6 New York Art Exhibitions Not To Miss This June
By Something CuratedLooking at the month ahead, Something Curated highlights six of the most exciting art exhibitions taking place in New York this June.
Porous Structures, at Gladstone Gallery || Damián Ortega (Until 8 Jun 2019)
Concluding early this month, this show explores Ortega’s longstanding interest in visually dissecting the underlying sociohistorical narratives embedded in everyday materials. Including a mix of works created with sand, cement, brick, clay, and crystals, Porous Structures excavates the materiality of permeable structures and objects, and how the cultural, political, and socio-economic implications of manufactured and natural constructions impact humankind in both a deeply personal and universal way.
Jeff Wall, at Gagosian || Jeff Wall (Until 26 Jul 2019)
Extended until 26 July, Gagosian hosts Jeff Wall’s debut exhibition with the gallery. The majority of the works included are on view for the first time. From his pioneering use in the 1970s of backlit colour transparencies—a medium then synonymous with advertising—to his intricately constructed scenes of enigmatic incidents from daily life, literature, and film, Wall has expanded the definition of the photograph, both as object and illusion.
The Whitney’s Collection: Selections from 1900 to 1965, at Whitney Museum of American Art || David Breslin, Margaret Kross & Roxanne Smith (Opening 28 Jun 2019)
This exhibition of more than 120 works, drawn entirely from the Whitney’s collection, is inspired by the founding history of the Museum. The Whitney was established in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, a sculptor and patron, to champion the work of living American artists. Mrs. Whitney recognised both the importance of contemporary American art and the need to support the artists who made it. The collection she assembled foregrounded how artists uniquely reveal the complexity and beauty of American life.
Corks, at Kasmin || Jasper Morrison (Until 29 Jun 2019)
This exhibition puts on view Morrison’s first complete series of furniture realised in cork. As limited editions, these pieces mark a departure from the designer’s usual methods of industrial production and initiate a new collaborative partnership that speaks to Kasmin’s continued engagement with presenting work at the intersection of art and design. A domestic exhibition design brings together examples of Morrison’s chaise longue, a fireplace, chairs, stools, and bookshelves.
brain damage, at Bridget Donahue || Olga Balema (Until 26 Jul 2019)
brain damage is a show of new elastic works by Olga Balema that is entirely sculpture. Thin elastic bands, at times painted, are suspended above the floor by nails, as well as stapled into the ground and walls. The show deals in the most general and modest artistic concerns. As always with the artist, this is a new direction, but not necessarily progressive—more like a sum total of propositions tallied somewhere nonmaterial. The title seems to be a reference to the work’s literal resemblance of a nervous system, but most likely to relegate that comparison to a flat image rather than a theme.
Burner, at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery || Dana Powell (6 Jun – 26 Jul 2019)
Titled Burner, this exhibition presents the delights, tragedies, and minor mysteries of the everyday. Powell’s small oil paintings capture ordinary moments in time. Playfully integrating seemingly unrelated objects and landscapes, these compositions provoke far beyond their simplicity and demonstrate the unsettling power of mundane or innocuous subjects. In creating this new body of work, Powell drew inspiration from recollections of summer activities at once wholesome and mischievous—illegal fireworks, drunken boat rides, and night drives on thrillingly winding roads.
Feature image: Olga Balema: Cannibals, at Croy Nielsen. 2015. Olga Balema. (via Croy Nielsen)