How Hans Uhlmann Created New Forms for a New World @ Berlinische Galerie in Berlin

 
 

Hans Uhlmann's (1900–1975) abstract metal sculptures and drawings shaped the image of German post-war modernism. Berlinische Galerie’s current exhibition traces his creative periods from the 1930s to the 1970s. Using around 80 works - sculptures, drawings, photographs and archive material - it also examines his role as a curator, university teacher and networker in post-war West Berlin. It is the first comprehensive retrospective in more than 50 years.

Experimental molding is on view through May 13th at Berlinische Galerie, Alte Jakobstraße 124-128, 10969 Berlin.

Sparkle in the Vastness and Abstract Visuals of Tia-Thuy Nguyen @ Almine Rech Paris

 
 

Tia-Thuy Nguyen’s first show with Almine Rech presents a suite of more than twenty multi-media paintings from the artist’s ongoing series “I, my, me, cloud” (2018–). Impressed at an early age by her father’s experience as a Vietnamese Air Force pilot during the war with the United States (1954–1975), the artist has developed a deeply nuanced appreciation of clouds—what they can reveal and resemble, but also what they might hide. Enchanted by her father’s majestic descriptions of flying through clouds in his plane, Tia Thuy Nguyen was also frightened by his cautionary tales of clouds providing cover for enemy planes. Capturing this dichotomy, Tia's paintings evoke a wide range of moods—from joy and hope, to gloominess and anxiety. Embellished with beads and embroidery, the glittery, shimmery works reflect the complexity, mystery and mutability of Tia's chosen subject matter. Representing an homage to her father—who passed away in 2022, and whose presence the artist has since experienced as a light radiating from inside herself—Tia’s recent works evoke historical associations of light and spirituality, from sun streaming through stained-glass windows in a cathedral to Mark Rothko’s radiant abstractions.

 

Sparkle in the Vastness is on view through February 24th @ Almine Rech 64 rue de Turenne 75003 Paris FR,

EJ Hauser Reclaims the Natural and Technological Aesthetics of Language in 'Song of Summer' @ Haverkampf Leistenschneider in Berlin

 
 

Most of us are so used to reading that we forget that each letter is a shape and each word is a composition. The type we read every day–in emails and books, on packaging and signs–has a significant aesthetic dimension. U.S. artist EJ Hauser has adopted graphic and typographic strategies for their philosophical purposes and works, revealing a new view of what we no longer see in everyday life among all the texts. EJ Hauser’s quasi-abstract, fabric-like paintings are composed of layers of pixels, text fragments, and chimerical figures that refer to networks both in nature and the plant world, as well as to digital systems and interconnections in our human communication world. For them, letters form a sculptural framework, a compositional structure that sometimes dissolves into pure text images, sometimes leads to text in combination with images, or sometimes is buried under successive layers of paint. Some are very explicit, others require a closer look to find the spine and curves of different letters jumbled together to dissolve the boundary between word and image, mixed with chimerical figures and totemic symbols representing the interconnectedness of life on earth. EJ Hauser is interested in the Wood Wide Web, the complex subterranean web on the planet. Plant communication takes place via the mycelium, a network of microscopic fungi beneath the forest floor, through which information is exchanged. This is not unlike the way we are connected today through our cell phones, social media, and the “invisible” Internet.

Song of Summer is on view through October 14th at Haverkampf Leistenschneider, Mommsenstraße 67, 10629 Berlin.

Mitchell Kehe's "The wheel turns" @ Edouard Montassut

Mitchell Kehe's "The wheel turns" @ Edouard Montassut

All images courtesy of Edouard Montassut.

The mechanism of a slow churning wheel is the force at hand in Mitchell Kehe’s first exhibition at Edouard Montassut, The wheel turns.

In its less consciously organized form the wheel is seen here rotating in place, not propelling forward but recycling, mutating, reorganizing. At times it shapeshifts into a porous and metallic organ or entity, having recently been subject to extrusion, or with recognizable shafts, revolving on an anomalous axle bearing.

Queered, muddied, and biomorphic, the wheel quivers, making way for its own unique identity and subjectivity. The wheel then, is not only shaped by its work, but shapes the work that it does.

The wheel turns is on view through July 22 at Edouard Montassut, 61 rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière 75009 Paris

 
 

Vaughn Spann: The Heat Lets us Know We're Alive @ Almine Rech In New York

The common-sense theory of language is that it says what it means. Or that it means what it says. Perhaps there’s a difference; perhaps not. Put simply, it comprises statements that are either true or false, and questions that help ascertain whether statements are true or false. Because truth, in the end, is what language is supposed to be about. The learned-sense theory of language is that it is a social construction, it changes according to who you are, with whom you are conversing and according to all the experiences they have accumulated, it changes through history, it changes with geography, it changes according to context. These days, everyone knows that language is a very slippery thing. That’s what happens when you try to express an infinity of ideas with a limited set of symbols. On one level, Vaughn Spann’s art explores much of the same territory, no more so than in his current exhibition, The Heat Lets us Know We’re Alive.

The Heat Lets us Know We’re Alive will be on view throughout February 22, 2020 at Almine Rech 39 East 78th Street, 2nd Floor New York, NY. photographs courtesy of Almine Rech

The Collection of the Fondation: A Vision for Painting @ Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris

“The Collection of the Fondation: A Vision for Painting” brings together 72 works by 23 artists representing different horizons across generations. The exhibition showcases how formal modes and expressions of painting have been renewed and reinvented since 1960 to today: figurative or abstract, manufactured or mechanic, inhabited or distant. These works are also displayed in dialogue with a series of sculptures and installations.

“The Collection of the Fondation: A Vision for Painting” is on view through August 26 at Fondation Louis Vuitton 8 avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, Bois de Boulogne, Paris. photographs courtesy of Fondation Louis Vuitton

Punch, Curated By Nina Chanel Abney @ Jeffrey Deitch in Los Angeles

Punch, curated by artist Nina Chanel Abney, features thirty-three artists who examine contemporary culture and society through the lens of figuration. The exhibition focuses on artists primarily from Los Angeles in Abney’s circle who explore connections and disconnections between culture and subculture, figuration and abstraction, and the physical and the digital. The pieces featured in the exhibition contain references to art historical precedents such as Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, as well as street art, while integrating elements of design, graffiti, cartoons, and satire. Using painting, sculpture, and performance as acts of defiance, these artists explore how they can create figurative and abstract representations with visual punch while portraying a society immersed in new media and pop culture.

Punch, Curated by Nina Chanel Abney is on view through August 17 at Jeffrey Deitch Los Angeles 925 North Orange Drive, Los Angeles. photographs courtesy of Jeffrey Deitch

Lee Krasner: Living Colour @ Barbican Art Gallery in London

The first European retrospective of Lee Krasner’s work in over fifty years is now showing at the Barbican Art Gallery in London. Lee Krasner: Living Colour features nearly 100 works made throughout the artist’s career, including self-portraits, energetic charcoal life drawings, as well as her acclaimed “Little Image” paintings. As one of the pioneers of Abstract Expressionism, Krasner created pieces reflecting the feeling of possibility and the spirit of experimentation in post-war New York. Krasner’s talents have often been eclipsed by her marriage to Jackson Pollock, however, this exhibition celebrates the career of a formidable artist dedicated to her dynamic, abstracted vision.

Lee Krasner: Living Colour is on view through September 1 at Barbican Art Gallery Barbican Centre, Silk St, London. photographs courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery

Frank Bowling @ Tate Britain in London

Frank Bowling’s first major retrospective at the Tate Britain offers the chance to experience work created throughout all six decades of the artist’s career. Bowling has relentlessly explored the properties and possibilities of paint, experimenting with staining, pouring, layering, as well as a variety of materials. The exhibition includes paintings from his respectively more personal and abstract series in which Bowling has investigated the tension between geometry and fluidity. At 85 years-old, the artist continues to paint everyday creating work that relies on technical skill while embracing change and the unpredictable.

Frank Bowling is on view through August 26 at Tate Britain Millbank, Westminster, London. photographs courtesy of Tate Britain

Oscar Murillo: Manifestation @ David Zwirner London

A new series of paintings by the Columbian artist, Oscar Murillo, are on view for the first time at David Zwirner’s London gallery. Murillo’s manifestation paintings, in particular, represent a marked evolution in the artist’s engagement with process. These paintings explore a considered approach to mark-making, and when viewed together, highlight the artist’s inventive and engaging studio practice. The exhibition also includes a new installation building on Murillo’s sustained interest in travel and questions around labour and the geographical flow of humanity. The artist’s body of work demonstrates a nuanced understanding of globalization, and the multiple ways in which ideas, languages, and even everyday items are displaced and increasingly intermingled. Manifestation is on view through July 26 at David Zwirner 24 Grafton Street, London. photographs courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner.

Joan Mitchell: "I carry my landscapes around with me" @ David Zwirner New York

Joan Mitchell’s “I carry my landscapes around with me” is the first exhibition to focus on the artist’s multi-paneled paintings created across four decades. Mitchell established a singular approach to abstraction over the course of her career through her inventive interpretation of the traditional figure-ground relationship and synesthetic use of color. Her emotionally charged compositions evoke individuals, observations, places, and points in time. The horizontally oriented, panoramic expanse of Mitchell’s polyptych panels is ideally suited for landscapes—a poignant subject for the artist that she linked directly to memory. The exhibition features paintings from both public and private collections, as well as works drawn from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. “I carry my landscapes around with me” is on view through July 12 at David Zwirner 537 West 20th Street, New York. photographs courtesy of David Zwirner New York.

Frank Stella Presents "Recent Work" @ Marianne Boesky Gallery In New York

Ranging from the monumental to the intimately-scaled, the featured sculptures capture Frank Stella’s ongoing exploration of the spatial relationships between abstract and geometric forms and the ways in which they behave in and engage with physical space. In these newest works, Stella combines interlocking grids with more fluid and organic lines, creating a dynamic interplay between minimalist and gestural visual vocabularies. Frank Stella: Recent Work will be on view from April 25 through June 22 across both of the gallery’s Chelsea locations at 509 and 507 W. 24th Street. photographs courtesy of the gallery