CLAXONS

Haunch of Venison presents Claxons, a group show curated by art critic Walter Robinson. The show will feature works by ceramic artist Elisabeth Kley, glass artist John Drury, painter Robert Goldman and Robinson. The exhibition aims to present underrepresented artists with an idiosyncratic sensibility. The title of the show Claxons (or loud horns) refers to the idea that artists create dissonance and cacophony. “It’s about letting oneself be carried along by events rather than trying to steer a clear path,” explained Robinson. “Each artist’s work is disturbed, either through subject matter that focuses on outcasts or through execution of materiality.” Claxons will be on view until August 17 at Haunch of Venison, Chelsea, 550 West 21st Street

Mauricio Guillén: Avenida Progreso

The work of the Mexican-born artist Mauricio Guillén (b. 1971) encompasses film, photography, text works and objects. Guillén combines personal experience with the conceptual strategies he uses to explore how images and language influence our understanding of culture and history. The chief focus of the exhibition at the MMK Zollamt will be Guillén’s most recent 16-mm black-and-white film "Avenida Progreso", for which he returned to Mexico City, where he spent his childhood and teenage years. The film story leads the viewer through the districts of Polanco, Irrigación and Oceanía to the end of the Avenida Progreso. A professor of philosophy and aesthetics is the main protagonist in this anachronistic journey along streets of which many bear the names of such European philosophers and literary figures as Goethe, Byron, Marx, Tolstoi and Aristoteles. In this film, Guillén investigates social and cultural differences within a society that is undergoing a process of change but nevertheless still reflects the impact of the cultural import brought about by colonization. Questions about the emergence and distribution of knowledge and education in society are of key importance to the artist’s work. The film will be supplemented by photographs and text works.
 Opening Friday July 27 at the MMK Zollamt, Domstraße 10 60311 Frankfurt, Germany, 

Love, Commas and Asterisks

Blum & Poe and legendary musician Van Dyke Parks present a selection of work by Maurizio Vetrugno, his first one-person exhibition in Los Angeles. Vetrugno’s practice alters everyday objects, such as cloth and tools, into wry commentary on popular culture of a bygone era. Hand-made, embroidered textiles, woven in Laos, depict the distinctive designs of vinyl record sleeves from the 1950s-1980s. The selected album covers reference the legacies of exotica, modernism, glam rock and the golden age of graphic design in music. Fashion has been a continuing influence on Vetrugno’s work, as exemplified in his female portraits woven in monochromatic hues of blue and green. Sources for these works derive from black and white images taken from fashion magazines of the same time period as the album covers. Models such as Twiggy evoke mid-century popular culture and become self-referential in the works -- the cloth “wears” the model. There is a lushness and preciousness to these labor-intensive textiles, whose technique co-opts and contradicts the Pop content. Maurizio Vetrugno: Love, Commas and Asterisks will be on view until August 25, 2012 at Blum & Poe, 2727 S. La Cienega, BLVD

Mark Flood The Hateful Years

On view this month at Luxembourg & Dayan gallery in New York, works by Punk propagandist Mark Flood who has been making art for the last three decades in his unique style of commentary on contemporary culture that is both shocking and witty. The show, entitled Mark Flood: The Hateful Years will be on view from July 18 through September 29, Luxembourg & Dayan, 64 E 77th St

Jenny Holzer SOPHISTICATED DEVICES @ Sprueth Magers

Sprüth Magers London presents a solo exhibition of work by Jenny Holzer. The American artist finds ways to make narrative a part of visual objects, employing an innovative range of materials and presentations to confront emotions and experiences, politics and conflict. Entitled Sophisticated Devices, this exhibition provides a survey of Holzer’s practice, encompassing her spray paint canvases, granite benches, LED works, painted signs, and cast plaques. Sophisticated Devices is on view until July 28 at Sprüth Magers, 7A Grafton Street, London

Brett Whiteley’s London Years

Brett Whitley's Studio

A new exhibition explores the late artist Brett Whiteley’s art and life from 1960 to 1967 when he was largely based in London. Key abstract works from this period as well as paintings from his Bathroom, Christie and London Zoo series, and the Endlessnessism monoprints of conversations with the artist Francis Bacon are featured in this exhibition at the Brett Whiteley Studio in Surry Hills, Australia. This remarkable body of work displays all the dexterity, imagination and ambition of a prodigious talent still in his 20s. On view from Jul 13, 2012 to February 13, 2013, The Brett Whiteley Studio at 2 Raper Street, Surry Hills, Australia

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

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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

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

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[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