mixed media – Page 17

July 28, 2024December 7, 2024, by Etty Yaniv

Spiritual World at RAINRAIN

Photo story

Installation view, photo courtesy of the gallery

Spiritual World, the title of the current group show at RAINRAIN, references Alfred Stieglitz’s Spiritual America, a 1923 photograph of a harnessed, castrated horse. The powerless restrained stallion—a traditional American symbol of unstoppable prowess—symbolized for Stieglitz the loss of spirituality in his contemporary American culture. The organizer of Spiritual World, Theodor Nymark, a Copenhagen-based artist who also shows work in it, brought together seven artists from Denmark, Korea, and the USA to explore how spirituality can exist today outside conservative religious ideals and ultra-liberal new-age paganism. In a text for the show, Nymark specifies further how he sees spirituality—”like a multifaceted metaphor, many-sided, a prism with no central outpost, only imagination. Not just a lake, a mirror. Not just a car, a vehicle.” These notions reflect the overall premise of this show.

July 26, 2024July 26, 2024, by Sara Farrell Okamura

Upstate Art Weekend, If You Missed It, It is Still Here!

Pauline Decarmo, *CHAMPION*, 2024, acrylic on wood panel, 24 x 24 inches, LABspace

145 galleries, venues, historical sites, performances, and a few fashion stops and upscale grocers for foodies thrown in for good measure, all scattered across 10 counties north of New York City. This comprised Upstate Art Weekend, a four-day festival highlighting the diversity and breadth of culture in Upstate New York. This was not for the faint of stamina. This is not an art fair. It is a celebration of the creative communities lining the Hudson and the enclaves embedded in the Catskills. I have to believe the intent was never for escapees from urbanity to stop at each little circle on clustered maps. Below are some of the galleries that are the marrow, the heartbeat of the cultural community in specific regions. These are also galleries that exhibit small group and one-person shows that provide a larger window into the artist’s or artists’ thought process. If you missed Upstate Art Weekend, don’t despair; these and other sites are a stable part of the Hudson Valley, enabling anybody to make their own Upstate Art Weekend on their own time. It’s always here, 12 months of the year.

July 24, 2024July 22, 2024, by Andrew Fish

Art Spiel Picks: Boston Exhibitions in July 2024

Highlights

“Untitled (United States Marine Hospital)” by Firelei Báez at The Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston

There are many excellent art exhibitions to visit in and around Boston this summer. Museums and galleries have created an abundance of programming that’s playful and profound. Dance parties, concerts, salons, and festivals supplement what’s on view, making summertime feel even more celebratory for the arts community. A visit to the Cape and Islands is a must for a reprieve from the heat, but also a great place to see brilliantly curated shows and satellite exhibitions. Within the city you’ll find most galleries foregoing their beach time to maintain regular hours and offering a rich selection of dynamic shows. Here are some highlights.

July 23, 2024July 23, 2024, by Yasmeen Abdallah

July in NY – In & Outdoors Around the City

Elizabeth Insogna and Jesse Bransford, photos courtesy of Tappeto Volante, ended on July 21st.

Many wonderful artists wielded their prowess in and around New York this month, in a myriad of ways and media. Moving around the city in the height of summer can be a daunting task, but these shows draw you into other realms that make you forget all about humidity and glad you made the trip. From Brooklyn to Governors Island to Storm King, here are some standouts that were definitely worth the journey.

July 22, 2024October 6, 2024, by Santiago Zabala

Josh Kline’s Greatest Emergency

Josh Kline, Unemployment, installation view, 2016

This is part of a series of articles for the upcoming exhibition, The Greatest Emergency at the Circulo de Bellas Artes of Madrid. The exhibition is based on Santiago Zabala’s book, Why Only Art Can Save Us: Aesthetics and the Absence of Emergency. In this exhibition, ten contemporary artists rescue us into our greatest emergencies, that is, those we do not confront as we should. Each article in the series will contextualize these artists’ practices and explore how they are linked to Zabala’s aesthetic theory and the exhibition’s themes. The second article in this series highlights the work of American artist Josh Kline.

July 18, 2024October 6, 2024, by Sara Farrell Okamura

Judith Braun’s, I’m Bad at Kiddie Pool is So Good

Featured Exhibition

A poster on the wall

Description automatically generated — Judith Braun, I’m Bad, installation view, photo courtesy of Kiddie Pool and the artist

Veteran, age-defying, feminist artist Judith Braun’s exhibit, I’m Bad, opened on June 28 in a pristine, Victorian-era brownstone that doubles as Kiddie Pool, a residential project space in downtown Albany, NY. As contemporary contronym phrases go, I’m Bad conjures a sense that exemplifies Braun as a person and her body of work. Through decades whether it was as a generation-defining member of the lower east side collaborative Group Material, where she created Pussy Works, as part of the seminal 1988 show, Democracy: Cultural Participation to exquisitely painted angels to her current exhibit that includes new monumental collages at Kiddie Pool, Braun consistently challenges and baits the status quo with unbridled glee.

July 15, 2024September 22, 2024, by Claire Haik

Art Spiel Picks: Philly Exhibitions in July 2024

HIGHLIGHTS

*Wind Challenge III* at Fleisher Art Memorial, partial installation view, Alexis Granwell (left) and Brynn Hurlstone (right)

There are many thought-provoking shows in Philadelphia this July. Beginning at Fleisher Art Memorial, three innovative Philadelphia sculptors combine materials in unexpected ways to reflect on intimacy, vulnerability, and natural phenomena. At the Fabric Workshop in center city, artist John Jarboe brings her cabaret aesthetic to create a stunning immersive experience titled Rose Garden following her life and gender journey. In Kensington, at Peep Projects Todd Stong’s delicate drawings and wall-sized multi-panel monotype reflect on the complexities of history, contemporary life, and what the artist terms queer cultural production.

July 11, 2024July 13, 2024, by Art Spiel

Tom Fitzgibbon: Icebox4

In Dialogue

Installation view, *Pull~Push*, Kylie Heidenheimer, Matt Blackwell, Dorothy Robinson, Jackie Shatz, Louise P. Sloane (left to right)

The rise of larger mega galleries and art fairs in NYC marks the end of the intimate, clubby world of established gallerists. Tom Fitzgibbon, artist and co-founder of the art hub Icebox4 in Brooklyn, reflects on this shift: “Back in the day, I could walk into OK Harris and watch Ivan Karp playing poker in a smoke-filled back room or meet Robert Miller’s family at their Manhattan residence. Now it’s big money all the time, except for some smaller galleries like Karma, Steven Harvey, James Fuentes, and others keeping it grounded.”

July 10, 2024July 10, 2024, by Claudia Gottridge

Snubbing the Earth: Matías Duville’s Vertices of Time at Barro Gallery New York.

*Caída del peñón, 2024, Acrylic and polyurethane on wood, 15 67/100 × 20 7/25 in*

In a recent conversation at Barro Gallery in New York, the Sue and Eugene Mercy assistant curator Ana Torok (MoMA, prints and drawings), likened Matías Duville’s artistic process to “throwing a lance” at the canvas. Indeed, Duville is not kind to his materials. His artistic oeuvre is replete with scratched metal and burned wood. For his paper works, charcoal is inflicted, not applied. When I had the good fortune to speak with the artist about his current exhibition at Barro Gallery, Vertices of Time, I asked what kinds of materials he had used for his paintings. One material stuck out as particularly harsh: “heat gun.”

July 6, 2024July 7, 2024, by Riad Miah

Hesse Flatow East- Reverse Cascade

Reverse Cascade, Hesse Flatow, Installation View- Curated by Kirsten Deirup

As the season of exhibitions at commercial galleries winds down, the need for enriching visual engagement becomes more demanding over the thick heat of the summer months. Out of the way for viewers and gallery dwellers, there are some noteworthy exhibitions that take place outside the boroughs of New York City that are worth noting and can easily be missed if you were not looking or aware. A good point of example is Hesse Flatow East. Karen Hess-Flatow has launched a unique exhibition at their Amagansett space, nestled on the east end of Long Island in the Hamptons, a location that adds to its allure.