by Rowan Johnson
SOU Class of 2025, Creative Writing
Artist Masami Teraoka
For this week's installment of Inside the Museum, we take a break from our regular format to bring you an interview with Masami Teraoka, an artist featured in the Schneider Museum of Art's winter exhibition What's at Stake.
Teraoka was born in 1936 in Onomichi, Hiroshima-ken, Japan. He graduated in 1959 with a B.A. in aesthetics from Kwansei Gakuin University and continued his education to receive a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles in 1968. Integrating reality with fantasy, humor with commentary, and history with the present became his working challenge. His early paintings are often focused on the meeting of his two cultures—East and West. Series such as McDonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan and 31 Flavors Invading Japan characterize some themes in his work. In the 1980’s, Teraoka’s watercolors became large-scale to depict the subject of AIDS. Since the late 1990's, he has been producing large-scale narrative work addressing social and political issues, especially the abuse of children by priests and other examples of hypocrisy in religious institutions. His recent large-scale paintings are inspired by Renaissance paintings and continue the narrative approach of his Ukiyo-e inspired work.
Interview with Masami Teraoka
Q: You primarily work with triptychs, what brought you to that medium?
A: While I was a high school student in Japan, my relative had given me a book of Renaissance art. This was during World War II. After I had learnt history of Renaissance art, Catholic Church’s rituals and rules and the clergy’s sexual abuse issue became the focus of the triptych, specifically how priests and nuns have to behave about sexuality. [It was] so strict that I was shocked. In the overall view, I didn’t get it.
Q: Many of our patrons ask about the gold embellishments around the edges of the triptychs. What's your process for applying it? What does it represent to you?
A: [Learning to use it] took me a while, I had to get used to handling the gold leaf on the panels. Initially, overwhelming rigidness is the rigidness of the framework. Contrasting this rigid institutionalized frame set the pace to juxtaposing current social, historical, cultural and political issues. Once you get inside the triptych frame you are released to freedom discussion that starts and bumping against the rigid structure. Either way positive or negative meaning that may mean. The triptych frames set the pace of a wrestling match setting.
The gold leaf frames have two meanings to me: Overwhelmingly beautiful or tackiness. Of the gold leaf itself, gold leaf frames [reflect] filthy rich Catholic Churches as rigid institutions. It could mean almost tackiness for one of the most secretive institutions in the world.
Q: All of your triptychs on view at the Schneider Museum of Art have art on the inner and outer panels. Do the pieces interact with each other? Do you want them to?
A: Usually the main open panels start the painting. The back side should be finished later. Subject matters are updated on the back side if needed because the triptychs need a lot of time to evolve.
Q: We have your Pussy Riot series on view right now. What was your experience working with Russian protest group Pussy Riot?
A: While the team was here, I was too busy with my own show then that I was not able to hang out that much. But I was happy the team were all seriously working on their rehearsals. Their vision for democracy is on the same page [and] worked out well. With the local, mainland performers for The Tempest directed by Viktoria Naraxsa. The Tempest turned out to be such [an] intense art performance. They had another performance called, if I’m not mistaken, Emercing Performance where the audience became the performers.
Q: Are there any moments that stick out in your memory from that time?
A: When they wanted to swim in Hawaii, they wanted to swim without bras. The local performers freaked out, no, no, you cannot do that here. They were so astonished. So I realized Russian[s] are [a] more advanced, free country. Haaa ha ha!
Q: There's some Japanese script in the background of Pussy Riot Kubie Series/Putin Me On. Why did you choose to include it?
A: [There's a] calligraphic narrative that goes with the concept of the paintings [in the series]. I have spent a good two decades decoding Edo-style calligraphy. It is so beautiful. And when I could read Edo period narrative[s], I [felt] like I was talking with Edo period people. Their expressions are so exquisite.
Q: A lot of patrons are curious about the two suns on the outside panels of the same piece. Is there a story behind that symbol?
A: (NOTE: Teraoka was in Japan when the atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima during WWII)
I did research on how far away from Hiroshima [we were when] standing in my home town Onomichi. [It was] approximately 45 - 50 miles away. If I’m standing at Diamond Head looking toward the Waianae coast, that is about 45 miles away. Close enough but no radiation issue had invaded my hometown. My uncle was in the midst of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. He was hit by the bomb pressure.
[When the 2018 false missile warning in Hawaii happened,] we had only 15 minutes to prepare for evacuation from the attack!!! We had tried to evacuate to the church nearby us but when we got there the door was locked. So we chose to evacuate to this grocery store five blocks away.
In my memory, I said myself "Not Again, oh, s..." I cannot believe to go through the atomic bomb twice? After the false alarm was sent out to us, I started to think this is the time for me to talk about the two suns. This triggered the two suns series. My sister (11) and I, (9) were so mesmerized about the two suns rising from the east and the west. The sun rising from the west was the atomic bomb.
I never had imagined I would paint this vision that had been etched in my brain but the flawed warning siren came out on my birthday!!! So I uttered oh, s….! No way!!! I cannot die on my birthday? The red melting color of the two suns are related to melting tiles hotness degree with 1,200 degree temperature of the atomic bomb.
Q: On the topic of symbols, I've heard that the use of bats and the Titanic in your art is a reference to the COVID-19 pandemic. How did that come to be?
A: The Titanic boat was designed as an unsinkable boat. Human error could change the direction of the boat either to sustain as a lovely party boat or unthinkable sinking boat. Or a fatal sinking boat. There are a few choices for life's meaning.
Q: Your art does a wonderful job of embracing the modern and the historical. That choice feels very intentional, can you tell us about it?
A: [I like] looking at my work conceptually and try to capture the spirit of a daily life, even in historical contexts. This is the very spirit of Ukiyo-e print and aesthetic. Something from Japan I could share. Personally, I grew up with these Ukiyo-e prints in my family.
Thank you Masami for your time! We appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the symbolism and materials that go into creating your work. Masami Teraoka's work will be on show at the Schneider Museum of Art until March 23rd. Visit us before then to see all the pieces mentioned in this interview!
Masami Teraoka, Unsinkable Unthinkable Titanic's Last Breath, 2022, oil on panel in gold leaf diptych. Courtesy of the artist and Catherine Clark Galleries
February 24, 2024
Stephanie Syjuco. Dodge + burn
9 Mar — 4 May 2024 at the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, United States
14 FEBRUARY 2024
[Stephanie Syjuco, detail of “Dodge and Burn (Visible Storage)” from “Stephanie Syjuco: Rogue States” at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, MO, 2019. Wooden platform, digital photos and printed vinyl on lasercut wood, chromakey fabric, printed backdrops, seamless paper, artificial plants, mixed media. Overall installation: 240 x 204 x 96 inches. Edition of 3 + 2AP. Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco]
Stephanie Syjuco, detail of “Dodge and Burn (Visible Storage)” from “Stephanie Syjuco: Rogue States” at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, MO, 2019. Wooden platform, digital photos and printed vinyl on lasercut wood, chromakey fabric, printed backdrops, seamless paper, artificial plants, mixed media. Overall installation: 240 x 204 x 96 inches. Edition of 3 + 2AP. Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco
Catharine Clark Gallery announces the opening of Stephanie Syjuco: Dodge + Burn, a survey exhibition of over 20 years of work by the acclaimed cross-disciplinary artist. Syjuco’s exhibition encompasses both the North and South galleries as well as the Media Room. Visitors to this presentation will have the opportunity to engage with several important projects originally commissioned by institutions, such as Dodge and Burn (Visible Storage) (2019) and Double Vision (2021), which are being presented on the West Coast for the first time.
Syjuco’s exhibition also coincides with the release of the artist’s first monograph, Stephanie Syjuco: The Unruly Archive, published by Radius Books in Spring 2024 with artwork and texts by Syjuco, and essays by Astria Suparak, Carmen Winant, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Jason Lazarus, LJ Roberts, Minne Atairu, Pio Abad, Savannah Wood, and Wendy Red Star. Syjuco’s monograph is the second title in a new series of publications focused on work by Asian American artists.
Stephanie Syjuco (b. 1974, Philippines; lives in Oakland, California) works in photography, sculpture, and installation, moving from handmade and craft-inspired mediums to digital editing and archive excavations. Her projects leverage open-source systems, shareware logic, and flows of capital to investigate issues of economies and empire. Recently, she has focused on how photography and image-based processes are implicated in the construction of racialized, exclusionary narratives of American history and citizenship.
Syjuco is frequently invited by museums and special collections to respond to materials held within their archives. Stephanie Syjuco: Dodge + Burn features work conceptualized in response to research conducted at the Smithsonian Institutions, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, and the Missouri Historical Society, among other venues. Her exhibition reflects the breadth of Syjuco’s investigation into the history of image-making and its relationship to the white gaze.
The focal work in the exhibition is Dodge and Burn (Visible Storage) (2019), a monumental platform-based sculpture first presented at Syjuco’s solo museum exhibition Rogue States at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (also 2019). Conceptualized in dialogue with Syjuco’s platform work Neutral Calibration Studies (Ornament + Crime) (2016) – which debuted in Syjuco’s 2016 solo exhibition of the same name at Catharine Clark Gallery – Dodge and Burn (Visible Storage) collapses images and objects referencing American colonialist expansion in the Philippines during the early 1900s, as well as contemporary racial politics and historical amnesia. Archival research of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair collides with contemporary protest imagery, political references, and textiles.
Chroma key green, traditionally deployed in digital video post-production, is used in intricate handsewn garments, backdrops, and props, including a 19th-century American dress, MAGA hats, tiki torches, and artificial houseplants. The allusion to postproduction and image manipulation is a direct reference to the creation of an American narrative that is itself a problematic construction. Dodge and Burn (Visible Storage) was previously presented in Syjuco’s solo museum exhibitions at the Blaffer Art Museum (The Visible Invisible, 2020) and the MSU Broad Art Museum (Blind Spot, 2023); the gallery exhibition is the first time the work will be presented on the West Coast.
Stephanie Syjuco: Dodge + Burn features a reimagined presentation of Syjuco’s Double Vision, originally commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in 2021 and currently on view in the exhibition Cowboy at the MCA Denver. In this installation, Syjuco reconstituted the Western landscape as seen in canvases by the 19th-century painters (particularly Charles Russell and Frederic Remington) largely responsible for crafting a perception of the West as a site of open, lustrous expanse. Reflecting on this project, curator Miranda Lash writes:
Syjuco took that context as her starting point and created a vibrant, immersive environment inspired by paintings from the Amon Carter Museum’s collection along with large-scale photographs of bronze sculptures by Frederic Remington from this same era. The photographs include details of the art preparators’ gloves and tools, and collectively speak to the image-making of the institution. The West, Syjuco seems to argue, was invented not only by the artists but also by the structures and systems of the museums that commission, conserve, and collect their work.
The exhibition also includes an excerpt of Syjuco’s 2021 project Shutter/Release, originally realized for the traveling museum exhibition Undoing Time: Art and Histories of Incarceration and currently on view in Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. In this series, Syjuco continued to intervene with the photographic archive generated from late 19th and early 20th-century practices of anthropology in the Philippines that characterized indigenous peoples as racially inferior. Some photographs stem from Bilibid Prison in Manila established by the Spanish colonial government in the late 19thcentury, an institution maintained during the Japanese Occupation (1942 - 1945) which still imprisons more than 25,000 people since 2017.
Curator Matthew Miranda writes that “Syjuco uses the ‘healing brush’ in Photoshop, a function that duplicates the ambient pixels on a point conventionally used for the purposes of ‘retouching’ blemishes and unsightly obstructions. Instead of erasure, she co-opts the photographic tool to remove or 'liberate' the pictured bodies from their carceral and colonial environments. The artist mounts the 'healed' image on aluminum metal producing spectral traces of silhouettes and uninhabited landscapes destabilizing the perceived fixity of history.” Syjuco writes that “my own body, sitting in the archives, becomes both a temporary shield and a marker of defiance, while at the same time acknowledging that the images still remain.”
“When you love your work you don’t get old in the way other people get old,” Al Farrow is telling me a few days before his newest show opens. At 80 years old, the prolific Farrow’s enthusiastic voice complements the outright vigor he’s brought to an art career filled with accomplishment and accolades.
Primarily a sculptor, Farrow’s new show, “INK”—at Archival Gallery through February 24, with a Second Saturday celebration from 5-8 p.m. on February 10—marks his return to doing ink and brush works on paper “after a 50-year break from it.” But this isn’t any old India ink: it’s a handmade ink Farrow concocts from crushing oak galls.
Galls are plant growths made by small wasps on vegetation and twigs. The galls turn tan and then—when the baby wasps reach adulthood and break through the growths to make their debut— brown. Farrow says he adds “a small amount of iron sulfate and a little gum Arabic for body” to begin to achieve the rich, dark color he’s seeking.
Farrow shares the new show with artists Craig Frazier and Drew Frazier.
Born in Brooklyn, Farrow lives in Marin. His wife is former ballerina (and Sacramento native) Leslie Crockett, whose mom Barbara was a regional legend as a ballet teacher and entreprenuer; she passed away in 2022 at the age of 101. Their two sons are David, who owns a computer technology firm, and Erik, who restores three-dimensional art, as does Farrow.
Farrow has a work on permanent display at the Crocker Art Museum, “Bombed Mosque,” which looks exactly like what its title suggests. His one-work show, “The White House,” depicted a small-scale, rusted replica of America’s most famous residence. He says his inspiration for both sculptures emerged from a 1995 visit to the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence, Italy. “They had these really ornate reliquaries on display in the church’s crypt, and some of them had human bones,” he says. He began introducing items such as the bones as well as real guns, helmets and bullets into his work. “None of the weaponry is usable,” he says, “but I wanted it to look scary and real.”
Somewhat simultaneous with Farrow’s show at Archival is “What’s at Stake,” a three-person exhibit in which he co-stars with artists Masami Teraoka and Zeina Barakeh. Up now, that show runs through March 23 at the Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland, Oregon. Its theme is “the impact of war on the work of the artists,” all of whom come from three different parts of the planet. His next show will be in Miami at the new Visu Contemporary Gallery in May.
Farrow’s work has been the subject of a solo exhibition at the de Young Museum, San Francisco Fine Arts Museum. It’s also included in the public collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Jose Museum of Art, CA; 21c, the museum/hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, and Saint John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Los Angeles, among many other collections.
Born “on the last day of 1943,” Farrow says he’s “maybe at a transition point in my art.” He says the large and heavy sculptures he’s created “take too long to do and I have to acknowledge how much time there is to do everything.” Whatever he opts to do, I’m betting that this young artist has only just begun.
Plato compared memory to markings on a wax tablet. Saint Augustine likened it to storehouses and treasure chambers filled with sights, sounds and smells. One 19th-century commentator described the then-new medium of photography as “a mirror with a memory.” Today, neurologists are digitally simulating the brain, RAM is for sale at Best Buy, and the going analogy for memory is the computer. Encode/Store/Retrieve, on view at the San José Museum of Art through April 21, invites viewers to keep that metaphor in mind as they contemplate some 30 works of art from the museum’s permanent collection. It’s a timely and ambitious exhibition.
Stephanie Syjuco, The International Orange Commemorative Store (A Proposition), 2012,
mixed media installation
As tiny as Syjuco’s work is big, Forrest Myers’ Moon Museum (1969) combines doodles by himself and five other American artists: Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, John Chamberlain and David Novros. Warhol turned his initials into a crude phallus that doubles as a rocket ship. Claes Oldenburg sketched an odd Mickey Mouse. Myers contributed a drawing of interlocking geometric shapes. Rauschenberg drew a single line, while Chamberlain and Novros made sketches based on circutry. Myers lithographed all of them onto a thumbnail-size ceramic wafer. Reportedly attached to the Apollo 12 spacecraft, Moon Museum is believed to be the first work of art to travel to the moon, asserting both the American presence on the lunar surface and the existence of the six artist Kilroys.
What’s at stake
11 Jan — 23 Mar 2024 at the Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland and at the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, United States
January 27, 2024
Al Farrow, The Middle Finger of Santo Guerro, 2021-2022. Gun parts, bullets, cartridge shells, gears, steel, glass, bone, and crucifix. Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clarke Gallery
Investigating pressing issues of our time; mechanisms of war, and colonialism, interrogating the unpredictability and legitimacy of armed conflict. Including the devastating impacts of war; human rights violations; and environmental collapse. The exhibition presented holds these artists in conversation with one another, powerfully asking us to pause and reflect on our collective responsibility to one another, and ask what’s at stake when we allow violence to go unchecked.
Al Farrow’s now-iconic “Reliquaries” series – featured in the multi-venue traveling survey exhibition “Al Farrow: Divine Ammunition” (2015-2019) – casts a striking visual commentary on the contemporary political climate, religion, war, history, culture, and faith. Intricately crafted from munitions and guns, Farrow’s sculptures draw on the tension between religion and violence, peace and brutality, and the sacred and the unholy.
Farrow’s recent sculptures include reliquaries to Santo Guerro, Farrow’s invented “god of war” whose likeness has been reduced to stray relics – the bones of a middle finger or two thumbs – that both evoke macabre and gothic humor while reminding us of the very real human costs of war. These new sculptures also feature secular reliquaries like “Legacy” (2021/2022), in which a rusted blue helmet – a reference to the United Nations – perches over a child’s gas mask, with ammunition strewn around the base. Through this unsettling juxtaposition, Farrow opens his critique to non-faith-based institutions that, while ostensibly meant to protect our human rights, are also culpable of violence through inaction.
In a career spanning over six decades, Masami Teraoka’s work has engaged topics such as HIV/AIDS, the contamination of environments and landscapes, and the tensions around immigration/assimilation between Western and non-Western cultures. Acclaimed for his contemporary reimagining of traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e, Teraoka’s work since the early 1990s has also referenced the baroque and gilded paintings of Western Renaissance art, with its highly detailed and often disturbing depictions of Christian allegory and parables.
In recent works, Teraoka reincorporates figures and motifs from Ukiyo-e, such as geishas and torii gates, into his compositions. In revisiting the dreamlike forms of Ukiyo-e – a term that traditionally translates into English as “floating world” – Teraoka also reflects on a less familiar translation of the term as “contemporary suffering,” a tension that, for Teraoka, locates his work at the intersection between imagination and social commentary. In 2017, Teraoka began creating work in tribute to the Russian activist and performance group Pussy Riot, whose members have been imprisoned by the Russian state for their protests against injustices enacted by President Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian government.
Teraoka’s recent triptychs feature Pussy Riot as characters in a surreal drama in which figures like Putin appear as sinister antagonists in 16th-century inspired costume, a nod to the grotesque performativity of the human rights violations and military hostilities currently being played out on our world stage. The newest works on view, completed in Spring 2022, directly respond to the crisis in Ukraine, depicting landscapes overrun with corpses and tanks, demolished buildings, and skies streaked red by fire and destruction, an apocalyptic foretelling of existence torn apart by war.
Teraoka’s recent paintings also explore his memories of witnessing the bombing of Hiroshima as a child in Onomichi, Japan – a city 45 miles away from Hiroshima – in which Teraoka, then nine years old, observed “two suns” in the sky on the day of the blast, one coming from the east and another from the west. This unnatural image of the explosion imprinted upon Teraoka’s consciousness, and in collapsing a wartime past with the calamities of the present day, Teraoka implores his viewers to consider how a seemingly ordered world can be perilously thrown out of balance by forces beyond our control – viruses, fires – as well as those firmly within it.
January 23, 2024
Curator Tour: “Tradition Interrupted” February 8
Reader Staff
January 23, 2024
Faig Ahmed, Hal, 2016, handmade woolen carpet, ed. 2/3, 107” H x 64” W x 16” D; Courtesy of the Rodef Family Collection, San Diego, CA
Thursday, February 8, 5 – 8 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
Led by Emilee Enders, curator of exhibitions and programs at the Bedford Gallery at Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California, a curator tour for the venue's current exhibit Tradition Interrupted will take place at Davenport's Figge Art Museum on February 8, this Katz Gallery showcase boasting works by creative talents who firmly believe that everyday objects have the power to evoke memories and inspire emotions.
In Tradition Interrupted, the artists' works connect the past and the present by reimagining age-old art into exciting contemporary artworks. By applying new techniques and ideas to familiar items such as textiles, metals, and pottery, the artists tell their complex stories and challenge how we remember history. Visual arts often acts as a mirror, reflecting a culture's beliefs, values, and stories by providing insights into history and evolution. By reimagining traditional arts and crafts, the artistic talents of Tradition Interrupted, as suggested in the exhibit title, interrupt the fixed structure of history, allowing viewers to think differently about the past while envisioning new possibilities in the future.
For many of the exhibition's artists, everyday objects are sources of powerful agency to recall memories in danger of being forgotten, or to call into question revisionist histories. Many of the artists work in a conceptually “uncomfortable” space with the traditions and theories of their past as they create hybrid artworks that address contemporary concepts and concerns. Exhibit curator Carrie Lederer stated: "The artists of Tradition Interrupted are merging age-old media and technique with innovation, and re-visioning culturally historic ideas to create new work that interrupt traditional practice but still collaborates with the past. For generations, traditional craft and art practices held steadfast and often visually defined a culture. Today, artists are unraveling certain traits and facets of these ancient customs to redefine or reclaim them for the contemporary world."
Included among Tradition Interrupted's participating artists are: Anila Quayyum Agha (Pakistan); Faig Ahmed (Azerbaijan); Camille Eskell (U.S.); Mounir Fatmi (Morocco); Ana Gómez (Mexico) Shirin Hosseinvand (Iran); Dinh Q. Lê (Vietnam); Steven Young Lee (U.S.); Jaydan Moore (U.S.); Ramekon O’Arwisters (U.S.); Jason Seife (U.S.); and Masami Teraoka (Japan).
Bob Fisher, Randi Fisher, Chris Bedford, Diana Nelson, John Atwater. Photo: JESSICA MONROY for Drew Altizer Photography.
From Bolinas to the Bayview, the famed atmospherics of San Francisco deftly spread its tendrils far beyond Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture to envelop a vast array of artists, dealers, cultural behemoths, galleries, and arts patrons amid the 10th edition of the FOG Design + Art fair.
FOG runs for only four days, but the city’s cultural vitality was celebrated in a weeklong series of exclusive dinners, new museum exhibitions, art openings, and even bowling (a coveted invite hosted by Fraenkel Gallery), all in homage to FOG’s theme: A Love Letter to San Francisco.
“I feel exponentially energized this year because I understand the impact of FOG on San Francisco and the arts community,” said San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Director Christopher Bedford, now in his second year leading the renowned museum. “With people from around the world traveling here, FOG has incredible momentum. Every day there’s two breakfasts, two lunches, and two dinners, plus cocktails and bowling.”
Photo: NIKKI RITCHER.
Yet the glamorous January 17 preview party, which benefits SFMOMA’s arts and education programs, wasn’t just a see-and-be-seen that unfurled at two historic Fort Mason piers. Serious shopping ensued at blue-chip galleries and the beloved Inner Richmond art emporium Park Life.
The fête was also a dazzling feast for the senses. Inside the Pier 3 Festival Pavilion, a giant purple placard emblazoned, with “To SF With Love,” greeted gala guests. The entryway installation was festooned with speakeasy-style seating that led to 46 international gallery booths and bounteous bars brimming with creative cocktails and abundant delicacies (sushi, dim sum, short rib “martinis”) dished up by McCalls Catering and Events.
Led by FOG steering committee members Douglas Durkin, Brittany Pattner, Sarah Wendell Sherrill, and Susan Swig, their vision was amplified by honorary chairs SFMOMA Board chairman Bob Fisher and his wife, Randi; SFMOMA Board President Diana Nelson and her husband, John Atwater; and advisory committee members Katie Paige and FOG founder Stanlee Gatti.
Strong sales were reported among the sold-out crowd of 2,000 supporters and collectors, who enthusiastically snapped up stellar works by such artists as Wanxin Zhang, Claudia Wieser, Pacita Abad, Alex Prager, Yayoi Kusama, Zio Ziegler, and Anicka Yi.
Jonathan Carver Moore. Photo: NATALIE SCHRIK for Drew Altizer Photography.
Right off the bat, half of the Schlomer Haus (San Francisco) collection was reserved. Jonathan Carver Moore, who recently opened his San Francisco gallery to highlight works by LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and women artists, sold two works by rising star textile artist Adana Tillman. Gladstone Gallery (New York) sold a Jim Hodges painting for $100K. And SFMOMA acquired a Sarah Myerscough Gallery (London) work, Storm Chair, by Full Grown artist Gavin Munro.
“In ten years, design and art has risen to prominence and the quality of work is now A-plus pieces,” says gallerist Jessica Silverman. “In Basel, Switzerland they say that to get into that fair, someone has to die. It’s not as dramatic here. But when dealers don’t return, that allows FOG to make space for new voices.”
This year, in a nod to the strength and resilience of FOG’s tin anniversary, the committee launched a new platform, FOG Focus.
Ali Pincus, Bridgette Lau, Jessica Silverman, Sarah Thornton. Photo: DREW ALTIZER PHOTOGRAPHY.
Held next door at Pier 2 — the former site of graduate studios for the late, lamented San Francisco Art Institute — organizers paid homage to that storied institution’s spirit of innovation and exploration by spotlighting nine emerging galleries (ranging in geography from Paris to Los Angeles) that showcase young, developmentally disabled, and underrepresented artists.
That space pulsed with tunes by DJ D Sharp and a gray box installation, Untitled (Human Mask), 2014, by Pierre Huyghe (on loan from the Kramlich Art Foundation). Pop-ups encompassed the Postscript Cafe and BOG (Books or Goods) bookstore featuring new releases by artist-run presses. José Figueroa was celebrated as FOG Focus’ inaugural artist-in-residence.
“It has been a remarkable ten years. Actually fourteen when you count that Stanlee (Gatti) founded SF20, the first modernism show, in 2008,” explains Durkin. “FOG Focus allows us to grow the fair as a cultural event that’s open to everybody. In securing Pier 2, we’re able to make space for younger dealers, smaller galleries and emerging artists that offers up another layer of the art market.”
The TCU School of Art invites applications to its fully funded MFA in Studio Art. Over the course of three years, the MFA program prioritizes individual studio practice, dedicated mentorship from faculty, and interdisciplinary seminars designed to help artists develop sustainable and impactful artistic practices. All MFA students automatically receive full tuition funding, regardless of background or citizenship status. The application deadline for fall 2024 enrollment is February 12, 2024.
About the MFA program: The TCU MFA is a three-year, fulltime, residency program and culminates in a Master of Fine Arts degree, with optional concentrations in painting, printmaking, photography, new media, or sculpture. The program is highly selective with an annual cohort of no more than four students. Every enrolled student receives a full tuition waiver, competitive stipend, and 75% health insurance coverage.
The program’s focus is studio work, with emphasis on critical thinking about the creative process and the role of the artist in the world. Students attend graduate seminars each semester exploring various topics, such as the present and historical functions of art criticism and theory, contemporary art history, and artist professionalization. Years two and three include opportunities for teaching and teaching-assistantship, and in the second summer, MFA students receive funding for a three-week summer residency led by faculty in Italy.
MFA students enjoy their own private studio and 24-hour access to the School of Art’s J. M. Moudy Building, an architectural landmark designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo & Associates. Workspace facilities include painting studios with natural north light; print shop supporting intaglio, lithography, silkscreen; sculpture workshops for wood, metal, as well as digital fabrication; foundry for bronze and aluminum casting; ceramics studio with gas and electric kilns and dedicated raku firing area; new media lab containing high-end computing stations, electronics prototyping tools, and robotics fabrication workspaces; and a photography suite that includes wet darkroom, lighting studio, two digital labs, and state of the art equipment from Imacon scanners to large-format Epson printers. To enrich their academic experience, graduate students are encouraged to apprentice in area galleries and museums, including the Art Galleries at TCU.
TCU is a secular, private university, and a major institution of higher education in Texas. The School of Art is a part of TCU’s College of Fine Arts, which includes other creative disciplines in the School of Music, School for Classical & Contemporary Dance, and the Department of Theatre.
Art and Dallas-Fort Worth: Located in Fort Worth, the TCU School of Art enjoys close relationships with artists and arts organizations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Fort Worth boasts internationally renowned museums such as the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Kimbell Art Museum, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Students can also expect to engage artist communities located throughout North Texas, especially Dallas which is home to several contemporary art venues such as the Dallas Museum of Art, the Nasher Sculpture Center, and the annual Dallas Art Fair. DFW International Airport is a 30-minute drive to campus and provides nonstop flights to major national and international destinations.
Visiting artists, critics, curators, and scholars frequently join the School of Art for colloquia, special lectures, and studio visits. Past visitors have included: Christina Fernandez, Joanna Szupinska, María Elena Ortiz, Jessica Fuentes, Maggie Adler, Mark Bradford, Amelia Jones, Jeremy Strick, Lovie Olivia, Keer Tanchak, Megan Solis, Lava Thomas, Jules Balincourt, Sandow Birk, Valerie Hegarty, Maya Ruznic, Josh Hagler, Wendy White, and Riva Lehrer.
6 Jan — 2 Mar 2024 at the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, United States
January 15, 2024
Chester Arnold, Tributaries, 2023. Oil on linen, 72 x 60 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clark Gallery
Catharine Clark Gallery opens its 2024 program with solo exhibitions by Chris Doyle and Chester Arnold that powerfully reflect on nature, memory, loss, and healing. Doyle’s exhibition, You Should Lie Down Now and Remember the Forest, is on view in the South Gallery and Media Room and features watercolors, animation, and installation. Arnold’s exhibition of paintings, Tributaries, is on view in the North Gallery, with additional drawings on view in Exit.
Chester Arnold infuses depths of feeling in crashing waves, cavernous ravines, and 400-year-old oak trees. His expressive oil paintings and drawings often depict psychologically and emotionally rich landscapes, and he writes that his work “reflects a mind’s natural and unrestrained adventures with friction and gravity at its core.”
Several paintings in his last solo exhibition, Complications (2020), depicted dramatic and tumultuous seascapes – capsized ships and rafts adrift, flotsam jettisoned in the swell – suggesting an upturned and unstable world. The paintings in Tributaries – on view in the North Gallery – depict water in seemingly calmer states, with rivers and bays stretching and meandering through green banks. However, his landscapes suggest precariousness beneath the surface.
Arnold created this body of work shortly after a loved one’s illness. After an extended break, Arnold returned to the studio. His newest landscapes reflect on passage and connection: tributaries flow into one another; starlings amass in murmuration; old-growth trees stretch their roots and branches, inviting an onlooker to touch. Arnold writes:
The works in Tributaries are driven by a metaphorical instinct that guides everything in my life. Painting may not be science, but the gifts of its agency, in both practice and appreciation, have been both balm and elixir in a challenging time. The paintings that appear here flowered in an atmosphere of restoration and recovery.]
Inside the Collections of Three San Franciscans Who Helped Build the City’s Tight-Knit Art Scene
Julia Halperin
January 12, 2024
Jeffrey N. Dauber
Jeffrey N. Dauber was born into a family of collectors and has been building his own art holdings since the late 1980s. The former Apple engineer played a key role in developing the ICA SF, where he is on the board. Never afraid to collect something others might find off-putting or explicit, he is known for his predilection for confrontational and politically engaging art.
What do you think makes the San Francisco art scene distinct?
San Francisco’s art scene is smaller and more open than the scenes in New York, LA, or Europe. The gallerists welcome buyers of all levels of collecting. You do not need to have a long resume to buy at the galleries here. This makes it an easier and more welcoming place to start learning how to collect.
Any advice for a first-time attendee?
Talk to the gallerists. They don’t bite and will be happy to talk to you about the works. Asking questions doesn’t mean you have to purchase the works.
Where does the story of your personal collection begin?
I am a dyed-in-the-wool collector. I’ve collected books, plants, music, and tattoos in addition to art. The fun part is educating yourself about what you collect and where to find things to your taste. Year-after-year, I have learned more about the artists I love and where to find them. When I started to have disposable income in the late ‘80s, I began by purchasing photography by local artists, and from there, I found my way into more galleries and more things I love.
Which work or works provokes the most conversation from visitors?
I have been collecting challenging work from the first work I acquired. I feel that art holds a unique place in the world where it can force difficult conversations with beauty. I love works where artists aggressively assert their identity and point of view. I have a Kara Walker (Untitled, 1991) which deals with sexual assault during the slave era. I have several pieces from Carrie Mae Weems’s “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried” series, which deals with the brutality of slavery. I have a work from the Judy Chicago “Birth” series, which presents a female perspective of life in a predominantly male world of art. I have works by Robert Mapplethorpe, Larry Clark, and Peter Hujar that deal with gay male sexuality. It is all meant to force the viewer, both a visitor to the collection and myself, to deal with these issues.
How has the local art scene influenced your collection?
The San Francisco scene is where I cut my teeth on collecting fine art. When I started collecting in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, aggressively challenging work was a strong theme in San Francisco during that time. From Al Farrow to Travis Somerville, the artists showed me that there are large scale works with very challenging material that are beautiful and available.<button "="" class="c-article-embed-gallery__btn c-article-embed-gallery__btn--next" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; appearance: button; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px center; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; bottom: 1.5rem; cursor: pointer; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px;">
January 12, 2024
Spotlight: Senior’s Hood Museum Exhibition Highlights Apocalypse and Hope
Celine Choi
January 12, 2024
Hood Museum intern Molly Rouzie ’24 curated an exhibition entitled “Apocalypse When: Reflections on our Collective Psyche,” which is inspired by religious apocalyptic stories.
Courtesy of the Hood Museum of Art
Growing up in an artistic family has meant that Molly Rouzie ’24 has always been immersed in creative endeavors, embarking on her own artistic studies around her sophomore year of high school. At Dartmouth, Rouzie is a studio art and Italian double major with a minor in art history. At the beginning of this school year, she also became a campus engagement intern at the Hood Museum of Art under the guidance of curator of academic programming Amelia Kahl ’01.
In her internship role, Rouzie has curated the Hood Museum’s 116th “A Space for Dialogue” exhibition. This program invites student interns to diversify interpretations of the Hood’s permanent collection through a topic of their choice. Rouzie’s exhibit, titled “Apocalypse When: Reflections on our Collective Psyche,” takes a psychological approach to the concept of the apocalypse throughout art history, and will debut on Jan. 12.
he centerpiece of Rouzie’s exhibition is Chris Doyle’s 2009 artwork “Apocalypse Management (Telling About Being One Being Living).” This animation is projected for a little over five minutes, depicting the post-apocalyptic aftermath and recovery from mass destruction. Despite the initial horror and eeriness of this apocalyptic narrative, Rouzie aims to convey a message of hope and optimism through the characters’ ability to transcend the struggle, demonstrating their resilience. Like Doyle’s animation, many of the works featured in this exhibition are modern and contemporary interpretations of the apocalypse, ranging from prints from the 20th century to various digital installments.
Southern Oregon University’s Schneider Museum of Art (SMA) reopens at 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, with a new exhibition, “What’s at Stake.”
Curated by Catharine Clark, owner and founding director of Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, this exhibition will feature artists Zeina Barakeh, Al Farrow, and Masami Teraoka. This compelling exhibition explores the urgent issues of our time, delving into the mechanisms of war and colonialism while interrogating the unpredictability and legitimacy of armed conflict. It will be on view through March 23, 2024.
“What’s at Stake” sheds light on the devastating impacts of war, human rights violations, and environmental collapse, compelling viewers to pause and reflect on our collective responsibility to one another. The exhibition raises essential questions about the consequences when violence goes unchecked and challenges us to consider what is truly at stake in a world grappling with these pressing issues.
SMA Executive Director Scott Malbaurn shared, “During a recent trip to San Francisco with museum members, we visited solo exhibitions at Catharine Clark Gallery featuring Masami Teraoka, Al Farrow, and Zeina Barakeh. Recognizing the common theme of exploring the impact of war, especially for artists raised in wartime milieus like Teraoka and Barakeh alongside the sculpture of Al Farrow, which are assembled with war time munitions, we decided to present these shows collectively as “What’s at Stake.” This group exhibition becomes a poignant question and statement, resonating with contemporary violent events that seem to be happening all of the time globally.”
An opening reception will take place 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11. Curator Catharine Clark and select artists will be in attendance. The opening reception is free and open to the public; complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres will be provided. The Museum will be closed on Saturday, Jan. 13 for a private event.
New Masterworks on Loan and Highlights from the Permanent Collection will also be on view in the Entry Gallery. Museum hours will be Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is always free, but a $5 donation is suggested.
What:
Schneider Museum of Art presents: “What’s at Stake
Free, and open to the public. Suggested $5 donation.
When:
Exhibition on view: January 11 – March 23, 2024; Tuesday – Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 11, 2024, 5 to 7 p.m.
The Museum will be closed on Saturday, January 13, 2024, for a private event.
Where:
Schneider Museum of Art, Southern Oregon University
555 Indiana Street | Ashland, OR 97520
Free one hour parking is available directly behind the Museum.
Chris Doyle. You should lie down now and remember the forest
6 Jan — 2 Mar 2024 at the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, United States
5 JANUARY 2024
Chris Doyle, Newly Fallen #11, 2022. Watercolor on paper mounted to 2 panels, 96 x 96 inches. Courtesy of Catharine Clark Gallery
Catharine Clark Gallery opens its 2024 program with solo exhibitions by Chris Doyle and Chester Arnold that powerfully reflect on nature, memory, loss, and healing. Doyle’s exhibition, You Should Lie Down Now and Remember the Forest, is on view in the South Gallery and Media Room and features watercolors, animation, and installation. Arnold’s exhibition of paintings, Tributaries, is on view in the North Gallery, with additional drawings on view in Exit.
Chris Doyle’s work often meditates on regenerative life cycles and the tension between destruction and repair. In 2017, Doyle concluded a multi-year project responding to Hudson River painter Thomas Cole’s five-painting series, The Course of Empire (1833 - 1836). The project imagined a landscape transforming from an agrarian space into a densely built environment, turning to ruin through overpopulation and pollution. In his previous exhibition, The Parables of Correction (2020), Doyle created intricately rendered animations and watercolors depicting a futuristic factory with strange machines and alien-like assembly line workers.
onceived during the COVID-19 pandemic, it emerged from a global moment that redefined shared concepts of progress, slowness, isolation, and connection. You Should Lie Down Now and Remember the Forest – on view in the South Gallery and Media Room – builds on Doyle’s earlier work around landscape and memory. It evocatively depicts a forest transitioning through seasons and cycles of growth across three series of works. The exhibition prompts reflection on collective and personal losses during COVID-19, as well as the potential for new life and beginnings arising from loss.
Doyle began the watercolor series “The Newly Fallen” (2020 – present) after observing an unusually high number of uprooted trees at his home in Maine. He notes:
Every year, the forest where I live loses several old-growth trees to storms and high winds. In Spring 2020, at the height of the pandemic, I noticed more fallen trees than normal. As I mourned the loss of each tree, I also mourned the loss of my elders who died during the pandemic from COVID-19.
In response to this overwhelming loss, Doyle created large format drawings, rendered in monochrome watercolor and mounted to panels, depicting fallen trees in the forest. Each drawing serves as a memorial to a friend or mentor who passed during the pandemic. Doyle’s drawings, both haunting and awe-inspiring in scale, create a contemplative space that invites us to consider life’s precarity and beauty. Doyle hints at signs of life in each drawing, writing: “I found myself marveling at the new growth springing from these fallen trees. Each drawing, by extension, is both a memorial to a fallen elder and a tribute to the continued impact that their lives will inspire.”
Doyle’s three-channel animation Junglegym, accompanied by a score by Todd Griffin, draws on the artist’s evolving sensory experiences of forests and trees from childhood to adulthood. Doyle notes: “Junglegym focuses on the impossibility of separating my exuberant childhood memories of forests from our present understanding of climate change. Through animation, I explore the fluidity of memory and interweave my childhood associations with a constellation of cultural information.”
Doyle’s projection-based installation Nightwatch, by comparison, combines barrier grid animation, a 19th-century animation technique, with digital projection to create an immersive experience in the gallery’s Media Room that evokes a forest at night. Light projects onto an interlaced digital image, revealing an unseen energy that pushes the limits of our sensory experience and perception.
Silverlens celebrates 20th anniversary, announces first quarter exhibitions and art fairs
January 4, 2024
ART FAIRS
SEA Focus
January 19 to 28
Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore
For S.E.A. Focus 2024, Silverlens will be presenting works by seven contemporary artists from the Filipino diaspora and the Asia-Pacific region.
Challenging the myth that the sociopolitical legacy of the Marcoses is one isolated to the Philippines, Pio Abad’s Thoughtful Gifts (2021) summons a transnational cast of characters that have either been in favor of, or weakened by the United States’ quest for empire and the perpetuation of its political mythologies.
In anonymity (2006 – 2011), one of the more iconic conceptual photographs of the past decade, Poklong Anading activates the idea of inter-dependence at the onset: subject—object—and light. The subject here, the person, bears an object, a mirror, which is held against their face and into the sunlight, producing a blinding glare that covers the holder’s identity. This iteration employs the use of lightboxes, extending the involvement of light beyond the photograph.
Nicole traces her history using a vessel of commerce: a transport crate, an object of utility common in Philippine trade. Nicole prints with these crates, transforming them from a means to an end to an end in itself. Forming labyrinthian networks, these traces become circuitry burnt into canvas. Nicole’s art speaks to the rich country of the Philippines while simultaneously holding a mirror to the now: the imprints of the past forming outlines of the present.
Taloi Havini created Reclamation collaboratively with her Hakö clan members. Underlying the wall-bound sculptures are questions about the ways in which we relate within temporal spaces; how borders are defined and claimed as well as the value of impermanence and embodied knowledge over fixed historical understandings.
As a continuation of his Blossom series, Bernardo Pacquing will present three new oil paintings. For his previous works in 2016, Pacquing explored the different visual stages of a flower blossoming. Inspired by his interest in process art, a form that places significance on progression, Bernardo chooses to experiment here with gestural execution and a focus on movement and cadence.
In Block Out the Sun (2021), Stephanie Syjuco responds to historical archives containing documentation of a faux Filipino village created for the 1904 World’s Fair. A newly-acquired colony of the United States, Filipino culture was showcased for the American public via a living “human zoo,” filled with 1200 imported “natives” performing dances and rituals. Over a century after the original photos were taken, Stephanie uses her body to intervene with the archive–both a temporary shield and a marker of defiance.
Seized in a vitrine, Ryan Villamael’s Pulô series depicts an oasis of an island that safeguards a vision of an indigenous loci. Ryan often works with archival materials such as paper and old books, transforming them into cut paper with intricate designs. Coinciding with SEA Focus, Ryan’s Locus Amoenus (2017 to 2023), a site-specific installation consisting of intricately cut lattice work from replicas of geographical maps, will occupy Esplanade Singapore, the country’s national performing arts center. First exhibited at the Singapore Biennale in 2016, Locus Amoenus has been shown in Shiga prefecture, Japan; Chiang Mai, Thailand, and; Manila, Philippines.
Throughout the Southeast Asian region, all mother tongues have a different name for the mat. Nevertheless, there is an unparalleled intimacy in the shared experience of the mat tied to everyday life and ritual. Regarding the woven mat as architectural and democratic, Yee I-Lann considers it a portal to story-telling and a way to discover and unroll other knowledge.
As part of the fair program, there will be a panel discussion and book launch entitled Collaboration and Community: Yee I-Lann, June Yap and Beverly Yong in celebration of Yee I-Lann’s 216-page monograph Yee I-Lann: the sun will rise in the east on January 20 from 2 to 3 PM. Three years in the making, the book traces the arc of Yee I-Lann’s artistic practice through a sequence of essays and conversations, and photographic documentation of works made from 2011 to 2023.
Art Fair Philippines
February 15 to 18
Booth 2 (L5), The Link and Silverlens Manila
Silverlens returns to Art Fair Philippines with another two-part presentation of works by over 50 contemporary artists. The works will be exhibited concurrently at The Link, Makati and Silverlens Manila.
Participating Artists:
Pacita Abad, Pio Abad, Catalina Africa, Martha Atienza, Allan Balisi, Santiago Bose, Jonathan Ching, James Clar, Stephanie Comilang, Chati Coronel, Nicole Coson, Leslie De Chavez, Imelda Cajipe Endaya, Keka Enriquez, Patricia Perez Eustaquio, Mark Andy Garcia, Dina Gadia, Ayka Go, Gregory Halili, Taloi Havini, Paolo Icasas, Geraldine Javier, Mit Jai Inn, Robert Langenegger, Lou Lim, Luis Lorenzana, Arturo Luz, Gene Paul Martin, Pow Martinez, Maya Muñoz, Raffy Napay, Wawi Navarroza, Elaine Navas, Gina Osterloh, Renato Orara, Bernardo Pacquing, Gary-Ross Pastrana, Hanna Pettyjohn, Jon Pettyjohn, Tessy Pettyjohn, Yvonne Quisumbing, Issay Rodriguez, Norberto Roldan, Jose Tence Ruiz, Carina Santos, Isabel Santos, Luis Antonio Santos, Stephanie Syjuco, Maria Taniguchi, Leo Valledor, Carlos Villa, Ryan Villamael, Yee I-Lann, MM Yu, Eric Zamuco
Frieze Los Angeles
February 29 to March 03
Booth B15, Santa Monica Airport
Silverlens will make its debut at Frieze Los Angeles with a duo artist presentation of works by Filipino-American artists Stephanie Syjuco and Jenifer Wofford. Both based in San Francisco, Wofford’s and Syjuco’s participation in the fair serves as a homecoming, underscoring California’s enduring role as a connector for artists, as well as for the US and Asia-Pacific regions.
Stephanie Syjuco will recontextualize the extensive analog archives of the now-defunct Manila Chronicle in her latest series of photographic works. Collaging and digitizing images captured from the post-war era (which spans the newspaper’s founding in 1945 to its closure in 1972 due to the imposition of martial law), Stephanie expounds upon the history-building and myth-making led by Filipinos within their newfound independence. Meditatively assembling archived news stories and previously printed photographs of foliage and flora alongside perilous political propaganda, Syjuco transforms the ordinary and the violent into novel expressions of exploration, inquiry, and discovery.
Jenifer will showcase works from her Comfort Room series, a title derived from the Filipino euphemism for ‘toilet,’ symbolizing the brief respite found in the privacy of a bathroom. Exploring the delicate balance and slippage between joy and grief, the paintings capture the opulence and camp of the iconic Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, California. Embracing the vibrancy of the landmark hotel and resort, Wofford’s paintings probe themes of transience, migration, and Americana to craft a newly established in-between, forging space for both evolution and reinvention.
Art Basel Hong Kong
March 26 to 30
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
Silverlens is thrilled to participate in Art Basel Hong Kong for the first time after expanding to New York City in 2022 with a booth raising the flags of artists of the Filipino diaspora and Southeast Asia. Pacita Abad, Carlos Villa, and Stephanie Syjuco – who all name San Francisco as the starting point of their art practices – anchor the booth with work about abstraction, migration, and the colonial gaze. From the other side of the Pacific, we have Yee I-Lann’s humble tikar (woven mat) which spotlighting the urgency of circular economies, and Pow Martinez’s paintings which are a salve to preserving our mental health. Made in London, Nicole Coson’s monoprints examine the concept of invisibility as an effective artistic strategy. Exhibiting at Art Basel Hong Kong for the first time, Imelda Cajipe Endaya is presenting works that center on women empowerment and sisterhood in the Filipino context. An artist-activist, cultural worker, and community leader, Cajipe-Endaya co-founded the feminist organization Kababaihan sa Sining at Bagong Sibol na Kamalayan (KASIBULAN).
Napa Valley Art Notes: di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art announces 2024 programs
December 27, 2023
A scene from Shakespeare Summer Stroll at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa on July 27, 2023. The program will return in September of 2024.
Nick Otto, Register
Get ready to mark your calendars: di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art recently announced its 2024 calendar of exhibitions and public programs. Highlights include a career retrospective exhibition featuring the work of seminal Bay Area artist Deborah Oropallo; a new video projection series overlooking Sonoma Highway; and the return of “True North,” di Rosa’s biennial showcase of contemporary artists from the North Bay.
Opening Saturday, Jan. 27, with a special Tailgate Opening Reception, “We the People,” will be projected on the exterior of di Rosa’s Gallery 1. Visible from Sonoma Highway, Jock McDonald’s emotional portraits of community members morph from one individual into another, illuminating our connections and shared humanity. “We The People” will be on display on the Gallery 1 Exterior through April 21, 2024. Accompanying programming includes a Portrait Photography Workshop with Jock McDonald on Saturday, April 6, where attendees are encouraged to bring any camera at hand and join artist Jock McDonald for a very special portrait photography workshop.
“Lightfast: Intertwine” is a vibrant multidisciplinary installation created by visual artists Christel Dillbohner and Danae Mattes, musician/composer Monica Scott, and writer Sylvia Brownrigg. Enjoy performances by Lightfast members Monica Scott and Sylvia Brownrigg at the opening reception on Saturday, Feb. 24, in Gallery 1.
In “Intertwine,” the quartet combines media to create a rich visual, sculptural, and audio environment that engages with the changing natural world and our place within it. The exhibition reflects and responds to di Rosa’s varied landscape and lakeside setting: its water and light, its flora and fauna, and its natural and human history.
Separately and together, the pieces of Intertwine draw on the realm of the subconscious to heighten viewers’ awareness and perceptions of their surroundings.
Opening in Gallery 1 on Saturday, June 22, and guest curated by Isabelle Sorrell, “M is for Water” brings together works by Shiva Ahmadi, Mari Andrews, Mildred Howard, Prajakti Jayavant, Paul Kos, Hung Liu, Susan Middleton, Gay Outlaw, John Priola, Isabelle Sorrell, and Wanxin Zhang, who collectively explore the simple reality and sacredness that there is no life without water and there is no child without mother.
“Moving Images: A Survey Exhibition of Works by Deborah Oropallo” is a major career retrospective featuring collage, animation, and sculptural work by seminal Bay Area artist Deborah Oropallo. Opening Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 in Gallery 2, programming will include a panel discussion with Deborah Oropallo and her collaborators on Saturday, Oct. 5, (tentative date) and a Curator’s Tour on Sunday, Oct. 20.
Collaborative Exhibition “Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America” extended beyond October 2023
December 27, 2023
December 27, 2023 Category: Entertainment Posted by: Philadelphia Sun Staff
PHILADELPHIA – The African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) have announced that the joint exhibition, Rising Sun: Artists in An Uncertain America, will be extended at both institutions beyond its original October closing date.
The one-of-a-kind exhibition, which invites guests to join 20 artists in exploring the themes, issues, and realities of the question is the sun rising or setting on the experiment of American democracy will now be on display until December 31, 2023, at PAFA and March 3, 2024, at AAMP. The extension allows for continued thinking about Rising Sun and its themes into the New Year and through Black History Month at AAMP, and the introduction of a new exhibition inspired by the works in Rising Sun, Artists as Cultivators, at PAFA.
An immersive art experience, Rising Sun is a multi-venue exhibition featuring newly commissioned, mixed-media art, including audio recordings, visual projections, full gallery installations, sculptures, and large-scale paintings, drawings, and prints, from the following artists: John Akomfrah CBE, La Vaughn Belle, Mark Thomas Gibson, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Demetrius Oliver, Dread Scott, Renée Stout, Hank Willis Thomas, and Deborah Willis at AAMP; and Shiva Ahmadi, Tiffany Chung, Lenka Clayton, Petah Coyne, Eamon Ore-Giron, Dyani White Hawk, Alison Saar, Rose B. Simpson, Sheida Soleimani, Wilmer Wilson IV, and Saya Woolfalk at PAFA.(Installations by Coyne, White Hawk, Ore-Giron, Saar, and Woolfalk at PAFA will also be displayed in the new exhibition, Artists as Cultivators.)
Explore 7 Artworks by Native American Artists From the Artnet Gallery Network
by Artnet Gallery Network
December 26, 2023
Jeffrey Gibson, THE FUTURE IS PRESENT (2019). Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
Before we bid adieu to 2023 and welcome in 2024, we at the Artnet Gallery Network pulled together one last roundup for the year of art that intrigued or inspired us. Over the thousands of combined galleries, artists, and artworks we came across, we found a distinct and exciting presence of art made by Native American artists. From pieces made using traditional, hand-beaded techniques and others showing innovative uses of abstraction in painting, this collection of works by Native American artists certainly caught our eye.
The works below are only a glimpse of everything that can be found with the Artnet Gallery Network, where you can search thousands of galleries and explore diverse art and artists from around the world with just a few simple clicks. And be sure to keep a lookout for our first Artnet Gallery Network deep dive of the year in January!
James Luna Half Indian/Half Mexican (2010)
James Luna, Half Indian/Half Mexican (2010). Garth Greenan Gallery, New York.
Marie Watt Companion Species (What’s Going On) (2017)
Marie Watt, Companion Species (What’s Going On) (2017). Courtesy of Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle.
Sara Siestreem couplet (2017)
Sara Siestreem, couplet (2017). Courtesy of Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland.
Self-taught artist Timothy Cummings's fantasy filled paintings to be exhibited at Nancy Hoffman Gallery
December 14, 2023
Timothy Cummings, Acrobat, 2022. Acrylic on panel, 24 x 18 inches.
NEW YORK, NY.- An exhibition of paintings by self-taught artist Timothy Cummings will open at Nancy Hoffman Gallery today, where it will remain on view through Saturday, January 27, 2024. While most of Cummings’s paintings are dream-like fantasies filled with myriad detail and discovery, each has a figure or figures. Much of Cummings’s work addresses the issue of youthful turmoil, of that awkward moment between childhood and adulthood, of identity, of gender. The artist often paints figures as a child might conjure them in his/her mind, giving a dreamlike, fantasy quality to a grown-up persona.
Mostly intimate in scale on small wooden panels (from 8 x 10 to 38 x 48 inches), Cummings’s acrylic paintings, carefully and meticulously created, suggest a master’s technique with imagery that could only be contemporary. Inspired by Renaissance paintings as well as by primitive art, Cummings’s new works transport the viewer from this world into a world of transformation where anything is possible.
Timothy Cummings was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1968 where he grew up in the midst of Spanish Catholic and Native American culture, fertile with religious imagery and iconography in the churches. Murals and retablos he saw depicting death, martyrdom, and Day of the Dead imagery influenced him. Cummings is completely self-taught.
While most of Cummings’s paintings are dream-like fantasies filled with myriad detail and discovery, each has a figure or figures. Much of Cummings’s work addresses the issue of youthful turmoil, of that awkward moment between childhood and adulthood, of identity, of gender.
The artist often paints figures as a child might conjure them in his/her mind, giving a dreamlike, fantasy quality to a grown-up persona as he has done in this painting.
Mostly intimate in scale on small wooden panels (from 8x10 inches to 38x48 inches) Cummings’s acrylic paints, carefully and meticulously created, suggest a master’s technique with imagery that could only be contemporary.
Inspired by Renaissance paintings as well as by primitive art, Cummings’s new works transport the viewer from this world into a world of transformation where anything is possible.
Nancy Hoffman Gallery
Timothy Cummings: Blue Boy
December 14th, 2023 - January 27th, 2024
Botticelli, Wolfgang Tillmans and Zen masterpieces headline holiday visual art season
Tony Bravo
November 15, 2023
Sandro Botticelli’s “Five Sibyls in Niches: The Persian, Libyan, Delphic, Cimmerian and Erythraean, is on display at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. (Christ Church, University of Oxford/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)
Before the year is out, the Bay Area has a few more potential showstoppers on the visual arts calendar.
There’s an unprecedented showing of a Renaissance master, a San Francisco first for an acclaimed photographer and two rarely seen 13th century works from Japan. It’s a season of riches you won’t want to miss.
Stephanie Syjuco, “The International Orange Commemorative Store,” 2012.
Photo: San Jose Museum of Art
Encode/Store/Retrieve
Drawn primarily from materials in the San Jose Museum of Art’s permanent collection, this show engages with ideas of memory and how since the dawn of the Digital Age, humans have been able to create new formats for memory with video, photos and sound recordings.
“Encode/Store/Retrieve” features sculptures, paintings, photographs, installations and works on paper organized into thematic groupings that reference the key processes of cognitive and computer memory.
Featured artists include Jim Campbell, Enrique Chagoya, Rose B. Simpson and Stephanie Syjuco.
4-9 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Dec. 8-April 21. $12-15. San Jose Museum of Art, 110 S. Market St., San Jose. 408-271-6840. www.sjmusart.org
The ADAA Art Show Returns for a Milestone 35th Edition With A Slate of Special Programming to Celebrate
The Art Show promises a full slate of programming, which coincides with the 130th anniversary of Henry Street Settlement.
Artnet Gallery Network, October 18, 2023
Photo: Andy Ryan.
This November, the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) will again stage The Art Show at New York’s historic Park Avenue Armory next month, kicking things off with the annual Benefit Preview on November 1, and public days from November 2–5. The 2023 edition promises to be memorable as it marks both the fair’s 35th anniversary and the 130th anniversary of Henry Street Settlement, with all admissions proceeds being donated to the social services organization.
Photo: Andy Ryan.
Continuing its ongoing support, the ADAA has collaborated with Henry Street Settlement on a jointly organized special exhibition with artist Kate Capshaw at Henry Street Settlement’s Dale Jones Burch Neighborhood Center on the Lower East Side. Capshaw’s project will build on the themes of her widely known “Unaccompanied” series, which aims to bring awareness to unhoused youth, through the creation of two new oil-based portraits—with one portraying people who have benefited from the organizations programs, and another, featured at The Art Show, of a Settlement staff member who works at the forefront of charitable works.
ADAA Executive Director Maureen Bray said, “We are so proud to deepen our relationship with Henry Street Settlement and highlight the mission of this invaluable organization for The Art Show. Taken together, the breadth of this year’s programs reflects the multiplicity of thought and innovative spirit that make The Art Show such a special event.”
Joel Mesler, Rabbi With Crimson Kippah (2023). Courtesy of Cheim and Read.
Each day of The Art Show will feature special events as part of a full slate of programming accompanying the fair. From a conversation between gallerist and painter Joel Mesler and his Rabbi moderated by Shira Becker, the Leon Levy Associate Curator of the Jewish Museum, to “Meet the Artists,” a recurring series that allows visitors the chance to meet and engage with artists whose work is being shown in the fair.
The fair itself promises to be one of the most expansive to date, with 78 ADAA member galleries participating and of those, 57 are staging solo exhibitions, including Joel Mesler at Cheim and Read ; Roy Lichtenstein at Castelli Gallery; and Kiki Smith at Pace Gallery. In addition to returning favorites, such as Kasmin and Sperone Westwater, a number of new ADAA members will make their The Art Show debut, including Anat Ebgi Gallery, Eric Firestone Gallery, and Catharine Clark Gallery.
Kiki Smith, Dark Water (2023). Courtesy of Pace Gallery.
Together, the gallery booth presentations and dynamic range of events and programming will bring to the fore the ADAA’s mission to foster and promote the country’s leading fine art galleries, as well as ongoing commitment to uplifting the message and activities of Henry Street Settlement.
Faith Wilding, Leaf Goddess (1976). Courtesy of the artist and Anat Ebgi.
The Art Show organized by the ADAA to benefit the Henry Street Settlement will run November 2–5, 2023.
The fully funded residency immerses artists in Miami’s cultural landscape, where they can forge connections to help their careers thrive.
Fountainhead Arts October 18, 2023
Every year, Fountainhead Residency, a fully funded residency in Miami, Florida, welcomes 33 national and international artists to live and work in its midcentury home in the city’s historic Morningside neighborhood. The program is pleased to announce its 2024 artist residency selections, a roster of 30 exceptional contemporary artists working across various media.
This year’s applications were thoughtfully reviewed by Lauren Kelley, a Fountainhead alum based in Texas; Zoe Lukov, the co-founder of Art in Common in Los Angeles; Ché Morales, a curator and founder of OG Magazine in New York; and Gilbert Vicario, chief curator at Pérez Art Museum Miami.
2024 Artist Roster
January 2024
Merik Goma (born Michigan; based Connecticut)
Pacifico Solano (born New York; based New York)
Samuel Levi Jones (born and based in Indiana)
February 2024
Nardeen Srouji (born and based in Palestine and Israel)
Reniel del Rosario (born Phillipines, based California)
Zoe Walsh (born Washington, DC, based California)
March 2024
Ana Silva (born Angola; based Portugal)
Kevork Mourad (born Syria; based New York)
Liz Cohen (born and based in Arizona)
April 2024
Ato Ribeiro (born Pennsylvania; based Georgia)
Ho Jae Kim (born Korea; based New York)
Sagarika Sundaram (born India; based New York)
May 2024
Claudia Joscowicz (born Bolivia; based New York)
Nadia Hernández (born Venezuela; based Australia)
Natia Lemay (born and based in Canada)
June 2024
Andrea Ferraro (born Peru; based Mexico)
Daniela Gomez Paz (born Colombia; based Connecticut)
Saya Woolfalk (born Japan; based New York)
July 2024
José Villalobos (born and based in Texas)
Margarita Cabrera (born and based in Texas)
Victoria Martinez (born Chicago; based Connecticut)
August 2024
Catalina Ouyang (born Illinois; based New York)
Mar Figueroa (born Ecuador; based New York)
Yongqi Tang (born China; based Washington)
September 2024
Emiliana Henriquez (born El Salvador; based California)
Kiyan Williams (born New Jersey; based New York)
Sarah Zapata (born Texas; based New York)
October 2024
Adam Amram (born Israel; based New York)
Adam Beris (born Wisconsin; based California)
Tyler Christopher Brown (born and based in California)
Visitors to the Center for Native Arts and Cultures in Southeast Portland heard water trickling while taking in artist Marie Watt’s compelling sculpture on exhibit this month. The sound was live, captured by a microphone in the center’s basement where a thin tributary of the Columbia River flows. The soothing noise was then transmitted through speakers in the first-floor gallery.
The art, the water and the site are significant. Centuries before the center’s newly acquired brick building was constructed in 1908, people hunted and fished, traded goods and built community here.
Watt, a member of the Seneca Nation of Indians who lives in Portland, said her billboard-sized sculpture, “Chords to Other Chords (Relative),” is a conversation connecting ancestors and future generations to the land. The words “Turtle Island And,” referencing the creation story of North America, are seen in neon among images of Indigenous people and treaty documents.
“Our present moment is inextricably tethered to the communities of past and future,” Watt said in a news release about the exhibit that ran Aug. 24-Oct. 13.
It is also significant that Watt’s art, inspired by Seneca oral history traditions and since acquired by collector Jordan Schnitzer, was “not siloed in an inaccessible space,” continued the news release. Instead, the exhibit was free and open to the public in a repatriated building that is the 14-year-old Native Arts and Cultures Foundation’s first permanent home.
The land and building transfer of ownership by the nonprofit Yale Union contemporary arts organization took place in 2020, and has inspired others, seeking restorative social change and guided by the Land Back Movement, to return property to Indigenous stewardship and ownership.
The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, supported by donations of tribal partners, is dedicated to advancing equity and Native knowledge with a focus on arts and cultural expression.
Since the national nonprofit organization was founded in Portland in 2009, it has awarded more than $14 million in program services to Native organizations and has helped advance the careers of nearly 400 American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native artists and culture bearers across the U.S.
With its headquarters and event center at 800 S.E. 10th Ave. off Southeast Belmont Street, the foundation can also provide space for curated Native art exhibitions, cultural ceremonies and celebrations, said foundation spokeswoman Mandy Yeahpau.
On July 29, the center presented an art project by one of its grant recipients, Lehuauakea, a mahu mixed-Native Hawaiian artist who creates traditional Native Hawaiian kapa (barkcloth) kites, called lupe. The art is titled “E Hoʻala Ka Lupe: To Awaken the Kite.”
The event also offered entertainment by the KALO Hawaiian Civic Club and goods for sale by Koa Roots, Pa’akai Shop, Honu Hawaiian Shave Ice and other local makers.
The organization, led by founding president and chief executive officer Lulani Arquette, who is Native Hawaiian, also opens its three-level Portland building to free community tours to meet Native makers from 6 to 8 p.m. one Thursday each month.
At September’s community tour, Portland chef and artist Ramon Shiloh, who is Mvskoke, Cherokee, Filipino and Black, spoke about First Nations Foods, foraging seasonal ingredients, food sovereignty and Indigenous food knowledge. Shiloh made six naturally gluten-free dishes, including smoked sockeye salmon patties with freshly harvested Chippewa wild rice and salmon roe.
The tours are free and visitors are asked to register in advance at nativeartsandcultures.org/events/communitytours.
Upcoming events are:
Oct. 26′s community tour includes a screening of “Rid,” a horror, revenge short film about abusers preying on Indigenous community members by filmmaker Olivia Camfield, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. The multimedia movement artist, who was awarded a 2022 LIFT grant by the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, will be there to answer questions.
Nov. 16′s community tour includes storytelling with Lillian Pitt, a Pacific Northwest creator of contemporary fine art that honors the history and legends of her ancestors living in the Columbia River Gorge area.
Dec. 7′s community tour will have Indigenous makers selling their work at a pop-up holiday market.
Yeahpau, who is Comanche, Cherokee and Tarahumara, and other staff members lead visitors on a tour of the building, using the freight elevator to move from the black-box theater space on the first floor to the second-story event space surrounded by tall arched windows.
“People are happy that we’re creating space for art in a time when many organization have decreased programing” due to a fall in art funding, Yeahpau said. “It gives people hope that there is support for art in Portland, especially Indigenous art.”
Fundraising will help renovate and add ADA-accessible features and air conditioning to the 115-year-old former Yale Union Laundry Building. The 40,000-square-foot masonry structure, designed with an Italian Renaissance style exterior and Egyptian Revival style ornamentation, earned a listing on the National Register of Historic Places since it represents Portland’s once robust industrial laundry business.
The building also played a role in 1919 when laundry workers, mostly women, went on a strike that resulted in better pay and working conditions.
[Center for Native Arts and Cultures hosts community events the former Yale Union Laundry building at 800 SE 10th Ave. in Portland’s Buckman neighborhood.]
Robert Franklin
Center for Native Arts and Cultures
The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation participated in the 2023 Converge 45 biennial art show in August and presented "Chords to Other Chords (Relative)," a monumental neon sculpture by Portland-based, Seneca Nation artist Marie Watt.
[Center for Native Arts and Cultures hosts community events the former Yale Union Laundry building at 800 SE 10th Ave. in Portland’s Buckman neighborhood.]
Robert Franklin
Center for Native Arts and Cultures
Marie Watt, a member of the Seneca Nation of Indians who lives in Portland, said her billboard-sized sculpture, “Chords to Other Chords (Relative),” is a conversation connecting ancestors and future generations to the land.
[Center for Native Arts and Cultures hosts community events the former Yale Union Laundry building at 800 SE 10th Ave. in Portland’s Buckman neighborhood.]
Robert Franklin
Center for Native Arts and Cultures
Marie Watt's neon words “Turtle Island And,” reference the creation story of North America.
Center for Native Arts and Cultures
Center for Native Arts and Cultures
The Center for Native Arts and Cultures hosted an artist talk with Marie Watt in the Black Box Theater Space of the former Yale Union Laundry building at 800 S.E. 10th Ave.
Read the full article here: https://www.oregonlive.com/living/2023/10/center-for-native-arts-and-cultures-hosts-community-events-in-its-se-portland-building.html
November 09, 2023
Catharine Clark gallery
The Art Show 2023 Brings America’s Top Galleries to the Park Avenue Armory
Published October 27, 2023 ~ Updated October 27, 2023.
The Art Show 2023, by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) brings America’s top galleries to New York City. This 35th edition leads into the November art auctions which are one of the pillars of New York City’s art world.
Though it stands alone, this is one of New York City’s most important art fairs. If you think the Upper East Side is stuffy, get over it and go. The art is great. The galleries are great and the dealers are very informative. The people watching is great too, especially at the opening night Benefit Preview. The Upper East Side turns out in all its finery.
The Benefit Preview benefits the Henry Street Settlement on its 130th Anniversary, a social services agency and home of the Abrons Arts Center in Manhattan’s Lower East Side; that provides social services, arts programs, and health care to families who are starting their lives as New Yorkers. That’s more important than ever now. Going to The Art Show helps some of our newest New Yorker families.
The Art Show 2023
The Art Show by the ADAA (Shiningcolors/Dreamstime)
The Art Show 2023 (ADAA) art fair of 56 of America’s top galleries; opens with a Benefit Preview for the Henry Street Settlement at the Park Avenue Armory in the Upper East Side; on Wednesday, November 1, 2023; with great talks and the public show, Thursday-Sunday, November 2-5, 2023. Benefit from $175. General Admission $30.
An important gallery is Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art which specializes in masterworks of Mexican and Latin American art. Martin created the Latin American department at Sotheby’s, before Latin Art was popular. Remember, The Whitney Museum said the biggest influence on American art, wasn’t the Europeans, it was the Mexican muralists.
Catharine Clark Gallery is showing “Double Vision: Rethinking Manifest Destiny,” a critique of the false narratives of our country’s creation stories. Manifest Destiny was nothing but a neo-religious con used to exploit, enslave, and exterminate Native Americans. Only by honestly embracing what was done in the name of God and country, can we begin to move on towards something better for all Americans.
Eric Firestone Gallery pays tribute to historic museum exhibitions of African American art. That’s very relevant because we are in the Harlem Renaissance 3.0
Leon Tovar Gallery, a Colombian art gallery that specializes in Latin American art, examines the cross-cultural dialogue of a pair of Argentine artists
For the Henry Street Settlement’s 130th Anniversary, The Art Show features an exhibition by Kate Capshaw, known for her “Unaccompanied” series about unhoused youth, in conversation with Henry Street Settlement CEO David Garza. Try to get your head around being a kid who walked from Venezuela or Central America to the southern border, and made your way to New York City ~ with no money and alone. They didn’t come for a bigger television. They come because there is death behind. Those kids are going to be great New Yorkers, because they are unstoppable.
There are discussions about relevant themes for Asian American artists, Jewish artists, Women artists, and more. The New York art world gets it that great art is created by all peoples, all over the world. The Art Show is part of that grand shift away from our Euro-centric perspective.
American Museum of Ceramic Art showcases recently acquired ceramics
Jack Earl, American Gothic Revisited, 31 x 22 x 14 in. 2007. Ceramic, Acrylic. Gift of the Dicke Collection; collection of the American Museum of Ceramic Art.
POMONA, CALIF.- Opening October 28, 2023, REVEAL: Recent Acquisitions 2020-2023, showcases a remarkable variety of ceramics that AMOCA has recently acquired for its permanent collection. AMOCA’s permanent collection encompasses almost 13,000 ceramic objects that date from Pre-Columbian to contemporary times. The collection has been acquired through the generosity of many individuals who wish to share their gifts with the public.
Within the scope of this exhibition, AMOCA will display a range of previously unseen works from artists including Beatrice Wood, Clayton Bailey, Natalia Arbelaez, Beth Lo, Ron Nagle, Jun Kaneko, Tony Marsh and many more. This diverse grouping of forms, styles, and techniques highlights a range of art movements in the ceramic community.
Executive Director Beth Ann Gerstein commented, “We’re grateful for this opportunity to share selections from AMOCA’s collection with the public. REVEAL focuses on recent acquisitions,
making work from both well-known and under-recognized artists available for visitors. Through REVEAL, viewers will be able to experience traditional and innovative practices in ceramics as rendered in vessel, sculptural, and figurative forms.”
Exhibition Overview
REVEAL presents a selection of approximately 150 acquisitions, featuring ceramic objects acquired within the last three years. The museum’s permanent collection houses almost 13,000 objects, dating from pre-Columbian to contemporary times and includes one-of-a-kind functional and sculptural pieces as well as popular, mass produced “production ware.”
Works included in REVEAL range from Vernon Kiln souvenir plates, to a large-scale figurative sculpture by Wanxin Zhang, to a Pillow Pitcher by Betty Woodman. In addition to presenting a variety of vibrant, serious, tactile, diverse, iconic, and/or playful objects for visitors to explore, this exhibition also tells the story of how museums safeguard cultural heritage through their work of acquiring, preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting objects.
AMOCA is grateful for the generosity of many individuals who have made it possible for the museum to acquire these important ceramic pieces and to share these gifts with the public.
Complementing the in-person exhibition experience, numerous public and educational programs will be mounted, including lectures, artist conversations, college-level tours, and tours for Title 1 schools serving grades K-12.
This exhibition is funded, in part, by a grant from the Dew Foundation and by support from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture.
This exhibition is organized by the American Museum of Ceramic Art.
How the Gochman Family Collection Aims to Support Contemporary Indigenous Artists—and Reshape the Mainstream Art World
BY MAXIMILÍANO DURÓN
October 25, 2023 5:00am
Collector Becky Gochman (left) with the core team of the Gochman Family Collection, director Zach Feuer (right) and artist-in-residence and co-curator Rachel Martin (center).
Over the past year or so, the home of collector Becky Gochman and her family has become a locus of sorts for the New York art world. Any given month might see the 12-room apartment host cocktail receptions for nonprofits, tours for museum curators, visits with artists, and maybe even as the setting for a forthcoming artwork.
Located a block from the Guggenheim Museum and boasting views of Central Park, the apartment is filled with work by contemporary Indigenous artists, including a beaded punching bag by Jeffrey Gibson, a multipart installation of a red-painted totem pole that has been broken into pieces by Nicholas Galanin, and paintings by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Kay WalkingStick, and George Morrison. Also on view are sculptures by Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger, woven pieces by Tyrrell Tapaha and Venancio Aragon, drawings by Shuvinai Ashoona, photographs by Jeremy Dennis, mixed-media works by Teresa Baker and Beau Dick, and the original cutout from James Luna’s famed 1991 work Take a Picture with a Real Indian.
Assembled in just the past few years, under the leadership of former gallerist Zach Feuer, the Gochman Family Collection now numbers more than 400 works. “It is already one of the deepest collections of contemporary Native art,” said curator Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation), who serves as one of five curatorial advisers to Gochman and Feuer. “The way that I speak about it is that it’s a good thing and also reflective of the fact that collectors and museum curators really haven’t been acquiring in the way that they should.
Sitting in her living room one morning this past summer, Gochman described the experience of building the collection as a “wild two-and-a-half years.” She added, on a more serious note, “It was time for this, especially on the East Coast.”
Gochman attributes her journey as a serious art collector to her elder daughter, Sophie, who wrote an opinion column titled “Breaking the Silence Surrounding White Privilege in the Horse World” for the Chronicle of the Horse, a leading equestrian magazine. Published in June 2020, a week after the murder of George Floyd, Sophie wrote that her fellow riders had failed “to recognize the vital truth that just because we benefit from a system of oppression does not mean we cannot work to dismantle it.”
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s Amerika Map, 2021, hangs prominently in the Gochman’s living room.
Gochman no longer possesses many of her earliest acquisitions, not because she flipped them on the secondary market but because she donated them to establish the permanent collection of Forge Project, an initiative that Gochman founded in 2021 with Feuer to support Indigenous artists. Gochman and Feuer quickly came to realize that, in order for Forge Project—located in the Hudson Valley in New York on unceded ancestral homelands of the Moh-He-Con-Nuck (today known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians)—to have real impact, they would need to step back and have an Indigenous leader helm the organization.
“We kept thinking about the land we were on and keeping the land with a voice. It became apparent that we could do a complete Indigenous-led program,” Gochman said. When Hopkins first visited Forge Project, Gochman said, “we discussed if change was a possibility and if this initiative could bring about that change. She thought absolutely it could.” Feuer added that his partner in the project “saw early on that without changing who’s in charge, it doesn’t matter.”
Hopkins, one of today’s most closely watched curators whose work has helped increase visibility for contemporary Indigenous artists, soon agreed to lead Forge Project as executive director and chief curator. “I was intrigued by the invitation to shape it in the way that we wanted, and that included the collection,” she said. “The ability to support contemporary Native art at this level historically hasn’t been there. Becky and Zach had complete faith in and a need for understanding how Native leadership can equal self-determination.”
After giving her earliest acquisitions to Forge Project, and having caught the collecting bug in full, Gochman wanted to keep going: she decided to establish the Gochman Family Collection with aims similar to those of Forge Project, which today operates as an independent, Native-led organization.
After giving her earliest acquisitions to Forge Project, and having caught the collecting bug in full, Gochman wanted to keep going: she decided to establish the Gochman Family Collection with aims similar to those of Forge Project, which today operates as an independent, Native-led organization.
From left, Kimberly Fulton Orozco’s Insecure Mixtape.Romance Story.1. Saving My Love for You (2023) and Rachel Martin’s I’m Gonna Go Where the Luv Is It Is What It Is (2022).
In the same room is another family portrait by Martin, a drawing of three heads overlapping—indicative of the three women in the family—as well as a towering sculpture by Marie Watt comprising a cedar base, brightly colored reclaimed wool blankets, and a steel I-beam. There’s also a ping-pong table, which doubles as a workspace. Martin, who soon after her commission joined the Gochman Family Collection as a curatorial adviser and artist-in-residence, often works from here.
“Being surrounded by all of that work is incredibly inspirational on so many levels,” Martin said. “Seeing the work around me, I’m inspired to push my art further than I probably would if I was just away and separate. The concept of much of the work in the collection is how strong it is together.”
The arrangement of works in the apartment this past summer was relatively new because many of the pieces previously installed were out on loan to “Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self-Determination since 1969,” an exhibition that Hopkins curated for CCS Bard’s Hessel Museum of Art, and to solo exhibitions for Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Raven Halfmoon, and Jeffrey Gibson. The Gochman Family Collection aims to be a lending entity, to share the art with as many people as possible.
The entire collection is accessible online, and the organization charges no loan fees, so as to “reduce barriers to access,” as Hopkins put it. (The collection also holds work by non-Native artists, including Alice Neel, Tau Lewis, Stanley Whitney, and Howardena Pindell.)
Each year, around one-fifth of the collection is loaned out to major museums, cultural centers, and biennials. “I think 20 percent is pretty good, all things considered, but I think we could even work harder on that,” Gochman said, noting that a future goal is to open a publicly accessible space to show more work from the collection.
Martin agreed. “A lot of times a collector buys the work and then that’s it: this person owns it and that person doesn’t,” she said. “That’s definitely not the direction that this collection goes. It’s focused on institutional change—how do we make collecting art actionable?”
Atop the pool table, Gochman displays a variety of wearable artworks by Sherri Dick, Elias Jade Not Afraid, and Veronica Poblano.
One aspect of the Gochman Family Collection that distinguishes it from many others focused on Indigenous and Native American art, Hopkins said, is that it does not include any cultural belongings, or what many might call artifacts. “Many of our cultural belongings have become trafficable objects,” Hopkins said. “How do you call attention to that? How do you empower the work that Native artists are making now, so that funds go toward them and their work instead of the hands of private collectors?”
One way to go about that, which Hopkins said she sees reflected in the Gochman Family Collection, is through “a deep sense of self-reflection” in the midst of “thinking about how a private collection can be part of a public good and how collections can be places of custodianship and care, while also being deeply in dialogue with artists and their values.”
To that end, the Gochman Family Collection has deaccessioned works on occasion, by donating them to Forge Project. “A few of the pieces we’ve bought don’t feel right in our collection,” Gochman said. One recent example is Nicholas Galanin’s Indian Children’s Bracelet (2014–18), a found set of child-size handcuffs that had been worn by Indigenous schoolchildren onto which Galanin engraved Tlingit iconography. “I thought it was such a powerful piece,” Gochman said. “But when it was being sent to us, I realized that the work was too personal for our collection.”'
Juxtaposed works of different scales include Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s 2021 untitled sculpture of a coyote’s head on the coffee table, and standing guard by the window is Cannupa Hanska Luger’s Midéegaadi: Fire Bison, 2022.
Hopkins agreed that a work like that is better suited to being under Native stewardship, particularly because in the United States, there is still a “thickness of historical amnesia. A lot of folks don’t understand how the histories of boarding schools weren’t just assimilative, they were also genocidal and deeply violent. We can’t shy away from it. It’s a matter of fact.”
Gochman said she hopes to engender real institutional change in the art world by calling attention to how mainstream museums continue to be slow in supporting the careers of Indigenous artists and acquiring their work. She hopes the collection can serve as a “model for others down the road, who want to do things the right way but are unsure where to begin.”
She continued, “I am coming at this with a fresh set of eyes. I’m not afraid to speak to museum directors and tell them a land acknowledgment is not enough.” Instead, museums need “to listen to what the artists are saying about what they need and to listen to more of the community.”
On the philanthropic side, the Gochmans donated $25 million to Bard College, matched by George Soros, to create an endowment. As part of the gift, Bard renamed its American Studies Program the American and Indigenous Studies Program, committing as well to recruit Indigenous scholars for faculty positions and establish scholarships for undergrad and graduate students from Indigenous communities.
There’s still much to be done, despite the increased visibility that Indigenous artists have achieved in the past five years, from solo exhibitions at mainstream museums and permanent-collection acquisitions to Jeffrey Gibson’s recent commission for the US Pavilion at next year’s Venice Biennale. Having created a template for other collectors, Martin said, Gochman has proved that a lot can get done quickly, just as it has with the Gochman Family Collection: “The idea of this happening, not with just one person doing it but a multitude of people—how much of an impact that can make on an entire market—is incredible.”
A detail of Rachel Martin’s commissioned work Gochman Family Chalk Drawings, 2022, the first piece to enter the Gochman Family Collection.
Hopkins pointed out that the last time the Museum of Modern Art presented a major group exhibition focused on Indigenous artists was “Indian Art of the United States”—all the way back in 1941. “The exhibition was making the case that Native art is foundational to the development of modern art,” she said, “but somehow that narrative got lost.”
Keeping that history alive and thriving is a priority for Gochman, now and for the future. “We have no intention of selling our pieces—it’s not about that for us,” she said. “This is not about commodity. It’s everything opposite of that.”
tim burton exhibition unveils 'the nightmare before christmas' behind-the-scenes magic
MCNAY ART MUSEUM PRESENTS TIM BURTON’S DREAMLAND
myrto katsikopoulou I designboom
oct 31, 2023
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Nightmare Before Christmas, the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, presents an exhibition dedicated to famed filmmaker Tim Burton. Titled Dreamland, the show offers visitors a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the enchanting world of the iconic 1993 stop-motion animated film by showcasing a carefully curated collection of small models and original artwork used to bring the beloved film to life. The exhibition will be on display until January 14, 2024.
REUNITING WITH THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS CHARACTERS
In this exhibition at McNay Art Museum (find more here), visitors can reconnect with the endearing yet quirky characters from Tim Burton’s iconic ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas,’ such as Oogie Boogie, Bone Crusher, and the beloved hero, Jack Skellington. The show weaves together maquettes originally crafted for Burton’s iconic film, and an array of artworks, inviting guests to embark on their own imaginative journeys into the realms of fantasy. As a nod to Tim Burton’s creative origins at Walt Disney, there’s a captivating ‘hall of peculiar portraits’ that might just leave visitors wondering whether those eyes in the pictures are watching you.
The exhibition also gives guests the chance to encounter a range of unconventional characters created by artists from McNay’s collection, including José Clemente Orozco Farías, Julie Heffernan, Eugene Berman, Marilyn Lanfear, Willem de Kooning, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Julie Speed, and more. Exploring vibrant and unfamiliar realms through large paintings and photographs by artists like Paul Maxwell, Claudia Rogge, Robin Utterback, and Sandy Skoglund is also part of the experience.
To mark the 30th anniversary of The Nightmare Before Christmas this year—the cult classic stop-motion film that emerged from the dark imagination of Tim Burton—the McNay Art Museum is presenting fascinating bits of the film set.
The exhibition, called “Dreamland” (on view through January 14, 2024), includes original maquettes and small-scale models that were used during the three-and-a-half years it took to make the movie. These objects were accessioned into the museum’s Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts in 1994 and, over the past 30 years, have been preserved by its collection department.
Directed by Henry Selick from a story by Burton, the musical, upon its release in October 1993, was embraced for its creepy yet charming tale and its innovative use of stop-motion animation—its characters and designs swiftly lodging themselves in the Halloween pop cultural landscape.
“The set pieces and characters created for the now-iconic film reveal quite a lot,” said R. Scott Blackshire, curator of the Tobin Collection. “From a creative standpoint, visitors will recognize visual elements that signal a one-of-a-kind world that could only come from the heart and mind of Tim Burton.”
The Nightmare Before Christmas tells the tale of Jack Skellington, the melancholic king of Halloween Town, which is populated by various monsters, witches, and Frankenstein creatures. Weary of Halloween, Jack schemes with his residents to take over the holiday of Christmas, leading to hijinks including the kidnapping of Santa Claus.
Featured in “Dreamland” are original models of the bony protagonist Jack Skellington, Bone Crusher, and Oogie Boogie, as well as the full-set model of Jack’s bed and tower—designs that take obvious cues from German Expressionism.
The McNay has further crafted a surreal environment in which to display these objects—its own “dreamland,” said Blackshire, “to channel our collective Burton-esque energy.”
To do so, the museum has gathered nearly 100 paintings, photographs, prints, and sculptures from its permanent collection. The film’s maquettes have been put in dialogue with works by artists including Jim Dine, Julie Speed, Käthe Kollwitz, Marilyn Lanfear, and Sandy Skoglund, as well as set designs by Eugène Berman for a production of Pulcinella and Franco Colavecchia for The Tales of Hoffmann.
Eugène Berman, Curtain design for Pulcinella (1972). Collection of the McNay Art Museum, Gift of The Tobin Endowment, TL2001.27.34.
Burton’s early days as a Walt Disney animator also gets a callback in the exhibition’s “hall of peculiar portraits,” inspired by Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, which brings together paintings by the likes of de Kooning, Picasso, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
“In this Victorian-inspired setting are ‘portraits’ that celebrate funny faces, eccentric characters and the whimsical narratives they inspire,” Blackshire said. “We also talked about the experience of walking through a room and feeling like the eyes in a portrait are moving, maybe even following us.”
“It was clear,” he added, “there are a host of fanciful characters in McNay’s artworks that, possibly, live in the same realm as Burton’s Nightmare cast.”
Marilyn Lanfear, Marilyn with no middle name, She’ll have one when she marries from The Wardrobe as Destiny Series (1989). Collection of the McNay Art Museum, Given anonymously, 1996.35.
Paul Maxwell, Landsat View (1973). Collection of the McNay Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Stevenson, 1982.64.
Peter Rice, Costume design for Dr. Kalterfelto in English Eccentrics (1967). Collection of the McNay Art Museum, Gift of The Tobin Endowment, TL2002.220.9.
The American Museum of Ceramic Art recently unveiled its latest exhibition, “REVEAL: Recent Acquisitions 2020-2023,” a showcase of ceramics it has acquired for its permanent collection — which encompasses almost 13,000 ceramic objects dating from Pre-Columbian to contemporary times. The exhibit runs through July 21, 2024 at 399 N. Garey Ave., Pomona.
The installation displays about 150 previously unseen works from the likes of Beatrice Wood, Clayton Bailey, Natalia Arbelaez, Beth Lo, Ron Nagle, Jun Kaneko, Tony Marsh and more, ranging from Vernon Kiln souvenir plates, a large-scale figurative sculpture by Wanxin Zhang, to a pillow pitcher by Betty Woodman. The exhibition sheds light on how museums safeguard cultural heritage through acquiring, preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting objects, read a news release.
An opening reception will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, November 4.
AMOCA is open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $14. Go to amoca.org or call (909) 865-3146 for more information.
Exhibition view: The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Photo: Vincent Tullo.
Much has been made of Frieze's acquisition of The Armory Show, billed as New York's art fair. Especially as the first edition to happen after the news broke took place concurrently to Frieze Seoul.
It was hard not to read into the simultaneity—the art world loves a good face-off, if the media's incessant speculation over Asia's next art market capital is anything to go by. And the double booking certainly affected some of the dozen or so dealers who did both fairs.
Exhibition view: Bettina Pousttchi, Buchmann Galerie, The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Photo: Vincent Tullo.
One dealer manned KIAF and Frieze Seoul booths before flying to New York after the previews to relieve their husband, who described themselves as 'roped in', at The Armory Show (8–10 September 2023). Another was so frazzled from splitting their team that they couldn't tell how either fair was doing.
Celebrating its 15th anniversary, Jessica Silverman, on the other hand, announced notable sales with a solo booth by Woody de Othello at Frieze Seoul; complemented by the artist's monumental bronze sculpture of a rotary telephone leaning on a giant comb at The Armory Show, thought in mind (2023), which sold for USD 400,000.
Woody de Othello, thought in mind (2023). Patinated bronze. 210.2 x 82.5 x 128.3 cm. Edition of 3 plus 2 artist's proofs (AP 1/2). Courtesy the artist; Jessica Silverman, San Francisco; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London; and Karma. Photo: Lance Brewer.
But really, the issue of timing is a non-starter. As Art Basel Hong Kong tolerated an unforgiving May slot in the beginning until March dates at HKCEC opened up, this overlap is unlikely permanent. Less certain is how The Armory Show in September will fare in relation to Frieze New York in May, though the party line is that New York can sustain both fairs. The U.S. is the world's largest art market, after all. Plus, like Asia, that market is not a single entity, hence different fairs for different audiences.
As one dealer summarised, The Armory Show, which expanded significantly in recent years, is a selling space attracting a huge middle market with around 225 galleries from 35 countries by 2023's count, offering a range of price points (from a couple of thousand up) under the Javits Center's impeccable roof (good riddance to the piers). The Frieze fairs are smaller, more global, of higher quality with higher price points, drawing institutional connections that make up for uneven sales.
Exhibition view: Lee Bae, The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Courtesy Ocula. Photo: Charles Roussel.
With that distinction, perhaps the real story is how Frieze will reshape The Armory Show, if at all, though indications of a redistribution are there. Gagosian, David Zwirner, Perrotin, Pace, and Hauser & Wirth were absent, opting for Frieze Seoul (and presumably Frieze New York), for now. Though Perrotin and Hauser & Wirth were in New York but at the boutique Independent 20th Century fair. (Hauser & Wirth Institute's fantastic presentation was dedicated to the archives of painters Zahoor ul Akhlaq and Mary Dill Henry.)
Yet, as collector Alain Servais pointed out during a spicy panel kicking off Armory Live, these galleries are the minority, even if they dominate the market for artworks sold for over USD 1 million. Servais was referring to a recent Sotheby's report, which found 74 percent of total sales across collecting categories covered were in the one-million-plus market 'despite accounting for only 4% of lots sold' at auction.
Exhibition view: Alexandre Lenoir, Almine Rech, The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Courtesy Ocula. Photo: Charles Roussel.
That report described the one-million-plus market as 'symptomatic of geographical shifts in global wealth [and of] changing demographics'. Notably: more younger collectors at the top end and Asian collectors composing one-third of placed bids in that band between 2018 and 2022, which 'will inevitably affect artists' markets and collecting categories in years to come'.
Interestingly, The Armory Show reflects this evolution from below that band: a diverse and varied space where the more stimulating art gets shown, anyway, and from where the blue-chips tend to poach.
Agnes Denes, The Debate (1969–2023). Exhibition view: The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Photo: Vincent Tullo.
Responding to Servais, veteran dealer Susanne Vielmetter described the most radical changes she has seen in the art world in two decades. Defined by increasing diversity, this overdue shift, Vielmetter concluded, 'makes traditional positions unstable and insecure'—that's why 'now is the time for celebration and conversation, and for widening our horizon and learning.'
Vielmetter's points were corroborated by gallerists who described the market as harder to read than ever, signalling the development of micro-markets organised around different trajectories, whether geographical, generational, conceptual, and/or formal. They also recalled discussions prompted by Art Basel Hong Kong's 2013 launch—followed by MCH Group's short-lived stakes in Art Düsseldorf and India Art Fair—around Basel's turn to regionalism amid its global expansion.
Exhibition view: Lorna Robertson, Ingleby, The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Courtesy Ocula. Photo: Charles Roussel.
The Baer Faxt raised a similar topic in its Seoul report, which questioned if local collectors could sustain Frieze and KIAF, and wondered if 'the real question'—beyond 'Could Seoul be the next Hong Kong?'—is whether 'regional art fairs [should] reposition to focus on their regional advantages'.
“With that distinction, perhaps the real story is how Frieze will reshape The Armory Show, if at all, though indications of a redistribution are there”
That question proved useful in New York, a much-changed city still finding its post-pandemic feet (like elsewhere), which no longer feels like the centre of the art world so much as one of its many centres. The kind of place that, as with somewhere like the deeply art historical Manila, requires open-minded engagement to meaningfully connect with the context's artistic concerns. (Sure, art is subjective, but it's also contextual.)
Bringing that perspective to The Armory Show turned the fair into an incredible gauge, metrics aside (by all accounts people sold well, even amid an art market slowdown), as to how things are culturally shifting in this part of the world. Beyond the knee-jerk dismissal of all the bad painting Servais ranted over on Twitter. (To demonstrate how subjective judgements can be, one artist Servais lamented was selected by Artsy's CEO as a 'pick'.)
Exhibition view: Beau Dick, Fazakas Gallery, The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Courtesy Fazakas Gallery. Photo: Silvia Ros.
Based on the fair's curated sectors, generative evolutions are afoot. The 'Focus' section, curated by Candice Hopkins, spotlighted artists employing different strategies to centre marginalised histories. Presentations included Fazakas Gallery's showing of late Kwakwaka'wakw artist and hereditary chief Beau Dick's distinctive, hand-carved and painted wooden masks, much like those included in documenta 14, which Hopkins served as part of the curatorial team.
Intersections with more recent international exhibitions continued at Peter Blum Gallery, showing a photographic print of In every language there is Land / En cada lengua hay una Tierra (2023), a sculpture by Nicholas Galanin. Presented by Public Art Fund at Brooklyn Bridge Park, the work renders the word 'LAND' in the style of Robert Indiana's 1966 LOVE sculpture, with steel tubing used to construct the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Nicholas Galanin, kʼidéin yéi jeené (You're doing such a good job) (2021), Exhibition view: Bluecoat, Liverpool Biennial 2023 (10 June–17 September 2023). Photo: Stuart Whipps.
Galanin had two works in the 2023 Liverpool Biennial, including kʼidéin yéi jeené (you're doing such a good job) (2021), a single-channel video of an Indigenous child being told affirmations like 'I love you' in the Lingít language of the Pacific Northwest. Likewise, Abel Rodríguez's botanical drawings—presented alongside current Videobrasil artist Zé Carlos Garcia's stunning wood sculptures by Galeria Marilia Razuk and Instituto de Visión—connected to those Rodríguez showed in the recent Gwangju Biennale.
Exhibition view: Sara Flores, CLEARING, The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Courtesy CLEARING.
Other highlights included maze-like, geometric patterns drawn on cotton textile canvases with pigments from Peruvian flora by Sara Flores at CLEARING, which were recently included in Para Site's three-chapter exhibition in Hong Kong, signals.... Each work presents a mind map rooted in the Shipibo-Conibo tradition, whereby the process of kené translates visions and dreams into linear patterns.
THIS IS NO FANTASY, the first Australian gallery to attend The Armory Show in over a decade, expanded the geographical frame, with screen-prints by Yhonnie Scarce confronting the 19th-century displacement of the Narungga people by British settlers to Australia, and ochre-and-white scale paintings by Johnathon World Peace Bush depicting figures in the tradition of Tiwi body painting.
New Red Order, Conscientious Conscripture (Art Fair Edition) (2018–ongoing) (detail). Exhibition view: The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Photo: Stephanie Bailey.
Anchoring these presentations was Conscientious Conscripture (Art Fair Edition) (2018–ongoing), a standalone installation by New Red Order, a 'public secret society' facilitated by artists Jackson Polys, Zack Khalil, and Adam Khalil. Supported by Creative Time, two poster designs chequered a wall under the slogan 'MISSION ACCOMPLICE'. Composed like ads, one refers to the Land Back movement, with the catchphrase 'Give it Back?' accompanied by the image of a contemporary Uncle Sam. The other offered a 1-888 number to 'Create Indigenous Futures Today!'
Installed opposite was Never Settle: Calling In (2019), a four-minute satirical advertisement screened on a monitor hung on a real-estate 'for sale' frame, promoting the benefits of returning Indigenous land with the language of commercial wellness. Clever word plays abound, including the redeployment of the phrase 'Never Settle' to refer to the settler colonialism that defines American history.
Exhibition view: Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Jeffrey Gibson, Roberts Projects. The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Courtesy Ocula. Photo: Charles Roussel.
Creating a bridge to The World's UnFair, an immersive installation showing in Long Island City until 15 October, Conscientious Conscripture made good use of The Armory Show to platform an acerbic critique of 'the ultimate public secret hidden in plain sight'—that 'the United States is an ongoing occupation of stolen Indigenous land.' In doing so, it also positioned the fair as a space to confront this history on home ground.
Works by Indigenous artists extended into the main sector. Roberts Projects showcased Sentinel (2020), an arresting cascade of red fringe descending from eye-like pendants by Jeffrey Gibson, the U.S. representative at the 2024 Venice Biennale, alongside Wendy Red Star's unique digital prints from 2023 which pattern isolated images drawn from beaded Apsáalooke regalia.
Exhibition view: Wendy Red Star, Roberts Projects, The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Courtesy Ocula. Photo: Charles Roussel.
The booth also included one of Suchitra Mattai's latest tapestries drawing on the artist's Indo-Caribbean roots—found weavings of pastoral colonial scenes worked over with embroidery and borders and colour planes woven from vintage saris—plus, amazing watercolours from 1974 by the inimitable Black American pioneer of assemblage art, Betye Saar.
“Armory Show Director Nicole Berry has talked about expanding the artistic canon at the fair, and she has certainly made good on that promise.”
The diversity of the Roberts Projects booth was echoed across the fair. In Focus, Arleene Correa Valencia and Stephanie Syjuco confronted the politics of immigration in the United States at Catharine Clark Gallery, with works like Dreamer (2023), a hand-dyed wool rug spelling the work's title on ochre ground by Correa Valencia, a DACA-recipient, which offers deportation protection and work authorisation to eligible youths.
Front to back: Arleene Correa Valencia, Dreamer (2023); Stephanie Syjuco, Phantom Flag (2018–2023). Courtesy Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco.
Syjuco's Phantom Flag (2018–2023), a hand-sewn back chiffon rendering of the American flag, extends the artist's research into the colonial relationship between America and the Philippines and the historic roots of the latter's diaspora. That work's last proof (for USD 15,000) was among those the gallery sold, alongside—but not limited to—the last complete suite of five photogravures from Syjuco's 'Afterimages' project' (for USD 24,000), and all of Correa Valencia's embroidered works on paper on handmade amate (for USD 3,500 each).
Exhibition view: Marigold Santos; Rajni Perera, The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Photo: Mikhail Mishin.
Nearby, Patel Brown's Focus presentation paired sell-out paintings by Marigold Santos referencing aswang, a shape-shifting figure from Filipino folklore, alongside those by Rajni Perera, the 'Focus' sector's debut USD 10,000 Sauer Artist Prize winner, which fuse science fiction, fantasy, and manga into Indian miniaturist-inspired figures.
An otherworldly, larger-than-life-sized red-clay figure raising their body from the ground, made collaboratively by Santos and Perera, recalled the gallery's description of Perera's world as a diasporic place where 'Black and Brown heroines rule, claiming their space between binary identities and viewpoints'.
Sonia Boyce, Exquisite Tension (2005). Exhibition view: Apalazzo Gallery, The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Courtesy Ocula. Photo: Charles Roussel.
Space between binaries was likewise conjured in Apalazzo Gallery's powerful showcase of hair-focused works by Sonia Boyce, a leading figure in the Black British Arts movement who won the Golden Lion at the 2022 Venice Biennale. The 2005 video Exquisite Tension shows a young Black woman and white man entangled by their hair—a restaging of a performance Boyce enacted with artist Richard Hancock, in a fraught and confrontational study of lived co-existence.
Such negotiations circle back to Vielmetter's observation of a radical shift in art. Just as Sotheby's found younger collectors emerging from a more diverse geographical spread and with evolving interests, so The Armory Show is demonstrating the same for artists and dealers who are coming into their own—or in some cases persevering, bearing in mind recent closures—in order to redefine the landscape.
Cathy Lu, Peripheral Visions (2022). Exhibition view: Micki Meng, The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Courtesy Ocula. Photo: Charles Roussel.
The 'Presents' and 'Solo' sectors expressed that dynamism across a constellation of works. From LaKela Brown's white epoxy resin sculptures of collard greens honouring Black American community at New York's 56 Henry, which sold out bar one by Friday; and Cathy Lu's widely acclaimed 'all-Asian-American "cry-in"' Peripheral Visions (2022) at Micki Meng, of giant ceramic eyes shedding onion-dyed tears into stacks of plastic buckets; to Sharjah Biennial 15 artist Mary Sibande's bronze miniatures at Cape Town's SMAC Gallery, of the artist's alter-ego in vibrantly coloured Victorian-style dress.
In the non-profit sector, the artist-led, community-driven, Cincinnati-based initiative Wave Pool stood out, with three 'Welcome Editions' created by artists like Baseera Khan and Sheida Soleimani in collaboration with Cincinnati-based refugees and immigrant artisans. In the case of Lorena Molina, tapestries showing sites where Republican governors have turned migrants into political pawns, were produced with Latin women from domestic violence shelter La Casa de Paz.
Barthélémy Toguo, Urban Requiem (2015). Exhibition view: The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Courtesy Ocula. Photo: Charles Roussel.
Armory Show Director Nicole Berry has talked about expanding the artistic canon at the fair, and she has certainly made good on that promise. Another example is Eva Respini's curated 'Platform' section, themed around rewriting histories, with large-scale sculptures and installations like Barthélémy Toguo's Urban Requiem (2015), awarded the fair's USD 25,000 Pommery Prize.
Commissioned for Okwui Enwezor's 56th Venice Biennale, All the World's Futures, ladder-shaped shelves carry abstract wooden busts that appear like rubber stamps. At their base, political keywords, slogans, and phrases have been carved, including 'No man is an island'. That refutation of an isolated mentality speaks to The Armory Show's key message in 2023: America must not exist in cultural isolation, whether internally or globally, and its art market is capable of supporting this position.
Shahzia Sikander, NOW (2023). Exhibition view: Sean Kelly, The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Courtesy Ocula. Photo: Charles Roussel.
Similar sentiments were echoed in a captivating, free-wheeling conversation on the historical and contemporary significance of degendered fashion for Armory Live, with writer and performance artist Alok Vaid-Menon and Brooklyn Museum curator Matthew Yokobosky.
Among the subjects discussed, from the queer origins of make-up to the gayness of flowers, Yokobosky brought up Rollerena, a stockbroker known to have rollerskated in gowns around New York in the 1970s. Rollerena is one of the many figures who embody the city's heritage as a place for people to push the boundaries of creative expression. Amid an intensifying LGBTQ+ backlash, that heritage continues, Yokobosky noted, just as fashion, Vaid-Menon pointed out, remains a potent medium for resistance in the face of identarian subjugation.
Exhibition view: Gisela McDaniel, Pilar Corrias, The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Photo: Vincent Tullo.
Tellingly, Vaid-Menon challenged the dismissal of fashion due to its commercial nature, asking how different the discipline is compared to the art on sale at the fair—taking place concurrently to New York Fashion Week, no less. That point recalled another talk at Independent 20th Century on Warhol's commissioned portraits, which were showcased by Vito Schnabel at the fair.
Throughout, anecdotes from Warhol's contemporary, former Interview editor Bob Colacello, humanised an artist who has become as iconic as the figures he portrayed. In doing so, Colacello illuminated Warhol's engagement with the market as a relatable desire to create the conditions to be true to his artistic self.
Exhibition view: The Armory Show, New York (8–10 September 2023). Photo: Vincent Tullo.
Warhol is emblematic of New York's place within an ever-expanding field of art history, where freedom of identity and expression became entwined with the market culture this city, forever its capital, spawned. The Armory Show encapsulated this unique, context-rooted dynamic in 2023 as it signalled the groundswell of an electrifyingly new New York to come.
That thought came to mind watching Shahzia Sikander's Reckoning (2020). The Persian miniature-inspired animation of warriors disintegrating into a celestial landscape was screened in partnership with The Armory Show and Sean Kelly for Midnight Moment, the world's largest and longest-running digital public art programme that takes over Times Square's billboards nightly. It's the kind of thing you have to see for yourself. —[O]
In “Going Dark” at the Guggenheim, 28 artists explore urgent questions around what it means to be seen, and to see each other.
Sandra Mujinga’s “Spectral Keepers,” 2020, at the Guggenheim Museum. The green light has a paradoxical effect: It makes the figures harder to see.Credit...Clark Hodgin for The New York Times
Your first encounter in the Guggenheim Museum’s ambitious new show, “Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility,” is likely to be with four looming figures draped in voluminous garments. It’s hard to see if anyone (or anything) is underneath the slightly futuristic hoodies. Acid-green projected light — known as chroma green, used by film studios for “green screen” effects — bathes the big gallery off the rotunda. The result is paradoxical — the figures are so huge they should be unmissable, but with this intense illumination you may have trouble making them out.
Watch this installation, by the artist Sandra Mujinga, long enough, and when you turn toward the rotunda, something remarkable happens: The stark-white museum turns entirely pink. (The effect subsides as your eyes readjust.)
Installation view of “Going Dark” at the Guggenheim, featuring the work of 28 artists who explore the question of what it means, especially for people of color, to be subject to increased surveillance yet at the same time erased from the field of vision, forgotten in the social landscape.Credit...Clark Hodgin for The New York Times
Mujinga’s work is a fitting introduction to a show that asks what it means to be seen, and to see each other, especially when seeing takes place across racial and other forms of difference. What does it mean, especially for people of color, to be hyper-visible and subject to increased surveillance, while at the same time erased from the field of vision, forgotten in the social and political landscape? How does looking at each other through these layers of stereotyping and misunderstanding distort our perception of the world? If being visible is a trap, is there solace to be found in near-invisibility?
…
Stephanie Syjuco’s “Block Out the Sun” series (2019-2022) stems from her work in the photographic archives of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Exhuming the visual records of a simulated village where Filipino inhabitants were put on display during the exposition, she rephotographs these documents, covering the subjects’ faces with her hands — to protect them from our eyes.
Stephanie Syjuco’s “Block Out the Sun (Shadow)” and “Block Out the Sun (Shield),” both 2019-2020, in which the artist protects the subjects of archival photos — Filipinos put on display at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 — with her hands.Credit...Clark Hodgin for The New York Times
The blur offers a similar anonymity to the residents of Harlem in Ming Smith’s nighttime photos from her “Invisible Man” series (1988-91). Where Smith uses long exposure to create her effect, Sondra Perry, in her video loop, “Double Quadruple Etcetera Etcetera I & II” (2013) relies on a tool in Photoshop that removes unwanted elements to partially obscure the bodies of two dancers. (One dancer, the artist Joiri Minaya, is also featured in “Going Dark.”) Though there is little to actually see in Perry’s video — flashes of brown skin, braided hair and a shifting white chimera — I dare you to tear your eyes away.
Catherine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, California
Review By: Mark Van Proyen
Josephine Taylor, “Desk,” 2023, colored ink and watercolor on linen,” 24 x 18”
Continuing through December 23, 2023
Josephine Taylor’s new paintings are highly nuanced. They elicit the kind of absorbed examination that one rarely encounters in this post-cellphone era. They remind me of what can still be accomplished when the subtleties of how an image comes into being moves as far into the forefront of that image’s identity as subject matter. In other words, Taylor’s paintings whisper with poetic evocation. They contradict the overcompensating art world that shouts too loudly. They direct themselves to those with minds quiet enough to see visual becomingness (or visual dissolution). Taylor’s paintings represent an important alternative to an obvious and braying there-ness undertaken to take up space but doing nothing with it.
My use of the term ‘visual becomingness’ is intended as a shorthand for the oldest, Platonic definition of the word aesthetic, then revived in the eighteenth century by Alexander Baumgarten. That definition runs something like this: Preapprehension before comprehension. Or to get Kantian about it, intuiting a presence prior to being fully aware of what it is. Taylor’s paintings exemplify this idea. They are nuanced engagements with and expansions of the imaginative space between slipstream phenomena and the noumena that lurks just beyond the veil of knowledge.
The fifteen paintings in the exhibition are all from 2023, dividing into three groups. One of these is a quartet of large works that tease and defy the eye to make sense of them. The largest is titled “Pareidolia at Night,” revealing itself as a hallucinatory pattern that gradually comes into focus as an evanescent image of a woman sleeping amidst patterned blankets. The image is painted on unprimed cotton canvas formed of layers of blue indigo extracted from denim, painstakingly stained into the canvas fabric. This process accounts for the ghost-like quality of the image, which can be compared to the dissolution of an over-developed photograph.
Another group is a trio of darker images sporting a much more pronounced light/dark contrast. They look at first glance like pre-digital cyanotypes, or to us old timers, drawings created with inexpensive bluing rather than overpriced ink. They too are made from layers of indigo extracted from denim fabric, the darker blue resulting from more layers of saturated application. From layer to layer, an unstable dither effect emerges, looking intentionally misaligned in a way reminiscent of the photographs of Wolfgang Tillmans.
The smallest works here comprise a more forthright third group, even though they also use the saturation into unprimed canvas technique. The difference is that, in the case of these works, there is a wider range of color suggestive of other fabrics. Also, they make a more directly explicit correspondence to imagistic description. For example, “Desk” reads clear enough as a yellow frame of light positioned at an oblique angle in a dark room that does feature a desk. It doesn’t take much of a leap to envision it as an angular geometric construction floating in Constructivist space.
Taylor’s use of the staining technique harks to the work of 1950s-era stain painters such as Morris Louis. However, Taylor moves it in a very different direction from the historically mined explorations of translucent veils of fluid color. To be sure, in the case of both artists’ work, the pigment saturates unprimed fabric in ways that generate a glowing, iridescent effect. However, in Taylor’s paintings there is a delayed return to representation after the long detour into and through the material and processes that eventually gives rise to the representation. This seems to be a crucial point: whether or not a painting works toward, or from, or with any image, it is always something more than that image. That additional attribute can be described as a way of finding one’s path to and from the image without letting that image dominate and over-determine how one experiences its meaning. This is the point that Taylor’s “Night House” paintings make with equal measures of power and subtlety.
Top row (from left): American Artist, Joiri Minaya, Ming Smith, Lyle Ashton Harris, Lorna Simpson, Farah Al Qasimi, Tomashi Jackson, and Stephanie Syjuco. Bottom row: Ellen Gallagher, Hank Willis Thomas, Kevin Beasley, Dawoud Bey, Sable Elyse Smith, Sandra Mujinga, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, and John Edmonds. Photo: Malike Sidibe
When Ashley James joined the Guggenheim as a curator in 2019, she began thinking about the concept of being seen, a veritable mantra in the Trump years for people from marginalized communities. She thought specifically of Lorna Simpson’s 2018 exhibition “Darkening,” in which the people in her paintings were clouded by deep, saturated blues. “Freedom is such a lofty goal,” James tells me, “but there is a certain lowercase-p power to be found in that evasion.”
Her new show, “Going Dark,” is composed of 28 artists, most of them Black, from across generations, including the established names Faith Ringgold, Kerry James Marshall, and Simpson and younger talents Sandra Mujinga and Sondra Perry. On the evening before the show opened on October 20, the artists and a select group of guests filed into the rotunda in shimmering cocktailwear for a private viewing.
“I’m really aware of how our conventions of good portraiture usually deal with somebody giving something of themselves up to the world,” says Brooklyn-based artist Farah Al Qasimi. Her photo series “It’s Not Easy Being Seen” features a woman in a headscarf whose skin is a green screen; she “wants to bleach herself white to disappear.” In Redecode, Dominican-raised artist Joiri Minaya takes the tropical prints of hotel-room wallpapers and pixelates them until they’re blurred, challenging the viewer to consider the history of violence on the islands they romanticize. “I think of this space of camouflage and opacity,” she says. “I think of it as a space of respite.”
The guests went up the rotunda, where invisibility functions as protection and violence: Rebecca Belmore’s mannequin wears a FUCKIN’ ARTIST, FUCKIN’ INDIAN hoodie, her identity shielded by long hair. It’s also a form of joy: In her Spectral Keepers installation, Norwegian artist Mujinga fashions nine-foot-tall tulle-and-cotton figures that draw inspiration from medieval beekeepers; they resemble bodies but have none. Then we’re ushered downstairs for a meal, celebrating the artists with — what else? — blackout cake. One of them photographs his slice and shakes his head at the pitch-dark image. “I can’t even see it,” he says.
For nearly 40 years, beginning in the late 1970s, Renny Pritikin broke curatorial ground with pioneering exhibitions throughout the greater Bay Area – at 80 Langton (later New Langton Arts), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), Richard L. Nelson Gallery at UC Davis and, finally, the Contemporary Jewish Museum from which he retired in 2018. His newly released memoir, At Third and Mission: A Life Among Artists, maneuvers us through his storied life with a poet’s compass.
This astute, polished, sometimes wryly self-effacing and straightforward account of his professional triumphs and regrets, fortuitous encounters, wrong turns, enchantments, and lodestone lessons is an honest, unaffected, lively and companionable page-turner. It divides more or less evenly between anecdotes involving legendary figures (Allen Ginsberg, David Hammons, John Cage, John Zorn, Roz Chast, Wayne Thiebaud, George Lucas) and lesser-known (but no less worthy) artists, many remembered today only by the cognoscenti. Pritikin, a natural storyteller and frequent contributor to Squarecylinder, brings them all to life.
Pritikin first visited the Bay Area in 1965 when he was 16, arriving from Brooklyn under the aegis of the Ethical Culture Society, whose goal “was to take this group of kids and make them into future leaders of an imagined progressive movement in America.” What ensued was a whirlwind tour through emblems and legends of Beat-era San Francisco: City Lights Bookstore, a reading by Allen Ginsberg, a party hosted by the Sexual Freedom League and much else. In many respects, his story is about being in the right place at the right time. But it’s also about nerve and instinct, perhaps best exemplified when he and his wife, Judy Moran, New Langton’s co-directors, provided exhibition space and funding to many artists involved in the then-emerging fields of performance and video art.
Renny Pritikin discussing art with SFPD and fire fighters at Mark Pauline/Survival Research Lab performance circa 1985
Some of it, like the exploits of Mark Pauline and Survival Research Labs, bordered dangerously on anarchy. For one such event, Pritikin remembers, “Mark had invented a machine that shot fluorescent tubes at least a hundred yards, sometimes farther. This lot was conveniently near the Bay Bridge bus ramps, and somebody started pointing the gun at the buses on the ramp, which admittedly did move just like targets in a carnival shooting range. At the height of the carnage, multiple sculptures were on fire, and a two-story walking machine with a heavy mallet at the end of a swinging arm was smashing everything in sight.” At the end of the evening, hours before he boarded a flight to Washington, DC, to serve on an NEA panel, “I was alone with one push broom and an acre-size city block covered with broken fluorescent tubes and other detritus. I had promised the bus company we would leave the lot as though the event had never happened. As I swept, I noticed dozens of holes in the asphalt left by the hammer-wielding robot.”
Elsewhere, we ride shotgun as Pritikin grants us unfiltered access to his off-road research forays, such as his memorable project with Santa Cruz artist/chef/surfer/model Jim Denevan’s half-mile long line drawings in sand. To see them, Pritikin begins high atop a cliff and ends in a cave 25 yards from the Pacific Ocean, dining on exquisite food by candlelight. He shares his mind and awe in descriptions of extraordinary objects and phenomena. One was his unforgettable experience with Maria Nordman’s confounding conceptual painting installation that taught him art’s power to engender wonder. Challenging professional duties, he recollects in behind-the-scenes tidbits as when he and Moran found themselves in an alley at 3 a.m. waiting to take delivery of Nancy Rubin’s deconstructed house trailers, holding hundreds of dollars in cash to pay long-haul truckers.
Jim Denevan, Santa Cruz beach drawing, 2010. Photo: Chesley Chen
In homage to his friend, Ricky Jay, the great magician and unparalleled master of sleight of hand, Pritikin composes the book in 52 chapters, akin to a deck of cards. The chapters fan back and forth through time in a witty shuffle of history. From his 1977 request to lead 80 Langton – at the time an endangered artist-run space – endearingly confessing his initial shyness in stepping up to direct, he moves to a mesmerizing and acutely privileged moment in 2018 at the archives of Levi Strauss & Co., taking in Einstein’s circa 1938 leather jacket – still permeated with the smell of pipe tobacco – to being subjected to curatorial arm twisting by apparatchiks from the Chinese consulate who Pritikin was trying to persuade to fund a show of their country’s contemporary art. “I remember their chilling response word for word twenty-five years later. Pointing to the photos they’d brought, one said, ‘You can show whatever you like, Mr. Pritikin, but we suggest you show this work.’ With that, they excused themselves and left. I was deeply shaken by this confrontation with raw totalitarian hostility, knowing that if circumstances were different, had they the power, they would not have hesitated to make me pay a steep price for my audacity.”
Sign posted outside YBCA during Barry McGee’s outdoor installation of a smoke-emitting van
Pritikin weaves his visionary curatorial philosophy throughout the chapters, returning to its themes from different viewpoints. He developed his principles and ideas in tandem with his roles at YBCA, first as founding visual arts director and then chief curator. His vision was interdisciplinary and collaborative, cross-pollinating themes across departments. His approach became associative, seeking lateral connections with forms and ideas beyond fine art’s traditional white-wall approach. Deploying the museum as an inclusive, generative operation rather than a collecting institution, Pritikin invigorated its mission by commissioning artists to create work within open studios while building healthy reciprocal relationships with nonprofessionals and larger social communities.
Barry McGee, perhaps the best-known artist to have benefited from Pritikin’s curatorial vision, is but one example. “During McGee’s first exhibition,” writes the author, “I got a practical lesson in expanding museum constituency. I got a call from the front desk with a story they thought I’d like to hear. It seems that every day since the opening, a steady stream of wide-eyed young teenage boys—with skateboards and holding their pants up with one hand—were coming in and asking with disbelief if there was a show by Twist in the gallery. I told the receptionist that Twist was McGee’s street name and to let the boys in.”
The art world continues to function in loops of ideological shuffling. Niche communities develop, co-mingle, divide and dissolve. Pritikin’s memoir teaches us that crafting innovative exhibitions requires mental stamina, nimble political skills and collaborative leadership. In its way, it’s also an homage to friendship, generosity, and simple kindness. Thus, it’s no surprise that both independent and institutional curators frequently cultivate a practiced reserve. Facing the gaping maw of artist hunger while grappling with budgets and contested demographics, holding one’s cards close may come with the job. Here, Pritikin is an open book. In generously sharing his on-the-job lessons, his misses and awkward blurts, as well as his victories and successes, he demonstrates, with singular grace, why his particular artistic and political strategies were such assets, and why they are now sorely missed.
# # #
Book release events:
October 26 | 6 p.m. Verge Center for the Arts Gallery, Sacramento
October 28 | 3:30 p.m. Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco
November 14 | 6 p.m. James Cohan Gallery, New York
November 18 | 2:30 p.m. Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Fog Design + Art announces new emerging artist showcase
By: Tony Bravo
Published: October 11, 2023
Sarah Thornton browses the Fog Design + Art fair at Fort Mason Festival Pavilion in San Francisco on Jan. 19, 2022.
Fog Design + Art plans to expand to mark a decade in San Francisco with a new program highlighting emerging artists and galleries.
Dubbed Fog Focus, it will be housed in Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture’s Pier 2 (the former home of the San Francisco Art Institute) and feature nine galleries from the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and Paris.
Fog Focus will run concurrent with the art fair in Pier 3, scheduled for Jan. 18-21.
“In its 10th year, there has been a kind of evolution for the fair itself and San Francisco,” Douglas Durkin, a member of the Fog steering committee told the Chronicle. “We’ve never been able to grow Fog in a meaningful way because of the limitations of the festival Pavilion at Pier 3.”
The closure of SFAI allowed for additional space close to the art fair, but with a distinct environment, he added.
“It allowed us to experiment with some fair expansion, but also focus on a shift in content where we could bring in different points of views from different parts of the art marketplace,” he said.
The galleries participating in the inaugural Fog Focus are Cult Aimee Friberg Exhibitions, which has galleries in San Francisco and Oakland; Et al., Jonathan Carver Moore, and Schlomer Haus Gallery of San Francisco; Johansson Projects in Oakland; Commonwealth and Council as well as Ochi from Los Angeles; George Adams Gallery from New York; and Crèvecœur from Paris.
Fog Focus steering committee member Pamela Hornik said she feels “the city needs Fog and the entire San Francisco art week more than ever.” To that end, she said the committee looked not only for emerging galleries, but gallerists who contribute to the wider Bay Area arts community.
While Fog Focus galleries are equal participants in the art fair, their fees to exhibit are about $12,000 — half the price of exhibiting in Pier 3 — and booths in the main fair can range between $25,000 to $50,000 depending on size and placement. The reduced fees, Durkin said, are part of Fog Design + Art’s desire to include newer galleries and younger artists, and to bring more diversity to the fair.
“As a local, young gallery representing the breadth of queer culture, it feels validating that our perspective is being recognized within the community,” Brandom Romer and Steffan Schlarb, founders of Schlomer Haus Gallery, said in a statement to the Chronicle.
Their space is slated to feature work by photographer and SFAI graduate Chloe Sherman, whose show “Renegades San Francisco: the 1990s” premiered at their gallery in 2022.
Fog Focus will also feature an exhibition by the art centers Creative Growth, Creativity Explored and NIAD that will present works by Bay Area artists with disabilities.
Jonathan Carver Moore, who opened his eponymous gallery focusing on Black and Indigenous artists of color as well as LGBTQ and female-identifying artists in March, told the Chronicle he believes Fog Focus “will further support the established and growing art scene in the Bay Area.”
Fog Design + Art was launched in 2014 and has been instrumental in helping establish San Francisco’s art week in January. In addition to Fog’s gala opening night, which benefits the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the robust Fog Talks programming, the week is now known as a time for local galleries and museums to debut new shows, host events and capitalize on the out-of-town visitors who come to the fair.
Pier 3 is expected to feature 46 exhibitors, with San Francisco’s Catharine Clark Gallery one of eight participating for the first time.
Another first for the fair is a theme: “A Love Letter to San Francisco,” which steering committee member Susan Swig said will be evident in the fair’s entry displays and programming.
“Our art scene is thriving,” she said. “People really care about the arts in San Francisco. The theme is really our gift to the city.”
Installation view BAN 9. Left: Jillian Crochet, Lumpy Bed, 2023. Center top: Charlene Tan, Homage: Dulay T’boli, 2023, scrim banner. Right: Masako Miki, Animated Kokeshi Doll (short) and (tall), both 2023
This ninth triennial iteration of Bay Area Now is a hyphy exhibition in every sense implied by that charming Oakland-born neologism. It’s hyphy for its display of hyphenated identities and practices, its hyperactive display of those identities under the banner of aesthetic abundance, and its packaging of them inside the question of who gets to be an artist advanced at the expense of what constitutes an effective work of art. Curated by Fiona Ball and Martin Strickland and supported by an advisory group, the exhibition commemorates YBCA’s three-decade anniversary by presenting the work of 30 artists working in and across a large assortment of media and style categories.
Arleene Correa Valencia, March 13, 2023, 2023, amate paper, textiles, embroidery, 15 x 12 x 1 inches
By one measure, it is a kaleidoscopic cavalcade of diverse artistic identities holding space in a fraught, rhizomatic ecosystem of extremely variated production. By another, it is a noisy and chaotic flea market of reliquary artifacts (or arty facts) that trivializes the work that it pretends to celebrate by poorly serving the viewer’s experience of that work. I place myself in the latter camp for good reasons, chief among them being that I have already seen this tutti mixta approach to contemporary art curatorship about three dozen times during the past 30 years. It now strains patience and dulls any ability to regard it as being “challenging,” “forward-thinking,” or “energetic.” Two or three decades ago, this approach met its moment of triumphal globalism, but in our pre-A.I., post-Covid, stagflationary world-on-the-brink-of-world-war and impending ecological catastrophe zeitgeist, it is almost as trite and nostalgically anachronistic as a community mural depicting multi-cultural families tending an organic garden. Okay, maybe not that trite, but highlighting demographic changes underway for decades is now a routine move. The organizers’ claim that BAN 9 registers a post-Covid moment is unconvincing.
Thus, it’s unsurprising that the artists who come off looking the best are the few whose work finds physical separation from the clot and clutter of the overall exhibition rather than as manufacturers of components for a curatorial jigsaw puzzle. One example is Arleene Correa Valencia, whose contribution consists of an untitled small cubicle filled with objects (a steel bench and two steel doors ravaged and enervated by layers of desperate paint scratches) taken from an ICE detention facility in Portland, Oregon. One wall contains five small fabric collages that are achingly poignant reminders of how the immigrant experience alienates and shatters the lives of people on the run. In an upstairs cubicle, Golbanou Moghaddas presents a work that reaches back to pre-Islamic Persia, with a structure that evokes a Sassanian religious shrine and seven small, framed works on paper mounted on etched plywood, with an eighth mounted on the shrine’s exterior. Titled Seven and One Tales Under the Desert Stars (2023), it alludes to the esoteric mysteries of Zoroastrian cosmology and its ineffable impact on everyday lives. It’s a welcome refuge from the rest of the exhibition.
Golbanou Moghaddas, Seven and One Tales under the Desert Stars, 2023
A New Memoir From a Longtime Bay Area Curator Reflects on ‘A Life Among Artists’
By Sarah Hotchkiss Oct 11, 2023
Renny Pritikin's memoir is out Oct. 15, with several Bay Area events celebrating its release at various art institutions. (Book cover courtesy the author; photo from iStock)
You won’t find many salacious stories in Renny Pritikin’s memoir At Third and Mission: A Life Among Artists. Yes, there are a few tales of dangerous Survival
Research Laboratories performances, or divas blowing their tops (Pritikin worked in art spaces around the Bay Area for almost 40 years). But even these moments are relayed, in Pritikin’s easy, reflective prose, with great understanding: “Artists often act out, out of anxiety, before a major opening.”
The closest we get to any true scandal is a moment when Pritikin, dog sitting for a friend, accidentally spotted Kathy Acker meditating topless in an adjacent building. (He quickly averted his eyes.) In its good-natured steadiness, At Third and Mission, out Oct. 15, demonstrates what a life spent in service of art and artists can do — and how it can be done well.
Pritikin’s career in the arts began in 1979, when he became co-director, with his wife Judy Moran, of 80 Langton Street (later, New Langton Arts), one of San Francisco’s first alternative art spaces. He later held curatorial and director positions at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Nelson Gallery and Fine Art Collection at UC Davis, and ultimately the Contemporary Jewish Museum, retiring in 2018. He organizes his 52 chapters mainly by the names of artists he worked with, jumping from decade to decade and post to post while painting a picture of a broad network of people, places and shifting curatorial approaches.
Renny Pritikin pictured in 2018, upon the announcement of his retirement as chief curator of the Contemporary Jewish Museum. (Photo: Gary Sexton; Courtesy of Contemporary Jewish Museum)
In this respect, At Third and Mission may feel like inside baseball to those unfamiliar with the nitty-gritty of running a tiny nonprofit art space, or serving on an NEA granting panel, or showing experimental art to conservative politicians. But in each of his short, easily digestible chapters, Pritikin combines a delightful anecdote, a dose of sober reality and plenty of his own awe.
He does not, for instance, name-drop for the sake of name-dropping. The chapter about Barry McGee’s first museum show (at YBCA in 1995) is not a pat on the back for Pritikin’s own visionary curation, but about opening art experiences to new audiences. We hear about McGee’s early, formative encounters at New Langton events and, years later, the young skaters who flocked to YBCA to see a show by Twist.
There are plenty of struggles and disasters in At Third and Mission, but Pritikin’s willingness to admit his own mistakes (a missed opportunity to show a new David Hammons piece at YBCA, a CJM opening that put an exhausted Roz Chast in an overwhelming throng of fans) makes it clear these are unavoidable aspects of a long career. What emerges throughout is Pritikin’s ability to adapt and change — especially when it comes to generous, expansive definitions of museum-quality art, as his 12 years of YBCA shows attest.
Reading Pritikin’s memoir will unavoidably prompt some self-reflection. What will you remember when you look back on your own career? Will it be the grudges and petty grievances, or the unexpected compliments and moments of connection? How can we better appreciate, as Pritikin seems to have done, everyday moments of purposeful work?
An image from ‘At Third and Mission,’ with Renny Pritikin “discussing contemporary art with police and firefighters” during a Survival Research Laboratories performance. (Courtesy of the author)
Early in the memoir, Pritikin charts a busy “day in the life” as the director and chief curator at the Nelson Gallery. While driving from Oakland to Sacramento to visit the studios of two older painters, poor directions, rain, and swapped phone numbers all conspire to wreck his carefully scheduled plans. Yet, through happenstance and the kindness of artists, Pritikin emerges victorious.
“I thought during the ride, again, what a privilege and pleasure it was to meet such committed and talented people as my job,” he writes, “and how despite the weather and getting lost twice, it had been a great morning.”
It’s one thing to look back across the distance of many years and find a silver lining in a stressful situation, but quite another to have that perspective in the moment. At Third and Mission is a pleasantly meandering, wholly absorbing lesson in finding meaning in the workaday world.
“The people we meet, the things we create, the projects we pull off, all leave traces and map out the slalom course of our life’s work,” Pritikin writes. “A career passes before you know it, full of exhilaration and frustration, full of detail, and over as quick as a frenetic, rainy day.”
Fall visual arts exhibitions from lost St. Louis architecture to today's hip-hop
From the Music, theater, art, festivals: More than 250 things to do this fall in St. Louis series
By Jane Henderson
One visual art highlight this fall has nothing to do with a long-standing museum or gallery. The 21c Museum Hotel recently opened at 1528 Locust Street, and visitors can wander in anytime to see the glamorous update of the old YMCA building.
An orb filled with water (Serkan Özkaya’s “O”) is on display in the lobby, along with a painting by Kehinde Wiley, an installation by Ebony G. Patterson and other works. Colorful, dynamic and thought-provoking, the current pieces are in St. Louis until June.
The St. Louis Art Museum’s big exhibition for fall debuted in mid-August. But “Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century” continues until Jan. 1, so there is plenty of time to still see how the music genre has affected contemporary art over the past 50 years.
Three museums — the Contemporary Art Museum, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Sheldon Concert Hall & Art Galleries — all reveal new exhibitions Sept. 8. Since they are close together on Washington Boulevard, a visitor to the Sept. 8 First Friday event could take in all three before 8 p.m., when the Sheldon closes, or 9 p.m. at CAM and the Pulitzer.
"Twenty-Nine Tragedies" (2023) by Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis, on view at Laumeier Sculpture Park. Courtesy of the artists
Vaughn Davis Jr.: ‘The Fabric of Our Time’
Through Dec. 17; hours are noon-7 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
Aronson Fine Arts Center, Laumeier Sculpture Park, 12580 Rott Road
Free admission
More info laumeiersculpturepark.org
Painted canvases become shape-shifting objects through the work of St. Louis artist Vaughn Davis Jr., who has a solo exhibition of recent works in the Aronson Fine Arts Center at Laumeier Sculpture Park. Outside, in the park’s lone popular tree in “The Way” field, are aluminum kites dubbed “Twenty-Nine Tragedies” by visiting artists Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis. The tragi-comic stranded kites can be seen daily from 7 a.m. until 30 minutes after sunset.
"Creative Portal: Divine Love" (2023) by Arturo Alonzo Sandoval, Courtesy of the artist
Arturo Alonzo Sandoval: ‘Creative Portals and Pattern Fusion’
Sheldon Concert Hall & Art Galleries, 3648 Washington Boulevard
Free admission
More info thesheldon.org
A fiber artist who often uses recycled packing materials, automotive textiles and microfilm shows his large-scale, woven and appliquéd panels at the Sheldon. Arturo Alonzo Sandoval is professor of art at the University of Kentucky. He and Pattie Chalmers have two of five new exhibitions at the Sheldon, along with Alison Ouellette-Kirby and Noah Kirby’s sculptures in “You Can’t Run With the Hares & Hunt With the Hounds, Ryan Horvath’s prints in “Birds of America” and Jason Ackman’s suspended rowboats in “Undertow.”
Wood and stone effigies of Mudmaids by Pattie Chalmers, Courtesy of the artist
Sheldon Concert Hall & Art Galleries, 3648 Washington Boulevard
Free admission
More info thesheldon.org
Pattie Chalmers creates folklore-type “artifacts” — catfish-beings presented as living in the Mississippi River far in the past. Viewers of the “Mudmaid Museum” take in a world with books, woodcarvings, photographs, rag dolls, letters, whisker oil bottles and more.
Sarah Crowner: ‘Around Orange’
When Sept. 8-Feb. 4; hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday and Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday
Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 3716 Washington Boulevard How
Free admission
More info pulitzerarts.org
New York painter Sarah Crowner pays homage to the Pulitzer’s Tadao Ando building and its permanent wall sculpture by Ellsworth Kelly, “Blue Black.” Her three site-specific works include a 75-foot painting sewn together from cut sections of canvas.
Terra cotta panels from the National Building Arts Center in Sauget, Courtesy of Pulitzer Arts Foundation
‘Urban Archaeology: Lost Buildings of St. Louis’
When Sept. 8-Feb. 4; hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday and Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday
Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 3716 Washington Boulevard
Free admission
More info pulitzerarts.org
Salvaged architectural elements from landmark buildings, residential homes and neighborhood institutions are shown from the collection of the National Building Arts Center in Sauget. The artifacts come from construction between 1840 and 1950, representing craft workers and innovation.
Hajra Waheed: ‘A Solo Exhibition’
Sept. 8-Feb. 11; hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday and Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Boulevard
Free admission
More info 314-535-4660; camstl.org
Multi-disciplinary artist Hajra Waheed presents recent works including video, paintings and a new version of her sound installation and musical composition, “Hum.” The Montreal artist created “Hum” (“We” in Urdu) for “Lahore Biennial 02” in Pakistan.
"Fairground Park (the shadowy place)" (2022) by Dominic Chambers Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin
Dominic Chambers: ‘Birthplace’
Sept. 8-Feb. 11; hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday and Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Boulevard
How much Free
More info 314-535-4660; camstl.org
Dominic Chambers, a recent honoree of Forbes’ “30 Under 30,” returns to his hometown with an exhibition of new large-scale paintings and sculpture celebrating spaces that inspired him as a child and often showing the power of reading and leisure.
Justin Favela
Sept. 8-Feb. 11; hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday and Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Boulevard
Free admission
More info 314-535-4660; camstl.org
"Untitled (WE ARE NOT)" (2023) by Adam Pendleton, on view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Courtesy of the Kemper
Adam Pendleton: ‘To Divide By’
Sept. 22-Jan. 15; hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday and Wednesday-Sunday
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, 1 Brookings Drive
Free admission
More info 314-935-4523; kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu
New abstract paintings, drawings and ceramics made by Adam Pendleton over the past five years will fill special exhibition galleries at the Kemper, with two recent film portraits. Pendleton uses the framework of Black Dada to explore relationships among Blackness, abstraction and the legacy of the avant-garde.
“Man's Robe” (late 19th century) by Yoruba artist, on view at the St. Louis Art Museum, courtesy of St. Louis Art Museum
‘Aso Oke: Prestige Cloth From Nigeria’
Sept. 29-March 10; hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday
St. Louis Art Museum, 1 Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park
Free admission
More info 314-721-0072; slam.org
Cloth from Yoruba weavers in Nigeria have been made for ceremonial occasions since the early 19th century. Here, selections from the St. Louis Art Museum’s collection and a private collector include agbada men’s robes with innovative designs. Recent creations include undyed silk painted by artist Nengi Omuka.
"Spectrum II" (1966-67) by Ellsworth Kelly, courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery
Ellsworth Kelly
Oct. 20-April 7; hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday
St. Louis Art Museum, 1 Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park
Free admission
More info 314-721-0072; slam.org
In recognition of the 100th anniversary of Ellsworth Kelly’s birth, the St. Louis Art Museum presents an exhibition with media including sculpture, paintings, drawings and prints. Included are two promised gifts from Emily Rauh Pulitzer and the museum’s own longtime “Spectrum II.” Pieces are on the south terrace and in galleries 255 and 257.
"Horizontal, a Moment for Contemplation" (2023) by Vaughn Davis Jr., on view at Laumeier Sculpture Park, courtesy of Vaughn Davis Jr.
Now at MCA Denver: Cowboys like you’ve never seen them before
The provocative new exhibit blows up the myths of the sturdy western icon
By John Wenzel, Published October 6, 2023
“Lucky Tiger #48,” by artist Laurel Nakadate, applies surprising imagery to a familiar silhouette. (Provided by MCA Denver)
In the large-scale artwork “Set Ups,” Stephanie Syjuco contrasts an intricate, menacing print with a verdant landscape and faded imagery of the American West.
“The green backdrop and screen is a nod toward that cinematic construction of cowboys,” said Syjuco, who was born in the Philippines and raised in the U.S., where she internalized decades of cowboy imagery in movies and TV shows. “When MCA Denver approved it I was like, ‘yes!’ It’s very specific to this region and the mythology of the cowboy, and it’s related to work I was already doing on landscape panting and how it’s come to influence narratives of westward progress.”
Syjuco’s is one of dozens of pieces selected by Museum of Contemporary Art Denver curators for its new “Cowboy” exhibition. Works that invoke German American painter Albert Bierstadt’s epic landscapes sit next to visual interrogations of Manifest Destiny, asking us to reconsider assumptions about the Old West.
Stephanie Syjuco’s “Set Ups” interprets cowboys’ complicated identity against a backdrop of American Western imagery. (Provided by Stephanie Syjuco)
Running Sept. 29 through Feb. 18, 2024, “Cowboy” is MCA’s first large-scale survey of “one of the most fraught and persistent figures in contemporary American culture,” curators wrote. It dives into that dusty world with 27 artists and 70 artworks sourced from international artists and locals such as Gregg Deal and R. Alan Brooks. In diverse styles and media, they critique, praise, reimagine and explode the notion that cowboys were all white men supernaturally connected to the land.
Some cowboys were that way, of course. But viewers would be forgiven for feeling that some of the MCA works grate against their expectations. And that’s the point, underlining the fact that cowboys were also women, Black and Latino Americans, and Filipino immigrants, among others.
“We had over 800 people at the opening,” said co-curator Miranda Lash, “which I think speaks to how large the cowboy looms in people’s minds. What does it mean to take on an icon that’s not only huge in pop culture but also has so much weighted influence on Indigenous identity?”
The answers are subjective, and MCA Denver’s not the only museum asking them. At Denver Art Museum, “The Russells in Denver, 1921,” is rekindling the spirit of an exhibition the Western art icon Charles Marion Russell staged at the city’s landmark Brown Palace Hotel 122 years ago, The Denver Post’s Ray Rinaldi reported.
Lash has already seen enough positive reception from MCA’s “Cowboy” to start conversations with another, unnamed venue for a potential “Cowboy” traveling exhibition.
” ‘Cowboy’ is very much borne of and embedded within Denver,” said co-curator Nora Burnett Abrams, who’s also MCA Denver’s director. “The idea of the cowboy in New York lands just really differently than in Colorado. … The story of the cowboy allows us to reach back into the past and pull forward certain historical things that have been erased, as well as honor the way cowboy culture is lived out today.”
Admiration for real, working cowboys, cattle ranchers and rodeo riders is palpable among the works. But so are questions about why and how we justify that admiration.
Otis Kwame Quaicoe’s “Rodeo Boys.” (Provided by MCA Denver)
“It’s one of those things that people love, and we’re not even sure why,” said artist Karl Haendel, whose “Rodeo 11” is a stunning, photorealistic pencil drawing of an adolescent girl atop a majestic horse. “There are so many cultural touchstones that can be explored through the cowboy — masculinity and homoeroticism, a lot of the uglier sides of American policy, and white men controlling nature and Indigenous peoples. Frederic Remington is awesome, but it’s all dudes on horses.”
Cowboys exist in all parts of the world, ranging from Brazil and Argentina to Central Asia, where Mongolian and Kazakhstani horse culture predates the conquest of the American West. A large-scale exhibition was practically required, according to curators, to do justice to the subject matter.
“That’s why it had to be a group show,” Lash said. “We wanted to showcase a wide variety of voices, which relieves the pressure of having to make a definitive statement on the subject.
This large-scale exhibition features a multigenerational, multiracial group of artists who address pressing questions around what it means to be seen, not seen, or erased in society, through formal experimentations with the figure.
Exhibition: Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility
Venue: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York
Location: Rotunda
Date: October 20, 2023–April 7, 2024
The Guggenheim Museum presents Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility, a major exhibition predicated on a duality: works of art that present the figure, yet obscure it in some way, thus existing at the “edge of visibility.” The exhibition asserts that these experimentations in figuration across media—painting, photography, drawing, prints, sculpture, video, and installation—articulate pressing questions around what it means to be seen, not seen, or erased in society. On view from October 20, 2023, through April 7, 2024, the exhibition features 28 artists and fills all six ramps of the museum’s Frank Lloyd Wright–designed rotunda.
The artists in this exhibition “go dark” through a range of formal moves, including, but not limited to, literal darkening by way of shadowing or other lighting techniques; paint selections; reversing or otherwise concealing the body; and post-production tools like “chroma-keying.” Going Dark suggests that these approaches to the figure allow for engagement with urgent and ongoing discussions around visibility in its social context: both invisibility and hypervisibility within public and private spaces, as well as within institutions, (art) history, popular media, social media, and more. Through revealing and concealing the body, Going Dark probes a key point of conflict in representation: both the desire to be seen and the desire for obscurity, especially as technology offers more opportunities for (and dangers in) exposure than ever before.
Going Dark features over 100 works of art by a multigenerational, multiracial group of artists, the majority of whom are Black and more than half of whom are women. Chronologically, the show proceeds from the mid-1980s, with paintings and photographs by Kerry James Marshall, Lorna Simpson, and Ming Smith, through to the present, with photography, sculpture, and video works by Sandra Mujinga, Sondra Perry, Stephanie Syjuco and others. Works from the late 1960s to early 1970s by David Hammons, Faith Ringgold, and Charles White offer earlier reference points for the contemporary history this show presents. Tiona Nekkia McClodden and WangShui will debut new paintings, and American Artist will present a new site-specific installation.
A robust catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition featuring newly commissioned essays by curators and scholars Jordan Carter, Ayanna Dozier, Ashley James, Key Jo Lee, Abbe Schriber, and Legacy Russell. Also included are creative responses to the concept of “going dark” by seven poets and graphic designers: Rio Cortez, Harmony Holiday, Marwa Helal, Kristian Henson, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Hassan Rahim, and Kevin Young. The book is designed by Fahad AlHunaif.
ARTIST LIST
American Artist
Kevin Beasley
Rebecca Belmore
Dawoud Bey
John Edmonds
Ellen Gallagher
David Hammons
Lyle Ashton Harris
Tomashi Jackson
Titus Kaphar
Glenn Ligon
Kerry James Marshall
Tiona Nekkia McClodden
Joiri Minaya
Sandra Mujinga
Chris Ofili
Sondra Perry
Farah Al Qasimi
Faith Ringgold
Doris Salcedo
Lorna Simpson
Ming Smith
Sable Elyse Smith
Stephanie Syjuco
Hank Willis Thomas
WangShui
Carrie Mae Weems
Charles White
Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility is organized by Ashley James, Associate Curator, Contemporary Art, with Faith Hunter, Curatorial Assistant.
A New Memoir From a Longtime Bay Area Curator Reflects on ‘A Life Among Artists’
By Sarah Hotchkiss Oct 11, 2023
Renny Pritikin's memoir is out Oct. 15, with several Bay Area events celebrating its release at various art institutions. (Book cover courtesy the author; photo from iStock)
You won’t find many salacious stories in Renny Pritikin’s memoir At Third and Mission: A Life Among Artists. Yes, there are a few tales of dangerous Survival Research Laboratories performances, or divas blowing their tops (Pritikin worked in art spaces around the Bay Area for almost 40 years). But even these moments are relayed, in Pritikin’s easy, reflective prose, with great understanding: “Artists often act out, out of anxiety, before a major opening.”
The closest we get to any true scandal is a moment when Pritikin, dog sitting for a friend, accidentally spotted Kathy Acker meditating topless in an adjacent building. (He quickly averted his eyes.) In its good-natured steadiness, At Third and Mission, out Oct. 15, demonstrates what a life spent in service of art and artists can do — and how it can be done well.
Pritikin’s career in the arts began in 1979, when he became co-director, with his wife Judy Moran, of 80 Langton Street (later, New Langton Arts), one of San Francisco’s first alternative art spaces. He later held curatorial and director positions at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Nelson Gallery and Fine Art Collection at UC Davis, and ultimately the Contemporary Jewish Museum, retiring in 2018. He organizes his 52 chapters mainly by the names of artists he worked with, jumping from decade to decade and post to post while painting a picture of a broad network of people, places and shifting curatorial approaches.
Renny Pritikin pictured in 2018, upon the announcement of his retirement as chief curator of the Contemporary Jewish Museum. (Photo: Gary Sexton; Courtesy of Contemporary Jewish Museum)
In this respect, At Third and Mission may feel like inside baseball to those unfamiliar with the nitty-gritty of running a tiny nonprofit art space, or serving on an NEA granting panel, or showing experimental art to conservative politicians. But in each of his short, easily digestible chapters, Pritikin combines a delightful anecdote, a dose of sober reality and plenty of his own awe.
He does not, for instance, name-drop for the sake of name-dropping. The chapter about Barry McGee’s first museum show (at YBCA in 1995) is not a pat on the back for Pritikin’s own visionary curation, but about opening art experiences to new audiences. We hear about McGee’s early, formative encounters at New Langton events and, years later, the young skaters who flocked to YBCA to see a show by Twist.
There are plenty of struggles and disasters in At Third and Mission, but Pritikin’s willingness to admit his own mistakes (a missed opportunity to show a new David Hammons piece at YBCA, a CJM opening that put an exhausted Roz Chast in an overwhelming throng of fans) makes it clear these are unavoidable aspects of a long career. What emerges throughout is Pritikin’s ability to adapt and change — especially when it comes to generous, expansive definitions of museum-quality art, as his 12 years of YBCA shows attest.
Reading Pritikin’s memoir will unavoidably prompt some self-reflection. What will you remember when you look back on your own career? Will it be the grudges and petty grievances, or the unexpected compliments and moments of connection? How can we better appreciate, as Pritikin seems to have done, everyday moments of purposeful work?
An image from ‘At Third and Mission,’ with Renny Pritikin “discussing contemporary art with police and firefighters” during a Survival Research Laboratories performance. (Courtesy of the author)
Early in the memoir, Pritikin charts a busy “day in the life” as the director and chief curator at the Nelson Gallery. While driving from Oakland to Sacramento to visit the studios of two older painters, poor directions, rain, and swapped phone numbers all conspire to wreck his carefully scheduled plans. Yet, through happenstance and the kindness of artists, Pritikin emerges victorious.
“I thought during the ride, again, what a privilege and pleasure it was to meet such committed and talented people as my job,” he writes, “and how despite the weather and getting lost twice, it had been a great morning.”
It’s one thing to look back across the distance of many years and find a silver lining in a stressful situation, but quite another to have that perspective in the moment. At Third and Mission is a pleasantly meandering, wholly absorbing lesson in finding meaning in the workaday world.
“The people we meet, the things we create, the projects we pull off, all leave traces and map out the slalom course of our life’s work,” Pritikin writes. “A career passes before you know it, full of exhilaration and frustration, full of detail, and over as quick as a frenetic, rainy day.”
Artist Arleene Correa Valencia in conversation with Tony Bravo at Catharine Clark Gallery
Artist Arleene Correa Valencia Photo: Catharine Clark Gallery
Artist Arleene Correa Valencia has emerged as an exciting Bay Area artist exploring some of the most challenging personal and political subjects in contemporary life.
Born in Mexico and now living in the Napa Valley, Correa Valencia creates paintings, textiles and drawings that reflect on patterns of migration and family separation. Her recent work in “Naces Asi, Naces Prieto. No Naces Blanco / You Are Born Like This, You Are Born Brown. You Are Not Born White,” on view at Catharine Clark Gallery, is inspired by the letters she wrote to her father as a child, during a period of separation when he had migrated to the United States while she remained in Mexico.
Correa Valencia’s visual language considers the politics of visibility and the complexities of undocumented immigration. Correa Valencia is also one of the featured artists in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ triennial exhibition, “Bay Area Now 9.”
Correa Valencia will be in conversation with Chronicle arts and culture writer Tony Bravo at Catharine Clark Gallery, where they will discuss the work on view and her larger creative practice.
The Bay Area art scene is booming, but its been here all along.
By: Max Blue
Posted: October 12, 2023
Updated: October 13, 2023
“The de Young Open” aims to showcase the diversity of the art scene here in the Bay Area. Gary Sexton/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
This has been a year of celebration for Bay Area art.
From the SECA Award show at SFMOMA to a group show of artists finding creative ways to make a living in the Bay Area at the Museum of Craft and Design, local institutions have stepped up to spotlight the artists in their backyard.
Now, two of the largest such exhibitions yet are here to top things off.
“The de Young Open,” at the Golden Gate Park museum, and “Bay Area Now 9” at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts take a different approach to promoting local artists.
The open is a juried exhibition featuring 883 artists selected by Timothy Anglin Burgard, the museum’s senior curator of American Art, along with a panel of guest jurors and local artists Clare Rojas, Stephanie Syjuco, Sunny A. Smith and Xiaoze Xie.
That’s narrowed down from 7,766 submissions, roughly 1,000 more than the previous, initial iteration of the open in 2020. Submissions, accepted online, are blind and open to anyone age 18 and over living in any of the nine Bay Area counties.
“The goal is to have the broadest possible representation, reflecting the spectrum of art being made in the Bay Area,” Burgard said.
Arranged thematically throughout the museum’s lower level and hung salon style — wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling — the profusion of styles and subject matter proves that there is no shortage of artists here. The community is as diverse as its output, ranging in age from 18 to 86, including many professional artists and some exhibiting their work for the first time.
“It shows that the art scene in the Bay Area is alive and well,” said artist and educator Andrea Nicolette Gonzales.
Artists in the Bay Area aren’t strangers to struggling to keep their place. To mitigate this, all of the work in the “Open” is for sale, with artists retaining 100% of the proceeds. About a third of the art was sold in 2020, including 16 pieces that were purchased by the museum and added to the de Young Museum’s permanent collection, a gesture the museum will repeat this year.
The exhibition’s presentation makes it difficult to retain individual artworks — but the audacity of the show may well be its strongest statement.
“It’s a love letter to Bay Area artists,” said painter David Dugoncevic. “We’re still here.”
A more focused presentation, “Bay Area Now 9” features 30 local artists selected and curated by Amy Kisch, YBCA’s chief producer; Martin Strickland, YBCA’s director of curatorial initiatives; and independent curator Fiona Ball.
This ninth iteration of the triennial — and the first after a five-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic — focuses on unifying themes throughout the artists’ works.
“We were looking at what artists seemed to be having concurrent conversations with one another and what artists were thinking about the Bay Area within their practice,” Ball said.
A central theme of this year’s “Bay Area Now” is community. This is reflected in the artworks on view, which mainly consist of brand-new commissions, for which artists were given scalable production budgets and a fixed honorarium for being included in the show.
“The Bay Area is marked by its desire for, and maintenance of, an incredibly strong network between artists,” Ball said. “We’re still so connected to each other after the past few years of not being together in person.”
For almost all the artists included, their connections to the Bay Area are personal and historical.
Lenore Chinn’s ongoing series of photographs, “Art and Culture: Creating a Community,” showcases the vibrant history of Bay Area arts and culture, while Janet Delaney juxtaposes her photographs of San Francisco from the 1980s with pictures of the same locations taken in the last few years, documenting the radical shift in the urban landscape.
Trina Michelle Robinson moved to San Francisco in 2016 to make art about her ancestral history, which has orbited the Bay Area since the early 1900s.
“I’m only here at this point because I’m trying to tell the stories of my family and where I fit in this world,” she said.
Another reason she came to California from New York City was the “level of community,” she said: “People are kinder here, and I felt that in the art scene. We are very much about trying to uplift one another.”
Arleene Correa Valencia was undocumented when she migrated to Napa Valley from Mexico in 1997 at the age of three. For her, the exhibition represents a personal milestone.
“I grew up just across the water not having access to San Francisco because of the social and political limitations of my family’s status,” she said. “I always felt like my status had to be hidden. To be included in this exhibition is stepping outside that protection and invisibility and into a conversation that finally includes me and my community.”
If the last few years were marked by a period of particular strain on the Bay Area arts community, 2023 has been defined by a resurgence and redefinition of solidarity.
But don’t call it a comeback – they’ve been here all along.
Papalotl: Sonadores En Busqueda de Amor Papalotl: Dreams In Search of Love, repurposed textiles on pink canvas, 60 1/2 x 146 inches
On a large pink rectangle of canvas cloth, outlined in simple silhouettes, stand rows of small figures looking frozen as if waiting for something to begin. Their round faces, plump limbs, and fat palms identify them as children, but they are anonymous as individuals. In place of facial features—eyes, nose, mouth— the artist Arleene Correa Valencia presents blank templates. The only identifying features are the bright pieces of clothing the children wear: the girl’s brightly flowered skirt, the boy’s reflective yellow socks, the baby’s pinafore. Above their heads, kites and butterflies fly, symbolic images of play, dreams and freedom. But make no mistake, these children, separated from their parents, some never to reunite, have been flung into a system over which they have no control or power. The piece, Pãpalõtl: Soñadores En Búsqueda de Amor/Pãpalõtl: Dreams In Search of Love, a narrative of innocence trapped between borders, is one of the most powerful and haunting works in the artist’s current exhibition at Catharine Clark Gallery titled, Naces Asi, Naces Prieto. No Naces Blanco. You Are Born Like This, You Are Born Brown. You Are Not Born White.
A Donde Vamos?/Where Are We Going?; Dos/Two, 2023, repurposed fabric embroidered on paper, 14 x 11 inches each
A series of 16 drawings created on repurposed fabric and embroidered on paper tell other immigrant stories, forming another of the show’s highlights. Her technique —aptly named a running stitch—pinpoints the emotions of loss, anxiety, fear, and longing in exquisitely sparse and potent compositions. Each incorporates an element of absence, portraying a spectral child embracing or clinging to a parent’s leg.
These small works are agonizing, tender and anguished. The parents wear reflective clothing; the children are silhouetted in illuminated white thread, the two conjoined like puzzle pieces, with one part intentionally omitted. Of the reflective material Correa Valencia uses to connect them she writes, “When exposed to light, the outline of the adult figures absorbs this energy, symbolizing the fear of family separation and deportation. But in darkness, the separation is made visible as the child absorbs the light and becomes a beacon of hope.”
Stitch-by-stitch, Correa Valencia’s art translates the personal into the political and the universal. As a toddler, she, too, was separated from her parents for a short time and crossed the border with her siblings in the care of a coyote (smuggler). About a year before this incident, her father, traveling ahead to the United States, was separated from the family. Correa Valencia vividly recalls these two episodes as the most traumatic of her life, and they subsequently became the catalyst for her art. However, it wasn’t until the outbreak of covid and the early days of the pandemic, when she was confined at home with her in-laws, that she began sewing and using textiles, a practice she instantly understood as being connected to her heritage and culture. It became the medium through which she could weave together her family’s history and tell the stories of immigrants.
Hijos del Sol/Children of the Sun, 2023, acrylic painted by Casear Armando Correa, repurposed fabric and embroidery on canvas, 86 x 61 inches
Hijos el Sol/Children of The Sun depicts the figures of Correa Valencia and her siblings standing in front of the Aztec sun calendar, a tribute to her father, the narrative force behind her art. He wanted to be an artist, a dream he relinquished to support the family. But with her encouragement, he painted the sun image, and it’s this very image, that serves as the backdrop for his reunited children. In other areas of the canvas, Correa Valencia has repurposed the fabric from the clothing they once wore. One of her brother’s wears a shirt bearing the logo of the company where their father works. The material that once enveloped and protected their childhood bodies has made its own crossing journey, migrating and transforming from garment into art.
Salida: Exit, 2023, aluminum and LED lights, 26 x 9 1:4 inches
In the gallery’s media room, two light works, Salida/Exit and Un Momento Mas/One More Moment, depict a parent bidding a child farewell. We do not know who is leaving or staying, only that this is a moment of separation we have all experienced in varying degrees. To convey the universality of this wrenching moment, Correa Valencia portrays these figures on a mirrored aluminum surface. In looking, we all become visible within her eerie fluorescent LED light outlines because the story of human migration, carrying light forward and holding it until reunion occurs, is universal and unfolding. It is a story that no single thread can mend, but it’s exquisitely illuminated here, altering how we see and experience one another.
Arleene Correa Valencia: “Naces Asi, Naces Prieto. No Naces Blanco. You Are Born Like This, You Are Born Brown. You Are Not Born White” @ Catharine Clark Gallery through November 4, 2023.
About the author: Gabrielle Selz is an award-winning author. Her books include the first comprehensive biography of Sam Francis, Light on Fire, and Unstill Life: Art and Love in the Age of Abstraction. Her essays and art reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Hyperallergic, Art & Object, Art Papers, The Rumpus, and The Huffington Post, among others. She makes her home in Oakland, California.
Josephine Taylor: Night House | Catharine Clark Gallery | San Francisco
Josephine Taylor, Lepidoptera, at night, 2023. Indigo denim rubbing on canvas. 62 x 98 inches.
Catharine Clark Gallery announces Night House, an exhibition of new drawings by Josephine Taylor, on view September 30 – December 23, 2023, in the South Gallery. At once both intimate and immersive, Taylor’s compositions invite us into the extraordinary lifeworld of a family and its environment: the quiet meals, the sleepless nights, the moments of rest in between wake and dream. It is also a body of work about color: the dusky grey blue of night and the shifts in light and dark that shape and inform our emotional responses and moods.
Josephine Taylor, Peace, 2 (Aki sleeping on couch), detail, 2023. Botanical indigo on canvas. 69 ½ x 62 inches.
Taylor writes: “Night House is made up of portraits of the people and things in my home at night. More than that, it is a selfportrait of a feeling and a state of being. It explores how I see things in the most private moments of my family’s domestic life, under the cover of darkness. I see color differently throughout the night: sometimes, the world around me appears covered in a thin, steel-gray veil; and at other times, it feels suffused in an inky flood of indigo.”
She continues: “The works in this show explore how persistent melancholy morphs not just what we see, but also how we see. Bleary eyed and exhausted at night, I often sit and stare at whatever is in front of me: a family member sleeping, a vase of flowers, a doorway lit from behind. Nighttime brings an altered state: things bleed together, light plays with dark, and static objects become luminous and activated. The environment feels total in the way that a singular, complex organism might. Night breathes; it pulses and glows.”
Josephine Taylor, Doors, 2023. Colored ink and watercolor on canvas. 30 x 24 inches
“After many months of observation, I realized that night often shrouds space with a luminous blue cast. After experimenting with synthetic blue pigments and paints, I felt an increased dissatisfaction with how blue as color was represented. I shifted course, abandoned my synthetic inks, and reached for one of the most ancient sources of blue—the indigo plant. Through a labor and time intensive process, I used dry and liquid indigo to render these images, either rubbing the indigo directly onto unprimed canvases or spraying it directly onto the surface. I never apply a paintbrush or drawing instrument to the canvas; in this way, I am trying to create an image with color in its truest form. I want the medium and the process to echo the emotional content of the work. In the dry indigo works, I want to evoke the physical demands of rubbing, and the idea of creating a mark or stain as opposed to lifting it away; with the liquid indigo works, I want to draw attention to the permanence of natural dyes, the unforgiving nature of it, and the unharnessed bleeding liquidity of it.”
“Ultimately,” Taylor remarks, “I hope that the viewer walks away wondering about melancholy, family, and night; and in that space, I hope the viewer recognizes the great potential for heightened beauty in those moments when we are pushed to the limits of our emotions.”
In conjunction with Taylor’s exhibition, the gallery presents An art school that is riddled with doubt by Jon Rubin, on view September 30 – November 4, 2023. Installed in EXiT and the Vestibule, Rubin’s work critically and humorously invites us to consider how we imagine creatively sustainable lives. As part of Rubin’s presentation, the gallery exhibits his banner installation Photograph Yourself Naked at Your Parents’ House (2018), originally presented at the San Francisco Art Institute. In Rubin’s installation, myths, legends, lies, and misremembered stories of past student art works are presented as both cautionary tales to be never repeated and possible instructions to future students.
Hold onto your cowboy hats. This is no ordinary Western art show.
The simply titled “Cowboy” opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver on September 29 and it’s sure to garner major attention in the Western U.S. and beyond.
The show, organized by curators Nora Burnett Abrams and Miranda Lash, takes aim at the mythic figure, which they describe as “one of the most fraught and persistent figures in contemporary American culture.” The show raises questions such as how the myth of the cowboy exists today and how this archetype of masculinity shaped how we think about gender now. It further delves into cowboys’ relationship to the land through a series of broad perspectives and aims to debunk the homogenous concept of the cowboy as a white male.
Karl Haendel, Rodeo 11 (2023). Image courtesy the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles, Mitchell- Innes & Nash, New York, and Wentrup Gallery, Berlin
“There is no mythic figure who is more grand and complicated than the cowboy,” said Burnett Abrams in a phone interview. Originally, she said, she was looking into the history of the Black cowboy, but over the course of years of conversations, the concept was broadened.
“We approached it from all angles,” said Lash, including very much from the side of satire and critique, but also from the perspective of “homage,” with artists incorporating the stories of their own family members. “The stories range from the deconstructive impulse to the very personal. Cowboys are just so much more diverse than what gets depicted in the mainstream media.”
While the show starts with some classic blue-chip names and works like a John Baldessari (The Space Between Hat Rock and Shadow), Richard Prince’s famous Marlboro Man photo, and Andy Warhol’s film of a horse, it quickly delves into the contemporary and ultra-contemporary realm with 27 artists spanning 70 works.
Stephanie Syjuco, Set Up (The Broncho Buster 2) (2022). Image courtesy the artist, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco; RYAN LEE Gallery, New York; and Silverlens, Manila.
Take for instance Stephanie Syjuco’s photographs of Frederic Remington’s famous bronze sculptures of bucking broncos in the Amon Carter collection that depict them being measured with tape and alluding to the popularity of—and poking fun at—the sculptures and replicas on CEO desks across the country as symbols of bravura. “She jokes about how it’s such a popular bronze on the desks of corporate executives because it connects so deeply with this idea of the rugged individual, the entrepreneur, the man who sets his own terms,” said Lash.
The two curators said the tagline for the show could be: “This is not your grandfather’s Remington.”
Another topic that the show tackles is the “very problematic binary of the cowboy versus Indian, which is just an invention,” said Burnett Abrams.
Grace Kennison, I Remember Being Alone (2023). Image courtesy the artist.
One of the artists included in the show is Oklahoma native Nathan Young, whose art delves into his family history with parents who are of the Pawnee and Delaware Tribe. The multi-disciplinary artist delves into Pawnee rodeo culture in this series of work in the show.
And four contemporary artists, including Rafa Esparza, Young, and Colorado-based artists R. Alan Brooks and Gregg Deal were commissioned to make work for the show.
“There are those who are Native American or are of Native American descent who actively participate in cowboy culture,” said Lash. “There is not that distinction or binary.”
Burnett Abrams said: “Our ambition is to expand the story and I think that for those who are ready to be a part of that, it’s going to be amazing.”
“Cowboy” is on view at MCA Denver, 1485 Delgany Street, Denver, through February 18, 2024.
Read the full article here: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/mca-denver-cowboy-show-2368612
October 04, 2023
SF festival celebrates 14 years of putting dance on the screen
By Anita Katz | Special to The Examiner | Sep 21, 2023 Updated Sep 22, 2023
“Dancing in A-Yard” visits a Los Angeles County prison project in which former gang members find redemption through dance classes.
Courtesy San Francisco Dance Film Festival
Celebrating the world of dance through the popular medium of movies, the San Francisco Dance Film Festival has long attracted dance fans and neophytes alike to its screenings.
More than 80 films in which stories and emotions are expressed through bodies in motion will be shown at the festival’s 14th annual edition.
The festival opens Friday and runs through Oct. 15 at Lucasfilm Premier Theater, ODC Dance Theater, Brava Theater, and Catharine Clark Gallery, all in San Francisco, and on ODC Connect, online.
“There are other dance festivals, but ours is considered one of the most solid and highly regarded in the world,” says Linda Schaller, director of programming for the San Francisco Dance Film Festival and Dance Film SF, the nonprofit organization that presents the festival. “We draw filmmakers and audience members from around the world. We connect with filmmakers.”
“Some people think dance is elitist, but it isn’t,” Schaller says. “Our programs are accessible and entertaining.”
“We received about 500 film submissions this year,” Schaller says. “We got that number down to 83.”
“We look at the quality of the dance, the quality of the film production, and the diversity of the filmmakers,” she says of her team’s selection criteria. “We also need to appeal to audiences in the Bay Area.”
Schaller praises the final lineup.
“There’s a diversity of dance styles, from classical ballet to hip-hop,” she says.
The movies range from traditional documentaries to screendance films (short dance pieces created specifically for the camera, not the stage).
Schaller encourages everyone, and especially newcomers, to attend this year’s opening program,“Spotlight Shorts.” She describes this collection of 10 short films as “an audience-friendly sampler that gives a diverse picture of the whole festival.”
These chosen shorts include “Then Comes the Body,” a documentary about a passion-driven teacher who helps his young students at the Leap of Dance Academy, Nigeria’s only ballet school, realize their dreams.
“Circle” compares modern urban existence to the “death spiral” that occurs when army ants follow one another in a circle until they die of exhaustion.
A barroom erupts with a zestful dance number in “Lady Be Good,” a salute to jazz, Ella Fitzgerald, and leading ladies.
Short-film packages include “Narrative Shorts,” “Doc Shorts,” “Bay Area Shorts,” and programs of screendance shorts, to name a few.
“Dance is certainly one of the oldest art forms, and it’s been a part of film for a long time,” Schaller says. She cites Busby Berkeley musicals, Fred Astaire, and Gene Kelly as some of cinema’s early dance attractions.
“Recent innovations in technology have allowed filmmakers to go beyond those traditions,” Schaller says.
“Filmmakers can now show dancers’ bodies, up close,” in ways not possible before, for example, she says. “It’s a whole new world.”
Schaller also recommends two full-length documentaries.
“Call Me Dancer,” described by Schaller as a “documentary version of ‘Billy Elliot,’” follows a young Mumbai dancer, who, despite his family’s disapproval, is determined to succeed in his field.
“Dancing in A-Yard” visits a Los Angeles County prison project in which former gang members find redemption through intimacy and creativity in dance classes.
Schaller also highlights “Flower,” a 28-minute Oakland-set drama choreographed by local dancemaker Alonzo King. Ballerina Misty Copeland portrays a young dance teacher trying to prevent herself and her mother, who has dementia, from eviction.
“Love, A State of Grace” features an aerial dance performance presented by San Francisco’s Zaccho Dance Theatre in Grace Cathedral.
Read the full article here: https://www.sfexaminer.com/culture/movies-and-tv/san-francisco-dance-film-festival-to-showcase-83-films/article_16859060-57ef-11ee-aa28-3fba36e7409e.html
September 20, 2023
What Sold at Frieze Seoul and The Armory Show 2023
Arun Kakar
Sep 11, 2023 10:21AM
Interior view of The Armory Show, 2023. Photo by Vincent Tullo. Courtesy of The Armory Show.
Summer came to an end for the art world last week with the return of two major art fairs on two different continents: The Armory Show (September 8th–10th) in New York and Frieze Seoul (September 6th–9th) in Seoul. Both fairs are now owned by the same company after Frieze announced that it would acquire The Armory Show, along with EXPO Chicago, earlier this year.
Both fairs—for now—have not revealed any plans to change their September slots in light of the acquisition. As The Armory Show’s executive director Nicole Berry told us earlier this week, this year’s fair was “business as usual.”
The Armory Show, which has occupied its September slot since 2021 (it was held in March before the switch in dates), is part of a week of fairs in New York that also includes Independent 20th Century, Art on Paper, and the inaugural Photofairs New York. Frieze Seoul, which staged its first edition in 2022, takes place in the same building as Korea’s longest-running art fair, KIAF, and is a part of Seoul Art Week, which features numerous gallery openings and events across the Korean capital.
“The ambience at the fair felt upbeat with a good attendance from international collectors, and we have observed again that the city represents one of the most sophisticated art markets anywhere in the world,” said Wendy Xu, White Cube’s general manager of Asia, at Frieze Seoul. “It’s clear that there is a community here that is deeply knowledgeable and engaged with both local and international modern and contemporary art.”
Taking place amid a period of sustained tension for the art world, with worries of a market “correction” abound, both fairs reported positive sales and strong attendance throughout.
While dealers at Frieze Seoul disclosed a higher number of six-figure sales, reported figures from The Armory Show reflect more strength in the middle market. This will have come as a relief to many of the galleries in attendance, following a slower-than-expected first half to the year across the art market broadly.
Here, we run down the key sales from both fairs.
Top sales at Frieze Seoul 2023
Installation view of White Cube’s booth at Frieze Seoul, 2023. Photo by Lets Studio. Courtesy of Lets Studio and Frieze.
Katherine Bernhardt
Untitled, 2023
David Zwirner
Hauser & Wirth reported a number of significant sales, including:
A work by Nicolas Party for $1.25 million.
A painting by Rashid Johnson for $975,000.
Works by Paul McCarthy, George Condo, and Charles Gaines for prices ranging from $450,000–$800,000.
Works by Gaines, Harmony Korine, Nicole Eisenman, Catherine Goodman, Angel Otero, Camille Henrot, Allison Katz, Pipilotti Rist, Günther Förg, and Cathy Josefowitz also sold in the range of $40,000–$175,000 per piece.
David Zwirner sold works by Mamma Andersson, Katherine Bernhardt, and Rose Wylie at prices ranging from $250,000–$550,000, as well as multiple works by Yayoi Kusama and paintings by Josef Albers and Joan Mitchell for undisclosed prices.
Installation view of Thaddaeus Ropac’s booth at Frieze Seoul, 2023. Courtesy of Thaddaeus Ropac.
Thaddaeus Ropac—one of Artsy’s 10 best booths from the fair—sold:
A work by Georg Baselitz for €1,200,000 ($1.3 million).
A work by David Salle for $250,000.
A work by Lee Bul for $190,000.
A work by Tony Cragg for €300,000 ($322,000).
Two works by Daniel Richter for €375,000 ($402,000) apiece.
Ropac also announced a string of five-figure sales for works by artists including Mandy El-Sayegh and Heemin Chung, the latter of whom the gallery announced representation of during the course of the fair.
Kukje Gallery—another of Artsy’s best booths—confirmed multiple sales including:
A work by Park Seo-Bo in the range of $490,000–$590,000.
A work by Ha Chong-Hyun in the range of $223,000–$268,000.
A work by Kyungah Ham in the range of $110,000–$132,000.
White Cube reported sales including:
A work by Anselm Kiefer for €550,000 ($590,000).
A work by Park Seo-Bo for $490,000.
An Anthony Gormley sculpture for £350,000 ($438,000).
A gold on cardboard work by Danh Vo for $375,000.
A work by Tunji Adeniyi-Jones for $75,000.
An oil on canvas work by Minoru Nomata for $50,000.
Pace Gallery reported several sales including:
A work by Joel Shapiro for $175,000.
A work by Qiu Xiaofei for $160,000.
A Robert Nava painting for $150,000. Nava also opened a new solo show of paintings, “Tornado Rose,” at Pace Seoul during Seoul Art Week.
A painting by Kylie Manning for $80,000.
A work by Kiki Smith for $20,000.
A “rare” 1965 sculpture by Alexander Calder, as well as a 1975 work on paper by the artist.
The gallery also sold several other works by artists including Kenjiro Okazaki and Yoshitomo Nara for undisclosed sums.
Loriel Beltrán
GP (Black and Blue), 2023
Lehmann Maupin
Price on request
Suki Seokyeong Kang
Mat 120 x 165 #23-66, 2022-2023
Tina Kim Gallery
Sold
Lehmann Maupin reported a string of sales from its booth, led by:
Lee Bul’s Perdu XXI (2019), which sold for $200,000. Another painting by the artist, Perdu CLXXXII (2023), sold for $190,000.
A painting by Loriel Beltrán for $75,000.
Five works by Chantal Joffe in the range of £24,000–£80,000 ($30,000–$100,000) each.
A work by Tammy Nguyen for $100,000.
An oil on canvas work by Soun Hong for $50,000.
Tina Kim Gallery—which was among the winners of the inaugural Frieze Seoul Stand Prizes—sold multiple works by Ha Chong-Hyun, Park Seo-Bo, Suki Seokyeong Kang, Maia Ruth Lee, Seok Ho Kang, and others in the $20,000–$250,000 price range.
Installation view of GALLERIA CONTINUA’s booth at Frieze Seoul, 2023. Photo by Lets Studio. Courtesy of Lets Studio and Frieze.
MASSIMODECARLO reported the following sales:
A work by Yeesookyung for $140,000.
A work by Aaron Garber-Maikovska for $100,000.
GALLERIA CONTINUA’s sales included a sculpture by Anish Kapoor for £600,000–£800,000 ($751,000–$1 million).
Cardi Gallery sold:
A work by Mimmo Paladino for $350,000.
A work by Dan Flavin for $250,000.
Oliver Beer
Recomposition (The Feast of the Gods, after Giovanni Bellini), 2023
Almine Rech
Price on request
Jenny Brosinski
So I guess I gotta stay now, 2023
Almine Rech
Price on request
Almine Rech sold:
A painting by Ha Chong-Hyun in the range of $450,000–$460,000.
A painting by Javier Calleja in the range of €240,000–€260,000 ($258,000–$279,000).
A painting by Cristina de Miguel in the range of $60,000–65,000.
A painting by Timothy Curtis in the range of $85,000–$90,000.
A painting by Medhi Ghadyanloo in the range of €78,000–€84,000 ($84,000–$90,000).
A painting by Oliver Beer in the range of £45,000–£50,000 ($56,000–$63,000).
A work by Jenny Brosinski in the range of €38,000–€42,000 ($41,000–$45,000).
A painting by José Lerma in the range of $35,000–$40,000.
A painting by Li Peng in the range of $15,000–$20,000.
Two works by Gioele Amaro in the range of €19,000–€21,000 ($20,000–$25,000) and €20,000–€25,000 ($22,000–$27,000).
Gallery Hyundai’s sales included a pair of works by Seund Ja Rhee, which each sold in the range of $400,000–$450,000.
Kurimanzutto sold works by Gabriel Orozco, Rirkrit Tiravanija, WangShui, and Haegue Yang in the range of $40,000–$550,000, mostly to Korean institutions.
Lisson Gallery’s sales included the placing of a work by Stanley Whitney for $550,000.
Other notable sales from Frieze Seoul 2023
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Sahara Longe
Mirror, 2023
Timothy Taylor
Sold
Sarah Ball
Fin, 2023
Stephen Friedman Gallery
Sold
Timothy Taylor sold out its presentation of 13 paintings by Artsy Vanguard alumnus Sahara Longe at prices ranging from $20,000–$30,000 apiece.
Stephen Friedman Gallery sold a number of works, including a Caroline Walker painting for £25,000 ($31,000); a Yooyun Yang painting for $18,000 ($23,000); and a Sarah Ball oil on linen work for £85,000 ($106,000).
Jessica Silverman’s solo presentation of works by Woody De Othello was met with strong interest. Sales included two large, glazed ceramic sculptures for $92,000 each; a free-standing sculpture for $85,000; a glazed ceramic sculpture for $75,000; and a large oil on canvas for $65,000.
Woody De Othello
mineral wisdom, 2023
Jessica Silverman
Sold
Mary Weatherford
Malachite and Shifting Light, 2023
David Kordansky Gallery
Sold
Various Small Fires had a strong opening day, selling a “variety” of works in the range of $25,000–$75,000 from its group presentation featuring Dew Kim, Wendy Park, Mark Yang, and Kyungmi Shin.
Hong Kong gallery Kiang Malingue made a number of sales, including eight works by Chou Yu-Cheng with prices ranging from $25,000–$50,000.
Seoul’s Hakgojae Gallery made a number of sales, including works by artists Pen Varlen (Byun Wol-ryong) and Haindoo for ₩100 million ($75,176) each.
David Kordansky Gallery said that it had sold “almost all” of its new works by Mary Weatherford within the first few hours of the fair.
Top sales from The Armory Show 2023
Lynne Drexler
Burst Blue, 1969
Berry Campbell Gallery
Price on request
Rupy C. Tut
If not me then no one, 2023
Jessica Silverman
Sold
While there were fewer six-figure sales reported at The Armory Show compared to Frieze Seoul, sales within the high five-figure price ranges were consistent across the fair.
The leading sales from the fair are as follows:
Berry Campbell Gallery reported the sale of two works by Lynne Drexler for $800,000 and $95,000 respectively; a painting by Alice Baber for $200,000; Perle Fine’s Bristling (1946) for $275,000; and Ethel Schwabacher’s Untitled (Woman Series) (1955) by for $195,000.
Jessica Silverman sold a large-scale bronze sculpture by Woody De Othello for $400,000; a painting by Julie Buffalohead for $50,000; works on paper by Clare Rojas and Rupy C. Tut in the range of $12,000–$20,000; a weaving by Margo Wolowiec for $38,000; and five table-top bronze sculptures by Rose B. Simpson to a mix of private and institutional collections for undisclosed sums.
Marc Padeu
La bague de Roxane, 2023
Jack Bell Gallery
Sold
Victoria Miro sold nine new paintings from its solo presentation of María Berrío with prices ranging from $65,000–$200,000.
Templon sold a work by Will Cotton for $150,000; Philip Pearlstein’s 2015 painting Model with Indonesian Mask for $150,000; works by Chiharu Shiota ranging from $64,000–$106,000; all of its works by Philippe Cognée for $32,000–$80,200; a piece by Alioune Diagne for $40,000; and a piece by Oda Jaune for $30,000.
Jack Bell Gallery sold a 2023 Marc Padeu painting in the range of $70,000–$100,000; and a 2023 work by Lavar Munroe in the $70,000–$100,000 range.
Ben Brown Fine Arts sold works by Yoan Capote, Candida Höfer, Vik Muniz, and Ena Swansea in the range of $75,000–$100,000.
William Brickle, Two Figures, Under and Over, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Michael Kohn Gallery.
Chiharu Shiota
Endless Line, 2023
KÖNIG GALERIE
Sold
Michael Kohn Gallery’s main sales included a Siji Krishnan work for $80,000; three Nir Hod works for $75,000, $28,000, and $24,000; an Ilana Savdie work for $60,000; two Heidi Hahn paintings for $48,000 each; and a work by Alicia Adamerovich for $48,000. It also sold two Chiffon Thomas works for $30,000 and $26,000; two works by Rosa Loy for $16,000 each; three works by William Brickel for $12,500 each; a work by Shiwen Wang for $12,000; and a work by Faris Heizer for $9,000.
KÖNIG GALERIE sold a work by Ayako Rokkaku for $89,993; a work by Alicja Kwade for $80,351; a work by Xiyao Wang for $69,637; a work by Robert Janitz for $24,000; and a work by Chiharu Shiota for $58,924.
Edwynn Houk Gallery sold Zana Briski’s gold-toned photogram Bearogram #15 (2020) for $85,000.
Rebecca Brodskis
Sous hypnose 1, 2023
Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery
Sold
Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery sold three paintings by Joachim Lambrechts for $18,000 each, and 15 works on paper by the artist for $4,200 apiece; five paintings by Rebecca Brodskis in the $32,000–$48,000 range; and a Sara Berman painting for $25,000.
Wentrup sold out its solo presentation of Jenny Brosinski, with prices ranging from $40,000–$50,000.
Hollis Taggart sold a drawing by Tom Wesselmann for $38,000 and works by Ezio Martinelli and Larry Rivers for $15,000 and $55,000, respectively.
Nara Roesler sold a 2001 work by Heinz Mack for $256,700, and two oil paint and wax on linen works by Fabio Miguez for $15,000.
Garth Greenan sold 11 works by Howardena Pindell, priced in the range of $100,000–$875,000 per piece; and a Mario Martinez painting for $125,000.
Kasmin sold 15 works by artists including Diana Al-Hadid, Theodora Allen, vanessa german, Daniel Gordon, Alexander Harrison, Lyn Liu, Alexis Ralaivao, and Bosco Sodi, with prices in the range of $20,000–$150,000.
Tang Contemporary Art sold works by various artists including Zhu Jinshi, Wang Xiayao, Yue Minjun, Egami Etsu, Yoon Hyup, Woo Kukwon, and Zhao Zhao, with prices in the range of $16,000–$125,000.
Other notable sales from The Armory Show 2023
Thomas Bils
Kansas City, Missouri, 2023
Spinello Projects
Sold
Spinello Projects sold oil on canvas works by Alejandra Moros in the range of $6,500–$10,000; works by Thomas Bils in the $2,000–$20,000 range; and acrylic on canvas works by Zoe Schweiger, ranging from $4,800–$15,000.
Richard Saltoun sold a Magda Cordell painting for $80,000; two Romany Eveleigh paintings in the range of $20,000; a number of vintage photographs by Annagret Soltau in the $10,000–$14,000 range; a painting by Sylvia Plimack Mangold in the “low six figures”; and three works by Jan Wade in the $8,000–$12,000 range.
Public Gallery sold five paintings priced at $18,500, as well as two large-scale sculptures priced at $22,500 and $23,500, from its solo presentation of works by Cathrin Hoffmann.
April Bey
Calathea Phthalo Green, 2023
TERN Gallery
Sold
Gabriella Boyd
Exit (iii), 2023
GRIMM
Sold
TERN Gallery’s sales included two works by April Bey for $18,000 and $25,000.
Half Gallery sold a work by Yuan Fang to a Bronx Museum board member for $35,000.
GRIMM sold a painting by Gabriella Boyd for $30,000; a painting by Anthony Cudahy painting with an asking price of $55,000; and works by Tommy Harrison and Volker Hüller in the range of $15,000–$20,000 per piece.
Frestonian Gallery sold four unspecified large-scale oils on canvas in the range of $30,000–$50,000; and placed several small works on panel in the range of $5,000–$10,000 by Hannah Brown on the first day of the fair.
Katharina Fritsch
Madonnenfigur, 1982
Ludorff
Price on request
Patrick Dean Hubbell
The Days Go By and Still, You Are There For Us, 2023
Nina Johnson
Sold
Fredericks & Freiser sold two paintings by Hannah Lupton Reinhard for $22,000 and $22,000; a painting by Danielle Roberts for $15,000; and paintings by Anna Kenneally, Kate Pincus-Whitney, Lizzy Lunday, and Maria Calandra for undisclosed prices.
P420 sold works by Irma Blank, Shafei Xia, and Francis Offman for $30,000, $10,000, and $6,000, respectively.
Ludorff sold two sculptures by Katharina Fritsch for $36,000 and $16,000; two works by Josef Albers for $15,000 and $14,500; two works by Frank Stella for $15,000 and $12,500; and a work by Katharina Grosse for $15,000.
Bruce Silverstein Gallery sold four works by Sarah Sense for around $140,000 in total.
Nina Johnson and Candice Madey’s joint solo presentation of works by Patrick Dean Hubbell sold with prices ranging from $16,000–$20,000 per piece.
Jose de Jesus Rodriguez
Memorial Park, 2023
Charles Moffett
Sold
Arleene Correa Valencia
Eres La Estrella, 2023
Catharine Clark Gallery
Sold
Catharine Clark Gallery made a raft of sales including the last artist proof of Stephanie Syjuco’s Phantom Flag (2017/2023) for $15,000 and a complete set of five photogravures from the artist’s “Afterimages” series for $24,000 to a private collection. The gallery also sold 30 embroidered works on paper by Arleene Correa Valencia for $3,500 apiece; and an additional 20 embroidered works on paper, ranging in price from $3,500–$4,200.
Charles Moffett sold four new paintings by José de Jesús Rodríguez with prices in the range of $14,000–$18,000.
Galerie EIGEN+ART sold works by Brett Charles Seiler in the $5,000–$16,000 range; and works by Ricarda Roggan in the $3,000–$30,000 range.
Jaclyn Conley
The Return of the Herd, 2023
MARUANI MERCIER GALLERY
Larkin Erdmann sold an undisclosed number of Ken Price sculptures in the $50,000 range.
MARUANI MERCIER GALLERY sold out its works by Jaclyn Conley; placed one Kwesi Botchway work in a museum in North America; and sold works by Johnson Eziefula for undisclosed sums.
Galeria Senda sold Glenda León’s Mirage: hidden story of the broken mirror (butterfly) (2023) to the Francis H. Williams Collection in New York on the first day of the fair for an undisclosed sum.
Miles McEnery Gallery sold new works by Inka Essenhigh, Raffi Kalenderian, Jacob Hashimoto, Tom LaDuke, and James Siena for undisclosed prices.
BASTIAN sold a Joseph Beuys lemon and light bulb object, titled Capri-Batterie (1985), for $33,000; and a 1997 Robert Rauschenberg painting from the “Anagram” series, titled Matinee (Anagram).
Patel Brown sold out their works by Marigold Santos, with prices in the range of $2,000–$14,000.
WHATIFTHEWORLD sold four works by Zimbabwean-born artist Dan Halter, priced in the range of $10,000–$15,000 (two went to a major private foundation in the U.S.); and four works by South African artist Inga Somdyala, priced at $3,000–$5,000 per piece.
Installation view of White Cube’s booth at Frieze Seoul, 2023. Photo by Lets Studio. Courtesy of Lets Studio and Frieze.
September 20, 2023
The Armory Show 2023 – What The Dealers Said
15 September 2023
The Armory Show, now owned and operated by the Frieze Art Fair group, is a cornerstone of New York’s cultural landscape. Since its founding in 1994, The Armory Show brings the world’s leading international contemporary and modern art galleries to New York annually.
The fair closed on Sunday, September 10, for its 29th edition in its third instalment at the Javits Center. The international art fair, which now serves as the opening event of the fall arts season, hosted a diverse array of international exhibitors, collectors, curators, artists, and guests, totalling 51,000 attendees. Featuring participation from over 225 galleries representing more than 35 countries, this year’s edition saw solid sales and ambitious presentations that transformed the Javits Center into a vibrant hub of artistic expression.
The fair’s impact extended beyond the venue, encompassing installations and events across New York City; reflecting on the event, The Armory Show’s Executive Director Nicole Berry said, “The electrifying energy at this year’s edition was felt throughout the fair. We had exhibitors and collectors from every corner of the globe who were elated by the strong attendance, extraordinary art, excellent sales, and the impact the fair has had on catalyzing important discussions. Year after year, The Armory Show has organized a gathering of collectors, curators, artists, and gallerists in the inspiring setting of New York and its fall art season.”
Highlights of the 2023 fair included sections curated by Eva Respini (Deputy Director and Director of Curatorial Programs at the Vancouver Art Gallery) and Candice Hopkins (Director and Chief Curator of Forge Project). Respini’s Platform section of the fair saw large-scale works installed throughout the central Agora, and Hopkins’ Focus section included solo- and dual-artist presentations. Together, they re-examined historical narratives through the practices of emerging and established artists, whose work is informed by structures of inclusivity and exclusivity. Taking these sections as a starting point, Adrienne Edwards (Engell Speyer Family Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Whitney Museum of American Art) chaired the 6th annual Curatorial Leadership Summit, a day-long, closed-door symposium for curators from around the world.
Prominent museum directors and curators included Cecilia Alemani, Stéphane Aquin, Patrick Charpenel, Melissa Chiu, Anne Ellegood, Alison Gass, Michael Govan, Max Hollein, Anne Pasternak, Adriano Pedrosa, Adriana Rosenberg, Scott Rothkopf, Peter Snare, Alice Gray Stites, Matthew Teitelbaum, Marc-Olivier Wahler, Adam Weinberg, and Rein Wolfs were in attendance.
Many well-known personalities, including Venus Williams, Beck, Chris Rock, Anderson Cooper, Paul Rudd, Diedrich Bader, Paul Dano, David Cross, Reilly Opelka, Zoe Kazan, Rami Malek, Emma Corrin, Hugh Dancy, Alok Menon, Mel Ottenberg, Norman Reedus, Jane Seymour, and Patricia van der Vliet were spotted at the fair.
Top collectors in attendance worldwide included Stefano Basilico, Anita Blanchard & Martin, Nesbitt, Allison Berg, Estrellita Brodsky, Frédéric de Goldschmidt, Larry & Marilyn Fields, Glenn Fuhrman, Susan Goodman & Rodney Lubeznik, Abel Guaglianone & Joaquin Rodriguez, Agnes Gund, Michael & Susan Hort, Ronald Harrar, George & Liz Krupp, Ana Carmen Longobardi, Jeffrey Loria, Bernard Lumpkin & Carmine Boccuzzi, Roszell Mack III, Marianna McDevitt, David Mugrabi, Valeria
Exhibitors at The Armory Show reported strong sales to top collectors and prestigious museums and institutions. Many galleries reported sold-out booths, including 56 Henry, Alexander Berggruen, Charlie James Gallery, JDJ, Johyun Gallery, Marinaro, Martin Art Projects, Patel Brown, Sebastian Gladstone, Semiose, Van de Weghe, and WENTRUP.
Photo Courtesy The Armory Show 2023
Notable sales included:
Eleven works by Howardena Pindell sold for prices ranging from $100,000–$875,000 and a
Painting by Mario Martinez sold for $125,000 (Garth Greenan)
A painting by Lynne Drexler sold for $800,000, a painting by Perle Fine sold for $275,000, an Alice
Baber painting sold for $200,000, and a painting by Ethel Schwabacher sold for $195,000 (Berry
Campbell)
A large-scale patinated bronze sculpture by Woody De Othello sold for $400,000 (Jessica
Silverman)
A work by Kim Lim sold for $250,000 (Ben Hunter)
Nine new paintings by María Berrío made specially for The Armory Show sold at prices ranging
from $65,000–$200,000 (Victoria Miro)
A Month of Early Morning Fog Over Lake Montauk (March 2023) by Rob Pruitt sold for $175,000
(303 Gallery)
A piece by Will Cotton sold for $150,000, an oil on canvas by Philip Pearlstein sold for $150,000,
and works by Chiharu Shiota sold for up to $106,000 (Templon)
Works by artists including Diana Al-Hadid, Theodora Allen, Vanessa German, Daniel Gordon,
Alexander Harrison, Lyn Liu, Alexis Ralaivao, and Bosco Sodi sold for prices ranging from
$20,000–$150,000 (Kasmin)
Works by Zhu Jinshi, Wang Xiayao, Yue Minjun, Etsu Egami, Yoon Hyup, Woo Kukwon, Zhao
Zhao sold for prices ranging from $16,000–$125,000 (Tang Contemporary Art)
Photo Courtesy The Armory Show
Notable acquisitions included:
The Addison Gallery of American Art acquired work by Patrick Dean Hubbell (CANDICE MADEY, Nina Johnson)
Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University and Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA, both purchased textile works by Arleene Correa Valencia (Catharine Clark Gallery)
The Baltimore Museum of Art and Seattle Art Museum will both show seminal works by MacArthur fellow Joyce J Scott thanks to placement within significant collections that will loan the works on the occasion of Scott’s upcoming 50-year retrospective (Goya
Contemporary Gallery)
The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, Rollins Museum of Art in Winter Park, Florida purchased a table-top bronze sculpture by Rose B. Simpson (Jessica Silverman)
North Dakota Museum of Art acquired a Salah Elmur painting
“The fair has been packed until the end, with many engaged collectors and museum curators eager to look at international artists and make discoveries.” –Anne-Claudie Corix, Executive Director, TEMPLON.
What The Dealers Said
“There was an undeniable buzz, a palpable energy that coursed through the air at this year’s Armory Show. Here, the spotlight shone brightly on contemporary artists, offering a unique lens through which to view the world of today’s art and experience a great sense of discovery. To stand amidst it all is to have a thrilling immersion into the world of creativity. A very successful show for the Gallery and its artists indeed.” –Michael Kohn, Owner Michael Kohn Gallery
“We had a fantastic experience at Armory this week, particularly given the inspired context of the Focus sector, which was a wonderful place to show the work of Patrick Dean Hubbell.” –Nina Johnson, Director and Owner, Nina Johnson Gallery.
“We have had a bustling and successful fair, meeting many of our regular collectors and many new ones. Both artists we presented, Joachim Lambrechts and Rebecca Brodskis, sold well.” – Kristin Hjellegjerde, Owner, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery.
“The fair has generated electrifying energy, and we were pleased to place four seminal works by Joyce J. Scott into important collections before we open her approaching 50-year retrospective next year at the Baltimore Museum and Seattle Museum. We were equally delighted to introduce the work of South African artist Jo Smail, now in her 80s, who was equally well received by collectors, placing two works into collections during the fair.” –Amy Eva Raehse, Executive Director and Partner, Goya Contemporary.
“There is nothing like the energy of New York, which is encapsulated so perfectly each year at The Armory Show. We had two booths for this edition, which nearly sold out on the first day. It was so exciting to bring a group of our artists to New York, particularly Alec Egan, as the subject of a colourful and poetic solo presentation.” –Anat Ebgi, Principal Owner, Anat Ebgi Gallery.
“We’ve had a tremendous week at The Armory Show for JD J’s first year participating in the fair!” –Jayne Drost Johnson, Owner, JDJ.
“We are delighted with the fair this year. The Focus section was very strong, and we felt the public felt the same way. We are very pleased by the enthusiastic reception we received from the public and media. It was extraordinary for us to have Rajni Perera’s painting win the Sauer Prize.” –Roxanne Arsenault, Director, Patel Brown.
“The Armory Show art fair exceeded all expectations – it was a fantastic venue for showcasing our artists’ works and a hub for forging new connections in the art world. We are thrilled with our successful sales and are looking forward to returning next year.” –Jade Yesim Turanli, Director, Pi Artworks.
“Overall, it was extremely successful for the gallery and the artists.” –Lauren Every-Wortman, Director, The Pit. “We’re very happy to be back at The Armory Show; it remains an excellent stage to connect with American collectors and institutions. Sales have been positive, and we have placed large-scale works by Lavar.
Munroe and Marc Padeu, with collections based in New York and Los Angeles. Museum engagement has been particularly strong over the week; curators and patrons are taking the time to discuss and positively engage with the works on the booth.” –Jack Bell, Owner, Jack Bell Gallery.
“We’ve seen strong sales across 20th Century and Contemporary material. The market still feels robust for quality works of art.” –Ben Hunter, Owner, Ben Hunter Gallery.
“The fair had incredible energy this year. We are thrilled to be back at The Armory Show post-pandemic, and the fair was busy. Our booth’s impressive presentation of contemporary Chinese artists has gotten high attention. We saw a tremendous level of public interest in the artists we represent. Above all, the fair’s organization was excellent; it brought together a great audience and galleries worldwide.” –Vivian Har, Executive Director, Tang Contemporary Art.
“As two female gallery owners, The Armory Show supports our mission of celebrating unrecognized women artists. Selling five works in the high five and six figures is a stellar way to kick-off the fall season.” –Christine Berry, Co-Owner, Berry Campbell Gallery.
“The Gallery is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year, and our artists’ sustained presence in world-class museums demonstrates the high quality of our roster. The positive reception from institutions on the East Coast shows how our artists’ material and conceptual rigour is timely and timeless.” –Jessica Silverman, Founder and Owner, Jessica Silverman Gallery.
“Today, you need to have a story behind the art,” mused Isaac Stein, a New York-based collector, as we stared together at Jenny Morgan’s black-and-white painting of a spectral reclining woman at the booth of Anat Ebgi Gallery. He’s not wrong. Zig-zag your way across the 200-booth floor plan of New York’s Armory Show, back at the Javits Convention Center in Hell’s Kitchen through this Sunday, and you’ll likely overhear snippets of dealers romancing potential buyers with their artists’ sometimes credible, sometimes improbable backstories. You can recite a three-page CV from memory or name-drop that a certain curator passed by the booth, but if you want to sell, you better have something interesting to say.
The 2023 Armory Show had one clear message: The art world can no longer afford to take itself so seriously. And that’s a relief. For the first time in ages, I found myself feeling — dare I say it! — inspired at an art fair.
There was vanessa german’s sculpture “White Flag Rag/e” (2023), whose mediums included, according to a label, “a forehead kiss” and “a grown man weeping in the parking lot of a steakhouse in Cincinnati.” There were the strangely relatable paintings of Thomas Bils, particularly one close-up of a figure lifting their shirt to reveal a belly “nife fite” tattoo and a Hanes waistband, a flashback to my Miami ex-boyfriends; and Arleene Correa Valencia’s “fuck you, migra” textile piece, from her 2023 series handwoven by the Zapotec artist Jacobo Mendoza and based on texts engraved on the steel door of an ICE detention center.
Ontario-based Inuk artist Couzyn Van Heuvelen exhibited some of his foil balloon pieces, inspired by the Inuit seal-skin floats used to hunt marine animals. These works are typically filled with helium, but the fair prohibited it, worried that the artworks would drift up into the convention center’s impossibly high ceilings, thousands of dollars lost forever. “They told us: ‘Pop them or get out,'” said Fazakas Gallery owner LaTiesha Fazakas. “So we blew them up ourselves using straws.”
Cynics will say the Armory Show aimed for cheap thrills, with a large portion of artworks admittedly falling under the loose categories of“engaging,” “interactive,” “kinetic,” or as some nose-in-the-air commentators who fashion themselves the next Donald Kuspit will call it: “gimmicky.” I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel like a bit of a circus at times, but a circus is fun, and art fairs, generally, are not. In the nonprofit section, for instance, I peeked into a makeshift art studio where artist Drake Carr was live-drawing a portrait of Interview Editor-in-Chief Mel Ottenberg, who posed on a plush gray recliner, arms crossed over his Lacoste shirt, with the vacant-stared nonchalance of the models in his magazine spreads. Titled Housecalls and presented by the Manhattan-based Artists Space, which was awarded a free booth this year as part of the Armory Spotlight program, the project turns innocent visitors into prying observers.
Artist Drake Carr live-drawing Mel Ottenberg for Artists Space’s Armory Show project Housecalls
On the exact opposite side of the fair, the South Korean Wooson Gallery was showing “Theme for a Major Hit” (1974), a motorized marionette-slash-self-portrait by Dennis Oppenheim that is the only moving work by the artist available in the market, I was told by a gallery attendant at the booth. I inquired about the price.
“We would also like to know the price,” he replied, shrugging and gesturing at a woman walking away from the booth — the late artist’s wife, clearly the one calling the shots.
I waltzed into a booth of British artist Poppy Jones’s works just as a frazzled art advisor (bingo!) was pleading an Overduin & Co. salesperson for a second reserve on a tiny but luscious oil-and-watercolor still life of a lemon, priced at $9,500. I respect her hustle — Jones’s works, rendered on suede instead of canvas, have a mystic allure that reminded me of Vija Celmins’s early depictions of everyday objects. In a distinct but resonant vein of entrancing painting was Coco Young’s “Coquelicots” (2023) at Night Gallery’s booth, a canvas entirely occupied by a lush green field dotted with wild blooms, with no beginning or end.
Coco Young, “Coquelicots” (2023), 51 x 70 inches (photo by Pierre Le Hors; courtesy the artist and Night Gallery, Los Angeles)
I thought about another observation by Stein, who portrayed this year’s fair as more “emerging” than previous editions. The limitations of this exhausted label notwithstanding, I noticed many of the artists whose work caught my eye were fair newcomers; young or old, these are individuals galleries really seem to be taking a chance on.
But not everyone thinks this is a good thing. “What galleries bring to an art fair costing them over $50K is what they are thinking will sell,” said Belgian collector and art-world pundit Alain Servais.
“Remembering Hans Ulrich Obrist’s words that ‘art is the best defense against annihilation by standardization,’ I have no clue what Americans find in those miles of interchangeable paintings, most of them with no more concept than a cigarette paper,” Servais told me. He said he enjoyed the Focus booths, whose theme this year was “materiality”; the most offensive disappointment was the Present section: “This cannot be the present of art.”
“Object and image-making is not enough to make it art,” Servais concluded, my eyes watering at the smoke emanating from the searing words in our WhatsApp chat. “AI can do it cheaper.”
Solo presentation of works by April Bey at the TERN Gallery booth
James Greenberg of Greenberg Art Advisory lamented the “dearth of modern material,” wistfully remembering the days when the Armory Show resembled the heavy-hitter Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) fair. “Galleries are trying to take advantage of the new focus on marginalized voices, which is wonderful, but it does seem that there’s a lot of testing of the market with new artists,” he told me. “For those of us who’ve been around for a while, it feels a little young, and less serious.”
Greenberg suggested that this perceived scarcity of modern art at the Armory could be attributed to the debut, just last year, of Independent 20th Century, a concurrent fair; dealers who had once gone to the Armory to flaunt their newly discovered and under-appreciated “masterpieces” of the 1900s now have a dedicated space to do so. Or perhaps the Armory Show’s acquisition by Frieze, announced this summer, had something to do with the vibe shift — but despite some mostly empty gossip, my feeling is that it’s too soon to say.
Shafei Xia, “The happy tiger” (2023), painted and glazed ceramic, 11 13/16 x 24 1/64 inches
Contemporary art fairs have one obvious upper hand: the artists, for the most part, are still alive, and often there in person. I was fangirling over the works of Lydia Blakeley in a solo presentation by London-based Niru Ratnam Gallery when I was told the artist was standing behind me. The centerpiece of the booth, a Danish vintage sunlounger that Blakeley re-upholstered in fabric painted with lovely, pink-tinged images of lobsters and octopi, was surrounded by variously sized works depicting objects of leisure whose function has been stripped away — such as a beach cooler filled with dirt and cacti. Others are scenes of Airbnbs in Palm Springs, a place she never visited — this is her first time in America — but had “experienced vicariously through the internet, thinking of these vacation sites as aspirational places.”
I learned Blakeley had come into her arts education later in life, having worked through her 30s in the retail and hospitality industries; she was selling to people the very aspirations that she now examines, parodies, and yearns for through her paintings. Perhaps because she was able to make this career shift, her works convey an authentic sense of pleasure.
“I couldn’t think of anything worse than being a tortured artist,” Blakeley told me. “While I totally appreciate that there are different types of artists, for me, I prefer the joy in it. I love that moment when I’m into a painting and something clicks, and you get a kind of rush. It’s mentally cathartic.”
Long caught in the liminal space between craft and something more prestigious, works of thread and fabric are reaching newfound institutional recognition.
IN FEBRUARY OF 1969, by a first-floor window that looked out on 53rd Street, the Museum of Modern Art in New York installed a work by a then-34-year-old artist named Sheila Hicks called “The Evolving Tapestry: He/She” (1967-68). Made of more than 3,000 “ponytails” of linen thread, as the artist called them, stitched together and piled atop one another, it looked at first glance like something one might encounter in a commercial fabric store. Neither traditional sculpture nor painting, it conjured both, a monumental object made from the humblest materials.
The show that featured Hicks’s work, “Wall Hangings,” was a rare American institutional endorsement of artists who make ambitious work out of fiber and broadened the idea of what art could be. Most of the artists included were women. But the exhibition received only one major review, in the niche publication Craft Horizons, by the sculptor Louise Bourgeois. At the time, Bourgeois, who also had work on display at MoMA in 1969, was making bulbous bronze, plaster and marble sculptures that referenced the human body. Though she’d grown up working in her parents’ tapestry restoration studio outside of Paris, she wrote that, unlike a painting or sculpture, which “makes great demand on the onlooker at the same time that it is independent of him,” these works “seem more engaging and less demanding. If they must be classified, they would fall somewhere between fine and applied art.” They “rarely liberate themselves from decoration,” she concluded, deploying what might be art’s most insulting critical term.
From the early 1960s to the late ’70s, in a chapter of art history known as the fiber art movement, artists — predominantly women — across Europe and the United States began experimenting with thread and fabric, often pushing them into three dimensions and away from the wall. There was the Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz, who became famous for hovering, engulfing sculptures of sisal and hemp rope that were so distinctive, they earned their own label: Abakans. There was Lenore Tawney, the Ohio-born artist who created intricate threaded towers that recall the arches of Gothic cathedrals. And there was the Nebraska-born Hicks, who spent decades studying fiber with artisans from Mexico to Morocco. She turned thread into tiny portable abstractions, as well as towering mountains and waterfalls that tumbled from the ceiling.
The energy around the fiber art movement, and the small flurry of institutional shows dedicated to it, petered out by the late ’70s, although many artists remained committed to the medium. As the counterculture embraced D.I.Y. crafts projects (like crocheted clothing or macramé plant holders), fiber art’s materials became ubiquitous. Yet it remained a cousin to so-called real art, trapped in the liminal space between high art — painting, sculpture and, increasingly, conceptual art — and its ignoble cousin, craft. As Elissa Auther explains in the book “String, Felt, Thread” (2009), the distinction can be traced back to the Renaissance, when painting and sculpture became associated with liberal arts like music and poetry rather than with supposedly mechanical arts like weaving and blacksmithing.
Old views die hard in art history. As recently as 1986, the critic John Bentley Mays of Toronto’s Globe and Mail took to American Craft magazine to explain once and for all why he did not consider it his job to review textile and fiber work. “Hands cannot contemplate,” he wrote, “and the creation of works for disinterested, han Tau Lewis, photographed at her Brooklyn studio on June 19, 2023.Credit...Chase Middleton. Photo assistant: Brian Galderisi
Tau Lewis, photographed at her Brooklyn studio on June 19, 2023.Credit...Chase Middleton. Photo assistant: Brian Galderisi
Now, as the art world reckons with just how narrow its conception of artistic genius has been, the hierarchy placing art above craft — and intuition above skill — looks ever more gendered and archaic. And in an age when we spend much of our time touching the flat surfaces of screens, this tactile art form feels newly seductive to makers and viewers alike as both a contrast with and a culmination of modern sensory experience. Ambitious and experimental younger artists are embracing fiber and textiles for themselves. While first-generation fiber artists traveled the globe studying with local artisans, today’s practitioners are more likely to rely on their own histories and cultural traditions. Tau Lewis, 29, who lives in Brooklyn, makes long-limbed figures and 10-foot-tall Yoruba-inspired masks out of recycled fabric, fur and leather. She sources her materials from thrift stores and friends and considers herself part of a lineage of Black diasporic creators using what they can find to give form to their dreams. Similarly, the Portland, Ore.-based sculptor Marie Watt, 55, makes towers out of blankets that provide a commentary on life in the Pacific Northwest, including that of Indigenous people. One of her materials is treaty cloth provided by the federal government to the Seneca Nation, of which Watt is a member, as part of the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua signed by George Washington. Kira Dominguez Hultgren, 43, of Illinois, creates textiles that double as self-portraits, interweaving materials like her Punjabi grandmother’s clothing, rope from a climbing gym and her own hair.
Tau Lewis, photographed at her Brooklyn studio on June 19, 2023.Credit...Chase Middleton. Photo assistant: Brian Galderisi
Alongside these new practitioners, there is an ongoing reassessment of fiber art’s place in history. This month, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opens “Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction,” which traces the relationship between textiles and abstraction over the past century. (“Textile” is a broad term that refers to art made with cloth or woven fibers; many experts use the terms “fiber art” and “textile art” interchangeably.) Tate Modern in London recently mounted an exhibition dedicated to Abakanowicz. And the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., is preparing to open “Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women” next spring. Last year, the curator Legacy Russell organized “The New Bend” at Hauser & Wirth gallery in New York, which presented the work of young textile artists in homage to the Gee’s Bend quilters, who for three generations have produced dizzyingly colorful geometric quilts in a remote Alabama hamlet. When New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art installed an exhibition of the quilters’ work in 2002 (amid grumbling from several board members who thought other artists were more deserving of attention), a New York Times review described the objects as “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.”
THE FIBER ART movement formed against the backdrop of the women’s liberation, civil rights and antiwar movements. It was a moment of profound questioning in the art world, too, as minimalist artists from Donald Judd to Walter De Maria embraced commercial fabrication and mundane materials like plywood and dirt to challenge long-held assumptions about art objects. Yet while minimalism eventually claimed its place in art history, fiber art did not. The medium was “simply too rooted in technique to be taken seriously as an ‘attitude,’” the curator Jenelle Porter writes in the catalog for the exhibition “Fiber: Sculpture 1960-Present,” which appeared at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston in 2014, one of the first shows to re-examine this history.
Textiles are an ancient art medium. (Hicks discovered pre-Incan textiles in art school at Yale and became fascinated with mummy bundles dating from a period beginning around 600 B.C. that were discovered by archaeologists in Peru in the late 1920s.) Yet even some of the medium’s greatest advocates were initially skeptical of it. At the onset of World War II, artists who had been trained in interdisciplinary techniques of art and design at the legendary Bauhaus school fled Germany and began teaching internationally, helping to introduce a new generation to fiber techniques. But the Bauhaus graduate Anni Albers, perhaps the world’s most celebrated textile artist, said the prospect of working with thread initially seemed “rather sissy.” She only begrudgingly enrolled in the Bauhaus’s weaving workshop in 1923 because the courses she had been more interested in — painting and stained glass — were open only to men. “Circumstances held me to threads,” she said in a 1982 panel discussion, “and they won me over.”
Marie Watt, photographed at her studio in Portland, Ore., on May 31, 2023.Credit...Mason Trinca. Photo assistant: Julian Croman. Styling by Pamela Baker-Miller
Tau Lewis was drawn to textiles owing to a different kind of circumstance: They were what she had readily available to work with. “My hands are like sponges,” she said one evening in her studio in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “That’s how I navigate my artistic world.” She was looking down at a table covered in fabric samples and absent-mindedly folding and unfolding a piece of black leather. In contrast to some of her predecessors, Lewis has been embraced by the contemporary art world. She showed several of her towering masks at the Venice Biennale last year (the exhibition’s catalog refers to her works as “subversive monuments”), and she’ll have solo shows at the ICA Boston and Haus der Kunst in Munich in 2024. But she is just as philosophically aligned with forebears such as Essie Bendolph Pettway, 67, a third-generation Gee’s Bend quilter who first learned techniques around age 8 from her mother. Recently, they spoke and found they “have [some of] the same questions and concerns,” Lewis said. “We’re really thinking deeply about the ghosts that are in the materials.”
A detail of “Sapling” in Watt’s “Skywalker/Skyscraper (Twins)” (2020), which includes blankets the artist has amassed over more than a decade.Credit...Collection of the Tia Collection, Santa Fe, N.M. Photograph by Kevin McConnell
To take fiber art seriously is to understand how fabric is inextricably linked to the body and is in many ways an extension of it: We wear it, we sleep under it, we are wrapped up in it when we are born and we are buried in it when we die. When I reached Hicks, who is now 89, at her studio in Paris, where she has lived since 1964, she was working on an unusually intimate commission: a collector in South America had sent her an array of garments to wrap and transform into what Hicks described as “bundles of memories” that her family could hold on to after her death. It was the opposite, in a way, of the Andean mummy bundles that helped spark her interest in textiles.
Hicks was equanimous about any late-in-life reconsideration of her art. “Today, the curators walking in the door are different,” she says. They aren’t textile or craft experts — they are contemporary art experts. And that ultimately seems to be the peculiar fate of this medium — in and out of fashion, like an article of clothing. Hicks has said that three generations of curators have now engaged with her work. Each one thinks they were the first to discover it.
Installation view, Pepon Osorio: “My Beating Heart / Mi corazón
latiente”. Badge of Honor (1995), New Museum, 2023.
Late Summer is for New York City’s Art Lovers
Welcome to LATINA’s Art Digest, a periodical collection of new events, expos, and happenings in the art world. From rising Latinx artists, curators, and exhibitions, we highlight the must-see art events happening at the moment.
At the end of each summer, aside from New York Fashion Week, New York City buzzes to the tune of world-famous art fairs and exciting new exhibitions. At Abrons Arts Center, curator Mellány Sánchez pays homage to mid 20th century fashion workers, and identifies a through line between their work and today’s leading fashion designers. Meanwhile at Kurimanzutto, Bárbara Sánchez-Kane showcases campy garments and “wearable sculptures” that question the fashion industry’s practices and gender binaries. Other artists and exhibitions contend with memory, such as Muriel Hasbun’s haunting experimental photography and Martín La Roche’s participatory audience exercises.
“The Endless Coup”
Carlos Gallardo, Abatido/ A La Carne De Chile, 1981.
On view at New Art Dealers Alliance from September 5, 2023 to September 30, 2023
“The Endless Coup” is a group show featuring 21 artists of Chilean background taking place at the New Art Dealers Alliance. The exhibition showcases works that contend with the impact of the Chilean coup d’état on September 11, 1973 and Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.
Floria González: “Mixtape”
Floria Gonzales, Thanks for the Dance, Leonard Cohen, 2023. Oil paint on canvas, 7 9/10 x 7 9/10 in.
On view at JO-HS New York Gallery from September 5, 2023 to October 5, 2023.
For her solo presentation, “MIXTAPE,” the Mexico-city based artist Floria Gonzalez translates music into visual form. Gonzales looks back at the time in her life when she would wait hours for the radio DJ to play her favorite song to record it on tape. Her ensuing work reads like a playlist: Home with You, FKA Twigs; Sound and Vision, David Bowie. Each of the artist’s song-inspired paintings are a nostalgic entry into a parallel universe. Power ballads and dreamy electronic songs turn to eerie dreamscapes. In Thanks for the Dance, Leonard Cohen, loose, thick brushstrokes depict a house caving in amid a gray and somber landscape. It captures the melancholy of Cohen’s raspy voice, and larger contemplation of the fluid nature of love and lust. The exhibition is a vulnerable exploration of music enmeshed in memories.
“Objects of Permanence”
Center for Puerto Rican Studies Library & Archives, Hunter College, CUNY
On view at Abrons Art Center from September 6, 2023 to September 14, 2023.
During New York Fashion Week, “Objects of Permanence” amplifies the foundational contributions of Puerto Rican women and other Latina/Caribbean communities of the mid 20th century in New York’s fashion industry. This multimedia exhibition bridges their legacy with today’s leading fashion designers, featuring objects by the likes of Tremaine Emory and Willy Chavarria. This is a tribute to the hands that built and dressed New York City.
The Armory Show
Jean-Pierre Villafañe, Stroll, 2023. Oil on Linen, 72 x 48 inches.
On view at the Javits Center from September 8, 2023 to September 10, 2023.
The Armory Show — one of the most highly anticipated art fairs — returns to New York City. This year’s roster brings galleries from across the country, including the Latin American cities São Paulo, Mexico City, Bogota, and San Juan. We are particularly excited to see Embajada’s presentation of Jean Pierre Villafañe’s carnivalesque paintings and Catherine Clark Gallery’s booth featuring Arleene Correa Valencia’s faceless depictions of migration on textiles.
Mildred Beltré: “Allow Me to Gather Myself”
Mildred Beltré, Shine, Walnut ink and color pencil on paper, 22 x 30 in.
On view at The Latinx Project from September 8, 2023 to December 7, 2023.
“Allow Me to Gather Myself” features work by The Latinx Project Artist-in-Residence Mildred Beltré. In this solo exhibition, Beltré explores “the power and limits of language.” The artist has a wide ranging practice working across abstraction, textiles, and even creating her own walnut-based ink to develop a “counter archive” of Afro-diasporic ways of knowing. The public is invited to RSVP for the opening reception.
On view PROXYCO Gallery opening on September 8, 2023.
Dolores Furtado experiments with glass and paper pulp sculptures in her solo show, “Vestigio.” She is interested in collapsing time and space in her work. Her glass sculptures are simultaneously pristine and timeworn, futuristic and ancient. Furtado’s sculptures, characterized by their rough exterior and amorphous shaping, defy expectations of what glass objects can be.
Bárbara Sánchez-Kane: “New Lexicons for Embodiment”
Bárbara Sánchez-Kane, Look 3, 2023. Belts, rivets, polyester and metal, 82.68 x 55.12 x 19.69 in. Courtesy of Kurimanzutto.
On view at Kurimanzutto New York from September 14, 2023 to October 21, 2023
Bárbara Sánchez-Kane works at the intersection of fashion and art. In “New Lexicons for Embodiment,” the fashion designer and artist showcases ready-to-wear garments from her eponymous label, and new “wearable sculptures,” through which Kane can articulate social issues within the fashion industry.
On view at Kurimanzutto New York from September 14, 2023 to October 21, 2023
In “Undefined Inclusions,” Paulo Monteiro explores the limits of shapes in 50 separate artworks. His vivid oil paintings on linen and sculptural works are all about form and perception. As seen in his piece Untitled/ Sem título, the oval motif repeats across sculptures and paintings as a passageway for new colors, tones and shapes. See this exhibition for a mesmerizing journey into abstraction and bright colorways.
Pepón Osorio: “My Beating Heart / Mi corazón latiente”
Installation view, Pepón Osorio: “My Beating Heart / Mi corazón latiente”. Badge of Honor (1995), New Museum, 2023.
On view at the New Museum through September 17, 2023.
For over thirty years, Pepón Osorio has upended traditional notions of art-making via his richly ornate installations. “My Beating Heart / Mi corazón latiente” is Osorio’s most comprehensive exhibition to date. It includes five large-scale installations inspired by everyday environments, from home interiors to barbershops and classrooms. These include Badge of Honor (1995), a recreation of a teenage boy’s room adjacent to a cell block. The artwork slowly reveals itself to be an intimate conversation between a teenager and his imprisoned father. Vignettes of everyday life overpower the museum walls and ultimately question how we might take better care of one another.
Martín La Roche: “Yo también me acuerdo”
Installation view, Martín La Roche: “Yo también me acuerdo”, Miriam Gallery, 2023
On view at Miriam Gallery from September 21, 2023 to November 18, 2023.
“Yo tambien me acuerdo (I do remember)” is a site-specific participatory installation that encourages visitors to touch the art, and most importantly, to remember and forge new narratives. Via a series of prompts embedded in the exhibition, artist Martín La Roche activates the gallery into a space for collective healing and renaming. The artist is scheduled to lead a series of creative, tactile, and group exercises throughout the run of the exhibition.
On view at the International Center for Photography from September 29, 2023 to January 8, 2024.
Multidisciplinary artist and educator Muriel Hasbun superimposes X-ray scans, expired film, and archival family documents to foreground overlapping ideas of home, geography and borders. “Tracing Terruño” illustrates the way migration, war and genocide are forever imprinted on terruño (land). Hasbun, a descendant of Salvadoran and Palestinian Christians on her paternal side, and Polish and French Jews on her maternal side, grounds the exhibition in the personal. Her experience migrating from El Salvador during the civil war in 1979, and her mixed heritage pulsate across her work. In “Tracing Terruño,” Muriel Hasbun tells the story of one family’s experience with dislocation via nearly 80 experimental works. Through photography, video and installation, the artist embarks on a quest of remembering.
Chuquimamani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton: “Q’iwanakaxa/Q’iwsanakaxa Utjxiwa” (Cacique apoderado Francisco Tancara & Rosa Quiñones confronted by the subprefecto, chief of police, corregidor, archbishop, Reid Shepard, & Adventist missionaries)
Installation view of Chuquimamani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton: “Q’iwanakaxa/Q’iwsanakaxa Utjxiwa (Cacique apoderado Francisco Tancara & Rosa Quiñones confronted by the subprefecto, chief of police, corregidor, archbishop, Reid Shepard, & Adventist missionaries)”. Photo: Steven Paneccasio
On view at MOMA PS1 until October 2, 2023.
Siblings Chuquimamani-Condori (Elysia Crampton Chuquimia) and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton honor their great-great-grandparents who worked towards asserting the Aymara people’s land and religious rights in Bolivia. In collaboration with family, the siblings resume their ancestors’ legacy by bringing Indigenous Aymara cosmologies to MOMA PS1. The immersive exhibition consists of a mural accompanied by sound and music.
Manuel Aja Espil: “Worlds of Exile”
Manuel Aja Espil, Invasion of Wilkes Land, 2023, Oil on linen, 56 3/4 x 72 1/2 in.
On view at Hutchinson Modern & Contemporary through October 14, 2023.
Manuel Aja Espil proposes a new visual vocabulary for dystopian fables. Aja Espil draws from sci-fi, cartoons and Charles Dickens to create imaginary universes full of sarcasm and spectacle. “Worlds of Exile,” Aja Espil’s first solo exhibition in the U.S., features new paintings that fuse European romantic landscapes with fantastical subjects. His gaze on society and nature may just imagine a world without the direct presence of human beings.
Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo), Found image: “nude woman behind opaque glass,” 2023. Photo: Erik Von Weber, licensed via Getty Images.
On view at the New Museum from October 12, 2023 to January 14, 2024
In “Nothing New,” artist Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo, better known as Puppies Puppies, will blend art and life together as she transforms the New Museum’s lobby into a stage for her daily activities. Mediated through a fogged glass, viewers will have a cloudy view of the artist as she re-contextualizes quotidian life into a performance. In sensationalizing her daily existence, Kuriki-Olivo embraces the nuanced layers of her own identity, rejecting tokenization and reductive narratives of racial and trans identities.
Joanna García Cherán is an art historian, writer and cultural worker passionate about art of our time.
The Best Booths at the Armory Show, Where Under-Recognized Giants and Rising Stars Collide
The Fabric Workshop and Museum presents ‘Sonic Presence (or Absence): Sound in Contemporary Art,’ an exhibition that explore and engage with sound.
By, Alex Greenberger
Published on September 7, 2023 11:00pm
The scene at the 2023 Armory Show
Photo: Alex Greenberger for ARTnews
There is no shortage of art to see in New York this week, but the big event most will attend is the Armory Show, the sprawling art fair that has once again touched down at the Javits Center. In 2021, when the fair first relocated there, a pandemic-driven anxiety accompanied the proceedings. Now, the mood is lighter, and the art is, too.
Many of the 225-plus galleries exhibiting here have trotted out paintings and sculptures with the hope of currying favor with collectors, advisers, and other dealers. The fair is, after all, a market event whose art is meant for selling first, appreciation second. But the offerings this year thankfully skew slightly more ambitious than usual, with under-recognized artists deserving more attention and difficult conceptual artwork in need of thoughtful viewing.
Curator Candice Hopkins’s “Focus” section, for single- and two-person presentations, is this fair’s high point. Many galleries in it are spotlighting Indigenous and First Nation artists; some of them also appear in Hopkins’s exhibition “Indian Theater” at Bard College upstate. Meanwhile, the “Presents” section, for younger galleries, is also strong.
How best to approach this fair’s multitude of booths? Below are 10 of the finest ones.
Sonia Boyce at Apalazzo
Apalazzo's Sonia Boyce booth
Photo: Alex Greenberger for ARTnews
Having won the Golden Lion at the 2022 Venice Biennale and just this week joined Hauser & Wirth, Sonia Boyce is on a hot streak. Her success continues with this booth by her Italian gallery. She is showing three pieces having to do with hair, which Boyce, a leading figure of the British Black Arts Movement of the 1980s, asserts as a defining feature of one’s identity.
The booth is anchored by The Audition, a work that Boyce first staged at Home, an art space in Manchester, in 1997. For that work, participants were asked to try on an Afro wig and were then photographed with and without it. The pictures of them can seem so markedly different as to portray two different people—a particularly complicated knot in Boyce’s concept, given that a number of the participants appear to have been white. She was questioning what truly counted as Black representation, and only continued to do so in another piece here, the 2005 video Exquisite Tension, in which a Black woman and a white man’s hair are tied together, leaving them inseparable from one another.
Cathy Lu at Micki Meng
Cathy Lu, Peripheral Visions, 2022.
Photo: Alex Greenberger for ARTnews
This booth, arguably the most visually stunning one of the entire fair, is filled by a single installation: Peripheral Visions (2022), an expanded version of which previously appeared at San Francisco’s Chinese Culture Center last year. Set against blue walls, the installation features ceramic eyes that spout streams of water tinged yellow by onion skins; Lu has called these flows “yellow tears.” Each pair of peepers is modeled on those of a famous Asian American—the artist Ruth Asawa, the figure skater Michelle Kwan, and the author Cathy Park Hong, to name a few.
It would be easy to read Lu’s installation as a representation of the sadness felt amid a recent surge in violence against Asian Americans, but the work is more complex than that. The soothing burble of water spewing into buckets and bowls—all of them based on Lu’s grandmother’s kitchenware—provides a respite in a chaotic world.
Arlene Correa Valencia and Stephanie Syjuco at Catherine Clark Gallery
Work by Arlene Correa Valencia and Stephanie Syjuco at Catherine Clark Gallery's booth.
Photo: Alex Greenberger for ARTnews
San Francisco’s Catherine Clark Gallery has paired two artists whose work piercingly takes up the pain and loss associated with the immigrant experience in the US. Those losses, these artists suggest, are not merely physical but psychological as well. Arlene Correa Valencia, who was born in Mexico and is now based in California’s Napa Valley, represents this by way of images of migrant farm workers on the job. One depicted behind a tree melts away into their labor, their face disappearing behind a tree whose leaves are left blank. All that remains is an orange vest whose zipper dangles off the canvas.
The Manila-born artist Stephanie Syjuco, meanwhile, focuses on the Philippines, photographing official documents that have been corrected to account for mistakes made by Dean Conant Worcester, an American who helped colonize the country during the 19th century. Alongside those pictures, she is exhibiting a translucent American flag printed on sheer black fabric. This symbol of national pride is here turned see-through.
Gio’ Pomodoro and Joan Witek at Secci Gallery
Work by Gio’ Pomodoro and Joan Witek at Secci Gallery's booth.
Photo : Alex Greenberger for ARTnews
The centerpiece of Secci Gallery’s spare booth is a giant black cube whose sides are bent inward. Reflective and mysterious, it looks like an artifact from an alien civilization, although it is in fact something much more modest: a work from the ’60s by Italian avant-gardist Gio’ Pomodoro, whose work is here also represented by compelling bronze slabs that zag in and out.
Beside Pomodoro’s sculptures, there are transfixing works by the largely under-recognized American painter Joan Witek. Many of her paintings are composed of black capsules lined up in rows. Some are left pristine, others rendered as though they were shaking or blurring. Notice how Witek has scrawled neat straight lines for her pill-like forms and then sometimes extended their tips just beyond them. She’s setting up a pleasant contrast between order and chaos, and showing that the two are not always mutually exclusive.
Women of Abstract Expressionism at Berry Campbell
Berry Campbell's booth.
Photo : Alex Greenberger for ARTnews
The masculinist narrative around Abstract Expressionism has gradually imploded in the past few decades, thanks to the labor of feminist art historians who have upheld artists like Joan Mitchell, Janet Sobel, and Lee Krasner. There’s still much more work to be done, however, and Berry Campbell’s booth showcases how many more female Abstract Expressionists are still in need of greater recognition.
Might a Perle Fine retrospective be in order? It would certainly seem so, based on one terrific canvas composed of glyphs set interrupting neat lines. Or how about an Alice Baber survey? That, too, seems appealing, based on the deliciously titled 1966 painting The Green Red, a Sonia Delaunay–like arrangement of red, orange, and yellow discs refracted through glimmers of emerald green. (More of Baber’s rapturous work can also be found at Luxembourg & Co.’s Independent 20th Century booth.) A host of other treasures, by Bernice Bing, Lynne Drexler, and Grace Hartigan, also hang here.
Abel Rodríguez and Zé Carlos Garcia at Instituto de Visión and Galeria Marilia Razuk
Works by Abel Rodríguez and Zé Carlos Garcia at Instituto de Visión and Galeria Marilia Razuk's booth.
Photo : Alex Greenberger for ARTnews
Abel Rodríguez, an up-and-comer of the biennial circuit, is here showing his idyllic images of forests where animals commune with shrubs and trees. They depict the region of the Amazon from which Rodríguez hails, and they are largely devoid of any interventions by humanity. Notably, Rodríguez has signed them not only with his Western moniker but also with Mogaje Guihu, the name he was given when he was being raised in the Muinane community.
These are being shown by the Bogotá-based gallery Instituto de Visión, which, rather than exhibiting solo, has shared its space with São Paulo’s Galeria Marilia Razuk, whose contribution is carved wooden sculptures by Zé Carlos Garcia. Some resemble pupas that have yet to complete their transformation.
Yhonnie Scarce and Johnathon World Peace Bush at This Is No Fantasy
Work by Johnathon World Peace Bush at the 2023 Armory Show.
Photo : Alex Greenberger for ARTnews
Amazingly, the Fitzroy-based This Is No Fantasy is the few Australian enterprises ever to have taken part in the Armory Show, and the gallery certainly did not put its booth to waste. Johnathon World Peace Bush’s paintings are the stars here. They represent timeworn Catholic imagery—penitent saints, Bible-carrying men with halos—but rather than adhering to traditional Western modes, Bush represents through beige and white stripes meant to mimic jilamara, a body painting technique utilized by the artist’s Tiwi community. This is his first New York presentation, and hopefully it will not be his last.
Bush’s works are being shown alongside Yhonnie Scarce, whose 2023 piece Point Pearce, South Australia alludes to the displacement of the Narungga people by British settlers during the 19th century. Beneath a screenprinted image of a structure bearing a sign referring to the Narungga, Scarce has included an old box filled with icicle-like glass elements—a reference to the bush foods that once nourished Aboriginals before the flora were permanently altered by nuclear testing in the region.
Sagarika Sundaram at Nature Morte
Sagarika Sundaram, Iris, 2023.
Photo : Alex Greenberger for ARTnews
Nature Morte’s booth has plenty to offer, from a Jitish Kallat piece playing on a famed Marcel Duchamp work to intriguing works by Martand Khosla made with burnt paint, but it is a Sagarika Sundaram piece that steals the show. Titled Iris (2023), the piece is a gorgeous piece of mustard-colored wool that has been sliced open to reveal layers of red and white beneath. This young artist’s deft handiwork shines in this piece where, despite its modest fibers, the red textile appears everso fleshy.
Gisela McDaniel at Pilar Corrias
Gisela McDaniel's work at Pilar Corrias's booth.
Photo : Alex Greenberger for ARTnews
This fair contains a tidal wave of market-ready figurative painting, and in that way, it’s emblematic of what’s being shown in galleries across the world today. But even in a crowded field, Gisela McDaniel’s maximalist portraiture stands out. JPEGs cannot do justice to this young CHamoru artist’s work, which offers a multisensory experience. Some paintings contain flowers and shells, others conceal elements that emit sounds. One even has a poem posted to its side.
Bigger Than Me (2023), one of the works in this booth, may appear to be a double portrait, but in fact, it represents them same sitter multiple times. That it so effortlessly tricks the eye, representing a woman in ways that evade simplifying gazes, is a testament to McDaniel’s talent.
Desire Moheb-Zandi at Dio Horia
Desire Moheb-Zandi at Dio Horia's booth.
Photo : Alex Greenberger for ARTnews
Desire Moheb-Zandi was herself on hand at Dio Horia’s booth, where during the VIP preview she could be seen weaving and knotting her sculptures. Having transformed her booth into a makeshift studio, she allowed fair attendees to watch her at her loom—the German-born artist experienced something similar herself as a child in Turkey, where she witnessed her grandmother weaving. This craft has long been considered women’s work, and indeed, Moheb-Zandi exposes it as just that—a tough, physical kind of labor that can result in beauty. Her wall-hung works, whose fibers are strung through with twined loops, offer plenty to admire.
Peruse Woodcuts + Vases At This San Francisco Gallery’s Shop
By, ANH-MINH LE
Published on AUGUST 26, 2023
PHOTO BY JOHN JANCA, COURTESY CATHARINE CLARK GALLERY
This spring, Catharine Clark doubled the size of her eponymous gallery, yielding additional exhibition space as well as a “bonus room,” as she describes it, that was “the perfect size for something I have often wanted to pursue”—a store. Offerings at the new jewel-box shop, called Exit, include melted crystal vases by Katherine Vetne, William Kentridge woodcuts, an abstract stained-glass sculpture by Andy Diaz Hope, Kara Walker lithographs and wooden bracelets by Ana Teresa Fernández.
Exit “looks a little like my own living room,” Clark says of the warm and welcoming atmosphere. Amid Persian rugs and textiles from Mexico, a wooden 19th-century canning table, chairs with sheepskin seats, an upholstered plaid sofa and a teak bar cart preside. An adjacent venue serves as a bookstore, whose inventory includes rare titles.
“People are encouraged to sit and thumb through the books,” the gallerist emphasizes. “Have a cup of tea or a glass of something stronger with us. Exit is a store, but it is also a hangout space—a place to commune with others casually and in a context that might promote interesting conversation.”
Tool’s Adam Jones Unveils Epiphone Les Paul Guitar Featuring Artwork by His Wife Korin Faught
One of several guitars in Jones' Les Paul Custom Art Collection
Adam Jones (photo by Johnny Perilla) and Adam Jones Epiphone Custom Art Collection (via Gibson Brands)
John Hadusek
August 30, 2023
Adam Jones has teamed up with Epiphone for the Les Paul Custom Art Collection. The latest guitar in the collection features artwork by the Tool guitarist’s wife, Korin Faught.
Faught’s original painting “Sensation” adorns the back of the fifth guitar in the collection, perhaps the crown jewel of the new Epiphone line. The stunning piece first premiered as part of the “Lost Days” exhibition in October 2016 at the Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles.
“‘Sensation’ is a painting about the loneliness and isolation of illness,” Faught mused via a press release for the guitars. “‘Sensation’ is a word to replace a fear based word. A word she learned while preparing for childbirth. A word she could retreat into when lying in bed with only herself and her thoughts. Gentle meditative properties and calmness resonate through her body as she lives within the moment.”
The other artists whose work is featured in the collection include Mark Ryden, Frank Frazetta, Julie Heffernan, and Ernst Fuchs (with additional artwork designed by Korin Faught adorning the back of the headstock of each model). Five models have been released so far, with two more yet to be unveiled.
As for the axes themselves, the guitars in the collection are a new take on Adam’s No. 1 guitar: his prized original Gibson Silverburst 1979 Gibson Les Paul. The signature models have a bound mahogany body with a maple cap, a three-piece bound maple neck with an Adam Jones Custom profile, and an ebony fretboard.
The guitars are equipped with a reverse-mounted Epiphone ProBucker Custom humbucker pickup in the neck position and a Seymour Duncan Distortion in the bridge (both wired to CTS potentiometers and Orange Drop capacitors). A Marquee Back Plate with the artist’s name and the name of the artwork is also included.
Each model is limited to 800 pieces and retails for $1,299 via Epiphone’s website.
Meanwhile, Jones will head out on a fall North American tour with Tool beginning in early October. Pick up tickets here.
Below you can see a promo video for the guitar featuring the Korin Faught design, and see product photos of each model.
Wall-to-wall de Young Open offers up Bay’s creative bounty—and supports artists, too
More than 7,000 artists applied for this year's edition. What trends do jurors see in their work?
By, Emily Wilson August 30, 2023
This year, 7,766 artists from the nine Bay Area counties applied to be part of the de Young Open (which runs September 30 through January 7)—1,574 more than its inaugural edition in 2020. Perhaps this year’s hopefuls noted that the exhibition’s first round garned an enthusiastic response, drawing attendees to marvel at works in the de Young’s 12,000-square-foot Herbst Exhibition Galleries. And when those visitors opened their wallet to buy art? The creatives themselves kept the proceeds.
Buoyed by this initial warm reception, museum officials decided to hold the community art show every three years, open to any Bay Area artist over the age of 18. Four jurors—artists Clare Rojas, Stephanie Syjuco, Sunny A. Smith, and Xiaoze Xie—have taken on the monumental task of going through this year’s submissions.
Smith has taught at the California College of the Arts for two decades and is currently its dean of fine arts. For years, they have reviewed graduate school applications and undergraduate portfolios, but had never previously judged a juried exhibition at this scale. After the first round, Smith says they and the other three judges each had to select 220 un-attributed works from 550 in the second round alone.
“Some people present something that is super technically proficient, and you can tell they might have had training and practice and that’s impressive,” Smith said. “But I’m really attracted to ways of doing things that seem like they’re not necessarily coming from an academic background or someone who seems to be clearly following their own path.”
Sunny Smith. Photo by Zane Allen
Smith called it fascinating and fun to take a week in July to look through hundreds of artworks in all different styles and mediums. They say what stood out were pieces that seemed to resonate with world events, as well as the work that seemed nuanced and idiosyncratic.
Syjuco, who is originally from San Francisco and who says her art education was formed by the Bay Area, wanted to be a judge to both see what is being made today in her arts community, and give back to the creatives around her.
“I would go to the de Young and other museums like SFMOMA and the Oakland Museum to gain my broader perspective on contemporary art,” Syjuco said. “So when I was approached by the de Young to participate, and as someone who came up in San Francisco, I wanted to consciously support the larger Bay Area community.”
A professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Syjuco, like Smith, sees lots of work from applicants to the school. But she enjoyed the range of work and the different materials and mediums in the de Young Open submissions. Some genres were better represented than others.
Stephanie Syjuco. Photo by Kija Lucas
“Portraiture and landscape are something that honestly is sort of universally popular, right?” she said. “What was more unusual was abstraction, or things that were a little less direct in terms of depicting things or people.”
Syjuco pointed out that among thousands of entries, not all were made by artists who have gone to a private art school.
“I really appreciate the democratic quality of a high-end fine arts museum opening themselves up to a process that can be quite unruly to an extent. It’s a lot of effort,” Syjuco said. “I also think it helps make the viewers feel that the space is more accessible. That’s really important because museums—there’s that public perception that they’re this kind-of rarefied space. Please don’t quote me on saying that museums have turned into this ultra-democratic space for the people because that’s not true. But through this, there’s this nice kind of reflection back on the community.”
DE YOUNG OPEN runs September 30 through January 7. de Young Museum, SF
See How Photographers Reimagine Old Master Paintings
“Art About Art” bills itself as a thoughtful, whimsical exploration of the connections between past and present
Teresa Nowakowski
Daily Correspondent
August 25, 2023
As the Princeton University Art Museum undergoes renovations, its old master paintings remain behind closed doors. Still, even in storage, such works are the inspiration behind a new show, which opened on August 19: “Art About Art: Contemporary Photographers Look at Old Master Paintings.”
“As we rebuild, I wanted to remind the students and community at large that we have wonderful old master paintings in the collection that we can’t show at this time,” Ronni Baer, a curator of the exhibition, tells the Observer’s Casey Epstein-Gross.
(In two photos from Nina Katchadourian's Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style, the artist uses toilet paper to mimic features of the attire of a 15th-century Flemish couple. Nina Katchadourian)
“This exhibition reveals how vital the art of the past remains to many artists working today,” says Baer in a statement from the museum. “The selection will encourage viewers to consider how contemporary photographers respond in various ways to famous compositions, seek to explore emotions as expressed in historical paintings, address issues of identity that were as pressing then as now and apply new technologies in surprising ways.”
Photos on display include Vik Muniz’s Double Mona Lisa (Peanut Butter and Jelly), inspired by Andy Warhol’s prints from the 1960s. The piece recreates the famous Leonardo da Vinci twice over—once in peanut butter, once in jelly.
Also on view is a diptych from Nina Katchadourian’s series Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style. The artist poses as both the man and woman of a 15th-century Flemish couple, using toilet paper to portray distinctive features of their attire.
In another work, Ori Gersht crafts an arrangement in the style of European still life paintings. He then destroys the fruit in it, capturing the exact moment of explosion.
(Pomegranate (Off Balance) by Ori Gersht captures the moment a pomegranate in a still life arrangement is destroyed. Ori Gersht)
The show is part of Princeton’s mission to “assure that works of the past can still be understood as living, breathing objects that were contemporary in their own time, and thus still have the capacity to spark inquiry,” says James Steward, the museum’s director, in the statement.
The exhibition explores centuries-old themes such as “identity and the fleetingness of life and … how we choose to live,” Baer tells Artnet’s Taylor Dafoe. For example, Jeanette May’s Dot Matrix, from the series Tech Vanitas, plays on the vanitas paintings of the Netherlands in the 17th century, which juxtaposed the inevitability of death with the trappings of affluence. However, rather than silk or ornate goblets, May’s photos feature obsolete technology thrown to the side in the pursuit of the next big thing.
(Jeanette May's Dot Matrix, from the series Tech Vanitas, puts a contemporary twist on 17th-century Dutch still life paintings. - Jeanette May)
“I think the exhibition provides inspirational teaching opportunities, raising questions about identity and iconicity and how and why artists engage with the art of the past,” Baer tells the Observer. At the same time, however, the show is designed to have a wide appeal, offering explorations of existential questions alongside “moments of fun and whimsy and discovery.”
“Some of the art is serious,” says Baer to Artnet. “But I hope people come and laugh.”
New artistic visions showcased at Laumeier Sculpture Park
by: James Atherlay
Posted: Aug 26, 2023 / 07:16 PM CDT
Updated: Sep 5, 2023 / 12:33 PM CDT
SUNSET HILLS, Mo. – A pair of brand-new exhibits have opened up at Laumeier Sculpture Park, showing new styles from three artists in south St. Louis County.
Even the heavy rain couldn’t get in the way of the three artists -Vaughn Davis Jr., Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis – as they displayed their hard work to the public Saturday.
“I want to create a work in the painting genre that has never been seen before,” said Davis.
Two displays are being shown at the park to demonstrate their respective specialties. Inside the Aronson Fine Arts Center, several paintings were put up with their own special features.
“I want to think about what a piece of art can look like,” said Davis. “Is it unfinished? Is it complete?”
Davis showed FOX 2 an exhibit called “The Fabric of Our Time.” It features paintings that have been torn in various ways. He says he lays canvases on the floor, and drenches them.
“I like to give homage to the working class in my practice,” said Davis. “I use sponges, I use mops brooms, brushes, anything that I can typically find to make this body of work.”
At the second exhibit, the work of Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis shows 29 kites resting in a tree outside, as part of an exhibit called “29 Tragedies.”
“We’ve all flown kites before,” said Clayton. “It’s a very familiar part of being a human. You’ve flown a kite as a kid, or seen someone fly kites, so it’s something we can all connect with.”
The kites are actually made out of aluminum with hand-made tails. They are carefully placed at separate parts of the tree. Lewis calls the exhibit a blurring of art and life.
“There was a string and a tail and a piece of a kite that was stuck in the tree from sometime, so it’s a logical thing that happens in life,” said Lewis.
These creators are clearly demonstrating the motivation to distinguish themselves from other artists.
“I want this work to be synonymous with my name,” said Davis.
Laumeier Sculpture Park is hosting a program called “Art and Artists in Nature” on Sunday.
You can get your own look at these exhibits, and more, plus meet the people behind these abstract concepts, Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
(Background/pxfuel.com; Barbie/Flickr dollyhaul CC BY-NC 2.0)
Food coverage is supported by a generous donation from Susan and Moses Libitzky.
Is Barbie Jewish? If so, what would she serve for Shabbat dinner? Tiffany Shlain and Ken Goldberg, Bay Area residents who co-wrote a 2005 documentary that explores the relationship between Jews and Barbie, have some thoughts.
“I always thought it was one of the great ironies of the 20th century that Barbie was created by a Jewish woman,” Shlain said to me after this summer’s “Barbie” movie opened. “When Ken and I co-wrote ‘The Tribe’ we used Barbie to explore Jewish identity, assimilation and the multitudes of what it meant to be Jewish.” (Ruth Handler invented the doll in 1959.)
The couple also shared their Shabbat recipes with me (adapted for space below).
“Challah, roast chicken and Barbie are all cultural symbols,” said Shlain, who has made dozens of films about cultural phenomena. “And when we made the documentary one of our goals … was to make sure everyone knew that Barbie was also a Jewish cultural symbol.”
If you want to serve a Barbie dinner for Shabbat, you can “accessorize” with oven-roasted potatoes, beet-tahini salad dressing and parve Turkish coconut puddings.
(From left) Tiffany Shlain’s challah with pink topping featuring Himalayan salt and dried rose petals, Turkish coconut pudding with pomegranate seeds, and Ken Goldberg’s roast chicken. (Photo/Faith Kramer)
Ken Goldberg’s Roast Chicken
Serves 4-6
Oil
2 large onions, thinly sliced
3- to 5-lb. whole chicken
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
4 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 lemons or oranges
1 Tbs. flour
1 tsp. Herbes de Provence or Italian herb seasoning mix
¼ cup water or white wine
Heat oven to 450 degrees. Oil large metal baking pan. Scatter onions on bottom. Discard internal organs and rinse chicken. Combine salt and pepper. Rub bottom of chicken with ¼ tsp. of this mix. Place chicken breast side up on onions. Separate skin over breasts. Insert garlic and rosemary under skin.
Halve lemons. Squeeze juice over chicken. Place halves inside. Sprinkle chicken with remaining salt and pepper. Combine flour and herbs. Lightly sprinkle over exposed chicken. Pour water in pan.
Roast on oven’s middle rack for 10 minutes. Turn pan 180 degrees. Roast 10 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees. Roast 45 minutes. Check for doneness. (Cut into joint between leg and breast. If raw looking, roast longer.) Rest 10 minutes. Serve with pan juices.
Option: Remove breast skin, cut into squares and serve separately.
Tiffany Shlain’s Challah
Makes 1 large loaf
1 cup hot water (95-105 degrees)
2¼ tsp. fast-acting or instant yeast
⅓ cup sugar
About 4 cups bread flour
2 large eggs, divided
¼ cup canola oil, plus extra for bowl and pan
½ Tbs. salt
Pink Topping (see below)
Early in the day you intend to bake, combine water, yeast, and sugar in large bowl. Let sit 30 minutes. Stir 2 cups flour into yeast bowl. In a small bowl, beat 1 egg with ¼ cup oil. Mix into flour and yeast. Slowly mix in 1½ cups of flour. (Add water or flour by tablespoon if too dry or wet).
Dust work surface and hands with flour. Knead 8-12 minutes, adding flour if needed until dough is smooth, elastic and springy. Place in oiled, large bowl and turn to coat. Cover with a damp kitchen towel. Let rise for 5 hours.
Separate dough into 3 equal balls. Oil baking sheet. Flour work surface. Roll balls into 3 18-inch ropes. Place on baking sheet. Braid. Pinch and tuck ends under. Cover. Let rise 1-2 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat second egg. Brush over challah. Sprinkle generously with Pink Topping.
Place sheet in center of oven. Bake 10 minutes. Coat newly exposed areas with egg and Pink Topping. Bake another 15-20 minutes until golden.
Pink Topping: Combine 1½ Tbs. coarse pink Himalayan salt (or any coarse sea salt), 1½ Tbs. sesame seeds, 2½ tsp. crumbled dried rose petals and 2½ tsp. crumbled dried mint. (Note: Shlain also uses “everything bagel” seasoning to top her challah when she’s not using Pink Topping.)
Knowingly or not, every artist references the history of their craft eventually. Some do it to situate their own work in the lineage of greats, others to question the monolithic canon.
Recently opened at the Princeton University Art Museum’s gallery Art on Hulfish is an exhibition of lens-based artists who look to Leonardo, Van Eyck, and other Old Masters for material. Their strategies and intents vary but ultimately lead to the same comforting truth.
If this sounds like homework, it’s not. The show, like the last gasps of summer vacation alongside which it arrives, is light and warm. The art historical easter eggs are there for the nerds, but so is Vik Muniz’s charming 1999 photograph of the Mona Lisa recreated, in Warholian fashion, with peanut butter and jelly. You don’t need a PhD to appreciate what the artist is doing with that picture.
“Some of the art is serious. But I hope people come and laugh,” said Ronni Baer, the Princeton curator who organized the show. For her and the museum, the show checks several boxes. It’s historical but also contemporary, educational but enjoyable. It’s legible, and it also serves to remind visitors of the museum’s programming while its main building is being reconstructed on campus.
(David Adjaye, the Ghanaian/British architect recently accused of sexual harassment and assault, designed the new Princeton University Art Museum. Though Adjaye has stepped away from numerous projects in light of the allegations, Princeton has said that the museum is too deep into construction for the school to distance itself from him now. The new museum is expected to open in 2025.)
Ori Gersht, Pomegranate (Off Balance) (2006). Courtesy of the artist.
The exhibition, Baer said, points to the past but feels like the present. “The idea of searching for identity is something embedded in a lot of this work—and it’s as relevant then as today,” she said, referring to works like Yasumasa Morimura’s Daughter of Art History (Princess A) (1990), for which the older male artist recast himself as the young female subject of Diego Velázquez’s Portrait of the Infanta Margarita Aged Five (1956), and Nina Katchadourian’s “Flemish Style” self-portraits made in an airplane bathroom.
As with these stately Renaissance portraits, the still-life is a popular point of departure in the show. Included are pictures of bouquets by Sharon Core, who painstakingly grows her own horticultural specimens, and Bas Meeuws, who pulls examples from his personal library of floral photographs and reassembles them digitally.
A 2006 video by Ori Gersht recreates Juan Sánchez Cotán’s Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber (circa 1600) with pomegranate substituted in—a symbol of the violence that defined the artist’s childhood in Tel Aviv. (In Hebrew, the word for “pomegranate” also means “grenade.”) Gersht also layers on a reference to Harold Edgerton as a slow-motion bullet pierces the pomegranate halfway through.
Jeanette May, NY Tech Vanitas: Dot Matrix (2018). Courtesy of the artist.
Nearby, Jeanette May’s NY Tech Vanitas: Dot Matrix (2018) nods to the eponymous genre of still-life paintings popularized by the Dutch in the 17th century, which employed objects of pleasure to remind viewers that our time on this mortal coil is limited and shouldn’t be wasted on indulgences. But instead of the decadent snacks and emptied wine carafes favored by Golden Agers like Willem Claesz Heda, May has filled her frame with pieces of outmoded, obsolescent tech: flip-phones, a CD-ROM, a printer that uses—gasp—perforated paper.
“All of it adds up to nothing, both then and now,” Baer said, somewhat jokingly, before putting a bead on the central idea of the show. “These themes,” she went on, “are centuries old. They’re human concerns about identity and the fleetingness of life and about how we choose to live.”
“Art about Art: Contemporary Photographers Look at Old Master Paintings” is on view August 19 through November 5, 2023, at the Princeton University Art Museum’s Art on Hulfish gallery.
‘Still, The Meandering Path: Jim Melchert’s Final Works’
By, Tony Bravo
Published on August 2023
Date & Time
Fri. Jul. 28 — Thu. Sep. 07
Visit event site for schedule
Where
Gallery 16
501 3rd St.
S.F.
.
Installation view of "Still, The Meandering Path: Jim Melchert's Final Works" at Gallery 16.
When beloved Oakland artist and UC Berkeley Professor Jim Melchert died in June at age 92, he was a year into creating new work for a planned show at Gallery 16 at the invitation of gallerist Griff Williams. Now, the ceramist, sculptor and mentor to generations of artists is being celebrated at Gallery 16 in the exhibition “Still, The Meandering Path: Jim Melchert’s Final Works.”
The show was assembled around Melchert’s last finished artworks from his longtime studio. The broken and fired porcelain tile wall-mounted pieces are glorious centerpieces. Vivid color combinations and geometry in the work feel joyful, but elegantly restrained.
Gallery 16 also invited a group of well-known ceramists and other artists to contribute to the show. Curated by Nathan Lynch, these artists include Ashwini Bhat, Liz Hernández, Cathy Lu, Tucker Nichols, Gay Outlaw, Maria Porges and Wanxin Zhang. The combined generations represented in the show speak to the enormous reach and influence Melchert had in the art world (he was also the director of visual arts for the National Endowment of the Arts and the director of the American Academy in Rome.)
The show is a fitting tribute to an artist who helped make ceramics into the respected contemporary art form it is recognized as today.
ArtsWatch: Architect Selected for Bezos Learning Center; Phillips Collection Acquisition
By, Kate Oczypok
Published on August 2023
Firm A’s proposal for the Bezos Learning Center. Courtesy Smithsonian Institution.
This month’s ArtsWatch includes a generous donation to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, an architect selected for the new Bezos Learning Center on the National Mall and an official reopening date for the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Smithsonian Selects Architect to Plan Bezos Learning Center on The National Mall
The Smithsonian Institution has chosen an architect to design the Bezos Learning Center at the National Air and Space Museum. The center will be created by the Chicago-based architecture firm Perkins&Will. The firm’s proposal was one of five shortlisted to design the $130 million dollar center. Their prospectus included a complex inspired by the swirls of the Milky Way constellation. The center will also include a restaurant and educational facilities.
Smithsonian American Art Museum Announces $2 Million Gift from Helen Frankenthaler Foundation
Earlier this month, The Smithsonian American Art Museum announced a $2 million dollar gift from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. The gift marks the end of a $10 million campaign in support of the museum’s fellowship program, which is the world’s biggest and oldest dedicated to advancing American art scholarship. The $2 million dollar largesse marks the single biggest to the campaign. The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation was established and endowed by the artist (1928-2011) during her lifetime.
Patrick D. McCoy Named Development and Communications Manager at the Washington Conservatory of Music
Patrick D. McCoy has been hired to join the team at the Washington Conservatory of Music in Glen Echo Park, MD. The appointment follows McCoy’s two-year post as interim director of choral activities at Virginia State University. In addition to being organist and choirmaster at Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Beltsville, MD, McCoy is also an arts moderator, curator, journalist and reviewer.
Patrick D. McCoy has been named development and communications director at the Washington Conservatory of Music. Photo from M3 Mitchell Marketing and Media.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts Sets Reopening Date
After remaining closed due to an extensive renovation, The National Museum of Women in the Arts will reopen once again October 21. The renovation includes over 20 percent additional exhibit space, a new “Learning Commons” that integrates a research library and an education/studio into the gallery space, a reimagining of the museum’s collection, and more.
The inaugural show at the museum will be “The Sky’s the Limit,” which will feature work from 13 international contemporary women artists including Petah Coyne, Alison Saar, Davina Semo, and more.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts officially reopens in October. Photo by Cameron Robinson.
The Phillips Collection Announces Recent Acquisitions
The Phillips Collection announced recent acquisitions, including major working that enrich areas of the museum’s collection with an emphasis on photography. Through multiple gifts, over 60 photos from artists Frank Stewart, Aaron Siskind, Zanele Muholi, and more entered the collection. Works from artists like Linling Lu and Marta Pérez Garcia will reinforce existing holdings. The Phillips Collection is excited to enrich their photography holdings and diversify their collection with these acquisitions. “We are delighted to acquire works by such an expansive and dynamic group of artists,” said Vradenburg Director and CEO Jonathan P. Binstock in a press release. “The Phillips Collection has a unique history and legacy of collecting from its beginnings as a private collection established by Duncan Phillips. We remain dedicated to the founding principles of Phillips’s pioneering vision while actualizing the museum’s strides toward inclusivity by collecting work by LGBTQ+ artists, women, artists of color, and those who have been historically overlooked.”
Works by Marta Pérez García have been acquired by The Phillips Collection. Marta Pérez García, “Nameless,” 2021-22. Handmade paper, wire, nails, metal spikes, hair, teeth, film negative, Dimensions variable. Photo by Lee Stalsworth. Courtesy The Phillips Collection.
Filmmaker explores connection between her family history and national Black history
By, Max Blue
Published on August 2023
Artist Trina Michelle Robinson goes looking for answers about her family history in a suite of four short films
Courtesy Catharine Clark Gallery
The recent decision by the Florida Board of Education to whitewash the history of slavery and the oppression of African-Americans in the United States set off a firestorm nationwide, but one San Francisco artist and filmmaker is no stranger to the obfuscation of Black history.
Over the last decade, Trina Michelle Robinson has made several short films that offer narratives of Black history in America by exploring her family’s own unique stories. Four of these films, made between 2021-2022, are the subject of her solo exhibition “Revival” at Catharine Clark Gallery in Potrero.
“The way slavery is taught in this country is with a sense of shame for Black people,” Robinson says, arguing that it should be a narrative of survival, rather than mere victimhood.
The project began when Robinson’s mother gave her a disintegrating family photo album, containing pictures of her great -grandparents’ and other family members of their generation, as well as newspaper clippings from the 1930s.
This led Robinson down a rabbit hole of research – from census records to internet archives to the property records of white families – tracing her family from Kentucky to California to the transatlantic slave trade.
The first film, “Berea,” follows Robinson’s journey to Berea, a town and liberal arts college in Kentucky, where her great-great-grandfather David attended school after he was freed from enslavement, interspersed with archival images of the school.
The film is dubbed with excerpts from an audio interview with 19th century author and filmmaker Zora Neal Hurston, and dialogue from Robinson.
“One hundred and fifty years after my great, great-grandfather walked these roads,” the artist says, “I’ve come to resurrect his ghost.”
The last shot lingers on the artist’s cupped hands, holding soil from the ground is a lyrical visual metaphor for her excavation of the past.
In the second, eponymous film, the artist is seen following a man in an antiquated military uniform through the Presidio, from a gravestone in the National Cemetery to the bluffs above Baker Beach.
The man is her great-great-uncle William J French. The film is narrated by Robinson, reading from a 1932 newspaper article from the Chicago Defender, which tells the story of French, a white-passing Black man and U.S. soldier stationed in San Francisco, whose racial identity became the center of a sensationalized media frenzy in newspapers and magazines nationwide following his death in a mysterious accident.
The Defender’s version of French’s story is humanizing rather than sensationalist, underscoring his complicated story of identity as one emblematic of the larger construction of race in America.
“The lie was not in him,” Robinson quotes from the Defender, “but in the despicable contradiction of his countrymen.”
The third film, “Elegy for Nancy,” is a poetic ode to ancestry, dedicated to Robinson’s most distant known ancestor, Nancy, who was born circa 1770, likely in Virginia, before migrating to Kentucky where she was enslaved.
Footage of Robinson wading into the Sacramento river and tossing sunflowers into the water is interspersed with shots of the Ohio River, which runs through both West Virginia and Kentucky, as well as archival footage of a 1920s African-American baptism, scenes from the Ogun River in Nigeria and text from Lucille Clifton’s poem “Blessing the Boats.”
The final film, “Encoded,” also opens with a long shot of water – the Ohio River – and traces Robinson’s journey to Senegal, ending with a shot of the underwater memorial for the Henrietta Marie, a British slave ship that sank off the Florida Straits in 1700.
The most striking moment in the film, however, is when the word “home” appears on the screen, only to be replaced, in a flicker, with “home?” before the question is again returned to a statement, revealing the uncertainty one experiences searching for a sense of belonging.
But the fact that she does belong, somewhere, is never in question.
The power of Robison’s films is in her radical refusal of the absence of Black narratives. There may be an endemic omission from the history books, but her films stand as a testament to the fact that those gaps can be filled, if one looks hard enough.
“There are so many stories waiting to be told,” Robinson says, “you just have to figure out what all these silences are about.”
“Revival” is on display at the Catharine Clark Gallery, 248 Utah St. through Sept. 23
Top row, from left to right: Pras Velagapudi, Jeff Linnell, and Ken Goldberg. Bottom row, from left to right, Amit Goel and Ted Larson.
Generative AI is revolutionizing the software industry, but how can this breakthrough be applied to robotics? At RoboBusiness, which takes place October 18-19 in Santa Clara, CA, a keynote panel of robotics industry leaders will discuss the applications of Large Language Models (LLMs) and text generation applications to robotics. It will also explore fundamental ways generative AI can be applied to robotics design, model training, simulation, control algorithms and product commercialization.
The panel will include Pras Velagapudi, VP of Innovation at Agility Robotics, Jeff Linnell, CEO and Founder of Formant, Ken Goldberg, the William S. Floyd Jr. Distinguished Chair in Engineering at UC Berkeley, Amit Goel, the Director of Product Management at NVIDIA, and Ted Larson, the CEO of OLogic.
Velagapudi has previous experience at Berkshire Grey, where he was previously the Director of Engineering and Vice President of Mobile Robotics. He also has over nine years of experience as a Carnegie Mellon University faculty member and project scientist. He specializes in industrial automation, robotic manipulation, multi-robot systems, AGV/AMRs, human-robot interaction, distributed planning, and optimization.
Before founding Formant, Linnell served as Head of Robotics at Google X. He previously founded Autofuss, a design/production company, and Bot & Dolly, an engineering studio specializing in automation, robotics and film, which were acquired by Google in 2013.
Goldberg is co-founder and Chief Scientist of Ambi Robotics and Jacobi Robotics. He co-founded the Berkeley AI Research (BAIR) Lab and the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. Goldberg and his students have published 400 peer-reviewed papers and 10 US patents. Goldberg’s artwork has been exhibited internationally and he founded the Art, Technology, and Culture public lecture series in 1997. He has presented over 600 invited lectures worldwide.
Goel leads the product development of NVIDIA Jetson, the most advanced platform for AI computing at the edge. He has more than 15 years of experience in the technology industry working in both software and hardware design roles. Prior to joining NVIDIA in 2011, he worked as a senior software engineer at Synopsys, where he developed algorithms for statistical performance modeling of digital designs.
Larson is a computer software and electronics expert with 30+ years of experience designing and building commercial products. Prior to OLogic, he founded an internet software company called the Urbanite Network, a web server content publishing platform for media customers, and grew the company to over 70 employees, and raised over $10 million in private equity and venture capital. Prior to Urbanite, Larson held positions at Hewlett-Packard, Iomega, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Ted has both a BS and MS in computer science from Cal-Poly, San Luis Obispo.
RoboBusiness is the leading event focused on developing commercial robots. There will be 60-plus speakers, 100-plus exhibitors and demos on the expo floor, networking receptions, the Pitchfire Robotics Startup Competition and more. You can check out the current list of speakers, to which more will be added.
RoboBusiness will be co-located with the Field Robotics Engineering Forum, an event focused on successfully developing robots that operate in wide-ranging, outdoor, dynamic environments.
Also co-located with RoboBusiness is DeviceTalks West, the premier industry event for medical technology professionals, currently in its ninth year. Both events attract engineering and business professionals from a broad range of healthcare and medical technology backgrounds.
Myriad ways to consume art at Bay Area Art Gallery Weekend
Russell Crotty, "Illuminations at Piedra Blanca," 2021.On view at Hosfelt Gallery
By, Tony Bravo
Published on July 2023
The Art Dealers Association of America is throwing open the doors at local member galleries Thursday-Sunday, Aug. 3-6. The Bay Area Art Gallery Weekend will include performances, curatorial tours, lectures, panel discussions and screenings during special late and weekend hours.
Participating Bay Area ADAA galleries include: Altman Siegel, Anglim/Trimble, Berggruen, Rena Bransten Gallery, Catharine Clark Gallery, Crown Point Press, Fraenkel Gallery, Haines Gallery, Hosfelt Gallery, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Anthony Meier Gallery, Modernism, Gallery Wendi Norris, Paulson Fontaine Press and Jessica Silverman Gallery.
The weekend begins Thursday evening with a lecture by Sarah Mackay, assistant curator of prints, drawings and photographs at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, at Hosfelt Gallery as well as a special performance by drag artist Fauxnique at the neighboring Catharine Clark Gallery. Friday evening, ADAA galleries at the Minnesota Street Project will be open late. And Saturday, galleries in downtown San Francisco and Chinatown as well as Paulson Fontaine Press in Berkeley are expected to host special events, including a lecture by artist Tom Marioni at Crown Point Press. Sunday events will be hosted in the afternoon at Haines Gallery at Fort Mason and Anthony Meier Gallery in Mill Valley.
If you haven’t had a chance for gallery going so far this summer, this is a great chance to catch up before the fall shows begin in September.
"Bay Area Art Gallery Weekend": 5-8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3. 4-7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 5 and 6. Free. Multiple venues in San Francisco, Berkeley and Mill Valley. https://artdealers.org/events
San Francisco gallery walk debuts at 15 free galleries
By, Max Blue
Published on July 2023
A. Frick Vernon, “Untitled” (1969) will be on display at Minnesota Street Project as a part of the art walk on Friday.
Anglim/Trimble.
For the first time, 15 Bay Area art galleries are opening their doors Thursday and through the weekend for a free gallery walk sponsored by the Art Dealers Association of America.
Galleries in San Francisco, Berkeley and Marin are taking part in the event in an effort to spread the world that art galleries are for everyone.
In nearly 30 years operating Hosfelt Gallery in San Francisco, gallerist Todd Hosfelt says the number one phone call he receives is “from people asking, ‘What’s the price of admission?’”
In case you’re wondering, too, the answer has always been “nothing.”
But the cost of admission isn’t the only reason people don’t check out their local galleries, said Catharine Clark of Catharine Clark Gallery, who had the idea to launch a gallery walk in the Bay Area to help make art galleries’ open-door policy and educational role in the community more public.
“If you’re not being exposed to the arts in a general way — from art classes in school to art history to the way in which art reflects what’s going on in our world — then you haven’t even had a chance to decide whether you’re interested or not,” Clark said.
Art experts say galleries can be a source for arts education otherwise hard to come by in the United States.
“Most (gallerists) think of (themselves) as educators,” Hosfelt said. “The commercial aspect is really about supporting the program.”
Both Catharine Clark Gallery and Hosfelt Gallery will host events on Thursday evening at their Utah Street spaces. Exhibiting artist Russell Crotty will be in conversation with Sarah Mackay, Assistant Curator at the Achenbach Foundation, at 5:30 p.m. at Hosfelt Gallery.
Crotty’s drawings are sublime nighttime landscapes, conveying the awe of stargazing in the open desert. Local drag artist Monique Jenkinson (Fauxnique), will perform a specially commissioned piece at Catharine Clark Gallery at 7 p.m.
On Friday, Altman Siegel, Anglim/Trimble, and Jenkins Johnson Gallery at Minnesota Street Project will host receptions and walkthroughs for their current exhibitions, which include shows of new work by minimalist painter Laeh Glenn and sculptor K.R.M. Mooney as well as a survey of the late local artist A. Frick Vernon and a group show celebrating summertime.
Rena Bransten Gallery, also at MSP, will host “San Francisco in Ten,” at 5 p.m., featuring local personalities speaking for ten minutes on subjects of their choice. Speakers include award- winning columnist Leah Garchik; artist and writer Maria Porges; and community organizer and Lydia Bransten, executive director of the Gubbio Project, among others.
Non-ADAA galleries at MSP will hold regular hours.
The downtown and Chinatown neighborhoods come alive Saturday. At Berggruen Gallery, Elsa Hansen Oldham’s playful narrative embroideries contrast with Margaux Ogden’s bright floral-pattern acrylic paintings. Modernism Inc., also features simultaneous exhibitions: Scot Heywood’s geometric wall sculptures and Sheldon Greenberg’s post modern figurative paintings packed with references to art history. Fraenkel Gallery presents a brand new series of breathtaking landscape photographs by Richard Misrach.
Downtown, Crown Point Press will host a talk by local artist Tom Marioni at 1 p.m., on his current exhibition of lithographs, “Hard Edges for Hard Times.” The minimally geometric, colorful prints include abstract shapes and scenes of San Francisco streets at night.
Gallery Wendi Norris and Jessica Silverman in Chinatown will both host seminal shows by foreign painters: Mexican artist Leo Marz’s first U.S. solo show in more than a decade and Japanese artist Kei Imazu’s first exhibition in the U.S., both featuring saturated, surreal scenes.
Paulson Fontaine Press in Berkeley will exhibit a new series of abstract, patchwork etchings by McArthur Binion.
Sunday will feature receptions at Haines Gallery in Fort Mason Center, where David Simpson’s “Smoke and Mirrors” promises glimmering color-field paintings evocative of the surrounding Bay Area landscape, and Anthony Meier, in Mill Valley, presenting a group show focused on local artists.
Other galleries and free art events to check out this weekend include the San Francisco Center for the Book and the Institute of Contemporary Art, both located between Utah Street and The Minnesota Street Project, and a free screening of “Kokomo City” — a documentary about the lives of four Black trans sex workers — presented by downtown gallery Jonathan Carver Moore at 6:30 p.m. Friday at The Roxie, with a Q&A to follow.
“If the weekend goes well,” Clark said, “we can make it into an annual event.”
But don’t wait for next year to visit your local art galleries. They’re expecting you.
Stephanie Syjuco, The Visible Invisible: Plymouth Pilgrim (Simplicity), Antebellum South (Simplicity), Colonial Revolution (McCall’s), 2018. Courtesy of the artist and Catherine Clark Gallery, San Francisco. Photo: Randy Dodson, courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
THE VISIBLE INVISIBLE
Coinciding with “Crafting Radicality” is Svane artist Stephanie Syjuco’s vibrant sculptural dresses sewn from bright green chroma key fabric, which will be on view in the American art wing. Chroma key is a visual effect used to composite an image for video and film that allows an editor to superimpose new backgrounds or settings for the original image. The Visible Invisible: Plymouth Pilgrim (Simplicity), Antebellum South (Simplicity), Colonial Revolution (McCall’s) (2018) contain costumes based on theatrical plays and historical reenactment of early America. Utilizing green chroma key fabric commonly used for green screens implies that history itself is fabricated and manipulated like a projection that serves power over truth. The artist was inspired to create her work after witnessing protests between left and right leaning groups in the San Francisco Bay Area. Syjuco realized that the detritus and objects left behind at the protest scenes could be interpreted in many ways, and could be used in media reports to render public opinion by weaponizing information and manipulating the truth.
Crafting Radicality reinforces the Bay Area’s identity, bridging political activism and art. Curator Janna Keegan observed, “Theirs is a reclamation of experiences and materials to tell subversive stories that question traditional narratives of art, history and identity.” These stories are a part of the continuing dialogue with the museum’s ongoing exhibition “Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence.”
“Crafting Radicality: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift”: Tue.–Sun. 9:30 a.m.–5:15 p.m. through Dec. 31, $15, de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr., Golden Gate Park, 415-750-3600, famsf.org.
Be our ghoul of honor at an exhibition hosted by creatures lured from the depths of the McNay Art Museum’s collection. Dreamland | Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas marks the 30th anniversary of filmmaker Tim Burton’s 1993 stop-motion animated film.
In the exhibition, visitors can reacquaint themselves with Burton’s awkwardly charming cast that includes Oogie Boogie, Bone Crusher, and the beloved hero, Jack Skellington. And meet unusual characters created by artists from the McNay’s collection, including José Clemente Orozco Farías, Julie Heffernan, Eugene Berman, Marilyn Lanfear, Willem de Kooning, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Julie Speed, and others. Visitors can explore colorful and unfamiliar worlds found in large paintings and photographs by artists Paul Maxwell, Claudia Rogge, Robin Utterback, and Sandy Skoglund.
Small models (or maquettes) created for Burton’s iconic film in conversation with a range of artworks, encourage guests to imagine fantasy narratives of their own. And with a nod to Burton’s creative roots at Walt Disney, explore a “hall of peculiar portraits” that will have you wondering—is that picture looking at me?
Dreamland | Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is organized for the McNay Art Museum by R. Scott Blackshire, PhD, Curator, The Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts; and Kim Neptune, The Tobin Theatre Arts Fund
Assistant Curator, The Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts.
Major support is provided by The Tobin Endowment. Additional funding is most generously provided by The Tobin Theatre Arts Fund, the Semmes Foundation, Inc., and our Exhibition Host Committee Chaired by Mr. and
Mrs. J. Bruce Bugg Jr.
Dindga McCannon, Sister Alone With Her Spirits. Etching, printed 2020, designed 1972, Ed. 2/22 15 ½ x 18”.
NEW YORK, NY.- It has been 10 years since the first show at Fridman Gallery. From the beginning, the gallery aimed to show emerging artists working in painting, sculpture and installation, often giving the artists space to create new work and experiment and guest curators room to explore ideas. The gallery saw the value of giving artists free reign of the space, including setting aside time between the exhibitions to allow for live music, experimental performance, dance and other interdisciplinary works. Serial programs took root such as the annual New Ear Festival showcasing some of New York’s most exciting experimental performers.
The exhibition Interior Resonances brings together a selection of works from the current gallery roster as well as from many of the seminal shows and performances that took place during the gallery’s early days on Spring Street and its current location on the Bowery. Curated by Regine Basha, an early advisor of the gallery, the works in the group exhibition reflect a plutonian mood, meaning the tendency to dwell in an interior realm, while processing distant memories, wrestling with inner demons, and transmuting these into material forms. The practice of inner work, otherwise known as ‘spirit work’ or ‘shadow work’, foregrounds looking inward to reflect fearlessly into the depths of subconscious activity and to reckon with often existential questions about what we are really made of beneath the surface of the skin.
With all this fullness, the 10th anniversary show consists of three distinct but related parts:
● an exhibition of sculptures, prints, and paintings in the gallery’s main space;
● CT::SWaM’s Plasticity Office, a sound installation in the gallery’s showroom; and
● a microcinema in the gallery’s media room featuring past performances and video screenings.
Friday microcinema features all-day screenings revisiting seminal video and sound works from the gallery’s program:
July 14: Heather Dewey-Hagborg, T3511 (2018)
July 21: Milford Graves Full Mantis (2018), directed by Jake Meginsky
July 28: Yvette Janine Jackson, Destination Freedom (2017)
August 4: Nina Katchadourian, The Recarcassing Ceremony (2016)
August 11: Victoria Keddie, Cannibal Mécanique (2017)
August 18: Nate Lewis, a parable about dancing with landscapes (2022)
August 25: Aura Satz, The Listening Cobweb (2021) and Tamar Ettun, How to Trap a Demon (2023)
This presentation profiles only some of the artists who have been integral to the gallery’s history.
[...]
Nina Katchadourian
Nina Katchadourian’s first solo exhibition in New York, Ification, took place at Fridman Gallery in 2019.
Building on the artist’s ongoing exploration of humor as an art form, Katchadourian’s The Recarcassing Ceremony (2016) tells the story of an elaborate game Katchadourian and her younger brother played as children. The game involved two families of Playmobil figures. After a tragic event befell two of the characters, the siblings invented a “recarcassing ceremony” to bring the characters back to life.
Nina Katchadourian is an interdisciplinary artist whose work includes video, performance, sound, sculpture, photography, and public projects. Katchadourian's work is in numerous public and private collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Blanton Museum of Art, Morgan Library, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Margulies Collection, and Saatchi Gallery.
[...]
Fridman Gallery
Interior Resonances: 10th Anniversary Exhibition
Curated by Regine Basha July 13 – August 25, 2023
I recently paid a visit to the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco to see American Gothic, a collaborative exhibition by Deborah Oropallo and Michael Goldin. The mixed media work that comprised the show concerns their farm in Northern California and ecological issues, subjects which are obviously related and both of which Oropallo has addressed in her work over the past several years.
Although I’d previously seen at least one sculpture by Oropallo,1 I believe this is the first gallery show I’ve attended to feature such work. I’m not familiar with Goldin, but Oropallo’s aesthetic is so strong and makes such a seamless jump to the three-dimensional that it actually took some time before I realized I hadn’t before seen a show of hers largely made up of sculptural work.
Oropallo and Goldin’s piece American Gothic takes not only its title but its imagery from the Grant Wood painting, possibly the most recognized work in the history of American art. Wood’s two figures are gone, leaving only the farmer’s spectacles and his pitchfork, which now has a sewn rawhide handle replacing the functional wooden one. The Gothic-style farmhouse window from Wood’s piece appears as “reflections” in the lenses of the glasses. By encapsulating the composition in just these elements, Oropallo and Goldin have retained the “salt of the earth” allusion while opening up the image, making it less specific and more inclusive. The piece reimagines Wood’s painting in a manner that steps up the original slightly unsettling feel while also being informed by its common satirical reading and innumerable parodies.
Deborah Oropallo and Michael Goldin: American Gothic [Detail] (2023). Mixed media, 60″ x 18″.
Deborah Oropallo and Michael Goldin: Dangling Ducks 1 (2023). Mixed media, 75″ x 19″
Deborah Oropallo and Michael Goldin: BO PEEP (2023). Mixed media, 80″ x 45″ x 18″.
Figuring prominently in the show are images of animals and objects from the farm. Bulls, boars, chickens, and especially sheep appear, or are at least conjured, as well as boots and buckets. Several of the three-dimensional pieces feature ducks; those in Crude and the Reflections series, covered in glossy or matte black resin, recall those horrible photos we’ve all seen of birds caught in the oil tanker spills which wreak havoc on our environment, both in the ocean and on land. In Dangling Ducks 1 and 2, the fowl appear to be burned and melting, their bills seemingly turning to liquid and dripping, as if in some darkly surreal animated cartoon.
I’ve been following Oropallo’s career for about thirty years, and her work continues to surprise. Even so, she is always building on her previous work, and certain motifs – her personal environment and the fairy tales in the present exhibition, for example – have appeared and re-appeared. This continuity was accentuated by the showing in the gallery of additional pieces, not part of this body of work, some dating back to the early 1990s. Snow White (1994) and Bad Apples (2016) both have Snow White-inspired imagery, as does the new HAVEAHART, a disturbingly humorous piece that has Snow White and all Seven Dwarfs caught in animal traps.2 Similarly, the painting Cloning Bo Peep from 2010 has echoes in BO PEEP, which evokes violence of some sort; taken by itself, I would assume against women, as so many fairy tales end badly for them. However, given the themes of the show, I think its subjects are industrial farming and animal cruelty.
Although in her video pieces Oropallo has been working with other artists for several years,3 I believe she has only recently started doing so outside of that media.4 I presume she is attracted to the creative dialogue inherent in collaboration, which exposes her to different approaches, as throughout her career working alone, she has continually changed her techniques for making art. Like Robert Rauschenberg, she seems uncomfortable getting too comfortable – this has served her well; she has consistently produced engaging, challenging exhibitions, of which American Gothic was but the most recent.
1 Love + Marriage (2004), which celebrates the same-sex marriages that took place in San Francisco over twenty-nine days in February/March 2004, is on view at San Francisco City Hall, South Light Court.
2 The Haveahart® company makes humane catch and release animal traps, eight of which are used in the piece.
3 Three videos were shown in the Catharine Clark Gallery media room during the run of American Gothic. White as Snow, Wolf, and Dirty are all collaborations with Jeremiah Franklin, and take as their subject gender issues – another of Oropallo’s recurring interests, which she has also notably explored in the series Guise and Kink, among others.
4 To my knowledge, this is only the second time – Oropallo and Andy Rappaport, who have worked together on video pieces, produced the letterpress print DISARM in 2020.
New public art at Brown showcases the magic and humor of books
“What I Know About Magic,” now on display on the first floor of Friedman Hall, shows books about magic and the occult artfully arranged in clever, humorous and thought-provoking ways.
By, Brown University
Published on July 2023
The 12 photographs show collections of books about magic and the occult artfully arranged in clever, humorous and though-provoking ways.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Friedman Hall, among the busiest classroom buildings in the heart of the Brown University campus, has a new trick up its sleeve.
Now adorning the building’s first-floor corridor is the piece “What I Know About Magic,” created by artist and Brown Class of 1989 graduate Nina Katchadourian. The series of 12 photographs, which show collections of books about magic and the occult artfully arranged in clever, humorous and thought-provoking ways, is one of the newest additions to Brown’s diverse public art collection.
According to Kate Kraczon, chair of Brown’s Public Art Working Group, Katchadourian spent years delving into the H. Adrian Smith Collection of Conjuring and Magicana at the University’s John Hay Library, working with collection curator Tiffini Bowers to find books whose titles could tell both funny and meaningful stories about society’s fascination with talented magicians, mysteries of the universe and tricks of the eye.
“The books in the H. Adrian Smith Collection were fascinating historically, but also aesthetically: there were thick, gilded, leather-bound volumes from the late 19th century as well as slim paper booklets from the 1940s and 50s that often provided instructions on how to perform just one trick,” Katchadourian said. “Magicians seem to be particularly playful in their use of language for the titles of their publications, and since my project focuses so much on language, it was utterly delightful to respond to these authors’ linguistic tricks with a few of my own.”
One of the piece’s photographs shows a leather-bound book titled “Conjuror’s Repository” atop a stack of books whose embossed titles and leather covers have worn away over time — a humorous commentary on the number of times magicians practice and fail before perfecting a trick, perhaps leaving behind a heap of damaged props.
Another photograph pokes fun at the age-old battle between magic’s true believers and its biggest skeptics: A book titled “Practical Telepathy” sits next to two books titled “Mainly Mental.”
“What I Know About Magic” is the latest piece in Katchadourian’s Sorted Books project, a decades-long effort to explore different libraries and cluster together books that reflect “that particular library's focus, idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies,” according to Katchadourian. In addition to her Sorted Books pieces, Katchadourian has worked across video, sound, performance, photography, sculpture and public projects, creating art that comments on topics such as cultural assimilation, gender identity and family relationships. This is Katchadourian’s second public art commission for Brown; her first, “Advice from a Former Student,” features the voices of Brown alumni who graduated between 1939 and 2010.
Kraczon said the artist has always had a knack for injecting magic into everyday things and concepts — much like other well-known creative people who studied semiotics at Brown in the 1980s, including radio personality Ira Glass, novelist Jeffrey Eugenides and film director Todd Haynes.
“Nina is so good at turning the quotidian into something fantastic and funny,” Kraczon said. “If you’re walking through Friedman Hall, thinking about an exam or a deadline, this piece offers a nice moment of levity in the middle of your day.”
July 12, 2023
Arleene Correa Valencia
El Ultímo Sueño de Frida y Diego: Iconic Artists for Fashion,Art, and Opera
El Ultímo Sueño de Frida y Diego (2022) by local composer Gabriela Lena Frank is the first-ever San Francisco Opera production by a female composer, and the first ever in Spanish (libretto by Nilo Cruz).The opera tells the story of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera reliving their tumultuous love for 24 hours on El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) through their paintings, embracing the passion they shared and the pain they inflicted upon one other.
Artists Kahlo and Rivera were and are icons of Mexican arts and culture, magic and realism. This Commonwealth Club panel will focus on the impact of their artistic motivation, clothing, design and the famed murals across the Americas. Their fashion and lifestyles have continued to inspire many in the arts world today, including the costumes in El Ultímo Sueño de Frida y Diego, the incredible co-commissioned production of San Francisco Opera you can see on stage from June 13–30, 2023.
June 26, 2023
In Association with San Francisco Opera. Thanks to post-program reception sponsor Casa Sanchez. Main image by Illustrator Brian Stauffer; image provided by SF Opera; Bejarano photo by Christie Hemm Klok; Kazan photo courtesy the artist. Speakers Eloise Kazan Costume Designer, El Ultímo Sueño de Frida y Diego Stephanie J. Smith Author; Frida Kahlo Scholar, Ohio State University Arleene Correa Valencia Bay Area Artist Jessica Bejarano Scholar-in-Residence, San Francisco Opera; Founder and Music Director, San Francisco Philharmonic—Co-moderator Cole Thomason Redus Education Content Curator, San Francisco Opera Department of Diversity, Equity and Community
July 12, 2023
Marie Watt
Nature, Home and Relationships Inspire ‘Sun Drinks White’ Exhibit at Nerman Museum
By, Elisabeth Kirsch
Published on July 2023
Installation view of Mark Cowardin’s “Drift,” a work inspired by the metal oil rigs he saw as a child in his hometown of Joplin, Missouri
Large-scale works in unexpected materials by Teresa Baker, Mark Cowardin, Rashawn Griffin and Marie Watt reflect their remarkable creative journeys.
If the title “Sun Drinks White” sounds enigmatic, the artworks in this impressive exhibition at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art appear, at first, equally so. The museum’s executive director and chief curator, Joanne Northrup, with input from participating artists Teresa Baker, Mark Cowardin, Rashawn Griffin and Marie Watt, chose a section from the poem “Haiku Journey” by Kimberly Blaeser for the show’s title; it is meant to highlight the artists’ focus on the physical world, a subtext that courses throughout all the paintings, wall works, sculptures and installations in this exhibit.
Northrup’s goal was to curate a show that combined abstraction with a variety of materials. As the exhibit signage notes: “The artists’ deep awareness of materiality firmly grounds their work in the world.” The art may be abstract, but the works exemplify the meaning of cultural abstraction; although formally non-objective, each piece is steeped in the artists’ personal history and experience.
The text panels identify the artists’ backgrounds and how their use of specific materials functions as identity markers.
All four artists fabricated major, large-scale works for this show, using resources as varied as artificial turf, pebbles made from bread, steel girders and old blankets. Although wildly idiosyncratic, somehow these very personal artworks, produced under very different circumstances and in different parts of the country, feel subliminally connected. Each artist displays a deeply felt version of what home and relationships embody for them, whether in a literal, symbolic or ancestral sense. Baker, Cowardin, Griffin and Watt visually bare their souls in specific and remarkable creative journeys.
[...]
Installation view of Marie Watt’s textile mural, “Companion Species: Gather to Sing” (rear) and totemic sculptures, “Skywalker/Skyscraper: Forest.” All the works reference her background as a member of the Seneca Nation.
Marie Watt’s textile mural and totemic sculptures all reference her background as a member of the Seneca Nation (one of the nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy on the East Coast), as well as aspects of Western modern art.
Watt holds an MFA from Yale and lives in Portland, Oregon. Her art is broadly collected, and she has received fellowships from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation and many others. Her “Companion Species: Gather to Sing” is a monumental, extraordinarily beautiful textile, which was stitched together from dozens of individual patches made by members of a sewing circle organized by Watt. Each fragment has words or statements embroidered on it with pink thread. Silver metal tinklers, or pow-wow jingles from dancers, are also sewn on parts of the piece. Words chosen for embroidery on “Companion Species” were collected from the participants by Watt with the question: “What do you want to sing a song for in this moment?”
Blankets are of great importance for many Indigenous peoples, and Watt uses them often in her art. She collects new and old ones, and people also give them to her. In “Skywalker/Skyscraper: Forest” a variety of blankets are rigorously and specifically folded and stacked on top of wooden blocks (a citation of Brancusi’s famous pedestals made from wood), and on top of them are heavy steel geometric forms with titles such as “Grandmother” and “Grandfather” etched onto them. “Skywalker/Skyscraper: Forest” honors the legendary Iroquois ironworkers known as “skywalkers,” who worked in Manhattan in the 1950s constructing skyscrapers at extreme personal risk. To say these works have presence is an understatement.
[...]
“Sun Drinks White” continues at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park through July 30. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, 913.469.3000 or www.nermanmuseum.org.
All images courtesy Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas / photos by EG Schempf
17 Jun — 19 Aug 2023 at the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, United States
By, MEER
Published on June 2023
Masami Teraoka, Waves: Waimanalo Beach, 1986 – 88, watercolor on paper, mounted as a scroll, 42x94 inches. Courtesy of Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco
Catharine Clark Gallery opens its summer program with Masami Teraoka: Waves and Plagues Redux, on view from June 17 to August 19, 2023, in the North Gallery.
The exhibition takes its title from an important monograph on Teraoka titled Waves and Plagues published by Chronicle Books in 1988 and offers a rare opportunity to see watercolors, drawings, and multiples from two iconic bodies of work: the AIDS Series and Waves Series, as well as a selection of important studies and watercolors from projects created prior to 1995.
From 1960 to 1984, Teraoka lived and worked in Los Angeles, during which time he produced his signature ukiyo-e (or“pictures of the floating world”generally rendered as woodcuts in the Edo era of Japan) compositions that reflected on cultural hybridity, represented in series such as McDonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan, 31 Flavors Invading Japan,and New Views of Mt. Fuji.
The onset of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the early 1980s brought a new urgency to Teraoka's work and inaugurated a five-year span in which he created monumental watercolors on paper, screens, and canvas, such as American Kabuki/Oishiiwa (1986), a multi-panel watercolor mounted to a folding screen in the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. These compositions depicted figures with visible symptoms of infection, such as lesions caused by Kaposi sarcoma, dressed in Kabuki-style make-up and costumes, and set in tumultuous and often menacing landscapes. Teraoka was one of the few major American artists creating work about HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and early 1990s. His paintings were particularly radical at a time when the American government willingly ignored public health data on infection and transmission rates, and all but refused to address a public health crisis that disproportionately impacted queer people and communities of color (a scenario re-visited during Covid-19).
Work from this era of his practice was included in the recent exhibition and attendant catalogue Art, AIDS, America. The exhibition (and catalogue) was the first comprehensive overview and reconsideration of 30 years of art made in response to the AIDS epidemic in the United States. It foregrounded the role of HIV/AIDS in shifting the development of American art away from the conceptual foundations of postmodernism and abstraction toward a new, more political, and autobiographical voice.Art AIDS America surveyed more than 100 works of American art from the early 1980s to 2015, reintroducing and exploring the spectrum of responses to HIV/AIDS, from activism to elegy.
It also introduced and explored the spectrum of artistic responses to AIDS, from the outspoken to the mournful. Art AIDS America was organized by Tacoma Art Museum in partnership with The Bronx Museum of the Arts, and co-curated by Jonathan David Katz, Director, Visual Studies Doctoral Program at the University at Buffalo (The State University of New York), and Rock Hushka, Chief Curator at Tacoma Art Museum who contributed to the catalogue.
For Teraoka’s part, in 1984, seeking respite and solace from the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on his artist community in Los Angeles, he began traveling between LA and Hawaii, and eventually moved to the island of Oahu, where he continues to live and work today. Finding escape and comfort in the natural beauty of Hawai'i, Teraoka began painting evocative waterscapes, some of which are mounted on traditional Japanese scrolls in between making works that addressed the insidiousness of HIV/AIDS and its devastating effects. Drawing inspiration from Edo-era, historic landscape prints by artists such as Hokusai and Kunisada, Teraoka created this new series of meditative works as a counterpoint to the intensity of his AIDS Series watercolors. In the process, Teraoka continued to experiment with scale and materials,resulting in larger and even more expressive works that eventually evolved into the large-scale triptychs that emerged in the later 1990s.
Waves and Plagues Redux features several important unmounted watercolors on canvas, including AIDS Series/Father and Son(1990). These canvases, nearly nine feet tall, portray figures in the end stages of infection. Two of the paintings depict a father that is infected and a mother tenderly holding the infant that is infected with HIV or dead, with their eyes cast downward and away, capturing a moment of overwhelming and indescribable loss. These canvases are among the last of his ukiyo-e style works and represent the culmination of his AIDS Series.Waves and Plagues Redux offers an important survey of this period of Teraoka's work, which continues to have a lasting impact on art historical conversations surrounding HIV/AIDS.In conversation with Teraoka’s exhibition, the gallery continues to feature three videos by Deborah Oropallo: White As Snow, Wolf,and Dirty. As their point of departure, the videos use fairy tales such as Snow White,Little Red Riding Hood,and Fantasia, the related costumes from cosplay, and Disney films to weave together cautionary tales of a more dystopic nature (they complement the collaborative work created by her and her husband Michael Goldin in exhibit in the South Gallery titled American Gothic).
Exhibition on figure painting on display at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art
From cave paintings to the Renaissance, artists have used the human figure to tell stories.
By, Sonoma Index-Tribune
Published on June 2023
The art exhibition currently on display at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art is all about figure painting.
From cave paintings to the Renaissance and from Vermeer to Henry Moore, artists have used the human figure to tell stories. Di Rosa’s current exhibition, “Figure Telling: Contemporary Bay Area Figuration,” provides a fresh look at figure painting today.
Works by Sydney Cain, Craig Calderwood, John Goodman, Afsoon Razavi, Josephine Taylor and Heather Wilcoxon tell deeply personal stories about life in 2023. These range from ancestry to the persecution of women in Iran and from the horrors of adolescence to growing up transgender in a small town.
The multigenerational artists in Figure Telling have very different backgrounds, interests and artistic practices. Each of them, however, uses visual storytelling to convey unique identities, concerns and compassions. In a world that is so often complex, they use human bodies to tell stories — sometimes ugly and sometimes beautiful, always honest.
“Figure painting is all the rage in New York, Los Angeles and London,” said Chief Curator Kate Eilertsen in a news release. “Northern California is producing its own unique brand of contemporary figuration, rooted in the deeply personal.”
A panel discussion with the artists and Eilertsen will be held on Saturday, July 22 at 2 p.m. in the exhibition space. Tickets are available online at dirosaart.org. The exhibition will continue until Sept. 17, 2023.
Exhibition on figure painting on display at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art
From cave paintings to the Renaissance, artists have used the human figure to tell stories.
“Figure Telling: Contemporary Bay Area Figuration” will be on display at di Rosa through Sept. 17.
The art exhibition currently on display at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art is all about figure painting.
From cave paintings to the Renaissance and from Vermeer to Henry Moore, artists have used the human figure to tell stories. Di Rosa’s current exhibition, “Figure Telling: Contemporary Bay Area Figuration,” provides a fresh look at figure painting today.
Works by Sydney Cain, Craig Calderwood, John Goodman, Afsoon Razavi, Josephine Taylor and Heather Wilcoxon tell deeply personal stories about life in 2023. These range from ancestry to the persecution of women in Iran and from the horrors of adolescence to growing up transgender in a small town.
The multigenerational artists in Figure Telling have very different backgrounds, interests and artistic practices. Each of them, however, uses visual storytelling to convey unique identities, concerns and compassions. In a world that is so often complex, they use human bodies to tell stories — sometimes ugly and sometimes beautiful, always honest.
“Figure painting is all the rage in New York, Los Angeles and London,” said Chief Curator Kate Eilertsen in a news release. “Northern California is producing its own unique brand of contemporary figuration, rooted in the deeply personal.”
A panel discussion with the artists and Eilertsen will be held on Saturday, July 22 at 2 p.m. in the exhibition space. Tickets are available online at dirosaart.org. The exhibition will continue until Sept. 17, 2023.
About the artists
Sydney Cain is a visual artist born and raised in San Francisco. Through large-scale and intimate works, Cain honors those who have passed on and provides them with sacred sites to be reborn and re-imagined. Current works with printmaking, powdered metals and sculpture mine personal archives, their family’s genealogy, and the intersections of urban renewal and displacement on the psychic, spiritual, emotion and physical well-being of marginalized communities. Cain, currently in graduate school at Yale University, is represented by Rena Bransten Gallery, and has exhibited at SOMArts, and the Oakland Museum of California, among others.
Craig Calderwood, a self-taught artist, uses low-end materials such as found fabrics, polymer clay and fiber-tip pens to create intricate and decorative works, rendered through a personal vernacular of symbols and patterns, and arranged into constellations that tell stories both personal and fantasized. His work has been exhibited at the Oakland Museum of California, Mills College Art Museum and Museum of Craft and Design, among others.
John Goodman, a self-taught artist who draws inspiration from Bay Area figurative painters, came to painting after a long and successful career as a playwright. His storytelling skill is central to his being and career. His understated minimalism, signature impasto brushwork and reductive use of color speak of isolation and eternity. Goodman lives and works in San Francisco and is represented by Andra Norris Gallery in Burlingame.
Afsoon Razavi is an Iranian-American artist and designer living and working in Napa. With her charcoal drawings of free-flowing hair, Razavi tells the story of Iranian women’s protests and self-determination as their government prohibits them from showing their hair in public.
Josephine Taylor's mysterious drawings leave us searching for the sources of her history. Using delicate colors with meticulous details, Taylor explores the traumas and joys of contemporary experience. She is a 2017 Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellow and a 2004 recipient of the SFMOMA SECA award, among other accolades. Taylor is represented by Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco and will open a solo exhibition at the gallery in September 2023.
Heather Wilcoxon’s figures explore issues like abortion and immigration. Each piece has a story to tell — however she allows space for each viewer to make up their own narrative. Having studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, Wilcoxon lives and works in Sausalito, CA. She has received fellowships including two from the Pollack/Krasner Foundation, and recently received the Distinguished Women in the Arts Award from the Fresno Art Museum.
31 Flavors Invading Japan/French Vanilla IV, 1979, watercolor on two sheets of paper; 11 x 55 inches
The temporal distance between the pandemic 40 years ago and the one from which we’ve just emerged has given us time to reflect on the global devastation of the AIDS crisis when it was at its peak and California was among its American epicenters. This survey of Masami Teraoka’s work from 1984 to 2008, titled Waves and Plagues Redux, reminds us of those times, inviting a reexamination informed by a post-COVID perspective.
Teraoka attracted significant West Coast visibility during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s by adopting the esthetics and techniques of traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e painting and woodblock printing and combining them with pictorial fragments derived from the most banal and occasionally vulgar aspects of American popular culture. The results of this approach were always suffused with undeniable charm, refined craftsmanship and a good-natured humor, highlighting the absurdity associated with the economic colonization of a deeply revered tradition.
AIDS Series/Father and Son, 1990, watercolor on canvas, 108 x84 inches
A good early example in the current exhibition, 31 Flavors Invading Japan/French Vanilla IV (1979), depicts a female figure clad in the flowing kimono of a traditional geisha. Her overdramatic body language shows her greedily consuming an ice cream cone while reflecting with visible dismay, her momentary and embarrassing lapse of dignity. It is worth remembering that the Ukiyo-e artists of the Edo-Tokugawa period often depicted the idealized world of actors and courtesans who lived exalted lives as exceptions to the rigidity of their society, something Teraoka comically mirrors by employing in their stead, Hollywood celebrity types who lived near him in Los Angeles before he relocated to Hawaii in 1984.
As the AIDS crisis worsened in the 1980s and early 1990s, the disease and the fraught politics surrounding it proved to be no laughing matter. This explains the somber, melodramatic moods of Teraoka’s large works from a series made in 1990, five excellent examples of which are included here. All quite large and compositionally forthright, deviating from earlier Ukiyo-e stylistics in favor of centrally posed figures evoking official state portraits of shoguns or other high government officials, not to mention the revered emperors of ancient China painted in the older, albeit similar, Gongbi style. The difference is that Teraoka’s figures are not highly placed officials in any government, nor are they recognizable celebrities of any import. They are everyday people clad in Kimono gowns, appearing as if they were personally associated with the artist. Many appear to be sick, evidenced by their exsanguinated pallor and the somber colors of their surroundings. Three such paintings portray mother and child dyads, while a fourth portrays a father and child. The children depicted are all infants, some looking seriously ill or otherwise malnourished, like the one featuring a distraught blond woman clutching her blue-tinged offspring. In other cases, the adult figures are the ones who look vexed by infirmity; witness the parent figure in AIDS Series/Father and Son whose palsied hands look as if they are morphing into rotten claws.
Study for Wave Series/Molokai Lookout Point, 1984, watercolor on paper, 24 7/8 x 98 inches
Several examples from Teraoka’s Wave Series offer an ebullient counterbalance to the grim pathos of the AIDS Series. The earliest, New Views of Mt. Fuji/Waterfall Contemplation II (1979), is a horizontally formatted image of cascading water with figures positioned at the corner taking enjoyment from the serenity of the scene. More dramatic are the ebb and flow of surging waves depicted in Waves and Rocks (1986), Study for Wave Series/Molokai Lookout Point (1984) and Waves: Waimanalo Beach (1986-88), where the frothy whitecaps seem to form semi-figural water wraiths representing the spirits that animate them. The obvious reference point for these efforts is Hokusai’s famous 1831 image The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Teraoka’s wave paintings, executed in both watercolor and polychrome woodblock, play off of that familiarity to good advantage by capturing a perfect balance between the frozen stillness of the picture form and the unsettled, perpetual motion of the subject. Where Hokusai’s image is thought to dramatically represent the yin and yang of nature, Teraoka’s Wave images accomplish the same thing in a more lyrical register, elegantly teasing out the analogy between of the flow of water and the flow of time.
Namiyo at Hanauma Bay, 1985, lithograph, 24 7/8 x 35 7/8 inches
One special aspect of this exhibition is the inclusion of a large array of small works and preparatory studies, a few of which look to be related to some of the larger, more complete works on display nearby. These run a gamut from outright doodles and purposeful sketches to finished works executed in an unselfconscious and improvisatory manner. Just as professional magicians guard the inner mechanisms of their illusions, so do certain artists. When their secrets are revealed, as they are here, it’s an opportunity to be savored, one that allows us to see the thinking behind Teraoka’s process, thereby enhancing our appreciation and understanding of it.
[...]
Masami Teraoka: “Waves and Plagues Redux.” A survey of work from 1984 to 2008 @ Catharine Clark Gallery through August 19, 2023.
ART ‘Offshore Islands’ by artist Betty M. Wilson. Painting by Betty M. Wilson
Ross
Noble Art
The Marin Art and Garden Center presents “Noble Art: Creativity & Community in the College of Marin Fine Arts Department,” a celebration of some of the most exciting and influential artists who have taught in the College of Marin fine arts department. Featured artists include Betty M. Wilson, Carole Beadle, Chester Arnold, Bill Abright and Allan Widenhofer. The works, guest curated by Twyla Ruby, span painting, sculpture, ceramic and fiber arts, and are on exhibit through Aug. 27. Gallery hours are 10am to 4pm, Friday and Saturday, and 12 to 4pm, Sunday, at the Studio at Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross.
Walking Speed: A Curator’s Tour of The Mary and Al Shands Collection
By, Megan Bickel
Pubslished on June 2023
Anish Kapoor, British, b. 1954. “Untitled,” 1999. Stainless steel and yellow paint, The Mary Norton Shands and Alfred R. Shands III Art Collection Bequest, P2022.2.69/Photo: Bill Roughen
“Rounding the Circle: The Mary and Al Shands Collection,” curated by Julien Robson, is a major exhibition celebrating the significant collection of contemporary artworks assembled by the late Al Shands (1928-2021) and Mary Norton Shands (1930-2009). The exhibit at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, also commemorates the transformative gift of art made to the museum, numbering over a hundred artworks.
It was Al Shands’ wish that the contemporary art collection he and his late wife, Mary, amassed at their Great Meadows estate in Crestwood, Kentucky be displayed in a public exhibition before being dispersed to museums across the state. In this way, he sought not only a closure to the collection’s life at Great Meadows, but also a bridge to the works’ future lives in other contexts. Shands, a former Episcopalian priest, hoped to stage an exhibition that would be dynamic but also contemplative—a place where museum visitors could be inspired to explore what meaning the works could spark in their own lives.
The exhibition appears in three parts but avoids chronological narratives and instead navigates space, time, and materiality to look at the evolution of a collection that includes highly established artists such as Anish Kapoor, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Siah Armajani, Petah Coyne, Olafur Eliasson, Elizabeth Murray, Alfredo Jaar, Betty Woodman, Sol LeWitt and Tony Cragg, alongside major Kentucky artists such as Vian Sora, Cynthia Norton, Kiah Celeste and Sandra Charles. I had the chance to discuss decisions behind the curatorial choices with Robson, as well as what the future of the Great Meadows Foundation holds for Kentucky’s artists.
Nina Katchadourian, “What is Art?” C-prints, 12.5 x 19 inches, 1996/2008, part of the “Special Collections Revisited” series from the “Sorted Books” project/Photo: Megan Bickel
“We walk up to the first gallery here, and we’re greeted by this piece which serves to direct us,” Robson says. “It’s Nina Katchadourian’s piece, which is part of the “Special Collections Revisited” series. It’s her portrait of John Canady’s book, “What is Art,” and then “Close Observation.” As you head toward the exhibition in this compressed space, the first thing it’s doing is pointing you to art and giving you advice about what art could be.”
Installation view, “Rounding the Circle: The Mary and Alfred Shands Collection” at the Speed Art Museum/Photo: Mindy Best Photography, courtesy the Speed Art Museum
The print serves as a direction point.
Yeah. Yeah. I decided the next step would be to go into a slightly larger space where there would be more didactic material, and this is really the only place where it’s distinctly about Al and Mary. I took this wall of photographs directly from the house and just hung it here with a brief chronology of the two of them and a text that’s an introductory text, then I’ve included three ceramic works. They’re all teapots. Ceramics is really where the collection started, with Wayne Ferguson‘s work. And at the end of their life, there were nineteen Wayne Ferguson’s in the collection from the early years. But in the early years of their collecting, Mary was asked by Phyllis George, the then-governor’s wife, to lead the Kentucky Foundation of Art and Craft, which eventually became KMAC. This spurred their collection.
She started taking Al to craft fairs like Berea’s. They both had cultural backgrounds, but they weren’t really serious collectors, and it was at Berea that Al found this piece by Wayne Ferguson that really touched him, and he bought it and put it in his car, and came back and started buying more things. He always talked about that from the moment he became a collector.
Yes, Yes.
It got bigger and bigger and eventually became much more sculptural. The show isn’t a chronology, but it interlaces a number of things. As we walk into the next room, which is almost exactly the size of the courtyard at Great Meadows, we find in the middle of the floor the Alice Aycock, which sat in that courtyard. The sound work is the work Al commissioned after Mary died from Stephen Vitiello in her memory.
[...]
We’ve involved ourselves over the last couple of years with a number of big projects which we will step back from in order to return to core activities. We put money into this exhibition, which Al wanted, and then we’re funding a final project: a book. And the book will be a document discussing Mary and Al and their collection and the house. But we will continue the Artist Professional Development Grant, which really is the core of what we do, right?
“Rounding the Circle: The Mary and Al Shands Collection” at Speed Art Museum, 2035 South Third Street, Louisville, Kentucky, on view through August 6.
New Photography and Media Arts Curator appointed at Milwaukee Art Museum
By, Artdaily.com
Published on June 2023
MILWAUKEE, WI.- The Milwaukee Art Museum today announced that it has appointed Kristen Gaylord as the Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts, overseeing its collection of photography and media works. Gaylord comes to the Museum, among the first American institutions to collect photography, from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, where she is currently the Associate Curator of Photographs. She will assume her new role beginning in September.
“The Milwaukee Art Museum’s Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts has a robust exhibition program that connects our visitors to compelling works of photography, film, and video,” said Marcelle Polednik, the Donna and Donald Baumgartner Director of the Milwaukee Art Museum. “We look forward to having Kristen on our curatorial team to lead this program and shape the Museum’s strong collection across these media as they continue to evolve."
For the last five years, Gaylord has served on the curatorial team of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, where she contributed to the ongoing scholarship, preservation, and growth of the Carter’s extensive photographic holdings. During her tenure, she organized exhibitions including Stephanie Syjuco: Double Vision (2022); Black Every Day: Photographs from the Carter Collection (2022); Looking In: Photography from the Outside (2019); Set in Motion: Camille Utterback and Art That Moves (2019); and the forthcoming Moving Pictures: Karl Struss and the Rise of Hollywood (May 2024).
“The Milwaukee Art Museum excels in the study and collection of 20th-century American photography, and we look forward to Kristen’s contributions to and expansion of this legacy,” said Liz Siegel, Chief Curator at the Milwaukee Art Museum. “Kristen's experience and passion for presenting the work of a wide range of photographers with varied perspectives and approaches to the medium make her a valuable addition to our team.”
As the Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts, Gaylord will lead the study and exhibition of the Milwaukee Art Museum’s collection of nearly 4,000 photographs and a growing collection of time-based media, spanning from daguerreotypes to works by contemporary practitioners. In addition to overseeing acquisition strategy, Gaylord will regularly rotate the Center’s exhibitions to showcase new acquisitions, share original research, and increase visitor engagement with the collection.
“I am thrilled to be joining the Milwaukee Art Museum and its storied photography program,” said Kristen Gaylord. “I look forward to collaborating with colleagues and community members to develop new scholarship around the collection, feature expanded narratives of the history of art, and amplify the innovative voices in photography and media arts today.”
Prior to her role at the Carter, Gaylord served as the Beaumont & Nancy Newhall Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for three years, having previously worked there as a research assistant and a curatorial intern. Concurrently, Gaylord was also the inaugural curator of the Duke House Exhibition Series at New York University (NYU). In addition to holding positions at the Willem de Kooning Foundation, Gaylord has taught at the Museum of the City of New York, Ramapo College of New Jersey, Kingsborough Community College, and NYU. She has also written and lectured widely.
Gaylord holds a Bachelor of Arts in art history and English literature from Westmont College and a Ph.D. in art history and archeology from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
Gaylord's position is endowed through a major grant from the Herzfeld Foundation.
Inward journey: Art opening at Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild centers on self
By, Hv1 Staff
Published on June 2023
Julie Heffernan’s Self Portrait as Mad Queen.
As brushes dance on canvas, they often weave tales that transcend the boundaries of mere pigments and patterns to illustrate the ineffable. This summer, three renowned artists, Brenda Goodman, Julie Heffernan, and Elisa Jensen, invite us to delve into a fascinating exploration of the notion of “self”. In an upcoming exhibition titled “SELF: Portraits + Places”, they skillfully unravel the complexities of identity, each through their unique artistic lens.
The exhibition, curated by Melinda Stickney-Gibson, opens this Saturday, June 24 with an opening reception at 4pm, and runs through August 6 at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild in Woodstock.
Brenda Goodman brings to life the authenticity of personal narratives through her self-portraits. Known for her honest representation of the artist’s existence, Goodman’s work reflects a personal, unembellished viewpoint of the self. Her art is devoid of any romanticized notions, serving as a poignant testimony to her experience as an artist.
Contrasting Goodman’s approach, Julie Heffernan depicts the “self” using elaborate allegories. Through incredibly detailed and intricate artworks, Heffernan echoes her environmental concerns. Her self-portrait, designed as a symbol representing humanity, offers a visually stunning perspective on humanity’s place in the world we inhabit today. Initially striking in their beauty, a deeper inspection reveals the undercurrent of thoughtful critique lacing her work.
Elisa Jensen offers a different perspective yet, choosing to manifest “self” through the subtle representation of daily life. Her art, featuring intimate views of interiors, garden corners, or apartment window views, conveys a sense of familiar tranquility. Jensen’s works serve as silent reminders of the personal resonance in our lived spaces, the objects we surround ourselves with, and the meaning they hold to us.
“SELF: Portraits + Places” promises an engaging exploration of selfhood through the perspectives of three gifted artists. More details can be found at woodstockguild.org.
ADAA Names Exhibitors for 35th Anniversary Art Show in November
By, Maximiliano Duron
Published on June 22, 2023
The ADAA's 2021 Art Show 2021, at the Park Avenue Armory.PHOTO SCOTT RUDD PRODUCTIONS
The Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) has lined up 78 exhibitors from its membership for the 35th edition of its annual Art Show, scheduled to run November 2–5 at the Park Avenue Armory. The fair opens to VIPs with its evening benefit preview on November 1, which benefits the Henry Street Settlement.
As is typical at the Art Show, the majority of the fair’s booths will be dedicated to single-artist presentations, among them Kiki Smith at Pace Gallery, Tavares Strachan at Marian Goodman, Betty Woodman at David Kordansky, Manoucher Yektai at Karma, Richard Mayhew at ACA Galleries, Whitfield Lovell at DC Moore Gallery, Arvie Smith at Monique Meloche, Charmion von Wiegand at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, and new works by Jasmin Sian at Anthony Meier, who also serves as president of the ADAA.
This edition of the fair will also include several new ADAA members, such as LA’s Anat Ebgi Gallery, which will do a solo presentation on Faith Wilding, and San Francisco’s Catharine Clark Gallery, which will mount a two-person presentation titled “Double Vision: Rethinking Manifest Destiny,” with work by Marie Watt and Stephanie Syjuco. Other new members participating include Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, Eric Firestone Gallery, Ortuzar Projects, and Perrotin, which recently sold a 60-percent stake to Colony Investment Management.
In a statement, ADAA executive director Maureen Bray said, “This is a special year for The Art Show as it celebrates two milestone anniversaries—its very own 35-year run and Henry Street Settlement’s 130th year of operation—which demonstrates how the generative collaboration between our two organizations has had a tremendous and time-honored impact on the lives and well-being of our communities.”
The full exhibitor list follows below.
Exhibitor Location(s)
ACA Galleries: New York, NY
Avery Galleries: Bryn Mawr, PA
Nicelle Beauchene Gallery: New York, NY
Berggruen Gallery: San Francisco, CA
Peter Blum Gallery: New York, NY
Castelli Gallery: New York, NY
Cheim & Read: New York, NY
Catharine Clark Gallery: San Francisco, CA
James Cohan: New York, NY
Thomas Colville Fine Art: Guilford, CT and New York, NY
DC Moore Gallery: New York, NY
Tibor de Nagy: New York, NY
Anat Ebgi Gallery: Los Angeles, CA
Andrew Edlin Gallery: New York, NY
Derek Eller Gallery: New York, NY
Eric Firestone Gallery: New York and East Hampton, NY
Debra Force Fine Art, Inc.: New York, NY
Forum Gallery: New York, NY
Peter Freeman, Inc.: New York, NY
James Fuentes: New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA
GAVLAK: Los Angeles, CA and Palm Beach, FL
Gitterman Gallery: New York, NY
Marian Goodman Gallery: New York, NY
Garth Greenan Gallery: New York, NY
Hirschl & Adler Modern: New York, NY
Hosfelt Gallery: San Francisco, CA
Susan Inglett Gallery: New York, NY
Jenkins Johnson Gallery: San Francisco, CA and Brooklyn, NY
Nathalie Karg Gallery: New York, NY
Karma: New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA
Kasmin: New York, NY
June Kelly Gallery: New York, NY
Sean Kelly: New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA
Anton Kern Gallery: New York, NY
Tina Kim Gallery: New York, NY
David Kordansky Gallery: Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY
Krakow Witkin Gallery: Boston, MA
Kraushaar Galleries: New York, NY
Lehmann Maupin: New York, NY
Luxembourg + Co.: New York, NY
Mary-Anne Martin | Fine Art: New York, NY
Barbara Mathes Gallery: New York, NY
Miles McEnery Gallery: New York, NY
Anthony Meier: Mill Valley, CA
moniquemeloche: Chicago, IL
Yossi Milo Gallery: New York, NY
Shulamit Nazarian: Los Angeles, CA
Jill Newhouse Gallery: New York, NY
David Nolan Gallery: New York, NY
Ortuzar Projects: New York, NY
P.P.O.W: New York, NY
Pace Gallery: New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA
Franklin Parrasch Gallery: New York, NY
Perrotin: New York, NY
Petzel: New York, NY
Almine Rech: New York, NY
Ricco/Maresca: New York, NY
Yancey Richardson: New York, NY
Roberts Projects: Los Angeles, CA
Rosenberg & Co.: New York, NY
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery: New York, NY
Mary Ryan Gallery: New York, NY
Schoelkopf Gallery: New York, NY
Marc Selwyn Fine Art: Beverly Hills, CA
Susan Sheehan Gallery: New York, NY
Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino: Houston, TX
Sikkema Jenkins & Co.: New York, NY
SKOTO GALLERY: New York, NY
Sperone Westwater: New York, NY
Cristin Tierney Gallery: New York, NY
TOTAH: New York, NY
Leon Tovar: Gallery New York, NY
Van Doren Waxter: New York, NY
Von Lintel Gallery: Los Angeles, CA
Michael Werner: New York, NY
Worthington Gallery: Chicago, IL and San Francisco, CA
Yares Art: New York, NY and Santa Fe, NM
YOSHII: New York, NY
Art historian, critic and curator Maika Pollack will join Syracuse University this fall as executive director and chief curator of the Syracuse University Art Museum.
“Maika Pollack brings the talent and vision to support and expand the important role that Syracuse University Art Museum plays in campus life and in the greater Syracuse community. I look forward to working with her and watching the museum flourish under her leadership,” says Vice Chancellor, Provost and Chief Academic Officer Gretchen Ritter.
In her new role, Pollack will report to Marcelle Haddix, associate provost for strategic initiatives. Haddix’s portfolio includes, among other things, all University-wide arts and humanities affiliates and programs.
“We are excited to welcome Maika to campus this fall,” Haddix says. “She is an experienced, collaborative leader and talented arts professional whose contributions to the museum and the University will greatly benefit our students, faculty and staff.”
Pollack, who grew up in Central New York, comes to Syracuse from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in Honolulu, where she is the director and chief curator at John Young Museum of Art and University Galleries. She says she is looking forward to joining the Syracuse University community and returning to her native New York State.
“I am honored to take this role,” Pollack says. “Syracuse University has a long history of graduates who are enormously influential in the arts, from Clement Greenberg and Sol LeWitt to LaToya Ruby Frazier. I’m excited to help make this unique history more visible through exhibitions and publications, and to work with the museum’s talented staff and leadership.”
At the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in Honolulu, she established a founding endowment of nearly half a million dollars, created an imprint with nationally reviewed publications and curated shows with such artists as Ken Okiishi, Tadashi Sato, Stephanie Syjuco, Hadi Fallahpisheh, David Salle and Tetsuo Ochikubo and others.
She expanded diversity in programming and put together exhibitions lauded in local and national media, resulting in an attendance of almost 40,000 unique visitors in 2022-2023. She also oversaw the creation of a scholarly study room, the rehousing of the museum’s permanent collection, the transition to an updated collections management system and renovations to improve facilities.
Prior to Honolulu, Pollack was co-founder and director of Southfirst, a contemporary art gallery in Brooklyn that presented experimental exhibitions for almost two decades, where her curated shows were reviewed by major publications. Previously, Pollack worked as the curatorial assistant to the chief curator at PS1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, where in 2000 she was part of the original curatorial team for the highly popular “Warm Up” summer performance series. Additionally, she founded the imprint Object Relations. Her writing on contemporary art and culture has been widely published. She was the museum exhibition critic for the New York Observer from 2011 to 2015.
Pollack earned Ph.D. and master’s degrees in the history of art and architecture at Princeton University and an A.B. in art history and social studies at Harvard University. She has taught art history and curatorial studies at Sarah Lawrence College, Pratt University, New York University, the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and Princeton. Her research focuses on the history of photography, late 19th-century European art, feminist art, American art of the 1960s and 70s, contemporary art and postcolonial studies.
'Sonic Presence (or Absence): Sound in Contemporary Art' opens at The Fabric Workshop and Museum
By, ArtDaily.com
Published on June 2023
Glenn Ligon, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia. Skin Tight (Thuglife II) (installation view), 1995. Yellow ink on black vinyl. 35 x 18 x 37 inches. Edition of 7. Photo by Carlos Avendaño.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Fabric Workshop and Museum opened Sonic Presence (or Absence): Sound in Contemporary Art, an exhibition featuring 22 artists who explore and engage with sound. Some artworks incorporate actual sound while others encourage viewers to rely upon their own experiences and memories of sound to interpret the works. Curated by Alec Unkovic, the exhibition is on view June 23, 2023 to January 7, 2024.
Artists on view: Terry Adkins, Janine Antoni, Moe Brooker, Nick Cave, Lenka Clayton, Kevin Cooley, Peter Edwards, Guillermo Galindo, Ann Hamilton, Christine Sun Kim, Phillip Andrew Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Thomas Mader, Jason Moran, Robert Morris, Stephen Petronio, Raúl Romero, Yinka Shonibare, Patrick Siler, Kiki Smith, Lenore Tawney, and Mika Tajima.
Throughout The Fabric Workshop and Museum’s history, Artists-in-Residence have used sound as the focus or as a conceptual component of their residencies. These projects have often explored how to offer a direct translation of sound, capture an indirect representation of its energy and cultural forms, or inspire an audible response from an audience. As the title of the exhibition suggests, the artworks presented demonstrate the notion of a “sonic presence,” a palpable connection between the visual and the aural. Featuring works from the Museum’s collection alongside a selection of loaned works, Sonic Presence invites visitors to explore the resonant themes of sound in visual arts, be it implied, imagined, absent, or realized.
As part of residencies that often focus on material exploration, some artists at FWM have turned to visually translating the experience of sound, performance, or their cultural reverberations. For Yinka Shonibare, creating his Afrofuturist sculpture Space Walk (2002), which consists of two life-size astronaut figures suspended midair in the gallery suggesting the weightlessness of soundless space, involved scouring Philadelphia’s South Street neighborhood for vinyl records. Visual iconography of the 70s Philly Sound movement and then-emerging local artist Jill Scott came to serve as the inspiration for four custom batik textile designs that clothe the figures with the cultural energy of Black musical artists. The notion of clothing oneself in sound is explored further with Nick Cave’s Soundsuit, with its vibrant armor of stuffed animals towering above a pair of colorful tight-wearing legs, and with Lenore Tawney’s Cloud Garment, in which silkscreened sheet music and the evocation of atmospheric calm merge together to form a protectively serene garment.
In his 2010 print on silk, Listen with your eyes ttgg, the late Philadelphia artist Moe Brooker, a preacher’s son, invites viewers to conjure the sounds of his childhood in the church through its vivid colors and abstracted forms, while Patrick Siler’s 1987 screenprinted Blaster captures a scene of listeners captivated by a classic boombox. Conversely, Peter Edwards’ interactive sculpture Specter, which consists of clusters of illuminated orbs descending from the ceiling, visibly responds to the sounds of visitors.
Instruments act as a recurring theme throughout Sonic Presence as both material and form. The exhibition includes two sculptures from Terry Adkins’ Aviarium series, the last body of work by the late Philadelphia artist, which translate wave vectors of bird vocalization into a monumental scale, using cymbals and aluminum rods to capture song in purely sculptural form. Recent works by Jason Moran vividly capture the traces of a performance, with the artist exploring the residue of music-making by placing paper on the piano keys and using saturated pigment.
Place becomes the inspiration in Sonic Border for Mexican composer and artist Guillermo Galindo, who crafted instruments from discarded items bearing the evidence of migration, which he collected on his travels along the Mexican-American Border. Paired with recordings of Galindo’s original score, these artifacts resonate with the complexity and lived experiences of immigration.
Making its debut is The Sound of the Sea, a new collaborative work by former Artist-in-Residence Lenka Clayton with Phillip Andrew Lewis that explores the process of Foley artists, who utilize props to recreate everyday sound effects in films, radio, or television; for this work, Clayton and Lewis have collected and recontextualized unexpected objects used to create the sound of the ocean.
Glenn Ligon’s Skin Tight, made up of eight punching bags and graphic wallpaper, reflects on the notion of Black masculinity and the Black body as site and object. Adorned with the images of rappers such as Ice Cube and texts from Muhammad Ali, the installation confronts the visitor with the impact and implications of a punching bag’s activation.
Sonic Presence also explores the conceptual notion of the sound of an artwork’s own making. During her FWM residency, Mika Tajima began her ongoing Negative Entropy series, consisting of woven acoustic portraits that act as images of the condition of their production; having recorded industrial spaces employing Jacquard looms, the artist visually translated those recordings into spectrograms that were then produced into Jacquard-woven designs on some of those same looms. In a work that predates his residency at FWM, Robert Morris’ Box with the Sound of Its Own Making (1961) presents an ordinary wooden box that emits a recording of its own construction, complete with sawing and hammering as well as pauses and sounds of activity less traditionally associated with progress.
Lenka Clayton’s ongoing Typewriter Drawing series explores both cacophony and absence through mark-making. Phillip Andrew Lewis and Kevin Cooley’s Harmony of the Spheres blends performance and relic. Their destruction of one-thousand silent vinyl records inspired numerous works, including a final edition of one-hundred LP records made entirely from the ruins. When re-pressed, the new vinyls—available for visitors to listen to—are inscribed with the sounds of the buzzing factory as it works to press the silent record as well as the sounds of the records’ initial destruction when thrown against the wall.
The exhibition also explores communication in its myriad forms: Ann Hamilton’s 1993 editioned collar work, Untitled, explores the relationship between the body and language with an alphabet woven from horsehair. Over a dozen editions of Kiki Smith’s Singing Siren, an artist multiple made with FWM, form a chorus-in-waiting of mythological creatures whose song is simultaneously alluring and deadly. A prototype from Janine Antoni and Stephen Petronio’s 2016 work Swallow offers custom seating that engenders connection and dialogue.
A two-film work by Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader continues the exhibition’s focus on sound and communication. In Tables and Windows, the artists intertwine their bodies much like a game of collaborative improv, working together to negotiate their different skill sets as a native American Sign Language (ASL) speaker and an ASL learner. Another work on loan looks beyond human communication. Philadelphia artist Raúl Romero’s sculptural installation Music for plants, by plants merges speakers, sculpture, and a listening station to explore the role of the sculpture’s plant as recipient or maker of subsonic frequencies. Wielding unexpected humor, these works interrogate the perceived limitations of language and sound, inviting visitors to join the artists in search of their untapped potential.
Taken together, the works by the 22 artists in Sonic Presence offer numerous ways that contemporary art can both engage with ideas of sound and offer possibilities in bridging explorations between the visual and the aural.
Sonic Presence (or Absence): Sound in Contemporary Art is organized by former FWM Exhibitions Manager Unkovic.
Tool’s Adam Jones unveils new version of the best Epiphone Les Paul on the market
By, Michael Astley-Brown
Published on June 2023
(Image credit: Epiphone)
The fourth entry in Adam Jones’ Epiphone Les Paul Custom Art Collection has arrived, and with it another new piece of art on the rear of the acclaimed signature guitar.
Before we dive in, a quick recap: back in December, the Tool guitarist finally launched his affordable Epiphone model, but it came with a twist: seven unique guitars would be produced, each featuring a piece of artwork chosen by Jones. Just 800 of each guitar would be produced.
Now, the fourth entry in the lineup has arrived, showcasing Julie Heffernan’s “Self-Portrait as Not Dead Yet”, with its subject surrounded by flowers, peacock feathers and dead rabbits.
Now, we’re no art critics, but we can tell you that The New Yorker once described Heffernan’s works as “ironic rococo surrealism with a social-satirical twist”. And we have no reason to disagree.
While the aesthetics have been refreshed, the spec sheet remains the same – something that will be of great relief to Jones fans seeking to capture his gritty prog-metal attack.
The guitar features an Antique Silverburst-finished bound mahogany body with maple cap, while the three-piece bound maple neck boasts an Adam Jones Custom profile. Meanwhile, you’ll find 22 medium frets, a Graph Tech nut and a 12” radius on the block-inlaid ebony fretboard, which is at the Les Paul regulation 24.75” scale.
Pickup-wise, there’s a reverse-mounted Epiphone ProBucker Custom neck unit, while a Seymour Duncan Distortion offers the high-output swagger for those drop-D riffs.
Finally, there’s an Epiphone LockTone Tune-O-Matic bridge and Stop Bar tailpiece, vintage-style chrome tuners and PosiLock strap buttons.
Additional aesthetic flair comes via a commemorative control cavity cover and rear headstock design.
Once again, the price tag is a cool $1,299, which includes a Protector hardshell case. And just 800 of the guitars will be produced.
Whatever you make of the artwork, you’d be advised not to miss out on the model – in our review of “The Berserker” incarnation of Jones’ signature guitar, we were bowled over by the quality.
“All in all, to say we’re impressed would be an understatement,” said GW’s Amit Sharma. “Aesthetically and tonally, this could easily be the finest Les Paul ever produced by Epiphone.”
Previous entries in the Art Collection include “Mark Ryden’s The Veil of Bees” and “The Berserker” by Korin Faught.
The Adam Jones Les Paul Custom Art Collection featuring Julie Heffernan’s “Self-Portrait as Not Dead Yet” is available now for $1,299.
Marie Watt: Sound, Dancing, Community And Healing At Kavi Gupta Gallery In Chicago
by, Chadd Scott
Published on June 2023
Marie Watt, Sky Dances Light Forest (2023). Tin jingles, cotton twill tape, polyester mesh, steel 230 x 58 x 39 in.COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND KAVI GUPTA
The space between sky and earth. Marie Watt’s (b. 1967; Seneca) most recent artworks live there, taking inspiration from her culture’s Creation Story.
Across the nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, of which the Seneca are a member, the story varies slightly, but in it, broadly speaking, Sky-woman falls out–or is pushed–through a hole in Sky World where a sacred tree once stood. Falling toward a water world below, the animals there–geese, heron, otter, muskrat and turtle–agree to break her fall. She lands on the back of a turtle, which becomes Turtle Island–North America.
Watt’s “jingle clouds” envision the sky opening, Sky-woman falling through.
“This space between sky and earth has always been a space that, for me, subverts this Western fascination with a horizon line,” Watt told Forbes.com. “My Seneca perspective (is) thinking of our orientation to this space as omni directional. There are cardinal directions–north, south, east and west–but we are not fixed on the orientation of horizon line.”
The world view of Indigenous people across North America is generally circular, cyclical–the sun and the moon, the seasons, rebirth, continuum–in opposition to the linear perspective of the continent’s white colonizers–starting points, ending points, birth, life, death, roads, objectives.
A globe versus a map. The globe is more accurate, the map more common.
Jingle Clouds
From June 10 through September 30, 2023, Watt and Kavi Gupta gallery in Chicago invite visitors to explore this space between sky and earth during the exhibition “Marie Watt: Sky Dances Light.” The presentation centers her new series of jingle clouds: biomorphic, hanging sculptures assembled from tens of thousands of jingle cones, rolled pieces of tin historically fashioned from the circular lids of tobacco containers.
“I feel like sometimes I've done a disservice referring to them as clouds because I think that word almost limits what they are,” Watt said.
Some of the pieces stretch 10-feet-long, hanging nearly to the floor more like forests.
Watt’s interest in jingles began at the Denver Art Museum. She had previously been the museum’s Native Arts Artist-in-Residence in 2013 and on a subsequent visit that year, hosted a sewing circle where a pair of Native pow wow dancers, including a jingle dancer, participated.
“We were sewing this piece while this pow wow was happening (outside) and there's those sounds and smells and your senses are completely activated by the music and the drum beat, the food and the company,” Watt recalls.
Seeking to bring that energy and sensation to her artwork, Watt began affixing jingles onto fabric, wall-hung pieces. These, along with her blanket totems, have become signatures of her practice, unique, instantly recognizable, and on view throughout America’s top art museums.
The jingle clouds, however, go further.
“One of the things I realized had to happen when I started incorporating jingles into that very first piece is that it needed to be away from a wall because that's what gave you the sense that the jingles might make a sound,” Watt explains. “If they’re flush to a wall, then it feels static, but if it moves away from the wall, all of a sudden you get the sense that it could play music.”
In the Kavi Gupta exhibition, Watt’s artworks are suspended, occupying the space between the ceiling and floor, between sky and earth.
“My work has been a slow evolution to the point of realizing these amorphous, organic forms that are saturated in these jingles,” Watt said.
She has disposed of the fabric backing, composing these artworks entirely of jingles – thousands of them, one weighing upwards of 100-pounds. Some feature motorized attachments subtly turning the pieces, allowing the jingles to move and create sound like a windchime.
In addition to animating the jingle clouds in three dimensions, Watt sought to incorporate a hands-on element for the new pieces.
“Part of the goal was to bring into form a situation where people could interact with them because the impulse to touch has always been there–whether to touch the blanket or to touch the jingles, or to hear them make that sound,” she said.
At the gallery, visitors enter the exhibition through a jingle threshold: a shimmering, tin cone curtain hung from blue strands implying water and sky. Guests will further be able to physically engage with the jingle clouds.
Jingle Cones
Though their invention and use as fashion adornments dates at least to the late 1800s, jingle cones became an iconic element of Indigenous dance traditions during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.
“There was this very sick child, and the (Ojibwe) father had this dream,” Watt explains. “In the dream, he was instructed to put jingles–tin lids to tobacco cans or food cans–take the lid, curl it into this bell like shape, and then attach that bell to a dress. The instruction in the dream was to attach the cones to the dresses and have the dresses danced and it would be this healing sound that would help the child get well.”
It is believed that the medicine worked because the dance was shared with other communities.
“It's really important to recognize the relationship between sound and healing, dancing and healing, community and healing,” Watt added.
Jingles. Dancing. Pow wow.
A circular perspective on life.
Strong medicine as well for a contemporary pandemic.
Nearly 10 years ago now, Watt had another presentation of her work in Chicago. In preparation, she researched the Indigenous history of the area.
“One of the things that strikes me so significantly about Chicago is that anywhere there's water on the planet, and especially in North America, you can't help, but know that was an important hunting (and) agricultural space for Indigenous people,” Watt said. “The thing that is in some ways devastating to reflect on is that in this place we now call Illinois, and Chicago in particular, there's not a single federally recognized tribe in the state of Illinois. That tells you a lot about the history of relocation.”
Lake Michigan forming its northeastern boundary, the Mississippi River its western, the Ohio River its southern and the Wabash River its southeastern, Illinois was shaped by water. Rivers and streams crisscross its entirety.
Once a combination of rich forest and vast, head-high prairie with the richest soil on earth, today’s Illinois was previously homeland to a variety of tribes. The southwestern part of the state was home to Cahokia, one of the largest Indigenous cities anywhere in the Americas.
But, as Watt mentioned, today, the Land of Lincoln is one of only 14 U.S. states without a single federally recognized tribe calling it home. Conversely, during the Urban Indian Relocation Act era of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, another effort by the federal government to disconnect Native people from their land and culture under the guise of “progress,” Indigenous people from around the Midwest were incentivized to move to Chicago by the thousands.
In the fall of 2023, the Center for Native Futures in Chicago will open a dedicated gallery space exclusively for the display of Native American artwork. Nothing else remotely of its kind exists there.
One of the Center’s founders, Debra Yepa-Pappan (Jemez Pueblo), serves as Community Engagement Coordinator for Chicago’s Field Museum’s Native American Exhibit Hall. The Field Museum is one of the largest and most prestigious museums in the world.
She was instrumental in guiding the museum through a decades-overdue reinterpretation in 2022 of its Native North American Hall. The Hall was shamefully outdated and previously presented without any input from the Indigenous people whose story was supposedly, inaccurately, and prejudicially being told.
The update constituted a defining moment in museology and the now prevalent invitation of Indigenous people to partner with museums on exhibitions of their history or cultural production.
Yepa-Pappan’s daughter, Ji Hae, a classically trained ballerina, will be featured as part of Kavi Gupta’s programming around Watt’s exhibition, dancing amongst the jingles.
“Sound and healing, dancing and healing, community and healing.”
PARTY • NORTH SIDE
Much like Oscar the Grouch, you will declare your love for trash after attending this year’s Garden Party at Mattress Factory. Under the theme Trash Bash, the event pays tribute to a current exhibition by Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis, who are diverting the museum’s garbage and recycling to the Monterey Annex first floor. Groove to live music and DJs, participate in a trash-inspired fashion contest, sample cuisine by the best local restaurants, and more. 7-11 p.m. 5:30 p.m. for VIP guests. 500 Sampsonia Way, North Side. Tickets start at $150. mattress.org
The Fabric Workshop and Museum presents ‘Sonic Presence (or Absence): Sound in Contemporary Art,’ an exhibition that explore and engage with sound.
By, Nemesis Mora
Published on June 2023
The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) just announced Sonic Presence (or Absence): Sound in Contemporary Art, an exhibition featuring 22 artists who explore and engage with sound. Some artworks incorporate actual sound while others encourage viewers to rely upon their own experiences and memories of sound to interpret the works. Curated by Alec Unkovic, the exhibition is on view June 23, 2023 to January 7, 2024.
The artists that are part of the exhibition are: Terry Adkins, Janine Antoni, Moe Brooker, Nick Cave, Lenka Clayton, Kevin Cooley, Peter Edwards, Guillermo Galindo, Ann Hamilton, Christine Sun Kim, Phillip Andrew Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Thomas Mader, Jason Moran, Robert Morris, Stephen Petronio, Raúl Romero, Yinka Shonibare, Patrick Siler, Kiki Smith, Lenore Tawney, and Mika Tajima.
Throughout FWM history, artists-in-residence have used sound as the focus or as a conceptual component of their residencies. These projects have often explored how to offer a direct translation of sound, capture an indirect representation of its energy and cultural forms, or inspire an audible response from an audience. As the title of the exhibition suggests, the artworks presented demonstrate the notion of a “sonic presence,” a palpable connection between the visual and the aural. Featuring works from the museum’s collection alongside a selection of loaned works, Sonic Presence invites visitors to explore the resonant themes of sound in visual arts, be it implied, imagined, absent, or realized.
As part of residencies that often focus on material exploration, some artists at FWM have turned to visually translating the experience of sound, performance, or their cultural reverberations.
[...]
Making its debut is The Sound of the Sea, a new collaborative work by former Artist-in-Residence Lenka Clayton with Phillip Andrew Lewis that explores the process of Foley artists, who utilize props to recreate everyday sound effects in films, radio, or television; for this work, Clayton and Lewis have collected and recontextualized unexpected objects used to create the sound of the ocean.
By, Willamette University Pacific Northwest College of Art
Published on June 2023
Ana Teresa Fernández is an artist of fluencies. A student of linguistics, she speaks five languages. An artist of border erasure, she elevates the intersectionality of place, person, and politics to create a common human vernacular. Time-based actions and social gestures are her syntax. Land, history, gender, climate, and culture are her subjects. Performance, video, photography, painting, and sculpture become her dynamic tools of grammar. Through enacted narratives, she reveals all that too often gets lost in translation, becoming the literal embodiment of the stories that divide but also bind us as human beings sharing a planet of great fragility and beauty. Asked to characterize her work, Fernandez gives it the novel label Magical Non-fiction, explaining:
“Where unimaginable conditions are the reality, I seek to portray dreamscapes of what’s possible. The courage to transform is up to us.”
Born in Tampico, Mexico, Fernandez grew up in California and makes her home in San Francisco. She has created residencies and public work in Haiti, Brazil, Spain, South Africa, Cuba, Mexico & throughout the United States. Major public projects include On The Horizon, which was featured in the 2021 Lands End exhibition, organized by the FOR-SITE Foundation.
In one highly visible work, she erased the border between Tijuana & San Diego by painting a portion sky blue while wearing a tango dress and heels to create an illusion of a hole on the wall from afar. Collaboration is also a core value of Fernández’s practice, reflected in projects such as SOMOS VISIBLES with Arleene Correa Valencia and Truth Farm with Guadalupe Garcia, Correa Valencia, and Ronald Rael. In the latter, she installed a 120-foot-long table that spelled Truth across the lawn of the Trump winery, for all to see.
Jun 14, 2023 Thursday 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
PNCA Campus - Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design Shipley Collins Mediatheque 511 NW Broadway Portland, OR 97209
125 Newbury Announces Group Exhibition ‘Face Values’ Opening This Friday, June 9
By, Art Martin Cid Magazine
Published on June 2023
New York, NY – June 5, 2023 – 125 Newbury presents Face Values, a group exhibition that brings together artists who deal with the problem of the human face. Encompassing painting, drawing, and photography, the exhibition includes the work of more than twenty artists who employ a diverse range of practices to explore a shared set of questions: How do we recognize a person in a face? When is a portrait a likeness and when is it an icon? When is a face a mask, and when is it a stranger, a lover, a friend? Addressing these and other questions, the works in this exhibition confront the human face in all its complexity, intimacy, and strangeness.
The exhibition includes works by Richard Avedon, Georg Baselitz, Amoako Boafo, Chuck Close, Eric Fischl, Alex Katz, Nina Katchadourian, David Hockney, Peter Hujar, Ana Mendieta, Piet Mondrian, Gordon Parks, Irving Penn, Elizabeth Peyton, Andy Robert, Lucas Samaras, Julian Schnabel, Kiki Smith, Papay Solomon, Henry Taylor, Andy Warhol, Sydney Vernon, and Zhang Huan. Face Values opens June 9 at the gallery’s 395 Broadway location in Tribeca and remains on view through July 28.
...
In photographic self-portraits by Ana Mendieta, Nina Katchadourian, and Lucas Samaras, the face becomes an engine of performativity and a constructor of self. Photographs by Warhol and Irving Penn meanwhile look outward, using the camera’s gaze to render the faces of others as icons. For Avedon, the face is a politics; while for Peter Hujar and Kiki Smith, it becomes a screen for pathos, a cipher for the martyr and the saint. In his self-portraits, Samaras reveals the face as a mirror, a totem for otherworldly selfhood—a condition literalized in Sydney Vernon’s depiction of a face refracted in a hall of mirrors.
Celebrate Black history during Springfield's first city-wide Juneteenth weekend festival
By, Greta Cross
Published on June 2023
For the first time, Springfieldians may celebrate Juneteenth during a city-wide weekend festival this year. The inaugural "We Are One" Juneteenth celebration is hosted by the NAACP of Springfield and Community Partnership of the Ozarks.
Celebrated on June 16, Juneteenth is a national holiday celebrating the day all enslaved people learned of the Emancipation Proclamation. It was two years after former President Abraham Lincoln presented the proclamation in 1863 that the last slaves in Texas received word of their freedom. Juneteenth became an official national holiday in 2021.
The "We Are One" weekend festival kicks off on Friday, June 16 at the Springfield Art Museum. From noon to 8 p.m. on Friday, June 16, folks are invited to visit the Springfield Art Museum to enjoy the "Creating an American Identity" exhibition.
"Creating an American Identity" is the art museum's permanent collection but will feature works from Black artists like David Driskell, Nick Cave, Robert Pruitt, Alison Saar and Richard Hunt for the weekend. Throughout Friday, guests may take home a free project bag with a mixed media collage inspired by Driskell, who is considered the father of African American art history.
Value Culture’s Dim Sum Art Experience Brings Love to San Francisco’s World Famous Downtown Restaurant Yank Sing
By Grit Daily Staff
Published on June 2023
San Francisco is experiencing one of the weakest recoveries of any downtown in the country from recent pandemic times. The city also saw its hate crimes against AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) people rise dramatically during this period. Increased cost of living has also threatened and pushed artists out of the city. That’s when a rising star immigrant artist and a small buzzy nonprofit organization wanted to do something to help.
San Francisco-based nonprofit organization Value Culture led by Adam Swig and Filipino American artist Reniel Del Rosario approached world-renowned dim sum restaurant Yank Sing with an innovative idea for an arts experience to celebrate Asian heritages and pride, build community bridges, and excite people to come back to downtown San Francisco and visit the city’s global destinations. Prior to the pandemic, Yank Sing’s two locations were open 365 days a year. Now with the city’s downtown struggles, it’s open just Wednesday through Sunday.
The experience called AAPI Love A La Carte played out to loving fanfare on May 20th, 2023, as part of San Francisco’s celebration of AAPI Heritage Month. “Stop Asian Hate, Start Asian Love” was the tagline of the event. Hundreds of attendees were enjoying the event when Executive Director of the Office of Small Business Katy Tang arrived in place of Mayor London Breed to deliver a surprise proclamation of Yank Sing Day in San Francisco in recognition of 65 years in business. The crowd erupted in applause.
“We were so excited to be a part of this event when Value Culture and Reniel approached us with their unique idea. We have never done anything like this in our 65 years of business and we are thrilled to support our AAPI community and celebrate AAPI Heritage Month with such a fun experience.” said Vera Chan Waller of Yank Sing, “I was completely surprised when they announced the proclamation at the event and it brought tears to my eyes.”
Reniel Del Rosario (b. Iba, Philippines) is an artist that primarily uses ceramics, quantity, and satire to discuss themes of commodification and value—historical, cultural, and monetary. His projects range from interactive mimicries of consumer establishments, reimaginings of artifacts, and imperfect copies of already-existing objects.
This collaboration with Yank Sing and Value Culture used dim sum as the model for the AAPI Love A La Carte experience. Reniel based all of his pieces for this project off of Yank Sing’s most popular menu items. The pieces were sold in customized steamer baskets, a la Yank Sing’s famous pushcart service.
Deborah Oropallo and Michael Goldin. “Elegy,” 2023. Tree stump, bull horns, rug, bull fur.
Photo: Deborah Oropallo, Michael Goldin and Catherine Clark Gallery
"The Bay Area’s summer art season heats up with new exhibitions exploring everything from Tudor-era England to the life of the American farmer amid the challenges of climate change. Photography, site-specific installation and painting are among the featured mediums, with plenty of solo artist shows. Be a tourist around the bay this summer and check out these diverse offerings.
‘Deborah Oropallo and Michael Goldin: American Gothic’
This collaborative show by married Marin artists Deborah Oropallo and Michael Goldin explores the lifecycle of their farm amid the realities of the changing planet. The installations use a mix of natural beauty and dark humor to comment on the folk-nostalgic place of rural life in American culture, and the absurd ways it’s at odds with the real experience. The works incorporate everything from real agricultural tools to livestock hides in the newly expanded gallery."
10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. Through July 14. Free. Catharine Clark Gallery, 248 Utah St. S.F. 415-399-1439. www.cclarkgallery.com
Al Taylor, Pet Names, 1991, from the Morgan collection. Photo: Glenn Steigelman, Courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum
"Almost 70 works from the Morgan Library’s wunderkammer collection have been organized by artist Nina Katchadourian in her new show, “Uncommon Denominator.” Her own work is installed alongside diaries, maps, a UFO photograph, a seaweed specimen, bookbinder tools, bric-a-brac, and various arcana. Dates range from 3,400 BCE to the present. Sections of the show are accompanied by short statements by Katchadourian, 54, about visual coincidence, record-keeping, mending, how one kind of art might refer to another kind of art, geography, and, crucially, how to survive at sea. The whole calls to mind Jorge Louis Borges’s taxonomy of fictitious animals, organized into numerous categories, including “those that belong to the Emperor,” “embalmed ones,” and “those that tremble as if they were mad.” Katchadourian’s phenomenological exercise similarly encourages free-floating slippages in thinking, the euphoric discovery of hidden connections.
Katchadourian is something of an insider outsider, who has shown all over the world but not a lot of late in New York. She’s a conjuror conceptualist with a tinkerer’s touch, eccentric and cerebral. Born to a Swedish mother who grew up in Finland and an Armenian father raised in Beirut, Katchadourian went to school in California and now divides her time between New York and Berlin. Her father was a psychiatrist, a former dean at Stanford, and a professor of human biology; her mother, a literary translator, writer, and an expert in Esperanto. Katchadourian has written about meals in which conversations were carried on in four languages.
Katchadourian has a need to restore things. Using tweezers, thread, and glue, she repaired damaged spider webs on an island in Finland in 1998. Overnight, the spiders excised her fixes, dropped them to the ground, and carried out their own fixes. Louise Bourgeois called the spider “a repairer,” an occupation that Katchadourian interpreted as an “attempt to keep things together and make things whole.” She has also patched damaged mushrooms with a bicycle-repair kit; another astounding work is a small plastic lid that her maternal grandfather meticulously repaired in 1959.
Katchadourian imposes meaning on things that catch our attention but may be meaningless. In 1993 she labeled patterns and colonies of rock lichen according to the islands they resembled: Iceland, Ireland, Australia, Hawaii. She’s a pattern-recognition machine who has tried to translate the sound of popcorn popping into Morse code. In Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style (2011), Katchadourian entered airplane bathrooms, adorned herself in tissue and toilet paper, and took pictures of herself in the style of Flemish self-portraits.
“Uncommon Denominator” is about the delight taken in close observation, obsession, natural science, documentation, found objects, anonymous photographs, and other strange paraphernalia. These include a foldout, three-dimensional rendition of a tunnel under the Thames from 1830. In the anatomy section, there’s a beautiful Watteau drawing from 1716, and her own anatomy book from the 1970s. Also on hand is her 1981 Beatle Log, noting every Beatle song heard on the radio. Elsewhere are locks of hair decoratively arranged; John Pierpont Morgan’s own diary of steamers from Liverpool; and a book of autographed letters between Walt Whitman and his mother — only every example has been cut out. It’s a ghost book.
One wall is devoted to the 1973 book Survive the Savage Sea. This is a saga of six people enduring 27 days on the Pacific Ocean in a six-foot dingy. Katchadourian has read the book over 40 times. She presents numerous other books whose covers are arranged to retell the story of setting to sea, being wrecked, becoming castaways, battling the ocean, and being rescued. Katchadourian uses survival as a grand metaphor for what being an artist is: hyperattentive, mentally flexible, adaptable, and creative in any space, with any material at hand."
Value Culture’s dim sum art experience brings love to San Francisco’s world famous downtown restaurant Yank Sing
By, Feedia
Published on May 2023
Value Culture led by Adam Swig and Yank Sing produced an innovative idea for an arts experience to celebrate Asian heritages called AAPI Love A La Carte
My family & I had a great time at Value Culture's activation at Yank Sing. What a great way to bring communities together to honor a venerable Chinese American institution and an emerging AAPI artist”
— Thea Anderson, Director at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco.
San Francisco is experiencing one of the weakest recoveries of any downtown in the country from recent pandemic times. The city also saw its hate crimes against AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) people rise dramatically during this period. Increased cost of living has also threatened and pushed artists out of the city. That’s when a rising star immigrant artist and a small buzzy non profit organization wanted to do something to help.
San Francisco based non profit organization Value Culture led by Adam Swig and Filipino American artist Reniel Del Rosario approached world renowned dim sum restaurant Yank Sing with an innovative idea for an arts experience to celebrate Asian heritages and pride, build community bridges, and excite people to come back to downtown San Francisco and visit the city’s global destinations. Prior to the pandemic, Yank Sing’s two locations were open 365 days a year. Now with the city's downtown struggles, it’s open just Wednesday through Sunday.
The experience called AAPI Love A La Carte played out to loving fanfare on May 20th, 2023 as part of San Francisco’s celebration of AAPI Heritage Month. “Stop Asian Hate, Start Asian Love” was the tagline of the event. Hundreds of attendees were enjoying the event when Executive Director of the Office of Small Business Katy Tang arrived in place of Mayor London Breed to deliver a surprise proclamation of Yank Sing Day in San Francisco in recognition of 65 years in business. The crowd erupted in applause.
“We were so excited to be a part of this event when Value Culture and Reniel approached us with their unique idea. We have never done anything like this in our 65 years of business and we are thrilled to support our AAPI community and celebrate AAPI Heritage Month with such a fun experience.” said Vera Chan Waller of Yank Sing, “I was completely surprised when they announced the proclamation at the event and it brought tears to my eyes.”
Reniel Del Rosario (b. Iba, Philippines) is an artist that primarily uses ceramics, quantity, and satire to discuss themes of commodification and value—historical, cultural, and monetary. His projects range from interactive mimicries of consumer establishments, reimaginings of artifacts, and imperfect copies of already-existing objects.
This collaboration with Yank Sing and Value Culture used dim sum as the model for the AAPI Love A La Carte experience. Reniel based all of his pieces for this project off of Yank Sing’s most popular menu items. The pieces were sold in customized steamer baskets a la Yank Sing’s famous pushcart service.
Attendees were confused at first by the life-like pieces of art on the carts normally reserved for food. Remarkably, one set of the dim sum art was created with real gold, including a giant golden bao. At the event, Reniel announced that inspired by the work of Value Culture, all of the proceeds from his sales of these pieces would go to benefit up and coming artists in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
“We are deeply moved and surprised that the artist Reniel Del Rosario has announced to donate all of the proceeds from AAPI Love A La Carte toward CCC’s artist and youth development efforts in San Francisco's Chinatown. Art and culture represent the soul and imagination of our communities, and yet, it's deeply under-resourced on a neighborhood level. Through programs such as 41 Ross Artist-in-Residence and Generation Chinatown, this support will seed the next generation of artistic changemakers! Thank you to Value Culture and Reniel.” said Hoi Leung, Curator and Deputy Director, Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco. During the event, Yank Sing also announced the donation of all food and beverage sales from the event to the Chinese Cultural Center of San Francisco.
“Our 2023 Value Culture Artist in Residence Reniel Del Rosario is a true emerging star in the Bay Area art scene. We were thrilled at the outcome of this amazing project to show love to the AAPI community and businesses and Reniel’s choice to donate all of the proceeds from these works to help the next generation of artists in San Francisco’s Chinatown.” said Adam Swig, Executive Director of Value Culture. “Just as thrilling was to be a part of Yank Sing Day and their generosity to the community, highlighting that downtown SF still has many treasures to offer!”
Reniel is Value Culture’s 2023 Artist in Residence (Prior Value Culture Artist in Residence Jimmie Fails now sits on the Value Culture Board of Directors). The mission of Value Culture is to produce and support artistic, educational, charitable, and spiritual events to inspire individuals to give back to their communities. Internationally recognized, Value Culture removes barriers to arts, culture, and philanthropy. The residency was generously supported by the Robert Joseph Louie Memorial Fund and the event was supported by the San Francisco APA Heritage Foundation.
Collaborating on this project, Reniel and Value Culture asked the question; how can we stop Asian hate? San Francisco officials have received more than 60 reports of hate crimes against AAPI people in the city during 2021, a more than 500% increase in comparison to the nine incidents reported in 2020. Between March 2020 and March 31, 2022, the group Stop AAPI Hate recorded almost 11,500 reports of hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) persons in the United States.
Their answer: Asian love. Therefore they focused on engaging audiences with what is loved by all: food, art, culture, community, friendship, and Yank Sing. They were thrilled by the approval from the diverse crowd at the event including people from the arts world, community activists, and fans.
“This project was right up my alley from the very beginning and I'm very happy with the outcome. Thank you. Value Culture has been a great partner to work with.” said Reniel Del Rosario. “I’m grateful we could show support for the community and the next generation of artists. We hope everyone had a memorable experience and got inspired to show some love from AAPI Love A La Carte.
I will be upfront: Uncommon Denominator: Nina Katchadourian at the Morgan, a collaboration between artist Nina Katchadourian, the Morgan Library & Museum, and Morgan curator Joel Smith, is one of the most unusual and engrossing shows that I’ve encountered in years.
Katchadourian began by asking several of the curators to choose an item from the Morgan’s vast collection that they cherish; some of these works are in the show. Then she and Smith set about selecting disparate artworks and artifacts, some very old, some recent, and all things in between. Interspersed, and often discretely installed, are Katchadourian’s own works, along with treasured things from her family.
Everything connects with themes long important for her: travel, maps, language, books, bodies, history (including personal and family), and the relationship between humans and nature. Her sensibility — keenly intelligent, soulful, playful, boundlessly alert — permeates all. Not just ideational but also abundant visual correspondences help make the show so delightful and enticing.
An engraving by Dutch artist Jan van de Velde shows a sorceress spreading white, bewitching powder through the air to demons (“The Sorceress,” 1626). In Katchadourian’s photo “Prince Charming” (2012), from her ongoing Seat Assignment series, two smiling male airplane pilots eye one another in an airport. Similar white powder bewitches the two men, who seem avid for a torrid encounter.
The show’s centerpiece is a collection of Katchadourian’s 24 lush photographs, commissioned by the Morgan, from her ongoing Look Who’s Talking series. She selected mostly lesser-known books by well-known authors from the Morgan’s Carter Burden Collection of American Literature, and arranged them in stacks with their titles forming messages. One begins: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Edward Albee). The hilarious answer: Don (Zane Gray), Joey (Henry Miller), Charlie (Ben Hecht), Elmer (William Faulkner), Ferdinand (Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson), and Tiny Alice (Edward Albee); save for tiny Alice, all are men. It’s a sly yet potent critique of males terrified of powerful females.
Jan van de Velde, “The Sorceress” (1626), engraving in Joseph Ames, Emblematic and Satirical Prints on Persons and Professions; The Morgan Library & Museum
The show easily traverses eras, categories, mediums, genres. On one wall, in an assortment of body-themed works, is an enchanting chalk drawing by Antoine Watteau of a young woman, her rippling dress half sliding off her shoulder, her face turned to one side as she looks out and up (“Seated Young Woman,” c. 1716). Nearby are side by side photographs in an alarmingly titled 1926 book Ein anatomischer Totentanz (An anatomical dance of death) of a male javelin thrower and a skeleton seemingly poised to hurl a javelin, by Albert Hasselwander with Fritz Skell. That’s quite a shift from the Watteau.
A total surprise in an exhibition that abounds with them is a handwritten and illustrated book about the human body, enchantingly titled The Human Body: The Incredibal Machine (1975–76), which Katchadourian made when she was seven years old. One page features her drawing of a smiling “human skeloton”; underneath is the emphatic “Magnificent!” in bold red tinged with blue. Finding this childhood book in an institution renowned for books, many of them rare and famous, is wonderful.
Among the almost 130 things on display are the jagged remnant of the champagne bottle that christened J.P. Morgan’s yacht, along with sundry items from Katchadourian’s family. Her Finnish grandfather meticulously repaired and restored a mundane plastic lid. This minimalist object is odd and alluring, although the grandfather never considered it art. Nearby is Katchadourian’s striking, colorful photograph “Renovated Mushroom (Tip-Top Tire Rubber Patch Kit)” (1998); instead of fixing a tire she altered a mushroom. Renovation and transformation run in the family.
At first, the exhibition can seem overwhelming — a panoramic cabinet of curiosities writ large, minus the cabinet. But after some time and exploration, the ultra-creative logic becomes apparent, with things arranged in thematic clusters. Plants? Golding Bird’s 1839 photogram of ferns, the first published photo, and an anonymous c. 1860s photo of a jungle scene in India. Nearby is an English woman’s album, featuring actual seaweed and a poem, and Katchadourian’s hugely artificial green plant made from paper-covered wire, gouache, and product packaging (“Plant #32,” 2021), from her appropriately titled Fake Plant series. Animals? A striking, anonymous 1960s photograph of a shaggy black dog on its hind legs at a window, Robert Benecke’s grisly 1873 photo of buffalo heads, and a 3,000-plus-year-old Mesopotamian alabaster seal showing bovine animals at a byre. Informational charts? J.P. Morgan’s 1853 pocket diary listing various steamers from Liverpool, third mate L.R. Hale’s logbook of a lengthy 1857–60 whaling voyage, Saul Steinberg’s table of country noises, and Katchadourian’s teenage “Beatle Log” (1981), a notebook chronicling every time she heard a Beatles song.
Most, maybe all, of the non-art objects have probably never been in an art exhibition. A surprising star is an assortment of small leather-stamping tools in a handsome wood case that Katchadourian spied in the Conservation department. Used to ornament leather-bound books, they resemble a mysterious pictorial language.
Directly across is an embroidery sampler by the young Lucy Katchadourian, who was orphaned during the Armenian Genocide (1915–16), made it to a refugee camp in Lebanon, and later joined the Katchadourian family, becoming the artist’s “bonus, third grandmother.” The gorgeous multicolored sampler likewise suggests a pictorial language; it also seems spiritual, with its intricate designs — maybe even cosmic. That Lucy composed it in the aftermath of immense trauma, suffering, and death makes it all the more special, a captivating diasporic work made by a young survivor.
Katchadourian can be a riot, and this exhibition is often refreshingly humorous. The champagne bottleneck is next to a model of J.P. Morgan, Jr.’s yacht — I guess yacht-owning oligarchs go way back. Above, each in a different language, are 31 copies of the book Survive the Savage Sea, long important to the artist (“Every Version of Survive the Savage Sea in Every Language and Every Edition,” 2021). Bottle, yacht, and books evoke impending disaster: a yacht is christened, it sets sail, then yikes!
The exhibition is also often deeply touching. For 12 years, Katchadourian’s Finnish grandmother, Runa “Nunni” Lindfors, took photos of her daughter, Stina (Nina’s mom), on her birthday, wearing her first nightgown. The lovely accordion-fold book shows Stina getting bigger, the nightgown getting smaller. Note the Swedish title of “The story of why Stina’s first nightgown became too small” ( 1939–52): “Berättelsen om varför Stinas första natipaitu blev för liten.” Katchadourian’s maternal family is from Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority.
Behind it on the wall is Katchadourian’s “Lake Michigan” (1996), in which cut paper maps of the lake grow successively larger. The two serial works echo one another, linking the two women. These connections underscore the creativity of what is indeed a remarkable show.
Installation view of Uncommon Denominator: Nina Katchadourian at the Morgan (photo Gregory Volk/Hyperallergic)
Antoine Watteau, “Seated Young Woman” (c. 1716); The Morgan Library & Museum
Uncommon Denominator: Nina Katchadourian at the Morgan continues at the Morgan Library & Museum (225 Madison Avenue, Murray Hill, Manhattan) through May 28. The exhibition was curated Joel Smith, the Morgan’s curator of Photography and department head of Photography."
An unclassifiable artist and a deep reader, Jen Bervin has expanded the notion of what it is to be a poet in the 21st century.
By, John Yau
Published on May 2023
Jen Bervin installing “River” (2006–18) at Des Moines Art Center, Iowa (photo by Charlotte Lagarde; all images courtesy Catharine Clark Gallery)
"SAN FRANCISCO — I first learned about Jen Bervin when I read Nets (Ugly Duckling, 2003). In that book, Bervin took 60 of William Shakespeare’s sonnets and erased them until the words that were left (exactly where they are in the original) became her poem. In contrast to earlier poets, such as Ronald Johnson and Jonathan Williams, who erased preexisting texts, Bervin did not completely efface her source. Shakespeare’s poems are still discernible in light blue text, while Bervin’s are in black; readers can literally see the dialogue between the two poems. By leaving the source visible, she recognized that some of her poems would suffer by comparison. This is the opposite of appropriation, a common postmodern practice. Writing about this work in the afterword to Nets, she stated: “When we write poems, the history of poetry is with us, pre-inscribed in the white of the page.”
The second book I read was Silk Poems (Nightboat Books, 2017). The poem was printed like a scroll of cloth unfurling across the page; each line of the typed text (all caps) was comprised of six letters, corresponding to the silkworm’s DNA. While I knew that a physical manifestation of this poem existed, and that Bervin worked in other materials and made objects, including artist’s books, I had never seen any at this point. I planned on visiting her exhibition Jen Bervin: Shift Rotate Reflect: Selected Works (1997–2020) at the University Galleries of Illinois State University (August 15–December 13, 2020), curated by Kendra Paitz, but the pandemic made travel impossible. I wondered when I would get a chance to see an entire show devoted to the range of her practice, so I felt very fortunate to see the large exhibition Jen Bervin: Source, at Catharine Clark Gallery, in the gallery’s newly expanded space.
The exhibition’s 15 works, dating from 1998 to 2023, include artist books; “River” (2006–18), composed of silver foil-stamped cloth sequins sewn together; and “Silk Poems” (2016), an installation that features a video of Bervin’s extensive research into silk. What connects these works together is her physical and intellectual engagement with her materials, whether embroidering muslin with words and marks that correspond to Emily Dickinson’s fascicles (a group of 40 self-made small booklets in which she copied around 800 of her poems), typing up a text, or sewing sequins to form a silver, glittering river. In her practice, reading, as an enhanced, hyperconscious activity, and making become inseparable.
Jen Bervin, “Measure (After Susan Hiller)” (2023), burned journals 1992–2012 in 16 borosilicate glass tubes with mirrored text; two handblown glass vessels. Eight tubes: 1 1/4 inch in diameter with lengths ranging from 12 9/16–24 1/2 inches; eight tubes: 5/8 inch in diameter with lengths ranging from 13 3/8–22 5/8 inches; glass vessels: 12 x 7 1/2 x 6 inches each
One of the striking things about Bervin’s work — and this is true of Nets — is her ability to both preserve and change her source. In doing so, she establishes two dialogues, one with the work and one with the viewer/reader. This is also true of early, groundbreaking works by Jasper Johns, such as “Flag” (1954–55). If we view the encaustic and collage “Flag” or Bervin’s weaving of Dickinson’s fascicles on cotton muslin only in formal terms, we miss out on the deeper and more challenging richness of their work, the dialogues they have initiated with history.
This was my experience with the group of individual pieces collectively titled The Dickinson Composites, each numbered and dated between 2004 and 2022. Made of cotton and silk thread on cotton batting back with muslin, and measuring 72 by 96 inches, they are displayed so viewers can see both sides.
During Emily Dickinson’s most extraordinary outpouring of poetry (1858–64), which coincided with the Civil War, she copied more than 800 of her poems into handmade volumes of folded sheets of paper, which she made by stabbing two holes in the papers and tying them together. Dickinson made other “signature” marks on these sheets of paper, over which scholars have puzzled. Her unique fascicles are the source of Bervin’s quirky, mysterious works. From sculptor Roni Horn to Chicago Imagist painter Philip Hanson to poet Susan Howe, Dickinson has served as source material for creators — so much so that I wondered if anything fresh could be done. In contrast to other poets and artists, Bervin does not cite, reconfigure, or meditate upon well-known lines and phrases. She is interested in the marks and dashes that Dickinson used as punctuation, which scholar have speculated as indicating pauses of silence or bridges between sections of a poem.
I think Bervin wants to suggest the background of the Civil War without being didactic about it. Cotton was produced in the 15 slave states by nearly two million enslaved people. Women made cotton clothes as well as wore cotton dresses. By evoking quilts and bedding, the artist comments on the role women played in this long, bloody conflict that still haunts us. The way red threads mark the surface, like cuts and incisions against a white ground, further inflect this reading. Dickinson never acknowledged the Civil War, nor voiced an opinion on it, slavery, or people of color.
Jen Bervin, “The Dickinson Composites 12” (2022), cotton and silk thread on cotton batting backed with muslin, 72 x 96 inches
Bervin’s touch regarding these matters is light. She gives viewers a lot of room to reflect upon these connections and silences. Her work is open-ended and resists any reductive or literal reading.
According to the press release, the sculpture “River,” which runs across the gallery’s uneven ceiling, “imagines an impossible vantage: the Mississippi River as if viewed from the core of the earth, its headwaters, alluvial path, and confluence in the delta stretching across 230 curvilinear feet of ceiling and wall.” Walking beneath the piece and looking up at it, seeing the sequins glinting and winking in the light, we are invited to recognize all the different roles the Mississippi River has played in the history of the United States. Bervin undermines our comfortable relationship with rivers, a common subject, by making viewers look up rather than down upon it.
The scale of “River” is set at one inch to one mile. In “Measure (after Susan Hiller)” (2023), Bervin pays homage to Hiller (1940–2019), the influential US-born British conceptual artist. For “Measure by Measure II” (1993–2012), Hiller burned her paintings each year and collected the ashes in glass measuring tubes. Bervin’s work consists of journals she had written between 1992 and 2012, which she burned, containing their ashes in tubes. A phrase from the journal within is on the exterior of each tube.
“Measure (after Susan Hiller)” is less visually commanding than “River” and The Dickinson Composites. I am glad about this discrepancy — it means that Bervin has not figured it all out yet. Each work is different, including her artist books. An unclassifiable artist and a deep reader, she has expanded the notion of what it is to be a poet in the 21st century.
Jen Bervin, “Silk Poems” (2016), digital print on silk, edition of 5 + 3AP + 1HC, 65 x 52 inches
Jen Bervin: Source continues at Catharine Clark Gallery (248 Utah Street, San Francisco, California) through June 10. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.
Jen Bervin's "River," 2006-2018, at her solo show "Source" at San Francisco's Catharine Clark Gallery in 2023. Bottom right: Jen Bervin, "Measure (after Susan Hiller)," 2023.
"Walking into the newly expanded Catharine Clark Gallery to see “Jen Bervin: Source,” the first thing you must do is look up.
On view in the gallery’s 9,200-square-foot space is Bervin’s monumental installation “River” (2006-2018), which stretches across 230 curvilinear feet of the gallery ceiling and wall. The work imagines the Mississippi River as if viewed from the core of the Earth, rendered in handsewn silver sequins that reflect the light of the gallery like ripples on water.
Tracing the work’s journey through the gallery changes the way you experience the show: As you look up to the ceiling, your neck stretches, your focus becomes more intent and your awareness of the space changes. You can almost feel yourself moving with the flow of the sequined waters.
But even in the dreamy tranquility of the piece, larger issues about the Mississippi’s place in American culture assert themselves, including the river’s role in American expansion and manifest destiny as it was an early hub for industry.
“Source” also includes new works from Bervin’s “The Dickinson Composites Series” (2004-ongoing), the large-scale embroidered quilts that depict Emily Dickinson’s variant marks in her manuscripts. Also debuting in the show is Bervin’s sculpture titled “Measure (after Susan Hiller),” which was created by burning her journals from 1992 to 2012 and displaying the ashes in glass tubes. The work is a tribute to U.S.-born British conceptual artist Susan Hiller, who displayed the ashes of her own paintings in a similar fashion."
Julie Heffernan, Self-Portrait as Mad Queen, 2022, oil on canvas, 96 × 56".
"Julie Heffernan’s outing here, “The swamps are pink with June,” featured a selection of figurative paintings. All of them were rather large, but one—Self-Portrait as Throne, 2022, which is six feet tall and five feet wide—was quite grand, as befits its subject: a rendering of the artist as some kind of nature goddess. We often saw Heffernan’s women, many of whom function as her avatars, posed like queens amid hallucinogenic arrangements of greenery and flowers. (The exhibition’s title was taken from a poem by Emily Dickinson, a fervent gardener who in her own otherworldly writing often discussed the plants she nurtured.) The artist’s scrupulously rendered florae usually form magnificent patterns that fan out like proud peacocks’ feathers, as was the case with Spill (The Fall), 2023, in which quivering red globules of organic matter surround the figure’s head. In other works, the plants seem to sprout from the subject’s body, Gaia-like, as we saw in Self-Portrait as Continental Divide, 2022. Throughout the show, Heffernan boldly declared what anthropologist Ashley Montagu called the natural superiority of women. (Psychoanalyst Karen Horney argued that men have womb as well as breast envy, however unconsciously, for they lack a woman’s ability to create and nourish life.)
To my mind, Heffernan presents herself in these works as Lucretius’s Venus Genetrix, a source of perpetual renewal and regeneration, rather than Botticelli’s sterile and oddly sexless Aphrodite (aka Venus). Heffernan supposedly alludes to all kinds of historically important women (such as Queen Victoria). But so many of her canvases call to mind Shakespeare’s mythical Titania, due to their fairy tale–like character and hypnotically conceived details, which are often reminiscent of Richard Dadd’s famous painting The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke, 1855–64. One wondered if Dickinson’s line inspired Heffernan because it distills the creative process into a metaphor: The unconscious is a swamp, while the wildflowers (the “pink”) that grow out of it are the conscious. Pink is a symbol of femininity, more broadly of happiness, suggesting that Heffernan’s paintings are a celebration of joy and womanhood.
Heffernan relies on the creativity of the unconscious—what Freud called its “imaginativeness”—to idealize herself, rather than wait for society to respect her. She is in effect healing herself from the wounds our misogynistic culture has inflicted upon her. Her “Spill” paintings, 2022–, such as Spill (Ashdod) and Spill (Lotus Emergent), both 2022, seemed to be tributes to the power of ingenuity. According to the press release for the show, the artist was searching “for fresh energy in the studio” for the series, so she “began pouring paint onto canvas to begin each work,” producing moments that “captured by accident the same energy that [Heffernan] would so painstakingly try to render.” The artist’s wonderfully capricious handling of her chosen medium recalls the fecundity of Dickinson’s flourishing swamp. The painter uses a tried-and-true automatist (and modernist) method of making contact with the unconscious. The result felt like a healthy antithesis to Pollock’s flashy yet psychically sick approach to automatism—what critic Robert Coates described as “mere unorganized explosions of random energy,” which he ultimately found “meaningless.” Heffernan makes a kind of refined neo-traditionalist literary art, insistently naturalist, optimistic, and extravagantly baroque, suggesting that modernist abstraction has become a dead end, as the ongoing development of so much “zombie formalism” confirms."
"A new show at The Morgan Library & Museum, New York commandeers small curios to figure large social narratives
A clockwise turn around the gallery begins with Moss Maps (1993) and ends with Globe 1 (2019), c-prints by Nina Katchadourian that zoom in on scaly masses easily mistaken for landforms photographed from the air. In the former the artist uses press-on letters to spell words like ‘Australia’ and ‘Madagascar’ on patches of moss shaped like the countries. In the latter the frame is filled by the globelike top of a stanchion pole found on a Paris street. On its surface salt-crusted continents – of chipped paint – are eclipsed by the artist’s shadow as she stands over it. Clever and bewildering, Uncommon Denominator, the third in a series of artist-curated exhibits at the Morgan, gives Katchadourian, whose internet-famous aeroplane-lavatory self portraits (2010–) were widely misconstrued as pranks, a chance to set the record straight. Selected in collaboration with museum experts, the objects on display attest to the rigorous research and obscure interests that lie beneath her playfulness.
Katchadourian mined the museum’s collection and her own archives for objects that tell stories, commandeering small curios to figure large social narratives: a fragment of a champagne bottle, mounted on a wall dedicated to ‘ships’, is one such specimen. The bottle, we learn, had been aboard a yacht that belonged to the museum’s founder, J. P. Morgan. Elsewhere, a flimsy plastic storage-box lid that Katchadourian’s frugal grandfather fortified with wood and brass screws is juxtaposed with Renovated Mushroom (Tip-Top Tire Rubber Patch Kit) (1998), a Cibachrome print of torn wild mushrooms the artist mended with tyre-repair stickers she’d found in her grandfather’s toolshed after his death. These broken bits, like other artefacts in the show, display visual affinities that point behind their backs to differences in class status and perspective.
The accumulation has an animistic bent to it. In an interview the artist recalls visiting a Finnish forest to ‘worship’ an enormous glacial erratic – a rock once carried by a glacier and deposited on foreign soil, whose coordinates can be used to map the path of prehistoric ice. The oddities in her twenty-first-century wunderkammer are likewise evidence of happenings beyond their horizons. The more one learns about their origins, the stranger they seem."