Antony Gormley, Shore II (2012). All images courtesy Sean Kelly Gallery.
To inaugurate Sean Kelly Gallery’s new location, designed by Toshiko Mori, is an exhibition of new works by Antony Gormley. Bodyspace continues Gormley’s decades-long exploration of the body, and specifically addresses the body in relation to the newly re-designed interior.
Kehinde Wiley, Judith and Holofernes (2012). All photos on site for Art Observed by Perrin Lathrop, © Kehinde Wiley.
For his debut exhibition at Sean Kelly Gallery, Kehinde Wiley embarks upon new territory: women. Titled An Economy of Grace, the series depicts African-American women selected straight from the streets of New York City. Wiley poses his subjects to mimic portraits of 18th and 19th Century society women by artists such as Jacques Louis David, Thomas Gainsborough and John Singer Sargent. Set against Wiley’s signature bold, decorative backgrounds, these women exude power and elegance—they refuse to be ignored. Reflecting on his decision to portray females, Wiley states, “I am painting women in order to come to terms with the depictions of gender within the context of art history.”
Kehinde Wiley (center) at the opening of ‘An Economy of Grace’ at Sean Kelly Gallery, May 5, 2012 (more…)
Iran do EspÃrito Santo, Untitled (Folded Mirror 13) (2011). All photos on site for Art Observed by Perrin Lathrop.
Three new bodies of work comprising Brazilian artist Iran do EspÃrito Santo’s Switch on view now at Sean Kelly Gallery continue the artist’s investigation into connections between light, form, and space. EspÃrito Santo has expressed his interest in exploring “the duality we live in; between the concrete world and that of ideas. It’s an existential human condition; the artworks are a way of negotiating this, a need to deal with immateriality.” Gallery goers may witness three very different series, each exploring light’s interaction with the perception of space.
Alec Soth, 2008_02zl0173 (2008)
Alec Soth threads a narrative of retreat, decay, and reclamation through the photos on display in Broken Manual at Sean Kelly Gallery. The exhibition traces Soth’s life as Lester B. Morrison, a character of Soth’s invention whom he incarnated from 2006–2010 while infiltrating isolated communities living life on the rural American fringe. The photos tell the story of Morrison’s retreat from civilization, depicting his passage from the squatters’ dens of urban decay to life among the “hermits and hippies, monks and survivalists” that become the subject of Soth’s lens. As he presses on, photos of strident, decrepit infrastructure imposed on pastoral landscapes give way to portraits of men who unsettlingly resemble the unforgiving locales they inhabit.
Charles Tennant (1978) by Robert Mapplethorpe, via Sean Kelly Gallery
Currently on view at Sean Kelly Gallery is “50 Americans”, an exhibition presenting fifty works by the renowned American artist Robert Mapplethorpe (1946- 1989). Fifty Americans, each from a different state in the country and some of whom were not yet familiar with the artist’s work, were invited to choose an artwork by the legendary photographer out of a selection of 2,000 images. Each participant revealed why he or she found each work to be particularly meaningful in a text box accompanying the piece. “50 Americans” is an exhibition which offers a fresh view of Mapplethorpe’s work and his practice while also revealing the tastes of the everyday Americans who acted as the curators.
Nick Marden (1980) by Robert Mapplethorpe, via Sean Kelly Gallery
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Installation view of Los Carpinteros: Rumba Muerta at Sean Kelly Gallery. All images via Sean Kelly Gallery
Currently on view at Sean Kelly Gallery is the project Rumba Muerta by artist duo Marco Castillo and Dagoberto Rodriguez a.k.a. Los Carpinteros. The duo was formed in 1991 (along with then-collaborator Alexandre Arrechea) and the artists choose to work under the name Los Carpinteros in order to renounce the socially problematic ideology of individual authorship. Instead, the collective name evokes the cultural tradition of skilled artisans—in this case, carpentry. Indeed, the notion of craft is crucial to their practice, as is that of design. With Rumba Muerta Los Carpinteros incorporate aspects of architecture, design, and sculpture to create installations and drawings which seek to negotiate the divide between inhabited spaces, social consciousness, and non-functional art objects.
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Portrait with a Golden Mask, Marina Abramovic (2010) All images via Sean Kelly Gallery.
Currently on view at Sean Kelly Gallery is “Marina Abramovic: Personal Archaeology.” While the Abramovic retrospective at MoMA recently ended, this show continues until mid-June. Compared with MoMA, the relatively smaller space and the less crowded galleries at Sean Kelly Gallery gives the viewer a chance to engage with Abramovic’s work in a more intimate setting. Personal Archaelogy presents many of the iconic works of this seminal performance artist from the 1970s up until the present day.
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Antony Gormley, Breathing Room II, 2010. Installation view with lights off.
Currently on show at the Sean Kelly Gallery is an exhibition of new works by the preeminent British sculptor Antony Gormley. This exhibition acts as a welcome compliment to Gormley’s current public art installation, Event Horizon, in Madison Square Park, continuing his career-long exploration of the human body in space. Conversely to Event Horizon, the Breathing Room exhibition investigates the human body confined within the boundaries of architecture. What is more, Gormley’s work is ostensibly the visual representation of how the body exists as a “bounding box of the mind” [Sean Kelly Gallery Press Release] and how architecture becomes fortification for the body. Thus he draws parallels between the body and architecture, which are particularly well articulated in this exhibition.
Antony Gormley, Breathing Room II, 2010, Installation view with lights on.
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Marina Abramovic, The Artist is Present, MoMA. Installation view with Portrait with Flowers, 2009. All photos by Ipek Irgit for Art Observed unless otherwise noted.
Marina Abramović is notorious for the centrality of her own body within her artwork. True, Abramović’s career can be read as a sort of bewildering physical endurance test, yet this would seemingly belie, a more important relationship than the artist to her own body, but the relationship between the artist, artwork and audience. In the case of her newest performance, The Artist is Present, part of the retrospective of the same name at MoMA, the artist is very much present, but most significantly the audience is present also. In an interview on the MoMA website Abramović discusses her belief in the essential role the audience plays in performance art, if not all art work, “The work is done for the audience, without the audience the work doesn’t exist, it doesn’t make any meaning.”
Marina Abramovic, The Artist is Present, 2010
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This morning ArtObserved attended the official press preview of New York’s latest public art show – Antony Gormley‘s ‘Event Horizon.’ Through August 15, 31 life-size figures cast from the artist’s own body will inhabit the pathways and sidewalks of Madison Square Park, as well as the rooftops of the many architectural treasures that populate New York’s Flatiron district, including the Empire State building. Event Horizon marks Gormley’s public art debut in the US – a milestone for an artist who has created some of the most important public art pieces of our time that include Angel of the North and Another Place in the UK. Antony Gormley originally created Event Horizon for London’s Hayward Gallery in 2007 – the sculptures were installed on bridges, rooftops and streets along the South Bank of London’s Thames River. Event Horizon will run together with Gormley’s Breathing Room II – on show at Sean Kelly Gallery through May 1, 2010. Full coverage of both events will follow shortly.
Antony Gormley introduces his installation this morning in Madison Square Park alongside New York’s Mayor, Michael Bloomberg
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An exhibition of work by British-born artist Anthony McCall is currently being exhibited at both the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York through January 30th, 2010 and Gallery Thomas Zander in Koln, Germany through February 20th, 2010. Entitled ‘Leaving (with Two-minute Silence),’ McCall’s new work of ‘solid light’ presentations are comprised of digital videos of carefully choreographed, intersecting lines and curves. The collections of intersecting shapes are projected in dark, haze-filled rooms and result in three-dimensional forms, constructed purely from light. The exhibition is interactive, and as the viewers move in and out of the projected light beams, they must reconcile their perceived sense of fixed, three dimensional objects with the actual mutable properties that light possesses.
McCall’s work emphasizes the sculptural qualities of beams of light.
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A view of the new exhibition at i8, running concurrently with one at Sean Kelly, that features Anthony McCall and Finnbogi Pétursson.
Installation artists Anthony McCall and Finnbogi Pétursson are showing jointly at Sean Kelly Gallery, and in a concurrent exhibition at i8 Gallery in Reykjavik, Iceland. Both close on July 31, and explore space, light, and sound in included works, some of which are showing for the first time.
Related links:
Sean Kelly Gallery – Anthony McCall/Finnbogi Pétursson
i8 shows / Anthony McCall, Finnbogi Pétursson
Finnbogi Pétursson [artist homepage]
Anthony McCall [artist homepage]
Finnbogi Pétursson at Sean Kelly Gallery.
Grayson Perry; Entrance To The Forest; 2002; Victoria Miro Gallery; London -Photos by ArtObserved
“The surprise is the business we are doing. Frankly, people are expressing more confidence in the art market than the government or Wall Street right now,” said Sean Kelly of Sean Kelly Gallery. The night of December 2nd, Vernissage attendees glittered and Piper Heidsieck champagne flowed. More importantly, buyers were in attendance, asking questions and indeed, according to most of the galleries interviewed for this article, buying. On Thursday afternoon, Douglas Baxter, President of Pace Wildenstein professed “We’ve met expectations.” Also on Thursday, when asked his feelings on sales from the night before, a representative at Cheim & Read insisted his artists have been selling well, pointing to Jack Pierson sculpture and a pile of William Eggleston’s photos. Margherita Belaief of Peres Projects had the same confidence, “It’s hard to say so early but in general, Dash Snow’s pieces are selling strong.” While hesitant to disclose precise numbers, the overall sentiment of the top galleries was optimistic.
However, it’s important to note while the larger known artists have been selling strong, some galleries have reported some difficulty selling lesser known artist pieces. Alfons Klosterfelde at Klosterfelde was most direct: “People are asking more questions and really want to know the details,” but he said pointedly as of Thursday, “there have been less sales” and Klosterfelde remarked the pieces sold were from the gallery’s more known artists.
Photos and Writing by Faith-Ann Young
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