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

AO On-Site – Mexico City: Zona Maco Art Week 2021, April 27th to May 2nd, 2021

April 30th, 2021

Mathieu Malouf at House of Gaga, via Art Observed
Mathieu Malouf at House of Gaga, via Art Observed

It’s been a challenge to imagine the same art world in the wake of Covid-19. Even as spaces start to reopen and events prepare for their first outings in over a year, the needed precautions and considerations have made for both questions and reinventions of just what a massive show or fair might look like. Enter the 2021 edition of Zona Maco, a notably reduced affair by comparison with previous years, the exhibition has spread out across a series of galleries and temporary in Mexico City, allowing for a more engaged approach towards the city while cutting back on the large-crowds of the usual Banamex crush.  Read More »

New York – Simon Denny: “Mine” at Petzel Gallery Through May 15th, 2021

April 22nd, 2021

Simon Denny, Mine (2021), via Petzel
Simon Denny, Mine (2021), via Petzel

Currently on at Petzel Gallery in New York, artist Simon Denny has launched a new body of work under the title Mine. The product of a multi-year project exploring themes of technology, labor, and humanity’s relationship with the earth, Mine touches down in New York in a fitting time for consideration, as Amazon workers contend with failed unionization efforts, cryptocurrency once again dominates the news cycle and we move further into the post-digital landscape. Read More »

New York – Arghavan Khosravi: “In Between Places” at Rachel Uffner Through June 5th, 2021

April 21st, 2021

Arghavan Khosravi, On Being a Woman (2021), via Rachel Uffner
Arghavan Khosravi, On Being a Woman (2021), via Rachel Uffner

Curently on at Rachel Uffner in New York, artist Arghavan Khosravi’s marks her first solo exhibition at the gallery with an impressive selection of new works building upon previous explorations of techniques taken from historical painting genres — such the use of stacked perspective in Persian miniature painting — while also incorporating new sculptural and three-dimensional elements that further emphasize qualities of illusion and artifice. Titled In Between Places, the show is a striking introduction to the artist’s work. Read More »

New York – Ray Johnson: “WHAT A DUMP” at David Zwirner Through May 22nd, 2021

April 19th, 2021

Peter Hujar, Ray Johnson (1975), via David Zwirner
Peter Hujar, Ray Johnson (1975), via David Zwirner

Marking an ambitious exploration into the work of the enigmatic and expansive practice of Ray Johnson, David Zwirner has opened a show focused in particular on the artist’s collages and drawings from the the 1950s through the 1990s, focusing on Johnson as a seminal and influentially queer artist as well as on his recurring fandoms and obsessions. Showcasing the artist’s work within an array of archival materials from his friends and collaborators, the show presents Johnson’s work as part of a broader constellation of artists working during the post-war contemporary movement. Read More »

New York – Giuseppe Penone at Marian Goodman Through April 17th, 2021

April 16th, 2021

Giuseppe Penone, Leaves of Grass (2013), via Marian Goodman
Giuseppe Penone, Leaves of Grass (2013), via Marian Goodman

Artist Giuseppe Penone returns to Marian Goodman this month, presenting a new body of works that draw on his long fascination with breath, meditative gesture and poetry, turning his attention here in earnest towards the work of Walt Whitman’ particularly the writer’s early editions and his physical connections to his work.  Read More »

New York – “Works on Paper” at Petzel Gallery Through April 24th, 2020

April 15th, 2021

Emily Mae Smith, Study of Brush with Flame (2021), via Petzel
Emily Mae Smith, Study of Brush with Flame (2021), via Petzel

This month, Petzel Gallery embarks on an understated but engaging show, bringing together a selection of works by Jorge Pardo, Seth Price, Pieter Schoolwerth, and Emily Mae Smith, at the gallery’s uptown exhibition space. Bringing together a selection of works on paper that span a range of forms, both physical and cerebral,  the works on view represent an element of the artist’s process in developing the larger-scale works we have come to know them by.

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New York – Ann Craven: “Animals Birds Flowers Moons” at Karma Through May 1st, 2021

April 14th, 2021

Ann Craven, Woodpecker (and the Moon), 2021, 2021, via Karma
Ann Craven, Woodpecker (and the Moon), 2021, 2021, via Karma

Currently at Karma’s East Side space in New York, the gallery has brought forth a series of new works by painter Ann Craven, titled Animals Birds Flowers Moons. Working between paint and watercolor, the artist’s new series of pieces bring together the titular bodies in a series of varying arrangements, displaying bear cubs, peacocks, woodpeckers, and horses as an exploration of graphical nostalgia and its expressive capacity. Read More »

New York – Yayoi Kusama: “Cosmic Nature” at the New York Botanical Garden Through October 31st, 2021

April 12th, 2021

Yayoi Kusama, Cosmic Nature (Installation view), via Art Observed
Yayoi Kusama, Cosmic Nature (Installation view), via Art Observed

After several delays caused by the Covid-19 virus, the long-awaited exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s work at the New York Botanical Garden has finally opened. Planned for exclusive exhibition at NYBG, the show sees Kusama reveling in a lifelong fascination with the natural world, beginning with her childhood spent in the greenhouses and fields of her family’s seed nursery. Giving her voice and works ample space to evolve and envelop the lush grounds of the Botanical Garden’s diverse selection of plants, the show is a fascinating embellishment of both artist and nature, speaking, and working, in unison.   Read More »

New York – James Lee Byars: “The Milky Way” at Michael Werner Gallery Through May 1st, 2021

April 7th, 2021

James Lee Byars, The Milky Way (Installation View), via Michael Werner
James Lee Byars, The Milky Way (Installation View), via Michael Werner

Currently on view at Michael Werner Gallery in New York, artist James Lee Byars’s nuanced and minimalist sculptural project The Milky Way goes back on public view, showcasing one of the artist’s more intriguing and ambitious two-dimensional works. This will be the first time the work is on view to the public.  Read More »

New York – Oscar Tuazon: “PEOPLE” at Luhring Augustine Through April 17th, 2021

April 5th, 2021

Oscar Tuazon, Natural Man (2021), via Luhring Augustine
Oscar Tuazon, Natural Man (2015/2021), via Luhring Augustine

Currently on view at Luhring Augustine’s Tribeca exhibition space, artist Oscar Tuazon has compiled a presentation of all new sculptural works, united under the title PEOPLE. Continuing Tuazon’s investigation of hybridized forms and construction through fusions of natural material and human technological developments, the show pushes fusions of minimalist abstraction and natural elements, making up a series of constantly changing morphologies and addressing notions of the natural systems of growth and decay. Read More »