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

New York – “Distribuidx” at Lisson Gallery Through August 11th, 2023

August 11th, 2023

Distribuidx (Installation View), via Lisson
Distribuidx (Installation View), via Lisson

This summer, Lisson Gallery marks its entry into the string of group shows sprung up across the art world with a show that opens a dialogue between the work of artist Hélio Oiticica and a range of intergenerational artists with varying relationships to Latin America. The presentation is curated by César García-Alvarez, the Executive & Artistic Director of The Mistake Room in Los Angeles. Read More »

New York – Gilbert & George: “The Corpsing Pictures” at Lehmann Maupin Through August 18th, 2023

August 10th, 2023

Gilbert & George, BONE TIES (2022), via Lehmann Maupin
Gilbert & George, BONE TIES (2022), via Lehmann Maupin

This month at Lehmann Maupin’s New York exhibition space, artists Gilbert & George present a body of new works, unified under the title THE CORPSING PICTURES, and centering on concepts of death and humor in equal measure. The exhibition comprises a suite of richly colored pictures starring the artists themselves in various poses of alarm and resignation as bones encroach in intricate patterns over their faces and bodies. Employing their signature use of bold color and symmetrical composition, Gilbert & George confront the subject of mortality and life itself. Read More »

Pace to Represent Lawrence Weiner Estate in Asia

August 10th, 2023

The Lawrence Weiner estate is now represented in Asia by Pace. “Lawrence Weiner’s work redefined how art can communicate meaning,” Pace CEO Marc Glimcher said in a statement. “Language and material come together in his practice to create an experience that is somehow at once universal and unique. A giant of Conceptualism, Weiner offers the phenomenal, the radical, and the poetic in his work, and we are honored to bring it to our audiences to engage with it themselves.” Read More »

London – Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian: “Forms of Life” at the Tate Modern Through September 3rd, 2023

July 10th, 2023

Piet Mondrian, Evolution (1911), via Art Observed
Piet Mondrian, Evolution (1911), via Art Observed

This summer, the Tate Modern presents an exploratory show tracing convergences and divergences in the work of Piet Mondrian and Hilma af Klint. Taking the work of these two luminary twentieth century artists in concert, the show draws intriguing connections across phenomenology, experience, and abstraction, exploring how each artist used their craft to push deeper inquiries and explorations of the world they lived in.  Read More »

London – “To Bend the Ear of the Outer World” at Gagosian Through August 25th, 2023

June 20th, 2023

Oscar Murillo, manifestation (2020-2022), via Gagosian
Oscar Murillo, manifestation (2020-2022), via Gagosian

This summer at its Grosvenor Hill, London location, Gagosian presents To Bend the Ear of the Outer World: Conversations on contemporary abstract painting, an exhibition of new and recent works by more than forty artists from the Americas, United Kingdom, and Germany. The exhibition has been organized by guest curator Gary Garrels, who, in collaboration with the artists, has selected a single painting by each, with most works presented here for the first time. This is Gagosian’s first exhibition to be sited across its two galleries in Mayfair, at Grosvenor Hill and Davies Street. Read More »

New York – Bob Thompson: “So let us all be citizens” at 52 Walker Through July 8th, 2023

June 19th, 2023

Bob Thompson, An Allegory (1964), via 52 Walker
Bob Thompson, An Allegory (1964), via 52 Walker

Marking its seventh exhibition downtown, 52 Walker has opened So let us all be citizens, an exhibition devoted to the short but fruitful career of Bob Thompson. Spotlighting the artist’s jazz-influenced style and consideration for color, line, and figuration—developed during a period when abstraction was the dominant trend in American art—this intimate exhibition pays homage to the friction Thompson generated between his proximity to and deviation from cited and canonical sources.

Bob Thompson, So let us all be citizens (Installation View), via 52 Walker
Bob Thompson, So let us all be citizens (Installation View), via 52 Walker

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Basel – Jordan Wolfson: “Drawings” at Gagosian Through July 22nd, 2023

June 16th, 2023

Jordan Wolfson, Untitled (2020), via Gagosian
Jordan Wolfson, Untitled (2020), via Gagosian

Opening in conjunction with the hustle and bustle of fair week in Basel, artist Jordan Wolfson presents a selection of works at Gagosian that continue his incisive and often wry investigations of violence, pop culture, and constructions of identity. Pairing painted-over photographs of the late John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. with decals bearing the graphic image of a red rose and the forbidding slogan “Describing how a dog was slaughtered,” Wolfson juxtaposes and mischievously negates potent signifiers of optimism, infallibility, and love.

Jordan Wolfson, Untitled (2020), via Gagosian
Jordan Wolfson, Untitled (2020), via Gagosian

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New York – Uri Aran: “I’m a Restaurant” at Andrew Kreps Through July 7th, 2023

June 15th, 2023

Uri Aran, I'm a Restaurant (Installation View), via Andrew Kreps
Uri Aran, I’m a Restaurant (Installation View), via Andrew Kreps

On view this month at Andrew Kreps in New York, artist Uri Aran opens a presentation of new works united under the enigmatic title I’m a Restaurant. Exploring pluralities of voice, modalities of form, and a perspective on narrative and the artist that invites vagaries and unclear frameworks.Aran leaves exposed the threads of the mysterious, unstable process by which parts turn to wholes, drawing on traditions of assemblage, ready-made, and process art to create works that are ambiguous and ever-shifting, changing with each viewer, with each viewing. Read More »

Met Training Military Officers for Conservation and Rescue Efforts in Ukraine

June 14th, 2023

The Met is training a group of military officers to work at saving historical artifacts and artworks in Ukraine. “The weaponization of art history,” says Alison Hokanson, associate curator of European paintings, “is the weaponization of objects but also the weaponization of the stories that are told through these objects.” Read More »

AO On-Site – Basel: Art Basel 2023 at Messe Basel, June 12th – 18th, 2023

June 13th, 2023

Alice Neel at Victoria Miro
Alice Neel at Victoria Miro, all images via Art Observed

Once again opening in the early weeks of summer in the Swiss city of Basel, the Art Basel art fair kicked off its opening previews early this week, with crowds flocking to the Messe Basel for another week of works on view, films, talks, and other projects. Preparing for its public opening with an expansive offering of works from European galleries and those further afield, the fair continues its reputation as a flagship for the international fair brand, with over 200 leading galleries and more than 4,000 artists from five continents.

Danielle Orchard at Perrotin
Danielle Orchard at Perrotin

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