Jim Shaw's current exhibition at Metro Pictures contextualizes the personal with layers hyper-mediated symbology drawn from mythological and historical narratives. The paintings, sculpture, and video in this exhibition both interpret and allude to ancient legends like the rape of Europa and the biblical prophecies of the Old Testament, often rendering them beyond immediat recognition. Jim Shaw's exhibition will be on view until December 22nd, 2017 at Metro Pictures, 519 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011. photographs by Adam Lehrer
Gilbert & George "THE BEARD PICTURES" @ Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York
The Lehmann Maupin Gallery presents THE BEARD PICTURES, a collection of pictures commemorating the 50th anniversary of Gilbert & George. The artists present themselves as two haunting figures, using their amorphous beards as a site for political and cultural critique. Scattered with fences and flowers, this series of self-portraits pieces together a narrative about an ever-changing urban landscape its constant turmoil. The 35 images that make up THE BEARD PICTURES will be on view at Lehmann Maupin’s Chelsea and downtown Manhattan locations until December 22nd. photographs by Adam Lehrer
Homeward Bound Group Show @ Nicodim Gallery In Los Angeles
Homeward Bound is a domestic setting where all the skeletons are let out of the closet and allowed to play on the furniture, to stomp each other’s grapes. With the eye of noted designer Oliver M. Furth, the gallery space has been transformed into a literal home, complete with a living room, dining room, bedroom, bathroom, beyond. Karon Davis’s Bianca sits plaintively by a front room window, drinking, smoking, waiting for a lover who will never return. Bjarne Melgaard cross-dresses in the skins of other species as if he was never quite comfortable in his own, while Lisa Anne Auerbach is very comfortable lounging around the house, reading bondage magazines in her underwear. Chris Burden’s first wife informs him in a letter that not only won’t she crucify him to their VW Bug, but that the suggestion has destroyed her relationship with the vehicle. Gold-leafed snails carry their mobile homes to the apexes of an organic landscape—the tips of Ruben Verdu’s nose and erect phallus—and both artist and travelers achieve climax simultaneously. Within the walls of this house, faces become chairs, vaginas become toothy faces, jello moulds become temples and orifices, music becomes sex itself. Homeward Bound will be on view until December 9th at Nicodim Gallery, 571 S Anderson Street Ste 2 Los Angeles
Haas Brothers "Haas Angeles" @ UTA Artist Space In Los Angeles
UTA Artist Space presents Haas Angeles, the first exhibition in Los Angeles by multi-faceted sculptors, designers, craftsmen, and artists The Haas Brothers. Their internationally renowned work defies strict categorization, as do the fraternal twins themselves, disrupting both the design and art world with their playful and provocative biomorphic creations. Haas Angeles will be on view until October 14, 2017 at UTA Artist Space, 670 S Anderson St, Los Angeles, CA. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
Ariana Papademetropoulos "The Man Who Saved A Dog From An Imaginary Fire" @ Wilding Cran Gallery In Los Angeles
Taking inspiration from imagined spaces, vintage magazines, and books, Papademetropoulos creates environments that juxtapose ideas of perception and delusion. By using both realism and trompe l'oeil she references the history of painting while further developing the sense of illusion within her work. Featuring new paintings and installation, this exhibition focuses on our relationship to decor and interior space- it invites us to question functionality and taste, reality and fantasy. In a painting of a church interior the walls blur to the outside where the viewer is transported to a ‘Disneyfied’ realm; a surrealist dysfunctional home interior takes us ‘down the rabbit hole’ to a topsy-turvy space where everything is out of our reach, questioning our assumptions of home as comfort and retreat. Finally, the artist brings together a collection of more than 200 gothic romance novels, all written by women. Each paperback has a different title and a different story, yet all of the book covers share the common theme of a woman running out of a house from a presumed horrific fate. With this, she invites the viewer to confront the contradictions of fantasy vs horror, and ultimately the duplicity and hypocrisy within our popular culture. Ariana Papademetropoulos "The Man Who Saved A Dog From An Imaginary Fire" will be on view until October 26, 2017, at Wilding Cran Gallery, 939 South Santa Fe Ave, Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
Aurel Schmidt "I Rot Before I Ripen" @ P.P.O.W. Gallery in New York
In her most recent works, on view at New York's P.P.O.W. Gallery, Aurel Schmidt retires her attention to detail and color in a series of mixed media drawings and installation. Showcasing items belonging to past and present lovers in I Rot Before I Ripen, Schmidt investigates girlhood, streetwear iconography, brand significance, and heterosexuality. I Rot Before I Ripen will be on view until October 7 at P.P.O.W. Gallery 535 W 22nd St, New York, NY. photographs by Adam Lehrer
Read Our Interview Of Artist And Photographer Polly Borland on The Occasion Of Her First Solo Show In Los Angeles →
Click here to read the full interview.
Mint&Serf "Warranted Non-Compliance" Group Show Opening @ Lazy Susan Gallery In New York
The exhibition of new works on paper by Christopher Johnson, Mikhail Sokovikov and Jason Aaron Wall (Mint&Serf) investigates a range of figurative themes and conceptual perspectives that always question but not always answer. After a two-year hiatus Johnson, Sokovikov and Wall return with a set of refreshed attitudes and new directions that explore personal identity, abstract experimentation and destruction as the human condition. Warranted Non-Compliance will be on view until June 5 at Lazy Susan gallery, 191 Henry Street Chinatown, NYC. photographs by Lorenzo Fariello
Highlights From The La Biennale di Venezia - 57th International Art Exhibition in Venice Italy
photographs by Perry Shimon
A Sneak Preview Of The Brand New Marciano Art Foundation At The Former Scottish Rite Masonic Temple In Los Angeles
The Marciano Art Foundation was established by Maurice and Paul Marciano - founders of guess - to grant the public access to the Marciano Art Collection through presentations of rotating, thematic exhibitions housed in a permanent exhibition space in Los Angeles. The museum opens on May 25, 2017. Click here to grab tickets. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
R.I.P. Julia Fox Solo Exhibition @ 87 Orchard In New York
photographs by Noah Blough
Highlights From Photo London 2017 @ Somerset House in London
Now in its third edition, Photo London has established itself as a world-class photography fair and as a catalyst for London’s dynamic photography community. From the capital’s major museums, to its auction houses, galleries large and small, right into the burgeoning creative communities in the East End and South London, Photo London harnesses the city’s outstanding creative talent and brings together the world’s leading photographers, curators, exhibitors, dealers and the public to celebrate photography, the medium of our time. Photo London will be on view from May 18 to May 21 at Somerset House in London. photographs by Flo Kohl
Highlights From The Preview Opening Of The 2017 Frieze New York Art Fair At Randall's Island Park In New York
Frieze New York will be on view from May 5 to May 7 at Randall's Island Park in New York. Purchase tickets here. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
Ranch Of The Rising Sun Presents Sensual Assault In Pioneer Town, California
Curated by Leyden Pavlova, Sensual Assault is a special group exhibition highlighting the physical sensations that dominate in this wild desert space. One feels the wind, the heat, the sun, and an overwhelming visceral sensation of the vastness of geological time. Visually, these forces can be seen in the earth, dry and sharp, worn smooth in places, and the plants that grow imperceptibly only to explode with flowers in the spring. The overwhelming sensations from this landscape provide a context to explore the human body’s violence and vulnerability. Through texture and movement, sensuality and savagery, the human experience is shown through the traces and imprints that people and places leave on each other. Featuring artists Theodore Boyer, Pola Esther, Marie Tomanova, William Kaner, Shig and Ethan Rider. photographs by Marielle Stobie
Jeff Koons Exhibition Of New And Recent Works @ Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles
Gagosian presents an exhibition of recent and new work by Jeff Koons. Making use of conceptual constructs including the ancient, the everyday, and the sublime, Koons creates luxurious icons and elaborate tableaux, which, beneath their captivating exteriors, engage the viewer in a metaphysical dialogue with cultural history. The exhibition will be on view until August 18, 2017 at Gagosian Beverly Hills. photographs by Bianca Vázquez
Raymond Pettibon "TH' EXPLOSIYV SHOYRT T" @ David Zwirner Gallery in New York
David Zwirner is presents an exhibition of new work by Raymond Pettibon, on view at 519 West 19th Street in New York. The artist's tenth solo show at gallery TH’ EXPLOSIYV SHOYRT T follows his collaborative presentations with Marcel Dzama at the gallery in both London and New York last year. Raymond Pettibon "TH' EXPLOSIYV SHOYRT T" will be on view until June 24, 2017. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
A Preview Of "Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between" @ The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute In New York
The Costume Institute's spring 2017 exhibition will examine the work of Japanese fashion designer Rei Kawakubo, known for her avant-garde designs and ability to challenge conventional notions of beauty, good taste, and fashionability. The thematic show will feature approximately 150 examples of Kawakubo's womenswear for Comme des Garçons dating from the early 1980s to her most recent collection. The galleries will illustrate the designer's revolutionary experiments in "in-betweenness"—the space between boundaries. Objects will be organized into eight aesthetic expressions of interstitiality in Kawakubo's work: Fashion/Anti-Fashion, Design/Not Design, Model/Multiple, Then/Now, High/Low, Self/Other, Object/Subject, and Clothes/Not Clothes. Kawakubo breaks down the imaginary walls between these dualisms, exposing their artificiality and arbitrariness. On view from May 4 to September 4, 2017 at The Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
George Condo At The Opening Of His New Works Exhibition @ Skarstedt Gallery In New York
photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
George Condo "New Works" @ Skarstedt Gallery In New York
Skarstedt present George Condo: New Works, an exhibition of new sculptures and paintings on view from April 27 – June 24, 2017 at Skarstedt Upper East Side, 20 East 79th Street, New York. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
Georg Baselitz "Descente" @ Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac's Paris Pantin Space
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by German artist Georg Baselitz in the Paris Pantin space. Titled Descente (Down), it brings together new paintings and works on paper. The exhibition comprises five groups of works that are stylistically and iconographically linked to the fragmented self-portraits known as the Avignon series, which was shown at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Two of Baselitz’s concerns were the notions of “late work” and “age”, with particular reference to the historical decision of the city of Avignon to reject the donation of a series of late works by Picasso. In 2017, one year before Baselitz’s 80th birthday, these themes are still relevant, as he has recently stated: “I have been looking at Picasso’s late works. Avignon. At the time Picasso had reached his lowest point. Nobody wanted these later paintings. Arman and Christo did their thing in Paris whereas Picasso was absent. If you’re getting old you keep asking yourself: Am I still part of it, or are the others already ahead of me?” Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac "Descente" will be on view until June 2, 2017 at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac. photographs by Mazzy-Mae Green