Henri Matisse, Memory of Oceania, (1952-1953) via Museum of Modern Art
Currently on view at London’s Tate Modern, Henri Matisse’s vivid cut-outs reveal the final chapter in Matisse’s career: when he began ‘carving into color’, as the artist was known to describe his spectacular cut-outs, a vastly divergent and fascinating point in the artist’s career.
Oscar Murillo, Distribution Center (Installation View), via Art Observed
The newly opened Los Angeles Gallery The Mistake Room is inaugurating its downtown space with Oscar Murillo’s Distribution Center, a show of recent works by the artist. Â Murillo, who is only 28, is perhaps best known for his large-scale paintings, if not for his young age and recent rise to the upper echelons of the art market. Here, his signature style is quickly noted, with canvases bordering on sculptural assemblage, debris and ephemera from his studio and travels are directly transplanted on to the canvas. Even in their installation, very few works happen to hang directly on the wall. Instead, they litter the floor and table surfaces like large, mis-matched carpet tiles, creating a kind of multi-layered horizontal work across the length of the room.
Oscar Murillo, Untitled (2014), via Art Observed (more…)
Orly Genger, Red, Yellow and Blue (2013) via Madison Square Park
On view in Madison Square Park through September 8, Orly Genger’s Red, Yellow and Blue is an astounding yet whimsical feat of sculpture. Commissioned by Madison Square Art, Red, Yellow and Blue is constructed from 1.4 million feet of rope from repurposed lobster traps, crochet stitched into braids, covered with over 3,500 gallons of paint and stacked and twisted into over 100,000 pounds of colorful and continuous wave-like shapes.
Orly Genger, Red, Yellow and Blue (2013) via Madison Square Park
Genger, 34, is known for pushing the limits of sculpture using rope and found materials.  Her large-scale installations play with the language of the Minimalist, Post-Minimalist and Feminist art historical canon, often utilizing massive installations of repurposed materials.  Past works have referenced Tony Smith, Donald Judd and Walter de Maria, and 2010’s Big Boss at Mass MoCA included 100 miles of red rope that suggested a play on abstract painting.  Though executed in a vocabulary all her own, Genger’s Red, Yellow and Blue also recalls the monumental forms of Richard Serra and the pop textures of Claes Oldenburg. (more…)
Antony Gormley, Meter (Installation View), via Thaddeus Ropac
Antony Gormley’s sculptures continually revisit the human form, using a variety of principles in measurement, position, space and density to chart the human body through sharp angles and jutting lines. Taking this jutting, architectural approach to figuration, the artist’s work poses intriguing questions of how humanity recreates its own inherent forms, and the dissonances that occasionally enter the dialogue between subject and object. (more…)
Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Cuilapán Niche) (1973), via Galerie Lelong
The current exhibition at Galerie Lelong contains a wide range of Ana Mendieta’s work, spanning from photography (Mendieta was known for her documented performances), sculpture, and works on paper. Mendieta’s diverse approach often brings to question the artist’s practice and style: was she an earth artist, a conceptual artist, a performance artist, a filmmaker, a photographer, or a sculptor?  Featured prominently in this show, the artist’s earth sculptures in particular provide viewers a unique opportunity to examine the transformation of Mendieta’s work during the last years of her life. Presenting ephemeral works the artist executed in natural environs, as well as her three-dimensional pieces, made from natural elements such as earth, wood and sand, these pieces show the artist’s continued imagery of the female body.
Ana Mendieta, Alma Silueta en Fuego (Silueta de Cenizas), (1975), via Galerie Lelong (more…)
Jim Dine (Installation View), via Pace Gallery
In a refreshing break from his figurative painting and Pinocchio art, Pace Gallery presents a collection of new abstract paintings by Jim Dine.  The paintings are large, romantic, intense renderings of universal situations and emotions – sometimes literally, with titles like “A Fingerprint of Starsâ€, a painting that reaches fourteen feet wide and five feet tall.
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Jim Dine, Late Friends (2012), via Pace Gallery
Anthony McCall, Face to Face (2013), via Sean Kelly Gallery
Anthony McCall’s body of work is punctuated by decades of silence.  Withdrawing from the art world in the late 1970’s after a number of promising exhibitions and installations around the globe, the artist completely ceased his artistic production until 2003, when he began experimenting with digital film projectors.  10 years later, the artist is presenting Face to Face at Sean Kelly Gallery, showing two works from the opposite ends of the artist’s career.
Anthony McCall, Face to Face (2013), via Sean Kelly Gallery
The Opening for Doug Aitken, 100 YRS, Courtesy of 303 Gallery
Working across a broad body of media and techniques, including photography, sculpture, video, installation, sound art and architectural interventions, Los Angeles-based artist Doug Aitken’s work frequently explores concepts of rhythm, repetition and duration, exploring interrelations between time, memory and space and the subsequent fluctuations of meaning and understanding caused by their interactions.  His work has been ehxibited in a variety of institutions and contexts, including his enormous Song1 installation on the outside of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, as well as his upcoming video art installation at the Seattle Art Museum.
Doug Aitken, MORE (Shattered Pour) (2013), Courtesy of 303 Gallery
Outside the Park Ave Armory for the ADAA Art Show
With another hectic Armory Week comes another edition of the Art Dealers Association of America’s Art Show, open at the Park Avenue Armory.  Now in its 25th edition, The Art Show is the nation’s longest continually running art fair, offering viewers a smaller, more scaled back experience in contrast with The Armory Show held out on New York’s Hell’s Kitchen Piers.  The show’s more focused collection of 72 leading dealers and galleries allow viewers a slightly less overwhelming experience moving from booth to booth, and also provide slightly more space for the work to breath.
Damien Hirst at Van de Weghe (more…)
James Lee Byars, Early Works and The Angel (Installation view) via Michael Werner Gallery, London
Early Works and “The Angel,” currently on view at Michael Werner Gallery in London, exhibits major works from the late sculptor and performance artist James Lee Byars.  Combining a selection of the artist’s early sculptural works, painted scrolls, and performative objects with the impressive glass sculpture “The Angel,” the show provides an interesting look into the artist’s formative influences and practices.  The gallery is an apt location for this collection, as Michael Werner, the German art dealer and gallery’s namesake, historically had close ties with Byars, as well as his contemporary, Joseph Beuys.
The View from Outside The 2013 Armory Show
The doors opened this morning on the 2013 edition of the Armory Art show, welcoming press and VIP’s into the massive exhibition halls of Piers 92 and 94 on the waterfront of New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. Â It was a special year for New York’s biggest annual art event, marking the 100 year anniversary of its namesake, the 1913 exhibition that welcomed the European avant-garde to American shores, and gave many their first glimpses of Marcel Duchamp, Matisse and Edvard Munch, among many others.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg Makes the Opening Remarks at The 2013 Armory Show (more…)
Art Club 2000, Untitled (Conran’s I) (1993), Courtesy of The New Museum
Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, on view now at The New Museum, is a look 20 years into the not-so-distant-past, using 1993 (and the works produced and shown within that calendar year) as a critical reflection point into recent art history and practice.
Tacita Dean, Fatigues (F) (2012), via Marian Goodman Gallery
Marian Goodman Gallery is currently hosting the first showing of Tacita Dean’s, Fatigues, a recent series of drawings initially exhibited in Kassel at this past summer’s documenta (13).
Tacita Dean, Fatigues (Installation view), via Marian Goodman Gallery
Julie Mehretu, Mind Breath and Beat Drawings (Installation View), via Marian Goodman
Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris is currently exhibiting a new series of works by painter and illustrator Julie Mehretu. in a show which Mehretu described as a ‘self-ethnographic project,’ involving a dissection of her identity as an artist through a free abstraction of her personal creative practice. The show is Mehretu’s first solo exhibition in France.
Zhang Xiaogang, Beijing Voice (Installation View), Courtesy of PACE Beijing
PACE Beijing is currently exhibiting a selection new works by Chinese painter Zhang Xiaogang, showcasing the artist’s interpretations of Chinese identity, memory and relation.  The exhibition, part of PACE’s annual Beijing Voice’s event, is the first stop on the artist’s work in a global tour which will also include PACE exhibitions at their locations in New York and London. (more…)
Angus Fairhurst, Un-titled (Installation View) via Sadie Coles HQ
Sadie Coles HQ‘s current exhibition by the late Angus Fairhurst (1966-2008), Un-titled, explores notions of “doing and undoing, absence and presence, thinking and feeling.”  Culling from Fairhurst’s broad body of sculpture, painting, collage and photography, the show is a testament to the artist’s brief but impressive output.
Trevor Paglen at Metro Pictures (Installation View), via Metro Pictures
American artist, geographer, and author Trevor Paglen’s first solo exhibition at Metro Pictures has opened this month, a selection of large color prints and black-and-white diptychs related to his ongoing project, The Last Pictures.  Compiling a striking collection of photographs from across the wide spectrum of human experience, Paglen creates a static document of mankind, flung into the Earth’s orbit.
Trevor Paglen opening at Metro Pictures (Installation View), via Daniel Creahan for ArtObserved
Aki Sasamoto, Talking in Circles Talking (Installation View), via Soloway Gallery
“My grandfather died when I was fourteen and became an abacus. In the way ice turns into water, he became this object he left behind.” Â So begins the performance of Japanese artist Aki Sasamoto’s Talking in Circles Talking, an immersive performance and installation at Soloway Gallery in South Williamsburg. Â Exploring the notions of value and vibrancy at play in the space between human relationships and physical objects, Sasamoto effectively fuses personal discourses with her surrounding environment.
Aki Sasamoto, Talking in Circles Talking (Installation View), via Soloway Gallery (more…)
Sarah Lucas, Sitation Classic Pervery (Installation View), via Sadie Coles
In February 2012, Sarah Lucas opened her first Situation exhibition in a project space above Sadie Coles headquarters in Burlington Place. This was the beginning of a project that Lucas has continued as curator and artist ever since.  Her most recent installation, Situation Classic Pervery, was a continuation of this project.
Song Dong, Facing the Wall (1999), via PACE Gallery
On view at both of Pace Gallery’s New York exhibition spaces is an exhibition of work by Chinese artist Song Dong, compiling the artist’s recent work from dOCUMENTA 13 and the Kiev Biennial, as well as older work.
Song Dong, Doing Nothing Mountains (2011-2012), via PACE Gallery (more…)
Keith Sonnier, Lit Circle Blue with Etched Glass (1968), via Mary Boone Gallery
Mary Boone’s Chelsea gallery is currently glowing with Keith Sonnier’s early fluorescent works from 1968 – 1970, on view through February 23. Along with Bruce Nauman, Eva Hesse, and Donald Judd, Sonnier’s approach to spatial and aesthetic considerations  radically changed the conceptions of sculpture, embracing experimentation with unconventional materials and approaches to presentation.  The works on view at Mary Boone mark the period in which Sonnier first began working with neon light tubes, using them as a method to explore everyday materials, and to examine the impact that light makes on the surrounding environment.
James Franco, Gay Town (2012), via Peres Projects
Peres Projects located in Berlin is presenting a month-long, solo exhibition by American actor, filmmaker, writer and artist James Franco from Saturday February 9th, titled GAY TOWN.
Anselm Kiefer, Die Ungeborenen (Installation View) via Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
Exploring the origin and creation of life, Die Ungeborenen (“The Unborn”) is a new collection of canvases and sculptures by German artist Anselm Kiefer, currently on view at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac’s new Pantin location in Paris.
