Donna Huanca now represented by Sean Kelly

September 11, 2023

Sean Kelly is delighted to announce the gallery's representation of Donna Huanca.

Donna Huanca (b. Chicago, 1980) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores the human body and the natural world, through mark-making, raw materials, immersive environments, and singular topographies. Encompassing painting, sculpture, and live performance, as well as sound and scent works, Huanca’s installations are characteristically created for, and integrate with, the specific architectural spaces in which they are presented. Her art is deeply invested in communal practice, exploring ritual at large as a means for transcendence, meditation and transformation. Since 2012, Huanca has collaborated with performers, inviting them to improvise and interact with her surrounding sculpture and installations, their painted skin a major element in the composition.

Interested in the transformation and fluidity of earthly cycles such as birth, decay, and renewal, Huanca layers multiple temporalities, transforming each work into the next. Her impermanent paintings on bodies become paintings on walls, once they have been photographed, collaged and partially covered with a new tactile layer. Donna Huanca states, “I am very excited to be working together with Sean Kelly Gallery in New York and Los Angeles. The consistency with which the Gallery has supported visions of performance art, painting, and new media over many decades is inspiring to me. For my first exhibition at the Gallery, I hope to tap into the experimental beginnings of the gallery in SoHo, and the way that ethos aligns with the current state of my practice. I hope to add a fresh perspective to the already rich program.”

Sean Kelly states, “We have followed the trajectory of Donna’s career for many years now, fascinated by the scope, inventiveness, intelligence, and sheer beauty of her work. We are delighted to have her join the gallery, her practice perfectly complements the critical rigor for which the gallery is known.”

Concurrent with her inaugural exhibition at Sean Kelly, November 9–December 23, 2023, Huanca will be the subject of a major exhibition at the Faurschou Foundation, Brooklyn, New York, October 21, 2023–July 14, 2024.

photo: Rita Lino

Open House Festival 2023

September 5, 2023

Launching tomorrow, Wednesday 6 September, Open House Festival is a two-week celebration of London’s homes, architecture and neighbourhoods. You can get inside some of London’s best known buildings, as well as some of its best kept secrets.

Open House Festival celebrates our curiosity for what happens inside the buildings that we walk past every day; a festival that works to give all Londoners the chance to learn from the city’s best architecture and the people behind it.

The 2023 Open House Festival programme is now live, with tickets available here.

Hauser & Wirth announces representation of Sonia Boyce

Hauser & Wirth is honoured to announce representation of artist Sonia Boyce, in collaboration with Apalazzo Gallery, Brescia, Italy.

Over the course of four decades, Sonia Boyce OBE RA has developed a powerfully original practice that transcends boundaries as an interdisciplinary artist and academic working across film, photography, print, sound and installation. Boyce creates immersive and experiential spaces that explore themes of play, disruption and revelation in which the audience become active participants.

In 2022, Boyce presented ‘Feeling Her Way’, commissioned for the British Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia for which she was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. The exhibition is currently on view at Leeds Art Gallery, UK, as part of a continuing international tour. In a collaboration with five Black female musicians, the project features sounds – sometimes harmonious, sometimes clashing – that embody feelings of freedom, power and vulnerability among Boyce’s video works, signature tessellating wallpapers and golden geometric structures. The work expands on Boyce’s ‘Devotional Collection’, an archive built over more than two decades and spanning more than three centuries, which honours the substantial contribution of Black British female musicians to transnational culture.

Boyce first came to prominence in the early 1980s as a key figure in the burgeoning British Black Arts Movement with figurative pastel drawings and photo collages that addressed issues of race and gender in Britain. In the early 1990s, Boyce made a shift towards a conceptual practice which led to significant multi- media and improvisational works, distinctly focused on collaboration, movement and sound. Working across a range of media, Boyce’s practice today is focused on questions of artistic authorship and cultural difference. She continues to break new ground through her commitment to questioning the production and reception of unexpected gestures, with an underlying interest in the intersection of personal and political subjectivities.

Manuela Wirth, President, Hauser & Wirth said, ‘It is such a great honour that Sonia Boyce has joined our gallery. A remarkable pioneer, Sonia’s highly original practice combines not only conceptual rigour and joyful creativity, but also generosity to the audience who become active participants, along with her fellow collaborators. In this way, Sonia has created a vocabulary wholly her own – consistently finding new approaches to making art that embrace experimentation with humanity and social practice at its core. At Hauser & Wirth we believe that art is a transformative force and our own global learning programs are a reflection of this ethos. We look forward to collaborating with Sonia in the years ahead.’

Boyce’s first exhibition with Hauser & Wirth will be held in 2025.

photo: Parisa Taghizadeh

Sophia Loeb joins Pippy Houldsworth Gallery

August 30, 2023

Pippy Houldsworth Gallery is delighted to announce representation of Brazilian painter and sculptor Sophia Loeb, and the opening of her first solo exhibition with the gallery, Todos os Seres são de Todos os Seres (All Beings are of All Beings), on 8 September.

Growing up in Brazil, Loeb spent much of her childhood in nature, developing an acute understanding of and humility towards her place in the natural order, an experience that challenged anthropocentric understandings of ecology and philosophy. Through her painting, Loeb conceives of an alternative reality in which violence towards the natural world is exchanged for compassion, and in which the ephemeral cycle of natural phenomena is allowed to run its course through processes of healing, reprogramming and reconstruction.

Sophia Loeb (b. 1997, Sao Paulo, Brazil) lives and works in London. She received her MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London, and earned her BA in Fine Art and History of Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. Loeb has been included in group exhibitions at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London (2023); Galerie Marguo, Paris (2023); Spread Museum, Entrevaux (2021); and Lamb Gallery, London (2018), amongst others. She has participated in residencies at the School of Visual Arts, New York and Kaaysa Arte Residência, Brazil.

photo: Bijanka Bacic

Brussels Gallery Weekend returns for its 16th edition

August 22, 2023

Brussels Gallery Weekend is coming back from September 7th to 10th, taking place in the heart of Ixelles, in the historic building of D'Ieteren. The 16th edition promises to be filled with innovation and fresh energy. The goal is to offer a captivating program, with a focus on the quality of content and the characteristic diversity of the Brussels contemporary art scene, in collaboration with the 45 participating galleries and the 14 institutions of the OFF Program. Furthermore, exhibition Generation Brussels returns for its 6th edition under the expert curatorship of Sam Steverlynck.

Brussels Gallery Weekend, a longstanding ambassador of the Brussels art scene for over 15 years, continues to showcase the dynamic spirit, exceptional craftsmanship, and extraordinary talents that transcend our borders every year. The highly anticipated 2023 edition will feature a diverse selection of 45 participating galleries, complemented by the presence of 14 institutions highlighted in the Off Program.

Participating Galleries
Alice Gallery, Almine Rech, Ballon Rouge, Baronian, Belgian Gallery Brussels, Bernier / Eliades, C L E A R I N G, Claes Gallery, Damien & The Love Guru, dépendance, EDJI Gallery, ESTHER VERHAEGHE-Art concepts, Frédérick Mouraux Gallery, Galeria Jaqueline Martins, Galerie Christophe Gaillard, Galerie DYS, Galerie Greta Meert, Galerie La Forest Divonne, Galerie La Patinoire Royale Bach, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Gallery Nosco, Gladstone Gallery, Harlan Levey Projects, Hopstreet Gallery, Irène Laub Gallery, Jan Mot, KIN, LMNO, Mai 36 Galerie, MARUANI MERCIER, Meessen De Clercq, Mendes Wood DM, Michel Rein, Montoro12 Gallery, Mulier Mulier Gallery, NINO MIER, Nosbaum Reding, QG Gallery, Pierre Marie Giraud, rodolphe janssen, Sorry We're Closed, Stems Gallery, TEMPLON, Waldburger Wouters, Xavier Hufkens

OFF Program
argos, Art et marges Museum, Contemporary Art Collection of the National Bank of Belgium, Contretype, Fondation CAB, Garage Cosmos, KANAL-Centre Pompidou, La Cambre, La Loge, MIMA, Royal Museums of Art and History, Société, TheMerode, WIELS

Pace announces representation of Pam Evelyn

July 28, 2023

Pace is pleased to announce A Handful of Dust, its debut exhibition of work by British artist Pam Evelyn, who is now represented by the gallery. On view from September 6 to 30, the exhibition will span two floors of Pace’s London gallery, with a suite of new paintings made over several months between London and Cornwall. Evelyn’s recent exhibitions include The Reason for Painting, Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, UK and New British Abstraction, Centre for International Contemporary Art, Vancouver, Canada. Evelyn also works with MASSIMODECARLO in Italy.

Working alone, often in periods of intense focus, Evelyn’s process is a relentless cycle of renewal as she articulates her distinctive visual language in countless applications of oil paint, before scraping back and reiterating her gestures once again. She considers the raw linen canvas an unstable surface into which paint sinks and rises in unpredictable ways, leaving her grappling to rebuild and dismantle in equal measure until the composition emerges. The ghostly echo of previous forms reverberates through the finished piece, inviting close and prolonged looking to reveal the painting’s diaphanous intricacy over time.

Evelyn’s approach to paint is akin to a sculptor’s use of clay. She maintains its malleability and fluidity over at least six months in order to intuitively respond to the demands of the viscous material. Indeed, Evelyn considers her role to be more witness than painter, explaining, “Instead of dictating what the painting should be, I place myself in a position where the painting tells me where it’s going and I have to react. For me it’s a very surprising way of making a painting and I like the challenge, I like the unexpected.” In works such as Deluge (2023), a complex web of forms, gestures, and marks surges across the two panels, imbuing the painting with a sense of urgency and precariousness. Evelyn also layers a variety of glazes over the oil paint, harnessing light and shadow to create a luminous quality in the painting’s surface.

Pam Evelyn is a painter, living and working in London. Her expansive, abstract canvases are densely layered, richly textured meditations on nature, the body, and materiality. Evelyn’s intuitive approach to painting translates her experience of the world onto the canvas, creating complex compositions that brim with life.

photo: © Pam Evelyn and Michael Brzezinski

Yooyun Yang Joins Stephen Friedman Gallery

July 27, 2023

Yooyun Yang’s atmospheric paintings are set at nighttime, following her interest in night as a liminal space that offers respite from the repetition of a daily routine. Objects are fundamental to Yang’s work, with motifs of blinds, curtains and railings frequently appearing. By repositioning them through her otherworldly gaze, Yang emphasises how the familiarity of our environment can become uncanny, with objects becoming increasingly unfamiliar the more we pay them attention. A hazy, cinematic quality pervades the work, suggestive of the paintings’ photographic origins.

Cloaked in darkness, the paintings explore the emotional states of Yang’s subjects, conveying feelings of existential anxiety and solitude through the nocturnal ambience of the works. Frequently concealing her subjects’ faces, Yang uses shadow and composition to create distance between the viewer and the subject, articulating the sense of isolation common in what she describes as this ‘age of anxiety’.

Yang paints on hanji paper, traditional Korean handmade paper made from mulberry tree bark, building up layers of diluted acrylic to control the intensity of the colour. Speaking of her paintings, Yang said ‘I want my works to be like a thorn in your mind that pricks from time to time, or like a very gentle fever.’

Yang’s first UK solo exhibition “Passing Time” opened at Stephen Friedman Gallery in June 2023.

Yang lives and works in Seoul, Korea. Born in 1985, Yang studied Oriental Painting at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul. The artist has had multiple solo exhibitions in Seoul including at Chapter II; Amado Art Space/Lab; Gallerylux; OCI Museum of Art and Ccot+Incubator. She has also had solo exhibitions at Gallery Bundo in Deagu and Gallery SoSo in Paju. In 2023 Yang is included in a group exhibition at Ulsan Art Museum, Ulsan. In 2022 Yang was included in the 58th Carnegie International at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh and in 2021 in the 8th Chongkundang Yesuljisang at Sejong Museum of Art, Seoul. The artist has also been included in group exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Cheongju and Arko Art Center, Seoul. She has carried out residencies at Korea National University of Arts, Seoul; Chapter II, Seoul; Studio White Block, Cheonan; Gyeonggi Creation Center, Ansan-si and Incheon Art Platform, Incheon.

David Zwirner now represents Sarah Michelson

July 17, 2023

David Zwirner is pleased to announce the representation of British-born, New York–based choreographer, dancer, and artist Sarah Michelson, who will develop a residency program for dance artists in partnership with the gallery.

Since the late 1990s, Michelson has come to be known for choreographic work that engages notions of process, physicality, immediacy, and impermanence. Drawing from personal and dance history, her formally rigorous, incisive, often humorous performances defy genre in their expansive interrogation of dance, situational context, and the roles of choreographer and dancer; artist and audience.

Michelson’s scrupulously prepared performances are experienced as fleeting, singular events, defying easy legibility or reproducibility. Her work moreover examines the possibilities afforded by questioning, problematizing, and challenging what dance is and can be, while evincing a devotional commitment to dance and the efforts of its performers and the broader dance community.

In October 2021, Michelson performed Oh No Game Over, a new, durational multimedia work at David Zwirner’s 519 West 19th Street location in New York. Presented to the public over the course of five days, the work incorporated painting, digital projections, sound, and radical interventions in the architecture. Oh No Game Over was developed over the course of several months, while Michelson used the gallery as a working studio space in preparation for the performance. She will present new work at the gallery’s Los Angeles location in early 2024.

In addition to elaborating her own dance practice, Michelson will oversee and develop a residency program at David Zwirner, inviting dancers to work in and perform at the gallery’s spaces.

Michelson stated, “I am happy and nervous to announce that I am joining the David Zwirner gallery. The gallery, David, Thor, and the whole team have been so damn kind and supportive about my dance making in this context, and I am on a huge learning curve, but honestly am deeply excited about this next step and honored. One thing that is very important to me as I make this move to work with the gallery—who are so open and responsive—is to help develop a platform in which other dance artists can have access to this structure in the way I have had. More on this soon—here goes y’all.”

Thor Shannon, a director at the gallery who will work with Michelson, has said, “I first saw Sarah Michelson’s work at the 2012 Whitney Biennial, where the beauty and toughness of her work Devotion Study #1—equal parts elegance and anarchy—astounded me. I've followed her legend ever since. Her dances have a mythic 'blink and you miss them' guerilla quality—when they happen, you show up, or else miss them forever. Sarah and her work have together taught me so much about what it means to live in a human body, in its concomitant strength and fragility. Her dances are simultaneously uncompromising and generous in ways that only the best art can be. I am beyond excited to support her work and the work of other dancers in this new paradigm.”

David Zwirner has stated, “Dance has played such a decisive role in the history of twentieth-century art, and continues to inform contemporary art practices. And yet, rarely have choreographers received real-time support from the commercial art world. That support has come from nonprofit spaces, performance venues, and institutions, which have brought the dance world’s radicality to a broader audience, and corrected historical omissions when it comes to the work of dancers and choreographers. The temporal and ephemeral quality of dance stands in stark contrast to our social-media-saturated world, and it has proven to be one of our most vital art forms. Without a doubt, Sarah is one of the most exciting choreographers of her generation, and I am so honored to be working with her and, through her, to be able to support and promote dance artists in this new partnership.”

image: © Sarah Michelson

CHANEL and M+ announce new three-year partnership

July 13, 2023

M+ museum in Hong Kong today announces a three-year partnership with CHANEL, whose first-ever partnership with a cultural institution in Hong Kong signifies their commitment to the support of local cultural institutions with a global impact.

CHANEL becomes M+’s Major Partner and will support a lead curatorial position - CHANEL Lead Curator, Moving Image - to enhance M+’s programmes. The partnership will also cover selected M+ Cinema programmes including “Rediscoveries”, a recurring series featuring forgotten gems and restored classics, and “Afterimage”, showcasing works by some of today’s most important video artists and experimental filmmakers.

Additionally, the partnership will assist in two new projects - “M+ Restored”, a new film restoration programme to preserve Hong Kong’s cinematic heritage - and the Asian Avant-Garde Film Circulation Library, the first and only research and collection-building initiative of its kind in Asia.

Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+, says: “We are delighted that CHANEL, renowned for its influence over the global spheres of creation and visual culture, shares a united vision with M+ to preserve film culture and nurture moving image practices, and more importantly, support arts and cultural innovators to advance new ideas and greater representation. CHANEL’s generous support is instrumental in pushing the boundaries of M+’s curatorial endeavours in moving image and promoting the vitality of our rich film heritage to the global audience.”

Yana Peel, Global Head of Arts & Culture, CHANEL, said: “We are honoured to partner with M+ on their pioneering curation and preservation of moving image to inspire creativity, foster new ways of thinking, and celebrate Hong Kong Cinema. Through CHANEL’s long-standing cultural commitment and our major new partnership with M+, we hope to create opportunities for an emerging generation of moving image artists from Hong Kong and the region to imagine the next.”

Silke Schmickl, CHANEL Lead Curator, Moving Image, M+, says: “We are immensely grateful for CHANEL’s support towards our multifaceted and pioneering moving image activities. The partnership allows us to kick off two important initiatives to research and preserve the work of some of Asia’s most significant film artists, and present them within pertinent contemporary curatorial frameworks of international moving image culture.”

photo: Kevin Mak

Frieze acquires The Armory Show, New York, and Expo Chicago

Frieze has announced the acquisition of New York’s Armory Show, as well as an agreement to acquire EXPO CHICAGO.

The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, however it is understood that the fairs, two of the longest-running in the US, will continue to operate under their existing brands and with their current teams.

“These are both iconic, historic fairs with deep roots into their communities. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to invest further in the US art scene and play a bigger role,” said Simon Fox, chief executive of Frieze, adding, “Through this deal we’re respecting the existing art fair calendar, and hopefully giving even more compelling reasons for people to visit Chicago in April and New York in September.”

Nicole Berry, the Armory Show’s executive director added: “It affords us in the future opportunity to collaborate, innovate and grow in ways we haven’t been able to in the past … we are an established brand with deep roots in New York City.”

Expo Chicago president and director Tony Karman calls Frieze’s involvement “a significant boost [which] increases our ability to be more impactful and successful on behalf of our visitors”.

Frieze was founded as a magazine in 1991 by Amanda Sharpe and Matthew Slotover, had its first fair in 2003 in London, expanding to New York in 2012, and to Los Angeles in 2019. It is now part of IMG, the sports, fashion, events and media network.

The Armory Show was started in 1994 by the dealers Colin De Land, Pat Hearn, Lisa Spellman, Matthew Marks and Paul Morris, is held every fall and attracts crowds of 65,000.

EXPO CHICAGO, The International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art, was founded by Tony Karman in 2012, and in 2023 hosted 170 galleries from 36 countries, attracting over 32,000 visitors.

photo: Justin Barbin

Gathering announces representation of Emanuel de Carvalho

July 7, 2023

Gathering is delighted to announce the representation of Emanuel de Carvalho.

'Emanuel’s refined and piercingly contemporary paintings astutely comment upon the complex world we inhabit, perfectly exemplified by neurosystem I, 2023, currently on view as part of Support Structures. We particularly look forward to Emanuel’s first solo exhibition at the gallery in spring 2024. It's a real pleasure to embark on this journey with such a wonderful artist and person.'
- Alex Flick, Founder & Director, Gathering

Emanuel de Carvalho’s practice reflects on moral and societal codes and how these relate to psychophysical perceptive responses. Drawing from an academic background in visual processing studies and the phenomenological interpretation of imagery and sound, de Carvalho uses painting, sculpture, installation, and sound, to examine our ways of seeing and perceiving in the current zeitgeist. Through his work, he aims to challenge and question the structures of vision, presenting an alternative perspective that extends beyond conventional notions of representation. His compositions incorporate two fundamental elements—flesh and chiasm—derived from the insights of phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty. The intersection (chiasm) of bodies and objects (flesh), prompts individual responses that are a direct reflection of our ideological perceptions.

photo: © Grey Hutton, 2023