From the Founder, November 2020

From the Founder, November 2020

As I write this statement, Covid-19 numbers are on a steep rise all over the country, people are worried about getting together with their families for Thanksgiving and concerned about what the next few months will bring before a vaccine can help return us to normal life. But, perhaps, there won’t be a normal but a new normal that we will all have to adjust to.

Since we will have a new administration as of January, 2021, and the country can perhaps begin to heal and move forward, my attention turns to New York City, a city of my childhood and adulthood, a city that welcomes one and all, a city of hope, resilience and ability to adapt.

New York City has suffered extensively in the last year due to Coronavirus and the economic havoc it has brought in its wake, but, as we New Yorkers know all too well, our city is one imagined and created out of determination, strength of spirit and persistence to not just survive but thrive.

New York City had been demolished and burned many times in its history: it has suffered upheaval and an attack on its citizens on 9/11 as well as economic downturn of the Great Depression or the Great Recession of 2008. Yet, those of us who self-identify as New Yorkers never cease to believe, never cease to rebuild, and will always move ahead into the future.

New York is the center of so many worlds: commerce, finance, fashion and, of course, culture. Whether people come here to see theatre or ballet, visit museums and art galleries, or to hear endless varieties of music, they are drawn here to experience what no other city in the world offers them.

It is imperative for those of us in the art world to now step up and generate renewed momentum that will build on the belief that we are stronger together and committed to support the arts, which will ultimately help to reinforce how essential our city is for the world. Visit museums, go to see exhibits at galleries, support artists of all disciplines and encourage the world to pay attention to what we are doing here.

Recently, for example, I have been asked to participate in the selection of artists for a residency program called “Still Standing” initiated by Stonehendge NY, a real-estate company that is now offering an apartment free of charge for a year to selected artists in exchange for some commissioned work. You can find more information on their website here.

If we can’t rely on the Federal government to support the arts, then the responsibility falls upon the private sector and individuals who understand and will participate during this time of need. So this holiday season, please visit, see, hear, explore, learn and enjoy the arts in New York in any and all formats.

We will do our best to help you do that via our newsletters and social media. Happy Thanksgiving!

On another note, I am pleased to announce the next round of In-Person Intimate Tours to the Upper East Side Galleries. Please see the schedule below, and email ns@artmuseny.com to arrange.

December 1: 11 am-12:30 pm — 3 SPOTS

December 2: 11 am-12:30 pm — 5 SPOTS | 2:30-4 pm —2 SPOTS

December 3: 11 am-12:30 pm—1 SPOT | 2-3:30 pm—SOLD OUT

December 9: 11 am-12:30 pm—5 SPOTS |2-3:30 pm— 2 SPOTS

December 10: 11 am-12:30 pm—5 SPOTS | 2-3:30 pm 5 SPOTS

Please reserve your spot in advance. Once reserved, payment must be made in advance to confirm your spot (unless special arrangement is made to pay via check or cash the day of the tour). Payment of $100 can be made via Venmo to Natasha-Schlesinger.

Please note that because these are such small groups, once you confirm a spot, you are committed to it unless you can replace yourself with someone else. No refunds or credits will be offered.

Hope you and your families have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

November Gallery Guide

1. Alex Gardner: Blues at The Hole

“A meditative call for hopeful reflection,”Alex Gardner’s Blues presents a different kind of Blue Period from Picasso’s—one of hope, laughter, joy, and healing. Gardner’s new body of pastel paintings represent the artist’s ability to overcome his feelings of psychological discomfort during the pandemic and create something that feels entirely free yet full of heart. These soft paintings, created by the application of many thin layers of paint onto a sanded-gesso surface, have a near-ceramic like quality as Gardner’s hand is evident in the dripping blue tones featured on his smooth canvases.

Through December 27

312 Bowery

Pictured: Somebody Gotta Do The Work, 2020 | courtesy of The Hole

2. Tschabalala Self: Cotton Mouth at Galerie Eva Presenhuber

With Cotton Mouth, Tschabalala Self mines pop culture and African American history for an exhibition of rich, painstakingly constructed new works. Self’s is best known for her use of sewing when constructing her multi-media paintings, often depicting Black women whose strong individuality are undeniable to viewers (Speaking to The New York Times about Self’s work, Miami collector Mera Rubell declared, “She’s giving us new heroes.”). Self is a born and bred New Yorker: she was born in Harlem, went to high school at Nightingale-Bamford, and went to Bard College before earning her MFA at Yale. Her visual language certainly culls from her upbringing, creating for a show New Yorkers will especially connect with.

Read about Self and the exhibition in The New York Times here!

Through December 19, by appointment

39 Great Jones Street

Pictured: Sprewell, 2020 | courtesy of Eva Presenhuber Gallery

3. Titus Kaphar: From a Tropical Space at Gagoisan

Titus Kaphar’s first exhibition with Gagosian is a gut-wrenching exploration of history, culture, and social anxiety. Using a lexicon that is quite familiar—Kaphar mines the visual language of early European master paintings—the artist dislodges history by forcing a collision between highly-refined painting tradition and the use of tar, nails, erasing, cutting, and shredding in his process. Many of these new works represent the trauma and fear that is often inherent to Black motherhood as Kaphar weaves a rich tapestry of his subject’s lives. These works are intensely timely—and you might remember Analogous Colors from when it was on the cover of TIME Magazine.

Through December 19, by appointment

522 West 21st Street

Pictured: Analogous Colors, 2020 | courtesy of Gagosian

4. Eliot Greenwald: In Fact at Taymour Grahne Projects

With his latest body of work, Eliot Greenwald continues his exploration of the Night Car, a visual iconography that Greenwald repeats in his work where a passenger-less car drives through a surreal landscape, often turning the curve as two planets soar above. Greenwald invites the viewer to ride in the Night Car and enter a world that references sci-fi, a Hitchcock-ian horror, and Americana.

Through December 11

Presented Online Here

Pictured: Night Car (Drawing 36), 2020 | courtesy of taymour grahne projects

5. Alina Grasmann: Sculpting in time at Fridman Gallery

Alina Grasmann creates large-scale realist paintings that combine American architecture, landscape, cinema, literature, and mythology to create beautiful explorations of specific time and place. Through her masterful works, the artist guides her viewers to what feels almost like a dream, helping them explore her own interpretations about these places that the artist is so heavily interested in.

Through December 20

169 Bowery

Pictured: Sculpting in Time 3, 2020 | courtesy of Fridman gallery

6. Nina Chanel Abney: The Great Escape at Jack Shainman

With her latest, must-see exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery, Nina Chanel Abney creates what T Magazine calls “a Queer Black Utopia.” Each of these new works are like masterpieces: these rich paintings portray her subjects in an idyllic, pastoral setting, living as a single community and away from the harsh white gaze. In her artist statement, Abney asks, “Is there space for Black autonomy in a world organized by white supremacy?” This series seeks to answer that question and presents a utopia for Blackness and Queerness to be nurtured, a space for “collective leisure as a figuration of refuge and radical reparation,” Abney asserts.

Read The New York Times Style Magazine piece here!

Through December 23

513 West 20th Street & 524 West 24th Street

Pictured: Femme Games, 2020| images courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery

7. Jenny Saville: Elpis at Gagosian

Jenny Saville’s large-scale portraits depict the intense beauty inherent to humanity and its ephemera. Using Greek and Egyptian conceptions of humanity and its lineage as her starting point, Saville creates magnificent studies of human life and human emotion through portraiture. Saville’s dynamic conception of portraiture fluctuates between intense realism and brilliant abstraction, effectively turning the genre of portraiture on its head.

Through December 22, by appointment

980 Madison Avenue

8. Anna Ostoya: Motions at Bortolami Gallery

Anna Ostoya’s new, large-scale works showcase the artist’s deftness at using painting and collage to brilliantly depict figures in constant motion. The artist creates figures that overlap and meld together, as if they are dancing or wrestling—it’s impossible to know. Teeming with energy, these works incorporate oil paint, newspaper, printed images of protests sourced from the internet, metallic leaf, and plastic shopping bags.

Through December 19

39 Walker Street

Pictured: installation view | courtesy of Bortolami Gallery

9. Barbara Takenaga: Shibaraku at DC Moore Gallery

Barbara Takenaga’s mesmerizing acrylic on linen paintings hypnotize their viewers with undulating, kaleidoscopic forms that emphasize the ephemeral and shifting nature of the physical world. Takenaga’s brushwork creates rippling and shifting shapes that appear as if we see the paint being poured onto her canvas. The show’s title, Shibaraku, is Japanese for “wait a moment!” and is also a genre of Kabuki theatre—which is all very appropriate, given that these stunning works stop us in our tracks.

Through December 23

535 West 22nd Street

Pictured: Pearlescent White, 2020  | courtesy of DC Moore

10. To Form a More Perfect Union at Hauser & Wirth

To Form a More Perfect Union is a beautiful group show that lays bare the historical narratives that have run through American society since the 20th century. Bringing together leading figures in post-war art and contemporary art, it includes works by Rita Ackermann, Louise Bourgeois, George Condo, Marlene Dumas, Charles Gaines, Robert Gober, Philip Guston, David Hammons, Jenny Holzer, Roni Horn, Rashid Johnson, Mike Kelley, Takesada Matsutani, Paul McCarthy, Marisa Merz, Carol Rama, and Lorna Simpson.

Through December 19, by appointment

32 East 69th Street

Pictured: installation view | courtesy of Hauser & Wirth

PUBLIC ART SPOTLIGHT

Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya at Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center

Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya (which is pronounced PING-bodee-bak-ee-ah!) presents a series of vibrant new works throughout the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center subway station that features Asian, Black, and Pacific Islander people and declares, “I did not make you sick” and “I am not your scapegoat.” These works, a project funded by NYC’s Commission on Human Rights, are provocative and smart in their project to challenge people’s biases and embrace all New Yorkers. Phingbodhipakkiya told the times, “My goal with this art series was to turn these hurts into something beautiful and powerful… I really wanted to find a way to say, despite everything we have faced as Asian-Americans and New Yorkers, that I still believe in New York.”

Through December 2

Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center

Images courtesy of The New York Times