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LVH Guide to Art Basel Week
To make the most of your experience during Art Basel week, LVH Art has curated a guide of the best institutional exhibitions and gallery shows taking place this week.
The highlight, and what brings everyone to Basel of course is Art Basel, where you’ll be welcomed at Messeplatz by Katharina Grosse’s vibrant installation, which transforms the plaza with bold sprays of colour in her iconic spray paint style. The cover image shows the artist at work on one of her signature large-scale installations.
About this commission the artist has said, “It’s the first time that a painter has been invited to take over the 53,800-square-foot Messeplatz. The challenge with that piece is that I have to be up to that scale. My movement determines how the place is being perceived. The spray gun will help me expand my reach. With this tool, I can paint endlessly… Fair-goers are transient. Once they step into the Messeplatz, they will become part of the work. I really want to create a painting that is almost like a threshold between reality and fiction. It is a membrane: you can walk through it, step out of it at any time, or stay in it as much as you want.”
When you are at Art Basel make sure not to miss the Unlimited section. Unlimited is Art Basel’s platform for large-scale projects that defy the limits of standard art fair booths. Spanning 16,000 square meters, it features monumental installations, immersive video works, large sculptures, performances, and site-specific creations. Curated by Giovanni Carmine and selected by the Basel Selection Committee.
We also recommend Liste Art Fair, founded in 1996 as “The Young Art Fair in Basel.” It is a premier international platform for discovering new voices in contemporary art, showcasing emerging galleries and artists at the forefront of current artistic trends.
Julian Charrière: Midnight Zone
At Museum Tinguely
11 June – 2 November 2025
The comprehensive solo exhibition at Museum Tinguely showcases photographs, sculptures, installations, and new video works that explore our relationship with Earth as a watery world—a vast liquidity that envelops much of the planet through seas, lakes, and ice. These waters serve as habitats for countless organisms and sustain circulatory systems essential to climate stability. Spanning three floors, Midnight Zone delves into underwater ecologies, from the locally significant Rhine to distant oceans, examining the intricate dynamics of water as a vital element increasingly impacted by human activity.
“Water is not a landscape—it is the condition of all life, the first skin of the Earth, the medium of our becoming.” – Julian Charrière
Jordan Wolfson: Little Room
At Fondation Beyeler
1 June – 3 August 2025
The Fondation Beyeler is proud to present Little Room, a new virtual reality (VR) installation by American artist Jordan Wolfson, premiering for the first time at the museum. This immersive work invites visitors into an experimental environment where they actively participate in the evolving experience. Upon entering, visitors are paired either with a companion of their choice or a stranger. Following an individual 3D full-body scan, they are transported into a virtual space where each participant perceives themselves through the body of the other, resulting in progressively surreal and disorienting physical and spatial distortions.
Presentation of the Collection
At Fondation Beyeler
25 May – 31 August 2025
Fondation Beyeler will show a presentation of its collection focussing exclusively on painting. Rooms devoted to individual artists feature works that have left a distinct imprint on this traditional medium and opened up new perspectives. A special highlight is the museum debut of Gerhard Richter’s digital projection Moving Picture (946-3), Kyoto Version, 2019–2024. This year’s Daros room at the Fondation Beyeler is devoted to Mark Bradford. The display further features Andy Warhol’s monumental painting Sixty Last Suppers, 1986, on loan from the Nicola Erni Collection. Another focus is placed on Pablo Picasso, with a comprehensive gathering of more than 30 paintings and sculpture.
Vija Celmins
At Fondation Beyeler
15 June – 21 September 2025
The Fondation Beyeler will present a comprehensive solo exhibition dedicated to the artist Vija Celmins. Celmins’ visual language is both nuanced and compelling. Early in her career, she focused on everyday objects as well as scenes depicting disaster and war. Over time, her attention shifted to the intricate surfaces of spider webs, oceans, and deserts, and more recently to the night sky and distant galaxies. Her works resist a fleeting glance, revealing a captivating beauty that balances intimacy with detachment upon closer engagement. This exhibition marks the most significant presentation of Celmins’ work in Europe in nearly two decades.
Steve McQueen: Bass
At Schaulager
15 June – 16 November 2025
At The Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager will present Bass (2024), one of Steve McQueen’s most recent and notably his most abstract work to date. Created in close dialogue with Schaulager’s architecture, Bass draws inspiration from McQueen’s deep exploration of how light, color, and sound influence our physical perception of space and time.
“What I love about light and sound is that they are both created through movement and fluidity. They can be molded into any shape, like vapor or a scent; they can sneak into any nook and cranny. I also love the beginning point where something isn’t a form as much as it is all-encompassing.” – Steve McQueen, 2025
Dala Nasser Xíloma. MCCCLXXXVI
At Kunsthalle Basel
16 May – 10 August 2025
Dala Nasser’s practice explores abstraction and alternative modes of image-making. While integrating sound, performance, and film, she remains fundamentally a painter, engaging deeply with the medium’s essential materials—fabric, pigments, stretcher bars, and lines. Her indexical paintings of land, created through direct contact on site, contrast sharply with the expansive vistas typical of traditional landscape painting. For her debut exhibition in Switzerland at Kunsthalle Basel, Nasser envisions a reconstruction of the Byzantine church of Kabr Hiram in Qana, Lebanon—a site that no longer exists within an inaccessible landscape. As part of this project, she experiments for the first time with cyanotype-treated fabrics, bringing lost spaces into tangible form.
Medardo Rosso- Inventing Modern Sculpture
At Kunstmuseum Basel
20 March – 10 August 2025
Sculptor, photographer, and master of artistic staging, rival to Auguste Rodin and a role model for numerous artists: around 1900, Medardo Rosso (1858 in Turin, Italy–1928 in Milan, Italy) revolutionized sculpture. The exhibition, which was produced in cooperation with the mumok (Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien) and co-curated by Heike Eipeldauer and Elena Filipovic, helps visitors understand Rosso’s radical explorations of form (and its undoing), material, and technique across media. The extraordinary and lasting impact of his œuvre is revealed by encounters with works by over sixty artists from the past one hundred years including Lynda Benglis, Constantin Brâncuși, Edgar Degas, David Hammons, Eva Hesse, Meret Oppenheim, Auguste Rodin, and Alina Szapocznikow.
Meret Oppenheim
At Hauser & Wirth
4 June – 19 July 2025
An artist of powerful originality and singular vision, the German-born Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim (1913 – 1985) remains one of the most dynamic figures of 20th-century art. Despite being affiliated with some of the most influential art movements of the 20th Century, including Surrealism and Dada, Oppenheim defied categorization. Her wide-ranging, boundary-breaking practice will be showcased this June in an exhibition spanning painting, drawing, sculpture and design.
“I simply always did what I felt like doing, anything else wouldn’t agree with the way I work, committing to a particular style would’ve bored me to death.” – Meret Oppenheim
Ella Kruglyanskaya – Backgrounds
At Contemporary Fine Arts
17 June – 2 August 2025
Ella Kruglyanskaya is a contemporary Latvian painter recognized for her bold, stylized portrayals of female figures engaged in dynamic, often theatrical scenes. Her work critically engages with historical tropes of Western painting, particularly the representation of the female form, reinterpreting and updating these conventions through a distinctly contemporary lens. Drawing influence from a range of sources—including Philip Guston as well as mid-20th century fashion and film posters—Kruglyanskaya integrates humor as a central element in her practice.
Humor is really important in my work. Also humor is a very modern feature of art,” Kruglyanskaya has explained. “There is something quite modern in this attitude that we don’t take ourselves so seriously.”
Ian Hamilton Finlay: Fragments
At Stampa Gallery
08 May – 16 August 2025
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of IAN HAMILTON FINLAY’s birth (1925–2006), STAMPA presents FRAGMENTS, an exhibition dedicated to the renowned Scottish artist, poet, and founder of the iconic artists’ garden Little Sparta. A leading figure in British Concrete Poetry, Finlay revitalized classical traditions through a multidisciplinary practice that explored poetry, history, and natural philosophy. His work celebrated the enduring power of language by giving it both artistic dimension and tangible form—poetically embedding words into the fabric of the world.
The original Signale exhibition, held 60 years ago, was dedicated to a form of painting often referred to as “hard-edged”—primarily large-format, geometric abstraction. It brought together works by prominent American artists such as Kenneth Noland, Al Held, Jules Olitski, and Ellsworth Kelly, alongside those of lesser-known European painters like Hansjörg Mattmüller, Georg Karl Pfahler, John Plumb, and William Turnbull. This curatorial strategy—placing celebrated figures in dialogue with less familiar counterparts—was one also employed by Harald Szeemann, the protégé and eventual successor of curator Arnold Rüdlinger in Bern.
Now, in 2025, Galerie Mueller revisits this influential moment in art history with Signals, marking the 60th anniversary of the original exhibition. The new show brings together works by Swiss artists Theodor Bally and Luigi Lurati, German painter Georg Karl Pfahler, and American artists Al Held, Kenneth Noland, and Jules Olitski. Through Signals, Galerie Mueller continues its investigation into the transatlantic dialogue in postwar abstraction, shedding new light on the artistic conversations that shaped modern art.
The exhibition is set within Basel’s private airport, Air Service Basel, and extends throughout the entire facility. Artworks are thoughtfully integrated into the airport’s existing spaces—including hangars, offices, waiting rooms, private lounges, and even the basement—creating a dynamic dialogue between the environment and the art on display.
What Not to Miss in New York City this May
May in New York City brings an almost endless lineup of auctions, fairs, and exhibitions. To help you navigate it all, LVH Art has curated a tailored guide of the must-see galleries, museum exhibitions and art fairs. From solo exhibitions to immersive installations, this list highlights the very best of the city’s art scene!
FAIRS
Frieze New York
May 7–11 | frieze.com
Frieze New York, led by Christine Messineo as director, brings together the world’s leading galleries at The Shed. This year’s Focus section—highlighting solo presentations by emerging galleries—will be curated by Lumi Tan, acclaimed for her work as senior curator at The Kitchen in New York. The fair presents a dynamic opportunity to explore rising talent and engage with influential figures from art history. It’s an expansive experience—and the perfect starting point for inspiration.
TEFAF New York
May 9–13 | tefaf.com
TEFAF New York returns for its tenth edition at the iconic Park Avenue Armory, uniting the world’s premier art dealers to present an extraordinary array of works. While the fair includes a strong focus on modern and contemporary art, it also distinguishes itself with exceptional offerings in jewellery, antiques, and design. TEFAF always offers an exceptional lineup of dealers and galleries specialising in Old Masters and fine antiques. And yes, get ready for an abundance of flower photos.
NADA New York
May 7–11 | newartdealers.org
NADA New York 2025, organised by the New Art Dealers Alliance, will feature 120 galleries, art spaces, and non-profits from across the globe. Renowned for its focus on emerging artists and rising galleries, the fair offers a vibrant, social atmosphere that encourages discovery and dialogue. Highlights include NADA Presents—the organization’s signature series of talks, performances, and events—and the return of the TD Bank Curated Spotlight, which this year will shine a light on artists and galleries from Texas and Mexico.
Independent Art Fair
May 8–11 | independenthq.com
The Independent Art Fair stands apart for its more curated approach. It presents two main events—Independent and Independent 20th Century—alongside a range of editorial projects, exhibitions, and programming. Participation in the fair’s show section is by invitation only, with galleries selected to ensure a high level of curatorial excellence. This year’s edition will be held at Spring Studios in Tribeca.
Esther
May 6–10 | https://esther.ee/
Esther II, the second edition of the alternative art fair founded by Margot Samel and Olga Temnikova, returns to New York’s historic Estonia House. Known for spotlighting galleries with Northern and Eastern European roots, this year’s fair will feature 25 participants and offer a collaborative, community-driven experience with fresh voices, and intimate programming. Unlike traditional art fairs, Esther feels more like an exhibition—the artworks are installed directly onto the venue’s original wood-paneled walls, forgoing high ceilings and temporary structures in favor of warmth and character.
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
May 8–11 | 1-54.org
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair returns to New York, featuring a curated selection of contemporary works by emerging and established artists from Africa and its diaspora, along with tailored programming in collaboration with leading institutions.
INSTITUTIONAL EXHIBITIONS
Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
April 18 – Jan 18, 2026 | Guggenheim.org
This major solo exhibition features nearly 90 works by artist Rashid Johnson. It spans black-soap paintings, spray-painted text, sculptures, and multimedia pieces. Johnson draws from history, philosophy, literature, and music, positioning himself as both a scholar and a creative force in contemporary art.
Hilma af Klint. Luzula campestris (Field Woodrush), Viola hirta (Hairy Violet)…. Sheet 4 from the portfolio Nature Studies. May 9–15, 1919. Watercolor, pencil, and ink on paper, 49.9 × 26.9 cm. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art website.
Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers, Museum of Modern Art
May 11–Sept. 27, 2025 | MoMA.org
The Museum of Modern Art presents a new exhibition featuring MoMA’s recent acquisition of 46 botanical drawings by Swedish artist Hilma af Klint. The works explore her distinctive blend of abstraction and detailed botanical studies, offering a deeper look at how nature can reveal hidden truths about the human condition.
Amy Sherald: American Sublime, Whitney Museum of American Art
April 9 – Aug 10, 2025 | Whitney.org
This exhibition features a striking billboard across from the Museum’s entrance on Gansevoort Street, showcasing Amy Sherald’s evocative paintings of everyday Black Americans. Through her carefully crafted portraits, Sherald challenges traditional narratives, celebrating the complexity and individuality of her subjects while highlighting the omission of Black figures from art history, offering a new vision of American Realism.
Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective, MoMA
Oct 19 – Feb 7, 2026 | MoMA.org
Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective at MoMA explores over six decades of the artist’s work, featuring approximately 300 pieces across various mediums, including wire sculpture, bronze casts, drawings, and public commissions. This first posthumous survey celebrates Asawa’s innovative approach to materials and forms, highlighting her unique ability to transform simple materials into profound subjects of contemplation, while emphasising her deep commitment to community and arts education.
Sam Moyer: Woman with Holes, Hill art foundation
May 1 – Aug 1, 2025 | Hillartfoundation.org
Woman with Holes, opening May 1, 2025, at the Hill Art Foundation, presents a survey of Sam Moyer’s work alongside pieces from the Hill Collection, exploring abstraction as dream logic through unexpected material pairings and dramatic scale shifts. The exhibition invites viewers to engage with the tension between the familiar and the uncanny, featuring Moyer’s stone paintings, hand-papermaking works, and sculptures, alongside works by artists like Robert Gober, Jasper Johns, and Isamu Noguchi.
Chamberlain Goes Outdoors, in front of The Rockefeller Center
April 16 – May 30, 2025 | Rockerfellercenter.com
Chamberlain Goes Outdoors at Rockefeller Center features three large-scale sculptures by John Chamberlain, including the debut of BALMYWISECRACK (Copper) in the U.S. Presented by Mnuchin Gallery. This installation offers a rare opportunity to experience Chamberlain’s final works in one of New York’s most iconic public spaces, alongside an exhibition of smaller sculptures at Christie’s and a new book release at McNally Jackson.
The Genesis Facade Commission: Lee Bul, Long Tail Halo, The MET
Through June 10, 2025 | Metmuseum.org
South Korean artist Lee Bul transformed the iconic niches of The Met’s Fifth Avenue facade with four new sculptures that blend classical and contemporary elements, exploring themes of history, memory, and the ambiguous relationship between the body, machinery, and architecture. This commission marks Lee’s first major U.S. project in over twenty years, continuing The Met’s series of contemporary works that engage in dialogue with the Museum’s collection, architecture, and audience.
The Frick Collection
Reopened April 17, 2025 | Frick.org
The Frick Collection reopened on April 17, 2025, after a multi-year renovation that enhanced its historic Fifth Avenue home, adding new galleries, special exhibition spaces, and educational facilities, all while preserving the museum’s iconic charm. This comprehensive upgrade marked the first major transformation since the Frick’s opening in 1935, offering visitors a refreshed experience of its renowned collection and a slate of exciting new programs and exhibitions.
Commercial Gallery Exhibitions
Willem de Kooning: Endless Painting at Gagosian
The show delves into the artist’s ongoing engagement with the act of painting as an endless pursuit, highlighting de Kooning’s transformative approach to abstraction and figuration. Featuring a selection of iconic works, the exhibition illuminates his innovative process and his continuous exploration of form, movement, and color.
The show runs from April 15 – June 14, 2025.
Picasso: Tête-à-Tête at Gagosian
Picasso: Tête-à-Tête brings together a selection of works that explore the artist’s intimate relationships and their influence on his creative output. The exhibition delves into Picasso’s personal connections, offering insight into the evolving dynamics of his relationships through his art.
The show runs from April 18 – July 3, 2025.
Jim Shaw: Drawings at Gagosian
Jim Shaw: Drawings showcases a series of the artist’s intricate and thought-provoking drawings. The exhibition explores Shaw’s unique approach to surrealism, blending personal narratives with broader cultural references in a distinctive visual language.
The show runs from May 1 – June 14, 2025.
William Kentridge: A Natural History of the Studio at Hauser & Wirth
This exhibition explores the artist’s creative process through a mix of drawings, films, and sculptures. The exhibition highlights the studio as a site of transformation, where personal and historical narratives intertwine.
The show runs from May 1 – July 25, 2025.
Francis Picabia: Eternal Beginning at Hauser & Wirth
This show explores the artist’s radical approach to abstraction and figuration. The exhibition features key works that reflect Picabia’s ongoing investigation into visual language, identity, and the nature of creativity.
The show runs from May 1 – July 25, 2025.
Leiko Ikemura: Talk to the Sky, Seeking Light at Lisson Gallery
This exhibition features a series of works that reflect the artist’s ongoing exploration of the human form and its connection to the natural world. Through painting and sculpture, Ikemura evokes themes of spirituality, transformation, and the search for light.
The show runs from May 1 – August 1, 2025.
Sam Moyer: Subject to Change at Sean Kelly Gallery
Sam Moyer: Subject to Change features a collection of works that examine materiality, transformation, and the passage of time. Moyer’s practice blends abstraction with a deep engagement in texture and surface, creating pieces that evolve and adapt in response to their surroundings.
The show runs from May 2 – June 14, 2025.
Carmen Herrera: The Paris Years: 1948 – 1953 at Lisson Gallery
Carmen Herrera: The Paris Years: 1948 – 1953 focuses on the artist’s early years in Paris, a formative period that influenced her minimalist approach to abstraction. The exhibition highlights key works from this time, revealing Herrera’s exploration of color, form, and geometry.
The show runs from May 1 – August 1, 2025.
Pierre Huyghe: Spirits at Marian Goodman Gallery
This exhibition presents a thought-provoking exploration of life, consciousness, and the intersection of nature and technology. Through a series of immersive works, Huyghe investigates the presence of unseen forces and the fluidity of reality.
The show runs from May 6 – June 21, 2025.
Pablo Picasso: Still Life at Almine Rech
Pablo Picasso: Still Life showcases a selection of the artist’s iconic still life paintings, exploring his innovative approach to form, perspective, and abstraction. The exhibition highlights Picasso’s mastery in transforming everyday objects into complex visual compositions.
The show runs from May 1 – July 18, 2025.
Yu Nishimura: Clearing Unfolds at David Zwirner
The works in this exhibition explore themes of transformation and space, with Nishimura creating intricate, layered compositions that invite contemplation and engagement.
The show runs from April 24 – June 27, 2025.
Tomma Abts at David Zwirner
This solo show showcases a new series of the artist’s meticulously crafted abstract paintings. Known for her innovative use of color, form, and geometry, Abts continues to push the boundaries of abstraction, creating works that invite close, contemplative engagement.
The show runs from May 1 – June 14, 2025.
Michael Armitage: Crucible at David Zwirner
Michael Armitage: Crucible presents a striking series of paintings that explore the complexities of identity, history, and contemporary life. Armitage’s vibrant works are informed by his Kenyan heritage and delve into issues of politics, social upheaval, and personal reflection.
The show runs from May 8 – June 27, 2025.
Circa 1995: New Figuration in New York at David
The exhibition features eight generation-defining artists who played a central role in the resurgence and expansion of figurative painting during the 1990s: John Currin, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Chris Ofili, Laura Owens, Elizabeth Peyton, Luc Tuymans, and Lisa Yuskavage.
The show runs from May 7 – July 17, 2025.
The Making of Modern Korean Art: The Letters of Kim Tschang-Yeul, Kim Whanki, Lee Ufan, and Park Seo-Bo, 1961–1982 at Tim Kim
This exhibition offers an insightful look into the personal correspondences of these influential Korean artists. Through their letters, the exhibition traces the evolution of modern Korean art, revealing the intellectual and creative exchange that shaped their groundbreaking work.
The show runs from May 5 – June 21, 2025.
Louise Giovanelli at Grimm
At Grimm in New York, Louise Giovanelli presents a captivating series of paintings that explore the intersections of abstraction and figuration. Giovanelli’s works blend traditional techniques with contemporary themes, creating pieces that invite viewers to reconsider the boundaries of representation and perception.
The show runs from May 9 – June 21, 2025.
Malick Sidibé: Regardez-moi at Jack Shainman
At Jack Shainman in New York, Malick Sidibé: Regardez-moi showcases a selection of the renowned Malian photographer’s iconic portraits. Sidibé’s intimate and vibrant images capture the spirit of youth and life in Bamako, reflecting both personal identity and broader social change in post-independence Mali.
The show runs from April 17 – May 31, 2025.
Timothy Lai: Still. Yet. Still. at Jack Barrett, New York
Timothy Lai: Still. Yet. Still. features a series of works that explore the subtle tensions between stasis and movement. Lai’s intricate pieces invite reflection on the passage of time, offering a meditative space where stillness and change coexist.
The show runs from April 4 – May 10, 2025.
Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales at Pace
At Pace in New York, Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales presents an exploration of time, perception, and the universe through a series of sculptural works. Kwade’s intricate installations invite viewers to question the nature of reality, as she delves into philosophical and scientific themes with a unique blend of abstraction and symbolism.
The show runs from May 7 – August 15, 2025.
Olivia Jia: Mirror Stage at Margot Samel
At Margot Samel’s gallery, an exhibition featuring Olivia Jia’s work, titled Mirror Stage, is on view. The exhibition delves into themes of identity, self-reflection, and the intersection of personal and collective experiences through Jia’s thought-provoking visual language.
The show runs from April 30 – May 31, 2025.
Salman Toor: Wish Maker at Luhring Augustine Gallery
The paintings in this explore themes of desire, intimacy, and cultural identity, with Toor’s vibrant and emotive works offering a reflection on personal and societal narratives.
The show runs from May 2 – June 21, 2025.
Art & Apres: Ultimate Winter Scene
For decades, the mountains have been more than just a winter escape for skiers; they have served as sanctuaries for artists, collectors, and cultural visionaries.
Artists have long turned to the peaks for inspiration, Gerhard Richter’s Mountain series captures their grandeur with his signature blurred abstraction, while Basquiat’s Engadin valley mountain paintings transform the raw into poetic symbols of struggle. Few have depicted the quiet beauty of snow-covered landscapes as evocatively as Peter Doig, his dreamlike winter scenes feel both otherworldly and familiar. Nowhere is this interplay between art and the alpine more evident than in St. Moritz, where the legendary Gunter Sachs, an icon of the jet set, once installed a Roy Lichtenstein bathtub in his penthouse at Badrutt’s Palace, a bold statement that art and the alpine were meant to coexist. This seamless blending of high culture and high altitude continues today, as ski destinations around the world evolve into vibrant cultural scenes. From design fairs and exhibitions in St. Moritz and Gstaad, to meditative Turrell skyspaces in Austria, we take a look at this winter’s most compelling art experiences.
St. Moritz has long been a refuge for the artists and collectors. This winter, Hauser & Wirth presented a significant exhibition, “Jean-Michel Basquiat. Engadin,” on view until March 29, 2025. The exhibition explores Basquiat’s connection to the Engadin region, showcasing works inspired by his visits to Switzerland and exploring motifs that intertwine the natural and cultural landscapes of the area with the urban energy of New York.
This year marked the 15th edition of the NOMAD fair, blending design, art, and craft as it took over Klinik Gut, a former construction site in St Moritz. NOMAD brought together 40 galleries presenting an eclectic mix and special projects like a Nilufar’s installation with glass designer Christian Pellizzari and a special room created by Lebanese duo david/nicolas for the Italian maison Buccellati. While NOMAD was happening, MAZE Arts also launched the first edition of the Maze Art Fair in St. Moritz, bringing together contemporary galleries for an exhibition of photography and sculpture.
Beyond the galleries, Muzeum Susch, founded by Grazyna Kulczyk, offers an experience unlike any other. Housed in a renovated medieval monastery dating back to 1157, the original buildings were restored, and underground passageways were added, connecting the site according to designs by architects Chasper Schmidlin and Lukas Voellmy.
Nearby The Stable Gallery, a unique minimalist transformed stable by Klainguti + Rainalater SA, is presenting a winter exhibition of Sophie von Hellermann. Her dreamlike whimsical paintings are inspired by her visit in the Engadin valley. The exhibition runs until 12 April 2025.
Local Swiss artist Not Vital, a native of the Engadin Valley, has also shaped the landscape itself into art. His Snow Castle, a sculptural structure built from ice and snow, is a fleeting work that blurs the line between architecture and nature. More permanently, he has transformed the 12th-century Tarasp Castle, which he acquired in 2016, into a space where contemporary interventions meet medieval architecture. Within its historic walls, visitors encounter works that merge sculpture, conceptual design, and the surrounding alpine environment, including the “House to Watch the Sunset,” a 13-meter-high tower designed for quiet contemplation of the valley below.
Villa Flor, a charming bed and breakfast in S-chanf, is hosting an exhibition dedicated to the friendship between Swiss photographer Ernst Scheidegger and sculptor Alberto Giacometti. This intimate setting allows visitors to experience the profound connection between the two artists, offering a unique glimpse into the electrically curated hotel scattered with works by Gio Ponti and Julian Schnabel.
In Zuoz, the Hotel Castell features an extensive art collection, that includes works by Nicolas Party, Lawrence Weiner, and Tadashi Kawamata. The collection also includes a permanent installation by James Turrell called The Skyspace Piz Uter, a walk-in sculpture that offers visitors an immersive experience of light and space, blending art seamlessly with the surrounding alpine environment.
Gstaad, long known for its luxury, is embracing contemporary art with increasing enthusiasm. Gstaad Art Week has become a highlight of the season, with installations and exhibitions appearing throughout the village. Maze fair had its second year in Gstaad, bringing 25 well known galleries to the mountains. Gagosian is leading the charge, presenting exhibitions of Urs Fischer and Rick Lowe, reinforcing the town’s emergence as a serious art destination.
Aspen has long held a dual identity: an elite ski destination and a flair for good taste. The Aspen Art Museum remains at the heart of its creative pulse, with a major winter exhibition by Ugo Rondinone, whose minimalist, poetic installations echo the surrounding landscape. Baldwin Gallery is presenting a show by Erwin Wurm, known for his humor-infused, thought-provoking sculptures. Galerie Maximillian is featuring works by Charles Gaines, McArthur Binion, Stanley Whitney, and Idris Khan. There is also Valley Fine Arts which specializes in Edward Curtis, an American photographer.
In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the rugged beauty of the Tetons dominates every view, art takes on a distinctly regional identity. The National Museum of Wildlife Art, built into the mountainside, holds an extraordinary collection that bridges the past and present, celebrating both the mythology and contemporary interpretations of the American West. Beyond the museum, the town’s galleries continue to bring fresh perspectives to Western themes, blending traditional forms with modern abstraction.
In Lech, Austria nestled in the landscape is Skyspace Lech, a permanent James Turrell installation set high in the mountains. This walk-in light sculpture invites visitors to experience the interplay between sky and colour, shifting with the natural light at sunrise and sunset. The Skyspace, accessed through a tunnel carved into the mountainside, is an extraordinary fusion of art and environment, creating a meditative space where the vastness of the sky feels intimately connected to the land.
While these storied destinations continue to lead the way in merging art and winter culture, the future of ski resorts as creative spaces is being reimagined. A new, highly anticipated ski park in Powder Mountain Utah, backed by Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, is set to become an artistic and architectural landmark, featuring site-specific works by James Turrell and Jenny Holzer. With Turrell’s immersive light installations and Holzer’s conceptual text-based works, this project signals a bold new era where contemporary art and alpine landscapes are seamlessly integrated.
For centuries, the mountains have inspired artists, writers, and collectors, serving as both sanctuary and stage for creative expression. From the Snow Castle of Not Vital to the Lichtenstein bathtub of Gunter Sachs, art in the mountains is embedded within it.
Leading Female Artists with Institutional Solo Shows Ahead
Donna Huanca
B. 1980. Lives and works in Berlin.
ESPEJO QUEMADA
At Marfa Ballroom, Texas, US
Opening June 2021
Curated by Daisy Nam
Donna Huanca will present a series of new work commissioned by Ballroom Marfa in her exhibition ESPEJO QUEMADA. Huanca creates experiential installations that incorporate paintings, sculptures, video, scent and sound. The profound experiences and memories of Huanca’s first visit to Marfa in 2005 inspired the work in the exhibition. The artworks draw on visual, cultural, and mythological cues informed by feminism, decolonialism and the artist’s personal and familial histories, while simultaneously engaging with the biodiversity, geology, and dark skies of Far West Texas. The sky was particularly striking for Huanca–animated with cosmic and extraterrestrial forces while also revealing the natural rhythms of the sun and moon.
ESPEJO QUEMADA, Huanca’s first exhibition since the pandemic, also uses mirrors as formal and metaphorical devices to respond to changing conditions. The title, which translates to “burnt mirror,” alludes to reflections of the current moment; portals to the past and future; and ignitions of combustion and change. Time, touch and embodied experiences are all reconsidered today, especially when viewing artworks, which are now mostly encountered digitally. Huanca further pushes the phenomenological effects in her installations. She works with an amalgam of color, texture, sound, and scent to enliven the senses and create alternative and elongated temporal spaces for contemplation. Shifts in perception are also experienced in Ballroom’s courtyard. The artist displays her first series of outdoor sculptures that use light and temperature sensitive pigment that respond to the climate in Marfa, changing over the course of the exhibition.
Anne Imhof
Born 1978. Lives and works between Paris and Frankfurt.
Carte Blanche: Anne Imhof « Natures Mortes »
At Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Opening April 2021
Curated by Emma Lavigne and Vittoria Matarrese
Palais de Tokyo invited Anne Imhof to realise an exhibition occupying all its spaces in the autumn of 2020, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, the exhibition is finally scheduled to open in April 2021. This project continues a series of Cartes Blanches, beginning with Philippe Parreno in 2013 and followed by Tino Sehgal (2016), Camille Henrot (2017) and Tomàs Saraceno (2018) thereafter. Anne Imhof, whose international recognition includes the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2017, has exhibited at Palais de Tokyo as early as 2015 with DEAL, presented as part of the festival Do Disturb.
With this Carte Blanche, Palais de Tokyo wishes to highlight the amplour and protean character of her practice. For this first large-scale exhibition in France, she will combine performance, painting, music and installation works. This Spring, she will be stripping bare the spaces of Palais de Tokyo while inviting the public to a topographical experience, a spiral descent into the building’s entrails. Anne Imhof will thus open up new perspectives onto the spaces, but also onto her practice, placing it in a broader aesthetic and conceptual tradition, which connects it to other historical and contemporary artists. Her own works will be put into dialogue with pieces by guest artists which will punctuate the show.
For her Carte blanche, Anne Imhof will create effects of resonance and duplication amid an open architectural space, transformed into a vast sonic body and an inhabited labyrinth. She deconstructs the hierarchical systems it embodies so as to generate new images in which the live, visual arts, music and architecture merge.
Shara Hughes
Born 1981. Lives and works in New York.
At YUZ Museum, Shanghai, CN
Opening in 2021, dates TBA
Born 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia. The New York based artist Shara Hughes describes her lush, vibrantly chromatic images of hills, rivers, trees and shorelines, often framed by abstract patterning, as “invented landscapes.” Full of gestural effect, surface tactility and possessing a fairytale mood of reverie, these paintings, as the New Yorker described them, “use every trick in the book to seduce, but still manage to come off as guileless visions of not-so-far-away worlds.” Bold, clashing colours and shifting perspectives manifest into dream-like landscapes that push and pull the eye across the canvas, challenging conventions of space. Rather than depicting true to life landscapes, Hughes invites us into a fantastical world offered as a portal for psychological discovery and reflection.
Located along the West Bund in Xuhui District, Yuz Museum, Shanghai is a non-profit organisation under the umbrella of the Yuz Foundation. The museum strives to promote the exhibition and development of contemporary art and to enhance the public’s understanding and appreciation of contemporary art. The space of Shanghai Yuz Museum was once the hangar of Longhua Airport.
Claudia Comte
Born 1983. Lives and works in Switzerland and Berlin.
After Nature
At Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
Opening May 2021
Curated by Guillermo Solana
The Swiss contemporary artist Claudia Comte is known for her interest in ecological conservation. Her works explore the lifecycle of natural materials, juxtaposing wooden sculptures against graphic wall paintings. This exhibition will bring together a series of sculptures carved with a chainsaw that have been specially commissioned for this event. The artist found the wood from endemic species during her residency at the interdisciplinary and collaborative programme offered by TBA21-Academy and Alligator Head Foundation at their space in Port Antonio (Jamaica).
The works are divided into two groups, the first inspired by coral formations and the second by abstract forms. The first group takes its starting point from the damage being inflicted on coral reefs and aims to express the artist’s concern for the preservation of the oceans. The second group is a continuation of Sculpture Objects, a larger and significant project that Comte began in 2012. It comprises vaguely recognisable figures that refer to works from the modern tradition in a random, humorous way. The installation is completed with mural paintings and a selection of sounds compiled by the musician Egon Elliut and the artist in the waters and forests of Jamaica.
Christina Quarles
Born 1985. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Dance by tha Light of tha Moon
At X Museum, Beijing, China
Opening March 2021
Curated by Cyril Kuizhen Rao
Marking the artist’s first solo exhibition at a major museum in Asia, ‘Christina Quarles: Dance by tha Light of tha Moon’ focuses upon the artist’s long-term exploration of the body. Through a number of paintings created since 2015, it unfolds an artistic narrative on gender, race and queerness. The exhibition is to be echoed with two major solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in the US and the South London Gallery in the UK.
Quarles’s paintings depict the universal experiences of residing in the human body through highly abstracted brushworks: her distorted, fluid portraits reveal the unsettling perception of self and social belonging, in the context of multiple identities and roles. Identifying as a multi-racial queer woman, Quarles draws inspiration from her personal experiences, translating the ambiguity of gender and racial identity into vibrant acrylic works with her highly personal approach to painting.
Sarah Sze
Born 1969. Lives and works in New York.
Fallen Sky
At Storm King Art Center, New York, US
Opening May 2021
Curated by Nora Lawrence
To inaugurate the permanent, site-specific sculpture Fallen Sky by artist Sarah Sze (b. 1969, Boston, US), Storm King will present a new exhibition of the same name. The exhibition will flow from two indoor gallery spaces in Storm King’s 1935 Normandy-style Museum Building out into the landscape beyond, leading the visitor from the exhibition towards an overlook to Storm King’s breathtaking south expanse, and to the site of the 36-foot-round Fallen Sky, framed by the mountains beyond. The exhibition will take landscape as its subject—not a depiction of landscape, but rather a consideration of landscape in varying states—from growth to entropy. In the interior exhibition gallery, Sze will consider landscapes’ ability to extend indoor space into the outdoors. In an exploration of painting’s ability to create and expand walls into portals, Sze will install a large-scale series of wall panels that have been painted, printed, and collaged to create a feeling of recession into deep space. Playing with the physical interpretation of landscape itself, the artist will incorporate the plants used in the landscaping of Fallen Sky, as well as materials and debris from making the permanent work, showing the creative process itself as a system of development and demise. To experience this exhibition is to enter another world.
The sculpture Fallen Sky will consist of a delicate and entropic 36-foot-diameter spherical cavity pressed into the earth and sheathed in mirrored stainless steel. The large scale and shimmering surface of the sculpture will allow it to be seen both up close and from far away across Storm King’s rolling fields. Fallen Sky is Storm King’s first permanent commission in more than a decade, since Maya Lin’s Storm King Wavefield was completed in 2008. Fallen Sky joins a historic series of site-specific commissions for Storm King’s permanent collection, which also includes works by Andy Goldsworthy, Isamu Noguchi, and Richard Serra, among others.
Jade Fadojutimi
Born 1993. Lives and works in London.
At Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
Opening December 2021
This exhibition will mark Fadojutimi’s first solo U.S. museum project. Exploring a complex emotional landscape, Jadé Fadojutimi’s paintings offer an insight into the artist’s quest for identity and self-knowledge. For Fadojutimi, painting is like looking into a windowpane and seeing the reflection of her self, the context in which she lives, and the distorted fusion of these two. Using the canvas as a sounding board, she grapples with memories of everyday experiences, both good and bad. Through this process Fadojutimi examines how her sense of self is constructed so that her paintings communicate forms of emotion which are impossible to convey through language.
In her interrogation of identity, and how it informs and is informed by one’s surroundings, Fadojutimi is fascinated by the ways in which we adorn ourselves with clothes and accessories in order to construct a sense of self. The shapes of patterned stockings and bows, as well as eclectic swatches of fabric, recur in many of her paintings. Outlines of objects that resonate with the artist but often elude the viewer also feature surreptitiously. The artist also reflects on the trauma of feeling displaced or alienated from one’s surroundings. Many of her works depict mysterious landscapes which toe the line between figuration and abstraction, an attempt to create a form of reality which is parallel to but separate from the real world.
The Rise of Mexico City’s Art Scene
Every February, the art world flocks to Mexico City for its annual art week, spearheaded by Zona Maco, the city’s predominant art fair. This year, the fair opens its 20th edition and it is larger than ever before, with 140 participating exhibitors, including leading international galleries, such as Pace. Across the city, three other art and design fairs opened with significant buzz: Material Art Fair, Salón ACME and Unique Design X Mexico City. In this month’s journal we will be taking a closer look at three of the main reasons the city has flourished into one of the key international art hubs in recent years.
The city’s rich history of arts and culture
Mexico City has its own rich history of art, design, food and architecture which have all played a role in its emergence as a leading art hub. Mexico City is known for its vibrant, dynamic architecture, where nature overlaps with man-made buildings. Architects like Luis Barragan and Javier Senosiain have achieved cult status among design lovers. When it comes to artists from Mexico, there’s been no shortage of incredible talent. From historical artists like Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Leonora Carrington, to some of the most prolific living artists, like Gabriel Orozco and Eduardo Terrazas (who will also be participating in this year’s Venice Biennale), the city has played an integral role in defining art history as we know it today.
Innovative galleries and cutting-edge exhibitions
Over the years, some of the most exciting and cutting-edge galleries have emerged out of Mexico City, such as Kurimanzutto and OMR. Kurimanzutto, which was launched in 1999, has helped propel the careers of internationally renowned artists, such as Oscar Murillo, Danh Vo and Sarah Lucas, while also having their pulse on up and coming talent, such as WangShui (the American artist who was featured on our Artists to Watch 2024 list, and who has just been announced as a participant in this year’s Venice Biennale). During the week of Zona Maco, Galeria Mascota debuted a solo-presentation of Emily Kraus, the exciting young painter who has been dominating the emerging London art scene (and also made our Artists to Watch list) – another signal that Mexican galleries are heavily tuned in to the latest trends and artists from around the world.
Prolific collectors in the city
The flourishing art scene of the city has been supported and has grown alongside the devoted collectors that showed an early interest in local and international artists. The quiet Mexican art market of the 90s allowed collectors to acquire large collections of Mexican artists, while continuously exploring the international art scene. Some of the most prominent collectors that should be mentioned are: the founder of the pre-mentioned gallery Kurimanzutto, Monica Manzutto and Jose Kuri, the philanthropist couple Isabel and Augustin Coppel and Eugenio Lopez Alonso, whose collection of over 3000 pieces of contemporary art establish him as one of the most important collectors of our generation. Wanting to make art more accessible to the public he made his dream a reality with the creation of the Foundation and Museum Jumex in 2013 in the very heart of Mexico city. This institution has become one of the most important actors in the establishment of Mexico as one of the new leading capitals of art.
The LVH Guide to Miami Art Week
With Art Basel Miami opening soon, the city is gearing up for an exciting burst of creativity and energy. LVH has curated a special guide highlighting the top galleries and fairs to visit, ensuring an exceptional experience for anyone ready to immerse themselves in the vibrant art scene.
FAIRS
ART BASEL
Art Basel Miami Beach runs from December 6 to 8, with exclusive VIP preview days on December 4 and 5. The fair will take place at the Miami Beach Convention Center. This fair will showcase a wide range of galleries from the Americas and beyond, featuring both emerging and established artists.
NADA
NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) will take place from December 3 to 7 at Ice Palace Studios, offering an alternative platform for international younger, independent galleries and artists to present more innovative contemporary works.
DESIGN MIAMI
Design Miami, runs from December 4 to 8, with exclusive VIP preview days on December 3. The fair is taking place at the Convention Centre Drive and 19th street. The fair focuses on collectible design, showcasing unique furniture, lighting, and art installations that seamlessly blend design with art.
MUSEUMS / PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Miami
ICA will present Marguerite Humeau: sk/ey- — a thought-provoking new exhibition that invites visitors into a world of transformation and cosmic mystery. The title references the ancient, proto-Indo-European term “sk-ey,” meaning to shed or split, evoking a sense of the Earth’s mysterious mutation. Humeau’s work imagines a planet undergoing a radical metamorphosis, where soil peels away from the Earth, evolving into nomadic, airborne beings. The exhibition debuts with a newly commissioned video that unfolds a speculative cosmology, featuring a human-made eternal sun, a vast migration, and the metamorphosis of earthly creatures into rootless, sky-dwelling entities. Complementing the video, Humeau unveils a major new installation that evokes a barren desert landscape. Central to the space are three sculptures, emerging from the ground as if sprung from the soil itself. The artist draws inspiration from art historian Petra Lange-Berndt’s provocative observation that “the soil is full of decomposed bodies,” setting the stage for a haunting, transformative narrative. Marguerite Humeau: sk/ey- will be on view from December 3rd through March 30th, 2025.
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)
PAMM presents José Parlá: Homecoming, a dynamic two-part exhibition that marks a bold departure from traditional museum presentation. The first part of the show offers visitors the rare opportunity to witness Parlá’s signature dance-like painting technique in real time as he creates a site-specific mural, transforming the gallery into a live performance of artistic expression. In the second part, the space is reimagined as Parlá’s personal studio, with paint-covered tables, a curated collection of lively Cuban-inspired vinyl records, and decades of the artist’s archival memorabilia. This immersive environment invites viewers into the world of Parlá’s creative process. Alongside the completed mural and studio installation, the exhibition will showcase a selection of all-new works that mark the artist’s return to painting. José Parlá: Homecoming has been on view since November 14th and will remain on display through July 6th, 2025.
Warehouse (the Margulies Collection)
The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse will present a captivating range of exhibitions, offering a diverse mix of art and installations.
A key exhibition, Conceptual Works 1980s – 2010s, delves into the significance of conceptual art, bringing together works by artists such as Jason Rhoades, Alan Wolfson, Yuichi Higashionna, Peter Coffin, and Matthew McCaslin.
This exhibition has been on view since November 13 and will run through April 26, 2025.
Another standout at The Margulies Collection is the iconic installation 348 West 22nd St. (2003) by Do Ho Suh. This life-sized, walkable sculpture recreates the corridor of Suh’s first apartment in New York City, where he lived in his late twenties after immigrating from South Korea to pursue his artistic career. Known as “Suitcase Homes,” these works are made from lightweight, pink nylon fabric, which makes them portable and installable, reflecting Suh’s own migratory experience. The material, handsewn with the help of traditional Korean seamstresses who also crafted his mother’s kimonos, carries deep personal and cultural significance for the artist. This installation has also been on view since November 13th and will run until April 26th, 2025.
The Bass
The Bass is dedicated to showcasing international contemporary art, with a focus on mid-career and established artists that capture the vibrant spirit and global identity of Miami Beach. The museum is perhaps most famous for its iconic permanent installation of MOUNTAIN (2016) by Ugo Rondinone, located in Collins Park at the corner of 21st Street and Collins Avenue.
One of the highlights currently at The Bass is Rachel Feinstein: The Miami Years, a major retrospective that spans nearly three decades of work by the New York-based artist. This exhibition marks Feinstein’s first major show in her hometown and highlights her multidisciplinary approach to sculpture, including painting, video, performance, and installation. The Miami Years explores themes of intimacy, vulnerability, and abjection, delving into how societal forces shape human behaviour and female identity. This exhibition has been on since September 25th and runs until August 17, 2025.
Rubell Museum
The Rubell Museum invites visitors to explore a newly reinstalled selection of Collection Highlights, featuring key works in painting, sculpture, and installation from the Rubell Family’s extensive collection of over 7,700 pieces.
The museum’s current artist in residence, Vanessa Raw, will debut new works in an exhibition opening on December 2. Raw’s art delves into themes of female identity and sexuality, subverting the male gaze by transforming traditionally male-dominated pornographic imagery. Through bold color and expressive gestures, she reimagines these images—combining her own photographs with appropriated ones—turning negative representations into empowering, positive ones.
The Must-See Shows During Art Basel Hong Kong 2024
With Art Basel Hong Kong approaching, the city’s most notorious galleries and institutions are preparing a large array of shows to open alongside the fair. We have made a selection of shows we think are worth visiting to help navigate the city blazing art programme.
Glenn Ligon at Hauser & Wirth
In their newly opened gallery, Hauser and Wirth are set to open Glenn Ligon’s first solo show in Asia. The conceptual artist, known for his striking word paintings and neon works, has spent his entire career studying the place of Blackness in America and our modern society. He uses the power of words and language to delve into thematics of race, gender, sexuality and identity. This show will present a series of new abstract works, a continuation of his ongoing series of ‘Stranger’ paintings, and will be accompanied by the publication of a new monograph of his practice.
Opening 25 March.
Kylie Manning at Pace
With Sea Change, Pace Gallery Hong Kong are displaying the first solo exhibition of the New York based artist Kylie Manning in Hong Kong. Presenting a group of large scale paintings accompanied by smaller scale drawings, the gallery and the artist continue their tour throughout East Asia, including a show at the X museum in China and an upcoming expanded iteration of the show at Space K in Seoul. In this exhibition, the artist developed her vivid and passionate paintings, delving into aspects of velocity and vibrancy. Deeply inspired by her lived experience of growing up between Alaska and Mexico, Manning’s ethereal paintings transposes her memory through the medium of colour, balancing figuration and abstraction.
Opening 25 March.
Louise Giovanelli at White Cube and at the He Art Museum
White Cube Hong Kong will present Here on Earth, a new show of Manchester based artist Louise Giovanelli. With her enigmatic figurative yet intimate works, the artist investigates the significance of painting as a system of representation. She skillfully employs light and scale variations to create a repetitive visual language that unify her practice and with her close up views of objects and faces, often depicted in otherworldly hues, she plays with textures and materiality, creating a tension between reality and abstraction.
Opening 26 March.
Presented simultaneously as White Cube, the He Art Museum (HEM) in China, will present the first solo show of Louise Giovanelli in mainland China. In the recently opened space, designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, Louise Giovanelli – Paintings (2019 – 2024) will present a large selection of works showing the development of the artist in her recent practice. Located an hour away from Hong Kong’s city center, the show is a rare occasion to see Giovanelli’s works in a museum and is worth the journey.
Opening 23 March.
Wolfgang Tillmans at David Zwirner
David Zwirner is set to open a new show of photographs by the esteemed German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans. Working between London and Berlin, Tillmans is regarded as one of the pillars of contemporary photography. Ranging from mundane objects and quiet still life to intimate portraits, he has a deep understanding of how to capture the ordinary. Deeply caring about his subjects, he invites the viewer to unravel his perspective of the world. The Point is Matter will regroup a selection of old and new works focusing on pictures taken across multiple countries throughout his career, highlighting his ongoing analysis of connectedness through the process of looking.
Opening 23 March.
Jeff Koons at Art Intelligence Global
In their Hong Kong space Art Intelligence Global is opening a survey of the works of contemporary artist Jeff Koons. Presenting a selection of works, some for the first time in Asia, such as Michael Jackson and Bubbles porcelain sculpture from his 1988 Banality series, the show will include a diversity of media the artist has explored throughout his forty years long career. His works, questioning popular and consumer culture, can be found in most public collections around the world and continue to break records at auctions.
Opening 23 March.
Gerhard Richter and Sean Scully at Ben Brown Fine Art
Spanning over two locations, the Ben Brown Fine Art gallery space and the Asia Society building, Richter/Scully: Celestial Mechanics is presenting a selection of works from these two masters of European abstraction, placing their work in conversation with each other for the first time. The German artist Gerhard Richter is internationally recognised as one of the most prominent artists of the 20th and 21st century. His multidisciplinary practice, including photo realism, sculpture, photography and his renowned Abstraktes Bild, interrogates the power of the image and the perception one has of reality. Sean Scully, who was born in Ireland and now works in New York, is known as one of the principal representatives of geometric abstraction. His paintings and sculptures are composed of a series of rectangles or geometric forms, depicted in a wide range of colours and materials, that divide the canvas or the space. Presented alongside in the gallery spaces, the show will interrogate the historical and cultural influences of these artists that led them to become some of the most influential artists of our time.
Opening 23 March.
The Must-See Shows During the Venice Biennale
‘Willem de Kooning and Italy’ at Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice
The exhibition will be the first one to investigate the impact that de Kooning’s trips to Italy, both in 1959 and 1969, had on his body of work.
This is the largest show on Willem de Kooning to be presented in Italy. “The impact of any visual encounter could render or generate an idea for moving into a new drawing or painting. Observing how his New York and East Hampton environments worked into his paintings and drawings, the same occurred in Rome—a gestalt of ‘glimpses. During these formative periods of time in Rome, de Kooning synthesised from all around him a new way of looking and activating his medium, experiencing both classical Italian paintings and sculpture as well as the work of his new Italian artist friends” says Gary Garrels, curator of the show.
Runs until the 15th September 2024.
‘Julie Mehretu: Ensemble’ at Palazzo Grassi, Venice
The exhibition brings together a selection of more than fifty works, between painting and printmaking, that Julie Mehretu produced over the timespan of 25 years, including several of the artist’s recent paintings from 2021-2024. Presented over two floors of Palazzo Grassi, the exhibition unites 17 works from the Pinault Collection, as well as loans from international museums and private collections.
Runs until the 25th January 2025.
‘Planète Lalanne’ at Palazzo Rota Ivancich, Venice
Planète Lalanne, a comprehensive exhibition of the celebrated artistic duo Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne that will take over the historic Palazzo Rota Ivancich in Venice, running concurrently with the 2024 Venice Biennale from April 17 to November 3, 2024. Continuing a decades-long relationship between Ben Brown Fine Arts and Les Lalanne, Planète Lalanne is one of the largest exhibitions – with a selection of over 150 works – by the artists, and the first to take place in Italy.
Runs until the 3rd November 2024.
‘Martha Jungwirth: Herz der Finsternis’ at Fondazione Giorgio Cini
The Palazzo Cini Gallery, an extraordinary house-cum-museum home to the masterpieces of Vittorio Cini’s own collection, reopens to the public with an exhibition dedicated to the Austrian artist Martha Jungwirth (Vienna 1940). The only woman artist among the founding members of the “Wirklichkeiten” (“Reality”) group, her works were exhibited in the 1968 Vienna Secession exhibition curated by Otto Breicha. From then on, Martha Jungwirth continued to develop an innovative visual language, characterised by the exploration of colour and incisive lines. The exhibition itinerary, which unfolds around the second floor of Palazzo Cini, will also include previously unseen paintings by the Viennese artist, inspired by the works in the Gallery itself so as to underline the relationship between her painting and the history of art.
Runs until the 29th September 2024.
Our Five Most Anticipated Pavilions At The 2022 Venice Biennale
After a year of cancellations due to the pandemic, the 59th edition of The Venice Biennale, which was originally intended to open next month, will welcome visitors in 2022. The international art exhibition will take place from 23rd April to 27th November 2022, curated by Cecilia Alemani. “As the first Italian woman to hold this position, I intend to give voice to artists to create unique projects that reflect their visions and our society”, Alemani has declared.
“As the first Italian woman to hold this position, I intend to give voice to artists to create unique projects that reflect their visions and our society” -Cecilia Alemani
Cecilia Alemani is currently Director and Chief Curator of High Line Art, the programme of public art of the urban park in New York, and is the past curator of the Italian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2017. In an interview with Artnet News, she stated very clearly that she is “not interested in being remembered for doing ‘the coronavirus biennial.’” She added that the artists would still engage with the issues of the day, as they’ve always done.
Though many countries that will present national pavilions in Venice next year have yet to reveal the artists who will be representing them, we are already seeing a diverse mix of familiar and fresh faces. Here are the five artists that we look forward to seeing the most in the 2022 edition of the so-called Olympics of Art.
Simone Leigh
US Pavilion
Simone Leigh was born in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. Her practice incorporates sculpture, video, and installation; all are informed by her ongoing exploration of black female-identified subjectivity. Leigh works in a mode she describes as auto-ethnographic. Her objects often employ materials and forms traditionally associated with African art; her performance-influenced installations create spaces where historical precedent and self-determination commingle. The artist has not revealed much about her Venice plans so far, beyond the fact that the her work would be rooted in some texts of Black feminist theory.
Leigh is the first artist to be commissioned for the High Line Plinth; her monumental sculpture ‘Brick House’ was unveiled in April 2019. Leigh’s work was featured in ‘Loophole of Retreat’, a major exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, to commemorate her achievements as the winner of the Hugo Boss Prize 2018. Recent projects and exhibitions include the Whitney Biennial (2019) at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; ‘Trigger: Gender as a Tool and as a Weapon’ (2017) at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; and ‘Psychic Friends Network’ (2016) at Tate Exchange, Tate Modern, London.
Sonia Boyce
British Pavilion
Sonia Boyce MBE is a British Afro-Caribbean artist who lives and works in London. She studied at Stourbridge College, West Midlands. Boyce’s early work addressed issues of race and gender in the media and in day-to-day life. She expressed these themes through large pastel drawings and photographic collages. Her work has since shifted materially and conceptually by incorporating a variety of media such as photographs, collages, films, prints, drawings, installation and sound. Her recent work collaboratively brings the audience into sharper focus as an integral part of the artwork, between artist, vocalists and audience, demonstrating how cultural differences might be articulated, mediated and enjoyed.
A major figure in the British Black Arts Movement of the 1980s, she is represented in the permanent collections of Arts Council England and Tate Modern, London. In 2007, Boyce was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the arts. She is currently Professor of Fine Arts at Middlesex University, London and Professor of Black Art and Design at University of the Arts London.
Francis Alÿs
Belgian Pavilion
Throughout his practice, Francis Alÿs consistently directs his distinct poetic and imaginative sensibility toward anthropological and geopolitical concerns centered around observations of, and engagements with, everyday life, which the artist himself has described as “a sort of discursive argument composed of episodes, metaphors, or parables.” His multifaceted projects including public actions, installations, video, paintings, and drawings have involved traveling the longest possible route between locations in Mexico and the United States; pushing a melting block of ice through city streets; commissioning sign painters to copy his paintings; filming his efforts to enter the center of a tornado; carrying a leaking can of paint along the contested Israel/Palestine border; and equipping hundreds of volunteers to move a colossal sand dune ten centimetres.
Born in 1959 in Antwerp, Belgium, Alÿs originally trained as an architect. He moved to Mexico City in 1986, where he continues to live and work, and it was the confrontation with issues of urbanisation and social unrest in his new country of adoption that inspired his decision to become a visual artist. Work by the artist is found in public collections worldwide, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Tate Gallery, London.
Stan Douglas
Canadian Pavilion
Through photography, film and installation the Canadian artist Stan Douglas has, since the late-1980s, examined complex intersections of narrative, fact and fiction while simultaneously scrutinising the media he employs and how it shapes our understanding of reality. Douglas’ work is often in the first instance an examination of place, but entangled with the detail of specific geographical and political circumstance is a diverse range of source material that has included the literary constructs of Franz Kafka, Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville, Samuel Beckett and ETA Hoffmann, and the films of Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles.
Born in 1960 in Vancouver, where he continues to live and work, Stan Douglas has been the subject of numerous exhibitions at prominent institutions worldwide. Work by the artist is held in major museum collections, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Pérez Art Museum Miami; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate, UK.
Maria Eichhorn
German Pavilion
Maria Eichhorn born 1962, is a German artist based in Berlin. She is best known for site-specific works and installations that investigate political and economic systems, often revealing their intrinsic absurdity or the extent to which we normalise their complex codes and networks.
In a statement published to the German pavilion’s website, curator Yilmaz Dziewior announced that he and Eichhorn will be focusing on “aspects of political and cultural representation and what artistic production means to society” in German history. Eichhorn has explored this theme through her ongoing Rose Valland Institute project, which looks at the Nazi expropriation of property owned by European Jews.
Our Must-Sees in New York This May
For art enthusiasts and collectors, May is an exciting time in New York City as it brings together a number of art fairs, auctions, and exhibitions. Alongside Frieze New York, other art fairs such as TEFAF and Independent Art Fair also take place during this time, showcasing a diverse range of artwork from around the world.
In addition, leading auction houses such as Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips hold their marquee sales, offering an opportunity to bid on some of the most sought-after works. With so much happening in the city’s art scene, it can be overwhelming to decide what to see and do. Here’s our curated guide to help you navigate the art fairs and exhibitions happening in New York during this exciting month.
Andy Warhol at the Brant Foundation
The exhibition “Thirty Are Better Than One” is showcasing over 100 artworks by Andy Warhol at The Brant Foundation’s East Village location. The comprehensive survey covers Warhol’s entire career, from his early drawings and Polaroids to his famous silkscreens and sculptures. The exhibition includes pieces from the Brant Collection, curated by Peter M. Brant, who was a longtime patron, collaborator, and friend of the artist. The title of the exhibition comes from Warhol’s 1963 artwork of the same name, which depicts 30 scaled-down, silk-screened images of the Mona Lisa. Through the exhibit, visitors can witness Warhol’s experimentation with various media, bringing into focus his contributions to Pop Art and 20th-century American art. Peter M. Brant, the founder of The Brant Foundation, first bought Warhol’s work in 1962, with Campbell’s Soup Can (Chicken with Rice). Brant has continued to collect significant pieces from each decade of Warhol’s career. “Thirty Are Better Than One” highlights the close relationship between Brant and Warhol, which began with their first meeting in 1967 and included several collaborations. The exhibition also displays Warhol’s earliest works from the 1950s, his iconic pieces from the 1960s, his exploration of abstraction in the 1970s, and his later works from the 1980s, which touched on subjects such as faith, morality, and loss.
The exhibition will be on display at The Brant Foundation’s East Village location until July 31, 2023.
Yayoi Kusama, “I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers” at David Zwirner
Kusama is an influential artist of the past century, known for her personal and recognizable works that often use repetitive elements to convey both microscopic and macroscopic universes. Her career spans various mediums, including paintings, sculptures, performances, literature, films, fashion, design, and architectural interventions. The exhibition titled “I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers” showcases three large flower sculptures and three massive pumpkin sculptures, situated at opposite ends of 519 and 533 West 19th Street, respectively. Kusama has repeatedly incorporated plants and flowers in her work since the 1950s, inspired by her love for nature. The exhibition also features thirty-six paintings, which are part of Kusama’s recent series EVERY DAY I PRAY FOR LOVE and a new Infinity Mirror Room titled “Dreaming of Earth’s Sphericity, I Would Offer My Love” at 525 West 19th Street. The paintings use intricate details and repetition to blur the line between abstraction and figuration, and the Infinity Mirror Room immerses the viewer in an interplay of natural and artificial light through its round-colored windows. Kusama’s works derive from her desire to create art that is autobiographical yet appears outside of herself.
“Yayoi Kusama: I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers” is on view at David Zwirner, through July 21, 2023.
Demisch Danant X Paulin, Paulin, Paulin
FORMAL DISRUPTION | Pierre Paulin and the State Commissions of the 1980s is an upcoming exhibition at Demisch Danant in collaboration with Paulin, Paulin, Paulin that showcases the work of French designer Pierre Paulin during his lesser-known era in the 1980s. Paulin is known for his influential, sculptural forms and modular developments in the 1960s and 70s, but this exhibition will highlight his avant-garde works and limited edition collections from the latter half of his career. Paulin was a regular collaborator of the Mobilier National, the national service agency under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture, and received public commissions to design the residences of multiple government officials and national institutions. The works from these exclusive commissions have never been produced for public viewing until now. The centerpiece of the exhibition is the Mitterrand office set, a total of five pieces commissioned by then French President François Mitterrand in 1985, now put into production for the very first time by Paulin, Paulin, Paulin. Adorned in Tyrian pink and bleu de France, these works surprised and delighted the design world given their unique pairing with a serious and official setting. The exhibition showcases Paulin’s ever-evolving and non-linear practice, from his choices in material and use of artful color to the meticulously thoughtful and practical construction of his pieces.
“FORMAL DISRUPTION | Pierre Paulin and the State Commissions of the 1980s” is on view at Demisch Danant in Manhattan until May 27, 2023.
John Chamberlain at Mnuchin Gallery
John Chamberlain: Five Decades + at the Mnuchin Gallery presents a comprehensive survey of the artist’s oeuvre, featuring sculptures made between 1960 and 2011. Chamberlain rose to fame in the 1960s with his groundbreaking use of crushed automotive steel to create abstract sculptures. His works are characterized by a unique dynamism and vibrant color palette, as well as a carefully constructed balance between spontaneity and intentionality. Chamberlain’s approach to sculpture-making evolved over the years, from his explorations of foam, paper, and resin in the 1960s to his later embrace of curves and spheres in the 1980s and 1990s, and his return to geometric forms in the 2000s. Through it all, he maintained an unparalleled mastery of color and form, pushing the boundaries of scale and composition to create awe-inspiring works of art. The sculptures on display are drawn from prominent private collections and museums and are not organized chronologically, but rather interwoven to celebrate Chamberlain’s unwavering commitment to innovation and experimentation. By showcasing works created over a fifty-year period, John Chamberlain: Five Decades + illuminates the themes and techniques that remained central to the artist’s lifelong practice. The exhibition promises to be a must-see for anyone interested in the history of American sculpture and the enduring legacy of one of its most innovative and influential practitioners.
“John Chamberlain: Five Decades +” is on view ar Mnuchin Gallery, New York until June 10, 2023.
The Roof Garden Commission: Lauren Halsey
The artwork created by artist Lauren Halsey for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rooftop exhibition has been designed with permanence in mind. The piece, which will be transported to Halsey’s hometown of South Central Los Angeles after the exhibition, will become a civic monument at her community center and will serve as a record of the place against the encroaching forces of gentrification. The sculpture’s off-white cube and surrounding columns loom over Central Park and feature tiles that recall the graffiti of the Met’s Temple of Dendur, but also celebrate the vitality of Halsey’s local Black community. The show was delayed due to the pandemic but became more ambitious and meaningful as a result. Met director Max Hollein stated that the exhibition is important, and Halsey’s artwork reflects her interest in blending contemporary narratives from South Central Los Angeles with those evoked in ancient pharaonic architecture. Halsey hopes that viewers in New York will feel the intuitive connections between her artwork and her hometown. The piece is not only a work of art but also a powerful statement about preserving the history and culture of marginalized communities in the face of gentrification.
“The Roof Garden Commission: Lauren Halsey” is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until October 22, 2023.
Cecily Brown’s First New York Survey at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The current exhibit at the Met features around fifty works by Cecily Brown, a British artist who now resides in New York. Her unique style combines abstract and figurative elements, with references to old-worldly interiors, ornate tablescapes, and overflowing perfume bottles appearing throughout her works. Brown’s pieces convey a range of emotions, from joyous musings on life’s pleasures to contemplation of mortality. Her compositions pay homage to various sources of inspiration, including the works of Edward Munch and her mentor, Maggi Hambling. Recurring themes such as boredom, chaos, and contemplation can be found in her paintings, both pre and post-COVID, such as “Hangover Square” and “Lobsters, Oysters, Cherries, and Pearls.” Visitors to the exhibit will find pleasure in searching for the figurative cues hidden within Brown’s compositions. Despite the tension between the energetic brushstrokes and the familiar subjects, the everyday life and sentiments of vivacity and death remain shrouded in mystery.
The exhibition will be on display in the Met’s Modern and Contemporary galleries until December 3, 2023.
Gagosian to present a solo booth featuring Nan Goldin at Frieze
Nan Goldin will be presenting eight grid works at Frieze New York 2023, marking her debut presentation with Gagosian Gallery following her recent representation. Goldin creates her grids based on formal or psychological themes and has been working with the grid format for over 20 years, which emerged from the same associative impulse as her slide shows. Her grids are considered as chapters of the slideshows on the wall and like storyboards. Goldin’s slideshow Scopophilia commissioned by the Musée du Louvre includes The Back (2011–14), Veiled (2011–14), and Island Seas (2014), which pairs her own autobiographical images with photographs of paintings and sculptures from the collections of the Louvre and other international museums, organized around Greek mythology and touching on themes of love and desire. The grids are examples of how Goldin maintains the intimacy of her work through various mediums, expanding the context of the single image to exist without a specific time and place. Goldin was influenced by Color Field painting in the 1990s and started making grids as a homage to the Color Field painters. The grid format sums up her view that history and time exist as an aggregate of individual lives.
Louise Giovanelli at GRIMM Gallery
Louise Giovanelli’s fourth solo exhibition at GRIMM presents a new series of paintings titled Entheogen, featuring an appropriated 1970s film still image of a young woman in a moment of spiritual reverie taking the Eucharist. Giovanelli repeats the image across the series of works, distinguished by subtle variations of cropping and color, prompting deeper contemplation of the shifting narrative implications of the image, from religious to provocative interpretations. The series’ title, Entheogen, refers to psychoactive substances often used in ritual and spiritual contexts, reinforcing the narrative ambiguity where religious iconography, hallucinogenic drugs, and sexual revelation coalesce with Giovanelli’s large-scale paintings of curtains, casting impenetrability between the viewer and object.
‘Louise Giovanelli: Sooth Say’ is on view at GRIMM Gallery, New York until June 30, 2023.
Donald Judd at Gagosian 980 Madison Avenue
The exhibition showcases fifteen objects by Donald Judd, made from his primary materials, such as painted aluminum, galvanized iron, and colored plexiglass. Judd’s focus on three-dimensional forms was a departure from his earlier work as a painter, and he developed an art that existed on its own physical terms, with new terms to describe them. The show also features Judd’s untitled works from different periods, such as two metallic pieces from 1970 and 1979, a galvanized iron bull-nosed piece from 1965, and four stacks of identical components from 1980-1990, made from different materials. The exhibition also includes a set of twenty woodcuts, one of Judd’s most extensive uses of color in printmaking. Each pair of prints has one impression with a printed frame of color and one in which the same color is reversed and printed as the interior space of the frame. The prints were made for a forthcoming exhibition in Seoul, and the proofs were printed on local paper, hanji, and approved by Judd in 1992-93. The mission behind this show is to display Judd’s focus on the intrinsic qualities of materials and their relationships in carefully considered proportions, creating a physical art form that exists independently of metaphor or illusion.
The exhibition is on view at Gagosian 980 Madison Avenue, New York until July 14, 2023.
Art Fairs
New York is home to a dynamic and diverse art scene, and some of the most exciting events of the year take place during the month of May. Visitors to the city in May 2023 should be sure to check out a range of art fairs, each with its own unique focus and atmosphere. The Independent Art Fair is a must-see for anyone interested in the cutting edge of contemporary art. This fair, which takes place at Spring Studios in Tribeca, showcases innovative and experimental work by emerging and established artists alike. Unlike some of the more commercial fairs, Independent is focused on the art itself, with a highly curated selection of galleries presenting work that challenges and expands the boundaries of the medium. The most anticipated event in the New York art calendar is Frieze New York. This fair is known for its international focus, with galleries from around the world presenting work by artists from a diverse range of backgrounds. Frieze is also known for its focus on large-scale installations and interactive projects, making it a great choice for anyone looking for a truly immersive art experience.
On the other hand, TEFAF (The European Fine Art Foundation) showcases over 90 dealers presenting museum-quality fine art, antiques, and design objects. What makes TEFAF unique from other art fairs is its rigorous vetting process, which ensures that every piece presented is authentic, high-quality, and of exceptional value. Visitors can expect to see an eclectic mix of works from Old Masters to modern and contemporary artists, with a wide range of genres and mediums represented. For those interested in more specialized areas of the art world, there are a range of smaller fairs taking place during May as well. The June Art Fair, for example, focuses specifically on the intersection of art and technology, showcasing work that incorporates digital media and other cutting-edge technologies. The 154 African Art Fair, meanwhile, is dedicated to promoting African and African diaspora art, with galleries from across the continent and the world presenting work by some of the most exciting contemporary artists working today. Finally, the NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) fair is a must-see for anyone interested in emerging artists and galleries. With a focus on supporting young and independent dealers, NADA is an incubator for new talent in the art world, and visitors can expect to see work by some of the most exciting up-and-coming artists working today. Whether you are a collector, a scholar, or simply an art lover, there is something for everyone in the diverse and vibrant art fair scene in New York in May 2023.
