A short list of the can’t-miss new exhibition openings (and closings) this week, by city. See last week’s list for other recent openings, and for a more comprehensive guide, see our Itinerary.
NEW YORK
B. Wurtz “Kitchen Trees”
City Hall Park
OPENS: August 7
Beginning this week, a group of strange and sculptural “trees” will sprout around the Victorian fountain in lower Manhattan’s City Hall Park. Created by the New York–based artist B. Wurtz, and organized by the Public Art Fund, the series of delightful 15- to 18-foot-tall works are assembled from found and recycled kitchen objects, with colorful trunks made of pots and colanders, and plastic produce flowering from delicate, buoyant metal branches.
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Malick Sidibé “LOVE POWER PEACE”
Jack Shainman Gallery
524 W 24th Street
CLOSES: August 10
This solo exhibition highlights the recently departed Malian photographer Malick Sidibé’s largely black-and-white works depicting the exuberant and burgeoning youth culture of post-colonial Mali in the 1960s. Also included in the exhibition is Sidibé’s never-before-seen portrait series of the British artist Chris Ofili from 2014, for whom Sidibé’s work has been a major influence.
(Opening image: Malick Sidibé, “Nuit du 31 Decembre,” 1971/2008. Gelatin silver print, 9 x 5 3/4 inches image size. Photo: Courtesy Jack Shainman Gallery)
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Michael Stipe “Infinity Mirror”
The Journal Gallery
106 N 1st Street, Brooklyn
CLOSES: August 12
In his latest exhibition, the artist and ex–R.E.M. frontman arrays a selection of his photographs—recently compiled in his publication “Volume 1”—an autobiographical body of work drawn from 750 contact sheets chronicling his life, friendships, and creative community from 1979 to 2013. Alongside these images is a display of Stipe’s collection of historical ephemera and personal keepsakes that further underscores the diaristic nature of his practice.
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LOS ANGELES
“Rauschenberg: In and About L.A.”
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles
OPENS: August 11
New York and Florida may have been the abstract painter’s primary stomping grounds, but Los Angeles exerted indelible influence over Rauschenberg’s creative output. From his 1970s partnerships with L.A. print workshops like Styria Studio to his latter-day series “In + Out City Limits” (1979–81) and “LA Uncovered” (1998), the works gathered here highlight how the artist sought and found inspiration in and about the city.
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“Portable Art: A Project by Celia Forner”
Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles
South Gallery Mezzanine, 901 E 3rd Street
Los Angeles
CLOSES: August 12
Spanish model and jewelry designer Celia Forner organizes this 15-artist exhibition, which features unique pieces and editioned series that blur the lines between the disciplines of sculpture and jewelry. Along with these elevated and wearable pieces—including works by Louise Bourgeois, John Baldessari, Paul McCarthy, Michele Oka Doner, Pipilotti Rist, and more—the exhibition showcases a series of photographs, commissioned for the occasion, of Spanish actress Rossy de Palma engaging with the works on view.
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ELSEWHERE
Jeffrey Gibson “Like a Hammer”
Denver Art Museum
100 W 14th Avenue Parkway
Denver
CLOSES: August 12
The contemporary artist’s first-ever museum presentation examines how his complex, multidisciplinary practice has dovetailed with his Native American heritage and identity. About 65 works, including some of his figurative paintings, beaded sculptures, textural wall hangings, and videos, are gathered here in a showcase of his striking visual vocabulary and distinctively modern voice.
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“Tag: Proposals on Queer Play and the Ways Forward”
Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
118 S 36th Street
Philadelphia
CLOSES: August 12
As digital technologies and connectivity have opened up new arenas for queer representation, this group show surveys how that discourse has flourished in game design, performance, kink, and activism, led by such artists as Savannah Knoop, A.K. Burns, and Dusty Shoulders.
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