Postcard from New York I Jan 6-12, 2023
Here is our weekly Postcard from New York, in collaboration with Clio Art Fair!
Let's discover our selection of NYC-based art events!
In Museums
Calligraphic Abstraction
@ MoMA
Ongoing
Hailing from around the world, the artists in this gallery turned to the expressive possibilities of calligraphy in abstract art during the 1950s and 1960s—a period marked, on the one hand, by political independence and newly formed nations, and, on the other, by military dictatorships and the Cold War. Some of these artists left home to escape difficult conditions or seek opportunities abroad, while those based in cities like New York and Paris borrowed from Eastern philosophy and aesthetics. Although their situations differed, many shared religious traditions, cultural heritage, and everyday symbols as sources of artistic liberation and inspiration, as well as the desire to bring together intuition and emotion in fluid gestural brushwork.
The works assembled here exemplify different calligraphic modes and systems of writing in mid-century modernism. From graceful experiments with Arabic scripts, decorative patterns formed by words, and rearranged or illegible texts and letters, to abstract strokes and spontaneous movements, they demonstrate the unrestrained vigor and communicative gestures of calligraphic abstraction.
In Galleries
Gordon Matta-Clark & Pope.L: Impossible Failures
@ David Zwirner Gallery
Feb 3—Apr 1, 2023
52 Walker is pleased to announce its sixth exhibition, Impossible Failures, which will pair work by Gordon Matta-Clark (1943–1978) and Pope.L (b. 1955). Focusing on their shared fixation regarding the problematics of architecture, language, institutions, scale, and value, Impossible Failures will feature a selection of drawings as well as films by each artist. Pope.L will also debut a new site-specific installation, presented in collaboration with Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York.
In Brooklyn
Gabriel Lee: Corpus
@ Artshack Gallery
Jan 12 - Mar 3, 2023
Artshack Gallery is pleased to present Corpus, a solo show by Artshack member Gabriel Lee.
Through organic forms, monstrousness, and expressive fragments of the body, Lee explores transgender identity and relationality, alienation, and the subjectivity, strangeness, and beauty of embodiment. Their process involves experimenting with the unique affordances of different mediums and allowing those qualities to shape their work. They often incorporate text and wordplay, examining language as a tool for worldbuilding and self-determination. Using repetitive, accumulative forms, they evoke the processes by which living creatures define and redefine themselves, moving through the world as patterns rather than fixed subjects.
This show collects Lee’s most notable pieces since they began working with clay in early 2020, exploring organic forms, monstrousness, and expressive fragments of the body. The centerpiece of the collection is a mixed-media manananggal, a Filipino monster who passes as a woman by day. By night it detaches its torso from its lower body, then flies through the night seeking viscera and especially unborn fetuses to consume with its proboscis-like tongue. Lee’s manananggal is full of language about how trans bodies and worlds are shaped through words — the sensor-speaker circuit embedded in their forehead tells secrets to approaching confidants, and their guts contain metabolized comments from across the internet.
Gabriel Lee (they/them) is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist primarily working in graphic art and ceramics, focusing on embodiment and language. They received their BA from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Outside
Anish Kapoor Installation
@ 56 Leonard
Anish Kapoor's bean-like sculpture at 56 Leonard Street wrapped up construction this week, more than five years after the completion of the slende
r 57-story apartment tower designed by Herzog & de Meuron. World-Architects stopped by on a chilly February morning to see it in person and take some photos.
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