6 New York Art Exhibitions Not To Miss This May
By Something CuratedLooking ahead at the month, Something Curated highlights six of the most exciting art exhibitions taking place in New York this May.
Dangerous Liaisons at David Zwirner || Chris Ofili (Until 15 Jun 2019)
Dangerous Liaisons marks Chris Ofili’s fourth solo presentation with David Zwirner. The title of the exhibition references René Magritte’s eponymous painting of 1935, which Ofili explores in drawings that employ the compositional organisation of the Surrealist’s work as a structure for his own rich and layered colourism. The interwoven patterns and forms in these works create dynamic visuals in which the delicately rendered surfaces optically pulse and vibrate.
Changing and Unchanging Things: Noguchi and Hasegawa in Postwar Japan at The Noguchi Museum || Isamu Noguchi & Saburo Hasegawa (Until 14 Jul 2019)
Changing and Unchanging Things: Noguchi and Hasegawa in Postwar Japan is a major traveling exhibition focused on the consequential friendship between Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) and Saburo Hasegawa (1906–1957). In his lifetime, Hasegawa was among the most renowned contemporary Japanese artists in the United States, and credited with introducing European abstraction to Japan in his role as an art historian, critic, and art theorist. Their relationship was kindled during Noguchi’s visit to Japan in 1950, as both artists sought to understand the fragmented postwar world and the potential of art in reassembling it.
She Is Risen at JTT|| Doreen Garner (Until 26 May 2019)
Doreen Garner’s sculptures glisten with oscillations between female body and flesh. They shimmer; they fold and curve and seem to sweat. Her renderings of bodies move beyond representations of weight, colour, and texture to reveal luminous subdermal layers of fat and muscle. They call attention to what philosopher Hortense J. Spillers describes as the “arrangements of gender,” through which gender itself is shown to be a product of an intimate relationship between race, power, and recognition.
Sheer Presence: Monumental Paintings By Robert Motherwell at Kasmin || Robert Motherwell (Until 18 May 2019)
This exhibition is the first to focus solely on Robert Motherwell’s approach to large-format painting and will be comprised of eight works spanning the 1960s – 1990, including a core group of paintings from the collection of The Dedalus Foundation. The paintings in the exhibition are representative of several major themes explored by Motherwell throughout his career.
Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving at Brooklyn Museum || Frida Kahlo (Until 12 May 2019)
Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s unique and immediately recognisable style was an integral part of her identity. Kahlo came to define herself through her ethnicity, disability, and politics, all of which were at the heart of her work. Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving is the largest US exhibition in ten years devoted to the iconic painter and the first in the United States to display a collection of her clothing and other personal possessions, which were rediscovered and inventoried in 2004 after being locked away since Kahlo’s death, in 1954.
Source, Tau, Throwback at Pace || Tony Smith (Until 22 Jun 2019)
Shaped by his training and prior career as an architect, Tony Smith’s work is animated by a dynamic concept of space and a commitment to sculpture as an object to be catalyzed by the direct engagement of the human body. Possessing no traditional front or back and occupying non-linear planes of space, Smith’s sculptures reward an ambulatory viewing experience, offering a range of perspectives and understandings as one circulates the work.
Feature image: Installation view. Chris Ofili: Dangerous Liaisons. May 1–June 15, 2019 at David Zwirner (via David Zwirner)