Galerie Perrotin and Dominique Levy announced separately that each will open their respective galleries at 909 Madison Avenue in 2013.  Galerie Perrotin has a 10-year lease on 4,300 sq feet of the former Bank of New York building on Madison and 73rd Street. Dominique Levy, co-founder of L&M Arts, will open her own gallery focusing on postwar and contemporary art. Levy said in a press release that her gallery space will occupy the second, third and fourth floors. Other galleries that have recently expanded include Gagosian in a suburb of Paris; Pace, Zwirner and Michael Werner in London and Lehmann Maupin in Hong Kong. (more…)

L&M Arts announces splitting of partners – Dominique Lévy to open new gallery in an undisclosed Upper East Side location. They will continue to operate L&M Arts in Los Angeles; the New York location will change its name to Mnuchin Gallery. Lévy plans to show postwar and contemporary art, handling primary- and secondary-market sales.

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Jenny Holzer this week began to project randomized sequences of sayings on the façade of L&M Arts in Los Angeles as part of her new exhibition, “Jenny Holzer: THE FUTURE PLEASE”, which will feature her granite benches, 1980s plaques, redaction paintings and LED signs.  The exhibition is organized into two parts: early work from 1970s to the present is on view in the West Gallery; recent work in the East Gallery. Runs through Oct 27th.

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Averroes (1960), Marquis de Portago (1960). All photographs courtesy L + M Gallery.

15 of Frank Stella‘s important early works are on display in Black Aluminum Copper at L&M Arts in New York City’s upper east side. With a heavy sense of history, the show moves from the stark, post-war attitude of works such as Die Fahne hoch! (‘Raise the flag’) & Arbeit Macht Frei (‘Work Liberates’, the sign hung on the gates at Auschwitz) to the more spacious pre-minimalism of Avicenna or Telluride. These works were completed between 1958–61, the period immediately following Stella’s graduation from Princeton and move to NYC.

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Barbara Kruger (2011) All photos via L&M Arts (Installation Photography: Joshua White/JWPictures.com)

Over ten years  have passed since Barbara Kruger has had a solo exhibition in her hometown of Los Angeles. L&M Arts currently presents a long overdue show featuring the artist’s signature text “wrap” as well as a video installation. Kruger’s use of text dates back to the 1980’s when she coined such phrases as “I shop therefore I am” and “Your body is a battleground.” The L&M exhibition continues to spotlight themes of consumerism and desire, money and power.

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Photo credit Joshua White courtesy of L&M Arts

L&M Arts in Venice Beach presents Willem de Kooning: Figure & Light, a collection of drawings and paintings spanning the artist’s first involvement in the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1950s to the end of his career in the 1980s.  The exhibition is divided into two galleries with the first displaying relatively small-scale works from de Kooning‘s iconic Women series.  The second room showcases the artist’s later abstract paintings realized between 1980 and 1985.

Willem de Kooning Two Women II, c. 1952. Photo credit Joshua White courtesy of L&M Arts

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Installation view, “Damien Hirst: Medicine Cabinets” at L&M Arts, New York. Courtesy of L&M Arts.

In case you missed Damien Hirst at last month’s Contemporary Art auctions (just one painting made it to an evening sale), there is still time to see eighteen of the artist’s Medicine Cabinets installed at L&M Arts in New York. The cabinets are exhibited along with a collection of Sex Pistols memorabilia that includes posters, prints, and t-shirts.

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Above: Karen Kilimnik, Me Corner of Haight & Ashbury, 1966, 1998.
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Below: Joseph Cornell, Untitled, c. 1953.
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Image courtesy of the Artists, 303 Gallery New York and Sprueth Magers Gallery Berlin London.

Currently on view at Sprueth Magers London is “Something Beautiful,” a collaborative show by American artists Joseph Cornell and Karen Kilimnik. Curated by Todd Levin, the exhibition features paintings, collages, and mixed-media installations that reflect the influence of the Romantic-era ballet on both artists.

Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) was an American artist known for pioneering the art of assemblage. Created from found objects, Cornell’s boxes often read like three-dimensional Surrealist paintings. He admired the work of Max Ernst and Rene Magritte, but claimed to have found their work to be too dark.  His work was also inspired heavily by his beliefs in Christian Science, which he adopted in his early twenties. He never received formal training as an artist, but was influenced by American Transcendentalist poetry and French Symbolist painters, such as Mallarme and Nerval. Another motif of his work, 19th century European ballet dancers, comes to life in this exhibition.

Similarly, Karen Kilimnik’s work redeploys discreet objects in a quest for the romantic sublime. Theater and stagecraft have figured strongly in her installations, and her use of particular materials suggests the influence of Cornell. Often making direct references to Degas and other Impressionist painters, Kilimnik’s subjects occupy a nineteenth-century world: one of mystery, drama, and romance.

Anthony Byrt, in his review for Art Forum, refers to Levin’s conceptual approach here as a “bold curatorial statement,” suggesting that the premise upon which the two artists are connected is a precarious one. However, “Ballet aside,” says Byrt, “tangible links do emerge, such as theatricality, quiet spectacle, and ideas of feminine beauty, which both artists explore.”

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Karen Kilimnik, Paris Opera Rats, 1993. Image credited as above.

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Tanguy/ Calder: Between Surrealism and Abstraction, Installation view. Image via L & M Arts.

In 1942, Peggy Guggenheim wore one earring by Yves Tanguy and one by Alexander Calder to the opening of Art of This Century; a year later, Pierre Matisse presented the artists in adjacent rooms of his gallery.  In the 1940s, critics began to notice the aesthetic likeness of the artists’ work, including mutual biomorphic designs in paintings and sculptures.  The colloquy and stimulus inspired by the pair’s mutual Connecticut community is explored in this extensive, two-floor exhibition.  Tanguy/ Calder: Between Surrealism and Abstraction at L & M Arts celebrates the creative relationship between these two artists, presenting their works from the 1930s-1950s alongside photographs and previously unpublished documents that testify to the collaborative aspect of their rapport and seamlessly harmonizing abstraction and Surrealism.
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Painting (1954) by Philip Guston, via Artnet

Philip Guston 1954-1958 at L&M Arts in New York features a select group of seven paintings from this exceptional period in the artist’s career. The exhibit captures a moment of growth and discovery in Guston’s career. The artist’s fascination with gestural brush strokes and marks of color that seem to float within the picture frame constitute a delicate balancing act between composition and expression.  Such a new style of painting was a formative development at the time and led Guston to become one of the renowned first generation Abstract Expressionists.  The show also includes loans from the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and other private collections.

Exhibition Page: Philip Guston: 1954-1958
Philip Guston: 1954-1959 [Artnet]
“Philip Guston: 1954-1958” at L&M Arts[Reuters]

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