Frank Stella, La Scienza della Fiacca, 3.5X (1984), © 2015 Frank Stella/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Precluding Frank Stella’s career retrospective at The Whitney Museum, which opens at the end of October, Paul Kasmin Gallery has opened a similarly focused exhibition of the New York artist’s particular brand of formal innovation, moving from his early minimal and shaped canvas works during the 1960’s on through to his vividly constructed and layered assemblages of the 1980’s on through to the current day.  Pulling one major work from each of the artist’s most prominent series, the nine works trace the artist’s continued evolution and investigation of shape, space and color as his material interests have gradually changed. (more…)

Art Fag City has compiled a list of new additions to the annual Armory Show, and another of previous guests not attending this year.  A number of major galleries will not be attending this year, including Zach Feuer, Paul Kasmin, Greene Naftali, and Andrew Kreps Gallery. (more…)

The Rolling Stones have chosen Walton Ford to illustrate the cover of their 50th anniversary album. Due to be released in November, the “GRRR!” cover takes John Pasche’s original lips and tongue logo as inspiration. The cover image is a version of Ford’s piece I Don’t Like to Look at Him, Jack. It Makes Me Think of that Awful Day on the Island, shown in 2011 at Paul Kasmin Gallery. Just as Warhol designed the 1971 Sticky Fingers and Peter Corriston created 1978’s Some Girls, the band continues a half-century old tradition.

(more…)

Nir Hod and literary figure Salman Rushdie. All photos on site for Art Observed, at the opening by Samuel Sveen, studio by Jonathan Beer.

Nir Hod’s most recent body of work, titled Mother, opened last night at Paul Kasmin Gallery. The Israeli-born artist is known for creating work that is both strange and beautiful, sharing the sumptuousness found in glamour and fashion advertisements. This new series of paintings takes its inspiration from the widely discussed Holocaust photo “Boy from the Warsaw Ghetto.” History has mainly focused on unmasking the identity of the young boy, centered in the photo with his arms raised in surrender, leaving the matriarchal female figure to his immediate right largely unnoticed. In tribute Nir Hod has singled out the woman, depicting her repeatedly—ten times—in a variety of hues, in an effort to give her story new life. In a recent visit to the artist’s studio in Chelsea, Art Observed had the chance to discuss this new series with the artist.

(more…)

Will Ryman, Bird (2012). All images via Paul Kasmin Gallery.

Will Ryman’s Anyone and No One solo show is the artist’s first at Paul Kasmin, and the first for any artist to show simultaneously at both the 10th avenue gallery and the former Bungalow 8 location. Three new site-specific works include a towering labyrinth of 200,000 paintbrushes, and larger than life sculptures of a man and a raven.

Will Ryman, Signature (detail) (2012)

(more…)

–>
Frank Stella, Double Mitered Maze (1967). All images on site for Art Observed by Ana Marjanovic.

Paul Kasmin gallery hosts Geometric Variations, an exhibition assembling Frank Stella’s square-shaped canvases from the 1960s and ’70s, including Concentric Square, Mitered Mazes and the Benjamin Moore series. According to the press release, the exhibition explores the “historical importance” of Stella’s canvases. Contextualizing them within Western art history discourse, H.H. Arnason pointed out that Stella’s art represents a median between the “modernism advocated by Greenberg, and Minimalism.”

More text and images after the jump…
–>
(more…)

Artist Nir Hod, with a friend at the Opening of Genius

On May 19th Art Observed was on site for the opening of Israeli artist Nir Hod’s show “Genius” with depictions of  “precocious” children at Paul Kasmin Gallery. The series is rendered in classical portraiture style, and consists of paintings and sculptures of cartoon-like children partaking in adults-only behaviours: they smoke, are self-indulgent, and emote a specific type of narcissism that alludes not only to luxury and class, but perhaps also to the quickly-maturing teens of the current time.  After the jump is Stephanie Murg‘s interview with Nir about his work and the Paul Kasmin show.

Designer Marc Jacobs views the work at the opening

More text and images after the jump… (more…)

Will Ryman, The Roses (2011). All photos via Paul Kasmin Gallery unless otherwise noted.

Along Park Avenue, from 57th to 67th Streets, New Yorkers can enjoy an early spring thanks to Will Ryman‘s steel and fiberglass installation, The Roses. Towering up to 25 feet high, the works brighten up the wintry uptown grayness, breaking down the elitism of gallery-laden art and offering a different experience from each point of view—below, above, in a cab passing by. From a family of artists, and a background in theatre, Ryman capitalizes on the public placement, relying on the viewers to “complete my piece,”according to NY Times. Working with City Hall, the Borough Hall Commissioners Office, and the Park Avenue Sculpture Committee, Ryman had his trash vetoed—matches and a Doritos bag—but a variety of dog-sized bugs survive, as well as 20 scattered rose petals, six of which double as lawn chairs.

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

David Zwirner booth at the Armory, showing Yan Pei-Ming, John McCracken, and Rachel Khedoori.

New York Armory Week 2009 is in full swing, with attendance higher than expected moving into the weekend.  Despite the absence of several blue chip galleries – including Matthew Marks and Lehmann Maupin – the gallerists’ collective mood seems hesitant but optimistic.  177 contemporary galleries are exhibiting in the Armory’s 11th year, along with the addition of a Modern wing at Pier 92 selling more established, less edgy work.

The Armory Show 2009 and the Armory Modern
Piers 92 and 94
12th Avenue at 54th Street
March 4-8, 2009

Armory Opening Party at MoMA.

RELATED LINKS
Sales still down, but spirits are buoyant [Art Newspaper]
On the Piers, Testing the Waters in a Down Art Market [New York Times]
Has the Recession Sparked a New Renaissance? [Guardian UK]
On the Scene at the Armory Preview Party [Style File Blog]
MoMA’s Armory Show Opening Benefit Party [Patrick McMullan]
Armory MoMA After Party [Guest of a Guest]
Now Dealing | The Armory Show [TheMoment]
Window-shoppers Descend on Armory Art Show [NYMag]
What’s Selling (or Not) at the New York Armory Show [NYMag]
‘Creepy’ Bernie Madoff Watercolor Fails to Sell at Armory Show [NYMag]
Dealers Sold on Armory Modern, Collectors Less So [ArtInfo]
The Herd Is Out, but Holding Back [ArtInfo]

more stories and photos after the jump…

(more…)