In this monthly roundup, we shine the spotlight on five stellar exhibitions taking place at galleries in five cities worldwide.
“Bestiaries, a solo by Hannah Lim”
Wilder Gallery, London
Sept. 13–Oct. 7
Jewelled Dewdrop Snuff Bottle, 2022
Hannah Lim
Wilder Gallery
Phoenix With The Golden Egg, 2023
Hannah Lim
Wilder Gallery
In “Bestiaries,” Hannah Lim offers a vivid selection of sculptures and paintings that reinterpret chinoiserie while reflecting on the artist’s own Chinese and British heritage. For the show, Lim mined inspiration from Chinese and medieval bestiaries—books that compiled illustrations and descriptions of real and mythical animals—and recreated and combined the creatures, traditions, and aesthetics she found. The results are shimmering, intricate paintings and a stunning group of large, vibrant snuff bottle sculptures made from jesmonite and polymer clay.
Ruby Dragon Snuff Bottle, 2023
Hannah Lim
Wilder Gallery
Shen, 2023
Hannah Lim
Wilder Gallery
Peacock Snuff Bottle, 2023
Hannah Lim
Wilder Gallery
Illuminated Dragon, 2023
Hannah Lim
Wilder Gallery
Blue Heluo-Fish Snuff Bottle, 2022
Hannah Lim
Wilder Gallery
Fiery Fu Dog, 2023
Hannah Lim
Wilder Gallery
Purple Lotus Snuff Bottle, 2023
Hannah Lim
Wilder Gallery
Lim started making these sculptures in 2020, inspired by her longstanding interest with snuff bottles, which she first encountered as a teen at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. “It seemed every time I visited a museum in the U.K. there always seemed to be a vibrant collection of snuff bottles, they became for me a visual emblem of my Chinese and British heritage,” Lim recalled in a statement. “Snuff bottles were in the past treated as quite personal objects, detailed yet functional, they could fit inside the palm of your hand.” Lim’s snuff bottles are personal, too, yet they’re much larger and adorned with playful eyes, limbs, and other graceful flourishes. Combining her own experiences with those of these historical objects, Lim’s sculptures are at once intimate and magical to behold.
—Casey Lesser
“Heidi Hahn – Kink Odelisk”
Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf
Sept. 1–Oct. 14
In her new show at Kadel Willborn, New York and Düsseldorf-based painter Heidi Hahn continues her career-long exploration of female bodies, with equal attention to another subject: painting itself. She calls this way of working “narrative formalism,” placing equal emphasis on both content and materiality. Across the 14 works on view at the gallery, Hahn’s women are rendered in diaphanous washes of paint and abstracted into blocky geometric forms that prioritize contour and color over legibility. Yet, they remain recognizable, as does their affect: They collapse into themselves, limbs folded, gaze averted or out of frame altogether. Some, like Kink Odalisk #13 (2023), seem poised to dissolve into the canvas.
Kink Odelisk #6, 2023
Heidi Hahn
Kadel Willborn
Kink Odelisk #2, 2023
Heidi Hahn
Kadel Willborn
Kink Odelisk #5, 2023
Heidi Hahn
Kadel Willborn
Kink Odelisk #1, 2023
Heidi Hahn
Kadel Willborn
Kink Odelisk #13, 2023
Heidi Hahn
Kadel Willborn
Kink Odelisk #4, 2023
Heidi Hahn
Kadel Willborn
Perhaps counterintuitively, these gestures of refusal invite closer engagement. There is more to see here than flesh—a counterpoint to the odalisques of Ingres and Manet. As Hahn said of her subjects in an interview with BOMB, “they want to be felt rather than just seen.”
“Kink Odelisk” is Hahn’s second solo outing with Kadel Willborn, which represents the artist alongside Mitchell-Innes & Nash and Michael Kohn Gallery.
—Olivia Horn
“Elfyn Lewis: Cân i Gymry”
&Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
Sept. 2–30
In his second solo show at &Gallery, Welsh painter Elfyn Lewis draws inspiration from rifling through the LPs at his local record shop during his student days in the 1980s. In particular, his works reference the legendary Welsh-language alt-rock band Datblygu (one piece is even named after the band), which established a sardonic and cutting lyrical style that gave Welsh-speaking music a native musical commentary on the times.
Agoriad Llygad, 2022
Elfyn Lewis
&Gallery
Mamiaith, 2023
Elfyn Lewis
&Gallery
Tawel, 2022
Elfyn Lewis
&Gallery
Swnt, 2023
Elfyn Lewis
&Gallery
Mynd adra, 2023
Elfyn Lewis
&Gallery
Dangos cariad, 2022
Elfyn Lewis
&Gallery
Named after a song by the band, “Cân i Gymry” presents many small works (indeed, mostly around the dimensions of vinyl records and CD cases) that often include thick pools of paint swelling around the canvas. Slicks of pure, unmixed paint sear through gradients, splatters, and swishes: Agoriad Llygad (2022), for instance, places flag-like horizontal bars of green, yellow, black, and blue in the center of a mishmash of swept-up dark color.
Lewis, who was named Welsh Artist of the Year in 2010, wrote that the works in the show are dedicated to “musicians, friends and family, who’ve helped us believe in ourselves and what we, as a country, Cymru [the Welsh name for Wales], can be.”
—Josie Thaddeus-Johns
“Hiroshi Sato: Transvaluation”
Marrow Gallery, San Francisco
Aug. 30–Sept. 30
Hiroshi Sato investigates the social disquiet of post-pandemic San Francisco in a series of new paintings at Marrow Gallery, which is based in the city.
Drawing inspiration from the aesthetics and sociocultural themes of Edward Hopper, Sato’s paintings reflect a city grappling with financial turmoil and urban uncertainty. The works convey a prevailing sense of isolation and estrangement that has come to characterize parts of the city.
Cabinet, 2023
Hiroshi Sato
Marrow Gallery
Safety, 2023
Hiroshi Sato
Marrow Gallery
Jimmy's Ice Cream, 2023
Hiroshi Sato
Marrow Gallery
Waiting to Return, 2023
Hiroshi Sato
Marrow Gallery
Papers and Oranges, 2023
Hiroshi Sato
Marrow Gallery
Swapping Plates, 2023
Hiroshi Sato
Marrow Gallery
Sato’s subjects are imbued with a palpable tension, depicted in locations from law offices to ice cream parlors. Reminiscent of Hopper’s portrayal of Depression-era New York, the show reflects the artist’s belief that “contemporary artists must engage with the present moment.”
—Arun Kakar
“The Speed of Grace”
Simões de Assis, São Paulo
Sept. 2–Oct. 21
Simões de Assis has inaugurated its new São Paulo headquarters with “The Speed of Grace,” an impressive group show organized by the powerhouse, tastemaking curator Larry Ossei-Mensah.
The show brings together a dazzling spectrum of work by beloved emerging and established names. Highlights include new works by closely watched painters Bony Ramirez and Tunji Adeniyi-Jones; collages by Deborah Roberts; a crimson durag canvas by Anthony Akinbola; editions by Derrick Adams and Hank Willis Thomas; and a poetic sculpture made from palm, leather, shells, and beads by the late Brazilian artist Mestre Didi.
lot, 2023
Anthony Akinbola
Simões de Assis
Supposed to Have a Thousand Dollar Get Out of Your Pocket Every Bloodclaat Week and Me Hole Good Like That, 2023
April Bey
Simões de Assis
Style Variation 1 (Afro), 2020
Derrick Adams
Simões de Assis
The 400 Colors of A Pearl/Los 400 Colores De Una Perla, 2023
Bony Ramirez
Simões de Assis
Practicing Patience, 2019
Deborah Roberts
Simões de Assis
The Embrace, 2022
Hank Willis Thomas
Simões de Assis
Opa Esin Nile Fun Orun - Cetro da Lança da Terra para o além, 2007
Mestre Didi
Simões de Assis
Though the artists and works can hardly be strung together by a single theme, with this show Ossei-Mensah offers a fresh, expansive spotlight on artists of color who boldly use their work to confront entrenched power dynamics and uplift Black and Brown communities.
—Casey Lesser
from Artsy News https://ift.tt/yhwDEUH
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