Eliana Willis

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    in Exhibitions

    Hoping to Snag Art Basel-Bound Buyers, Berlin Dealers Showcased Their Emerging Talent for the Fall Edition of the City’s Gallery Weekend

    For Gallery Weekend Berlin, it seems the second time’s the charm. This year, the event decided to split off into two separate iterations, in April and September, in part to uplift galleries at a time of great uncertainty over fair calendar, but also because its usual spring slot has, for the past two years, coincided with significant health restrictions in the city.
    The weekend city-wides series of exhibitions is normally a time when out-of-town collectors bop around the sprawled-out city’s galleries in event-sponsored BMWs. Over the years, dealers have tended to report strong sales relative to the low cost of staging presentations from the comfort of their own galleries.
    And though this year was markedly different, moods remained high. Collectors from within Europe—and at least one from China—passed through the city-wide event on their way to Art Basel, which is opening today. The timing proved a little tight for German dealers trying to head there early to install at the fair’s Unlimited or Parcours sections this past weekend. Because most dealers had to leave, participants convinced Gallery Weekend to close on Sunday, a day earlier than originally planned.
    Thornton Dial’s All the Cats in Town (1993) at Société.
    Despite the hurdles, the event this week had an air of triumph. Most of the 47 participating galleries followed the brief to present a so-called “discovery” position—giving space, an increasingly precious commodity in Berlin, to younger or emerging artists (with lower price points, usually) who have a bent towards experimentation.
    Germany-based artists were among the most exciting presentations, including Brook Hsu, who showed moody green-hued paintings at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler. At Esther Schipper, newly represented Berlin-based artist Cemile Sahin considered her Kurdish migrant background with a contemporary reflection on the treaty of Sèvres, which redrew borders after World War I and deconstructed the Ottoman Empire (one of the works was bought by the Bundeskunsthalle, Germany’s federal art collection and exhibition space).
    At Guido W. Baudach, the young German artist Jasmin Werner, considered the strange saga of the Palast der Republik, the former East German seat of government that was destroyed to make way for the Humboldt Forum. (The building’s remains were sold off to Dubai to become a part of the Burj Khalifa.)
    Cemille Sahin. Courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin. Photo © Andrea Rossetti.
    The gallery Société opted not to show a discovery per se, but an artist long overlooked in Europe, the Alabama-born painter Thornton Dial, who died in 2016. Working with the artist’s estate, David Lewis Gallery, and Souls Grown Deep Foundation, the gallery managed to bring half a dozen large, sculptural canvases comprised of materials from everyday life in America.
    On the whole, the city was in a discovery mode: An election is underway, which means a whole new host of politicians will begin to shape the city’s fragile cultural landscape—and top museum positions were filled last week, including by Klaus Biesenbach, who is taking the reins at Neue Nationalgalerie. In the meantime, the city teeters is on a precipice, gridlocked by a lack of space, be it homes, studios, or gallery spaces.
    See images of the exhibitions below.
    Courtesy the artist & Galerie Guido W. Baudach. Photo: Roman März
    Robert Rehfeldt, Installation view at ChertLudde during Gallery Weekend, September 2021. Photo by Stefan Korte.
    Christophe Aque, Installation view at Sweetwater during Gallery Weekend, September 2021, Photo by Stefan Korte.
    Win McCarthy, Installation view at Galerie Neu during Gallery Weekend, September 2021, Photo by Stefan Korte.
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    in Street Art

    Preview: Ron English “Brand Royalty” @ Allouche Gallery Opening 9/18/21 NYC

    Brand Royalty is world-renowned artist Ron English’s latest 20-piece body of work, examining the ever- evolving social semiotic flow in advertising, branding, inculcation, and the artistic process. The collection involves reappropriation of signature imagery from Picasso, Warhol and Basquiat in a symbiotic remix with English’s own iconic characters, reallocating intent and meaning to construct a new narrative of creation and conflict.Uncle Scam Arms and Ammo on Warhol and Basquiat, oil on canvas, 50 x 70 inchesThe works created throughout this past year, where our society has endured the Covid pandemic and a shift in politics, English’s iconic characters navigate metamorphic landscapes and grapple in the company of corporate brands with delusions of ecstasy and heartbreak. The viewer is enticed by popular brands such as Paramount Pictures, characters from children’s shows and media, a reference to Uncle Sam, imagery from contemporary artist Basquiat’s work, and English’s own reformation of Picasso’s Girl before a Mirror, all which epitomize English’s response to historical art with the use of the present-day outlook.Paying homage with playful repurpose, English layers graffiti with the language of signs in old master oil technique, giving agency to his own characters and symbols to graft new language upon established iconography, forming call and response dialog with the radical masters of twentieth century pop to question the nature and direction of illusion/delusion. English reimagines the chaotic composition of the famous Warhol-Basquiat collaboration to craft a narrative of rock star sexual excess and the whitewashing of a complicated human relationship with cartoon pop façade. Serving as centerpiece and central mythmaking generator, the oversize painting “Delusionville Paint Jam” pitches perfect anthropomorphic mayhem from a mind-bending magic mushroom thought cloud hovering above the three-eyed, hare-brained armchair philosopher and slothful soothsayer Potato Rabbbit, avatar and author of English’s latest grand delusion. English’s bold yet masterful style is indicative of Allouche Gallery’s ongoing commitment to pushing artistic boundaries.Ron English “Brand Royalty” opens this Saturday September 18th at Allouche Gallery (82 Gansevoort St. NYC) and will run through October 19/21.Mask, Proof of Vaccination, & ID are required to enter the gallery. More

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    in Exhibitions

    In Pictures: Millennial Art Star Avery Singer Conjures Dazzling Paintings Out of Digital Chaos in Her Debut Show at Hauser & Wirth

    For her debut exhibition at Hauser & Wirth, New York City-based artist Avery Singer has cemented her place as one of the most in-demand young artists working today—and, at 34, the youngest artist on the blue-chip gallery’s roster.
    Singer’s series of 14 paintings line the walls of the gallery’s second- and fifth-floor and show off the Singer’s deft blending of analog and digital, combining disparate narratives and themes. A bona fide art star whose work has been heralded at the Venice Biennale and is coveted at auction, Singer has clearly hit her stride.
    In the works on view, some of which are noted as being “studies,” Singer’s intensive, layered process is clear. Each canvas becomes a portal to tapping into the hive mind, where references to art history and internet memes sit cheek to jowl, and it’s easy to imagine references to artists as diverse as Keith Haring and M.C. Escher, Bunny Rogers and Sarah Sze, Julie Mehretu and Giorgio Morandi buzzing about.
    One of the new works, China Chalet (2021), eulogizes the erstwhile “unassuming dim sum restaurant” that doubled as a sweaty den of iniquity for the young and restless denizens of lower Manhattan. The fractured work has a lot of White Claw cans, iPhones, and what looks to be a prescription pill bottle.
    Avery Singer, China Chalet (2021). Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin.© Avery Singer Photo: Lance Brewer.
    Another work, titled Wojak Battle Scene, features the meme-ified Feels Guy, a sad bald man who entered a certain corner of Internet culture in the early 2010s.
    According to former Artnet News columnist Nate Freeman, Singer’s larger canvases carried a price tag of a cool $1.2 million. Singer remains the most expensive millennial artist—and Marc Payot told Vanity Fair that interest remains high, noting “it’s not a question of if we sell but when we sell.”
    “Avery Singer: Reality Ender” is on view at Hauser & Wirth through October 30. See more images from the show, below.
    Installation view “Avery Singer. Reality Ender” at Hauser & Wirth, New York. Picturing: Studio (2019); Sculptor (2021); and Wojack Battle Scene (2021). © Avery Singer, courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin. Photo: Lance Brewer.
    Avery Singer, Happening (2021). Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin.© Avery Singer Photo: Lance Brewer.
    Avery Singer, Sculptor (2021). Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin.© Avery Singer Photo: Lance Brewer.
    Installation view “Avery Singer. Reality Ender” at Hauser & Wirth, New York. Picturing: Studio (2019) and Sculptor ( 2021). © Avery Singer, courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin. Photo: Lance Brewer.
    Installation view, “Avery SInger. Reality Ender” at Hauser & Wirth New York. Picturing: Side Quest (2021); Sculptor (Study) (2021); Sculptor (2021); and Happening (2021). © Avery Singer, courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin. Photo: Lance Brewer.
    Installation view “Avery Singer. Reality Ender” at Hauser & Wirth, New York. Picturing: Studio (2019); Sculptor (2021); and Wojack Battle Scene (2021). © Avery Singer, courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin. Photo: Lance Brewer.
    Installation view “Avery Singer. Reality Ender” at Hauser & Wirth, New York. Picturing: Technique (2021); China Chalet (2021); and Edgelord (2021). © Avery Singer, courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin. Photo: Lance Brewer.
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    in Street Art

    “Cracked” by Martin Whatson in Oslo, Norway

    International street artist Martin Whatson is back with a new stunning mural in Norway. The project is a collaboration between the artist and Somwhere Studio. Entitled “Cracked” the mural is located at Schous Bryggeri, Grünerløkka in Oslo.Whatson is best known for his calligraphic scribbles in grayscale voids. Over the past decade, Martin has developed an unmistakable aesthetic combining abstract movement with figurative stencilled compositions.With as many works on walls as on canvas and paper, the relationship between vulnerability and strength remains constant in each work. Delicate and organic characters feature; butterflies, ballerinas and animals all rendered in empty grayscale space. Almost stylised, these minimal figures are constructed of a few layers of hand-cut stencils.The ashen tones of the compositions and vacant backgrounds are reminiscent of his alternative canvases, the concrete. True to form, no gray space stays gray for long in Martins presence. whether immersing entirely or embellishing a detail, the images disappear beneath expressive, spray-painted strokes of assorted colours and textures.Take a look below for more photos of “Cracked”. More

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    in Exhibitions

    In Pictures: See the Joyful Works Included in Frieze Sculpture 2021, From a Pearlescent Monolith to a Quirky Pineapple

    Signs of fall have arrived in London. The air is brisk, leaves are beginning to change color, and a promenade through one of London’s royal parks leads to a parcours of contemporary sculpture. It can only mean one thing: Frieze Week is around the corner.
    Now a yearly fixture teasing the arrival of the Frieze fairs in Regent’s Park, Frieze Sculpture opened to the public on September 14, a little later in the year than its usual summer opening due to ongoing complications relating to shipping. 
    At the unveiling, Frieze London’s artistic director Eva Langret promised that Frieze and Frieze Masters, returning October 13–17 after a pandemic hiatus, will be back in force. The curator of the sculpture program, Clare Lilley (who is also the director of program at Yorkshire Sculpture Park), highlighted the global character of this year’s selection, with artists hailing from South America, South and North Africa, Indonesia, Pakistan, the U.S. and Canada, and Europe.
    “I see exciting sculptural conversations across time and geography, and while many sculptures here relate to social and environmental concerns, there is much heightened color and dextrous handling of material, resulting in an overall sense that is celebratory,” Lilley said in a statement. “As we learn to live with the pandemic and emerge into public spaces, Frieze Sculpture 2021 allows people to come together in safety and with pleasure and is a tonic for the mind, body, and soul.”
    Counterspace, fragment of Serpentine Pavilion 2021 for Frieze Sculpture 2021. Presented by Serpentine Galleries, London. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.
    The works, by 18 artists spanning three generations, range from soapstone skulls by Solange Pessoa to a quirky pineapple courtesy of Rose Wylie to Vanessa da Silva’s joyful steel-and-fiberglass figures, Muamba Grove.
    One highlight is a fragment of this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, a gathering table designed by Johannesburg architectural studio Counterspace; its inclusion marks the first time one of the U.K.’s public institutions has taken part in the Frieze initiative (the other works are presented by commercial galleries). By extending the pavilion’s tendrils outside of its traditional home in Hyde Park, the installation is suggestive of themes relating to migration and displacement. Another notable entry is artist-preservationist Jorge Otero-Pailos’s Biosignature Preservation (2019), a repurposing of the security fence erected by the U.S. Embassy in Oslo after 9/11 that recalls contorted iron rebar left after bombings or natural disaster.
    Frieze Sculpture is on view at the English Gardens in Regent’s Park, London, through October 31. See more images below.
    Annie Morris, Stack 9, Ultramarine Blue (2021), presented by Timothy Taylor. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.
    Anthony Caro, Palanquin (1987/1991), presented by New Art Centre. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.
    Jorge Otero-Pailos, Biosignature Preservation (2019), presented by Holtermann Fine Art. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.
    Isamu Noguchi, Play Sculpture, ca. 1965/ca. 1980 (fabricated 2021), presented by White Cube. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.
    Vanessa da Silva, Muamba Grove #1, #3, and #4 (2019), presented by Galeria Duarte Sequeira. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.
    Gisela Colón, Quantum Shift (Parabolic Monolith Sirius Titanium) (2021), presented by Gavlak. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.
    Ibrahim El-Salahi, Meditation Tree (2018), presented by Vigo Gallery. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.
    Tatiana Wolska, Untitled (module 1 and 2) (2019), presented by L’Etrangère and Irène Laub Gallery. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.
    Solange Pessoa, Untitled, from “Skull” series (2016), presented by Mendes Wood DM. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.
    Stoyan Dechev, Event Horizon (2019), presented by Anca Poterasu Gallery. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.
    Rose Wylie, Pineapple (2020), presented by David Zwirner. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.
    Yunizar, Induk Monster (Mother Monster) (2017), presented by Gajah Gallery. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.

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    in Street Art

    “Subliminal Matrix” Solo Exhibition by Zhang Ji at Volery Gallery in Dubai, UAE

    Zhang Ji is an artist whose sweeping-colours of paintings focus on mosaicked patterns or relief-centred geometrics, laid down edge to edge. Spare, elegant and texturized, his paintings offer a delicate balance between composition and decomposition, sturdiness and ephemerality. They begin as strikingly, repetitious patterns, but then move beyond, toward a consummate painterly expression.In this exhibition opening at Volery Gallery and entitled Subliminal Matrix, this precisely calibrated selection of 12 paintings, created from 2018 – 2020, demonstrates Zhang’s wholehearted engagement with the very structures and systems of painting. The series, simply titled The Skin of Truth, features the artist’s minimalistic yet richly intricate detailed artworks which appear to radiant into immediate material presence whereupon he shapes the aesthetical effect.“The Skin of Truth 58”, Oil on canvas, 2017Approximating a studied observation of sacred sites with their classical designs and backgrounds, Zhang possesses an instinctive talent for meticulously working in forms, shapes and structures. The Beijing-based artist is primarily drawn to the harmony and rhythm of religious architectonics for their tactility, physical presence, and in creating complex straight lines-making grids or parallel diagonals within fragments of decorated motifs.From earthy tones to magnetic blue and crimson red etc, Zhang used a variety of rich, bright hues as well as pure white, black and grey etc. His process calls attention to the paintings’ silken surfaces, loaded with oil paint; strengthened with the sheer physicality and expressive power of his medium. Gazing at these ethereal, atmospheric embossed-like paintings provide the viewers the sensation of a commanding optical quality, floating freely, bulged and ebbed, as if unanchored by gravity.Zhang sees his paintings as meditative. Thus, the resulting works are  calming, luminous forms rendered in an irresistible palette; striking for its subtle yet dramatic patch of illumination, which is perhaps their greatest appeal. It is a poetic exercise in giving colour and texture enough weight to stand alone, without the support of delineated forms.All in all, Zhang’s paintings evoke familiarity and memory in their vastness of collective illumination.Scroll down below to have a sneak peak on Subliminal Matrix exhibition.“The Skin of Truth 104” Oil on canvas, 2019“The Skin of Truth 9” 5Oil on canvas, 2018“The Skin of Truth 105” Oil on canvas, 2019 More

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    in Exhibitions

    In Pictures: See Inside the Met Costume Institute’s Ode to American Style, Which Presents U.S. Fashions for Every Mood

    Earlier this year, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Timothée Chalamet, Billie Eilish, Amanda Gorman, and Naomi Osaka as co-hosts of the Met Gala, it signaled a new phase in American celebrity culture. After all, the actor, singer, poet laureate, and athlete are all under the age of 30—the faces of a generation defined by its activism.
    Just days after the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, and on the same day as the House Foreign Relations Committee grilled top brass on the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, the timing of this year’s Costume Institute show was, in a word, fraught. This was proven when a cadre of demonstrators crashed the tony step-and-repeat—not to mention the fact that a slew of the evening’s guests chose to wear non-American designers.
    Nonetheless, the much-anticipated return to in-person red-carpet events was a sight to behold, kicking off a two-part exhibition at the Met. It will open to the public later this week, on a staggered timeline: part one, titled “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” runs from September 18, 2021 through September 5, 2022; and part two, “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” will run from May 5, 2022 through September 5, 2022.
    Back in April, the Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton told Vogue that U.S.-centric exhibitions were a long time coming; the last show to home in on the topic was “American Ingenuity” in 1998, and in the intervening years, the fashion industry—as well as the political, social, and cultural realms—have all undergone a serious recalculation.
    “I really do believe that American fashion is undergoing a Renaissance,” Bolton told the magazine. “I think young designers in particular are at the vanguard of discussions about diversity and inclusion, as well as sustainability and transparency, much more so than their European counterparts, maybe with the exception of the English designers.”
    Andre Walker’s Pendleton Woolen Mills coat, Spring/Summer 2018. Courtesy of Andre Walker Studio. Image © Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    The exhibition, in the Anna Wintour Costume Center, is based around the framework of a house, with each imagined room representing a feeling that corresponds to the spirit of a particular garment or runway collection.
    The porch, Bolton explained, is categorized by warmth and visualized through a blanket-coat that Andre Walker designed with Pendleton Woolen Mills, paying homage to the Oregon-based company that was founded in 1863. And in the garden room, Oscar de la Renta’s floral-festooned dresses—over the years favored by Taylor Swift and Wintour herself—represent joy and rebirth.
    Below, see more images from “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.”
    Ensemble, Fall/Winter 1982-83 Ralph Lauren. Image © Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    Gallery view, Nostalgia (right) and Belonging (left). Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    Gallery view, Consciousness. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    Sterling Ruby Studio, VEIL FLAG (2020). Courtesy of Sterling Ruby Studio. Photo: Melanie Schiff.
    Gallery view, Belonging. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    Gallery view, Delight. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    Gallery view, Assurance. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    Ensemble, Donna Karan Fall/Winter 1985-86. Image © Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    Gallery view, Wonder (left) and Warmth (right). Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    Gallery view, Wonder. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    Gallery view, Comfort. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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    in Exhibitions

    ‘An Icon of Our Time’: An Artist Is Selling a $2.9 Million Solid-Gold Avocado Toast at Berlin Art Week

    If you thought $14 was an expensive price for avocado toast at your local cafe, how about $2.9 million (€2.5 million)?
    That’s the cost of German artist Tim Bengel’s Who Wants to Live Forever?, a pure gold sculpture cast from an avocado on a bagel. 
    The artwork, which scans as a mash-up of Maurizio Cattelan’s gold toilet (America [2016]) and duct-taped banana (Comedian [2019]), is up for sale now, via Galerie Rother. The piece will make its public debut tomorrow for Berlin Art Week, going on view at a local restaurant, the aptly-named Avocado Club.
    The goal of Who Wants to Live Forever?, Bengel explained in a press release, was to “freeze the zeitgeist.” For him, avocados exist as a status symbol at the crossroads of several trends: millennial indulgence, the clean eating boom, and the global fruit industry’s impact on the environment.
    Artist Tim Bengel with his sculpture. Courtesy of the artist.
    He sees an analogy between his creation and the Greek myth of King Midas, who was granted his wish to turn anything into gold with a single touch, only to later die from starvation. “Something similar is happening today in turbo-capitalism,” Bengel’s press release reads, “which, in its greed for profit maximization, is destroying its own participants.”
    To make the piece, the 29-year-old artist 3D-scanned 27 different pieces of his lunch: five avocado wedges, tomato slices, and onion rings; 10 arugula leaves; and two halves of pumpkin bagel. He then cast each piece in 18-carat gold and reassembled them as a sandwich. 
    Altogether, the object weighs more than 26 pounds—which is roughly equivalent to an adult Corgi (albeit with a fraction of the charm). Galerie Rother even designed a specialized case to display the thing, which alone cost $47,000 (€40,000), according to German newspaper Stuttgart News.
    In a statement, dealer Christian Rother said he believes the work could become “an icon of our time.”

    “[The sculpture] will hopefully make big waves like the shredded Banksy or the diamond-covered skull by Damien Hirst,” Bengel told the news outlet.
    The young artist first rose to fame around 2017, when his meticulous paintings, made by gluing gold leaf and colored sand to canvases, went viral online. For Berlin Art Week in 2019, he built an ominous skull-shaped garden from heather shrubs and marble gravestones.
    Bengel’s avocado sculpture will make its way stateside later this year, arriving for Miami Art Week in December.
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