Art in NYC now
Here are some now-open New York City gallery and museum shows that I recommend. The first one is great seen online. The rest are meant to be seen in person, but you can get some idea from the linked images. — Denis Pelli, January 29, 2021
COVID New York
Five ICP Alumni
Online indefinitely.
https://www.icp.org/exhibitions/covid-new-york-five-icp-alumni
Five young photographers capture their impressions of their pandemic life. By far the best of all the COVID art that I've seen. This show works very well online.
Albers and Morandi
(Giorgio Morandi, Josef Albers)
David Zwirner
537 West 20th Street
January 7—April 3, 2021
New Criterion
New Yorker
David Zwirner
I've seen this show. I've long been a fan of Albers and Morandi, and this may be the best show of Albers's "Homage to a square" paitings that I've ever seen. Albers came from Bauhaus and became a Professor of Art at Yale, and systematically studies perception through his minimalist paintings. Hugely influential and very beautiful. Alas the Morandi paintings are not so well chosen.
David Hockney: Drawing from Life
Morgan Library
October 2, 2020 to May 30, 2021
https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/art/david-hockney-drawing-from-life
https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/current
One of my favorite painters, and this is a great show. Many paintings, over many years, of a few friends. The portraits are almost embarrassing in how frankly they reveal the person.
Stan Douglas recreates a reimagined life of New York's original Penn Station.
Art News
Design Boom
Art Net
Monte Cristo Magazine
The mural-size photos are installed at the train station.
New York City’s new Moynihan Train Hall
Moynihan Train Hall
Documentaion of Stan Douglas's process of creating those photos is shown at this gallery.
David Zwirner Gallery
David Zwirner
David Zwirner
Interview of Stan Douglas
YouTube
I loved the online videos documenting the creation, but I was disappointed by the exhibition of the photos in the train hall. They are in a waiting room, not the main space, and much too small, easily overlooked. And the photos are covered by reflective glass so you see the waiting room superimposed on the photo. Worth seeing if you have to be there. Not worth a special trip. I hope the show at Zwirner is better. I think Douglas made some great images; I hope that one day they will be adequately exhibited.
Church & Rothko: Sublime
30 Sep 2020 - 13 Mar 2021
By Appointment
Mnuchin Gallery
New York Upper East Side
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/arts/design/3-art-gallery-shows-to-see-right-now.html
I'm a huge fan of Rothko's abstract paintings, as is Roberta Smith, the New York TImes reviewer. Rothko's paintings are here shown with those of Church, well known for his nineteenth century paintings of Hudson Valley.
Flavin, Judd, McCracken, Sandback
Work by Dan Flavin (1933–1996), Donald Judd (1928–1994), John McCracken (1934–2011), and Fred Sandback (1943–2003), "four of the most innovative American artists of the twentieth century."
525 & 533 West 19th Street, New York City
January 14—March 20, 2021
David Zwirner
I loved this show. Sandback's string sculptures are powerful perceptual demos, using nothing but string to create the impression of huge sheets of glass that you see despite knowing it's just string.
Minimalist Abstract Art in Latin America
Sur moderno: Journeys of Abstraction
Museum of Modern Art
I've only seen the video on the museum webpage above. The abstract images are great. Ignore the overblown narration (in Spanish).
Denis Pelli: Lateral Sky View
11 AM to 6 PM seven days a week
Until March 31, 2021.
150 Greene Street, below Houston.
https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2021/january/science-meets-art--changing-views-of-the-sky-from-beneath-the-st.html
I have an art installation open now. Not at a gallery or museum, it's in the basement of a retail clothing store a few blocks from NYU.