Weekly

May 7, 2022 • View in browser

It’s art fair season in New York and there’s much to see. Our comprehensive art fair guide will help you navigate through the many events of May. If you're not into art fairs (I can't blame you), see our guides for the best shows in New York and Los Angeles this month.

In this week's news: the best memes about the Met Gala, conservators lambast Kim Kardashian for wearing Marilyn Monroe’s dress for the event, NYC Mayor Eric Adams appoints a club owner to the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian outlines a new restitution policy, a Russian artist is investigated on charges of “rehabilitating Nazism,” and more.

Among many strong art reviews this week, we covered the Venice Biennale, an exhibition by Native American artists at the Portland Art Museum, Phyllida Barlow, Nadia Haji Omar, Uuriintuya Dagvasambuu, and much more.

— Hakim Bishara, interim editor-in-chief 

Become a member today to support our independent journalism. 
Your support helps keep our reporting and criticism free and accessible to all.

Independent New York 2015 (photo by Tom Powel, courtesy Independent New York)

Your Ultimate Guide to NYC’s May Art Fairs
Cassie Packard has constructed a useful key to the fairs and exhibitions of interest opening in the city this month.

Spring is here and it’s time to look ahead to the art fair endurance test that is May in New York. This week marks the inaugural “New York Art Week,” a citywide initiative involving a consortium of museums, nonprofit art organizations, auction houses, and four art fairs: Future Fair, NADA New York, Independent Art Fair, and TEFAF New York.

Next up, from May 18–22, is Frieze Week, a battery of art fairs including, of course, Frieze New York (later in the month than usual), along with VOLTA New York, 1-54 New York, and The Photography Show. There is so much to see in these weeks; enjoy it.

NEWS THIS WEEK

Kylie Jenner’s look has drawn comparisons to Homer Simpson (screenshot Valentina Di Liscia/Hyperallergic via @CallMeElliott_)

• Faced with an encroaching forced-birth state, we drew solace in the only way we know how: by reviewing this year’s Met Gala memes.

• Textile conservators expressed outrage over Kim Kardashian wearing Marilyn Monroe’s iconic dress up the steps to the Met Gala.

• NYC Mayor Eric Adams appoints club owner Scott Sartiano as his liaison to the Met Museum.

• The Smithsonian introduces a policy that gives its museums the authority to return items that were looted or acquired under unethical circumstances.

• Two Icelandic artists symbolically launch a racist statue into space in an unlikely artistic intervention.

• Russian artist Oleg Kulik is facing a three-year sentence for a sculpture said to “rehabilitate Nazism.”

MUST-SEE SHOWS IN NYC & LA THIS MONTH

Cecilia Vicuña, “La Vicuña (The Vicuña)” (1977), oil on cotton canvas, 54 3/4 × 47 inches, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Ives Family Fund, 2018 (photo: 2022 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston © Cecilia Vicuña)

May in New York is chock-full of art fairs and arts programming, and the city’s galleries and museums are keeping pace by bringing the heat. This month, intertwined corporeal shapeshifters Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge are honored with their first major posthumous solo exhibition and more.

In Los Angeles, the spring season imbues everything with a renewed sense of vitality. Exhibition highlights include Simone Forti, Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo), Kevin Beasley, and Hayao Miyazaki.

VOICES IN VENICE

A visitor admires Zsófia Keresztes's project for the Hungarian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, After Dreams: I Dare to Defy the Damage (photo Veronika Molnar/Hyperallergic)

Standouts and Historic Firsts by Eastern European Artists and Curators at the Venice Biennale
From Zsófia Keresztes's sculptures to Malgorzata Mirga-Tas’s Polish Pavilion transformation, Veronika Molnar lists this year’s most memorable works.

At this moment, defined by war crimes and the oppression of minority groups, it seems inevitable to question the significance of the prestigious art event, all too often centered around privilege and exclusivity.

However, Ukrainian artists and curators remained committed to acting as cultural ambassadors in Venice and making their voices heard against Russia, whose national pavilion remains empty after its organizers withdrew in protest of the war.

At the Venice Biennale, Simone Leigh Embraces Sovereignty
Julie Baumgardner expands on how Leigh’s transformation of the US National Pavilion is not an immersive installation, but a proposal in sculpture.

With Ukraine Square, the Venice Biennale Goes to War
Avedis Hadjian highlights an open-air exhibition of works by Ukrainian artists created in bomb shelters, in exile, and from a place of strength and hope.

LATEST IN ART

Lehuauakea, “Mele O Nā Kaukani Wai (Song of a Thousand Waters)” (2018) (courtesy Portland Museum of Art)

Powerful Visions of Reclaimed Narratives by Indigenous Artists
Julie Schnider on Mesh at the Portland Art Museum.

The exhibition radiates life, beauty, and tenacity. Through various materials, the artists collectively delve into connections to land and to community, pushing back against colonizing forces, and reclaiming their own narratives and power.

“I’ll Have What She’s Having” Chronicles the Life of the Jewish Deli
Matt Stromberg on “I’ll Have What She’s Having”: The Jewish Deli at the Skirball Cultural Center.

Reveling in the Ruins of the Past
Natalie Haddad on Phyllida Barlow: glimpse at Hauser & Wirth.

Nadia Haji Omar, “Study for Dear So and So Painting” (2018), ink and colored pencil on paper, 12 x 9 inches (all images courtesy Kristen Lorello gallery, photos by Charles Benton)

In Praise of Illegibility
John Yau on Nadia Haji Omar: Secret Garden at Kristen Lorello gallery.

In their invitation to be read, and their successful resistance to legibility, Haji Omar’s asemic works open up a space that is all their own… The tension between what is almost readable and completely unreadable speaks to us on many levels, starting with our desire to know what we are looking at and why.

Picturing the Pandemic Through the Lens of Buddhism
Kealey Boyd on Moods in the Metaverse at Sapar Contemporary gallery.

What Does It Mean for Heaven to Be a Muddy Riverbed?
Nereya Otieno on heaven is a muddy riverbed at Craft Contemporary.

ALSO ON HYPERALLERGIC

Martin Parr, “Yalta, Ukraine, 1995” (1995) (image courtesy Martin Parr: Magnum Photos)

When Ukraine Was Newly Independent and Everything Was Possible
Cammie Tipton-Amini: “Martin Parr’s images from 1995 show us what Russia is fighting against and what Ukraine is fighting for.”

The Tender Art of “Visible Mending”
Rachael Schwabe on how Repair Shop invites us to commune with the vulnerability of garments and to comprehend the fragility of our own bodies.

An All-Female Gang Sells Black-Market Oil in Dry Ground Burning
Ben R. Nicholson reviews Adirley Queirós and Joana Pimenta’s latest docufiction.

The “Witch” Who Shot Andy Warhol’s Marilyns
“Why is artist Dorothy Podber’s intervention considered a reflection of Warhol rather than Warhol’s work as an element of her performance?” — Hall W. Rockefeller

Opportunities in May 2022
From grants from The Bennett Prize and Anonymous Was a Woman to residencies at Center for Craft and Two Trees, our list of opportunities for artists and art workers this month.

Required Reading
This week, reactions to the leaked Supreme Court draft to overturn abortion rights, La Malinche gets an exhibition, Eric Adams brings his “swagger” to the Met Gala, and what did Leonardo get wrong about trees?

IN OUR STORE

The Kiss Socks

Perhaps the most iconic kiss in art history, Klimt’s golden scene is represented here on a pair of comfy, lightweight socks.

Explore our selection of art-inspired socks!