Four Shows to See in New York City This Winter
Our New York correspondent, Anni Irish is back with some exhibition selects that will get you inspired (and keep you out of New York’s winter chill.)
Although winter in NYC can undoubtedly be a drag, there is still plenty of art to see (indoors!). Two of our selected shows also incorporate aspects of plantlife and greenery, which also helps to put thoughts about warmer weather into the minds of New Yorkers as well. Here are four must-see shows across the five boroughs.
Daiga Grantina: What Eats Around Itself, 2020. Exhibition View: New Museum, New York. Photo: ToanVu-Huu
Conrad Ventur at Participant Inc
a green new deal is the latest solo show for the artist Conrad Ventur at Parcipant Inc. Responding to his interest in gardening, sustainable living, Ventur investigates how these ambitions are often at odds with living and creating art in New York City. a green new deal addresses on these conflicts while also considering broader ideas around growth, both literally and figuratively speaking.
The show consists of a functioning greenhouse, filled with plants from the artist himself and others he has on loan from friends. The exhibit also features a single channel video piece entitled The Internship. Depicted are various recordings conversations between Ventur while he was working as a horticulturist at Wave Hill Public Gardens in the Bronx and the artist Barbara Hammer. They both discuss gardening and other related topics.
It also showcases other aspects of his life that are in consort with his garden; as he works and socializes within it, he creates a larger sense of community and personal identity. There are also a series of photographs as well that are placed throughout the gallery space that draws on the work of Warhol, Carolee Schneemann, and others.
“a green new deal “ is on view at Participant Inc. through February 9th.
Daiga Grantina at the New Museum
Born in Latvia in 1985, Daiga Grantina has been making a name for herself within the art world for the last decade. In 2019, she represented her home country at the Venice Biennale and has previously exhibited her work at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris in 2018, as well as the Kunstverein Hamburg in 2017. Now the European artist has come stateside for her first solo exhibition at the New Museum. The show entitled What Eats Around Itself, explores a number of genre-crossing works incorporating sculpture, installation and more.
The title of the exhibition refers to lichen, a plant that is slow-growing and typically can be found on walls, rocks, and trees. Incorporating elements of terrariums, vegetation, and plant enclosures, Grantina's installations explore the natural world in synthetic form. Much like the plant lichen itself, which is able to adapt to most situations.
For Grantina's first solo exhibit at the New Museum, she has managed to create a site-specific installation that transports viewers into another world. Using cast silicone with paint, latex, fabric, and felt, and wood suspended from the gallery's ceilings, she has incorporated the adaptable aspects of the lichen plant and had reinterpreted it into another form. The installation has plant-like qualities even though it has been made from synthetic materials and to the eye, it appears simultaneously alive and dead. The work is whimsical, unexpected, and exciting.
“Daiga Grantina: What Eats Around Itself” is curated by Helga Christoffersen, Executive Director, Art Hub Copenhagen and is currently on view at the New Museum through May 17.
Daiga Grantina: What Eats Around Itself, 2020. Exhibition View: New Museum, New York. Photo: ToanVu-Huu
Gerhard Richter at the Met Breuer
Widely acknowledged as one of the most influential German painters of his generation Gerhard Richter's career has spanned over six decades. His often genre-bending paintings incorporate temporal and spatial elements while also exploring elements of abstraction and representation. A new exhibit opening at the Met Breuer in March will look at the expansiveness of his work over the last 60 years.
During the 1960s-70s, Richter became famous for a series of figurative paintings that used as source material, photographic imagery from newspapers, personal photographs, and other found materials. Over the course of his career, he also has painted a number of portraits of those in his creative orbit. Gerhard Richter: Painting After All will also feature over 100 works that draw from a variety of themes that have punctuated his long career.
Some major pieces in the exhibit will include Cage (2006) and Birkenau (2014). The show will also explore the artist's interest in sculpture, photography, and reproduction and also showcase a brand new pieces entitled House of Cards, (2020).
Gerhard Richter: Painting After All will be on view at the Met Bauer from March 4-July 5, 2020.
Gerhard Richter | About Painting, 21 October 2017 to 18 February 2018 at S.M.A.K., Gent (Belgium) Image courtesy of S.M.A.K.
Agnes Denes at the Shed
Known as an early pioneer of the conceptual art movement as well as environmental and earth-based works, Agnes Denes' current retrospective at the Shed is one of the must-see exhibitions this year. Engaging with various fields ranging from science to philosophy, Denes has managed to create work over the last five decades that have captured the imaginations of her audience.
Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates features over 150 pieces and looks at some of the most vital aspects of her rich body of work including her much loved Philosophical Drawings (1969–80), as well as Map Projections (1973–79), and Pyramid Series (1970 –) among others.
The exhibit also features documentation from her now-famous piece A Wheat Field (1982), when a two-acre wheat field was planted in a landfill in New York City, two blocks from Wall Street and the World Trade Towers. Requiring 200 truckloads of dirt, 285 furrows were dug by hand and the field was maintained for four months through to harvest time, when it produced over 1,000 pounds of wheat.
The exhibition takes over the Shed's gallery spaces and is organized by major themes in Denes' work. It is expansive, cerebral and showcases the best of what Denes has to offer. Denes has continued to remain at the forefront of the art world and the methods she employs and this show only underscore the genius of her as an artist.
Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates is on view at the Shed through March 4.
Agnes Denes, The Wheat Field, 1982