Xavier Veilhan at Perrotin, via Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed

Spread out along the spacious aisles and picturesque dome of the Grand Palais in Paris, the Foire internationale d’art contemporain, also known as FIAC, has returned once again for another year of sales in the French capital.  With Wednesday evening slowly dragging into the late hours, the fair’s VIP opening is now concluded, once again garnering strong praise and enthusiastic response from its attendees.  This year, the list of galleries brings together exhibitors from 25 countries, marking its 45th edition with a fitting reflection of its storied history, one echoed by the prestigious locale of the Grand Palais.  With an exacting selection of modern art, contemporary art, and design galleries, among the most emblematic of the international scene, the fair’s opening hours once again underscored its vitality in the modern fair circuit. 

Alicja Kwade at 303, via Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed Read More »

Ugo Rondinone, drifting clouds (Installation View), via Sam Covern for Art Observed.

Currently on view at Gladstone Gallery, artist Ugo Rondinone has opened a show work that spans a broad range of his creative output over several years.  Mixing together his practice in installation, sculpture, drawing and performance, the show sees Rondinone reanimating commonplace objects—such as tree branches or window frames—in his signature approach towards the Neo-Romantic. Read More »

Ivy Haldeman, Chartreuse Suit (2018), all images courtesy Downs and Ross

Ivy Haldeman’s body of new paintings, on view currently at Downs and Ross, have a distinctly playful quality, poetic and energetic while referencing surrealist twists on the everyday.  The current show, on now through October 21st, presents itself as a playful update on prior work, filling the canvas with the same colorful, enthusiastic energy.  Read More »

Daniel Buren, Photo-souvenir Tondo n°10, situated work, September 2015 (2015), via Art Observed

Currently on view at Bortolami Gallery in New York, the renowned French conceptualist Daniel Buren has brought his Tondi to bear on the gallery, offering striking continuation and renewal of his interest in place, space and perception that he has continually refined and occasionally redefined over the course of 50 years of practice.  The Tondi were initially exhibited at Le Centquatre-Paris in France in 2015, and subsequently at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Bogota, Colombia, in 2017. In their new, third configuration at Bortolami, they are situated within the specific architecture of the gallery, allowing the well-lit, spacious TriBeCa room to participate expressively in their presentation and form.  They are patterned arrangements of colored glass, filtering light into patterns of expressive color that underscore the work’s position and relationship to the gallery.   Read More »

Lygia Pape, Tecelar (1955), All images via Hauser & Wirth

On view through October 20^th, Hauser & Wirth in New York is presenting a comprehensive solo exhibition of the work of Lygia Pape, the gallery’s first United States solo exhibition of the artist since announcing its worldwide representation of Projeto Lygia Pape in 2016.  Pape, a founding member of Brazil’s Neo-Concrete movement, created work that foregrounded the sensorial experience of the viewer and spanned a range of media from sculpture to drawing, engraving to filmmaking, and even large-scale installation. Her expansive body of work, and the elaborate series of themes and concepts demonstrated throughout make for a thrilling exhibition, as the gallery seeks to explore Pape’s work in all of its breadth and depth. Read More »

Liza Lou, Pyrocumulus (2018), All images via Lehmann Maupin.

Now through October 27^th, Lehmann Maupin will host Liza Lou: Classification and Nomenclature of Clouds as its inaugural exhibition of the gallery’s new West 24^th Street location. The show continues at the gallery’s West 22^nd Street location, in which a room is dedicated to works from Lou’s Terra series. This is the artist’s first exhibition in New York City in over a decade, and includes works of painting, sculpture, drawing, and video. Read More »

Zhang Xiaogang at Pace, via Art Observed

Pace Gallery in New York is currently exhibiting a selection of new works by the renowned Chinese painter Zhang Xiaogang, a body of works that sees him continuing to explore and interpret his unique painterly language.  Mixing together domestic scenes and surrealist iconographies, then populating them with a mixture of shared cultural symbols and figures from his own childhood memories. Xiaogang’s work is a remarkable window into complex psychological states and cultural moorings.  Read More »

Josep Maynou, Rugs (2018) Bombon _Projects

Located at the University of Westminster, the Sunday Art Fair is a decidedly mellow counterpoint to the expansive aisles and big-ticket sales of the proceedings at Regent’s Park. Capped at just 30 international galleries exhibiting solo projects or curated group presentations, the exhibition welcomes galleries dedicated to emerging artists, new concepts and new contexts for showing work.  Read More »