Posted by Brittanie Price, founder, BCENE PR on @bcene.pr
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One of our favorite events of the year, the Armory Show returns to the city September 8th through 11th. In addition to our annual members' reception with Champagne Pommery and this year's guided tour with Rachel Cole, we're looking forward to seeing art from all over the world in NYC. With so much on, we asked industry insiders what artists, galleries, exhibits and events they consider can't-miss this year. Check out this year's guide to Armory Week below.
Public Art Fund, where I’m a longtime board member, always has amazing installations around the city. If you find yourself uptown, be sure to see Bharti Kher: Ancestor opening Sept 8th at the Doric C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park. At the Armory Show, Jared McGriff’s solo booth with Spinello Projects is a must-see. I am loving this new body of work!
Jared McGriff Untitled (Yellow Dress), 2022. Courtesy of Spinello Projects.
Although I normally give Armory fair picks (and I am very excited about some of the booths this year), I wanted to shed some light on exhibitions that will be opening in New York the same week as the fair. These three women artists are complete powerhouses and I can’t wait to share more information on them (and hopefully see you all at the openings)!
I am really looking forward to seeing the new body of work by Yuri Yuan in her solo exhibition at Alexander Berggruen Gallery, Dark Dreams, which opens September 7th. Yuan depicts surreal, ghostly dreamscapes with a misty yet vibrant palette. She works in the psychological threshold between waking and sleeping, transporting viewers into liminal interiors and unearthly terrains. The result is a series of bizarre, almost-recognizable compositions that play on memory—sometimes in the form of memento mori—in order to convey the murky and unsettling perceptions of dreamstates. The playful, the morose, the wistful, and the uncanny all intermingle in these compelling pictures.
Yuri Yuan, Nightmare, 2022, oil on linen, 48 x 72 in.
Another show I am very excited to see is Lucy Bull’s show opening at David Kordansky Gallery’s new New York space on September 10th. They overflow with color, expression, and gesture, consistently inspiring a staggering sensorial response. For several of the paintings in Piper, Lucy works at an overwhelming scale and she creates dramatic vertical compositions that swirl with the chaos of vigorous forms and fierce pigments. The size of the paintings fused with her signature pulsating vibrancy result in an ever-more intense viewing experience. The work demands repeated, focused viewing and becomes evermore complex and compelling at each encounter.
Lucy Bull, 17:50, 2022, oil on linen, 68 7/8 x 48 1/8 x 1 1/8 in.
One of my favorite artists for the past few years has been Julie Curtiss, so I am thrilled she will display her new paintings at Anton Kern Gallery at her show Somnambules opening on September 8. What always strikes me about her work is her ability to juxtapose the uncanny and the familiar. She uses a detail-focused figurative vernacular that is at once accessible and surreal, creating a sense of perpetual tension between knowability and the lack thereof. In these works, Curtiss approaches her signature tension by addressing the subject of insomnia, a condition that plagues the artist. The scenes she depicts hover in between consciousness and unconsciousness, a restless intermediary state reminiscent of sleepwalking and haunting dreams. She furthers the tension of the intermediary by playing with the effects of shadow and light, color and darkness. Julie Curtiss, now as always, is a must-see.
Julie Curtiss, Nuit Blanche, 2022, oil and vinyl paint on canvas, 30 x 40 inches.
Nothing feels more like Fall in NY more than art openings, museum openings and in the last couple of years The Armory show. This year I’m so looking forward to seeing Kesewa Aboah from gallery 12.26 (Dallas and Los Angeles). Our galleries both exhibited in Aspen this summer and it’s always nice to see friends from different locations–especially my hometown in NYC. Kesewa Aboah creates new multimedia works that explore identity, process and the female form. Aboah’s practice has a heavy focus on process; modernizing traditional techniques of embroidery and body imprinting to create bold, colorful and often haunting versions of 20th century tapestry. Her unconventional use of thread and paper relinquishes her control of the way in which the bodies take form, allowing each work a personal narrative in both physicality and concept.
Kesewa Aboah
For over a year, our favorite gallery from Mallorca – Gallery Red – has been in deep planning with young female figurative painter, Elena Gual, for a series of solo exhibitions to make her first time exhibiting in the States a huge splash. 28-year-old Gual was born in Mallorca and trained as a classical painter at the Florence Academy of Art, followed by the prestigious Central Saint Martins and Royal Academy in London. She uses palette knives as her signature technique and creates paintings which explore the diversity of the female figure. Elena Gual’s solo show will open at our space (195 Chrystie Street) on September 1st and continue through September 17th with a series of private openings.
Elena Gual
For The Armory, one of my clients Kohn Gallery will have a prominent booth within so I look forward to seeing their selection and roster of emerging and historic artists during that time.
This collection of various works elucidates modes of representation using distorted, figurative depictions and conceptual abstractions that command materiality and intertwine with the artists' respective practices. The contemporary figural representations of Heidi Hahn, Sophia Narrett, Kate Barbee, Ilana Savdie, Nir Hod, and William Brickel superimpose discussions of the self and bodily autonomy onto multifaceted notions of identity. Rounding out the program for their Armory presentation debuts are paintings by Alia Ahmad, Jinbin Chen, Siji Krishnan, and Hei Di Li. The California Greats: historic artists Lita Albuquerque, Martha Alf, Wallace Berman, Sharon Ellis and Joe Goode root the figural self-explorations of the contemporary program in the art historical continuum through their significant contributions to art movements, such as: Pop, Minimalism, West Coast Minimalism and Eastern mysticism.
Kohn Gallery
Another one I'm looking forward to is EXCELSIOR, a video program curated by a dear friend Job Piston hosted by Art At A Time Like This, a non-profit art organization founded by Chinese contemporary art historian and author Barbara Pollock. The program presents an international list of artists and video directors who use self-mythology to reimagine fantastical origin stories and develop new forms of gods through science-fiction, folklore, music videos, fashion and multimedia presentations. This distinctively international artist list aims to affirm identities of many slashes and celebrate the representation of the dynamic, subjective Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora experience. They will be showing a series of short films at The Quad in West Village on September 7 which I'm looking forward to.
This September is beginning to feel a lot like…business as usual circa 2019, and in the best possible way. While the large-scale client openings, dinners and PR events are gradually returning, the old back to school energy is already palpable. I yearn to see some old art world friends and colleagues and make a few new ones. We Blue Medium folk are looking forward to these client projects in NYC for Armory Week and just beyond.
Opening September 9 (through October 29), Cristin Tierney Gallery will present Stagings/Escenarios, an exhibition of new paintings by Jorge Tacla, curated by one of my favorite curators and writers, Christian Viveros-Fauné. These works present the artist's most substantial turn to figuration, as he pivots from images of ruined buildings to vibrant, abstracted scenes of protestors. Tacla will also be featured in a solo booth in the Focus section of The Armory Show, curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. These works are heavy, cathartic and overtly political. Ripe for our time.
Jorge Tacla
For a design experience (and a breather) at The Armory Show, visit Artforum’s lounge at the fair where our client Friedman Benda gallery will present the lava rock "Remolten" series of objects by the Chilean studio Gt2p, which will contrast sharply with the exuberantly colorful works by the French-Danish creative duo OrtaMiklos.
If you’re a little fatigued after a few gallery openings, The Armory Show, Spring Break, one of the other 10+ fairs in the city, the following week you can head to Roosevelt Island while the weather is still toasty and the grass is still green. As a cornerstone of its tenth anniversary, Four Freedoms Park Conservancy will present Voices of Freedom, an immersive audio installation created in collaboration with the Institute of International Education's Scholar Rescue Fund. Opening to the public on September 15, the 15-minute sound installation features testimonies from displaced scholars from all over the world responding to the current state of FDR's "Four Freedoms" enumerated in the address: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. This will bring you back to earth in every sense.
After your outdoor break, its back indoors for El Corazón Aúlla (Heart Howls): Latin American Feminist Performance in Revolt on view at The 8th Floor - Opening September 29th. Earlier this summer, the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation named Alexis Heller and Tatiana Muñoz-Brenes as recipients of its inaugural curatorial open call. Together, they’ve compiled work from Female and Non-Binary Contemporary Artists to curate an exhibition that examines gender-based Violence in Latin America.
Jazmín Ra, Falo x Falo – El Estado de Chile nos viola y nos mata, 2019. Video still. Courtesy of the artist.
Last, if you just want to stay inside (or take in some last minute shore time) we recommend art advisor Megan Fox Kelly's podcast "Reading the Art World" in which she interviews the authors of new and recent art books. Tune in this season as she interviews Gareth Harris (The Financial Times), Jerry Saltz (New York Magazine) and art dealer Michael Findlay. A great way to “listen to art”.
Armory Week in New York is always an energizing return-to-the-swirl, particularly after the New York art world has laid somewhat dormant over the summer months. I am always keen on seeing artists and galleries push their limitations and continue to vie for collectors’ renewed attention. Independent is a staple on my itinerary but the introduction of its 20th Century specialized fair will shine light on artists under- celebrated during their lifetime. It is through this initiative that collectors may retrospectively reexamine the contributions of artists across recent history, not simply those falling within the “contemporary” categorization. A recurring hit on my annual fall fair calendar is also the SPRING/BREAK art show. Emily McElwreath’s curated presentations remain at the top of my list. This year’s presentation of works by the stellar collagist Lizzie Gill is once again one not to miss.
Artist Lizzie Gill at work in her studio. Photo: Lizzie Gill @lizzie.gill.art
Jane Lombard Gallery will present a solo installation at The Armory Show of work by Shanghai-based multimedia artist and Deutsche Bank's "Artist of the Year 2022", LuYang. New work will be featured, deriving from the artist's recent film DOKU - The Self (2022) which premiered at the Venice Biennale, curated by Cecilia Alemani. Viewers are invited to follow Doku, the film's protagonist and LuYang's nonbinary digital avatar, on a prodigious journey of six reincarnations set in a hyper-stimulating virtual world created using 3D and motion capture technology.
LuYang, DOKU - the Self, 2022. 3D animation in 4K, 36 mins.
Philadelphia's Paradigm Gallery is pleased to present a project booth at Art on Paper featuring works by Atlanta-based Venezuelan-Panamanian artist Lucha Rodríguez. Sense and Vision includes four distinct collections of the artist's "knife drawings", created with her inventive bas-relief technique on watercolored paper. Abstract forms arise from the optical play of light and shadow over the hand-cut surface of the paper, stimulating the senses, and inviting synesthesia.
Lucha Rodríguez, SV IX, Knife Drawing, 2022. Watercolor and manipulated paper. 34" h x 26.5” w, framed.
Arts week mapping often surfaces memories of getting lost in Highlights (Magazine) hidden pictures – an intentionally chaotic landscape aimed to conceal. I am forever seeking out true craft among the pageantry. It’s a form of time travel. Invisible strings connect between the ornamental surfaces by Elspeth Schulze referencing Classical polychromy (SPRING/BREAK Art Show), Adam Parker Smith's co-created Hellenic marble renderings (Armory Off-Site, Ruth E. Wittenberg Triangle, The Hole), and the poetic cinematography and storytelling of filmmaker Kyle Bell (Muscogee)(The Rolex Arts Weekend, BAM).
Elspeth Schulze’s studio at the Tulsa Artist Fellowship
