On View

It’s Frieze Week, and while the Frieze London and Frieze Masters fairs are conspicuously absent this year, that doesn’t mean there is no reason to visit Regent’s Park.
Art-hungry audiences can take an outdoor, socially distanced stroll in the lush park that typically hosts the fairs to see the 12 ambitious sculptures that comprise Frieze’s open-air sculpture display. Highlights include new commissions from Patrick Goddard, Kalliopi Lemos, and Arne Quinze, as well as Lubaina Himid’s five reclaimed doorways, which she originally created in 2019 for the High Line in New York.
“Amid all the challenges,” says Clare Lilley, Frieze Sculpture curator and director of program at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, “it is uplifting to see artists and galleries respond so enthusiastically to Frieze Sculpture. Rarely have our public spaces been quite so important for our mental and physical well-being, and this exhibition shines a light on sculpture in the open air, creating a place of inspiration and enjoyment where people can come together safely for conversation and exchange.”
The works on view this year explore vital and topical themes from civil rights to ecology to the role of the artist in changing the status quo. For those not able to be on the ground in London, you can see them here.
Frieze Sculpture is on view October 5 through 18 in the English Gardens at Regent’s Park.
Fabio Lattanzi Antinori, Ad Keywords (2020). Pi Artworks, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

Rebecca Warren, Aurelius (2017 – 2019). Galerie Max Hetzler, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

Kalliopi Lemos, The Plait (2020). Gazelli Art House, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

Gianpietro Carlesso, Torre di Saba (2009). Ronchini, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

Richard Long, Circle for Sally (2016). Lisson Gallery, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

Eric Fischl, Torso (2010). Skarstedt, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

Sarah Lucas, Sandwich (2011 – 2020). Sadie Coles HQ, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

David Altmejd, Untitled 1 (Bronze Bodybuilders) (2015). White Cube, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

Patrick Goddard, Humans-Animals-Monsters (2020). Seventeen Gallery, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

Lubaina Himid, Five Conversations (2019). Hollybush Gardens, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Commissioned by High Line Art, presented by Friends of the High Line and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

Arne Quinze, Lupine Tower (2020). Maruani Mercier Gallery, Frieze Sculpture 2020. Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

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It’s October, and that means it’s Frieze Week in London. As usual, galleries around the city are showcasing the best of their rosters, despite the very unusual circumstances of 2020.
Back in July, it was announced that the physical Frieze fairs would be cancelled. By now, it seems almost unimaginable that holding a large event inside an unventilated white tent ever seemed like a good idea. But while the concourse in Regent’s Park was a convenient place to bump into the who’s who of the art world, London’s vibrant art scene always really happened outside of the circus tent anyway.
This week, booze-fueled festivities such as gallery openings and swanky dinners are out; face masks are in. And with many galleries requiring visitors to book slots for exhibitions in advance, art lovers will have to be strategic about their approach.
Here are our picks for what to make room for in the schedule.

“Laure Prouvost: Re-dit-en-un-in-learning CENTER” at Lisson GalleryOctober 6–November 7, 2020
Laure Prouvost’s THIS MEANS LOVE, (2019-2020) © Laure Prouvost, courtesy Lisson Gallery.

The French artist will transform the gallery into a “mock-pedagogical, health-focused institutional setting,” inviting viewers to learn and un-learn a new lexicon and visual language created by Prouvost.
To schedule a visit, click here.

“Rashid Johnson: Waves” at Hauser & WirthOctober 6–December 23
Rashid Johnson, The Broken Five(2020). Photo by Martin Parsekian.

New paintings and ceramic tile mosaics by the American artist will fill both of the mega-gallery’s London spaces. The work responds to anxiety and escapism, themes that recur in Johnson’s oeuvre but are also very relevant to the socio-political climate of 2020.
Tickets to see the exhibition must be booked online in advance, here.

“Helen Cammock: I Decided I Want to Walk”Through October 17
Installation view, Helen Cammock, “I Decided I Want to Walk,” Kate MacGarry, 2020, courtesy the artist and Kate MacGarry, London. Photo by Angus Mill.

The Turner Prize-winner’s debut exhibition at the gallery includes Cammock’s most recent film, They Call It Idlewild. Drawing on the work of poets and philosophers from Audre Lorde to Jonathan Crary, the film ruminates on the politics of idleness and who gets to be lazy in a time when the spiraling demands for hyper-productivity are being pulled into question.
The gallery encourages but does not require visitors to book in advance, as just five people will be admitted at one time.

“Tavares Strachan: In Plain Sight” at Marian Goodman GalleryThrough October 24
Tavares Strachan, detail of EIGHTEEN NINETY(2020). Photo by Lewis Ronald.

For his first major UK solo exhibition, Strachan has created an unforgettable immersive experience. Backdropped and enhanced by new and existing painting and sculptural work, the captivating 45-minute journey involves a theatrical and operatic performance inspired by the artist’s research into marginalized historical figures such as the African American explorer Matthew Henson, the first person to reach the North Pole.
Tickets for the exhibition must be booked online in advance.

“Oliver Beer: Oma” at Thaddaeus Ropac, Ely HouseThrough October 24, 2020
Installation view, Oliver Beer, “Oma,” Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London. © Oliver Beer. Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London • Paris • Salzburg. Photo: Eva Herzog

This deeply personal exhibition looks at the influence and knowledge passed between generations in families. Beer, who often mines his own family history in his work, delves into the story of his grandmother, who began composing music late in her life.
There is no time-slot needed to visit, but visitors numbers will be controlled. Oliver Beer will also be offering small, in-person tours Friday, October 9 at 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 5 p.m. Tickets to this are free of cost, but must be booked via the gallery’s website.

“Gillian Wearing: Lockdown” at Maureen PaleyThrough October 25

Gillian Wearing, Untitled (lockdown portrait) (2020). Courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley.

In a series of self-portraits created during lockdown, Wearing perfectly captures moments of malaise and melancholy, quietude, contemplation, and occasionally, contentment. Another timely addition to her oeuvre is the sculpture Mask, Masked, a title alluding to the theoretical masks we don to fashion identities as well as the literal face shields keeping us safe.
Online via the gallery website for 15-minute appointment viewings.

“Anne Tallentire: As happens” at Hollybush GardensThrough October 31
Anne Tallentire, Area (2020). Installation view, “As happens,” Hollybush Gardens, London, 2020. Photo by Andy Keate.

In this show of new work, Tallentire continues her ongoing interrogation of the invisible social systems that create conditions of precariousness and contingency.
No more than 6 people will be admitted to the gallery at once, you can book your slot online. The artist will also be in conversation with the writer Chris Fite-Wassilak over Zoom on Tuesday, October 13, at 3 p.m. BST (10 a.m. New York), and you can RSVP directly with the gallery.

“Danh Vo: Chicxulub” at White Cube, BermondseyThrough November 2, 2020
Danh Vo “Chicxulub,” White Cube Bermondsey. © the artist. Photo © White Cube (Theo Christelis).

Vo has brought nature inside the gallery. Trees and plants reference the setting where the artist made this body of work, his studio and farm in East Germany. In this large show, Vo continues his examination of Catholicism, global branding, and flora.  
To schedule a visit, click here. You may also take a video walkthrough tour of the show.

“Sung Tieu: What is your |x|?” at EmalinThrough November 7, 2020
Installation view, Sung Tieu, What is your |x|?, Emalin, London. © Sung Tieu. Courtesy of the artist and Emalin, London Photography: Plastiques

For her first solo exhibition with Emalin, the Berlin-based artist has built a gallery inside the gallery, resembling a cross between a prison, a bank vault, and a site of a dream. The works, all on sheets of cut stainless steel, speak to Tieu’s research into psychologies and their potential for manipulation.
There is no time-slot needed to visit, but visitor numbers will be controlled.

“Nathaniel Mary Quinn” at GagosianThrough November 21

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Lunch (2020). © Nathaniel Mary Quinn, courtesy of Gagosian.

Quinn’s first solo show at Gagosian’s London outpost presents the artist’s shape-shifting portraits rendered in luscious charcoal, gouache, and oil paint. The compositions, which appear collaged, are informed by flashes of the artist’s own memories and encounters.
You can schedule an appointment via the gallery website.

“Dana Schutz: Shadow of a Cloud Moving Slowly” at Thomas DaneThrough December 19

Installation view, “Dana Schutz: Shadow of a Cloud Moving Slowly” at Thomas Dane Gallery.

For her inaugural solo show in London with gallery veteran Thomas Dane, Schutz’s new paintings and sculptures are populated with bedraggled, goblin-like characters who fill the space with their contorted physicality and obvious psychological turmoil.
No early booking available, social distancing enforced upon entry; no groups allowed.
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There are approximately 240,000 carrots—and an unquantified number of potatoes—sitting outside of London’s Goldsmiths College. The massive pile of root vegetables, weighing in at 31 tons, is an art project, on view as part of the school’s annual MFA exhibition.
The performance component of the site-specific work by Rafael Pérez Evans, titled Grounding (2020), took place on Tuesday, when a large red tractor-trailer dumped the carrots on the ground in an orange tidal wave that swept through the college courtyard.
Evans, who grew up in a family of farmers in Spain, was inspired by a protest tactic popular among farmers, particularly in France, called dumping. To protest cratering produce prices, farmers will pile up carrots or potatoes in the street, the vegetables becoming a physical roadblock and serving as a highly visible reminder of farmers’ oft-ignored labor. It’s a practice that has intrigued the artist since childhood.
“On one occasion when I was quite young I remember people being very angry and upset as the cost of lemons had been devalued to such an extreme that it was costing the farmers money to sell their stock,” Evans told Artnet News in an email. “This issue made many farmers dump, in protest, tons of lemons, creating a sort of sea of yellow. This I guess was the first moment in which I became aware of the power of how governmental devaluation and international trade affected farmers.”

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Staging Grounding in London is Evans’s way of reminding viewers of where their food comes from, and to consider the relationship our cities have with rural farmers. The work’s title comes from the therapeutic technique of grounding, or reconnecting with the earth and its electrical energy.
“In the city, we are not very connected to the processes of how the things we consume are produced, under which circumstances and conditions,” Evans explained. “Looking into peasant culture, ecology, farming, and the soil is a way to reorient my compass into finding other ways of relating which perhaps aren’t so detached from land, plants and foods.”
Soon after the work’s installation, photos and videos began circulating on social media, to the extreme confusion of many. But Goldsmiths was quick to explain the art connection when Times of London journalist George Greenwood—who is now describing himself as an “accidental carrot correspondent”—took to Twitter to investigate the “carrot conundrum.”

The artwork has drawn some criticism for contributing to global food loss, with a group of four Goldsmiths students launching an Instagram account, @goldsmithscarrots, to protest “this incredibly wasteful art piece.”
“Lewisham is one of the poorest boroughs in London and this mass dumping of carrots at Goldsmiths is beyond insensitive,” the group wrote. “It’s a massive slap in the face.”
Evans says he actually wants Grounding, which is accompanied by a sign warning that the carrots are “not for human consumption,” to highlight the existing waste in food production systems.

Evans went to a bulk animal feed provider to purchase the vegetables, which have been rejected by UK supermarkets and judged to be “animal grade” carrots. When the exhibition ends next week, the carrots will be donated to farms to feed livestock, as originally intended.
“How can carrots that look perfectly fit but not be fit for human consumption and supermarkets but okay for animals is part of the question in the work,” he explained. “The issues around waste are very important.”

But the students behind @goldsmithscarrots aren’t taking Evans’s word for it. They have been busy collecting, peeling, and grating the carrot pile to make vegan carrot cake and carrot soup. The group, which estimated yesterday that it had only used .3 percent of the carrots so far, is holding daily bake sales next to the artwork and donating the proceeds—reportedly nearly £700 ($900) over the first two days—to local food banks.
For his part, Evans is “very happy that more artists are responding and creating new artworks, and dialogues around the questions that the piece ignites.”
The initial performance was livestreamed on Facebook and can be watched here. In-person visiting hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except for the exhibition’s final day, which is open until 7 p.m.
See more photos of Grounding below.
Rafael Pérez Evans, Grounding (2020) at Goldsmiths College, London. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Rafael Pérez Evans, Grounding (2020) at Goldsmiths College, London. Photo courtesy of the artist.

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So many lush ones🥕🥕make carrot soup, carrot cake, carrot crisps, carrot juice, carrot chutney, carrot cookies, carrot stews etc. Make for and share with your friends, neighbours, crushes, pets, mice in your accommodation, cleaners and security on campus, all your community 🥕🥰sharing is caring (be covid safe and put measures in place)- @ratwrists
A post shared by WE ARE NOT THE CARROT ARTIST (@goldsmithscarrots) on Sep 30, 2020 at 3:55pm PDT

“MFA Exhibition” is on view at Goldsmiths College, Ben Pimlott Building, St. James’s, New Cross, London SE14 6NH, October 2–October 6, 2020.
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“At The Noyes House:Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM, and Object & Thing”Through November 28, 2020
What the galleries say: “‘At The Noyes House,’ presented by Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM, and Object & Thing, provides a unique opportunity to experience contemporary art and design in an iconic residential setting. Taking place within [architect and industrial designer] Eliot Noyes’s (1910–1977) modernist family home in New Canaan, Connecticut, the exhibition brings together just over 80 works from 34 international artists and designers, including Lucas Arruda, Lynda Benglis, Heidi Bucher, Sonia Gomes, Green River Project LLC, Mark Grotjahn, Kazunori Hamana, Sheila Hicks, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Antonio Obá, Gaetano Pesce, and Faye Toogood, among others…
In 1958, Noyes commented that aesthetic objects can ‘best be enjoyed in a house designed to bring art and their daily lives into as close daily contact possible.’ He created just such a place, and that sense of contact is still alive and well: a modern story, with a fairytale ending.”
Why it’s worth a look: Never before open to the public, this sleekly designed house is a work of art in and of itself—never mind the lush surroundings and eclectic art and design objects inside. Eliot Noyes, who designed the home for his family in 1955, followed the same playbook he employed in his industrial design work on the IBM Selectric typewriter and World’s Fair pavilion: using truthful materials and adhering to simple forms. The exhibition—which represents a rare collaboration among two top galleries and the design fair Object & Thing—offers delightful juxtapositions between sleek Modern architecture and contemporary artworks, many of which were created specifically for this show. If you like to fantasize about real estate, this one is for you.
What it looks like:

Alma Allen, Not Yet Titled (2020); Hugo França, Rings (2007). Courtesy of Mendes Wood DM, Blum & Poe, and Object & Thing. Photo: Michael Biondo.

Antonio Obá, Wade in the water II, (2020). Courtesy of Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM, and Object & Thing. Photo: Michael Biondo

Antonio Obá, Wade in the water II, (2020). Courtesy of Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM, and Object & Thing.

Patricia Leite, Entre Nuvens (2020). Courtesy of Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM, and Object & Thing. Photo: Michael Biondo

Mimi Lauter, Alla Marcia (2019); Jim McDowell, Spike (2015) and Your Chains Can’t Hold Me (2020). At right: Paulo Nazareth, Sem título, da série Objetos para tampar o Sol de seus olhos (2010). Courtesy of Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM, and Object & Thing. Photo: Michael Biondo

Sergio Camargo, RELIEF nº 285-Paris (1970). Courtesy of Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM, and Object & Thing. Photo: Michael Biondo

Tomoo Gokita, Looking for a Lover (2020); Daniel Valero / Mestiz, Patél chair, pair (2015/2019); Frances Palmer, group of vases (2020). Courtesy of Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM, and Object & Thing. Photo: Michael Biondo

Sonia Gomes, Untitled from Pendentes series (2018). Courtesy of Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM, and Object & Thing. Photo: Michael Biondo

Sonia Gomes, Untitled from Pendentes series (2018). Courtesy of Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM, and Object & Thing.

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What does skateboarding have to do with contemporary art? For sculptor David Brooks, both hinge on pivotal moments that provide what he describes as “a reality check.”

“Skateboarding for me was the most fulfilling when you would find a new situation in an urban context,” Brooks explains in an exclusive interview with Art21 as part of the “New York Close Up” series. “It propels one to want to actually go out in the world and explore.” Similarly, the artist’s large-scale installations also shift one’s perspective, and draw attention to the urban, built landscape, and the natural world.

When Brooks moved to New York to attend the Cooper Union in the early 1990s, he explored his new surroundings on his skateboard. Though, as a kid, he had dreams of going pro, eventually Brooks turned to art and began a practice centers around investigating the relationship between humans and culture, and the built and natural environments they live in.
In the video, Brooks recounts some of his major works, including Preserved Forest, an installation at MoMA PS1 in which the artist planted dozens of trees and then sprayed and poured concrete over them in an attempt to recreate the deforestation of the Amazon.
“We’re so desensitized to imagery of violence, both in terms of a landscape, but also in terms of a culture” Brooks tells Art21, describing the project as a way to “tether reality right back to it, just like skating, there is no ideology behind hitting the pavement.” 

Production still from the Art21 “New York Close Up” film, “David Brooks Hits the Pavement.” © Art21, Inc. 2017.

Another project the artist mentions is Continuous Service Altered Daily (2016), where he disassembled a 1976 John Deere combine harvester, and arranged the hundreds of parts for display. Combines are used to cut corn, break down kernels off the cob, and clean the grain, Brooks explains in the video. Similarly, “the exhibition breaks apart this piece of machinery into thousands of pieces.” 
Right now, at the Planting Fields Foundation in Oyster Bay, New York, an exhibition of works by David Brooks is presented alongside art by Mark Dion, who also investigates complex ecosystems. The show, titled “The Great Bird Blind Debate,” will see both artists present interpretations of bird blinds, used by birding enthusiasts to observe their subjects.

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. 
“The Great Bird Blind Debate” is open now at Planting Fields Foundation in Oyster Bay, New York. 
[embedded content]
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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When the instruments of artistic production are limited and direct, urgent expression the priority, drawing is often the medium of choice. So it should be no surprise that over the last six months, we’ve seen artists the world over turn to pen and paper.
“I think there’s often a tendency to turn to drawing in challenging times,” speculates Claire Gilman, who co-curated an exhibition of 100-plus such artworks completed in 2020 that goes on view at the Drawing Center October 7.
“It has to do with the intimacy of the medium and the necessity of touch, the physical act of putting hand to paper—there’s something very grounding about that,” Gilman continues. “Especially in this moment, when the condition of that trauma is rooted in a feeling of separation and isolation, there was a need for some kind of connectedness.”
Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Treasure Hunt #2 (2020). Collection of Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Donna Augustin-Quinn.

The show, “100 Drawings from Now,” began to take shape back in April, with Gilman working alongside curators Rosario Güiraldes, Isabella Kapur, and Drawing Center executive director Laura Hoptman. “Pretty soon after things had shut down and we were starting to see things on screen,” she explains, “we became aware that there was this immediate turn to drawing on the part of many artists. Some draw regularly, but for many drawing is not their primary medium.”
Indeed, the list of participating artists is a diverse one: Maurizio Cattelan, Paul Chan, Rachel Harrison, and Paul Giamatti (yes, that Paul Giamatti) all share the same set of walls in the exhibition, which provides one of the more in-depth looks at artistic output in the quarantine-era. All the themes that have dominated the discourse over the last half-year are present: state violence, a renewed investigation of domestic space, technology’s mediation of images.
Michael Armitage, Study for Curfew (2020). Courtesy of the artist and White Cube.

In some instances, 2020’s themes sit pointedly on the surface. A spare, ink-on-paper drawing by Michael Armitage called Study for Curfew, for instance, shows a uniformed man whipping a figure on the ground—a reference to recent protests over police violence.
More abstract is an India ink illustration of a tree by William Kentridge, populated with snippets of existential text that suggest isolation: “Escaping our fate.” “And I Alone.” Katherine Bernhardt, meanwhile, honed in on a different aspect of quarantine, via a watercolor picture of cigarette butts and Xanax pills.
Sam Messer and Rochelle Feinstein, offer a different window into the moment. The duo contributes a pair of portraits, each illustrating the other person through Zoom.  
There’s a fair share of abstraction, in shape studies by Xylor Jane and Sam Moyer, for example. There’s also a lot of self-portraiture. R. Crumb and Marcus Jahmal each examine their own likenesses. Both read as exercises in healing through making. 
Katherine Bernhardt,Untitled (2020). Courtesy of the artist and Canada Gallery.

“We didn’t seek out works that addressed specific ideas, necessarily,” says Gilman. “We wanted it to be a very natural portrait of the time. We felt that everyone had something to say. And I think that the artists that said they have something they wanted to contribute thought of their work in this way, as relative to this moment.”
All artists donated works to the Drawing Center for the exhibition, the vast majority of which are on sale now through October 4 in a benefit for the venue. (Prices were determined by the individual artists; some will pocket a percentage of the profits.) 
Mounira Al Solh, Self-Portrait (2020).Courtesy of the artist.

“100 Drawings from Now” will be on view October 7 – January 17, 2021 at the Drawing Center in New York.
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John Akomfrah‘s multichannel video installations are all-encompassing: the color, sound, and especially juxtaposition of historical footage with contemporary imagery make for a truly absorbing experience. And while his works address some of the most urgent present-day issues, Akomfrah also draws inspiration from the art of the past: he traces his interests back to masterpieces by artists like Constable and Turner that he encountered as a teenager visiting Tate Britain, after his family moved from his native Accra, Ghana.
“Turner’s my guy because there’s an act of will and imagination, which is at the forefront with what I call his ‘cinematic eye,’” the artist says in an interview with Art21. “It’s a painting, but it feels like you’re in the disaster.” The interview is part of the new season of the acclaimed PBS series’s Art in the Twenty-First Century series.
Akomfrah gestures to the turbulent ocean, a hallmark of Turner’s work, which figured heavily in his 2015 film Vertigo Sea. That work is an episodic meditation on the sublime beauty and horror of the water, incorporating scenes of migrants crossing the expanse in hope of a better life, images of the whaling industry, and readings of Moby Dick along with archival and newly shot footage.
“I’m more choreographer than creator,” the artist explains in the video, “I became interested in making multi-screen films because it seemed a way of bringing disparate interests together.” For Akomfrah, the addition of archival material introduces another voice, and so another perspective. 

Still from John Akomfrah’s Vertigo Sea (2015). ©Smoking Dogs Films, courtesy of Lisson Gallery.

For Art21, Akomfrah details personal experiences and global issues that he’s engaged in his films, including Brexit, race riots, the military coup in Ghana that forced his family to flee for Britain, and a number of other political and social events. All of those historical strands, the artist says, helped to shape his own view.
“Once you’ve understood that you are a product of things, you can’t shake off realizing that from across your life,” he says.
Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of Art21’s series Art in the Twenty-First Century, below. The brand new 10th season of the show is available now at Art21.org. 
[embedded content]
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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Bruce Nauman has made a career out of unsettling audiences—or at least, shaking up the dailiness of life—with a various-and-sundry practice that has stretched from the absurdist, at-times whimsical performance pieces that first gained him recognition in the 1960s, to distressing sculpture and video works that boldly take torture as their subject matter.  
This month, Nauman, who at 78 is still very much at it, debuted three new works at Sperone Westwater in an exhibition that marks his 13th solo show at the gallery since his first one, 45 years ago in 1976.
Two new interactive 3-D video works and one hanging sculpture (Two Leaping Foxes, a return to the animal sculptures Nauman first made in the late 1980s) comprise the show and are given ample space in the gallery (which should be something of a comfort to those still hesitant to visit galleries in person).
Bruce Nauman, Nature Morte (2020). Courtesy of Sperone Westwater.

For fans of the provocative artist, the exhibition conjures up comparisons to earlier precedents in his long career, especially for those who still have last year’s MoMA retrospective, “Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts,” in mind.
That’s not to say the works are without innovation, however. The videos, Walking a Line (2019) and Nature Morte (2020), feel strangely and unexpectedly vulnerable. 
In Walking a Line (2019), Nauman walks with his arms extended out to his sides as he follows a straight line. Nauman’s Walk with Contrapposto from 1968–69 comes to mind—the seminal, and nonsensical, performance art video that showed the young artist following a path around his studio in slow-motion as he comically mimicked the stances of ancient sculptures.
But the mood of Walking a Line feels more precarious than punchy, as Nauman walks like a tightrope walker trying to maintain his balance. This is inevitably underscored by Nauman’s age—he is no longer a lithe, almost balletic young man. What’s more, the work has a 3-D element that splits the projection (and the figure of Nauman) horizontally, and plays the two segments out of sync, so that the overall effect is discordant and tenuous.
“There is transparency about his relationship with his own body as he completes what would have been a simple exercise in his youth,” Natasha Westwater told Artnet News. “In the editing, he again divides the body in half, creating asymmetry with each turn. Sometimes his lower body turns around, revolving 180 degrees before the upper half catches up, sometimes completely walking out of the frame.”
Bruce Nauman, Nature Morte (2020). Courtesy of Sperone Westwater.

What made Nauman so revolutionary in the 1960s and ‘70s was, of course, this invitation inside his space, inside the studio. In our age of Instagram and hyper-documentation, it can be hard to imagine the impact his gesture had. Already in 2001, with Mapping the Studio (2001), Nauman began to record his studio space at night, picturing it as its own object, full of mice and critters. 
But in his most recent work, Nature Morte (2020), the artist has gone much further, giving the public free reign to navigate his studio without his presence. Through three iPads, each linked to a projection, visitors can explore the space of his studio and inspect individual objects that Nauman has scanned. 
“Nauman disappears, his body is absent, and the spectator becomes the participant or performer… Nauman recorded hundreds of images documenting all parts of the studio—notes from previous artworks, books, coffee cups, vinyl records, tools, photographs of horses, the sculpture Two Leaping Foxes, and more, for over a year,” noted Westwater, who said the work “questions the conventions of art and the contradictions and ambiguities which characterize our existence in the world.”
The final effect, dizzying as it is, is provocative in a new way—it’s eerie, even lonely, especially in this unusual year, with Nauman suddenly appearing more like a seer than a jester of contemporary life. 
“Bruce Nauman” is on view at Sperone Westwater through November 7, 2020.
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