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    in Exhibitions

    ‘Right Now, I’m Just Asking Questions’: Photographer Daniel Gordon on How to Stay Inspired After Decades in the Studio

    Like many artists, the Brooklyn-based photographer Daniel Gordon sometimes has trouble keeping things interesting. You’d think he would have a wealth of source material since his work involves a maximalist combination of collage, photography, and sculpture—but hey, he’s only human.
    In an exclusive interview aired as part of Art21’s “New York Close Up” series back in 2016, Gordon reminisced about how his approach had changed since his early days as an artist.
    “Back then, I was trying to figure out what my voice was,” he says. “I really was trying to mimic reality.” Now, however, mimesis “is something that I have become less and less interested in.”
    The artist, whose work looks like a cross between Matisse and Jonas Wood, builds two- and three-dimensional props from source material he finds on the internet. He photographs these tableaux—surreal still lifes populated by fish, colorful plants, and gaudy patterns—to make his lively images.
    At the beginning, Gordon notes, he was trying to hide the hand-crafted aspect of his work. Now, he welcomes those cracks in the facade of perfection. 

    Production still from the Art21 “New York Close Up” film, “Daniel Gordon Looks Back.” © Art21, Inc. 2016.

    Like the generation from which he hails, Gordon’s work straddles two worlds: one is rooted firmly in the analog, the other fully invested in digital technologies. He describes his focus as on the “in-between things” that question the boundaries between photography, painting, and sculpture.
    A new book published by Aperture—a work of art in itself—delightfully spans these mediums, featuring pop-ups of Gordon’s images. If a rut forces him to rethink his approach, he’s open to change—but “right now,” he says, “I’m just asking the questions.”

    Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of Art21’s series New York Close Up, below. The brand new 10th season of the show is available now at Art21.org. 
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    This is an installment of “Art on Video,” a collaboration between Artnet News and Art21 that brings you clips of newsmaking artists. A new series of the nonprofit Art21’s flagship series Art in the Twenty-First Century is available now on PBS. Catch all episodes of other series like New York Close Up and Extended Play and learn about the organization’s educational programs at Art21.org
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    in Exhibitions

    9 Must-See US Museum Shows Opening in Early 2021, From KAWS’s Brooklyn Blowout to a Homecoming for Laura Owens

    With 2020 in the rear-view mirror, we hope health-related exhibition delays and cancellations are a thing of the past (though you never know).
    Below, take a look at our picks of US shows opening in the early part of 2021 you won’t want to miss.

    “David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History“High Museum of Art, AtlantaFebruary 6–May 9

    David Driskell, Homage to Romare (1975). Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment.

    Before his death at the age of 88 in April, David Driskell earned respect as a versatile artist and curator who helped raise the profile of African American artists and those of the African Diaspora. This first exhibition since his death is also the first to bring together his works on paper with his paintings.
    The High Museum of Art is located at 1280 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta

    “Goya’s Graphic Imagination”The Metropolitan Museum of ArtFebruary 12–May 2

    Francisco de Goya, Bullfight in a Divided Ring (1825). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

    This broad, chronological exhibition of roughly 100 works delves into Goya’s graphic works and explores how he used drawings and prints to elaborate complex ideas, as well to document his responses to turbulent social and political events occurring around him. It is in these works that Goya’s political liberalism, disdain for superstition, and opposition to intellectual oppression shine through.
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located at 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York

    “KAWS: What Party”The Brooklyn MuseumFebruary 12–September 5

    KAWS, WHAT PARTY (2020). © KAWS. (Photo: Michael Biondo).

    The artist’s 25-year career has made an indelible mark on the contemporary art scene (and the market) and this year’s KAWS célèbre (had to) is surely his debut museum survey. Artnet News’s Gray Market scribe Tim Schneider even predicts KAWS’s works will outsell most every Old Master work by value in 2021.
    The Brooklyn Museum is located at 200 Eastern Parkway, New York

    “Hockney–Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature”Museum of Fine Arts, HoustonFebruary 21–June 20 More

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    in Street Art

    Artist Interview: TIDE

    TIDE is an emerging name in the art scene both in Japan and internationally. Since 2009, his palette consisted mostly of monochrome colours. Recently, TIDE had his first solo exhibition ‘DEBUT’ (2020) in Harajuku, Japan.

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    While his cat-inspired work has been gaining increasing popularity in the international art scene, I had the chance to interview TIDE to discuss his oeuvres and talk about it conceptually and technically, as well as getting an overview of the artistic influences behind his work.

    Rom Levy: To begin, can you tell me a little about yourself and your background?
    TIDE: My real name is TATSUHIRO IDE, but I work as TIDE by combining the first letter of my first name and my family name. I began to paint while I stayed in Australia at the age of 22, and when I was 24, I started my career as a painter based in Tokyo.
    Could you please describe your work process in terms of composing an image as well as a technical approach to creating the work.
    For the cat and bedroom series I’m mainly drawing at the moment, after deciding the position and posing of the character, I roughly decide the bedding, furniture, and background after which I compose a draft. I value the harmony of the curves, straight lines, and silhouettes of each part.
    The painting process is the reverse of the draft, starting with the background and finally finishing with the character. I change matiere in each part, and each layer has a change. For example, I spray the outside of the window to express abstract elements, and the window frame is represented by rough brush strokes to express wood grain. In addition, I use an airbrush for the bedding to create a delicate atmosphere.

    Let’s talk about your current subjects. What inspired them, and what are your source materials?
    The influence of the work covers a wide range of topics, but the heaviest inspiration is the works of Japanese manga artist Shigeru Mizuki. I have been familiar with the Yokai he drew since I was a child, and in particular, my encounter with his work “Nonnonba” inspired me to draw a picture. As for recent materials, I often refer to animations from the 30s to 50s, scenes from old Hollywood movies, manga magazines, and still life around me.
    How long have you been developing this visual language?
    It was 10 years ago that I started drawing and aspiring to be a painter. At first, I used pointillism to draw trees and imaginary landscapes, but about two years later, I started pencil drawing, and mainly produced imaginary seascapes for 5-6 years. During that time, I also tried a little watercolor painting, and I started the acrylic painting which is my current drawing style about two years ago.
    In the beginning, I painted the stuffed animal my daughter had very precisely on a monochromatic background, but reversing that relationship I got to my current style of letting a flat character juxtapose together in the elaborate background.

    About your color palette, can you tell me more about the reason you chose to paint in greyscale and would you consider anything else?
    I don’t even know the real reason myself.
    Maybe it is because I started drawing inspired by cartoons drawn in monochrome, or because using a lot of colors probably exceeds the capacity of my technique. However, I feel it is most beautiful to draw my work in grayscale. When the color scheme, density, area, and balance and rhythm of black, white, and grey are in harmony, the painting looks like it’s shining.
    One thing I can say for sure is that it becomes unclear blurry when other colors get in there.
    Speaking of art history, do you have a particular artist or art movement that influences or inspires you?
    One is Roy Lichtenstein. His flat works are an important element of my current style. On the contrary, Christopher Wool is also a significant figure to me. His attitude towards art is my mental support of my creative activities. In addition, it is because of Takashi Murakami’s concept of Superflat that I can draw a character as a Japanese artist and announce it as a piece of art.

    As a Tokyoite, how is your relation to the local street culture?
    There may not be much relation. I tried skateboarding, but it didn’t take root in my current life. However, I long for street culture that appears as an expression of emotions.
    Have you ever been intrigued to transfer your studio work onto a mural / public art ?
    I’m interested in any field of expression that I have never tried. Facing mural paintings would require a different kind of mental toughness from canvas. It would be an opportunity to provide feedback to canvas works by exploring new ways of drawing and new processes.
    I am interested in the ephemerity of paintings, do you view your own work as precious? If you are unhappy with a work, do you tend to desstroy it or would you rather put it in storage for a while and alter them at a later date?
    There is always a correct piece which will complete my artwork. I will continue to paint until I find it. I talked about how paintings ‘shine’, and I keep working on it until I feel that way.

    Let’s talk about the work you are making for 2021. What type of works are you preparing? Does it connect to previous works, or did you try something new?
    Every time I draw new work, I always try new things even if they are small. I will continue to make the CAT series, but at the same time, I will use trial and error to show the next stage.
    There are also ideas for other themes, so you can see a series of works that go one step further in 2021.
    Will you be showing your work somewhere any time soon? Any other plans for the foreseeable future?
    The schedule has already been roughly decided until 2022, but in the near future, it seems that there will be an opportunity to show my artwork next spring.

    How else will you be keeping yourself busy this Christmas Season?
    Everyday life will continue without anything in particular. However, it is my favorite season of the year. The atmosphere of the city is calm and I feel very comfortable just looking out the window. Happy Holidays. More

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    in Street Art

    Shepard Fairey “AK-47 Lotus” & “AR-15 Lily” Print Release – January 7th

    American contemporary street artist Shepard Fairey will be releasing a new print edition entitled “AK-47 Lotus” & “AR-15 Lily” this January 7th.

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    “These images are inspired by Vietnam War protesters who would put flowers in the gun barrels of the National Guard who were brought in to suppress their protests for peace. I’m a pacifist, whether that means finding diplomatic solutions to prevent and avoid war internationally or finding diplomatic solutions to prevent and avoid gun violence at home. I’m not anti- Second Amendment, so trolls can calm down… I’m not interested in macho blathering, I just want fewer people to die unnecessarily. Brady United is doing good work preventing gun violence so they will receive a portion of proceeds from these two prints. Thanks for caring” Shepard stated.

    AK-47 Lotus & AR-15 Lily are screen prints on thick cream Speckletone paper and measures 18 x 24 inches. Both prints come in an edition of 550 (Signed and Numbered). The prints are priced at $55 and proceeds will go to Brady United.
    AK-47 Lotus & AR-15 Lily are available on Thursday, January 7th @ 10 AM PDT at https://store.obeygiant.com/collections/prints. More

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    in Street Art

    New mural by Ludo in Paris, France

    Streetartist Ludo just sent us some images of one of his newest works for 2021 he just unveiled somewhere on the streets of Paris, France.

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    The mural features a skull warped into a pineaaple, with a nose similar to Pinocchio’s. The artwork shows an exchange of words below “2021?” “Everything’s gonna be alright”.
    Ludovic Vernhet, known by the name Ludo and sometimes even referred to as Nature’s Revenge, is an artist born and raised in Paris. As an ever-changing character of urban contemporary art, Ludo’s art is expressed through diverse mediums, from giant murals on streets, to canvases, installations, drawings, sculptures and photographs as gallery and museum exhibition pieces.

    Ludo utilizes a signature style of no other, the use of three colours in his work; black, white and neon green. Precise drawings of biotechnological occurrences, merged with our technological dimension. His shows have been exhibited across the world in cities such as London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Rome, Paris, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.
    Scroll down to view more images of the mural. More

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    in Exhibitions

    Don’t Miss These 10 Museum Shows Opening in Europe in 2021, From a Hito Steyerl Retrospective to a Star Turn for Helen Frankenthaler

    After 2020’s crush of postponements and cancellations, we are hopeful that 2021 will be different.
    While a lot still remains to be confirmed, we have plucked out the most highly anticipated exhibitions to see in Europe in 2021.

    “Helen Frankenthaler: Radical Beauty”Dulwich Picture Gallery, LondonMay 27–November 28
    Helen Frankenthaler, Madame Butterfly (2000). One-hundred-two color woodcut. ©2021 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc. / DACS / Tyler Graphic Ltd., Mount Kisco, NY.

    This major print retrospective of Helen Frankenthaler includes 30 works on loan from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, spanning from her first-ever woodcut, in 1973, to her final work, published in 2009. The show will examine the artist’s innovative approach to printmaking, defying the woodcut medium’s supposed limitations to create new dimensions of beauty.

    “Lawrence Abu Hamdan: Green Coconuts and Other Inadmissible Evidence“Vienna Secession, ViennaThrough February 7
    Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Once Removed (2019). Exhibition view Secession 2020, Photo: Iris Ranzinger.

    This exhibition of the Turner Prize-winning artist’s work investigates sound, speech, memory, and their role in the quest for truth. A key tenet of the artist’s practice is his analysis of acoustic clues and earwitness testimony, and the exhibition will include four works from two series that investigate this, as well as other forms of witnessing. Included will be Abu Hamdan’s audiovisual inquiry into the Syrian torture prison Saydnaya, After SFX (2018), as well as a new series of prints titled For the Otherwise Unaccounted, which is inspired by birthmarks.

    “Untitled: Art on the Conditions of Our Time“Kettle’s Yard, CambridgeFebruary 6–April 5
    Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Finding Fanon Part One,(2015), courtesy of Copperfield Gallery & Seventeen Gallery, London. Image: Claire Barrett.

    This group show will bring together 10 British artists who are part of the African diaspora whose work probes key cultural and political questions of our time. It will include new commissions and recent works by by Barby Asante, Phoebe Boswell, Kimathi Donkor, and others. Curator Paul Goodwin says the exhibition will center the works, instead of focusing on Blackness itself. “Questions of Blackness, race, and identity are shown to be entangled in the multitude of concerns—aesthetic, material, and political—that viewers can encounter without the curatorial voice obscuring the works,” he says.

    “Ad Minoliti“BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, GatesheadApril 1–March 13
    Ad Minoliti, Cubes (2019). Image courtesy Ben Davis.

    This is the Argentinian artist’s biggest exhibition, and first institutional UK show, to date. The artist, whose work was included in the 2019 Venice Biennale, is known for making colorful paintings and installations that grapple with queer theory and feminism. The show is conceived as space of respite away from the constaints of gender binary, human-centered art and life, in what the artist calls an “alien lounge.” It will host bi-weekly workshops as part of Minoliti’s Feminist School of Painting, which will tackle traditional painting genres in an effort to reimagine historical narratives from feminist, intersectional, and queer perspectives.

    “A Fire in My Belly”Julia Stoschek Collection, BerlinFebruary 6–December 12
    Laure Prouvost They Parlaient Idéale (2019). Courtesy of the artist und carlier | gebauer, Berlin/Madrid.

    Curator Lisa Long is planning a major exhibition drawing on Stoschek’s collection, which includes challenging and cathartic pieces by artists including Barbara Hammer, Anne Imhof, Adrian Piper, and Arthur Jafa. The viewer will be positioned as a witness to acts of violence in a brave look at how it is represented, distributed, and circulated. Rarely seen pieces and several new works that were recently purchased will be on view. The show’s title, “A Fire in My Belly,” is an homage to the seminal work of the same name by American artist and activist David Wojnarowicz, which will also be on view.

    “Hito Steyerl”Centre Pompidou, Paris, FranceFebruary 3–June 7
    How Not to Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic EducationalHito Steyerl (2013). Image courtesy of the artist, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York and Esther Schipper, Berlin .

    The acclaimed German artist’s largest-ever show in France was pushed back from its original date last summer. The exhibition, which was first presented last fall at K21 in Düsseldorf, includes a best-of of Steyerl’s major works, including her break-out 2013 piece, How not to be seen, and Factory of the Sun from the 2015 Venice Biennale, as well a new production. Part of the show will incorporate the unique architecture of the Centre Pompidou as a point of departure.

    “Beuys: 2021”Various Venues in EuropeThroughout 2021
    Joseph Beuys Photo: Behr/ullstein bild via Getty Images.

    The conceptual artists is the subject of a major blockbuster program next year that will take place in 12 German cities, as well as in Warsaw, Poland, Vienna, Austria, and Manresa, Spain. We are particularly looking forward to the exhibition at K20 in Düsseldorf, called “Everyone Is an Artist: Cosmopolitan Exercises With Joseph Beuys,” which opens on March 27. The show will presents many contemporary artists in dialogue with Beuys, questioning or expanding on the practice of this most enigmatic artist. In October 2021, the Krefeld Museum will offer the first exhibition ever to juxtaposition Beuys with Marcel Duchamp.

    “Slavery”The Rijksmuseum, AmsterdamFebruary 12–May 30
    Unknown, Multiple leg cuffs for chaining enslaved people, with 6 loose shackles, ca. 1600-1800. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, schenking van de heer J.W. de Keijzer, Gouda.

    The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is planning a major show that looks at the history of slavery across the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. The show will look at the Dutch involvement in the slave trade, taking up 10 true stories of individuals who were either victims or profiteers of the trade. More than 100 objects and artworks will be on view from the Rijksmuseum collection and elsewhere. “This past has long been insufficiently examined,” museum director Taco Dibbits said.

    “Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective”Gropius Bau, BerlinMarch 19–August 1

    Yayoi Kusama, Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show (1963). Courtesy: Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

    This major survey show will focus on the early development of Yayoi Kusama’s work, including the early paintings and sculptures that eventually led to her immersive environments, which will also be on view. The show is curated by the museum’s director, Stephanie Rosenthal, in collaboration with Kusama’s studio, and charts the Japanese artist’s often overlooked activities in Europe and Germany from the 1960s onward. The show will travel to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in late 2021.

    “Sonsbeek”Various Venues, ArnemApril 10–June 21
    Sonsbeek’s curatorial team. Courtesy sonsbeek. Photo: Julius Thissen

    Taking place about every four years, “Sonsbeek” brings international artists to the small town of Arnem in the Netherlands. This edition is helmed by the Berlin-based curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, who has turned the concept for the exhibition on its head: it will now open in 2021 and will unfold over the next four years. Topics including race, gender, and the state of the working class will be central to the show, which includes artists Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Laure Prouvost, Oscar Murillo, and Willem de Rooij, among others.
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    in Exhibitions

    The Uffizi Will Show Rarely Seen Sketches From Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ to Commemorate the 700th Anniversary of the Poet’s Death

    This year is the 700th since Dante Alighieri died, in 1321, and over the next year, venues across his native Italy have special events planned in commemoration of the anniversary.
    For its part, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence didn’t waste any time honoring the medieval poet. On New Year’s Day, the museum launched a free virtual exhibition of rarely-seen drawings inspired by The Divine Comedy, Dante’s three-part, first-person odyssey through heaven, hell, and purgatory, long considered one of the most important literary works of all time.
    The 88 illustrations on view now on the museum’s website were completed between 1586 and 1588 by Renaissance artist Federico Zuccari during a stay in Spain. The show marks just the third time a selection of the sketches have been seen publicly, and the first time the collection has been presented in totality.
    Federico Zuccari, Inferno, Canti XXXII-XXXIV. Courtesy of the Uffizi Gallery.

    “The Uffizi Gallery is really proud to open the anniversary of the great poet’s death by making this extraordinary collection of graphic art available to all,” Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi, said in a statement. He described the drawings as “precious material not only for those who do research but also for those who are passionate about Dante’s work and are interested in following, as Alighieri says, ‘virtue and knowledge.’”
    Originally collated in a bound volume, each pencil-and-ink sketch appeared opposite the verse it illustrated. Zuccari’s works are accompanied online by their original captions in Italian. (English translations are forthcoming, the site explains.)
    An accomplished mannerist painter in his time, Zuccari is today best known for his frescoes on the Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Following his death in 1609, the Divine Comedy drawings were owned by the Orsinis, a noble family for which the artist once worked, and then the Medicis. They were acquired by the Uffizi in 1738.
    Federico Zuccari, Inferno, Canti XXVI-XXVIII. Courtesy of the Uffizi Gallery.

    The 600th anniversary of Dante’s birth was the occasion the first time a selection of the illustrations were shown in Florence in 1865. More than a century later, in 1993, they were exhibited again in an exhibition in Abruzzo. Fragile with age, the drawings can only be removed from their light-free, thermoregulated holdings every five years, the museum explained. Until now, many of them “have only been seen by a few scholars,” Schmidt said.
    Events planned in memory of Dante will be mounted in more than 70 towns and villages throughout Italy this year. Italian President Sergio Mattarella inaugurated the year-long national celebration this past September with a concert in the city of Ravenna, where Dante is buried.
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    in Street Art

    “GATES” Light Installation by Marina Zumi in Ostend, Belgium

    “GATES” is the latest site specific light installation by Argentinian native and Berlin based artist Marina Zumi. This geometric sculptural path, was presented in Oostende, Belgium for The Crystal Ship by Night, curated by All About Things, a local initiative that brought public art installations to be enjoy from the afternoon till night before the curfew in an ephemeral way.

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    Gates, is a subtle link to the ‘Pass Throw’ feeling so much need it in this actual times, from a positive abstract perspective. The artist brings an interactive installation where the public have a 1min calm walk, through a 50-meter long light path, composed by 11 white/silver pentagons pulsing softly, in a calm ‘light heart beat’, transmitting harmony and a positive overcome glimpse.

    Marina believes in natural wisdom, interconnectivity and the power of colour. Her favorite places are the streets and big walls, which she is re-visiting and transforming into colourful paintings. Through depictions of geometry and symmetry – the recognizable method of her creations – Marina emphasizes the importance of an equilibrium.
    Zumi combines idealized versions of animals, vegetation and nocturnal scenes for the creation of her very own natural bio-luminescent landscapes, with which Zumi aims to provide oases of serenity among the crowded and noisy city streets.
    Check out below for more images of the installation. More