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Events

Mary Weatherford, Small Terracotta Event, 2023 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

Talk and Book Signing

Mary Weatherford
Chrissie Iles

Saturday, January 20, 2024, 3pm
Gagosian, 980 Madison Avenue, New York

Join Gagosian for a conversation between Mary Weatherford and Chrissie Iles, curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, inside Sea and Space, the artist’s exhibition of new paintings and works on paper at Gagosian, 980 Madison Avenue, New York. Dominated by the color green, Weatherford’s paintings make visual reference to arboreal and aquatic environments, as well as outer space. The pair will discuss the inspiration and process behind these works, which are imbued with spatial illusion and a spirit of existential inquiry. Following the talk, the Gagosian Shop at 976 Madison Avenue will host a reception where Weatherford will sign copies of her new book, The Flaying of Marsyas, which documents her 2022 exhibition of the same title at Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice. Published by Gagosian, the book will be available for purchase at the event.

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Mary Weatherford, Small Terracotta Event, 2023 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

Sarah Sze, Spell, 2023 © Sarah Sze

Auction

Nina Simone Childhood Home
Benefit Auction

May 12–22, 2023

This online auction is part of a multifaceted fundraiser to benefit the Nina Simone Childhood Home Preservation Project. Spearheaded by the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, the project aims to fully restore and maintain the birthplace of musical icon and civil rights activist Nina Simone. Cocurated by artist Adam Pendleton and the tennis champion, entrepreneur, and arts patron Venus Williams, the auction—hosted by Sotheby’s—features work by international artists, including Ellen GallagherSarah SzeMary Weatherford, and Stanley Whitney.

Sarah Sze, Spell, 2023 © Sarah Sze

Mary Weatherford, Outer Reaches of Space, Reason, and Time, 2021 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

Auction

Aspen Art Museum
ArtCrush

August 3–6, 2021

As part of its annual ArtCrush celebration honoring those whose creativity and vision impact the field of contemporary art, the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado presents an auction to benefit its artistic and educational programming. This year’s auction, hosted on sothebys.com, features work by contemporary artists including Richard Phillips and Mary Weatherford. A selection of the lots will be auctioned live at the museum’s ArtCrush gala on Friday, August 6. To inquire about bidding, contact eneckes@aspenartmuseum.org.

Mary Weatherford, Outer Reaches of Space, Reason, and Time, 2021 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

Mary Weatherford, Sunset, Western Cape, 2020 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

Auction

Venice Family Clinic Art Walk
Benefit Auction 2021

April 28–May 12, 2021

Venice Family Clinic presents its annual benefit auction, a fundraising event whose proceeds will provide essential health care services to people in the community regardless of their income, immigration, or insurance status. Since its inception forty years ago, this charity event has raised more than $23 million. This year’s auction, hosted on Artsy, is honoring Mary Weatherford as the “signature artist” and features more than two hundred works by nationally recognized contemporary artists, including Piero Golia, Ed Ruscha, Robert Therrien, as well as Weatherford. To register to bid, visit artsy.net.

Mary Weatherford, Sunset, Western Cape, 2020 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

Mark Grotjahn, Untitled (Capri 53.57), 2020 © Mark Grotjahn

Support

The Kitchen
Ice and Fire: A Benefit Exhibition in Three Parts

October 15, 2020–March 23, 2021

The benefit exhibition Ice and Fire features works by more than forty artists who have enduring relationships with the Kitchen in New York. Installed within the organization’s three-story space in Chelsea, which is currently closed due to the global pandemic, the three-part exhibition is viewable online. Proceeds from sales will go toward a planned renovation on the occasion of the Kitchen’s fiftieth anniversary, ensuring that the nonprofit space will remain a platform for artistic experimentation in its historic and beloved building. Work by Cecily Brown, Roe Ethridge, Mark Grotjahn, Alex Israel, Ed Ruscha, Taryn Simon, Mary Weatherford, and Christopher Wool is included.

Mark Grotjahn, Untitled (Capri 53.57), 2020 © Mark Grotjahn

Mary Weatherford: I’ve Seen Gray Whales Go By (New York: Gagosian, 2020)

Online Reading

Mary Weatherford
I’ve Seen Gray Whales Go By

Mary Weatherford: I’ve Seen Gray Whales Go By is available for online reading from June 17 through July 16 as part of Artist Spotlight: Mary Weatherford. Documenting Weatherford’s 2018 exhibition at Gagosian in New York, her first with the gallery, it features a new essay by curator and art historian John Elderfield that examines how this body of work evokes not just landscapes, but specific events and narratives. The plate section is interspersed with examples of Weatherford’s varied source material, including a nursery rhyme, a page of sheet music, and an entry from artist Agnes Pelton’s journal.

Mary Weatherford: I’ve Seen Gray Whales Go By (New York: Gagosian, 2020)

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Announcements

Photo: Antony Hoffman

Award

Mary Weatherford
Aspen Award for Art

Mary Weatherford is the recipient of the 2021 Aspen Award for Art, which will be presented on Friday, August 6. The award was established in 2005 by the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado to recognize individual artists making exemplary contributions to contemporary art.

On the occasion of the award, Weatherford will be in conversation with Nicola Lees, director of the Aspen Art Museum; Simone Krug, assistant curator; and Luis Yllanes, chief operating officer. The group will discuss Weatherford’s recent exhibition Neon Paintings, which was recently on view at the museum.

Photo: Antony Hoffman

Still from “Virtual Studio Visits: Klaus Biesenbach in Conversation with Mary Weatherford”

Video

Virtual Studio Visits
Klaus Biesenbach in Conversation with Mary Weatherford

In the Virtual Studio Visits series from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, director Klaus Biesenbach digitally connects with artists around the world. Here, he speaks with Mary Weatherford at her working space in Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, South Africa. The pair discuss Weatherford’s show Canyon—Daisy—Eden, at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, and her practice in general.

Still from “Virtual Studio Visits: Klaus Biesenbach in Conversation with Mary Weatherford”

Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea, 1952, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York, on extended loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC © 2019 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Podcast

Recording Artists
Radical Women

This new podcast, produced by the Getty, explores the lives and work of six women artists spanning multiple generations. Hosted by curator Helen Molesworth, the podcast draws on rare audio interviews from the 1960s and ’70s from the archives of the Getty Research Institute and includes an episode on Helen Frankenthaler and another on Eva Hesse, including commentary by Mary Weatherford.

Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea, 1952, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York, on extended loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC © 2019 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Photo: Lee Jaffe

Honor

Mary Weatherford

On July 1, 2018, Mary Weatherford will join the Lewis Center for the Arts Advisory Council.

Photo: Lee Jaffe

Museum Exhibitions

Installation view, Making Their Mark, Shah Garg Foundation, New York, November 2, 2023–March 23, 2024. Artwork, left to right: © Joan Semmel, © Carol Bove, © Maria Lassnig, © 2024 Dana Schutz, © Cecily Brown

Closing this Week

Making Their Mark

Through March 23, 2024
Shah Garg Foundation, New York
www.shahgargfoundation.org

Making Their Mark, curated by Cecilia Alemani, showcases the works of more than seventy women artists from the last eight decades. The exhibition champions the lives and work of women artists, bringing into vibrant relief their intergenerational relationships, formal and material breakthroughs, and historical impact. Through drawings, mixed media, paintings, sculptures, and textile works, these artists aim to rechart art history through their singular, iconic practices. Work by Carol Bove, Jadé Fadojutimi, Sarah Sze, and Mary Weatherford is included.

Installation view, Making Their Mark, Shah Garg Foundation, New York, November 2, 2023–March 23, 2024. Artwork, left to right: © Joan Semmel, © Carol Bove, © Maria Lassnig, © 2024 Dana Schutz, © Cecily Brown

Chris Burden, A Tale of Two Cities, 1981, Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California © 2024 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Just Opened

Color Is the First Revelation of the World

Through August 18, 2024
Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California
ocma.art

Drawing inspiration from the color theories of Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica (1937–1980), this exhibition explores the intersections of color and form, emphasizing the transformative nature of art. Through a collection of monochromatic works in hues of blue, the works on view span the various histories of the twentieth century to pose timely questions about the world around us. Work by Chris Burden, Cy Twombly, and Mary Weatherford is included.

Chris Burden, A Tale of Two Cities, 1981, Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California © 2024 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Installation view, Mary Weatherford: The Flaying of Marsyas, Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice, April 20–November 27, 2022. Artwork © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Matteo de Fina

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Mary Weatherford
The Flaying of Marsyas

April 20–November 27, 2022
Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice
polomusealeveneto.beniculturali.it

This exhibition presents new paintings by Mary Weatherford, which are directly inspired by Titian’s late, eponymous masterpiece of circa 1570–76 and reflect her enduring fascination with the painting. Alluding to the Renaissance painter’s subdued palette, while paying tribute to the distinctive light of Venice, Weatherford uses Flashe paint and neon tubing to distill the historical canvas’s affect. The exhibition opens immediately prior to the commencement of the 59th Biennale di Venezia.

Installation view, Mary Weatherford: The Flaying of Marsyas, Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice, April 20–November 27, 2022. Artwork © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Matteo de Fina

Mary Weatherford, Engine, 2014, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

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America. Entre rêves et réalités
La collection du Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

June 9–September 11, 2022
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Canada
www.mnbaq.org

Featuring more than a hundred paintings, photographs, sculptures, and video works drawn from the permanent collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, this exhibition, whose title translates to America. Between Dreams and Realities, offers a broad overview of modern and contemporary American art. Organized thematically, it looks carefully and critically at the notion of the American dream and uncovers how artists have variously grappled with questions of identity, the challenges of globalization, the realities of everyday life in America, and the complexities of its technological and political revolutions. Work by Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Sally Mann, Man Ray, Brice Marden, Nam June Paik, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, and Mary Weatherford is included.

Mary Weatherford, Engine, 2014, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

Mary Weatherford, Georgia, 2010 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

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Mary Weatherford
Canyon—Daisy—Eden

April 16–September 5, 2021
SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico
sitesantafe.org

Over the past three decades, Mary Weatherford has developed a rich and diverse painting practice, from her early-1990s target paintings based on operatic heroines to her expansive, gestural canvases overlaid with neon glass tubing. This exhibition presents a survey of Weatherford’s career, drawing from several distinct bodies of work made between 1989 and 2017. Showing the artist experimenting with color, scale, and materials, these works together reveal the continuity of Weatherford’s interest in memory and experience, both personal and historical. The exhibition has traveled from the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York.

Mary Weatherford, Georgia, 2010 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

Installation view, Mary Weatherford: Neon Paintings, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado, December 18, 2020–May 2, 2021 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Carter Seddon

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Mary Weatherford
Neon Paintings

December 18, 2020–May 2, 2021
Aspen Art Museum, Colorado
www.aspenartmuseum.org

This exhibition examines pivotal pieces from the last decade of Mary Weatherford’s work, with a particular focus on her neon paintings. The artist began to incorporate neon tubing into her work in 2012 after driving around the California city of Bakersfield, where she was struck by the neon signage—both illuminated and burnt out—on bars, shops, and old factories. Weatherford’s neons arc over thin veils of color, illuminating her canvases even as they act as their own expressive marks. 

Installation view, Mary Weatherford: Neon Paintings, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado, December 18, 2020–May 2, 2021 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Carter Seddon

Installation view, Mary Weatherford: Canyon—Daisy—Eden, Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, February 1–July 12, 2020. Artwork © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Jeremy Lawson

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Mary Weatherford
Canyon—Daisy—Eden

February 1–July 12, 2020
Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York
tang.skidmore.edu

Over the past three decades, Mary Weatherford has developed a rich and diverse painting practice, from her early-1990s target paintings based on operatic heroines to her expansive, gestural canvases overlaid with neon glass tubing. This exhibition presents a survey of Weatherford’s career, drawing from several distinct bodies of work made between 1989 and 2017. Showing the artist experimenting with color, scale, and materials, these works together reveal the continuity of Weatherford’s interest in memory and experience, both personal and historical.

Installation view, Mary Weatherford: Canyon—Daisy—Eden, Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, February 1–July 12, 2020. Artwork © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Jeremy Lawson

Mary Weatherford, Engine, 2014, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC © Mary Weatherford

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Feel the Sun in Your Mouth
Recent Acquisitions

August 24, 2019–February 2, 2020
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
hirshhorn.si.edu

This exhibition brings together artworks acquired by the museum over the past five years with a focus on art that incites sensation and demonstrates a renewed interest in sublime encounters with the world. Spanning a period of extreme technological growth that has led us from the first steps on the moon to the development of the Internet, this exhibition illuminates a return to the poetic, the intuitive, and the cosmic in current artistic practice. Work by Alex Israel, Tatiana Trouvé, and Mary Weatherford is included.

Mary Weatherford, Engine, 2014, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC © Mary Weatherford

Installation view, No Man’s Land: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, September 30, 2016–January 8, 2017. Artwork, left to right: © Mary Weatherford, © Kerstin Brätsch, © Sonia Gomes

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No Man’s Land
Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection

September 30, 2016–January 8, 2017
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
nmwa.org

Drawing from the Rubell Family Collection, the paintings and sculptural hybrids in N0 Man’s Land demonstrate the expressive and technical range of work by a generationally, aesthetically, and politically diverse group of contemporary women artists. Collectively, they populate “no man’s land”—an open, liberated, and adaptable creative space. The presentation focuses on the traditional mediums of painting and sculpture as a way to highlight how women artists have pushed and redefined the boundaries of such categories. Work by Cecily Brown, Jennifer Guidi, and Mary Weatherford is included.

Installation view, No Man’s Land: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, September 30, 2016–January 8, 2017. Artwork, left to right: © Mary Weatherford, © Kerstin Brätsch, © Sonia Gomes

Mary Weatherford, Olive Downtown, 2014 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

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Pretty Raw
After and Around Helen Frankenthaler

February 11–June 7, 2015
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
www.brandeis.edu

Pretty Raw takes the artist Helen Frankenthaler as a lens through which to refocus our vision of modernist art over the past fifty years. In this version, decoration, humor, femininity and masculinity, the everyday, pleasure, and authorial control take center stage. The exhibition, curated by Katy Siegel, features works by artists from the 1950s through the present who have found personal, social, and political meaning in materiality. Work by Helen Frankenthaler, Mike Kelley, Sterling Ruby, Andy Warhol, Mary Weatherford, and Christopher Wool is included.

Mary Weatherford, Olive Downtown, 2014 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

Mary Weatherford, la noche, 2014 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

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The Forever Now
Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World

December 14, 2014–April 5, 2015
Museum of Modern Art, New York
www.moma.org

Forever Now presents the work of seventeen artists whose paintings reflect a singular approach that characterizes our cultural moment at the beginning of the new millennium: they refuse to allow us to define or even meter our time by them. They represent a wide variety of styles and impulses, but all use the painted surface as a platform, map, or metaphoric screen on which genres intermingle, morph, and collide. Work by Joe Bradley, Mark Grotjahn, and Mary Weatherford is included.

Mary Weatherford, la noche, 2014 © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

See all Museum Exhibitions for Mary Weatherford