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

AO Preview – Mexico City Art Week, February 6th – 10th, 2019

February 4th, 2019

Abraham Cruzvillegas, Blind Self Portrait... (2018), via Kurimanzutto
Abraham Cruzvillegas, Blind self portrait listening to the version of ‘Canción mixteca’ (‘Qué lejos estoy’) by Enrique “Chato” Rodríguez, while tasting an unexpected spirulina ice cream at a Thai restaurant in Austin, after finishing a book about a guy selling snow balls in Manhattan, thinking on how specific needs generate diverse shapes in space… (2018), via Kurimanzutto

As the winter season winds slowly towards spring, the art world will look for its first taste of warmer climes for 2019, with the first major art fair of the year set to open in the sunny capital of Mexico.  Running through the week, the Zona Maco and Material Art Fairs offer the first look at the market landscape for the global fair scene, and the increasingly strong influence of Latin America on the broader art market. Read More »

New York – Richard Artschwager: “Primary Source” at Gagosian Through February 23rd, 2019

February 1st, 2019

Richard Artschwager, Excursion (2001), via Art Observed
Richard Artschwager, Excursion (2001), via Art Observed

Currently at Gagosian Gallery’s 980 Madison Space, the mega-dealer has launched a show of works by the late artist Richard Artschwager. Titled Primary Sources, the show compiles a series of key paintings and drawings alongside materials from his personal archive, research documents, sketches and other elements that underscore Artschwager’s meticulous and impressive approach to working. Read More »

New York – Jasper Spicero: “Centinel” at Swiss Institute Through April 7th. 2019

January 31st, 2019

Jasper Spicero, Centinel (Installation View), via Art Observed
Jasper Spicero, Centinel (Installation View), via Art Observed

Just opened at Swiss Institute, artist Jasper Spicero marks his first institutional solo exhibition with a selection of new sculptures and video that continues the artist’s investigation of sculptural modes, states and perceptions of time, and the attendant moments of subverted memory and time caused by digital timelines and narratives. Read More »

New York – “The Rest” at Lisson Gallery Through February 16th, 2019

January 30th, 2019

Jill Muilleady, Touch Me not (2018), via Art Observed
Jill Muilleady, Touch Me Not (2018), via Art Observed

A group of young artists takes center stage at Lisson Gallery this month, with an exhibition titled The Rest exploring their respective interests in figurative painting as well as concomitantly capricious and complex approaches to image making.  Featuring the work of Van Hanos, Allison Katz, Jill Mulleady, Jeanette Mundt, Nolan Simon and Issy Wood, the show is a striking inquiry into a range of ideas and concepts in modern image production, and the state of the painted image in the 21st Century.
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New York – Wang Guangle: “Duo Color” at Pace Gallery Through February 9th, 2019

January 29th, 2019

Wang Guangle, Duo Color (Installation View), via Pace
Wang Guangle, Duo Color (Installation View), via Pace

Currently on view at Pace Gallery’s New York location, Chinese artist Wang Guangle has installed a body of new paintings marking a continuation of the artist’s nuanced approach towards painterly minimalism and gestural abstraction.  Titled Duo Color, the show invites a reconsideration of Wang’s work in the investigation of time and space, bound by the movement of the brush and the application of paint to canvas.   Read More »

London – Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato at David Zwirner Through February 9th, 2019

January 27th, 2019

Lorenzato sem 2

Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato, Sem título (1993). All images via David Zwirner.

Now through February 9, David Zwirner is presenting work by the Brazilian-born painter Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato, making the the first time Lorenzato’s work is being shown in the United Kingdom, and the first solo show by the artist outside of Brazil. One of the foremost painters of his generation, Lorenzato developed a body of work that centers on subjects he encountered in his hometown of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where the Brazilian Concrete Art movement emerged in the 1950s. These include land- and townscapes, favelas, and individuals he met in his daily travels. Read More »

New York – Dana Schutz: “Imagine Me and You” at Petzel Gallery Through February 23rd, 2019

January 24th, 2019

Dana Schutz, The Visible World (2018), via Petzel Gallery
Dana Schutz, The Visible World (2018), via Petzel Gallery

Marking her third solo exhibition with Petzel Gallery, artist Dana Schutz returns to New York this month with “Imagine Me and You,” a solo show of new paintings and sculptures. Diving deeper into her kinetic, often bizarre juxtapositions and alterations of physical space, Schutz’s work in the show marks a continuation and elaboration of her aesthetic practice. Read More »

New York – Claudia Comte: “The Morphing Scallops” at Gladstone Gallery Through February 16th, 2019

January 23rd, 2019

Claudia Comte, The Morphing Scallops (Installation View), via Gladstone
Claudia Comte, The Morphing Scallops (Installation View), via Gladstone

Marking the first exhibition dedicated solely to the painting practice of Claudia Comte, Gladstone Gallery’s current show of wall paintings arrives at a particularly ironic moment in American politics.  As the US government goes unfunded over a restrictive physical structure on its Southern border, the Swiss artist presents her works as coy investigations of physical limits, and the internal worlds that they make possible to express and elaborate. Read More »

New York – Erik Parker: “New Soul” at Mary Boone Gallery Through March 2nd, 2019

January 21st, 2019

Erik Parker, New Soul, 72 Ø (2018), via Art Observed
Erik Parker, New Soul, 72 Ø (2018), via Art Observed

It’s hard to boil down the vivid, swirling compositions of painter Erik Parker into any one point, or even a series of entry points. His canvases combine pop cultural signifiers, swirling cartoonish caricatures, and a bright, day-glo sentiment as if his paintings were in the midst of some high-contrast meltdown. This approach gets a series of conceptual and figurative workouts in the artist’s show of works this month at Mary Boone Gallery, which compiles a range of pieces mixing both figurative and abstract techniques into an almost inextricable mass. Read More »

New York – “Borders” at James Cohan Gallery Through February 23rd, 2019

January 19th, 2019

Dread Scott, Imagine a World Without America (2007), via James Cohan
Dread Scott, Imagine a World Without America (2007), via James Cohan

Taking over the gallery’s two exhibition spaces in New York, James Cohan Gallery is currently presenting a group exhibition to kick off a year charged by harsh political rhetoric and an ongoing government shutdown over the future of the United States’s Southern Border.  The show, fittingly titled ‘Borders,’ offers a meditation on the political, ideological and formal concepts of border lines, walls, national identities and its attendant concepts of state power, sovereignty and national identity.
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