BRIAN CALVIN

Posted on 2017-08-28

Among the new group of paintings, the artist introduces tondos (circular shaped canvases), whose cropping eliminates any sense of background or place, and underscores the flatness of his compositions. Also, for the first time at the gallery, Calvin presents sculptures: stilt-size painted wooden legs leaning against the wall, suggesting a group of idle teenage loiterers. The exhibition demonstrates the evolution of Calvin’s reduced style of depicting the human form, and a looseness that opens up his pictorial vocabulary.

Through repetition of his archetypal female figure, the artist invites us to look past the inviting face we are confronted by, and consider the idiosyncrasies of his formal choices. By reducing the face to its essential features, and isolating eyes, lips, hair, each work offers pieces of a code for the viewer to interpret.

Opposite – Looking Over, 2017

Exhibition runs from September 7th – October 7th, 2017

Anton Kern Gallery
16 E. 55th Street
NY
10022 New York

www.antonkerngallery.com

  

WHAT LIES AHEAD

Posted on 2017-08-28

A group show containing works from Morten Andenæs, Martin Erik Andersen, Signe Marie Andersen, Siri Aurdal, Sofia Ekström, Hamish Fulton, Katrine Giæver, Jan Groth, Håvard Homstvedt, Olav Christopher Jenssen, Éva Mag, Kristina Matousch, Eline Mugaas, Christine Ödlund, Rallou Panagiotou, Fredrik Söderberg, Lisa Tan, Günter Umberg, Tone Vigeland, Marijke van Warmerdam, Sverre Wyller

Opposite – Kristina Matousch, What Lies Ahead 1, 2017

Exhibition runs through to September 10th, 2017

Galleri Riis
Arbins gate 7
NO-0253 Oslo
Norway

galleririis.com

  

GILBERT & GEORGE – THE BEARD PICTURES

Posted on 2017-08-28

THE BEARD PICTURES exemplifies Gilbert & George’s commitment to “Living Sculpture,” or an inseparable association between the world and their art practice. The pictures respond to the shifting demographics of our time, befitting the artists’ proclamation of “Art for All.” Viewers should not mistake this mandate for a democratic approach to art as a pleasantry. Taboos, fetishes, political upheaval, and the functions of the human body are some of the great unifiers of humanity, and Gilbert & George have long offered scathing and unsanitized societal critique.

Opposite – BEARD CODE, 2016

Exhibition runs from October 12th – December 22nd, 2017

Lehmann Maupin
536 West 22nd Street
NY
10002 New York

www.lehmannmaupin.com

  

EMILIO SUBIRA – I’M GONNA BURST YELLOW BASTARD ED.

Posted on 2017-08-28

“I’M GONNA BURST” yellow bastard Ed, limited Edition of 6 copies.

Poliurethane resin 11cms tall toy sculpture.

An original art toy by Emilio Subirá whicj has been hand painted and barnish by him at his studio in Seville, Spain.

Signed, dated and numbered, with a authenticity certificate.

emiliosubira

  

LEONARD FREED – SIX STORIES

Posted on 2017-08-28

Freed (born 1929, Brooklyn, died 2006, Garrison, New York) was one of the leading photographers of the post-War era. Culled from Freed’s extensive archive, this exhibition presents over 75 vintage black and white prints from six of the photographers most important bodies of work. Freed has been the subject of numerous recent museum exhibitions surveying the six decades of his work, but this is the first exhibition that elucidates in depth Freed’s six earliest and most personal stories. Two examine his Jewish roots, in Brooklyn and in Israel. Two portray blacks in white America, people with whom he identified strongly. Two portray the defeated enemies of the recent World War, as Freed seeks to come to terms with them. The six stories are: the Hasidics of Brooklyn, 1954; Harlem, 1963; Black in White America, 1963-65; Israel, 1962 and 1967; Italy 1956-58; Germany, 1961-66. To each of these stories Freed brought a singular humanist vision, a deep concern for individuals that is both politically sophisticated and morally engaged.

As a young man searching for his mission Freed launched his career in photography in the late 1940s, the era traumatized by a genocidal World War and a planet-threatening Cold War. Freed was at the center of a new photographic ethos developing at the international Magnum photo agency and under the concept of “the concerned photographer.” Freed brought to the collective effort a unique sensibility. His pictures emphasize the particular struggles and triumphs of unique individuals living in traumatized but recovering societies.

Opposite – Summertime in Harlem, NY, 1963

Exhibition runs from September 14th through to October 21st, 2017

Steven Kasher Gallery
521 West 23rd Street
New York
10011 NY

www.stevenkasher.com

  

RUDOLF BURCKHARDT

Posted on 2017-08-28

Eager to escape the stifling uniformity of his native city of Basel, Switzerland, Rudolph Burckhardt departed for New York in 1935. He was accompanied by his friend and poet Edwin Denby, whom he had met one year before. Although Burckhardt was based in Manhattan, Queens provided the unorthodox beauty he craved, and served as his subject throughout the 1940s. The soft-spoken artist found elegance within the deserted gas stations, overgrown lots, and the colorful characters that brought life to the city streets, making his photographs, as essayist Phillip Lopate once put it, “true to the spirit of everyday.” A filmmaker as well as a photographer, Burckhardt preferred the transience of film to the monumental aspect of photography. Yet in the album, A Walk through Astoria and Other Places in Queens (1943), Burckhardt manages to capture the fleeting grace of human existence through cinematic narrative. His images of Queens inspired Denby to write sonnets accompanying the photographs. Denby’s poems contain the same understated elegance present in Burckhardt’s images, making A Walk through Astoria and Other Places in Queens a collaborative celebration of life’s quotidian moments.

Exhibition runs through to October 14th, 2017

Bruce Silverstein Gallery
535 West 24th Street
New York
10011 NY

www.brucesilverstein.com