What’s On this Week: New York
Opening this Thursday
Ashley Bickerton x2
Seascapes at the End of History curated by Ellie Rines at Lehmann Maupin and A Remote Simmer of Their Own at O’Flaherty’s
Both exhibitions open January 27, 6-8 PM and run through March 5, 2022
Lehmann Maupin, W24th Street, New York NY 10011
O’Flaherty’s, Avenue C, New York NY 10009
Debuting at Lehmann Maupin, Ashley Bickerton’s Ocean Chunk series that the artist first started working on in 1993 combines stainless steel, fiberglass, resin, and native debris to recreate chunks of the ocean in sculptural form. As concerns about global warming increase and the oceans rise, these sculptural snapshots provide a moment to contemplate the beauty and magnitude of the ocean basins that dominate our planet. “They are both sensual and transformative,” says curator Ellie Rines. Also pertaining to bodies of water, works from the Vector and Floater series are included in the show. Concurrently, in East Village, O’Flaherty’s will be opening a solo show with the artist’s work. If you love the sand and sea go see both.
Closing Soon
On The Bowery: A Group Show curated by Loren Munk at Gallery Zürcher
The exhibition runs through January 30, 2022
33 Bleecker Street, New York NY 1001
This archival exhibition presents works on loan from artist estates, galleries, and private collections in clusters organized after the address of each artist’s studio on the Bowery. An image of an empty gallery space from 1972 where Vito Acconci performed SEEDBED is especially telling, pointing attention to the walls that protect, sustain, and facilitate artistic production. Beyond the works themselves, the exhibition evokes interpersonal relationships between artists. In 163 Bowery, Robert Ryman and Sylvia Plimack Mangolds friendship is well-known but the goings-on in 222 Bowery were nine artists in the show occupied studios are less documented. In the exhibition’s catalog anecdotes offer glimpses into the intrapersonal relattionships between artists, Regina Bogat writes about Mark Rothko: “Rothko came to work in the mornings with a large sandwich and a bottle of cheap rye whiskey. He had a commission to paint murals for the Seagram private dining room so his assistants erected walls to replicate the Seagram space. Mark mixed powdered pigment and eggs. He called the resulting color “plum.” Borrowing Pierre Bourdieu’s term “field of cultural production” the exhibition situates the artistries within the social conditions of their production; this is further visualized by Munk in colorful maps indicating artist studios, art supply stores, bars, and other places frequented by the artists in the neighborhood.
Explorations in Duo and Polychromatic Color
Werner Berges Chromatic Euphorias at Helwaser Gallery
The exhibition runs through February 12, 2022
833 Madison Avenue, Third Floor, New York, NY 10021
The flat duo and polychromatic exacting cut vinyl on paper and acrylic on canvas works in Chromatic Euphorias display utopian ideals of free love, joy, and emancipation while offering a window into the visual language of advertising and broadcasting culture of Post-War Germany. Tethering between appeal and overindulgence, German pop artist Werner Berges depicts sexualized female nudes and figures experiencing unbridled joy. Incorporating aesthetics clues to the mediums he is referencing, Berges works with close-ups akin to those in television production and circles, grids, and stripes prevalent in graphic design. The gallery has researched the artists’ use of various vinyls to bring attention to his interest in media aesthetics and the innovation in plastics that follows its developments. Marking the artists first solo-show in New York, this exhibition is a must-see for those interested art and material culture of the 1960’s and ‘70s.
Recent Paintings by Christian Floquet at Ceysson & Bénétière
The exhibition runs through February 19, 2022
956 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10021
Color combinations are still most difficult,” Swiss artist Christian Floquet commented to the author at the opening of his exhibition Recent Paintings at Ceysson & Bénétière. His first exhibition in New York was in 1988 at John Gibson Gallery together with other Suisse Eclat artists. These artists worked with layering of mediums while pushing the boundaries of form. Floquet’s recent work is experimental but squarely minimalist and the works on view are marked by confrontations between colors and areas touching, floating, resting, and attempting to escape within and beyond the picture plane. With its stark colors, the exhibition proves that there is till much to be explored within minimalist painting.