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

New York – Shirazeh Houshiary: “Pneuma” at Lisson Gallery Through July 31st, 2021

July 8th, 2021

Shirazeh Houshiary, Pneuma (Installation View), via Lisson
Shirazeh Houshiary, Pneuma (Installation View), via Lisson

For the artist’s 13th exhibition with Lisson Gallery, and her first at the gallery’s Cork Street location, artist Shirazeh Houshiary is  a new body of work, the first in over a decade to exclusively focus on the artist’s paintings. Unified under the title Pneuma, the show brings together a body of works that mine both haptic and optic illusions, filling the surface of each work with a palpable energy drawn from the artist’s careful study of kinetics. Read More »

New York – Andrew Cranston: “Waiting for the Bell” at Karma Through August 6th, 2021

July 7th, 2021

Andrew Cranston, It was your birthday (and a seagull shat on your head) (2021), via Karma
Andrew Cranston, It was your birthday (and a seagull shat on your head) (2021), via Karma

This month, Karma presents a body of recent works by the British painter Andrew Cranston, marking his first solo exhibition in New York. The artist, who creates transportive images that destabilize the viewer’s sense of time, and invite them to explore a space between nostalgia and dream, relies on dense marks of oil and subtle washes of distemper, using the material to guide the viewer through a series of relationships in space and depth. Read More »

London – Tom Sachs: “Ritual” at Thaddaeus Ropac Through July 30th, 2021

July 6th, 2021

Tom Sachs, Ritual (Installation View), via Thaddaeus Ropac
Tom Sachs, Ritual (Installation View), via Thaddaeus Ropac

“As I create, I meditate, and the lust of acquiring a product is replaced by the love of making it.” So reads a quote by Tom Sachs as the intro to his most recent exhibition of works at Thaddaeus Ropac in London. Ritual, an exhibition of new works never previously seen in the UK, reflects this notion, bringing forth four new sculptures conceived for the exhibition in order to demonstrate the comprehensive spectrum of Sachs’ distinctive sculptural practice. Displayed on bespoke pedestals inspired by modernist shapes, each sculpture is characterized by the same bricolage aesthetic that has long defined the artist’s work, and underscores his unique sense of interrelation with the language of modern urban culture, conceptual assemblage, and the history of the avant-garde. The sculptures bear traces of their making, becoming vehicles for reflection on the creation of value and human labour. Read More »

New York – Jonas Wood: “Four Tennis Courts” at Gagosian Through July 16th, 2021

July 5th, 2021

Jonas Wood, Wimbledon with Bball Orchid (2021), via Gagosian
Jonas Wood, Wimbledon with Bball Orchid (2021), via Gagosian

Just in time for Wimbledon, painter Jonas Wood has installed a selection of new works at Gagosian, paying tribute to the highest honors of the tennis circuit, the four major Grand Slam courts, and the disparate landscapes on which aspiring champions are pitted. On view through July 16th at Gagosian’s Madison Ave. exhibition space, Four Tennis Courts forms a Grand Slam of its own, in which the rigors of professional athletic competition are displaced by deft visual play. Read More »

New York – Jon Pylypchuk: “What have we missed” at Petzel Gallery Through August 6th, 2021

June 30th, 2021

Jon Pylypchuk, Untitled (2021), via Petzel
Jon Pylypchuk, Untitled (2021), via Petzel

How does one contend with loss? When a close friend or relative passes on, the sensation of loss seems to pervade objects, moments in time, spaces, bound up in memory and personal reflection. This sense seems to flow from the recent work of Los Angeles-based artist Jon Pylypchuk, who presents What have we missed, a solo exhibition of new sculptures at Petzel Gallery’s Uptown New York space this month.  Read More »

New York – Karyn Olivier: “At the Intersection of Two Faults” at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery Through July 30th, 2021

June 29th, 2021

Karyn Olivier, PARALATUVIER (EXPANSION) (2021), via Tanya Bonakdar
Karyn Olivier, PARALATUVIER (EXPANSION) (2021), via Tanya Bonakdar

Currently on at Tanya Bonakdar in New York, the gallery has opened a debut solo show by artist Karyn Olivier, At the Intersection of Two Faults. Olivier’s artistic practice merges multiple histories and collective memory with present-day narratives, manipulating familiar objects and spaces, to re-contextualize the viewer’s relationship to the ordinary. The show, featuring a range of recent works, asks the viewer to reconcile memory with conventional meanings, ultimately revealing contradictions and dualities as well as new possibilities and ideas. Read More »

London – Kati Heck: “Bonnie Bonne Bon” at Sadie Coles HQ Through July 3rd, 2021

June 28th, 2021

Kati Heck, Macht, los, (2021), via Sadie Coles HQ
Kati Heck, Macht, los (2021), via Sadie Coles HQ

In her second exhibition with Sadie Coles HQ, artist Kati Heck has brought forth a new group of paintings and drawings centered around the horse, using the animal as both historical interpolation and metaphor for human psychology.  Read More »

New York – “Mirror, Mirror” at Nathalie Karg Through August 27th, 2021

June 22nd, 2021

Paul Sepuya, Darkroom Mirror (2017), via Nathalie Karg
Paul Sepuya, Darkroom Mirror (2017), via Nathalie Karg

Opening a new summer group show centered around self-portraiture, Nathalie Karg’s Mirror, Mirror executes a series of explorations on perceived identity as a slippery experience, an unreliable form or concept that is constantly challenged and reified within the photographic medium. Featuring new and recent works of self-portraiture by Whitney Hubbs, Tommy Kha, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, and Ilona Szwarc, the show explores self-presentation as self-creation, a hallmark of the social media age.  Read More »

New York – Alice Neel: “People Come First” at The Met Through August 1st, 2021

June 17th, 2021

Alice Neel, Andy Warhol (1970), via Art Observed
Alice Neel, Andy Warhol (1970), via Art Observed

Over the course of her career, one might say that Alice Neel did her best to paint everyone, embracing a wide-ranging and exploratory approach to portraiture that invited countless figures up to her home in Upper Manhattan. Capturing neighbors, friends, art world luminaries and other figures, Neel’s work brought the full spectrum of New York’s residents into a single body of work. Now at The Met, the artist’s work, and the city that birthed it, gets their due attention. Read More »

London – Peter Fischli at Sprüth Magers Through July 31st, 2021

June 15th, 2021

Peter Fischli, RELIEFS (Monkey 21) (2021), via Spruth Magers
Peter Fischli, RELIEFS (Monkey 21) (2021), via Spruth Magers

In his wide-ranging oeuvre, artist Peter Fischli carefully observes and draws from the everyday world to create sculpture, installation, video and works on paper that address similar concerns to those explored as part of his collaborative practice with his late collaborator David Weiss. The artist’s work, so often centered around often overlooked, quotidian aspects of everyday life, sees him posing that same in an experimental and humorous way. For his most recent show, Fischli takes that interest towards a pair of specific models.  Read More »