“Memories of the Future”

The New Museum, NY, NY

I know I am a little late to be including this show here, but I figured I would include it as a good summer show to see. After a hiatus of a few years, the New Museum returns with a new expanded look. The opening exhibition is on view… indefinitely? It’s called “New Humans, Memories of the Future”. It is a look into past, present, and potentially future representations of evolving definitions of the “human”. The show is absolute sensory overload. The exhibition mixes 200 years of technological developments with the human form in a sci fi feeling and dystopic depiction of our species and world.

“Life with P”

Philip Guston, Hauser & Wirth, NY, NY

We head over to Chelsea to check out some Gallery shows. We start with a small show of Philip Guston works. This show runs the gamut, from the AbEx work to the wonderful bold, and daring representative and narrative paintings. It’s always great to see an artist put it all out there, hang it all on the line, make himself vulnerable and make what feels like totally unhampered, unreserved work. Guston was one of the best to do this.

“The Golden Age”

Joan Brown at Matthew Marks Gallery, NY, NY

Joan Brown is another artist willing to pursue an unreserved path who made work that was absolutely “dumb”. (I use the word dumb here to refer to the ultimate compliment given by California Funk movement artists; usually describing irreverent, raw, and anti-commercial aesthetics). Brown worked in the California Bay Area and is known for her deeply personal, vibrant, and whimsical style; which often blended autobiography with spiritual, mythological, and metaphysical themes. I loved this cat room temple sculpture installation which you could actually enter and spend time in.

Mark Manders

Tanya Bonakdar, NY, NY

Doubling down on sculptural installations was Mark Mander’s show at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. The show had a range of monumental heads, life size torsos, and smaller fragments of figures mixed with abstract elements. The works feel like they come from antiquity, fragments of ancient Greek temples. The sculptures have a strong sense of material, even if it is unclear what material is used. The sensibility seems to convey time, fragility, and all the tropes about earth. Knowing these works are not ancient leave us to believe that they are characters or objects in the artists fictional world building.

“Early Sculpture 1947-1956”

Hans Josephsohn at Skarstedt Gallery, NY, NY

Hans Josephsohn, was another artist who spent most of his career making rough and raw figurative sculpture. He also focused on sculpture with a strong sense of material, time, and a leaning towards antiquity. He was a prominent Swiss sculptor, but received very little recognition for his work outside Switzerland until very late in his life. Josephsohn’s sculptures are unrefined, bulky, and massive. He was less interested in capturing naturalism, his work was exaggerated, blocky, and minimal depictions of the human body.

“Leon Kossoff”

Luhring Augustine Gallery NY, NY

A contemporary of Josephsohn, although I have no idea if they knew each other, who also worked mostly the human form as subject, is painter Leon Kossoff. His works are also comprised of dense materiality and raw gestures and marks. Kossoff, was a leading figure of postwar British art. He was one of the principal painters who were part of the “School of London” along with close friends: Lucien Freud, Frank Auerbach, and Francis Bacon. They all believed that painting reflected some of the most profound experiences of contemporary life.

“Seal My Ears Shut and I Shall Hear You Still”

Anselm Kiefer at Gagosian, NY, NY

Kiefer like Kossoff believed that art and painting can reflect some of the most profound experiences of contemporary life. And we see it here in this exhibition of a group of new paintings. These specific paintings explore the feminine archetype and landscape as symbolic form. The paintings are full of symbolism, allegory, and mythology. The title of the show comes from the poet Rilke, who was on a contemplative search for spiritual understanding. I think these paintings do a good job of pursuing the same path in a visual form.

“Landschaften”

Gerhard Richter at David Zwirner, NY, NY

Is there be a better place for the quest for spiritual understanding to arrive at then between sea and sky? In this show of Gerhard Richter we see paintings spanning 4 decades, several works from each of the artists main series: photo paintings, photorealist landscapes, and abstract paintings. This is an exhibition of paintings by an artist that many consider to be one of the best living painters. It’s a beautiful show, radical in some ways, quiet and poetic in most ways.

“Heirloom”

Kelly Akashi at Lisson Gallery, NY, NY

Wrapping up the shows in Chelsea with some more minimal poetry I saw Kelly Akashi’s show at Lisson. The body of work in this exhibition was made after Akashi’s home and studio were destroyed during the LA fires. The act of care is central to this exhibition. Bronze cast hands and flowers and saplings from the site of her home become relics and resilient markers of home and care. These sculptures are objects of preservation, memorializing and endurance.

Tony Oursler at The Campus, Hudson, NY

Matthew Monahan at The Campus, Hudson, NY

Francis Upritchard at The Campus, Hudson, NY

Oliver Lee Jackson at The Campus, Hudson, NY

Pace Taylor at The Campus, Hudson, NY