In New York this week? Be sure not to miss the final days of Noah Davis at David Zwirner, new shows from Peter Saul and Jordan Casteel at the New Museum, and more must see shows around town.
Peter Saul Subway I
1979
Acrylic on canvas
67 x 164 in
Hall Collection
Photo by Jeffrey Nintzel
Courtesy of the Hall Art Foundation.
Peter Saul: Crime and Punishment
New Museum
Now—January 3, 2021
“Crime and Punishment” is Peter Saul’s first-ever survey exhibition in New York City. Filling the third and fourth floor of the New Museum, the show presents around 60 works from the last half a century of Saul’s career. Curated by Massimiliano Gioni and Gary Carrion-Murayari, it features a range of Saul’s earliest paintings, which he created in Paris during the 1960s (like a satirical work entitled The Government of California), up through the present-day—including works like Donald Trump in Florida, which offers various depictions of the public figure in a surrealist landscape blended with imagery from the state like alligators and palm trees. Peter Saul is most noted for his exuberant style, which brings together a mixture of surrealism and pop art to illustrate the real-life shock and horror of current events.
Jordan Casteel Within Reach
2019
Oil on canvas
35 x 60 in
The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection
Courtesy of the artist and Casey Kaplan, New York.
Jordan Casteel: Within Reach
New Museum
Now—January 3
Jordan Casteel’s “Within Reach” features nearly 40 paintings spanning the artist’s career, including works from her most acclaimed series and recent portraits. Casteel is best known for her distinctive figurative language, which she has developed through largescale oil paintings that capture human subjects in larger-than-life depictions, intermingled with domestic details and psychological insight. The artist paints people from the communities in which she lives and works (including former classmates, neighbors from her home in Harlem, and her students at Rutgers University), capturing scenes that create conversations on topics like race, gender, subjectivity, class, belonging, and displacement.
Noah Davis Untitled
2015
Oil on canvas
Courtesy of David Zwirner.
Noah Davis
David Zwirner
Now—February 22
David Zwirner is presenting over 20 paintings by the late Noah Davis, spanning the artist’s short but expansive career. Organized by Helen Molesworth, the show fills both the gallery’s 525 and 533 West 19th Street locations, demonstrating Davis’ lush, sensual, figurative paintings and his involvement in founding the Los Angeles art space, The Underground Museum. Davis is known for his rigorously composed paintings infused with a deep loneliness and tenderness, which featured two specific subject matters—depictions of everyday life and surreal scenes that incorporate magical realism, like his 2009 work Isis. Davis’ paintings are accompanied by a selection of works by his brother, Kahlil Joseph, wife Karon Davis, and mother Faith Childs-Davis.
Tyler Mitchell Untitled (Group Hula Hoop)
2019
© Tyler Mitchell
Courtesy of the artist.
Tyler Mitchell: I Can Make You Feel Good
Inernational Center of Photography
Now—May 18
The International Center of Photography (ICP) recently opened a new location at Manhattan’s Essex Crossing, inaugurated by four new shows, including Tyler Mitchell’s exhibition “I Can Make You Feel Good.” The show, curated by ICP’s new Curator-at-Large Isolde Brielmaier, includes works like an installation of photographs printed on fabric and hung on a clothesline, trailing down the museum’s 60-foot hallway, as well as videos like Idyllic Space and Chasing Pink, Found Red. In his practice, Mitchell represents the people of his community through a lens of joy and pride, which he executes with natural light and candy-colored hues.
Installation view of Yto Barrada’s “Paste Papers” Photo by Kyle Knodell
Courtesy of Pace Gallery.
Yto Barrada: Paste Papers
Pace Gallery
Now—March 20
Yto Barrada’s “Paste Papers” is a site-specific installation residing in Pace Gallery’s 10,000 volume research library in its new global headquarters at 540 West 25th Street. Inspired by designs found within the library of the late architect Luis Barragán, Barrada has created a wallpaper covering the entire south wall of the library, using the centuries-old paste paper techniques once used to embellish book covers and end papers. The paste paper installation is accompanied by a series of smaller framed works, installed directly onto the wallpaper, informed by the papers found in books like The Art of Gardens, Coatlicue, and Parables and Evangelical Allegories.
Jack Whitten Broken Grid VIII
1996
Sumi ink and acrylic on paper collage
11 1/4 x 15 1/4 in
Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth.
Jack Whitten: A Transitional Space. A Drawing Survey
Hauser & Wirth
Now—April 4
The first major survey of Jack Whitten’s works on paper, “A Transitional Space. A Drawing Survey” highlights the evolution of the late artist’s drawing process through a range of materials, styles, and techniques. Spanning the length of Whitten’s career, the exhibition showcases the distinctive periods in in his practice—like works from the 1960s birthed from a period self-analysis, a phase during the 1970s when Whitten experimented with mechanical automation, up through the present day, when his creations focused on confronting the past. Included in the exhibition are works like Geometric Collusion # 1, Study for Atopolis E, and his portraits Ruby and Viola.
