Jenny Holzer/Lady Pink, Trust visions that don’t feature buckets of blood (1983-84), via Art Observed

Taking its own unique turn on the group exhibition, Sprüth Magers is currently showing a powerful two-floor exhibition devoted to the female artists on its roster, examining their shared interests in political and institutional critique, and explorations of the art object’s role in relation to the gallery.  Culling together a series of seminal works from Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler and Rosemarie Trockel, the exhibition is a well-executed work of its in, ultimately welcoming unforeseen material and political connections among this group of artists. Read More »

Oliver Croy and Oliver Elser, The 387 Houses of Peter Fritz (1916-1992), Insurance Clerk from Vienna’ (1993-2008), via Art Observed

Curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Natalie Bell, Helga Christoffersen and Margot Norton, The Keeper is an ambitious group exhibition for which the New Museum has reserved its three floors and lobby. Covering a broad chronological and geographical span, the works in this exhibition investigate one of the quintessential human instincts, that of preservation and collection.  The ingrained urge to keep what is present for later, with all it stands for, imbues the works on view, presenting visitors with a wealth of perspectives on this human inclination, and its equally varied results.

Olga Fröbe Kapteyn, Untitled (ca. 1927-34), via Art Observed

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The Female Gaze, Part Two: Women Look at Men (Installation View) feat. Louise Bourgeois, Filette (Sweeter Version) (1968-99) and Diane Arbus, Young couple on a bench in Washington Square Park, N.Y.C. (1965) via Art Observed

Cheim & Read is currently presenting the second installment of the gallery’s The Female Gaze series which had its inception with 2009’s Women Look at Women.  In the succeeding episode, on view through September 2nd, the female eye remains the object, but its subject switches to men, forming a full circle subversion on the male-centric narrative of art history. Placed as the subject, men—dressed or stripped, confident or meek, benevolent or distant—fill in the role of the objectified model, triggering the question of how influential the gender of its author is for interpreting an artwork.  The exhibition aims to investigate whether knowing these works, and their origins, impacts the viewer’s reading of each respective work. Read More »

Daniel Richter, yet to come (2016), via Art Observed

Regen Projects in Los Angeles has lowered the walls in its spacious Hollywood gallery for an impressively selected show of new works by German painter Daniel Richter, who brings his unique formal approach and interest in the twisting shapes of the human form  to bear on a series of colorful abstractions.

Daniel Richter, a competition in sensitivity (2016), via Art Observed

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Meg Webster, Concave Room for Bees (2016)

Coinciding with Socrates Sculpture Park’s thirtieth anniversary this summer, LANDMARK brings together an exhibition featuring projects by Meg Webster, Hank Willis Thomas, Brendan Fernandes and Abigail DeVille, among others, for a show that both reflects on the park’s history, and projects each artist’s own vision onto its open expanse.  The park’s evolution from a landfill and illegal wasteland to an exhibition site with strong emphasis on three-dimensional works was spearheaded by Mark di Suvero, whose studio still resides alongside the park at the point where Astoria meets the East River.  The outdoor museum benefits from its unique ambiance and the history of its neighborhood, presenting works that interact with nature, sunlight and the local community. Read More »

Shio Kusaka, (Installation View), via Art Observed

Blum and Poe in Los Angeles is currently hosting an exhibition of new works by artist Shio Kusaka, her second solo exhibition with the gallery.  Culling together a broad selection of ceramics ranging from pottery to small figurative totems, the exhibition examines shifting concepts of rhythm and tone as the viewer moves through the exhibition.   Read More »

Pia Camil, Bust Mask Sulphur (2016), via Art Observed

Taking over the townhouse exhibition space of Blum & Poe on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Pia Camil is currently showing a series of new sculptural works, with show titled Slats, skins and shop fittings.  Mining the vocabulary and iconography of commodity production and the performance of capitalism within social interactions or group participation, the exhibition pays express homage to the Copper paintings of Frank Stella, while suspending the post-war master’s work in a broader hierarchy of industrial manufacturing and material sources.

Pia Camil, Slats, skins and shop fittings (Installation View), via Art Observed

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I Talk with the Spirits (Installation View), via Art Observed

Spanning both exhibition spaces in its expanded West 24th Street home, Marianne Boesky has opened a new show of works exploring the potency of sculpture and painting, ranging from self-taught artistry through to powerful, yet nuanced meditations on the act of creating as a spiritual force in and of itself.  Drawing its title, I Talk with the Spirits, from a piece by the famous jazz saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk, the show mimics Kirk’s multifarious approach to the creation and execution of his artistic vision, drawing on contemporary modes and materials in conjunction with a deep-rooted, and highly studied perspective on ancient forms and practices. Read More »

Nan Goldin, Heart-Shaped Bruise, New York City (1980), via Art Observed

Few bodies of work have left an impact on the development of photography in the way that Nan Goldin’s Ballad of Sexual Dependency did when it was first presented.  The ever-evolving compilation of photographs from Goldin’s life and travels between New York, Boston, Berlin, and elsewhere shows both fragility and joy, lust and love, life and death through a deeply personal focal point, as Goldin placed her own friends and familiars before the camera, and then reflected them back towards themselves during a series of slideshow performances in which she projected the images in a series to gallery audiences.

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Diane Arbus, Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. (1962), via Art Observed

In 1956, Diane Arbus struck off on a path that would redefine the practice of photography in the 20th Century, adopting a wide-ranging yet equally nuanced eye for subjects and situations in the teeming metropolis of post-War New York City and beyond.  Culling together a selection of these works, including a wide grouping of previously unseen shots from the artist’s personal archives, the Met Breuer has opened a landmark exhibition documenting the artist’s formative years, titled In The Beginning, and spanning the first seven years of her practice as an artist (1956 to 1962). Read More »