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

AO Online – Art Basel Online Viewing Room: December 4th – 6th, 2020

December 3rd, 2020

Olafur Eliasson at Tanya Bonakdar, via Art Basel
Olafur Eliasson at Tanya Bonakdar, via Art Basel

As the year rolls into December, and businesses remain shuttered over Covid-19, the Art Basel fair franchise has launched another edition of its Online Viewing Rooms series, marking off the string of days normally occupied by Art Basel’s famed Miami Beach fair with a more restrained, but equally well-stocked outing that seems to have notched strong response in its early hours.  Long marking the end of the art world’s fall season, and serving as a much-needed last bash of the year for art lovers and art workers worldwide, this year’s edition of Art Basel’s December fair comes without the endless string of afterparties, replaced with a range of online offerings. Read More »

AO Online – Untitled Art Fair Online, December 2nd – 6th, 2020

December 3rd, 2020

Evgen Copi Gorisek at Plan X, via Untitled
Evgen Copi Gorisek at Plan X, via Untitled

Each year, the first week of December is normally reserved for Miami Beach, a bastion of sun and sand that welcomed international hordes of art lovers to its Art Deco havens and bustling streets for the proceedings of Miami Art Week and, at its center, Art Basel Miami Beach.  Yet with the new surge of Covid-19, and the challenges the disease has posed to the art world, this year sees the annual end of year fair and its hordes of parties practiced in proxy, with a similar bevy of sales events heading online.  Not least of those is Untitled Art Fair. Read More »

New York – Theaster Gates: “Black Vessel” at Gagosian Gallery Through January 23rd, 2021

November 27th, 2020

Theaster Gates, Black Vessel (Installation View), via Art Observed
Theaster Gates, Black Vessel (Installation View), via Art Observed

Marking his first solo exhibition in New York City, artist Theaster Gates has touched down at Gagosian Gallery, bringing with him a diverse and conceptually-rich selection of works that underscore his work as a prominent activist and cultural force in American art.  Underscoring the artist’s complex and intuitive work with a range of materials, equally anchored in the histories of racial and social justice movements, and in the canon of art history, not to mention the artist’s own personal narrative, the show traces a range of ideas and concepts through the artist’s body, making for a powerful first show in the Big Apple.

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London – Alex Da Corte: “Helter Shelter Or: The Red Show! or…” at Sadie Coles HQ Through January 13th, 2021

November 25th, 2020

Alex Da Corte, Helter Shelter Or The Red Show! or... (Installation View), via Sadie Coles HQ
Alex Da Corte, Helter Shelter Or: The Red Show! or… (Installation View), via Sadie Coles HQ

Marking a new wrinkle in an ever-evolving artistic oeuvre, artist Alex Da Corte touches down this month at Sadie Coles HQ for a show of works that continues his approach towards larger than life spaces and gestures, orchestrating a surreal series of physical pairings and semiotic exchanges within the framework of the gallery. Taking his expressive and intriguing body of works into a broader bend of language and understanding, the artist makes the most out of a relatively minimal setup. Read More »

New York – George Condo: “Internal Riot” at Hauser & Wirth Through January 23rd, 2021

November 23rd, 2020

George Condo, Father and Daughter with Face Mask (2020), via Hauser & Wirth
George Condo, Father and Daughter with Face Mask (2020), via Hauser & Wirth

Currently on at Hauser & Wirth, artist George Condo has opened a show of new works created this past year.  Composed during the early months of quarantine, the works by the artist reflect the unsettling experience of physical distance and the absence of human contact during a prolonged social isolation. Comprising a new incorporation of abstraction into his already complex figurative project, the works on view here are a fascinating reinvention of the artist’s work.   Read More »

Los Angeles – Kader Attia: “The Valley of Dreams” at Regen Projects Through December 23rd, 2020

November 18th, 2020

Kader Attia, The Vally of Dreams (Installation View), via Regen
Kader Attia, The Vally of Dreams (Installation View), via Regen Projects

Marking his first exhibition in Los Angeles, French-Algerian artist Kader Attia has opened The Valley of Dreams at Regen Projects, marking a new wrinkle in an already expansive and complex body of work.  Spanning a selection of both new and preexisting works in various media including a lightbox photograph, ceramics, sculptures, and a large-scale installation that continue his material and philosophical investigation of the notion of repair as a global, cultural phenomenon, the show is a perfect introduction to the artist’s work for the West Coast. Read More »

New York – Paul Chan: “Drawings for Word Book by Ludwig Wittgenstein” at Green Naftali Through December 19th, 2020

November 17th, 2020

Paul Chan, Spekulieren (to speculate) (2020), via Greene Naftali
Paul Chan, Spekulieren (to speculate) (2020), via Greene Naftali

Opening his fifth solo exhibition, Drawings for Word Book by Ludwig Wittgenstein, at Greene Naftali in New York, artist Paul Chan has installed a series of loosely rendered, childlike drawings, a swirling body of playful images rendered in black and white, sprawling across the walls of the gallery.  Marking a continuation of his practice between producing art works and printed materials through his publishing company, Badlands Unlimited, the show marks an intriguing engagement with the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.   Read More »

New York – Cecily Brown at Paula Cooper Through December 12th, 2020

November 16th, 2020

 

Cecily Brown, The Splendid Table (2019-2020), via Paula Cooper
Cecily Brown, The Splendid Table (2019-2020), via Paula Cooper

Currently on view at Paula Cooper’s 26th Street Exhibition Space, artist Cecily Brown has brought forth a striking body of new paintings, continuing her unique exploration of the liminal spaces between abstraction and figuration.  Across a range of works exploring a rich color palette of warm polychrome hues and deep black, Brown’s work demonstrates a prolonged exploration of color’s potential to fill in this space between modes of depiction.

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New York – Jonathan Lyndon Chase: “Wind Rider” at Company Gallery Through November 21st, 2020

November 13th, 2020

Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Wind Rider (Installation View), via Company
Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Wind Rider (Installation View), via Company

Hyper-loaded with material and imagery that spans a range of cultural signifiers so often ascribed to the American cowboy as a standard of heterosexual, white heroism, painter Jonathan Lyndon Chase has opened a powerful new show at Company Gallery, titled Wind Rider.  Rich subject matter and made all the more nuanced and powerful by the artist’s own experiences and history, the show is a fluid, charged affair, mixing memory and iconography into a series of pieces that open new lines of discourse and awareness.   Read More »

Somerset – Nicole Eisenman: “Where I Was, It Shall Be” at Hauser & Wirth Through January 10th, 2020

November 12th, 2020

Nicole Eisenman, Where I Was, It Shall Be (Installation View), via Hauser & Wirth
Nicole Eisenman, Where I Was, It Shall Be (Installation View), via Hauser & Wirth

Having established herself as a central figure in American painting throughout the 1990s, Nicole Eisenman has only continued to grow and expand her impact and practice over the following decades, building her practice outwards into a range of media formats and frameworks that explore her particular experience of the construction of 2-dimensional, and now 3-dimensional space.  Marking her first show with Hauser & Wirth in the gallery’s picturesque Somerset compound, the artist showcases a diverse multidisciplinary language through mixed media works on paper, sculpture and painting. Read More »