As a spectacle of international art fairs take place in New York, a parade of captivating exhibitions is unveiled throughout the city by principal galleries such as Maurizio Cattelan at Gagosian, Paul Klee at David Zwirner, Amy Sillman at Gladstone, and more.
Maurizio Cattelan’s “Sunday” at Gagosian
Maurizio Cattelan, courtesy of the artist.
April 30 — June 15, 2024
Curated by Francesco Bonami, luminary Maurizio Cattelan’s revelatory solo presentation “Sunday” marks the artist’s first solo show at a gallery in over 20 years, as well as his inaugural solo exhibition at the preeminent Gagosian. Recalling Cattelan’s provocative 2016 unveiling of America, an operative solid gold toilet which was positioned within New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the artist’s latest endeavor delves courageously into the overt and hazardous discrepancies of contemporary society.
Sunday (2024) deftly reshapes precious and luminous metals to meditate on the accessibility of weapons in America and beyond. Stainless steel panels meticulously plated in 24-karat gold are ravaged with the effects of gunfire, culminating in a distorted landscape of expressive chasms, voids, and depressions. This vivid reverberation of gun violence joins an art historical narrative on the impassioned subject, from Edouard Manet’s profound The Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1868–69) to William Burroughs’s evocative shotgun paintings.
Paul Klee’s “Psychic Improvisation” at David Zwirner
Paul Klee, “ein Doppel-Schreier (A double screamer),” 1939; © Klee Family, courtesy of David Zwirner.
May 2 — June 15, 2024
A pure celebration of artist Paul Klee’s divine artistry unfolds with “Psychic Improvisation” at David Zwirner. In close partnership with Alain and Doris Klee, the gallery’s momentous third solo presentation of exploratory works by the late modernist centers on his rare employment of color and line in powerful pieces ranging from the 1920s to the 30s. Integral artworks created during Klee’s time educating at the pioneering Bauhaus catch the eye with brightly colored graphic landscapes and expert use of abstraction—illuminating his title as a “form master.”
I am beginning to see a way to provide a place for my line…. With new strength … I may dare to enter my prime realm of psychic improvisation again,” stated Klee in The Diaries of Paul Klee: 1898–1918. “Bound only very indirectly to an impression of nature, I may again dare to give form to what burdens the soul.”
Shuang Li’s “I’m Not” at the Swiss Institute
Shuang Li’s “I’m Not,” courtesy of the artist and Swiss Institute.
May 1 — August 25, 2024
The debut solo presentation of Berlin and Geneva-based artist Shuang Li is unveiled at Swiss Institute (SI) with riveting commissioned video installations and sculptures. A prodigious examination of technology and the internet’s effect on our modern relationships, languages, and identities ensues, and Li delves into her personal experience with fandom. The visionary’s love affair with musical group My Chemical Romance began while growing up in Southeast China, and endures today, providing fertile ground for an intimate study of one’s fervent devotion and connection to something far removed.
In the fantastical music video I’m Not (2024), Li offers rewritten lyrics to Chemical Romance’s emo anthem “I’m Not Ok” in both Mandarin Chinese and English, uniquely performed by an acapella group. The ensemble in army attire, led by a young female, honors Li’s memories of teenage angst embodied then by youthful men in another part of the world. Seen through glimmering bleachers of prismatic resin, the installation is a tour de force of fan artwork.
Hugo McCloud’s “As For Now” at Sean Kelly
Hugo McCloud, 2024, courtesy the artist and Sean Kelly, New York and Los Angeles, photography Brica Wilcox.
May 11 — June 22, 2024
Los Angeles-based creative Hugo McCloud revels in his fifth solo show with Sean Kelly, powerfully juxtaposing past investigations and new revelations for a sensorial artistic journey. Sean Kelly’s front and main galleries burst with new life, as McCloud’s emblematic plastic and tar stamped painting series unfurls. Rigorous techniques of abstraction and figuration are on display, as functional and spiritual inquiry into process, materiality, and the self offers audiences new insights into the artist’s deft practice.
Innovative use of aluminum sheeting and black liquid tar on tar paper meet with time-honored woodblock printing methods. Streamlined designs of minimalistic repeating forms speak to an evolved creative and personal outlook, while an even richer use of color evokes McCloud’s meaningful voyage to Mexico.
“Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory” at El Museo del Barrio
Installation view of Amalia Mesa-Bains, “Queen of the Waters, Mother of the Land of the Dead: Homenaje a Tonatzin/Guadalupe,” 1992; courtesy of the artist and Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, photograph by Matthew Sherman, Courtesy of El Museo del Barrio.
May 2—August 11, 2024
El Museo del Barrio raises the curtain on “Archaeology of Memory,” an inaugural retrospective by the groundbreaking theorist, curator, and installation artist Amalia Mesa-Bains. The renowned protagonist of Chicanx art conjures the heritage of her family as Mexican immigrants throughout her visceral oeuvre, and probes themes of cultural diversity, intersectional feminism, and spirituality concentrated in Mother Earth’s bounty. More than 40 works of extensive altar-installations, artist books, prints, and more will beckon visitors into 30-years of boundary-pushing research and creation.
“Amalia Mesa-Bains has long been a leading voice in the critique of Eurocentric, sexist, and classist art histories and museum practices in the Americas,” stated Susanna V. Temkin, Curator, El Museo del Barrio. “Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory” is the most significant presentation of her life’s work to date, and a validation of her impact on the contemporary art world.”
Amy Sillman’s “To Be Other-Wise” at Gladstone Gallery
Amy Sillman, “Clown,” 2023-2024, Acrylic and oil on linen, 75 x 66 inches; © Amy Sillman, Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, Photo by David Regen.
May 2 — June 15, 2024
Amy Sillman’s latest presentation of paintings, video, and works on paper at Gladstone Gallery generously collages the real and the wondrous for a sheer reckoning of creativity as a pathway to transformation. Skilled use of abstraction and figuration ebbs and flows in a kaleidoscope of contemplation. Virtuous works on paper expose the artist’s analog animation process, enveloping audiences in the experimentation and questioning of formal structures.
Reveling in momentous states of flux, Sillman remarks that “each work is a continual painterly process of destruction and recreation, often going on for months before it comes to a kind of conclusion, a conclusion which is itself an open question.” More than 60 works on paper layering language and the human form leads to contemporary notions of the disembodied spirit.
