Detail, nude (xxx), 2010. All images courtesy Gladstone Gallery.

Currently on view at Gladstone Gallery is nude, an exhibition of cast wax sculptures by Ugo Rondinone. The seven life-size figures, which occupy the gallery in various moments of repose, are made from a mixture of wax and earth pigments. Rondinone’s work has been described as perverse and grotesque to pretty and breathlessly romantic; this exhibition seems to fit into the final category, reflecting on poignant expressions of the human condition.

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No Title (We embrace them), Raymond Pettibon (2010). All images via Gladstone Gallery

On view at Gladstone Gallery Brussels is a collection of new works on paper by renowned Southern California artist Raymond Pettibon. This exhibition further delves into Pettibon’s fascination with American culture and iconography, with an assortment of drawings executed in his signature style. Combining imagery and text from a wide array of sources, Pettibon has increasingly explored new applications of color and collage, creating densely fragmented scenes that inspect the disjointed and sometimes sinister impulses at work in past and present constructions of Americana.

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Idexa, Catherine Opie (2008)

Currently on view at Gladstone Gallery’s 24th st location is “Girlfriends,” by Catherine Opie. The works exhibited are a play on Richard Prince’s biker girlfriends and seek to explore the nature of “butch-dyke” identity. “An ode” to her former life, before domesticity and motherhood, Opie’s new works refer back to the subject matter that propelled her into the limelight in the early 1990s: her friends and partners in the gay, lesbian, and trans leather community. This return to the artist’s roots is highlighted by the inclusion of a series of small black-and-white portraits of androgynous young women that Opie made as a freshman in the early ’90s and has since kept to herself.

Angela (head), Catherine Opie (1992)

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Installation View All pictures via Gladstone Gallery unless otherwise noted

Currently on view at Gladstone Gallery, 530 West 21th street, is a new installation by Banks Violette, a renowned New York Minimalist and conceptual artist. Appropriately untitled, the installation encompasses Violette’s signature use of replaceable materials, monochromatic palette and the openness to myriads of interpretations.  The centerpiece of the installation is a large chandelier made of multiple fluorescent tubes . Wires fall in a cascade alongside the chandelier while the apparatus of steel tubes and sandbags supporting the wall remain in plain sight. By exposing these technical banalities, the artist probably seeks to reveal the theatrical and artificial essence of his oeuvre, in which he heavily draws on the legacy of Conceptual sculptors Donald Judd and Dan Flavin. The installation is organized in collaboration with Team Gallery and is on view until April, 17.
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Installation view of Alighiero e Boetti’s ‘Mappa’ at Gladstone Gallery

Currently on view at Gladstone Gallery’s West 21st Street location is ‘Alighiero e Boetti: Mappa.’ The exhibition is the first retrospective of the Italian artist’s series of hand-woven carpets that depict world maps. Boetti initiated the series in 1969 with a hand-drawn prototype, coloring in each country with its flag. After a visit to Afghanistan two years later, he commissioned a group of women to weave flags until the artist’s death in 1994. Each map typically took one to two years to complete, though the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 halted production for three years and only a few maps were made between 1982-85.

One of the Afghan women Alighiero e Boetti comissioned to weave his ‘Mappa’ series via Gladstone Gallery

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Carroll Dunham’s ‘New Time Storm’ via Gladstone Gallery

Currently on view at Gladstone Gallery is an exhibition of new paintings by Carrroll Dunham. Over the past several years, much of Dunham’s work has focused on an iconic male character – often wielding a gun and baring his genitalia – set in flat abstraction. These paintings represent a shift in the gender of the main character, but also a move towards richer landscapes. Returning to a familiar motif of trees, Dunham places a nude female figure in a garden, a playfully exposed Eve alone amongst cartoonish trees and cacti, occasionally bathing, her ass stuck out, breasts hanging down, pubic and underarm hair spiraling wildly.

Installation view of Carroll Dunham’s exhibition at Gladstone Gallery

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Elizabeth Peyton, “Brandon Flowers” (2009) Via Gladstone Gallery.

Currently on exhibit at Gladstone Gallery in Brussels is an exhibition of new work by Elizabeth Peyton.  The show, which reveals a continuation of Peyton’s focus on personal and stylized portraiture, encompasses a group of works on paper and employs a variety of mediums– water colors, colored pencil and  pastel pencil. The depicted subjects in Peyton’s new body of work range from historical figures like Napoleon and Cezanne’s “Madea” to portraits of contemporary artists such as Klara Liden and Rirkrit Tiravanija.

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Installation view of Matthew Barney’s ‘Ancient Evenings: Libretto’ via Gladstone Gallery

On view now at Gladstone Gallery in Brussels is Matthew Barney’s ‘Ancient Evenings: Libretto,’ a series of drawings from the seven act opera that Barney is developing with Berlin-based composer Jonathan Bepler.  The opera is based on Norman Mailer’s novel Ancient Evenings, set in ancient Egypt chronicling the journeys of the dead, reincarnation, and the gods. The opera follows the seven stages the soul passes through after bodily death according to Egyptian mythology.  Barney replaces the human body with that of the 1967 Chrysler Imperial that figured heavily in his film Cremaster 3, displacing the ancient mythic landscape of the Nile and pyramids for an industrial contemporary setting.  The exhibition includes very detailed drawings of characters in the opera as well as a number of copies of Mailer’s book which Barney has reworked.

Matthew Barney – Ancient Evenings: Libretto [Gladstone Gallery]
Matthew Barney – Ancient Evenings: Libretto [Look Into My Owl]
Ren Master [Interview]

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The New Museum – which is to soon launch its new Triennial via WorldArchitectureNews

The New Museum announces its list of  fifty artists for “The Generational” aka “Younger than Jesus” [ArtDaily]
Sam Taylor-Wood on herself, rats, and her newest work [GuardianUK]
After this week’s auctions, the FT declares the art auction market still has a pulse [Financial Times]
A thoughtful look into Elizabeth Peyton’s enigmatic portraits [Wall Street Journal]

Shepard Fairey via LATaco

Shepard Fairey encounters copyright issues concerning his iconic campaign imagery [BBC] and, separately, is arrested in Boston for outstanding tagging violations while en route to DJ the opening party for his exhibit [Boston Globe]
Though Gladstone Gallery’s pension was on the list of Madoff clients, funds were pulled before major losses were sustained [Bloomberg]
A few of the lady’s at Christie’s stay optimistic amidst the new austerity [NYTimes]

Anish Kapoor Blood Stick (2008) via erikjsommer

Gladstone Gallery is currently exhibiting new work by the sculptor Anish Kapoor at both its 24th Street and 21st Street locations.  The exhibition is the first at Gladstone’s new gallery space on 21st street.  Kapoor uses divergent materials such as stainless steel and vibrant colored dyed wax to make his work, always placing a premium on the viewer’s interaction with the sculpture.

Anish Kapoor [Gladstone Gallery]
Interview with Anish Kapoor [Bloomberg]

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