Global contemporary art events and news observed from New York City. Suggestion? Email us.

New York – Kim Jones: “RATS LIVE ON NO EVIL STAR” at Bridget Donahue Through January 9th, 2021

January 6th, 2021

Kim Jones, Untitled (1958-59, 2004, 2020), via Bridget Donahue
Kim Jones, Untitled (1958-59, 2004, 2020), via Bridget Donahue

Artist Kim Jones has been working in sculpture and performance for over 50 years, unifying a range of complex political and social sentiments through his challenging and unique works.  In his first exhibition at Bridget Donahue this month, RATS LIVE ON NO EVIL STAR, Jones fills the gallery with selections from five decades of work. Jones’s experience as a soldier in the Vietnam War has influenced his artistic production, as well as his experience using leg braces after an illness restricting his ability to walk at the age of seven. Read More »

New York – Alexis Rockman: “Lost Cargo” at Sperone Westwater Through January 16th, 2021

January 5th, 2021

Alexis Rockman, The Rime (2020), via Sperone Westwater
Alexis Rockman, The Rime (2020), via Sperone Westwater

Currently on at Sperone Westwater in New York, artist Alexis Rockman is presenting a selection of new watercolors that mark a continued investigation of the medium in relation to the impending climate disaster and resulting crises in human migration and social/political responses.  Marking his fourth solo show with the gallery since 1992, the show takes a lyrical and metaphorical tone in addressing these concepts, marking natural signifiers and moments of mythological crisis as deeply resonant notes in the current state of humanity.  Read More »

Paris – Gunther Uecker: “Lichtbogen” at Lévy Gorvy Through January 23rd, 2021

January 4th, 2021

Gunther Uecker, Lichtbogen (2020), at Levy Gorvy
Gunther Uecker, Lichtbogen (2020), at Levy Gorvy

Marking a new wrinkle in the artist’s already boundless body of work, artist Gunther Uecker has brought forth a new selection of pieces on view currently at Lévy Gorvy recently inaugurated Paris exhibition space.  The show features a range of new pieces, a dramatic development in the artist’s seven-decade practice, radiant paintings that vibrate with the energy of their creation, embodying fluidity and light. Read More »

Paris – “Antibodies” at Palais de Tokyo Through January 3rd, 2021

December 30th, 2020

Xinyi Cheng, Julien (2017), via Palais de Tokyo
Xinyi Cheng, Julien (2017), via Palais de Tokyo

Marking one of the more engaged and critically-considered reflections on the past year in and out of quarantine, Palais de Tokyo in Paris is currently presenting Antibodies, a show delving into new projections and perceptions of the body, touch, closeness and proximity in the era of the pandemic lockdown.  On view through the end of the weekend, Antibodies looks at the state of the world, and the human bodies that move and interact within it, questioning how social and political conception of the body itself have changed in the past year.

Forensic Architecture, Cloud Studies (Still), via Palais de Tokyo
Forensic Architecture, Cloud Studies (Still), via Palais de Tokyo

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New York – Sue Williams at 303 Gallery Through January 30th, 2021

December 29th, 2020

Sue Williams, Betsy Ross Composite (2020), via 303 Gallery

Sue Williams, Betsy Ross Composite (2020), via 303 Gallery

Marking her eleventh solo exhibition at 303 Gallery, painter Sue Williams has brought a selection of dynamic new paintings to bear on the New York space, continuing her particular brand of incendiary, uncompromising social critique through her craft. In a body of work that expands across a range of varied technical approaches and materials, the show outlines Williams’s impressive capacity carry her themes and concepts across a broad framework.   Read More »

New York – Lynda Benglis: “Early Work 1967 – 1979” at Cheim & Read and Ortuzar Projects

December 23rd, 2020

Lynda Benglis, Early Work 1967-1979 (Installation View), via Cheim & Read
Lynda Benglis, Early Work 1967-1979 (Installation View), via Cheim & Read

Closing today at Cheim & Read and previously on view through December 3rd at Ortuzar ProjectsLynda Benglis’s early work gets a renewed perspective, exploring the artist’s dense material innovations and explorations of the body in relation to sculpture. Compiling a range of works that have proved crucial to the development of Lynda Benglis’s practice during her first decade in New York, the show spans three separate locations, offering an impressive and expansive look at the artist’s work. On at Cheim & Read’s uptown exhibition space, a series of lozenge-shaped wax paintings are juxtaposed with Benglis’s latex and polyurethane pours, while one floor up and the Ortuzar viewing room, one can view a selection of gilded wall sculptures inspired by the caryatids from the porch of the Erechtheion at the Acropolis in Athens. Sparkle and metallized knot sculptures, including the multi-part installation North, South, East, West, 1976 – last shown in New York at a 1981 Whitney Museum exhibition – are on view at Ortuzar Projects on White Street in Tribeca. Read More »

London – Mary Weatherford: “Train Yards” at Gagosian Through February 27th, 2021

December 22nd, 2020

Mary Weatherford, No. 4000 (2017-2018), via Gagosian
Mary Weatherford, No. 4000 (2017-2018), via Gagosian

Marking her first solo show with Gagosian Gallery in London, Mary Weatherford has brought forward a body of new works under the title Train Yards, a series of works that pursues Weatherford’s foundational interest in the poetics of place—especially sites of mass transportation, and locations where the conditions of urban life reveal themselves with a particular intensity. Read More »

New York – Tschabalala Self: “Cotton Mouth” at Eva Presenhuber Through January 23rd, 2021

December 21st, 2020

Tschabalala Self, Carpet (2020), via Eva Presenhuber
Tschabalala Self, Carpet (2020), via Eva Presenhuber

Currently on view at Eva Presenhuber’s New York exhibition space, American artist Tschabalala Self presents Cotton Mouth, her debut solo exhibition with the gallery.  Read More »

New York – Carroll Dunham at Gladstone Gallery Through January 9th, 2021

December 18th, 2020

Carroll Dunham, Big Men (1) (2019-2020), via Gladstone
Carroll Dunham, Big Men (1) (2019-2020), via Gladstone

Marking a continuation and expansion of exploration of visceral states and fluid body movements across a series of new canvases, Carroll Dunham returns to Gladstone Gallery this winter, exhibiting a group of “wrestlers,” engaged in physical struggle. Dunham’s newest groups of wrestling matches are set amidst barren landscapes, deserted for all but one single tree, wherein the aggressive men are locked into differing moments of struggle. Employing formal techniques developed throughout his career, the works exemplify Dunham’s unique ability to continually recontextualize his distinct visual language through new and recurring modes of art making.  Read More »

New York – Fredrik Værslev: “World Paintings” Through December 19th, 2020

December 17th, 2020

Fredrik Vaerslev, World Paintings (Installation View), via Andrew Kreps
Fredrik Værslev, World Paintings (Installation View), via Andrew Kreps

Artist Fredrik Værslev operates at an intriguing intersection of formalist and minimalist concepts, drawing on cultural signifiers, semiotic assumptions and linguistic fragments to explore the edges of painting, that space where the canvas becomes a stand-in for something larger than just a picture.  For his most recent show at Andrew Kreps Gallery, the artist continues that practice with World Paintings. Read More »