Must-See New York: Louise Bonnet, Luchita Hurtado, Faye Toogood, and More

David Zwirner
Suzan Frecon: oil paintings
September 10—October 17, 2020
The artist Suzan Frecon paints for the activity of painting, and not to make pictures for people to look at. Frecon has made a new series of oil paintings putting color and special relationships at the forefront, following her practice of creating art meant to be experienced, as opposed to observed. The works on view include enveloping creations like a mixture of matte and glossy juxtaposing hues called stone cathedral and the olive and blue siena maria.

David Zwirner
Harold Ancart: Traveling Light
September 10—October 17, 2020
David Zwirner is also presenting “Traveling Light,” an exhibition of new works by Harold Ancart. Suggesting a consideration of the vast possibilities of painting, Ancart’s show immerses guests at the gallery in experiential landscapes. Working between his Brooklyn studio and outdoor space in Los Angeles, where he resided during isolation, the show features a series of solo trees where the boundaries are blurred between color and form, and figure and abstraction, as well as two monumental, multi-panel creations, that engulf the viewer between a mountain scene and a seascape.

Friedman Benda
Faye Toogood: Assemblage 6: Unlearning
September 10—October 17, 2020
“Assemblage 6: Unlearning,” marks a change in the path of Faye Toogood’s creative journey, in which she attempts to bury all prior knowledge of design rules in order to start from a fresh perspective. In the process, Toogood has adopted a playful lens through which functional furniture items like daybeds, chairs, and sofas take on the look of things produced during a child’s early explorations of their creative instincts. Illusory techniques make the designs appear to be made from materials like crumpled paper, twisted wires, and cardboard boxes when, in reality, each detail has been meticulously constructed from sturdy cast bronze, rough canvas, and wrought iron.

Gagosian
Louise Bonnet: The Hours
September 29—November 7, 2020
Louise Bonnet’s first solo exhibition with Gagosian, “The Hours,” makes its debut at the gallery’s Park Avenue location. In a suite of new oil paintings, the artist has created nightmarish depictions of everyday routines, reflecting the current state of crisis during a global pandemic using caricature-like figures without any faces. Influenced by medieval manuscripts like Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (a book of hours containing a collection of prayers), the works allude to European art and Christian imagery—like Calvary with Potato, in which a wave of blood gushes from a finger with a tiny cut; and Visitation, where one figure hovers over a bed, looking down on an almost-identical person.

Hauser & Wirth
Luchita Hurtado: Together Forever
September 10—October 31, 2020
Closely following her recent passing at the age of 99, Luchita Hurtado’s “Together Forever” is comprised of works spanning the 1960s to the present day. Including many highly personal works that have never been exhibited before, the exhibition demonstrates Hurtado’s use of her own body as a constant subject. Capturing herself in a variety forms throughout the years, viewers experience works like a self-portrait in crayon and ink; a scene posed with plants, where she sheds a single tear; and documentations of her own shadow—a recurring theme in her practice. In celebration of her life and career, Hauser & Wirth will also introduce a publication this winter, complete with a collection of personal photographs and a conversation between the artist and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Jack Shainman Gallery
Odili Donald Odita: Mirror
September 10—October 31, 2020
On view at its West 20th Street location, Jack Shainman’s presentation of Odili Donald Odita offers musings on the relationship between figuration and abstraction through a series of colorful works featuring the repetition of geometric shapes and forms. Ultimately a commentary on self-reflection, “Mirror” follows the concept that the only face you will never really see is your own, therefore, a self-portrait must be abstract. Highlighting that this is a time where Donald Trump resides in the White House, Odita asks his viewers to face the challenging task of examining the thoughts and actions that have brought us to this moment.