Summer Art Exhibitions From Around the Globe, 2014

What may come as unexpected news; August is not a static month for contemporary art. Throughout the world, it’s a time for travel, relaxation, and sipping the nectar of life. For those of you venturing into unknown or even familiar territory with an interest in looking at contemporary art, we have compiled a list of exhibitions that are worth checking out, whether in your own backyard or summer destination. Art is both a pastime and a profession, pleasure and obsession. Not many practices can be viewed in the same way. So if you find yourself off the beaten path, contemplating a particular shade of aubergine in a landscape, attempting to decipher a conceptual installation, or taking a selfie in the reflective surface of a framed drawing, this is an ideal time to pause and think about the creative process. Observation is a daily activity that will occur without conscious effort. However, conscious effort is required to process what has been observed and rationalize, dismiss or debate. An object or surface that has been declared to be art, allows for these moments whether brief or extended. It may be that in the hustle and bustle of a daily routine, this energy required for visual and sensory absorption can not be accessed. Vacation and quiet time are often closely related and it is in this moment that we invite you to take in the unexpected, discover beauty in the abject and compare what you are seeing now with that painting, sculpture or installation you saw ten years ago. They may or may not be related and movement can allow for visual, physical and cognitive freedom.

Constantin Hartenstein, PROTO, Salon Kennedy, Frankfurt, Germany. PROTO is on view from July 28th through August 24th, 2014.

Constantin Hartenstein’s exhibition PROTO examines the concept of landscape and the visual disparities between real, imagined and virtual. In comparing the rapid information of tourists snapping photographs in Times Square to the images we are often bombarded with via the internet, side bar advertising, pop-up windows, etc. Two different works are included in the exhibition including KEYSTONE and SQUARE, the latter of the two, is being debuted. From the gallery website:

Premiering at Salon Kennedy, SQUARE captures the omnipresence of the screen as a means of power within the public realm. Filmed at Times Square in New York City, the documentary material is layered with manipulated visual and audio fragments that highlight the architecture of the exhibition space. The projection impinges upon a sculptural installation of transparent acrylic glass, resulting in a negation of the rigid, rectangular screen, and encouraging its decomposition into multiple alternating structures.

Constantin Hartenstein, Work from PROTO, Salon Kennedy, Frankfurt
Image courtesy of the artist and the gallery, 2014

Constantin Hartenstein, PROTO, Installation view, Salon Kennedy, Frankfurt
Image courtesy of the gallery, 2014

Rene Ricard, REMEMBER, at Half Gallery, NY, August 5th through September 8th, 2014.

Artist and longtime New York City resident Rene Ricard passed away in February 2014. In REMEMBER, the Half Gallery presents a series of paintings many with his signature script text hand painted on the surface of the canvas. Ricard had a way of merging his poetry with paint that somehow never interfered with a fine equilibrium between the reading of shapes and forms along with words; both are very much about paint. One particularly poignant piece in the exhibition to be shown after the artist’s death, is a work containing the text:

When I died, a glorious light, beckoned me, I could go or stay, I chose the light, It was the devil. ~Rene Ricard

Rene Ricard, Two works from REMEMBER, Half Gallery, NY, 2014
Images courtesy of Half Gallery

Rachel de Joode, The Matter Of It Being A Stone, SWG3 Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland. Unfortunately, this exhibition closed and was on view from June 28th through July 19th, 2014. I had to post images however because the work is a magical illusion and alluding to the past and the art historical practice of sculpture, the pedestal (offering content in a human scale), and representation while still categorically flirting with the definition of the New Abstractionists. De Joode is a master at contemporary trompe l’oeil.

Rachel de Joode, Installation view, The Matter Of It Being A Stone, SWG3 Gallery, Glasgow
Image courtesy of the gallery, 2014

Rachel de Joode, Installation view, The Matter Of It Being A Stone, SWG3 Gallery, Glasgow
Image courtesy of the gallery, 2014

Jason Gringler, Labor at Steven Turner Gallery, Los Angeles on view July 12th through August 23rd, 2014.

In his first solo exhibition with Steve Turner Gallery in LA, Jason Gringler has four mixed media works on view demonstrating, as the title suggests, the fruits of his Labor. The paintings, extremely laborious and time-consuming have been stripped down in their visual complexity, but still carry the burden of the materials used. Working with steel, glass, mesh, acrylic, spray paint epoxy and aluminum tape, the works are like most painting, meant to be appreciated from both near and afar. It is in an up close inspection however, that allows for a deeper understanding of the complexity of the layering process. Not only will the visitor have the opportunity to  examine the various materials encased in handmade frames, but also have the chance to see his or her own distorted reflection in the work, whether purposeful or not, participatory.

Jason Gringler, Labor, Installation view, Photograph courtesy of the gallery, LA

 Made in LA at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles is on view until September 7th, 2014.

The Hammer Museum in LA has, like many museums, a biennial. Appropriately titled Made in LA the exhibition focuses on 35 Los Angeles based artists. The exhibition brings together not only those working 2-Dimensionally, but also performance artists along with many exhibition related panel discussions. Curated by chief curator Connie Butler and independent curator Michael Ned Holte, the exhibition promises to put its finger on the steady pulse of the contemporary art scene in LA bringing together a diverse group of artists working in variant media.

Made In LA, Installation view at the Hammer Museum, Photograph by Brian Forrest, 2014

Made in LA, Installation view at the Hammer Museum, Photograph by Brian Forrest, 2014

Spectrum, A project by Nathan Coutts and co-organized with Keith J. Varadi, Minneapolis. The exhibition is taking place for the duration of the summer months and presents a selection of video work shown on televisions in the window of Saint Vincent de Paul Thrift Store. Screenings start at dusk and rather than have a static approach the programming has been changing throughout. In June 2014, Varadi, an artist, poet and curator based in LA, stated,

Cast aside, away from the larger lot. Drinking Hamm’s from a can, licking sweet brown paper, thinking about when Nintendo was a luxury. Why do passing decades force most people to only consider crossing things off or crossing things out?

Corner store. Consignment store. Consigned corners.

Hand-me-down hoodies and ski masks conceal current states of mind, states of matter, matters of fact. As a matter of fact: What happened yesterday? What happened ten years ago? Never mind that. Think about the future. Short-term for the long-term? That’s practical. Long-term for the short-term? That’s sensible. Standstill for the time being? That’s diplomacy. Disregard until the afterlife? That’s religion.

Year of the Pig. Year of the Cow. Year of the Now.

You never know your value until you leave your home. Take wild rice, for example. It feels common and comfortable in affordable Northern bowls. But if it were to go on vacation to one of the coasts, it would likely need to be purchased in pounds with the Euro.

Race for a cure. Race for a riot. Riot for a cure.

“Hey, do you think the RZA is into Nam June Paik? Do you think Nam June Paik read Philip K. Dick? Do you think PKD was a fan of Mother Teresa? Of course, he was…she was a misogynist.”

Cory Arcangel and Frankie Martin, private_eyes.mid, 2004, Image courtesy of Spectrum, 2014

Frankie Martin, Color Party, 2012, Video still, Image courtesy of Spectrum, 2014

Cao Guo-Qiang with Moving Ghost Town at the Aspen Art Museum, in Aspen. This exhibition opened August 9th and will be on view until October 5th, 2014.

Already having caused a bit of controversy, artist Cai Guo-Qiang has brought three African Sultata Tortoises to the grounds of the museum. Each tortoise, carries an iPad on it’s back with video footage of local ghost towns. In honor of the commemoration of the new museum building, the tortoises are present in the grassy roof garden. The tortoises were allowed to wander through the ghost towns and in doing so, filmed the experience from their point of view. Even under the supervision of veterinarian’s the artwork has caused quite a stir since the turtles are unnaturally carrying the weight of the iPad and the apparatus on their backs. The artist has employed a silicone material that is also used to attach tracking devices to turtles in the wild. If you have the urge to vicariously visit a ghost town from the perspective of a turtle, then get to the museum! I have a feeling that it might close earlier than the scheduled date.

Cai Guo-Qiang, Moving Ghost Town, Installation view, Aspen Art Museum, 2014

Juergen Teller, MACHO, at the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens, on view until October 29th, 2014.

For his exhibition at the DESTE Foundation in Athens, photographer Juergen Teller brings together a series of photographs that document and explore the perception of masculinity. With images that range from a man lying seductively on a couch, a hint of pubic hair peeking out from his unbuttoned white jeans, to a shirtless bloke, passed out, mouth agape in a plate of half eaten sausage, the head of the pig nearby. Using a 35 mm camera, Teller takes clean and visually appealing photos, even when the subject might be somewhat less than. There is an innate provocation in his work that seems to stem from the subjects themselves, sweaty yet sexy. Having shot ad campaigns for Marc Jacobs, this body of work is not editorial and while aesthetically similar to what one might find on the glossy pages of a magazine, the inexplicable randomness allows for one to disengage from an otherwise familiar narrative.

Juergen Teller, Betriebsausflug, Frankfurt, 2013
Image courtesy of Juergen Teller, 2014

Happy travels!

More soon

xo