Global contemporary art events and news observed from New York City. Suggestion? Email us.

Hong Kong – Rudolf Stingel at Gagosian Gallery Through May 9th, 2015

April 6th, 2015

Rudolf Stingel, (Installation View),
Rudolf Stingel, (Installation View), all images courtesy Gagosian Hong Kong

On view at Gagosian Hong Kong is an exhibition of recent paintings by Rudolf Stingel, representing the Italian artist’s first major exhibition of work in Asia. Exploring the nature of memory and the relationship between artwork and artist, Stingel continues expanding the vocabulary of painting with this series of work.

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New York – Keith Haring: “Heaven and Hell” at Skarstedt Gallery Through April 18th, 2015

April 5th, 2015

Keith Haring Untitled (May 29, 1984) (1984), via Art Observed
Keith Haring, Untitled (May 29, 1984) (1984), via Art Observed

Culling a minimal selection of works from Keith Haring’s immense output over the course of his life, Skarstedt Gallery is currently presenting Heaven and Hell a series of colorfully surreal compositions from 1984 and 1985, several years before the artist passed away in 1990. Read More »

New York – Anicka Yi: “You Can Call Me F” at The Kitchen Through April 11th, 2015

April 4th, 2015

Anicka Yi, You Can Call Me F (Installation View), via Art Observed
Anicka Yi, You Can Call Me F (Installation View), via Art Observed

Five vinyl tents populate the darkened upstairs gallery at The Kitchen. There are two constants in this room, a steady hum of rotating motor helmets and an indiscernible smell. Through these minimal elements, Anicka Yi brings us encapsulated ecologies, and a single lively billboard with the words “You Can Call me F” to the Kitchen, an exhibition layered with materials, time-scales, and most of all, infusions of body matter.

Anicka Yi, You Can Call Me F (Installation View), via Art Observed
Anicka Yi, You Can Call Me F (Installation View), via Art Observed

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London – Henry Moore: “Wunderkammer—Origin of Forms” at Gagosian Gallery Through April 2nd, 2015

April 3rd, 2015

Henry Moore - Gagosian - Wunderkammer Origin of Forms installation view3
Henry Moore, Wunderkammer – Origin of Forms installation view, Photo: Mike Bruce, Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery

Gagosian London presents a new look at Henry Moore’s body of work in its current exhibition, a cunningly arranged series of small-scale sculptures.  Though best-known for his large abstractions of the human form, Moore’s inspiration often came from small objects he found in nature—pebbles, shells, animal bones—which have been preserved in his Hertfordshire studio in Perry Green, his former home and now a museum and headquarters of the Henry Moore Foundation.  These pieces are currently on display in this unique show demonstrating Moore’s artistic process. Read More »

Berlin – Alicja Kwade: “Something absent, whose presence was expected” at Johann König Through April 18th, 2015

April 2nd, 2015

Alicja Kwade, Something absent, whose presence was expected (2015), via Johann König
Alicja Kwade, Something absent, whose presence was expected (2015), via Johann König

A narrative surrealism infuses the work of Alicja Kwade.  Works depict objects in the midst of transformation, moments of fusion, transposition and alteration of forms or materials that give the viewer the impression that time may in fact be standing still, if only for a moment.  This sense of momentary pause is on view at the artist’s most recent solo exhibition at Johann König in Berlin, where the artist is presenting a body of new work under the title Something absent, whose presence was expected. Read More »

New York – Andrew Kuo and Scott Reeder: “It Gets Beta” at Marlborough Chelsea Through March 28th, 2015

March 31st, 2015

Andrew Kuo, Oops (2/9/15), 2015
Andrew Kuo, Oops (2/9/15) (2015)

Marlborough Chelsea and its second location on Broome street recently hosted a two-man show featuring the work of Andrew Kuo and Scott Reeder.  Entitled It Gets Beta, this ambitious selection stems from a subdued affinity Kuo and Reeder share in their artistic practice, combining Kuo’s juxtapositions of sharp-edged abstract structures and humorously mundane charts with Reeder’s equally, if not less, witty lists of random topics, a comical one-two punch that plays on various constructions of the art historical as a fertile ground for playful subversion. Read More »

New York – Matthew Darbyshire: “Suite” at Lisa Cooley Through March 29th, 2015

March 27th, 2015

Matthew Darbyshire, CAPTCHA No.24 - David, (2015)
Matthew Darbyshire, CAPTCHA No.24 – David (2015)

Lisa Cooley is currently presenting British artist Matthew Darbyshire’s first U.S. solo exhibition, Suite, featuring eleven life size sculptural pieces, that utilize polycarbonate, a material that can be described as a type of thermoplastic polymer known for its practical commercial usage. Composed of narrowly piled half inch sheets of semi-transparent layers, these neatly arranged forms deliver juxtapositions of certain commercial mundane objects and a replica of Michelangelo’s David. Read More »

New York – Joyce Pensato: “Castaway” at Petzel Gallery Through March 28th, 2015

March 26th, 2015

Mouse Mask - Joyce Pensato - Castaway - Petzel V
Joyce Pensato, Mouse Mask (2015), all images courtesy Petzel Gallery

To advertise her fourth solo show at Petzel Gallery, Joyce Pensato released a short video, a brashly black and white, slapstick affair, set to classic ragtime piano tunes.  In it, superhero Batman is knocked upside the head and shipped off to the exhibition, while Pensato, playing the gun moll in round-framed dark sunglasses, imitates her dumbly-smiling cartoon portraits. The video perfectly encapsulates Castaway, a new series of black and white cartoon portraits, erasure-paintings and drawings, both large-scale and small-scale, in addition to digital c-prints of the artist’s studio space. Read More »

Los Angeles – Thomas Demand at Matthew Marks Through April 4th, 2015

March 25th, 2015

Thomas Demand, Backyard (2014), via Matthew Marks
Thomas Demand, Backyard (2014), via Matthew Marks

The artifice that drives Thomas Demand’s practice is simple, but the results are impressively commanding.  Utilizing carefully cut and assembled cardboard pieces to create familiar images, scenes and spaces, the artist’s work carries an evocatively nostalgic aura, while emphasizing his own craft in the construction of the scene itself. Read More »

New York – Joseph Beuys: “Multiples from The Reinhard Schlegel Collection” at Mitchell-Innes and Nash Through April 18th, 2015

March 24th, 2015

Joseph Beuys, Felt Suit (1970), via Art Observed
Joseph Beuys, Felt Suit (1970), via Art Observed

Beyond his most iconic performance works and sculptural environments, Joseph Beuys’s multiples constitute an entire aspect of the artist’s practice rarely seen as a complete series of works.  While some of his more iconic small-scale works, including Capri Battery or Sled, as well as his prints and drawings have become iconic entries in the artist’s elusive, and often enigmatic creative history, the works have rarely been presented as a complete series. Read More »