Mark Leckey, GreenScreenVegetables (2011), all images courtesy Untitled, New York
Currently on view at Untitled, located at 30 Orchard Street in New York, is a group exhibition of work by both emerging and well-known artists surrounding themes of decontextualization and absence. The show will be on view through August 2nd, 2014.
A Machinery for Living at the Petzel Gallery, installation view, via Art Observed
On view at Petzel Gallery is a group exhibition organized by Walead Beshty entitled “A Machinery for Living.” Composed of over 100 photographs, drawings, paintings, sculptural and installation works, the exhibition approaches a concept of embracing the subversive within everyday life.
Stephen Prina, Detail of Monochrome Painting: A Posterior Prototype: Average Size (1994), all images courtesy Patrick Painter
Patrick Painter Gallery in Los Angeles is currently hosting an impressively selected group show, culling artists from the past 30 years of practice entitled Titans of the Stratosphere, and featuring six artists: Rodney Graham, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Stephen Prina, Christopher Wool, and Andrea Zittel.
Roman Signer, Flasche (Bottle) (2007)
The summer season means a few things for the art world: beach installations, special projects in the Hamptons, and of course, group shows. During the hot summer months many galleries are presenting selections of works by different artists through various thematic ideas, giving gallery goers the opportunity to discover new readings between different artists’ works. Among these galleries is Koenig & Clinton, hosting Fixing a Hole, a group exhibition investigating the notion of “fixing” in both meanings: mending what is broken and securing what is unstable. The tightly-curated selection focuses on a niche concept, making the occasionally challenging group show tradition an appealing one. Works in various mediums articulate the instincts of correction and stabilization of a dysfunctional case, arguing for the sensation of readjustment. (more…)
Eddie Martinez, Untitled (2013), via Art Observed
Based in Williamsburg, The Journal has carved out a unique path for itself in the contemporary discourse, representing a group of young artists that share a particular interest in the capacity for intersections of painting, printmaking, and conceptual practice. Sharing techniques rooted in repetition, abstracted figuration, humor, and an occasionally visceral approach to the painterly mark, the artists embraced by The Journal have come to represent a markedly cohesive school of practice in New York over the past years. (more…)
Josh Kolbo, Untitled (2013), all photos via Emily Heinz for Art Observed
There was a vibrant buzz around Hauser & Wirth in Chelsea as one of the gallery’s smaller exhibition space filled in for the opening of the group show Fixed Variable, featuring the work of Lucas Blalock, Ethan Greenbaum, John Houck, Matt Keegan, Josh Kolbo, Kate Steciw, Chris Wiley and Letha Wilson, and examining the relationship between the nature of the photograph, the nature of the object, and the intersection between the two.
Martin Kippenberger, ab in die Ecke und Schäm Dich (Martin, Into the Corner, You Should be Ashamed of Yourself) (1989) via Osman Can Yerebakan
Paris was where the artists that planted the roots of Modernism in late 19th century. New York on the other hand emerged in the middle of 20th century as the destination for a large group of international artists as well as those from all around the United States who expanded notions of material and practice as the 20th century waned. Today, cities like Berlin, Tokyo and Sao Paulo are some of the top centers for artists to create and be a part of a community. No Problem: Cologne/New York 1984-1989, a group show currently on view at David Zwirner, is presenting a transatlantic approach to the 80’s art scene through the works of twenty-two artists from Germany and the United States. Underlying the dense creative vibrance of Cologne on one side of the Atlantic and New York on the other side, the exhibition presents a concentrated look at the productive interaction between the two cities, bringing together notable names that shaped the artistic nature of the era. (more…)
Frances Stark (Installation View), via Art Observed
Currently on view at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York is an exhibition featuring new work from Jennifer Bornstein, Judith Bernstein and Frances Stark. While the work presented by each of these three artists is diverse in their concerns, they all possess a monumentality fitting to the large-scale environs of GBE.
Judith Bernstein via Art Observed (more…)
Dan Graham, Slice (2013), via Art Observed
It’s been some time since Marian Goodman has hosted solo exhibitions in New York by Dan Graham, Giuseppe Penone, Danh Vo or Jeff Wall, and the gallery seems to have noticed, opening a four-artist show with a considerable amount of new work from each of the aforementioned, offering a welcome opportunity to catch up on the recent work of these significant artists.
Jeff Wall, Monologue (2013), via Art Observed (more…)
YaÅŸam ÅžaÅŸmazer, via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed
The winter conditions in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul often border on excessive damp and gloom, but the coastal city’s burgeoning art scene maintains the city’s status as a location for adventurous art-lovers year-round, particularly given the strength of several shows currently on view across the city. Mostly located around the Taksim area of the city, art spaces in Istanbul have been popping up at a remarkable pace, marking the city as a destination for the global art cognoscenti, while introducing young Turkish artists to the wider market. (more…)
Oldenburg and van Bruggen, Study, Soft Shuttlecock (1994). All Images Courtesy The Pace Gallery.
Now through February 22, Pace Gallery‘s 534 W. 25th Street location is hosting “Grounded”, an exhibition featuring floor-based sculpture by major figures in contemporary art. The show contains work produced from 1967 to 2013 that invite the viewers to experience a new perspective on sculptural forms. The artists that contribute to this show include works by Carl Andre, John Chamberlain, Tara Donovan, Tom Friedman, Tim Hawkinson, Maya Lin and others, focusing on the spatial interactions between art, the ground, and the viewer’s perception. (more…)
Ahead of an upcoming show at Tate Britain, featuring a group of five British painters under fifty, Chris Ofili and Simon Ling sat down with the Financial Times to discuss their personal styles, the act of painting, and their inspirations from the streets of London. “Well, this is about the city’s lack of aspiration.” Says Ling during the interview, considering a fragmented canvas. “The lack of planning and failure, where the city is almost like a tectonic construction, a weird jumble.” (more…)
Matthew Stone, Unconditional Commitment to Sacred Love (2011) via Ben Richards for Art Observed
Dustin Yellin’s Pioneer Works Center is open again in Red Hook, with a series of exhibitions, concerts and events that have trumpeted the space’s return after the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. At the forefront of the Center’s fall calendar is Amor Fati, a tightly curated group exhibition featuring works by Yoko Ono, Angel Otero, Nicolas Provost, Matthew Stone, Mickalene Thomas, Nick van Woert, Andy Warhol, and many more, which seeks to explore the wild emotions and impulses so often present in the artistic treatment of love.
John Miserendino, Funny Games Pavilion (2012), foreground, and Andy Warhol, Kiss (1963), background, via Ben Richards for Art Observed
Conrad Shawcross, ADA (2013), Courtesy Palais de Tokyo
On view at Palais de Tokyo in Paris is a major exhibition, organized by 21 young curators from 13 different countries, who were in turn selected from a candidate pool of 500. Nouvelles Vagues occupies all of Palais de Tokyo’s exhibition space as well as around 30 galleries throughout Paris. (more…)
Haroon Mirza, Frame for a Painting (2013), Courtesy Museum of Modern Art
As is to be expected, MoMA’s first survey into the field of sound art starts with a certain degree of theatricality: 1,500 individually micro-tuned speakers sit on the wall on the way into the exhibition space, filling the space with a sharp white hiss. Shifting slightly with each change of position, Tristan Perich’s Microtonal Wall welcomes a lingering meditation, as viewers pace back and forth, moving their heads up and down close to the speakers or far away, the variance in intensity opening the space around it to any number of perceptual opportunities.
Richard Garet, Before Me, (2012), Courtesy the artist and Julian Navarro Projects, New York (more…)
Akio Suzuki, Ku (detail) (2012), via Lisa Cooley
The field of sound art, as trumpeted by the New York Times and the Museum of Modern Art, is currently emerging into the mainstream dialogues of the high art world, exposing what was once seen as a relatively underground practice to the milling crowds of major museums. Even so, with that sort of focus placed on the medium, a new level of critique, or rather, a reassessment of the techniques, practices and processes inherent in the creation of sound art.
The String and The Mirror (Installation View), via Lisa Cooley (more…)
Gilbert & George, We Are (1985), courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
On view at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in both of its Salzburg locations (Villa Kast and Halle) is “30 Years,” an exhibition of works intended to be both “retrospective and prospective” of the gallery’s own history and future. Presenting a series of works by artists who have passed through the lens of Ropac’s thorough gallery practice, the show is at turns a celebration and forecast of what’s to come for the expanding gallery brand.
Rachel Harrison, Coffee Cart (2013), Courtesy of the Artist and Greene Naftali, New York
Currently on view at Matthew Marks Gallery in the Chelsea district of New York is an exhibition organized by American painter Terry Winters. Titled “Roving Signs,” the group of works made by a variety of artists reflects Winters’ interest in traditional American folktales and the cultural heritage of the United States, as well as the various semiotic interpretations and variations that the use of these symbolic images and stories holds in contemporary art.
The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Autotechnogeoglyphics: Vehicular Test Tracks in America (2006), Courtesy CLUI Archive, Los Angeles
Dan Colen, To Be Titled (2011), via New York Times
Snarky and straightforward, the press release for Zach Feuer and UNTITLED’s joint g roup show Jew York speaks with a hint of exasperation, a feeling of exhaustion over the bumper crop of cultural explorations and increasingly globalized scope of the contemporary art world: “There’s nobody left to survey, and nowhere left to do it. So we figured our only option was to do a show of Jews, and do it in New York.” (more…)
Alfred Jensen, Twelve Events in a Dual Universe (1978) ©ARS, NY and DACS, London 2013, Photo: Linda Nylind, Courtesy Hayward Gallery
Currently on view at the Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre in London is a new exhibition of work entitled Alternative Guide to the Universe, a compilation of works by artists who taught themselves their crafts, focusing on work that offers a new perspective on our socially accepted conventions of artistic practice and cultural perception.
Lee Godie. Lee and Cameo on a chair… (early to mid 1970s), © the artist, Courtesy Richard and Ellen Sandor Family Collection
Andy Ralph, Manifold Destiny (2013), via L&M Arts
L&M Arts’ current exhibition, Neo Povera, presents a group of works in the spirit of the 1960’s Arte Povera movement, meant to exist purely in and of their own material while pushing the boundaries of acceptable art. The Arte Povera movement attempted to strip symbolic implications from an object, leaving only the true material, thus making art that is unassuming, present, undivided from reality, minimal in material cost, and devoid of signifiers. At its conception, the group of Italian artists brought together by Germano Celant intended to dissolve the boundary between elite art and a common experience.
Neo-Povera (Installation View), via L&M Arts (more…)
Vanity Fair Magazine sat down with curator and dealer Vito Schnabel (son of artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel), to talk about finding his way into the art world, his recently opened group show “White Collar Crimes” at Acquavella Galleries, and his practice as a curator: “It’s very personal; it’s just what I like and what I’m drawn to and what I get enthusiastic or excited about, and what I feel like working with or putting my time into.” (more…)
Carte Blanche (Installation View), courtesy Galerie Seguin and Paula Cooper Gallery
Each year, Galerie Patrick Seguin in Paris opens its doors to international galleries of note from the United States, Europe, and the rest of the world. With no limits or constraints placed upon the guest curators, “Carte Blanche” allows a broad international audience exposure not only to great works from around the world, but also a taste of the various curatorial approaches and personal idioms of each invited gallery.
Bruce Conner – CROSSROADS (1976), courtesy Galerie Seguin and Paula Cooper Gallery
This year, the invitation was extended to Paula Cooper Gallery in New York City, who chose a selection of artists from their early years as the first art gallery in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan. First opened in 1968, the gallery has continued to grow with its hometown, now recognized as one of the premier art spaces in the city.
Chris Martin, Untitled (2012), via The Journal Gallery, New York
The Journal Gallery has organized a summer group show whose impact exceeds the expectations of such a reference. Home Again, Again features nine distinctive contemporary works which, crowded together in the tiny Williamsburg space, form another, unique whole. In a lovingly critical homage to art after 1950 – from the Greenbergian picture plane to the strigency of minimalism – the works on view here are flat, angular, and imposing. Yet, their initial starkness is deliberately thwarted by their use of material and content, offering a lively contemporary perspective on the legacy of postwar American art. (more…)
