Weekly

September 10, 2022 • View in browser

It’s Armory week in New York City and we have reports from many of the art fairs that showcase the work of hundreds of artists from around the world. 

The main Armory fair welcomed back international galleries, after pandemic restrictions made that impossible in previous years, and I sensed and heard a lot of optimism overall. I wonder how much of that is attributable to the relief people are feeling at returning to a more “normal” life in the late stages of the pandemic? I was certainly elated to see people I haven’t seen in ages and discover what many artists have been up to in their studios during the last few years.

This year, we decided to focus more on the people attending the fairs, so our news team spoke to visitors to gauge the crowds and why they were there. I visited the Spring Break Art Show and selected two projects for short reports and interviews, including a robot dog painting self-portraits. You can see images of the other displays at the show on Hyperallergic’s Instagram channel. We love covering New York City, and the art fairs are an integral part of our community.

We also have a concise guide to some art exhibitions in Chicago, focusing on the South Side, and we report on the unveiling of the official Obama portraits. After we published that article, I realized that many people may have assumed the Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald paintings from years ago were the official ones, but that’s not the case, as all presidents from the last few decades have two versions.

I also recommend John Yau’s review of Mira Park’s exhibition in South Korea, Sarah Bond’s article on the reopening of the Stanley Museum at the University of Iowa, Lauren Moya Ford’s look at the new Meret Oppenheim exhibition, Michael Glover’s review of a two-painting (but what paintings!) exhibition at the National Gallery in London, and I tackle the Katherine Bradford retrospective at the Portland Museum of Art in Maine.

And a special thanks to those who attended our Armory tour yesterday. It was wonderful to meet many of you for the first time.

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief

The 2022 Armory Show visitors next to Ebony G. Patterson's "… when the cry takes root …" (2020) (photo by Hakim Bishara/Hyperallergic)

True Stories From the Armory Show
At the Rolls-Royce of art fairs, Hakim Bishara found chatty visitors, some good art, and works so bad they deserved their own section.

Welcome to the Dustbin of History
Jake Scharbach's paintings dump on some iconic portraits as a way to highlight the crisis we're living through.

A Robot Dog Is Painting Self-Portraits at the 2022 Spring Break Art Fair
There’s an artist currently showing in Midtown Manhattan who is teaching a machine to paint.

Read more on singing the unsung at Independent; the ease, comfort, and approachability of works at Art on Paper; and how artists represent themselves at Clio Art Fair.

NEWS THIS WEEK

Robert McCurdy’s portrait of Obama and Sharon Sprung’s portrait of Michelle Obama, both painted in 2018 (images courtesy White House Historical Association/White House Collection)

• Four years too late, the White House unveils Robert McCurdy’s and Sharon Sprung’s 2018 official Obama portraits.

• The MTA’s new roast-worthy “you do you” masking guidelines spark a slew of memes online.

• Britons roast the UK’s newly appointed Prime Minister, Tory leader Liz Truss, in an avalanche of memes.

• Archaeologists discover an "unusually large" Roman-era stone phallus in southern Spain.

• Artist Gina Adams, whose claim to Indigenous identity raised doubts, has resigned from her post at Emily Carr University.

FACE TO FACE

Meret Oppenheim, “New Stars” (Neue Sterne) (1977–82), oil on canvas, 80 11/16 x 97 13/16 inches. Kunstmuseum Bern. (© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Pro Litteris, Zurich)

It’s Time to Look at Meret Oppenheim Beyond the Teacup
Thirty-seven years after the artist’s death, a new exhibition proves that Oppenheim’s furry teacup was just one of her many daring artistic statements.

Now considered a cornerstone of 20th-century Surrealist art, “Object” still has a strong effect on audiences, even if many don’t know the name of its creator. Oppenheim created the piece when she was only 23 years old, but its explosive notoriety and Surrealist roots have often overshadowed the rest of her 50-year career. 

— Lauren Moya Ford

Picasso and Ingres Face Off in London
Can two paintings an entire exhibition make? Yes. Especially when it's Pablo Picasso squaring up to Frenchman Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.

SHIFTING NARRATIVES

Shizu Saldamando, “Grace and Ira, Golden Hour At and Despite Steele Indian School Park” (2019), oil, mixed media on wood panel, 48 x 72 x 1 inches (courtesy Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art)

Artists Shine a Light on the History of Indian Boarding Schools 
“Art has a place in helping people begin to understand the layers of this history,” says artist Randy Kemp.

Golden leaves suggesting Indigenous ancestors shimmer in a mixed-media portrait of Grace and Ira, a young mother and son pictured beneath a tree on the site of a former Indian boarding school in Arizona.

Created by Shizu Saldamando, the 2019 portrait speaks to the practice of separating children from their families, elevating conversations around resilience and resistance even as a new wave of historical denialism is flooding America’s political landscape.  

— Lynn Trimble

An Iowa Museum Renowned for Its Pollock Emerges From a Flood With a More Inclusive Mission 
At the newly opened Stanley Museum, White artists like Jackson Pollock and Grant Wood are no longer the focus of its collection.

CREATING WORLDS

Mira Park, “A Breathing Tomb” (2022), ink on paper, 11.81 x 11.81 inches (all images courtesy Art Space Boan 2)

Mira Park Knows What We Dream About
In her art, Park is in touch with our collective anxieties about a future that seems to darken with each passing day.

How much do we want to see, in a visionary sense, and how much of the world’s commonplace reality can we actually look at without turning away? Fairy tale tropes and the disturbing sights of everyday commingle. We have fallen down a rabbit hole into a world that we witness but cannot explain. 

— John Yau

The Vulnerable Painterly Worlds of Katherine Bradford
In Bradford’s color-infused world of superheroes and swimmers, viewers and her figures bathe together outside of time and space.

IN CHICAGO THIS SEASON

Miles MacClure, "(making up people, and other fun activities)" (2022), mixed media installation, dimensions variable (courtesy Baby Blue Gallery)

Your Concise Chicago Art Guide for Fall 2022
Your list of must-see, fun, insightful, and very Chicago art events this season, including the Chinese American Museum of Chicago’s Spotlight Series, Black life and lineage, female empowerment, and more.

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A VIEW FROM THE EASEL

Inside Mari Matsuda's studio, Honolulu, Hawai’i (courtesy the artist)

A View From the Easel
This week, artist studios in Connecticut, Kyiv, Honolulu, and Colorado.

For forty years, work was an office lined with books, where I wrote critical race theory. I knew there was another, visual language with which to speak of justice, and I woke up one day staring down my one last chance to use that language. 

— Mari Matsuda

Want to take part? Check out our submission guidelines and share a bit about your studio with us!

MORE FROM HYPERALLERGIC

(graphic Nancy Zastudil/Hyperallergic, original image via Fredrik Sørlie's YouTube channel)

Art Problems: What If My Friends Aren’t Good Artists?
Also, how to back out of a contract with minimal damage? Paddy Johnson answers your questions.

The hard truth is that you will never climb the ranks of any industry if you’re not continually making new friends and connections. How could you? Opportunities aren’t just the result of raw talent but a consistent effort to expose your work to new audiences.

— Paddy Johnson

Are the Days of Lavish Art Gallery Receptions Over?
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only limited the scale of exhibition opening receptions, but has also radically changed their nature and purpose.

A Woman-Led Gallery in Princeton Puts Rest First
The Orange Door offers women and nonbinary artists of color “micro-residencies” to recharge and take a break from it all.

Cambodia’s Stolen Treasures Must Be Returned to Where They Belong 
And no, Cambodia doesn’t need the Metropolitan Museum’s help in preserving its cultural heritage.

Required Reading
This week, drone photo awards, uncovering unverified Indigenous identity, vacationing in the Metaverse, the beauty industrial complex, and more.

COMICS

Spring Break Art Show Asks, What Is the Ideal Naked Lunch?
From magic carpets to Hot Cheeto bathtub feasts, artists on their creations for the city’s beloved eclectic art fair.

IN OUR STORE

Persian Garden Scarf

This elegant scarf is inspired by a carpet in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The rug, made in Kurdistan in the late 1700s, bears the traditional “Charbagh” pattern of a four-part garden, representing the architectural layout of Paradise.

Check out more art-inspired scarves!