“Heller Gallery in collaboration with Ferrin Contemporary, is pleased to present Melting Point, a group exhibition of glass and ceramic artists whose use of the melting point is central to their practice. Featuring nearly 100 works by 22 artists, the exhibition will be on view at Heller Gallery in New York City and Ferrin Contemporary on the MASS MoCA campus in North Adams. The artists, both established and emerging, explore the inherent physical qualities of materials that are formed and reformed by melting, as well as express their concern for the environmental melting point our planet seems to be approaching.
Melting Point is the degree when solid becomes soft, eventually becoming liquid and a boiling point is reached. Glaze melts, clay and glass soften, surface and form become pliable. Used metaphorically, as the planet warms, we are finding ourselves closer to the melting point both physically and socially. In 2020, forces combined under pressure of the COVID virus, politics exploded, and nature responded with melting ice, raging fires and extreme weather. Likewise, artists use the melting point as a metaphor in their work to express their political beliefs and sound the alarm using the fragile materials of glass and ceramic.” — Heller Gallery
Stine Bidstrup, Bifurcations (Object 7 -Black), 2013, fused and stretched glass, 11 x 13 3/4 x 5 in.
Sydney Cash, Leaking, 1990, glass/steel wire, 7 x 4 x 2 in.
Amber Cowan, Fountain in Rosalene, 2021, flameworked American pressed glass, 17 x 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.
Laura Kramer, Gallium, 2021, glass, 25 x 8 1/2 x 5 in.
Pamela Sabroso & Alison Siegel, Teardrop Extrusion, 2018, glass, 5 x 4 x 4 in.
Raymon Elozua, R&D VII RE-17-1, 2014, clay/glaze/glass/steel, 43 x 43 x 23 in.
Peter Christian Johnson, Tilt, 2018, porcelain, 22 x 23 x 13″
Steven Young Lee, Gourd Vases With Dodos, 2018, 10 x 18 x 19 in.
Courtney Leonard, Nebolous Ghost Trao Study – Large Triangle, earthenware, 20 x 9 x 10″
Lauren Mabry, Glaze Flow Cylinder, 2020, red earthenware/slip/glaze, 7 3/4 x 13 1/2 x 13 in. (19.7 x 34.3 x 33 cm
Gregg Moore, 20 Bone China Cups, 2021, 2 3/4 x 3 x 3 3/4 (each); 3 x 23 x 30″ overall
Robert Silverman, Untitled, 2021, glazed porcelain/automotive paint, 9 x 9 x 9 in.
Title image: Lauren Mabry, Glazescape (Pink No. 2), 2021, red earthenware, slip, glaze, 20.75 x 17.75 x 4.5″.
Participating artists represented by Heller Gallery include Stine Bidstrup, Nancy Callan, Sydney Cash, Amber Cowan, Morten Klitgaard, Laura Kramer, Tom Patti, Pamela Sabroso & Alison Siegel, and Norwood Viviano.
Participating artists represented by Ferrin Contemporary include Raymon Elozua, Peter Christian Johnson, Steven Young Lee, Courtney Leonard, Beth Lipman, Lauren Mabry, Gregg Moore, Katie Parker & Guy Michael Davis, Paul Scott, Sally Silberberg, and Robert Silverman.
“During these unprecedented times, we remain steadfast in our commitment to local artists at early stages in their careers. Launched two years ago as a recurring commissioning program with generous investment from The Shed’s supporters, Open Call is designed to provide the time, space, and resources that these artists need to develop their practice, expand their audience, and continue to contribute to our city’s vibrant and diverse culture,” said Alex Poots, Artistic Director and CEO. “From the onset of Open Call, we have worked with industry professionals across the arts to shape this program and expand our curatorial process. We’re grateful to our 50 colleagues from the arts community that participated in this year’s process to select this next cohort of New York City-based artists.”
The Shed presents 27 New York City-based artists for its second Open Call, a large-scale, commissioning program for early-career artists across performance, visual arts, and popular culture. In the Level 2 Gallery, 11 artists present their work in a group exhibition. The artists are Aisha Amin, Ayanna Dozier, Caroline Garcia, Emilie Gossiaux, Esteban Jefferson, Le’Andra LeSeur, Simon Liu, Tajh Rust, Pauline Shaw, Kenneth Tam, Anne Wu.
Installation views of Open Call at The Shed. Photographs by Corrado Serra.
The second edition of Open Call is organized by Emma Enderby, Chief Curator; Tamara McCaw, Chief Civic Program Officer; and Solana Chehtman, Director of Civic Programs, with Alessandra Gómez and Adeze Wilford, Assistant Curators, and Maggie MacTiernan, Director of Artist Services.
“Born in Lahore in 1969, Pakistani American artist Shahzia Sikander is internationally celebrated for bringing manuscript painting traditions from South and Central Asia into dialogue with contemporary art practice. This exhibition includes nearly 60 works borrowed from public and private collections and tracks the first fifteen years of her artistic journey, from her groundbreaking deconstruction of manuscript painting in Pakistan to the development of a new personal vocabulary at the Rhode Island School of Design, expanded explorations around identity as a Core Fellow at the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and her global outlook during her first years in New York. During this period, Sikander richly interrogated gender, sexuality, race, class, and history, creating open-ended narratives that have sustained her as one of the most significant artists working today.” — The Morgan Library & Museum
The Morgan’s Director, Colin B. Bailey, said, “We are delighted to present the work of internationally renowned Pakistani-American artist Shahzia Sikander at the Morgan Library & Museum. Her synthesis of Eastern and Western traditions has differentiated her practice among contemporary artists and provided a unique visual vocabulary for exploring politics, gender, and archetypes of beauty. Her work is resonant with the Indo-Persian Miniature tradition represented in the Morgan’s collection, and we look forward to collaborating with her in an exhibition that throws light on her creative process during the formative years of her career, as well providing the setting for a new site-specific installation.”
Shahzia Sikander: Extraordinary Realities is organized by the RISD Museum and presented in collaboration with the Morgan Library & Museum. The exhibition will be on view at RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island from November 12, 2021 through January 30, 2022. It then travels to The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where it will run from March 13 through June 12, 2022.
“Museum of the City of New York, the city’s storyteller for almost 100 years, presents New York, New Music: 1980-1986, a new exhibition that revisits the music scene of early 1980s New York City. The exhibition examines this transformative era through the lens of emerging pivotal music genres and the influence they played on New York’s broader cultural landscape. Opening on June 11, in advance of MTV’s 40th anniversary in August, the exhibition highlights diverse musical artists—from Run DMC to the Talking Heads, from Madonna to John Zorn— to explore the broader music and cultural scene, including the innovative media outlets, venues, fashion, and visual arts centered in the city during that time.” — Museum of the City of New York
“The early 1980s were a time of significant transition in New York, with the city facing crime, urban decay, and homelessness. And yet, despite those challenges, it was also a particularly fertile time for music and other creativity in New York City,” says Whitney Donhauser, Ronay Menschel Director and President, Museum of the City of New York. “The musical innovations of this time period are a great example of the resilience of the city and the importance of art and creativity as forces of transformation.”
“During the 80s, there was a community-driven musical renaissance in New York City. It was an era of creativity and genre-defying performance that, in my mind, stands as one of the most influential in musical and cultural history,” says Sean Corcoran, curator of prints and photography, Museum of the City of New York. “That wide range of music –from no wave to pop to hip-hop to salsa to jazz, mixed in a dynamic arts scene that stretched across clubs and bars, theaters, parks, and art spaces– provided fertile ground for a musical revolution — one that continues to influence pop culture to this day.”
Installation views of New York, New Music: 1980-1986 at Museum of the City of New York. Photographs by Corrado Serra.
“The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents The Roaring Twenties, a stimulating tour through the groundbreaking 1920s through more than 300 objects representing the most important artistic disciplines of the time, from painting, sculpture, and drawing to photography, film, collage, architecture, fashion and furniture design.
The exhibition introduces visitors to European cities like Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and Zurich, where major changes and progress were occurring in all spheres, many of which can still be felt today. Even though we cannot compare 1:1 our decade with the 1920s, there surprisingly a lot of parallels, dominated by the trauma of a pandemic and a major recession due to World War I. Yet at the same time it was a decade of progress, with an explosion of creativity and freedom, so this glimpse into the past offers encouraging ideas and inspiration for the future.” — Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
In the words of Bilbao curator Petro Joos, “The 1920s witnessed an explosion of creativity, erotic freedom, sexual urges, and feminism, yet also trauma, struggle, and unbridled, merciless economy. And all of this is reflected in the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in a very special way thanks to the exhibition design by Calixto Bieito.”
I Wonder Where My Baby Is To-Night!, 1926. Music by Walter Donaldson, lyrics by Gus Kahn, cover by Fabien Loris Francis-Day, Paris (ed.). Dora and Walter Labhart Collection
The exhibition is a cooperation between the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Kunsthaus Zürich. It was curated by Cathérine Hug, Kunsthaus Zürich, and Petra Joos, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès presents the group exhibition Sables brûlants (Burning sands), featuring eight visual artists who have participated in the Foundation’s programme of residencies at the Cristallerie Saint-Louis between 2010 and 2019. The exhibition runs from May 19, 2021 to December 13, 2021, at La Grande Place, Musée du Cristal Saint-Louis.
“The exhibition Sables brûlants at La Grande Place, Musée du Cristal Saint-Louis, brings together the works produced in this unusual and exceptional setting. Surrounded by the mountains and primal forests of the Vosges that frame the Cristallerie, and plunged into the unique atmosphere of the foundry and workshops, the artists find themselves in a world apart where they are free to explore new creative directions. Works created by the artists in situ draw on wide-ranging experiments with the medium of crystal – its infinite possibilities, its vocabulary, and its limitations – and address their individual fascinations and themes of choice: the mystery of time (Atsunobu Kohira), light in its different states (DH McNabb), the history of art (Emmanuel Régent), ecology and science fiction (Guillaume Dénervaud), matter and space (Lucia Bru), the inherent defence in the female body (Marie-Anne Franqueville), the perception and materialisation of sound (Oliver Beer) and the geological history of matter (Olivier Sévère).” — Excerpt from text by Gaël Charbau, curator of exhibition
“The Museum of Modern Art presents a major exhibition offering a new look at the celebrated modern artist Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) through close attention to his process in pencil and watercolor and fresh insights into this profoundly original yet lesser-known body of work. Cézanne Drawing, on view at MoMA from June 6 through September 25, 2021, is the first major effort in the United States to unite drawings from across the artist’s entire career, tracing the development of his practice on paper and exploring his working methods. More than 250 works on paper— including drawings, sketchbooks, and rarely seen watercolors—are shown alongside a selection of related oil paintings, all drawn from MoMA’s collection as well as public and private collections from around the world. Presented together, these works reveal how this fundamental figure of modern art—more often recognized as a painter—produced his most radical works on paper.” — The Museum of Modern Art
Paul Cézanne. Still Life with Cut Watermelon (Nature morte avec pastèque entamée). c. 1900. Pencil and watercolor on paper, 12 3/8 × 19 1/8″ (31.5 × 48.5 cm). Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Beyeler Collection. Photo: Peter Schibli
Paul Cézanne. Forest Landscape. 1904–06. Pencil and watercolor on paper, 18 5/8 × 23 5/8″ (47.3 × 60 cm). Private collection
Paul Cézanne. Still Life with Blue Pot. 1900-06. Pencil and watercolor on paper, 18 15/16 × 24 7/8″ (48.1 × 63.2 cm). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Paul Cézanne. Coat on a Chair (Veste sur une chaise). 1890-92. Pencil and watercolor on laid paper. 18 1/4 × 11 3/4″ (46.4 × 29.8 cm). Private collection
Paul Cézanne. Study of a Skull (Étude de crâne). 1902-04. Pencil and watercolor on paper. 9 × 12 3/16″ (22.9 × 31 cm). Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation (on extended loan to the Princeton University Art Museum) The Henry and Rose Pearlman Collection / Art Resource, NY, photo: Bruce M. White
Paul Cézanne. Still Life with Carafe, Bottle, and Fruit (La Bouteille de cognac). 1906. Pencil and watercolor on paper. 18 7/8 × 24 5/8″ (48 × 62.5 cm). Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation (on extended loan to the Princeton University Art Museum) The Henry and Rose Pearlman Collection / Art Resource, NY, photo: Bruce M. White
Cézanne Drawing is organized by Jodi Hauptman, Senior Curator, and Samantha Friedman, Associate Curator, with Kiko Aebi, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints. Laura Neufeld, Associate Conservator, David Booth Department of Conservation, is a key collaborator, part of the project’s curatorial-conservation partnership.
“Described by Peter Fischli as ‘a kaleidoscope of repudiated gestures’, the project explores a series of specific ruptures within the history of painting in the last 150 years, intertwined with the emergence of new social factors and cultural values. The exhibition also projects itself into the dimensions of the present and the future. It intends to understand if a further development is taking place today and if the current digital revolution can also cause a new crisis of painting or, on the contrary, contribute to its renewal.
The artist devised this exhibition as a plurality of different narratives told by himself in the first person, in a subjective tone. The show begins on the ground floor of Ca’ Corner della Regina with a new site-specific artwork by Fischli that consists of a scaled-down model of the entire project, defined by the artist as ‘a sculpture of a painting exhibition’. This work is accompanied by texts written by Fischli to illustrate each of the 10 sections of the project, which brings together more than 110 artworks by over 80 artists. Stop Painting unfolds on the first floor of Ca’ Corner della Regina following not a chronological order, but a personal and idiosyncratic approach. The display consists of a system of temporary walls that cross and cut through the spaces, passing through the thresholds that connect the different rooms. The uniform and modernist appearance of these structures is in stark contrast to the frescoed and decorated walls of the central hall on the first floor, echoing the different artistic positions expressed against the medium of painting.” — Fondazione Prada
Exhibition views of “Stop Painting” at Fondazione Prada, Venice. Photos: Marco Cappelletti. Courtesy: Fondazione Prada.
“Once at the margins of the art world, today craft is front and center in art galleries, museums, and fairs, widely recognized for its expressive potential and cultural significance. Craft Front & Center brings together more than 70 iconic and lesser-known works, assembled from the eclectic richness of the Museum’s permanent collection, to highlight key touchpoints in craft’s history that have led to the current moment.
Challenging traditional thinking of craft as separate from fine art, the exhibition reveals the field’s deep engagement in art’s major movements, such as Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Postmodernism, while also launching its own revolutions, particularly the elevation of women and people of color as significant artists.
MAD’s collection comprises more than 3,000 artworks in clay, fiber, glass, metal, and wood, dating from the post-war studio craft movement through to contemporary art and design. With an aim to subvert traditional hierarchies in the arts, the collection advocates for the central role of craft in art and society.” — Museum of Arts and Design
Magdalena Abakanowicz. Abakan Violet, c. 1969. Sisal, woven, 94 x 86 x 17 in. (238.8 x 218.4 x 43.2 cm.). Photo: Ed Watkins.
Olga de Amaral, Colombia, b. 1932. Muro tejido 1 (Wall Hanging 1). Probably 1969. Hand-spun wool, double woven slit tapestry, 87 x 43 in. (221 x 109.2 cm). Photo: Eva Heyd.
Amber Cowan. Dance of the Pacific Coast Highway at Sunset, 2019. Flameworked American pressed glass, 34 × 46 × 12 1/2 in. (86.4 × 116.8 × 31.8 cm). Photo: Courtesy the artist and Heller Gallery, New York.
Viola Frey. Group Series: Questioning Woman 1, 1988. Glazed earthenware, 108 x 33 x 28 in. (274.3 x 83.8 x 71.1 cm). Photo: Eva Heyd.
Marvin Lipofsky. 1/4 Pounder with Cheese (from the Great American Food Series), 1973. Blown glass, found McDonald’s Quarter Pounder box, 10 x 5 1/2 x 3 1/8 in. (25.4 x 14 x 7.9 cm). Photo: Ed Watkins.
Water Mammy 1, 2012. Glass beads (all bead work (Peyote Stitch) created by artist), blown glass, thread, wire, 35 1/16 x 6 1/2 x 10 1/16 in. (89 x 16.5 x 25.5 cm).Photo: Michael Koryta.
Cauleen Smith. Pigeons are Black Doves (from “In the Wake”), 2017. Textile, sequins, acrylic paint, 70 × 49 1/2 in. (177.8 × 125.7 cm).
Lenore Tawney. Jupiter, 1959. Silk, wool, wood; woven, 53 x 41 in. (134.6 x 104.1 cm). Photo: Sheldan Comfert Collins.
Peter Voulkos. Cross, 1959. Stoneware, low-fire glaze; hand-built, 30 1/2 x 23 x 10 in. (77.5 x 58.4 x 25.4 cm). Photo: Photo Ed Watkins.
Patti Warashina. Pitter-Podder, 1967. Earthenware, acrylic paint; hand-built, 25 3/4 x 15 3/4 x 9 1/2 in. (65.4 x 40 x 24.1 cm). Museum of Arts and Design, New York; gift of Johnson Wax Company, through the American Craft Council, 1977. Photo: Ed Watkins.
Craft Front & Center was organized by the Museum of Arts and Design’s entire curatorial team: Elissa Auther, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs and the William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator; Barbara Paris Gifford, Associate Curator; Samantha De Tillio, Collections Curator; Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, Assistant Curator; and Christian Larsen, Windgate Research Curator, with assistance from Alida Jekabson, Curatorial Assistant.
Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe: Tabernacles for Trying Times
“The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) presents Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe: Tabernacles for Trying Times. The exhibition, originating from Maine’s Portland Museum of Art, marks the first major museum survey of painter Carrie Moyer and sculptor Sheila Pepe, whose abstract works, rich with color and materiality, explore themes of craft, feminism, and queer activism.
Highlighting the artists’ individual styles and techniques, collaborative works, and new directions through more than 25 works on view, the exhibition presents their most ambitious collaboration to date. The impressively scaled Parlor for the People is a site-specific installation that reimagines the religious tradition of the tabernacle as a communal space open to all for the discussion of justice, equality, knowledge, and these ‘trying times’.” — Museum of Arts and Design
Carries a Soft Stick, 2016. Oil paint, wood, cut plastic bag, and glitter on canvas, 47 × 44 × 3 in. (119.4 × 111.7 × 7.6 cm). Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe.
Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe: Tabernacles for Trying Times exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, has been organized by the Portland Museum of Art, Maine. It was curated by Jaime DeSimone of the Portland Museum of Art and Robert and Elizabeth Nanovic, Curator of Contemporary Art.
“The Jewish Museum presents Louise Bourgeois, Freud’s Daughter, an exhibition that explores Bourgeois’s complex and ambivalent relationship with Freudian psychoanalysis. Curated by Philip Larratt-Smith, the exhibition showcases a selection of Bourgeois’s psychoanalytic writings — many of them presented to the public for the first time — along with nearly 50 works from throughout her career, including the Personages of the late 1940s; the organic forms in plaster and latex of the 1960s; the pivotal installation The Destruction of the Father (1974); Passage Dangereux (1997), the largest of the artist’s Cell installations; and the fabric sculptures from the last 15 years of her life. The exhibition will be on view at the Jewish Museum from May 21 through September 12, 2021.” — The Jewish Museum
Larratt-Smith said, “Bourgeois’s psychoanalytic writings profoundly recalibrate our understanding of her artistic trajectory and motivational impulses. They do not explain or demystify her art, but rather represent a freestanding corpus of writing that display her unusual literary gifts and underline her enduring engagement with analysis. They highlight the centrality of her Oedipal deadlock as the traumatic kernel of her psychic organization. And they complicate the narrative of early childhood trauma which the artist herself fostered, encouraging instead a more nuanced appreciation of this relationship which she often spoke about.”
At Oedipus time I never had a chance. — Louise Bourgeois
Conscious and Unconscious, 2008. Fabric, rubber, thread, and stainless steel, 69 x 37 x 18 1/2″; 175.3 x 94 x 47 cm. Vitrine: 88 1/2 x 66 x 37″; 224.8 x 167.6 x 94 cm. Collection The Easton Foundation.
Hysterical, 2001. Fabric, stainless steel, glass, wood, and lead, 18 x 8 x 6 1/4 “; 45.7 x 20.3 x 15.9 cm. Collection The Easton Foundation.
Louise Bourgeois, Cicle of “Worries”, loose sheet of writing, April 24, 1952.
Louise Bourgeois, When I do not “attack” I do not feel myself alive. Loose sheet of writing, c. 1961.
Passage Dangereux (detail), 1997. Metal, wood, tapestry, rubber, marble, steel, glass, bronze, bones, flax, and mirrors, 104 x 140 x 345″; 264.2 x 355.6 x 876.3 cm. 8’7″ x 11’7″ x 28’8”; 22.1 x 29.72 x 73.15 cm. Private collection, courtesy of Hauser and Wirth Collection Services.
The Destruction of the Father, 1974-2017. Archival polyurethane resin, wood, fabric, and red light, 93 5/8 x 142 5/8 x 97 7/8″; 237.8 x 362.3 x 248.6 cm. Collection The Easton Foundation.
Louise Bourgeois, Freud’s Daughter is curated by Philip Larratt-Smith, Guest Curator, and coordinated by Shira Backer, Leon Levy Assistant Curator, The Jewish Museum.
“The Museum of Modern Art presents Fotoclubismo: Brazilian Modernist Photography, 1946–1964, the first museum exhibition of Brazilian modernist photography outside of Brazil. On view May 8 – September 26, 2021, the exhibition focuses on the unforgettable creative achievements of São Paulo’s Foto-Cine Clube Bandeirante, a group of amateur photographers widely heralded in Brazil, but essentially unknown to European and North American audiences. Fotoclubismo is comprised of over 60 photographs drawn generously from MoMA’s collection; together, they bring forward the extraordinary range of achievements of this group, provide valuable insight into the way photographic aesthetics were framed in the 1950s, and afford opportunities to reflect on the significance of amateur status today. The exhibition is organized by Sarah Meister, Curator, with Dana Ostrander, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Photography.” — The Museum of Modern Art
Installation views of Fotoclubismo: Brazilian Modernist Photography, 1946–1964, on view May 8, 2021 through September 26, 2021. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photos: Jonathan Muzikar.
“Americas Society presents Terence Gower: The Good Neighbour, a solo exhibition focused on the Canadian artist’s relationship with Mexico since the early 1990s. The exhibition offers an overview of his work from his arrival in Mexico City in 1993 to his involvement with the city’s bustling international art scene, dubbed the ‘multinational Mexican underground’ by Olivier Debroise.
Following his formation in the photo conceptual scene in Vancouver, Gower arrived in Mexico and began researching Mexican modernism. He focused particularly on architecture to deconstruct traditional dichotomies of design and craft, of high and low culture, and the role of social class in the development of the distinct modernisms of Mexico.
The title of the exhibition–the Canadian spelling is intentional–refers to the economic policy established by Franklin D. Roosevelt to reshape the relationship between the United States and Latin America. Created in the context of increasing globalization following the NAFTA agreement in 1994, Gower’s works about Mexico offer a critical analysis of contemporary Mexican society, as well as the history of neo-conceptualism in the Americas.” — Americas Society
Installation views of Terence Gower: The Good Neighbour at Americas Society. (Images: Alexander Perrelli).
“Terence Gower: The Good Neighbour is not simply a study of Gower’s works in and about Mexico, but also a tool to explore the country’s modern cultural history through works that recount and at the same time question the official national narratives of identity,” says Aimé Iglesias Lukin, Director and Chief Curator of Visual arts, Americas Society and curator of the exhibition. “In the trinational system of cultural exchange proposed by NAFTA since the early 1990s, Gower’s diplomatic strategy seems to be that of a double agent—the good neighbor that observes, highlights, twists, and disarms the established logic behind the national identities at play.”
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