The editors at artnet News searched New York City high and low for the most exciting, bizarre, and thought-provoking exhibitions this fall. From Chelsea to the Lower East Side, we’ve got you covered. (We’ve also included two nonprofits in the list, which are marked with asterisks.)
Lynda Benglis, Lure (2016). Image courtesy Cheim & Read.
1. Lynda Benglis “New Work” at Cheim and Read
This brand new suite of work by Benglis sees her turn to handmade paper wrapped around chicken wire. The results are said to evoke, variously, wrecked piñatas, the New Mexican landscape, the penis, and the vagina. (Ben Davis)
“New Work” will be on view at Cheim and Read, 547 West 25th, from September 8–October 22, 2016.
Rashid Johnson, Within Our Gates (2016). Courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
2. Rashid Johnson, “Fly Away” at Hauser & Wirth
Hauser & Wirth’s 25,000-square-foot, column-free main space will be filled with music and the scent of shea butter this fall, courtesy of artist Rashid Johnson and pianist and producer Antoine Baldwin, aka AudioBlk. The show, “Fly Away,” is titled for the 1929 hymn that looks forward to death, “to that home on God’s celestial shore;” the pianist will perform during the opening week and at unannounced times thereafter in Johnson’s giant installation, Antoine’s Organ, in which Johnson’s trademark materials, like books, plants, and piles of shea butter, rest on the shelves of a towering black steel scaffolding. Look out for other classic Johnson motifs like white ceramic tile, black soap, wax, red oak, and mirror tiles in works that expand on his themes of race and anxiety, timely themes in the run-up to the November presidential election. (Brian Boucher)
“Rashid Johnson: Fly Away” will be on view at Hauser & Wirth’s 18th Street location, from September 8–October 22.
Victor Burgin, Mirror Lake, 2013. Image courtesy Cristin Tierney.
3. Victor Burgin, “Midwest” at Cristin Tierney, and Victor Burgin, “UK76” at Bridget Donahue
It’s a double-barreled blast of the vintage British Conceptualist. Tierney features Burgin’s recent digital projection works, creating multi-layered portraits of different sites in the Midwestern United States. Meanwhile, over at Donahue, the artist revisits a project from the 1970s, which had him layer elliptical, poetic texts over black-and-white photos of the British landscape. (Ben Davis)
“Midwest” will be on view at Cristin Tierney, 540 W 28th Street, from September 8–October 22, 2016 and “UK76” at Bridget Donahue, 99 Bowery, from September 8–November 6, 2016.
Meleko Mokgosi, Installation view from “Democratic Intuitions” (2016). Courtesy of the artist via Jack Shainman Gallery.
4. Meleko Mokgosi, “Democratic Intuition, Lerato” and “Democratic Intuition, Comrades II” at Jack Shainman
Untangling “Western conventions of reality, representation, and knowledge” from southern African life lies at the heart of Meleko Mokgosi’s forthcoming dual exhibitions at Jack Shainman Gallery. The artist pairs his historically-charged paintings with text-based works to political effect. In “Democratic Intuition: Lerato,” the artist delivers a number of his distinctive figurative paintings executed over the past two years; “Comrades II,” meanwhile, delves into the conceptual opportunities and limitations that language presented throughout the southern African liberation movements of the mid-20th century. These shows bring a number of difficult conversations to the table, and they’re going to hit hard. (Rain Embuscado)
“Lerato” and “Comrades II” is on view at Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 W 20th Street and 524 W 24th Street, from September 8–October 22, 2016.
OSGEMEOS, Um segredo do mar (Secret from the sea) (2015). Photo: Max Yawney Courtesy the artists and Lehmann Maupin.
5. Os Gêmeos, “Silence of the Music” at Lehmann Maupin
The twin Brazilian street artists, Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo, have forged their own wildly lovable—if not exactly edgy—style that characterized by brightly colored cartoon icons. The twins were inspired by their encounter with Mission School street art great Barry “Twist” McGee, and, following in his footsteps, have moved from outdoor murals to immersive indoor installations as they head into the fine art world. They continue to turn up the volume on their creations—in this case literally, with a variety of “boom box paintings” (canvasses with embedded speakers) and sculptures that play LP records, all of it somehow themed around the golden age of hip hop. (Ben Davis)
“Silence of the Music” is on view at Lehmann Maupin, 536 West 22nd Street, from September 8–October 22, 2016.
Robert Polidori, Hotel Petra #6, Beirut, Lebanon (2010). Courtesy of the artist and Paul Kasmin Gallery.
6. Robert Polidori, “Ecophilia/Chronostasis” at Paul Kasmin
Don’t feel bad if you think the title of this show is a mouthful. We had to consult dictionary.com before we realized these are made up words that we’re not sure we understand the meaning of. The upshot? The chance to see the master photographer’s moodily beautiful color-saturated prints of “dendritic cities,” a series he began in 2007. Polidori appropriated the term “dendritic” from the branching extensions of a cell structure (yes, that term shows up on dictionary.com), to describe auto-constructed cities that have appeared as a result of industrialism in cities all over the world, including Amman, Mumbai, and Rio de Janiero. Along with photographs from his 2010 project in Lebanon, titled “Hotel Petra,” the show will feature three large photographs taken in India, including a mural of a street in Mumbai, known as 60 Feet Road. Instead of isolating a particular section or faςade of the street, Polidori photographed the entire length of 60 Feet Road. (Eileen Kinsella)
“Robert Polidori: Ecophilia/Chronostasis” is on view at Paul Kasmin Gallery, 515 West 27th Street, from September 8–October 15, 2016.
Lorna Simpson, Soundlessness (2016). Courtesy of the artist via Salon 94.
7. Lorna Simpson at Salon 94
It’s a big deal when an artist switches up mediums—and when the artist in question happens to be Lorna Simpson, the occasion is nothing short of an event. Salon 94 will be mounting her first exhibition of paintings at their Bowery location. Though the works bear familiar elements of dissection and collage, this show marks a new moment in the conceptual photographer’s trajectory. You don’t want to miss this. (Rain Embuscado)
“Lorna Simpson” is on view at Salon 94 by appointment, 243 Bowery, from September 8–October 22, 2016.
Matthew Barney, still from RADIAL DRILL (1991). Video: Peter Strietmann. Copyright Matthew Barney. Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels.
8. Matthew Barney, “Facility of DECLINE” at Gladstone
This fall, Barney and Barbara Gladstone will celebrate their 25-year partnership, a gallery representative tells artnet News, by “reassembling many elements of this first show,” which took place in October 1991 at Gladstone’s former Soho space. In a glowing review at the time, Roberta Smith writes, “the gallery itself becomes a kind of body that the artist moves through, like an enzyme in the digestive tract or an infant being born.” We can’t wait to see the afterbirth. (Kathleen Massara)
“Facility of DECLINE” is on view at Gladstone Gallery, 530 West 21st Street, from September 8–October 22, 2016.
Jonas Wood, The Bat/Bar Mitzvah Weekend (2016). Courtesy the artist and Anton Kern Gallery
9. Jonas Wood, “Portraits,” at Anton Kern
Known for his cool paintings of potted plants and funky interiors, Jonas Wood takes on the portrait with his latest show at Anton Kern Gallery in Chelsea. (Rozalia Jovanovic)
“Portraits” is on view at Anton Kern Gallery, 532 West 20th Street, from September 8–October 22, 2016.
Lorraine O’Grady, The Clearing (1993). Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York© 2016 Lorraine O’Grady/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
10. “Coming to Power: 25 Years of Sexually X-Plicit Art By Women” at Maccarone
“This is what I get for wanting images to take me someplace I cannot arrive with words,” Lorraine O’Grady wrote in 1993, in the text for this landmark exhibition at David Zwirner and Simon Watson/The Contemporary, which also featured works by Lynda Benglis, Yoko Ono, Hannah Wilke, GB Jones, and others. 25 years later, Ellen Cantor’s exhibition is getting a reboot at Maccarone and Participant, Inc., via curators Pati Hertling and Julie Tolentino, who are updating the show with performances by Niv Acosta, Jim Fletcher, FlucT, Xandra Ibarra/La Chica Boom, Kia Labeija, and Narcissister. “These are all works in the canon, and we’ve all seen them in the flattest form,” Tolentino told artnet News, “but to experience them live again is so visceral. It’s quite remarkable.” (Kathleen Massara)
“Coming to Power” is on view at Maccarone, 630 Greenwich Street, from September 9–October 16.
Molly Crabapple, Sara Jafary (2016). Courtesy Postmasters, New York.
11. Molly Crabapple, “Annotated Muses,” at Postmasters
From a porn actress to a journalist, from a witch to a hacker, the heroines portrayed in artist and writer Molly Crabapple’s new show are a varied mix. Each of them took over the final stages of their portrait’s creation, whether annotating or defacing the work-in-progress. Among them are the philosopher known as Fuck Theory, the sex writer Chelsea G. Summers, and biochemist and revolutionary Sara Jafary. Porn performer/writer Stoya will be on hand to annotate her own unfinished portrait at the opening. Get there early! There’s sure to be a crowd. (Brian Boucher)
“Annotated Muses” will be on view at Postmasters, 54 Franklin Street, from September 10–October 15, 2016.
Video still from Contrapposto Studies, I through VII, 2016, by Bruce Nauman (Courtesy the artist and Sperone Westwater, New York) © Bruce Nauman/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
12. Bruce Nauman, “Contrapposto Studies, i through vii” at Sperone Westwater
The new seven-screen video installation by the famed artist is characteristically hostile to easy description. It sounds as if it consist of images of the artist’s own body, seen frontally or in profile, and in both positive and negative, while walking both backwards and forwards. I guess you have to see it to get the idea, but Nauman’s legend precedes him, so it is well-worth doing so. (Ben Davis)
“Contrapposto Studies, i through vii” will be on view at Sperone Westwater, 257 Bowery, from September 10–October 29, 2016.
Zoe Leonard, Crossing the Equator, 1948 (detail) (2016). Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth.
13. Zoe Leonard, “In the Wake” at Hauser & Wirth
Zoe Leonard is best known for Analogue, a series of over 400 photographs of storefronts and commercial products in an effort to document corporate globalization from New York to Cuba. In her upcoming show at Hauser & Wirth, her first with the gallery, she explores familial displacement. In 2014, the artist found a suitcase in her mother’s house filled with old photographs of family members from the 1940s to the ‘60s which was, for Leonard’s grandmother, a period of statelessness following her involvement in the Polish resistance movement during World War II, and before her emigration to the US. Leonard has re-arranged and re-photographed these documents for an installation that takes on a more personal historical narrative. (Rozalia Jovanovic)
“In the Wake” is on view at Hauser and Wirth’s uptown location, 32 East 69th Street, from September 13–October 22, 2016.
Oscar Murillo, meet me! Mr. Superman (2013–2015).
14. Oscar Murillo, “through patches of corn, wheat and mud” at David Zwirner
When Oscar Murillo had his debut show at David Zwirner, he was just 28 and already a market phenomenon, a position he plainly found oppressive. So that 2014 Zwirner show, in what seemed like a stunt-cum-effort to break free, was a functioning chocolate factory with laborers imported from his native Colombia. The London-based artist is showing paintings again (along with works in other media); these ones have traveled to Southeast Asia with Murillo for ritualistic performances with local spiritual guides. (Brian Boucher)
“Through patches of corn, wheat and mud” is on view at David Zwirner, 525 & 533 West 19th Street, from September 14–October 22, 2016.
Walter Robinson, Amboy Dukes (1981). Courtesy of Jeffrey Deitch Studios.
15. Walter Robinson, “A Retrospective” at Jeffrey Deitch Projects
In what’s perhaps the art world’s premiere homecoming story of the season, renowned dealer Jeffrey Deitch officially reclaims his Wooster Street space from the Swiss Institute this September—and he’s leveling an ambitious retrospective for artist and critic Walter Robinson to mark the occasion. “Walter has been at the center of the art discourse through Art-Rite, his pioneering art work,” Deitch fondly writes in his gallery statement, “[as well as] his many years of astute commentary in Art in America, artnet, and on his legendary underground TV show with Paul H-O, Gallery Beat.” Before the grand opening on September 17, Deitch has lined up three nights of Performa-approved performance pieces by the London-based conceptual artist Eddie Peake. (Rain Embuscado)
“Walter Robinson: A Retrospective” will be on view at Jeffrey Deitch Projects, 18 Wooster Street, from September 17–October 22, 2016.
Sally Mann, Remembered Light, Untitled (Drips and Newspaper) (1999). © Sally Mann. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.
16. Sally Mann, “Remembered Light: Cy Twombly in Lexington” at Gagosian
Gagosian Gallery will present “Remembered Light”, an exhibition of never-shown photographs by Sally Mann, peeking inside the studio of her friend, mentor and Lexington, VA neighbor, Cy Twombly. Sally‘s ability to capture the intimacy of human relationships in both her photographs and her writing comes to light in these photographs, taken between 1999 and 2012. Reflecting on the life and artistic practice of Twombly without including the artist himself, the images depict his process and production, tender moments in the form of still-lifes basked in light from the studio windows. (Sarah Cascone)
“Remembered Light” is on view at Gagosian Gallery, 976 Madison Avenue, from September 22–October 29, 2016.
Julie Mehretu, Epigraph (2016). Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery. Photo by Alex Yudzon.
17. “Julie Mehretu” at Marian Goodman
On the heels of her first exhibition at the Modern Art Museum Gebre Kristos Desta Center in Addis Ababa, Mehretu will be back in New York for a solo show at Marian Goodman’s West 57th Street gallery. Expect a new crop of the artist’s fractured cityscapes and layered works. (Kathleen Massara)
“Julie Mehretu” is on view at Marian Goodman, 24 W 57th Street, from September 22–October 29, 2016.
Elmgreen and Dragset, The Experiment (2012). Courtesy of Victoria Miro Gallery, London. Photo by Serge Hasenböhler.
*18. Elmgreen & Dragset, “Changing Subjects” at the Flag Art Foundation
The cheeky Scandinavian artist duo takes over the ninth and tenth floors of The Flag Art Foundation in West Chelsea with a show of new and existing works (1998-2016) from their 20-year collaboration that address issues of identity, sexuality, mortaily and social value systems and surrounding expectations. The show aims to guide viewers on a non-linear journey through various life stages. However contrary to what one might expect, the works do not mark momentous occasions but instead show “introspective, unspectacular moments by way of figuarative representation,” according to a release from the foundation. The show will also feature a site-specific sculpture on the foundation’s outdoor terrace that looks out on the Hudson River. Among the works on the ninth floor, visitors will see Modern Moses (2006), a wax figure of a sleeping baby in a bassinet at the foot of an ATM machine, and The Experiment (2012), pictured above, a hyperreal sculpture of a boy clad only in underwear, wearing his mother’s lipstick and high-heels as he gazes into a mirror. (Eileen Kinsella)
“Elmgreen & Dragset: Changing Subjects” is on view at the Flag Art Foundation, 545 W 25th Street, from October 1–December 17, 2016.
Cecily Brown, Untitled (Ladyland) (2012) Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Genevieve Hanson.
*19. Cecily Brown, “Rehearsal,” and Gary Simmons, “Ghost Reels” at the Drawing Center
It’s a double dose of star power at the Drawing Center in Soho this fall with shows by Cecily Brown and Gary Simmons. “Rehearsal” marks Brown’s first solo museum show in New York as well as the first exhibition dedicated to her drawings. It is curated by Claire Gilman and features just over 80 small drawings, large scale works and sketchworks arranged thematically that focus on motifs and source material Brown has reworked repeatedly: prints by William Hogarth; pages from animal encyclopedias; and Jimi Hendrix’s 1968 album cover for Electric Ladyland among them. “Rehearsal is a term that. . .aptly describes Brown’s drawing practice,” according to a release for the show. Meanwhile as part of its ongoing stairwell initiative, the Drawing Center commissioned a site-specific work by Simmons. “Ghost Reels” is a text-based work consisting of names of African American actors and actresses from the early days of silent film. Simmons described the work, which has a scroll-like format, as recalling “credit crawls” frozen in mid-action as invoking the names of actors that have been blurred in the history of Hollywood film.” (Eileen Kinsella)
“Cecily Brown: Rehearsal” will be on view October 7–December 18, 2016. “Gary Simmons: Ghost Reels” will be on view October 7, 2016–October 2017 at the Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street.
20. “Calder and Picasso” at Almine Rech
Marking the opening of Almine Rech Gallery in New York (an expansion of its footprint, which already includes locations in Paris, Brussels, and London), “Calder and Picasso” will present works by the Modernist masters as curated by their grandsons, Alexander S. C. Rower and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, both of whom devote their life to developing the artists’ legacies. (Rozalia Jovanovic)
“Calder and Picasso” is on view at Almine Rech Gallery, 39 E 78th Street, from October 28–December 17, 2016.