Tim Kent, Edges Off a Model, Courtesy of Hollis Taggart Gallery
The fall season opened strong with some very exciting painting shows in Chelsea and its outskirts. The not to be missed stand alone Monya Rowe Gallery is featuring work by two innovative female painters, while in the heart of Chelsea, Hollis Taggart is featuring Tim Kent’s captivating works in his second solo show with the gallery. Right across the street, Fergus McCaffrey Gallery is showcasing fresh work by a seasoned German painter Reinhard Pods.
3RD SPACE installation image. Image by Yasmeen Abdallah
We visited SPRING/BREAK Art Show in its new location in lower Manhattan on Varick St. We went independently, and then got together afterward to discuss our impressions of the fair, and the highlights we came away with. We have ruminated on possible trends and strong impressions that stayed with us long after the fair. Even though it has been almost a month past Spring Break Art Fair, the highlights resonated with us.
In Until the Sun Goes Dark, Taylor Davis’s second solo show with SEPTEMBER gallery at Kinderhook, NY, the Boston-based artist takes on the question of why we exist in a violent, volatile universe. She offers no answers, but through sculpture, painting, and works on paper, elicits inquiries into the nature of brutality by researching texts ranging from 2000-year-old biblical scriptures (Job 27:13- 23, Ecclesiastics 12: 5-8 and Psalm 57: 4-5) to modern writings by Ethnographer, Edward Linnaeus Keithahn and literature by William Gass, InThe Heart of the Heart of the Country. Davis does not merely execute a plan to create work but relies on systems of chance and logic. She does not force her materials to bend to her intent but defers to the inherent nature of the materials she is using. Working in a similar manner to a call-and-response practice, her final pieces sometimes challenge the viewers’ initial comprehension of what they are actually seeing.
Nearly a century after the Weimar Republic’s brief, chaotic existence, curator Hans-Peter Wipplinger presents Splendor and Misery: New Objectivity in Germany at Vienna’s Leopold Museum. This comprehensive exhibition, the first of its kind in Austria, brings together around 150 works—100 paintings, 40 works on paper, photographs, and archival materials—from international museums and private collections. Born from the ashes of World War I, Neue Sachlichkeit offered a stark, unsentimental portrayal of reality, capturing both the hardships and the hopes of the “Golden Twenties.” The show features a lineup of key figures of modernism, such as Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, George Grosz, and Christian Schad, alongside lesser-known artists such as Heinrich Maria Davringhausen, Karl Hubbuch, Grethe Jürgens, Lotte Laserstein, Felix Nussbaum, Gerta Overbeck, Rudolf Schlichter, and others, who each captured the era’s spirit with an unflinching eye.
Dali: Disruption and Devotion at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
September in Boston is all about “back-to-school,” and this year, the art scene offers its own rich set of lessons. Along with some beloved galleries closing, a number of outstanding exhibitions are on view around the city. At the Museum of Fine Arts, a small but captivating Dalí exhibition pairs his works with those of Velázquez, Goya, and El Greco. The Harvard Art Museums are unveiling an exhibition dedicated to German identity, exploring the country’s complex cultural narrative through a variety of artistic expressions. Beyond the museums, Boston’s galleries showcase an exciting range of shows, from many different artists exhibiting a wide range of work. Here’s a look at some of the standout shows happening now.
Dario Mohr’s Don’t Forget to Check. Image by Yasmeen Abdallah
Themes of searching and connection to ancestors through practice, ritual, and persistence are intertwined through work that depicts aspects of migration, objecthood, and the complexities of humanity itself. The winds moving across the island dictate the mood as we bow and sway through graceful installations in deeply resonant forms at LMCC Art Center and Artcrawl Harlem.
Diane Burko, Amazon 7, Diptych A, 2022, mixed media on canvas, 20×20 inches, In the collection of Joseph and Pamela Yohlin
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 third article in this series highlights the work of American artist Diane Burko.
Kejoo Park is a Korean-American artist, landscape artist and architect. In her works, Park focuses on the duality of the internal and external worlds and her paintings, objects and installations manifest the alienation between man and nature; they address external nature, which is revealed in what man did not create himself. However, its potential and uniqueness lie in its creative ideas and actions, which develop through the influence of external structures and the engagement with culture and society.
Jan Dickey moved to New York City during the pandemic by way of Hawaiʻi, where he completed his MFA from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. In New York, he has shown his paintings at My Pet Ram, D.D.D.D., and Below Grand gallery among other locations. Recently he completed a materials-based residency at the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation (2023) and this interview seeks to delve deeper into his unique use of hand-mixed natural painting mediums like rabbit skin glue, casein, egg tempera, and oil paint. Currently he has an exhibition of new work at Bob’s Gallery, an experimental space in Bushwick: “The Generations” on through August 18th, 2024. Dickey is also the newest member of Artcake, an art center in Sunset Park that provides artists with affordable studio spaces and artistic programming.
I Go to Seek a Big Perhaps, installation view, courtesy of the gallery
August in LA may be the hottest month of the year, but definitely not so hot for the art scene. Still, while many choose to spend the month traveling, some of the most unconventional and interesting spaces in town are putting up excellent summer shows that gather a lively crowd for their openings. Some standouts are Make Room, La Loma Projects, and Track16.
