Rita Ackermann, Vertical Vanish (2021), © Rita Ackermann, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth Photo Thomas Barratt

On this month in Los Angeles, artist Rita Ackermann has brought forth a series of new canvases at Hauser & Wirth’s expansive Los Angeles exhibition space, showcasing the artist’s continued exploration and reinvention of the painterly language. Composed primarily of large-scale oil paintings that intuitively recast the interplay of line, color and form, Vertical Vanish makes a game of repeated gestures, figures and motifs.

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Refik Anadol, Living Paintings (Installation View), via Art Observed

Opening during the run of Frieze Los Angeles this past week, Turkish artist Refik Anadol has installed a body of new works at Jeffrey Deitch’s expansive 925 N. Orange Drive exhibition space, continuing his exploration and elaboration of datasets, visualization models and densely layered digital compositions. Titled Living Paintings, the exhibition will showcase the complete series of Anadol’s artworks that are based on California-related datasets, and explore his fascination with the environments – physical, public, virtual, and multidimensional – that play an instrumental role in shaping his artistic vision. Read More »

Alex Katz, Sunrise (Installation View), via Art Observed

Marking another intriguing iteration of satellite programming over the course of LA Art Week and the run of Frieze Los Angeles, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in West Hollywood is currently presenting Sunrise, a show of new works by painter Alex Katz that underscores the artist’s continued innovation and exploration of the painted canvas and his own, carefully-honed techniques.  Read More »

Emily Silver, all images via Hannah Zhang for Art Observed

Continuing its own intriguing and honed perspective on booth its surroundings in Los Angeles and on the model of the art fair, SPRING/BREAK has once again made arrived in the California city, launching a supplementary event that offers an ample supply of artists and galleries presenting in a concept that stands as a stark contrast to the traditional fair model. Returning this year to its location in Culver City, new space continues the scrappy, raw atmosphere of past years. Read More »

Liza Lacroix at Magenta Plains, via Art Observed

As Frieze opens up shop for the week on the West Coast, the bevy of satellite fairs and event openings are underway across the city, including the always hotly anticipated Felix LA Art Fair, the brainchild of collector Dean Valentine that spreads works across the halls and rooms of the iconic Hollywood Roosevelt hotel. The show allows a unique mixture of intimate exhibitions and adventurous concepts that felt well-suited to the well-heeled patrons of the contemporary art market, both looking for a good piece of work and a unique experience while buying it.

Cameron Clayborne at Moran Moran, via Art Observed

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Alvaro Barrington at Blum & Poe, all images via Art Observed

After several weeks of fairs in San Francisco and Mexico City, marking the early notes in another year of busy contemporary art fairs around the globe, Frieze Los Angeles, one of the premier events of the early year, has once again opened in the sprawling California metropolis, this year setting up shop amid the gleaming sun and striking expanses of the Santa Monica Airport. Taking place for the first time at this location (previously known as a former site for the Art Los Angeles Contemporary fair), the fair expands to feature more than 120 galleries, including new specialists in 20th-century art, alongside restaurants and Frieze Projects spread across the multiple sites. Read More »

Portrait of the artist by Aleph Molinari for Art Observed.

Israeli-Colombian visual artist Orly Anan mixes elements of theater, dance, performance, and costume design into surrealist neo-kitsch compositions. She recently premiered her first short film Ein Sof during Mexico City’s art week Zona MACO, in partnership with MATERIA and Mubi. Anan describes the film as a ‘Kabbalistic circus’ that blends elements of carnival, kabuki, and sacred numerology into an explosion of colors and symbolism. Art Observed caught up with the artist to talk about her film, her practice, and the esoteric sources of her creative inspiration. Read More »

Michael Williams, Paired Puzzle 1 (Frog/Farm) (2020), via David Kordansky

On view this winter in LA, and open for extended hours during the run of Frieze Los Angeles this week, artists Huma Bhabha and Michael Williams are part of a dual artist show at David Kordansky, featuring new sculptures and works on paper by Bhabha, and new paintings and drawings by Williams. Read More »

Jose Davila at Galeria OMR, all images by Hannah Zhang for Art Observed

Zona Maco has once again opened for its doors for a week of sales and shows in the sprawling metropolis of Mexico City. The fair, which has built a reputation for both its international curation and ist reflection of the thriving artistic community in Mexico City, here returns to the expanses of the Centro Banamex for its 19th year. This year’s edition marked a continuation of a fair that has long prided itself on the scale and strength of its inclusions, with particular focus paid to the art and artists of Latin America in relation to the rest of the international art market. 

Yoan Capote at Galleria Continua

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Alicja Kwade, Silent Matter (Installation View), via OMR

Artist Alicja Kwade has opened a new show this week during the run of Zona Maco in Mexico City at Galeria OMR, continuing a body of work that uses philosophy and natural phenomena as a means to explore the human condition. Marking her first solo exhibition in Mexico, Silent Matter, Kwade employs the notion of thought experiments, a tool commonly used in science and philosophy as a means to explore concepts and phenomena that are difficult or almost impossible to explain. In the tradition of Schrödinger’s cat or Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Kwade creates physical manifestations of thought experiments meant to stimulate discussion as well as question the limits of our ability to understand and ultimately control reality. Read More »