MATTHEW WONG – PAINTINGS FROM LOS ANGELES 2016

Posted on 2022-05-09

The works in Paintings from Los Angeles 2016 differ markedly from those widely exhibited during the artist’s lifetime. Instead of the blues which have become virtually synonymous with the artist in the public imagination, the palette and textures of these paintings reflect the super-heated atmosphere of Los Angeles, where a teeming metropolis collides with the harsh natural landscape: the Pacific ocean, mountains, and desert. Wong, a Canadian artist who was born in Toronto in 1984 and lived and worked in Edmonton, made these paintings in 2016 during a three-month stay in Los Angeles, the last stop on a visit which included New York and Michigan.

Opposite – THE DESERT, 2016

Exhibition runs through to September 10th, 2022

Cheim & Read
547 West 25 Street
10001
New York

www.cheimread.com

  

EMILY SUNDBLAD – UNDERLIVET

Posted on 2022-05-09

Emily Sundblad (b. 1977, Sweden) is an American-based, Swedish-born painter, gallerist, and musician. She co-founded and co-directs Reena Spaulings, an art collective and gallery located in Chinatown that exhibits one of the most consistent programs in New York. As an artist in her own right, Sundblad is known for her vibrant paintings—especially of flowers, which she describes as “a good empty subject.” Her approach is that of a Sunday painter—humble and modest, using oil, pastel, gouache, and watercolor in “a simple impulse to record everyday life.” As a musician, Sundblad sings with a dulcet, violin-like tone and works in traditions she considers populist: country, punk, torch songs, and British, American, and Mexican folk music.

Opposite – Romy and Marie, 2022

Exhibition runs through to June 18th, 2022

Bortolami Gallery
39 Walker Street
NY 10013
New York

bortolamigallery.com

  

JON PILKINGTON – OSWALD MY BOY

Posted on 2022-05-02

With this new series, Pilkington expands on themes he’s been exploring for a few years now: antique porcelain figurines, pottery and motifs. He experiments with loose impressions, art historical references and his own fantasy, blending together traces of an elusive past to portray a personal (re-)collection of bygone times.
The title of the show is both a direct reference to the artist’s own dog, Oswald, who joins him to the studio every day and to The Beatles’ song ‘Martha My Dear’, which is about Paul McCartney’s sheep dog, but also to the many dogs portrayed in the paintings. The titles of the works on the other hand, directly refer to the activity in the paintings. They’re all three-word titles which were made up beforehand, as themes to inspire the content, to create scenes in response to them.

Opposite – A Butcher’s Dozen, 2022

Exhibition runs through to June 25th, 2022

Keteleer Gallery
Bremdonck
Bredabaan 93 (Plataandreef)
2930 Brasschaat
Belgium

gagosian.com

  

ERNESTO NETO – BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY

Posted on 2022-05-02

Since the 1990s Ernesto Neto has created a distinct body of work— an ongoing formal inquiry into space, volume, balance, and gravity that is equally informed by sensuality, energy, and spirituality. Drawing on biomorphism, Arte Povera and Minimalist sculpture, along with Neo-concretism and other Brazilian vanguard movements of the 1960s and 1970s, Ernesto Neto’s work incorporates organic shapes and materials that engage all five senses. He is inspired by a wide range of sources– from Brazilian avant-garde artists such as Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark, through the Modernist abstraction of Alexander Calder and Constantin Brancusi, to the natural world, shamanism and craft culture.

Opposite – lifecommunity, 2022

Exhibition runs through to June 16th, 2022

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
521 West 21st Street
10011 New York

www.tanyabonakdargallery.com

  

RICHARD PRINCE – HOODS

Posted on 2022-05-02

To make Hoods, Prince acquired hoods from 1960s and ’70s muscle cars, at first ordering them primarily from advertisements in automotive magazines—a continuation of the strategic appropriation, collecting, and détournement of mass-media sources that are central to his practice. Initially, Prince hired body shops to prep and paint the hoods; later, he began applying the automotive body filler Bondo, sanding, and painting them himself by hand. Surfaces and palettes vary considerably across the series, with the matte tones of Bondo and saturated hues of paint used as compositional elements. The resulting Hoods relate to two postwar American trends: DIY car culture and avant-garde art in their exploration of abstraction and the readymade.

Opposite – Untitled, 2013

Exhibition runs through to June 25th, 2022

Gagosian
522 West 21st Street
NY 10011
New York

gagosian.com

  

RICKY SWALLOW – SAND IN MY JOINTS

Posted on 2022-04-25

Ricky Swallow’s sculptures begin with ordinary, domestic materials that are then cast in bronze to create carefully honed final objects. For over two decades, Swallow has explored the process of conversion that takes place when an object or combination of materials becomes a sculpture. His initial objects are always made by hand; their tactile imperfections enduring into the casting process. Once cast at the foundry, Swallow’s bronzes continue to be worked on in the studio, his participation a critical part of maintaining connection and control over the final form of the work. Latent references to painting, and specifically the Dutch still life tradition, resonate both in the figurative dimensions of his work as well as in its conceptual underpinnings. But these references are never uncomplicated, the trompe-l’œil effect for instance, present in Swallow’s work since its beginning, has always been a means to an end, an attention trap, or a way to slow down perception and experience – rather than an end in itself. What becomes important is the tactility and physical presence of the sculptural components, a registered and experienced behaviour of the elements comprising each piece.

Opposite – Skewed Relief #1, 2022

Exhibition runs through to May 14th, 2022

Modern Art
7 Bury Street
SW1Y 6AL
London

modernart.net