Top 15 Must-Visit Art Shows in New York this Week: Murillo to Yayoi Kusama
From the many art shows happening in and around New York, Blouin Artinfo selects the top 15 which are must-visits this coming week. Here is the list for you to plan your calendar.
Cecily Brown at Paula Cooper Gallery
October 27 – December 2, 2017
This exhibition presents recent paintings by artist Cecily Brown (b. 1969). In this show titled “A Day! Help! Help! Another Day!” the artist presents an allegorical and turbulent vision, drawing from Théodore Géricault’s painting of a shipwreck, The Raft of Medusa (1818-19), as well as those by Eugène Delacroix. Included in the exhibition will be Brown’s largest painting to date, a massive triptych of a shipwreck.
‘Club 57’ at Museum of Modern Art
October 31, 2017 – April 1, 2018
The exhibition is the first to examine the experimental scene-changing downtown New York’s seminal alternative space that was Club 57. The show will explore the legacy of Club 57’s founding curatorial staff film programmers Susan Hannaford and Tom Scully. The show features many works that have not been exhibited publicly since the 1980s.
‘AMPL!FY’ at Museum of Arts and Design
November 2, 2017 – January 7, 2018
AMPL!FY is a public art and design initiative that partners artists and designers with non-profit organizations working on the front lines of social justice. Through these partnerships, the initiative aims to create thought-provoking posters on themes relevant to each organization. The goal of this project is to leverage the power of art and design to support and publicize the work of New York City-based non-profits addressing a wide range of social justice concerns.
‘Murillo: The Self-Portraits’ at The Frick Collection
November 1, 2017 – February 4, 2018
This exhibition marks the 400th birth anniversary of Spanish Golden Age painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (b. 1617). The show presents two self-portraits that are the only known images of the painter by his own hand. The two portraits have not been seen together since at least the early 18th century. The exhibition will also feature a group of 15 other works on loan from international private and public collections. These will include paintings of other sitters by Murillo, as well as later reproductions of the two paintings that reflect their fame in Europe.
‘Yayoi Kusama: Festival of Life’ at David Zwirner
November 2 – December 16, 2017
This exhibition presents recent work by artist Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929). The show will feature 66 paintings from her “My Eternal Soul” series, new large-scale flower sculptures, a polka-dotted environment, and two Infinity Mirror Rooms in the Chelsea locations, and a selection of new “Infinity Nets” paintings uptown.
‘Ardent Nature. Arshile Gorky Landscapes, 1943 – 47’ at Hauser & Wirth
November 2- December 23, 2017
The exhibition is the inaugural presentation of works by Arshile Gorky (b. 1904), a seminal figure in the shift to abstraction that transformed 20th century American art. The exhibition features more than 50 landscapes – including paintings and works on paper – from this critical time in the artist’s life and work. “Ardent Nature” is the first New York exhibition exclusively dedicated to the artist’s mature works, and presents Gorky at the height of his artistic powers.
Florian Maier-Aichen at 303 Gallery
November 2 – December 22, 2017
Landscape photographer Florian Maier-Aichen (b. 1973) has been long concerned with extending the limits of traditional photography into new formal and psychological spaces. Maier-Aichen uses a combination of picture-taking and picture-making as a way to trigger an indistinct combination of personal and cultural signifiers. The exhibition presents recent works by the artist.
Donald Baechler at Cheim & Read
November 2 – December 23, 2017
This exhibition presents textured, imagery-laden new works by American artist Donald Baechler (b. 1956). Baechler’s works are identifiable for the use of his clichéd yet signature motifs like skull, rose, globe and soccer ball to depict scenes of childhood. The exhibition is an extension of the artist’s continuous exploration of heavily outlined, iconic imagery set against richly textured, layered fields, which often are composed of fabric collage.
‘Ileana Sonnabend and Arte Povera’ at Lévy Gorvy
November 2 – December 23, 2017
This exhibition celebrates the 15th anniversary of the Arte Povera movement’s inception. Curated by the renowned art historian and Arte Povera forefather Germano Celant, this exhibition is the first to investigate Ileana Sonnabend’s central role in the international reception of Arte Povera, and the close friendship between Celant and Sonnabend that grew out of their shared interest in the Italian artists. The exhibition will include works by Giovanni Anselmo, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Giulio Paolini, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Gilberto Zorio.
‘Elizabeth Murray: Painting in the ’80s’ at Pace
November 02, 2017 – January 13, 2018
This exhibition explores a critical decade in Elizabeth Murray’s (b. 1940) career, the decade during which the artist began painting her iconic shaped canvases. The exhibition draws together 16 paintings created by her in the 1980s where Murray balances seemingly opposing forces — combining geometric and biomorphic shapes, hard edges and feathery brushstrokes, imagery and abstraction and oil paint and three-dimensional structure.
‘Neil Jenney: Drawings & Paintings’ at Gagosian
October 27 – December 22, 2017
The exhibition presents drawings and paintings by Neil Jenney (b. 1945). A maverick in 20th-century American art, Jenney shifted his focus from abstract painting and sculpture in order to pursue a new type of realism, adopting the binary of “bad” and “good” paintings. The show includes one painting from each of the three key phases in Jenney’s career, as well as a selection of drawings, which further reveal his social and artistic concerns.
‘Nuvolo and Post-War Materiality 1950–1965’ at Di Donna Galleries
October 27, 2017 – January 26, 2018
The exhibition features 20 never-seen-before artworks by Italian painter Giorgio Ascani aka Nuvolo (1926–2008). The selection of works on display includes pieces from the artist’s series “cuciti a macchina,” “daini,” and “diagrammi.” These works reflect Nuvolo’s level of artistic variation and use of materials and processes. The show examines and charts the artist’s development and radicalization of the existing traditional notions of painting and sculpture through the utilization of the physical properties inherent in raw materials. The show also includes works by other post-World War II artists such as Alberto Burri, Ettore Colla, Lucio Fontana, and Cy Twombly among others.
‘A Passion for Jade’ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Running through July 22, 2018
This exhibition presents some 100 precious carvings in Chinese and Mughal jade, as well as other hardstones, all collected by Heber R. Bishop. The objects on view represent the sophisticated art of Chinese lapidaries during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) as well as the highly accomplished work of Mughal Indian jade carvers, which provided their Chinese counterparts with exotic inspiration.
‘Roots of “The Dinner Party”: History in the Making’ at the Brooklyn Museum
Running through March 4, 2018
The exhibition attempts to examine the plans surrounding feminist artist Judy Chicago’s installation “The Dinner Party (1974–79)”, which aimed to confront the negligence over the role of women in mainstream historical narratives. The exhibition delves deep into the installation, with a focus towards the close detailing of this multilayered artwork. The show will include rarely seen test plates, research documents, ephemera, notebooks, and preparatory drawings from 1971 through 1979 alongside the installation, emphasizing on the artwork’s formal, conceptual, and material progress.
‘Toyin Ojih Odutola: To Wander Determined’ at the Whitney Museum of American Art
October 20 onwards
The exhibition presents an interconnected series of fictional portraits by artist Ojih Odutola (b. 1985), in her debut museum solo in New York. Known for her intimate drawings that explore the complexity and malleability of identity, these selected works depict the lives of two aristocratic Nigerian families. These life-sized enigmatic and mysterious figures, set in the lavish backdrops of domestic bliss and abundance of comfort etched through the artist’s crafty maneuvering with charcoal, pastel, and pencil, reflect her own range of inspirations that span from art history to popular culture to experiences of migration and dislocation.
JULA 