The Breuer building is abuzz this month with 57 exhibitors presenting work by some 130 avant-garde artists at Independent 20th Century. But for anyone wanting to sample a different flavour of modern and contemporary art, there are plenty of exciting shows to see in and around Manhattan. Here are some of the highlights.
Thea Djordjadze: A well of night
18 September–24 October
Sprüth Magers
Each of this Georgian artist’s exhibitions involves a contemplation of space. Here she has laid coloured vinyl over the hardwood flooring of Sprüth Magers’ New York space and produced site-specific sculptures, installations and relief paintings, while also reworking old pieces.
David Reed: Terrible Idea
8 September–24 October
Rodder
Reed has lived and worked in New York for more than five decades and has held exhibitions of his large, gestural abstract paintings at galleries around the city. His latest show includes recent paintings and works on paper.
The Shape of Things: American Abstract Art
Until 30 September
Rosenberg & Co.
This exhibition aims to widen our conception of mid-century abstraction beyond Pollock, de Kooning and co. Works by a range of less well-known artists are on show, including Esphyr Slobodkina, a Russian-born children’s author and illustrator who was also a pioneer of early abstract art, and Beatrice Mandelman, one of the Taos Moderns who transformed the New Mexico town into an avant-garde hub in the 1940s.
Valerio Adami: Alice in the Land of Violence
4 September–3 October
David Nolan Gallery
Adami’s work has been described as ‘narrative abstraction’, which reflects the way that much of his art straddles the figurative and
the abstract – and the fact that he frequently borrows from comic book and cartoon aesthetics in his bold, blocky paintings. This exhibition includes paintings and works on paper from the 1960s, around the time that he represented Italy at the Venice Biennale.
Pierre Soulages: Paintings on Paper
17 September–24 October
Lévy Gorvy Dayan
Soulages is best known for his restless experiments with black and grey, mostly on canvas, the apogee of which is his Outrenoir (‘beyond black’) series that occupied him from 1979 until his death in 2022. This show highlights a lesser-known aspect of his practice.
Anthea Hamilton: Comfort Zones
16 September–24 October
Salon 94
Salon 94 is hosting two exhibitions involving the British sculptor and installation artist: one featuring her recent works and another, curated by Hamilton, of pieces by the late designer Gaetano Pesce, from whom Hamilton drew inspiration for her most famous work, Project for a Door (2015).
