Christian Boltansk Les Linges (2020), via Art Observed

“A very horrible yet interesting thing has occurred since Covid is here, which is, that death is no longer hidden. Death used to be completely denied by us, and nowadays, because of this disease, we are talking about death as something that is around us and that is present,” says Christian Boltanski.   The French artist, currently showing his most recent exhibition at Marian Goodman’s Paris exhibition space, has taken a particularly direct approach towards a pandemic still causing widespread death and disruptions around the globe. For this show, titled Après, the artist asks challenging questions about our current state of the world, and the human values we ascribe to it. (more…)

Daniel Buren & Philippe Parreno, Simultanément, travaux in situ et en mouvement (Installation view), Galerie Kamel Mennour

Choosing an auspicious concept for the first show in its new space in Paris’s rue du Pont de Lodi, Kamel Mennour Gallery presents a joint project between two artists of different generations yet similar interests in space and exhibition, presentation and perception.  Unifying the visions of Daniel Buren and Philippe Parreno’s Simultanément, travaux in situ et en mouvement brings together the pair’s intriguing interests in the definition and understanding of space and movement. (more…)

Claudia Comte, Jungle and Corals (Installation View), via König Galerie

Taking over the halls of the König Galerie Chapel in Berlin, artist Claudia Comte  presents a body of new works unified under the title Jungles and Corals, a selection of new sculptural works produced while Comte was on residency last year in Jamaica at the Alligator Head Foundation as a fellow of the TBA21–Academy. Created in collaboration with local woodworkers, the show draws on natural forms and iconographies to create a distinct and cohesive spatialized experience. (more…)

Pieter Vermeersch (Installation View), via Art Observed

Currently on at Galerie Perrotin in Paris, the painter and sculptor Pieter Vermeersch has brought forth an enigmatic and expressive exhibition to mark his sixth solo show with the dealer.  Consisting of a series of conceptual operations, including a series of screenprints on marble slabs, oil paintings on stone, and a range of varied dimensional operations, the show is a striking exploration in scale and shape, material and space through the language of minimalism.

Pieter Vermeersch (Installation View), via Art Observed

(more…)

Gregory Crewdson, Redemption Center (2018-2019), via Art Observed

On view through this past weekend at Galerie Templon in Paris, Gregory Crewdson’s newest series, An Eclipse of Moths presents a series of sixteen large scale prints that act like portals into desolate American scenes. First released in 2020, a year that will be remembered for the stark political division and a health crisis that ravaged the country, Crewdson’s work here continues his reputation for cinematic visual languages, which he pursues with a large production team. He goes location scouting, and carefully lights his sets and directs actors as if they were in a film. His cohesive choice of four by eight foot prints allows the viewer to step back to grasp a grand scene that must be approached closely in order to take in the meticulous details, of signals and characters that, despite their distance, communicate with each other.
(more…)

Haim Steinbach, Display #28 – Rustic Wall (1991), via Tanya Bonakdar

For more than four decades, artist Haim Steinbach has explored the psychological, aesthetic, and cultural aspects of collecting and arranging found objects, selecting items that range from the obscure to the ordinary, the private to the ethnographic and using them as a meditative element to emphasize notions of circulation and human connection.  For his most recent show at Tanya Bonakdar in New York, a selection of works on view highlights a concentrated three-year period in the artist’s career, and offers a recontextualization of his own historic practice and an occasion for reflection. (more…)

Joyce Pensato, Fuggetabout It (Redux) (Installation View), via Petzel

Marking the gallery’s first show of works by Joyce Pensato following the artist’s passage in 2019, Petzel’s current show, Fuggetabout It (Redux) marks a fitting summation and reflection on the work of an artist who long mined the languages of pop culture and mass media to create her supercharged mode of painting and sculpture.   (more…)

Alex Ayed, Untitled (Sail XII) (2020), via Balice Hertling

Currently on at Galerie Balice Hertling, although temporarily closed due to Covid-19, artist Alex Ayed has brought together a unique range of works exploring notions of travel, exploration and interconnectivity.  The show, consisting of a series of stretched sail works and a series of sculptural objects, draws on a range of notions regarding the passage of bodies, and the impacts it has on humanity’s conception of the world. (more…)

John Bock, Ohne Titel (2020), via Anton Kern

Taking on his tenth exhibition with Anton Kern Gallery, German sculptor and performance artist John Bock has turned towards a smaller scale, bringing out a series of 25 new three-dimensional collages that underscore his ongoing interests in the form and representation of performance and performers in modernity.  While constructed out of simple materials, these works contain the entire Bockian universe, twisting a range of signifiers and iconographies into concise statements.   (more…)

Reggie Burrows Hodges, Community Concern (2020), via Karma

Currently at Karma, a string of minimal, subdued figures and landscapes stretch across the walls, dotting the gallery space with a string of delicately rendered scenes and situations.  The work is that of artist Reggie Burrows Hodges, marking his first exhibition in New York, and offering an introduction to his lyrical, singular approach towards the canvas.   (more…)

Carla Accardi, Grande Rosso Scuro (1974), via Art Observed

Embracing a unique conversation around texture and perception, 55 Walker, a space shared by Bortolami Gallery, Andrew Kreps and Kaufmann Repetto, presents an impressive dual artist show around the works of Carla Accardi and Elisa Sighicelli.  Mixing media and approach to impressive effect, the show marks an engaging exploration of varied approaches and presentations of shared aesthetic concerns.   (more…)

Mernet Larsen, Astronaut: Sunrise (after El Lissitzky), (2020), via James Cohan

For over six decades, artist Mernet Larsen has created narrative paintings depicting hard-edged, enigmatic characters that inhabit an uncanny parallel world filled with tension and wry humor.  Employing a wry approach towards constructing spatial systems and relations between objects and bodies on the canvas, her pieces combine reverse, isometric, and conventional perspectives to pose everyday scenarios in a vertigo-inducing version of reality akin to our own. For her new exhibition at James Cohan Gallery in New York, the artist returns to her diverse array of graphical influences, drawing on the languages of art of the past as springboards for uniquely spatial figure-paintings that speak to the anxieties of the present. (more…)

Teresita Fernandez, Rising (Lynched Land) (2020), via Lehmann Maupin

Taking over Lehmann Maupin’s New York exhibition space, artist Teresita Fernández’s new show, Maelstrom, focuses on a new series of monumental sculptures and installations that unapologetically visualize the enduring violence and devastation ignited by colonization.  Turning particular attention to the Caribbean archipelago, the first point of colonial contact in the Americas, Fernández challenges the viewer to consider nuanced readings of people and place, looking beyond dominant, continental narratives to instead consider the region as emblematic of an expansive and decentralized state of mind. (more…)

Rachel Eulena Williams, Tracing Memory (Installation View), via Canada

Currently on view at Canada Gallery in New York, Tracing Memory, the debut exhibition by artist Rachel Eulena Williams sees the artist striking a balance between painting and sculpture, reveling in the structure and propositional space of painting while working freely against easy classifications or limitations.  Discarding a reliance on stretchers in favor of works that roam freely across the walls and set up unique geometric conversations in space, the artist’s work is a fascinating first offering at the gallery. (more…)

Raphaela Simon, Model mit Dresserin (2020), via Max Hetzler

Walking into Galerie Max Hetzler in Paris, one is presented with a particularly intriguing scene, more akin to the interiors of a luxe fashion shop than a gallery: walls are covered with minimal, cool paintings depicting various designer goods and signifiers of upper class recreation and lifestyle, while a series of mannequins snake throughout the gallery, bearing aloof facial expressions and clothed in handmade fashions.  The show, fittingly titled The Fashion Show, is a presentation of new work by the artist Raphaela Simon, a coy commentary on consumer goods made for the center of the fashion world, Paris.

Raphaela Simon, Fleischwurst (2020), via Max Hetzler

(more…)

Jack Whitten, My Argiroula: For Argiro Galeraki 1981-1995 (1995), via Hauser & Wirth

Currently on view at Hauser & Wirth New York, the gallery is presenting a dynamic show of rarely seen works by American artist Jack Whitte, focusing in particular on the artist’s practice from 1991 through 2000, a period of intense experimentation during which, deeply affected by tumultuous world events, he strove to incorporate a full emotional spectrum into his work. Blurring the boundaries between sculpture and painting, and between the studio and the world, the multidimensional works on view combine geometric abstraction and found objects to mine spiritual and metaphysical thematic veins. (more…)

Adrian Ghenie, Gauguin with Cowboy Hat (2020), via Pace

The Hooligans, Adrian Ghenie’s fourth solo exhibition with Pace Gallery, brings forth a selection of nine new paintings and three drawings from the enigmatic and expressive Romanian artist.  All produced within the last year, the show draws on Ghenie’s continued interest and exploration of abstraction and its history, pulling in particular here from the work of  J.M.W. Turner, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin. Radicals in their time, their work unsettled artistic conventions, and here are treated as such in Ghenie’s equally visceral style.

Adrian Ghenie, The Impressionists (2020), via Pace

(more…)

Anna Rosen, Fabergé (2020), via Night Gallery

Currently on at Night Gallery in Los Angeles, artist Anna Rosen has brought forward a series of new fresco paintings, marking her second solo show with the gallery. Mining a particular juxtaposition between the language of modern art, and a deconstruction of the language of that era in art history, Rosen’s pieces are a colorful and enigmatic reinvention of its tenets.    (more…)

March Avery, Houseplants (1974), via Blum & Poe

Currently on view at Blum & Poe’s Los Angeles exhibition space, the New York-based artist March Avery is presenting a solo exhibition of works spanning forty years of practice, following up on the recent announcement of the artist’s addition to the gallery’s roster, and marking her first show with the gallery in its spacious Los Angeles home. (more…)

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. (more…)

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.  (more…)

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. (more…)

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

(more…)

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.   (more…)