Galerie Eva Presenhuber announces representation of Chemu Ng’ok

October 4, 2024

Galerie Eva Presenhuber is proud to announce the representation of Nairobi-based artist Chemu Ng’ok, alongside Central Fine, Miami, and Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg. On November 15, her debut solo exhibition with Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Echoes, will open at Waldmannstrasse, Zurich.

Ng’ok investigates personal, psychological, political, and spiritual relationships through her art. Her works unveil tensions and shifts in belief systems within African societies, blending reality and imagination to create intricate narratives. These include themes such as the act of negotiating power for the self within the institution, bearing witness to ceremonies, the search for justice, and navigating loss through the body within the theme of transition. The works are in constant flux as their meaning changes over time and the ambiguity of the work allows for different interpretations. Painting becomes a verb, an act of doing, searching, witnessing, or navigating. An elusive conclusion is never reached.

In painting the body, I show a psychological disjuncture. The flexibility of flesh offers me painterly ammunition. Lines hint at the unfinished aspects of thought. The lines morph and become a type of coding that hovers “in the air” of painting. These transmutations are endless. They refer to language, memory, ritual, absence, a future that is yet to be determined, things left unsaid and bodies on the verge of eruption.
– Chemu Ng’ok

Ivy Brandie Chemutai Ng’ok was born in 1989 in Nairobi, Kenya, where she lives and works. In 2017, she received her MFA in painting from Rhodes University, Grahamstown, ZA. In 2023, she was the subject of a solo exhibition at ICA Milano, Milan, IT. She has participated in group exhibitions at institutions including The Institutum, Singapore, SG (2024); Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, CH (2024); Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute, Nairobi, KE (2024); Galerie Eva Presenhuber x Taxa, Seoul, KR (2023); Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint-Martens-Latem, BE (2022); Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL, US (2022); Zeitz MOCAA, Capetown, ZA (2022); de la Cruz Collection, Miami, FL, US (2021); New Museum Triennial, New York, NY, US (2018); Grahamstown National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, ZA (2018; 2014); and National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, ZW (2017).

photo: James Muriuk

David Zwirner now represents Victor Man

David Zwirner is pleased to announce the representation of Victor Man. The gallery will present the painting K (2014) by Man at Art Basel Paris, and a solo exhibition is planned for autumn 2025 at the London gallery.



Man’s psychologically layered, resolutely enigmatic paintings collapse reality and fiction, past and present. Marked by an elegant spareness and often painted in a palette of dark and atmospheric tones, the artist’s work encompasses portraits of individuals from his milieu, as well as symbolically laden scenes that are cloaked in a shadowed melancholia.

Man’s paintings are frequently characterized by existential themes drawn directly from his own intimate spiritual experiences. Stylistically complex, these compositions elude categorization, often revealing varied, nonlinear references to art history, literature, and poetry, while also maintaining their singular position in contemporary art. The paintings speak to a deep exploration of existence where human and animal, masculine and feminine, often intermingle. As curator Alessandro Rabottini writes, Man’s work resides “in a regime of mutual simultaneity,” which “reveal[s] an osmosis of different identities that open up and complicate the very notion of portraiture. However, what coexists in Victor Man’s practice is not only the different dimensions of time and forms of feeling but also, and above all, the dimensions of human existence … eroticism alongside spirituality, affection alongside its renunciation, and resemblance alongside mystery and estrangement.” Through their overlapping and synchronous interventions of time, place, and feeling, Man’s paintings evoke the elegiac depths of human experience and reverberate with emotional immediacy.

David Zwirner states, “I love Victor Man’s powerful and enigmatic paintings. To me, they are quintessentially European, firmly rooted in the history of Western painting and his deep appreciation for the Renaissance. His paintings remind me of my favorite poetry: fragments coalesce into open-ended narratives, the interiority of his subjects remain mysterious, and through his surprising iconography, he manages to collapse the continuum of time. I’m excited and honored to welcome Victor Man, one of the truly unique voices in contemporary painting, to the gallery.”

Victor Man was born in 1974 in Cluj, Romania. His work has been the subject of various solo exhibitions at museums and institutions such as the Städel Museum, Frankfurt (2023); Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2022); Sant’Andrea de Scaphis, Rome (2021); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2018); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2014); Villa Medici, Rome (2013); and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2009)

artwork: Victor Man, K, 2014 (detail). © Victor Man

Perrotin to open London gallery in early 2025

October 1, 2024

Perrotin gallery is delighted to announce the opening of Perrotin London in early 2025.

Situated in the heart of Mayfair, the gallery features 350 m2 of completely refurbished space in Claridge’s, a true British landmark. Perrotin is thrilled to be setting up its first London space in this vibrant and historic neighborhood. Located on Brook’s Mews, the gallery will be next to Claridge’s ArtSpace Café.

Perrotin London will offer a program created together with its artists to coincide with the city’s major cultural events, such as Frieze London, where the gallery has participated since 2004. For the 2024 edition, the gallery will present works by British sculptor Lynn Chadwick, whose Estate recently joined the gallery.

“It’s important to have a gallery in the British capital. We have a long-standing relationship with the UK art scene and collectors. I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to set up the gallery in the right conditions. I’m delighted to offer our artists a new exhibition platform and new projects in such a prestigious environment. This space was inaugurated in 2021 with a Damien Hirst exhibition organized by Claridge’s. As it happens, I organized Damien Hirst’s first two commercial exhibitions in 1990 (with a group show) and in 1991 (with a solo show) in my first Parisian space. At the exhibition opening in 1991, Frieze magazine launched its first issue, and Damien’s work was featured on the cover. It was an exceptional moment in my career. I look forward to coming full circle!” - Emmanuel Perrotin

Alison Jacques announces representation of Sagarika Sundaram

September 27, 2024

Sagarika Sundaram (b.1986, Kolkata, India; lives and works in New York, US) describes her process as one of transformation: ‘There’s an alchemy to it,’ she says of her work. ‘It changes in its final form.’ This sense of transformation and ‘alchemy’ has been a central theme throughout Sundaram’s career, where she uses wool, silk, and dyes to create textile sculptures, reliefs, and installations. These works bridge the bodily and the botanical, using the materiality of wool to explore internal, external, and imagined landscapes.

After working in graphic design for a decade, Sundaram pursued an MFA at Parsons School of Design, New York, following her degree in Visual Communication from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Each element in her work—wool, silk, dye—is chosen for its distinct textural qualities, which contribute to the polyphonic nature of her compositions. Her use of felt, an ancient textile form originating in Central Asia, is especially important. Treated entirely by hand, the material holds deep geographic histories while its pliability enables Sundaram to explore the potential of material as a form of thought.

In her studio, Sundaram approaches wool as if sketching, layering fibres like cross-hatching to create a mesh. Her process is intuitive; the work’s anatomy reveals itself only as layers of unruly colour interact and evolve. Stretched and coiled, her unfolding forms explore the intersections between human and natural worlds, challenging the notion that the two can be separated. As Sundaram puts it, ‘By the time things are humming along, the ending makes itself obvious—the work is complete when I can feel it talking to me.’

Sundaram made her solo debut at Palo Gallery, New York (2023), and has participated in group exhibitions at the Bronx Museum (2024) and the Al Held Foundation & River Valley Arts Collective (2023). Her upcoming solo show will be at Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi (2025), and her work will be featured in the UBS VIP Lounge at Art Basel Miami Beach (2024).

Sundaram’s first solo exhibition with Alison Jacques will take place in Autumn 2025.

photo © Anita Goes

Roberts Projects announces representation of Wendy Red Star

September 24, 2024

Roberts Projects has announced representation of Wendy Red Star (Baaeétitchish – Does Things Well), following the gallery’s first solo exhibition of Red Star’s work – Bíikkua (The Hide Scraper) – this past August.

Wendy Red Star, of the Piegan clan and from the district of Pryor, engages in a multidisciplinary artistic practice grounded in the history and cultural knowledge of the Apsáalooke (Crow) people. Raised on the Crow reservation in Montana, her work reflects her deep connection to her community, culture, and land.

Red Star’s art recontextualizes United States history through a Crow lens, often challenging colonial narratives while elevating Crow experiences, traditions and stories. Through photography, sculpture, video, fiber arts and performance, Red Star’s work emphasizes the importance of Apsáalooke cultural practices and knowledge transmission, especially within her own family and community. Her rigorous research and focus on archival materials allows her to bring forward underrepresented aspects of Apsáalooke history, often intertwining wit and critical insight to challenge dominant narratives.

“This foundation is the main source for the inspiration behind all the work that I create… where I come from, the community that I’m from, the culture that I grew up in, the land that has molded my experience,” says Red Star, who sees her artistic practice as inseparable from her Apsáalooke identity. Additionally, Red Star’s work foregrounds the importance of amplifying Native women’s voices in the discourse of contemporary art.

photo: Paul Salveson

Timothy Taylor now represents Alice Tippit

September 18, 2024

Timothy Taylor has announced the representation of Alice Tippit. The Chicago-based artist will continue to be represented by Nicelle Beauchene in New York and Patron in Chicago.

In her canny, hard-edged paintings, Tippit plays with colour, shape, repetition, symmetry, figure, and ground to create images whose meaning remains unfixed. She paints vibrant, minimal arrangements of geometries and forms drawn from the art historical traditions of portraiture, still life, and landscape, including flora and fauna as well as architectural and pastoral elements. Tippit’s work suggests the expansive worlds of desire and identification that underlie how meaning is made.

The gallery will present a solo exhibition of new works by the artist next month at the ADAA’s The Art Show in New York.

photo: Evan Jenkins

New Fourth Plinth Commission by Teresa Margolles unveiled

On 18 September 2024, the new Fourth Plinth Commission Mil Veces un Instante (A thousand times in an Instant) by Teresa Margolles was unveiled on the Fourth Plinth.

Mil Veces un Instante is made up of plaster casts of the faces of 726 transexual, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people. The casts were made in Mexico City and Juárez, Mexico; and London. She worked closely with community groups across Mexico and the UK including Micro Rainbow and QUEERCIRCLE. The casts have been created by applying plaster directly onto the faces of participants, meaning that as well as recording their features the plaster is infused with their hair and skin cells.

Audience Survey Draw Winner!

September 17, 2024

We are delighted to announce a winner of the draw from our recent GalleriesNow Audience Survey.

Out of over 400 entries, a winner has been selected at random and sent a code to redeem their £100 GalleriesNow voucher.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who took the time to share their insights - your feedback is crucial in helping us refine and enhance the platform, and making more art accessible to more people.

We are using the valuable input to develop and implement enhanced features designed to improve your overall experience. Exciting updates are on the horizon so please stay tuned for announcements about the new features.

Congratulations again to our winner (who wishes to stay anonymous), and thank you all for contributing!

David Lewis joins Hauser & Wirth as Senior Director

September 13, 2024

Hauser & Wirth has announced that David Lewis has joined the gallery as a Senior Director in New York City. Lewis comes to Hauser & Wirth after having run his own eponymous gallery for over a decade, with a first location on Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side and a subsequent space on Walker Street in Tribeca. David Lewis Gallery attracted critical praise for its rigorous program focused equally on solo presentations showcasing emerging artists and incisive theory-driven group exhibitions, and for revising the canon via thoughtful attention to under-recognized older artists and historical figures. Prominent among those Lewis has championed are pioneering feminist artist Mary Beth Edelson (1933 – 2021) and celebrated Alabama-based expressionist painter and sculptor Thornton Dial (1928 – 2016).

Lewis is widely admired for his scholarly and sensitive approach to modern and contemporary cultural narratives, and his fresh interpretations of them. For example, with the exhibition ‘Dial / Hammons / Rauschenberg,’ Lewis was first to show Dial, an autodidact and product of the Jim Crow South, in context with famous art titans, proposing the trio as true peers. A specialist in the oeuvre of Francis Picabia (1879 – 1953), Lewis presented ‘Everyone Loves Picabia’ in 2023. Effectively recapping the conversations that had informed his gallery’s ethos and programming over the years, this show promulgated the value of seeking and sharing new connections between emerging and historical art.

Before opening the gallery in 2013, David Lewis lived and worked in Paris, where he completed a Ph.D. from The Graduate Center, CUNY, on the career of Francis Picabia, titled ‘Francis Picabia and the Problem of Nihilism.’ While in Europe, he contributed regularly to prominent international art magazines such as Artforum and Frieze, and published extensively, including essays on Philip Guston, Henri Matisse and Sturtevant, among many others.

photo: Axel Dupeux

David Zwirner announces co-representation of Sasha Gordon with Matthew Brown

September 5, 2024

David Zwirner is pleased to announce the co-representation of New York–based painter Sasha Gordon with Matthew Brown. David Zwirner will debut a new painting by Gordon at Frieze London, and a solo exhibition of the artist’s work will be on view in September 2025 at the gallery’s 19th Street location in New York.

In her luminous and hyperrealistic paintings, Gordon often renders her own likeness, conveying the self and its many guises through translucent layers of oils in electric hues. Executed with technical precision and rigor, the artist’s visceral compositions treat her own corporeal form as a kind of unorthodox avatar that communicates subjective, psychological experience. Gordon lets her surreal narratives unfold intuitively on the canvas, depicting bodies in sometimes absurd, darkly humorous scenarios or disorienting spatial compositions and portraying faces that translate a range of feelings. In illuminating detail, she reimagines fragments extracted from her inner life while boldly envisioning worlds within worlds that bear uncanny resemblance to our own. Complicating the genre of self-portraiture and engaging the canon of art history, her work expresses multiple psychic registers at once, addressing viewers with a candor that is both familiar and unsettling in its intimacy.

Sasha Gordon was born in Somers, New York, in 1998. She received a BA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, in 2020.

photo: Jason Schmidt

Mai 36 Galerie announces representation of Jacopo Benassi

August 29, 2024

Mai 36 Galerie in Zürich announces the representation of Italian artist Jacopo Benassi.

Benassi began exploring photography in the 1980s, initially through environments connected to underground music. Over time, his work expanded to encompass portraits and self-portraits, performances, painting, nature, and the fashion industry. Throughout his career, he has consistently maintained a deeply intimate and introspective approach to photography.

Benassi’s work has progressively evolved from photography to painting, performance and sculpture. His photographic work, developed on the basis of the contrast between the underlying darkness and the light of the flash, set off pitilessly on every subject, has momentarily chosen the non-visible part of things as its location of choice and for concealment, with what remains guarded or imprisoned between one frame and the next, between one image and the next, what can only be imagined or desired.⁠

Victoria Siddall appointed new Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London

August 28, 2024

Victoria Siddall’s appointment as Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, was announced Wednesday, 28 August 2024.

The appointment, made by the National Portrait Gallery’s Board of Trustees, was approved by the Prime Minister, and Siddall will take up the post in Autumn 2024.

Victoria Siddall has over 20 years’ experience of leadership positions in the art world, both in the public and private sectors. Most recently, she co-founded Gallery Climate Coalition and Murmur, two charities that drive environmental responsibility in the art and music sectors, and or the past two years she has also worked with Tate in a strategic advisory capacity. Victoria was previously Global Director of Frieze, founding Frieze Masters and then leading four international art fairs across London, New York and Los Angeles. After securing the launch of Frieze Seoul, she became a non-executive Director of Frieze in March 2022.

Victoria is a trustee of Gallery Climate Coalition and the Ampersand Foundation and was until recently a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. As Chair of the Board of Studio Voltaire she guided the organisation through a successful capital redevelopment campaign, greatly increasing the space dedicated to artist studios and public programmes. Other voluntary work has included securing a series of auction donations, which raised over $6.5m for the environmental charity ClientEarth.

The appointment of the Gallery’s thirteenth Director follows the departure of previous post-holder, Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE, who left the Gallery to become Director of the British Museum in June 2024, and Victoria Siddall will take over from Interim Director Michael Elliott.

David Ross, Chairman of the Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery, London, says: “I am delighted to welcome Victoria Siddall as the new Director of the National Portrait Gallery. Her strengths as a cultural leader are considerable, as is her knowledge of the art world, understanding of audiences and international profile. I know that she has the vision and determination to build on our recent successes and lead the next stage of the Gallery’s development, and I greatly look forward to working with her.”

Victoria Siddall said: “I’m truly honoured to have the opportunity to lead the National Portrait Gallery, a museum that holds the world’s greatest collection of portraits and is unique in being about people and for people. The art within its walls tells stories of human achievement and what unites us as a society, inspiring and shaping our view of the world and our place in it. This is perhaps the most exciting time in the NPG’s history, following the recent reopening and Inspiring People project that the team delivered so flawlessly under Nicholas Cullinan’s leadership.”

And Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy said: “Victoria Siddall will bring a wealth of experience to this role and I am delighted that the National Portrait Gallery is making history by appointing its first female Director. Her leadership will lead the Gallery from strength to strength, building on their successful reopening last year and I am excited to see what she and the National Portrait Gallery team will have in store for us in the coming years.”

photo: Benjamin McMahon

Pedro Ruiz joins Nohra Haime Gallery

August 6, 2024

The Nohra Haime Gallery has announced the newest addition to their roster of artists - Pedro Ruiz is a distinguished Colombian artist renowned for his profound exploration of conceptual painting and socio-political narratives within the context of Colombia.

Born in 1957, Ruiz embarked on his artistic journey at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he immersed himself in the study of painting and printing. His formative years included invaluable experiences at Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17, refining his craft and deepening his artistic vision.

Returning to Bogota, Ruiz’s career evolved through collaborations with the advertising agency McCann Erickson, where he rose to become the company’s Artistic Director. His contributions earned international acclaim, garnering numerous awards at prestigious festivals.

Ruiz's work is a masterful blend of emotional depth and spiritual introspection, intricately woven with Colombia's rich ecological diversity. His meticulous approach to depicting the country’s flora and fauna reflects a profound commitment to authenticity, drawing inspiration from extensive research and reference materials.

Recognized with awards such as the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government, Pedro Ruiz continues to captivate audiences globally. His comprehensive body of work was honored with a dedicated publication by Villegas Editors in 2011, with commentary by Colombian author William Ospina.

Ruiz's art unfolds as narratives where solitary figures drift in canoes among nature taking us to a magical kingdom devoid of superfluous elements, capturing the essence of the country's vibrant natural world.

An exhibition of his recent work will open on September 5th and run through October 26th, 2024.

Tolarno Galleries announces representation of Raymond Tan

August 2, 2024

Breaking away from the conventional notion of cakes as purely edible treats, Raymond Tan’s exhibition titled ‘A piece of …’ expands the horizons of creative expression by presenting cake sculptures designed not to be devoured but to be viewed as works of art.

Tan’s story begins in Selangor, where he spent his formative years before relocating to Australia in 2006 to pursue higher education. While completing a master’s degree in accounting, Tan discovered baking as a creative outlet.

His inventive bakes, including whimsical cake pops, intricately decorated fortune cookies, and stunning celebration cakes, quickly gained attention on Instagram.

Tan’s cake pops, featuring designs such as cacti, drippy watermelon, iconic landmarks and figures such as Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld, became an internet sensation. His work was featured in Vogue, reposted by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and highlighted in numerous other prestigious publications.

In 2019, following Melbourne’s first Covid lockdown, Tan founded Raya, a bakery on Little Collins Street, that has quickly become a beloved spot for locals and visitors alike. Raya is celebrated for its innovative cakes, which blend traditional techniques with contemporary twists, reflecting Tan’s artistic flair and global inspirations.

Raymond Tan’s journey from self-taught baker to a globally recognized culinary artist is a testament to his passion and creativity. Raya Bakery embodies his commitment to pushing the boundaries of baking and offering customers an extraordinary experience with every bite.

Imbued with creative freedom, ‘A piece of …’, his first exhibition at Tolarno Galleries, marks a new chapter in his story.

The exhibition continues until Saturday, 10th August, 2024.

photo: Christian Capurro

Galerie Barbara Thumm announces representation of Elyla

July 25, 2024

Galerie Barbara Thumm has announced the representation of the artist Elyla.

Elyla is a multi-disciplinary artist and activist working with video and photo performances, installations, experimental theatre, performative sculpture, and site-specific performance art interventions. Their name comes from the terms “him-and-she” in Spanish (El-y-la), reflecting their interest in recognizing gender as an apparatus of modernity that permeates life beyond the politics of the self or the colonial gender binary system. They are informed by Mesoamerican indigenous cultures and current social issues.

Elyla lives and works in Masaya, Nicaragua, and will pursue a Master of Arts at the Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW in Switzerland in the Fall of 2024.

“I seek to propose a ‘cochona (queer) utopia’ that explores and holds the meaning of mestizaje, I recognize my cochoneidad (queerness) as my greatest access to my ancestry and my greatest anticolonial weapon. I aim to disrupt colonial hegemonic cultural narratives, to reclaim sexual dissidence as ancestral memory and knowledge.” - Elyla

Their first exhibition at the gallery will open on the 6th of September.