Gordon Matta-Clark "Energy & Abstraction" @ David Zwirner Gallery in New York

David Zwirner presentsan exhibition of Gordon Matta-Clark’s drawings, a medium the artist explored continuously throughout his career, alongside the architectural cuts and photographs for which he is most known. On view at 537 West 20th Street in New York will be rarely shown works that reveal on an intimate scale some of the major ideas underpinning his practice. With his drawings—which span three-dimensional reliefs, calligraphy, and notebook entries—Matta-Clark captured the interdisciplinary spirit that defined the art world in the 1970s. Intricate and yet concise, they testify to his interest in the crossovers between visual and performance arts, as well as the broader integration within his oeuvre of the natural and built environment—trained in architecture, the artist keenly explored options for creating “breathing cities” in treetops as well as below ground, subverting traditional ideas about urban planning. Gordon Matta-Clark "Energy & Abstraction" will be on view until October 10, 2015. photographs by Adam Lehrer

Stand Still Like a Hummingbird

Jerry McMillan, Ed Ruscha with six of his books on his head, 1970

David Zwirner gallery in New York presents Stand Still like the Hummingbird, an exhibition curated by Bellatrix Hubert in the gallery’s 525 and 533 spaces. It takes its title from a collection of short stories and essays by American writer Henry Miller, published in 1962. Known equally for his mysticism and dark humor, Miller proposed the idea of “flying backwards, standing still like a hummingbird” as a lighthearted antidote to the frantic pace of modern society. The exhibition also embraces the paradox in the appropriation of its title – the hummingbird only appears still because of the rapidity of its wings – and gathers a selection of paintings, sculptures, and videos by artists who engage with contradictions, impossibilities, and the absurd. The exhibition also explores the notion of "understated gestures and formal restraint" - finding its historical starting point in Marcel Duchamp's Comb and other readymades artworks that came to influence a century of art making. Works in the show include Forty-two postcards by On Kawara, stamped by the time he got up on a given day and simply titled I Got Up(1968-1976), a collection of Ed Ruscha’s photobooks (1964-1978), works by Bernd and Hilla Becher, Francis Alÿs, Marcel Duchamp, and more. Stand Still Like a Hummingbird will be on view from June 28 to August 3, 2012 at David Zwirner gallery, 525 West 19th Street, New York.