The Desk Dispatch
SEPTEMBER 3-7, 2024
It’s the end of another summer and the beginning of the new art season. The quiet days of late summer are currently upon us, when half the city is away, and when even industry seems to crawl rather than dash. These few weeks are a good time to sum up what the past season has meant to us, and what it has consisted of. For myself, it’s been a time of writing essays for artists, seeing some art, and reading a lot of great books. Summer in childhood is a balm of our innocence. Summer in adulthood is just another time to work, perhaps harder because why not? We enjoy the small moments in self reflection and the shared experiences with loved ones.
There’s a lot to look forward to in September. What I have noticed lately is that a lot of artists whose work I have been following on social media are finally getting their work exhibited in real life. I’m sure this was previously the case, perhaps more often than I now realize, but what I do notice is the direct correlation between images online leading to actual shows. It’s very heartening.
Below are my most highly recommended exhibitions this week, and at the bottom, a list of more worth seeing. Enjoy!
Tuesday, September 3
One of these is AKIRA IKEZOE’ “NOT SO STILL LIFE” at Marinaro (673 Broadway 3rd floor, thru October 15). Ikezoe composes these spooky mise-en-scenes that depict ambiguously organized, oblique living spaces with no persons present, only the many objects and structures that compose the spaces they normally inhabit. All the works on display share the same title as the exhibition itself, so that we are forced to engage with what’s specifically in front of us in each painting, assuming certain conclusions based on the clues provided. Ikezoe intends to illustrate the loaded lived-in spaces that act as set pieces showing a life that’s receding from pleasure and utility all at the same time, as the towns where he grew up in rural Japan slowly empty as only the old live there now. It’s not just these places that are becoming ghost towns, disowned and disembodied, they represent a cautionary tale about the value of regional communities. Ikezoe brings them to our attention in a dreaming sort of way.
In MONICA BONVICINI’s “PUT ALL HEAVEN IN A RAGE” at Tanya Bonakdar (521 W 21st St, thru Oct 12), the artist continues to confront aesthetic comfort and preconceived notions of spectatorship by compelling gallery visitors into defensive roles—reflecting them in mirrors; hanging paintings that actually mock them, sticking a tongue out from a hole in the canvas; and installing chainsaw hung from chainlink suspended above them. Bonvicini is all about unsettling the stage where visitors are accustomed to finding themselves. She’s not choosing her battles, and not giving anyone the same choice. If you’re threatened, then you’re alive. I first saw her work at Pierogi Gallery two decades ago.
KATE MEISSNER + REGINA PARRA’s “TABLEAUX ROSA“ at Lyles and King (19 Henry Street, thru Sept 28) pairs two figurative painters, each of whom has developed a way to address sensuality in pictorially engaging ways. Meissner depicts shadowy bodies partly in silhouette with their faces obscured, inhabiting draped or checkered backgrounds, enacting narratives in which the body plays its story out in gestures. Parra paints what amount to deconstructed still life, in which the fruits and flowers seem to be rotting or transforming into anemones or creatures magnified from the quantum universe into our own. Both painters are intensely talented.
Wednesday, September 4
This week sees the return to public view of an artist I first glimpsed nearly a decade ago. BRIE RUAIS’ “BONE DICE” at Albertz Benda (515 W 26 thru Oct 12) presents her newest series of sculptures that confront the limitations of the physical body in terms of mass and weight (130 lbs exact), though she counters this with a range of expression and detail that exemplify its unique idiosyncrasy. Each sculpture is meant to signify realms of meaning that move through an earthly sensuality comparable to that of Ana Mendieta or Eva Hesse. It reflects the duality between ritual and fate. Its poetry is both oblique and moving.
GINA BEAVERS’s “DIVINE CONSUMER” at Marianne Boesky (507 W 24, thru Oct 5) is so far the most exemplary model of her fascination with consumer culture and its reflection of all things innately human. The series on view here is her “Comfortcore” one, comprised of nearly photorealist images of towels, blankets, knit throws drapes, and casserole covers, among others. These paintings reenact a sensory experience that’s usually limited to the domestic sphere, in which sort surfaces and printed designs lull us into beautiful security. The customer is always right after all.
STEVE SILVER’s “EMPIRICAL HORIZONS” at Westwood Gallery (262 Bowery thru Nov 2) presents paintings that scintillate with an amorphous beauty. Their effects emerge directly out of nature with kaleidoscopic grace. They present as sensory puzzles that we may struggle to piece together until we realize that they’re not chaotic or incomplete, but they present a version of the world in which impressions mean more than reasons. They are a unique cumulative experience with its own stories to tell.
There are many other recommended exhibitions on my Long List. See below.
9/3 TUE [Chelsea, 68] SUSAN INGLETT William Schwedler thru Oct 12
9/3 TUE [Chelsea, 6-8] KASMIN 297 10th Avenue: Dorothea Tanning thru Oct 24
9/5 THU [Tribeca, 6-8] PPOW 392 Broadway: Robin F Williams thru Oct 26
9/5 THU [Chelsea, 6-8] CASEY KAPLAN 121 West 27th Street: Nathan Carter & Judith Eisler thru Oct 19
9/5 THU [Chelsea, 6-8] LEHMANN MAUPIN 501 West 24th Street: Liza Lou thru Oct 19
9/5 THU [Chelsea,6-8] LISSON GALLERY 504 West 24th Street: Joanna Pousette-Dart thru Oct 19
9/5 THU [Chelsea, 6-8:30] THOMAS ERBEN 526 West 26th Street 3rd floor: Mike Cloud thru Oct 26
9/6 FRI [Chelsea, 6-8] SIKKEMA JENKINS Erin Sherreff thru Oct 19
9/6 FRI [Bowling Green, 12-6] ABATON PROJECT ROOM 11 Broadway Suite 965: Mark Dagley (Sat & Sun 12-6)
9/7 SAT [Tribeca, 6-8] LUHRING AUGUSTINE 17 White Street: Richard Mucha thru Oct 19