Global contemporary art events and news observed from New York City. Suggestion? Email us.
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AO ON SITE: 60th Venice Biennale “Foreigners Everywhere”

April 30th, 2024

Movimento dos Artistas Huni Kuin at Venice Biennale 2024

Movimento dos Artistas Huni Kuin at Venice Biennale 2024

The 60th International Art Exhibition, known as the Venice Biennale, is set to run from April 20 to November 24, 2024. This year’s theme, “Stranieri Ovunque” or “Foreigners Everywhere,” is curated by Adriano Pedrosa, marking a significant milestone as the first South American curator of the Biennale Arte. The event is hosted at Venice’s historic Giardini and Arsenale venues, which have been central to the Biennale since its earliest editions. The theme explores the concepts of intersectionality, displacement, and the reevaluation of geographical margins in the art world. 
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London- Yoko Ono at Tate Modern

March 28th, 2024

Yoko Ono at Tate Modern4

Yoko Ono at Tate Modern

“Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind” exhibition at Tate Modern, is on until September 1st and is an expansive journey through Yoko Ono’s artistic legacy, blending music, installations, photography, and interactive performance art. This landmark showcase, the UK’s most extensive collection of Ono’s work, spans her groundbreaking contributions from the early 1950s to today, highlighting her role as a pioneer in avant-garde art circles worldwide.

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Skarstedt London: Jeff Koons

March 12th, 2024

Koons at Skarstedt

Koons at Skarstedt

From 1st March to 25th May 2024, Skarstedt’s London Gallery presents a solo exhibition featuring the work of American artist Jeff Koons. The show includes five mural-sized paintings crafted between 2001 and 2013 drawn from Koons’ series: Easyfun-Ethereal, Antiquity, and Popeye.
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Tanya Bonakdar Gallery LA: Tomas Saraceno

March 7th, 2024

Tanya Bonakdar, Tomas Saraceno7

Tomas Saraceno at Tanya Bonakdar

At Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Los Angeles, “Live(s) on Air” is on from February 24 to May 4, 2024, featuring new works by Tomás Saraceno. This exhibit explores the theme of eco-social interdependence with a collection that includes sculpture, works on paper, and film. It aims to engage viewers in thinking about the impact of humans on the environment and paths toward coexistence on Earth.
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AO ON-SITE – LOS ANGELES: FRIEZE LOS ANGELES 2024 AT THE SANTA MONICA AIRPORT

March 4th, 2024

Frieze LA

Frieze LA 2024 at Santa Monica Airport

AO was on the ground at the fifth edition of Frieze Los Angeles, held from February 29th to March 3rd, 2024, at Santa Monica Airport, which brought together over 95 galleries exhibiting contemporary art from various regions, showcasing the city’s role in the global art landscape. 
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Perrotin LA: Izumi Kato

February 29th, 2024

Perrotin: IzumI KatoIzumi Kato at Perrotin

AO is on-site at Perrotin, which inaugurated its new Los Angeles gallery with an exhibition featuring Japanese artist Izumi Kato, running from February 28 to March 23, 2024. Kato’s work, known for incorporating elements of both ancient traditions and modern themes, aligns with Los Angeles’s landscape, which includes both natural and urban environments. The artist’s figures, created in his Tokyo studio, are displayed in a setting that reflects the coexistence of contrasting elements, a theme prevalent in Kato’s art.


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MEXICO CITY: ZONA MACO 2024

February 20th, 2024

Zona Maco 2024

Anahuacalli Museum Mexico City

AO was on-site at ZONAMACO Arte Contemporáneo, the largest art fair in Latin America, which celebrated its 20th anniversary from February 7-11th, 2024. Initially launched in 2002 by Zélika García, the fair soon relocated from Monterrey to Centro Citibanamex in Mexico City where it holds four events annually. Since its inception, ZONAMACO has expanded to feature 208 exhibitors from 25 countries, displaying a diverse range of artworks, from modern and contemporary, to design, to an estate section.


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AO ON-SITE – MIAMI BEACH: UNTITLED ART FAIR, DECEMBER 6TH-10TH, 2023

December 12th, 2023

Untitled Art Miami 2023

Photo from Untitled website

Untitled Art Fair revisited its Miami Beach location, again on the beach just off Ocean Drive.  The fair opened on Wednesday the 6th of December and concluded on Sunday the 10th. The fair featured curated presentations, live events, artist performances, and more. This edition hosted 160 exhibitors from 38 countries, showcasing works by nearly 600 artists. The programming encompassed artist projects, performances, and panel discussions as part of the Untitled Art Podcast, with an emphasis on digital innovation and inclusivity.

Annie Duncan, Johansson Projects, Untitled Miami 2023

Annie Duncan, Johansson Projects, Untitled Miami 2023 
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NADA Miami 2023

December 11th, 2023

NADA Miami 2023

AO on site at NADA Miami 2023, here with Harkawik

NADA Miami 2023, the 21st edition of the art fair presented by the New Art Dealers Alliance, showcased a diverse array of galleries from over 50 cities globally, including more than 85 NADA members and 34 first-time exhibitors. The fair was held at Ice Palace Studios and featured a variety of art forms, from traditional to mixed media, reflecting on contemporary societal themes, identity, and the human condition. 
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Hernan Bas’s ‘The Conceptualists’ at The Bass Miami

December 8th, 2023

Hernan Bas's 'The Conceptualists' at The Bas

Hernan Bas’s “The Conceptualists” series at the Bass Museum in Miami Beach presents a unique exploration into themes of queerness, desire, the occult, and the absurd. The series, inspired by the unusual hobbies and activities people took up during the pandemic, features fictitious conceptual artists performing eccentric behaviors. This approach offers a perspective on the boundaries and perceptions of conceptual art, questioning the very definition of artistic expression.

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REFERENCE LIBRARY

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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New York – Harold Ancart: “Paintings” at Gagosian Through June 16th, 2023

May 8th, 2023

Harold Ancart, Paintings (Installation View), via Art Observed
Harold Ancart, Paintings (Installation View), via Art Observed

On view this month at Gagosian, artist Harold Ancart marks his debut with the gallery with a body of new works that continue his atmospheric and expressive exploration of the canvas, walking a delicate line between abstraction and figuration. Continuing his studied approach towards specific visual motifs that run through a series of iterations and expressive tendencies.  Read More »

New York – Erin Jane Nelson: “Sublunary” at Chapter NY Through May 6th, 2023

May 5th, 2023

Erin Jane Nelson, Chronomicrobiome (2023), via Chapter NY
Erin Jane Nelson, Chronomicrobiome (2023), via Chapter NY

This month, Chapter NY presents Sublunary, the second show at the gallery dedicated to the work of artist Erin Jane Nelson second solo exhibition with the gallery, featuring a new body of work centered around the Okefenokee swamp, including quilted silks, ceramic wall works, and ceramic sculpture. The artist, whose work delves into a range of conceptual frameworks from barrier islands to spirituality to science fiction, here initiates a new project around the border of Georgia and Florida, and the Okefenokee swamp that defines that geographic line. Read More »