The Late Phyllida Barlow Turned Everyday Waste into Wondrous Sculptures https://ift.tt/v9UzdOf

“I like the idea of work being very impractical and very illogical and not a nice tidy thing that comes out of a box,” said the sculptor Phyllida Barlow in a 2019 documentary.

Given those goals, it seems she succeeded: No one would ever describe Barlow’s work as “a nice tidy thing.” Her ungainly forms are crafted from the most basic of materials—cardboard, plywood, and polystyrene, even detritus salvaged from a skip, molded together with plaster and concrete. And yet somehow they inspire awe. “She was just great with the cheapest, most horrible stuff,” said former Tate Modern director Frances Morris, who has curated the posthumous exhibition “Phyllida Barlow. unscripted” at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, on show through January 5, 2025.

The exhibition, which brings together sculptures from several major installations, as well as a number of free-standing sculptures dating from the early 1970s until the last years of her life, provides a fascinating overview of the work of this singular artist, who died in 2023 at the age of 78.

Born in Newcastle in 1944, she was the daughter of Erasmus Barlow, an eminent psychiatrist who was himself the great-grandson of Charles Darwin. After World War II, the family moved to London, where her father took a strange delight in taking his young family on drives through the bomb-damaged East End. “For me that was a very strong experience,” Barlow said. This awareness of the devastation that war causes would later become evident in the toppled houses and giant, splayed plank constructions that appear in many of her installations.

Another key influence from her early years was her grandmother’s under-stair cupboard, which contained anything that could be reused—bits of candles of various lengths, rubber bands, lid tops, and jars. “Everything was of value,” the artist noted, an approach she certainly applied to her own work.

Barlow attended Chelsea College of Arts where she met her future husband Fabian Peake, the son of Gormenghast writer and artist Mervyn Peake. She then went on to the Slade School of Fine Art, first as a student and then as a teacher, although the birth of the first of five children in 1973 put a temporary stop to her teaching and artmaking. She considered raising children and making art “completely incompatible. That’s not meant to be cruel or regretful. Both are creative,” Barlow said. But in the end, two of her children (Eddie Peake and Florence Peake) followed in their mother’s footsteps, and are now successful artists in their own right.

She returned to teaching in her forties, ending up back at the Slade, eventually becoming a professor before retiring in 2009. By all accounts, Barlow was one of those inspirational teachers who was universally adored by generations of students, many of whom went on to fame and fortune while she toiled away in relative anonymity. It was through a group of those celebrated former pupils—Rachel Whiteread, Tacita Dean, and Martin Creed—that she came to the attention of Iwan Wirth of Hauser & Wirth.

This major gallery support was a late-career turning point. Barlow had her first major museum show at the Serpentine in 2010, was made a Royal Academician in 2011, commissioned by Tate Britain to create an ambitious work for the Duveen Galleries in 2014, and created a uniquely uncontainable installation, folly, for the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2017. In 2021 she was made a dame.

It was a stunning rise to fame and adulation after so many years of living in the shadows—although, as the Somerset show reveals, those years were far from unproductive. In the show, a series of statement works reveal the many artists that Barlow was in dialogue with throughout her career. “Very few artists are so open and honest about the artists they admire, who they’ve stolen from and who their work is in homage to,” said Morris. A beautifully multicolored striped column, which on closer inspection appears to be crafted from an array of urban detritus, shows the influence of Arte Povera, while an old TV topped with sculpted bunny ears—a recurring motif—is “[Salvador] Dalí’s Lobster Telephone in another form,” said Morris.

Barlow went “through the process of understanding and critiquing sculpture to come up with something profoundly original,” explained Morris. That originality is evident in the gallery featuring parts of past installations, including folly. Boulders hang from the ceiling above a sprawling mass of twisted fabric and organic forms, while rock-like formations jut out from the wall. The objects are at once familiar and strangely alien. “They signify things in the real world but they don’t represent them. She called them ‘phantom objects,’” said Morris.

Although many of the works are monochrome, Morris pointed out that they are, intriguingly, shot through with color. “They all speak to the fact that Phyllida really thought of herself as a painter rather than a sculptor,” she said. It seems that Barlow had been on the cusp of exploring that passion just before she died. The exhibition features the first and only paintings that Barlow ever produced, miniature works on canvas that Morris refers to as “maquette paintings.” A mix of abstractions and depictions of the forms that appeared in her sculpture, they offer a tantalizing glimpse of what might have been.

Barlow’s last completed works, “PRANK,” a series of seven sculptures made for New York’s City Hall Park in 2023, are on display in the Hauser & Wirth grounds. Large, ungainly versions of the domestic objects that were frequent motifs in her work, including sofas, chairs, and pianos, these works are complemented once again by bunny ears, returning full circle to the uncanny and Surrealist nature of some of her earlier work.

During her lifetime, Barlow said that, for her, it was a question of “taking the ordinary and seeing it as extraordinary.” Those who encounter her astonishing creations face to face are fortunate to see the world through her transformative eyes.

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Hannah Levy’s Spidery Sculptures Spin Intrigue https://ift.tt/HV1q5ko

Spidery legs—sharp, shiny, and arched in a threatening gesture—sink into the soft carpet at MASSIMODECARLO’s London gallery. In another room, a solitary, insect-like free-standing sculpture seems to have been caught mid-metamorphosis, silicone still oozing through its metal exoskeleton. Protruding from the wall, spiky-looking sconces clutch balls of what turns out to be blown glass. There are notes of Ludwig Mies van de Rohe, Robert Gober, and Louise Bourgeois, as well as BDSM and 1980s horror. This is the wildly unique universe of American artist Hannah Levy.

This is Levy’s first solo exhibition at MASSIMODECARLO, following the gallery’s announcement that it would represent the sculptor, who trained at Cornell University and then earned a Meisterschüler title from Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main in 2015. She was among The Artsy Vanguard’s 2018 cohort, and in 2022 had a solo exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)—the same year she participated at the Venice Biennale in Cecilia Alemani’s main show, “The Milk of Dreams.” And institutions are taking note—her works have been acquired for the public collections of Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, among others.

Her early works were composed of more rigid forms, employing simpler bends and curves riffing on the principles of modernist design. But as Levy has gained experience and confidence as a maker, her sculptures have become more complex and organic, using more ambitious materials. Two years ago, she began to work with glass, and in 2023, she was able to make a large-scale carved marble and stainless steel piece, thanks to a commission from Alemani for the High Line. Retainer resembles, as the title suggests, an oversized orthodontic retainer, made by collaborating with workers at a marble quarry in Italy.

For the most part, though, Levy works in her studio alone. “I do all the metalwork myself, as well as the casting,” Levy told Artsy, speaking on the phone the day after the opening of “Bulge”—the evocative title of her current exhibition. The single-edition sculptures it features are made using a laborious process of bending, welding, and grinding. “I have a very hands-on relationship to the work. I think through the objects physically as I’m making them, letting them act as they naturally want to. If the silicone looks pinched or pulled or squished, then that’s truly what’s happened to the material.”

Untitled, 2024
Hannah Levy
MASSIMODECARLO

This aesthetic is also visible in the silicone Levy has used in her new works, which is not smooth, but rather cast in lizard-pattern pleather, the texture of a basketball. The silicone’s fleshiness feels more real than the animal flesh we are accustomed to sitting on. “I try to take things from the environment that are so banal they have become invisible, and recontextualize them,” said the artist. It’s all about taking that sense of familiarity and comfort, and twisting and bending it out of shape to something that feels less “safe,” more muddy. “The ideal result would be a shift in perspective, so the next time you see something, you think differently about it.”

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Lisson Gallery will represent Oliver Lee Jackson. https://ift.tt/ouZq1FE

Lisson Gallery has announced its representation of Oliver Lee Jackson, a renowned painter, sculptor, and printmaker. Jackson, whose work is known for its improvisational, freeform approach, will debut with Lisson Gallery at Art Basel, Basel, from June 13-16, 2024. His first solo exhibition with the gallery in London is scheduled for November 2024. The gallery will represent Jackson in collaboration with Andrew Kreps Gallery and BLUM.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1935, Jackson studied at the University of Iowa and played a significant role in the Black Artists Group in St. Louis before moving to the West Coast. There, he taught at California State University, Sacramento, where he developed the Pan African Studies program.

Jackson’s work is characterized by its hybrid, ambiguous forms that challenge the boundaries between figuration and abstraction. The artist’s paintings are fragmentary, gestural canvases where the human figure pops up in various guises, sometimes overtly and sometimes obliquely. Like his figurative—often painted—sculptures, in metal, marble, and wood, they are rooted in both African and European art traditions. Notable exhibitions include solo shows at the Saint Louis Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

No. 1, 2016 (1.2.16), 2016
Oliver Lee Jackson
Lisson Gallery

In 2023, Jackson received the Lee Krasner Award for lifetime achievement from the Pollock Krasner Foundation. His work is included in the permanent collections of major institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

“His approach to form and art history is singular,” said Alex Logsdail, CEO of Lisson Gallery. “His ability to meld style and subject to his own vernacular is amazing to see unfold.”

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London’s Gallery Scene Is Persevering in the Face of Challenges https://ift.tt/7k9MdN4

Brexit, bills, and bloody costs: Ask a London art dealer about what’s grinding their gears at the moment, and they’ll likely answer one of these three things.

Like U.K. business at large, London’s art trade in 2024 is fighting a battle on numerous fronts. Brexit continues to be a costly, bureaucratic burden for many; the “cost of living crisis” is making business—from materials to services—more expensive; and local rental prices continue to climb. These factors are exacerbated by a tricky moment for the art market globally, too, with total art sales worldwide falling by 4% in 2023, according to Art Basel and UBS’s “The Art Market 2024” report. Sales in the U.K. market, according to the report, were down 8% year over year in 2023, to $10.9 billion.

All of this might give Londoners cause to feel slightly more downtrodden than usual. But in fact, there is still plenty for the city’s art scene to be positive about, with new gallerists, collectors, art enthusiasts, and artists driving things forward, undergirded by the city’s longstanding strength of infrastructure: art schools, established galleries, institutions, and legal system.

“People want to live in London. It is the most cosmopolitan, open city, maybe in the West,” said James Mayor of The Mayor Gallery, which has been operating in Mayfair since the 1920s. Mayor, who has been at the reins of the gallery since the 1970s, knows all too well about weathering choppier waters in a city that is prone to the occasional bout of economic volatility. “If the negativity that people like to spread about London would subside, London would boom,” he added.

He has a point. The British art market is the third largest in the world behind the U.S. and China (it was the second largest in 2022), representing 17% of global art sales by value, according to the Art Basel and UBS report. That’s a comfortable 10% above its nearest competitor, France, which sits in fourth place with a 7% share. The sales decline in the U.K. is also not isolated, either, with the U.S.—by far the largest art market in the world—seeing its sales fall by 10% last year compared to 2022, according to the report.

“There was quite an agenda of people wanting to talk London down post-Brexit,” said Anthony Browne, chairman of the British Art Market Federation (BAMF), an influential industry body that represents the interests of the U.K.’s art and antiques market in its contacts with government. “Of course, when you have the cross-border regulatory changes and costs that accompany Brexit, a lot of people were pretty depressed about it. But we’re still by far the largest art market in a European time zone: No other art market [in Europe] comes anywhere close to London.”

Brexit issues—from legal red tape to bureaucratic processes—are persistent and continue to cause headaches, particularly for smaller galleries, and yet don’t seem to be deterring new players from entering the market. According to BAMF, the number of dealer and gallery businesses rose by 14% in the period from 2019 to 2023. In London, this is most visible in the center of town: In the years since the COVID-19 pandemic waned, many new galleries have set up there, while others have moved in at a dizzying pace.

In Mayfair, the city’s most established gallery quarter where the likes of Gagosian and David Zwirner have their flagships, tastemaking new arrivals include Tiwani Contemporary, Alison Jacques, and Pilar Corrias Gallery. Bloomsbury has seen an influx of trendy new galleries such as Union Pacific, Hot Wheels, and Phillida Reid; and nearby Fitzrovia is London’s fastest-growing gallery district, which has seen dealers open in double figures since 2020. Slightly further afield, Kensington’s Cromwell Place—an arts complex opened in 2020 where galleries can rent short- or long-term spaces—provides easy-to-access venues for dealers looking to have a presence in London, hosting more than 60 galleries such as Lehmann Maupin and Sundaram Tagore Gallery.

Other international names are setting up more permanent spaces, such as Bernheim, which late last year opened a five-story gallery in Mayfair. For founder Maria Bernheim, who founded her gallery in 2015 in Zurich, London’s internationalism was a key factor in expanding.

“London is a great city because it’s in the English-speaking world, but then it also has a kind of European way of dealing with art,” she said. “It’s really the best of both worlds.” Bernheim also noted that she is seeing an influx of younger collectors in London who are interested in collecting artists of their own generation. “They like to meet the artist,” she explained. “They want to build that relationship and they want to feel involved in a journey”

Newer galleries across town are also bringing in a younger, engaged crowd. “There are newcomers to the art world, and people are culturally more open than they’ve ever been before,” said Soho dealer Cedric Bardawil. “Art is becoming more and more democratic, and people are more interested in it as a result.”

As someone who opened his eponymous gallery in mid-2022, Bardawil is among a crop of young art dealers in the area who have set up shop in post-2020 Central London. Around half of the artists in his program are London-based, and he observes a local flourishing of artistic talent. “There is more and more good art coming out of art schools, and so much opportunity for young artists,” he said.

Many of these artists are now reaching worldwide acclaim and large gallery recognition. Nicolas Sorbac, who opened his first permanent space, NISO, in the area earlier this year, pointed to the rise of recent London art school graduates Pam Evelyn and The Artsy Vanguard 2023–2024 alum Sarah Cunningham—who were recently picked up by Pace Gallery and Lisson Gallery, respectively—as cases in point.

“I see this new generation of mostly painters in London really thriving and getting picked up by top galleries—it gives me a lot of confidence,” he said. “Something interesting is brewing in London in terms of the quality of the artists that are being showcased.”

Much of this quality will be on view as part of London Gallery Weekend 2024, which bills itself as the world’s “largest event of its kind,” and takes place from May 31st through June 1st. Each day of the weekend will be dedicated to a part of the city, with talks, workshops, and special events making up a packed agenda across more than 130 galleries. The organization—led by Edel Assanti founder Jeremy Epstein and Thaddaeus Ropac senior director Sarah Rustin—is operated in part with the voluntary help of figures from a cross-section of London galleries and reflects London’s collegiate arts ecosystem, where galleries broadly take a supportive attitude towards each other.

“There are many amazing galleries on the commercial side of things that are popping up and there is excitement with younger dealers and galleries. But then there are also galleries like us who have had a lot of experience and are happy to share that with the younger dealers, and just say, ‘Look, we’ve been through the thick and thin and this is how you survive it,’” said Sasha Gomeniuk, a senior director at Hales Gallery, which first opened in 1992 in East London.

Newer galleries can also benefit more established names, noted Jade Y. Turanli, director of Pi Artworks, which opened its Fitzrovia space in 2013. “It’s a competition but a healthy competition,” Turanli said. “Ever since COVID, sharing and collaborating between galleries has been very fluid and easy. I think it helps to nourish both the artists and the galleries.”

While this nexus between collectors, artists, galleries, and art enthusiasts (including, as noted by Bernheim, the “bunch of people [that] just come for the drinks”) remains strong, several of the galleries Artsy spoke to acknowledge the fragility of the current situation. Galleries such as Parafin and fairs such as Masterpiece, for example, are among those that have been forced to close their doors recently due to a challenging economic landscape.

“I think that Brexit and the ongoing wars have had a major effect on the market,” said Kristin Hjellegjerde, who founded her eponymous gallery in 2012 and has London spaces in Tower Bridge and Battersea. “People are not willing to risk and take chances. This is also happening in Berlin and Paris, not only in London. One needs to stay very strong to keep going through this period.”

A uniquely “London” problem, however, is the drop in funding for the city’s web of cultural institutions, which have long been a source for supporting and growing the city’s artistic talent. In 2022, The Arts Council England reduced its funding allocation in the city by £50 million ($63.7 million), and in England overall, local authority expenditure on museums and galleries in England decreased by 37% from 2009–2010 and 2022–2023.

“The extreme underfunding over the years has led to a really dire situation in the public sector, which is an essential part of our ecosystem,” said Hales’s Gomeniuk. “Commercial galleries alone can’t provide everything that an artist needs to flourish.”

There are, however, signs that these issues are on their way to being addressed. Inflation in the U.K. may finally be waning, while organizations such as BAMF are actively consulting the government on VAT taxation to tackle some of the Brexit-related burdens experienced by galleries. The U.K. will soon hold a general election: Sir Keir Starmer, whose Labour Party is widely expected to win, has said that “the creative industries have the power and the potential for leveling up like nothing else.” And in London’s art scene, there is a sense that the city’s galleries and community are taking on these challenges with a resolute spirit.

“I’m a cautious optimist,” said BAMF’s Browne. “You’ve got to make sure we keep engaged with these things and try to solve these problems. But, left to our own devices with the right environment, I’m absolutely sure we can compete and maintain our position.”

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8 Curators on the LGBTQ+ Artists They’re Celebrating This Pride Month 2024 https://ift.tt/wfiFNkL

For this Pride Month, Artsy tapped eight curators and tastemakers with ties to the queer community to share the artists they’re championing this month, and why. Through their eyes, we dive into the practices of more than 70 artists, who together speak to the essence of Pride and why the visibility of LGBTQ+ artists is critical not just this month, but always.

Evan Garza and Chris Bogia

Co-founders, Fire Island Artist Residency

Evan Garza (curatorial fellow at MASS MoCA) and artist Chris Bogia highlight artists from the Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR) community—the first LGBTQ+ artist residency in the world, which they co-founded in 2011—including Leilah Babirye, Travis Boyer, Chitra Ganesh, Tony Feher, Keltie Ferris, Chris E. Vargas, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Elijah Burgher, Jeffrey Gibson, and couple/artist duo Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens. To this day, the organization continues to provide a live/work space for practicing and emerging queer artists in the historic LGBTQ+ community of Fire Island, New York.

Browse works by Evan Garza and Chris Bogia’s artists to celebrate.

Keltie Ferris

B. 1977, Louisville, Kentucky. Lives and works in New York.

U xxx Me, 2022
Keltie Ferris
Kadel Willborn

“Keltie is a pioneer of what we call queer abstraction—though today, we can just call it abstraction. Keltie’s work strikes an amazing balance between gestural linemaking, mastery of color, and a sculptural build-up of paint that puts his work in an orbit all its own. Keltie also utilizes colored frames, allowing more control over how the artwork appears on a wall, almost like a sculptor would, which I really respond to.” —Bogia

Travis Boyer

B. 1979, Fort Worth, Texas. Lives and works in New York.

Garden Bones; Ode to Penelope Hobhouse, 2022
Travis Boyer
The Valley

Seeper Cells, 2022
Travis Boyer
The Valley

“Travis Boyer’s work embraces the sensuality of gay male sexuality, and celebrates it on a symbolic level using iconography such as mushrooms, candles, shellfish, and the galaxy at large. His work is the result of a culmination of decades of work using dye and fabrics like velvet; he has a virtuosity over materials that we don’t get to see explored very often.” —Bogia

Elijah Burgher

B. 1978, Kingston, New York. Lives and works in Berlin.

Escaping Muses (after Lorenzo Lotto), 2021
Elijah Burgher
P.P.O.W

“Elijah is an incredible artist, painter, and draftsman. His work in recent years has primarily been engaged with issues related to Mother Goddess worship from Roman and Greek antiquity, blended with contemporary notions of queerness, transness, and this beautiful queer, witchy place where those elements meet. There’s a queer ritual aspect to Elijah’s work that dates back centuries, and the work cracks wide open these historical and mythological narratives.” —Garza

Paul Mpagi Sepuya

B. 1982, San Bernardino, California. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Exposure (_1150781), 2020
Paul Mpagi Sepuya
Michael Dawson Gallery

A Sitting for Matthew, 2015
Paul Mpagi Sepuya
Yancey Richardson Gallery

“Paul was easily among the most prolific artists that we had at the residency, making and printing a lot of work. His work is photographic in nature, documenting forms of queer ‘looking’ in the studio, between and among men and queer people. It’s evocative and sensual, and deeply important. I think Paul’s work has really broken a lot of barriers between ways of seeing and ways of experiencing photography.” —Garza

Gemma Rolls-Bentley

Curator

Gemma Rolls-Bentley highlights artists included in her forthcoming book, Queer Art: From Canvas to Club, and the Spaces Between: Sola Olulode, Leasho Johnson, Jenna Gribbon, Christina Quarles, Rene Matić, Ambera Wellman, Ajamu X, Robert Indiana, Leilah Babirye, Jeffrey Gibson, James Bartolacci, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Zanele Muholi, Chiffon Thomas, Xiyadie, and Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley.

Browse works by Gemma Rolls-Bentley’s artists to celebrate.

Jenna Gribbon

B. 1978, Knoxville, Tennessee. Lives and works in New York.

My place beside her in bed, 2019
Jenna Gribbon
Fredericks & Freiser

Comment Section, 2021
Jenna Gribbon
Lougher Contemporary

“Jenna paints her wife, MacKenzie Scott, a musician also known as Torres, over and over and over again. It’s a beautiful gesture of love, looking, and truly seeing her life partner. There’s a deep romance, but also a normalization of domestic queer life found in her work.”

Leilah Babirye

B. 1985, Kampala, Uganda. Lives and works in New York.

Namasole Ndwaddewazibwa, Mother of King Kamaanya from the Kuchu Royal Family of Buganda, 2021
Leilah Babirye
Stephen Friedman Gallery

Najjengo from the Kuchu Ngabi (Antelope) and Katiguma (Bush-Buck) Clans, 2021
Leilah Babirye
Stephen Friedman Gallery

“Leilah’s work is extremely powerful; she makes beautiful sculptures that range in scale using found, often discarded materials. She reclaims and gives meaning to items that have been discarded, as a metaphor for the LGBTQIA+ experience in Uganda, where she is from.”

Rene Matić

B. 1997, Peterborough, England. Lives and works in London.

“Rene Matić photographs their community, the people that surround them, and the people that they love. What really comes through in Rene’s work is the joy, solidarity, and celebration that can be found in queer spaces.”

Léuli Eshrāghi

Curator of Indigenous Practices, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal

Léuli Eshrāghi—inspired in part by their own Indigenous Sāmoan culture, in which fa’afafine and other gender identities have existed for centuries—highlights Indigenous and queer artists whose works are all “conceptually solid and poetic, as well as materially rigorous,” including asinnajaq, Walter Kaheró:ton Scott, Yann Pocreau, Carlos Motta, Seba Calfuqueo, Tyrrell Tapaha, Sarah Sense, Tarek Lakhrissi, Osman Yousefzada, and Rosalie Favell.

Browse works by Léuli Eshrāghi’s artists to celebrate.

Yann Pocreau

B. 1980, Quebec City, Canada. Lives and works in Montréal.

Les mailles élémentaires, 2021
Yann Pocreau
Blouin Division

“Yann Pocreau’s gentle explorations of memory, light, refraction, geography, and emotion carry me to the poignant and hopeful places.”

Seba Calfuqueo

B. 1991, Santiago. Lives and works in Santiago.

“The voice of the river” series Berta y Nicolasa contra la instalación de Ralco frente a la moneda (Palacio Presidencial), 2023
Seba Calfuqueo
Galeria Marília Razuk

“The voice of the river” series. Cementerio indígena bajo el agua hasta hoy en Ralco, 2023
Seba Calfuqueo
Galeria Marília Razuk

“Seba Calfuqueo makes stunning ceramic, performance, and video works that recenter queer nonbinary Mapuche existence and directly resist Chilean and multinational corporate oppressions on various ecologies, including humans, in their Wallmapu homelands.”

Carlos Motta

B. 1978, Bogotá. Lives and works in New York.

The Fall of the Damned (Serpents), 2021
Carlos Motta (b. 1978)
P.P.O.W

“Carlos Motta’s deeply embodied research-based video, installation, and performance practice situates a profoundly queer intersectional critique of imperialism and binarism in relation to futurities of queer wellness and fulfillment, which we all need more of!”

Xavier F. Salomon

Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, The Frick Collection

Inspired by the idyllic queer community gathering place of Fire Island, New York, Xavier F. Salomon highlights artists who live, work, spend leisure time, or otherwise engage with this historic community. Salomon chose a balance of artists who address the representation of the human figure as well as the natural landscape, including Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Kyle Coniglio, TM Davy, Nash Glynn, Jenna Gribbon, Doron Langberg, Thomas McCarty, Elle Pérez, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, and Stephen Truax.

Browse works by Xavier F. Salomon’s artists to celebrate.

Doron Langberg

B. 1985, Yokneam Moshava, Israel. Lives and works in New York.

Brice and Robert, 2020
Doron Langberg
Side X Side Gallery

Oren and Bennet, 2022
Doron Langberg
Craven Contemporary

“[Doron’s work] has a freshness, a feeling of liberty, and captures [Fire Island] and the people in a very, very unique way. He paints his pictures there—he’s on the beach, he’s by the swimming pool, he goes into nature, into the dunes, and he starts painting.…He has been central to representing a generation of Fire Island inhabitants.”

Nash Glynn

B. 1992, Miami. Lives and works in New York.

Posterier, 2017
Nash Glynn
HEIRESS

Body, 2023
Nash Glynn
HEIRESS

“[Nash] works with self-portraits and her own image. They’re often nude self-portraits, often very provocative and very memorable images.…She’s more of a magical painter, more whimsical, more surreal, in some way. Less of a direct observation, which is what you have with Doron. I just think her work is fabulous, and she’s been doing great, great things on the island.”

Sarah-Tai Black

Curator, film programmer, and critic

Sarah-Tai Black highlights Black queer artists exploring rich multiplicities of identity through figuration, including Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Qualeasha Wood, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Shikeith, Mickalene Thomas, Sadie Barnette, Daniel Obasi, Isaac Julien, D’Angelo Lovell Williams, Miranda Forrester, Naima Green, Danielle Scott, and Lauren Halsey. “Figurative practices are one of several ways that the unbounded worlds of Black queer life can be cultivated and protected,” noted Black.

Browse works by Sarah-Tai Black’s artists to celebrate.

Jonathan Lyndon Chase

B. 1989, Philadelphia. Lives and works in Philadelphia.

Cold Dark embrace, 2020
Jonathan Lyndon Chase
CFHILL

Untitled, 2018
Jonathan Lyndon Chase
Michael Kohn Gallery

“The work of Philadelphia-born and -based artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase is directed both inward and outward.…Working in sculpture, video, installation, and on paper, Chase foregrounds and affirms Black queer, femme, and gender-expansive subjectivity with grace.”

Shikeith

B. 1989, Philadelphia. Lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Adoration (never knew love like this before), 2020
Shikeith
McClain Gallery

Anthem, 2021
Shikeith
McClain Gallery

“In his sculptures, installations, and lens-based practice, artist Shikeith uses light, space, and durational techniques to create ecstatic images.…These photographs ask us: ‘Who are we when we welcome the vulnerability of communion? What possibilities are opened up through queer acts of tenderness?’”

Qualeasha Wood

B. 1996, Long Branch, New Jersey. Lives and works in Philadelphia.

Following, 2018
Qualeasha Wood
New Image Art

“The hand-beaded tapestries of textile artist Qualeasha Wood are self-portraits of the artist herself, often presented as a religious idol. Creating textiles out of digital images, Wood’s reframed self-portraits complicate the racialized and gendered hierarchy of looking. These works also critique the ways that the labor and cultural production of Black femmes has been historically exploited.”

Dawn Delikat

Executive Director, Pen + Brush

Dawn Delikat highlights artists who belong to the community of the nonprofit Pen + Brush, including Lola Flash, Felicita Felli Maynard, Michela Griffo, Alida Wilkinson, Emily Lombardo, Rowan Renee, Rennie Jones, Ash Edes, Danielle Scott, and C. Finley. For over 130 years, Pen + Brush has been dedicated to providing a platform to showcase the work of emerging and mid-career women artists and writers.

Browse works by Dawn Delikat’s artists to celebrate.

Felicita Felli Maynard

B. 1989, New York. Lives and works in New Orleans and New York.

Jean Loren Feliz, 2019
Felicita Maynard
Pen + Brush

“Felicita Felli Maynard is an artist who’s living and experiencing gender expansiveness,” Delikat told Artsy. “They started their work as a photographer stemming from archival research, looking into daguerreotypes and the early advent of photography, where Black and queer bodies did not have agency over their own image.” Delikat is particularly drawn to Maynard’s “Old Dandy” series, in which the artist reimagines and reembodies the lives of gender expansive performers from the 1890s in New York City, in a process that involves Maynard sitting for their own images in disguise, à la Cindy Sherman.

Michela Griffo

B. 1949, Rochester, New York. Lives and works in New York.

Untitled, 2022
Michela Griffo
Pen + Brush

“In a sense, Michaela Griffo is a real OG of both the feminist and LGBTQ+ communities, having been a member of the Redstockings; the radical lesbian movement Lavender Menace; and the Gay Liberation Front.…Griffo’s work breaks [women] out of the domestic narrative and stereotype, and brings women’s sexuality to the forefront in such a beautiful and tender way.”

Stamatina Gregory

Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Collections, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art

Stamatina Gregory highlights artists working in “compelling and transdisciplinary ways, pushing and transgressing their mediums, and working against categorization,” the curator told Artsy, including April Bey, Liz Collins, Lola Flash, Leasho Johnson, Jeffrey Meris, Laurence Philomene, Moises Salazar Tlantechi, Kang Seung Lee, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, and Carrie Yamaoka.

Browse works by Stamatina Gregory’s artists to celebrate.

Kang Seung Lee

B. 1978, Seoul. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Untitled (I walk in the garden), 2022
Kang Seung Lee
Gallery Hyundai

“Kang Seung Lee’s work often centers on artistic figures, such as Tseng Kwong Chi, Martin Wong, or Peter Hujar, tracing their elements of their lives and legacies through mediums that harmonically intersect: drawing, embroidery, video, dance, and installation. Through a practice that involves incredible amounts of labor, and feels both critical and devotional, Lee channels the artists lost to HIV/AIDS in uniquely embodied ways, for both the artist and viewers.”

Lola Flash

B. 1959, Montclair, New Jersey. Lives and works in New York.

Basking, Provincetown, Mass , 1988
Lola Flash
Jenkins Johnson Gallery

“In thinking about histories of photography and representation, I always find myself returning to Lola Flash’s work. Their long career demonstrates that activism and art need not be differentiated practices; that subjects can be seen and not scrutinized; that mediums steeped in categorization and oppression can be deployed for liberation.”

Explore works by all artists selected by Artsy’s guest curators in the Curating with Pride: LGBTQ+ Artists to Celebrate collection.

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Alvaro Barrington takes over Tate Britain with expansive installation work honoring his family. https://ift.tt/JfwRkt4

Tate Britain today unveils GRACE, a major new commission by Venezuelan artist Alvaro Barrington. This expansive installation, set in the museum’s Duveen Galleries, combines sound, painting, and sculpture to explore the influence of women in Black culture on Barrington’s life and work. The installation honors three significant figures: his grandmother Frederica, close friend Samantha, and mother Emelda.

GRACE is divided into three acts, reflecting Barrington’s Caribbean carnival heritage and his upbringing in Grenada and New York. Visitors enter under a suspended corrugated steel roof, reminiscent of the artist’s childhood memory of seeking shelter during a tropical storm in Grenada. The soundscape features rain, selections from online radio station NTS, and newly commissioned music. Rattan, plastic seats, and textile works create intimate spaces within the vast hall.

At the center of the galleries stands a four-meter-high aluminum sculpture of a dancing figure, representing Samantha. The figure is adorned in “pretty mas” style of a high femme carnival aesthetic, with jewelry, costume, and detailed nails. Paintings and large archway canvases depict carnival scenes, inviting visitors into a celebratory community space.

The final act in the North Duveen gallery features a stained-glass window illuminating a kiosk sculpture, alluding to American prison cells and issues of mass incarceration. Church pews with quilt-covered pillowcases face this somber scene, inspired by Barrington’s experiences in New York and reflecting the fears and hopes of Black mothers for their children.

“GRACE showcases Barrington’s talent for translating personal history into powerful, immersive art,” remarked Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain. “We look forward to seeing how visitors engage with this significant work.”

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Amsterdam’s Gallery Scene Builds on the City’s Art Historical Legacy https://ift.tt/mT8YSVz

Whether viewing Rembrandts at the Rijksmuseum, visiting the Van Gogh Museum, or musing on the modern and contemporary art collection of the Stedelijk Museum, art lovers have long found a lot to love about Amsterdam.

But while the city is best known for its historical art attractions, it is increasingly becoming home to a vibrant scene of commercial galleries and project spaces. These will be highlighted in the 12th edition of Amsterdam Art Week, running through June 2nd, where 76 locations for contemporary art will partake in a series of talks, performances, gallery tours, and parties.

“There are a big group of art lovers going to the Rijksmuseum, but they don’t necessarily all go to the galleries or to the project spaces,” said Martina Halsema, director of the art week. “That is where we come in and really try to make sure that the other art locations in the city are visible for museum visitors.”

New galleries in the Amsterdam art scene

This visibility is important for the city’s contemporary commercial galleries, which have grown in number and influence over recent years. “Amsterdam has a lot to offer within relative proximity,” explained Jorien De Vries, a director at GRIMM, which opened its space in the city in 2005. “This density is the art scene’s strength—it’s easy to see a lot in little time.”

During last year’s blockbuster Johannes Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, the gallery saw a “significant increase in international visitors,” he noted: “People who came for Vermeer also made their way to contemporary galleries, such as GRIMM, as more art lovers flocked to the city for the sold-out show.” Rutger Brandt, who founded his eponymous gallery in 2015, echoed the sentiment, describing the city as “a vibrant hub of art galleries that appear to be at almost every corner.”

For younger galleries, Christina Voulgari, director and co-founder of Enari Gallery, echoed this sentiment. “Since our opening a year and a half ago, we’ve been pleased to witness an expansion in the diversity of artists showcased in galleries and cultural spaces across the city,” she noted. “We eagerly anticipate the emergence of more young galleries, bringing fresh perspectives and innovative gallery models to Amsterdam’s thriving art scene.”

Notable young galleries to emerge in recent years include Hama Gallery, Go Mulan, and Fleur & Wouter; and new exhibition spaces include the likes of Het HEM, Nxt Museum, Osca, and Project Space On the Inside. But while the city is home to a growing number of contemporary players, galleries “need to organize events and special moments such as luncheons and artist talks to get people in,” according to Joris Ontens, founder of Galerie Fontana, which was founded in 2011.

Galleries are also keen to emphasize the community spirit between each other. “The gallery art scene in Amsterdam isn’t that big,” said Martita Slewe, who founded Slewe Gallery in 1994. “We know each other. We work together on openings. For example, in September, we will open the new gallery season with another jointly organized gallery opening weekend on September 13th and 14th.”

Young collectors in Amsterdam

Initiatives such as Amsterdam Art Week and community-organized gallery tours and openings are some of the ways that collectors are being engaged. “We make it a point to attend other galleries’ openings after hours, showing solidarity and engaging with our peers,” noted Voulgari.

In another example, Brandt mentioned that “we collaborate with local initiatives such as the Wallen Festival hosting performers within our exhibition space, as well as partnering with private collections to curate joint exhibitions that bring together new audiences.”

With annual visitor numbers between 10 million and 20 million, according to the Holland Times, Amsterdam’s status as a leading tourist destination also means that there is no shortage of potential collectors that can be tapped into. Part of the focus of Amsterdam Art Week is aimed at a younger crowd. The Art Week is running a VIP program and a young professionals night that convenes around 300 people to tour galleries and network. “It’s okay to ask questions,” said Halsema. “It’s also affordable for young collectors and…that art is fun as well.”

Ron Mandos, founder of the eponymous Galerie Ron Mandos, is also excited about “an opportunity for us to curate a special program for visitors from the Netherlands and abroad. Hosting them in our gallery for art, refreshments, and conversation creates a unique atmosphere.…We look forward to this event as we celebrate the final day of our 25th-anniversary exhibition.”

A growing number of artists and institutions

International artists are making the city their home, too. “Amsterdam has an allure for international artists who are drawn to the city, wanting to exhibit their work in this esteemed cultural capital,” said Brand. “Most of our artists are not from the Netherlands, but rather international artists seeking representation in Amsterdam.” Adding to this, the art week also coincides with the Rijksakademie Open Studios, where international artists in residence will share what has emerged from a two-year residency period of experimenting, researching, and producing new work.

And with cultural venues such as Drift Museum, Hartwig Art Foundation, and Zamu among those planning to open in the city, there’s every sign this growth will continue. Mandos is bullish: “Amsterdam will undoubtedly retain its significance within the global art scene, owing to its exceptional infrastructure for artists, residencies, and institutions,” he said. “As we commemorate our 25th anniversary this year, we raise a toast to another 25 years of artistic excellence in Amsterdam.”

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