Touched by Frances Goodman

(Art) Amalgamated presents Frances Goodman’s first solo show in New York Touched. Recognized as one of South Africa’s leading young artists, Goodman has become well known for her multi-media works that explore issues of female identity in ways that are often humorously dark and cryptic. By looking at everyday obsessions and behavior she explores the way people respond to our contemporary, highly materialistic society and the often idiosyncratic coping mechanisms they develop. Her work reflects a morbid ambiguity of excess and loss, a dislocation between appearance and truth. Touched is on view until August 4, 2012 at (Art) Amalgamated,   317 10th Avenue, New York

Laisvyde Salciute Exhibition

Laisvyde_Salciute_orlando

Laisvyde Salciute's new exhibition on view this month at Vyner Street Gallery is inspired by Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando. A Biography where the protagonist of the novel is not subject to gender or time constraints and lives a life of oscillating sex through the ages. This brave reevaluation of gender is one of the biggest values of the novel. Salciute says,  "According to Jacques Lacan, any constant sensual and visual identity can only reach us as a gap between words and images. In this series of artwork I was interested in transforming reality into a traumatic phantasm or a dream in a dream. From random images and quotations resourced from the Internet, I have fabricated visual puns on distance, scarcity, desire and images of disintegrating identity and illusion as existing in indefinite time and space." Orlando. A Biography, a series of 26 silkscreens will be on view from July 19 to July 21, 2012  at Vyner Street Gallery, 23 Vyner Street London

Marxism @ 303 Gallery

groucho_richard_prince_303_gallery

Richard Prince, You Bet Your Life, 2010

303 Gallery presents Marxism, an exhibition that examines the sociopolitical impact of the rebellious humor of the Marx Brothers - Chico, Groucho, Gummo, Harpo, and Zeppo - in relation to artwork by a gang of five contemporary artists - Marcel Duchamp, Jack Goldstein, Rodney Graham, Tim Lee and Richard Prince. The Marx Brothers are known for their subversive satire that cleverly addresses political and social issues with a touch of slapstick or a "honk honk" of Harpo's horn. Their beloved films continue to make people laugh with their particular brand of anarchic humor, where everything is taken literally and humor acts as a defense against the woes of the world. From Groucho's iconic mustache, glasses, and cigar to Chico's phony Italian accent and Harpo's squeaky walking stick, the Marx Brothers are unparalleled entertainers immortalized for their wit and use of simple props to address topics ranging from love and war to show business with a staunchly anti-authoritarian stance. Duchamp, Goldstein, Graham, Lee and Prince are similar innovators and provocateurs in the world of contemporary art, who have made work that relates to or references themes in the Marx Brothers' oeuvre. The exhibition will present works by each of the four artists as well as a large collection of historical material relating to the Marx Brothers, including films, photographs, records and props. Marxism is on view until August 3, 2012 at 303 Gallery, 547 W 21st Street

James Franco & Paul McCarthy for Rebel

A great photograph of James Franco and Paul McCarthy for McCarthy and son Damon's contribution to Rebel in the exhibition monograph co-published by MOCA Los Angeles and OHWOW.

Rudolf Stingel @ Sadie Coles

Rudolf Stingel, Untitled, 2012 oil on canvas, 243.8 x 204.5 cm / 96 x 80 ½ in, Copyright the artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London

On view for only a couple of more days, Rudolf Stingel’s 2012 exhibition with Sadie Coles HQ takes place in a Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse whose interior looks back to French palatial architecture of the Renaissance. In the chandeliered first-floor ballroom, Stingel has installed a specially-designed carpet which spreads throughout the space. This site-specific installation is the latest in a twenty-year series in which the artist uses expansive carpets to dramatise and collapse the relationship between painting and its architectural contexts. Untitled (2012) hangs alone in an alcove in the manner of an altarpiece or devotional icon. This monumental self-portrait is painted from a photograph of Stingel illuminated by candlelight, which was taken by photographer Roland Bolego.  On view until 04 July 2012 Sadie Coles HQ (off-site), 9 Grosvenor Place London SW1

John Currin New Paintings @ Sadie Coles

john_currin_lake_place_sadie_coles

[DETAIL] John Currin, Lake Place, 2012, oil on canvas, 178.1 x 152.7 x 2.9 cm / 70 ⅛ x 60 ⅛ x 1 ⅛ in Copyright the artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London

In his latest show at Sadie Coles HQ, John Currin presents a new series of paintings centred on the female nude. These latest works combine the explicitness of his pornographic paintings of the last five years with a new level of psychological realism. In contrast to those works, which drew upon 1970s magazines, the majority were painted directly from life in the artist’s studio. They show reclining women who appear ambiguously caught between the art-historical trope of the female nude and an appearance of earthy naturalism. On view until August 18, 2012, atSadie Coles 69 South Audley Street London W1

Robert Longo: Charcoal

Robert Longo’s mastery of charcoal drawing has made him one of America’s most admired artists. With every new work he reinvests the tradition of history painting with fresh relevance and impact, rendering majestic, era-defining images in a sensuous and sculptural photorealism. A new volume, entitled Robert Longo: Charcoal, surveys Longo’s drawings of the past two decades, from Magellan and the Freud cycle to Monsters (2000), Sickness of Reason (2003), Ophelia (2002), Beginning of the World (2007) and others. Robert Longo was born in Brooklyn in 1953. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Longo collaborated with musicians loosely associated with New York’s No Wave movement, such as Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham and Jonathan Kane, and formed the band Robert Longo’s Menthol Wars. In the 1980s, as his Men in the City drawing series was winning him critical acclaim, Longo also directed several music videos, including New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle” and R.E.M.’s “The One I Love.” In 1995, he directed the cyberpunk film Johnny Mnemonic, starring Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren and “Beat” Takeshi. Robert Longo: Charcoal will officially be available on June 30 and is available for preorder now.

Cocorosie's Bianca Casady Presents Daisy Chain

Currently on view at Cheim & Read gallery New York, an exhibition of recent works by multi-media artist and one half of the band Cocorosie Bianca Casady. The show, entitled Daisy Chain, will present installation works, drawings, collages, photographs, audio and projected video works. Casady’s recent group of works address ideas of gender and race, especially as they are played out in prison. Themes of wounds/scars/reconstruction, monsters, power and subordination are explored. The feminization of the male as a means of domination is depicted in a Genet-like fantasy. Daisy Chain is the first major New York exhibition since her 2007 Lil Girl Slim “Cosmic Willingness” Pipe Dreamz A Revelation exhibition at Deitch Projects. Daisy Chain will be on view until September 8, 2012 at Cheim & Read, 547 West 25th Street New York, NY

Lance Loud: A Death in An American Family

Lance_Loud_A_Death_in_An_American_Family

In 1973, An American Family was the most controversial and talked-about television program of its era. Anticipating the current deluge of ‘reality TV’ programming by three decades. The program chronicles seven months in the lives of the Loud family of Santa Barbara, California. The Louds were selected as an emblematic nuclear family pulled apart by the cultural shifts that marked America’s transition into the 1970s. Filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond captured 300 hours of film that were edited to 12 one-hour episodes aired weekly on PBS. The series quickly became a national media event viewed by an audience of 10 million people. The ensuing depictions of divorce, West Coast affluence, and open homosexuality provoked a fervent public debate about the nation’s value system, its attitudes towards family and sexuality. An American Family was among the first television series to transform ‘ordinary people’ into media celebrities. During the series’s second episode, Lance Loud, who had left Santa Barbara to pursue a more bohemian life in Manhattan’s Chelsea Hotel, became arguably the first openly gay man on American television. On 22 December 2001, aged 50, Loud died of liver failure caused by hepatitis C and HIV co-infection. Having lived his youth onscreen in living rooms across America, several months before his death Loud asked Alan and Susan Raymond to film one final episode in the Loud story up until his death. The resulting documentary, Lance Loud! A Death in An American Family, commemorates the 30th anniversary of the original broadcast and explores Loud’s legacy. On July 4, presented by The Hepatitis C Trust and Tate Modern, celebrates the life of television and underground icon Lance Loud to raise awareness about HIVand hepatitis C co-infection. The screening of An American Family, episode 2 (1973, 60 min) and Lance Loud! A Death in An American Family (2003, 60 min) will be followed by a discussion with filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond. Tate Modern, Starr Auditorium, Wednesday July 4, Bankside, London, SE1 9JE

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.

Andrépolis

Graffiti artist André Saraiva's Andrépolis is on view now at The Hole Gallery in NYC until August 10. Photograph by Austin McManus

JOE DEUTCH @ Marlborough Chelsea

Gun Piece from Joe Deutch's mini retrospective, which includes video documentation, photographs, sculpture and ephemera from the performance art work that he has engaged in over the last eight years, now on view until July 27, at Marlborough Chelsea, 545 West 25th Street, New York,

Lisa Solberg Opening Night at This Los Angeles

Lisa Solberg's solo show STALKER will be open until July 15 at THIS Los Angeles, 5906 North Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90042.

Jeff Koons The Painter

jeff_koons_ilona_the_painter_the_sculptor_SCHIRN_Liebieghaus

A double exhibition of works by artist Jeff Koons will be on view this Summer in Germany, one that focuses on his oeuvra of painting and one of his sculptures. The exhibitions will be on view at the Schirn, which will present Jeff Koons: The Painter and Liebieghaus, which will present Jeff Koons: The Sculptor, in Frankfurt runs until Sept. 23

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Double

On view startin today at Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, Korea, a solo exhibition of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, entitled Double. This exhibition examines the broad spectrum of Gonzalez-Torres’s oeuvre with particular emphasis on the malleable nature of his works, demonstrating how their meaning, as much as the form, can shift as the architectural, social, and curatorial landscapes change. The exhibition will also be on view at the sister museum Leeum, as well as multiple locations throughout the city of Seoul, and will also be on view prior to and following the opening of the Gwangju Biennale on September 7th. Felix Gonzalez-Torres, who died at the early age of 38 in 1996, is considered one of the most influential artists of his generation. Using everyday objects such as mirrors, clocks, puzzles, candies and paper stacks, Gonzalez-Torres’s oeuvre more profoundly examined the “public” function of art, while presenting strictly private contemplations on love and the fragility of life. Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Double, will be open until September 28, 2012 at Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art, Samsung Life Insurance Building Taepyeongno2-Ga, Jung-Gu, Seoul, Korea

David Benjamin Sherry Book Launch In Los Angeles

In Quantum Light, artist David Benjamin Sherry’s second publication, he continues his exploration of vivid color, ramping up the saturation and expanding his subject matter, in works incorporating landscapes, collage, still life, abstraction, portraiture and sculpture. A conversation between Sherry and Collier Schorr serves as preface to this beautifully produced clothbound volume, which is published to coincide with the artist’s first New York solo show at Salon 94. Sherry will be signing his new book this Thursday, June 21, at Ooga Booga bookstore in Los Angeles. 

ED RUSCHA: ON THE ROAD in Miami

Exhibition view of Ed Ruscha's series of paintings inspired by Jack Kerouac's On The Road that was previously on view at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles will be on view at the Moca, North Miami until September 2, 70 NE 125th Street, North Miami, Florida.

Alex Katz: Give Me Tomorrow

Alex Katz: Give Me Tomorrow, a retrospective that spans six decades of one of the most important American artists, is now on view at the Tate in St. Ives until September.

Joe Deutch Retrospective

Among other feats of self-imperilment, his performances have included disabling a police car in broad daylight, being intentionally bitten by a poisonous rattlesnake and, most infamously, playing Russian roulette in front of an art class at UCLA, a performance that has been linked to Burden’s departure from his position at the university. Coming out of a long Los Angeles tradition of performance that includes such canonical artists as Chris Burden and Ron Athey, Joe Deutch’s practice seeks to continue a commitment to physicality through an exploration of his body and the constructed landscape beyond the studio as compelling sites for artworks. Opening June 21 at the Marlborough Chelsea gallery in New York as retrospective of Joe Deutch which will be on view until July 27, 545 West 25th Street, New York,

Cut-ups, Cut-ins, Cut-outs: The Art of William S. Burroughs

The visionary author and artist William S. Burroughs has been admired by generations as a revolutionary intellectual with a radical popular image. He established a new form of writing: the cut-up method - whereby text and image fragments are intuitively pieced together to form open associative narrative structures in order to expand the boundaries of language and describe human consciousness. He extended this method into the visual arts and the cut-ups in their various forms are the focus of a new exhibition at the Kunsthalle Wien. Cut-ups, Cut-ins, Cut-outs: The Art of William S. Burroughs will be on view until October 21, at the Kunsthalle Wien, Museumsplatz 1,1070 Wien, Austria