10 Must-See Shows during New York Art Week 2023
Michaela Yearwood-Dan, installation view of “Some Future Time Will Think of Us” at Marianne Boesky Gallery, 2023. Photo by Lance Brewer. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen.
Following its launch in 2022, New York Art Week is back for a second edition, bringing with it major fairs, museum exhibitions, and countless gallery shows. Art Week spans May 10th to 14th and coincides with Future Fair, Independent, and TEFAF, though the unofficial dates encompass the following week to include Frieze and NADA.
With these fairs drawing crowds from across the globe, galleries are capitalizing on the spotlight by presenting a wide range of exhibitions from blue-chip and emerging artists. From Chelsea, to Tribeca, to the Lower East Side, strong displays of abstract painting abound, as do conceptually-driven installations and mixed-media sculptures. While many galleries are staging solo shows from leading and rising stars of their rosters, others are diving deep into their archives with seldom-exhibited historic works and group presentations.
Here are 10 must-see shows on view during this year’s New York Art Week.
Michaela Yearwood-Dan, installation view of “Some Future Time Will Think of Us” at Marianne Boesky Gallery, 2023. Photo by Lance Brewer. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen.
The title of Michaela Yearwood-Dan's solo show, “Some Future Time Will Think of Us”, is taken from a poem by Sappho, a reference that sets the stage for the queer joy that weaves through the luscious compositions on view.
Known for her use of vibrant colors and blending of gestural marks with more calligraphic and feathery brushwork, Yearwood-Dan creates paintings that are consistently visually captivating. Short handwritten phrases join the dense fields of color, the texts taken from songs, poems, and the artist’s own writing. These phrases also adorn the surfaces of ceramic vessels installed alongside the paintings, some of which hold lush, green foliage.
The star of the exhibition is a monumental, multi-panel, mixed-media painting, In the crooks of your body, I find my religion (2023), titled after a quote from Sappho. The atmospheric painting is over 26 feet wide and nearly spans the length of the gallery wall. With bespoke pink benches, the artist invites viewers to sit and meditate in the stillness of the room.
Kehinde Wiley, Portrait of Emilio Hernandez Gonzalez, 2023. © Kehinde Wiley. Courtesy Sean Kelly.
Kehinde Wiley, Portrait of Yaima Polledo & Isabel Pozo, 2023. © Kehinde Wiley. Photo by Max Yawney. Courtesy Sean Kelly.
Inspired by two trips to Cuba, Kehinde Wiley’s latest work examines the evolution of Black culture from a global perspective. “HAVANA” consists of new paintings, works on paper, and a three-channel film, all of which focus on the spread of carnivalesque traditions in Western culture, from depictions in art history to their legacy in street performance, dance, and the circus. Wiley homes in on these events as sites of self-discovery where people who are outcasts or feel on the periphery of their communities can express themselves and find moments of freedom.
The artist depicts circus performers in his characteristic style, subverting conventions of Old Master paintings and European portraiture to celebrate Black culture and figures, including everyday people. Centering on Cuba as a crossroads between European traditions and the African diaspora, Wiley explores the broader significance of the circus and carnivalesque and their role in shaping people and cultures throughout history.
Alex Foxton, Alan Lynes, 2023. Courtesy of the artist, Kapp Kapp, Various Small Fires, and Galerie Derouillon.
Alex Foxton, Alan Lynes, 2023. Courtesy of the artist, Kapp Kapp, Various Small Fires, and Galerie Derouillon.
For his first-ever U.S. solo show, Paris-based, U.K.-born artist Alex Foxton drew inspiration from the renowned photographer Stanley Stellar, whose intimate images documenting 50 years of queer life in New York have become pivotal in illustrating the love, beauty, and struggles of the LGBTQ+ community. Foxton focuses on Stellar’s images of the series of decayed piers in the West Village that were hidden from public sight and became a queer oasis emblematic of sexual liberation and creativity in the decade before the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“Sunshower” includes works on paper and 14 new paintings by Foxton that feature brightly hued figures in various stages of undress. The figures steal furtive glances at the viewer with curious expressions, as if gauging interest. Foxton highlights the secretive nature of Stellar’s subjects, pointing to the lore of the piers and their significance in the history of queer culture.
Luciano Fabro, L’Infinito, 1989. © Silvia Fabro. Photo by Stefan Altenburger. Courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery.
Spanning both of Paula Cooper Gallery’s Chelsea spaces is an expansive exhibition of work by Luciano Fabro (1936–2007). A key figure in post-war Italian art, Fabro helped redefine sculpture, pushing the boundaries of the discipline with non-traditional materials and techniques. Fabro was associated with the influential Arte Povera movement and was particularly interested in notions of space and language, as well as the relationship between the body and the environment.
Included in the exhibition is the artist’s monumental L’Infinito (1989), a steel cable displayed directly on the gallery floor in the form of an infinity symbol. Eight pieces of Calacatta marble hold down the cable, inviting the viewer to reconsider the notion of infinity. Also on view are sculptures from Fabro’s famous “Piedi”series (1968–2000), which resemble giant claws or birds’ feet rendered in bronze. The thin legs attached to each foot are made of cylinders of silk. The exhibition marks the first U.S. show of the artist’s work in eight years.
Kelly Akashi, installation view of “Infinite Body” at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, 2023. Photo by Pierre Le Hors. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York and Los Angeles.
In “Infinite Body,” casts of the artist Kelly Akashi’s body are broken apart, recombined, and blended with other organic materials, including rocks, crystals, and flower petals. Known for her use of a range of materials and experimentation with traditional processes, Akashi is interested in the biological memory of the body. Her broken-down body parts in the show become poetic interventions that meditate on the impermanence of all life—human and otherwise.
Arranged on rammed earth platforms, the assortment of objects in bronze, carved stone, crystal, and hand-blown glass resemble altars to the biology of the body and the natural world. Some forms and materials are recognizable, including flowers, chewing gum, and broken friendship necklaces, references personal to the artist that also speak to greater concepts that connect us as humans. Some bear hidden symbols, such as hands interlocking to form a vesica piscis, a geometric shape with rich historical and spiritual significance related to merging bodies. Throughout the show, Akashi asks the viewer to reflect on time, the body, and our own role within the greater natural world.
Tamo Jugeli, Untitled, 2023. Photo by Steven Probert. Courtesy of the artist and Polina Berlin Gallery.
Tamo Jugeli, Untitled, 2023. Photo by Steven Probert. Courtesy of the artist and Polina Berlin Gallery.
In “…lightly,” self-taught painter Tamo Jugeli showcases her instinctive style, blending abstraction and figuration in dreamy, colorful paintings that resist easy categorization. Originally from Tbilisi, Georgia, Jugeli is now based in Brooklyn, a move that has led to fall colors, winter landscapes, and urban architecture seeping into her work. While glimpses of recognizable imagery like dogs and planes appear in her works, Jugeli rejects clear narratives, instead using the language of abstraction to create lyrical compositions.
The artist approaches her work with spontaneity, embracing the sensations that arise with the act of painting rather than focusing on the result. When suggestions of greater narratives emerge, they do so fortuitously and without any predetermined plan. Jugeli leaves the viewer free to attempt to read the surface, parsing disjointed trains of thought in the gestural brushstrokes, patches of color, and shapes that are at once familiar and foreign.
Misha Japanwala, “Beghairati Ki Nishaani: Traces of Shamelessness”
Hannah Traore Gallery
May 4–July 30
Misha Japanwala, Artifact SS01, 2022. Photo by Aleena Naqvi. Courtesy of the artist and Hannah Traore Gallery.
Misha Japanwala, Artifact SJ01, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Hannah Traore Gallery.
Subverting the Urdu word beghairat, a derogatory term meaning “shameless” or “without dignity,” Pakistani artist and fashion designer Misha Japanwala creates resin body casts of those who push against societal expectations. She celebrates risk-takers and creatives: artists, activists, writers, and educators, as well as femme, queer, and trans people, all feature among her shameless protagonists.
The casts center on the subject’s torsos, meticulously preserving the contours of their bodies, even revealing the pores in their skin. Their surfaces are coated in bronze, copper, and gold, which the artist then ages with chemicals to mimic patination. Japanwala features a range of bodies to create an archive of beghairat. In places, the works reveal visible evidence of surgeries, as well as intangible, personal stories of trauma and freedom. In celebrating these figures, Japanwala seeks to preserve their stories and redefine the word beghairat as a symbol of liberation.
André Hemer, Troposphere #9, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Hollis Taggart.
André Hemer, Troposphere #8, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Hollis Taggart.
Exploring the intersections of digital media and painting, Vienna-based artist André Hemer creates dreamy, atmospheric compositions that resemble portals to the sky. Hemer uses scanners and digital photography to capture objects such as flowers en plein air against blue and pink skies, archiving changes in light. For “Troposphere,” he then combined these images, which were taken all over the world, and printed them onto canvases. Hemer used these layered images as the backgrounds of his paintings.
The flat, digital quality of the sky and floral backdrop contrasts with the thickly applied paint and expressive brushwork, pulling the eye across the surface. This sense of movement is heightened by the subtle blurring effect created through the process of scanning. With florals, iridescent skies that resemble rich silk, and tondo canvases reminiscent of ceiling frescoes, Hemer’s work appears simultaneously contemporary, Renaissance, and Rococo. It’s hard not to imagine the foot of a Jean-Honoré Fragonard figure swinging into Hemer’s ethereal compositions.
Miguel Ángel Payano Jr., Adara, 2023. Photo by JSP Art Photography. Courtesy of the artist and Charles Moffett.
Miguel Ángel Payano Jr., High Priestess, 2023. Photo by JSP Art Photography. Courtesy of the artist and Charles Moffett.
Miguel Ángel Payano Jr. draws from his Afro-Caribbean heritage and experiences of living in the U.S. and China to highlight the importance of language and communication in connecting across cultures. He uses a variety of materials and sculptural forms to create dynamic, three-dimensional paintings, including humorous portraits as well as whimsical scenes of limbs, which alternately melt into and battle with waves and clouds.
Payano often incorporates symbols with layered meaning into his work, in particular the peach, which represents fertility, spring, and longevity in Chinese culture. Peaches take the form of mouths in Payano’s portraits, held in place by casts of hands and forearms that the artist models from his own body. The symbolism of the setup is significant: Payano was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and the live-casts preserve his body in stillness. Meanwhile, the peaches held by the casts represent a long life.
Jack Pierson, Gertrude Stein, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery.
Tara Donovan,Untitled (Pins), 2004. Courtesy of Demo Gallery.
Exploring the material and conceptual intersections of poetry and art, “A Study in Form (Chapter One)” brings together an impressive roster of emerging and established artists. Curated by artist and designer Arden Wohl, the show features a range of materials and media, including a sensual painting by Cecily Brown, a Tara Donovan cube made of pins, baby pajamas in kevlar by Joe Lewis, and a Marcel Broodthaers eggshell sculpture.
Some artists in the show have clear ties to poetry: Broodthaers was a poet before becoming an artist; Jack Pierson’s wall sculpture reads “Gertrude Stein” after the poet and friend of many artists who hosted lively gatherings; Brice Marden has been known to draw inspiration from poetry, including Tang Dynasty poet Hanshan. Other works are more conceptual, highlighting parallels between the way in which artists and poets both seek meaning and foster creative communities. The works on view are purposefully eclectic, even discordant, but all are evidence of an attempt to exist on the fringes of aesthetic conventions.
