JOE FIG – CONTEMPLATION

Posted on 2020-09-21

The paintings in Contemplation present versions of the same scene: people looking at art. Some are in galleries, others in museums. Settings run the gamut from crowded blockbuster shows where the visitors take prominence, to quiet and intimate portraits of an individual completely absorbed in an artwork. Begun in 2016, the series illustrates numerous exhibitions from the past few years, and chronicles the artist’s travels across the country.

When we contemplate an artwork, we break it down to its elements, evaluate what we see, and form opinions. We consider what is being communicated. Contemplation is something artists constantly do. When making something, artists frequently pause to take a step back, look, and reflect. Far from passive, contemplation is a busy action. It’s as intrinsic to the creative process as the actual physical work of making an object. As Fig says, “It’s in this moment of seeming inactivity where the artist is working the hardest.”

Opposite – Opening: Donald Moffett, any fallow field, 2016-17

Exhibition runs through to October 17th, 2020

Cristin Tierney
219 Bowery, Floor 2
NY 10002
New York

www.cristintierney.com

  

ANNE-LISE COSTE

Posted on 2020-09-21

Amidst a time of social unrest and political and economic uncertainty, Anne-Lise Coste’s works, imbued in raw and unrestrained energy, conform a catalyst for upheaval by dint of making the exhibition a space for political protest.
Coste’s oeuvre possesses a vibrant sense of immediacy in their execution, as if we come across them seconds after their execution. Through a clear-cut use of language, her work, amidst painting, sculpture, and graffiti, conveys strong political messages framed in what we could call emotional rebellion.

Opposite – PUTE, 2019

Exhibition runs through to October 21st, 2020

Ellen de Bruijne Projects
Singel 372
1016 AH Amsterdam
The Netherlands

www.edbprojects.com

  

JORGE TACLA – SEÑALES DE ABANDONO

Posted on 2020-09-21

Like much of Tacla’s work, his paintings represent a space of social rupture. These works situate themselves in the joints of a new architecture that arises in the wake of catastrophe-natural or man-made. Tacla perceives the devastation that results from such events as an opportunity to investigate structural systems that would otherwise remain unseen. To signify such unsettled worlds, he uses pictorial languages that are obsessive: sometimes repeating the images, sometimes repeating the same gesture in the same space many times until the visual register is analogous to the trauma that prompts it. Tacla Illuminates the variability of identity for victim and aggressor, an agent who is disassociated from his or her own identity and the complexity of the assessment of guilt. These critical issues, and their situation in the larger, collective human experience, are the defining theoretical inquiries of Tacla’s work.

Opposite – Jorge Tacla Señal de abandono 30, 2018

Exhibition runs through to November 14th, 2020

Sabrina Amrani
Sallaberry, 52
28019 Madrid
Spain

www.sabrinaamrani.com

  

KENNY SCHARF – DYSTOPIANPAINTING

Posted on 2020-09-14

Kenny Scharf: DystopianPainting will debut 18 paintings and a sculpture by Scharf, showcasing the energy and depth of his singular artistic practice. The artist’s new body of work reflects his continued immersion in the everyday life of urban society and circumstances of our time, blending quotidian and deeply relevant themes within the framework of his bright, frenetic canvases and enduring optimism.

Opposite – Spin Out, 2020

Exhibition runs through to October 28th, 2020

Almine Rech
39 East 78th Street
NY 10075 New York

www.alminerech.com

  

VIRGINIA OVERTON – ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS

Posted on 2020-09-14

In this body of work the artist explores the histories embedded in certain materials, and the narratives and value systems that are created when these materials are appropriated, revived and re-contextualised.

Overton’s sculptures are made from objects and elements she comes across in her immediate environment, her choices and working process driven by what she has described as the ‘natural push and pull in materials’. She selects materials that are part ready-mades, altering their purpose and function through a shift in perspective or orientation. As with so much of her work, the materials used in this exhibition have had other lives before taking on a life as artwork. For this new series of sculptures Overton has reassembled aluminium letters and logos salvaged from the names and signs adorning the facades of high-rise corporate buildings.

Opposite – Untitled, 2020

Exhibition runs through to November 14th, 2020

White Cube
50 Connaught Road Central
Hong Kong
China

www.whitecube.com

  

PATRICK BAYLY – LIKE A LION, MY HANDS AND MY FEET

Posted on 2020-09-14

Like a lion, my hands and my feet, is a solo exhibition by New York based Patrick Bayly which consists of a quartet of paintings, each composed with a dominant color that also is its title–violet, yellow, red and green. The major color of one work returns as an accent in the other works. For example, violet has a glowing green bar of soap; red has a green neon “BAR” sign; and green has an orange plastic crate. Bayly’s paintings are at once whimsical and sinister; his neon palette produces a dramatic mood that is further heightened through pose, gesture and juxtaposition. In violet, two people reach down to a figure slumped on a checkered bathroom floor; in green, one person wearing a hazmat suit digs a hole while another plays the drums and in yellow, a woman holds a watering can as she stands in front of a curtain adorned with scenes from an orgy. The scenes are difficult to decipher, but the moods are palpable.

Opposite – red, bedroom, 2020

Exhibition runs through to October 10th, 2020

Steve Turner
6830 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles
CA 90038

steveturner.la