Carter, Throughout (2011). All images courtesy of Marc Jancou Contemporary

On view now at Marc Jancou Contemporary is Forthcoming, an exhibition of new work by the Swiss artist Carter. Open through November 12^th—now extended through December 23rd—Forthcoming is the inaugural show at Mr. Jancou’s new Geneva gallery, simply called Jancou. Carter is known for using a variety of media, and although this is an exhibition of works on paper, each was made using a combination of materials and techniques. His work often explores the idea of the self and the shifting concept of identity, with Forthcoming examining the idea of anonymity in particular.

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Installation view. All photos via Galerie Perrotin.

On view through November 12 at Galerie Perrotin, “Orchestra” is comprised of mainly new works by contemporary installation artist Xavier Veilhan. The artist reinvigorates his early sculpture work with his newer interactive installation techniques. By presenting his technical prowess in an abstract context, Veilhan invites a reconsideration in which historically important functional designs meet art history. In this way, “Orchestra” beckons visitors into a confrontational, interactive, and at times hypnotic space between reality and disrupted reality—a space in which a “polyphony of objects,” including turbines, birds, trees, monuments, and even a sculpted gorilla, become an entire enveloping landscape.

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Ryan Gander’s Locked Room Scenario. All pictures for Art Observed on site by Caroline Claisse.

British artist Ryan Gander‘s Locked Room Scenario is set in the mysterious Londonnewcastle Depot in north London. Every detail, from postcards and notes left throughout the scene, to teenage actors sitting on the stoop, create an intriguing, paranoia-inducing installation. Walking past locked rooms and peering through windows of a seemingly closed exhibition, the viewer is frustrated, left wanting more. Indeed, “the crime scene” reaches an intolerable suspense as the public must decipher the art within and the possible meaning thereof. Gander’s game plays with imagination and paranoia, creating an experience of total immersion, leaving the viewer second-guessing everything and everyone involved.

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ASCO artists, self-portrait series

“ASCO: Elite of the Obscure” comes highly recommended as a way of experiencing a movement that is often neglected within a larger art history context. As noted within the Los Angeles exhibition’s literature, ASCO takes its name from “the forceful Spanish word for disgust and nausea,” and was a movement primarily active from 1972 to 1987. Much of the work featured describes both the joys and hardships of being Latino in a Hollywood culture, a traditionally Caucasian experience. The work—a combination of sketches, collaged photos, graffiti, and even costumes—falls in the tradition of Dadaism and Surrealist art of the 1920s and 1930s, but with a particular Chicano psyche.

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All photos on site for Art Observed by Jen Lindblad, unless otherwise noted.

Twenty-five tons of copper, bronze, iron, and lead cover the floors of Barbara Gladstone Gallery, enveloping visitors in an industrial post-apocalyptic landscape. The subject is ancient Egyptian mythology, by way of Detroit, and it is Matthew Barney‘s new endeavor. Manifested in the form of large scale sculptures and accompanying preparatory drawings, the exhibition, DJED, is part of the artist’s new project Ancient Evenings, in progress since 2007. It marks a departure from Barney’s usually gelatinous media—thermoplastic, tapioca, and petroleum jelly—in favor of traditional industrial metals. On the opening night, visitors flocked to the gallery to see the artist’s newest spectacle, forming a queue that reached halfway down the block.

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Rikrit Tiravanija, (Untitled) 2008-2011 (the map of the land of feeling), (2011). Via Carolina Nitsch

Currently on view at the Carolina Nitsch Project Room is Rikrit Tiravanija’s print project (Untitled) 2008-2011 (the map of the land of feeling) I-III, a three-part scroll three feet high and totaling 84 feet in length. The scroll took three years to complete, created using various techniques of screen-printing, offset lithography, and inkjet printing, finally producing elaborate layers that chronicle the artist’s physical and temporal passage of the last 20 years of his life. Tiravanija lives a perpetual negotiation of cultures, born to Thai parents in Buenos Aires and raised in Argentina, Bangkok, Ethiopia, and Canada. His career as an artist maintains his constant state of itinerancy and is gracefully recorded as “the map of the land of feeling.”

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All photos by Gautier Pellegrin  for Art Observed unless otherwise noted

Christian Marclay, Cassette Grid No. 9 (2009). All Images courtesy Fraenkel Gallery and Paula Cooper Gallery.

A series of cyanotype photograms by Christian Marclay are on display at the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco until October 29th. The exhibition explores the interplay between two outdated recording methods—the cyanotype and the audio cassette—in a fashion both new and yet consistent with the work of Marclay. Commonly referred to as “blueprints” because of the silhouetted blue images produced, cyanotypes are prints uniquely created by placing objects on photosensitive surfaces. Developed in the 1840s and popularized by botanists, architects, and engineers who used the method to reproduce drawings and artifacts with only tracing paper and sunlight, Marclay’s use of the cyanotype continues his exploration of the artistic practice of record-keeping, especially with respect to both audio and visual representations.

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KAWS, Untitled (HTLD2) (2011). All images on site for Art Observed by Megan Hoetger.

Amid a crowded fall season in Los Angeles, Honor Fraser hosts “Hold the Line,” the newest show of works by New-York based media and urban culture phenomenon KAWS. Dubbed an “art entrepreneur,” Brian Donnelly, a.k.a. KAWS, has created an industry around his troupe of animated characters.

KAWS, Companion (2011).

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Artist Zhang Enli with A Bunch of Balls (2009-2011). All photos on site for Art Observed by Jen Lindblad, unless otherwise noted.

Currently showing at Hauser & Wirth in New York is a new body of work by celebrated Chinese artist Zhang Enli. Comprised of twenty new paintings and one sculptural group, the story he tells is one of cultural relocation—namely, the artist’s move twenty years ago from a small provincial town in northern China to Shanghai, where he now lives and works. Wherever we go we carry objects—ordinary objects that remain present and constant in our lives. All of the objects Zhang depicts are real, found in and around his studio: empty cans, a carpet, an umbrella, pipes, metal and rope netting. Familiar enough to be accessible but reduced enough to be seductive, Zhang considers the objects carefully, stripping them to their essence. His quiet, subtle paintings bear almost no resemblance to the bold, political work of his Chinese contemporaries. “I want to strip the object to the bone,” he says, “just leave what it actually is. If you leave a glass on a table, it leaves a watermark. That mark is what I want to express.”

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James Turrell, Carn White (1967). Photo on site for Art Observed by Megan Hoetger.

The James Turrell exhibition, Present Tense, is currently showing at Kayne Griffin Corcoran in Santa Monica. Presented in conjunction with the Pacific Standard Time (PST) programming, the exhibition includes some of Turrell’s most recognizable works, ranging from the 1960s to today. Although the official opening weekend of PST is the first weekend in October, many participating galleries across Los Angeles have already begun to open their doors to exhibitions, many which explore the development of an art capital in Los Angeles from 1945 to 1980. In addition to the solo exhibition at Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Turrell’s work will also be included in historical group shows, including Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and Best Kept Secret: UCI and the Development of Contemporary Art in Southern California, 1964-1971 at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach.  As the list of exhibitions makes clear, Turrell’s work is some of the most important to come out of the Los Angeles scene since its early years in the 1960s. And indeed the sparse but powerful installations on view at the gallery deliver all that we would expect of such an influential body of work.

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Ida Ekblad, Installation View (2011). Via Greene Naftali

Currently on view at the Greene Naftali Gallery is a solo exhibition by Norwegian artist Ida Ekblad, presenting new works characterized by the combination of lyrical elements in painting, sculpture, and poetry.

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Installation view of Willem de Kooning: A Retrospective at MoMA. Image via New York Times.

Currently on view at MoMA is Willem de Kooning: A Retrospective. Impressive in its depth and breadth, it is the first retrospective since the artist’s death. De Kooning (1904 – 1997) is hailed as one of the most important and prolific artists of the previous century.

Installation view. Via Artinfo.

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All photos Art Observed by Guillaume Vandame

A festive atmosphere opening night at Mary Boone surrounded visitors while they studied Chicago artist Nick Cave‘s parade of bright and exotic soundsuits. Unique hybrid costumes made from a variety of materials, the works combine antique carpets, fabrics, beads, and everyday kitsch objects. Similar to naming the works Untitled, each piece is called a ‘soundsuit;’ various objects, all under the same title. The artist said of his style, “The world is my inventory,” drawing on roots in Trinidad and Haiti, and gathering resources that are no longer used in order to create something new.

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Detail of Soundsuit

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Running from corner to corner – in a specified order in relation to other corner groups. All photos on site for Art Observed by Samuel Sveen.

Noémie Lafrance’s latest piece, The White Box Project, is full of running and screaming, grouping and awkward exclusivity, exploring audience participation and mob mentality; a “minimalist dance performance [that] challenges the implied separation between the art object and its viewing subject.” Each performance is followed by a discussion with the artist, thus further shaping the remaining performances in an “evolutive” process. Famous for her grand public dance performances, Lafrance has staged shows in places ranging from her home to galleries to McCarren Park Pool to the facades of Frank Gehry, as well as choreographing the award winning video for Feist’s “1, 2, 3, 4.”

Showing three September weekends in the courtyard of the Black & White Gallery in Brooklyn, performances run every Saturday at 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30 pm, with two additional encore performances added to this last Sunday, the 25th of September, at 6:30 and 7:30 pm.
Art Observed was fortunate enough to sit down with Noémie in her Williamsburg studio for the following interview.

Noémie Lafrance recording the group discussion after a performance.

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Opening night, September 10, 2011. All images by Ana Marjanovic for Art Observed.

Through recycling, reproduction, and repetition, Brazilian-born and New York-based artist Vik Muniz explores contemporary consumerist culture’s interpretations of, and influences by, traditional art subject matter in his show on now at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in New York. Large scale, color photographs from the Pictures of Magazines 2 series are displayed alongside sculptures of the Relicario series.

Installation view

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All photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

In the newly renovated eighteenth-century London townhouse, which was its original home, Haunch of Venison opens a solo exhibition of Romanian painter Adrian Ghenie. According to Coline Mailliard of Artinfo, the gallery’s move from a museum-like venue near the Royal Academy to the refurbished space in Mayfair signals an attempt at a rebirth. Mailliard writes, “the move seems like a perfect opportunity for the gallery to reinvent itself — and also to prove to the art world, which has snubbed it since the sale to the auction house [Christie’s], that the artistic program is, more than ever, the top priority.”

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Do Ho Suh, The Fallen Star 1/5 (2008-2011). All images taken by A. Marjanovic for Art Observed, unless otherwise noted.

Exploring themes of multicultural identity, Do Ho Suh presents installations and drawings at the Chelsea location of Lehmann Maupin in New York. Titled Home Within Home, the exhibition reflects the artist’s personal experiences of moving from Korea—where he was born and raised—to the US. Layering and inserting Korean imagery over and within large-scale architectural installations, Suh conveys his feelings of being “dropped from the sky,” according to the press release.

Do Ho Suh, Home Within Home, 2009-2011.

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José Parlá, Character Gestures (2011). Via JoséParlá.com

Miami-born, New York-based artist José Parlá‘s current solo exhibition at OHWOW Gallery in Los Angeles blurs the line between street art and action painting. Entitled “Character Gestures,” the show at OHWOW synthesizes the ‘low’ of the urban graffiti sensibility with the ‘high’ of process-based painting as it emerged out of the material and conceptual legacies of Abstract Expressionism. Rather than reading as personal expression of an interior world, though, the paintings, drawings, and sculptures on view function as an archive of the the visual material that emerges from social-spatial politics of the street, their surfaces palimpsests.

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All photos by Abbey Stone for Art Observed unless otherwise noted

Wednesday evening’s opening of Richard Serra‘s new exhibit at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea was abuzz. The huge warehouse space seemed to vibrate as art enthusiasts made their way through the artist’s massive installation. Roughly 15 feet tall, the two separate pieces, Junction and Cycle, create a sloping, weaving maze, inviting and immersing viewers within. Whispering praise as they explored the labyrinthine pieces, one such patron murmured, “It’s like you’re in a whole new world.”

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All photos for Art Observed by Abbey Stone.

Newly nestled in its new home at 18 Wooster Street, the Swiss Institute (SI) continues to fulfill its mission of fostering “a way of thinking which asks audiences to break with traditional assumptions about art and national stereotypes,” presenting two inaugural exhibitions this fall. Wednesday, September 14, marked the opening of Books on Books, curated by Christoph Schifferli, and This is Not My Color/ The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by artists Pamela Rosenkrantz and Nikolas Gambaroff.

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Beatriz Milhazes, Gamboa Seasons Autumn Love (2010). All photos via Galerie Max Hetzler.

Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes begins Berlin Galerie Max Hetzler’s season with four large paintings, collages, and a mobile.  The paintings are titled after the four seasons and continue the artist’s engagement with bold, colorful explorations of familiar objects and ideas taken as geometrical abstractions.

Installation view

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The show’s title work, Alkahest (2011). Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac, chalk, lead and glass on canvas. 280 x 380 x 19 cm (110.24 x 149.61 x 7.48 in). AKI 2059. All photos Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Paris/Salzburg. Photos Charles Duprat.

Currently showing at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac‘s Salzburg branch is “Alkahest,” sculptures and paintings by Anselm Kiefer, all of them related to alchemy, and collected under a title that means universal solvent. Explains Kiefer, “The term Alkahest signifies that there is a solution which can dilute any substance.” The exhibition runs through September 24, and is held in the HALLE, a special large-scale exhibition space within the museum.

Anselm Kiefer’s Der Wolken heitere Stimmung (2011). Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac and lead on canvas

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