New York in 4 Exhibitions

Paris-New York: A 7hour 52minute flight, 6 hours of jetlag or a 5 minute read in order to be up to date on what’s happening in the art world in the Big Apple.

Only a few days left:

Louise Nedelson’s work is disconcerting; not only are her mural sculptures topical but so also is the story they tell. The Russian artist who came to the United States in 1924 never lost her habit of picking up bits of wood and other recuperated objects which she would then place in wooden boxes and paint both in the same colour.  Her palette ranges from grey to brown refines her work which surprise by their coherence and the transformation of the constituent elements into nobles materials. The Pace Gallery is now exhibiting works, termed “environments” which are even more remarkable. The mural works are more destructured than usual and other more conservative works resemble trichromatic abstract paintings bearing witness to the rigor the artist has always displayed in her art. Contemplating these elegant wooden elements we can see the young Russian immigrant, her characteristic scarf tied around her hair become Diego Rivera’s assistant in the making of the Rockfeller Centre frescoe and then go on to become one of the most well known artists influenced by Cubism, and to become herself a source of inspiration for conceptual artists  but also for those in the feminist movement.

Louise Nevelson /Collage and Assemblage

Pace Gallery

534 West 25th Street

New York NY 10001

24 January – 28 February 2015

Just opening :

Larry Gagosian has done it once again with the opening, in two of his New York spaces, of an exhibition devoted to artists’ studios. To a certain degree this theme has been abandoned by art history experts however remains essential as the studio is where creativity is born and matures. It is where the artist exercises his art and studies. The studio also represents a private space. Drawing, photographing and painting one’s creative space allows the artist to express their personality, to reveal and share a little of their soul. Today the gallery allows us to access these private spaces. Each work presented is of exceptional quality: Picasso, Motherwell, Rauschenberg, Diebenkorn, but also Chardin, Daumier, Ensor and  Rivera. Moving from room to room we encounter new atmospheres: the fantasy of a painter at the height of his creativity (Jacek Malczewski, Melancholia, 1890-94), details of a sink (Lucian Freud, Two Japanese Wrestlers by a sink, 1983-87), and a wall of inspiration (Robert Rauschenberg
, Small Rebus, 1956),

In the Studio: Paintings

Gagosian Gallery

West 21^st Street, New York

17th February – 18th April 2015

Don’t miss :

Who has never seen Ron Arad’s famous BookWorm bookshelf? The Israeli artist is well-known for his designer objects at the boundaries of contemporary art but he is less well-known for his art work. However, we are not surprised that ‘In Reverse’, the exhibition of his works at the Paul Kasmin gallery astounds passers-by in Chelsea: Seven old Fiat 500s have been compressed and hung on the walls of  the gallery resembling a collection of pressed flowers in a herbarium. Somewhere in between 2D and 3D we apprehend the cars totally. Ron Arad’s show is a remarkable feat, simple, modest but nevertheless magnificent.

At the back of the gallery, don’t miss a fascinating digital video showing one of the cars being compressed. Vintage meets digital!

Ron Arad, In Reverse

Paul Kasmin Gallery

515 West 27th Street, New York

12^th  February – 14^th March 2015

Favourite art work

Analia Saban has astonished art amateurs and collectors now for several years. She won the Rubin Prize in 2012 where she was noticed for her experimental work on medium and also in photography and painting. However let’s take a look at one particular work which deserves closer attention: Draped Marble. This is sheets of marble  draped over wooden trestles. The marble appears so fluid one imagines bed sheets hanging  on the wooden structures. This contradiction between the rigidity of the material and its malleability is disconcerting. The transmutation of the stone into fabric is even more pertinent in that it represents the artist’s experimentation with the material to uncover what the marble stone is intrinsically, and thus what sculpture itself is.

Analia Saban : Backyard

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

521 West 21st Street New York

19th February – 21st March 2015