Over the course of a lifetime that spanned almost a century, Etel Adnan expressed her prodigious creative and intellectual vision in many forms. In addition to being a visual artist, she is a renowned poet, a prominent journalist, and the author of one of the defining novels of the modern Arab world. Adnan’s biography is notable for its rich convergence of cultural influences. She was born in Lebanon to a Greek mother and Syrian father; grew up speaking French, Arabic, and Greek; and as an adult lived for extended periods in Lebanon, the United States, and France. She began to paint in the late 1950s, while working as a professor of philosophy in Northern California. It was a period when, in protest of France’s colonial rule in Algeria, she renounced writing in French and declared that she would begin “painting in Arabic.â€
On view this month in New York, the ever-enigmatic Darren Bader has put on a new show of work at Harkawik, continuing his playful repositions and deconstructions of his materials and their cultural assumptions. Continuing his plundering and extraction of the meanings and understandings of the objects he selects and suspends in a constellation of signs and symbols, the show offers a new set of works by the artist.
Keith Mayerson, Dr. Martin Luther King and Family (2021), via Karma
On view this month at Karma in New York, painter Keith Mayerson introduces his most recent entry in his ongoing series This Land is Your Land, a body of work that sees the artist reflecting on American history and culture as a way to look for new horizons and possibilities.
Wayne Thiebaud, Hot Dog with Mustard (1964), via Acquavella
Painter Wayne Thiebaud, for his colorful works depicting commonplace objects—pies, lipsticks, paint cans, ice cream cones, pastries, and hot dogs—as well as for his landscapes and figure paintings–all of which served as early salvos in the development of modern pop art, has passed away at the age of 101.  Read More »
Anicka Yi, In Love With the World (2021) All images by Aidan Chisholm for Art Observed.
Setting forth her floating biomorphic machines, artist Anicka Yi has reinvigorated Turbine Hall as visitors return to the iconic London site after a two-year pandemic-induced pause. The latest Tate Modern Hyundai Commission, In Love With the World explores the nexus between nature and technology, integrating the biological and the algorithmic. Read More »
Robert Janitz, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg 2 (2021), via Canada
Currently on at Canada Gallery in New York, artist Robert Janitz returns to his particular style of abstraction, utilizing unique tools and techniques to create geometrically-inspired, colorful compositions. The artist, who has long used loping, gestural forms in his work, here draws new inspiration from the confines of the canvas as a defining element in the production of the pieces. Read More »
David Shrigley, Mayfair Tennis Ball Exchange (Installation View), via Stephen Friedman
Approaching Stephen Friedman’s Mayfair gallery, one is greeted with a large glowing green neon reading “Mayfair Tennis Ball Exchange.†Just beyond the glass, row upon row of gentle green orbs peer back at the viewer, making up artist David Shrigley’s newest exhibition at the gallery. The show, which shares the title with that neon work, makes for a fascinating look at relational work and simple, comical iterations, long a hallmark of the artist’s work. Read More »
At the age of 94, Alex Katz is still painting, creating more works in his signature style of elevated coolness. The artist, who continues to paint between Pennsylvania, Maine and New York, marks his first exhibition this month with Gladstone Gallery, where he opens a show of 7 new landscapes that underscore his continued exploration and misery of light, space and balance. Read More »
Caitlin Keogh, Waxing Year 2 (2020), via Bortolami
Currently on at Bortolami’s Tribeca exhibition space, Caitlin Keogh marks her third exhibition with the gallery with ‘The Waxing Year,’ a continuation of the artist’s investigations of space, materiality and time. Rendered through a series of intricate acrylics on canvas, the works speak to her ability to fuse imagined states and historical epochs with a deft sense of lyrical dialogue. Read More »
Claire Tabouret, Offrande (pink and brown) (2021), via Perrotin
This month in Paris, Galerie Perrotin presents a series of new landscape paintings and interiors by the artist Claire Tabouret, continuing a practice of careful historical study and taut, expressive compositions. Painted on colored synthetic fur, the show sees Tabouret continue a practice rooted in dialogue between historical modes and a distinct line of conceptual practice that challenges and reframes the act of painting. Read More »
