Fairs & Collecting
Artist Spotlight
Alexandria Smith
January 25–31, 2023
Alexandria Smith’s art addresses issues of identity as informed by autobiography, fiction, myth, collective memory, and history. She depicts metaphysical beings in primordial settings who embody states of growth and transformation. Her interest in hybridity and experimentation encompasses drawings with collage elements, paintings with sculptural assemblage, and immersive installations. Smith builds up dimensional components in her painted works, recently further articulating their surfaces through the incorporation of 3D-printed parts.
Photo: Ollie Adegboye
Languorous undulations (in the temple of my familiar)
Alexandria Smith and Akwaeke Emezi take up themes of queerness, hybridity, and embodied memory in their respective visual and literary works. Here, Emezi responds to Smith’s painting Languorous undulations (in the temple of my familiar) (2022) with an eponymous piece of flash fiction.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Winter 2022
The Winter 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on its cover.
Sterling Ruby: TURBINES
Join Sterling Ruby in his Los Angeles studio as he works on new abstract paintings ahead of his exhibition TURBINES at Gagosian in New York.
Jenny Saville: Latent
In this video, Jenny Saville describes the evolution of her practice inside her latest exhibition, Latent, at Gagosian, Paris. She addresses the genesis of the title and reflects on the anatomy of a painting.
Glenn Brown: We’ll Keep On Dancing Till We Pay the Rent
In conjunction with his exhibition Glenn Brown: We’ll Keep On Dancing Till We Pay the Rent at Gagosian in New York, the artist sits down to discuss his new paintings, sculptures, and drawings.
Duane Hanson at Fondation Beyeler
To celebrate their twenty-fifth anniversary, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland, staged an exhibition entitled Jubiläumsausstellung—Special Guest Duane Hanson. The presentation featured several sculptures by Duane Hanson alongside more than one hundred works from the foundation’s collection. Alice Godwin considers the fertile dialogues produced by these juxtapositions.
The Bigger Picture
Artists Against Mass Incarceration
Salomé Gómez-Upegui reports on cultural organizations and artists standing up against mass incarceration in the United States.
Artist to Artist: Spencer Sweeney and Peter Doig
Peter Doig visits Spencer Sweeney’s studio and the two discuss automatism, ambiguity, and anguish in the creative process.
In Conversation
Tyler Mitchell and Zoé Whitley
Tyler Mitchell sat down with Zoé Whitley, director at Chisenhale Gallery in London, for a conversation as part of Frieze Masters Talks and in partnership with Gagosian. The two discussed Mitchell’s first solo presentation in London and with the gallery, Chrysalis, on view earlier this fall at Gagosian, Davies Street, London, and a special commission for Frieze Masters 2022 that reflected on his conceptual and editorial photography practices. His work reinterprets the tropes employed in both the Western canon of portraiture and the contemporary fashion magazine.
Fashion and Art: Madonna’s Sex and Saint Laurent Rive Droite
This year’s edition of Art Basel Miami Beach brought Saint Laurent to America for a special exhibition curated by creative director Anthony Vaccarello celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Madonna’s groundbreaking book, Sex (1992). Staged on the Miami beachfront, the ephemeral exhibition was presented on the occasion of the reissue of Sex by Rive Droite and Callaway, New York, and featured large-format prints of Steven Meisel’s iconic photographs from the book, as well as unpublished images from the original photo shoots. Rennie McDougall reflects on the momentous impact of the publication, tracing Madonna’s ongoing influence on and provocation of popular culture.
Screen Time: How Nadya Tolokonnikova and UnicornDAO are Warming the Web3 World
Ashley Overbeek profiles Pussy Riot member Nadya Tolokonnikova and the feminist collective UnicornDAO, highlighting their efforts to harness blockchain technology for art and activism.
“The Present Decline”: Jim Shaw’s Epic Parables
Catherine Taft examines Jim Shaw’s visionary work, which probes the American psyche through political, historical, and cultural allegory.
Events & Announcements
Book Signing
Jonas Wood
Prints 2
Friday, January 27, 2023, 6–8pm
Gagosian, 541 West 24th Street, New York
Jonas Wood will sign copies of his new book, Prints 2—inside his exhibition of the same name at Gagosian, New York—to celebrate its publication. A companion to the 2018 title Prints, this volume documents the artist’s dynamic printmaking output from 2018 to 2022, reproducing more than thirty limited-edition prints made during this period organized into sections representing various printmaking studios with which Wood has collaborated. It also includes a conversation between Wood and master printer Ed Hamilton discussing the evolution of printing practices and Wood’s creative influences. Published by Gagosian, the book will be available for purchase at the event, which is free to attend.
Jonas Wood: Prints 2 (New York: Gagosian, 2023)
Performance
Body/Head
Kim Gordon and Bill Nace
Wednesday, February 15, 2023, 6:30pm
Gagosian, Beverly Hills
Join Gagosian for a live performance inside the exhibition Jim Shaw: Thinking the Unthinkable at Gagosian, Beverly Hills, by Kim Gordon and Bill Nace, performing as the electric guitar duo Body/Head. Gordon and Nace will create an improvisational composition in dialogue with the show, drawing on the exploration of the unexpected found in both their experimental music and Shaw’s dreamlike paintings. Attendees will receive a new zine featuring reproductions of drawings by Shaw, in advance of its official publication in the Spring 2023 issue of Gagosian Quarterly.
Bill Nace and Kim Gordon, Silencio, Paris, 2012. Photo: courtesy Bill Nace
Art Fair
Frieze Los Angeles 2023
Rick Lowe
February 17–19, 2022, booth D2
Santa Monica Airport
frieze.com
Gagosian is pleased to announce its participation in Frieze Los Angeles 2023, at the fair’s new venue of Santa Monica Airport, with a solo presentation of recent paintings and works on paper by Rick Lowe. The booth features Rotation (Revolution) (2023), a monumental 12-by-27-foot multi-panel painting, alongside other works that explore line, color, and space with reference to the impact of rural and urban development.
Rick Lowe, Green Divide, 2023 © Rick Lowe Studio. Photo: Thomas Dubrock
Art Fair
artgenève 2023
Edmund de Waal and Theaster Gates
January 25–29, 2023, booth C30
Palexpo, Geneva
artgeneve.ch
Gagosian is pleased to announce the gallery’s participation in artgenève 2023 with a dual presentation of porcelain vessels by Edmund de Waal and wood-fired ceramics by Theaster Gates. Placing the works of these two artists in dialogue, the presentation juxtaposes two very different but nonetheless complementary approaches to the established traditions and new possibilities represented by an ancient medium and practice.
Left: Edmund de Waal, sestina, 2022 © Edmund de Waal. Photo: Alzbeta Jaresova. Right: Theaster Gates, Untitled (Bottle), 2022 © Theaster Gates. Photo: Annik Wetter
Museum Exhibitions
Closing this Week
Virgil Abloh
“Figures of Speech”
Through January 29, 2023
Brooklyn Museum, New York
www.brooklynmuseum.org
Virgil Abloh pioneered a practice that cuts across mediums and connects visual artists, musicians, graphic designers, fashion designers, and architects. This exhibition, which originated at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, offers an in-depth look at defining highlights of Abloh’s career and includes a program of cross-disciplinary offerings that mirror the artist’s range of interests. The Brooklyn Museum presentation, which includes never-before-seen objects from Abloh’s archive and a social sculpture drawing on his background in architecture, is organized by Gagosian director Antwaun Sargent.
Installation view, Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech”, Brooklyn Museum, New York, July 1, 2022–January 29, 2023. Artwork ©︎ Virgil Abloh
Closing this Week
Theaster Gates in
A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration
Through January 29, 2023
Baltimore Museum of Art
artbma.org
A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration explores the profound impact of the Great Migration on the social and cultural life of the United States from historical and personal perspectives. The Great Migration (1915–70) saw more than six million Black Americans leave the South for cities across the country. The exhibition features newly commissioned works in a variety of media by twelve Black artists who explore themes of perseverance, self-determination, and self-reliance in their practices. Informed by research, explorations, and conversations, they examine the impacts this historical phenomenon continues to have today. This exhibition has traveled from the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson. Work by Theaster Gates is included.
Theaster Gates, The Double Wide, 2022, installation view, Baltimore Museum of Art © Theaster Gates. Photo: Mitro Hood
Closing this Week
Giuseppe Penone
Through January 29, 2023
Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands
www.voorlinden.nl
Throughout his fifty-year career, Giuseppe Penone, a protagonist of Arte Povera, has explored respiration, growth, and aging—among other involuntary processes—to create an expansive body of work that includes sculpture, performance, works on paper, and photography. This retrospective exhibition features both early and recent work by Penone.
Giuseppe Penone, Sculture di linfa (Lymph Sculptures), 2005–07, installation view, 52nd Biennale di Venezia © Giuseppe Penone/2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Archivio Penone
Closing this Week
Giuseppe Penone in
Renverser ses yeux: Autour de l’arte povera 1960–1975: photographie, film, vidéo
Through January 29, 2023
Jeu de Paume and Le Bal, Paris
jeudepaume.org
For the first time, Jeu de Paume and Le Bal in Paris present a joint thematic exhibition on the use of media—photography, film, and video—by Italian artists of the 1960s and early 1970s. This show, whose title translates to Reversing the Eye: Arte Povera and Beyond, 1960–75: Photography, Film, Video, provides an overview of the visual experiments of the Arte Povera group and other members of the Italian avant-garde. Work by Giuseppe Penone is included.
Giuseppe Penone, Svolgere la propria pelle (To Unroll One’s Skin), 1970 (detail) © Giuseppe Penone/2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Archivio Penone