Wade Guyton, Untitled (2020-2021), via Matthew Marks

It’s a natural impulse to try and make sense of the past year by any possible means, and the current string of shows on view across the art world featuring reflective works, photo archives, and other modes of documentation as expression seems to speak to that phenomenon. Case in point: artist Wade Guyton’s current exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery in Los Angeles, a selection of pieces that feature the artist’s signature approach towards the construction of the canvas, while drawing in particular on images archived over the past year of Covid-19 quarantine and recovery. (more…)

Sotheby’s will sell 11 Picasso works owned by MGM Resorts, estimated at a combined value of around $100m.“We are committed to creating an even more inclusive collection that maintains the breadth of our existing portfolio while giving a greater voice to artists from underrepresented communities,” says Ari Kastrati, the chief hospitality officer of MGM Resorts. (more…)

Stefan Kalmár will leave his position as director of London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, a post he’s held since 2016. “Directorships should never be for life—fixed tenures should be the norm not the exception,” he said. (more…)

Julien Nguyen, hic manebimus optime (2021), via Matthew Marks

Currently on at Matthew Marks’ Chelsea gallery location, artist Julien Nguyen has selected a series of recent paintings to mark the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. Spanning a selection of works that showcase the artist’s attentive and expressive output, the show features thirteen oil paintings made over the past three years. (more…)

Lucy Raven (Installation View), via Dia

Marking the reopening of the Dia Art Foundation’s Chelsea headquarters following an expansive renovation project, artist Lucy Raven has installed a set of new works that emphasize points of renewal, construction, and the organization’s place in the history of contemporary art through a deft and intuitive process. (more…)

Borna Sammak, Not Yet Titled (2021), via JTT

Artist Borna Sammak opens a new show at JTT this month, continuing his work drawing on symbols and signage from contemporary pop culture and the modern urban landscape to create a dizzying exploration of aesthetics and meaning in our hyperconnected textual and graphical landscape. Featuring a series of works rendered with beach towels as well as a large-scale digital video installation, the show furthers Sammak’s enigmatic investigations of meaning and expression through the materials of the modern landscape.  (more…)

Tim Gardner, Cali Poppy (2021), via 303 Gallery

Currently on view at 303 Gallery, artist Tim Gardner has brought forward an expressive body of new watercolors continuing his practice in depicting scenes that collectively form a vivid portrait of contemporary life. Drawing primarily on an extensive personal image archive, the artist’s use of photography as a point of departure elucidates the psychological realism of lived experiences. (more…)

Iván Argote, Wild Flowers: A Chest (2021), via Perrotin

For the last 15 years, Iván Argote has been investigating and creating interventions on public monuments from his home country of Colombia to his current home in France. Influenced by the 2020 global uprisings of a new generation of young social activists confronting systems of inequality, oppression, and racial hierarchy, Argote’s artistic works come through as poetic and political gestures. This body of work settles at Galerie Perrotin this month, as the artist will present six new bodies of work proposing alternatives for contested monuments within major historic cities, centering in particular on Bogota, New York and Paris.

Iván Argote, A Place for Us (Installation View), via Perrotin

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Marlene McCarty, Into the Weeds: Sex and Death (Installation View), via Sikkema Jenkins and Co.

On view through the end of the month at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., artist Marlene McCarty has orchestrated an impressive multi-disciplinary installation, Into the Weeds: Sex & Death. Delving into the titular subject through a range of materials and works, the show centers on a selection of new, large-scale drawings as well as a set of gardens and composting structures spread across the gallery, including a dumpster-based garden installed outside the gallery.

Marlene McCarty, WEED: Our Lady of the Flowers (Aconitum) (2020-21), via Sikkema Jenkins and Co.

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Marian Goodman Gallery has announced a new partnership structure and leadership plan, with Philipp Kaiser, moving from his position as chief executive director of artists and programs to president and partner, while executive directors Emily-Jane Kirwan, Rose Lord, Leslie Nolen, and Junette Teng have all been named as partners. “I am a passionate advocate for my artists,” Goodman says. “I feel a deep sense of commitment to them and have ever since I first opened my business. The creation of this partnership will allow my vision and rigorous program to continue to thrive.” (more…)

Ace Gallery founder Douglas J. Chrismas has been arrested on charges of embezzlement, the LA Times reports. Chrismas is accused of embezzling $100,000 owed the gallery for a sale. (more…)

The art collection of the late Dallas oil billionaire Edwin “Ed” L. Cox Sr. will head to Christie’s, featuring an impressive group of Impressionist masterworks, which the auction house called “the finest and most expensive impressionist collections ever to be sold.” (more…)

Tetsumi Kudo, Bonjour et Bonne Nuit (1963), via Hauser & Wirth

In a wide-ranging practice spanning four decades, postwar Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo explored the effects of mass consumerism, the rise of technology, and ecological degradation on post-war society through satirical, critical, elaborately detailed and meticulously constructed environments that continue to exert a powerful influence on artists today. This framing serves as the central conceit of Metamorphosis, the artist’s first exhibition at Hauser & Wirth New York. Drawing in particular on the artist’s interest in transformation as a mode of personal and collective evolution, the show frames his work as a seeking of a way beyond the traps of Western Humanism, and exploring just how one might imagine a world beyond that of the modern. (more…)

Christie’s will open a new, state-of-the-art Hong Kong headquarters in 2024, following the auction house’s strong results in past years in Asia.“We will evolve from primarily hosting two main auction seasons a year, to programming all year-round,” says Francis Belin, Christie’s Asia Pacific president. (more…)

English curator Tanya Barson and head of programs Pablo Martínez are out at Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, creating a conflict among art world insiders. “I strongly believe that a major motivation for the restructuring was a way of effecting our departure from the museum because we had permanent contracts,” Barson says. (more…)

Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery  will minting and sell an NFT of William Blake’s Europe Plate i: Frontispiece, The Ancient of Days, and will set the funds aside for “socially beneficial projects.” “The Whitworth decided to embark on this project because it wanted to think about how it could redistribute the wealth of its collections in the most democratic way. This technology offers the opportunity to open up the collections to the broadest possible audience,” says director Alistair Hudson. (more…)

Gabriel Orozco, Installation View, via kurimanzutto

Currently on at kurimanzutto’s East Hampton exhibition space, the gallery has staged a small-scale show of works by the artist Gabriel Orozco. The artist, whose long explorations of geometric form and space in relation to both traditional art materials and reclaimed objects from the world around him, here presents a fitting summary of his recent practice in small-scale, but engaging outing. (more…)

Italy will impose a new “vaccine green card” policy for public spaces and cultural institutions like art museums, The Guardian reports. “But the Delta variant is threatening. It spreads much more quickly than other variants,” says prime minister Mario Draghi. “I invite all Italians to get vaccinated and to do so straight away. Without vaccinations, we’d have to close everything again.” (more…)

The US Treasury has sanctioned Bulgarian collector Vassil Kroumov Bojkov, part of an ongoing investigation that some feel could have repercussions in the art market. “Sanctions compliance is a critical part of due diligence and has been for a long time. Collectors and businesses need to be prudent about reviewing counterparties,” says Nicholas O’Donnell, an attorney at Sullivan & Worcester. (more…)

A piece in the SF Chronicle looks at California’s major increase in budgeting for the arts. “When we look the 2021-22 budget, the words that come to my mind are, ‘This is historic. It’s bold. It’s unprecedented,’” says Ron P. Muriera, board president of Californians for the Arts. (more…)

The UK Government will move forward with a 50% cut to funding for arts and design courses, Art Newspaper reports. “Devaluing the arts disempowers us as a society leaving us poorer, both culturally and economically. Arts education provides not only a place for teaching, but also essential centers of research,” says artist Sarah Kogan. (more…)

Artist Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden redesign has gotten approval. The design had faced some pushback, but was accepted on its more attentive unification of museum grounds, and its increased exhibition space. (more…)

46 culture nonprofits have been tapped for a $30 million program from Bloomberg Philanthropies, aimed at supporting technology to stabilize and thrive their offerings in the wake of the pandemic. “I think now we’re really taking the time to see what we can do that has longevity,” says Heryte Tequame, assistant director of communications and digital projects at the Queens Museum, and a fellow in the project. “And not just being responsive, but really being proactive and having a real future-facing strategy.” (more…)

Yayoi Kusama, I Want Your Tears to Flow with the Words I Wrote (Installation View), via Victoria Miro

Throughout her career, Yayoi Kusama has developed a unique and diverse body of highly personal work that connects themes around the natural world, human cognition, and personal mythology. Continuing to address the twin themes of cosmic infinity and personal obsession, the works in this exhibition are testament to an artist at the height of her powers. Marking her first show in several years at Victoria Miro in London, the exhibition showcases Kusama’s relentless drive to express the most abstract of personal feelings.

Yayoi Kusama, On Hearing the Sunset Afterglow’s Message of Love, My Heart Shed Tears (2021), via Victoria Miro

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