"God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin" @ David Zwirner In New York

David Zwirner will present a group exhibition curated by Hilton Als, which will feature works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Alvin Baltrop, Beauford Delaney, Marlene Dumas, Ja'Tovia Gary, Glenn Ligon, Alice Neel, Cameron Rowland, Kara Walker, and James Welling, among other artists.

Troubled times get the tyrants and prophets they deserve. During our current epoch, the revival of interest in author James Baldwin (1924–1987), the subject of God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin, has been particularly intense. This is in part due, of course, to his ability to analyze and articulate how power abuses through cunning and force and why, in the end, it’s up to the people to topple kingdoms. As a galvanizing humanitarian force, Baldwin is now being claimed as a kind of oracle. But by claiming him as such, much gets erased about the great artist in the process, specifically his sexuality and aestheticism, both of which informed his politics.

God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin will be on view at David Zwirner 525 & 533 West 19th Street New York through February 16. photographs by Adam Lehrer

Beatrice Gibson Presents "Crone Music" @ Camden Arts Center In London

Crone Music presents two new, interconnected films by British artist Beatrice Gibson, alongside an expanded events programme in Gallery 3 featuring the artists, poets, musicians and wider community with whom the films have been made. Borrowing its title from American composer Pauline Oliveros’ 1990 album of the same name, the exhibition seeks out an explicitly feminist lineage through which to recast the syncretic, collective and participatory nature of Gibson’s practice. Crone Music is on view through March 31 at Camden Arts Center Arkwright Road, London. photographs courtesy of Camden Arts Center

Highlights From Untitled Art Fair In San Francisco

Untitled, Art is an international, curated art fair founded in 2012 that focuses on curatorial balance and integrity across all disciplines of contemporary art. Untitled, Art innovates the standard fair model by selecting a curatorial team to identify and curate a selection of galleries, artist-run exhibition spaces, and non-profit institutions and organizations, in dialogue with an architecturally designed venue.

Untitled Art, San Francisco took place January 18 – 20, 2019 at Pier 35, 1454 The Embarcadero.

Ever Gold [Projects] Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary With "Gold Standard" Exhibition

Ever Gold celebrates its 10th anniversary with an exhibition titled "Gold Standard" featuring works from artists Zachary Armstrong, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Mario Ayala, Sadie Barnette, Chris Burden, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Serge Attukwei Clottey, Petra Cortright, Mark Flood, Kate Groobey, Brian Harte, Marc Horowitz, Paul Kos, Jasmine Little, Mieke Marple, Shaina McCoy, Barry McGee, MOCA (Museum of Conceptual Art), Oscar Murillo, Guy Overfelt, Cameron Platter, Kour Pour, Sterling Ruby, Ed Ruscha, Tom Sachs, Adam Parker Smith,  Takis, and Christine Wang. Gold Standard will be on view through February 13 at Ever Gold [Projects] 1275 Minnesota St. Suite 105, San Francisco. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper


"Tender" A Group Show Of Contemporary Czech Photography @ Czech Center In New York

Tender presents a segment of contemporary Czech photography with deliberately wide range of photographic strategies – from snapshot-like images that have appeared in the context of fashion editorials to post-conceptual works by artists skeptical of the very photographic medium. Curated by Michal Nanoru. Tender is on view through March 28 at The Czech Center 321 East 73rd Street, New York. photographs courtesy of Czech Center

Mike Kelley's "Pushing and pulling, pulling and pushing" @ 500 Capp Street In San Francisco

Pushing and pulling, pulling and pushing brings together artworks from Mike Kelley’s Educational Complex (1995) and Day Is Done (2004–2005) into the uncanny environment of 500 Capp Street. With a wide range of media, Kelley’s work explores themes as varied as punk politics, religious rituals, social class, and repressed memory. Using architectural models to represent schools he attended, Educational Complex presents forgotten spaces as frames for private trauma, both real and imagined. These works are intended to evoke not only Kelley’s own memories but also broader social issues concerning childhood. Pushing and pulling, pulling and pushing brings is on view through February 16 at 500 Capp Street San Francisco. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Adam McEwen Presents Works From A New Series @ Petzel Gallery In New York

These new series at Petzel represents an evolution for McEwen, expanding his practice into more prosaic, but also more challenging, territory. The works unpack and activate McEwen’s signature graphite sculptures, which are here mounted on rough plywood faced with aluminum and coated with an image of the subjects of the sculptures themselves. The exhibition is on view through February 16 at Petzel Gallery 456 W 18th Street,
New York.

Rosha Yaghmai Presents "Miraclegrow" @ The Wattis Institute In San Francisco

Miraclegrow is a supersized disruption, an exaggerated shift in scale and perception. Yaghmai’s magnification of a bathroom floor reimagines reality and asks us to consider a new perspective, possibly one of a small household spider. A 17-foot “hair” fashioned from a bent, fused, rusted pipe sits awaiting inspection. A castaway hair, an expended shred of biomaterial carries evidence of unique genetic information, of past drug use, of cheap shampoo. An unnaturally close look at this particle of life is on offer. We see its scales, made from castings and detritus, reminiscent of sedimentary stone, tide pools, and the sand dunes of Mars. The hair reflects onto giant glossy tiles lining the walls, showing some undefined landscape in the process of disappearing or reappearing. It’s hard to tell which. Click here to read our interview with the artist.

Miraclegrow is on view through March 30 at CCA Wattis Institute 1111 Eighth Street San Francisco. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Ari Marcopoulos: "Films. Photographs." @ Fergus McCaffrey In New York

Ari Marcopoulos has defined the pillars of his work as “noise, exertion, rebellion and chaos.” In Fergus McCaffrey’s exhibitions, the artist brings the guiding principles of his photographic approach to video work, where they are informed by a sense of equanimity, care, and grace, capturing the slow flow and punctuated ruptures of contemporary social life. Marcopoulos brings a formalist’s eye to public gathering spaces, transforming basketball courts, public parks, churches, and community centers into stages upon which the unplanned direction of daily life plays out. In each transatlantic location, a selection of newly produced washi prints by the artist will be on view. This body of photos is largely, but not exclusively, drawn from Marcopoulos’s 2010-2012 archive and reprinted on handmade paper carefully selected from a washi collective found only in Japan. The exhibition is on view through February 23 at Fergus McCaffrey 514 West 26th Street New York. photographs courtesy of Fergus McCaffrey

Diamond Stingily: "Doing the Best I Can" @ The Wattis Institute In San Francisco

While Diamond Stingily’s work speaks to broader socio-cultural themes like class, race, and gender, it is always rooted in her own life. She grew up playing volleyball and softball. Both of her brothers are former professional football players. The family trophies were kept on a bookshelf in the living room. She used to bury her dolls in the backyard. She has been a poet and artist for most of her life. She is doing the best she can. Doing The Best I Can is on view through March 30 at CCA Wattis Institute 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Christian Eckart Presents "White Noise" @ Wilding Cran Gallery In Los Angeles

In White Noise, Christian Eckart is re-presenting romantic sublime imagery for the purpose of reconsidering its primal power specifically in the context of the potential extinction of the human species as a result of climate change. Without humankind, who will be left to appreciate, collect, and share the Earth's ineffable beauty and awesome grandeur? The exhibition title is an acknowledgement to the profound impact Don DeLillo's 1985 novel by the same name, and presenting similar undercurrents, had on the artist many years earlier. White Noise is on view through March 17 at Wilding Cran Gallery 939 South Santa Fe Avenue, Los Angeles. photographs courtesy of Wilding Cran Gallery

Leah Guadagnoli Presents "Soft Violence" @ Asya Geisberg Gallery In New York

Soft Violence is an exhibition of sculptural paintings by Leah Guadagnoli. With a sparer touch than her prior work, the artist has presented a sort of exaggerated logo, a calling card of absurd proportions, with textured panels, upholstered shapes, and painted canvas uniting to form a streamlined rectangular result.  Whereas her recent work incorporated digitally-printed patterns on fabric and eclectic juxtapositions, this series has a reined-in seriousness that belies gaudy Miami sunsets and remaining hints of "Saved by the Bell", and its heightened simplicity acts as a cohesive statement on abstraction's potential as graphic power. The images seem familiar, but they are a design for a non-existent entity - fully empty, thwarting connection. Soft Violence is on view through February 16 at Asya Geisberg Gallery 537b West 23rd Street, New York. photographs courtesy of Asya Geisberg Gallery

Highlights From FOG Design+Art Fair @ Fort Mason Center In San Francisco

Celebrating today’s most significant creatives and leading contributors to the worlds of design and visual arts, FOG Design+Art Fair assembles 45 leading international galleries; prominent 20th-century and contemporary design building on FOG’s longstanding commitment to cultural institutions, the fair’s Preview Gala is honored to continue its crucial support of SFMOMA’s exhibitions and education programs. photographs by Bradley Golden

Highlights From Untitled Art Fair In San Francisco

Untitled, Art is an international, curated art fair founded in 2012 that focuses on curatorial balance and integrity across all disciplines of contemporary art. Untitled, Art innovates the standard fair model by selecting a curatorial team to identify and curate a selection of galleries, artist-run exhibition spaces, and non-profit institutions and organizations, in dialogue with an architecturally designed venue. Untitled Art, San Francisco took place January 18 – 20 at Pier 35, 1454 The Embarcadero. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Zhou Yilun "Ornament and Crime" @ Nicodim Gallery In Los Angeles

Ornament and crime are not synonymous to Zhou Yilun, however. His influences begin with the Western, Judeo-Christian canons he studied and was trained to emulate in school, but skew more heavily to the laborers he saw building, tearing-down, painting, and repainting the structures in the city surrounding him, and the American basketball players, hip-hop stars, and black celebrities he grew up mythologizing and imitating.  Zhou lifts and distorts techniques inherited from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Romantic eras, revisiting, perverting, and parodying their ideas for the new globalist regime. Each of his artworks is formed from the same bricolage of identity—the sum of stretcher, wood, and canvases painted, deconstructed, and constructed again. Zhou’s practice is alive with Chinese bones and Western sinew and flesh, torn down and built back up with the same materials again and again, so that the elements that once existed as ornament are now integral to the identity and essence of each artwork itself.  "Ornament and Crime" will be on view @ Nicodim Gallery  571 S Anderson Street Ste 2 until February 17. photographs by Oliver Kupper

Beverly Pepper "New Particles From The Sun" @ Kayne Griffin Cocoran in Los Angeles

Kayne Griffin Corcoran presents the gallery’s second solo exhibition of work by, 96 year-old American born, Italy based sculptor, Beverly Pepper. The presentation will highlight the work this great artist created early on in her career between 1958–1967. During this period, Pepper carved out a niche in her own signature sculptural language. In addition to early works, the exhibition will include works from later years: 1970–1980. The show title, New Particles From The Sun is culled from a poem written by Frank O’Hara. The exhibition focuses on this timeline of works both for their rarity and their significance to the narrative of American sculpture. Beverly Pepper’s work in metal, especially steel, places her in the rightful legacy of the pioneering and revolutionary sculptors celebrated throughout art history."New Particles From The Sun" will be on view @ Kayne Griffin Cocoran 1201 S. La Brea Ave until March 9. photographs by Oliver Kupper.

Read Our Interview Of Rosha Yaghmai On The Occasion Of Her Exhibition At The Wattis Institute → →

Walking into Rosha Yaghmai’s studio is a little bit like walking into the laboratory of a junkyard hoarder/mad scientist. There’s a distinctly pleasant organization to the vast collection of Los Angeles detritus that extends from the studio to the backlot outside. The walls are plastered with images from torn magazine pages, postcards, posters, watercolors and collage works. It’s as though you could hold a microscope to any detail in the room and discover a tiny world within. Click here to read more.

Glenn Ligon "Untitled (America)/Debris Field/Synecdoche/Notes for a Poem on the Third World " @ Regen Projects In Los Angeles

Untitled (America)/Debris Field/Synecdoche/Notes for a Poem on the Third World, is an exhibition of new work by Glenn Ligon now on view at Regen Projects. For this exhibition, Ligon will present a new series of silkscreen paintings based on abstracted letter forms and several neon installations. Glenn Ligon’s wide-ranging multimedia art practice encompasses painting, neon, photography, sculpture, print, installation, and video. His work explores issues of history, language, and cultural identity.

Over the years, Ligon has created neon sculptures that illuminate various phrases or words in charged and animated ways. Notes for a Poem on the Third World, Ligon’s first figurative sculpture, is comprised of a large neon based on a tracing of the artist's hands that takes its inspiration from an unrealized film project by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Pasolini claimed that it was the "discovery of the elsewhere" that drove his identification with the struggles of non-Western peoples and people on the margins of the West. Ligon's neon, with its ambiguous gesture of greeting, protest, or surrender, is the first of a series of works inspired by Pasolini’s project."Untitled (America)/Debris Field/Synecdoche/Notes for a Poem on the Third World " will be on view @ Regen Projects 6750 Santa Monica Blvd until February 17. photographs by Oliver Kupper.

Evan Holloway Presents "Outdoor Sculpture" @ David Kordansky Gallery In Los Angeles

Outdoor Sculpture is Evan Holloway's first exhibition to consist solely of objects conceived for outdoor installation. Though they require intensive planning and fabrication, the open -air settings for which they are intended are necessarily less predictable than white - walled galleries. Holloway thereby reimagines the ephemerality and provisional quality of his earlier work, which often included performative elements or unorthodox materials, in a more expansive register and at a larger scale. As he confronts technical issues of size, visibility, and durability that come along with the possibility of placing objects in the landscape, his forms have evolved in a variety of ways; the exhibition showcases a diverse range of sculptural languages, each of which addresses a different set of questions regarding form and signification.Outdoor Sculpture is on view through March 2 at David Kordansky Gallery 5130 W. Edgewood Pl. Los Angeles. photographs courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery.