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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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
LVH ART TRAVEL GUIDE FOR SUMMER 2022
This Summer, a wealth of art filled destinations lands in our travel plans. On the shores of the Mediterranean sea, from Antibes to Arles, or Menorca to Hydra, some extraordinary art exhibitions give us yet more reasons to explore the European coastline rather than just its pristine beaches, clear waters and charming towns. Here is LVH Art Travel Guide for Summer 2022.
Annie Morris at Chateau La Coste in Provence
South of France
Château La Coste is a centuries old wine producer nestled in the heart of Provence. Part winery, restaurant, event space and bookshop, the company is constantly expanding to have included a Tadao Ando-designed cultural art center, along with its most recent building, which is said to have been one of the final designs drawn up by Oscar Niemeyer.
Louise Bourgeois’ ‘Crouching Spider’ in the grounds of Château La Coste © Andrew Pattman
To accompany a range of exhibitions ongoing at Château La Coste, the latest pavillion is hosting a series of new work by British visual artist Annie Morris. Well-known for her spherical totemic sculptures, also known as Stacks, Morris’ vibrant assemblages serve as a metaphor for resilience and hope against the uncertainty that life throws at us.
Morris has said in the past that she first created this body of work as a way to cope with the tragic stillbirth of her first child back in 2014. The series has since developed into a joyous study to which has become a hallmark of her practice. Also on view are the artist’s lesser-known, but just as vibrant set of tapestry paintings. Co-curated by Georgina Cohen, Annie Morris is on view at Château La Coste until September 2022.
Jeff Koons at the Deste Foundation in Hydra
Greece Islands
The DESTE Foundation Project Space Slaughterhouse presents this Summer Jeff Koons: Apollo, a solo exhibition, on view until October 31. The exhibition is an installation presenting new sculptures by Jeff Koons along with readymade objects selected by the artist to engage the viewer in a metaphysical dialogue between the contemporary and ancient. The show marks over twenty years since Jeff Koons’s last solo exhibition in Greece. At the center of the installation, within the Slaughterhouse, is the sculpture Apollo Kithara. The Apollo is playing a kithara, which is considered the origin of today’s guitar. The polychromed animatronic sculpture stands over 2.3 meters tall. The walls within the Slaughterhouse have been transformed by using as the base the ancient frescoes from Boscoreale, near Pompeii.
The exhibition includes several other new works including a pair of bronze Nike sneakers, Gazing Ball Tripod, and Plato’s Solid Forms Wind Spinners. There are other elements that are corresponding to this installation, ranging from burning candles to a Duchampian reference of a urinal. Above the Slaughterhouse is Apollo Wind Spinner, a 9.1 meter (30-foot) wide reflective wind spinner that greets people entering the port of Hydra on one side and, on the other, welcomes people walking to the building housing the installation. The face of the wind spinner is that of Apollo. The exhibition activates the senses through music, sage burning, and baked offerings reminiscent of ancient times. With the sounds of the ancient kithara playing alongside contemporary songs, the two musical formats are at times disjointed and at other moments find sublime beauty. The overall exhibition is metaphysical and celebrates human history and aspiration.
Rashid Johnson at Hauser & Wirth in Menorca
Balearic Islands
Illa del Rei, a beautiful island in Mahon harbor, is home to Hauser & Wirth Menorca where this Summer, Rashid Johnson’s show Sodade marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in Spain, where he continues to work with a complex range of iconographies to explore collective and historical expressions of longing and displacement, while speaking to the times we live in.
‘Sodade’ is the title of a Cape Verdean song from 1950s, popularized by Cesária Évora, that narrates a profound emotional state of longing on ‘the long way’ to São Tomé. Originating in the Portuguese ‘saudade,’ the term signifies a feeling of melancholy and missing, and becomes hybridized in the Cape Verdean use with a shift in the spelling. In ‘Sodade,’ Johnson continues to draw from critical history and narratives around migration and journeys, with a similar gesture of hybridization.
The exhibition presents a newly developed series of bronze sculptures and Seascape paintings, alongside Bruise Paintings and Surrender Paintings, the latter of which is the latest offering to evolve from the iconography of his long-established Anxious Men series. The works are accompanied by the Education Lab, which provides a creative learning programme for diverse audiences throughout the duration of the exhibition.
Lee Ufan’s Private Museum in Arles
South of France
Besides the Luma Art Foundation, which opened last Summer driving visitors to this charming region in the South of France, minimalist Korean artist Lee Ufan opened this May his own art center in Arles—his third after solo spaces in Japan and Korea. The new location is in a 17th-century mansion in the city’s historic quarter, converted by the artist’s friend and architect of choice, Tadao Ando.
The mansion will house a permanent collection of Lee’s work, with ten sculptures from his series “Relatum” installed across the ground floor, where there is also a library and shop. Some 30 paintings hang on the second floor and three site-specific installations at the lower level are open to visitors by appointment only. There are temporary exhibition spaces for other artists on the third floor.
Arles has long been a region that has inspired artists, among them Van Gogh and Gauguin. Lee’s own interest in the area stems from its ancient past. Towards the end of 2021, the artist staged “Requiem”, a special exhibition celebrating the 40 years since Arles was named a UNESCO World Heritage site. Inspired by the picturesque ruins of Alyscamps, a large Roman necropolis, he presented 13 new works in conversation with the surviving sarcophagi. And in the new art center, visitors will be able to see a ancient portrait bust believed to be of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius, which was discovered in a wall during the building’s restoration
Anselm Kiefer Sprawling Compound in Barjac
South of France
Anselm Kiefer’s vast studio complex in Barjac in southern France, which has been likened to a “human ant hill”, has finally opened to the public this Summer after years of planning. Visitor numbers to the site, known as La Ribaute, will be capped. “The objective of the Eschaton-Anselm Kiefer Foundation, which runs La Ribaute, is to ensure access to the public—rather than mass tourism—over the years to come,” says Janne Sirén, the president of the foundation’s board of trustees. “There is a lot of walking involved in visiting La Ribaute; it’s over 40 hectares,” he says. In 1992, having left Germany, Kiefer acquired La Ribaute, an old silk factory in Barjac. The site developed organically, comprising buildings, outdoor art installations, subterranean chambers and a five-level concrete amphitheatre. The artist lived at the 40-hectare site, 70km north-west of Avignon, until 2007, after which he relocated to a new studio space at Croissy on the outskirts of Paris.
“There are several art installations in the landscape interconnected by paths as well as underground tunnels that the artist has designed,” says Sirén. “Barjac has continued to be a secondary studio, especially in the summer season. You might compare the foundation in concept to Marfa [the small city in Texas that has become an arts hub]; it’s an artist space now owned by a foundation, the purpose of which is to preserve it for posterity.” La Ribaute has grown, with more than 60 buildings and art areas, known as pavilions. “Mr Kiefer added his own touch with these art spaces; some of them have sculptures, some have paintings,” Sirén says. “In recent years, he has welcomed artists he feels kinship with to contribute permanent installations to the ecosystem of La Ribaute, starting with Wolfgang Laib in 2014. Monica Bonvicini, the latest contributor, will unveil her work in July.” Laurie Anderson and Valie Export have also provided works.
The project reflects Kiefer’s “trans-national” approach, says Sirén. A project statement outlines how the Eschaton-Anselm Kiefer Foundation symbolises “Kiefer’s interest in the unity of Europe and the constant exchange between cultures”, encompassing three countries: Austria (the foundation headquarters), Germany (the artist’s birthplace) and France.
Lawrence’s 20 Picks from Art Basel Online Viewing Rooms
Álvaro Barrington
TBC, 2020
Courtesy of Sadie Coles
Anne Collier
Woman Crying (Comic) #22, 2020
Courtesy of The Modern Institute
Do Ho Suh
Main Entrance, 388 Benefit Street, Providence, RI 02903, USA, , 2016
Courtesy of Lehmann Maupin
Donna Huanca
Fire Nest, 2020
Courtesy of Peres Projects
El Anatsui
Metas III, 2014
Courtesy of Acquavella Galleries
Idris Khan
The calm is but a wall, 2019
Courtesy of Galerie Thomas Schulte
Issy Wood
Spitting distance, 2020
Courtesy of Carlos/Ishikawa
Landon Metz
Untitled, 2020
Courtesy of Francesca Minini
Mary Corse
Untitled (White Light Band), 1993
Courtesy of Pace Gallery
Matt Connors
A Bird Flying Through a Tunnel, 2019
Courtesy of The Modern Institute
Matthew Lutz- Kinoy
Exhausted Angel Receives an Announcement in Rodin’s Garden, 2019
Courtesy of Kamel Mennour
Per Kirkeby
“Untitled”, 2011
Courtesy of Michael Werner Gallery
Pierre Soulages
Peinture, 130 x 130 cm, 10 octobre 2019, 2019
Courtesy of Lévy Gorvy
Robert Rauschenberg
Rice Wine Dog, Tuak Hudok-Iban (ROCI Malaysia), 1990
Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
Richard Kennedy
Respect, 2020
Courtesy of Peres Projects
Rirkrit Tiravanija
Untitled 2018 (this revolution will not be televised, south china morning post, July 2, 2014) (blue)
Courtesy of Kurimanzutto
Sam Gilliam
Untitled, 2019
Courtesy of Pace Gallery
Sheila Hicks
Fury, 2019
Courtesy of Francesca Minini
Zhou Li
La Bleu J’adoré NO.5- Nature, 2019
Courtesy of White Cube
Tony Matelli
Weed #485, 2019
Courtesy of Marlborough Gallery
Exhibitions not to miss this fall
Martha Jungwirth at Kunsthalle Dusseldorf
3 September—13 November 2022
All three of the large halls at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf are devoted to the Viennese painter Martha Jungwirth, whose idiosyncratic, nonconformist approach to painting occupies an intuitive space that exists beyond the formation of recognisable images. This is her first major exhibition and first retrospective in Germany. Landscapes, portraits, Goya’s Maja, animals, witches and Lady Gaga, a house, or just a group of written characters, some of which are from antiquity or the time of the pharaohs—Martha Jungwirth’s painting is enormously diverse. Often it appears in an empty field, in an endless space. The artist uses special grounds for her paintings such as cardboard, brown or lined paper, the backs of paintings, old maps, and account books: surfaces that suggest a story, as do the historical subjects from Greek mythology and art history that she includes in her work. And yet, to her it is all ultimately a spot: “a spot is a spot is a spot an intelligent one or a stupid one, nothing else,” as she once said.
After all, despite her importance for Austrian art history, the artist, who was awarded the Grand Austrian State Prize in November 2021, has not yet become well known to a broader audience in Germany. The exhibition was curated by Gregor Jansen and Alicia Holthausen in close cooperation with the artist.
Wolfgang Tillmans at the MoMA in New York
through 1 January 2023
“The viewer…should enter my work through their own eyes, and their own lives,” the photographer Wolfgang Tillmans has said. An incisive observer and a creator of dazzling pictures, Tillmans has experimented for over three decades with what it means to engage the world through photography. Presenting the full breadth and depth of the artist’s career, Wolfgang Tillmans: To look without fear invites us to experience the artist’s vision of what it feels like to live today.
From ecstatic images of nightlife to abstract images made without a camera, sensitive portraits to architectural slide projections, documents of social movements to windowsill still lifes, astronomical phenomena to intimate nudes, Tillmans has explored seemingly every imaginable genre of photography, continually experimenting with how to make new pictures. He considers the role of the artist to be that of “an amplifier” of social and political causes, and his approach is animated by a concern with the possibilities of forging connections and the idea of togetherness.
Christina Quarles at Hauser & Wirth in New York
through 29 October 2022
Following the presentation of her work at this year’s Venice Biennale, and ahead of her inclusion in the 16th edition of the Biennale de Lyon this fall, Christina Quarles has unveiled a series of new paintings in her first major solo exhibition in New York with Hauser & Wirth. Many of the works on view were created during the artist’s 2022 residency at the gallery’s Somerset location and draw inspiration from the surrounding English countryside. Here, Quarles has incorporated many unique elements from the natural world within her signature patterns and textures, achieving a new degree of spatial openness that expands upon her instinctual approach to figuration and richly layered visual vocabulary.
The exhibition’s title, ‘In 24 Days tha Sun’ll Set at 7pm,’ refers to the time frame in which Quarles produced these paintings. Spanning the early months of 2022 through the final weeks of Summer, this body of work reflects the artist’s waxing and waning optimism across a tumultuous and transformative year. Much like the days whose light increases and decreases on either side of the seasons, the year began with growing potential for communal healing and social upheaval, yet it seems to be ending on a more tentative note.
William Kentridge at the Royal Academy in London
24 September – 11 December 2022
Over the last decade, the Royal Academy’s single artist shows have captured the imagination of the public. Always large in scale, ambitious in scope and astonishing in execution, we’ve seen artists including Ai Weiwei, Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley take on their Main Galleries. This autumn, it’s the turn of William Kentridge, South Africa’s most celebrated living artist. Kentridge’s globally acclaimed practice spans across etching, drawing, collage, film and sculpture to tapestry, theatre, opera, dance and music. The Johannesburg-born artist developed his early work during the apartheid regime of the 1980s, and his electrifying large-scale productions and animations have since been shown across the world.
This will be the biggest exhibition of the artist’s work in the UK. Many pieces have never been seen before, and some have been made specifically for the show. Spanning a 40-year career, you will find rooms of 4-metre wide tapestries, his signature charcoal trees and flowers, and the breath-taking three-screen film, Notes Towards a Model Opera. Watch as typewriters turn into trees, a hunted rhino somersaults with a megaphone, and a coffee plunger drills into the depths of a goldmine.
Alice Neel at Centre Pompidou in Paris
12 October 2022 – 16 January 2023
This autumn, the Centre Pompidou will dedicate a major exhibition to Alice Neel. Alice Neel: An Engaged Eye emphasizes Neel’s political and social activism, in connection to her membership in the Communist party and involvement in the women’s rights movement. The exhibition is being shown exclusively in Paris and is divided into two parts loosely conceived, around notions of class struggle and the fight for gender equality. Each section is presented as a thematic retrospective, starting with her earliest works in the late 1920s, which were painted in Cuba, and finishing with the final paintings made shortly before her death in 1984. In all, some seventy-five paintings and drawings are on view, along with two extracts from a film about the artist made by French artist Michel Auder in the late 1970s, in addition to other film productions. A selection of unpublished documents is also included in the show.
The exhibition opens with works by two other artists: a portrait of the painter by Robert Mapplethorpe and a work by Jenny Holzer drawn from Alice Neel’s FBI record from October 1955, when FBI agents visited Neel—who had been under investigation since 1951 due to her ties to the Communist party—for questioning.
Exhibitions not to miss this summer
Louis Bourgeois at Foundation Carmignac in “The Infinite Woman” exhibition.
Roni Horn at Hauser and Wirth, Menorca, Spain
New York-based artist Roni Horn, recipient of the 2013 Joan Miró Prize and renowned for her conceptually driven work across various media, presents her first solo exhibition in Menorca with Hauser and Wirth. The exhibition features a selection of sculptures and installations that engage with both the historic gallery spaces and the natural environment.
Runs until the 27th October 2024.
“In the House of the Trembling Eye” at Aspen Art Museum, Colorado
“In the House of the Trembling Eye” is an expansive group exhibition curated by London-based artist Allison Katz, spanning the entire Aspen Art Museum and organized in collaboration with the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. This exhibition marks the first time in North America that contemporary art will be showcased alongside ancient fresco fragments, many of which have never before been displayed in the United States. Katz creates formal and symbolic connections between these ancient artifacts and twentieth- and twenty-first-century artworks, highlighting the emotional ties between their subjects through careful juxtaposition. The exhibition explores the interplay of cultural remnants, art history, and autobiography with themes of memory, the unconscious, and questions of taste. Featured artists include Elizabeth Peyton, Marlene Dumas, Gerhard Richter, Rashid Johnson, Anish Kapoor, Ed Ruscha, and Alice Neel.
Runs until the 29th September 2024.
Alexander Calder “Sculpting Time” at MASI Lugano, Italy
Calder MASI Lugano “Sculpting Time” delves into the transformative influence of Alexander Calder and is an exploration of his groundbreaking work. Calder fundamentally changed the way we perceive and interact with sculpture by introducing the fourth dimension of time into art with his iconic mobiles—a term coined by Marcel Duchamp, which plays on the dual meanings of “motion” and “motive” in French. Additionally, Calder explored volumes and voids with his stabiles, a name given by Jean Arp to describe his stationary sculptures. The exhibition features over thirty masterworks from Calder’s most innovative and prolific years, spanning the 1930s to 1960. It includes his early abstractions, known as sphériques, as well as a stunning array of mobiles, stabiles, and standing mobiles in various scales.
Runs until the 6th October 2024.
“Are You Joking? Women and Humor” Sag Harbor, The Church, Hamptons, NY
Sag Harbor’s The Church, an exhibition space and artist residency founded by Eric Fischl and April Gornik in 2021, presents “Are You Joking? Women and Humor,” featuring the works of 40 female-identifying artists who challenge outdated stereotypes about women and humor. This exhibition showcases a diverse range of approaches, from satire and surrealism to self-deprecation and subversion. Artists such as Lisa Yuskavage, Nina Chanel Abney, Katherine Bernhardt, Dana Schutz, Cindy Sherman, and others demonstrate the many ways humor is employed in contemporary art.
Runs until 2nd September 2024.
“Bonnard-Matisse, a friendship” Saint Paul de Vence Fondation Maeght, France
France’s first modern and contemporary art foundation, will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a major exhibition, “Bonnard-Matisse, a Friendship,” and the opening of new exhibition rooms for its permanent collection. The exhibition explores and contrasts the specific of the two painters, also mirroring their approach to the similar subjects of self portraits, streets, and light.The festivities will include a month of concerts, dance performances, film screenings, and readings. Additionally, the new space will be unveiled to display masterpieces by Braque, Léger, Chagall, Miró, Calder, Mitchell, and Kelly.
Runs until the 6th of October 2024.
Francis Bacon at L’Espèce de l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France
This exhibition focuses on a lesser-known aspect of Francis Bacon’s work: his creation of furniture in the early 1930s, the influences that shaped this period for him, and the lasting impact it had on his career. The exhibition showcases a substantial collection of Bacon’s works from this era, including paintings, furniture, rugs, and archival documents. In addition to these design pieces, the exhibition also features paintings by artists like Roy De Maistre, Fernand Léger, and Pablo Picasso, offering a broader perspective on the context and influences that shaped Bacon’s early work.
Runs until 5th January 2025.
Jean Cocteau: “The Juggler’s Revenge” at Peggy Guggenheim, Venice, Italy
Peggy Guggenheim Collection exhibits “Jean Cocteau: The Juggler’s Revenge,” the most comprehensive retrospective ever organised in Italy dedicated to Jean Cocteau. The exhibition will feature a wide array of works, including drawings, graphics, jewelry, tapestries, historical documents, books, magazines, photographs, documentaries, and films directed by Cocteau. These pieces trace the evolution of this multifaceted artist’s distinctive and highly personal aesthetics, highlighting the key moments of his tumultuous career.
Runs until 16th September 2024.
“The Infinite Woman” at Carmignac foundation, Hyeres, France
“The Infinite Woman” delves into the complex themes of identity, sexuality, pleasure, and power, illuminating the ways women have been portrayed from ancient myths to the most contemporary and subversive representations. The exhibition reclaims and redefines women’s bodies, liberating them from the constraints of Western beauty standards and challenging societal norms, the boundaries of art, and its historically oppressive categories. This thematic journey features over eighty artworks, showcasing female figures that are both familiar and unsettling. The show includes sacred and nurturing women depicted by artists like Sandro Botticelli, Mary Beth Edelson, and Loie Hollowell; free-spirited sirens as seen in the works of Kiki Smith, Chris Ofili, and Sofia Mitsola; spider-women created by Louise Bourgeois and Frida Orupabo; and objects of desire portrayed by Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, and Thomas Ruff.
Runs until 3rd November 2024.
Matisse and Ellsworth “Shapes and Colors,” at Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris
The Fondation Louis Vuitton presents a dual exhibition featuring Henri Matisse’s iconic painting “The Red Studio” (1911) and an Ellsworth Kelly retrospective titled “Shapes and Colors, 1949-2015.” “Matisse: The Red Studio” brings together works that were in Matisse’s studio in Issy-les-Moulineaux, alongside archival documents and previously unseen creations that provide insight into the context in which the painting was conceived.
Runs until 9th September 2024.
George Condo “The Mad and the Lonely,” at The DESTE Foundation, Hydra, Greece
This summer Deste Foundation opens “The Mad and the Lonely,” an exhibition featuring works by George Condo. On view at DESTE’s Project Space, a former slaughterhouse on Hydra. The exhibition showcases small-scale paintings and larger sculptures from Condo’s career. The works explore the themes of madness and loneliness, depicting individuals marginalized by society and caught between these states.
Runs until 31st October 2024.
Dana Schutz “The Island” at George Economou Collection, Athens, Greece
The George Economou Collection exhibits “The Island,” Dana Schutz’s first exhibition in Greece. The exhibition showcases key works spanning over twenty years, from Schutz’s early mature paintings from the early 2000s, to a recent composition completed this year, providing a comprehensive overview of the evolution of her style. The exhibition title is a playful acknowledgment to both the show’s location, Greece’s geography comprising thousands of islands, and the recurring motif of isolated figures in the artist’s body of work.
Runs until March 2025.
