The majesty of fall in New York brings with it a parade of new gallery exhibitions spotlighting the supreme imagination and unparalleled skill of artists like Lee Bul, Andile Dyalvane, and more.
The Genesis Facade Commission: Lee Bul, Long Tail Halo
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Portrait of Lee Bul,
© Lee Bul, Photo by Yoon Hyungmoon, Courtesy of Studio Lee Bul.
September 12, 2024 — May 27, 2025
1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028
The Met unveils the much-anticipated fifth edition of its yearly Facade Commision series with luminary Lee Bul this season. 20 years since the masterful Korean artist’s last large-scale endeavor in the U.S., “The Genesis Facade Commission: Lee Bul, Long Tail Halo” unfolds over four immersive, site-specific sculptures. The preeminent museum’s awe-inspiring facade on iconic Fifth Avenue will unveil new dimensions in the visionary’s deft practice of fusing multi-dimensional, industrial materials and a poetic, technological prowess.
“Lee Bul’s extraordinary sculptures explore the complexities of the human condition through powerful, hybrid forms that draw from the past while speaking to present-day hopes and anxieties about the future,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “This commission series invites artists to engage with, transform, and even challenge The Met’s iconic Fifth Avenue facade, and we’re tremendously excited to unveil Lee’s works this fall.”
What we love: The internationally revered creative intermeshes the abstract and the figurative in her latest suite of sculptures, which are placed in fierce dialogue with her artworks as part of the current exhibition “Lineages: Korean Art at The Met.”
Andile Dyalvane, “OoNomathotholo: Ancestral Whispers”
Friedman Benda
Andile Dyalvane, “Mantwentwe,” Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Andile Dyalvane,
Photography by Hayden Phipps.
September 5 — November 2, 2024
515 W 26th Street, New York, NY 10001
The distinguished South African artist and spiritual leader Andile Dyalvane celebrates his profound fourth exhibition with Friedman Benda from September 5-November 2 in New York. Invoking the soulfulness of the Xhosa people, a series of sculptural vessels spark a connection to ancient history, memory, and humanity. Embracing time-honored craft traditions, the tactile works carry the weight of personal and collective tragedies, yet overflow with the will to carry on. Skillfully created in the visionary’s Cape Town studio, as well as during a pivotal Austria residency, each piece layers color and texture in a powerful melody of ancestral healing and Mother Nature’s nurturing presence throughout time.
What we love: The statuesque works are staged in a perfect circle within the exhibition, honoring the vitality of a formal village gathering.
“Japan In/ Out Brazil”
Nara Roesler New York
Asuka Anastacia Ogawa, “Akai Hana, Murasaki,” 2024, Acrylic Paint on Canvas, Courtesy of the artist and Nara Roesler.
September 4 — October 5, 2024
511 W 21st St, New York, NY 10011
Nara Roesler New York’s upcoming group presentation titled “Japan In/ Out Brazil” unites the expressive artistry of three multi-generational creatives of the Japanese diaspora in Brazil. Tomie Ohtake’s groundbreaking works first gained strength in the 1950s, boldly experimenting with the figurative and the abstract. The 1970s inspired new utilization of color for Ohtake that seemed to soar off the canvas, and the 1980s unearthed an otherworldly juxtaposition of tones and textures. Lydia Okumura, a pioneer of Brazilian conceptual art, began to challenge the perceptions of audiences in the late 1960s and developed dreamlike experiential installations. Asuka Anastacia Ogawa brings her bond with both Japanese and Brazilian culture to the forefront of her practice with her signature creation of youthful, innocent figures within vibrant backgrounds.
What we love: Anastacia Ogawa conjures a mighty spiritual element in her singular works, paying homage to her ancestors with a vivacious palette and meaningful, multi-cultural details.
Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos): “milk and honey”
Cristin Tierney
Installation view of Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos): “milk and honey,” courtesy of the artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York, Photograph by Adam Reich.
September 6 — October 19, 2024
219 Bowery, Floor 2 New York, NY 10002
In an inaugural solo show at Cristin Tierney and in New York, interdisciplinary artist Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos), a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians, summons the vital rituals of her ancestors with a modern feminist and ecological perspective. The Oregan-based visionary’s prismatic magnetic exhibition titled “milk and honey” deftly intertwines collage, geometric weaving motifs, and expressive brush strokes, championing social justice in every masterly gesture. The sweeping work un-ring bells spans eight feet and took eleven years to develop. A harmony of organic wood with black and white elements gives way to crimson shapes and lyrically dripping paint. A wondrous layering of reclaimed objects such as a fortune cookie message and a fractured string of Cobalt beads evoke a sense of loss in the wake of Colonial brutality.
What we love: The stunning exhibition is presented in conjunction with Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos)’s presentation at this year’s edition of The Armory Show alongside the acclaimed Elizabeth Leach Gallery.
“The Superfluity of Things”
James Cohan
JJ MANFORD, “Interior with Kachina Doll, Braque, and Greek Minoan
Terracotta Vase,” 2024,
Oil stick, oil pastel, and Flashe on linen;
40 x 50 in
101.6 x 127 cm; © JJ Manford 2024. Courtesy the artist and
James Cohan, New York. Photo by Phoebe
d’Heurle.
September 6 — October 19, 2024
52 Walker St New York NY 10013
The upcoming group presentation “The Superfluity of Things” revels in the majesty of still-life traditions at James Cohan in New York. Bringing together a parade of contemporary luminaries including Leonard Baby, Plum Cloutman, Andie Dinkin, Spencer Finch, Poppy Jones, Nicholas Kennedy, JJ Manford, Rachel Marino, Therese Mulgrew, Emma Prempeh, and many more, the effervescent show spans sculpture, painting, and photography, imparting rapturous stories on the nuances of human life. A focus on vanitas painting, which invokes the deeply engaging themes of mortality, impermanence, and narcissism, ebbs and flows throughout the show—at times with a witty touch.
What we love: An array of works that embrace the art of the table, an enduring platform for connection, drama, and fantasy both in the home and outside of it.
“Mestre Didi”
James Cohan
MESTRE DIDI,
“Opá ìdarí mérin pèlú òkò lókè (Scepter of the four iris with a
spear on top)”, n.d.
Mixed media, palm tree trunk, painted leather,
shells, and beads,
36 3/5 x 12 1/5 x 4 7/10 in
93 x 31 x 12 cm; Courtesy of James Cohan, New York. Photo by Izzy Leung.
September 3 — October 26, 2024
52 Walker St New York NY 10013
The multi-faceted, rhapsodic artistry of late Afro-Brazilian artist Mestre Didi soars at James Cohan. From September 3-October 26, the visionary’s inaugural show at the prestigious gallery composes 12 totemic multimedia sculptures that emit both vigor and tranquility, weaving tactile, natural materials such as cowrie shells, palm fronds, painted leather, and kaleidoscopic beads. The prominent creative, writer, and spiritual guide explored the traditional artmaking of the Candomblé, introducing audiences to important West African motifs of snakes, birds, and flames, forever kindling the mythical and the jubilant.
What we love: Radiating with Didi’s traditional, holy practice, the graceful sculptures are also majestic amplifiers of contemporary life, linking past, present, and future as revelatory treasures for the home.
Gina Beavers: “Divine Consumer”
Marianne Boesky Gallery
Gina Beavers,
“Full circle in Jungle,” 2024,
Oil, acrylic, putty, paper pulp, foam, and wood stain on panel,
60 x 51 x 5 1/2 inches
152.4 x 129.5 x 14 cm; courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery.
September 5 — October 5, 2024
507 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011
The ever-inspired Gina Beavers debuts “Divine Consumer” at Marianne Boesky Gallery this fall, offering lush new Comfortcore Paintings. In an absorbing study of contemporary media obsession, charming domestic objects are juxtaposed in a wealth of color, pattern, and volume. Meditating on the search for self, a cultural journey through the endless images we scroll through on a day to day basis is imbued into mesmerizing works of art. Here, an expanse of home decor goods abound, from curtains to pillows to blankets, in knits, linen, and upholstery derived from online advertisements. The resulting stilllifes brim with both a soothing spirit and a tinge of knowing anxiety.
What we love: Beavers’ latest suite of paintings presents a considerable change in practice, playing with the creation of more tender compositions as opposed to the painting of caricatures acquired from her social media feed.
Jay Heikes: “Devolve”
Marianne Boesky Gallery
Jay Heikes,
“Textualterity,” 2023,
Signed, titled, and dated in graphite (verso),
Oil on stained canvas,
75 1/8 x 112 1/8 inches
190.8 x 284.8 cm; courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery.
September 5 — October 5, 2024
507 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011
Jay Heikes’ tremendous sixth solo presentation with Marianne Boesky Gallery unfolds as a revealing portal into an imagined future where the remains of human society lay in a dreamlike state of memory and fantasy. Titled “Devolve,” haunting imagery of flora and fauna merges with dramatic moments from the Book of Genesis, interludes of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, and more in a spellbinding examination of society’s conceivable extinction. Department of Seagulls, a vast piece at the heart of the show, voyages through human history, enhanced by a forceful stone-age slab which gives way to a bronze-age cast sea lion. The allusion to the 1968 parody Department of Eagles by Marcel Broodthaers pays the ultimate tribute to Mother Nature’s hierarchy.
What we love: The culmination of the show offers visitors a sculptural wooden doorway within the wall of the gallery itself, and light shines through fissures in an act of solace, confusion, and perpetual imagination.
