Mary Heilmann, Ray (2017), via Art Observed

In the early years of her career, artist Mary Heilmann embraced a utilitarian approach to the art object, drawing domestic materials, scrap pieces and other objects into a swirling orbit of bright colors and bold, thick strokes of paint.  Drawing on the energy and vitality of the minimalist language, and its conceptual charge to the body of modern painting, Heilmann’s work embraced both a subdued look at the real landscape of the modern American, and the manifold images that float through it each day. Read More »

The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris is partnering with the Museum of Modern Art for a new exhibition, the Art Newspaper reports, presenting key works from the museum’s full holdings, including examples by Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, and Cindy Sherman. “MoMA is a beacon for Modern art in the West, and for decades its narrative of art historical Modernism was uncontested,” says the Fondation’s artistic director, Suzanne Pagé. “It has also established itself [with] its discernment regarding the art of today, an institution possessed of a clear-eyed vision of its future. Today, the doxa [common belief and opinion] are being reassessed.” Read More »

Monika Sosnowska, Façade (2016), via Art Observed

Taking over one of the multiple large-scale exhibition spaces at Hauser & Wirth’s cavernous complex in downtown Los Angeles, artist Monika Sosnowska offers an interestingly nuanced exploration of modernist architectural convention for her first solo show in the Californian metropolis. Spreading her twisted steel sculptures and varied spatial interventions throughout the gallery, Sosnowska’s body of work marks a negotiation between the historical landscapes and political structures of her home country of Poland, writ large against the gallery’s ample halls. Read More »

Hannah Levy, Untitled (2016), via Art Observed

Currently on view at MoMA PS1 for the museum’s spring and summer season, Past Skin draws on a nuanced understanding of modern man, dwelling on both changing conceptions of the body and body politics in conjunction with the modes of information dissemination, networked culture and physical architecture that have created a more nuanced assemblage of forms and functions in modernity.  Drawing heavily on the work of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, the show, organized by Jocelyn Miller, pulls the human form into the swarms of data modern life is embedded within, and explores how this position has subtly changed the human relationship to the world around us. Read More »

DIVINE DIALOGUES: Cy Twombly and Greek Antiquity, exhibition view. All images courtesy of the Museum of Cycladic Art.

On the occasion of Documenta 14 in Athens, the Museum of Cycladic Art presents “Divine Dialogues: Cy Twombly and Greek Antiquity,” an exhibition that juxtaposes twenty-seven works by the American artist Cy Twombly with twelve ancient Greek artworks and objects from the Archaic and Classical periods. As the press release concedes, the impact of Greece’s geography and mythos on Twombly’s artistic production is widely known; “Divine Dialogues” seeks not just to reaffirm the scope and depth of this influence, but to make a firm case for Greek antiquity’s continuing relevance to modern and contemporary art at large. Read More »

Carlos Motta, Towards a Homoerotic Historiography (2015) (detail) Courtesy of the artist

Praz-Delavallade, a main figure in the Paris gallery scene since the ‘90s, opened its first space in the United States in Los Angeles this past January. This summer, the gallery continues its program on the west coast with Over the Rainbow, a group exhibition dedicated socio-political trajectory of the LGTQ movement in the United States, and its ebbs and flows through painting, photography, sculpture, and video. As a French import on the city’s gallery-dense Wilshire Boulevard, the gallery brings together an intergenerational group of artists drawn from a global spectrum of interests and backgrounds, each looking at seminal moments in the gay liberation movement, such as the Stonewall upheaval, the outbreak and aftermath of HIV/AIDS epidemic, and marriage equality granted to same-sex couples through allusive or direct approaches that grasp at a timeless, global sensitivity. Read More »

Alexander Calder, Red Lily Pads (1956), via Art Observed

An embarrassment of riches is spread along the winding pathway of the Guggenheim Museum this spring, tracing the long and storied history of the New York institution through its interconnected relationships with the collectors and avant-garde pioneers that helped to grow the institution into the powerhouse that it has since become.  Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim offers visitors a firsthand look at the inception of one of the city’s enduring guardians of modern and contemporary art, all through the eyes and hands of the various parties involved in its early years. Read More »

Carsten Höller, Double Mushroom Vitrine (Threefold), 2015. All images via Gagosian Gallery.

On view through September 1^st, the Gagosian Gallery in New York presents REASON, an exhibition of recent work by Carsten Höller.  In this show, the artist’s first in New York since 2011, Höller unites scientific exactitude, play, and art through work that transforms the gallery into a laboratory for exploring and disproving the conceptual act and understanding of reason. Revolving doors, rotating mirrors, giant mushrooms, and huge dice create a world of discovery and whimsy, in which viewers are invited to explore the fascinating and beautiful logic behind the natural world.

Divisions Square (Senegal-yellow Surface), 2017

Trained in the natural sciences, Höller’s work has revolved around interrogating the methods through which humans seek to understand the world. Towards this end, he imposes standardized systems of logic on the behaviors and appearances of humans, fungi, insects, and animals, then lets go and observes what happens. As the artist states, “I start with a formula to get a process going, then the formula takes over and continues into infinity on its own. It is not about creative decisions anymore; there is no choice, only reason.” The effect of this process is the sense that Höller’s work seeks to invite viewers into the satisfying and inspiring process of discovery and experimentation. By eliminating subjectivity, the subjects are treated as independent, organic material acting and reacting independently. This places both the viewer and the artist in the position of an objective observer, passively admiring the results of some predetermined formula.  Both formally and conceptually captivating, Höller’s topics work to involve the viewer and inspire reflection and wonder. In this exhibition, the overall scheme for the two galleries is that of binary, diametric opposition and division. Following a pattern of diminishing halves, this takes place through color gradations, light intensity, and the positioning of the work itself.

Installation View.

In Revolving Doors, constructed according to the concept of triadic division, the viewer is engulfed in a sea of changing, shifting, turning reflections. The Divisions series of paintings, as well as two murals that cover the gallery walls, instead follow a binary logic. A biological equivalent to this geometric pattern is explored in Divisions (Rose-grain Aphid and Surface), which shows the parthenogenesis of a female rose aphid against a red background. The Giant Triple Mushroom sculptures are composed of enlarged cross-sections of three different fungal species, while Muscimol 3. Versuch, sees the artist exploring the hallucinogenic effects produced by the fly agaric mushroom when ingested. Another mushroom work, Flying Mushrooms is a giant stabile with moving parts, involving the rotation of seven fly agaric mushroom replicas slowly through the air like a propeller.

Installation View.

As in his other investigations, Höller seeks to eliminate subjectivity in order to apply and allow divisional formulae to determine the composition of each work. Setting objects free in a loose network of objects and interpretations, his pieces push the viewer into an extended space of indeterminacy and playful construction of meaning. The standardized systems of logic applied here produce a captivating and hyperreal resulting piece. The artist’s fascination with the formulaic rationality that rules the natural world comes through in REASON, and invites the viewer into an experience of wonder and play, predicated on the foundation of objective precision. In turn, the exhibition takes on the role of homage to the exquisite symmetry of the natural world.

Revolving Doors, 2014/16

— A. Corrigan

Related Links:
Exhibition Page [Gagosian Gallery]

Thomas Ruff, PRESS++32.54 (2016), via Art Observed

Process is product for Thomas Ruff.  The German photographer has explored a wide ranging body of work over the course of his thirty-plus years of his practice, frequently using the act of creating a photographic image as the generative locus for his work. Embarking on a new body of work in past years, the artist’s press++ series makes its debut this month at Sprüth Magers in Berlin, a fascinating investigation of the act of image production and consumption. Read More »

Julien Ceccaldi, Pompeii Bathhouse (2017), via Art Observed

Lomex Gallery, housed in Eva Hesse’s former studio, continues a hot streak of quality programming with their current exhibition of new works by artist Julien Ceccaldi. The show, bluntly titled Gay, is a gathering of Ceccaldi’s paintings on various materials, combining a range of unique, well-orchestrated surfaces. Read More »