Jessica Stockholder. “Story of Angle #3,” 2013. Graphite and colored pencil on paper. 11 x 14 in. Courtesy the artist and Barbara Edwards Contemporary.

In this week’s roundup Jessica Stockholder explores drawing in multiple dimensions, Richard Serra presents early experiments with nontraditional materials, James Turrell delves into light, and much more.

• Jessica Stockholder has a solo exhibition at Barbara Edwards Contemporary (Toronto, Ontario). Jessica Stockholder explores the realm of two-dimensional composition and three-dimensional space, through the layering of color, found object and text. In the drawings included in this exhibition, the artist develops her own hieroglyph as a way of reading images. The show runs through June 8.

• Mika Rottenberg‘s new exhibition Sneeze to Squeeze features a series of works that together reveal an imaginative world full of surreal scenarios and claustrophobic settings. The exhibition is view at at Magasin 3 (Stockholm, Sweden) through June 2.

• Mike Kelley: Eternity is a Long Time is on view at HangarBicocca (Milan, Italy). The exhibition features Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #1 (A Domestic Scene) and Runway for Interactive DJ Event, two installations that constitute a fundamental turning point in Kelley‘s research, and the dawn of what was to be the late artists’s most prolific creative period. The show closes August 9.

• I, YOU, WE is at the Whitney Museum of Art (New York, NY) with works by Catherine Opie, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, and Carrie Mae Weems, among others. The exhibition, drawn from the museum’s collection of works made in the eighties and early nineties, is on view through September 1.

• Richard Serra: Early Work is up at David Zwirner (New York, NY). Dating from 1966 to 1971, the works on view, drawn from museum and private collections, represent the beginning of Serra‘s experiments with nontraditional materials, such as vulcanized rubber, neon, lead, and steel. Also featured is a program of the artist’s films from the same period. The exhibition runs through June 15.

• Laurie Anderson’s From the Air is at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (Ann Arbor, MI). The installation consists of a clay sculpture with projected video that features a miniature version of Laurie Anderson telling a story, seated with her dog, Lolabelle. The exhibition builds from Lolabelle’s realization during a walk to the beach that she is prey for a group of turkey vultures. The work is on view through August 11.

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Mansai Nomura and Hiroshi Sugimoto. “SANBASO, Divine Dance,” 2013. Courtesy Japan Society and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

In this week’s roundup, Hiroshi Sugimoto presents film and performance, Carrie Mae Weems explores feminism’s evolution, James Turrell kicks off a series of exhibitions, and much more.

• Memories of Origin—Hiroshi Sugimoto (はじまりの記憶 杉本博司)—a new film chronicling Hiroshi Sugimoto‘s travels across the globe for 200 days, creating artwork in Australia, France, Japan, New York, and other locations—will screen at Japan Society (NYC) on March 26 at 7pm. The artist will participate in a Q&A session following the film.

• Sugimoto‘s Memories of Origin is being screened in conjunction with SANBASO, Divine Dance–Mansai Nomura + Hiroshi Sugimoto, a site-specific performance at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (NYC). SANBASO stars Kyogen actor Mansai Nomura and features a stage set and costumes designed by Sugimoto using techniques developed through his Lightning Fields series. The performances will take place in the museum’s rotunda on March 28 at 2pm and 8pm, and March 29 at 8pm.

• LaToya Ruby Frazier: A Haunted Capital is on view at the Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, NY). Through  approximately 40 photographic works, the exhibition looks at how Frazier uses social documentary and portraiture to create a personal visual history of an industrial town’s decline, and offers an intimate exploration of the effects of deindustrialization on the lives of individuals and communities. On view through August 11.

• James Turrell: Roden Crater and Autonomous Structures is now on view at Pace Gallery (NYC). The display is in anticipation of an upcoming exhibition of Turrell‘s work that will be presented concurrently at the Guggenheim, New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Roden Crater and Autonomous Structures is on view through April 20.

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William Kentridge. “Untitled (You Are Lying),” 2010. Courtesy the artist and Volte Gallery, Mumbai.

In this week’s roundup, a one-day conference is devoted to the work of Yinka Shonibare MBE, William Kentridge shows work in Mumbai, Shana Moulton presents magic realism, and much more.

• William Kentridge‘s first solo show in Mumbai is now on view at Volte Gallery. Poems I Used to Know is comprised of large Indian ink drawings on found book pages, a film installation, flip book films, tapestry, sculpture, etchings, and photogravures. The show closes March 20. Volte has made a video of the installation:

• Shana Moulton and several internationally acclaimed contemporary artists are presenting their work at Indiana State University’s University Art Gallery (Terre Haute, IN). Lies that Tell the Truth: Magic Realism in Contemporary Art features paintings, photographs, etchings, drawings, and video that explore magic realism–a mode in literature and the visual arts that mixes representational forms with elements of fantasy. The exhibition is on view through March 22.

• LaToya Ruby Frazier will lecture at The Nelson-Atkins Museum (Kansas City, MO) on March 1 at 6pm. The artist will discuss her use of social documentary and portraiture to create a personal visual history of the decline of her hometown, Braddock, Pennsylvania. Through photographs of her family and Braddock itself, Frazier offers an intimate exploration of the effects of deindustrialization.

• Yinka Shonibare MBE: Fabric-ation opens March 3 at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (Wakefield, UK). The show will spread across three of YSP’s indoor galleries and open air space, and feature over 30 works made by Shonibare between 2002–2013. Many of these works have never before been shown in the UK. Accompanying the exhibition is a one-day conference, Yinka Shonibare MBE: Material Positions, which aims to explore the history and development of Shonibare’s work in the British context since the mid 1990s, and to examine its position within the global culture of contemporary art today. Organized by the University of Huddersfield, they have posted a call for papers with a deadline of April 15. The exhibition will run through September 1.

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Mika Rottenberg. “Felicia from Tropical Breeze,” 2004. Courtesy the artist and Magasin 3, Stockholm.

In this week’s roundup, the Empire State travels to Rome with works by LaToya Ruby Frazier and Jeff Koons, Pierre Huyghe wins the Haftmann Prize, Laylah Ali’s Greenheads meet up in Minneapolis, several artists lecture about their work, and more.

• Shahzia Sikander ‘Parallax’ opens this week at Pilar Corrias Gallery (London). This is Sikander‘s second solo show with Pilar. The installation includes a new three-channel animation that will also be shown at the Sharjah Biennial in March 2013. Accompanying the animation are four large scale drawings and four smaller works on paper. On February 20, the gallery will present Writing with Drawing, a public conversation between the artist and Kate Macfarlane. Please RSVP as space is limited. The exhibition runs February 22–March 13.

• Maya Lin will give a talk at the Phoenix Art Museum (Arizona) as part of Contemporary Forum’s monthly lecture program, organized by the museum’s Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Sara Cochran. According to Cochran, it has been a priority of the museum to bring Lin to Phoenix. The event takes place on February 20.

• Laylah Ali: The Greenheads Series is now on view at the Weisman Art Museum (Minneapolis, MN). This is the first time the Greenheads series, created between 1996 and 2005, is being shown as a comprehensive body of work. Of the more than eighty gouache paintings in Ali‘s series, the exhibition presents forty-three that have been gathered from various collections. The show runs through May 12.

• Arturo Herrera has a new show opening this week at Linda Pace Foundation (San Antonio, TX). Arturo Herrera will feature works from the Foundation’s collection, and more recent works by the artist on loan from Sikkema Jenkins & Co. On February 21 at 6pm, the Foundation will present a conversation between Herrera and Artpace Executive Director Amada Cruz. The exhibition runs February 22–September 6.

• Pierre Huyghe has won this year’s Roswitha Haftmann Prize. Prizewinners are selected solely on the basis of the artistic significance and “outstanding quality” of their work, without regard to their personal circumstances (nationality, age, gender, etc). Huyghe will be fêted at an award ceremony at the Kunsthaus Zurich in May. Cindy Sherman was winner of last year’s Haftmann Prize.

• LaToya Ruby Frazier and Jeff Koons will exhibit work at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome) in the group exhibition Empire State, which explores how artists have reimagined urban life in New York City. Bringing together an intergenerational group of artists from the city’s five boroughs and suburban and exurban regions, some works on view are meditations on the city as a means of distributing power. The show runs April 23–July 21.

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John Baldessari. “Learn to Dream,” 2013. Courtesy of Arts Matter and the Los Angeles Fund for Public Education. Photo by Victor Treato.

In this week’s roundup, John Baldessari’s artwork covers L.A. buses; Kara Walker, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Carrie Mae Weems, and Mark Bradford say it loud in West Palm Beach, and lots more.

• John Baldessari‘s artwork now wraps around twelve metro buses in Los Angeles that have been redesigned to look like traditional yellow school buses. One side bears Baldessari’s saying “Learn to dream.” The other side bear the phrase in Spanish, “Aprende a soñar.” This public installation is part of the Arts Matter campaign for the nonprofit Los Angeles Fund for Public Education.

• Nancy Spero‘s work is on view at Galerie Lelong (NYC). From Victimage to Liberation: Works from the 1980s & 1990s is the first solo presentation of Spero’s work in New York since her death in 2009. It features female figures that run, dance, crawl, tumble, and strut across the gallery space. The exhibition runs through February 16.

• Kiki Smith will be the featured speaker at the annual Nasher Lecture Series presented by the University of North Texas College of Visual Arts and Design. The lecture will take place January 29 at 7:00 pm. A limited number of tickets are available.

• Kiki Smith and Dr. Alexander Nagel of the Institute of Fine Arts will engage in conversation about the medieval manuscripts in Crossing Borders: Manuscripts from the Bodleian Libraries, on view at The Jewish Museum (NYC). Smith and Nagel will use their individual artistic and research practices to frame the discussion. The event will take place January 17 at 6:30 pm. Tickets to the event are free with museum admission.

• Kara Walker, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Carrie Mae Weems, and Mark Bradford have work in a group exhibition at the Norton Museum of Art (West Palm Beach, FL). Say it Loud!: Art by African and African-American Artists in the Collection features paintings, sculpture, photographs and works on paper by artists who either reside in Africa or are of African descent. All works are held in the museum’s collection, and span the 20th and 21st centuries. The show runs through March 3.

• Roni Horn‘s work is on view in Gespräche über persönliche Themen: Miroslaw Balka and Roni Horn (“Conversations About Private Themes”) at Galleria Raffaella Cortese (Milan, Italy). The double solo show features sculptures and portraits by the two women. Set up in the same room, they collide in an uncomfortable tête-à-tête. The show closes February 9.

• Louise Bourgeois, Mike Kelley, Marina Abramovic, Matthew Barney, and Paul McCarthy (among other artists) have work on view at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh, Scotland). From Death to Death and Other Small Tales: Masterpieces from the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the D. Daskalopoulos Collection includes many objects that have never before been seen in Scotland. The show explores the diverse ways in which 20th and 21st-century artists have approached the subject of the body. The exhibition runs through September 8.

• The Louise Bourgeois Church was commissioned in 1994 but remains a little-known pilgrimage site for lovers of the late French-American artist. Located at Couvent d’Ô (Bonnieux, France), the church houses a series of sculptures that Louise Bourgeois created specifically for that space.

• Hiroshi Sugimoto has designed Christie’s new Tokyo office. The space was unveiled in December 2012 with an exhibition of selected works by Japanese contemporary artists, as well as ancient and contemporary pieces from Sugimoto’s personal collection. In his spatial concept, Sugimoto has maintained the architectural details of the original structure and incorporated new wood and metal elements into the design.

• David Altmejd is one of the many artists included in the National Gallery of Canada’s Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012. Presented here are more than 100 recent and significant acquisitions by emerging and established artists who have been instrumental in shaping perspectives in Canadian art today. Builders is on view through February 18.

• Trenton Doyle Hancock‘s work will soon be on view at the Columbus College of Art and Design in the Canzani Center Gallery (Columbus, OH). The exhibition will run from February 4 – March 14.

Ann Hamilton. “the event of a thread,” 2012. Photo by Steven Kest. Courtesy of Kemi Ilesanmi.

In this week’s roundup Ann Hamilton invites visitors to swing, William Kentridge mentors, Nancy Spero is featured in an upcoming show and more.

• Ann Hamilton’s new large-scale installation is on view at the Park Avenue Armory (NYC). the event of a thread references the building’s architecture, as well as the individual encounters and congregational gatherings that have animated its rich social history. The work draws together readings, sound, and live events within a field of swings that together invite visitors to connect to the action of each other and the work itself, illuminating the experience of the singular and collective body. The show closes January 6, 2013.

• Martin Puryear and several African-American printmakers have work on view at Nazareth College’s Arts Center Gallery (Rochester, NY). Contemporary African American Printmakers offers visitors glimpses into the corners of African-American history and life. The show closes December 21.

• Keltie Ferris has work currently on view at Mitchell-Innes & Nash (NYC). Keltie Ferris presents a dozen large-scale paintings made over the past year, using oil, acrylic, and hand-made spray-paint. Ferris’ exuberant paintings draw from a wide and varied vocabulary of marks, gestures, and references. She synthesizes allusions to divergent schools of painting, from pop to abstract expressionism to graffiti. The exhibition runs through January 12, 2013.

• Mike Kelley‘s work is featured at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Mike Kelley brings together almost 200 works, from 1974 until 2012. The exhibition, which encompasses all of the galleries in the museum’s new wing, is largely chronological, beginning with Kelley’s works from the 1970s until his most recent works, including the last work the artist exhibited before his death in 2012. The exhibition runs through April 1, 2013.

• Pierre Huyghe has a film on view at the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa). Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012 showcases over 100 engaging works, including A Journey That Wasn’t by Huyghe. The film merges two fictional events: an Antarctic expedition in search of an albino creature rumored to exist on an uncharted island exposed by receding ice, and a re-enactment of that voyage as an elaborate concert and lightshow in Central Park in October 2005. The show closes February 18, 2013.

• Gabriel Orozco has work in a group show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Lost Line showcases 75 works concerning the topics of environment, landscape and the monumental. The exhibition covers different genres and artistic movements as well as multiple disciplines, from painting and sculpture, through photography, film, installation and engraving. The work is on view through February 24, 2013.

• William Kentridge mentored artist Mateo López in 2012 as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. The program was created to assist extraordinary, rising artists to achieve their full potential. Through a vigorous process, it seeks out artists around the world and brings them together for a year of creative collaboration in a one-to-one mentoring relationship.

• Nancy Spero’s exhibition of female figures that run, dance, crawl, tumble, and strut across the page will soon be on view at Galerie Lelong (NYC). From Victimage to Liberation: Works from the 1980s & 1990s features collaged narratives that show women transformed from historical contexts of suffering and subordination into protagonists in charge of their own destinies. This is the first solo presentation of Spero’s work in New York since her death in 2009. The exhibition will open to the public January 2 – February 16, 2013.

• Yinka Shonibare MBE‘s work will soon be on display at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (Texas). FOCUS: Yinka Shonibare MBE presents Shonibare’s version of historical (often white, European) figures dressed in batik. Shonibare “Africanizes” the subjects, subversively pointing out a multitude of deep-rooted mythologies, falsehoods, and prejudices that complicate dominant narratives of history and identity. The exhibition runs January 13 – March 24, 2013.

Image: newspaper.li

Anyone who knows me often asks about how I coordinate three jobs. I teach two high school classes and serve as department chair in my school district, work as Art21’s education advisor, and teach a class at NYU in the department of Art and Art Professions. This semester I was thrown a little curveball and asked to teach a completely different class at NYU- School Arts: Issues in Pedagogy and Curriculum (Secondary). The course, an intense fourteen weeks where graduate students explore current questions and topics in secondary art education, also has a component where each student takes part in teaching a Saturday course for high school students. This Saturday program, called Visionary Studios (a title I happen to love), asks New York City high school students to sign up for nine weeks of classes around a chosen theme. So, instead of signing up for extra-curricular classes with titles like “Mixed-Media” or “Ceramics” or “Painting”, students this fall are asked to choose from “The Changing City”, “Under Pressure”, “Transformation” or “Soundscapes”. Instead of offering classes that are media-centric, classes are thematic where teenagers can explore the theme through a variety of approaches over nine weeks. Students in the graduate course not only explore current issues in art education and teaching for social justice, but they also plan units of study and individual lessons for these Saturday classes, as well as team-teach every Saturday morning.

It’s a lot of work.

This Saturday is the first session with our high school students and I am excited for the possibilities that exist within the curricula that has been developed so far. Big, and sometimes challenging questions are driving the themes, such as:

• How can art be transformative?
• What role(s) does pressure play in our environment?
• How does sound shape our daily experience?
• What makes a city?

Artists already being considered to inspire students include Ai Wei Wei, Allora and Calzadilla, Cindy Sherman, Do-Ho Suh, El Anatsui, Eleanor Antin, Kerry James Marshall, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Mark Bradford, Mike Kelley and Yinka Shonibare, to name just a few.

Going into the first session this weekend, my student teachers will obviously be thinking about how to get off to a good start. After all, these high school students are coming from all over the city to attend classes on Saturday mornings. One doesn’t need a roadmap to realize that you better have some good stuff to share, otherwise you will be left with dwindling enrollment. Students will simply stop coming if the course isn’t exciting and engaging.

So what does getting off to a good start look and sound like in a situation like this (or, for that matter, in most courses)? It involves students coming in, being warmly welcomed and getting to know who is teaching. It involves students getting to know their classmates a bit and why they have chosen to be there. It involves sharing interests and broad goals for the course. It involves talking about which directions the theme can take. Most importantly it involves building community and trust from the start. Once that gets rolling, students can begin to feel comfortable creating quality work that will address the theme.

I am also excited for the start to our Saturday sessions because the student teachers will be developing curriculum with the students vs. having each and every lesson planned out ahead of time. Student teachers will be asking different kinds of questions to explore how these high school students want to investigate the four themes vs. being told how the themes will be approached. They will even be asked to help form the supply lists for each of the courses instead of having a “set” of supplies to work with from the start.

Wish us luck. More to come.

Kara Walker. "Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta," 2005. Courtesy of Kara Walker and the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

In this week’s roundup Kara Walker sources work from Harper’s, Cindy Sherman arrives in San Francisco, several artists address political and aesthetic urgency in Minneapolis, and more.

• Kara Walker‘s series Works from Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) is featured in the July 2012 issue of Harper’s Magazine. The series, which was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art last spring, consists of fifteen lithographs and prints created using enlargements of woodcut prints from the book. Four images, all named after their source images’ captions, are featured: Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta, Cotton Hoards in Southern Swamp, Occupation of Alexandria, and Pack-Mules in the Mountains.

• Robert Adams and An-My Lê are on the shortlist for Prix Pictet. This international photography competition seeks to promote sustainability, and this year’s theme is power. Portfolios tackle subjects such as Lê’s training maneuvers at a Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center. This work will be part of an exhibition set to open at Saatchi Gallery (London) following the award announcement on October 9.

• Cindy Sherman opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In the exhibition Cindy Sherman draws from many sources and she has produced series of works – consistently untitled – known by nicknames such as “head shots,” “clowns,” “centerfolds” and “society pictures.” In the process, she has taken the artifice of photography to new levels of scale, complexity and intensity. The show closes October 8.

LaToya Ruby Frazier (b. 1982). "Where is Emergency Care for Braddock?," 2010. Gelatin silver print, 16 × 20 in. © LaToya Ruby Frazier; courtesy the artist.

In this week’s roundup LaToya Ruby Frazier curates and demystifies, Ai Weiwei goes worldwide, Andrea Zittel and John Baldessari have “must-click” websites, and more.

• Inheritance: LaToya Ruby Frazier and Tony Buba at the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA) is a curatorial effort by LaToya Ruby Frazier that includes never before seen artwork. With documentary filmmaker Tony Buba the artist spans 20th and 21st century socio-economic change in Braddock PA. This show is on view until May 19.

• LaToya Ruby Frazier‘s work can be found on the 2nd floor of the Whitney Museum (as part of the Biennial) through May 27, and on May 11 she’ll be giving a performance, Demystifying the Myth of the ‘Urban Pioneer.’ She will be joined by filmmaker Tony Buba, artist Martha Rosler, and composer and sound artist Damian Catera for a multimedia exploration of the myth of the “urban pioneer” within her hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania. This event is free with museum admission, which is pay-what-you-wish on Fridays from 6–9 pm; there are no special tickets or reservations.

• LaToya Ruby Frazier was featured on NJTV’s State of the Arts which aired on April 1. Watch a preview of LaToya Ruby Frazier: Politics & Poetics here.

• Ai Weiwei set up a Weiwei cam website a year after police in China locked him up for 81 days, showing feeds from four live webcams in his Beijing home. This is in reference to the 24-hour police surveillance he has been subjected to since his detention and the camera feeds can be viewed by anyone online.

• Beryl Korot is at btforms gallery (NYC) and this is the artist’s first solo exhibition at this venue. Beryl Korot Selected Video Works: 1977 to Present features her landmark video installation Text and Commentary (1977), and the show also includes two of Korot’s more recent investigations into the medium, Florence (2008) and Yellow Water Taxi (2003). The show closes May 5.

Computer rendering for Mystery Circle: Explosion Event for The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2012. Courtesy Cai Studio.

In this week’s roundup, Cai Guo-Qiang plans a close encounter, several artists’ works are best in show at AICA, Jenny Holzer and Kiki Smith are in Fashion Moda, Glenn Ligon’s work is reviewed, and much more.

• Cai Guo-Qiang is planning to have a close encounter of the third kind at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary. For the site-specific Mystery Circle: Explosion Event for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles the artist will set off three stages of explosions to kick-off a show that will continue on a theme he’s been long exploring: the possibility of life in outer space. This event will take place on April 7.

• Sarah Sze, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Lari Pittman, and Ai Weiwei and Glenn Ligon (upcoming Season 6 artists) will receive awards from the Art Critics’ Association (AICA). Sze’s Still Life with Landscape (Model for a Habitat) and Ai’s Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads won Best Project in a Public Space. Ursula von Rydingsvard: Sculpture 1991-2009 won Best Show in a Non-Profit Gallery or Space. Lari Pittman: New Paintings and Orangerie won Best Show in a Commercial Gallery Nationally. Glenn Ligon: AMERICA won Best Monographic Museum Show in New York. Awards will be presented at a ceremony at the Asia Society in NYC on April 2.

• Jenny Holzer and Kiki Smith among several other artists have work on view at the Neuberger Museum of Art of Purchase College (NY). The Fashion Moda Stores, 1982, Selections from Documenta 7 is an exhibition of approximately thirty small sculptures, wearable art, and ephemera that were made in multiples and sold in the Fashion Moda “stores” at Documenta 7, the modern and contemporary art exhibition held periodically in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition will be on view through May 6, 2012.

• William Kentridge: Five Themes explores the key themes of William Kentridge’s career from the 80s until today and is on view at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). The show includes the artist’s direction of The Magic Flute and the animated films he developed for a 2010 production of Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Nose at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. There are 60 works on display ranging from animations, drawings and prints to theatre models, sculptures and books. This exhibition closes May 27. Continue reading »