A recently unearthed Michelangelo sketch, considered to be the artist’s first nude, has sold at Christie’s Paris for a record 23 million euros ($24 million). “Michelangelo has decided to make the figure into something that corresponded more to his aesthetic by making him much more robust and monumental, while at the same time keeping the fragility of the figure, who is exposed and shivering” as he awaits baptism,” says Christie’s Old Masters expert Stijn Alsteens.
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New York – Alex Israel: “Sunset Coast Drive” at Greene Naftali Through June 25th, 2022
June 21st, 2022
Alex Israel, Sunset Coast Drive (2022), via Greene Naftali
On view this month at Greene Naftali, the gallery plays host to Sunset Coast Drive, its second solo show presenting the works of Alex Israel. An outing that looks to deepen the artist’s ongoing ongoing engagement with the culture and aesthetics of his native Los Angeles, it mines the sparkling optimism exported by its entertainment industry, while presenting imagery subject to close scrutiny. Read More »
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AO On-Site – Basel: Liste Art Fair at Messe Basel, June 13th – 19th, 2022
June 18th, 2022
Veit Laurent Kurz at Weiss Falk, all images via Art Observed
Returning to its recently transplanted site in another hall of the Messe Basel, the Liste Art Fair makes its voice felt on the landscape and layout of Basel Art Week this season with another edition of its event showcasing works by a range of galleries presenting the latest and newest voices in contemporary art. Running in conjunction with the Art Basel fair just a few minutes away in another hall of the expansive exhibition center, Liste welcomes 82 galleries, each centering on younger artists, new concepts and exploratory work. For gallerists, participating at LISTE, the fair is an opportunity to network globally and present their program to professionals and art lovers that gather in Basel during this important week on the international art calendar.
Tomas Diaz Cedeño at Peana
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AO On-Site – Basel: Art Basel at the Messe Basel, June 16th – 19th, 2022
June 16th, 2022
Folkert de Jong at Sofie van de Velde
Marking it’s return to its usual spot in early summer, the 2022 edition of Art Basel has opened its doors for its early hours, preparing for a public opening this weekend with an expansive offering of works from European galleries and those further afield. Open once again at the Messe Basel, the fair continues its reputation as a flagship for the international fair brand, with over 200 leading galleries and more than 4,000 artists from five continents. Emphasizing it’s place as a central force in the run of events and fairs worldwide, Basel’s return to form is a tentpole in a run of reopenings in the wake of the Covid-19 shutdowns.
David Hammons at Xavier Hufkens
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New York – Anna-Sophie Berger: “Sin” at JTT Through June 18th, 2022
June 14th, 2022
Anna-Sophie Berger, Lady Wealth (2022), via JTT
On view this month at New York’s JTT Gallery, artist Anna-Sophie Berger presents a selection of new works that draw on bodies, space and perception to create striking visual and psychological effects. Using a fusion of everyday materials posed in unique new permutations, her body of work is a striking and potent investigation of how these items construct a shared reality, or perhaps just the sense of one. Read More »
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New York – Anne Imhof: “Avatar” at Galerie Buchholz Through July 2nd, 2022
June 13th, 2022
Anna Imhof, Avatar (Installation View), all images by Aleph Molinari for Art Observed.
Continuing her experimentation with spatial arrangement and irreverent institutional takeovers, Anne Imhof has transformed the uptown gallery space of Galerie Buchholz for her new exhibition, Avatar. A simulacra of an institution of learning, the exhibition plunges the viewer into an alternate universe that embodies the industrialized cut-and-paste production of knowledge and identity. It is both an avatar for these spaces of socialization, as well as the avatars people adopt while navigating them. Presenting physical signifiers in opposition to surreal juxtapositions of other works, the show explores the role of space in the production of power, sites of cultural socialization, and its interrelations to social constructs. Read More »
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VENICE — MARLENE DUMAS: “OPEN-END” AT PALAZZO GRASSI THROUGH JANUARY 8TH, 2023
June 10th, 2022
Marlene Dumas, The Martyr (2002-04). All images via Art Observed.
The Pinault Collection’s Palazzo Grassi presents Open-End this summer, a major monographic exhibition of work by Marlene Dumas, the Cape Town-born artist renowned for her portraiture exploring the depth, breadth and intensity of human emotion. Coinciding with the 59th Venice Biennale, the solo-exhibition features over 100 works from 1984 to 2021, including previously unseen paintings such as Persona (2020). Curated by Caroline Bourgeois and the artist herself, open-end spans 33 rooms across two floors of the 18th-century Pinault Collection space alongside the Grand Canal in Venice. Read More »
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New York – Francis Bacon: “Faces & Figures” at Skarstedy Through June 25th, 2022
June 9th, 2022
Francis Bacon, Seated Woman (1961), via Skarstedt
On view this summer, Skarstedt has assembled a striking selection of work by painter Francis Bacon, titled Faces and Figures. The exhibition unifies a group of masterworks spanning the 1950s to the 1970s. Featuring depictions of some of his most beloved friends, lovers, and muses—Peter Lacy, George Dyer, Muriel Belcher, and Henrietta Moraes—along with an intimate self-portrait and a portrait of Pope Pius XII, the exhibition traces poignant moments of loss and companionship that underscores the artist’s masterful blending of art and life. Read More »
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Paris – Lawrence Abu Hamdan: “Errata” at Mor Charpentier Through June 18th, 2022
June 7th, 2022
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Errata (Installation View), via Mor Charpentier
Marking his second solo show at mor charpentier, British-Lebanese artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan continues a body of research on sound as legal evidence, focusing on the unbreakable relationship between testimony and the technology used to record it. Interested in the blind spots of global justice systems, the artist examines sound as a means to reveal historic acts of erasure and rupture. Here, that concept centers around the Nuremberg Trials, and the structures of justice and witnessing this process created and perpetuated.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Errata (Installation View), via Mor Charpentier
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Los Angeles – Lynda Benglis: “Excavation” at Blum & Poe Through June 25th, 2022
June 6th, 2022
Lynda Benglis, Yellow Tail (2020), via Blum & Poe
On view this month Blum & Poe, the gallery presents Excavation, marking the second solo exhibition of works by Lynda Benglis, continuing the artist’s work in soaring, swooping strokes of bronze. Alluding to themes of referencing the artist’s past in relation to her current work, and referring to the interchanges of positive and negative space as if one was digging or displacing earth, similar to the cast-making process. Read More »
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Los Angeles – Kevin Beasley: “On site” at Regen Projects Through June 22nd
June 3rd, 2022
Kevin Beasley, Wood shed (on improvisation) (2022), via Art Observed
This month at Regen Projects, artist Kevin Beasley brings forward a selection of dynamic new works that marks his first solo gallery show in LA. With a multidisciplinary practice that incorporates sculpture, drawing, installation, sound, music, and performance, Beasley probes the material and cultural conditions that shape our perception of history. His ability to alchemize ordinary material—specifically personal artifacts and articles of clothing—into sculptures that are simultaneously transcendent and familiar has placed him at the vanguard of artistic and cultural thought. That practice continues here. Read More »
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