ART NEWS:March 01

“Tree of Knowledge” (1913-15) is a rare set of watercolors by Hilma af Klint. One of two versions, the present set that is on show at David Zwirner Gallery was recently rediscovered in Switzerland; the other version, along with the majority of the artist’s groundbreaking work, is held in the collection of the Hilma af Klint Foundation. It was not known that Hilma af Klint had made two versions of the “Tree of Knowledge” series until the recent rediscovery of this set in the Albert Steffen Stiftung in Dornach, Switzerland. In the early 1920s, af Klint appears to have given these watercolors as a gift to Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the spiritual and philosophical movement known as Anthroposophy, for the Goetheanum, a building he designed for the Anthroposophical Society. Around 1927, the works came into the possession of Albert Steffen, who became president of the Anthroposophical Society after Steiner’s death in 1925. Recently acquired by Glenstone Museum, these works are on view in London before going to its permanent home in Maryland. Info: David Zwirner Gallery, 24 Grafton Street, London, United Kingdom, Duration: 2/3-2/4/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.davidzwirner.com

Through her expressive figurative paintings Marlou Fernanda conveys her personal story and reveals the transformation she is going through as an artist. In the series of paintings she made for the site-specific work “LIKE ME NOW, EGO DEATH”, Fernanda shows us how she bids farewell to the alter ego that played a leading role in her earlier work and now asks the audience to see her in a different light. In response to traumatic events, Marlou Fernanda created the alter ego Nu-Nu. This character takes on organic shapes in her paintings, with the face showing a strong resemblance to Fernanda’s own. In the past she has often felt invisible and unheard. Nu-Nu gave her something to hold on to and a sense of belonging. Fernanda now wishes to break free from this feeling and is on the verge of letting go of her alter ego. In Kunsthal Light #26 Fernanda wonders why we so desperately want to be noticed by others and why we need the approval of others to be who we want to be. In “LIKE ME NOW, EGO DEATH” Fernanda visualises the duality between her desire for attention on the one hand, and the question where that desire for attention stems from on the other. Info: Kunsthal Rotterdam, Museumpark, Westzeedijk 341, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Duration: 2/3-26/6/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00, www.kunsthal.nl

Working in a range of media, the artists that participate in “Vessels” engage in different ways with the idea that the living body is a vessel—one that contains a life force or a spirit, but one that is also subjected to social, political, and cultural constructs. The exhibition is organized around three central themes. A number of the works on view can be considered Earthen Vessels, which embody a dialogue between the inside and outside. Through their use of organic materials, artists explore in their forms the dichotomy between function and shape as well as solid and empty, with the architectonic structure of the vessel often evoking a spiritual resonance. Cyborg Vessels—as represented by the work of Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Geumhyung Jeong, and Berenice Olmedo—hint at the presence of a human form. Participating Artists: Ruth Asawa, Huguette Caland, Seyni Awa Camara, Marlene Dumas, Geumhyung Jeong, Shio Kusaka, Maria Lassnig, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Alice Neel, Magdalene Odundo, Berenice Olmedo, Pamela Rosenkranz, Andra Ursuţa, and Portia Zvavahera. Info: Curator: Galuh Sukardi, David Zwirner Gallery, 24 Grafton Street, London, United Kingdom, Duration: 2/3-2/4/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.davidzwirner.com

The solo exhibition “Chronicling Our Lives: 1987-2021” by Willie Birch features large paintings on paper and painted papier-mâché sculptures created between 1987 and 1996, complemented by a new monumental, mural-like work executed in black and white. As a social critic, Birch dismantles the artificial construct of race and points to commonalities between visual and cultural forms throughout the world. While both the artist and his work are closely identified with his native New Orleans, the works on view at Fort Gansevoort were made predominantly while Birch lived in Brooklyn, New York, in the 1980s and early 1990s. The colorful, narrative paintings from his Folkloric series and text-driven paintings from his Dialogue series depict his impressions of city life and current events in crisp forms and vibrant hues. The figurative papier-mâché sculptures on view, likewise created during this period, metabolize material culture and historical references into three-dimensional expressions of human resilience in the face of hardship. Info: Fort Gansevoort, 5 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY, USA, Duration:3/3-21/5/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.fortgansevoort.com

“Ways of Attaching” is the first institutional survey exhibition by Rosemary Mayer. The exhibition provides extensive insights into Mayer’s body of work over four decades: ranging from early conceptual experiments of the late 1960s, to textile sculptures and drawings made in the early 1970s, to “temporary monuments” from 1977-1982. The exhibition also includes Mayer’s artist’s books from the mid-1970s, sculptures and works on paper from the 1990s, and book illustrations from the 2000s; all of these have not been exhibited since they were made. Highlighting Mayer’s formal interest in draping, knotting, and tethering, the exhibition focuses on the artist’s process of constructing real and imagined networks and constellations in which friends and historical figures feature in expressions of affinity and attachment. A prolific artist and writer as well as active participant in feminist artistic discourses, Mayer was intimately involved within a close-knit network of fellow artists, scholars, and gallerists, including artist Adrian Piper; her sister and poet Bernadette Mayer; former spouse and artist Vito Acconci; artist Ree Morton; writer, art critic and curator Lawrence Alloway, and many others. Info: Curator: Eva Birkenstock, Ludwig Forum Aachen, Jülicher Straße 97–109, Aachen, Germany, Duration: 5/3-22/5/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 10:00-17:00, Thu 10:00-20:00, https://ludwigforum.de

Consisting of sculptures and wall-hanging assemblages crafted from wood, papier-mache, photographs, and other materials, Tenet’s exhibition “Wall Begins to Know Itself” explores how urban spaces unsettle the boundaries between public and private, past and present, functional and nonfunctional. Tenet, a collaboration between Julia Eshaghpour and Kevin Hollidge, is interested in the tension – and humor – created where architecture butts up against itself: where it has been renovated or erased over time, and where the past shows through, both in subtle traces and stubborn gestures. Throughout the exhibition, Tenet draws much of their visual language from New York City’s Lower East Side tenement architecture. They are particularly interested in the embellishments that decorate late 19th and early 20th century building facades, which were produced by and for the working-class immigrants who lived there. Turn of the century mass-production allowed access to a style of classical ornamentation which had been historically characteristic of upper and middle-class homes. Tenet’s work is informed by these iconographies and their changing meanings. Info: Curator: Maren Hassinger, CUE Art Foundation, 137 West 25th Street, Ground Floor (Between 6th and 7th Avenue), New York, NY, USA, Duration: 5/3-2/4/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, https://cueartfoundation.org

Entitled “Sculptures and Gouaches” Loïc Le Groumellec’s solo exhibition presents a collection of brand-new works on paper from his series” Écritures”, alongside 19 new sculptures from the series “Mégalithes et maison”, in orbicular diorite and marble / lacquered wood. During his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, Loïc Le Groumellec discovered a set of lithographs depicting megaliths – a structure he was well acquainted with – in the institutional archives. Born in Vannes, he grew up in the Gulf of Morbihan, a place particularly rich in mystical remains of the Neolithic period.  The enigma of the inscriptions engraved in the Gavrinis cairn – which remain undeciphered to this day – together with dolmens, menhirs and the wilderness of his native Brittany fed his imagination, as it had for generations of artists and writers before him. Info: Galerie Karsten Greve, 5, rue Debelleyme, Paris, France, Duration: 5/3-7/5/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, https://galerie-karsten-greve.com

With a storied career spanning more than five decades, Pat Steir is a trailblazing presence in contemporary painting. She was one of the few women who came to prominence in the New York art scene of the 1970s, initially pairing iconic images and texts to interrogate the nature of representation. The works on view in his solo exhibition “Paintings” extend the systematic experimentation that Steir catalyzed in “Color Wheel” (2019), a suite of thirty large-scale paintings exploring binary color dynamics, commissioned by and presented at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC from the fall of 2019 to the summer of 2021. In addition to vibrant hues that generate unexpected nuance through layering and juxtaposition, Steir also continues to work in elemental white and black. Painting on a black ground that is itself poured in layers and then delineated by traced lines to receive its eventful opposite present a dramatic range of outcomes. Info: Gagosian Gallery, Via Francesco Crispi 16, Rome, Italy, Duration: 10/3-7/5/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:30-19:00, https://gagosian.com

Presented in the exhibition “WORLD” is a selection of works by Xu Ning, who is a recipient of the 2017 International TAKIFUJI Art Award. The line-up centers on 14 ceramic panels produced during the artist’s three-month residency at CREARE Atami-Yugawara Studio last year when she was invited to take part in the Traffic Culture Exhibition 2021. Making use of all the various parts that resulted from the creation of her first-ever ceramic panels as materials for her work, Xu Ning’s attitude towards production, paired with her strong intent, captures the beautiful things that by chance have manifested from nature, and incorporates them into her work to evoke a further sense of enrichment. Visitors are invited to explore the appeal of the artist’s work in both its entirety and meticulously executed details. Info: Tomio Koyama Gallery, Terrada Art Complex Ⅰ 4F, 1-33-10, Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan, Duration: 5-26/3/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00, http://tomiokoyamagallery.com