🚨 Last Chance

In the Museums

Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism

📍 Metropolitan Museum of Art

⏰ closing Jan 21

🗓️ fauvism

📏 small/medium (65 works)

❓ examines the paintings and drawings of Matisse & Derain, who spent the summer on the French Mediterranean together creating Fauvism

🔗 see exhibit details.

➕ closing the same day Proof: Maxime Du Camp’s Photographs of the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa

In the Galleries

Diamond Stingily: Sand

📍 Greene Naftali | 508 W 26th St

⏰ closing Jan 20

❓ works, spanning sculpture, video, and installation, exploring themes of class, memory, and exclusion through everyday materials

🔗 see exhibit details.

Friends & Lovers

📍 The Flag Art Foundation | 545 W 25th St

⏰ closing Jan 20

❓ a large group exhibition focusing on the relationships between artists and their subjects, with over fifty contemporary artists including Alice Neel, Nan Goldin, and Felix Gonzalez-Torre

🔗 see exhibit details.

➕ closing the same day Spotlight: Shannon T. Lewis

In addition:

• Transcendants at Cavin-Morris at 529 W 20th, closing Jan 20

• Marina Cruz: Belonging and Belongingness at albertz benda at 515 W 26th St, closing on Jan 20

• Only a Grain of Sand at C L E A R I N G at 260 Bowery, closing on Jan 20

🎉 Just In

In the Museums

No new exhibits are opening in the museums. Check out our ongoing favorites below.

In the Galleries

Cindy Sherman

📍 Hauser & Wirth | Wooster St

⏰ opening Jan 18

❓ 30 new works exploring themes of identity and representation, incorporating digital manipulation to reflect fragmented sense of self in modern society

🔗 see exhibit details.

➕ Pipilotti Rist, at H&W’s 22nd St location, has extended through April

Jennifer Guidi: Rituals

📍 Gagosian | 541 W 24th

⏰ opened Jan 17

❓ paintings that delve into the sublime beauty of mountain landscapes, emitting a sense of calm

🔗 see exhibit details.

➕ opening at Gagosian’s 980 Madison Ave location on Jan 18 is Mary Weatherford: Sea and Space

Ross Bleckner : Mashber

📍 Petzel | 520 W 25th

⏰ opening Jan 18

❓ new works featuring floral motifs, abstract landscapes derived from brain scans, and modes of erasure, exploring themes of transformation, emotional process, and world grief

🔗 see exhibit details.

➕ if you go, check out Raphaela Vogel which opened at the same location last week

In addition:

• Cauleen Smith: The Wanda Coleman Songbook at David Zwirner’s 52 Walker location, opening Jan 19 (+ opening reception on Jan. 19, 6-8 pm)

• Thomas Hirschhorn: Fake it, Fake it — till you Fake it. at Gladstone’s 530 W 21st St, opening Jan 24 (+ opening reception on Jan. 24, 6-8 pm)

📢 Editor’s Updates

Last week, we visited the three striking and vastly different exhibits opened at Pace Gallery, which will be on view until the end of February.

Mika Tajima: Energetics

Mika Tajima is a conceptual, multi-disciplinary artist who explores themes of spiritual and physical transformation, along with our relationship with the digital world.

On the walls, you’ll find large-scale textile paintings that are seemingly energy waves, in vibrant and often neon colors. These works are a part of Tajima’s ‘Negative Entropy’ series, in which she collaborates with neurosurgeons, who specialize in repairing the brain through energetic stimulation, to visualize brain activity.

While her work is captivating visually on its own, understanding the underlying intentions and themes of her art — such as the role of data, the focus on transformation, and more — adds an even more enticing layer to the experience.

Read an interview with Tajima on the exhibit, or watch a Pace clip of Tajima.

Glenn Kaino: Walking with a Tiger

In the ‘Walking with a Tiger’ exhibit, 18 new artworks of Kaino’s are featured, including paintings, embroideries, and sculptures. While the artist is renowned for addressing broad social issues in his art, Kaino shifts focus to explore his personal journey for the first time in his career, delving into his family history and Japanese-American identity.

Kaino presents gorgeous paint-by-numbers-esque embroidery pieces, specifically the traditional Japanese “bunka shishu”, alongside monochromatic portraits capturing Asian-American diaspora on the streets of LA. The exhibit offers us a beautiful lens into Kaino’s memories and experiences.

John Wesley: WesleyWorld: Works on Paper and Objects 1961–2004

John Wesley’s art is absurd, comical, fun. He possessed a unique style, heavily influenced by comics and mass media and characterized by bold lines and flat planes of color. Through his career, which spanned from the early 1960s to the early 2000s, his artistic style remained consistent, yet it defied categorization within a single art movement. Elements of Pop, Surrealism, and Minimalism are all evident.

Wesley’s work delved into themes of sexuality, desire, and trauma. A highlight for us was the lamp (below), placed centrally in the exhibit, which perfectly captured his comic-strip aesthetic with the theme of eroticism.

Read more about John Wesley.

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