New York galleries continue to open challenging and interesting exhibitions. Our picks of noteworthy shows include a wide range of mediums from photography and paintings to watercolor drawings and film. Exhibitions include an examination of complicated mother/daughter relationships; retrospectives of postwar artists; group shows that deal with variations on the theme of loss along with exhibitions that highlight lesser-known works of seminal artists. Continue reading below to check out our selection of highlights for new shows in the NYC gallery scene opening through December 3, 2017.
DOWNTOWN
Foley Gallery: “Witness to Beauty”
November 29, 2017 through January 7, 2018
Opening Reception: Wednesday, November 29, from 6 to 8 p.m.
In her fourth solo exhibition at Foley Gallery, Sage Sohier will present photographs of her mother in “Witness to Beauty.”
The exhibition features photographs of Sohier’s mother, Wendy Morgan, who graced the covers of magazines in the 1940s and was photographed by, among others, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Louise Dahl-Wolfe. Morgan believed that beauty was a major part of her identity that must be maintained at all times. Sohier, who has photographed people in their chosen environments for the past 30 years, has chronicled in this exhibition 25 years of her relationship with her mother and her sister Laine, who appears in some of the works.
Foley Gallery is located at 59 Orchard St, New York, NY 10002. www.foleygallery.com.
Click here for exhibition details.
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"Mum in her bathtub" Washington, D.C., by Sage Sohier, 2002. Courtesy of Foley Gallery.
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Hales Gallery: “Jeff Keen: Cineblatz”
November 29, 2017 through January 21, 2018
Opening Reception: Wednesday, November 29, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Hales Gallery will present “Jeff Keen: Cineblatz,” a solo exhibition of work by the late artist.
Jeff Keen (1923-2012) was an experimental filmmaker, poet and artist who began making films in the 1960s and attempted to capture “the comic strip of life.” The exhibition will explore a selection of Keen’s drawings from the 1970s alongside his first film work in 16mm, “Cineblatz” (1967). The film is both poetic and apocalyptic, fusing live action and animation, collage, drawings, found footage, hand-altered film stock and layered projections. Keen’s watercolor drawing series from the 1970s accompanying the film features fragmented film-noir inspired narrative told through a combination of words and images; the works are significant expressions of the artist’s complex and idiosyncratic creative philosophy.
Hales Gallery is located at 64 Delancey St, New York, NY 10002. www.halesgallery.com.
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"CineBLATZ" by Jeff Keen, 1972. Pencil and watercolour paint on paper, 16 1/2 x 23 1/4 inches. Courtesy of the Estate of Jeff Keen and Hales Gallery, London and New York.
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CHELSEA
Paula Cooper Gallery: “Michael Hurson”
November 30 through December 22, 2017
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 30, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Paula Cooper Gallery will present “Michael Hurson,” a solo exhibition of major works by the late artist.
Michael Hurson (1941-2007), who exhibited with Paula Cooper gallery until his death, created sculptures, drawings and paintings that mirrored his personal life. The exhibition will focus on the artist’s “Eyeglass” paintings, his “Palm Spring” series and portrait drawings. His “Eyeglass” paintings, on swatches of brush abstractions, feature images of characters delineating spaces that feel like theatrical stages on which actions occur. His “Palm Springs” paintings, drawings and prints, which feature his mentor Burr Tillstrom lying on his side next to a swimming pool, have the enclosed feel of an interior and give physical weight to the air around his subjects. His portraiture, which he increasingly turned to in the 1970s and ’80s, are large-scale drawings of his friends, acquaintances and collectors on overlapping sheets on vellum.
Paula Cooper Gallery is located at 521 W 21st St, New York, NY 10011. www.paulacoopergallery.com.
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ClampArt: “Lori Nix/Kathleen Gerber | Empire”
November 30, 2017 through January 27, 2018
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 30, from 6 to 8 p.m.
ClampArt will present “Lori Nix/Kathleen Gerber | Empire,” an exhibition of photographic prints created in a collaboration between the two artists.
The nine large-scale prints, which were made during a four-year period, depict a world transformed by unexplained catastrophic events, the outcome of climate uncertainty and a shifting social order. According to the gallery, the painstakingly created works are beautiful but unsettling in stillness and silence. The landscape and disastrous scenarios are created by Nix and Gerber from meticulous dioramas constructed in their Brooklyn studio which are later carefully lit and photographed. While the two artists have been working collaboratively for more than 16 years, this will be the first exhibition at ClampArt to credit both artists equally for the imagery.
ClampArt is located at 247 W 29th St, New York, NY 10001. www.clampart.com.
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© Lori Nix/Kathleen Gerber, “Rift,” 2016, Archival pigment print, Courtesy of ClampArt, New York City.
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Kathryn Markel Fine Arts: “Echoes”
November 30 through December 23, 3017
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 30, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Kathryn Markel Fine Arts will present “Echoes,” a group show curated by Alyssa Alexander and Celeste Kaufman featuring works that are manifestations of loss.
The exhibition features work by Peter Hoffer, Sarah Irvin, Jeffrey Cortland Jones, Ryan Sarah Murphy and Dana Oldfather that are “echoes” both in process and in concept. Just as an echo is a version of what it once was, reminiscent of something that came before it and an acknowledgement of its heritage, the works on view feature loss of form, color or imagery, becoming an homage to the loss of original places, times, objects and concepts.
Peter Hoffer will present landscapes that appear to be traditional, but are manipulated to look antiquated, as if they had been abandoned and then uncovered. Sarah Irvin’s ink series, in which she writes words in expressive cursive and then destroys the marks with squeegees to form dynamic new images, was inspired by her grandfather’s loss of language due to Alzheimer’s disease and her baby daughter’s limited language skills. Jeffrey Cortland Jones’s deceptively minimalist works are monochromatic paintings that are created through layers of rich color. With underpaintings peeking through, the works push colors to their very limits, just before they become white.
Ryan Sarah Murphy’s reliefs are created from discarded cardboards, with any identifying branding, text or images removed. The bold sculptures, painted with a bright, limited palette, are an unexpected iteration of society’s odds and ends. In Dana Oldfather’s paintings, the artist creates a scene from her Midwestern domestic life, in which she feels caught in traditional roles for women and notions of femininity, and then obliterates the imagery through layers of ink, spray paint, acrylic and oil paints.
Kathryn Markel Fine Arts is located at 529 W 20th St, New York, NY 10011. www.markelfinearts.com.
Click here for exhibition details.
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"Porch Lights On" by Dana Oldfather. Courtesy of Kathryn Markel Fine Arts.
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Bruce Silverstein: “René Magritte: The Photographs”
November 30, 2017 through January 27, 2018
Bruce Silverstein will present in this exhibition photography by the seminal surrealist artist René Magritte.
Highlighting the photographs and films of René Magritte (1898-1967) that were discovered more than 10 years after his death, the exhibition will show the close relationship Magritte maintained with photography and the tools he used to explore and experiment with imagery. Providing rare access to an informal side of the artist and the people with whom he surrounded himself, the images provide a key visual insight into understanding Magritte and his works.
Bruce Silverstein is located at 529 W 20th St, New York, NY 10011. www.brucesilverstein.com.
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UPTOWN
Michael Werner Gallery: “Georg Baselitz: 1977-1992”
November 24, 2017 through February 24, 2018
Michael Werner Gallery will present “Georg Baselitz: 1977-1992,” a solo exhibition of works by the German postwar artist.
The exhibition, which features major paintings and works on paper from 1977 through 1992, demonstrates Baselitz’s use of the motif as a catalyst for painterly invention. The artist, who aims to “liberate representation from content,” according to the gallery, would render his landscapes, nudes and still-life compositions upside down to shift the viewer’s focus onto the painterly and optical elements of the picture. The exhibition features “Akt und Flasche (Nude and Bottle),” one of his major diptychs from the late 1970s, and a four-part work, “Birnbaum I (Pear Tree I)” from 1978, alongside large pastels, portraits and a series of intimately-scaled charcoal studies of birds, houses and trees.
Michael Werner Gallery is located at 4 E 77th St # 2, New York, NY 10075. www.michaelwerner.com.
Click here for exhibition details.
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NYC Gallery Scene - Highlights publishes weekly with exhibitions selected by Hamptons Art Hub staff. This edition was written by Genevieve Kotz. Click here to visit our Gallery Guide to find more exhibitions on view.
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