Robert Irwin, South South West (2014-2015), via Pace Gallery
Currently on view at Pace Gallery’s W. 25th Street location is a set of new, “site-conditioned” works by Light and Space pioneer Robert Irwin, continuing the artist’s ongoing experimentation with the perceptual capacities of fluorescent lighting, and the complementary reactions of color, shadow and spacing. (more…)
Glenn Ligon, Come Out #5 (2014)
Regen Projects is presenting its fourth exhibition with Glenn Ligon, the prominent New York-based artist who has established himself as one of the strongest voices in American contemporary art. Well, it’s bye-bye/If you call that gone, featuring three bodies of work, adopts its title from the lyrics of the blues song “What’s the Matter Now”, projecting Ligon’s interest in text as a mode of expression and an agent of collective identity. (more…)
Tracey Emin, Good Body (2014), all images courtesy White Cube Bermondsey
On view at White Cube Bermondsey, London is a new exhibition by English artist (and YBA member) Tracey Emin. Entitled The Last Great Adventure is You, the show will be her first at White Cube in five years, and will remain on view through November 16th.
Robert Irwin, #3 x 6’D Four Fold (2013-14)
Galerie Thomas Zander in Cologne is currently presenting seven new works by California Light and Space pioneer Robert Irwin, which use direct and generated light as the source medium to deliver a subtle yet striking aura inside the gallery space. As is common in Irwin’s practice, the artist specially designed the pieces on view to work in tandem with the architecture of the gallery, making the harmony of their glowing light with the space surrounding them all the more vivid and charged. Each work contains vertical fluorescent tubes in varying colors, effectively deconstructing the borders of art making and its dimensions in terms of suggesting unconventional layers in the frame of an artwork. (more…)
Keith Sonnier, Ba-O-Ba (1970), Caterina Verde, Keith Sonnier/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Pulling works from the beginning and current periods of the artist’s career, Pace Gallery is currently presenting two bodies of work by artist Keith Sonnier, showcasing an extended perspective on the artist’s work and its evolution. Working alongside fellow post-conceptual artists interested in the capabilities for light and lighting in installations and mounted works, Sonnier first embraced the use of neon in his pieces in the late 1960’s, using panes of glass and wrapped neon lighting to emphasize the interplays and gradual shadings of color caused by reflection and spacing. A number of seminal works from this period are exhibited here, including Ba-o-Ba V, and Neon Wrapping Incandescent, influential pieces that marked Sonnier’s newfound interest in the capabilities for light in a sculptural work. (more…)
Pioneering light artist Keith Sonnier is interviewed in a recent edition of the New York Times Magazine, discussing his show of early works at Pace gallery, and his years working in Los Angeles. “Flavin called us Dada homosexuals,” Sonnier says. “We were all in the same shows, the only real difference is that they used hard materials and ours were soft.” (more…)
Coinciding with Art Basel, the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami will open Tracey Emin’s first American museum show, exhibiting a selection of the artist’s neon works. Confronting spiritual and human concerns, the works offer a strong overview of the artist’s career, even though some may overlook her more religion-focused pieces. “Because sex sells, they actually filter out the ones about love or God,” the artist notes. (more…)
James Turrell, Roden Crater (Sunset) (2009), via Kayne Griffin Corcoran
With concurrent shows opening at LACMA, the Guggenheim, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, James Turrell is certainly in the spotlight this summer. The Kayne Corcoran Griffin gallery is also joining in on the artist’s ubiquity, filling its new space on south La Brea with an exhibition focused on the Roden Crater project. Aptly named Sooner Than Later, Roden Crater, the show examines Turrell’s unfinished transformation of the crater into a sight-specific masterwork that has been in development since 1974. (more…)
A 40-foot high neon light sculpture of the iconic Playboy Bunny logo has been erected in Marfa, Texas, creating discussion and debate over its presence. The piece was created by writer and artist Neville Wakefield, who is reportedly Playboy’s creative director of special projects, and who has curated a show this past year at Ballroom Marfa. (more…)
Coming off Tracey Emin’s presentation with a CBE, the artist has designed a limited-edition cover for Harper’s Bazaar Magazine. A tribute to David Bowie in celebration of his new album, the cover features one of her signature neon hearts with the lines “You Loved Me Like A Distant Star.” The 200 copies of the magazine will be available in advance of Bowie’s retrospective show at the Victoria and Albert Museum. (more…)
Keith Sonnier, Lit Circle Blue with Etched Glass (1968), via Mary Boone Gallery
Mary Boone’s Chelsea gallery is currently glowing with Keith Sonnier’s early fluorescent works from 1968 – 1970, on view through February 23. Along with Bruce Nauman, Eva Hesse, and Donald Judd, Sonnier’s approach to spatial and aesthetic considerations radically changed the conceptions of sculpture, embracing experimentation with unconventional materials and approaches to presentation. The works on view at Mary Boone mark the period in which Sonnier first began working with neon light tubes, using them as a method to explore everyday materials, and to examine the impact that light makes on the surrounding environment.
Tracey Emin, Floating, (2012), via Galleria Lorcan O’Neill
Currently open in Rome, Galleria Lorcan O’Neill’s fourth presentation of Tracey Emin’s work is a mature, low-key, yet penetrating selection of the artist’s diverse practice, showcased in both of their spaces on Via Orti D’Aliberti. Emin has recently been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), as well as a professor of drawing at the Royal Academy (RA) along with Fiona Rae, making them the first two women to be elected into the academy. Given her entrance into these exclusive circles as an official representative of British culture, the Italian location of this show offers an interesting reevaluation of Emin’s art.
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