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

New York – Hans Haacke: “All Connected” at The New Museum Through January 26th, 2020

January 24th, 2020

Hans Haacke, All Connected (Installation View), via New Museum
Hans Haacke, All Connected (Installation View), via New Museum

Artist Hans Haacke’s works, ranging from kinetic art to environmental art, conceptual art and institutional critique, culminates in his critiques of social and political systems, orchestrated in masterful form this winter at the New Museum.  The retrospective marks the first major American museum exhibition of Haacke’s career, focusing on the influence of the corporate world on contemporary art. Read More »

New York – Kim Gordon: “The Bonfire” at 303 Gallery Through February 22nd, 2020

January 23rd, 2020

Kim Gordon, The Bonfire 2 (2019), via 303
Kim Gordon, The Bonfire 2 (2019), via 303

Taking over the exhibition spaces at 303 Gallery’s Chelsea space this winter, Kim Gordon presents a body of new works that mix together a range of cultural vantage points and disparate iconographies through multi-media works, photographs and painted canvases.  Her second solo exhibition with the gallery, the show is a striking look at the artist’s nuanced and expansive oeuvre, one which has earned her increasing recognition in recent years.

Kim Gordon, Los Angeles June 6, 2019 (2019), via 303
Kim Gordon, Los Angeles June 6, 2019 (2019), via 303

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New York – “Songs in the Dark” at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery Through February 20th, 2020

January 22nd, 2020

Mark Dion, Bureau of Censorship (1996 - 2019), via Art Observed
Mark Dion, Bureau of Censorship (1996/2019), via Art Observed

The year 2020 is being heralded as a crucial moment for society, a moment to respond to massive political upheaval and environmental crises. With immigration on the rise around the globe, and social tensions inflamed over crises of leadership at the heads of global superpowers, the world is at a crossroads. This concept sits at the core of Songs in the Dark, a group show currently on at Tanya Bonakdar that illustrates how artists deal with the world at its tipping point; how artists find beauty in the darkness of their own times, how they straddle the personal and political in their work, and how they make art as activism. Read More »

New York – Issy Wood: “daughterproof” at JTT Through February 9th, 2020

January 21st, 2020

Issy Wood, Slouching towards the maxillofacial unit (2018), via JTT
Issy Wood, Slouching towards the maxillofacial unit (2018), via JTT

Issy Wood’s paintings and sculptures carry a peculiar cultural charge, moments of collision and fusion that mark her objects with both the signifiers of the art historical and with the banal moments of daily life. For her current show, daughterproof at JTT in New York, the artist continues this process, putting forward a selection of works that seem to mark the passage of culture and time against the body itself.   Read More »

New York – Ugo Rondinone: “Thanx 4 Nothing (a tribute to John Giorno) at Gladstone Gallery Through January 18th, 2020

January 17th, 2020

Ugo Rondinone, thanx 4 nothing (A Tribute to John Giorno) (Installation View), via Gladstone
Ugo Rondinone, thanx 4 nothing (A Tribute to John Giorno) (Installation View), via Gladstone

When the poet John Giorno passed away late last year, he left behind a lifetime of artistic adventurism and exploration, a reputation for his tireless support of the arts and his energetic commitment to collaboration, connection and creativity.  It makes sense then, that one of the first shows to celebrate the artist since his passing would be a collaboration with his husband, artist Ugo Rondinone, at Gladstone Gallery.  Open now, the show features the artist’s captivating 2015 video piece thanx 4 nothing, Read More »

New York – Ragen Moss: “8 Animals” at Bridget Donahue Through January 26th, 2020

January 16th, 2020

Ragen Moss, Senior Borrower (with Mezzanine Borrower) (2019), via Bridget Donahue
Ragen Moss, Senior Borrower (with Mezzanine Borrower) (2019), via Bridget Donahue

Currently on view at Bridget Donahue, artist Ragen Moss has hung an octet of peculiar hanging sculptures.  Referred to at points as “couples” and as “animals,” the show seems to take on the atmosphere of animals moving about an enclosure, watched closely by the viewer to glimpse moments of personality and persona. The works, on view through the end of the month, offer a particularly impressive chance to observe and explore the nature of viewing, and the concept of nature itself.    Read More »

New York – Lothar Baumgarten: “The Early Years” at Marian Goodman Through February 15th, 2020

January 15th, 2020

Lothar Baumgarten, Tropenhäuser (Guayana), Conservatorie (Guayana) (1969-1972:2012), via Marian Goodman
Lothar Baumgarten, Tropenhäuser (Guayana), Conservatorie (Guayana) (1969-1972:2012), via Marian Goodman

Currently on view at Marian Goodman in New York, artist Lothar Baumgarten is the subject of a posthumous show focusing on a body of work he helped compile before his passing.  “The Early Years” focuses on the formative works that shaped his oeuvre, and functions as an homage to one of the most important German artists who influenced a subsequent generation, not to mention an artist who has worked with the gallery since the 1980’s.

Lothar Baumgarten, Kosmos (1968), via Marian Goodman
Lothar Baumgarten, Kosmos (1968), via Marian Goodman

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New York – Lee Bul: “Interlude: Perdu” at Lehmann Maupin Through January 18th, 2020

January 14th, 2020

Lee Bul, Perdu XX (2019), via Lehmann Maupin
Lee Bul, Perdu XX (2019), via Lehmann Maupin

On view through January 18th in New York, the South Korean artist Lee Bul presents a selection of new works unified under the title Interlude: Perdu at Lehmann Maupin, a solo presentation that  features recent mixed media paintings from the artist’s Perdu series that blend biomorphic and cybertronic forms, vividly yet delicately rendered in acrylic paint and mother of pearl.  The artist’s work, which incorporates these divergent forms into a new formal language, makes for an expressive wrinkle in her broader body of work. Read More »

New York – Sophie Calle, Bruce Conner, Paul Pfeiffer: “Documents & Recitations” at Paula Cooper Through February 8th, 2020

January 13th, 2020

Sophie Calle, Exquisite Pain (Count Down - 22) (2000), via Paula Cooper
Sophie Calle, Exquisite Pain (Count Down – 22) (2000), via Paula Cooper

Exploring divergent concepts and bodies of work in exchange over the course of a show currently on view at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, photographers Sophie Calle, Bruce Conner and Paul Pfeiffer have gathered together under the title “Documents & Recitations.”  The show, which features a range of different images and works from each artist’s oeuvre, explores the format of the series to construct new narratives, and engage notions of individual memory and collective perception as translated through the medium of photography. Read More »

New York – Rachel Harrison: “Life Hack” at the Whitney Museum Through January 12th, 2020

January 9th, 2020

Rachel Harrison, Hoarders (2012), via Whitney
Rachel Harrison, Hoarders (2012), via Whitney

Combining sculpture, readymades, drawing and a playful conceptual bent, artist Rachel Harrison’s work over the past 30 years has challenged easy readings of consumption, commercialism and modernity, imbuing her lumpy, peculiar objects with a sense of wry humor and situational irony.  Opening a major retrospective at The Whitney this winter, the artist’s work gets ample room to breathe, to striking result.    Read More »