VICTOR M CASSIDY ON THE MURDERS IN JUAREZ AT CHICAGO'S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MEXICAN ART
|
|
Cuidad Juarez (pop. 1.6 million) in Mexico has the world's highest murder rate with 7 killings daily since October 2008 and roughly 2,000 murders so far this year. Since 1998, families and friends of the victims have lobbied elected officials and worked to raise public awareness of the problem. Chicago's National Museum of Mexican Art recently joined this effort by organizing 'Rastros y Crónicas: Women of Juarez', an exhibition of 26 artworks by Mexican and American artists.
|
|
|
|
LEANNE GOEBEL ON SUSAN ROTHENBURG AT THE MODERN ART MUSEUM, FORT WORTH, TEXAS
|
|
Michael Auping, chief curator of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, has condensed Susan Rothenberg's 35-year career as a performer-turned-painter into a focused exhibition of 25 paintings, titled "Moving in Place." Auping has known Rothenberg for three decades and worked closely with the artist to select a small group of paintings from her diverse body of work. The choices suggest patterns of seeing and imagining the figure in space, part of a kinetic, often circular pictorial drama.
|
|
|
|
TOMORY DODGE AT CRG GALLERY, NEW YORK AND ACME GALLERY, LOS ANGELES
|
|
For the first time Tomory Dodge is exhibiting a sweeping body of new works on paper, comprised of roughly 40 watercolours and collages. The works are being shown concurrently at both CRG Gallery in New York and at ACME in Los Angeles, and the exhibition is accompanied by a new limited edition by the artist. 
|
|
|
|
ELLEN BERKOVITCH ON CONFLUENCIAS: ARTE CUBANO CONTEMPORANEO, ALBUQUERQUE
|
|
"Confluencias 2: Arte Cubano Contemporaneo," at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, assembles what organizers are calling the largest group show of contemporary Cuban art to occur in the United States, since Alfred Barr in 1944 mounted "Modern Painters of Cuba" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibit opened September 13 and runs through May 16, 2010.
|
|
|
|
VICTOR M CASSIDY ON CHICAGO'S BARBARA CRANE SEASON
|
|
Chicago is in the midst of a Barbara Crane festival with three exhibitions of her photographs going on all at once. Now in her eighties, Crane is still taking photographs and goes to her studio every day because that's where she wants to be. "I keep chasing perfection," she says, "the perfect negative, the perfect image, the perfect group of images; it's the chase that's so exciting, so all-consuming."
|
|
|
|
LEANNE GOEBEL ON DENVER'S FIRST BIENNIAL
|
|
The Biennial of the Americas, scheduled June 24-August 12, 2010 is a scant 9 months away. It has been characterized by rumors of its pre-term demise, a hide-and-seek between the city and potential exhibitors about locations, and a question about whether local projects are to be invited and funded as part of the overall vision. And what biennial director Bruce Mau's program is to be explicitly -- art or design or both plus -- remains perplexing. 
|
|
|
|
VICTOR M CASSIDY ON THERE'LL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND AT STEPHEN DAITER GALLERY, CHICAGO
|
|
If this exhibition were mounted in London, it would be mobbed. Here is England as seventeen English photographers see it--63 photographs dated from 1925 to 2005 in black and white and color. Among the images: a parsonage in the Bronte country; two debutantes (Cecil Beaton's sisters); a building bombed in the Blitz; two gents daydreaming in a pub; a child at the beach watched by a nanny in a huge black overcoat; people dozing in a Welsh park; a London street busker passing the hat; and a man celebrating at a soccer match.
|
|
|
|
'SENSATE: BODIES AND DESIGN', AT SF MOMA
|
|
Mutant bodies, fictional bodies, animate architecture: these are among the provocations offered by Sensate, an exhibition that reflects recent debates about what bodies are and how they are met and mirrored by design.
|
|
|
|
ELLEN BERKOVITCH ON JAY DE FEO AT DWIGHT HACKETT PROJECTS, SANTA FE
|
|
Artist Jay De Feo was for the duration of her life associated with the Bay Area, and sometimes mistaken, by her name, for a man (some speculate that being named Jay helped her win the 1951 UC Berkeley fellowship that took her, after graduation, to Europe and North Africa for a year and a half, Florence for six months of that). However, her work is that of a brilliant changeling female. 
|
|
|
|
RUBEN OCHOA AT SITE SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
|
|
Los Angeles artist Ruben Ochoa investigates the ways that class and race are expressed in the built environment. Drawing equally from international conceptual practices of the last thirty years and the funk and humor typical of the West Coast scene, he makes photographs, public art interventions, sculptures and installations from concrete, rebar, dirt, metal fencing, asphalt and related materials. 
|
|
|
|
TARGET PRACTICE: PAINTING UNDER ATTACK AT SEATTLE ART MUSEUM
|
|
'Target Practice' is an international, historical survey of the attacks that painting endured in the years following World War II. For the artists in the show, painting had become a trap, and they devised numerous ways to escape the conventions and break the traditions that had been passed down to them over hundreds of years. This phenomenon occurred in all parts of the world, and the exhibition documents why artists felt compelled to shoot, rip, tear, burn, erase, nail, unzip and deconstruct painting in order to usher in a new way of thinking.
|
|
|
|
YOUR BRIGHT FUTURE: 12 CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS FROM KOREA AT LACMA, LOS ANGELES
|
|
The contemporary art scene in Korea has remained relatively unexplored in the West despite its vibrancy during the last two decades. All that is changing with a number of high-profile exhibitions, including the most comprehensive show of contemporary art from Korea in the US to date, featuring well-known artists such as Kimsooja (below) and emerging artists on the brink of international recognition, and an exhibition of some of the most exciting artists from Korea presented by Phillips de Pury at the Saatchi Gallery in London. 
|
|
|
|
KEITH TYSON AT BLUM & POE, LOS ANGELES
|
|
British artist Keith Tyson is known for using a disparate array of mediums and methods to present and explore some of the most challenging questions and paradoxes about the nature of being and man's place in the world. His vast output mirrors the wonder and terror of our uncontrollable and awe-inspiring reality. 
|
|
|
|
TOMAS SARACENO AT WALKER ART CENTER, MINNEAPOLIS
|
|
Artist Tomás Saraceno follows the tradition of those who have looked up to the sky to envision works of uncommon optimism that explore systems of interdependencies, both inside and beyond the natural world. This exhibition showcases installations, sculptures, and photographs from 2003 to the present, whivh have been inspired by the ecological philosophy of Félix Guattari and the visionary thinking of architects and theorists such as Buckminster Fuller, Peter Cook, and Yona Friedman.
|
|
|
|
LUIS GISPERT AT OTERO PLASSART, LOS ANGELES
|
|
Luis Gispert's work is inspired by a cultural amalgamation of music, cinema, urban/pop culture, car culture, and the lyrical theatrics of hip hop. In this exhibition, Gispert creates large chromogenic prints of panoramic views of landscapes and historic landmarks through the cockpit of military bomber aircrafts and a highly customized freightliner.
|
|
|
|
CATHERINE TAFT'S ROUND-UP OF THE BEST SHOWS IN LA
|
|
Highlights in LA include paintings and posters by Jason Yates (below), a new series of portraits by Kehinde Wiley, John Waters's film stills in which nothing is ever off limits, Mike Kelley's black and white photo editions and the first full-scale US survey for West Coast artist Larry Johnson.
|
|
|
|
ARTPRIZE OPEN TO ALL ARTISTS WITH TOP PRIZE OF $250,000
|
|
A new art prize, called ArtPrize and worth $250,000, has been launched in the US which is open to all artists, from established to emerging. A public vote will determine who wins the largest art prize in the world. The only snag is that artists must submit a proposal along with $50, have it accepted by a venue for exhibition in Grand Cedar Rapids, Michigan, and take their work to the city this September.
|
|
|
|
BERND AND HILLA BECHER AT THE FRAENKEL GALLERY, SAN FRANCISCO
|
|
Through approximately twenty works in various formats, this exhibition presents a concise array of the subjects of primary importance to the Bechers over their long career. At the same time, the works on view highlight the artists' evolving modes of presentation, from their diptychs of the early 1970s, through ambitious multi-part typologies, and the large-format single images first introduced in 1990. 
|
|
|
|
WALEAD BESHTY AT LAXART, LOS ANGELES
|
|
Los Angeles-based artist Walead Beshty is currently showing a series of new projects at LAXART, comprising a suite of photographs, a site-specific architectural intervention, a cinematic work, and a public billboard on La Cienega Boulevard. This project, entitled 'Passages', represents eight years of ongoing research into the relationships between the technological image and modernity's transitory and indeterminate spaces. 
|
|
|
|
LOUISE BOURGEOIS AT THE HIRSHHORN MUSEUM, WASHINGTON DC
|
|
This major retrospective of the works of Louise Bourgeois features over 120 works, primarily sculptural pieces, along with paintings and drawings. To watch the final documentary from a trilogy by Brigitte Cornand, in which the 96-year-old artist is seen in the New York home she has not left for more than a decade, click here. 
|
|
|
|
RANJANI SHETTAR AT SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
|
|
Using both modern technologies and traditional Indian craft techniques, Ranjani Shettar creates environments that are as stunning as they are sensual. This exhibition - the first presentation of Shettar's work on the West Coast - includes a group of sculptures to be exhibited at the opening of SFMOMA's Rooftop Garden in May, as well as a pair of site-specific installations and a group of woodcut prints. 
|
|
|
|
YAN PEI-MING AT SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE
|
|
Having grown up in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution, felt the first flickers of the post-Mao Zedong reforms, and then moved to France in 1980, Yan Pei-Ming is an apt representative of a generation of global citizens who have at once weathered the alienating mutations of late-20th-century geopolitics. The fact that he has existed and worked at the crossroads of global struggle, both physical and spiritual, is what centrally informs his creative activities.
|
|
|
|
CHRIS BEAS ON FRANZ ACKERMANN AND RICHARD JACKSON AT OTEROPLASSART, LA
|
|
When one hears the word painting, visions of rectangles hanging on a wall immediately come to mind, but for Franz Ackermann and Richard Jackson the issue of whether paintings hang on a wall, sit on the floor or are mounted face to face is irrelevant. Due the protracted relationship with the history of painting, the painter must inevitably come to the question, what is painting? 
|
|
|
|
EDWARD HOPPER & COMPANY AT THE FRAENKEL GALLERY, SAN FRANCISCO
|
|
The writer Geoff Dyer once surmised that Edward Hopper "could claim to be the most influential American photographer of the twentieth century - even though he didn't take any photographs." What we see in Hopper's paintings when we look at them through the lens of photography, and how, in turn, the language of photography was influenced by Hopper's work, are the twin subjects of this exhibition.
|
|
|
|
NICHOLAS HAYES ON LESLIE BAUM AND JESSICA MEIN AT TONY WIGHT, CHICAGO
|
|
Dissolution and accumulation dominates Leslie Baum's Half Life/ Half Light and Jessica Mein's Natureza Morta. Their works both illustrate an urge to the unfinished. These artists direct these urges in complimentary directions: Baum towards desolate remnants and Mein towards mindless production.
|
|
|
|
GET A ROPE: CTRL GALLERY, HOUSTON, TEXAS
|
|
Curator Kathy Grayson brings a Downtown NYC insider's perspective to this show which comprises many of that scene's luminaries, including Dash Snow, Terence Koh and Aurel Schmidt (below).
|
|
|
|
CATHERINE TAFT'S ROUND-UP OF THE BEST SHOWS IN LA
|
|
Highlights in LA in March and April include a solo show by Swedish painter Sigrid Sandstrom (below), a major retrospective for Dan Graham, nine of LA's 'most visionary' artists at the Hammer, the late Stan Vanderbeek's expanded cinema installation 'Movie Mural' and a solo show by Sophie von Hellerman, her first in LA for five years. 
|
|
|
|
HOUSTON'S MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS RESIDENCIES: CALL FOR ENTRIES
|
|
The Core Program runin conjunction with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, is accepting application for its artist and critical studies residencies. The program awards nine-month residencies to highly motivated, emerging visual artists and critical writers who have completed their academic training but have not yet fully developed a professional career. The deadline for entries is 1 April 2009.
|
|
|
|
MATT STOKES: THESE ARE THE DAYS AT ARTHOUSE, TEXAS
|
|
'these are the days' by the British artist Matt Stokes is inspired by punk rock subcultures in Austin, Texas, both past and present. Stokes' artistic practice is marked by anthropological enquiry and an interest in events or informal movements that bind people together. Northern Soul, acid/house and black metal are among the genres of music he has explored, poetically revealing music's intrinsic ability to create fellowship through devotion or the quasi-religious experience of dance.
|
|
|
|
NICHOLAS HAYES ON E V DAY AT RHONA HOFFMAN, CHICAGO
|
|
For her new exhibition E V Day has altered a selection of garments and costumes such as a pair of woman's panties and iconic fashion attire by designer Hervé Leger. Suspended in vitrines, or stretched within frames, these recognisable objects are fractured, pulled, and utterly transformed, begging for closer inspection. 
|
|
|
|
PAUL MCCARTHY AT CCA WATTIS, SAN FRANCISCO
|
|
Paul McCarthy's Low Life Slow Life is an autobiographical exhibition curated by Paul McCarthy, presenting a diverse range of artists and artworks related to his memories of his career. This is the second half of a two-part show and it centres on McCarthy's years in Los Angeles from 1970 to the present, emphasizing the emergence of alternative performance practices, Conceptual art, installation art, and video art. 
|
|
|
|
KEHINDE WILEY AT ARTPACE, SAN ANTONIO
|
|
'The World Stage: Africa, Lagos - Dakar' features monumental new paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Kehinde Wiley, which build on Wiley's signature examination of figurative painting, drawing global inspiration from contemporary and postcolonial African art and culture. 
|
|
|
|
SHIRANA SHAHBAZI AT MUSEUM BOIJMANS, ROTTERDAM, THE CENTRE CULTUREL SUISSE, PARIS AND THE HAMMER MUSEUM, LA
|
|
In her preoccupation with crossing different visual forms and mediums, the still life dominates the work of Iranian artist Shirana Shahbazi. From the very beginning of her life as an artist, Shahbazi has devoted much of her work to expanding the boundaries of photography by using photographic motifs in other media, such as painting, graphic prints, or objects such as carpets. Her photographs of still lifes, based partly on works by the Old Masters, can be seen in both Paris and Rotterdam until January 2009 and at the Hammer Museum in LA until April 2009.
|
|
|
|
KWANG-YOUNG CHUN AT THE ALDRICH CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM, CT
|
|
Noted Korean artist Kwang-Young Chun makes fantastically intricate sculptures out of the recycled mulberry paper. He wraps the pages of old Korean books around Styrofoam tetrahedrons and other geometric forms that serve as the basic units of his compositions. The forms are then arranged in free-standing three-dimensional sculptures or mounted on the wall as two-dimensional low-reliefs. For his show at the Aldrich Chun has produced his largest free-standing work to date - a paper sculpture which is over fourteen feet high. 
|
|
|
|
ANTHONY HADEN-GUEST REPORTS ON ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH
|
|
So just what did we learn at Art Basel Miami? Well, for one thing we learned - yet again - that an art fair beats the holy hell out of an auction as the proper spot to take the temperature of the business at any one given moment. After all, auction estimates represent reality as it was several months before the fact, which in times like these can seem as lost in the mists of time as the Bronze Age. At Art Basel art stars who had under-performed at the November sales - Hirst, Murakami - were seen in glimpses only, ghostly revenants to the scenes where they had been the pampered lordlings just weeks before. With photographs by Dafydd Jones. 
|
|
|
|
ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH - ART PROJECTS
|
|
Art Basel Miami Beach opens tomorrow, 4 December, and among the highlights of the fair's programme this year is Art Projects, a series of 7 installations by individual artists from 7 countries, including Olaf Breuning and Ai Weiwei. These will be displayed in the public areas around Miami Beach, and free shuttle buses will be on hand to take visitors on a 90-minute tour of the projects. For more information click here. Next week we'll be publishing reports from the fair by Jerry Saltz and Anthony Haden-Guest.
|
|
|
|
SCOPE, NADA, PULSE: MIAMI'S TOP SATELLITE FAIRS
|
|
Once you have finished trudging around Art Basel Miami Beach, head for the three best satellite fairs where you'll see the work of emerging artists from all over the world, including Julia Fullerton-Batten's 'Teenage Stories' series, six specially commissioned tote bags care of Banana Republic, NADA's sponsor, and Takashi Murakami's GEISAI juried group of young artists. 
|
|
|
|
DAN PERFECT AT ROAD AGENT, DALLAS
|
|
Dan Perfect's complex and beguiling paintings - on view until 6 December at Road Agent in Dallas - articulate a deep affection for a particularly European sensibility of painting from the high-modern era. In this they reclaim an innocence and freshness that is subtly sophisticated, echoing historical nuances ranging from Patrick Heron to Paul Klee, or from Raoul Dufy to Matisse and Braque. 
|
|
|
|
TOFER CHIN AT COMMISSARY ARTS, LOS ANGELES
|
|
While borrowing from the aesthetics of Op-art, Chin's new works transcend the categorization as
such. The works begin in the computer but are magically transformed as the artist paints them on canvas. Catch his latest show at Commissary Arts through 25 Oct.
|
|
|
|
YINKA SHONIBARE AT JAMES COHAN GALLERY, SHANGHAI
|
|
James Cohan Gallery opened its Shanghai space in July this year where it plans to show the work of artists from China as well as the rest of the world. Its second show is by Yinka Shonibare, MBE, and will comprise photographs and sculptures dating from 2005 through 2008 which address the colonialist impulse and the struggles with power and identity that result from it. 
|
|
|
|
RENAISSANCE SOCIETY ART AUCTION
|
|
The Renaissance Society will be holding its annual benefit art auction on 6 September, including works by Thomas Struth, Brian Griffiths and Andre Butzer (below). Online viewing of all the works in the auction is now open and advance bids can be left online or by phone. Read on for details. 
|
|
|
|
JULIA FULLERTON-BATTEN AT RANDALL SCOTT GALLERY, WASHINGTON DC
|
|
Julia Fullerton-Batten, who was awarded a Hasselblad Master of Fine Art in 2008, continues her exploration of the pivotal moment in a teenager's life when childhood moves into adulthood, a time of tumultuous change, confusion and often isolation. Her exhibition of photographs, entitled 'In Between', is her first in the US, and opens 13 September. 
|
|
|
|
NEW WILLIAM CHRISTENBERRY BOOK AND EXHIBITION
|
|
'Working from Memory', a new monograph of stories and photographs by acclaimed American artist William Christenberry, is now out on Steidl. Catch an exhibition of his work at the University of Mississippi, his alma mater.
|
|
|
|
THE MARFA SESSIONS, BALLROOM MARFA, TEXAS
|
|
The Marfa Sessions is a series of sound projects embedded within the public spaces and private corners of Marfa, made famous by Donald Judd (below), to create a sonic portrait of this unusual West Texas town. Ballroom Marfa, the exhibition's headquarters, will feature a visitors center sound hub, hosting artworks and providing information and maps that point to the sound projects throughout the town. Artists participating include: Emily Jacir, Nina Katchadourian, Christina Kubisch, Louise Lawler, neuroTransmitter, Dario Robleto, Steve Roden & Stephen Vitiello, Steve Rowell & Simparch, Deborah Stratman & Steven Badgett, and Julianne Swartz. 
|
|
|
|
|
