012 Xiao Wang
Vasectomies, Outsider Art Fair, Mickalene Thomas prints
But first
It’s still winter, but not for long. A couple of warm days, just enough to really disappoint when those inevitable cold days return. The time has changed, which means we are one step closer to glorious summer. I’ve mostly been huddling indoors, rush finishing stream of consciousness books for book clubs and watching lots of movies (movie recap issue forthcoming).
Saw Panda Bear at Terminal 5 a few weeks ago.1 He has a band now! The last time I saw him he was just one man behind a bunch of knobs and buttons. The new album is good! Finally got to Foul Witch with some friends, quite good! A return to Rucola on a rainy Wednesday, the best weather to get a table at a place that doesn’t take reservations. I tried to go see The Clock at Moma2 but it was sold out for the day. I hadn’t been to MoMA since they’d opened the new section and it felt a little all over the place. I found the Robert Frank videos, which are essentially home movies, very charming and actually reminded me a little bit of Sam Youkilis’ work. Returned to Brandy Library. I love the whole pomp and circumstance of this place. Plus a truly random assortment of humans. An impossible to peruse booze list. Round middle aged pretentious men making recos with bombastic certainty. Absolutely perfect for the location. I just tell them to bring me something weird and it’s great every time. The art scene is warming up for spring and it felt good to get back out there! Let’s get into it.
Xiao Wang
I was immediately impressed with Xiao Wang’s work as soon as I walked into Hesse Flatow. Gorgeous, vibrant, lush, glossy, polished, cinematic paintings. A palette of rich blues and cyans, reds and oranges throughout. Repeated use of reflections, mirrors and windows. All of these elements come together in the dynamic centerpiece painting, Seeing Through, a panorama of a vibrant evening in a bar. I loved the still lives as much as the portraits with their fruits and vessels and frogs of good fortune near dusky blue windows. This show has some of the most beautifully rendered grapes I’ve ever seen. I read in an interview that he focuses on a lot of contrast in his work, including the contrast between “the clarity of the imagery and the ambiguity of the narratives.” I found this to so accurately describes his work, ambiguous, but intimate.
Born in China in 1990, Xiao is currently living and working in Brooklyn. He builds a lot of his imagery through photographs he collages digitally. Going back through his Instagram I realized I’ve seen his work a few times over the years and really really like where he’s landed in this moment. Very excited to see what’s next from him. Up through March 15th. He has a lovely print from 2022 still available at Art for Change if you need something of his immediately.
Outsider Art Fair
I’ve somehow always missed the Outsider Art Fair in past years. I don’t care at all from what path artists find their way into the art world, and so love, in theory, the idea of the outsider art fair. But the actual selection of work I found to lean a little cartoony or a lot of earth tones, both of which are road blocks for me. But there were a few things I really liked.
J. Theodore “Ted” Diamond at Dutton - Very little info on him online. Spent most of his life in a physiatrics ward after a brief stint in art school in Boston before taking his own life at 47 in 1986. The works were collected from the hospital by a friend and weren’t shown until 2018 and again now. Beautiful, moving portraits, really lovely. An artist unappreciated in his time, getting some flowers finally. Small (quite small, 4-8in mostly) but possible at 2-4k.
C. J. Pyle at Hughes at Olsen - Some of the best work there. Strange, interesting and beautifully executed. I love these organic shapes via pen, ink, colored pencil. 12 x 12in
Other shows seen
Claire Sherman at DC Moore Gallery3 - I’ve loved her work for a really long time. She just paints stone better than anyone else. I’m obsessed with her cave paintings and there are so many beautiful ones in this show. If I ever have a space where there is a full wall that needs a painting, I would want it to be one of Claire Sherman’s. Up through March 29th.
Laura Owens at Matthew Marks Gallery - This was a really fun and surprising show. Owens is creating pieces specific to the space. Floor to ceiling, entire room pieces, painting (what looks like) directly on the wall at times. It’s really playful, there are little wall pieces that open and close at random, and secret rooms. Beautifully executed. Layer upon layer of screen printing and painting on panels. I don’t know much about this artist, but I spent a lot of time in this space, just wandering around and discovering new elements. Do not miss this one. Up through April 19th.
Julie Beaufils at Matthew Brown - The smalls are particularly good in this show. These two blue boys in particular really got me. Up through March 15th.
Alfie Caine at Margot Samel - Really, really interesting color palettes, perfect choices.4 The artist’s first solo exhibition in the US, and he’s coming in hot with a sold out show. Up through March 15th.
Greg Chann at Katheryn Markel Fine Arts - I really love these small table top pieces. They just glow, and the way color shifts as you move around them is really interesting. They’re quite small, perfect for any NYC apartment. Reasonable not only in size, but in price at 2.5k.
Mickalene Thomas prints with Avant Arte
This is a great set of four prints from Mickalene Thomas, selected from a wide range of her work over the years. There’s an in depth video of her discussing the different pieces and techniques they are using in each of the prints. From glitter to embossing, and watching the video, there are some techniques I can’t even identify. A really special set ranging from $744-$876 unframed each. This is a really good price for a work from this blockbuster artist and it sounds like they put a lot of care and consideration into making the prints a unique expansion on the original paintings. Grab one here during the 48 hour limited release starting at 1pm EST March 18th.
Art elsewhere
There are so many good shows that aren’t in New York right now!
LA is so lucky, they get new Claire Tabouret work up at Night Gallery.5 One of my all time favorites. I’m devastated I’m missing this one. Up through March 29th. If you’re there, please go see it for me.
Lobster Club LA has an absolute banger of a group show up right now. Schedule a time to go see it. Up though May 25th.
Sam Youkilis has his first solo exhibition! And it’s video!6 It looks absolutely gorgeous. At C/O Berlin, up through May 7th. He still has prints available and is on the 2nd edition of his book. You can pick up either or both of those over at Loose Joints.
Aaron Stern curated a show in Mexico City, Polaroids, Small Prints & Ephemera, at Anent Gallery up through March 15th. Aaron has several books available at Artbook. LA edition of Hard Copy zine here.
An exhibition of photographs from The Face Magazine are up in London at the National Portrait Gallery featuring work from one of my other all time favorites, Luis Sanchis. Trying to find any reason at all to be in London before it closes on May 18th.
Kyle Dunn has a show of new work up at Vielmetter in LA and I wish I could be there to see this one too, it looks incredible. Up through March 29th.
Books
On the Calculation of Volume 1 by Solvej Balle
It’s interesting to be encountering these books as I just finished reading Middlemarch and am currently reading Anna Karenina, which were both split into eight books and serialized for their original release. And here we get a modern serialized novel. I’ve learned to appreciate the distance vs the binge for the consumption of some material.7 And I’m excited to have the anticipation of these books over the upcoming years.
I read the first volume in a day and went back to the book store the next day to get the second one. It’s essentially a Groundhog Day story, where Tara Selter is suddenly living November 18th over and over again. And we live through the first year with her, moving back and forth through the earlier and later days, always November 18th. The book is quiet and slow and subtle and the magical realism of this time warp quickly falls to the background. It is bleak at times, but still light and a pleasure to read. In Volume 1 the character and reader figure out the rules for this universe. Starting the second volume now.
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
This book is the opposite. Dark, heavy and not for the sensitive of spirt. A woman is found dead, she is called The Witch. The following chapters recount the events sounding the murder from a different character’s point of view over seven paragraphs and sentences that can last pages. I couldn’t read this one at the coffee shop, or on the subway. I had to be sitting down at home and hyper focused. Important details are told once and often as a slight of hand in a sentence about something else entirely. Melchor has been called the female Cormac McCarthy and I don’t think even that will fully prepare you for what happens in this book. But it is absolutely worth reading, the language is beautiful and there is humanity even amongst the worst of it. A portrait of a poverty stricken community in Mexico, deeply imbued with machismo and misogyny, dripping in shame.
Lastly
Guys, we have to talk about vasectomies. I keep hearing people in interviews and articles saying things like, “All men should get a vasectomy at 13 and get it reversed when they want to have children.” I’m not going to reach out to these people with an “Actually…” email, but I will say it here - Actually, no no no!
I, like nearly everyone else, thought that vasectomies were reversible until friends of mine started getting them in recent years. Technically, you can get them reversed, but it isn’t covered by insurance, you need to find a specialist and it can cost you up to $20,000 (not to mention that its a painful few days of recovery). On top of that, more importantly, your ability to reproduce after the reversal is severely reduced. My friend’s doctor gave about a 20% chance of being able to have children, if he were to reduce it. I’ve seen numbers online that are more like 50%, but even if that’s the case, this is hardly conducive to flipping back and forth. Doctors treat this as a one way procedure with a 30 day waiting period after consultation.
I was shocked when I found this out, it feels like common knowledge that you can just turn it on and and off like a switch. I wonder where we all got this idea from??
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Sometimes I post about art on Instagram. Let me know what shows you’ve seen this week that you loved. Until next time.
This was actually the second time we’ve seen Panda Bear on Valentine’s Day.
We have until May 11th to try to see The Clock on a weekday or early on in the day.
Hooooooow how how how are we doing tungsten bulbs in the gallery??
I truly don’t care who makes the work, but I have noticed, for whatever reason, 99 times out of 100 if I really love the color choices, it’s painted by a woman. So I was surprised and delighted when I realized this work was done by a man. Not that it matters at all, just an interesting pattern I keep noticing.
I just did a very deep dive and I can’t believe my eyes. Claire Tabouret has NEVER had a solo show in New York?! This is outrageous. Perrotin! Almine Rech! What are you guys doing?! Now I’m actually questioning if I’ve seen her work in person before… Usually, I have a feeling of anticipation around an artist whose work I’ve never seen in person, an anxiousness to finally see it. But I’ve been a fan of her work for so long, I think I’ve surpassed that emotion. (?!) This is unsettling. There are a couple of group shows I could have seen her work in, but off top I can’t say for certain. Regardless, the lack of a solo in New York at this point is ludicrous. This woman is doing the stained glass for the Notre Dame Cathedral for christ’s sake!
Let the record state, this is the only time I’ve ever been excited for a video exhibition.
I was just starting to date H when the last season of Game of Thrones was coming out. He watched it with a group of friends every week. I had never seen it and so I watched the entire series in a couple of months to catch up and watch the last episodes with them. I can’t remember a single character’s name, and very few plot lines. It is disturbing to me the hours spent watching this show, entire days of watching GoT, versus what I remember of it. It was then that I realized - ohhh it’s the time between things, the reflection, the conversation, that helps you to remember them.