Searching for a European art tour this summer? Here are some of our top picks, including exhibitions at La Nave, Thaddaeus Ropac, Hauser & Wirth, Château la Coste, Gagosian, and DESTE.
Mai Blanco
Fundación La Nave Salinas
Mai Blanco, “El Cerezo,” Oil on linen, 160 x 200 cm, courtesy Fundación La Nave Salinas.
June 28–October 31, 2024
Carrer la Canal-2, 07818 Eivissa, Illes Balears, Spain
For its latest exhibition, Ibiza’s Fundación La Nave Salinas presents Mai Blanco’s mesmerizing “Jardín Adentro.” The show is a collection of 19 works by the Spanish artist, with canvases that glow while encompassed by darkness. The paintings take center stage as Blanco’s pieces explore the sensuality and fortitude of Amazonas female warriors in the form of self-portraiture.
With each canvas, Blanco draws the viewer in with vibrant color palettes, large figures, and transcendent brushstrokes. The artist regularly depicts nude subjects in nature, exploring the root of humanity in its most unadulterated state. Blanco’s La Nave exhibition celebrates the beauties of life and nature as a vision of contemporary talent.
What we love: This La Nave show marks Blanco’s largest body of work to date. With its exhibition space of over 7,500 feet, the foundation is a prime location to showcase the artist’s moving pieces.
Claire Tabouret
Château la Coste
Claire Tabouret, “L’Éloquence des Larmes,” © F.deladerriere, Courtesy Château la Coste.
July 8–September 2024
2750 Route De La Cride, 13610 Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France
Among its summer programming, the sprawling winery, art space, and historic countryside estate presents a range of contemporary artists. This year, Château la Coste hosts solo shows for Claire Tabouret, Joel Mesler, Ding Yi, and Damien Hirst. Tabouret’s exhibition, “The Eloquence of Tears,” is an array of the French-American artist’s works on canvas, bronze, and ceramics.
“They say that the human body is composed of eighty percent water, ” explained Tabouret of her Château la Coste show, “so it’s hardly surprising that a different face appears in the mirror every morning.” Her pieces explore the ups and downs of mourning, joy, and pain, as well as the complex riddles of childhood. Tabouret’s creations explore the consistency of mourners in art history, tracing the thread between pains of today and the historical representation of tears.
What we love: Tabouret’s works at Château la Côste are a product of her first collaboration with the Sèvres Ateliers, a distinct nod to the creativity of the artist’s birthplace.
Roe Ethridge
Gagosian Gstaad & London
Installation view of Roe Ethridge, “Happy Birthday Louise Parker II,” 2024,Artwork © Roe Ethridge. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd, Courtesy Gagosian.
July 23–September 8, 2024
Promenade 79, 3780 Gstaad, Switzerland
This summer in Gstaad, Gagosian presents Roe Ethridge’s “Happy Birthday Louise Parker II,” an exhibition alongside Ethridge’s complementary show at Gagosian London. The show explores the American photographer’s diverse talents as a hybrid of commercial, editorial, and studio work.
The exhibition follows Gagosian’s original Milan show “Happy Birthday Louise Parker,” curated by Alessandro Rabottini. Pieces include images of Ethridge’s muse and model Louise Parker, photographed in a range of formal and natural settings. Ethridge’s lively and alluring photography cultivates a formal sensibility that revolves around flexible aesthetic norms.
What we love: Throughout each show, the Gstaad and London exhibits depict Ethridge’s visionary breadth.
Larry Bell
Hauser & Wirth Monaco
Larry Bell, “Untitled,” 1970, Inconel coated glass, 182.5 x 91 x 0.6 cm, © Larry Bell, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
Larry Bell, “The Blue Gate,” 2021, Peacock and Amethyst laminated non-tempered glass, 182.9 x 243.8 x 243.8 cm; Installation view, ‘Larry Bell: Works from the 1970s’ at Hauser & Wirth Monaco, until 31 August 2024, © Larry Bell, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, Photo: Nicolas Brasseur.
1 Pl. du Casino, 98000 Monaco
June 4–August 31, 2024
“Larry Bell: Works from the 1970s” at Hauser & Wirth Monaco highlights an array of Bell’s historic contributions to contemporary art. The exhibition features four large-scale glass sculptures from the early 1970s –Bell’s iconic ambitious standing walls– alongside “Moving Ways,” another late 1970s wall work.
Bell emerged from the Los Angeles art scene of the 1960s as a leading sculpture artist, established through his unique commercial industrial processes and other barely-explored techniques. Today, Bell’s body of work remains original as his pieces simultaneously reflect, absorb, and transmit the beauties of light. With “Moving Ways,” Bell presents his unique vacuum coating process, toying with transparency and opacity at the same time.
What we love: The exhibition also presents “The Blue Gate” in Monaco’s Jardins des Boulingrins, a 2021 work that emphasizes Bell’s creative trajectory since the 1970s.
Hans Josephsohn
Thaddaeus Ropac Salzburg
Hans Josephsohn, “Untitled,” 2005, Brass, 76 x 224 x 67 cm, Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, © Josephsohn Estate, Photo by Kesselhaus Josephsohn.
July 23—August 31, 2024
Salzburg Halle, Vilniusstraße 13, 5020 Salzburg
This summer, viewers are welcomed to Hans Josephsohn’s first solo exhibition with Thaddaeus Ropac. The show presents a range of Josephsohn sculptures and reliefs ranging from the 1970s to the early 2000s, following the Swiss sculptor’s creative trajectory through his artistic career.
The exhibit is a mesmerizing array of Josephsohn’s sculpted creations, which nod to human character with rough and raw finishes. As the exhibit presents bronze and brass pieces spanning across a period of his artistic life, viewers are invited to observe how Josephsohn’s representations of human beings evolved towards greater subtlety and abstraction. With one of his pieces recently acquired by the Met, Josephsohn’s fluidity, textured surfaces, and substantive figures stand at the forefront of the contemporary sculpture world.
What we love: The earliest work in the show is Josephsohn’s Untitled (Ruth), a 1975–1978 half-figure woman. The piece is a striking representation of the artist’s sculptural skill, as the figure is infused with humanity and unrestrained emotion.
Anselm Kiefer
Gagosian Athens
Anselm Kiefer, installation view, 2024, © Anselm Kiefer, photo by Stathis Mamalakis, courtesy Gagosian.
June 21–August 24, 2024
22 Anapiron Polemou Street, Athens
With Anselm Kiefer’s newest paintings, sculpture, and photography work, Gagosian Athens presents the German artist’s sublime solo exhibition. Kiefer’s creations are gilden, interwoven, and textured homages to sacred and mythological themes. With his Danaë paintings, Kiefer tackles a classic myth that has forever been an inspiration for artists, from Rembrandt to Gustav Klimt.
“I choose materials that have something to say to me: Ash, sand, lead, gold, etc,” explained Kiefer. “For me, these are selected things that have a spirit in them, which I bring out, make visible.” With his Athens exhibition, Kiefer evokes the deities of Egypt, seraphic punishments of the Middle Ages, and humanity’s long-standing relationship with the divine and natural worlds.
What we love: This is Anselm Kiefer’s first solo exhibition in Greece, with Gagosian Athens a fitting location for Kiefer’s exploration of mythological wonders.
George Condo
DESTE Foundation Hydra
Installation view, George Condo: The Mad and the Lonely DESTE Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra, © George Condo, photo: Giorgos Sfakianakis
June 18–October 31, 2024
Epar.Od. Mandrakiou-Molou, Idra 180 40, Greece
Until October 31, George Condo takes his thought-provoking sculptures and portrait work to Greece with “The Mad and the Lonely.” DESTE‘s project space, a former slaughterhouse on the dazzling island of Hydra, provides a complementary backdrop for the exhibition.
Viewers are transported into an otherworldly presentation of Condo’s creativity, an exploration of societal rejection, loneliness and madness, and fictional characters who encapsulate the woes of modern life. Condo’s unique style strays from all guidelines, with influences ranging from the traditions of ancient painting to abstract Cubism. In particular, his latest DESTE show includes Condo’s reinterpretation of polychromatic Greek painting with an unseen method. “The Mad and the Lonely” is an in-depth analysis of the human psyche, as Condo’s figures confront the rawness of the world.
What we love: The exhibition presents entirely new work made specifically for the DESTE Foundation, providing viewers with a specialized panorama of Condo’s innovative eye.
