ON VIEW is a printed and an online section in which Flash Art invites prominent figures of the art world to select the best current and upcoming international exhibitions.
Gaetano Pesce
“WORKINGALLERY”
Salon 94 Design
Through November 2, 2019
Gaetano Pesce
“Age of Contaminations”
Friedman Benda, New York
Through Dec 14, 2019
I strongly recommend seeing these two exhibitions of Gaetano Pesce for an extraordinary jolt of energy and inspiration. From his early work as an architecture student in Venice in the sixties, to his films, staged productions, music recordings, furniture and interiors, produced over more than six decades, Gaetano illustrates his absolute belief that “creativity has no barrier.” “I received a very multi-disciplinary education,” he has said, explaining the thrill of realizing ideas in many different mediums. A rare chance to see his generous and seductive objects, drawings and models (at Friedman Bender) and to experience the man at work in his studio, transplanted for a brief week from his workshop in Brooklyn to Manhattan (at Salon 94) as part of Performa 19’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus.
Paul Maheke in collaboration with Ligia Lewis and Nkisi
“Levant”
Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38, New York
Through Dec 15, 2019
Visual artist born in France of Congolese parentage, Paul Maheke has, since his earliest works, explored the idea of the body as a house of muscle memory, a subconscious archive of imagery carried over generations and far-flung geographies. That he has been unraveling these many parts of his visual thinking with the help of deeply sensitive and innovative choreographers, Lygia Lewis (born in the Dominican Republic, lives in Berlin) is no surprise. She too sees choreography as creating lines between ancestral and contemporary tales, giving three-dimensional weight to each one. In an eloquent 50 minute video which they made together last year, their ideas match each other, limb for limb, motion for motion, wrapped in electronic sound by Nkesi (born in Congo, grew up in Belgium). See the video for its edited abstraction (at Ludlow Street), and watch the live performance in real space and real time for the visceral response that it will instill in you (at Abrons, as part of Performa 19).
Nairy Baghramian and Janette Laverrière
“Work Desk for an Ambassador’s Wife”
Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
Through Dec 20, 2019
Nairy Bagharamian’s beautiful sculptures, that seem at times to hover in the air, are grounded in her remarkable ideas about the nature of sculpture itself. Her approach is through several portals, aesthetic, political, ethical; she points out the responsibility of her medium, as well as that of its creator, to be all these things. “Is it about being productive for society” she asks of the role of the sculptor, or about leisure?” She also looks at sculpture by authors whose work she feels close to and puts them in conversations with her own, as she has done with Phyllida Barlow. Or with the architect and designer, Jeanette Laverriere, whom Bagrahmian came to know in her last decade (Lavierrere died at 102 in 2011), presenting the two side by side as though she were an outside curator of the exhibition, not its instigator. See Bagharamian’s exhibition at Marian Goodman and witness her installation in a 19th century mansion that is in parallel play with remarkable choreographer Maria Hassabi, (as part of Performa 19), who asks her own wrenching questions about dance, and be in a state of wonder that sculpture can indeed carry such volumes of complex content.
