Nick Cave, The Let Go (2018), all images via Greem Jellyfish for Art Observed

“Back in the day the club was my safe place-and losing myself on the dance floor has always kept me centered.”

The Let Go is artist Nick Cave’s new work at Park Avenue Armory, a multi-sensory performance using visual works, sounds, and movement to transform the Armory into a dance-based town hall aimed at bringing together visitors, performers, DJs, dancers and community members to participate in a collective act of catharsis. The audience is asked to let go of frustration and negativity, and to uplift one another as they participate in this powerful socially-engaged piece.  Stringing together a series of interrelated works, The Let Go is bounded by the installation Chase, and where a performance titled The Up Right, featuring one of Cave’s signature Sound Suits, is activated by a jazz keyboardist, choir and opera singer. Concluding the performance,  the “town hall” becomes a dance hall, complete with DJ. Read More »

Charles Ray, Reclining Woman (2018), via Matthew Marks

The work of artist Charles Ray draws particular strength from its deliberateness and commitment to concept.  The artist’s figurative sculptures are direct in their depiction, yet draw particular strength from the nuance of their subject matter, and the mastery of the artist’s hand.  Returning to New York for a show of new work at Matthew Marks this month, Ray has once again cemented this reputation, bringing a small but powerful selection of works to bear on the gallery space, and once again underscoring why he is a living legend in the world of contemporary sculpture.  Read More »

John Giorno and Robert Watts, Fun with Fluxus (1984-1988), via Supportico Lopez

As the days of summer tick by, and the weather grows ever warmer in Europe, the art world once again returns to the namesake home of the Art Basel fair, which takes over the Swiss city for its annual run of sales and project exhibitions, held in conjunction with a number of various exhibitions and shows across the city.  Marking the final run of market activity before a well-deserved summer recess, the fair should offer a last glimpse at the European art market’s health before the fall season. Read More »

Borna Sammak, Not Yet Titled (Couch) (2018), via JTT

The term “over-saturation” feels particularly apt in describing the work of artist Borna Sammak, who for the past several years has worked at a uniquely playful and disturbing juncture of pop culture iconography.  Perhaps best known for his canvases comprised of hundreds of heat-press t-shirt graphics layered with an almost machinic sense of repetition, Sammak’s approach to visual arrangements revels in chaos and confusion, yet almost always allows the viewer a moment to settle and find subtle rhythms and aesthetic logics within his swirling compositions.  Read More »

Wade Guyton, Patagonia (Installation view), All images via Petzel Gallery.

Now through June 16, Petzel Gallery’s Chelsea location presents Patagonia, an exhibition of 11 new works by Wade Guyton.  As the brief and succinct Press Release states, this show features images of paintings drying, scraps of linen, lunch remains, and other details of the studio. The images featured are large-scale prints made from an Epson UltraChrome K3 inkjet printer, complete with glitches and streaks left from this printing process. The use of the inkjet printer to produce large-scale images on canvas has become a signature feature of the work of the artist’s ‘post-conceptual’ ouevre, much like the color black and X symbol had previously been incorporated into his works. Read More »

Oscar Tuazon, (Installation View), via Art Observed

For the last few years, artist Oscar Tuazon has meandered ever closer to a unique framework in socially-engaged sculpture, and art-making more broadly.  Creating sites and objects dedicated towards folds and fissures in public space, his pieces have delved into the act of living; how bodies animate space, or ultimately serve to preserve or reify distinct functions and/or patterns of use within a defined space.  For his first exhibition at New York’s Luhring Augustine this month, Tuazon brings this unique philosophy to bear in the gallery, erecting a series of works that draw on past projects and seek to explore functionality in new spheres. Read More »

Dan Colen, Merope (2018), via Levy Gorvy

It’s been some time since there was a full show of works by Dan Colen on view in New York.  Having decamped upstate to explore a more deliberate, meditative practice in conjunction with running his own farm, the artist’s modes of practice, and now even his representation, has undergone a slow but deliberate shift.  Now, with a body of new works in tow, the artist has opened his first exhibition with his new gallery, Lévy Gorvy.  Grouping together a body of sculptures and paintings, the artist returns to familiar ground, exploring and manipulating previous modes of working to create a striking, and mature, selection of pieces.

Dan Colen, Mother (2017-2018), via Levy Gorvy

Read More »

A Luta Continua (Installation View), via Hauser and Wirth

Over the course of his life, diamond magnate Sylvio Perlstein has built up one of the most ambitious collections of contemporary art in the world, spanning the full history of the avant-garde from Dada and Surrealism to Abstraction, Land Art to Minimalism, Arte Povera, Nouveau Réalisme, and more, all united by his unwavering eye for strong pieces and equally strong concepts.  Shining throughout the collector’s holdings, however, is his passion for the work, a fascination with the artist’s practice that shines well above and beyond any single work on view. Read More »

Andreas Slominski (Installation view), all images via Metro Pictures, New York.  Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.  Photo: Genevieve Hanson.

Known for his intriguing humor and sleek aesthetic, German artist Andreas Slominski presents artifacts of consumerist desire in their most pristine forms, well before their wearing out over time through consumer use. His most recent exhibition at Metro Picture presents a group of fresh-from-the-factory portable plastic toilets, complete with stainless surfaces and bright colors. Instead of the foreseeable contrast they would orchestrate with a hygienic white cube space, these non-used bathrooms comply with the all-white atmosphere thanks to their immaculate exteriors and unusual display concepts. Read More »