Xinyi Cheng Gives Us All The Uncanny Feels In Seen Through Others @ Lafayette Anticipations in Paris

The constellation of subjects and scenes captured in Xinyi Cheng’s evocative paintings are drawn from her encounters. From a tiny dog called Monroe staring at a bone on a red carpet to a man in leopard-print boxer shorts on a sofa speaking on the phone, her works unravel complex emotions, desires, and dynamics that permeate contemporary life. Cheng’s expressive use of light and colour help conjure feelings, reveries, and impulses that reside within our everyday experiences of being in the world. Beyond a false softness, these new works represent her reflection not only on what it means for us to coexist, but on what it means to be human. In an often enigmatic atmosphere of dreams and solitude, the characters depicted by the artist sound like unexpected tributes to the moderns such as Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas or Caillebotte.

For Cheng’s first major institutional exhibition in France, the presentation brings together over thirty existing works from 2016 to 2021 spread across the whole building. Shown in unfamiliar groupings, they open up novel correlations and understandings within her oeuvre.

Seen Through Others is on view now through May 28 at Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation Galeries Lafayette, 9 rue du Plâtre, Paris

Sylvie Fleury "The Last Picasso Car" @ Grand Basel in Switzerland

Artist Sylvie Fleury explores consumer culture in her work, and its relation towards gender and politics. American cars are also a passion for her and are often an important topic in her video works and installations. "I was thrilled by the chance to present Pablo Picasso’s last personal car in my frame at Grand Basel," said Sylvie Fleury. "His white Lincoln Continental, a huge, powerful machine, shows an interface between art and design. Picasso was a true car connoisseur, and this 1963 car is still owned by his family. I parked the car in my frame like it was a sculpture, and the masculine design is played off against my two-metre tall chromed shark tooth artwork, which harks back to a time when it was fashionable for women to wear a real shark tooth as a necklace pendant. The Last Picasso Car is on view through September 9 at Grand Basel Kemptpark 1 Gebäude 1235 / 3. OG 8310 Kemptthal, Switzerland.

10 Must See Art Shows Around The World That You Really, Really Need To Check Out

1. Consumption, sexuality, violence, voyeurism, discomfort, guilt, loss of control, and fantasy at Paul McCarthy’s exhibition at Schinkel Pavillon – on view until November 22 in Berlin, Germany 2. Brad Phillip’s erotic Honeymoon Rehearsal at Rod Bianco opening on November 20 in Oslo, Norway 3. See Niki de Saint Phalle’s psychedelic world at the National Art Center in Tokyo, Japan – on view until December 14 4. Alex Israel’s cool, cool world at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas 5. See the late Dash Snow’s posthumous retrospective at the Brant Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut 6. Misha Hollenbach and Cali Thornhill Dewitt team up for Hot Fire in Milan, Italy 7. Pablo Picasso’s sculptures are on view at The Museum of Modern Art In New York City, New York 8. The Avant-Garde Won’t Give Up at Blum & Poe in Los Angeles, California 9. Josh Jefferson is putting his Head Into The Trees at Gallery 16, opening on November 13, in San Francisco, California 10. Gilbert & George’s subversive banners will be on view at White Cube starting on November 25 in London, Englan

Here Are Autre's Highlights from Art Basel 2015 in Switzerland

Art Basel 2015 is officially open to the public today in Basel, Switzerland. Art Basel has been described as the ‘Olympics of the Art World’. Approximately 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa show the work of more than 4,000 artists, ranging from the great masters of Modern art to the latest generation of emerging stars. The show's individual sectors represent every artistic medium: paintings, sculpture, installations, videos, multiples, prints, photography, and performance. Here are our highlights from the 2015 Art Basel in Switzerland, which will be in full swing until June 21, 2015. photographs courtesy of Art Basel

Six Dark and Dangerous Gallery Exhibitions On View Now In New York

1. See Delta blues musician, gravedigger and artist James ‘Son Ford’ Thomas's incredibly crude, but morbidly beautiful sculptures that are often made with real teeth and hair, on view at 80WSE Gallery 2. Female pop artist Marjorie Strider begs you to come hither and see some of her early masterpieces on view now at Broadway 1602 3. Deborah Kass reimagines Andy Warhol's 13 Most Wanted Men at Sargent's Daughters 4. Viewer DISCRETION...children of BATAILLE, curated by Kathleen Cullen, presents a group show of artists as disparate as Hans Bellmer, Max Snow and Picasso for an exhibition that explores erotica and the "permutations of our own desires."  5. Seth Price presents almost 80 works of art, with mediums such as airbrush and polymer paint, at Petzel Gallery 6. Los Angeles based photographer Torbjørn Rødland gets religious and erotic with his tongue-in-cheek, groin tingling work on view at Algus Greenspon. 

PICASSO & THE CAMERA @ Gagosian

Gagosian Gallery, in partnership with Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, presents “Picasso and the Camera,” the fifth in a series of major Picasso surveys. Curated by Picasso biographer John Richardson, assisted by Gagosian directors Valentina Castellani and Michael Cary, the exhibition explores how Picasso used photography not only as a source of inspiration, but as an integral part of his studio practice. Picasso and the Camera will be on view from October 28 to January 3, 2015 at Gagosian Gallery, 522 West 21st Street, New York

Richard Prince & Picasso

Museo_Picasso_Málaga_richard_price_picasso

Artist Richard Prince stands in front of one his paintings at the Museo Picasso Málaga for an exhibition entitled Prince/Picasso.  No other contemporary artist could reinterpret Picasso in this particular way. Prince "approaches Picasso by using a tactic of radical cannibalisation of the artist, causing the spectator to feel alienated. By distancing us in this way, we are warned to revise our perceptions and conventional views on sexuality, eroticism and desire." Price/Picasso is on view at the Museo Picasso Málaga until May 27, Palacio de Buenavista San Agustín,8  29015 Málaga, Spain

Making Faces

Portland, Maine – On view at the Portland Museum of Art, two newly acquired portfolios by Berenice Abbott and Robert Doisneau, filled with portraits of famous artists and actors of the mid-20th century, prompted this look at the art of photographic portraiture. Drawn from the Museum’s growing collection of celebrity portraits, the exhibition of 35 works will examine the way in which appearance, poses, and props help to define the public perception of an artist’s work, whether it be on the stage or in a museum. Making Faces: Photographic Portraits of Actors and Artists is on view until April 8 at the Portland Museum of Art, Seven Congress Square, Portland, Maine.

Picasso at Work

Cannes, 8 February 1956. The photojournalist David Douglas Duncan stops his car in front of Villa La Californie, residence of one of the most famous artists of all time: Pablo Picasso. In his hand is a ring especially made for Picasso, who appreciates the gesture and invites him into his home, his studio and his intense life.  With Stephanie Ansari and Tatyana Franck as its curators, Picasso at Work. Through the Lens of David Douglas Duncan brings together in the Museo Picasso Málaga 115 photographs selected from among the thousands that Duncan took of the artist and his milieu in those years. www.museopicassomalago.com

Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde

American expatriates in bohemian Paris when the 20th century was young, the Steins — writer Gertrude, her brothers Leo and Michael, and Michael's wife, Sarah — were among the first to recognize the talents of avant-garde painters like Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Through their friendship and patronage, they helped spark an artistic revolution. This landmark exhibition draws on collections around the world to reunite the Steins' unparalleled holdings of modern art, bringing together, for the first time in a generation, dozens of works by Matisse, Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and many others. Artworks on view include Matisse's Blue Nude (Baltimore Museum of Art )and Self-Portrait (Statens Museum, Copenhagen), and Picasso's famous portrait Gertrude Stein (Metropolitan Museum of Art). Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde is on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from May 21 to September 6. www.sfmoca.org

 

Angry Young Men: the Birth of Modernity

Angry_Young_Men_the_Birth_of_Modernity_dali_salvador_the_bleeding_roses

A new exhibition at the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, dedicated to the early work of Picasso, Miró and Dalí, which played a decisive role in the beginning of modern art in Spain, is opening next week. The exhibition concentrates on Picasso’s pre-cubist period 1900 – 1905, whilst Juan Miró’s works of 1915–1920 are presented along with Salvador Dali’s from 1920–1925, both artists painting in the period before the discovery of surrealism. Each artist will be represented by 25 – 30 masterpieces selected to show aspects of the three artists in their earliest periods, works that are rarely shown in mainstream catalogues and exhibitions. For instance, Picasso’s early work was often colored by his strong political convictions. Picasso, Miró, Dalí. Angry Young Men: the Birth of Modernity is showing from March 12 to July 17, 2011. www.palazzostrozzi.com

Picasso the Snake

I'm sitting at JFK airport waiting for a puddle jumper to Burlington, Vermont. Its new year's day. The great year of the Rabbit has begun. In the Vietnamese zodiac, the cat takes the place of the rabbit. I find it incredibly fascinating the transmutation of animal spirits to interpret our human personalities and the age in which we live.   Its as if we live vicariously through their mystery, whilst captivated by their obliviousness to their own power and magic. As we enter the year of the Rabbit I think of one the greatest personalities of the 20th century: Pablo Picasso; and his painting entitled Cat Devouring a Bird and a photograph of him holding his pet owl.  Pablo Picasso was born in the year of the Snake.  That says a lot. Or does it?  I believe that the mystical powers of animals to represent cycles, years, epochs and their cosmic associations is more real than we imagine. If in the Chinese Zodiac the Rabbit is interpreted as agile, versatile, abundant, artistic, and compassionate than why can't we hope that in fact our lives in the the new year will be the same.  The motto for the year of the Rabbit is "I Retreat."  Hard to do in an airport with thousands of frantic, confused, wanderlust travelers.  In the Chinese Zodiac each animal has a ruling hour of the day.  The rabbit's ruling hours are between 5 and 7 a.m.  Sunrise. Its currently half past 6 in the morning Eastern time.  Today we are all Rabbits in one strange momentary paroxysm, in the inexorable gravity, the great miasma, always being pulled closer and farther away.

Text by Oliver Maxwell Kupper for Pas Un Autre