Gerhard Richter: Engadin, Hauser & Wirth in St Moritz
Gerhard Richter, Silsersee (Lake Sils), 1995. Photo courtesy of Hauser & Wirth.
Curated by Dieter Schwarz and spanning three venues in the Upper Engadin—Nietzsche-Haus, the Segantini Museum, and Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz—this groundbreaking exhibition delves into Gerhard Richter's profound connection with the alpine landscape. Born in 1932, Richter is widely recognized as one of the most significant and celebrated artists of our era, with his works prominently featured in international collections and exhibited across Europe and the United States. Richter's affinity for the Swiss Alpine village Sils in the Upper Engadin region began in 1989, evolving into a consistent presence during both summer and winter vacations over the next 25 years.
Gerhard Richter, 12.3.92, 1995. Photo courtesy of Hauser & Wirth.
The exhibition showcases over seventy pieces, including paintings, overpainted photographs, drawings, and objects sourced from museums and private collections, providing a testament to the artist's enduring fascination with the Upper Engadin. Displayed at the Segantini Museum and Hauser & Wirth are Richter's paintings, stemming from photographs captured during his hikes in the Upper Engadin. These pieces signify a pivotal shift in his landscape painting, a genre that has perpetually appealed to him for its perceived timelessness. Richter's Engadin landscapes, featured in the exhibition, exemplify the ambiguity inherent in his art, oscillating between an alluring transfiguration of nature and a contemplative reflection on its inherent otherness.
Present Tense, Hauser & Wirth in Somerset
Installation view, Present Tense, Hauser & Wirth Somerset. Photo courtesy of Hauser & Wirth.
Present Tense shines a spotlight on the upcoming generation of artists currently residing and actively creating in the United Kingdom, encompassing those in the early stages of their careers to mid-career professionals. This comprehensive group showcase features 23 contemporary artists not affiliated with the Hauser & Wirth roster, boldly pushing the boundaries of their respective mediums to explore and challenge concepts related to identity, consciousness, humanity, and representation. The diverse presentation celebrates a wide spectrum of creative talent and socially engaged practices, with each artist offering a unique perspective that responds to the present cultural climate in the UK. Their works collectively depict a range of lived experiences, intricately interwoven within the cultural fabric of the same location.
Installation view, Present Tense, Hauser & Wirth Somerset. Photo courtesy of Hauser & Wirth.
Complementing the exhibition is an extensive event and learning program running concurrently, designed to delve deeper into the themes explored within the galleries. This program facilitates meaningful dialogue around the points of intersection within the artists' practices, encouraging a broader engagement with the artistic perspectives on identity, consciousness, humanity, and representation as they relate to the current socio-cultural landscape in the UK.
Theaster Gates: Hold Me, Hold Me, Hold Me, White Cube in New York
Theaster Gates, 11th Floor with Triangle and Mask, 2023. Photo courtesy of White Cube.
The solo exhibition, Hold Me, Hold Me, Hold Me, by Theaster Gates is a profound exploration of material pairings in painting, sculpture, and archival installation, echoing musical harmonic devices. Departing from a visually centric approach to art, Gates transforms the gallery space into a metronomic tableau that delves into the capacity of sound to encapsulate pain, joy, temporality, memory, and contingency. The exhibition, an immersive homage to community, draws inspiration from the 1970s duet Be Real Black For Me by Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack, particularly the poignant repetition of the phrase 'hold me,' serving as a thematic through line in Gates's artistic practice. Beyond the aesthetic, Gates reflects on the intricate connections between music, composition, and the nuanced interplay of mental health and artistic expression, acknowledging Hathaway's own struggles with fame and creative transmission during his lifetime.
Installation view, Theaster Gates: Hold Me, Hold Me, Hold Me, White Cube New York. Photo courtesy of White Cube.
Gates's exploration extends to the history of built environments, craftsmanship, and music, offering a multisensory experience that resonates with personal and collective memory. By shifting the ideological focus from the visual to the metronomic, 'Hold Me, Hold Me, Hold Me' stands as a testament to the transformative power of art in addressing profound aspects of the human experience.
Stanley Whitney: Dear Paris, Gagosian rue de Castiglione in Paris
Stanley Whitney, There Will Be Song, 2023. Photo courtesy of Gagosian.
Incorporating the inspiration drawn from an extended residence in the French capital, "Dear Paris" stands as the latest expression of Whitney's lyrical abstractions. Demonstrating a delicate balance between systematic structure and expressive spontaneity, the artist meticulously crafted the painting in his distinctive approach—building it block by block, starting from the top left and progressing in rows across and down the canvas. Each shape within the artwork is brought to life through Whitney's energetic brushwork, with deliberate choices in vivid hues and careful shaping of boundaries in relation to their predecessors. Linear bands between rows serve both as dividers and unifiers, contributing to the painting's subtly shifting freehand geometry.
Installation view, Stanley Whitney: Dear Paris, Gagosian rue de Castiglione, Paris. Photo courtesy of Gagosian.
Engaging with abstraction since the 1970s, Whitney solidified his mature style during the 1990s while residing and working in Rome. The chosen compositional framework affords him the freedom to improvise, allowing for the emergence of unexpected chromatic harmonies and dynamic visual rhythms. Whitney's influences are broad ranging, encompassing the polyphonic call and response of jazz, the transformative interplay of light on historic structures, American quilt making traditions, and revered artists such as Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, and Giorgio Morandi. "Dear Paris" thus becomes a testament to the artist's diverse inspirations and the amalgamation of various artistic influences in his oeuvre.
Doron Langberg: Night, Victoria Miro in London
Doron Langberg, Basement, 2023. Photo courtesy of Victoria Miro.
Over the past year, the Israeli American artist has dedicated his efforts to a series of paintings that recount an unfolding narrative from a night out extending into the following morning. Through the lens of a queer perspective, Langberg captures the essence of friends and lovers converging to revel in a judgment-free space, dancing, drinking, and merging beneath the rhythmic glow of pulsating lights. Bodies seamlessly blend into one another, portraying the liberating atmosphere of the depicted scenes.
Doron Langberg, The Walk Back (Underwear Party), 2023. Photo courtesy of Victoria Miro.
The standout piece in this series, Basement (2023), is a large-scale painting that vividly encapsulates the kinetic energy of a packed dance floor where both body and mind find a sense of release. Langberg's adept use of a warm palette, saturated with fiery reds and hot pinks, infuses the artwork with a tangible vitality. In reflecting on this series, Langberg expressed his desire to explore the environments that individuals create for themselves, where genuine connections flourish. By depicting these scenes on a grand scale with dense paint application, the artist aims to convey the profound impact and significance of these moments in his personal experience.
Sam Gilliam: The Last Five Years, David Kordansky in Los Angeles
Installation view, Sam Gilliam: The Last Five Years, David Kordansky Gallery Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery.
The two-part exhibition titled Sam Gilliam: The Last Five Years showcases paintings created by Gilliam between 2018 and 2022. Presented by David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, the exhibition, on display from January 13 to March 3, 2024, features works from Gilliam's Drape series and a selection of watercolors. Concurrently, Pace's presentation, held in New York until October 28, 2023, focused on the artist's beveled-edge canvases and included Gilliam's tondo paintings, a format explored extensively in the final chapter of his career. The exhibition spans both venues and predominantly comprises artworks never previously exhibited, accompanied by a catalog jointly produced by Pace Publishing and David Kordansky Gallery. The catalog includes a new critical essay by curator and art historian Lowery Stokes Sims.
Details of Sam Gilliam Untitled (tondo), 2022. Photo courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery.
Sam Gilliam: The Last Five Years encapsulates the spirit of discovery that characterized every phase of Gilliam's extensive career, particularly heightened in the concluding years as he explored new possibilities within his enduring formal vocabularies. The exhibition serves as a documentation of Gilliam's comprehensive self-reflection on his artmaking, wherein each addition to his body of work not only expanded his artistic range but also prompted a reassessment and reconsideration of his entire artistic journey.
Marika Thunder: Machine Works, Micki Meng in San Francisco
Lead image, Marika Thunder: Machine Works. Photo courtesy of Friends Indeed Los Angeles.
Thunder's artistic approach intricately weaves together a sophisticated tapestry of painterly allusions, delving into the intricate dynamics of connection and detachment between mechanical entities and humanity. Drawing inspiration from constructivist aesthetics and contemporary cultural aspirations, Thunder adeptly reimagines the essence of exercise machinery, echoing the mechanical allure reminiscent of Francis Picabia's artistic exploration. Through a lens that visualizes technology's subtle interaction with animism, Thunder's work evokes the spirit of Lee Lozano's dynamic compositions, where tools seem to pulsate with an autonomous energy.
Employing a grayscale palette reminiscent of Gerhard Richter's nuanced exploration of tone, Thunder masterfully imbues her subjects with a sense of detachment, neutralizing their vibrant hues. By stripping away color from the metallic surfaces, Thunder intensifies the focus on the interplay of light, shadow, and the sleek forms of each component. This deliberate choice accentuates the textures inherent in the machinery, ultimately revealing a profound bodily essence embedded within the streamlined contours of the equipment.
Ben Tong: The Violet Hour, Night Gallery in Los Angeles
Ben Tong, Many Suns, 2023. Photo courtesy of Night Gallery.
Ben Tong's enigmatic artworks, deeply influenced by the essence of California, emanate a profound aura that resonates within the vastness of empty spaces and scattered points of light. The title "The Violet Hour" hints at a twilight state, where reality merges with the dreamlike realm, suffused with the deepest interplay of light and darkness. Tong's latest collection delves into the painted canvas like excavating memories, establishing a luminous atmosphere through expressive gestures and material interactions.
Installation view, Ben Tong: The Violet Hour, 2024. Photo courtesy of Night Gallery.
The dynamic process evident in Tong's artistic practice echoes the evocative resonance found in his final creations. His canvases, while open and unencumbered, pulsate with consciousness, charged with contemplative depth. Tong employs unconventional tools, ranging from rags to massage guns, to imprint oil paint onto the canvas continually. This unpredictability fosters an environment where the artist remains receptive to emergent forms, serving as a conduit for chaos and latent imagery. Shapes emerge from the interplay of painting and erasure, bathed in vibrant shades of purple, blue, orange, and pink, while spectral rainbows dance across the scenes, refracting light from an enigmatic source. In Tong's art, action precedes meaning, shaping a narrative that unfolds organically.
Tommy Harrison: Double Blind, GRIMM Gallery in Amsterdam
Tommy Harrison, Scuttle, 2023. Photo courtesy of GRIMM Gallery.
Double Bind marks a significant return for Harrison, whose background in landscape architecture from the English Midlands is evident in his meticulously organized spatial arrangements. After relocating to Amsterdam and immersing himself in the city's hauntingly illuminated streets and renowned museums, particularly drawn to Dutch Golden Age and Parisian Expressionist works, Harrison's artistic journey took shape. Inspired by Chaïm Soutine's visceral depictions, such as "Le Boeuf," Harrison's own paintings reflect a fascination with the flesh and mortality, echoing the raw intensity of Soutine's abattoir scenes.
Tommy Harrison, Corridor, 2023. Photo courtesy of GRIMM Gallery.
Harrison's artworks, characterized by their corporeal and at times unsettling nature, delve into the existential realm, contemplating the essence of life after death. Fearlessly confronting his subjects, whether drawn from reality or art history, Harrison transforms them, challenging viewers to reevaluate their conventional understanding. Through his compositions, Harrison navigates the tension between opposing forces – the real and the surreal, the mundane and the profound, life and death. Thus, the exhibition's title, Double Bind, encapsulates the inherent struggle captured within Harrison's gripping artworks, presenting viewers with a compelling exploration of dualities and existential inquiries.
Marina Perez Simão: Solanaceae, Pace in Los Angeles
Lead image, Marina Perez Simão: Solanaceae. Photo courtesy of Pace.
Solanaceae brings together approximately 15 artworks, varying in size from various canvases to monumental panoramas, all created by the artist over the past year. This exhibition marks Simão's inaugural solo presentation in Los Angeles and the broader West Coast region of the United States, coinciding with the 2024 Frieze LA edition.
Marina Perez Simão in front of one of her works. Photo courtesy of Pace.
Spanning across oil painting, watercolor, and printmaking, Simão is renowned for her vibrant and poetic compositions that traverse both internal and external landscapes. Through her artistic practice, she crafts visual odysseys into semi-abstract and often enigmatic realms comprised of organic, undulating forms. Infused with visions and recollections, Simão's dreamlike landscapes mirror her profound fascination with abstraction's ability to convey notions, ideas, and emotions beyond the confines of language.