Richard Serra: The Final Works @ Cristea Roberts Gallery, London

Richard Serra

The Final Works

Cristea Roberts Gallery, London

Until 26 April 2025

RICHARD SERRA

Casablanca #3, 2022

Hand-applied oil stick, etching ink and silica 

on Igarashi 430gsm handmade paper

Paper and Image: 167.9 x 152.9 cm - 66 1/8 x 60 1/4 inches. 

Edition of 27

© Richard Serra. Courtesy of Cristea Roberts Gallery, London

Marking the first anniversary of Richard Serra’s death at the age of 85, Cristea Roberts Gallery presents the final works made by the artist.

The first complete showing of these works outside the US focuses on two series of prints made using black oil stick. Serra, one of the most significant artists of his generation, was known for monumental steel sculptures. However, his explorations of form, mass and gravity informed every aspect of his art, including his works on paper.

Casablanca 1-6, 2022 and Hitchcock I-III, 2024 mark the culmination of over fifty years of printmaking. Although described as prints, none of these works passed through a press and the methods used are unlike those of traditional printmaking; Serra’s chosen media undermines our understanding of what constitutes an editioned work.

Each work was made using oil stick, a combination of pigment, linseed oil, and melted wax. The mixture was moulded into large cylindrical sticks, then pressed down into a meat grinder and blended in an industrial dough mixer with silica.

The mixture was applied in layers, by a gloved hand, directly onto handmade paper, pushing and rubbing in a downward direction. Each layer required weeks of drying time before an additional coat could be applied. As a result, each impression varies in its construction.

For each work, layer upon layer of black oil stick was built up so that an intensely textured and rich three-dimensional surface emerges, evoking a large void. This imposing effect of black absorbing and reflecting light, dominates Serra’s prints. When making works on paper Serra remained committed to using a single palette of black to investigate weight, stability, and density. 

Richard Serra commented “Black is a property, not a quality. In terms of weight, black is heavier, creates a larger volume, holds itself in a more compressed field. It is comparable to forging.”

The mass of black in each work, which almost fills the entire sheets in Casablanca and Hitchcock, is relieved by thin areas of paper that appear to rise or emerge from curved edges and corners. Serra examines tension and gravity through this unequal balance of heavy mass and handmade Japanese paper. The paper support almost appears precarious; each impression of Casablanca, measuring over 150cm in width, weighs nearly 10 kilograms.

Richard Serra was interested in how an artwork not only exists in space but reorientates it. His sculptures created environments that had to be walked through or around to be fully experienced. Serra’s printmaking extends these investigations, interrogating the physical relationship of mass and the flat surface, and the viewers relationship to it.

The exhibition also features examples of earlier uses of black oil stick and etchings by the artist dating from 2004, and a display of the tools used to create these groundbreaking works.

Richard Serra: The Final Works demonstrates how the artist’s radical techniques and exceptional approach to making editions, remains singular in the history of printmaking.

Since presenting the first exhibition in the UK devoted to Serra’s prints in 2013, Cristea Roberts Gallery has continued to exclusively exhibit the artist’s editions in Europe. The works on show were developed by Richard Serra with Gemini G.E.L., an artists’ workshop and publisher in Los Angeles, where Serra made all his editions, a collaboration that lasted for over fifty years.

RICHARD SERRA - BRIOGRAPHY

Richard Serra (1938 - 2024) was born in San Francisco, USA. He lived and worked in New York, and the North Fork of Long Island, and Nova Scotia. From 1957 to 1961 Serra studied at the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Barbara, and from 1961 to 1964 at Yale University, Connecticut, where he worked with Josef Albers on Albers seminal book, Interaction of Color (New Haven, 1963). His first solo exhibition was held at Galleria La Salita, Rome, in 1966 and the Pasadena Art Museum staged his first solo museum exhibition in 1970.

Serra’s large-scale, site-specific sculptures, featuring monumental arcs, spirals, and ellipses can be found all over the world. Selected solo exhibitions and retrospectives include Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel (2017); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2017); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2014); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2011); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2011); Menil Collection, Houston (2011); Monumenta, Grand Palais, Paris (2008); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2008); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006); San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art (2006); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2005); Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples (2004); Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis (2003). His works are housed in major collections all over the world.

 

Richard Serra participated in international exhibitions including Documenta, Kassel (1972, 1977, 1982, and 1987); the Venice Biennale (1980, 1984, 2001, and 2013); and the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Annual and Biennial exhibitions (1968, 1970, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1995, and 2006).

Richard Serra was the recipient of many notable prizes and awards. In 2015, he was awarded Les Insignes de Chevalier de l’Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur, France, and in 2018 he received the J. Paul Getty Medal, which honors extraordinary contributions to the practice, understanding, and support of the arts. Prior to this he was also awarded Orden de las Artes y las Letras de España, Spain in 2008 and Orden pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste, Federal Republic of Germany in 2002.

Richard Serra passed away aged 85 on 26 March 2024 in New York, USA.

CRISTEA ROBERTS GALLERY, LONDON 

43 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JG 

www.cristearoberts.com 

Related Posts:

In English

Richard Serra: Every Which Way, David Zwirner, New York, November 7 – December 14, 2024

Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, April 13 – August 28, 2011

Richard Serra: Torqued Ellipses, Dia Center for the Arts, New York, September 25, 1997 - June 14, 1998

En Français

Richard Serra : Casablanca, Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris, 14 mars - 30 avril 2024

Richard Serra : Clara Clara, 1983 , Musée du Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, 14 avril – 3 novembre 2008

Richard Serra: The Final Works

Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, 13 March - 26 April 2025

"Erotic City" An Exhibition Curated by Martha Edelheit @ Eric Firestone Gallery, New York

Erotic City 

Curated by Martha Edelheit

Eric Firestone Gallery, New York 

Through May 2, 2025 

Eric Firestone Gallery presents Erotic City, a group exhibition of over forty artists, curated by Martha Edelheit. Edelheit (b. 1931, New York, NY) is a pioneering artist whose work confronts dominant art historical paradigms, foregrounding female gaze and desire. Her lush and vivid work is at once critical, sensual, and humorous. An important voice for feminist art, she is known for both her frank depictions of sexuality and her insistence on their place within an art historical tradition and society. Martha Edelheit, who has been represented by Eric Firestone Gallery since 2018, lived in Sweden from 1993 until 2024. Now in her 90s she once again lives and works in New York City. 

Martha Edelheit writes of Erotic City: 

What is the difference between pornography and erotic art? I’m 93 years old. In our culture it wouldn’t be unusual to ask what someone my age is doing curating an erotic exhibition. While it may not be common knowledge, most of my peers still have erotic lives, some more active than others. Behind that sometimes bent and wrinkled exterior a very intense sensory life can still be functioning. Since the 1960s I’ve been doing work that has been called erotic. I never set out to do erotic drawings. I never thought of my work as erotic. I was drawing amusing stories I made up for myself. I can’t do these drawings, or stories, on demand. They happen to me. In 1959–60 a friend showed me his copy of the Japanese Pillow Book. It was my first encounter with erotica and it profoundly affected my imagination and art making. It is still the lens through which I view erotic art. A writer of novels once stated that “pornography is a book you read with one hand.” Erotic works are images and writings you can also look at with one hand. Concepts of the erotic and pornographic change over time, and reflect the culture and politics of the era. Religion and politics define what is and isn’t pornography or erotica. The erotic novels of D.H. Lawrence were condemned as pornography when first published. When I was twelve or thirteen years old the erotic book being passed under the desks in my public school was “Gone With the Wind”.

I think of pornography as cold, abusive, nonconsensual, painful, humiliating, mean, degrading, clinical. Pornography is a commercial endeavor. Money is exchanged for specific services rendered, either in person, film, books, pictures. It often supplies services for what is sometimes called deviant needs…..punishment, pain, humiliation, infantile fantasies. Stomping, spanking, beating, binding, hitting, exposing, choking, submission to a dominating person, or dominating someone else. It has a much clearer delineation than erotica.

I think of the erotic as sensual, nonviolent, consensual, warm, inviting, sometimes funny, witty, amusing. Erotica can include some of the pornographer's stock in trade, but it is lighter in touch, sometimes humorous, often witty, and aesthetically pleasurable. Erotica assumes shared association, touching, stroking, licking, looking, playing, exposing….it digresses, teases, laughs, arouses, without harming.

Genitalia, vaginas, breasts, and penises are not pornographic or erotic. They are normal mammal body parts, usually used in reproduction. They depend on context to become pornographic or erotic. 

While pornography will arouse, it will not delight. Pornography can give immediate physical relief. Erotica can arouse but it also can give lasting aesthetic pleasure on many levels.

I hope this small selection of what I and the Eric Firestone Gallery consider erotic imagery will give you, the viewers, that experience.

Martha Edelheit has selected over forty artists who express this vision of the erotic, with works ranging from the 1950s to the present. Erotic City includes both historic and contemporary artists and showcases artists whose sensual work would immediately come to mind—such as Joan Semmel and Marilyn Minter—alongside artists for whom the erotic has been a significant, though not always highlighted, focus. 

Featured Artists: Helen Beard, Judith Bernstein, Paul Cadmus, Miriam Cahn, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, William R. Christopher, Jimmy DeSana, Lauren dela Roche, Jane Dickson, Rosalyn Drexler, Martha Edelheit, Sarah Faux, Mary Frank, Louis Fratino, Eunice Golden, Jenna Gribbon, Duncan Hannah, Jane Kogan, Joyce Kozloff, Sophie Larrimore, Pierre le Riche, Marcus Leslie Singleton, Kim Levin, Lee Lozano, Christabel MacGreevy, Keith Mayerson, Marilyn Minter, Jay Miriam, Rose Nestler, Janice Nowinski, Tom of Finland, Letitia Quesenberry, GaHee Park, Claudia Renfro, Kathy Ruttenberg, Sal Salandra, Mira Schor, Carolee Schneemann, Lara Schnitger, Joan Semmel, Patrick Siler, Laurie Simmons, Anita Steckel, Betty Tompkins, Katarina Janečková Walshe, Mia Weiner, Hannah Wilke, Didier William.

ERIC FIRESTONE GALLERY

40 Great Jones Street, New York, NY 10012

www.ericfirestonegallery.com

Erotic City - Curated by Martha Edelheit

Eric Firestone Gallery, New York, March 13 – May 2, 2025

Marcia Marcus, Alice Neel, Sylvia Sleigh @ Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York - "The Human Situation" Exhibition

The Human Situation: Marcia Marcus, Alice Neel, Sylvia Sleigh 

Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York

April 10 – June 21, 2025

Sylvia Sleigh 

The Blue Dress, 1970

Oil on canvas, 66½ × 34½ inches (168.9 × 87.6 cm) 

Collection of Audrey and Joseph Anastasi 

© Estate of Sylvia Sleigh, 

courtesy of the Estate of Sylvia Sleigh and Lévy Gorvy Dayan

Alice Neel 

Pregnant Nude, 1967

Oil on canvas, 36½ × 57¼ inches (92.7 × 145.4 cm)

Private Collection, New York, courtesy of AWG Art Advisory

© Estate of Alice Neel, 

courtesy of the Estate of Alice Neel and David Zwirner

Lévy Gorvy Dayan presents The Human Situation: Marcia Marcus, Alice Neel, Sylvia Sleigh. The exhibition, conceived by Saara Pritchard, marks the first focused presentation of Marcia Marcus (b. 1928), Alice Neel (1900–1984), and Sylvia Sleigh (1916–2010), who each worked in New York City and shared in its artistic circles in the dynamic decades of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. During this period, they portrayed mutual sitters, exhibited together, and participated in public discussions. Their representations of loved ones, friends, and acquaintances are distinctive in form and style, yet share in their evocation of the human spirit, capturing Sylvia Sleigh’s reflection “The human situation adds a certain poignancy to portraits...”

In 1973, paintings by the three figurative artists were on view in the unprecedented exhibition Women Choose Women, organized by Women in the Arts and presented at the New York Cultural Center. The three painters would exhibit together again in the following years, notably in Women’s Work: American Art 1974, Philadelphia Civic Center and In Her Own Image, Samuel S. Fleischer Art Memorial, administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art (both part of Focus on Women in the Visual Arts, 1974)—as well as Sons and Others: Women Artists See Men, Queens Museum (1975). Marcia Marcus, Alice Neel, and Sylvia Sleigh too were early participants in the collaborative installation The Sister Chapel, PS1, New York (1978)—from which Marcia Marcus eventually withdrew due to teaching and other exhibition commitments—with Alice Neel and Sylvia Sleigh unveiling large-scale paintings.

In their works, each artist differentiated herself from prevailing modes of Abstract Expressionism, Pop, and Minimalism—capturing Neel’s predecessor Robert Henri’s principle “Paint what you feel. Paint what you see. Paint what is real to you.” Their distinguished images depicted many of the same artistic and critical figures, including David Bourdon, Sari Dienes, Red Grooms and Mimi Gross, and John Perreault, among others, as well as self-portraits. They also each painted or collaborated with writers and curators such as Lucy Lippard, Cindy Nemser, Linda Nochlin, Barbara Rose, Marcia Tucker, and Sleigh’s husband Lawrence Alloway.

While working at different phases of maturity in their practices during the 1960s and 1970s, they experienced the period’s socio-political movements, including for civil and women’s rights. This historical environment is described by Lucy Lippard in her exhibition catalogue introduction for Women Choose Women: 

“A largescale exhibition of women’s art in New York is necessary at this time for a variety of reasons: because so few women have up until now been taken seriously enough to be considered for, still less included in, museum group shows; because there are so few women in the major commercial galleries; because young women artists are lucky if they can find ten successful older women artists to whom to look as role models; because although seventy-five percent of the undergraduate art students are female, only two percent of their teachers are female. And above all—because the New York museums have been particularly discriminatory, usually under the guise of being discriminating.” 

Although the three artists aligned with and participated in feminist causes to varying degrees, the energies of the movement created a focus on women’s art, resulting in exhibitions, galleries such as AIR Gallery and Soho 20 Gallery, grassroots publications, organizations including Women’s Interart Center and Women’s Caucus for Art, and panel discussions, in which they each featured. The portraits by Marcia Marcus, Alice Neel, and Sylvia Sleigh gesture towards this critical art-historical moment, while illuminating for viewers each artist’s distinctive point of view. 

As a testament to their legacies, the exhibition features works by contemporary figurative painters Jenna Gribbon, Karolina Jabłońska, Chantal Joffe, Nikki Maloof, Wangari Mathenge, and Claire Tabouret, who carry forward the tradition of rendering lived images of self, family, friends, and the home. Presenting recent and new canvases created on the occasion of the exhibition, the contemporary artists share in the history and atmosphere of community, and expand upon the themes of womanhood, intimate portraiture, the nude, and the still life that underlie The Human Situation. 

LEVY GORVY DAYAN, NEW YORK

19 East 64th Street, New York City

www.levygorvydayan.com

Related Posts:

Marcia Marcus, Role Play: Paintings 1958-1973 @ Eric Firestone Gallery, New York, October 12 - December 2, 2017

Alice Neel: The Early Years @ David Zwirner, New York, September 9 - October 16, 2021

Alice Neel: Freedom @ David Zwirner, New York, February 26 - April 13, 2019

Alice Neel @ Philadelphia Museum of Art, February 18 - April 15, 2001

Sylvia Sleigh: Every leaf is precious @ Ortuzar, New York, February 12 – April 5, 2025

Timothy Wehrle @ Stellarhighway, Brooklyn - "Love Tones and Head Stones" Exhibition - Text by Susan L. Aberth

Timothy Wehrle

Love Tones and Head Stones

Stellarhighway, Brooklyn

March 29 - May 25, 2025

TIMOTHY WEHRLE

End of an Era, 2023 

Colored pencil on fabric and paper, 

mounted to wood panel, 9 x 6 inches

© Timothy Wehrle, courtesy Stellarhighway

TIMOTHY WEHRLE

Ödland Sexwuste, 2024 

Colored pencil, homemade ink, acrylic, dime 

and dried flowers on paper,

mounted to wood panel, 30 x 24 inches

© Timothy Wehrle, courtesy Stellarhighway

TIMOTHY WEHLRE

Magic Personality, 2025 

Colored pencil, homemade ink and acrylic 

on paper with found object, wax and human nails,

mounted to wood panel, 30 x 24 inches

© Timothy Wehrle, courtesy Stellarhighway

TIMOTHY WEHRLE is back with a set of five exquisitely rendered large-scale works on paper that continue his exploration of the psyche. In addition to his signature meticulous line drawings and hallucinogenic pattern-on-pattern layering, the works share certain iconographic elements. As the title of this exhibition suggests, Love Tones and Head Stones, Wehrle is mapping the thorny terrain of emotions with their precipitous highs and lows. Executed between 2024-25 these works reflect inner reckonings with isolation, interpersonal relationships, and political upheaval. A persistent character is a face in profile, shown from the nose up, a distant relative of the smooth-pated Phrenology bust whose head is divided into pseudo-scientific sections like “benevolence, self-esteem, combativeness…” Wehrle replaces words with imagery.

At the bottom of Some Still Say He’s a Good Person/a, such a head anchors the composition, a dizzying and phantasmagoric landscape of disparate parts blended by the artist to represent the vagaries of life. In the lower right corner, a faceless man in a suit (perhaps the ghost of Michael Jackson) operates the lever of a giant rollercoaster. As we follow its ascent it moves past a minimalist screen of embossed dots on white paper, only to dramatically loop around and drop, crashing head on into the center of the face’s forehead—occupied by a rendition of Disney’s Magic Castle—that explodes like a supernova, radiating stars, planets and a string of binocular-yielding heads that call to mind the black-masked faces embedded in Adolf Wolfli’s manic compositions.

Stairway to Seven consists of five paper panels vertically mounted and connected by a multitude of figures ascending a zig-zag escalator. They move through a landscape made up of half-heads, now containing rows of numbers that insinuate the passage of time. These rainbow-colored numerals are echoed on the left by inset rows of dice, propounding the journey of life ruled by chance. At number 7, Seventh Heaven, clouds part to reveal another Michael Jackson, the new Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates, this time dancing. Ödland Sexwuste, an amalgam of recycled and collaged etchings and drawings onto a larger-sized paper, employs colorful repetitive elements of faces, patterns, and starbursts in a diagrammatic manner reminiscent of archaic esoteric illustrations. Filling the right side of the composition is a ladder with climbing nude figures who carry large severed ears on their backs like wings, nightmarish cupids somehow moving upwards and onwards.

Wehrle’s most recent work, Magic Personality, is a witchy incantation, replete with candles, crows and an Yggdrasil-like tree whose roots enter dark subterranean realms. Simultaneously whimsical, bitter and spiritually transcendent, the details in this work merit closer examination. The lower half reveals that an emotional exorcism is at work: mouths whisper into ears; the candles are in different colors like those used in magic; and, a row of magicians holding moon-like mirrors appear to trap entities within them. Enclosed by yellow and purple drops / flames, alchemical transformations are taking place above, while a reclining nude points her binoculars upwards towards a multicolored orbed spiral, hinting at better things to come. Within the embedded children’s toy at the top center, a familiar game whereby metal shavings are moved to form a face and beard, we see the half-head again, the artist’s doppelganger.

This is a rich and complex body of work, so be prepared to spend a long time looking at the details, then stepping back, and looking again. It is the kind of imagery that reveals itself over time and through attention, at once intensely personal and also universal. Like the drawings in Carl Jung’s visionary Red Book, Thimothy Wehrle attempts to express the abstract psychological concepts of emotional evolution, healing, and psychic transmutation in an accessible visual language that all can, on some level, understand.

Text by Susan L. Aberth, Edith C. Blum Professor of Art History & Visual Culture at Bard College.

TIMOTHY WEHRLE (b. 1978; US) makes obsessive artwork that is a patchwork of scenes both real and imagined. In them, the artist’s emotional labor unfolds: an ongoing quest for a sense of self and belonging. Exploring the dynamics and pitfalls of contemporary culture, Wehrle’s imagery deftly fuses an aura of charm with a complex vision of humanity, posing questions about civilized existence. Executed in graphite, colored pencil and ink that he makes himself from walnuts, Wehrle’s intricate images distill moments of experience like pages from a diary. His conceptual material is wide-ranging, spanning topics of lighthearted homage ( a quirky dog he saw on the street or the festive tendencies of octogenarians), to the poetry of everyday life (the mind-expanding capabilities of music, the intangibility of beauty and the complexities of love), to harsh comments on the ills of society (child abuse, poverty, internet pornography, the divisiveness of technology and the ultimate breakdown of human interaction). Timothy Wehrle held a solo exhibition at the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, WI and has worked with galleries and institutions including Cavin Morris, New York, NY; Shrine, New York, NY; PPOW, New York, NY; and, Dieu Donne, New York, NY.

STELLARHIGHWAY

Brooklyn, NY 11233

stellarhighway.com

Jean-Paul Riopelle @ Vancouver Art Gallery - "Riopelle: Crossroads in Time" Retrospective Exhibition

Riopelle: Crossroads in Time

Vancouver Art Gallery

March 21 - September 1, 2025

The Vancouver Art Gallery presents the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of works by JEAN-PAUL RIOPELLE (1923–2002) in Vancouver’s history. A towering figure in Canadian art, Riopelle remains one of the nation's most significant artists of the twentieth century. Organized by the National Gallery of Canada to mark the centenary celebration of the artist's birth, Riopelle: Crossroads in Time brings together almost 100 works drawn from 20 Canadian and international private and public collections, including two paintings from the Vancouver Art Gallery’s permanent collection. Guest curated by art historian and independent researcher Dr. Sylvie Lacerte, this extensive exhibition offers an original take on Riopelle’s creative output, highlighting his commitment to freedom of expression, his experimental ways of working, and his visionary and innovative approach.

Riopelle: Crossroads in Time is part of the Jean Paul Riopelle Centenary celebrations — a global initiative of the Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation that honours the boundless creative spirit and enduring legacy of one of Canada's most iconic artists.

The celebrations were initiated in 2019 by renowned philanthropist and collector Michael Audain, Chair of the Audain Foundation, and past Chair and Cofounder of the Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation: “I consider Jean Paul Riopelle to be one of the greatest Canadian artists of all time. Over the past five years, the Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation curated an exceptional program to mark the centenary of his birth. Never before has one of our national artists been celebrated this way. We consider this to be our collective duty of memory. And we hope it will inspire others, so we may see our cultural heroes duly acknowledged for their contribution to the history of Canadian and international art. I am grateful to both the National Gallery of Canada and to the Vancouver Art Gallery for bringing this exhibition to British Columbia.” 

Anthony Kiendl, CEO & Executive Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, reflects on the significance of this presentation and the support that made it possible to bring the exhibition to the West Coast of Canada: “We feel privileged to present Riopelle: Crossroads in Time at the Vancouver Art Gallery as the grande finale of the artist’s centenary celebrations. We are grateful to our presenting sponsor, The Audain Foundation, who made it possible to give Vancouver audiences this incredible opportunity to experience Riopelle’s remarkable work and the new perspectives that the exhibition offers.”

Spanning five decades of Riopelle’s creative journey—bringing together paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and collages—Riopelle: Crossroads in Time recognizes the breadth of Riopelle’s imagination and the diversity of his work and interests. The exhibition is organized chronologically to highlight his far-ranging practice and explosive periods of creativity, from the popular works of his youth, such as Le perroquet vert [The Green Parrot] (1949), to his final works, including Sans titre (Autour de Rosa) [Untitled (Around Rosa)] (1992). Early works from the 1940s mark the development of a spontaneous painting style inspired by his brief time as part of Les Automatistes, an influential group of Québécois artists. By the 1950s, when Riopelle’s work was being shown all over the world, he had arrived at what became his signature “mosaic” style in which he manipulated the paint with a palette knife to create bold shapes and energetic compositions. The exhibition spotlights several stunning canvases from this defining period, including La Roue II [The Wheel II] (1956) and Chicago II (1958).

In the 1960s Jean-Paul Riopelle moved fluidly between sculpture and painting, and the exhibition features several bronze sculptures from this period, as well as paintings and prints created in the 1970s that were inspired by the imagery and atmosphere of the Far North. His final work from the 1980s and 1990s represents a surprising turn with colourful panel paintings peppered with spray paint and glitter. The exhibition will also unravel Riopelle’s creative and cultural connections through the inclusion of a selection of works by his contemporaries, including Sam Francis, Alberto Giacometti, Roseline Granet, Joan Mitchell and Françoise Sullivan, which draw out influences and exchanges that shaped the artist’s life and work over time.

This exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Canada as part of the Jean Paul Riopelle Centenary celebrations. The Jean Paul Riopelle Foundation, co-founded in 2019 by Canadian philanthropist Michael Audain and Yseult Riopelle, the artist’s daughter, orchestrated a vast program to mark the centenary, leading to national and international celebrations and to the acknowledgment of Jean Paul Riopelle as a Canadian cultural icon. For decades Riopelle’s experimental works have inspired generations of artists in Canada and around the world.

Jean-François Bélisle, Director and CEO, National Gallery of Canada, reflects on the celebrations: "We were honoured to present Riopelle: Crossroads in Time on the occasion of the centennial year of Jean Paul Riopelle's birth. From one of our best-attended openings of 2023 to innovative music and dance events, this major retrospective of works by this legendary Canadian artist was a huge success. I would like to underscore the importance of partnerships between our country's museum institutions to make Canadian art accessible to all Canadians, from coast to coast to coast. Following its opening in the National Capital Region, we were elated to see the show have an outstanding run at the Winnipeg Art Gallery last summer. I would now like to express my gratitude to the Vancouver Art Gallery for hosting the final stop of this exhibition.”

Offering a unique take on Canada’s famed artist, this visually spectacular exhibition presents Riopelle’s renowned works alongside many which have been rarely shown in public. The presentation at the Vancouver Art Gallery also features works by Jean-Paul Riopelle from the Gallery’s permanent collection, including his bold composition Sous le Mythe de Gitskan No. 3 [Under the Myth of Gitskan No. 3] (1956)—which has not been shown for more than a decade—and Figure libre-Parure [Free figure-Adornment] (1967). In preparation for the exhibition, Figure libre-Parure [Free figure-Adornment] has undergone extensive conservation treatment. Delicate consolidation, infilling and inpainting took place to resolve areas of unstable cracking and lifting paint. Now stabilized, preserved and newly framed, the painting is ready to be seen in its full brilliance.

“Jean Paul Riopelle was the first post-war Canadian artist to achieve international status. He is a pillar of our history, who has left in his wake a multifaceted body of work that encourages pushing past boundaries, and this is perhaps his greatest legacy,” says Dr. Sylvie Lacerte, Art Historian and Independent Researcher. “Underlining the extraordinary career of this prodigious artist enables us to keep the memory of his accomplishments alive. Riopelle was first and foremost a trailblazer, and that is precisely what made him an eminently contemporary artist. He was invested in the present moment; situating him at a crossroads in time highlights the currency of a body of work that will always be in the here and now.”

The exhibition is curated by Dr. Sylvie Lacerte, Art Historian and Independent Researcher. The Vancouver Art Gallery presentation is coordinated by Siobhan McCracken Nixon, Associate Curator. 

Riopelle: Crossroads in Time

National Gallery of Canada, 2023

Hardcover, 208 pages, 10 x 12 inches

ISBN 9780888849663

The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue. This thoughtfully designed hardcover publication, edited by Sylvie Lacerte, includes essays by artists and art historians, including Gilles Daigneault, Vera Frenkel, Manuel Mathieu, Caroline Monnet, Marc-Antoine K. Phaneuf and Marc Séguin, who reflect on Riopelle’s legacy.

VANCOUVER ART GALLERY

750 Hornby Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2H7

www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Eeva-Riitta Eerola @ Helsinki Contemporary Gallery - "C" Exhibition

Eeva-Riitta Eerola: C

Helsinki Contemporary

11 April - 4 May 2025

Eeva-Riitta Eerola

Vessel (Garden) IV, 2025

Acrylic on canvas, 90 cm x 90 cm

Photo: Erno Enkenberg

Courtesy of Helsinki Contemporary

Eeva-Riitta Eerola

Vessel (Garden) III, 2025

Oil on acrylic on canvas, 46 cm x 50 cm

Photo: Erno Enkenberg

Courtesy of Helsinki Contemporary

EEVA-RIITTA EEROLAs paintings seem to materialize like apparitions, exuding effortless simplicity, but also a sense of potency. Echoing her desire to simplify, Eeva-Riitta Eerola has named her new exhibition after a single letter of the alphabet: C. This emblem can be read in many ways: as a visual symbol, as a phoneme, or even as a word. Visually, its shape both encloses and opens outwards, recalling the phase of the lunar cycle when the Moon is visible only as a narrow crescent. In ancient carvings, the map of the Garden of Eden is inscribed as a fertile crescent at the confluence of four rivers, or as a rounded vessel containing paradise.

Eeva-Riitta Eerola

Observer (Garden) III, 2025

Oil on acrylic on canvas, 42 cm x 33 cm

Photo: Erno Enkenberg

Courtesy of Helsinki Contemporary

Eeva-Riitta Eerola

Act (Garden) IV, 2025

Oil on acrylic on canvas, 50 cm x 80 cm

Photo: Erno Enkenberg

Courtesy of Helsinki Contemporary

Abstracted maps, streams and paths are among the prominent recurring elements in Eerola’s paintings, as are hands and eyes. The eye motif is significant in that the letter ‘C’ can represent the English verb ‘to see’, or its imperative form. Eerola’s paintings invite our gaze to roam and for us to immerse ourselves experientially. The eye and the hand can be interpreted as symbolizing the painting process: when painting is reduced to its basic essentials, the gaze and the manual gesture are the painter’s most important tools.

Eeva-Riitta Eerola’s paintings engage in close study of the way we humans experience images. She is interested in exploring painting’s ability to convey an experience of spatiality and presence. In her new exhibition, spatial experiences are conveyed through images of gardens. Eerola’s gardens are semi-abstract, however, representing more of a conceptual and symbolic space than a physical one.

Eeva-Riitta Eerola

Courtesy of Helsinki Contemporary

Eerola’s practice also reflects her interest in the history of painting. In the exhibition C, Eeva-Riitta Eerola has drawn inspiration from symbolism, an historic art movement that used symbolic images to suggest emotions and universal human experiences. She first became interested in symbolism after experiencing a death in her family as a teenager. What especially drew her to symbolism was its compelling manner of invoking death, life, continuity, finality and infinity. While preparing for this exhibition, Eeva-Riitta Eerola took inspiration from a beloved painting of her youth, The Garden of Death (1896) by Hugo Simberg, a small-scale depiction of skeletons tenderly caring for uncanny flowers in a garden situated somewhere between the living and the dead.

HELSINKI CONTEMPORARY

Bulevardi 10 - 00120 Helsinki

helsinkicontemporary.com

Robert Morris @ Castelli Gallery, NYC - 'Robert Morris: Seeing and Space' Exhibition

Robert Morris: Seeing and Space

Castelli Gallery, New York

April 3 – June 27, 2025

Castelli Gallery presents Robert Morris: Seeing and Space. The exhibition juxtaposes two forms of work dating from the 1970s: Untitled (Walk Around), 1975, a mirror installation; and a group of eight Blind Time drawings dating from 1973 and 1976.

Robert Morris was a pioneer of Minimal art. His minimalist sculpture of the 1960s consisted of abstract objects in plywood, fiberglass, aluminum, and steel. Sitting directly on the floor, these works are blank in affect and large enough to establish a one-to-one physical encounter with the observer.

During the early 1970s the artist’s practice changed direction. One new tendency was the production of objects and installations that can be occupied and walked through. New work took various forms, including installations with mirrors. Here the virtual space of mirror reflection appears to alter or complicate the actual space of the room. Untitled (Walk Around) was the first installation of this kind. It consists of mirrors and flat, empty steel frames arranged to create a sequence of vantages, including positions from which the frames appear—through reflection—to multiply endlessly, a virtual impression of infinite regress.

Beginning in 1973 Robet Morris also embarked on a long series of drawings titled Blind Time. The drawings were produced by the artist with his eyes shut, a bare-handed application of powdered graphite and other mediums directly onto sheets of paper large enough to contain the breadth of his reach. Each drawing follows a set of instructions, or “protocols,” executed according to an estimated length of time.

Together the mirror installations and the Blind Time drawings represent opposing extremes of embodied vision: seeing multiplied and seeing obscured.

Robert Morris: Seeing and Space, is organized by curator and critic Jeffrey Weiss, who has worked extensively on the artist. His past projects include (with Clare Davies) the book Robert Morris: Object Sculpture, 1960-1965, published by Castelli Gallery in partnership with Yale University Press, and Robert Morris: The Perceiving Body, an exhibition that appeared at the Museum of Modern Art (MUDAM), Luxembourg.

CASTELLI GALLERY

24 West 40th Street, New York, NY 10018

www.castelligallery.com

Louise Bourgeois @ Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong - ‘Louise Bourgeois. Soft Landscape’ - Exhibition Curated by Philip Larratt-Smith

Louise Bourgeois: Soft Landscape

Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong

25 March – 21 June 2025

Widely recognized as one of the most important and influential artists of the past century, French-American artist LOUISE BOURGEOIS’s work expresses a variety of emotions through a visual vocabulary of formal and symbolic equivalents, ranging from intimate drawings to large-scale installations. ‘Louise Bourgeois. Soft Landscape’ explores the dynamic relationship between landscape and the human body in Bourgeois’s work. Curated by Philip Larratt-Smith, this is her second show at Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong, and coincides with the ongoing tour of a major survey exhibition organized by the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, which is on view at the Fubon Art Museum, Taipei, since 15 March through 30 June 2025.

Consisting of a selection of works from the 1960s up until her death in 2010, ‘Louise Bourgeois. Soft Landscape’ sets up a series of four interlocking dialogues that revolve around an iconography of nests, holes, cavities, mounds, breasts, spirals, snakes and water. This imagery corresponds to the themes and preoccupations that Louise Bourgeois explored over the course of her career: the good mother, fecundity and growth, retreat and protection, vulnerability and dependency, and the passage of time. Her forms are expressed using such diverse materials as bronze, rubber, lead, aluminium, wood and marble. The exhibition foregrounds certain formal devices developed by Louise Bourgeois, such as the hanging form, the spiral and the relief. As always in her work, there is an oscillation between abstraction and figuration. 

On view throughout the exhibition space are works from Bourgeois’s Lair series, first created by the artist in the early 1960s as she emerged from a deep depression and a long immersion in psychoanalysis, which all but replaced her artmaking for the better part of a decade. The Lair sculptures are protective places of retreat, like a home, and convey a mood of interiority, introspection and withdrawal. 

Making its debut in Asia, the sculpture ‘Spider’ (2000) was loosely inspired by an ostrich egg given to the artist. The large scale of the egg, relative to the spider that it contains, expresses the burdensome responsibilities of motherhood. Bourgeois’s iconic spiders were conceived as an ode to her mother, yet the spider is also a self-portrait; Bourgeois felt that her art came directly from her body, just as a spider spins its own web. 

A number of works that have never been exhibited before are on view in this exhibition. In one gallery, four wall reliefs of painted wood merge landscape and biomorphic form. Louise Bourgeois fashioned these reliefs out of the interiors of old crates once used to transport her Personage sculptures. The way she put these wooden pieces together created a central opening that she would sometimes populate with internal elements. The metal frames that house these reliefs serve to make them feel more sculptural and object-like. This series of painted landscape reliefs is complemented by a long horizontal scratchboard landscape. Here the mark making is achieved through patiently scratching the dark-painted surface to make a delicate white line. The resulting image is a portrait of isolation, of a world without other people. 

Also exhibited for the first time is the bronze fountain ‘Mamelles’ (1991 [cast 2005]), which consists of a long frieze of multiple breast-like forms, with water spilling from five of the nipples into a basin below. Bourgeois – who liked seeing how different materials could alter the meaning of her forms – also realized this sculpture in marble and pink rubber. The endless flow and splashing of the water symbolize the passage of time, but it also represents the good mother who provides nourishment for her children.

A pair of late works on paper similarly express the passage of time through flowing calligraphic gestures on music paper that hover between an abstracted landscape and wave-like forms. 

‘Time’ (2004) belongs to a series of suites of double-sided drawings which Louise Bourgeois made in 2003-04. The repetitive mark-making has a meditative quality, and perhaps exerted a calming effect on the artist. The richness emerges in the slight inflections and differences in line and texture among the sheets (there is an affinity to weaving), and the occasional appearance of words, names and phrases that seem to surface from the unconscious. ‘Time’ (2004) has a diaristic quality, as if the artist’s pen were an instrument for registering the most minute shifts in the artist’s thought and mood. 

LOUISE BOURGEOIS (b. Paris, 1911, d. New York, 2010) is one of the most influential artists of the past century. Though she worked in several mediums throughout her 70-year career—including performance, painting, and printmaking—she is best known as a sculptor. Oscillating between figuration and abstraction, and ranging from intimate drawings to large-scale installations, Bourgeois expressed a variety of emotions through a visual vocabulary of formal and symbolic equivalents. Raised in Paris and its suburbs, she was involved in her family’s tapestry restoration workshop and gallery from a young age. Complex relationships with her disloyal father and chronically ill mother led to pervasive feelings of guilt, jealousy, betrayal, and abandonment. These themes, countered with love and reparation, form the core of her work. She often stated that the creative process was a form of exorcism: a way of reconstructing memories and emotions in order to free herself from their grasp.

HAUSER & WIRTH HONG KONG

G/F, 8 Queen's Road Central, Central, Hong Kong

www.hauserwirth.com

Emma Helle @ Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki - "Dress Codes for Rivers" Exhibition

Emma Helle: Dress Codes for Rivers

Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki

March 28 – May 4, 2025

Emma Helle has drawn inspiration for the reclining figures in her new sculptures from personified river deities she has encountered on her travels, most recently in Roman fountains. Like many cities, Rome was founded on a river, for flowing water is literally the source of all life, but also a symbolic fount of fertility and prosperity. Throughout history, rivers have transported not only people and goods, but also thoughts and new ideas. Rome’s fountains pay tribute to the river running through the city and to the life-sustaining power of water.

In ancient Greek mythology, the father of all rivers was Oceanus, a bearded man with bull horns. Oceanus lost one horn in battle, which became the mythical horn of plenty, symbol of fertility and abundance. In Helle’s sculptures, the horn of plenty has emptied its contents all over the voluptuous, hedonistic figures, which are decked in flowers, vines, fruit, gilding and all manner of lavish details. The figures defy categorization, blending inseparably with their surroundings. Shaped from clay transported by flowing water, they are raw, imperfect, and coarsely textured, yet their surfaces shimmer in vibrant colors. They proclaim freedom and the right to revel in their inherent materiality.

Throughout art history, exotic fruits and plants have symbolized abundance, but also wealth and power. Helle’s sculptures seem to question what these symbols mean today, as they are are available to everyone on supermarket shelves. How have visual symbols of wealth and abundance changed in modern times, and who ultimately has the right to wield them?

Emma Helle (b.1979) is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts. Her work is held in collections including HAM Helsinki Art Museum Ham, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the State Art Deposit Collection, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Saastamoinen Foundation and Wihuri Foundation. She recently held a solo exhibition at Turku Art Museum, and she has participated in group exhibitions at the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the National Museum in Stockholm, Mänttä Art Festival, Helsinki Art Hall and EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art.

GALERIE FORSBLOM

Yrjönkatu 22, 00120 Helsinki

www.galerieforsblom.com

Works by Aaron Gorson, Words by Maxwell King @ The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg

Works by Aaron Gorson, Words by Maxwell King

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg

Through November 9, 2025

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art presents Works by Aaron Gorson, Words by Maxwell King, an exhibition highlighting the industrial landscape paintings of artist AARON HARRY GORSON accompanied by insightful text by author Maxwell King. Featuring a selection of works on loan from private collections, this exhibition offers a unique opportunity to explore Aaron Gorson’s popular depictions of Pittsburgh’s steelmaking industry. 

The text included in the exhibition is drawn from King’s research into Gorson’s life and career, which he will expand upon in an upcoming biography on the artist, Fire in the Night Sky (Lyons Press, spring 2026). An excerpt from the biography is presented within the exhibition, providing a preview of the publication. Maxwell King has authored two other biographies, one on self-taught artist John Kane and a New York Times-bestselling book about Mister Rogers. 

“It was such a pleasure for me to have the opportunity to work with The Westmoreland on this exhibition of the work of Aaron Gorson, and to appreciate—as Gorson did—Pittsburgh’s great steel-industry legacy,” stated King. “I moved from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh almost exactly 100 years after Gorson made the same journey; both of us fell in love with the culture, character, and creativity of western Pennsylvania.” 

In addition to providing the written commentary for the exhibition, King selected the paintings featured and assisted with choosing the arrangement of the works. On October 23, King will give a lecture on the exhibition with further insights into Gorson’s life and artistic practice. Registration for this event will be available through the Museum’s website in mid-May. 

“We are delighted to present this exhibition showcasing Gorson’s works from private collections, as well as one from our own collection, and to pay tribute to the strong steelmaking history of our region,” commented The Richard M. Scaife Director/CEO Silvia Filippini-Fantoni, PhD. “We enjoyed the partnership with Max on this project and look forward to hosting his lecture this fall, as well as the publication of his forthcoming book.” 

About Aaron Harry Gorson 

Aaron Harry Gorson (1872–1933) was a Lithuanian-born American artist who found his calling in capturing the industrial transformation of Pittsburgh. Initially trained as a portrait artist in Philadelphia, Gorson was drawn to the dynamic energy of Pittsburgh’s steel mills and became famous for his paintings of nighttime scenes depicting the glowing riverside mills. Aaron Gorson is considered one of the foremost industrial artists of his time.

About Maxwell King 

Maxwell King is the former editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer and president of the Heinz Endowments. He is the author of the poetry collection "Crossing Laurel Run", a biography on self-taught artist John Kane "American Workman: The Life and Art of John Kane", and the New York Times-bestselling Mister Rogers biography "The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers". King also served as chairman of the board of the National Council on Foundations. His most recent job was president of The Pittsburgh Foundation. 

The works in the exhibition are on loan from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the Duquesne Club, and several other private collections. 

THE WESTMORELAND MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

221 N Main Street, Greensburg, PA 15601

thewestmoreland.org

Works by Aaron Harry Gorson, Words by Maxwell King

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania

February 19, 2025 — November 9, 2025

Stig Baumgartner @ Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki - "Pyramid and Superego" Exhibition

Stig Baumgartner 

Pyramid and Superego 

Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki 

March 28 – May 4, 2025 

The title of Stig Baumgartner’s new exhibition, Pyramid and Superego, alludes to hierarchical structures. The vibrantly colorful geometrical structures in his paintings are like monuments placed upon pedestals, some of them proudly balanced, others wobbly and imperfect. The artist describes monuments as images of social order; in his paintings, they embody either stability or turmoil.

Stig Baumgartner’s paintings typically possess a human or corporeal presence. Their architectural composition can be interpreted as mirroring the structures of the human mind or the concept of being human. Baumgartner’s art characteristically presents dialogues of opposites, combining expressive, calligraphic brushwork with precise, harmonious composition.

In the making of this exhibition, Stig Baumgartner found himself reflecting on artistic expression and career trajectory as a kind of monument in its own right. Work by work, the artist builds an increasingly sophisticated and unique structure of expression. At the apex shines a liberated peak that is built upon earlier works, both artist's own and those of other artists, and also upon the traditions of evolving art discourses. Each painting is always a unique event that combines acquired knowledge with personal experience. Artistic expression is invariably built upon a foregoing legacy, which can be either a burden or a liberation. Leaning towards the latter interpretation, Baumgartner hopes that his paintings will retain their ambiguous character as autonomous artistic creations.

Stig Baumgartner (b.1969) works in the tradition of abstract painting, paying homage to its legacy while at the same time boldly renewing it. Alongside his artistic practice, he is also a long-time lecturer in drawing and perception at the Academy of Fine Arts, the University of the Arts Helsinki. He completed his doctoral degree in 2015. Stig Baumgartner’s paintings are held in many of Finland’s most prestigious collections, including Saastamoinen Foundation and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma.

GALERIE FORSBLOM

Yrjönkatu 22, 00120 Helsinki

www.galerieforsblom.com

Our Own Work, Our Own Way: Southern Modern Women Artists @ The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg + Year of Women Artists

Our Own Work, Our Own Way: 

Southern Modern Women Artists

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg

Through May 18, 2025

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art presents Our Own Work, Our Own Way: Southern Modern Women Artists. This exhibition highlights the significant contributions of women artists whose legacies were shaped by their experiences in the American South. The presentation of this exhibition also marks the launch of The Westmoreland’s Year of Women Artists, a yearlong initiative dedicated to celebrating the significant and often underrepresented contributions of women artists to American art history. 

Drawn from the exceptional holdings of The Johnson Collection, Our Own Work, Our Own Way brings together works by over 40 artists, including Anni Albers, Elaine de Kooning, Alma Thomas, and Ida Kohlmeyer, and spans the 1940s to the 2000s. The artists represented in the exhibition transcended the boundaries of their time, creating powerful work that challenged traditional gender roles and broke artistic conventions. While the South was slow to embrace gender equality, many of these artists found a supportive and nurturing environment within creative communities there. Despite the challenges they faced, these women helped define modernism and left their mark on the South’s artistic landscape. 

Year of Women Artists at The Westmoreland

Today, women remain vastly underrepresented in the art world, with studies showing that their work makes up only 13% of major American museum collections. The Year of Women Artists at The Westmoreland brings attention to this imbalance through a dynamic roster of exhibitions and events throughout 2025 centered on American women artists from a variety of backgrounds and eras.

In addition to Our Own Work, Our Own Way, the Museum will present A Fountain of Forms: The Rise of the American Woman Sculptor, 1910–1929 (April 11–December 31, 2025), showcasing bronzes by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, Malvina Hoffman, and Janet Scudder from the collection of Dr. Michael L. Nieland. These sculptors used representations of the female form to assert their individuality and autonomy in an age of increasing patriarchal control. 

The Museum also hosts the following: Pennsylvania in Progress (January 18, 2025–November 2, 2025), including photography by Aaronel deRoy Gruber and works by other women artists; Cecilia Beaux: Inventing the Modern Portrait (opening June 14, 2025), which unpacks Beaux’s path-breaking approach to crafting the modern portrait; The Art of Elizabeth Catlett from the Samella Lewis Collection (September 7, 2025–January 4, 2026), celebrating Catlett’s achievements in sculpture and printmaking; and Brynn Hurlstone: Resonance (opening September 7, 2025), a large-scale immersive installation by Hurlstone.

THE WESTMORELAND MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

221 N Main Street, Greensburg, PA 15601

thewestmoreland.org

Our Own Work, Our Own Way: Southern Modern Women Artists

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania

February 9, 2025 — May 18, 2025

On Ugliness: Medieval and Contemporary @ Skarstedt London - A rare convergence of paintings, sculptures and photographs spanning the twelfth century to the present day

On Ugliness 

Medieval and Contemporary

Skarstedt London

February 27 – April 26, 2025

Skarstedt London presents On Ugliness: Medieval and Contemporary, a rare convergence of paintings, sculptures and photographs spanning the twelfth century to the present day. Taking its title from Umberto Eco’s seminal publication On Ugliness, this curated presentation examines the grotesque as a universal theme, tracing its evolution across a millennium of artistic output. Four medieval stone heads form the crux of this exhibition, their contorted faces- ranging from grimaces to sneers- serve as a touchstone throughout art history and play a formative role in contemporary interpretations of the grotesque.

The exhibition features work by George Condo, Nicole Eisenman, Jameson Green, Martin Kippenberger, Barbara Kruger, Jacob de Litemont, Pablo Picasso, Stefan Rinck, Pensionante del Saraceni, Cindy Sherman, Thomas Schütte and a selection of unknown artists working between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries.

Although the grotesque has been dismissed and deplored by various critics over the past millennium, it remains a recurrent fascination, continuously re-imagined by each generation. As a result, its etymology is in constant flux. Some argue that the grotesque is a collective tool for conceptualising difference and change, while others see it as a means of liberation, freeing the artist from earthly constraints. Regardless of the motif or iconography, the grotesque reveals aspects of the world that elude comprehension, therefore our experience of the genre should result in bafflement.

The most prevalent expression of the grotesque is through metamorphosis or hybridity – a motif discovered in the Roman Emperor Nero’s Villa Aurea upon its excavation in the fifteenth century. The ornamental scenes, later dubbed grottesche (‘from a cave’) captivated artists from Raphael to Pablo Picasso, who revelled in hybridity - first understood through his early proto-cubist works. During this period, he experimented with fragmentation and metamorphosis as exemplified in Tête de femme (1908), an exquisite drawing inspired by African and Iberian artefacts. Similarly, Nicole Eisenman explores corporeal distortion in Maquette: Sketch for a Fountain (Reclining Figure) (2019), where the figure’s exaggerated limbs merge into an amorphous whole. Whilst not traditionally beautiful, Eisenman imbues a serene reverie into the figure, originally conceived for a body of water.

George Condo and Jameson Green embrace metamorphosis, using it as a vehicle for anthropological exploration. Condo’s self-declared 'psychological cubism' dissects the human psyche through fragmentation and distortion, revealing its most sensitive aspects. In Study for Metamorphosis I (2006), the protagonist possesses an undeniably human spirit despite her animalistic appearance, while the compositional techniques pay homage to portraiture masters like Rembrandt and Velazquez. On the other hand, Jameson Green’s Head Study #26 (2024) is morphed beyond recognition, using an imagined hybrid creature to confront the challenging themes of racism and corruption.

The grotesque is deeply rooted in art history, yet it defies the ideals of harmony, proportion, and beauty. This is epitomised by Thomas Schütte’s landmark Wicht series (2006), a collection of twelve grotesque heads, of which one is featured. The bronze head, mounted high on a steel console, explores the complexities of the human condition, recalling the distorted medieval stone heads included in this exhibition. Often tucked under roofs, cornices, or atop columns in ecclesiastical buildings, these grotesque heads contrast with the serene saints and apostles that adorn the same spaces. Their exaggerated expressions lend them an air of irreverence, prompting James Lingwood to compare Schütte’s Wicht figures to ‘gargoyles looking down from the sides of medieval cathedrals.’[1] While their original purpose remains uncertain, some scholars interpret them as marginal jokes, lightening the solemnity of religious settings, others view them as caricatures or evil spirits. Regardless of intent, they have been described as ‘the most original physiognomic inventions of the art of the Middle Ages.’[2]

Stefan Rinck’s small-scale contemporary carvings engage with this same grotesque tradition, echoing the hybrid, exaggerated forms of the medieval heads. Carved from natural materials like sandstone or diabase, Rinck’s sculptures mimic the rough-hewn textures of their medieval counterparts, instilling a sense of permanence in his creations. His practice also draws on medieval illustrated encyclopaedias known as bestiaries, which catalogue real and imaginary animals, further rooting his work in the visual and conceptual language of the Middle Ages.

During the medieval period, expressive faces were linked to sin, while an ordered, expressionless face reflected discipline and morality. Conversely, Renaissance and Baroque artists sought to capture the essence of the individual, often at the expense of beauty. With the rise of humanist philosophy in the fourteenth century, the artistic focus shifted from the divine to the human epitomised through an exceptionally rare portrait of King Louis XI of France (circa 1469), attributed to Jacob de Litemont. King Louis XI’s profile is starkly contrasted against a dark background, with his regal status signified by a rich red velvet robe. Nevertheless, his face is unidealised, marked by a crooked nose, heavy features, and baggy eyes. Devoid of flattery, this harsh portrayal reflects the period’s tendency to depict sovereigns with a ‘disarming and intimate sincerity.’[3] The shift towards naturalism intensified in the seventeenth century with Caravaggio’s radical use of live models and violent scenes. Followers like Pensionante del Saraceni (active in Rome circa 1610) emulated his work, particularly in A Boy Being Bitten by a Freshwater Crayfish, embracing his aptitude for theatrical, violent imagery.

The transition towards naturalism paved the way for social satire, as seen in the works of Martin Kippenberger, Cindy Sherman, and Barbara Kruger. Developed in the nineteenth century, it remained a potent force in fine art and popular culture, influencing Kippenberger’s sardonic critique of the artist and art market. His provocative sculpture Fred the Frog Rings the Bell (1990) depicts a crucified frog, his alter-ego, externalising the existential anxiety of exhibiting one’s work. While Kippenberger’s grotesque satire reflects personal turmoil, Sherman and Kruger use unsettling imagery to explore identity politics. In Untitled #140 (1985) from the Fairy Tale series, Cindy Sherman transforms into a pig, exposing what lies behind a polished façade. The self, she suggests, is a stage, shaped through metamorphosis. On the other hand, Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (Striped 2) (2019) overlays a disturbed male face with declarative statements, using monumental scale and advertising techniques to expose the power structures behind identity, desire, and consumerism.

Each work on view simultaneously delights and disgusts, confronting the viewer with distorted faces, surreal imagery, and hybrid forms, oscillating between the hellish and the carnivalesque. On Ugliness highlights the power of the grotesque to defy artistic conventions through exaggeration, fragmentation, and metamorphosis—an enduring genre that has captivated civilisations throughout history.

[1] James Lingwood, quoted in Public/Political: Thomas Schütte, Germany 2012, p. 157.

[2] C. Little, Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, p.5.

[3] J. Dupont, ‘A Portrait of Louis II Attributed to Jean Perréal’, The Burlington Magazine, 1947, vol. 89, p. 236.

SKARSTEDT LONDON

8 Bennet Street, London SW1A 1RP

www.skarstedt.com

Anonymous Was A Woman: The First 25 Years @ Grey Art Museum, New York University

Anonymous Was A Woman 

The First 25 Years

Grey Art Museum, NYU

April 1 – July 19, 2025

Elizabeth King (AWAW 2014) 

Still from Feints and Sleights, 2017 

Stop-frame animation, color, silent, 3:00 min 

Courtesy the artist, Richmond

Judy Pfaff (AWAW 2012) 

Ram's Delhi, 2012 

Wood, mild steel rod, melted plastics, black aluminum foil, 

and LED and UV Fluorescent light, 70 x 132 x 17 in. 

Courtesy the artist and Miles McEnery Gallery, New York

Betye Saar (AWAW 2004) 

Globe Trotter, 2007 

Mixed-media assemblage, 32 1/2 x 18 1/4 x 14 1/8 in. 

© Betye Saar 

Courtesy the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles

The Grey Art Museum at New York University presents Anonymous Was A Woman: The First 25 Years, an exhibition celebrating recipients of the titular grant for mid-career women artists living and working in the United States. This ambitious exhibition invites reflection on a quarter century of artistic achievement tied to the Anonymous Was A Woman (AWAW) grant program, which, since 1996, has supported women artists over the age of 40 with unrestricted awards. Six years in the making, Anonymous Was A Woman is organized by the Grey Art Museum at NYU and guest curated by Nancy Princenthal and Vesela Sretenović.

Featuring some 50 artworks by 41 of the 251 award recipients from when the grant was inaugurated in 1996 through 2020, the exhibition showcases a range of media and subjects by artists including Jeanne Silverthorne (AWAW 1996), Laura Aguilar (AWAW 2000), Senga Nengudi (AWAW 2005), Mary Heilmann (AWAW 2006), An-My Lê (AWAW 2006), Carrie Mae Weems (AWAW 2007), Ida Applebroog (AWAW 2009), Jungjin Lee (2011), Janine Antoni (AWAW 2014), and Jennifer Wen Ma (AWAW 2019), among others. With each year represented by at least one artist, the exhibition includes works created within a few years of their grant, demonstrating the significance of the award to the artist’s growth. 

“Nancy and I sought to create a visually compelling and intellectually stimulating exhibition that balances work by well-established and lesser-known artists. We also wanted to highlight leaps in production that the grant made possible, both practically—many artists were enabled to try new materials and processes—and conceptually,” Vesela Sretenović says. 

All 251 artists are represented in a publication accompanying the exhibition, which also includes critical essays about the awardees by Princenthal, Sretenović, and other women scholars.

Visitors to Anonymous Was A Woman are encounter works that trace the development of contemporary art practice over the last twenty-five years, addressing issues of identity and community; the position of women artists in society; the shifting value of craft; the changing possibilities for installation and time-based media; as well as the many uses of anonymity. Flamethrower, for example, a painting by Carrie Moyer (AWAW 2009) demonstrates the artist’s characteristic high-gloss surfaces and curvaceous, colorful forms, and challenges gendered conventions of abstraction. Rona Pondick (AWAW 2016), also featured in the exhibition, has used her own body to create self-portraits in various materials—such as the colored molded resin of Magenta Swimming in Yellow—that are at once deeply personal and anonymizing. Likewise, Elizabeth King (AWAW 2014) often references her own body when creating precisely moveable, half-scale figurative sculptures and combining them with stop-motion animation, as in Feints and Sleights.

Princenthal explains, “Every single one of the artists who received a grant in our target period is remarkable, and it was an enormous challenge to choose among them. Vesela and I embraced the variety of thematic and formal approaches seen in the awardees’ work, as well as the full range of their regional, ethnic, and racial backgrounds, and the several generations they represent.” For example, Betye Saar’s (AWAW 2004) assemblage, Globe Trotter, depicts a worn vintage doll held captive inside of a small birdcage resting atop a globe—a combination of powerful symbols referencing the history of slavery. Claudia Joskowicz’s (AWAW 2020) Some Dead Don’t Make a Sound, like many of her video and installation works, evokes the transformative effect of violent political events on physical spaces and collective memory.

“I think what is astonishing for all of us,” states Lynn Gumpert, director of the Grey Art Museum since 1997, “is to look over this list of amazing artists and realize the impact they have made on the last twenty-five years of the art scene. As of 2019—when we were first conceiving the show—just 11% of all acquisitions and 14% of exhibitions at major American museums over the past decade were of work by female artists, according to the Burns Halperin Report. We know that there is still a lot of work to be done.”

Last year, Susan Unterberg and AWAW launched the Anonymous Was A Woman Artist Survey in collaboration with journalists Charlotte Burns and Julia Halperin, arts leader Loring Randolph, and SMU Data Arts. A first-of-its-kind study, the survey aims to gain a better understanding of women artists’ lives and careers, and the factors contributing to their successes and challenges. Findings will be made publicly available on April 9, 2025, as part of “Artists Speak: The Anonymous Was A Woman Symposium,” hosted at NYU.  Registration will be available on the AWAW website.

About AWAW

Founded by visionary philanthropist and photographer Susan Unterberg, the Anonymous Was A Woman (AWAW) grant program has provided annual unrestricted gifts of $25,000 each to ten exceptional artists over the age of 40, enabling them to further push boundaries in their creative fields. In 2024 the number of awardees permanently increased to fifteen and the cash prize doubled to $50,000. “Since I am an artist, I knew firsthand that the needs of mid-career artists were generally overlooked,” says Unterberg, who herself remained anonymous until 2018.

The groundbreaking program, inspired by a line from Virginia Woolf’s essay, “A Room of One’s Own,” was established in response to the National Endowment for the Arts’s decision to end funding for individual artists. True to its name, AWAW selects artists via anonymous panels based on recommendations proposed each year by a group of anonymous nominators comprising previous awardees, curators, writers, and other art professionals. 

Susan Unterberg says, “Women throughout history—and especially women artists—have often remained anonymous. They didn’t sign their work, and of course, they received very little recognition. AWAW has given me an immense amount of joy—and mostly since I’ve gone public. It’s a way to show my activism and advocate that women shouldn’t remain anonymous any longer.” 

Over the years, this grant has been transformative for many artists, offering critical financial support and awarding over $8 million to more than 300 recipients to date. In 2022 AWAW partnered with the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) to initiate the Environmental Art Grant, a yearly open call for woman-led art projects that inspire thought, action, and ethical engagement with the environment.

For more information on Anonymous Was A Woman, please visit:

anonymouswasawoman.org

Anonymous Was A Woman: The First 25 Years 

List of Exhibiting Artists

Laura Aguilar

Born 1959, San Gabriel, CA

Died 2018, Long Beach, CA

Award year: 2000

Elia Alba 

Born 1962, Brooklyn, NY

Based in the Bronx, NY 

Award year: 2019

Janine Antoni

Born 1964, Freeport, Bahamas 

Based in in New York City

Award year: 2014

Polly Apfelbaum 

Born 1955, Abington Township, PA 

Based in New York City

Award year: 1998

Ida Applebroog

Born 1929, the Bronx, NY

Died 2023, New York City

Award year: 2009

Dotty Attie

Born 1938, Pennsauken, NJ

Based in New York City

Award year: 2018

Uta Barth

Born 1958, Berlin, Germany

Based in Los Angeles, CA

Award year: 2012

Janet Biggs

Born 1959, Harrisburg, PA

Based in New York City

Award year: 2004

Chakaia Booker

Born 1953, Newark, NJ

Based in New York City and Allentown, PA

Award year: 2000

Kathy Butterly

Born 1963, Amityville, NY

Based in New York City

Award year: 2002

Anne Chu

Born 1959, New York City

Died 2016, New York City

Award year: 2001

Sonya Clark

Born 1967, Washington, DC

Based in Amherst, MA

Award year: 2016

Petah Coyne

Born 1953, Oklahoma City

Based in New York City

Award year: 2007

Chitra Ganesh

Born 1975, Brooklyn, NY

Based in Brooklyn, NY

Award year: 2020

Sharon Hayes

Born 1970, Baltimore, MD

Based in Philadelphia, PA

Award year: 2013

Mary Heilmann

Born 1940, San Francisco, CA

Based in New York City and

Bridgehampton, NY

Award year: 2006

Claudia Joskowicz

Born 1968, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

Based in New York City and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

Award year: 2020

Nina Katchcadourian

Born 1968, Stanford, CA

Based in Brooklyn, NY, and Berlin, Germany

Award year: 2003

Elizabeth King

Born 1950, Ann Arbor, MI

Based in Richmond, VA

Award year: 2014

An-My Lê

Born 1960, Saigon, Vietnam

Based in Brooklyn, NY

Award year: 2006

Jungjin Lee

Born 1961, Seoul, South Korea

Based in New York City

Award year: 2011

Mary Lucier

Born 1944, Bucyrus, OH

Based in New York City and Cochecton, NY

Award year: 1997

Jennifer Wen Ma

Born 1973, Beijing, China

Based in New York City and Beijing, China

Award year: 2019

Suzanne McClelland

Born 1959, Jacksonville, FL

Based in Brooklyn and Orient, NY

Award year: 2010

Carrie Moyer

Born 1960, Detroit, MI

Based in Brooklyn, NY

Award year: 2009

Senga Nengudi

Born 1943, Chicago, IL

Based in Colorado Springs, CO

Award year: 2005

Judy Pfaff

Born 1946, London, UK

Based in Tivoli, NY

Award year: 2012

Rona Pondick

Born 1952, Brooklyn, NY

Based in New York City

Award year: 2016

Christy Rupp

Born 1949, Rochester, NY

Based in New York City and Hudson Valley, NY

Award year: 2008

Betye Saar

Born 1926, Los Angeles, CA

Based in Los Angeles, CA

Award year: 2004

Joyce J. Scott

Born 1948, Baltimore, MD

Based in Baltimore, MD

Award year: 1997

Beverly Semmes

Born 1958, Washington, DC

Based in New York City

Award year: 2014

Jeanne Silverthorne

Born 1950, Philadelphia, PA

Based in New York City

Award year: 1996

Diane Simpson

Born 1935, Joliet, IL

Based in Chicago, IL

Award year: 2019

Valeska Soares

Born 1957, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Based in São Paulo, Brazil

Award year: 2005

Renée Stout

Born 1958, Junction City, KS

Based in Washington, DC

Award year: 1999

Julianne Swartz

Born 1967, Phoenix, AZ

Based in Stone Ridge, NY

Award year: 2015

Marie Watt

Born 1967, Seattle, WA

Based in Portland, OR

Award year: 2006

Carrie Mae Weems

Born 1953, Portland, OR

Based in Syracuse, NY

Award year: 2007

Lynne Yamamoto

Born 1961, Honolulu, HI

Based in Easthampton, MA

Award year: 1996

Carrie Yamaoka

Born 1957, Glen Cove, NY

Based in New York City

Award year: 2017

Anonymous Was A Woman: 

The First 25 Years

Courtesy Hirmer Verlag and Grey Art Museum, NYU

Publication

Book cover for "Anonymous Was A Woman." The title is written in black capital letters on a white background, with the word, "Woman" slightly faded.Anonymous Was A Woman: The First 25 Years is accompanied by a 392-page volume of the same name, which will be released prior to the opening of the exhibition. Co-published by Hirmer Verlag and the Grey Art Museum at New York University, the publication commemorates all 251 recipients of the award from 1996 through 2020, offering a visual and critical account of their work and careers. Featuring new essays by Nancy Princenthal, Vesela Sretenović, Valerie Cassel Oliver, Alexandra Schwartz, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Jenni Sorkin, and Gaby Collins-Fernández, as well as a roundtable discussion with founder Susan Unterberg, the book also unveils previously untold histories, underscoring the lasting influence of these artists. “The book, unlike the exhibition, functions as kind of a mini-history, which is exciting,” shares Gumpert. Available soon at the Grey Art Museum Bookstore, $55 retail, and online.

Anonymous Was A Woman: The First 25 Years is organized by the Grey Art Museum, New York University, and curated by Nancy Princenthal and Vesela Sretenović.

About the Curators

Nancy Princenthal is a Brooklyn-based writer whose book Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art (2015) received the 2016 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography. She is also the author of Hannah Wilke (2010) and Unspeakable Acts: Women, Art, and Sexual Violence in the 1970s (2019), and co-author of Mothers of Invention: The Feminist Roots of Contemporary Art (2024). Princenthal has taught at Bard, Princeton, Yale, the School of Visual Arts, NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts, and elsewhere.

Vesela Sretenović is an art historian and curator of modern and contemporary art with a special interest in cross-disciplinary art practices and in bridging theoretical knowledge with hands-on experience. From 2009–23 she served as Director of Contemporary Art Initiatives and Academic Affairs at The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. She is currently working as an independent curator and educator.

Grey Art Museum, New York University

18 Cooper Square, New York, NY 10003

greyartmuseum.nyu.edu