NYC's Jen Bekman Gallery is currently showing the work of Portland, Oregon-born photographer Gregory Krum in "...Practice..." The exhibition, Krum's first solo show in New York, will be on display through June 27th.

"...Practice..." is titled after Gerhard Richter's book, The Daily Practice of Painting and exhibits 37 of the Krum's photographs, which embrace Richter's convictions about art and art making. In his series of carefully grouped photographs, Krum explores the ways in which truth is derived simply by virtue or belief.

Krum's photographs depict images of tombstones, dust and sand, and other items that insight investigations of deep thought and the search for tangible entities that define the beliefs through which we find meaning in life and art. Additionally, five sill-lifes, evoking images of Dutch interiors, illustrate more literally the ways in which certain objects become vessels of life's meaning.


Gallery founder, Jen Bekman, recently commented on Krum's work,

"I cannot articulate what makes Greg's work so magical for me. That formal qualities and deep intellect inform his practice doesn't justify the way that it seems perfectly acceptable for me to allow his truths to serve as impostors for my own memories. But does that matter, really? Is memory about experience and belief, or an emotion?"


Check it out today, and click here to read more about the Jen Berkman Gallery, which exhibits the work of emerging artists in the mediums of photography, works on paper, paintings, and mixed media

See what other photography exhibitions are going on in NYC throughout June

Susan Wides' current exhibition - her sixth solo show at Kim Foster Gallery, is titled "Art & Entertainment" and exhibits the artist's new ink prints. Wides created her newest large-scale pigmented photographs during the first few months of 2010. The exhibition builds on the photographer's 10 + years of exploring the depths of NYC during which she visually documents images of the city through the facets of tilt - shift.


The works displayed in "Art & Entertainment" portray Wides' continued exploration of the ways in which physical phenomenons are experienced - by peoples' senses and imaginations via intuitive insight, states of awareness and visual thinking. She seeks to show that although these manifestations and feelings exist ephemerally - as very short lived perceptions, she is able to reproduce them with her camera. 


The artist's creations include scenes in which figures and the ground are joined together through blur and tilt, leaving the viewer unsure of where they are standing in relation to the picture plane. In doing this, Wides plays with perspective - creating non-conventional vanishing points and shifting glints of interactive moments.


Click here to read more about the photographer, her show and the two publications in which her work will soon be included.

Could it be... a Lower East Side locale that combines two of my favorite things: art and alcohol? The answer is YES, and it's called (appropriately) GalleryBar.

The LES hotspot, which opened in 2007, functions as a gallery by day, exhibiting works from the art world's emerging and established talents, and transforms into a bi-level lounge after the sun goes down. The upstairs gallery / lounge can accommodate 150 people, and the more intimate downstairs can hold up to 100. Separate bars on each floor make it a unique choice for private parties (and reservations are encouraged on weekends).

Right now, the gallery is exhibiting "1 Brush & 2 Spray Cans." Unfortunately, the show ends today, but the website promises to have details on upcoming shows soon. In the past, the gallery has shown works by contemporary artists Brian Sweeney, Ashley Gilbertson, Zito, Juan Manuel Pajares, Tunney Munney, and Kevin Berlin.

GalleryBar has also partnered with GigMaven, which helps artists and venues book gigs online - so if you have any suggestions, you should apply via GigMaven or the gallery's website.

Check out some GalleryBar reviews

Chinese artist Zhao Bo is currently exhibiting his second solo show in New York City.  "Vibrant City," on display through April 22nd at Eli Klein Fine Art, shows the artist's boldly colored paintings.  Zhao Bo's expressive works document monumental late-20th century cultural and political shifts that occurred in China  - as seen through the perspective of the Chinese people.


As China's opening to the West in the late 1980s ushered in a new era, these paintings capture snapshots into the unique period of Chinese history. Zhao Bo juxtaposes Communist and contemporary icons in the same scene, revealing the Chinese peoples' desire to obtain and adhere to contemporary culture (rather than remain true to traditionalism). He includes Communist markers, symbols and signage in order to show the lingering and dominant presence that the Chinese government still holds over its people and country.


The artist's flashy paintings mock the social realist propaganda of Communist China, as stoic and ideal Chinese workers and citizens are replaced with ostentatious and enthusiastically posed cartoons. In doing so, he also wishes to express the vitality and exuberance of the new Chinese generation - one that appreciates modernity, western culture and freedom.

See what else is going on at Eli Klein Fine Art.

Read the full article associated with this post.
Fine out more about Zhao Bo.

Chelsea's Agora Gallery, established by the late Miki Stiles in 1984, is famous for showcasing a spectacular array of talented local and international artists and providing quality art to collectors. While there are so many fine art galleries in NYC (and in Chelsea, specifically), Agora is unique in its offering of various art programs.


Besides exhibiting collective and annual fine art exhibitions, the gallery's programs include:

The Chelsea International Fine Art Competition:
Prominent art experts and museum curators judge entries from around the world for this  annual fine art competition. The gallery introduces the juror-selected artists to the New York art scene through an exhibition and promotional activities.

ARTisSpectrum Magazine:
ARTisSpectrum Magazine is a bi-annual fine art magazine that is distributed to museums, galleries, art institutions and art schools around the world. It provides artists, collectors, museums, galleries, art organizations and enthusiasts access to the work of internationally talented emerging and mid-level artists as well as featuring various articles, reviews and interviews.

Social Media Initiatives:
Agora Gallery runs an artists' blog as part of its commitment to share information for artists. The blog offers advice, up to date news of the gallery's exhibits and events, and art-related stories from around the world. The gallery also has a facebook page and twitter account, which are frequently updated.

Art-Mine.com:
This website lists fine art for sale from emerging and established artists, and is one of the most comprehensive resources available on the web for this purpose.

Currently on display at Agora Gallery:

"Matrix of the Mind: Contemporary Fine Art by Japanese Artists" runs through March 19th and is a survey of talented contemporary Japanese artists. The works show the artists' talents along with their appreciation for the natural world and the spiritual mind.


"Ruth Gilmore Langs: Paint," also on display through March 19th, displays the artist's passionate pieces. Her abstract expressionist paintings reveal Langs' love of nature and exhibit the artist's intuitive sense of color and whimsical ability to entrance the viewer.


Upcoming exhibitions include:

"Contemporary German Art: The New York Experience" (March 23rd - April 13th)
"Brick by Brick: the LEGO Brick sculpture of Nathan Sawaya" (March 23rd - April 13th)
"Portals of Perception" (March 23rd - April 13th)

Marianne Boesky Gallery is displaying its third solo show of Dutch artist Jacco Olivier’s work. This show focuses on the artist’s new work, which differs from his previous creations (that contained the language of animated film) and shifts rather towards works that resemble the language of painting. Now, Olivier’s lush painterly films include traditional subjects like bathers, landscapes and portraits.
 

 

Olivier’s unique combination of painting and filmmaking, which allow his creations to border the abstract, occurs through his continual reworking of canvases. His techniques include photographing each iteration and brushstroke and then combining the various stages with their liquid color into films.  

His current Marianne Boesky exhibition includes films that unravel and reveal themselves in a slow manner, allowing time for viewers to contemplate what they are seeing. Subjects are exposed in a sharp focus as action remains at a minimum.
 

 

Click here to read more about the exhibition, including details about the films on display: Bath, Landscape, Transition, and Revolution.

Long Island City, the westernmost district in Queens – and the borough’s largest neighborhood, contains some of NYC’s best art spaces.

 

Current Exhibitions:

 

P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center: LIC’s most famous art center, this museum is one of the oldest and largest non-profit contemporary art institutions in the US. P.S. 1 devotes its energy and resources to displaying the world’s most experimental art and has been an affiliate of the MoMA since 2000. Several exhibitions are currently on display, including “Christian Marclay: 2822 Records (PS1), 1987 – 2009,” “On-Site 2: Chitra Ganesh,” “Leonardo Erlich: Swimming Pool,” “Between Spaces,” “1969,” and “100 Years (version #2).”  


Deitch Studios: On through March 28, 2010, Deitch Studios presents “Josh Smith: On the Water,” for which the artist painted forty-seven paintings directly on the gallery’s walls. His intention, to make “art without an art object” (and thus, to take the commodity out of the art), has been accomplished – as the stationary works cannot be purchased and are only to be looked at. Smith’s paintings are light, weightless and direct. Additionally, his creations seem to float, containing a fluidity that reflects the flow of water on the river, visible through the gallery windows.
 

 

Socrates Sculpture Park: This non-profit gallery is exhibiting “EAF09: 2009 Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition,” through March 7, 2010. The exhibition features new works by the Park’s current resident artists. The Socrates Sculpture Park awards fellowships each year; winning artists receive grants, a residency in the Park’s outdoor studio, technical support, and access to tools, materials and equipment to facilitate the production of new sculptures and installations for exhibition in the Park. Emerging Artist Fellows are selected annually through an open application process. Visit the gallery’s website for more information on this process, plus project descriptions, images of works on display and artists’ biographies.

 

SculptureCenter: “Leopards in the Temple,” on display at this non-profit gallery through March 30, 2010, is a tribute to Franz Kafka’s parable of the same title. The group exhibition focuses on moments of metamorphosis, paradox and formal adjacency, borrowing from the author’s allegory in order to promote multiple readings of succinct forms and extraordinary occurrences. The international artists’ works share an extra-linguistic interest in moments of translation and a resistance to fixed forms.

 

More LIC Art Venues:

 

Galleries -  Subdivision Art; Repetti, Long Island City; Dutch Kills Gallery; Dean Project; M55 Art

Non-profit Galleries – Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs; Women’s Studio Center, Inc.

Museums - The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum; The Museum for African Art; The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass; Scalamandre Center for Decorative Arts Research; Fisher Landau Center for Art

 

New York City's Marian Goodman Gallery, founded in 1977, has played a prominent role in introducing European art and artists to American audiences. Eight years prior to opening her gallery, Marian Goodman established Multiples, which published prints, multiples and books by leading American artists. From 1968 to 1975, Multiples worked with European artists, introducing early editions by Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers, Gerhard Richter and others to American Artists. The Marian Goodman Gallery opened an exhibition space in Paris in 1995.

Today, both gallery locations represent dozens of acclaimed and talented artists from around the world. Click here to view a complete list of represented artists.

The New York locale is currently exhibiting two new works by British artist and film maker Steve McQueen. The show, which runs until Saturday, March 6th, is showing "Giardini, 2009," and "Static, 2009." McQueen first presented his "Giardini, 2009" at the 53rd International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2009), where the artist represented the U.K. The 30 minute film includes two side-by-side projections steadily gathering a series of evocative vignettes. The film is appropriately titled, as it documents the Giardini, Venice's famous park and exhibition areas (located in the Castello district). McQueen's film depicts famed monuments and various aspects of nature at times when visitors do not typically flock to the Giardini, such as during the interim between biennals, in the down-time and during the night. "Giardini" is a powerful piece, constructing a fictional world with great care and allowing for many interpretations. 

The artist's "Static, 2009" is also on display, and was created especially for this exhibition.

The Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris is currently exhibiting the work of Italian Artist Giovanni Anselmo through March 27th.

Von Lintel Gallery will show David Maisel's "Library of Dust" from January 21st until February 27th. The artist photographed copper canisters, each containing the cremated remains of individual patients from an Oregon psychiatric hospital. After getting past the somewhat creepy notion, viewers will see oddly beautiful and strangely unique looking photographs of the copper containers. Because of corrosion (due to the copper's oxidization and physical and chemical changes the canisters have undergone), each container has taken on a look of its own. The eerie photographs call attention to the mystery of the spiritual realm and nature at its purest beauty; they also create a rebirth of sorts, for the patients whose ashes the canisters contain.

Maisel photographed the objects after hearing about the existence of some 3,500 canisters of cremains, which the Oregon State Hospital revealed it had in 2005. The canisters contain remains of patients who died at the hospital between 1883 (the year it opened) and the 1970s. With money allocated after the "Library of Dust" project brought the existence of the canisters to a wider audience, the hospital is currently being rebuilt.

To read more about the exhibition and the artist himself, click here.

Tis the Season to visit NYC's hottest galleries, and here's a list of the most critically acclaimed exhibitions to see throughout the city:

HELMUT FEDERLE @ Peter Blum Soho - "Scratching Away at the Surface" displays five canvases (from a series of nine) that explore rotation and geometry. German artist Federle's work, described as "delicate" and "a breath of fresh air," mirrors his 1970s creations and tranquilly display the Romantic period-esque tension between the intellectual and the spiritual. (Image, left is Federle's "Requiem for My Cat")

VOLKER HUELLER @ Eleven Rivington and Salon 94 - This pair of shows displays the artist's determination to create work using antiquated visions, as he creates his work through a process of acid etching and hand applied faded watercolor and shellac. His display at Eleven Rivington includes smaller paintings that resemble a Deco-era Parlor show - complete with several pieces of period furniture. Alternatively, Hueller's display at Salon 94 is less rigid, as his paintings, which are large silver monochromes, glisten in the appropriately lit room.

"BESIDES, WITH, AGAINST, AND YET: ABSTRACTION AND THE READY-MADE GESTURE" @ The Kitchen - The exhibition examines two of the key artistic inventions of the twentieth century: abstraction and the readymade. Represented artists include Jutta Koether, Seth Price, Cheney Thompson and R.H. Quaytman.

ALIGHIERO E BOETTI @ Gladstone Gallery - The gallery has collected a great number of the artist's best-known works to exhibit the first retrospective exclusively dedicated to Boetti's maps. The beautiful handmade maps (made by Afghan craftswomen) were commissioned by the artist beginning in 1971. Boetti's unique relationship with the Afghan women developed and flourished over several decades, even as the individuals sought refuge in Pakistan after war ravaged their homeland during the late 1970s. The maps are similar - but also include some variations like their differently shaded oceans and border texts.


Other notable exhibitions include:

JASON LOEBS: "Ned Ludd said Sorry" @ Audio Visual Arts (AVA)

GEO AND CHIHARA SHITOA: "Drawn Together" @ Goff + Rosenthal

SOPHEAP PICH: "Caged Heart" @ Tyler Rollins Fine Art

CHARLES AND RAY EAMES: "Evidence of the Paranormal" @ Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery

AGNES DENES: "Study of Dust" @ Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects

"DRESS CODES" @ The International Center of Photography

SIAH ARMAJANI: "Murder in Tehran" @ Max Protetch

Click here to see the critics' reviews, gallery locations, exhibition dates, and the entire article associated with this post.