In partnership with the gallery, Modern Painters offers a preview of the works that Sag Harbor-based Richard J. Demato Fine Arts Gallery is debuting as part of its upcoming “Objects of Desire” show next month. In a statement, the gallery says:
The opening of “Objects of Desire,” on Saturday, 6/1, from 6-8PM, will integrate carefully chosen artwork to both stimulate the viewer and create a highly emotional response. It is our hope to send them searching inwardly, to experience introspective thought, and subsequent responses, created by viewing artwork that is subtly interacting and dealing with the human psyche, and arousing their frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. This is the part of our brain eliciting all unwarranted displays of emotion and an area that triggers all of our motivation. We will enhance the viewers experience and pleasure with select music, lighting, scents and a full bar!
Gallerist Sonia Dutton used to run Champion in Austin, Texas; since closing it she has shown work at various fairs, and is now planning to open a permanent space in New York by the end of the year. In anticipation of that move she launched a pop-up location at 215 Bowery for the past few weeks, coinciding with Frieze and NADA. (To avoid confusion: The gallery’s actual entrance is on Rivington Street.) The temporary exhibition is called “Saturation Point,” and it features excellent paintings by Dan Sutherland, Maria Walker, Josh Dihle, and Dan Rushton, plus gorgeous free-standing resin-and-mixed-media sculptures by Amy Brener (pictured above, and previously featured on the Modern Painters Hit List page.) “Saturation Point” closes on Sunday, so add it to your weekend gallery schedule, and keep your eyes open for Dutton’s future home in the city. She’ll also be showing work at Texas Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary, and UNTITLED this year.
On May 17, head over to the New School for a series of discussions on art’s relevance within a larger, practical context. “From ‘Sustaining Democracy’ to the State of the Civic” features a series of panels–on art & activism, identity politics, and ‘the political aesthetic’–coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics. Speakers include Simon Critchley, Julie Mehretu, Nato Thompson, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Joao Ribas, and Martha Rosler.
Here’s the charming Wolfgang Tillmans at this morning’s press walk-through of his current show, “Neue Welt,” which opens tonight at Andrea Rosen Gallery. Go see it. We’re seriously craving the enormous, intensely detailed photo of various seafood-related shells hanging in the back office (and not just because our executive editor once worked at Red Lobster.)
New Yorkers, here’s a good reason to head uptown: the collaborative exhibition of Peter Halley and Alessandro Mendini currently on view at Mary Boone Gallery’s 745 5th Avenue location. (Halley’s paintings are hung on top of a gallery-covering printed “wallpaper” by Mendini.) The immersive nature of the show, and the tactile appeal of Halley’s paintings, mean that looking at pictures on the Internet will never capture the experience–but nonetheless, here are a few shots from opening night. And check out the June issue of Modern Painters, in which Halley is our ‘Studio Check’ feature.
Brightly colored abstract painting (especially of the geometric bent) is oddly well-represented in Chelsea at the moment. At Galerie Lelong there’s “Edge, Order, Rupture,” a group show with pieces by Lygia Clark, Sarah Crowner, Carmen Herrera, and Kate Shepherd, among others. A few doors down on 26th Street, Harris Lieberman presents a suite of works by Bernd Ribbeck; the india ink on paper pieces are interesting enough, but it’s the acrylic and pigment marker on MDF paintings (above) that really shine. From there, take in Andrew Massulo’s primary-colored abstracts at Mary Boone Gallery, followed by Andrew Kuo’s paintings at Marlborough Chelsea, which turn the language of charts and infographics into abstract configurations with beauty and humor.
In the April issue of Modern Painters, executive editor Scott Indrisek penned a profile on the prolific, multi-talented Keren Cytter. His cats enjoyed the piece so much that they watched all of the artist’s videos on Vimeo, and then scored an interview with her for their own blog, Shit My Cats Read, in which she breaks the art world down into the taxonomy of the animal kingdom and sounds off on the futility of love.
It’s part of an ongoing series, The Evening Interviews, loosely modeled on the recent book-length transcript of conversations between Calvin Tompkins and Marcel Duchamp. Expect future cat-on-human interviews with contemporary novelists as well as artists and critics like Chris Kraus, Ragnar Kjartansson, and William Wegman.
Danny Rivera, gallery owner Francisco Rovira Rullán, Austin Eddy, and gallery artist Juni Figueroa
Modern Painters had the pleasure of journeying down to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to catch the opening of New York painter Austin Eddy’s exhibition at Roberto Paradise (it’s up through May 4.) “It’ll Be Ok” features dozens of mixed media paintings paired with delicately wonky sculptures. We were especially impressed with the installation itself, which took full advantage of the gallery’s unique space: A renovated house, dating from the early 20th century, that retains its individualistic flair while still serving as a neutral backdrop for the art. (Consider it a ‘domestic white cube.’)
In partnership with the gallery, Modern Painters offers a preview of the works that Marlborough Contemporary is taking to Art Cologne, April 19-22. In a statement, the gallery says:
Marlborough Contemporary is pleased to announce its participation in Art Cologne with paintings by Jason Brooks and Koen van den Broek, a special commissioned work by Diango Hernández, an installation by Adam Chodzko, and selected works by Ângela Ferreira, João Onofre and Laura White.
We are particularly proud to present Laurence Kavanagh’s project April, selected for the Positions’ section, dedicated to young artists
On our radar and definitely worth checking out: Kelly Heaton’s recent piece “Rockaway,” an engaging experiment with analogue technology and hybrid art. The artist, who shows with Ronald Feldman Fine Arts(her show “The Parallel Series” was on view last fall) set out to create an art contraption that approximated the chanting of the Buddha. Instead, what emerged from this mass of pigment and wires were some odd and sinister hissing sounds that have an otherworldly energy all of their own.
“My goal is to build an analog audio circuit that has a chanting voice quality,” Heaton has said, explaining the work, which was also on view earlier this month as in a solo booth for Feldman at the ADAA Art Show. “As it turns out, the human voice is extremely complex… so it may be quite a journey that I have undertaken. Here, I have built a study called ‘Rockaway’ that came together during hurricane Sandy. The audio has an ominous, distant grinding sound with the hissing of vipers.”
Check it out, below:
In case you’re wondering how such ominous effects are achieved, another video shows the artist as she tweaks the painting’s settings:
