ART NEWS:Sept.02

Renowned for elaborate video installations that draw upon theater and live performance, Catherine Sullivan debuts her most recent film project, “The Startled Faction (a sensitivity training)”. In Sullivan’s new film, the lower status and invisibility of the women’s labor is set against the racial and economic urgency of the strike. The group is drawn into this contestation by the film’s soundtrack, and a woman attempting to escape from the task of recounting the experiences of its protagonist. The sensitivity training’s modulating mise en scène hosts a wide range of aesthetic treatments, modes of performance and narrative tangents. The nine men and women are prompted to find the boundaries of their demands on each other and to redact information when these boundaries are transgressed. Individual motives, awarenesses and psychological and emotional orientations are also implicated in exercises that ask members of the group to identify categorically with circumstances around their race, class and gender. Info: Metro Pictures, 519 West 24th Street, New York, Duration: 6/9-20/10/18, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, www.metropictures.com

Justin Adian presents his exhibition “Heaven on the highway”, this is not the first time that Adian has made use of stacked panels in his work, but it is his most emphatic. For Adian this is a way to evoke the compression of information that has long been a concern of his work, and also of contemporary society and culture more broadly. To layer is to both conceal and condense information, but it is also to nuance it and render it more complex. For these new accentuating panels are both physical and illusory, an actual object with a certain profile, and something that we read as a two-dimensional plane of color. The kind of information that Adian wants to deliver is, of course, painterly in nature—formal and pictorial, as his work remains fundamentally a juxtaposition of particular colors and shapes in space, delivered via his signature eccentric supports, with their soft materiality. Info: Almine Rech Gallery, Abdijstraat 20 Rue de l’Abbaye, Brussels, Duration: 6/9-13/10/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.alminerech.com

Egle Otto’s works that are on presentation at her exhibition “from empty to leaky”, reference cultural history and explore the consequences of cultural constrictions on the human body, and implement these to reveal the fine line between freedom and subjugation. She presents a world that resembles a theater stage. Inspired by the search for the normal and how it is perceived in our society, spaces arise in which mental impulses wander about like so many collective beings. Otto’s works frame a formal and thematic correspondence to Freud’s allegory of the room as the psyche in which desires and fears congregate like individuals. It terms of the history of civilization, it is evident how clothing functions as a signature for the power over the naked or half-naked body, one that is in a constant process of recalibration. The king, the colonialist, the entrepreneur, the judge are all wrapped in their robes, whereas the slave, the aborigine, the proletarian, and the prisoner wear chains. Info: Mirko Mayer Gallery, Erftstraße 29, Cologne, Duration: 6/9-26/10/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 12:00-18:00, http://mirkomayer.com

On the occasion of his 75th birthday, Michel Würthle’s in his solo exhibition “LE CINÉMA DE LA VIE”, presents drawings made from 1993 to today. Co-founder and proprietor of the iconic PARIS BAR and the restaurant EXIL before that, Michel Würthle has hosted a legendary group of artists for over 45 years. Würthle’s series of drawings recalls and reimagines a life instructed by his experience of others. Michel Würthle was at the centre, at the helms, of the spaces that defined culture in West Berlin. In 1972 he and his friends Ingrid and Oswald Wiener opened EXIL. The restaurant inaugurated a new era as a local, almost provincial scene. In 1979, Michel Würthle sold EXIL to buy PARIS BAR. The circle of artists and friends that frequented PARIS BAR included Joseph Beuys, Dieter Roth, Walter Pichler, Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi, Georg Baselitz, Markus Lüpertz, Maria Lassnig and Martin Kippenberger, among others. Info: Contemporary Fine Arts, Grolmanstraße 32/33, Berlin, Duration: 8-22/9/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00, http://cfa-berlin.de

As part of the Art Bahrain Across Borders initiative, the Grand hosts the first edition of Bahrain Art Week Paris, showcasing a selection of 17 established and emerging artists from a country that has enjoyed a long history of peaceful coexistence among nations and religions. Characterized by bold impressionistic abstracts, the works selected for Bahrain Art Week – centered around the theme of “The Legacy and the Contemporary Memory”, speak to how Bahraini artists visualize the country’s 5,000-year-old heritage of art and culture, and transform it into a 21st-century narrative. Bahraini artists are exploring their cultural identity with confidence and skill and have been increasingly welcomed in art capitals around the world where Art Bahrain Across Borders (ArtBAB) presents their special vision. Additionally, one artwork from each artist will be selected to take part in a public exhibition at Galerie Rabouan Moussion in Le Marais from the 17th until the 22nd of September. Info: Curators: Corinne Timsitand Kaneka Subberwal, Grand Palais, 3 Avenue du Général Eisenhower, Paris, Duration: 13-15/9/18, www.grandpalais.fr and Galerie Rabouan Moussion, 11 rue Pastourelle, Paris, Duration: 17-22/9/18, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-19:30, www.rabouanmoussion.com

New paintings by Mary Weatherford are on presentation in the exhibition “I’ve Seen Gray Whales Go By”. Weatherford makes large paintings comprising grounds of spontaneously sponged paint on heavy linen canvases surmounted by one or more carefully shaped and placed colored neon tubes. The canvas prepared with white gesso mixed with marble dust, and worked on with Flashe paint, supports startlingly diverse applications of color. The neon tubes attached to these fields of color advance a unique practice that Weatherford began in 2012, inspired by illuminated signs along the streets of old Bakersfield, California. In her use of neon, she transformed what had previously been used for advertisinginto a radically new form of pictorial drawing. Casting an industrial light onto the fields of color, the neon tubes read as hand-drawn lines across the surface, although they are sometimes so bright that they are blinding to look at, creating afterimages. Info: Gagosian Gallery, 555 West 24th Street, New York, Duration: 13/9-15/10/18, Days & Hours: Mon –Sat 10:00-18:00, https://gagosian.com

First shown last year at Focal Point Gallery, Paul Anthony Harford’s drawings, which range from scenes of everyday life to symbolist fantasies, were never exhibited in his lifetime. Harford attended Byam Shaw School of Art as a mature student in the late 1960s, before moving to Southend. He lived at different times in Southend and Weymouth, and worked variously as a schoolmaster, cleaner, bin man and hospital porter. Over the course of his life he completed hundreds of drawings, virtually all of them in pencil and graphite stick, which he kept stacked around the walls of his attic studio. Most of the works in the exhibition date from the 2000s, a period of late, prolific activity. The exhibition focuses on drawings in which the artist depicted himself and his mother. Harford is a recurring character in his works, often seen in the midst of an everyday activity. Having never exhibited during his lifetime, Harford is absent from histories of modern British art. Yet his roots at Byam Shaw School of Art, at a seminal moment in the development of post-war figuration, point to affinities with wider artistic trends. Info: Sadie Coles   HQ, 1 Davies Street, London, Duration: 13/9-10/11/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00, www.sadiecoles.com

Sara Cwynar in her first solo exhibition in a U.S. Museum entitled “Image Model Muse” explores the subjects of color and design, both in film and photography, and considers the ways they have operated politically, socially, and historically, particularly in the context of how beauty is conceptualized. On presentation are  11 photographs from the artist’s ongoing “Tracy” series, along with three of her most recent films” “Soft Film” (2016), “Rose Gold” (2017), and “Cover Girl” (2018). The artist’s multi-disciplinary practice across photography, film, and performance echoes and responds to video and performance art of the 1960s and 1970s, in which the artist is both subject and object of the camera. The portraits are superimposed with found objects and photographs from the artist’s vast collection of stock images and text clippings that visualize the interrelated histories of color and the representation of women. The manipulated, collaged images are then re-photographed. Info: Curators: Gabriel Ritter and Sutcliffe Herzfeld, Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), 2400 Third Avenue S, Minneapolis, Duration: 14/9/18-20/1/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Sat-Sun 10:00-17:00, Thu-Fri 10:00-21:00, https://new.artsmia.org

In her latest body of work, that is on presentation at her solo exhibition “Blue Hour” Sharon Ellis explores the patterns and rhythms of nature as metaphors for endings, loss and ultimate renewal. Blue Hour refers to the time of day when the sun has disappeared from the sky, yet light still remains. These words acknowledge the sadness of the loss of the day, while taking refuge in the hope that lives on in the emerging stars. Continuing her recent trajectory of creating smaller, more intimate works on paper, Ellis’s paintings embody the solace that can be found in nature and the reminder that new life continually replaces that which has passed on. Working in multiple layers of transparent glazes, Ellis’s paintings are the result of a meticulous and time-consuming process. Much like nature itself, Ellis’s practice is unhurried and conscientious, resulting in paintings that hum with the vibrant spirit of the natural world. Info: Christopher Grimes Gallery, 916 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, Duration: 15/9-27/10/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-17:30, www.cgrimes.com

The exhibition “Italian Works” explores Francesca Woodman’s fusion of Italian classicism with aspects of narrative and performance. One of the key influences of Italian art on Woodman’s work was in her precise use of composition, which became more sophisticated during her time in Rome. She explored perspective and consciously used formal strategies learnt from her study of Florentine masters, particularly Giotto and Piero della Francesca, and classical sculpture. At the same time she was enhancing and extending her use of narrative and performative strategies. This is evident in her use of series of images, crucially in “Self-deceit” (1978), which features scenarios where Woodman refers to classical and surrealist sculptural poses using her own naked body and a single prop, a rough-edged piece of mirrored glass. Further important series Woodman worked on during this time include the “Angel” series, which she commenced in Providence but extended in works made in the Cerere, and “Eel Series”, 1978, likely created in Venice on one of her frequent visits to the city. Info: Victoria Miro, Il Capricorno, San Marco 1994, Venice, Duration: 15/9-15/12/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-13:00 & 14:00-18:00, www.victoria-miro.com

Tbilisi, they say, is the new Berlin. Late-night partying and scope to do one’s own thing are luring ever more people to Georgia’s capital. Located at the intersection of key trade routes for centuries, Tbilisi has always brought different peoples together – whether involuntarily, through occupation or conquest, or willingly and generously by offering refuge to those driven from elsewhere. The populations seldom merged; instead, the separate groups learned to create permeable boundaries, leading to an eclectic mix of cultures existing side by side. In the exhibition “Lara protects me-A Georgian Story”, video works, photographs, drawings and design objects tell the stories of various convergences. An enigmatic message the show’s curator found on her journey through Georgia became the point of departure for a quest. Who is the mysterious Lara who wrote the message? What can contemporary creative artists tell us about her? Georgian artists, designers, curators and writers respond and invite us to explore their country. Info: Curator: Dr Mahret Kupka, Museum Angewand te Kunst, Schaumaink ai 1 7, Frankfurt am Main, Duration: 21/9/18-20/1/19, Days & Hours: Tue & Thu-Sun 10:00-18:00, Wed 10:00-20:00, www.museumangewandtekunst.de

The two exhibitions “Anthropocene”, tell the story of the human impact on the Earth through film, photography and new experiential technologies. The exhibitions are a component of the multi-disciplinary Anthropocene Project from the collective of photographer Edward Burtynsky and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier. The exhibitions feature new Burtynsky photographs illustrating themes such as resource extraction and climate change. In addition, high-resolution murals captured using cutting-edge photographic technologies provide striking viewing experiences. The two shows also include a number of powerful high-resolution video installations that document the progression of human influence according to research categories of the Anthropocene Working Group scientists, including terraforming, extinction, anthroturbation (human tunnelling) and technofossils (human created materials, such as cement and aluminium). Info: Curators: Sophie Hackett, Andrea Kunard and Urs Stahel, National Gallery of Canada, 380 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Duration: 28/9/18-24/2/19, Days & Hours: October-April: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 10:00-17:00, Thu 10:00-20:00, May-September: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 10:00-18:00, Thu 10:00-20:00 www.gallery.ca and Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas St W, Toronto, Duration: 28/9/18-6/1/19, Days & Hours: Tue & Thu10:30-17:00, Wed & Fri 10:30-21:00, Sat-Sun 10:30-17:30, https://ago.ca