Folded and Unfolded, its fourth exhibition of new work by artist Eva Rothschild. Continuing and expanding her engagement with three-dimensional forms, spatial investigations and the subtle lines between aesthetic and utilitarian values, the artist’s work here is a striking extension of an already expansive body of work.

Eva Rothschild, Soft Rain (2023), via 303
Eva Rothschild, Soft Rain (2023), via 303 Gallery

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